Did he just kiss me? Cheerilee blinked a few times, trying to clear her brain more than her eyes. She, I mean she. That mane is going to get me in trouble. "Uh… So you like it?"

"It looks awesome." Vinyl spun back to the mirror. "Oh wait, Tavi's room has a bigger mirror!"

Cheerilee hadn't seen many unicorns able to teleport—she could count them on her hooves—but somehow Vinyl got past her and into the hallways and there was no way logic or physics had anything to do with it. Trotting after the blue streak of tail, she wound up in an immaculately kept room, containing a huge bed, a large mirror, and Vinyl Scratch with her jaw hanging open. "I take it that is a 'Very yes'?"

"I always wanted to have it short, but whenever mom would take me to get it trimmed they wouldn't listen to me at the salon, they would style it long and flowing. It looks-" Vinyl stopped, realizing that the stallion in the mirror had to give a show tonight. A show I will be late for if I don't get my plot moving and get my deck to the train. "Sweet Celestia we need to be at the station!"

Vinyl was charging right at Cheerilee, leaving her nowhere to go but to slink to the side and then turn to follow. "It didn't take that long to do the cut. I can help move your gear." She watched as the blue glow of Vinyl's magic started yanking cords from her mix deck. "Put it on my back and let's bolt!"

In a bit of a daze and panic both, Vinyl did just that, setting the equipment on Cheerilee's back and, together, they sped out of the house and took off for the station at a gallop. The wind of their passage flew through Vinyl's new mane cut and reminded her just what had been done. What will my fans think? Buck it, Cheerilee liked it, they might too. It was an easy thing to think, but actually believing it was another matter.

"All aboard!"

"I got this." Cheerilee had no idea what she had got, or how, but she wasn't going to stop. "HOLD THE TRAIN!" Her hooves flashed, barely touching the ground as the pair of them got up onto the platform. The weight suddenly lifted from her back and she glanced back and up to see Vinyl had hold of her deck.

Laughing like a maniac, Vinyl got herself and her deck onto the train but the locomotive was well in motion and she realized with shock it was outpacing Cheerilee. "NO!" Setting her gear down, she reached out with her magic and tried to grab her new friend.

A pony was heavier than anything Vinyl should have been able to lift, but Cheerilee felt her hooves leave the ground and gave a whoop of excitement as she was suddenly catapulted along beside the train.

Vinyl's expression of concentration was strained, but she redoubled her efforts and pulled Cheerilee up and into the train. Of course, with the choice of her expensive—not to mention one-of-a-kind—mix gear or herself, the musician chose the latter. "Buck… me…"

Cheerilee looked down in shock, it was obvious Vinyl had really strained to lift her onto the train and she knew there was only one thing for it. She pressed her snout down, touching her own lips to Vinyl's. It is just like school… wait, no it's not. Buck, she looks like a stallion with that mane, a feminine stallion, but still a stallion. She closed her eyes into the kiss, pulling back when her "hero" gave a snort. "That was awesome!"

Looking up into those harlequin eyes, Vinyl felt a million kinds of amazing suddenly. "Well, I couldn't leave you behind." That is the most macho and bucking stupid thing ever…

Cheerilee got all the right vibes from Vinyl; felt that part of her that purred when a stallion tried to act suave, giggle inside like a filly. "Well, are you going to get up so I can get on the train properly, or should we just make out in the doorway some more?"

Holy bucking Celestia, she ate it up... "Decisions, decisions…" Vinyl got up, reaching out with her magic gingerly she hefted her deck too. "Let's find a seat."

The moment the unicorn turned around, however, Cheerilee got something that almost knocked her out of that "vibe," she saw Vinyl's long, mare-like tail. Lifting her gaze, she focused on the back of the other pony's head. "Yeah, at least it is a short trip to Canterlot." Oh no, all my things. I meant to grab all those glow-sticks, and I don't have more than... she quickly checked her saddle bags, well, I do have bits. Yay!

Setting her gear down, Vinyl used her magic to brush down the seat. Just try to go with it, she likes stallions… you can do this. She looked Cheerilee in the face, making sure she noticed how the seat had been cleaned.

Cheerilee recognized the effort and couldn't help but purr in her head again. "Thank you." She squirmed her plot a little as she sat down.

"Oh wow, are you DJ-Pon3? Aunt Crust, I have all her albums!"

The young voice stole the attention of Vinyl and Cheerilee away from each other. An elderly-looking mare turned her head and looked at them over the top-edge of her glasses. "Her?" Disappointment dripped off the mare's words. "We will see about that."

Cheerilee watched all the wind get sucked out of Vinyl's sails. The brash and cavalier mare now wilted and, had she a long mane, would be hiding under it. "There's a story here." The excited part of Cheerilee had flipped to curious, it had tasted the machismo of a stallion and was looking for him again. "The ride isn't too long, but do you want to tell me?"

"Not really." Vinyl stared at the window, seeing her reflection overlay the countryside speeding past. "I just… I really like the hair." She sighed and tried to not see her reflection now. "But you saw what everypony will think."

"She is the mother of an impressionable filly," Cheerilee leaned in a bit more to whisper, "and more than a bit stuck up."

A snort and giggle from nearby revealed that she hadn't been quiet enough, and the filly had heard.

"Vinyl, is this you?" Cheerilee reached her hoof up and brushed the tufty mane of the DJ. "Because if it is, we could try other things." She ran her hoof further down, feeling Vinyl's withers and shoulder.

"Like what?" Vinyl couldn't resist turning to Cheerilee. She said she likes stallions, but I am a mare. Why is she doing this… not that it isn't nice. What does she want?

"I… I don't know." Cheerilee's heart was in full control, but she knew she needed her head onboard with this. "But I will find out. First, though, you need this." Just a quick one, for confidence. She leaned in and kissed Vinyl on the cheek, fighting the urge to aim for her lips again. Drawing back, she smiled at the shocked expression on Vinyl's face—half hidden by her glasses—and gave a happy nod. "So give me a week, I need to ask some friends some things, discretely of course. I promise you, Vinyl, I will do everything I can to help you feel better. Okay?"

It was crazy, it was foolish, but Vinyl nodded slowly in the face of Cheerilee's commitment. "Uh, sure."

"Great!" Cheerilee almost bounced in place. "I am going to hold you to your offer, I just know Sweetie Belle will love hearing from a fellow music lover."

Vinyl welcomed the abrupt shift in topic and felt a smile stretch her lips at the thought of meeting a filly who loved music as much as she did. "It'll be cool. She likes Coloratura's style of singing? Or does she want to explore other ideas?" At the blank look her questions got she mentally tucked away a note to find out from the filly in question. "Was there anything in particular you wanted to hear tonight?"

With the topic turning away from her appearance, Vinyl relaxed into chatting about her own music and what she was doing for her set. Outside the train, she watched the green, rolling hills get lower and lower as they ascended the switchback up the mountain.

Cheerilee was acting the biggest fanfilly and she knew it. "And the new song?" She could see the big gates of Canterlot pass by the train outside, could feel too that the train was slowing.

"That? Oh, the one without a beat, I could use it, maybe as a shorter mix. It isn't really polished enough… but I did promise." The train slowed right down and she could see the platform outside. "We should get ready to get off, don't want a repeat of what happened in Ponyville." Reaching out, she lit her magic and hefted her deck up and set it on her own back.

"I can carry that if you want?" Cheerilee felt that other part of her bounce around a little at seeing Vinyl showing off her magic and strength. "I mean, you need to save up your strength for your show, right?"

"Nah," Vinyl stretched and walked for the exit, "performing boosts me, fills me with more energy. You'll see." She gave Cheerilee a cryptic wink with the last bit. Climbing off the train was a lot easier than getting on, and the pair were soon exiting the station and entering Canterlot's streets. "We can head right to the venue now if you want? Normally I set up early, then grab something at Pony Joe's for dinner—sugary of course, gotta get me through the whole night—then head in and start warming up."

"Sounds good." Cheerilee trotted at Vinyl's side and couldn't help but feel like this was, itself, a date. Down girl, she was hurting. Take it slow, and make sure you don't push her… "her"... It felt less and less odd as Cheerilee thought about it. "Any plans for after?" Down I said!

Vinyl blushed under her fur, her eyes going a little wider. "Uh, not really. Normally I crash in a hotel, or backstage, then catch the early morning train back to Ponyville." She looked down at her hooves and felt a touch of her normal unease—she could see the blue of her hooves through her long fetlocks.

"A hotel would be nice." Cheerilee thought of the implications of that and blushed; without realizing it, she had just agreed to spend the night with Vinyl. Mare, Cheery. Remember she is a mare, you don't… you aren't even listening anymore, are you?

Her heart beating faster, Vinyl found herself nodding. "Yeah, sometimes you get interrupted if you sleep backstage. Cleaners mostly, but it… uh… Okay, a hotel it is." And accidentally only get one room, with a big bed… or should it be a small bed? Her thoughts didn't do much for Vinyl's attempts to stop blushing. "Oh, here we are!" She pointed with a hoof at the big building.

To Cheerilee's surprise, they didn't go to the front door. Instead, the two mares wandered down the alley to the side of the nightclub, to an open side-door.

"Are you on list?"

The words startled Cheerilee and she looked up, and up, and up. A big off-white stallion, big in the "as tall as a princess" sense as well as the "wide as a cow" sense, stood before her. He had a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes, shaved mane and severely-trimmed beard.

"Un, she is with me." Vinyl was already past the bouncer. "Cheerilee, this is Unmoving Wall. He's from Stalliongrad. Un, this is Cheerilee, from Ponyville."

"Any friend of Ms. Scratch is friend of mine." Un didn't smile, he never smiled, but his tone had changed from "impassive" to "a little less impassive."

"Thanks, Un." Cheerilee sidled past the huge stallion and followed her friend into the dark hallway. "He seemed nice…"

"Un? Guy is a big softy, unless you aren't meant to be wherever he is guarding. Then you have a whole mess of 'very focused stallion' who is extremely good at his job." Vinyl gave a little shrug, as if she had never been personally in that situation. "This will be the room I get ready in. A bit later…" She trailed off, eyes going wide. "This is going to be great, she is going to freak out so much!"

"Who is going to freak out?" Cheerilee looked around the box of a room. To one side there was a big mirror, surrounded in lights. Then it hit her. "Makeup?"

"Yup! Rose Tint is going to go crazy. She used to spend nearly an hour getting my mane all neat and ready for the show." Vinyl set her deck down and dove into the big spinning chair. "She will bust in any minute—now that she has likely heard that I am here—and say-" Vinyl words were cut short by the door slamming open.

"What have you done to your mane?" A bright red unicorn—obviously Rose Tint—stood aghast in the doorway. "Who did this?" Rose flicked her yellow-and-red streaked mane to the side and gestured to Vinyl's head.

Vinyl lifted a foreleg and gestured at Cheerilee, who "eeped" and stared in shock.

"This is wonderful. You look much more vibrant and 'yourself.' " Rose stepped up, pushing Vinyl's chair around so she could examine the style. "Yes, nicely short so you don't have to keep bugging me—distracting me is more like—" she exaggerated her words, "about it getting in your way." Rose turned her face to Cheerilee, horn still working at Vinyl's mane. "And you did this? Are you looking for work?"

"Oh no, I already teach foals in Ponyville." She likes it? Is she really offering me a job? Cheerilee shook her head in denial. "Sorry, but I am happy there." Her eyes traced every movement the makeup-artist's magic performed, adding tint and shine to Vinyl's fur and mane, even the little brushes she used to make each tuft of Vinyl's new style seemingly shoot off in random directions.

"This will be much easier to work with." Rose was already done with Vinyl's mane and was in the process of bullying her to move so she could get at her tail. "Have you considered getting something similar done with your tail? You would look so handsome."

Vinyl stiffened a little, part of her reacting as if it had been given an electric shock. "H-h-h-handsome?" She blinked, looking at Cheerilee. The look she got from the teacher made Vinyl want to puff out her chest. "Could you trim it now?" No no no no… maybe...

"Well, since I don't have to spend four hours," Rose gave Cheerilee a wink, "on your mane, I could. Give me a moment." Rose left the room, heading to fetch her scissors.

"Your tail too? Vinyl, you will look… well, you won't look so much like…" Things began to make sense for Cheerilee, or so she thought. "Do you want to be a stallion?"

"N...no, yes… no." Vinyl threw her hooves up in the air. "I don't know. I don't… I don't like looking so… girly. I like the idea of being more…" She gave a deep sigh. "I suck at this. But no, I like being a mare, just not so mare-y."

Rose entered the room again, blinking as she looked between Vinyl and Cheerilee. "Don't know what you two were talking about, but it looks heavy. Want me to come back?"

"No!" Both Cheerilee and Vinyl exclaimed together, blushed, and closed their snouts again.

"Okay, now how short do you want this?" Rose started running her comb through Vinyl's tail, but before the unicorn in question could reply, Cheerilee was up and beside the chair.

"Short, but keeping her modest, of course." Cheerilee looked at the huge length of tail. "Cut about here. That is a style I have seen a few stallions wear quite well. Then she can bind it up in at the end to let it plump out, or just have it go wild."

"Are you sure you don't want a job? I know mane stylists who have spent years in the job who wouldn't have made such a perfect call." Rose carefully combed the tail down and then lifted the first length.

Vinyl heard the scissors work, felt the weight on her dock get lighter and lighter. By the time Rose was done she had to fight the urge to pull up with her normal force. That would be quite a show... "How short did you…" She turned in the chair, spotting the blue on the floor. There was nearly twice as much as when she had had her mane cut.

"Scratch, you have four hours!" A voice shouted from outside.

I thought Rose would save me, be the voice of reason, but this- Vinyl's head went silent as she saw her reflection in the mirror. It wasn't her, it was a cute and hunky-looking stallion that looked a lot like her. Although the snout was still a bit of a give away. "Wow..."

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder