//------------------------------// // 20 - Books and Their Covers // Story: Hazel Eyes in the Moonlight // by Oddling //------------------------------// A gentle chuckle rumbled through Jim’s neck as he watched Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle wander off to wash their faces of the deliciously evil shake mess. Their embarrassed reaction had been cute, though it was not equivalent to the embarrassment that he had finally managed to quell from his primitive act in consuming his smoothie. He still felt a tinge of warmth on his cheeks. One of the down sides of wolf fur was that it was a perfect insulator, trapping heat effectively enough that even snow would not melt on it. Regardless, the moment had passed and the other patrons in the establishment had gone back to their own business. Jim turned his smile to the table in front of him and he eyed the almost empty milkshake glasses. It seemed that his little students had enjoyed their small reward, which made him feel a little better about things. He had feared that they would grow bored with him quickly. Thus far they had held onto almost everything he had said and they appeared to be having fun while learning, even though it had only been one short lesson. Thinking back on it, he had to give them credit. Those little crusaders had managed to stay ahead of him for a good ten minutes before he swooped in and caught them. Well, until Apple Bloom had glomped him. That thought brought a little more to Jim’s smile as he thought about how funny that had been. Though he had known them for a short time, he felt himself growing fonder of the three young ponies. Sadly, his pleasant mood could not last forever. The sound of approaching hooves signaled the arrival of a pony, one who’s sickly sweet scent could not be mistaken for anypony else… Pinkie Pie had finally arrived. Jim’s smile quickly vanished and he turned his ears in Pinkie’s general direction. He waited quietly until the pink mare peeked around his left shoulder. “Heya, Jim. How’s it going?” she asked casually. Jim turned his eyes toward her, noting that her usual bubbly personality was, surprisingly, reserved. He found himself becoming curious about it, but was not in a caring enough mood to question it. If anything, he saw it as a small blessing and decided to keep things as simple as possible. “Hello, Pinkie Pie. I take it you’re here to help me fill out the form?” Pinkie nodded once. “Yup.” Jim nodded in turn. “Alright then.” Without further ado, Jim took hold of the clipboard and pen. He filled out the obvious, his name, the date, his species, and gender. The rest he required assistance from Pinkie, who happily offered him the answers. Oddly enough, the rest was… too simplistic. Though he had not spent a lot of time among the human populace, Jim still knew about addresses, zip codes, and such. Yet those things were nonexistent in Equestria. It was almost impossible to believe it at first, but after some thought on the subject, it made sense. Addresses were not really needed in a world where individuals were literally located by the town they lived in and their names. There were no duplicate town names, no same street names, and no two creature names were alike, regardless of race. Statistically speaking, it was a miracle that there were no doubles when you considered the population sizes. Then again… pony names were literal, zebra names were earned, dragon names made use of a combination of their three dialects… which was one of the weirdest things Jim had heard of. Why would giant, fire-breathing lizards need more than one version of roar? Thankfully, Jim’s thoughts were quickly snubbed out when he realized that Pinkie had been staring at him, a gentle smile fixed to the end of her muzzle. It was then that Jim realized something as he looked into the pink mare’s eyes. Pinkie was suppressing her emotions. Jim lifted a curious brow, though he had a feeling he might regret what he was about to do. “You look like you have something you want to get off your chest… Want to talk about it?” he asked calmly. Pinkie looked down at the table for a moment as she rubbed her left arm with a hoof. “It’s nothing you should worry about,” she answered quietly. Jim rolled his eyes. “Bullshit. You’re not fooling anyone, Pinkie Pie. I may not know you that well, but I’m fairly sure this isn’t like you. What’s bugging you?” Pinkie’s eyes widened and she stopped rubbing her arm. “Wow… you sure know how to be blunt, huh? But could you not use that kind of language in here? It’d be pretty bad if the cake twins heard you and started saying that kind of stuff.” Jim’s brow lifted a little further. That had been more mature than what he had expected from her. Maybe there was more to her that he should familiarize himself with… “I’ll keep my foul language in check for now, but you still haven’t told me what’s troubling you.” Pinkie sighed and looked away from Jim. “Well… I could tell you, but it probably wouldn’t change anything. Besides, I made a promise to Twilight that I wouldn’t burden you with anything.” Jim hummed thoughtfully as he eyed Pinkie. I suppose I should have figured that was the case, he thought. A sigh quietly slipped through his nose as he considered pressing the matter. Screw it, there’s more annoying things that I could be stuck doing – it’s not like anything terrible will happen from talking things out with her. “Pinkie… I appreciate that you’re honest enough to keep a promise with a friend, but I think it’s my decision to decide what is or isn’t bothersome to me. I want you to tell me what’s on your mind. I’m more unhappy knowing that you’re troubled than being bombarded by your energetic personality. Tell me.” Pinkie took in a slow breath before she opened her mouth. “Alright… I’ll tell you. I’ve been sad knowing that you’ve been depressed. I wanted to help you out and get you to smile, but Twilight said that you needed your space, but being alone only makes things harder than they need to be because it’s just you and your thoughts and with nopony there to help you out, your thoughts just run rampant and go all over the place until they eventually consume everything in your head and you eventually get so tired of it that you can’t do anything except lay down and mope for a long time. I would know… I’ve been there. But I promised Twilight that I wouldn’t bother you and… yeah…” she trailed off with a small sad smile. Jim stared at Pinkie for a long moment as he processed what she had said. Setting aside the fact that she had said all that on one breath of air, she had been uncannily accurate in her summarization of what he had gone through. But that last part, that is what caught his attention the most out of it all. “You’ve been consumed by your thoughts before?” he asked quietly. Pinkie nodded with a sad smile. “Yeah…” She looked back up to meet Jim’s gaze. “I’m not the best when it comes to understanding some things. Most of the time I get what somepony means and say something that confuses them, but it really has to do with what they said. Other times, though… I just don’t get it. One of the most recent times that this has happened was when my friends were trying to throw a party for me. I didn’t understand why they were avoiding me for most of that afternoon and… well… I started thinking. I guess it’s no surprise that my thoughts went to places that they never should have gone in the first place. I should have known better. Everything was okay in the end, but I nearly threw away my friendship with them because I let my mind wander too much when I was alone.” Jim closed his eyes and sighed sympathetically. “I see. I’m sorry that happened, but it’s good that it didn’t end your friendship with the others.” “Yeah…” Silence fell between the two as Jim thought about what he could say next. Pinkie had opened up to him and told him some surprisingly personal things thus far. In a way, it seemed to be more of a one-sided conversation. Jim had yet to give her anything in return; in fact, he had practically demanded that she share her thoughts. He sighed… he had never really been a sociable person. Why he thought it was a good idea to get Pinkie talking was a mystery, but that did nothing to remedy the increasingly awkward silence. A weak chuckle slipped through Jim’s maw as he offered Pinkie a small smile. Pinkie looked at him with slight confusion, wondering why he was laughing. It wasn’t like she had made a joke or anything. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that I never really thought that we could have this kind of discussion. I’m… like you, in a way. I don’t get others unless they’re up to no good. When it comes to stuff like this, where someone shares something meaningful with me… well, I feel inadequate. I’ve been subjected to cruelty and betrayal all my life. This… this is the first time I’ve seen anyone being openly honest with me about this sort of thing. I’m thankful, but I’m afraid I’m not sure how to go about this from here,” he admitted and scratched at his cheek lightly. “Was… there anything else you wanted to talk about? Anything at all?” Pinkie smiled and giggled softly behind her hooves. “That’s okay, I get it. The only other thing that I could think of would be planning your Welcome-to-Ponyville party. Don’t think I’ll forget about it. I take my party planning very seriously.” “I’ll bet,” Jim chuckled as his smile widened a little more. “I still have my reservations about the idea. I know you want to throw me a nice party, but I don’t think it will end well. There are very few ponies in this town that don’t look at me cautiously. They don’t trust me… or they’re afraid. It won’t be much of a party if nobody shows up.” Pinkie’s smile grew wide as her eyes filled with jovial wisdom. “A party’s still a party even if there’s only a few guests. All that matters is that everypony has fun.” Jim’s eyes widened slightly at that. Thinking along those lines, it was undeniably true. A sly grin slowly spread over his muzzle as he narrowed his eyes. “That’s a very wise way of looking at it. I like that,” he chuckled. “So when do you think a good time would be for this party you’re planning?” he asked. Pinkie lifted a hoof and tapped at her chin thoughtfully, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. “Well… I’d have to clear it with Twilight first. She might be a little upset that we even had this talk-” “Don’t worry about that. I’ll come with you to make sure she knows that I willingly spoke with you about it,” Jim cut in helpfully. “In that case, maybe in a few days? I kinda had to put a few other things ahead of your party. I already used the streamers for a little gig that DJ Pon-3 put together the other day and I’ve got two more parties to throw with the supplies I have on hoof right now. Now that I know for sure that you’re open to having a party I’ll be sure to resupply for it,” Pinkie said happily. Then her smile turned thoughtful again. “Now that I think about it, this is the first time I haven’t been prepared for a welcoming party. Usually I’ve got everything I need ready to go at any time… it’s almost like your party was a surprise or something…” Jim eyed Pinkie curiously. This must have been one of those times that what she had to say made sense, but he did not seem to grasp the meaning. Wasn’t it normal for things to happen without knowing about it or being prepared? How could you be ready for someone randomly showing up like he had done? He shrugged. There was little point in thinking too deeply on that thought. He was about to say something else when his ears swiveled toward the sound of little hooves approaching. Jim and Pinkie both looked over and spotted Sweetie, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walking over to the table. They had done a good job in removing the sticky shake remains from their faces, though Jim could still smell the flavors on them. Judging by that, he quickly came to the conclusion that Sweetie probably frequented Sugarcube Corner more than her friends and that was why she smelled like vanilla. The big werewolf smiled down at the three as they took their seats again. “You three clean up pretty well. So what do you guys want to do now that your hunger has been satisfied for the time being?” he asked. The three smiled at each other and whispered to one another. Jim eyed them with a small smirk. It was cute that they thought he would not hear them, but he figured he’d play along. With their little debate settled, Apple Bloom looked up to Jim with a big smile on her face. “We wanna try hide and seek again! We’ll try extra hard to be better at hiding this time.” Jim chuckled and smiled down at their eagerness. It was nice seeing them so excited over a simple game and he liked seeing them so determined to get better. But then they surprised him. “Hey, you wanna join us, Pinkie?” Jim’s eyes widened slightly. He had not expected them to want to invite anyone else to play with them. Then again, it was not a big deal having more involved in the game. If anything, it would be a good opportunity to learn more about Pinkie. Being one to stand on the edges of the forest to watch other beings had given Jim quite the knack for figuring out others through observation. It would be a good way to familiarize himself with the pink mare. Not that he was displeased with their talk, it was just more natural for him to figure things out through his senses. Pinkie smiled at Apple Bloom excitedly. “You guys were playing hide and seek?” Scootaloo nodded vigorously. “Yeah! Jim was helping us get better at observing our surroundings while we played. He’s already shown us some cool things that we never even thought about before.” “Ooooooh, neat!” Pinkie replied with a big grin, but then she clicked her tongue with a small frown. “Awe, but I can’t play right now. I’ve still got some things to do to help out here and then I’ve got to make a delivery later.” “Awe,” came the sad response from the three fillies. “Sorry,” Pinkie said with a regretful smile. Jim smiled at them. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we can invite her again when she isn’t so busy. Maybe there are some other friends you want to invite instead?” he asked, nearly wincing when he realized what he had just put on the table. What if he scared off their other friends? The crusaders looked to one another briefly. Sweetie Belle shrugged her shoulders. “Well, we could see if Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon would want to join. Maybe Button Mash and Tender Taps can come, too,” she suggested. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked to each other for a moment before turning back to Sweetie. “That could work,” Scootaloo said with a small nod. “Then that settles it, let’s go see if any of them want to join in. Is that okay, Mr. Jim?” Apple Bloom asked with a smile towards him. Jim shrugged his head to the side. “Fine with me. Hopefully I don’t scare them off…” “Don’t worry about that, Jim. I bet they’d love to play with us, especially Button. He’s really into gaming and one of his favorite games is this one where you play a monster hunter who is part pony, part monster,” Sweetie Belle chimed in. Jim lifted a brow at her and crossed his arms with a smirk. “So what you’re saying is he’ll like me because I’m a monster?” he asked jokingly. Sweetie smiled weakly and rubbed the back of her head. “Eheheh… sorry. I didn’t mean anything mean by it.” Jim smiled at her and shook his head. “It’s alright, I’m not bothered by it at all. I look forward to meeting him.” With that said, Jim moved onto his hands and feet and lowered himself. “Well, let’s go invite your friends.” The crusaders smiled at each other before they eagerly hopped onto Jim’s back. They all looked over to Pinkie and said their good-byes before they headed toward the exit, making sure to say farewell to Mrs. Cake, too. The bell above the door chimed as the group left Sugarcube Corner and silence filled the establishment once again. Pinkie sat near the booth for a time as she looked back on her talk with Jim. She wore a happy smile on her face as she recalled the warmth in Jim’s smile as he looked at the three crusaders. Up until today, Pinkie had been wondering what she could do to bring such a genuinely happy smile to the werewolf’s face. Now, though, Pinkie knew that there was no need for her to do anything. Those three little fillies had done it, just by being who they were. It was touching to see that Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle had found their way into Jim’s heart just from being so innocent and accepting of who he was. With a contented sigh, Pinkie smiled, picked up the form Jim had filled out, and went back to helping out the Cakes, a noticeable bounce in her step all the way.