Applejack felt the cool green grass under her hooves as she walked through the arena she had been placed in and she let herself smile for a second. She inhaled the sweet air and relished in the feeling of the gentle breeze as it blew her mane slightly. The weight of her new chain blade was barely noticeable as she surveyed the placid landscape around her. Tall blades of grass swayed lazily in the wind and beautiful hills surrounded her, forming a gigantic natural bowl with her right in the centre of it. The soft white clouds drifted gently in the sapphire sky, casting thin wispy shadows on the ground, and Applejack tried to keep herself relaxed. It felt like she was in a rodeo competition and she was about to enter the ring. She knew that she stood a better chance of winning if she entered the brawl with a clear head and made her decisions on a logical basis. As she looked around, it became clear that the valley she was in was an example of the elements conspiring together to create a large natural arena for her to fight in. She adjusted the position of her hat, readied her chain and waited for her adversary to put in an appearance.
After about ten minutes, Applejack could hear a sound, like clinking metal in the distance. She looked up and saw at the top of one of the surrounding hills a man, astride a brilliant brown stallion. He was covered in metal clothing that looked somewhat akin to what the Royal guards wore in Canterlot. On the man’s back, Applejack could see a huge spear, at least twelve feet in length with a thick red fabric at the point. At his hip, a sword bounced as he trotted deeper into Applejack’s valley. On the soldiers head sat a round helmet topped with an impressive plume of white feather protruding proudly. In one hand he held a short curved bow and Applejack could tell immediately that she would have to be wary of that weapon in particular.
Without stopping, the mounted warrior reached to his side and extracted an arrow from his quiver. He pulled back his bow string and let the arrow fly, all in less than a second. Applejack barely got out of the way in time as the arrow whizzed past her head and sank deep into the mud behind her with a soft thud. Applejack tilted her hat forward and began her own charge against the warrior. Applejack took her chain in her mouth and began to swing it above her head, ready to knock her enemy from his perch. But the soldier was very quick with his bow and was able to fire another arrow before Applejack could get him in range. This time, the hard steel tip of the arrow tore open Applejack’s skin and the shaft buried itself relatively deep in her flank.
The pony yelped in pain and dropped to the floor, letting go of her chain in the process. She could feel a small stream of blood running down her rump and she was certain that her injury would cause her issues during this fight, but she also knew that she needed to ignore them as much as she possibly could. Fighting through the pain, Applejack turned her head and bit onto the shaft of the arrow and pulled. There was a sickening squelch as the arrow was yanked out of her body, and the wooden shaft between her jaws was the only thing that stopped Applejack from howling with fury. Thankfully, this was not the first time that she had sustained an injury like that (when you kick trees all day for a living, there’s always going to be one branch that tries to fight back), so once the arrow was out, Applejack was able to force the pain out of her mind. She bent down and took up her chain once again and limped towards her attacker. There was no way that she was going to let herself be beaten by such a meaningless wound.
The warrior was still bearing down on Applejack as he threw away his bow. She was too close to warrant using another arrow, so the soldier felt that his bow was just taking up space. He reached behind his back and took up his spear. He tucked it under his arm and sped up his charge against Applejack. He held the spear as though he were entering a jousting contest in the Crystal Empire, but Applejack knew that the outcome of losing this joust would be much worse for her. She knew immediately that if she was hit with that spear, she would not recover fast enough to launch an effective counterattack, so she would certainly be killed. She had to avoid that spear at all costs. Chain in mouth, she span her blade around her head twice before lashing out at the soldier. The crescent shaped blade glided past the shaft of his spear, but its trajectory caused the chain to wrap around it twice, squeezing it with a vice like grip. With a single solid jerk, the spear was broken and the warrior had been unhorsed. The steed reared and galloped away from the battlefield as his master started to get up, discarding the remnants of his spear.
“The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him.” The warrior stood completely upright and began to walk towards Applejack, slightly dazed but still proud. “To take all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms. I am the terror of the East, the master and commander of the Mongol horde. I am,” he yanked his sword out of its sheath and held it out to the side. “Genghis Khan!”
With that cry, the Mongol charged straight at Applejack, his sabre held aloft. Applejack pulled her blade back to her, but Genghis Khan was too fast for her, so she had to stretch her chain out in front of her with her front hooves to block the sword. The force of the blow was incredible, knocking Applejack on to her back. She stretched out her back hooves and pulled in a section of chain closer to herself. With a kick, she tossed the chain around Khan’s leg. With a pull she managed to bring him crashing to the ground/ Applejack had managed to buy herself a few seconds to get herself together and plan her next attack.
Applejack span the blade around her heads a few times before slamming it down on where Genghis Khan should have been. The Mongol warlord had already gotten to his feet, so the blade fell just short of him, but Applejack was ready for that. She quickly pulled the blade back, flicked her chain over her shoulder and swung her blade around again for another slash. Unfortunately, as Applejack’s blade struck Genghis Khan’s armour, the curve of the metal links caused the predator blade to glance off without doing any damage at all. Applejack didn’t have time to launch a third strike against Khan, so she decided to resort to her next best tactic: a shock and awe physical assault.
However, as she reared back to launch herself at the Mongol, the wound in her flank made itself known once again. She had been able to ignore it for most of her duel but the added weight and pressure caused it to tear open even further, letting even more blood out. As she fell to the floor, Applejack saw the Mongol sabre slice through the air where her head had been a split second earlier. Not one to pass up a golden opportunity like this one, Applejack took her chance to strike again. She couldn’t match Genghis Khan in fair combat, but his armour slowed him down just enough to give her the advantage when he hit the ground, so she took up her chain and wrapped around Khan’s ankles. With a tug, she brought the Asian warlord to the ground again, this time knocking the helmet off of his head. Applejack grabbed her chain in her mouth again and thrust it towards Khan as he got to his feet. He stretched out his sword and managed to catch the chain, but thanks to the curved blade on the end, the sabre was quickly torn from the warrior’s hand. Khan glanced around for a weapon he could use, but his arsenal had been exhausted.
But Genghis Khan was clearly not someone to give up in the face of adversity. With an ear splitting war cry, the Mongol hero charged at Applejack, seemingly intending to murder her with his bare hands. Applejack was legitimately a bit scared and started to back off. She pulled her chain back, wrapped it over her shoulder and thrust out another attack with it, but Khan sidestepped it. As she pulled back and fired another attack, Khan kept dodging out of the way. As soon as he was just two feet away from the pony, Applejack hurled out another desperate attack. Genghis khan didn’t dodge fast enough and tried to make up for it by disarming Applejack. The chain wrapped around his arm and he tried to wrestle the chain away from the farm pony. But Applejack’s jaw was substantially stronger than Khan’s arm and he with one pull from the pony, Genghis Khan’s arm had been dislocated. He roared in rage more than pain and continued his assault on Applejack.
Applejack sidestepped as she thrust out her final attempt at taking down Khan, expecting yet another failure. However, this time the chain managed to spin around Khan’s neck. Applejack dashed behind Genghis Kahn, automatically tightening the chain around his neck and pulled him down to his knees. The warlord gripped at the chain frantically with his working arm as he gasped for air. Applejack couldn’t risk him actually breaking free, so she limped as quickly as she could over to where Genghis Khan’s blade had fallen. As Khan tilted his head back and stretched his mouth wider to try and force more air into his lungs, Applejack Thrust the sword into Genghis Khan’s mouth. It slid cleanly into the mud as it passed out through the back of his head and a look of genuine shock crossed his face as he felt the cold steel of his own sword sliding through his throat. His eyes fluttered shut and he ceased struggling.
Panting, Applejack fell to the ground. Genghis Khan had fought incredibly hard and it was by pure luck that she had managed to defeat him. A small, slow flowing river of blood was running down the fallen warrior’s cheek and his proud features, though marred with red stains, were still impressive to behold. Leaving him here without showing some kind of respect just didn’t seem right to Applejack. A warrior deserves a warriors funeral. Applejack Took the time to dig a deep hole in the ground, partially using her predator chain, partially just using her hooves. She removed the sword from Khan’s mouth and lowered the armour clad corpse into the ground. She piled the dirt back on top of body and offered a small prayer for him. As a final show of respect and to mark the grave of a fallen warrior, Applejack plunged Khan’s sword into the ground and laid his helmet on top of it. The gentle breeze caused the white feathery plume on the helmet to flutter and the whole area seemed oddly peaceful. With a sigh, Applejack turned and trotted through the portal, ready for her next foe.