Cadance crept through the trenches, horn a glow with a silencing spell. Stealth was her only option now. Her troops had been close to achieving an overwhelming victory - though to call it anything besides a rout was being extremely generous - though the enemy had managed to stop her troops with a deployment of an extremely powerful shield spell. They had tried everything to quickly break the shield, but they were unable to put even a scratch upon it. The shield had to be neutralized quickly, otherwise it would soon be her force that was being routed. Her only chance to still achieve victory was to sneak a small squad past the shield, via a tunnel, and to take out the pony that was casting the shield. Two of her most reliable soldiers had been dispatched to dig the tunnel. Cadance was thankful that the battle was being fought in the deep snow, which would make the tunneling easier and faster. Even with that to their advantage, it would take some time to complete. In the meantime, she had to do her best to support and protect her troops.
She finally made it to her hastily made command post. She dropped the silencing spell. The command post was built at the rear, far enough back where the enemies’ projectiles would be unable to reach. Her battalion was spread out in hastily made trenches that were oft narrow and shallow, revealing the haste in their creation. Cadance could only imagine how many would be lost to keep the enemy occupied while the tunnel was built. She vowed that their loss would not be for nothing. The battle wouldn’t be-
*Whump*
White.
Everything was white.
And cold.
The snow was cold.
Though upon a closer look, there were two shades of white that she could see. She quickly realized that there was a pony on top of her. A white one to be exact.
“Ugh,” she moaned. The guard was heavy. She used her magic to shove the pegasus off of her. She hadn’t intended to get so carried away and wrapped up in her thoughts and inner monolog. Cadance looked over the ponies on her side. The foals appeared to still be thoroughly enjoying the snowball fight, despite Shining’s shield preventing them from hitting the opposition.
“Your Highness,” one of her guards call out. Regretfully, the mare had been a recent transfer so she had yet to learn her name. “The tunnel has been completed.”
“Tell the foals to be ready to throw everything that they have when the shield goes down,” Cadance ordered.
She quickly rushed through the tunnels being careful to stay low so that the enemy wouldn’t see her. She gathered the nearby foals and quickly told them about the tunnel. They were all more than willing to follow her in the surprise attack.
To her guards, the tunnel was a bit narrow, but they were still able to traverse it. The foals, of course, had no trouble at all. As an alicorn, it was a bit tight.
The tunnel ended only a few hoofs inside of the shield, but that was all that they needed. The foals upon emerging had eagerly thrown snow at everypony that they saw. She and the two unicorn guards, however, had a specific target in mind. Thankfully Shining wasn’t facing them and thus was unaware of his impending doom. They ignored the traditional method of throwing snowballs and instead grabbed snowbanks in their magic and stealthy crept towards Shining, all while the foals created the greatest distraction that she had ever seen.
*Whump*
The snow completely buried him. The shock of the unexpected onslaught broke his concentration and the shield fell.
The ferocity of the barrage from her side spared no pony, not even herself. Snowballs impacted everywhere.
❬❆❭ ❬❆ ❆ ❆❭ ❬❆❭
“Did you really have to dump so much snow on me, Cady?” grumbles Shining.
They had gone to a nearby shop to warm up. They were cuddled up against each other, with Cadance’s wings wrapped around him. He was also a bit disappointed in how thorough his defeat was. He was completely soaked. Though it did make him feel a bit better since Cady was just as soaked as he was.
There were many perks to being married to the ruler of the empire, one of which included not getting kicked out of a shop for creating a growing puddle on the floor. The hot chocolate here was really good, so he hoped that the staff wouldn’t mind if he stayed longer and had another cup. Maybe two, but definitely no more than three. The look that the thestral mare behind the counter had given him was more than enough to know that three cups would be pushing his luck. He made a note to leave a really good tip.
“Yes,” Cadance giggled. “It was only fair. You did use your shield spell.” She took a sip of her hot chocolate. “Hmm” she sighed in delight. The shop had claimed to have the best hot chocolate in the empire and after having a taste, she had to agree. Cadance had truly enjoyed the snow fight. It had been a long time since she had last had one and if she remembered correctly - and she knew that she was - the last on that she had was before Shining had been born.
“I only used it because you were annihilating my troops. I had to slow you down somehow,” Shining complained.
“Did you really have to tell the guards to treat it like a battle simulation?” Cadance queried.
“Of course!” Shining perked up a bit, “how else would I be able to justify reassigning four squads to a park. Also it was the only way for me to convince the commander of your personal guard to participate,” Shining replied.
“While it was a lot of fun to have them join in the fun, it wasn’t much fun to have one tackle me. I had forgotten how heavy an armored guard is!” she commented.
