Just a humble software developer who fell in love with ponies.
Twilight Sparkle goes on another rampage when Cutie Mark Crusaders ask her a mathematical riddle she can't solve. As usual, it's up to her friends to try to stop her before her magic frenzy causes serious damage.
But... among her friends, is there anypony more skilled at math who could hope to solve a riddle even Twilight has trouble with?
Brotip: try to help Twilight with the riddle yourself as you read. :D
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My first attempt at an episode-like story. I wonder what you guys think of it.
I have to admit I love working with Pinkie.
You can make her faster than Rainbow Dash, stronger than Applejack, or smarter than Twilight Sparkle and nopony should make a fuss about it, because it's just Pinkie being Pinkie. 
But, with all honesty, in my personal head-canon I consider Pinkie to be the hidden genius, rather than the happy-go-lucky crazy pony often portrayed in the show. You can have a look at Luna's study on Pinkie Pie by Nimaru to get a better look of how I feel about her, if you're interested.
What's interesting, this view of Pinkie isn't completely contradictory with the show's canon.
Oh, the cover for the story was made with vectors from MLP Vector Club. I will try to find those vectors once again and give credit to their authors here.
nice way to make twilight go nuts. it was also easy to spot the problem. overall it was a fun story that got me involved intellectually, even though it was only over the "riddle".
I have to say, this was an excellent story. It really proved to be an emotional roller coaster ending in smiles for all. I especially enjoyed Pinkie's logic for knowing the laws of physics ("How else would I be able to break them?" lol). And now, for a little ditty I usually give at the end of Pinkie-and-Twilight fics that really fits their situation, particularly here: "They're dinkie, they're Pinkie and the brain, brain, brain, brain, brain!"
And this is why I'm not good at math. I would have legitimately levelled my grandparents house trying to solve that riddle if I had Twilight's magical prowess. Seriously, great story. Very good job.
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I really liked the concept for this story, but the ending just killed it for me. Pinkie's explanation for the answer was way too conventional. If Pinkie's a genius, then she's the type of genius that shows just how thin the line between genius and insanity is. If Pinkie were going to explain this riddle, she wouldn't do it the same way some boring, old, jaded physics teacher would. She'd either:
A. Cross out "1 cent" and write in "1 cent²", handing it back to Twilight with little to no explanation. (Think of "it was under E" from S1E2)
B. Babble through a series of non sequitur concerning a variety of economic esoterica until arriving at the fact that one Equestrian bit is equal to a Griffonian cent. (Think of Pinkie's solution in Swarm of the Century)
Point is: Pinkie is nuts. Your story's Pinkie is not. That's bad.
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And it is quite easy to find in the interwebz. 
Thank you all for the kind words. And yeah, the riddle isn't particularly difficult. At least for Pinkie.
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Fair point. Actually, in the first draft I considered not describing the solution at all, and forcing the reader to think it through him/herself. But I think I just went the easy way there. Now that I think about, your version of handling that particular part of the story is way better. I just love the A version. Do you mind if I actually change it that way?
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Of course, my advice is meant to be used however you want.
I just want to correct myself: the problem with your portrayal isn't that Pinkie's too sane, it's that she's not the right type of sane. Similarly to how Twilight is analytical, Pinkie's thought processes are fundamentally intuitive. Pinkie hasn't ever been both lucid and "analytical" at the same time. It's what makes Pinkie such a great character because she will Never (over)Explain the Joke.
Just something to think about if you want to write Pinkie as both intelligent and in character. Especially if you're going to involve Twilight. Almost every episode focusing on Twilight and Pinkie has heavily contrasted that aspect of their characterization.
Although, the only real problem with the ending was that you started to go too far against the "show, don't tell" guidelines.
I liked the math problem. Sadly, it couldn't keep me from solving it for more than a minute and a half at most.
Interesting little story. Truly slice-of-life-ish.
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I'm glad you liked it.
And yeah, the riddle isn't supposed to be hard. It was given as a homework to grade school fillies and colts, after all.
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I hope it's visible.
There, I decided to throw in Pinkie's own hoof-written version as an image.
Once again I'd like to thank you for the detailed analysis and taking your time to point out what could be improved. It's thanks to such comments that the writers can understand their flaws and aim to become better in the future.
Ah riddles they always break my brain.
..... Okay I need to return to primary school then.
And over that, I'm in a class where at the end, I'm supposed to be very very good in maths lol. (still 2.9 years out of 4 to go!)
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You know, multiplying units along the values.
Crap, forget it! 
I'd rather be the old and grumpy software-developer I am now. 
Well, it's more of a physics thing, rather than math.
Ah, to be young and back at school again...
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Im supposed to be very very good in Physics and Chemistery too
I'd rather be young and already out of school! Just the thought about how many years I still got left before having a diplom
A shadow shall fall over the universe. And evil will grow in its path. And death will come from the skies.
Behold, Mathematics, the sum of all evils.
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A synergistic one, at that.
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Last time I checked it was possible for readers to add stories to their groups themselves. If it's still the case, and you consider my story worthy of publishing within your group, then by all means be my guest.
Or is it no longer possible to add stories to groups if you aren't the author?
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After clicking the button, it should display the list of groups you are the member of. The rest should be pretty self-explanatory. 
On the main story page, where you can see its title, cover, description and chapters, just below the ad, there should be this bar:
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5331373/groups.png
I took the liberty of pointing the add-to-group button with an ugly-ass, handpainted-in-gimp arrow there.
A minute ago I tried to use the button on a totally random story I'm not an author of and it seemed to work just fine. Do you see this button and can you use it? If not, I will join the group and add the story myself, but you actually got me curious.
Would you care to try to find and use the button?
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Thanks for featuring the story in your group.
Differential calculus though... you bet! 
No problem.
Although, I have to disagree a bit on your group's name. Math isn't all that hard.
I knew it was the units the second I saw the problem. No offense, but I thought Twilight was too dumb here to even justify "obvious in hindsight." She would instantly be able to solve this problem because it actually is a grade-school-level problem, and I think to state otherwise is honestly rather insulting to her intelligence.
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), but perhaps you're giving the newest princess a bit too much credit. 
You might be surprised how many people have problem with this exact equation.
None taken (to quote Sunset Shimmer
Well, without the problem there would be no story, that's all I can say in my defence.
Oh, and thank you for taking your time not only to read it, but also to leave the comment.
supposing that i and mathematics we never got along, so I did not even try to solve the riddle.
It was interesting to see how from something as simple as a primary school problem, it became something that threatened equestria as we know it.
Having said that, once again you managed to represent pinkie at best, even if it only appeared towards the end, in the end it was the essential character to solve the situation, with its unique brilliant and carefree way.
but I have a note to do, I do not know if it's just me but the image that showed the correct result from pinkie, did not open, did not appear, or I do not know what.
maybe you should check if it appears to you, and fix it,unless it is voluntary to let readers solve it, however some may not like it.
you could put it in the comments the image with the result, if it is not possible in the story .. I do not know.
however, this great story belongs.
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Yeah, sorry about that. Dropbox changed their upload policy some years ago and I didn't notice.
I wonder how many other pics I shared somewhere gone missing. But they probably weren't as important as this one.
The pic should be fixed now, at lest for a little while. It's hosted on imgur for now, but didn't they use to delete pics that got no traffic for a while? I'll just have to see I guess...
That said, thanks for the kind words. I'm very glad you enjoyed the story.
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do not worry, the important thing is that it's solved now. :-)
p.s I still did not understand the solution.XD
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), i.e. 10 cents * 10 cents = 100 cents2 (as in 10x * 10x = 100 x2).
Well, unless you're a young reader, you might remember from mathematics or physics, that multiplying an x by x equals square x (x * x = x2). Or from physics, that multiplying a meter by a meter equals square meter (m * m = m2).
However, in the teacher's example, 10 cents * 10 cents equals 100 cents. Which is mathematically incorrect. 10 cents * 10 cents would equal 100 square cents (as ridiculous as that sounds
However, if you are indeed a young reader, don't worry!
You might still have all those mathematical intricacies before you. 
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I'm really twenty years old, I do not know if this defines me as a young reader, even if I've just started reading about fim fiction.
as I said and math never went well, it only caused me a lot of problems at school, it's not that I did not apply to study it is propio that does not enter me.
anyway thanks for the explanation, and also for the headache that will derive if I try to understand it.Xb
do not worry, I'm joking about the headache ........ unfortunately not with regards to my relationship with mathematics.
well, now I really came the headache to try to understand something ....... sob.
the calculation was wrong because it does not give 100 cents a second, but only a hundred cents. so one bit is 100 cents.....I give up XD
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Math win.
This is my life XD
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Still younger than me, but a little above what I had in mind when I said "a young reader".
Eh, don't worry about it. Do remember that even Twilight couldn't figure this one out.
you're right, this is comforting