Flash Sentry was naked, and that's how he knew that something wasn't right.
He looked down at himself. His penis was flaccid, limp—about as small as he always remembered. This wasn't going to end the way he wanted. Nothing ever did.
Already, he felt himself moving forward, climbing through the glass pane that covered the front of the fantastical landscape. Each glossy tendril of translucent webbing rippled off his bare limbs as he passed on through the veil. Emerging upon the countryside, he saw purple mountains and verdant green valleys stretching endlessly beneath a pearl-blue sky. The sounds of gallant hooves stampeded away in the distance, like thunder receding from him, traced with high-pitched laughter. Every step his naked feet took across the glittering earth felt cold, echoing with sterility—the hollow beauty that surrounded him. The only warmth came from his breath, but even that was a waning thing, dwindling into a pitiable lukewarm malaise, one sigh at a time.
Eventually, he saw a castle. It towered majestically in the center of the kingdom, surrounded by a deep sapphire moat. Rippling banners marked the tall phallic spires, and every rampart was studded with diamonds and heart-shaped statues.
There was nowhere else to go, so Flash stepped inside. The walls were made out of glass, immaculate crystal. They reflected his pale flesh and ocean blue hair as he shuffled along. Soon, he turned a corner, entering a grand foyer with plush rose-colored furnishing and rainbow mosaic tile.
He expected the throne to be empty. But—for the first time—it wasn't. Someone sat there with her legs crossed, flawlessly curvaceous. A sly grin rested across her face, as if she had been expecting him.
She must have also expected how surprised he was going to be, because she was holding in a deep laugh.
"Out for a stroll?" Sunset Shimmer purred, her voice teetering off the edge of a snicker. Her nipples could cut glass, and Flash regretted the fact that they were the first things he chose to look at. He regretted how quickly he looked away as well.
"Well of course you're here," he muttered towards the way that he came.
At last, Sunset let out a hearty chuckle. It ricocheted off the glass walls like a bullet, bouncing back around and landing smack-dab in her curved lips. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He squirmed awkwardly where he stood. The young man had pivoted so that neither his crotch nor his buttocks directly faced the invasive female. "It's been a long, long while since I've dreamt of you."
"Oh?" Sunset stretched casually upon the throne, showing off her ample bust and narrow waist. Flash saw her without seeing her. "And just how do you know this isn't real?"
He sighed. "I'm sure the blatant lack of pubic hair makes this fake as Hell."
Sunset cackled like a hyena—a hyena that could strut down a lingerie modeler's runway. "Ohhhhhh Flash," she moaned. "If there was one thing you were always good for, it was for making me laugh."
He clenched his fists a little, but his arms felt like dangling lengths of silk in a cold breeze. "Guess I didn't make you laugh hard enough."
"Are you talking about why we broke up?"
"What else would I be talking about?"
"You know the real reason why that happened." She stood up and girl-stepped across the throne room. Her painted nails matched the tile beneath every sashaying strut. "I didn't make you happy enough."
"Sunset..."
Her smiled faded, and a sympathetic pursing of the lips occupied its absence. "I didn't even try to."
He gulped. "Can we talk about something else?"
She gave a soft nod, followed by a soft voice. "Very well." She twirled about, her hair billowing across her bare shoulders. "Just where are we?"
Flash Sentry exhaled sadly. He didn't want to say, but there was very little point in refusing the woman. She was tall, glistening, confident. He had shrunk a few more inches since he arrived there, and the place felt somehow colder. The sun sank towards the horizon, and the valleys and mountains beyond the balcony had dimmed, losing several bands of color and lustre.
"Through the mirror," he finally blurted.
She was chuckling again, a red flush spreading from her breasts to her smiling lips. "Is this what you think Equestria is?"
"Am I far off?"
"Flash, this looks like Candy Land and the The Magic Kingdom had a very unimaginative love child."
Flash shrugged. "It's a magical pony land for cute cuddly ponies."
"Yeah, and it's not even remotely like the real Equestria."
"Fine..." He sat down on a sofa with a slump. The velvet tickled his genitals and he was ashamed at how visibly he shuddered. "You tell me what it's like."
"Doesn't matter."
"Uh huh."
"I kinda prefer it the way it looks now," Sunset Shimmer said. She slinked down until she was draped along the nearest sofa perpendicular to him. "So innocent and silly." Every curve and slant of her goddess-like body brought even further shame to the shriveled young man in her presence. "You know, if you really did come here, you'd be a pony and not a human."
"Right."
"But I guess that doesn't matter either." She drew a lock of scarlet hair over her ear. She gazed at him. Her eyes darted down for a second or two, then back towards his face with a smile. "You're adorable."
His nostrils flared. "Please don't."
"C-come on, Flash!" She giggled, her breasts shaking with each joyous outburst. "Is this all you ever do? Come here and sit down to sulk by yourself while the sun goes down?"
"I come here..." His lips trailed—just as his eyes. He gazed beyond the balcony as night fell. "And I wait..." A cold, shuddering exhale. One by one, the stars peeked beyond the veil, each one granting a brief candle of hope before just as swiftly being snuffed out. "But nothing ever happens."
"Nothing?"
He gulped. "Nothing."
She slowly nodded, following his gaze towards a slowly rising moon, cold and pale and unfeeling. "I see."
"Dreams are never meant to come true," Flash Sentry said, leaning his chin against a hand. "Or else they wouldn't be dreams."
"But dreams also end," Sunset remarked. The moon rose higher and higher, casting a pale sheen off their smooth skin. "So why hasn't this one?"
"Because..." Flash blinked. Confusion rippled through his figure, and he hugged himself to contain the shivers. "I d-don't know." Like an anxious child, he cast the young woman a needy look. "I still don't understand what you're doing here."
A somber breath rolled out of her as she sat up, rearranging her hair. "Well, Flash," she spoke in an almost motherly-tone. "You know how the magic from beyond the portal has granted me powers...?"
"Right." He swallowed. "You touch people and you can read their thoughts."
"It's way more involved than that," Sunset explained. "When I make contact with another person, a piece of their consciousness fuses with mine. It's like their soul's been imprinted on my mindscape. We more or less become one... until the residual traces of the contact fade away."
He stared at her blankly for a long while.
She stared back. Then, with a subtle smirk, she droned: "Think Rogue from X-Men."
Even he was surprised at how simple that made everything. "Ohhhhhhh..."
"For a brief period in time, I see and feel and smell and taste everything that's essential to another individual's being," Sunset said. "Even their dreams and innermost selves become clear as day."
"I see." He looked forlornly at the palace walls and ceiling hanging above. "Then this isn't really me."
"Now I didn't say that." Sunset shook her head. "But—then again—I didn't say this was the real me either."
He threw her a surprised look. "But..." His lips quivered. "...if this doesn't belong to either Flash Sentry or Sunset Shimmer... then just whose is it?"
She sighed gently. "Remember how I said that the residual traces of the contact fades away from Sunset's mind?"
He slowly nodded.
"Well..." She toyed with a lock of hair, avoiding his gaze. "...a residual trace of Sunset fades along with it as well."
"Then..." Flash squirmed nakedly on the couch. "Where do they...?" He glanced beyond the balcony to see that the moon had vanished. The stars as well. "...where are we going?"
Sunset released a melodic breath. "The same place all things go."
All remaining light outside the castle was receding. The color and glitter vanished as well.
Flash Sentry nodded at the encroaching vacuum. "It's just as well, I guess."
A noticeably sympathetic gloss covered Sunset's eyes. "Why did I know you would say that?"
"Because you know me..." He winced slightly, eyes traveling to the floor. "You know Flash." He folded his hands together. "Doesn't take a magical mind-read to gain that sort of intuition about the guy."
She slid over slightly. Her body was a single tongue of flame, flickering against the thickening shadows. "Why do you always do this to yourself?"
"It doesn't matter," he muttered, looking away from her. Away from the warmth. "Nothing does anymore."
"Flash..." She pulled him in. A simple finger-touch to the chin was all it took, and he was consumed. Locked in on her immaculate visage. She was even taller now—a beacon in the night—warm and towering, yet gentle as a song with each coaxing click of the tongue. "Why do you always come here? Why do you wait for someone who will never arrive? Over and over again?"
He fought. He struggled. But he was too small, too weak. And Sunset was always too strong, too irresistible. He hated her as he loved her, when he could only reserve one such passion for himself.
So he gave in. "Because for a brief moment in life, I almost had Beauty. But—just like a dream—it wouldn't come true." He clenched his teeth, an ineffectual flash of anger—and yet in its momentary spark it almost rivaled her brilliance. "And I can't give her up in spite of that. I can't give up on the dream."
She smiled tearfully. More fingers had closed around his chin, caressing him now. "Do you really think it was a dream that first gave you Beauty?"
Flash Sentry winced. He felt guilty, and his eyes tried darting away from her burning gaze. "I'm sorry that it c-couldn't work out between us..."
She laughed. The merriment was an odd thing in such colorless darkness. "You silly little thing. I wasn't talking about myself."
"Sunset, I..." He choked on his words—for they tasted sweet suddenly. He exhaled—a squeaky breath that was higher-pitched than normal. Palpitations ran sweatily through his breast, and she held a lavender hand up towards Sunset's burning hair. "What's...?" She whimpered, eyelashes fluttering, beaded with delicate tears. "...I d-don't understand."
"Shhhhh..." Sunset was hugging her now. Engulfing her. Kissing and nuzzling. Hands that traveled, explored, and mapped every delicate curve—old yet new. "...it's perfectly fine."
But she whimpered. She had to fly away, but there was no waking up. The dream was lasting too long; even the darkness wouldn't crush it. So she clung to all the warmth that was clinging to her, even as the tears threatened to burst. "I don't," she squeaked. "I can't."
"Yes you can," she sang back, singing. Soothing. One pair of arms cradled her. The others went sliding down below until—gently yet ardently—she feathered a pair of fingers inside, entering with a purr and a cascade of kisses all along her face and neck. "You are."
She yelped sharply at first. The pain was real, but brief. There was something rising deeply beneath the crest of awkwardness, laced with gentle vibrations that threatened both love and tsunamis all at once. She swam in between, submerged in silk-slick moisture. Tears from her eyes. Nectar from the sweetest bud. She sobbed the entire time, exposed to the many cracks that had always been there, only now realizing that the first and last belonged to a smile.
"I shall tell you something."
The kisses never stopped.
"I shall show you something that I could never tell Flash."
The words massaged, caressed, and filled.
"That you must know now and forevermore."
The entire time, she released—a faucet trickling into an oceanic basin.
"Know that you are Beautiful. You are Beautiful when you cry. You are Beautiful when you laugh. You are Beautiful when you're alone and you are Beautiful when you are surrounded by those who Adore you. As I Adore you. But—most importantly—you must stop dreaming. And learn to Adore yourself."
So she did.
She released.
Out through her apex, her center, her foundation.
The beacon was gone; the torch had been snuffed out.
But through that great darkness she kept flowing, down a river that knew no shoals.
And somewhere beyond, in a great estuary where every untold trace of herself quietly collected from all the shadowed streams, perhaps there would be flowers.
