~~Alternate Ending 1~~
The pair stood in awkward silence on the balcony. Twilight was trying to think of something to say when she noticed Cadance raising a hoof to her horn out of the corner of her eye. She watched as her sister-in-law rubbed her horn while scowling.
"Uh, Cadance?"
"Yes, Twilight," Cadance replied, a little snappily.
"Does your horn itch?"
"Yeah, just a bit," Cadance admitted. "It started a couple of days ago. Why?"
Twilight smiled a small, secret smile. “Oh, no reason. Just let me know if you hear any strange noises, okay?”
Cadance gave her a sidelong glance. “Okay, I guess.”
The days passed, and the itching of Princess Cadance’s horn only increased. Eventually, she was given a prescription medication in order to treat a flare-up of an extremely rare horn-fungus.
~~Alternate Ending 2~~
The pair stood in awkward silence on the balcony. Twilight was trying to think of something to say when she noticed Cadance raising a hoof to her horn out of the corner of her eye. She watched as her sister-in-law rubbed her horn while scowling.
"Uh, Cadance?"
"Yes, Twilight," Cadance replied, a little snappily.
"Does your horn itch?"
"Yeah, just a bit," Cadance admitted. "It started a couple of days ago. Why?"
Twilight smiled a small, secret smile. “Well, maybe it means you’re growing up.”
Cadance frowned gave her a sidelong glance. “Uh… ten years older, remember?.”
Twilight nodded and grinned. “True. Maybe it’s just a horn fungus, then.”
Cadance stared, cross-eyed, up at her horn in horror. “There’s such a thing as horn fungus?!”
Twilight just started laughing.
~~*~~
Cadance grumbled as she followed her husband back to the Royal Bedchambers. Shining, bless his stalwart heart, had done everything he could to help, but nothing seemed to offer much relief.
The problem was, Cadance’s horn was itching and it wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t severe, it was just annoyingly persistent. The only thing that had helped so far was plunging the entire length of it into a bucket of ice water. It even had her personal physician baffled.
“Uh, honey?” Shining’s voice was hesitant.
“What?” Cadance asked.
“You’re rubbing your horn against the bedpost again.”
Cadance stopped, uttering a few choice curse words under her breath as she did so. “It doesn’t help, anyway,” she muttered darkly. If she could have figured out a way to sleep with her horn in a bucket of ice, she would have been overjoyed.
“Well,” Shining Armor said as he slid between the sheets, “I may know one way to distract you from that itch.”
Cadance hesitated at the edge of the bed. “Really? How?”
Shining grinned and waggled his eyebrows at her in what he probably assumed was a sexy and inviting way. Cadance clenched her jaw and reminded herself that she was the Princess of Love, and, as such, it would probably be a bad thing if she jabbed her husband over and over with her horn until he stopped being an idiot.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Cadance said, ignoring his disappointed pout as she slid into bed as well.
Her horn flared, turning off the lights in the bedroom. Shining, still propped up and facing her, waited a few seconds before letting out a sigh and rolling over.
“Alright,” he said. “Good night, hon. I love you.”
In spite of the last few days of irritation, Cadance still managed a smile. “Love you too, Shiny-bear.”
The royal couple settled down to sleep. Shining’s gentle snores started up a few minutes later. Cadance tossed and turned, as she had every other night since the itching had started. Her eyelids had finally started go get heavy, and sleep was finally laying claim to her, when a tiny little noise woke her up.
toot!
On the plus side, her horn finally stopped itching. On the minus, the noise from her horn not only kept her awake, but it woke her husband as well. Between the infrequent tooting and Shining Armor's childish giggling, Cadance got absolutely no sleep at all.