Election in Ponyville

by StormLuna

The First Debate

Interviewing the Crowd

After the four mares filed to run for mayor the time seemed to fly. Before they knew it March 22nd had arrived and it was time for the first debate. In her house Amethyst was making sure that she had a good meal and had her mane and tail combed properly, she did want to appear professional after all. Her roommate Sea Swirl who was unsure about her running asked, "Amethyst, are you sure you're going to do well today? You do know that Ponyville may not react all that well to a unicorn running for mayor."

While this question irritated Amethyst she knew that she could not just blow up as she wanted to remain calm for the debate. She replied, "Sea Swirl, look who I am running against. Yeah I'm sure the mayor will bring about great arguments and points during this debate but Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash? Those two will fold like lawn chairs. Pinkie will come across as extremely incompetent and Rainbow Dash's arrogance and boasting about her flying abilities will turn the town against them. Don't worry, I'll do well this evening and when the primary comes along, the mayor and I will win and move on to the general election."

Sea Swirl replied, "Alright, I just don't want you having a bad night and turning the town against you." She patted Amethyst on the back and continued, "And I know how you think your ways are the best but please don't try to appear arrogant tonight. Doing that would definitely turn the town against you."

Amethyst replied, "Point taken, thanks for reminding me of that."

In the town park everything was being set up for the debate as reporters for the Ponyville Express and the crew from ENC had shown up. Sunny Flames, a white unicorn with a red and yellow mane and tail, the head reporter for ENC, saw ponies showing up for this and decided to do some interviews with the audience. The first pony she approached was Applejack. She asked, "Ma'am, I'm wondering if you would be willing to share your thoughts about the upcoming debate?"

Applejack replied, "Sure, what do y'all want to know?"

Sunny asked, "From what I understand this is the first time in decades that Ponyville will need to have a primary. What are your thoughts on the candidates taking part in the debate tonight?"

Applejack replied, "Well, Ah will be honest. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are both good friends of mine but Ah don't think they are exactly fit to be mayor. Pinkie Pie is all about parties and Rainbow is simply too impatient to handle the serious responsibilities that come with holding office."

Sunny asked, "What about Amethyst Star and the mayor?"

Applejack replied, "Well, Ah think Mayor Mare has done a great job over her tenure but Amethyst, Ah'm not so sure about. She doesn't seem that friendly and Ah know about how she works. Ah could see her wanting to scrap old traditions just to save money. She is a cheapskate when it comes to how she lives her personal life and Ah could see her handling the town's finances the same way."

Sunny finished, "Thank you for your time ma'am."

She continued to go through the crowd until she found a unicorn to interview, Colgate. She approached her and asked, "Ma'am can I ask you a question?"

Colgate sighed, "Yeah, you can but make it quick. I want to get a front row spot to watch this."

Sunny figured that she had best make this a shorter interview. She asked, "What are your opinions of the candidates?"

Colgate replied, "Well, I think Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are both jokes. Neither one of them are serious candidates and I wouldn't vote for them to be the local dogcatcher, much less mayor."

Sunny asked, "What about Amethyst and the mayor?"

Colgate replied, "Well if what I have heard is right, the mayor needs to go. From what I understand she misuses town funds and this town has ran a deficit ever since she has been in office. Regarding Amethyst, I think she is the one who can fix things. I am good friends with her and if she handles the town's finances like she does her own, we'll have a surplus down here the first year she's in office." She looked over towards the building audience and continued, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going."

Sunny sighed, "Ugh, what a grump!"

---

The Debate

Sunny headed towards the moderators table where she would be joined by Breaking News, the reporter for the Ponyville Express. While he was a veteran reporter, he couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated by the nation's most famous news personality. He asked, "So, how do you think this is going to go?"

Sunny replied, "I don't know but I do know one thing, at least one earth pony seems to think that Amethyst would scrap all the old traditions in favor of less expensive ways of handling things."

The brown earth pony reporter said, "Well if that is the case, the earth ponies will not take to her ideas very well. Most of them here are very old fashioned and if she were to suggest using magic for things such as Winter Wrap Up, she won't win."

Sunny could only sigh over his comment as the candidates began to go up to the stage and ready themselves for this. Once they all arrived the cameras came on and despite it not affecting them, ponies across all of Equestria began to watch. Sunny gave the camera a smile and began, "Good evening Equestria, this is Sunny Flames and joining me tonight is Breaking News, the local reporter for The Ponyville Express. Welcome to the primary debate here in Ponyville."

Breaking News said, "While the candidates will not go into a huge amount of detail tonight, what they will share with us could greatly affect how they do in next month's primary."

The camera focused back on Sunny and she continued, "Tonight we have four candidates contending for the two spots in this fall's general election. This is the first time in 28 years that a primary has been necessary here." The camera's focus switched to the stage as she continued, "And now to introduce the candidates. We have Pinkie Pie who is running as The Fun Party's candidate, we have Rainbow Dash who is running as The Coolness Party's candidate, we have Reform Party Candidate Amethyst Star and we have the incumbent Mayor Mare who like always, will be running as an independent."

The first candidate to be addressed was Pinkie Pie. Breaking News asked, "Pinkie Pie, from what I understand some ponies here in town think you lack the seriousness and maturity needed to be mayor. What can you tell the ponies here to reassure them that you would be a good choice."

Pinkie replied, "Well I think Ponyville doesn't have enough parties! I think everypony would be much happier if the town had more parties."

Sunny asked, "Pinkie, where would the money for all these extra parties come from. I'm not sure if you know this but from what I understand Ponyville has ran a deficit ever since before Mayor Mare took office."

Pinkie replied, "Well we could always raise taxes a little bit. I don't think anypony would mind as long as they are happier."

Rainbow put her hoof over her face while Amethyst and the mayor couldn't help but snicker a little bit. They figured that with Pinkie saying she wanted to raise taxes, that she already lost any chances of winning. Next up was Rainbow. She would be addressed by Sunny, "Rainbow Dash, from what I understand ponies around here have also questioned your ability to handle being mayor. What would you say to them?"

Rainbow replied, "Well I think things here in town simply aren't cool enough."

Sunny asked, "What is your definition of cool?"

Rainbow replied, "Come on, I mean things here are so boring! With the exception of the running of the leaves, we never have any kind of athletic competitions here. What is the worst is that The Wonderbolts are never asked if they will come here and do a show. Ponyville would be much more exciting if we could have them come and perform every month."

Breaking News asked, "From what I understand, getting The Wonderbolts to do shows outside of Cloudsdale is not cheap. Where would the town come up with the revenue to pay them for these shows?"

Rainbow laughed, "Come on! The town has money to pay them to perform! We could just scrap something else. Maybe we could cut the pensions the town gives to it's employees, after all, wouldn't having The Wonderbolts come here be worth it?"

A few ponies in the crowd, the town's employees in particular, began to boo loudly. Rainbow blushed and said, "Oops, maybe that was the wrong thing to say."

Next up was Amethyst Star. While it normally would have been Breaking News' turn, Sunny knew a bit about Amethyst's views on things and decided she would ask her a question. She asked, "Amethyst, I was interviewing some of the ponies in the crowd before the debate and I learned that you may want to cut some things from the budget. What would you want to cut?"

Amethyst replied, "Well for starters, unlike my opponent, I would definitely not cut any pensions of the town employees who work so hard. They work very hard to keep things going here and hard work is something I place a lot of value in. What I would do though is try to make a majority of the festivals this town holds be privately funded or ask for grants from Princess Celestia, which I'm sure she would have no issues with when it comes to the Summer Sun Celebration and if she decided not to give us a grant for that celebration, there are wealthy ponies here who would likely donate to help their reputations."

Breaking News asked, "What other things would you want to cut?"

Amethyst replied, "Well if we can get these festivals to be privately funded, I would want to cut municipal property taxes significantly and once we would be able to do so without harming our local economy, I would want to eradicate the property tax entirely. After all, I find it flat out wrong that ponies should have to pay taxes on something they own!"

A large segment of the crowd, especially the unicorns began to cheer loudly, "Amethyst! Amethyst!"

Once the crowd quieted down Breaking News said, "Now on to the incumbent, Mayor Mare. Madame Mayor, this is the fifth time you will be running for mayor and if you are elected it will be a record."

Sunny added, "Why do you think the ponies here should elect you to an unprecedented fifth term?"

The mayor replied, "Well I do understand that we are running a deficit and I do agree with my opponent that we should try to raise funds for these festivals, I do not agree that we should simply cut all funding for them. Ponyville is a community of tradition and I do not believe that traditions should be thrown in the trash in the name of simply trying to be cheap."

A majority of the earth ponies began stomping their hooves in approval of her answer. They had done things the same way for generations and her beliefs that tradition should not be deviated from really resonated with them. Breaking News asked, "Madame Mayor, what would you do as far as speeding up Winter Wrap Up? With the exception of last year, Spring is always late and the town always goes over budget on cleaning up winter."

The mayor replied, "I understand that but if we have Twilight organizing things, we will not have to pay all the ponies involved in this the extra money we have had to in the past for their labor. If we have her start organizing things in the morning, we can get things done before sundown and the only thing that will carry over into the following morning will be the pegasi bringing the birds back from the south."

Sunny said, "Thank you Madame Mayor."

Breaking news added, "And I would like to thank all the candidates for sharing their opinions and plans with not only us and the local audience, but the nation as well."

---

Post Debate Discussion

The camera focused back on the two moderators where they began to do the post debate discussion. Sunny asked, "Breaking News, you have been covering elections here for years. Who do you think won this debate?"

Breaking News replied, "Well I'm going to be honest. I'll tell you who didn't win, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Their answers were very poor and they gave no serious solutions to any of the problems. As far as who won, I would say it was a tie between Amethyst and Mayor Mare. It is obvious that the unicorn population here overwhelmingly supports Amethyst while the earth ponies are behind the mayor."

Sunny added, "That is quite obvious but what is going to be the wildcard here is who will the pegasi throw their support behind. Coming into this debate I believed that they would probably support Rainbow Dash but after the answers she gave, I wouldn't count on it."

Breaking News asked, "Who would you say won the debate?"

Sunny replied, "I think Amethyst Star won this debate easily. She seemed to offer the most solutions and she seems very determined to take on the budget problems Ponyville has and correct them. While the earth ponies are basically all behind the mayor right now, I could easily see some of them defect and vote for Amethyst once she goes into further detail over her economic plans in the next debate assuming she finishes in the top two here."

A light blinked on the camera letting them know that the broadcast was set to end. Sunny finished, "Both Breaking News and I would like to thank everypony in Equestria who took time out of their schedules to watch this debate. Good night."

The camera went off and viewers went back to their regularly scheduled programming. During the end of the broadcast Breaking News was not thrilled with what Sunny said involving the defection of earth ponies. He glared at her and said, "Sunny, I honestly don't think you understand the culture here. Earth ponies will stay behind the candidate that wants to stick with tradition rather than support some unicorn who wants to throw tradition under the bus in favor of lower taxes."

Sunny replied, "We'll see. I am pretty sure that it will be Mayor Mare and Amethyst in the general though. Pinkie and Rainbow were never serious candidates."

Breaking News wanted to end this discussion and get away from the famous news personality. He grunted, "I agree." He walked off in disgust while Sunny headed off in the other direction so she and the news crew could catch the train back to Manehattan. One thing that both reporters and basically everypony who watched the debate knew though was that Pinkie and Rainbow didn't stand a chance in the primary.

Comments

[OmniFox]

First debate off to a shaky start.

[neobyzantium]

Ugh..... Pinkie pie, you can't say that you're going to raise taxes to pay for extra parties! I know you only wanted to raise them a little bit to ultimately make people more happy but people regardless of race in fiction and real life hate it when taxes get raised!

As for you Rainbow Dash, cutting pensions for town employees just to pay for monthly Wonderbolt shows?! Are you kidding me?! You gave an even worse answer then Pinkie Pie! At least she only wanted to raise taxes a little bit to help make people more happy with extra parties but cutting pensions is SO terrible an idea!

You two sank any chance of winning you may have had with those answers and proved that while you two are good at heart, you two simply aren't qualified to be Mayor.