Election in Ponyville 3: Destiny at Stake

by StormLuna

Primary Debate

Two months had passed and the day had arrived for the first debate. As Amethyst was preparing for it, Sea Swirl saw that she had her projection screen packed up and had put some papers in her saddle bags. She snickered, "You're going to show off all the city's progress aren't you? You're going to show everypony why you're the only one deserving of their votes, aren't you?"

Amethyst laughed, "Sea Swirl, I am going to show them how much bigger our surpluses are and the increases in overall revenue but I wouldn't say I'm going to show them why I'm the only one deserving!" She then snickered, "My my, you have changed so much since we got married! You went from not being into politics to being my number one supporter!"

"Well I know how much all this means to you," stated Sea Swirl "and it means a lot to me too."

"Well that means a lot to me sweetie." She looked up at the clock and continued, "Well we had better get going, I really don't want to arrive late."

---

Earlier that day the crew from ENC had arrived in town and Sunny Flames was walking around town in awe of all the progress. One thing that truly shocked her was the office building that had went up. She said to herself, "Wow, if Amethyst keeps this up, Ponyville will be just like home....maybe even a place I'd want to relocate to!"

Another thing she noticed was that there was more and more housing going up on the new end of town along with multiple casinos and plenty of tourists out and about. She had a beaming smile on her face and felt so proud that one pony could take what was what Sunny thought of as a run down debt factory and turned it into an economic success story.

She then headed into the old end of town and noticed that some of the houses were now made out of brick and had shingled roofs. Her smile grew wider as she continued to think, "Give it another decade and those run down traditional homes will be gone! I can't wait to congratulate Amethyst over all this!"

She then headed over to the site of the debate where her crew had everything set up. One thing she couldn't help but wonder was how Breaking News was handling all of this. She knew that he hated the progress Amethyst brought upon the town and given that roughly two-thirds of the local population were unicorns, she figured he was likely even angrier.

When it was just ten minutes before the debate was set to begin, Sunny saw a very familiar pony headed her way, one that she wasn't overly fond of. She sighed, "Just like always, you're nearly late!"

Breaking News snapped, "Well I'm here aren't I?"

Sunny could tell that Breaking News was not thrilled over her comment but she couldn't help but try and agitate him. She began, "Wow, I must say, Amethyst is doing a spectacular job! So many more businesses, so many more residents, so many more casinos and I think it is spectacular......"

Breaking News yelled, "Don't even start with me this time. She is likely one step away from destroying any chance of the Ponyville I grew up in from ever returning."

Sunny looked around and snickered, "You know something, I'd say its already too late, I'd say Ponyville is already past the point of no return!"

Breaking News just grunted in frustration and waited for the debate to begin. He had a bad feeling that this would happen, he figured Sunny would come in and praise Amethyst over everything she did. At that moment, he was seriously considering just storming off and letting Sunny moderate it alone but knew that if he did, he would likely get fired.

---

After what was too long in being in the other's presence for both moderators, Sunny got the notification that the network was ready to go live. When she was given the notification that the cameras were rolling Sunny began, "Good evening Equestria, my name is Sunny Flames and moderating along side me is Breaking News, the head reporter for The Ponyville Express." She then turned towards him and continued, "And once again the election here is going to be unique because every single candidate is a unicorn. How is the community reacting to it?"

Breaking News replied, "Well given the change in the town's demographics, there hasn't been much talk about it. Most everypony has likely figured that this will be the norm now."

Sunny faced the cameras and resumed, "And let's meet the candidates. We have incumbent and Reform Party candidate Amethyst Star who is running for a third term, we have Colgate who is running as an independent, we also have former Element bearer Rarity running as an independent and we have Trixie Lulamoon running under the" *snickers a bit* "The Great and Powerful Party."

Breaking news added, "Like it is during all primary debates, the candidates will not go into too much detail about what their plans are but they will give us a general idea as to what their plans are."

---

The Questioning of Trixie

The time to focus on the candidates had begun and the network wanted them to focus on the candidates that seemed least likely to win and then move on to the incumbent. Breaking News wanted to take control early on and ask the first question.

"Trixie, many ponies around here know that you don't exactly take things all that serious. What would you want to do if you was to be elected?"

Trixie had not thought about that at all given that she just figured that ponies would vote for her so she had to come up with something, "Well The Great and Powerful Trixie would most likely keep most of Amethyst's plans in place but since there are plenty of surpluses, Trixie would bring back publicly funded festivals, including publicly funded magic shows! After all, Trixie knows that everypony would want to see The Great and Powerful Trixie along with her assistant, Starlight Glimmer, showcase the most powerful feats of magic known to ponykind!"

Trixie then threw down some smoke balls and stood there with a smile on her face. The whole crowd burst into laughter and both moderators couldn't help but chuckle a bit. Sunny then decided to question her, "Trixie, it seems as though you don't really even have a plan. It sounds like all you want to do is borrow Amethyst's policies and then use public funding to showcase your narcissism, is that correct?"

Trixie gasped, "Heavens no! The Great and Powerful Trixie just wants to do what she knows that the voters would want the most. Trixie knows that publicly funded festivals used to be popular and who wouldn't want to see Trixie's magic shows?"

Breaking News knew that Trixie wasn't a serious candidate and may hurt the candidate he wanted to see advance. He questioned, "Trixie, judging by your responses here, it sounds like many ponies are right about your lack of seriousness. Do you have any other ideas of your own other than just adding magic shows to Amethyst's policies?"

Trixie stood there for nearly a full minute before answering, "Well Trixie knows plenty about Ponyville's surpluses and The Great and Powerful Trixie thinks we could use public funding to operate our own casino! Why should these private companies get in on all the fun when Trixie could make them even funner!"

---

The Questioning of Rarity

The crowd began to grumble some over Trixie's answer and given her lack of seriousness, both Sunny and Breaking News nodded and decided it was time to move on to the next candidate. Sunny said, "And now we move on to Rarity, who is running as an independent.

Breaking News knew a whole lot more about Rarity than Sunny did so he decided he would ask her the first question, "Rarity, as everypony knows, you are the Element of Generosity and have aided in saving our country multiple times. Before I ask you a question, I would like to say thank you from all of us."

"Why you're welcome darling." replied Rarity.

This was what Sunny was hoping for. She figured that would give her the perfect opportunity to throw in the first question, "Rarity, it is well known that you are friends with a traditionalist who advocated wiping out years of economic growth four years ago. If you are elected, what would you want to do?"

Rarity froze when she heard the question. She knew that Sunny was going to do whatever it took to cause her chances of winning to crash to zero. After nearly a minute she replied, "Well I do think that Amethyst has done a lot of good for the town but I do think that we could at least bring back things like winter and publicly funded festivals. I think the ponies would be much happier."

Sunny would again be quick to question her, "So basically what you are advocating is causing a three month layoff for all the creatures that work in the hospitality sector, the casino sector and other workers that rely on the year round tourism that warmer winters help."

Rarity replied, "Well I think that ponies may come here for Hearth's Warming for the pageant and for the lower prices so that might lessen the hit."

Breaking News could tell that Sunny was going to try and break Rarity and he simply couldn't allow that to happen. He asked, "Rarity, as everypony knows, Amethyst lowered the business taxes significantly when she took office and that is what has caused Ponyville to pretty much become a city. If you are elected, would you leave those alone or would you raise them a bit."

This was a question that Rarity was unsure as to how to answer. She knew that even mentioning raising taxes was a bad idea but then remembered how Amethyst's sales tax increases were met with positive results. She replied, "Well I do think we could afford to raise them a little bit. We could keep them to where they are still lower than they are in other communities but not keep them so low that Ponyville is losing money because of them."

While Sunny wanted to call her out on that statement, she figured she would wait until the time would come to question the pony with the facts. While she was contemplating that, Breaking News threw in another question, "Rarity, like me, you grew up here so you know more about what makes Ponyville special than the newcomers. What do you think you could do to make Ponyville even happier than it is right now?"

Rarity replied, "Well like I said earlier, I think we could bring back winter because so many ponies liked it. So many ponies loved building snow ponies, playing horse hockey and the pageant just isn't as special with warm weather. I know ponies also miss creating winter and while the cost of the snow and icicles from Cloudsdale aren't cheap, we have the revenue we can afford it and not hurt the town. I also know so many ponies miss Winter Wrap Up. I certainly miss making birds' nests and my friend Fluttershy really misses waking up the animals."

Sunny saw this as her opportunity to move in for the kill, "Rarity, judging by your answer, it sounds like you are thinking more about yourself and your friend than you are what is in the best interests of the city. Is that correct, are you more concerned about that?"

Rarity replied, "Well no darling, I know a lot of ponies miss Winter Wrap Up."

---

The Questioning of Colgate

Sunny figured that she had got as much out of Rarity as she could and was not about to allow Breaking News to give her a chance to maybe save herself. She moved on to the next candidate, "And next we have Dr. M. Colgate, the local dentist, who is also running as an independent.

Breaking News knew a bit more about Colgate and how she seemed to favor unicorns. He asked, "Dr. Colgate, many ponies around here know you are the local dentist. How do you think you would be able to juggle being a dentist and being mayor since that is pretty much a full time job now."

Colgate replied, "Well this is where I would likely need to spend more time away from my home. I would run my practice but spend evenings and weekends in the town hall handling city affairs."

Breaking News again questioned, "Alright, so you would be willing to sacrifice a great amount of time between your two jobs but what if something was to come up that required your complete and full attention, would you shut down your practice during that time or would you simply have the town clerk handle the important problems?"

Colgate knew that Breaking News was trying to throw her off and replied, "Well I would let my patients know that I will reschedule them after the crisis passed. Don't worry Ponyville, I won't abandon my responsibilities as mayor and to my patients, I'm not going to just leave you hanging either. I believe that I am fully capable of handling both jobs."

Sunny was not thrilled over Breaking News trying to take control of the debate so she was quick to throw in the next question, "Colgate, from what I understand, during the last two election cycles you were one of Amethyst's staunchest supporters so why is it that you are running against her now?"

Colgate knew that the time arrived to prove to the voters that she was more serious than Amethyst in bringing about economic growth, "I am running against her because I think she could do more. Yes Ponyville has become the most economically prosperous city in all of Equestria but I do think that the city could get in the business of giving loans to other communities that are having economic problems."

The entire crowd gasped over the suggestion and both moderator's jaws dropped open. Breaking News asked, "Why would you want to do that? Why is it that you would want to use city funds to do that?"

Colgate replied, "My view is that other communities, communities with a lot of debt, those dirt pony communities, could borrow money from us at a slightly lower interest rate than they would from The Royal Bank of Equestria. With the money we would get from the interest, we would win big!"

The whole crowd gasped when Colgate made what seemed to be a racist comment. All of the earth ponies began to boo her loudly and she added, "Oops, maybe that was the wrong thing to say."

Sunny had a feeling that maybe her and Breaking News were on the same page for once but wanted to know more. She wasn't concerned at all about the racist comment but wanted to know more about her creditor city idea. "Alright, so you are wanting to do this but what if these communities defaulted on their loans? If that happened, the city would be out all that money and what do you think the citizens here would think of that? Do you think that they would really approve of these funds simply being lost?"

Colgate replied, "Well I do think that once the ponies here learn more about my plans, they'd see that it is a good idea. Even if one or two communities wind up defaulting, we'd still collect more than enough off of the interest that we'd make a profit off of it."

---

Questioning Amethyst

Breaking News wanted to question Colgate further over the dirt ponies comment but Sunny would not give him the chance. Sunny said, "And now we move on to Reform Party Candidate and incumbent Amethyst Star."

Breaking News wanted to be the first to question her and see if things truly were going as well as she makes them out to be. "Amethyst" he questioned, "many ponies think that things are going very well here in Ponyville but I'm sure that there are a few who question that. What is your response to that?"

Amethyst began, "Well I can assure everycreature that things are indeed going as well as they seem and yes, I do have the data to prove it."

Sunny said, "Go ahead."

Amethyst then began to set up her screen and then projected the data. "As you can see, in 2021 after the small stakes gambling took effect, the amount of revenue coming into the town coffers did go through a significant spike as this chart here shows. Along with that, more businesses moved in and more ponies moved in. Of course with that came in even more sales tax revenue."

She then went on to the next page and continued, "And as you can see that in 2022, the size of Ponyville had grown so much that we had to go from having one large school to three schools. At the time we did have proper funding to build them and the funds to hire two additional teachers but I then decided to hold a special election in that July, one that would allow for full scale casino gambling."

She got a smile on her face and continued, "As everycreature knows, that passed easily and almost immediately, we had more construction crews coming in to build those casinos which led to another spike in sales tax revenue." She then flipped on to the 2023 revenue and continued, "And as you can see in July when the first of the additional casinos opened, the spike was even bigger and by the end of 2023, we were bringing in well over five bits for every one bit we spent, that is over 500% and that is sending our surpluses higher and higher."

She then flipped to the first two months of 2024 and finished, "And as you can see, tax revenue has continued to increase as more creatures are moving into the city so I would say that we are doing very well."

There was one thing that Breaking News wanted to know and hoped that by exposing it, it may turn some ponies against her. He asked, "So do you have a list of business permits you have granted and who these companies are owned by?"

Amethyst replied, "Certainly."

Amethyst then projected the list of businesses that had relocated to Ponyville since 2020 and who they were owned by. While two were owned by other creatures and one was owned by a pegasus, the rest of them were owned by unicorns and not a single business owned by an earth pony was granted a permit and Breaking News was going to expose it.

"Amethyst," he asked "was this done on purpose? Did you give permits to the companies you did based on who owned them? Is there a reason why over 80% of the businesses you let in are owned by unicorns?"

Amethyst replied, "I am going to be honest here, I did not deny a single permit that was applied for. I figured that all of them would help make Ponyville even better and it is likely just random chance no earth pony businesses applied to come here." She paused for a moment and continued, "From what I understand, all the earth pony businesses are headed to Appaloosa and Dodge Junction, both of which are having their own growth spurts."

Sunny figured that enough was enough with Breaking News's constant questioning. She asked, "Amethyst, if you are re-elected, what sorts of plans do you have? Would you institute any further sales taxes, would you put a cap on how big the city can grow or is there anything else you would plan on?"

Amethyst replied, "Actually Sunny, I think things are going very well. We have more and more businesses coming in as the population increases. Because of that, sales tax revenue continues to increase and with more businesses, comes more business tax revenue. Yes we have the lowest business taxes in Equestria but once you get enough of them coming in, you can really rock and roll! Regarding putting a cap on city growth, that is a no-go. Other communities may go for that but as long as I'm mayor, there will be no cap on growth."

Sunny wanted to hit on one more thing before the debate. She asked, "Amethyst, it seems like one of your opponents supports what you have done but wants to turn Ponyville into a creditor city. What are your thoughts on that and if re-elected, would you do something similar?"

Amethyst was thrilled that she was asked about this because she believed she could drive Colgate into the ground with it and would turn nasty if she had to. She replied, "I will tell you exactly what I think of it. I think it is the most moronic and ridiculous idea I have ever heard of in my life. Who in their right mind would actually advocate using city funding to loan other communities money? If you ask me, I think Colgate just wants to find a way to stick it to other communities and make them owe us. Regarding whether I would do it, that is a hay no! No way would I ever do anything so stupid and foolish."

She then turned to Colgate and finished, "Colgate, The Royal Bank of Equestria exists for a reason. They are the ones who provide municipal loans. It is not the job of other communities to do that. It never has been and it never will be."

The crowd began to cheer wildly after Amethyst pretty much put Colgate in her place. As Amethyst was up there smiling, knowing she may have stole away any supporters of Colgate, Sunny too couldn't help but smile. She began to think to herself, "Amethyst is going to rout them in the primary! They may as well all drop out and just give the whole election to Amethyst!"

---

Post-Debate Discussions

After Amethyst finished her response, Sunny got a beep in her ear notifying her that their time was up. The cameras focused on her and she said, "Well our time is almost up." She turned to Breaking News and asked, "Breaking News, I know you're a whole lot more familiar with politics here than I am so who would you say won the debate tonight?"

This was something that Breaking News did not want to have to answer and wasn't sure if he could even give an objective answer, "Well I'm not even sure who won it.....you know what, forget it! I know you're going to go boasting about how great Amethyst is and I can't answer this! They're all racist unicorns and I hate unicorns, I absolutely despise them! In the end I know all of them would side with your precious Amethyst Star out of loyalty to their own kind no matter what they say." His scream became louder as he continued, "I wouldn't be one bit surprised that if Amethyst weren't married to Sea Swirl that you'd marry her! You unicorns are evil, pure evil!"

Breaking News then stormed away leaving Sunny alone. The first thing she said was, "Well that happened."

It was at that moment that the head anchor back in Manehattan, Hard News, came on the air and said, "Well I suppose it is just us now. Who do you think won the debate Sunny?"

Sunny replied, "I think Amethyst Star won this one easily." Given that she was alone she knew that she would have more time to go in depth. "I will say this, I don't think Trixie even knows what a mayor does and she lacks any kind of cognitive ability to even hold the office of dog catcher, much less mayor. I think Rarity is stuck in the past and only ran because a traditionalist friend of hers convinced her to."

Hard News asked, "And what of Colgate and Amethyst?"

"Colgate," Sunny replied "would be far too reckless to be the mayor of any community. I think all she was trying to do was be an edgier version of Amethyst with the whole creditor community idea. I think that sank any chances of her winning and that racist comment against the earth ponies likely only hurt her further. When it comes to Amethyst, this could be the biggest rout in the history of primary elections. I could see her opponents dropping out and then she'd automatically win come November!"

Hard News knew how much Sunny Flames adored Amethyst and replied, "That could very well happen." The cameras then went black in Ponyville and Hard News finished, "And that is the Ponyville debate everypony. Stay tuned because up next is the Las Pegasus debate and then the Vanhoover debate."

Once she knew the cameras were off, she headed over to her camera crew and exclaimed, "Did you see that guys? Did you see how Amethyst completely destroyed her opponents?" She became more giddy as she continued, "Oh I can't wait until the election! I bet she gets well over 90% of the vote, who knows, maybe she'll get every single vote except from those of her opponents!"

Her head camera man laughed, "And we all remember how you were when she hugged you that first time. Now here you are thinking she basically walks on rainbows!"

Sunny chuckled, "Well to me she does walk on rainbows, all her ideas are perfect so she has this in the bag!"

While her camera crew continued to take everything down, she headed back to the hotel. She honestly thought about calling Amethyst to congratulate her and tell her how proud she was of her, she remembered Breaking News saying something about Amethyst being married to Sea Swirl. She sighed, "Well maybe I better not. I can tell her how proud I am of her during the summer interview."