Number the Days: One to Infinity

“Fifteen”

I don’t think I have ever seen Ponyville's Town Hall this crowded. Sure there was the Summer Sun celebration a few years back, but a lot of the seniors and minors missed out on that on account of needing to sleep. This time, anypony who wants even the smallest say in our future as a town has shown up. And each and every pony in this hall is chattering up a storm.

Now, chattering can mean a lot of things. For some ponies, it means a hive of activity. Others, an annoyance meant to be silenced with harsh words and cane waving. To me, idle chatter means the most dismal shade of grey imaginable layered over my field of vision.

My name is Sound Bite, a simple earth pony like most of Ponyville. My cutie mark (a gramophone, for those interested) dictates that it is my job to memorize things other people say, and say them to other people.

Somepony once told me that such a job made me a “private ear.” I cuffed them.

“Ready?” A light blue tinge briefly overlaps the dull grey chatter, letting me know that Mayor Mare is right behind me. I nod as it slowly fades away, drowned out by hundreds of faceless voices. They could be saying “wallah” over and over, and the effect would still be the same.

“Thank you all for coming today.” Mayor Mare’s voice is a clarion call to be silent. After multiple shushes, the grey complies.

Mayor Mare continues, “I would try to waste time by having our secretary read off the minutes of our last meeting, but seeing as our last meeting had nothing to do with today’s elephant in the room, can I have a motion to proceed to our discussion points?”

“I so move.” One of the pegasi speaks up.

The move is seconded, and voted upon. “Aye” goes the majority.

I should probably mention that the particular shade of purple that is currently clouding my vision is my most favorite color in the world. Because when the world is purple, it means a chorus of agreement.

"The motion carries," Mayor Mare says. "Now, the first order of business is this rumor.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I have read multiple articles announcing that some of you think that, in light of the recent events in Cloudsdayle, I will be resigning my position as mayor of Ponyville. I also have had multiple people write to me begging me not to. I can tell you this: I have not ever even possessed the slightest notion of abdicating my position. Nor will I ever when the town that I love is put in danger such as this."

A wave of relief washes over the hall, interspersed with a couple of cheers. Slowly, the grey returns.

The mayor bangs her hoof on the podium, "Our next item of discussion is preceded by a presentation by Sound Bite."

That's my cue. I take the mayor's place on the podium, looking out into a sea of eyeballs. "I met with our resident shaman Zecora a few days ago," I begin. "I inquired if she had anything that might help uncover the events leading up to Cloudsdayle's downfall. I think her answer might have some significance to our problem."

I close my eyes. It's always easier to remember things when you close your eyes. I open my mouth and the memories flow away.

***

Look! The sky!

Cloudsdayle! Pegasi!

As one falls, another too

Diseased killings by the slew

A plague has attacked the clouded land

Its destruction is close at hand

The shops and cafés are all boarded up

Nopony goes there to eat their sup'

In fact, nopony is around at all

The sky so big, the city so small

It seems that they are all afraid

For a friend's death that gives you the spade

"Quarantine!" That's the word they cry

"Lock yourself away, 'lest ye die"

And so, Cloudsdayle has its empty streets

No Wonderbolt or other fleets

Patrol the skies, check parole

Personal safety is now their goal

Empty air and desolation

Thus I provide thee thy information

***

"Thank you Sound Bite," I hear Mayor Mare say as I open my eyes. I nod and let her resume her position on the podium.

"Now that we have a clearer idea of what happened to Cloudsdayle, I feel we all agree that something has to be done about this, so -"

"Now hold on, Mayor," It seems that an orange pegasus with a similarly colored voice disagrees. "There was nothing in that ‘presentation’ that gave us any more information than what we already know."

A murmur of grey.

"You only have one 'witness' to Cloudsdayle's misfortune, and she even gave a report of what happened after. We, as a town, deserve to have more information about what actually happened before jumping to any conclusions."

The murmur turns into a rumbling.

"I appreciate the concern, Lightning Spark, but you are, to be frank, missing the point," Mayor Mare says. "The information that Sound Bite has provided us is that something of Cloudsdayle origin has been killing off pegasus ponies at an alarming rate. Assuming it is a plague as Zecora suggests, we have to know how to deal with certain threats against our general wellbeing."

The rumbling turns into a roar.

"Hear me out!" says the mayor, which seems to at least turn the roar back into a murmur. "I have taken a look at some maps. There are five populated areas, including Ponyville, that are located within Equestria’s midwest: Cloudsdayle, Canterlot, Ponyville, Dodge, and Appleoosa. Of those five, Ponyville is now the only one with an active pegasus population I understand that our current information may be a little less than clear, but at present, I feel we have to assume that whatever attacked Cloudsdayle did it deliberately."

No response comes from the crowd. Noticing this, Mayor Mare continues, "At this point, we have a few options. We can ready ourselves to defend, medically speaking, almost any plague Cloudsdayle throws at us, we can -"

"A plague that may never come," A random voice in the crowd, yellow voice. "Are we going to waste resources on something that may never happen?"

Mayor Mare nods. "Let me finish. We could, of course, do nothing, with the expectation that the princesses handle it, or we could, erm, take drastic action.

"I would like to open the floor to discussion. If any of you think there are any other options, don't be afraid to bring them up."

The grey roar has returned. In come the questions. "What sort of drastic action are we talking about here?" asks one.

Another one asks, "Have the princesses presented anything that might deal with Cloudsdayle's pegasi, or expressed a need for our evacuation?"

“When you say ‘prepare to defend’, how in-depth does our defense have to be? How many vaccinations?”

“How come...?”

“Why...?”

I have lived in Ponyville all my life, and am still constantly amazed that some ponies have the abilities that they do. I'm not talking about The Elements of Harmony, whose adventures are already well known across Equestria, I'm referring to the smaller things, like the Cake family, who manages to be invited to at least one high-end pastry competitions per year, or Ms. Cheerilee, who has worked her flank off nurturing many fillies and colts to adulthood.

Today, Mayor Mare demonstrated why we reelect her year after year. While she may not have answered every single question in a way that was satisfactory to the questioner, she did provide meaningful responses, restating that (and I quote) "We are dealing with something out of our depth here Equestria has not had a city collapse like this in generations. We cannot just sit on our flanks while our librarian, chief scholar, and resident princess away. We have to be able to coordinate a solution.”

Despite Mayor Mare's efforts, the issue was tabled for a meeting two weeks from now.

The rest of the town hall meeting was rather uneventful. Sure there were some arguments involving funding this thing or that thing, but after those (or even before them, if you're not the type to get into microeconomics), there wasn't much left to discuss.

"Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting?" went the mayor.

"I so move. I second. Aye," went the grey.

"This town hall is adjourned."

***

I have found that an authority requesting a meeting with you in private usually means you did something wrong. If an authority was commending you, they would do it publicly, and unless you were already part of their administration, there would be no reason for them to meet with you anyways. So when Mayor Mare told me in the flesh to meet her at four PM in her office, I was already expecting the worst. Currently, I am standing at her office door.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

I comply.

The mayor's office is utilitarian in nature. On the left wall (my left) hangs portraits of previous leaders of Ponyville, leading all the way back to its founding. On my right hangs academic certificates. Enough to look fancy but not enough to make me suspect any of them are forged. The back wall is glass, which I assume is tinted so that voyeurs can't see inside.

And in the middle of it all is a desk, behind which is the mayor, who looks just as she had during the town hall meeting.

"Do you remember what I told you the morning of six days ago?" she says.

Six days ago, morning, light blue voice. I close my eyes, searching my head for the right words. "Six days, what happened six days ago?" I mumble to myself.

I like to imagine that my memory is a lot like a library, with each single memory a book in that library. When asked a question, the pony in my head zips down the aisles searching for the correct answer. More often than not, the answer is in one of those books.

“Well?” All of Mayor Mare’s impatience will not make my inner pony run any faster.

Six days ago, morning, light blue voice. “Found it!” my little pony cries.

I open my eyes. “You said, ‘I want you to see if Zecora knows anything about what happened in Cloudsdayle. If she does, I want you to give a report for our next town hall meeting.’”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” I never really liked that sort of question, but that doesn’t keep me from answering it.

"Did you lie to me when you told me you had that information?"

"What?" I ask.

"You heard me."

I don't know how to respond to any of this. Why would she think I was lying? I delivered the information to the town hall, right?

Mayor Mare continues her accusations, "I don't pretend to be The Element of Honesty, nor do I expect the same from anypony in town, save Applejack for the obvious reasons. That being said, if a pony presents in front of a town hall, they had better be presenting the correct information."

"I was presenting what I was told to present."

"What you were presenting was not anything ever said by Zecora."

The mayor's words are cyan now, not the lighter sky blue I've been used to. I really shouldn't be noticing these things, but when somepony is verbally attacking me, I have found that there's not much left to do besides pick up every little detail and try to get defensive about that specific point. Call it a force of habit. While a voice changing color isn’t very useful, other things may be after all.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Do you know what rhyming couplets sound like?" The mayor asks. "When writing them, most ponies assume that they are just two sentences or clauses that rhyme. What they do not realize is a couplet's meter is just as important as its ending syllables. When Zecora speaks, she speaks in true couplets, both in rhythm and rhyme. What you recited while on the podium was noticeably not."

I want to interrupt and ask "Since when did you know anything about poetry?" but I stop myself. Even when fighting to maintain my dignity, I do not attack or try to change the subject. Another force of habit, I suppose.

"And you just proved you could remember information from time periods even greater than that, so don't try to give me an excuse equivalent to 'I just remembered it wrong'."

Even when fighting to maintain my dignity.

"Are you just going to stand there staring at me or are you going to say something?"

"Ma'am, what do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, are you going to try and refute my reasoning or are you going to make a public apology? I can act on either of these."

I see no reason to grant her any satisfaction. I say nothing.

"Really, Sound Bite? You're still playing this game?"

I've proven as much, haven't I?

"If you're not going to tell me anything, you are dismissed. If you ever decide otherwise, just let me know, and we can arrange something."

There's no security, but I still feel myself being ushered out.

***

Mayor Mare dyes her mane and tail grey.

Every other week, Mayor Mare makes a monetary commitment to get her pink mane and tail dyed grey.

Every other week, Mayor Mare makes a monetary commitment to lie to Ponyville's public about her age.

The funny thing is, the everyone knows about it. It was leaked to the public over a year ago (by fillies, no less). And yet, she still continues to do it. We know she is an experienced leader, she doesn't need the greyness of age to prove it.

Every other week, Mayor Mare makes a monetary commitment to lie to herself. I see no difference between what she claims I did and what she does herself.