"No!" said Flash with no small dose of indignation. "This is wrong. You manipulated me into coming here . . ."

"Flash, no, I didn't." Sunset was trying her best to calm Flash down. She also felt miserable that he would assume that everything she had said to him was just a ruse to get him to come to her parents grave. "I really did want to come here to see Twilight. That's it. I wanted to see her because she was my friend and I was legitimately concerned with the portal being opened. It's just that in being here, being back home, I realize all that I've lost and all that I've missed. It's been three years since I last visited their grave. I just want to go while I'm here; to feel that connection again. I don't want to go alone; but if you want to go back to your world, then fine. I'll walk you back to the portal and then I'll go. Ok?" Sunset walked up to Flash and touched his left front leg with her hoof.

Flash turned away, fuming with anger. He learned Twilight was a horse/pony/alicorn/ whatever, she wasn't even here, and now Sunset wanted to visit her parents grave while she knew his parents would be up, waiting for him and half worried sick. Only slightly looking back, he said, "How far away is it?"

"Flash, you don't . . ."

"How far!" Flash yelled. He didn't mean to; but the frustration had built to a boiling point. He also wanted to do the right thing and didn't want to run the risk of being talked out of it.

"It's a small cemetery, right outside Cantorlot. About a couple hours away. Once we get close enough, I can teleport us there. I don't want to risk teleporting both of us that far of a distance. All total, we should be here another three hours. As I said, you don't . . ."

"We better get going then. Let's go," Flash said in a short, irritated voice.

*****************************************************************************************************************

The night was cool but not cold. The stars twinkled nicely in the night sky which was free from clouds. As Flash walked along with Sunset, he marveled at what he saw. Where they were was like a village from twelfth century England. Waddle and daub houses, wooden carts, yet he also saw a pony walking by with sunglasses and headphones on. Which, one, who wears sunglasses at night; and two, what was the exact level of technology here? It was like pieces of every time period from middle ages to the 1980's fell into some vortex and landed here. There was no rhyme or reason to anything.

The one good thing about all this confusion was it gave Flash a chance to calm down. His mind became so occupied with trying to make sense of this bizarro world, he didn't have time to think about all of his problems and feelings. It was a form of meditation, almost. As they walked, every once in a while, a pony that was out for a late night trot would say hello and they would say hi back which made Flash wonder if they were actually speaking English or just perceived it that way.

Once they made it out of town, though, Flashes mind slowly returned to the matter at hand. And most surprisingly; how bad he felt for yelling at Sunset. "Sunset, hey, I just want to apologize . . . "

"No, don't," Sunset cut him off. She spoke in a low, soft, sad voice. "After everything I've put you through; you don't need to apologize for anything."

"Yes, I do. No matter what happened between us in the past, or even the present, that's no excuse for losing it back there. I mean three years without seeing any of your friends, without visiting your parents grave; I should have understood."

"Thank you. And to be honest, Twilight is my only friend here. I didn't make any friends here. So it made crossing over to your world a lot easier."

"Really? Why not?" Flash realized he had never asked why Sunset had crossed over. Never actually even thought of it. But now he was curious and they did have some time to kill.

"I had a chip on my shoulder. My father was a delivery pony . He was always away, so I never got to see him much. Then on one run when I was about six, he was going up this really narrow road mountain road when a rock slide hit him and knocked him off the mountain. Mother and I struggled. I mean, being a single parent here isn't the same as in your world. No offense, but even at my worse, when I was actually a demon, I was only slightly worse than what most of you lot are on a daily basis."

"Ouch!" said Flash thinking Sunset's assessment of the human race was a little harsh.

"If I'm going to be brutally honest about myself; I'm going to be brutally honest about everything." Sunset said in a matter-of-fact manner. "No, being poor and struggling here is not the same here as it is on Earth, but the bottom is never fun no matter where you're from. There are two types of people that crave power; those born into it who see it was their birthright, and those born without it, who have suffered at the hands of chance and vowed to never be at the whims of another again and control their own destiny. I was the latter."

"So what happened? To your mom that is?"

"Suicide," Sunset responded flatly. "After I moved away, to become Princess Celestia's student. I guess she couldn't stand being alone."

"I'm so sorry." Flash didn't know what to say. His heart ached for Sunset. Everything she had been now made sense. Some monsters are born, Sunset was made.

"It's alright. It is what it is."

"No, it's not. 'It is what it is' is what we say to ourselves to justify the unjustifiable. We stuff our emotions down with that linguistic ram rod. And we shouldn't; you shouldn't. It's the pain in life, the hurt, that let's us know we're human."

"I'm not human Flash."

"But you are. You might not be a homo-sapien-sapien, but you are human. You have thoughts and feelings and wants and needs and desires and hopes. And you shouldn't just gloss over your pain but use it as a way of connecting to others. My father is Chinese-American. My mother is white. My dad's side of the family has almost disowned him. It hurts a little, but I also know I'm not the only one. That's how I'm able to fit in with all those groups you mentioned earlier. I don't see them as groups, but as people. some very badly damaged, but still people."

Sunset shook her head. "If only I knew who you really were, I wouldn't have played you but actually cherished you."

"Sunset, we can't be what we were, or you pretended we were, but we can be friends. Please?"

"I'd like that, friend." Sunset smiled

"Buddy."

"Pal."

"Amiga."

"Comrade."

"What, are we communist now?" Flash laughed.

Sunset laughed as well. "No, but I think we are close enough to teleport. You ready?'

"Let's do this."

***************************************************************************************************

It was a simple head stone in a simple cemetery. A plain, rough cut, slab that had "SHIMMER" carved in it. Both Sunset and Flash stood in silence before it, heads bowed in reverence. Three years had passed, three! When she had left, she was 26, now she was almost 30. So much had changed, she had changed. First for the worse, then for the better. But this was her corner stone. The place that always beckoned her to some degree or another. She barely remembered her father who seemed more like an idea than a real person. All she remembered of her mother was that she was a sad women who would break into tears out of nowhere.

"You ok?" Flash whispered.

"No. But that in of itself is ok. Thank you Flash, for everything."

Flash nodded and then suddenly looked up as something caught his eye. "What's that?"

A winged black mass descended from the sky and both Flash and Sunset were frightened. "Be at ease my children. For I am Princess Luna," it said.

Sunset immediately bowed and Flash followed suit.

"Arise Sunset and . . . Flash. No need for formalities."

Sunset spoke as soon as she stood back up. "Princess Luna, I heard you were back."

"Yes my child. Seems as if home beckons us all." Luna smiled. "It is good to see you. I've been wanting to talk to you for awhile now. Come walk with me; we have much to discuss."

"Yes my lady. But what of Flash he . . . " Sunset stopped as she saw Flash fast asleep on the ground.

"A gift. There is one who has been calling for him. I thought since he was here now and under my domain, I should allow them to have a meeting as it were while we talked."

******************************************************************************************************

Flash was surrounded by blackness. He could feel nothing, see nothing except his own body, which was human again. Where am I, he thought to himself. Was he sent here by the one who called herself Princess Luna? Was this a punishment? Was he doomed to be here forever? In terror he called out, "HELLO! ANYBODY?"

"Flash!"

A voice called out from behind him. He turned and look and there was Twilight. But she wasn't what he expected. She was a pony like creature, but she was a pastel purple with freakishly large eyes and almost nonexistent muzzle. She had a dark purple main with magenta highlights and on her flank was one large diamond looking star thing surrounded by smaller whit stars.

"Twilight? Is that, you look different." He tried to laugh as he said it. He wanted to sound like he was joking.

"So do you. Your all peach with black hair and almond shaped eyes." Twilight was equally perplexed but kept walking toward him.

Flash started walking toward her as well. "This is how I actually look. And I take it that's your true form."

Twilight stopped, looked down, and blushed. "I guess so. Are you disappointed?"

Flash walked over to Twilight, knelt down and kissed her full on the lips. Twilight's eyes bulged out of head in shock but then she closed them and returned his kiss, lost in love.

Flash pulled away and smiled. "If it's you in there, the body doesn't matter."

"Awww, that's so sweet!" Twilight said on the verge of tears.

" But now I know what it must be like to kiss a dude with a beard," he said with a laugh and Twilight laughed to. "So where are we? How'd we get here?"

"This is the Nexus." It was Princess Luna. But it was a version of her neither of them had seen before. She was mostly human with flowing hair that looked like it was the night sky with streaks of white in it. She had dark blue wings and a horn coming out of her forehead. She wore a dark blue, Renaissance style dress.

"Luna?" Twilight asked.

"Yes my child. A version of her at least." Luna smiled. "As I was saying; this is the Nexus. The center of the Multiverse. Here you can travel to any realm you wish. Infinite universes with infinite dimensions contained within. And it is here, that all obtain their true shape and all can see the other's true form."

"So why are we here?" Twilight asked again.

"For that reason my child. Love can not blossom when both partners are in costumes. I can not give you eternity, but I can give each other." With that, she vanished.

"What did she mean by that?" Twilight wondered out loud.

"I don't know, but can we go back to kissing?" Flash asked.

The two began to kiss again. A small light began to form around them and grew until they were engulfed by it. Their bodies morphed and changed through all the various incarnations of themselves. Then they began to merge with each other, body, mind, and spirit. First each others thoughts were made bare to one and other. Then there was no separation of mind, they were of the same mind; one entity, without body, without barriers, one perfect whole; their bodies now completely dissolved away. The were one with each other, one with the light.

In the ball of light, a dark spec formed. The speck grew larger and separated into two dark shapes. Then those shapes formed Flash and Twilight as the light receded. Soon it was just them, standing and holding each other. They slowly pulled away and saw that they were in a hybrid state; not human, not pony, but both.

"That . . . was . . . intense," Flash slowly sputtered out.

"Yeah." It was all Twilight could say.

"Kind of makes sex seem pointless and empty now. I, saw you. I saw your life. Everything."

"Same. Wow!" Twilight started to giggle and Flash joined her. "So now what? Forget sex, how do you even have a conversation after that?"

"You don't." It was Luna again. "I wish you two could go on. I wish you could marry, have a family, and just be; but for reasons I can not explain now, you can't. But at least I could give you this. Think of it as my present to you both."

"WHAT! That's not fair!" Flash said.

"My child, life is not fair," Luna responded with compassion in her voice.

"But how can I, we go on after experiencing that?" Twilight asked, shaking and in tears.

"Because you must. The fate of the multiverse depends on it. Now it is time to go; but you will always have this in you, in your hearts, in your dreams."

*************************************************************************************************************

"Flash, Flash, wake up."

Flash slowly opened his eyes and saw Sunset Shimmer shaking him. He looked around. He was back on campus, in front of the portal. "Oh, I must have dozed off. I had the strangest, but most beautiful dream," he said.

"I think it's time for you to go home. Your parents must be worried." Sunset's tone was concerned but strict.

"Huh? Oh yeah, you're right." He got up and started to walk off when he suddenly stopped and turned around. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Home Flash. I'll see you Monday."

Flash shook his and walked off.

As soon as he was out of ear shot, Sunset turned toward the portal and said, "Thank you Luna." Then she turned and looked in the direction Flash went. "And thank you comrade."

Author's Note

Since all these stories are setting up the long fiction, I'm leaving them all opened ended somewhat so I can tie all the lose threads up later. Sorry.