Canterlot Academy Trials

Once practice was over, all of the students would exit the dojo and begin to walk on their way home along a patch of dirt road that led away from the dojo and to the paved roads of the inner city of Abyssinia itself. Among them, a few students followed Laurent. The latter barely managed to escape the ire of several other students who tried to shove his head in one of the toilets.

At first, he was relieved once he managed to sneak onto the path that led back into the city. That is, until someone familiar approached him. "Okay, okay...I'm safe--now I just gotta--fuck--"

“Nice going, Laurent,” a female tabby hissed at the male lynx as she followed him down the road, “My arms were killing me thanks to you.” She had mostly grey fur with a few black stripes, brown eyes, and stood tall above Laurent at five-feet and nine inches.

“Erm…” the lynx boy couldn’t really respond until a snow leopard girl popped up to defend him. Her body frame was rather thin and svelte with only minor curves around her hips with green eyes.

“Don’t be like that, Konija,” the leopard replied to the tabby, “You know it’s because Master Odu sucks for making us all suffer like that.”

Laurent--a lynx boy who stood at an average five feet tall with a rather thin, yet muscular build and blue eyes--interjected, “And to be completely fair, I was nervous as all hell okay?”

A black and white Cornish Rex tom would speak up. A bit beefier in terms of muscle than Laurent, he was about the same height with red eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t embarrass us alright? Sha’Beel represented Abyssinia in the Paladin Exams in Equestria. She’s working at the dojo and is a full-time student at one of those universities,” he hissed at Laurent, “If you were half as skilled as her, you wouldn’t be worthless dead weight.”

“...Okay Matthias, you’re really busting my whiskers here--” Laurent purred nervously as his ears flicked, “C-c’mon. It wasn’t that bad right, err…” he looked around for someone to back him up and glanced at a shorthair she-cat with a pair of glasses and a set of teeth braces, “...Southpaw! You don’t think it was that bad, right?”

Southpaw simply made a turn around the nearest corner and stormed into her suburban, single-story home, leaving Laurent with nothing.

“Aw c’mon! Besides, haven’t you heard the rumors?!”

The snow leopard girl tilted her head. “...rumors? What rumors?”

“Oh this oughta be good,” Matthias folded his arms and stood still to listen to what Laurent had to say. Konija did the same next to him.

Laurent flicked his tail and looked around before whispering to the group, “...I hear Master Odu is cooking up some weird magical performance enhancers that’ll allow him and a gang of other toms to wage war on Caninia and the diamond dogs.”

“...Uh-huh,” Konija looked at him with a doubtful expression, “And pray tell, how did you find this out, Lo?”

“I got an exclusive inside source,” he replied confidently before he let out a cough, “Ack!--snooping--ahem! Anyway, I hear he’s gonna fake an attack that’ll grant them permission to fight back with a bunch of magical, buff cat dudes!” he yelped as he flexed his left arm’s bicep and pointed to it with his right.

“...”

“...”

Matthias and Konija simply walked off without a word.

“Aw, come on!” Laurent hissed, “You’re gonna miss out on the best part!”

The snow leopard girl simply giggled. “...you’re suck a dork, Laurent. You know that?”

“Well at least you appreciate my efforts, Roo. You’re the best,” he added with a wide grin, commonly known as a ‘shit-eating’ one.

The leopard, whos name was Rooba, simply continued to giggle. “Someone has to put up with your insanity. But seriously, don’t go spreading those rumors. You never know what’ll happen if someone’s life is at stake because of them.”

Laurent simply walked along with his hands behind his head. “I’ll take my chances on that.

“...in the meantime, wanna go get some fried fish?” she offered with a nervous expression, but was relieved at his answer.

“Sure! I’ve been dying to get my paws on some tempura!”

A few days would pass. Once Fang and his team had gotten themselves prepared to depart, they got on a train that would take them East towards Abyssinia. On the ride there, they began to discuss what they knew thus far from within the confines of a rather sparsely populated train car.

“Alrighty. So what info do we have?” Rufus asked.

Fang took out the scroll that had the distress call from the goblin tribe written upon it. “Apparently, there’s a tiger man making some sort of trouble that only the goblins know about near the edge of Abyssinia.”

“Weird,” Spearklip commented with a shrug, “Why haven’t they just reported this to the Abyssinian council itself? They should be able to snuff out their own problems, right?”

That’s when Leelee spoke up with a nervous expression on her face. “...can I speak?”

“Hm?” Fang raised a brow and gave an inviting smile, “Oh…that’s right, this is our second mission together. Please, don’t be afraid to speak your mind, Lee.”

The monkey woman took a breath and went on. “...it’s possible that…any report would be stopped in its footsteps,” she explained as best she could, causing the group to nod in agreement, “...I know. Some messengers in Wukong would intercept warnings to the Emperor. They turned out to be spies working for other provinces.”

Spear hadn’t considered that and gave Lee props for her intuition. “That…actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it, Lee. If they had tried to inform the Abyssinian King and Queen, their efforts would likely have been snuffed out by this tiger guy.”

“Ohhh! That makes sense,” Rufus added as he tapped the side of his head, “Hence why the goblin folk are sending a report to us instead. You’re one smart monkey, Lee. I guess it makes sense since you come from where the ‘Art of War’ was written--great book.”

Lee blushed in response to the compliment. “T-thank you! Er…sorry I don’t speak your language so good…b-but I’m learning!”

“We’ll all have a lot to learn from the goblin tribe as well,” Fang added, “I could’ve sworn their numbers were nonexistent at this point. The fact that they’re still around is a miracle unto itself.”

Rufus stretched out his forelegs as he leaned back against this seat on the train, nearly backhanding the zebra mare next to him with his buff yak legs. “Welp, no use wondering about it. They’ll meet the Debonair King of Grappling soon enough.”

Spear couldn’t help but giggle into her hoof as she ducked under his leg. “...sure. We’ll go with that.”