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// Coolest Guy In Town 
// Story: A Heart So Cold 
// by Onomonopia 
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A full day had passed since Fluttershy had been "forced" to be Freeze's captive and was now staying with him inside of the crystal palace. She used the word forced lightly, since even though he had made it clear that she had no say whether or not she could leave, he had barely said anything else to her or interacted with her much in the time she had been in the palace. During the previous night she had even found that she could have left through the top of the palace, but freeze had done nothing to stop her. The only reason she hadn't left was she wondered if he would go after he friends if she did, as well as a dream from Luna asking her if she would try to find out what made Freeze so powerful.

'But he still confuses me,' she silently thought to herself as she sat in a chair in the laboratory, watching as Freeze lifted some heavy machinery and placed it in the center of the room. He then froze them to the ground and began to attach wires from them to another machine that had been there when she arrived, but growled to himself when nothing happened. "Um, would you...like so help?" Freeze said nothing in reply so Fluttershy closed her mouth again, simply watching and waiting.

'It's weird, it's almost like he's an entirely different pony than the one who was threatening us yesterday,' she thought to herself as she quietly got up and floated around the room, looking at all of the different things he had built. She could do so with only some reservation, because despite the fact that she still feared him, it seemed that he wasn't going to hurt her. She landed next to the serum she had seen him working on the previous night, looking at it for a distance since this was the one thing she was certain that he would kill her for touching. "Um, what is this thing? I've never seen a potion or medicine that looks like it?"

"Do not touch it," he said to her, before growling to himself as he tore a chunk of a machine out of the ground and threw it into the wall, muttering how useless to him it was while Shy hid behind her mane. He then walked out of the room, leaving Shy all alone once again. Despite knowing better, she began to follow him, wondering what he was doing that was so important that he barely paid mind to his captive.

"Why are you following me?" he asked her as she flew a bit off of the ground, since almost all of the floors had been frozen over. 

"N-no reason," she said to him meekly as he entered the room where the mirror to the other world was kept. She entered the room behind him only to gasp in shock when she saw what was left of the mirror resting in pieces all over the floor. Freeze turned away from what he was doing to glare at her, though he was curious as to why she responded like that. "W-what have you done?! You've destroyed the only way that Twilight could go visit her human friends." Freeze stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to look at Fluttershy, who dove behind some boxes for cover.

"Are you telling me that the mirror that now lays in pieces at my feet was a way to the human world?" he asked her with what she was certain was a cold fury in his voice. She nodded once before diving back behind the boxes, waiting for the violent outburst only to hear a sigh instead. "Fate, you continue to impede me even in this strange world. I will get even with you one day." She then began to watch him as he dug through the supplies in that room, but after about an hour he stood up with a silent rage. "How well do you know this city?"

"What?" she asked in confusion, this being the first time he had been the one to start a conversation.

"How well do you know the Crystal Empire?" he asked her again, though she could tell that his patience was running thin this time. "Would you be able to tell me where the shops and supplies are?"

"Um, yes, I believe that I could do that," she said meekly as he walked by her, opening to door to the room before looking down at her with his red eyes.

"Then lead the way."

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Freeze said nothing to the yellow Pegasus as she lead him through the streets, his mind was far too busy with other, more important thoughts than to waste time talking to her. Like how the rainbow pony thought she was being stealthy in the clouds overhead, but compared to the bats stealth she stuck out horribly. Or how three of the machines that were supposed to work were just scrap and he'd have to see if he could...appropriate proper ones from the ponies in the city. Finally, there were the glares that all of the ponies were giving to him, telling him that he was not welcome. He did not enjoy harming citizens, but if they attacked he would retaliate in kind.

"So the, what kind of supplies are you looking for?" Fluttershy asked him in such a small voice he had to increase the volume on his helmet. "Are you looking for food or maybe some kind of book? I saw that you had a large number of books in the laboratory back there and I was wondering if-"

"Take me where ever there are machine parts and electronics," he said to her coldly, shutting her up instantly. They continued to walk in that silence, but with his volume still increased on his helmet he could hear every bad word that the ponies believed that they were having behind his back. Some were calling him a freak of nature (which he was), while others blamed him for the constant snowfall (which was also his fault). But the ones that got under his skin were the ones that called him a dumb animal, despite him being far more intelligent than the whole city combined. But he said nothing, as all that matter was finding the machines to make the cure.

"H-here we are," Fluttershy said before moving to the side as they came to a stop outside of a shop, freeze noting that this place seemed to house what he need as he saw a number of junked machines behind the store. Fluttershy opened the door for him as he bent his head slightly to enter, the pony behind the counter staring at him with shrinking pupils as he looked up at Freeze.

"I will require this," Freeze said as he walked over to a galls tube on a wall and picked it up, walking around the rest of the store while gathering supplies, the ponies saying nothing as they watched the strange sight. A few minutes later he had gathered a number of items, Fluttershy amazed that he could lift all of the supplies. He then turned and went to leave, but the pony behind the counter stopped him with a stammer.

"U-um, you have to pay for that," the stallion said meekly, but he hid behind the counter when Freeze turned around. Freeze raised an arm and pointed it at the pony, but to his and the stallion’s surprise, Fluttershy placed herself between him and the pony.

"No Freeze, I won't let you do this," she said meekly, hiding behind her mane when he glared at her but she did not move.

"I will not hesitate to freeze you both," he told her.

"Yes you will, because you haven't hurt me so far and I doubt that you would risk the princesses continuing to bother you over something so petty," Fluttershy said in a near whisper. "Besides, don't you have something else more important to do?" Freeze narrowed his eyes at her, but then he turned and left the shop with all of the supplies. Fluttershy comforted the pony behind the counter while paying for as much as she could before she took off after Freeze. She found him outside standing in front of a large crowd of ponies, all of whom were glaring at him while holding various weapons and gardening tools.

"Move," he said to them coldly, but none of them budged. "What could be so important that you would form a mob to bother me?"

"We're here to get rid of you, monster," one of the more courageous ponies said to him, causing Freeze to raise an eyebrow at them. "You've torn our city apart, caused the princess to flee the palace and doomed us to another eternity of snow and sleet by taking the crystal heart! So we're going to do what the princesses couldn't and get rid of you!" Freeze said nothing to them, although he did make a mental note that they said that he had doomed them to another eternity of snow. He really did need to read up on this cultures history when he felt like it, but right now his biggest concern was getting back to the palace.

"Out of my way," he said to them as he began to push through the crowd, some ponies trying to resist him only to find that his suit was too strong. Some of the unicorns tried their magic, but the crystal heart within him made their magic pointless. The mob backed away when nothing they did worked against him, but with cold, red eyes glaring at them he dropped the supplies he was carrying to the ground and slowly raised his arms at the mob. "What I do now is in self-defense. Prepare for a very cold sleep." Fluttershy ran forward to try to interfere, but at that moment the ponies began to look past Freeze to the sky, where what they saw caused them to flee for their lives while screaming in panic.

"That is an odd reaction to me," he muttered to himself before turning around to see what had startled them, his eyes widening a bit when he saw a massive cloud of smoke with a pair of eyes descending into the city, causing ponies everywhere to flee in panic. "But it is a perfectly sound reaction to a cloud with eyes. Fluttershy, do you know what this is?" he asked the Pegasus, who he found was now cowering behind his legs.

"Nonononono he can't be here, we got rid of him," Fluttershy said in a terrified voice as she did her best to become as small as possible. Freeze was intrigued by her reaction to the cloud, but due to her being terrified of almost everything (at least what he had seen of her so far) he saw nothing out of the ordinary. But the ponies reactions are what interested him, not to mention the Pegasus had called the cloud a "him", which it clearly was not. At least that's what he thought until it spoke.

"Greetings, my faithful subjects of the Crystal Empire!" the cloud shouted down at the ponies, causing even more to scream and run for their lives. "It has been a while, hasn't it? But there is no need to fear, your king, Sombra, has returned!" Freeze knew not what this Sombra was nor did he care, but what he did take an interest in was when the cloud flew through the streets and into the palace, where he was keeping the only thing that could save Nora. And no one would dare take his Nora again. So even as all of the ponies cowered and ran away from the palace, a single ice man walked towards it, his eyes as cold as his weapons.