Mayor Mare, newly-minted Mayor of Ponyville, has big dreams and big plans for her hometown. Now all she needs to do is to navigate the entrenched interests, bureaucratic resistance and political pitfalls that stand in her way. And to top things off, on her first day the Mayor finds out that Princess Celestia is sending her prize student over...
Overarching Themes:
Season 1: Land Reform
Season 2: Democracy
Season 3: Reconciliation
A series of stories, corresponding with every MLP episode (if all goes well), from the view of the bureaucrats at Town Hall. Will try and stay true to canon. (EDIT: With 2 semi-exceptions: 1) Cheerilee is Mayor Mare's daughter, and 2) Princess Celestia is much more uptight when negotiating with officials.)
Inspiration from daily life, the UK series 'Yes, Prime Minister', and to the 'Letters from a Disgruntled Friendship Student' fanfic series by milesprower06.
Ah small town politics makes excellent fodder. Please continue.
Ah politics. It seems so easy when you're on the sidelines watching but when you actually try to run for office you find it's not so easy. Many a politican have been forced to break their promises (The infamous example is President George H.W. Bush's "No New Taxes Pledge"). Here's hoping the mayor will find some way to restore honor to Ponyville without falling into the numerous pit falls that undoubtly await her.
Ah sneaky. And of course now we know why the Mayor was getting involved in Winter Wrap Up.
If Sweet Apple Acres employs that many ponies why would they ever consider the idea that she and Mac need to buck the trees alone?
2426238 Um
sorry can you explain? I don't want to hit another plot hole...
I really dislike this chapter.
2429666 Care to explain? (Don't take it the wrong way, just wanna improve.)
Just the characterization of Mayor Mare and Princess Celestia getting so desperate that she offered to rescind Twilight's ticket.
Plus I find the idea that the absolute ruler of the country could not expand the guest list by five, assuming the second ticket was originally for Spike
2429676 Thanks for your comments, as well as the one previously about Applejack and the trees. I have attempted to explain it away for the time being.
As a sort of explanation re: Princess Celestia. (and hopefully future comments of this nature.) I've always thought that while Princess Celestia is all-powerful, power can't be the be all and end all in Equestria - or else, why did Nightmare Moon, Discord and Queen Chrysalis all get defeated with seeming ease? Political relationships, power balances, and tradition must matter to some extent, just as it has always done in our world.
Furthermore, there's the fact that Celestia herself has ruled for a thousand years. She's a part of the establishment, if not the symbol of the establishment herself. The rules and norms that she originally laid down now constrict her moves as much as it does others. Perhaps she has even come to believe in the 'naturalness' of those rules. This was the price she paid for stability, and hence, why she continues to play along with the tit-for-tat of fourth rank officials.
Hopefully you, or some others, can give more detail into what you think re: characterization of Mayor Mare/Princess Celestia. Perhaps I'm just too cynical...
Well so much for that plan. At least Ponyville is getting a railroad out of this though.
I doubt the mayor is ever going to break the power of the Apple Family. Not when they've been around for so long.
Ah the balance of power. Such that we must play this game.
2429967
I have to agree. At least not while Granny Smith is around and Applejack is national hero. Guess being a national hero means never having to pay for your mistakes....legally.
2430339 Just goes to show how the mayor got in over her head with her campaign promises and now she's trying to stick to them but she's esentially fallen into a pit hole.
You know if it were me I'd say to the Griffon Empire.I don't make deals with jerks! If your daughter blew up from a few good natured pranks then you deal with it on your own terms! It's your problem not mine so don't punish me for your mistakes! Sorry but you're on your own for this one!
And thus we see the biggest flaw in Deomcracy. One idiot can destroy the entire system and sadly it seems to happen a lot these days (I'm looking at you Congress).
2435940
Yeah but that is not the way it works in real life. Diplomat kids gets away with things for the sake of good relations. It's the way the world works.
2443678
What do you mean 'one idiot'? We've got any entire flock of them down in the Capitol.
Anyway, Twilight's innocence has been lost forever. And yes, Snips and Snails should be charged with something as juveniles. And Trixie demands compensation for her wrecked mobile home.
2444217 Tell me about. I'll never forgive the idiots who let that gun control bill get shot down. And to make matters worse the NRA continues to be unsympthetic and lines the pockets of its supports even when most of its members supported the bill. Not to mention Congress shouldn't listen to some stupid organization that assumes Obama wants to ban all guns even when there's nothing to suggest it. Get your facts straight before you accuse people.
I'm kind of lukewarm on this. You're making pretty much everyone look bad
"Human" error?
2448038 Yeah what's this "Human" we're talking about?
On an unrelated note we see the big problem that plagues politics. Too many people abuse the system and line the pockets of their supporters (or in the most recent case in the U.S. the supporters line the pockets of politicans to buy them out. Yes I'm talking about you NRA and GOP)
2448038
The Lyra Heartstrings Reelection Campaign Fund Group approves of this message.
Considering Lyra wanted to make Ponyville bankrupt, fuck her. Okay, so Ponyville is solvent again. Hooray! Now if they could only do something about that road which leads to a flying ledge, we would be all set. (You know the one. The one in the Mare Do Well episode). Terrible civil engineering.
2448022 Well, in my defense, I wasn't going to make anypony a saint here. There still are bits of good though - friends looking out for each other, acts of loyalty, compassion, duty, etc. And really, 'bad' is such a subjective term in politics...
Well guess I can no longer root for anyone in this story because everyone is self interested scum.
2452960 Sounds like Congress.
Also that stuff in the authors note should now be rendered Unconstitutional, much like how Congress can pass a bill that let's a president conduct miltary operations for more than 90 days without a decleration of war. It's already happened three times, Vietnam, Afhganistan, and Iraq and all three times there was no decleration of war. In a strange conincidence all 3 cases happened when the president was from Texas although Johnson was a Democrat and W. Bush was a Republican.
I feel like in those cases since the groups don't treat others equally they infringe on the rights of others and thus can be shut down. Of course that's just me.
Sadly I wish there really was a way to silence any group that clearly shows that they only care about themselves and their own twisted views. Alas there isn't and they attract so many followers that you can't touch them.
Let the band play. They'll boo-ed and egged out of town. Same thing happens whenever skinheads and clan members try to have a parade.
Can it really be considered found if the dragon left it there in the presence of ponies. Perhaps they could claim it as a settlement with the dragon for polluting their skies and requiring a diplomatic/military expedition to go out there.
2460576 I'm assuming since ponies don't have much contact with dragons (as stated in Dragon Quest), the scope of Equestrian law does not extend to dragonkind. So any dragon treasures would have the same legal status as, say, a gold vein.
Well it looks like the Mayor should finally check break the power of The Apples off the list. You just can't touch em like it or not.
I get the feeling Celestia hates Ponyville now that it's served her purposes.
Think about it. She gave the land to the Apples to start a settlement near Everfree Forest, knowing the Elements were in her former castle. Now that Luna is free, Ponyville can burn and she doesn't give a flying feather.
2473004
Yep I do believe the apples would make better allies for breaking one of the other interests that the Mayor might want to destroy.
2473061 Personally I view the relationship between Celestia and Ponyville like so: Ponyville is a settlement that has an influence that is grossly above its stature (because of the Elements), and also a settlement that has generated an inordinate amount of disasters for her Government and Equestria in general. Given this, she has to tread carefully, and err on the side of the 'traditional' elite cities, in order not to upset the carefully-balanced regional relationships that bind the land of Equestria together.
2475809
Yeah, but most of the disasters have been direct results of the Element bearers themselves. Lets make a list in no particular order.
1. What it. Need it (Twilight's fault)
2. Running of the leaves embarrassment (AJ+RD)
3. Flim Flam Bros. (Intervention of the elements prevents breaking up of the Apple Family monopoly.)
4. Stealing the Princess's pet (Fluttershy).
5. Terrible clothing, giving Ponyville a bad name. (Entire mane 6. I include Rarity for not putting her hoof down.)
6. Tornado duty almost failing (Rainbow's fault, due to going for the record unnecessarily and bad management skills)
7. Assault on a innocent donkey/harassment. (Pinkie's fault)
8. Unauthorized large scale musical number resulting in a large quantity of work hours. (Pinkie again.)
9. Assault and disturbing the peace. (New Fluttershy)
2475737 Fancy Pants comes to mind. He's not even a Ponyville resident so naturally it makes little sense for him to have a lot of influence in the town. There's also the Richs but considering they contributed to the mayor's election it would be harder to break them.
O.k. if that was Flithy Rich's excuse then I'd have to say "I'm sorry but since you didn't pitch in and help this town you can pack up your things and leave. If you want to be a freeloader then do it on someone else's time." Kind of reminds me of how today corportations seem to do absolutely nothing and how some people seem to think they can just live off the government without ever finding work.
Screw Filthy Rich. God damn it, Mayor, show some back bone.
You know this reminds me of in the most recent Michigan election there were a total of six proposals and not one of them passed. They ranged from a proposal for an Emergency Finical Manager (which we ended up getting anyway, no thanks to city council) to regulation on another bridge to Canada. It also reminds me of the recent gun control proposal which got shot down thanks to the NRA's fear campaign and the Republicans rejecting an attempt at bipartisan support which they desperately needed.
Of course The Mayor brings up a good point about how life isn't all about taxes. But have you ever noticed how everyone loves getting tax cuts but no likes getting tax hikes, even the smallest amount?
Everyone likes roads and schools but no one wants to pay for them. Hell if look at the hold up over the Consumer Protection Agency. Something that was actually need. i wish your story wasn't so accurate. Well I guess score one for the Mayor. Sort of.
This time around Celestia's being a jerk. She refuses to fund Ponyville to repay the damages caused by the parasprite invasion and then she tells them to try and make "The Running of The Leaves" safer no matter the cost. Talk about a two faced backstabber, and of course since she holds absolute power only someone like Luna could overrule her and we all know that will never happen.
Geez Celestia and here I thought you knew better than anyone. Maybe Equestria would be better off without you.
More fuel to my argument that Celestia secretly hates Ponyville. In season 3 she basically frees the spirit of chaos in the middle of it.
Yes Rarity, you need to be GENEROUS with your workload.
Delegate, Rarity, delegate. I am sure he Mayor has some deputies she can recommend. And of course Fancy Pants is corrupt too. You don't think he got rich by playing fair, do you?
So now not only is Flithy Rich corrupt but Fancy Pants and The Mayor. O.k. are The Apples the only ones that are actually honest? I'd support Lyra but I'm worried about how she'll deal with her human theories if she gets elected. Everyone would think she's nuts.
2509360 Eh, the kinds of 'corruption' the Mayor/Fancy Pants/Filthy Rich are engaged in are second-order at best, being restricted mainly to 'gray area' uses of influence and power. And that's the case (with a little bit of exaggeration) for most democracies on Earth. (Lyra therefore plays an important function in checking the government, simply by existing.)
2510264 Yeah well as we see the honest candidate usually doesn't stand a chance. And like I said before Lyra probably has some secrets she'd prefer to keep hidden.
Good one. Twilight sparkle got a real taste of what government is like. She will be able to eat anything else without retching in about two weeks.
I still don't see why Twilight couldn't have just dropped the lawsuit and left the company alone. Derpy never meant to do anything to Twilight and the company certainly didn't plan anything.
At least Rarity had the guts to leave a jkb she really couldn't handle and gave the job to someone who knew what they were doing.