And then there were two...

A purple alicorn slowed her descent with a flap of her large wings, landing just outside a familiar schoolhouse on the edge of Ponyville. The red building with its large bell tower was a place she had often frequented, most of the time with enthusiasm. But today was the first time the recently crowned princess was dreading the trip.

Celestia’s sun was at the peak of its arc, and the fillies and colts of Cheerilee class were outside at lunch; eating, chatting or playing happily without a care in the world. Trying to keep her composure, which the young mare had lost too many times already today, Twilight calmly as possible walked into the school grounds and straight into its main classroom.

Luckily nopony had noticed her and she was glad that she was so well known in her adopted home town that she could slip into the school without attracting unwanted attention. Nowhere else in Equestria would that have been possible, and she was grateful for that small mercy. What was about to transpire was going to be difficult enough without any hullabaloo from the other students excited to see the towns princess in residence.

Cheerilee was sat at her desk catching up with a bit of marking, frowning slightly as she tried to decipher some of the students writing. Of course it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t have unicorns’ fine magic control over Quills, and most her unicorn students didn’t even have that level of control yet. As she was in the middle of trying to unscramble Snips’s homework, Cheerilee noticed the movement of a pony out of the corner of her eye.

The dark pink mare looked up from the workbook and her face lit up when she saw Princess Twilight Sparkle in her classroom, always enjoying the visit from the fellow bookworm. The pair had grown close over the few years Twilight had been the town’s librarian due to their shared passion for knowledge. But any thoughts of an enjoyable visit soon left the earth pony’s mind when she saw the alicorns face was one of complete despondency, and the teacher’s usual happy demeanour quickly dropped.

“Twilight, what’s wrong” Cheerilee calmly stated as she rose from the cushion behind her desk, forgoing a bow or even a casual hello.

“Something awful has happened…” Twilight was almost crying just from opening her mouth, and from the red bags under her eyes it was clear that the young mare had not long stopped “…and I… need your help to break the news.”  Twilight went on to explain the situation to the older mare, whose face soon lost all of its colour - the only smile in the room were the ones embossed on the teachers flank.

Meanwhile, outside of the classroom, the students of Ponyville Schoolhouse were enjoying a gloriously sunny lunchtime. Autumn was well on its way but it was still a few weeks until the Running of the Leaves. The pegasi had kept the sky free of clouds so the late summer harvest would ripen, and everypony knew it was the last chance to enjoy the outdoors.

Three particular fillies were sat together at a tree stump with a big list in front of them, ticking off most of their summer crusading ideas they had managed to fit in the past few months. “There must be something we haven’t tried.” Scootaloo groaned “What about Novel Writing?”

“That’s more of a winter idea as it can be done in bad weather!” Sweetie Belle squeaked “So we’ll add that to next seasons list when we get back to our secret clubhouse.”

“Besides, that must take at least a month I reckon!” the earth filly of the trio joined in downheartedly. She let out a sigh but out of the corner of her eye Apple Bloom saw Cheerilee and Twilight approaching the makeshift table, causing the yellow pony’s depressed attitude to lift slightly.

“Hiya Ms Cheerilee, hello Twilight” Apple Bloom greeted the pair as they arrived, the trio of fillies slightly nodding in respect to the princess.

“Er, hello my little ponies” Twilight began, trying to keep her composure “Sweetie Belle, could you come with us inside for a moment? We need to speak with you in private.”

“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!” Sweetie Belle instantly replied, knowing that the usual reason any of the campaigning trinity were asked to be spoken to in private usually meant they were in some sort of trouble. But today they hadn’t done anything wrong - they were too busy planning for the next few weeks to get up to mischief, and if anything they expected Twilight would be happy to see such organisation.

“No Sweetie Belle, you’re not in trouble” Cheerilee tried to smile in response, her more natural mothering instincts towards foals kicking in, having been a teacher for many years. The three fillies may have still been young and relatively inexperienced in life, in spite of the combined knowledge gained through their numerous adventures, but it was clear even to them that something was amiss. The Cutie Mark Crusaders glanced at each other as the two older ponies were looking at them very nervously and generally being very unnatural round them.

“Could you come inside, please Sweetie Belle” Twilight pleaded, not wanting to get into it right here in front of everypony else. A few of the other students were starting to pay attention to what was going on with the troublesome fillies, and the last thing that was needed right now was an audience of curious fillies and colts.

Sweetie Belle got to her hooves with a sigh “Okay, but can we make this quick, I want to get back to our planning” and she started to plod towards the schoolhouse. As she started to move, her two best friends forever also got to their hooves and started moving with her.

“Apple Bloom, Scootaloo…we need to speak to Sweetie Belle alone” Cheerilee put a hoof out to block the pair from following.

The orange pegasus put her front hooves over the teachers outstretched foreleg to try to look at the mare in the face. “Hey, we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders” Scootaloo flared her small wings for emphasis “and where one of us go, we go…TOGETHER” the trio ended in unison.

“Now Scootaloo, Apple Bloom…” Cheerilee started to scowl, not feeling up to dealing with any other their shenanigans. But Twilight lowered the teachers hoof and Cheerilee paused to allow her to speak.

“It’s okay girls, you can come too.” Twilight tried to smile, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to do it. Cheerilee guessed that Twilight had realised that the last thing they needed was an argument and as this was going to be difficult for the young filly, any friends round her was going to be a good thing. As the three youngsters bounded towards the school the two elder ponies found each step hard, knowing it brought them one step closer to the horrible moment ahead.

All too quickly for Twilights liking, she found herself in the classroom, with the three fillies standing at the front of the class waiting for what they assumed was going to be another telling off.

“So, what is it Twilight, Ms Cheerilee?” Sweetie Belle asked, not usually being the natural leader of the group but having all the attention on her made her take the chief role.

“Why don’t the three of you take a seat?” Twilight asked gingerly, her usual confident nature she exuded since becoming a princess completely gone.

“What’s wrong? Something’s happened hasn’t it?” the unicorn responded, agitation growing in her voice. Her two friends looked at each other with mounting concern, as clearly something serious was happening, and the body language of the adults added to their concern.

“Sweetie Belle, there’s…” Twilight's eyes started to leak at the corners, and she had to take a big deep breath “There’s been an accident.”

The white filly’s face dropped, and the wonderful optimistic shine usually in her eyes left in an instant “Something’s happened to Rarity hasn’t it?”

“Sweetie Belle…” Cheerilee began to speak.

“I always knew being an Element of Harmony was dangerous, why did she have to be so generous! She’s really hurt, isn’t she?” Sweetie practically screamed at Twilight, her voice cracking numerous times.

Twilight’s heart practically broke and her instinct was to say no, to tell the filly that the sister she adored was fine. But her lessons, both formal and in life, had taught her that you had to be careful when dealing with feelings and especially in matters such as this. She paused as she tried to refocus her thoughts – being a Princess may have made her powerful enough to fight gods of chaos, evil unicorns and everything else, but she felt that she was about to do the hardest thing of her life so far.

“Tell me!” Sweetie squeaked, as Apple Bloom put a hoof over her friends shoulder sensing something life changing was about to happen. The weather outside may have been unseasonably warm, but it felt that the temperature in the schoolroom had fallen a few degrees already.

Twilight lowered her body a little towards the ground, so she wasn’t towering over the filly and thought about taking off her crown to seem as friendly as possible. But she realised that she needed her element with her as she needed all the strength she had for what she was about to say. She would have loved to let somepony else handle this, but it was her duty to do this – not because she was a princess and in a position of power, but as a close friend of the family she owed it to them, and to the scared filly in front of her.

“There...has been an accident” Twilight repeated softening her face as much as possible “A confused and injured Ursa Minor came into town early this morning and whilst we managed to get it back into the Everfree Forest, there were a number of ponies hurt…seriously hurt.” A tear escaped the princess’s eye and fell to the ground, but the alicorn found the comforting hoof of Cheerilee holding one of hers to help give her strength.

“Rarity?” Sweetie Belle croaked softly, half a question, half just comforting herself by calling out her treasured sisters name.

Twilight looked at the scared foal, and knew she had to continue – pausing may give the filly a few more moments of innocence, but she knew she had to give the sad news and change this filly’s life forever. “Sweetie Belle…your parents were hurt. The doctors, Nurse Redheart rushed to the scene and did all they could. But your parents were really badly injured and so were rushed to the hospital.”

Twilight put a comforting hoof out onto the young unicorns shoulder. “Sweetie Belle, the doctors did all they could…we all did. But your parents…” the three fillies were already crying before the upcoming destructive words were uttered, as it was clear from Twilight's face what the Princess was about to say “…died this morning.”