Ponyville Holds An Election

by Soufriere

Chapter 4 - More Than She Bargained For

“So, what is this?” Lyra Heartstrings asked Twilight Sparkle of the sheet of parchment spread out before her as they stood in front of the Municipal Building, a few days later.

“Ponyville is holding a referendum on the mayor. So I want to make sure everypony who wants their voice to be heard gets the opportunity to register,” Twilight explained.

“Okay, so what does a referendum do?”

“It means that, in about two or three weeks, you will go to the Town Hall, step into a booth where nopony can see you, and check a box saying whether you like the mayor or not. Then, we’ll send those results to Princess Celestia. If more ponies dislike our mayor than like her, Celestia will appoint another mayor. At least, that’s how I understand it works.”

“So, will Bon-bon know which box I choose?” Lyra asked, concerned.

“Only if you tell her. The ballot itself has no identifying information.”

“Okay, I think I get it,” said Lyra as she signed the register.

“Excellent! See you in a couple weeks. Don’t worry; we’ll be sure to remind you when it’s coming,” Twilight chirped as Lyra walked away.

Less than ten seconds later, Mayor Mare approached Twilight sporting a satisfied look on her face. “This seems to be going better than I expected.”

“Mm-hmm,” confirmed Twilight, “The response has been pretty positive, especially after I explain the process to them. We’ve had over a hundred ponies sign the register and we still have over two weeks until referendum day.”

“I suppose I should start packing up my things,” said the mayor breezily

However, before she could do that, a cold wind suddenly blew through them. Fitting, since it was accompanied by a dapper brown Earth pony stallion with a black mane sporting a red power tie and a bag of money for a cutie mark.

“Filthy Rich,” stated Mayor Mare flatly as Twilight tilted her head in confusion.

The eponymous stallion, the wealthiest pony in town, at least as far as he knew, spoke with the air of a man who considered everyone and everything else below him, possibly even Celestia, although that particular relationship had not yet been tested.

“It’s about time you realized what every pony in this town with half a brain has known for years: You are terrible at your job and the day can’t come soon enough that Ponyville is rid of you for good,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“That’s great and all,” the mayor replied with as much nonchalance as she could muster, determined to rattle him, “So are you going to sign the register or what?”

“Register?” Filthy looked confusedly at the two lesser mares before him. “I wasn’t going to sign any register. I came to look at your office, or, as Ponyville will be calling it in less than a month, my office.”

Twilight stepped between Filthy Rich and the mayor, incorrectly anticipating fireworks. “That’s not how the referendum is going to work,” she explained.

“Well, it should!” countered Filthy Rich. “After all, if the citizens of this city decide this mayor is not fit to hold her job, then shouldn’t a replacement be ready to start immediately? Of course! So in the interests of the ponies of Ponyville—” the mayor scoffed, although he did not hear it, “I demand you put my name on the referendum ballots as the mayor’s replacement!”

Twilight looked up into the sky, her brain working overtime to try and figure out how to keep the situation under control. Luckily for her, the mayor jumped into the conversation, inadvertently demonstrating exactly why Celestia had appointed her.

“I may be fairly new to this referendum thing, Mister Filthy Rich, but I have studied it enough to know that it takes more than just your demand to be included on the ballot. You have to submit a block of signatures to my clerk and pay a fee to prove your seriousness. Obviously money is no issue for you, but can you prove at least five dozen ponies want to see you as our next mayor? Oh, and your name cannot be included at all unless you register, so you’ll have to sign the parchment anyway. You have until a week before the election. That way we have enough time to print out ballots and hold a forum where you can tell ponies why you would be a better mayor. Understand all that?”

Filthy Rich glared at them as he signed, then he left, cursing them. Twilight, for her part, briefly considered according the mayor a tiny bit of respect before deciding against it. After all, by holding a referendum at all, the mayor was questioning Princess Celestia’s judgement, and Celestia, as far as she was concerned, never made mistakes.

---

The day of the deadline for Filthy Rich to submit his signatures, Twilight and Raven sat in the Mayor’s reception area counting registration forms. So far, they had only rejected two forms: one from a random stallion from Fillydelphia who happened to be passing through (thus did not meet the residency requirement) and had no idea what he was signing, and the other from Apple Bloom, whose form Twilight decided to reject due to the filly’s young age. She was the only school aged pony that had tried to register – she had had Cheerilee discourage the classes – but Twilight worried about the precedent of allowing her to vote. What if other schoolfoals decided they wanted to have their say too? The possible chaos was too much for her to bear.

As she slid checked forms over to Raven to add to the official register, their rhythm was interrupted by Applejack, who plonked down a large stack of papers and a small sack of money onto Raven’s desk.

“What’s all this, A.J.?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” Applejack began in the thick country twang that was her trademark, “I’d heard that y’all allowed Filthy Rich to get signatures and money to get his name on the referendum ballot, so we figured we’d do the same thing. Deadline’s today, right?”

Twilight blinked a few times. “Uh, yes. Are you thinking about running for mayor?”

Applejack scoffed. “Me? ‘Course not. I got too much work to do on the farm. All these ponies that signed these here papers,” she indicated the stack of parchment, “did it ‘cause they think Granny Smith would make a fine mayor!”

Raven dropped the quill she had been holding (no small feat for an Earth pony) and nearly fell off her cushion. Twilight, for her part, tried and failed to keep from laughing.

“Are you serious, Applejack? I mean, Granny Smith is a great mare and all, but you can’t seriously think that she has what it takes to run a city!”

Applejack puffed up her chest, somewhat offended. “She ran Sweet Apple Acres for decades before me an’ Big Mac were born. She’s been active in a lot of local civic clubs and events for longer than anyone can remember. And, I’ll have you know, she’s the last living founder of Ponyville! She’s seen more than we ever will, an’ I think that experience means somethin’ to ponies here! Even if you don’t think so, enough ponies agreed with me that I think ya oughtta give her a chance.”

Twilight magicked the stack of papers before her to spread them out so that she could verify as many of them at once as she could. To her and Raven’s utter shock, Granny Smith had collected nearly twice the number of signatures required; the only one that had to be rejected was Apple Bloom’s.

“Well,” said the thoroughly flabbergasted Twilight, “I guess this means the Mayor has an opponent in the referendum next week.”

“Make that two opponents!” Filthy Rich called out as he stomped triumphantly into the room and delivered his own stack of signature papers and a bag of money.

Dutifully, Raven and Twilight immediately began to verify the signatures he gave them. Twilight narrowed her eyes at him.

“Filthy Rich, a lot of these are from your own family,” she said flatly.

“They’re legal residents. What’s the issue?” he countered.

“Your daughter signed. I can’t accept her signature.”

“Diamond has her cutie mark. Does that not make her mature enough to take part?”

“No it doesn’t,” argued Twilight, “She’s still a filly in school. Just so you know it’s nothing personal, I also had to reject Applejack’s little sister. Twice in fact. Spike can’t vote either because he’s too young, and he’s older than your daughter… and a dragon.”

“But…” Filthy tried to protest but Twilight cut him off

“I have to set the floor somewhere. Surely you agree there have to be rules, yes?”

“Well, I suppose.”

“Now, we need to get to work verifying the rest of your signatures. Raven? Do you have anything to add?”

The beleaguered secretary had been poring through the stacks of paper while Twilight was arguing and pulled out a large metal object with which she stamped the topmost paper, which contained Filthy Rich’s official letter of intent, with a big green check-mark. She then grabbed a quill and scribbled a quick note on a piece of scrap paper. Once through, she held it up to Filthy. It stated simply, “One signature above minimum needed.”

“Huh,” Twilight said, clearly surprised. “Fair enough. In six days there will be a forum at Town Hall where all three candidates for mayor will answer questions from ponies.”

Filthy Rich sneered. “I look forward to it,” he said as he trotted out of the office.

Applejack glared at him as he left, then turned to Twilight. “Are you sure about this?” she asked with more than a bit of worry in her voice.

“It all checked out legally, so it’s not my place to be sure or not,” Twilight said. “If you really believe Granny Smith would make a good mayor, then you might want to have her prepare to deal with Filthy Rich at the forum, because we all know he’ll be ready to answer any and every question I can throw at him.”

“And the mayor?” asked Applejack.

“Well, since it’s a referendum on her, she’s on the ballot by default, and even if her heart isn’t in it, she hates Filthy Rich almost as much as you do. I don’t doubt she’ll try her best to hold her own against him.”

With that, Applejack left, grumbling.

Comments

[NeuroSparkle]

What must it be like to bring "democracy" to a society that has little to no concept of it? Twilight's trying her best[.]

Obviously, Twilight isn't doing it right. You can only share democracy with others by applying drones, assault rifles and, most importantly, ICBMs.

[OmniFox]

It's not that Spike can't vote because of age it's because he's a dragon.

[Atomic_furry]

The only gripe i have so fare is how they portray mr rich. In the show hes actualy a real nice guy

[BurningSkies]

5784573
Or, if society hasn't developed such technology, which was the case in France in 1794, with guillotines.