Reinventing the Iron Will

“Where’ve ya been all darn day?” Granny Smith asked as Apple Bloom hopped up to seat herself for dinner. Her siblings were setting the table. They looked exhausted.

“Oh, hi there, Twi,” Applejack noticed her friend had come in with Apple Bloom. “What brings ya here this evenin’?”

Twilight opened her mouth the reply, but Apple Bloom was already answering for her. “Twilight’s goin’ ta help me with my homework. We’re gonna stay up late tonight and do some astrology!”

“Astronomy,” Twilight corrected her.

Applejack smiled. “Well, isn’t that just so kind of ya, Twilight. Ya want some dinner? We’re eatin’ apples,” she set a small pile of apples on a plate for Twilight.

“Just apples?”

“Well, we’re runnin’ a bit behind, so we ain’t had time to cook ‘em inta pies or muffins or anythin’.”

“That’s fine AJ. I’m starving as it is,” Twilight happily bit into one of the juicy apples.

Applejack finished putting apples on everypony’s plate and took her seat between her brother and sister. “I’m su’prised you’re home so late Apple Bloom. I hope that William character didn’t make ya work none too hard.”

“I would have had to work harder, but Twilight and Rarity and Pinkie and Fluttershy were all there helpin’ too.”

“Yeah, Pinkie wanted to clean up the mess she had made, so we all went over and helped out as best we could. We would have had asked you along, but we all know how busy you are,” said Twilight.

“That’s just fine. I didn’t want to help William anyway. He’s a darn showoff who doesn’t care none ‘bout anypony’s feelings.”

Apple Bloom came to his defense. “Oh, he’s not so bad, Sis. He’s actually really swell. He let me swim in the pool, and jump on the furniture, and use his weights room!” She said with her mouth full, spitting bits of apple as she talked.

“Yes, he’s actually very nice when you get to know him better,” Twilight added. “Maybe you should give him another chance; you are pretty close neighbors after all. You know, when I first came to Ponyville, I had a bad first impression of almost everypony. You shook my hoof so hard it hurt and then corralled me into eating a bunch of food. Rainbow Dash knocked me into a mud puddle, drenched me in rain, and messed up my hair. Rarity practically strangled me to death and I thought Pinkie was totally out of her mind, but I ended up being great friends with all of you. Iron Will is a bit out there I’ll admit, but he means well and he’s nicer than you think.”

Twilight then turned and looked Big Mac squarely in the eye. “You know who else is really nice? Fluttershy is really nice.”

“Ee-yup,” Big Mac said, looking uncomfortable.

***

Apple Bloom sneaked quietly into Big Mac’s bedroom once she started to hear him snoring. She jumped with fright as she noticed a small, strange figure sitting on her brother’s bedside table, but breathed a small sigh of relief when she realized it was simply Smarty Pants, Twilight’s foalhood toy. There was no time to wonder how it had ended up here. Apple Bloom quietly trotted up beside the bed and slipped a pair of earplugs into her brother’s ears. He stirred and shifted his hay stalk from one side of his mouth to the other. It tickled Apple Bloom’s nose as it passed by. She tried desperately not to sneeze in her brother’s face. All could be lost if she woke him up now.

Thankfully she managed to repress the sneeze and crept out of the room undetected. The next task would be more challenging, since Applejack was a slightly lighter sleeper than Big Mac. As Apple Bloom walked into her sister’s room, one of the floorboards creaked loudly. She froze in place, but her sister continued snoring.

“Phew, that was a close one,” Apple Bloom murmured to herself. Unfortunately, this woke Applejack up.

As Apple Bloom was placing the earplugs in her sister’s ears, her eyes blinked open lazily and she sat up, looking disoriented. “What? Huh? What are ya doing? Ain’t ya s’posed ta be doin’ astronomy homework with Twilight? And what’s with these here earplugs?” she asked, removing them from her ears.

Apple Bloom’s mind raced. “Uh, well, ya see, Twilight was makin’ so much noise I thought it would be polite ta give ya some earplugs so ya wouldn’t wake up.”

“Why would Twilight be making a lot of noise?”

“Oh, uh… ya know how much she likes astronomy. She keeps yellin’ out all the names of all the stars.”

Applejack pondered for a moment. “Well, that does sound like somethin’ Twi would do. Go ahead and put the earplugs in. I’m gonna need my sleep.”

Apple Bloom vigorously shoved the earplugs in her sister’s ears and dashed out of the room. She considered giving Granny Smith ear plugs too, but with her hearing as bad as it was there was little point. She had fallen asleep at the dinner table earlier and Big Mac had carried her to bed without waking her.

***

“This is totally crazy; I could be sleeping right now,” Rainbow Dash complained.

“I know what you mean,” Spike agreed as he helped the pegasus repair a fence in the moonlight. He was actually well rested though, having only been up for about an hour when Fluttershy invited him along for the nighttime invasion of Sweet Apple Acres.

The operation flowed smoothly. Apple Bloom stood on a barrel giving orders. She wondered what a management cutie mark would look like. Iron Will and his goats planted apple tree seedlings. Rarity cleaned mud off of the side of the barn. Twilight was using her magic to levitate tools to workers as they needed them. Fluttershy coaxed some bunnies out of the garden, where they had been stealing vegetables. Meanwhile, Pinkie read stories to the sheep, who had agreed not to tell the Apples about what was going on, provided that somepony entertained them.

During a break, Iron Will began handing out energy drinks which bore a picture of him giving a thumbs up. “When you’ve got to stay up all night, you’d better do it right!” he shouted, downing three of the drinks in quick succession.

“I’m glad you thought of giving the Apple family earplugs,” Rarity whispered to Twilight. “We would have woken them up several times over by now.”

“Care for a boost?” Iron Will asked Rarity as he handed her an energy drink.

“Aren’t these only for teenage colts?” she asked incredulously.

“Get over your age and gender stereotypes,” replied the minotaur, dropping down between her and Twilight. “Can you believe that I wanted to wipe out this whole place and replace it with hedges?” he asked, looking around at the pleasant, moonlight farm.

“It is very nice,” Twilight agreed. “I guess it takes some getting used to. I’m from a much fancier place myself, but I think I like it here more. The ponies are friendly here.”

Apple Bloom stomped her hoof on the barrel she stood upon. “Back to work everypony!”

Iron Will chuckled at the little filly’s assertiveness. “I guess the break’s over.”

***

Apple Bloom was just getting into bed as the sun was beginning to rise. She had never been more tired in her life. Nor had she ever been allowed to stay up so late.

Applejack walked in, putting on her hat and removing her earplugs as she prepared herself for another hard day’s work.

“Ya’ll ready for school, little sister?”

“Oh shoot!” Apple Bloom’s face fell as she realized she would not be sleeping at all. “This is gonna be the worst day ever!”

“Come now, school can’t be all that bad,” Applejack chuckled.

***

Pinkie yawned as she placed four omelets on the Apple family kitchen table.

Rarity finished sweeping the floor and levitated the broom and dustpan back into their corner. “Let’s get out of here. I think I hear somepony coming.” The two ponies slipped out the back door and out of sight just before the Apple family came into the kitchen.

“What in tarnation?”

“Ee-yup,” Big Mac said, looking at the delicious omelets as he took out his earplugs.

After finishing the breakfast which had mysteriously appeared, Applejack trotted up to the window to take an admiring look at the peaceful farm before getting to work. She could not believe her eyes. Glancing back she noticed Apple Bloom had fallen asleep in her seat at the table, though apparently not before having finished her own omelet. Big Mac and Granny Smith were still eating. Applejack thought for a moment as she surveyed the orderly farm from the window. She turned back to her brother. “I suspect Apple Bloom and Twilight weren’t actually doing astronomy last night. It looks like they got a big amount of work done on the farm.”

Big Mac shoveled the rest of his omelet into his mouth and got up to see what his sister was so surprised about. He stared out the window in disbelief. “That doesn’t make no kind of sense,” he said, still chewing.

“Well, Twilight is real good with that magic of hers. Maybe it is possible, but that still don’t explain why she’d go through so much trouble.”

“What are we supposed to do today then?” Big Mac looked confused.

“I don’t reckon I know, but that sure was a great omelet.”

Just then, a knock came at the front door. Applejack left the kitchen and went to answer it. There on the porch stood Iron Will. He looked tired, but seemed pleasantly pleased with himself. “It appears you’ve finally caught up on all of your work. Do you think you have time for a date sometime today?”

Applejack almost laughed at the minotaur’s audacity. “Don’t ya think it’s pretty early in the mornin’ ta be asking a question like that? Besides, what would we do on a date?”

“I was thinking we’d transplant some big trees and put them between my summer house and Sweet Apple Acres so you can have your pristine nature view back. You don’t mind getting a bit sweaty on a first date do you?”

Applejack did actually laugh at this. Her immediate instinct was to turn him down, but Apple Bloom and her friends seemed to like him and he had been nice to her since the party. “Aw heck, I got nothing else to do today apparently. You’re just lucky you caught me a in a good mood. How about I drop by this afternoon?”

He smiled broadly. “You won’t regret giving Iron Will a chance,” he said, giving a bow. “I’ll see you later.”

Applejack rolled her eyes as the minotaur strutted away towards his home and out of sight. “He’d better stop referring to himself in third person,” she muttered under her breath. Still, she could not help smiling to herself as she sat down in a rocking chair on the porch.

“Hurray!” Pinkie shouted as she jumped out from behind a shrub in the yard where she and her friends had been secretly watching.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. “Pinkie, you’re ruining everything!” she complained as she followed Pinkie out from their hiding spot.

Seeing her two friends surprised Applejack so much that she lost balance in the rocking chair and tumbled onto the ground in front of them. “Oh, then I guess ya’ll saw Iron Will ask me out?” Applejack asked, a blush coming to her cheeks. Her other friends emerged from hiding. Spike lay across Twilight’s back, snoring softly.

Fluttershy extended a hoof and helped Applejack get up. “Isn’t it just wonderful?” she asked, gesturing to the orderly farm around them. “It was Iron Will’s idea. We all helped.”

“We can understand if you still don’t want to go out with him,” said Rarity. “I mean, he is rather uncouth.”

Applejack looked bemused. “Rarity, didn’t ya always say I was a bit uncouth myself? I’ll give him a second chance. We may have a load of differences, but we don’t gotta let our differences get in the way.”

The orange mare shook her head in disbelief at all that had already happened this morning. “Thank ya’ll for goin’ so far out of your way to help me out, even if it was for meddlesome reasons.”

She then looked playfully at Fluttershy. “Don’t you have somepony you need ta be asking out yourself?”

Fluttershy’s cheerful face fell. She knew this moment had been coming, but for some reason that did not make it any less terrifying. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe I should get some sleep first, so that I’m thinking better and so that I don’t look like such a dreadful mess.”

“Sure thing, Sugarcube. How about I ask him out for you? That’ll save ya both a lot of trouble. Ya got any idea what you’d like ta do for a first date?”

“I was thinking we could go and pick some lovely flowers so we could make a ‘get well’ bouquet for the DJ.”

Applejack was touched by her friend’s thoughtfulness. “Big Mac would be lucky to have ya as a special somepony, Fluttershy. You’re the nicest pony I ever did know.”

Rainbow Dash looked offended. “Hey, what about me? I thought I was the nicest pony?”

“Sorry Rainbow, you can’t be the best at everything,” laughed Applejack.

“I know. I’m just messing with you.”