Starlight stared blankly at the ice, caught completely by surprise and with no idea what to do.
Inside the room, which as best as she could tell was frozen perfectly solid, Puddles was strapped to a stone operating table, several rolling trays of sharp-looking medical equipment stationed by the ponies frozen around her. As best as Starlight could tell, it didn't look like they were there to help her. Whether Puddles deserved to be helped at all was another question entirely, she realized: whatever the brightness was that attracted her to some ponies, most of the medical team were fairly lustrous, and Puddles had no shine whatsoever.
She swallowed and frowned, focusing on the message etched into the ice again. Help, Puddles requested. Should she? How would she? She had one knife and a Nightmare Module, and honestly couldn't tell any more how much that hid her, now that Puddles had spotted her instantly.
Her new sense told her the scientists were each worth infinitely more than the windigo they had captured; that there was some spark in them beyond value which Puddles had none of. That Puddles was inconsequentially disposable and the choice was effortless. She could kick her aside and be done with her and never look back... and the logic in her brain rebelled, kicking that sense of brightness and smashing it aside. Puddles was worth something to Wallace, and Wallace was able to help her friends, and helping her friends made it more likely she could keep them. A wave of loneliness suddenly swept across Starlight at the thought of even considering anything else, and for a second, she desperately wanted to feel Maple's hug.
Feeling like she was stepping on her heart, Starlight dropped her shadow cloak and stared straight at Puddles, spitting out the knife she had brought and glaring. "How do I help you?"
Melt. Free. Run.
Starlight watched the words form in the ice, followed by a lone question mark. Did she understand? Puddles would melt the ice, she would cut her free, they would run... where? Hopefully the windigo had an idea of where to go. She nodded, staring deeper, wishing for a hidden meaning that would offer more help... and then her vision focused on her reflection, no longer a shadowy hole in space, and she blinked. Her eyes were slitted. Huh. That was new.
The ice started to glisten, and then to steam, Starlight's coat suddenly wet as it shed its moisture into the air. She grabbed her knife again before the increasing flow of meltwater could wash it away, and frowned. Flooding this place certainly wouldn't attract attention... Up went her shadow cloak again, just in case. This was only the second time she had used it, yet it was as easy and instinctual as batting her ears as a reflex.
As the ice shrank, receding from the entrance inward and draining more and more water as its exposed surface increased, Starlight pressed forward. There was at least one scientist who would be freed before the table with Puddles was exposed. Thinking desperately, Starlight watched as an academic mare in a short lab coat had her hindquarters exposed, then her barrel, then her shoulders... She gulped, knife at the ready. What did she do?
This was a pony who was directly in the way of what she wanted. But what she really wanted was them, the unnamable brightness they carried, a quality that made her heart clench with longing, something that needed to be kindled. That mare would have been frozen here for who knew how long. Had she been conscious? Would she be scared? Starlight's first instinct was to help her, to shield her or comfort her in the hope that harmony would repay harmony, that whatever she wanted, this frozen pony would know and reciprocate.
But that was stupid! Starlight wrangled with herself, pulling back up her past world experiences. The world didn't play fair, ponies didn't get what they deserved, and she was here for Puddles and nothing else because of reasons she wasn't sure she understood. If she helped her friends, they would be bright for her instead. Who cared about this mare? She did, but only because the Nightmare Module was messing with her senses, right? And it wasn't like the mare cared back about her. Was it? It didn't matter. She was trusting her memories on Puddles, that getting her out would be worth it somehow. And if she was trusting her memories there, she would trust herself to know what happened when she showed kindness to strangers who didn't deserve it, too.
She readied the knife in her teeth and almost lunged, instinctively aiming for the mare's cutie mark, then halted herself with a stumble. She didn't trust her present state, right? That meant her judgement might also be skewed. She could easily make the wrong call, relying on herself, and who would help her then? Shivering, Starlight paused. Whatever she did, she needed to make sure it was the right thing, and she had to make sure she knew what that was for more than her own instincts. She couldn't weigh her own needs against being a good pony when her mind might be compromised. But the mare was almost thawed. Think faster, Starlight...!
Then, like a bolt of premeditated clarity, the answer hit her: whatever the right thing to do was, dead ponies earned no do-overs and live ones could keep trying again. If a death wasn't right, there would be no way to make up for it. No knife, then. Starlight was absolutely sure she had made the right decision.
When the scientist mare finally thawed, it took a moment or two for her to restart, the magical ice retreating with all her vitals left intact. When she finally blinked, thoughts returning to lucidity, Starlight was hugging her. Being hugged by a shadowy, filly-shaped hole in space, the mare froze again, her eyes constricted... and she screamed in terror, dashing as fast as her thawing muscles would allow.
Starlight hit the ground with a thud, blinking owlishly as the mare slipped multiple times in her frantic attempt to get away. "You're welcome!" she called, shaking a frustrated hoof, ears twitching at the sound of her own voice. Was it just her, or did the shadow cloak mask that too, changing her tones and pitches just enough that she wasn't identifiable as herself? That was useful.
The ice continued to thaw, several more scientists beginning to be exposed, but by now it had also reached the table. Starlight scrambled upright, grabbing her knife again and watching as Puddles' legs were exposed, immediately taking the instrument to the shackles that held them down. Crink! Clack! With the sound of snapping restraints, Puddles' hooves were freed, and Starlight moved upward, getting the ones around her belly and then forelegs the moment she could reach.
"Hi..." Puddles panted weakly once her mouth was freed.
"Hi," Starlight replied, feeling her and judging how easy the mare would be to lift. The moment Puddles' head was free of the ice, she pulled her away, dragging her to the edge of the table. "Can you walk, and can you stop that from melting so the rest of them don't escape?"
"Unnngh..." Puddles winced, then groaned. "No. Creating this took everything Puddles had in her. She's nearly finished..."
Starlight frowned in concern, giving the earth pony a quick look-over. No outward signs of physical trauma, but she looked nauseous, and... her cutie mark was gone? No, not gone, just fading. Starlight blinked. The icy insignia on Puddles' flanks, she remembered being told, had only appeared once she got possessed and was a direct sign of the windigo inside her, so for it to be fading... "Are you dying?" she asked in concern.
Puddles winced, mostly limp. "Had a plan, but... didn't expect things to go this way... Puddles wants to go home to Morena..."
"Do you know where we are?" Starlight asked, pulling her off the table and onto her back as best as she could, casting a wary eye at the defrosting scientists. "How to get out?"
"Teleporter at... the bottom of the tunnels..." Puddles groaned. "Don't sing Stanza's song..."
"Oookay..." Starlight remembered the name Stanza from the batpony statue's note, but didn't press. Puddles was an adult and she was a filly, so she didn't fit well on her back, but if she kept her head down and Puddles' shoulders aligned with her own, the older mare's belly rested on her rump and none of her legs dragged too much. She was still heavy, though, and the shadow cloak didn't extend to her. "Let's get out of here."