The phone beeps in my ear signalling the disconnect. the altercation sat on me like a load of bricks. consider this friendship over, you've let me down too many times... I sat there in the studio, those words causing a hurricane of glass in my mind to spin out of control. my musical partner placed a hoof on my shoulder.

“Everything alright, Vinyl?”

“I’m sorry, Neon, I just.. I gotta go.” I said in a hurry

“Huh- wait! Vinyl! what about the project?! VINYL!” the door slammed behind me, as I took off towards the concert hall. If I hurry.. I may just be able to get in.

I stirr from my nap. wiping tears from my eyes. It was only a few hours since Octavia’s session in the soundbooth. I can’t barely remember what I had just dreamed of.. but whatever it was about, I was a teary mess. and I didn't quite understand why. I shake off the feeling as best I can. Olivia notices my waking up, and subsequent crying.

“You.. alright?” she asks tentatively, sitting next to me on the couch.

“I’m fine.. I’ve.. no idea why I was crying.” I sniff, rubbing my eyes again. she makes a funny face at me, squinting as if trying to see something far away.

“.. OH MY GOD, VINYL, YOUR EYES ARE RED!”

“.. My eyes are… hold on you had an accent!”

“What? No I don’t! I’ve alw-..” she cuts herself off, and lightly feeling her neck. once again wide eyed. She clearly didn't notice it until I had pointed it out.

“What on earth is happening to us…?” she asks, the new singsong of her accent, actually pleasing and weirding me out at the same time.

“I don’t know… Has the internet proven helpful at all?” I ask, getting up to look into the bathroom mirror. Sure enough, there they were, the piercing red irises of Vinyl Scratch.

“Not much… I dug up a couple tweets on some people waking up with strange tattoos. I shot a couple messages, but no response yet. I’m not sure what good they’ll do. the ones I saw were a few days before us, even if it’s the same thing as what we've got… chances are they may not even be ABLE to reply.”

“We need to do something.. I’m getting tired of being cooped up in here.” I express to her.

“I’m sure not sticking my head, let alone hoof outside that door. not looking like some weird satyr looking creature!” she says pointing at her gray fur covered hooves and legs. she had managed to put on a pair of shorts, for the time being, however uncomfortable she seemed to be in them. I resisted to comment on the accent further. glancing back into the mirror again. It was almost like it was an entirely different person staring back at me. My wild thoughts threw it back at me. of course it’s someone else. it’s Vincent, not you, Vinyl. I shook my head hard to throw that thought away.

“We’ll need food, what we have is quickly not becoming a possibility, and what we DO have won’t last much longer either between us eating it, and it going bad.” I said refocusing my attention to our current situation.

Suddenly the mellow trumpet of my phone’s ringtone spills into the room. I look at it hesitantly, before answering it.

“Uh, Hello?”

“Uhm.. Vinyl- I MEAN ugh, VINCENT…” I pull the phone away from my ear for a minute as he just about yelled into it, for correcting himself.

“Ne- .. Nick?” I ask, in bewilderment.

“Oh god, man. I don’t know what’s going on! I got these.. fucking stars on my legs, and now I’ve got hooves and shit. I’ve been cooped in my apartment for the past three days! I kept looking to my phone, and whenever I crossed you I kept reading your name as ‘Vinyl’ and I’m seven kinds of confused as fuck.”

“Hold on.. I’m coming over to get you. We've got to talk about some things.”

“I’m losing my damn mind here, man. Hurry up!” I hang up the phone and clumsily put on my shoes, thankful they still fit my still human feet.

“Who was that?”

“You remember Nick, right, buddy of mine from work?”

“And?”

“Neon Lights.” She paused for a minute then covered her mouth.

“I’ll be right back, I figure it’s best we stick together, if he’s going through this also.” She put on a face of disgust, then nodded.

“Do hurry back, Vinyl.” I nod, grab my car keys, and my new sunglasses, to help hide my eyes.

-><-

The car ride was uneventful, thankfully. I’m yet unsure if it’s a negative placebo effect knowing that my hands and feet may become hooves, but I swear they feel stiff. I pull into the parking structure, and pick a decent spot… On the roof of the complex, because let’s be honest there’s never a decent spot available.

I approach his apartment’s door and knock. “Who’s there?!” He yells, in an angry.. frustrated tone.

“Who do you think, Neon.” I hear a light clip clop of his hooves on his tiled entry-way. The door opened a crack. in it i could see a pair of baby blue eyes peering through, worried.

“Vinyl? I MEAN VIN-”

“Shh, yeah. you ready? Octavia and I have a lot to talk to you about.”

“Octavia? Vin.. What’s going on?1 what’s happening to me? Why can’t I just say your name normally?!” He’s clearly shut himself in tight. I’m not sure if he’s done any research on what’s happened.

“I don't have all of the information.. We're still in the dark on a lot of things, but if you’re going through the same thing… maybe we can glean some new clues as to what the deal is. It’s probably a good idea if we get you over to our place. We've done some minor prep work, just need to do a food run soon.” His door shut and the sound of a chain bolt slid and he opened the door. he was wearing a black button up shirt, with a loose tie. Pants forgone, but his lower extremities mostly hidden by a long leather jacket. he also had on his sunglasses he usually wore the day after getting shitfaced drunk after a week of work, or if he’d been at a party.

Getting Neon back home was easy, now. However my mind quickly ticked over to what might happen next. Three cartoon ponies wandering around a city like THIS? We’d surely get abducted, or at very least caught by the good ol’ cops, and taken to some government facility. I didn't want to think about it. Instinctively, I had put on the loudest, most sound- powering songs I could think of. Neon seemed to approve. it seemed to be enough to drown out these thoughts for now. The thought of bringing home a friend like him cheered me up though.

Neon eventually turned down the volume, I frowned a little. “So… I.. What…”

“Do you know of the show My Little Pony, Specifically the one that restarted the series in 2010?”

“No? I can’t particularly recall what I was doing in 2010, let alone what shows were on. I was probably busy being a nuisance to my family.” he said in a half joking way.

“Well.. Basically this; We’re turning into some of the characters from it for some reason. Octavia.. Olivia is about as far along as you, I seem to be lagging behind by 24 hours. some kinda shitty birthday present from the universe if you ask me.”

“Birthday? Mine was also a couple of days ago!” he replied. I stopped hard at a red light I almost ran through.

“The 1st?” I ask

“Yeah!”
“Odd… Octavia’s is also, mine was on the second…” I pondered

“That’s a very peculiar coincidence.” he answers my muse.
“ if it WAS a birthday thing.. why am I staggered out? some shitty virus or something that my body seemed to resist or something?.. that can’t be it, cause it happened the morning of MY birthday, I would assume the same as yours…” I grumble… a moment of quiet passes by, and i frustratingly crank up the music again to kill the soured mood. Neon wasn't quite expecting it this time, slapping his hands over his ears as though a bomb went off. I just bobbed my head to the beat, the song pausing to build up for the base drop.

It dropped.

“and Vinyl Scratch!” an announcer called out as the audience goes nuts, I could barely hear them through my gear. the music belched from the sound system. Neon Lights next to me on his soundboard, tweaking pitch knobs, and handling the turntables for his set. I flashed him a smile and turned back to the audience.
“HAHA, YEEEAH! LET’S GO MANEHATTAN!” I yelled, as the song I queued up began it’s early buildup to get the audience hyped up for my set, as Neon crossfaded his set over to me. I look at him, he’s worried I see him mouth “Vinyl”

“Vinyl!” the second time, pierced my headset’s sound proofing.

“VINYL!!! HOLY SHIT! SNAP OUT OF IT!” he was screaming into my ear, having practically thrown himself into the driver’s seat, to grab the wheel, after throwing the emergency brake, hazard lights and everything. he managed to put the car in an alley. I sat there in horrified shock. What the hell just happened? What WAS that?!
“We.. need to get home. Now…” I said, breathing heavily. I looked at the radio, and punched it, and the audio, that Neon had again turned down trying to snap me from my trance, died out. I gathered myself, quietly, and then made our way back to the apartment.

Author's Notes:

THIS CHAPTER IS UNEDITED. Please poke it for things to fall apart so that I can fix them.

The alternate titles for this one were Seeing Red (Vinyl's eyes reference. not musical themed enough) and Musical Accent (like the accent that Octavia acquires). I went with Musical Ascent later on, as you can probably put together.