//------------------------------// // The Mayor's Interview // Story: Election in Ponyville // by StormLuna //------------------------------// After interviewing Amethyst, Sunny and her news crew headed to the cafe for a bite to eat while they waited for the mayor to finish up for the day and head home. One of the camera ponies saw she had a frustrated look, "Sunny, what is wrong? You look frustrated." Sunny replied, "I'm not frustrated, I'm simply shocked. I never imagined that I would have a candidate running for any office go all fanfilly over me. The way she hugged me it almost felt like she viewed me as more than a news personality....." He interrupted, "You mean as in she wants you as a marefriend?" Sunny replied, "Yeah. I'm no psychiatrist but I can read a pony's eyes quite well and while she kept her composure quite well, I saw a look of desire in her eyes." The camera pony replied, "Well I don't think she's anything to worry about. She may have found you attractive but her type will put ambition first." Sunny sighed, "Oh you're right." She looked to her left and saw the mayor heading home and realized that they should get going, "Guys, there's the mayor. Let's get going." The news crew followed the mayor home and before she could even get her door closed, Sunny got her attention, "Miss Mayor, we're here to do your interview." The mayor replied, "Sunny, I thought you said that it wouldn't be until the evening when you wanted to do this." Sunny said, "Well we saw you headed home and we thought that perhaps we could do this early. I interviewed your opponent earlier today and I thought that if I could get this done early that I could get back home early and get these ready to air tomorrow or the next day at the latest." Mayor Mare was not thrilled with the reporter's attitude in wanting to hurry up and get home but agreed to do it at that time, "Alright, come on in and let's do this." Once they got sat down Sunny ordered that the camera crew begin recording. Once the cameras were recording 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 Ponyville's incumbent mayor, Mayor Mare who is running for an unprecedented fifth term." The camera shifted to where it was showing them sitting across from one another. Sunny continued, "Madame Mayor, back in April you finished first in the primary but the unicorns are firmly supporting your opponent. What sort of plan do you have to get them to switch their support to you?" Mayor Mare replied, "Well with the unicorns, they are going to be a tough crowd to sway. I have noticed that as time passes more and more of them complain about traditions such as Winter Wrap Up and how time consuming it is. I am thinking that perhaps increasing the compensation that everypony gets out of it may sway them." Sunny asked, "Are you talking about monetary compensation?" Mayor Mare replied, "Perhaps but the problem with that is that if we give them extra compensation then we would have to do that for everypony else and I'm not sure if the town can afford that." Sunny asked, "Mentioning the town being able to afford things. As you are obviously aware of Ponyville has ran a deficit since before you first took office. How would you be able to afford these extra compensations given all the other expenditures the town currently has?" Mayor Mare replied, "Well, I hate to say this but my opponent may be right. We may have to see if wealthy ponies would donate to help fund some of the festivals the town holds and we may have to scale back some of the festivals. The last Helping Hooves Music Festival really hurt us." Sunny asked, "So you probably won't be bringing in any more big name acts?" Mayor Mare replied, "Probably not unless they would willing to actually be charitable. I hate to say it but if we are to bring in big name acts, we will have to ask for donations. If we can't get ponies to donate, we will have to stick to smaller name acts and probably local musicians." Sunny asked, "When I interviewed your opponent, she mentioned cuts regarding creating winter. She put particular emphasis on the icicles that are ordered from Cloudsdale to put on the eaves and suggested that it would be much easier to simply allow them to form on their own. What are your thoughts on that?" Mayor Mare replied, "While I can see where she is coming from, I do not think tradition should be deviated from. Ponyville has changed the seasons the same way for ages and as long as I am in office, none of that will change." She began to get a bit agitated and continued, "I honestly don't think this town will take kindly to some unicorn who would scrap every tradition in the name of fiscal responsibility if she could get away with it." Sunny continued "Also mentioning changing seasons, your opponent said that if the costly aspects of changing seasons were to be lessened, that extra money could be allocated to keeping the dam maintained, maintaining city streets or as what she seems to put a large amount of emphasis on, paying city workers more. What is your response to that?" Mayor Mare replied, "While I can see where she is coming from, I think the town has done quite a good job on keeping the dam maintained and I don't see any problems with the streets nor do I ever hear city workers complaining about their pay so I don't see any reason to change things." Sunny asked, "Your opponent mentioned how cutting taxes would allow ponies to keep more money in their saddlebags and contribute more into the local economy. What is your response to that?" Mayor Mare replied, "I personally think that having more money to spend would cause them to travel to Canterlot or the bigger cities back east. I honestly don't see them contributing into the local economy any more than they do right now." Sunny asked, "On a final note, your opponent brought up how Ponyville has to borrow money from banks and other sources to keep the town running. She placed a lot of emphasis on when Ponyville may be denied further loans because of the deficit. Is there anything you would plan on doing to prevent a situation like that from happening?" Mayor Mare replied, "Well so far we have been able to pay on the interest and I do hope that if we can get some private funding for our festivals that maybe we can pay on the principal balance, lessening the amount of interest we have to pay." 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 Mayor Mare. This should give the voters more insight as to who they should support." Mayor Mare replied, "I certainly hope so." Sunny ordered for the cameras to stop rolling and Mayor Mare asked, "So when will this be aired?" Sunny replied, "Well your interview along with that of your opponent will be aired on a prime-time special a couple of nights from now. That way it can receive maximum exposure." Mayor Mare said, "Well that's good. You have a good day." Sunny headed towards the door and replied, "You have a good one as well." Once the news crew left all the mayor could do was sigh in disgust. She felt as though she was asked questions that would likely give her opponent an advantage over her and was not thrilled with basically being ambushed the moment she got home from work. All she could do was wait until the fall debate arrived where she could go head to head against her opponent in depth and show why Amethyst's plans simply would not work.