Author's Notes:

Some of you might recall me mentioning exploring some sample chapters that focus on two of the male residents of the town that are more side characters at this point, this is the first of the two. The second follows this one.

As always, you know my policies.

Something I just noticed recently, this is my longest story yet, and I’m still writing more chapters.

Veggie Malt woke up, as he always did, in this incredible new community. His usual attire now consisted of cargo pants or shorts and a pocket filled vest, nothing else. It was rather liberating to not worry about undergarments, if a bit odd feeling at first. He liked that Spike had a new project in the works, and helped to better formalize the designs of the exterior and interior after the general plan was proposed. He rather liked the seemingly eccentric design of the whole thing, the outside looking like some sort of prototype for a new castle while the inside being dedicated to catering to a specific demographic. He had never played any type of games like what Spike had rambled on about, but he was interested in trying them now.

Spike had talked about cutting his teeth with Ogres and Oubliettes but had expanded into other games of the same type as well. O&O was fine for classic fantasy backdrops, but Spike had also mentioned a game that uses a noticeably different system and has a more modern backdrop as its default setting called Realm of Enigma. Veggie Malt figured he might give the games a try at some point.

He agreed with ponies that actively pointed out how off-putting his name was; he had no particular attachment to the name other than it was given to him by his parents. Of course, half the time he thought his parents might not entirely like him due to their choice of name for him. Just because his dad operated a vegetable farm and his mom ran the local ice cream parlor didn’t mean their combining the two aspects together for a name was a good idea, he remembered when his mom had made an actual vegetable malt, it tasted awful. Nevermind the whole “I’ll use plain flavor to allow the natural essence to work its magic” fiasco or the fact it had been so bad most of her regulars avoided the place until a full week after her announcement of its discontinuation.

Because of his name he had been associated with being not very good for a not-so-healthy portion of his life. It didn’t matter that he had graduated from architect school as the second highest rated student, the highest ranked student had gone to Manehattan to work for a big firm and had been practically hired the moment he had graduated. Veggie Malt hadn’t gotten any such offers, nor did he want any, he wanted to work his way up the old-fashioned way. He started his own little construction company back home, the same small town that had mixed thoughts about him, even though he knew the place didn’t really have much of demand for that sort of work. He had managed to see some of the most fascinating architectural designs during his formal schooling and wanted to try and do something similar with his work.

This entire town he was in was the exact sort of thing he wanted to see, even if most of the residential buildings were a bit uninspired and bland looking. The temple, which he had helped in working on, at the center of the town was the kind of structure he wanted to see. He adored the bread inspired exterior of the bakery and temple inspired aesthetic of the bistro. The heart inspired designs of the post office and school building. This was the kind of place he wanted to be.

To be honest, he had never put much thought into pursuing any actual relationships beyond the working and professional sort. Although, there were a lot of attractive ponies milling about on a regular basis. Today that was extra true, the six great heroes of Equestria were visiting, it was no surprise they would have some sort of involvement with the project. The construction company he and the other former workers for the beginnings of the project had formed was just across the street from the bistro, next to the bakery, an easy excuse to get some decent food, and he was watching them all, it looked like they had brought along a guest that seemed mildly familiar to him.

As all the records showed, they were pretty lively as a group. Although, it looked like the pink one had decided to embrace the town’s aesthetic a bit too eagerly. He watched with amazement; he couldn’t hear anything they were saying, from his position as the great hero known as Pinkie Pie seemed to sexually tease the great Wonderbolt known as Rainbow Dash.

Looking down at his formerly blank paper he found a sketch of what looked like a structure with Pinkie’s unique hair aesthetic and Rainbows expanded wings on a pair of interconnected spherical structures with only one visible door. Looks like he had subconsciously built designed something new again. Then he noticed the doodles in the bottom right corner, which were sketches of the two kissing at five different angles. Veggie felt embarrassment overtaking him as he made a go at discreetly erasing the images of the kissing mares.

It was during the erasing of the doodles that something hit him, he was sexually aroused by mares being intimate with each other. Given the small size of his old community, and their overly traditional approach to most things he really hadn’t seen anything to trigger those sorts of thoughts in that environment; and at architect school he had been so focused on his studies and the architecture that he hadn’t even given any of the other students a side glance until they were all in formal settings, even then his viewing of his fellow students was minimal. Thinking about it, he didn’t just want to see mares get intimate with each other; he wanted to also be part of it.

Well, at least he was in a community that allowed for that sort of exploration of sexuality openly, he would have to have a discussion with somepony about this. Although, his choices of consultation in this matter were limited, possibly even not worth the time or effort for it all. He would be helping oversee the new complex but Spike was handling that quite well, especially with his exceptional ability to properly translate the schematics to work orders that were understandable to the construction workers.

Since he wasn’t needed, he was in the office trying to come up with some new designs. He was trying to keep his focus off the adult females of the town when Flurry Heart strolled in, her formal-ish dress showing off her figure. “How are things around here, Veggie,” said Flurry as she approached him. Veggie Malt gulped like he was a colt caught in the cookie jar, “I have some free time, now that I’ve taken care of showing my aunt and her friends around. How are things with you?”

Veggie Malt had always been at hiding things, this included bluffs and outright lies, so he just decided to come clean to Flurry, “I saw Ms. Pinkie Pie parading around the town without anything on…”

“Yeah, that sounds like auntie Pinkie,” said Flurry with a giggle, “always getting caught up in the spirit of the town.”

“Anyway,” Veggie Malt felt himself getting a little too warm for comfort, “she placed her bosom on top of Ms. Rainbow Dash, and I… I found it really sexy, especially after Ms. Dash’s wings went full spread. I kind of ended up drawing this,” he showed the new design to Flurry, “and kind of...drew some sketches of them both making out in the corner, I erased the sketches almost as soon as I saw them. I think, maybe, I find the prospect of two intimate mares arousing.”

Flurry gave a big grin, a grin that made Veggie Malt feel a bit uneasy, before saying, “Drop by my place this weekend, I have some stuff to ‘discuss’ with you, you might even get a little surprise. I hope you like surprises.”

“I suppose it’s okay, but if any of us are too uncomfortable and tell the other, then that’s when we stop.”

“Sounds fair to me,” said Flurry as she departed. Veggie Malt saw the young alicorn mare make her way in the direction of the bathhouse and wondered just what he was getting himself into.