Applejack: So what the heck am Ah lookin' at?
DM: The roaming piles of apples rise up partially. Faces form via gaps in the mound, with apple stems and leaves marking rows of teeth and pupils of eyes.
Applejack: Euughh!
Dark Red Apples (Discord): WE are the Keepers of the Grove of Truth.
Light Red Apples (Discord): You may ask us ONE question…
Green Apples (Discord): ...past, future, or present!
Applejack: ...This is a load of hooey.
Light Red Apples (Discord): One question, any truth. The Grove will reveal it.
Green Apples (Discord): But be warned… Sometimes, knowing the truth comes at a cost.
Applejack: Aaaand there's the rub. Any chance Ah can know what that "cost" is before Ah sign mah soul away?
Green Apples (Discord): No.
Applejack: Can Ah roll… rrrrgh. Can Ah roll Insight on the piles of apples?
DM: Passively, you can tell that, sinister undertones aside, nothing they've said has been an outright deception.
Applejack: "Grove of Truth"?
DM: "They" certainly seem to believe it. It's possible that this may be an intersection of Discord's magic and the magic of your Element, crossed with Discord's subconscious desire to brag.
Applejack: Or this "may" be an elaborate trap.
DM: …I won't discount that possibility.
Applejack: <sigh> Well… yer basically givin' me a wish, so… Ah can probably lawyer up a question he'll regret. Even if Ah have to pay a big cost, Ah can get somethin' real useful out of it. And if nothin' else, Ah can stress test the limits of this "game" yer puttin' on us, which will be its own intel. Alright, Ah think Ah've got it. I want to know Discord's entire plan for defeating us and maintainin' his victory over Equestria, in every detail, without omission, including all o' his contingencies.
DM: The apples… roll to a stop? Um… Is that… acceptable?
Discord GM: … Oh yes! That will be just fine.
"Euughh" is right. Those apple golems, as creepy as they are in motion, are significantly worse in still-image form. Worse yet, as a thumbnail while you're arranging a comic together. <shudder>
I can see the creepiness in a pile of talking apples. The way leaves make sinister-looking pupils and stems for thin, crooked teeth? It is well designed. The witches weren't anywhere near this bad in my imagination when I read Macbeth.
That's what I was thinking too. She asked her question, so the apples rolled away - their task already complete - when she tried to press for more information.
True, a literal genie could have taken that as her question. But if it's following anything close to the show's logic, Discord is planning for the answer itself to be harmful. In which case tricking her into "wasting" her question doesn't help him.
This gives some reason for AJ even trusting them, which in-universe didn't make much sense as she had to suspect it was really Discord. 'Course as seen with Fluttershy, he CAN just zap people... possibly. I have my own headcanon on that but I'm still working on that story.
The most powerful rule of storytelling: Show; don't tell. What is his plan? Depower all of them, hit them with a morale penalty so high that it may as well be negtive class levels, and invert their personalities.
Be careful about trying to lawyer up such a question, AJ. Roy in OotS tried that, too, and it bit him on the ass. For that matter, trying to divine from antagonistic force bit just about all of them in the ass.
Oh AJ, haven't you learned yet: wishes ONLY exist for the GM to screw the players. Run away from wish spells, avoid miracles, and never EVER use the words "I wish..." at the table. They will only lead to your entire party being screwed over by exactly what you asked for - because that's why GM's hand out wishes and miracles, to lure the players into sabotaging themselves. Never, ever, wish.