“Okay, Twilight. It’s just like we practised last time, okay?”
The filly nodded, and began to note down the positions, and shapes of all the constellations that could be seen in the sky. She couldn’t believe the amount, even after they’d practised doing this last week.
“There’s so many of them, Princess.”
“Don’t be intimidated, my faithful student. Just keep noting them down.”
“There must be fifteen, maybe even twenty!” Twilight cried out in awe as she wrote their positions down in her starmap, “And they’re all made up of stars! What’s that… maybe even sixty or seventy stars!”
She looked at her teacher for approval, only to find Celestia was staring into the sky.
“Goodness me, seventy stars in the whole night sky?” Celestia muttered, sounding almost like seventy stars wasn’t a lot! Twilight thought it was a massive amount! “I’ve never been very good at this.”
“Princess…?” Twilight asked, confused at her teacher’s oddly pensive demeanour. However it didn’t last, she was quick to turn to Twilight and favour her with one of her patient, maternal smiles.
“Keep going Twilight, until you’ve written them all down,” she replied calmly, kindly.
“There’s so many of them, Princess.”
“Don’t be intimidated, my faithful student. Just keep noting them down.”
Twilight kept making marks until, after what felt like hours, though was probably only about thirty minutes, the filly called out to her teacher.
“Princess Celestia, I’m done!” she exclaimed, beaming proudly.
“Are you sure that’s all of them, Twilight?”
“Yes! I can’t see anymore!”
“And does that mean there’s no more to be seen?”
And the filly found she didn’t have an answer.
“I… uh… well, I’ve never seen any other stars than this in my whole life, princess, so I’d say that there aren’t anymore to be seen.” Twilight concluded, only for Celestia to cock her head and sigh.
“No I can’t imagine you ever would have seen more stars than this…” she said, with a weariness Twilight had never heard from her.
“Are…are you okay princess?” Twilight asked, surprising herself. She’d never asked the princess a question like that before.
“I’m fine Twilight. Let’s go back to the question, does the fact you’ve never seen any more stars than this, mean there are definitely no more to be seen?”
“Well… I guess I can’t be certain…?” she said, feeling like she had a bit of a headache.
“Very good Twilight! Very good!” the princess said, sitting down next to Twilight and placing a wing around the little foal. It was a gesture Twilight loved, it was always so warm and comfortable.
“It’s important for us to realise that we have to sometimes accept some uncertainty in our knowledge. There are always limits to what we can know, and we’ll cover this more when we get onto epistemology, but tonight, I wanted you to experience some doubt in your conclusions. It’s not a bad thing to examine why we feel we know the things we do.”
Twilight nodded along, doing her best to listen to the princess’s words. But she couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that was coursing through her, now that the princess had posed the question?
Were there more stars?
“Princess?” Twilight chirped up when she had the chance, “Are there more stars? Other than the ones we can see tonight?”
“It’s… the lesson isn’t so much about stars, Twilight. It’s about making sure we are constantly questioning the conclusions we get to,” the princess explained, but Twilight didn’t find it satisfactory.
“But… I understand, princess. But now I’ve learned my lesson, can you tell me whether there’s more stars, I’d really like to know!” Twilight said, trying to sound friendly to mask her growing frustration.
Celestia gave her a slightly inscrutable look.
“I think we should go in now, Twilight-”
“I just want to know, princess! Can you please just tell me this time?!” Twilight whined.
“Twilight!” the princess lightly chided, “Mind your manners-”
“I do my lessons and my homework and always do it on time!” Twilight interjected, switching to that childish bargaining mindset, as if being good bought her points to trade, “But you brought up the stars and told me there might be more and now I can’t stop wondering! Please please please can you just tell me the answer?”
Celestia stared down at the foal, at her straining expression and the frustration wracking her tiny little body.
Surely it couldn’t hurt to just tell her this time?
Surely this one time, it would be alright to just tell her the correct answer, and not leave her wondering?
“Yes, Twilight… there are more stars than this. They’re hiding in the black areas of the sky. You can’t see them, but there’s amazing things in there,” Celestia thought for a moment, before lightly chuckling, “That’s another good lesson actually. Always look in the dark areas, the places between the pretty, eye-catching things.”
“How do you know, Princess, about the other stars?”
Celestia looked at her student for a moment, then back up at the sky.
“Someone showed them to me. The pony who taught me how to paint the night sky. I’ve never been as good as they were, though.”
“A pony who taught you?!” Twilight exclaimed, “ But you’re the cleverest pony in the world!”
“I’m not nearly the cleverest pony in the world, little one,” Celestia laughed sadly, and looked back down at her student. She was unrecognisable from how she’d been before. The nervous, sweating little ball of frustration had given way back to the bright, friendly foal Celestia taught everyday.
And for just a moment, that knowledge, that witnessing of how Twilight got when she couldn’t get that definitive answer, made Celestia look at her student differently. Made her ever so slightly concerned.
But the thought was interrupted by Twilight speaking up again.
“Have you seen the stars, princess? The other ones? What are they like?”
“They’re beautiful, my student. Truly beyond words. I very much hope you’ll be able to see them one day.”