Ponyville. Population...big. For years this town has endured many castophies, princesses who turned evil, a bug infestation, a doll that made everypony cuckoo, dragons, vines, cider shortages, and of course the pancake festival. But one wonders, how does a small village covered by the shadows of Canterlot stay up? Well the answer might surprise you. Politicians. Namely a politician known as Mayor Mare.
“And done.” Mayor Mare rubbed her hooves together as she put away the last of todays paperwork inside her office. “Now I can get started on tonight’s.” She looked turned to a giant pile of forms with a content sigh. The opening of her door, however, interrupted her tranquility.
“Excuse me, Mayor Mare?” Roseluck, the Mayor’s part time assistant, poked her head in. “I’m just here to remind you about your speech at city hall tonight.”
Mayor Mare perked her head up from the pile of paperwork. “Good gracious, is that tonight?” She looked down at the still blank forms. “Well, I suppose I can do these later. Tell the princess I’ll be right there.”
“Alright.” Roseluck closed the door.
Mayor Mare relaxed into her seat. “Aw, a budget review meeting, is there nothing better?”
Meanwhile at Twilight’s castle, the newly castled princess was getting ready for the town meeting that night with Spike checking off their supplies.
“Pencils?” Twilight brushed her mane and put on her crown.
“Check.” Spike crossed each item out.
“Clipboards?”
“Check.”
“Pinkie on my balcony?”
“Che-wait what?”
The two looked at the sight of Pinkie Pie waving at them behind the libraries window.
“Hi Twilight!” Pinkie opened the balconies door and bounced on in. “Whatch ya doin?”
“Twilight’s getting ready for the big meeting at city hall tonight,” Spike said, putting away the supplies.
“Ohhh, what’s that?”
Twilight put her saddle bags on. “It’s the meeting for the budget review, with all events that happened this year it should be interesting.” She started trotting out of the room and downstairs with Spike and Pinkie following her.
“Sounds fun! Can I come?”
Pinkies words made Twilight come to a screeching stop. “Um, Pinkie, I don’t think this is the kind of event for you.” Twilight rubbed her neck.
Pinkie tilted her head. “Why not?” Suddenly she gasped. “It’s a secret town meeting!”
Twilight glanced around before nodding. “Yep, secret town meeting.”
“Can I still come?”
Twilight saw that there was no way to stop Pinkie so she sighed in defeat. “Alright you can come-”
“Yipee!”
“-But you gotta listen, not talk.”
“Got it.” Pinkie pretended to zip her mouth shut.
“Um, Twilight?” Spike whispered. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Oh, come on Spike, how much damage could Pinkie do at a town meeting?”
“Oh my Celestia!” Derpy couldn’t believe her crossed eyes as she stared at the table before her. “Free muffins!” She digged into them while Carrot Top rolled her eyes, she had asked if Derpy had wanted to come to the meeting while Time Turner foalsat Dinky. Unfortunately she didn’t know that there would be pastries.
“Derpy don’t eat all those, leave some for the other ponies.”
Derpy looked up with puppy eyes. “But Carrot, I can’t say no to muffins.”
While Derpy ate muffins, Pinkie was busy bouncing around the mostly empty auditorium, save for Carrot, Derpy, Twilight, Spike, Mayor Mare, and a elderly pony sleeping in the corner next to a typewriter. “This. Is. So. Exciting!” She jumped up into the air.
Twilight grinned. “I didn’t expect you of all ponies to be interested in politics.”
“Poly what?” Pinkie giggled. “No silly, I mean this!” She pointed at a swivel chair and jumped on it before swirling around. “Wheee!” Pinkie came to a slow stop. “Again!”
Bang! The sound of a gavel echoed went through the room as Mayor Mare called the meeting to order from her podium.
“Thank you everypony for being here tonight.” Mayor Mare bowed as Twilight came to a seat next to the podium. “I hope you’re all excited as I am.”
Carrot Top shrugged. “It’s important to know where the funds go.”
Derpy nodded. “My muffin’s education is important...will there be more muffins?”
But Pinkie was the most enthusiastic. “Alright! Let’s get this meeting started!” She blew a party horn. “Go Ponyville!”
Mayor Mare smiled. “It’s nice to know the youth have such a love for politics today.”
“Isn’t Mayor Mare as old as Cheerilee?” Spike whispered to Twilight.
“She likes to look older, nothing wrong with that,” Twilight replied.
“Well then lets get this started.” Mayor Mare rolled in a pinup board with a chart on it. “As you can see with all the damage that has happened over the past two years-”
Pinkie pointed at the chart. “Hey, that arrow goes down whenever me and Twilight went on our adventures, and when Sweetie Belle started that fire at the pancake festival.”
Mayor Mare nodded. “Please do hold your hoof up for the floor, but you are right the, um, damage has coincided with your, er, adventures.”
Twilight blushed.
Mayor Mare continued her speech. “And while the royal loans we have been getting have helped tremendously, the fact that now we are famous for many things, including the bearers of Harmony and her majesty-” She pointed at bowed her head at Twilight “-receiving her estate, we simply are not prepared for the influx of tourists.”
Pinkie tilted her head. “Huh?”
Twilight got up nodded for the floor. “As you all know the Equestria Games were held at the Crystal Empire.”
“I got a medal!” Derpy held up bronze medal with the words, “for participation” on it. “My little muffin was so proud!”
“Thank you for sharing that with us Derpy, but back to what I was saying. They could only host the games if they were prepared for it. Luckily the Crystal Empire is wealth in its, well, crystals. This allowed them to make the necessary infrastructure required for the games.” She got back down into her seat.
“Oh.” Pinkie got closer to the stage. “I’m learning!”
Mayor Mare went back up to the podium. “Now though we are not hosting the games for any foreseeable future, we do need the income for the hotels, roads, and other public services that on our current budget can simply not afford. But I have a plan.” She turned the bulletin around to a pie chart. “As you all know, the most popular food items that Ponyville has is pastries. They account for sixty eight percent of our total food revenue.”
Pinkie swelled with pride. “We are famous for our goodies!”
“Exactly, which is why I’m sure the population wouldn’t mind if we upped their price a little.”
Mayor Mare’s words brought a screeching halt to Pinkie. “You mean make them more expensive?”
“Just by fifty percent, now I know that seems-Whoah!” Mayor Mare ducked as a muffin came at her. “Who threw that?”
“Ahhh!” Derpy was restrained from throwing another muffin at the mayor by Carrot. “No raise money on muffin!”
“Derpy control yourself-”
“Wait!” Pinkie climbed up onto the stage. “But ponies need those pastries to be happy! You don’t want to take their happiness away do you?”
Mayor Mare breathed deeply. “Pinkie, I think your overthinking this. Just let the mayor do the mayor job.”
It was at that moment Pinkie knew what she had to say, knew what she had to do. “But what if you weren’t mayor?”
Twilight got up. “Well Pinkie-”
“If I weren’t mayor?” Mayor Mare didn’t know what to say to that. “Well it wouldn’t matter anyway, because the elections for mayor don’t happen for another two years, now-”
“Wait just a darn second!”
The room turned their attention to the elderly pony sitting in the corner. “It does in fact matter.” He took out a old, dusty looking book and opened it. “It says here that if an elected official is challenged by a civilian of the town they serve on this exact day , coincidentally, that individual may run for the office. The election shall be held in three weeks from the challenging day.” He closed the book and fell back to sleep.
“Ah ha!” Pinkied munched on a muffin. “Then I hereby run for mayor of Ponyville!”
“What!?” Both Mayor Mare and Twilight stood stunned.
“I’ll see you in three weeks!” Pinkie then returned to her regular demeanor. “If it helps I’ll bake you a retirement cake!” She then bounced out of the room leaving everypony shocked, well except Derpy, who was clapping.
“She’s got my vote!” said Derpy.
