And that’s the bottom line  
Cause stone cold said so

She is smiling. This is bad.

She’s smiling :)

@Twinkletail  
Vaguely, yes. There’s a boss with health, and you attack it.
 
Your attacks are weak, but you can add up to two (specific for each fight) characters to make your attack more powerful. Additionally, your attacks have a recharge meter, which you’ll have to wait through before you can attack again, or skip with gems. Each fight has two different prizes: one standard prize for finishing the fight, and the other for finishing the fight within a given amount of time.
 
Here’s an example of how this plays out:  
You’re fighting the first windigo boss fight. The windigo has 600 health. Your attack does 40 damage and has a recharge time of 3 hours. Your possible support ponies are Maud Pie (20 power) and Limestone Pie (30 power). The limited-time prize for clearing the fight is Marble Pie; to win her, the fight must be completed in 1 day 12 hours (36 hours).  
Alone with no help: 600 health divided by 40 power = 15 attacks. 3 hour recharge = 45 hours.  
With only Maud: 600 health divided by 60 power = 10 attacks. 3 hour recharge = 30 hours.  
With only Limestone: 600 health divided by 70 power = 9 attacks. 3 hour recharge = 24 hours.  
With Maud and Limestone: 600 health divided by 90 power = 6 attacks. 3 hour recharge = 15 hours.
 
This means if you don’t have either Maud or Limestone, and you didn’t spend any gems to skip attack waiting times (40 gems, by the way, though the skip price is scaled by the remaining time, so it gradually decreases), there was no way to win Marble. Having Maud would help you just barely get her, Limestone makes it not too difficult, and having both makes it a cakewalk.
 
That was only the first stage. The boss had three stages. The second phase was worse. You could get the Ancient Villager Pony (who was staying at the hotel) for free to improve your power, but even with her in your party, not ONE attack could afford to miss to get the reward (Rockhoof). If you wanted to guarantee that prize, you’d NEED to buy the Mighty Helm Guardspony (for either 1,200 gems, or $8 in the bundle). The third one was the worst of all; it was impossible to not spend money or gems to win. The only helpers were Flash Magnus (700 gems, or $10) and Commander Ironhead (1200 gems, or $8), both of who were completely new to this update. You could get away with buying only one, but like with the “just Maud” example above, you had to make sure not to miss a lot of time to attack.
 
And on top of all of that, the storyline itself was timed. All the prizes offered during this event may rarely or never be offered again. So if you missed out and really wanted Marble or Rockhoof, you’ll have to wait a long time and pray that Gameloft offers them again in some form.
 
It sounds ridiculous, absurd and unfair to people who don’t want to pay money. But that’s the nature of the beast. The stress of being pressured to spend money IS the entrance fee to F2P games, which is exactly why they have no place in full-price retail games coughActivisionBlizzardEAcough.

@Twinkletail
 
You press a button to perform an attack and deplete the boss HP. Then you either wait a few hours or you use Gems for the next attack. If you have certain ponies, you can power up your attack.

I haven’t played this in years. There are fights now?

@Background Pony #5259  
So did I, I have all three of Pinkie’s sisters in my collection.

@Joshua  
No. Maud was in the hotel. Limestone was for sale. Marble was from beating the first stage of the windigo boss within the time limit.

I just know I won both of them.
 
I’ve had Maud Pie for ages before this event.

@wolfnanaki  
Wasn’t it Marble Pie who was winnable?

@Background Pony #5259  
No, that was Maud Pie.

six dollars for Limestone Pie isn’t exactly worthy of the “greedloft” tag.

She was also winnable. I think she was also in the Hotel. I know I got her though an event, not just paying.