Suppression of Dissent (Patreon)
Content
Vogue and Raduga, serving a night in jail for leading a peaceful protest
Raduga is a good friend of Vogue. She'd grown up eagerly collecting pony fashion magazines and devouring book after book on fashion design. She finally managed to save up enough bits to move to Canterlot bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, dead-set on becoming one of the next top minds in fashion, a model. But every modelling agency she applied to always went cold after the first interview. Was it her broken Equuish? Raduga studied to improve it. It certainly couldn't have been her sleek, mud-dyed plumage- why, it was the envy of every griff back home!
It isn't until she overhears a photographer whispering to an agent- "ugly overgrown vulture"- that she begins to understand. There are no griffon beauty models in Equestria.
Raduga refuses to give up, eventually ending up at a modelling agency owned by one Lady Vogue. As expected, a few minutes into the interview, Vogue politely tries to explain that Raduga just isn't what the agency is looking for at this time. Frustrated, Raduga simply asks if it's because she's a griffon. Vogue tries to deflect, but Raduga presses the issue. Is it because she is not baby-faced little horsey? Because she have teeth, talon, beak? She is beautiful in her home country! As beautiful as any creature! And if she can appreciate beauty and art and talent of tiny horses, then why not can tiny horses appreciate Raduga?
Vogue gets defensive, a shouting match occurs, and she has the griffon escorted from the building. The nerve of that....that vulture! To suggest that Vogue couldn't look past someone's species? There's nothing discriminatory about it- ugly is ugly!
Vogue is so red-faced and angry she has to excuse herself from work for the rest of the day. The griffons words keep popping back into her mind, at unexpected moments. And slowly, Vogue realizes her agency doesn't have any griffon models. Or hippogriffs, or changelings, or dragons, or any creature. Just ponies......just thin, pretty, identical unicorns.
......Maybe something does need to change.
It takes time, but Raduga and Vogue end up forming a powerful, life-long friendship. Vogue uses her position to give the griffon a social leg up, and Raduga goes on to become the first griffon model in Canterlot, and the very first griffon fashion designer. Vogue's modelling agency is the first to open its doors to all creatures, and now boasts a colorful and gorgeous array of talented ladies from all around the world.