Rainbow Dash was nestled soundly as she laid in her cloud house above Ponyville. The mare seemed content and peaceful without a care in the world. The fire was crackling within her hearth while wrapped in a dozen blankets sipping a cup of hot cider. She seemed content up until she tapped a hoof to her chin and mumbled, “huh, I feel like I’m forgetting something?” The Pegasus looked around for a second and she noticed that she had everything set up for Heartwarming eve with a garland of blue and yellow decorating around her living room. Rainbow Dash looked around with a look of weariness and saw the calendar over the fireplace had Heartwarming Eve placed circled in red marker. The Pegasus blinked in surprise and whispered, ”I know I sent my parents presents, I sent all my friends gifts as well…but still, I feel like there was something important today?” She slowly got up and went across the room to a small table near the door. Scrounging through the pile of letters she gasped upon seeing one in particular that read ”ticket to the friendship express” she gulped “wait...shoot I forgot there might have been a pageant in Canterlot…”
She looked up at the side of the table to see a pinned playbill that read the names of the actors in the pageant. To her shock, when she glanced over the playbill she saw that she was going to play as “Captain Hurricane.” She placed her hooves on her mouth as it dropped open. “That’s today! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Twilight is going to kill me!”
Given she had missed the train, that left her with only one option which she was sure she’d regret. Quickly pulled out a jacket and scarf throwing them on quickly before flying out of her house and into the freezing blizzard. It wasn’t long before she was battling against the winter storm. The mare was breathing heavily as she continued to strain herself against the howling winds it was pretty bad with the snow reducing visibility to barely a hoof length in front of her face. Rainbow Dash groaned and shouted into the blistering winds, “come on Cloudsdale, did you have to throw in a snowstorm today of all days! There's no way I'm going to make it in this!”
The scheduled snowstorm was meant to be small but had gotten just a bit out of hoof. Her current predicament was mostly her fault which just left her beyond annoyed but she was persistent in trying to get her rump through the cold bitter winds. As she continued to fly through the ice and snow she suddenly heard something odd like “jingling” of bells. Rainbow Dash paused and turned around trying to figure out where the source of the sound came from. Rainbow Dash squinted through the ice and snow and saw a red light is shining through the blanket of white. She waved a hoof shouting at whoever might be out there, “Hey! I need help! Over here!” The light, however, did not react to her shouts and continued its approach towards her. That was until it suddenly rammed straight into her and everything went black.
Rainbow awoke dazed seeing she was buried under an inch of snow. Digging herald out she saw an unfamiliar wintory landscape. The mare blinked as she continued to trot through the snow through the odd place as it seemed to be an entirely different world then Equestria. She then saw something odd. She saw a talking snowman talking to a small looking creature with big ears wearing a green suit with red buttons and a pointed cap with a bell at the end. They were chatting about how the sleigh test was a failure and how a guy named Rudolph was badly injured. Rainbow Dash quickly ran over to them being irritated and weary about the odd characters asked in a demanding tone, “hey! Do you two have any idea where I am right now!?”
They both looked over at Rarity as the elf shouted. “Hey how did you escape your pen! We need all reindeer in their pens until the main group comes back!”
Rainbow Dash glared at the little creature and shouted back. “There’s no bucking way you’re going to tie me up in a pen.” The mare was about to fly off before the snowman took out the pipe he was smoking and asked, “my dear Jolly, this creature doesn’t look like a reindeer she looks more like a Pegasus.”
Rainbow Dash paused, and she sighed, “Yeah, I’m not a reindeer whatever that is, I’m a pony Pegasus from a country called Equestria and I live in Ponyville. I need to get back ASAP there’s a pageant. I’m already late for. So, if you can point me in the right direction I can be on my way.”
The elf crossed his arms “I don’t trust a word you say, pony or not we might need her help to pull Santa's sleigh.”
The snowman pondered as he asked, “my dear, I don’t know of this Ponyville or Equestria you speak of. But I believe we can come to a compromise. I believe that Santa’s sleigh may have caused a rift between our world and yours and knocked you here. Now we could open the portal but to do that we need a full team to pull his sleigh.”
Rainbow Dash was completely confused as she held up a hoof. a “Hold up, first off who the buck is Santa?”
The elf growled, “he’s a big fat guy who dresses in red and delivers presents all around the world on Christmas here. That’s Santa.”
Rainbow Dash gave nod then suddenly shouted. “okay, so you're saying his sleigh knocked me from my world to this one! How the buck did that happen!”
The snowman answered that question “well my dear, the sleigh has a propulsion system that is powered by eight magical reindeer. It’s supposed to make them go faster than the speed of light to deliver every present around the world. However, on a test run, it must have accidentally broken through another dimension. “
Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves. “so just use this thing to open a portal so I can get home!”
The elf groaned as he explained their dire situation, “well during that test run the sleigh crashed causing several serious injuries on five of our reindeer, now we have four inexperienced reindeer lined up to lead Santa’s team without a solid leader, we need a ninth to lead or we're doomed!”
Rainbow Dash scoffed, “that’s not my problem, honestly. This isn't my world and I don’t know any magic.”
The snowman smirked as he explained in a sly tone. “Well, we do know a way to get you acquainted with this world’s magic.”
Rainbow Dash was a bit concerned when he said that and was going to fly off. “You know what, I’m sure there’s another way to get back to my world so…”
Before she could say or do anything a cloud of magic poofed onto her. As she coughed and her eyelids drooped ads the elf came forward. “Don’t worry girl you're in good hands…
Rainbow Dash flew up again groaning rubbing her head. The mare looked around seeing she was now in a stable of some kind with a wide ceiling made of wood, with animal pens lining down a hall with names plated on each door and there was hay covering the ground under her hooves. She groaned trying to stand up but blushed as she heard the bells jingled around her. Rainbow turned around and saw that she was tied to a post with red ropes and bells dangling from them. Rainbow Dash tried bucking and shouting but all her protest was in vain she was stuck.
Across from her pen was another reindeer who shouted, “keep it down! I'm trying to sleep!”
Rainbow Dash turned around and asked, “hey who the buck are you!?”
The reindeer peered over and growled, “I’m Donner and I don't need no mouth from some filly as yourself.”
Rainbow Dash growled, “watch it buster! before I knock you into next week!”
Donner stomped a hoof and was going to ram his horns into her. “I don't care if you're a filly. No one talks to me like that!”
Rainbow Dash reared up “come then buster I'll show ya what a cloudsdale pegasus can do!”
“DONNER THAT'S ENOUGH!” Somepony shouted across the stables. It was Santa a big fat man in a red costume with a huge black belt with a brass buckle strapped around the middle.
He strolled across the stable towards Rainbow Dash as Donner bowed his head. “I apologize Santa, it's just that she's the cause of my son's injuries.”
Santa turned towards him and explained, “Now, Donner she didn't intend to cause the sleigh to crash. It was a fault for not having the sleigh checked and flying through another dimension.”
Donner bowed his head and grumbled, “I'm sorry you’re right as always Santa.”
Rainbow Dash was giving Santa a glare. “So, you're the one who knocked me into this crazy place.”
Santa turned around and gave an apologetic look as he explained, “I'm sorry, about the accident that was completely unintentional.”
Rainbow Dash spat back, “I can understand you accidentally crashing into me. But why are you holding me hostage for!?”
Santa rolled his eyes and explained, “I am not holding you hostage we were just making sure that you weren’t injured.”
Rainbow Dash didn't trust him for a second as she spat back. “Your elf dude said he wanted me to be a part of your team! The only team I want to be apart of is the Wonderbolts!”
Santa chuckled, “oh really!? they are pretty amazing I wouldn't mind having them lead my team for a night. But Jolly the elf you mentioned can be a bit rude at times. However, I know that you're not aware of the customs here. But that crash cost me some of my best reminders. Without them, I can’t get presents all around the world for the kids.”
Rainbow Dash eyed the big fat red guy. “So you go all around the world and deliver presents to every foal in one night!? impossible even for the wonderbolts!”
Santa shook his head. “ I swear it's true. We need your help.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed as she sat back and crossed her hooves. “Why should I help you?”
Santa adjusted his belt and explained, “if you help me get a new team of reindeer together and have them get my sleigh around the world tonight. I promise that I will send you back to your world with presents for all your friends.”
Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof unsure of the deal but after mulling it over she realized there wasn't any other way. Also, this guy probably may have some cool stuff...But what was odd was that he mentioned he knew her friends. The mare stood up and asked, “how do you know about my friends?”
Santa chortled, “well...I have visited Equestria a few times…”
Rainbow Dash scoffed not believing him seeing she never saw him before and just shrugged. “Fine, I agree whatever let’s just get this over with.”
Santa clapped his gloved hands together. “Excellent we can do your makeover then!”
Rainbow Dash blinked and asked “huh? what do you mean?”
Santa just snapped his fingers and magical tendrils wrapped around Rainbow Dash. Her body lengthens as she growled and bucked. But it was no use as she looked down with a look of asotonishment as she grew taller the mare suddenly shouted, “hey I didn't agree to this!”
Santa blinked and asked “wait you didn't know? my sleigh can only be pulled by magical reindeer. I'm sorry I thought you knew.” But Rainbow Dash just watched as her wings began to disappear into her body she groaned feeling them flatten and morph into her sides. She then squeaked feeling her tail begining to fall off. The emberassed mare could only look towards her back to see the rainbow-colored horse hair falling out in large clumps as she squeaked in horror, “Oh my gosh! what the buck is happening to me!?”
Santa gulped “uh just let the magic do its thing. It'll be over soon.”
Rainbow Dash just continued to watch seeing the last of her long rainbow horse tail falling out leaving behind a small blue furry tail just standing above her rump expsoing her flanks to the world. She groaned from pain as her head lengthened and morphed woth the bones clicking as it turned into that of a deer. Then the last of the changes took place as her ears flattened, her hooves became cloven and her cutie mark began to fade being replaced with rainbow spots printed on her rump. After the changes stopped she slowly looked up at a mirror in her pen and just gasped in astonishment seeing not a small blue pegasus from Ponyville. But a young cute deer with rainbow colored spots on her rump where her cutie mark was supposed to be and two small nubs on her head...She just gulped and whispered, “oh dear what the buck happened to me?”