5/7/14 1:45pm Washington DC, Earth
On the fourth of May a terrorists attempted to attack Bridle Lake. He managed to get within 200 feet of the village. He wore high grade camouflage and had only been spotted by a vigilant guard. As a result, Princess Celestia feels the United States cannot aid Equestria in this matter. We are informing you of our intent to raise a shield to protect our territory. Military and research personnel will be allowed through based upon the terms of the Equestrian Treaty.
From the desk of Princess Celestia.
President Tow sat at her desk, staring at the message from the Equestrian Embassy. The shield was a needed, both sides had failed to detect the threat, including the high-gain satellites positioned over the region. But tensions had been rising; it was only by pure luck that these fiascos hadn’t led to a complete breakdown of diplomatic relations. Though the way things were going; meant a separation could be right around the corner.
The letter was colder than previous messages between the two leaders; combining that with the recent news that Celestia had reached out to China and Russia for similar treaties. This has the potential to completely change the layout of power on Earth. Not to mention the potential fallout here. As the President thought, she realized they were short on one thing, information.
President Tow Picked up the phone, pressing just the 0 it went directly to her assistant. “Jennifer, can you get me the Director of the CIA please?” She asked.
“Right away, Ma’am.” The perky receptionist answered.
President Margarette Tow put the phone back down on the receiver. She had known Jethro Sheppard for many years, had even been the one to get him his current job. They had met during her earlier years while at Stanford. Jethro came in to give a speech on the constitutionality of private trash cans being part of the public domain. At the time, public domain only included the inside of a garbage truck or a community dumpster. She had made a case for intent, the fact that they threw it out meant they no longer had a claim to it. She had impressed Jethro so much that he was responsible for helping her land her first internship at a law firm.
The phone gave a sharp ring. The red-haired politician picked the phone back up.
“Did you need something Margarette?” The aged voice asked. Jethro was still in his 60’s and very active, still going out to school and recruiting when he had the time.
“I am assuming you have heard about the current political difficulties we are having with Equestria.” She opened, already knowing the answer.
“Yes.” He replied, but it hardly seemed like a standard question.
“Things have escalated.” The President warned. “If anything else goes wrong, it may lead to a severing of diplomatic relations.”
“What do you need? This obviously isn’t a social call”
“More intelligence is needed. Some way to know what their plans are and what needs to be done to keep them from leaving. You have my permission to use any personnel under your command and to use Project Icarus if the need arises.” President Margarette Tow advised.
“That may be needed.” Director Sheppard commented. “We have yet to set up an effective intelligence network in Equestria. Any pony we recruit will gladly give us information as long as there is no way they can see it harming another pony or their Princesses. Is there anything else?”
President Tow took a steady breath “Yes, but it can’t be an order.” After a moment’s silence she continued with her problems. “Check to see if any of the main guards of our Embassy have information that was too sensitive to send even with our encryption software.”
“That did not have to be stated. What is the real issue?” Director Sheppard had known Margarette too long for her to keep something that she wanted a secret.
“Senator Brent is becoming a problem. He has a source somewhere, there’s no other way he could know about half the stuff he released in the interview. We also have no proof that he wasn’t responsible for the other incidents regarding Equestria. He may have had some connection to the terrorist attack from last week.”
“I can see your point. That is definitely something that could never be ordered.” If the CIA was caught spying on a United States citizen, let alone a major Senator. It would typically mean jail time, typically. Although the Director would usually take the full blame and then the President who ‘ordered’ it would bestow a full pardon; saving both from the worst repercussions. “Everything should be completed within three weeks.”
“Whatever you think is best.” The President replied as she set the phone back on its cradle. Brent won’t be stupid enough, but one of his lackeys or whoever his contact is might be. But, nothing will move if Celestia doesn’t trust the US.
President Tow reached into the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a small piece of paper. She took the time to write up a letter personally to Celestia.
Dear Princess Celestia,
The attacks that have been occurring are deplorable and the United States will render whatever assistance we are capable of. Our friendship has only just started; we cannot let a few who want to break up our alliance to succeed. I will set up a meeting to be held in exactly one month for us to discuss how to remedy this situation and to prove that we can be trusted.
President Margarette Tow of the United States.
For Margarette, it didn’t matter what was true or what was a lie. It was just politics.
5/9/14 10:00am Equestrian Embassy, Earth
An azure blue unicorn walked slowly up to the wall of fuchsia light. The Great and Powerful Trixie could just make out the reflection of her star covered, purple cape and pointed magic hat. How dare they ruin Trixie’s chance at Vegas! The unicorn fumed. One attack and they put a barrier around the entire area. Not even Trixie would be so cold as to prevent anypony from leaving an entire town. She groused to herself, not wanting to seem strange to her audience.
On the other side of the shield around Bridle Lake, two humans in green clothing stood at attention. They seemed to stare at her.
“Since Trixie cannot go to Vegas to learn human magic from the greats, Trixie will show you why she is the greatest unicorn in all of Equestria.” She cheered as fireworks went off behind her from the dirt, a little more forceful than expected for the mare. Trixie smiled as she saw the guards’ eyes widen slightly. To think, The Great and Powerful Trixie had to ‘apologize’ to Twilight Sparkle to get permission to visit Earth. She scoffed, Celestia had required the apology before allow Trixie anywhere fun.
Trixie stood up on her rear hooves, waving her front hooves through the air. A blue sphere started to take shape in front of the mare. With her horn covered, to Trixie at least, it gave the impression of a greater mastery of her art. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is powerful enough to cast magic with her bare hooves!” The magician lied. “Let us see Twilight Sparkle do that! With this power,” Trixie stated as she formed a storm cloud over her head.
Sweat started to bead on the unicorn’s forehead, hidden by her hat, as she struggled to keep the spell focused, magic draining away faster than she had predicted. The blue sphere turned into the image of a bear. “As the Ursa Major attacked Ponyville, only the Great and Powerful Trixie had enough magic to beat the monstrosity and send it back to the Everfree Forest!” Trixie said haughtily as the Ursa moved towards her.
With a final push of magic, Trixie forced the energy down from the storm cloud in the shape of a lightning bolt to strike the image at the same time she sent ‘lightning’ from the ends of her hooves at the Ursa. When both bolts hit the image, the ground beneath it burst into flames for an instant before running out of fuel.
Trixie put her front hooves back on the ground to look at her admiring audience. If anybody were to look closely enough they would have seen her ragged breaths and she struggled to maintain her image. “Trixie is the highest level unicorn!” She boasted quickly, barely able to contain a coughing fit as her lungs reluctantly relinquished their oxygen.
Trixie stared at the humans, unable to read their expressions. Their eyes are too small and they don’t move their ears. How is Trixie supposed to know if they enjoyed her show? They were standing there, mirror images of each other. But their eyes are a little larger, and were they that far back originally? Trixie questioned.
A small cough from behind broke the unicorn out of her self-concerned reverie. “Please don’t taunt the human guards.” The voice stated politely. It sounded smooth and regal.
Probably some guard, Trixie humphed. Sticking her muzzle into the air and closing her eyes to give the proper air of authority, Trixie turned around. “Who are you to tell The Great and Powerful Trixie, who is here by the request of Princess Celestia, what to do?” Her words oozing contempt as she spoke.
“We are trying to rebuild peaceful relations with these people.” The voice stated, losing some of its regal edge, and coming from higher up than it should have.
Trixie gulped as she slowly started to open her eyes. Princess Celestia stood before the unicorn, eyes drilling straight to the depths of Trixie’s soul. “And I am your Princess!”
Trixie’s eyes became large enough to cover her whole face, finally realizing she had just insulted her own Princess of the Sun. The azure mare ran forward and bowed prostrate on the dirt so deeply that her horn touched the dirt. “Trixie is very sorry to have talked to you in such a way!” She quickly apologized. “Trixie was merely trying to perfect Trixie’s art and thought the humans might enjoy a show.” The mare tried to explain, afraid of the punishment her princess might impose.
“Go back to the Embassy.” The alicorn ordered features still and calm. But, there was something in her voice that put Trixie on edge. “We will talk about your intentions and methods later.”
“Y-y-yes your highness.” Trixie stuttered as she stood up on shaky limbs. Taking one last look at Celestia’s features, the unicorn galloped for the Embassy.
Trixie could hear the beginning of Celestia talking to the two guards, Trixie’s unwilling audience.
“You must forgive her,” Celestia chuckled. “She gets very excited at the thought of performing for a new audience.”
As Trixie sped away, barely listening to what Celestia was saying as her hooves put up small puffs of dust when they hit the ground and thoughts streamed through her head. Please don’t banish me! Trixie doesn’t want to go back to that rock farm!
5/17/14 11:34am District of Columbia, Earth
Senator Stephen Brent sat at his L-shaped redwood desk, light streaming in from the floor to ceiling window behind him. The television to his left remained on CNN without sound, waiting for any new developments. Finally they are showing their true colors. Brent sneered at the television. I will not allow a repeat of World War 2. The politicians refused to see Hirohito or Hitler as a threat and Margarette isn’t only making the same mistakes but worse ones too. They have a beach head now, a protected area from which to pull as many troops as they have. Didn’t anybody learn from history? He fumed, fist slamming down on the table. You never acquiesce to the enemy, just giving over territory for a few trinkets! The last time the US thought war was impossible was just before WWII. No one in power could even imagine another war breaking out; their heads were so buried in the sand.
Senator Brent fumed. He jumped out of his chair sending it to smack into the window. Why can no one else but me see what needs to be done? The senator started to pace the room, winding up at the wall opposite his TV. The wall was covered with books, many quite old and ragged, most focusing on some point in history. He pulled an old volume off the shelf; the red cover was frayed with the pages yellowed with age. The title was faded through time but that no longer mattered, he knew what it was, a history of Andrew Jackson’s rule as president. He set up letting American settlers into Mexican territory so that when they came under attack he could send in the army to ‘defend’ the settlers and take the land by force. It also included his use of the military to forcibly move Indians off their own land to expand US settled territory, but it made the country stronger, helped it to expand and grow; buying territory from Napoleon despite his oppositions protests.
Senator Brent put the red volume back onto its shelf and removed one from a different shelf, a brown covered issue this time. The use of Christianity to spread colonialism and increase imperial territory. This particular volume chronicled the various ways in which Christian countries; England, Spain, France, Portugal, would use religion to instill a loyalty to Europe or would take the territory by force. England sent troops into China to keep the flow of opium flowing to their territories. The Jesuits in Japan offering to bring in Filipino troops to aid Nobunaga in conquering Japan in exchange for favor. All the ways in which territory can be taken with or without force. And Margarette is just giving in so her name can just go down in history.
War isn’t even a guarantee of trust with your allies. Brent remembered. England and France gave countries the promised to protect over to Germany without a fight just to appease a madman. Even the war couldn’t get allies to cooperate. Despite the United States helping England in their war against Germany and having to fight on two fronts, England kept their aircraft based radar to themselves except for all but the most basic version. Russia couldn’t even trust its ‘ally’ in Germany to leave them alone. A country had to be strong in order to defend itself.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Brent put the book back into its proper space on the shelf as the door opened.
A petite brunette in a black miniskirt stepped into the Senator’s office. “Sir, you have a ‘special’ call. Line one.” Her voice was sweet and melodic, a sign of youth to the Senator.
“Thank you very much Mary.” Brent moved back to his desk as his assistant left. Lowering himself back into his chair, he pulled it forward back to its proper position. He took a deep calming breath before picking up the phone. Took him long enough. “Senator Stephen Brent.” He announced into the receiver.
“I heard that you put the information I so humbly gave you on Lyra to good use.” The familiar male voice said. Despite his apparent sincerity, it couldn’t disguise the arrogance dripping off of every word.
Brent reluctantly agreed. “Yes. It was very effective. Although Celestia wasn’t supposed to show up and ruin things.” He accused. “Did you know about that?”
“It’s not might fault you wanted to play theatrics.” The voice on the phone said. “Nopony can predict what an eternal goddess will think of, or what magic she has access to. Was the information on how to find the listening devices and how they worked proof enough of my intent?” The voice finally asked.
Brent stayed quiet for a moment. This could be an elaborate trap. He mused. But with these conversations being recorded… He trailed off, wondering which would be worse for his informant. Being charged with treason or destroying the united image Celestia had so skillfully crafted. “Ok, I’ll bite.” The senator finally decided as he leaned back in his chair. “What do you want?”
“The same thing that you want. To remove Rarity from her position as Ambassador, allowing a more ‘cooperative’ pony to take her place.” The voice admitted.
“Celestia is currently acting as Ambassador. How do you plan on getting her back to Equestria?” The Senator asked, curious what his informant had planned.
“She wants to return to Canterlot. And will return as soon as an acceptable replacement appears or Rarity can no longer perform her duties.” The voice stated.
“And what do you get out of this?” Brent asked. Never trust a deal that looks too good.
“What I want is to be that Ambassador.” The voice passionately replied. “To take my rightful position.”
“What exactly do you want me from me?” Senator Brent finally asked, now that the basic agreement had been made.
“You will receive a package tomorrow. The contents need to be planted in either Rarity’s home or her office in Bridle Lake.”
“Before I get near said package, I have to know what it contains or there is no deal.” Brent threatened.
“Just a few doctored documents ‘proving’ that Rarity has accepted bribes from Star Buck’s to allow them entry into Equestria while denying others companies based upon personal feelings.” The voice admitted. “All I need is for someone to plant it.”
“I can easily handle that, I know just the person.” Brent slowly grinned. This idiot will be easier to manipulate than that prissy little unicorn with her ‘morals’. “They should be heading out within two weeks. And don’t worry, they know how to be subtle.”
“Thank you Senator Brent. I hope we can work together in the future.” The voice happily replied.
“The honor was all mine Prince Blueblood.” Brent replied as he hung up the phone. What juvenile mind came up with that kind of codename? Not even pony names are that contemptuous. He quickly picked the phone back up, he had a contact in the Human Embassy to reach and only a limited amount of time to do it.
Brent looked to a lonely picture near his bookcase, angled so only someone sitting at the desk could see it. On it stood a girl with little blond curls, green eyes, and the biggest grin you could imagine. The senator couldn’t let any weakness show to those who entered but couldn’t stand to be away from the picture of his daughter. This was for her; he needed to keep the country strong for her, for her memory. He struggled to keep images of the plane crash from his mind, the burning building, the screaming and terror of that day.
5/20/14 9:33pm Las Vegas
David groaned as he opened the door to his small darkened studio apartment. It was on the outskirts of town so he didn’t get the noise but had a longer drive to get anywhere. He dropped his backpack by the door, walked over to a lime green couch and fell face first. This feels wonderful. The student thought as he groped for the remote to his small TV. I really need to tell them no more twelve hour shifts on a school day. 5am is too early. AHA! David found the remote and hit the power button.
The screen turned white and an image slowly appeared on the screen. David only saw this out of the corner of his eye and by the increased light in the room. After a moment voices could be heard issuing from the TV.
“Wait, wait. This guy’s dying and all he cares about is his dog?” A young male voice stated.
“Did you guys go the dog rout in your improve sessions? It’s a basic fact of the human condition. That everybody lies.” An older male voice took over, he sounded contemplative as he took a breath. “The only variable is about what. The funny thing about telling someone their dying is that it tends to focus their priorities, what matters to them, what their willing to die for, what they’re willing to die-.”
The sound was cut off and replaced by a new voice and the light shifted to a reddish color. “We have breaking news out of Iran today.” A female voice said. “At 6:53am local time, the Presidential Palace in Tehran was destroyed.”
At this David turned his head to the left and stared at the screen. The image showed a giant crater, in the middle of a field of trees and greenery. Another building was still visible at the edge of the screen that reminded the student of any number of official buildings.
“Iran has already accused Israel of trying to assassinate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel denies all accusation. There were no people identified running from the building within five minutes of its detonation, indication that the perpetrators may have been killed in the blast.”
As if anyone would ever admit to that. David laughed to himself.
“Testing of the blast site has shown no indication of the standard radiation signature. However, a test for magical residue has proven positive. The current theory is that the attackers were using magical gems from Equestria. The only country to receive, at least officially, any significant amount of magical gems is the United Stated.”
The image of the decimation moved to cover the right side of the screen while the left side showed the inside of a news room with another reporter sitting at a desk. This one was male with short black hair and smooth dark chocolate skin. “Thank you Qi. Is there any possibility the gems were smuggled out of Equestria?”
“Well, Thomas. Both Equestria and the United States have guards that inspect everything that passes through the portal. But it isn’t unheard of, there was a smuggling ring broken up just last month. We are still waiting to hear from The White House on this matter.” Qi said, the camera finally shifted to show the reporter in front of the still intact building nearby.
“Has there been any word yet on the status of President Ahmadinejad?” Thomas asked.
“We have yet to receive word on his condition. He did become much more reclusive after being elected for a third time last year.”
“Thank you Qi.” The screen shifted to cover only the male reporter. “We will keep you updated as the story devel-“ The screen darkened as the power was shut off.
“Can’t the news ever be something happy?” David groused as he slowly drifted off to sleep, too tired to make himself dinner.
5/23/14 2:49pm Top Floor Equestrian Embassy, Earth
Princess Celestia sat on the lush lavender covers of her plush bed and stared at the television in disbelief. It had only been a month since having to intervene at the party and things kept getting worse. No matter what I or anybody else tries to do, things keep getting worse between our two nations. Maybe Luna was right in her appraisal of the humans, they truly aren’t ready. Celestia mused, dreading the results. Too many attacks, too much mayhem, too many unexplained incidents. Celestia ran through the different incidents in her head.
Diamond Tiara got ahold of a book on black magic that shouldn’t still exist. Every copy had been destroyed with only a single copy under heavy guard in case one was missed and a counterspell was needed. But that book should never have been able to make its way to Ponyville, and to a pony that would actually use it. But why did it fail? Was there a problem with the gem or was the portal the intended outcome.?
Then there was that changeling sneaking through to Earth. My guards were ordered to let no changelings anywhere near that portal. The unicorns were given spells specifically to detect any form of magic and to disrupt disguise spells. But one still snuck through. But what would have been worse? If the portal hadn’t disrupted its disguise, the parasite could have traveled through Earth with unknown plans. If that stallion hadn’t disrupted the guard he would have speared the human and distrust would have intensified things immeasurably.
How did those humans know Equestrian? Can they really be clever enough to decipher a completely alien language without any context? Did they have context by listening to Twilight and Mystic Dawn talking? The other issue that had been greatly troublesome was about human communication and the portal. With the steps out of alignment they could no longer send messages through the portal using a radio. But the MALP communicated through the portal. Celestia had a few ideas about what really happened but still needed proof. And she had no information on why the CIA had been involved with the portal from the beginning when they were not allowed to work on troubles that started on US territory.
And that barfight, my little ponies are not that violent. To start a fight over a simple talk on meat? And then for a foal to attack using a knife? Granted, an attack on a pegasi’s wings is the worst thing you could do to a pegasus because their wings were their lives, it would be like removing a unicorn’s horn. But to attack with intent to harm or even kill?
Neither bombing makes sense either. The human that attacked, how had he slipped through and with such strong explosives? No source has been able to find an explosive as strong as Twilight claims, could her calculations actually be off? No, Celestia corrected herself; there is also that incident in Iran. There is no gem the humans had that could cause that kind of damage. Could a gem have been used just to leave a signature? Is there some connection between magic and explosives? Not even Mystic Dawn could figure out how magic and technology were connected or how they each worked. He had come up with some theories but nothing positive.
There were too many questions left unanswered including the still missing ponies. Celestia had sent a letter to the human president telling her that trade would cease until further notice and that only researchers would be allowed through the shield to study the portal. Neither Princess could trust the humans that far anymore. She still had the appointment with President Tow in the hopes of something good happening, but she was no longer hopeful. Celestia had decided to go back to Equestria with Rarity to discuss with her sister the best course of action. Several other countries were trying to court Celestia with promises of peace. But can they be any more trustworthy than the United States claimed to be?
This wasn’t the first time she had had such worries, but they never ended well. She always hoped things would work themselves out on their own and she only stepped in to act once she had no other option. She believed in peace and harmony, but they failed how many times?
The most painful was with her own sister. After Luna had become NightMare Moon, she tried to negotiate, to reason. But nothing worked and Luna wouldn’t let the sun rise for a week, her ponies were panicking. If she had acted sooner, Celestia knew she could have stopped the food shortage that year; the cold snap in the dead of summer had destroyed so many crops. The resulting fight had destroyed the Royal Palace and turned the Everfree region into a zone of wild magic. The old capital had been destroyed because Celestia had refused to see what her sister had become. She had even failed to notice her sister’s envy.
The Griffon War was no different. Celestia had been unable to see that several of the griffon lords wanted more land and used a perceived cultural slight as an excuse to get it. That too had far reaching consequences. She had only stepped in with her sister and their army once an attempt had been made on her life and several of her ponies and guards had already been killed. But by that time her enemies had already set up defenses and made plans.
Celestia had let Sombra rule his kingdom as he saw fit. This is another pony, surely he must believe in harmony Celestia had thought. He was of royal lineage and had ruled kindly for centuries. Then he slowly started removing the rights of his ponies until they were essentially slaves mining for magical gems. He had been the originator of dark magic and had been amassing the magical gems in order to ‘defend’ himself from the Royal Pony Sisters. They were never able to figure out what had turned his heart so black or if Discord had somehow been involved.
Discord was another mistake Celestia had made. She’s wanted to just sit back and let her ponies rule themselves, to find their own path in the world. Then Discord came turning each village he came across into pure chaos, controlling and manipulating her own ponies, turning their strengths into a weakness. Only then did she step up and bring the full might of an alicorn and the Elements of Friendship to bare against the draconequus and his ability to manipulate the fabric of space itself. At least after that ‘incident’ Celestia and Luna realized they had to defend their ponies, to protect them. Until Luna turned against her, using dark magic. Which had finally led to an era of peace.
Celestia was watching the television because a special session of Congress had been called by Senator Brent on the ‘issue and threat of Equestria’. Just because I will not allow the trade of items that are meant for the betterment of all to be used for death. The next two weeks will decide the future of our friendship.
A giant half circle room filled the screen with several rows of seats with solid desks connecting them and two walking aisles splitting the seating area evenly in three sections. At the front of the room was a speaking dais with a heavy set man ready to speak.
“I have said since the beginning that Equestria is a threat,” Senator Brent started, looking seriously at his audience of almost 100 senators. “And they have finally proven it.” The audience was quiet, paying rapt attention, their futures careers could be decided based upon how they voted on whatever Brent was presenting to Congress. He had spent so much time getting this ready and everything had finally started falling into place.
“They started out untrustworthy. They tried bribing our own Ambassador with a trip to the spa and the promise of more. Did Celestia not ‘treat’ him to a play under the guise of expressing their culture? Knowing all the while that she wanted him as the Ambassador and knew how to make the President cave; because all President Tow wants is to go down in history.” He continued, getting more passionate the longer he spoke. “What other reason is there for the slow progress made in exchanging ideas?”
“What about their Ambassador that refuses to let our companies enter their land in the sake of free trade? Only letting a handful of companies through and under severe restrictions.” Brent spoke passionately. And, once that information Blueblood wanted planted gets discovered, they will have no choice but to renegotiate everything. He grinned as his speech continued and his arms moved about. “There are no clear standards for which companies get approval.”
“They let our servicemen die because ‘we don’t look like them’ and can’t be trusted to not injure civilians. They attack our Ambassador and yet don’t face punishment.”
“They trade us magic for technology while keeping the means of production hidden. So while they learn how to manufacture our tech, they intentionally keep us in the dark. How is that fair? How is that just?” Brent spat, exaggerating any differences between the two species. “They then want to dictate how we can use the items we bought and paid for. But this is just more of their self-concerned lifestyles. They violate our air space; decide to play chicken with fighter aircraft. All the while posing an extreme threat to civilian aircraft.”
“They regard our lives as worthless compared to theirs. We need to regulate how they move, they obviously cannot be trusted to move about freely. That is why I implore you to approve PIP, or the Pony Immigration Policy. They have erected a curtain, we cannot even see them now. If they can’t trust us enough to even see their homes how can we trust them to roam freely?” Brent asked.
“But this is only the first step.” He continued, this was the first step to truly putting ponies in their place, to removing the threat once and for all. “But this isn’t all their fault, they live under a religious idol, a dictator that controls their lives. Celestia goes so far as to regulate how many hours of light or how much rain they get. They have no choice in their own lives. Can we really trust a species that can’t even truly manage their own lives?”
“I will do everything in my power to bring down that tyrant and her iron curtain.” Brent promised. Looking out at the crowd he noticed approval in a majority of the faces. Ponies were still foreign, humans barely got along with foreign human nations. He realized he just threw down the gauntlet to Celestia, but she would never act, would never have proof and never have the guts.
Anything else I should add?
YES, but I have a feeling it is in the next chapter, of course. I almost wish his speech to the Congress was a bit longer. Wasn’t there more stuff that happened that Brent can bring up?