CelesTea

by Zeitless

I

"Alright my little sister: open your eyes!"

Luna lifted the blindfold off her eyes: Standing in the midst of Manehatten she faced a brown door hanging between two long windows. Looking upwards white letters with yellow border spelled out 'CelesTea'.

She lifted an eyebrow Luna and turned her face, only to meet her sister's excited eyes. She hesitated, took a long breath, and finally spoke up: "Thou hast got to be kidding me, sister."

"But Luna," Celestia's face turned serious, "just yesterday while I watched you play videogames I told you how happy I would be if I could open up a Tea Store." Celestia gave her still confused sister a moment to gather her memories. After a few seconds faded Luna explained: "I was paying attention to defeating the evil timberwolves and rescuing the lost wizard from their forest of mischief. Why would you ask me something this important while I am being a hero?"

Silence. That is if you ignore all the noise of the countless passengers flooding through the streets. It wasn't too long however until Celestia lifted her voice: "Well... now that the place is bought you might as well follow me inside and let me give you a tour." She smiled briefly before stepping through the entrance.

Unable to stop her eager sister from entering Luna sighed and mumbled: "I'm not even going to complain about you just buying instead of renting the place."

Still baffled and overwhelmed Luna had to take another breath before finding her way through the door.

On the first impression the interior didn't even look bad.
To the left was a wooden counter complementing the vintage styled wooden floor. Behind it the wall gave support to rows of emtpy shelves running along its length. Brown tables and white seating-pillows filled the rest of the room and a few paintings displaying landscapes and tea drinking ponies decorated the walls. In the background faint classical music played from unseen speakers.

To her dismay Luna had to admit to herself that the store made her feel a little cozy and the quiet, relaxing music playing in the background soothed her out. Sort of reminds me of the Ti-Kap Restaurant from Wild West Winter 3.

She looked back at Celestia, then regretted doing so.

She knew her expression all too well. Her older sister always wore it when she won an argument, proved Luna wrong or patronized her in some way. A slight, innocent smile accompanied by eyes silently singing I told you so. But before Luna could prevent her from speaking it out loud Celestia gave off a sheepish self-aware chuckle. And with a voice of pure honesty and respect she asked: "So, how do you like it?"

Annoyed more by her innocent honesty than by the fact her sister just bought a whole store, Luna swallowed: "It sure is - something." She didn't want to admit to liking it but neither wanted to tell a lie. "I suppose it's okay."

It's not going to work out anyway and in a week or two this phase will hopefully be over. She cannot possibly be serious about starting a whole business and spending every day selling tea to other ponies. Her thoughts provided Luna some rest. Then again she is kinda crazy about her tea.

"You think it's bad? If you have any ideas please share them!" Celestia's eyebrows narrowed. After Luna didn't respond she continued: "Personally I do quite enjoy the general wooden vintage style and the paintings hanging over there," she raised her hoof and pointed toward the opposite wall. "Or is it the music that makes it uncomfortable? I already considered changing it to something foreign maybe."

Gathering all the positive energy left in her Luna's voice grew more enthusiastic: "No it's all fine. What I mean is it would be quite nice if this store of yours works out. You sure have the ambition to make something out of it." She turned to find the exit. "I wish you the best of luck, dear sister."

Celestia's expression brightened as she heard those words. "Thank you!" Luna opened the door. "Wait, wouldn't you like it if we both-" The ringing of the doorbell supressed Celestia's last words. She sighed, then finished the sentence: "...shared the experience?"

Struck by the realisation that Luna just left her Celestia formed a face of disbelief.

"Only yesterday she enjoyed this idea. She nodded and said she would like it. Especially the pun in the name - But maybe exactly that is the problem! How silly of me to name it only after one of us." Celestia sighed, then shook her head. "No this is probably not what upsets her. As she said, she was focused on her videogame. I should have known she did not pay as much attention."

Another ring of the bell interrupted Celestias train of thought. She swiftly turned her attention back to the entrance: "Sister! You came ba-"
A confused mailspony gazed at her accompanied by a carriage filled with packets left outside. Celestia recognised him as the stallion responsible to deliver her first of many goods to fill the shelves with. She regathered her thoughts and turned to a more formal tone.

Around his beige coat the pony wore light blue clothes with a right shoulderpocket, a small brown bag hanging around the neck and two pairs of equally brown shoes. He cleared his throat and took a hold of the situation: "Delivery for miss-" he stuttered, "princ- ex princess," his voice grew unsure of how to adress the former ruler of Equestria herself. After a few seconds of starting and interrupting himself the stallion settled for "Delivery for CelesTea. 13 packets containing teabags of varying flavors ordered from the DreamTea fields. That correct?"

Celestia nodded and made her way to the register.
It didn't take long for the mailspony to start talking again: "So - uhm - your highness,"

"Celestia is fine," she smiled firmly. After all she wanted to live like a normal pony now. Well, despite her outward appearance and the few thousand years of lifetime. At least she tried her best to fit in.

"Celestia," His voice grew more confident and he stopped his vain efforts in hiding his country accent, "ya're joining the tea business now? Word o' advice it can get real tough real fast out here. After all this is the business capitol o' Equestria. No offense but ya better don't underrate the effort other ponies put into their business. Don't expect to win on the market just 'cause ya used to run this country."

While it was true that she couldn't just magically somehow win on the market, as he phrased it, Celestia still didn't quite find any problems that would come up with beginning a business. How hard could it be? She took some bits out of the register and made her way back to tip him.

"I appreciate your concern. But I am quite certain that I am capable of handling this just fine. After all everypony likes tea and when they need new supply I am here to provide for them." Her face was enlightened by a wide grin of passion. However, the mailspony wasn't impressed. Thanking for the bits he turned to the door and glanced over his shoulder.

"Don't say I didn't warn ya." He moved on through the door, "I'll put the packets in front o' the store. Good luck and till next time."

Once again the bell rang and Celestia was left alone. Well that was something. He supposedly means to be kind but it really cannot be that difficult to run this store. As I told him many ponies love tea and will buy it. So besides buying it and selling for an incremented price there is nothing to worry about, right? She sat down and watched him through the window as he unloaded the packets. 'Till next time.' What did he mean? Manehatten was an enormous town. Suddenly she got a rush of energy, stood up and made for a chase.

With the harness put on the mailspony was already about to head onward when Celestia rushed out the door. Stopping as fast as she got up in the first place, she raised her voice: "What did you mean when you said "until next time.'? Well I mean sure we might meet each other again," Celestia gave a slight chuckle, "but I don't even know your name and the city is quite large. How are you so certain about meeting again?"

It was an odd question to ask, she knew that. But something itched her to ask it anyways. Be it plain curiosity, frustration with how fleeting the conversation was or perhaps even some insecurity due to never having owned a business before, Celestia knew it would have kept her thoughts occupied if she let this opportunity pass.

"It's Quick Send. We mailsponies have Manehatten figured down into tiny regions and everypony of us is responsible for just one of 'em. So as long as Ah deliver mail Ah'll sure be around here deliverin' your bags o' tea. But now Ah've really gotta go and deliver some more packets to other ponies in need. Cya around, Prin- Celestia." He waved her off as he took his leave into the crowded streets.

Celestia couldn't even thank Quick Send given how quickly he departed.

But soon enough while unwrapping and organising the shelves she found herself wondering. If there are subdivided districts within Manehatten dedicated to coordinate the mailsponies for such simple of a job like delivering a package to an adress, then there might really be something more to running her own store too.

Author's Note:

I've been working on the idea of CelesTea for quite a while in my head now but never had the courage to write it down and post it. Here's the first chapter, I hope you like it!

Make sure to share your thoughts and leave a nice comment if you made it this far

Comments

[NorrisThePony]

This seems like a sweet idea. Am intrigued.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

So far, I'm interested. Though, I'd be surprised if nopony wanted to get tea from an actual friggin princess.

[DefiantPosition]

I think this is a really interesting concept, focusing on Celestia as a citizen instead of a ruler. I look forward to reading more

[Pete100]

Something tells me she’s gonna be regretting this idea.