Winter had arrived in Ponyville with a vengeance, blanketing the landscape in a mass of white. In comparison to previous years it had come about rather suddenly, much earlier than it had been anticipated to come. A breakdown in communications at the Weather Factory and an apparent malfunction with the artificial keeper of the calendar had been the cause. Those in charge of the factory had apologised, but it didn’t really help matters. Once the winter scenario had been activated, then it had to simply run its course, lest they mess up future seasons as well. Nobody wanted to lose a summer as well, or spring, after all. So the majority of folks on the ground were trying their best to deal with the situation, with as little complaint as possible.

Those that lived in Ponyville and owned a pair of wings had been called back to Cloudsdale to assist with the weather mess up. That meant that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had left Ponyville for the foreseeable future, along with every other pegasi. The town was going to be missing something without the pegasi, on par with a sudden disappearance of birds really. No sounds of wings flapping and conversations going on over your head, it was quite the travesty. Still the town wasn’t totally dead just because the pegasi had all left to return to Cloudsdale, in fact they more than made up for their absence. Each day, the strongest and most able of the townsfolk got up and began to clear away the snowfall after the previous night. It seemed like a bit of a menial and pointless task, considering that each day they would be repeating the same thing over and over again. Still, the fact that it would be constantly aiding the frailer and weaker members of the town to get about helped remove themselves from the house. Some of the more forward thinking individuals set up barricades and signs to highlight the areas of town that were hazardous. In these weather conditions the hazards were like patches of ice that could trip up those who weren’t watching their steps, or the larger growths of icicles hanging over many heads that could suddenly fall.

In fact, the townsfolk did more for themselves than their elected officials did for them. The Town Hall remained open to any residents who wanted to complain or perhaps ask for supplies. Their response from the Mayor was that they always had to fill in the required paperwork and each time, the amount of paperwork changed constantly. One year it had been a single sheet for a complaint of supply form, now it was like a mountain of papers that one needed to fill out. Even a complaint about the amount of paperwork that needed to be filled out would need to be thoroughly detailed in that very same amount of paperwork. It was a ridiculous system, but the Mayor insisted that it was the only way that she had for processing all their complaints/requests. It was no wonder that before Twilight had arrived in town, these people would have been late preparing for the spring. If it took this much paperwork to sort out a simple complaint, then getting spring supplies and activities planned out must have been a complete nightmare. Still, if one were to look at the silver lining of the whole thing, then they might consider that without the system, the townsfolk wouldn’t go to the lengths they do anyway.

The local eateries used up some of their excess stock to cook up some extra portions of their wares. They then distributed it amongst the homes that held people who weren’t exactly able to leave their homes in this weather. They had delivered to Granny Smith once upon a time, but Applejack and Big Mac had set them right. Though Granny Smith secretly set up a secret trade route for them, as even though she was capable of sending Big Mac or Applejack in her stead, she couldn’t trust them. The first few times she’d sent them out for seven freshly baked pastries, Applejack had come back with six and Big Mac with three. Questioning had revealed that neither knew what had happened to the others, whilst subtly brushing crumbs from their faces. Applejack spilled the beans much later on, unable to keep the lie going, but Granny let her off the hook. Instead setting up the secret trade route and still sending them to let them think she didn’t mind, when in reality she was just getting it from a different source.

What food wasn’t given out to the less fortunate was then put towards the annual feast as part of Hearth’s Warming. Those that didn’t want to head out to Canterlot for the usual performance, stayed behind and put on a feast for those others that chose to stay. It lasted all day, from morning to night, even managing to draw in folks from some of the surrounding cities like Canterlot or Manehattan. Held inside the town hall in the function room, it consisted of three, long, tables. One across the centre and two against the east and the west walls. In the northern part of the room was the stage, rarely used for the regular kind of function, but the occasional wedding and performance did take place there. On this occasion there was a small, less glamorous performance of the origin of Hearth’s Warming, as performed by the children of Ponyville school. All in all, it was a kind of dinner theatre, a time to be together with the folks that were around and simply celebrate that. One of the many joyous treats that the folks in Equestria got to celebrate each and every winter.

However, there was one thing that they liked even more than Hearth’s Warming, something beloved by children both young and old. That was the good, old fashioned, snowball fight. Once the hazards and paths had been cleared, there was a surplus of snow piled up against the pathways. As soon as the children were awake, they would make their little forts outside their homes and then prowl the streets looking for unsuspecting people, or other kids, to pelt with snow. Nine times out of ten, the one on the prowl would quickly become the one being pelted as they wandered into enemy territory. The others kids, not wanting to be the first casualty of a snow war, would all hide in their forts and wait for that one kid who was looking for some action. It might have taken an hour or two before the first kid gave in, but once the first one did, a few more were sure to follow. As an adult, trying to dodge their way through No Man’s Land was metaphorical suicide. Even a quick jaunt down to the shops to buy yourself something that you forgot to get earlier could result in you coming back, covered in more snow than a mountaintop. It was better to stay inside, but for the adults that loved a little bit of fun now and again, it was far too tempting not to get involved.

It was a chance to relive their inner children, take them away from the slog of day to day life and just enjoy themselves for once. Of course, the kids were always the victors, no matter how many adults joined the fray. The kids could get into places the adults could only dream of reaching, and they knew how to build far more successful tunnels than the adults. They could make a tunnel that would span the entire length of the town, dipping into each and every allied fort along the way. Some were even adept enough to keep them supported enough to stand upon, making them the perfect weapons of stealth in their play war against the adults. Far too many had felt the icy chill of a child’s justice as they popped out of a tunnel behind you and slammed a ball of snow and ice down your back. Too many times had the adults appeared to be about to take a fort for themselves, only to find that the children had tunnelled their way through to another fort for a flanking attack. It didn’t matter though as long as everyone was playing nicely; everyone was having fun, regardless of winning or losing.

That was in town though; if one was willing to walk all the way to Sweet Apple Acres and head into the orchard, they’d find a pair that weren’t really in the mood for fun times. Although they could both really do with something to take their minds of the situation at hand. Things were reaching a fever pitch between Applejack and Butter Nut, the cause of which was more than obvious. Pinkie Pie’s interest was creating a wedge between them that widened by the day, notably after the night of the storm some time back. Despite having believed Butter that his actions had not been as deplorable as first seen, Applejack was still suspicious. Her own doubts and worries about their relationship were making it hard for her to believe her love. That Pinkie Pie was a normal sized mare, that Butter had obviously dreamed of her at least one, that they both spent time with one another away from her, no matter how neutral and professional those moments were. There was simply no slaying the jealously growing in her heart over it all, despite the heartfelt and earnest actions Butter had been putting forth to prove his love of her. It had led to more than a few fights, and more tension even after resolving them.

It was a battle that didn’t seem to give any kind of options for progress. Truth be told, neither of them knew for definite what they should be doing to help the other see what they were going through. What this whole situation was doing to them and how it was affecting them and those around them. It wasn’t hard to see that Applejack was jealous, she wore it on her face in the subtle way she watched Butter’s line of sight. The moment it deviated from her she was on it, looking to see what he was looking at. She hadn’t caught him staring at another mare yet, but it might only be a matter of time before something like that happened. Butter was constantly watching out himself, both for Pinkie Pie and anything else that could affect the crumbling balance. All it would take was another poor joke or tease from the pink mare and Applejack could explode. Or one unaware townsfolk or friend to make the wrong off-hand comment.

On this particular morning, they had been spending a little time apart from one another at home. Butter was watching something in the living room, while Applejack was preparing herself a snack in the kitchen. Both were brought together again once they heard a knocking at the door. It was uncommon for them to have any visitors, since the walk was far from the beaten path many ponies made. When Applejack opened the door, what they found was a shocking surprise.

“Heya Applejack!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing on her toes and sending snow flying. “Can Butter come out for a super fun snowball fight?!”

Applejack didn’t answer immediately. She looked down at Butter who had come up to her foot and gave him a Look. “Ah dunno…d’ya wan’ t’ go an’ get all cold ‘n wet?”

“Can Applejack come?” Butter promptly asked, not even hesitating. Pinkie Pie’s bouncing slowed, but she did not look disappointed.

“Oooh, heavy artillery. Heehee, the kids might say it’s cheating but you know what I say? All’s fair in love and war~ Come on AJ, Nutty!” She bounced off after that, leaving long lopping footprints in the snow they could follow.

Applejack closed the door and they went to retrieve their winter garb. Once properly clothed for the cold they left and tried following Pinkie Pie’s trail back toward town. The tracks seemed to stop in the return direction about halfway through the orchard and neither Butter, nor Applejack, could see another set of tracks leading off. It was like she had just disappeared into thin air. Applejack took the lead, her giant gait clearing the path and allowing her to look around better. For all she knew Pinkie Pie was hiding or leaping through the trees, waiting for them to pass before appearing again. It was highly ridiculous, but that was Pinkie. You couldn’t imagine sane options for her, and with her hackles raised over her friends actions it was better safe than sorry. The entire situation felt more than once like a trap already to her.

Whilst Applejack searched high, Butter took to searching low for anything amiss. Unfortunately the giant farmer’s walk was hiding anything that could be found. Her footprints erased any that may have been before her in their own immense outline. As for the sides of the path, her weight upon every footfall caused snow to shake and fall from the trees, plopping down on top of the rest below and shaking the few bushes dotting the seasonally unkempt orchard. It made trying to find Pinkie before she could pounce almost impossible, even if her colors and vibrancy stood out. As time went on he grew frustrated, the cold biting into him through his clothes. He finally decided to just focus on getting to town, which was when she finally struck. Something sprang out of the trees and crashed into him, sending him tumbling off the path and onto the ground. When his vision finally stopped spinning and could refocus, Butter found Pinkie Pie straddling him. A scarf wrapped around her face barely hid the face splitting grin behind it. Her breath was rapid, forming little clouds between them as she leaned her head down and got so close he could feel them blow over his muzzle. Butter’s heart was rapidly pounding in his chest as she got comfortable on top of him. He could feel her legs wrap around his own, trapping him in the snow mound they had fallen into.

“Hey Butter…” Pinke Pie mumbled, her voice muffled by the scarf.

“H-Hey…”

“Didja-Eep!” Pinkie squealed as she was lifted up into the air.

Pinkie had been so up in Butter’s face that he hadn’t even registered that Applejack had been watching the pair. It was only as Pinkie was lifted up that he saw the massive, orange hand behind Pinkie, attached to the angry looking Applejack. Butter sat up, a word on his lips, before Applejack sent him a look and shook her head once. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad. Pinkie Pie giggled as she was lifted by Applejack, crying out ‘whee!’ and kicking at the air like a child on a ride. She didn’t look at all worried about her predicament or for having been caught on another mares stallion. Applejack held her for a moment longer, debating what to do with her friend. Eventually she set her back down, but not before kicking a tree and sending its load down onto the pink mare. To cool off perhaps literally, but all it did was make her form a snow angel to dig herself out. Once back on her feet she sidled up next to Butter, who was then pushed by Applejack to walk in front of her. The trio resumed their walk, with the looming, miffed wife keeping things straight.

Eventually they made it into town, where Applejack and Butter were given a space to defend, a space chosen by Pinkie no less. Applejack was given a fort to defend by the library, whilst Butter was given one to defend down the street. Pinkie Pie explained the rules, of which there were surprisingly many. Things like snowball ordinance limits, pony-to-fort ratios, state of emergencies, and with the addition of Applejack, rules regarding weapons of mass snow destruction. It all made Applejack and Butter’s heads spin, but the general gist was to repel intruders and keep their forts secure. Pinkie then told them about the tunnels; In case of the fort falling they could, or at least Butter could, take the tunnel to reach each other. What she left out however was the fact that his tunnel had been sabotaged earlier that morning by her. The one passage leading toward Applejack was no longer there, and the one leading toward the library’s direction now would lead to Pinkie Pie’s own fortress. She promised the tunnels were safe, that they were now off limits from attacking ponies after the Great Raid of Marketplace. Then she disappeared, leaving Applejack and Butter to fend for themselves against a small army of children and adults.

The first few attacks on Butter’s base were easy and he repelled them without problem. Whether it was because the children were beginning to rethink their strategy, or whether it was due to Butter’s cockiness, he began to falter. The children seemed to be popping up all over the place, like zombies rising from shallow graves. Just when he thought he’d taken out one of them, two more sprung up in their place. He swore he was fighting off against more than just the children who were living in the town, it was ridiculous. He kept the majority at bay, but his single snowball assault was beginning to prove ineffective and tiring. There was only so many snowballs he could throw before his arms began to feel like they were made of jelly. The children didn’t relent though; they continued onwards, pelting his fort with their own brand of snowy justice, youth and numbers keeping their stamina up. Butter soon slipped up and he allowed through the first of what would soon be many children up against the walls of his fort. He could hear their gloved fingers scraping away at the walls. They would be through within a matter of seconds and after that, well, it was a fate that wasn’t worth thinking about.

Before abandoning his post, Butter spared a glance toward Applejack. She was sitting on one of the roots of the library, visible even from afar, looking bored as she occasionally tossed a giant snowball. Nobody wanted to attack her, leaving her a safe haven for Butter to reach for. The first gloved hand punched through the fort, startling him, and grabbed at him before turning to dig the hole open even more. Bits of the fort began crumbling down, striking the diggers but not dissuading them in the least. Butter took one last glorious stand, slamming his body against the wall to send it tumbling down. As the children squealed and shouted his name, he dove into the safety of the tunnels and began crawling. His breath was chilly inside his mouth as he crawled under his attackers. The sound of their little boots shuffling above were unnerving, leaving him to wonder how they weren’t falling down on him. Whoever had built these tunnels must have really known what they were doing; perhaps some magic had gone into holding them together to avoid the need for supports.

As the sounds of those children clamouring at the walls of his fort began to die down, he felt a sudden chill shoot up his backside. He tried to look backwards, craning his neck against the confines of the tunnel to look from whence he had come. His fort must have perished, the walls collapsing inwards and flooding the tunnel entrance. He was safe, for now. He turned back to face the front and found himself facing another blockade, though this was one was only temporary. The way the tunnel was supposed to go had been blocked off by another snowfall, but some clever chap had dug a workaround. Butter followed it, not that he had any other choice of course. He just wanted to get out of the cold tunnel and press himself up against Applejack for warmth. It was at least one benefit to having a wife as big as he did, in the winter she could be his own personal, portable, radiator. The thought of snuggling up with her was his fuel to advance through the tunnel. He could see the light now, breaking through from the exit into the world above ground. He rose through it, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on his face, the light of the day shining all around him. He opened his eyes, once they had adjusted, to find himself face to face with…

Pinkie Pie.

Butter didn’t even have time to open his mouth and shout before Pinkie pushed him against the wall. Leaning in close, recreating the scene in the orchard as she pressed against him, pinning his limbs. Once again Butter was worried about his fate with Applejack, yet took some heart. He couldn’t be far from her still, so even if Pinkie tried something new, he could probably keep her off until she arrived. Whether or not he’d pay a price for this too was still to be seen. His irate wife held his fate in her hands, as would she her friends should she come upon this sight again so soon. As she stared into his eyes, she continued to pelt attackers with snow, not even looking at them. It was in a way, quite impressive, like she had some kind of sixth sense about her. She stroked one of her gloved hands across Butter’s face, snowballs hurtling out from the fort at a blistering pace.

“Y’know, I didn’t get to say what I had to say back there…” She whispered, the fall of snow slowing just a little.

“Y-Yeah?”

“Yeah! I was going to say that I had a great time back at Sugar Cube Corner. Didja enjoy our little date then too?”

“Date? That wasn’t a…date, Pinkie Pie, you know that. You just helped me out, and we – Applejack, you, me – all played a few games. That’s all that was.”

“Heehee, aww don’t be so modest! That was a great night between us. Having Applejack there too just made things even more fun, my little Nutty~” Butter gulped as she nuzzled him. “I can’t wait to do it again!”

Meanwhile, Applejack was growing tired of this snowball fight. No one had dared to attack her post due to her immense size, and anyone close to her was typically wiped out by a single giant snowball. She had taken to simply watching Butter’s fort all this time, so when she saw it go down she had taken to waiting. Waiting for him to either emerge from the hundreds of small hands digging through the snow, or even from the small tunnel right between her two feet. So imagine her surprise when, as the minutes passed, the fort remained empty of little bakers as much as the tunnel was. She stood and started surveying the battlefield, trying to find a familiar mop of orange hair among all the white, going so far as to try and glimpse the out of bounds sections. She’d heard nothing about being a cheater from the kids, so it was safe to assume that he had found some way of escape that was well within the rules.

Applejack finally found the answer when she spied Pinkie Pie’s fort. The familiar mop of curly pink was bouncing above the rampart as snowballs flied rapidly over the side. But it was evident she wasn’t paying attention; one out of every ten snowball hit their mark while most flew wildly in covering fire. As she began stomping across the field, she swore she spotted a mop of ginger among all that pink, and the giantess saw red as thoughts connected.

When she heard the word ‘Nutty’ mentioned, Applejack knew that Butter was over there with Pinkie. She didn’t know how he had managed to get over there, or what his reasons were and frankly, she didn’t care. Pinkie Pie had just gotten her third strike in all of this, so although she had plenty of questions for Butter alone, she was her next target right now. As she approached she bent down and packed a snowball bigger than anything she’d made so far. Lifting it up, she threw it so it skimmed over the top of the fort, blowing the upper wall away and taking Pinkie Pie for a ride. As the pink menace squealed and was buried up to her boots in snow, Applejack stormed into the fort, blasting it apart with her legs and towering over Butter. The stallion stared up, wide eyed and shocked.

“Alright, ah’ve had enough!” She yelled, grabbing Butter up and tossing him onto a shoulder like a bag of grain. Pinkie Pie made a series of muffled sounds, but all she could do was wiggle her boots comically.

“Applejack! Y-You’ve got it all wrong! Let me explain!” Butter tried to say.

“Hmph! Don’t ya worry, ah wus gonna let ya do all th’ explainin’ back home, don’ you worry!” She growled, putting her anger to good use in silencing her husband.

Butter gulped, but went limp in Applejack’s hold, hoping she didn’t do anything worse. His chat with Pinkie had gone as well as he’d hoped, which was sadly not at all. Although she didn’t get much in before Applejack’s intervention, it was clear she had the goal of courting him set in her mind. She hadn’t listened to a single protest, claiming he was simply playing hard to get. As far as she was concerned he already had been trying things with her, things she considered flirting, whilst others might consider being friendly. Before Applejack had assaulted the fort and freed him, he’d made the internal resolve to tell Applejack that, although he didn’t support it, there was someone definitely contending for his affection. It wouldn’t be what she wanted to hear, but he would assure her that it was Applejack he loved. He wasn’t about to go galloping off with some sweet siren, although that did remind him of some oddities. Some words and mentions the pink mare had made in passing. It was almost like she was willing to share Butter, or perhaps share Applejack? Butter sighed again, wishing that things had not become even more complicated in his life. He only hoped time would bear the truth and answers, not heartbreak and disaster…