Thorax looked down at Starlight Glimmer and Spike “Thanks for agreeing to help with this class. I know that the two of you must have been busy.”
Starlight shook her head “You just need some help having the changelings adjust to the rest of the world since they don’t have do what Chrysalis taught them to do anymore.”
Spike nodded his head “Besides it wasn’t that hard for you to adjust as all you needed was a chance to change.”
Thorax chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck “On the bright side we have been able to get most of the other changes to stop hissing when they are shown a positive or friendly reaction when they are in their natural form.”
“Of course most of them are getting into arguments with each other about their new color scheme.” He muttered softly to himself.
Starlight looked at Spike in confusion as the small dragon shrugged. There were a few changelings roaming around in the hallway whispering to each other or casting them side glances, but this place had changed a lot since they were here last time.
Thorax stopped outside of one of the room before taking a deep breath before leading them inside. The room was full of changelings who were currently sitting behind desks and trying to finish up a test. Thorax sighed as they could see one changeling was looking at a small scroll he had somehow snuck into the class room as he copied the answers onto his test paper.
Thorax shook his head “I’ll have to warn you that this may be a bit more difficult that you are used to. I mean they were following a tyrant who ruled over their subjects with an iron hoof while using constant propaganda and locked up anyone who didn’t listen to her in a small dark room after taking away their identity and sometimes even taking all the love out of their life.”
Starlight chuckled nervously “Yes... I can only imagine what they would have been like.”
All of the changelings turned their heads to see their new guests. Thorax guided them to the teacher’s desk in the front of the classroom as the changelings started to levitate their test papers over to the desk. Starlight took a deep breath as she knew she could do this… after all how hard could it be?
******
Starlight face hoofed after reading the first answers to the test that Thorax had gave them she realized that this was going to be much harder than she originally thought.
The unicorn took a deep breath as she spoke to the class “Let’s try going over the first question once again.” She looked at the first test question and read out loud “You are on a vacation at a theme park. A monster attacks the park and there is an old mare who injured herself near the roller coaster. What do you do?”
A couple of hooves rose up into the air as Spike added “The mare is unable to move due to her injury. She cannot levitate, fly, or walk on her front hooves to move herself to safety.”
A couple of hooves went back down as Starlight took a deep breath. She tried to prepare herself for their response… but she already had a good idea from their test results.
She pointed at a green changeling who replied “You kill her.”
“What?” Starlight shouted in surprise
The changeling rolled her eyes “I mean think about it? You have an elderly mare all by herself near a roller coaster and even if she claimed to have been riding on it before the attack happened she doesn’t have anypony near her so naturally she is the monster’s accomplice hidden in disguise. The fiend is either guiding the monster's attack to do the most damage or she is secretly running interference against any would be heroes that would try to intervene and stop the monster.”
The changeling smiled “So it is best to kill her or at the very least get the first strike catching her by surprise before she even realizes that you have caught onto her fiendish ploy. I mean I still can’t believe that when Chrysalis was left by herself in your throne room all the other ponies didn’t just simply form a mob and rush her.”
Starlight face hoofed not because the changeling replied with a straight face… but because the other changelings were nodding their heads thinking this was the correct answer.
Spike cleared his throat “To be fair… Nightmare Moon had blasted anyone that tried when she took out Celestia. Discord had snapped his fingers leaving anypony who tried stuck in a snow globe. I think Chrysalis is the only villain that plan would have worked.”
A blue changeling rose their hoof “What about the other villains?”
Spike shrugged “Sombra kind of took out a platoon of Royal Guards that had went to protect Princess Cadence and Shining Armor… and the rush tactic backfired against Tirek as that just only made him stronger.”
Now the changelings seemed to be confused as they tried to figure out what to do. Starlight couldn’t help but shake her head as the changelings were starting to discuss the safest way to eliminate the old mare due to the apparent threat level prior villains had when taking out Celestia.
Starlight tried to smile as she replied “Or… you could just move her out of the way. Try to wait in an area that isn’t in the monster’s path of destruction until a hero or the royal guard arrives.”
One of the changelings rolled their eyes “Where would that entire event happen without it being a trap set up by a villain?”
Spike cleared his throat “Ponyville on a bad weekend when something crawled out of the Everfree Forest and wandered near Ponyvile.”
This made some of the changelings nod their head in agreement as Starlight Glimmer face hoofed once again. She just wished that Spike had used a better example than claiming that Ponyville was naturally the center of disaster. Sure there were a few rather odd or eccentric moments that happened in the town, but it was peaceful… for the most part.
“Next question…” Starlight took a deep breath “You are in a building… it doesn’t not say what building it is, but a villain has taken one of the ponies hostage. What do you do… and why do most of these questions follow this pattern Thorax?”
The larger changeling chuckled nervously “Well the Crystal Ponies had a small group with hoof bands labeled ‘What Would Spike Do?’ and I thought that some of their old test papers might be good for the changelings here.”
Spike stared at him in surprise “Really?”
The changeling shrugged “I mean some of the ponies just wrote ‘breathe fire’ as an answer so it might not have been that good but I figured it would be a descent place to start to help give a broad idea of what they should do within Equestrian society. Just think what Spike would do in a similar situation.”
A few hooves went up as Starlight pointed at a teal changeling “Yes?”
The changeling smiled as he replied “Burn down the building.”
“What!” Spike shouted out loud
The changeling nodded his head “If it’s a villain like most of the others than setting the building on fire would work because they are using the building as cover and depriving their cover would help allow for the force ready to take them down have a clear shot. After all if the villain is resorting to taking hostages than that means they know that the Royal Guard or the Heroes outside can defeat them.”
He took a deep breath “Either the fire will create an opening for the heroes or it will weaken the structure enough to cause parts of it to collapse unto the villain allowing the heroes to then come in an save the day.”
Starlight Glimmer cleared her throat “What if it’s say… a normal criminal… like a pony bank robber or something? Burning down an entire building just to stop them might not be a good idea.”
The changeling rubbed his chin “Oh yah… cost of repairs would outweigh the possible damage he or she could have caused.”
Starlight nodded her head as that wasn’t the exact reason she would have used, but at least it was convincing the other changelings that setting a building on fire was a bad idea.
A yellow changeling rose their hoof “Uh… see if they have any accomplices? Try to sneak around and take them out. Grab their body and place it into a cocoon before hiding the body. Then you make sure to get another pony or changeling to help assist as you disguise yourself as the accomplice and get into an argument or fight with the main culprit. During the struggle the held hostage should be able to escape with the assistance of your ally thus depriving them of their hostage allowing the criminal to be taken out safely and ensuring that when the rescue force arrives they know you are not the villain’s accomplice.”
A green changeling frowned “That’s just a copy of the abduction method!”
Starlight rubbed the back of her head “To be fair if you do use that method… remember to give the ponies wrapped up in the cocoon over to the proper authorities instead of trying to keep them for yourself or the hive.”
The yellow changeling frowned “Drat.”
Spike glanced at Thorax “They don’t have to keep trying to drain love from other creatures right?”
Thorax chuckled nervously “Old habits are hard to break? I mean it took me a while to stop hissing at anything that was being friendly to me in my changeling form and that’s because anyone that was ‘nice’ was either trying to drain me of my love or they were about to give me other to the guards to be locked away or possibly killed.”
Starlight Glimmer skipped the rest of the questions of Thorax’s test as she decided to go for a very simple one “Okay let’s say there is a pony in a library that is trying to determine what book they are looking for.” A few hooves raised into the air “This is a normal library and there are no illegal or dangerous books that could be used for sinister purposes.”
Some of the hooves went back down as Starlight picked the green changeling “If they are looking for the founding of the Hearts and Hooves day celebration I wrap them in a cocoon and call word for the Royal Guard to take them away.”
“Why?” Starlight Glimmer spoke in disbelief.
The changeling rolled his eyes “Ponyville Hearts and Hooves day incident which was due to the creature of a synthetic love potion that brought about emotions similar to love, but were not in fact love and tastes like woodchips…”
This earned a few looks for all the other changelings as the changeling in question groaned “An easy to make potion that could get me all the food I ever wanted? Yes… yes I was curious about such a method before I reformed.”
Starlight shook her head “To be fair it’s rather… rare as most of those items are hard to come by… unless you go into the Everfree Forest to collect them. It’s rather surprising and frightening at the wide variety of plants and animals that make their home in that forest.”
The Green Changeling rubbed his chin “Well… then I would use a mind control spell on them.”
Spike cleared his throat “You do realize that this is a normal pony… not a criminal or a pony trying to make a love potion right?”
The changeling nodded “Well if they are having problems deciding than the easiest way to help them out is for them to clear their mind. Then focus those thoughts on the intended item they are looking for instead of musing about or possibly have mixed up due to other various thoughts related to tasks they need to complete afterwards.”
He smiled “Then you just collect the needed books or titles before canceling the spell and ask if they need anything else. You saved them a lot of time as you figured out exactly what they needed and they get to walk out feeling satisfied if not a little bit confused about how short it took for you to help solve their problem.”
Starlight Glimmer face hoofed as she replied “Don’t… just don’t use mind control spells. Sure it sounds as if that idea would work out rather well, but they have a large tendency to mess up in ways that you weren’t expecting.”
One of the changelings rubbed their head “No mind control spells either? Being reformed is hard work.”
Starlight shook her head as this was going to be a long day.
