Election in Ponyville

by StormLuna

Fall Debate

The second Tuesday in October had arrived and while politics had been put on the back burner in Equestria for the past few months things were beginning to get heated as debate season had arrived. Like she did in the spring, Sunny Flames and her news crew would be headed to Ponyville. While she was excited to do this and had a much more favorable opinion of Amethyst than the mayor, she vowed to herself that she wouldn't get too close to the light purple unicorn as she didn't feel like having some fanfilly hugging her again.

---

In her home, Amethyst was brushing her mane and tail frantically like she had in the past and like always, Sea Swirl was there to get her to calm down, "Amethyst, I think you've combed your mane and tail enough. What you really need to worry about tonight is appearing professional." She noticed that Amethyst was wearing her saddlebags and continued, "And why in Equestria are you wearing your saddlebags? This is a debate you are taking part in, not some sort of business meeting."

Amethyst replied, "I have some information in there that I can use to my advantage tonight." She began to snicker, "And given that I have hard copies of these town expenditures for the past fifteen years, I can and will sink the mayor tonight."

Sea Swirl sighed, "Oh and what could you possibly have on her that will help you sink her campaign tonight?"

Amethyst replied, "Just come to the debate tonight Sea Swirl. When you learn of what I have, you'll know why the town will turn against her."

Sea swirl sighed in disgust. While she supported her roommate, she believed that her tactics were going a bit far. One thing she did not know though was that her roommate had spent plenty of time researching town spending over the years.

---

When the evening arrived, Sunny Flames and the ENC news crew were setting up. Also there was the head reporter for The Ponyville Express. While he had worked with Sunny in the spring debate, he still felt intimidated that he would be moderating alongside the most popular news personality in Equestria.

Finally 1900 had arrived and everypony was ready for the debate. Amethyst and Mayor Mare were up at their podiums and the moderators were at their table. Sunny gave the signal for the cameras to start rolling. Once they started Sunny began, "Welcome to the Ponyville debate everypony. I am Sunny Flames and along side me is the head reporter for The Ponyville Express, Breaking News. As many of you know we have been following this election for months because it required a primary in the spring and includes a candidate who holds more conservative views than most candidates across the country."

Breaking News added, "And this candidate has brought about very passionate emotions here in Ponyville as old traditions die hard in earth pony communities and using things such as magic does not sit well with many ponies."

Sunny cleared her throat and continued, "Let me introduce the two candidates. We have Reform Party candidate Amethyst Star running against the incumbent, Mayor Mare, who is seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive term."

Breaking News added, "Now this debate will be done in a different way. Each candidate will be asked a question and after that candidate gives her answer, her opponent will be given a chance to counter with her own response."

The two had decided that Sunny would ask Amethyst her questions while Breaking News would ask Mayor Mare questions. Sunny decided she would go first, "Amethyst, you have let it be well known that you believe that funding for festivals that have traditionally been paid for by the town for decades should be privately funded. Why is that?"

Amethyst replied, "Like I have been saying throughout this whole election cycle, this town has been running a deficit since before the mayor took office. Ponyville has had to take out loans from The Royal Bank of Equestria and other sources just to cover operating costs and necessary expenditures such as paying the town's employees and maintaining the dam. If a time was to come when we can't get any more loans because of our ever increasing debt, the dam may eventually fail and the town's employees aren't going to work for free. If we can get these festivals privatized, perhaps we can begin to pay back these debts and eventually not rely on borrowing money to keep everything up and running."

Sunny asked, "Mayor, any response to that?"

Mayor Mare replied, "Well I can understand where my opponent is coming from and I will admit, I have concerns about whether or not we will always be able to borrow money to keep both tradition alive and fulfill our obligation to the town employees along with keeping the dam up to date. What my opponent does not mention though is that we are able to pay on the interest every year and The Royal Bank of Equestria has promised that as long as we continue to make payments on the interest, that we won't have to worry."

Breaking News continued, "And now on to Mayor Mare." He asked, "Madame Mayor, to many ponies keeping tradition alive is very important. Winter Wrap Up and creating winter are two of the most important ones. What can you tell the citizens of Ponyville to ease their fears that long held, beloved traditions will not be deviated from?"

Mayor Mare replied, "Like I have said earlier, we are keeping up on our interest payments to our creditors so we can continue to put as much money into these traditions as we always have. I will admit, in prior years we always went over budget but with Princess Twilight being such a good organizer, she has made things run more smoothly, we have wrapped up winter on time and that has lessened the cost, not to mention the stress involved in it.

Regarding creating winter. A majority of that is a payment to Cloudsdale for the snowflakes they create during the year along with their labor of bringing in the clouds so no matter how much my opponent may complain about it, reducing costs on the creation of winter rests solely on what the weather ponies in Cloudsdale decide."

Breaking News asked, "Amethyst, your response to that?"

Amethyst replied, "While I understand that keeping these traditions are alive are important, I think that Ponyville needs to modernize. The ponies in large cities such as Manehattan and Fillydelphia lead such hectic lives that they have a couple weather mages that take care of changing seasons for them. Because the mages only work on that job four days a year and hold other jobs, the cost of changing seasons for these cities is ONE PERCENT of what it costs us to cover Winter Wrap Up alone. Besides the cost, the town loses one day of productivity as everypony is needed to wrap up winter.

Also, for changing these seasons the town pays ponies to do the various jobs involving wrapping up winter by the hour. Now if this would become a volunteer basis event it would not harm the town so much financially but even so, I still think that if the town were to bring in a unicorn mage to handle things, we could have spring arrive on time every year with no lost time and at only a minimal cost."

Sunny asked, "Amethyst, from what I understand when you filed your papers you told Princess Celestia you would eradicate wasteful spending here in Ponyville. I take it you meant a lot involving the festivals?"

Amethyst replied, "Yes, I did mean the costs of the festivals. Like I said in the first debate, The Helping Hooves Music Festival took up roughly 20% of the town budget last year because of the demands that Countess Coloratura's manager made. Twenty percent for one event is quite a bit and because of that spending, the town was unable to give it's workers the raises which my opponent had promised them last November when their contracts were renewed for this year.

Regarding other wasteful spending, there is spending that the town has tried to keep secret despite it being publicly available in the spending records in the town hall." She pulled some papers out of her saddlebag and held them up. She asked, "Twilight, could you project these spending records for all to see?"

While Twilight was unsure as to whether this would be ethical or not she did as requested. Once they were visible Amethyst continued, "As you can see, dating back to Mayor Mare's very first year in office, the town has paid roughly 1000 bits per year to Manehattan Mane and Tail Supply." She continued to flip through pages so that the ponies could see each one, from the first year that Mayor Mare was in office until the last full calendar year. She continued, "I remember a few years back when pictures of the mayor with half dyed mane surfaced in The Foal Free Press." She glared at the mayor and continued, "Now I wonder where this dye came from and why the town would do business with a personal products company?"

Mayor Mare yelled, "She can't do this! She can't just have a PRINCESS use her magic to project this information for everypony to see in a debate. This is illegal, I'll sue!"

Twilight interrupted, "Madame Mayor, there are no rules against a candidate having anypony from doing this, whether said pony is a princess or not so this is perfectly legal." She cast her gaze at Amethyst and said, "You may continue."

Amethyst continued, "I believe I have said everything I need to regarding wasteful spending."

Sunny asked, "Mayor Mare, your reaction to this?"

The mayor was visibly shaken by the spending records that had just been projected for everypony to see but tried to remain calm, "Well I don't really think my opponent understands how important traditions are, regardless of the cost. Bringing in Countess Coloratura not only made everypony happy, it also reunited Applejack with her fillyhood friend and helped Countess Coloratura rediscover her true self. You can't put a price on something as special as that."

Breaking News asked, "Last question of the night. Madame Mayor, I have heard rumors that because of the deficit Ponyville has ran, that the local teacher has not received a pay raise in several years and that it has been quite some time since the school has been able to acquire new textbooks. What would your remedy to this problem be?"

Mayor Mare replied, "I hate to say this but to take care of this problem we may have to scale back our festivals or ask for some private donations. Am I saying we need to get them fully privately funded, no I am not. I do believe that if we can get some private donations, Miss Cheerilee can get a pay raise and more modern textbooks can be acquired."

Breaking News asked, "Your response to this Amethyst?"

Amethyst replied, "My opponent is right regarding the festivals but as you know, I think they need to be completely privately funded." She held up the spending records and continued, "I'm not sure how closely everypony was watching these when Twilight was projecting them but there has not been one, NOT EVEN ONE, transaction with any place that would have been a place where the town would get textbooks from since my opponent's first year in office. I'm not sure when the last time the town purchased new textbooks but it had to have been at least sixteen years ago, if not more. Outdated textbooks are putting our fillies and colts at a grave disadvantage against ponies that live in other communities where more modern textbooks are available. Not only is the town engaging in wasteful spending, is is FAILING our fillies and colts!"

Sunny said, "We have heard great points from both of our candidates tonight which will hopefully help the voters know where the candidates stand on things."

Breaking news added, "We will give the candidates one final chance to speak to the voters before we sign off for the night. Mayor Mare, what is your message to the voters?"

Mayor Mare replied, "While my opponent has brought forth many good points tonight I think that I am deserving of your vote because unlike my opponent, I do not want to scrap tradition in the name of being cheap and using magic. If you value our beloved, long held traditions, vote for me and they will stay in tact."

Sunny asked, "Amethyst, what is your final statement?"

Amethyst replied, "Citizens of Ponyville, you have seen both sides of the coin presented on various subjects tonight but I want to ask you all something. Are you ok with Ponyville continuing to run a deficit? Are you ok with town employees not receiving raises when said raises are promised to them in their contracts? Are you ok with festivals going over budget using money that could be used to prevent the damn from breaking, flooding the town and leaving us without power? Are you ok with your fillies and colts receiving a sub-par education because of the lack of modern textbooks and a poorly paid teacher? If that answer is yes, then go ahead and vote for my opponent. If that answer is no, then vote for me. I care about all of you, everypony from yet to be born foals to our elders."

The cameras shifted to Sunny and Breaking News at the desk. Sunny said, "That is the end of the Ponyville debate. While this has been a fantastic debate, it also turned out to be rather unorthodox. Breaking News, who do you think won this debate?"

Breaking News was not happy with how things turned out but tried to remain calm on camera, "Well I think both candidates put forth very good ideas. Personally I think they tied. Will it alter things from how the primary turned out, I don't think so. I am predicting that Mayor Mare will be elected to an unprecedented fifth term. What about you Sunny?"

Sunny replied, "I do think that both candidates started out very well but it seemed like as the debate progressed, Amethyst continued to do better and revealing the town spending records is what clinched it for her. It was absolutely brilliant what she did regarding the spending records. I also think her bringing up the fact that no spending has been put towards the school only made it better for her. I am betting that after tonight, most of the town will flock to Amethyst and it will only be the extremely old fashioned ponies that continue to support Mayor Mare." She got the notification that the time to end their telecast had arrived and continued, "Thank you for tuning in tonight Equestria. Coming up next is Overnight News."

The cameras stopped rolling and what seemed to be a civil situation between the two moderators turned nasty. Breaking News yelled, "Sunny, you don't understand, ponies here are old fashioned and just because some arrogant unicorn BREAKS THE RULES by having a PRINCESS use her magic to project the town spending records for all to see, that will not change their minds. You UNICORNS will always stick together. It has been easy to spot that since the first debate and you have obviously been on her side since day one. You make me sick."

Sunny decided that rather than firing back that she would be calm, "Breaking News, I know you have been covering news here for decades but I don't think ponies are going to stand for misuse of town funds nor are ponies who have foals going to put their young one's education at risk."

Breaking News stormed off while Sunny ordered her news crew to pack up and get ready to get home. As they were packing up their equipment the ENC crew couldn't help but notice that most of the pegasi and even some of the earth ponies had gathered with the unicorns and were talking among one another. When Sunny saw this she said to herself, "Come election day, the old fashioned ponies are going to be in for a huge surprise!"

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[OmniFox]

History will be made regardless of the outcome!!!