Big Mac's Biceps, Now in Bulk
Chapter 2
It was dark. Light enough to see but too dark to see anything in color. Before him were some sort of bipedal winged creatures with such a disparity between the length of the hind and fore limbs that there was no way the creatures would ever tend to walk with all four limbs. Two spiral horns jutted from each creature’s head, and massive fangs seemed to mangle the flesh on their mouths. He couldn’t understand the words they spoke, yet he knew exactly what they were saying.
“El Omniciente nos desterró por darnos cuenta de Su tiranía y por this we will drag down his precious creations by tainting them, making them turn to evil, the wrong, the unnatural, like him!” The speaker turns and points a claw at him, staring directly into his eyes, staring directly into his soul.
Big Macintosh awoke with a start, a cold sweat dampening his coat. He was breathing heavily, his heart rate frantic. It was only a dream, he realizes. “What’s the matter Big Mac?” said the friendly stallion warm against his side.
“I had a nightmare.” Big Mac confesses to Caramel.
“Oh?”
“It was nothing.” He lies.
“Come on Big Mac, we’re best friends. I know you were disappointed when you found out I wasn’t into stallions, but I didn’t let that get in the way of our friendship and I never will. I mean hay, I’m a straight stallion and I’m letting a colt-cuddler sleep right up against me, that’s gotta say something” Caramel teases.
Big Mac smiles, calming down a little. Mel always seemed to be able to calm him down whenever he was too worked up. “Eeyup, you’re right.” He pauses to catch his breath, Caramel looking at him expectantly. “Remember what I told you about when I came out to my pa?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I dreamt about the place he told me about… The place he told me I was going. It was awful, everything hurt, and there were these monsters. One of them was addressing all the others. I knew what he was saying, er, well what he meant, and what he was talking about, even though it was in some strange language I’d never heard before, but partway through, it switched to my pa’s voice, talking in pony. He told the others that he wanted to bring down others by causing them to do evil or unnatural things, and pointed at me as an example.”
“Oh, Big Mac, I’m so sorry, that must have been hurtful.”
“Eeyup.” Big Mac sighs.
“Did you ever make up with your father before he, well… you know…”
“Nope,” He frowns, “in fact, we’d just had a big fight about it not an hour before.”
Caramel puts his arms around Big Mac, holding him tight. “Listen, you know I love you right? Not like I know you’d wanted, but as a brother, as long as I breathe I’ll be here for you, understand?”
“Eeyup,” he whispers gently, “and I’m glad for it, I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d have ruined our friendship by telling you how I really felt. Anyway, could you tell me; do we have enough time to go back to sleep?”
“We have plenty.” And with that, Big Mac gently fell asleep in Caramel's embrace, as did Caramel embracing him, and just as he was falling asleep, Big Mac thought to himself how much better this Friday had ended than it had started.
“Is that all you got, Snowflake?” Rainbow Dash spat, “Don’t tell my you’re gonna pull a Fluttershy on me!” Bulk Biceps winced at Rainbow’s accusation; he couldn’t be that bad, could he? He puts all he’s got into this final stretch, he has to be better. Straining harder than ever, he sees the finish line in sight, with Twilight and that weird machine thingy that tells your wingpower. He’s almost there, just a little more, there!
Bulk Biceps starts to slow down, landing without falling on his flank this time. He looks at Twilight and Rainbow Dash, both of them with their eyebrows raised. “Not bad this time Snowflake, you managed to up your wingpower by two.” Dash complemented.
“Yeah!” exclaimed Bulk Biceps
“Alright, that’s everyone except Fluttershy,” Rainbow whispers that second part, “Go home, and get some well deserved rest, we still got more training to do come Monday if we plan to be the new record holders, and I plan for us to be the new record holders, so no slaking off over the weekend, got it?” She looks at everypony, ‘yeah’s and ‘woohoo’s echoing through the group, Bulk Biceps being no exception.
He watches as she leaves to go back to her home right above Ponyville. He turns, starting the not-so-short walk to his house. Twilight notices him walking, and goes up to him. “You have trouble flying on your own, don’t you?” she asks him.
Bulk looks down and mumbles “Yeah.”
“That embarrasses you doesn’t it, it makes you feel like you’re not as good as everypony else?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, you really shouldn’t let that get to you, in fact; let me tell you about this unicorn mare I know. The first spell unicorns usually learn is the levitation spell you probably see used all the time, but then as we grow older, we usually learn more spells, mostly having something to do with our special talent. But this one mare, try as she might, she couldn’t learn any other spell to save her life, and that made her feel awful, like she was lesser.” Bulk Biceps nods to let her know he was following. “Eventually she realized that she shouldn’t let something that most other ponies do that she couldn’t get her down, and she started practicing that levitation spell day and night. She decided that if she was only going to know one spell for the rest of her life, she’d better know it well, and that’s just what she did. Last time I saw her, she was at the unicorn version of those heavy lifting contests you go to. She won the competition after having lifted the two ton weights up two hoofball fields in heighth, even I can’t come close to that. So what do we say, aside from helping every pegasus else out with this endeavor, that you stick to what you really can do, but make sure you try to be the very best. You think you can do that?”
“Yeah.” He said, a little more enthusiastically this time.
“So, um, would you maybe, want to go on a date after this whole supply thing is over?” Twilight beams, already sure of the answer.
“No.”
“Great it’s a… wait, what? Why not? Oh you’re dating Fluttershy aren’t you? I should have listened to Rarity.” She stammers dumbfoundedly
“No again, my barn doors just don’t swing that way Twilight.”
Aside from the fact that she could swear that was the longest utterance she’d ever heard him say, she was also quite surprised by its content. “Oh, I’m sorry, I guess I had ju—”
He cuts her off “Assumed that I was straight because I lift weights and have big muscles?”
“Yeah, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, but do me a favor would you, there are two things I’d like everypony in Ponyville to know, so could you tell Rarity, one, that I’m a colt-cuddler, and two, I really don’t like it when people call me Snowflake.”
“Done.” She smiles to herself, oh how Rarity’s reputation precedes her. She walks off, leaving Bulk Biceps only two blocks before he finds himself home.
He walks into the door, grabs something small from the kitchen and heads down to the basement to his room. I’m too old to still be living with my mom, he thinks, munches his snack, and crashes on his bed falling asleep almost instantly. Tomorrow was going to be a long day of practicing and training, just his wings this time instead of everything else he normally trains.