Re-Election in Ponyville: Defending Her Turf

by StormLuna


Prelude

It has been three years since Amethyst Star, the first unicorn mayor of Ponyville, began her first term and things had changed dramatically. Amethyst's business friendly policies has brought more businesses and jobs into Ponyville and because of that, not only has the community grown, more tax revenue is flowing into the town's coffers.

With all this additional revenue, Amethyst was able to live up to her promises of significantly lowering municipal property taxes, improving the dam, improving the school, running budget surpluses, de-funding all festivals, hiring a weather mage and paying off Ponyville's debts. For her, this was the ultimate victory, she had silenced the earth pony critics by instructing the weather mage to create weather that was much more crop friendly and that has led to increased crop yields and larger profits.

One thing did upset the earth pony critics though. To keep the soil well nourished and to eradicate troublesome bugs that cold, snowy winters would normally wipe out, the town had to hire a pest control mage and a mage to rejuvenate the soil. While some earth ponies appreciated it, many of the earth pony farmers despised being completely dependent on three unicorn mages just to keep their livelihood.

Another group that was disenfranchised by the unicorn's changes to the town were the pegasi. With unicorns controlling the weather now, many of them suddenly found themselves out of jobs right after the weather mage took over. Not only did this cause some families to leave, but it also caused some friends to have to move away and this did not sit well with some of the residents.

Despite the departure of many of the pegasi, the population had doubled because of many, many businesses moving into town. Another change came with all the new businesses moving into town. Many of them were owned by unicorns who sought to escape the high taxes and the unpleasant hustle and bustle of the big cities. Because of this, the unicorn population in Ponyville more than doubled. Besides a huge increase in the unicorn population, opportunistic creatures such as Minotaurs and griffons had relocated their businesses there so the overall climate of the community had changed.

For many ponies, they were unsure of where the future headed but Amethyst knew that as long as Ponyville remained prosperous, that having a more diverse population would be worth it and everypony would adjust.