Chapter Two: The Welcome
Prancer knocked out a certain sloth’s Christmas tune on the door as he hummed along with it. The area around the tree-shaped castle was freshly shoveled and dry, and the bluish crystals shone nicely along with the pure white snow around it.
The door soon opened, and Spike looked up at the new visitor. “Oh, hi there,” he said.
Prancer knelt down to Spike’s level, peering curiously at him. “Whoa. A baby dinosaur. That’s unexpected. I was sure you guys were extinct.”
Spike stared back at Prancer in wide eyed confusion. “Dinosaur? I’m not a dinosaur. I’m a dragon.”
“You’re a wha-? Oh, forget it. Look, can I see the Princess for a moment?” Prancer puffed himself up and put a hoof to his chest. “Ya see, I’m kind of a big deal. A really big deal. So if you let me see her, I’ll be it’ll be really worth her while, if ya know what I mean.”
Spike shrugged, “Well, sure. Twilight’s always ready to make new friends. Come on in.”
“. . .and so, our Visas for our trip to the Griffon Empire in the Spring have gone through and will be ready for the ambassador tour!” Princess Twilight Sparkle exclaimed happily as she held aloft a royal scroll with her magic.
The other five mares all clapped joyfully in response, smiles all around in the Council Room.
“Oh, I can just imagine all the Griffon art and fashion we’ll get to see!” Rarity said.
“And I can show them how to party, Ponyville Style!” Pinkie Pie cheered, jumping up on her throne.
Fluttershy flinched a bit and said, “Well. . .I think it’d be good to get to know some griffons better so we don’t judge them all on. . .” Fluttershy flinched again and shrunk back into her throne. “Oh, um, I mean. . .” she gave Rainbow Dash a nervous look.
Dash smiled and said, “Aw, don’t worry about it Fluttershy. Forget Gilda, okay. Let’s just move on. We’ll meet a whole bunch of real awesome Griffons soon.”
Applejack nodded, “Well, Ah for one am certainly lookin’ forward to that, RD.”
Suddenly, the doors to the Council Room opened, and Spike walked in with a professional air.
“Ahem! Announcing. . .uh. . .” Spike leaned to the side and whispered, “What’s your name?”
A sigh came from outside the room. “*sigh*, Prancer.”
“Announcing, Prancer the Deer!”
“Reindeer.”
“Prancer the Reindeer!”
Prancer walked into the room, his hooves clip-clopping against the hard crystal floor.
“Howdy, there!” Applejack said with a friendly wave.
“Oh my, he sure looks like a strong fella,” Fluttershy said.
“Salutations,” Rarity said.
“Oh my gosh! You need a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ Party!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing in her seat.
“Gosh, don’t scare him away, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash remarked as she looked Prancer over. She had never seen a reindeer in person before, and was curious.
Twilight got up and approached the reindeer. “Greetings. The Princess of Friendship welcomes you to Ponyvi-,” Twilight stopped dead as her eyes fell upon the short trio of horns on Prancer’s forehead. “OH MY GOSH!” she exclaimed, and she quickly ran out the door past a surprised looking Spike.
Prancer blinked as he stared at where Twilight stood a second ago. “. . .Did I have something in my teeth?” he said with an upset frown. He bared his teeth and picked at them with the tip of his hoof.
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, holding her stomach as she leaned back in her chair.
“Rainbow Dash! Seriously!” Rarity said reproachfully.
Dash wiped her eyes and said, “Sorry, but that was just too funny. You’re really funny, Prancer. Cool name too!”
Prancer gazed at Rainbow Dash with his expressive brown eyes. “Wait, ‘cool name’? Seriously?”
Rainbow Dash winked and said, “Sure thing, Prancer.”
“I like it,” Fluttershy said timidly.
“It has a nice ring to it,” Rarity said.
“I like saying it! Prancer-Prancer-Pancer!” Pinkie Pie cheered.
Suddenly, Twilight Sparkle suddenly appeared right in front of Prancer holding a few large books up with her magic.
“Wha-!” Prancer shouted as he reared up and fell back in surprise.
“No way, no way, no way! This is impossible!” Twilight explained.
“You should talk, cuckoo clock!” Prancer said as he stood back up, “You just popped in out of nowhere!”
“This just can’t be real,” Twilight continued as she studied an illustration of the fossilized skeleton of a reindeer. “Those horns! Those horns on his head!”
“Um. . .his antlers?” Fluttershy asked.
“NO! Not his antlers!” Twilight poked at Prancer’s three center horns with her free right hoof, “These horns in his forehead! No reindeer has those today! His species is extinct!”
Prancer slapped Twilight’s hoof away and said in an insulted sounding tone, “Woah, woah, woah! Extinct? As in the dinosaurs? No way!”
Twilight turned away and started to pace around the room. “There are plenty of reindeer alive today, of course. But you. . .you’re clearly a member of the very first original reindeer species from long, long ago! Today’s species came from them. They’re all gone. You. . .you just simply can’t be!”
Prancer let out a hard breath through his black nose. Prancer shot up into the air and put his right fore-hoof to his chest. “Well here I am, your Royal Denier-ness! So explain that!” he shouted as he hovered there.
The entire room gasped in wide eyed amazement.
“You can fly?” Twilight said slowly with wide eyes.
Prancer smiled triumphantly at the stunned look on Twilight’s face. He held his chin up and closed his eyes smugly. “Yeah, I know.”
“That is so awesome!” Pinkie Pie nearly squealed.
“I know.”
“Yeah! But not as awesome as me, of course,” Rainbow Dash chimed in.
“I kno-," Prancer opened his eyes and looked down at the blue pegasus. "Heeeeeeey. Wait a minute," he said suspiciously.
Rainbow Dash flew up so that she was at Prancer's level. She held a foreleg behind her head as she hovered there as she motioned to her body with her other hoof. "Sorry, Prancer, but you're looking at the Best Flier in Equestria, right here!"
Prancer smirked, "Oh really? Can ya hover?" Prancer tapped his hooves together as he floated in mid air.
Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs across her chest, "Uh, yeah, duh. What do you think I'm doing now?"
"Can you roll?" Prancer asked as he tucked his legs in and rolled in mid air.
"Amateur," Dash said as she imitated Prancer's roll with a bored demeanor.
"But can you zing?" Prancer said as he turned to the side and bent his legs.
"Zing?" Rainbow Dash echoed with a raised eyebrow.
"ZING!" Prancer shouted as he shot off in one direction and a burst of rainbow sparkles. Spike and the Mane Six watched as he shot out an open window.
"BAM!" Prancer shouted as he flew in through an opposite window. Everyone turned around fast and shouted in shock. Prancer laughed as he saw Rainbow Dash's jaw drop. He floated down to the ground, kicking up some more rainbow sparkles into Dash's face, causing her to sneeze as the colorful dust got in her nose.
"Cute sneeze," Prancer thought to himself, seemingly out of reflex.
Dash wiped her nose and said, "Wha- How did you do that?"
Prancer raised his left leg and leaned over to Rainbow Dash. "What's wrong, Dash? You saying you can't zing?"
"Ooh! Ooh! I can zing!" Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly. She then ran off out the right side of the screen and out the left side of the screen, skidding to a halt right next to Prancer. "Surprise!" Pinkie cheered.
"Woah!" Prancer cried out with a jump, looking quite spooked. "Now that was impossible."
Rainbow Dash patted Prancer on the back and said, "It's Pinkie Pie. Don't question it."
"Alright, that's enough of that," Twilight said impatiently, "Prancer, I have so many questions. First of all, how are you able to fly?"
"Family secret," Prancer said flatly with a sudden straight face.
"But-" Twilight began.
"Nope."
"I just-"
"Nuh-uh."
"Please?!"
"Sorry."
As Twilight pouted, Rainbow Dash leaned in close to Prancer and asked, "So. . .how fast can you really go?"
Prancer said thoughtfully, "Pretty fast. I've been trying to break the sound barrier by myself. But it's always once, twice, and no dice."
Rainbow Dash grinned triumphantly, "So you can't do a Sonic Rainboom?"
Prancer cocked his head, "A Sonic Rain-what?"
Rainbow Dash laughed and jumped up, flapping her wings as she flew towards the door. "Just watch, and prepare to be amazed by the Awesomeness of Rainbow Dash!"
Prancer levitated in mid-air and said, "Oh, we'll see about that." Prancer flew over to Spike and said playfully, "Come on up, little pup!" The reindeer flew low and sort of bumped his side into Spike, nudging him onto his back.
"Woah! Okay, let me hang on first," Spike said nervously as he gripped Prancer's antlers with his claws.
"You're flying Air Prancer today, little dude! Let's go!" Prancer said, and he zipped off after Rainbow Dash, with Spike hanging on tight as a trail of multicolored dust was left behind.
Twilight groaned, "That reindeer is just as bad a Rainbow Dash! Come on, girls. I just have to get some info from him!"
As the remaining ponies got up to leave, Applejack muttered to herself, "Ah don't like the look of this."
Unfortunately, Rarity was within earshot, and Applejack had spoken a little too loudly. "Whatever do you mean, darling?" she asked.
Knowing that she saw caught, Applejack sighed and said, "Ah just hope RD and that Prancer feller don't get too close, for her sake."
Rarity blinked, "Applejack, are you suggesting-?"
"Come on, let's keep up," Applejack said sourly as she picked up speed.
Rarity followed behind, thinking to herself. "Prancer and Rainbow Dash. . .hmmmm. . .I wonder. . ."