The Adventures of Princess Malum

It's been a few weeks since Big Mac's debut fight with Trixie the Ursa Major, as he was slowly walking down the streets of Ponyville in awe as he was trotting through the streets with a cart of apples strapped to his back. He couldn't help but look around, seeing the praise of Princess Malum was growing all around him. He enjoyed the glory that he was getting sure. Still, there was so much pressure on him to keep Ponyville from being destroyed. Already he's faced a giant squid monster, a centaur named Tirek, a Headless Horse, and even an old mare looking for a rusty horseshoe. That was including the dozens of carriage crashes he's prevented, the dozens of cats he saved from trees, and blasting a few asteroids into space.

The stallion was utterly exhausted and drained, with bags under his eyes and his mane a mess. But as he continued his trot, he looked around to see a crowd of ponies seeing newspapers with his name "Princess Malum" printed on them. Foals were running, cheering, carrying dolls and action figures of his alicorn form. The stallion looked downward with a pink blush growing on his face; he was somewhat embarrassed about his situation. Big Mac continued his walk down the road as he looked over to see the farm mare at a stand selling apples. The stallion waved a hoof over his head and shouted, "Hey, Applejack!"

"Hey, Big Mac," Applejack yawned as they went about their business; the farm mare started to talk. "So I need to ask? Where in the hay are you going every night!?"

The stallion gulped, looking at all the merchandise and praise his alter ego was receiving. Seeing how popular she was becoming, he couldn't risk all this unnecessary attention on his family, so he lied, "I am seeing Twilight more…."

Applejack eyed her brother and said, "Right, I asked Twilight many times about what's going with you two; she keeps dodging my questions and gets all flustered. I know you and Twilight both are rather close, but I feel like you two are hiding something from me."

Big Mac slammed a hoof to his face and groaned under his breath, seeing that all of these lies would eventually fall through, and she would learn the truth. But for now, he remained adamant about remaining silent as they sorted the apples, took a good chunk out of the dried apples, and tossed them aside.

"I think the fruit bats are back," Applejack growled under her breath.

"Yeah…" Big Mac grumbled as he had been fighting an army of bat ponies who were attacking the strawberry fields and other ponies' fruit stands. He was still investigating who their leader was. Still, for now, he was simply trying to mitigate the damage they were causing. After a few hours of selling apples, he saw the sun was now going down and squeaked, "Hey, I gotta get going and get ready for the gala!"

"Right, well, go on! Don't want to be late!" Applejack snickered as she slapped his rump with a hoof. The stallion rolled his eyes and ran down the road as fast as possible.

He then clasped the purple amethyst to his chest and suddenly transformed into his alicorn form. The princess alicorn then spread out her wings and with a burst of speed lifted off and soared off through the skies.

After a few minutes of peaceful flight as he continued flying through the air, he heard somepony shout at him from below.

"Princess Malum, I need your help!"

The alicorn mare groaned, wondering what it could be this time as she looked down and was somewhat surprised to see Mayor Mare waving a hoof at her. She then looked down and saw that the mayor was hosting some kind of rally with a group of ponies to be all around, looking like a fan convention wearing t-shirts with her picture on them, some wearing even full-body costumes of her. Princess Malum then landed right next to Mayor Mare and looked over the crowd with a confused look and then shouted, "what is going on here!?"

"Oh, nothing more than were here to thank you for saving Ponyville!" Mayor Mare cried out.

The crowd all cheered as Princess Malum slammed a hoof into her face. "I thought this was an emergency!"

"Yes, it is an emergency! We should've celebrated your victory over Trixie weeks ago! I declare that we host a national holiday for the hero Princess Malum!" the mayor exclaimed. Everypony started cheering once again and continuing to chant, "Princess Malum!" once again. Princess Malum placed a hoof over her face being rather bashful and waited patiently for the chanting to die down. The alicorn cleared her throat and said, "again, Fluttershy helped me take down Trixie, and she deserves as much praise as me."

"See, how humble Princess Malum is! Why don't we give her a round of applause!" Mayor Mare exclaimed as she clapped her hooves as dozens of ponies began clopping their hooves and chanting her name again.

The alicorn princess grumbled under her breath, seeing nopony was listening to her and she was wasting time. However, she loved all the attention she was getting as Big Mac; he was always just a nobody that could go through life without anypony noticing anything he did. He was not used to everypony throwing so much attention his way, and it was hard not to let all of this praise go to his head. The former stallion was wrapping up signing "Princess Malum" on dozens of T-shirts and other merchandise. Princess Malum got caught up writing down her name on everything when she looked up at the sun and then the realization that she was going to be late for the gala. She then suddenly squeaked, "ok! I gotta get going, or I'm going to be late!" Without warning, she burst into the air and headed straight to Golden Oaks library as fast as possible.

It wasn't long until the princess landed near Golden Oaks Library, the stallion felt a chill crawl up his spine. The princess alicorn then slowly trotted inside the library, where he saw Twilight standing before her. The unicorn's horn lit up, and the alicorn blinked as he tried to move; it wasn't like anything he's felt before, with each movement feeling stiff and awkward. He tried flapping his wings, and they were there, but it felt like two giant pieces of cardboard as they moved up and down rather stiffly and seemed to not respond to him.

"Muahahaha! You lost Big Mac, for I Smarty Pants have taken over Twilight's body!"

Big Mac was somewhat confused; he slowly turned his head and looked right at a mirror, seeing that his body had this plasticity shine with her regal fitting loosely on her body. Big Mac walked around the table, getting used to how new plastic, stiff body, then he looked over at the purple unicorn and chuckled. "So you think you defeated me, really?"

"Yes, your soul is now in a plastic doll; what can you do now but submit your true body to Nightmare Moon!"

"Sorry to disappoint, but that's not happening today!" the alicorn princess exclaimed. She flew across the room, ramming her horn into Twilight. Soon, the two were duking it shooting blasts of magic at each other. Meanwhile, the action figure, Big Mac, jumped off the table and headed up the library's stairs in search of the toy that held Twilight's soul in. He eventually made his way up to Twilight's bedroom, where he saw that an old-looking ragdoll was slumped in the mare's bed. He was hoping that maybe Twilight's real soul was residing within. Big Mac then slowly made his way through the room and climbed through the bedsheets, and as he moved over to the mare, and asked, "hey Twilight is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," Twilight grumbled, "I'm assuming Smarty Pants is another one of Nightmare Moon's minions was trying to hold me hostage, again!"

Big Mac gulped as he said, "Hey, it's better than being held by a squid monster."

"Don't remind me! I'm not one to complain about my looks, but it took a week to get that fish smell out of my coat!"

"Ey'yup! that was hilarious!" Big Mac chuckled, remembering how agiant squid covered Twilight's library in its mucus. They stood there in silence with the sounds of magical blasts and feeling the library shake. Twilight turned her head then commented, "you don't seem to be fazed about any of this?"

"Ey'nope!"

"guess you're getting used to the superhero life, huh?"

"Ey'yup!" Big Mac responded rather angrily despite being in an action figure. He was used to the absurdity of these frequently tough fights. However, he didn't know how Twilight could be feeling, seeing this wasn't the first time she was caught in the crossfire and said, "Also, don't worry about staying like that; my alicorn body will be getting us back to normal soon."

Twilight, however, was somewhat confused as she asked in a questioning tone, "Is the spirit Apple Ale taking control over your body!?"

"Ey'yup!" The stallion responded relatively comfortably as he used his plastic wings to help him grab onto the sheets; he then made his way over the ragdoll.

"Sorry that you got transformed into an action figure," Twilight replied apologetically.

"It's fine; Apple Ale got this one."

Twilight couldn't express emotion on her plush face, but she said, "I'm abit concerned about this Apple Ale? Can you trust her to put your soul back into your body? What if she just leaves you in that action figure!?"

Big Mac tapped a hoof to his chin as the idea never seemed to cross his mind. But seeing they've been through alot together and he was starting to see her as a sister and she as her brother. He shook his head then said, "No, she wouldn't do that. I trust her."

"If you say so," Twilight said as she looked out the window seeing the sun slowly setting and added, "we're going to be late to the gala if this keeps up."

"We got time," Big Mac replied, seemingly rather nonchalant about all of this. In fact, he was kind of feeling relaxed, seeing he wasn't the one going through the fight this time.

Twilight gave a sigh seeing that they were alone she asked, "So I have to ask how are you doing? It's been a minute since your last magic lesson, and I have to keep lying to Applejack that we're…um…dating to keep her from knowing what you're really doing."

Big Mac laid there for some time thinking things over before he said, "I know, and I'm sorry, but I can't risk Nightmare Moon knowing the truth."

"Yes, but she probably knows already? At this point, you're making excuses the longer you keep it a secret the harder it will be on both of you," Twilight explained.

"I know, I'll tell her soon," Big Mac grumbled under his breath, seeing she had a point that maybe it's about time Applejack and maybe everypony knew the truth. But he still felt they will become targets the second the truth was revealed. However, Princess Malum then came trotting up the stairs looking somewhat exhausted. She gently plopped Twilight's body onto the bed and said, "sorry, you two, this took longer than I expected."

"Right, um? Princess Malum?" Twilight responded rather sheepishly.

"Well, it's Apple Ale, but it's fine," the alicorn princess chirped as she lit her horn. Big Mac was back into his body in a blink of an eye and flapped his wings a few times just to make sure he was indeed in a flesh and blood body. Meanwhile, Twilight was looking over herself, seeming to make sure everything was in order. But then the tiny action figure on the bed looked over its new body and cried, "what did you do to me!"

"Well, you wanted my body; now you have it!" Princess Malum snickered as she fit the squirming plastic toy into the box nearby and tied her down with little plastic ties. As the alicorn mare closed up the box, the last words the doll cried was, "you can't defeat me! I'm Smarty Pants! I-"

She then fit the boxed action figure into a closet and closed it up while wiping her hooves.

"Wait, can't Smarty Pants still steal souls!?"

"Don't worry, I put a sealing spell on the box," Princess Malum explained; she then looked over the window and, seeing that the sun was gone and the moon was now rising, she took Twilight's hoof. "Now we gotta go get dressed for the gala!"

"Right! We need to get going right now! oh, we're definitely going to be late!" Twilight exclaimed as she followed after Princess Malum and the two set off towards Carousel Boutique to get ready for the gala.