~Three Hours Earlier~
Princess Celestia watched herself pace around the chair she was sitting in, her body still paralyzed from whatever poison she had been administered. She could feel her fingers begin to twitch, but other than those small movements, she couldn’t do anything else but move her eyes and speak.
“Who… are you?” she asked herself. “You’re not… me from the other world, are you?”
“No, I am not,” the other Celestia said smoothly. “I’m from this world. As for who I am… isn’t it obvious? I’m you.”
“But… how is that possible?”
“Well, strictly speaking, I’m not actually you,” the other Celestia shrugged. “But I’d say my disguise is close enough, wouldn’t you say? Your hair color wasn’t easy to mimic, I’ll tell you that.”
“Disguise?” Celestia would’ve drawn back in shock, but she couldn’t move. The disguise was so good that no one would look twice at her. Even Celestia didn’t know it had been a disguise. “Who are you? You’re not me. You’re an impostor. What could you possibly want with my job? I’m just a principal.”
“Oh, but you see,” the other Celestia fluffed her hair and shrugged. “I don’t really have anything to do with you. It’s all to maintain leverage over your computer teacher, Mr. Pierce, or if you’d prefer me to refer to him by his real name, Pierce Network.”
“Pierce? Mr. Pierce?” she repeated the man’s name. “What could you possibly want with him? What good am I to you? We’re just colleagues.”
The other Celestia clucked her tongue disapprovingly.
“You might consider him a colleague, but I assure you, there’s a lot more to Pierce Network than you know,” she held up a handful of papers. “Want me to tell you?”
Celestia watched the papers and swallowed. What did this false Celestia know about the man? She always knew Pierce was an odd one, but how odd was he, exactly?
“G-Go on…” she mumbled.
“Very well! Did you know that your Mr. Pierce is actually wanted for a string of murders and hackings as part of his career as a vigilante in Chicoltgo? Here are the police files,” Celestia watched as her doppelganger thrust a sheet of paper under her nose. There, captured by a security camera, was Mr. Pierce. He was wearing a different coat and had a scarf pulled up over his mouth and nose, but Celestia could still recognize him.
“It can’t be… His records were clean when we hired him,” Celestia wanted to shake her head, but she couldn’t. “I did hear of this vigilante, but... if he’s not a teacher, what is he doing here?”
“But wait, there’s more. After moonlighting as a vigilante, Pierce Network went on to join a group of assassins, killing even more in their name. I have the exact list of his targets here.”
Celestia looked down at the sheet of paper with its lengthy list of people. She recognized a few of the names, like Lucky Deck and Juniper Woods, from the news.
“No way… What have I gotten myself into?”
“And when the assassins ran into a tight spot,” the other Celestia continued. “He bailed on them and ran away to hide at your high school. That’s what he does when he’s in trouble. He runs. Like the coward he is.”
“So what do you want with him?” Celestia felt her toes wiggling now. “Even if he is who you say he is, I can’t let you hurt him. Leave it to the police, otherwise you’re no better than he is.”
“You didn’t let me finish,” Celestia’s doppelganger said in a sing-song voice. “I need Pierce Network to do some work for me, and keeping you here is what’s preventing him from simply killing me and moving on. If he kills me, then you can look forward to starving to death, because nobody knows you’re here; even you don’t know where you are. Killing him would do me no good whatsoever. But I do plan on hurting him,” a shadow passed over the other Celestia’s face. “Oh, yes. I plan on hurting him very much for all the trouble he’s caused me.”
“You-You won’t get away with this,” Celestia told her doppelganger. “If not me, someone else will stop you.”
“Maybe,” the other Celestia said lazily. “But I rather doubt it. I’ve been at this game for a very, very, long time, Celestia. Longer than you’ve been alive. I know what I’m doing. Now, before my bite wears off, I’d like to show you your new accommodations.”
“B-Bite?” Celestia wasn’t sure if she’d heard right.
“Unfortunately, you’ll be confined to this room for the most part,” Celestia’s doppelganger pointed to Celestia’s right leg, which she could now see had a manacle and chain attached to it which led to a metal ring in the wall. “But I do intend on making your stay as comfortable as possible. We’ve got a single bed with a feather mattress, an ensuite bathroom, and your own TV set. I’ve brought you a few changes of clothes from your place, and I’ll be dropping by every morning and evening to cook for you. Any questions?”
“Why go through so much trouble if you kidnapped me?” the principal could almost feel the muscles in her neck, moving her head slightly. “Kidnappers aren’t usually this accommodating.”
“Oh, I don’t want you to think of this as a kidnapping,” the other Celestia said kindly. “I want you to consider yourself a guest. A forcibly detained guest, but a guest nonetheless.”
Principal Celestia knew she had to escape and alert the local authorities. She couldn’t just sit here and let this woman pretending to be her do as she pleased with Mr. Pierce, even if he had a shady background. Celestia knew she had to do something, but for now, while the poison still did its work, she had no choice but to wait here.
“And in case you’re thinking about escaping, which I really hope you aren’t, that chain is solid steel and the front door is locked from the outside. So please don’t entertain any thoughts of foolishness while you’re here. I said I wanted you to feel like a guest, and it’s hard to keep that level of hospitality if we’re at each other's throats all the time.”
Celestia said nothing, because she had nothing else to say.
The other Celestia smiled softly at her. “Oh, don’t look so dour. This will all be over before you know it. Trust me on that one.”
Yeah right… Celestia thought to herself. She doubted she would just be able to walk out when all this was over.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with Pierce scheduled,” Celestia’s doppelganger scooted out of the room and toward the front door. “I’ll be back later. Ciao!”
~Four Hours Later~
“I’m ba-ack!” the other Celestia sang as she waltzed in the front door, a bag of groceries in her hands.
Principal Celestia, who was resting her head on the table, looked up as the groceries were dumped beside her head.
“You’re seriously cooking?” Celestia raised an eyebrow. She’d never heard of a captor cooking for their captive before.
“I said I would, didn’t I?” the other woman said with a smile. “Besides, it’s been far too long since I’ve been able to cook for anyone other than myself. I used to be quite good at it, you know.
“Now, I know you won’t be able to come near the kitchen with that chain on your leg,” the other Celestia continued. “But I’ll try to get it done as quick as I can, then we can eat dinner together. How does that sound?”
“Eating dinner with you?” Celestia looked between the groceries and her captor. “Why are you even holding me here? Why don’t you just let me go. You’re already a very unusual person.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Celestia’s doppelganger muttered, her cheery demeanor evaporating for a second. “But enough of that. I’m going to cook. Feel free to watch TV or read a book while you wait; I promise I won’t take long.”
“What about my sister?” Celestia needed to know. “She’d realize I’m gone. She’ll call the police and they’ll come find me.”
“Oh, yes. Vice Principal Luna,” the other Celestia’s smile didn’t waver. “Well, I’ve given her a bit of a sleeping draught and she’ll be out all of tonight. And I’ll be slipping her half-doses throughout the rest of this little caper, so she’ll be too tired to think straight. You see, Celestia, I’ve thought of everything.”
Principal Celestia simply stared in shock at the other Celestia as she picked up the grocery bags and hummed her way to the kitchen.
“I swear, if you hurt Luna…”
“Oh, don’t be melodramatic,” the other Celestia called back from the kitchen. “It’s a sleeping draught, not a poison. Now calm down and wait like a good little guest; I’ll be back shortly.”
And so Celestia waited while her kidnapper busied herself in the kitchen. There were the sounds of food preparation: utensils being clashed against saucepans and the sizzling of cooking meat. A little over half an hour later, the other Celestia returned with two covered cloches.
“So what did you make?” Celestia humored her captor. Not like she could do anything about it at this time anyway.
Her doppelganger smiled and set the cloches down before lifting the lids, releasing a fine, toothsome smell. “Roast lamb cutlets with mint sauce, served with a side of mashed potatoes and salad.”
“So… we just eat?” Celestia watched as the other Celestia sat down across from her. “You didn’t put poison in it or something? Or some of that sleeping drugs you have?”
“Now what good would that do me?” the other Celestia pouted. “Besides overcomplicating the recipe to make it all still taste good, knocking you out or poisoning you wouldn’t do me any good at all. I want you to be comfortable here, that’s all.”
Celestia squinted her eyes, but picked up the fork and knife and began working on cutting her dinner into bite sized pieces. Swallowing hard, she stabbed a piece of lamb and brought it into her mouth, chewing ever so slowly, part of her not trusting the woman across from her.
“So, how is it?” her doppelganger smiled and placed her head atop her hands.
“Even though you’ve kidnapped me and everything, I hate to say it, but this is really good,” Celestia said after swallowing.
And it was delicious. The sauce had just the right amount of mint in it, and the mashed potatoes were just the right texture, light and fluffy. Celestia dug into her meal with gusto, quickly finishing her food. She wiped the last of the juices from her lips just as the other Celestia was finishing her own meal.
“I’m glad you enjoyed the meal, Celestia. It’s been… what, two years since I’ve been able to cook for someone else?”
The other Celestia picked up her spoon and gazed wistfully at her reflection in the polished silver.
Celestia smiled ruefully. “What, did you kidnap them too?”
“Funny thing,” the other Celestia said, putting down the spoon. “I kind of did. I do miss him though. He was such a good source of love.”
“Source-source of love?” Celestia looked at her funny. “What did you kidnap him for?”
“Why, for food, of course.”
“So… you kidnapped him to… eat with him…?” Celestia asked confusedly. This woman sure had a weird way of spending time with people too.
The other Celestia chuckled darkly. “Celestia, what do you think I am?”
“What do you mean?” the principal raised an eyebrow. “You’re not human?”
“Do you think a human could imitate you as well as I’m doing?” her doppelganger smiled.
“Well…” Celestia thought about it. “Honestly, I don’t know. That man you kidnapped… you didn’t… eat him, did you?”
The other Celestia burst out laughing, slapping her knee in mirth.
“No, no. I don’t eat people, darling. What, did you think I was some kind of cannibal?” The laughter abruptly stopped. “But I will tell you that I am no ordinary human.”
“If you’re not human, then I don’t know what you are,” Celestia shrugged. “I don’t suppose you’d want to tell me?”
The other Celestia yawned. “Another time, perhaps. Right now, it’s about time for me to see to Luna’s naptime. I’ll be back tomorrow morning to cook breakfast and lunch, then it’s off to school.”
Celestia’s doppelganger gathered the dishes and washed them, then gave her a cheery wave and departed.
Principal Celestia sat alone as everything around her grew quiet. She sighed and looked out a window, bars built in between her and the window to prevent escape. The moon was now high in the sky as cars began to show up less and less as people retired to their homes at the end of a long work day.
She hoped Luna would notice something odd about her doppelganger and call the police. If anyone, her sister should be able to spot the differences between them, but as the other Celestia had said, she had been giving Luna sleeping drugs.
Principal Celestia looked around the room, trying to find anything she could use to escape. The chain and shackle around her leg seemed to be made of solid steel, which meant she wasn’t going to be breaking it any time soon, unless she had something powerful, like a sword or a hammer. She looked at the chain again. Maybe a sword wouldn’t even work.
Eventually, her thoughts drifted to her school’s computer teacher, Mr. Pierce. According to the other Celestia, he was a dangerous man, using CHS to hide for the last few years. She didn’t know if she fully believed her doppelganger, but it did explain a few things, like how the man had beaten up two of her students once. She had reprimanded him and even reported it to the Board of Education, but nothing had been done about it.
She returned her attention to the table. There, all nicely held together with a silver paper clip, were the documents that the other Celestia had been showing her earlier. She hadn’t had the chance to give them a proper look. Her curiosity piqued, she reached over and picked them up, starting at the first page.