It had taken longer than she would have liked, but Daring finally managed to pick her team. The moment she returned to Ponyville Spike had her wrapped up in a hug that was surprisingly gentle for how intense it was, and covered with a lot of kisses for several minutes before letting her go. The whole time, Twilight was in the background taking notes. The most prominent surprise, amusingly enough, was the group of five individuals acting as Twilight’s assistants-in-training; a changeling, a unicorn, a pair of earth ponies that appeared to be twins, and a pegasus. The unicorn was familiar; the rest weren’t.

After the teams were set Cadance got to work setting up the rail line that would lead to the town’s site. Amusingly, the first task of the teams was to build the train station, which actually did start getting Celestia’s picks in trouble. Daring chose to model the station after a sleeping dragon, with the tail and neck and head acting as ramps. Luna’s team were excited, Daring’s team was eager, and Celestia’s team was already butting heads with Daring.

It had taken a few weeks for the rail line to get set up, during that time Daring was already starting to show signs of her pregnancy. And that was the first problem, the team Celestia had chosen were of the belief that a pregnant mare was unfit to direct the project, despite the fact Daring had brought Spike along and had clearly stated that he would be the acting overseer. Celestia’s team were also insistent that Daring’s plan wasn’t viable for a train station on the grounds that such a thing wasn’t done. It really seemed Celestia’s team were of the mindset their way was the only viable way, Spike actually had to strongarm them into doing the job the.

Afterwards, Daring decided the best plan was to break the teams up to do different tasks, all while keeping a running tab of who was being the most difficult to work with. Luna’s team was given the main bathhouse, a duty they were more than excited to get to work on. Daring got her team working on the schoolhouse and residential district, and thanks to the surprising abundance of crystal ponies in it they were more than eager to impress Spike. While Celestia’s team were given the job of working on the temple complex, mostly because Daring figured their experience on working on highrises in Manehattan and complexes in Canterlot would be a good fit for the project.

Daring’s team was more than happy to be doing their work, especially since Daring had provided them with a basic idea of building design and layout. Luna’s team was more than eager to do their tasks, mostly because Daring and Spike had both stated that once the complex was completed, they would be allowed to add their own little flourishes, so long as they matched up with rest of the town's aesthetics. The main problem was Celestia’s team, which was quickly gaining a high number of strikes against them.

Celestia’s choices were actually standing around arguing over Daring’s building design for the temple, even going as far as to make fun of her understanding of architecture. Daring quickly set them straight on their misconceptions through the very act of rambling off everything she had learned about architecture from her prior occupation, which actually managed to shock the team into a point of having no rebuttal.

After returning to her post of observing and coordinating, with help from Spike, she went back to writing down the issues they had begun to experience. The fact that Celestia’s choices were being so problematic was a bit annoying, but would ultimately see some sort of remedy in the foreseeable future. Daring had chosen to model the temple after Zelshirka’s mark, the upper levels were intended as living quarters.

The schoolhouse went up rather quickly; Daring had chosen to make the structure heartshaped in design to keep with the aesthetic of the temple, and match up with that of the Crystal Empire and Cadance. The main bathhouse was also going up rather quickly, and she also heard the plumbing work for all the structures was going well. Sadly, the temple was not going up all that fast, or at all.

After only about an hour of working for the team Celestia had picked were standing around chatting like old homemakers, Daring was pretty sure the homemakers would be actually doing more than these idiots. She directed Spike to see about correcting the error. When he came back almost an hour later they were just barely getting back to work, he gave a sigh of annoyance when he got back to Daring.

“What's the damage?” Daring inquired.

“They thought they were just supposed to start the foundation of the complex then wait for the other teams to come and help out, I explained why all the teams were assigned different builds and that the temple was their job because of the expertise they had regarding highrise buildings. It looks like Celestia’s crack team is just a bunch of ponies that have their profiles filled in to look impressive.”

“I would have to agree,” said Daring as she showed Spike her list of points against. A list that was showing the most grievous offenders were Celestia’s picks.”

“She’s usually much better with her choices of pony,” said Spike, “but everyone makes mistakes from time to time.”

“I’m not arguing that,” she groaned, “we’ve been out here for most of the day, most of which has seen the larger complexes get partially done,” she tore out the pages detailing who was causing issues and handed it to Spike. “Would you be a sweetheart and get all this to Princess Cadance ahead of us, we can send copies to the rest later.”

“Sure, Cadance did win the right for the place to be under her extended jurisdiction.” He took the sheets and sent them through his magical fire, “And done; she should be getting it all now. I’m sure she’ll have a few choice words for Celestia about her picks.” They both looked out at the residential area and smiled, almost half the houses that were planned were already up.

“Alright,” Daring hollered, “this is a reminder, the first day’s work ends at sundown. Make the necessary preparations for securing your work sites for the night.”

“You heard the boss mare,” Spike bellowed, a few pointed groans from Celestia’s team were heard, earning pointed glares from everyone else in the clearing, “clean up your work sites, make the required actions to minimize disturbance, and get ready to head back for the night.”

*******************************

“Seriously, I cannot believe those jerks,” Cadance half huffed and growled, “Auntie Celestia is usually much better with her choices.”

“I said the same thing,” said Spike, “are you sure you should be working yourself up like this.”

“He has a point,” said Shining Armor, “the doctor said you’re carrying again. It’s not healthy for the foal for you to be in such a tizzy.”

“I know,” groaned Cadance, “I just feel like I should be showing my displeasure about this whole thing. I mean, we expected a few dissenters in a project like this, seeing as this is something well out of the comfort zones of those working on it.”

“Yes, that is true,” said Daring. “But the other teams were excited about getting outside their comfort zones, looks like Celestia will be going over a new list for this project.”

“Well,” said Flurry Heart, “this just serves as a reminder that sometimes profiles are doctored to make ponies look better, and we can’t just go on recommendations that are written.”

________________________________________

Meanwhile, in Canterlot

“Every. Single. One. Luna,” huffed Celestia as she destroyed a variety of clay targets at the Royal Guard practiced range, on the highest difficulty. The only ponies present were Celestia, Luna, their personal assistants, and three guards for each. Celestia’s guards just stared in fascinated horror as Celestia casually made every guard record amount to insignificant in her fit of frustration.

Luna said nothing and just released another set of fifty targets, all of which exploded into clouds of clay dust the moment they entered Celestia’s line of sight. After Celestia destroyed another six sets of targets, Luna merely asked, “How many more do you need to get through before a more thorough look through the dossiers?”

“We’ll probably be here another hour,” said Celestia in an irked voice as she casually blew up another set of clay targets.”

“Oh good,” said her assistant, Dawn Quill, an orange and green colored unicorn mare, “we’ll be ahead of schedule for the first time in a while, I marked you down here for another two and half hours of ‘therapy’, I hope that wasn’t too presumptuous, Princess.”

“Not at all,” said Celestia as she took out another set of targets, “but if I'm slated to be here longer, maybe extend my prior statement by forty-five minutes.”

“Of course, your majesty,” said Dawn Quill.

“What of our schedule?” Luna asked her aid, Constellation Watch.

“You have another hour and a half before your next appointment for the night, princess,” said the thestral mare.

“Excellent,” said Luna, who then magicked up her copy of the problematic acts performed by ponies on the teams for Daring’s project. “I’m pleasantly surprised, members of other teams just have minor complaints, complaints that can easily be rectified either on the job or with the proper course for a few days.”

“I will take the fall for this one, Princess,” said Dawn, “I should have been more thorough in my screening.”

“No, we’re both to blame for this one,” said Celestia, “I was the one who okayed your choices without looking in further, it was just such a busy time for us.”

“I’ll clear your afternoon,” said Dawn, “and we’ll go about this again the proper way.”

“It might take more than an afternoon for this,” said Celestia, “we might be at it for an additional day or two.”

“Not to worry, I’ll move all the non-critical demands to later dates, only the most pressing matters won’t be moved. Hopefully, this will work before the more pressing matters approach.”

Author's Notes:

Well, I didn’t expect that the chapter would have so many jumps between characters. Although I would love to see the scene of Celestia destroying clay pigeons at night, somepony make that happen, I even gave you a good place to start.

Twilight’s back in the next chapter. If you have any suggestions for a future chapter PM me about it or place it in a spoiler in the comments so as to not ruin the surprise for any readers that come after you, I want to keep spoilers to a minimum as much as possible.

As always, you know my policies.