“Whoa, excuse me.” Vinyl Scratch jumped to the side as the door to the tiny shop swung open. She grabbed it with her magic and held it open as an older Unicorn walked out.
“Thank you, sir,” the Unicorn said with a heartfelt smile as she carefully walked by, carrying her small back on her back.
“You’re welcome, ma’am,” Vinyl said, not having the heart to correct the dear old lady. Besides, it wasn’t the first time somepony had thought she was a stallion. Her classic look of sunglasses and wild spikey blue hair wasn’t exactly a traditional Canterlot appearance. She still got weird looks whenever she visited the city, but most ponies accepted it now. After all, she was the marefriend of one of Canterlot’s most renowned musicians.
“And a good marefriend gets her special pony a great Hearth’s Warming present,” Vinyl said with a triumphant smile as she walked into the shop.
Vinyl made it two steps into the shop before she realized she was completely out of her depth.
The shop wasn’t imposing the way so many other shops in Canterlot were. It wasn’t stuffy and didn’t have the feeling of superiority that nearly every other Canterlot shop had, but the merchandise was baffling. Precious gems and stones filled display cases, each one different from the next and all of them unlike anything Vinyl had ever seen. There were things in here that put even the fanciest pony in Canterlot to shame on some days.
“What am I doing?” Vinyl mumbled as she looked around. There were quite a few ponies wandering around the shop, and each one of them had the air of belonging. They were all looking down their noses at the merchandise, pretending to show distain and detached interest in everything, but the gleam in their eyes said otherwise.
Still, if ponies like that were looking around in this store, then it was clearly out of Vinyl’s price range. Sighing, she turned to head for the exit.
“Hey Vinyl!” a voice said. “Welcome to my store.”
Vinyl turned around, surprised that somepony knew her well enough to call her by name. She spied a lavender Unicorn dodging her way through the crowd, her lilac mane swirling behind her as she made her way over to the DJ.
“Um…hey,” Vinyl said, trying hard to remember if she knew this pony. She was fairly certain that they’d never officially met, but she didn’t want to hurt her feelings if they had. She tilted her head to the side to glance at the mare’s cutie mark. The two dolphins did nothing to trigger her memory. Sighing, she took a deep breath.
“Um…listen. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but, uh…who are you? Have we met?”
The Unicorn smiled and let out a quick laugh. “What? No, of course not.”
“Then, uh, how did you—?”
“Are you kidding?” the Unicorn asked with a twinkle in her raspberry eyes. “Who hasn’t heard of the legendary D.J. Pon-three?”
Vinyl blinked in honest surprise. She had never expected to meet a fan of hers in Canterlot. “Well, uh, thanks.”
“So, what brings you here?” the Unicorn asked with a genuine smile, another thing Vinyl rarely saw in the capital city.
“Oh, I was just leaving, actually.”
The Unicorn’s ears dropped. “Oh. Nothing to your liking then?”
“More like nothing in my price range,” Vinyl said with a sheepish grin. “Being a DJ doesn’t exactly pay well. At least, not this well.”
The Unicorn blinked her eyes twice and then laughed. “Is that all? Tch. I can solve that for you easy.”
“But—”
“What’s the occasion?”
“Um, it’s a gift.”
“For?”
“My marefriend, Octavia,”
“Octavia…” the Unicorn said, a strange look crossing her face for a second, but it was gone almost as fast. “Classy then.”
“The classiest,” Vinyl said with a slight blush in her cheeks. “I heard this place was all the rage, so—”
“It is,” the Unicorn said with beaming pride, but then she lowered her voice and leaned in close so only Vinyl could hear. “If you want to be the talk of Canterlot and show other ponies up. Does Octavia strike you as that type of pony?”
Vinyl didn’t even need to think. After everything they had been through together, the answer came instantly. “No.”
The store clerk grinned. “Exactly. I knew she couldn’t be if she was with you.”
Vinyl cocked her head to the side. “So, uh…are you saying I shouldn’t be in your shop?”
“No, not that,” the Unicorn replied, “but I think you’re looking at the wrong stuff. You want your gift to be special, right? Something that is meant for Octavia and Octavia alone, not something for other ponies to gawk at?”
“Yeah!” Vinyl said, a little too loudly as several ponies gave her a rather rude look. “Er, I mean, that sounds perfect.”
“Follow me then.” Without another word, the Unicorn turned and began to make her way to the far end of the store. A few ponies tried to get her attention, but she politely told them that she was helping a customer. One of them pressed the issue, but the Unicorn pressed back firmly and politely, telling the mare she would have to wait her turn.
Finally, the two Unicorns reached the back of the store. The clerk went behind the counter and bent down, her tail swishing happily in the air as she rummaged around for something out of sight. She came back up and levitated a small box onto the counter in front of Vinyl. She popped it open to reveal two small stone earrings, no bigger than a pebble, snuggled in a dark velvet cushion.
“What are they?” Vinyl asked, confused as to why they were in such a special case. They weren’t colorful or exciting in any way. They were just grey pebble earrings. For a moment, she wondered if she was about to be scammed.
“Touch one,” the Unicorn said with a look of excitement. She leaned forward as she stared not at her customer, but at the stones. She was visibly quivering and Vinyl watched her lick her lips.
“What’s going to happen?” Vinyl asked cautiously. She had had a rather…interesting experience with a stone before, and while she doubted this Unicorn was out to do her harm—too many witnesses—she was still a bit leery.
“Touch one and see,” she said, only looking up with her eyes while her head remained close to the stones.
Vinyl took a deep breath and carefully reached out with her hoof. It was hard to touch such a small stone in the plush case with her hoof, but she managed it after a bit of careful prodding.
For a moment, nothing happened. Vinyl gave the Unicorn a concerned look, but then the stone began to change color. It was hard to see at first and Vinyl thought it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. She pulled her glasses off with her magic and sure enough, the stone’s grey color had changed to a slightly different shade. It was no longer the cold stone shade, but a softer grey, like Octavia’s freshly brushed—
“Whoa!” Vinyl whispered as the stone suddenly turned onyx, so black that Vinyl felt like it would suck her in. It was just as dark as Octavia’s mane whenever she woke up in Vinyl’s embrace. Vinyl could almost see the cellist’s two amethyst eyes peeking out from under the black mane with—
The stone again changed color, this time switching to the rich purple that the Unicorn had just been thinking about. Startled, Vinyl pulled her hoof away and the stone faded back to its original shade. Intrigued, the DJ leaned in close and stared at the earrings over the edge of the case like a filly peeking into the cookie jar.
“Pretty neat, huh?” the clerk asked. She reached out and touched the other one. In instantly took on a shade of purple, not quite the same shade of amethyst as Octavia’s eyes, nor the color of the Unicorn herself. In then changed to a soft yellow, like the sun on a warm summer day, before the Unicorn quickly pulled her hoof away. She cleared her throat and smiled. “They’re paired love stones. Rather hard to come by.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” Vinyl said.
“Most ponies don’t know what they are. I bet that, if I showed these to anypony else here, they wouldn’t react the same way. They only work when the pony touching them is thinking about another pony they care about. Otherwise, they just stay this grey color.”
Vinyl looked around the store. Several of these ponies seemed to be here with their significant other. “Look, I know Canterlot can be a bit stuffy, but surely they can at least feel love.”
“Love, yes,” the Unicorn said. “But how many ponies here right now do you think are only thinking about the pony they care about? How many are thinking about how good they would look in my jewels? Or how much social standing they’d gain if their wife was seen wearing something?”
Vinyl looked around again and realized that the store clerk might have a point. She sighed. Either this clerk was telling the truth, or she was pushing a huge scam. The answer to Vinyl’s next question would no doubt reveal the truth.
“How much?”
“How much do you have?” the clerk asked. “Be honest.”
Vinyl gulped. On the one hoof, if she told the clerk how much she really had, the clerk might charge her that much. On the other hoof, she didn’t strike Vinyl as that type of pony. The DJ decided to take a gamble.
“One hundred bits,” she said.
“Fifty bits then,” the Unicorn said as she closed the box. “Use the other half to take her out for a nice date. Consider it part of the present.”
Vinyl’s ears perked up immediately. “Really?” she asked. “I mean, are you sure? You said they’re hard to come by and—”
“And so far no pony else has even remotely interested in them,” the clerk countered with a smile. “Of course, if you’d rather buy one of my fully priced items, the I’m certain you can find—”
“No, no!” Vinyl said quickly. “I’ll take them. Fifty bits it is.” The Unicorn pulled out the required amount and set it on the counter.
“Thanks, Vinyl,” the clerk said as she levitated the money off of the counter. “I’m sure Octavia will love them. Oh, before you go, could I ask you a favor?”
“Sure,” Vinyl said as she carefully picked up the boxed earrings and set them in her saddlebag.
“Um…I, uh, close in two hours for Hearth’s Warming Eve,” the Unicorn said as she scratched the back of her neck. “Could you, um…stop by then? And bring Octavia with you?”
Vinyl blinked in surprise. She was about to say yes, but she stopped herself. “I don’t know. It is Hearth’s Warming Even. I’m sure Octy will want to be spending time with her family.”
“Oh, okay,” the Unicorn said, her ears falling. “I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.” She perked up again, but Vinyl could still see the disappointment in her eyes. “Well, back to the grind. I know Octavia is going to love those earrings. Thanks for stopping by.”
“But,” Vinyl said quickly before the Unicorn dove back into the crowd of customers, “I’ll ask her. If she says yes, we’ll be here for sure.”
“Really?” The Unicorn’s ears stood straight up and her smile filled her face. “Oh, thank you so much! I promise it won’t take long. Just like, literally, two minutes of her time. I promise.”
“Got it.” With that, the Unicorn returned to the crowd in her store, many of them with huffy looks on their faces now, and Vinyl slowly made her way to the exit. She walked outside and shivered slightly as the cool winter air nipped at her nose. She shook it off and looked back at her saddlebag. She was suddenly glad that she had waited until the last minute to find a gift for Tavi, because she knew that the cellist was going to love the earrings.