Now, Starswirl the Bearded being the Legend of Magic that he was, had collected many a-tale throughout his long lifetime, but there was always quite a few that fascinated him the most. Now, my name’s Sunburst, and I’m the one reading the story that you’re about to hear. Now, this is a most interesting tale, one of a grand challenge against one of the most powerful entities to ever walk the face of Equestria and to be honest the lands beyond. I’m talking about Discord, the King of Chaos himself. But he’s only one of two main characters in this story. The other, believe it or not, is just a simple farm mare. Yes, that’s right. Just a simple farm mare named Applejack.
Now, she was the kind of mare you would call a redneck, from her mannerisms and beliefs even right down to the way she spoke. She had to work like a mule (No offence to them intended) every day on her family’s apple farm just to make ends meet. Now, she wouldn’t harm nothing in the world, not even the tiniest mouse, but she would defend her friends and family when the time arose. But sadly, one problem with her was her pride, plain and simple really. She was one of the most stubborn mares I had ever had the luxury of meeting, and that’s a very important part of this story.
You see, there’s a thing about pride. While you are allowed to be proud of the hard work you’ve done keeping your family farm running for generations, you mustn't let it consume you and become arrogant. That’s the moral of this story, and one Applejack was about to learn hard. But in the process, she would rise up stronger than ever before and gain a great reward, not to mention cementing herself in the pages of history as a true Legend of Magic.
Now, onto Discord… Oh, what can I say about him? Well, there’s plenty to talk about really. As I said before, he was the King of Chaos. He certainly deserved that title to be sure. He’d created plenty of madness over the years, such as turning an entire lake into a sea of blood or making the clouds boil over and rain down spaghetti and meatballs. Funny and tasty as that last one sounded, it left quite a mess for the town of Appleloosa to clean up after as you might imagine. Another prime example would be his creation of a tornado of pure snow in the middle of the summer, just to show everypony that he could do it. But don’t let his playful demeanor fool you. He was the master of lies, and could get you into any deal no matter what the cost. Quite often and rather sadly, he didn’t even have to fight for the souls he collected as his charisma and whatever he offered you in exchange did the rest. Now this narrator would even dare say he could even wrangle me, Starswirl into a deal with the right price, frightening as that thought is. Yes, even I have something I would want dearly.
Now he was in an unhappy mood, quite ticked off really. He’d recently suffered a great blow to his… Well to be frank rather large ego. He’d been reduced to a stone statue by the Royal sisters, the Solar Regent Princess Solaris Celestia, and the Lunar Regent Princess Artemis Lunar. It had been a long and grand, some would say epic really, battle. The kind of battle that really couldn’t be described in words really as the spells cast and the sheer madness and scale of it all defied any sort of description. Now, both of the Royal Sisters believed that there was no possible way for Discord to escape his confinement, however there was one simple way that neither of them despite all of their wisdom had ever thought of. And that way was simply challenging the Master of Chaos to a duel.
Applejack smirked as she sawed away on her fiddle, playing away the grand old ode “The Orange Blossom Special” in the middle of the barn, with only rats and mice as her audience. Now, her fiddle playing was grand to be sure. Despite this fiddle being old and worn out from years of playing, it could still play quite the tune. If you listened, you could swear you could hear that old train rumbling down the track pistons churning away and the steam whistle blowing out its song.
“...Well, now Ah say that was my best rendition of the song yet!” Applejack boasted, as she sweeped sweat off her brow with a hoof after setting her fiddle down. Her golden locks framed her face and she smiled as she gazed upon her instrument. It had been passed down from generation to generation, from her great great great grandfather Fateful Strings to her own dad, Apple Cider who had passed it down to her before he passed. And she intended to pass it down to her younger sister Apple Bloom when the time was right.
“Tartarus, Ah dare say even Discord would be impressed with mah playing!” Applejack bragged as she tied her mane into a ponytail with a little red ribbon. Then, she heard a soft gasp from behind her and turned to see her sister, hoof over mouth and looking quite afraid.
“Applejack, ya know perfectly well what they say about invoking the Devil’s name. He’ll come to call, and none of us want that! He’ll wrangle you into a deal of some sort, and then you’ll be rotting in the firey pits of Tartarus for the rest of yer days!” Apple Bloom warned but her older sister simply brushed her off.
“Please, that legend’s just a bunch of old wives' tales. It’s not like the Devil himself is gonna come on up strolling to our family farm’s doorstep and challenge me just because of mah invocation of his name!” Applejack laughed, and ruffled her younger sister’s cherry red mane and trotted off as Apple Bloom watched her and shook her head and sighed. Now lo and behold, her warning came true that very next day as Discord had heard the challenge and his statue shattered into a million pieces. He stretched his limbs to a quite considerable length, spun his neck exactly 360 degrees and smirked.
“So, some hillbilly thinks they’re a better fiddle player than moi? Well, we’ll just have to see about that!” He thought before chuckling and with a snap of his lion’s paw vanished in a flash of white light. He appeared right before Applejack, who was leaning up against an apple tree and playing a soft mournful tune slowly to herself. She hadn’t even taken notice of his presence, which I must say offended Discord quite badly. After all, how could one not notice someone as… unique as him?
“So, you challenged me to a fiddle duel did you?” He asked, and Applejack’s eyes widened as she looked up in a instant.
“W-Who are you…?” Applejack stuttered out nervously as she took in Discord’s appearance, right down from his serpent like body to his antlers at the top of his head. The creature smirked and stroked Applejack’s freckled face.
“Oh, I think you know who I am… You did invoke my name after all. And even after your little sister warned you about doing so!” Discord laughed before he snapped his fingers and a fiddle appeared in his hands. But this was no ordinary fiddle, oh no. It was made of pure solid gold and encrusted with diamonds. It was probably about the most beautiful piece of instrument you would ever see in your life. Applejack’s eyes widened, with an instrument like that she could never have to work again a day in her life. But she would not accept the Devil’s challenge. She wasn’t stupid after all. But neither was Discord, and he smirked.
“Oh, I know you won’t give in easily. You’re a stubborn mare, but I know everything about everypony. I know exactly how to entice ponies, I’ve been doing it for years. Think about it… If you can beat me, I’ll give up this fiddle and you could improve… well whatever you call this ratty old place of yours and make it a very nice family farm that anypony could be proud of.” Discord said with a smile, oozing charm with his every word.
“Sorry, not going to happen,” Applejack snarled. “I’m proud of mah farm as it is.”
“Oh, but I happen to know something about your dear old Granny Smith. She’s going to die soon, heart failure. Too bad, so sad. But that’s life. C'est la vie, as they say.” Discord said, waving his paw dismissively. Now that really did it. Applejack was furious that Discord was insinuating her Granny was going to die soon. She knew perfectly well he was lying. Granny was as fit as a fiddle! She just knew it!
“Do you?” Discord asked, having read her thoughts and Applejack stuttered out “W-Well… Ah… Uh…”
Discord smirked. He had her on the ropes. Now to reel her in.
“Well, I can save your dear grandma. All you gotta do is beat me in a duel, simple as that.”
That was when Applejack made her mistake and gave in. Now the Mare said “Mah name's Applejack, and Ah know it's a sin, but Ah'll take yer bet and show ya Ah'm the best there's ever been!”
Discord grinned and snapped his lion’s paw once more as he snarled “You fool.” and Applejack saw herself in a blazing pit of flames in an instant but just like that, as soon as the image had come, it vanished and everything was normal again. “That’s what you’re going to get when you lose. You’ve got a day to practice, and WHEN you lose… Well, I’ll still uphold my end of the bargain and save your Granny Smith and give you my fiddle for a good try but in ten years time I’ll be coming to collect. So for now… Sayonara!”
With that, Discord vanished and left Applejack to sob to herself. Later that night just as the sun was setting, her younger sister found her in her bedroom looking out the window despondently.
“...Well, you were right, Bloom. Ah’m an idjit. Discord got to me, enticed me with saving Granny from heart failure and Ah challenged him.”
Apple Bloom nuzzled her sister on her hind foreleg.
“Naw, you didn’t make a mistake sis. He can get to anypony, and he did it through the worst way of all… Family. Now you say yer the best fiddle player ever born and Ah believe that,” She said before continuing. Now, they say the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and the Devil’s back in Equestria so will ya stand up to the test or will ya let him be the best?”
Applejack shook her head and her little sister smiled. “Good. Now, so tomorrow when he shows up, ya go out there and whoop that there Devil’s ass!” Apple Bloom stated firmly and Applejack growled as she went for her fiddle and picked it up.
“Thanks, little sis. Now, if ya excuse me,” Applejack growled as she adjusted her signature stetson. “Ah’ve got some practicin’ ta do.”
All throughout the night, AJ sawed away on her fiddle, playing as hard as she could and when the morning came Discord arrived only to see Applejack, standing on a tree stump fiddle in her hooves.
“So… That’s how it’s going to be is it?” Applejack snarled. “Fine, show yer stuff!”
And so the Devil did, and began playing “The Devil’s Dream” real fast and everything became a whirl of colors as the rain poured and thunder crashed and then it began to snow a frosty blizzard as Discord pulled the bow across the strings with an evil hiss and it sounded like one hundred witches howling and finally when the noise was all over he looked smug and asked “Now… How do you beat that I ask you?”
Applejack grimaced, but she played anyways. She played Fire on the Mountain before switching rapidly to “The Devil's in the House of the Rising Sun” and then “Chicken in a bread pan pickin' out dough” before at last to “Granny, does your dog bite? No child no” And throughout every moment of it you could feel the energy of the strings and even Discord had to admit as he broke out into an old Russian jig of all things, this mare was good. With a dejected sigh, he laid that fiddle on the ground at Applejack’s hooves and she smirked before saying this.
“Discord, just come on back if ya ever want to try again but Ah done told you once you Son of a Bitch, Ah'm the best that's ever been.”
With a mournful keening sound, he sighed to himself before asking “Well, you beat me. Never thought that would happen. But before I leave and let Sun and Moonbutt turn me back to stone, could you at least play “Orange Blossom Special” one more time? I did hear that was your best song.”
Applejack smiled, and together she and Discord danced all throughout the day and night.
So… That was Starswirl’s tale. Now, I don’t know if Applejack learned her lesson or not or if that old Devil ever would return in ten years as it’s never been recorded but I do know this. Starswirl was right when he said Applejack truly earned her title that day as a Legend of Magic.
THE END