12. Fall In Love With Coffee All Over Again
Her Royal Morning Coffee
Fall in Love With Coffee All Over Again
~ ~ ☕ ~ ~
The ability to catch a nap anywhere was a real bonus for a coffee shop owner with early hours. It did leave Dry Roast a little disoriented when the train stopped in Manehattan and he helped Rarity get her extensive baggage to the waiting wagon, then helped again to unload the whole thing all over again when they got to the hotel. He did not realize it at first, but sometime during his nap on the train, Dry had gained a sharp black vest trimmed in hints of gold thread with a snappy fedora to match, which caught the eye whenever he passed anything reflective.
“I think I look a little like a groom,” he muttered mostly to himself while following Rarity into the bustling hotel. “Why did we have to stop by the photo store before coming over here?”
“Your outfit is unique, darling,” purred Rarity. “I photograph everything I bring to avoid having the design stolen.”
For a long moment, Dry Roast could see his picture on a milk carton somewhere, dressed in the new vest and hat, of course. It occupied his mind while waiting in line at the hotel desk, keeping an eye on the cart full of dresses and other fashion items involved in the setup of Rarity’s booth at the Bridle Star show. Even though the fashion show was not supposed to start until tomorrow, the hotel buzzed with activity, and the line to register was taking some time.
Since most of the ponies in line were beautiful young mares dressed in beautiful new outfits, Dry Roast had no problem with just standing around and admiring the view. And to his hidden pleasure, many of the mares had no problem looking back, although he suspected they were more interested in the suit than the stallion inside.
“Got the keys, darling.” Rarity came strolling back over to Dry Roast with an ornate set of keys floating behind her. “The bellhops are spread thin, so if you would be so kind as to bring my things up to the room, you can get a short nap before we start setting up. I know I’ve got you out past your bedtime.”
“Naps are good,” said Dry with a yawn, although he abruptly woke all the way up in the elevator when he noticed the keys Rarity was holding in her magic had a massive heart-shaped fob with ‘Just Married’ in large pink letters, obviously the keys to the Honeymoon Suite. He stayed quiet, however, because he did not want to make a scene, but could not help picturing what would happen when he returned to Ponyville. Possibly a three-way wrestling match for his body between two Equestrian princesses and a fashion princess.
I wonder how small the leftover bits will be when they’re done.
The hotel did not cut corners when it came to ensuring their newlyweds’ comfort, because the door going into the suite was large enough that even Princess Celestia could have been carried across the threshold without bumping into anything. Exactly why that mental image was the first thing that popped into Dry’s mind was a little concerning, but once the luggage cart was pushed to one side, he had more important things to worry about. In particular, another nap, hopefully alone in the bed.
Rarity was watching him from under hooded eyelids with little flickers of her long lashes. “Why Mister Roast. I thought you would have some sort of ‘dry’ comment about our room by now.”
“Too tired. Long train trip.” Dry Roast yawned and winced at the sound of a polite knocking at the suite door. “Who’s that?”
“No idea,” called back Rarity before she vanished into the opulent bedroom with a gasp of amazement. “This place has everything. Would you be a dear and get the door?”
“If that’s Luna…” Dry Roast tried to put on a happy and social face while strolling over to the door. He took a moment to run a hoof across his mane, just in case, and opened the door to find a beautiful, well-dressed earth pony mare looking up at him. Admittedly, she was not as old as Luna, but bastions of makeup and mane care products were engaged in a vigorous battle to protect the mare from the ravages of age, and seemed to be doing a good job of it too. Her dark brown eyes traced a path up from his hooves to his ears while her polite smile grew into a knowing smirk and two thinning eyebrows arched in appreciation.
“Hellooo. Where did Rarity find you and do you have any brothers?”
Dry Roast was flabbergasted beyond words, but he did shake hooves when the older mare offered.
“I’m Silk Inseam.” The mare’s lips parted just enough for her to run the tip of her tongue across the exposed teeth, which seemed sharper than he expected, although that might have just been a mistaken impression. “I presume you are the young stallion Rarity was bringing to the exposition? The one dating Princess Luna?”
“We’re not…” Dry Roast thought about just what his position with Luna was, and decided he could not explain it without a chalkboard and a few shots of rum. “I’m Dry Roast, Ma’am. Right this way, please,” he said instead, gesturing with one hoof inside the pink painted and heart decorated room. “Rarity will be right out.”
“Mama, we’ve got a problem.” A young mare, just barely out of college if that, came scurrying up the corridor and stopped just outside the honeymoon suite door. “Whoa.”
Silk Inseam nodded to Dry Roast and gestured with one flawless pink foreleg at the new arrival. “Mister Roast, this is my daughter, Buttonhook. Manners, dear,” she directed at her bright-eyed daughter. “No drooling over Princess Luna’s… young thing.”
“Sorry, sir,” said Buttonhook, bobbing her head. “Could you help bring our bags? One of the wheels on the luggage carts bent and dumped our stuff out back by the elevator.”
Dry Roast looked askance, but a glance back into the room showed Rarity greeting her friend with a hug and nuzzle, so her presence in the room must have been previously arranged. He went down the hall to the elevator with the young mare, who was fascinated with Princess Luna and had all kinds of questions about her mixed in with their attempts to straighten up the bent wheel on the cart. By the time they managed to move the crippled cart back to the room, several other mares had passed by and asked for directions, and the honeymoon suite was fairly filled with mares. After pulling the cart over with the rest, he turned and looked at the veritable wall of amused female eyes, of which one set in particular was quite familiar.
“Rarity, what’s going on?” he asked, still a little winded from having to practically float the heavy cart back to the room.
Before Rarity could say a word, a fluffy pink pegasus mare with the most flyaway mane and dark eyes strolled over. She was a little thing who just barely came up to under his chin, which she brushed underneath while she circled around him once, then called out in a husky voice, “Lock the door, girls. We only have a few hours before the expo floor opens.” She gave him a very inappropriate look from under fluffy eyebrows and added, “And I call first dibs.”
Thankful that he had been double princess kissed and been through a train trip to dull his nerves, Dry Roast regarded the young pegasus with a single upraised eyebrow. It took only a heartbeat to think of a quick rejoinder, which he had to credit to Princess Luna’s droll sense of humor rubbing off on him by close and frequent exposure.
Looking over the giggling crowd of mares, he shook his head ever so slowly and drawled, “Just a couple hours ain’t even enough time for one, let alone all you beautiful ladies.”
All of the mares fairly collapsed in uproarious laughter, hooting and whooping loud enough that Dry Roast found himself hoping that the Honeymoon Suite was well soundproofed, or the hotel staff was going to get the most unusual impression of what was going on. The young mare blushed brighter pink while being bugged by her fellow fashion designers, and once all the giggling and good-natured ribbing had calmed down to where Rarity could make herself heard, she called them all to order.
“Thank you, Puffball, for the entertainment portion of this evening’s events,” said Rarity while suppressing one last giggle. “I’m sorry for not telling you about this before, Mister Roast, but I just had to see your face.”
“And those flanks,” called out one of the other designers amidst a flurry of whistles.
“Yes, those too,” said Rarity with a smirk. “Every year the hotel is just so packed and I never get a chance to talk with the girls before we’re chasing things around in the expo center. By the time we’re headed home, we’re exhausted, so this year, I reserved the biggest empty suite they had.”
After checking the clock and giving a quick glance around the room full of mares, Dry Roast had to bring up the obvious flaw in the plan. “There’s only one bed.”
Rarity dismissed his objection with the flip of a fetlock. “Oh, we never get to sleep anyway before we have to set things up. The hall opens at midnight for the vendors, so we’ve only got a few hours to catch up on any last-minute changes, talk about how the fashion world is moving—”
“Exchange gossip,” said Silk Inseam with a very pointed look at Dry.
“Oh, don’t get too excited about that,” said Rarity in a dismissive fashion. “He’s a perfect gentlecolt with Princess Luna and Princess Twilight. They’ve barely kissed. Now scoot on off to bed, Mister Roast,” she added, pointing at the open doorway to the Honeymoon Suite bedroom. “When it’s time to get our displays put together on the expo floor, we’ll get you up.”
~ ~ ☕ ~ ~
One thing that Rarity had neglected to mention was that the fashion show was for wedding fashions, which was only made worse by all of her gossip friends wanting to borrow Dry Roast for ‘just a second’ in order to counterbalance a hasty photo shoot or watch a booth while the proprietor made a quick dash to the bathroom.
Then the doors opened.
Dry Roast had never been married, but he had taken his place during his older brother’s wedding, with his place being mostly “Stand there” and “Try not to frown.” Balanced Budget had been the bane of the old mare in charge of the festivities, resulting in her becoming the unwilling foster mother of six frogs by the time the whole thing was over and Bud had departed the field of conflict with his giggling spouse in tow.
The whole experience had only made Dry Roast more determined never to have to face another hatchet-faced mare with parchment-thin hide and dark squinty eyes again, or at least not without his big brother and a whole bag of frogs.
This morning, he had neither. Far worse were the beady eyes peering at him from every angle while suspicious wedding planners chaperoned their young mares through the displays, ready to spring into action should any threats wander within smooching range of their young charges. From the fluttering glances cast his way from beneath lowered lashes, the prospective brides would not have minded a few moments of practice before their own bridal occasions, but Dry kept thinking of Luna as a comparison to the lovely young mares. He was fairly sure she would not mind if he sampled a few kisses, but he had to wonder just what kind of competitiveness it would trigger, and if he would survive the resulting alicorn-powered kisses in return.
With the whole extravaganza in full bloom, Dry Roast found himself being ‘volunteered’ to stand in as escort to an entire wave of young, white-clad mares while they fidgeted about what kind of veil or dress train went best with the outfit they had picked out. To his surprise, there were other young stallions employed to fill in for the same purpose, all handsome young bucks with bright smiles and dashing manestyles, but for some reason, Dry seemed to be the most popular. It was not until near the end of the program when Dry Roast escorted several young brides down the runway in the final fashion show that he found out just exactly why the young mares preferred his company.
On the plus side, the number of business cards he accumulated from his fellow male models with variations of ‘Let me know when you’re in town next and we can have dinner’ written on the back was a little comforting to his ego, and explained the appreciative looks from them. But on the minus side, they came with more than a few cards from the young brides at the show too, and he was horribly afraid several of the wrinkled old prunes who were shepherding them through the fashion show had added their own cards to his collection.
The whole show took hours from beginning to end, but the time fairly flew past until the last calls went out across the intercom and the customers were all shuffled off the floor, including a few young mares who were having indecision fits about the perfect veil or bit of lace. A collective sigh of relief went across the participants when the big doors boomed shut, but before they could all begin tearing their booths down for the trip back to wherever they all called home, Rarity stepped up to the stage.
“Ladies and gentlecolts,” she fairly purred into the microphone. “Before we get distracted, I would like to direct your attention to the mare who made this all possible, Baroness Star Rose. Let’s have a warm round of applause for her, please.”
Dry Roast stomped along with the rest while an elderly earth pony mare took the stage with Rarity to nod at the gathering crowd. She took over the microphone to pass on a few encouraging words, then passed it back to Rarity, who smiled and gestured Dry Roast to come up closer to the stage.
He did, although with reservations.
“Ladies, we have a special treat for the sendoff this evening.” Rarity lit up her horn and the resulting spotlight made Dry Roast squint into the light. “As you may have noticed, my male companion for the day is wearing a special outfit I crafted just for this occasion. We will be auctioning it off for the Manehattan Orphanage Fund before we all head for home, and if the handsome stallion is willing, with a little something extra for the winning bidder.”
“A kiss?” he asked, more to himself than the crowd, although it seemed as if the microphone was far more sensitive than he expected when his errant words were amplified to the far corners of the convention hall, and the surrounding mares proceeded to give wild whistles and catcalls in response.
“Actually, I was thinking of throwing the hat in with the suit, but since you offered,” said Rarity. “Do I hear one hundred bits? Yes, over there. How about two hundred?”
At one time, Dry Roast had purchased a suit jacket for his brother’s wedding. It cost him just over two hundred bits, and was about the highest quality tailoring that had ever been fitted to his lanky form. The bidding for the one he wore now went over two thousand bits in a matter of minutes, and by the time Silk Inseam and Baroness Star Rose finished their bidding war, the price tag had exceeded six thousand bits.
Somehow, he suspected the kiss he wound up giving to Baroness Star Rose was not worth quite that much, even with the suit and hat she peeled off him to the admiring whistles and comments of the fashion crowd. But there were no complaints, and the baroness had an unbreakable smile while giving her brief closing remarks and a quick exchange of whispers with Rarity before departing. It was a little bit of a letdown after that to help pack up Rarity’s booth and put the remaining dresses and accoutrements into boxes and carriers for the trip back to Ponyville. He had never been a real focus of attention before, other than that tulip thing in Canterlot with Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle’s moping presence at that event had sucked all the joy out of the experience.
He was puzzling away at just why the memory bothered him during the trip back to the train station, only to have Rarity nudge him with a shoulder and knock the idea out of his head.
“I must say, Mister Roast, that I have never seen one of the auctions after our events go nearly so well. Star practically begged me to see about getting you to return next year, although I think she expects you to have a princess at your side at that time.”
“It could be,” admitted Dry Roast. He shifted positions on the carriage’s padded seat and tried to imagine Princess Luna where Rarity now sat. “I don’t think Twilight would be interested, but Luna…”
“You are serious about her, are you not?” Rarity lifted one perfect eyebrow and cast a playful look at Dry.
“I… um…” It was a long-term question, and Dry Roast had only considered the short-term consequences of having Luna as an employee. The idea of going beyond their friendly and playful morning banter into something ‘serious’ as Rarity had said, was a square peg that did not fit into his round peg mind very well without a great deal of sanding and shaping.
“You have to remember that Luna is an alicorn,” said Dry. “She’s had… several young stallions over the years. And as an alicorn, she has a… different way of looking at the male/female relationship. She can’t get too attached to a prospective… mate, because in a few centuries, all she will have is memories. And I presume the opposite is true of anypony who… mates with her.”
“Oh, my.” Rarity had much the same expression as a young colt who had added a drop of catalyst to a test tube, and was determining if the resulting reaction would destroy the whole building or just the room. “You are serious.”
Now that was worthy of some serious thought, and Dry considered the points and prickles of that thorny issue all the while through loading Rarity’s luggage onto the train and finding a seat for the trip back to Ponyville. It was a thought that fairly demanded coffee to go with it, and by the time he had settled down in his seat with a half-caf peppermint spiced latte, there was only one conclusion he could draw.
“Yes.”
“Oh,” said Rarity, obviously flummoxed for a second at the way their conversation was restarting. She shifted uncomfortably on the bench seat of the train car, biting her bottom lip briefly before added, “I suppose I should apologize for forcing that kiss on you yesterday morning.”
“No,” said Dry Roast. “Princess Luna… Alicorns have…” He took a deep breath and considered the substantial shortage of coffee relating to his current condition. Just one foam cup wasn’t going to do it. A few cappuccino shots with maybe some additional ingredients would have made explaining things much easier. “Alicorns compete for their mates, and in Luna’s opinion, Twilight… isn’t.”
“I see.” Rarity nodded, although with a worrisome thinness to her lips and a furtive glance out of the train windows at the newly risen moon.
“No, fighting over a stallion is not what caused Nightmare Moon,” said Dry Roast. “Luna has been talking to me about… things. Normal mares get jealous when their stallion starts nosing around other mares. Alicorns get… competitive.”
“You mean treating them as some sort of award in a fashion show for the best model?” asked Rarity with a note of disdain.
Thankfully, Dry Roast had been around town for quite some time, and had talked extensively with Applejack, thus giving him leverage he never thought he was going to use. In particular, he knew of one certain stallion who he had been told —in the most strictest of confidence, of course — had a small room dedicated to his memory inside the Carousel Boutique, despite having tried his best to romance Applejack.
“Trenderhoof,” he replied in a flat deadpan.
“Why, that’s…” Rarity paused, settled back on her train seat, and gave a ladylike sniff. “I don’t see the relevance of your argument at all.” She turned her back on Dry Roast and looked out the train window instead, giving little flickers of her eyes to Dry’s reflection in the glass and eventually adding, “I’ve moved on.”
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Rarity does such nice things for chairity.
Much better than last chapter. So, Luna has the upper hand now. Wonder how Sleepy Twi will respond, considering that whole "Alicorns are competitive" thing.
I’m down right addicted to this story! Wonder what it feels like to wear a $6,000 suit.
8707973
I must agree. The pacing in this chapter just flowed right and we had nice character development.
I wonder if Sleepy Twi learns from things Twilight learns. This could be ... fun.
8707973
Perhaps this story can regain something of a plot if that becomes the focus. Say, some pony ACCIDENTLY destroys Twilight's coffee maker... then it's on.
8707959
Is Chairity her long-lost twin sister?
Wow, today was an early chapter. Did the smell of coffee rouse you from your slumber?
It seems that Awake Twilight and Sleepy Twilight will finally need to start working together, otherwise Sleepy Twilight will lose to Luna.
8707975
I think the real question should be what it's like to get a $5.800 kiss.
...well, maybe just $5.750; it was a Rarity original after all.
Oh ho, Dry's finally scored some long-overdue payback.
Oh, you poor, sweet, innocent boy, you. Don't get it, Dry? And you thought alicorns were competitive regarding their romantic interests.
The more you keep writing the more I'll keep sneaking my phone into a government building to read it
🎵You'll feel the power of love ...
You have no idea how awesome I'll find if he ends up with Luna. Romance is something that takes two to happen, and with Twilight in denial she will lose her opportunity. I just hope she doesn't stay sad for long when her smooching is interrupted by a dark Alicorn wife.
8708011
Five dollars and eighty cents? I'm pretty sure the kiss wasn't that special.
Yeah, totally saw that coming, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
8708131
That's five-thousand-eight-hundred. Some people/places use periods instead of commas to mark the thousands place (usually a European thing IIRC, but I could be wrong).
8708096 Actually, (at least in this story), alicorn romance takes two to happen, but foals take a minimum of three so the competition can trigger hormones (Chapter 11). Dry hasn't thought that through yet.
8708091 (Insert Robin Williams quote here) "Feel the power of comedy as it shocks your (censored) across the room."
8708074 Dry is a little more attractive than he thinks.
8708066 Oh, he hasn't scored.... I better stay quiet.
8708000 Got up early due to some work stuff, decided to post before I forgot.
8707982 You know, they kept things loose enough that they still could put an older sister on the show for Rarity.
8707978 Watch for it.
8707975 A lot like driving a car that's worth more than a year's salary. You get all hyper-attentive to anything that can scratch, stain, bump, thump, drip, etc... It's no fun. That's why I drive a beater Honda Civic.
The doorway may be wide enough to carry in Celestia, but unless she's dallied with minotaurs, I doubt any of her lovers could.
I definitely wasn't expecting Dry's thoughts to go in this direction. I have to wonder what will come of it. (And where "Simple Ways" falls on the jealousy-competitiveness spectrum. I don't expect any ascensions in this story, but I can dream...)
8708148
European thing, yeah, or at least German. To us using a comma in that spot looks weird.
The number of digits after the comma/period/whatever should usually be something of a giveaway, either way.
8708156
Clearly, you aren't familiar with the format used for petrol prices in the United States, e.g. $3.279. In this case, yes, this is to actually indicate "3 dollars, 27 cents and nine-tenths cent." Something to do with the way taxes are applied, or some such (I have never seen this done anywhere else).
8708148
I've only ever seen it in continental europe, but never in English.
Fashion horse.
Fair.
Possibly.
Ponyville, and yes.
RUN.
Of course she has.
Alright, Dry Roast, your next line is: "We're talking sexual harassement, and I don't have to take it." And then learn to teleport and get the hell out of here.
NO! Why the hell WOULD he? She's interested in him because Twilight's subconscious is!
You should.
Basically.
Have you?
This chapter used 'fairly' a little too much. It was one of those things I couldn't un-notice.
It seems, given the setting (use of equine specific terms and sentient deer), that 'studs' would fit better than 'bucks'. Not really important, but it caught my attention.
Twi Dry is insufferably cute, but there's a valid point for Luna - with all tsun and no dere, there's basically no chemistry between the two when she's awake. Luna has a notable lead in actual interactions. Still think first mare will win, but Luna would not be implausible.
Also, plenty of irony in Twilight having the lead when sleeping, and Luna when awake.
Speaking of Celestia, the scene with the Royal Guards as cats was true or just an exaggeration of Luna's fancy? Because if it actually happened it creates so many questions. Like, when do the prospective royal guards find out about their jobs as glorified cats (because obviously the actual cats want nothing to do with a senile Alicorn)? How many break down when they find out their immortal princess that moves the sun and alone directed the kingdom for the last thousand years is a crazy cat lady? How relieved did they get when Luna turned out to be, if not more normal, at least not batshit insane?
There's that Dry Roast naivete that I'm used to. I don't think that the Alicorn gets carried across in those types of situations. Certainly not in yours.
It's because Dry's subconscious is wondering, 'Why not go for all three?'
And Dry Roast continues to get all the mares. And some of the stallions, too.
Looks like the "Twi's friends are proto-alicorns" conjecture is gaining ground.
And maybe Twi's alicorn coltfriend-stealing instincts will kick in now that Dry Roast is allowing himself to get serious with Luna...
I think it's a bit unlikely that Luna masterminded everything, given that this has been going on since before Twi ascended.
I really want to see this story go Luna's direction. This could be a great story about Twilight learning a hard lesson.
8708216 Hurk! Uoof! I've got this! Umph! Sorry! Didn't mean to bump you. Ughh! Did you have to eat so much wedding cake, dear?
8708215 "It looks like she's sleeping." The unnamed petition-bearer gently touched Dotted Line on his jacket sleeve, but did not say anything more other than to keep his expression in a frozen state of sincerity, one which seemed to be thawing one drip at a time.
"She's contemplating your petition," said Dotted. "If you would please move along for the next petitioner, we can--"
A faint but unmistakable snore emerged from Her Highness, the Recumbent Sun, who had slumped in her throne nearly to the limit of the cushions holding her upright, while one thin trail of saliva began to extend from her bottom jaw on a long-delayed trip to the floor.
"That's a good sign," said Dotted, who had begun to gently urge, not shove, the reluctant royal in the direction of the throne room's back door. "You can expect a written decision in a few days it has been a pleasure to have you in Her Highness' presence and we hope you will return to open court someday goodbye." The last word was nearly cut off by the slamming door, and Dotted Line took a moment to recover his composure, or at least what few fragments of it remained.
8708254
I was thinking more 1 of 2 scenarios. Either he comes across thrown over Luna's withers as spoils rightly won through battle, or he comes through floating along in Twi's telekinetic field so he doesn't "wander off".
8708205 On the nose. Otherwise, it would be a much shorter story.
8708204 Well, 'stud' is a different skill set.
8708186 I love writing Rarity.
8708187 Six. That is fairly overused. I'll tidy it up.
8708153 Thankfully, Dry Roast has been working on his weightlifting. Un-thankfully, Celestia has been working on her cake.
8708156 8708148 I've always been struck at the way that Americans do things the right way, and the rest of the world persists in doing them completely wrong, just like this. Someday, the rest of the world will switch back to miles/gallons/pints/inches the way God meant measurements to be made. (/snerk)
8708254
Canterlot's Castle crew are the true heroes of equestria. The ones that follow her most insane but strangely working plan for a better equestria, stalwart defenders of Harmony in the face of inane nobles, senile dementia and the worst of all, well meaning filly prodigies.
May Luna have mercy on their souls, for it's Celly's cake o'clock.
8708265
It shows. She's a bit exaggerated and some of her actions are a BIT questionable, but she's self aware enough to back off and apologize if she's actually fucked up and I don't think she actively goes out of her way to make Dry uncomfortable, it's just that Dry is really bad at explaining things and Rarity can be a bit, overbearing, not unlike Rainbow, but in her own way. Hm, Raridash. That's a thing probably. Wonder if there's any good Raridash out there?
Hmmm, so is this a Luna romance, then? That would be interesting, especially if it makes Twilight freak out in some way.
8708265
Though maybe the next generation(s) will have a better chance.
Hey, at least some of us recognize that we'd be much better off if we had started using the metric system much earlier. We're just too accustomed to using the imperial system that it's probably too late for us to switch. We've got to use converters to understand what the heck is going on.
And we don't need any of your snark to remind us that we're just making things harder on ourselves, thank you very much.
(
)
Yeeeaaaaah, that pretty much sums it up right there.
I'm now at the point in the story that, frankly, I don't quite know where it's going to go next, and just who the lucky mare that wins out is going to be. It doesn't help that, admittedly, I don't really have a clear favorite just yet myself. I have mixed feelings about this, but of the good sort, I guess?
Also, Rarity, you opportunist, you.
8708265
So... prostitution is legal in Equestria? Dry, my dear stalion, you are in the wrong line of work.
8708273
You know, this being a Luna romance in disguise would suddenly have the story making so much sense! I mean, we are all expecting Twilight because she was the first girl on the scene and her kissy sleepwalking is what triggers the story in the first place ... but that doesn't mean Twilight has to get together with him.
What if Twilight ... genuinely wants nothing to do with him (once awake anyway), and instead of being a tsundere (as many are labeling her based on the reader expectations that she must be the romance interest), she is instead a simply genuinely annoyed person who wants nothing to do with this and isn't harboring any hidden feelings for Dry? And Luna has been playing this game of "poaching" Dry from Twilight, when in reality she might have been only playing against herself because Twi genuinely doesn't have a stake in the game ?
Because that's starting to feel like a real possibility - that Luna has somehow managed to snare herself with her net, Dry might gravitate towards her because his daily interactions with Twilight amount to nothing positive, and Twilight is happy because turns out she isn't actually a tsundere and genuinely wanted nothing to do with this in the first place
8708405
That's a point. So far there's no indication that Sleepy Twi's interest in Dry has any more depth than alicorn instinctual lust for an extremely handsome stallion.
That's not exactly grounds for a happy long term relationship.
I'm starting to think Rarity brought him along simply to carry things for an entire Hotel full of mares.
Ahh, and to stand around and look Groomy.
TWILIGHT SPARKLE, ENEMY OF JOY
No contest at all.
Rarity does not fight clean.
Dry Roast found himself being ‘volunteered’ to stand in counterpoint to an entire wave of young, white-clad mares while they fidgeted about what kind of veil or dress train went best with the outfit they had picked out.
imagine if that photo were to be... "leaked"
8708527 For the Herd!
8708518
And after all we've seen, you think Luna does?
8708554
I think she has her own code of conduct.
8708591 Much like Rainbow Dash's rules of sparring: If Rainbow wins, it isn't cheating.
I've had women fight over me before.
...
Ok, granted it was to see who could get away from me the furthest, the fastest... but still technically a fight over me!
Dry Roast, failed alchemist, professional coffee shop owner, and occasional booth bunny.
At the risk of making 8708265 more gleeful, it feels to me like we may be at an interesting juncture.
So far I take Luna at her word that she is mostly throwing her hat in to provoke Twilight. But while Luna doesn't seem like one to play to lose, I don't know that she's pulling out all the stops to win, either.
If Twilight continues to fail to rise the challenge, however, while Dry proves himself worthy of alicorn affection, I could see this shifting into a higher gear; Luna gets serious about poaching Dry, provoking a belated response from NoCoffee!Twilight and things snowball from there.
I still am waiting for a story with any of the alicorns getting a partner that...you know, lives as long as they do. If only some super-powerful amulet could do that....