Coal looked up at the jingling of a bell, looking towards the front of the shop. Placing a finger purposefully in between two pages of his book, he met the eyes of the pony wandering in.
"Well hello there," he said, slipping a small piece of paper into the book as the small mare closed the door. "Welcome to Lender's, the curio store with a little bit of everything. Anything I can help you with?"
Nervously, the puce-maned mare looked around at the shelves decorating the floor around her. Her entire coat seemed to be shivering, blurring her rose-shaped cutie mark.
"W-w-well, I-I was wonder, wondering, if-"
Coal cocked his head to the side, before pulling the book back up.
"Got dared to go into the weird store, huh?" he asked, looking for his spot on the page again.
He heard a gulp, and looked up into the guilty face of the pony.
"That's alright," he said, soothingly. "If nothing else, you get to look over what I have. If everything goes alright, I might even get a sale," he chuckled, "so please, relax. You're welcome here."
The pony did not look altogether convinced, but she did at least look less likely to wet his carpet, so Coal turned back to his book and wandered through the lines as she walked through his aisles.
"Uhm, sir?"
Marking the line with his hand, he once again looked up from his book. Taking a second, he finally glanced her looking at him from over one of the freestanding shelves.
"Yes, dear?" he asked, slipping that same slip of paper into his book.
"W-what exactly are these, s-sir?" she asked, holding up a large paper sleeve.
"Ah," he said, nodding to her, "a fine selection. You are holding what is called a Record. If one has a player, you would be able to listen to audio that has been stamped into the grooves of the disc."
"Audio?" she asked, her ears perked towards him and all hesitation dissolved.
"Well, yes. Music, singing, even some political speeches and college lessons have been embossed onto records. You happen to be holding on to a selection by the Royal Canterlot Orchestra."
Looking around the store, the pony deflated a bit. "I don't have a player," she started, "and I'm sure something so advanced would be expensive..."
"Perhaps," Coal said, finally placing his book on the counter. Standing, he stretched a bit and cracked his spine by arching it with his forelegs. Walking around the counter, he neared the pony and started rummaging through the shelves nearby.
After a minute, he pulled a thick paper box from behind a group of vases and walked it over to the counter. Looking around himself, he nodded when the pony appeared beside him, still holding the record.
"This is perhaps not the fanciest player in the land," he said, removing the top from the box and pulling out a crank and a large brass disk. Pulling at the brass, he elongated it to resemble a sort of trumpet. "It's designed to be small and portable, so the sound is stunted a bit." He pulled a wooden box from inside the other one, and placed the trumpet on top of it and affixed the crank to one side. With a finishing flourish, he pulled a small arm from the top of the wooden box, which snapped briskly into place.
"May I?" he asked, holding out a hand. The pony held out the paper sleeve, and the minotaur pulled out a black disc with circling grooves covering both sides. He gently set it on a padded circle on top of the wooden box which seemed to perfectly fit the disc. Moving the box slightly, he cleared the crank from the counter and begun winding it.
A quiet clicking could be heard from inside the box, before suddenly the crank went rigid. A very light blue magical aura surrounded the top of the box, and the disc started to slowly spin on its pad. The arm jerked up, then slowly moved over the disc before gently descending upon it.
A scratchy sound filled the air first, a soft hissing of air. Then, quietly, the sound was replaced by a piano. At first it was played gently, solemnly, a single note blessing the air at a time. Soon the song was joined by a violin, the tempo picking up and coming to a sweet swelling before all the energy seemingly drained away. The violin fell back, and by the end of the song, the piano was once again alone, playing softly.
Coal leaned forward and pressed an insert on the box. The arm moved away from the disc, reclaiming its position to the side. The disc slowly came to a stop, and he pulled it from the pad and slid it back into the paper sleeve.
With his free hand, he reached up to his breast pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. Flipping it open lightly, he offered it out to the pony.
She looked up at him, a bit surprised, and started to asked him why. As she inhaled, her face let her know of a cold spot. Reaching up with a hoof, her eyes widened as she felt tears running around her muzzle.
"O-oh, uhm, thank you," she whispered, her voice trembling and husky. "I-I don't-"
"It's alright," he said. "Again, that was two of the Royal Canterlot Orchestra. If any music could move a pony, it would be from those two."
She nodded as she mopped at her face. "Still, I d-don't usually cry in front of strangers. I have to be making you uncomfortable..."
"Not at all," he murmured. "I've found that the strangest things move deeply within certain hearts. I'm not unused to tears."
She looked up at him. There was a strange air around the minotaur, like he wanted to continue.
Instead, he turned back towards the record player and started pulling it apart, gently refolding the horn and pulling out the crank.
She watched him get it ready to go back in the paper box, then gave a small start. "Oh, uhm, I think I am wanting to purchase that," she said, blushing a bit. "Especially with your record selection over there."
"No problem at all," he said smoothly, placing the lid back on the box. "I will tell you though, it's the only record player you're likely to see out of Canterlot, and perhaps Manehatten. The price will reflect this, a bit."
"How much?" she asked, looking longingly at the box.
"Hmmm," Coal hummed appraisingly. "I think about fifty bits will cover it. With an extra ten bits, I'll throw in a limited... Well, it's called a warranty. If something goes wrong with the device, I'll look it over and fix what I can. As long as it doesn't look like you've broken it through disservice, that is."
Biting her lip, the mare pulled out her coin purse and looked inside of it. Thinking for a while, she sighed before nodding. "I'll take it, with the warranty. As well as two of your discs."
Coal nodded, sliding behind the counter and pulling out a ledger. "Each disc will cost a different amount. The one we just played will be eleven bits."
She did another counter, before her ears turned back. "Ehrm, just the one disc today," she said, blushing a bit.
Nodding absently, Coal looked down to the ledger and pulled out a quill from beneath the counter. With a quick scratching, he recorded the two items before pulling out a silver box. Pressing his thumb into a latch, he opened the box and looked up at the pony.
Looking once more at the purse, she held up the pouch to him.
With a quick deftness she had only seen from unicorns, he counted out the coins in neat stacks on the hard counter space. With the purse mostly empty, they each confirmed the correct amount between them.
Placing several of the stacks into the lock-box, Coal hesitated as he looked at the remain two, short, stacks of coin.
"I seem to have over counted," he said slowly, closing the silver box. As the pony stared up at his hidden countenance, he quickly slid the two stacks back into her purse before holding it out to her.
"We both counted, that was the right amount of coin," she said, shaking her head and pushing the cloth bag back towards the minotaur. "I don't want you to short-charge yourself-"
Gently, he pressed the coins into her hoof and pushed her leg down.
"I don't want you to starve for something you didn't intend on buying," he said firmly. "Call it a favor, among friends," he said, and she could hear the gentle smile from behind the mask.
Looking up into the dark eyes for a moment, she nodded before replacing the purse in her mane. "A favor, then," she said, nodding.
"Maybe you could take me out to dinner sometime?" Coal asked, smile now dancing behind the dark slot of his mask. He laughed when her face fell, before leaning over and placing both the record player and her chosen disc on her back.
"Completely in a platonic sense, of course," he chuckled. "I've only been here a week, so I don't know all the good places to eat yet."
She sighed, before smiling up at him and nodding.
"That sounds fair," she said, before holding out a hoof. "I'm Roseluck, by the way."
"Nice to meet you Roseluck," he said, giving her hoof a shake. "Coal Prower."
"So, when do you plan on closing up shop, Coal?" Roseluck asked.
"Oh, around sixish," he said, giving a shrug with his shoulders. "Do you want to hit up a restaurant tonight, then?"
"Well, I'm not up to much tonight," she said, blushing and mussing with the carpet with a forehoof.
He nodded, and she felt him smiling out from behind his mask.
"That sounds lovely, Roseluck, thank you," he said, nodding.
They stared at each other for a moment, before she squeaked out, "Okay, see you tonight!" and turned to the door.
He chuckled at her as she left, and he was smirking at the door for a few seconds after she left.
"Damned cute ponies," he muttered to himself, before he looked around the counter. Reaching over, he snagged the book he'd left there. Flicking it open, he riffled through the pages until he found his bookmark.
He'd just settled back into it when the small bell over the door rang again. Two mares looked over the shop nervously, both with flower cutie marks. Sighing, he closed the book and straightened his back again.
"Hi, I'm Coal. Welcome to Lender's."