An Election in Ponyville

by Esle Ynopemos

Chapter 3: Debate Masters

The air around the Ponyville Mayoral Debate tingled with a kind of excitement that it had not had in years. Practically everypony in town had gathered in the town square to see the event. Businesses closed up their shops, school was let out early. Even the Apple family took a break from their busy apple-bucking season to attend. The entirety of the town square was filled with ponies, with some of the latecomers having to stand all the way out in the side-streets.

Above the throngs rose a wooden platform with two podiums set upon it. Behind the podiums, the two candidates stood ready to begin the debate. The Mayor stole a sidelong glance at her opponent. With some small relief, she noted that Twilight was shifting uncomfortably as she took in the sheer enormity of the crowd. A filly with stage fright wasn't going to be a challenge to beat in this debate.

The Mayor's pegasus assistant helped Spike onto the stage, and together the both of them drew the crowd's attention. Having no truly neutral ponies available to host this year's debate, Twilight and the Mayor had agreed to split the moderation duties between each of their assistants.

“Attention, everypony,” Spike called out. He was met with an eerie hush as all eyes fell upon the stage. The baby dragon brushed his hand against the spines on his head. “Welcome, everypony, to the Ponyville Mayoral Debate!” The sound of the crowd's applause shook the wooden platform. “On the left, we have this year's incumb- incumbe...” Spike stumbled over the long word, “...the pony who's already mayor, Miss Mayor!”

The Mayor smiled broadly as cheers and whistles rose from the crowd.

Her assistant spoke next. “And on the right we have this year's challenger, our resident librarian Twilight Sparkle!” A roar ripped through the crowd as the lavender unicorn waved nervously.

The assistant raised a hoof, waiting for the cheers to die down before speaking. “The rules are simple,” she said, “Spike or I will pick a pony with a question to ask, and then each of the candidates will take turns answering. Now, do we have any volunteers?”

Every hoof in Ponyville waved in the air. The two hosts shared a disbelieving glance with one another.

The mayor's pegasus assistant picked a purple hoof out of the crowd. Attached to it was Cheerilee. The crowd hushed themselves so they could hear the schoolteacher.

“As most of us probably know, Ponyville is growing,” Cheerilee said. “But our schoolhouse is the same size it was when I was a filly. We need to build a new wing on the school, or else some ponies will have to send their foals to other towns to get an education!”

Twilight Sparkle flinched as all eyes in the crowd turned to her, waiting to hear her response. The purple unicorn flipped nervously through the stack of note cards on her podium. “Building permits... building permits... Aha!” She snagged one note card from the rest. “A building permit is an official note of permission from the central municipal authority to start a construction project within city limits.”

Cheerilee rubbed her hoof awkwardly. “Well, yes, that's what a building permit is... but what I was asking was if the school could have one.”

Twilight's face turned dark red. “Oh, right... probably...” Her voice grew quiet as she shrank behind her podium

The Mayor felt a pang of pity for her opponent. She knew Miss Sparkle was brighter than this; the pressure of public speaking must be getting to her. The tan mare cleared her throat. “Miss Cheerilee, as you well know, the education of Ponyville's youngest citizens is a critical priority. In my next term, you have my guarantee that our school will have the space and funding it needs to serve the growing needs of this town.” The stage trembled as the crowd pounded its applause.

It was Spike's turn to pick a pony. He pointed into the crowd. “There! Mr. and Mrs. Cake, what's your question?”

Mrs. Cake cleared her throat. “Well, every day after school gets out, our bakery gets a bunch of little fillies and colts that come in to get a snack before going home. But with the rising price of sugar, we just can't sell our cupcakes cheap enough for the little ones to afford anymore! We were just wondering if you had anything you could do about that.”

The Mayor took the lead this time. “I can attest from personal experience that your cupcakes are delicious. It would be a tragedy if anypony couldn't afford to try them.” The Mayor adjusted her glasses. “I have some friends in Withers City that work in the sugar trade. I will write them a letter tonight and ask them to send an extra load of sugar to the markets.” The crowd cheered.

Twilight Sparkle gulped as everypony turned expectantly to hear her input. “W-well,” she stammered, before stopping to shake her head. “Well, I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of power over the price of sugar, Mr. and Mrs. Cake...” she began slowly, trying to overcome her mistake on the first question, “but I know that the Apple family is having one their biggest harvests yet.” From the back of the crowd, Apple Bloom let out an excited whoop. “If you asked them for a barrel of their apples, then the little ponies could have a cheap, nutritious snack after school, and you could split the profits with Sweet Apple Acres.”

The Mayor gaped as the masses of ponies applauded. Stage fright or not, Twilight was going to be a tough opponent today.

Miss Mayor's assistant picked the next one. A pink pony with a flower tucked in her blonde mane raised her voice. “How do you plan to keep Ponyville safe from the monsters that wander out of--” she gulped, her voice taking on a frightened tone, “--the Everfree Forest?”

Nervous murmurs and whispers were exchanged among the crowd at the mention of the forest. The Mayor had to pound her hoof on her podium. “Everypony! Everypony, calm down.” The murmurs slowly died away. “I know that living in the shadow of the Everfree Forest can be, well, a bit too exciting at times.” Indeed, she couldn't remember a year going by in Ponyville without some kind of hoopla over a cockatrice on the loose, or a manticore nesting in the water tower. Last year's incident with Discord, though, had been unusual even by Ponyville standards. “We need to be prepared to face our problems together as a herd. Now, I have been pulling some strings, trying to get a squad of the Equestrian Guard stationed permanently in the area, but you have to remember that we're not the only town with these problems. Our neighbors in Trottingham have been the victims of a serial burglar for the past month, and just last week there was a basilisk in downtown Baltimare!”

The Mayor knew this was not what the ponies wanted to hear, but they needed to have the truth on this issue. Sugary promises of complete safety and security were not going to do the town any good.

“The Mayor is right,” Twilight Sparkle said, stepping in before the murmuring crowd could rise too far in pitch. “We can't count on the Guard being here. What we need is an organized procedure for this kind of emergency. I have a checklist here,” she levitated a long scroll off her podium, “if everypony stays calm and follows it the next time there's an emergency, I'm sure everypony will be safe.”

The debate lasted most of the day. By the time the sun began to set, marking the end of the time they had, scarcely half of the ponies with questions had gotten a chance to ask them. Spike and the Mayor’s assistant, who were exhausted by this time, announced to the slowly dispersing crowd that they could submit their concerns by mail.

The Mayor and Twilight helped the workers take down the decorations. The purple unicorn chuckled as she stepped over her prone assistant. “Tough day, huh, Spike?”

The little dragon let out a moan. “I didn't even know pointing muscles could get sore!” He waved his arm pathetically in demonstration.

Twilight levitated a long streamer, carefully rolling it up for reuse. “Well, I'm not the kind of pony to go and say 'I told you so,' but I seem to remember telling a certain baby dragon who wanted me to run for mayor that this would be a lot of work.”

Spike rolled to his feet. “Isn't that basically the same as you saying you told me so?”

The lavender unicorn started on another streamer. “Okay, so maybe I am the kind of pony to go and say 'I told you so,' then.” The two of them giggled. “So, how do you think we did?”

“Well, you had a bit of a rough start,” Spike said, picking up discarded note cards off the platform. “But you got a lot better as time went on. I especially liked the speech you made about magical fire safety.”

The unicorn smiled. “I was lucky somepony asked about that one. Living in a library with a dragon, it was something I knew a bit about.” Twilight looked over to see the Mayor helping to fold the large banner. “Keep picking up, Spike, I'll be back to help in a minute.”

The tan mare looked up to see her rival trotting up to her. “You've got the makings of a politician in you, Miss Sparkle,” she said, setting the folded banner down on a wooden pallet.

“Thank you, Miss Mayor,” Twilight said. She cocked her head to the side. “...I think.” She extended her hoof to the Mayor. “I want you to know, whatever happens tomorrow, I'm glad to have had this opportunity. Good luck!”

The Mayor smiled genuinely as she shook the lavender unicorn's hoof. “Good luck, Miss Sparkle.”

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Sounds like a lot of hoopla over a little cockatrice right? WRONG!

[Eakin]

Be honest, how much self control did it take you not to call this chapter "Master Debaters"?

[ShadowWing09]

Twilight a good politician? Naaaah, she's too honest