Ponyville Holds An Election

by Soufriere

Chapter 6 - It's Called Democracy. No Refunds Or Returns

The next day, Twilight was standing guard at Town Hall as Apple Bloom approached.

“I’m sorry, Apple Bloom. I can’t let you in,” she said simply and without empathy.

“But why not?” the filly asked, “It’s my town too! Why cain’t Ah have mah say?”

“You’re too young.”

“That ain’t fair! Miss Cheerilee may lose her job dependin’ on how this turns out, an’ Ah’m pretty sure that directly affects all of us! You’re not in school. None of y’all are!” she yelled, gesturing to the queue of grown mares and stallions behind her. “So why do y’all get the right to decide how our school gets run when the actual students don’t?!”

“That’s just how it works, Apple Bloom,” Twilight attempted to explain. “Think about all the other fillies and colts in the school, not just your friends. Think about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. How would you feel if they got to vote?”

Apple Bloom considered this. “Well, they shouldn’t be allowed to,” she replied.

“Why?”

“Cause they don’t know from nothin’!” Apple Bloom blurted out. “They don’t care ‘bout no one but themselves!”

Twilight considered this, but opted to stick to her guns. “You may be right. But how would ponies at City Hall know that? Ponyville is a small town, but it’s not that small. We don’t have a way to tell which ponies know ‘from nothing’ as you say, and I don’t think Princess Celestia would want us to make those kinds of decisions, because every pony knows different things. In other words, to make this as fair as possible, we have to set guidelines. Unfortunately, that means setting a minimum age, and I’m afraid you’re too young.”

“Well… Ah won’t be too young forever! And then you’ll see! Ah’ll make sure ever’pony hears mah voice and cares what Ah think! I’ll make such a difference you won’t believe it! Even the Princesses themselves’ll have to take notice!” Apple Bloom pouted.

“I look forward to it,” Twilight replied, smiling. She did not intend to be condescending, but that was how Apple Bloom took it.

“I mean it! I’ma change the world! You’ll see!” Apple Bloom said as she stormed off in a huff.

Not long after, the sun finally sank below the horizon as the last ponies cast their votes. Twilight and Raven locked the doors to Town Hall and, along with several city officials, began the thankless task of counting the ballots. Suddenly, Twilight remembered something.

“I forgot to vote!”

---

Thanks to her obsessive need to check and double-check everything, it took Twilight and her crew nearly three hours to sort and count all the ballots. She worried that with three candidates, there was a possibility no pony would emerge with a majority, an outcome none of her books prepared her for. As she fretted about how she would explain this to Celestia, how she would explain anything to Celestia, Raven approached Twilight and informed her that the ballots had all been counted and she was ready to announce the results.

Twilight immediately started fretting. On the one hand, she knew that she was doing the right thing for the mayor and for Ponyville, but she could not shake the feeling that by helping organize the referendum, she was directly defying Celestia, which was of course the worst thing any pony could possibly do. And how might Celestia respond? Imprisonment? Banishment? Imprisonment while banished? Sure, Fluttershy had escaped such a fate, but Twilight had no excuse. Oh, Celestia had laughed when Twilight had told her of her concerns, but maybe that was just a ruse to throw Twilight off, to lure her into a false sense of security. Maybe Celestia was watching them right now and was just waiting to blast them all to bits with her golden aura of justice!

Then Twilight’s world briefly went black except for the twenty-three whitish-grey stars dancing before her eyes. Her head throbbed in pain. Raven stared at her with a combination of concern and irritation, then nodded once, furtively, before placing her foreleg back on the ground and making her way out the doors, into the crowd. After a moment, Twilight followed her, nursing a nasty bump that appeared out of nowhere.

In front of Town Hall, Mayor Mare, Filthy Rich, and Granny Smith all stood waiting to hear what the citizens of Ponyville had said. The mayor, for her part, glared daggers at Filthy, who responded in kind. Granny Smith was too busy talking to the elderly Mister Waddle, standing just a few feet away, about his latest medical mishap. Indeed, other nearby ponies wore looks of increasing disgust as the aged stallion abandoned all semblance of decorum, explaining his situation to Granny in exacting detail. For her part, Granny listened carefully and intently before doling out her advice to him: Eat more apples.

Raven stepped up to the podium, which had been set in front of the main door again but without the stage this time, and began her recitation.

First she informed the assembled masses of the total for Filthy Rich. He had received a grand total of six votes. The assumed wealthiest stallion in town immediately protested, to which Raven responded with a glare that could melt steel and asked him if he would like to count the ballots himself. To that, Filthy Rich stormed off the Town Hall’s wraparound porch, rattling off a string of curse words many citizens of Ponyville had never heard (Cheerilee would have her hooves full for the next month attempting to stop her students from repeating them) on the way back to his mansion.

Next, Raven read out the total for Mayor Mare, who for her part seemed engrossed in a nearby firefly lamp – so pretty. Maybe she should not have been so quick to cut funding for them. Due to her distraction, she never heard exactly how many ponies supported her, but really at this point she did not care. Regardless, the number sounded quite a lot higher than “six”, so she at least had that going for her.

Finally, Raven announced the total number of votes for Granny Smith. It was an outright majority. Thus, by the power vested in her as Ponyville’s Clerk, Raven declared Granny Smith the new mayor of Ponyville and would send the results to Canterlot for certification posthaste.

Now-Ex-Mayor Mare sighed. Her long nightmare was finally over. At least she didn’t lose to Filthy Rich. She walked away from Town Hall and back to her house in a daze.

Author's Note:

Seriously, though. Those firefly-lamps are pretty cool.