The sun was rising in Unicornia to signal the beginning of a new day. Lucille woke up with her foal Goldie to get her ready for school. In case you forgot what happened last time (or did not read my last Unicornia post), Lucille was captured many years ago by Queen Luna of the Night Unicorns because she wanted to enslave her while she was queen. So her sister Diamond, who was second in line for the throne, took over. And Lucille now lives in a small, shabby bedroom with her foal because of this.
Then, Queen Luna in her nightgown the color of silver brought Lucille and her foal Goldie breakfast. This breakfast consisted of enough bread and water for both of them. Lucille thought Queen Luna was acting kinder to her and her foal than she had expected.
After they had eaten their fill, Lucille gave her daughter an old satchel made of pink silk that had been hers when she was still in school. It contained an apple for lunch, a golden pencilcase with pencils in it studded with sun-shaped rubies that had been secretly designed for her one year ago by Queen Luna's blacksmith, and an old purple binder with old purple dividers that once belonged to Lucille's sister Queen Diamond.
When Lucille got to school, she went to her first class, which was called Government Education. In the class, Lucille would learn about the unicorn government, which would help her on the school's mission: helping foals of eight years of age and older prepare to join Horns For Righteous Peace one day.
"Hello, everybody. I am Ms. Hooves. I am part of the Day Unicorn side. Today we will be learning about how the royal system works. Who can tell me who is queen right now?," said Ms. Hooves. Many students raised their hooves. "Vincent.," said Ms. Hooves.
"Queen Diamond.," said Vincent. "Correct. Now, we had Queen Lucille before her. But she went missing and was never found. Do you know why they picked her sister instead of any other female unicorn to rule for her while she was gone?," said Ms. Hooves. Only two unicorns raised their hooves.
"Petunia.," said Ms. Hooves. "Queen Diamond was second in line for the throne.," said Petunia. "Correct. That means that it was Diamond's turn to be queen after Lucille went out of office. But before Diamond was queen, she was a princess because that is what comes before a queen. This also means that she once had less power. Do you know why the word queen in Queen Diamond's name comes before her given name?," said Ms. Hooves. A quarter of the class raised their hooves.
"Stella.," said Ms. Hooves. "Queen is a title and Diamond is not.," said Stella. "Correct. Some titles have less power than others. One thing you will notice about titles is that men have different titles than women. Another thing you will notice about them is that some titles have an equal amount of power. Titles like these are made up of one male title and one female title. For example, a king and a queen have the same amount of power but a king is a male queen. You will read a passage about the history of titles by yourself.", said Ms. Hooves.
When the bell rang, class was dismissed.
