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// Lord Eddard Stark vs Applejack 
// Story: My Little Pony vs .......... 
// by Ecthelion_Yuda 
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Applejack tumbled out of the portal and landed with a solid thud on the cold, stoney ground. The breath was knocked from her lungs and and the impact left her dizzy but aside from that she was otherwise unharmed. The farmer forced thoughts of the ghastly maze to the back of her mind. Shuddering, she dealt with with the remaining images of the Weeping Angels and forced them down, since she would not be able to deal with them until she could escape. If she broke down in the middle of a fight, then nothing she had done so far would count for anything. Besides, she had done everything she could to save Spike and Sweetie Belle, but she also had to admit that she had taken her eye off the ball after she had found Applebloom. Family comes first. The knowledge that her little sister was safe, for the moment at least, alleviated some of the guilt and pain she had been carrying around. Applejack tilted her hat backwards and took a look around at her new arena.

The air was cold. Freezing, in fact. All around were little mounds of snow and piles of silver frost covered turf. The wind itself was practically visible with microscopic crystals of ice drifting along in the breeze. Like a knife, the wind cut clean through her body and made her shudder involuntarily. Instinctively, Applejack pulled her chain around herself tighter as though it were a shaul to stave off the cold. It was surprising just how attached to her weapon she had become, how safe it made her feel now. Even from behind the clouds, the sun glinted off of the edge of the immensely keen edge of the blade. It had sliced through stone, metal, bone and flesh, yet it had grown no duller than when she had received after beating her first opponent.

All around her, tall, grey, stone walls reached skyward, with spikes of wood and metal protruding from them at various points. Round towers with small windows devoid of glass spiralled free of the frozen ground. The whole place seemed dark and foreboding. Perhaps it was Chrysalis’ Castle? The place was cold, cruel and dark, so it made sense that she would live here. Applejack’s eyes narrowed in anticipation. If this really was the Castle of the Changeling Queen, then that meant that her next opponent was going to be Chrysalis herself. Applejack relished the idea of separating various limbs from her body, making her suffer and beg as she vanished from this world forever. The bloodlust was overwhelming and if she had to fight her way through a few Changelings to get to the Queen, then that was fine by her.

The sound of footsteps knocked Applejack out her fantasies and back into reality. There appeared to be only one person, and from the sounds of things they appeared to have only two legs. Applejack considered the possibility of it being a Diamond Dog in the employ of Chrysalis, or perhaps Nightmare Moon. Either way, she wasn’t going to wait around to find out. Whatever it was, they had now entered Applejack’s kill zone, and now they weren’t going to leave. The pony loosened her chain and sprinted to the wall nearest to her. She gave herself enough slack to get a decent swing on the blade before making her move. As the target approached, Applejack rotated her body around, with one hoof helping to force out the chain. The curved blade whistled quietly through the air before finding its mark. Whatever she had just hit was wearing no armour, so the blade cut through the skin and muscle with no resistance. There was a slight bite as her cold metal cleaved through bone before whirling around and landing neatly at her hooves. As she finished her rotation, she saw the boy she had just killed drop to his knees before falling fully to the ground. A fraction of a second later, the severed top half of his torso struck the stone ground with a sickening squelch. A vibrant red splash ran up the wall beside the corpse providing an oddly aesthetically pleasing contrast to the muted tones of the area around her. Steam slowly rose from the steadily growing pools of blood spreading from the two halves of the corpse.

Somehow, the head had managed to land facing up, allowing Applejack to get a good look at her victim. He was very young, no more than a boy, with thick, curly brown hair. His eyes had a fire and a laughter in them that death was yet to extinguish. The outlines of his features were defined as carved stone, with strength in his jaw and determination in every line. There was no doubt that as far as Applejack was concerned, this boy would have been a worthy opponent and had he been much older, he would have posed a very serious threat to her.

“Robb!”

The cry had come from behind her. It was a mans voice with a very broad accent, although it was not one that Applejack was overly familiar with. Turning, she took in the terrifying image before her. The man had the same strong features, the same fiery gaze, the same brown hair of the dead boy. Obviously there was a relation between them, probably father and son. The only real difference between this new challenger and the boy, Robb, was just that: Robb had been just a boy. Before her stood a fully grown warrior, at least fifteen years Robb’s senior, taller than the boy and broader too. Under a thick fur cloak and functional leather hauberk was a body rippling with muscle. Applejack could tell at a glance that this man was a soldier, hardened by warfare. But the look on his face was a terrifying mixture of anguish and fury. And Applejack couldn’t blame him. After all, here before him was the corpse of his son along with the person who had killed him.

For a moment, it appeared that the warrior didn’t know what he was going to do. He seemed torn between rushing to his son’s side and coming straight for Applejack. With tears in his eyes, the warrior moved his arms out from underneath his heavy woolen cloak, revealing the most exquisite weapon that Applejack had ever seen. It was a monstrous great sword, the blade was at least as long as she was from nose to tail, and wide enough that Applebloom could stand on its flat edge quite comfortably. It glinted in a similar way to the blade on the end of her chain, indicating that the two were just as sharp as each other. Applejack was certain of one thing, this fight was not going to be easy.

The warrior had the advantages of size and strength, but Applejack had him in speed, and his emotional state would undoubtedly impair his ability to fight logically. It would be a tough victory, but Applejack was of her chances. She scooped up her chain, and readied herself for the attack.

However, what the soldier did took her completely by surprise. He looked straight at her, almost through her even, and asked “what are you called?”
He was holding back sobs, but the sincerity in his eyes made Applejack falter momentarily.
“I would have the name of the one who murdered my son. Now, if you please!”

“I’m Applejack. What’s your name?”
Why was she indulging in these irrelevant niceties? What did it matter to her what his name was? She would be killing him soon either way.

“I am Lord Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. And now, Gods be willing, I am going to avenge my son.”

And with that the duel had begun. He was faster than Applejack had anticipated. Much faster indeed. In a few steps he had closed the distance between them and had his sword raised above his head. Applejack strafed to the right as the shimmering blade clanged off the ground. Applejack took advantage of the situation and swung her chain around, meaning to to end the duel right there and then. But once again, the speed of the Lord of Winterfell caught her off guard. He reached inside his cloak and in one fluid motion extracted a dirk and thrust it directly into the path of the chain. The chain wrapped around the knife, sending the blade off course. Lord Eddard leaned backwards slightly, dodging the blade before releasing his grip on the dirk and swinging his sword once again.

Applejack was forced to take the defensive and managed to avoid the Lords strikes by continuously dodging backwards or to the side. She couldn’t move around too much because of her chain, but slowly Lord Eddard was forcing her back. Eddard Stark was unrelenting, he kept pressing the advantage, launching strike after strike after strike knowing that eventually Applejack would fail to avoid his blade. Fortunately for Applejack, with one final flick, the dirk was shaken loose from her chain with a resounding clang. Finally, the fight was beginning to go in Applejack’s favour.

The farm pony dragged her weapon around and stretched out the chain in front of her with her front hooves. She caught Lord Stark’s sword perfectly, and used the force of the blow to wrap her chain around the blade. If this trick worked with a knife, surely it could work with the great sword too. Before the Lord of Winterfell had a chance to react, Applejack span around and kicked him straight in the stomach. The hit was unexpected and far stronger than Eddard had been ready for. He reeled backwards, the wind knocked soundly out of his lungs. Involuntarily, Eddard released his grip on the sword, leaving it wrapped in the chain. With a violent twist of her neck, Applejack cast the weapon away.

Unfortunately for Applejack, Lord Stark had been knocked back over to the body of his son, and he recovered remarkably quickly. There on the ground, next to the body of the boy, was a sword. Obviously Robb had been carrying it when Applejack had struck him down. Eddard muttered a small apology before scooping up the sword. It was no where near as beautiful as his great sword, and it seemed much too small for a man like Lord Eddard Stark, but it was a weapon none the less. Applejack darted forward, trying to force Lord Stark to take a more defensive stance.

Eddard, however, had a very different plan. He feinted left, leading Applejack right into a trap. He wheeled around and slashed at the pony. The steel bit deep into her flesh causing her to howl in a mixture of rage and pain. There was a wet slap as a chunk of her shoulder landed heavily on the ground. Applejack felt a good deal of her strength fade from her as the blood flowed freely down her leg and torso.While no major organs had been damaged, her front right leg was now essentially useless and she was losing an awful lot of blood. The next few seconds would almost certainly determine whether or not she survived this fight.

Applejack yanked her chain towards her and twisted to the side. It looked like she was going to strike for his head. That was exactly how Applejack wanted it to look. Lord Stark brought his sword up to defend his face as Applejack twisted again. The motion would have wrenched her shoulder, had she still had enough of one there. As it was, she just roared in anguish as her blade flew in low, slicing across the Lord of Winterfell’s hamstrings.

The man shouted, though more in surprise than pain. But he still collapsed to his knees as the muscles in his legs stopped obeying instruction. Applejack winced violently as she wrapped the chain around the fallen warrior’s torso, pinning his arms to his sides. She took the blade in her mouth and dragged it slowly through Lord Eddard Stark’s neck. His head tipped forward lightly before it fell off completely, spraying the surrounding area in hot, steamy blood. Applejack unwound her chain, letting the headless cadaver slump forward onto the ground, just a few feet away from the two halves of his son's corpse. Chain in mouth, Applejack hobbled backwards and tripped through the portal.