“You know,” said Daring as she looked the plan Spike had drawn up during her time away to finally get the town’s security detail, “this would have been easier if you had taken up the offer during the town’s initial planning stages.”

“Yeah,” said Spike, “but in my defense, I thought I would actually have more to do around here. As things stand, I’m going to go bonkers in the next few weeks if I don’t have something to do.”

“Understandable,” said Daring as she looked over to the page that had his basic outline for the uniform, “it might be a while before you can get any employees, are you fine with that?”

“It will at least keep me busy, so I think I’ll be okay. It’s not like the shop will suddenly have a massive influx of customers I can’t keep up with, at least as things seem to be going. Besides, the town’s population is pretty low and the business itself is kind designed to cater to a pretty niche crowd. I doubt we’ll get that many tourists in town when the town becomes open to the public that I’ll be incredibly overwhelmed during their visiting times. Besides, this will allow me to pursue my hobbies without disrupting your work.”

“Alright, I’ll see about getting this outfit design to Stellar Weave,” Daring said as she got up, her assets making a bit of jiggle as she got out of the chair and moved toward the door.

Spike watched her go down the stairs, her tummy and assets doing little jiggling bounce with each step that was more exaggerated than when she had left the room. He pulled his head back into their living space and started wondering when he started thinking such things were sexy. Of course, seeing Stellar Weave go about the town in nothing more than her underwear did come close to making him hard a few times, same was true with Eventide Note and her parading around in a very skimpy swimsuit.

Thinking about it the foals were following suit with all three of the mares. Some of the more modest members of the community, of which there was now a very small percentage for some reason, were still insistent on wearing standard publicly acceptable attire in Equestria proper, but they were at least willing to tolerate the foals going about the way the more revealing members of the community were. Chances were they figured it would be just a phase the foals would grow out of, with some silly rationalizations as to why the adults who went about in what would be questionable public choices did so here.

Daring had very clearly stated that the community was intended as a self-positive environment thus the clothing-optional approach to the place. Spike wondered why some of the ponies here had signed up to begin with if they were just going to act like this any other community in Equestria. Spike suspected they did it more as an excuse to easily get out of a situation they weren’t particularly happy with, or the perceived prestige of being part of a project that was confirmed to have backing and cooperation of all Equestria’s princesses.

The ones only out for the prestige wouldn’t last long, as was evident by the events that happened after Celestia’s initial team for the town’s construction were proven to not be the right ponies for the task. So far, all the ponies of age for responsibilities were operating in the village as they should, with the younger members being watched over and instructed by the school teacher that he and Daring had thought ahead to look into and confirm. What the parents of the foals weren’t pleased about, at least the more traditionalist ones, was making sexual education part of the early education of the students. Of course, the way the lesson plans for such things was made a bit more family friendly and only focused on the basic things they were required to know, for now.

Spike suspected they would be covering reproduction once things in town were settled down. At the very least the parents wouldn’t have to have awkward conversations about where foals come from, assuming they didn’t decide to go with some ridiculous cop-out that had no basis in fact. He had popped in to see how the classes were progressing, and compared to Ponyville and Twilight’s school things were dramatically different. Also, since the town was technically considered separate from Equestria for the time being the school did not have to adhere to any of the overly complex rules that dictated the education system of Equestria proper.

Of course Twilight had insisted Daring write up a set of rules for the school to make sure no shenanigans were going on with the educators. Daring did, of course, but the whole thing was actually shy of a hundred pages. Spike, of course, laughed hysterically when Twilight asked him for the rest of the book, for almost twenty minutes, before telling her exactly “That’s all she wrote” and watching his adoptive sister get flustered with confusion at his words.

Daring didn’t like wasted time, energy or words, when it came to writing the rules for anything she made sure everything was short and to the point with very little room for misinterpretation of her words. A mannerism that translated over to the rulebooks she wrote, something Twilight was clearly not used to. Twilight was used to rulebooks being rather hefty and thorough with extensive wording, as was evident by the several books containing rules and laws she had written over the years.

Spike had no preference either way, but he did find Daring’s short and concise approach to rules and laws a bit more charming than Twilight’s extensive approach that was full of words, with the added bonus of potentially putting someone to sleep before they got through everything. Daring’s approach was also a hit with the foals, given their tendencies to want to go out and do their thing. The foals were especially happy that the rules about wandering beyond the borders of the town were clearly stated shown to apply to everyone, not just foals.

Some of the foals expressed a desire to go out and meet the gremlins, much to the annoyance of the parents that were still of the belief such creatures were merely invented by a less enlightened era to explain why equipment didn’t work right or broke down, to which Daring had said they would have to make some arrangements. Which to Spike meant, she intended to talk with Fluttershy and see what they could do from there. Gremlins had been proven to be real, thanks to their bringing volunteers back to Ponyville, but most who refused to visit Ponyville and doubted the accounts of things beyond the norm that happened there and refused to go and confirm things for themselves were still of the mindset certain things that happened, despite the meticulous records of such events, in Ponyville beyond the norm were merely due to adults letting the imaginations of children get a bit too far. Amusingly, some of those sort of ponies had actually signed up for this project.

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

The next day Stellar Weave met Spike outside the temple, in a set of sunrise orange lingerie, with a hat and apron as his design had shown, colored a crystal blue with the die in the logo being green with a purple number, and just handed them to him before gushing about how cute she thought the whole thing was for several minutes. Spike started to feel worried, a feeling that didn’t subside when he met the construction ponies at their office and explained the internal and external aesthetics of the facility. The outside of the structure was now planned to use an amalgam of the palace of the Crystal Empire and Canterlot castle as its external structure.

He spent about an hour or so chatting with them and discussing some of the logistics, after all, he had to have some amenities for the ones working in the facility. He supposed he would have to get an industrial coffee/cappuccino machine for the diner section. He would also require things like a fridge and oven for the kitchen area, probably industrial level there as well. Perhaps some sort of PA system for relaying messages through the facility, maybe even have few security spells for the place to keep the more items and merchandise more secure. Spike realized the logistics of the place were probably more than he had anticipated during the planning stage, but now he was already working on making the whole thing a reality. He had decided on the castle aesthetic to allow the place to have multiple levels, that way there would be more play spaces for the place and he could arrange for the basement to act as a primary storage area for surplus products, and if he made it all deep enough it could be naturally cooler to better store perishables like a root cellar.

Spike didn’t expect more than a few ponies at any given time in the shop, given the population of the community. As for placement, he decided on making it a point near where the residential quarter met the commercial quarter. The town only had a little over hundred residents, about a third of which were foals. At the very least he would be providing a place for foals to go when their parents were still busy or didn’t want to be disturbed. A place he would make sure was safe and secure.

That reminded Spike, Twilight would be coming down in a few days to do the spellwork she had promised for the town, chances were she was already on her way. Twilight was in for a bit of a shock when she came down; Spike started wondering if he had any cameras to record it. If she decided to bring some of her friends down, which was more than a little likely, they would be in for a shock as well.

Rarity would probably make a scene when she saw ponies going about in nothing and next to nothing, Fluttershy was likely to just blush in embarrassment, Applejack would probably have something to say about the lack of modesty or practicality of the attire choices, Pinkie would probably just make a comment about getting into the town’s spirit before making a go at doing it herself, Rainbow would probably act like it’s no big deal, and Starlight would probably have a similar reaction to Twilight.

Now Spike really wanted to find that camera; he wanted to record the looks of everyone who came to the town as it is now. After getting their photos he would keep them for those embarrassing family moments, it would be great. That all said, when Twilight’s parents came for a visit things would probably get really awkward really fast, for them is not him. Flurry saw how things were here on a regular basis and regularly sent reports to her mom, so chances are Cadance and Shining would have the most muted responses. Celestia would be harder to judge, mostly because of how guarded she usually kept her reactions. Luna would probably have the most positive response, seeing how she liked to have ponies freely express themselves, Spike also suspected Stellar Weave was sending Luna notes on some of the things going on about the town.

Author's Notes:

And the Spike chapter is up, next is another Daring chapter. After that, Twilight and company are coming for a visit.