Twilamia Origins
Twilamia Origins
Load Full StoryYou stared at the large crystal structure that was the castle of friendship, a frown creased onto your face. You’d gotten a letter via dragon fire that Twilight needed to see you straight away, but you’d encountered an insurmountable obstacle.
Doors.
While back in the human world doors were easily overcome with a turn of the knob, you were not in the human world. You found yourself in Equestria, the land of ponies and friendship, and the setting for the show back in the human world: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
It seemed the show had left out one ‘tiny’ detail.
The ponies of this world were not ‘little’ by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, even small fillies and colts were taller than you, if only by a few inches. The doors before you were built with that tallness in mind, not your meager stature. On Twilight alone you only came up to the bottom of her chest, but you could have sworn yesterday that you were at her knees. She seems to grow taller every day, if only to spite you.
You sigh, and lift your hand. Since you couldn’t open the door, you’d have to get Twilight’s attention some other way. You knocked at the door as loud as you could.
The sound you produced would probably have put Fluttershy’s whispering voice to shame.
You groaned in aggravation and went to try again, only this time the door opened right before your hand touched it, prompting you to fall forward. Thankfully, something soft and cushy was there to break your fall.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, Princess of Friendship, Savior of Equestria, and man this pony had a lot of titles, stood in the doorway. She seemed confused at first, looking left and right before finally looking down towards her legs, one of which you’d promptly face planted into.
“Oh, Anon!” She giggled before she pushed her leg forward. You stumbled backwards a bit, but managed to remain standing. “You got my letter!”
“It arrived right as I was eating breakfast, yes.” Breakfast was an overstatement. The only thing to eat that wasn’t Pinkie’s 24/7 desserts were vegetables or fruit, which you liked fine but man, you really wish Fluttershy hadn’t caught you stealing eggs from her hen house.
“Good, I have a favor to ask.” She turned away from the door. You followed behind her, watching the tip of her lavender tail brush the floor as she trotted. You had to jog to even attempt to keep up with her, there were so many twists and turns in this castle you were afraid you’d get lost if you lost sight of her.
“So I was over by Fluttershy’s Cottage the other day,” She began, turning another corner. You really had to try to keep up now; it was difficult to hear her when she was too far ahead of you.
“Twilight, can you slo-“
“She wanted the latest encyclopedia of exotic animals that I had, but I decided to surprise her by bringing it to her instead.” She continued as if she hadn’t heard you, which she probably hadn’t.
You’d decided to try and make a grab for Twilight’s bobbing tail. You came close, but every time you made a reach for it, it swayed just out of reach.
“I decided to bring some books on the ecosystems and geography of some of the places listed in the encyclopedia, since I know that if she borrows some of my books to do research on exotic animals, odds are she’ll be making a trip there soon.” Got it! Your hands closed on a few strands of Twilight’s tail. You quickly embraced it and gave it a good yank.
Twilight stopped mid canter, then looked back at her tail. Seeing you hanging off the end of it, she blushed. “Oh, I’m so sorry Anon! I wasn’t paying attention!” She lifted her tail up and twisted it around so that you fell onto her back. “I’ll let you stay up there, okay?” You sighed in relief. “So anyways, while I was leaving, I passed by the Everfree Forest, which isn’t anything new. The path to get to Zecora’s Hut is right around Fluttershy’s cottage anyways, and I’ve been trying to convince some ponies around here to give the Everfree a chance again, so I-“
“Twilight.” You interrupted, absentmindedly scratching some of the lavender colored fuzz at the back of her neck. “Your point?”
“Oh!” Twilight’s ears folded back. “Right.” God, she was adorable when she did that. You silently cursed whatever higher power made these ponies so cute. “So I passed by the Everfree and I thought I…saw something…” her eyes narrowed.
“An accurate statement.” You said, continuing to scratch at the twi fuzz. “The Everfree is full of somethings.”
“This wasn’t just any something.” Twilight’s voice wavered in uncertainty. “It looked like… well, it looked like me.”
Your hands stopped scratching at her coat for a moment. “Okay, a little out of the ordinary, I’ll agree, but it can still be explained.”
Twilight spared a glance at her back. “Oh really? How’s that?”
“Changelings.” Your fingers continued their scritch-scratching. Twilight slightly shuddered under your touch. You reveled in your small victory.
“The Changelings are reformed, if you remember correctly.” Twilight pointed out.
“By Glimglam, yes.” Your hand found its way into her mane. You stretched forward to reach further up Twilight’s head.
“Her name is Starlight Glimmer. I honestly don’t know why you keep insisting on coming up with these ridiculous names for-“ Twilight stopped completely, her eyes widened as her ear began to twitch.
You seemed to have found the sweet spot, and you rubbed at it vigorously. She shuddered, and then leaned into your touch, humming contentedly. After a moment though, she snapped back to attention. “Anon,” an all too familiar magenta aura covered you, plucking you off of purple smart’s back and hovering you in front of her face. “Would you please stop that?!” An all too perfect opportunity presented itself. Your moment of truth came now. Your destiny was within sight.
With perfect accuracy, you reached out your finger and pressed it against her fuzzy snout. “Boop.” She flinched back with a scrunched muzzle, her nose twitching. Glory was yours.
Purple smart let out a frustrated groan before setting you down on the friendship table, as you’d taken to calling it. “Can you just take this seriously for a moment?”
“Twilight, I have been taking this seriously from the very beginning.” You reassured her. “It is in fact, you who need to relax.” Twilight blinked, before she simply rolled her eyes and turned to a chalkboard that she must have rolled in here earlier.
“The point is I don’t see why any changeling would take my form and attempt to lure me into the Everfree. That doesn’t make any sense.” There were numerous doodles of changelings on the chalkboards; next to various equations that you couldn’t even begin to make sense of, though it all ended with an equal sign and a question mark.
“Chrysalis?” You offered.
“The last sighting of her saw her heading towards the badlands.” Twilight flipped the chalkboard around, this time showing a map of Equestria. She grabbed a pointer in her mouth and pointed to the badlands, clear on the other side of Equestria. “Thot wazz jest two dayss ago.” Twilight attempted to speak with her mouth muffled by the pointer. She set it back down before attempting to speak again. “There’s no way she could make it from the badlands to the Everfree Forest in just two days, so it has to be something else.”
You observed all of Twilight’s work, and you had to admit, you were impressed. This was nothing new for her, but something was obviously eating at her, and you couldn’t help but feel a little guilt for brushing it off so easily earlier. “Okay,” you began, and gave her the most ‘serious’ look you could muster. “So, why tell me all of this? What do you want me to do?” Twilight’s ears perked, and she smiled. You had a feeling you were going to regret this.
“Well, the annual Princess summons starts tomorrow, and I haven’t finished preparing.” Twilight suddenly ran across the room, reared herself up and pulled some of the books from the bottom shelf with her mouth. “Speaking of, I’ll need some of these to take with me…” after several more seconds of mumbling, she turned back to you. “Anyways, with all the preparing I have left to do today, I really don’t have time to look into this. Sooo…” she smiled wide, eyes shining as she looked at you expectantly.
You stared at her for several more seconds until you finally got what she was suggesting. “…You want me to look into this for you.“
“Oh, yes! I thought you’d never ask!” Twilight suddenly ran into the next room.
“Well I didn’t really-“ before you could say anymore, a notepad scaled down to your size and a pen to match were laid in front of you.
“I don’t need you to go into the Everfree itself, just down by Fluttershy’s cottage, and write down what you see! It’s important, please!”
“Twilight, I don’t really feel comfortable getting close to a forest full of giant monst-“ you began, but were again interrupted.
“Oh, right! You’ll need this,” she put a flashlight next to the notepad. “And don’t worry about monsters; they’re only deep in the forest, so you’ll be fine!”
“Now wait a minute-“ suddenly in a magenta flash, you found yourself outside on Twilight’s front doorstep. You turned around, to see the front door ajar. Twilight suddenly appeared in the doorway.
“Okay, so just go out to the forest near Fluttershy’s cottage and I’ll…” she stopped to catch her breath. “…I’ll be here, looking forward to what you find, okay? Thanks!” before you could even open your mouth this time, the door was closed. You were by yourself once more.
You thought about knocking again and having a few words with purple smart, but you had a feeling that’d be pointless. So, with some accompanied grumbling, you picked up the pencil, notepad, and flashlight she’d so helpfully teleported out with you and headed in the direction of the Everfree.
~*~
It was starting to get dark out. That much was apparent on the approach of the massive, looming forest, but the darkness just seemed that much more pronounced when you were so close to it. You shook the feeling off and switched on your flashlight, pointing it into the darkness of the trees.
You weren’t some pony who was afraid of the very sight of the Everfree. Plants growing by themselves, animals caring for themselves, clouds moving all on their own? That was all common where you came from. Though you couldn’t deny that the forest was spooky, especially when you considered all the things that lived inside it.
Shining your light from this way and that, you couldn’t see anything. Nothing outstanding that was worth noting, and certainly not anything that looked like Twilight. You were about ready to call it quits when you noticed something strange. At first you thought you were seeing things, but it was unmistakable.
A pair of slitted, glowing eyes stared at you from the darkness. You focused your flashlight on them, but as soon as the light hit them they were gone. All you saw was a glimpse of purple, and a few lingering leaves as they floated to the ground.
“H-Hey!” You grabbed your flashlight with both hands to try to steady it, but the beam of light shook nonetheless. “Is someone there?”
Silence. The only thing you heard was your own uneven breathing. In fact, it seemed too quiet. No crickets chirped, no distant sound of animal noise, everything had just fallen dead silent.
You gulped and kept your eyes trained on the spot where you thought you’d seen something. Suddenly, a shadow shot out from behind the tree you were looking at. You shouted and stumbled backwards, but the figure disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, behind another tree deeper into the forest. You clenched your flash light hard, trying to ignore the unease that gnawed at your stomach. “Okay… Just find out what it is and get out…” You reassured yourself. “Book horse is gonna owe me big after this…” You carefully stepped forward, fallen leaves crunching under your feet as you quietly stepped into the shadows of the forest. You kept the tree the shadow had rushed behind in sight as you slowly crept towards it, being careful not to be too loud.
Once you reached it, you could hear your heart thudding in your ears. You steeled yourself and slowly looked around the side of the tree…
...Nothing but empty air.
You sighed and grabbed the notebook Twilight had given you. ‘illusions, maybe? Figures moving in the trees, but no visible sign of anything.‘ You sighed and closed the notebook. Looked like you were going to have to return to Twilight empty handed, which wasn’t something you were too torn up about. Before you could turn to leave though, something tugged on your leg.
“Wh-“ your leg was yanked into the air by some unseen force, causing you to topple over onto your back. “Hey! Let me go!” You grabbed at whatever had your leg, but there was nothing there. Suddenly, the force tugged again, dragging you along the forest floor, deeper into the Everfree. “W-wait!” You turned onto your belly, trying to grab at passing tree roots, plants, anything to stop your progress. “Help!”
After several seconds of dragging you along, the tugging stopped. You scrambled backwards, towards a tree. The mysterious assailant had dragged you into some type of a clearing. The dying rays of light reflected on the clouds overhead as sunset began. It was getting dark.
You tried to quiet your panicked breaths as you glanced back the way you’d come. The exit of the forest was within sight still, just much further away.
With one last glance around the clearing, you decided to try to make a run for it. Which would have been a good idea, had a large shadowy figure not suddenly found itself sitting directly in your path.
”Well, well, well…” A familiar voice spoke in a sultry, seductive tone. ”What do we have here?~” You had to blink and rub your eyes to make sure you weren’t dreaming. The thing before you was definitely Twilight, it had her face, her mane, her horn, her forelegs, and it looked exactly like her. You were about to ask why she’d given you such a scare before you saw the rest of her body. Where her back legs should have been, her body instead suddenly turned scaly. A long, powerful looking snake tail held her up and curled several times underneath of her until it ended somewhere behind her. The most prominent feature about her though was the long snake tongue she was currently running over her prominent fangs. ”I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like you before.”
You scrambled back to your feet, clutching your flashlight close to your body. “I, uh… I g-get that a lot. H-heh.” It was no use trying to cover up how terrified you were. You knew Twilight, but the way she looked at you made you feel really uncomfortable.
The lamia with Twilight’s likeness giggled, then leaned her face down closer to you. You couldn’t help but take a small step backwards. ”You don’t have to be afraid of me, you know.” Her eyelids drooped. ”I’d never dream of hurting someone as sweet as you.”
“Well, that’s great to hear.” You chuckled nervously and stepped around the lamia. “In that case, thanks for the compliments. I have to go now, but uh… m-maybe we’ll see each other again sometime?” You turned to leave, but a sudden scaly feeling on your foot made your heart drop into your stomach.
”Go?” You tried to pull with all your might, but all it accomplished was urging her tail to wind its way up your leg. ”But you just got here. Besides, I want to take a closer look at you.~”
You flailed your arms around as the snake twilight slooowly began to drag you backwards. It only had one of your legs, but you couldn’t make any progress forward with just one leg. Well, you did, but it was down onto the ground, and gravity helped quite a bit. As you hit the ground, her scaly tail took the opportunity to loop around your midsection and lift you up. You immediately tried to pull yourself out, but this only urged her to apply a second loop, and now your arms were stuck to your sides.
You were brought up close to the twi snake, as you’ve decided to call her, and she began to circle you with interest. ”Bipedal, huh? I know the Minotaurs are bipedal, not too many other species around here are, though.~” You could feel her touching your legs, her hoof running across your thighs and down to your knees. You nearly went stiff at the contact, reflexively flinching away from her touch.
Thankfully, she left that and circled around back to you, her forked tongue flicked out occasionally as she took you in with her eyes. ”So…” she began as she placed her hooves on your cheeks. ”what should I call you?~” She raised her hoof so the tip of it nicked your nose lightly.
“Uh…” You gulped. “Anon.”
”Anon, huh?~” her forked tongue flicked out. ”Curious name, I’ll have to search my research notes to see if I can find anything about you while you’re busy.~”
“Uhm, busy?” Twilight Snakle ducked down below your sight.
”Mhmmm.~” You could feel her touching at your shoes, which you pulled up as far as you possibly could.
“Er, busy with what, exactly?” the familiar tingling sensation of magic gripped at your shoes and took them off.
”Oh, you’ll find out very soon.~” You really didn’t like the sound of that. She continued humming for a bit. ”Were you taking notes on me?” You blinked and quickly tried to think up an excuse. You could tell her everything about Twilight wanting you to come check her out, but you decided to keep that particular fact to yourself for now.
“I…I come around here every couple of days to take notes on any new stuff that pops up. The Everfree is a weird place, you know? It changes almost every day.” Silence. You could hear her scales sliding across some loose leaves, though.
”Anoooon, are you lying to me?~” Her voice had a tint of seriousness to it.
“No.” Again, silence. You could still hear her sliding around below you, but you weren’t sure what she was doing.
”Hmmmm.~” Something extremely wet, and extremely warm suddenly engulfed your legs.
“What the hell?!“ You immediately tried to pull away, but your legs were stuck fast. Something had clamped down on your thighs. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough that getting out wasn’t likely an option.
You tried kicking your legs, but that accomplished even less. There was something pulling at your legs, and if Sneklight Sparkle didn’t have you with her tail, you had a feeling it would draw you in completely. What was worse was that something was rubbing against your legs, coiling around them and messing with them like she was currently wrapping her tail around you.
Twilight Snakle’s head rose back into your vision, and as she rose up, your legs rose with her. It didn’t take you long to realize that your legs were in her mouth, and as she lifted her head they slowly slid out, until finally your bare feet slid out of her maw and dangled once more.
”Ah. Delicious.~” Her eyes closed and she slowly worked her tongue across her lips as you tried to deal with the sudden cold air that caused goose bumps to rise up on your skin.
“What was that?!” You yelled. “Did you just suck on my legs?”
Twi snek opened one eye to look down at you and chuckled. ”Well, I did say you were going to be busy, didn’t I? Don’t you know what lamias do to stallions they catch?~” You froze in place. ”It’s nothing personal Anon, you seem like a sweet guy.~” She licked her lips again. ”A really sweet guy. Lucky for you, I just happen to be a really hungry mare.~”
“Lucky?!” You yelled. “I think your definition of lucky and mine are completely different!”
Twilamia chuckled. “Well, if that shivering of yours is any indication, I think you’ll enjoy this more than you’re letting on.~” She leaned down again, her tongue reached out and licked at the side of your face, leaving a slimy trail of her saliva in its wake. ”Mmmh. I’m really going to enjoy this. I haven’t had anything to eat in ages.~”
“Wait!” You yelled. “Please, is there anything else I can do? Anything!”
Twilamia stroked her chin. ”Hm, well now that you mention it…~”
You leaned forward. “What is it?”
She smirked. ”You can struggle on the way down.~” With that, she opened her maw wide, and engulfed your entire upper body in one enormous bite.
The first thing that hit you was the mugginess. It was a lot warmer in here than it was outside, and her saliva clung to you like a second skin. You tried to struggle, but your body effortlessly slid, frictionless across her tongue as it undulated under you. Before too long though, it coiled itself around you like her tail. Her mouth closed around your hips, leaving only your legs kicking in the still cold air.
“Please, wait!” You called out, but she promptly ignored you. Instead, you were pushed roughly into her palate, a soft squishing sound plain to your ears as the excess saliva sloshed around her mouth and washed over you.
Her tongue undulated again, and you were suddenly aware of the force of gravity urging you towards the back of her throat. “Wait, no! Wai- mmrf…”
Outside, Twilamia had tilted her head completely backwards. You made a nice bulge in the beginning of her throat as she slowly bobbed her head backwards repeatedly, until your feet finally slid in. She closed her mouth, then her eyes, and focused on swallowing.
Your face pressed against the soft flesh at the back of Twilamia’s mouth before it opened up, allowing you to enter her throat. It was even warmer here, and you couldn’t even kick your feet anymore as your feet slid into Twilamia’s mouth. “Heeelp!” You tried calling out, but some of her saliva leaked into your mouth, and you coughed it out.
Her throat muscles rubbed against you from every side, gently working you downwards as the predator mare swallowed repeatedly. Each gulp echoing in your ears as the contractions pulled you further, and further down into her dark, warm, slimy depths. The corners of her mouth turned upwards, a smile on her face as she held a hoof to your bulge, gently working at it to help it along. It inched downwards ever so slowly, spurred on by her repeated swallowing and the gentle urging from the outside. Eventually, you slid down into her chest and disappeared from sight. Twilamia sighed in bliss, her tongue dangling out of her mouth as she licked her lips.
You, in the meantime, were being led along a tight, dark, and wet passage steadily downwards. Something just ahead was growling, and you could feel the vibrations in the wall around you as the surrounding muscles pushed you slowly through the thick saliva that clung to you and made your trip downwards easier. You tried to struggle, but your limbs easily slid off the surrounding fleshy surface. You could hear the sound of your captor sighing, then the steady sounds of her breathing, and the rapid thumping of her heartbeat. The further down you went, the more the thumping slowed until it was steady, calm, and almost entrancing.
It wasn’t long before your head encountered an obstacle, a large fleshy wall with a small hole in the center. You pressed up against it, but after some additional urging from the mare’s muscles, you were slooowly pushed through. The opening was immensely tight, there wasn’t any room to even squirm let alone move any part of your body. Soon enough, your head broke free, and you were looking into a spacious, growling organ.
The orifice you’d entered through squeezed you out slowly, until you drooped into the pool of liquid at the bottom. The entire chamber sagged with you in it, and you couldn’t help but shudder as all the growling you’d heard, ceased.
Outside, Twilamia held her hooves to her stomach. She bit her lip as she felt you enter, then sighed as her belly expanded under her hooves. She patted her stomach happily. ”Oh, you were so good, Anon…” She spoke in a loving tone. ”That was even better than I imagined.~” Around you, the spacious organ began to churn and groan. You stood up and tried to punch at the surrounding walls, but this didn’t seem to do much other than make your predator giggle. ”Anon, that tickles!”
You didn’t give up. You kicked, punched, shoved and did everything you could to try and make her uncomfortable, but all it seemed to do was make her burp. You collapsed in an exhausted state, the only air available to breathe was the muggy air of her insides, and even that was depleted after she burped.
Twilamia reclined against a tree and rubbed at her gurgling stomach happily. ”I might have to do some research into pony diets after this Anon, my pony stomach agrees with you surprisingly well.~” Her insides suddenly clenched, making even less space for you. “But we’re not done, not yet.~” Underneath you, another orifice opened wide. You didn’t have time to move before you were sucked down into it, forced into a tight, fleshy tube again. ”Mmmh.~” her words were distant now, but you could still make them out. Some sort of pressure from the outside pressed into you repeatedly as you followed the twists and curves of Twilamia’s insides.
~*~
This felt endless. You couldn’t even keep track of how much time you’d spent here anymore, you could only remember hours of slooowly sliding along, the darkness of Twilamia’s insides making it near impossible for you to make sense of anything, other than her soothing voice when she chose to speak to you, and the gentle pressure from the outside she applied to your form occasionally.
After what felt like an eternity of sliding through endless innards, you could feel it start to level out. The distant guttural groan told you that you were approaching some other landmark in her body. Her muffled voice came to your ears again, but you couldn’t make out what she was saying. Slowly, your legs emerged into another spacious organ. You were honestly surprised that you were still alive, or at the very least, hadn’t passed out from lack of air at this point.
This one wasn’t tall like the last stomach you’d been in was. Instead, you slowly slid along the soft, fleshy walls as you were fed into the second stomach. It expanded as you entered, and there wasn’t much room to move around anymore. This stomach was a little tighter than the last one had been, and you could feel it pulsing and gurgling around you. This, plus the added pressure from the outside, plus the lack of air, made what came next inevitable. Your eyes closed, and you finally drifted off.
Outside, Twilamia had been lying next to your bulge for quite some time. She’d been talking sweet nothings to you, rubbing at you gently as you passed through her. She could always feel some sort of faint movement from you as you went on, a stark contrast to the fight you put up when you were first swallowed, but now you’d gone still.
Twilamia’s horn was glowing brightly, and a similar aura surrounded your bulge. She sighed gently and hugged you close. ”Sleep well, Anon.~” she whispered to you, before her own eyes drifted to a close, and she passed out herself.
~*~
“So at what point were you planning on telling me that this wouldn’t be fatal?” You asked the large book horse who trotted next to you. You’d woken up next to her in the Everfree this morning, but now you were both making your way back out.
“What would’ve been the fun in that?” She asked playfully, giggling. “Besides, I told you. My magic recharges based on what I eat. The more magic I use, the hungrier I get. It just generates that much faster if the thing I eat happens to be alive.” She smirked. “Telling you that you that would’ve made you struggle a whole lot less.”
“Oh that excuses everything, absolutely everything.” You glared at her. “How long have you spent sizing me up, looking at me like I was a meal?”
“Oh I’ve planned this for a very long time.” She looked down at you. “I’ve always had an…interest in the digestive system more than any other aspect of a pony.” She blushed as her ears pinned down. “A little…more than an interest maybe, heh, um, I guess you could call it a passion? When I became an Alicorn, the hunger only got worse because I was using so much magic. Did you know that alicorns naturally radiate magic even when we aren’t actively using it? It’s what makes Celestia and Luna’s manes like they are, though Cadance and I’s magic isn’t strong enough to do that yet, we are constantly leaking off excess magic. I ended up looking into ways that I could get more magic for all I ate, and everything I could find told me that having something struggling inside you created a lot more energy than just eating regular food. The next step was just finding someone small enough. Luckily, you came along.~”
You turned to look at her, brow furrowed. “Are you saying you’ve been eying me like food since I first got here?”
“Only when you weren’t looking.” She licked her lips and drooped her eyelids. You looked away, blushing. “Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it.”
“I…uh…”
Twilight giggled again. “But seriously, Anon. Thank you for that, I never tried that before, but it worked! My magic is stronger than it was before I ran out, even!” Her horn glowed brighter, an enormous aura of magic building around it before it dove back into her horn. “Ah, being charged with magic feels so good. Haven’t felt this wonderful since I had the other princess’s magic too.”
“Well, don’t do that to me ever again!” You crossed your arms and glared at her. Twilight frowned. Her ears pinned back.
Oh no.
Her pupils grew wide.
No, no, no.
Her lip started to quiver.
Fuck.
“Without asking me first!” You finished. Twilight happily clapped her hooves together. “Great, I have a lot more experiments I want to try out! I wonder what turning myself into a bat pony would be like…” she wondered aloud.
“Knowing you, you probably won’t be wondering for long.” You sighed.
“What about a lamia and a bat pony at the same time?” You face palmed. This was going to be something you were going to regret, you just knew it. But hey, as long as it kept book horse happy, you could stand to suffer a little.
