*BEEP*
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
*BE-click*

As Anon's vision began to become lucid, he arched his back and propped his knuckles and neck. Yesterday's exercise wore him out like a lightbulb and he still felt the persistent soreness of his leg muscles. He struggled a bit to get on his feet but was able to balance himself. He walked to his school calendar to see what was on the school's agenda for today. He was ecstatic to learn that it was a Professional Development Day which was code for:

"Day off." he mutters to himself. He was relieved that he didn't have to go into school and deal with Blueblood today, especially after he key scratched his car. He was free to do what he please for most of the day due to the training arrangement he made Rainbow Dash. The more he thought of training with her, a feeling starts to swirl around in his mind like a cloud. He didn't know what that feeling was as he had never felt something like that before until Monday afternoon. His train of thought was interrupted by an feeling of unease and a rumbling in his stomach as hunger started to become dominant in his mind. Wasting no time, he trekked to the kitchen where he saw his dad in the living room, watching the morning news before work.

"Heya sport, how were you last night?" His father asks as Anon pours himself a cup of coffee.

"Eh, it was good." Anon says as he takes a sip of his drink. "Did some gym work with a friend that afternoon and I was burnt out after that." Anon Sr began to notice a pattern as of late. His son, since Monday, had been coming home exhausted and tired after his 'workout' sessions with said friend of his. He suspected that there was more to this story.

"Ok, who is she?" Anon Sr asks his son, Surprising him.

"What?!"

"I'm not fooled. You're seeing a girl, aren't ya?" This elicited a nervous chuckle from Anon as he thinks he's seeing some girl and he is half right.

"Okay, you caught me. I'm seeing this girl named Rainbow Dash." Anon admits to his dad. Now the feeling from earlier is starting to magnify with that statement. Anon started to recognize since Monday that he developed feelings for her. He wanted to ask her out but is afraid that it might get in the way of what he needs to do to prepare for Friday. After a moment of thought, he decided to play it cool for the time being. He then felt his father's hand on his head.

"Don't be nervous about that. I've been there once when I was your age. It's a perfectly natural reaction towards the opposite sex as you become an adult. I was a little shy when it came to talking to girls. But I eventually came out of my shell and I had no problems since." His dad's words reassured him a bit but he had no idea on how to communicate his feelings to Rainbow.

"But, how do I tell her that I love her?"

"All you have to do is play it cool, be suave and subtle, and don't be nervous around her. Who knows? She might even make the first move if you're lucky." Anon started to see that his dad's advice was sound. He can't shake the nervousness of his infatuation towards Rainbow Dash but he decides to take his father's advice and play it cool with her.

"Do you have school today?"

"No, It's one of those 'Professional Development Days'."

"Ah, alright." Anon Sr said as he walked towards the door to leave the work, only stopping when he opened the door.

"Hey, I noticed that there were some key scratches on your car when i came home last night. What happened?" For a moment, the world around Anon froze. He felt as if his own father was on to what was really going on. He came up with a quick explanation to cover his tracks.

"Some douchebag seniors pulling some pre-graduation prank. I'm gonna talk to Principal Celestia about it tomorrow."

"Oh ok. Be sure to take it into the shop to get that fixed." Anon was relieved that his father bought his sham story. He is kept in the dark about his feud with Blueblood for the time being. With a "Goodbye Son.", Anon Sr got into his car and drove off towards his workplace downtown. As he slumped back on the couch, Anon breathed a sigh of relief that no outside forces were going to know about the fight, save for the students.

"Holy fuck." He mutters as kicked back on the couch and contemplates what had happened and the recent developments. Thanks to his dad, his mind is starting to become filled with thoughts of a romantic nature towards Rainbow Dash. He couldn't deny his true feelings towards her but he worries that it would get in the way of the task at hand. He also wondered how it all happened. Anon had a good feeling that his sparring session on Monday with her could've been the root of it all. But as he contemplated, Anon's stomach complained in hunger. After wrangling a bowl of Cookie Crisp, he sat in front of his TV, playing one of his favorite video games.

"What a great stress relief." he says as he guns down the final boss. He hadn't had any fun like that since Monday as the stress from the challenge kept him from wanting to enjoy himself. This brief respite allowed him a chance to vent his unease towards the whole situation. However, he knew that he had to prepare for Friday. He switched the TV to a movie channel as he began to do push-ups with each repetition starting to tire him out bit by bit.

"995!"
"996!"
"997!"
"998!"
"999!"
"1000!"

After his 1000th push up, He collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. Anon's arms quivered in pain as his morning exercise rendered his arms to feeling like jello. But still, He felt that his workout wasn't finished and wanted to push himself more. He walked out of his house in a heartbeat and started out on his jog around his neighborhood. Thanks to getting the day off from school, he had all the time he wanted to keep his body and mind conditioned. It was all Anon's mind could think of before it suddenly switched to thoughts of Rainbow Dash. His heart started to race faster than before when he started out on his jog. Adrenaline and his thoughts of his secret crush fueled his drive to continue on with his run even as his body started to feel tired. When he arrived back his house, He was a sweat-soaked mess. He took a moment to catch his breath as he began to eye the clock.

"2:30. Holy fuck." Anon panted in exhaustion as he got himself a glass of water from the kitchen. As he guzzled down his drink, he realized he had to prepare for his workout. He did not know where they'll meet him but he knew they'll figure something out. He got into the shower and got washed up and squeaky clean for the time being. The cool water started to soothe his arm and leg muscles and relieve the aching sensations in each limb.

"Oh god, that felt soooo goood." Anon said to himself as he walked out of the shower. He stretched his limbs out so they wouldn't tense up and stiffen. Once all that was out of the way, he got on some gym wear in preparation for his training session with his friends. He then heard a familiar noise coming in from the living room.

It was his ring tone and he could guess that it was Flash Sentry calling him. He walked over to his phone and answered it.

"Hello?"
"Hey Anon, what's up?"
"Nothing really. What's on your mind, amigo?
"Not a damn thing. Hey just a heads up, because of no school today, Rainbow said that Bulk Biceps is gonna let us use his personal gym at his house."
"Ok, what time should I meet you all over there?"
"3:30, the usual."
"Ok, got it. By the way, I might be a tad late because I gotta get message Blueblood left on my car painted over."
"It's all cool, take your time. Anyways, I'll see ya in an hour or so."
"See ya."

*Buzzzz*

Anon received a text from Flash that gave him Bulk's address. He now knew what to do but he had to focus on getting his car fixed. He hopped into his car and sped off to the nearby garage. It was one of those that one would find along the road at some point but it would do. One of the managers of the garage approached his car

"Eyyy, how's it going?" the manager said.

"Not a whole lot." Anon started. "Just need a quick touch up on the paint, that's all." The manager looked around the car until he found Blueblood's message to Anon nicely scratched on his upper right car door.

"Someone got pissed at you?" The manager asked in slight worry.

"Something along those lines."

"Alrighty. Exit the car and let me get to work. It shouldn't take me no more than 10 minutes for paint to be applied and dry."

Over the course of 10 minutes, the key scratches were gone as if they were never there to begin with.

"Ok, that'll be 12 bucks, sir." The manager said as Anon handed him the aforementioned amount. Anon's anger towards the school's king bully only grew after that. He now costed him a monetary loss, money that he'll never get back. As he got back into his car, He took a few seconds to do some calming breaths before departing for Bulk Bicep's house. After a 10 minute drive, he arrived at Bulk's house. It was a bit ways off from the sidewalk compared to the average house he sees and it looks like there is a separate building on the property that is smaller than the 2 story house it self. Anon figured that it's where Bulk's personal gym is, considering him being the school's resident muscle-bound fitness nut. Wasting no time, Anon walked over the building and knocked on the door where he was greeted by a familiar rainbow-haired sight.

"Anon, so great to see you!" Rainbow Dash said as she wrapped Anon in a tight embrace. His feelings about her start to come to the forefront but he manages to repress those thoughts as she breaks the hug.

"Thanks, Dashie." Anon said while rubbing the back of his neck. Without warning, Rainbow Dash grabs Anon by his arm and walks him to the Inside of the gym where Flash Sentry and Bulk Biceps are waiting.

"Well, look who just wandered in, huh?" Flash chuckled as he saw his friends walk in. Bulk walks up to Anon with a slight thunderous sound from each step he took. The steps were light but enough to make some of the weights shake ever so slightly.

"YEAH! WE'LL BE PUMPING SOME SERIOUS IRON TODAY! WHOOOO!!!" Bulk yelled out in his trademark vocal volume and energy.

"Yeah, we'll be doing some strength training today. You have the endurance and moves. I'll give ya that. But those arms and legs of yours... man, they do need some work. I'll bet Bulk over there could snap them like twigs if he wanted. Since you got a bit of leg strength training done yesterday, we'll be focusing on upper body muscles." As rainbow dash walked a bit away from Anon, She began to stretch her arms and abdominal muscles.

"Anon, you gotta stretch your muscles or it'll really hurt when you start lifting!" Heeding her advice, Anon began to mimic her stretches to get his body prepared for his afternoon of weightlifting. After 2 minutes of stretches, he was ready to start pumping some iron. Rainbow dash motioned him to a weight machine that had a pull down handle.

"First up: Lat Pulldown." Rainbow Dash started as Anon got on the machine. "I'll set it to weight level 3, not too hard but not too easy either. If you feel like it, increase the weight to challenge your self." Anon gripped his hands on the handle and began to pull down. It was slow but he was able to bring it all the way down. He did 30 reps of this before he took a bit of rest to allow his muscles to recover. Listening to Rainbow's earlier advice, he cranked the weight level to 5 to challenge himself. He was getting serious about it.

"Are you sure you wanna go from 3 to 5? Shouldn't you do 4 first?" Rainbow said with a hint of caution in her voice as Anon started doing more reps.

"You *Erg* said *Erg* I *Erg* should *Erg* challenge *Erg* myself. *Erg*" Anon grunted as he did more reps slower than his last set. His upper arm and torso muscles start to tens up and harden with each rep he did. They burned like a blazing forest fire that spreads out of control. With his last rep, he slouched forward in slight exhaustion, panting and sweating.

"I wonder how you lasted that long." Rainbow said in amusement. Anon turned his exhausted gaze to her.

"Anger." Anon breathed.

"Why anger?"

"That little message Blueblood left on my car yesterday had set me back 12 bucks to have it fixed. That's 12 bucks that he costed me and 12 that I'll never get back!" Rainbow Dash understood his frustration as she let an amused hum escape her mouth.

"Then use your anger as your drive." Flash said. "Let it fuel your exercise and motivate you." After his friend's words of encouragment, he continued on to the preacher curl station. Anon felt that his friend's words sounded like something from a movie he watches but he thought of it no further as he hopped onto the station.

"Okay," Rainbow dash starts " the weights shall be set to 40 because there's 1 10lb weight on both sides. This station will test your upper and fore arms. Take it slow to get used to it and only kick up the level if you feel confident enough, bucko." With a pat on his back, Anon began funneling his anger towards Blueblood as he began to lift the weight slowly. The position of his arms on the machine and the nature of the exercise started to wear his arms out. He kept on lifting and curling until his arms began to cave after 25 reps, causing him to drop the weights.

"Ow. ow. ow. ow." Anon moaned in a deadpan tone. His arms started quiver in shock and sweat a fountain ans he felt his muscles harden.

"YEAH! THAT'S THE SPIRIT!" Bulk Biceps yelled as he walks over to him, inspecting his muscles. "YOUR MUSCLES ARE ALREADY STARTING TO HARDEN! KEEP IT UP AND MAYBE YOU CAN BE AS MUSCULAR AS ME!"

"I know." Anon groaned as he got off of the station, stretching his muscles and taking a breather on the benches. "My limbs have no mouth, yet they must scream."

"Aw, that just means that your muscles are being shocked." Rainbow said as she sat on the bench, moving next to Anon. "That means that you should keep on going. Work through the pain and bear with it." Anon was too nervous by Rainbow Dash's proximity to him to consider her words. He felt his heart beat even harder from just being near her like that. He notices Rainbow looking at him with curious concern, wondering if he was alright.

"Ummm, Anon?" Rainbow Dash said as she put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you in there?" It took Anon a few seconds to snap out of his trance to be able to respond to her inquiry.

"Nothing, just trying to relax. I should be good to go."

"Alright. Get to going and start lifting. Let's turn those stick arms of yours into guns!"

Anon continued working on his muscles over the next two hours, doing flies, leg curls, and everything involving strength training. His muscles were aching like he lifted the biggest boulder in the city but he didn't care. To him, it was no pain, no gain as he desired to continue on with his exercises. When he was at the dumbbells, he sat as he curled 2 heavy dumbbells, lifting one at a time. Anon didn't stop until Rainbow dash walked over to him.

"You're doing good so far. Now, It's time for the big one." Rainbow said as Anon let go of the weights.

"The big one?" Anon asked out of curiosity.

"The bench press, silly!" She said as she led Anon to the bench press. The barbell had been set to level 8, something that made him nervous.

"ALRIGHT! LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN BENCH PRESS 100!" With Bulk's shout, Anon knew that he was in for some serious pain. All he had to do was to just bite his lip, suck it up, and endure it.

"Don't worry. We'll spot ya." Flash said as Anon gripped the weight. He took several deep breaths and a moment to build up his drive before he began to lift. It was heavier and more exhausting than the other weights he did before. He kept on benching the weights getting progressively more exhausted with each repetition. As he approached the 90 rep mark, he felt his arms starting to buckle.

"92..."
"93..."
"94..."
"95..."

"Come on, Anon!"

"97..."
"98..."

"NEARLY THERE!"

"1... 1... 100." With that, Anon's arms gave in as he let the barbell rest on his chest, eliciting a pained moan from him. Bulk and Rainbow helped lift the weight off of Anon and helped him up. He was relieved to see Rainbow look on at him with a sense of pride.

"You did... AWESOME!!!" Rainbow said with glee as she hugged a still sweaty Anon.

"YEAH! WHOOO!!! GOOD WORK BENCHING 100!" Bulk shouted, knocking anon over.

"Damn, your voice is as loud as a friggin' jet engine." Anon said as he got back on his feet. "Damn, my arms feel like they got liquefied by sledgehammers."

"Don't worry, it'll go away in time. You just have to take it easy." Flash Sentry advised to his friend. As Anon began to walk to the exit, shaking Bulk's hand, he felt familiar hand grip his shoulder.

"You did good today." Rainbow Dash said. "Remember tomorrow: it'll be a refresher on what ya did so far." Without warning, she gave Anon a congratulatory hug. Anon fought hard to prevent his feelings from coming out. He could do nothing to prevent himself from returning the hug. After all that, Anon, Flash, and Rainbow exited Bulk's property.

"Hey Flash?" Anon asked.

"Yeah?"

"Can you give me a ride tomorrow? I'm not gonna chance bringing my car there after what Blueblood did yesterday."

"Don't sweat it. Just don't keep me waiting when I show up."

"Alright. I'll see you two tomorrow." As his two friends drove back to their homes, Anon sat in his car for a few minutes to ponder his state of mind. The stress form both his training and being bothered by Blueblood and his newfound feelings towards Rainbow Dash began to take a toll on his morale. He took comfort that not only will the fight come soon, he'll graduate later as well. Even then, the uncertain outcome of the looming fight began to eat away at him. Shaking his furiously, he held these fears at bay as he began to drive off towards home to relax before the next day comes around.

"Can't fucking wait until this is all over."

Author's Note

Well, this chapter turned out to be shorter than the last 2. I suppose I did it to reflect the fact that Anon had the day off from school. 2 more chapters and an epilogue to go.