The moon rose, and the sun set. Celestia stepped off her balcony and into her bedroom, and Luna followed after her. The marks of a long day were plain on the larger pony; her hooves barely cleared the ground, her mane and tail trailed along limply after her, and she punctuated all this droopiness by tumbling onto the bed in an undignified sprawl. Luna was used to these minor theatrics, and settled herself neatly to Celestia's left, just behind her shoulder. She gave her sister a long moment in deference to the depth of her desperate flop before speaking.

“And how were they today, dear sister?”

Celestia's deep sigh trailed off into a quiet whine. “Ennnnh.”

Luna nodded sagely. Her horn lit, and she took Celestia's mane in her field. “No worse than usual, surely?”

Her sister's nose wrinkled, and she raised a hoof to waggle back and forth non-commitally. Finally, she managed to find real words. “Have you seen Duchess Cloudsdale's aid bills? They're straight out of the Archives. Positively antique. Never mind last year, they're last century.”

Luna made a sympathetic clucking noise. Celestia's hair divided itself by color in her field, floating in midair. “Oh, I do know what you mean. Did you see what Count Vanhoover has been advocating? Maple syrup for the poor! I do believe he genuinely thinks that he is setting style for the entire Chamber. Or he did,” Luna smirked slightly, “Alas, I had to tell him that his great-to-the-nth grandmother had proposed the same thing twelve hundred years ago. He was quite disappointed, poor colt.”

Celestia snorted quietly, “Well, it could be worse. Count Broadsdale propositioned me today. Again. 'We could do so much for all the little ponies together, your highness!' Hmph! He just wants access to the royal treasury.”

Luna's shoulders were shaking with repressed laughter, and the prench braid in Celestia's mane hung half-finished before her. “Oh! Oh goodness. I did manage to stop him before he could start on the vision of airship docks 'from sea to shining sea', but he used the same line on me last night! Word for word!”

Celestia looked back over her shoulder at Luna, aghast, “He didn't!”

“He did!”

“That cad!”

Luna smirked, “Oh dear. Art thou... jealous, Celly dear?”

Celestia huffed. “Don't be ridiculous. It's just rude of him to try to play for both our approval at once. With the same cheesy proposal taglines! It's tacky.”

“And you just keep him around to stare at his flanks, anyway.”

“Ye—no! Who told you that?” Celestia was glaring now, though the effect was rather ruined by the fact that Luna had decided to split her mane into two four-colored braids.

Luna laughed, head back, “Oh, sister. You are ever transparent to me,” she lowered her gaze to regard the larger alicorn again, and her grin turned downright predatory, “But dear Celestia,” she murmured, “what will poor Twilight think, when she catches thee staring at another?”

Celestia sputtered something about 'my student', her face beet-red, but Luna was too busy laughing to catch it.

Author's Note

Prompt #551: They may be immortal alicorn princesses, but above all else, Celestia and Luna are sisters.