MickeyAdaptus

My real name is Thomas

"She did? Hmmm, well, to be fairly honest here I can't really know for certain if it would be a good idea. Thing is, I don't know anything about magic, I haven't seen anyone use it to heal others beforehand, I am a field medic, not a full-fledged doctor that performs operations and surgery. I guess you could give it a try if you truly believe it might work, you are the parent here after all." The medic admitted to Luna "Tough to be safe, you might want to ask your sister on how she did it, or perhaps even let her do it, your son could die if something goes wrong, this is not something lightly that we are talking about it, we are technically trying to do something that only a surgeon would do." "If it is worth the risk, I am taking it, it will become worse if I will keep it there." Jack said "Tough you are right about Evelyn, it is what tends to keep me going in difficult times." Jack said to Evelyn with a smile or atleast the best smile he could muster because of how he was feeling.

"We will see." Was all that that one of the unicorns said. They eventually arrived at Canterlot, the 2 unicorns stood up when they had landed, and walked out the carriage. Out of the unicorn pair, the one named Bright Horn nudged his fellow unicorn, as an indicator, though it was not apparent to the others what it meant, only that it meant something. "We will see how this little accusation of yours will hold, Bright Horn will be getting the Captain, I am sure that you know in what a tight spot you are now." The unicorn said to Staunch with a mocking voice.

"A hero, I never really wanted to become a hero, all I wanted was to give others a better future, whether I would be considered a hero or not really struck me as something important to myself, I never cared much for such fame or attention, all I desire is to stay near those who I hold hear, and at the same time help out those who I are in need of that help, that has always been my primary objective." "But then... I get conflicted because I do alot of things, but then come moments... Where I don't want to die... I am not sure if I should see that as a weakness or not, it really does hinder me in a way, but at the same time, it doesn't... I don't really know what to make of it." Jack admitted. The medic was looking inside the wound after he had opened a bit, and then deeply frowned. "Oh boy, this doesn't look good... We will have to open you up in the area where your upper torso is located, the bullet has gone even deeper and had shifted over time. But it will be Risky because this means you could bleed out and die when i do this, we are talking about something very deep... So deep that by the time I get the bullet out, you would already be dead, which really isn't an option, but then again i don't see any other way..." The medic mentioned after he had been looking thoroughly at the wound.

Jack thought for a moment, as he did not know what to talk about specifically. "Well, i actually wanted to give you something soon, but i am not sure when is the right time, since we will be busy soon, i can't imagine-" Jack gritted his teeth at the sudden pain that was starting to arise in his wound, but he tried to fight againts the pain. "I can't imagine what will happen ahead, we are in a tight, and i am not even sure how we will go through all of this." Jack admitted.

Karthspire thought for a moment and then responded. "Your suggestion seems like a good idea, though I do personally think if we have 2 leaders that will lead a group just to be sure, this is for a good reason, should something happen to one of the leaders, the other can take over right away, where with one leading figure the group would be thrown into disarray without a leading figure who can keep the situation under control. I would rather do the following, you will lead the first group, but someone else will be aiding you in the leading part, her name is Therisha, She is quite skilled when it comes to leading fast-paced attacks, whether it is hit and run attacks or the need for fast remobilisation. And she can read the terrain like a book, meaning she knows where the cover is best, or which type of soldier has a better advantage at a given position." Karthspire said to him. "Tough now we will have to wait for the others of your group since they are not part of my army but still aid us, I think it is only proper that they also are given a chance in which group they would like to be placed. Tough i might have to choose for one of them if said person wants to join in a group where or she won't fit in well." "If the others arrive, could you explain to them what i have told everyone here? I will be busy asking where everyone would want to be placed." Karthspire asked Windphaser. He then started talking to some of the soldiers individually, waiting for the other Equestrians to arrive. "Sorry, sorry, but i am afraid i can't be more carefull then this, i will have to open up the wound more, and i don't have access to any machines, i have no magic, or any pain killers for that matter, i can only promise i will try as carefull as i can, but this is not exactly easy when i have to work with what i currently have instead of being back in the city, where we have all kinds of tools and even some equipment that could help me with this situation." The medic admitted. "Please make it fast, even if you to tear me open completely, please do it fast..." Jack said weakly.

The unicorns looked at Staunch like he was crazy, but of course, they were trying to hide their true reactions. "Broking the oath? Planning to act againts Equestria? Have you gone mad? We have been in the Solar Guard for 3 years, serving faithfully under her majesty, and almost got killed againts these green barbarians, giving our lives for Equestria, why would we even consider treason if we would go through all these things?" One of the unicorn's asked Staunch. "He is right you know, besides, you hold no authority over us, you are a private like us, just because you have been serving longer than us doesn't give you the right to draw assumptions like this and follow up with a disarmament order." The other unicorn told Staunch with a glare. "We are going to tell the Captain about this, I am sure he wouldn't appreciate that one of his own soldiers is falsely accusing his own fellow guards of his own benefit!" It was apparent that these 2 Unicorns where keeping up a pretty calm poker face, despite knowing that Staunch had managed to overhear them, they were still acting like his accusations where false.

"You make a fair point there, it could potentially work, but some problems need to be fixed here, we would need to plan on when we would do this split up, right now it would be too risky, as the squad that will fight, it will end up getting too far behind while the others would already be traveling further, and turning back midway won't work either... And then we have the other thing." Karthspire said as he mentioned with his head to Jack. "We have got 2 wounded, I can guarantee everyone here that they won't be fairing good when another battle happens, that war machine aside, they can attack us with so many possibilities and so many ways to ambush or surprise attack us, no matter how much the wounded will be protected, you just can't guarantee someone's safety when they are on the battlefield.." "I suggest that if we follow this plan, we create a 3rd group as well, which should consist of those who can move fast but are able to carry the wounded at the same time. We have the first group fight back againts our enemies, while the second one tries to lead the War machine away from the first group, and then the 3rd group travels towards the Conversion center, but at the same time tries to avoid our enemies with fast movement and hiding, because when you wounded among you, you would prefer to avoid conflict, that way you could atleast prevent them from getting hurt even further." Karthspire said. "While we are still working out that first part, we atleast got a follow up on that, Alright people, if any of you prefer to be placed in a specific group, now is your time to say it, but do keep in mind that we will be following the way of what works out best, now... Any preferred placements?" Karthspire asked everyone. Jack blinked a few times, but his vision was still a little blurry, mostly due to exhaustion. "I really hope so, it really does hurt.." Jack admitted. "Well, it's logical that it hurts, your ribcage has suffered a good amount of damage to its structure, a good deal of your tissue has been destroyed and you are bleeding from the inside. Not only that, but that wound on your shoulder seemed to have gotten swollen, it had been left untreated for too long... Did no one pay any notice to that? Dear me..." The medic said as he started opening up Jack's bullet wound a bit better to get a good look at it, which caused Jack to scream in pain for a moment.

"Good work there Evelyn, I knew I could count on you, same goes for those Equestrians there. Though I do worry about our entire situation at hand, we are being tracked without a doubt, our scouts have spotted scout drones, which is apparently capable of cloaking inside the sand, and have been tracking our movements ever since, which means we will be followed no matter where we go." Karthspire said as he stared into the distance. "Sir, how about we try that sandstorm manoeuvre again? Surely-" The officer who said that got interrupted. "No, I think you remember how it turned out last time, if it weren't for the heroic efforts of most, then we would have perished, in the middle of the desert, no cover, and moving very slowly on food. Fighting an open battle in this desert guarantees our demise because we have no available cover, while our enemies just rely on their numbers." Karthspire replied. "You are bringing this up now, but if you have known this earlier then us, surely you have come up with a plan beforehand? You do know how to get us out of this mess, right?...." Betamor said to him "No, I haven't been able to come up with anything... Nothing proper atleast, because we are in a tight situation. The best we can do is travel at an uttermost speed and hope we can outrun our enemies, we have too much of a disadvantage to fight a proper battle in this desert without lots of casualties on our side. Perhaps we should send those who are not capable of fighting further ahead with lots of speed while those who are more stronger will be travelling a bit behind in order to slow down our enemies. Any of you have a plan for this situation? I am open to suggestions now." Karthspire said as he looked at everyone, mostly Evelyn and his offers in particular, but also if anyone else of the Equestrian group would happen to have arrived. It was during this moment that the Doctor was inspecting Jack's wound.

The space marine captain looked back for a moment, he wasn't required to hear what Maple was saying to her soldiers to realise how much they distrusted his chapter, he could just see it at the way they were acting, Maple in particular. But he then turned his head back and started to walk back into the camp, the space marines who had been watching the ponies had never left their position, but watching their every move right now. But one thing was obvious that the Captain seemed rather unfazed by this entire conversation, he personally did not care much whether there would be a war or peace between his Chapter and the Ponies of Equestria, because should they declare war, he was fully aware that the ponies would not dare to risk major attacks due to the ork problem, all he had to do was play his cards right, it was far from the first time that he had faced such oppisition, only this time he could use the ork problem as an advantage so that his chapter would not be considered the main focus of attack, since the orks where rampaging when it came to attacks, and would constantly launch attacks everywhere. And should the Orks attacks the Space marines, he could still defend his current base of operations, or even move his camp somewhere else, because he had one big advantage that the ponies didn't have, a mobile camp that he could constantly move when needed, while the ponies had towns, cities, settlements, which technically couldn't be moved due to the buildings and other valuable structures like farms, rivers for water supplies, and he knew it. But the main factor that was playing here is that Space Marines where not meant as diplomats, but where living weapons, the Imperial Guard, who was the main military of the Imperium would have been easier with negotiations, but even then, the Imperium's distaste and disgust againts other's aliens was a common thing for most humans, aliens like the orks didn't exactly help with lowering humanity's distaste againts aliens overall. The Captain was waiting to see how things would play out, and he admitted to himself that he actually enjoyed the prospect of this cold war going on, it was atleast something then the usual cases wich where things like only fighting the orks, dealing with Chaos invasions, Eldar trickery and many other things that plagued the Imperium. This ordeal would test his skills as a war commander, and he liked that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2 suspicious ponies who were still there in their same place start talking again. "You head towards the Barracks and keep everypony busy when we return, while I make a b-line straight for the hideout, but make sure to bring a hostage and a possession subject, we exactly have 2 hours, so make it fast once we return to Canterlot." One of the unicorns said to the other, it was apparent that they were going to do something.

It was quiet in the camp until Evelyn's voice boomed from all over the place. Everyone looked and saw Evelyn having landed somewhere nearby. "Get them a medic, and you." Karthspire pointed to another soldier. "I want you to patrol the surrounding areas. Now go!" He shouted to his soldiers, as he seemed in an bad mood. "I would like to know what the hell is going on here..." He muttered to himself as he walked towards the other officers, discussing on what was going on. One of the medics ran over to Evelyn. "What happened? I only heard some talk about something on here nearby." The Medic asked her, it was obvious that he wanted to know what was going on before he would start looking at Jack, perhaps he could then judge better on what things he had to use during the treathment.

Santa is at it again.

'You do claim that you are willing to throw away your life that easy, but I am having trouble believing that, your outside may say you are a martyr, but on the inside, you wouldn't want to bear, you know why? Your family, if you are dead, you abandon your own family, and who will protect them? Your brother would be devastated, your father and mother as well. And if you don't care about your own future, do you atleast care about the future of your family, say what you want about me involving your family like this, but what you are saying DOES involve them, because it is YOUR family.' 'And I can understand your point about thinking you are not needed, but there is one place where you are needed, your family. Many are going to risk their lives saving your mother soon, and if you just happen to die only, later on, all of the sacrifices that have been made to save your mother will be rendered worthless, because the attempt to reunite your very family would not come to pass in the end, which is one of the reasons you are saving her am I right?' 'While I am not trying to reach into sour subjects here, it is something that had needed to be said, Jack had to cross such a bridge quite a few times, and so have you, but not all of those bridges have been passed for you yet, this is one of them.' Kiran thought to her. 'But don't get me wrong, we all want Valtrek death, more than anyone else. But challenging him won't do anything good if you don't know of a way how to beat him, we have all tried to shoot, stab or blow him up, but we can all safely assume that he is one of us anymore, he is something different, his appearance is just another way to mock us for our failures. This entire war is a way to mock us because he could have wiped us out long ago, but he doesn't... He had started to almost every race in the galaxy but left us partially alive, you know why? To mock us, to see what we have become, only for the last 30 years that alive thing has come to an end, only he is taking his damn sweet time of killing us... You can easily realise it by the way his forces are acting, he could have launched planet-wide invasions with armies that could cripple our already scattered and weakened forces, but he doesn't...' 'You know why? Because he knows we can't do anything really, not anything significant, he can just retake anything that we have recaptured. And even with the revelation of all of you, the entirety of your Equestria, he doesn't seem to be afraid in the slightest, else he would have sent 3/4 of his armies to demolish the planet, but he hasn't... That force he had sent to Equestria before was just way to small... It was just another mask to plot something bigger, all I can say is to stay away from him until there is something that could harm or better yet destroy him, because magic at this point hasn't worked in the slightest...' Kiran said 'Maple, think about what i said here, you don't even have to respond, i don't expect an answer, i just wan't you to think about what i said, and reflect on what you are thinking is right, i am not an expert when it comes to emotions, but i sure know alot about it from my own experience, Jack sure changed me in that regard... Spending years togheter in some caged, where rusted chains where hurting us beyond what we could bear... Anyways, i have to do some things, just because i no longer have a body doesn't mean i am unable to do something, i need to make sure that the virus in Jack's body is not progressing to far.' --------------------------------------- 'Do you know if we are almost there? I can't really see alot, my vision is a bit blurry right now, can't see much about you and the sky really, or rather, the stars that are in the night sky.' Jack tought to Evelyn.

''We should talk about the Valtrek situation later, we would need to spend hours of talking in order to get good into that concept, because I have alot to say about that.' Kiran thought to her. He then paused for a moment. 'You know, you might not be aware of it, but you are becoming one of us more and more, the fact that you admit you took your luxury for granted is a big step, especially for someone like you who has been experiencing that luxury for most of your life. But I think why Jack is sometimes uncomfortable around you or some others of your group is because he is still a true follower of the traditions and culture that our ancestors have built up, and more importantly sees Aliah as something that others can take an example of. The fact that none of you really are interested of doing anything with it does keep a bit of a hole between relations, let me explain why this is the matter, because it's different then all of you seem to presume as of yet.' 'With tradition and culture, we use those words very loosely, we don't worship our ancestors or have any religious acts, none of that nonsense... I think you can relate to how some heroes of your race have done deeds that are remembered to this very day, where they are known among legends and heroes of your race right? We have those too, but we see our ancient heroes not just as forgotten legends and honour them by placing a few statues, we see their deeds as a sign of admiration.' 'Some of those heroes still walk among us to this very day, There is Amriel Adaptus, the current prince of and leader of the Terran race, not only did he idealise the term *shadow walker*, but he is the grandson of Aliah, I think you can imagine how much people look up to him.' 'Then there is Clan Karviah, he is an absolute hero, Karthspire respects Clan more than anyone else in existance, and will constantly talk about him when he is talking about of his war stories. Clan is considered to be the strongest Raukan alive, not just because of feets in terms of strength and combat experience, but the way he masters the bezerker flaw that all Raukan have, he controls his own like it is not even there, outside of battle, he is calmer than ever, but once the battle starts to get tense, he charges into battle like a complete bezerker, his weapon called the Axe of Morkai cleaves trough enemies with absolute ease. Not only that, but he seems to have this inspiring feel, whenever he is leading the battle, those who are fighting alongside him seem to lose all doubt and fight harder then ever before, I can know this, I have had the chance to fight alongside him in the past.' 'And then we have Silver, oh boy... everyone's view on him can differ, for my own view, there is a rather very tense feeling between me and him, he was the one who ordered me to be put on the firing line, and would have gotten me shot for desertion. But I cannot deny that he is an uttermost smart tactician, and his experience is the very reason why we haven't lost this war yet. That is the sole reason why I haven't beat him to an inch of life. That ignorant bastard...' 'There are some more notable ones, but there is one you might already know, you know who that is? Caerson... He might be very secretive and in denial about his accomplishments, but he has done things that saved countless of lives, I am going to tell you his biggest an dearest secret. Caerson and Amriel where very close, at some point Amriel had gotten possessed, so in order to save his life, Caerson used genetic manipulation, and so forced the possessor to be bound inside Amriel like a prison, but this did take a pretty dark turn, because not only had Amriel now a very dangerous entity trapped inside of him, he was now capable of accessing its powers... I think you can see where this is going? Caerson had turned his prince and best friend into a walking time bomb with very dangerous powers, and with that very act created the term *shadow walker*.' 'To give you a description of what a shadow walker is, it is a person who uses dark and dangerous methods on themselves in order to battle their enemies. There are different ways someone can become a shadow walker, but the most popular one is injecting yourself with the virus, but not let it reach to a point where you still retain most of your personality and still have control over your own body. The shadow walker gene makes it possible to halt the virus to a certain point and stop it from progressing, but it has major consequences, one of them is that everyone around you will start to call you an abomination and usually will want to kill you. Even those dear to you will start to despise you for using methods that have started this entire war, to begin with. While Amriel is the embodiment leader of this Shadow walker thing, Caerson is the one who made it all possible, something that has turned him into a former shell of himself. That is pretty much why he has become the way he is now, dressing in cloaks in order to hide his own shame behind it. Gotta have pity with the man, I haven't seen him in a long, long, time.' 'And I admit that I have grown to respect you more than before, perhaps because I can see things in you that are similar to myself, or because I have become a man that has nothing left beside the prospect of vengeance, and uttermost retribution. Then you start to feel things that you never knew you had before.' 'But also, not to burst your bubble... But Celestia is still stronger than you, not by a whole lot. You do surpass her in terms of battle strategy and how you take on your opponents, there is no question about that. But I think you are forgetting she has alot of untapped potential, Jack has been pleading Celestia and Luna to fight more for a good reason, it is only recently that she has started to be more active in battle. If she would be jumping and air flipping like you do in battle, she would surpass you for sure. You have been utilizing your skill in battle for most of your life while she has been very inactive, sitting on her throne sipping tea, the but potential she had a thousand years ago never left, but has been lying dormant for far too long, as much as it might hurt your pride, you are going to have and accept that fact, I think a good lesson here is to drop all the competition in who is stronger and instead focus on doing your part, at what you are good at.' 'Because I am going to say something here that will have alot of purpose to you, there are those who are always will be able to go stronger than you, but strength doesn't mean much if you don't utilize it to your fullest potential, and the only way you can utilize that potential to its fullest is if you start taking a single combat role rather then take multiple. Celestia is both a magic user and a heavy weapon user at the same time, and strong as she may be, she will never be able to utilize one path completely if she uses both, but I think that seems to fit her best. You have the advantage of not having magic, or atleast not being able to use it, because this way you are not hindered by the prospect that you CAN use it, thus it can motivate you more to complete a single combat role like being marksman of spear user, rather than trying to multiple paths at the same time but never realising your full potential.' 'Once you get that new body, you will be getting a fresh start as well, what I know about you is that you are good with that bow of yours, but also are very experienced with spears. Don't get the wrong tough, you should still learn multiple things, but if there are situations where you need to be at your best, you need to choose the path that you have utilized completely. What I am trying to say here is, if you, for example, choose to use a spear user role, utilize that completely, drop your marksman training and other roles altogether and only focus on the spear training. In situations where you are forced to use your bow, use your bow, and in that sense, you are training as well since you are using it.' 'What I personally think? You should utilize that spear role of yours, because you can reach heights beyond what you are aware of, but at the same time, drop that competition thought altogether, don't strive to become the strongest, you are trying to force yourself that, and thus slow yourself down without realising it. If there is one mindset that will help you strive the best is *I don't care about how far I go or how strong I become, I am one among thousands, but I don't fight for the sake of my own desires, I fight to strive a future for others and thus so will others for me, because in the end we all stand united.*, That is one of Aliah's famous quotes when he addressed his students, and ironically, those 4 famous individuals I named followed that advice, and look what happened to them, they became heroes, did things that most would falter at. Remember this very specific quote I am going to tell you, and don't interject or try to form an argument againts it, just listen to it, and whether you want to follow it or want to ignore it is your choice.' '*Those who seek to strive for the uttermost power and want to be praised will only get stuck in the false dream that is clouding their judgement, those who deem pride and their own needs to be more important then others will start a path that will give nothing but loneliness and arrogance. Those who drop every ounce of their desires and utilize the advice given from those around him will strive to uttermost heights, where greed, arrogance, pride or selfishness will never play a part. Desires are the thing that stops you from becoming a hero, those who claim to be heroes are the ones who will never get the attention that they desire, only doubt, and start to think if they really are the heroes that they claim to be.*' Kiran was saying this quote to her in such a way where he was using his own thoughts as a way to make his own voice sound like Aliah's in that very quote, creating an inspiring effect. 'I think you can see why so many respect him like that? I sure know that Jack looks up to him like some sort of Deity, which I find pretty hilarious. But I see Aliah more as a person who knew what he was talking about, and based his words on what he had experienced, rather than thinking what was right. Of course, he managed to follow his own words, because to the people who had known him, they described him as an odd person, normally every person has this form of selfishness, but they said Aliah was acting like he was completely devoid of those things, almost as he had never been born with them, go figure on how strange that sounds...' Kiran thought to her. 'I did ramble on for far to long, but atleast I got my words across.' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Yeah, she did, perhaps i should have shown it better that i appreciated it, but i bet you already know why i wasn't capable of doing it better, i am just very distrustful around others, well, except around You and Luna, well Festus also for that matter. The matter of the fact is that i want to be around specific people at specific moments, but when it is not that person, i tend to feel uncomfortable, and just avoid the situation. I guess i...' Jack stopped in mid-thought, as he was just too tired to say anything, and started to close his eyes. He wasn't falling asleep but he tried to stop focusing on his surroundings, in order to stop any anticipation in the hope time would go faster for his mind. But he held on tight to her scales, to make sure he would get blown off due to the speed they where going at.

'Yeah i think I am, even after I got shot I still decided to keep fighting regardless, all of the adrenaline was really masking my pain, but I made the wound worse in the process, i can't imagine how much deeper that bullet must have gone through all that fighting, but everyone's lives where at stake, so I really had no choice but to fight.' Jack thought to her. 'I am just worried, someone named Fluttershy had been shot before and the bullet inside her body had gone deep to the point where it had almost reached her vitals, it took Celestia with lots of her magic to get that bullet out and fix her up, I am not sure if it will be the same case for me, but who knows... I haven't exactly looked after my own health since the last couple of months.' Jack thought to her as he laid his hand down but still kept his arms tight around the saddle, the wind rushing past his face. -------------------------------------------------------------- 'I admit, I am pretty impressed with how wild you wen't againts those infected during the last few minutes, despite almost destroying yourself in the process. Tough at the same time I saw how you handled that Kid, but don't beat yourself up to much over what happened to him, he was in a blinding rage of the death of his only family, and thus was looking for a way to justify his own rage, and considering the rumours of your group spreading like a wildfire everywhere, I presume it seemed reasonable to him to accuse everyone of your group. Well... not just you guys, I think he also had something particular againts Jack, nobody is comfortable around the *marked* ones.' Kiran said to Maple

"Yeah we did, I cannot believe how well this ended, normally I would have imagined some sort of escape plan for this situation, but instead we demolished those infected entirely, hundreds, no thousands of them... That is good... Thank you all." Jack said weakly. "You might want to check around and be sure you got all of them, there might still be some around that are hiding in buildings and basements, I suggest some of you check the area completely, perhaps someone might even be hiding in one of the buildings, you may never know..." Jack reminded everyone. 'Evelyn, could you please take me back to the camp really fast? I really shouldn't have forgotten the fact that i had been hit by a hollow point bullet. Because i can feel my ribs cracking.. We should really do it fast before i damage myself even further...' Jack thought to Evelyn, it was obvious that Jack regretted the fact that he had tried to fight with such a wound, but what was even worse, if this wound was going to left like this, the parts near his ribcage could start to regrow improperly, and thus damage his overall bone structure. He needed a doctor fast.

'You mean your fire breath that was combined with the magic that I gave you before? Yes, i can do that, just give a moment, it's going to take a bit out of me.' Jack thought her as he placed his hands on her scales, and started to transfer most of his remaining magic in Evelyn. 'There, that should-' Jack paused in the middle of his thoughts as he suddenly felt his injury hurt very much, his magic had been somewhat suppressing the pain but now that his body had gotten this tired, the pain really started to get bad. 'I might end up regretting this one...' Jack thought with a grimace on his face. 'But atleast you can now set forward your plan.' He then saw Festus. "Festus, you should trust Evelyn in this, she shows what she is talking about." Jack called out to Festus. He then looked at where Maple was fighting, and knew she wasn't going to last much longer, though he wondered at the same time why she wasn't asking Celestia or Luna to take over, rather than trying to exhaust herself to her very limits like that.