//------------------------------//
// Playing With Magic 
// Story: The Adventures of Pitch and Ruby 
// by Nirtha 
//------------------------------//

	“Pitch!!” 
Ruby trotted along the river, her long dark red mane pulled back by the wind, swirling behind her. The belts she wore on her legs clinked against each other as she sped toward the bridge.  She could see her friend across it, just ahead. The orange pegasus was looking up at the clouds near the forest, where he always waited for ruby. His wings were spread open against the grass. 
“Pitch!” Ruby called out again, but he didn’t seem to hear her.
Pitch was in his own world. He always was in the mornings. He had a tendency of dozing off and retreating to an awakened sleep. Daydreaming and staring at the sky, most likely thinking about how the clouds looked like colorless cotton candy.
He finally rolled off his back and onto his belly, not because he heard Ruby calling him, but because he heard her trot. She stopped by his side and he looked up at her, dazed. He still wasn’t quite awake. Soon though, they would get moving and he would be running around like a filly that finished a whole cake in one day. Ruby smiled, excited to show him her new trick. She had been working on it for weeks, and she finally had it down. 
“Let’s go!” Ruby said cheerfully. 
Pitch blinked his blue-green eyes, still laying down. His blonde mane was short, and stuck up, but the front strands fell forward, grazing the top of his eye-lids. Golden freckles sprinkled his face. Ruby had the same blue-green eyes, but they stood out much brighter against her pitch black coat.
“Come on!,” she said,  nudging him with her hoof.
“Where are we going?” Pitch asked.
“To the forest!” she said, pointing ahead with an extended hoof.
Pitch stood up, shaking grass blades out of his feathered wings. Ruby hopped back as he stretched his hoofs forward and yawned, eyes clenched tightly shut. 
“What for?” he asked, straightening up.
“I finally got it!”
“Got what?” Pitch tilted his head. “You’re unusually cheery.”
“My new spell,” Ruby said with a hop.
Pitch didn’t know how to react to her cheerfulness. It wasn’t common for Ruby to smile. She always put on a serious face, trying to seem tougher than she really was. 
“By Celestia, you’re broken,” he said.
Pitch was staring at her, eyes wide. He really did look concerned. This behavior was so rare from Ruby. Most of the joy she did show was for the type of things anypony else would be afraid of. 
“I’m not broken.” Ruby pushed him lightly. “I’ve been working on this spell for longer than I bother with most. Anyway, you’ll really like this one, trust me.”
Ruby started walking towards the forest, Pitch caught up in an instant and walked beside her. 
“Can you even really call them spells?” he asked. “You don’t even say anything.”
“What else would you have me call it?” Ruby asked. “It is magic whether or not I use words.”
They were making their way through the forest now. The trees they passed towered over them. Pitch was skipping forward and slowing down, then moving to the other side of Ruby. He repeated the process a couple times over. He was already waking up, and acting more like his usual hyper self. 
“I don’t know,” he said, pushing his hooves off the ground and taking flight. “Tricks? Magic tricks.”
“That sounds silly,” Ruby said. 
Pitch flew circles around her. “Yeah, but it’s more accurate.” He flew up in front of her, and hovered upside down with a smirk.
Ruby rolled her eyes and walked around him. “I’m doing serious work here, Pitch.”
“Serious work for no real reason other than having fun.” 
Pitch laughed and continued circling around his friend. There was clear annoyance on her face and her ear twitched. She finally stopped, but Pitch stayed in the air, flying circles around her. She cleared her throat, hinting that he should stop, but instead, he flipped back, and few a few more circles upside down, in reverse. She cleared her throat again, but he didn’t stop.
Ruby had a short temper. Patience was something she needed to work on, even when she was spending time with a friend. Her black horn glowed a dark red right before she zapped his wing. It was nowhere near enough to cause damage, just enough for a sharp pain that made him lose his focus and quickly retract his wing. 
Losing control, Pitch crashed to the ground, landing on his back. Ruby twirled around as he slid past her, slowing down and eventually stopping against a tree. The wing she zapped was still folded in, but his other was stretched, its feathers now filled with collected dirt. Ruby trotted over. 
“You ok?” she asked.
He glared at her. “You did that on purpose.”
“I know.” Ruby held back an amused smile. 
Pitch continued to glare. Since he didn’t seem to be making an effort to move, Ruby moved to his side and shoved him, causing him to roll over. He stood, stretched out both wings, and shook out the dirt that covered him. 
“Did you have to do that?” he asked.
“No.”
Ruby let herself smile that time. Pitch sat down, and his ears drooped slightly forward.
“Sorry,” she said.
His only response was a barely audible, “meh.”
“Aaaannnnyywayy,” Ruby went on. “We’re here for a reason.”
“Mmhhmm,” was also barely audible.
Ruby was hoping for a more encouraging response, but that would have to do. Whether he was excited now or not, he was going to like what she was about to show him. She backed up, farther away from him and closed her eyes. She needed to collect herself, and focus on what she was about to do. She had only succeeded at it once before, and didn’t want to do any more than one attempt now.  
She took a deep breath, and the red glow returned to her horn. Pitch sat up straighter, curious. She hadn’t said anything about this trick before. He didn’t even know she was working on one. She sat a while longer, eyes still shut, and his curiosity bubbled higher. She didn’t usually take this much time to prep. Ruby didn’t usually put this much effort into her magic. It was always something she just played with.
Ruby opened her eyes, and looked up into the trees. Pitch followed her gaze. Five leaves glowed with Ruby’s dark red aura. One by one, each was plucked from its branch and hovered down toward them. They circled Ruby. Pitch looked on confused. He didn’t understand what she could possibly be doing with leaves. Ruby ignored the look on Pitch’s face. It was too amusing to her. Letting herself laugh now would break her concentration. 
The circle broke and the leaves moved away, in a line. They gained and speed and shot upwards, above the trees. Pitch arched his neck and looked up at the leaves. They started circling again. One bye one, each leaf moved up and exploded into a small firework. Pitch watched in awe as tiny sparks of black and purple showered down.
The red glow vanished from Ruby’s horn and she smiled.
“Do it again!” Pitch demanded, jumping to his hooves. 
“I can’t right now,” Ruby admitted. “It took too much energy out of me.”
Pitch pouted. 
“Sorry, I can’t do it again.” 
“But I could have so much fun with it!” he exclaimed.
Ruby looked at him questioningly. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I doubt it’s a good idea.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pitch said, trying to put on an innocent face. “So when do you think you can do it again?!”
“Tomorrow, I guess,” Ruby told him, with a touch of concern in her voice. 
“Great!” 
Pitch smiled brightly.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “Now let’s go get something to eat.”
***
After their lunch Ruby followed Pitch home. She followed on hoof as he flew through the air. She had to canter quickly, since he didn’t seem remember that she was following the entire time. Every few minutes, he would dash upward and fly through a cloud. He always did love clouds. Ruby wondered if she should call out to him, telling him to just come back down and trot instead. She decided against it, realizing that even if she did, he probably wouldn’t be paying enough attention.
Pitch lowered in altitude as they reached his home. At his gate, he folded his wings quickly and he fell to his hooves. He realized he was a little too high when he landed and the bottom of his hooves stung. Ruby noticed his expression.
“You ok?” she asked. 
“Fine,” he said, shaking it off. 
Pitch’s house was a little old, but he loved it. He thought it had character. The walls were painted a light yellow, and the door he just pushed open was a bright white, only it’s paint was peeling off and a dark brown peeked through the cracks. 
Pitch found his guitar in the living room, and Ruby went over to the sofa. She was tired from the all the magic she used earlier. Her horn ignited red agains, as she jumped and flipped onto her back. A pillow floated under head as she landed on the sofa. 
Ruby closed her eyes, and Pitch began strumming his blue guitar. It was his most valuable treasure. He named it Luna, after the princess. He and Ruby had both always looked up to her. A lovely alicorn of the night. Ruby thought the guitar was a little to0o bright to be named after a princess of night, but she didn’t complain. It still fit pretty well, and Pitch had given the guitar a name well before bothering to tell Ruby about it, so she didn’t have much say. It was his guitar after all.
The guitar matched the one of Pitch’s cutie mark. He had grown up with music, playing all sorts of instruments. The guitar had always been his favorite, and gained him quite a bit of popularity when he was a filly. He played to this day, and he was getting better and better. Ruby’s cutie mark was a pen and parchment. Her own skill was writing. She wrote all sorts of things, sometimes her and pitch would try to work together in making a song. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.
Ruby fluctuated between dream and reality, going back and forth between the sound of echoing birds and Pitch’s music, in and out of sleep. They sounded the same to her, until Pitch picked up the pace of his strumming. The music went from a soothing melody to metal. Ruby jumped suddenly, falling off the sofa onto the hardwood floor. She laid there, hooves stretched out in front of her, and mane in her face, more-so than usual. 
“What was that?” Pitch laughed. He had stopped playing.
Ruby just growled. The situation wasn’t worthy of words.
Pitch let go of his guitar and it slowly slipped away, until it gently landed on the floor next to him, where he was sitting on the floor, leaning against a wall.
“What?” he asked, almost whining. 
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Why’d you play that?”
Pitch shrugged. “Since when don’t you like that kind of stuff?”
“Since I fell asleep,” Ruby groaned. 
Pitch laughed again, Ruby growled again. 
“I’m really tired,” she told him. “I’m just going to go home.”
“Noooooooooooo,” Pitch wailed, throwing his hooves up in the air for added dramatic effect. 
“If you want me to be able to repeat what I did today by tomorrow, I’m going to need really good rest,” Ruby told him.
Pitch pointed at the door. “Go home,” he said flatly.
Ruby pushed herself up, lazily. “See you tomorrow.” She gave a long yawn. 
“Same time, same place,” Pitch said in response.
***
Pitch didn’t have to wait the next day. Ruby was already in front of the forest when he got there, staring into the darkness between the trees. Pitch thought it was a little creepy, but he didn’t say anything about it. Normally he would, but he didn’t want to ruin her mood today. If he did she would just refuse to make the fireworks again. 
“Hey,” Ruby said. There was no enthusiasm in her voice. 
“Well you definitely seem more like yourself than yesterday, but now you’re TOO down.” Pitch nudged her shoulder.
“Didn’t get enough sleep,” she explained. 
“Mmmkay, lets go.”
Pitch skipped into the forest.
“Wait up,” Ruby called after him.
She let out a sigh before trotting after him. They went into the forest, following the same path, and stopping at the same place as the day before. Ruby’s eyes were drooping from lack of sleep, but Pitch was all smiles. He skipped a couple circles around her. She almost zapped him again, but decided against it this time. It just wasn't worth the effort.
“Can we get this over with?” she asked.
“Oh come oooonnn,” Pitch pestered. “Don’t be a downer now! This is fun. We’re having FUN.”
“Yeah,” Ruby scowled. “Fun.”
“Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.” 
Pitch was jumping up and down in front of Ruby. She facehoofed.
“Alright.”
She walked further away again and closed her eyes. She didn't see that Pitch took flight. Her horn glowed red, and Pitch smiled, excited. It took longer this time, and she didn't open her eyes, but eventually she managed to pluck four leaves. She didn't bother circling herself with them. She needed to keep her eyes shut. It was harder to concentrate this time. The leaves flew up, and Pitch followed. 
He flew off to the side before the first leaf exploded. When the second one went off, Pitch whizzed right past it. Ruby didn’t hear Pitch laugh, she didn't know what he was doing at all. She was just concentrating, exploding a few leaves, and hoping Pitch didn’t expect her to do the trick again soon. 
When the third went off, Pitch flew a circle, but didn’t time it well enough. He felt a couple sparks hit his stomach, burning him. He flinched in pain and for a moment, forgot what he was doing. Ruby opened her eyes as she let the last leaf burst. She didn’t see Pitch. Her stomach sank and she looked up just in time to see the final compressed blast hit Pitch. 
He began descending, gaining speed, towards the ground a little past where Ruby stood. She shot forward, heard his cries, and just barely managed to gain enough energy to catch him. Straining herself, she held him up, midair in her dark red aura. He gasped in pain. Tiny little droplets of blood splashed her face.

To be continued...