The Mayor Of Canterlot

Soon after meeting with Twilight and filling her in with today's activities. The three resume today’s work as best as they could with one of the princesses of Canterlot tagging along under support and research purpose as the excuse giving to the public, with the goal of not raising too many questions.

To their luck everyone seemed pleased by her reasoning and after the mundane conference they were on their way to what Mark was looking forward to the most, today.

"Ah! Gourmet Alley." Mark twirls around once with his eyes closed to take a swift glance of all kinds of aromas spreading across the food district in the city, "How I love this day."

Twilight was also perplexed yet happy as she looked around and took one free sample offered to her for a caramel apple. "I must say this is the first time I ever heard of the entire food district closing their shop and opening stands for anyone to pass by and taste their dishes." She takes a bite of her apple, "Is this another thing I didn't know about Canterlot? Because if it is, I'm gonna need to have a serious talk to both Princess Celestia and my parents for never bringing me or Shining to this food festival."

Drusilla laughs and shakes her head, "Relax your highness, this one they are excused, it's fairly recent actually. You can thank this party for the doofus being carried away by the smell of churros over there." Drusilla points at Mark who slowly made his way to a stand of churros before waiting in line with other kids as they all try to clean the droll on their mouths.

"Pretty cool right? The social classes here might clash heads from time to time, but if there was one thing we all agree on is that a piece of leaf on a cracker is not a full course meal. And Canterlot cuisine REAALLY needed to be reminded of that. So after some brainstorming, a poll and various proposals we came up with a solution where everyone wins."

"Really? How?"

"Two things mostly, one is free publicity, any restaurant yearly has to pay an exorbitant amount of money just so ponies know about their franchise and what they have to offer. This festival is a perfect way to ease the load with simple stalls, free samples and pamphlets of their place. Plus it's hard to ignore, that you need more food when a free sample has more to offer than an actual dish."

"And the other?"

"A friendly competition. There are plenty of games here, and most of them serve a purpose for all the restaurants. That is why the pamphlets." The thestral picks one and shows her the back end of it. "The general public vote using these special tickets. At the end of the day. Those are counted, and the restaurant with the most votes wins the big prize. Their food served at the Grand Galloping Gala and with assistance of the royal chef, the opportunity to serve one of their dishes to none other than the Princess herself. Second place a 50% off of their food supply delivery for a month and third place, a slightly small food truck for them to use." Drusilla chuckles a little as she looks at Twilight, "Nothing like some slight incentive to make everyone try their best, isn't it?"

"I say it is. But more than this, I'm more impressed that you manage to convince everyone into giving this a chance." Twilight tells of looking at the fancy restaurants selling their products and trying to score a vote as well, until she heard someone snort behind her.

"As we had a choice in the first place." Turning around Twilight was surprised to see Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis both wearing their usual elegant blue and white formal suit and dress accompanied by golden regalia, walking toward her with a neutral expression as Drusilla sighs in frustration much to the princess's confusion.

"Great, these guys again."

"Huh?!" Twilight looked between her and Fancy Pants repeatedly until he was in front of the two and gave her a short bow. "Good day, your highness."

"Hi Fancy Pants, Fleur De Lis." Twilight greeted them both with her usual calm smile, "Sorry for asking, but what exactly did you mean by not having a choice?"

"Ah! Princess Twilight if I may…" Drusilla tries to avoid escalation yet it seems like it was a pointless endeavor at this point.

"What is the matter Ms. Drusilla? Not a fan when it is you who is forced to be transparent?" Fancy asks calmly, but with a stern glare at her.

"On the contrary Mr. Pants, I have nothing to hide, just wanting to keep things civilized, in the presence of royalty. Wouldn't you agree for the better?" She then turns to Fleur, "Or you Lieutenant?"

"I’m not a royal guard anymore Drusilla, I have been more than clear about it, as well as not wanting to be reminded of it." Fleur replied coldly and Twilight could feel the electricity sparking between the 3 of them not sure what to do.

"So where is our illustrious mayor Ms. Drusilla? Still recovering behind the castle walls?" Fancy breaks the ice.

"I'm right here, Mr. Pants." Mark answered as he approached the group as he remained calm and respectful. "And more than happy to see you here. After your reservations about changes around Canterlot, it’s nice to see you both stepping out of your comfort zone."

"Please, don't misunderstand. My wife and I were merely looking for you to give our condolences and best wishes to make a fast recovery, nothing more."

Fleur nods and picks a random free sample, "Just because we wish you well doesn't mean we now agree to your more…outrageous proposals for the city." She inspected it carefully and gave it a nibble before shrugging and consuming it, "Regardless of if they had or not any potential."

"I see, in that case I'm thankful for your kind words, even if our world views are different." Mark offers them a short respectful vow, "Even so I still hold hope that one day I would change your minds."

"That would be an impossible endeavor, not after you decided to remove centuries old traditions and festivals we all were more than proud to celebrate." Fancy reply with a cold voice.

"You mean the upper class were proud of having, like the bleeding bits and pointless parties where you used the excuse of being honoring one single bird just by laying on a pond." Drusilla quickly lash back.

"I would like to let you know that the Swan Song Fun Loving Debutante was one of the most prestigious of balls, to celebrate the glamour and class Canterlot is renowned for!" Fleur snaps back as the two mares approach each other.

"Yeah just like it was the Robin Song, the Lovebird Song, and the other 50 or so parties to supposedly celebrate ONE bird. You should be thankful the Mayor agreed to having one Avian Love Song Debutante where you still are in charge and can say thank you to all the birds in the city."

"Hard to be grateful when it looks like you purposely are attacking the noble class in favor of ridiculous demands from the middle class." Fleur snaps.

"Oh, forgive us for demanding equal rights." Drusilla glares at her as they get closer to each other.

"Enough!" Fancy Pants intervened with a stern glare and raised his arm between the two. "We came here to offer our respects, not start an argument. Our world view might be different, but there is merit in their words."

"Thanks Fancy Pants." Mark smiles, but he only glares at him.

"Don't thank me, I'm only showing you how I respect your opinion, expecting the same, and assurance that our voices won't be ignored or be subjected to indiscrimination for petty revenge again." He sighs in frustration before continuing, "You should know when to intervene when things like this keep escalating too."

"We’re all entitled on freedom of speech." He defends himself with neutrality.

"Even that needs to be regulated before it escalates, Mayor, you should take heed of that advice at least." He turns around and takes Fleur's hand, "Come dear, we gave our peace. Let us not sour our moods any further."

"You don't need to leave Fancy Pants, please stay. The games are about to start and plenty of nobles-"

"Thanks, but we will have to pass, have a good day Mayor Mark. Your highness." And with that, they both retire as Mark sighs in exhaustion while Drusilla does so more in frustration. "Sorry you had to see that Princess Twilight."

Having recovered, Twilight looked between them and the leaving couple, "What was that all about?"

"Believe it or not, the more civilized and respectful, disagree with some of my more radical proposals as Mayor." Mark answered with a tired sigh.

"What did he mean by not having a choice and wanting their voices to be heard?" Twilight asks, perplexed, looking between the leaving couple and Mark. "I thought everypony in Canterlot loved you."

"And for the most part, they do, but like anypony else, there will always be people that simply don't like you and unfortunately for me, most of them are in the upper class." He explained with a shrug.

"But why? With how hard you have been working on cleaning and improving not only your office, but life in the city in general. I would imagine they would be more happy with you as Mayor."

He could only raise his hands and shake his head, "What can I say princess? It was subtle, but discrimination was always there, before they merely tolerated me, but seeing an alien monkey in a position of power, specially one that places emphasis on aiding the middle and lower class, really pinched a nerve to various nobles."

"Bunch of whinny colts and fillies if you ask me." Drusilla crosses her arms in frustration, earning a glare from Mark. "What?! You have heard the ridiculous rumors too, look me in the eyes and tell me that none of them are just them complaining just because of how we look."

"Rumors?" Twilight keeps blinking as Drusilla sighs in frustration and nods.

"Most of them lies of course, but the moment we start to run the show, those overgrown brats start spouting lies about Mark, plotting to enact a petty revenge against the upper class for what just a handful of corrupt nobles did to us. How he would flip things up so now THEY will have to suffer while the rest of the city rip their own rewards, and my favorite one, how he was planning to outright ignore everything a noble would say regardless of corruption or not. As you can see even Mr. Pants there swallows that crap."

"Okay enough Drusilla!" Having had enough, Mark stops her from continuing, startling the thestral by his reaction.

"Yeah, some of those claims are pure lies but you have to admit when I started I wasn't Mr. Perfection back then. I made mistakes that I've yet to clean up. Fancy Pants was at the very least right about that one. If he is willing to find us half-way, the very least we could do is try to do the same."

She only grumbles and looks away, not wanting to argue back.

"I'm confused, what exactly did you do?" Twilight asks after a couple of minutes of awkward silence.

"Nothing a sincere apology, a reduction on taxes and some well placed charity acts, didn't fix." A mare answered before Mark could as they all turned ahead of them to see Saffron wearing her usual red scarf on top of a formal chef uniform and the mare that just spoke giving them a flirtatious smirk. She was a young unicorn mare with golden fur, light yellow long straight mane, comb and tie with a single ponytail with a string loose to cover her left eye and a single silver stripe going on both. She was wearing a dark blue set of jeans, open toe high heel sandals that let everyone know she had a hooficure with the dark red of her hoofs, a golden tank top that expose her belly button, a sleeveless orange shirt with a necklace on the neck and a thin silver bracelet on her right wrist.

"Pay no attention to my brother princess, contrary to what everyone believes, he can be a stuck up grumpy pants sometimes." The Mare mentions with a smirk

"Saffron! Golden Sash! So nice to see you both." Mark waved at the two mares as the orange earth pony didn't waste time and sprint to give her old friend a big strong hug.

"We should be the ones saying that silly." Golden replies with a small laugh as Saffron ends the hug.

"It's nice seeing you too Mark, please tell me you are staying all day this time." Saffron asks with puppy pleading eyes.

"Ah come on boss, not the eyes again." He fake surprised and backed away while laughing a little, "No, not the eyes, my one weakness, are pleading puppy eyes!"

Everypony shared a laugh while Twilight smiled at the display until Mark remembered she was there.

"Mark, how many times do I have to tell you? You no longer work for me, you can stop calling me boss." Saffron complain.

"Sorry Saffy, old habits." He tells with a shrug.

"Speaking of, why so formal? Don't you like to call me Goldy, Marky?" Sash pout using her own puppy eyes.

"Sorry girls, still on the clock, oh shit! I almost forgot, girls this...what the hell I'm saying? Everypony knows who Princess Twilight is. Twilight, this is Saffron Masala and Golden Sash. Two of my closest friends in Canterlot, before and after I took office."

"A pleasure your highness." They both bow to Twilight which she reciprocates with an educated smile.

"Likewise, it is nice to meet more of Mark's friends. I would love to hear how you all met. I didn't even knew Fancy Pants had a sister."

"Not surprised there, we usually are pretty reserved when it comes to our family, you know? Don't like for ponies to know much about our personal lives." Sash replied with a shrug. "As how I met the mayor over here." Sash points at Mark, "By Celestia is that a story."

"You see Twilight, like I said before, when I started in office I sure as heck didn't have a clue on what I was doing."

"Ditto. I had experience in paper, but that was our first rodeo." Drusilla corroborates.

"We tried our best and decided to focus first in cleaning up everything Silver left behind, plus checking to see if any other noble had a hidden agenda."

"Oh, raise hands who thought that was an impulsive idea!" Sash asks sarcastically as she raises her own hand into the air earning an eye roll from everyone.

"Yes Sash, you were right, would you stop milking it?" Saffron complained with a sigh.

"NEVER!" She complain before chuckling, "But anyway, continue"

"Anyway, like Sash pointed out, that was a big mistake in the long run, yeah we found shady business here and there, and we got to work in putting things straight and fair for everyone. But at some point I went too far, starting to antagonist the upper class more and more without any reason. Raise taxes, investigate the bias of rumors, drowning them in paperwork when they try to file any complaint."

"I don't care what you say, they deserve the last one." Drusilla crosses her arms with a huff.

"Maybe, but it was clear that I was going too far. Thank the gods Sash managed to reach out to me and after some coercion and one social gathering. I managed to calm down a little."

"And by coercion I mean the princess themselves had to bring him down to earth, but details." Sash clarified with a calm smile as he sighs in shame.

"Yeah I almost really messed up back then."

"I just…I have no words, Mark how could you?"

"I was going through a lot at the time ok? I still had a lot of pent up anger for what Silver tried to pull, and without realizing it, took it all out on the upper class. Princess you have to trust me when I say words can't say how sorry I was."

"Hey, it was all in the past, and your heart was in the right place, you only needed a push in the right direction." Sash brings him into a one arm hug before continuing.

"Anyway, once he had his chance to breathe and calm down. I took it upon myself to help them get a better grip on the reins and start working on truly working on equal rights and the best interest for all classes. Exhibit A." She points at the festival.

"This was your idea?" Twilight points at her.

"More like what I help turn into. The original idea was simply making a law of a minimum proportion for a meal to be considered one. Promising, but still sounded a bit like forcing everyone to put more food on a plate." She extended her hands and looked around as she imitated a libra.

"It requires some trial and error, but I say he got the hang of it." Saffron mentions, "Plus reducing taxes for the nobles is a sure way for them to let you talk."

"Since then I have been trying to correct my past mistakes and earn the trust of the ponies here, but some scars are deeper than others, and some nobles still hate me, others just hide their discrimination, and then there are some like Fancy Pants with a point and still dubious on if I really wish the best for them."

"Don't worry you will get there. The guy is slowly warming up." Sash pat his shoulder, "And anyway you didn't answer. Are you staying? Please say yes, it will be nice hearing what new ideas you have come up with…and how are you faring after well…you know." She avoids eye contact and feels depressed.

Mark nods and pat her shoulder, "It's ok, the whole take really shook all of us. You don't need to say it, and to answer. Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Really?!" Saffron asks in excitement.

"But only until 5, have some errand to attend to as well."

"Good for me, that would give us time to catch up, in lost time." Golden grabs his arm and starts to pull him forward, "How are you feeling? How does it feel living in the castle? Why is one of the princesses of Equestria shadowing you?" She starts to list off, and tightening her hold on his arm, as to let him know that she would not let him go until she gets all the answers.

With a roll of his eyes and a chuckle Mark looked away, "It's a long story."

"We have time Mr. Mayor, and don't think about slipping away mister. It's not gonna happen this time."

"Fine! But this better not become future gossip later on. "

"Mark~" She gave him a deadpan, "You make a miraculous recovery after an attack followed soon by a princess declaring you her guest of honor, which Princess Celestia follows suit. Sorry to tell you, but that boat sailed a long time ago." She responded, "Now out with the hot gossip."

"Wait, how did you know about-"

"Ah, pa, pa, pa! Not so fast mister! You are not dodging my questions this time! So better start talking."

He can only sigh in defeat, "It's gonna be a long day, isn't it?"

The mares laugh at his reaction and share a chuckle of his own. He recovered and started to share his tale.