Breaking News's Final Piece: Departure of the Last Non-Unicorn
The Ponyville Express: Wednesday, November 7, 2068 C.E.
Editorial: Departure of the Last Non-Unicorn
by Breaking News
One thing I can not help but notice is how Ponyville has changed over the decades. I grew up here and I always loved the publicly funded festivals, the small town feel and events such as Winter Wrap Up, the Running of the Leaves, creating winter and the Nightmare Night Festival.
When I went to journalism school back in Manehattan back in 1996 I am going to admit, I loved learning all the tricks of the trade but there was one thing that I hated, the big city hustle and bustle. I grew up being used to peace and quiet, I grew up knowing everypony I ran across and the friendly conversations we would always have. In Manehattan, it was not like that. Most ponies don't know one another and the ponies will yell at one another when they get in one another's way.
When I returned home in 2000 and got a job with The Ponyville Express, it was right as election season was beginning and I remember how there was a progressive unicorn going up against Miss Mare. I remember how happy a majority of the community was when that unicorn was defeated easily.
Back in those days, I remember truly believing that Ponyville would always be that community that was an oasis of happiness and harmony in a nation where the big cities were growing and the city ponies simply weren't that friendly. I remember when 2016 arrived and Miss Mayor was running for her fifth consecutive term. I remember all the promises she made and I remember all the promises Amethyst made. I believed until the very end that our mayor would win and finally crush the wave of cynicism and privatization that Amethyst brought with her.
I still remember that election night when it was announced that Amethyst had won. I remember my heart sinking as I dreaded what she would do to the town. My dread became a reality all too soon as she scrapped all of our traditions, brought in mages that controlled the weather, eradicated bugs that cold winters would have killed off and rejuvenated the soil to make it more fertile.
While she did make many promises, she took things to a whole new level over the years as she along with her wealthy donors in The Ponyville Department of Tourism and Economic Development began to expand the town to the south and created a modern, "cosmopolitan" end of town that began to destroy the small town feel we had.
It was in that first four years that she did a great job of pretty much making sure that the traditions of old would never return as the town's demographics had changed. In 2016, we were a community of PONIES, primarily earth ponies but by 2020 when she was up for re-election, the town had become diverse and over half the population was unicorns, unicorns that were fiercely loyal to Amethyst along with businessponies that were loyal to her as well.
I remember that 2020 election, it was Amethyst going up a Minotaur that was promising the return of tradition yet keeping some of what Amethyst had used to destroy the town. He was hardly a good candidate but I hoped he would win. When he was crushed by Amethyst, my frustration became greater. I knew that by the time 2024 would arrive, the town would have so many unicorns in it and so many other opportunistic creatures in it that a traditionalist would never stand a chance.
That is exactly what happened, the unicorn population began to grow further and modernization not only continued to build the new, modern end of town but even the older, traditional side of town began to modernize. It was in 2026 when almost every single straw roof had been eradicated in favor of wooden roofs and in some instances, new houses entirely were being constructed, primarily out of brick with metal frames. By 2031, I was the only one with a traditional home with a straw roof.
I was happy with that as I was determined to keep it that way until Amethyst finally banned straw roofs in 2033. Why did she do this do you ask? She claimed that it hurt tourism and may keep some Equestrians from coming, she claimed it made the town look like a dump. What was worse, most of the town celebrated her decision, they celebrated the fact that she was one step away from eradicating everything traditional.
One thing that I remember the most was in 2037 when the Apple Family, the last farmers in Ponyville, sold off Sweet Apple Acres to a juice company back east because what had become a city life simply was not for them. I remember the day when they packed up and moved to Appaloosa, I remember believing that was the day that Amethyst had finally won. I remember the ribbon cutting for what became a factory farm. Amethyst was there with the CEO of The Equestrian Fruit Beverage Company with huge smiles on their faces. I remember having to interview them and having to come up with an objective article about it. That was the hardest article I ever had to write.
The decade of the 2040s only became worse as more and more unicorns moved in. Eventually their business savvy nature even drove out other species. I remember in 2049 on her ninth inauguration day when the statue of the creatures in the town square was moved to a local park in favor of a statue depicting Amethyst herself as the savior of Ponyville. I remember the huge dedication ceremony she held. While I knew that it would never happen, I hoped and prayed to Mother Faust every night that things would return to normal. I prayed that the unicorns would return to the larger cities but the more I prayed, the more the unicorn population increased.
I remember that it was finally in 2052 when, for the first time in Ponyville's history, that a candidate ran unopposed in the election. I remember on what was basically another coronation night, there was Amethyst standing at the base of the newly renovated Sky Needle with the whole town except for myself, cheering for her and absolutely adoring her. That was the first time I honestly considered relocating and hoping I could get a job with another paper but when all there was were other big city papers hiring, I chose against it.
I remember it was in 2060 when Ponyville finally had a vice mayor and the vice mayor was no better than Amethyst. She was Amethyst's grand-niece, Morning Dew. During that year's Vice-Mayor debate, I learned she was a carbon copy of Amethyst and was basically the heir to the office of mayor. Yes it is still an elected office but Amethyst and anypony related to her were loved in Ponyville by that point.
The 2060s saw no change, more unicorns moving in, more ponies of the other tribes relocating to more diverse communities and then earlier this year, the unthinkable happened. Amethyst Star, in her thirteenth term announced her retirement and that her vice-mayor, Morning Dew, would be running for mayor. I was thrilled when this happened. While it was far, far too late to bring back the Ponyville I loved but I was hoping that at least she would want to restore some traditions.
When she unveiled her policies, that would not be the case. Her policies were simply continuing Amethyst's legacy and her vice mayor, Anvil, the head of a construction company, had the same mindset. I did have hope though. Their opponents were a pair of unicorn stallions who wanted to do things to restore the old way of life and hopefully diversify the town again.
Like it was in 2020, a referendum had been added to the ballot. In one final spit in the face to tradition, Amethyst put a referendum on the ballot that would change the name of Ponyville to Unicornopolis, a name that in my opinion signaled that the community was solely for unicorns. When I learned of this, I was appalled. I went so far that I was out campaigning against the referendum, putting a great amount of bits and energy into saving the town's name and legacy.
In the end it was all for naught. Morning Dew and Anvil crushed their opponents and the referendum only had three ponies who opposed it, myself and Morning Dew's opponents. This was the moment I knew everything I feared in 2016 when Amethyst became the first non-earth pony to get elected was achieved. The fears I had of her eradicating all tradition had finally come to pass.
Now here it is, November 7, 2068 and this is the final two weeks of Ponyville. Two weeks from today, the town will throw the biggest celebration in Ponyville's history as it will officially become Unicornopolis. I for one plan on starting to pack tonight and relocate to Appaloosa and with any luck I will be gone within a week because I will not, I repeat, I will never be a citizen of Unicornopolis.
All I can say is congratulations Amethyst. Congratulations on destroying what was once the most traditional community in all of Equestria. You succeeded, you succeeded in what your REAL desire was back in 2016. You and your kind eventually caused all the pegasi to leave, you caused all the other creatures who eventually came in to leave, you caused all the farmers to sell out to corporations and once I am gone, you will have caused the last non-unicorn to depart this community.
I will always have my fond memories of the community I grew up in and began work in long ago. It is sad though that my final memories will not be of a wonderful, small earth pony community but instead, a metropolis populated solely by greedy, power hungry unicorns.
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yikes! the road to hell is paved with good intentions huh?
9146488
Well it all depends on whose side you are looking from. Breaking News never liked Amethyst solely because she was a unicorn running in an earth pony community back in 2016. For many, it did wind up turning into a highway to hell but in the eyes of the unicorns, it wound up being a stairway to heaven.
9146496
true; one pony's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. I just thought that Amethyst would have at least kept the name Ponyville.
9146514
She did throughout a huge majority of her tenure, it was there at the ultimate end that she wanted to drive the stake into the heart of traditionalism, and that was changing the name since it had become, with the exception of Breaking News, all unicorns.....I will admit, I had her put that referendum on the ballot to spite Breaking News since he has never liked her....that and she thinks he is racist against unicorns.....and has thought that ever since the 2016 election.
9149512
Well I saw a blog about it and they all said that their well be fans on this site for long time
So much for the 'metropolitan' feel. Wow this was depressing to read.
9206952
I take it that Amethyst transforming Ponyville into a big city was not what you had hoped for?
9207250
Honestly? The outcome was never in any doubt, was just sad to see Ponyville become another Suburb of Canterlot.
Geez, it's kinda sad that the Unicorns ended up taking over Ponyville completely and turned it into Unicornopolis...... I imagine it becoming a suburb city of Canterlot like others said earlier. Anyhow, Amethyst Star truly became a legend and turned a small town into a city while making it prosperous, it's too bad that all the non-Unicorns left over time, even the Apple family.
I seem to imagine Applelosa becoming the "new Ponyville" for some reason as it seemed to be where large numbers of Ponyville's non-Unicorn residents ended up.
Despite my concerns about Ponyville becoming something completely different, Breaking News's anti-Unicorn rantings are alarming. He wasted the majority of his life being bitter and angry at Amethyst Star for daring to change the quite country town he grew up in into something he didn't like.
As for the election, I was quite surprised that the former Mayor didn't make it to the second round and got trounced decisively. Applejack split the traditionalist vote, she should've backed the former mayor to increase her chances of winning but Applejack was so focused on fully restoring Ponyville's narrow traditions that she failed to realize that you can't turn back the clock and that change is essential to survive in the world.
Iron Will actually performed decently in the election despite losing. He WAS a bit shaky in the debates which is what cost him in the end but given that he was up against the ultra-successful Amethyst Star, he's got nothing to be ashamed of despite being angry that he lost.
I wonder though if the elections formed rifts between the Mane 6 especially between Twilight and Applejack?
9683117
When it comes to Amethyst, i took a lot of her personality from the "Mare Do Well" episode where she went off on Dash. That is where I got her no-nonsense personality and beliefs from in both stories. In the first one, she simply wanted to expose and stop all the wasteful spending while in the second one, she did want to capitalize on how she transformed the town and used that to her advantage to make sure that she could not only get re-elected but push the town in a way that she wanted.
That is where a lot of the earth ponies relocated to.....particularly the ones involved in agriculture. With Ponyville transforming into what it did, Appaloosa was where they could continue their livelihoods and still live in a place with small town charm.
Regarding Breaking News, I did write him to be a bit racist in the first one but in the second one, I wrote him to be more so because of how Amethyst had began to transform things. That was especially apparent in his argument with Sunny Flames....who I modeled after Megyn Kelly....after that last debate. Regarding Sunny, she wasn't a unicorn supremacist by any means but she does believe that unicorns are going to look out for other unicorns which is why she so heavily favored Amethyst.....and while this probably wouldn't happen in real life, that was why the unicorn population was so drawn to her to begin with....in the first one. In the second one, it was because she had improved the financial situations of the community's unicorns....well them and everypony else for that matter.
This is the reason why Mayor Mare lost so bad. The traditionalist vote was split between her and Applejack. Some of the traditionalists simply wanted the small town charm back while Applejack wanted to set things further back, far enough back that the businessponies that moved their businesses to Ponyville because of Amethyst's business friendly policies would skip town in nothing flat. Iron Will also took some of her vote away. He wanted to restore some traditions yet wanted to keep some policies that would allow the community to prosper though. That is why both the earth ponies lost so badly. They stole votes from one another and Iron Will was promising both, tradition and financial stability for the town.
I gave Iron Will the confidence that he seems to have. Now of course Amethyst capitalized on the whole winter thing and with his business being tied into tourism, it didn't make it hard for her to capitalize on it. I wrote it to where Iron Will's heart was in the right place but he was going up against an experienced opponent who had her success to back a vote for her up.
Regarding the Mane Six. Now Dash, given that Amethyst made her financial situation better, clearly supported her given the better pay for being a mail pony and naturally things being cooler. Once the casino gambling took effect on January 1, Dash found Ponyville even more cool.
Regarding the other Mane Six, outside of AJ, they played a much smaller role in this one and Twilight was completely absent the second time around because she felt like her getting involved the way she did the first time was a conflict of interest, being the princess there and getting involved in the political process. I never really thought about strains between the Mane Six and despite never once mentioning her by name, Rarity did support Amethyst but her being a unicorn had nothing to do with it. Rarity's support was completely based on how her boutique was doing even better and she had less in the way of taxes to pay.
Now regarding it becoming a suburb of Canterlot, Unicornopolis didn't grow that big and also, Canterlot is built into the side of a mountain. While Princess Celestia clearly likes Amethyst, she would definitely butt heads with the Canterlot city government. To her, Canterlot's high taxes would be an abomination. Amethyst is big into privatization and only spending city funds on things that are vital, such as the school, well schools eventually and of course the dam. Things like festivals, even ones to glorify Princess Celestia, should be privately funded in her eyes.
9683336
Thanks for replying to my comment on your fanfic, I appreciate it.
I like how you wrote Amethyst Star, I'd gladly have voted for her in both elections and beyond whether or not I was a Unicorn as she knows how to get things done properly and looked towards the future. Breaking News whined about her a lot and pretty much accused her of being a Unicorn supremacist but she didn't seem to be anything of the sort and if non-Unicorns opt to leave Ponyville and move elsewhere, what's she supposed to do? Physically restrain them to keep them from leaving? Breaking News was just being racist against Unicorns but why is he racist against Unicorns? After all, Applejack is a traditionalist Earth Pony but she's got unicorn friends like Twilight and Rarity. While she butts heads with Rarity a lot, it isn't because Rarity's a unicorn, that's never been an issue for her which pleases me. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Breaking News felt that Twilight was in league with Amethyst Star to oust Mayor Mare by using her magic to show the documents that prove that Mayor Mare was overspending but even he wouldn't dare say this in public as Twilight's popular throughout Equestria and everyone would verbally dogpile him if he hurled accusations at Twilight without proof and he'd lose all credibility.
To be honest, Applejack's stubborn insistence on tradition at the expense of everything else rubbed me the wrong way as I'm a big fan of growth and progress. Even Mayor Mare wanted to retain some of Amethyst Star's reforms and in the previous election, agreed that changes had to be made to fix Ponyville's problems. While I like Applejack as a character, her stubborn attitude and slowness to embrace change is annoying even in canon.
As for Iron Will, the odds were against him to be honest. If he'd been up against Mayor Mare or Applejack in the final round, he probably would've won as he would've gotten the support the unicorns and enough pegasi and earth ponies to clinch it since he wanted to have a mixture of tradition AND progress, he was basically a compromise candidate. Sadly for him, Amethyst Star was his opponent and so despite being confident and fairly cunning, he was overwhelmed by her for the reasons I stated earlier. I'm annoyed though that those at his rally walked out in mass numbers before he could even give his concession speech, that was kinda rude of them, no wonder he got angry. He was already miffed that he lost and then his so called supporters ditch him the second he loses......
I'm glad that Ponyville/Unicornopolis didn't become a suburb of Canterlot and that Amethyst Star disagrees in some ways with how things are run in the city of Canterlot. I imagine that Rainbow Dash found living in the new Ponyville to be cool for a long time as was one of the last non-Unicorns to leave it. By then, she was likely old and retired in Cloudsdale but still enjoyed visiting Ponyville/Unicornopolis on occasion.
9899047
My guess is that they want to move forward and I based Amethyst in both these stories off of how she was irritated with Dash in the "Mare Do Well" episode. I just thought that is how she would behave and govern.
Here is the thing with Sunny, she has been involved in reporting politics on a national level for decades so she is able to expose weaknesses in candidates that hold views that simply won't work. I had probably stated this in a prior fic but I based her off of Megyn Kelly who used to work for Fox News.....and I wrote AJ the way I did because that is how I think canon AJ would be. She would want to reject any and all kinds of progress, even though said progress aided the Apples big time.
9684096
Ok, I know this response to part of your comment is horribly late but here is why Breaking News is so racist when it comes to unicorns. He hates how unicorns tend to want to move away from traditional things like Winter Wrap Up while he thinks doing things the hard way is better but he especially hates Amethyst because she succeeded in modernizing Ponyville and making the lives of everypony easier.
He is intimidated by her because of her popularity on a national level while he is simply a local reporter. He also hates her because she is such a staunch supporter of Amethyst and he truly does believe that Sunny Flames has a marecrush on Amethyst....it isn't just some sorry excuse of a comeback he used.
9900638
Sorry for the late response. The reason that Miss Mare didn't win is because of her history of misusing town funds.....as was exposed in the first story. Ponies remembered her using town funds to buy the dye for her mane and tail. Well that was part of it. Others simply had their concerns over bringing back a pony from the past and of course, the unicorns were 100% loyal to Amethyst.....as Sunny Flames said when she was mocking Breaking News, the unicorns stick together and in both these stories, they do.
Honestly, I feel Applejack is OOC here. I get it. She's all for tradition in Ponyville and all. But this is taking that way past normal, even at her most stubborn.
Also doesn't help that with all that has changed about Ponyville in the show, you never once heard her grumble about it. Doesn't mean she did.
But I think even she knows the past should stay in the past.
I do like the series. Just had to say that. Feels like reading 2016's election, with ponies, instead of people.
10113848
Well this was written well before that change in Ponyville in the show and even if I had written it afterwards, the final episode would not be taken into account. The change in this Ponyville is because of Amethyst, not Twilight Sparkle. The new creatures that come into Ponyville here are all businesscreatures....they came to escape high taxes, not establish friendships.
I had written a full-page text talking in a good-humored way about how this story had positive and negative points, but when I read the final chapter I just threw it all away and decided that I hate the Amethyst Star and its racist politics! It was better to go bankrupt than that, her opponents were simply incompetent, she was a villain and we only see this in the end.