Reinventing the Iron Will

Iron Will continued talking with Fluttershy for the next few hours. He gave her tips about confidence and body building. Guests would occasionally stop by to congratulate the minotaur on throwing such an amazing party. Fluttershy told him about her love of animals and of the dangerous adventures her friends had pushed her into. Iron Will had initially expected to be moshing and partying all night, but he found that talking with this tiny pegasus was actually more enjoyable. He occasionally glanced over at Applejack, hoping to a catch her eye.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash ran out of energy for dancing far sooner than Pinkie. They left the dance floor and eventually joined up Spike and Rarity in their socializing with interesting party guests.

“Do you think Fluttershy and that monster like each other?” Rarity asked Twilight discreetly, nodding towards the beanbags where they were lounging.

Twilight looked over at the two of them talking happily together. The minotaur and pegasus began to whisper together conspiratorially. “I don’t know, maybe,” Twilight answered. “Fluttershy has always liked scary monsters.”

Meanwhile, Applejack had fallen asleep on her brother’s shoulder. Big Mac had stopped feeling nervous and had instead become bored. He was not sure what he would say to any of these guests. He looked around the room for something to entertain him and settled upon picking up a magazine from a nearby coffee table. When, he returned to the couch, he resumed his position as Applejack’s pillow without waking her. His eyes bulged when he realized what type of magazine he had picked up. He quickly slid it under the couch, hoping nopony had noticed. To his horror, he looked up to see the host of the party standing in front of him.

“Pleased to meet you, Macintosh,” Iron Will said, giving him a firm hand-to-hoof shake and looking him squarely in the eye. “Fluttershy, over there, would like to talk to you. You’ll be a gentlecolt and go spend some time with her won’t you?”

“Ee-yup.” Mac wished he had thought of something more articulate to say, but his head was already spinning from the busy party and from the embarrassment of being seen with the magazine. He made his way across the room wondering if he would have anything intelligent to say when he got to Fluttershy.

Applejack awoke with a start, as her brother was no longer acting as her pillow. She was startled to see a menacing looking minotaur towering over her. She had not met him before and had barely noticed him at the party.

He gave a bow. “Hi, I’m William,” he said politely. “Would you like to see something really amazing?”

“Heck, why not?” Applejack shrugged sleepily, wondering how long she had been asleep and where Macintosh and her friends had gotten to. Looking around the crowded room, she caught a brief glimpse of Rainbow Dash talking enthusiastically with a bright red pegasus before following William into a different part of the house. He led her out up a flight of stairs and out onto a magnificent balcony built into the apex of the roof. Apparently it had turned from evening into a starry night. It would have been downright peaceful if not for the music thumping from another part of the house.

“Pretty amazing, if I do say so myself,” the minotaur gave a panoramic sweep of his arm drawing attention to the view. “I hope you like my summer vacation house. I’ll spend half of the year here and half of the year in the other hemisphere. When it’s winter here, it’s summer in Auquestria, the land down under. With this new arrangement, it will always be summer for me. That way my life will rock even harder,” he flexed his muscular arms and kissed each of his biceps to emphasize the awesomeness of his life.

Applejack rolled her eyes. She was too tired for this nonsense. “It’s nice, I guess,” she mumbled.

“I know, right. The view from here is almost perfect except for that ugly barn and rundown old house out there,” he said, gesturing to Applejack’s beloved home. “I’m thinking of buying it from whatever hick owns it and having all the buildings and trees bulldozed. It would look a world better with a lot of hedge mazes to round out the estate. Just picture it.”

Applejack was wide awake and fuming mad at this point. “I’ll tell you what would make this place look loads better, if this blasted house of yours had never been built!” With this she stormed off down the stairs and out of sight. She was almost in tears.

Iron Will slumped his shoulders in defeat, making no attempt to follow the pony. He could not remember a time when he had felt so humiliated. He almost always got his way. Nopony was there to see the tear that trickled down his normally stern face.

Meanwhile, Big Mac approached Fluttershy. He could have sworn he heard her whisper to herself “Okay, stay calm Fluttershy, you can do this.” He stopped and stood in front of her awkwardly for a moment before deciding that flopping down on a beanbag next to her would be less awkward. It would have been too, except for the fact that the force of his bulky body burst the beanbag, spewing its contents in every direction. He immediately wanted to apologize to Iron Will for breaking his property, but, when he looked over to the other side of the room, he saw neither the minotaur nor his sister. He was not afforded to opportunity to consider where they had gone.

“Hey, that looks like fun!” Pinkie jumped in front of the two ponies and began rapidly and forcefully popping the beanbags around them. The catastrophe all happened so quickly. Beanbag beans burst forth in every direction to the great dismay of all nearby party guests. Pinkie abruptly stopped destroying the furniture to pose a question to Fluttershy and Big Mac. “Do you guys want to go to the mosh pit with me? They’ve got a punk concert going on in the basement.”

“Um, no thank you,” Fluttershy said politely, shaking beanbag beans out of her mane.

“Oki-doki-loki!” Pinkie said as she cartwheeled out of the room.

At that moment, Mac noticed his sister sulking through the back of the room in and into a hallway. A mixture of anger and sadness played on her face. Big Mac turned to Fluttershy, “Uh, nice ta meet ya Ms.,” he said hastily. “Sorry, but I gotta go. I’ll talk ta ya later, promise.” Ponies scattered out of his way as he galloped after his sister.

Twilight, Rarity, Spike, Rainbow Dash, and a red Pegasus stallion sat around Iron Will’s kitchen table, where they could talk more privately. The stallion had a bright yellow mane and a cutie mark consisting of a yellow hammer, sickle, and star. Rainbow Dash introduced him to the others. “I’d like you to meet my new friend Molotov Delivery. He’s a communist.”

Rarity plainly felt uncomfortable in his presence. Being a businessmare and a connoisseur of elite fashion, she feared Molotov’s radical views would be diametrically opposed to her own.

Twilight, however, appeared to be delighted. “Oh, this is great! I’ve always wanted to meet a real communist. I’ve heard that they are great intellectual party guests. Tell me, Molotov, what do you think about the distribution of wealth in Equestria?”

“First off, the earth ponies here in Ponyville are being massively exploited by the Canterlot elite. They do all of the work and produce all of the food that ponies need to survive, yet what do they get for it? Almost nothing. Meanwhile, the unicorns and alicorns in Canterlot get to enjoy all the benefits of their labor without working. They’re spending most of their time going to frivolous parties while the rest of us suffer. And don’t even get me started on the working conditions in the factories in Cloudsdell. We’re going to put a stop to it though. Rainbow Dash says she’ll help me unionize the pegasi.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna take on the system,” Rainbow Dash added confidently.

“It’s nice to find some ponies interested in my political views,” the pegaus said. “For most of this party, I’ve only been meeting sell-out Canterlot unicorns whose bourgeois liberal views can barely be called socialist, let alone communist.”

Just then, Applejack burst into the kitchen. She looked particularly angry. “That William has got ta be ‘bout the biggest jerk I’ve ever had the misfortune ta meet. I’ll see ya’ll later,” she left the room before any of them could respond.

Rarity found this to be a good excuse to remove herself from Molotov’s presence. “Sorry, you’ll have to excuse me. I should go and see what’s bothering Applejack,” she said hurriedly, before leaving the room.

“Who is William?” Spike asked, looking around at the others.