//------------------------------//
// The Truth 
// Story: The Adventures of Pitch and Ruby 
// by Nirtha 
//------------------------------//

	On her way to Pitch’s house, Ruby was contemplating the possible reasons as to why Pitch had not wanted to let her in. It had been a week now since the first time Mrs. Inverno had told Ruby that Pitch was unable to have visitors. Ruby visited every day since, and every time she did, Mrs. Inverno had sent her away. 
The first few times were all just about the same. The excuse was always that Pitch had not been feeling good. After a few days, Mrs. Inverno started coming up with other reasons, none of which Ruby actually believed. Some made no sense, and some were really no reason for Ruby to leave. One of those excuses was that Pitch was in the shower and that Ruby should come back the next day. 
The question Ruby had was whether it was the parents trying to keep her out, or if it was Pitch. She didn’t really know, and wasn’t particularly fond of either possibility. Pitch was her friend for years and he had never really tried avoiding her, but neither had his parents. Either way it was confusing, and becoming a big concern. She didn’t like being in the dark. She wasn’t sure whether they had something against her, or if they were just trying to hide something from here. Whatever the reason was, Ruby was determined to find out. 
When she neared his home she slowed down. She took cover behind a few short shrubs near the path she broke away from. She could see Pitch’s parents standing outside looking in. They were talking, but she couldn’t hear them. She moved closer, keeping silent as she passed. They didn’t hear or see her sneak past them behind a corner of the home. She didn’t want them to know she was there. She figured once they left she might be able to visit without problems. With a slight feeling of guilt, she sat against the wall and listened to what she could. 
“Are you sure you don’t need us to stay longer?” she heard Mrs. Inverno ask. Her voice was heavy with concern.
“I’m not sure you should be alone right now, Pitch.” The doubt in Mr. Inverno’s tone matched the concern in his wife’s. 
Pitch’s voice was muffled, but Ruby just barely made out his words. “I’ll be fine. You stocked the cupboards up with enough food to last me a pretty long time. I can manage on my own as long as I don’t have to leave.”
“I don’t know,” his mother said.
“You have things back home that you need to get back to,” Pitch reminded them.
“Do you want us to send one of your sisters?” his father asked.
“No!”
Ruby could tell that he was frustrated. It seemed like he did want to be alone. She figured it was possible that had been the reason they weren’t very welcoming during her last few visits. That didn’t make her any more accepting of the fact. He could have just come down to say hi at the very least. He didn’t need to send her back home every time she visited. 
“I don’t want them knowing,” Pitch explained. “Don’t tell them anything!”
How could they not tell his sisters? Ruby was sure that they already knew about his injury. That just seemed like something that his parents would have told them right away. Ruby didn’t understand what more there was to the issue at hand. Pitch had no intention of letting her know. 
“They are going to ask about your injury,” his father said, clearing up Ruby’s question while adding more to the confusion.
“So what if they ask about the injury?” Ruby could hear the anger in his voice, but she wasn’t able to see the helplessness that filled his eyes. “Just tell them it’s healing fine, what more do they need to know? This isn’t about the injury, so just leave it alone. They won’t ask about it because they would never expect it!”
His parents both sighed in unison. Ruby was expecting them to make their goodbyes, but his mother brought something up that she hadn’t expected at that point.
“And what are you going to do when Ruby comes back?” 
Ruby felt uneasy as she listened to the following silence. Pitch didn’t really know what to say to that. In truth, he hadn’t been planning to do anything about it. He wasn’t planning on opening the door for anypony, no matter who it was. He knew he was hurting Ruby by avoiding her, but it was a lesser of two evils. He was only putting her through pain to avoid a greater pain. 
“She’s going to keep showing up, Pitch,” his mother went on when Pitch said nothing. “She’s going to get worried, and might try getting you help if she gets scared. How are you going to deal with that?”
The only response he gave was, “it’s not like I’d handle it any worse than you did.”
Ruby heard the door slam, and looked around the corner to see Mr. Inverno shaking his head. “He’ll be fine,” he assured his wife. 
“I don’t know,” she said. 
“He’ll be fine,” Mr. Inverno repeated. “He may not know how to deal with it, but he’ll figure it out.”
“I suppose he was right,” Mrs. Inverno sighed. “I really don’t know how to handle this.”
“Nopony would,” Mr. Inverno said. 
They left together and Ruby stepped out. Now that she knew that it was Pitch that didn’t want her there, she wasn’t sure how she felt. She was hurt yes, but there was still something odd about the whole situation. She was still confused, and there was still no valid explanation as to why he didn’t want her there. She also knew that she wasn’t the only one he was hiding something from. Still, as far as Ruby was concerned, he’s never kept secrets from her before. 
Ruby wasn’t sure what to do now. Without really thinking about it, she went over to the front door. She checked to see if it was locked. It wasn’t. As slowly as she could, she opened the front door to see if Pitch was around. He wasn’t, so she entered and closed the door, careful to make little sound. She stood in front of the door, unsure of how to proceed.
“Pitch?” she called out quietly.
When he heard her he sat up in his bed. “What are you doing here?” His stomach churned and he wrapped himself in his blanket. “Go home!”
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on,” Ruby told him. 
He heard her hooves tapping against the stairs as she walked up. “No!”
“What?” Ruby asked, but she was already upstairs.
“I just remembered I have to do something!”
Pitch rushed past Ruby, his blanket still wrapped tightly around him. He ran down on three hooves since the blanket was restricting his wings. He almost tripped twice on his way down, but didn’t slow down.
“Pitch?!” Ruby ran after him after a moment of watching him, jaw dropped, as he ran off. “What are you doing?? You’re going to hurt yourself!!”
“No I’m not, go home!” 
Rubby galloped after him through the front door. “Quit acting like a filly!!”
Pitch ignored her and ran around the back of the house. Ruby had chased him in a circle around it a total of four times before he changed directions. Ruby had no idea what was getting into him. This was just insane.
“What could you possibly need to do in the Everfree Forest?” she called out after him as he headed for the forest. 
He continued to ignore her as he ran through the trees. He was having a hard time running and Ruby was gaining on him. He couldn't have that. He ran around a tree and dropped his blanket, kicking off with his back legs as soon as he did and taking flight. Ruby chased after him from the ground. Pitch was flying in swerves, bending around trees, making random turns, and doing his best to make sure Ruby didn’t have a clear view of him.
“You can’t run forever, Pitch!” Ruby yelled.
“No, but I can go longer than you!” he called back.
It was true. She may have had an advantage when he was on the ground, but now that he was in the air, she had no hope of catching him. Ruby was never an athlete, and this was just impossible. She stopped running after him, and turned around, heading back for her own home. Pitch didn’t notice, but turned right, trying to stay along the edge of the forest rather than going too far in. 
Once he did realize that Ruby wasn’t following anymore, he relaxed. The relaxed state only lasted until he realized that he needed to go back and find his blanket. He spent about half an hour looking for it before he finally found it and went home. He sat a few hours alone before there was a knock on the door.
“By Celestia!” 
Pitch was getting fed up with having to send Ruby home. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to hang out with her, he just didn’t want to put her through more pain. He didn’t want to add more to what she was blaming herself for. If she knew what was going on, she would feel much worse over that than the sadness she felt over being avoided. It wasn’t easy on him to have to ignore her. He decided to put an end to it. He would tell her to stop. He would make something up if he had to, even if it meant hurting her.
He opened the front door just enough to stick his head out. He kept his hurt hoof in front of it, knowing that Ruby wouldn’t want to do anything that could hurt him. “I told you to go home!” Pitch snapped immediately. 
“Um.” It wasn’t Ruby standing before him. It was a young stallion with a dark brown coat and a messy black mane that fell every which way and covered an eye. “You did? Cause I don’t even remember the last time I’ve seen you.”
“Dusty Trailz?” Pitch asked, taken aback. “I-I”
Dusty Trailz laughed.
“Sorry I wasn’t expecting you.”
Dusty Trailz was Pitch’s childhood friend. He met him a couple years before he met Ruby. Pitch had even taken a class with him when he spent half a  year in ponyville with his cousins. They got along pretty well, but Dusty Trailz ended up retreating from social life. He became more of a solitary pony. By the time Pitch met Ruby, Dusty Trailz had barely bothered going out. He would go out with Pitch, but only if Pitch insisted.
“I saw your parent’s and said hi. They told me that you’ve been injured,” Dusty Trailz explained.
Pitch sighed. His parents knew that he didn’t want anypony visiting him, so why did they tell someone about his injury? “I didn’t think they’d actually talk about it. I told them not to tell anypony.”
“Oh, well,” Dusty Trailz gave an awkward and apologetic smile, “I’m not the only pony they’ve told.”
“What?!” Pitch asked angrily. 
“Yeah, I’ve heard your mom bring it up a couple times at a few shops. She wasn’t exactly quiet about it when she was telling me either.” 
“By Celestia! Why can’t they just listen?” 
“So,” Dusty Trailz attempted changing the subject, “how is the injury?”
Pitch poked his hoof out the door, revealing the stitches creeping a quarter of the way up his leg. Dusty Trailz scrunched his face, but only for a moment. After that, he looked at it with a little more intrigue. 
“Does it hurt?” he asked.
“Like a timberwolf!” 
Pitch realized that he was probably being rude to have his friend, from all that time ago, just stand there in front of his door like that, but he didn’t want to let him in. He wasn’t sure what to do. He decided to be honest, but without telling too much.
“Hey, I’ve got a lot going on right now and it’s getting really stressful,” Pitch explained. “Do you think you could come back some other time? Maybe next week. I just want to have time to rest and such.”
“Sure,” Dusty Trailz said. 
Before his friend even got a chance to say good bye, they were interrupted by a loud and very angry voice. “You can’t keep hiding from me, Pitch! Just tell me what the issue is and I’ll leave you alone!”
Ruby was storming over. She practically pushed Dusty Trailz to the ground as she pushed him aside to stand directly in front of Pitch. She was angry now. Pitch was worried about something like this happening. When Ruby was in a depressive state or felt too pressured or stressed, she let it all out in a burst of anger. 
“You can’t just tell me to go away and expect me to just accept it like that. You have to, at the very least, tell me why,” Ruby went on.
Dusty Trailz was backing away, staring at her with his jaw dropped and eyes wide. He caught his hoof on a lump of dirt and tripped back. Pitch was beginning to feel sick. Most of Ruby’s outbursts had occurred in the forest or at her own home. It was rare for her to show this side of her to anypony other than himself. 
“Ruby!” Pitch snapped. “You’re creeping him out.”
Dusty Trailz pressed his ears back before Ruby even responded. He didn’t like having any attention brought to himself. Pitch knew that, but he didn’t want him seeing any worse from Ruby. This wasn’t who she was, it was just a little bit of a flaw. A flaw that burst out every so often. A flaw that was very difficult to control.
“I don’t care about your friend, Pitch!” Ruby exclaimed.
Pitch’s ears pressed back just as Dusty Trailz had. He hadn’t fixed anything. He only made it worse.
“So you ignore me, yet you talk to somepony else! Why is it that you talk to him, yet leave me in the dark! Am I the only pony you won’t explain this to?” 
“There’s nothing to explain,” Pitch said, making sure he had a good grasp of the door. He still didn’t want her to see what was going on.
“Liar!” Ruby accused. “You’re hiding something!”
Pitch made no show that he would admit to anything. Realizing that she wouldn’t get anything out of him, she turned to Dusty Trailz, who was sitting on the ground, looking quite paralyzed. She looked at him with fiery eyes and he snapped back. As quick as he could, he got onto his hooves.
“What do you know about this?” Ruby asked him, trying to calm her tone.
“I-” Dusty Trailz was backing away. “He just hurt his hoof.”
“I know that!” Ruby burst out. “What else? What’s the big secret?!”
“That’s all there is to it!” Dusty Trailz said.
“I heard him talking to his parents right before they left! They said there was something else!” Ruby yelled. “There’s more to it than just a simple injured hoof.”
Pitch’s heart sank. “You were spying?” he burst out.
“I’m not talking to you right now!” Ruby yelled, turning back at him with dark eyes, and a horn glowing in a dark red aura. 
Pitch said nothing in response, and considered shutting the door on her. This was the worst he had seen her in a very long time. All of a sudden, Dusty Trailz stood up and did something Pitch never would have expected from the usually passive pony.
“Well how in Equestria am I supposed to know?” he questioned in a confident and somewhat angry tone. “This isn’t my issue! I don’t even really care! I just came here to see if he was okay! I haven’t seen him in years! Do you expect him to refuse at least saying hello?”
“Ruby just forget about it! He’s right. It has nothing to do with him.” At that point Pitch just wanted the two separated, but he couldn’t risk stepping past the door. Pitch didn’t know Dusty Trailz had that in him or how far he would go, but he did know that standing up against Ruby when she was like that, was only asking for trouble. Pitch just hoped that he could bring her attention back to him.
It worked. Ruby turned away from Dusty Trailz and went right back for the door. Pitch was sure that she would barge through, and he had no chance against her at that moment. Still, he couldn’t let her in, so he took a risk.
Holding his bad hoof straight out the doorway he said, “you won’t be able to get in here without hurting me and possibly causing more damage to me! Do you really want to do that?!”
Ruby stopped dead in her tracks. The aura faded, but the anger didn’t leave her eyes. He did see her face twitch just slightly. She was holding back pain. She didn’t want to let out her real emotion. She didn’t want to show him her pain, so she hid it under anger and aggression. She would rather hurt than be hurt, but no matter how much she preferred that, it wasn’t her. She couldn’t really hurt her friend like that.
“Why?” Ruby asked.
“You have to calm down,” Pitch said calmly.
“But why?” Ruby asked again, her voice losing volume.
“You can’t lose yourself like that Ruby, because you will hurt somebody!” Pitch told her.
“Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?!” Ruby’s voice cracked as she raised her voice.
“I-” Pitch didn’t know what to say. “I don’t want you to feel bad,” he said, breaking down  and telling the truth and hoping he wouldn’t be pressed to tell her anymore. 
“How can I feel worse than not knowing?!” Tears spilled from her eyes as she screamed. “What could possibly be worse than feeling scared for you like this?!”
Pitch stared in shock. He tried to explain to her that it wasn’t all bad. He tried telling her that it was okay. He tried, but he couldn’t find his voice. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t watch her like that any longer either, so he showed her. He opened the door and stepped out. 
Dusty Trailz was looking at Ruby in sympathy now as she wiped the tears away with her hoof. Steaks of moist fur still streaked her face. She looked at Pitch, waiting for a response. The only explanation he gave was by turning to his side, revealing his blank flank. His cutie mark was gone.