//------------------------------// // The Worst Best Puzzle Ever Known // Story: Life is A Test 2: Test Harder (Quite A Bit Harder) // by Brony_of_Brody //------------------------------// Unfortunately, Twilight's bad feeling soon proves to be entirely correct, because as soon as you return to Canterlot Castle, you find the entire staff in a state of panic. As soon as the mountain in Ponyville disappeared, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance, who happened to be visiting, suddenly became afflicted with a strange and mysterious condition. They've started babbling in some sort of strange and alien language, and absolutely nothing that any of the best experts can do can seemingly break the curse. You borrow the tools and quickly send a letter to Twilight, who quickly teleports herself to the throne-room, having regained the ability to use her magic. As it turns out, after everypony left, Twilight discovered a strange text right in the centre of the rubble where the mountain used to be. The bad news is that Starlight Glimmer's...unfortunate accident unleashed three evil spirits who seem to have chosen Celestia, Luna and Cadance as their hosts to render the population of Canterlot into a catatonic state, as they feed on their brainwave energy and the magic of friendship all over Equestria. The good news is that these spirits were sealed away by Star-Swirl the Bearded long ago, and with it, instructions in the text on how to send the spirits back to from whence they came, thanks to a rather handy spell known as the 'Hero's Sporting Chance For The Sake Of Drama' Spell, which he perfected while vacationing in Olde Trottingham. This prevents the spirits from trying to flee should anypony make an attempt to banish them, so at least all hope isn't lost. His text describes the problem as such: one of the spirits tells nothing but the truth, one spirit tells nothing but lies, and the other answers questions posed to it randomly. A quick asterisk at the bottom of the page states that the random spirit decides whether to answer 'yes' or 'no' through some sort of coin toss in its mind, so not even it knows how it will answer: it's truly random in every aspect. To banish them, their identities must be ascertained in two or fewer questions. However, there is a rather major problem impeding your progress. The spirits dwell in another world, and speak in a language that bears no resemblance to any language on this planet today, and not even a pony as brilliant as he has managed to decipher even one recognisable word. In other words, you have absolutely no way to actually understand any of their answers, regardless of whether they are the truth, or a lie. Well, horseapples. One last thing he also notes is that the spirits are omniscient and don't take kindly to those too smart for their liking, and should the questioner pose a question that is paradoxical and cannot be answered, they spirits will automatically 'rage-quit' and just render their host body totally unconscious, preventing you from asking them any more questions, for being a smart-flank. The exception is the spirit of randomness, who cares nothing for truth, lies, or even if the answer makes sense. Having gathered all three possessed princesses in one place, it is now up to you to prevent Equestria from turning into a nation of apathetic losers and save Equestria from certain doom. Your country needs you, citizen, so cranks those brain cells like never before! And don't go thinking that just a general summary of the answer is enough! With only one, complicated answer, we couldn't make it that simple!