diff --git a/Doc/library/codecs.rst b/Doc/library/codecs.rst
index 1cb0e225bca043..f96f2f8281f450 100644
--- a/Doc/library/codecs.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/codecs.rst
@@ -1483,6 +1483,36 @@ to :class:`bytes` mappings. They are not supported by :meth:`bytes.decode`
    Restoration of the aliases for the binary transforms.
 
 
+.. _standalone-codec-functions:
+
+Standalone Codec Functions
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The following functions provide encoding and decoding functionality similar to codecs,
+but are not available as named codecs through :func:`codecs.encode` or :func:`codecs.decode`.
+They are used internally (for example, by :mod:`pickle`) and behave similarly to the
+``string_escape`` codec that was removed in Python 3.
+
+.. function:: codecs.escape_encode(input, errors=None)
+
+   Encode *input* using escape sequences. Similar to how :func:`repr` on bytes
+   produces escaped byte values.
+
+   *input* must be a :class:`bytes` object.
+
+   Returns a tuple ``(output, length)`` where *output* is a :class:`bytes`
+   object and *length* is the number of bytes consumed.
+
+.. function:: codecs.escape_decode(input, errors=None)
+
+   Decode *input* from escape sequences back to the original bytes.
+
+   *input* must be a :term:`bytes-like object`.
+
+   Returns a tuple ``(output, length)`` where *output* is a :class:`bytes`
+   object and *length* is the number of bytes consumed.
+
+
 .. _text-transforms:
 
 Text Transforms
diff --git a/Lib/pathlib/__init__.py b/Lib/pathlib/__init__.py
index fd073445e89b62..cea1a9fe57eedf 100644
--- a/Lib/pathlib/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/pathlib/__init__.py
@@ -188,9 +188,6 @@ def __reduce__(self):
     def __repr__(self):
         return "{}({!r})".format(self.__class__.__name__, self.as_posix())
 
-    def __fspath__(self):
-        return str(self)
-
     def __bytes__(self):
         """Return the bytes representation of the path.  This is only
         recommended to use under Unix."""
@@ -259,6 +256,9 @@ def __str__(self):
                                                   self._tail) or '.'
             return self._str
 
+    __fspath__ = __str__
+    __vfspath__ = __str__
+
     @classmethod
     def _format_parsed_parts(cls, drv, root, tail):
         if drv or root:
diff --git a/Lib/pathlib/_os.py b/Lib/pathlib/_os.py
index 62a4adb555ea89..fbcbfb979d1278 100644
--- a/Lib/pathlib/_os.py
+++ b/Lib/pathlib/_os.py
@@ -210,24 +210,18 @@ def magic_open(path, mode='r', buffering=-1, encoding=None, errors=None,
     raise TypeError(f"{cls.__name__} can't be opened with mode {mode!r}")
 
 
-def vfspath(path):
+def vfspath(obj):
     """
     Return the string representation of a virtual path object.
     """
+    cls = type(obj)
     try:
-        return os.fsdecode(path)
-    except TypeError:
-        pass
-
-    path_type = type(path)
-    try:
-        return path_type.__vfspath__(path)
+        vfspath_method = cls.__vfspath__
     except AttributeError:
-        if hasattr(path_type, '__vfspath__'):
-            raise
-
-    raise TypeError("expected str, bytes, os.PathLike or JoinablePath "
-                    "object, not " + path_type.__name__)
+        cls_name = cls.__name__
+        raise TypeError(f"expected JoinablePath object, not {cls_name}") from None
+    else:
+        return vfspath_method(obj)
 
 
 def ensure_distinct_paths(source, target):
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_pathlib/support/zip_path.py b/Lib/test/test_pathlib/support/zip_path.py
index 21e1d07423aff5..2bfe89b36595b0 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_pathlib/support/zip_path.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pathlib/support/zip_path.py
@@ -334,4 +334,4 @@ def symlink_to(self, target, target_is_directory=False):
         zinfo.external_attr = stat.S_IFLNK << 16
         if target_is_directory:
             zinfo.external_attr |= 0x10
-        self.zip_file.writestr(zinfo, vfspath(target))
+        self.zip_file.writestr(zinfo, target)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_urllib.py b/Lib/test/test_urllib.py
index c30fb5e27eea8a..ae524c5ffba6b1 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib.py
@@ -1590,6 +1590,10 @@ def test_url2pathname_resolve_host(self):
     def test_url2pathname_win(self):
         fn = urllib.request.url2pathname
         self.assertEqual(fn('/C:/'), 'C:\\')
+        self.assertEqual(fn('//C:'), 'C:')
+        self.assertEqual(fn('//C:/'), 'C:\\')
+        self.assertEqual(fn('//C:\\'), 'C:\\')
+        self.assertEqual(fn('//C:80/'), 'C:80\\')
         self.assertEqual(fn("///C|"), 'C:')
         self.assertEqual(fn("///C:"), 'C:')
         self.assertEqual(fn('///C:/'), 'C:\\')
diff --git a/Lib/urllib/request.py b/Lib/urllib/request.py
index c1c373d08815c1..af93d4cd75dbef 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib/request.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib/request.py
@@ -1660,7 +1660,10 @@ def url2pathname(url, *, require_scheme=False, resolve_host=False):
     if scheme != 'file':
         raise URLError("URL is missing a 'file:' scheme")
     if os.name == 'nt':
-        if not _is_local_authority(authority, resolve_host):
+        if authority[1:2] == ':':
+            # e.g. file://c:/file.txt
+            url = authority + url
+        elif not _is_local_authority(authority, resolve_host):
             # e.g. file://server/share/file.txt
             url = '//' + authority + url
         elif url[:3] == '///':
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-07-24-00-38-07.gh-issue-137059.fr64oW.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-07-24-00-38-07.gh-issue-137059.fr64oW.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..8c63c1f1af8bf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-07-24-00-38-07.gh-issue-137059.fr64oW.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Fix handling of file URLs with a Windows drive letter in the URL authority
+by :func:`urllib.request.url2pathname`. This fixes a regression in earlier
+pre-releases of Python 3.14.