//------------------------------// // Campaign 101 // Story: The Great Ponyville Election // by RarityFigma //------------------------------// TWILIGHT’S LIBRARY TUESDAY 8:00 AM Rainbow Dash exploded into Twilight’s library. The purple unicorn rose from bed to see Dash flying above her with a scowl on her face. The pegasus revealed a newspaper clipping. The headline read: Mayor gives support to new candidate Twilight Sparkle! Rainbow Dash was mad and she couldn’t hide it. “You’re running against me?!” Dash yelled accusingly. Twilight yawned before shooting a counter glare at Rainbow. “Yes I am Rainbow Dash,” Twilight answered calmly. “I can’t let you run Ponyville into the ground by getting rid of all the rules!” “And you think you’re more qualified than me?!” Rainbow was fuming now. Twilight sighed. “No. I’m not more qualified than you, but I’m still going to give you a run for your money.” Twilight managed to smile with those last words. Dash let out an annoyed growl before flying off. The pegasus was out Twilight’s door in a less than a minute. THE SKIES OF PONYVILLE 10:00 AM Fliers fell down from the skies on to streets of Ponyville. The papers showed Rainbow Dash in her iconic salute with the slogan: SUPPORT THE RAINBOW REVOLUTION!!! Fluttershy and Dash flew around the town dropping fliers. Fluttershy had been hard at work last night. She searched desperately to find a magic copying service that did 24-hour delivery, but after 2 hours with the reference book she finally found one. Now the fruits of her labor were falling all over the perplexed citizens. Each pony looked at the fliers with a mix of wonder and confusion. “Good work Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said. Suddenly something caught the pegasus’s eye. It was a giant pink banner hanging from Sugarcube Corner that said: VOTE FOR PARTIES! VOTE FOR PINKIE! Dash growled and flew down towards the bakery. Outside the store happy ponies were eating pink cookies, cakes and more. Rainbow Dash maneuvered through the mob and managed to enter the store. There she found the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Spike and Pinkie Pie giving away baked goods. More vote for Pinkie signs could be seen hanging all around the store. Pinkie turned to Dash and smiled. “Hi Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie cheered as happy as could be. “Do you want a vote for Pinkie cookie?!” Rainbow Dash scowled. “Pinkie Pie!” She said annoyed. “You’re running against me too?!” Pinkie bounced up and down with glee. “Yep I sure am! I’m gonna beat you and and Twilight!” “Yeah Pinkie Pie is the voice for all us kids!” Applebloom yelled. “Pinkie will be mayor for sure!” Scootalou cut in. “Yep (munch) and too help her win we’ve been baking stuff all night to give away,” Spike shouted in between eating a cookie. Sweetie Belle shot Spike a death glare causing him to back away from the goods. “Sorry Rainbow Dash,” Sweetie Belle said. “But there’s no way you’ll beat Pinkie!” Dash stomped the floor before managing to regain her composure. “Fine,” she answered. “Have your little baking giveaway! I’ll still be mayor!” Rainbow Dash turned to leave proudly, but a sudden stomach growl ruined her escape plans. She quickly looked back. “Actually can I have a cookie?” Pinkie was about to pass Dash a treat when Sweetie Belle caught the pink hoof mid trajectory. The white filly then pushed Rainbow Dash out of the store much to blue pegasus’s chagrin. “Sorry Rainbow Dash, but this is Pinkie Pie Headquarters and I’m gonna need you to leave!” “Meh,” Dash responded as she trudged away. Fluttershy met up with her outside the bakery. “I gave away all the fliers Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said giving her own salute to her leader. “Excellent work,” Dash said. “But with both Twilight and Pinkie trying to beat me we’ve got to work even harder! Quick let’s make our own cookies!” Fluttershy looked dismayed. “But Rainbow Dash we spent all our money on the fliers.” “Darn it!” Rainbow Dash cried. “I don’t get another paycheck till next week! How are we supposed to get money to win the election?” TWILIGHT’S LIBRARY 11:30 AM “Alright guys, I’m really glad you both agreed to be my campaign managers,” Twilight said with an optimistic smile. “Why it’s nothing Darling,” Rarity answered. “Yeah I mean we all gotta take sides sometime,” Applejack laughed. “So what should we do first?” Rarity asked. Twilight's horn lit up. “We should open this box the Mayor gave me last night,” Twilight said as she magically floated a pair of scissors. “I don’t know how the news traveled so fast, but now everypony knows I’m running. We need to start campaigning right away!” “But Twilight don’t you need a lot of money to run for office?” Rarity asked with a confused look. “Yeah,” Applejack cut in. “Rainbow Dash’s all but flooded Ponyville in fliers already! How’re we gonna top that?” “I don’t know,” Twilight answered disillusioned. Finally as the box opened Twilight took a peek inside. Her legs grew wobbly and she started to babble unintelligibly. “Oh… My...Celestia,” she managed to say as she dropped to the floor. “What is it Twilight?’ Applejack said as she and Rarity looked inside the box. Both ponies grew wide-eyed and their jaws dropped. The box was filled with money. There were more bits in that one box than any of the three had seen before in their whole lives. Amongst the cash was small note written by the Mayor. Dear Twilight Please use this legitimate campaign donation of 3,000 bits to safely and efficiently win the election. Oh and don’t worry about paying me back. Sincerely, the former Mayor of Ponyville “That’s quite the donation,” Twilight said regaining her sanity. “A…donation?” Applejack said still drooling over the shimmering money. “Yes,” Twilight answered. “A donation is when somepony gives you money for your campaign because they want you to win.” “You…don’t…say,” Rarity said her eyes entranced by the cash. Both Applejack and Rarity both began to fantasize about what they could do with all that beautiful money. Huge puffy clouds of their aspirations appeared over each pony’s head. “I could buy that new tractor for the farm! Heck! I could buy a whole new barn!” Applejack said with a smile. “That’s nothing,” Rarity said with her own fantasy induced grin. “I’d be the toast of Canterlot with all the outfits I could buy with that much money. Not to mention all the perfumes, shampoos, lotions! There’s no end!” Twilight magically popped both ponies’ dream clouds with a comically oversized needle. Each pony turned to their purple friend heartbroken as she shut the box. “No guys,” Twilight said with integrity. “This money is for the campaign! We can’t just spend it on ourselves.” “But you’ll win the election fer sure!” Applejack cheered. “Yes Twilight,” Rarity interjected. “Applejack is right! You will surely win the election. You don’t need all that money the Mayor gave to you. Let’s spend some of it!” “NO!” Twilight roared. “Well what if we buy stuff to help you win the election?” Applejack said thinking fast. “Yes Darling,” Rarity jumped in. “We’ll help you win by giving you a total political make-over!” “I don’t know,” Twilight responded. “I think this election should be about the issues. Not just which pony can be the flashiest.” “Nonsense Twilight,” Rarity retorted. “Why with Applejack and my help, you’ll win this election in style!” “I don’t usually say this, but Rarity is right,” Applejack cheered. “Let’s just spend some of the money on campaign stuff. Besides it says in this book called Pony Politics lookin good never hurt nopony running for office.” “Okay fine,” Twilight said giving in. “What else did that book say?” “Well,” Rarity said as she levitated the book over to her. “It says the easiest way to win a campaign to tell everypony about bad things your opponent did. This is referred to as mudslinging. Hmm it sounds messy, but that seems easy enough.” “Yeah,” Applejack laughed. “Pinkie and Rainbow have both done a mountain of crazy stuff we could tell!” “No guys,” Twilight said. “I’m not going to attack Rainbow or Pinkie. I want to run a clean campaign. Mudslinging is just mean.” “But Twilight,” Rarity said. “It says so right in the book.” “Sorry Rarity,” Twilight answered. “But this time a book is wrong. Now come on, let’s go buy some campaign stuff.” With that the trio hoisted their fortune up and left Twilight’s tree house. Little did they know that outside the tree two ponies had been listening in on their conversation. And that those eavesdropping ponies had wings. “So that’s how you get money,” Rainbow Dash said proudly. “Ha! And now we know how to campaign too! We just have to tell everypony about bad stuff Twilight and Pinkie did!” Dash let out a mischievous laugh. Fluttershy looked fearful. “But Rainbow Dash didn’t you hear Twilight,” the yellow pony said slowly. “Wouldn’t it be really mean to… you know… throw mud at our friends?” Rainbow Dash shot Fluttershy a quick glare that made the timid pegasus squeal. “No Fluttershy,” Dash growled. “What’s really mean is when your friends run against you for no good reason!” Dash stared up at the sky as a new smile appeared on her face. “Alright get the address book. We’ve got a lot of ponies to find.”