Celestia trotted down the ivory hallways of canterlot castle, making sure to keep the appearance of regality upon her face. Though she was headed for her royal chambers, her work had only just begun for the evening—the adjourning of day court only minutes earlier signaling the start of her paperwork duties.
"Are you sure there isn't anything I can get you, Princess?" said a voice to Celestia's right. She turned to her assistant with a soft smile, one she gave quite a few times in the hours preceding.
"Thanks, Raven, but that won't be necessary. If you could send for the kitchen to send up some Earl Neigh to my quarters on your way out, it would be most appreciated."
"Right away, princess," she stated, before heading off in the direction of the kitchens and dining house. Celestia put on a genuine little smile at her assistant's retreat. Though she would never know its extent, Raven had been the best royal organizer that she and her sister could have asked for over the last ten years. The smile soon wilted into a contemptuous frown as she rounded the corner to face the door to her personal bedchambers.
The doors were immaculate, a deep royal purple base adorned with appurtenances of white and gold, swirling around their interiors to come to a termination at the two handles. The two separate structures were completely symmetrical, each an identical match of the other. It had taken years for the carpenters and metal-workers to make the piece over six-hundred years ago, and Celestia had commended the work so highly at the time, she'd decided to place them as the portals to her own personal quarters so she may see them every night.
Celestia now hated this sight. For she'd come to associate it with the frivolous etchings in the legalese of nobles and petitioners, trying to earn her support for the amendments to laws set in stone before their fathers were born. To each of them, she'd write a letter explaining why Class-B126 § A through Z could not be changed even if they asked nicely.
She gave her guards a glance as she approached the doors. "No distractions if you please," she intoned softly.
"Yes, Princess," the two guards saluted in tandem, before resigning themselves to their stoic postures. Celestia took that as her cue to enter. She gripped the handle with the dim yellow glow of her magical aura, pushing it in to reveal her soft bed, and balcony. She cantered slowly over to the window, checking the hourglass in the middle of the nightstand.
"One more minute," she thought to herself as she gazed towards the eastward horizon, studying all the cities that could be seen from the tips of Mt. Canterhorn. The many spires of Manehattan and Baltimare, the massive cumulous structure of Cloudsdale, and the quaint little town of Ponyville, all filled with ponies catching the last few rays of sun before the chilly autumn night set in. "Tonight's gonna be a cold one," she mused internally towards the frosting glass of her window. This thought broke Celestia from her reverie, making her look back to the side of her bed, where the last few grains of sand were making their journey through the gravity funnel. She smiled, flipped the hourglass on its head, and proceeded to lower the sun for her younger sister's celestial body to take its place.
Click.
The tick of a lamp coming to life at her workstation set Celestia's attention upon it. And there, sitting in the light of a crystal-fire lamp, was a complete replica of herself. "That's better," the faux-Celestia said while adjusting the lamp's position. "I can't get these papers done if I can't see them, right?" she asked with a soft frown.
Celestia was at a loss of what to say. It was only through a combination of one-thousand years of ruling that allowed her to remain unperturbed in this circumstance. "Indeed." she calmly stated, stalking over to the Celestial doppelgänger at her desk, glancing between the slowly decreasing stack of papers, and the pony completing them, with a suspicious gaze.
"Another suitor," faux-Celestia huffed before transcribing the name of the noble onto a fresh sheet of parchment and promptly tossing the request into the waste bin. As she began to write the letter that Celestia had written many times before her, she posed herself a question. "How do you do it?"
Celestia was caught off-guard by the question, "what do you mean?"
"The paperwork," she sighed, giving the stack of documents an aggravated glance, "I've been here for nearly half an hour, and only have twelve done. At this rate, I'll never have the rest I need for court tomorrow morning." The fake Celestia then looked to her real counterpart, "so, I want to know how you do it."
To Celestia's credit, she did ponder the question for a moment, rather than the obvious question of 'Why are you in my bedchambers?' or 'how did you get twelve done in half an hour when I could muster only seven at the fastest?' She moved to sit beside the masquerader, looking over the paperwork that was already completed. To her ever-growing surprise, the work had not only been completed in-full, but it had all the trappings of Celestia's work. The signatures were in the right places, the writing style was hers, and even the calligraphy was almost identical to her own.
She looked again to the pony at her desk, noticing that she'd finished her letter, and had moved on to the next paper. "I have a better question," Celestia said before putting a hoof down on the document faux-Celestia was filling out, cutting off the other's train of thought. "How do you do it?"
The working Celestia looked up at her other with a quizzical expression. "What do you mean?" she answered softly.
"How can you read, write, and respond to each document in two minutes, every two minutes like clockwork?" she asked with a curious smile. Her doppelgänger gave a look of mild shock, before slowly glancing between the small stack of papers left, and back to her twin.
"Am I going too slow?" she hazarded a guess, looking sheepishly at a now-grinning Celestia.
Celestia gave a little chuckle, "quite the opposite, actually, you're getting these done faster than I ever could," she acknowledged. Smiling to herself, she moved over to the stack of papers left to do and took half for herself. "Race ya'," she said, before starting on the pile.
The other Celestia snapped back to her work, not letting her twin get an advantage by starting early.
Two cups of tea and half an hour later, the stacks of paper had been completed, and both Celestias sighed with the satisfaction that their work had concluded for the night. It had been neck-and-neck for the last half of the race, neither Celestia giving the other the comfort of finishing a document before the other placed a respective one beside it. In the end, they put their remaining documents on the stack of those finished, designating the competition a tie before slumping back in their very own seats.
With the papers done and put away, a question that had been present in Celestia's mind had found it's opportunity to be asked. "So," she started, looking over to her twin, "who are you?"
The solar diarch at the desk gave a hearty laugh and looked from the lamp to her real-deal. "I have only ever been you," she said. "Now, why don't you get some rest. The court's gonna be Tartarus tomorrow, we both know that." With that, she turned off the lamp with an audible click, and plunged the room into darkness.
Celestia made her way to the bed, falling asleep in the glow of her sister's moon, and the comfort of her empty room.
Author's Note
This was just a quick one-shot I wrote for a friend of mine while slightly drunk. I hope he likes it.
If there are any notable errors, feel free to tell.
