Shortly after ending in Montana, North Dakota etc. (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
and soon
'etc' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'shortly after ending in montana north dakota' is the wordplay.
'shortly' becomes 'soon' (synonyms).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'ending in' indicates one should take the final letters.
'north dakota' becomes 'nd' (this might be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
The last letter of 'montana' is 'a'.
'a'+'nd'='and'
'soon' after 'and' is 'AND SOON'.
Can you help me to learn more?
I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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