//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: An Interlude for Political Manipulation // Story: Sun & Moon Act II: A Crown Divided // by cursedchords //------------------------------// “One of the first things I was asked when I started learning about government was whether Equestria could be better off with a Senate once more. Regrettably, the history is decidedly mixed on that question.” - “The Politics of Friendship”, by Twilight Sparkle Celestia’s lunch had been lovely, if a touch on the warm side. Finding sufficient ice for the water was becoming increasingly difficult, and what made it into the glass melted in mere minutes. Canterlot could still get on, owing to the proximity of its mountain range, and for that Celestia was thankful. The ability to still enjoy a cold drink from time to time felt like the only thing keeping her sane at the moment. That, and perhaps the chance to finally get a relief measure through the Senate. Ever since the riot, Pensive and Ink’s offices had been engaged in a frantic back-and-forth, proposing and amending draft proposals from sun-up to long after sundown. The knowledge of their own culpability for the measure’s success had at least convinced the two of them to work together, but that hadn’t stopped them from debating the details right down to the last minute. With the vote a mere hour away, Celestia still hadn’t received the final draft text that would go before the chamber. As head of the largest party, it was Pensive’s job to get the text copied out for all of the senators. If things got any tighter, she would have to head to his office and help him copy out the bill herself. She was just about making up her mind to do that when Ink came in through the door, two bundles of parchment clutched in one of her forelegs. She tossed one of them roughly onto Celestia’s desk, the flowing loops of her partner’s writing obvious. “We have a big problem,” she said simply, the fury in her tone all too evident, along with the stress lines under her eyes. Calmly, Celestia gave the document a quick perusal. There wasn’t much to see really; she must have looked over this text more than a hundred times as proposals had been exchanged between the two camps. “Big enough to jeopardize the vote?” “Put it this way, Your Highness,” Ink replied flatly, still standing in front of the desk, her eyebrows down low over her eyes. “There is no way in a million years I could support that text, and I don’t think any reasonable pony would disagree with me. That counts you, your sister, and everypony else in the Senate, except perhaps for the snake who’s trying to put it before the chamber.” “Ink,” Celestia said, wiping her own brow with a white handkerchief that she had taken to keeping by her side. “You and Pensive have been negotiating this text for days now. I had thought that you'd finally come to a workable agreement. We can’t afford dissension right now.” “Certainly, but this is not the text that Pensive and I agreed to last night.” Ink set her own copy of the bill down on the desk and began flipping through it. “The original proposal sought a mass purchase of food from the farmers come harvest time. This one does away with that concept entirely. Instead, he’s just going to confiscate the harvest, backed up by force when necessary.” Celestia’s breath caught when she heard that. “That’s impossible,” she said, her prior calm shattered. “He must know that a measure like that would never pass the chamber. By the stars, I would veto it even if it did!” “Well, read it for yourself if you like.” Ink held up the relevant pages of the bill. It was all obtuse legal language, the sort of thing that nopony outside of Canterlot ever spent their time reading, but Celestia could cut through the wording right down to the meaning in an instant. No doubt about it, Ink’s suspicions were right on the money. “I haven’t the faintest clue what he’s playing at,” Ink continued. “However, I think you’ll agree with me that when this bill goes before the chamber, it is not going to be passed. I’d be amazed if a full-scale fight doesn’t break out.” Celestia eyed the hands on her clock. There was just shy of thirty minutes left before the vote, though it would be a wonder if any senators even showed up to this sitting if this was the text being delivered. There surely wasn’t enough time to get a new text in time for today’s sitting, but with luck she might be able to get to the bottom of things for an emergency session this evening. Ink gave her a nod, clearly having come to the same conclusions herself. “Let’s get over there,” Celestia said. “And find out what under the stars your colleague thinks he's doing.” Pensive’s office suite was in chaos, with drafters and secretaries collating copies of the text and pages frantically running it off to the rest of the office wing. Up on the wall, a tally board had been set up to count votes, and as she went by Celestia noted quite a few more votes in the ‘Yea’ column than she would have guessed. Wishful thinking on Pensive’s part? Ink was right, after all. While the original proposal had been radical but necessary, this one was complete madness. No pony in their right mind would approve of something like this. Celestia wasted no time on niceties as she barged into the office, Ink following close on her tail. In the inner suite, Pensive was seated calmly at his desk, going over what looked to be a memo from one of the other offices. He looked up as soon as the door banged open, and tucked the parchment hastily into a desk drawer. “Your Highness,” he intoned, standing up to offer his usual greeting. Celestia didn’t return the gesture, instead merely slamming the parchment bundle down onto his desk hard enough to make his inkwell bounce. “What in the name of Equestria do you think you are doing? I trust you to bring a workable version of the text to the floor, I give you all of the incentive and time that you could want, and this is what I get instead. Somepony is going to get the blame for this you know, and right now I think that I’m looking at him!” The senator didn’t blink, instead merely sitting back down into his seat calmly and picking up his quill again. “It is good to see that my deliveries are going out promptly, Your Highness,” he replied, conversational as if they were discussing the weather over tea. “It was very hard work getting all of the language worked out in time for approval. Why, I think that it might even pass your high standards, Princess.” Celestia was momentarily too shocked by the reply to muster an answer of her own. Ink, though, wasted no time stepping into the void. “Pensive,” she said, “what happened to the version of the text that we agreed to last night? It was a flawed proposal, certainly, but it could pass. This version is completely unenforceable.” Pensive only returned her a gentle smirk. “On the contrary, my colleague, I’m sure that you will find it is completely enforceable. That sad display in the marketplace the other day convinced me that what we were doing before simply wasn’t good enough. In order to make sure everypony fares equally well in the coming time of leanness, we need to completely level the playing field. Even the farmers themselves would need to be on the rationing system. That way nopony could claim that someone else was getting a better deal than them. In reality, it is the only way that we are going to make it through this crisis with the country intact.” “Never mind the legalities!” Ink struck right back, the curls of her mane dancing as she shook in her anger. “I meant that it’s unenforceable because nopony is going to listen to it! I’ve lived in the farming country almost my whole life, and if you think that any farm family is going to give you their harvest and get nothing in return, then you’re completely mistaken. If you try to enforce a law like this, it will be defied! It could even lead to open rebellion!” “I’ve added a section on the end authorizing force,” Pensive replied, still almost patronizingly calm. “If anypony objects, they will be met with the fullest force of the law. We are in desperate times after all, and desperate times will often call for desperate measures. Naturally it pains me to have to resort to such a step, but there simply is no other way for this issue to be satisfactorily resolved.” Out of patience, Celestia brought a hoof down on his desk, instantly taking command of the conversation again. “All of this arguing is moot,” she said, stealing a glance at the big clock by Pensive’s door. There were mere minutes left to go before the floor sitting was to begin. “There’s no point in discussing the consequences of this law, because it’s never going to pass the chamber. Surely you know this, Pensive.” He turned that cool expression of his to her. “Oh, but it will pass, Your Highness. I can guarantee that. And I hope you realize that unlike some of the ponies here, when I make you a promise, I always keep it.” He held her glare for a moment more, challenging her to say anything else, but Celestia was only perplexed. A predatory measure like this was insanity. How could he possibly imagine that he could get enough votes to see it pass? Certainly Ink’s rural bloc would shoot it down. Celestia wouldn’t even be surprised if he had a few turncoats in his own ranks over something like this. “Well, as surely you can see, Your Highness, our time is growing short,” Pensive said, confident as ever. He got up out of his chair and strode purposefully on toward the door, holding it open with his magic. “We’ll likely have a lot more time to talk afterward, when we need to start hammering out the details of implementation. But with any luck, by this time next month this crisis will be well under control, and we can get back to the regular business of running this country.” He offered Celestia the usual trim bow as he waited for them to leave, the formality almost completely at odds with the hostility of the conversation. Out in the hall, Ink looked dumbfounded. “I honestly can’t tell if he’s lost his mind or has some dirty trick up his sleeve,” she said as the two started heading to the Senate chamber. “I mean, he’s already pulled almost every dirty trick in the book in our negotiations this week. But I can’t see what he thinks he’s doing. No rural senator would take the risk of supporting a measure like this. If this vote somehow succeeds, then I’ll eat my shoes.” On the basis of her own instincts, Celestia knew that Ink was right. But Pensive was no fool, that much was surely certain. “In any event, I can guarantee you a swift veto,” she said, though it did little to ease her. “I can’t imagine that I’ll need to end up using it, but if I must, then that is what I shall do.” Technically, of course, her vote alone wasn’t enough to overpower the will of the chamber; for that she needed Luna’s veto as well. That eventuality could be confronted when it was needed, though. Interrupting Luna’s work so that she could be brought to the chamber to deliver a summary Nay would certainly be an unfortunate use of time. They emerged onto the floor of the Senate into the usual clutter of parchments draped over top of desks, and ponies of all sorts clumped in groups around the aisles and over the rings of desks that made up the majority of the floor space. Ink bade Celestia goodbye shortly afterward, and the yellow earth pony very quickly made her way over to her caucus, where she was greeted with a solemn sobriety. There were likely to be some very unhappy senators on the floor this afternoon, and the size of the bill’s text made it a convenient bludgeon when it was all bundled up, especially for a unicorn. At this rate Celestia would call it a success if Pensive somehow managed to escape the sitting with all of his teeth still in. Though after trying to pull a stunt like this, she suspected that his days as leader of his party were probably numbered. Pensive and the rest of his inner circle came through the door only a few minutes later, just as the chair was preparing to call the roll. None of the other members of his cabal looked the least bit uncertain over what was about to transpire. Instead they were jovial, exchanging quite a number of back-slaps and congratulatory hoofshakes as they got to their seats. Naturally, the display only increased Celestia’s trepidation. What was it that Pensive had planned? The Canterlot senator called the question right away once everypony was seated, and the usual shouts followed, a chorus of Yea’s followed by an answering barrage of Nay’s. Once again, Pensive and his deputy immediately called for a vote by the roll. This time, the vote proceeded slowly, as seat by seat the members of his delegation stood to indicate their support. Again, all of Canterlot, then all of Manehattan, and so on around the chamber they went. Apparently he had managed to hold his caucus together on the issue, which was an achievement in and of itself. Then the roll got around to Everfree West, the first member of Ink’s delegation. And he stood. The assent was called, the name was added to the tally, and the speaker moved on. Celestia took a hurried look across to where Ink was sitting, and the yellow earth pony’s expression was a strangled mix of disbelief and terror. To be fair, Celestia knew exactly what that felt like. Not all of her senators joined in with him, but perhaps one in every three did. Somehow, Pensive had convinced even these ponies to get on board with a nakedly unworkable proposal. When the last vote was tallied, silence reigned in the hall: forty in favour, and thirty-five opposed. The presiding speaker’s hooves were shaking as he cleared his throat. “The resolution is cleared to have passed the chamber. To the throne is put the question: Yea or Nay?” He stood up and turned around from the podium when he had finished, his eyes joining those of every other pony in the room at being glued to where Celestia was sitting. Out on the floor, Ink still looked shell-shocked, and Pensive was still smug. He even raised one of his hooves in a mock toast to her. Well, at least he wasn’t going to get the last laugh. Not while Celestia had anything to say about it. She took her time getting to her hooves, even pausing to admire the grandeur of the throne upon which she sat, with its back trimmed in gold and stretching nearly halfway up the wall behind her. Up above, the Chaos Storm swirled in purple malevolence. How unfortunate its significance was about to become. “No mere question do you bring before the throne today,” she began, enunciating each word clearly, the very voice of reason, or at least so she hoped. “This proposal seeks the reduction of our republic to a mere shadow of its former self. No unity, no help will come from such a transparently tyrannical proposal, and thus it certainly cannot earn my support. The Senate is meant to be a unifying body, a place where all ponies can be represented and state their case for discussion. When my sister and I founded this institution, we imagined that it would bring ponykind into a new era of fellowship and harmony. “But this proposal, this measure, if implemented would only serve to divide us: rural vs urban, unicorn vs earth pony, family against family. Surely it was not in the spirit of this chamber that such a measure came to be written, and surely it was not in this same spirit that any of you chose to support it. I would invite each and every senator who somehow signed their names to this abomination to reflect long and hard on whatever reasons might have brought them this far.” Celestia paused as she brought her gaze over to Pensive once again, still serene at his desk. “And I would wonder first on the motivations of its framers, who surely understand just as well as I do that nothing good would come of enforcing this law. The throne denies the request,” she finished low and grave, then sat back down into her seat, never once taking her eyes off of that smug unicorn in the second row. Pensive jumped to his hooves as soon as she had finished. “The first of the throne declining, the chamber requests that the second half of the throne deliver its verdict on the measure. With her not present, I move that the second Princess be found and compelled to attend, so that her verdict may be rendered.” Despite how things had begun the rest of the process was straightforward legislative procedure. When the chair marked the motion as carried, Celestia stepped forward and volunteered to be the one carrying out the chamber’s wishes, and at least everypony agreed to that. Technically, the Senate was supposed to sit in expectation while Luna was located and brought to the floor, but of course everypony spilled out into the lobby to wait, forming up into the same excited clumps as before, eagerly discussing this latest development. Celestia found Ink chagrined, and gingerly tapping her shoes on the marble floor as if wondering how they were going to taste. “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” she said right away. “Somehow Pensive picked my coalition apart. I don’t know how he did it, especially since he spent so much of this past week negotiating with me, but somehow he must have gotten to each of them.” “Well, I hope that you can find out what he’s offering them in exchange for their votes,” Celestia replied crossly. “Because if this majority of his holds, then we are in for a very rough session, and even more importantly, we won’t be able to get anything useful done.” Rather than quail before that, Ink stood up a little straighter. “The thing that really burns me inside is that none of them even told me that they were going to betray the party. You can rest assured that I will get to the bottom of this, Princess. And they had better all have bloody good answers.” “Right. You have an hour or so perhaps until I can get back here with Luna. In the meantime, I expect some action. Let’s not have to go through this process more than once.” Celestia turned on her heel at that and stalked off, leaving Ink looking properly determined at least. She certainly hoped that the young party leader would manage to get her coalition together in time to forestall another vote, but secretly she wasn’t so sure anymore. That now made twice that Pensive had outmanoeuvred her, and soundly each time too. The thought suddenly cleared a little space for itself at the forefront of Celestia’s mind. Had it really been twice? Ink had suspected at the time of the first vote that Pensive had deliberately sabotaged the measure in the hopes of ensuring its failure. And then he had infuriated the other party even more with his ill-planned remarks in the paper. Had that all really been simply an arrogant unicorn doing his own thing, or had it all been leading up to this? If it was all some sort of conspiracy, Celestia still couldn’t see what Pensive would be gaining out of the government’s dysfunction. Tensions would run higher out in the streets, supplies would run shorter, and ponies would surely grow angrier as the government continued to do nothing. Without a fair relief package soon, only drastic action would prevent unrest. Drastic action like Pensive’s proposal? Ink was right, though. A mass confiscation of the harvest would create more problems than it solved. Celestia shook her head as she passed by an open window large enough to admit her passage. She was going to need help to sort this one out, even on top of Ink’s assurances. At least that was one good thing of having to fetch Luna back into the city. “And you’re telling me that they actually passed it?” Luna asked, incredulous. “Even knowing what it would surely lead to? Forget a veto, I’d like to see whoever was responsible in the stocks over this!” For once, the inside of the Academy Tower felt a little too warm, this time surely due to the blood pumping through Luna’s head upon hearing her sister’s news. Surely she wasn’t alone, if the fact that Celestia had managed the frigid flight without any outerwear could be considered. Celestia had taken a large mug of cocoa as soon as she got in though, and now was occupying the seat behind Swift’s desk. Her fallen lieutenant was still being attended to in the medical cabin. “Do I really have to go back, or can I perhaps just yell my ‘Nay!’ down the mountainside and keep on up here?” “I will need you, unfortunately,” Celestia replied, looking a little cooler now that the cocoa was setting in. “With Pensive holding his majority, this won’t be the last time that we see this measure before the throne. I expect that he will continue bringing it up until one of us blinks first.” “And that means that I won’t be able to escape the city until things are resolved.” Celestia nodded, and Luna stole a look back at Swift’s chalkboard. She had been in the middle of going over his figures again when her sister had come in, in the vain hope of finding some constant or modifier that they had overlooked, some minus that really should have been a plus. There was at least something of a silver lining in being forced away from the Academy. Perhaps some distractions could lead to a new insight into her predicament. “Well, I’ll certainly go,” she said reluctantly. “But I’ll make sure that they all know what important work I’m missing by having to be back for this.” “That… might possibly be unwise,” Celestia returned, touching her hooves together over top of the desk. “Putting even more pressure onto the chamber could be unpredictable, and things are on the verge of boiling over already. In public, all that you should provide is a simple ‘Nay’ when required, I think.” Luna turned around and raised an eyebrow. “In public? What else do you have planned?” Celestia had picked up Swift’s quill with her magic, and was casually working it over the parchment on the desk as she spoke. “Somehow, Pensive picked apart Ink’s coalition. Neither she nor I are sure how, but we need to know, and the sooner the better.” She blotted the ink quickly with a toss of sand, then passed it over to Luna. On it were a set of seven names. “When the chamber isn’t in session, I’d like you to see what you can find out about these senators, Luna. I don’t know if they’ve been bought, persuaded, or threatened, but somehow they’ve been convinced to vote against their own self-interest. Picking apart Pensive’s majority is likely to be the only way that this thing ends well.” Curious, Luna studied the list for a moment. All of the names were unfamiliar; she had made it almost a point of pride to be involved with the Senate as little as possible over the course of her life. “This really seems like your purview, doesn’t it? What makes you think that I’ll be any help?” “I am going to be occupied in blocking the measure procedurally, any way that I can.” Celestia finished off the last of her cocoa in one big gulp. “There’s more than enough obscure statutes on the books to forestall votes for a day or two, maybe more. I’ll do what I can to feel out the chamber, but after everything that has happened, I strongly suspect that Pensive isn’t really following any of the rules anymore. If we want to beat him, we need to try something new. Hopefully, you can slip under his sights, while he thinks that he has Ink and I occupied on the defensive.” Luna turned her eyes back to the list. If things really were this serious, then she would pitch in to do what she had to. “And once that is done I can get back to thinking about the weather?” Taking that as the affirmation that it was, Celestia headed back to the balcony. “In earnest, I hope. Now we really are needed back in the city, or else the Senate might send another party out to look for me.” Luna quickly trotted over to join her sister at the ledge, and the two of them began a quick flight together back down toward the city. A stopover in Canterlot would certainly be a nice change of pace from how things had gone up in the mountains, but the sight from the mountaintop also let her see all of the countryside around the city, dull and brown in the dryness of late summer. An interlude for political manipulation was about the last thing that Equestria needed right now.