“I’m ba-ack!” the other Celestia sang as she pushed open the front door, her usual burlap sack of groceries in tow.
“Do you always start with that?” Principal Celestia rested her head on a hand.
“Would you prefer I not announce myself? What are you watching, by the way?”
Celestia gestured vaguely to the TV. “Daring Do. They’re having a marathon on channel five, so I figured I’d watch some to pass the time.”
An odd look passed over the other Celestia’s face. “It’s not one of the newer ones, is it? Because I really can’t stand-”
“There’s nothing you can do to stop me now, Daring Do!” the antagonist, Ahuizotl, yelled at the tied up treasure hunter. “The artifact is mine, and mine alone! Not yours!”
Just then, a red haired woman in a black catsuit swooped in on a zipline and kicked him in the face, sending the artifact spiraling towards a cliff, stopping at the edge.
“No! The artifact!” Ahuizotl flew for it, but tripped over the woman’s stuck out foot, falling and hitting his nose on a rock. He didn’t get back up.
“Cat Scratch, you again!” Daring struggled against her rope. “What are you doing here?”
The other Celestia facepalmed. “...her.”
“Daring Do?” Celestia asked, confused.
“Not her, her!” Celestia’s double jabbed a finger at Cat Scratch. “That actor…”
“What, Ebony Wings?” Celestia watched the character as she untied Daring Do. “What’s wrong? She’s a great actor. She’s won so many awards.”
“She’s a hack who’s done nothing to earn those awards,” the other Celestia said bluntly. “I mean, by my standards, all the acting on TV is pretty bad, but Ebony Wings is the worst. I could act a hundred times better than she could.”
“Uh huh,” Celestia looked unamused. “Right.”
“I’m acting as you right now, aren’t I?”
“I suppose you are, but it’s different on TV, isn’t it? People behave differently on TV. It’d be weird if movies were completely realistic.”
“Bah, whatever. The important thing is, I’ve got my home and money back! Yay!” the other Celestia threw her hands up in the air, a cheery smile on her face.
“That’s good, I suppose,” the real Celestia showed her teeth. “So does that mean I can go now? How long are you going to hold me here?”
“Ah ah, not so fast. Now that I have my possessions again, it’s time to move on to the second stage of this grand and glorious operation,” the other Celestia steepled her fingers and tapped the tips together sinisterly. “Attracting the attention of the queen.”
“Oh yes, that Valentine’s Day dance you were planning. So how’s that going for you?”
“Pierce has agreed to do the advertising for it,” Celestia’s double said. “Now all that’s left to do is to actually organize the dance, and I’m sure there are students who would happily take the job. Since you probably know them better than I do, I have to ask, who do I look for in terms of planning festivities?”
“Planning a party?” Celestia only knew two names at the top of her head. “Well, there’s Pinkie Pie or Cheese Sandwich. They’re the best we have at CHS.”
“Pinkie Pie or Cheese Sandwich…” the other Celestia echoed, rubbing her chin. “Who are they again?”
“Students,” Celestia frowned. “You don’t even know who they are? How have you been acting in school? You’re not giving me a bad name are you?”
“I hardly have the time to get to know every single student as well as you do,” the other Celestia said irritably. “Look, I’ll just call them to your- ahem- my office tomorrow and get it sorted. Easy as eggs is eggs.”
“Well, looks like you’ve got it all planned out…” Celestia sighed. She missed being outside, away from this small room. She missed talking to her students and her staff, especially her sister, Luna. “So when will you let me leave?”
“When it’s all over, I suppose,” the other Celestia said, tapping the side of her nose. “But for now, let’s celebrate! I brought cake,” she reached into the sack and produced a small white box.
“Just a question,” Celestia said as she eyed the small box. “How have you been buying the groceries before you got your money back?”
“I keep a couple thousand dollars stashed in each of my safehouses, just in case,” the other Celestia went off to the kitchen, returning with plates and forks. “Always good to have a backup plan, you know, in case you get thrown off a skyscraper or something.”
“Seriously? If you already have so much money, why did you still need Pierce to get your stuff back for you? Couldn’t you just… buy a new house and get more money like a normal person?”
“Never!” the other Celestia hissed, looming over Celestia. Then she put a hand on her chest, breathing in and out to calm down. “Ahem. Never. My penthouse and my fortune belong rightfully to me, and I would have it returned. Now, do you like tiramisu?”
Celestia sighed and pushed some hair behind an ear. “I might, if I knew what that is.”
“It’s Neightalian,” the other Celestia unboxed the cake and cut out two slices. “Try it, it’s good.”
The real principal chose a fork and cut off a small portion of the cake, slowly bringing it to her mouth. As expected when she started chewing, the piece of cake was delicious, with just the right amount of cream and cocoa powder. Celestia helped herself to another chunk as her doppelganger watched with glee.
“You’re right. It is pretty good,” Celestia admitted after her slice was gone.
“Seconds?” her double asked with a sticky sort of smile.
“Sure.”
Celestia’s double cut out a second slice of cake, handing it to the principal. That was when she noticed her doppelganger had scarcely touched her own cake.
“Hold on. I see what you’re doing.” Celestia said, casting an accusing eye on the other Celestia.
“What?”
“You’re feeding off my emotions again, aren’t you?”
The other Celestia held up both hands. “Guilty as charged.”
“That’s… kind of creepy, you know.”
“Not to me it isn’t,” her doppelganger stuffed a bit of tiramisu into her mouth. “See? I’m eating it. Happy? No, of course not. I’d be able to taste it if you were.”
“Now it’s really creepy,” Celestia began to feel her stomach flip. “So you can tell what I feel about everything. If it wasn’t a privacy issue, it would be a security issue. How can anyone hide anything from you?”
“Well, you can’t. Not really. It’s a changeling thing. In our culture we don’t bother hiding our emotions, because everyone else can taste it anyway.”
Changeling. Her other self had said that word. By the sound of it, it made her sound like some sort of shapeshifter.
“That sure is a different way to live,” Celestia swallowed her cake. “So that’s what you are? A changeling? That explains your mimicry skill. So what does a changeling do normally? Kidnap and dispose of people?”
“Oh, Celestia, how could you accuse us all of doing things like that? I’m hurt,” she added with a small grin.
“I’m sure you are,” Celestia exhaled slowly. “If I could eat your emotions, I would be sure you’re not.”
“Well, normally I’d invent an entirely new persona to live with for a while, but you know what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. And I am very desperate.”
“So is this how it’s been since you left your queen?” Celestia asked, getting a nod from her double. “Then how were things like? Back when there were… more of you?”
“We didn’t always operate like this, you know?” her double looked out the window. “We never asked to be born like this. We never asked to be hated by your kind. But times change, Celestia. I had thought we could integrate well with human society many lifetimes ago and indeed, it had been going well. We had a farm to harvest crops for the village. That was going nicely. We fed each other like that, you see.”
“What made you change your mind?” Celestia couldn’t help but feel interested in this story.
“Then…” the false Celestia took a deep breath. “Then one day, the man I loved… the human I loved turned around and killed my youngest sister. Why, you may ask yourself? Why, just because of these.” She extended her fangs and pointed at them. “If it were you, would you not do the same as I did? Would you resort to the extreme to make sure that never happens again? She was so dear to me. She looked up to me, expected me to protect her. Then your kind took her from me, just because we’re different. I’m not the one at fault, Celestia.”
“That’s terrible,” Celestia said, feeling a rush of sympathy. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
The other Celestia smirked. “You should feel sorry for those sorry humans who took my sister away. My first job as the Queen’s Reaper was to terminate them. All of them. And I can guarantee their deaths were not swift.”
“I know you’re doing this to keep your family safe, or your queen safe,” Celestia nodded her head. “But don’t you think things don’t need to be like this anymore? People aren’t as superstitious as they used to be. Take dominant hands for example. People aren’t killed because they’re left handed anymore. You don’t need to kill.”
The other Celestia finished off her slice of cake, wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Celestia. As the Queen’s Reaper, my task is to do whatever the queen desires, including taking lives. I’d prefer if I didn’t have to, but that’s my job, come rain or shine, and I have to do it…”
“But then why does your queen require you to kill? You haven’t seen her in years, as you’ve said. Why do you still kill?”
“In the absence of the queen, the reaper is allowed to decide who is worthy of an execution. Pierce and his fellow Assassins decided to come between me and my queen, and for that, they must die. However, since Pierce is working off his sentence, I may decide not to execute him after all,” the other Celestia pulled back her sleeve and examined her right hand. “We’ll see just how well he does.”
Then there’s still hope, Celestia thought to herself. Pierce could still be saved. “You know, you have the capacity to be a good person. I guess it’s your queen that has to change.”
“The queen is perfect!” the other Celestia hissed, her right hand suddenly bursting into bright green fire, the flames swirling around each digit in a miniature viridian inferno. “It is I… who have changed.”
Celestia had startled back, instinctively raising a hand in front of her face. When she realized nothing was going to happen to her, she returned to her chair. “Then why don’t you change back? Be a better changeling.”
The other Celestia gave a hollow laugh, settling both hands onto the table. Celestia could clearly see that her right hand was now a charred charcoal black and had long, sharp talons on the fingertips.
“If it were that easy, don’t you think I would have done it? I’m changing, Celestia, and only finding my queen can stop it.”
“What… what do you mean?” Celestia kept her eyes on her double’s right hand, fascinated by the transformation.
“A queen may live without a reaper, but a reaper cannot live without a queen,” the other Celestia explained forlornly. “I would love nothing more than to remain a faithful servant, but my body has betrayed me. I’m running out of time, Celestia. Soon I will evolve into a queen, I can feel it. And then… and then my life will be over,” she finished, wiping her eyes.
“E-Evolve?” Celestia repeated the word. “But why will your life be over? Will you… will you die?”
The other Celestia shrugged. “Not immediately, no. But there is only room enough in this world for one queen, and once I change, it will be the duty of my queen to kill me. Of that, you can be certain. I saw her kill other contenders for the throne back when there were more of us, and I will be no different.”
“Wait,” Celestia held up her hands. “How can you be sure you even are evolving? You don’t look any different to me.”
The other Celestia clenched her fists atop the table, both her normal and clawed hand rippling with the motion and gave Celestia a withering glare.
“The signs are all there. The shortness of temper, the establishment of a lair, the lack of tactical clarity. A changeling reaper is meant to have infinite patience, Celestia. My dealings with you and Pierce have proven otherwise, no?”
“B-But… Let’s say your queen isn’t… around anymore. What then? How would you stop this evolution?”
The other Celestia sighed.
“Even if my queen is no more, I’m not sure I wouldn’t die anyway. I’m nowhere near healthy, Celestia. I can feel it in my bones; it wouldn’t take much to finish me now.”
Celestia’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t survive falling off a skyscraper without a few scars to show for it,” the other Celestia said sternly. “The fall broke… a lot of bones. They’re not completely healed yet, and I’m afraid that even with your students to feed off of, I won’t be able to absorb enough positive emotion to heal properly. If Pierce somehow decides to forfeit your life and fight me, I’m not sure I could win. I used to be a fearsome warrior, Celestia. Now I’m just barely hanging on.”
“Well… surely there’s something that could be done?” The principal didn’t want anyone dying if she could help it. “Well, isn’t there… someone you could get more love from? Someone… special, perhaps? Do you have one of those? I mean, I know what happened before, but… surely you’ve got others you care about, right?”
“Were it so easy,” the other Celestia snorted. She cut herself another slice of the tiramisu and dug her fork savagely into the cake. “All attempts to contact my, ahem, previous partner have been unsuccessful. I’m on my own here, Celestia.”
“So you were working with someone else? So you weren’t alone all this time? I figured you were out there on your own for so long. Who was this person you were partnered with?”
“An Assassin. His name doesn’t matter,” the other Celestia said, her mouth full of cake. “Aside from him, I’ve been alone for the past hundred years. I do miss the queen and her company terribly so.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Celestia waved her hands swiftly. "Your partner was an assassin. The people Pierce was allied with? I think you’ve lost me. So you were working for these people? Or were you not? How do you have an assassin partner?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” the other Celestia offered with another sticky smile. “I used to be an Assassin too before turning to the Templars. Neither side had what I really wanted, but I stuck with the Templars for, shall we say, economic motivation.”
“You-you betrayed your partner? For economic motivation?” Celestia was disgusted by that sentence. It sounded so cold. “Did you not care for him?”
“Hey, I predate both organizations,” Celestia’s double said defensively. “I figure that gives me the right to choose who to side with and who to switch from.”
“That shouldn’t give you any right to betray your friends!” Celestia almost couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Don’t lecture me about what I have and don’t have the right to do,” Celestia’s doppelganger said sharply. “I’ve been alive far longer than you have, and-”
“That excuse doesn’t give you the right to do any of this!” Celestia shot back. “So what if you’ve been alive longer? You can’t just throw your friends away. I know humans have hurt you at one point, but surely you know that not every one of us is like that.”
“We don’t have friends in this business, Celestia! Allies at best. My last friend died over a thousand years ago, and I have yet to find someone else worthy of my friendship!”
“Then you should do that instead of kill so many people. There are plenty of people that could be your friends.”
“Who, like you?” the other Celestia snorted. “I only offer my friendship to someone who does me a great favor. And I don’t think there’s anything you, or anyone can do to earn my friendship.”
“Friendship shouldn’t be based on people doing favors for you. It should be based on the bonds you forge with people,” Celestia answered. “I shouldn’t only make friends with someone just because they can help me out. It’s more than that.”
Celestia’s double sniffed disapprovingly. “That’s not how I do things, Celestia. Besides, being friends with a princess is something to be earned, not given out like candy on Halloween.”
“Well you should learn how to do things like that,” Celestia folded her arms. “Trust me. And what’s this about being a princess?”
“The sister of a queen is known as a princess, no?”
Celestia placed a hand to her chin. “I suppose that does make sense… so the queen is your sister? Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
“Because you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to have sister problems. I observed you long enough to see how you and your sister get along.”
“How we get along?” Celestia felt like laughing. “Clearly you don’t know about the Nightmare Moon incident.”
“Nightmare Moon incident?” the other Celestia looked around the room. “No, I don’t recall anything like that. Did you just make that up?”
“That’s just what my sister and I call it,” the CHS principal explained. “It was a time where Luna was… more rebellious than any other time in our lives. She thought she deserved the principal title more than I did, so she tried to wrest it from me. In the end, I managed to send her away, just for a few months to give her time to think, to consider what she was doing.”
“And?” the doppelganger lifted her clawed hand in question. “What happened after that?”
“While away, she had plenty of time to think,” Celestia went on. “When she came back, she changed. She wasn’t the same Luna that wanted more than she could handle, she wasn’t the same Luna that argued and fought with me constantly. Right there, I was glad the nightmare was over and I had my sister with me once again.”
There was a moment of silence as the other Celestia digested this new information.
“So… I’m not the only one with serious sister problems?”
“There are plenty of people with problems like you. These things happen. You know, I thought I would be able to deal with that problem on my own, but I was wrong. If it weren’t for my friends by my side, who knows how things would have turned out.”
“Again with the friendship thing. I already told you, I don’t have friends in this business. I don’t even have my family any more, let alone any friends!” the other Celestia finished bitterly. “I miss them ever so much.”
“Then you can change all that,” Celestia reached out a hand for her double. “Things don’t have to be this way. You’ve got what you wanted. Leave Pierce alone and let me go. I’ll do what I can to help you. You can trust me. I’ve known what it’s like to be alone.”
“Trust you?” the other Celestia laughed hollowly. “I don’t even trust myself at this point. Why should I trust you?”
“If you didn’t trust me, why would you tell me all your secrets?” Celestia reasoned. “You’re not that far gone.”
“I told you everything because… because I want someone… anyone to know that I tried my hardest to find my sister,” the other Celestia said in a choked voice, turning away from Celestia. “That I tried my best to fulfill my role. That’s why I told you.”
“There’s still time-”
“No, you have said your piece,” the other Celestia stood up, brushing cake crumbs from her jacket. “I will cook dinner, and then I will leave to plan out the rest of the Valentine’s Day dance.”
Celestia spent the rest of the time in silence, watching her double as she prepared dinner by the kitchen. There were so many questions she wanted to ask her, but she knew her captor enough to know that she probably wouldn’t want to answer them. In the end, she decided not to push it and simply watch dinner being prepared.
Soon, a plate of carbonara was placed before Celestia as her double got ready to head out once again.
Celestia felt it was now or never to speak again. “Hey, wait, umm… Celestia. Before you go, I want you to know this. Y-You’re not a bad person… you know? There’s… more good in you than there is bad. I just wanted to let you know that.”
This gave the other Celestia pause, standing at the door with it half open. She looked down at her feet, almost looking ashamed. Then she shook her head and smiled kindly back at Celestia, fangs and all.
“Thank you, Celestia. We may not be friends, but we definitely aren’t enemies. I am… glad for your company.”