Magical Filly Macintosh

by Spider-Mane Noir

Chapter 3

"I can see by your expression that you still have questions,"

Big Mac nodded.

"Eeyup," (it sounded weird with this higher pitched voice).

"Very well," sighed Ardent Fire, " I should probably start from the beginning anyway. Tell me, do you know anything about alchemy?"

"Um, a little?" Big Mac scratched her head, trying to recall the information, "Ah know ponies use it to try and turn lead inta gold, 'cept without magic."

"Sort of," replied Ardent, "it combines aspects of magic and science to convert one type of matter to another. And yes, turning lead into gold is one thing you can do assuming you know the formula. But gold isn't the true prize. No, the ultimate goal of any alchemist is Life."

"D'ya mean like a golem? Ah know Twilight can make those."

"No, no, golems aren't truly alive. They move around and obey orders, but that's just due to the magic being channeled through them. There's no actual mind or soul in them. What I'm talking about is taking something entirely unliving and making it completely living, independent of an outside source."

"Is that what those-the Shades are?"

"Yes. Not long after Celestia and Luna began their reign somepony figured out the secret. Nopony is sure who exactly, but they did leave behind some notes..."

Suddenly Big Mac's vision was filled with the sight of an unfamiliar room. To one side was a desk with a somewhat tattered notebook.

"Wh-What's goin' on?"

"I'm sharing a memory with you. Trust me, this will be faster than saying it all out loud."

The vision moved closer to the desk and opened the notebook.

---

"Day one: experimentation begun. Goal: to create a functional, living being

Day two: have attempted to combine... (unintelligible)... using energy from crystals. was unsuccessful"

So it continued for some time, with some text unreadable, growing more and more frustrated until finally:

"Day 498: I have discovered that... (unintelligible)… with shadow magic produces a promising reaction. will require magical barriers. must keep it alive

..........

Day 507: I'VE DONE IT! ITS ALIVE! IN THE NAME OF FAUST, NOW I KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE FAUST!"

Soon enough however it was followed by:

"Day 520: It cannot be controlled. It has attempted escape again today and nearly succeeded. My assistant is dead. I must destroy it. can't destroy it. barriers too strong

Day 521: there are two of them. they are self-replicating. not sure how much longer they will stay contained"

On the final page was written a single sentence in the center of the page:

"To whoever finds this: forgive me."

---

Big Mac had to take a moment to breath as the vision faded.

"So what happened?"

"Well," said Ardent, "as you might imagine, word of monsters that were immune to magic and physical attacks spread pretty quickly. Celestia and Luna gathered a counsel of Equestria's finest minds to find a way to combat them. Eventually they created an entirely new form of magic: The Undying Light.

The trouble was, in order to get around the Shades' defenses, the spell had to be incredibly specific. So specific that not only could it only be used by a single pony, it could only be used by a specific type of pony: a young mare."

"So that's why Ah'm like this?"

"Yeeesss… I think," for the first time since she'd begun speaking, Ardent didn't seemed so sure of herself, "Like I said, the power was never meant to be wielded by a stallion. When I first showed up at your farm I was hoping to find Applejack. As near as I can tell it compensated by changing you into a form that it was compatible with."

"Am Ah Stuck like this then?!"

"I don't know."

"How can ya not know? Ah thought ya were some kinda ancient magic guardian! But Ah ask fer help and all ya can say 'Ah Dunno'?" Big Mac emphasized the point with an exaggerated shrug.

"Like I said," continued Ardent, rolling her eyes, "This has never happened before and it was never supposed to happen. I'm just as much in the dark as you. Ideally the previous wielder would've trained a replacement before passing the power to her."

"Could Ah do that? Pass it on Ah mean?"

"Unfortunately no. At least, not now. Even if these were normal circumstances, the power is still unstable after the transfer. You'd be just as likely to kill whoever you tried to give it to."

“Ah see…”

“Look, there may be a way for you to change back,” Big Mac’s ears perked up, “At least for a while.”

Big Mac’s ears lowered.

“Well that’s better than nuthin’ Ah guess.” She said, somewhat disappointed but also glad for a fix of any sort.

“Do you still remember the words I taught you earlier?”

“Eyup.”

“Right now you’re in your ‘Powered’ form. Repeating the spell should revert you to your natural form for now.”

“Right,” Eyes closed, Big Mac recalled the words from before,

“By the Power of the Moon.

By the Strength of the Sun.

I vow to defend all life,

From the shadow of evil,

And the monsters that hide in the dark.”

As the last word was uttered, Big Mac felt a bizarre tingling sensation followed by nausea. It wasn’t nearly as bad as before but still, not exactly pleasant.

When the feeling passed, Big Macintosh found himself back to his normal stallion self. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ah never thought Ah’d be this happy to see mah own hooves,” he thought, holding said appendages before his eyes.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” a voice from below remarked. Big Mac turned his head to see Ardent Fire, seeming much smaller now that he was back to his normal size, “Until you master it, you’re going to transform any time a Shade comes to town”

Too relieved to be upset at the moment, Big Mac instead asked a question that had been ruminating in the back of his head.

"Yah said the Princesses helped make this spell right? And these monsters used ta be everywhere right? How come this is the first Ah've heard of em?"

"That's because everypony except the original wielder had their memory wiped."

"?"

"The Shades will attack anything in their path," explained Ardent, "But for some reason they seem to specifically target anypony who knows about them. Even if somepony's never seen a Shade, as long as they know what one is, they will be hunted. In order to minimize casualties Starswirl the Bearded built a memory spell into the Undying Light. That little trick you did after killing the Shade? It didn't just fix the town, it made everypony in range forget that anything had happened at all."

" So Ah can't tell mah family about this?"

"If you value their lives, you won't tell anypony."

Author's Note:

And now the chapter where I justify the premise!
Please let me know what you think of this one. I may go back and change some things at a later point.

As always, let me know if you liked it. Let me know if you didn't like it. Let me know any way I can improve.