Behind the Bleeding Veil

Setting the alarm was a fall back. Twilight was an early riser, usually getting up half an hour before the alarm was set. Still, even she had her days when the pull (or need) for sleep was too great so an alarm was needed. This was not one of those days however. She had awoken at her customary half hour before she had to but decided to lie in bed anyways until the alarm went off. It simply felt too nice to get out of bed. Flash laid beside her, spooned up against her, his arm around her middle. Both were naked so she could feel the full of his skin and body heat. With the cover over them she felt safe, protected, and warm. The universe felt right and just. It was a feeling she seldom had so cherished every time she did.

As the time ticked down to when she would have to get up and leave her own private paradise; she felt Flash starting to stir behind her. Slowly moving one leg, then the other; stretching and turning to loosen cramped muscles, then slowly rubbing her stomach with his hand. She heard him give a slight grunt of approval at finding her wrapped in his arm, then he gave her a kiss on the back of her head. She replied by putting her arm over his and snuggling as close as she could without forcing him off the bed.

"Morning beautiful," he said sleepily into her ear. "How's your butt?" he said as a joke.

Twilight giggled a bit. It wasn't what he said that she found funny but the fact he said it at all. Flash didn't normally make sexual jokes. "It's ok. Why? You want to have another go at it?" she teased back.

"Nah, I'm good. Anal is like cake - a little here and there equals a great treat. All the time and it makes you sick."

Twilight rolled over in fake outrage. "Oh really now? You think you could get sick of my ass?"

"Um, well no, I mean, I'll always like looking at it and touching it, but, you know, just not sticking my dick in it. I mean, not when you have such a great pussy and mouth." Flash stumbled a bit with his words and gave an awkward smile not knowing how serious Twilight was.

"Oooohhhh. I get it now. I'm just a collection of holes for you to put your dick in to huh?" Twilight did her best to sound cold and offended. She knew Flash felt uncomfortable and decided she would carry this joke on for as long as she could.

"No, no! I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying, you know, that I love all of you. Physically and, uh, emotionally, spiritually, your insides. You know. I like your outsides and insides. But not like just being inside you. I mean I do like being inside you, when you let, always your choice, no means no . . . "

Twilight busted out laughing. She couldn't take it anymore. Flash was so clearly in pain at this point; she had to put him out of his misery. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I love you," she said, still laughing.

Flash was so happy that Twilight wasn't really mad he didn't even think to try and tease her back. He just smiled and asked, "So, you want to get up now? The alarm's about to go off and we promised we'd meet everyone for brunch."

Twilight's face grew super serious all of a sudden as a new thought entered her brain. Something she had never considered before but now it felt almost imperative she do. "Turn the alarm off." Her voice was serious and direct. It wasn't a request but a demand.

Flash looked at Twilight in confusion. He didn't know if she was playing with him again or not but decided it was best to do what she said. He rolled over and switched the alarm off. When he looked back, Twilight was already out of bed and standing up. She wasn't getting dressed but just sort of looking out at something.

She turned to him, with her arm outstretched. "Take my hand. I want to show you something."

Flash slid out on Twilight's side and stood up. He didn't bothered putting any clothes on. Why should he? Twilight was still nude so he knew they weren't going out and she's already seen him naked; so, really, he saw no point in getting dressed.

He walked over and took her hand. Instantly their apartment was gone and they were standing on what looked like a rocky beach. The sky was a multitude of greys. Light, almost light grey, pure grey, dark grey, bluish grey, purplish grey. Fog and mist intertwined with clouds to create an almost seamless envelope of grey. Flash could still see patches though. He could the ground, a mixture of grey, black, and tan rocks and sand. Her heard water violently hitting and washing up on the shore. He was shocked and stunned by what he was seeing. Was this real? It looked real. Yet he realized the only thing he could feel was Twilight's hand.

"I call this planet Esaux Ballauo. It's three the size of Earth and ninety-nine percent water. It spins three times faster than Earth as well due to the fact it has no moon and it's location from it's star. The winds here blow at hurricane strength on calm days. It never developed intelligent life, but it does have life." Twilight pointed to their left. "Look over there."

Flash saw a dark shadow. He couldn't make it out, only that it had a shape resembling a suspension bridge, like The Golden Gate Bridge. He then saw it was actually moving (very, VERY, slowly; but still moving). All he could do was gasp in awe and horror.

"I call that a Sleensludge. Believe it or not; it's actually about ten miles away from us. The life forms on here are mostly giants. The smallest dwarf even the largest of Earth's prehistoric beasts. It's horrible to look at but harmless. It feeds of the seaweed and grasses in the shallow waters."

"H-how?" Flash barely muttered out.

"How could it get so big? It's bone and cellular stricter is different from that of Earth creatures. Different planet, different evolutionary rules. How can you stand here and feel nothing? I have us phased out. We're here, but not here. Our atomic structure is out of phase with that of what's around us. It's hard to explain, but just think of it like a protective bubble that's around us. How we got? I brought us here. How did I know about this place? I found it when I went exploring.

"About a year after we defeated Morgorith, I realized that this dimension wasn't just Earth. Earth was just one planet within it. So I decided to explore it, and it was also a great way of testing and trying out my powers here. I asked Sunset if she wanted to come along but she didn't want to. She was happy just being an average teenage girl for a change. I respected her decision. Heck, that's all I wanted. To just be a normal girl. Graduate high school, go to college, marry you, have kids, one at least. But the world is so crazy, so messed up, and I don't know what to do about it. Exploring makes me feel like I'm doing something, even though I'm doing nothing.

"I used to bring Spike with me until he passed away. Since he could talk, he was the one who requested he get put down. I cried, I begged, but he said the pain was too much. He lived a full life and was ready to rest. I offered to heal him, to give him a human life span, but he refused. He said death was the natural order of things and it was his time. If anyone could die happy, well, content at least, he did.

"It was shortly after I found this place. I come here whenever I'm sad or need to do some serious thinking. I come whenever I have free time, well, go exploring. I not only can travel in space but time as well although I never stay out longer than the actual free time I have. It would be hard to explain how when you left in the morning I was in my early twenties but now in my late forties when you got home. Here."

Flash suddenly saw them lifting above the ground. They moved forward and then plunged into black water. He gasped but no water filled his lungs. He looked around and around. On all sides, total blackness enveloped them yet just like on land, he could feel nothing but Twilight's hand. Then , all of a sudden, the blackness disappeared and he could impossibly huge creatures float around and sometimes through them. He turned to Twilight you just smiled.

"I told you we're out of phase. The water only looks to be gone but it's still there. I just removed the appearance of it so you could see the aquatic life." Twilight then pointed down bellow them. "Like that. I call that a colliquugullia. It's over twice the size of a Sperm Whale."

The creature had bluish black scales outlined in a reddish purple. Two boney spines ran down either side of it's body with a dorsal fin in the middle. Between were rows and rows of tentacles with electric blue lights at the tips. All over the front of it's head were red eyes, resembling that of a spider and a mouth that looked like the sucker of a leech.

"It's eyes aren't for seeing prey. It's almost always black as pitch in these waters. The clouds which cover the planet almost never part enough to let light in. The eyes are for spotting the top predator here, the engulfala."

"Wha, wait! There's something that eats THAT thing?" Flash said in astonishment.

Twilight nodded her head. "Earth never had a creature like it. Imagine a plesiosaur, a mosasaur, and a megalodon all put together and then quadruple it - three times. It's mouth glows with a light blue energy that attracts prey inside it's mouth and it eats them."

"This is Hell," Flash said quietly. "I feel like I'm going through literal Hell."

Just as suddenly as they had come here, they were gone. A new scene opened up before Flash's eyes. They were on a grassy hill. The sky was a bright, neon blue. The grass was a neon green. The sun was an almost cartoonish yellow. The type of yellow that three year olds pick out when they make a picture of Earth's sun. In fact, everything was impossibly bright here. The flowers, the insects he saw, all glowed with bright, vibrant colors.

"I call this planet, Empaxia. I like to come here when I'm feeling happy and just want to relax. Once again, there's no higher life forms here above simple animal life. There are some predator species here but none large enough to hurt us. It's slightly smaller than Earth which means less gravity. Once I phase us in, you'll find you'll have an extra spring in your step because of it. It's not drastic but it does take a second or two to get used to."

Once Twilight was done talking, Flash felt the grass beneath his feet, the breeze against his body. The air smelled incredibly clean. Cleaner than anywhere he had ever been on Earth. It made him feel slightly light headed. The air was warm but not hot. All in all, it was the closest to an actual paradise he had ever seen.

Twilight let go of his hand and started walking down the hill. In this environment, her naked form seemed perfect. It wasn't sexual perfection. It was the perfection of being. She, they, had to be naked here. This place was pure, unspoiled. To come here, dressed, would have been like bringing a lie in to truth itself. If anything, it was the fact that Twilight was shaved that was unnatural. He found himself suddenly wishing she was unshaven like he was.

"Why . . ." he started to ask but Twilight cut him off again. She never turned around, she just simply stopped walking when she started talking to him.

"Why didn't I share this with you? Partly because I wanted to work things out on my own, partly because I didn't want you to worry, partly because I didn't know how you'd react. Given what you said last night, I'm sure I made the right decision."

She then turned to look at Flash. "Why am I showing you now? Because you deserve to see this. Because I don't want any secrets between us. Because I want to share every aspect of my life with you. Because I also think you're finally ready. I don't know if my powers are a gift or a curse; I just know I don't want them to be a roadblock between us. My soul mate should be by my side where ever I go."

Flash walked down to Twilight, embraced, and kissed her. "I hope to prove myself worthy," he said in awe of the goddess that stood before him.

"You already have," she said sweetly and suddenly they were back in their apartment.

"There are rules and limits to how I use my powers," Twilight as she slowly pulled away from Flash. "I can't use them for personal gain. That's one big one. I can't use them to reward or punish someone simply based on how they treat me. Nothing like, 'Hey thanks for holding the door for me, let me make you immortal' sort of thing. There's a lot I've found out and a lot I need to learn, all of which I'll share with you; just not now, we're running late," she said as she pointed to the clock beside their bed.