Celestia finally had a new team built, it had taken her three days and over two hundred interviews but she had managed to get a new team that psychologically different from her prior choices. The temple went up in seemingly no time, with surprising effectiveness. They even used fewer resources than had been anticipated and still made a quality work that was verified by the other teams. With all the primary structures built the teams were playing the evaluation game before they started getting a bit artsier.

Spike was surprised by the results but was even more so when he learned Twilight had thought ahead to have some special order basic furniture sent to them. It was nothing fancy, just a little over a dozen or so essential pieces of furniture that had been crafted to match the aesthetic that Daring was shooting for. Speaking of Daring Do, it seemed her hips had become what were commonly known as “birthing hips” but in a way that accentuated her attractiveness further. Spike chose not to dwell on that further, it was far too distracting.

The custom made basic furniture Twilight had sent them was requiring his attention anyway. All of the furniture in question was also do-it-yourself assembly; Twilight knew how problematic moving fully assembled furniture in confined spaces could be. And that was doubly so for situations like this where there were a slightly hefty flight of stairs between the main floor and the actual living space. Not to mention, the structure in question was a tower in its own right.

From what he could make out there was a couch, two reclining chairs, a dining table, nine basic chairs (which were the only furniture not in pieces), a work desk, an office chair (made to have the seat and back be a heart shape), what looked like four adjustable safety gates (clearly Twilight thinking ahead to the baby), a drawing table, a pair of nightstands, and two coat racks. Along with all that was a note stating she would be arriving with a mirror, Spike couldn’t quite figure out what was with Twilight and her fixation on mirrors, especially as gifts.

Spike could understand most of the pieces, but why Twilight would send the two of them? More than one coat rack was a bit of confusion. Of course, at this point, he was expecting her to send a delayed marital gift that happened to be a small collection of coasters, but two coat racks was still a little confusing.

The grocery store for the community was mostly completed, there were a couple of bland looking structures near it that were fully set with the basic components for a restaurant, the post office and school were practically finished, and the finishing touches on the train depot had been completed.

Now came the more interesting development, the frescos and various other aesthetic design elements that Daring was encouraging. Starting with the temple, amusingly enough, and spreading out to the rest of the town. As if on cue, and aware that he was thinking about such things, representatives of each team popped up next him with small folders that each contained aesthetic designs for various structures.

Spike let out a shallow sigh before saying, “everyone with aesthetic designs for the temple and/or bathhouses, please go and find my charming female companion; those of you with aesthetic designs for other structures, like the school and post office, please present the ideas and say which team you are from in addition to who it was is responsible for the aesthetic layout you are presenting.” With that half, the representatives departed to look for Daring while the others began pulling sheets from their files.

They were all in standard work outfits, which he was starting to see as less of a necessity and more of an annoyance. Daring’s basic policy of little to no attire was starting to rub off on him, and he was actually liking it for some reason. He really didn’t see himself as being a perv, but Daring was making that distinction harder to identify. Of course, he wasn’t much better, being in a business casual suit set to compliment Daring’s coat and mane in addition to accentuate his own color palette.

They waited patiently for Spike to decide which to look at first. Not even bothering to see which sheet he was taking he just reached out and graciously took on from the pony to his left. When it looked at it he saw an artistic work of young members of all the races known to Equestrians, in addition to foals of every tribe, interacting in a variety of activities, some of the displayed events even looked like they might be centered around various holidays. “This is an interesting choice for art at the school, from this it looks like the murals are intended to be life-size and inside the structure,” said Spike, “who had this idea?”

“I did, sir,” said the pony that handed him the sheet, looking up Spike could see it was one of the Crystal ponies that had been assigned to this project, he seemed to be an Earth pony variant. The pony in question had a crystalline grayish-purple coat and peach colored mane that also had the crystal motif all crystal ponies possessed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name,” Spike chose to say diplomatically.

“Spinel Orchard, your greatness,” said the pony in question, “I was born the year after you saved the Crystal Empire. Your statue, all three iterations of it,” Spike gave the pony a perplexed look for a moment, he hadn’t seen any other statues of him beyond those from when he was still a baby dragon holding the Crystal Heart on any of his recent trips to the Crystal Empire, “inspired me to go into my current craft, you see…”

“Alright, that’s enough of that,” said Spike, “I don’t need your life story, and certainly don’t need to hear about how you’ve been raised idolizing me. I just needed to know who was responsible for the piece of a design plan I’m holding. I don’t want to pick one without going through the rest of the options, so I’ll put on a pile and do some discussing of it with my partner.”

“Of course,” said Spinel, “thank you, your greatness.”

The other pony rolled her eyes, she seemed to be a loamy red coated earth pony mare with a deep violet mane that had streaks of ocean blue and diamond pink running through it. She silently handed Spike her sheet after the dragon in question rolled the sheet he was holding like a scroll and began keeping it in his tail as if the act was one of the most natural things in the world. “This,” she said as she handed Spike the sheet, “was drawn up by Silent Branch, she’s the brown coated pegasus in my team.”

Spike graciously accepted the leaf and gave it a cursory look, it was a design for the post office that looked like aerial members of every race were in a competition of some sort. “An interesting start, but if this really is intended for the post building, it might be a good idea to have a design that shows a bit more of an image that encourages cooperation. As this is now, it seems to imply everyone at the post office is supposed to treat each other like some sort of competition. In that sort of environment, that kind of mindset can prove quite unhealthy.”

“I’ll pass your note along,” said the mare. Both gave Spike a bit of bow, something he wasn’t sure about in regards of what to feel, and departed to look for Daring.

___________________________________________

Daring was approached by a sky green pegasus mare with files; she found their standard work attire quite drab. She wanted to enforce a policy regarding attire where she really didn’t require anything but that was still a ways off. Daring was in a simple forest green maternity dress, and nothing else. Once the community was actually established she had a few plans that would clearly deviate from the norm, and likely make many of the first residents feel a bit awkward. Of course, rebellious feeling teens and prepubescent foals would probably love the town’s ruling regarding attire she had in mind.

Rulings on what is publicly acceptable later, right now there are ponies that are demanding her attention. The two ponies just held their files out for her to browse and waited patiently for her choice. Daring picked the one on the right, which was held by a chestnut brown earth pony stallion with a hazard orange mane. The color of his mane and tail made her feel like her eyes were being hurt a bit, which had her thankful she hadn’t spent much time in his general area.

She flipped open the file and started checking for signifiers of who was responsible, most of the names were in the upper left corner along with their cutie marks with others having all those same marks on the backs of the paper. After giving each of the pictures a cursory view without much word beyond some initial impressions she closed the file and tucked it under her arm and repeated the process with the other file, which was presented to her by a turquoise coated unicorn mare with a forest brown mane with a streak of sea blue down the middle. After going through the file, she gave the two a curt nod and motioned for them to return to their posts. Almost as soon as the two had left the two that Spike had just spent time with approached her, she repeated the process that she had just gone through with the prior two and sent the newcomers on their way.

When she arrived at the, now finished, temple she was treated to the sight of Spike moving the noticeable pile of furniture into the structure. She picked up some of the smaller pieces and followed suit; she had told him the plan for their living accommodations enough times to not be worried. After about four or five trips for her, possibly twice or more for Spike, the furniture was all placed and arranged in their new living space.

As they were surveying the interior Spike said, “What about beds?”

“I spoke with Princess Luna about it a few days ago,” said Daring, “she said she was having a very special bed made custom just for us, and she would be arriving personally to drop it off. She also said the same thing about a bed for the baby; she was actually a bit giddy when she mentioned that.”

“Not too surprising,” said Spike, “Luna has made no efforts to hide her love and appreciation for children. And this is one of the few times she’ll basically have an excuse to come see a baby on a semi-regular basis.”

Daring just rolled her eyes good-naturedly, there was still quite some time before she actually gave birth. Even so, there was still almost as much time before the community had any genuine residents. They needed to bring as many residents as possible, within reason, to the town they were building.

On the plus side, most of the vital furniture was in their new living space. Downside, they were still waiting on the bed. Daring wasn’t too put off; she was used to sleeping accommodations that weren’t considered healthy by most ponies. But since she was pregnant, chances were Spike wouldn’t be too happy about her sleeping in anything other than an exceptionally comfortable bed or overly soft nest.

Not to mention they still needed to provide essential furniture, like beds and chairs, for the level intended for the individuals intending to go through religious training. They could get to work on that later, after they had all their necessities up and running and began the process of bringing in the community’s first residents.

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

It was two or three hours after moonrise when Princess Luna teleported their new bed, complete with sheets that lined up with the aesthetic she became aware of when it came to Zelshirska, into the room that was going to serve as their sleeping quarters. She also had a crib, that was night themed, teleport into the same room. Daring didn’t mind too much, sharing a room with the baby was probably a good idea.

Author's Notes:

So yeah, the town is mostly done and the happy couple is finally moving into their new home. Or rather, they will once they take care of a few more minor details.