Act 1

Everypony in the crowd held their breath, and Belle thought even the clouds drifting over Sweet Apple Acres seemed to slow to watch Rainbow Dash and Gusty line the thirtieth apple crate up and set it gently on top of the others: Two stacks of fifteen crates towering into the blue sky from the platform in front of Applejack's barn.

"This is it," Pinkie Pie whispered into the megaphone strapped around her neck. Not that she needed it: no one in Ponyville whispered as loud as Pinkie. "Thirty crates will be a new Equestrian record. Or, y'know, a record for those parts of Equestria that even have apple crate lifting contests."

"You said it, Pinkie." The little purple dragon standing next to Pinkie held a microphone, and Belle had to smile. Looked like Pinkie had finally found someone who shared one of her weird hobbies. "I sure never saw anything like this in Canterlot, but I'll bet the palace guards'd love trying their backs at it."

Canterlot? The palace? Belle gave the little dragon a closer look. She had heard something somewhere about visitors from the capitol coming to Ponyville, something to do with the Princess and the Summer Sun Celebration, but Belle hadn't really been paying much attention. Her training regimen came first, after all-she'd been focusing on her lats the morning of the Celebration, so she'd missed whatever that had all been about-and she didn't have too many reasons to leave her gym except for her late night cool-down runs out to the mountains and back...

"OK!" Dash called from above. "Ev'rything's set and steady!"

Belle snapped her attention back, saw Mac stepping into position. "Big Mackintosh won the coin toss, so he'll be going first," Pinkie was saying. "But look at those towers! I mean, each of those crates must weigh thirty pounds, and with thirty of them stacked up and the platform, too, why, that's, uhh, it's, uhh,...carry the two and add, uhh-"

"It's a whole lotta apples," the dragon finished for her.

As big as always, the red stallion stood in front of the platform, but, well, even as foals together in school, Mac had never been as big as Belle. And after she'd really started training, she'd filled out so much, no one had been surprised when little silver barbells had appeared along her chocolate brown flanks. That was when she'd officially added the extra syllable to the front of her name, too: with her barrel chest, bulging thighs, and biceps the size of the average pony's head, Barbelle had decided that, if she was going to be the biggest little pony in Ponyville, then she was going to be the biggest.

Mac looked a little shaky to her, actually, as if the twenty-eight crate lift had taken more out of him than he was letting on. Not that his usual placid expression changed a bit, of course, but watching him tilt his head to take in the full height of the towers, she could sense his nervousness-though only ponies who'd known him as long as she had would notice.

"Y'all can do it, Mac!" came a familiar voice from beside her, and looking down, she caught Applejack's sideways glance. "Sorry, Belle, but he's kin, ain't he?"

"No problem, AJ." Belle smiled at the smaller earth pony. "I'm rooting for him, too."

"Well, that's mighty big-uhh, I mean, mighty nice of you!"

Belle lowered her head to whisper, "It's just he's the only one who can give me a challenge anymore, y'know?"

Applejack laughed quietly, but movement at the towers: Mac breathing in, breathing out, bending his legs, and sliding into the saddle-shaped frame on the bottom of the platform. Eyes clenching, he sucked in another breath, pushed up, the crates wobbling, and straightened his legs-or at least, he tried to straighten his legs. But the crates didn't do anything but wobble, the platform not rising at all, sweat breaking out over Mac's brow. A few more seconds he kept straining at it, then with a whoosh, he dropped down and scooted out from under. "Ah...nope," he said, turning his slow grin on Belle.

She smiled back and started toward the platform, squared her big shoulders and spread her pecs as she felt every eye in the audience focusing on her. "This is it," she heard Pinkie Pie saying, her too-loud whisper rising in pitch and volume. "If Barbelle can lift this, I mean, it'll only be the most totally incredible, fantastic, fabuliferous thing anyone has ever done anywhere ever!"

The last two words came out as a shriek, Belle turning with the whole crowd to stare at Pinkie: the little earth pony stood reared back, her front hoofs gripping the megaphone, tendons standing out along her neck. For the space to two eyeblinks, silence stretched, then Pinkie looked around, put one hoof on her hip, and narrowed her eyes. "Well? It will!"

Rainbow Dash landed with a laugh. "But no pressure, Belle!"

The crowd laughed, and Belle did, too. Not that she had any real doubts. This was what she did, after all.

Slow and easy she stepped to the platform, gave it a look, smiled back at the crowd, and wedged herself into the space underneath. Her hoofs found the brace points she and Mac had dug earlier, and she took her stance, filled her lungs, pressed her back against the padded frame, and started pushing upward.

It pushed back, of course, didn't want to move, and Belle felt a second or two of surprise at how much heavier just two apple crates had made the thing. Lowering her head, she looked at her front legs, saw the biceps swelling beneath her skin, felt her thighs doing the same, the strength building throughout her body, building and growing and tightening and bursting till with a snort, Belle straightened her legs, heard the platform creak and groan, saw its thick timbers lift clear of the ground, the crowd behind her erupting with whoops.

"She's done it!" Pinkie Pie was crowing. "Never before in the history of Equestria has this reporter witnessed such a-! Hey! What...what's she-?"

Concentrating, Belle began to turn in place, sliding her hoofs careful so she wouldn't unbalance the thousand or so pounds stretching from her back a good twenty feet into the air. But she wanted to see them, wanted to see the crowd, wanted to watch them all cheering for her. Head held high, she shuffled around, her smile slightly forced-this thing was heavy!-but absolutely heart-felt. And in the crowd-

Smiles, yes, Applejack and Big Mackintosh right at the front, AJ hooting and hollering like only she could. But more of the crowd had their mouths hanging open, their big eyes practically whirling.

Respect? Fear? Awe? Belle didn't know, and she didn't really care. All she knew as she forced her legs to straighten further, her muscles singing like a storm wind through a forest, widening her stance and lifting the crates a couple inches higher, all she knew was that they wouldn't forget this moment, wouldn't forget her. Not as long as they lived.

Satisfied, she tossed her two-toned green mane, slowly began relaxing her muscles, let the platform sink till it touched ground. Exhaling as far as she could, she managed to pull herself in just enough to squeeze out from the framework with a pop, the towers of crates rattling along with the clatter of ponies applauding. She caught Mac's eye, gave him a nod, and called out, "Like that, Mac."

He returned the nod as laconic as ever, but the ponies rushing to surround her more than made up for his reserve with their cheers and whistles, Pinkie Pie's voice cutting through everything else: "I'm down on the field now, Spike!" The megaphone jabbed up into her face, and Belle looked down to see Pinkie behind it, her mane as tossled as a blackberry bush. "Tell the world, Belle: how does it feel to be the champion of all champions?"

"Well,-" Belle began, but Pinkie was already turning away.

"You heard it here first, folks! Now back to Spike in broadcast central!"

"Uhh, Pinkie?" came the dragon's voice from where he stood blinking on Belle's other side. "I'm right here, actually."

Pinkie nodded. "That's OK." She shook her megaphone harness off and trotted away. "We're done now anyway."

Most of the other ponies in the crowd congratulated Belle before moving to the refreshment tables, and Belle began thinking about heading that way as well when an enthusiastic voice spoke up: "That...was...amazing!"

Turning, Belle saw a slim purple unicorn standing next to the dragon, a starburst pattern on her flanks and a sparkle in her eyes. "And when you turned around with the whole tower on your back? I could hardly believe it!"

"Thanks," Belle said with a nod. Sure were a lot of strangers in town all of a sudden...

"Oh, yeah!" Rainbow Dash swooped down and hovered half a foot off the ground in front of Belle, the only way Belle could look anypony straight in the eye these days. "Belle, you prob'bly haven't met Twilight yet!" The pegasus landed and gestured with a front hoof. "Twilight, this is Barbelle. Belle, this is Twilight Sparkle. She and Spike just moved here from Canterlot and are living in the library downtown."

"Pleased to meet you." Belle held out a hoof.

Twilight touched her own to it, her eyes going ever wider. "Whoa! My hoof! It's barely half the size of yours! I mean, not even Princess Celestia's personal guards are as big as you!"

The unicorn radiated such warm friendliness, Belle couldn't help smiling. "Well, my mom always said I was an earth pony with a couple extra scoops of earth in me."

"Just a couple?" The dragon-Spike, Dash had said his name was-looked her up and down and back to front.

"Spike,..." Twilight said, a slight edge to her voice, but then she laughed. "But I guess you must be used to that sort of thing by now, Belle."

Belle shrugged, suddenly and uncomfortably aware of how the motion made the muscles bulge up and down her torso. "I can't change who I am. And I wouldn't want to, anyway."

"That's the spirit!" The sparkles in Twilight's eyes became more pronounced. "Might I ask, then, what it is you do around town? 'Cause I'll bet it's something amazing, like rescuing ponies when their houses catch fire, or smashing rocks into gravel to clear away avalanches!" She looked up at Belle expectantly.

Belle blinked back. "Well, I, uhh..." Raising her right foreleg, she flexed it, let the biceps bunch up huge and hard. "I do this. I mean, a couple hours ev'ry morning and afternoon, meals and jogging and getting to bed good and early: my workout schedule doesn't leave me a lotta time for anything else..."

"But..." Twilight looked confused. "What good is it?"

The question hit Belle hard as a slap, and Twilight's eyelids fluttered, her teeth catching her lower lip. "I'm sorry: I didn't mean it to come out that way! It's just-" The unicorn planted her front hoofs, and a wavy light glowed into being around her horn. "I practice every day, too, running my magic exercises and working on new spells. But I've come to realize that the best reason to do it is so I can help my friends when they need it." The light from her horn faded. "You've got some amazing gifts, Belle, and I was just wondering what...what you do with them..." Her voice trailed off, and she looked more nervous than Mac had staring at the pile of-

"Hey!" Applejack shouted behind Belle. "Dag nab it, Derpy! Watch out for the-!"

Belle spun, a light gray flutter drawing her gaze upward to Derpy Hooves, the wall-eyed pegasus pony flying past the stacked apple crates. Except, Belle saw, instead of flying past, she was lurching sideways, her wings and tail flailing, and crashing right into the towers, the wooden crates creaking, tipping, toppling down toward the tables where the other ponies were just turning to see what all the noise was about.

"Look out!" Belle shouted, starting to rush forward, but what could she do to stop thirty tumbling crates of apples, ponies screaming and starting to scatter before the-

A ringing like wind chimes filled the air, and white smoke sprang from nowhere, wrapped around the boxes, slowed their descent. A strangled grunt behind her, and Belle spun again to see Twilight Sparkle, her face a grimace, her horn so bright, Belle had to squint. "Applejack!" the unicorn gasped. "Get everypony out of the area!"

"You got it, sugar cube!" Belle looked over her shoulder at AJ herding folks away from the tables. "This way, folks; right over here. Keep it movin', keep it movin'." The crates had frozen in mid-air, the smoke surrounding them as thick and billowy as clouds after a rain storm. "All clear, Twilight!" Applejack called then.

The clouds began drifting downward, lowering the crates slowly to the ground, and Belle looked back at the unicorn, her eyes clenched, her whole slender body seeming to vibrate with the effort of holding up-

Holding up the thirty apple crates. Exactly the same thing Belle had just done.

A glance at the tables showed her the crates now settling one by one onto the grass, Rainbow Dash whooshing past to dispel each cloud after it had dropped its cargo. "Woo-hoo!" the pegasus yelled. "Just a couple more, Twi, and that'll be it!"

Twilight just grunted in reply, sweat dripping from her mane, but as Belle watched, her breathing deepened, her wrinkled brow smoothed, and she slowly straightened up, finally puffing a gust through her nose and opening her eyes. "Whoosh!" She gave Belle a smile. "Those were heavy, weren't they?

Belle couldn't help herself. "That...was...amazing!" she said, trying her best to imitate the way Twilight had said it not that many minutes ago.

A blush darkened Twilight's purple cheeks, and Spike seemed to unfreeze beside her. "Twilight!" He reached for her like he expected the unicorn might collapse. "Are you OK?"

"Pretty much." She stretched first one hind leg, then the other. "Good thing I did my limbering up exercises this morning." She winked over Spike's head at Belle. "Now, let's see if we can't help clear those boxes away."

She trotted toward the tables, Spike right behind her, and Belle fell in, too, but...

What good is it? Twilight Sparkle had asked just before the crates had started falling. All these muscles Belle had spent her life building, all the hours she'd devoted so fervently that she'd developed barbells as her cutie mark, and when her friends had needed her help?

What good had it all been?