//------------------------------// // Azure // Story: differentiation // by Cos //------------------------------// I hear her calling she is getting impatient, I am beginning to become weary of running around all over town with Stardust. She always keeps me busy with these events. “Coming dear!” I reply. “Hurry please! We need to make it to the gallery.” She looks quite nice tonight. I run down the stairs and look once more into the mirror, I look pretty fancy. “So whose art is this anyway?” All I know is for a week now she has been looking forward to tonight. “Don’t know really, I read in an article that she was the next thing in modern art.” Ah she must be going for some inspiration. I never really understood art, It seems to all be more reliant on who you know than how talented you actually are. Plus there is no right or wrong to art, so why do certain ponies get to decide what is hung up in a gallery and what’s not? We make good time and are only a few minutes late, busy looking crowd though. I can already see that Stardust is in her element, she is tugging me towards a group of ponies by one of the pieces. “So Stardust, who is your date?” A distinguished looking mare asked. “This is Emerson Edge, he is a brilliant student at ACU.” She nudged me a bit. “Hello Emerson, my name is Union heart.” She gave me a smile. “Pleasure.” “So this is the pony that you always speak of? I feel like I know him already.” “Yes he is, and he is all mine.” We all share a laugh. We look at some of the pieces; Stardust is really trying to impress this group with her references and terminology. I suppose because they could potentially fund a gallery for her art one day. I break away from the group politely and go to drop off our jackets. “Emerson!” I hear a familiar voice. “Sis!” I turn around and see my sister Spindrift. “What are you doing here?” “What are you doing here?” I reply playfully. Spindrift is the eldest of my two sisters only two years younger than I, she looks to be in a fantastic mood. But then again it takes a lot to lose the smile off her face. “I am here because Dad gave me a ticket to come, but I wish I hadn’t its super lame here.” “Yeah, yeah it is.” Me and her laugh at the situation of both not wanting to be here. “I am here because Stardust is trying to cement herself in the community, she seems to be doing a good job of it too.” “Ah, how is she anyway? Dad asks me about her all the time. I think he wants you to settle down once you are done school.” That’s Dad, always thinking of where I am going next. I don’t know about settling down yet I really want to have some serious irresponsible fun, while I am still young enough to do so. I brush off my sister’s last comment and think of a scheme that could stir the pot. “I have an excellent idea, Spin!” I let out a trouble-makers grin and start to devise a plan with her. The plan is quite harmless really; we take an empty garbage can, flip it over, place my sister’s cap atop it, put the two items under a spotlight and stare at it as it were art. Spindrift was so down for this plan, we hyped each other up and preformed it. We stared at these two objects and drew in a couple unsuspecting ponies in believing it was part of the gallery. Spindrift and I tried to keep the immature giggles and snickers to a minimum, to get the best possible effect. My plan was coming to fruition when I heard Stardust behind me. “Oh my look at this piece! It screams of the artist’s inner struggle, she wants to scream to her audience ‘Hats off to you’ but lacks the confidence hence the trash can. The trash can is also turned upside-down to suggest that she doesn’t want to discard these feelings of gratitude.” Spindrift and I take one moments look into each other’s eyes and lose all the composition we once had. We were practically on the floor laughing when another voice crept up behind us. “The only thing I want to ‘discard’ are these two miscreants from my show, they are taking my serious art and turning it into a laughing stock.” Damn, caught by the artist herself. Me and my sister were asked to leave, I tried to apologize for Stardust’s sake, even though I wasn’t lamenting my decision. I told Star that I was going to be at me and Spins favorite spot and we left. “Oh man she looked mad at you!” Spin said in a goofy tone. I wasn’t too worried she will get over it; I will just have to make it up to her in the future. “Yeah but it was totally worth it! Did you hear that pretentious exposition she gave back there! I don’t think I will ever get over that.” “Bro?” Her tone became thoughtful. “Yeah?” “Are you doing ok?” “What are you talking about? Of course I am! Couldn’t be happier.” “Well it’s just that your whole life seems to be school and Stardust.”Hmmmmm. “Well yeah I am a full-time student and I do live with the girl, they are going to occupy me.” “But don’t you think it’s a bit much? Tonight seemed like the first time you had any shed of fun in a while.” “That’s not true I have plenty of fun, but you are right I don’t get as silly as I would like to.” “And what about your interests? When was the last time that you wrote music?” That is one thing I love about Spindrift, she always asks about something other than school. She always loves my music, she is the first pony I will ever show a new song to. “I was working on a new jam before I left tonight.” “Make sure you show me when its ready.” Her eyes widened. “Always.” We stop outside of the milkshake stop and order a couple mixed flavors. The cashier recognizes us and gives us a free size up. “How is your jewelry coming along?” “Pretty good if I do say so myself, I got some new stones I am super excited about.” I was always jealous of her artistic skill, I have absolutely no idea how she is so patient. She takes silver and gold wire and spends hours wrapping it in intricate patterns. Her knowledge of precious stones seems to know no bounds, she loves using them in her jewelry. I tried learning how to wrap from her once, my hooves were killing me after an hour and nothing looked any good. “Like?” “I got some fire opal, onyx and purple tourmaline Dad says it matches my eyes.” “Dad is in his office I presume?” Please don’t tell me he is in his office. “In his office, you know him. One track minded.” Silence ensued; we sat there drinking our beverages. “Let me take you home, I wouldn’t mind seeing Daybreak.” We caught a cab ride down to my father’s house. I always thought that home was really cozy, I sure do miss this house. We open the door to see Daybreak’s cute smile, she was very excited to see me. “Brother!” “Daybreak!” “Guess what I learnt today in school!” “Tell me.” “We learnt how to multiply! It’s really hard!” Grade three math……..I envied her, I have a test on multiplying matrices at the end of the week. “Aw I am sure you can do it!” Her eyes lit up when I gave her some reassurance. I sat down on the couch, Spindrift made some tea and we all caught up. I need to do this more often. Daybreak was showing us some pictures she drew when my father came through the door. “Ah long time no see!” He joked, he is one of my profs after all. “Late at the office, you like your job way too much.” I joked back. “That might be, but it isn’t liking me in return. I am working on a new formula with my colleague Dr. Thunderbird, no luck at all.” I wonder why he spends so much time with that miserable old coot, I had Dr. Thunderbird teach one of my classes last semester and he is absolutely dreadful. He is an absolute genius though, I walked in on him trying to create a new mathematical formula and the work on the board was beyond even my comprehension. “Cool, cool well anyways I probably should be heading out its kinda late.” “Alright I will see you bright and early tomorrow at eight, don’t even think about showing up thirty seconds after!” Worst thing having your dad as a professor, nothing gets past him. I get home and start to ruffle through my keys when the door opens. It’s Stardust. She looks quite salty. “Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was tonight?” Here it comes. “Never before have had I had the displeasure that I felt tonight. You make an absolute mockery out of me and my reputation.” I step inside and close door behind me. “I am sorry, I was just having a bit of fun with Spin.” “So your idea of fun is ruining any chance I have of being successful when I get out of art school?” I continued to apologize, she eventually settled down. We both got ready for bed, I decided to try my stupid charm on her. “Quit that.” She said. I turned the music up louder and proceeded to dance more ridiculously. “If you think you can act like a fool and think that I’ll…..” Oh man I just won the battle there, she totally cracked a smile. “Come dance with me!” She gave up her pouty mood and started to have some fun with me, I love it when she acts silly with me. “How but I take you out for a movie this Friday after my test?” I twirl her around. “You are lucky that you are hard to stay mad at.” She gave me an adorable look. Then out of nowhere it dropped. “Are you ok? What’s wrong?” “Well I don’t know, I feel we are in a bit of a rut. We have been together for three years now and I need a little more out of you, I love you but I need more support. You made me feel like you don’t believe in me today.” Damn. The more I think of it she is right. She is behind every decision I make and I haven’t been doing the same for her. “And after last winter….. I thought hard about what it would be like without you.” She was by my side every day in the hospital that month. It was nothing really, I accidently hit a tree when we went sledding down a hill and hit my back pretty hard. “I was fine dear I just injured myself a bit, it’s not like I was going anywhere.” “Look, I just need you to be behind me is all. I love you.” “I love you.” I pull her chin up and look into her eyes. “I promise to try harder.” We shared a soft kiss; I held her in my arms and thought about what she said. She looked just gorgeous, her azure mane was a bit stressed, I don’t mind though.