As Big Mac sat beside a window in the funny way that ponies are known for, he peered out over the picturesque apple trees. Apples he would share responsibility for. Big Mac would know exactly what to do, but he didn't. He wasn't Big Mac...
A gentle knock came from the door before Applejack poked her nose in. "Say, uh, Big Mac? Gotta moment?"
He looked over towards Applejack. She seemed like a good person, but was she his sister? He couldn't remember what his real sister was, but it... it wasn't her. "Ayup."
Applejack stepped in and nudged the door shut behind her. "I want to talk, you n' me, private like. This..." Applejack squirmed a little. "Are you Big Mac?"
"... Nope."
Applejack slumped a little. The thing that would be Big Mac was looking more like him. His legs were coming in, thickening out to proper pony limbs and carrying him as a pony should be carried. "What are you?"
"Don't know." The not Big Mac frowned a moment before he pointed downstairs. "Apple Bloom."
Applejack jerked. Had he just said he was...? "What?" It struck her even as she said it. "Oh... yeah... She's got it right in her head that yer really him."
Big Mac rose to his hooves which were busily becoming more and more powerful as Equestria molded him to the role. "Fer her." He approached Applejack on slow hooves, still getting used to his altering form. "You..." He winced, trying to fight through the fog of his memory. "Mah name..."
Applejack hurried to meet him. "S'alright. Ain't nopony gonna be forced in mah house."
Her reassurance made some of his muscles relax. It made all of him relax. Would being her brother be too awful? He could do far worse. He leaned in and kissed her cheek gently. "A secret, between siblings."
Applejack perked her ears. "W-what?"
"My human name is Christopher." He put a hoof to his swelling chest. "Only you and me. To everyone else, Big Mac."
Applejack crashed to her haunches. "That... Are ya sure? Ah mean..." She scrunched her face. "This ain't right."
"No." He sat down with her. "It ain't. Ah won't let her cry no more."
Applejack quirked a smile. "That's right kind of you, but it's too much."
He put a hoof to her snout, gazing at her with those big deep eyes that Big Mac always had. "Ayup." He slid the hoof off her snout and held it out for a hug. "Ah ain't yer Big Mac, but I'll try."
Applejack took a timid half-step back, struck with the fullness of just how much she had asked of... Christopher. She burned that name into her mind. "Look, if ya wanna go home, ah'll do everythin' ah can fer ya. This ain't right!"
Chris turned to the mirror, looking out at it even as he felt fur tickle over the last bits of naked flesh he had. He was a pony. It wasn't a bad feeling. The saddest part was knowing there were others that would miss him, maybe just as awfully as Applejack and her sister missed the large red stallion he had been shaped to be. "Ah don't figure ya can do that."
Applejack raised a hoof and rubbed along a leg. "Not me, not personal-like... but Twilight! You know her, right?"
Chris perked an ear at Applejack. He remembered Twilight. "Can she do that?"
"Only one way ta know." Applejack nodded firmly. "Look, this... If there's any way ah can make this right, we're gonna."
Chris weighed the options. There were people right there that needed him. There were people somewhere else that might or might not need him. He couldn't remember them very well. No matter which he tried to reach, he would be hurting someone. Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith, those faces were right there. They were right there and they needed him.
He leaned in and kissed her other cheek. "Nope."
"Nope?" Applejack blinked up at the large form of her brother. "What're ya sayin', exactly?"
Big Mac pointed at himself. "Ah'm Big Mac, brother of Applejack and Apple Bloom. Ah help on the farm. Ah don't talk much."
Applejack quirked a smile at the summary. "It's too much--" Her words were cut off as the large stallion hugged her close and tight.
Tears she hadn't been aware she'd been holding back began to spill. The hug felt just like him. He smelled right. He held her just so and said nothing. If Applejack stopped thinking about it, she was in the embrace of her brother.
The next day, Apple Bloom was guiding Big Mac along. "C'mon, faster!"
Big Mac smiled patiently at his little sister. She was a bundle of energy. She always was, and he loved her for it. "Ayup."
They were going off into a forest. It tickled his memory. The Everfree? Why were they there? He looked left and right, scanning for dangers as he went. "Stay close."
Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue. "Stay on th' trail and keep straight. We'll be there soon."
True to her words, they emerged into a clearing with a hut that he recognized swiftly. They had come to Zecora's home. Apple Bloom rushed ahead of him up to the door and clopped on it eagerly.
It swayed open and a zebra stepped from the inside. "Why isn't this a surprise? To see two friends, one large, the other pint-sized. Come inside where it is safe, I trust my home will not chafe." She waved inside and soon everyone had entered.
Big Mac watched her curiously. She was a pony, but there were differences. She was a zebra, and was built just differently enough for those differences to feel bigger than they were.
Apple Bloom hopped up onto a stool and pointed at Big Mac. "He done got hurt and cursed and confused. Can ya fix 'em?"
Zecora blinked softly, then turned to Big Mac. She began examining him quite intently before she stepped closer and began tapping at him with her hooves. She even squeezed his snout to get his tongue out and looked that over. "Hmm..." She wandered off and got a crystal and returned to look through it at Big Mac. "Hmm..."
"What is it? Can ya fix 'em?!"
"I must ask you to wait outside, for there are words which I must confide. It won't be long, this I swear, so please just wait over there." Zecora opened the door and permitted the pouting Apple Bloom to step out.
"Yer gonna help, right?"
Zecora just nodded at little Bloom, then closed the door gently. She looked back to Big Mac. "Your spirit is most confused, but with Big Mac I think it has fused."
Big Mac perked his ears at her. Had she seen he was a fake so easily? "Fer her."
Zecora glanced to the door Big Mac had pointed at and back at him. "To all starts, there is an end--"
Before she could finish, he put a hoof to her snout. "Ah'm alright."
Zecora raised a brow skeptically. "What I see is quite rare. A living spirit for this to bare. I can feel him, know this is true. He is here, and part of you." She prodded Big Mac in the chest directly. "You have allowed him, giving him leave. You are Big Mac, if you believe."
Big Mac felt a smile spreading over his snout. Was it true? Could he really be their missing brother, truly? "Yup." He bobbed his head eagerly. He could do it. He would be there for them. At least it was one pain he could avoid in the world.
Zecora moved to the door and cracked it open. "Come." Apple Bloom quickly rejoined them. "I am proud to announce, this curse we will trounce. Feed your brother and share your tales. Food and company will cure what ails."
Apple Bloom sprung up onto Big Mac's back, hugging him from above. "Is that all?! No wonder he's already lookin' better. Hear that? Extra servings an' extra hugs fer you." She squeezed him firmly from above, smiling radiantly.
Soon Big Mac had left, carrying his sister. Both were content with the world.
Zecora closed the door gently behind them. "Fools." It would work out, in its odd way. Could the dead return? She wouldn't say. If they wished to live that lie, she couldn't say not to try. The Apples were known to be a stubborn lot. They would reap what they had sowed on their lot.
A week passed. Big Mac had returned. He helped around the farm, ran the stall in town, talked with ponies, and become more and more natural by the day.
But Applejack knew the truth. She knew and couldn't just let that go. As much as Big Mac had shaped up and was still shaping up well, she knew. She approached him as he was hauling a wagon. "After yer done there, ah think it's high time we saw Twilight."
He raised a brow at her. "What fer?"
Applejack prodded him in the side. "To send you home, ya big idjit!"
Big Mac looked to the farmhouse, then back at Applejack. "Ah am home."
Applejack sank to her haunches, watching Big Mac trundle off. She couldn't bear it. She scampered back to her hooves and rushed after him. "Christopher!"
That made Big Mac jerk in place, the wagon coming to a sudden halt. He turned to glare at her. "Nope."
Applejack pointed at him. "That's yer name."
"Nope."
Applejack let out a long sigh. "Please... just let her have a look."
Big Mac snorted loudly before he gave a little nod. He moved on without a word, but did return once the wagon was where it needed to be.
Together, they took a walk to Twilight's castle.
Spike opened the door on knocking, but quickly moved aside on seeing it was Applejack. "Hey AJ, come on in. Hey Big Mac! What brings you two over?"
Applejack led the way. "Ah need to talk t' Twilight. It's important. Is she in?"
"What's important?" There was Twilight, emerging from one of her many libraries. "Hello AJ, Mac."
Applejack smiled with relief. "Look, this'll sound crazy, but..." She turned and pointed at Big Mac. "He--"
Big Mac shoved a big hoof in Applejack's face, silencing her. "Am I Big Mac?"
Twilight blinked softly.
Spike tilted his head. "Sure looks like Big Mac, er, I mean you. That's an odd question."
Twilight rubbed behind her head. "I have to agree."
Applejack stepped away from that blocking hoof. "He ain't! He's... uh, somethin' else, a human."
Twilight looked Big Mac over again with a new intensity. "He... doesn't look like any human I ever saw."
Spike poked Big Mac lightly. "Hey, what's your character in our Ogres and Oubliettes game?"
Big Mac nodded at Spike. "Sir Mcbiggen."
"Seems legit." Spike shrugged.
Twilight's horn glowed as she gave a deeper look, trying to pluck and pry at the magic network that made up her friend's brother to detect faults in it. There were some, but they were buried under a pile of Big Mac. Whatever faults he had, they were hidden. She would have to be far more invasive to learn more. "I would have to say he's Big Mac. If he says he's big Mac, he feels like Big Mac. He talks like Big Mac." She rubbed at the side of her head. "I don't get it."
Applejack let out a weary sigh. Was she doing the right thing? "Look, this unicorn... She..." Applejack glanced away and back. "Look, Big Mac vanished on delivery. We were pretty certain he was dead."
Big Mac set a hoof on her back. "Nope."
Spike shrugged. "Hard to argue that. He's right there."
"Look, jus' listen!" Applejack stomped a hoof. "Ah went to... get 'em back. They did somethin', and brought me this human and told me he was Big Mac."
Twilight's eyes widened. That sounded too much like the spell she... She suddenly took off at a gallop.
She hurried to where she had placed the book, only to find nothing but an empty spot on her shelf. "Spike!"
But he didn't know where it was either. Nopony did. Twilight looked harried and worried, but she tried to focus on the matter at hoof. With new knowledge, she scanned over Big Mac one more time, looking for signs she knew. They were subtle, but they were there. "He really is... But, unlike the last subject, he has completely fallen into sync with Equestria. He is Big Mac, at least physically."
Big Mac nodded gently. "Yup." He rose and turned for the door. "Ah got work to do." That was true, and it wasn't. He was done being pried at. He had made his decision, and he was sticking to it.
Applejack watched him go, worry on her face. "Can ya help 'em?"
Twilight gave a little shrug. "It's too late for that. He is your brother for most intents and purposes. I can't send him home, because he is home."
Spike shook his head. "That's freaky." He left the room before it could get any weirder.
Twilight set a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. "I can see this is... painful. Did you talk to him, before this?"
Applejack raised a brow. "After ah already took 'em home. Some Honesty ah turned out t'be."
Twilight nodded slowly. "Did you tell him he was... this, that he wasn't who he was before?"
Applejack blinked softly. "Not... exactly, but that don't make me feel better."
Twilight tapped at the ground. "That's who we should be focused on. Somepony's using my magic, and if they used it once, they'll use it again." She raised a brow at Applejack. "You know who and where they are, right?"
Applejack quickly bobbed her head. "Had to go all the way inta Manehatten, but yeah."
"Then that's where we're going. We can't undo our mistakes, but we can stop them from happening again." Twilight pointed for the door. "Let's get to work."
That brought a smile to Applejack's face. The idea of actually doing something concrete to resolve the issue sure sounded better than crying about it. "Yeah, let's teach that mare this ain't right."
With renewed purpose, they set out towards the train station. They had work to do.