Sorry everyone. · 4:43pm Jan 8th, 2017
After much consideration, I've decided to stop writing Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Mac. At least in the way it stands now.
I don't know what it is about this story that's keeping me from getting it written. Whatever it is, as I said before, I don't want to have a repeat of Boast Backers where I take way too long to write a story and feel more relieved to finally finish than satisfied with the ending.
So, following the advice of this blog, I'm ending my current work on Big Bad Mac and will be revoking the submission at some point today. Of course, that feels unfair to you readers who are legitimately enjoying this story so I offer you an apology and what I hope can count as a peace offering.
See, in my thinking, I realized I might want to go back to this story someday and try a different approach. Maybe change the ending I had planned or alter just who some of the major players in the story are and work towards that from the start instead of changing my mind half-way into the first three chapters. So, at the bottom of this blog post, I'm gonna put up spoiler tags that outline what my original plan for Big Bad Mac was. If you want to hang on to the hope that I'll come back to this story and keep yourself pure for that, then feel free to avoid them but otherwise go ahead and indulge.
As for what I'll work on now... I'm not sure. I love the Flipverse and writing stories for it, but I've also been finding myself drawn to another project that isn't even Pony related. Not that I'd ever want to abandon my AU, but with so many ideas I'm gonna need time to figure out which one is going to be my next "main project" as it were.
So until then, I'm really sorry for abandoning this story guys. Hopefully I'll see at least some of you for whatever my next one is!
Now, on to those spoilers.
As the title image implies, Mac was cursed by the Timberwolf that bit him and is turning into a wolf-pony hybrid at night. Of course, it takes a couple more nights (and attacks) for him to realize this. By that time Shining Armor (who came down to investigate the attacks and visit Spike and Twilight) has put a shield up around Ponyville to try and keep the "rampaging timberwolf" out.
Mac tries to seal himself away from everypony by locking himself in the barn, but that only gets Applejack worried. She gets Spike and Thunderlane to talk to Mac and get him to come out, but the sun sets while they're trying and Mac transforms. Wolf Mac easily breaks out of the barn and starts rampaging around the farm, scaring the living daylights out of Spike and Thunderlane and separating them from AJ. By the time they find her she's been injured and needs to be taken to the hospital.
At the hospital, Spike and Thunderlane have a disagreement over what to do. Thunderlane wants to tell the guards what they saw and keep Mac from potentially hurting anyone else, Spike wants to get the whole story as they didn't actually see Mac attack AJ and only found her after he'd run off. Spike winds up slipping away before Shining Armor can question him to try and look for clues.
He finds Mac, very distraught now that the sun has come up and with vague memories of the night before, and convinces the big guy that somepony is on his side. The two head to Sweet Apple Acres to figure out what happened, only to run right into the Royal Guards and Shining Armor. Thunderlane told them about Mac and they waste no time in apprehending him. Spike gets told off for trying to interfere in the investigation, and Mac gets dragged away in a magical cage so that Shining can witness the transformation himself before he makes the arrest official.
As night falls, Mac changes and it looks like that's going to be the end until Spike comes running up. Despite Shining's orders, he searched the farm and found something: A wooden claw broken off a timberwolf. That claw clued Spike in to just what's been happening the last few nights. That Mac wasn't attacking anyone, he was trying to protect the town. He was tearing apart garbage cans and compost piles at night because a real timberwolf had infiltrated Ponyville and was hiding during the day by breaking its body apart and scattering itself in the trash bins around town. Then at night it'd pull itself together and go on the hunt. Mac had been searching for it and trying to reveal its hiding place while chasing it away from the townsfolk, especially his family on Sweet Apple Acres!
At that moment the timberwolf shows up to recover its claw and starts attacking. Everyone's panicking, Shining can't drop his shield to chase it out of town because there's a whole pack clawing at the outside waiting to get in, and then the wolf corners Apple Bloom in all the confusion. Mac busts out of his cage and proceeds to kick the timberwolf up and down the street before chasing it to the edge of the Everfree, scaring it and its whole pack away once and for all. At which point, Wolf Mac calms down and start playing with Apple Bloom like he's a big friendly puppy.
AJ wakes up soon after the attack and confirms Spike's theory, exonerating Mac. A quick trip to Zecora's proves that yes, she's heard of the condition Mac suffers from and she of course knows a cure. Mac's curse is removed and life goes back to normal as Thunderlane apologizes for not believing in Mac's innocence like Spike did. Mac doesn't carry a grudge though, he's thankful that he's got a friend that'll believe in him no matter what (Spike) and one that'll make a tough decision in order to keep everyone Mac cares about safe when he can't (Thunderlane).
Apology MORE THAN accepted. I can completely understand how life can go sometimes. As for the spoilers, yeah, I expected SOME of that, but NOT ALL. That's all I'm going to say, except it ALL sounds GREAT.