"Hello everypony, it's me Sunburst again. I know all the little foals loved the last time I read from the collection of the great Starswirl the Bearded. I am here today to read to you the next tome in the collection, so gather around fillies and colts as I read to you the events that took place after Discord's defeat." Sunburst sat in his favorite reading chair, a small fire in the fireplace illuminating the room and giving a comforting warmth as he dusted off the cover and opened to the first page...
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Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, no not this one but one in which Discord was never reformed, it was a lovely day. The birds were singing, everypony was happy, and Rainbow Dash had the skies perfectly clear. However this is not where this story begins, no, it begins in the magicless place of the damned. You see...It had been 10 long years since Discord layed his fiddle at AJ's hooves, and it burn inside his mind how he lost to that groove...
It burned deeply, the boredom he suffered from being imprisoned held no water against the nightmare that resonated in his head. Applejack, a mere mortal farmmare, had crushed him in a fiddle playing contest. Her playing resonated in his head and he could still hear her playing "Dragon on the mountain run girls run, Discord's in the land of the rising barn! Scootaloo's in the clubhouse kneading dough, Granny does Winona bite? No filly no!" and dancing that blasted jig. Day in and day out, hour on the hour, it actually was driving him insane. That said a lot considering he was the Lord of Chaos, but he had finally reached his breakpoint, so over the years he had started thinking about how to get revenge.
One day while curled up in his misery he finally had his break through. For...in the darkest pits of Tartarus Discord decided he should dare, to once again try and challenge that great fiddlin' mare. Using magic only he knew how to wield, he teleported himself to Sweet Apple Acres and found the Element of Honesty plowing the field.
"What do ya want Discord, can'tcha see dat Ah'm busy?" Applejack, now irratated that her work was being interrupted, asked the Chaos King.
"The sin of pride," Discord cried, "is what will do you in!" The sun shone off his snaggletooth as a grin crossed his face. He was in an awfully smug mood, not wanting to stop trying until one way or another Applejack would be his.
"I 'hought we had dis settled, I'm da best there has ever been!" Applejack firmly stomped a hoof in the dirt and was about ready to charge until she was surrounded by a familiar purple magic.
"AJ did you ever know that time keeps marching on?" Twilight asked as she and the rest of AJ's friends, except Dash, trotted up. Pinkie Pie pulled popcorn, sodas, and a picnic blanket out of her mane as they sat down.
Rainbow flew down from her cloud, landing on the blanket as she spoke. "For the coldest hour is the one that comes just before the dawn..."
Applejack and Discord were both about to ask what were Twilight and Rainbow meant but Pinkie Pie spoke up.
"It is quite simple really, now Discord's back in Equestria will you stand up to the test..." The party mare, now dressed in a referee uniform she pulled from somewhere even Discord did not know. "or will you let Discord be the best?..."
Applejack knew she only had two choices, either do the rematch or refuse and be a coward. "Truth is I haven't played much since Granny passed last June, but give me a good minute to get back in tune." She trotted over to the barn and came back with two fiddle cases. The plain one she opened held the fiddle that she had used in the match. She sat it to the side, an almost pained look, like remembering a bad memory, showed on her features before she looked to the other case. It was solid black with a wisp flame trim that seemed to burn, as soon as it opened a fury ignited in Discord. There was his golden fiddle, expertly kept and in the same condition as he last saw it.
AJ did not even have the chance to tune, Discord snatched that golden fiddle out of AJ's hooves and said. "Mare, I'm a Tartarus fiddle player and now I'm upon this land."
He then tuned it himself and played and angry tune that sounded like 1000 dragons roaring and on a rampage. When he finished his warmup he looked to AJ's friends, they were huddled together and quivering in fear. "Ya'll be turning back if you want this mare to win, 'cause practice is the only cure for the mess that she is in!"
"Now Discord it would be a shame, for yer to mah bow, so go back to Tartarus and to my barn I will go!" Applejack exclaimed and, after putting her old fiddle on her back, took off and locked herself in the barn. Several hours passed, the only sound being AJ getting more and more back in touch with her long-forgotten passion. She was so wrapped up in perfecting herself she didn't hear Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie come up behind her, and she also didn't hear Apple abloom calling for her from the house.
Twilight made AJ jump when she tapped the Earth Pony's wither. "AJ are you practicing or will your hooves grow cold? Discord walks Equestria and plays a fiddle made of gold..."
Rainbow followed, not missing a beat. "Do you hear Apple Bloom hollering, or will she ever know..."
"That Discord wants her sister's very soul?!?!" Pinkie Pie finished.
Applejack looked at her friends and nodded, everything had come full circle. 10 years ago she had gotten herself into this by calling on Discord's name, and now the prolonged inevitable was happening. She put her fiddle on her back and came back muzzle-to-face in front her opponent. She knew she was in for the fight of fer life, literally, and the stubborn mare was not going to go down easy. "Before we play I want to thank ya for letting Celestia's word ring true, she says yah can't be trusted.."
"So what you're going to do?!?!" Discord said with a mock scowl, but it was clear he took that as a compliment.
"Well you git yer fiddle Discord if ya think that you can win, 'cause I beat you once you diamond dog and I can whip yer flank again!" Applejack said with a bright smile, her confidence fully returned. Discord was already playing his tune, an angry redention of "Through the Fire and Flames". Applejack started playing, her ballad sounded angelic by contrast, midway through she sung a chorus:
Treehugger is green, Big Mac is red...
Scootaloo loves that shortening bread.
Discord's dream is that he can win...
but Ah'm the best that there has ever been!
Even with them neck and neck, a smile briefly crossed Discord's face. He no longer cared if he won or lost, because he knew he had won the war. They kept on playing to no end, long into the night and into the next day, and the next and the next. Old legend says that if you listen closely in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres on a cool fall night, you can still hear them two fiddlers engaged in the battle for all eternity... to prove who truely is the best.
Author's Note
I am on Patreon, you can see what I have to offer here
Shoutout to The Bricklayer for letting me write the sequel to his story, I had fun writing this and I hope you all enjoyed it!
