The alarm clock blared. Rumble cracked his eyes open, momentarily disoriented by the unfamiliar room he'd awakened in. Oh, yeah, he'd run away last night, just for the night, just to save himself a bit of emotional turmoil. He needed to make sure his brother never found out he went to Rainbow's instead of where he’d told him.

Rumble reached for the clock to find a folded piece of paper resting atop it with his name scrawled across it. He slid it off and swatted the button underneath, ending the assault on his ears.

“Rainbow?” he called with uncertainty. He rolled over to look for her amongst the tangled sheets but the bed was empty except for him. He felt the spot where she'd been last. It was cold now as if she'd been a strange dream. He turned his attention back to the oddly placed paper and teased it open to find a note.

Squirt,

I know I sound like a broken record but I can't stress enough how sorry I am about everything. I wish I could take it back but we just have to find a way to make the best of things now.

By the time you read this I will have already left Ponyville. I might be gone for a whole year or more. I'm sorry about that too. I just have a lot of things to sort out and I don't think I can do it there… you know… in the wreckage. I won't give you the burden of being the only pony who knows where I went but I will leave you with my permission to tell anyone you feel you need to about what really happened and why everything is such a mess. Seriously, I don't want you to feel trapped in a situation where you can't get that off your back just because you think you need to protect me or something. I'm an adult theoretically. I can sort through the consequences of my actions if I need to.

You have good taste in girls. I think it's totally normal for boys your age to like full grown mares… and not get them. But it's not supposed to go the other way around. I don't want to crush you but I don't want to lead you on either. I've been struggling to come up with an appropriate way to explain how I feel about what you said to me last night. I guess flattered for one. If I were Scootaloo or you were Thunderlane, things might have been a lot more different between us. I guess I'll leave it at that.

I set an alarm for you because I know it's a school day. (You're welcome.) Although you’re going through a breakup and had a late night last night so I won't tell anyone if you decide to ditch today. But you should definitely stay in school. Feel free to eat anything you want out of my fridge. (I won't be eating it.)

I'll try to find a way for you to write me. It would be nice to have a Ponyville contact for what's going on over there while I'm gone. Stay awesome and keep your brother out of trouble.

Rainbow

Rumble folded the letter closed again and clutched it to his chest for lack of another warm body to comfort him. He flopped back on the bed and sighed as an emotional maelstrom flared up inside of him. - - -

Thunderlane,

I hope you read this and don't just throw it in the trash. I know it probably doesn't feel that way but I don't hate you. If I hated you I would have gotten you kicked off of the Wonderbolts and I wouldn't be writing a letter to you right now still trying to explain myself.

Long story short, I have so many problems that I'm running away for a while. I won't be at the Wonderbolts, (on the bench or in the air,) and I won't be living in Ponyville anymore. No, I didn't run away with someone, I'm just trying to sort my shit out. I do plan to come back eventually.

I want you to know that I don't completely regret our relationship. We're flawed ponies but we're not unsalvageable. We are the type of ponies that drive each other up the wall. We never said ‘I’m sorry.’ We never said ‘I love you.’ I don't know. Maybe that sort of thing can work when it's equal but it really just feels like we need to find someone who defuses us and makes us want to be better.

I tried in my own way to help you but I don't think it worked. I can recognize now how stubborn we both are when at first I thought it was just you. But you're also tenacious, (I think that's the right word.) That's a good quality but Your best quality is how much you care about Rumble. I just wanted some of that to come my way. Hold him tight but not too tight. And put down the bottle before you do it.

It's up to you but I hope after everything I can pull off a future where I'm flying in a delta formation with you as a teammate and I still get invited to Rumble's graduation as a friend.

Rainbow - - -

Scootaloo,

I have some bad news. I'm going away for a while to live somewhere else, maybe for a year. I hate to leave right when you're so down and I haven't gotten to hang out with you much. You'll feel better in time and when you do I hope that you can still be friends with Rumble. I know he still wants to be friends with you.

A lot of bad things have happened to me in the past month and I've caused my fair share of damage as well.

I haven't been the best big sister to you. I didn't stop to say goodbye to you or anyone else before I left. I thought it would be too difficult. I want you to understand that going away was a tough decision and it doesn't mean that I don't want to be part of your life anymore. In fact if I had to choose what makes me the saddest, it's thinking about how I'll be missing what next year has in store for you.

I hope you don't forget about me because I'll be thinking about you every day and the mare you're growing into. I promise I'll come back and when I do I want to see you first so you can show me all the new stunts you learned.

Love, Rainbow - - -

Mom and Dad,

I love you. This is going to sound totally crazy and sad but due to personal reasons I'm leaving home to go live in isolation for a while. I've been going through a lot of things that I haven't even told you about and even though this sounds drastic, I really think it's what's best for me right now. Don't worry about me though and I promise I'll explain more later.

I will miss you and your guidance that I was unable to take advantage of throughout this tough time. You won't see me for a while but I'll stay in touch by mail and maybe I can get a PO box somewhere so you have somewhere to write back to. I hope to explain the full story to you in the coming weeks which is something I haven't done for anyone yet. (It's a long story.) I hope you can forgive me for what I did and what I'm getting ready to do.

One last thing: I know this is kind of a dirt bag move so I'm not going to actually ask you to do it but I'm not paying rent anymore so they're probably going to take back my apartment sometime next month. If you want to save or take any of my stuff, go ahead. I know you have a key.

Love, Rainbow - - -

Twilight floated the paper aloft over her edge of the map table and cleared her throat.

“Dear Twilight,

Please read this to everyone at the roundtable if you can.

Friends, you may have noticed or heard about the total collapse of my work, social and personal lives as I know them. Yeah, it's not exactly what I wanted but at least at the bottom of the barrel there's always freedom. For this reason I have decided to leave Ponyville to, I guess, reinvent myself. Not forever, (before you freak out.) I'll be back some day, maybe very soon if things don't work out but it's going good at the moment. I have a place to stay and I met some nice ponies and got a new job.

I've made peace with being an ex Element but I also still have a small hope that someday I'll at least get called for a mission again. I mean, we still don't really know how it all works. Anything's possible, right?

Thank you for always being there even when it felt like I was pushing you away. I'm sorry but at the time it was the only way I thought I could cope with things. I know it sounds opposite to the teachings of friendship but I just have to find my own way right now and it's about time you learned how to get along without me anyway… But in all seriousness I hope this doesn't burn more bridges than it fixes.

Best wishes,

Rainbow”

Twilight lowered the paper with a downcast expression that was mirrored unanimously by the rest of the table.

“That's it?” asked Pinkie Pie leaning forward in her chair. “She didn't even tell us where she was going.”

“I think that was the point, darling.”

“I got this in the mail today,” added Twilight. “And there's no return address. It may not feel right to us but I think we should respect her privacy.”

“I don't understand why she couldn't have just stayed,” moaned Fluttershy.

“I wager this is all tied to her washing out of the Elements,” continued Rarity. “That's when it all started unraveling.”

“That just sounds like hogwash gossip,” grumbled Applejack, pulling her hat brim low over her face. - - -

Dear Captain,

I’m sorry to say that I won't be back at the academy this year. Just between the two of us, I've decided to have the foal. I still haven't told anyone else about it yet. It's still very much a secret. That's why I’ll be disappearing for a while. I think if anyone can understand my decision making here it's you.

I know that just going AWOL like this is a bad look but, (assuming I can get back into form afterwards,) I hope there will still be a spot on the roster for me when I come back. If not, I understand. Thank you for caring and thank you for supporting me through the most difficult time in my life… so far.

Crash

Author's Note

Now it gets a little muddled how exactly I'll handle the rest of the story but we can't be more than 3k words from the end...