//------------------------------// // A Gentle Touch // Story: The Many Lives of a Dead Moth // by BCS //------------------------------// Cryptic sat at the diner table, sipping tea quietly. He was deep in thought. Starlight Glimmer was "babysitting" him, as she called it, until he felt more comfortable in his new identity. He wondered how soon that would be since he felt like a stranger in a strange land, a castaway on an island full of strange people. He had never felt more alone than right now, even with Starlight right next to him quietly reading her newspaper. "What does it say?" he asked. She hushed him. He finished his tea, feeling depressed. It had been something called hibiscus tea and it was very bitter. He did not enjoy the strong flavor but since she purchased it just for him, he felt obligated to finish it. Cryptic just stared into his empty cup, wishing it had the answers to all his problems. The chatter around him was foreign and meaningless, even though he could understand it perfectly well. Everything was an alien world, and he was the most alien of them all. He had no idea how anything worked, and- -And Starlight was talking to him and he missed half of what she had said. "And don't tell Trixie, okay?" Cryptic put down his teacup. He was already not liking the sound of this. "What?" "We're going by Sunburst's house." He paused a really long time, considering this. He didn't know these people. He didn't know Sunburst and only barely knew Trixie, but she seemed really temperamental. She also had a weird habit of referring to herself in the third person. When he pointed this out, she tried to consciously drop it, only to do it again about ten minutes later. He did know Trixie didn't like Sunburst. And Starlight really, really did. "Is that the right thing to do?" he asked slowly. Starlight stared into his red eyes with fear, afraid to answer. "That's what I thought." Anger crossed her face. "I'm an adult!" "Yes, you are," he said neutrally. "Do you want to hurt your friend?" "N-no." "Then we shouldn't see Sunburst." "But I have an appointment with Twilight later to update her about the School! Oh, crap, oh no, I forgot about..." She went off on a tangent that made absolutely no sense to him about people he hadn't been introduced to. He tuned it out again and waiting for her to finish rambling nonsensically. "I think Trixie won't have a problem with you running into Sunburst at the Canterlot Castle, since it sounds like they are always together." "They are," Glimmer said hotly. "They're inseparable." "Isn't that a good thing? Aren't they both your friends?" She sighed mightily. "You just don't get it!" He stopped, reconsidering. Her eyes were glittering on the bottoms. She looked like she might cry at any moment. That would be really embarrassing in public. So he shook his head. "You're right, I don't get it." Cryptic reached over to hold her hoof. She snatched her hoof away. "I just want to make sure he's doing alright! I worry a lot!" "That's very kind of you that you care so much about them." "It is?" She looked at him impressed, with a hint of admiration. He felt a weird burst of power, like a thump in his chest. He felt... bigger. Fuller. Her lavender eyes looked very pretty and he was suddenly aware of her thick, luxurious eyelashes, tender face, cute ears, and soft-looking mouth. Strange. "Please don't look at me like that with those eyes." She looked surprised. "Why?" "J-just don't. I can't explain it." "Try?" "Well, when you look at me like that, I get a funny feeling in m-" "No, wait, stop! I get it." "I was going to say my heart! Damn!" Tick "Oh." "Did you feel that?" he asked. "Feel what?" Like the Earth moved, he said, but the words didn't come out. Blackness swallowed him whole. * * * Strange images, a pony with a yellow coat. Fever-dream feel. A voice haunting him. Mental agony, pure anguish. Words recycled over and over through his head. "Of course I love you." "I'm sorry, but it will take time to rebuild trust." "Why do you love someone like me?" A familiar voice. A time he couldn't place. A place out of time, outside of feeling or emotion. Something higher, something bigger. An intimate feeling of not-belonging not-being not-anything Glimmer touched his face and he snapped out of it. "You okay, Cryptic?" Starlight asked gently. "Y-yeah. Yeah! Sorry, I just had a flash of memory or something, maybe?" "The weird thing is... I think I felt it too." "What? How is that even possible?" Starlight hesitated. "Well, I tried to using a mind-reading spell on you when we first met. I thought it wasn't working, but now I think it's related to your cutie mark and your magic, maybe? You're a very odd unicorn." "You did that without asking me!?" Cryptic yelled, offended. People turned to stare. Starlight Glimmer blushed bright red and sank down in her chair. She took the newspaper and twisted it up in humiliation and started smacking herself in the face with it. Tears ran down her face. "Bad Starlight! Bad! Bad! Bad!" He snatched the paper away from her. "You stop that!" Starlight grappled for it back for a moment before realizing how ridiculous they were being and stopped. He felt ashamed to have made a scene now and took her out of the diner into an alleyway behind it. Their breakfast hadn't even arrived yet, but... it seemed like the right thing to do. Starlight Glimmer was breathing rapidly and shallowly and looked like she was on the verge of a freakout. "Are you okay?" "NO!" "Why?" "You wouldn't understand!" "... Try me." "Well, a long time ago, I tried to steal all the powers of all the people who are now my friends and a different time I tried to mind-control them and another time I tried to change the past so I ruled the world and then-" Cryptic kissed her. Her eyes went as big as saucers. She shoved him away in rage, tears still gathered in her eyes. "What the fuck!" "I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me! You just seemed so upset and I thought if I did that, you wouldn't be all mad and sad anymore!" "That is not okay!" Starlight Glimmer stamped her hoof. "Timing is everything!" Cryptic stared at the ground. He felt smaller now and hollower. Like whatever progress he had made with her had just been blown to bits. Like he had sabotaged his only friend. Did he know the way back to Trixie's wagon? Well, he was willing to find out. Wordlessly, he left Starlight Glimmer in the diner alleyway and galloped away as fast as his legs could carry him. His horn started to feel hot, and it was like he could move even faster if he focused on it. Like his legs were longer. No, wait, they were longer now! His hooves splashed mud in every puddle as he felt the way back more than really knowing it. He let his new long, long legs take him back home to Trixie Lulamoon and her little cramped stagecoach. His only other friend.