The Art of Organised Cheating Part 1

The next day kinda takes you by surprise. You awaken to the sight of Lyra, Colgate, and Trixie hovering over you with certain expressions varying from disgust to worry.

“Good…morning?” You say cautiously. They don’t respond in words.

“Should we tell her?” Colgate whispers to Trixie.

“Tell me what?” You ask, worried now.

Suddenly, a hairy leg approaches your field of vision. Trixie’s eyes widen, Colgate leaves, and Lyra puts her hooves over her mouth. You can feel something crawling on your face. Your brain is telling you what it is, but your mind is trying it’s hardest to ignore the thought. Trixie levitates the thing off your face and out the window in a flash, but you know what it was.

“S-spider…” you manage to stutter.

“It’s all right.” Trixie tries to reassure you. “Trixie has banished it to the streets.”

You all check the time and realize you’re up at a good time. Surprisingly. It’s currently 7:12, but the testing doesn’t begin until 8:00.

You all head into town where the tests are being distributed. You can see the scholars from far and wide along the way. You can tell they’re here for the tests since they’re all walking drearily with pencils in their possession. (Even though pencils are supplied.)

“WHAT?!” You hear one yell. It startles you and your group. The scholar seems to be reading a piece of paper her got from a kiosk across the street. Out of curiosity, you decide to check it out.

Upon approaching the kiosk, you notice it’s devoted to the testing. There are lists and schedules involving the tests. You hastily grab one and find out it features each subject being tested.

At first, you think this is good news, until you realize how screwed you are.

“Read the tests out loud, Twilight Sparkle.” Trixie asks rather demandingly.

“Um… The tests will be on Greek Language mechanics.” You begin slowly. “The introduction test will challenge you on the basic understanding of the language. The conversation test focuses on the conversations and slang. The contemporary usage test will challenge you on your knowledge of Modern Greek and will have you compare and contrast modern from classical. Finally, there will be the grammar test, which will test your abilities on Greek writing and sentence structures.”

It’s a bit silent for a minute.

“Dóntia.” Colgate says randomly.

Everypony looks at her.

“It’s the only Greek word I remember how to say.”

“What does it mean?” Lyra asks.

“Teeth.” You say matter-of-factly.

“At least my Grammar is good.” Colgate says as she lowers her head to the ground.

“Trixie can hold a conversation in Greek.” Trixie says. “But she doesn’t know any of the grammar.”

“I only know that really, really old Greek.” Lyra says. “Some of my favorite song lyrics are in classic Greek, but I have no idea how to speak contemporary.”

You sigh audibly. “I’m pretty good with Greek,” You begin to say, “but I don’t know how to properly speak it to anypony, so I’m geared to fail the conversation test.”

You all look at each other worriedly.

“We need to do something, or we’re gonna fail and lose our jobs!” Colgate says.

Help each other study their weak points.

Suggest cheating as a joke.