Mayor Mare sat in the town hall waiting. She could hear the pattering of rain falling on the roof. She didn't recall rain being scheduled for today, but she’d been very distracted as of late. The only other sound was the quiet swish of each ballot being pulled from the ballot box, and the even-softer scratching of the quill as the result was marked.
Only three individuals were in the town hall. There was herself, Spike the dragon, and Diamond Tiara. Spike pulled the ballots from the box one at a time, read them, and marked the results down. The counted ballots he set in a separate box to the side. The two mares simply waited quietly as the servant of the princess did his duty.
Mayor Mare had gone through many elections over the course of her long tenure as Ponyville's mayor. Most years she went unchallenged. The majority of the challengers she’d faced over the years she’d defeated easily. She had once lost an election to Filthy Rich, but the stallion had soon after resigned the position, and she was reinstated as mayor. It might seem she should have no reason to doubt her re-election yet again, but this time was different.
The simple fact of the matter was Mayor Mare was no longer up to the job, and she knew it. She was a victim of her own success, and of old age. In over forty years as mayor of Ponyville she had overseen its rise from a village of earth ponies, to town which each of the three tribes of ponies called home, and had navigated its growth as many more creatures started to make their home here. Ponyville was starting to advance from small town to large town, and in a few short years it would be a decent sized city in its own right. Mayor Mare had much to be proud of in how far Ponyville had come under her tenure.
Unfortunately for her, that growth was her own undoing. When she had first taken this job, all the village decisions she could easily make and guide herself. As it grew in size she was able to find aides and form small committees to deal with the increasing workload, and she could take the advice of those aides and committees and make informed decisions. The problem now arose that those committees were far too numerous and far too contentious for her to effectively guide and deal with anymore.
To make matters worse, she was getting older. She once dyed her mane to hide the pink and make herself look more distinguished. She hadn't needed the dye for years now. Her mane was now a natural solid gray, and she now lamented the fact that she had spent all those years dying it while it still had color. In hindsight, it seemed such a silly thing to do.
She was getting tired as well. On more than one occasion she had been caught falling asleep during committee meetings. She was not able to complete tasks at the same rate she once had been able to, and more and more backlog of work was accumulating. As the town continued to grow this would only get worse.
Mayor Mare knew that she had out-served her usefulness. She had been a great mayor for a village and later small town, and if she still had the energy she might still be useful as mayor now, but the hard facts were undeniable. It was time for a younger mayor, more capable of directing the various committees, and the citizens of Ponyville knew it.
Mayor Mare looked over to the other mare in the room. Diamond Tiara had been an aide to her for some time, and after that, had been on many of those committees herself. She had been a commanding presence that had gotten things done. Truth be told, many of Mayor Mare's later accomplishments could very well be attributed to Diamond Tiara instead, if you ignored the fact it was Mayor Mare who had placed Diamond Tiara on those committees.
Mayor Mare had thought Diamond Tiara a friend, and had been shocked when the younger mare had decided to run against her. Perhaps Diamond still was a friend. The younger mare had been quick to praise Mayor Mare's past accomplishments while campaigning. What she had said to gain support were simply the cold hard facts; that Mayor Mare simply was no longer capable of doing the job that Ponyville needed, and Diamond Tiara was exactly the type of pony that the growing town needed to lead it into future stages of development.
The mayor looked towards Spike’s tally. The top on the scroll was rolled so no pony could see which candidate was on which side of the tally sheet, but that tallies were clearly visible. This was not even a close race. If every remaining vote went to the lagging side, it wouldn't change the outcome. The old mare knew in her heart which side of the sheet was hers. Ponyville had spoken. In a short while there would be a new mayor of Ponyville, and she would be out of the job.
Spike kept quietly counting the ballots and making marks on the sheet. Why didn't the drake just call a winner already? It was clearly already decided. Why drag this out? This waiting for the winner to be announced was torture.
What was Diamond thinking right now? Was she relishing her victory? Was she making plans for the future? Was she for some reason worrying that the ballot count was favoring Mayor Mare instead, and that it was she who was losing this by a landslide? A small part of Mayor Mare's mind wished to think that it was Diamond who was losing by a landslide, but that was a fantasy, and she knew it. It was probably best to start thinking of the younger mare as Mayor Diamond.
What would that make Mayor Mare then? Mayor Mare had not always been her name. In her youth she had been named Honey Berry. She had never really been fond of the name, and ceased using it after her first election. Could she go back to being Honey Berry again? The name felt no more a fit now than it had in her youth. Which begged the question, who was she going to be now?
Mayor Mare thought back to the days before she had been mayor of Ponyville to try to remember who she had been beyond the name. Her parents were simple small crop farmers, like many of the families in Ponyville. The Apples and the Pears may have been the big farmers, but most families kept a small personal crop of their own. Her family had grown various types of berries near their home. She had never had interest in it though, and her parents had saved up money and sent her off to university.
She had a talent for figuring out priorities and some organizational skill. When she returned back to Ponyville from school she had worked as an aide to the old mayor, Mayor Oak. She had not thought back then that she was qualified to run a village, much less a town, but she helped the old mayor in all his duties. He ended up dying in office, though, and she was forced to take on his duties.
The pony who had been known to that point as Honey Berry found that she not only was qualified to fill those duties, but she was good at them. When the election came to formally choose a new mayor she had won by a landslide. The village had confidence in her as the new leader. She adopted the name of Mayor Mare, and the rest was history.
She never really had a clear purpose before getting involved in government of Ponyville. There was nothing for her to return to doing. She had been a youth that wanted more for her life than being a berry picker, and had found it in helping run Ponyville. But soon Mayor Mare, or Honey Berry, or whatever she would call herself now, would be without purpose. She wasn't ready for that. She may be getting up there in years, but she wasn't ready to be retired from public life. She wasn't ready to be useless.
Spike continued his tallying. Again, Mayor Mare thought that he should just call a winner. Perhaps she could just concede the race now and get it over with?
"Spike, it seems pointless for you to keep counting. The results seem to be clear from where we are standing," Mayor Mare said to the dragon in a quiet voice. The dragon looked up at her.
"Twilight insisted that every ballot be counted before naming a winner," the dragon said. "If Twilight wants me to count every ballot, then I am counting every ballot."
The old mayor sighed, and looked down to the floor dejectedly. The torture would continue, it seemed.
"Just have a little more patience, Mayor Mare. He’s almost done. I know it feels like it’s taking forever, but it will be done soon enough," Diamond Tiara said to the older mare.
Mayor Mare took a breath and nodded. Diamond was right, there was no need to rush the future. Her fade into obscurity would happen soon enough. She should relish her last moments of being of any importance.
Perhaps she could take up gardening, or go on an extended vacation. Perhaps the princess would have some use for her in the school. Surely she was training up the next generation of leaders; she might not mind teaching the next generation to lead. At least one filly who had grown into a mare under her supervision would be a leader soon, after all.
Spike picked up the last ballot from the box and marked a final tally mark. It was over at last, and it was time for Diamond Tiara to be announced the winner.
"I will need a few moments to total these up," the purple dragon said. Mayor Mare's jaw dropped. Was he serious? He had to count all the marks now? This was absurd!
Diamond Tiara looked shocked as well, and looked over to Mayor Mare with a baffled expression. The younger mare had been rather stoic up to this point, but Spike's thoroughness was now getting to her as well. Diamond pulled herself together and gave a small shrug towards Mayor Mare, as the two waited for the dragon to finish.
The older mare looked at the tally sheet again. The names of each side were still obscured from her vision. There were literally hundreds of tiny marks on the sheet. She looked to the smaller quota on the one side. Where one side had hundreds of marks the other had simply dozens. She tried to imagine what names she could put to those marks. Who had voted for her? The Riches certainly had voted for their daughter, as had the Silvers. The ponies who were national heroes such as the princess, the Element Bearers, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Starlight Glimmer, and a few others had all agreed to abstain from voting in the election, lest they influence opinion.
Mayor Mare's mind drifted to different ponies and tried to imagine their votes. The next most notable pony of influence was likely Ma Apple, her opinion carried a great deal of weight despite her soft spoken nature. She had brought a great expansion of Sweet Apple Acres' business in the past few years. She was one of the most notable migrants to Ponyville, who married into one of the most notable families. With Applejack called away often from the farm, and still unmarried, the unicorn mare had become the de facto matriarch of the powerful Apple family. Had she voted for Mayor Mare? It seemed unlikely.
Berry Punch seemed to be a likely vote for her. Berry was her younger cousin, and Mayor Mare had often saved Berry Punch from facing fines for public drunkenness. Berry Punch's daughter Ruby Pinch might vote for Mayor Mare for the mercy she had shown the younger mare's mother over the years, but as she was also a mare who had grown up alongside Diamond Tiara, that made her vote questionable.
It was likely that most of the ponies in their twenties had sided with Diamond Tiara. So would most of the recent migrants to Ponyville. Most of those votes for Mayor Mare likely came from older citizens, who voted for her out of habit. The younger generations knew her only in her decline, not at her height. There were far more of the younger than the older in Ponyville. The fact that there were so many of the younger was a result of her past successes, but it would be her undoing. The fact that her past successes were the source of all her failings now, aside from age, was a bitter irony.
Spike finally came to an end of his count, much faster than it seemed he should have. The two mares had apparently underestimated his counting speed. He wrote down a final total on each side and set down the quill he had been using.
"Final totals," he said, and then cleared his throat. "Nine-hundred thirty-eight votes for Diamond Tiara, one-hundred nine for Mayor Mare. Diamond Tiara is the new mayor of Ponyville."
Diamond Tiara let out a breath of relief at her victory. Mayor Mare, or whoever she was now, lowered her head and ears in sorrow. There had been no mistake in how she had interpreted the vote tallies. Her career as mayor of Ponyville had now officially passed, and she was out of office.
"Congratulations Mayor Diamond," the older mare said in a subdued voice. "If you will excuse me now, I need to clear my belongings from my..I mean..your..office." She had to restrain herself from crying as she said those final words. She would not cry. She would handle this with dignity.
She left Spike and the new mayor without giving them a glance. As she entered the mayor's office she looked around it sadly. This place had been more her home than her actual home these past forty years. Scattered about where momentos she had gathered over the years. Photos hung in frames across all the walls, books she read in her little spare time lined the bookshelves, and various other objects were scattered about. There was no way she was gathering this all up at once, it would end up taking multiple trips to move this all out.
With a sigh, she pushed a crate out of a corner and began taking down photos from the walls. So many memories to be packed away, hopefully she would find places to hang these all again in her home.
She held one of the photos in her forehooves looking at it. That was the ribbon cutting ceremony for Carousel Boutique, beside her in the photo stood a younger, and clearly overjoyed Rarity. The mare had shops all over Equestria now, and was a pillar of the fashion industry. It had all begun there with the opening of that one shop. She had played a part in that, approving the business and ceremoniously opening it for business. It was a small part, but an important one nonetheless.
Moving on she lingered once again on the next photo. The wedding of Cranky and Matilda. The whole town had turned out for that wedding, with the exception of the Elements who were otherwise occupied by a bugbear at the time. She had such joy seeing the diversity and togetherness of her town that day.
The old mare looked about the walls again at the remaining photos. So many memories, and there would be no more opportunities to add new memories of these types again. She lowered her head and let sob escape her throat. She had been holding it back, but this was too much.
"You’ve left a proud legacy," came Diamond Tiara's voice from behind her. The old mare turned and looked at the new mayor, despite the tears that would be visible in her eyes. Mayor Diamond wasn't looking right at her, but instead looking at a photo on another wall.
"There is a lot for me to live up to," the newly elected mayor said, without turning to look at her defeated opponent. "I hope that I can accomplish as much, or near as much, as you have."
"I'm sure you will do fine. You have a greater ability than I to bring the committees to agreements, and ability to deal with their stronger personalities." The older mare tried to keep both the bitterness and the sorrow from her voice, she was not sure how successful she was at either. She was still crying, and she no longer cared if Diamond Tiara saw.
"Here is my first day working as an aide to you," Mayor Diamond said, as she looked at another photo. "I was still just a filly at the time. I was far too sure of myself at the time. Remember how I kept giving you suggestions on how to do things? As if a filly knew better than a mayor of thirty years how to run a town."
"I was ready by the end of the first day to tell you to not return, you annoyed me so much," the older mare said with a smile, remembering the day.
"Instead you sat me down the next day and explained to me why my suggestions would not work or be practical, and why you did what you did instead," Diamond Tiara said, the younger mare turned then and smiled at her old mentor. "I always appreciated that. You taught me to think about the full consequences of my decisions. It has been one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned."
"I have trust that you will honor that lesson during your tenure," the older mare said as she looked sadly around the office again. "Who am I now Diamond? I can no longer claim to be Mayor Mare, and I’m not sure I ever was Honey Berry. I don't know who and what I am supposed to be now. This was my life, my identity, and now it’s a thing of the past. I want to be angry at you for taking that away from me, but I know that my moving on is for the best for Ponyville. I just don't know what to do now. Who am I supposed to be now?"
The older mare broke down sobbing now, dignity completely forgotten. She wasn't the mayor anymore, so who cared about her dignity anyway?
A foreleg reached around her and pulled her into a gentle embrace. The old mare turned her head and sobbed into the younger mare's shoulder. The younger mare kept her in her embrace and brought her other foreleg up to gentle stroke the older's mane as if she were an upset filly. It was an almost motherly gesture, and it might seem silly that an old mare should submit to it, but she didn't care.
"I had been thinking," Diamond said as she continued to stroke her old mentor's mane. "I can think of something that you can do. I had meant to wait until after my formal swearing in to ask you about this, but perhaps it’s better to propose it now."
The older mare ceased her crying for a moment and looked up at the younger. She had a potential purpose still?
"What did you have in mind?" She asked shakily.
"I meant what I said while campaigning that you were no longer up to the task of leading Ponyville, and I am not changing my opinion on that. We both know the truth of it," the mayor said. "However, that doesn't mean you can't still be of great help with developing Ponyville's future. You want to still be involved, that is obvious. You’ve done a lot in your tenure, and I am not prepared to cast that experience away. The responsibilities and duties of the office of mayor are mine now, but I would be grateful if you were to carry on as my assistant. I value your advice. I can't say I will always go along with it, or agree with it, but I truly do wish to have your opinions."
"Assistant? Like an aide?" The old mare asked, looking for clarifications.
"More than an aide," Diamond responded. "We would have a definite set of duties drawn up for you, not nearly the workload you previously had, but a workload you can deal with. You aren't useless, you just need less things to focus on. Ponyville is growing, and it will be a city in a few years. It is time for an assistant mayor."
The older mare considered it for a moment. This was her opportunity to keep being involved, to keep being relevant, to maintain purpose in her life, and to give herself identity. She could be Assistant Mayor Mare, and she could help keep her precious town advancing to its bright future.
"I accept the job offer," Assistant Mayor Mare said. "And thank you, Mayor Diamond. You don't know what this means to me."
The younger mayor smiled at her former mentor and new assistant.
"I am very happy you accepted," she said. "I think you deserve to take a well earned two week vacation. When you return I will have your list of duties drawn up. It's you who should be thanked, for all that you have done over the years. I'm glad that you will be there to help me try to do the same."
"I'm sure it will be a pleasure working with you, Mayor Diamond."
"I know it will be good to continue working with you, Assistant Mayor Mare."
