“Pitch?”
Ruby was whispering. He looked as if he was asleep and she didn’t want to wake him.
Still, she had a bit of hope that maybe he was awake and simply just resting his eyes. He was
lying on his bed. His blue blanket, pulled up all the way over his muzzle, was slowly rising and
falling with his breath. There was no way he was awake. He wouldn't look this peaceful if he was.
With a sigh, Ruby went down the stairs and to the living room. All of the lights were
off, and only a crack of light shone through the crevice between the curtains of a window. The
light glowed just enough for Ruby to make her way through the room without bumping into any
furniture. She didn’t bother turning any of the lights on. They weren’t needed. They weren’t
wanted.
She spent a few hours on the couch, head rested on the hoofrest, brooding over her
friends injury. She shouldn’t have done the trick again. She shouldn’t have kept her eyes shut.
She should have waited another day to recollect her energy. She should have known better.
The regret flooded her thoughts, and clenched her heart.
Looking at the clock, Ruby realized Pitch’s parents would be visiting soon. Pitch had a
pretty big family. He had three sisters, and was the only boy in the family besides his father.
They all had jobs now, except for Pitch, who preferred hobbies over work. They didn’t hold it
against him though, he was the youngest of the family. He still had some time to figure out what
it was he wanted to do.
Ruby stared at the door as she waited. She didn’t want to go upstairs. She didn’t want
to be reminded of what she had done. She wouldn’t bother waking Pitch, or checking to see if
he was awake. She would wait until his parents arrived. His mother would be tending to him as
soon as she arrived. She would most likely wake Pitch immediately, checking for fevers, giving
him soup, and making sure he was keeping on track with his medication.
Ruby’s eyes began to flicker shut. She resisted the urge to sleep, but her eyelids were
becoming heavy. Her eyes fluttered slowly, open, closed, open, closed, until finally, the door
opened. A stallion and mare walked in, Mr. and Mrs. Inverno. Pitch’s father was an orange
pegasus with short greying hair. His mother, who was just a bit shorter, was a yellow pony with
curly blonde hair.
“Ruby?” Mrs. Inverno seemed a little startled.
Ruby gave a little wave with her hoof. She had sat up on the couch when they walked in.
Now that somepony was around, she didn’t feel so tired. Still, she let out a soft yawn.
“How long were you here?” Mr. Inferno asked.
Ruby shrugged. She really didn’t know. She couldn’t really remember when she got
there. Her stomach growled. She couldn't remember eating either. Mrs. Inverno went right for
the kitchen.
“I’ll make some chicken soup,” she said. “Hun, will you go check on Pitch?”
“Right away,” Mr. Inverno said, heading for the stairs.
Ruby wondered if she should follow him, but decided against it. Pitch would be in a
grumpy mood when he woke. It would be best to give him more space. She would wait until his
father came back downstairs before heading over to see how her friend was doing. She knew
he wasn’t doing well. He had slept throughout the day. He hadn’t been keeping on track with his
painkillers.
“So how are you, Ruby?” Pitch’s mother asked. “It’s been awhile since I’ve last seen you."
Pitch’s parents lived in Canterlot. Pitch, though, thought that canterlot was a little too
extravagant for his tastes, so he moved to Ponyville. Pitch had cousins in ponyville, so he used
to visit a couple times a year when he was a little filly. Ruby still remembered the first time she
met him, during one of those visits, but that was a story for another time.
“I’m okay,” Ruby said, a little glumly.
Mrs. Inverno looked at Ruby, a little concerned, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she
continued searching the cupboards and fridge for the ingredients she needed. She continued
working on the soup until Mr. Inverno was back. It wasn’t until then that she looked up.
“Is he keeping track of his medicine?” she asked urgently.
“No, but I made sure he took it just now.”
Ruby looked at Pitch’s father, questioningly.
“He’s fine, Ruby,” Pitch’s father said. “He slept too much though. I can’t imagine he will
be able to fall asleep again anytime soon.”
“I’ll go up and say hi then,” Ruby said.
She hopped off the sofa and rushed up the stairs. Pitch had the blanket pulled up
over his face. His ear poked out from under it and twitched when the floorboard creaked under
Ruby’s hoof. He lifted his head, and the blanket slid away from his face. He had just woken up
from a long rest, but he looked tired. It must have been an affect of his medicine.
“Hey,” Ruby said, a little too quietly.
Pitch yawned and blinked his eyes a couple times. “Hey.” He tilted his head to the side,
as if he didn’t understand why Ruby looked so down.
“Feeling okay?” she asked him.
“No,” Pitch said, matter of factly.
Ruby frowned.
“Wanna see the stitches??” Pitch asked.
Ruby had not yet seen the aftermath of his injury. She had seen what her magic had
done, and hurried him to the hospital as quick as she could, but she wasn’t able to stay with
him. Once the nurse had seen his hoof, there was chaos. It was organised chaos, but still
chaos. The nurse hurried off to find a doctor, and a couple more nurses hurried Pitch off into a
room. He was rushed away from Ruby before she realized what was going on.
“Um,” Ruby hesitated. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see. She was scared to see the
damage she inflicted on him. Seeing all the blood before was bad enough. Now that it was
clean, and stitches were in place, she would be able to really see what it was that was wrong.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Pitch said. He sat up and pointed his hoof towards Ruby. “See,”
he said, smiling.
Ruby cringed. Stitches crossed the entire bottom surface of his hoof. She couldn’t even
tell how many were in there, and she didn’t want to know. Scabs filled the spaces between each
thread. Green on red against his bright orange coat. She didn’t want to look anymore, but he
turned his hoof to the side. The stitches went a quarter of the way up his foreleg. He turned it to
the other side, the stitches on that side were half of what they were on the other.
“I was lucky no bone was damaged,” Pitch said, smiling. He thought it was cool, but as
soon as he put his hoof down, “Ouch!”
“I’m sorry!” Ruby bursted out reflexively.
Pitch looked at her confused. “What?”
“This is my fault,” she went on.
Pitch shrugged. “Not really.”
Ruby’s ears drooped forward. No matter what Pitch believed, she would blame herself. It
was her magic that put him in this situation.
“Hey can you wrap this for me?” Pitch asked. “Dad took the old gauze off for me and I
asked him to leave it off so I could show you.”
“Um, sure,” Ruby said.
She looked around her, and found a roll of gauze right there on Pitch’s night stand and
tape right beside it. With her magic, she lifted the gauze, and circled his hoof with the roll until
it was wrapped up and his injury was completely covered. The gauze ripped easily and she
placed the rest of the roll on the nightstand. She taped it together and stepped back.
“Thanks,” Pitch said, yawning again.
He hopped off his bed, making sure not to let his injured hoof touch the ground as he
landed. He had no problem with it, and smiled on landing. He skipped awkwardly over to the
stairs. Ruby followed him, hoping he would have no issues going down. There really wasn’t any
reason to worry, though. Rather than bothering to attempt the feat of going down stairs on only
three hooves, he decided to fly instead.
“I’m starving!” Pitch said to his mother, a little too cheerfully given the circumstances of
his injured hoof.
“It’s almost done, sweetie!” she assured him.
Ruby waited along with Pitch for the soup to be done. She felt a little more eased as she
waited with her friend. He was his usual hyper self. The situation didn’t seem to bother him as
much as she thought it would. His cheerful mood lasted until he finished his soup. At that point,
he looked a little down.
“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked.
Pitch shrugged. “It’s no big deal,” he said.
“What?” Ruby pressed. She wasn't about to let him hide things now. If something was
bothering him, she wanted to know about it. She would do whatever she could to fix the
problem. She owed him that.
“I was working on something, too, you know,” he said. “While you were working on your
magic. I was working on a new piece with Luna.” He was referring to his guitar.
“Oh.” Ruby didn't know how in Equestria she would manage to fix that.
“I finished it the night you left to go rest for trying the trick again.” Pitch rested his head
on the kitchen table. “I was really bored so I did a lot more that night than I really ever do.” He
let out a long sigh. “After that firework show you did with the leaves, I wanted to show you what
I've been doing. Now I can’t”
“I’m sorry,” Ruby said, her ears drooping forward once again.
Pitch looked up at her. “It’s fine.” He wasn't fine though. He was clearly upset. This went
past just the simple fact that he couldn't show Ruby what he had been working on. He couldn’t
play guitar. He wouldn't be able to do anything with what he was meant for.
“How long will it be before you can play again?” Ruby asked.
Pitch shrugged. “Can’t say yet. Don’t know how it’s going to heal, yet. There may be
some permanent damage, so I may never be able to play the same again.”
Ruby’s stomach sank. This was horrible. Because of her, Pitch couldn’t do what he
loved, and nopony knew when he would be able to start again. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
There was nothing else to say. Nothing would fully express the guilt she felt.
It wasn’t long before Ruby decided to leave. Pitch hadn’t seen his parents in awhile, so
she figured it would be best to leave the family to talk. Pitch’s mother assured Ruby that they
would be staying for a few days, so that she would be rest assured that Pitch had somepony
looking after him.
Pitch woke the next morning feeling a little uneasy. He wanted to go back to sleep, but
he couldn’t. Instead of laying around, doing nothing for hours on end, he reached under his bed
with his good hoof, and found his old ballad horn. It was a gift from his grandfather. Something
he hadn’t touched in a couple of years, but since he didn’t have much he could do with his bad
hoof, he didn’t really have anything to lose.
He began to play, and it all came back effortlessly. Everything that his grandfather taught
him. It was still there. He was able to play just as well as before. It was as if he never really
stopped. He played a cheery tune, trying to pick up his spirits. It didn’t really work. Something
was off. It wasn’t that the french horn felt wrong, it was that, he didn’t really want it to feel right.
The guitar was his instrument, it always had been. The ballad horn was just something that he
just happened to be able to do. It wasn’t something he cared for. It wasn’t something he showed
off to anypony. It was just lame. He tucked the horn back under his bed, and rolled over under
his blanket.
Ruby didn’t show up that day. She had other things to tend to. She had spent so much
of the day before at Pitch’s house, that her work had doubled. She had an article to write for
Ponyville Express, and a book to complete. Ruby had been working hard on her writing, in
hopes that one day she could publish. She wasn’t particularly fond of writing for a newspaper,
but it was something that paid her bills, and was a way to get her through the doors of a writing
career.
It wasn’t until the next morning that Ruby showed up in front of Pitch’s home. She felt
bad for being unable to go visit the day before, but there was nothing she could really do. She
had a lot to get done, and she had already been putting it off. She needed to turn in her article
about the history of town hall by the end of the week. She finished it last night. The write
seemed to drag on, but in her current position she had no choice over her topics of writing. She
had to be patient if she wanted to get anywhere. For now she stuck with the newspaper and
worked on her book. She wanted to get as much work out of the way as she could while Pitch’s
parents were visiting. She figured it would be better not to visit him while he had others there
than when he was completely alone.
She knocked on the door and waited. Nopony answered the door, so she knocked
again. It was a few minutes before Mrs. Inverno opened the door, just a crack. She peaked out,
and slowly opened it wider until she was able to poke her head out.
“Hello, Ruby,” She said, cheerfully, but Ruby couldn’t get over the suspicious behavior.
“Hey,” Ruby said, confusion clear in her tone. “How is Pitch?”
Mrs. Invernor frowned. “Oh.” She hesitated for just a moment. “Pitch? Well, he isn’t
feeling well.”
“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked, tilting her head the slightest bit, concern creasing her
forehead.
“Oh, it’s nothing to worry about,” Mrs. Inverno assured. “It’s just his medications. You
know how they can be. I’m sure he’ll be over it by tomorrow. Why don’t you come back then?”
The words rushed out, and they seemed to become more crammed as she spoke. It seemed to
Ruby, like she was trying to get rid of her.
“Oh.” Ruby wasn’t sure what else to say. She felt a little hurt, but mostly confused.
“He’s sleeping anyway, the most he wakes up for right now is about two minutes,”
Pitch’s mother seemed a little flustered as she went on, “and that’s just because we make him
take his medicine and eat a little with it.”
“Alright,” Ruby said, unsure of how she should be responding. “I’ll be back tomorrow.
Probably in the morning.”
“No need to hurry over,” Pitch’s mother said, with an awkward smile.
Ruby nodded. “Um, okay.”
The door shut with a thud, and Ruby stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. What was
that? Pitch’s parents were always very welcoming. They were always very nice to her, and
always seemed to like talking to her, with or without Pitch around. What just happened seemed
odd. Something seemed off. It was possible that they thought Pitch wouldn’t get enough sleep if
he knew a friend was over. It didn’t really seem to fit, but it was the only conclusion that Ruby
was able to get a grasp on.
It really wasn’t such a bad thing, she told herself. This would allow Ruby to get more work done.
She decided to forget about the odd behavior for the time being and go home, but without really
thinking about it, Ruby looked up at Pitch’s window. Pitch’s face was peaking through a gap
between the curtains, but as soon as he noticed her look up, he backed away from the window.
“Are you sure you want her to leave?” Pitch’s mother called up to him.
“Yes,” he called back.
“Alright,” his mother said. She didn’t know what was going on, only that Pitch wanted to
be alone. He wouldn’t go downstairs to eat. He stayed in bed the whole day, huddled in his
blanket. Now he wasn’t even letting Ruby in to visit. The whole situation was making his mother
worry, but there wasn’t much she could do.
Pitch crawled under his blanket. He didn’t want Ruby to see what had happened. He
knew how badly she felt about the injury, and he didn’t want her to worry anymore. All she had
done since the accident was blame herself. This would just break her heart. He couldn’t let her
see it, he wouldn’t let anypony see. He dug his face into his pillow, eyes clenched tightly,
holding back the tears. He didn’t understand why this was happening to him.