//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Working Hard? 
// Story: Big Mac's Biceps, Now in Bulk 
// by gingersassy 
//------------------------------//

Big Mac's Biceps, Now in Bulk
Chapter 3

Bulk Biceps stirs, waking gently from his sleep to the sound of birds chirping and the smell of sweet maple syrup and zap apple jam. He slips into his bathroom and starts the shower. After killing two birds with one stone with that shower, he dries off, and heads upstairs. “Good morning Mommy.” He says to apparently nopony as no one responds. “Mommy?” He questions, and still nopony answers, but as he gets to the kitchen, he sees a note and immediately goes to read it. It was in his mother’s hoofwriting.
Bulky,
Ms Redheart has invited me to join her for breakfast,
so I of course accepted, but you know how we can
get, so I might be gone all day again. Make sure you
eat breakfast, not only will it help you keep up your
workouts, but I also prepared your favorites special
just for you, and I’d be disappointed if you didn’t
eat any of it. Don’t strain yourself too hard today
though, I don’t want to see you hurt yourself 
before Friday and be unable to help. 

Love You,
Mommy
He smiles at the note. He always thought she needed some friends to hang out with, and about two months ago, she started hanging out with Nurse Redheart and a couple of the doctors from the hospital, sometimes even staying with them overnight. Sleepovers were awesome and he was glad she seemed to be having fun. But he wasn’t exactly having fun, he hated breakfast, even if these were his favorite breakfast foods, but it made Mommy happy when he ate it, and he has been noticing he’s been building muscle easier since she started making him do it two months ago, she said she wanted him fit and healthy to make her grandfoals someday. He may be a colt-cuddler, but he still wanted to sire children someday, not just adopt foals from Japony like all the others did.
Just as he finishes his breakfast, there is a knock at the door. He thought this was strange, because it was at the exact same time he had swallowed the last piece, which is almost too exact. But he brushes that thought away, and goes to answer the door. It's Pinkie Pie. “Well hi Sno— I mean Bulk Biceps,” She blurts out, “is Mommy Munchkins around? I brought her some balloons and cake so she wouldn’t feel sad.”
“No, she’s not home right now.”
“Oh, okey-dokey-lokey, well make sure she gets these whenever she gets back. Bye-bye!”
Bulk Biceps chuckles inwardly as the hyperactive pink mare bounces away. It was a nice gesture, and he’ll be sure to give them to her, but he just couldn’t fathom why she would be sad when she gets to hang out with her friends that often. But he couldn’t dwell on that now, he had training to do.
Unfortunately, in training his wings for flight, he was quite limited. His wings just happened to be smaller than those on that little filly Scootaloo, so wingups were out of the question, mostly what he decided to do was to fly as far as he could, as fast as he could, with as much weight as he could, he figured that’d help him be faster when he didn’t have the weight on him.
After four grueling hours of said workout, he's hungry. He fixes himself some beans and eats quietly. Feeling much better after getting something to eat, he was ready for his second round of training. He didn’t want to look lazy in anypony’s eyes, especially not a certain stallion's. That certain stallion was the only thing getting him through this training and practice, he hardly ever uses his wings, and working them this hard really made them sore so he had to have something to strive towards to get him through it.
Finally, four more hours later, he was done with the routine, surprisingly managing the speed he obtained yesterday while carrying an additional half his weight. The tuckered out pony grabs himself a third meal, noticing Mommy still wasn’t home. That made him smile. He liked it when Mommy was happy, and what makes a pony more happy than being with their friends? He goes downstairs and crawls into bed, letting his mind wander, his body rest, and falls into a rather pleasant dream.



Big Mac stirs, waking from a mostly restful night, still in Caramel’s embrace. Last night, he had spoken the truth, even though he had never admitted it to himself before, but he really was glad he had Mel as a best friend and not a lover, even if sometimes he wished it had certain benefits that it most definitely did not have. However, it was also sometimes fun to mess with him a little, and they both needed to get up anyway, so with a mischievous grin he startes his head towards Mel’s face.
“Don’t you dare.” Caramel turns to Big Mac, giving him an admonishing look.
“Well maybe if you’d get off of me I wouldn’t have to try something so extreme.” He chuckles.
“I thought you liked it when other stallions were on top of you.” Caramel jokes.
“If your little friend were in the right spot, I would.” They both look at each other and start laughing. 
“Let’s go buck,” Caramel pauses, “apples on your farm. They won’t buck themselves you know”
“Eeyup.” He affirms with a toothy grin.
The two best friends get up, grab a bite to eat, and head out the door. As they walk towards Sweet Apple Acres, they walk past Rarity talking with a group of other ponies, no doubt gossiping the latest news: 
“… not only that, but it turns out he absolutely abhors being called Snowflake, I personally like the nickname myself, but it would be absolutely garish to call somepony something they don’t wish to be called” Rarity cooed.
“Wait, his name isn’t Snowflake?” One of the other mares asks, with utmost sincerity.
“Why, no, his name is Bulk Biceps, which I suppose does seem to be quite… fitting. Speaking of which, trying to fit somepony of his physique is hoofs down the worst thing ever! You should have seen how much material it took last time he had me fit him for a suit. At least he’s timely with payments though, sometimes the colts around here take months to even start payments, and then without fail pay the minimum every month. I would be happy to make cheaper items for them, taking less time, and using cheaper material, but these ponies insist on buying things they simply cannot afford.”
“I know what you mean, just last wee—” another mare started, but they had just passed out of earshot, though he liked what he had heard. Timeliness and money-management skills were good qualities to have, especially in a town like Ponyville, where disasters seem to happen left and right on nearly a daily basis. He’d seen far too many ponies tricked by their insurances, having to pay for damages out of hoof, and if you don’t plan ahead and keep an emergency fund you tend to be manure out of luck, and become easily indebted.
Caramel seemed to read his mind, and said, “Those aren’t bad qualities to have, are they? Tell me, is he good at bucking?” Big Mac glares at Caramel, “I mean really, you should ask him to help out on the farm sometime, with all those muscles, he oughtta be a big help. You might not even need me anymore.”
“Nope, dunno, eeyup, nope,” Big Mac responded, “I don’t think I’ll ever not need you, you’re my best friend, and everypony needs a best friend.”
“Watch it with the sappiness, best friend, in private’s okay, but be careful in public. You don’t know how many stallions have tried to get with me thinking our sexualities were reversed, and that I was wasting my time chasing you.”
“Eeyup, seventeen, you tell me every time it happens.” Big Mac grins.
“Actually it’s eighteen now for your information. Thunderlane came by my place not two hours before you showed up at my door last night.” Caramel informs him as they step onto Sweet Apple Orchards, and Applejack spots them.
“Big Mac,” she starts.
“Eeyup?”
“I just wanted to say…”
“Eeyup?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry to everyone, what I did was wrong, what I said was wrong, I know that now. I just, I just couldn’t get out of my head all the stuff that ma and pa always said. I took all their words to be truths, and here I’m supposed to be the Element of Honesty, and I can’t even pick out lie like that, I just feel awful. Could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?”
“Eeyup.”
“So, are you two… well…?”
“Nope.”
“I’m straight for your information.” Caramel finally chimes in.
“Oh, so are you seeing anypony, Mac?”
“Eeyup.”
“What do you mean ‘eeyup’? Your first date isn't even until next Saturday, you can’t call that seeing somepony” Caramel butts in again.
“I can’t?”
“Nope” say Applejack and Caramel simultaneously.
“Oh, okay.” Big Mac concedes, “we need to get to work though, these apples aren’t gonna buck themselves, or each other.” The stallions grin, Applejack facehooves.
They get to work, by the end of the day, filling twice as many baskets as they hoped to, then part ways. As Big Mac crawls into bed, and drifts asleep, not knowing how he’s going to be able to wait a whole week, and falls into a rather pleasant dream.



Luna smiles, it isn’t all that often she sees two ponies sharing the exact same dream, especially one so, juicy.