Waving goodbye to her secretary, Princess Celestia stepped into her office. The 9:00 AM sun radiated softly through the windows, illuminating her desk and highlighting the massive pile of paperwork that awaited her this week. Normally, she could expect a bundle of paperwork to do every morning before Day Court commenced. They typically involved pending laws for her to sign or veto, submission forms of Day Court requests that she had accepted the previous day, time off requests from senior-level staff, etc. This paperwork she could easily do in the few hours before Day Court started.
This week, however, Equestria sought out the best of Celestia’s paperwork-finishing skills. It demanded Sun Princess prove her fortitude not in her proven skill at magic, nor in diplomacy, but her mastery of the underappreciated art of bureaucracy. Why?
Celestia had announced that the reformed Changelings were eligible to become Equestrian Citizens and integrate into Equestrian society. Although cheered for by nearly everycreature now that Chrysalis was in exile, this posed a serious problem: existing laws needed to be updated to account for the Changeling ability to shapeshift.
In Equestria, laws typically were written to accommodate for (and prevent exceptions due to) the magical abilities of ponies. Society would quickly crumble if Earth ponies could skirt around income tax by using their plant-growing magic outside of their normal place of business. If Pegasi weren’t outlawed from moving weather outside of government-run weather management jobs (and thus prevent yet another “revenge drought” like the one from a century ago), there’d be riots before Celestia could raise the sun tomorrow morning. Faust help us if certain schools of magic weren’t blacklisted as “Dark Magic” by the time Twilight Sparkle came around.
Unfortunately, that left the Changelings in an awkward position. For example: the use of magic to conceal one’s appearance of one’s face and/or cutie mark was a misdemeanor. This escalated to a felony if said magic was in use during the committing of any other misdemeanor-level crime. Unicorns did not have to worry if they used their magic as a substitute for mark-up. Changelings, however, frequently used appearance-changing magic in day-to-day life. The law, and many others regarding appearance, would put many innocent Changelings in prison, unless it was changed.
The mountain of paperwork piled on Celestia’s desk all involved updates to existing laws to account for this. A small army of lawyers, representatives from both Equestria and Thorax’s Hive, and the Crown’s core legal team came together to add and amend laws such that Changelings could coexist peacefully within Equestrian borders.
Thus, the challenge set before her. Celestia sat down at her desk, pulled the top sheet of the paper mountain in front of her, and obtained a quill.
Time to get to work.
Her job as a diarch/pseudo-deity rarely gave her much of a reprieve. Celestia figured that she would need to cram as much paperwork as possible before Day Court started; the more she got done before the weekend, the better. The reviewing and determination of these laws waited solely on her and needed to be completed as soon as possible.
Thus, it was a blessing that Day Court had to be cancelled today. The throne room was going under minor renovation, so it could not be used for the rest of the week. This pleased Celestia; as much as it made her happy to speak with her little ponies, getting these laws resolved would do so much for Equestria. It would be a major step forward in uniting the creatures and bringing lasting peace to the world.
So engrossed in her work she was, she barely registered when a plate of crepes and a coffee mug was levitated onto her desk. Celestia looked up to see her sister place down the food items with a smile.
“Thank you sister,” Celestia said as she took a bite of a crepe but continued reviewing the paper in front of her.
Luna nodded, eyes narrowing as she watched her sister speed through paperwork. “Of course. Although, have you taken a break yet Tia?”
“I’m afraid not, Lulu” Celestia replied without looking up.
“Please do so soon. I can already see the bags forming under your eyes, and it’s several hours before I take over for the evening.”
Celestia sipped her coffee, then looked up and gave her sister a calming smile. “Please do not worry, dear sister. I have done all-nighters before when Equestria needed me most. This is nothing compared to that.”
“If anything, that worries me more…” her sister whispered under her breath, but still motioned to take her leave. Celestia was a big girl; a little excess paperwork barely made the top 10 worst things either of them had to deal with in their time as Equestria’s diarchs. She could handle herself.
It’s been said that in bureaucracy, the first paper of the day is always the hardest. After that, you enter what is called “flow state”. Flow state is the total immersion in the task at hoof, so much so that the consideration and doing of the task feels perfectly in sync with one’s thoughts, and thus feels effortless.
Celestia had plenty of experience entering this state when it came to paperwork; piles of laws and other documents came part and parcel with the princess job. She mused that if you’ve read one law, you’ve read them all; done one tax form, you’ve done them all.
Thus, it was no surprise that Celestia wordlessly went through paper after paper, hours shooting by like speeding meteorites as she did her work. Her beloved sun gradually lowering hour by hour, uncharacteristically unnoticed by the princess whose claim to fame was control of it. Time moved in fast forward for the princess engrossed in her work.
Celestia dimly recalled her sister’s request for her to take a break. She took a look at the remaining stack of papers for her to process. At a guess, it was about…500?
“I’ll take a break after doing 25 more papers” she thought, smiling to herself and moving onto the next.
25 papers came and went before she knew it.
The stack of papers had taken a severe blow; much like her previous foes, it stood no chance against the legendary Sun Princess. She felt that surge of satisfaction to her core, the rush of success against a task, the positive energy of progress.
“How about 25 more?” she thought, and agreed with it. That made for 25 less for her to do this week.
She went for more.
She did more.
More papers to do.
More feeling productive.
More papers.
More….
“Sister!”
Celestia jolted up, sending papers airborne in every direction. Groggily blinking her eyes, she turned to face her younger sister.
“Ah good morning Luna, you are up quite early.”
“To the contrary, you are the one up much too late! Do you know what time it is?”
Celestia blinked several times, then slowly turned her head to look out the window. The evening sun still peaked over the horizon, the big bright white ball smearing the pale blue sky and the white clouds residing in it with a warm orange. The sun hung in the same place it was the last time she checked on it.
“Why, it must be no later than 5:30 PM. Why do you ask?”
Luna suddenly appeared right in front of her, close enough for their faces to almost touch. She must have been sleepy after her impromptu nap, as she barely heard her sister move forward.
“Sister, it’s 8:30 PM.”
Celestia’s eyes shot open, lucidity smashing into her from that triple-shot expresso of a revelation. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, thumping with only the power an alicorn-powered heart could exert. Panic staked its claim in her mind as the implication of Luna’s statement made itself clear:
She got so engrossed with her work that she forgot to bring the sun down for the evening. The one thing that all ponies relied on her for.
This is not good.
Now with her wits upon her, Celestia noted that Luna looked agitated; her teeth were clenched and she was grinding them against each other, her nostrils were flared, and she kept tapping her hooves in place.
“I’m sorry, sister.” Celestia apologized softly, face falling as she craned her neck forward to nuzzle Luna. Now that her adrenaline had run its course, it took some effort for Celestia not to pass out against Luna.
“It’s quite alright sister,” Luna replied, returning the affectionate nuzzle. “I admit I was worried when I awoke this eve and found the sun still hanging in the sky. A small part of me assumed something terrible had happened to you.”
“Thankfully nothing serious, unless you count an excess of work terrible,” Celestia giggled.
Luna stepped back to look Celestia in the eyes. “We need to talk about your work, sister.”
Celestia blinked in surprise. “How do you mean?”
Luna began magically gathering the papers sent wayward by Celestia’s rude awakening, piling them neatly into stacks of “finished” and “unfinished”.
“This is what I feared,” Luna replied, with a dejected sigh. “I am sad to see your habit of working yourself half to death has not changed in over a millennium.”
Celestia attempted to make a response, but was stopped after she fully digested what Luna said. She too sighed.
“I am sorry Lulu. I hoped to get this done as soon as possible, such that I could not deal with it the rest of this week.”
Luna finished sorting the papers, then nuzzled her sister again. “My dear sister, have you thought much on pacing yourself? Or better yet, requesting aid? I am certain you’ve taught young Twilight Sparkle this lesson a few times before, in fact.”
Celestia chuckled, and nuzzled her sister back. “It is easier to suggest advice than it is to actually act on it oneself, I’ve found. But you are right, sister. I apologize.”
Luna moved back, and smiled into her sister’s eyes. “You know I would always aid my dearest sister. But for now, rest! You need it.”
