Honey Cup.
The words stared Luna down from above the small shop, and as she tilted her head, she could not help but think that the paint used for the elegant script seemed to glitter in the evening streetlights. It was stark against the cool wood of the sign, but somehow managed to feel warm.
“Yes, we finally caught the Wandering Djinn!”
Luna twitched, not quite flinching, at the sudden shout, and turned. A blue unicorn and a white pegasus cantered up the street, chatting excitedly.
“I know, I’ve been waiting for literal ages to try their coconut curry. I can’t believe we found them,” the pegasus exclaimed, clapping her hooves together in delight. “And I hear the mango…”
The rest of the pony’s words were swallowed by the crowd as the two new arrivals joined the growing throng of ponies strewn about across the cobblestone street. The crowd was cheerful, but loud; seeing them bustling around a deep orange food cart—the ‘Wandering Djinn’ in question—the princess couldn’t help but picture chicks surrounding an overworked mother hen, and she almost laughed.
With a soft smile, Luna instead breathed in deeply. The spices wafting over on the evening breeze reminded the princess of her trip to Saddle Arabia when she was a filly, but the energy of the crowd pulled her up short. It would be nice, but… no. Instead, she turned back to the shop she had been considering.
Honey Cup winked down at her once again, and after less than a moment of further deliberation, Luna pushed the door open with her magic.
No bell marked her entry, but the pure peace that encompassed the princess’ entire being as she crossed the threshold signalled her arrival in a way that no bell ever could. Shelves upon shelves of tea towered to the right of the door, packed in with no particular rhyme or reason, and somehow defying gravity to stay in their rows. An elegant brown unicorn glanced up from behind the counter and cast a smile in Luna’s direction.
“Good Evening. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of serving you before, Miss…?”
“Ah—it is... Io,” Luna stuttered. The barista paused, considering the dark-furred mare before her. The crescent moon adoring the princess’ flank remained, as did her deep blue coloring, but her wings and the darker dappling on her coat were gone. Luna had also taken great care to de-etherealize her mane, casting a mantle of magic over the strands to render them a deep, cool, curly grey that she had swept into an up-do popular a millenia ago in the Crystal Empire. After a few beats of silence, the barista smiled.
“A fitting name for a fitting mare,” she said, a twinkle in her malachite eyes. The pause after her words steeped long enough that Luna held her breath, fearing she had been discovered, but the unicorn quickly filled the silence again.
“The Honey Cup is a bit of an unusual tea shop in that it has no defined menu. Patrons instead order a feeling that they would like their tea to imbue. Our trusty staff—” Here, the unicorn waved a hoof at the cadre of ponies working quietly behind the counter. “—of brewing alchemists take up the task to craft the perfect cup.”
Luna frowned. “W—one orders a feeling? But how?” she asked.
“Very carefully,” the barista said with a cheeky grin. “But usually just with a single word. ‘Joy’ and ‘serenity’ are the fan favorites this week, though ‘sexy’ is always pretty popular as well.”
Luna choked on her saliva. The barista grinned wider.
“So! What’ll it be, Miss Io?”
The princess considered for several long moments, quiet enough that she could hear the babbling of boiling water in the kitchen behind the counter.
“...Regret,” she finally murmured. It was the unicorn’s turn to frown.
“Are you sure?”
Luna nodded, reaching back to her grey saddlebags to retrieve her money. With it, she missed the calculating gleam in the cashier’s eye.
“How much?” Luna asked as she turned back to the counter, the bag of bits floating in her magic.
“Usually, three, but for first-time customer’s, the first cup’s free,” the cashier answered with a smile. Seeing the discomfort in her patron’s eyes, she amended, “...if you come back, though tipping is always appreciated!” She poked a brown hoof at the brass container that Luna could have sworn had just been empty counter space a moment before. She blinked, nonplussed, then floated three gold coins into the bucket.
“Your order will be right up, Miss Io! Why don’t you take a seat on our patio?” the unicorn called, already bustling off to join the rest of the staff behind the counter.
“Ah… yes. Thank you.”
The princess stepped quietly to the back of the shop, where an open doorway welcomed the evening’s breeze, and peered out.
The patio sat cozy and hushed, despite the twenty or so ponies gathered within. Curving rowan boughs laced together to form a web around and over the patrons, not so thick as to be oppressive, but sturdy enough to feel safe, dappling the moonlight that came through the branches. Luna’s breath hitched at the simple beauty. Crickets thrummed a steady, calming beat in the near-silence, and fireflies winked from the rowan thickets. If stepping into the shop had soothed her soul, stepping out onto the patio had embraced it. She blinked her suddenly over-bright eyes and moved quickly to a single empty, round table. Her flank had barely touched her seat before a tea cup was delivered in front of her.
“Your tea, madame,” the cashier from earlier said with a wink and a bow, before beating a hasty retreat back through the back door.
“Th–oh.” Luna looked down at her tea. A pale moon glittered on the dark surface—she glanced up, the position shouldn’t be that high yet… but no. When the alicorn looked back, the moon in her cup had vanished, leaving only dark tea in its place. Her brow furrowed.
“What strange alchemy indeed,” she muttered, before taking a sip.
Flavors and warmth burst across her tongue in a way that no tea ever had. There was a bitter tang, she thought she could even pick out rue and pennyroyal, but the overall flavor was too smooth to be dissected into individual flavors.
As warmth filled her stomach, she thought of her sister, of the six mares who had freed her from her prison, of the scent of dew on a moonlit field as a filly runs past, crickets chirping and stars glittering above, echoes of laughter in the warm evening dark, and it tasted like a hug, it tasted like home, and she knew.
Before she realized it, Luna had downed the entire cup, and the warmth was fading from her gut… though, strangely, not from her soul.
“Acceptance,” she whispered, with a surety she couldn’t fully fathom. But how…?
Pale green magic encompassed her empty teacup, and Luna gasped. The brown unicorn barista had returned, and she smiled down at her patron.
“Sometimes, we only accept what we deserve. And sometimes we deserve more than what we think we need,” she answered, before quickly turning away.
Luna stared after the retreating mare. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps…
She closed her eyes, revelling in the gloaming warmth of her night, and not once realizing she had never actually asked her question.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading!
☕
