((sorry this one took so long, I've been off of the interwebz for about a week, busy with other life happenings))
((for this and subsequent stories, I'm going to pretend Iron never saw Rainbow Dash's friends, or at least he didn't get a good enough look at them to recognize them in person))
Iron relaxed as he flew over the train tracks. He was able to get some thinking done on his journey to ponyville. He had decided he'd walk into town and talk with the first pony he met, try to strike up a conversation. He didn't do that sort of thing much, really, he'd never done it before. He hoped it would go over well, he didn't want to make a bad first impression. He watched the horizon, looking for a sign of the quaint little town he'd heard so little about. Then he saw something, he picked up his pace a bit so he could get a better look.
There it was, in all it's glory. Ponyville. He scanned across the town, but stopped on the large, crystalline, tree-like castle nestled on one side. He didn't hear anything about a castle, you'd think that'd be one of the first things mentioned, but nope, not a word. He contemplated going somewhere else, where there's a castle, there's bound to be a pompous, self-righteous, self-important royal pain in the flank. He didn't care much for royalty, that was something he wanted to avoid. Yet something, he didn't know what, kept him from straying from his course. Aside from the eyesore of a castle, the little place seemed to be just what he wanted, a quaint little hamlet with friendly ponies. He decided he'd circle around and land on the opposite side of town from the castle, hoping it's influence was less pronounced there.
When he landed just outside town, he started to walk. He walked for a little ways, passing by a few ponies who seemed too busy to talk, he walked some more, looking for somepony he could talk to, when suddenly, somepony caught his eye, there, he saw a pink earth pony with poofy pink hair that looked like cotton candy. She was bouncing up and down with a basket in her mouth. She made her way, like this, to a house where she put down the basket, knocked on the door and quickly zipped away to hide in the nearby bushes. Iron stopped a minute to watch what transpired. An elderly pony open the door slowly and, upon seeing nopony there, he looked down, saw the basket, and picked it up. Inside, he found a note, when he opened it, streamers came out, he smiled "Thanks, Pinkie!" he yelled. At that moment, the pink one jumped out and said "You're welcome, Fred! Happy 85th birthday!" The elderly pony went back inside with a big grin on his face.
Iron looked back, but didn't see the pony he now knew as "Pinkie", she'd disappeared! He looked around for minute, then a voice behind him said "What ya lookin' for?" Startling him out of his wits, making him jump 5 feet in the air. "Did you lose something?" The pink pony asked, ignoring his surprise. "Um, no." he replied, his heart still pounding. "Well, I saw you here looking around, and thought 'Hey! He must be new!'" she started, talking a mile a minute "you know why I know you're new? It's because I don't know you, and if I don't know you, that means you're new here, 'cause I know everypony in Ponyville!" Iron just stood there astonished at the uber excited pony. "Are you moving here," she asked, gesturing to the saddle bags full of things "or just passing through?" Iron looked at his saddle bags for second before finally regaining his composure. "Yeah, I've decided to move here to ponyville for a new life." he started "My name's Iron Lightning, you can call me Iron, or Lightning, really, call me whatever, so long as I know you mean me, and you're not insulting me." He said, giving his customary greeting and offering his hoof. "Hey, Whatever! My name is Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie responded, cheerfully, shaking his hoof with enthusiasm. "So, what part of town are you headed to?" she asked. Iron thought a moment, he hadn't thought about that before, where exactly was he going? "Um," he started "Who do I talk to about getting a place?" Pinkie Pie giggled "Well, you'd talk to Mayor Mare of course, silly!" She chided "You can find her at town hall, right in the smack center of town!" Iron started to leave "Thanks!" he said thinking his encounter with the peculiar pony was over, he was so very wrong. "Well, hold on there mister!" she said, stopping Iron in his tracks, "I haven't given you a proper welcome yet, I have to use my welcome wagon!" she explained, obviously very excited. Iron was a bit curious what this might entail, so he decided to stick around and see, "Sure. Why not?" he said. Pinkie then zoomed away to Celestia knows where with amazing speed, returning not two seconds later with a colorfully decorated wagon which she positioned in front of Iron. Then she pushed a button on the side, and all heck broke loose. Immediately, the wagon opened up and a bunch of horns and flags popped out and started to play a fanfare song which Pinkie Pie began to sing to
"Welcome, welcome, welcome! A fine welcome to you!" At this point she put a hat on his head and continued "Welcome, welcome, welcome, I say how do you do?" She blew a horn in his ear, "Welcome, welcome, welcome, I say hip, hip, hooray! Welcome, welcome, welcome, to ponyville today!" She sang with a big finish, "Wait for it," she cued, then the little oven on the wagon opened up, and inside was a cake, immediately afterward, the confetti cannons went off showering confetti everywhere. "Hey! I did it right this time!" she exclaimed. "Here's your cake!" she hoofed over the cake. Iron stood there, once again in shock from this obviously insane pony. "Thanks." he said, not wanting to be ungrateful, and he took the cake and put it on top of his other stuff in the saddle bag. "Aren't you going to eat it?" Asked Pinkie Pie, "Oh, well, I don't really eat a lot of sugary stuff," he said, honestly, "I'll probably eat some later, though." "Okay!" she replied "Let's go see the mayor!" she yelled, happily. Iron sighed, this pony wasn't going to leave him be, was she?
As they walked to town hall (well, Pinkie kinda more jumping), Pinkie was talking up a storm about the different ponies in ponyville and how Iron was going to love each and every one of them. Iron was only half listening, something about somepony named Rarity being good at fashion stuff, and somepony named Apple Jack was a farmpony who grew apples. Then they arrived. Iron turned to Pinkie and said "Hey, Pinkie Pie, right?" "Uh huh." she replied "I'd love to hear more about your friends and all, but right now I need a place to stay." he explained calmly "Can you introduce me to the mayor?" "Okay!" she said, opening the door "Hey! Mayor!" she yelled into the building. Up came an earth pony with a tan coat and cream mane wearing glasses, she had on a smile, but it was obvious to Iron she was very stressed. "Hello, Pinkie," she greeted "I see you've brought a friend." she gestured to Iron "Yeah! He's new here! His name is Iron!" Pinkie introduced happily "Iron, this is Mayor Mare, she's the Mayor here!" Iron extended a hoof in greeting "Hey, how goes it?" he said "Well, it's getting better." she chuckled, shaking his hoof "So what can I do for you?" "I need a place to live," he started "I just got here from manehatten and I'm actually pretty tired." "Oh, well we have a nice little house not too far from the castle-" She started to say, but Iron stopped her right there, "Actually," he said "I'd rather be on the other side of town, if at all possible." The mayor was a little surprised, "Ok, well, there's a cottage that just opened up yesterday near Sweet Apple Acres' east orchard." she offered, pointing off in the direction opposite the castle, "Great." said Iron "How much is that going to be?" They continued discussing particulars until Iron had a new place that he could call home. He left the town hall happy, finally, he could get some rest.
Iron started walking to his new home, and realized the talkative pink pony had disappeared some time ago. He wondered (only for a second) where she would have gone off to, but decided it was better she weren't there, or he'd have a hard time getting rid of her when he wanted to sleep. He sighed in relief, she was pretty energetic, but there's only so much a pony can take. When he got to his house, it was only just starting to get dark. Iron yawned, he really needed some sleep, he'd flown all the way from manehatten and walked all around town with a pony with too much energy, and he was ready for some well deserved rest. He opened his door, and walked in, not bothering to turn the lights on. He decided he'd just feel around for a couch, and collapse on it. He felt around for a second before suddenly, without warning, the lights turned on. The house was filled with ponies who all yelled "Surprise!" Iron yelped in utter shock, losing his balance and falling to the floor. Somepony helped him up, when he was back on his hooves, he saw it was Pinkie Pie. "I shoulda known it'd be you." he said, his annoyance only showing a little. Pinkie just smiled and said "Yup! Isn't it super-dee-duper!?" obviously, she hadn't caught the edge in Iron's voice "I planned a surprise 'Welcome to Ponyville' party just for you!" Iron was a little peeved at not getting the sleep he so desperately needed, but he did appreciate the thought. "Thank you, Pinkie." he said, trying not to let his frustration at the obvious fact he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight show. The party went on for a couple of hours, Iron tried to socialize, but honestly, he was too tired to think straight. He wasn't going to remember anything anypony said to him, so eventually, he just gave up and watched as the party died down. When the last ponys left, he sighed. "Finally, that's over." he said to himself. Then he stumbled over to the couch and collapsed, falling asleep almost instantly.
((Sorry this ended so ubruptly, I was very busy and had to finish it. Besides, I had decided any more would have been unnecessary. The next one, "Iron and the Angel in the Cottage" is much better. Iron finally finds somepony he can't stop thinking about. Who is it, you ask? Well, you'll just have to read and find out, won't you?))