Life is a Test: A Series of Pony Logic Puzzles

by Brony_of_Brody

A Game That's HARDER The Smarter You Are

Applejack was greeted by a rather peculiar sight. There was Fluttershy, who was shaking a small plastic cup in her hoof, which was creating some sort of rattling sound inside. Next to her was a rather handsome swan, who appeared to be fascinated by the devices in Fluttershy's hooves.

The farmpony had only swung round to Fluttershy's cottage to deliver a large carton of cow guano to help Fluttershy with her own small-scale farm to feed her animal critters, and she was just about to leave the package at her doorstep when she spotted Fluttershy right outside the door, rattling this small plastic drinking apparatus.

Finally, Fluttershy tipped the cup and five small brown cubes Applejack could see were six-sided die tumbled from the cup, finally landing onto the stone floor.

"Eight," Fluttershy said simply, after inspecting the die for about three seconds. The swan then waddled over to the die, and stared at them in polite puzzlement.

"Uh, Fluttershy? What y'all doin'?"

"Oh, hello, Applejack!" Fluttershy looked up from the floor, and upon seeing Applejack, her face broke into a smile. "I'm playing a game with Swansong. I was playing it with Angel earlier, but he kept losing and...um, well, he threw the dice to the floor in a huff and hopped away."

"Not that easy to win, huh?" Applejack chuckled.

"Oh, only if you're unlucky," Fluttershy gave a small smile. "Honestly, it was his idea to begin with, so he's got no right to be upset. I'll have to have a talk with him later."

"Mind if Ah try?" Applejack set the bag down and trotted over to the cup and die lying in a pile.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to encourage GAMBLING," Fluttershy shook her head. "So I've mostly been trying to make this into a different game. A game where you win by figuring out its rules."

She turned to the waterfowl, who was continuing to nudge the die with her beak. "Swansong here hasn't figured out how it works yet."

"HONK?"

"No, it's it doesn't follow those rules, but good try," Fluttershy said encouragingly. The swan looked somewhat despondent.

Applejack's face twisted into a rather confused look, partially because of how Fluttershy could have interpreted Swansong's intentions exactly with a single honk, but also at the premise of the game itself. "Ah'm sorry? You win by figurin' out how to play?"

"More or less." Fluttershy loaded the die back into the cup, and covering the top with her hoof, she started shaking it. "I roll five die, and then depending on how they're rolled, I announce a number. All you need to do, Applejack, is figure out how I announce them."

As soon as she said that, she spilled the rattling die onto the floor, and they fell into a 2, a 6, then 2, then 1, and finally 4.

"Zero."

"That's zero?" Applejack stared in amazement.

"Yes. Angel kept getting rolls like this when he was playing against me. That's why he got so upset."

Fluttershy put the die back into the cup, shook it again, and spilled the die on the floor once again. This time, she rolled 4, 3, 2, 1, and 3.

"Four."

"Wow, this game doesn't sound like it makes a lick o' sense." Applejack shook her head. "What was Angel playin' it with you for anyway?"

"Oh, I told him he couldn't have any more cherries on his dessert, but he wouldn't take it lying down, so he challenged me to this game of die." A regretful look crossed Fluttershy face. "Well, I rolled higher, so it's only fair. He'll just have to live with it."

She loaded the die back into the cup, rolled again, and this time, the die resulted in 3, 5, 6, 5, and 5.

"Fourteen." She looked up at Applejack. "Now at this point, I let you roll, and you need to figure out the result of your roll based on how I did it."

"What?" The farm-pony looked somewhat bewildered. "Sorry Flutters, but it just sounded like y'all just said whatever number popped into your head."

"Oh, no. I said before I follow a set of rules," Fluttershy placed the cubes into the cup, and pushed them towards Applejack. "Go on...um, if that's alright with you..."

Skeptical, Applejack shook the cup as Fluttershy had done three times before, and watched as the die landed on the floor, resulting in 6, 5, 3, 2, and 2.

"So, based on my last three rolls, what's the result of this one?" Fluttershy asked expectantly. She then gave a soft laugh. "Oh my, puzzles really are quite fun. Pinkie was right."

Author's Note:

1. A game is played in which five standard six-sided die are rolled.

2. All Fluttershy will tell you after the five die are rolled is the answer.

3. The die rolls, and the assigned answers are as follows:

• 2, 6, 2, 1, 4. The answer is zero.
• 4, 3, 2, 1, 3. The answer is four.
• 3, 5, 6, 5, 5. The answer is fourteen.

PUZZLE: What's the answer when you roll 6, 5, 3, 2, 2?

Comments

[ANW]

Hints
No math outside of counting is needed

Look at the dice

Any dice that does not have a middle pip is not counted

Answer
Count the pips around the middle pip
6,2&2 does not have a middle pip, so they are ignored.
The 5 have have has 4 pips around the middle.
The 3 has 2 pips
4+2=6
The total is 6

[Skittlebug]

I KNOW THIS ONE!

I actually played this game a while back, and it’s called “Petals Around the Rose.” To be quite honest, as soon as I saw the title I thought of this game.

The premise is simple, on your average dice you can have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 written in dots corresponding to the number of dots there are. On the odd numbers (1, 3, 5) there is a single dot in the middle, known as the “rose” and then a number of dots surrounding it, the “petals.” The even numbered rolls have no rose and thus no petal.

A 1 has no petals, and so is worth 0.
A 2 has no rose, and so is worth 0.
A 3 has 2 petals, and so is worth 2.
A 4 has no rose, and so is worth 0.
A 5 has 4 petals, and so is worth 4.
A 6 has no rose, and so is worth 0.

6, 5, 3, 2, 2 can be hereby translated into 0 + 4 + 2 + 0 + 0, which equals 6.

Applejack rolled the equivalent of a 6.

[Andy Ray]

I doubt the order matters...

Can't figure it out !

I'll still return to solving it .

Maybe, I was going in the right direction ?

1 2 0 1 0 1 = 0; 146 2 - - -
1 1 2 1 0 0 = 4; 124 3 - - -
0 0 1 0 3 1 = 14; 36 - 5 - -

1*1 1*4 1*6 2*2 = 6*6 6*3 6*1 5*5;
1*1 1*2 1*4 2*3 = 6*6 6*5 6*3 5*4;
1*3 1*6 3*5 = 6*4 6*1 4*2.

[2345] [1256] [2345] 2 * [1346] = 0;
[2345] [1346] [1256] 2*[1256] = 4;
[1256] [2345] 3*[1346] = 14.

+ - - + - +
- + - - - -
- - - - - -
- - - - - -
- - - - - -
- - - - - - = 0.

[Andy Ray]

Welp, I've been honest: I never peeked in the next chapter, never uncovered spoilers in the comments and never searched the Internet for it. I think, once I do, I'll be in for an annoying surprise ... But! Nevertheless! I think, I have figured it out!

When Fluttershy announces the answer, what does she count (and does she count at all)? The only thing that matched my assumptions so far was: the number of the lines one can connect the dots in the corners on the die's surface and the dot in the centre thereon (if any) with. For example, "3" is represented by three dots (duh !), one in the centre and two others in the corners, so one can connect the dots with two lines. In the same matter "5" is represented by one dot in the centre and four in the corners, hence four lines.

Seriously, that's the only explanation I've got! So AJ should announce the number six: one five-dot surface and one three-dot one give four plus six lines.

...I had better be right!.. I bet my brains, Twilight would be as in stupor, as I was ...