Split Ends

There was enough whipped cream for exactly six adult ponies and one baby dragon.

Under most circumstances, this would have been perfect for Twilight. Rainbow Dash tended to avoid whipped cream and Pinkie Pie ate enough for two ponies, so everything usually worked out. Of course, this was not most circumstances. In most circumstances, she wasn't also feeding her big brother—best friend status extended indefinitely—and sister-in-law-slash-former-foalsitter.

If she had known that Shining Armor and Cadence were coming to visit, Twilight would have definitely bought more whipped cream instead of skipping it herself, so each of them could at least have half the normal amount. This visit had been a complete surprise and, while she appreciated the opportunity to see them, she wasn't always the best with surprises. Surprises, by their very definition, were unexpected, and with how meticulous Twilight's planning tended to be, a surprise was enough to throw her entire day off, no matter how positive the surprise might have been.

And everything had to be perfect for Shining and Cadence. Everything had to be perfect for Twilight normally, but the urgency for flawlessness was quadrupled when it came to making sure her BBBFF and SISFF enjoyed themselves. The concept of something being "better than perfect" was ridiculous and inconceivable, but that did not stop Twilight from striving for it. Cadence's last trip to see Twilight had gone disastrously thanks to a certain spirit of chaos and, due to the bugbear attack, she didn't even get to spend time with her and Shining when they visited for Cranky's wedding. Even though Cadence had ended up enjoying the last time they spent time together without royal business to attend to, this one had to be better.

Thankfully, other than the whipped cream fiasco, everything had gone rather swimmingly. There were so many opportunities for disaster to strike, but it didn't capitalize on a single one. Disaster was an abstract concept that seemed to follow her and everypony she cared about at every turn, and yet it did not seem to poke its metaphorical head into this situation at all. Unless it had changed its focus to dessert-based-disaster, it seemed safe to say that it had been averted today.

"Boy howdy, am I stuffed!" Applejack exclaimed. "I'm fuller than a jackrabbit in a jackrabbit food factory!"

"Not your strongest country-ism, darling," Rarity said as she set her dish aside. "But I must echo the sentiment. I couldn't eat another bite."

"Totally!" Rainbow Dash agreed. She gave a quick nod to Shining and Cadence. "You two should come here more often, if it means Twilight'll bust out the good stuff like she did today!" The two laughed lightly as Twilight blushed and smiled an embarrassed smile.

"You really didn't need to do anything special for us, Twily," Shining told her, reaching over to ruffle her mane. "You know we'll be happy with anything."

"Though we certainly aren't opposed to this!" Cadence chimed in, giving Twilight a wink. The others shared a little laugh, lightening the mood that needed no lightening.

"Oh, don't encourage her, honey," Shining said, giving Cadence a little sideways glance. "You know she'll just prepare even more and overwork herself next time if she thinks that's what we want." Cadence returned the sideways glance, raising a brow.

"Oh, she knows I'm fooling around," Cadence replied. She gave Twilight a little smile, before glancing back at Shining and rolling her eyes slightly.

In truth, both Shining and Cadence were quite happy for the visit, and it wasn't just because Twilight had gone all out on dinner and dessert. The two were still very much in love, but something felt different between them, something they couldn't place a hoof on. Whatever it was, it was making life at home slightly more difficult. Neither was really the type to argue, but they often found themselves getting a little snippy with each other. It would never last long and apologies were quick to be given, but the mere fact that it was happening at all, let alone so often, was troubling to the two.

Even their private activities were beginning to suffer. It took a strong stallion with a large reserve of stamina to satisfy the Princess of Love, and Shining luckily fit the mold. Their wedding night had been so passionate that they were nearly certain they would wake anypony within a five mile radius up, and they'd made an agreement to satisfy each other's needs at least once a week so they wouldn't feel like they were neglecting them. For the first few months, it took no effort to keep that schedule, often far exceeding it. Recently, though, it tended to lack the passion and lust that used to come with it. Perhaps making a schedule for it, however loose it was, had turned it into more of a chore than they'd wanted. Or at least, that was the explanation that Shining adhered to.

Whatever the explanation for it was, though, things had changed somewhat between the two. It was for this reason that they had made this impromptu trip to see Twilight. It was something the two could do together that they would both enjoy, and they'd hoped that they could get through the visit without the snippiness. Apparently, that was a bit harder than they expected. Fortunately, if Twilight had noticed the tiny bits of tension, she hadn't mentioned them. Unfortunately, she tended to be a stickler for little details, so the lack of comment was more likely due to politeness than ignorance.

"I've had a lovely time, Twilight," Fluttershy said with a smile. "But it's getting rather late. Thank you so much for everything." The others nodded in agreement, offering little words of gratitude to echo Fluttershy's.

"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed, having been too wrapped up in the whipped cream fiasco to even notice the time. "Of course! Thank you so much for coming and helping show Shining and Cadence a good time!" Twilight's friends offered various words of thanks and approval as they departed, leaving Twilight alone with her brother and sister-in-law. She smiled nervously at the two. Something dim in the back of her head was insisting that she had no reason to be so nervous, but it couldn't get a word in over the cacophonous thunderstorm of worries and panic that infested her mind.

"So!" Twilight said, a bit too loudly. "I hope you had a good time! I'm sorry so many things didn't go as planned...I could send you a can of whipped cream tomorrow to make up for it! I'll even time-release the spell so it arrives in time for dessert, and-"

"Twily," Shining cut in. "It's fine. For the fifth time, we had a wonderful time. And don't worry about the whipped cream; I don't even like it that much."

Cadence began to open her mouth to respond, but quickly thought better of it. There were some things that her husband's little sister didn't need to know about their relationship.

"Okay..." Twilight said, a small look of relief crossing her face. Shining gave her a little smirk. He knew her very well, and began mentally preparing his dessert for tomorrow night to make good use of the whipped cream that would inevitably be arriving.

"As lovely a time as we've had," Cadence said, "I think it's time we headed back. It is getting a bit late." Then she sighed lightly. "And I am not looking forward to that train ride back."

"Why not?" Twilight asked. "Was there something wrong with the train?"

"Not at all!" Shining said quickly. With Twilight's constant insistence that everything be perfect for them, that had to be nipped in the bud. He shuddered to think what Twilight would do to the train if she thought it was sub-optimal.

"I just like getting home quickly after a day out," Cadence told her. "It's no big deal, but the train ride back to the Crystal Empire is a rather long one."

"It is pretty long, isn't it?" Twilight agreed.

"Very much so," Cadence confirmed. "Especially when you're as tired as I am. I just want to crawl straight into bed without having to worry about..." Cadence's thought was cut short as she saw the look in Twilight's eyes. She may not have been as close with Twilight as Shining was, but even her time as her foalsitter and the bits of time spent with her here and there nowadays were enough to elucidate the meaning behind that particular look.

"Twily..." Shining began, clearly catching onto this as well. "Whatever you're planning..."

"...Is going to be perfect!" Twilight exclaimed, bouncing on the tips of her hooves. "Because I've been working on a spell-"

"No," Shining interjected.

"That'll work perfectly-" Twilight continued.

"No," Shining repeated.

"It's an easy spell-"

"No."

"That teleports ponies long distances-"

"No."

"As long as it's somewhere I've been-"

"Twilight!" Shining shouted, loudly enough to finally break Twilight from her train of thought. He took a breath to calm himself once he saw Twilight's ears pinned down. "Sorry...I appreciate your wanting to help, but you've done enough for us. I think we can survive the train ride." He felt a gentle tap on his shoulder, and upon turning was met with the eagerly-smiling face of his wife.

"Come on, Shiny," Cadence said, staring hopefully at him. "It's such a long trip...and just look how badly she wants to show you whatever it is she's talking about."

It was a rookie mistake, but Shining found himself turning to look back at his sister before he knew what happened. Had there been an Equestria-wide competition for "Most Pathetic Puppy-Dog Stare," Twilight would have been the one that the trophy was modeled after. The pure unadulterated sadness emanating from Twilight's eyes would have been enough to make King Sombra weep. Shining bit his lip, trying to resist, but the addition of a pouty lower lip was enough to break his resolve.

"Okay, okay!" Shining said, waving a front hoof. "We'll do it your way. Just put those things away!" Twilight smiled a satisfied smile. She didn't like to be manipulative, but there were certain situations where excessive adorable force (Pinkie had once suggested calling it "adoraforce") was necessary.

"Great!" Twilight exclaimed. "Because I've been working so hard on this, and I'm sure you two will be amazed!" Shining couldn't help but grin. As trepidacious as he was about whatever his little sister had planned, she was pretty adorable when she was this excited. It nearly made him forget why he was so uncomfortable about the idea in the first place. "Nearly" was the key word, though. Twilight had already done so much for them, and he knew that if he kept letting her do more and more, she'd feel obligated to continue and end up overworking herself. It was just the way she was, and while a less-scrupulous pony would have no trouble taking advantage of that fact, it just didn't sit right with Shining. The sad eyes, though, were far too formidable a foe.

"So what is it you've been working so hard on?" Cadence asked.

"Glad you asked!" Twilight said, her smile so large it threatened to tear itself off of her face. "Ever since the incident with Tirek when I was overloaded with alicorn magic, I've been working on enhancing my teleportation spell not only to teleport larger distances, but to teleport other ponies as well, and I've finally made a breakthrough! So I figure that instead of making you go all that way on the train, I can teleport the two of you all the way back to the Crystal Empire! I can even pinpoint it so accurately that I can put you in different rooms! Isn't that great?!"

Shining and Cadence stared at one another. They had intended this trip to be a nice bonding experience to get around their recent disagreements, but soon found that they were disagreeing once more, this time over how to react to Twilight's proposition. Shining loved and trusted his sister, but something about this just didn't seem right. The concept of teleporting two ponies such a long distance and with such pinpoint accuracy didn't seem terribly feasible to him. Something was bound to go wrong. Cadence, on the other hoof, seemed to be 100% on board with this idea. Shining knew his wife well enough that she didn't have to say a word for him to know her feelings on the matter. Her hopeful gaze spoke volumes. Shining sighed and looked to Twilight.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Shining asked.

"Of course!" Twilight responded with a smile. "I tested it on myself first. Then when I was comfortable with that, I tested it on Pinkie and myself a few times. The only time I noticed a side effect was the one time when Pinkie got a blue stripe in her mane, and we were able to fix that easily. And before you ask, I teleported us all over the place! Dodge Junction, the Castle of the Two Sisters..."

"The bedroom," Cadence mumbled to Shining, grinning. Shining, however, did not share her enthusiasm for her joke. The last thing he wanted to think about was his little sister's romantic escapades with her marefriend. His lack of reaction caused Cadence to sigh lightly. He felt bad for disappointing her, but it just wasn't something he felt like envisioning. Thankfully for everypony involved, Twilight hadn't heard Cadence's joke, or else the wait for her embarrassment to fade and allow her to speak once more might have been longer than the train ride home would have been.

"So will you let me do it?" Twilight asked, bouncing lightly on the tips of her hooves. Shining quickly found himself caught between the eager, hopeful stares of two of the three most important mares in his life. Logic told him to just deal with the long train ride, but with the knowledge that refusal would disappoint his sister and likely put him in the guest bedroom for the night, logic and safety had to take a backseat for the time being.

"Alright," Shining said. "Let's do it then." The cheer on the faces of Twilight and Cadence was enough to help him forget about his troubles for now.

"Great!" Twilight bubbled. "Okay, so I'll teleport the two of you back to the palace. Cadence, I'll send you to the bedroom. And Shiny, since my BBBFF manual says that you like to have a quick snack before bed, I'll send you to the pantry!" Shining chose to question neither the existence nor the accuracy of this so-called BBBFF manual. Now was not the time for it.

"Sounds good," Shining said. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I will!" Twilight said. She galloped up to the two and gave them tight hugs. "Thank you so much for visiting and for letting me try this!"

"Any time," Cadence responded with a smile. "We had a fantastic time."

Shining took a breath as he watched his sister back up, her horn beginning to glow. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. Twilight was a very accomplished magician, after all. It wasn't fair to dwell on mistakes like the time Twilight accidentally enchanted a wave of parasprites to eat everything in sight...or the time she turned Fluttershy into a vampire fruit bat...or when she accidentally changed her friends' cutie marks and destinies...

Shining wasn't sure if there was a being higher in power than Princess Celestia, but he sure was praying to them whether they existed or not as he felt Twilight's magic surround him. For the slightest of moments he was sure he could hear a muffled voice answer his thoughts, but it faded to silence just as everything went black. A bizarre feeling came over him, like his body was being painlessly disintegrated and reconstituted. Celestia and Luna had teleported him a few times before, but it had never felt quite like this. He figured that maybe different ponies' teleportation spells felt different. Of course, there was always the chance that something had gone wrong with the spell...but he didn't want to dwell on that possibility.

As Shining's vision began to return, he couldn't help but notice that one thing had gone noticeably wrong. Twilight had said she was teleporting him to the pantry, but based on what he was seeing, she had mixed up his and Cadence's locations, because he was definitely in the bedroom. Luckily, though, that seemed to be the only problem with the spell. He felt fine, he wasn't missing his head or anything...he took a deep breath, then let out a sigh of relief. One white-furred, blue-tipped hoof wiped the sweat from his brow as he came to the realization that everything seemed to have ended up okay. He stretched his forelegs, deciding that after that worrying experience, he didn't particularly feel the need to get himself a bedtime snack. Right now, all he wanted to do was lie down and take his shoes off.

Shining hesitated at that last thought. He didn't wear shoes very often, and was positive that he hadn't worn them to Ponyville. And yet he could distinctly feel shoes on his hind hooves. He glanced back to look at said hind hooves, and sure enough, there was a set of golden shoes adorning them. That, however, was the least troubling part of his observation. What he found to be infinitely more troublesome was the fact that in place of his thick white-and-blue hind hooves was a set of delicate pink ones.

Shining felt his mouth go dry. His eyes slowly traced up those pink hooves connected to his body, traveling up the similarly-colored shapely legs, a tri-colored tail visible just behind them. He was no dullard and already figured out what had happened, but it wasn't until his sight settled on the crystal heart cutie mark on his curvy flank that his mind finally locked up, reluctantly accepting the truth of what had happened. Only one thought was able to permeate the massive freakout going on in his mind right now: they should have taken the train.