Ponyville Town Hall Meeting (Open- See Rules in post)

[SteelEagle]

 

The Mayor looked out at the gathered ponies in front of her, a sense of pride welling up in her chest as she considered the grandeur of Ponyville's ever present personalities. From Pegasi to Earth Ponies, Unicorns to a few Griffons and a smattering of others, Ponyville was a lovely town that she was beyond thankful to call her own. She had been the Mayor for many years and found herself at the helm during a massive sea wave of unrelenting change. There was now a castle in town, and the newest Princess of Equestria called it home. Ponyville had escaped making any real news for generations, but now it was the second most famous place in all of Equestria thanks to the actions of a small group of heroes.. All of this made for fine storytelling, but there was something bigger as far as the Mayor was concerned.

 

The town had grown by absurd leaps and bounds in the past few years. Now that ponies knew of it, it was an important step between one half of Equestria and the other. Much of the nation's potential passageways were covered with the Everfree forest, while direct access to Canterlot from the Strand often went through one or two protected routes in the otherwise off limits Whitetail Woods. But now that ponies actually knew that Ponyville existed, they realized that it was the perfect transportation location from the Strand to the north and vice versa. More commercial traffic was going through Ponyville in one week than had gone through in a year, but that was just the start. Many ponies who lived and worked in Canterlot were starting to make homes in Ponyville as thanks to one of the swiftest train lines in the nation on account of connecting royalty, you could work in one place and live in another.

Combined with the attractive climate, wonderful nature hotspots, absurdly low cost of living and the possibility of expansion, and you have a town that is in the midst of a massive economic and population boom. New farms on the fringes, new houses and businesses, plans for a new school, an upgraded hospital- just a small taste of the many developments Ponyiville had in store, but it was only a start. She had decided to call a town hall meeting open to the entire city so they could see if there were any problems or if anypony had a jolly good idea they could get off the ground. By the end of it, the goal was to always make Ponyville a better place for ponies new to the area as well as citizens. She waited for the town hall to fill up and after a minute or two, trotted on out with a big smile.

“Welcome mares and gentlecolts to this town hall! In just a few moments I will open this up for all of you to make statements, air grievances, and propose ideas for our wonderful city. I just ask that nopony use this time to air any personal issues you have or- as last time- discuss your conspiracy theories regarding the return of Princess Luna. In fact, let's extend that to hopefully not discussing your conspiracy theories regarding any of the Princesses. Anyway- open to the public!”

Rules:
1- Character must be from, or recently moved to, Ponyville.
2- This is not an action or super high energy hijinks thread. Silliness is expected and appreciated, but this is a meeting, not a carnival.
3- There is no post order.
4- Be respectful and follow board and RP rules.

[RarityDash]

"Ooh! What about conspiracy theories regarding the elements of harmony?" Lyra Heartstrings shouted, jumping up from her seat toward the back with a grin on her face. "I have two whole pages of theories about Fluttershy alone!" she added.

 

The fun-loving Ponyville native wasn't being entirely disingenuous. She did have a fondness for coming up with crackpot theories about the ponies she observed day in and day out in Ponyville. It was perhaps karmic justice that she had missed the truest of conspiracies right under her nose with her own dear sweetie Bonbon. She never missed a town hall meeting even as she never had anything important to say and was mostly just there to argue. She had a fondness for being contrary.

 

Cloudchaser, who was sitting a row ahead of Lyra, turned her head and smiled a toothy grin. "Fluttershy conspiracies? This I gotta hear!"

 

The pegasus pony on the other hand was not one to regularly attend town hall meetings, not out of lack of interest in Ponyville's affairs but simply because she mostly tended to sleep through them. Flitter sometimes would suggest they become more involved in the community, and Cloudchaser didn't mind the idea-- it was just a struggle to get her to go to weather pony meetings sometimes, and those were mandatory for her. Ever since she had been readmitted into the Wonderbolts Academy training program after originally being cut, however, she had been shaken of at least some of her laziness. She was beginning to feel that perhaps, someday soon, she would be following Rainbow Dash into the Wonderbolts' Reserves. Thoughts like these left her with a certain vibrancy which was seeing her places she maybe normally wouldn't have gone.

​

 

"Well..." Lyra started. "She's never once had family visit her, and she lives there all alone on the edge of the Everfree forest--her past is shrouded in mystery, she avoids others and her gaze is famed far and wide for its incomparable otherworldly magic!" The unciorn nodded contently, sure she had it all figured out. "What if she isn't a pony at all, but rather some dark specter which has chosen to take pony shape!"

 

Cloudchaser stared blankly. "I'm pretty sure she's from Cloudsdale, Lyra..." she muttered, in disbelief. She was at times dense, but even she knew this pony was being remarkably silly.

​

 

"Maybe... or maybe that's just what she wants you to think!" Lyra said with a mischevious bounce. "Where is the proof?"

 

The spiky-maned mare raised an eyebrow. "Uh... Rainbow Dash... apparently she's known her a long time and stuff..." she said with an uneasy laugh.

​

 

"Hmmm..." Lyra started as she considered it, bringing a hoof to her chin. "Come to think of it, we don't know much about Rainbow Dash's past either now, do we?"

 

Cloudchaser just brought her hoof to her face and slouched back down in her seat.  There was really not much that could be said to that.

​

 

Lyra remained undeterred however, and as no one else in town hall had said anything, kept standing. "What? You never know for sure with these things. Trust me," she muttered and then finally sat down.

​

[SteelEagle]

 

The Mayor stood there, mouth agape as she listened to one of Ponyville's citizens wander off into the forest of unrelenting madness. Really, Lyra? She was a silly pony by nature who said and did silly things and nopony would begrudge her for but this was an ill-timed diatribe at the very start of the meting, right after the Mayor had specifically called out conspiracy theories as being something she wasn't interested in hearing. No doubt if she hadn't said that, specifically pointed it out, then it never would have come up. Murphy's Law was entirely true and applicable in all situations as the Mayor learned again and again. Lyra and Cloudcasher, beautiful, smart, level-headed Cloudchaser, went back and forth on conspiracies relating to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash with the lovely loon Lyra. They settled into an uneasy truce, Lyra standing proudly. An awkward silence followed while the Mayor waited for anypony else to talk. After a few moments, the mayor approached the mic.
 

“Thank you Lyra for that...scintillating topic. We are all the better for it, I am sure. But for future reference to anypony who comes up to the mic- keep your topics on more substantive issues facing our community and less...err, interesting theories regarding fellow residents who may or may not be here and may or may not be offended by implications that they are...you know...darkness and such. If I may, perhaps now would be the time to discuss provisional zoning ordnance one-oh-one? It says clearly that shop stalls have to be exactly fifteen hooves length from one another front facing and no less than five hooves length, which came into zoning laws over four years ago yet we consistently find it is not being followed. If we do not follow this law then...” The Mayor spoke dryly on a dry subject, her inflection even and monotone with great boredom. The intent was clear: Since the mic was public, bore somepony into making a move and actually bring up something invigorating to discuss!