Cadence gritted her teeth as Freeze extracted a sample out of her blood and placed it into the computer in his suit, Twilight and the others able to see the transparent screen that appeared out of his arm (making Twilight's jaw drop) as he looked at it with no emotion. The computer made a sound and he removed the sample and placed it under a microscope, the other ponies able to hear him mutter to himself about how he would kill for better tech.
'Oh yes, I've seen you before,' Freeze silently thought as he examined her blood. 'Very deadly...but still in the early stages. You will be troubling to deal with...but not for long.'
"Well, can you do anything?" Shining snarled at Freeze as the scientist walked back over to Cadence, who lay motionless on a bed that had been prepared for her, using the zoom feature in his goggles and his scanner to take note of her vitals. He frowned as he looked at the information before walking back to his desk, tearing a blank page out of one of the books and writing down something very quickly onto it. "Out with it, you damned snowman! Can you save her or not?!"
"That is not the tone I would take with the only person capable of saving your wife," Freeze said coldly, Shining snarling as Freeze walked up to them and handed them the note, which had written on it a number of medicines, chemicals and medical machines on it. "I can cure your wife, but I will need these supplies first. When you have gathered those, come back to me and we will talk what I want in return for this favor. Go," he said when Shining opened his mouth to argue. The stallion snarled again before he turned and ran out of the lab, most of the other ponies going with him except for Fluttershy and the princesses, who stayed behind to keep an eye on him.
"Thank you for doing this," Fluttershy said to him in a kind voice as she smiled up at him, but she backed away slowly when he turned to face her with his red eyes.
"You should wait until after I have given my conditions for my help before you thank me," Freeze said as he chilled his hand and placed it on Cadence's side, the pony sighing softly as she felt the pain subside a bit. Then he turned away from her and walked back over to his table, where he sat down in a chair with the snow globe in his hand. Fluttershy noticed that he was carving something out of an icicle, but she couldn't make it out.
"So then Freeze, since we have some time before the other get back, how about we get to know each other better?" Luna asked as she walked over in front of Freeze, who made no indication that he had heard her. "Let's start off with a simple question, something that I'm certain that a great scientist like yourself will be able to answer. What are you?"
"A pony's life is in my hands and you proceed to mock me?" Freeze asked her without looking up, though he did peek just to see the look on her face as he said this. "I am a human, homo sapiens, but if you call me anything other than Freeze you'll be frozen." Luna backed away from him a bit as he said this, but then Celestia stepped forward.
"Why are you in our land, Freeze?" she asked him.
"Because fate continues to toy with me," he answered coldly. The two sisters tried to get more answers out of him, but he said nothing and the group sat in quiet as he chiseled away at the icicle. He only looked up again when the ponies came back three hours later, carrying all of the supplies on the list in a bag.
"Here you go," Twilight said to him as she levitated the bag over to him, Freeze taking it from her before looking inside to see if all of what he asked for was within. When he saw that it was, he nodded to them and headed over to his desk. He took items out of the bag and placed them in interesting ways that didn't make sense to the ponies but fit perfectly for him, only turning around to face them once he had arranged them the way he wanted.
"You said something about conditions earlier?" Fluttershy asked him.
"Yes. I have a few conditions before I agree to make the cure for your wife," Freeze said to them, noticing that they didn't like what he said. "The first is that no pony is to bother or try to arrest me. The second is that you will tell the citizens of this empire who I am and that I mean them little harm unless they do something foolish as attacking me. Are we clear so far?" He waited until all three of the princesses present agreed to his terms before continuing. "Next, I wish to have this section of the palace given to me so that I may continue to use it."
"Is that it?" Shining asked when Freeze paused, causing the scientist to glare at him for a moment before continuing.
"And finally, the last item I require before I aid your wife is this," he said as he reached behind him, grabbing the book with the miracle flower and showing the picture to them.
"A Lifegiver," Fluttershy whispered aloud so that the others could hear. "But that's the rarest flower in all of Equestria! There's no way we can find one!"
"You have three days," Freeze said to them as he turned around to put the book down. "My research on Cadence’s condition tells me that she has around three days to live. If you can find me the flower and bring it back to me before the fourth day is up, then I will make the cure for you and save your wife. I hope I do not need to explain what will happen if you fail?" The ponies all glared at him, but he pointed to a clock near the desk. "Tick tock." The ponies all turned around to leave except for the princesses, but then Freeze cleared his throat.
"I also wish to be left alone with Cadence to examine her condition further." Freeze added, noticing Shining's face fall. "Besides, you have a statically higher chance of finding the flower if you all go look for it. What are you all still standing around for? Get out."
"You really think that we'll leave her alone with you?" Celestia asked.
"You have no choice. Out." The ponies glared at him one last time before they all turned and ran out of the building with Shining giving one last worried look before he followed the others, leaving Freeze alone with Cadence who was writhing in pain. He placed his icy hand on her side again to numb some of the pain before he left her on the bed and turned back to the table with all of the supplies that had been brought for him. 'I can finish this cure for her in just over two days, given that they finish their end of the bargain.
"What is your goal?" Cadence said weakly from the bed, Freeze turning towards her to see that she was holding her front hooves around her midsection. "You can't just want to continue your experiments in here peacefully. No, there has to be something else that you're after, something sinister."
"If there was anything else I wanted, I would just take it," Freeze said to her in a matter-of-fact tone before he placed the pain pills that the doctors had given Cadence next to her bed. "Take those and try to get some rest. If you do not, you may not even make it the three days." Cadence gave him a look of loathing, but she did as he said and was sleeping peacefully a few moments later. Freeze looked at her for a moment before he turned to leave the room.
'I suppose that I should feed that fool trapped in the cell,' he thought to himself as he headed in the direction of the cells, but he came to a stop outside the room with the mirror. He could feel something coming from it, as if someone was calling out to him. He turned and opened the doors, walking inside and looking around the room as he headed to the center of it, coming to a stop in front of the mirror. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things or if he had finally lost his mind, but for a moment he believed that he was seeing a faint reflecting of Nora in the mirror.
"Why do I continue to allow these obvious illusions to distract me?" he asked himself as he turned to leave. "They are not real."
'Just because something is an illusion does not mean that it is not real,' Nora said to him, freeze slowly turning around to look at her faint outline.
"Why are you bothering to speak to me, illusion?" Freeze asked Nora emotionlessly, knowing full well that this could not be true. "I have far too much on my mind as it is to be bothered by you."
'I came to talk to you, to ask what are you going to do with the mother to be that is dying in the other room, with only you to save her?' the illusion asked him.
"If the ponies bring me the flower that I require, then there will be no issue," Freeze said to her with no emotion.
'But what if they do not?" Nora asked him, turning in a way that made her hair shimmer in the way Freeze remembered. 'Will you let her die?'
"Whether she lives or dies is a trifling concern to me," Freeze said to her, but this time there was the faintest traces of doubt in his words. "All that matters to me is completing the cure to save you. Everything else is a distraction at best."
'You were never a good liar, Victor,' Nora said to him with a small shake of her head. 'I know you better than that. You were not like the other criminals. You are a good man beneath that icy exterior. You know that this quest cannot save me Victor, but you can still save her. Do not let what happened to you happen to this family. I know you better than that. I know the man you are.'
"No, you knew the man I was," he said as he brought up his arm and pointed it at the mirror. "And that person is long gone. But I do not expect a fake like you to understand that. Now begone." He fired his freeze ray into the mirror as he said this and froze it solid, but it was solid for only a moment before he smashed his boot into it and splintered it into thousands of pieces. He said nothing else to the mirror as he left the room, heading off to where he had left the guard so that he wouldn't die and stop being useful to him. But for as hard as he tried, he could not keep what the fake had said out of his head. That he was better than the rest of the criminals that had plagued Gotham.
'But who I am is of no concern anymore,' he thought to himself as he silently walked through the hallways. 'My heart froze over long ago. I no long feel anything. All that matters is the cure, no matter what that illusion says. It is, after all, a fake...right?'
The crystal heart maybe finally affecting him, or this is all him…Only time will tell and I can't wait to know!
I may be a fake, but that doesn't mean that his heart isn't thawing.
So... Many... FEELS!
Should't that be 'no longer'? Either way great update.
Things are not always as they seem when it comes to Victor Fries. Even the Batman knew this.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I LOVE THIS
just keeps getting better and better
4804526 2 Things:
1) I wonder if Freeze will save Cadence, even though I still think he shouldn't but that would make me a heartless bastard
2) I never thought I would see the day when Mr. T wears a monacle and drinks tea as a gentleman would.
He cares to much for him to be able to ignore who he truely is forever
Wow… Either Victor is finally going over the edge or the Mirror was showing him something he needed to see, a message from his beloved (and by now deceased) wife, Nora. I don't know if I can handle all these feels.
4804507 the fact that Batman could understand this puzzling individual is incredible in its own right, only adding to the great writing that's in those comics. Batman villains always seem to make people question, and that's what's great about them.
4804526 *looking at your icon* Now I've seen everything.
4804610 Of course he is, otherwise he wouldn't make the cut for the team the Silver Mare is assembling. And if he didn't make it in I would rage because I want him to meet Scootaloo.
4804947
....I am so confuzzled its no even funny
4804880 4804610 it's Mr. Tea :P
4805542
memeorama.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/i-see-what-you-did-there-dali-lama.jpg
Poor Freeze... There's no place in his heart for anything but Nora.
I'm with some of the comments claiming that the Crystal Heart is affecting him
Nora-vision... huh.
static.fjcdn.com/gifs/Intense+Plot+Twist+.+Woah_07617e_4287606.gif
4805549 That's terrible. I give it five stars.
I really enjoy this story.
Must say im rlly liking this story, keep it up
I believe you meant 'statistically.'
Are all your stories happening in the same version of Equestria? I'm asking this because I saw a post a few chapters back stating that they couldn't wait for the point where all the champions (Freeze, Mr. Bubbles, Wayne, etc., etc.) would eventually meet up. sorry if it sounds like a stupid question and I'm not sure if you will ever see this but it doesn't hurt to ask, right?
4807287
Each story is a different reality. The silver mare is key to tell which are involved in the larger plot.
Dear Onomonopeia.
Well dahling you can color me impressed. Right off the bat I knew this was a hidden gem being that this is one of the few stories I've ever faviroted before reading. Was it title, was it the imagery, or perhaps it was the description that got me? More then likeley it has to do with my innate and utter LOVE for this version of Mr. Freeze (which I must say you have done a fine job of portraying). With the acceptation of a few grammar errors here and there (but come on, no one is perfect) this story maintains it's spot ion my favorites list, and my anticipating soul.
Yours Truly, The Cake Devil.
While Freeze was a criminal of better character than most found in Gotham, he was still a criminal who killed many public servants and peace officers who got in his way. People with families and loved ones who lost someone important all due to Freeze's actions and the goal of curing his wife. It did not matter to him why these people got in his way nor their reason for trying to stop him, they were in his way and so he dealt with them in a manner that would best prevent them from getting in his way again, via murder. I really hope this fic doesn't forget that and tries to make Mr.Freeze into some new hero for the ponies to befriend. Victor should always act in favor of himself and what he considers his own. I would assume that any possible changes brought on by the Crystal Heart or illusions created by the Silver Mare would be met with fierce opposition on Freeze's part considering the rather underhanded methods by which they may be trying to manipulate his mind and morals by using the guise of his dead wife. Keep up the good work!
4808027 ok then, thanks!
I think the Crystal Heart is starting to that out Victor's heart. And obviously if you're looking for a rare plant the first place you go is Zecora's hut, she might know the location you're most likely to find the plant.... or have Fluttershy ask Discord to create one.
Just found the story and read up to the latest chapter and I must say that, while I was somewhat leery of a HiE with Freeze of all people, you have definitely pulled it off.
I do have one gripe, though - thoughts should be in italics, not quotation marks. It might not seem all that important, but it really is, especially since the default font here has very little distinction between ' and ".
4778111
He shattered a guard in this very story.
The guy deserves FAR WORSE than what he is probably going to get by the end of this story.
I also find it amusing that you protested "he barely murdered anyone", as in "oh, but he only killed a few people! That's not too bad, right?". True, compared to the Joker it isn't much, but compared to Hitler the Joker is a saint. Just because he isn't as bad as someone else doesn't mean he still isn't bad and/or deserves to get away with murder scott-free. Does someone who only murdered, say, a security guard and a young couple in a mall deserve to get off scott-free because other serial killers killed more people?
4781545
I don't see what that has to do with my argument.
4777943
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Are you saying that people with tragic backstories should be able to get away with murder? Or are you saying that we knew he was a murderer all along and I shouldn't be surprised by his actions? To reiterate: I'm not all that surprised by his actions, I am surprised by others' reactions as well as possible future reactions. Again, I suspect that he's going to get a happy ending at the end of this and all will be forgiven and all that jazz and he really doesn't deserve that. He deserves to answer for his crimes.
I am also surprised by how many downvotes I got. Actually, I suppose I am not that surprised: Draco in Leather Pants in action, it seems. I mean, really? That many people are completely okay with a remorseless murderer killing innocents simply because he has a tragic backstory? Okay enough with it to downvote me simply because I'm not willing to just ignore the fact that he freaking killed someone while they were helpless?
Seriously though, how would you people have reacted if he had killed Shining Armor, Cadance, one of the Main Six, or someone like that? What if he had killed off your favorite pony? Would you be okay with that? If not, why are you okay with him murdering someone else? Does their life not mean anything? What about their friends and family and hopes and dreams and all that jazz?
Why does nobody seem to care at all that he murdered someone in cold blood (heh)? Both the characters in the story and an alarming number of readers seem to just. not. care.
Why? Why does a horrible murderer like Mr. Freeze deserve sympathy but nobody even gives a shit about the innocent guard he killed? Why does nobody condemn him for that? Why does nobody(in-story or out of story) even seem to acknowledge that he did that? Did Shining have to write a letter to that guard's family telling him of his death, or did he completely forget about it just like how everyone else seems to have? Maybe he had a wife that he loved just as much as Freeze loved his wife and she loved him back, maybe they had a child that loved him and he loved as well, but nobody seems to give a shit about that.
WHY THE HELL NOT?
Yes, yes, he has a tragic backstory, but that doesn't excuse his actions. Having a tragic backstory doesn't give you a license to murder. Gendo Ikari has a tragic backstory and pretty much everyone agrees he is a still a horrible bastard that deserved his death in the end (hell, even Gendo himself acknowledged that). Countless horrible murderers in both fiction and in real life had tragic backstories, but nobody pretends that those backstories excuse those murders.
Mr. Freeze. Is. A. Murderer. This has been well established by the story itself. He killed without pity or remorse and without any real reason. Shattering that guard was completely monstrous and completely unnecessary.
Mr. Freeze needs to answer for his crimes and if he his truly worthy of being sympathized with and treated as more than a remorseless killer he needs to actually show some remorse. That is, the only way he would be deserving of forgiveness at this point would be if he actually felt remorse for his crimes and was willing to face the punishment he deserves for them. Remember, we're talking about First Degree Murder at the very least here. That's enough to get the death penalty in a few states, especially if the murderer is as completely without remorse as Mr. Freeze is.
TL;DR Mr. Freeze's tragic backstory and status as the main character of this fic does not excuse his horrific actions and he really needs to pay for them, but I suspect this story will end with him being a complete Karma Houdini and everyone will forget and forgive and/or even hail him as a hero and cry for him for how much he suffered and ugh, just thinking about that possibility makes me feel rather sick and angry. Mr. Freeze does not deserve a happy ending at this point, if he ever did.
Disease is spelled "disease".
4816348 I agree
Mr. Freeze IS a criminal, that fact cannot be ignored. He HAS committed crimes and murder for himself and his goals. Hell, he shattered a guard earlier
The thing is his backstory IS very tragic and relatable. He wanted to save the one he loved, but everything just went awry. It's painful to see and know he was so close to NOT being a bad guy.
Not quite sure how this story will end up going, but I'm excited to find out.
4816348
He hasn't had a happy ending. He thought he was dead till he was brought back.
If he does end up being forgiven. Think of it as a redemption story. And calm down
Freeze is my favorite baddy. Back off or I'm going batman up in your businesse.
4816348 Well I honestly have to agree with you.
I for one actually do care. And I also wrote a comment on his 'inappropriate behavior' in chapter one already.
In chapter two, 'Anatinus' also made a very astute comment on Freezes behavior feeling unnatural and not according to what you normally would expect from him, emphasizing the unnecessary shattering of guards.
He actually got 15 up votes on that already, and I agree with him as well. 'Valhuir' made a similar comment on the aspect of Mr. Freeze irredeemably murdering guards in the same chapter.
If the author just altered the sentence where he shatters the guard, and let Freeze ignore that guard instead, everything would actually be alright again, as the rest of his behavior does match up with his original personality.
To refresh everyone's memories:
Again, killing him seemed like a hardly appropriate action for Freeze.
The guard was frozen in place, he posed no threat to him, meaning he could go his merry way and ignore him, let the guard deal with the frozen. Funny thing is, he actually does just that the closer he gets to the crystal heart.
Freeze someone, or not freeze anyone, ignore them and move on, let the rest of the guard take care of the frozen.
Why would he intentionally kill 1 guy and only freeze the other guards? This one kill is unnecessary and illogical, it just contradicts with his personality as Anatinus pointed out.
Further more, this really strengthens your point on the ponies being illogically obliviously and uncaring of the fate this particular guard had met.
You'd think murder would be the first thing Freeze should be accused of by the ponies, since in the oh so peaceful equestria, it seems to carry much more significance, then taking over a dusty old castle.
Life is precious to ponies and the safety of her subjects are Celestia's priority.
I find it amusing how some people say "Don't say nothing about Freeze, he is my favorite villian" yet they do not seem to know enough of his motivations, personality and principles at all, to understand what kind of character he represents.
Also, we must take into consideration the time frame this happens in. This is set after his demise in Batman Beyond, meaning he saved batman and had a small change in his personality for the better, realizing he should rather protect innocent people from the explosion.
Such a change of heart doesn't vaporize in thin air like that.
So 'Apropos of Nothing', please take comfort in the knowledge that some people actually do agree with you.
just enjoy the fucking story! that's why we're all here, isn't it? you can debate this stuff later, you take up comment space.
(especially you, apropos of nothing!)
(and you too kotor511)
Sooo good! Now I'm hoping that he turns goodish later on.
Is Sunset stuck on the other side of the mirror forever now? I read the comments and nobody has made the connection that the mirror was the one to the Equestria Girls verse. This story was written before Rainbow Rocks so they haven't moved it to Twilight's castle yet.
(Proceeds to research further)
Ok the comic that explains that the portal mirror can show people things was published in October 2013 so I don't know why people didn't connect the dots. When I first read the scene of him passing the mirror it was the first thing I thought of. Well is sucks to be Sunset right now without Twilight being there to help deal with the Sirens. I'm sure she'll rise to the occasion to deal with those troublemakers.
8368749
I thought it was obvious at least, honestly Twilight barely helped with the sirens in the first place so I think she'll be fine.