Reinventing the Iron Will

Fluttershy happily watched her animal friends frolicking in her backyard. It was a beautiful day and her spirits were high. She did, however, feel a slight twinge of loneliness as she nestled on the grass, watching Angel play with some butterflies. Her mind lazily drifted into a daydream about a certain stallion whom she had been thinking of more and more these days. The animals suddenly scampered away. The sky darkened as if the sun had been completely eclipsed. A terrifying, hulking figure stood over the startled little pegasus.

“Today is your lucky day, because you are now in the presence of the one and only Iron Will!” the monster shouted in her face. His voice was thoroughly macho and enthusiastic. Fluttershy immediately realized it was the a famous minotaur motivational coach who had visited Ponyville a short time ago.

Even though she now knew who it was and that he was harmless, her first instinct was still to curl up into a ball and tremble until he went away. She knew, however, that he would just give her a hard time if she did that. He was supposed to have taught her to be confident and stand up for herself.

“Um, hello,” she whispered timidly, not finding the strength to make eye contact with the minotaur. She wondered why he was here. They had parted on somewhat disagreeable terms the last time she had seen him. She feared this might be an unpleasant encounter.

Iron Will’s voice boomed. “I’m here to invite you, yes I said ‘you,’ to Iron Will’s Rock Ponyville Party!” He handed her a flyer with the event’s information. “You think you’ve been to a party before? Well think again! This is going to be like no party you’ve ever seen. If you ever wore socks, this party would knock them off your hooves! First it will be on the hook then it will be off the hook. It’s going to be awesome, epic, and legendarily amazing,” for some reason he shook his fist as he said this, as if he was threatening the whole world.

“Are you sure you want me at your rocking party? I don’t really rock, or at least I don’t think I do.”

“Of course you rock, Fluttershy! You’re the only pony who’s ever said no to me.” He jabbed a finger at the pony menacingly, though his intention was simply to point for emphasis. “Iron Will has great respect for you!”

Fluttershy got up and managed to made eye contact with the imposing minotaur. “Alright, since it means so much to you, I’ll be there.”

Iron Will looked pleased. “It’s a bit harder to say no to Iron Will when he’s inviting you to a party as opposed to when he’s demanding money, now isn’t it?” With that, he began walking away toward Ponyville, swaggering alone as he was apt to do, but after a few paces he remembered something and turned back to face Fluttershy. “Invite all your friends!” he bellowed.

“Will do,” she squeaked as the force of his voice rattled her around. “Um, do you mind if I bring my bunny, Angel?”

Iron Will considered the proposal. “Well, that’s not exactly what I had in mind, but hey, it’s not truly a wild party if it doesn’t have wildlife.”

“It just ain’t right at all,” Applejack complained as she watched construction equipment tearing down the trees on the property adjacent to Sweet Apple Acres. A mansion had been under construction on the land for the past several months. It was spoiling the serene view the Apple family had always enjoyed on their farm. It also generated a significant amount of noise and dust from dawn until dusk every day.

“Ee-yup,” Big Macintosh agreed.

“I guess we’d best get back ta work,” Applejack sighed, still glaring at the disruptive construction project. “We’re runnin’ so gosh darn far behind these days. I sure wish we had more help around the farm. Maybe one day I’ll find the right stallion ta marry and we’ll have another good hoof ta help out. Do ya think that’ll ever happen?”

“Nn-ope,” her brother said rather more nonchalantly than he intended.

“Huh? Why not? What stallion wouldn’t want me?”

Big Mac felt a bit awkward having this conversation, since these types of things did not come up very often in his family. He thought about how to say it without hurting his sister’s feelings. “Well, it’s more that you’re not really doin’ anythin’ ta find a special someone. I mean, ya mostly just work out here and spend time with your friends.”

Applejack looked thoughtful for a moment. “I reckon you’re right, brother.  I was just sorta assumin’ that somepony would ask me out by now, but I’m just so busy all the time and what spare time I got goes ta rodeo practice. How ‘bout you? You think you’ll find a special someone anytime soon? What about that whole deal with Cheerilee?”

Big Mac shifted his ever-present stalk of hay from one side of his mouth to the other. He had managed to avoid talking about this so far; why did it have to come up now? “Oh, uh, that didn’t really come ta nothin’. It was just some shenanigans Apple Bloom and her conquistador friends pulled on the two of us.”

“They’re crusaders.”

“Ee-yup, I’m pretty sure that’s what I said.”

Just then, Fluttershy came into view and flew slowly across the field to where the Apple siblings were standing. “Hi Applejack,” the pegasus said cheerfully. She then turned shyly to Big Mac and attempted to greet him, but ended up barely mumbling a “hello” in her nervousness.

“What brings ya ‘round here, Fluttershy?” asked Applejack.

“Oh, I wanted to invite you… well, I guess both of you, to Iron Will’s Rock Ponyville Party this weekend.”

“That might be interestin’ for a change of pace, but we’re fallin’ terribly behind around here these days. It’s gonna be a big harvest year.”

“Um, okay. Thanks for considering it. I’m sorry I wasted your time,” Fluttershy was about to fly away, but she really wanted Applejack and Big Mac to come. “Please, Applejack. I doubt Pinkie and Rarity will want to come, since the only time they ever met Iron Will, he threw them in a mud puddle. Twilight and Rainbow Dash are usually pretty busy too. I don’t want to end up going by myself.”

Applejack took Fluttershy a few paces away from her brother, so they could speak more privately. “Well, I’m not sure why ya’d want ta spend time with somepony who would throw our friends in the mud, but I’ll go with ya. Big Mac should probably stay here. He’s a bit shy for parties anyhow.”

Big Mac was not particularly paying attention at this point. He was thoughtfully watching the clouds.

“Are you sure? Even if he’s shy at parties, Iron Will is all about helping ponies become more confident, I’m sure he’ll make Big Mac feel right at home. I really think he should come.”

Applejack was surprised by her friend’s insistence. Fluttershy almost never pushed for anything like this. Applejack looked between her friend and her brother then smiled knowingly. “I think I see what this is about.”

Fluttershy began blushing deeply, cringing with embarrassment. She was surprised at herself. Perhaps she was remembering to be more confident, since Iron Will was back.

Applejack reached out and playfully ruffled Fluttershy’s mane, leaving it rather badly disheveled. “I’ll see if I can’t talk him around ta comin’ ta the party with us.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy squeaked before rushing off towards Ponyville.

Big Mac walked over to Applejack. “Where do ya think she’s off ta in such a hurry?” he asked, as he saw Fluttershy fleeing into the distance.

“Don’t rightly know.” Applejack tried to put on a poker face, but instead ended up smiling broadly. She felt giddy withholding information from her brother. “So did ya want ta go ta the party?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, let me rephrase that; you’re comin’ ta the party.”

Big Mac felt uneasy. His sister did not usually include him in activities with her friends. He barely knew any of them, but they all seemed a bit crazy to him, especially the pink one.

“Behold the future of partying!” Pinkie announced as she unrolled a massive lecture slide in the library. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike studied the chart in confusion.

“How is this supposed to be sustainable?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“You’re really setting the bar pretty high, even for you, Pinkie. That’s an exponential function,” Twilight commented.

“Exactly,” Pinkie replied happily. “This is Pinkie’s Law. Roughly every two years, I should be able to double how hard I can party. Everypony wants every party to be more fun than the last one, right? I mean duh!”

“Oh, um, you are in luck then, because I’m here to invite you all to a really, uh, extreme party,” Fluttershy said in a small voice. Nopony had noticed her come in.

Rainbow Dash looked skeptical. “I hate to break it to you, Fluttershy, but hanging out with your bunnies and birdies doesn’t count as ‘extreme.’ I’m not saying it wasn’t fun, but don’t oversell it.”

“Oh, no, I’m not hosting the party. It’s Iron Will’s party. He just moved to Ponyville and he’s celebrating the completion of his new summer home.”

“Iron Will? That guy is famous. I’ll bet all sorts of other famous ponies will be there, maybe even the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow Dash speculated gleefully.

Pinkie looked worried. “We can’t go to the party. Iron Will is a monster and he turned Fluttershy into a monster too. If we go, I might be next.”

“I don’t remember Fluttershy being a monster,” said Twilight with a troubled look on her face.

“Well, she turned herself back, silly,” Pinkie replied.

“So, um, do you guys want to come?” Fluttershy asked hopefully.

“Count me in,” Dash said willingly.

“I’ll come too,” said Twilight. “I’ve never had the chance to meet a minotaur before. I wonder if they make good intellectual conversationalists.”

“Hmm, if this party really is extreme, going there might help me comply with Pinkie’s Law for this month,” Pinkie relented.

“Uh, am I invited?” Spike asked, wondering if it was a stupid question.

“He said to invite all of my friends and you’re my friend, so yes,” Fluttershy said happily. “I even invited Big Macintosh and I don’t know him that well, though I’d like to know him better.” She found herself becoming embarrassed again. Thankfully Spike changed the subject before any of her friends could ask why she’d like to know Big Mac.

“So is this going to be a formal party?”

“No, I think it’s going to be informal and probably really loud,” Fluttershy grimaced as she said this. She began wondering if she was getting in over her head. Iron Will was so big and loud who knew how crazy the party might get. She knew, however, that she could not back out of everything now that she had invited most of her friends. “It’s lucky I found you all here, now all we need to do is invite Rarity.”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want Spike to go dateless,” Pinkie joked.

Rainbow Dash smiled slyly. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s tell Rarity it’s a formal party and have her and Spike be the only ones who show up all dressed up. That way we’ll sort of force them into being each other’s dates.”

Pinkie giggled at this. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Perhaps just fun enough to comply with Pinkie’s Law.”

“Well, how about I go and invite her to the party myself,” suggested Spike, putting on a top hat and tuxedo.

“Oh, the party’s not until this Saturday,” Fluttershy said hastily, feeling like she should have told her friends more of the details.

“That’s fine. I still want to look good when I ask Rarity out,” Spike said in what he hoped was a suave voice. His friends giggled at his enthusiasm. Fluttershy didn’t laugh though; she could empathize with Spike, because she knew how awkward it could feel to want to ask somepony on a date.

Rarity, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy met Applejack and Big Mac at the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. It was Saturday evening and the party would begin shortly. Rarity looked stunning in a new ensemble she had designed specifically for the occasion. She had even made some adjustments to Spike’s tuxedo so that it matched better with her outfit.

“How on earth could you forget to dress up?” Rarity asked incredulously. “You’re all going to look so silly. It seems that Spike-ee-wai-kee and I are the only ones prepared.”

“Big Mac’s all dressed up,” laughed Applejack. Indeed he looked more presentable than usual, though this was simply because his sister had persuaded him not to wear the work harness he often wore regardless of whether he was working or not.

Pinkie could barely contain her excitement. She tapped her front hooves gleefully. “I’ve got a feeling tonight’s gonna be a good night, I mean, like, crazy good!”

“So where’s this guy’s party, anyhow?” asked Applejack. She felt like she just wanted to get this over with. She and the rest of her family had worked a long, hard day. Furthermore, she had been losing sleep again to keep up with her chores. The one thought that kept her going was the extra money that the Apple family might make this year with a larger harvest.

Fluttershy pointed to the new mansion adjacent to Sweet Apple Acres. “Oh, you didn’t know? The party’s right over there.”

“That’s the new summer house?” Applejack was surprised. She had half a mind to give its owner her honest opinion about the mansion, but she thought better of it. That wouldn’t be very neighborly of her after all.