Split Ends

Tandem showers had been one of the first things to go once Shining and Cadence's little marital problems had started up. It had disappointed Shining greatly, but he understood that there were more important things to worry about. This morning was the first time since those problems started that the two had shared a shower, and it was even at Cadence's request.

Shining let out a happy sigh as Cadence began to scrub him down. This was something that he had sorely missed. Even though they made sure to take time out for sex while they were in the midst of their minor spat, it had started to become more like a chore than an enjoyable activity. It was a far cry from the love and care that went into Cadence's scrubbing right now, and an even farther cry from the wild night they'd had last night. Last night was one of the most bizarrely passionate lovemaking sessions they'd had in a long time, and he was thankful for the soothing massages that Cadence was giving his hindquarters right now. He had been left wonderfully sore from the pounding Cadence had given him, a pounding that he never even knew she had in her. He had no idea just how sore a vagina could feel the morning after a good pounding, but he knew that Cadence wouldn't have expected him to before this experience.

"This feel good, baby?" Cadence asked softly as she brought a warm washcloth up between his haunches.

"Better than good," Shining responded, closing his eyes and letting the water from the showerhead sprinkle over his face. He lit his own horn up, bringing a second washcloth over to tenderly scrub Cadence's privates. "How's that?"

"Marvelous," Cadence sighed. She looked up at the showerhead too, grinning lightly. "So was I better than the showerhead?"

"Much better," Shining mused, looking back at her with a smile. Cadence switched to holding the washcloth with her magic so she could move up and share a loving nuzzle with her husband.

"You did great last night, Shiny," Cadence said, a pleasant little singsongy tone to her voice. "I'd say I never knew you had it in you, but I know exactly what you had in you." Shining rolled his eyes and laughed, giving Cadence a swat with his tail. It was nice having a long tail sometimes. His usual tail would never have allowed for that.

"Yeah?" Shining responded playfully. "You sure seemed to know your way around handling that thing. Is this something I should be concerned about?"

"Probably not," Cadence laughed. "After all, it's not like I'm going to have this thing much longer."

"There are toys for that, you know," Shining joked.

"Are you suggesting I-" Cadence started.

"No!" Shining quickly responded, recognizing the hole that he was digging himself and filling it up before Cadence offered to do it for him. The two laughed heartily before leaning in and sharing a kiss.

"You know," Shining said, "In a way, I'm glad this happened."

"Is that something I should be concerned about?" Cadence asked with a grin.

"Not like that," Shining told her, bumping his rump against hers. "I mean...I feel closer to you than ever now, and after all those weeks of little arguments and tension, it's really nice to get back to the romance of it all."

"It really, really is," Cadence agreed, nuzzling against his neck. "I don't know exactly what got us to that point, but I think a change of pace like this and an opportunity to see some things from the other's perspective was just what we needed."

"Mhm," Shining agreed. "I'll tell you two things; I definitely know what it's like to have stallions staring at me now, and I've learned to greatly appreciate a long tail."

"And I don't even want to talk about what I learned when I sat down on my throne too quickly," Cadence replied. The two of them laughed again, happy to be able to find humor in the situation.

"I just wish the mixup would have happened a little higher up," Shining said, a hoof touching Cadence's waist where it became his. "I would have loved to take those wings on a test flight."

"Aww, poor Shiny," Cadence said tauntingly, fluffing her feathers out. "Maybe next time this happens, we'll see if Twilight could fix that."

"Next time?" Shining asked, turning the faucet off. "You want there to be a next time?"

"Don't you?" Cadence responded, giving him a wink. Shining looked back at his pink lower half, thinking back to the events of last night. As much as he loved regular sex with his wife, being on the other end had felt so good that he would have been an utter liar if he tried to claim that he wanted it to stay a one time thing. He grinned a playful little grin.

"Yeah, maybe," Shining admitted. "Now c'mon, let's dry off." He lit his horn up, opening the shower curtain just as a loud crack and a flash of light filled the room. The two bewildered lovers stared as two ponies appeared in their bathroom.

"I'm here!" Twilight shouted, looking quite frazzled. "I'm here to help!"

"And I'm here because I don't know why I'm here!" Pinkie Pie shouted after her. Twilight and Pinkie both fell silent as they got a good look at the mismatched ponies in front of them. Neither of them were the type of pony to laugh at another's misfortune, but it was a combination of nervousness and absurdity that did them in. Surprisingly, it was Twilight who cracked first, falling over with laughter. Pinkie soon joined her, falling on top of her and erupting in a fit of hysterics. Needless to say, neither Shining nor Cadence were amused by this response.

"Whenever you're done," Shining said, frowning at the two.

"Sorry!" Twilight and Pinkie said at the same time.

"Jinx! You owe me a cider!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Later, Pinkie," Twilight said, giving her nose a boop with her hoof before getting up. She gave her BBBFF and SISFF an apologetic smile. "So...I see there's been a bit of a mixup."

"You think?" Cadence asked, trying her hardest to keep the sass out of her voice.

"I'm so, so sorry about that," Twilight said, her ears drooping. "I've tried this spell so many other times and this never happened. I even used it to get Pinkie and myself here. But I think I know why it happened, and that's why I brought Pinkie with me."

"Oh yeah?" Shining asked. "Do tell." He glanced over at Pinkie, who looked about as surprised as he did.

"Well," Twilight began. "You see, since this spell teleports two ponies, the easiest way to do it is to bring them together, enabling the spell to see and treat them as one target rather than two. Of course, this would mean that part of the spell would be devoted to splitting the one target back into two, making sure they were in the same state as they were before the spell was cast." She rested a wing on Pinkie's back, giving her a sideways glance. "Which would have worked out just fine if somepony hadn't burst into the room shouting just as I was finishing up the spell."

"Yeah!" Pinkie said insistently. It only took her about a second to realize that Twilight was talking about her, making her blush and smile an embarrassed smile. "I'm sorry, Sparklebutt! I really needed to show you that potato chip I found that looked just like Fluttershy's head!" She grinned awkwardly to Shining and Cadence. "To be fair, it reeeeeeally looked like Fluttershy's head. See?" She held up the string of the necklace she was wearing, showing off the potato chip that was hanging from it for them to see.

"...You know, it does," Cadence said.

"Do you want to see the one that looks like Applejack?" Pinkie asked.

"Later, Pinkie," Twilight said, rolling her eyes and giving her a nuzzle. "But yes, we're both very, very sorry for the mixup."

"Sorry," Pinkie said quietly. Shining and Cadence looked at each other, then they each gave a little sigh and shook their heads.

"It's okay, Twily," Shining said, offering a smile. "It was a pretty huge inconvenience, but there was no real harm done. And to be honest, it helped us sort out some of our little differences."

"Well that's great!" Twilight exclaimed. "An unintended side effect!" Then she lit her horn up. "But let's get you fixed up. I would have been here sooner, but Muffins accidentally sent your letter to the wrong house. How that happened when I live in a huge castle, I have no idea."

"Good thing Berry Punch came to give you the letter!" Pinkie said with a smile. "And good thing you gave her her mail back! AA would probably be concerned if she didn't respond!"

"Oh, I'm sure Apple Advertising wouldn't be too upset about waiting one more day," Twilight said. "Applejack and Berry are friends, after all, and payment isn't due till the end of the month."

Shining and Cadence watched nervously as the magic built up on Twilight's horn, also keeping an eye on Pinkie to make sure she didn't interrupt and cause another mishap. Pinkie, for her part, had learned her lesson and was holding a hood over her mouth just in case. Twilight's magic shot out towards the couple, bathing them in magenta light. Shining once again felt that feeling of painlessly disintegrating, hoping with all of his heart that everything would go as planned. He wasn't sure what another mistake would even do to him and Cadence, but he certainly wasn't looking to find out.

Eventually, Shining began feeling like he was being put back together, bit by bit. Once it felt like everything was in place, a flash of light engulfed the room, one that might have blinded Twilight and Pinkie had the latter not suddenly placed pairs of sunglasses on their faces. Once the light faded, Shining opened his eyes cautiously. Part of him was positive that something had gone wrong and he would end up with six legs or two heads or something. The first thing he laid eyes on was Cadence, whose eyes were still clenched shut. He scanned her up and down, and was incredibly relieved to see that her entire body was intact and matched properly. He quickly looked back to make sure that the same could be said of himself, and breathed a sigh of relief when his hopes were confirmed. Never had he been so very happy to look at his own legs.

"You did it!" Cadence shouted, having just discovered the fix herself. She galloped up to Twilight and hugged her, beaming. Shining laughed and joined in the hug, Pinkie doing the same. Pinkie was never one to resist a group hug, after all.

"That's my little sister," Shining said proudly, giving Twilight a squeeze.

Twilight, meanwhile, did not share the same facial expression as the rest of the group. She was smiling, but while the others were full of joy, her smile was far more introspective. Shining noticed this about midway through the hug, as well as the fact that she couldn't stop looking at Cadence, her grin growing as she did. After a few moments, he finally broke away from the hug and gave Twilight a nudge.

"Sis?" Shining asked. "What are you thinking about?"

"Well..." Twilight said, her smile growing even more. "My magic happened to pick something else up while I was fixing you two."

"Yeah?" Shining asked. "What's that?"

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a long, long day for Shining Armor and Cadence. Work had been rough on the both of them, and they were both looking forward to spending the evening at home together. Alone time had become increasingly rare for the two of them, but thankfully they weren't exactly looking for alone time tonight.

The two arrived home at the same time; not too uncommon of an occurrence for them. They greeted each other with a loving kiss before Shining opened the door for Cadence. Immediately upon entering, the two were met by a frantic Twilight.

"Oh, I'm so glad you two are home!" Twilight said, practically bowling the two over.

"Oh, we're glad to be home!" Shining said, giving Twilight a hug. "Has little Melody been giving you problems today?"

"Oh, she's been rambunctious today!" Twilight told the two. "Every moment it's the same thing. When are Mommy and Daddy coming home? I want to talk to Mommy and Daddy! I swear, if she didn't greet me with a hug and a kiss then I would think she just didn't like her poor aunt!"

Shining and Cadence grinned to each other. Melody could be very willful when she wanted something badly enough, and clearly she wanted her parents quite badly today.

"Oh, you know she loves you," Cadence said with a smile. "But we'll take it from here. Thank you so much for watching her again, Twilight."

"Any time," Twilight responded with a smile. "But I should really be getting home now. You three have a wonderful night! And good luck with whatever it is that Melody wants to talk to you about. Whatever it is, it sounds like it's very important to her."

"Of course," Shining said. "And you and Pinkie have a great night too!" He smiled as he watched his little sister teleport away. He had a good feeling he knew what Melody wanted to talk to them about. Her seventh birthday was coming up in a few weeks, and this would most certainly be the onslaught of requests for gifts. As it turned out, he would not have to think about it for long, as the little pink filly bolted into the room.

"Hiiiii!" Melody shouted, leaping at the two. Shining beamed and caught his daughter in midair, wrapping his forelegs around her. She was always such a sweet, loving child. From what he could tell, she'd picked up a fair amount of Cadence's love magic, and he feared the day that she would be able to use it properly. For now, though, she was a little filly who needed their love and attention.

"Hello, sweetheart!" Cadence said, leaning in to kiss Melody on the forehead. "We missed you so much today! Did you miss us?"

"Uh-huh!" Melody said, smiling up at her mom and dad. "I wanted to ask you something all day but you were at work!"

"Oh, yes," Shining said. "Aunt Twilight told us about that." He and Cadence walked over to the nearby couch, sitting down and setting Melody on Shining's lap. "What is it, honey? We're all ears." He grinned to Cadence, ready to start planning finances to cover Melody's demands.

"Well..." Melody said, looking at them curiously. "Can you tell me about how I was born?"

Shining and Cadence paled. They looked at each other with worry, then back to Melody.

"...Maybe when you're older."