The afternoon breeze blew gently through the trees as the three friends walked down the road to Ponyville Library. The three girls walked quietly through town, each one absorbed with their own thoughts. They quickly came to the town center, where ponies were doing some afternoon shopping at the stores surrounding a large fountain. They could see a few of their classmates fooling around before heading home for dinner. They walked up to a bench next to the fountain and stopped for a few moments.

Sweetie Belle spoke first. "Do we really have to go to this thing? I mean, I'm sure we could find some way out of it." Scootaloo stopped and jumped up on the fountain rim, balancing herself carefully."Yeah," Scootaloo agreed. "There's got to be something we could do." Applebloom looked at them skeptically. "I'm not so sure of that. Mah big sis went to one of these here presentations that Twilight gives, and I can't see her agreeing to me going to one."

"Why not?" Scootaloo asked, starting to get worried.

"Well, when she got home that night after goin' to Twilight's thing, she wouldn't say anything, just went upstairs and went to sleep. When I asked her what happened the next morning, she didn't look at me, just went outside with a distracted look in her eyes." Applebloom turned and looked towards her family's apple stand, but, sadly, her sister was nowhere to be seen. "She must have been thinkin' real hard about something, I saw her buckin' the same tree for a half hour."

"Oh, come on," Sweetie Belle exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "It couldn't have been all that bad." Scootaloo jumped gracefully off the side of the fountain, landing gently next to her friends. "Yeah," Scootaloo agreed. "I don't see how it could possibly be as bad as that. And even if it is, that would only make it easier to get out of, right?" The Crusaders sat thinking for moment. Sweetie Belle finally broke the silence, "Well, I know Rarity has been to one of those meetings, how about we ask her what it was like, she's on the way after all." Scootaloo and Applebloom exchanged looks. "Well, it's an idea, lets see what she has to say." Applebloom replied. Scootaloo noded in agreement. "We'd better hurry though, I don't want Miss Cherilee to hear that we were late."

They hurried down the street until Rarity's store came into view a few minutes later. Strangely, the door was locked, and there was a closed sign in the window. Sweetie Belle looked at the sign, confused. "That's strange," she said, "Rarity should still be open for a few more hours." She leads the way to the back of the store, where she stoops down to dig at some rocks. Scootaloo looks at her bewildered and Applebloom asks what she's doing. "Rarity has a spare key to the back door hidden here somewhere...ah, here it is!" Sweetie Belle holds up the small key and walks to the rear entrance to the store, unlocking the door.

They go inside to find the downstairs empty and the lights out. There were clothes littered around, something Rarity would never allow. There was also a strange smell lingering in the air. Sweetie Belle looks around for a minute then calls out for her sister. "I'm upstairs!" they hear Rarity shout in reply. Going upstairs they find her bathroom door locked. Sweetie Belle knocked on it softly. "It's me sis, we need to ask you for some help."

"Oh, Sweetie Belle, it's you," Rarity answers through the door. There is an odd note to her voice, as though she is speaking with forced calm. " I'm dreadfully sorry dear, but I'm afraid i'm not in the best of states right now. Can it please wait until tomorrow?"

"I'm afraid not sis. I wouldn't ask if it weren't really important." There was an ominous silence, followed by the click of the door unlocking. Slowly, the door cracked open, revealing the not unsizable disaster. All three girls gasped in suprise and worry.

Sweetie Belle jumps forward in surprise and worry. "Rarity! Oh my gosh, are you okay? Your mane... your coat.. they're-"

"Absolutely hideous, I know! Oh, I must look completely dreadful." Rarity's finely styled mane and luxourious coat had clearly been burned. There were patches of blackend fur on her coat; some parts had burned off completely, leaving bright red burns behind. Not only that, but what looked like half her mane had been burned off as well. Here eyes were puffy from crying and there were lines on her face where her makeup had blended with her tears. 'Dreadful' was definately putting it mildly.

Which of course Scootaloo, being the kind and sensitive soul that she is was quick to point out, causing Rarity to start crying again. After giving her friend a dirty look, Sweetie turned back to her sister "Rarity, what happened to you? Are you hurt? Those burns look terrible" Rarity calmed herself, sniffing a few times before answering.

"Oh Sweetie, I'm not hurt - well, not badly anyways, but to answer your question I was at Twilight's this morning looking for a book to read, and Twilight was having a hard time locating it. Spike, being the gentleman that he is quickly found the missing book for us, and as I was tweaking the spines on his head, he loves it when you do that by the way, Twilight asked me if I was going to attend her meeting tonight. I admit I was caught off guard by her question, and, well, my hoof... slipped." Memories of this tragic event brought more tears to her eyes, but through an obvious act of will went unshed. "Oh, it was all an accident, I didn't mean to hurt him, who knew startling Spike would have such a fiery effect!"

"Anyway after Twilight and Spike apologized over and over once I woke up, I was the disaster that you see before you. Don't worry to much girls, the burns aren't too bad. I would go see a doctor, but I couldn't stand to have anypony see me like this. Twilight said that she had experienced a similar experience once, and knew just the spell to fix my problems. Unfortunately it will have to wait until tomorrow, she said the spell was quite draining, and asked if I could wait until then. I agreed, and as odd as it might sound this may be a blessing in disguise. It does mean I can't attend Twilight's meeting tonight." Rarity gave a much enduring sigh, making the face of one who endures great suffering for a worthy cause. " Now Sweetie, what is it that you need help with?"

"Oh, right," Sweetie Belle replied, "Its kind of funny actually, the three of us were wondering about the time you went to Twilight's history group. We wanted to know what it was like."

Rarity gave her sister and her friends an arch look. "That is what was so important it couldn't wait until tomorrow," she said, her voice full of restrained anger. Sweetie Belle froze, unsure what she could safely say. Fortunately Scootaloo took over. "Well, yeah, I mean we wanted to learn what the deal was with these meetings, so we thought that if anypony would know it would be the greatest socialite in Ponyville."

"Yes, I'm sure you were," Rarity replied, deadpan. Clearly, Scootaloo transparent attempt at flattery had missed it's mark. "Well, to put it simply, it was... boring. It started out alright, but she just kept droning on and on. I have had to excuse myself from her other meeting, though I hear I'm not the only one. Aparently, no one has been to one of her meetings since. As a matter of fact, it's funny you bring it up, she's having another meeting tonight apparently. Why do you ask?"

Sweetie Belle quickly perked back up. "Oh, well, we are supposed to go to tonights meeting, but we were hoping you could maybe get us out of it?" The three girls turned their most adorible faces on, hoping to overwhelm Rarity with a wave of cuteness.

"Well, of course my dears I'll do anything to hel - wait... who exactly is forcing you to go to Twilight's meeting?" Rarity loomed over her sister and her friends, a curious look on her face. Applebloom shook her head sighing while Scootaloo facehoofed quietly.

"Oh, well, uh its Miss Cherilee, sis."

"And why, exactly, is Miss Cherilee forcing you to go?"

"Oh, uh, well, um, you know what sis, we had, uh, better be going. We're going to be late if we don't hurry."

The crusaders darted out of the store as fast as they could before Rarity could stop them. Once the store was out of sight, the three friends slowed down, stopping just in view of the library. "Well I guess we don't have any choice now," Scootaloo said. "Oh, this is all your fault Scoots," Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"MY fault! How is this my fault?!" Scootaloo turned on Sweetie Belle.

"You're the one who came up with the bright idea to try and get cutie marks in bat herding! Seriously, I've never even heard of a pony who herds bats for a living."

"Well, we're running out of things to try. And I didn't hear you complaining before! And besides, Rainbow Dash likes bats, I thought I could impress her if-"

"If what? You walked up to Rainbow Dash with a bag full of-"

"Girls!" Applebloom yelled. "It's all of our faults. Fighting isn't going to get us out of this, so lets just go ahead and get this over with." Scootaloo and Sweetie Bele both sighed in agreement, and apologized to each other. Together, they walked the remining distance to the library. "I guess we're doing this," Scootaloo mumbled to herself.

The sun was just starting to dip below the branches of the great tree, and with incredible trepidation, Applebloom reached up and knocked on the door of the library.

Author's Note

Comment are appreciated. Also the format of the next part is going to be different as the story gets to the actual lesson.

Update: Major revision to this chapter. I need to apologize for releasing it in the state it was in, I rushed through this and the story suffered for it. Hopefully this is much better.