It was an unassuming day in the cold of Ponyville winter that soon enough went down in legend. Colts and fillies spoke in hushed tones about a certain filly with a penchant for vengeance. They said she and her friends outed every last one of Diamond Tiara's top lieutenants. They said that after her friends were outed, the filly herself single-hoofedly assaulted Diamond's own stronghold and served ice-cold revenge directly to every pony in there, up to and including El Presidente herself.
The story of that certain filly soon turned into a folktale in its own right. It was passed from mouth to mouth, foal to foal, and was told in lunchrooms and recess for days to come.
Of course, there was one thing that nopony ever knew for certain. After the dust settled and the foals of Ponyville Elementary fell back into their daily routine, it came to light that nopony knew what the ultimate prize of Apple Bloom's quest actually was. Indeed, the filly herself remained tight-lipped about it. Even her closest friends didn't know for certain.
After Apple Bloom outed Diamond Tiara in the top of her office tower of business/evil, things fell into place rather nicely.
The Conglomerate was left wholly without leadership, and it quickly dissolved entirely. Former teammates turned on each other almost immediately, and the ensuing chaos managed to finish the game once and for all. Within a few minutes of the news of Diamond Tiara's demise at the hooves of a certain filly, everypony in the school had either been taken out or gotten bored and gone home.
Everypony, that is, except for a certain tenacious farm filly.
Ponies outed in the long war lined the road as Apple Bloom emerged a shaking, bruised, and sweaty mess from the front doors of Diamond Tiara's tower. She froze on the threshold, unsure of the sudden appearance of countless colts and fillies. When they didn't make a sound or move towards her, Apple Bloom tentatively stepped outside and limped down the road.
None of them impeded her path. Apple Bloom dragged her heavy hooves through the snow, all the while eyeing dozens upon dozens of blank faced foals that watched her progress with an almost eerie interest.
There was nothing any of them could do. Most of them had crossed paths with the filly at one point or another. In fact, a significant percentage of them had met their ends at her very own hooves. Still, this battered and beaten farm filly had done something that not a single pony could refute.
She had won.
When Apple Bloom finally staggered into the schoolyard, her mane and coat a ruined mess, she did so with a smile. She could see Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo waiting on the sidelines and offering her the biggest grins she'd seen in recent memory. She nodded back to her old friends, then stepped up the stairs to the schoolhouse.
If it had been silent on her walk over, it became silent as Apple Bloom slowly placed a hoof on the schoolhouse door. Not a soul dared to breathe as every set of eyes locked, unblinking, onto the yellow filly about to receive her prize.
Apple Bloom felt like she should say something clever, but nothing seemed appropriate. So she sighed, and pushed through the door.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
A dusty old clock counted the seconds from its place high on the wall. It was punctuated only by the occasional sound of papers being shuffled by a middle aged earth pony mare of magenta colouration, who currently sat at a desk positioned perfectly at the head of the classroom.
Cheerilee didn't seem to notice Apple Bloom enter, so the filly took several stumbling steps in her teacher's directon.
The sound of hooves on wood seemed to catch her ear, as Cheerilee glanced up almost instantly.
"Oh, Apple Bloom! What a pleasant surprise." She smiled a genuine, warm smile. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Apple Bloom finally reached the desk and paused to catch her breath before replying, "I… I won, Miss Cheerilee."
Cheerilee's smile faltered. "You… won…?"
"The snowball fight."
"Oh, right!" Cheerilee smacked her hooves together. "Well, congratulations! I take it you're here for the promised prize, then?"
Apple Bloom could only nod, her eyes wide as plates and her heart thundering like it wanted to explode out of her chest. This was it. This was her defining moment. This was everything that she had worked for, fought for, smacked a colt across the teeth with a gigantic candy cane for.
Cheerilee smiled and turned to rummage through her desk. "It's a good thing there's no heat in this building, or, well… The prize might not have worked out," she muttered quietly as she reached for something.
Apple Bloom could barely even breathe. Everypony that had been lost, every friend that had been outed, had done so to keep this prize out of the hooves of those who didn't deserve it. Now it was going to the one pony who truly did.
"Aaaand, here you are!" Cheerilee sat up and proudly held it in front of her.
Apple Bloom's eyes widened.
"C'mon, Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo whined. "What was the prize!?
"Yeah," Sweetie Belle added. "You can't keep us in suspense after all we went through!"
Apple Bloom shook her head slowly. The three of them were sitting together at an outdoor picnic table for lunchbreak. It was the day after what had become known as The Snowball Fight, and things had returned to normal almost instantly.
"Y'all're missing the point entirely!" Apple Bloom threw her hooves in the air frustradedly. "It ain't about the prize. The prize was nothing but an impetus for impetus' sake. Really, the true prize is one we all share. The most valuable prize of all: the adventure we had fightin' for it."
Sweetie Belle sighed in defeat, but Scootaloo squinted suspiciously.
"It was something dumb, wasn't it?"
"A delicious snow cone!" Cheerilee's smile grew as she presented the 'glorious' prize.
The feeling that Apple Bloom experienced in that moment could never be adequately surmised in words, but 'crushing' would do a serviceable job.
That was it? After all that she'd been through, after all that she'd done? Apple Bloom could feel her pulse accelerating as a vein in her forehead began to bulge. All of that violence for a single, stupid, worthless, pointless, snow—
"It's cherry!"
"Ooh!" Apple Bloom lunged forward with a grin and happily took the delicious treat.
Never mind. The entire thing was totally worth it after all.
She opened her mouth wide and chomped the entire ball of delectable cherry snow down in one great bite.
"Ah!" Apple Bloom hissed a long breath in through her teeth. "Brain freeze!"
Apple Bloom blushed. "Nuh uh. It was awesome. I just don't want to detract from the focus on our experience by waxing poetical about some material prize that can never truly match the value that our shared journey of violence and awesomeness."
The farm filly refused to meet her friends' gazes. "That's all it is. The prize was great."
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both narrowed their eyes for several moments before Scootaloo finally spoke up again.
"I bet it was something dumb."
"You're something dumb!"