Düzeltmek

by TerribleSpeller

2 - Party Games

“Canterlotian Politicians has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”

- Rule Listener, 'Damnable Truths' - Article printed on The Blossom's opinion column

---

"Order! Order!"

The gavel slamming on the table did little but to add to the chaos that was the session of parliament. The endless barrage of shouting from the Ponies' Equality Front's seats were near defeaning to Expedient. Like a symphony, there had to be an accompaniment to the PEF's shouting. And to make that accompaniment was the shouting from the Canterlotian National Front. The CNF, were to put it in Expedient's opinion, a rabble of reactionaries reacting as if their rectal been reexamined by a researcher.

"Order! Order! Joke Tory do not punch- ORDER!"

Expedient sighed as he leant back into his chair as the first punches began flying in the parliament. The shouting fit the brawling well, it took politics into the form it always reverted to when it failed.

Battle.

Many have said over the centuries that war was merely the continuation of politics when politics failed. And as Expedient's eyes tracked Opaque Bill's hoof slammed into the MP Exalted Caffeine's face, he sighed as the chances of a good productive session of the parliament slipped away. The sounds of ponies throwing punches provided a good base for the thoughts going through his head.

With the news of the amendments having properly settling into the zeitgeist of the Parliament, every single party and MP had been thrown into a frenzy in order to cement their legacy. It was easy to understand too! But that made the process of trying to make the Second Republic a better place... a much more bitter struggle.

Expedient fiddled around in the saddlebags placed by the side of his chair. If things had begun to detriorate like this, then the day was to be wasted with emotions running this high. He might as well make the day much more tolerable with a pint of alcohol.

Sure, drinking within the Parliament was frowned upon. But with such insanity? It was just a mere sideshow. Plus, the couple of journalists up here with him were more interested in watching the fight.

His magic seemed to find its mark as his slowly pull out a nice little flask. For anyone else this flask might seem like a simple flask. Unremarkable in its mundanity. But as Expedient looked over it and heard the soft, swirling of the liquid contained within it. He knew that its mundanity hid behind some good old fashioned, liquid joy.

As he took a sip of such effective recreation, Expedient could hear the sound of hoofsteps off to the side of his seat up in the gallery. He turned his head slowly towards whatever was breaking his symphony of shouting and hoof-to-hoof combat.

A beige coloured stallion pushed the door open to the official's gallery. A couple of the journalists that oft frequent the gallery like him, seemed to perk up at the sight.

It was a public meeting then.

"Ah, your Excellency, its nice to meet you here," The voice was gravely, it felt slimey. Expedient took another sip as he turned back to view the fight as Hayseed Glasses took a seat next to him.

"Come to enjoy the view of our respectable members of parliament?" Expedient asked, his magic keeping to hold of the small bottle with him.

"I did, that and here to converse with you regarding some important matters... regarding the state," Hayseed remarked as he took a seat next to Expedient.

"About the Amendments?" Expedient's eyebrow raised, but Hayseed couldn't see it as he nodded.

"Everything is about the Amendments these days," Hayseed stated. Expedient slowly turned back to face him. This close, Expedient couldn't help but feel mildly disgusted at the member of parliament. He reeked of cheap tobacco. Expedient gave a small short nod.

"So, what is the issue?"

"Well," Hayseed clicked his tongue, "I've heard that the UCP isn't fully backing your proposed amendments I heard?"

Expedient nodded carefully, a curt one, "I suppose so. Where you hear that from?"

"I have friends," Hayseed remarked as he focused onto the chaos downstairs as a resounding smack echoed out among the shouting, "Damn, what a hit."

"Mhm, and what's your point, Hayseed?" Expedient raised with an eyebrow.

"Simple. I have a proposition for you, your excellency," That roll of the tongue sent a small shiver down his spine, "And it's a very simple one. It'll be able to secure support back in your party - and even get my party's support for your amendments even!'

Expedient leant back into the chair, trying to prepare himself to hide any reaction that might appear, "And what exactly is it? If it's rolling back on my reforms, I'm not accepting it."

"You sure your ideals are better than making sure it gets passed?" Hayseed remarked. The way his mouth seemed to move slightly set him off. As if it was moving just slightly slower than it should been.

Expedient shook his head, "Of course not. Would you abandon your party's ideals for popularity?"

"Ah but politics is about compromises, no? You compromise on this and that, tittle tattle over specifics, and you are able to pass all the important bits you want and we all get that nice stability~ we all want," The syllables pronounced were like the creak that forks made on plates, "Come on now, Expedy, won't you want to hear... my proposal?"

Expedient gritted his teeth as he let a small smile appear and turned towards him, "Alright then. Tell me. What is your proposal?"

Hayseed let out a small clattering of his teeth once more, "Well, you see. The conservative part of your party? They're quite... quite easily placated if you do what is necessary to secure your party's supremacy in parliament. My party, sees eye to eye with a lot of your party's policies. If you... agree to raise the electoral threshold. Perhaps up to 9%, then, well, you'd have your party back in your lane and a new ally in the parliament."

"And how large is your party exactly, Hayseed?" Expedient asked as he took another sip of his flask, his magic dancing in the glow of the dimness of the gallery.

"Listen," Those teeth moved to let the hiss escape, "We may only have 29 seats in parliament compared to your parties' 148, but that's 29 less seats you need to recurpurate if your party experiences a splinter."

Expedient took a glance down back to the fight occurring in parliament, shouting, punches, and paperwork were being thrown. The anger permeated the room in the form of juicy, juicy gossip for the media to steal and peddle with yellow ink. He took a moment to look at the ponies from the UCP throwing punches at the PEF and CNF who were also punching each other. Some took sides with the PEF and the rest with CNF.

If he were to do what Hayseed intended...

"I'm sorry, but I cannot accept that offer, Hayseed," Expedient sat back down. Hayseed let out a sigh and stood up. That brief, disgusting smell from him tainted his nose as the stallion left. Expedient let out one small scowl as he watched Hayseed leave.

---

"So you turned down his offer?"

The Chancellor of the Treasury was a short and stout stallion. Defined mostly by his brown coat and bright cyan mane, and a pair of spectacles on the muzzle. Expedient liked him for his ability to count, and the ability to quip a necessary laugh whenever needed.

Expedient nodded as he sat down at the meeting room. It was a nice and comfy room, the newly installed air conditioner was blowing in, and there wasn't anything infuriating to be reported on from the Ministry of Home Affairs. But still, he needed to be briefed on all those minuate regarding the state of affairs regarding the economy.

"How are you going to figure out how to drag the rest of the Conservatives in then, Expedi?" Telegraph Tear asked as he sorted through files.

Expedient sighed as he placed his hooves on the table, making a base from which he can place his head and ponder, "Do you have your ears to any complaints from the MPs?"

"I did get an inquiry from the Ponyville Prefecture," Tear remarked, "Another railroad incident. Apple wants us to fix it as fast as possible, saying that if we can lose Ponyville if it isn't fixed in time."

"And let me guess, the official Inquiry discovered that his hooves technically caused this?" The Prime Minister threw a tired glance at Tear who merely nodded, "Son of a Pieist."

"You can say that again," Tear chuckled, "And this provides a nice little oppurtunity for you to wrangle another vote into your ability. Just set up a meeting with the Member of Parliament of Ponyville, and get yourselves some votes that way."

"At most, Apple Bloom'll only get me six more votes. Not enough to make up for this loss," Expedient noted as he opened the file, "How am I supposed to get fourty three more votes in a month?"

"Well..." Tear trailed, drawing a look from Expedient which begged for him to continue, "I've heard from Minister Cable Dancer that some of the conservative party members are, quite upset about the judges being quite corrupt backdoor wise... have you considered judicial impeachment?"

"Judicial Impeachment? That ight throw Velvet into a tizzy and anger towards me," Expedient remarked as his eyes traced over the details of Ponyvilles issues, "It'd be insane for me to legislate on that in the Amendments, since it'll definitely throw the PFEP into not supporting us."

"Still, there is nothing saying we cannot prosecute judges related to issues outside the court. Since, if I'd recall properly, they'd have Judicial Immunity, right?" Tear laid out, Expedient paused before nodding, "Well, Judicial Immunity is only applicable when they are exercising their duties within their jurisdiction, i e, whilst acting as a Judge. But, only whlist in their jurisdiction. Theoretically, if we can find evidence of their wrongdoings... outside of the matters of court, then we can hit them with a court case where their immunity is inapplicable."

"But that would then require further investigation, and an official inquiry into their activities," Expedient noted at Tear, looking over at him, "And you're a civil servant! You know full well official inquiries go nowhere and that we only do that if we know the results!"

"But we do know the results," Tear noted back at him.

"Wh- What?" His focus turned squarely towards Tear, his eyes widened, "Wha... you mean, you got proper evidence of misconduct?"

"Would I've been the previous Cabinet Under-Secretary if I wasn't?" Tear chuckled, as he dragged out his case from underneath the desk. With finesse pulling a manila folder, if a bit rough at the edges.

"If you check this one, the National Police have some... well, still circumstantial evidence that Judge Lorry may have been involved in some, suppression of Unions near Rainbow Falls, due to some bribery behind the scenes," Tear noted, opening the folder and pointing at some... quite well taken photographs, "Of course, we cannot prosecute him since this is directly related to his duties as a Judge, but I have a friend you see, in NatPol, followed up on the investigation and revealed this is quite a trend for him."

"We all know that, and how is this supposed to give us an edge and win over the concerned conservatives?" Expedient asked, reading over the list of incidents... he wasn't quite surprised at how long it was, "Do you want an official police inquiry into this situation? Have them watch him out and place pressure before finding something that we can actually prosecute? We don't even know if it will dig up things."

"Ah but you see.," Tear beamed, "It will set a precedence once the dirt is dug up, it sets us a political and public victory. We uncover political dirt, revealing that you are in fact, honest and committed to reform, and we get to place pressure on the old dogs and wins some conservative voters from the UCP. That, or we can always hand them the information so they get the win... securing us a favor or two. And you know full well, sir, that overconfidence... is a slow and insidious killer. And I think Judge Lorry's a bit too overconfident."

"... You sure this would work?" Expedient looked at him, with a hint of uncertainty in trusting the bureaucrat. Tear had never been wrong when it came to matters of finances nor ensuring companies danced along the regulations they wanted. But political intrigue? He doubted.

Tear leant on the table, as if reading his thoughts, smiling at him. "Yes, Prime Minister."