Why he left the Stable

Stable spun around and changed the subject entirely, "Do you know why I left the Stable in the first place?" His head tilted to the side and his ear twitch returned, giving him the look of a madpony Grafton and Ditz teased him about whenever he got himself worked up.
I felt my eyes grew in intrigue. I had wondered, never had the inclination to ask. Removing my toothbrush and spitting, "Is this a happy story?" I questioned with my Childlike Innocence Voice.
Stable sat his rump down and puffed a lock of jet black mane from his face. "The best year of my life was my final year of school. For most of my childhood I slacked off, procrastinated, slouched about, my parents gave me endless lectures about how much potential I had and how I wasted it. With two years of school to go I bucked up and worked hard. My final year my grades were good enough to join the school soccer team. I was the least experienced Senior, I sat out most games. I didn't care; I had fun, made friends, learned about life. The rest of my year was just as good, I grew to be admired, I even attended the winter dance, something I avoided like the plague before. And then the year ended. I was an adult and ready for my full-time job as a research technician. I wasn't the best, but I was learning my trade, kept touch with pals from school, but the good times wore off."
Laying his belly on the dusty road, Stable pushed his face into his upturned, dusty red hooves. "My parents fell out of love when I was a child. But the way we ran our Stable, they were allowed to divorce. They had to stick together, they each had to raise me with somepony they did want to be around anymore. They switched to different work schedules to avoid one another, and each took time to spend exclusively with me. They told me they still loved me just as much, and they tried to show it, but I still felt the passive aggressive anger they directed at each other." He sighed. "I can still remember every Hearths Warming dinner we had since the day they told me. Family meal time is supposed to be cheerful, full of smiles, loud. For me, it was gloomy, quiet, and awful."
Stable's eyes had started to tear up. I heard him cry from time to time, normally with his head on Dtiz's shoulder. I got the impression he had been doing a lot more crying in the past week.
"I...felt as unwanted as they were sometimes. I just wanted them to love each other again." Tears ran down his cheeks. "I just wanted things to go back to the way they were, but they never would. I didn't learn that lesson, so life tried teaching it to me when I was done with school. 'Life doesn't go back. It's gone. Deal with it.' Again, the way we ran the Stable mucked up my life. The Overmare said ponies don't leave their homes unless they're married. So I had to stick with my parents in my loveless home, and even if I DID get married I didn't know if we would live at my home or his." He sniffled. "Buck, why can't you be Ditz!? Ditz would have held me by now! I'm a mess!"
I try to be a good friend to him, I do. I thought at that moment he needed to get something off his chest without my interference. But I scooted around the fire, wrapped my front legs around him and pulled his head to my chest. He gave me a bear hug with those powerful legs of his, I never doubted his earth pony strength. Then he cried his heart out onto my fur coat.
"Who...who could marry me anyway Grafton? There was one colt in school who liked me the way I wanted, and he ended up with the PipBuck repair technician, that bint who liked to trip me in the halls. And that was after school, which I later realized wasn't so great after all. I had no special somepony, I wasn't fit enough for the job I wanted, despite the progress I made in my last two years I still finished Bottom Five of my class, you get the idea."
"So there I was; crappy job I lucked out by getting, no romantic interest, I didn't like going home, so when the Overmare announced she needed Scouts to explore the surface, you can realize why I would be the first to volunteer. I got paired with two other ponies, we were trained in simulators for weeks, left the Stable and wandered around for two months taking notes. Then we ran into trouble with raiders in Ponyville. They died, I crawled my way to New Apploosa, and that's where you and I meet. Do you want to know the sad part Grafton?"
I said "Yes". He pushed himself deeper into my chest and muffled his words.
"I was a child when you meet me. I left because I didn't like how my life was going, so I decided to wade out into a minefield. I was only thinking of myself, living only for myself. I helped out my Stablemates because they would help me. Then we meet Ditz and...I had someone else to care about. I could have lived for him. Hell, I did! I'm not saying we were married, my parents are the result of marriage before you know you can be married. I was going to give us a lot of time, but I loved him. I didn't like some of his methods, but he made sense."
"He...It was his idea to go to Fillydelphia. One good thing came out of that absolute shit hole, he found a way to control the Spritebots. AND someone else had been doing it before him. We were on the way to meet them in some cave near Ponyville when...They killed the one pony I loved."
He sat quietly for a minute. "I had nothing worth returning to the Stable for. Now I have to return with my report, and be sent out again. I have nothing I want to remember out here."
I didn't know what to do but hold him and let him rant. I knew he and Ditz were very close, but marriage? I suppose I should have seen it coming. I had never been in love so I had no idea what was going through his mind.
"But I think I finally learned my lesson. 'I can love the present, but it's not going to last. Life moves on, with or without you.' I need to get back to the Stable Grafton, and move on. Help me." He sniffled his last tears for the night.
We eventually untangled ourselves an sat in silence in front of the fire, slowly nodding off. He had work to do tomorrow.

Author's Note

This scene(involving two OC's of mine, Grafton and Stable) occurs 10+ years before Fallout Equestria.
This blog is my trying to see how Stable reacts to hardship. He's a sensitive soul, and a sweet heart.
Constructive criticism is encouraged.