"It's just as I thought, no matter how strong his ice is he can't fight against fire," Sombra muttered to himself as he walked back from his cabinet filled with potions, having watched the battle between the dinosaur and Freeze on his crystal ball. He wished that he could see how much damage that Freeze had suffered, but he had seen enough from the battle. "And it seems that the suit isn't just a suit of armor, but is what keeps him alive." He sauntered over to his cauldron as he said this, taking the potion and pouring it in, watching as the brew became a crimson red.
"So in other words, all I need to do to defeat him is bring the heat," Sombra said as he scooped some of the brew out of the cauldron, downing the drink in only a few drinks. He began to scream as he felt the liquid fire run through his veins, but the screaming turned into laughing as he looked down at his hooves, seeing the flames erupt from them. "But for my victory to be absolute, I must make sure that all of your pieces are destroyed in the battle." He walked over to a chess set that he had made of the ponies and the princesses, smiling to himself as he looked down at it.
"First, I'll crush your knight," Sombra said as he crushed the mini version of Shining with his magic. "Then I'll move onto your castle and bring that down around you. Oh and I'll enjoy crushing your queen as well, but you are the main piece," Sombra said as he lifted up the mini Freeze. "You will be the hardest piece to bring down. But when you fall, it will be glorious. But first, I need to gather my army. And just to show how much I appreciate you, they too will freeze the city cold." He vanished in a flash of shadow as he said this, the laugh echoing all throughout the chamber.
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Freeze had spent the past few days not sure whether or not he was awake, as everything had been going far too perfectly for him to believe it was real. The ponies had kept to their word and had helped him to reassemble his lab, Cadence even funding for the material that he lacked to complete the cure. In return for all the acts of kindness however, Freeze had to go out into the public and publically announce to the ponies (who still thought of him as a villain) that he was not there to harm him nor would he be trying to take over. The ponies were skeptical at first, but when Cadence told them of how he helped to defeat the monsters and Sombra, they quickly changed their tune about him.
"I still cannot believe that it was that easy," Freeze said to Fluttershy as the two of them walked through the streets, Fluttershy wanting to show him around while he waited for the final piece of his lab equipment to come in. He had to make do with a makeshift helmet, but it kept him alive at the very least. "In my world I was hated and distrusted by all, even if they hadn't met me in person. How did it only take one speech to convince the ponies to trust me?"
"Well, the do trust Cadence greatly," Fluttershy said with a smile as she looked around, waving at the ponies that waved to her. "But according to what the princesses have heard, a rumor had been spreading around that you had defeated Sombra and helped to stop the monsters. So when Cadence told them that you were a main reason that they were saved, they opened up to you pretty quickly." Freeze looked at all of the smiling and waving ponies with a bit of a smile, but then he shook as he looked down at Fluttershy.
"I am not a hero like you think I am, Fluttershy," he said to her as he came to a stop, looking back at him at the crystal palace. "I am not even a good man. All I am is a husband seeking for a way to help his wife, no matter what I have had to do to achieve that goal. I know that you and maybe the others think better of me...but I am just a shell of the man I used to be." He looked down at himself as he said this, wondering just how much longer his body could hold out. While it was more or less new, he was still an old man in his mind and couldn't have much longer in him. Then he shook his head, wondering why he had started thinking about his own mortality.
"I know that Victor, but that's just because you haven't had the chance to prove how good of a man you are yet," she said to him with a sympathetic smile as she placed a hoof on his leg, shivering slightly. "From what you told us you were constantly betrayed and hurt by the people who said they would help you back on your home, so it's only natural that you would be distrustful and cold. I just hope that we can warm you up a bit here and I think that saving Nora will be the first step to doing so." Freeze gave her the smallest of smiles for saying this, but then he shook his head and walked away from Fluttershy.
"May I be alone for a while, Fluttershy?" he asked her as he continued to walk. There is something that I need to do by myself." Fluttershy nodded and turned away, leaving freeze to walk alone until he came to the fountain in the center of the town. He sat down on a bench by himself and looked up at the gray sky, realizing that there hadn't been a blue sky since the day he took the heart. He sighed again as he looked into the water, before drawing a sharp breath and closing his eyes. He wasn't sure this would work, but he needed to try. "Nora? Are you there? I need to talk to you."
'I'm always here Victor,' he heard a voice say from behind him, a voice that he knew well but he didn't turn to face her. 'I'll always be by your side whenever you need me. What do you need?'
"I need to know...what should I do?" he asked her quietly. "I know that my only goal should and is completing the cure for you, but then what? Do I try to find a way back home or do I stay here with these ponies?" He could feel her standing closer behind him, but he kept his eyes closed and didn't move. "They have been far kinder than any man I have met, but if I stay here then I cannot be with you. What should I do?"
'That is up to you Victor, what makes you happy?' he heard her say in his ear.
"You know who makes me happy," he said softly as he tiled his head a bit to where she was, only to feel it rest against the side of the glass. Then he took in a deep breath and prepared to ask a question. A question that he had been avoiding ever since he had arrived here. "Nora...are you real?"
'What do you mean?'
"Am I really talking to you? Are you truly beside me right now?" he asked her with the hint of tears forming in his eyes. "Because I am afraid that if I open my eyes you will be gone again. Have you really been beside me all this time or am I simply going crazy and talking to a part of my mind that would create a ghostly version of you? Have I simply been talking to a ghost and all of my efforts have been for naught?!" He said nothing else after this, but he felt the faintest feeling of a hand resting on his shoulder.
'I spoke the truth for when I said that I will always be by your side, whether I am real or not,' Nora whispered into his ear, but to Freeze it sounded like she was getting further away. 'But it's time that you moved past me Victor, moved onto a new life and find a new happiness. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy, even if I wasn't there to share it with you. Let me go.'
"No. I promised that I would never be happy until I was by your side again," he said with rage, but it was a broken rage that had no real anger in it. "Until your hand was in mine and we could be together again, when you are cured and I am no longer this monster in a suit." He felt her presence again and this time he did open his eyes, but just as he feared he was the only one sitting on the bench.
"Nora...am I alive?" He waited for her to answer him, but he found to his sorrow that she was already gone. He closed his eyes with a sigh before standing up, walking towards the palace even though some ponies tried to talk to him. He walked back into the lab to see that Cadence, Shining and Fluttershy were all standing there, trying to hide something from him.
"It's about time you got back," Cadence said to him with a smirk, but he gave her no response as he looked at them, wondering why they had bothered. "The other ponies are in another room, but the three of us have something that we want to give you." Freeze raised an eyebrow at this, looking down at Fluttershy as she stepped forward while doing her best to hide a smile.
"I have a present for you," she said with a smile, Freeze noticing that there was something hidden under her wings. "But in order to get it you'll have to close your eyes and hold out your hand." He narrowed his eyes at her first, but then he closed them and held out his hand, feeling something being gently placed on it. "Okay, you can open your eyes now." Freeze did so, but his eyes widened to their fullest when he saw what was in his hand. It was a flower, a flower that he had desperately needed for the longest time. He looked at Fluttershy, who had a huge smile on her face, before looking to Cadence and Shining, who both gave him smug, but also kind, smiles as well.
"We figured that all you've done for us, like saving our family, that you deserved this," Shining said as he wrapped a hoof around Cadence's shoulder, pulling her close. "And even though it took me three days to find, we finally got it. Thanks, for helping us." Freeze said nothing as he simply stared at the flower, but then he walked past the ponies and placed the flower on the table next to him as he began to work, the ponies taking the hint and leaving to join the others.
"How did it go?" Celestia asked when the ponies entered the room. "Did you manage to get a reaction out of him?"
"No, we weren't that lucky," Cadence said with a sigh a she sat down, placing a hoof on her baby with a smile. "But I know that we surprised him...even though I haven't known him long, I'm glad that I was able to help him. I almost lost my family myself, so I'm happy that he'll finally be able to save his wife." she rested against Shining as she said this, Twilight pulling out a notebook and a quill with a smile.
"Well, all I know is once he's saved his wife I have so many questions for him," she said with a huge smile as she looked down at the list. "With everything that's been going on I completely forgot that he's the only human in Equestria right now, not to mention he's a scientist! Think of all the things he can teach us, like the cure for that dieses Cadence had! Imagine how many lives we'll be able to save thanks to his knowledge."
"You may be right there Twilight," Luna said as she placed a hoof under her chin as she thought. "Maybe Victor is more of a blessing than a curse. We can learn a lot from him and his knowledge." The ponies conversations then began to drift into other areas, but all the while Fluttershy kept looking back to the lab, waiting for Victor to come out with the cure. She hadn't known him long, but she had already begun to consider him a friend. She wondered if he felt the same...or if he had even had friends before. It was a few hours before the doors to the lab finally opened, Freeze walking out and silencing everypony that had been talking when he entered the room.
"Well?" Rainbow asked after a moment of silence. "Did you make it?" Freeze said nothing to her, but he slowly lifted his arm, revealing a single vial of a strange mixture, his hand shaking slightly as he held it.
"It's finally done," he whispered to himself as he looked at the vial, barely believing that he was holding what he had been after for so long in his hand. "After all these years, after so much pain...it's finally done. I can finally save her." The ponies all began to congratulate him and Fluttershy gave him a huge smile as he continued to look at the vial...before it slipped through his fingers and shattered against the cold ground. All of the ponies let out a loud gasp as this happened before they all looked at Freeze, but he hadn't even noticed it fall. After a moment he fell to his knees, making no sound as he sat there but all of the ponies could see what he was doing.
He was crying.