Rock Solid was anything but at the moment. Hunched over his desk, its surface strewn with updated and discarded work-out schedules and diet plans, he smushed his face with both his forehooves. Staying in shape and keeping healthy was his talent, and looking over his planned routines usually lifted his spirits. But on this day, a day he never imagined he would dread, they did nothing for him.

A tap at his bedroom's door was followed by the voice of his roommate, Sweeps.

“Hey Rock, are you coming out or not?”

“No need to; I'm busy thinking up another routine.”

“Really? Doesn't look like it to me.”

Rock turned with a start and saw that the easy-going unicorn stallion had entered his room silently, but he turned back to dwell more angrily in misery. Despite his attempt to seem as unapproachable as possible, Sweeps came up to him regardless.

“It's the last chance you'll get to see her for a long time, man,” he said. “Don't you want to see her off at least?”

“Nah, there's plenty others there to say goodbye. No need for me to be whatsoever,” Rock replied while scrunching his face. Sweeps merely sighed.

“Your one of her long-time best friends. She'd definitely want to hear from you.”

“She's probably too busy getting ready to leave by now. Ah well.”

Tailwind. Sweeps wasn't far off in saying she and Rock were longtime friends, in that they knew each other since grade school. Some silly pegasus filly getting picked on her first day at school, and Rock wasn't feeling too pleasant to let that kind of thing slide. It wouldn't have been far off either to say he was the first friend she made in Ponyville.

“Can't believe you're just gonna ditch her like that,” Sweeps said, bringing Rock's focus back to the present. “Totally not cool, y'know?”

“It's not that it matters,” Rock snapped back. “She's got an awesome career with new friends and other great things. No time for her to worry about some school buddy.”

She wanted to be a Wonderbolt. That's all Tailwind talked about when they hung out at recess, even though she was a clumsy flyer. Rock was all about training even in those younger days, and offered to help her out. It started off as mostly goofing around on her part, but she soon started to take it seriously when she noticed his frustrations.

She got better over the years, and he got more buffed, and they had even started a small-time exercise studio to earn some bits on the side. Sweeps entered the picture when the studio grew into a business, and not long after that Tailwind started applying for the Wonderbolts. There were rejections and tears, and Rock was there to get her back on her hooves and try again. Then the day had come when she finally made it. She was ecstatic, and he couldn't have been happier.

“Dude, you suck at hiding it. Just go and tell her, while you still can.”

Another call to Earth from Sweeps, and this made Rock hunch over even more.

“Tell her what? There's nothing to say. Besides, even if there was, why tie her down to some muscle-headed earth pony? Her dream is in the air, and she's been on the ground long enough.”

Sweeps shook his head and made to leave. “Alright, just mope away obviously then. Though have you thought she feels the same for you? Think about it.”

Sweeps left with the door open and Rocks further bogged down in himself.

“It wasn't supposed to be like this...” he grumbled.

Friends, that's all they were. He was some rough brute who trained her and kept the bullies back, nothing more. She deserved better, someone more gentle and can give her the sky. Yet how he felt around her, and the way she trusted him, looked at him when they were alone.

“...DAMMIT!”

Rock flipped over his desk and stormed out of the room, bounded down the stairs and out the front door, almost trampling Sweeps in the process. The ponies in the streets made clear, as they better well should, Rock thought. He had a carriage to catch, and no one was stopping him!