//------------------------------//
// Enough To Go Around 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

In the bedroom, Starlight sat in a mostly-conscious daze, riding out her horn's waves of dizziness as Maple tended to her headache with cold, wet rags and Felicity pretended to slumber in the background. The rags helped enough for Starlight to know that the batpony was only pretending, though her horn was also finally cooling off just from not being used.

She was feeling better already. Marginally, a drop in the bucket, but still. Maybe she'd be back to her usual self if she stayed off it for a few weeks, just like normal.

Normal... This was her normal. Try to live her life, not raise too much of a fuss about herself. Something would happen, and she would blow out her horn, and her friends would move again, and she along with them. At least Gazelle hadn't broken the cycle by permanently hurting them. Just because they hadn't found success any of the last times they'd moved, looking for a new home, didn't mean they wouldn't have better luck this time.

It didn't really matter, though. Starlight couldn't find it in herself to worry about what would happen next. Because right there, with her horn broken and the enemies she broke it fighting restrained or dealt with, she was right back where she had been before.

It was familiar. As much as she didn't like being here, it was home.

And maybe it was something else, something she didn't feel like thinking hard enough to put her hoof on. She might have been able to get up and walk, if the situation called for it... but she didn't need to. As helpless as she was, her head spinning like a sawblade, it didn't matter because Maple could go bring her anything she needed.

She didn't have to care. It was nice, not needing to care.

"How are you doing?" Maple whispered, pausing with one of the rags.

"Don't stop," Starlight mumbled, her muzzle scrunched in the crook of a foreleg. "That helps."

Maple hummed in acknowledgement and obliged, the cool rag once again returning to Starlight's head.

"Hey, so..." Valey quietly appeared beside them. "I know it's probably not gonna be a good time for a while, but is this any worse of a time than the others?"

"We heard you talking," Maple softly replied. "You weren't quiet. We're going back to Ironridge, aren't we?"

Felicity's tail flicked in her feigned sleep. She was propped on a carefully-constructed mound of pillows that let her lie right side up without putting pressure on her foal, and she had a little pout on her face she was probably choosing not to hide on purpose.

"Well... uh... yeah. About that." Valey glanced between them. "We've got, uh, two Writs of Harmonic Sanction. And the princess pony says no one should look twice at us if we stick around here using them, as opposed to taking the free ones from her offer." She stepped closer to Felicity's pillow mound, staring evenly at her. "And... that's you, girl. If you can't travel and we can't stay... what do you wanna do?"

"Doesn't seem to be much of a choice," Felicity mumbled grumpily, keeping her eyes closed.

Valey shrugged. "It's totally a choice. Just one of whether we go with the flow, or say screw that and do everything we can to stay together. We're stubborn. We aren't swimming in options, but we're real good at making them."

"Darling, be real with yourself," Felicity replied. "You want to know an easy option you could take? Ignore the professionals and drag me along with you regardless. And if that sounds like a bad idea, consider that just about anything you do is going to have the same flavor to it. Taking some sound idea or good advice and throwing it away like a wad of crumpled paper because you want to prove that just because you know better doesn't mean you have to admit to yourself that some ways really are better than others."

Valey blinked hard. "What? Uh, you lost me."

Felicity sighed. "I appreciate your valiant intentions, but you aren't going to find a way to keep me and my inconvenient condition around without indulging in a whole host of other bad ideas."

"Yeah, probably not." Valey sat down on the edge of the bed, stretching her hind legs aimlessly. "Still doesn't mean you've gotta be okay with it."

Behind her, Maple spoke up. "We have two writs. Starlight and I could stay with her, if it would help."

"You and Starlight? Felicity needs one too, you know." Valey folded her forelegs and raised an eyebrow. "And either way, don't you have a history with... you know...?"

Maple looked away. "Starlight is an Equestrian. I don't know how they tell pony nationalities, but if anything, she'd need one to go back north."

"Oh bananas." Valey's ears fell. "You're right. That means even if you used one, depending on how they secure the place, you wouldn't be able to rejoin us in the north even after Felicity has her kid..."

"Yes we would," Starlight mumbled. "Didn't stop me from going there once in the first place..."

Maple looked from her to Valey. "She does have a point."

"Huh." Valey sat back and exhaled. "Still... bananas. Felicity, girl, I really don't wanna leave you alone. I'm almost tempted to grab the other writ and stay back here myself, but..."

That was enough to snap Felicity's eyes open. "But that would involve leaving all your other friends behind for me. You're really considering it though, aren't you?"

Valey groaned. "If only we had like one more writ...! Bananas. But yeah. All for one and one for all. Doctors or no, it's not going to be an easy time for you." She looked over Felicity's form and nodded sympathetically. "I don't wanna leave you alone, though. I wish there was a way to just pick you up and bring you with us."

"I still wouldn't mind staying behind," Maple volunteered. "Taking the other one. Staying with Starlight and Felicity. Of course... I don't want to ask Starlight to stay here and let all of you leave, either. A big, selfish part of me wants to ask for the other writ for her..."

"It's not selfish," Felicity interrupted, "it's caring! And you're doing it for others, are you not? If suffering through months of being bedridden on my own is the price for keeping the rest of you together, it's a price I... well... I really do mind paying. But I still owe you my life, after all. And who knows? Perhaps I'll manage to seduce a nurse if I'm all on my lonesome."

Starlight narrowed her eyes, her head pounding. "I told you, don't waste one on me! My old home is right on the way to Ironridge. If they somehow figure out and try to stop me from crossing, you can just leave me there and I'll see you all again in three weeks or so. I did it once, I can do it again."

Felicity folded her ears. "Darling-"

"Well...!" Valey loudly sighed. "It's no use fighting over all this. Felicity, I am not gonna make you stay behind, and I am not gonna make you do it on your own. But if you're gonna volunteer anyway, knowing full well that you don't have to? I will thank you harder than anyone I've ever thanked before."

Felicity looked a mix of hopeful and confused. "Now, not that I'd ever presume to even presume, darling, but I really hope you aren't offering-"

Valey waved a hoof. "Whatever you're about to guess, nah. We are going to fly to Ironridge, make sure everything's snazzy, and then I will personally do a tour of Varsidel and Yakyakistan with whoever wants to come. I'll kick a lot of face, chase down every lead I find, bribe some politicians, defraud some collectors, whatever it takes to get us a bunch more writs. Celestia's offer she thinks we need fifteen years for? I'm gonna make her look like a joke."

She waggled her eyebrows. "You watch. Forget opening the border, we're gonna get enough writs that we can all come back here on our own power, without worrying about politics, and we're gonna get 'em fast enough that I can cheer you up again before you even have your kid. How's that sound?"

Maple squinted. "Do you actually think we can do that?"

"Nyaah. Sure we can. At least, I know I can." Valey stuck out her tongue, then clasped Felicity's shoulders. "So what about it? Think that thought will help keep you afloat until we stick it to the border and get to see you again?"

"I think I'll miss your ridiculous optimism dearly," Felicity wryly chuckled. "But very well. If you can ensure I'll be in trusted hooves, I think I can survive a few months of being in a lonely, lucid coma."

Valey nuzzled her cheek. "Glad we gave you a second chance, girl."

"Don't make me change my mind, now. Or I'll find other friends while you're gone!"

"I hope you do," Valey assured, trotting back a ways. "Bananas, all of us need to branch out and chill with more than just each other. Good luck."

Slowly, she trailed off, running out of things to say. Eventually, she turned back to Maple and Starlight. "So. Now that Felicity just gave you girls her blessing, we've got one spare writ to keep you together. Equestrian filly, Riverfall mare... I'm guessing you want it, Starlight. To follow us to Ironridge with no hassles."

Starlight groggily shook her head. "No. You can't transfer them. Hold onto it so we can use it later if there's a problem. It's safer that way..."

Valey blinked and nodded. "Huh. Smart kid. Yea, okay." She stretched her wings. "We're really doing this? You three were the ones who we thought might have the most objections. Everyone else is gung ho and good to go. We're doing this song and dance again?"

"A few more times and we'll be professional nomads," Maple said with a shake of her head.

Valey snorted. "Pretty sure we passed that marker a long time ago. Hey, though. We've got a lot of work on the ship that needs to be finished, rewiring and restocking and fixing all the open floors, and probably some other business to take care of before we can set out in the first place. So if you've got any last things to take care of, take care of them within the next few days. And if you don't, just chillax. Sparky and I will get this handled, and Birdo and Amber and the others are on board too."

Maple nodded, letting her go. Valey left with a last look and a wink at Felicity, a silent promise to hang out more before they left. And then she closed the door behind her with her tail, and that was that.

They were leaving. And it wasn't just like last time: they were leaving one of their friends behind.

Starlight gave a groggy glance toward Felicity. The batpony wasn't her closest friend on the ship, but she had been nice to her several times. Starlight remembered the brightness she saw from her while under the effects of moon glass. Close or no, this wasn't a mare she was happy to be leaving behind.

But... maybe she could do it. The logical side of her brain said that Felicity didn't do much for her and Maple and Amber and Valey would still be there, and it wouldn't be the end of the world even if it felt like it for a little. On the one hoof, that wasn't much consolation if it felt like it anyway, because her feelings mattered too. But on the other, if she could do this...

It wasn't much, letting Felicity go. But maybe it would be a step in the right direction towards not being completely destroyed by losing her friends again. Maybe this was what Glimmer was trying to guide her towards.

She could survive losing Felicity. She knew this. It didn't feel great, admitting that it was true. It was like letting go of some comforting scrap of perfectionism, a tiny sliver of a perfect record that could never be perfect again without it. But it also felt necessary. It felt right, not in that it was good, but that it was true. Somewhere a week's travel away, she wondered if an orange flame she didn't remember was happy with her. She'd take all the pride she could get.

...Because if she started letting go of the ponies in her life now, how long would it be until the next one left too?

Starlight was out of answers for herself, but fighting it would mean throwing away the ones she had already found. Maybe if she could keep moving forward, she would someday live a normal life like the carefree filly she wondered if she had ever been.

Right then, with the dawn light coloring the heavily-curtained window, all there was to do was tearlessly cry herself to sleep.