This story is a sequel to The Royal Apples
Mac has always been a hard working pony, able to solve any problem with determination, muscle and sweat. Now that he has become an alicorn, he finds himself questioning what role he should fulfill, aside from being Princess Luna's special somepony and royal consort. He isn't very adept at using his new found power, and with its new found prosperity, it doesn't seem he is as important to keeping the farm going as he once was. For the briefest of moments, he almost wishes he'd never been born. It's a dangerous thing for anypony to think, let alone an alicorn.
Chapters (25)
I see you have decided to make this part of the 'arc' its own story again.
But do you actually have any plans to finish it? I've been waiting for so long.
Thanks for separating the two stories. Also thanks for the update. i can't wait for the next chapter. Now all that is left is Mac needs to escape claim the other elements. Free Celestia and Nightmare Moon, then Beat Nightmare Moon. Good luck writing the next chapters. Thanks for the update.
You misspelled Fleur De Lis' name.
4818558 Oops.
Geez, you start feeling sorry for yourself for just ONE SECOND, and suddenly some jackass tosses you into an alternate timeline where everything sucks.
I guess the lesson here is that when you suddenly become a alicorn prince, you better learn to enjoy it.
Cripes. That's... oi. His magic can't get the rock out of the ground properly with his full intention, but it will self-destruct his ass if he starts getting mopey.
Magic sucks
Zecora's no wimp like Celestia. Turning her to stone just slows her down
Aw yeah, wild radscorpion attacks!
In world ruled by Chaos... Trixie goes carnivore.
Eh, I can dig it.
And damn it, Shy, your dumb empathy is going to get your entire adventuring party killed!
Cripes, for not being good with magic, Mac is making Rarity and Trixie look useless. It's no wonder the girls keep stopping and asking him about it.
It's just SLIGHTLY suspect that Big Mac is effectively keeping the team going with the spells he learned from magic kindergarten, while Trixie, the back-up Element of Magic, has been reduced to flashlight duty. I mean, you could have easily written it off as "he's an alicorn, he does magic good", but I don't see why you're making Big Mac look like a capable mage while also insisting he isn't.
Also, poor Applejack! Without your brother you ended up as a back-stabbing prostitute! Lame!
my face right now,
WHHYY MYSTERIOUS VOICE
swing back and
swinging, or...swung? But that section seems to be current tense.
Power Trixie
POWER TRIXIE! NOW IN CANS! (Powerful)
summersault
somersault
Interesting, Applejack development.
APPLEJACK SHAME!! Applejack:
Greate chapter ! I must say that i was surprised when you moved this ark in a new story but ... Eh ... STILL GOOD!
Keep up the good work !
I just marathoned this and thought it was great, any news on future updates?
Nice chapter. I was surprised to see this story updated. Great job. Good luck with the next chapter. Please keep us waiting so long.
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Well, if you insist. LOL!
Huh, so Arual basically sent his mind/soul into a Hyberbolic Time Zone then? Cause that's the only plausible explanation of how he gained hundreds of years worth of knowledge under an hour. Then again, it's magic so any rule of logic can be thrown out the window in that regard.
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In essence, but this kind of cram course has a psychological component. Imagine being in a world where the only interactions you have are artificially created. True, you can learn skills and develop knowledge and power, but at what cost to your ability to interact with others. Then again, Mac isn't normally a social pony, often replacing inter-personal actions with hard work. And you can bet becoming an alicorn is hard work.
5805931 Good point, he may have had Arual for company but being separated from those he cares about for so long tends to tax one's mind though I suppose Mac's quiet lifestyle has adjusted him somewhat to the crushing isolation. Any normal pony would have gone mad from the ordeal, which proves Mac's worthiness of the Element of Courage as well as his perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds.
On the plus side, he's now powered up and ready to take on Discord and his cronies...then again, Discord did take down Nightmare Moon so I'm not going to expect Mac to curbstomp the baddies that easily.
Heh, I almost forgot about the booby traps in the castle. Hmm, since Twilight was technically killed in this reality, do you think that Spike and Twilight get a final farewell of sorts after her 'soul' assists them a little?
Sweet chapter. I loved how Sombra is actually jealous of Mac. That is awesome. Exact opposite a Prince and a farmer. One who wants power one had power given to him when he had no desire for it. Great job. I can't wait to read this epic rematch. Good luck.
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Well... technically it won't be a rematch, as you will see. (nudge... nudge... wink... wink...)
New chapter. Thanks. it was a lot of fun to read. I can't wait to see what happens when the changleings bust through or Sombra finds Mac. Good luck and thanks for the quick updates.
Well, the two periods of time when Zecora is most likely to need you is immediately before being petrified, which is kind of a done deal, and right now, when she's all alone in her hut, directly in the path of any heinous villains following Mac's trail.
So that's a tough claim to make, scaly.
I dont know how I missed this... its been so long since i read the royal apples...
Really, I think you were doing pretty good with the magic kindergarten bit, Mac.
Although maybe this will at least keep you from blasting yourself into parallel dimensions when you start getting mopey.
Well, since you asked for comments and critiques, here goes:
As great as it is to read about Mac kicking ass and all, it really cuts into the dramatic tension that you zapped him away to a hundred-year training trip where he learned to use his power and talked to the mystical know-it-all tree and conveniently learned all about the castle that they had to infiltrate. Mac was already rather unconvincing in his claims of magical incompetence, as he had shown enough basic cantrip proficiency to render Trixie and Rarity pretty much redundant. And it's not like he needed magic to be awesome in The Royal Apples.
So giving him a sudden power-up right before things come to a head knocks the sense of "underdog hero party" flat on its face. He was already towing the rest of the ponies along like they were dead weight most of the time, but being inexperienced with alicorn-hood was Mac's only obvious weakness. Also, the way it was done seemed to be ripped straight out of the Dragonball Z playbook: strong enemy is coming, increase power level with intense off-screen conditioning.
For that exact reason, it's really nice to see it every time some other character helps them advance rather than leaving it to Prince Mac's mighty alicorn (kindergarten) magic. One of the other problems with Dragonball Z is the way that it renders most characters comparatively helpless and makes them spectators as the "main" hero duels with the villain of the week. I hope you can avoid that.
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!
Really now, as if Sombra didn't have it hard enough. He has to tromp around in the trap-riddled magical castle without Chrysalis, his guards are being chewed up by the dozen, and now there's some OTHER goon running around getting in his way. Assuming that wasn't just some illusionary trickery from Big Mac, in which case, CRIPES Sombra, you're getting played for a fool, here.
Starting to feel for the poor evil pone. He should probably be retired by now.
Nice to see this continue.
It's also nice to see Mac stumble a bit, and for the girls to figure something out without him there. I was starting to feel a little sorry for King Sombra, there!
awesome. Thanks for the update.
6811173 Nice to be able to continue it. Appreciate the fact you waited so patiently. Been having some trouble loading stories onto this site for some reason. The problem seems to come and go, often for months at at time. Your input though is worth the effort.
6811400 Thanks. Have you figured out the King Sombra gambit?
6811686 define gambit. If you are meaning the fight between Mac and Sombra it was good to see that they both out witted each other.
6812486 Pretty sure he means how Sombra made a second ring and overshadowed both brothers, thereby allowing him to use one of the twins as a decoy or bait without risking actual defeat... Oh, right I should probably point out that is was either Flim or Flam that got his horn snapped off in case you missed that as well.
6812486 gambit - (in chess) an opening in which a player makes a sacrifice, typically of a pawn, for the sake of some compensating advantage. It can also refer to a device, action, or tactical maneuver, typically one entailing a degree of risk, that is calculated to gain an advantage.
Didn't Mac break King Sombra Prime's crystals back in the original story? I think, it's been a while since I've read it, so I kind of have a vague idea of that possibly having been the case. As an Alicorn now though, he'd be stronger, so I suppose it would come as a nasty shock to Sombra if Mac breaks his crystals here.
Trixie is being a clever pony as par for the course for her, both deducing the original magnetic location of the compass as well as locating the secret passage. I suppose she'll be the Element of Magic, though it might be a bit of a plot twist if there was no Element of Magic here because there already exists six Elements.
I'm mildly surprised not a fat joke was made about Celestia!
Awesome! I love it. I hope Mac breaks free soon.
it is good to see ur works again being up dated...now if the Powerpuff Pony story could be completed...
Well, if canon is anything to go off of, given that Nightmare Moon's attack was rendered ineffective just by merely ONE Element already being activated, I'd say Chrysalis is already boned. Unless she calls Discord, who might be more powerful than a single Element so far.
Also, Pinkie, you're so random!
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I have oft wondered whether Pinkie is the descendant of a secret love child between Discord and Celestia.
"Especially since that part was written before that whole dream sequence episode. Pandering, amiright?"
Well, they're dead. The spider colony may be harmless to ponies, but I'm pretty sure rodents are a primary food source.
6831864 Ah... but did you get Fluttershy's next 2 lines?
6832689
Nope. I'm afraid I'm not up to date on my rodent-centric cartoons. Even Ratatouille was years and years ago.
6832762 It wasn't so much rodent-centric as it was a quip about the French and aviation history. (The Montgolfier Brothers were the first men to fly in a balloon.)
6832821
Then I missed the reference so hard I didn't even realize it was historical.
My point remains, however, that those mice are going to be lunch.
6833618 You might even say they're Prench Toast.
For some reason this update never showed up in my tracking list, so that may be why you haven't gotten any comments on this story if it's affected other people with this story tracking as well.
I notice Rarity's element has been renamed. I wonder if this is a natural consequence of the passage of several years and societal perception of the word 'Generosity' vs 'Charity' where the latter speaks of greater things during Discord's reign.
Is the name of the Spider Wilber supposed to be a reference to Charlotte's Web? The main character in it is named Wilbur, one letter off, and he's a piglet instead of a spider but if you had named the spider Charlotte that reference would have been too obvious
Then that ending. That's certainly different than what happened to the Mane 6 in Friendship is Magic Part 2. Maybe they'll be visiting the astral realm or whatever you want to call it that Twilight briefly saw in MMC. Or perhaps they get a vision of dead Twilight. Who knows (besides the author
)
6953255 Indeed Rarity's element was renamed, primarily because the element itself was speaking directly into Rarity's mind and not communicating through Twilight as in the original story. The name change reflects a more mature and worldly interpretation of the element's purpose.
Yes. Wilber was definitely an allusion to Charlotte's Web.
Sparkly, shiny cliffhanger. LOL.
Thanks for reading and commenting on the story.