Hazel Eyes in the Moonlight

by Oddling

8 - Should Have Seen That Coming...

Jim’s piercing hazel gaze stared into the rose colored eyes of the rainbow-maned pegasus mare. To say that he was unamused would have been like saying that the Grand Canyon was a little awe-inspiring. Just who did this pony think she was? What gave her the impression that he was holding the fillies against their will? Why wasn’t he at her throat making her regret her life decisions?

Before any of his queries could be answered, Jim felt the movement of Scootaloo on his head. She got up and placed her hooves on the top of Jim’s muzzle as her little wings stood out defensively. “Hang on, Rainbow Dash! He’s not doing anything wrong – he’s helping us!” she squeaked out hastily.

The aggressive look on Rainbow’s face melted away into a confused stare. “What? Then why have I been getting told that some big beast is walking around town while holding you guys captive? And where’s Apple Bloom? I thought all three of you were with him…”

“Miss Dash, Apple Bloom just went to her house to get her saddlebags. You can even check with her older sister, we were there just a short while ago,” Jim growled in his low voice. Though he knew it would be in his best interest to stay as calm as possible, the sheer idiocy of the mare in front of him was almost too much for his patience… and what the hell was with that hair style!?

Rainbow’s focus shifted back to Jim and her gaze intensified. “Alright buddy, why don’t you explain why you got two fillies on your back? And ya better watch that tone or I might just kick your sorry butt on principle alone!”

Jim’s eyes narrowed and he flicked his head back to roll Scootaloo onto his neck. “If it wasn’t for the fact that Sweetie Bell was injured, I’d gladly put a runt like you in her proper place.”

“Oh yeah, and where would that be? With my hoof in your face ya mangy mutt?”

Oh… she did NOT just go there… Jim thought as his lip curled back to show his fangs. For a split second he knew he saw fear grip the prismatic pegasus. His angry snarl started to slip into a sinister grin when his ears flicked to the sound of another approaching flyer.

Jim’s head darted up to spot a streak of yellow as it hurtled to the ground between Rainbow Dash and himself. A yellow pegasus with a long flowing pink mane came to a hover right in front of Jim and she stared at him with a firm gaze for a moment before something dawned on her. Her teal eyes slowly melted from stern to compassionate. “Oh, I’m sorry. I-I thought you were going to do something bad,” she said in a soft voice.

Jim simply eyed her for a moment before he shrugged. “I probably would have pinned that blue one down and scared her, but that’s about it. Is she a friend of yours?” he asked with a distinct lack of interest.

“O-oh… yes. I’ve known Rainbow Dash for a long time now. I hope you don’t hold it against her… she’s a little gung-ho sometimes,” the yellow one replied with a tiny smile.

“Uh-huh…” Jim said blankly.

“Uh… Fluttershy? You do know that’s the thing that’s been making everypony uneasy, right?” Rainbow asked incredulously.

Fluttershy turned her head to her friend and frowned. “Rainbow, that’s not nice. He’s not a thing, he’s a… oh my, what are you, i-if you don’t mind me asking?” she said as she turned her big teal eyes back to Jim.

Jim chuckled heartily before he answered. “Two things, one: you’re too nice. Two: I’m a big scary werewolf… who’s trying to get Sweetie Belle home so she can get some slight medical attention for her injured leg.”

Fluttershy gasped and looked around Jim’s head to see the bruising on Sweetie’s leg. “Oh dear! Are you alright?” she asked as she rushed to the little filly’s side.

Jim simply watched her for a moment before his hearing picked up on the clopping of multiple ponies approaching. He glanced to Rainbow Dash as he thought, looks like more of her friends… oh how lovely.

From around a nearby building a familiar looking purple Alicorn came trotting, with a white unicorn sporting a very stylish coiffed mane, a pink earth pony with a darker pink mane, and Applejack on her tail. Jim sighed as he visibly struggled to keep from snarling at the coming annoyances. He just knew this was going to grate on his last nerves.

The group of ponies came to a halt beside Rainbow Dash and all eyes locked onto the angry looking creature. It wasn’t until the group noticed that their timid friend was right beside him that the tension vanished from them. The white unicorn was the first to step forth with an inquisitive look about her. “Fluttershy, darling… what is going on?” she asked.

Fluttershy looked away from Sweetie Belle with a small frown on her face. “Sweetie Belle was hurt in the Everfree,” she answered.

Jim’s ear twitched as he heard a small throat gulp. “Hi, Rarity…” Sweetie said softly.

So that white unicorn is the older sister I was about to go meet… way to make a first impression, I guess, Jim thought morbidly.

Rarity gasped and rushed forth to her sister’s side, bumping Fluttershy aside. “Oh, Sweetie Belle! Are you alright, dear? Are you hurt badly?”

“She tripped on a root, Miss Rarity,” Jim said calmly. “She’s going to have a nasty bruise, but I don’t think she did anything major to her leg. Still, if you have a doctor nearby, I’m more than willing to bring her there to have her looked at professionally, just to be sure.”

Rarity paused in her fussing of her little sister to look at Jim with big sapphire eyes. “Oh… um, right. If you don’t mind my asking… who are you, and why are you carrying these two out of the forest?”

Jim sighed silently as he saw the same kind of protectiveness overtake Rarity that Applejack had displayed. It seemed it was just in the nature of the ponies to alienate anything different if it meant keeping their family safe. Luckily, Jim was rescued from making a rather snide comment.

“Rarity, I couldn’t really walk. Jim was kind enough to let us ride on him out of the Everfree. Please don’t be mean to him… he’s been nice to us,” Sweetie Belle said gently as she touched her hoof to Rarity’s.

“Yeah! Why are you guys acting so weird?” Scootaloo asked testily. “He’s done nothing wrong to anypony, but you’re all treating him like he’s some monster.” Scootaloo then proceeded to cross her arms and pout at the ponies around them.

Twilight Sparkle finally decided to step forward. Jim eyed her as she approached. He was slightly wary of her since he had seen what an Alicorn’s power was like, but the look of curiosity in her lavender eyes threw off his interpretation of what her motives might be. She eventually came to a stop a few feet away from him as she looked Jim in the eyes. “Hello, My name is-”

“Twilight Sparkle, yes I know. I’ve seen you before. I’m Jim… now get to the point. The longer we sit around chatting, the worse things will be for Sweetie Belle’s leg. Seriously, am I really more important than her wellbeing?” Jim said tersely.

Twilight closed her mouth with a saddened look, as if she had been looking forward to her introduction, but had no choice but to conform to his words. Then a shocked expression overlapped her visage. “When did you see me?” she asked.

Jim deadpanned hard. Is there really no sense of urgency about the injured little one? Oh no, he might eat them if we don’t get them away from him! What about the injured one? Eh, it’s either a bruise or a fractured leg that could ruin her chances at walking properly later in life, she’ll be juuuuust fine, Jim thought to himself.

“I was in the group of humans that arrived yesterday. I doubt you’d remember me from my looks, but I was the one that was taken into custody by the guards. Now can we please get Sweetie Belle some medical attention?” he said, growing testier as time passed.

The tinkling sound of magic being cast caught his attention and he turned his head to see Rarity levitating Sweetie from his back. “Don’t worry, Jim. I’ll tend to my younger sister’s needs. Thank you for your assistance in making sure she was brought back safely. If you’ll excuse me…” she said and started to walk away.

Sweetie Belle looked to Jim with sad eyes as she was taken away. He sighed quietly but offered her a small smile and a wave goodbye before being addressed once more. “Well, it looks like that’s taken care of. Now do you mind if I ask you a few more questions?” Twilight asked.

Jim brought his hand to the bridge of his nose and he rubbed it with yet another sigh. His hand lowered as he opened his mouth only to feel the brush of wind from a pair of flapping wings as they grew closer. Rainbow Dash eased up and extended her hoof to Scootaloo. “C’mon squirt, let’s get you down from there.”

Scootaloo crossed her hooves again and eyed Rainbow’s hoof skeptically. “Why?” she asked.

Jim’s eyes narrowed as he slowly turned his head to the cyan pegasus mare. He was getting really annoyed by their not so subtle attempts at separating him from the fillies.

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat gently as she forced a grin for the little orange filly. “Uh, because… we should probably go with rarity to make sure that everything’s alright with your friend, yeah.”

Scootaloo gave her idol a deadpan look. “You just want me off of Jim so you all can be mean to him. I won’t let you – I’m staying right here.”

“Ugh, Scootaloo, come on. Don’t you think you should go with rarity? Maybe you should see if Apple Bloom needs a hand getting her saddlebag?” Rainbow tried again.

Scootaloo shook her head while the glare from Jim increased. Rainbow suddenly lunged forward and wrapped her hooves around the little filly and she pulled. Scootaloo acted instantly and tried to grab a hold of anything she could to stay on top of Jim, going as far as biting down on his fur. Rainbow, not realizing what she was about to do, yanked as hard as she could.

Jim roared in pain as the clueless and stubborn blue mare yanked his fur out with her actions. His burning anger boiled over and he swiftly flung his hand out. Grabbing hold of Rainbow Dash’s tail, he yanked her down to the ground beneath him. The instant she connected with the cobblestone, Jim’s fang-filled snarl was right before her eyes.

“Mr. Jim! Please stop – I’m sorry!” Scootaloo pleaded.

Jim’s body stopped like a hiccup during a loading page after a bolt of lightning strikes nearby. The red in his vision slowly faded as he stared into the petrified face of the prismatic mare. His gaze traveled down to see Scootaloo’s face right in front of his jaws. Slowly, Jim backed away from them as he realized just how close he had come to losing his control. He knew, in that moment, that pain was a trigger for his bestial side – especially if he was angry.

He flinched when a gentle hoof touched his shoulder, which startled the owner, Fluttershy. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you alright? You don’t look so good…” she inquired.

Jim shook his head slowly. “No… I’m not alright. I nearly lost myself just then. I thought that I had changed enough… but I was wrong. I’m still a monster…” he said softly and turned his gaze back to Scootaloo. “I came to your world to fix… this darkness within me. Your princesses failed me last night and I left the castle. Now I’m stuck in your world and I don’t know what to do anymore.” Jim’s ears sagged slightly as he let his eyes trail down and he sat down, nearly forgetting about his tail.

With a heavy sigh, Jim looked to Fluttershy and continued in a gentle tone, “My whole life has been unfair. I never wanted to do the things I’ve done, but I was never given a choice in the matter… ever. I want to be a normal human… but this curse has removed that possibility.”

Fluttershy and Twilight’s ears perked up at his words, but it was the calming touch of the yellow one that plucked Jim’s attention first. With a gentle rubbing of his shoulder, something that actually soothed him a little, Fluttershy spoke kindly. “There there, everything is alright now. Can you tell us more about this curse? Maybe we can help.”

Jim sighed as he looked to the pink-maned, yellow mare. Her eyes were genuine in their concern and want to help him. He shook his head gently. “I doubt any of you could help. Unless you have access to something like a cure-all miracle magic.”

“Actually…” Rainbow Dash chimed in with a bit of a sheepish look about her. Part of her wanted to help, but she was still scared of what she had seen the big werewolf do just a few moments before. Even she had to admit that it had been a bad idea to goad him on, but knowing what she knew now made it awkward for her. She still wanted to kick him in the flank for scaring the living daylights out of her, but she also felt sorry for him.

Applejack stepped up to the cyan pegasus and placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “Ah think what RD is trin’ ta say is that we might have a lil somethin’ that could help you,” she said and looked to Twilight Sparkle with a small smile.

Twilight nodded her head and refocused her attention on Jim. “We can certainly try. Curses aren’t exactly… common, and most of them are nonsense.”

“Mine is real enough,” Jim stated with a faint glare to the purple Alicorn.

“Yes, well… in any case, we can try something that might help. We’ll need to fetch Rarity for this, though,” said Twilight.

“I’ll go get her,” the pink earth pony mare said in a chipper tone before bouncing, yes literally bouncing away.

Jim eyed the pink one with a raised brow as she departed. He had an uneasy feeling about that one and had no idea as to why. Just watching that smile and the twinkle in her eyes had sent a chill down his spine. His attention was drawn back to Twilight when she cleared her throat.

“So, Jim was it? If you could follow us, we’ll take you to my castle. It’s not far from here, but I’d like to discuss a few things first, before we try my idea. I’m not the type to do something blindly. I hope you understand,” Twilight said with a friendly smile.

Jim sighed softly before resigning himself to whatever fate had in store for him this time. “Sure. Lead the way, Miss Sparkle.”

Author's Note:

Sorry this chapter is on the short side. I cut it so that I could still get something out for this week.

Still, I'm having fun developing more of Jim's personality. Look forward to the next chapter. It's gunna have sunshine and rainbows!

Also, I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas. :D

Comments

[bob1234567]

Good the teachers pet is going to try to help till she gets a letter