School of Logic: a Collection of Puzzles involving the Student Six

by Coyotek4

Puzzle 7: Silverstream of Consciousness

Quizzes are never fun … but for whatever reason, quizzes given by Fluttershy never seem as daunting or fearsome as those for Headmare Twilight or the other professors …

“I’m sure you’ve all done wonderfully well on this quiz,” the soft-spoken instructor states as she takes the last of the students’ papers. “We have some time left before class is over, so I’d like to introduce you to a most unusual piece of flora.”

“It’s not dragonsneeze trees, right?” Smolder cautiously asks.

“Oh, nothing like that … but I must ask that you not touch.” The students turn to each other with mixed feelings of curiosity and trepidation as Fluttershy walks over to a closet and carefully clutches a potted plant sporting blue foliage, gingerly bringing it to her desk.

“OK, everycreature; come on up and look, but again, do not touch.”

The group of six approach the front desk and crowd around the plant. “So what’s so unusual about this?” Gallus asks.

“This is ‘poison joke’,” Fluttershy begins to explain.

“Don’t you mean ‘poison oak’?” Sandbar interrupts.

“No … ‘poison joke’. And it has strange properties, causing reactions that would make Discord proud.”

The students exchange more strange glances towards each other.

“Yona confused. Plant causes different reactions for different creatures?”

“It does. One time, when all your professors once stumbled into a field of poison joke, we all came down with various afflictions. Headmare Twilight lost her magical ability, Pinkie Pie lost her ability to speak, and Rarity came down with an awful case of frizzy mane.”

“And what happened to you?” Ocellus asks.

Fluttershy chuckles. “My voice became very deep,” she explains, attempting to naturally recreate a baritone sound. “At first I got very depressed … but with the help of Zecora, I and everypony else got better, and we’ve since been able to laugh at the whole incident.”

“Uh … professor? …”

Fluttershy turns to address Silverstream, who by now had grown rather quiet. “Goodness, you look nervous. Is everything all right?”

“Uh, yeah, everything is fine … so … how long does it take for symptoms to appear?”

Fluttershy thinks about the question for a moment. “About a day, I guess? We all got a good night’s sleep before coming down with any ailments. Why do you ask?”

“Well yesterday I may have taken a stroll around the area, and I may have come across a patch of this ‘poison joke’ … and I may have rolled around in it because I enjoy the feel of plants.”

Instinctively, the other students back away quickly from both Silverstream and the desk.

“Oh dear … wait here, everycreature, while I get Twilight,” Fluttershy requests before bolting from the room.

The other five students examine the hippogriff in awkward silence.

“How do you think this ‘poison joke’ affects non-ponies?” Smolder asks Ocellus.

“I couldn’t even imagine,” the changeling replies.

“How seapony feel?” Yona asks.

“I feel fine, I guess. At least I don’t feel any differently but then I usually feel like this like the other day I was telling myself I-feel-great-but-I-could-always-feel-better-if-I-just—”

Silverstream abruptly clasps a talon to her mouth, catching the others by surprise as her eyes dart this way and that.

“Silverstream, what’s wrong?” Sandbar asks.

Carefully, Silverstream removes her talon from her mouth. She opens her mouth:

“I-don’t-understand-all-of-a-sudden-I-can’t-help-but-talk-and-go-on-and-on-and-on-but-I-want-to-be-quiet-but-I-just-have-this-impulse-to-keep-going—” She quickly reclasps her mouth with her talon.

“Whoa … and I thought dragonsneeze tree were strange,” Smolder admits.

“Don’t worry,” Ocellus reassures, “Twilight and the others will be here to cure you soon enough.”

Moments later, Twilight and Fluttershy rush into the room. Twilight trots over to Silverstream, noting the talon over her mouth. “Silverstream, how are you feeling.”

She uncovers her mouth: “I-feel-fine-except-I-can’t-stop-talking-which-is-weird-since-I-like-having-conversations-but-this-feels-like-too-much-so—” and immediately re-covers her mouth.

Twilight nods and turns to Fluttershy. “Can you recreate Zecora’s cure?”

Fluttershy nods.

“Go ahead and start a bath; let us know when you’re ready.”

Fluttershy nods again and heads off. Twilight turns back to Silverstream.

“You’ll be fine, it’s just a strange sensation you’re feeling now. One thing we’ve learned is that ‘poison joke’ is easily cured.”

Silverstream nods.

Twilight looks towards the desk, seeing the quiz recently taken by the students. “Maybe we can take your mind off your illness for a bit. So, how do you think you did on the quiz you just took.”

Silverstream again opens her mouth:

“Gallus-was-higher-than-Sandbar-but-Sandbar-was-higher-than-Ocellus-while-Ocellus-was-higher-than-Yona-but-then-Yona-was-2-higher-than-Smolder-while-Smolder-was-3-higher-than-Sandbar-and-Gallus-was-4-higher-than-Yona-but-Ocellus-was-5-higher-than-Gallus—”

Silverstream clasps her mouth once again, as Twilight and the others take in the long list of declarations. Minutes later, Fluttershy reenters the room.

“I think everything is ready for Silverstream.”

“That’s wonderful. Let’s go, everycreature …”

---

The last of the daylight having left Equestria, the students settle down in the dorm, grateful that Silverstream is now rid of the bizarre disease.

“It was weird,” she relates to the others. “It was like I felt compelled to keep talking, even ahead of breathing. I never really appreciated pauses in conversation before now.”

“What important is seapony all better,” Yona declares. The others nod in agreement.

A knock on the door causes the group to turn to the entrance. “Come in,” Gallus calls out; moments later, the door opens and Twilight enters the foyer.

“I just wanted to check in on all of you, and especially Silverstream.”

“I’m feeling better, thank you. And thanks to Fluttershy for that curing bath; it felt invigorating!”

Twilight smiles. “You can thank her face-to-face when you see her tomorrow. Oh, and she finished grading your quizzes in case you’re interested …” She chuckles to herself.

“What’s so funny?” Smolder asks.

“Well, it’s just that … all those statements Silverstream made while infected with the poison joke.”

“You mean the ones concerning our scores on Fluttershy’s quiz?” Ocellus adds.

“Yeah, it’s just that … well, she made 7 statements regarding how you placed. And every comment where the students mentioned were either both above or both below Silverstream was true, while every comment where one student was above and one student was below Silverstream was false.”

Twilight’s horn glows as a quill jots down the statements on a sheet of paper for reference.

“Well, I have to go. We’ll see you all tomorrow, and again, I’m glad to see Silverstream isn’t the worse for wear.” With that, the alicorn departs.

“Why headmare not tell us order?” Yona asks.

“I think she did,” Sandbar replies.

Gallus shakes his head. “Unbelievable … now the plants are giving us puzzles!”

Author's Note:

In what order did the students place, 1st through 6th? (Assume no ties.)

Comments

[Windy0]

9398588
This fic is more fun than 'Life is a Test: A Series of Pony Logic Puzzles' fic. They do the problems the same way you do, (mostly anyway), but the way they deliver their answers are awful.

[Coyotek4]

9415776
Huh … I had no idea anything even remotely similar existed here.
I will be perusing this Fic, and I thank you for pointing it out. (I also thank you for liking mine better. )

[Starlight Nova]

Why'd you change the title? "Pony Prediction Puzzles" sounds fine to me.

[Coyotek4]

9415841
The first couple puzzles involved predictions, but later puzzles were more general logic puzzles and I didn't want to mislead readers.

[Windy0]

9415797
Well, even though I don't like it, I'm curious on what you'll think about it. When you read some, could you tell me what you think of it?

[Eroraf86]

This was different, but a fun exercise.

Start with the last statement. If Ocellus is five higher than Gallus, Silverstream is in the middle, which makes the statement false. Since the statement is false, Silverstream is between Gallus and Ocellus, in one of two orders.
The sixth statement can only be true if Silverstream placed first or sixth, which has been ruled out. Therefore, Yona is on the same side as Ocellus.
The first two statements cannot simultaneously be true or false. Whichever one is false, Sandbar must not be between Gallus/Ocellus and Silverstream. This also sets the order so that Ocellus is on the high side and Gallus is on the low side.
The third statement secures Yona's position, between Ocellus and Silverstream.
The fifth statement cannot be true. Sandbar is either at the extreme low or extreme high end, and either way, Smolder cannot be placed on the same side of Silverstream three places above Sandbar. Therefore, Sandbar and Smolder are on opposite sides.
The fourth statement can only be true if Smolder is between Silverstream and Gallus, which places Yona and Smolder on opposite sides. The statement is therefore false, and Smolder is below Gallus.
The final results, in order from first through sixth: Sandbar, Ocellus, Yona, Silverstream, Gallus, Smolder.

[Duckgame4life]

Time for another one
gallus>sandbar
Sandbar>Ocellus
Ocellus>yona
Yona>?>smolder
Smolder>?>?>sandbar
Gallus>?>?>?>yona
Ocellus>?>?>?>?>gallus
Statements are only true if both creatures are on the same side of Silverstream(both above or both below)
Solution
since Silverstream must fit between Ocellus and gallus, they must be on opposite sides of Silverstream so that is false
Gallus being 4 above yona could only work if Silverstream is 1st or 6th, but ive established gallus and ocellus are on opposite sides, so Silverstream CANT be 1st or 6th, gallus is on one side, yona and Ocellus on the other
If Silverstream is 2nd or 5th, smolder being 3 above sandbar works, and if this works, gallus is 1st or 6th, if gallus is 6th & Silverstream 5th, statements 2 through 5 are impossible to fill so gallus cant be 6th and Silverstream cant be 5th
If Silverstream is 2nd and gallus is 1st the same problem comes up so silver is either 3rd or 4th
If she is 3rd gallus is below her, ocellus can be 1st, yona 2nd, but smolder and sandbar are on the same side and statement 5 cant be met
If Silverstream is 3rd and gallus is above her, gallus is 1st and sandbar 2nd, but then statement 2 is impossible so Silverstream is 4th
If gallus is above silver, ocellus is 5th and yona is 6th but statement 5 cant work, so gallus is 5th or 6th
If he is 6th,smolder must be 5th, but then statement 2&3 make yona 3rd so smolder cant be 5th, so gallus MUST be 5th
If sandbar is 6th, statement 4 is impossible, so smolder is 6th
Finally statements 2&3 make sandbar>ocellus>yona
In conclusion
1st Sandbar
2nd Ocellus
3rd Yona
4th Silverstream
5th Gallus
6th Smolder
And only statements 2&3 were correct

[Ultimate Overlord]

I could use some clarification about a few statements, specifically the ones that say a student placed a specific amount ahead of another.

When Silver says "Yona-was-2-higher-than-Smolder", does that mean the placement would be Smolder-x-x-Yona or Smolder-x-Yona?

[Coyotek4]

9419002
One student in between. Example: Yona 3rd & Smolder 5th.

[ANW]

Consider yourself lucky Gallus, at least you are not getting them from coffee, clouds, and stones.

Layton series is funny that way.