Spike wrapped up all the presents Twilight bought for Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart and placed them under the Hearth’s Warming Tree their friends set up. Meanwhile, Discord snapped his fingers to summon his chocolate chip cookies and had them walk around him. They helped place the Chaos Diamond under the dining table that was covered with a table cloth. After they were done, Discord snapped his fingers again to send them away.
“Alright, looks like we’re almost done! Nearly all set for the celebration of Hearth’s Warming Eve!” Spike said, wiping his hands.
“Except we have a new visitor who will slow us down for sure,” grumbled Discord, looking at the window. He saw Freeze standing with the Mane Six and strangely staring at Fluttershy. Spike joined the draconequus and also noticed the villain’s odd body language.
“He’s looking suspicious alright. He doesn’t even look like he’s happy to be here,” observed Spike.
“Did you notice how he doesn’t even have a mouth? I mean, look at him! I can’t even tell if that icey thing is not transparent enough to see his real face!” Discord pointed out, looking through his glasses.
As Spike was thinking about a course of action, a light bulb appeared above him. “Wait, I have an idea! What if we—Discord, what are you doing?” The light bulb was taken by Discord’s tail and was implanted back inside his right ear.
“I’m afraid that your idea is technically mine since I was the one who ignited that bulb. Finders, keepers, you know,” Discord chuckled.
“No, no, listen, if we could just talk to him and either ask him about what he’s done before or maybe just interrogate him, we might find a way to discover his ulterior motives!” Spike suggested.
“Oh, boy, I am such a genius!!” Discord’s head grew humongous and reached to the top of the ceiling. “Brains always save the day.”
The baby dragon face-palmed himself. “Ugh... come on, let’s get out there.”
“Allow me,” said Discord, snapping his fingers. Both he and Spike disappeared from the castle.
Mr. Freeze took note of every pony’s reaction to his presence. While some ponies ran away out of natural fear, others were curious enough to stare at him. However, every time he looked toward them, they instantly turned their heads.
He even heard some ponies whispering behind his back.
“What kind of creature is he?”
“Where did it come from?”
“Is he an ice monster?”
“Is that thing friendly?”
Freeze groaned in annoyance after listening to their murmurings. His fists tightened which resulted in icicles sprouting from his palms. He broke them to bits before Twilight took notice of his troubling facial expressions.
“Hey, are you alright?” Twilight asked. Freeze simply nodded.
“Sorry if everypony is looking at you strange. But don’t worry. They’ll get used to you eventually,” Twilight smiled.
Suddenly, Discord and Spike appeared next to Freeze and Twilight. “Heeeeeyy, guys! I hope everything is going well?” Spike asked, nervously grinning.
“Mm-hm, once we show Mr. Freeze all of Ponyville, we will be ready for the Hearth’s Warming Eve holiday just in time!” Twilight replied. “Did you wrap up the rest of the gifts?”
“Yup! All done and ready!” Spike answered, giving a thumbs up.
“Great! We only have one more day until—,”
“That’s great and all, Twilight, but I’m afraid we will have to borrow Frosty for a while. I am eager to converse with him so I can understand him more! Toodles!” Discord interrupted, grabbing Freeze.
The trio disappeared, leaving Twilight and the others confused.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Pinkie muttered.
“Ah hope Discord doesn’t do anythang stupid this time,” Applejack said.
Discord, Spike, and Freeze appeared in the middle of the field. Then the duo glared at the villain as they crossed their arms. “Alright, Freeze, what are you really up to? You don’t need to hide anything,” Spike demanded.
“And you really couldn’t resist eye-balling Fluttershy’s diamond earlier, could you?” Discord added, appearing as a police officer and had Freeze sit down on a chair with artificial light shining at his face. “I want answers! Speak now or else!”
Having had enough of their shenanigans, Freeze punched Discord in the face and slammed the chair on his head. Then he blasted his ice rays at them, freezing both the draconequus and the baby dragon in thin ice except for their heads.
“You abominations don’t know when to shut up, don’t you?” Freeze contemptuously spoke.
Spike breathed out his fire on the ice, but Freeze instantly froze the insides of his mouth.
“Do you really think your ice is going to stop the Lord of Chaos?! Ha! I’ll just snap my way out of it!” Discord tried to move his claws and paw to snap his fingers, but the strong ice prevented them from moving. Seeing this, his pupils shrunk in fear. “This can’t be good.”
“I already hate this world thanks to you, your annoying little sidekick, and all those talking horses. Nonetheless, that beautiful little glacier your yellow friend has is just what I need for myself. With you out of the way, neither she nor her irritating friends will stand a chance,” Freeze taunted.
“You will not touch a hair on her head, you diamond-obsessed ice freak,” Discord threateningly growled, eyes glowing with fire.
Freeze wickedly chuckled. “That fiery spirit will only last long enough until the hypothermia kicks in. Maintain it while you still can.”
With that, Freeze started to blast off with his ice powers. Discord then felt extreme coldness settling in and began to shiver thereby. As he looked back at Spike, his eyes widened in shock. The baby dragon started to choke from the ice inside his mouth.
“Come on, Spike, spew out some fire! You’re a dragon for Scorpan’s sake!”
Spike then tried to exhale with all his might. After a few moments, the ice slowly melted in his mouth and turned to water. He accidentally swallowed half of the cold water before he spat out the other half. He coughed excessively.
“Are you okay, Spike?”
“Yeah, I’ve been through worse situations. The bad news is it will take a while until I’ll start breathing out fire again,” replied Spike, spitting out bits of frozen ice. “Anyway, I knew that guy was up to no good! He’s gonna steal everypony’s gifts after he’s done getting Fluttershy’s!”
“Great. Just great. The snowman will ruin Hearth’s Warming Eve because of me, and Fluttershy will be in danger,” Discord sadly sighed.
“Hey, don’t worry! We’ll find a way out of this. I’m sure Twilight and the rest will hold him off for us,” Spike assured.
“Perhaps you’re right. I truly don’t see how things could get any worse!” Discord agreed. Then he looked at the readers with a deadpan look. “In case some of you slow-pokes couldn’t already tell, I was obviously being sarcastic.”