Lesson Zero

Chapter 2: Lesson Zero

Celestia and Goethe walked into a big room with a telescope and row upon row of books. Most of the ceiling was a glass dome, and other parts were metal parts to support and help the telescope function. There was a small balcony with two chaires and two tables, one table was near the rail of the balcony and the other table had some books on it and was near a window and one row of the bookcase. Celestia was just astonished.

"So...so...this is where we're going to...I mean I'm going to be taught stuff like astronomy?" Celestia asked a obvious question.

Duchess Goethe snorted. "Why yes, we'll be learning "stuff" like the subject of astronomy." She started to walk up the stairs to the balcony, Princess Celestia followed her.

"So, this is lesson one?" The young Celestia asked.

"LESSON ONE!?" Goethe's royal Gallopia voice made Celestia jump out of her fur and mane. "Oh, I'm sorry darling, I should learn to control that. Our first lesson is really lesson zero. Every student of a Alicorn has a lesson zero at one point or another, you will see when you have a student of your own."

"And that would be...?"

"Well, Lesson ONE of astronomy..." Said Goethe while pulling a Astronomy book out of the bookcase and flipping through it with her Alicorn magic. "...is about the simple constellations as well as a simple explanation of Stars and Star types." She paused.

"But can you guess what star lesson zero is about? Even you I think won't guess correctly!" Duchess Goethe told her.

"Um...all the stars in our galactic arm?" Celestia's face was blank.

"No silly! The Sun! Our star system's primary star!" Goethe proudly told Princess Celestia.

"That's a star?" Celestia's tone could not have been more serious.

"It is the only star for a vast amount of distance, it is a class F star, is extremely hot, (ask any pegasi) and most of all, you are connected to the sun through your name."

The young princess celestia was confused now. "How?"

"Silly filly, your NAME means 'daughter of the sun'. And since it is a generally excepted biological axiom, a pony's name has to do with what her talent, which will eventually lead to him or her getting their cutie mark." Goethe fully explained to her.

"Wow! Imma gonna be a Princess of the SUN!" She said partially using her soon to be semi-frequent use of the royal Gallopia voice.

Duchess Goethe just laughed. "We'll see little filly....we'll see."

All throughout her little royal schoolday, Celestia learned all about the sun, to how scientists thought it worked, to the mythologies that surrounded it among the sapient tribes, and even star radiation and even it's proper name: Celion.

In fact, it was not just a little schoolday, it was a long night of questions and answers. About things Goethe couldn't and could explain and/or understand. But ultimately, it was a night that ended with Celestia falling asleep reading a book in that great telescope room with her now beloved teacher, a teacher that had now brought her to her bed and tucked her in.

"Rest up, silly filly, tomorrow is Lesson one, and all it's madness, in all it's madness." She left the room and peered in, just before she would leave. She nodded her head and whispered "You go on to do great thing you know not what."