Lieutenant Stormwing threw open the great-oak doors of the war chamber
“General Rumble, we just got news that enemy is leading a direct assault straight here!" He yelled in between gasps of air, sweat dripping from his brow.
“What are the numbers, lieutenant?” General Rumble looked over and asked Stormwing in a grave, albeit squeaky voice.
“All of them!” Lieutenant Stormwing shouted.
General Rumble looked grim. He didn’t know if they could survive an assault against those numbers, but he wouldn’t let his weakness show. He had an image to keep in front of his troops.
“Lieutenant,” He put on a brave face and stuck a defiant pose. “Grab all the stallions and get them to their stations on the wall. We will show them why they should think twice before trying to take on fort Thunder Strike!
The lieutenant quickly left the war room and General Rumble went to join his troops amongst the wall. he wasn’t going to hide inside his war room whilst his stallions threw themselves into the fray for him.
***
General Rumble and his brave soldiers stood on the impenetrable walls of fort Thunder Strike. The opposing army stood far below them looking like ants from such a great height.
“Evildoers!” General Rumble called down to the forces that wished to take their home. “This day you have walked up to my walls, this day you bring promises of war! Well I will not allow this! Let is be known that this day is the day that the walls of fort Thunder Strike stand tall for another day! Let it be known that-” but his words were cut short by a small spherical object impacting his face with such force that it caused him to have to sit down. It was a snowball. Nopony really knew who threw the snowball, but it was forever know to be the snowball that started the war’.
General Rumble stared down at the pile of snow in shock. The world stood still and silent around him. Everypony held their breath.
“Fire!” Rumble yelled out in rage. How dare they strike him in the middle of such an amazing speech!
The world was bathed in white, snowball after snowball was thrown at the opposing army. Rumble joined in, standing up and grabbing an hoof-loaf of snowballs, ready to join his brethren. He aimed at a certain orange pegasus, riding a scooter and resupplying the enemy forces with snowballs. If her cut off their supply, his side could win by choking the enemy of their resources.
The snowball was thrown straight and true, directly striking Scootaloo in the face. She was sent flying as her motorized scooter continued on without her, crashing into a ditch and launching the cart full of snowballs she was ferrying into the air; raining down on those around her, burying them in snow.
“Whoohoo! Direct hit!” Rumble cheered as Scootaloo’s head popped out of the snowbank.
“You’ll pay for that, you featherbrain.” Scootaloo yelled at him with fury.
“You have to catch me first!” He stuck his tongue out at her.
Scootaloo jumped out of the snow and quickly formed a snowball in her hooves. Once it was formed, she launched it up at Rumble, nearly missing him by only a couple of inches. This was incentive enough for Rumble, and he dashed along the top of the wall, bobbing and weaving around the snowballs thrown by Scootaloo. He moved past his warriors, dodging and vaulting over them, all the while the orange filly was hot on this tail. Another snowball came dangerously close to hitting him.
“Miss me miss me now you gotta kiss me!” Rumble sang back at her. That only served to make her more furious.
With a roar she catapulted another snowball towards Rumble. This one, however unlike all the others, was a perfect shot. It slammed into the back of his head, causing him to tumble over the large walls of Fort Thunder Strike. Time seemed to slow as he fell from the massive walls, and turned in fear to see the ground fast approaching. He hit the ground with a smack, having only fell two feet.
Rumble lay in a daze, face down in the snow. He rolled onto his back with a grown, and suddenly and orange blob pounced on top of him and pinned him to the ground.
“Ha! Got you now!” Scootaloo exclaimed with a smug look upon her face. “So what was that you said about a kiss?”
“Wait, what no! NO! Please don’t kiss me! I don’t want filly cooties!” Rumble yelled out in child-like horror. Scootaloo slowly leaned in closer to his face, her lips puckered up for a kiss.
THUNK
Scootaloo was suddenly blindsided by a snowball, completely knocking her off of Rumble.
“Get off of him you chicken!” A voice called out. Rumble looked over to see it was Button Mash, standing heroically on a pile of snow. The sun seeming to illuminate his form.
"Button! You came just in time!” Rumble said as button began forming another snowball. “She was going to kiss me!”
“It’s not double teaming! It’s giving help to a friend when he is in trouble!”
“That’s still double teaming!”
“Hey, teamwork makes the dream work.”
“I have to agree with you on that one.” A mysterious voice said from behind Button Mash
“Button turned around only to get suddenly slammed in the face with a snowball, causing him to fall form his throne.
“Teamwork does make the dreamwork.” Sweetie Belle said climbing up to take her place on the top of the hill.
“Sweetie, thank celestia your here!” Scootaloo cheered “Now we can show these dumb colts whose boss!” She ran up to join Sweetie on the hill.
“Hey were not dumb.” Rumble said. “You’re dumb... you dummy!”
“Yeah!” Button added, standing next to Rumble,. The colts held a collection of snowballs in their hooves waiting to be thrown at a moment’s notice.
Sweetie Belle’s only response was to throw another snowball of her own at Button. Button, however, was prepared and jumped somewhat graceful out of the way, all the while careful not to drop the snowballs he was holding. He quickly returned fire, rapidly throwing his own snowball at Sweetie Belle. Many of them missed as she danced atop her frozen throne, except for one thrown with a bit of luck that hit her square in the face.
Sweetie Belle sat for a moment, stunned, as bits of snow fell from her face.
“Oh that’s it!” She angrily squeaked. She lit up her horn, levitating random piles of snow and formed a volley of snowballs above her head. “Take this!” She shouted as she cast a hailstorm of snow down onto Button. The colt screamed in pure terror, his short life flashing before his eyes, but before he could be buried under the cascade of white snow Rumble jumped towards him and shoved him out of the way.
“Avenge me!” He said to Button moments before he was buried alive; the only sign of him that remained was a lone hoof that stuck out of the snow that twitched periodically.
“Rumble no!” Button cried out to his friend before quickly turning to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “You will pay for this!” He said angrily and shook his hoof at the two fillies.
"Oh yeah?" Sweetie Belle questioned. "If we are gonna pay for this why don't you come and get us!" She stuck her tongue out at Button.
With a roar Button bolted towards the two fillies, making a beeline specifically towards Sweetie Belle. The white unicorn eeped and began to run away from the colt like her life depended on it; and judging from the way Button was war-crying it probably did.
Scootaloo watched in a stunned silence as the two ponies ran off into the distance, one of them yelling and the other crying out for help.
“Heh, lovebirds.” Scootaloo said quietly to herself.
"what in tarnation is all the commotion over here about?" A southern voice asked, rising up the hill..
"Oh you know,” Scootaloo turned to address the new pony. “snowball fights."
"Sure as heck a lot of yelling for a snowball fight doncha think?” Apple bloom inquired “And why is Rumble buried in a pile of snow?"
"Help me" Rumble called out lamely in a muffled voice.
"well it was a pretty intense snowball fight."
"uh huh, Well we should probably get Rumble out of there." Apple Bloom said trotting over to Rumble, grabbing his protruding hoof and attempted to pull him out. "Well don't just stand there! come over here and help me get him out before he gets frostbite or something!"
Scootaloo trodded on over to Applebloom to help her pull the colt from the snow drift that the now vacant sweetie dropped onto him. With one last pull Rumble burst from the powdery snow.
"Thanks.” he mumbled, not all that happy that he had to get help from the enemy.
“No problem Rumble! You know ah couldn't just leave in there to freeze.” Apple Bloom said.
“Yeah! And you still owe me a kiss!” Scootaloo said with a smirk.
“No way! I am not getting filly cooties!” Rumble cried out, backing away from Scootaloo
Apple Bloom just rolled her eyes. “How about we all head on over to Sugar Cube corner? Get ourselves warmed right up. Sound like a plan?”
“Sure, I could definitely go for some hot cocoa. Especially after Sweetie buried me in the snow” Rumble stated.
“What about Sweetie and Button? Scootaloo asked
“They'll show up eventually.” Apple bloom responded.
Scootaloo just shrugged in response
And with that the three young ponies made their way to Sugarcube corner to satisfy their sweet tooths and warm their bellies.
“Are you sure they’re gonna show up? It has had to be at least an hour now.”
Scootaloo and company were currently sitting in the dining area of Sugarcube Corner. In the middle of their table sat a plate of delicious chocolate chip cookies. Also, steaming mugs of hot cocoa were nestled in the hooves of all three present.
“It’s only been like twenty minutes. And yes, Ah'm sure they will show up,” Apple Bloom responded. “Ah said that after the whole snowball fight gig, we would all come here to get some hot cocoa.”
“Are you sure they even remembered? They seemed kinda busy running away from and chasing each other.”
“Yes Ah'm certain of it.” Apple Bloom retorted, taking a sip of her hot cocoa.
“I have to agree with Scootaloo here, how can you be certain that they’ll show up?” Rumble questioned.
“Well ah guess ah can’t be completely certain, but ah still believe that they’ll show.”
“Whatever you say...” Rumble said, taking another sip of his steaming hot drink.
“What do you think happened to them after they ran off?” Scootaloo asked, still sipping at her beverage.
“Ah have no clue.” Apple Bloom answered truthfully.
***
Sweetie Belle was running like her life depended on it. And with how Button was charging at her while war shouting there was a chance it did.
Her little hooves pounded in the snow as she threw herself forward with every drop of a hoof. She will not allow herself to get caught!
Sweetie was fast on her feather-light hooves and was quickly sprinting across the frozen ‘battlefield.’ All around her, ponies of many different races and colors fought one another in the snow, All of their coats creating a rainbow of color against the snow-white backdrop. Snowballs littered the air, being thrown with vigor at the enemy. More often than not there was friendly fire as the ones who threw the snowballs had trouble distinguishing friend from foe.
Even though Sweetie was fast, Button was just a little bit faster, with him being an earth pony and all; he was slowly gaining ground on her. Sweetie was starting to get tired from all of the rigorous track-and-field she was doing - her body wasn’t built for this! Sweetie knew that if she kept on running, then she would be caught. But if she turned around and fought him there was a chance that she could beat him and get away!
With this new thought in mind, Sweetie lit up her horn quickly - forming many snowballs from the snow around her as she ran. Her inexperience in magic was shown in the sloppiness of snowballs around her, but of course, running while trying to do this didn’t help much either. They were more oval in design with many rough edges instead of the perfect spheres she wished to create. But, they were not meant to look nice. They were intended to give a certain somepony a nasty surprise.
She quickly turned around to face Button head on and threw her volley at him one snowball at a time. “Take that! And that!” Sweetie squeak shouted at Button with every smack of a snowball.
The many snowballs that were impacting Button caused him to lose his balance, but not his momentum. With a shout from Button and a hefty oof from Sweetie, Button rammed into her at full speed.
THUD!
...
They landed in a pile of snow, fur, and bruised egos.
...
Button quickly jumped off of Sweetie, concerned for his friend's safety. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! Are you ok?” Button asked Sweetie in a worried tone.
The only response he received from her was a groan.
“Do you need me to take you to the hospital? Or Princess Twilight? Or maybe we could take you to Applejack? She’s pretty good at fixing up her animals on the farm,” He rambled in his fear.
“Come closer,” Sweetie mumbled under her breath. It was not loud enough for Button to hear what she said, but loud enough that Button heard that she at least said something.
“What was that? I couldn't hear you.” Button asked.
“Come closer,” Sweetie said just a bit louder this time, enough so that Button actually heard what she said.
“Come closer?” Button echoed, “Alright.” He leaned down next to Sweetie putting his ear next to her mouth.
“Now what was it that you wanted to say?” Button inquired.
“Behind you,” She whispered to Button.
“Huh?” Button lifted his head and turned around to see what Sweetie was talking about. “What's behind me? I don’t see anyth-” ...Button suddenly got his legs knocked out from underneath him, causing him to fall to the ground while knocking the air out of his lungs. He rolled over onto his back, trying to get air back into his body. He panted breathlessly.
Sweetie Belle then jumped up onto Button, sitting on his stomach. In her two front hooves, she held a gigantic snowball above her head; it was ready to be slammed down onto Button.
“For the sun god!” She squeakily yelled at the top of her lungs. The sun - which sat behind her on the horizon - illuminated her figure, making her look like she was glowing.
Sweetie Belle started the snowball's descent down onto Button's poor face. Buttons life flashed before his eyes for a second time this day because of one of Sweetie’s overpowered attacks. But this time there was nopony to save him from this gruesome fate of being pummeled by a super snowball. It impacted his face with a hefty 'fumph.' His face was now completely hidden from sight, resting underneath the pile of snow.
Sweetie slid off of Button and laid down next to him on her back, her hooves spread in all directions. She was exhausted from all the running. Button slowly lifted up his hoof to brush all of the snow from his face, before dropping it back down in the snow.
They laid there for a while, watching the clouds go by while relishing in each other's company. They were panting heavily, exhausted from all of the excitement. After around five minutes of just laying there, they heard a rhythmic tapping of hooves approach them.
“If you guys are that exhausted, I know a place where you guys can go rest. It would be a lot better than laying in the snow.” Both Button and Sweetie lifted their heads to see who had spoken. The voice revealed himself to be no other than Tender Taps. They both got up to stand before him.
“Oh, hey Tender!” Button called to his friend.
“Hey, yourself!” Tender said back to him, beaming.
“Where are you off heading to?” Sweetie asked.
“I was just heading on over to Sugar Cube corner. Apple Bloom said we should meet up there for a bite to eat.”
“Apple Bloom didn’t tell us that, wait...did she? I must have forgotten…” Sweetie said putting her hood to her chin in thought. After a couple seconds of trance, her eyes shot wide open in realization. “Oh my gosh- she DID! Come on Button -we gotta get a move on!"
She turned left and bolted, trying to get to Sugar Cube Corner as fast as possible.
Both of the colts stared at her rapidly depleting form as she ran away from them, trying to get to Sugar Cube Corner as fast as possible. She was already late! She couldn’t waste a single second!
“Wrong way Sweetie!” Tender yelled out to her.
***
Tender Taps tapped his way into Sugar Cube Corner, followed by Sweetie Belle and then Button Mash. They quickly spotted their friends sitting in one of the many booths that comprised most of the floor; enjoying their drinks.
“Heya guys!” Apple Bloom called to them, waving her hoof.
“Hey, Bloom! And hello to everypony else too!” Tender replied. The two acquaintances of the apple filly responded to his statement with a "hello" of their own.
“What took you so long to get here Tender?”
“Well, I had to stay behind at dance practice for a show that is coming up. My teacher wanted me to practice a couple dances a little bit more before I left,” Tender Taps responded. “I was on my way here, when I saw these two, lying in snow completely exhausted.”
Tender gestured to the two other ponies next to him.
“I would have been here on time if Button here hadn’t chased me half-way across ponyville!” Sweetie Belle cried, jabbing a hoof at Button Mash.
“I wouldn’t have chased you if you hadn’t buried Rumble in a mountain of snow!” Button countered, glaring at Sweetie.
“Oh please, you’re exaggerating, it wasn’t even that much!”
“We could only see his hoof! And he wasn’t able to get out on his own!” Button shouted back at her.
“He could have gotten himself out of there! Couldn’t you Rumble?”
“No actually, I wasn’t able to move,” Rumble said blatantly, making Sweetie pause.
“Oh, well - er... sorry about that.”
Sweetie Belle apologized, embarrassed, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof, grinning awkwardly.
“It’s fine, now why don’t you guys come sit down? There's no reason to stand by the door.” Rumble responded.
The filly and two colts made their way over to the table, taking a seat with their friends. Pinkie Pie quickly hopped over to take their orders; which just ended up being more hot chocolate of course.
The next two hours were spent filled with hot chocolate, stories about their day, and the occasional sweet. But sadly every good thing has to come to an end. Apple Bloom left saying she had to get to bed; she wanted to get an early start on her chores so she could have some free time. Tender Taps left soon after, also stating that he wanted to get an early start on some chores and dance routines. Rumble and Scootaloo also had to return home to rest after such a hectic day.
The bakery was now devoid of all other ponies - only Button and Sweetie remained at the front of the store.
Sweetie Belle sighed in content and stood up from her chair. “Well, I guess it’s time for me to start heading home, it’s starting to get pretty late.” She walked over to the door.
Button Mash looked out the window that sat next to their table, seeing Celestia's sun slowly descending below the horizon, giving off the last few rays of light that reflected off of the crystalline snow...turning the world into a plethora of color. “Yeah I guess I should go home too, it is pretty late,” Button responded. He stood up, moving towards the door with Sweetie Belle.
Button reached the door and turned to face Sweetie Belle. Lime green eyes met hazel ones.
“Well then, um, have a good night.” Button replied, “Uh yeah, you too.”
But neither of the two moved from their spots, they were still as statues. Suddenly Sweetie Belle rushed forward and gave Button Mash a peck on the cheek. She bolted out the door - moving even faster than when Button was chasing her, giggling all the way.
Button's heart was pumping, and his eyes were as wide as saucers. Slowly, he raised his hoof to pet the cheek that Sweetie kissed; a smile forming on his lips. Button set his hoof down and walked out the door. He made his way home, with a noticeable spring in his step, even after such an epic day of war.
