She's Come Undone

  Several hours later, Twilight knocked on the door of Applejack's hotel room. She could hear the TV on, so she had to assume she was awake. "Applejack?" Twilight asked, knocking again. There was a pause.

"Come in." Applejack said.

"That isn't how hotel rooms work. It won't open from the outside unless you have a key."

There was a loud sigh. "Coming." Then Twilight heard a loud bang, followed by a series of swears.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, just stubbed my hoof." The door opened. "Please, come in," Applejack said. She was no longer wearing her coat or head scarf, and her braid had been taken out, leaving her blonde hair in rippling waves. Twilight stepped inside the room and looked around. It was well furnished, but nothing the suites at Canterlot Castle she had stayed in before. Applejack had sat back down on the bed, and was focused on the TV.

"This famous unicorn wizard has been called "the father of the amniomorphic spell, and "the most important spell conjurer of the pre-classical era." said the game show host.

"Who is Star Swirl the Bearded." Applejack said. The contestant was still thinking. "Who is Star Swirl the Bearded! Who is Starswirl the Bearded!! Everyone knows that!"

"Who is Prince Blueblood?" the contestant said.

"Prince Blueblood?" Applejack yelled at the TV. "Are you bucking kidding me!?" Glancing apologetically Twilight she said, "I'm sorry. Capricorn says I get way too intense about Jeopardy."

"Who's Capricorn? Is he the stallion who answered the phone when I called you? And the one in this picture?" Twilight asked, pointing to a photograph on the nightstand, next to a strange grey machine. It showed Unicorn Applejack with a light grey stallion with a navy blue mane, and pale blue eyes. Both of them were smiling and laughing at the camera, and he had one wing wrapped around her shoulder.

"Yep," Applejack said absently. Her mind had drifted back to the TV.

"This elite group of ponies was founded after the banishment of Nightmare Moon to serve and protect Princess Celestia."

"What is the EUP," Applejack said.

"What is the EUP?" the pony on the screen said.

"Yes!" Applejack looked at Twilight again. "I'm sorry, did you need something?"

"Yeah, the others are at the coffee shop downstairs, I was thinking we could," she glanced at Applejack's horn,"catch up?"

Applejack picked up the remote with her magic and shut off the TV. "Sure, let me just-" she picked up a hairbrush and ran it through her hair several times, then opened her closet. She picked up a red scarf. "Green will bring out my eyes," she muttered Then she picked up a red one. "But red matches my cutie mark. Then again so does green. But what about blue?" she said, picking up a blue one. "The blue one," she said. "All right."

When she had her back turned, Twilight got a nice view of her flank. "Applejack, now you have a horn and a different cutie mark?"

She glanced at her flank. "Yeah. I'll explain when we get downstairs, I don't want to have to tell it twice."

The two mares headed downstairs, and saw the others sitting at a table with drinks in front of them. "We already ordered. Please don't be mad," Fluttershy said. Applejack waved it off and walked with Twilight over to the counter. "I'll have a latte with whipped cream and extra oats," Twilight said.

"Green tea. Iced. No sugar," Applejack said.

The barista handed them their drinks, and they headed back to the table. "So, Applejack. What have you been up to?" Rarity asked.

Before she had a chance to reply, however, Pinkie asked loudly, "Why do you have a horn?"

"Oh my god Pinkie, you can't just ask ponies why they have a horn."

"I'm guessing you guys are wondering about the horn?" Applejack asked.

"Yes!" they all said in unison.

"I'll start at the beginning. About two months after I had moved to Sweden and I was just starting to adjust to my new life, I started to get the severe headaches. I was taking aspirin, but they just kept getting worse and worse. Finally, my roommate had to take me to the emergency room when I woke up in the middle of the night screaming because the pain was so bad. They told me that I was born a unicorn, but my horn had been cut off. I had years and years of pent up magical energy, and I was only now feeling it. They said if it wasn't released, it would kill me, and the only way to do that was with a horn. So they had to do an emergency horn transplant, luckily the waiting list is always really short. After the surgery, I had this like, crazy magical surge, not unlike what you described in your cutie mark story. Nearly blew up the hospital wing. After few minutes, I went back to normal, but when I looked at my flank, I saw that my cutie mark had changed," she stood up and turned so they could see her flank. The three apples had become a green and red heart shaped yin yang with an apple leaf on either side.

"What does it mean?" Rainbow asked.

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out. All I know is that when I got this horn, my destiny was altered." Her phone started to ring. She looked at the screen. "I'm sorry, I need to take this." The others didn't know who it was, but they could her end of the conversation and guess the nature of the call.

"Hi honey."

"It sucked."

"Not your fault."

"Just having some tea with friends."

"No, no, it's fine. You're not interrupting."

"I miss you too."

"I don't know."

"I love you too."

"Goodbye."

"No you hang up."

"No you hang up."

"No you hang up.

"Fine, I'll hang up." She pressed the end call button.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Pinkie asked in a sing song voice.

"Yes, it was."

"Oh, so you met someone?" Rarity said. "Tell us about him. What's he like?"

"Well, his name is Capricorn, and he plays bass in a band. Have you guys ever heard of a band called Cerberus's Angels? They're pretty popular in Sweden."

Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Twilight all shook their heads, but Rarity and Rainbow Dash said at the same time, "I love that band!"

"I didn't know you liked rock music," Rainbow said.

"I have a large range of musical preferences, darling. Music gives me inspiration, and god knows I can't get enough of that."

"I can't believe you're dating a member of one of my favorite bands!" Rainbow Dash said, making her wub woo face.

"Wait, I thought Capricorn was dating that model, Amara Jaquelin? Remember, she was on Sweden's Top Model? Right, Fluttershy? You said she looked kind of like Applejack."

"Yes, and I think she won. I think she deserved it, too. She seemed really nice," Fluttershy said.

"My name is Amara Jaquelin too, and I also won Sweden's Top Model. Wait, are you guys talking about me?" Applejack asked.

"But your name is-"

"Amara is my real name. Well, actually it's Amara Jaquelin Marianna Apple. Applejack is just nickname that hardly anyone calls me anymore. You can still call me that though.

Then she started coughing again.