The Golden Pony

It was a sunny day in Ponyville. A few clouds on the sky

A new young pony has just appeared in the city!! And heading straight to Carousel Boutique, home of one of the most talented and famous fashion designers in Equestria: Miss Rarity!

'This... this is the place!!' he thought, and opened the door, which made the bell ring. "Hello?"

An alabaster unicorn with the most well groomed purple mane he could ever imagine greeted him with a melodic voice "Welcome to Carousel Boutique! Can I help you?"

"Oh! I'm Golden Shine!" The caramel colored earth pony answered. His cutie mark is a plunger. "I'm looking for Miss Rarity because of a job offer!"

"Wahahaha~ who do you think you're talking to, darling?" she said gleefully "Now, I believe you bought your portfolio in that saddlebag?"

"But of course!!" Golden quickly pulled a stack of papers from his saddlebags and put them on the table for Rarity to see. Since the job offer was for the position of junior fashion designer, Rarity requested that the applicants bought their portfolios so she could know what to expect from them. Golden Shine was extremely confident that his future employer would be completely blown out by his works of art!!!

Rarity looked at the first drawing, and her sweet smile suddenly transformed into one of the most horrible frowns ponykind could ever gaze at!! 'T-this... this is such an atrocity!!' She thought. Truly, that design had all the things she could label wrong, ugly and tasteless; and the colors! THE COLORS!!! '...Maybe he forgot to take out a doodle... let's see what else he's got...'

It didn't get better. Not at all, the young colt achieved what she thought it was impossible!! The designs managed to become worse and worse each time she flipped a page! For every page she turned, it was like a dagger called 'dullness' pierced her heart! Her face couldn't handle the strain from frowning so hard anymore!!! She had to reach upon the depths of her willpower to resist the urge to not burn the horrible drawings on the spot along with their creator!!

She dropped the bundle of papers at Golden Shine's feet. Trying her best to put on a poker face, she said, in a very gentle tone "I'm sorry my dear... but if I took in any of your designs I would be signing my own demise..."

The stallion couldn't believe what he was listening! He stared wide eyed at the fashionista, while a single drop of sweat ran down from his eyebrow "W-what? But... are they that bad?"

Rarity snapped. She couldn't take it anymore. "BAD?! THEY'RE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!! Darling, I haven't seen anything uglier since Applejack tried to make her own collection!! The most sensitive people would rather gouge their eyes out than look at those horrendous designs!!! I'm sorry, but you certainly have no talent as a fashion designer!!" She finished, and walked away.

Golden Shine was shocked. He didn't knew that the old fashion magazines he bought from a shady pony in the alleys of Canterlot were so outdated! He spent the whole week studying them and his mouth got numb from drawing all those designs last week! No, he wouldn't take a no for answer!! This was his destiny!!! And he was going to prove it to Rarity!!!!

"Wait just a minute, Miss Rarity!!!" He yelled, burning determination was visible in his eyes. Rarity stared at him wide-eyed, surprised by the change in his behavior!

"I understand that my amateur designs do not meet your beautifully high standards! But please, I still want to work here! I came all the way from Canterlot to Ponyville because I want to help you in any way possible!! Just give me a chance and I'll prove I can be an useful pony in your neverending crusade for perfection!!!!"

Rarity was taken aback from his outburst! Such determination was almost impossible to find around nowadays, but she couldn't take him in as a designer. His ideas would ruin her business!! She looked around to see if there was anything he could do, and her eyes catched up on a bundle of cumpled papers and lots of ragged clothing around the boutique, and it came to her "Very well, Mr. Golden Shine. You can work here as a janitor!"

A janitor.

The young stallion smiled as tears ran out of his eyes! 'I did it!!!'

A few days after being admitted as the janitor of the Carousel Boutique, Golden Shine showed absolutely no signs of regret or fatigue. Day after day he would pick away all of the pieces of cloth his boss cut out from her latest outfits, catch every crumpled paper of rejected designs she threw away before they hit the ground!!

Of course, it wasn't like Rarity kept littering the place the whole time. Whenever she was having a customer, taking a break or going to the spa with her friends, Golden Shine would use the time to appreciate his employer's work. Grabbing his little notebook he carried all the time with him, he sketched and took notes about all the marvelous things that were manufactured  by the fashionista. Hats, dresses, costumes, jewels, laces, little by little he began to understand why his own work was incredibly flawed, and started to appreciate the little details of Rarity's work. The harmony of colors, the fluidity of the form, Rarity wasn't your average designer, she was a real genius!

That afternoon he got to clean the bathroom. As a janitor, no place in the boutique could be overlooked, and the bathroom surely wasn't an exception!

Brush in his mouth, he began to scrub the toilet while daydreaming about his job. If he could come up with a design that impresses Rarity, he could earn her respect as a fellow designer. And maybe if he could make such an amazing design that could blow her mind...

Suddenly, he realized where he was. The toilet. That piece of porcelain where Rarity placed her flank on... no!!! Such a dirty mind!! He... he would never think of her that way!! But he was so close now... oh well, it was too late, his instincts took over, and he embraced the toilet. Gently, he caressed the side of the porcelain "Oh, Rarity... you smell so good..." he whispered, when suddenly his hoof hit a button which activated a stream of water that hit him square in the face. It wasn't enough to break his fantasies, no, it just made them worse! "Oh, please Miss Rarity!! I'm such a bad pony, please punish me!!"

And he heard the door open. Rarity stood there, looking at the young stallion hugging her toilet, his face completely soaked with water. "... What is going on here...?" She was afraid of the answer. Very afraid.

"The toilet is clean!!" He blurted and ran away as fast as he could. Rarity shrugged, she really didn't want to imagine what was going on there.

Later that day, Golden Shine stumbled upon a half opened door in the boutique. 'Miss Rarity told me I didn't need to clean this room. I wonder what's inside...' he thought, before taking a look. He was greeted with a vision from TARTARUS itself: the room was a complete and utter mess!! Pieces of clothing were randomly scattered around, lines, ties, laces, mannequins, tools, everything was out of place!

'I can't believe this!!! All this time, Miss Rarity was hiding this place so I wouldn't be burdened with such a monstrous amount of work!!!' His eyes started to tear up 'Your generosity truly knows no limits... but nor does my duty!! By Celestia, I will clean this room!!!' he bucked the door and started to work.

Hours later, he finally finished the arduous task. The room was completely spotless, organized and perfectly functional. If there was some sort of cleaning contest, this would have awarded him the first place! He was so proud of himself that he felt he could treat himself with a cup of tea, which he went to the kitchen to prepare.

Moments later, Rarity entered in that room.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" She screamed "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MESS ROOM?!?!?!"

This was his cue! Golden Shine darted in the direction of his fate! "I cleaned it!!" he yelled.

He was already imagining it: Rarity would be teary eyed, running in his direction to embrace him! "Oh, thank you so much Golden Shine! I didn't have any hope left for that horribly messy room!!" She would say as her lips got closer and closer to his...

But reality had a completely different outcome for him:

Face, meet hoof.

Rarity struck his dreamy face down to the floor, and proceeded to repeatedly punch him with the fury of a thousand angry Pinkie Pies that were hunting somepony who broke a pinkie promise!!! "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THIS ROOM?! THIS WAS MY MESS ROOM, THE ROOM IN WHICH I COME UP WITH MY MOST BRILLIANT DESIGNS, AND YOU JUST RUINED IT ALL!!!" She screamed, tears running wildly from her eyes, an expression of pure rage and despair on her face!

"W-wait just a moment, Miss Rarity!!" Golden interrupted her! "I took notes of your designs, here, take a look!!" He showed her his notebook.

Somehow he managed to open in the page where he sketched not only the toilet, but Rarity as well, in various naughty poses with the porcelain object. It didn't help his case at all.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" She yelled, and Golden just realized what he did. But before he could do anything about it, she used her magic to grab his notebook and shred it to a thousand little pieces.

No words can describe how utterly shocked he became. No, really, a kick in the nuts would have been more pleasant than having that notebook scrapped like this.

"YOU!!!" He bellowed "How could you do this?! This notebook contained all of my dreams, my hopes and my studies!!!" His expression shared equal parts of rage and pain!

"Those things were TRASH. Just like you." She answered, before spitting on him.

He promptly opened his mouth to catch her spit.

Next thing he knew, she used her magic to throw him out through the window.

A week later, Rarity was a complete mess. She was running out of time to deliver the dresses she was paid to make for this year's Grand Galloping Gala, and thanks to the destruction of her mess room, she wasn't able to put together anything beautiful enough for her clients.

The deadline was approaching, and no matter what she did, she couldn't come up with anything. A mountain of crumpled pieces of paper was filling the corner of her room.

The doorbell rang. "Rarity?" a familiar voice called.

Slowly, she walked to the door to meet her friend. Maybe she could help her somehow... "Hello Fluttershy... Do you need anything?"

The yellow coated pegasus answered quietly "Oh no, I was just wondering why this huge crate was standing on your door during the last few days..."

"What crate?" She asked. Confused, she was led outside where a big wooden crate stood. There wasn't any notes or something to help them figure out what was inside, so she used her magic to remove the top. Inside the crate there were dresses. Many dresses, enough to fill in her requests! And they looked amazingly beautiful!

"These dresses..." She said while holding them up with her magic "They're simply fabulous! And... they match the descriptions of my requests! But how?! Who did them?!"

There was a note sticking out of the side of the crate. Fluttershy opened the envelope and gave the note to Rarity. It was from Golden Shine!

"Dear Miss Rarity

I'm terribly sorry for all the problems I caused. I believe I understand a little bit more of the fashion world, all thanks to your teaching and insights, I've come to appreciate the finer points of your craft.

I know you will never forgive me, but I hope these dresses will help to ease the troubles I've caused to you.

Yours truly,

Golden Shine"

Rarity let her magic fade from the letter, which fell to the ground. In a few days, not only that pony managed to redeem himself in the world of fashion, he also saved her business! No matter how you looked at it, his heart was always in the right place, and he went above and beyond his duty to compensate for his mistakes!

He really is a golden pony...