Twinkle/TOCP's Thirty Minute Ponies Stories

by Twinkletail

Prompt #75: Cleaning Up

The Prompt: X only has one week left before retirement.

She sat in her office, looking around with quiet reverence. This place had become a second home to her; there were days where she spent far more time here than at her actual home. It was natural; her particular job required her to be in her workplace a lot, to constantly be on call in case her services were needed. She had performed her job very efficiently, but as many ponies said, all good things must come to an end.

She looked down at her desk, covered by her own possessions. She idly nudged the nameplate on it. The nameplate read “Mayor Mare,” as it should have. She sighed lightly and moved to slide it into her bag, but she stopped herself. She would come to it later.

She glanced over at her collection of newspaper clippings. She liked to clip headlines lauding her accomplishments out of the paper and put them on her desk. Looking at the good things that she’d done helped her get through the bad times. She reached over to them, picking up her favorite one. The photo taken with Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy after the first Winter Wrap-Up in ages to actually finish on time. It had yellowed a bit, as a lot of the clippings from around its time had. While it had aged, her memory of that day hadn’t. Ponies from towns all over were cheering the accomplishment, and her name was practically famous for a little while. She smiled warmly…she looked so much younger back then. She reached over to the rest of the collection, pushing them together into a neat stack. She laid her favorite one on top and paperclipped the bunch together, then slid them into her bag.

She honestly wasn’t sure why she was packing up right now. She still had a week until the new mayor’s inauguration; certainly cleaning off her desk didn’t need to be a priority right now. For some reason, though, she felt it necessary. She knew that if she didn’t do it right now, she wouldn’t be in the mood to do it closer to the final day. She was already feeling quite down about the whole thing to begin with, and she still had seven whole days to work with. She couldn’t even imagine how she’d feel on that last day, but somehow she knew that it wouldn’t be the kind of mood that would attribute itself very well to cleaning.

She chuckled a bit in spite of herself. It was she who had come up with the idea of term limits in the first place. She had thought that she would get tired of doing her job, and had done it as an out for herself. She honestly never thought she’d get this attached to her job, but here she was.

She had watched the election process with interest, curious to see who would be taking her position. She had to admit that Ponyville had made a good choice. They knew what was good for them, she thought. It might have sounded a bit arrogant of her to think that, since it also insinuated that she knew she was the right choice all those times in the past. It was a thought, however, and nopony could have heard it to judge her. And it was true, anyway. She was the right choice. She still would have been if she hadn’t reached her term limit. There was no time to regret things, though, and she wasn’t going to hold a grudge against the new mayor. She was sure that she would do a good job too. Maybe not as good as she had, but good nonetheless.

She looked at her desk. It was still her desk, but it just looked so empty now. There was only one thing left to remove from it, but she wasn’t ready to remove it just yet. The nameplate would stay there until her final day in office. It was fitting, after all. She wasn’t done being Mayor Mare quite yet.

Comments

[Makokam]

Interesting.
It does beg the question of whether Mayor Mare is her real name or an honorary title. If it's her real name, it might be kind of awkward to have one pony /named/ Mayor and another pony who /is/ Mayor.