So there I was, being nagged at by Auntie Celly.

"You have to learn a profession," she said so sternly, a little frown on her usually so placid face. "You can't rely on my hoof to hold your bits for the rest of your days."

"I already don't do that," I told her flat out. "I'm an artist, and you know it."

"Where is your art?" She looked around my room, one brow raising. "I happen to enjoy art very much. Are you a painter, or a sculptor?"

"There's more art than those two." I shook my head slowly, eyes closed.

"Poet? Glass blower?" She rolled a hoof in the air slowly. "Don't leave me to guess random things. Tell me."

Oh how mad she could get when she didn't have any of her 'important' ponies in view, and I wasn't one of those, trust me. "I am a trash wizard," I explained to her, a hoof at my chest. I felt so proud.

"You can barely use that horn on your head. You sleep during magic class and have shown no aptitude. By what measure would you be a wizard of anything?"

So cold. I tell you, I was a little hurt. "Well, fine then... Then I am a prince. I am royalty, you can't deny that, Aunt. A prince of trash!" And that was when I picked out that name. I still like it, mind. "And I rule over it with a careful hoof."

She put a hoof over her face. "You haven't shown me how this is art. What have you done?"

I tapped the ground. "You're standing on it, to start."

She looked down with a squint. "I see a floor in need of cleaning. Why haven't you allowed the maids to do their job, Golden?"

"But they have." I ran a hoof softly over the surface. "This is re-used pallets and--"

"You tore up my castle's floor and replaced it with junk?!" she blurted out, wings shooting out either way.

"And it's looking fabulous," I finished for her. "I worked in old rings from soda cans and glittering bits from the glass of old bottles and isn't it marvelous?" I really did like the look of it, trust me, Bling Momma.

Angel tilted her head at Prince. "Floor not look like that." She turned this way and that, looking at the perfectly standard floor. The walls also looked like the walls in much the rest of the castle. "Where art?"

"About that..."

She was livid! Furious. Kind of angry, ya know? "You will find a more respectable way to idle your days, and you will restore my room to the way you found it. You did not ask permission to tear apart my castle, Golden Lash."

"Trash Prince," I reminded her. Oh, that would just be the first of countless times.

"So long as you live under my roof, accepting my bits, you are Golden Lash." She thumped my chest with a metal-covered hoof, and let me remind, that kinda hurts. "I will be sending ponies in here to get this place back where it was, and I am not interested in arguments. Are we clear?"

"Boss pony not nice." Angel crossed her arms, on her hind legs and frowning down at her friend. "Why stay?"

Trash lifted his shoulders. "I ain't finished with the story, Big Momma. Now sit back down and let me continue."

So they tore it up. My first art installation, pow, gone. But I wasn't gonna give up, oh no! I mean, I already got my cutie mark. It was pretty clear, I think. I made magic out of trash, and I planned to do that, so I did!

I collected the choicest things and got better at working it. In fact, you're wearing it right now. Don't look like that. Trash can make really great bling. You think Celly was giving me tons of bits to buy the bling with? No! So I made it myself. I made all of it.

If I didn't tell ponies where it came from, they even liked it. Like clockwork though, Momma, the moment I mentioned how I made it, they lost all interest. Bigots. You... still like yours, right?

Angel tilted her head to the left, then the right. She brought up a pawhand to brush at her long ears, but they weren't festooned with rings that moment, done up like Celestia as she was. It took her a moment to move and find the big necklace dangling from her. "Pretty." She held it up, trying to imagine it as trash.

Trash truly had worked magic, she decided. Some kind of crazy magic that turned trash into shinies. This was a magic she could appreciate. She began to bob her head firmly. "Like. Good."

I knew you'd get me... So then Celly comes storming in, a bee already in her bonnet. Not a literal one. She was annoyed, get me? "You skipped class again!" she started, stomping as she came up to me. "And what is this?" She was eyeing all the shining goodness I was wearing. "I didn't authorize these purchases."

"Weren't no purchases to authorize, Auntie." I turned to her with my usual charming smile. Not that it ever seemed to work on her. "Here, I made one for you." I took out a necklace, the same one you're wearing actually.

She brushed it aside with a big ole' sigh. "Golden, go to class, just once, and pay attention. This is for your own good." She pointed out the door. "Now."

"Now? The class is already over?"

"The teacher is waiting for you. Now." She sent me scurrying, so I wasn't there to see the next part, but she told me, later. She only looked at my necklace after I was gone and she actually liked it.

She didn't take it, you can guess that. It's still right here, not on her neck. But she did like it. She even relaxed a little about my trash magic, even if she never did let me remodel the room.

Still hates the name though. So I was off to magic class. Now, see, magic. I like magic as much as any unicorn. It's sparkly and useful, but you have to memorize so much stuff to get it to work right. That ain't really my thing? I'd rather be working my trash magic, as the Trash Prince, you know?

One day I'm trying to transform a flower. Why? They seemed to think changing flowers was a fine thing to do. 'Easier than animals and they complain less', I think they said the reason was. Whatever. So I was to make this purple flower into a bright red flower. Trick was, that flower was only red when it was a lady flower and purple when it was a boy flower.

Did you know flowers had boys and girls? I didn't either! I didn't even know that when I was trying to do the magic. But I tried. Now, a little thing I didn't know until after the fact, you see, glass and metal in just the right way can really mess with magic. So, I try to zap this flower into being another color, but my magic gets caught up in the crown I was wearing that day. It bounces around all crazy, then ricochets around the room. Other ponies are squealing and diving out of the way, the instructor right along with them.

Kapow! It hits me right in the back. Right where I used to have a little prince. Now that was a wierd feeling. The bad kind of wierd. Sucked right up into me, felt like I was split open back there, which I was basically, but it was like someone took an axe to me, all wet and bloody and ick. I made quite the noise and crashed.

Angel had her hands on her face in a shocked expression. She lowered them a precious inch. "Cast spell again."

"Say what?"

"Cast spell again." She wriggled her fingers in a loose display of magic power. "Turn from girl to boy."

He smiled lopsided. "You think I didn't try that? That spell was meant for a flower, not a pony. It shouldn't have even worked at all." He glanced over his shoulder at where his altered genitals were hidden under his tail. "Lucky it only got one part of me instead of the whole thing."

"Trash Prince," she sighed out, grabbing him suddenly and wrapping around him in a great big hug of sympathy. "Hurt?"

"Nah, no... it don't hurt anymore." He wriggled a bit in her grasp but wasn't trying very hard to escape. "Just in that moment. That was something else..."

Angel suddenly rolled him over onto his back and began rubbing his belly with both paws, making him wriggle with poorly constrained laughter, though she was trying to gently rub rather than tickle. "Angel sorry. Not understand. Now understand. Poor Trash. Make all shinies?" She moved a hand to her necklace, then waved it at the vast collection of jewelry and rods and other things.

"Every one of them." He was smiling with confident pride, even if her other hand was making him squirm with belly rubs. "In fact... I wanted to make something for you, just for you."

"For Angel?!" She released him, both hands going back to her face in shock. "Trash... Good mate. Sorry say not stallion, is stallion." she nodded firmly with a little frown. "Fix, must fix."

"Nah." He set a hoof on her face. "I am what I am. Not freaking out about it anymore. I'm a stallion even if I got odd parts. And you are a mare, uh, rabbit mare. Tsuki mare? What are those called?"

She shrugged helplessly. "Doe."

"Doe! Right. You're a right pretty doe, big and in charge." He rolled upwards and set a hoof on her side. "My blingin' momma Angel. Hey, righteous manecut." He reached higher, brushing at her well-mannered bangs.

Angel's cheeks warmed with obvious nervous delight at being so complimented. "Friend help. Show how groom. Tomorrow, Angel groom Trash."

"And Trash will like it." He rose and approached his closet. His glowing horn began to put things away even as other things came out. "Tomorrow, I plan to show you where the magic happens. We're going to go on a hunt."

Her eyes lit up. "Hunt?" She hadn't had a chance to hunt since she came to Trash's room. "Yes, hunt!" She clapped her paws with growing excitement. "Hunt shinies?"

"Exactly." He nodded firmly even as he dug around in his collection. "Gonna find some things waitin' to shine, then bring them to my secret lab."

"What?" Angel leaned in from behind, sniffing at him lightly as if the answer could be found if she found the right scent.

"Where I do my magic." He threw a hoof out wide. "Where we turn trash into shiny things."

"Best magic," she quickly agreed, bouncing in place a full foot into the air with every excited bounce. "Yes. Angel good hunt. Angel find. Trash see."

"With you at my side, I'm totally chill." He pulled a long string out from the cluttered mess. "Here we go. This needs to shine."

Angel squinted at it, trying to imagine how the simple white string could ever shine. "Not shiny," she pointed out. "Magic?"

"It'll be a kind of magic," he agreed with that lazy smile of his. "Tomorrow. For today, my big momma done worked up a sweat. Time for a bath."

Angel looked over herself. She didn't have any obvious dirt or clumped up fur. She had groomed herself, with help, just that morning! "Angel groomed."

"You are perfectly pretty, but also a little stinky. Bath time." He grabbed her in his magic, but she was far too massive for him to lift into the air.

She could feel him trying with futility, tugging gently at her. She inclined her head before turning for the door. "Trash lead, Angel follow." She would obey her friend. He hadn't led her wrong so far.

Author's Note

His name, and cutie mark, makes a little more sense now, yes?

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