The Battle For Ponyville

Rarity snapped awake, pulling off her eye mask and hearing only the sound of her own heartbeat.  What had woken her?

She listened to the silence for a couple of seconds.

Suddenly, a massive thundering rumble started all around her, hammering her eardrums.  Startled, she wondered what in Equestria it could be.  A scheduled storm of some sort?  The she heard a shriek and Sweetiebelle came running in, scared out of her mind and almost crying.

"It's alright darling, it must be just thunder," She reassured her as the noise faded.  But in the back of her mind, there was a memory of the day before, and the letter.  From Cloudsdale.

"B-but what about the thing that's happening today?" Sweetiebelle asked, beginning to calm down.

"I-I'm sure it's nothing," She gave a weak smile to her little sister. "Now back off to bed, I need my beauty sleep."

"But what about the noise?  Shouldn't we take a look?" Sweetiebelle had a hint of fear in her voice.

"Well...I suppose a small peek can't hurt..." Rarity got out of bed and they slowly approached the curtained window, unsure of what they might find on the other side.  Taking a breath, Rarity pulled back the drapes...

...

White.

That was the first immediate thought on Pinkie's mind as she stared at the wall of snow blocking the door.  She slowly poked at the wet, powdery precipitation and a small pile fell to the floor.

"Erm...is this the big 'event' today?" Carrot Cake inquired from behind her.  Cupcake stood beside him, equally confused, having been woken up by the twins' crying after the noise.  But Pinkie wasn't listening.

A massive grin had spread across her face, and she turned around to face them.

"Do you know what this means?!" She asked with barely contained excitement.

"There's...a lot of snow outside?" Cupcake suggested.

"IT'S A SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Pinkie screamed ecstatically, leaping straight into the snow and disappearing from sight.

"How does she do that?" Carrot Cake mused.

...

"Er, Spike?  Could you..?" Twilight gestured vaguely the snow blocking the doorway.

"Oh, yeah!" Spike, understanding what she meant, began to blow small flames, melting the snow and slowly creating a path to the top of the snow layer.  They both walked up, and Twilight stared in realization at the cloud city above them.

"It was never a war!" She said, and Spike couldn't help but sigh.  Partly in relief that she would stop panicking over nothing, and partly in exasperation that it had taken her that long to realize it.  Then he noticed a familiar pegasus soaring towards them in the distance, a massive grin on her face.

"Hey gu-" Rainbow stopped, landed, and immediately fell straight through the snow.  Apparently it couldn't hold up the weight of her ego.

She sheepishly flew back up, setting herself more gently on the new, white ground. "Uh, hi."

"Did you know about this?" Twilight asked in suspicion. "You do come from Cloudsdale after all."

"No, but they must have used the spare snow they don't use each winter, stored it up, then dropped it here!" She explained.

"...Every fifty years!" The unicorn remembered.  "It all makes sense!"

"Yeah, anyway we need to get our team together, come on!  We don't want to miss the action!"

"Wait...what action?" Twilight asked, confused.

"The snowball fight!" Spike and Rainbow chorused, as if it were obvious.

...

The three of them made their way further into Ponyville, seeing many of the other town ponies digging their way out of the snow, building snow ponies, or just staring in confusion at Cloudsdale.

"You know I don't think everypony has the same idea Rainbow," Twilight commented.

"Yeah...nopony's fighting anyway," Spike added.

As if to answer their question, a trio of pegasi descended from the sky, including-

"Spitfire!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Now, I know some of you might be confused as to what this is all about," She began, speaking to the town ponies. "Not to worry, this is simply a fun event-"

"Never thought I'd ever hear her say that," Rainbow Dash said quietly, giggling.

"-which is a use of Cloudsdale's leftover snow from each winter."

"Told ya," Rainbow whispered, and Spitfire sent her a stern glare.

"Everything else was explained in the letter, and I'm sure you won't have any problems figuring out what to do next.  Good luck!" They flew off again, leaving all the ponies staring at each other with blank expressions.

"SURPRIIIIISE!" Pinkie Pie shot out of the snow like a missile, a snowball in each hoof.  She threw them as hard as she could, hitting both Octavia and Vinyl Scratch in the face.

Then all hell broke loose.