Starlight stood in the bridge room and stared at Jamjars.
Her horn twinged. She remembered that moment yesterday in the bathroom where it had flared, begging the world for an acceptable target to take everything out on. Part of her wanted to do that now, against the filly who had taken her future and replaced it with herself, but she couldn't move. Time had stopped.
This was what it felt like, after the end.
Valey wasn't nearly as paralyzed. "What the bananas were you thinking!?" she snarled, stomping forward. "Did you just use our last and only-"
Jamjars' horn flashed in self-defense, the magic surge from getting her cutie mark powering her up far beyond the level of a normal unicorn. "Don't hurt me!" Jamjars squeaked as Valey was pushed back against a wall, Jamjars scrambling backward herself. Her face was still a weird mix of bliss and self-disgust, and she stopped when she ran into the base of the airship console, holding her chest and panting.
"Don't hurt you?" Amber choked. "Do you even realize what you did?"
Starlight doubted even Amber had thought that far ahead. The writ wasn't just what Maple needed to remain in Equestria, it was what she needed to...
"What I had to," Jamjars managed, wiping her muzzle and trying to calm her chaotic horn. "We're toast without Starlight. All of us. Y-You know that. And no one else would do what it takes to keep us together and keep us alive, so it had to fall to me. You made me do it by letting us get in this situation in the first place."
With that, Starlight realized it was Jamjars who didn't know what this meant, and the spell was broken. "That writ was for Maple," she stammered, voice shaking, striding forward. "Not me! I don't need it to stay here, I need it to go north! Now I couldn't follow you even if I wanted to!" Her gaze quivered, her breath too short to sustain real anger... though that could change in a heartbeat. "Letting everyone else leave and being okay with it is the hardest thing I've ever done, and now Maple can't stay with me. She was the one thing I was holding onto."
Jamjars stared back up at her. "Sure you can. You've done it before. What's stopping you?"
That could have sent Starlight over the edge. If her emotions were any lower, it probably would have, but the pressure in her heart was too high to take a direction. And in her split second of indecision, Jamjars realized that was the wrong thing to say, another power surge welling up from her horn to defend herself.
Starlight knew the blast was coming. Even though Jamjars was powered up, she could have blocked it effortlessly with crystals. In fact, she felt like she could use the Nightmare Module shield if she tried, completely unaided. But she did nothing, and stood her ground and let it happen.
It was a stronger surge than the one that threw Valey back against the wall, and Starlight was standing closer. She felt her fur singe from the force, and closed her eyes against the light, and her ears blew back, but somehow, she didn't budge an inch.
Starlight didn't really care how she had done it. Everyone else gasped.
"I could kill you," Starlight said, her twisted moon glass sword appearing at her side.
Jamjars' eyes widened. She knew it was true.
Starlight could kill her. And why didn't she? It wouldn't gain her anything, but neither would sparing this thing. She had tried to be a good pony, done everything right and gone the harmonic way, over and over and over again in hopes that it would someday pay off and the world would reward her for her hardships. But this was the end, and now she saw the extent of what every inch of it had left her, every tear and drop of effort and extra battle fought when she could have had a tantrum and done it the easy way, or not cared about the gray future or anything else that mattered. Starlight was here, right back where she started, and no longer had a say in the fate of her friends. Destiny had spoken, and the one pony she got to keep was this one.
Well, Starlight didn't want Jamjars. She wanted to rage like a windigo, trample everything, bring about that future in her visions just to spite the world for all the thanks she owed it. She wanted to lose herself, because the self she had was empty, and when she looked in a mirror she saw no ponies left standing with her for all her heartache in the north, and that wasn't a self she wanted to keep.
...But that was probably what the world wanted. And after everything else had been taken, all Starlight had left was stubbornness, herself and her dreams.
If there was any way to spite the world, anything she could possibly do, it would be to resist what it was trying to make her, fight it to her last breath, even if it killed her and she died unfulfilled and alone. Which she probably would, since she didn't have much else to live for and didn't feel like sticking around to get kicked again, unless stubborn determination just forced her to refuse to die.
"...I quit." Starlight threw her sword away, turning her back on Jamjars and walking for the door, heart so heavy she didn't know how the boat was still floating. "Get on with yourselves. Get out of here. It clearly doesn't matter how I feel, because there's nothing anyone can do to change that anyway. So just get away from me and my destiny and go home! Nothing but bad things ever happen to me, and you keep getting caught up in them. And don't bother looking back. I'll never give her the satisfaction of getting her way."
A strong black hoof grabbed her, scooping her up and halting her path. "Nuh-uh," Valey declared, holding Starlight off the ground. The guards and Fishy were watching through the door, and Valey gave them a death glare. "You can write whatever you want to your princess, but there is nothing you can do to stop us from taking her with us. Send goons after us, persecute us, try to stop us with your princess herself. We've fought gods before, and we'll take her on too if she doesn't think this is worth an exception in her law. It is not ending like this."
Starlight teleported.
"Yes it is," she said when she appeared, on the deck behind the guards, out in the open again. "You're all still friends with her. Maybe she'll follow you and give you what you want. It's not you who get punished over and over again for being good ponies. And I won't have you get hunted and chased all over again because of my bad luck. I'll be miserable either way, so you can at least be happy yourselves."
"Um, no?" Valey shadow snuck, slipping under the guards and out onto the deck, using the shadow of the bridge for cover. She raised an angry eyebrow. "There is no way I'm living happily and easily with you on your own in a state of mind like this. I was already just barely okay with the plan we did have! Kiddo, we're in this together, or not at all."
Maple pushed past the guards as well, too shocked for proper tears. "Starlight, no..."
Starlight looked away. She couldn't look at Maple like this. It was too close, the world that could have been... A world she hurt herself so much coming to accept, and had been so close to, and maybe could have lived in after all. "It's not my decision to say no to," she replied. "It's just fate. Tell the world no. Maybe reality will just change its mind and make another Writ of Harmonic Sanction drop out of thin air so we can stay together."
Maple glanced at Fishy. "I don't suppose you'd happen to have one...?"
"I'm still wrapping my head around what just happened," Fishy apologized, rubbing her mane.
"That curmudgeon," Valey growled, hovering and pointing at the bridge, "used our last Writ of Harmonic Sanction. Stole it. So either we break your border laws, or Starlight gets to stay here and live in that fancy new house you helped us set up on her own."
Fishy's ears folded. "I... I don't know what to say..."
"Hm," Silver Saddle remarked, trying to remain aloof, though a stray strand of her mane revealed even she was flustered... not least by the possibility that the law she represented now stood between Valey and something she wanted very badly. "Not every day you see this much drama come from that particular law. I don't know that I ever even learned why it's on the books in the first place."
Fluffy looked just as weightless as Starlight had felt on the way here. "What's going to happen?" she asked no one in particular, confused and looking for the ground.
"It doesn't matter," Starlight grunted, walking for the gangplank. "Nothing matters. Just get back to Riverfall and forget about me. If any amount of effort could change things, I'd have a happy ending too."
"Bananas, I said no!" Valey dropped out of the sky, landing again and barring her path. "Starlight, snap out of it! Jamjars is gonna pay, but this is not the end! Celestia's gotta let you go. There's no way she'd be rude enough to stop us after all the stuff she said on Kinmari. And if she does, we've got an edge on her. We can blackmail her, I've got a thing I've been saving..." She glanced suddenly at Fishy and the guards, folding her ears. "You're on our side here, right?"
Fishy looked sympathetic. Silver Saddle looked uncomfortable. Cardinal Foghorn just shook his head and sighed. "I'm just an impartial watchpony. What justice is is between you and Her Majesty. But I do hope she'll take your side."
"But..." Maple bit her lip, glancing between Foghorn and Starlight. "Use the spell on her. The one that detects where she's from. Maybe there's some way she has a writ already..."
Foghorn shrugged, and before Starlight could do anything about it his aura briefly flickered around her. "No dice. She's just as Equestrian as I am."
"This is wrong," Amber whispered, by far the teariest of the group. "I didn't want to say goodbye to Maple, but this isn't how I wanted us to stay together..."
"Starlight, come on," Valey coaxed, begging. "Screw these loons! So what if it makes trouble with Equestria? Has there ever been a time when any of us weren't willing to fight for you? Has there?"
"No." Starlight stopped, looking at the ground. "And that's the problem. We all deserve a happy ending, and you can't take on another fight when you're about to be free. I'm the one whose luck is cursed. All of you actually did cheer up in Kinmari and do know what it means to be happy and normal! And you won't throw that away on me!" She raised her voice, looking up and glaring at everyone. "I'm done! I've had it! It's not worth all your happiness just so I can be chased and miserable in Ironridge instead of lonely and miserable right here!"
Valey helplessly punched the deck. "Bananas! Starlight, knock it off! Jamjars is a jerk, but don't let that get to you! Please!"
"It's not Jamjars' fault." Starlight gritted her teeth and shook her head. "She just did it because something had to go wrong, and she happened to be closest. If it wasn't her, it would have been something else! Maybe the engine would have exploded and stranded you all here and taunted me even longer, or maybe I'd have an accident and touch the harmony comet and remember what I forgot in the crystal palace and be even worse off! It's all pointless!"
Fishy swallowed. "This is hard to watch."
"Starlight?" Fluffy asked, approaching cautiously. "You're scaring me..."
"Just go." Starlight ignored them, gritting her teeth at her friends. "Get out of here and forget me. Go!"
"But...!" Maple trembled, and Valey seethed.
Suddenly, Shinespark appeared between them, touching their shoulders. "We should go," she whispered.
"What!?" Valey gave her a look more betrayed than she had given Jamjars. "But she's-!"
"She can teleport," Shinespark replied, "and we can't get any bargaining power by staying here. In Ironridge, however, I have full faith that Arambai has the city with power restored and back in the air. It was his first priority to turn the city's economy back on." She looked to Foghorn and Silver. "We will go home, and leave Starlight where your laws say she belongs. And you will report everything that's happened here to your princess and make sure she knows. I trust she will understand that a large part of her border defense currently relies on it being a secret in the north that the mountains are passable now."
Silver Saddle raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?"
"Doesn't matter." Foghorn shrugged. "We're just the messengers."
"It doesn't have to be a threat," Shinespark replied. "It's a reminder that when you have neighbors who hold an advantage over you, yet are currently friendly, it's important to address quickly any laws that might unduly hurt them."
Starlight gave her a burning look. "Don't fight Princess Celestia for me. I'm not Ironridge. It's only hurting me, not your city. And I told you, even if the border law didn't exist, fate would find some other way to make sure I never get a happily ever after."
Shinespark, a mare who had plotted for years in defense of her city, chosen her destiny to fight a foreign influence of overwhelming scale and returned to her hooves after devastating setbacks, didn't blink or flinch away. "Conversely, if you are staying here, you have no ability to tell me and my city what we will and won't do for the ponies I care about."
Starlight snarled. "Don't you get the point!? I'm not worth it! No matter how much effort you spend on me, it'll all be for nothing because things like this keep happening to me no matter how much effort you spend!"
Shinespark raised an eyebrow. "Very well. Then I won't spend effort on you. I'll spend it on the rest of my friends who are devastated by this loss and won't rest until they do have that happily ever after, with you, together. You're strong, Starlight, but you're not the only power on this ship. We are a team, and we fight all for one and one for all."
Starlight gritted her teeth.
"Yeah." Valey put a hoof on Shinespark's shoulder. "You tell her, girl."
Maple sniffed again. "Starlight... Please don't make me leave you like this... I'll do anything for your future, and this isn't how I wanted you to settle down at all..."
"We're not leaving her," Valey insisted, nodding at Maple. "You heard Sparky. Screw collecting more writs. We're gonna push this and we're gonna make this right, and everyone else can agree with us or move aside."
Starlight looked at the deck again. "And how much did your determination do to stop Jamjars from stealing the writ? You can't fight fate except by beating your head against it over and over until you're too broken to try."
She didn't add that she wasn't done trying. She might have lost everything, but the world could never take her stubbornness. She still wasn't going to become the monster it wanted to see. If there was nothing else she could have in her life, then whenever her death came, it would be on her own terms, and she would at least still have this.
"...Fine," Amber sobbed, turning away and running down the stairs in a trail of tears. "But we will see you again! Mark my words, Starlight, this isn't the end! You were the most special thing to ever happen to my best friend, and I won't let it end like this! I'll be back, and you just try to stop me!"
Starlight numbly watched her go.
"...Well." Fishy swallowed, an audible lump in her throat. "Do you, uhh... want to come with me, Starlight? I'll never make you stay in that house by yourself. You can stay with me until we find a real place for you to go."
"Don't bother!" Valey shouted over her shoulder, marching for the bridge. "We'll have this sorted before you even make it back to town, just watch and see!"
Shinespark slowly nodded. "If you're staying here, best get off the boat. We haven't a moment to lose."
The guards nodded, leaving first. Fluffy shuffled anxiously near Fishy and Starlight, her namesake tail held tight between her legs. "I'm sure she can stay with me and my parents for a night," she offered, mane flat against her skull, making her look very small.
"I appreciate the offer, hon." Fishy nudged her along with a hoof as well. "But let's take things one step at a time, okay? This isn't my forte. First I need to find someone who can deal with this..."
Starlight followed them off, already knowing there was no one. She was the strongest pony she knew, and even she couldn't fight her destiny. It was only worth trying for the sake of stubbornness, not because she had anything to actually achieve. She stepped onto the gangplank-
"Starlight," Maple choked, standing alone on the deck.
Starlight's ears were already folded. She didn't want to look.
"Starlight, here," Maple insisted through her tears. "Something to remember me by."
Wordlessly, Starlight turned around. It was a sealed scroll of parchment, and for a moment, she almost thought Maple had found another Writ of Harmonic Sanction.
"This is my wish from Garsheeva," Maple said, holding out the parchment. "It's the land title deed where we once wanted to... build our town. The place where we would settle. You remember what's underneath this land."
A Tree of Harmony. Starlight nodded. "What good will that even do me?"
"Probably nothing," Maple sniffed. "It's just a piece of paper. But I wanted you to have something... Even if you hate your life now, it's a reminder of all the good dreams we shared together, right? And... someday... things will get better. You may not want Shinespark's help, but she's just as stubborn as you are, and Valey is too. So you hang onto this for me, and you can give it back when we see each other again."
Starlight took the scroll. It even smelled like Maple. She didn't want to cry too.
"We'll be back," Maple said, reaching in for a hug. "I'll be back. I promise."
All Starlight's life, she had been at the mercy of her own potential, forced to fight for her own happy ending until she gave up and only spite could carry her on. Ever since Sunburst, she had wished for someone to look up to, someone who would fight for her, who could wave away all her problems and shield her so she wouldn't have to try anymore. And here, after she had given up... Maybe, here that was.
"Promise," Starlight sniffed, returning the hug. "Mom."
The hug didn't last. Time passed, and it was over. Time passed, and Starlight was on the gangplank, and then she wasn't, and then the gangplank was gone and the comet was brighter and the ship was rising, and soon it was gone across the vertical horizon.
It was over.
Starlight was alone.