//------------------------------//
// The Bargain 
// Story: Her Eyes Reflect The Stars 
// by Lynwood 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash falls asleep not long after we get her fed. After she's asleep, Nothing insists on checking on me, even though I tell her that I'm perfectly fine. She lays her ear against my chest and listens to me breathe, and promptly prepares a strange, foul-tasting drink for me. Then she puts me to bed right next to the Element. I know better than to do anything but comply.

Then I am back in the nowhere place. The water around my hooves is frigid and there's nothing but the darkness. And then there isn't. I don't just smell the rotting flesh, I feel her behind me.

My legs tremble but I manage to turn around. The long-legged changeling mare is only a few steps away. Her limp, wet frill hides her face. I can see her raw flesh through the gaping cracks in her carapace. 

I try to vomit, but nothing comes out. "Go away," I barely manage to croak, "leave me alone."

"I will not, I think," she hisses in ragged harmony. Her voice sounds melodic in a way that sends cold water flowing down my spine.

I step back. I can't keep my voice steady anymore. "W-what do you want? Tell me what you want."

"Oh, Membrane, my dear child," she says with a laugh. "Why, you are already coughing." 

"C-child? I don't want to be..." My throat is painfully dry. "W-wait, I've heard stories of you."

She chuckles at me again. "I suspect you have, yes."

"This is just a dream." I try to steel my shivering voice and fail miserably. "You can't make me turn." 

She laughs like she's agreeing. It's a jagged, awful noise. "So the rotted wood insists."

It's getting hard to breathe. "I— I don't understand this. I made sure to protect myself, my mask, my clothes— I did everything right, please!" I can't stifle my sob. "I didn't even get to make sure that she's safe." 

Her head turns some more and she takes a step. My heart turns to stone. “Membrane, my dear, sweet child. I am no natural force. I have no expectation to pay tribute to rules or patterns or routines, oh no. When I decide something will be, then it will be. But… you’ll find that I am no deaf tyrant, either.”

My eyes grow even wider. "What... what do you mean?"

"I do so respect devotion... and I enjoy a bargain every now and then, yes?" I can hear her grin. 

"A bargain... you mean you're willing to make a deal?"

She just hums an unnerving tune into the stifling darkness.

I push away my fear. "I want to make sure she gets to someplace safe. Someplace where she doesn't have to be so afraid anymore."

The mare's whole body shivers. I catch a glimpse of her muzzle, with its thinned lips pulled back in an almost warm, yet rotted smile. "For this price, your memories of Loyalty will be my claim, until I desire otherwise."

"Loyalty... won't I be dead?" I can't help but tilt my head to one side.

"Do we have a deal?"

The air is suddenly cold. "Yes, we have a deal." 

She makes a sound somewhere between weeping and laughing and her head snaps around to me and her eyes her eyes her eyes her eyes