After finishing with Amethyst's interview, Sunny was in a much better mood than she was four years ago. During the last election cycle, she was rather disturbed by Amethyst's behavior towards her but this time she was beyond impressed with Amethyst. Given that Amethyst did not behave like a fanfilly and was incredibly transparent, it was all Sunny could do to not go exclaiming to everypony that she wanted Amethyst to win.
Once she got near Iron Will's house, she readied herself to expect anything. While she knew that he would likely be gobbling up all the attention, she couldn't help but wonder if any of the questions she planned on asking him given the fact that minotaurs tend to have short tempers. When she arrived at his house and knocked on his door she thought to herself, "Well here goes nothing."
Iron Will opened the door and when he saw not just Sunny but the ENC crew, he was beyond happy. He said, "Hello, my name is Iron Will and Iron Will is ready to do his interview."
Sunny replied, "Well it is a pleasure to meet you and do this interview with you."
Iron Will motioned for them to go in and Iron Will said, "It is a pleasure to meet you too."
When they headed in, Sunny couldn't help but be surprised. She believed that minotaurs may not keep their homes all that clean but Iron Will's was just as clean as Amethyst's. Sunny ordered her crew to start setting up while she asked, "Iron Will, how are you doing today?"
Iron Will replied, "Iron Will is doing very well today." He raised his voice a bit and continued, "And Iron Will will be even happier when he shows the creatures of Ponyville that he cares much more about them than his opponent does."
Sunny said, "I see." She noticed that the crew was ready to go and motioned for Iron Will to sit down across from her. Once the cameras began to roll she began, "Good evening Equestria. My name is Sunny Flames and as you know, I like to interview the mayoral candidates across the country in the summer." The cameras then focused to where it showed her sitting across from the minotaur. She continued, "And tonight I am interviewing Ponyville First Party candidate Iron Will." She paused for a moment before continuing, "Iron Will, from what I understand you are the first Minotaur to ever run for office in Equestria. Do you have any concerns that some ponies may not vote for you based off of that?"
Iron Will replied, "No. Iron Will is quite certain that Iron Will has a real chance of winning the election because he did get quite a lot of votes in the primary."
Sunny asked, "I know you did quite well but there are a lot of new ponies moving in, ponies that were able to do so because of Amethyst's business friendly policies. What do you think you can do to ease their concerns that you may make things less business friendly."
Iron Will thought this was a rather ridiculous question but knew that he simply couldn't go stating so on national television. He replied, "Not to worry, Iron Will is a creature of business and it was the lower taxes that Amethyst created that allowed him to set up shop here." He then turned towards the camera and continued, "If Iron Will is elected, he will keep the current business taxes that are much lower than anywhere else in Equestria."
Sunny asked, "I'm certain that all the business owners will like that but what about the eradication of the municipal property tax? Do you plan on eradicating it at the end of the year like your opponent does?"
Iron Will replied, "Iron Will has a very similar mindset to his opponent and he thinks that it is not right for ponies to have to pay taxes on something they already own." He puffed his chest out and continued, "To be honest, Iron Will would have eradicated the property tax immediately rather than waiting four years to fulfill that part of his promise."
While Sunny was all for the eradication of things such as property taxes, she couldn't help but smile given his naive attitude when it came to debt eradication. She continued, "What about the sales tax that your opponent put in place in the second year of her term. Would you keep that in place or would you ease it or wipe it out?"
Iron Will boasted, "Iron Will would get rid of this sales tax that steals money from everycreature's saddle bags." He raised his voice further, "Four years ago Iron Will's opponent ran on a low tax platform yet she creates a tax just so she could get rid of another. Under Iron Will's plan, nopony would have to pay any taxes!"
This was something that almost caused Sunny to break down laughing. She asked, "Iron Will, with no revenue, how would the town generate any funds? How would the town keep the damn maintained? How would you keep paying the teacher? How would you continue to pay the city workers?"
Iron Will sat there in silence for nearly a whole minute before replying, "Well Iron Will would maybe keep one cent of that sales tax but two cents seems rather excessive."
Sunny decided to hit Iron Will in another area that she thought might be a liability, "Moving on. In the first debate, you brought up restoring old traditions such as scrapping the weather mage, restoring cold winters and costly, time consuming events such as creating winter and Winter Wrap Up. Could you explain why you would do this?"
Iron Will turned towards the cameras and replied, "Iron Will would restore these beloved traditions because Iron Will knows that tradition is very important in earth pony communities. Iron Will also knows that there are ponies in Ponyville that miss those traditions and miss winter."
Again it was all Sunny could do to not break down laughing given that unicorns made up half the electorate or more at the time but decided to focus on something else, tourism. "Iron Will, from what I understand Ponyville generates a lot of tourism because of the year-round pleasant weather. Wouldn't it concern you if you had three months with next to no tourism?" She then decided to toughen things up further, "What about your zeppelin business? If you restore cold winters, there will be a three month donut hole in which you will have zero passengers coming into Ponyville. I would think that as a creature of business, you would not do something to harm your profits."
Iron Will caught her off guard though, "Iron Will sails his zeppelins all over Equestria and he does not think that three months without having any business in Ponyville would hurt him." She sat up straighter and continued, "Iron Will thinks that tradition is more important than profits." He again faced the camera and continued, "Don't worry everypony, when Iron Will is elected, he will restore cold winters and families can have the winter fun they used to."
Sunny could tell that he was aiming primarily for the traditionalist residents of the town and decided to question him on that, "Iron Will, I know you are wanting to restore things to how they used to be regarding the weather but the demographic of Ponyville has changed and is continuing to do so. I have a strong feeling that many of the new residents will not want to take part in these events and from what I understand, all the unicorns are thrilled it is gone, the pegasi who did not have to relocate are happy with the weather mage and the wealthier earth ponies are happy to no longer have to put up with the burden of changing seasons the hard way. What would you say to win them over?"
Iron Will could tell that Sunny was doing her best to get him to slip up but he was not about to allow it to happen, "Iron Will will let it be known that Winter Wrap Up will not be mandatory but he will also emphasize that clearing away the snow and cold will take longer without them and that could harm hoof traffic in their businesses."
Sunny realized that time was likely running short so she decided to finish this off, "Well thank you Iron Will. Thank you for allowing us to come into your home and thank you for sharing what you would do if you were elected."
Iron Will replied, "The pleasure is all Iron Will's."
Sunny finished, "Good night Equestria. Again my name is Sunny Flames and tune in tomorrow night for my interviews of the mayoral candidates in Vanhoover."
The cameras quit rolling and Iron Will, while he tried to act happy while the cameras were rolling, was not. He approached the reporter, "Sunny Flames, Iron Will has reason to believe that you were trying to set him up with those questions. Iron Will wants to know, do you favor Amethyst because she is a unicorn?"
Sunny could tell that Iron Will was less than thrilled with the way he was asking but was honest with him, "No. I was simply asking you questions that I am certain the electorate here in Ponyville would want to know." Unlike it was with Amethyst, she was in no mood to have to deal with Iron Will any longer than what was necessary. She finished, "You have a good evening Iron Will. I will likely see you again at the next debate."
Before she could leave Iron Will asked one more question, "Iron Will would like to know when this will be aired? Iron Will wants to know when everycreature will see his message."
Sunny replied, "Most likely on Tuesday. I do have interviews to do up in Vanhoover tomorrow and then I have to get back to Manehattan to get all these ready to air." As she was leaving she finished, "I will see you again in October for the debate. You have a good evening."
As Sunny and the ENC news crew left Iron Will's house, she couldn't help but snicker over some of the Minotaur's comments, "Seriously, harm his own business? Tell what are obvious lies to the whole country? I swear, I have a feeling he is going to choke big time in the debate!"