The first snowfall of the season, even if unseasonably early, was always a cause for celebration among students. While classes were rarely canceled, there were rare and opportune times when said snow would make its appearance on a weekend, such as today.

It wasn't a deep pile by any means, only a couple of inches, but it was certainly enough for the teenagers to engage in their favorite wintertime activity.

"Incoming!" Ruby squealed, sliding past in a flurry of rose petals.

Blake ducked her head back just in time to avoid yet another snowball thrown with pinpoint accuracy.

"For a blind man, Fox has rather impressive aim," she commented mildly.

"Uncanny, one might say," Pyrrha agreed.

Ruby huffed as she scrambled from where she'd ended up against a tree. She plopped herself next to the others behind their makeshift barricade. "Whelp, it's official," she stated cheerfully. "We're completely outnumbered."

"Is there nobody at all on our side?" the redhead asked incredulously.

"Oh, well, Yang and Weiss, but they're cut off." Ruby grinned widely. "Figured we'd leave them behind as a distraction while we flee with our lives."

"What?" Blake protested. "Retreat? Never!" The Cat Faunus poked her head up once more, but before she could fling the snowball in her fist, she flopped backwards from a direct hit to the forehead. "Ow," she murmured. "Nora has quite the arm."

Pyrrha edged around the other end of the snow-covered hedge. "We shall remember this treachery!" she called out to her team. She ducked back quickly as another barrage was sent her way.

"So, we fight to the bitter end?" Ruby asked.

"Naturally," Blake responded, sitting back up and brushing the snow from her hair. "Who exactly is opposing us?"

"Um… about half the school give or take?" Ruby replied sheepishly.

"What?" Pyrrha sputtered. "How did we get everyone against us like that?"

"I think it might have had a little to do with Yang," the brunette replied, rubbing the back of her neck.

Blake shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose as a projectile arced over her head, missing by a hair's breadth. "What did she do now?"

"Um, I think there was some boasting. Maybe some insults." Ruby chuckled nervously. "Personally, I think the mooning was a bit overboard, but she got a snowball up her butt, so that was funny."

Blake and Pyrrha snorted humorously. "Now that I would have paid good lien to see," the raven-haired girl chuckled.

"Pretty sure Weiss got it on camera." Ruby shook her head. "I don't ever want to hear from them again how weird they think our relationship is. So, ready for the plan?"

"Lead on, oh fearless one," Pyrrha declared.

"Right. We use Yang and Weiss as a distraction, and run."

"No retreating," Blake reminded her.

"Okay, then, we use them as a distraction and then charge headlong into certain death?"

"That's more like it!"

Nodding resolutely, Ruby peeked over the hedge. "Yang, Weiss! You guys still alive?"

"Naturally," Weiss called back merrily.

"Heya Rubes, figured you lot would have abandoned us by now!" Yang cheered.

"What? Never!" Ruby protested, ignoring the scolding looks from her girlfriends. "We're gonna go with plan C soon, though! You ready?"

"Wait, what was plan A?" her partner yelled back.

"That was when we all ran away like cowards!"

"Oh. What about B?"

"We sacrifice you to the Beowolves and then just us hightail it."

"I thought you were not ever going to abandon us?" Weiss shouted back accusingly.

"And that's why we're doing C!" Ruby reassured her. "Ready?"

"Ready!" her blonde sister hollered back.

"On Banzai!" Ruby began. "Ready, set…"

"Banzai!" five voices exclaimed as they hurtled themselves around their barriers, snowballs in hand and giggling enthusiastically.

Ruby sped back and forth, scooping up and flinging snowy projectiles as she went, making up in volume what she lacked in accuracy. Pyrrha added to the suppressing fire, darting from tree to tree on the way to their objective. Blake would allow her shadow clones to absorb several hits as she skipped out of the way of each powerful throw from Yatsuhashi, who seemed to be intent on bringing the Cat Faunus down.

Across from them, Yang and Weiss advanced side-by-side. The blonde was blazing brightly, her semblance melting away the incoming fire but still managing to soak her, while the heiress kept glyphs up and moving to intercept thrown snowballs.

"Weiss!" the brunette shouted. "Hit 'em!"

With an anticipatory grin, Weiss crouched down behind Yang, resting her hand on the ground while clutching a shard of ice dust. The snow in the vicinity was thrust upwards from a massive white glyph, magnifying in size until it was deflected outward by yet another glyph. The artillery barrage was relentless, providing enough of a break for Ruby, Pyrrha, and Blake to advance to a dubious shelter right at the edge of the snowy battlements erected by the opposing army.

"Okay!" Ruby cheered. "We'll cover while you move up, okay guys?" She paused when there was no answer. "Um, guys?"

"I think we've been used," Pyrrha sighed, noting a distinct absence of either blonde or platinum-haired girls.

"Dust-damn-it-all, that was plan F!" Ruby yelled irritably. "We weren't even past D yet!"

"That's because nobody wanted plan D," Blake sighed, curled up into a little ball to avoid the projectiles now coming in fast and furious. "You were the only one who liked plan D."

"How can you say that?" Ruby exclaimed. "Plan D was awesome!"

"And would have closed the school for a month," Pyrrha interjected.

"Pfft, nah, only if it went wrong. What could have gone wrong?"

She cheerfully ignored the level glares the other two girls sent her way.

"Okay, well, I think we should go for it. C is a bust."

"Ruby…" Blake implored.

"Nope, I'm goin' for it." Without further ado, Ruby whipped out her weapon in sniper rifle form, grabbing an unstable uncut shard of ice dust from her pocket. She flung the shard upwards, stepping out to fire when it was precisely over the heads of their opponents.

Of course, as soon as she emerged, she was struck by a barrage of highly-accurate and hard-hitting snowballs, sending her flailing backwards and knocking Crescent Rose out of her hands.

The sputtering brunette sat up, shaking the snow from her hair, and just in time to see her shard on a return trajectory, thrown by a smirking Velvet. Ren was at her side, one of his paired guns raised and tracking the projectile steadily.

"Oh, kittens," she murmured.

Perhaps it wasn't all that great an idea after all.

While the outcome of plan D wasn't as drastic as previously predicted, it was still fairly disastrous for the three girls. They were eventually extracted from the massive snowdrift, none the worse physically, though each were thoroughly disgruntled.

An apologetic note left behind in their room informed them that Yang and Weiss had decided to spend the evening in town, at least allowing them to warm each up once more in their most favorite way.

A/N: Not as epic a snowball fight as that from Yuletide Lemonade, but pretty decent nonetheless.

In other news, gotta give a mention to OverDude12 who wrote a spin-off of this fluffy crack ship called A Violin for Three, it's taking place around the girl's third year and features Pyrrha as a violinist. First chapter was put up over the weekend, go take a peek!

Much love for my intrepid reviewers! And I do apologize for not responding to many reviews this time, I do appreciate all of them though! Nicodemus Cain, Mariticide, RealTerminal, THB4, .509994, Boombox94, kaiju62, ILikeHotDogs, Dragonsoul1, FelipeCH98, Marauderby, Reaper Whisper, MakaS0ul, Jack Inqu, Lover of Fluff (appropriate username is appropriate), Herofire, Heil96, The Reader of Fanfiction, Gorsouul. Hugs for all of you!

Oh, and one more thing - we just hit 1000 reviews this morning! Woohoo! Virtual golden cookie for Gorsouul who was the lucky one to tip the scales!

Stay shiny!