Brass Button's Music Emporium
by trombrony98
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A faint trail of smoke whisked up into the sky from the chimney small shop near the river. In the fireplace beneath, Brass Button was hard at work mending the tubing of a french horn that had accidentally been crushed by a careless musician at the most recent performance of the Ponyville Regional Orchestra. It was a shame that something so terrible could happen to such a beautiful piece of art.
He remembered when he had made this particular instrument. Business was slow that day, so he decided that he would try something more ambitious than his usual products. He had taken some brass tubing that he had in the back of the shop and gotten right to work.
After a few hours of labor, he had a finished product. The tubing was perfectly coiled that every note would come out with an angelic tone. The brass had been polished so that it would shine under the lights of a stage. The stallion who had bought it said that it was the most beautiful instrument he had ever seen.
But it was all for naught. One careless move had ruined his masterpiece. He could fix it, but no matter how hard he tried, there would be no returning it to its original quality.
He put it down to see what else needed done. The bell was dented in quite a few places, and one of the valves still needed to be replaced, but other than that it was nearly repaired. He was just about to go to his storeroom to grab a replacement valve when he heard the bell on his front door jingle. He gave an irritated sigh as he walked into the showroom.
Standing at the grand piano in the middle of the room was a white unicorn with a curled violet mane. She was running her hoof along every inch of it, carefully inspecting the quality. She didn't notice him standing there until side peered her head over the top of the piano. A small gasp escaped as her eyes met him.
"Oh, magnifique! This is the just the kind of quality I was looking for. Excuse me, monsieur, but do you have any flutes in stock? I was hoping that I might be able to learn to play when I'm not busy with orders at my boutique."
Brass Button's frustration with the earlier endeavor melted away at the way this mare was fascinated with his work. Normally, his customers were just coming in for repairs, and didn't take the time to admire his work, but there she was, observing his masterpiece. "Certainly, miss. I'm certain that I have one in stock. Just let me take a look."
He led her over to the shelves of instrument cases and began browsing the cases for flutes. She stood there patiently, quietly looking on as he tried to find the right case. He finally found a flute case and levitated it off the shelf, carefully opening it up.
She carefully scrutinized the small instrument as it lay in the case. It wasn't one of his better works, but it was the cheapest he could find. He didn't want to overwhelm her with the price tag when it came time to pay for it.
After a few minutes of scrutiny, she finally spoke up, sounding displeased. "No no no, this simply won't do. It might be satisfactory for a schoolfilly, but I would like something of your top quality. Price isn't an issue here, if that's what you were worried about; but please show me something more elegant than this piece of tin."
He was surprised at how easily she recognized the lack of quality in the instrument. She must have had quite the eye for detail to be able to pick up on the minor tells of its lack of quality. Now knowing what she was expecting from him, he quickly got back to looking for a proper instrument for her.
He found what he was looking for a few minutes later, a delicate mahogany case with stainless steel hardware. Normally, he would only sell something like this to a musician whom was extremely dedicated to their music, but this mare seemed to be expecting his best work, and he dared not to disappoint her. It wasn't often that he could attract a new customer to his store.
"This is my best one in stock. Its fairly pricey, but I assure you that I have never made a better one."He opened the case, revealing a flute that shone like the sun in the sky in the light of the room. She took it out of the case, once again examining it to see if it met her qualifications. The tension began to feel palpable in the room.
She finally set down the instrument in the case. "Perfect! This is a true work of art. Most people can't seem to appreciate a good product these days. They only seem to care about whether or not it works. It's quite a shame, isn't it . . . Now that I think about it, I don't think we properly introduced ourselves. My name is Rarity, owner of Carousel Boutique. And you are?"
Brass Button chuckled as he realized he had never actually introduced himself. "I'm Brass Button. Nice to meet you, Rarity."
He closed the case and carried it to the register. Rarity followed suit, taking a small pouch and pulling a few fire rubies out of it. "That'll be twenty-five hundred bits, or, according to my calculations, seventeen fire rubies."
Rarity frowned a bit at the mention of the cost. She poured out the remaining gems in the bag, but upon counting them up realized she was three rubies short of being able to cover the cost. Brass Button was quite honestly amazed that a single pony could have such a large cache of fire rubies, but decided that it must be something to do with the gemstones on her cutie mark. "Oh dear. I'm afraid I might have to go home empty handed. Pity, really. I was looking forward to putting this masterpiece to good work."
Brass Button saw the disappointment in her eyes. He knew she truly wanted that flute, and the only reason the cost was so high was because of all the effort he put into it. Knowing he couldn't bear to let her leave empty handed, he did the only thing he could think of.
"I'll cover the rest of the cost. It's all yours." Brass Button gave a sigh of relief as Rarity thanked him. She laid the gems on the counter, then happily trotted off. He smiled as he walked through the rear door into his workshop.
Lying where he had left it was that broken french horn, but this time he noticed what he had been doing wrong. Apparently, earlier he had been careless with the mallet, leaving the bell in a horribly dented form. The dents could be easily fixed with a bit of magic, which had somehow escaped him earlier. He quickly got to work fixing it back up.
* * * * * * * *
A week later, a package arrived in the mail. Seemingly normal, Brass Button presumed it was another shipment of guitar strings or something along those lines. Carefully cutting open the box, he removed its contents and laid them on the desk.
An envelope was tied on to a small bundle wrapped in tissue paper. Trying to figure out the sender, he checked the box for a return address. It was listed as Carousel Boutique. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember if he had actually been there before.
Seeing no other way of learning who the sender was, he removed the envelope from the bundle. He carefully removed a piece of parchment from the envelope.
Dear Mr. Brass Button,
I would personally like to thank you for helping me pay for my new flute. This past week I've been thinking of ways that I could thank you enough, but I honestly don't think that's actually possible. So to repay your act of' kindness, I ask you to accept this small gift of mine. I had been working on it for a few days beforehand, but until I met you, I didn't know how to complete it. So I figured that of all ponies, you deserved it most.
Your Friend,
Rarity
P.S. I've actually managed to get some practice time in this week. I now can actually play the full scale!
Brass curiously eyed the package. It seemed awfully generous of her to be willing to give him something she had been working on for months, even if he had helped pay for her flute. Most ponies would have just taken the offer and never do anything in return. Then again, there was something about her in the first place that made him feel that it was worth helping her pay for it.
He took the bundle and unwrapped it. Inside of it was a silk scarf made with every color of the rainbow. Scattered throughout the colors were a few well placed music notes, but it was what was in the center of it that really got to him. Down to the very last detail, she had perfectly copied his cutie mark.