Friendship in Politics

by Shockburst

Two Opposites

"To tell you the truth," said Skyros. "All the ponies in the Council are as close to fighting as Equestria and the Chrysalis Kingdom are. Joining me now is Sneaky Slate, who's currently in the middle of the City Council. Slate?"

Skyros was in the middle of a weekly show. His suit was still in a mess, yet his smile made up for that as he and the crowd turned their attention to a screen that was rising up from beneath the table.

"Hey Skyros, you called?" said a fast yet quiet voice.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did Slate," said Skyros. "I was wondering: what's the situation now in the Council?"

"Oh, yes, it's still horrible," said Sneaky Slate. "I'm currently hiding in a briefcase. It's really dark in here." The crowd chuckled. "I can show you some of the action. Just give a me a second, and..."

A crack of light appeared on the screen. The fuzzy quality of a video camera was briefly seen as the camera adjusted to the sudden light source. Slate's briefcase was in the middle of the Council floor. The middle was completely empty, but on the right wing of the room, ponies with white garments were staring down at the left wing of the room, where other ponies clad in blue stood defiantly. Both sides were glaring at each other without mercy. Nopony moved or made a sound. All eyes were on each other.

"As you can see," whispered Slate. "Things are looking terrible out here. Just one sound and both sides will start cutting throats."

"I see," said Skyros. "And where's Speaker Baner?"

"Oh, the libies got him. He's up there." The camera pointed up to reveal that Baner was revolving in the center of the ceiling. He was hogtied and gagged. He struggled viciously against his bonds, but it only served to make him swing from both sides of the room.

"Charming," said Skyros. "I suppose both sides got tired of him swinging from both sides, eh?"

The crowd laughed. Slate meanwhile drew up a pin and held it to the camera.

"What do you have there?" asked Skyros.

"Oh, just a little something to cause some fun," said Slate cunningly as he held out the pin and dropped it. It hit the floor with a tiny clatter.

Immediately, all the ponies screamed and yelled and took cover, but then stood back up to see the little pin on the floor. They then started arguing loudly, rushing over to the middle of the room.

"Well," said Slate over the din. "That was fun."

"It's not over yet, by the looks of it," said Skyros. "Anyways, nice job out there Slate. I'll see you later."

"Count on it," said Slate. The lid closed and the screen became black again. The TV set lowered as Skyros turned to face the crowd.

"Ah, yep. He isn't called the Sneaky Slate for nothing. A briefcase! My word..."

Skyros paused to chuckle for a bit, before continuing on a different rant.

"Of course, as you all very well know, the election of our Council members is coming up tomorrow. I'm sure all of you will do your duty to making sure that we don't make the same mistake again."

The crowd nodded and whooped. Most of them had actually already cast their votes, in an early voter ballot set up by the Society for the Betterment of Baltimare.

"Well, as you all know, we have only a month to go until things become even worse. Taxes are expected to go higher, income pay lower, prices will increase, and much much more. That's of course if we still can't find a way to work together, which we haven't so far.
"I mean, what's so hard about a bipartisan economic legislation? There are already three Blue guys in the Economic Management Committee, what on Equestria are they doing? They've all gone mad, I can tell you that. Well, maybe they're actually fighting."

The siren wailed again, signaling an end to the show. "Well, that's it for this morning. Come back next week for an interview of a certain somepony who will probably serve in the Council, and mess us over perhaps. See you all later. Have a great day!"

The crowd clapped and the screen lowered. Skyros jumped out of his seat and rushed out. The producer opened the door right as Skyros was about to reach for the handle.

"Skyros, you have a visitor. He'll meet you in 5 minutes in the dressing room."

Skyros nodded and rushed down to the dressing room and took off his suit. As he finished, the door opened and in walked a sky-blue, actual white mane stallion pegasus with a large book for his cutie mark.

"Hey, what do you know, it's Mary!" exclaimed Skyros and he jumped over to shake his hoof. The pegasus looked miffed.

"Long time no see pal!" said Skyros after shaking his hoof and inviting him in. He closed the door. "What brings you here?"

"I prefer you call me by my common name, Weather. Or at least my real name, Meriwether," said the pegasus. He had a rather distinct Trottingham accent.

"Ah, come on Mary! Lighten up! It's for old time's sake. Or at least, for my time's sake. You're still in the Council, right?"

Meriwether nodded stiffly. He was only a couple years younger than Skyros and both were quite young. The two of them in the same room was almost like a sort of childhood friendship reunion.

Meriwether was Councilpony of Sector Three of Soaring District and was very proud of his position. Despite the fact that he came from Trottingham and lived in Cloudsdale for most of his colt years, he was still very loyal to his district. He had met Skyros as a young colt when he visited family in Baltimare with his father and they became quick friends. In just a week, both ponies were strong, close friends and they would leave for hours on end. Both were proud of the fact that their coats were the same color.

When Meriwether left, they constantly sent each other letters, describing their life in their respective homes. Meriwether envied Skyros and Baltimare, which was still rich at the time, and grew to dislike his home in Cloudsdale, regarding it as an extremely arrogant and aristocratic state and left it as soon as he passed his flying test. He moved to Baltimare and met with Skyros again, discovering that he had just been voted in the City Council. Meriwether grew impressed and started studying law and politics. He already have a passion for learning and studying, evidenced by his cutie mark, and quickly grew in knowledge and popularity, as he also was extremely adept in taking care of the Baltimare weather.

By the time the elections for the Council ran again, Meriwether had built himself an impressive reputation, maintaining friendships with the current and past mayors, several Council members, and many important weather pegasi. He was a new yet successful lawyer and he helped draft a health bill that would ensure that all pegasi had healthy wings. He ran for office for Sector Three as a Blue candidate and got in after a landslide election. He served with some distinction, but quickly grew bored with politics. The only thing keeping himself in the Council room was his love for Sector Three, evidenced by his pushes to help the citizens in their work and constantly performing casework to assist his fellow pegasi. In short, he was just your average extremely successful representative who loves his district whose name was worthy enough to get in a textbook.

"Right," said Skyros. "Sit down. Tell me what's happening. There must have been some changes I missed ever since I left."

"You're mistaken," said Meriwether. "Not much has changed. Especially the ponies in there. You know there have been a total of only 6 replacements since you left, what? 2 years ago? For a total of 2 terms, only 6 seats changed."

Skyros nodded. "Its the voters. They all just blindly vote for the pony whose plot is already in office. It's all natural. It's why I quit. All for moral purposes."

"Well yes," said Meriwether. "But I don't think your point was big enough. Like I said, only 6 seats were filled by new ponies. The rest? All just a bunch of old dodgers."

"Now don't say that," said Skyros, in a chiding and teasing manner. Meriwether however, was not amused and scowled.

"You say it all the time on your show. And I'm afraid it's true."

"It's what we all say," said Skyros. "Come on, you must have something new to tell me. Oh! I know! We can start on that Cutie Mark Discovery Tutorship bill. Why do you support it? I thought you were a Cyan pony?"

The Cyan faction was the more conservative wing of the Blue Party, named because cyan was a lighter shade of blue. The left-wing liberals were called the Navy wing.

"I am. I don't even know where that ridiculous rumor about all the Blue Party guys supporting the bill even came from. It's obviously not true. The Cyan faction doesn't support it at all," said Meriwether dismissively.

"Yeah. I sure sure you and your 5 friends do make a difference," said Skyros in a belittling tone.

Meriwether raised his left eyebrow. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's just that, out of the entire Blue Party, there are only a few that are right-wing liberal."

"We do make a difference. The Council members do listen to us," said Meriwether defensively.

"Right," said Skyros in a sarcastic tone. "Anyways, if you don't support it, you don't oppose it either. Otherwise, how could those news stations say all of them supported the bill?"

"Well, yes, we don't actually oppose the bill."

"Shouldn't you?" asked Skyros. "I mean, the right-wing White ponies are supporting it. It would make sense that you guys should seeing that you're supposed to be more to the left of the political spectrum than those ponies. This bill screams out liberalism. Equality and freedom and what not for the middle-class."

"Well, yes, but we feel as though it will only put more strain on the ponies for little benefit."

"You mean that it will put more strain on the rich. Isn't that what all you Blue Party guys want?" asked Skyros.

Meriwether raised his eyebrows in disdain. "It's not like that Skyros. You know that. You seem to really like the straw man fallacy. We're not in favor of singling a single part of our socioeconomic class. We just like to make sure that we get the funds necessary to help our city from those who can spare it."

Skyros smiled innocently. "That's what you all say. Listen, you guys want to increase taxes to increase revenue."

"For the rich-" began Meriwether, but he didn't get far.

"Well, you see," said Skyros. "We need to control spending. That's easy. What we need right now is compromise. A combination of increased revenue and controlled spending should be what this economy needs."

"That's just it though," said Meriwether. "We're not anywhere close to beginning to compromise. We're all increasingly polarized. The Blue Party wants this bill in. The White Party guys want it dead. I'm afraid this bill just made everything much worse for us."

"Then we'll make them see that compromise is necessary," replied Skyros defiantly.

"Skyros, come on. How?" asked Meriwether insistently.

"Simple. We get our friends in the right spaces and fill the remaining one with our friends."

"Again. How?"

"Again, simple. I have my friends in the White Party. You have yours."

"Like I said, Skyros, I'm a Cyan guy. It'd would be hard to make my voice heard in the mainstream party," said Meriwether.

"Not too hard though. We need you in a position of power to make an influence."

"And where would that be exactly?"

"Simple. You're head of the Weather Commission in the Environmental Concern Committee, right?"

"Right," affirmed Meriwether. "I don't see how that would help us though. It's a subcommittee in one of the smallest committees in the entire Council. Even if I were to move up, it wouldn't help our cause that much."

"You're forgetting something. Whoever is head of the Environmental Concern Committee is the Environment representative in the Economic Management Committee."

"Not necessarily," said Meriwether. "As long as the Environmental representative in the EMC is still voted in office, he or she can stay as long as he or she wants until he or she is voted out of office. I thought you knew that."

"What about the fact that the current representative is old and lazy? He's bound to be voted out. Or at least, kicked out or demoted by the EMC."

"The elections are tomorrow. The results will come in by the end of the day. Most ponies have already filled out their ballots already. How will I move into the Head of the ECC by the end of tomorrow?" asked Meriwether.

"That's where I come in. I have my friends. I'll have them recommend you in position by the time he is voted out."

"And what if he isn't?"

"By Celestia, are you a pessimist or what?" asked Skyros. "Try and look at the good side of things please. I'll have my friends kick him out if he does stay in. There, happy?"

"You talk about your friends as if they own the EMC," said Meriwether accusingly.

"Well, they kind of do," said Skyros. "I have three guys in the EMC who are willing to do what I ask them."

"So, why can't you ask them to compromise?"

"I have. Multiple times. It's your Navy guys in the Council who are messing everything up. Listen, we'll get to that later. Anyways, once you are representative to the EMC, you're in the most powerful committee in the entire Council. With those other Blue guys in the committee with you, if you guys start yelling for compromise for my friends, we can get a bipartisan legislation for us in no time."

"I don't know," said Meriwether doubtfully. "There's just so many things that can go wrong. Besides, even if we do get a compromise started, who'll support it? I'm sure the center guys would support it, maybe the moderates for both partiess, but certainly not the radicals. They'll definitely want to see their way go. Even if all the moderates from the parties support the bill, whose to say the mayor would pass it?"

"The mayor will definitely pass it. She'll like to see things finally through. Besides, stop worrying. The central guys are in the bag. The moderates should be easy enough to convince. The radicals? Who cares? Taken, there're only like, 15 of them. That means that if things go well, we'll have a supermajority vote easy."

"I sure hope you're right," said Meriwether in a worried manner. "I don't want to see all our work go down the drain."

"Neither do I, Mary, but we all risk that chance once a bill is drafted. It just becomes a part of being a politician."

Meriwether still looked anxious however; enough to even not feel offended by the insult to his name again.

"Cheer up Mary," said Skyros. "Come on, there's gonna be a new restaurant opening near the headquarters of the Society. It's gonna be like a 4 star one. It's only gonna be a couple of days until they open. I'll treat you to some dinner for your new position, which I'm sure you're gonna have in the bag. So lighten up!"

"I guess you're right," said Meriwether, although he was still doubtful.

"Of course I'm right. It's why I'm in the White Party. Now come on, let's go for a walk. You need it."

Meriwether nodded. Both of the ponies stepped out of the dressing room, navigated through the building, and stepped out. Although crisis was supposed to hit in a month or so, the city still looked like a jewel. The lights from the skyscrapers shone like a bright crystal. And despite the fact that it would need some polishing, Skyros was confident that they would eventually get their city back to its original luster.