Ok my buddy drives a 99 Honda civic, (shut up) and his gauge lights won't work. They didn't just shut off, we were driving down the road one day and they were cutting on and off and then they just turned off and wouldn't come back on. (they were cutting in and out for about 5 minutes) We checked the fuse, all the lights on the cluster and nothing seems to be wrong. So I am assuming there is a short somewhere. Any advice on where to start?

Sounds like your in for some fun tracing the short, grab a DMM, found out what color the parking light wire is, and start from testing the signal from the wire to the prong on the harness that goes to the gauge cluster, if that doesn't work, try testing the parking light wire to another source closer something working off the parking light wire.

Not a fun task, but it can be figured out.