Valey, Maple, Shinespark and Nyala climbed back up the staircase to the hospital's main tunnels, visibly shaken.
"I hope Puddles is all right," Maple whispered with eyes the size of cantaloupes. "That can't have been a good position to be in for a fall... and now if Morena finds out we hurt her daughter's body..."
"Why did you break the pipe?" Shinespark growled, helpless and unable to do anything about it. "We should have known it was a trick! We did know it was a trick, I'm sure of it, and you did it anyway!"
"Yeah? Well, why didn't you stop me?" Valey shot a glare back at her. "Besides, there was totally a recorder. Something tells me we'd actually be in really big trouble if-"
"Don't say it!" Nyala urged. "What if these halls have recorders too?"
Valey sighed. "Bananas... For the record, we all got played. I was too busy focusing on other stuff to pay attention, should have been thinking things through more... Maybe should've flown down that hole to check what happened..."
"Other things," Maple murmured. "Like... what had been done to her? Those had to be some sort of treatment, right? Was she lying about-"
Shinespark's aura settled over her muzzle, preventing her from finishing. "Nyala's right. I have some things to tell you on the matter and something tells me Valey does too, but not here. We should... move first."
Everyone fell silent, traveling to the elevator under a cloud of shame and worry. Valey's mind occasionally flickered with images of her and Nyala in Icereach, of interrupted research and an exploded windigo heart and her archenemy trapped beneath a wave of ice. Those things should have been at the forefront, along with how to keep her friends safe, but to her immense frustration that space was occupied by the memory of giving Puddles a hug. Why!? She had Amber waiting for her back in Riverfall. What about being loyal, and all that good stuff? And she'd done a perfect job of it until today, when she'd ran into Crystal and had her attentions exploited as some planned-out lecture and now there was Puddles who was a windigo and even just...
Thoughts swirling like a whirlpool of pony fur, she barely even noticed the small prickle in her cutie mark as the elevator doors opened, they stepped in, the doors closed again and it began to rise.
"Hiyaaaaa~!" Puddles' voice sang, and something fluffy hit her from above, flipping her on her back before she could so much as blink.
"You!" Nyala gasped, metal hooves clanking against the floor as she whirled and nearly fell. "Oof! How did you get free!?"
Shinespark dropped into a battle stance, horn lighting and frantically reaching for the elevator's emergency stop button... but before she could press it with her telekinesis, Puddles tapped the floor with a forehoof, and a jet of frost lanced along the tiles like a lightning bolt, climbing the wall and exploding out into a tiny fan of ice shards that destroyed the control box. "Nope!" she hummed. "I wanna get off at the first floorrrr!"
Maple stood her ground, mouth wide open in surprise. "Does your personality change every time we meet you? What's going on? How are you free?"
"Forget about her demeanor, get her off me!" Valey grunted, flat on her back and being straddled, legs pinned by the augmented earth pony's superior weight and strength. "Gnnngh... Break the light, I can't shadow sneak like this!"
Then Puddles laid down, changing Valey from being pinned to caught in a full-body hug. "Heeeeeee..." She grinned extatically, leaning in and closing her eyes and nuzzling Valey heavily with her cheek, causing the mare's wings to shoot out. "Aww, you're so fuzzy! I told you I'd give you a hug some day! I did do that, right? I don't really remember..."
Flash! Shinespark's blue aura congealed around her, lifting her into the air along with a too-stunned-to-struggle Valey whom she wouldn't let go. "Get off my friend!" Shinespark warned, stamping.
Puddles gently dropped Valey, then pumped a hoof in wild victory, switching to her billowing, metallic wintery voice. "Yes! Oh baby, yes! Ah ha ha ha! I've wanted to do that for absolutely forever! Whooooooo! Booyah! Take that, all of windigo-kind! I rule, you drool! Puddles is freeeeeee!"
Everyone winced, the harsh sound of her voice echoing around the tiny elevator as it rose, though Valey was slightly too stunned from her treatment to do more than fold her ears. Puddles blinked, switching back to her normal mare voice. "Two thousand years is forever, right? Hee! I feel awesome. Anyway, thanks for letting me out, you cute ponies! And unnatural suit of armor, even though you were a killjoy and I can't hug you. Hey, bat! I have to skip town now because there's going to be lots of angry scientists flailing around after me, but come looking for me sometime! We could go on a date, and next time, I'll give you a kiss!"
"Buhhhhh," Valey replied, eyes so unfocused they were round and wings deadlocked as she lay on the ground where she had been dropped.
"Valey? Valey, get up!" Maple ran to her side and lifted her head. "What did she do to you? We need you right now!"
The elevator dinged to a stop and its doors slid open, somehow functioning without the control box. Puddles looked up. "Oh, this is my stop! I'll give you a hug too if you let me go, cute unicorn."
Shinespark grimaced. "That is vaguely disturbing and I'm not letting you go! Now-"
Puddles shrugged, once again speaking like a metal avalanche. "Huh. She clearly thinks I'm cute. Your loss."
She clapped her forehooves together, spinning to face Shinespark midair, and a frosty blue light burned from beneath them. Using herself as a base for conjuring ice, Puddles flung her hooves forward... and a pillar of ice erupted, lovingly sculpted into a statue of a hoof that punched Shinespark in the face. Her concentration failed, and Puddles fell, landing upright on her hooves.
"Like I said," Puddles announced, sashaying out of the elevator with a heavy swish in her tail. She picked Shinespark up and put her back on her hooves as she passed, giving her the briefest of nuzzles in consolation. "Your loss. Now, who knows where to find a coat rack to rob? My flanks look ugly."
The ice hoof shattered as Puddles tossed it over her shoulder, strewing ice all over the hallway. Her flanks definitely were attention-grabbing, and not in a good way, still riddled with fresh welts and bandages where something had stabbed at her cutie mark. She tapped her chin as she walked. "Hmm, should I go cute or cool? I have no idea what's hip in media these days, and I only get one big entrance..."
"Not so fast, you," Valey growled, back on her hooves even though here wings were still stuck out as far as they could go. "I've been having a really frustrating day, and you've contributed more than your fair share! You better be ready to get pounded and locked up again, because I'm not slowing down!"
Puddles pursed her lips in confusion... and then her eyes widened in happiness. "Frustration, yay! I can help-"
Swash! Valey flashed by her with a burst of speed, wings getting in the way and confining her to ground-based combat. A hoof struck Puddles in the side, unbalancing her, and then Valey kicked off a wall, launching herself and coming down from above. She tackled Puddles into a grapple, the two hitting the ground and rolling painfully into a corner, Valey locking her down with all four legs.
"I got her!" Valey hissed, wincing from rolling over her wings. "Sparky, quick, while she's-"
"You gave me another hug!" Puddles cheered, thrilled by the encounter's outcome. "Aww, you wanted to say bye and that you'll miss me! You're the best! I'll miss you too! Mmmmmm-"
"What's going on in here?" an authoritative voice demanded, and three doctors in lab coats rounded the corner. "There's been commotion everywhere, and... Hey! You two! Get off the ground!"
Puddles blinked. "Uh-oh. See ya later, cute bat! I gotta run!"
With no effort whatsoever, she disentangled herself from Valey's headlock, rolling upright and standing to face the stallions. "Heya, nerds."
"Be careful!" Nyala urged the doctors. "She's dangerous!"
The shortest doctor, a mare, smiled and shook her head. "We carry sedatives for just that purpose. Stand down, please."
Puddles stuck out her tongue, then smirked. "Sorry! I've already got my fan club, and when there's only one of me, you gotta pick the very best to hang out with! So take a hike, losers!"
The lead doctor frowned, levitating a dart tube in his aura and taking swift aim at Puddles. Pfffwhit!
With lightning reflexes, Puddles raised a hoof and tapped the incoming dart from the side, inches before it embedded itself in her neck. With a flash, it transformed into an icy sphere, and then she lowered her head, caught it on her rump, juggled it once along her back like it was a toy ball, and bucked it with impressive fury toward the three doctors.
"Yo, watch it!" Back on her hooves already, Valey tackled the middle one to the side, and the cannonball shot through, tearing a hole in the far wall from the speed at which it had been launched.
Puddles glanced between the hole and her hooves in surprise. "Oooh, I'm strong. Or your building codes are dumpy, which wouldn't surprise me given how fast you made this place. Anyway, I need a coat, and your tacky ones will have to do. Stand aside!"
She reared into the air and slammed both forehooves down, sending a wave of sheet ice racing across the floor. Valey and Shinespark had the sense and ability to jump and Nyala lifted Maple, but the three doctors were all touching the floor when it passed and their hooves were suddenly frozen in place.
Crack! Nyala's brute armor strength freed her from the prison, but everyone had slippery ice to contend with and Shinespark flat-out fell as Puddles made a show of ice-skating past them to the doctors, gliding on the tips of her hooves.
"Hmmm..." Puddles sized them up. "Two stallions, no and no. Miss mare, your coat looks like my size! Here, gimme!"
With a quick flurry of hoofwork including briefly unfreezing the mare's forehooves, Puddles seized the coat for herself, tossing it on and whirling to make it billow. "Ooh, maybe this does look good on me," she decided, her cutie mark completely covered. "What do you think, docs?"
The two stallions looked angry. The now-undressed mare's cheeks were burning.
Puddles saw her redness and folded her ears. "Aww, you do look a little nicer without this on. Here, have a hug to remember me by." She leaned in and gave a pat and a nuzzle, which made the mare's situation far worse.
"Yo." Valey tapped Maple and Shinespark on the shoulders while Puddles was distracted, keeping her voice low and having found a good balance on the ice. "I can't fight that; she's got my number. I'm gonna bail and get help. If she hugs you, hug back and keep her happy, because it's a whole lot better than anything else she could be doing. I'll be back!"
Valey took off down the hall in the direction of the lobby, leaving Puddles standing up and blinking. "Huh? Hey, wait for me!"
"Oh, no you don't," Maple hissed, preparing to oppose her, a large chunk of fallen ice already stored in her cutie mark and ready to use for a fight. "Stay here, Puddles! The rest of us aren't going anywhere!"
While Puddles was distracted, the mare she had released to torment crept away, ears flat with embarrassment, until she was twice out of hoofreach... and then lunged, grappling the nearest fire alarm on the wall.
BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP!
Emergency lights began to blare in the corridor as sirens swept the building, the noise bleeding out into the plaza and to the adjacent school and mansion. The sounds of doors slamming echoed in the distance, and Puddles had just enough time to give a worried glance at the mare who had sounded the alarm before more and more griffons and ponies piled into the corridor, looking for a way out.
"Uhhhh... yay." Puddles frowned. "Sounds like my cue to get out of here! And honestly, the cute pony thing is getting old, so... See you later, dweebs! Bwaaaaah hah hah hah!"
Puddles twirled on a hoof and leapt, crashing through a closed window and breaking outside.
"Urgh... Geh..." Valey panted, skidding into the central plaza, running with her wings still stuck out wide. The Sky Goat was gone from its mooring above the commerce building, and she couldn't fly like this to chase it down. She was too late.
"Bananas..." Who did she go to? The hospital behind her was erupting in a cacophony of noise; someone had sounded an alarm. Did Izvaldi even have a military for crises like these? She was sure someone somewhere had mentioned it didn't. Who could she go to? She was the strongest one left in the city, and a fighting style revolving around grapples, punches and close contact would be absolutely impossible for her to fight Puddles with. Mind clouded with hormones, she cursed the fact that no one in Ironridge had ever had the skill and guile to turn the occasionally-favored tactic of her own back against her, letting her know she was weak to it.
She didn't get the chance to decide, as one of the hospital's windows exploded in a shower of glass, white doctor's robe, and the mare that was currently the bane of her existence. Puddles straightened up and met her eyes from across the plaza, them the only two creatures who stood still as others fled, rushed to duty or merely shrieked their heads off as the hospital continued to blare.
Then Puddles was at her side, standing up close next to the plaza's central fountain, its statue depicting a griffon, a pony and a batpony all playing together in harmony. "Heya," Puddles greeted, a sultry look on her face.
"Heya," Valey replied, still unable to force her wings down. "Look. Izvaldi's not prepared to deal with something like you. I'm not either, but for totally different reasons, and I can and will overcome those to beat you because no one else can. Bananas, I have like zero attachment to this town, but that's still a lot better than Ironridge, and I fought you guys there, too. So. Ready to tango?"
Puddles licked her lips. "Izvaldi, not ready? Didn't I tell you what I want? A life of high and wild living, enjoying all the pleasures and fun things ponies do that disharmonic creatures can never have. Anyone can rage and cover the town in ice. Any one of my less-fortunate, siblings, at least. But why make ice when you can make..."
Her hooves glowed, and she thrust them into the fountain pool. Pillars of ice soared out, rising, intertwining, sculpting themselves by her magic until their crystalline structure morphed into something smooth and they took on form. In less than three seconds, the central statue was gone, encased in an ice sculpture of Valey and Puddles locked together in a passionate dance. Puddles raised an eyebrow when she was finished. "You know?"
"I've already got a marefriend, if that's what you're suggesting," Valey warned. "Your hugs are not appreciated. You can go take a hike."
"Oh?" Puddles raised an eyebrow. "You certainly seemed to appreciate them in the moment. You even offered me one first. And why wasn't your marefriend hugging you first?"
"Because I'm horny, and she's a continent away." Valey evenly met her stare. "You wanna mess with respect and friendship and stuff? That starts by listening when others tell you what they want."
"I listen!" Puddles shrugged in self-defense. "I just don't care. And you shouldn't either. I'm immortal; your lifespan is piddly next to mine. You don't have time for playing the nice game like I do, so why are you the one telling me to do it?" She gave a hungry smile. "It's confusing. Interesting. I like it!"
Valey stomped a hoof. "Yeah, well, go jump in a lake! I'm not eligible!"
Puddles put on a pout. "Not even going to put up with poor, confused, chaotic Puddles and teach her how to be a decent pony? Awww. How mean." Her grin returned. "I like mean, too, you know. And maybe I forgot, but I don't think I ever caught your name..."
"It's Valey," Valey hissed. "What are you trying to blackmail me into?"
"Eloping." Puddles shrugged. "The teleportation guild is right there, and they wouldn't dare refuse passage to someone who can freeze them and smash them into tiny, icy pony bits. Which I'd never actually do, because pony bits are precious, but they don't know that. Also, we're starting to attract attention."
A crowd was gathering, most staying at the edges of the plaza, a mix of hospital evacuees who were unknowingly running straight into the cause and dwellers of the other five buildings. Valey winced.
"...You know what?" Puddles looked around at the crowd and flashed them a cheery grin. "Let's make this dramatic. We can talk about it later."
Valey's eyes narrowed as Puddles' hooves began to glow. Again, the mare stomped down, and Valey pre-emptively backflipped, wings still not working right, to dodge the wave of ice. But instead of a sheet along the ground, crystals blossomed beneath Puddles' hooves, growing upward into a pillar with her on top. Puddles launched herself over Valey's head, flinging herself off it into a leap, and Valey was unable to return to the ground to move before Puddles hit her.
"It's bye-bye time!" Puddles sang in her ear, and an icy hoof touched her cheek. Valey winced from the contact and tried to move, but her whole body became cold, sluggish, and Puddles tapped her limbs one by one, disabling them with frost.
"Urgh..." Valey shivered, barely able to do even that as she was thrown across Puddles' back. "Leggo..."
"No." Puddles started walking with a bounce in her step, careful not to jostle Valey too much on her back. "I like you, so we're running away. Hold on tight!"
One of her steps sent a fork of ice crackling along the ground, which hit the administration building's doors and tore them off their hinges. Another sent the ice flying behind her, two bolts in quick succession targeting the orange form of Shinespark, who was chasing them, the first causing her to jump and the second freezing her at the exact place she touched down. A fourth caused a fan of ice blades to spring up in Nyala's path, the armor's weight not sufficient to smash through them as she collided against the opposite side.
"See ya later, cute ponies," Puddles sang, humming a Firefly Sisters tune under her breath as she carried Valey into the administration building.