"I want a belly rub," Puddles declared.
"Cool," Valey countered, doing absolutely nothing about it.
"Valeyyyyy..."
Puddles had finally calmed down after more than an hour of aggressive nuzzling and face-rubbing, which actually made her decent at her self-proclaimed job of warming Valey up. Lying together beneath the blankets, she really was warm when she stopped fidgeting and allowing body heat to escape, and even if Valey was feeling in an entertaining mood to her whims, she presently felt desperately good and Valey was loath to let her go. There was also the fact that Valey was on her back and Puddles was laying atop her, limbs locked and bellies pressed together, and with the weight of ten blankets on Puddles' side there was nothing Valey could do to comply even if she wanted to.
"I said cool and I meant it. I'm cold!" Valey wrapped her wings tighter around Puddles. "And bananas, that's your fault. Maybe think next time about how your actions could get in the way of what you want."
Puddles groaned, cheek touching Valey's and head facedown in the pillow. "Mrrrrrgh... But I want oneeeee..."
"Too bad it takes more than threatening, hugging or freezing someone to get what you want in this world," Valey growled. "Dunno where you come from, but ponies are stubborn and don't like doing stuff for free for jerks."
"It's not free," Puddles mumbled. "I'm hugging you."
Valey sighed. "And I'd take one hug from someone I actually care about over a million from you. Meh." She paused, something clicking in her still-chilly brain. "As rude as you're being about this... why are you being, you know, so nice? Like, the first time I met you, you were cackling and using that voice and doing your absolute best to be the world's biggest scumbag. Not that I don't prefer you like this, but what gives?"
"Oh. That's simple," Puddles giggled, her body raising and lowering slightly as Valey breathed. "You're in that tournament, right? Where you get a wish from Garsheeva?"
"Yeah..." Valey kept a strong note of unhappiness in her voice. "Provided you finish having your fun and let us get back to civilization within a month, of course."
"Then it's simple." Puddles nuzzled her cheek. "You're not the one planning to use your wish to kill me if you win."
Valey's mind flickered, recalling who had been there on that first visit. Right, Morena was in the corner, silent throughout the encounter... "That whole thing was a show for her?"
Puddles put her head back down. "If it turns you on, I can do it for you, too, though I think the walls in this place are a little too thin to do it without getting yelled at."
"Huh." Valey relaxed, her core an endless reservoir of cold that was somehow being warmed by a very cuddly windigo. "Yeah, no, don't do that. I guess that actually makes sense, though."
"You thought it wouldn't?" Puddles swished her tail beneath the covers, wrapping it around Valey's. "I'm not very complex, you realize. I see something. I want something. I get something. And right now, you're giving Puddles everything she wants, so you get nice Puddles!" She goosed Valey's ear with her nose. "Except a belly rub. I wanna belly rub. And I'll tickle you if you say no."
"Uhhh... let's not go there?" Valey begged. "You know what? Bananas. Get off, and I'll give you your belly rub, but only if you start doing some stuff I want. And right now, that means answering some questions."
"Okay!" Puddles stood up, bucking the stack of blankets off, though her legs sank into the bedding and she only lifted herself an inch or two above Valey. She flipped over so she was laying across Valey instead of atop and settled back down on her side, stretching her legs out of the way and presenting Valey with her fuzziness. "What'cha wanna know?"
Valey blinked, putting a hoof on Puddles. She had prepared a question, but the sight of the mare like this made her suddenly remember Puddles coughing, and then the dark crystal on her tongue she had swallowed again... She pressed a hoof into Puddles' stomach, and as she pushed, her cutie mark gave a very faint tingle in warning. There was something bad in there, all right.
"Oooh, I'm squishy!" Puddles giggled at the touch. "Heeheeheee!"
"Yeah, you're hardly a bone bag..." Valey stared at her admittedly cute form, feeling a little colder. "So. That, uhh..." She trailed off, reminding herself that asking a fell creature about dark magic could go wrong in so many possible ways. Maybe she'd ask about that just a little later. "The real Puddles. Or, her original soul from before you were in there. Is she still in there?"
Puddles lifted her head to look at Valey, and for half a second, her grin turned monstrous. "Just as much as the original Valey is still in you."
Valey's blood froze. "Y-Y-You... you know? How?"
Puddles licked her lips, then booped Valey with a hoof, leaving her tongue stuck cutely out the corner of her mouth. "I didn't! Just a guess, and you confirmed it. You have way too much empathy for the ancient evil sealed inside a cute little pony. Comparing your situation to mine? Rationally believing you could make me care about things other than myself? Silly mare. So what's your story, cute Valey? Who put you together, and what did you used to be?"
For a moment, Valey lay stricken. "Bananaaas..." she eventually moaned, feeling every bit of recovering energy drain from her body. "I hate you."
She wasn't even able to put emotion behind the statement, and Puddles frowned. "Hey, cheer up!" She shoved Valey with her nose. "Magical empath here; listlessness is boring! I'd rather you be asleep than this! Come onnn, I want a cuddle!"
"Who are you going to tell?" Valey whispered, voice low and dangerous. "I mean it. I've done so ridiculously much to build a life I can actually call mine, and if you ruin this, I will annihilate you. I mean it."
"Awwwww!" Puddles gave an exasperated pout. "I wasn't going to tell anyone! You saw how annoying and obfuscating I was about me to everyone else, right? Icicles, this isn't going at all how I planned..." Her face scrunched, and she sniffed, a tear leaking from one of her eldritch eyes. "You were supposed to be all sad and lonely about it and need someone to talk to, and would want a hug to cheer you up..."
Valey's entire body went rigid, and if there was something hard nearby, she would have punched it. "Bananas, are you serious!? You... buh... a hug? Really? Like, I know it's all you've talked about, but stop trying to emotionally manipulate me into hugging you! And I thought you didn't get how this stuff works in the first place!"
Puddles smiled sweetly. "I know exactly how pony emotions work, cute Valey. I've been tormented by them for thousands of years, remember? Physical sensations are what's new to me, like the wonderful way this body feels when we cuddle together. That's what I want. I'm not doing it for the altruism, but I'm not being malevolent about it either. I'm just getting what I want, like I've told you time and time again. And what do you know? I'm a harmonic lifeform now. Maybe I figured I'd get my satisfaction in a way that could help someone else work out issues of their own, just to see what all the fuss was about. Aren't you glad I chose you to elope with? I've been there, done that, and have an immortal's worth of experience to speak from. You could do nothing but benefit from this if you let yourself enjoy our situation and tried to get what you could out of me, and I'm still baffled as to why you won't. Do you hate yourself? Think you don't deserve it? Maybe a little, but I sense more... positive emotions as well, coming from you. Now give me a belly rub. If you're going to rain on your own parade, I can't stop you, but this adorable pony wants to enjoy her existence."