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// Amethyst's Interview 
// Story: Election in Ponyville 
// by StormLuna 
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Two days had passed and the day of the interview had arrived.  Amethyst was brushing her mane and trying to make sure she looked perfect.  After all, she did not want to look messy in front of Sunny or Equestria.  Sea Swirl saw her doing this and said, "Amethyst, you look fine.  You don't need to spend thirty minutes brushing your mane and tail."

Amethyst replied, "Sea Swirl, I want to look perfect.  This is going to be seen across all of Equestria and I want to look good for Sunny."

Sea Swirl sighed, "Ugh, you act like you two are going out on a first date or something."  

Amethyst replied, "Look, I just want to look......"

There was a knock on the door and Amethyst rushed to answer it.  When she saw it was Sunny without thinking she rushed to her and hugged her.  "Oh my gosh Sunny Flames, I never imagined that you would be visiting me in my home!"

Sunny hugged her back and replied, "Well this is a first.  I never imagined that a candidate I was interviewing would go all fanfilly over me."

Sea Swirl was in the living room and said, "Don't worry about her Ms. Flames.  She is probably your biggest fan and watches you religiously."

Sunny pulled back and said, "Amethyst, I know you're a fan of mine but I really don't feel comfortable being hugged by somepony I barely know."

Amethyst replied, "I'm sorry, I'm just a huge fan of yours."

Sunny sighed, "It's alright."  She then asked, "Well shall we get this interview going?"

Amethyst replied, "Of course."

Sea Swirl headed towards the door and said, "Well Amethyst, I'll see you later."

Amethyst nodded while Sunny ordered the camera crew to begin recording.  Once the cameras were rolling Sunny began, "Hello Equestria, this is Sunny Flames reporting for ENC.  As many of you know I like to do interviews with various political candidates during the summer and today I am interviewing Reform Party candidate Amethyst Star who is running for mayor of Ponyville."

The camera view shifted to where it was showing both of them sitting across from one another.  Sunny continued, "Amethyst, while you qualified for the general election back in April, the incumbent mayor garnered 16 more votes than you did.  What do you think needs to be done to get some of the ponies who voted for her to switch their support to you?"

Amethyst replied, "Well in the first debate we really didn't get a chance to go in depth over what our plans are.  It was pretty much just simple questions.  I'm sure once ponies know more about my plans on lowering taxes and cutting wasteful spending they will throw their support behind me."

Sunny asked, "You mentioned cutting wasteful spending.  Could you elaborate on that?"

Amethyst replied, "Yes, I can.  For starters, there are quite a few festivals that are funded by the town.  For instance, what hurt the town the most last year was The Helping Hooves Music Festival.  I did my research and the town had a 3,500 bit budget for this but because of the desire to bring in Countess Coloratura, the town went over budget.  Bringing her in alone cost 7,000 bits.  My view is that if high price acts are to be brought in, there should be donations to fund it or perhaps wealthy ponies could contribute to make it happen.  In the end the festival cost over 10,000 bits.  That is roughly 20% of the town budget."

Sunny asked, "What else would you want to cut?"

Amethyst replied, "One thing many ponies may not know is that when we create winter, the town purchases icicles to put on the eaves of houses.  While they are not horribly expensive the town still spends roughly 1,000 bits for as many that are ordered.  If we were to simply allow those things to form on their own, there would be an extra thousand bits that could be allocated elsewhere, such as maintaining city services or giving our hard working city workers a small pay raise."

Sunny asked, "Amethyst, in the first debate you mentioned the waste involved in Winter Wrap Up.  What would you want to do to fix that?"

Amethyst replied, "For starters, Winter Wrap Up always takes longer than it is scheduled.  Given that ponies are paid by the hour to help with this, the extra time requires that the city pay them overtime.  Like with creating winter, the extra costs involving that could be allocated elsewhere.  Like I also said with bringing winter, that extra money could be used in maintaining city infrastructure or giving city workers a slight raise or contributing more in our contribution match into their 401(k)s."

Sunny asked, "Amethyst, some ponies, earth ponies in particular seem to think that you place more importance on cutting costs than you do on tradition.  What would you say to put them at ease or to convince them that your economic and tax plans should take top priority over the status quo?"

Amethyst replied, "Here is the thing.  While having the town fund these festivals and events such as changing the seasons is traditional, the town has ran a deficit since before Mayor Mare took office.  The town has had to take out many loans from various sources just to cover operating costs.  A time may come when banks will no longer be willing to give us loans just so we can cover all the costs.  The results of that could be disastrous.  We may not be able to properly maintain the city's water mains, we may not be able to keep the dam maintained and we may not be able to match the contributions to the city workers' 401(k) accounts, which is something we put in their contracts when we hire them."

Sunny asked, "Another thing everypony learned from that first debate is that you want to cut taxes.  What sorts of benefits do you think that would provide for the citizens of Ponyville?"

Amethyst replied, "Well anytime you cut taxes that allows ponies to keep more bits in their saddlebags.  This allows ponies to provide more for their families and it aids businesses greatly.  That extra money will likely be spent on expenditures that ponies would not be able to make if it is going to the government.  It could be the difference between a business owner being able to turn a profit or losing money.  It could also be the difference between them being able to create more jobs or having to eliminate jobs and of course if we have more ponies working, more ponies will make money and be able to contribute to the local economy themselves.  In a situation like that, everypony wins."

The time had come to finish this interview as the network had only scheduled so much time to air it.  Sunny said, "Well thank you Amethyst.  This should give the voters more insight as to who they should support."

Amethyst replied, "I hope so."

Sunny finished, "I would like to thank Amethyst Star for inviting me into her home so that not just Ponyville, but all of Equestria can get to know more about her and her views on how things should be run."

Sunny ordered the cameras to stop rolling and Amethyst asked, "I have a question, when will this interview be aired?"

Sunny replied, "It will be aired on my show a couple nights from now, once I get back to Manehattan."

Amethyst said, "Alright, sounds good."

Sunny replied, "Well I need to get going, I want to get a bite to eat at the cafe and relax before I have to interview the mayor."

Amethyst said, "Alright.  I want to thank you for interviewing me."

Sunny headed towards the door and replied, "You're welcome Amethyst.  You have a good day."

Once Sunny and her camera crew left Amethyst had a huge smile on her face.  She had a feeling that her emphasis on cutting wasteful spending would resonate quite well with the citizens of Ponyville.  She also believed that the idea of more job creation would go over well so that she could win over many voters that supported the mayor in the primary.