Conflict has been boiling between the two Apple siblings for a while now, but when the trouble between them seems to reach it’s climax, an unexpected twist leaves them back at square one. Big Macintosh, the hardworking backbone of Sweet Apple Acres, claims he isn’t Big Mac. He denies being himself, and denies being the big brother to Applejack.
At an impasse on what to do, Ponyville’s local psychiatrist is called to help find out what happened to Big Macintosh. Can she find out what is going on with him? Whatever the truth is, the mind inside of Big Macintosh makes one thing perfectly clear. “I Am Not Big Mac.”
Content Warnings: Discussion of Death, Loss, Grief. Explicit Language.
WARNING: Spoilers in the comments.
Chapters (10)
This is really, really good. I love the idea/concept ans the writting is really good. I can't wait to learn more about both Gabriel and Big Mac.
Interesting story so far. Can’t wait for more.
An intriguing beginning to the story.
If I had a nickel for every story that featured a misplaced human soul overtaking the body of a pony with the name Gabriel, I'd have 2 nickels, cue the doofenshmirtz meme.
Joke aside, really liking what I see and ready, no, demanding for more.
I’m interested!! Also Cliff hanger!!!
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Why the heck does he want to kill himself?
So far, this sounds interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading more.
Well this is a very interesting story so far, I have seen similar premises before but this cackles the subject more directly. Normally I am REALLY no a fan of possession, as I don't like the stealing of body part and living their lives in the main cast and trying to act out the role. But this brings at least a little bit of fresh air and skips the confusion and adjustment part and the protagonist is a muscle head, not in the sense that he is all brawn, but that he is very utilitarian, and finds himself in doing manual labor and meditate in the process which is very different from other other protagonists I have seen, and admits himself to not being necessarily smart, but he have sage experience, wisdom in how to face life, and has a lot of self awareness to know himself and capacity as well enough self knowing better to restrain himself with his apparent hot temper starts to rise up in his frustrations. which adds more dimension to his personality. Normally, I don't like that there is a sharing of memories with the previous owner and all the high jinks that follow, but this fic skips it entirely that part and flat out admits that he isn't Mac and doesn't bother pretending it adding that he doesn't believe in hiding the truth to anypony showing that he is a no non-sense type of guy and did do the basic leg work in assessing his situation given with Mac's knowledge of what he knows about Equestria.
Through, I am surprize that that he didn't try to do some reading or get in a discreet conversation with Twilight to inquire on souls and possession, or needle any addiction information , he obviously isn't much of a readers, and would need some support in gathering research material or some it up for him to help. I wonder if Mac's showing his knowledge in mathematic could help in doing his own research if Mac did do some higher learning before, showing that he at least know how to do very basic science research, it might compensate on Gab's own limited short comings on that front. I am guessing the fact that he didn't take any steps to help before AJ went to ask help suggest that he had already did thought of all possible options available was available to him(both Mac's and Gab's brony knowledge) and concluded that there wasn't a quick solution he could just go to at the moment, or what internally panicking and doing all the manual work that he did was just a way to cope with the impossible situation that what completely out of his depth for the both of them.
I wonder at what period is he inhabiting Mac's body, he probably knows from Mac's, and if he already have Sugarbell as a mare friend or now which adds to a tragedy. I wonder how much he was a brony he was before to know and how it contributed in the sort of of person he is now, which adds to the tragedy of the situation.
Looking forward in seeing more of this.
Ohhhh that's good.
Glory unto... Huh, idk who to give glory to.
I know
Glory unto the Earth, may she ever give us fruit.
Terrae gloriam, nobis semper donet fructum.
Hey, I remember a story I wrote like this a few years ago! I hope this story does similarly well!
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Are you allowed to plug other people’s work in the comments of your own fanfic? Oh well.
If you’re reading the comments, check out Boopy’s work. Lots of great reads to be found in a Boopy Doopy fic, and thank you Boopy.
Interesting story. His parents died when he was ten. That's one connection between himself and Big Mac. He has/had a sister who is doesn't want to talk about. Possibly emotional pain from an injury he caused. He insists he doesn't want to hurt anyone (excuse me, any pony) and is himself fearful of causing harm, He believes he must act out the role of Big Mac to prevent this. He has a deep sense of responsibility to others that over-rides his own needs. The chief need being to get out of Big Mac's body anyway possible (except through somehow destroying Big Mac.) If he is in possession of Big Mac's body, then the most likely reason is he's a disembodied spirit who went to sleep while at work is he had a possible fatal accident and crossed over to another world. If his accident was more along the line of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court then he still might return to his own body. My recommendation, call in Princess Luna and have her take a deep dive into his dreams. If Mac is still in there with Gabriel, she might be able to cross communicate with both of them, figure out the particulars, and hopefully sort out the dominant personality (Big Mac) and help send Gabriel packing as per his wish, or if he isn't dead help him slip back across the void to his own world and body.
I quite like how this sets itself apart from some of the other possession stories I've encountered.
COOL
Drat, so he can't ask Luna for help...
The memory is blending in. A couple more weeks and it will be hard to separate the little things. A month more, and the big shards of memory will merge. It'll be a cross between Mac and Gabriel, like coffee mixed with milk. He doesn't have much time. Unless, of course, it's a woken memory of a past life.
It's only two chapters, but I'm gonna put a theory out here about the answer to the mystery:
Gabriel died in the human world, and he's involuntarily taken over Big Mac's body, making him a sort of "living ghost", which is giving him an opportunity to "resolve his unfinished business" so that he can move on to the next plane of existence.
Just a theory, and could be invalidated by the next chapter for all I know.
Also, cool idea having this take place before the show.
His time has Gabriel seems limiting due to mixed memories. I wonder how long until Nightmare moon occurs or Luna recovered enough after to help Big Mac? There could be a few years/months so looks like he is stuck here for the time being. …..Unless he somehow gets an audience with the Celestia, there is day court…. Depends how much he knows about the show/Equestria girls……
Great chapter!!!
She probably doesn't even realise that book is probably Gabriel's only hope at the moment
Things ate getting better, good
Okay so Gab isn't a brony, this takes place before the pilot, and he doesn't know what's going to happen in the future, which blows my idea that the he tells the entire G4 series to Dream and haunt her with the vision of the future when NMM comes in and that the next librarian is going to be Celestia's personal student Twilight Sparkle herself and that she is going to becomes an alicorn, have a crystal treehouse castle in the middle of Ponyville and that she would ascend to Equestria in Celestia's place. And that his sister is going to be heroin, and he is going to fall in love with a former cult follower, and have a colt together, and is going to play O&O with a dragon and a Draconequs in his weekends. I think she would start drinking at that point.
I wonder where this story could go next , with the issues between Gab and AJ partially resolved now. And apparently for just a moment there was a bleed through between Gab's and Mac's memory and identity, so either Gab memories are already starting fading away or that they are both merging with in either case would be very scary as much as for Gab. It would be nice if Gab could get his own body at some point but I don't think this setting would easily allow this. Or, that they finally find something that could connect to Who Gab arrived in this world in the first place.
Theory.
Gabriel died.
He was reborn as Big Mac, something happened which resulted in his original/previous personality come to the fore.
But only a theory
I legit fall into a sleep midway though this story....
Bigmac talk about being human, said human struggled to maintaine his identity and bigmac's social circle.
Very good concept, It just felt like everything lack energy
Very nice chapter, thanks. I suspected it takes place before FIM because of complete lack of references to Twilight as possible magical soul expert, good to see it confirmed. Dude is really on his own for now as far as magic solutions go.
Really interesting what actually happened to Big Mac, because from the first chapter it sounds like after his argument with AJ he did something bad to himself. Can you even kill yourself mentally?
And congrats on your second work blowing up, I'd say it is really the result of the good quality of your writing.
It wasn't clear until now that this story predates the Mane Six adventures and the arrival of Twilight. Is it possible that the Big Mac we witnessed in MLPFIM was a hybrid personality that had adapted to life in Ponyville before the main series started? That makes your story sound even more interesting, IF TRUE.
I like the story so far, but you should be careful about keeping your perspective consistent.
Assuming all the bolded pronouns are referring to Gabriel, you switched from first person perspective to third mid paragraph which makes it disorienting and brings you out of the story. If you want to switch perspectives then you should generally make it more clear that that's what's happening and that some other person isn't suddenly being referred to.
When I first read it, I thought you were saying that Big Mac had told Applejack the truth, not Gabriel telling her. This confused her when she read it because she knew the story was about a stranger being stuck in Big Mac's body.
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actually now I do wonder if it was intentional since that kind of perspective confusion would be a good way to show Gabriel's own confusion with his mind and Mac's mixed together when done right.
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While a cool idea, that was actually just me mixing up the perspective. It was really a good idea to write a story that constantly swaps from first and third perspective. Definitely not confusing on the brain sometimes.
Thanks for pointing it out. I’ll try and make sure proper hints don’t look so grammatically incorrect.
Interesting, I think I'll follow along
Good chapter!
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Kinda disappointed I had the same idea as Pilot light.
More good
Man I don't know where the hell you came from but you've been knocking it out of the park with these stories. All of them have been pretty solid so far.
I also like Trust Once Lost by Greenhorn. I think you have a solid concept here. Keep going.
Nothing like hating math to bury the hatchet
Darn! Was hoping his name was Gerald! 😇
Sombra might want a word with him. 😏
Curious, if he's familiar with Macs memories, are we in a time where Twilight isn't around?
Got a tough question for you “Mac”. Since We are a collection of memories. Is there any chance you think your Gabriel because those are either the most numerous or most recent?
Wonder if this chain of events is why Lyra is going to be so obsessed with humans…
Ah, so we're pre episode 1. That's unfortunate, but needful.
Interesting that Dream might know a bit about dream walking. A pleasant surprise her name isn't just for show.
Ah, to be young again such that the idea of replacing people in a relationship is a foregone result of interaction.
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In an accident at work, yes. Problem is we haven't received the in-between experience, hence Gabriel's confusion and indecisiveness on whether Mac is still alive somehow.
Really interested in the last night before incursion, what was actually said.
To be honest, I don't quite understand what all the fuss is about. It's not a bad fanfic, but not that good. Especially considering that nothing interesting has happened yet. I think that's the merit of Big Mac mainly in this.
More good
Don't give up!
Is the MC being Gabriel and having a psychologist character a MLP fanfic theme? I've seen this pattern in other stories, and was just wondering if this is a normal thing, like having anonymous be a green pony...
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This has actually appeared a lot and I don’t know where from. Any relation to other stories like that is pure coincidence on my part, and I wasn’t trying to take from or correlate my story with other similar writings. What story or stories do you know of with that similar name/theme?
interesting chapter I wonder what will happen at NMM's arrival?
I like the character development here.
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oh boy, does this take place before season 1?