> Can We Talk?
>  by tmoneydamaster
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> Can We Talk?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a Friday afternoon. Hitch was walking to the orphanage from the schoolhouse on the hill with his friend Sprout, and Sprout's mother, Phyllis Cloverleaf. The sand-colored colt was lagging behind a bit, still ruminating over a fight that broke out between him and a few older colts. One of them kicked him particularly hard in the side and it bruised and hurt quite a bit. He winced a little with each step.

Sprout noticed this and waited for Hitch to catch up to him before nudging him playfully, careful to not worsen his friend's injury. "Don't worry, Hitch! Next time we'll beat those meanies!"

He paused his walking to kick the air with his forelegs. "Like that! And that! And... that!"

Hitch smiled at that. Sprout was a great friend. Even though Hitch knew that Sprout was just as afraid of those bullies as he was, and would run to his mom at the slightest hint of confrontation, he felt better. They continued trotting along, talking about how cool it'd be if zombies came to life or if a unicorn came to town and tried to fry their brains. Typical foal things.

Soon enough, they arrived at the orphanage. It was a brick cottage. It wasn't that big; mainly because most foals still had one parent in their lives to take care of them. Hitch was one of fifteen foals who had lost both parents and was taken to the orphanage by FPS (Foal Protection Services).

When they reached the front door, Ms. Cloverleaf turned to Hitch and bent down to give him a once-over before a looking him in the eye. "Now don't you worry Hitch. I will have a talk with the headmare over the weekend to discuss the unacceptable behavior of those young colts. She needs to do something about them."

"Thank you, Ms. Cloverleaf," he said genuinely.

She smiled. "No problem sweetie."

She straightened herself and allowed Sprout to give Hitch a goodbye hug before they both turned and left. Hitch also turned around and opened the door of the orphanage. He approached the front desk to announce his arrival to Mayflower Meadows, the secretary of the orphanage. She was a light pink mare with a mane that was the color of grape flavored rock candy. Her cutie mark was a mayflower. She was busy working on her computer. Before Hitch could announce his presence, she looked up and noticed him.

"Oh hello Hitch! Phyllis dropped you off again?"

He nodded. "She did Ms. Meadows."

"Good. Good. By the way, I have a letter for you from your friend Sunny." She reached for one of the drawers in her desk and opened it. A few seconds of rummaging later and Hitch was walking down the hallway to his room with a heavily stamped letter in his mouth. He couldn't wait to open it. Since they couldn't use a phone like the big kids, he and Sunny communicated with each other via letter. Maritime Bay wasn't that big, and mail was only ever sent between residents, so sending letters was just as good as texting.

Hitch opened the door to his room. It was pretty basic. There was a desk with a drawer next to a window so he could do homework. A small shelf was next to it. There was a bed with cyan bedsheets in one of the corners. His closet was opposite his bed, in a way where he could stare directly into it while in bed. And there were boxes and chests where he could put his toys and other things. It was nice.

He put the letter on his desk. He really wanted to open it, but he was a bit hungry. He headed towards the door. I'll just grab an apple to snack on.





The sun was about to set by the time Hitch got back to his room. He didn't mean to get sidetracked, but after he grabbed his apple, a few kids wanted to play outside with him and he would feel bad if he declined. So he joined them. He expected the game to be short, but more foals joined in and it became very competitive very quickly. Tempers were flaring and there wasn't an adult nearby. Hitch didn't want to get hurt again, so he quietly left the scene before things escalated. He grabbed the letter off his desk and plopped onto his bed. He quickly tore open the envelope. The slightly crumpled construction paper inside read:

Hi Hitch!

I hope you're doing alright. I'm so sorry for what happened at school today. I didn't think that those colts would attack us like that. But to make up for it, I asked my dad to have a playdate tomorrow. And guess what? He said yes!!!! I'm going to mail Sprout a letter to tell him as well. I can't wait to play with you guys!!! See you soon!

Sunny!! <3

At the bottom the letter had a little hoof-drawn picture of one of the friendship mares her dad made up for her. It was the yellow pegasus one with pink flowy hair. What was her name? Hitch thought a little. Shy... This pony was the shy one... He looked at her flank. Her cutie mark was made up of three pink butterflies. Butterflies... Butte- Oh! Flutershy! That's her name. Hitch didn't really like her. He thought the pink and orange mares were better. They were fellow earth ponies.

Hitch was excited regardless. He loved hanging out with Sunny. She lived in a lighthouse. A lighthouse!! That was already cool by itself but her house had so many places to hide if they wanted to play Hide and Seek, and lots of room to play "House", his favorite game. He always preferred going to her house over Sprout's house. Sorry Sprout.

He got off his bed to put the letter in his desk drawer with all the other letters he's received from his friends. He re-read them whenever he felt sad. At least that's what my therapist told me to do. He put the letter in the stack and hopped back into bed. Speaking of his therapist, he remembered the last time he met with her. She told him to find another grownup besides her to talk to. She recommended a stallion specifically, and said that that stallion would be a "father figure" to him.

Hitch sighed and pulled his blanket over his head. The semi-darkness was comforting and it helped him to think. He didn't know how to feel about a "father figure". He didn't want to replace his actual father. He could barely remember him, but he knew that his dad was a good pony. Plus he didn't know many stallions. There was the mailman... and the town sheriff! They were cool but he didn't know if he trusted them enough to talk about feelings. The only stallion he felt like he could maybe trust was Argyle Starshine, Sunny's father. Mr. Starshine was really tall so he was kinda scary, but he's also super kind and understanding. Ok, so I'll try to talk to Sunny's dad tomorrow. And with that settled, he relaxed, shifted his body so he wasn't lying on his bruised side, and quickly fell asleep.



Argyle was sitting by the kitchen island, waiting on the unicorn cupcakes in the oven that were for the foals running around upstairs. They told him they were gonna play "House" (with Sunny and Hitch as the parents and Sprout as their baby), but judging by the noise they were making, it had probably dissolved into something more wild. As it usually did. He chuckled and pushed up his maroon glasses a little bit. He decided to walk to the fridge to bring out the icing he made earlier and put it on the counter. Once he did, he turned around to check on the cupcakes only to almost leap out of his skin when he saw Hitch behind him. 

"Sweet Celestia!!" Argyle exclaimed.

"Oh! Sorry Mr. Starshine sir! I didn't mean to scare you," Hitch said, while Argyle tried to calm his racing heart.

"No, no. It's fine. You just... surprised me a bit."

He straightened his glasses while Hitch looked up at him with expectant eyes. He grabbed some oven mitts to bring out the cupcakes, since they were ready. He set them on the island and noticed that Hitch was still standing there. It suddenly occurred to him that Hitch was supposed to be playing with the others.

"Hey buddy, aren't you playing "House" with Sunny and Sprout? Is there something wrong?"

Hitch looked at the ground before answering, "Well, I told them that I was just going to the store to get some milk for our family breakfast. But no, nothing's wrong. It's just that... can we talk?"



Argyle and Hitch sat on the big couch in the living room. There was a considerable amount of space between them. There was also a mug of hot chocolate on the table in front of them that the former had offered to the latter, but it remained untouched. There wasn't much talking going on. Hitch was too nervous to speak now that he was on the spot. He occasionally opened his mouth and then closed it without saying anything. This went on for about a minute. Argyle watched him with mild concern on his face, patiently waiting. The young colt was internally kicking himself because he just knew that he was wasting Argyle's time. To calm himself, Hitch reached for the hot chocolate on the table and a small wave of pain traveled along his body. He winced and Argyle noticed.

He gestured towards the now fading bruise on Hitch's side. "You want to tell me how you got that?"

Hitch almost sighed in relief as he took a sip of the delicious hot chocolate, glad to have been given a topic to talk about.

"Somepony kicked me."

Argyle nodded, waiting for him to say more. When he didn't and instead continued drinking his chocolate, Argyle could tell he wasn't going to get much out of the colt unless he prompted him. "How did that happen?"

Hitch hesitated, and then realized that Sunny might've already told him everything that happened yesterday, so there was no point in lying. "Well you know those friendship ponies you tell Sunny about?" Argyle nodded.

Hitch put the mug on the table and continued in a rush. "Yeah well she was telling other foals at recess about them. They were actually interested in what she had to say. But some older colts came by and heard what she was saying and they started calling her crazy. They were getting in her face and she was telling them to back up but they weren't listening. Now, I don't know if I believe those stories myself, but Sunny's my friend. She's not crazy, she just has an imagination that they're clearly jealous of. I couldn't let them say that to her, so I went between them and told them to back off. But then one of them pushed me into Sunny and we both fell down. And that wasn't fair so I got up and pushed one of them back. But then they all started hitting me and I couldn't hit them all back. And that's how I got this." He pointed at his side. Then he looked at the ground, refusing to meet Argyle's eyes.

The stallion in question had to sit there for a moment to digest all that the little one had said. And when he finally did, he had to quickly quench his growing frustration so he could find out if justice had already been served.

"Did you tell anyone about it?"

Hitch didn't look up. "Yes. Sprout was there and he told his mom. Ms. Cloverleaf said she'd talk to the headmare about it."

Argyle nodded once again. He allowed his anger to fizzle out, deciding that he would let Phyllis take care of the colts and he would take care of Hitch and his friends.

"Does it still hurt? Your side I mean. I can get some ice for it." Argyle started to get up to do just that.

Hitch looked up and frantically waved his hooves. "NO!" Argyle stopped and gave him a confused look. Hitch flushed and put his hooves down. "I mean, no. It's just a little sore. You don't need to get ice. It's fine. I'm fine."

Argyle was a little startled at the outburst, but he sat down and didn't press the matter further. There was a lull in the conversation as he thought of what to say next. "You know Hitch, I'm glad you did what you did."

Hitch looked at him, surprised. "Really??"

Argyle smiled. "Of course. I think you should always stand up for your friends." Hitch smiled back.

"I can assure you those colts are going to be in serious trouble once the headmare is notified about this and there's a possibility they're going to try and get revenge on you. If that happens, make sure you let your teacher, Sprout's mom, or even me know about it. We'll take care of the rest from there. Understand?"

Hitch nodded vigorously, his face serious. "I understand Mr. Starshine."

The royal blue stallion smiled again and reached over to ruffle Hitch's mane. "Argyle is fine."

Hitch grinned and picked up his mug of hot chocolate. While Hitch drank the rest of it, Argyle thought. The last time he went to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a fatal sickness. He told Phyllis the full details about it, but he only told his daughter, who in turn turn told Hitch and Sprout, that he was sick. He didn't feel like burdening her with the knowledge of his inevitable death. Something about the incident Hitch had shared with him made him realize that he wasn't going to be around to protect Sunny for much longer. And he needed assurance that someone would be there to keep her out of trouble. He reached into the drawer of the living room table and started rummaging through it. As he did so, Hitch finished his drink and put the empty mug on the table, watching Argyle curiously.

He had to quickly excuse himself to go into another room to continue searching, but at last Argyle found what he was looking for. Sheriff badge stickers. He peeled one of them off and stuck it to his hoof before walking back to the living room where Hitch was still sitting on the couch, waiting patiently. As he walked towards it he said, "I remembered how you said you wanted to be Maritime Bay's own sheriff when you're all grown up. So for what you did yesterday," -- He reached where the little colt sat and stuck the sheriff sticker to his chest -- "I'll make you a junior sheriff for the rest of the day."

Hitch beamed, looking at the sticker. "Really? Thank you so much!!"

Then Argyle put a hoof on the colt's shoulder, saying, "As your first task as junior sheriff, can you make me a promise?"

Hitch looked up and nodded his head, serious about his new job.

Argyle hesitated before saying, "Because of my sickness, I'm going to go somewhere far away... without Sunny. And I was wondering if you'd be willing to look out for her the way you did yesterday while I'm gone."

Hitch cocked his head to the side. "Where are you going?"

"That, my friend, is a secret." He smiled sadly and booped Hitch's nose at the word "secret" which caused the colt to giggle. "So can you promise me you'll keep her out of trouble?"

"I promise!! I won't let you down," Hitch said, face serious, before breaking into a grin. Then he looked back down at his sticker sheriff badge and suddenly hugged Argyle, startling the stallion. After getting over his momentary shock, Argyle returned the hug, squeezing gently.

"Thank you for everything, Mr. Argyle," Hitch whispered into Argyle's blue fur.

Argyle chuckled, rubbing small circles into Hitch's back. "No problem buddy."

And he sat there, letting Hitch hug him for as long as he needed.