Two days later.
Ari went to HR first thing in the morning. They freaked out and folded immediately.
Now Ari was directly face to face with the boss of the company. He watched her carefully, tapping his pencil against the table. Between them was a folder, containing several pages of legal notices.
As it turned out, one of the more prominent pony communities associated with the SSP controlled a sizable legal firm, among other things. The Nelson Residence, as the small community was called, had quickly signed up to defend Ari. The SSP had way more transformed lawyers than Ari would have ever guessed. Many of them had lawyer cutie marks, even, which may or may not have made them even more powerful.
“I’ve been talking to a lawyer,” said Ari. “Asking me to cut the recolored parts of my hair is a clear violation of the Crown Act, and he’s encouraging me to sue if you don’t back down.”
It was a law created for the sake of black women who were unfairly being stopped from wearing their hair naturally. But the law hypothetically applied to partials like Ari.
The lawyer pony said her being outside the original intention only made him more interested in the case. She wasn’t the only partial going through this or similar circumstances. The SSP was simply looking for a particularly enticing instance of this discrimination to go after for the sake of expanding the rights of partials. Ari being disabled before ETS had the lawyer pony watering at the mouth.
But she did need to give them a chance to back down. Or to fire her.
“He’s even willing to take the case without charging me,” said Ari. “He’s been specifically waiting to litigate something like this. And since I’m disabled and can’t easily dye my hair… well, he really wants you to tell me I can’t wear my natural hair.”
Her boss was nervous now! He stopped tapping his pen and carefully considered it. Ari had never seen him stop tapping his pencil before.
“You could argue that doesn’t count as your natural hair,” he said.
“Do you want to be the one who finds out?” Ari asked. “Because if it does…”
He kept his pencil very still, taking in a deep breath.
“Alright.” He went back to tapping. “You win. You can wear your hair however you want.”
Ari sat there stunned.
“Really?” Ari tried not to let her surprise be too obvious. “And just so we’re clear. If I suddenly get fired in the next couple of weeks…”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Honestly, I’m impressed you put all of this together so quickly. You’ve never done anything like this before. Hell. You know what? I’m even giving you a raise.”
Ari walked back home from work, looking up absently at the sky.
“They did it…”
It still didn’t feel entirely real just yet. This was just too good. Ari got what she really wanted, the right to be herself. And on top of that, she got a raise and didn’t have to worry about being fired any time soon. The company firing her would mean certain legal death at this point. Ari had the thinnest line of security.
She’d been waiting hours for someone to jump out and yell ‘psyche’ but now that she was outside, staring up at the blue spring sky, she finally felt as if she’d gotten away with it all.
“Hehehe. They actually did it!”
It did feel like Ari had stolen something… but had gotten away with it!
She needed an outlet for the excitement, so Ari started running forward, laughing, free!
Hands deep in her pockets, Ari ran past the parking lot where the homeless camped out, jumping up and down on the curb. She skipped past the trash just outside her apartment and jumped up the stairs.
She was shocked at just how quickly they pulled it off, too! Normally, getting in contact with a lawyer… especially these days would take ages. Ari would have been impressed if the SSP managed to help her at all. Most organizations like this didn’t want to deal with your problems, not unless you kept pestering them or had a really good story to tell.
But these ponies? It took one day for Spring Breeze and her network to find a solution. Ari was in contact with the lawyer just a few hours after that. And the day after that… was today!
It didn’t take months to get the problem solved but two days.
How had they even created this organization so quickly?
Ari spun around on her heels. She sat down in her chair and spun around in that too before finally strapping her pencils, logging on to Discord, and typing out her message.
A>Spring Breeze!
A>Spring Breeze~!
Ari kicked her legs back and forth in her chair, rocking back and forth she could hardly contain all the energy she had.
SB<How did it go?
A>We did it! He backed down! I can wear my hair however I like from now on.
SB<I’m so happy for you! Congratulations. Send me a picture when the green grows back.
Ari would! The green part of her hair grew faster than the blonde, which had been annoying at first but now would help her out.
A>You have no idea how much this means to me, I’m like crying right now! I feel like this is the first time justice has ever prevailed in my life.
A>The SSP is the best. I’m converting to Shimmerism right now!
SB<For real? You don’t have to. We support partials regardless of their politics.
Ari paused. Truth, she hadn’t entirely meant what she’d said right now, had just been overly excited. She knew Spring Breeze wanted Ari to convert. She wanted everyone to convert.
It might have been easier had Spring Breeze just shouted ‘No takebacks! Your soul is mine!’
Ever since that day, Ari felt even more conflicted. An eternal nagging feeling took hold in the back of her head. It felt as though she were always struggling against something.
A>I have to admit you ponies have already helped me more than… probably anyone else ever has. I don’t think even my own family has ever stuck their necks out this much for me. Even though I’m 1% pony at best.
A>So I guess I owe you an apology. I really shouldn’t have assumed all Shimmerists were just anti-human bigots.
SB<That’s the difference, right? 1% pony is good enough for us. 99% human isn’t enough for them. You see who the real bigots are, don’t you?
A>Maybe.
Were the Shimmerists the good guys…?
Part of Ari just reflexively wanted to dismiss the idea. She typically hated groups like this but… it was becoming harder to deny that thought. There was this bit of tension in her brain like her mind was struggling.
A>I’m just not sure what to think anymore.
SB<I think you’re what we like to call Shim-curious!
Shim-curious… yeah, that made sense. ‘I’m not a Shimmerist, I’m just Shim-curious.’
SB<Have you watched the stuff I sent you yet? Maybe that will help you decide. You should at least watch Ragnarok’s stuff.
SB<He’s from Nelson Residence just like Nelson.
Ari had been avoiding that pony. He was a bit contentious for being so outspoken. Shimmerists loved him, non-Shimmerists not so much. Truth be told, Ari was a little wary of listening to anypony who gave themselves a name like that.
Still, his community had helped her out just now. Ari knew very little about Nelson Residence. The titular Nelson was the pony who owned the law firm that stepped up to help Ari. He opened his huge estate up to the community after transforming.
Though only about 50 ponies lived there, they were all fairly influential. Ari had heard rumors that only ponies with ‘high value’ cutie marks were allowed to live there, that it was a meeting ground for ponies both powerful and dissatisfied with the government.
Ari owed these ponies an open mind if nothing else…
A>I will! I’ll read more about Shimmerism. I owe you that much.