Canterlot General Hospital, morgue, 2 hours before Discord's fall

Three cloaked figures slipped into the morgue, one remaining at the door to keep watch as the other two made there way to the corpses that were stored there. As the two approached the doors to the enchanted cabinets that kept the remains in stasis.

One of the two, clearly an earth pony or pegasus given the lack of horn poking up inside the hood of their cloak moved forward to inspect the identifying tags on the doors, moving from one to the other as they looked for one corpse in particular.

The cloaked figure at the door, the tip of his horn tenting their hood, lilting voice and thick but haughty accent identifying them as some form of noblemare though raised outside of Canterlot, chose that moment to speak up, "While Discord's rampage provides an ample distraction, it might behoove you two buffoons to hurry, I'd rather not risk my cover by trying to turn back any staff."

The third figure, a clearly bipedal creature standing nearly twice as tall, and twice as wide, as his two companions seemed to perk up at the mention of someone discovering them before speaking in a growling voice that still somehow managed to convey childlike naivete, "Oh, can I-"

The figure inspecting the doors snapped out in a gravelly, masculine voice, "Would you two shut up! I've found her slot, so get over here and help me with your damn magic." He jerked his head at the larger figure, "You go watch the door, we'll deal with any idiots who come down here without her charm now."

The unicorn sniffed contemptuously but still allowed the larger figure to take her place at the door and walked over to her irate companion, her horn lighting up and casting a light golden glow as a similar glow surrounded the door in question, swinging it open, and unfortunately allowing the fowl stench within to fill the room.

The two ponies quietly retched, taking a moment to compose themselves before the unicorn's horn lit up, lifting the body bag up and placing it on her compatriots back.

He grunted in disgust as he felt the weight distribute itself on his back, "Damn it, even if I can't question their effectiveness, why the hell did he get those beasts to take her out? It's going to take bloody forever just to fix the body up."

The unicorn shook her head, "For once dear brother, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Now let us hurry and work our way back out, I'd rather not-"

Their discussion was cut short as their third companion spoke up, "There's two ponies coming..." Slowly he turned his head to the other two, "Can I eat them?"

Applejack frowned as she stood in front of the door to Aaron's room, a plate of food balanced carefully on her back. She was here to bring him some of the supper, but she couldn't help but hesitate. Aaron had gone and locked himself in his room as soon as he'd gotten back to the farmhouse, and the rest of them had had the sense to leave him alone to deal with whatever was bothering him. However, even Chrysalis, who'd returned briefly after Discord's chaos had finally been cleaned up around her hive, had stayed away from his room, stating that the amount of negative emotions she could feel coming from Aaron were enough to make her physically ill.

For some reason it had taken three trips up the stairs and then back down to the bathroom for her to figure that out.

Changeling antics aside though, that told Applejack that Aaron must be hurtin' bad, bad enough that she was beginning to thing that leaving him on his own wasn't the best idea. Shaking her head and swallowing her apprehension Applejack raised her hoof to knock, and stopped.

Her ears flicked forward to catch the faint noise she'd only just managed to catch, and ignoring all her normal scruples Apple jack replaced her hoof with her ear as she tried to hear better what Aaron was saying.

Her eyes widened as she heard him sobbing, but the words that he managed to get out broke her heart and made her body tense up in anger.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. He said he'd let me go back, but I couldn't- I couldn't just leave them behind, not like that. I'm sorry momma, I want to go home, but I couldn't." A few more sobs broke out of Aaron's room, "I miss you all, I'm sorry."

Applejack placed the tray of food down with trembling hooves before she turned to walk away. Aaron'd come out and see it when he was good and ready, and she needed to go and try to convince herself not to take a hammer to a particular statue.

Author's Note

A lot shorter than a normal chapter, but it does help set up a few things