Flurry Heart's Story: Apple Family Memories

Chapters

1. Meeting the Apple Twins
2. Annie Remembers
3. Operation Cheer-Up-Annie
4. Chip Breaks Down
5. "Thank you for everything, Granny"

1. Meeting the Apple Twins

Yona led Flurry Heart down the path to Sweet Apple Acres just beyond Ponyville. Behind them were Storm Streak, Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, and Spike. Flurry was finally going to meet Applejack’s family as a part of her goal to befriend more ponies and form a small group of friends like Twilight once did.

Stormy flew above as everyone continued to walk. He couldn’t stop asking Flurry all sorts of questions about her time with Tirek yesterday.

“So did Tirek turn into a giant centaur and terrorize the entire animal sanctuary?” he blabbered on.

“Hehe, not quite, Stormy,” Flurry said, smiling sarcastically.

“I’ll bet he got so big he caused earthquakes everywhere he stepped! Maybe he even shot a big laser beam at the ground and made a ditch so deep that it became another Ghastly Gorge!”

“I’m pretty certain everyone in Ponyville would have known if that actually happened, Stormy,” Pound said as Pumpkin couldn’t help but giggle through her teeth.

“Yeah I know, but it woulda been so cool! Yona and the other teachers could have come in with the Elements and BOOOOOOM! Turn him right into stone!”

“Tirek’s got some other problems he needs working out, Storm,” Spike said to the energetic little pegasus.

“Yeah, he’s not too happy with his family and he needs some time to think it out,” Flurry added.

“Aw, he actually sounds like quite a softy deep down, Flurry,” Pumpkin said.

“Maybe he is. We’ll see. For right now, I’m happy I can finally meet the Apple twins here!”

“Apple Chip and Annie Smith really good kids, Flurry,” Yona told her. “We getting close to
Sweet Apple Acres so get ready.”

With a smile on her face, Flurry looked ahead and saw Applejack and her husband Tex waiting by the entrance to their house. Tex was the son of Applejack’s father’s old friend Burnt Oak. He was an earth pony just like her and had the same build as her brother Big Macintosh. He had a green coat with maroon hair and wore a blue bandana with white spots and a Stetson hat. His cutie mark was a cactus in the desert with the sun shining behind it. He didn’t speak with a southern accent like Applejack, but his voice was deep and masculine. Applejack had also taken to wearing a red bandana and had one side of her hair done in a woven pigtail. They walked on a bit further, but Stormy couldn’t help himself and flew ahead to let them both know they had come.

“Applejack, Tex, we’re here!” he told them as he circled around once and then flew back to the others.

“Howdy there, Storm Streak!” Applejack said, waving to him. “C’mon, Tex! Let’s go say hi!”

“Chip, Annie, Princess Flurry Heart’s here!” Tex called up to a window in their house.

“Hey, Applejack!” Flurry said.

“Heeeey, Flurry! It’s been a while, kid!” Applejack replied, giving her a hug.

“It’s great to see you guys again! You too, Tex!”

“Flurry, I can’t believe how tall you’re getting! The last time I saw you, I could’ve sworn you were about one or two inches shorter!”

“Yeah, feels like it’s been forever. I never got a chance to see Sweet Apple Acres or meet your kids.”

“Doncha’ worry your horseshoes, Flurr, cuz we got em here today!” Applejack added as she and Tex moved aside to allow their kids to walk in.

The front door to their house opened and a yellow colt with green hair and reddish eyes rushed out. He didn’t speak with the same southern accent that his mother had, but he had inherited her freckles. His cutie mark was a bright red apple. This was their son Apple Chip.

“Hey there!” he said, walking up to Flurry. “It’s great to finally see you, Flurry Heart! I’m Apple Chip but you can just call me Chip for short.”

“It’s great to see you, Chip,” Flurry said, shaking his hoof. “Is your sister around?”

“Annie? You back there? Come say hi to Flurry,” Tex said, looking back.

Behind him was a small filly that looked a bit scared. She had the same color coat as her brother, but her hair was red and her eyes were green. Her mane was done up in two pigtails wrapped in blue bows and a third bow wrapped at the end of her tail. She had freckles on her cheeks and her cutie mark was exactly like his only it was a green apple. Like Chip, she also didn’t speak with a southern accent. She looked out from behind her father and then slowly walked forward and began to smile.

“It’s…good to see you, Flurry,” she said, bashfully. “I’m Annie Smith. You can call me Annie.”

“We’re the Apple Twins!” Chip said, walking next to his sister and putting his arm around her.

“Happy to meet you two,” Flurry replied, merrily. “I’ve been having a great time in Ponyville and I’m glad I could finally come to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Thanks for bringin’ her here, Yona,” Applejack said to Yona as she let Flurry get acquainted with her kids. “I know Twilight’s really been itchin’ to let her niece get some friendship lessons learnt. I told her right from the start that it’d be a great idea. Reminds me of the time Twilight first came to our farm over ten years ago, ‘cept we ain’t stuffin Flurry full of apple treats this time. Hehe!”

“Happy to help, Applejack!” Yona replied, cheerfully. “When yak hear about Flurry, yak knew it good idea. Flurry do really good when we figure out how to stop Red Beast!”

“So that guy really was a changeling, eh?”

“Yep. Bad changelings still out there.”

“We’ll keep our eyes peeled.”

“Well, Yona need to get back home now. Spike, take care of Flurry and friends.”

“Wish me luck! I’m gonna be with six kids this time!” Spike said, saluting.

“Bye Yona! Thanks for recommending the Apple Family for me!” Flurry told her yak friend.

“BYE YONA!” they all said, waving.

“Well hey, Chip, Annie, your mother and I are gonna go inside and get some lunch around. Why don’t you two show Flurry around the farm,” Tex said to his kids.

“Great idea, Dad!” Chip replied, cheerfully. “Come on, Flurry!”

Flurry followed Chip and Annie with Spike and the others close behind as Chip began to tell her about their land. Spike gave a big thumb up to Applejack and Tex as they winked back at him.

“Feels great to finally have Flurry here,” said Tex. “The kids are all gonna be great friends to her.”

“Ya think Annie’s gonna be ok?” Applejack asked, concerned. “She seemed a little moody back there at first.”

“Yeah, she’s still coping but I think she’ll be fine. Having everyone over like this should get her mind off of Granny.”

“Yer right. They’re gonna be great friends.”

2. Annie Remembers

“This is where you can get the best view of the whole orchard,” Chip said as he and Annie guided Flurry to the top of a hill with some apple trees on it.

“Wow! It looks beautiful!” Flurry said, sitting down.

“It’s also where we both got our cutie marks,” Annie added.

“Really? How did it happen?”

“Last autumn, Mom let us do some apple-bucking for this whole acre,” Chip explained. “We both really wanted to get more involved with the farm so we offered to start small with this special spot on the hill top. It took a while but we did it all by ourselves. By the time we were finished, we both sat down here, watched the sun set and decided we really liked being apple-farmers. That’s when these little beauties showed up on our flanks.”

Chip walked over next to his sister. They turned away from each other and bumped their rumps together, showing off their identical apple cutie marks.

“Haven’t regretted it ever since!”

“You should have seen how excited Auntie Apple Bloom was when she heard we both got our cutie marks at the same time.”

“That’s right! I remember reading the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ entry in the Friendship Journal about when that happened. It’s usually pretty rare for several ponies to acquire their cutie marks simultaneously. I’m still waiting to see what mine’s gonna be.” Flurry said, looking back at her bare flank.

“Well we’ve heard a lot of stories that our aunt told us about what she and her friends did to figure theirs out so don’t go too crazy with it.” Chip snickered.

“STORMY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” shouted Pound off to the side.

The three of them turned to see Spike, Pound and Pumpkin at the base of a tree, looking up at some rustling leaves. The sound of electricity could be heard and the tree lit up from the inside. Stormy flew out of the tree, blackened from the electricity and his hair standing on end.

“I’m okay,” he said wearily as his eyes spun around.

“Those zap-apples aren’t ready for eating yet, Storm!” Spike laughed as Pumpkin and Pound joined her.

“Yeah, Stormy can’t help himself sometimes when he’s here,” Chip told Flurry as she giggled.

“Least he’s kinda living up to his name!” Pumpkin giggled.

Stormy looked miffed, but he shook himself off and matted his hair down. He then flew over to Flurry and the Apple Twins.

“Chip, Annie, can we go inside and play the Joy Box?” he said, landing in front of them.

“The Joy Box?” Flurry asked.

“Yeah, it’s for video games,” Annie explained.

“Oh, like the new console version of the Joyboy. Dad used to play one of those.”

“Chip got it last Hearth’s Warming and Stormy can’t get enough of it.”

“Well there’s no point in saying no now that he’s mentioned it,” Chip said.

“Can we play battle mode on Super Dragon Warriors? Can we, can we, can we?!” Stormy asked, hopping up and down.

“Take it easy now, Storm,” Spike said behind him. “Flurry came to visit us after all.”

“It’s okay, Spike,” Flurry replied. “I’m not much of a gamer, but I wouldn’t mind watching them.”

“YES!! Let’s go!”

Stormy took off and flew ahead while the others walked and Chip continued talking to Flurry.

“So yeah, that’s pretty much the whole farm,” he said. “We go out here to check the trees every week to make sure there aren’t any worms or other issues. Sure does keep us busy.”

“You guys are so lucky to have all this land to roam around in,” Flurry said as she looked around.

She then noticed a nearby clearing with a few gravestones. One of the gravestones had some fresh dirt in front of it and was surrounded by bouquets of colorful flowers. Annie stayed behind and glanced at them. Her ears went down and she hung her head. She turned around and continued walking with the others, trying to get herself to smile again. Flurry couldn’t see the writing on the stone, but she then remembered that Cadance had told her that Applejack’s grandmother passed away a few weeks ago. Annie must have been having a hard time getting over her death, which could’ve explained why she seemed so shy at first when meeting her. Flurry wanted to ask about it, but she figured now wasn’t the time to discuss her great grandmother’s death.

“Come on, slowpokes!” Stormy teased. “Let’s go play!”

“Ah, that crazy little colt.” Spike laughed.

“I dunno about you guys, but I could definitely go for some of those delicious mashed taters your mom makes for supper tonight,” Pumpkin said to Chip and Annie.

“Great idea, Pumpkin! I’ll run it by her when we get inside,” Chip replied as he started running along with everyone else to keep up with Stormy.

“BATTLE MODE! CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER!” said the announcer in the video game as Chip, Stormy, Pound and Pumpkin all sat in front of the television monitor. The green box between them was the “Joy Box” console. Four controllers were plugged in to the front end. The controllers were shaped like a capital H with colorful buttons on the side so ponies could use them with their hooves effectively and even control the center joystick with their mouth. On the top section of the controller were smaller versions of the buttons that were meant for other creatures with fingers such as dragons, griffons, and hippogriffs. This video game system was developed after Equestria began to open up to more non-pony races and designed it so it could be played by anyone. The game they were playing was very popular with dragons due to its action and use of dragon lore and historical figures. Spike, Flurry and Annie all spectated from behind as they selected their favorite character to use.

“I call Lavan!” Stormy shouted making his selection on screen.

“Stormy, you always choose Lavan,” Pound teased.

“He’s my best character!”

“He’s not even a dragon though,” Chip chimed in.

“He’s still cooler than Smelt. The dragons aren’t as fun to use.”

“Just let him have his fun, guys. I’m looking forward to kicking all your flanks,” said Pumpkin smugly as she lay down on her belly with her hooves under her chin. Her controller was hovering in front of her with her magic.

“Whatever you say, cheater,” Chip said, nudging her playfully.

“STAGE SET!” shouted the announcer. “EREBUS, LAVAN, SMELT, AAAAAAND GROGAR!”

“Wait, Grogar is in this game too?” Flurry asked as the arena took time to load.

“Apparently he is,” Spike replied. “Ever since Discord disguised himself as Grogar to fool the Trio, tons of game producers and sci-fi authors have been making up their own versions of Grogar left and right. Kinda strategic if you’d ask me. Everyone loves having him as a villain.”

“Yeah, but the least they could do is make him accurate. He was blue, not green.”

“His default color is blue, I just changed him to green for fun.” Pound told Flurry.

“Oh. Well they definitely got the Bewitching Bell wrong. That looks like a little cow-bell around his neck. The red eyes are also a bit off-putting.”

“Don’t worry, Flurry, I’ll beat Grogar for you!” Stormy said.

Annie smiled and shook her head back and forth.

“You don’t play games, do you?” Flurry asked her.

“Not really.” Annie replied. “Some are too violent for me, but Mom and Dad seem to be okay with this one. I like Seapony Adventures, but I’m not so good at playing it so I usually just watch Chip instead. It’s got a nice story.”

“Yeah, my Dad tried to get me into them but it’s not really my thing. This game looks okay; it’s just weird seeing all these ancient villains of Equestria being portrayed like this. I think Erebus and Lavan looked a lot scarier than that. I still don’t know why Lavan has a crown. That monster had no right to pose as royalty.”

“Least they’re not doing anything with Nightmare Moon. That would be pretty disrespectful to Princess Luna.” Spike added.

“And I hope they don’t do anything with Tirek after what he told us yesterday.”

“Shhhh! It’s about to start!” Stormy whispered loudly.

“THREE, TWO, ONE, GOOOOO!”

The kids began button mashing their controllers as the polygonal characters ran around the stage and pummeled one another. Erebus resembled a large cloud-like being that was based on the historical villain of Equestria that was sealed away over a thousand years ago: Erebus the Shadow Demon. His reach was excellent since he was made out of clouds and he was difficult to land hits on, but didn’t have much brute strength. Lavan the Lava Demon had the appearance of a large bipedal monster made of lava and was also based on an ancient villain who met the same fate as Erebus. He was one of the stronger characters and could shoot lava blasts from a distance. He moved slowly but was strong and could burn characters if they stood next to him for too long. Smelt was once a real-life dragon warrior of old that was very iconic in dragon culture. His game character was good with weapons like a crystal sword and arrows. He also had great aim with his fire breathing abilities. Grogar the ram was based on the ancient, evil sorcerer of the same name. He was extremely capable with magic and could use a powerful head-butt move that would send enemies flying.

Flurry watched in awe as she saw all the characters using their unique abilities and fighting moves. It was a bit too fast-paced for her to keep up with which was part of why she never got into fighting games, but she was amused by it nonetheless. Erebus landed a punch on Lavan and the latter fell over, melted into a puddle of lava and faded away. A small glowing number floated over him, indicating that the player had lost a point. He respawned on another section of the stage with a refilled health meter and continued to fight.

“OOOH! Pumpkin, nice job!” Spike said.

“Dangit! I’m gonna get you for that, Pumpkin!” said a determined Stormy.

“Stormy, try using parry. Lavan’s too slow and you need to be able to dodge attacks sometimes,” Chip advised.

“Alright, alright, fine,”

Annie walked over and sat down on a nearby couch, while the others continued to talk amongst each other over the game.

“They’re going to be doing this for a while. Might wanna find a comfy spot over here,” she said as Flurry joined her.

“So does Chip play games a lot?” Flurry asked.

“Not too much. They all love he Joy Box, but Chip always minds when Mom gives us time limits on it. He’s really diligent. If he’s got some work to do around the farm, he does it without complaining and I just go wherever he goes. It’s been that way ever since we got our cutie marks.”

“You guys sure are great workers. Applejack and Tex are lucky to have you around here.”

Flurry looked around the room, noticing some photos on mantles and bookshelves. She then noticed a portrait of Granny Smith on the wall behind her in a circular frame. Without thinking, she asked about it.

“Hey, isn’t that your great grandmother, Granny Smith? The one who…uh, passed away recently?” she asked.

“Oh. Yeah, that’s her.”

Flurry realized she had said too much and noticed a change of expression on Annie’s face. She had to finish what she started though.

“Sorry she had to go like that.”

“It’s okay. She was really old and wasn’t doing so well.”

“You really miss her, don’t you?”

“Yeah. We did a lot of things with her. She was so fun to have around.”

Annie sniffled a bit and her lips began to quiver. Flurry was scared that this would lead to her crying. She was about to say something to cheer her up when suddenly the announcer began talking and Pumpkin started to whoop.

“ROUND COMPLETE! THE WINNER IS…EREBUS!”

“MUAHAHA! NO ONE CAN WITHSTAND MY SHADOW POWERS!!”

Erebus congratulated himself on screen while the others hung their heads in defeat, except for Smelt, who was being a good sport and clapping for the winner.

“YES!” shouted Pumpkin. “I knew I still had the touch!”

“Dangit! Why do unicorns have to be so darn good at video games?!” Stormy whined.

“It’s the magic, Storm. They’re total pros,” Pound said, patting Stormy on the back.

“Hmpf! Well I’m gonna play as Penguin King next.”

“Hey Flurry, I’m gonna sit this next round out since I won. You wanna give it a try?” Pumpkin said, offering the little princess her controller.

“Oh…well, uh…”

“It’s okay, we’ll all set the difficulty to level 1 if you want.”

“Give it a try Flurry. Ember’s a pretty good starting character,” Spike told her.

“Ember’s in this too?!”

“Sure is! She can fly and she uses the Fire Scepter as a weapon! She’s super cool!” Stormy told her.

“We’ll go easy on you, Flurry. We promise,” added Chip.

“Go ahead, Flurry. I’ll be ok back here,” Annie told her with a smile returning to her face.

Flurry almost wanted to stick with Annie some more after seeing her look so sad, but Annie looked better now so she thought it was worth a try.

“Eh, I guess it wouldn’t hurt. Alright, I’ll play as Ember.”

Flurry hopped down from the couch and used her magic to hold the controller.

“Alright!” shouted Stormy.

“Go get em, Flurr!” Pumpkin said, giving Flurry a pat on the back.

They all sat down for a few moments to select their characters while Chip gave Flurry a quick run-down on the controls.

“Alright Flurry, the cross-shaped yellow pad here on the left is for walking, jumping and crouching. These buttons on the right are for attacking. That big green one is he main attack, the little blue one is for more powerful attacks, and the red one can also make you jump if it’s too hard to use the pad to do that. I always jump with the red button. Pretty much everypony does, but you’ll probably do just fine with magic.”

“Also, be sure to use green and blue when moving in certain directions and you’ll use different moves. Ember’s got this really awesome slash move if you press green while running,” Spike added.

“Green while running. Got it!”

Flurry sat down and readied the controller with her magic. The screen changed to show the characters they were using.

“STAGE SET! EMBER, PENGUIN KING, SMELT, AAAAAAND GRUMBLEBOG!”

“Oh my gosh, even Grumblebog is in this game?!” Flurry asked, surprised.

“Who’s Grumblebog?” Stormy asked. “Is that like Spike’s brother or something?”

“No, that’s an old friend of Celestia and Luna’s. Of course he was much larger when they first met him. Another historical inaccuracy.”

“Well they can’t make the characters too big in this or it wouldn’t be fair to the other players. That’s why all the dragon characters are in their young adult forms,” Pound told Flurry.

“THREE, TWO, ONE, GOOOOO!”

“Alright Flurry, go!” Chip told the princess as she started concentrating her magic on the controller. She hadn’t used one in quite a while with her magic, but she had already memorized the buttons and started experimenting with her moves. She tried flying away from the other characters and testing out some of her moves. She pressed blue and Ember shot out a fireball. Pressing and holding it would allow her to breath fire for a few seconds. She managed to start burning Penguin King until her fire ran out. Flurry remembered Spike’s advice and pressed green while running forward. Ember slashed with her scepter, landing a hit on him. Penguin King, better known as “King Charlatan”, was a tyrant that Celestia and Luna defeated long ago. He had ice-themed powers so he didn’t do well with fire. Before Flurry could act again, Penguin King shot ice beams out of his eyes and she flew backwards, temporarily frozen in ice.

“Come on, Flurry! You can do it!” Spike cheered.

“Here Flurry, let me show you something.” Pound said as he controlled Grumblebog, the plump red dragon that closely resembled Spike. Grumblebog flew over Penguin King, quickly shot downward and did a ground-pounding move that shook the platform beneath him. Penguin King fell over with snowflakes spinning around his head and faded away.

“That’s how you do it.”

“Don’ get too cocky, Pound!” Chip said as Smelt began thrashing Grumblebog with his sword.

Pumpkin sat on top of Spike’s back as they both continued watching the others play. Meanwhile back at the couch, Annie couldn’t help but take a quick glance at the portrait of Granny Smith. The smile left her face and she was sad again. She curled up on the couch, trying to forget Granny’s death a few weeks ago. Watching the others play the game did no good. Her throat felt soar and tears began to form in her eyes. She sighed and hopped down from the couch, slowly making her way up the stairs to her bedroom. The heartache was too much for her to continue with the others.

“FLURRY, YOU DID IT!” Spike hollered.

“Wait, I did?!”

“ROUND COMPLETE! THE WINNER IS…EMBER!”

“Too easy,” Ember said nonchalantly while leaning on the scepter.

“Not bad for your first time, Flur!” Pumpkin said, giving her a noogie on her head.

“Geez, she’s good!” Stormy said. “She even got more K.O.s than Pound!”

“Well hey, we know video games aren’t your thing, but that was a nice challenge, Flurry! Next time we’ll have to put it on Level 3!” Chip told her.

“Thanks guys,” Flurry said, bashfully. “It really felt awesome to play as Ember for sure. Does she know she’s in this game?”

“Oh of course she does,” Spike said. “I don’t think she really gets video games, but she’s flattered they made her a playable character and the game has sold really well with dragons.”

“Maybe we can give Seapony Adventures a try real quick,” Pound told everyone. “What do you say, Annie? Uh…Annie?”

Everyone looked back to see that Annie was not in the room. Spike stood up and checked around in case Annie might have moved to another spot, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Annie? You around?” he asked.

“I’ll go look for her. She probably just went upstairs real quick,” Chip said as he walked off to find his sister.

“Uh oh…” Flurry said, apprehensively.

3. Operation Cheer-Up-Annie

“Granny!” Chip and Annie called as they rushed in to the ICU room.

“Well hey there! It’s my favorite ponies!” Granny Smith said, opening her arms to hug them as she lay on the hospital bed.

“Goodness, ya’ll little half-pints won’t believe how funny I’m feelin’ right now!”

“Yeah, we were worried sick when we heard about your fall. Thankfully they let us out of school early to come see you,” Chip said.

“Are you doing okay, Granny?” Annie asked.

“Eh, could be better. I’ve been sittin’ on this here bed fer far too long. Feels like I got a bunch of little sharks bitin’ my flank right now. Why, it’s almost like-HELLO?”

A young female nurse put a device in Granny’s ear to take her temperature, but Granny thought it was a telephone. She sat there for a second expecting a response until she realized what it was. Chip and Annie snickered a bit while trying to not laugh too hard. They knew their great grandmother’s emergency trip to the hospital could be serious.

“Glad to see you’re in one piece, Granny. We brought the kids over here as soon as we could,” said Chip and Annie’s aunt Applebloom, walking in behind them.

“Oh hey there, Applebloom. So what’re we makin’ fer dinner tonight?” Granny responded, cheerfully.

“Uh…well we’re all probably just gonna head over to the hayburger joint with Big Mac and Sugar Belle after this. Applejack isn’t gonna wanna cook anything right now.”

“Hayburger joint? Why in Equestria are we gonna eat out when we got some of them delicious crab-apple cakes in the fridge?”

“Don’t worry, Granny. We’ll eat the crab-apple cakes when you get home,” Annie replied.

“When I get home? Oh…right. Well…um, anyway, who owns this place?” Granny whispered to her great grandkids.

“The…the hospital? I uh…I’m not sure,” Chip said, confused.

“Well whoever owns it must have a whole lotta money. Oh, by the way, I bought some more donuts fer ya’ll. They’re right over there on the counter in the kitchen.”

Granny pointed off to a random spot in the ICU unit. Chip and Annie turned their heads to look but did not see any counter or donut boxes. They looked at each other with concern in their eyes. It dawned on them that Granny must have thought she was still back at home. She could have been confused from some of the medications she was on. According to Applejack, she had already been showing signs of having dementia.

“Yeah, thanks Granny. We’ll have them for desert tonight,” Chip said, smiling nervously while Annie looked worried.

Off to the side, Applebloom could be seen talking with the nurse. She tried to keep her voice down so Granny wouldn’t hear her.

“So how bad is it?” she asked the nurse.

“We’ll she definitely had a clot. She should pull through intensive care though,” the nurse responded.

“Ya think she’ll make it home?”

“I don’t know. She could be bed-ridden the rest of her life, but I’d ask the doctor about that.”

“Okay, well we know ya can’t let us stay that long so we’ll be going soon. Just keep a close eye on her. She’s been a bit loopy lately.”

“Oh fer cryin’ out loud, Applebloom!” Granny scolded. “What are ya on about?! Yer granny ain’t loopy!”

“Granny, lucid. LU-CID,” Applebloom said firmly to calm her grandmother down.

Chip giggled a bit but noticed that Annie was not laughing at all. Despite how comical of reactions Granny was having, it didn’t bring her any comfort.

“She’ll be ok,” Chip told Annie.

“I hope she remembers us when she comes back,” Annie replied.

“She will.”

“Alright Granny, we’d better head out now,” Applebloom told Granny. “The others are coming in next to say hi, but they can’t let us stay much longer.”

“Applebloom, by the way, I left some blankets and sheets at the top of the stairs. Big Mac and Sugar Belle can sleep in the guest room,” Granny told her.

“Alright. Thanks.”

“Oh, and you can stay in my room. I can’t even walk up the stairs anymore. Now go find the phone. We best call a doctor.”

“The doctor will be checkin’ in on ya some time soon, Granny.”

“Well why don’t ya take me to the hospital? Might as well since I’m feelin’ like this.”

“Granny, you’re at the hospital.”

“Yeah, just take me there, Applebloom!”

“Granny…YOU. ARE. THERE.”

Applebloom moved in closer to her grandmother and spoke slowly to make sure her grandmother could hear every word she said. Granny looked around in the room and her eyes widened a bit.

“Oh…oh…okay then.”

“Well anyways, we’ll see you Granny,” Chip said as he and Annie hugged her one more time before leaving.

“Take it easy, half-pints. We’ll eat those crab-apple cakes tomorrow night.”

“Okay, take it easy, Granny,” Applebloom said, hugging her.

They walked towards the door as Annie looked back. Granny seemed to be confused and just stared into space. She clearly still couldn’t figure out that she was at the hospital and not in their house back at home. As they were leaving, their uncle Big Macintosh and his wife Sugar Belle appeared in the doorway to talk with Granny.

“Applebloom, how’s she doin?” Big Mac asked his sister.

“I think she’s losin’ it, Mac,” she whispered to him, spinning her hoof around her ear.

“Oh no,” Sugar Belle replied. “Well we’ll just pop in real quick to say hi.”

“The nurse said it was a clot but she’ll make it through the ICU. I think she might-“

“APPLEBLOOM!” shouted Granny. “Call the cops! There’s some crazy teenagers ‘round here harassin’ me and puttin’ these confangled modern doo-hickies all over me! Where’s that darn phone?!”

“Mrs. Smith, please, you need to keep those on,” said one of the nurses.

“Granny, stop! They’re nurses! For the last time, you’re at the hospital!” Applebloom called as she rolled her eyes and rushed over to the bed.

“Oh dear. Granny, it’s okay!” Big Mac said as he went over to help.

“They’re trying to help you!” Sugar Belle joined in.

While the adults all tried to calm her down, Chip and Annie exchanged nervous glances. Everything else became a blur. Annie could hear her brother calling her name over and over again from a distance. She suddenly woke up and found herself on her bed with a framed photograph of herself, Chip and Granny. She had been reminiscing about the time Granny had gone to the hospital a week before her death. The door to her bedroom began to open and Chip walked in. Annie quickly sat on top of the photo to hide it.

“Annie, what are you doing up here?” Chip asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, Chip! Y-yeah, I’m fine,” she said, smiling anxiously.

“What are you sitting on?”

Annie stopped smiling and sighed. She got up and showed the photo to her brother.

“Chip, I’m sorry, but I just can’t stop thinking about Granny. I know it’s been almost a month but I can’t help it. I miss her so much.”

“I miss her too, Annie,” Chip replied. “But we have to move on. That’s what Granny would want us to do.”

“I don’t know how. I keep going downstairs every morning, expecting her to be sitting in her rocking chair or in the kitchen. I try to tell myself she’s gone, but I just seem to forget it. Even having Flurry visit us today isn’t helping get my mind off of her. It’s just…I…I don’t know what to do. I…just wish she were back.”

Annie stared at the photograph. A tear formed in her eye and she wiped it away with her hoof. Chip paused for a few seconds to think how he would handle this. He felt so bad for his sister; he didn’t even want to convince her to come back downstairs.

“I guess I’ll go tell everyone you’ll be staying up here for a while?”

“Tell Flurry I’m really sorry. I’ll try and see if I feel better later, but right now I just need to rest.”

“Okay. Get some rest, Annie. We’ll find a way to pass time down there.”

Chip walked slowly out of the bedroom. He looked back one last time as he walked out the door. Annie kept staring at the picture and eventually picked it up and hugged it. He closed the door and sighed deeply.

“Poor Annie,” he sighed as he slowly walked down the stairs to the living room.

“WHAT’S THIS?! A NEW OPPONENT HAS ENTERED THE ARENA!!” shouted the announcer in Super Dragon Warriors.

“Wait, what?!” said Stormy who had just won a round in the game.

A new stage loaded and a chubby, yellow dragoness with pink spikes and bright, blue eyes appeared at one end of the stage. She spun around and winked at the audience with a little heart appearing next to her head.

“THREE, TWO, ONE, GOOOOO!”

“Oh my gosh! That’s an unlockable character!” Pumpkin exclaimed. “She’s so cute! Quick, Stormy! Beat her so we can play as her!”

“Wait, who is that?” Pound asked.

“Oh, I think that’s…uh, what’s-her-name? Flurry help me out here,” Spike said.

“Oh, I think that’s Buttercream!” Flurry said, excitedly. “She’s that northern drake that became famous recently for buying pillows in bulk and then giving them away to dragons all over the world. She did it to help improve our relations with the dragons and it worked quite well!”

“Oh yeah. I’ve heard of her. Wasn’t she raised by ponies just like me?”

“That’s what I heard. And thankfully the developers of this game actually got her look right for once! Percy and Penny didn’t look anything like that! Did the developers not even think to talk to Celestia and Luna when designing them?!”

“GRRR! Almost got her!” Stormy said nervously as he continued to button mash his controller.

Buttercream the dragon’s fighting style was quite different. Most of her signature moves involved throwing candy and other sweets at the players or hugging them extremely hard. Stormy was playing as Percy and Penny, a dragon duo that Celestia and Luna grew up with when they were kids. Percy was a slender, dark-blue dragon with green spikes. His little sister Penny was dark magenta with purple spikes. She was smaller but old enough to have her wings. They fought using teamwork based moves for a double effect.

“Someone needs a hug!!”

Buttercream grabbed a hold of Percy and hugged him, causing his health meter to go down while Penny tried pulling him away. Finally, Percy broke free and swung his tail forward, followed by Penny who flew overhead and landed with her tail pointing down like an arrow. Buttercream took damage and flipped backward onto the ground.

“Now’s your chance, Stormy!” Pumpkin shouted.

Percy and Penny walked over and charged up their fire breath. Buttercream got back up just in time for them to both blow fire at her. She took repetitive damage until her health meter went down to zero and she fell down with little birds spinning around her head.

“YES! I unlocked her!” Stormy hollered, dropping his controller and jumping in the air.

“NEW PLAYER ADDED! BUTTERCREAM!”

“So happy to be part of the team! GOOOOO, DRAGONS!”

Buttercream appeared in a cheerleader outfit with some pom-poms and cheered as she was introduced on screen. The character select screen came back and had her added to the roster.

“She…is…totally…MY NEW FAVORITE CHARACTER!!!” Pumpkin shouted as she hovered in the air, wobbling her legs around before plummeting back to the ground with a thud. She got back up and continued celebrating with the others.

“ALRIGHT, STORMY!” shouted Pound as he gave Stormy a hoof-bump.

“Aw! I’m so happy they put her in this game! I wonder if they hired the real Buttercream to even do the voice acting,” Flurry said.

Chip then entered the room and stood next to Flurry.

“Oh, Chip. Where’s Annie?”

“Well, uh…”

“Chip, I unlocked a new character!” Stormy said, zooming over to Chip to get his attention.

“Look! That’s her! Her name is Buttercream and she’s suuuuper adorable!” Pumpkin said, pointing to Buttercream’s icon on the screen.

“Oh, wow, great job Stormy. But guys…I have some bad news.”

“Uh oh. Is it about Annie?” Pound asked.

“Yeah. Annie’s not feeling so great. She’s still got Granny Smith on her mind.”

“Awww,” Pumpkin said as her ears lowered.

“She says she’s sorry she had to leave while you were here, Flurry, but she’ll see if she feels better later.”

“That’s okay,” Flurry sighed. “It’s all my fault. I brought up Granny Smith when I saw her picture over there. I should have known.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Flurry,” Chip said, putting his hoof on her shoulder. “Annie was really close to Granny, but she’ll come around. I hope.”

“Well, maybe we should put the game away for now guys,” Spike said, shutting off the Joy Box. “What do you guys wanna do next?”

“I don’t know. It’s just not gonna be the same without Annie,” said Stormy.

“Yeah, and it’s not going to be fun knowing what she’s going through either,” Pumpkin added solemnly.

“You guys think it might help if we could try cheering her up?” Flurry suggested as her ears perked up. “Like, maybe just help remind her how great Granny was?”

“That’s actually a good idea, Flurry!” Pumpkin said, joyfully.

“Cheer her up?” Chip said.

“Yeah, it’s probably no good just trying to get her to forget about it,” Flurry continued. “If we got some pictures together or something, we can tell her that it’s ok for her to cry and we’re here for her. It’d feel better than not saying anything at all. I feel like it’s the least I could do since this is my first time seeing you guys.”

“Now that you mention it, that actually sounds pretty good!” Chip said as a smile grew on his face.

“We could also bake one of Granny’s apple pies she used to make,” Pound suggested. “Chip, didn’t you say your parents still have the recipe?”

“Sure do!”

“So we’re all gonna spend the afternoon cheering up Annie then,” said Spike, “I’m down for it!”

“Alright! Operation Cheer-up Annie anyone?” Stormy said as he put his hoof in the air, waiting for everyone else to put theirs on top.

“Operation Cheer-up Annie is a go!” Chip said.

“YEAH, LET’S DO IT!”

They all put their hooves and claw together and shouted in unison.

“Alright guys, here’s the plan: Pound and Pumpkin, you guys take care of the cake. Spike and Stormy, look through the photos. Chip, how about you and I get a little note or something written up to give to Annie for her to read. When they come back with pictures, we’ll let you decide on the best ones to use for a collage. Got it?”

“Got it!” Chip said.

Everyone else parted ways to run off and do their jobs. Chip and Flurry stayed behind.

“Thanks Flurry,” Chip said, hugging her. “I hope this works.”

“It’ll work. Trust me,” said the determined young princess.

Author's Note

This chapter is dedicated to my late grandmother who passed away in 2007. The flashback scene in the beginning of this chapter is based on a real life event when we visited her at the hospital after she had a bad fall earlier that day. Nearly everything Granny Smith says in the flashback and her interactions with the Apple Twins and Applebloom is based on actual things my grandmother said while we were visiting her.

4. Chip Breaks Down

Pound and Pumpkin walked into the kitchen where Applejack was washing dishes as Tex did some yard work outside.

“Hey, Applejack, you got a minute?” Pound asked, flying in next to her.

“Sure, Pound. What’s up?” Applejack responded.

“Well, would it be too much if we made one of Granny Smith’s delicious apple pies for later tonight?”

“Granny Smith’s pies? Sure thing! What’s the occasion?”

“Well, see Annie’s not feeling so great.”

“She’s still really sad about her great grandmother,” Pumpkin added.

“Oh. She’s still got Granny on her mind, does she? Poor thing. Maybe I should go up and talk with her.”

Applejack dried her hooves off and set her rag down on the counter. She began to walk towards the stairs until Pumpkin zoomed in front of her, blocking her path.

“WAIT! We, uh…we don’t want her knowing about this yet!” Pumpkin said, frantically.

“Yeah, we want this to be a surprise if that’s okay,” added Pound.

“Uh, well okay, if ya’ll say so. But are ya sure you know what you’re doin’?”

“Don’t worry. Flurry’s got the whole thing under control,” Pound said.

“It was her idea. We’re going to make a Granny Smith pie and get a photo collage around. That’ll cheer her up,” Pumpkin added.

“Aw, well that’s mighty sweet of ya. Just don’t be surprised if she gets pretty emotional when she sees it. Annie’s a sensitive little soul,” Applejack warned. “Well the recipe to her pies is in that there red notebook in the cupboard above the dishes. We wrote down tons of homemade recipes we came up with ourselves and hers should be in the apple pie section. I’ll go get a few apples for it while you prepare the dough.”

“You got it, boss!” Pumpkin said as she saluted and then rushed over to the counter to get everything she needed. “We’ll need some sugar, eggs, flour, cinnamon, butter, salt, lemon juice…Pound, what else does the recipe say?”

Pound took the cookbook and flipped through the pages until he saw a page that said “Granny Smith’s special family recipe.”

“Let’s see…uh…got it! Looks like Granny added some nutmeg and ginger as well. This is gonna be one heck of an apple pie!”

As they began to gather around all the ingredients, Applejack walked out the door with a small bucket to go fetch some apples from a special tree not far away. She kept a smile on her face until she shut the door behind her. She sighed deeply and walked on. A few yards in front of the house, she stopped and set the bucket down to look into Chip and Annie’s bedroom window at the top of the front of the house. She couldn’t see Annie in there, but she wondered if her daughter was crying bitterly or just resting. It didn’t make her happy to know she was still in pain after what happened to her great grandmother.

“Hang in there, Annie,” she said as she picked up the bucket and continued walking. A few moments later, she made it to the tree and placed the bucket under a branch with plenty of apples. She walked up to the tree, turned around and bucked the trunk firmly until the branches shook and some apples fell off. Most of them landed in the bucket while a few others fell around it. She walked over to pick them up and add them to the load.

“Hey, Honey. We making a pie or something tonight?” Tex asked as he appeared a few yards away.

“Hey Tex. Yeah, I guess the kids want to cheer up Annie. She’s still kinda depressed.” Applejack said, gloomily.

“Still?”

“Yeah. And here I thought having Flurry over would brighten things up.”

“Well if they’re trying to cheer her up, that should do the trick.”

“I dunno, Tex. I’m worried about our daughter. Ever since Granny left us, she just hasn’t been the same. It’s a lot harder gettin’ her to smile and she’s way more melancholy than I’ve ever seen. I know it’s been hard on her and I miss Granny too, it’s just…”

Applejack ran out of words to say. She hung her head and sighed as Tex put his hoof around her.

“She’ll come around, AJ. She’s only eight years old. Kids can get pretty emotional about these things.”

“Yeah. Then again, I guess it was no different for me back when Mom and Dad…”

A tear started to form in Applejack’s eye. She wiped it away with the tip of her hoof as Tex held her close to her. Tex looked back at the house, wondering if Annie would be all right. If it was true the others were trying to cheer her up, he could only hope it would work.

“Hey Spike, check these ones out!” Stormy called as he brought over a small stash of photographs with Granny Smith.

“Aw, those are great! Annie’s gonna especially love this one,” Spike said as he held up a small picture of Annie hugging Granny.

“I tried finding some of Granny when she was a filly, but I can’t tell which one she is cuz she doesn’t have her cutie mark yet.”

“Yeah, plus it doesn’t help that she wore her hair differently back then. We won’t worry about those too much. Right now, just look for any recent ones that Annie will recognize.”

“Got it.”

“Hey guys, how’s it going?” Flurry asked, flying in to the living room.

“Hey Flurry. We found a lot, but we don’t need all of them so we’ll pick the best ones later.” Stormy said.

“Oh boy, that is quite a lot.”

Flurry looked carefully at the pictures. She used her magic to float them all in front of her. A warm smiled appeared on her face and she put her hoof up to her heart as she went.

“You…um…you don’t think we’re overdoing it, do you Spike?”

“Overdoing it?” Spike asked.

“Well, you think maybe some of these might make Annie…cry? I mean, she’s probably going to cry anyway, but we don’t want to overwhelm her.”

“Oh. Good point. We could just pick all the ones we like and then Chip’ll decide on a few of them.”

“Yeah, if anyone knows Annie, it’s Chip,” Stormy added, confidently.

“You’re right. Chip will take care of it.”

“How’s the note going in there?” Spike asked Flurry.

“We’re almost done. I’m just doing a little proofreading for Chip. We aren’t going to write anything long, just a quick little letter, we just want to make it sound good.”

“Alright, let us know if you guys need help. Stormy and I should be done with these pictures pretty soon.”

Flurry set the photos down between them and then walked back into the dining room where Chip had just finished writing on a small piece of paper.

“Dear Annie,” he said out loud. “We know you miss Granny Smith, but don’t forget, she’s in a better place. Let’s take this time to remember Granny for all the great things she did. Here are some pictures of her and an apple pie made from her original recipe. Flurry, do you like it so far?”

“I think it sounds great, Chip!” Flurry replied, smiling. “Maybe at the end, you can have it say “Sincerely,” and then we can all write our names below.

“Great idea! Alright, could you check with Pound and Pumpkin about the pie real quick? I’m just going to copy this right over to a bigger piece of paper and then we can all write our names down. Are Spike and Stormy almost done with the pictures?”

“Yup! They’ll be in here in a few. I’ll go check on the pie.”

Flurry trotted into the kitchen as Chip took out a bigger sheet of paper. He carefully placed it on the table and started writing his note down in a more presentable, cursive format. He then finished with his signature at the bottom and drew a red apple next to it and left some room around his name for the others to sign it. He picked it up in his hooves and stared at it for a few seconds.

“She’s gonna love this,” he said to himself.

He set the paper down and started to think about everything that had happened in the past month. It was about three weeks ago when he and Annie were pulled out of class to see Applejack who gave thme the unfortunate news that Granny had passed away in the hospital. Chip knew it was going to happen for a while now so his crying didn’t last quite as long as Annie’s. About a year prior, his parents told him that Granny would not be around much longer, so he began to prepare for that day. The last time he saw Granny was a few days before her death in the hospital. He went over with his parents to speak with her and remembered how Granny started to complain that her food had not arrived yet even though it tasted awful to begin with. Thankfully she had calmed down since her time in the ICU.

Chip began to realize it had never occurred to him that he didn’t seem as moved about this as Annie. He wondered if it made him look insensitive. With a family member so close, how could he not be so struck with grief? Thinking about this only made him feel worse, and then it hit him: he actually missed his last chance to see Granny! The night before she died, he had a lot of studying to do for a final test in school right before summer break began so he decided to stay home with Big Macintosh and Sugar Belle while his parents took Annie to speak with Granny. He thought he would just visit her the next night, but that was his last chance and he blew it. It was almost like he didn’t give Granny a proper farewell. A slightly painful lump started to form in the back of his throat, but thankfully it was interrupted by Spike and Stormy entering the room with a basket.

“Chip, how’s the letter going?” Spike asked.

“Oh, hey guys. It’s looking great, now I just need you to sign right down here.” he said as he pushed the paper over towards them with a box of markers next to it.

“Got it. Here’s the pictures,” Stormy said, putting the basket down in front of Chip so he could look through them.

“Thanks Stormy,” Chip replied as he dumped the photos onto the table.

Spike and Stormy both signed their names and then walked into the kitchen to have everyone else do the same. Chip began to look at the photos.

“Let’s see, what did they give me. Aw, these are great!” he said happily as he used his hooves to move them around on the table. The first picture he saw was the one of Annie hugging Granny while smiling for the camera. Next there was one of Granny holding a big picture that he had drawn of the two of them with crayons. After that was a picture of him and Annie next to Granny as they posed outside by a big apple tree in the orchard. His favorite was the one of all of them in the living room right in front of their Hearth’s Warming tree; ready to open presents that morning. There were a few photos of Granny when she was little, some of which Chip didn’t even know existed. As Chip leafed through the pictures of older Granny Smith, he started to see flashbacks of the times he had with her throughout his life. His best memories of her were playing in his head like an old family video. The lump in his throat came back. His smile started to turn into a frown and his lip began to quiver. He felt as though he was back in time when Granny was still around. He remembered Annie saying how she kept waking up, expecting their great grandmother to be waiting downstairs for them, and now he felt the same way. Remembering how he blew his last chance to see Granny before she died, it all came crashing down on him. His throat swelled up and he began to feel hot. His eyes got misty and then he began crying. He pushed the photos away from him so his tears would not fall on any and buried his face in his arms. He was so overwrought that he didn’t hear everyone else come into the room.

“Chip, the pie’s almost done!” Flurry called before noticing that he didn’t look good. “We just have to let it bake for a while and then…” “Uh, Chip?”

Everyone else came in after her. Pound and Pumpkin were wearing chef’s hats and had some flour smeared on their hooves and faces. They were breathing heavily like they had just completed a race.

“Gosh, I haven’t baked like that in forever! Granny Smith knew what she was doing!” Pound said before Flurry signaled to everyone to hush.

They stopped talking and heard Chip whimper under his arms. There was a brief moment of silence before Spike finally spoke up.

“Chip, you alright?” he asked, cautiously.

Chip lifted his head from his arms. His face was red and had tears streaming down his cheeks. He sniffled and wiped his nose with the inside of his arm. Everyone looked very concerned. Flurry was especially troubled. She didn’t expect things to get this bad.

“You know what guys… maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Chip said as he continued to cry and sniffle.

“What?!” Pumpkin said.

“But…but Chip, we finished the pie. We even have the pictures ready!” Stormy said.

“I KNOW!” Chip hollered as everyone inched back.

He looked at them and stopped for a moment as if to say sorry. He then jumped down from his chair and walked towards the stairs.

“Just forget about it, okay? It’s making me sad now. I can’t do this anymore. I gotta go.”

He rushed up the stairs. His crying grew faint until the sound of a closing door could be heard.

“Aw. Poor Chip,” Pumpkin said, sitting down as Pound put his arm around her. “And here we wasted all that time making that pie.”

“Well that didn’t go so well.” Stormy said, flatly. “So does this mean no more Operation Cheer-up Annie?”

“I’m afraid so,” Spike replied.

Flurry hovered over the table and noticed all the pictures. There were even more than the ones she looked at earlier. They were such great pictures, but that must have been the problem. Remembering Granny caused emotions to run too high. In her effort to cheer up Annie, she only made Chip feel worse. Her chance to make an impression on the Apple Twins did not go as she expected today.

“This is all my fault,” she said, miserably.

5. "Thank you for everything, Granny"

Annie opened her eyes and lifted her head before yawning. She looked at the clock on the wall behind her to check the time. About two hours had passed. She sat up in bed with the framed picture still next to her. She picked it up and sighed. A nap might have been just the thing she needed to make her feel better. She didn’t completely have Granny Smith off her mind, but it helped. Perhaps it was now time to go downstairs. She already felt bad enough staying away from everyone else while they had company.

Annie then noticed the smell of apple pie. It smelled much like the pies Granny used to cook back when she was around. Although it reminded her of Granny, it felt good to remember the smell of something delicious she would cook. Maybe the others downstairs were cooking one in honor of her to cheer Annie up. A bit of a warm feeling came over her thinking about this, but it was interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs near the bedroom door accompanied by sniffling. The door opened and Chip walked in. Annie did not expect to see his face red and his cheeks wet with tears. He slammed the door behind him and started walking towards his bed but stopped halfway and hung his head. Annie began to wonder what on earth could have him so emotional. She rarely saw her brother cry like this.

“Chip? What happened?” Annie asked.

“You were right, Annie,” Chip told his sister, just barely managing to talk while crying. “I miss her too. All I did was look at a bunch of…pictures of her and now I think I’m realizing just how hard it is.”

“Why were you looking at the pictures?”

“Flurry thought we could all cheer you up by making a letter…and a collage…and baking one of Granny’s pies, but now I’m gonna need some cheering up.”

Chip paused for a few seconds and stopped to wipe some tears away, but his nose was starting to get very runny. Annie grabbed a tissue box on the desk next to her bed, hopped down, and set the tissues next to him. He took one of them and blew his nose.

“I could have seen her that last day,” he continued. “Remember when Mom and Dad took you to see her but I stayed home to do my homework? That was the last chance I had, but I didn’t go. Now I’ll never see her again.”

Annie walked over to join her brother. She had felt better until now when she saw him like this. She wanted to try and tell him that things would be okay and they had to move on, but that was what he told her before and now he couldn’t even take his own advice. Her arm was around him until she finally started crying too.

“It’s okay, Chip.”

They hugged and continued crying for almost a whole minute until someone knocked on the door. Startled by this, they immediately turned their heads and tried wiping away their tears.

“Uh…who is it?” Chip asked.

The door opened a crack and their father peaked in.

“Chip, Annie, can we come in?” he asked.

They slowly nodded their heads up and down, still sniffling and blowing their noses. Applejack and Tex walked in and sat next to their kids on the floor. Without a word, they put their arms around both of them.

“We saw Spike and the others walking out and he told us everything,” said Applejack.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Chip told her “I told Annie earlier we have to move on, but now I’m not even sure I can do it. It’s just so hard.”

“I know, buddy. It wasn’t easy for me either when I first dealt with this.”

“You mean with Grandpa Macintosh and Grandma Buttercup?”

“Yup. It was sudden, it came out of nowhere, and they were too young. It was rough on us all.”

“That’s right kids,” Tex added. “We all knew Granny’s time had come but Grandpa and Grandma on Mom’s side went too early. They weren’t my parents, but I remember how much it tore my dad apart to hear what had happened to his best friend.”

“I forgot Grandpa Oak was friends with Grandpa Mac. I guess it was a lot harder when Grandma and Grandpa went,” Chip sighed.

“Both of ya should be thankful Granny lasted as long as she did. She passed on at a very ripe age,” Applejack continued.

“Did you take it as hard as we did?” Annie asked her.

Applejack paused for a few seconds and thought hard before answering.

“I actually took it far worse. See, when I was little, I hated farming. I hated all the work I had to do and I kept tellin’ Mom and Dad I wanted to go to the city and live a more privileged lifestyle. After they died, I went there anyway cuz I couldn’t deal with the pain of what had just happened here. Granny was so mad at me when I told her I still wanted out of Sweet Apple Acres. I was a stubborn girl. I didn’t exactly have my mind in the right place when I was that young, but thankfully I learned, and I came back here. Gettin’ my cutie mark after I got home was even more proof that I needed to stay and help on the farm. Granny and Big Mac weren’t just gonna do it by themselves, and by the time Applebloom was old enough, they’d have probably lost the farm.”

“Gosh,” Chip said as he looked away to think about everything he just heard. He had no idea his mother took her parents’ death this poorly. It made him feel lucky that he and his sister reacted the way they did to Granny’s passing.

“You still cared for Grandma and Grandpa after they died though, right?” Annie asked her mother.

“Oh, of course I did, I just didn’t handle it right, but I learned to be responsible and continue Mom and Dad’s work. In a way, you could say their death helped me to become a better pony.”

“That’s at least good to know. So, I guess me and Chip are all right then…”

Applejack stretched her arm out to pull in both of them closer to her. She snuggled them up to her and Tex walked in closer with his hoof still on Chip’s shoulder. After a brief moment of silence, Applejack continued and did her best job as a mother to be there for her kids.

“You two lost your great grandmother under very different circumstances, but it was a loss nonetheless. I know you’re both really upset about this, but we had a far worse time dealing with losin’ Mom and Dad. It’s sad. It really is. It can be the worst feelin’ ever. Thing is, we should be happy for Granny cuz she lived a good and healthy life and she’s proud of both of you. Don’t forget, she’s in a better place.”

Chip and Annie sighed and looked at each other. Tears were still coming from their eyes and their lips kept quivering, but they didn’t sob as badly as they did before. Chip slowly began to smile and eventually Annie smiled back.

“You’re right mom,” Chip said.

Chip and Annie put their arms around each other and Applejack and Tex wrapped theirs around until they were all in a group hug. Applejack had tears running down her face now and even Tex began to get misty-eyed. For a few moments, they did nothing but sit there and embrace one another until they heard a faint ringing sound coming from downstairs.

“That’s the apple pie,” Tex said.

“Oh, the pie!” Chip exclaimed.

“Did you guys make that pie in honor of Granny?” Annie asked.

“Well it was Pound and Pumpkin actually, but yeah, Flurry and the others downstairs wanted to make you one,” Chip told his sister.

“Thanks Chip,” Annie said, hugging her brother again as she sniffled a bit and began to dry her tears away. “It makes me feel a lot better now. Anyway, we’d better go find Flurry and the others. They probably feel like this is all their fault.”

“That’s the spirit, kid,” Tex told his daughter.

“Go on now you two,” Applejack said as they all began to walk out the door. “Go take that pie to your friends and we can say we gave Flurry a good first visit.”

“Thanks guys,” Chip said as he and Annie looked back at them with a tender smile before heading downstairs.

Over on a small hilltop in the orchard, Flurry and the others sat around, miserable over what happened earlier. Flurry was sitting on top of a stump while Stormy sat next to it and Pound and Pumpkin were on the table. Spike was next to Flurry and had his hand on top of her. He did the best he could to cheer them all up.

“Boy are we a bunch of failures,” Stormy said crossly.

“You said it,” Pound replied.

Pumpkin was lying down on top of the table with her head upside down and her legs spread out. She finally turned her head over to her brother.

“Ya think they’ll accept our apology if we go in now?” she asked.

“We’d better give them some more time, Pumpkin,” Spike advised. “They’ve both had a rough day.”

“I feel so bad,” Flurry said. “I just wanted to help them out. I wouldn’t have done it if I’d have known this would happen.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Flurry,” Spike said. “Your heart was in the right place.”

“Well I’m going to have to make it up to them somehow.”

“But how? We can’t say Granny Smith around them every again,” Stormy said.

“I think they’ll be all right if we mention her, Stormy,” Pound told him as he got up and flew down next to him. “We just don’t want to talk about it a whole lot.”

“Hey guys?” called Annie a few yards away.

Everyone looked to the side to see Annie walking in. Chip was right next to her, carrying a basket in his mouth. Flurry gasped and leaped down from the stump to go meet them both.

“Annie, Chip! Guys, I’m so sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to make you cry, Chip. I just wanted to help. If I’d have known I’d make you sad too, I’d…I’d…”

“It’s okay, Flurry,” Chip said as he put the basket down. “We’re doing better now.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, we had a talk with Mom and Dad,” Annie added.

“We’re sorry we left you like that,” continued Chip. “Annie and I just needed some time off. I had no idea I’d be needing it.”

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up though. I know it didn’t work out so well, but I appreciate it.”

Everyone sighed in relief and smiled, knowing their troubles were all gone.

“I guess it’s a good time to give this to you then,” Spike said as he grabbed the letter they all wrote earlier and handed it to Annie who read it silently.

“Chip, you wrote this?” Annie asked her brother.

“Yeah, with a little help from Flurry, and we all signed it,” Chip said with his hoof behind his head.

“I love it, Chip!”

Annie hugged her brother lovingly. They then opened their arms up and welcomed in the other five to join the hug.

“Hey, is that the apple pie?” Pumpkin asked, sniffing the air.

“Yup, the pie finished baking. We can eat it now,” Chip said pointing to the basket.

Spike picked up the basket and they all followed him to the table. He set it down and Flurry used her magic to open it up and carefully place the pie on top.

“Alright guys, I think it’s only fair that Chip and Annie get the first slices,” she said as she began to slowly cut away at the pie. When she was finished, she placed two slices on top of Chip and Annie's hooves.

“To Granny Smith.” Chip said as he and Annie lifted their slices in the air and then took a bite of the delectable pie.

“Mmmm, you guys did great with this!” Annie told Pound and Pumpkin.

“Dawww,” Pumpkin said, blushing.

“Happy to help,” said Pound. “Granny really knew how to make a mean apple pie. Pumpkin and I haven’t seen a recipe like that in ages!”

“Well now it’s your guys’ turn,” Flurry said, giving everyone else a slice.

“Oooh, yummy!” said Stormy as he munched away.

Everyone else had the same reactions to tasting the pie. They continued to eat the rest of it and lick up what was left on their lips until there was only one slice left.

“Alright, who’ll eat the last piece? Annie?”

“Oh no thanks, I couldn’t,” Annie replied.

“Yeah, me too. Plus we don’t want to spoil dinner later,” Chip added.

“Well there’s only of us with a tummy big enough for two slices,” Pumpkin teased as she poked Spike in the belly.

“Hehe, if you guys insist,” Spike said as Flurry hovered the last slice over to him.

The kids all laughed as Spike gobbled up the apple pie and licked his lips while rubbing his belly. He looked at them and smiled, happy to know that Flurry finally found her perfect group of friends: five little ponies just like the ones Twilight once tagged along with to go on marvelous adventures and learn about friendship. Whatever happened next, it was definitely sure to be a good summer for Flurry Heart. Thinking quickly, he took out a quill and some parchment and Flurry began to write her friendship letter to Twilight.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I met the Apple Twins today and I learned a valuable lesson from them: losing someone dear to you can be the worst feeling, but it is always good to rejoice that they’re in a better place and lived a good life. We can’t stop death, but we can continue on and make our loved ones proud. I know for certain that Granny Smith is proud of her great grandchildren today.

Your niece,

Flurry Heart

She handed the scroll to Spike and he sent it away to Canterlot with his magic fire.

“Alright guys,” she said, “after we clean this up, you wanna take another walk around the orchard?”

“That sounds like a good idea, Flurry,” Chip replied.

Not far away, Applejack and Tex stood next to the gravestones for Bright Macintosh, Pear Butter, and Granny Smith. Tex stood next to his wife with his arm around her. Applejack was carrying a small photo of her younger self with her parents, her siblings and Granny. They both stared at the children and Spike as they began to clean up and make conversation. Applejack looked down at the photo and smiled as a happy tear formed in her eye.

“Thanks for everything, Granny,” she said

THE END

Author's Note

This story is dedicated to my late grandmother Mary (Mam). It is loosely based on real events from the time of her passing in 2007. Thank you Mam for the stories you told us, the food you baked, and the toys you bought us while you were still around. We have not forgotten you.