The Bodybuilder

by Crayonpaste

The Mirror

"A...A...Anon?" Applejack stammers, a crimson blush forming on her face. "Wh......what did you just ask me?"

"I asked if you'd like to go to the Fall Formal with me." You repeat yourself, smiling. The entire hallway goes silent; some students ignore what you just said, and continue walking to their next class; most of them have frozen in place, and are staring at the two of you. Hell, even a teacher stopped dead in his footsteps to stare at you. It's like time itself has come to a halt and only continued when Applejack opens her mouth.

"Gosh...I......I'd really hate to do this to you, but..." She frowns.

"What's wrong?" You raise an eyebrow in confusion. "You gotta work at the farm that day? Do you-"

"No, that's not what I wanted to say." Applejack cuts you off. You watch as she takes a deep sigh, and looks at you in the eyes.

"I......I just can't see us goin' to the Fall Formal together...ya know?"

******

The scene keeps replaying in your head over, and over again as you try to sit through history class. Ms. Harshwinny's talking something about the Crystal Wars, but she's lost you a long time ago. At the moment, the only thing on your mind is that beautiful blonde farm girl who just rejected you to the Fall Formal during third period.

'Is this normal?' You think to yourself, clutching your chest. There's this strange invisible, but very much powerful tinge of pain in your chest; it's not like pain-pain but it still feels extremely uncomfortable...

Is it normal to just feel so......empty? Are you supposed to be feeling this? Like you don't want to do anything? It begins to make you question why you even thought you had a chance with her. You look around, and see all the other girls in the classroom paying just as much attention to Ms. Harshwinny's lecturing as you are; they're all huddled up in the back seats, gossiping and giggling to each other, with them pointing to you every now and then. Probably talking about how much of an ass you looked like when you asked out Applejack.

The bell finally rings, and immediately, a torrent of students fill the door, eager to catch their buses and hurry home, or do whatever they do when school is over. Normally, you'd be one of those students hurrying to leave, but you sort of just hunch over your desk, and slowly pack up everything before sluggishly dragging your feet out of the classroom.

You pull out your phone to try and see if there's anything new on Twitter or whatnot, but you quickly put it back in your pocket when you hear the thundering sounds of footsteps. The whole ground seems to shake as you look behind your shoulder, and see the Canterlot High Boy's Varsity Ice Hockey team stampeding through the hallway.

For a second, your mind flashes back to that one scene from The Lion King when Simba saw the pack of wildebeest sprinting down the cliff towards him, and the very next second, you feel the arm of a six-foot four monster of a teenager ram into your kidney.

"Come on!" You hear him shout to the rest of the hockey players. "If we're late again, Coach Iron Will's gonna flay us!"

You quickly make a dive to the sides of the hallway, and cover your face as at least ten more equally massive guys charge through the hallway, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust, and half-eaten pizzas behind them.

"Fucking hell." You whisper, wiping the dust off of your jacket. Well, it could've gone a lot worse, that's for sure.

You quickly move through the hallway after what just happened, and you step outside of the school, just in time to see your mom waiting for you in her car. She spots you, and turns on the engine to the car, and you throw your bag into the backseats before hopping up in shotgun with her.

"How was school today, dear?" She smiles, leaning over to kiss your cheek.

"Fine..." You yawn, clicking on your seatbelt. "Just......fine..."

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask!" She nudges you. "Did you ask her......?"

"Yeah......" You grimace. "But..."

"Oh......" In an instant, the smile on your mother's face fades. "I'm guessing she said......no?"

"Nada." You nod. "I just didn't know where I went wrong though, mom."

"Well......" Your mother begins. "She was really pretty, at least from the Facebook pictures you showed me of her. And also, she's a farm girl; maybe you two just aren't compatible, you know?"

"What do you mean?" You ask. "I'm not that ugly mom, am I?"

"No, that's not what I mean." She shakes her head. "I just feel like the two of you are just two completely different people, dear. She's a farm-girl who's been raised on Sweet Apple Acres all her life; I hear her big brother isn't even going to college next year!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" You protest. "She's...she's really nice, and honest, and-"

"Don't think about it too much." She pats you on the shoulder. "Learning how to take rejection is part of growing, and being a man, Anonymous. I'm sure a handsome young man will easily find the perfect match for you."

You sit back into your seat in defeat, and stare at the passing scenery as you two leave the Canterlot High campus. Just now, you realized that at least a half of all the guys walking around have at least one girl by his side; and really good looking ones too. You sigh in defeat, and pull out your phone, looking for some games to distract your mind. However, a couple last words from your mother seem to resonate with you for some reason.

"A man..." You whisper faintly. So faintly, that there was no way your mother could hear it.

******

In the darkness of your room, where the only light is your computer screen, you stare at yourself shirtless in the mirror. You try flexing, you're barely able to see your biceps pop upwards; in fact, you don't really see any......muscle at all.

"No..." You shake your head, walking towards the switch in your room. "It has to be just the lighting, or something." You flick the lights on, run back to your mirror, and try flexing again.

'That's more like it.' You think, nodding. There's some bulges at your stomach and- oh who are you kidding? There's no way in hell that's a six pack; hell, the only reason why you can even see your stomach muscles is because you're as scrawny as a god damn skeleton. You shake your head, and put your shirt back on, before going back on your computer.

However, instead of pulling up some video games or..."adult" content as you normally would after school, you go onto Google and start typing.

"Easy...ways...to...get...six-pack..." You mutter as you type each letter onto the search engine. Upon hitting enter, thousands of websites pop up in front of your eyes.

'HOW TO GET SIX-PACKS IN THREE MONTHS' says one Youtube video.

'Six Simple Workouts to Get You Ripped' reads the title of an article right below it.

'Chisel Your Body: A Man's Makeover'

'Get Rock-Hard in Three Weeks'

'LOOK LIKE BRAD PITT IN THREE HOURS'

"Yeah, sure." You roll your eyes, closing the tab and getting off the computer. "Why are they even allowed to put up crap like that on the internet?"

As you get up from your chair however, you find yourself looking at your reflection one more time in the mirror.

Slowly, you feel something bubbling up inside of you; it's like a mixture of anger, and shame, but by no means does this feel like something negative. It just feels overwhelmingly powerful, like a fire; it makes you want to get off your ass, and do something.

You approach the mirror one last time, and stare your own reflection down.

"I know why your bitch-ass got rejected by Applejack." You point at the mirror, staring at your scrawny, undeveloped body as you do so. "And so do you..."

You take your shirt off, and throw it down on the ground. You then slip out of your jeans, and stare at your bare body, save for the boxers. Shaking your head, you turn away from the mirror and drop down, laying your stomach on the floor.

"I am never going to look like that again." You growl, propping your body up and preparing to do a push-up.

Comments

[Guy With No Name]

I think "I'm" deluded if "I" think a new set of muscles will solve all of "my" problems.....

[SunBlaze]

and you step outside of the school, just in time to see your mom waiting for you in his car.

Here is a typo i found

[Crayonpaste]

7722728
Damn, I went this over twice and didn't catch that. Thanks a bunch.

[PrototypeJ]

Awesome chapter, you are doing a amazing job I can't wait to read the next chapter.

[Silent Echo]

reinventingaging.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Skinny-guy-fat-world.jpg

You try flexing, you're barely able to see your biceps pop upwards; in fact, you don't really see any......muscle at all.

Ha ha ha !! This is so right it fits Me to a T.

[Sunny Starscout]

Just gonna leave...whoops accidentally clicked the like button and follow. Welp I came this far already

[Dustchu]

Ahhh hell, why not? Sounds interesting.

Nice start.

[NobodyG]

Awasome chapter,keep it coming!

[maddshottgunnerrr]

I can understand how "I" would get to thinking this after all you kick a stray dog enough times it will bite back.

[mtf0330]

dununununununununununununun FLUTTERSHY!!
WOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Dream Master]

Very interesting! I will follow this story.
Crayonpaste, please, keep going.

[badassgrunt]

cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/system/images/photo_albums/thumbs-up-guns/large/thumbsup6.jpg?1384968217

I'm really interested in this story.

[redandready45]

This looks really good.
7722624

Couldn't hurt.

[wingdingaling]

Speaking as a hobby bodybuilder, three months is a pretty reasonable amount of time to get a six pack. All it really takes is about forty-five minutes of ab exercises each day. The dude should have watched that video.

[Lordx]

My boi has become a Chad.