Pharynx shivered heavily and hunched his shoulders, hugging his wings to his back as he did. "By Chrysalis' mane, that's cold...!"

There was a chuckle from behind him as Artaegen stepped through the shadow-portal, followed by their supporting band of Changelings. "Of course it's cold," he snarked, shuddering as well under his cloak, "it's the Frozen North. It's kinda called that for a reason." He gestured to the snowy wasteland around them.

"No, shithead, I meant that damn portal...!" Pharynx snapped back. "The snow is something I can handle with a simple glamour, same as the rest of our kind. But whatever it is that that Makuta character does to send us Chrysalis-knows-where, it's colder!"

"True," Artaegen replied, as those around him took up snow-adapted forms in flashes of green fire. "Part of me wonders about that... I mean, it likely has something to do with Makuta's Shadow powers in some way, and given that there's a correlation between light and heat, well..."

"Nerd...!" Pharynx declared, and erupted into green flame as well. When it dissipated, he looked like a weird combination of a Kangaroo and a Goat, covered in shaggy fur. If there'd been any humans in the area, they would likely have dubbed it a "Tauntaun," though there were discreet differences. For one, the arms were longer and more functional on this creature, and there were also four of them.

"Well...?" The creature demanded, cocking its head. "You gonna throw up a glamour too? Or are you just going to stand there?"

"I still have no idea if I can, let alone how I'd go about trying to do it," Artaegen replied. "Mind if I get a ride...?"

The not-Tauntaun glared at him briefly, then shrugged. "Sure, hop on." And with that, they were off.

~~~~
"So, they believe the target should be somewhere buried in the snow outside the warmer portions of the Crystal Empire, yes?"

"Yep."

"And they have no idea where, exactly, it'd be?"

"Not beyond 'The Western side of the Empire,' as we were told."

"That's still a lot of ground to cover: it could mean the entire Western half of the border, from its northernmost to southernmost points, or it could be just a quarter of the place's total diameter."

"We'll find it: we just have to be persistent..."

Pharynx huffed mightily in disbelief, sending a small plume of steamy breath into the air, where it collided with the snowbank he and Artaegen were crouched behind. The former took a second to peer around at the central portion of the Crystal Empire, with its green fields and unnatural spring-summer warmth, then pulled back.

"At least the others seem to be having fun," he spat, still seeming to be slightly affected by the temperature. For indeed, their Changeling companions were disguised as arctic foxes that were busy "frolicking" in the snow, which allowed them to freely search the snow for the buried item Makuta and Chrysalis had set them the task of finding.

"Honestly, it's worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack...!" Pharynx continued. "This is chump gruntwork: why are we the ones on this project anyway? Why can't we be out attacking something, or seizing some arbitrary location with 'tactical value' or whatever?"

"I'm sorry, Nubs McShouty, but you've been with Chrysalis longer than me, and suddenly you're questioning her orders?" Artaegen asked, turning to him.

"No, I'm questioning Makuta's logistical planning on this. I may have concerns as to our Queen's judgement in trusting him, but I do not question her orders." Pharynx glared at Artaegen. "And what was that about 'Nubs McShouty'?"

"About what now?"

"Oh, come on, you just called me that! What's it supposed to mean?"

"No idea..." Artaegen said, then trailed off as his eyes unfocused. He stood and turned his unseeing gaze towards a particular portion of the Changeling search party, paused for a moment, then suddenly took flight towards them.

"Oh, what now?" Pharynx asked, following after.

Artaegen landed hard, then started digging frantically, throwing up a few startled foxes and great plumes of powdery snow. This quickly garnered the attention of the other Changelings, who began to gather around and watch.

"Artaegen!" Pharynx called, to no response. "Artaegen, what the buzz are you doing? We're supposed to be--"

Artaegen suddenly stopped digging, instead thrusting his clenched fist into the air as the snow settled. In his grasp was something that bore a wicked curve and a sharp point, fading from dark grey at its base to a brilliant orange at its tip. Pharynx mistook it for a knife or fang at first, then realized what it was.

"Sombra's horn...!" He murmured, stunned. "We've found it...!"

Earlier, when they'd reported in from their former location, Makuta had told them what they would be looking for in great detail, even going so far as to show them a holographic image of the dark relic in question. According to him, it had been dislodged from Sombra's being after he had attempted an assault on the newly-returned kingdom. Thanks to the combined efforts of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Prince Shining Armor, and a certain baby dragon, Sombra had been thoroughly curbstomped at the last second, leaving the Crystal Empire a place of light and hope.

What Makuta wanted with the horn was unclear, for the moment. All they knew was that they were supposed to retrieve it. Unfortunately, from what Pharynx could tell, something seemed to have come over Artaegen without warning. As he went to get Artaegen's attention, the semi-draconic figure suddenly cackled with mad delight and took off, straight upwards. Pharynx followed without hesitation, trailing him in what quickly became a ballistic arc, high over the kingdom.

As Artaegen came straight down, he seemed almost dead set on splattering himself against the bottom slope of the castle, only to swerve at the last second and come to a screeching halt through a window of the topmost room. Pharynx was hot on his heels, and to his relief, none of the ponies far below seemed to have noticed their intrusion.

As Pharynx took in his surroundings, Artaegen was already dashing madly down a set of spiral stairs and into the castle at large. When Pharynx followed, he found two things. First, the stairs entered into an unimaginably vast and featureless white void, the only contents of which was the staircase itself, curling down and to the right around a single central pillar. The second thing he found was that Artaegen had just jumped off the stairs, choosing instead to fly down to wherever he was going. Pharynx had no choice but to follow suit if he wanted to keep up with him.

"Artaegen!" He called, his voice sounding strangely muted in the strangely extradimensional space. "Artaegen, get back here! We need to report in, and... Curse it all, will you slow down?!"

There was a door at the bottom of the stairs, seemingly leading inside the pillar, which Artaegen was quick to kick open with gusto. Pharynx was only able to catch a glimpse of Artaegen's brief stumble as he stepped through, before the latter suddenly shook himself and dashed to the right. Pharynx was quick to discover that there was another staircase inside the hollow pillar, curving back the way they'd just come. He also caught up to Artaegen quite swiftly, seeing as he'd come to a stop pressed against some kind of ceiling.

"I'm so close, now," Artaegen muttered, like a man possessed, "close to the power...!"

"Artaegen, seriously, what're you doing? This is madness...! Come back with me, and--!"

He had no chance to finish as Artaegen suddenly reared back with the horn, held point-first like a Karambit, and stabbed at the ceiling with it. As Pharynx protested, Artaegen struck twice, thrice more, and then a spiderweb of cracks radiated across the ceiling from the point of impact. Less than a second later, it disintegrated and collapsed down the stairway, and Artaegen surged up the now unobstructed stairs and into a new room. The two of them glanced around for the briefest of moments before Artaegen took wing again, this time alighting upon the back of a large thronelike structure at the near end of the chamber.

"Anger among them will threaten their precious Unity..." Artaegen mused, while Pharynx watched in dismay at his antics. Artaegen slit the pad of one of his fingers on his bladed right arm, and began drawing something unseen upon the large crystal at the throne's apex. The whole thing was made almost exclusively of several large, bluish-green crystals, save for two that made up the structure's centerline, which were lavender. It was the taller of these upon which he scrawled. "Hunger will consume their Duty. And Fear..."

Artaegen paused, raising the inverted horn in his hand, and Pharynx could have sworn he saw a handful of blood droplets begin to rise from the crystalline surface, almost as if they were being pulled against gravity itself.

"...will keep them from their Destiny!" Artaegen proclaimed triumphantly, then plunged the tip of Sombra's horn into the surface of the crystal.

KRRRRRRRRACK!!!

Pharynx flinched at the sound of Sombra's horn striking the crystalline throne, and then his jaw hit the floor as he saw what happened next. A large crack ran the length of the throne's twin-crystal "spine", then spread in a crazed web through the rest of it. Abruptly, all but the two lavender crystals turned to so much semi-precious gravel. Artaegen smiled broadly as he pulled the unscathed horn from its resting place, and began striding over to Pharynx. He didn't get far.

What was left of the throne -- now little more than a pillar of two lavender crystals -- suddenly turned a deep purple, and a shockwave of dark energy pulsed from it and spread across the room. It sent the two Hordika staggering, and left their guard down. A second later, it began writhing with the familiar mass of black lightning and purple-and-green bubbles that signified dark magic, only for twin beams of energy to lance forth and strike both figures square in the chest. They were blasted to opposing sides of the room, held against the walls as the dark magic poured into them.

They were held there for a long time, squirming in pain with their eyes clamped shut, so they missed the transformation of the castle around them, and its subsequent reversion. Finally, mercifully, they were allowed to fall to the floor, gasping for breath as the energy dissipated at long last.

Artaegen was the first to recover his faculties. "Wh... What happened...?" He asked, groggily. "Where are we? Weren't we just... Why are we...? Is this the castle?!" He turned to Pharynx. "Dude, what in Tartarus are we doing here?! We need to..." He trailed off as he felt something inside him unlock, but not in a physical sense. It was more like a sudden upsurging of energy, something that practically crackled at the fingertips and left him feel like he was vibrating.

Without a thought, he felt gravity shift, and he floated up into the air, only to be set unsteadily on his feet before he could protest.

Pharynx rose to his feet as well, albeit much slower, and by more conventional methods. "What... Whaddaya mean, 'where are we'? You're the one who led me on a wild goose chase through an open window and through the castle via some weird-flank set of stairs that doesn't seem to pass through this room like it should..."

"You're not making sense," Artaegen noted, and yawned. "Gods above, this whole thing is such a drag... Oh, hey!" He had spotted Sombra's horn, lying on the floor where he'd dropped it earlier. "We got the horn, mission accomplished! Let's get back, eh...?"

"What the buck is wrong with you...?" Pharynx groaned at him, not looking for an answer. "Seriously, why did I throw my lot in with you in the first place..." Nonetheless, he jerked a claw at the hole in the floor.

"Yeah, wazzup with that...?" Artaegen wondered aloud. "Seems like a workplace hazard to have that there, if you ask me..."

Pharynx merely facepalmed. "You dingus, that's how we got in here...! Just-- argh, follow me, and we'll high-tail it outta here...!" Artaegen groaned in frustration, but complied as Pharynx quickly led the way down. Of course, when Artaegen got to the bottom of the stairs and looked through the door to see even more stairs, he balked slightly. When he leaned out into the white space to see exactly how many stairs there were, he almost completely gave up.

"By the gods...!" He cursed as he began doggedly sprinting up the steps. "So many stairs! I'd like to find whoever invented the stairs, and push him down these stairs, just to show him how stupid stairs are!"

"Artaegen..."

"Then, his legs will be broken, and he will no longer be able to climb stairs any more!"

"Artaegen!"

"It'll be ironic, and then his wife will leave him and go be with the guy who invented the elevator, because everyone knows that elevators are much sexier than stairs, and oh gods I'm not even close to being at the top yet-- WHY ARE THERE SO MANY STAIRS?!?"

"ARTAEGEN!!!"

"WHAAA-HA-HA-HAAAAT...?!?!" Artaegen complained, coming to a stop.

"...We can fly, dumbass!"

Artaegen paused, blinking for a couple of seconds, then his brain kicked back into action. "Oh, yeah... But still, flying that high is gonna be such a pain!" He looked up, and noted the smooth underside of the stairwell. "If only I could just flip upside down and use that as a slide..."

No sooner had he spoken than he was engulfed in a gentle field of purple energy, and he suddenly felt gravity turn upside-down. He "fell" up and collided with the underside of the stairs and began sliding headlong towards the top of the stairway.

"Oh, what in Tartarus...?" Pharynx asked, of no-one in particular, then flew up to try and catch up with his swiftly-vanishing companion.

When Artaegen left the top of the stairs, he was once again enveloped in purple energy, and he crashed down to the floor with a groan of pain. "Fuuuuuuuck..." He muttered.

Pharynx was quick to show up after that. He crouched upon landing, panting heavily. "Alright, seriously, what the buck was that...?!" He demanded after he'd caught his breath. He then got up, seizing Artaegen and lifting him upright, bodily. His lower arms were supporting Artaegen under the armpits, while his upper arms held his head clamped such that he was staring straight into Pharynx's eyes.

The former Changeling's face briefly contorted in a snarl, then his mouth opened as he let loose a hiss. Before either of them knew what was happening, Pharynx began to inhale deeply, and as he drew the ambient air into his mouth, something else came with it. A swirling haze of green and orange energy particles was extracted from Artaegen, shot through with a thin stream of pink flamelike love energy, and it all condensed into an orb of ultraviolet light the size of a small marble. This orb floated just inside Pharynx's mouth, above his tongue as it slowly began growing.

Artaegen shuddered, gave strangled cry of "No!" and then planted his shin firmly in Pharynx's groin. This shattered whatever concentration the latter figure had, causing his mouth to snap shut as he grimaced. The energy he'd extracted dissipated into the air, lost.

Pharynx let go of Artaegen, who dropped like a puppet with cut strings. They both stayed like that for a minute, breathing heavily. Pharynx had a hand over his face, staring off into the distance with a range of emotions washing over him as he tried to figure out what had just happened. At long last, Artaegen finally got himself up on his elbows and looked over at Pharynx.

"Hey," he began, then coughed a couple times. "Hey, bro... You good?"

"Am I... good?" Pharynx asked, his attention settling on Artaegen. "You just had who-knows-what happen to you, and you're worried about my wellbeing?"

"I'll just take that as a yes, then." Artaegen said, smiling. Pharynx gave a snort of laughter, a smile finding its way to his face as well, and then they both broke down into peals of laughter.

When they'd finished, Pharynx walked over to Artaegen and helped him up. "C'mon," he said, still smiling slightly, "we should get outta here while we still can."

"That would be wise," Artaegen replied with a chuckle.

~~~~
Teridax was troubled by what he had seen.

Through various convoluted means, he'd been keeping an eye on the excursion in the northernmost territories of Equestria, and had been privy to everything that had transpired. He'd felt a small measure of satisfaction when they'd uncovered the horn, despite Artaegen's abruptly strange behavior of the moment. After that, events had taken him on the closest thing he'd had to an emotional rollercoaster since his second attempt to claim the Mask of Time...

Teridax shook his head. Now was not the time to be losing himself in past excursions. Whatever Artaegen had done -- or been made to do -- to the throne, the backlash had awoken abilities within both of the Hordika in the room. Abilities that had apparently lain dormant within them ever since their transformations: ones they should not have had in the first place.

Artaegen's slow, yet seemingly unnatural healing after his leg had been blasted by scalding water; the aura of burgundy energy that sprung up around the remains of Sombra's former throne after the room had been vacated by the Hordika; the field of purplish energy that had altered Artaegen's unexpectedly inverted personal gravity as he returned to Teridax's sight at the top of the castle; Pharynx suddenly starting to drain Artaegen of his vital energy... All of these were powers that were almost completely exclusive to Makuta. Only Teridax -- and now Chrysalis -- should have access to them.

Wait.

Teridax blinked, letting his vision fade into the middle distance as he thought. There was a connection between the Hordika, and it was more than just the burst of energy in the Crystal Empire. They had both been injected with Hordika venom that came from modified Visorak. Visorak that had been modified by Chrysalis herself, after he'd tutored her in the uses of Energized Protodermis and the specialized "viruses" his kind had made use of all those years ago. Who knew what else she'd introduced to the Rahi's genetic makeup while she'd been unsupervised...

He would have to confront her for her borderline treasonous actions at a later date, he decided. For now, Teridax would watch, and wait, acting only when the opportune moment arrived. And watch, he did, as Pharynx snagged an unfortunate crystal unicorn at the outskirts of the city surrounding the castle. The pony, who Teridax only saw as little more than a very intelligent Rahi at the best of times, was then drained of just about everything they had to offer: their magic, their strength, and any energy that could be derived from their emotional state.

The pony was left shriveled and weakened by the ordeal, nearly dead, but unable to give chase or report anything until they recovered, which would be unlikely. The Hordika, however, shared an uneasy glance as they stood over the sickly figure, only to turn and run off, eventually meeting with their contingent of concerned Changelings. In a few moments' time, they had begun preparations to call in, so Teridax prepared his metaphorical game face.

~~~~
(Some time later...)

"...And you still haven't figured out how to work a glamour?" Pharynx asked Artaegen as the stepped through yet another shadow portal. After the incident in the Crystal Empire, they'd received a dressing-down from Makuta and Chrysalis, and had then spent the next day and a half hopping across the Northeastern portion of Equestria via shadow portals. Artaegen had expressed that he'd had an increased feeling that he "needed" to be somewhere in that general area, and soon, though nobody could figure out why.

Strangely enough, Makuta had been more than willing to send them on their way, claiming that -- with Artaegen's full abilities being an unknown -- it wouldn't hurt to test out his "feelings" for their validity and usefulness to his plan. Thus, the duo found themselves wandering the wilderness of Northeastern Equestria, a fair distance from any known points of civilization. Every time, they'd spend a few minutes scouting around as Artaegen's senses got some sort of "bearings", and he'd dreamily proclaim that they'd gotten closer to, or farther from, whatever he was being drawn towards.

Artaegen shook his head. "Nah. Glamours haven't exactly been high on my priority list of late, and even then, we haven't really had time for me to practice the... art of it, as it were."

"Yeah we have!" Pharynx persisted. "These last couple days've been a perfect opportunity to try."

"And we spent 'em on practicing those other powers we developed...!" Artaegen shot back, quietly. To emphasize his point, he curled the clawed fingers of his hand, allowing a field of purple energy to briefly waver there. They'd figured out that it somehow pertained to gravity, yet was entirely different from how magic usually worked. Meanwhile, Pharynx had refined his control over his new energy-draining ability, so he could limit what things he drained from a target, and how much of it he took. He'd also found that he could create sparks of electricity between his hands, but hadn't been able to do much more than that. Then again, the sparks grew stronger by the day, so there was no telling what he could do with them in time. "We got no idea where they came from, or how long they'll last, so we gotta make use of 'em while we can."

"You still need to figure out if you can pull off a glamour," Pharynx complained. "Anyway, you feeling anything about this place yet?"

Artaegen paused, blinking in the semi-darkness, turning his head this way and that. "Nah," he said at last, "nothing ye--" His words abruptly cut off, and his head turned to the left.

"What...?" Pharynx asked, curious. It'd been like this the last couple times, but not nearly as soon after they'd stepped through the portal.

"That way. Couple miles, at best." Artaegen mechanically lifted one arm and pointed in the approximate direction he was facing, then began walking off on that heading.

"Uh, can't we just portal over there?"

"No, it's best to walk."

Pharynx rolled his eyes, then looked over to their "honor guard" with disdain. "C'mon, you lot, you heard him. Let's get moving."

Some time later, the two Hordika were positioned on a hill overlooking a small town. It was somewhat like those old cowboy-era towns that sprung up around roads heading West, with houses and other buildings lined up on either side. This place, however, was different: all the buildings were exactly the same, and the "road" pretty much dead-ended in the front yard of a singular house whose front was set such that it could look down the entire stretch of road, theoretically keeping an eye on the inhabitants. There was something eerily off about the place, enough to freak out even the battle-hardened Changelings in their company.

Pharynx looked over at Artaegen, who was in turn staring intently at the mini-town. He noted how, behind the strange metal mask covering Artaegen's face, his eyes glowed. It was unusual, in his opinion, even though a Changeling's eyes normally glowed as well. Not nearly as bright as Artaegen's, of course; a Changeling's eyes were more on par with weak bioluminescence, or a glow-in-the-dark object that'd worn out its "charge" for the night, while it was almost as if a lightbulb lay behind Artaegen's. Pharynx was momentarily distracted in wondering how his own looked, nowadays... until he realized something about Artaegen.

His eyes usually consisted of a field of brilliant red-orange with a single dot -- each -- of bright yellow-orange that darted this way and that to indicate which way he was looking with either eye. The dot widened and narrowed in the same way that the inner rim of a normal eye's iris would to let in more or less light, based on the circumstances. Now, however... those brighter points of light in Artaegen's eyes were more of a lime green than a yellow-orange, and some of that color had slightly leaked into the glowing "sclera" of his eyes, turning the afflicted regions a more emerald color.

"Bro?" Pharynx asked, starting to get concerned. "You good?"

Artaegen blinked, and just like that, some sort of metaphorical spell seemed to have been broken. The green tinge had retreated from Artaegen's gaze in an instant, gone without a trace. "Hmm? What?" Artaegen asked, quickly.

"Uh, I was curious what you were thinking. About the townlet." Pharynx ducked his head, feeling uncharacteristically awkward for a moment. Just then, his belly grumbled.

"Didn't you literally just eat?" Artaegen asked, smiling. "Anywho, about the town... yeah, it gives me he heebie-jeebies. 's freakin' wierd."

"Well, no shit," Pharynx snapped. "I meant, what are you planning? We gonna nab the ponies down there as hostages or something?" At this, Artaegen merely shot him a look that suggested he was being stupid.

"Our objective... I think it's that house." Artaegen pointed at the lone house at the end of the road, the one overlooking the front porches of all the others. "I say we go 'round the back, avoid showing ourselves in the middle of town where the inhabitants can spot us."

Pharynx raised an eyebrow, not sure if the action was visible in the poor lighting. "You think it's that house? Or do you know it is?"

"Look, just... I have a feeling, alright? Trust me: what we're looking for is over there." Artaegen got up into a crouch, and began moving down the side of the hill as stealthily as possible. Pharynx rolled his eyes, but followed nonetheless.

~~~~
Starlight Glimmer was just getting comfortable in her bed when she heard a knocking sound from downstairs. She groaned to herself in response, rolling her eyes as she snuggled deeper under the covers. If one of her townsponies needed help with something, they should know well enough to bother her in the morning, when she'd had time to prepare herself for the day, instead of after she'd settled in for the night.

The knocking came again, louder and more deliberate this time. Starlight sat up and glared at her bedroom door, as if it were the one responsible for the disturbance. "Seriously," she wondered aloud, "what the heck is their problem? What's so important that they can't wait 'till tomorrow?" She decided she'd quickly go answer the door, if only to keep whoever it was from waking the rest of the town in their excitement. Throwing on a bathrobe to hide her unconcealed cutie mark, she descended to the ground floor, and was slightly disturbed to hear the knocking turn to several loud and forceful thuds, each spaced about a second apart.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" She nearly shouted, uncharacteristically letting a bit of aggravation slip into her voice. "Keep your tail on!" She then paused, realizing that the knocking had come from her house's back door, not from the front. What the heck? Why would anypony be knocking at the back door, even at this time of night?

She opened the back door to reveal a Unicorn stallion, hoof raised to knock again. He wasn't beefy in the slightest, so Starlight was unsure how he'd knocked so hard that last time, but that wasn't exactly an important matter just then. What mattered was the fact that the stallion at her door was, simply by looks alone, a stereotypical "edgy bastard." He had a coat of black fur, a dark reddish mane, a stern gaze, heterochromic eyes (one teal, one purple) and his cutie mark... It was a sword crossed over three different-colored interlinked hexagons, each with dripping edges. The hexagons were red, bright green, and purple.

She also didn't recognize him as one of her villagers, which was even more concerning.

"Uh... Hey there, stranger!" She said, doing her best to plaster a cheerful expression on her face, but the attempt was sidetracked as the stranger forced his way past her without a word. "Wh... hey! You can't just barge your way in here like that!"

The stranger turned to look at her, almost disinterestedly. "We need to talk," he said, sitting down with a very matter-of-fact attitude.

"Oh, yeah we do!" Starlight shot back, her frustration growing. "Where do you get the gall to--""

"I did not mean 'you and I' when I said 'we'." The stranger interrupted. "I meant 'me and him'." His gaze flicked behind her, and he jerked his chin in the same general direction. Starlight's head snapped around in time to see a four-digited claw, like that of an owl, thrusting forward to close around her neck. Before she could react, she had been lifted bodily by the owner of the clawed hand, who was just now stepping in through the door.

Starlight was having a hard time breathing, so screaming in horror at the monstrous figure before her was out of the question, let alone trying to call for help.

"I'm terribly sorry for this," the cloaked figure said, his voice slightly muffled and distorted by the metallic mask that covered his entire head. Nonetheless, his words were gentle, having no malice in them."I know we've never met, you and I, but we most urgently need to speak. Know this: we mean you no harm, but I must ask that you not try to call attention to our presence here for the time being. Do we have an accord, young mage?"

Author's Note

Ok, seriously, I get Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer confused way too easily: their names are far too similar. Sunset, Twilight, & Starlight; Glimmer, Shimmer, and Sparkle... Way to say the same name three different times, Hasbro! We get it, they're all very powerful and likely would have all turned out similarly to Twilight under Celestia's full tutelage, but still!

Thanks to the user named "Who Cares" (in the comments below) for pointing out my error.