//------------------------------// // Like A Little Shooting Star // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// "Starlight..." Gazelle flicked his tail plaintively, head and ears down. "Please give me Gwendolyn." Starlight stumbled backwards with a gasp, the night sky glowing brightly overhead. "You!? You're supposed to be back in the Empire!" "It's a long story," Gazelle grumbled. "And you're supposed to be down in that village living cheery as can be with your merry band of friends. Yet here you are. Neither of us want to spend the next hour exchanging sob stories, so why don't we cut to the chase? I want my sister. You have her. And she's no use to you. Please just give her back." Starlight wavered, freshly shaken from all she had seen. "This isn't a good time." "Of course it isn't." Gazelle's claws flexed and unflexed, squealing against the fused glass around the crater. "There is no such thing as a good time when I'm missing what I need to live! But I brought a trade to make it worth your while. Now just-" Starlight looked around, but she didn't see anything with him. She looked more, and her gaze slowly drifted upwards, up past the tropical treetops and sea of blue mist to the star-strewn heavens above, the full moon hanging overhead... and along with it, there hung the orange harmony comet of the Immortal Dream. She looked back to Gazelle, trembling all over. As exhausted as she was from her climb, there was nothing that could stop her from realizing what this meant. "I think you'll find this quite generous of me-" Gazelle began. Starlight didn't let him finish. Her horn exploded with power, targeting the ground beneath her hooves. The ship floated high, so high that even a pegasus might think twice about soaring for it, and unicorns or earth ponies wouldn't even think about reaching it long enough to label it as impossible. But she was Eylista, and impossibility wasn't even a concept to her. The ground erupted in a tall spire of crystal, carrying her at the top, pushing her upwards and closer faster than Gazelle could even watch. "Maple!" Starlight roared, the wind tearing around her as she ascended into the heavens. "Valey! You better not have hurt my friends!" Gazelle was too far away to even hear her. The ship was growing closer, rapidly, even. And yet as the ground shrank away beneath her, she could feel her control over the base of the column weakening. She was too far away, and yet not nearly to the ship yet, hovering in the skies above. There was a limit to her power. This wasn't enough. Starlight leaped, catapulting herself off the pillar as it fragmented and shattered beneath her, putting every last bit of strength she had into her legs, but the Dream was still so far away... She reached out a hoof for it, stretching at the apex of her arc, but she wasn't close enough. She couldn't reach her friends. She started to fall. It couldn't end here. Starlight teleported. She appeared in a burst, straining her horn to reach as far as possible. The horizon grew around her, a brief moment of clarity washing over her senses as she exited the flash, the entire Aldenfold arrayed ahead and around her for her to see. Yet as far as she had come, the ship wasn't close enough. It still hung in the heavens like an untouchable moon. Again, Starlight started to fall. Starlight teleported. Her horn burned with pain. The Eylista crater wasn't a harmonic flame; it may have restored her memories and purged her grayness, but it didn't give her any magical boost like the ones she felt after visiting the trees, and now she had used three powerful spells back to back, each one pushing herself to her limits. Cold air spiked around her as she rose through the atmosphere, knocking against her headache and giving her a brief second to fight for breath before she started falling. But the ship... It was right above her. It was just a few feet away. Starlight overchanneled her horn, forcing energy through it for one last spell. It was a pitiful teleport, one with barely any range, but it was enough. She popped through the hull and through the floorboards, landing in the ship's observation room, winded and panting, her newly-regained magic already shot for a week of recuperation. But she was here. Images of Kinmari floated through her dizzy mind, of spike breath and flames and students she was helpless to protect before a newly-minted tyrant on his inaugural rampage. She remembered the first time she had fought Gazelle, with Valey at her side under a storm in Izvaldi, and imagined how differently that would go if he could part her from her cutie mark in a single blow. Scenes blazed through her head of Gazelle catching them unawares, devouring Valey's pendant that she had worked so hard to retrieve, of separating Maple and Amber and Shinespark from their talents and rendering the group's best fighters useless when she was gone and all their magical weapons were here with her. Her mountaineering saddlebags were gone, left behind after she had taken them off to see her memory. Her personal ones were still with her. An artifice and two blades... Her horn was shot, so that was all she had. Starlight forced herself painfully to her hooves. Whatever Gazelle had done to her friends, she had to find them, no matter the cost. The dining hall was empty. Not just empty, there were no signs of a scuffle. The lights were out, but the ship hummed with energy, the engine working at proper capacity. She felt the floor bob faintly beneath her as she strolled under the raised table, no mess or blood to be seen. Starlight increased her pace, running into the kitchen. All the counters were clean, save for one space where someone had prepared dinner and not quite finished cleaning. The cupboards were closed, and the utensils were all where they belonged... Not even an errant knife someone had drawn to defend themselves. There was nothing. She tore through the pantry, its stockpiles empty after the monthlong flight of good eating from Kinmari. A few bags of food sat here and there, but not enough to make room to hide prisoners or bodies. None of them looked terribly disturbed, either. There hadn't been a scuffle in the previous rooms, and this one was no different. Starlight burst into the cargo hold. If she was trying to keep anyone captive, this was where she would put them... Nothing. Starlight's breathing sped up, panic creeping in on her already-strained mind. Her friends had to be here. They had to still be safe, somewhere she could save them. Gazelle had this ship, he had taken it, gone through them... The cabin hallway was next. Starlight's horn was already at its limit, but she pushed it further, sliding open all the doors with telekinesis as she ran. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. No signs of a struggle. No prisoners. Some of the beds were even leisurely unmade. What was happening...!? Starlight skidded through the library, all the books in their cases that had been installed in the Kinmari renovation to keep them from falling out during turbulence like they had done so many times before. But they didn't even look jostled inside. Why was the ship so peaceful and in order? Starlight dashed onto the landing, the engine room door open already. Inside, the harmony extractor thrummed with orange energy, a windigo heart connected and the shielded suitcase with the others sitting closed nearby. Starlight's heart pressed against her lungs, making it difficult to breathe. She was on the landing. The only place left to check was the deck and the bridge. Steeling herself, she pulled together her exhausted, faltering body and continued her climb, stepping out onto the deck under the stars. The night wind roared by through Starlight's ears as she stepped out onto the deck of the Immortal Dream. It was empty, but it didn't stay that way for long. With a flash of feathers, Gazelle soared up and over the railing, pivoting around and twirling into a stumbling landing. He looked up at her and got to his paws, ragged and panting. "You're insane," Gazelle whispered, choking for breath after his flight. "How did you climb all the way up here?" Starlight lit her horn. "To protect my friends from you." "Hello, they aren't here!?" Gazelle spat. "Maybe you noticed? You really think I could steal this thing from them!?" Starlight paused. Yes, that was exactly what she had imagined... "You look like you've been in a fight," she pointed out. Gazelle rolled his eyes and gave a ragged sigh. "I was shot down by a bigger fish called the Equestrian border guards. Unluckily for me, the bleeding hearts in Ironridge saw it somehow and came to find me, and none of them were smart enough to just finish the job while I was weakened. And then suddenly your friends fly in, all without you, and immediately go off to have a party with that Arambai? I'm not stupid enough to take on your friends, but Ironridge security barely raised a hoof to stop me from taking this after your friends got off." Starlight shuddered. She could see everyone arriving in Ironridge, thinking the Dream would be safe in Arambai's care, a cunning sphinx slipping past anyone who had been left to watch it... but the image wasn't nearly as strong as the one of Gazelle savaging the students at Kinmari, with her friends' faces superimposed across his targets. "I d-don't believe you." Starlight raised a hoof and pointed, her voice trembling from mental and physical exhaustion. "Why wouldn't you fight them? You're the one who's insane. You attack students for no reason and won't listen to anyone who tells you to stop!" "I was within my rights," Gazelle sighed. "But look at me now! I saw you, you know." He prowled in place, not daring to provoke Starlight by coming closer. "I came all the way to that little hamlet down south of here, in the middle of the night. I saw you and all your friends curled up together on that bed, happily sleeping and showing off your wonderful existence. It wasn't hard to track you. I've known where that thing is ever since you stole back my sister!" He flung a paw at Starlight's saddlebags, pointing a glistening, lethal talon. "She's right there, isn't she!?" Starlight's eyes widened. "How? No you didn't!" "Yes I did," Gazelle rasped, "and I ran away because you're cursed to haunt me forever. I thought even death would be preferable to dancing this dance any longer, but apparently I can't make up my sad little mind. When I saw all your friends show up without you in tow? Maybe all together, you can fight me. Maybe on your own, I stand a chance. But who knows if that's what I want? I can't even makeup my mind whether I want to run away or fight you and let you kill me!" Starlight bristled. "But look at you, though," Gazelle continued, kneading his claws against the deck. "Don't you look like a sorry mess? What happened to your friends? Why did they leave you? Don't you want to change that?" "Shut up," Starlight hissed. "I told you, this is not a good time to talk to me about that!" "Sore subject. I thought so." Gazelle rolled his eyes. "Here's your ship. Where will you take it? I couldn't care less. Across these mountains to your friends in Ironridge? Just don't get blasted by Equestrians, and it'll be easy. Yours, for the low price of my sister. I don't care where I am if I can just have her... I don't need it. Please, take the deal." Starlight shuddered. Starlight stared. "I don't trust you," she warned, tension building in her voice. "If I trade you for this ship and go back to Sires Hollow and you go back to the north, how do I know you won't make my friends' lives miserable!? You'll try to take over the world and they'll have to stop you, or..." Gazelle gave her a serious look. "I could swear on my sister. Would that work for you?" "But..." Starlight panted, every instinct screaming at her to remember Kinmari. To remember what Gazelle drove Crystal to... "I could swear to leave them alone," Gazelle offered, waving a paw. "I could pledge to back off, turn tail and run the moment one of them shows their face! I could pledge to aid them if they ever ask it. I'm very strong. Or I could pledge to hire them, offering them jobs wherever I set up next. I could offer them excellent, safe and secure lives..." "Hire them?" Starlight narrowed her eyes. Gazelle, this ship, Kinmari, her gray visions, Eylista, Sires Hollow, Maple, Fluffy, Jamjars. Her higher thoughts were about to give up and go with her instincts: Gazelle was a monster in Kinmari, he would threaten everyone no matter where he was in the world, and she should stop him now. Gazelle batted his ears. "Hire them? Oh, yes. The way I got free, you see... Garsheeva returned. She thinks the age of sphinxes is at an end, yet doesn't want to perish herself. She wants her brands back, the ones in your little sword. She offered to bring back my Lyn if I returned with her stockpile. I scratch her back, she scratches mine..." His jagged teeth flashed. "But she could be just as unhinged as I am. Who wants two of us running around in the world? And your friends know an awful lot about bringing ponies back from the dead. I'd make them my royal scientists, they could work on restoring Lyn for me, the benefits would be excellent, I'd get what I want, you wouldn't have to give up that pile yourself, we wouldn't have Garsheeva to think about... Try to tell me there's a loser in that deal." Starlight didn't trust herself to think through the implications of asking Gazelle to employ her friends. "I don't trust you," she hissed, horn still glowing, dropping into a crouch. "Why won't you listen when I told you this is a bad time!?" Gazelle shrugged. "We could also fight, if that's the direction you're pushing. Winner takes this ship and Lyn together, not that I need the former and not that you have any use for the latter. The loser gets the consolation prize of not having to deal with this fetid world ever again. I'm fed up with it. You look fed up with it. Perhaps they'd even be the real winner." "Nnngh..." Starlight stared him down. Her bones ached, her muscles were slush, her horn was burned out, and yet he looked equally as bad. His feathers were singed, one side badly gashed, his tail was frayed and he had fresh scars on his face that looked like they were born from an exploding windshield. "The world would be a better place without you in it." Gazelle rolled his eyes. "Believe me, I know. You think I can't see what I am? Sphinxes are monsters. And this is a world where only the strong can rule... We exist to make the world just like we are. We were born to rule, and we weren't made to be nice about it. The victor is always right when there's no one left to argue with them. But what happens when their greatest detractors are themselves?" Starlight swallowed. "You're wrong," she said, taking a step forward. "It's not a world where only bad things can get their way. The world does care. It's just broken." "So?" Gazelle snorted. "It's still the way it is. You can claw your way to the top and slice through everyone who won't fall in line, or you can settle for failure and desolation. And you're stronger than I am. We both know it. You're fated to win." "You're wrong!" Starlight insisted, voice rising above the torrenting winds. "That's not right! Because I've done everything I can to be a good pony, and if I was at the top, I would be able to fix the world and make it perfect so I wouldn't feel like I have to try anymore!" Gazelle scoffed. "Change the world? We change the world with nations, empires and boundaries, armies and wars. We control the ponies in it, their trade, travel, loyalties and beliefs and religions. We make them worship us or fear us, influence their every action and in doing so control them, shaping their lives with our mere existence! We can shape everything in the world, everything there is to shape... but changing the laws of the world that cause it to work that way? Changing the world itself, not just the things in it?" "That's what I'm talking about," Starlight said. "It's broken." "You tell me." "It is!" Starlight insisted. "You shouldn't have lost your sister! You shouldn't have whatever it is that makes you go insane and get bloodlust all the time! And I shouldn't be unable to find a home because I'm always running away from places that aren't good enough! If I was as strong as all that, I wouldn't settle for ruling ponies. I'd want to make the world itself so we're all equal and no one has to have cutie marks they didn't ask for that force them to be a hero when they didn't ask for it! It would be a place where there are no goddesses who make everyone think batponies are evil, there are no borders that keep you from being friends with whoever you like, no reason everyone can't know everyone and no one has to move away or leave... Why would you settle for being the strongest when you clearly hate it just as much as I do!?" "Pathetic!" Gazelle snarled. "Because that's not the way the world works! Don't taunt me with notions like that!" Starlight straightened up. "It's not a notion, and I'm not taunting you. It's what I have to do if I ever want to be free. Now go away and leave my friends alone." "You can't do that," Gazelle scoffed. "Even Celestia and Garsheeva can only rule the world, not change it away from rule of the strong. And you know I can't do that either. Even if I promised to leave them alone, could a thing like you ever trust me? You're just as broken as I am." "Maybe I am," Starlight replied. "So maybe I'd be doing you a favor too by stopping you." "I welcome it!" Gazelle spread his wings and beckoned, refusing to make the first move. "Just don't come crying over my grave when you realize there's nothing at the top but being a tyrant." Starlight opened her saddlebags, pulling out the Generosity crystal containing her artifice and pressing it against her flanks. She couldn't do this if she was weakened. She needed every bit of her power. It melded into her, and the pain in her horn subsided, her power source replaced by the cutie mark on her flanks instead. "I won't," she promised. "I can change the world. If my power is good for nothing else, I can. And if you think I can't, you have no idea who you're dealing with." Gazelle hissed as her aura flickered, its power swelling again. With a secondary flash of light, the black sword was re-bonded, and a ring of runic light flared around Starlight's barrel. The sword rose in the air beside her, and Starlight charged. "I don't fight fillies," Gazelle growled, readying his paws to slash as she approached, his voice growing to a fever pitch. "This is your funeral!" Starlight dove, staying close to the sword to maximize the strength of its swings, the heavens and the harmony comet blazing around her. They were so high, the moon itself seemed larger in the sky, its gray light glinting off the black sword as it swelled to its normal size, stabbing and swinging in a pair of carefully-timed blows. Gazelle jumped back from one and dodged to the side of the other, retaliating with a vicious pair of swings of his own. Starlight's horn flared, encasing a hoof in crystal as she dodged the first one, raising her improvised shield to block the second. Crack! Gazelle struck her, and her exhausted legs failed, the force of the blow bowling her over backwards. "Nnngh...!" Starlight landed in a heap, Gazelle prowling closer. "Didn't you listen?" the prince hissed. "I told you, I don't fight fillies! We're so similar, why can't we just get along? Is it so much to trust someone almost as strong as yourself!?" He swung again, and Starlight channeled a Nightmare Module through the sword, conjuring Luna's shield and rebuffing him easily. She climbed to her hooves, using the window it granted to swing again, and Gazelle rolled to the side, barely dodging in time. "Yes it is!" Starlight snarled, readying for another attack. "Because you're dangerous!" "Anyone you can't control is!" Gazelle flashed his claws, curling into a ball and flipping forward, making it impossible to tell where he would strike from. But Starlight still had her shield, so she didn't need to, bracing against the impact as he ineffectively bounced off. He landed upright, tail lashing. "You think you'll ever be able to live in a world where the strong don't rule if it means trusting everyone else not to abuse the power you share?" Gazelle paced in a circle around her, looking for an opening. "Or is it just that you don't trust yourself, instead?" Starlight panted, still hiding in her shield. "Don't make me answer that!" she cried. "I know I can't, and no, I don't! Because that's not how the world works... because it's broken! And that's exactly what I need to change to be happy!" "Who gave you these grandiose ideas of what you're capable of?" Gazelle growled, still pacing. "Was it you? Looking at yourself in a mirror and seeing your power, and getting too big for your role? Give up on that dream and stop trying! The only thing ponies like us are good for is ruling, and we're only good at it when we define what good is! You'll only hurt yourself if you try to fight fate! Why can't you see I'm trying to help you!?" "Since when have you ever been trying to help me?" Starlight rasped. "When I purged your panic attacks in Kinmari?" Gazelle raised an eyebrow. "I have a distinct memory of doing that. Was that me?" Starlight bit her lip. Was that what he really thought he was doing? "You thought I was Gwendolyn." "An easy mistake to make," Gazelle replied, still pacing. "You're both dangerous, to yourselves and everyone around you. You're both fillies. I once tried to help someone like that, by giving her an Empire she didn't have to go insane to rule, and it was impossible! And now you're lecturing me about wanting to change not just one continent so you don't have to be a tyrant, but the entire world? Spare me the salt in my wounds!" "You once tried to?" Starlight cried. "Well, what are you doing now!?" "Mostly waiting for you to drop that stupid shield!" FLAAAAASH! Gazelle plowed into the shield, claws spread wide, attempting to lift it off the ground. Starlight's eyes widened. Could he do that? It didn't feel like it... "If you want to fight, stop hiding and fight me!" Gazelle roared. "Don't you raise my bloodlust for nothing, Starlight! Get out here or I'll leave and go murder your putrid friends!" Starlight's eyes widened. "No!" The shield vanished, and she rushed forward, plunging the black sword deep into Gazelle's chest, the hilt held both with her magic and forehooves. It ran all the way through, out his back, and she collided with him, pushing him just a little further. Gazelle stared at her. Starlight stared back. "Don't threaten my friends." "Sorry to mention it," Gazelle replied, not very paralyzed. "But you have cheating tools to help you out? Well, so do I!" An explosion of power forced her away and threw her across the deck, and the sword fell out of Gazelle's chest, energy wrapping around him and blossoming from his coat, his burns and injuries melting and fading away. Starlight climbed back to her hooves as he roared, shaking. "What!? But you were injured..." "Turns out I have a little more control over my regeneration than I thought," Gazelle replied. "You thought I wouldn't bring any brands when I knew there would be a fight? I had several already from my journey here, stealing moon glass in the Empire. And it turns out your ship had crates of extra to spare!" He flexed his wings, newly healed and restored, and Starlight thought he stood almost an inch taller. "I thought I'd play the feeble part, avoid intimidating you, see if you would pity me and be willing to bargain... No dice. And it looks like it makes that thing useless, too." Starlight focused, re-summoning the sword... Gazelle opened his mouth and fired, a blast of spikey breath energy lancing out. But his aim was off, slightly to the right, and Starlight easily dodged. Before she could complete the move, he fired again, this time to her left. Starlight had to fall to the right to dodge, and this time she was pincered between the attacks' spiky residue. There was a third blast, coming straight for her. She had to teleport, but she couldn't predict what place would be safe. She'd just have to dodge- Starlight came out of her teleport, and there was already a blast traveling straight for her by the time the flash cleared from her eyes. The sword arrived at her side, but it was too late for a shield. She had already been hit. Gazelle prowled forward, opening his mouth and preparing to inhale. "Much better..." The spikes raked across Starlight's flesh, like she had been caught in a net woven of thorns. Even the tiniest movement filled every limb with pain, but she screamed regardless. "Stop!" "No," Gazelle replied, inhaling harder. Starlight felt her connection to the artifice weaken, and with it, her control over the black sword. She stabbed at him one more time. Nothing happened. "How did you hit me...?" she sniffed, fighting, though she knew she was trapped. Her horn couldn't light like this, with Gazelle's spiky aura covering it, couldn't teleport her to safety and couldn't pull out any other weapons to strike at him with. She tried to use another Nightmare Module, any of them, but the spells fizzled as her connection to the sword weakened further. The artifice faded entirely from Starlight's flanks, Gazelle taking on a brief glow as it was consumed. He pointed at a claw at her saddlebags, Starlight still trapped by his breath. "Lyn," he shivered, doubling over from the cutie mark's power. "Aaagh... She's there... You can't hide her from me... Can't hide her anywhere!" He dashed forward, a single claw severing the strap on Starlight's saddlebags, and another knocking her out of the spikes, far across the deck to the other side. With a shredding of loyal fabric, Gazelle tore apart the bags that had followed Starlight through her entire journey, Fluffy's sketchbook bouncing off through the railing and over the edge and Maple's land title deed blowing away on the winds. Starlight reached a wretched hoof for her last treasures, her strength spent. "No..." "Yes..." Gazelle picked up the moon glass sword, holding it before him. "Lyn!" Starlight's horn exploded into the strongest telekinetic aura of her life, the consequences to her body forgotten, plunging the sword deep into his waiting jaw and embedding the blade in the back of his throat. "DIE!" It struck, sticking in Gazelle with a vicious choking sound, and he brought his paws to his neck to fight it. Starlight could feel the sword, feel a part of herself that had been used to make it, feel all the cutie marks contained with it and the ones within Gazelle, feel him still fighting to absorb it... She fought back. Starlight pulled, yanking on the cutie marks, trying to steal them back just like she had in Kinmari, sweat tearing through her bangs as her horn caught on fire and darkness flashed in the edges of her eyes. This was too much. She would go blind for this, but she had to...! Gazelle was stronger than he had been then. He fought back. "No...!" Starlight pushed herself further, praying for any tiny drops of strength her body had seen fit to hide from her all this time. "Eylista, Aegis, Glimmer, anyone help me!" She was gaining ground... but her horn couldn't hold out. Gazelle bit down, severing the pommel, and like that Starlight's control over the blade vanished, her body spasming out of control. Moon glass crunched, lightning flaring around Gazelle's body and crackling through the heavens as his size instantly doubled, the harmony comet burning angrily in response. A few pea-sized fragments sprayed against Starlight's face from the force with which he sundered it, one landing on the deck just before her trembling, agonized hooves. "LYN..." Gazelle's voice had changed along with his size, energy still coursing over his body. Starlight saw the tiny bead of moon glass, and refused to give in. With a crackle of blackness, she rose to her hooves, her vision darkening and graying around her. The pain vanished in her horn as her ability to use it vanished altogether, the Nightmare Modules preserving her and forbidding her from falling prey to her frail body's weakness. Starlight's size swelled as well as she activated the Tyranny Module once again, and she faced down Gazelle with a ferocious growl. Gazelle met her eyes, his own reduced to plasmatic pools of power he hadn't yet adjusted to. "GO AWAY," he commanded. "I HAVE WHAT I CAME FOR." Starlight charged, her horn bubbling with black energy, still good for casting Nightmare Modules if nothing else. She couldn't let this stand. "You want some of this? How would you like it if I made you forget about Lyn altogether!?" Gazelle's eye sockets widened. With lightning reflexes, he reached down, took the fallen black sword, and swung it at Starlight with brutal speed, aiming to repel her charge like a batter hitting a baseball. Starlight switched her Nightmare Module to the shield at the last second. The sword met it. Time seemed to slow as they connected... and the shield lost out, shattering like a storm of breaking glass. Gazelle pivoted into a savage backswing, clubbing Starlight in the chest with the hilt of the sword, lifting her up and into a terrible arc. For half an instant, they were together, and his whispering voice found her ears: "Looks like I lose. I'm the one that has to survive... I'm jealous." And then Starlight was airborne. First, she was rising, and then her arc evened off, the harmony comet bright in her vision. And then she started to fall. The railing appeared between her and Gazelle. She was off the edge of the ship. Starlight tried to light her horn, but nothing happened. Starlight tried to use a Nightmare Module, but none were made for this. Because the true downfall of using the Nightmare Modules wasn't the emotional side effects, it wasn't the temptation of power, it wasn't losing her horn and it wasn't any of the ways ponies might treat her: it was that they had been designed for an immortal alicorn goddess, and alicorns had wings. There were no safeguards Luna had made for this. No ways to cover this weakness. Starlight had begun her journey by falling off the Aldenfold, and here at the end, she ended it with a fall.