//------------------------------//
// The Battles Begin 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Flash!

Three Varsidelian horns burst with light in sync, and a party of sarosians were thrust from the ground into the waiting attacks of an escaping army. They shrieked, screeched and howled until they were silenced, hooves and horns being used just as naturally as real weapons.

Nearby, Puddles crossly leaned against a wall, one hoof channeling a constant stream of icy energy into the ground. The corridor forward was blocked by a wall she projected, the transparent ice forcing the approaching pirates to shadow sneak through and make themselves vulnerable to light and funneling, but it also prevented making any progress forward at all. Not that dropping it was an option. The wave of sarosians assembled awaiting their turn would overwhelm the Varsidelian front in an instant.

"Urgh..." Melia looked greener than usual, standing as far out of the way as she could next to Puddles as the waves of invaders lessened, most of the batponies on the other side starting to realize the fate that awaited them with their current tactics. A dead pirate tossed aside by a soldier hit the ground near her, and she jumped, legs shaking.

"Looks beautiful, doesn't it?" Puddles asked, not bothering to disguise her voice. "Mmm, so much carnage. It's like they don't need supernatural help to tear each other to pieces after all, or are doing it now that it doesn't matter just to spite me. Not like I wouldn't do the same, if I was feeling vindictive enough. Ever seen anything like it?"

"Yes." Melia straightened at that. "I was from Varsidel, you know. It's just bringing back bad memories." She hastily rebound her mane, still unbrushed but somewhat in the shape of a bow. "What are you? I thought you were possessed by a monster, but you don't look amused by this either."

"Meh." Puddles shrugged. "I'm getting tired of telling that old story over and over. You'll just have to deal."

"I'm dealing fine," Melia growled, guarding her cutie mark from the chaos with her tail. "Except for the fact that I'm on the front lines and the only pony I'd be at all inclined to trust has run off!"

Puddles stuck out her tongue. "Well, you're stuck with Puddles! So there. And you can trust her or-"

A blinding crack and subsequent shockwave swept both off their hooves, throwing Puddles against a wall and knocking Melia into her. Yells and screams erupted, and the corridor was suddenly filled with smoke. Puddles punched the ground with a snarl, summoning several icy fanblades and starting to spin them to blow... and the haze quickly cleared, revealing a smoldering area just in front of her barrier where the sarosians had shadow snuck through a bomb. Varsidelians were clutching at their faces or pulled backward in pain, and the batponies immediately surged forward, six surfacing during the drop in guard and another squad instantly backing them up.

"Oops?" Puddles frowned, her ice barrier cracked and starting to give way as it was hammered from the other side. "Fiiine! Move over, fat stallions! Time for Puddles!"

She shoved her way through the milling Varsidelians, hooves glowing, and brought them to the ground, spikes of ice lashing out at the invading pirates. Some were speared, but most ducked, and a batpony swam beneath a patch of frost before rising and lashing out with a kick that Puddles took, grappled and rolled with.

"Get off!" Puddles punched them, laying on her back, and the contact spread ice across half their body, freezing them and letting her kick them off. She let her legs drop for a second once they were gone, the nausea from her recent meal spiking with the sudden motion and physical exertion. "Ooogh..." she whimpered, not moving. "Puddles needs to stay out of melee..."

Her rest lasted a second too long, and a second pirate targeted her, appearing out of nowhere and slamming a booted hoof into her belly, aiming to wind.

"HRESHHHHH!" Puddles lurched, her eyes flashed, and a cone of icy energy lanced upward from her mouth, passing through her opponent and leaving them lifeless in its wake. It boomeranged around, still tethered to her, and flew back inside, leaving her twitching.

Melia's eyes widened, and she slunk along to Puddles' side, trying her best to avoid the desperate skirmish that had erupted in front of the fallen chokepoint. "What was that?"

Puddles groaned, touching herself where she had been kicked. "Puddles ate a dead windigo heart for science," she whimpered. "She needs it for her plan, but this cute pony body really doesn't like it when you do that..."

"...So can you fight or can't you?" Melia looked nervously at the Varsidelians. "They can't even hold a corridor against our enemies, let alone push for an escape! And forget about trying to secure an entire corridor so the wounded can escape! They're outmatched, and you... have magic!"

"Oh yeah?" Puddles narrowed her eyes. "You have magic too, cute unicorn. Ever thought about using yours?"

Melia blinked, until a shard of wood blown from the wall made her wince and back away.

"Well?" Puddles gave her a look as her tail was seized in a green aura, Melia dragging her back down the hallway and away from the fighting. "It would work. Puddles is just saying..."

"You mean like this?" Melia's horn glowed brighter, until she managed to lift Puddles entirely, flipping her upright and setting her on her hooves. "I doubt that will be much good against pirates."

Puddles blinked, then leaned in conspiratorially, now standing on her own. "Wanna know a seeecret?"

Melia frowned.

Puddles leaned so close that her breath was frosty against the soft fur of Melia's ear. "Puddles wrote the contest concert songs for Chauncey. She knows how they work."

"What?" Melia's heart skipped a beat. "You... He... Why?"

"Heehee. It's a secret. Maybe Puddles will tell you once she has everything else she wants." Puddles giggled. "But I'm not going back. Not to Izvaldi. And I'll bribe and blackmail whoever I have to if being good and saving you isn't enough, so don't worry! He won't be able to do it anymore. Hee."

Melia's throat tightened in suspicion. "Puddles..."

Suddenly, shouting erupted in the direction they were trying to run, and several of the Varsidelians they had left behind to guard taken corridors came charging up. "Form a barricade!" the leading one yelled. "We got flanked from both sides at once and are cut off! We have to hit them here where they're weak and loop around to counter-flank and get back to our injured comrades!"

Melia paled.

"Welp!" Puddles straightened herself, let out a deep breath, and took a last, nauseous half-second break. "As cute Valey would say? Bananas! Those guys are doomed. Silly doomed unicorns. Want to fight your way out with Puddles?"

"I'm not useful in a fight, I told you!" Melia stomped a hoof, fear starting to overflow into anger. "I don't want to-"

Puddles silenced her with a flirtatious kiss just as the shadows at the hall corner started to ripple. "Awww, cute unicorn, I told you! Just use your magic! It'll work great. Now, watch Puddles!"

Flaaash! Puddles slammed her hooves together, using them as focuses for each other and drawing them apart with icy gauntlets wrapped around each. Each one pulsed, the one on the left morphing to a leg-length spear, the right a long, ice-link chain. The flash of the magic didn't break the shadows, but eager pairs of eyes looked up nonetheless, a wave of pirates sharking toward her.

"Hiyaaaaaa!" Puddles jammed the spearpoint into a floorboard, cracking it and forcing the tip beneath. Her hoof rippled with energy as she kept the spear intact, then slammed it down as a lever, tearing the floor apart in a line towards the batponies and destroying the surface they snuck along. Their momentum preserved, the sarosians were flung into the air, wings spread and mouths open in shrieks of battle.

Swish! Shinnng! Slash! Flash!

Puddles flung herself into a twirl, the whip spinning with her, striking necks and faces. The tip hit the final sarosian to be ejected, and a wave of magic flowed from her hoof down the chain, causing the end to explode in a ball of ice that engulfed them completely. Without an opaque surface to sneak against, they were trapped... and she flung them toward her, catching all the others with the improvised flail and putting them perfectly in a line.

Again, she flipped, dispersing the chain gauntlet and planting that hoof against the floor. Ice crackled and spread as she froze herself in place, planting and anchoring her hooves for a huge burst of momentum... and the spear morphed into a huge talon, clenched into a fist twice the size of her body. The batponies couldn't alter their trajectory. Puddles crouched, braced herself, and punched.

P-P-POW! The fist hit each and every one of them, its size punching through the cluster as if it were nothing. When her foreleg was maximally extended, Puddles' hoof pulsed with ice one more time, firing the fist like a rocket the rest of the way through the enemies, impacting the far wall with an explosion of wood shards and ice crystals and leaving a hole in the far end. All around her, batponies slammed, broken and defeated and hitting the ruined floor and walls and ceiling.

"You like that?" Puddles blew on her hooves and winked, then winced, holding her stomach. "Puddles is... ehhh... pretty cool?"

Melia nodded silently, mouth open.

"Then those guys will be fiiine," she assured, taking a few breaths. "Let's go run away, or something. Puddles needs to find where cute Valey ran off to and show her who she saved."