“  
I was inspired to create this character during rehearsal one day while we were working on putting Inherit the wind together up here at my college. I figured the description of a rocking horse could easily enough be translated to a MLP:FiM-style pony.
 
As far as design, the colors were already there in the description. All I had to do was put together a personality for a pony from a description of an inanimate object. They say actions speak louder than words, so I figured the best way to figure out what kind of personality this pony had would be to go off of what Drummond describes happening when he finally gets Golden Dancer.
 
“I jumped into the saddle and started to rock–and it broke! It split in two!”
 
Using this, I decided Golden Dancer was a pony who seemed good on the outside–perhaps even great–but once anypony looked past that, they’d see through the lie for the pony she really is.
 
Of course, I didn’t want to have a mean-spirited pony on my hands, because we already had that with The Great and Powerful Trixie. Besides that, that’s just not the type of character I see Golden Dancer as being.
 
I see her more as an insecure pony who doesn’t think there’s anything special about her, so she makes up little stories about herself when trying to make friends. It’s nothing on the level of what The Great and Powerful Trixie has said about herself, but it has been lies about her abilities all the same. The only reason Golden Dancer says these things about herself though is trying to fit in. She figures if she’s not a special pony, why would she be worth anypony else’s time?
 
That’s the reason I made her cutie mark a hooffull of gold bits. Drummond finished his description of Golden Dancer by saying she was
 
“All shine, and no substance!”
 
When I got thinking about that phrase and how it means something is highly desirable on the outside but completely empty on the inside, it reminded me of money. Money is one of those things that everyone desires, but once you have it, you realize how empty it is–how there’s no real value to it like there is to friends and family or the good times that can be had with them.
 
Anyway, not sure how I feel about the colors, but there she is.”