Author's Notes:

A quick snippet of what Celestia and Luna are currently doing in the story.

Princess Celestia was happy for the distraction, one that she had insisted was of the utmost importance. She got a chance to look over Daring’s rough draft, and had almost giggled when she saw a line stating “All acts of public intimacy are permitted, so long as they are of willing decision of all parties involved and do not involve cohesion of any kind” to which Celestia had thought she had done a decent enough job holding her laughter back.

But now she was sitting in a conference room waiting for one of her potential new choices for Daring’s project. The pony question was a half hour late, which usually wouldn’t bode well. The pony in question finally came through the door, through being dropped into the room by one of the guards. Celestia was starting to have doubts regarding this choice. This pony was a unicorn that had a barely five pages in his dossier. The unicorn stallion was colored forest green with a caramel malt colored mane.

“So sorry to make you wait, Princess,” said the unicorn stallion, “I just saw the architecture of this place and couldn’t help wanting to get a better look at it.”

Veggie Malt, a unicorn that came from a small town and had been raised by parents that ran an ice cream parlor near said town’s center. His name might of been a little unfortunate, and his work history might have been almost non-existent but did have a bit of a reputation as a pony who showed enthusiasm regarding older or more unique architecture.

“Mr. Malt,” said Celestia in a serious tone, “you are here because I am considering you for a very special project, one that is a joint venture in terms of support from all the princesses. You should know, the last team I had pegged for this project was removed due to a lack of proper commitment. Due to the nature of the project, you will only be permitted to see the materials in regards to the project if, and only if, you manage to pass on your screening. You can think of this meeting as your introduction to the screening process, and the first phase of a system that has many. Now that you have been sufficiently informed and warned I would like to learn more about you as an individual, preferably information that isn’t likely to show up in a file somewhere.” She punctuated her seriousness with a steeple of her hands.

This was the new architect she was considering, a test of character was in order when she took into account her last choice of architect and builders for Daring’s project. She needed some very different ponies, ones that would be more than willing to take on the challenges regarding Daring’s unique approach. And they didn’t get more different than her current consideration before here.

Veggie Malt gave a nervous chuckle, when he had been asked to come to Canterlot’s castle for an interview he had not expected Princess Celestia to be the one doing the interview. Also, being informed she had selected a team for a surprise project that failed to perform the duties asked them meant he was definitely feeling the pressure.

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Daring, Luna, and Spike were taking a look at the progress of the town; Luna approved the wheel design for the community. The map helped emphasize the temple, which still was waiting to be built by the right ponies while providing a memorable design for anypony that saw the community from above. The central bathhouse was nearing completion, the other ones were mostly done and just needed some minor touches, and the mailhouse was still up in the air. Apparently, they were having trouble deciding on the design of the post office, and they were conflicted on whether go with a dragon motif or heart motif. The conflict was further made problematic by the decision to make the postal building practically next door to the school. Spike settled the debate by having them make the facility look like a dragon wing and pegasus wing joining together with the doors and windows being done in a heart motif, something the team involved had apparently not considered.

After the planning of the design was finalized the building went up surprisingly quick. Going by aesthetics alone this town would be an oddity, and that was perfectly fine. This town was part of an experiment; it wouldn’t do for it to look like any other place in Equestria. A quick look over at Spike and Daring showed they were inspecting the dozen or so houses that had been designed and built.

All the teams currently in the clearing didn’t mind the restrictions placed on them, especially since they didn’t interfere with what was being attempted. Some even found the addition of restrictions exhilarating due to some belief that working within boundaries can result in some interesting results.

Luna got some measure of enjoyment out of observing how things progressed, and was just as disappointed as Celestia that the ivory alicorn’s prior choices had been so poorly suited for the project. Thankfully, the numerous legal agreements that all the participant workers in the project were required to sign, and happened legally binding, which meant those same ponies were not permitted to divulge any information regarding the project before its completion. Of course, considering their personalities, those same ponies probably were of the mind that the project had been beneath them to begin with.

Given all the problems that occurred before the start of the project, Luna and Celestia had been hoping all parties involved with the project wouldn’t have such a hindering issue. Celestia wanted to be here, but she had to personally see to it that her new choices weren’t as potentially detrimental as her prior ones.

A closer inspection of the exterior of the mostly completed bathhouse showed there were traces of what become reliefs; they likely wanted to make sure the decorations met the approval of Daring and/or Spike before finalizing that piece of the project. Besides the other structures needed to be erected, leaving the artistic flourishes until later seemed to be a proper judgment call.

It looked like all ponies currently working on the project knew how to prioritize, which was a good sign for the more artistically inclined ponies Luna had personally selected for all this. It gladdened Luna to see such distinctly different types of work teams working in the same environment so effectively.

For Luna seeing Daring and Spike interacting with the workforce for Daring’s project, and also seeing how the town went at such a rapid pace was a bit of surprise. Celestia couldn’t come, she had too much on her plate, even without the interviews for the replacement team. It was a setback that most projects usually wouldn’t be able to afford, and was looking like it wouldn’t happen again.

This was a special project, to be sure, that much was certain. Daring had expressed her dismay at not being able to continue her search her sister personally, but leaving it to ponies she had grown to trust more wasn’t a bad alternative, at least in Luna’s eyes. To Luna, this was the beginning of a new sort of approach to things. To her knowledge, this sort of collaborative effort had never been done before among Equestria’s rulers.

Twilight would have loved to join in, but she had other obligations to attend to. Obligations that were leading her towards being a better ruler, and maybe even a better pony. Luna knew this because of Spike’s comments, he had a great deal of faith in Twilight to do the right thing, even if she did stumble a bit along the way every now and then.

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Celestia let out a deep sigh, thirty-seven interviews in the past four hours and she only managed to confirm two ponies for the new team. Somehow Blueblood had managed to sneak his son into the candidate pool for this group with little to no notice, she would be having very stern words with him over that. Celestia would have thought that pompous fool would have learned his lesson after the several times shot down most of his projects in public. And from the looks of things, his eldest son was turning out just like him.

Despite being late, the new architect she interviewed managed to pass the rest of her tests. Of the other construction hopefuls and veterans, she was looking into only one managed to pass the tests as well. She still had a few dozen more to go, this new process she had devised for testing the quality of ability and personality had a tendency to be a bit time consuming but was worth it. Her prior choices had helped to emphasize the need for seeing to the quality of character and work ethic in addition to the quality of the work itself.

Equestria was going through many new astounding changes, thanks mostly to the efforts of Twilight and her friends over the past two decades. Daring’s current project was helping to further those changes, with the unintentional side effect of bringing those who weren’t very good at adjusting to the changes out of the woodwork. This town that Daring had designed, and would have complete authority over, was an excellent chance to see what happens when lesser-known elements of the past that were mostly forgotten were brought back into the view of the nation. In a sort of sense, the community would be akin to its own nation.

Daring would probably argue points for both sides, something that Celestia found mildly amusing. Getting her new team selection for the project was of great importance to the project, it was their responsibility to manage the construction of the community’s central building.

Even so, an architect and a single construction worker did not mean a proper team for the project. Celestia turned back to her dossiers and groaned; she would probably be at these interviews and tests of character until sundown, possibly longer than that.

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As for the frescos, Luna was acting as a consultant with the teams so they could have a plan more developed before work on those could begin. She made sure to not tell them what she would prefer they do, but did say what her thoughts on some of the designs were and gave multiple examples of how she thought the pieces could possibly be improved. She wanted to make sure the final say was up to Daring and the teams. She also made sure to not dictate any thoughts on the pieces about the central building, she felt it best to help expand on what the teams’ ideas and discretions when it came to that structure, and it would be better to have a physical structure before such thoughts were discussed.