Cuori Intrecciati

It was the smell of coffee that started the slow process of tugging her out sleep, burning away the fog as surely as a rising sun. The staccato pomf of hooves on carpets edged her even closer but failed to fully rouse her. Not even the blunt, warm snout that nudged her chin, rubbing its way along her jaw to her cheek, where a pair of moist lips planted a gentle kiss, succeeded in convincing her to open her eyes.

She’d decided that it was not yet time to wake up, actively ignoring the inherent flaw therein.

“Good evening, my Luna,” the lips whispered into her ear, their damp breath tickling the fine hairs and making it flick. Luna tried to ignore her sister, worming her head deeper into the plush pillow even as Celestia’s nuzzle became more and more insistent.

Then she stopped and pulled back. Then there was a wiffle of surprise. Then twenty sharp nailed toes dug into Luna’s belly.

Luna squeaked.

Tiberius squealed.

And Celestia giggled.

Luna jolted bolt straight, carefully extracting the startled opossum from her tender tummy, and brought him into an affectionate hug.

“Oh, you poor baby!” Luna gushed as she stroked his back. “Did that meanie pants big sister of mine hurt my widdle-tibble-kins?”

Tiberius wiffled.

“By your tail?” Luna gasped. “That monster!”

Tiberius nodded his head up and down, rubbing an eye as he wiffled some more.

“Don’t you worry,” Luna cooed, holding him to her chest. “Woona won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

She turned her gaze up, and, not for the first time since her return—or even that week—Luna glared at her sister, her lover, her immortal partner, wondering if she could smother her with a pillow. Celestia feigned not to notice the malevolence being sent her way, maintaining the amused quirk on her lips as she presented a lacquered bed-tray covered in plates of breakfast food with two steaming cups of tinted liquid.

A whiff of that distinctly glorious scent of freshly brewed coffee found Luna’s nose, and she decided to grant a stay of execution. It would be terribly poor manners to murder her lover right after she brought such wonderful gifts. Not to mention that she’d never be able to find somepony else who could do what she did with those wings.

That didn’t mean she was going to get off clean.

Luna let Tiberius down, giving him a nudge toward his tree-stand before she scooted her back up against the headboard, making room for Celestia at the foot of the bed with the tray in between. “Bringing me breakfast in bed would produce better results if you didn’t also wake me by throwing my Tiberius at me.”

Shrugging, Celestia’s amused smile remained firm. “An even trade I’d say.”

Celestia climbed up, the mattress and frame making small squeaks and groans from the extra weight. For a moment, Luna thought about prodding her sister, but decided it would be too disingenuous. No matter her diet, Celestia’s form was far from pudgy. Oh, she was not so firm as to resemble a chiseled boulder, and she did carry a little extra fluff on her backside, but neither of these things could be misconstrued as negative by even the pickiest of ponies. Nor could Luna deny that she rather enjoyed the extra bit of give; it made snuggling all the more enjoyable.

It was about the time that Celestia finished settling down, her forehooves resting between Luna’s hind, her flank disappearing behind the rest of her, that she caught Luna’s gaze with her own, and Luna realized she’d been ogling her… again. A year of being as intimate as two ponies could be and she still blushed every time she realized how unequivocally attractive her sister was.

Three hundred sixty-five days. It was hard to believe at times. One year ago their relationship inexorably changed, and yet, had remained almost entirely the same. Oh, it had been awkward and a little uncomfortable at first. Lifetimes worth of social expectations and prejudices were not so easily overthrown by one night of emotionally laden sex. Once they came down from their high, they’d both been left with lingering doubts and a certain moral disquiet that could not simply be ignored.

With the bed-tray settled between them, Luna’s field went straight for the cup filled with the dark brown, almost black ambrosia. The porcelain mug had barely begun to rise when a gold shod hoof intercepted it. Holding Luna’s precious beverage hostage, Celestia leaned over the tray to present her still grinning muzzle.

She should have demanded her coffee be released, or at least made some sign of aggression to display her displeasure. She didn’t though. No matter how much she hated to admit it, her resistance melted beneath those pink eyes and not-quite pouting lips that verily begged to be kissed. Celestia was cheating, like she always did, but Luna couldn’t seem to make herself call her out on it. Instead, she matched the movement and met her sister halfway, their lips embracing for a soft, closed lip kiss.

Despite the difficulty, their transition from just sisters to sisters and lovers had been all but guaranteed after that night. They both wanted, needed each other. They always had in a way. Their mother had known, had told them when they were young. Two halves of a whole, they completed each other. Neither had understood all those centuries ago, doubted that their mother truly had either, but it had always been the truth. That night had just opened their eyes a little more.

Even knowing this in their hearts, knowing that their love was well and truly shared, it had still been no mean feat to accept that it was right, that it was good. It had taken days, spread over weeks, to talk through their feelings and thoughts and doubts, of being brutally honest with themselves and each other, before they reached the point of even trying to embrace as sisters again. From there it had been almost three weeks before Celestia came to her and they made love for the second time.

If the first had caught them up in a storm of desperate need, the second had left them with hours of slow passion in front of a glowing hearth as they took shelter from the blizzard outside, and was all the more precious for it.

Once Celestia released the mug, Luna greedily pulled the coffee to her snout, holding it between her hooves, as though that would somehow improve the experience, and inhaled the bitter drink’s nigh-on-magical fumes. She sighed as the caffeine started to work its wonders by aroma alone.

“If I should live twice again as long, I shall never understand how you stomach that dreck.”

A smile cracked Luna’s lips as she glanced over the rim and into her sister’s vibrant fuchsia eyes. She held back her response for that slanderous insult to the greatest beverage to ever grace pony lips, focusing instead on her first pull from the cup, enjoying the wash of bitter over her tongue. “Just because you never outgrew your sweet tooth does not mean the rest of equinety hasn’t.”

Celestia sipped at her own cup that wafted with the pleasant, but ultimately inferior, scent of mint and chamomile. “I enjoy bitter as much as the next pony.”

“Of course, you do,” Luna paused for a beat, “as long as that pony is Lady Pinkie Pie.”

Rather than produce any form of indignation, the comment only caused Celestia’s expression to turn almost wistful. “If only we could steal her away from the Cakes.”

Luna rolled her eyes—if ever there was a mare whom could hope to tempt Celestia away from her, it was Pinkie Pie—and set about eating her breakfast. Finishing off the toast, she gave her sister a pointed look and waited to hear the real reason all of this.

“Why is it that every time I do something nice, you assume I have an alternative agenda?”

“Why do you insist on playing clever and not simply telling me things?”

Celestia pouted, and, stars, she made it hard to stay mad at her. “I wished to spend as much time as I could with my sexy little sister before sending her off on her first play-date with her new friend.” A light flush took Luna’s cheek even as she tried to hide it behind her mug and a glare. She doubted she’d ever be used to hearing compliments from her sister in those subtly passionate tones. “I also realized that Twilight has yet see you raise the Moon, and I thought it would be a nice treat for her if you were to demonstrate it in her presence.”

Luna was at once thrilled by the idea, in their few exchanged letters Twilight had shown an appreciation for her work that surpassed even her sister’s, but also annoyed that Celestia had thought of something that should have been her own idea, again. Before she could properly dwell on that, her fork was shanghaied by her sister’s field and whisked off a large bite of her hashed-browns.

“Hey!”

The fork still in the air beside her muzzle, Celestia clicked her tongue. “Potato, actually. Really, Luna, they don’t look anything alike at all.” The food disappeared between smiling white lips.

“That’s my breakfast, Tia!”

“Then come get it,” Celestia said, her mouth full of the half chewed mess.

Yes, in some ways Luna doubted their relationship ever would change. “Eww!”

Celestia snickered and returned the fork to the plate as she swallowed. “And here I thought you enjoyed the taste of my tongue.”

The utensil was snapped up in a blue aura, if only to keep Celestia from stealing anymore of her breakfast. “That doesn’t make it any less gross.”

“If you insist.”

Luna turned her attention to her meal, grumbling about food-nabbing sisters as she buttered her pancakes, occasionally glancing up at Celestia to make sure she wasn’t going to steal anymore of her meal.

When Celestia said, “I’d rather something a little more sweet anyway.” Luna was thoroughly unsurprised and barely even acknowledged the comment. Instead, she focused on adding just the right amount of syrup to her pancakes. Cutting into them, she brought the first bite to her lips. It was succulent. Just the right amount of sugary, buttery goodness.

So lost in the culinary perfection, Luna didn’t notice the bed-tray rise an inch, nor the loss of the silken sheets that had been covering her from the waist down. She didn’t even notice the shifting weight on her bed until she reopened her eyes.

“Tia? What are you doing?”

The great white alicorn, co-immortal ruler of Equestria, mover of the Sun, Paragon of Harmony, physical embodiment of regality and poise, was crouched, flanks high and wiggling, head low, tail lashing, staring straight ahead at what lay exposed beneath the bed-tray.

“Since you aren’t going to share your breakfast,” she said, licking her lips as a sparkle of golden magic made her horn vanish from her forehead, “then I’m going to have to get my own.”

Luna didn’t have time to put voice to her words before Celestia’s head and withers disappeared from sight. Her wet, hot tongue shot straight between Luna’s nether lips, slipping up and parting her folds to uncover the sensitive nub hidden therein. The rough texture of Celestia’s tongue lapping against that bundle of nerves morphed the words on Luna’s lips into a high-pitched ‘eep’ as her whole body jerked.

Celestia had proven time and again to be a master at gradually winding her sister up until she was quaking like a spring about to burst. Her touch was skilled and precise, always finding just the right way to bind Luna just a little tighter, edging her oh-so-slowly to the breaking point and holding her there until she was begging for that last little bit to put her over the edge.

Not that Luna was complaining.

This time was different. Foreplay, it seemed, was out.

Between Celestia’s blitzkrieg tactics and being hidden from view, Luna was completely off balance with no idea what to expect next… and loving every second of it.

All she could do was imagine what she couldn’t see: Celestia’s smile, her ears perked with excitement, her nostrils flaring with each impassioned breath that washed over Luna’s already moistening marehood, and her eyes, vibrant pink, always focused but never so much that she missed when Luna glanced her way, and filled with a glowing warmth and love that made Luna’s heart flutter every time she saw them.

Luna careened from slightly annoyed to whispering her sister’s name with husky, breathy tones in the time it took Celestia to wrap her forelegs around Luna’s flanks, holding her tight.

Luna’s juices leaked out, mixing with her sister’s saliva as each beat of her heart opened the petals of her blossoming flower a little more. The first flames of passion erupted from the glowing embers of her loins, rushing heat throughout her body and tinting her cheeks a dark violet.

Forcing herself to relax back against the headboard, Luna stared up at her starry ceiling. One of her hooves gripped the headboard, bracing herself against the thick wood, while the other moved down her barrel to her teats, rubbing small circles over and around the hard, sensitive nips as the first strings of tension wound through her stomach, tightening her abs and shortening her breaths.

Celestia shifted her focus, retreating from the swollen, peeking nub to dive deep between the slick folds with her muzzle, her long tongue lapping greedily at the pooling beads of Luna’s nectar.

“Mmmmmm, that’s more like it,” Celestia whispered into her sister’s sex, only amplifying the heat building there. “If only honey were half so sweet.”

Luna tried to focus on her breathing, to keep it smooth and steady, to work against Celestia’s race for her prize, but it was a rapidly losing battle. Each, almost gentle, thrust of her sister’s muzzle pushed deeper into her core and added to the thickening cords of tension beneath her skin.

Her flight muscles were the first to succumb to the strain, snapping tight all across her back and pulling her wings from her sides in a single cutting sweep of quivering feathers.

The shock of Celestia adding her teeth to the mix, nibbling at the swollen edges of her labia, caused Luna’s hooves to abandon their posts and snap to the bed-tray, grasping hold of its sides as though it would somehow help her maintain her rapidly vanishing control. Her eyes fell on the still fractured hoofboard, sparking memories of her sister tickling her cervix with her wings, pushing her that much nearer the edge.

She bit her lip, eyes closing as she failed to hold back her first impassioned moan.

The strain built across her thighs and abdomen, hunching her forward and locking her legs around Celestia’s head. Her breaths crumbled into harried pants as her tightening chest stifled her own lungs. “Oh stars!” she gasped, unable to hold back. “Tia! Don’t stop!”

As though waiting for just this command, Celestia’s turned back to Luna’s engorged clit, taking the nub between her lips, suckling and licking it as her hoof moved in to continue the assault on Luna’s marehood.

Luna writhed, fighting against the pressure building up within her that demanded to be released. She refused, determined to stay balanced on the knife’s edge, pushing back as hard as she was able.

Her teeth grit, face contorting as she wavered across the border between pleasure and pain, and the last of her control slipped away.

The cord snapped.

Luna’s hips bucked against Celestia’s muzzle as she came, screaming her sister’s pet-name at the top of her lungs. Had her forelegs not been holding the tray, the last remains of her breakfast would have surely been tossed across the room by her uncontrolled spasms.

Slowly, in shuddering gasps and starts, her whole body relaxed, and she sank back against the headboard and pillow. Celestia did not rise right away, remaining hidden beneath the bed-tray, attentively licking at Luna’s over-sensitive marehood, making her twitch with every caress of her malleable tongue. Still unable to speak, Luna reached down and ran a hoof through her sister’s ethereal mane, petting her in a silent show of appreciative affection.

At length, Celestia removed the bed-tray to the floor, sliding up into Luna’s waiting embrace as her horn reappeared in a sparkle of golden light.

Luna leaned into her, squeezing her close and planting kisses along her collar. Working her way up Celestia’s neck, she began to add small licks, cleaning her sister’s muzzle as she went. When she when for a proper kiss, however, Celestia turned away, forcing it land on her cheek.

“Your breath still smells of coffee.”

Luna guffawed but turned the attempted kiss into a nuzzle, squeezing Celestia that much tighter.

While they remained like that for a time, letting the endorphins run their course, it couldn’t last forever, and, eventually, Luna had to start preparing for the night ahead.

A half-hour of cleaning later saw Luna slightly damp but fully awake and surrounded by an air of lavender and thyme. The moment she stepped from her bathroom, she was pulled into a long, passionate kiss that only ended when Celestia’s smile grew too wide to continue. Parting, she licked a small smudge of mint paste from Luna’s lips.

“Much better than coffee.”

Luna booped their noses together. “I’ll bring you around eventually.”

“Ha! Do you know how many ponies have told me that since they started drinking the stuff centuries ago?”

“Hmm,” Luna turned her head up in an affectation of deep thought as she stepped around Celestia to finish preparations. “A fair number I would presume, but I’d likewise wager that you never screamed any of their names in the throes of passion, nor had your magnificent tongue dance between their—”

“Touchè.”

Luna’s black, crescent moon crested peytral fell into place on her withers. “Haha! The victory is mine!”

“One does not need to win battles to win a war of attrition, My Love, and my patience is long indeed.”

“With each defeat, your patience wears while mine doth grow. You shall succumb, Sister, as surely as river carves the stone. Though it may well take two more spans of your life, you shall succumb.”

“We shall see.”

“That we shall,” Luna agreed as she set out Tiberius’ nightly meal and scratched him affectionately between the ears where he dangled from his perch. He wiffled, nuzzling her hoof in return.

Celestia stepped up beside her, planting a kiss on her cheek. “As much as I would like to keep you,” Celestia motioned toward the balcony, “you have somewhere to be.”

“Of course,” Luna said as they shared one final nuzzle before she turned to trot toward the frosted-glass doors. “Fare thee well, Sister, and pleasant dreams.”

“For the past year I have had nothing but. Enjoy yourself, but make sure you don’t keep Twilight up too late. I would like for her to keep semi-regular hours on occasion.”

Luna glanced over her shoulder just long enough to roll her eyes. “I shall have her in bed by eleven?”

“I would prefer to keep you all to myself.”

Luna missed a step, but refused to acknowledge it or glance back to see the poorly disguised amusement that she was sure to find on Celestia’s face. Instead, she remained quiet until she pushed through the doors and stepped outside.

Spreading her wings, Luna leapt into the air and began the flight south, calling back to her sister one final time. “Until morning.”

—————————————————

Celestia watched every movement her sister made as she cast off into the late evening sky, from the way her wings stretched out, feathers pulling apart to caress the air currents for the first time that day, the way her legs coiled, flexing her sleek taut muscles as she crouched in preparation for the initial leap, to the way her tail flickered just enough to leave her hoping to see more. It wouldn’t be fair to say she ogled Luna, but it wouldn’t be far off either. The best part, however, was not feeling ashamed or disgusted with herself for doing it. Luna would be disappointed if she hadn’t.

Then she was gone, flying south to spend some time with Twilight. There was a small pang of jealousy that rang in her heart, though she could not rightly identify which of them she was jealous toward.

It was for the best, though. Luna would surely succeed where Celestia had not, and her own presence would only muddy the waters for the time.

Turning from the balcony, she spotted Tiberius, still hanging by his tail, watching her with a curiosity, or so she thought. He was difficult to read. She smiled at the white-faced opossum either way.

“And how are you doing this beautiful evening?”

Tiberius wiffled.

Many of the staff assumed that she kept Philomena because she was as immortal as herself. While that was true, the original reason was something far more important. By some magic she did not know, she could understand the phoenix. Not so much in words, but near enough it made no difference. Other animals were a different matter.

Celestia shrugged, assuming that he was content and left it at that.

Collecting the discarded and half-finished breakfast, Celestia tutted herself. She should have made sure Luna ate more before she interfered. “Così sarà,” she whispered to herself. There was naught to do about it except hope Spike made sure they ate well—stars knew Twilight wouldn’t.

With the tray set beside the door for the maids, Celestia’s attention turned to the bed, or more precisely, the still damp stain they had left there. It was not a large spot, the width of a hoof and a half or so. No matter how hard she tried, she never seemed to get all of it. Unfortunate as that was, it was not a real problem anymore.

Her magic reached out, surrounding it in a golden glow. They’d—quite literally—burnt through a number of bed sheets trying to tune the spell just right.

Back before they’d come together, stains on the sheets hadn’t warranted any kind of effort on either’s part, or at least not enough to search out a solution. Yes, they’d been slightly embarrassing for herself and her maids, but that was the extent of it. A mare, even a monarch, living alone… at worst it spread rumors that she was, as a matter of fact, a mare. Now… well their particular scents were as distinct as they themselves, and without proper clean up somepony was bound to notice her scent in her sister’s bed, and vice versa. Neither of them were prepared to deal with the potential problems that could cause.

Their public image was only the tip of the iceberg. The social ramifications of their relationship spanned far wider than gossip of their bedroom antics. Enough of their little ponies worshiped them that… it didn’t bear thinking on. It had been bad enough when her mane had reverted because of a flu and the shortages of pink dye that lasted a full decade.

The spell itself was a standard cleaning spell modified to ensure it removed the smell as well. Clean and efficient, it hardly took a minute before all that remained of their coupling was a pleasant memory.

A glance at Tiberius revealed him to have fallen into a quiet snooze. He’d never tell.

With a sharp, satisfied nod, Celestia made her exit, heading straight toward her own room. There was still a sun to set and a few hours of paperwork to sift through before she could call it a night.