Extra, Extra!

"So you think Aero Flynn was hot?" Shooting Star asked Print as they trot through the hallway.

"Just look at the stallion," Print said, as if it was plain to anypony. "The suave, debonaire look..." Print bit his lip and smiled, unbuttoning the top buttons of his Oxford and fanning himself with a hoof. "Mmm-mmm!"

"But he got weird," Star contended as they rounded the corner to the biology lab. The last bell rang less than ten minutes prior, so the odd throng of ponies still roamed the halls. Most were on their way to clubs, but some had stayed a few minutes late to finish a test or something.

"He did," Print said, his fanboyish grin turning to a grimace. "But he was still good-looking."

"I guess," Star said dismissively, trotting into the lab. Print followed. Emmett, Ee-sang, and Mr. Cycle were embroiled in a game of Mazes and Monsters.

"Article okay?" Print asked casually. Mr. Cycle nodded and waved a hoof, not bothering to look up at him, too engrossed in devising ways to exact revenge on Ee's game-breaking characters. Print nodded happily, turning about and heading back out the door. He was supposed to go to the Smoothie Smoothie with Mango today to watch a mural artist, but he wanted to make sure his article was good enough to run in the Friday edition. Print knew Cometsong's op-ed would be good, and as much as he hated to admit it, Emmett's article about Mango and the peppers might blow up, since they did break a world record. The jury was still out on Ee-sang's piece.

"Have fun hoof-painting," a voice called. Print turned to see Cometsong cantering by.

"It should be pretty good," Print said.

"Yeah, he's supposed to be a famous artist!" Star added. Comet looked her up and down, appraising her. She didn't make any snap judgements, Print could tell, but she was certainly wary of a cheerleader who knew fine art.

"I know he's famous; he's the only Earth pony with a painting in the royal palace," Comet said in a guarded tone. Outwardly, she seemed friendly, but Print could tell she was still forming an opinion on Star.

"You can come if you want," Print offered.

"I've seen him before," she said, grinning. Print noticed that she relaxed, dropping her scrutiny. "I saw him at a gallery I went to with my Auntie, and then again at the Best Young Artist competition in Manehattan."

"You met him?" Star asked in wonderment.

"No, but I saw him both times," Comet explained. "You might want to watch out; he's a bit of a firebrand."

"He... lights things on fire?" Star asked.

"He gets into fights," Comet corrected. Print bit his lip. Hopefully Mango wouldn't make him angry. That reminded him, where was-

"Puh-rint!" Mango called, loping down the hall towards them. His mane was a mess, and he neglected to shave. He eyed Star appreciatively as he caught up to them. "And Stuh-ar~"

Cometsong winked at Print, ducking into the lab.

"Someone's gotta watch the boys," she giggled.

"Pa-rint!" Mango said again, deliberately overemphasizing his name. He gave Print a series of gentle shoves. "C'monc'monc'monc'mon," he said rapidly.

"Alright, alright, we're going," Print conceded, chuckling at his antics. "Magno," he retorted, turning and trotting to the exit. The green colt grinned and followed, Star in tow.

It wasn't a long walk to the Smoothie. Mango had heard the same thing Cometsong said about the artist; he was ludicrously talented, but also had a penchant for making a scene.

"Something to look for in artists," Mango said happily as they opened the door to the shop. It wasn't crowded, which was to be expected on a Thursday afternoon. A few fillies gossiped over shakes in the corner, and Strawberry Smoothie was talking to a stallion with a bag over his shoulder at the counter. Mango bounded up to the aqua stallion and elbowed him in the ribs.

"You the guy?" he asked, grinning.

"Mango!" Strawberry and Print chided in unison. Mango just brushed a hoof through his mane, which looked short next to the stallion's chestnut locks.

"The artist?" the stallion asked, surprised. "Yeah, that's me! Canvas Clawston," he said, sticking out a hoof for Mango to shake. Mango shook, but his face betrayed surprise.

"The hell dude; you're our age!" Mango exclaimed incredulously, nodding his head to Print and Star. Print blushed and hid his face. The stallion was more of a colt, quite young indeed.

"Mango, come on," Print said softly as he walked up to the pair, trying to mitigate the damage his brother's socially inept honesty might cause.

"So I take it you're Mango Smoothie, then? Your dad said a lot of good things about you," Canvas Clawston said happily, breaking off the hoof-shake.

"He is," Print said, cutting Mango off before he could reply. "I'm sorry; he gets a little excited sometimes..." Print said apologetically.

"Hey!" Mango called out, annoyed at being treated like a foal.

"No, it's totally okay!" Canvas said, smiling. "I /am/ pretty young... What was your name, again?"

"Oh, um, Print Inkwell," he stammered weakly, holding out a hoof. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Clawston."

"Please, Canvas is fine! And who is this young mare...?" he asked, turning to Shooting Star.

"Shooting Star," she said elegantly, holding out her hoof to be kissed. The artist didn't know how to respond, so she dropped it to a simple hoofshake. "Canterlot thing," she intoned at his surprise.

"So /you're/ the filly Print's taking to Prom!" Strawberry interjected, a smile lighting up his face.

"I am," Star said, blushing. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Smoothie."

"I'm glad you two could go together," Mr. Smoothie responded good-naturedly. "So, Canvas, what were you thinking for the mural?"

"Hmm, I was thinking of all sort of different fruits, sort of like planets, and having a pony with a smoothie off to the side. Almost like those old ads from right after The War?" Canvas suggested.

"Ha, I love those," Print said, amused that somepony else liked them too. They were old-fashioned and campy, but they were a throwback to a time when newspapers were much more professional, so he loved to use them as stock art for his articles.

"I know, right?" the artist laughed. "Only the greatest and most refined kitsch," he said in an affected Canterlot accent. Strawberry furrowed his brow at the term.

"Isn't kitsch bad?" he asked.

"It's an ad on the side of a building, Dad," Print quipped. Canvas looked at him for a moment, puzzled, before turning back to Strawberry.

"I can do something else if you like," he offered.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I thought kitsch meant it's bad art."

"It just means it's devoid of social commentary and it's firmly within the zeitgeist," Print explained. "It's safe and has mass appeal."

"Sounds like what you want in order to advertise the shop," Mango said, scratching his scruff. Strawberry agreed.

"Ah, when you put it that way, it makes perfect sense," he said, nodding. The door bell jingled, and a group of sweaty colts fresh from hoofball practice scrambled inside.

"I probably have to take them Strawberry said, simpering.

"No problem; I'll get right to work," Canvas chimed cheerily. They migrated outside, and out of his large bag he pulled all sorts of paints and brushes.

"Anything we can do to help?" Mango asked.

"Sure! Talking helps," Canvas said, rubber banding a brush onto his hoof and setting to work on the white background.

"So... Uh... Clawston... That's a Griffonian name, right?" Star asked.

"It is!" Canvas chirped happily, brushing a wide stroke across the wall.

"Adopted?" Star asked, asking the question on Print's mind for him.

"Nah, married into it," he said off-hoof, neatly outlining the shape of a papaya on the wall.

"Griffons are matrilineal?" Print asked with surprise.

"What?" Mango asked flatly.

"I didn't know husbands took their wives' names," Print elaborated. It didn't make much sense, especially since up until recently, a griffon in the Kingdom could have as many wives as he could afford.

"They don't; it works the same way as it does for ponies," Canvas said happily, filling in the outline. Realization dawned on Print, and he couldn't help but smile and bit his lip.

"He proposed to you then?" Print asked, doing his best to contain his glee. He'd never met a stallion in a same-sex marriage before, and certainly never one in an interspecies marriage.

"Beautifully," Canvas said, turning to them. "You interested in marrying your marefriend?"

"M-my... what?" Print stammered.

"Print's gay," Shooting Star said matter-of-factly.

"Dude, come on, don't spread that around, to ponies he doesn't know," Mango chided.

"He's gay, too. Duh! Like he even could be a homophobe!" Star retorted.

"Oh, so you're just going as friends?" Canvas surmised, starting a new fruit outline, this time a bunch of grapes.

"Yeah; school won't let colts go together," Print confirmed dejectedly.

"But you're out?" Canvas asked approvingly.

"Since I was a freshman," Print stated.

"It takes courage," Canvas said, his tongue between pursed lips as he varied the size and shape of the individual grapes. "But at least it sounds like ponies around here are okay with it. My town... Not so much." Print was glad he didn't know what the artist was talking about.

"So Mr. Smoothie is your dad?" Canvas asked after a while.

"Yup," Print and Mango replied at once.

"Adopted," Print clarified, knowing where the artist was going. He really did look nothing like his family.

"Nonsense," Mango joked. "We're twins!"

"I got the brains-" Print said, starting their stock routine they used when they had to explain it to somepony.

"-and I got the good looks!" Mango finished. "Besides, we've been feeding him so long his blood is basically a smoothie anyway."

"Smoothie blood runs through my veins like giant radioactive rubber pants," Print snarked.

"Don't ignore his veins!" Mango said with mock-gravity. Canvas cracked up, nearly smearing the wall with red paint.

"You two are a riot!" he giggled.

"According to the government, we're an insurgency," Mango replied without breaking stride.

"Terrorists win," Print intoned wryly, quoting a game. Star looked lost, but the artist seemed to get the joke. The aqua stallion took a moment to recover from his fit of laughter, and kept painting.

He painted for hours, drawing fruit after fruit orbiting a big ball of light in the center of the frame. The shading and detail was incredible; Print and Mango had brought various fruits out of the freezer to model for him, and he got every seed and hair perfect. Print and Star provided the models for the smiling, simplistically stylized ponies with smoothies on the side of the solar system image. Print really liked the way his mane looked when painted in such a way.

Canvas didn't like silence while he worked on something that, to him, was so simple, so they talked. They had talked about art, smoothies, mane styling tips, pulp novel, fighting games... After an hour of casual conversation, Print started taking down Canvas's remarks in a sort of informal interview. Though he was neutral on being in the press, the artist was wholly supportive of Print's journalism.

"Anything we could get you?" Mango asked for the umpteenth time as the sun dipped below the Canterlot rooftops, rendering it too dark to see. Canvas wiped his brow, pleased with the finished work. It felt like it was missing something, however. A smile leapt onto his face.

"Can I see your flank for a minute?" he asked Mango.

"The Kid is in demand," Mango snarked, presenting his flank.

"He just wants to look at your cutie mark, fatflank," Print quipped.

"Yep! I just need to see the colors and size," Canvas said, mixing his red and yellow to prepare for the mango color of Mango's smoothie. He changed the shape of the glass a little, but it was still recognizable, even as he painted it whooshing around the sun as a rocket ship.

The streetlights came on, bathing the side of the building in an orange glow. Somehow, there was no diminishment in the look of the mural.

"That's pretty good!" Mango commented approvingly as Canvas put the finishing touches on Mango's cutie mark.

"What did you expect? He's one of the best artists out right now," Star derided. Print remembered what she'd said about him before, readying his quill.

"So, you get into fights a lot, I hear," Print said with the reserved neutrality of a journalist.

"I do?" Canvas asked, climbing down from his ladder and wiping his drinking his brushes in the water bucket.

"Yeah! At galleries!" Shooting Star agreed. She looked just as confused now that Print had brought it up. Canvas didn't seem like the sort to get involved with that sort of thing.

"Oh, um, how do I put it...?" he said awkwardly, lazily applying a small signature to the bottom right of the mural. "Sometimes, ponies get mad that I'm married, or engaged or whatever."

"R-really? I actually haven't had that much of a problem," Print said, honestly surprised a place like a Manehattan art gallery would be a place where ponies would take issue with a gay stallion.

"They're generally older," Canvas qualified. "I'm sure our generation is a little better. Around here, at least."

Our generation. Truly, the aqua stallion was closer to a colt, and he wouldn't look out of place in one of Print's classes. He was humble, but Print still somehow felt inadequate next to Canvas's artistic genius. His own talent, putting words together, felt so paltry in comparison to the amazing art this stallion, not much older than he was, could knock out in a few hours time.  Print scratched his remark down anyway.

"Old greymanes tend to be jerks about stuff like that," Mango agreed.

"Good for you for defending yourself, though," Star asserted.

"Yeah, you're sort of a hero," Print mumbled without thinking. The artist looked at his quizzically.

"Overreacting to insults from homophobes makes me a hero?" he asked, cocking his head at Print.

"S'better than just sitting there and taking it," Print said, his face flushing. "Besides, I mean... There aren't many gay stallions to look up to." Canvas nodded. He felt weird to be considered a role model, especially for somepony so close to his own age.

"I'll bet you will be," Canvas said, clapping Print on the shoulder. "If you end up writing for a big paper... Who knows? Maybe you can change public opinion a little."

"I guess," Print agreed, smiling nervously. He had toyed with the very concept, but he had found it egotistical; he didn't want to achieve by using his sexuality as a gimmick, nor pigeonhole himself as a gay talking head. Canvas certainly seemed easy to talk to, and Print had no trouble opening up to him. He resolved to take the artist's advice. "I really should have a goal," he said, coming around.

"So the 'gay agenda' is a thing!" Mango snarked.

"Oh, ha-ha," Print deadpanned. Mango just made the Mangoface, a pinched little smirk that showed his dimples. As far as anypony could tell, it was unique to him. Print turned to Canvas as a thought occurred to him.

"How much do you charge for portraits?" he asked.

"Portraits? I... I'd have to think about it. Why?" Canvas said, unsure, and slightly jarred by the sudden request.

"All the most famous journalists and authors have at least one really good portrait of themselves. They put in under their big articles, op-eds, and stuff like that," Print explained. "Plus, it looks great on a resume."

"Oh, um... I'm not sure," Canvas said, biting his lip.

"Give it a thought; my dad has your address, I think," Print said. "You live in Manehattan?"

"Ponyville, actually," Canvas said, gesturing over the mountains to the village.

"That's in the middle of bumblefuck nowhere," Mango blurted. Star stifled a giggle at his terminology.

"Well, it's home," Canvas said cheerfully. "And it's closer than Manehattan, so I might be able to next time you're in town."

"Might as well; I hear that town is in desperate need of a real paper. It's so remote that an elementary school press is popular over there," Print said, looking as though he'd tasted something foul. School papers in Canterlot (of which there were many) generally weren't circulated outside their own school, though the Fast Times had some notoriety and had some circulation at other schools. Print had heard the editor in chief of the Solar Flare, Canterlot's (and Equestria's) biggest and most prestigious paper, occasionally looked at the school papers to scout talent, but he was reasonably certain it was a myth.

"From what you guys say, you'd like it," Canvas said, nodding to Print and Mango. "You'd probably like Manehattan, though, Star."

"Oh, I know," Star chirped happily. "My family has a high-rise there."

They talked for another half an hour as the sun set completely, Print wrapping up his impromptu interview with all the material he needed to make a good profile of the artist. Mango suggested Canvas return whenever he needed a male model; The Kid worked pro bono. Canvas humored him. Star asked for his address, stating she might like a portrait for the yearbook next year, as well. Canvas was honestly floored by the interest the trio showed him, quite pleased to have made a good impression. After making certain Strawberry found the mural to his liking, Canvas set off to the train station, only a few blocks away. Mango sent him on his way with a smoothie, and Print scrawled out his contact information so he could send a copy of the paper to Canvas so he could read the article. As the aqua stallion stepped onto the train bound for Ponyville, Print couldn't help but feel wistful, wishing he could someday achieve such great heights.