Part 4: Hero
Later-
“And this entity you encountered said nothing of her name?” Celestia asked. “Or why this Yigrox creature had awakened?”
Big Mac, once more his normal size (thanks to some royal assistance), shook his head. “Eenope. Was reluctant enough to tell me what she did. Seemed real sorry about it, though.”
They were currently in the hospital wing of Canterlot Castle, where a flurry of doctors and mages kept coming and going to look over Big Mac. Apparently, Discord had saw fit to broadcast the fight all across the sky, and just about every pony in Equestria had seen it. The princesses had had to bring Big Mac to the palace just so he wouldn’t be mobbed by journalists, and was now in a private hospital room filling them in on what’d happened.
“An eight-pointed star, with elongated north and south arrows...” Celestia scratched her chin. “I’m not familiar with that symbol. What about you, Lulu?”
Luna, who’d been fussing over Big Mac since his return, shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing comes to mind. T’was likely associated with this now-destroyed planet.”
Big Mac put a hoof behind his head. “Ah… yeah. Sorry ‘bout that. Kinda went a bit overboard.”
“No, I don’t think you did,” Celestia said gravely. “From what saw, you were barely able to defeat it with the considerable force you used. Perhaps there might’ve been another way that didn’t involve the planet’s destruction, but all things considered, I approve of your actions.”
Luna leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Better you a dead world be destroyed than a living one.”’
Big Mac nuzzled her back. He couldn’t argue with that logic, although a part of him wanted to for some reason.
Celestia turned to Twilight, who was running a scan on Big Mac. “Have you found anything?”
Twilight ceased her scanning and turned to Celestia with a scrunched-up frown. “The spell matrix at work here’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s completely different from the magic of ponies, or anything else that’s been documented.”
Big Mac cocked his head. “How’d the three o’ya know how to help me reverse it, then?”
Twilight shifted on her hooves. “We’re... not exactly strangers to power suppression. It’s a pretty universal concept across the board, to be honest.”
“But that doesn’t mean we understand whatever’s going on with you,” Celestia added. “Assuming it’s not inimitable, we’re going to need some time to reverse-engineer it to make sure that you’re not any danger.”
Big Mac shrugged. “Didn’t feel like it was hurtin’ me none, and I feel fine right now. Why would ya think I’d be in danger?”
“Big Mac, your soul’s been transmuted into some kind of magic generator,” Twilight said flatly. “Not to mention that your body’s been altered to be able to adapt to as much as your soul can put out. I’m not sure if you have a limit or not, but considering that it allowed you to become twenty million times your original size, I’d consider it a non-issue.”
“What’s more pressing is the question whether you even qualify as an earth pony anymore,” Celestia said. “You’re still a living, thinking being, but your internal makeup is immensely changed. You swam in lava, shrugged off necrotic energy, endured enough kinetic force to destroy a planet, and survived out in the vacuum of space. Who knows what else you can do?”
Big Mac felt a chill. He hadn’t really thought about all of it like that. But when it all got laid out for him in such a manner, he suddenly wondered just what on earth he’d agreed to.
He cleared his throat with a cough. “Uh, well… i-if you’re lookin’ for a place to start, ya’ll might wanna have a word with Discord. He sounded like he knew a thing or two about the planet, as well as the Yigrox. He might be able to tell ya a bit on how this magic works.”
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear...
All the ponies looked. A tear in space opened to reveal a polka-dotted void, and through it stepped a brown unicorn stallion with red-on-yellow eyes. His mane was black and gray, along with a neatly-trimmed beard of the same coloration. His cutie mark was an eight-pointed star, although different from the one Big Mac had seen.
“I was beginning to wonder if you’d forgotten about little old me.” Discord smirked slyly at the group. “And here I thought we were friends.”
There was a brief stunned silence, but Twilight was the one to recover first.
“We didn’t want to bother you. You might be busy selling limited edition collector’s plates of the fight.”
Discord’s eyes lit up. “Oho! There may be hope for you yet, Sparkle! By the way, like my new look? Fluttershy suggested I dress down a bit, so I’m giving this a try. I call it, ‘Incognito Mode’.”
“Discord,” Celestia said in an even tone. “What do you know of all this?”
“Hmm, a little of this, a little of that,” he said. He produced a pair of spectacles, polishing them before putting them on. “I might be inclined to even tell you, if I could get a little bit gratitude for my unsolicited assistance, hmm?”
Celestia lowered her chin. “I’m not in the mood for your—”
“Thank you, Discord.”
Everyone looked to Luna, who continued without pause. “It’s because of you that we were able to quickly locate Mac. You also brought him back without any fuss, which would have been difficult by ourselves. You did us all a service today, so for that, you have my thanks.”
“Yeah,” Big Mac chimed in. “You told me what I needed to know to win, and ya even got me back here in one piece. Prolly would still be floatin’ out there if it weren’t for you. I owe ya one.”
There was another silence. Discord seemed just as thrown-off as the rest of them, and for once, he didn’t have a witty remark. Celestia and Twilight exchanged a shared look of reluctance, but finally with pursed lips, they muttered their thanks, as well.
Discord coughed and looked away, his cheeks a slight pink. “Well… t-that’s, um… well. I-It’s about time, is all I have to say! Yeah! Here I’ve been on my best behavior these past few years, and it’s only now that you begin to appreciate me! Yeesh, better late than never, I suppose, but really now...”
Luna chuckled. She rested a hoof on her enormously-swollen stomach and gestured for him to go on. “You said you knew something about this incident. Mayhap could you tell us?”
“As you wish, oh gravid one.” Discord horn glowed again, and the wall he’d come through vanished to portray an image of the monument Big Mac had seen in his dream.
“I’m assuming this is what you saw?” Discord asked him.
Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup. That’s the one.”
Discord sat on his haunches. “I’d guess then, that you met Araus, Goddess of Destiny and Queen of the Arachni. She went mad with power awhile back, and created the Yigrox to try and conquer other worlds. Not a bad plan, but she couldn’t control it, and it killed her along with the entire planet. I’d heard that her trial was coming up, but it must’ve been moved up if she met with you...”
Big Mac was quiet. He was recalling the dream more vividly now, and there had been a mentioning of a punishment being decided. He’d no idea what said punishment was, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“But why meet with Big Mac?” Twilight asked. “Why not meet with one of the Prin—er, one of us?”
Discord examined his hoof. “Red?”
Big Mac leaned back in his bed. “She said she thought I had potential, and that I reminded her of how she used to be. Also said this all was gonna happen too fast to get out a proper warnin’. I’ll agree with her on that.”
Luna wore a smug grin. “A mare’s intuition is never wrong.”
He smiled despite himself. “Never said it was.”
Why would the Yigox come here, though?” Twilight cut in. “What do we have in Equestria that would attract a monster like that?”
“Twilight, Twilight, Twilight,” Discord said, clucking his tongue. “You’ve been to an alternate reality before! Don’t you know anything about how the multiverse works?”
Twilight gave him a deadpan stare. ”Enlighten me, Professor Chaos.”
“Gladly!” Discord waved his hoof, and instant later he was wearing a tweed jacket and bowtie.
“Consider this information for you as well, Red,” Discord said. His horn flared to life, and a grilled cheese sandwich appeared in his yellow magic. “If you will, imagine that this top slice of bread is our reality, and the bottom slice is a different one. We coexist side by side separately, but we’re also stuck together by an adhesive of sorts. Our planet and the now-destroyed Arachni homeworld exist in the same space, along with countless other alien worlds. The only thing that separates is us is dimension gunk.”
The grilled cheese sandwich became a double-decker, then a triple-decker, more and more cheesy slices being piled on until the swaying column of gooey toast reached the ceiling.
“If you have a device, spell, ability, or whatever that can make a hole in it somehow, it’s a simple matter of simply stepping through,” Discord said. “The physical coordinates where the Yigrox tried to get through just happened to be Sweet Apple Acres, that’s all.”
Twilight was starting to see. “And I’m guessing that the Arachni dimension is metaphysically located close to ours?”
“That it is,” Discord said. “What likely happened was that the Yigrox was merely following its programming, whatever that was, and went for what it perceived to be the next-closest target... In other words, us.”
Celestia exhaled out her nose. “But the ruins suggested that the Arachni calamity happened quite a long time ago. Why would the Yigrox come here now?”
“See, that’s what I can’t figure out,” Discord said. He turned the grilled cheese tower back into a normal sandwich and took a bite. “I didn’t even think that the Arachni had interdimensional travelling capabilities! Because if they did, the Yigrox would’ve come here centuries ago when they all kicked the bucket. Something must’ve woke it up, but as to what, that’s certainly a head scratcher.”
“A worrisome head scratcher,” Luna said darkly.
There was a murmur of approval at that.
“It’s not my first choice for a brain teaser,” Discord admitted. “I’ve grown rather fond of this reality. Just picked out the curtains for my living room, and everything.”
“D’ya think it had anything to do with Araus gettin’ sent to jail?” Big Mac asked. “Maybe she knew somethin’ was gonna happen the moment they put her in, and this was her way of tryin’ to fix things?”
Discord tilted his head from side to side. “Araus always was the paranoid type. She might’ve had failsafes built into the Yigrox to protect her somehow, so… maybe it was trying to cross dimensions in an effort to get to her?”
Twilight shuddered. “If that’s true, then that means it might’ve done damage to multiple dimensions, not just ours.” She turned to Mac. “Your efforts might have just saved multiple realities.”
Big Mac blinked several times. “Ya really think so?”
Twilight smiled. “You’re definitely a hero, Big Mac. You deserve a medal.”
He looked over at Luna, who was also beaming at him. “A medal sounds nice. I don’t gotta dress up or nothin’, do I?”
Luna snickered. “I think you’re entitled to wear whatever you like.”
He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good. I hate tryin’ to find suits that fit. And that Rarity gal always fusses on how I should do somethin’ with my mane...”
Discord burst out laughing. “Red, do all of existence a favor and go into deadpan comedy. You’ll make a killing.”
Celestia stepped forward. “I recommend we hold the ceremony here at the castle, so that your farm doesn’t get further disturbed by any commotion. Oh, and speaking of which, I can put in a few words with the Canterlot Arboretum to repair the damage to your crops.”
“Big Mac bowed his head. “Thank ya kindly, Princess.”
“I would ask one thing, though,” Celestia’s tone turned serious. “Now that you have this power, what do you intend to do with it? The whole country just saw what you can do, and I fear that you’ll find it difficult returning to your old life now.”
“Ponyville’s probably crawling with journalists,” Twilight said. “And trust me, they can be persistent.”
“Not to contradict you, Twilight Sparkle, but there were already plenty of those thanks to my vists these past few months.” Luna idly traced her hoof up and down Big Mac’s leg, noting the size difference between them. The Mages Guild had cast their growth spell on her, and the result was that she was a head taller than Celestia. “I tend to stand out these days.”
“You’d stand out regardless,” Big Mac said, putting a hoof on her giant womb and rubbing it gently. “That’s what happens when you’re gorgeous.”
Luna tittered and put a wing around him. “On second thought, maybe you should stay here. We can hire some ponies to watch over the farm, and I can help you learn how to use that power of yours.”
She leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “And once that’s sorted.... we can take turns being the big spoon.”
Big Mac’s eyes widened. “You know, stayin’ here sounds like a good idea! I’m prolly gonna need help me out with all this, and ya’ll can figure out how best I can help in the future. Yep, sounds good to me.”
Celestia looked between the two of them with an unreadable expression. After a long pause, she spoke in a cautious tone. “Yes… that does sound… logical. I’m sure that that would be best. Are you certain you wish to volunteer your services so quickly, though? You’re not under any obligation to.”
“And it’s not exactly easy,” Twilight added. “Take it from somepony who’s got experience.”
“I wanna help protect my home,” Big Mac said simply. “That’s what I’ve wanted to do for years. Now that I can, I’m gonna take full advantage of it. Just tell me what to do, Princess, and I’ll do it.”
Celestia considered that. She looked to Luna and Twilight for their opinions, but neither of them offered any protest. Luna was, however, giving her a look that spoke volumes, and it was this that ultimately made up her mind.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Mac.” Celestia smiled warmly at him, happy that her sister had managed to find such a good partner. “There aren’t any issues right now that I’m aware of, but if anything comes up, I’ll certainly let you know.”
Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup. I’ll be here.”
End