//------------------------------// // Sonata and Bulk Biceps // Story: No Longer Living In A Van Down By The River // by Peni Parker //------------------------------// Sonata Dusk happily walked through the hallways of Canterlot High School, waving and wishing many of the students a good morning as she made her way towards her office. Sonata loved her new job as a motivational speaker at CHS, and not just because it got her and her sisters out of that van down by the river. No, Sonata loved just about everything that came with the being a motivational speaker; meeting and befriending students, helping them with their problems, and, of course, the Taco Tuesdays in the school cafeteria. “Morning, Sonata.” Scribble Dee greeted her with a friendly wave as the pony-tailed Dazzling turned a corner. “Morning, Scribble,” Sonata cheerfully greeted back. “Any news about that manga contest you entered?” “Nothing yet.” Scribble replied as lowered and turned her head to the side, a hint of melancholy in her voice. Sonata could feel Scribble’s anxiety and placed a hand on the artist’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll hear something soon and I’m sure it’ll be good news. And even if it isn’t, you’re still the most talented illustrator I know.” She reassured the orange haired girl. Scribble brought her head back up as a smile once again crossed her face. “Thanks, Sonata,” she gratefully said. “And thanks again for helping me find the courage to send my story in.” “That’s what I’m here for.” Sonata said as she pulled her hand back and continued down the hall. “Have a good day, Scribble. Let me know when you hear something.” “Will do.” Scribble called out to her. As the pony-tailed Dazzling progressed down the hall and got within sight of her office, she noticed a rather large and muscular guy standing in front of her door. Is he a student? Sonata wondered, not sure if someone of the guy’s stature was actually in high school. “Um, can I help you?” she asked once she got to the door. “Uh, you’re one of the motivational speakers Principal Celestia hired, right?” The guys asked, somewhat nervously. “Sure am. I’m Sonata Dusk, and you are?” Sonata replied in an upbeat manner, extending her arm for a handshake. “I’m Bulk, Bulk Biceps.” The guy answered as he shook Sonata’s hand, a bit more strongly than he intended to. “Oh wow, that’s some grip you’ve got there.” Sonata commented, trying to sound as nice as possible while subtly indicating she was in pain. Bulk immediately broke the handshake upon realizing that he was squeezing Sonata’s hand too hard. “S-sorry about that.” He apologized as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Sonata shook her hand in an effort to make the pain dissipate, but stopped when she saw the look of regret on Bulk’s face. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” she assured him. “So what brings you to my office, Bulk?” “Uh, well, I need some motivation.” Bulk said. Sonata had already figured that was the case. What she needed were details. “Well why don’t we step inside and you can tell me what it is you need motivation for.” She merrily suggested as she unlocked the door to her office. “Okay.” Bulk impassively agreed as he followed Sonata inside. Once they were both inside, Sonata took her seat behind her desk and Bulk took a seat in front of the desk. “So, why do you need motivating, Bulk?” Sonata sked. “Uh, well, there’s this weight lifting competition coming up and I’m having trouble getting ready for it.” Bulk explained. The explanation left Sonata a tad confused. Bulk was easily the strongest, most muscular person she’d ever seen, why in the world would he be having trouble getting ready for a weight lifting competition? “I think you’re more than ready for it right now, Bulk.” She assured him. “You’re already super big and super strong, I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Bulk looked down at the floor, as though he were embarrassed. “Well, the thing is, the reason I’m having trouble getting ready for it is because I’m a little intimidated by some of the other contestants.” He clarified. This explanation made more sense to Sonata. “Here, let me show you.” Bulk continued as he pulled out his cell phone and started perusing it. As Bulk looked through his phone, Sonata couldn’t help but be curious. What could these contestants be like if they intimidated someone like Bulk. “This guy here, they call him ‘The Mountain’.” Bulk said as he handed Sonata his phone. Sonata took the phone and looked at a picture of “The Mountain”. He looked like he was about seven feet tall and weighed about 400lbs, and had the largest muscles Sonata had ever seen. It was easy to see now why Bulk was intimidated. “Oh, he doesn’t look so strong.” Sonata fibbed as she handed the phone back to Bulk. “Well, he is.” Bulk dejectedly commented as he put his phone back into his pocket. “The competition is only two weeks away, and frankly, I’m considering dropping out. I don’t stand a chance.” “No, I can’t let quit, Bulk!” Sonata shouted as she stood up from her seat, closed her right hand into a fist, and slammed that fist onto the desk. “You came to me for motivation, and as Celestia is my witness I’m going to motivate you into a lean, mean, lifting machine! When I’m through motivating you you’ll be able to bench press actual benches and move mountains!” Sonata’s sudden enthusiasm slightly frightened Bulk. While he was happy that she was so willing to help him, he was a little concerned by the fact that she was starting to sound like a gunnery sergeant. “Um, okay.” He timidly replied. “How are you gonna do that?” Sonata sat back down, pulled a piece of paper out of her desk, and quickly wrote down an address on it. “Meet me here after school,” She instructed Bulk as she handed him the piece of paper. “My sister, Aria, goes to this place when she needs to let off some steam, she says it’s got a lot of great exercise equipment.” Bulk didn’t recognize the address on the paper, but figured it had to be for some kind of gym. “Uh, I don’t know about this, Sonata.” Bulk hesitantly expressed. “Look, Bulk, I know that you’re feeling a bit daunted by all this,” Sonata soothingly stated. “But this is just another challenge on the long road of life that you need to rise to, and I’m going to help you do that.” A small smile crossed Bulk’s face as he listened to Sonata’s words. “But I can only help you if you let me.” Sonata continued. “Are you going to let me help you?” “Um, yeah?” Bulk ambivalently replied. “Are you asking me or telling me?” Sonata countered. “Um, yeah.” Bulk responded, sounding more confident in his answer. “I don’t believe you.” Sonata retorted. “Are you going to let me help you?!” “YEAH!” Bulk shouted as he energetically stood up from his seat and threw both his arms straight up into the arm. “Good!” Sonata exclaimed as she too stood up, but pointed to the door instead throwing both her arms straight up into the arm. “Now go to class and meet me after school for training!” “YEEEEAAAHHH!” Bulk continued to shout as he exited Sonata office. After Bulk left, Sonata sat back down and gave a small sigh, feeling marginally enervated from trying to get Bulk onboard with letting her help him. “I like him.” She commented. After school, Bulk Biceps headed off to the address that Sonata had given him. He was still a bit unsure about whether the former siren could actually help him or not, but he figured he had nothing to lose by letting her at least try. After all, she did get him so pumped up that he left her office screaming ‘YEEEEAAAHHH’. Once Bulk got the address, he noticed it was for a place called Wolfcastle Gym. While he had been correct in assuming the address was for a gym, he was surprised that he’d never heard of this particular gym before. “Oh, good, you found it.” Bulk heard a bubbly voice say, turning to his right to see Sonata standing right next to him. “Gah!” He winced, having been startled by the girl’s sudden appearance. “Oops, sorry if I spooked you.” Sonata apologized. “The same thing happens to my sisters all the time. They say I don’t have much of a presence so I tend to inadvertently sneak up on them.” Bulk found it difficult to believe that anyone would tell Sonata she didn’t have much of a presence, what with her vivacious personality and all. “Uh, no, it’s fine.” Bulk insisted. “I just get startled easily is all.” Sonata gave a small giggle as she took Bulk’s hand. “Come on, let’s go in and get started.” She said as she headed inside, pulling Bulk behind her. Once inside, Bulk couldn’t help but gawk at the facility. There were so many different kinds of exercise equipment and it all looked brand new. It was the most impressive gym he’d ever seen. “Whoa.” He softly said aloud. “I know, pretty neat, huh?” Sonata commented. “And don’t worry about not being a member. My sister lent me her membership card and each member is allowed one guest per visit.” Sonata went over to the front desk and checked them in as Bulk continued to gawk. The sight of all the top-notch equipment that, up until now, he’d only seen in magazines filled him vigor. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that he was going to get in the best shape of his life with Sonata’s help. “Come on, Bulk,” Sonata called over to him as she pointed to some machines. “Let’s start over there.” Bulk followed Sonata over to the machines she pointed to, which as he got closer he noticed were all labeled ‘AbDominator’. “Uh, Sonata, these are weight lifting machines.” he pointed out. “Oh, I know,” Sonata said. “But we have to get you warmed up first. At least, that’s what the internet said to do first.” The vigor that Bulk had found just moments ago started to dissipate. It was now clear to him that Sonata had never done anything like this before, and that she’d got all her information about workouts from the internet, not really understanding it all. “Um, yeah, we can warm-up here.” Bulk conceded. While he knew beginning a workout on an ab machine wasn’t really ‘warming-up’, he didn’t want to make Sonata feel like she was doing a bad job. “Perfect!” Sonata exclaimed as she clapped her hands in a giddy fashion. “So just get on this thing and I’ll shout some motivational slogans at you.” Bulk did as instructed and got up on the AbDominator and started his workout. “COME ON, PUSH! HARDER!” Sonata began to shout. “REACH FOR THE TOP! MASTER YOUR ASS!” “W-what?” Bulk asked as he stopped, confused by some of Sonata’s motivational slogans. “What?” Sonata replied, confused as to why Bulk had stopped. “These are all things the internet said to say when motivating someone during a workout.” Where on the internet did she find all this? Bulk silently wondered. “NOW COME ON, KEEP GOING!” Sonata resumed shouting. Bulk nervously resumed his workout at Sonata’s continued shouting. “PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT! WORK THOSE GLUTS! NO PAIN, NO GAIN!” Sonata continued. As Sonata kept shouting seemingly random slogans at him, Bulk lost count of how many ab crunches he’d done. The only thing he knew for certain was that he was well past simply warming up. He considered stopping, but didn’t want Sonata to start berating him with her yelling. “Feeling warmed up yet?” Sonata eventually asked. “Y-yeah.” Bulk replied through labored breaths as he stopped crunching. “Good, then let’s move on to the weights.” Sonata said as she moved over to the weight lifting area. Bulk slowly got off the AbDominator and followed Sonata. He really didn’t feel like working out anymore today, but he knew that trying to stop before Sonata said so was an effort in futility. Beneath that sweet face was a well-meaning but nefarious motivation monster. “Now, just sit down here and I’ll get your weights all set up.” Sonata told Bulk as she patted a weight bench. Against his better judgement, Bulk laid down on the bench as Sonata started putting weights on the bar. He tried to see just how many weights she was putting on but couldn’t through the sweat in his eyes. “Okay, that should do it.” Sonata remarked as she over behind the bench. “Whenever you’re ready, Bulk!” Bulk just nodded as he grabbed the bar and lifted it up, feeling a sense of dread as he did so. Once he had the bar off the holder he could tell just many weights Sonata had put on; too many. He was barely able to keep the bar help above his head, let alone start lifting it up and down. “S-Sonata,” Bulk tried to say. “I-I think this is t-too much weight.” “MORE SWEATING, LESS BITCHING!” Sonata shouted. “NOW LIFT! LIFT!” Bulk managed to get the bar lowered fairly easily, but had a much harder time bringing it back up. “THAT’S IT, SHOW NO MERCY! TAKE NO PRISONERS! ATTICA, ATTICA!” Bulk didn’t have the strength to question Sonata’s slogans anymore, he was too focused on making sure he didn’t lose his grip on the bar because of all the sweat on his hands. “JUST A FEW MORE, BULK, YOU CAN DO IT!” Sonata encouraged him. At ten reps already done with too much weight, Bulk didn’t feel he had it in him for anymore. However, he did have to complete at least one more since the bar was just barely above his chest and he needed to put it back on the holder. He gave a few deep and labored breaths before trying to lift the bar up one more time. Slowly but surely, the bar lifted as Bulk prepared to place the bar back in the holder. He was only about two inches away from the holder when it happened. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Bulk screamed as the bar came crashing down on his chest. “OH MY GOD, BULK!” Sonata shouted in horror. Sonata was standing outside the gym in a panicked state. She had tried and, unsurprisingly, failed to get the weight bar off of Bulk after it had come down on his chest. A number of gym employees were able to get it off of him about 20 seconds later and had called an ambulance. Sonata wanted to stay with Bulk but was told to wait outside for the ambulance. It had now been about six minutes since the incident occurred. Eventually the ambulance arrived and Sonata pointed the paramedics inside. She didn’t follow them in though, knowing that she’d just be in their way. So she continued to wait outside for Bulk to come out. It seemed like no time at all when Bulk did come out, laid out on a gurney with an oxygen mask on his face. “Oh my god, Bulk, are you alright?” Sonata frantically asked, but received no answer from Bulk. “He can’t hear you, ma’am.” One of the paramedics informed her as Bulk was wheeled into the ambulance. “We had to sedate him to stop the screaming.” Once Bulk and the paramedics were in the ambulance, its doors closed and it rushed off to the hospital. Sonata just stood on the sidewalk in front of the gym as she watched the ambulance zoom off. As she stood there, she contemplated how this had happened and if, perhaps, she’d gotten just a little too carried away with her motivating. “Oh phooey.” She solemnly dejected.