Life is just a series of tests, or so they say. And in Ponyville, that might just mean it literally.
Join Twilight Sparkle and the crew as they face a series of perplexing conundrums (some may or may not involve friendship, or indeed have the solution being friendship), but all requiring logic and cunning.
NOTE: I invite readers to try solving these puzzles for themselves! Try not to spoil too much in the comments, though.
Answers are uploaded as soon as a reader gets it right. Or I get bored waiting.
Chapters (78)
Ah, always good to see a puzzle fic now and again
Ok let me think
with a similar puzzle i saw where 3 people had this problem, only time to test all 8 samples once,
person 1 picks A,D,E and G
Person 2 picks B,D,F, and G
And person 3 picks C,E,F and G (with the eighth vile H remains untouched)
If its A, only person 1 feels it
If its E, person 1 and 3 feel it
If its G, all 3 people feel it
And if its H, nobody feels it
Therefore it takes 3 ponies to test 8 barrels, but we have 2 000
Simple math says 2 people can guess between 4 choices, and 4 people can do 16
So for every X-ponies, we can test 2 to the power of X barrels
2^11=2048 so we need minimum 11 ponies to try, 8 if AJ starlight and twilight join
Side note:
if im right, and you do let these 3 ponies test, we can use spike, the others of the main 6, Maud, trixie and then one more pony, BUT dont use any of the CMC, they technically are too young to drink acohal(im assuming thats what you're implying with how RD respondes to it)
Together we can solve the puzzle.
These aren't puzzles, this is a fucking math problem.
TEST MY KNOWLEDGE OF MLP TRIVIA!
One. Get Rainbow to do it.
9181603
actually, that can constitute a puzzle, ever played a Professor Layton game?
9181527
that wont work, it only narrows it down to four barrels within the one hour time limit. u wouldnt have time to futher test those four barrels to locate the exact tainted barrel since it takes 45 min to take effect, that leaves only 15 min for a second round of testing and that isnt enough time...
9182071
How is that not enough?
1 pony to test barrels 1-11
2 ponies in every combination can test barrels 12-122
So on and so forth so that if we know who takes the effects of the poison joke, we use the barrel that only EXACTLY those ponies drank(or nobody if its the last not drunken barrel) then we have it?
9182135
its because ur only narrowing the search down to a range. if one person (or pony) tries multiple barrels, even if theres overlap, ur still limited to that overlap range, and u only have the time for one test to determine that range. now, i havnt read the answer yet, as of the posting of this reply, but tracking down one barrel out of two thousand and ending up only narrowing the search range to three or four barrels in the time allotted...that doesnt seem right, it doesnt seem like the solution...
I'm not sure what the puzzle here is? If the ponies are showing up randomly and taking random trains then any result is possible. There's no reason to think that they would be distributed evenly at the end.
9181761
nope
9183012
It's not random, each pony is taking the first train going to one of the three destinations.
9181603
Then it's not a puzzle, it's just MLP General Knowledge. A Puzzle is meant to test the reasoning skills.
9183564
They're each taking the first available train to one of three locations. If they're not given any indication which location to go to and train availability is determined by random arrival times then there's no telling which of the three trains any given pony might end up on.
9183946
Not everything is random in this puzzle. Think about what is fixed in this case.
Well the obvious answer is this
split 3 stones of each color into each jar, a perfect 50/50 on getting the one you want
If there is a better answer, please tell me
9184505
Uh, It was already 50:50 from the beginning. You pick one jar with all its stones the same (50% chance of picking the all red stone jar). Cozy wanted to IMPROVE those odds.
Who poisoned the barrels anyway?
Trixie gave terrible instructions and the ponies could barely understand a thing she wrote, so it's her fault but she's too egotistical to admit it.
Lie and say you can't go to Yakyakistan for health reasons.
9184909
Why are you asking me.
I haven't seen it.
i haven't seen any barrels anywhere.
I would not poison a barrel.
Don't ask me any more questions.
Mm, the best I can do is approximately 73% chance of a red stone, but the odds are also extremely high that it'd tip Twilight off that something's up.
For all Trixie knew, all thirty ponies could have shown up within ten minutes of each other and all gotten on the same train to one location.
New idea
1 red stone in one jar, all other 11 in the other
50/50 to get either 100%odds or 5/11(45.45%) odds
100+45.45=145.45
145.45÷2=72.72%
Completely missed the idea of unbalanced distribution between jars
Too easy
pinkie and aj go, 8 minutes
Pinkie comes back 9 minutes
Pinkie and rarity go 14 minutes
Pinkie goes back 15 minutes
Pinkie and spike go and that's the full 17 minutes
9186337
...Fifteen. They need to get across in FIFTEEN minutes.
9186349
Well that changes things
pink and spike go,2 min
Pinkie returns 3min
Rarity an aj go, 11 min
Spike goes back13 min
Pinkie and spike go, exactly 15 minutes
Saw rarity say 17 so i assumed it was the time limit
Add another AS pill then cut all the pills in half then take one half of all the pills???
cut each pill into 3, and thake 2/3 of each pill?
Have Spike transmit the diamonds to Celestia (optional), send Pinkie and Rarity across, then send AJ and Spike, using Spike's fire breath as a lantern.
Ha, my idea could have worked!
When she scratched out all the information above she wound up disrupting the sigil, breaking the spell.
9190533
I wish. There was actual logic involved here.
9191161
Yeah, I know, but not all problems in life need a complex solution.
start both timers
When the 5 minutes is done flip it
When the 8 minutes are done flip the 5 minute timer
Ask a friend if they can borrow a timer. Also, wait, she doesn't have timers everywhere for timer emergencies?
- Turn both the 5 minute and the 8 minute.
- When the 5 minute is done, flip it immediately.
- When the 8 minute is done, flip the 5 minute again.
So, that would be 5+3+3=11 minutes.
I hope it's good, Pinkie.
Hmm. I'm sure I've heard this one before, but damned if I can remember the solution.
2519
Prime factoring of 2520 gives 2×2×2×3×3×5×7 witch acounts for all numbers 2-10, since they were always 1 short, its one less
Are we sure this isn't just a case of Diamond Dogs being terrible at math because they're stupid?
9196410
Smart cookie. Fancy having a go at the ones missing answers?
Every single stallion is banished to Tartarus. Alternately, the zebra mares ask each other which of their husbands broke the rule...or does that break the third rule?
Also this is a weird village.
Every single stallion is banished to Tartarus on the 80th day.
I agree on this being a weird village.
if at least 1 buys out of any group, then no matter what all of them buy, since if even 1 pony doesnt then they can be a group by themselves
So they all got banished the moment the brothers left
Its a straight line of links right? If so i think i got it
cut the 5th, 9th and 17th rings
You now have 1,1,1,4,8,16,and 32 rings in groups
Pay 1 the first time
Pay another 1 the 2nd and 3rd time
Pay the 4 and get back the 3 single rings when the fourth animal is found
So on and so forth
Simple binary, more or less
This is probably the hardest one yet
impossible, no matter what path you take you always leave 1 room unvisted
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?
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
9200610
Nope.
Ok, so after consulting my math nerd friends i cant explained with numbers but i have a general idea to escape
dont walk from the center to the circumference in a straight line, you need to zigzag in a way so the guard more or less stays in place
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/371406869992046602/495701907873202190/unknown.png this shows daring in the center walking a distance to make the guard move about a little less than 1/4 of the circle
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/371406869992046602/495702247712227338/unknown.png
This shows daring changing direction so that the other way around is faster for the guard
Rinse and repeat till escape