The Maw.
Fluttershy stood alone in a cemetery, looking down at the graves of Pinkie Pie and Rarity; the only two graves in the yard. The patch of grass she and the graves were situated on floated in a murky grey oblivion. There was no wind or breeze or anything, but somehow, a wind could be heard whistling loud and clear.
Two bouquets of flowers were clamped in Fluttershy's jaws, and she gently placed them down, one over each grave. She tried not to cry, but... aw, who was she kidding. She couldn't not cry at a time like this, and she proceeded to do so over her friends. She cried her way to heaven.
"Fluttershy!" somepony else cried over the sound of non-existent gustiness that seemed to be getting louder. It came from behind, distant.
Fluttershy twisted to face a separate patch of grass, and an iron, barred gate that stood open, with three Ponies standing in it.
The real Princess Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle, with Applejack and Rainbow Dash at either side.
"Fluttershy!"
"Wake up, Fluttershy!"
Their voices echoed in the increasing wind noise, and Fluttershy simply turned away, not a care in the world.
When her floating grassy island began to quake, and a leviathan stalk shot up out of Rarity's grave, she just... sat there... gazing up at the massive green worm. She wasn't afraid. She wasn't afraid because she knew. She knew it was just a dream, and she'd wake up eventually. When the ugly tentacle proceeded to wrap itself tightly around her and pull her into the grave, she knew she'd be waking up in three... two... one...
"Fluttershy? Hello?"
"Oop, she's coming around."
"Hey, Fluttershy! Rise and shine!"
Well that was a delightful trio of voices to wake up to, and Fluttershy glanced around with hope.
... There was no pony there. Was she still dreaming?
Surveying the area, she saw that her Banshee was still there, parked on the edge of the butte she'd landed on prior to falling asleep. She'd been sleeping outside in the noisy breeze, but that didn't stop her from drifting into slumber. She had been so tired, she would've fallen asleep at the Banshee's controls, hence why she had to pull over and rest.
Browny orangey dust clouds drifted lazily by on the horizon, and Halo tapered up from behind them, completing itself above her head.
"She there?" Applejack's southern accent sounded again, and Fluttershy began to worry.
She was hearing Ponies, but she wasn't seeing Ponies. Her psyche must've got up and left.
"Where's that coming from?" she asked aloud to herself.
Twilight's voice answered, "Fluttershy, somepony wants to speak to you on the radio."
"... Ohh!"
Of course! She'd completely forgotten! Damn, she must've been tired. A mere two hours kip wasn't enough to fully re-energise her, and she just wanted to go back to sleep, even if she was just gonna have nightmares. It left her memory all fuzzy too, but it'd soon come back. It always came back.
Once she'd remembered where her radio was, she activated it and spoke groggily, "H-hello?"
"Finally!" Applejack responded from the other end. "We're so glad yer safe, Fluttershy."
"Oh, you wouldn't believe how good it is to hear from you," yawn.
"Oh, we believe it alright," Rainbow Dash entered with her tomboyish tone. "Twilight's told us about everything you've been up to! You got some serious guts, Fluttershy!"
"We're mighty proud o' ya."
The word "guts" reminded Fluttershy of her tummy ache, and she was shocked to find that it had cured. A little rest was all she needed, as it turned out. She let out another big yawn.
"Thanks, girls," she replied, happy to be talking to them, unhappy about the other two friends who weren't there. "Um... did Twilight tell you... about... um..."
"Pinkie Pie and Rarity?" Rainbow hijacked. "Yeah... she told us." She sounded much more despondent now, as did AJ.
"We're so sorry you had to be the one to find em like that, Fluttershy."
Fluttershy envisioned the farm Pony holding her hat to her chest.
*****
Rainbow flew her Pelican through the sky, above the clouds. Applejack stood in the doorway just next to her. Just visible behind the Sergeant, a number of troops rode in the back.
"I can't believe they're gone," Rainbow breathed, tearing up. "How could we just let Rarity walk right into that trap?"
"Oh, we didn't know it was a trap," responded Fluttershy.
"Aw come on, it was obviously a trap! She took directions from a Covie!" Glaring at Applejack, she grumbled, "You took directions from a Covie."
"I didn't wanna go," Applejack shot back truthfully. "I was following the Captain's orders!"
"How is it; you, Rarity and your little squad entered that... that place, and only you, Aloe n' Lotus returned?"
"Things were complicated down there."
"So complicated you lost Rarity, but those twins from the spa are perfectly ok?!"
Growing angry, AJ got in Rainbow's face. "Are you blaming me for what happened to Rarity?! I did everything I could to save her! She did everything she could to save me!" She took a pause. "... And her squad... If it weren't for her, I doubt any of us would've made it outa there alive."
From the Pelican's troop bay, a voice warbled, "She died a hero."
There was a lengthy awkward silence as Rainbow and AJ looked around, glum, the former concentrating on the view ahead.
Eventually, Fluttershy's voice buzzed over the radio, "Is everything ok in ther-"
"-And Pinkie Pie," Rainbow chose her moment to interrupt. "... I thought that Pony was invincible."
*****
Back on the butte, Fluttershy stood strong, her mane and tail blowing in the wind.
After a moment, Twilight joined in with the matter at hoof. "You girls know where you're heading?"
Together, Applejack and Rainbow hummed, "Mm-hm."
"Good. Fluttershy; expect help on this mission."
AJ chipped in, "Our last mission."
"Wait, you're coming with me?" inquired the shy, not sure if that was good or bad.
Help would be much appreciated, and to be with her friends would certainly brighten the experience. But starting from her return to Halo's control centre, Ponies had been getting picked off, one by one, and the last thing she wanted was to loose anymore friends.
"We sure as sugar are!" came Applejack's reply.
Rainbow added, "Ya didn't think we were gonna just let you enter the Filly of Autumn on your own, did you?"
"Oh... no."
"Well we'll meet you inside then!"
"Ok... I'll meet you inside." Then she commented, "Can't wait to see you again."
"Same here. Later!"
"Later!"
"Later."
The connection ended, and Fluttershy was left to gather her thoughts and memories atop the dusty butte. The butte was a good place to relax. It was only accessible by air, so the Flood would have a hard time reaching her. The Covenant still posed a threat though, but Twilight would've woken her up if things got a little crowded.
Crowded. Ha. Fluttershy gazed out over the dusty plains, not seeing a single sign of life, Covenant or otherwise.
Once Fluttershy had taken a drink from her flask, Twilight queried, "So, are you excited to unite with Applejack and Rainbow Dash once again?"
The good and bad still teetered on the scales in Fluttershy's mind.
Nether the less, she put on a feeble smile and muttered, "Oh, absolutely."
"Me too!"
Fluttershy's stomach rumbled, needing food. She hadn't eaten in far too long. Maybe she'd have time to hit the mess hall on the Filly of Autumn.
Delicately, Fluttershy touched her aching face, and winced when she felt a sting. The scars on her face hurt, her black eye hurt, and the wound she'd sustained on the side of her torso also hurt. Everything hurt, but at least she didn't feel sick anymore.
After another yawn and a stretch of the legs that felt real good, Fluttershy clambered back into her Banshee fighter and took to the dawn skies. Time to end this nightmare once and for all.
*****
Fluttershy's Banshee wailed through a narrow valley and out over an arid wasteland. The aircraft's shadow raced ahead as if eager to reach the Filly of Autumn first.
Fluttershy felt the slipstream fold in behind the aircraft's nose and tug at her armour. It felt good to be out of twisting corridors and cramped compartments, but she knew all that was going to come back in the next few minutes or so.
The first sign of the Halcyon class Cruiser's presence on Halo's surface was the hundred metre deep trench it had carved into the sandy terrain. It started where the vessel had first touched down, vanished where it had bounced, and reappeared half a klick further on. From there, the depression ran straight as an arrow to the point where the starship had finally come to rest with its blunt bow protruding over the edge of a massive precipice.
There were other aircraft flying circles around the downed beauty, all of which belonged to the Covenant, and they had no reason to suspect the incoming Banshee.
They made Fluttershy confused though, and she quizzed, "Um, Twilight? What are all these Covenant doing here?" She'd been under the impression the Autumn would be completely abandoned.
"Simple," Twilight started, Fluttershy rolling her eyes as she was about to listen to a whole lecture of un-simpleness. "When the Autumn touched down, the Covenant secured her as fast as they could, thinking we would return. We didn't, but they still guard it, just in case."
Fluttershy thought about that for a moment, wondering why the Covenant didn't just leave and help out with Flood control or locating the Truth and Reconciliation or something.
"Will they be inside the ship too?" she pondered, already knowing the answer.
"Most likely."
"Ugh."
The gargantuan jewel that was the Autumn lit up as the rays of the sun cascaded upon its battered and bruised fuselage.
An abrupt bang made the Pegasus yelp, and she felt a sudden drop of power from the Banshee. It returned immediately, but smoke began to vent from its port side where the fighter had suffered numerous plasma burns. Pieces of the fuselage began to disintegrate, flying back in the slipstream, and blue flames built up over various alien components.
"Aah! This thing is falling apart!" squealed the frightened Mare as she drew close to one of the Autumn's lifeboat bays.
Twilight strained, "It'll hold."
A rather large piece of purple metal broke off, and the Banshee shuddered as its weight distribution was skewed.
"We're not gonna make it!"
"We'll make it." Twilight was certainly keeping her cool.
Just then, another loud bang announced the death of the engines, and they never came back. The Banshee started to shed altitude. Could Fluttershy reach the lifeboat bay before falling too low?
She pulled up hard on the controls, mouth set. To the Banshee, she screamed, "Pull up! Pull up!"
BOOM! Too late...
"... You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
The Banshee had crashed right into the side of the Autumn, and the fiery wreckage went scraping all the way down to Halo. Fluttershy however, was alive and well, and clinging on for dear life to the edge of one of the air-locks. Her shields had been drained by the crash, and as she hauled herself up into the Autumn with a groan, they recharged in a shimmering gold glow.
Breathing heavily, the young Mare lay inside the air-lock that was once home to a lifeboat, and peered down at the scattering of purple debris, far below her.
She caught her breath, and Twilight joked, "Nobody suspects a thing."
The sunlight shone bright through the vast dust clouds, illuminating the lifeboat bay in a luscious gold. Fluttershy let that sun hit her haggard face for a good few seconds before sipping down some water and turning into the Autumn's gloomy interior. When would she see that light again? Would she see that light again?
She was about to exit the air-lock and enter the confines of a burnt out corridor when Twilight piped up, "Hm, seems we already have enemy activity, right outside the air-lock."
Wow, action already? Fluttershy could see where this was going.
"Already? Were... were they waiting for me?"
"No, it's just a patrol," Twilight answered, lowering Fluttershy's nerves by about one per cent. "Roll out a frag and keep that gun of yours close."
Obeying the wise AI, Fluttershy gulped and sent a frag grenade bouncing around the corner. It detonated and shook the whole deck, but nothing responded to it.
"Excellent throw, Fluttershy! You took them all out."
"All of them?" the confused Mare interrogated, thinking it had been far too easy. "Are you sure?"
"Yep, unless someone's staying still. Just step on out. Remember; keep your gun-"
"-Keep my gun close - got it."
Her gun was the needler she'd picked up, and she was prepared to fire it as she stepped out of the air-lock and into the corridor. Not a single body was in sight. However, there was some silvery pieces of scrap metal with the tell-tale Forerunner patterns engraved into them.
"Sentinels?" she wondered out loud, raising an eyebrow.
Twilight was just as perplexed as she was. "What are they doing here?"
"Well if you don't know, what hope is there?"
"Meh, I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later," diminished the AI.
Fluttershy didn't want to find out. She just wanted to go home.
Setting off walking, she scanned around, alert. Much to her distress, the Autumn wouldn't be hers. She'd been upset to find out the Covenant would be on board, and even more so when she'd discovered the Sentinels... What if the other faction were on board too? She couldn't bare the thought of running into them.
The corridor was all dented and burned from the crash, and there were a few specific patches of damage that had been caused in the fight above Halo, like bullet holes and plasma burns. There was also blood but no bodies... That didn't mean the Flood were here, did it? Maybe this section of the Autumn suffered a blow-out before it went down. Fluttershy hoped that was the case.
At the end of the corridor, Fluttershy came to a maintenance access way, and no other available route. She remembered these spooky, tightly packed ducts from the last time she was here with Pinkie Pie. If only that Mare were here now.
Reluctantly, she opened the tiny door and squeezed inside. Every surface was either burnt or dented or both, and Fluttershy had a hard time weaselling through the confining vents. Thanks to the daylight, the entrance to the maintenance access ways had been partially illuminated, but the further she tunnelled, the darker it became, and this time, she had no flashlight to call upon.
Her needler did light up her face with vivid pink, but that was about it. Everything else; she was blind to, and she relied solely on Twilight to direct her through the maze.
Everything was silent, but it wasn't an eerie silence. It was just a normal silence, and Fluttershy liked that. It helped put her fears at ease as she wormed along and came up to an open trap-door that set flush into the panelling before her. Golden daylight shimmered up out of the hole, and a ladder had been deployed, welcoming her to what appeared to be a rather peaceful part of the Filly of Autumn. Oh how wrong that was.
As soon as she arrived at the hole and Twilight said, "Its all clear," a long, sinewy rope caught her neck in a lasso and pulled down, hard. The choking Mare jarred out of the maintenance access ways and into a cluttered section of corridor, full of something she'd been praying not to see. Something she'd been praying never to see again. The Flood.
Yep, everyone in the neighbourhood had been invited, and the Flood had made the least effort to look presentable. All dirty and stinky and full of disease.
The contaminated Pony that had dragged her down wouldn't let go, and its face-mounted tentacle tightened around her throat, blocking her breath. Three more appendages supplemented its wrist, and they thrashed Fluttershy back and forth across the torso, taking chunks off her shields each time.
"Uh oh!" cried Twilight. "Quick! Get it off!"
That's what Fluttershy had been trying to do the moment she'd been snatched out the vents, and she continued to squirm wildly in the ex-pony's smelly embrace, only closing off her airways some more. She wanted to scream, but it wouldn't let her.
Since wriggling around like a big yellow worm didn't do anything, Fluttershy decided to use the little energy she had left and clench the parasite's red tipped antennae in her hooves. The combat form screeched gratingly in reaction as she yanked the bug out of it, and its body lost all power, letting her go and flopping to the deck.
Slamming the head-sized parasite into the deck made it go poof, but then a whole sea of plague came washing over her from behind. She yelped, terrified of the snarling monsters, making out their hideous features much more clearly in the daylight.
Her shields dropped to empty as the horde continued to bite and scratch, and Fluttershy felt herself being slowly torn apart. Her skin made ripping noises, her bones made snapping noises, and her mouth made screaming noises. Her fresh red blood sprayed everywhere, peppering her murderers.
"Fluttershy!" howled Twilight as her friend began to fade. "Fluttershyyyy!"
This was the end.
... Or was it?
Out of nowhere, four orange laser beams hissed and burned the Flood away. The Flood left Fluttershy bleeding on the deck as they turned to take on the Sentinels, but were killed easily by the purpose built machines.
The last combat form, an Elite, got real close to the airborne mechanisms and fired a shotgun over and over again, until only one Sentinel remained. That one Sentinel came out on top as it hosed the beast to the ground with super-heated energy, but then a couple of slippery infection forms sprang out and latched onto it, stabbing it with their tendrils. The anti-flood robot let out a synthesized drone and fell to the deck, exploding into blue flames and taking the parasites with it.
The corridor was empty and still, the smells of disease and ozone sharing the air.
"F-fluttershy?" probed Twilight, voice warbling. "Fluttershy, I know you're still alive."
Twilight knew she was still alive because of the readouts she had access to within her MJOLNIR mark five armour. But if anypony came across her as she was, laying on the deck in a pool of deep red blood, slumped within a bunch of dead Flood, they would be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
Golden light swirled around the motionless Mare as her shields regenerated, but she still didn't react in the slightest.
"Fluttershy, get up... Please get up..."
At last, Fluttershy moved. Her eyelids opened about half way, and her veined, blue eyes were revealed.
"Fluttershy? ... Do you hear me? ... Fluttershy?"
There wasn't a peep from the bloodied Mare. She just laid there, staring up at the ceiling and the hole she'd been dragged through.
"Please answer me, Fluttershy," Twilight croaked tearfully. "I... I can't bare to loose you... Not after all we've been through... We're so close."
Fluttershy's stare was vacant, almost dead. She remembered all she'd been through since waking up in cryo two. Landing on Halo and rallying the survivors. Hijacking the Truth and Reconciliation. Getting to the silent cartographer and the control room. Searching for AJ and Rarity in the swamp, only to encounter the Flood. Being beamed to the library by 343 Guilty Spark and stealing the index. Destroying the phase pulse generators. Retrieving Rarity's neural interface from the clutches of the Flood. She'd come such a long, long way, and she'd be damned if she was going to let it all be for nothing.
Interrupting the AI's woefulness, Fluttershy let out a weak moan.
"Fluttershy?"
She convulsed in her own blood and the rotting carcasses of the Flood, coughing and spluttering. Blood spat from her lips, dripped from her nose, and even trickled out from under an eye.
The AI was delighted to finally get some life out of the seemingly dead Mare. "Fluttershy! Oh, good! Good, good. I'm so glad!"
"Aaaarrrgg!" Fluttershy shrieked in agony.
Her whole body stung, especially her exposed face that had suffered many cuts. The worst pain of all though came from her right foreleg, which was all bent out of shape.
Twilight whispered soothingly, "Ssshhh-sh-sh-sh-ssshhh, it's ok. It's ok, Fluttershy. Just... just get clear of these bodies, and take as long as you need, ok... It's ok."
Fluttershy just wailed shrilly in response, choking on her own blood. She could taste the stuff in her mouth.
"Come on," nudged Twilight, careful not to rush her.
Hissing every breath, the wounded Pegasus pushed herself along on her back with her hind legs, barging past fallen Flood, their tendrils rolling underneath her. She made it to another lifeboat air-lock where the golden sunlight was brightest, and had a spectacular view of the vast, flat plains.
Body quivering and chest heaving, the blood drenched Fluttershy slowly opened her saddle bag and took out the much needed med-pack. It rattled in her shaking hoovsies as she lifted it out and dropped it on the floor beside her.
She lost energy, and just lay there, vision blurring.
"It's ok," Twilight repeated softly. "Take your time... You'll be fine... Just... please don't give up now."
"H... h... h..." came a shaky tone from Fluttershy as she attempted to project actual words.
"What is it?"
"H-how... can I... g-g-give up?" she eventually spat, putting all her strength into just opening her med-kit.
"Well I wouldn't blame you if you did," Twilight said. "You've been through so much. This would break many Ponies."
As she pulled out a clean cloth, Fluttershy replied, "I... I want to... give up, bu... I-I can't."
"Wow. What a trooper," commented the AI as Fluttershy gradually cleaned her blood soaked face. "You wouldn't believe how proud I am of you."
Once her face was relatively clean, with a whole bunch of ugly new scars standing out bold, she slapped on multiple plasters and then moved on to the pain in her right foreleg. She'd been using her left foreleg to do all the work so far, and as she winced at the twang of the two halves of a shattered cannon bone clicking against each other, she knew she'd be relying on her left foreleg a lot more.
"Oh gosh," Twilight started. "Will you be able to fix this?"
The excruciating agony made her eyes squint and water. "... Is there... anypony else... who... c-can fix this?" The stress was taking its toll on her, and she was beginning to get annoyed with Twilight.
"Well, I guess not."
That's what I thought.
She relied heavily on Twilight to give her a heads up about things like lurking beasties. The AI had made honest mistakes before, as does everypony, but nothing too serious. Until now.
"I'm so sorry, Fluttershy."
An apology was all well and good, and of course Fluttershy forgave her, but Twilight's mistake had cost her her leg.
Her fracture was quite similar to Lightning Dust's fracture, back in the winter tundra. She'd been able to treat that well enough, slotting the bone back together, bandaging it up, and securing it with a splint made out of tree branches. Fluttershy didn't need a splint though; her Spartan armour would play that role no problem. But she did need to put the bone back and bandage herself up, and as she removed the necessary parts of her armour, she braced herself for a world of hurt.
With her right foreleg revealed, she could see the extent of the damage. Unlike Lightning's open fracture, this was a closed fracture; no protruding bone or external bleeding. There was a heck of a lot of internal bleeding though, as indicated by the huge patch of purple under her yellow coat. It throbbed, and the pain stabbed her over and over again, making her grimace.
Although no bone was visible, it was certainly detectable by the disturbing bump that stuck right out of her leg; the bone pushing up against her skin.
She looked unsurely around her, searching for something she could use to bite down on; preferably a stick or a pole or a pipe. In the end, all she found was a piece of Sentinel, and she slotted it between her chops.
Before she could start performing her own operation, Twilight checked, "You ready for this?"
Fluttershy nodded and hummed an, "Nng-nng," at her, muffled by the silvery metal.
As soon as she'd answered, she stretched her damaged foreleg and pushed down hard on the lump where the broken bone stuck up. Her agonized screams were dampened by the metal in her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes shut, tears erupting from behind her eyelids.
The bone still wasn't quite in place, so she pushed harder, gave it compressions, and wailed with every drop more of energy she applied to it.
Biting down hard on the scrap of metal, she felt it crack in her teeth, and she soon ended up crunching through it. She spat out the bits of Sentinel, resuming her weeping chorus, no longer muffled.
"Aaaaarrrgg!" she screeched, forcing the bone back in place.
A final clacking noise, and she felt the two halves of brittle bone lock together, not too comfortably, and she slumped back against the bulkhead, wheezing, sobbing. It really hurt, but she'd been through the wringer now, and all that was left to do was to bandage it up and re-don her foreleg armour.
Even Twilight "ooed," baring witness to all the Mare put herself through. "You'll be ok, won't you?"
Fluttershy knew Twilight knew whether she'd be ok or not, but appreciated the AI's caring nature none the less.
"Well... I-I have my... m-m-my doubts," she grated through gnashed teeth, still feeling mighty sore.
Using her shivering left foreleg, Fluttershy wrapped bandages around her wound and took her time putting her armour back on. She took a good long drink of water from her draining supply, put the canteen and med-pack away, and allowed herself a couple of minutes to just sit and breathe.
"Ugh... Do... do we have a... t-t-time limit?" Fluttershy wondered, hoping Twilight would say something that'd take the pressure off. Craning her neck, she beheld the sandy plains and warm golden sunlight.
"Kinda," Twilight answered uneasily, not taking any pressure off. "We're racing the Flood more than anything."
There was a peaceful pause with only a slight breeze providing an ambience.
"And the monitor."
"... W-why are the - aha-aha-ahagh!" she coughed and spluttered, the taste of blood returning to her sore throat.
"What?"
"Urgh... Why are the... Flood here, anyway?"
"Oh. I wish I had a solid answer, Fluttershy."
"Nnnng..."
"It's possible they came here in search of nourishment and knowledge." Letting the annoyance enter her tone, Twilight grated, "Nourishment and knowledge that wouldn't be here if the Covenant would just get their priorities right and leave this ship alone!"
Fluttershy wasn't in the best of states, and the last thing she needed was an angry little Alicorn ranting in her brain.
Twilight realised this, and apologised, "Oh, sorry."
"... -iz kay..." Fluttershy wheezed.
After a few minutes break, it was time to get up, and Fluttershy groaned along with her tortured skeleton as she rose to her hooves. Her three hooves, to be exact. She kept her injured foreleg off the floor and limped over to the corpse of an infected Elite, trading her needler and its ammo for the shotgun it had been wielding. It was nice to finally reunite with a good ol' UPSC shotgun. They were the best weapons against the Flood. They were the best weapons against just about anything, and Fluttershy felt a teeny bit more confident behind its barrel. She was still scared as hay though, especially when a jagged shriek rolled up the corridor.
Leaving the air-lock and the pile of burnt Flood behind, she staggered on her way, deeper into the ship.
"Just take it easy," Twilight muttered.
The young Mare couldn't imagine taking things easy in a Covenant controlled, Sentinel occupied, Flood infested ship wreck. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the Autumn was more doomed than the Mistake.
She approached a broken door, jammed half open. Just through the crack, she could see nothing but shifting, beige flesh, and she could hear gurgling and gipping.
"Oh." Twilight sounded surprised.
Fluttershy was surprised too. "S-sensors... still not... working?"
"Motion sensors can't track motionless enemies, Fluttershy. They're working fine."
The pink maned Pegasus sighed. It was time to get back to her least favourite activity: Fighting.
She had the shotgun pointing forwards, but since she had enough room, she decided to back up and let her other weapon have some time in the spotlight.
"Er, are you sure about this, Fluttershy?" Twilight protested as Fluttershy unlimbered the heavy thing.
For the first time, she chose to ignore her.