You did eventually manage to get some rest, but only after Autumn made sure that the both of you were thoroughly overstimulated beforehand. Autumn is... special to you. She's been emotional support for you this entire time, all while being a warning about what might happen if you let yourself go too deep into this rabbit hole. She's the closest thing you've got to a real friend right now, but her devotion to Master, once unsettling because it was incomprehensible, was now doubly unsettling because it makes sense. You get it, you really do, and that's what worries you.

You've been lying on the sofa lost in thought when a bright flash startles you into activity. You look wildly around the room, exclaiming a few half-formed expletives as you do, before you realize that Master is standing by the door, camera in hand, wearing the cheeky grin you've rapidly become accustomed to.

"Sorry, but I just had to get a picture of this." he says as he saunters past a still-sleeping autumn and shows you the picture he'd taken. Autumn's curled up on one end of the couch in a ball the way a cat would, while you're splayed out on your back, all four legs and two wings spread in every direction while your head hangs off the side, upside-down.

"See, it's the contrast that I love. You're both cute, but in very different ways."

"Now, I'd ask what the two of you were doing while I was upstairs, but Autumn only sleeps that heavily after sex. You must be exhausted. Why weren't you asleep?"

It's a totally innocent question, but you feel as though you've been caught red-handed. You can either play this off and become complicit in the next abductions, or you can try to talk to him. Now or never.

"I... um, I was thinking about..."

You're afraid this will somehow change things. What if he hates you for this? What if you get put in the hole? What if he sells you?
No. Can't let fear get the better of you. Go for broke.

"Are you going to transform more people into ponies?"

He seems surprised at your forwardness, and with a small sigh he sits down next to you and begins to lightly stroke your mane.

"Well, yes, I suppose. There's not a whole lot else for me to do for a living now that I've invested so much in this. Can't exactly move back to the city and keep Autumn cooped up in an apartment all the time, can I? But no, that's not what I was working on just now, if that's what brought this on."

You hadn't considered the economic aspects of what he does. Giving up on selling p0nies would mean finding new income, and with Autumn and yourself here he actually does have mouths to feed.

"Could I ask what you are working on, then?"

His hand moves further down and begins to scratch your back, and you let yourself lean into him and enjoy the sensation as he considers his reply.

"I was getting in touch with all of my previous buyers, actually. The man who commissioned you... I want to make sure all the ponies that came before you are safe and happy. A quick photo or video of each of their ponies should be a good indicator of their condition, and I'll dig a bit deeper for the ones who don't reply."

For a second you sit in numb silence. The feeling slowly begins to bubble up in your chest, and tears come to your eyes as you sit up and plant your lips on his for the third time today. He -is- the Master you hoped he was! Even if he still wants to take more people, at least he cares enough to worry about them.

You break the kiss and hug him wholeheartedly, and he seems to understand why you're so relieved.

"Did I really seem that heartless until now? I suppose how I acted when you were downstairs would be why, but that was all about me. I knew you were going to make life difficult, and I just wished that the suggestions had held and you'd be like the others. You aren't, but now I see that was a good thing, because you made me think about what I was doing."

He holds you out to arm's length and looks you in the eyes.
"For now, I'm not going to bring any new ponies in until I know how the others are doing. I've got my hands full enough with you as it is anyway, little miss Zephyr."

You lie in Master's lap for quite some time, as he repeatedly runs his fingers through your mane. You can't help but be happy right now. He's not a monster! He's going to make sure everyone else he took is safe with their owners, that no one else wound up at the mercy of some craven, beastly person.

What if he's manipulating you? Maybe this is all an extension of the games he played with you earlier. It's certainly working, if that's the case. You want this to be real, though. You want him to be the kind of man you should devote yourself to. Devote? The words just sort of sprung into your head to describe your feelings. The warm sensations when he praises you, and the electric thrills that run up your spine when he gives you a command... You enjoy these feelings more than you would have liked to admit. You aren't playing along anymore like you did at first. It's still very scary, but you want to obey his every little whim, you want his praise when you do what he wants. You -want- to be his pet. A devoted little mare ready to do anything her master asks.

In a lot of ways, you suppose that it's been this way for a while. If you weren't enjoying this, you wouldn't have been so happy about him having fingered you on this very couch. You certainly wouldn't have initiated sexual contact the next day. You wouldn't have flown into his arms and felt like you were born for this.

This is what he and Autumn were talking about, you realize. You do like this new life. The person you used to be is still in here, but now he is she, and she's found contentment. So what do you do from here?

There is one nagging issue for you, though. Master said he wouldn't take any more people "for now" until he's done checking on all your predecessors. Meaning he intends to kidnap and transform more people for profit. Considering the obvious secrecy of this operation, he clearly can't put out a call for volunteers with any hope of having a stable supply.

So what should you do? This is what feeds you and Autumn, but there has to be a better way of doing it, right? Of course, you think it needs improvement because it didn't work well enough on you. But you're happy now, aren't you? Autumn's happy, Gizmo and Evergreen were happy. Maybe... Maybe being a pony isn't a bad thing, especially if Master's "suggestions" stick. You, Gizmo and Evergreen weren't really going anywhere in life, and you'd wager most if not all of the others would tell a similar tale.

Is it wrong to make a sad person happy against their will?

Master is spacing out on the sofa, but his hands continue to stroke and massage along your back. Your many aching muscles are beginning to fully relax under his careful touch, and sleep threatens to claim you at every moment. Your eyes shut and your breathing becomes slow and steady. You're crashing, even as you fight to figure out how you feel about so, so many things. You manage to mumble out your final thought for the night.

"Master?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for making me yours."

------

The next few days pass in absolute tranquility. Master lets you spend your mornings outdoors getting the hang of flying, to your delight. You've gradually learned how to use your legs and wings to control yourself in air, and you can do so at fairly impressive speeds, if you do say so yourself. While your muscles ache from the daily efforts, you can feel your wings getting stronger every time you fly, supplemented by additional protein in your diet by Master in the form of mushrooms, legumes and, um, seed. You've never been this healthy before in your life, and it's a wonderful feeling.

After a daily post-flight nap, you and Autumn have the evenings to yourselves, as Master coops himself up by his computer, researching his previous sales just like he promised. The two of you pass the time with talk, play, television, and repeated acts of intimacy that have left you both with an intricate understanding of one another's bodies. When you first woke up downstairs as a pony, you thought you'd died and gone to hell. Now you are quite certain that this is heaven. You still have the nightmares, vivid and terrifying, but they all end the same way; waking up in the comfort and safety of Master's bed.

But no time to dwell on that. Today Master wants to bring you and Autumn on a hike!

You're honestly a bit surprised when Master produces a pair of dog harnesses lightly modified for you and Autumn to carry some supplies for yourselves, but you sit obligingly still as Master straps it onto you, taking the time to work a pair of cut holes over your wings.

"Just let me tighten this one last strap and you'll be good to go."

"I take it you couldn't find saddlebags in my size, then?"

"Keep up like that and I'll have you wearing a bridle."

Soon enough the three of you have trudged off into the woods, with you bringing up the rear behind Master and Autumn. You thought you'd fully acclimated to walking on four legs, but the uneven ground of the mountainside kept you stumbling over yourself. After a few minutes of scrambling to keep up, Autumn notices your difficulties and hangs back to coach you up the mountain. Here you are, falling up a mountain while Autumn tries to talk you through your own maladjusted hoofsteps, and all you can think is that this is probably an apt metaphor for your entire relationship with Autumn. She loves to play big sister for you, and you're just consistently, hilariously inept enough at living in a pony's body that she gets to do it at least once a day.

"It's all in how you put your hooves down. You've got to stand a little straighter or you'll be too tired to keep going before long!"

You're already tired, but her advice seems to be working out alright, in as much as every third step doesn't threaten to topple you. You manage to trudge your way up, up and up some more until Master finally decides to take a break and you let yourself collapse onto a patch of grass.

Autumn appears above you in seconds, concern written all over her face, and Master appears moments later. As soon as you muster the energy to steal a kiss from her, though, both seem satisfied that you aren't dying and settle down beside you.

This is really, really embarrassing. You managed to remove the cap from a bottle of water with your teeth, but holding it in between you hooves is much more difficult than you'd hoped. You've only spilled a little, but it's becoming apparent that you wont be able to drink unassisted. 

That means asking Master to hold the bottle for you as you sip. You're a pony, dammit, not an infant! Autumn's currently got his attention with some wildflowers she found, and while he has spared you the occasional glance he must not have seen your failures with the water, or he'd already be making jokes about it. You may be a p0ny pet, but you're not helpless! You steel yourself for one more try.

Your slowly press your hooves against opposite sides of the plastic bottle, and press in gently. There's a little bit of give in the bottle that you're counting on as a substitute for grip, but the plastic is rigid enough that there's still a danger of it rolling between your hooves if you press too hard. You slowly begin to lift.
Steady.... Easy... Nice and slowly up to your mouth, and-
A sudden twich in one of your forelegs causes you to lose your concentration, and you're rewarded only by a splash of water on your shoulder as the bottle falls.

But you're just so thirsty...

After that last failed attempt, you've now wasted about a third of the bottle. You're absolutely parched, and you're quite sure you have no further recourse but to ask Master for his help if you want to get a drink. You grab the mouthpiece of the bottle between you teeth and, already stiff with embarrassment, approach him.

As soon as you put the bottle down and look up at him it's apparent by the look on his face that he knows what the problem is. If he knew, then why wait for you to come to him? Sarcasm colors his voice after a small chuckle.

"Is there something you need, Zephyr?"

He's playing another game with you? You shrink a bit under his gaze and evade eye contact as you try to stammer through explaining yourself.

"I'm really thirsty and I, um, can't really get this water bottle to my mouth. I can't really, y'know, lift it with my hooves. It keeps falling."

"And what exactly is it you need me to do for you?"

Dammit, he's really good at making you feel like an idiot sometimes.

"Well, um, I was hoping that maybe you'd.... ah, help me take a drink?"

"And what do we say when we want something?"

"Oh, um, please, Master?

"Please what?"

"Please help me take a drink of water, Master!"

"Oh, well if that's all you want, then sure. You'll need to do something for me, first, though."

For a minute you freeze in shock. Considering your behavior lately, there weren't a lot of lines left to cross that he would need to barter for them with you. You're suddenly very concerned that he might want actual sex. Sure, you've pleasured him a few times and he's quite adept at reducing you to a moaning pile of wet arousal, but you haven't gone that far. You're not ready for that!

But how can you say "No" to him? He's your Master.

"Zephyr, Sit."

You're confused as to where this is going, but you comply without hesitation.

"Now lie down."

You feel your face flush as you get the joke. He's not really doing this to you right now, is he?

"Roll over, girl."

With care not to crush your wings, you present your belly to him, simultaneously ashamed of what you're doing but still awash in relief that the conclusions you jumped to were false.

"Now play dead."

This one gives you pause for a second as you think about what your should actually do for this. After a long blink, you close your eyes, let your legs and neck go limp, and let your tongue loll out of your mouth as your head rests on the ground. For a second or two everything's quiet, and you slowly open one eye to see Master and Autumn both doing their best not to laugh at your display. The finally break down and begin to laugh heartily, and you even find yourself joining in.

"Alright, you've definitely earned it."

You're still on your back when Master lifts you up and sits himself down on a nearby rock, with you now seated on his lap. Bottle in hand, he lifts it to your lips and you drink greedily. Cool water rushing down your throat feels heavenly, enough to forget the shame of being bottle-fed. It's no time at all before you've managed to drink the entire thing.

"Wow, you really did want that bad enough to beg. See, you got what you wanted and all you had to do was ask."

"...Thank you, Master."

It's true, all you had to do -was- ask. And surrender another bit of pride to him. Even you ended up laughing at the ridiculousness of your display for him, and you don't think he wanted to shame you by it. Just another reminder that you're a pet, and needing him to provide the necessities of life isn't something to get worked up over. You give him a grateful kiss on the cheek before hopping off of his lap, and feeling refreshed and renewed the three of you carry on toward the peak.

It takes quite a great deal of effort and another break to get all the way up there, but when you see the view you understand why it was worth it. You're not on top of the tallest mountain in sight, but this one offers an excellent view of the others, and of the valleys between them. Off in the distance you think you can make out the shape of civilization in the form of town, but it must be miles from here.

A town. With people. With a running start here, you could probably glide most of the way there, and there's no way anyone could catch you. Only a few weeks ago there wouldn't have been a second thought in your mind. You'd be long gone. It's right there. All you need to do is go.

Go.

Go.

...

No.

Just like that, it's over. You trot over and nuzzle Master's leg, and he rewards you with a few long strokes of your mane. He sits down beside you, continually lavishing you with affection. You cast a wayward glance back to the town in the distance, before laying down beside him. He seems to have taken note of your attention, though.

"You're not thinking of flying off on me, are you?"

"I thought about it."

"And?"

"What would Autumn do without me to keep her company? Besides, the food is great."

You're doing your best to replicate his own cheeky grin as you keep your voice totally deadpan. His smile, on the other hand, is genuine.

"I suppose I'll have to keep spoiling you rotten, then."

He lifts you up and sets you in his lap again, this time with your back leaning into his chest as his arms wrap around you. You melt into his embrace, now totally certain you made the right call.

"Good girl, Zephyr."

The trek down the mountain is much, much easier, and while you're physically exhausted by the time the three of you stumble into the yard and through the door to the house, you still couldn't possibly feel any better. Autumn's been telling you how happy she is for you, as she always is when you embrace being someone's pet, but the volume and frequency of her "squee" indicate a degree of enthusiasm you'd previously believed impossible. Even as you trudge through the doorway, she's still going a mile a minute with excited commentary.

"-And now we're home, and it really is home because you know that you belong here with Master! Aah! I can't believe it!"

While she's been prancing around in joy, you've been basking in her praise and the warm sense of relief that's come over you since turning away from your chance at escape. Somehow having both options presented to you and making a real decision to stay has washed away most of your remaining anxieties. You could have flown to a police station, explained yourself, and maybe even taken your old body and life back. Shitty, infuriating job, Shitty, empty house, Shitty, lonely attitude.

Why did you ever think that would be worth it, again? You're Zephyr, and this is your life. You wouldn't have it any other way. Regardless, Autumn has spent the entire hike praising you for choosing Master and loving him, and that's not entirely fair.

"You know, Autumn, it wasn't just Master that made me want to stay. You've been really, incredibly good to me ever since you saw me in the cage. You're always there when I need help or support or a hug. Truth be told, I don't think I would have ever come around to any of this without you. You're my best friend."

For a moment, Autumn is completely, perfectly still, perhaps for the first and only time in memory. Small noises begin to escape her throat, and her eyes go all big and watery. You know what's coming and try to relax a bit. Sure enough, with a cry that may or may not have been the words "Oh, Zephyr", Autumn's flung herself at you, gripping you in a fierce hug, and letting the tears flow freely. Master pokes his head around the corner, and the two of you make eye contact even as you return Autumn's hug. Once he's determined that those are tears of joy, he simply offers a silent thumbs-up and disappears back into the kitchen. You close your eyes and let Autumn's declarations of undying friendship wash over you.

It takes Autumn a solid ten or fifteen minutes to get herself under control, but you don't really mind. After all, if she's this happy to hear you say those things, you've definitely made the right decision. Just as she's finished the ninth round of hugging and reduced her tears to sniffles and a bigger smile than you've ever seen, Master rounds the corner again, with a glass, two small bowls, and a dark green bottle. You don't realize it's wine until the cork comes off, but you're astonished to see him pouring you some.

"This is a special treat to celebrate. Drink up, girls."

Awww shit, it's time to get pony drunk.