| The Great Ponyville Snowball Fight | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Rebels | Loyalists | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Princess Luna |
 Princess Celestia  | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
6 (first battle) 350 (second battle) |
6 (first battle) 300 (second battle)[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 0 | 0 | ||||||
The The Great Ponyville Snowball Fight was fought in the early winter, in and around the town of Ponyville, Equestria, by Rebel and Loyalist forces during the Equestrian Civil War. Rebel General Rainbow Dash launched a surprise attack in Ponyville against Loyalist General Applejack. Reinforcements joined both sides, until the entire town was at war. After a stampede of cows, the defensive fortifications crumbled, leading to confusion and close combat. Rainbow Dash met Applejack in single combat and bested her, leading to a truce. During peace talks, Derpy Hooves assassinated Rainbow Dash, finalizing the conflict.
Background edit
With the start of the winter season, fresh snowfall began to fall in Ponyville. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had nothing better to do in the morning, and began playing in the snow and constructed a snow fortification and several dozen snowballs as munitions. It is unclear whether they had a premeditated intent to launch an attack on Twilight Sparkle and Applejack specifically, or if they were simply targets of opportunity.
With the heavy snowfall, Twilight Sparkle had used her magic to plow pathways for Applejack, who was delivering apples. With the easy of transportation, Applejack was able to quickly deliver her apples, freeing her up for the rest of the day. She was en route with Twilight Sparkle to return the applecart to Sweet Apple Acres, on a route that took her through the town center.
First Act: Two on Two Spar edit
The battle began with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie launching a surprise attack on Twilight Sparkle and Applejack.
Applejack and Twilight Sparkle were returning to Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack pulling an empty cart, when they unknowingly came within range of the snow fort Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash made. They were both immediately struck with snowballs.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were spotted, and demanded that Twilight Sparkle and Applejack surrender and purchase milkshakes for them. However, rather than retreat or surrender, Applejack quickly unhitched herself from her cart, overturned it, and positioned it in the direction of Rainbow Dash's snow fort, and began constructing snowballs.
Next, an engagement began with both teams of ponies engaging the opposite team at maximum range with snowballs, which lead to a stalemate.
In an attempt to break the stalemate, Applejack told Twilight Sparkle to cease fire in an attempt to goad Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash into leaving their fortification. That worked, and when they got close enough, both Twilight Sparkle and Applejack scored good hits on Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. However, they simply ran back to their fortification and continued the fight.
Second Act: Escalating fight edit
During this phase of the attack, Fluttershy and Rarity happened to walk past Applejack and Twilight Sparkle, on the way to breakfast.
Though the two were initially unwilling to be brought into the conflict, a stray snowball from Rainbow Dash happened to hit Rarity. Though she was unharmed, and even her appearance unhindered, Rarity took it as a pretense to use the attack as casus belli, and immediately joined Applejack's team. Rainbow Dash considered that an unfair act, and conscripted Fluttershy to her side. However, Fluttershy was a conscientious objector who refused direct action against her friends, and was rather than force the issue, Rainbow Dash relegated her to a logistic roll manufacturing snowballs, a task she did with ease. As a result, though in direct fighting it was two on three, the greater supply of ammunition allowed Rainbow Dash's team to maintain power parity against Applejack's Team.
A stalemate continued, and during this phase, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna noticed the commotion below and descended to see if they should intervene. The conflict was paused, and Twilight Sparkle explained that Rainbow Dash was trying to take over Ponyville through a snowball fight. Princess Celestia was about to act as a peacekeeper and end the conflict, when her sister, Princess Luna, instead joined Rainbow Dash's team and launched her own surprise attack on Princess Celestia.
As the added numbers in the conflict were too many for the small applecart to effectively defend, Princess Celestia hastily created a snow berm by flapping her wings. The effect was not as effective as the strongly constructed snow fort constructed by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, but helped provide some cover for the team.
Princess Celestia suggested that internal reorganization might allow them the command abilities to turn the tide of battle, and nominated Applejack as formal general. Rainbow Dash's team did the same, however, and Rainbow Dash became general of the Rebels, and the Rebels and Loyalists continued to face off.
Full scale battle edit
Initial reinforcements edit
The battle had started early in the day, before most of the town of Ponyville was awake and mobilized. As the battle continued, Lyra and Bon Bon inquired about the conflict to General Rainbow Dash. They were informed that the Rebels were trying to liberate the town from an evil tyranny. They both joined the Rebel cause, temporarily throwing off the balance. However, in short order other recruits came to General Applejack, where they were informed that they were holding the line against Rebels bent on overthrowing the government, and joined as privates there too. Thus, while keeping the core generals and initial Lieutenants, now large numbers of privates began joining each side, leading to a massive escalation of the conflict.
Fall of Bird horse edit
(I am using Bird horse as a placeholder because I forgot her name. I'll find it later and find/replace all instances to her actual name.)
With the massive influx of recruits, roughly 1/5th of whom were pegasi, as the demographics of Ponyville was largely earth pony. Thus, both sides formed an air force, though in this aspect, the Loyalists recruited more pegasi, either by simple luck, or that their message of duty and honor resonated with many pegasi. However, while strategic bombing and close air support were helpful, it did not dominate the conflict enough to force a resolution. Each Pegasus could only carry one or two snowballs at a time. If they dropped their loads from too high, the chance of hitting anything was very low. If they came in close to dive bomb the enemy, they would immediately become targets for snowballs, and with the increasing number of recruits, and the greater proportions of ground troops to air troops, both sides were able to stage effective air denial of their main fortifications.
It was after a successful dive bombing run that Bird horse was disabled. Bird horse had just loosed her load and completed solid hits on two separate Rebel privates, and was returning to base to reload. On the way back, she got a good, solid hit from a Rebel soldier, upsetting her flight, and she was forced to land roughly equidistant from the Rebel and Loyalist fortifications.
Though Bird horse was just one soldier, General Applejack considered it a vital strategic interest to recover Bird horse, as their goals of order, duty, and righteousness didn't allow for callously sacrificing a soldier when there was any chance of recovering her. The Rebel forces found it vital to prevent her return, and capture Bird Horse if possible, as a moral victory to show they were more capable and powerful than the Loyalists. However, both forces were already engaging each other at maximum distance, so any shortened distance between a soldier and the enemy would increase the enemy's hit percentage exponentially, making recovery of Bird horse difficult.
To complete such a task, a champion was called. Private Big Mac arrived, wearing makeshift armor. The entire Loyalist team prepared stocks of snowballs, and at a signal, the entire team began suppressing fire from the Rebels as best as they could. Even still, Private Big Mac came under heavy fire as soon as he was beyond the berm. However, he soldiered on through the ice and snow, reached Bird horse, picked her up, and transported her safely back to the berm.
Sappers edit
With the successful recovery of Bird horse, rules of war changed. Now, any good hit with a snowball counted that pony as "out" until such a time as a fellow soldier tagged them back "in". This had no major immediate effect though, as everypony was bunched up with their own teams, and never far from revival. So, the stalemate continued.
Both sides made attempts to break the stalemate. An opportunity presented itself when the Cutie Mark Crusaders arrived at the Loyalist camp, including Spike. Spike's dragon breath and the small size of all four of them presented an opportunity to sap the Rebel fortification. However, the depth of the snow also wasn't so deep as to allow a full-sized pony to go under it without the tunnel collapsing, which meant that even if the sapping was successful, the only options were to either undermine the Rebel fort, or attempt to assassinate the Rebel leadership. They made preparations for the latter. Spike's breath allowed a quick tunnel to be made, and none of the Rebels were aware of its creation, allowing the group to get behind the Rebel lines.
After constructing some snowballs, the Cutie Mark Crusaders burst through the snow and successfully landed a surprise attack, knocking out both General Rainbow Dash and Lieutenant Pinkie Pie instantly, and then retreating. While a morale victory, both were instantly revived, so this did not change the outcome of the battle.
In a minor engagement, General Rainbow Dash took flight, weaved through anti-air fire, and successfully snatched the hat from General Rainbow Dash and returned to her camp unharmed. This was also a morale victory, but was not a success that significantly changed the tide of battle.
Unequal recruitment and breakdown of order edit
Recruits to both side continued to join, but the numbers were unequal on the Rebel side. While there was widespread satisfaction with the legitimate government, and in reality, Princess Celestia enjoyed nearly universal approval, the day to day bureaucracy necessary to having a working government necessarily entailed some degree of frustration, making the allure of fighting back against it in a war game scenario appealing. As such, a greater number of ponies joined the Rebel side compared to the Loyalist side, and this more than anything created a strategic imperative to a quick victory by the Loyalists. However, with previous attempts failing to lead to ultimate victory, the tide was turning towards the Rebel side.
At this point, the Loyalists were joined by a unexpected participants. A very large contingent of cattle from Sweet Apple Acres arrived in a large stampede, charging through the Rebel fort, destroying it. None were harmed in the charge. However, the vibrations from the stampede severely leveled the makeshift berm on the Loyalist side, even though none of the cattle directly touched the berm, and when the charge was over, the snowfall was relatively flat all around.
Thus, neither side surrendered, and instead closed for close combat. However, no one wore uniforms or had any visible indication of faction loyalty, so fighting broke down into disorganized, one-on-one fighting with few ponies cooperating.
In this disorganized battle, Generals Rainbow Dash and Applejack found each other and began their own one on one fight with icicle swords. After several good hits on both generals didn't lead to either's surrender, the battle became one of attrition. With Rainbow Dash's nimbleness and her ability to fly, she was able to tire out Applejack faster than she herself was tired, and though they were both nearing exhaustion, it was Applejack who tired first. In her exhaustion she didn't notice a pothole, and tripped. She dropped her icicle sword and instinctively bit on anything to break her fall, and happened to bite Rainbow Dash's tail. Rainbow Dash fell from the sky on top of Applejack, to both of their embarrassment, and both sides agreed to a truce.
Aftermath edit
Fighting had already largely ceased between both sides to watch the battle between Rainbow Dash and Applejack, so when they stopped fighting, all fighting immediately ceased. Ponies of both side went to Sugar Cube Corner to rest and take refreshments while the generals sat down to see if an agreement could be met. General Applejack demanded the return of her hat. General Rainbow Dash agreed to the demand, but filled the hat with snow, such that when Applejack placed it upon her head, she was dowsed in melting snow, becoming wet. This angered her, and threatened to make the negotiations break down, but she stoically accepted the insult so there could be peace between them.
It was at this point that the assassin, Derpy Hooves, arrived. Derpy Hooves saw The Great Ponyville Snowball Fight during its initial recruitment phase, but rather than join immediately, she instead returned to her home to retrieve warmer clothes. When they were not forthcoming, and difficult to find, the battle was already resolved by the time she returned. As such, she entered Sugar Cube Corner as an unaligned participant. After learning a bit more about both sides, she decided that she was a "good pony" and declared her loyalty to the Loyalists. She then used the very same snow that Rainbow Dash had treacherously used to douse Applejack during negotiations to fashion a snowball, which she used to hit Rainbow Dash. Thus, the war game ended with ultimate victory for the Loyalists.
Legacy edit
The Great Ponyville Snowball fight was particularly notable for several reasons:
First, the large scale of the eventual conflicts. Snowball fights are common all across any area of Equestria that sees significant snow accumulation any part of the year, but are usually one on one affairs, or in small groups. It's very rare for a snowball fight to progress from a one on one battle or small team game into a full scale war game. Estimates of participation show that roughly 80% of all ponies within the town proper over the age of 5 created or threw at least one snowball during the duration of the conflict.
Second, the oddness of such an impromptu war game nonetheless remaining well-organized for most of its duration. Every indication found shows that there was nothing planned beyond Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie throwing some snowballs at their friends, and even the demand for milkshakes appears to have been spur of the moment. After large numbers of ponies joined both sides, support for the respective generals was unanimous, with no indication that one single pony was mutinous or insubordinate, and even the eventual collapse of order was the result of confusion and not revolt.
Third, the fair play of all participants. The Ponyville Hospital did not see one single extra patient that day directly related to the snowball fight. Despite the lack of overarching, real authority, nopony stuffed their snowballs with salt or rocks, nor overcompacted them to the point of being dangerous, or even continued to hit any surrendered ponies. In general, the more ponies added to such a large, uncoordinated effort would necessarily increase the chance that somepony would either accidentally get hurt or take the game too far in the name of "winning" and begin taking actions to ensure their victory beyond acceptable rules of battle. That nopony did so in the course of such a large scale wargame is, far and away, the most fascinating thing about The Great Ponyville Snowball Fight.