The Crystal Empire's palace brushed the sky, a secluded observation deck at its tapered pinnacle. Gleaming white crystal spires surrounded and supported the central column, concealing floor after floor after floor of hallways and reception rooms and archives, living chambers and kitchens and armories and anything anyone could think to put in an ancient castle. Toward its base, the tower grew wider, and at its bottom was the door Halcyon and Leif entered, searching for an elevator in pursuit of Nanzanaya.
The Empire's streets converged in a plaza around the tower's base, radiating out like the pattern of a snowflake, and it was those streets that housed the festivities, ponies dancing and eating and listening to Spike tell his tales. At one corner of the festivities, there was an apple cart selling all manner of baked goods, staffed by Applejack, still in the company of Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Starlight. And, like all good traveling stores, it had a small wastebasket.
A pair of eyes watched from that wastebasket, taking in the scene as Starlight and her friends stood around, themselves watching the direction Halcyon had last disappeared in.
"Well, she certainly seemed like a character," Applejack remarked, taking it on herself to break the silence. "You think she was serious? About windigoes, and knowing you and whatnot?"
Starlight saw her look and gave a nervous laugh that slowly trailed off. "Prooobably? I don't exactly advertise myself as being the pony to go to if you need a thing like that. Or advertise myself as much of anything, at least these days." She sighed. "I suppose I should have been ready for someone to try and find me."
"With all due respect," Rarity began, "I wasn't there when you were telling this story to Twilight and Rainbow, so forgive me if I don't know how to approach this in the most sensitive fashion, but... You sounded less than thrilled about the possibility. And I got the impression any claims about windigoes, as outlandish as that may be, weren't even the reason for it."
"It's a long story." Starlight shook her head. "But you're right."
"Is it a story we should get the cliff notes on?" Pinkie asked, swaying from side to side. "Or just drop it and get back to the party? Because your mood has taken a nose-dive."
"The short version is, I had some high-achieving friends up there from when I was a filly," Starlight said. "And I parted ways with them to get some pressure off my back so I could get my life straightened out. Which, obviously, I had mixed success with, but if I hadn't, it probably would have been worse. And I just... am not ready for the temptation to get mixed up in that again. Which probably sounds funny after what we just did today, but trust me. It was on a whole other level."
Rarity nodded. "Well, I gathered that much. What are you going to do about her, then?"
"My visitor?" Starlight shrugged. "Exactly what I said. Let her talk to Twilight instead, and see what she says."
"Maybe I'm missing something," Applejack said. "And I don't want to be pushy. But even if you had a rough foalhood up there, you were acting like you didn't even want to hear news about the place."
Starlight sat down and slumped. "I don't. I... It's complicated. I don't want to learn that after all this time, my friends are still living on the edge of a knife, have never found a better way, nothing's changed, and they desperately need my help. I don't want to learn that they succeeded in building a home and settling down peacefully like we dreamed of, because I wouldn't want to know the reason they would do that and then not come back for me. And I don't want to learn they failed, and are dead because I wasn't there. There's just no way it ends well for me, you know?" She looked at Applejack, daring her to understand.
"Oh." Applejack awkwardly looked away.
"And there's not even the teensiest possibility they did all live happily ever after, and Halcyon is the messenger sent to bring you the good news?" Pinkie winked.
Starlight shook her head. "If that's the case, she wouldn't have been talking about windigoes. She wouldn't have carried herself like that, either. And even if it was the case, then I'd have to choose between going back and staying here." She straightened up. "Unless the rest of you have an inexplicable hunger to see for yourselves what it's like up there. Which... something tells me you do."
"Well, I can't deny I'm curious," Applejack said. "Though I know better than to disregard the warning of a local. Anyway, not to change the topic, but what did you all think of Halcyon? Ignoring why she's here or where she's from."
"Hmmm..." Pinkie stroked her chin. "Good question, Applejack. She's hard to read, that one. She smiled a lot, but she never quite seemed to feel it. I'd put equal odds on her being a cold-hearted manipulator, or just having too much responsibility on her shoulders to properly get into the spirit of meeting new ponies while still wanting to be polite."
"I know what you mean," Applejack replied. "I didn't get the impression that she had anything out for us, but she talked like she never quite said what she meant."
Rarity waved a dismissive hoof. "In other words, she's a scion of the business world. Ponies do that all the time, darling. A little hospitality goes a long way toward getting what you want, even if you don't quite feel it in the deepest depths of your heart."
Applejack narrowed her eyes and tapped the pastry cart. "I run a plenty successful business without needing to put on any false faces, though."
Rarity winked at her. "That's because you're an upstanding mare who pins her strategy on a trustworthy brand name rather than the contents of her bank account, as I also do when peddling my wares to the ponies I know. But we live in a small enough world to make that possible, and if our new friend is truly from the north, the same can't be said for her. She's a fresh face in town no one here has met before, of course she's going to put on her best smile and try to make a good first impression."
Applejack shook her head. "Suppose I can't argue with that. If she's really on a mission to help some friend of hers, I guess I can't fault her for wanting to pull out all the stops to get the help she needs, either. Still, some ponies do prefer an honest approach to a polite one."
"Actually..." Starlight hesitated. "That might have been my fault. I encountered her up in a waiting room in the castle, after being told Twilight was waiting for me. When she recognized me, it caught me a little off guard, and I... ran off." Her ears folded. "She was probably walking on eggshells just now to not spook me again. Or any of you, just in case you reacted the same."
Applejack nodded in acceptance.
"Anyway," Rarity said, "I just hope she sticks around long enough I can get another look at that coat of hers. Self-tailored garments are quite rare, and even if it was egregiously bold, seeing it casually worn out in public like that is giving me all sorts of ideas. If none of you want to hang out with her and see whether she's a stand-up kind of mare once you get to know her, I would be happy to do the honors."
Pinkie giggled.
"Well," Egdelwonk said, rising from the wastebasket, "I'm glad at least one pony here appreciates my little gift."
Everyone jumped. "What the-?"
Egdelwonk snapped his wing spokes together, and in a poof of purple geometry and smoke, he quintupled in length, his form abruptly shifting as limbs became other limbs and his whole body grew even more mismatched. After a second, he was less a pony and more a noodle dragon with the head of a goat, sporting a paw and a talon and a cloven hoof and asymmetrical horns over his red-on-yellow eyes.
"Discord?" Applejack's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"
"Just dropping by to offer the boop, so to speak," he said, leaning against a crystalline house and peering at Starlight.
"Discord?" Starlight frowned. "This is Discord?"
"The one and only," Applejack said with a straight face. "Lord of Chaos, on-again-off-again tormentor of Equestria. Some sort of creature called a draconequus. Kind of a frenemy of ours, but we get along as long as we respect each other's boundaries. Which is to say, we've had kind of an eventful day..."
"Shockingly, I'm not here to start trouble," Discord said. "Merely following it at a distance for some good laughs. But now that my wayward employee has finally crossed your paths, I figured it would be an opportune moment to poke my head up a bit."
"Your wayward employee?" Rarity glanced back at the castle. "You couldn't be talking about Halcyon."
Discord shrugged. "Well, it's not like any of you were taking initiative and keeping an eye on the north. I run a little firm up there, keeping an eye out for ponies and pony-adjacent things with certain types of potential and giving them a little nudge when there's somewhere they ought to be. Of course, it would be somewhat counter-productive to the whole Lord of Chaos thing if I tried too hard to preserve order and stability, but I can make an exception here and there if it looks to be sufficiently entertaining."
Starlight took two steps back.
Discord's face drooped. "I suppose you're not interested in answering the call?"
"Hypothetically?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "If you're an acquaintance of my friends who spends a lot of time in the north, and you want something from me that involves it? A really good way to start would be to find a better time to ask."
"Suit yourself." Discord turned and walked away, waving a talon above his head. "Just remember that this story was yours to begin with, and if you ever want to be the protagonist again, all you have to do is ask."
"Since she only mentioned it in a roundabout way," Corsica told Celestia, Princess of the Sun and all of Equestria, "there's a war brewing that's designed to unseal all the world's windigoes. Think you can lend your neighbors a hoof?"
Princess Celestia listened to all of this, looking thoughtful, and then she nodded at Twilight. "What do you make of this?"
"Me?" Twilight looked taken aback, glancing between Braen, Corsica and Celestia. "I hadn't even heard that bit before! At least, I mean, I heard about the windigoes, but..." She shook her head. "What I made of it was that you needed to hear as soon as possible, Princess."
Celestia faintly smiled. It was a pleasant smile, not a mean one, but it didn't reassure Corsica that the matter was being taken quite seriously enough to get an army immediately marching to Ironridge's aid.
"Well?" Corsica asked. "Do we get anything?"
"That remains to be seen," Celestia said, turning back to her. "Understand that I have heard from many petitioners over my reign, many of whom speak in dire and apocalyptic terms in hopes of rushing me to a hasty and favorable judgement. I can tell that you are no ordinary petitioners. You come with the air of ponies who are here not because you were the best for the job, but because you were the only ones for the job. Additionally, I have already heard some of your story from Lord Terutomo."
"And so you need some time for your bureaucracy to spin its wheels and give us a response," Corsica guessed. "That it, then? Anything else for us to do here?"
"How much time will bureaucracy take?" Braen asked.
Celestia shook her head. "Enough that I would prefer to leave you pleasantly surprised if I can hurry it along. First, I would meet with your members one on one. Then I must confer with Luna, and do some investigating into the circumstances behind your story. Only then can the wheels even start to move. However..." Her eyes found Twilight. "Luna and I are not the only Princesses in Equestria. I see you have already found your way into the company of one who is much more willing to jump into action at a moment's notice. While you wait, I think you could do far worse than get to know each other a little, and broaden each other's perspectives of the world."
Corsica blinked. Princess Celestia wanted her to let Twilight in on all of whatever secrets her weird country might be keeping?
As inscrutable as this monarch was from afar, she was even more confusing in person.
"Princess," Twilight said, flustered. "Are you suggesting you want me to go off to the north with them, fight Chrysalis and a bunch of windigoes and stop a war between two countries?"
"That is your judgement call to make, Twilight," Celestia said. "Although I would be skeptical if you told me you didn't come here at least in part to ask my permission."
Twilight bit her lip. "But... I mean, of course I want to, but Starlight..."
"By becoming involved with Starlight, you already have one hoof across the border," Celestia continued. "It is your decision whether to continue on that path. However, if you are looking to make that decision with another, perhaps Starlight would be a better pony to consult than me."
Twilight looked down.
"Now then." Princess Celestia surveyed the group. "Unless anyone has anything more to say, I am deeply interested in meeting with all of you in private, one-on-one. If there are no objections?"
"Sure," Corsica said. "Let's get on with this."
Soon, Corsica found herself in a padded, soundproofed room with no windows, quiet enough that she could hear her own breathing. It was austere yet cozy, decorated like a study, and yet clearly the kind of place ponies were taken to discuss confidential secrets.
Corsica's mind was blank. Several times, she tried to restart her train of thought, but it usually went to Halcyon or something equally unproductive and sputtered out. She had done her time, dragged herself to Equestria and gotten the attention of its rulers. She put herself out there, overused her special talent in doing so and spent herself dry, and until she got a good, long dose of doing nothing, that was all she had to give.
And yet, Princess Celestia had followed her. The door swung closed behind her. Whatever the princess wanted, they were alone.
"...Sorry," Corsica said, mustering the strength to give her a look. "Took a lot to get here, and I'm bushed. If there's something you want, I'm probably not gonna read your signals."
"I couldn't help but notice your cutie mark," Celestia said, tapping the radiant symbol of a sun on her own flank. "That is what we call these here, though in the north I believe they use many different names."
"What about it?" Corsica glanced at the squiggled mess of geometry and angles that was the source of so many of her woes, and also probably the reason she was still alive. "You recognize it too, huh?"
Celestia's special talent blurred, the sun losing focus and scrambling, until it was also a scribble of runes just like Corsica's.
Corsica blinked at it.
"I know what it is you carry," Celestia said. "I assumed not all of your present company could say the same, which is why I wished to speak to you about it in person."
"...Like I said," Corsica told her. "If you've got questions, ask 'em. I can't pick up on what you're putting down right now."
"I had thought to give you the opportunity for questions," Celestia said. "Information about our situation cannot have been easy to come by where you are from."
Corsica shrugged. "I worked it out. A little trial and error, a little not having a life. It's called an artifice. A more 'special' special talent than usual. One of a set of three. Lets me magically get my way when there's something I need, in exchange for sapping my ability to care about stuff. Right?"
"You are well-researched," Princess Celestia said.
"Believe it or not, you're not the first one I've met who had another of these," Corsica went on. "And I've already heard they don't all do the same thing, so it's not like our situations are identical. You're functional enough to rule a continent. I can't even keep a relationship straight."
"You refer to Valey," Celestia guessed.
Corsica nodded. "Guess you just know about everything, don't you?"
"Many things," Celestia confirmed. "Mine is the Artifice of Knowledge, after all. However, there are some things I do not know. For example, the location of your own artifice, prior to you appearing before me today."
"Oh yeah?" Corsica tilted her head.
"It was lost approximately twenty years ago," Celestia said. "The artifices were created with the intent that they would always be wielded by immortals. Little planning was given to their behavior in the event that they should suddenly find themselves without a living host. And yet, in the case of yours, that is precisely what happened. May I ask how you came by it?"
Corsica shrugged. "Had an accident. Long coma. Doctors figured I'd never wake up. Then it showed up while I was unconscious, and I instantly got better. Why?"
"Peculiar," Celestia mused. "...Forgive me if this is a conversation you would rather not have now. With that artifice's function, I struggle to believe you can still walk, much less cross the border on a mission to forestall a war. I had hoped to meet like this for your benefit, but I sense you would rather be sleeping."
Corsica tossed her mane. "Don't worry about it. There are no good days for me. I came here because Valey said I should look for someone she used to know called Starlight. Sounds like you and Twilight already know her. Apparently the artifices are all different, so you can't compare using one to using another, but Starlight's got some power that puts her a lot more in the same boat as me. You know anything about that?"
Celestia hesitated. "Do you know where the artifices come from, and what they are?"
"Probably," Corsica muttered. "Run it by me again, just in case."
"Yakyakistan has nine tenets to its religion," Celestia said, "which as a northerner you may already know. Six personal virtues, meant to guide adherents' lives as individuals, and three societal virtues, intended as goals for civilizations as a whole. All nine of the virtues correspond to artifacts of immense power, fundamentally integrated with the nature of our world. In a past epoch, there was great tension in the world relating to these artifacts and who would wield them, particularly the three societal virtues. The artifices were cutie marks created by my sister, Princess Luna, as an attempt to remediate that conflict. Each corresponded to one of those virtues: Knowledge, Hope and Love. While the power of the artifacts themselves was nothing short of world-shaking, the artifices existed as pale imitations, each carrying a shadow of its corresponding virtue's power. Luna's hope was that by fighting over the artifices instead and relinquishing our claim to the originals, the stakes in the conflict could be lowered, as well as the imbalances that drove it."
Corsica listened.
"That was more than a thousand years ago," Princess Celestia went on. "Today, that conflict has been firmly confined to the history books, but the artifices still exist, along with the intent underlying their creation. I wear mine to this day to honor that intent."
"You know, for a pale shadow, these seem pretty strong," Corsica pointed out. "It's literally 'make a wish and it comes true'. Unless there's a dragon nearby."
Celestia nodded. "An ability that would be all the more potent in the hooves of a divinity who could power it from an external source, rather than drawing on their own soul. The other two are no less mighty: the Artifice of Love allows its bearer to briefly glimpse the future, and my own Artifice of Knowledge allows me to control the motion of the sun and moon across the sky. It is a responsibility that must not be misused and cannot be abdicated. However, as powerful as they seem, understand only that the stakes in the conflict they were created during were much, much worse."
Corsica thought about it. "So what does that have to do with Starlight?"
"Starlight, too, is connected to the Virtue of Hope," Celestia said, "just as your artifice is. Only her connection is stronger and much more primal in nature. Twilight Sparkle and her friends, in fact, all have this in common: the six of them, sans Starlight, are all connected to the personal virtues. But she is intimately familiar with the demands and pitfalls of the realm of Hope. I believe she even wielded that artifice for a short time herself. Meeting with her might do both of you much good."
"That's how it feels on good days," Corsica admitted. "If she's really the same, I want to see what answers she's come up with for living like this. But what would an answer even look like? Tempering my expectations for the future? Learning meditation or some advanced form of resilience? Some spell to erase the cost of using it?"
Celestia looked intrigued. "Have you ever tried wishing for such a spell?"
"Yup," Corsica said. "No dice. There are a few things I just can't wish for. Guess that's one of them."
"Your artifice functions on a principle of equivalent exchange," Princess Celestia said. "It is powered by your desire to change things. Attempting to use it to create such a desire in yourself would be a zero-sum equation."
"What about the others?" Corsica asked. "Do you pay a penalty every time you use yours? Does Valey?"
Celestia shook her head. "I suspect Valey has not yet fully unlocked the power of her own artifice, although hers is the one about which I know the least. As for my own, the price for its power was already paid long before its creation."
"What?" Corsica squinted. "How's that work?"
"I am afraid I can say no more on that topic," Celestia apologized. "There are some things that are meant to be forgotten."
"Oh. Right." Corsica rolled her eyes. "Don't suppose you can pay down the cost of using mine, too, and then forget about that as well so I can use it for free?"
"It is not impossible," Celestia said. "The being who owned your artifice for the majority of its existence went to great lengths to pay its price in advance, building up a wellspring of stored emotion that she might call on to power it at will."
Corsica's brows rose. "How'd they manage that?"
Princes Celestia took on a grim smirk. "Live sacrifices."
Corsica's face went right back down. "Oh."
"That was the Griffon Empire's Garsheeva, if you were curious," Celestia said. "She was... a contemporary of mine, though I disagreed with many of her methods. I suppose you might call her a rival, though the fact that her nation has fallen and mine endures to this day gives me no sense of satisfaction. It is a tragic sight to see bastions of history crumble against the flow of time."
"According to the dragons, you go to some pretty epic lengths in the name of national stability," Corsica pointed out. "Not to knock your system, but you know that not all change is bad, right?"
Celestia looked amused. "The dragons are zealous keepers of my laws. I find they make reliable allies, even if they lean towards caution instead of moderation. I gather you have had some frustrating encounters with my nation's segregation of information."
Corsica gave her a daring look. "You really want me to say it to your face?"
The princess chuckled. "In your time since meeting Twilight, have you figured out yet why Equestria has the structure that it does?"
"Nope." Corsica flicked her tail. "And you better not be upset if Twilight learns anything from us she's not supposed to know."
"There is little danger of that," Celestia said. "She will be ill-equipped as a ruler if she does not have first-hoof experience with what lies beyond her own backyard. From what I have heard from the dragons, the challenges you face in the north are daunting, yet she has undertaken many tasks before with a risk of catastrophic failure. I bid you take your time and allow everyone to prepare properly for this endeavor. But, when the time comes, I think she will be among the finest help I can offer you... and you can repay me by showing her your side of the world."
Corsica leaned against her chair. "Don't thank me too early. For all I know I'm never going back. If you really get how bad this artifice is, maybe you can write it off as a disability and let me live out my life with government welfare in a village somewhere."
Celestia tilted her head. "Would that really make you happy?"
Corsica looked away.
"How long have you had your artifice?" Celestia asked.
"Two and a half years. Give or take."
Celestia nodded. "And how many times have you used it?"
"Too many to count." Corsica shook her head. "Within the last month alone? Probably dozens. The moment I recover enough to even think about having goals, oops, there it goes again. I dunno why I have so little self-control. Or maybe policing your thoughts is just that hard. Always feels like a good deal, right before I use it. Turning your wishes into reality only stinks once it's over and done with."
"Few could manage such a feat," Princess Celestia said. "Perhaps that lack of self-control you lament is simply a sign of an indomitable spirit. You are right about the severity of your circumstance. But however much you stumble under those burdens, do not lose sight of the fact that you are yet carrying them. You did retain enough agency to cross the border, after all."
"Enough to get dragged across by a friend, maybe," Corsica admitted. "And I'm mostly just here to look for Starlight, or speak for the party when she's feeling too secretive. She's not here right now, but it's her quest."
"You are referring to Halcyon?" Celestia guessed.
"That's the one." Corsica lazily swung a hoof. "Dunno why I'm the one getting grilled here instead of her. She's the one who gets to know all the dangerous, important details that are too scary for the rest of us. I think she just missed it because she just snuck off at the wrong moment and missed seeing Twilight return."
"I am looking forward to meeting her," Celestia said. "Although your enthusiasm about your relationship with her doesn't seem very earnest."
Corsica huffed. "It's a personal problem. Not like she's been stonewalling me about important details that could affect our mission ever since we left Ironridge, or anything."
"As silly as it may sound, those problems are actually Twilight's area of expertise," Princess Celestia said. "Perhaps confiding in her and asking her advice would both help in your relationship with Halcyon, and with her, as well."
Corsica raised an eyebrow. "You really want me to hang out with her, huh?"
"I think you could benefit from each other's perspectives," Princess Celestia said, straightening up. "And in more ways than one. If your aim is to speak at length with Starlight, an introduction from Twilight is probably the best way to do it. She is... mildly skittish, given her recent history. Now, speaking of other perspectives, I would speak with your mechanical companion as well. Before I go, is there anything else you would like to ask me?"
"...Nope," Corsica said after a moment's thought. "I'm good. But just a heads-up, we ran into a memory modification mystery on our way here, and I got the feeling Twilight and her friends wanted to go digging once they got our more important business out of the way. Good idea or bad idea?"
Celestia gave a little smile. "Your concern for their well-being is touching. I will encourage them to sit this one out, though it is ultimately their decision. The dragons' decision to utilize that spell is somewhat controversial, particularly among those few who know that spell's origin. As such, they prefer to clean up their own messes involving it, out of a sense of duty and to help reinforce the notion that they know what they are doing. And while Twilight and her friends are well-accustomed to dangerous situations, I see no reason that would necessitate their involvement here beyond plain curiosity, so long as the dragons keep the situation under control."
"Speaking of under control," Corsica said. "You got any plans for that Duma guy? Or the big metal dragon? Or the spirit thing that's currently living in it?"
Celestia's expression grew more serious. "The later two have both been relocated to the Crystal Empire. While Seigetsu was running her decoy with the trains, I piloted the Aegis and flew it to a secure location in the castle under cover of an invisibility spell. It will necessitate a meeting to determine what to do with them from there, but that is nothing you need worry about. As for Duma, the Convocation does love its inquisitions. I would hate to interfere and deprive them of such an interesting case."
"I think you've got a pretty annoyed inquisitor in the Crystal Empire already," Corsica pointed out. "But that's a problem for future you to deal with. Now, mind if I go take a nap?"
"Of course." Celestia's horn flickered, and the door swung open. "I wish you the best with your cutie mark and with your friendship with Halcyon, and will be curious to hear from you when you think you know why I built this nation to be the way that it is."
Corsica nodded, walking out and through a small lobby where several dragons were waiting along with Braen, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They all perked up when they saw her.
"My turn?" Braen asked.
"Knock yourself out." Corsica waved her past, tunnel vision kicking in as her thoughts turned to sweet, sweet slacking off. Preferably involving a bed.
Her gaze passed over Twilight as she walked, and she momentarily dragged herself back into the present. That mare... The conversation had turned to her almost as much as it had the artifices, and certainly more than the current state of the north. In fact, it had been less of a conversation and more of Celestia just telling her stuff. And she had only ran into a censorship wall once, when asking what it meant that the price for using Celestia's artifice had already been paid, long ago.
How could someone run a nation in which information was so rarified, so restricted, that memory erasure magic was regularly employed to patch leaks, yet be so forthcoming in conversation? And why was Celestia so interested in encouraging Corsica to goad Twilight into situations that could make her learn things in spite of those rules? And what had she been going for, asking multiple times if Corsica knew why Equestria was constructed in such a closed-off way?
It just made no sense. Why would anyone spend so much effort building up such a questionable system for no apparent purpose, then stand idly by and encourage the first pony to come and accidentally poke holes in it, even while their own subjects worked tirelessly to build it back up? Why would Equestria's junior princesses not be chosen from among a group that was already in on the plan, so there was no danger of them going off and doing their own thing once they learned the truth? Why had Celestia seemed eager to send Twilight so far away, even, to help deal with Ironridge's problems in the north? Why not send armies, or magic, or technology, or anything but an inexperienced heir?
Maybe Halcyon could figure it out. Then again, maybe Halcyon had already figured it out and just wasn't telling anyone.
Corsica sighed. If being a little more open about herself and her goals got her in as friends with Twilight and the other Elements, and Halcyon missed out because she was being too stingy with information? Then it would stink to be Halcyon. This was... probably the better deal.
Probably. Only time would tell.