Rarity had brought Adagio to a room upstairs. "I simply can't tell you how happy I am to have all that 'Battle' business behind us!"

Adagio, coming out of her confusion-induced daze, just nodded as she looked around the room. There were three wardrobe cabinets along one wall, along with four dressers stacked in 2x2 rows, the legs of the upper dressers apparently sawn off to fit better on the bottom row, and possibly nailed in place. In the corner of the room was a divider, likely for privacy.

Is she going to show me outfits for the next hour or so? Her shoe collection? Perhaps her own tailoring?

Smiling, Rarity went on. "It was your name that first got my attention, you know. Dazzle! I think we may have a little in common, you and I..."

Ordinarily, finding herself alone with a former(?) enemy in their own home would be the point that Adagio initiated the first strike, but there was no hostility whatsoever in Rarity's tone, face, or body language, like she was already comfortable around someone that once might have made her just one more thrall. The effect was unsettling, but she managed a question without any hostility herself. "What would that be, specifically?"

"Style, Darling! While it's generally unwise to judge solely by appearances, I can tell by looking at you that you have a knack for the aesthetic." That this won a tiny grin from Adagio said she was already making progress! "As such, I was wondering if I could get your opinion on a few outfits I've put together recently."

Easy enough, even if I weren't playing along.

"Certainly."

Moving toward one of the cabinets, Rarity lit up. "Excellent! Now, you may wish to take a step back." Seeing Adagio take two, Rarity noted her inclination toward safety and opened the cabinet, a long rack of clothes on hangers immediately springing from the wall. Pinkie Pie had helped to assemble it. "See anything that jumps out at you, Darling?" She couldn't help a bigger smile at the siren's perplexed expression.

"Would it be disingenuous to say 'everything at once'?"

Giggling, Rarity stepped away from the extendable wall-rack. "Come have a look, and please, take your time."

Playing through, Adagio did what she was asked, inspecting the various articles of clothing. Rarity really had quite a range here, from dainty dresses, to practical wear, to what were likely form-fitting garments, to some rather daring articles as well, depending on the wearer's figure. Hung very close to each other, a sleek, black top and velvety, blue, ankle-length skirt caught her atten-

Click!

She didn't dare turn around. "Was that the door locking?"

"I just don't want anyone interrupting, Darling. You know how hard it can be to maintain artistic focus with people just waltzing in and breaking concentration, right?"

Adagio peered over her shoulder, relieved that the host of the evening at least didn't appear to be armed. "I suppose."
Now she's coming closer. I don't like that twinkle in her eyes...

Pacing toward her with a relatively regretful smile, Rarity kept her gaze locked on Adagio. "I, er, I'm afraid I might not have been entirely honest with you, with my reason for bringing you here..."

Here it comes, thought Adagio as she turned to face her. "And...?"

"Well, there's just this, thing I've been wanting to do for a while now. With you, if it's not too much to ask."

Knowing she'd have to cooperate with whatever Rarity asked or risk compromising the plan, Adagio felt beads of sweat form on her brow. "Y-yes?"

"May I, if you'll permit it...?" Her eyes were wide and full of longing, as though she'd waited years for something.

Don'trundon'trundon'trundon'trundon'trundon'trun! "What is it?"

"I, I-I promise to be gentle, but, perhaps, just once, may I..." Rarity beamed, holding up a brush, "style your hair?!"

"...What?"

Giggling like a schoolgirl, Rarity stepped around to admire the untamed fluff from multiple angles. "It's just so lush and voluminous, there's so much that could be done with it all!" She stopped in front of Adagio to make a doe-eyed expression. "If you don't mind, I mean?"

Oh. Clamping down on the tiny tinge of disappointment, Adagio shrugged. "Sure."

And for another moment, Rarity knew only joy. "Ohhh, thank you so much! If you'd like, we can even do a full makeover! The hair would have to wait until after an outfit was selected, or we'd likely risk undoing the effort of-"

Rarity went on, but Adagio took the time to analyze what had just happened. As this felt very reasonable compared to her first guess for Rarity's intentions with taking her to a secluded room, Adagio probably would have accepted out of that alone, nevermind the plan.

Did she do that on purpose? Let me think she wanted something else before making her real request, the contrast between an extreme order and a small one making it easier to lean toward the one she was really after?

Adagio would have noted this as a possible means the Rainbooms used to get what they wanted, but she kind of knew this trick already. The tone of voice suggested Rarity had just asked a question, snapping Adagio back to attention.

"Certainly." The plan did a lot to cut down her decision-making time.

"Excellent! Let's start with these pants, I've got a good feeling that they'll highlight your figure nicely!"

Taking the black, shiny pair of pants she was offered, Adagio moved toward the divider while Rarity looked for a suitable top. She'd have stripped and changed where she stood, but didn't really feel like finding out whether or not the concept of modesty was mainly a measure to prevent spontaneous tackles. Perhaps that policeman had actually been doing her a favor all these years? On that note, her primary thought while getting changed was the hope that Aria and Sonata weren't being obligated to do anything they'd regret later.

Wringing her hands not unlike how she wished Adagio would when going over her evil schemes, Sonata stood before the snack table with her biggest, widest, toothiest grin. That was another thing she kind of wished Adagio would do, not just the- well, that didn't matter now. She looked over the contents of the table, particularly the punch bowl.

Hohohohoho, yes, the time has come!

Quickly, subtly, she scanned her immediate surroundings. No one was looking. No one would suspect a thing.

Reaching into her shirt, Sonata carefully maneuvered her hand just under her breasts to seize the shiny, silver flask of precious liquid hidden there. Before she could draw it, however, she was startled from behind.

"Hi, Sonata!"

Letting out a frightened squeak, she about-faced, hand still down her own shirt, which Pinkie Pie immediately noticed.

"Um-"

"Yea, hi!" Sonata's grin was still wide, but now it was a little nervous. "Don't mind me, just fondling myself in public! Haha!" To back her story up, she quickly and emphatically began shifting her breasts around with both hands, hoping the flask wouldn't fall out of her shirt as she did. She turned increasingly red as Pinkie (and a few other people) stared at this for the next thirty seconds.

Pinkie noticed more and more people starting to turn their heads to witness the one-girl boob-grabbing show, so she whispered. "I think they're good and shuffled now."

Painfully self-conscious, Sonata let her hands fall to her sides. "Heh, r-right."

Waiting until people more or less went back to their own business, Pinkie gave Sonata a smile. "So, why were you about to add booze to the punch?"

GAH!!

There would be time later to slam her own head in a door for having embarrassed herself for nothing, but for now Sonata had an alibi to fake on the spot. "I-I wasn't, I mean, I was just, just," sweating wasn't helping, "I, uh, just, really like punch, so much that it makes me want to touch my own-"

"Sonata?" Pinkie was still smiling at her, but her eyes said 'It's going to hurt my feelings if you keep lying to me.' "It's okay that you like your drinks, but it's possible somebody here doesn't, and I think just about everyone at the party is underage. It wouldn't be fun if someone that didn't want to get drunk drank a drunkening drink, y'know?"

Hanging her head, Sonata frowned. "I-I'm sorry, I just kinda thought it'd-" She was cut off with a hug.

"It might be fun for a little while, but let's let everyone have a choice in whether or not they wake up with a huuuuge headache in the morning, okay?"

Strangely, Sonata found herself smiling as she gently returned the hug. "Okay!"

A minute later, Pinkie took a step back, her smile much cheerier. "So no spiking anything, okie-dokie?"

The statement was closed with a friendly wink, making Sonata giggle. "Yea, yea, I'll be good. Where'd you learn about this stuff, anyway?"

Pinkie beamed. "I'm a responsible partier! How about you?"

"I'm more of a... partying, partier?"

"No, silly," replied Pinkie with a giggle, "where'd you first pick up the Twenty-One-And-Over?"

"I didn't, but I did pick up drinking back in... Umm..." She quickly entered the combination and threw open the door to the vault of her memory, shuffling through several big ol' stacks of imaginary paper to find what she was looking for. "I think our first time with beer and stuff came about a week after we first wandered into a bar, which was about a day after our first time with fake IDs." Sonata smiled, "It was pretty fun!" and then she frowned. "at least until the second time, because that's when we learned what hangovers were. Dagi was totally all 'Never-a-goddamn-gain!' about it, so she rarely drinks at all."

Pinkie grinned expectantly. "But when she does...?" To her slight surprise, Sonata shrugged, delivering her answer with a straight face.

"It's never much more than a glass or two of some kinda wine. It's sorta like how she doesn't watch TV a lot either, since, y'know..."

"Oh, yea!" Pinkie couldn't help a tiny giggle at Past Adagio's expense. "What about you and Aria?"

"Depends if there's anything good on."

"True dat. And with beer?"

Sonata grinned widely. "Wellll, there was the New Millennium party..."

December 31st, 1999, Canterlot City Square

The residents of this world had set up a party like they were expecting it to end, which might have been appropriate, because some of them really were. Those people were separate from the scene in which Aria and Sonata found themselves. Tables loaded up with food and drinks of all kinds encircled the area as night fell, more and more people showing up for the celebration of the millennium with all manner of stands and shops being set up to capitalize on the fever of noise and liquor that made people just a little more willing to part with their hard-earned money. Adagio was nowhere near this spectacle, instead having decided to take a train a few towns over. She had explained to her followers that she would be whipping those who were more fearful and paranoid of the turning of the century into a frenzy to feast on, but as none of them wanted to put up with the aftermath of a riot where they lived, she would do it where the fallout wouldn't bother them later.

Yea, uh... D-did I mention we used to be pretty evil? Sorry about that.

It's okay now, Nata. Why were you guys at the party while she was out eating meanness?

Well-

Recent months had left their leader in an exceedingly good mood, and while she had long since sworn off heavy drinking herself, she wouldn't stop Aria and Sonata from getting plastered if they so wished, and left them to enjoy the party back home. Bundled up in their winter clothes against the cold, Aria and Sonata casually wandered through the area, not sure where to begin.

"I'm so excited," Sonata said with a grin while her eyes eagerly traced over the various stands and tables of free food and drink, "I just wish Dagi were here to keep track!"

Aria, as was usually the case when she had only Sonata for company, rolled her eyes. "If you mean to keep score for who chugs more without barfing it all back up, it wouldn't make a difference."

"Would too! We need somebody sober to be sure!"

"I told you before, she lies about the results just so you'll shut up."

Sonata shot her a challenging smirk. "You just say that because you keep losing." The sudden scowl said Aria was taking the bait, which was nice, because drinking alone kind of sucked.

Maintaining her annoyed expression as she scanned the nearby tables, Aria locked on to a long one covered in red cups. The sight wasn't entirely a welcome one, but somehow it was fitting. I still need to reclaim my honor from that stupid frat party. She stopped by the table, grabbed a cup, and raised it meaningfully as Sonata did the same. "This time we settle the score," Aria said very seriously, "winner take all, no more of your stupid little contests after this, got it?"

Sonata giggled almost deviously. "Sounds like you're giving up already!"

Aria shot back with a little smirk. "Shut up and drink."

They did, but Sonata didn't lose her smile. She knew something Aria didn't.

They had downed maybe five cups apiece when a piercing noise seized their attention. The two turned in unison to see the karaoke stand about twenty meters away, a middle-aged man in a glittery, green, disco-fever suit and stupid toupee clutching a mic as he vomited noise into it.

As their eyes met, the two sirens knew what they had to do.

The area was well-lit by strategically-directed bulbs and webs of seasonal lights, but there was still no need for the sunglasses Sonata donned out of nowhere. "Let's roll."

They were only a little buzzed, so walking over was no challenge. A little blur made the lights look cooler anyway! When they were close, Aria put a hand on the singer's shoulder.

"Hey there Mister Disco Man, I think we'll take it from here," she nodded to Sonata, "that bitch and I got a plan, so why don't you grab a beer?"

With the man dozily wandering off to get even more drunk like a good little song-slave, Sonata grabbed the mic. "It's the biggest party in town, so ev'ryone listen up, New Year's comin' around so if you ain't driving, grab a cup!"

They sang together as people around reached for the nearest drinks.

"Drink up, drink up, drink up, just grab a beer!
Time to chug a lug and dance!
Of course, we know, it's way too cold out here!
So don't take off your pants!"

Ad-libbing on the spot deducted a certain amount of eloquence from the lyrics. More-so when they'd had a few. Still, the two of them led an increasingly intoxicated crowd to amble about and mutter vaguely in rhythm with the six or seven (they kind of started singing two separate tunes at once toward the end as their focus waned) songs they performed, so it still felt like some kind of win.

Later, after strolling away from the mass of howling, disorganized drunk people and grabbing a few more drinks when they grew bored, Aria and Sonata stood by an exotic candy stand. It was nice that, even when a little tipsy, they only needed to exert minimal effort to convince the man offering a selection of strange, sugary snacks to give them free reign while he got his face painted over by the kiddie area.

Following half a jar of tangy sugar-ball things, Sonata picked up one of the eight types of candy on a stick, popping the sweet end into her mouth before patting herself down. "Ah, shoot. Hey Aria, you got a light?"

Chewing the head off a chocolate statuette, Aria rolled her eyes. "You don' schmoke, 'member?" There was something else wrong with the situation, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Luckily, tiny, chocolate people was thinkin' food. Especially the heads!

"Pfft," scoffed Sonata, the treat still in her mouth, "whatever, still a party." Lacking a lighter, Sonata looked around for anything else she could use, settling for leaning close to a nearby candle to ignite the end of her candy-stick. Then her cheeks puffed out and she started to turn red.

Aria raised an eyebrow. "What'reya doin', stupid? You don't have the... the uh..." She snapped her fingers a few times to jog her memory. "The, skin-pointies you need to be a pufferfish."

"Blowin' smoke rings," Sonata said around the slowly-smoldering treat, "Jus' need to..." Her cheeks puffed out a little further as she blew harder on the filter-free stick. When she tried to open her lips to suck in a little extra air, the stick fired across the plaza like a burning arrow, popping a balloon somewhere.

For a moment, the two were silent. Then, Aria looked at Sonata. "Bet I can shoot one further."

"You're on!"

The contest somehow ended with the candy on sticks and the chocolate figures being combined to make a sticky forest of the impaled on that table. People still picked them up and ate them as though nothing was amiss, so it was difficult to say whether or not the two sirens had a future in the candy-making business. More drinks were had.

Not long after, Aria sprinted(quickly stumbled) from place to place, ducking behind the pretzel stand as she kept blurry watch for any sign of blue stupidness. In her hands was a bright, colorful chunk of plastic fashioned into a weapon; a super-soaker, they called it. Aria would be victorious! She heard footsteps around the corner, and opting to make the first move, she staggered out and fired!

It was just some fat guy. Oh, well.

Hitting the deck, Aria rolled under a bench, feeling quite dizzy when she came to a stop. "Dammit, S'nota," she murmured, "we called no brain-scramblers!"

"Yea, yea," muttered Sonata while slouching on that very bench, "didn't even s'hee any fryin' pansh."

A moment later, it sunk in that they had each other right where they wanted them! Sonata leapt up to stand on the bench while pointing her two water pistols down at Aria (as well as the floor around her), who had rolled over onto her back to point the super-soaker back at her.

"S'ho," intoned Sonata, "thish izzit. I always'h knew it'd end this'h way fer us: Me, lookin' down at you."

Aria's eyes narrowed. "I can see up your skirt."

Sonata glared back at her, and for a long minute, they held each other's stares, weapons trained. They squeezed the triggers!

...Um... Nata?

Hang on, tryin' to remember how it wen-Oh, now I remember!

Neither of them got wet even as both furiously tried to fire their weapons. After about a minute of quiet ponderment, they deduced that this was because neither of their weapons were loaded, they'd just picked them up off a table somewhere and started trying to blast each other. Giggling in a manner not uncommonly seen in a pair of drunken dolts, they moved to take seats on the bench together while watching a big screen not too far away, singing the numbers as the big clock counted down to the new millenium. When the pretty fireworks died down and they'd recovered their energy, the two smiled at each other, filled their water guns with liquor, and ran around spraying random people.

Much later that night (or early that morning), Aria and Sonata lay sprawled out on the living room carpet of the house they and Adagio shared, which they thankfully made their way back to without too much incident. There must have been some incident, because neither could remember why they were wearing striped, thigh-high socks over their shoes, but they still made it. It was while Sonata quietly rolled around in a dreamy daze that she heard the front door open, their teetotal leader stepping in.

The air around Adagio crackled with dark energy as her eyes glowed a vibrant green, hair shifting and twitching of its own accord. She left the city in absolute chaos, but the feast had gone very well, improving her spirits further as she looked over her two hopelessly drunk followers with a smirk of amusement. "Guess they had a good time," she said quietly so as not to rouse them, "and so much the better."

With all the power she'd absorbed that night, the way back home was surely within their reach! It was still a pale imitation of what she could have harnessed in Equestria, but with careful focus, perhaps they could finally find the way back, and when the three of them returned, they'd be able to siphon more power in a day than everything they'd ever absorbed in their decade and a half (give or take) in this world! And it would start when she shared the energy gathered with Aria and Sonata in the morning.

Looking over them again, she couldn't help a little smile.

Well, maybe it would be better to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

"So," Sonata concluded with a little grin, "that was pretty much how that went."

Pinkie was smiling too. "What happened with all the angries Dagi sucked up?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh..." Sonata's smile slipped away. "Well, we spent a long time looking for a way back to Equestria with it. Y'see, every couple of years or so, we could feel something change in this town, like a hole had been poked in a blanket. Dagi was sure that it had to be Equestrian magic, but we could never find the source before it stopped. We'd kinda hoped that, with all that extra power to pour into searching, we'd sense the way home lickety-split and be back to what we were before. Like half a year later of going out and looking everywhere, every day, we couldn't find anything..." Frowning, Sonata shrugged. "That was what eventually washed away Dagi's good mood, and ours too."

For just a moment, Pinkie frowned too, but she had an idea! "Well, what made her so happy in the first place?"

"Uhh..." In the effort of trying to recall the specific events, Sonata made a scrunchy face. "Y'know, I'm not sure now. I bet Aria would remember."

"Was it the thing you knew that she didn't know?"

Blinking once, Sonata giggled. "Nah, that thing was just that 'This'll be the last time!' is what Aria says almost every time, then she gets too hammered to remember a thing! Then again," she said with a slightly abashed smile, "so do I. I haven't been sure which one of us has been winning in the last twenty years!"

Pinkie let out a snorty giggle. "S-sounds like a great competition to me!"

Aria was starting to get annoyed. This house wasn't all that big, but there were a LOT of people here! What annoyed her about that was that none of them seemed to be the two she was looking for, as Sonata and Adagio were nowhere to be found!

What, did they ditch me or something? Sonata might have gotten distracted and wandered off, but Adagio would never skip out on her own plan without at least letting us know it was off, so where-oh, there's Sonata.

She was talking to the pink one over by the punch bowl in a room Aria wasn't sure she'd actually gone into yet. In hindsight, she kind of figured she should have looked there first. Making her way over, Aria was stopped by a one of the white-haired blue girls that had messed with the Rainbooms during the Battle; the one that wore crazy glasses.

"You," she spoke, "you, are, de one!"

Aria took a step backward. "What?"

"DE ONE," she declared, "De one I haff seen all those years ago! the face of Canterlot fashion of another time!"

A cold chill ran along the siren's spine as she forced an innocent smile. "No clue what you're talkin' about, now if you'd just lemme-"

Photo Finish, an increasingly wide smile crossing her face, nodded twice. "I am suuuure of it! Your hair, your eyes," she leaned over to get a look at Aria's back, "your shapely buttocks, there can be no doubt that you are the spitting image of the one on the cover of that magazine that inspired me as a tiny girl!" She slowly waved an arm in the air, speaking in a passionate breath. "'Be beautiful no matter what happens!'"

Aria's eyes shrunk to pinpricks. She's seen that?!

The young shutterbug went on. "That was the tagline that made me into who I am today! And you, the bearer of standard of that era, are De One I now ask to complete the circle, to model for me, to let me make! You! A Starrrr!"

The last syllable was dragged longer than necessary, but Aria's response was the same as she started to sweat. Without thinking, she grabbed Photo Finish by the collar, tripped her, and planted her head between the cushions of a nearby couch before running away. This raised a few eyebrows around the room after she'd gone, Photo Finish popping her head out of the couch with a perplexed look on her face.

"So... That is a 'no'?"

Aria ducked into the first empty room she saw, nearly slamming the door before leaning up against it in the hope of holding it shut if she'd been seen going in. Silence. If she was lucky, she'd escaped and nobody even saw what she did. If she was unlucky, she needed to come up with something to tell Adagio, fast.

Lessee, "She was asking me to be a model again, so I stuffed her face into the couch"? Not a great defense. "You know how I feel about that stuff, and a girl's gotta have her limits"? Better. "I'm sure Sunset and the others totally won't mind, I mean, I could have smacked her head into the china cabinet instead, right?"? Dunno about that one, what abou-

"Hello there."

Aria jumped a foot in the air, whirling around to see Yellow Quiet sitting in a big, cushy chair. There were a few other such chairs in this tiny room, all arranged in a little circle around a small coffee table, but nobody else was present. Trying not to blush, Aria opted to pretend that she wasn't just startled by the school scaredy-cat. "Uh, yea, hi, what's up? What're you doing in here by yourself?"

Eyes widening for a split second, Fluttershy looked down at her hands, which she kept folded in her lap. "I, uhm, s-sometimes I just like to be somewhere quiet for a while, s-so, I mean, this room is... usually... quiet?"

When those big, soft doe-eyes looked back up at her, Aria almost felt like she was being asked a question. 'You're not going to make it not quiet anymore, are you?' or something like that. Photography Glasses was grey area, but they were supposed to be getting along with these girls, so Aria played it peaceful by holding up a hand and keeping her voice down. "I'm just hiding out for a bit, same as you. I think." That seemed to do the trick, because Stage Fright started to smile.

"I see. Then, w-would you like to take a seat and rest a while?" She gestured to the other, big, cushy chairs. "There's plenty of room here, so..."

Nodding once, Aria walked over and sat down. In a room with just one of the Rainbooms. Alone.

Aria Blaze, you are a genius!

Well, winding up like this was kind of a happy accident, but still one she could probably get some of those precious manipulation secrets out of. Somehow. "So," she began, "name's Aria Blaze if you didn't know already. How about you?"

She smiled. "Oh, um, I-I'm F-Flutttershy, and, it's nice to meet you."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "With or without that extra 'F'?"

Making a surprised face, Fluttershy blushed before looking down again. "Um... w-without, please..."

Chuckling, Aria fought the urge to tear into this girl. The reaction would probably be gold, but there'd be trouble for it later. "Right. So what are you hiding from out there? Just noise in general?"

Smiling almost apologetically, Fluttershy nodded. "S-something like that, y-yes." It would be extremely difficult to say that part of the reason she hid in here was a fear of running into certain people by herself, more-so to say that Aria was precisely one of those people, but it felt like things were going fairly well so far. "If you don't mind my asking, um... What ab-"

"Me? Just wanted to get away from little miss Stalker-Waiting-To-Happen out there, the weirdo that carries cameras everywhere."

"Photo Finish?" Fluttershy gave the door a worried look. "I, I think I can understand that..."

Intrigued, Aria raised an eyebrow. "Really? What'd she do to you? Get up in your face with the flash on? Upskirt? Get a picture of you in the shower, all soaped up and-"

Fluttershy blushed furiously. "N-N-NO!!" As Aria snickered at her discomfort, Fluttershy sought refuge in her own hair, but to her surprise, the laughter stopped in just seconds.

"Okay, okay, I'm... sorry, was just guessing. What'd she actually do?"

Managing a small, hesitant smile, Fluttershy regained eye-contact. "W-well, it, um... wasn't that she did anything, specifically, just that I was roped into helping her once and it... wasn't fun at all, to be honest. I was asked to model a few dresses for her and Rarity, and I did, but uh..." She looked down at her hands again. "Well, I didn't exactly like it, but I guess, sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I'd stuck with it." Her head snapped upward again when Aria clicked her teeth.

The surliest siren shook her head, an annoyed look on her face. "Modeling? Nah. Let me tell you exactly why you made the right call..."

Author's Notes:

I like to think that none of my stories are dead, I just don't get around to them all as often as some others. The closest thing I have to an update priority system is going by whatever seems most popular and trying to finish that while working on other stuff on the side, broken up by occasional flights of fancy. So glad I'm not a professional writer!

Yes, Rarity going ga-ga over hair is a little predictable. It's also a very Rarity thing to do, to the point that I don't think I could reasonably get away with her just being totally indifferent to the trio of girls with super-long hair, with Adagio as her first target. It'd be like Twilight ignoring a book she's never seen before, I think.

Did not do a full parody here, but rest assured that Aria and Sonata will get their own songs before the story is through.