Life is a Test: A Series of Pony Logic Puzzles

by Brony_of_Brody

Hello Darkness My Not-All-That Old (But I Guess It's Relative) Friend

The Crystal Empire, despite its name, isn't actually ruled by an emperor or empress, not even by BOTH an emperor or empress. No, it is instead ruled by the benevolent Prince Shining Armor And Princess Cadance, and despite the remote location of the empire and their frankly precocious and near-incurably powerful daughter Flurry Heart, they manage to get by as rulers.

One day, however, reports from the Empire archivist reports that King Sombra, the less-than popular previous ruler of the Crystal Empire (who rather notably wasn't an emperor either, but names are just labels), left behind trace remnants of his dark magic in the chamber downstairs, and is growing at a frankly alarming rate. If left unchecked, it could leak out of the vents and spread across the Crystal Empire, corrupting all its citizens into mini-Sombra clones, and even negating the magic of the Crystal Heart, the gem used to protect the entire empire, bringing a new age of darkness and despair.

And you wonder why nopony liked King Sombra: evil corrupting magic and oppressive rule aside, at least crime was kept low.

Fortunately, as former captain of Canterlot's Royal Guard, Prince Shining Armor has never shied away from getting his hooves dirty for his citizens, and he volunteers to go to the underground and contain the menace. Throwing up his best dome shield to protect himself and carrying Princess Cadance's love in his heart, he ventures into the unknown.

As soon as he arrives at the entrance of Sombra's chambers, he opens up his map. According to the piece of parchment, the chamber is a series of rooms, perfectly arranged into a 4-room by 4-room square. Shining is currently at the entrance, which was the room on the top left of the grid, and the exit was at the most south-west room. Each and every room is connected by airlocks (never let anypony say that Sombra was not one to keep up with modern technology as it happened), and Sombra's evil has managed to leak into every room except the entrance.

Knowing that as the size of an explosion increases, the number of problems that it is incapable of solving quickly approaches zero, Shining reasons that with ENOUGH explosions, he should be able to solve the problem of purging Sombra's taint. As it so happens, he is carrying several grenades powered by the Crystal Heart's magic for such an occasion, and he therefore decides to destroy each contaminated room one at a time, visiting each corrupted room once and then destroying it before he leaves.

Unfortunately, there is a catch. Once his zest for explosions clears up, he begins to realise that once he visits a corrupted room, he absolutely cannot leave without destroying the room, lest Sombra's evil escape via the airlocks to the Crystal Empire outside and turn all its residents into toothy, black-coated, stereotypical villains. There's also a far more pressing problem in that none of the paths he's drawn up so far actually allow him to destroy all the corrupted rooms without missing at least one.

So, how can it be done? Princess Cadance has made it quite clear that Shining can't pull any Heroic Sacrifices blowing himself up just to rid the world of Sombra (hopefully for good this time, he keeps coming back), because martyrdom is for chumps, and TV Tropes has ruined enough lives as it is anyway. So how can Shining Armor fulfill his princely duty and still make it back to his loving wife, whole and unspoilt?

Author's Note:

1. You have a 4x4 grid of rooms. The entrance is in the top left room, while the exit is in the bottom right room.

2. Shining Armor must enter through the entrance and leave through the exit.

3. All rooms except the entrance are contaminated with Sombra's dark magic.

4. Once Shining enters a contaminated room, he cannot leave it without first destroying it.

5. Destroyed rooms cannot be returned to.

PUZZLE: How can Shining Armor destroy ALL the contaminated rooms and not become corrupted by darkness?

Comments

[Duckgame4life]

impossible, no matter what path you take you always leave 1 room unvisted

[Gemhunter]

Is Shining allowed to break a wall? So that he can enter a room, break the outer wall, and enter along the side way, then enter a non connecting room along the sides?

[Duckgame4life]

Wait i have an idea
go right, then left back to the entrance
Down 3 times
Right 1 time
Up twice
Right
Up
Right
Down twice
Left
Down
And right
Since the entrance is safe shinning can reenter it

[Brony_of_Brody]

9200610
Nope.

[Gemhunter]

9201125
Is he required to enter a room to purify it? For example, toss a gernade through an entrance to destroy the room, but not enter it?

[Brony_of_Brody]

9201160
Daring can't outrun the gremlin while she's trapped in the sigil. Remember, the guard gremlin tracks her by moving to the edge she's heading towards. So entire straight-line movement won't work.

I do state you need pi to solve this one. How's your knowledge of circles?

[Brony_of_Brody]

9201179
Yes, he needs to enter a room to purify it.

[Gemhunter]

9201266
Are the vents interconnected and big enough for him to fit in, like you see every so often in a movie or TV show?

[Duckgame4life]

9201264
you said she cant out run him, and he goes towards the direction she is running
Does that mean he runs along the circumference cause if so then my solution does work

[Brony_of_Brody]

9201918
TECHNICALLY works, but there's a better (as in more optimal) way to escape. And unless you can spell it out with actual numbers we're just talking hypothesises here.

[ANW]

Enter
East 1
West 1
South 3
East 1
North 2
East 1
North 1
East 1
South 2
West 1
South 1
East 1
Exit.

[The Real Anonymous Pony]

... the exit was at the most south-west room.

... while the exit is in the bottom right room.

Figured out (one of the reasons) why I was having such an issue.
If up is north, right is east.

[Sozmioi]

9213748
Invalid - you have him backtrack to a destroyed room.

[Andy Ray]

If he enters the upper-left and must leave the bottom-right rooms, then:

He must enter either of the adjacent rooms, destroy it, and then return to the entrance -- since it is not contaminated and he doesn't have to destroy it, hence he may return. Then he enters the only contaminated room left and destroys it, moving to the final room. Then he destroys that room and exits.