//------------------------------//
// A Contest of Wits (After The Violence) 
// Story: Life is A Test 2: Test Harder (Quite A Bit Harder) 
// by Brony_of_Brody 
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Thankfully, one of the cutlasses you grab is serviceable, and you manage to put in a decent show of flailing it around to avoid getting riddled with holes, up until the moment she forgets the other three ponies (Scarlet, Pearl and Rarity) sneaking up behind her, whereupon she promptly gets knocked out with a coconut. Bad one there.

With the villain safely trussed up, you call for help with a Royal Emergency Beacon you stashed away, and on cue, two Royal guards escort you back to Canterlot Castle, where Rarity can officially receive her prize, and the crazy pirate pony can await a trial in the dungeons.

At the award ceremony, Princess Celestia recognises Rarity as the officially dubbed winner, but recognising your part in keeping Rarity safe and for being the sharp pencil for solving the puzzles with her, she proposes you split the prize...but the distribution will be decided by (what else) a battle of wits. Because it always is, nowadays.

She then sits both you and Rarity down, facing each other at a table, with a partition blocking the sight of both of you. She then reaches into the treasure chest you brought back, hands you one hundred of the precious gems inside, and explains the rules of the game.

The gems will be used to play a game of war, where you, the defender, must defend ten towers, with the gems representing soldiers. Each of the ten towers is worth a certain number of points, from 1, 2, 3...9, and 10. Both you and Rarity will then send soldiers (or gems, which make for very shiny soldiers) to a tower, and whoever has the most soldiers wins the points that tower is worth. In the event of a draw, the points are split. Whoever has the most points once all ten towers have engaged in battle wins, and receives two gem for every point earned, and any leftovers fall under the crown's ownership, as restitution for the public.

It sounds like this could go either way, but Princess Celestia then announces a twist: YOU will arrange your one hundred soldiers as you see fit, whereas Rarity can win the game (and the ENTIRE stock of gems) by using the fewest number of gem-soldiers possible: if she's forced to use all one-hundred, however, all the gems will fall under YOUR possession. Sounds harsh, but it'll motivate Rarity to try her best, at least. On the other hand, if she can successfully identify the fewest number of soldiers she needs before your distributions are revealed, she will win the whole game and thus all the gems.

Imagine you are Rarity. Taking into account you are playing a perfectly logical ex-partner, what is the fewest number of gem-soldiers you need to take home the entire prize? You could do it the old fashioned way, but that would involve taking home a smaller prize...and before Rarity's sense of generosity kicks in, it's pointed out that if she wins all of them, she can just freely give them out as she wishes afterwards, so it's in her best interest to win. So what to do?

Help Rarity defeat...well, yourself, and take home the long-coveted prize!