1 The Esteemirror
Lawndale was not what most would describe as a magical place, or a special place. It was, to those that past through, simply another town and that was true. To those that lived there it was generally regarded as home. What ever that might mean to the individual in question was another matter. For the two teenage girls walking the familiar route to their high school it meant, that place we live till we can move away.
That was about to change.
“Ok, I give up. What is it?” Jane asked dryly, mildly pleased with the break from routine.
“It's a mirror” replied Daria in a bemused monotone. The break from routine did little to lift her usual lacklustre demeanour.
“I can see that, I mean what's it doing just sitting in the middle of the road like that?”
“Reflecting.”
“While I admire the pursuit of inner clarity, it's kinda weird.”
“I try not to judge the life choices of others.”
The girls ceased their exchange when they heard familiar voices coming from behind them, “...and then I said to Sandi, of course I think bell bottoms could be worn ironically but not headbands. I mean really, who even does that?” asked the first voice.
“Gee Quinn, I don't know if I could stand all the ringing” replied the other with a distinctive squeak.
Quinn and Brittany stopped a few feet from Daria and Jane, “Huh? What are you two just standing there for? And what's with the mirror?” Quinn asked, leaning slightly to look past her sister and her friend to see the large object blocking all their paths.
The mirror was, besides its location, an unremarkable thing that looked like any other plain full length mirror one might find in a clothing store. It had a simple undecorated brown varnished wooden stand that looked sturdy enough despite appearing severely weathered. The frame held a simple rectangular sheet of reflective glass that was the mirror proper. At first glance it was perfectly reasonable to assume it was nothing more than a regular mirror. However on closer inspection one would notice that even though the weathered frame suggested the mirror was years, even decades, old and its surface was pristine and utterly untarnished in any way.
Because it was a rather sunny day, neither Quinn nor Brittany noticed the faint glow radiating from the mirror as the two girls moved closer to the oddly placed mirror to double-check their make-up.
As Quinn and Brittany preened and Daria and Jane's interest dwindled, the next couple of events seemed to happen in an instant and somehow in slow motion all at once.
The mirror was large enough for a single person to look at themselves from head to toe but it was not quite wide enough for two girls to comfortably make accurate assessments of each aspect of their meticulously applied make-up at the same time.
So they had to jostled and jockey for a prime viewing spot.
While shifting her leg to steady herself, Brittany accidentally placed her leg across Quinn's as she stepped forward to look more closely at her eye liner thus she found herself moving her weight onto a support that wasn't there and fell forward.
As Quinn fell she raised her hands to brace herself against the mirror.
Panic set in when she continued to fall forward, feeling no solid object as her hands met the surface of the mirror and passed through as if she had somehow stumbled into a gravity defying pool of water.
Then she felt the sensation of being pulled forward.
“DARIA!” she cried before her voice devolved into a scream.
Daria reached out and grabbed Quinn's waist after hearing her call her name so desperately and as she clung to Quinn, the shock of seeing her baby sister being swallowed by a mirror passed and panic set in.
Something impossible was happening and there was no time to think about how to deal with it. All she could do was hold on but she soon realised she was being sucked in as well.
Brittany and Jane both grabbed Daria but all that did was get them sucked in as well.
And then the world started to spin.
Daria wasn't sure how long she had been out but given what had happened she was, for the moment at least, just glad to be alive.
With a groan and a sigh Daria opened her eyes, “I still have my glasses. That's good” she stated to herself as the world came into focus and she could see where she was.
It wasn't Lawndale, that much was obvious.
The suburban landscape had been replaced by a city of white buildings in all directions of a design that Daria couldn't identify. The air was unusually clear for a city, or any population centre for that matter. If Daria had to guess she would have said the air seemed more like the kind you find in rural areas. The exact area Daria was in seemed to be an intersection for what she assumed was the main roads of the city but there was no traffic or signs that any car had ever driven on the roads for that matter.
“What?” Daria asked when she noticed something moving near her.
It was...it looked like...it was vaguely shaped like a horse, but it wasn't real.
No it was real. Daria just couldn't accept that it was real.
The first thing that struck Daria was that the animal was a soft pink colour with small wings with feathers the same colour as its coat. Its mane was yellow. Blonde seemed an odd term to use for a peg-hor-that thing. And it's tail had yellow and blue horizontally stripes. Its tail made Daria think of her school's football¹ team or more accurately the cheerleaders. This association was further re-enforced by the odd mark on its hindquarters² that looked like a pompom in the school's colours.
Daria lifted her hand to her face to double-check her vision and then she saw it.
Her hand wasn't there.
In it's place was a limb that seemed to end in a stump but she could feel more than see that there was a wrist-like joint close to the end and the end itself was harder than flesh. After a long moment of thought Daria came to the conclusion that she had a hoof.
“Oh god” she muttered as the implication of this and the fact that the pink horse with wings had its mane tied in pigtails sank in.
“Brittany? Is that you?” Daria asked tentatively to the pink horse that she wasn't ready to call a Pegasus yet.
Brittany, who had apparently come to her senses before Daria, was standing on all fours looking over her new body with a level of focus Daria wouldn't have believed Brittany Taylor was capable of. Brittany looked over at Daria, an odd look crossing her face upon seeing her, “Daria? Am I a pony?” Brittany asked in a very deliberate tone sans her usual squeak.
Daria was so taken back by the uncharacteristic intensity in her voice that she nodded even though she technically didn't know what she...they, were. Regardless of how accurate the conformation was it was apparently exactly what Brittany had wanted to hear judging by the squeal of delight she gave.
Brittany began trotting slowly around Daria, gradually picking up speed as she became more comfortable and confident on her new legs.
Daria sat quietly as Brittany ran her new body through it's paces, “Isn't it wonderful Daria? I know this would happen some day, I just knew it. Eee!” Brittany chimed as she came to a stop in front of Daria. A look of un-contained joy stretched across her face from ear to ear. And given her ears were now perched on the top of her head that was really saying something.
Daria felt a slight heat in her cheeks and she had to glance away, not even she was immune to such overwhelming cuteness, “Yeah...great” Daria said, her usual sarcastic tone tainted by slight embarrassment.
Then Brittany's words registered, “Wait, what? You knew this would happen? How?”
“Well I didn't know, but I always hoped it would happen. And now it has!”
“...Hoped?”
“Don't tell me you've never wanted to be a pony, Daria!”
“Can't say that I have.”
“Well I sure have...well aaccttuuaallyy, I wished I had a pony bbuutt this even better.”
Daria frowned and nodded sullenly as Brittany stopped in front of her to rest on her haun-to sit down. Evidently she had made herself dizzy and needed to rest for a moment.
“Um, that's nice Brittany but that does raise the question of why I'm here?” Daria droned, clearly unimpressed with Brittany's explanation of events.
“Don't be silly Daria. You're one of thee nicest girls I've ever known. Even if you aren't pretty or popular. That's why you and I are such good friends. So of course you'd be here too” Brittany beamed, pulling Daria into a gleeful hug.
Daria blinked as she felt herself being embraced and blushed slightly at the warm soothing sensation that suddenly washed over her.
Brittany's new body was soft and warm to the touch and she was bathed in a sweet scent Daria wasn't sure was new or had always been there but she just couldn't smell it with her human nose.
Daria couldn't deny, but would anyway, that she was enjoying the hug more than she thought she should. But she couldn't bring herself to push Brittany away though she wasn't willing to return the embrace either so she hung there limply in the other girl's grip for what felt like forever.
It wasn't until Brittany began lightly nuzzling her neck and issuing a low mmm sound that Daria pulled away, extending her forel-arms to keep Brittany at a distance.
“Was I squeezing to tight?” Brittany asked, tilting her head and giving her usual slightly confused blank expression.
Daria gasped for air, though not because Brittany had been holding her to tightly, “Where's Jane and Quinn?” she asked, partly to change the subject and partly because it was a valid question.
As Brittany glanced around the general area a neurotic twinge in the back of Daria's mind prodded her about saying Jane's name ahead of Quinn's but Daria ignored it.
Daria sighed and evaluated the facts of the matter.
She was lost in a strange place with no clue or means of finding out where she was or how to get home.
Her sister and her best friend were missing and her only companion was Brittany Taylor...so she was alone.
And she was a pony!
Yeah, should probably prioritise that last one.