We were in the period following the great rains of ArmorGames:
The following section was written by Cenere. Records of events may diverge slightly depending on source.
"Strop."
Strop landed on the street with an almost silent clip-clop from his hooves.
"Strop."
And continued his journey down the road in a slower pace than on the rooftops.
"Strop!"
"Oh, Cenny Cen Cen, didn't see you there." He smiled widely behind the mask, though slightly confused. "There is no work to do today, is there?"
The young man shook his head with a tired expression, not even caring enough to get his usual glare up and running. "Not today. I just need to ask you something. Two things to be exact."
"Oh, that is why you dress like a hobo again?" Strop whinney'd at his own joke, as the only one.
"... Anyway. You know, you kinda said I would be paid for this - job, and I would really want some of the money now." A rarely heard pleading tone hovered around the words.
Strop just looked at him, still with the same wide smile. A bit like he didn't quite understand what Cen was asking.
"Yeah, thought so... There was this kid who wanted to report some harassment this morning, and I said I would get a mod to loo-"
"You do that." Strop turned around, and continued his walk down the street.
"...What...?"
"Yeah, I'm sure you can handle a little conflict. It builds character."
"...What??"
"AND AWAY!!!" Nothing but a cloud of dust and a pony of straw was left.
--
Strop sighed and rolled over, staring out the window with a distant gaze. Something was troubling him, and while he was quite tired, he was unable to fall asleep. Was it leaving Cen like that? Nah, it probably was nothing important anyway, he was capable of sounding so uptight that people got scared out of doing that kind of things, and Strop had been busy. There was so much to arrange with the trials now they were nearing their end. Observing the people left and make sure they didn't run for it, figure out to keep the secret of the next trial without it being obvious. It should be a surprise to them after all, so no one could meet up prepared. There was no trying if they were prepared. Then they would just be showing off, he thought to himself, nodding his head slightly.
And it did seem he had accounted for everything through these last rounds. If the trio would just keep out of it, it might even roll nicely.
But somewhere in his mind he had a doubt. Some little thing he had not kept in mind.
Elsewhere.
"MWAHAHAHAHAAA!"