- Story by Bobby Curnow, art by Brenda Hickey
Applejack finds that her barn has received a citation for being too tall. Annoyed by the rule, she goes to Ponyville's city hall to try to have the citation revoked, where she is met by Tadwell, a bookish assistant to Mayor Mare, who requires AJ to fill out numerous forms before the citation can be invalidated. AJ quickly loses patience, but before she can take it out on Tadwell, Mayor Mare shows up, and offers to take AJ to the right department of city hall to nullify the citation.
The trip soon becomes a tour of city hall's rather obscure and dysfunctional departments, and AJ wonders how Ponyville even runs efficiently, losing her temper. The Mayor knows of AJ's frustration, and suggests she spend the rest of the afternoon helping out, hoping AJ's no-nonsense approach might help. AJ quickly helps to resolve problems with her practical ways, much to the Mayor's pleasure. Suddenly, a commotion breaks out outside, where Sweetie Belle's budding magic is accidentally turning ponies into vegetables. AJ is stunned, but the Mayor quickly steps into action, ordering her aides to quickly put an end to the problem and revert everypony to normal. As the day winds down, AJ is amazed that the Mayor could jump into action like that. The Mayor explains that she's always loved Ponyville, but when she first tried to run for mayor, she didn't win. She had to learn about the diversity of Ponyville and got to know how they all worked together, and used that to run the next time, successfully winning the mayorship to this day. She admits she sees the same love and dedication to Ponyville in AJ, and had arranged for this day to hopefully inspire AJ to follow in her footsteps after she retires, and offers the voided citation.
This issue provides examples of:
- Batman Gambit: Mayor Mare's plan to convince AJ to spend the day in city hall so as to sow the proverbial seeds of becoming Ponyville's next mayor, all based on knowing how AJ would react to a trivial citation.
- The Cameo: Filthy Rich and Davenport (the Quills & Sofas store owner) appear in the meeting about taxes, as well as Flax Seed from the Rarity micro comic.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The nerdy assistant Tadwell is the ultimate pencil-pusher in Applejack's way. Surprisingly averted with the Mayor as she is more to task, though a bit roundabout into her reasons for bringing AJ to the city hall.
- Politicians Kiss Babies: Mayor Mare is depicted kissing the forehead of one of the Cake twins on the "A" cover
◊ (The one showcased is the subscription cover). - Fourth-Wall Portrait:
- The statue sculpted for Princess Twilight uses a realistic horse face (the excuse being that the sculptor just had eye surgery). AJ quickly averts the problem by sticking a book into the statue's hooves so as to look like Twilight is nose-deep in the book, effectively hiding the face.
- Naturally, this issue shows what generally happens in a Government office.
- Tutti Frutti Hat: While turning the residents of Ponyville into produce, Sweetie Belle wears one of these with two baskets of fruit.
