The Many Talents of Sunset Shimmer

by SonicSpeedster97

Sunset Shimmer: Master Artiste

The art studio at CHS was always quiet on Friday afternoons, and the Rainbooms had decided to take the opportunity to spend a bit of free time, which for Rarity, involved asking Sunset to paint her in one of her latest designs. “What brought this on, Rarity?” Sunset asked with a smile.

“Only my noticing that your history in art mostly consists of still life or… shall we say, abstract.” Rarity smiled, sneaking a quick wink. “I thought you might benefit from a bit of experience in portraiture.”

Sunset couldn’t help but smirk; she knew full well that Rarity was referring to her double life as the street artist Flanksy, as she was the only one of her friends who knew about it. “Well, I appreciate the thought, but I actually do have a bit of experience in that department.”

“From Equestria?” Rainbow asked, trying her best to ignore the attentive look Twilight was giving her to make sure she was doing her homework.

“Another hobby I picked up as a filly.” Sunset nodded as she continued her painting. “I admit I wasn’t as good at it as I was with the music, but I got better as I started studying with Princess Celestia.”

“You mean the princess was your muse?” Rarity asked in surprise, accidentally breaking her pose. Sunset quickly pointed with her brush to indicate for her to resume her pose, which she quickly did.

“Now and again, yeah.” Sunset nodded. “But I didn’t do portraits all that often; don’t know why. I guess I just felt more confident with still life for some reason.”

“And that confidence carried over when you came here.” Twilight surmised.

“Yeah, I don’t get why, but I just feel more secure when I’m painting something that can’t… y’know, look back at me.” Sunset shrugged, turning to Rarity with a smirk. “No offense.”

Rarity smirked right back, knowing exactly what she was doing. “None taken, Darling.” The girls couldn’t help but chuckle at that little callback as Sunset kept working.

Soon enough, she set her brush down. “Done.” Rarity stepped down and looked at the painting.

“Oh. Magnificent, Darling.” she smiled and hugged Sunset a bit. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been holding it in for a while.” The girls quickly made room and allowed Rarity easy access to the hallway so she could exit to the nearest ladies’ room.

Sunset couldn’t help but feel like Rarity wanted to talk to her about something else while they were alone… and she needed to use the bathroom too, so she slipped out after her and followed her into the restroom. Carefully, she slunk into the booth next to Rarity’s and smiled through the wall. “Go ahead and ask; we’re alone.”

She could practically hear Rarity smirk. “It seems you already know what I want to ask.” she pointed out; it was clear that Rarity wanted to know how Sunset became Flanksy.

Sunset shrugged. “I did a little tagging back in the day.” she shrugged. “Y’know, a way to tell everyone what places I wanted or had control over.”

“I remember. Part of your… shall we call it, ‘probation’… after the Fall Formal was to remove your tag from the side of the school.” Rarity nodded.

“Yeah well, even after you and the others showed me the way, I still kinda liked the appeal of street art.” Sunset shrugged. “But I threw a little more of my artistic nature into it rather than my lust for power.”

“And how did ‘Flanksy’ come about?” Rarity asked.

“I didn’t pick the name myself if that’s what you’re asking.” Sunset smiled at the wall. “People just saw my street art and put a name to it. All the positive feedback after I did so much wrong with this town… gave me some confidence in my new life and what I was doing with it.”

“Well, I’m pleased we could all help you, Darling.” Rarity smiled as the girls both finished in the restroom and washed their hands.

Sunset knew the girls would want to know about her numerous other talents, but that would have to do it for today.

Comments

[Pete100]

This actually makes me wonder about the others hobbies.

[Fillyfoolish]

"Darling, paint me like the Prench"

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Nice to see more of this story. Fun to get some retrospective about Sunset's art interests. I like the explanation tying in with her whole "Flanksy" identity as well.