Author's Note

Happy Hearth's Warming and anything else you may celebrate, everyone! Here's one more gift for all my readers, one of those handmade works that has more care and effort than perfect quality. Hope you've all had a great day and continue to do so after reading this.

Chapter 5 - Hoof to Hoof

January 3rd

For the first time in several days, sunshine was breaking through the dark skies over Canterlot. The air was still absolutely freezing and the Hearth's Warming spirit was starting to wear off, but the sight of sunlight filtering through the clouds and bathing the city in shimmering light was managing to lift everypony's spirits. It even seemed to match Rainbow Dash's mood. After the somewhat rocky start that Task Force Harmony had gone through, she had managed to get a pretty good idea of what each of her new teammates were like. Despite how some of them clashed, every one of them was here because they were skilled enough to stand among the best of the best in their areas of expertise. Even Aurora had to capable of holding his own if he was here.

The team had now settled into their new quarters, a four bunk room in the Royal Guard barracks, and were finally ready to start working together. Cipher had spend most of the opening days ensuring that he could go ahead with his various training plans and this was the first time he was free to put them into action. A spot had been booked in the center of the EDF Headquarters' training grounds and the team was making their way out there, doing their best to shrug off the cold, not helped by the air being cooler in the shadow of the castle and two-inch thick snow on the ground. Part of being a solider meant being able to work in any weather conditions and this was nothing compared to the artic lands of the Crystal Empire, so nopony complained. Besides, several other teams were out training already, though the sight of such a varied unit coming out among them was drawing the attention of those not engaged in active training.

"Alright ponies, hope you're all warmed up!" Cipher told the others as he moved in front of them, shaking some snow off his hoof. "I've read all your dossiers and I've got a good idea of how most of you'll fare in combat, but I want to get a first hoof evaluation and give your teammates a chance to study your style. So today, we're opening with one-on-one duelling. No magic or flight allowed though, this is a test of how well you handle with just your hooves. All fights will be to either bringing your opponent off their hooves and to the floor, or to first blood, no disabling blows of any kind either. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" Six voices chanted in unison.

"Good! Alright, Aurora and Healing Wave, as the rookies in this area, you're up first!"

Aurora swallowed his nerves and nodded, stepping out onto a cleared thirty by thirty foot patch of earth that served as the central arena of the grounds. Healing Wave took the edge opposite him, never taking her narrowed eyes off him the whole time. She hadn't said a word to him since they'd first met so he had no idea why she had such issues toward him. It was lucky it was cold out here, he could pass off his shaking from the thought that everypony was going to watch him fight as just shivering. The final moments of calm before the storm gave him time to take a breath and think, remembering everything his father had taught him about melee combat while he could.

'Step one: Try to remember the basics at all times. Step Two:..'

Cipher stomped his hoof as the signal for them to begin and Wave immediately charged forward with a war cry. Aurora braced himself, watching her movements closely. Once she closed to ten feet he gritted his teeth and counter charged, trusting that the number of times he'd been put through training would make his responses instinctual. Wave pulled herself back and brought her front left hoof round for a rapid punch, only for it to make contact with nothing but air as Aurora stopped and shifted his body weight. Rolling with the momentum, he brought his own hoof up in and threw an uppercut that nailed her square in the chest. Wave staggered back, growling slightly before pressing the attack again, trying to keep him off balance. Aurora kept on playing defensively in return, either bobbing and weaving around the flurry of hooves or parrying them away.

"Two bits on Aurora. Any takers?" Water Flare commented as she watched from the sidelines. drawing looks from everypony around her.

"...Right now? Really?" Cipher replied flatly, never taking his eyes off the action the whole time.

"Do, we even need to say what's wrong with that?" Flash Sentry commented. Cipher stayed silent for a few moments before looking back at them with a small grin.

"Yeah, everypony knows bets are invalid once the event's begun."

Aurora grunted as Wave's hoof made contact with his right cheek, sending him sideways and almost knocking him off his hooves. He'd just about managed to roll with the punch quickly enough to stay standing though. An adrenaline reaction kicked in and his legs shook as he pushed all his weight off from the move to counter-attack, bringing his horn down. Wave found herself unable to evade completely and instead threw herself into a full body tackle. The two collided with a fierce impact, the more off-balance Aurora being brought down and skidding through the dirt. Wave smirked at her seeming victory before wincing and looking down, realising that his horn had managed to pierce her left shoulder in the initial impact, barely deep enough to do any damage, but a bleeding injury all the same.

"That's a tied match!" Cipher called, stepping into the arena and going to help Aurora up.

"A tie?! Seriously?" Wave commented, unable to hide her frustration as she treated her injury, the yellow aura of her horn bathing her shoulder and closing the cut up after several seconds.

"Well, if you want to get technical, Aurora's horn hit you before he hit the ground. But if you want a draw instead of a loss..." Cipher clarified before looking down, noting that the stallion was slow in getting up. "Hey, buddy, you still alive?"

"Yeah, I-I'm here," Aurora confirmed as he got up, taking a hoof Cipher offered him to do so. "So...How did I do?"

"Well, your aggressive tactics need some work, and an ability to press the advantages you made. But your defensive movements were top notch all the way through. You've got soul, kid."

"That a joke about my talent, sir?" Aurora's voice carried a thin hint of nerves as he said that and he quickly moved to re-join the others.

"More an idea for your nickname, give it some thought," Cipher replied simply, grinning more as he moved back off the field with Wave. "Wave, you kept on your hooves alright, but when we're on a mission, facing the real thing, you need to fight with focus and brains too. Going by your heart alone is gonna get you killed. We'll discuss it in detail later. Ok, next up, Rainbow Dash and Water Flare!"

Flare's eyes widened slightly at that and she hesitated for a second before following her idol onto the dirt. By now several of the other units on the grounds had finished up and were starting to gather round the central arena, watching with interest. As soon as the two were in place, Cipher stomped for them to start. Water Flare had a fleeting moment to wonder if he was deliberately keeping anypony from betting on this like she had before focusing in on the task at hoof. The two combatants rushed each other, both throwing a punch at the same time before instinctively throwing their attacking hoof up to block. Rainbow's left hoof met Flare's right and the two locked together, Flare wrapping her hoof around Rainbow's and using her earth pony strength to drive her opponent backward.

Rainbow saw the danger and pushed herself left, pulling her hoof down to break the deadlock. Flare recovered her posture and swung her body round, aiming to use her back leg out to try and knock Rainbow's legs from under her. The pegasus simply jumped the attack and used the landing to rush in and get underneath her opponent. A unicorn or pegasus would have been thrown off as she pushed her head up into Flare's underside, though with her comparative bulk, the earth pony was simply staggered. As she moved back to try something else, Flare turning to do the same gave her a moment to catch the look in her eyes, a glint of worry showing. Flare shook her head slightly and charged again, swinging round and bucking with her back legs.

Rainbow barely dodged the incoming hooves, close enough to feel the wind rush against her fur. She remembered the follow up that had been trained into her and gripped her front hooves around the nearest leg, bracing for the downward movement soldiers were trained to use as a counter to this. To her surprise, Flare yanked her leg forward instead, nearly flooring Rainbow with the momentum alone. The earth pony came back onto the offensive as soon as her hooves were back on the ground, throwing a punch that caught her opponent in the right shoulder. She'd put too much effort into the strike though, leaving herself open for Rainbow to bring her body round with the hit and knock Flare's back leg out from under her. The move went exactly as planned and Flare yelped as she went down on her side, kicking up a small dust cloud on the landing.

"And Crash takes it!" Cipher called, waiting a minute as the gathered crowd cheered the result and Rainbow helped Flare up. "Saw some unorthodox stuff in there, both good and bad. Water Flare? Want to explain what happened?"

"I err...I...Panicked. Sorry, sir" Flare admitted, getting a sigh from Cipher as they moved off the field.

"This is what I was talking about, you never give up but your cracking under pressure...We'll talk about it during private training," He stopped on noticing the downtrodden look she had after that. "Hey, come on, you almost won even like that, against Rainbow Dash. Not just anypony could do that."

"Yeah, I mean I was expecting you to go down, not forward. I came this close to losing it right there." Rainbow panted, getting a smile out of Water Flare for it.

"Ok you two, take a breather. Flash Sentry, Bulwark, your turn!" Cipher watched as the last two members of the team made their way out onto the arena.

"Ten bits on Flash!" Aurora called before anypony could stop him, pausing for a moment as he looked round nervously at that outburst. To his surprise, the only laughs that came from it were all good natured.

"...You know what, I'll take you up on that. Ten on Bulwark." Cipher replied, his tone cheery as he looked back to the training ground. Aurora chuckled slightly and folded his ears back, trying not to look too concerned.

Cipher stomped his hoof and the final two combatants engaged. As everypony watching had expected, Flash went on the offensive first but despite his lightning attack speed, any hits he landed were shrugged off by the far more durable Bulwark. The earth pony did keep moving though, parrying and dodging as much as he could while he shifted the fight around the whole length of the arena. After a full minute of this stalemate, Bulwark put himself with his back to the others and switched up his tactics, trying to get a firm hold on Flash and using his overbearing strength to bring him down and finish the job. The pegasus was nimble enough to avoid the worst of it, though an unlucky overhead strike caught him on his back, hard enough for everypony watching to know that it would leave quite a bruise.

As soon as he heard the grunt coming from Flash, Cipher tensed himself and charged into the arena before anypony could react. Bulwark's ear twitched as he heard the sudden addition to the duel and tensed himself. Cipher's strike hit square in the back of his leg but did little more than knock it a few inches out of place. He didn't even blink at the intrusion, simply moving round to face both his opponents at once.

"Thought one-on-one was too easy?" He commented simply, keeping calm in the wake of becoming outnumbered.

"Well, I have make sure that you and me get a proper workout in too." Cipher replied, flexing a hoof.

"Thank you sir, this is going to be interesting." Flash said before redoubling his attacks. Cipher followed him in, only for his swing to be blocked and pushed back against with such force that it nearly knocked him on his flanks.

Bulwark grinned and advanced for the first time. His tactics had changed from before, changing out his parries to counters, trying to use his opponents' momentum against them. With both Cipher and Flash coming for him though, he had to keep moving as they tried to flank or blindside him. It kept things interesting for the crowds though, more than a few actively cheering for Bulwark now. Those cheers grew as he got his head under an attack from Flash and launched the pegasus a clear ten feet in the air. Whether Flash kept to the no flight rule because he'd remembered or because he was too disoriented was up for debate, but he only flared a wing open at the last second to shift into a position where he would land on his hooves.

"This isn't working," He muttered as he balanced himself, watching as Cipher came to his side. "Any ideas, boss?"

"Go left a second after me, you'll see the opening." Cipher replied before going on the attack again. Swinging to Bulwark's left side, he spun round and aimed to buck out his leg. As expected, Bulwark threw himself into a heavy counter blow, catching his commander under the back legs and flipping him over in a half somersault to hit the ground on his back. He turned his head to face his remaining opponent...Straight into Flash's incoming hoof.

The hit landed squarely on the right side of his muzzle, snapping his head sideways with painful speed and leaving his left legs trembling as he fought to stay standing. Flash came down from the attack and took several steps backward, bracing himself for any follow up movements. Cipher watched as he got back to his hooves, prepared to move out of the way due to being eliminated from the fight. For several seconds, nopony moved at all. Eventually Bulwark raised his head and grinned, wincing slightly as he did. The hit had done its job and he was bleeding from the muzzle rather badly. He simply trotted forward and offered a hoof to Flash, who took and shook it.

"I think I have to concede this one," Bulwark said. "Cipher wasn't part of the original fights' rules so his downing shouldn't count."

"That's good of you," Cipher commented as he motioned for Healing Wave to come out and treat them. "Flash Sentry takes the win!"

"Yes!" Aurora cheered from the sidelines, pumping a hoof in triumph. Although several of the ponies around him gave accepting chuckles at that, he quickly quietened down and looked away, folding his ears in.

"Yes kid, you won the bet," Cipher told him reassuringly before looking at the rest of the team. "Ok everypony, I saw some good work out there. We'll go over everypony's fighting styles in our quarters, meet there in fifteen. Dismissed!"

As the team saluted and began to head back inside, along with most of the crowd, Rainbow Dash thought about what she'd seen out there. There'd be time to go over the fighting in her head later, right now she was more interested in Aurora. He'd been quick to close down what had been genuinely good moments with his teammates and she couldn't figure why. She'd expected him to be all for as much friendliness with other ponies as he could, considering his mother was the Princess of Love and all. Though she decided against pressing him on the matter for now, she decided on the spot that she was going to find out just what he was thinking.