Chapter 1: "A pony I can believe in."
In Manehatten the Equestrian Party had booked Madison Mare Garden for the main celebration. The party had won 3 elections in a row and not a single poll in the entire campaign had put them at less than 80% of the popular vote in this one. The Party's success over the years had been driven by their leader, Tholomeux Hugo. The Right Honorable Tholomeux Hugo was a grey Unicorn with a brown mane who came from a wealthy family of Manehatten bankers and politicians. His Great-Grandmother had been Mayor of Manehatten for almost 20 year, his Mother served as Chief Comptroller for the city for 15 years and his Father today owned one of the largest accounting firms in the city. Despite his family history which many in the party had feared would make him unelectable to anypony who didn't live in Manehatten; Tholomeux had found a way. His way with words and his reassuring tone of voice allowed him to broadcast a sense of comfort through every speech he gave and every editorial he wrote. Through the tireless effort of his campaign team to get Tholomeux into as many town squares and as many radio shows as possible he had been able to silence his critics and was now just 2 terms short of the record for longest serving Prime Minister in Equestrian history.
At just after 10PM a single aged Pegasus left from the office of the Elections Bureau escorted by 6 other Pegasi clad in blue and gold. For the past 3 hours election results had been pouring into the office from all over Equestria. In the sprawling concrete building they were tabulated and when the final results were known, a note with the results was written to the Princesses. As soon as the Princesses had been informed the full results could be released to the public. However the ancient election laws of Equestria prohibited the electronic or magical transmission of official results. As such, election night was the time to shine for the Equestrian Postal Service. To quickly spread the news across the nation, the Post Office had nearly every pony in its ranks on call to deliver the results. Over the years, election officials had streamlined this process. Each and every mail pony was given a sealed copy of the results and made to wait inside the lobby of the office which had been built exorbitantly large for just this purpose. Once it was confirmed that the Princesses had received the results they would be allowed to leave. It was quite a sight, several hundred ponies desperately fighting the urge to rip open their envelopes. Even if the results of this particular election could be correctly guessed by a boulder of low intelligence, it was the temptation of forbidden knowledge that kept each of them on edge. The minds of each of these ponies were saved when with a simple click the front doors unlocked and swung open. In about 30 seconds the lobby had emptied and nothing was left but a cold marble floor sprinkled with muffin crumbs.
The mood in Madison Mare Garden had been celebratory since the doors had opened almost 6 hours ago. Everyone in attendance knew that despite the neutral wording on each of their tickets, this was a victory party through and through. The stage at one end of the arena was covered in streamers and balloons all in the colours of the party: brown for the Earth Ponies, sky blue for the Pegasi and eggshell white for the Unicorns. Of course, above all of this, centered over the stage was a portrait of Princess Celestia. Tholomeux had spent much of the day in his apartment writing his victory speech and enjoying the closest thing to a day off he knew he would get in the next four years. He left the party with his escort of bodyguards at around 6PM, with the rush hour traffic it would probably take the carriage at least an hour to travel the 30 blocks to the arena. Tholomeux remarked to the bodyguard nearest to him "You know, if I actually had a choice in the matter, I'd much prefer to walk."
The guard replied in a flat tone "Sir, election laws require that you be escorted in a closed carriage for the dur-"
"I know damn well what the book says!" Tholomeux interjected. "I've done this three bloody times already!" he remarked as he turned to look out the window at the ponies on the street.
The carriage arrived at the Garden at 7:27 PM exactly. The Prime Minister was then escorted to the green room deep under the stands which were now packed with supporters. Despite the certainty of victory, electoral tradition dictated that any victory speech should not be made before the results are known. This was mostly to prevent a repeat of the famous "Dewey Defeats Trumare" fiasco that had concluded the 149th general election. At 10:36 PM a simple mailpony arrived at the party headquarters with a plain white envelope cliched between his teeth. This delivery set in motion a series of events that culminated with Tholomeux being told by his Campaign Manager "Two-hundred fifty six, eighty-four percent." This was the all-clear for him to take the stage. With the microphones of state radio awaiting him at the podium, Tholomeux took the stage.
The roar of the crowd was broadcast across Equestria and into almost every gathering place where a pony might be awaiting results. Victory speeches were not results and as such could be broadcast over the radio. In a perfectly timed maneuver, that could only be perfected by years of practice, Tholomeux signaled for the crowd to quiet, and they obeyed. He gave one last cursory look at his speech laying on the surface of the lectern next to a shimmering glass of water. He raised his head and began to address his supporters.
"So?" he asked "Anypony else getting a bit of deja-vu here?" a smile crossing his face. The crowd erupted in cheering. He smiled and allowed himself a glance of his prepared notes. "Four years ago I stood in this very spot and told each of you we had now have a chance to do something amazing. Today, I return to this spot, and I feel that I can safely say that we have. Who wants another 4 years of amazing?" Another cheer erupted from the crowd. Out of the cacophony of sound came the chant:
"Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!"
Another smile, even bigger than the last manifested its self on Tholomeux's face. Again he motioned to the crowd to quite their cheers. This time they quieted to a slightly higher volume than they had the first time.
"There are many people to thank tonight, too many for one speech. I'll try and keep it quick. To my campaign team, without them none of this would have been possible." Applause swept over the crowd. "My family, whom I love very much, for giving me the opportunity to become who I am today." Again applause rolled across the stadium. "But my biggest thanks goes out to each of you. Without the time and effort and yes bits, we would not be here tonight." This was the cue for the audience of 30,000 ponies to give their largest cheer of the night. They obligingly held up their end of the unspoken contract.
Looking at his notes Tholomeux grinned as he arrived at his favorite part of the speech. "There was a pony I met during the campaign, it was in Trottingham I believe, during a whistle stop on the campaign train. I had a chance to meet with residents and hear about their problems. He was a young Unicorn, I still wonder if he was actually of voting age, but he was there and had an excited look on his face that I just couldn't ignore." Tholomeux stopped to take a drink of water (and to allow the story to sink into the minds of his audience). He continued "I asked him the standard line 'Who are you planning on voting for this election day young stallion?' He looked at me with bright yellow eyes and replied 'You of course!' I returned his question with another question 'But why me?' The young Unicorn looked down at the ground and slowly brought his eyes level with mine, he looked in my eyes and said 'Because you're a pony I can believe in.'" Tholomeux took a step back from the podium as the applause rolled over him again.