The Art of Organised Cheating Part 1

“Why don’t we just cheat?” You chuckle. “But seriously, we should study our weak points with each other.”

Everypony is looking at you with mixed emotions.

“The …cheating idea doesn’t seem too bad.” Colgate says sheepishly.

“WHAT?!” You shout, halting some ponies walking down the street. You blush, then switch your outburst into a whisper. “You know cheating could get you jail time!” You hiss.

“I know, but-”

“Minuette!”

“What other choice is there?!” Colgate now looks flustered. “I love my job as a dentist. If my boss finds out that I failed a test that I passed as a filly, I’m finished.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that she looked like she was about to cry, you would have argued with Colgate further.

“Hey,” You and the rest of the group try to comfort her. “It’s okay. It’s just…cheating isn’t much of a safe option. Besides, If you fail one of these tests today, it can’t hurt you too much. This may just be the worse of it.”

You notice that the testing committee is now distributing free breakfast to the test takers.

“Trixie suggests we discuss this over our meal.” Trixie says.

“Agreed.” Lyra says as she ambles down the inclined street.

Not too long after, you and the girls find a nice shady spot on under a balcony to eat breakfast. You’re shooting off ideas on how to get past this test, all excluding cheating when Trixie speaks up.

“How’s the Princess, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Um.” You’re not really sure how to respond to the mundane, off-topic question. “Fine?”

“You still study under her?”

“Yes. Yes I do.”

Trixie sips her drink nonchalantly before continuing. “I wonder what she would think if she found out you can’t communicate with her in her natural tongue.”

“Wha-” you can feel yourself blush. “What do you even mean by that?!”

“Well, Celestia is going to look at your test and feel pretty heart broken when she sees a low score on the Greek conversation test. I can speak Latin perfectly with Princess Luna, and she taught me YEARS ago.”

You’re feeling a little upset, but you can’t help but feel Trixie is right. It’s one of Celestia’s jobs to teach the foals born in the daytime Greek. Luna should teach the night-born foals Latin. And ever since Luna’s banishment, foals are very rarely born during the nighttime, leaving Luna with only a hoof-full of foals to care for, making it harder for Celestia to teach Greek.

She has, however, made quite the effort of teaching her magic kindergarten students Greek. Twilight was able to speak full Greek sentences before she could even write in English. If Twilight fails any of these tests today, it would disappoint the princess quite a bit. Make her feel less valued.

“Um, I guess that’s true.” You admit, until you realize what Trixie is doing. You don’t appreciate it at all.

“Trixie thinks cheating on this one little test wouldn’t hurt.” Trixie takes a nibble of her muffin, then sets it aside as it probably didn’t really appeal to her tastes. “It would be easy. We could pull it off.”

“NO!” You shout dramatically, slamming your hoof on the table and knocking a juice box over. Trixie doesn’t even flinch as she stares at you with a bored look. “Do you know the consequences of cheating?!” You’re whispering now, especially that last word.

“Imprisonment.” Trixie said blatantly.

“Correct! I believe that’s worse than having the princess realize I can’t speak Gre-”

You suddenly notice everything got quiet. Trixie is looking behind you with her mouth agape, and Colgate seems to be mirroring her. Lyra is too engrossed in her breakfast to notice anything, but when she looks up, she bows.

You turn around and meet with the glorious, long-flowing mane of Princess Celestia. Your heart jumps into your throat, then drops into your stomach.

“Καλημέρα!” She says joyfully.

You know for a fact that ‘Kalimera’ means Good morning, but you can’t find yourself the proper response.

“Καλημέρα…” You settle with, nervously.

“είστε?” She asks you informally.

She’s asking how you are, but you have no idea how to respond. You don’t know why. You know the word for ‘good,’ and ‘nervous.’ You can write it. You can read it. You can even say it, but something in your mind doesn’t want to believe it’s ‘conversationally’ correct.

“I’m fine.” You say with a blush.

“Well Twilight, I expect the highest of scores in today’s testing from you.” She says in English. “I just came down here to announce everypony luck. Πρέπει να φύγω. Αντίο, and Καλή τύχη!” She chuckles.

All those words as they were spoken together, you have no idea what was just said. However, Colgate, Lyra, and Trixie all say ‘thank you’ in Greek so you follow their lead.

Trixie looks at you with a smirk and judging eyes.

You blush violently and drop your head. “I don’t know how to cheat.” You admit. “They have armed guards everywhere. We’ll never be able to tell each other the answers. Not even telepathically.”

The guards are trained to detect and follow any magical communication techniques such as telepathy or using astral projection to look at other ponies’ answers. There really was no way to cheat the system.

“Pfft. You’re out of practice.” Trixie scoffs. “Luckily, I’m experienced in the field of cheating, forgery, gossip, slander, battery, blackmail, bribery, and social espionage.”

“There’s a field for being a bully?” You ask in a retorting manner.

Trixie realizes she’s boasting, and tries not to revert back to her old way. You can tell from her facial expressions.

“Yes, well… kinda.” She falters. “Point is, I know how to cheat. I was in quite the group back in college.”

You’re getting a bit impatient with Trixie. “What did you even study for?!”

“Dark Magic, Equestrian history, Alchemy, and Culinary. I have my magistri gradum in all of them.”

“Yet you decided to travel as a show pony showing off and making everypony feel lesser than you?” Your tone is harsh.

“Hey!” Lyra speaks up. “She’s trying to help us!”

“No worries.” Trixie says, keeping her eyes locked onto yours. “It’s not her fault. As I was saying, there is an easy way to cheat these tests today without the guards knowing a thing.”

You submit. You haven’t a choice anyway.

Trixie gets up from the table and throws away her trash very slowly. She scans the ground, but very subtly. You barely notice it. She comes back, and suddenly she’s holding 5 pebbles.

Trixie focuses her magic on the pebbles carefully. As this happens, Princess Celestia appears from her balcony. Her voice projects to the entire city.

“Welcome, test takers! I would like to humbly apologize for having you come here to re-take these exams. For some of you, this may be your first time. None the less, I am truly sorry for the inconvenience. However, I am thankful that you are all here to spend your time in Canterlot to take them. It means a lot to the Equestrian education systems. You are doing us a favor, and you are doing yourselves a favor.”

The princess continues her speech. You look back down at the pebbles and find that Trixie has transmuted the pebbles into other types of rock by means of magical alchemical transmutation. Trixie is sweating and looks exhausted, but she hasn’t changed her expression. It’s as if the only thing affecting her was the heat.

You’re staring at the rocks in awe. You’re highly impressed with Trixie’s magical alchemy skills, through you’re more of a traditional alchemist, and you’ve actually switched to practical chemistry altogether. It’s much simpler, and has less dark risks.

“-and without further adieu, I wish you all good luck on the exams!” The princess has finished her speech, and everypony applauds. There are only 5 minutes left for breakfast.

“Alright,” Trixie begins, levitating an orange rock in front of you.

“This is Argillite.” She sets the rock down and levitates the next.

“This is Breccia.” She lifts the next,

“This is a form of limestone we all know as chalk.” And the next, “This is dolomite,” and the last, “and this little guy is eclogite.”

Colgate and Lyra look confused, and so are you, but you don’t want Trixie to detect your confusion.

“You’re confused.” She saw right through you. “Here, notice how all these rock names begin with A,B,C,D, and E?”

The three of you take a second to remember, then nod.

“Well, I’ll just set these rocks on the ground behind a guard as we’re taking the test. Since each of us is stronger in a specific Greek subject than the next, we can communicate with the rocks by moving them with magic.”

“But won’t the guards see us using magic?” Colgate asked with her hoof raised, almost as if she were in school. The demonstration and test anxiety sure made it feel like one.

“Not if you’re using magic to write.” Trixie instructed. “If you’re levitating a pencil with magic, the guards won’t suspect a thing.”

Trixie’s plan is clever, but you still thought it was way too risky to conduct.

“So, Twilight Sparkle.” Trixie catches you attention. “Are you in?”

Follow Trixie’s plans(make these the link color)

Ignore Trixie’s pl-

Before you can make a decision, Breakfast is over. Ponies are rushing towards the center of town to get their test, then rushing out into the city streets to take their spots.

Lyra and Colgate are complaining about not remembering the names of the rocks, and Trixie is explaining that they’ll be in a line in alphabetical order.

The test podium is crowded, so it will be a while until you can receive your test. Unicorn guards are watching for anything suspicious. Trixie advises that they change the subject on their conversation.

In 12 minutes or so, you receive your test. Trixie advises that you should all take the tests near a rocky area where the stones may not be noticed. There will be a guard there, of course, but he won’t notice a thing.

“What if there are open ended questions?” Colgate asks worriedly. “Like, what if it asks you to write down the Greek word for ‘chocolate?’”

Trixie thinks for a moment.

“Just try your best.” She finally settles with.

You find an ally way between two buildings. It’s not too narrow, so it’s perfect. On one end is the inclined street leading down to the center of the city, and on the other end is a rocky wall with all kinds of stones and pebbles on it. A guard is standing in front of the rocky wall, watching the four of you.

You each take a seat, and the guard gruffly tells you to be silent and wait for further instruction.

Trixie trips on her cape and lands on her face. You all help her up when you realize she tripped on purpose to throw the rocks behind the guard.

“Are you alright, Trixie?” You say with a wink.

Trixie looks at you as if you’re stupid. “Don’t wink…” She whispers.

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