Applejack awoke to a calm and quiet morning. Big Macintosh and Granny Smith had headed into town and Apple Bloom was downstairs, eating her way through a box of cereal.

"Mornin', Applejack!" said the young filly happily as Applejack trudged down the stairs.

"Huh? Oh...mornin', Apple Bloom," Applejack replied.

"Ya look like you're thinkin' about somethin'."

"Ah am. I'm headin' to the barn to see if Aaron's awake yet."

She turned away from her kid sister and strolled out into the front yard, towards the barn. It was surprisingly cool this morning but Applejack didn't mind. She took it as a lovely sign that summer was almost over and that autumn would be arriving soon enough. This relaxing feeling she felt quickly went away as she approached the barn. Something was troubling her. The barn seemed to give off an eerie feeling. She approached the doors and hesitated. Something inside of her told her to not open the doors. It told her to turn around and walk away. She shoved the feeling aside and pushed open the doors.

Applejack nearly screamed bloody murder at what she came face-to-face with inside the barn. Just a couple feet from the entrance to the barn, where Applejack was standing, a pitchfork had been stabbed into the ground with its prongs facing upward. The bloody, decapitated head of Aaron Crop was impaled on the prongs of the pitchfork. The eyes had rolled up into the head, showing nothing but white, and the mouth hung open, allowing the bloody, cut-up tongue to hang outwards. Several feet behind Aaron's head sat an even more horrific sight. A series of ropes had been tied around the rafters upstairs, and these ropes were connected to the hind legs of Aaron's headless, upside-down body. The body was hanging a good three to four feet from the ground and a long stream of blood was slowly pouring out of the open neck. A thick pool of blood several feet wide was situated below the suspended body. In the pool of blood, there lied an axe and Aaron's horn. Aaron's body had been slashed open, allowing many internal organs to droop outwards, and blood was splashed all over the walls of the barn. The horrific stench of blood entered Applejack's nostrils and she instantly turned towards a metal bin and lost the contents of her stomach.

"Sweet...Celestia!" she coughed as she looked back at the horrific scene. Her eyes watered up as she took a closer look at Aaron's head. "Aaron."

"Is he awake?" asked Apple Bloom as she rounded the bend. Applejack instantly pushed her sister away, jumped through the barn entrance, and slammed the doors behind her. "What's wrong?"

"Apple Bloom! Go to town! Get help! Somethin'...somethin' bad has happened to Aaron."

"Is...is he alright?"

"Honestly...no. He's not alright."

"Is he...dead?"

"Apple Bloom, go to town right now! Get the other investigators! Get Twilight! We need them officials down here immediately!"

Apple Bloom nodded, turned around, and ran towards town.

Meanwhile, Twilight had also woken up early and was now walking through town, towards Sweet Apple Acres. She was anxious to see if Aaron had truly discovered the identity of Rainbow Dash's killer. She was passing by Sugar Cube Corner when she noticed Pinkie Pie talking to one of Aaron's fellow investigators, a white pegasus named Brutus.

"So where are you headed off to now?" Pinkie asked happily.

"To the farm. I'm going to check up on Aaron and see if he made any progress last night," Brutus replied. Pinkie scanned the pegasus with her eyes and smiled.

"I like your cutie mark."

"Huh?"

"Your cutie mark. I like it. It's really cool with that whole three question mark-thing going on!"

Brutus looked down at his cutie mark, which indeed consisted of three question marks, and chuckled as he pushed his black hair out of his eyes.

"Thank...you," he responded awkwardly.

"So what are you two talking about?" Twilight asked as she approached them.

"Morning, Twilight! I was just telling him how awesome his cutie mark is!" Pinkie replied with a large grin. Twilight looked at Brutus and smiled.

"Are you heading off to see Mr. Crop too?" Brutus asked.

"Pretty much," Twilight replied. "I'm anxious to see-"

"If he really did find out the identity of Ms. Dash's killer."

"Yeah."

"Nathan, Iago, and I are just as anxious as you are, Ms. Sparkle. But it seems that Nathan and Iago aren't as anxious as you or I since they went off to have breakfast at the cafe first."

"They did, did they?"

"Yeah. Either that or they went there to spy on your friend, Rarity. Personally, I'm leaning more towards the latter on that one."

"I feel the same way."

"Twilight! Twilight!" called a familiar voice. Twilight, Pinkie, and Brutus looked to see Apple Bloom running towards them.

"Apple Bloom? What's wrong?" Twilight asked.

"Somethin' has happened! At the farm! Somethin' bad has happened to Aaron!"

Twilight and Brutus turned towards each other, looked at Apple Bloom, and then ran off towards Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie and Apple Bloom were right behind them.

They arrived at the farm shortly to find Applejack sitting awkwardly in front of the barn. It was apparent that she had been crying.

"Applejack? What's happened?" Twilight asked. Applejack looked at Apple Bloom and shook her head.

"Apple Bloom can't look," she uttered. Apple Bloom began to complain but Applejack stared her down with cold, saddened eyes. "Pinkie Pie...please take Apple Bloom into the house."

Pinkie nodded, patted Apple Bloom on the shoulder, and began leading her back to the house. Nopony there noticed Pinkie look back at the barn with a dark smile on her face.

"Applejack, what has happened?" Brutus asked. Applejack stood up and looked back at the barn.

"Let me warn you. What you're about to see is...completely and utterly horrible."

The earth pony then turned around and pushed open the barn doors. Twilight gasped and nearly threw up. Brutus ran up to Aaron's decapitated head and looked it straight in the eye.

"Aaron!" he gasped as he ran up to the head. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Fuck!"

Twilight backed up, away from the barn, and began to cry. She then began to say, "He's...he's..," but she couldn't continue. Applejack sat down next to Twilight and the two mares leaned against each other in saddened support. Brutus walked out of the barn, after inspecting the massacre within, and shut the doors.

"Ms. Sparkle, is your dragon assistant awake?" Brutus asked as he attempted to remain calm and collected.

"Spike? He's usually not up this early...but I think there's a chance that he might be," Twilight replied as she attempted to hold back a certain amount of her tears.

"You two head inside the house. I'm going to go have Spike send a message to Canterlot. The Princess is...going to want to hear about this."

Brutus then flapped his wings and took off into the sky. Twilight and Applejack simply remained seated against the gate, the image of Aaron's dead face burned into their minds.