Long squirmed under their peering eyes, even if one set was bobbing to music, one was looking curious, and only the third was staring with intense focus. "I..." Was she being forced? In a manner... "I made a deal, to get this." She pointed a hoof at herself. "I still like this, even with the marks, even with the problems. Even being put in my place by the real Trixie."

Starlight hiked a brow. "Right, and who did you make this deal with?"

Vinyl shook a hoof in the air opposite of the motions of her head. "I bet I could figure who that is. Likes to blow her mane out of her eyes? Has a griffon for a secretary?"

Long perked her ears. "You came the same way?"

"Sounds like, if that sounds familiar." Vinyl bobbed her head to the tune of the music the others could dimly hear. "She's kinda kooky."

Starlight nodded slowly. "Right, so how did she approach you, a human, from across universes? Does she have a mirror portal?"

Vinyl and Long shook their heads in unison.

Ignoring their conversation, Trixie was busy testing just how plush the sofa was, becoming lost in its depths.

Long pointed in the vague direction she thought she had come from. "I... have a hard time remembering that part." She dimly remembered sitting... "A friend reached out to me... They asked if I wanted this, mentioned I'd have to do some chores for it, I think?"

Starlight's brows went up together. "Your friend works with this unknown pony?"

Vinyl snorted. "I didn't get anything so elaborate. I just heard music I couldn't deny and I rocked out so hard I ended up on four legs." A grin split her face. "One of the best times of my life. 10/10, would transform again."

Long suddenly raised a hoof. "I don't think it was my friend, thinking about it... It was too convenient, showing up... on my computer."

"Computer?" asked Starlight, baffled at the word.

Vinyl shrugged. "Fancy box thing that has answers and lets you talk to ponies in far off places. Been a while since I heard that word."

Long felt tension leave her. It was nice having a peer. She felt less alone. "Yes, that. The words had my friend's name, but it wasn't... wasn't them, I don't think, looking back on it. My friend wouldn't have acted that way. But I was maybe too eager and didn't think about it at that moment. I just agreed, and left behind my humanity."

"And masculinity." Starlight tapped at her chin, looking thoughtful a moment. "And then this other pony, with the mane, and the... griffon." She frowned softly. "She sounds... familiar. Does her name start with an F?"

"Fetlock?" offered Long.

Starlight stood up. "I have to go. Trixie, come on."

"Mm?" said Trixie from the depths of her soft prison, lost to the world.

"Come on, you." With a shining horn, she plucked Trixie free of the couch she had sunken into. "Get your own couch if you want one. We're leaving."

"We are?"

Starlight was already trotting for the exit, Trixie floating behind her.

Vinyl watched them go. "That was sudden. Think she has a problem with Fetlock?"

"Maybe?" Long didn't have too strong of an opinion about that pony. She had given the gift of magic, but also sold her to the mafia. That was some mixed package. "How many people do you think she's put in pony bodies?"

"More than just us two, I bet." Vinyl reached up and lowered her headphones free of her ears, the music growing a little louder without her head in the way. "Say, uh, how was it?"

"How was what?"

"You know, the change." Vinyl grinned. "Was it nice? I mean... I was so busy rocking at the time, I barely... paid attention to it. I knew it was happening, but, you know... Now I regret that a little."

Long stood up and hopped down to the plush carpet. "I was awake and focused on it." She hadn't thought about it deeply in a while, but with the prompting, she could remember it. "I was... confused, but happy. I was a little scared, but I wanted it." She swayed her tail as she smiled at Vinyl. "It was uncomfortable several times, things popping and shifting, but not too bad."

"Rad." Vinyl hopped down, her nose close to Long's. "Thanks." She reached up and tapped Long on the horn. "You good enough with that thing to do it?"

"Do what?" asked Long with a befuddled blink.

"Transformation magic." Vinyl nodded at her own question. "I wouldn't mind, you know, experiencing it proper just once, so I know what it was I missed. Just to see. I like being Vinyl, no rush to drop that."

"I wouldn't know where to start," Long admitted uncertainly. "That doesn't sound like the kind of magic you'd want to use without being very sure." The idea of hurting her new friend was terrifying. "Let's not just... experiment."

"Yep, not Trixie," laughed Vinyl as she poked Long on the nose. "She would have just done it and been sorry, a little, afterwards."

"I suppose that's true." Long smiled, imagining Trixie looking vaguely sorry about causing trouble with her magic. "Were you also a guy?"

"Same as you." She sat down in front of Long, looking her over. "Funny thing, a pony can go standing up either way."

Long colored rapidly. "Wait, you do that?! There's a toilet in there, I just... kinda assumed you sat on it."

Vinyl waved the surprise away. "I'm joking, just joking, but you can go standing up, tested it. Don't test this where ponies are looking."

Long's tongue extended. "Now you have me imagining ponies relieving themselves!"

"Then my mission is complete," laughed Vinyl before she raised her hooves, grasping Long's cheeks to look her in the eyes. "Real talk. The day I let him, you know, top me... That was a strange time. Part of me was screaming. That was the day I turned in my man card for good. When you let a man climb up on you, do that... think about the kids that may result..." She tilted her head. "Don't think I regret it, mind. I love him. I love me. I'll love the adorable result of our play when that happens."

Long's face was on fire, blushing fiercely with the imaginings of what Vinyl was describing. "I... haven't done that..."

"I didn't think you had." Vinyl released Long's face and gave her a poke in the chest. "So you still have a choice. Don't assume the choice is made. Hell, the ponies don't care. You want to kiss on a mare, they won't notice unless you grind their faces in it. Want a stallion? Plenty to pick from. Want to be single? Join the majority and that's fine too."

Long thought of Rags. She knew he was interested in her, but was she interested in him? She was fairly sure that attraction did not run as powerfully in the other direction.

"Already have somepony in mind?" asked Vinyl with a grin. "You look like it."

"You met him..." Long turned for the exit. "Outside, he's nice enough."

"Nice enough is not nice enough." Vinyl scoffed softly. "I went for the first stallion, but that was because he's the one that called me. Just like you feel chained to whatever you're chained to. Difference being I like him back, and you don't look like you like whatever you're attached to."

Long thought of Don Keyworks, the one she was 'attached' to. There was no love there, just greed. Perhaps it was greed on both sides. She wanted things, he wanted things, and together they got those things. There was no love there, except a love of what she could get for him. "I... tried to get away. Every time I bring it up, he brushes me off, and... Then it's gone. I can never insist."

Vinyl shook her head as she stood up. "You agreed to it, just like me. You agreed to it deep in here." She tapped her own chest lightly. "That's what Fetlock does, I think, makes your soul sign a contract. I agreed to love him. Lucky me, he isn't too hard to love. I had to beat some bad habits out of him, but hey, when does a mare not have to do that?"

"Is there no escape?" asked Long in a scared little voice. "Am I stuck?"

"Nah, never said that." Vinyl clopped her hooves together before walking towards the kitchen, tail swaying with each step. "Just makes it harder. When you're sick enough of it, want out bad enough, you'll tear up that contract. Just know that you can."

"How do you know that?!" Long chased after Vinyl. "You know a lot of things."

"Nah." Vinyl's horn glowed as she willed the fridge door open. "I'm assuming. Prove me right." She snagged a carton of juice out of the fridge with the big picture of an orange on the side. "I'll feel good." She poured out some bright orange fluid into a glass, watching it flow. "Want some?"

"How kind of you to offer my own juice," spoke Long with a wry smile. "But yes, go for it." She flicked an ear back. "I... think I'll push forward, for now. I... have this under control."

"Gonna get more marks?" Vinyl set the carton back in the fridge, two glasses of orange juice created. She lifted them in her magic and floated one over to Long, holding it until the color around it shifted to show it was being held by the other mare. "Be careful, alright? I'd feel bad. You're the first fellow Fetlock survivor I know."

Long swallowed tensely. "Survivor? Some don't survive?"

Vinyl shook her head. "One... came out really freaky, but technically alive. Whatever it was, I'm not rushing to be its friend." She offered out a hoof. "But you I don't mind as much, so long as you don't crimelord on me."

Long's ears fell. "I'm not a... Look, I won't, promise."

"I'll hold you do that." Vinyl brought in her class, tinking softly against Long's. "To brighter futures."

"Yes, brighter futures." Long tipped her glass, drinking of the smooth juice with a long pull. "Thank you, really. You don't have to babysit me though. Your stallion's probably worried about you."

"Yeah, he does that." Vinyl nudged her headphones back into position. "I'll get back to him. You have my number, give me a jingle sometime."

They both set their glasses on the countertop, about a quarter-full of juice each.

Vinyl walked for the exit. "Seriously, if things get tense, call, alright?" She looked over her shoulder. "You're not alone." She threw up a hoof in what might have been a peace symbol, had she the fingers to do that, then she was gone, the door closing quietly to seal Long in her plush prison.

Long sank to her belly, the carpet grasping her softly from below in its softness. "This really is a soft prison..." Its softness did not change the fact that it was a prison and held her securely. She imagined Don's face, cigar hanging from his mouth. He never forced her, exactly, but he wasn't listening much either. He'd wave her complaints away, then...

Long shook her head violently. "I'm getting depressed. Enough, so I'm not Trixie anymore. That's not the end of the world." She looked back over her exposed form. "I'm Long Story, a fine pony that... people will want to know and be friends with even more than Trixie." She rose back to her hooves and walked with muted thumps of her hooves on the carpet. "First, a bath, then, some sleep. Tomorrow is another day."

She would make a better life for herself, one day at a time.

Some small piece of her was upset that her decision wasn't enough to prompt some song magic.

Author's Note

Talking, so much talking in this chapter! Good talking though, I think? Starlight's gone off chasing a typo.

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