//------------------------------// // Prejudice // Story: Never Judge A Book By Its Cover // by LightStriker //------------------------------// "What make you think your cutie mark is truly about magic?" Twilight Sparkle asked. Azure looked down at her tea. "I guess I should explain how I got it." She sighed before taking a long sip off her cup. "I always loved books, all kind of books." "I can understand that!" Twilight said with a huge smile. Azure ignored the interruption and continued. "My family lives in Fillydelphia. Near our home, there's a huge library. Anytime I had some free time I would go there and dig in books." She let a small smile at the memory. "One evening, I found a old tome about magic. It was so interesting, I was fascinated. I passed the whole night there reading it, and once I was done with it I found another one. The old mare who takes care of the library knew me well, she warned my father where I was." She let out an uneasy laugh. "It wasn't the first time that I would pass the night there. However, that night was different. I didn't even notice the passage of time, I just ate tome after tome. When the librarian came back the next morning, she found me asleep, face first in my sixth tome. She woke me up and congratulated me. I didn't really understand until she pointed my flank." "So... Your cutie mark is about books... or magic books?" Twilight tried. Azure let out a long breath. "It's about magic knowledge." Twilight decided to drop the topic, after all no pony knows a cutie mark better than his own. "Alright, it's about magic. What is the problem with that?" She stared at her, unsure if she was joking or not. "The problem? The problem is that our society doesn't accept that." Twilight frowned. "You're overreacting." "If a pegasus is talented in something related to the ground, nopony ask any question." At this, Twilight had a flash of Fluttershy helping a critter. "Ponies might find that odd, but they won't question it. If a unicorn is talented in growing plants or flowers, nopony will care." Twilight thought about the Flim Flam brothers whose cutie marks were apples or some unicorn mares in Canterlot that grew and sold flowers. "But an earth pony with a cutie mark about magic? Ponies react like you... or worse." she finished explaining. Twilight stood there trying to analyze her own reactions. I never questioned Fluttershy's talents. Why did I react like that to Azure's? Her logic kept coming back to the same answer and she didn't like it one bit; she was protective of something only unicorns were known to be. It makes no sense! Anypony could learn about magic, why be so protective about knowledge? "Earth ponies are strong, pegasi are swift and agile, unicorns are intelligent." Azure explained. "It's the way things are; unicorns are better than pegasi and pegasi are better than earth ponies." Twilight's eyes widen at the surprise. "That's not true!" she shouted. "It's mostly unicorns that live in Canterlot, the place of power. Tell me, you never heard any unicorn say something against a pegasus or an earth pony, based on what kind of pony they are?" Azure asked with a sad voice. Twilight's first reaction was to deny it, but her memory quickly gave her a dozen occurrences when she overheard some unicorns in Canterlot speaking against a 'dumb' earth pony or a 'feather brain' pegasus. She put a hoof to her mouth, ashamed of what she just remembered. Why I never thought about it before? She tried to push that thought aside. "But... but why you don't want to go back to your family? How did they react to your cutie mark?" A smile brightened Azure's face. "My family has been great about it. My father and mother didn't really understand what it meant to me, but they always supported me. I think they were a bit sad that I wouldn't help in the business like my brothers. And my brothers, they are great. When I started to get bullied in school, they always defended me." "Bullies?" "Unicorns would only avoid me, they wouldn't even look at me. As for pegasus and earth ponies, they would laugh... 'The magician without magic'." She explained, half sad and half angry. "My mother... she understood too well. She always knew instinctively what happened in a day of school." Azure took another sip at her tea, finding it was now cold. "I don't know how many strings she had to pull, contacts she had to ask or favors she had to return, but a month ago they managed to get me an audience. They managed to get me to do the entrance exam of Celestia's school." Twilight tried to hide her surprised. She knew very well that exam as she had almost failed it. If it wasn't for Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom at the right moment, she wouldn't be here now. But even if her nervousness didn't prevent her for casting any spell, the test she received was a hard one. Making a dragon's egg hatch is no easy task, even for a talented unicorn. "I was nervous but so happy. I could be in a school that was focusing on magic, I could learn without any limit! At that time, I didn't know how hard it had been for my family to get me to that exam." Azure explained with a smile. "Then came three teachers to test me. I had no idea what the test would be." At this moment, her face only displayed anger. "They came in, looked at me and without a word they left the room laughing." She felt her tears coming back at that shameful memory, but she kept them in. Twilight simply stood there, unable to say anything. She knew very well those teachers could be very harsh, but passing a judgment without a single question was beyond rude. "I overheard them when my father, furious, went to ask what it was all about. 'It's Celestia's school for gifted unicorns! Earth ponies have no place here.'" She sighed. Twilight was shocked. She knew that kind of conservative mind was still present in some small far away town, but from the elite of Canterlot, from the teachers she looked upon for guidance? She felt ashamed to have been a student in a school that would treat ponies like that. "My family... I love them and I know they love me very much. But after that event, our sales in Canterlot dropped sharply. They pushed very hard to get me in that exam, too hard. Too many favors, too many deals, and the shame from that day spread in the high sphere of Canterlot. It... it was better for my family if I left." she said as a tear rolled on her cheek. "What you are matters more than who you are." Azure concluded.