Blizzard

by Tiaa OwO

Chapter One

Chapter One

Coach Mavis rolled his eyes and facepalmed. I kinda felt bad for him since what anypony or any human in our group did reflected him. Tsumi rolled her eyes and laid her ears back.

"You're an embarrassment to us all, Daphodil," she mumbled and sat on her haunches. Daphodil wilted a bit but quieted down. Glad that she had shut up but angered by Tsumi's insulting words towards her, I smacked Tsumi right upside her head and glared at her.

"By the moon, Sapling, have respect for your colleagues." I said.

"You want to take this to the fields, Note?" Tsumi growled, glaring right back at me. Ichigo snickered and Mitsuki sighed.

"Why do you two always have to-" Mitsuki was cut off by the voice of the other coach. It was Coach Starlight, a zebra and former assassin.

"I am Starlight, coach of Team Red. What is your name?"

"My name is Zuko. I'm a red-collar trainee," the boy stated quite proudly. I don't know if he noticed, but we were ALL red-collars here...except for the coaches, of course. They wore black collars.

"Welcome to the fields, young one. Where are you from?" She shook his hand and brushed a stray hair out of her face.

"I'm from northern Shu-Hanosa." he said. Everypony gasped. Shu-Hanosa was far away. So far, in fact, that one would think that he'd go to a training facility in that region. Tsumi frowned and shared a look with Ichigo. I knew that they were thinking the same thing.

There was no way this guy came that far just to train here. Something was up, and something important.

I watched Zuko continue to introduce himself. His greeting was proper and respectful, just like we were taught; say your name, rank, and reason for presence but he had a strange haughtiness that I'd never seen in trainees. It intrigued me.

After the coaches got everypony calmed from the sudden addition to our ranks, all the trainees from all three teams (Red, Blue, and Green), were herded towards the fields at last to train. Daphodil was going against some chubby redhead boy from Team Blue and I was against a tall, blonde guy from Team Red. Coach Starlight, Mavis, and Gavrostle (he was a griffon from Terras ventosa, the first region, and former spy for the Darkling) blew their whistles, signaling that the training had officially begun.

The boy and I circled each other slowly and sized each other up. He cocked his head as he tried to guess something about me, how strong I was, probably. I studied his movements and the way he seemed to focus on his strategy to find a weakness before we fought. I batted my eyelashes and said, "Well, if you wanted to ogle me, why didn't you just ask?"

"Hardy har har, missy," he rolled his eyes and stopped in his tracks. I did the same. "If ah wanted ta, ah woulda eyed ya from afar." I smiled and swished my tail in glee. I could tell he was from Aequaliter Nubila from his Aequalitan accent.

"You're Aequalitan!" The boy smiles and laughed.

"Yes'm. Ma momma brought me right on up here when I was jus' a young'n. Ma name's Gavin by tha way. Can ya guess what ma skillset is?"

"My name's Sparkling Note," I eyed him a moment, thinking his question over, before shaking my head. "I dunno. What is it?"

Gavin took on a stance that suggested he was about to spring foreword. I took a step back and prepared myself to fight. "Hand-to-hand combat!" He charged at me with a speed I wasn't used to when dealing with humans and swung his right fist to my side. I dodged and charged, aiming a head butt to his lower stomach. He dodged and laughed. "Chargin' me like sum bull won't slow me, missy."

"Alright then," I rose to my hind legs and gave him a mischievous smile. "Let's fight your way." Gavin grinned and threw a left hook. I dodged and did a sloppy uppercut. Gavin smiled and did two punches, one from the left and one from the right. I managed to narrowly dodge both but didn't see the third one coming, aiming for my side. I stumbled a little, blushing at my clumsiness, and flared my wings.

I did two jabs from both directions and a swift side-kick, catching him on his upper arm and the side of his leg. I tried another kick but he saw that coming and grabbed my hind leg. One tug made me lose my balance and fall on my flank. He placed his boot at the base of my neck gently and smiled cockily. "One point fer me."

"That was fun. One more time?" I asked with a smile. He chuckled and and offered me a hand. I took it and stood up on all fours. So, I needed practice with my hoof-to-hoof (or in that case, hoof-to-hand) combat...that's what these sparring drills were for.

"Love a gal who can take a fall with a smile." he said. I smiled some at the compliment and narrowed my eyes.

"And I love a human who can't see this coming." I rose up on my hind legs and flapped my wings. I lifted a few feet off the ground and did a spin-kick. I hit Gavin square in his chest, sending him stumbling back a few feet and while he involuntarily doubled over from the blow, I charged him and knocked him onto his back.

"Gah!" he yelped when I landed on his chest and placed my hoof at the base of his throat. I smiled and blew a few loose strands of hair out of my face.

"How do you love me, now?" I taunted playfully. Gavin blinked before he started to shake with laughter and patted me on the head. I was taken aback by the sudden gesture but began to laugh with him.

"That was fun." he managed to get out through pants and giggles. "Ah wouldn't mind sparring again next time. Maybe we can even be partners next time we go on one o' them practice missions."

"I wouldn't mind that." I helped him up and gave him a small smile. "But...for now do you wanna just...go at it again? I kinda need to work on my hoof-to-hoof-"

"Hoof-ta-hand, missy. And yessir, I'd love ta do that again." We both smiled and got into fighting stances. Gavin crouched, as if he was going to pounce, but before I could formulate some plan or strategy, a dagger flew past my nose and landed only a few inches from Gavin's hand. He stared at the dagger, wide eyed. "That almost hit ma hand!"

"I wonder who threw it..." I murmured before Coach Gavrostle stomped up to us and checked us over.

"Are you two alright?" he asked, then bellowed, "Who threw that?"

"Sorry, Coach, it was one of mine." a brown-haired boy from Team Blue called out.

"He threw it but I knocked it back. I didn't realize it would go that far." a girl with a ponytail from my team, Team Green, added. "Sorry, you two." Gavin and I shrugged in response.

"Alright, trainees," Coach Starlight yelled out. "Few minutes more and we'll be done for the day. You all did well. Remember to take your weakness into mind and work on it. If you guys keep up the good work, we just might schedule another practice mission. Sound good?"

All three teams cheered and comtinued with their sparring. I decided it was best to show Gavin a few moves to let him know that while I was a little shaky in close-combat, I could certainly make up for it. He was busting a few moves too, doing a couple of fancy jump-kicks to impress. We continued like that for the rest of the remaining time.

All three teams cheered and comtinued with their sparring. Gavin looked to our right and raised a brow. Wanting to see what he was looking at, I turned and looked too and smiled.

Zuko and a boy from Team Red were going against Daphodil and her sparring partner. Other trainees stopped to watched too. He was...he was pretty cool! He managed to score a point by kicking the nosy feet out from under him and placing a boot on his chest.

"Two to one, pal." Zuko smirked and the boy blinked.

"Again?" the boy asked, a hint of shyness in his voice. Zuko smiled more and helped him up.

"Meh... I don't see why not."

I chuckled and turned to Gavin. He smiled and asked, "He's a natural. Ah reckon he'll be goin' with us ta that practice mission."

"I think so too." I got back into a fighting stance, Gavin mirroring me. "Now, where were we?"

When the coaches blew their whistles, Gavin and I were dead tired. We'd both gotten quite a few bruises and I knew we would both be sore in the morning. We parted ways and I hurried to catch up with Daphodil, who was waving to the redhead boy. We began to walk and on ourway to the rooms, Daphodil was talking my ear off, ranting about her excitement about fighting the redhead boy. I didn't pay attention, my mind occupied on the new arrival.

He and Tsumi were the last ones to finish and he had some pretty weird methods. While I didn't mind that, he and Tsumi seemed to be talking nonstop on top of that. I've never seen her talk to somepony that long without rolling her eyes or making a sarcastic comment. After mulling this over, I decided to voice what was on my mind.

"Daph, you think there's something off about that boy?"

"What? No." my talkative friend gave me an odd look. "Why? Do you?"

"Well, he's odd one."

"Huh?"

"You know, the new guy, what's-his-face?"

"You think I'm weird?" a masculine voice purred behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. He was right behind us and had a mischievous smile on his lips. Tsumi and Ichigo were trailing behind him with looks of curiousity.

"Oh, I didn't know you were standing so close..." I mumbled.

"Do you always talk about people behind their backs?"

"Not just people," I clarified, which took him by surprise. "I was just saying that you're not like the others. Nothing to trigger a fight or anything."

"I'd love to see you fight, sugar." Daphodil giggled. I smiled at her and shook my head.

"You shouldn't talk about anybody or anypony behind their backs." Zuko stated.

"Why not?" Daphodil asked for me, seeing my confusion.

"Because it hurts feelings and causes unessisary tension between people and ponies."

"Nobody cares if you say stuff about them. Watch this." I turned and yelled, "HEY, YOU!" A zebra colt and male griffin turned my way and gave me strange looks.

"YOU SUCK!" The two glanced at each other and gave me a blank look. They shrugged and walked on. Zuko stared in disbelief.

"Nothing? Maybe those two just don't care..." he mumbled. Tsumi and Ichigo shrugged.

"Trainees don't express disdain for such petty things, sugar." Daphodil explained. "Who has time to sit here and care about feelings?"

"Feelings," I scoffed. "If I cared for feelings, I would get upset every time Tsumi called me stupid or idiot."

"Yea," Daphodil agreed. "And she says that just about every day." She started to walk away to find Mitsuki and I followed with a chuckle. Feelings. Don't make me laugh. If that was the case, half of us would be writhing with depression over what that stupid earthquake did five years ago.

To be continued...