Very Carefully
Sunset Shimmer stood in front of Carousel Boutique, and checked her phone. It was almost 10:00pm. She looked around—the streets were nearly deserted. She nudged the door to the boutique—unlocked. The shop was still open, and nobody who knew her was around.
In other words, everything was perfect. Holding a rolled-up piece of poster paper tightly under her arm, she walked inside.
Carousel Boutique looked as it always did—lavishly furnished and full of beautiful designs, consisting of flowing lines and elegant, jewelry-related shapes. Those designs extended not only to the the building's interior decorating, but also the clothing the boutique housed. Sunset admitted to secretly feeling at home whenever she visited Rarity at work. In another lifetime, she could easily have worked here herself.
But Rarity's passion, as she had stated for the longest time, was to bring her personal penchants for creativity, artistry, and design to life for the benefit of others. Seeing others achieve joy through her creations, in even the smallest of ways, made Rarity feel alive inside. It gave Rarity the motivation to keep creating, and keep feeling joy herself, which she always poured into the next creative endeavor—an infinite loop of happiness.
Meanwhile, it had been less than a year before Sunset Shimmer could truthfully say she'd even started to understand what it was like to care for other people—to say nothing of other ponies back in Equestria.
Sunset closed her eyes, curled her fingers, and took a deep breath, pushing the shameful memories of who she used to be to the back of her mind. It was certainly becoming easier to do, but it wasn't an activity she enjoyed having to do.
And yet, Sunset refused to take steps to erase those memories from her mind completely. As troublesome as they could be to manage whenever they popped up, they also allowed her to remind herself just why she was doing things like... well, like what she was about to do.
Anything for my friends.
Sunset clasped her hands together.
Absolutely anything. You all saved my life, and my future. I'll repay that favor, as many times as it takes, whenever it's in my power. And more, if I can. Because I love you all, so much.
"Can I help you?" a voice said, jarring her from her thoughts.
Sunset opened her eyes. A tall, suited, gray-skinned and pink-haired woman stood in front of her, forcing Sunset to look up due to the woman's stature. "Um, yes, hello," she said, shifting to a smile in short order. "Miss Hemline, I presume?"
Prim Hemline narrowed her eyes. "Yes? Do we know each other?" She adjusted her glasses, leaning in for a closer look at the girl in front of her. She then pulled back, her eyes widening in invitation. "Ah, yes. I've seen you with Rarity quite a bit. One of her friends?"
"Yes, ma'am." Sunset nodded, holding out her hand. "I'm Sunset Shimmer. It's very nice to meet you."
Prim shook Sunset's hand and nodded in return. "The same," she said, then craning her neck to look behind Sunset. "I must also admit that I'm surprised to not see Rarity with you."
Prim walked outside of the boutique, and Sunset followed. The two stopped in front of the boutique's window displays. Paint supplies still lay inside both, and while the mannequins within were suitably adorned, the display walls themselves were half-painted, half-scrawled over with mural attempts that looked... "rushed", to put it charitably. Sunset hadn't been impressed when she first saw them, but she wasn't about to tell Rarity that.
"Rarity was in the midst of a project for the boutique. She was here most of yesterday and all of today." Prim checked her wristwatch. "But it's rather late, and her deadline is tomorrow afternoon, when the Canterlot City Fashion Week style scout visits. I saw her leave the shop an hour ago, but..." She trailed off.
Sunset took one more deep breath. It was time to put some of the skills from the old days back to work. She only hoped she still had it in her to pull them off. "Actually, Miss Hemline," she said, "that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Oh?" Prim said. "Go on."
Sunset rolled her wrist. "I think it's fair to say that we've both watched Rarity work her fingers to the bone on this project."
Prim nodded. "Honestly, she's already duly impressed me over the last several months." She looked up at the window display and sighed. "That said, I don't keep her on for her groundbreaking design talents. What she brings to the table in that department is average. Sometimes slightly above when she gets extremely lucky.
"However, she makes up for that with her work ethic. Her dedication." Prim gestured to the window display. "Even with this, I see the effort. I see the sweat." She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately, sweat does not go very far when it comes to Fashion Week judges. I should know—it took far too much of my own, over far too many years, for me to be where I am today."
"I respect that a great deal," Sunset said. "And I know Rarity does, too."
"Then the sweat was worth it," Prim replied, as the two went back into the shop. "But I will likely have to have what Rarity's come up with here replaced as soon as possible. A pity. Anyway, you said you had a reason for being here? I'm about to close, so you'll have to make it quick. I certainly hope you don't expect me to take any custom orders sixty seconds before closing."
Sunset shook her head. "Certainly not. But I will ask for a huge favor. If it's okay."
Prim tilted her head. "Name it first, then we'll decide from there."
"I'm an artist as well," Sunset said. "When Rarity went home, she discussed her vision for your display with me, but regretted that—in her own words—she 'didn't have the skill to pull it off'. So she told it to me, and I interpreted what she described."
She unrolled the poster paper in her arm, and showed its contents to Prim, whose eyebrows shot up in a matter of moments. Sunset took it as a good sign—even when others suggested she do so, she hadn't yet gotten up the nerve to try pitching her artwork to professionals. "I can put this into practice with your display, easily. If you'll let me."
Prim placed her fingers to her chin as she looked over the picture before her. She furrowed her eyebrows, and fidgeted her jaw back and forth, for an almost unbearable number of seconds, before exhaling through pursed lips.
"I'm not the biggest fan of letting unknown factors muck about my shop, Sunset. I'm sure you understand. There are business logistics in place which must be considered regarding what you're proposing—and they are just the start of the myriad possible complications which could arise."
Sunset was used to denials. Her old self always treated them as challenges as she manipulated students and authority figures into giving her what she wanted, without batting an eyelash. Once more, she told herself that those days were long past. Even if it required calling on old instincts, this was negotiation.
She pressed on, regretting that she had only one card to play, but determined to play it to its fullest. She'd made Rarity cry for years. No longer.
"Please, Miss Hemline," she said, gripping the top of the poster more firmly. "I know this means a lot to Rarity." She gestured around the shop. "Pleasing you, and seeing this boutique, which she's put so much of herself into, thriving and making people happy, means so much to her."
She saw Prim's face soften, just a bit. Sunset went for the gusto, looking squarely into Prim's eyes.
"I've seen someone at the end of their rope before. And more importantly, I've seen Rarity at the end of her rope before. I know that, to you, this is a side project. Fashion Week happens every year, and you have more than enough inside this shop to impress any scout. But to Rarity, it was her chance to really prove herself. And she already feels like she's failed. Not just herself, not just the shop, but also you."
Prim sighed and shook her head. "If there is one complaint I have about that girl, it is that everything is of world-ending importance to her. She and I will have to talk about that sooner than later." She put her hands on her hips, staring towards the wall past Sunset. "I suppose it might not be the end of the world for me to occasionally let her know that I'm actually in her corner."
"That's great!" Sunset said. "She'll learn the lesson that life goes on, even after failure. But in the meantime, that still leaves you with a window display which could stand to look that much better. One that could still wow your scout if treated right. Let me take care of that. Please. She's..." Sunset looked away. "She's done so much for me. More than you know."
Once more, Prim made a show of thinking long and hard about Sunset's words—to say nothing of making Sunset antsy in the depths of her heart—before finally answering. "Sunset?"
An apprehensive Sunset looked back at a Prim Hemline whose expression was both satisfied and determined. She barely had time to register what that expression meant before Prim asked, "How do you take your coffee?"
Sunset smiled, her heart leaping with joy and relief. "I'm a chai latte girl, actually."
Prim chuckled. "You'll fit right into this business." She walked to her dresser, dug into her purse, and slipped two bills into Sunset's hand. "Two grandes, on me. Go get them, we'll need them."
Sunset took the bills eagerly, then allowed Prim to lead her to the displays, and open their access doors to show Sunset where she could enter and exit them. "Be sure to close them fully if you want to paint them properly," Prim said. "You likely already know from Rarity how much of a stickler I am for quality."
"Yes, ma'am," Sunset said. "I'll stick to those standards."
"See that you do," Prim said. "How long do you think you'll need?"
Sunset looked at the drawings on the poster paper, then looked inside the window displays. "I know we're on borrowed time here. If I work at a fast but measured pace, I can have us out of here in six hours."
"No need for that much of a rush," Prim said. "I have cots in the back for just such occasions. Usually they're for all-night sewing benders, but you're welcome to them just the same. It looks like we'll both need them. At any rate, feel free to get wired, then get to work."
Sunset chuckled. "Will do. Thanks so much, Miss Hemline." She turned to leave for the nearby coffee shop.
"Oh, and Miss Shimmer?"
Sunset turned to around to see Prim's eyes glinting from the fluorescent lighting above. "I am to assume we never had this conversation? If only for a certain street artist's sake?"
Sunset froze. "I—"
"You're as good a storyteller as Rarity is a designer," Prim continued, with a sly smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. She pointed to Sunset's poster. "But your... 'distinct' art style has garnered a bit of a reputation. I recognized it right away. That said, Rarity is exceedingly lucky to have a friend such as you. Allow me to tell you now what I plan to tell her tomorrow: be proud of your talents, and of yourself."
Sunset thawed. Thank goodness. "I'll work on that. Thanks again," she said, calming down while also nursing an acute case of flattery.
Prim walked over and handed Sunset a piece of paper. "Standard release of liability form. Even 'favors', as you call them, must be kept on the books."
Sunset looked the paper over. The wording was sparse, to the point, with no fine print. The display window job would be an unpaid piece of creative work, and she would be have to be careful—Carousel Boutique would assume no liability if she hurt herself.
Which was fine with Sunset. It wasn't as if she ever painted her murals for compensation, or even "exposure", and working inside a boutique window would be a lot more comfortable than working with a brick wall outside. She signed the paper on the bottom line and handed the paper back.
"Very good." Prim took the paper, and walked along the boutique, stopping amidst several elaborately-dressed mannequins. "I will begin taking inventory of the boutique's outfits, as well as auditing our outstanding orders. It will take me several hours as well, but I should do so anyway since scouts are coming. Take what time you need, but do try to hurry just the same. I like my beauty sleep as much as you younger girls."
"I understand," Sunset said. "Let's put this shop's best face forward."
Prim's eyebrows raised. "Seriously, you would fit in so well here."
Sunset left the boutique, pulling her hoodie over her head, and tucking her hair inside. It was time to go to work—but like every other night, no one could know just who was working. Even if the mysterious street artist Flanksy was, for once, about to embark on a legitimate assignment.
Sunset stopped outside to look at the displays, her mind's eye replacing their current contents with her own vision, her own design—a design that, hopefully, Rarity would be proud of, and which still did Rarity's wonderful dresses justice.
She thought of what Rarity's sure-to-be-pleasantly-surprised face would look like when she arrived in the morning. She thought of Rarity's future career prospects, which Rarity herself would no longer have to worry about. At least not for a long time.
And I'll have helped make it happen. I'll have helped make her life better.
As the warmest and most welcome of feelings spread through her body, Sunset hugged herself and smiled.
"So, this is what it's like," she whispered, to nobody in particular.
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This was sweet.
..."Flanksy"?
That's awful. But perfect. But awful.
edit: And, uh, canon, which is a little more on the nose than I expected. I am still very behind.
This was cute. Your short stories always brighten my day.
So, mediocre with occassional moments of greater brilliance? Or was Prim downplaying Rarity's talents earlier?
Whatever the case, lovely explanation for just how Sunset got those displays painted. Thank you for it.
Awww... This SO CUTE!!!!
And also explains a lot of things XD
Thank you for writing this :D
This is some well done Sunset Shimmer. You captured her conniving yet reformed and empathetic nature beautifully and pulled together what felt like the most important scene of what could have been a much longer tale. Bravo!
Edit: Ah, didn't realize that this was based on a clip. Well, good job filling in the gaps nonetheless.
Eeeee~
I absolutely loved that short when I saw it and I very nearly squeed when I saw you of all people publish a story with that cover picture.
This was adorable and a wonderful addition to the short... And it's certainly a better explanation than the "Rarity forgot to lock up the shop" that I had so far.
My only regret is that there's no shipping. (I just can't get over Rarity's face in the last shot of that short).
Also, you missed a quotation mark there.
This was sweet, but I was honestly expecting a tale of Sunset venturing into the wild world of Breaking and Entering!
D'awww!
8685586
Yeah no that name was all Hasbro I actually don't get the joke/reference if there is one and I'm that one person who busted a gut at "Maud Squad" right off the bat ^_^;
8685589
I like to think Prim's one of those gals who prefers to let folks take away their own meanings.
8685615
Makes my job harder when the audience is desynced, for lack of a better term.
Thanks! And yeah, seriously, I'm waffling towards between whether or not to just post the clip in question. It's great that there's more EQG these days, but wow is it disorganized.
8685656
It's a direct callout to Banksy, the most famous (and wholly pseudonymous) modern graffiti artist.
8685683
OMG THANK YOU THAT WAS BUGGING ME FOR THE LONGEST AND I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO START GOOGLING BECAUSE HORSE PUNS.
Nice little piece of slice of life you wrote here.
8685677
Yeah, keeping up with it has been hard when there's no discernible order to them. That and when so many of the 2-3 minute episodes are... straight up repurposed season 2 FiM plots, which really takes the wind out of my sails.
8685638
Quite understandable!
That said, welcome to the Delightful Zone, where three basic rules are always in play:
1) Add More Lesbians
2) People Really Are That Nice
3) Pretty much Everyone Wears Glasses.
derpicdn.net/img/2016/11/11/1293542/medium.png
Enjoy your stay.
8685625
i.imgur.com/lvtEFCa.jpg
i.imgur.com/HgVZGJA.jpg
Yaaaaaaaah sorry, no shipping today tho--Prim keeps her business on the up and up
8685776
Oh? You'd think such a successful business would do lots of shipping.
"Here are our current summer dresses, over here are hats and accessories, and to this side we have cute couples."
"You mean outfits designed for couples?"
"Hmm? Oh yes, those too. Rarity, Sunset, do stop teasing those customers with your thinly veiled swooning and affections."
8685827
...you win.
I really do hope this gets put into the featured box this was really cute and really good.
Oh, nice! Short, sweet, and to the point. Always nice to see Sunset put those reformed villain skills to good use!
This was lovely. I quite enjoyed reading this
This is so lovely and sweet and it’s an excellent take on what happened between those scenes in the short.
amazing job as always.
What you did there.
I see it.
But I probably see something different than you do.
While this was definitely sweet and going into my favorites, to me it's just both more amazing and more amusing to think that Sunset managed to do it without getting spotted at all somehow.
This was sweet. Those girls are lucky to have each other in their lives.
I'll give a 'stache' to whoever did this amazing vector of Sunset with a hat. Out of all the artwork of Sunset I've seen, I just can't imagine her with glasses and methinks they fit her not.
8686175
The ‘stache goes to DHX, because that’s a screencap.
8686233 It's most likely from one of the shorts. Either way, Sunset looks amazing in that hat.
8686075
Pretty common these days, especially in any business that uses third parties, contractors, designers etc. And even if you don't, it's a 30 second search on google for a free bit of what the lawyers term 'boilerplate' you can download and use.
I don't know how I should feel about Sunset being a graffiti artist.
I work at a string of parks, particularly cleaning, so whenever there's graffiti I'm usually the one who needs to clean it up. Part of me now hates my favorite MLP character because she reminds me of the jackasses that use spray paint to draw dicks, write profanity, and other stupid, ugly shit like tags that results in 30+ minutes of hard scrubbing to get rid of. 
With that said I never had to clean anything that came close to approaching art so I don't know if I'd get angry about cleaning something if it actually looked good and couldn't offend anyone like with the singular piece of outside work that we saw the end result of. Still I feel for the guys who have to clean up after her, Hasbro would have ruined my favorite character if her work didn't look good. 
8685752
Question.
Why are glasses so gosh darn cute???
8685752
unf
8687052
Yah, yours is an understandable and sympathetic sentiment. Still, like you said, different scenarios. It helps if you remember that MLP isn't Earth--human world included--and thus people default to being in touch with their better angels.
In EQG World, what Sunset is doing appears, for all intents and purposes, to be thoroughly appreciated. A big part of this is likely due to the fact that her street art contains actual design sensibilities and theming and actually ends up straddling the line between graffiti and murals, as opposed to gang tags and profanity and dicks. So people stop to appreciate it, stand around and marvel at it, like in the short this story is based on.
i.imgur.com/OrjELdg.png
i.imgur.com/8nmWvx5.png
...also, yeah, Sunset's totally a Love Shocker.
Main point: MLP/EQG is a world where constructiveness always wins out, and its denizens appreciate that constructiveness, down to its base intent. (Also, show for young/tween girls.) Sunset is more likely to land city grants as opposed to being chased by the cops. If you were a park worker, you probably wouldn't be ordered to clean up most of what Sunset put down, mainly because she'd likely respect the parks enough to stay away from them, or just use whatever empty walls were around lol. They'd be decorative.
(Slightly personal note: I grew up in an area where the graffiti was exactly like you describe and worse, cause gangs and gunshots. These days what's on the walls is far more akin to what Sunset does, and better. Awkward talks about gentrification and property values aside, I couldn't help but smile upon seeing such a change.)
That said, her doing this stuff without permission and anonymously, and the consequences of doing so (so long as you don't fall in the trap of MLP's justice system being like Earth's as well--a VERY common trap on this site indeed) is a totally legitimate venue to explore.
8685736
To be fair, this has been the case at least 50% of the time. Movies 1 and 3 were the pilot again, Dance Magic was a Season 4 plot, Movie and Mirror were a condensed Starlight arc. RR gave us an original epic but sacrificed a lot of the show's joy to do so, and LoE... well.
So yeah, it's a toss-up. I admit to greatly enjoy seeing humanized versions of the old plots on a Sliders level. That said, I also can't wait till they take the training wheels back off and start telling original stories at full-size again. Ones that take the full differences between the worlds into account.
8686128
Paintbrushes and equipment OSP.
8686076
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/9/15/98838.png
Flanksy? Isn't that the name Octavia uses in that other story about street art? Idk the name, have to go back through my favorites list....
8687573
I assume you've seen the trailers for the new Equestria Girls special? That looks pretty original to me.
Beautiful story. Sunset is best human, always and forever.
I love it. It's weird that the fandom hasn't paid more attention to the fact that Sunset Shimmer is canonically a skilled and semi-legal street artist using a synonym for "ass" as her nom-de-guerre.
8687052
yo buddy I work as a cleaner at a Tesco, use some turps or white spirit and steel wool or if you can get it some raw TFR (traffic film remover) for me it strips it off anything I could care to mention we keep a bunch of turpentine bottles around for when asshole kids decide that a thirty foot cock is funny.
you don't even really need that much of it just throw it on and give it a min and it loosens it off.
8687743
The Shimmer memories one? Yeah.
I mean I make it a point not to watch MLP trailers (they always lie, I don't even think it's on purpose but they just do lol) but I did stumble upon the synopsis last week and my hype is through the ceiling, yes.
8687952
The park provides paint remover sprays for us to use that work relatively well, but it still requires quite a bit of scrubbing to get rid of the stronger stuff. One of the problems I face is that they tend to tag things that already have a layer of paint on it so anything strong enough to get rid of the graffiti also gets rid of the base coat of paint (if it's bad enough we can paint over things). Anyway thanks for taking the time to try to help. 
Thanks for the advise.
8688043
that happened on one of the fire doors at the back lol
I never got round to painting over it
And thus, the legendary Flanksy was born.
This was a sweet story. that being said, i don't read that much slice of life stories (this is the only on), but it did catch my eye enough to read it and i got to say that it was nice of Sunset Shimmer to help Rarity like that she's a good friend to have. The story is good keep up the good work
8686075
Yep, release-of-liability forms and indemnification forms are quite common in the business world. I’ve signed at least one—and I’ve sent out at least one—in the course of doing business as a freelance graphic designer; it’s not at all unlikely there’d be a few among the standard business forms kept in a retail manager’s office. A little insurance goes a long way when the alternative is a lawsuit.
8687554
I do not consider it a trap; I consider it no less valid an assumption and take issue with such a dismissive characterization of it. (For that matter, which justice system? Each of the Earth’s 200+ countries has its own, which might and probably does differ hugely from others.) The franchise writers certainly have avoided the seamy side of life in, and indeed lots of other details about, the human world—but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Indeed, I’ve founded my entire series of stories on the idea the human world must work at least roughly similarly to the real world, that it is every bit as wide, varied, and complex, with a similar range of highs and lows. I’m willing to follow the spirit of the franchise’s storytelling, finding ways to soften or slightly idealize events and actions, but I consider that a tonal and thematic element, not one of fundamental world-building, the same way any modern family or children’s entertainment softens aspects of their settngs.
All that said, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and have absolutely no quibble with it. Indeed, I consider it a brilliant explanation and would be very tempted to borrow or allude to it.
8690660
Cool!