Four weeks had passed since Granny Smith moved into the mayor’s office. She decided that, due to her advanced age, she would not handle much decision making herself, instead choosing to delegate most of her authority to the newly created post of Deputy Mayor. When Raven Inkwell turned the post down stating she preferred to be a secretary, Granny Smith immediately sought to appoint the pony she trusted most to handle it: Meyer Mare, who also refused it. Granny Smith, however, would not accept No for an answer again and visited Meyer’s home every day after work to try to persuade her to accept the job.
In the meantime, Raven asked Twilight to assist her following the transition. Twilight felt it was the least she could do, since the referendum had been her idea to begin with, and thus it was her fault that their town was now under the pruny-hoofed rule of Ponyville’s oldest citizen.
And yet, Ponyville seemed to be slowly pulling itself out of the doldrums. Granny Smith had immediately reversed most of Meyer Mare’s cuts and reinstated nearly every program that had gone moribund over the previous few months. For one, the old bridge was repaired. Also, Ponyville School started shopping around for new desks, and Granny authorized older foals to be taught three days a week in Town Hall, since the building was rarely used. She asked Twilight to volunteer to teach them once a week, a request she made of several other ponies she knew to be educated in vital information. When Raven protested about cost, Granny said simply that it would all work out by the end of the year.
Twilight sat in the front office of City Hall, lent to her by Raven, making up her lesson plan when she heard a knock at the door. Meyer Mare entered.
“So, uh,” Twilight started, “How is civilian life treating you?”
Ponyville’s former mayor glared at Twilight over her glasses. “Honestly…” then she smiled, “I could not be happier. You have no idea how nice it is to not have to worry about everything that goes wrong in this town. New disaster? That’s someone else’s problem. Granny Smith’s probably going to completely screw the budget, but I don’t care because it’s not my job to care!”
“That’s… rather harsh,” concluded Twilight.
“If you had held my job for as long as I did, you would have burned out too,” intoned Meyer Mare.
“But weren’t your predecessors here a lot longer than you? Can you really look yourself in the mirror and admit that you failed to live up to their standards?”
“The other former mayors of Ponyville never had to deal with disaster after disaster and zero assistance from the pinhead Senators up in Canterlot,” Meyer said. “If they had, I’m willing to bet they would have reacted the same way I did. The job was poison and I’m glad to be out of it.”
“I see,” said Twilight sadly.
“Besides, look!” the ex-mayor ran a hoof through her mane. No hairs fell out. She beamed, though Twilight failed to fully comprehend its significance.
Just then, the front door of city hall blasted open as a cold wind accompanied the silhouetted figure of a massive pony sporting a massive horn and even more massive wings. Neither Twilight nor Meyer Mare needed to look for more than a split second to know the figure’s identity.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight said happily at the sight of her mentor.
“Horse Apples,” Meyer Mare muttered under her breath.
The ruler of all Equestria regarded the figures beneath her and spoke, in her usual calm, soothing manner. “Good afternoon, Twilight.”
Unlike the former mayor, who continued to prostrate herself, Twilight trotted right up to the Princess, her face sporting a look of confusion. “Excuse me, but what brings you to Ponyville today? It can’t have been to see me, otherwise Spike would have said something. Unless he did and I’ve been too busy to realize. Have I? I’m sorry.”
“It is not,” the Princess replied bluntly, which made Twilight’s countenance droop a bit. “Four weeks ago, I received an official communiqué from Miss Raven Inkwell informing me that the citizens of Ponyville decided to hold a referendum to reject my choice for mayor and install their own?”
“That’s right…” said Twilight tentatively.
“Whose idea was it?” Celestia asked with absolutely no affect.
“Well, it was my idea,” the Princess’s Prize Student admitted. “I wanted to do whatever I could to make Ponyville better. After all, this is my home now.”
“Meyer Mare,” Celestia glared at the former executive before her, “Was this stunt really Twilight’s idea?”
“Uh, i-it was,” Meyer gulped, “B-but she only did to get me out of a bad situation. If I need to take responsibility for her actions, I will.”
“That will not be necessary,” replied Celestia. “I know Twilight always has the best interests of ponies at heart. One more question, where is the pony who claims a mandate to run this village without my consent or assent?”
The door to the mayor’s office opened right then and Ponyville’s new mayor stuck her neck out, literally and figuratively. “Well, howdy there, Celestia! Ah wasn’t expectin’ ya fer at least another few hours!”
“Granny… Smith?” Celestia asked no one in particular, looking more confused than Twilight had ever seen her.
“Yep! Ponyville decided they wanted me to be mayor fer awhile! In fact, Ah’d kinda like ta talk to ya ‘bout that, since, well, you an’ me seem to ‘ve gotten cross-wires ‘bout our li’l thang. Ya mind comin’ on into the office? Ah know you’re busy, so Ah won’t keep ya long,” said Granny in a tone so informal and conversational, Twilight became offended.
“Mayor Granny Smith! How dare you speak to Princess Celestia like that!” she snipped.
“Now, Twilight,” Granny said sweetly but with clear authority, “The Princess an’ me go back a long ways. If she had a problem with how Ah talk to ‘er, she’d tell me. Ya hear?”
“I… can’t argue with that,” Twilight said, defeated, as her mentor walked regally into the office and shut the door behind her.
Twilight and Meyer Mare both tried to listen to the conversation, but Celestia had cast some sort of dampening spell that kept any sounds from escaping the room. In addition, the large glass pane taking up a third of the door, helpfully labelled ‘Mayor’s Office’, was frosted, so all Twilight could see were two blurry silhouettes. Strangely, she found it impossible to tell who was who, despite Granny Smith being a tiny Earth-pony over whom the princess should have towered; perhaps Celestia’s dampening field also affected anyone trying to see in? And what was that blood-orange aura occasionally flaring up?
After an interminable fifteen minutes, the magic enveloping the room began to dissipate. Underneath the door, Celestia’s familiar golden aura slowly faded until soon it was gone. Twilight backed away, running to her desk to appear to be working nonchalantly when the door opened and Equestria’s Solar Demigoddess exited. Meyer Mare noticed Celestia had a few beads of sweat on her face, very uncharacteristic of the famously unflappable ruler.
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight said hopefully, but the Princess ignored her
Granny Smith stuck her head back out of her office. “Ah’m real sorry fer talkin’ yer ear off, Celestia. But will ya at least think about what Ah said?”
“I… okay. We will need the use of Town Hall.”
“Way ahead of ya, dearie!” Granny said happily. “Raven! Y’all know what ta do.”
Raven popped up out of nowhere and, rolling her eyes at the situation, left to inform the town of yet another assembly, this time inside Town Hall. Meanwhile, Celestia calmly walked out of the building and towards the carrefour.
Two hours later, ponies gathered in and around Town Hall. Word of Celestia’s arrival had spread quickly, since she did not exactly mask her presence. Some ponies who recalled the Princess’s previous visit noted her lack of bodyguards this time; only one joined her onstage with Mayor Granny Smith. Twilight was stuck in the crowd, much to her own consternation, as Celestia began to speak to the assembled masses.
“Citizens of Ponyville! I have been made aware of the referendum you held here a few weeks ago regarding your mayor. While I wish to congratulate you on a successful exercise in democracy, I also wish that somepony could have informed us of it beforehand.”
The masses murmured as Princess Celestia continued.
“Had I known the circumstances behind it, I would have done everything in my power to avoid any need for the referendum in the first place. I was unaware of the dire straits this town has had to suffer since the last Summer Sun Celebration, and for that, I hope you all will accept my apology. No town of any size must be made to choose between cleaning up disasters outside of their control and hiring a new teacher. I will personally ensure you need not worry about your budget for at least the next year. As to the new mayor, although I did not give it my blessing, I do not feel it is my place to overturn the will of the ponies. Thus do I give official recognition to your new mayor, Granny Smith!” she said the last part with a barely perceptible strain as Ponyville applauded.
“Thanks fer the kind words, Princess,” Granny Smith said as she stepped up to the dais. “We held a vote in Ponyville ‘cause we didn’t feel like Canterlot was listenin’ to us. Now it looks like they did. Ah ran fer mayor because Ah wanted to fix Ponyville’s biggest problems. Wel’p, thanks to you, Princess, Ah did just that. Now my work’s done. And so Ah’d like to announce Ah’m quittin’ as Mayor of Ponyville, effective right now! Raven,” she said to her secretary, “You’ve been so good to me. You’re worth more than half a’ Canterlot put together, and I’m gonna make sure it was worth your while to put up with me fer the last month. Now… bye, y’all.” And Granny Smith very slowly ambled out of Town Hall and toward her home at Sweet Apple Acres.
Celestia, still sporting her look of utter bafflement, decided to take charge of the situation. “Well, uh, it appears we have a vacancy in the mayor’s office again. And thus it is… my duty as ruler of Equestria to appoint a new local executive. To that end, I choose the only pony I feel is worthy for the job…”
Raven, the former mayor assumed would be the answer, so much so that it took her about two minutes to register that Celestia’s actual answer was…
“Meyer Mare! Hopefully, not needing to constantly fight with my Senate for funding will allow her to once again be the great executive I always knew she could be.”
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Ponyville applauded their monarch.
“Wait, what?!” now-once-again-Mayor Mare asked Twilight after realizing what happened.
“I… think you’re mayor again,” Twilight replied, just as stunned.
Mayor Meyer Mare considered this for a moment before arriving at the only answer she could in this situation:
“…Horse apples.”