“This isn’t funny anymore,” Discord complained as he sat on a hitching post he had conjured next to Princess Celestia’s marble Sun Throne, which was at the moment bathed in all colours of the rainbow plus some not as the setting sun shone through the multiple stained glass windows adorning both long walls of the cathedral-like room.
The princess frowned grimly and bobbed her head in agreement. “No. No it is not. Pandemics should not be, I am sure even you can agree. Since our conclave, we have been doing everything in our power to limit all Equestrian residents’ exposure to the Blue-Flu. I was hoping with all my heart that Ponyville would escape it, mostly or entirely. Obviously those wishes have been dashed.”
At that, Princess Luna, sitting on her own basalt throne to Celestia’s right, blinking her eyes as she forced herself into wakefulness, injected herself into the conversation. “We understand Twilight Sparkle has been assisting with relief and care, to the point of offering her own domicile as a makeshift infirmary.”
Celestia and Discord both nodded as Celestia responded, “She can be quite giving when she needs to be, as any Princess should.”
Discord scoffed. “To be honest, I didn’t think she had it in her; she’s so persnickety about her everything, but she’s impressed me over the past couple of weeks as she’s worked to help all the sick ponies in that town. Mayhaps I should cut back on my needling of her?” He pondered this for a long moment. “…Nah. Need to keep her on her toe.”
“But,” Luna said, a look of clear concern on her face, “I have heard that Ms Granny Smith, Ponyville’s largest landowner, has contracted the disease and is near death.”
“What?!” Celestia and Discord exclaimed in unison.
“Am I incorrect?” Luna asked.
Discord shrugged and threw his hands into the air, eventually catching them in his mouth and swallowing them, not speaking until they had regrown on his mismatched arms. “Mm, kinda yeah.”
“Dear Sister?” queried Luna again for confirmation.
Celestia bore a look of confusion mixed with concern. “That she may have contracted the virus cannot be discounted, but the idea of her of all ponies being near death is literally impossible.”
“What do you think she’s playing at?” Discord asked Celestia with unusual seriousness.
Celestia lowered her head. “I do not know. You are the one who most often has direct contact with her, so I would assume you are more familiar with the situation.”
“I can’t reach her,” said Discord, shaking his head. “Every time I’ve tried to get into her room, I bounce off like she’s in some sort of balloon. Or a really, really thick bubble like the one I conjured awhile back.”
“A ward,” Celestia said, more to herself than the other two as she scratched her chin. “Powerful one if even Discord can’t break through it. What is she…?”
Just then, a grey Pegasus mare with misaligned eyes wearing a courier’s outfit, burst through the double doors of the throne room, flying just above the floor until she eventually hit the red velvet carpet and skidded to a stop just in front of the steps leading to the thrones. Once she had righted herself, she reached into her saddlebag and took out an envelope sealed with wax. “Your Princessnesses,” she said, “This is for you.” She held it out towards them.
Celestia levitated the letter towards herself as the cock-eyed mare, her job complete, saluted and made a valiant attempt to fly away, though she smacked into at least two columns before finally making it through the doors, which Luna shut behind her as Celestia opened the yellowed envelope to read the contents inside.
The two regal Alicorns and the draconequus read the letter, albeit at different speeds. Luna, unused to modern writing styles, went over it slowly; Celestia, who read mountains of paperwork on a normal day, glanced at every third word before realizing she needed to reread it more carefully; Discord conjured a brass staff with a head shaped like that of an ancient mare, had it read the letter, and then relay it to him in a voice closely mimicking the sender. Once all had finished mentally digesting its contents, Discord began to chuckle before soon giving way to mirthful guffaws, causing Luna to tilt her head in confusion.
“Prithee tell, wherefore the laughter, Discord?” Luna asked.
Celestia, bearing a smirk, spoke as Discord dealt with the giggles. “I must say, even by her standards, this is an audacious plan. She must have spent weeks fine-tuning its details, which would also explain her supposed convalescence.”
“Maybe she’s spent too much time around me,” said Discord, stifling his laughter for the moment. “I know she loved the chaos I pulled at the border so-called wall.”
“Perhaps she has,” Celestia said, still smirking. “Regardless, it would appear everything is coming to a head, and I must prepare forthwith. Luna, are you willing to stay awake to carry out your part from here? The timing of each event will be crucial.”
“Verily, I am,” replied Luna. “I have faith that mine aim shall be true.”
Celestia gave a furtive nod. “Good to hear, sister. Certainly we do not want any more innocents to lose their lives, especially by our hooves. Discord, are you ready?”
She received no answer as Discord had already blinked out of existence.
With a smiling scoff, Celestia mused, “Even after fifteen hundred or more years, some things never change. Fare thee well, Luna.”
“Indeed,” said Luna, rolling her eyes as Celestia exited the throne room through a secret back door leading directly to her personal chambers.
In the fertile northern half of the massive valley formed by the Palomino River and its tributaries, neither the town of Ponyville nor its inhabitants were in high spirits. Down the eastern road marched a Pegasus mare with light-orange coat, sienna mane, green eyes, and a cutie mark consisting of party-crackers and streamers, hitched to an empty wagon. She wore a surgical mask. A small purple dragon holding a rusted cowbell and its striker rode on her back as she called out to the townsfolk.
“Bring out yer dead!!” The mare bellowed through the mask, followed shortly by the dragon hitting the cowbell, which emitted an unsatisfying ‘dunk!’.
This pattern continued a few more times until, near the Old Town Hall where masked ponies had gathered to see their mayor, the two were stopped by an extremely livid purple Alicorn also wearing a mask: the one and only Twilight Sparkle, who assumed an air of authority she may or may not have actually had.
“This isn’t funny!” she snapped at the Pegasus. “Some ponies really have lost loved ones, including me! You, uh…” Twilight searched her memory banks for a name but came up empty.
The orange Pegasus smirked. “Shenanigan,” she said.
“Fitting,” groused Twilight. “Why don’t I know you?”
Shenanigan shrugged. “I’m not from here, duh. I was travelling from Trottingham to Appleloosa when the quarantines left me stuck here. Figured I could spice things up.”
“By making light of an actual pandemic that has killed actual ponies?!” Twilight nearly screamed, incredulous.
“Hey, I run a joke shop back home,” retorted Shenanigan. “What do you expect me to do? It’s not my nature to get all mopey no matter how nasty the world may be.”
Twilight sighed. “But your joke is in ridiculously poor taste.”
“How many ponies in Ponyville have died of Blue-Flu?”
Twilight pondered for a second. “Hundreds if not thousands across Equestria. Though, none here in Ponyville… YET. But that means nothing! We have one old mare who is in seriously poor health due to this! I don’t care what Pinkie Pie said way back when; the last thing we need in the face of genuine danger is levity! But the thing that angers me even more than you and your sick joke is Spike going along with it!” She pointed her hoof accusingly at the small purple dragon.
The dragon rolled his eyes and, just to rub it in, smacked the cowbell one last time. “Come on, Twilight. You left me locked up in your tree-castle for days. Dragons can’t get Blue Flu and I’m pretty sure we can’t carry it either, so what was the point? I figured I may as well slip out and take part in this largely pointless OC cameo.”
Twilight, through a combination of frustration and rage, smacked her head into the ground for lack of a table.
“Shenanigan,” said Twilight, muffled. “Get out of here. I’m a Princess; just give any highway or town guards my name. Spike? Since you’re out anyway, you may as well join me at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Whatever,” Spike replied in affirmation as he hopped off Shenanigan’s back. “Thanks, Shanny. It’s been real.”
“Not a problem,” Shenanigan said with a wan smile. “Thank you for being part of my cameo.”
With nary another word, the orange Pegasus turned back east and headed out of town, still occasionally calling for sequestered ponies to bring out their nonexistent dead but, without Spike to hit the cowbell, the spectacle lacked panache and she soon went silent.
Meanwhile, Spike walked along the western road; Twilight had refused his request for a ride.
On the west side of Ponyville stood the rolling hills of Sweet Apple Acres, its original virgin forests long since given way to myriad apple orchards. There was also, in a far corner of the property, a massive concrete and metal structure enclosing a concrete yard where once a small hill had stood. Inside and unable to leave were various and sundry non-ponies roaming around while being watched by Royal Guards, who paced the parapets as if such a lonely place were the Palace or Tartarus. The souls inside lacked any shade and had to share a single big water tank that had long since lost any semblance of cleanliness.
Closer to the farm’s entrance stood the main house, fittingly built in the Dutch Barn style and painted red with white trim. On one side, the front door hung open as a few ponies, all wearing facemasks, came in and out. Twilight, with Spike on her back, entered, coming face to face with three glum ponies who were clearly related. They were not wearing masks.
“Any change?” Twilight asked.
“Nope,” replied Big Macintosh, forlorn, as he sat in a corner of the room that was clearly his spot.
Applejack tapped her hoof on the wood floor with irritation. “We can’t get in there to see Granny. No one can except Zecora, and she’s been in there for at least the last three hours. Maybe she’ll come out soon an’ give us some sorta news.”
“Not knowing is the worst part, I know,” said Twilight tenderly, sniffing back a tear.
“Speakin’ of,” Applejack spoke. “I’m so sorry to hear about yer dad. Y’know ya really should be in Canterlot lookin’ after yer mom; ya don’t need ta be here.”
Twilight sighed. “I know. And… I was there. So were Shiny and Cadance. Big bro is still at the main house. But, once Father… left us, there wasn’t much point in my staying around. Mother and I rarely see eye-to-eye on things, and I’m betting that will just get worse with Father no longer around. Even though he’d been sick for years and Blue-Flu was just the last straw, his presence calmed the household. My situation has always been …complicated.”
“Family usually is, sugarcube,” replied Applejack as she placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
Twilight turned to the filly in the room. “Apple Bloom? Are you okay?”
Apple Bloom said nothing, merely staring straight ahead. Not at anything but rather through everything.
“She’s practically catatonic,” said Twilight.
Big Macintosh nodded his head in agreement. “Eeyup.”
“She an’ Granny Smith have gotten real close these last few years,” Applejack waxed. “I don’t know how she’ll handle …the inevitable. Even if it don’t come today or this week, Granny’s real dang old. Somethin’ ‘ll take ‘er out sooner than later.”
Just then, Zecora, with great effort, pushed her way through the magic ward surrounding Granny Smith’s room. Through the oily ripple effect, Twilight could see an ancient mare laying half-dead in a four-poster bed covered in hoof-made quilts. Zecora approached them.
“Any change?” Applejack asked.
Zecora shook her head, causing the golden rings around her neck to jingle slightly.
“Not even a rhyming couplet to act as a paean for us?”
Zecora shook her head again. “Though speaking would allay me, whoever gives me words is far too lazy.”
Twilight and Applejack cocked their heads in utter befuddlement as Zecora began to walk out, but her exit was stopped by Mayor Meyer Mare, who wore what appeared to be an extremely thick mask around her snout and held a tape recorder. Immediately behind her skittered Raven Inkwell, trying and failing to catch her attention. The mayor stopped in front of Applejack and, with her most upright bearing, began to give some sort of speech.
“Mmmph, mmph, mphph, mmmmph, nmph,” the Mayor orated through her mask, pointing her right hoof outward and making a sweeping motion.
Raven, also wearing a disposable surgical mask, facehoofed before trying to get her boss’s attention again. “Meyer, I told you before you left the office, before you gave that public speech at the Podium in front of Old Town Hall, that fifteen masks at once is not going to make you fifteen times safer!”
“Mmmph?” Asked the Mayor.
“Pity too,” said Raven with a resigned sigh, “Today’s oratory really was your best since I first came to Ponyville to work for you. At least we had that.” She motioned to the tape player.
The Mayor nodded, then reached behind her, felt nothing, and started flailing her hoof like she had a parasprite infestation. “MMPH!” She snipped.
“There’s no reason to curse,” Raven chided. “After all, you should know from personal experience that even the strongest booze can’t make it through fifteen layers of cloth. Also, you ran out of hooch yesterday.”
“MMMMMMPHH!!!” Mayor Mare cried.
“Also,” continued Raven, “you’re here to see your old friend, not hit up her granddaughter for spirituous liquors. Given the situation, it would be rude to ask.”
Mayor Mare sighed, drooping her head. “Mmph,” she admitted, glumly, as she dropped the tape recorder.
“Hey,” said Raven as she picked up the device. “How come most of you aren’t wearing masks? Doing so is a municipal order.”
Applejack shrugged. “Wel’p, seein’ as Granny’s sick as a dog that ate rotten meat, we’ve already been exposed, so… what’s the point? Also, with Apple Bloom, the Celestial Senate said kids don’t get sick from Blue-Flu.”
“You wear the mask to protect others from you, not the other way around!” Raven and Twilight yelled at her in unison, then stared at each other. Their smirks were not visible behind the masks, but one could see it in their eyes.
“Wait, hold on,” said Applejack. “Big Mac, are they serious? They ain’t yankin’ our chains, are they?”
Big Macintosh, still in the far corner, shook his head as he stood up. “Nnnope,” he replied.
A look of shock and worry spread across Applejack’s face. “But… I ain’t sick. He ain’t sick. ‘Bloom ain’t sick.”
“Not unlike those who pass through magical barriers, Blue-Flu can create asymptomatic carriers,” Zecora explained.
“Uh…! I… Bye,” said Applejack as quickly as she could as she galloped up to her room at top speed and slammed the door behind her.
“Mmph,” Mayor Mare replied as Apple Bloom continued to sit in her spot, catatonic, while Big Mac donned a mask he’d taken off a nearby shelf and made his way from his corner past the motley gathering to the hallway containing Granny Smith’s room.
However, he bounced off the magic barrier upon trying to enter, causing him to involuntarily blurt out, “What the hay?!”
“Wow. That’s one powerful shield,” Twilight said in genuine awe. “I’m not sure if even Shining Armor can summon one that strong. …Hmm, actually he probably can because, you know, prodigy just like me.”
Everyone in the room except Apple Bloom rolled their eyes.
Just then, a strained voice cried out from Granny Smith’s room, clearly from the old mare herself. “AAAAGH! I THINK THIS HERE’S THE BIG ’N! GIT READY, STETSON, I’M COMIN’ TA JOIN YA, HONEY!”
At that, Zecora immediately bolted back into the room. Spike followed her and, to Twilight’s surprise, made it through the barrier as if it didn’t exist.
“How did he do that?” Twilight asked no one in particular, confused.
“Dragons are immune to Blue-Flu due to their high body temperatures,” explained Raven. “Honestly, Twilight. For a mare who’s lived with a dragon for so many years, you really ought to know more about them.”
A sharp intake of breath behind her mask signalled Twilight’s irritation. “Well. I know, uh… Okay, Princess Celestia actually did the bulk of raising him because I was too young. Even so, I do my best to make sur—”
From Granny Smith’s room came a choked scream, then a nasty gargling noise, then silence.
Though it was nearly impossible to tell because of the masks, everyone’s jaws dropped as they involuntarily stepped back and away from the hall, Mayor Mare nearly tripping over her own tape recorder as her back hoof pushed its big red button.
For an interminable several moments, no one could muster a coherent thought, much less a single word to say. Eventually Twilight broke the ice in an uncharacteristically soft voice.
“Oh no!”
“Oh yes!” replied a gruff yet high-pitched masculine voice they had all heard before.
Just inside the doorway of the Apple Clan house stood Orangeglow, Chancellor of Equestria, wearing no mask. His eyes were bloodshot, his umber coat looked more pale than usual, and his hairpiece was off-kilter. Nonetheless, he cut an imposing figure due to his bearing, plus being flanked by Royal Guards. He choked back a cough before continuing to speak.
“So, uh, sucks she’s gone. But, one pony’s loss is another’s gain! In this case, mine. With Sweet Apple Acres’s owner dead, so is her lawsuit against me! I win by default. As compensation I’ll be taking this farm!”
Everyone in the room blurted out in total disbelief, “What?!” Apple Bloom fainted.
“That’s right!” Orangeglow gloated. “I win. Just like I always do. Now you losers get outta my house! Tomorrow I’m gonna tear it down and start building Orangeglow Tower Ponyville. Also, I’ll be expanding that facility I built on the hill so I can fill it with more nasty lowlifes like thieving dragons and stupid zebras and other freaks!”
“You mean ‘concentration camp’,” Raven snapped.
“Who cares? All that matters is I get what I want. And this camp is gonna be amazing. Stupendous! The best most escape-proof camp in all of Equestria!” He stifled a cough.
At this, everyone conscious was seeing red, especially Big Macintosh, who was of course already red, but he was also the only entity in the room besides the guards who was larger than Orangeglow. He said nothing as he used his powerful left-hook to send the Chancellor crumpling to the floor. That accomplished, he bowed his head as the Guards arrested him and escorted him out. Orangeglow coughed again, dry-heaving as he attempted to right himself. Eventually the Royal Guards came to assist him.
“Thanks for nothin’,” he snapped at them. “It’s so hard to find good help these days. Anyway, now that I’ve arrested that big red horse, there really is no one to stop my takeover of this pathetic farm. From here, I’ll do a hostile takeover of Ponyville. The puny old Mayor, who’s always hated me…”
“Mmph,” Mayor Mare agreed as he continued.
“…and the lowlife Princess without a kingdom won’t be able to do anything. After that, all I need to do is have the Senate dispose those two freaks of nature and I’ll be in charge of Equestria! My stallion brigades are standing back and standing by. All I have to do is give the signal and all you worthless pinheads will be gone! LAW AND ORDER!!”
At that, five more Royal Guards appeared at the door to take everyone into custody. Twilight found herself blunted by a suppression ring on her horn and a back-kick to her side rendering one of her wings immobile. The Mayor and Raven, knowing they were powerless against the soldiers, especially while sober, quietly acquiesced to being placed in hoof-cuffs. Orangeglow watched this with glee, then frowned as he coughed again.
“Really? This is it? After four years of trying to take out Ponyville’s leaders, this is it?! It’s too easy. This isn’t fun. I need you all to feel worse! I won! I’ve won so much you all should be sick of me winning! You’re not giving me anything! Be miserable!!” Orangeglow demanded.
“So, in the end, this is what ya are? Just a pathetic old stallion who can’t feel a gol’ durned thing unless others suffer,” a crackly old female voice called out from the hallway.
Orangeglow turned around to find himself face to face with a healthy-looking Granny Smith. His jaw dropped a little as a tiny cough came out.
“How are you alive?!” he demanded. “We all saw you die!”
Granny Smith cackled. “Nope. Y’all heard me die. Actin’ classes. Might wanna invest in ‘em next time. Irregardless, not even death can take me out. Even if it could, I ain’t ready ta go just yet. But I am more’n ready to give you yer well-deserved comeuppance.”
At that, Orangeglow got over his shock and snorted disdainfully. “How? Just because you’re still alive doesn’t change a thing. Your grandson is still going to the dungeons and my plans are full speed ahead.”
“I don’t think so,” replied Granny as she looked towards the ceiling. “Discord!!”
The eponymous draconequus poofed into existence next to the aged mare. “My Lady,” he said as he performed an over-the-top curtsy and bowed his head.
Seeing Discord caused Orangeglow’s eye to involuntarily twitch, but not as much as it did when he heard what Granny said next.
“Ya hear ever’thing he said?”
“Hm, no,” Discord replied. “Only most of it. It took a few seconds longer than expected to crack those magical wards keeping all the non-equine creatures in that concentration camp. But I most definitely did hear most everything about his plot to overthrow the Princesses and…” he pulled his Granny-Smith-head brass staff out of his armpit, “So have they.”
He looked down past Orangeglow at the floor whereupon he immediately noticed and swooped up Mayor Mare’s tape recorder.
“Hm!” Discord said, clearly impressed. “Looks like you were right about our Mayor. She had the foresight to press ‘Record’ on this before the Gestapo arrested her. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but in the Celestial justice system, this is what they call ‘evidence’, right?”
“Yep!” replied Granny Smith.
By this point, steam was figuratively coming out of Orangeglow’s ears; a snap of Discord’s fingers made it literal, causing Granny Smith to cackle even louder.
“There’s something else we need you to see, Chancellor,” Discord told Orangeglow as he snapped his fingers again and teleported everyone away from the house.
They appeared on the closest hill to the illegally built concentration camp, staring right at it. It appeared completely abandoned.
“W-where… *cough* are the guards?” Orangeglow asked, his voice belying sickness.
“Oh, them? Well, Granny and I had a long talk about it, and we eventually agreed it was for the best to also evacuate them before,” explained Discord.
“Before what?” Orangeglow demanded.
Discord shrugged as he lifted his eyes to the sky. “That.”
Orangeglow turned just in time to see a tiny meteor appear on the horizon and soon strike the camp dead-on, reducing it and the hill to a smouldering crater. The shockwave from the blast knocked everyone back several feet and sent Orangeglow toppling over into a coughing fit. This time, no one was willing to help him up.
Discord looked towards Equus Mountain, home of Canterlot Royal Palace, and gave the “OK” sign with a wink.
It didn’t take long for everyone else to recover from the shock and make their way to where Discord and Granny Smith stood and Orangeglow lay, he surrounded by a bubble-shield because, as Twilight reiterated, Blue-Flu is highly contagious.
“Yeah I’m purty sure he’s got the real thing,” said Granny Smith. “That cough ain’t normal.”
Twilight turned to the Apple matriarch, mildly irritated. “But you didn’t?”
Granny Smith smiled wryly. “Nope. Can’t get into specifics, but somethin’ like Blue-Flu is the last thing I need ta worry ‘bout. This was all a show for the Chancellor here. Y’all just happened ta get caught up in it.”
Twilight wasn’t impressed. “You made your family worried sick! You made the entire town worry! You probably made the Princesses worry!”
“I can assure you, Twilight,” Discord said as he patted Twilight’s shoulder, “the Princesses were not the least bit concerned. Who do you think flattened the concentration camp with a meteorite?”
“…You were all in on it…” Twilight said, her emotions a whirlwind.
Spike shook his head. “I wasn’t.”
“Before you start to pry, nor was I,” said Zecora. “Though I could tell with but a glance or two that Ms Granny Smith never had Blue-Flu. ‘Keep it quiet,’ she appealed. So, my lips were sealed.”
Raven and the Mayor simply stared at Discord and Granny Smith, and occasionally to the blast crater, shaking their heads in disbelief.
Mayor Mare spoke, her fifteen masks having flown off during the blast. “This may be the craziest story I’ve ever been a part of. …And I was sober this time!”
“By the way, Madam Mayor,” Discord said as he presented the tape recorder, “Why did you really have this with you?”
The mayor blushed as Raven explained. “The beginning of the tape has prerecorded applause, just in case one of her speeches isn’t going well. We’ll play it over the loudspeaker to make townsponies think what she’s saying is more popular than it actually is.”
“Oldest trick in the book,” replied Mayor Mare with more than a hint of guilt.
Discord held up his Granny-Smith-staff and spoke into it like a walky-talky, “Your highnesses! I assume you heard everything I did. Even if you didn’t, Mayor Meyer Mare got his entire confession on tape. That should be enough, right?”
At that, the head of the staff morphed into Princess Celestia’s likeness. “Indeed it is,” said the staff in Celestia’s voice.
“Oh!” Granny Smith interjected. “Tell Luna thanks for the meteorite! A li’l damage to my land was worth it to get that durned camp outta here!”
“I will let her know,” replied Celestia-staff. “She returned to bed as soon as she arranged the strike. I am glad that your plan, convoluted as it was, worked.”
Granny Smith blushed. “Well, thank ya kindly, Celestia.”
“What right do you have to talk to the Princesses so casually?!” Twilight snapped as she marched toward them. “Even I don’t do that and I am legally a Princess!
“Twilight, how Granny Smith and I converse with each other is none of your concern,” Celestia-staff said sternly. “Also, I have some tasks for you, if you would.”
“Absolutely!” Twilight replied in maximum suck-up mode.
Celestia-staff cleared her brass throat. “First, have my Guards arrest Chancellor Orangeglow. Meyer’s recording should be more than enough for a sane jury to convict him of high treason against the Realm. Then, please find and round up all the refugees Discord set free and bring them to Ponyville’s carrefour so my bureaucrats can figure out where they belong.”
“Aye-aye!” said Twilight with a salute. Then she galloped off.
After a tearful reunion with the three remaining members of her immediate family, Granny Smith waited until after dark and the others were all asleep before she ventured outside her home, past the stand of ancient gnarled Zap-Apple trees, and up the nearest hill just behind the barn. Discord was waiting for her.
“I’m surprised you didn’t use the opportunity to let yourself be reborn,” he said.
Granny Smith chuckled at that. “Y’all were expectin’ that, weren’t ya?”
“Kinda, yeah,” Discord admitted.
“Discord, you oughta know, as Celestia learned a long time ago, no one decides when it’s my time ta go ‘cept me. Now, I can’t lie and say my time ain’t comin’ soon. But, I got a lot of preparation work ta do ‘fore I snuff it, an’ I ain’t started it yet,” explained Granny calmly.
“Didn’t realize it was so complicated.”
“Wel’p, it is. An’ that’s another thing I had to learn the hard way. Anywho, I appreciate your help in makin’ this plan work out. Lemme know how Orangeglow’s trial goes.”
“You won’t attend?” Discord asked, somewhat surprised.
Granny Smith shook her head. “Naw. Got too much to do here an’ now. Speakin’ of, I’ma head back ta get me some well-earned rest. Plus I need ta fix somethin’ special fer Twilight. Not ever’ day ya lose yer dad. She’s holdin’ up a lot better’n I did way back when. So… ‘night.”
Discord watched as she slowly tottered back to her home.
“Good night… Annie,” he whispered before blinking out of existence.