Twilight was surprised by how quickly the town would be opening up to the public, and even more surprised by the laid-back response both of her parents had when they heard the name of the town. Which they confirmed they had not heard until they all went to see Cadance about another visit. The town would be opening up the public a just a month two months out from current date first day of spring, which Twilight thought was possibly a bit too quick. Of course, Hearth’s Warming was just five months out, and if her calculations were right Daring would be having the baby around that time as well.

Since Flurry was part of the observers for the project it was decided, against Twilight’s input, that the family should spend a few days together in the town. Twilight couldn’t believe how casual her entire family was about the whole thing, even after her parents were informed the town’s acceptable attire was a bit off from anywhere else in Equestria. To his credit, Shining Armor was very vocal in his own protests about town. But his objections were overruled by Cadance, and it seemed neither Night Light or Twilight Velvet had any standing issues with anything.

Twilight Velvet had been a bit of a thrill seeker since as long as her children had known them, it was no surprise she was so accepting of Daring from the get-go. Night Light was a different story; his daughter guessed the reason he was fine with it all was because of the fact the community was semi-isolated and his curiosity to see what a place that didn’t follow several of the accepted taboos of Equestria proper was like. And, of course, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor were overruled by the rest of the family, at this point, it was almost a running gag among the family.

So now, here they all were riding the train down to the community Daring had devised. It would still be an hour or so until they got there, which for Twilight meant annoying and potentially embarrassing family moments on the train. Moments like Cadance joking with the train’s staff, Shining being made publicly uncomfortable by Cadance, and her parents using really unusual pet names while commenting on what was outside the window.

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

One Overly long train ride later they were all approaching the station, Night Light made a comment on the design of the station as they pulled in. Once they had all disembarked and removed their luggage, Night Light and Twilight Velvet had insisted on spending a few nights in the town to really soak up the atmosphere. As per usual, the sight of ponies milling about in what would typically be considered barely legal or just entirely nude could be seen from the station.

Fortunately Spike met them at the station only a few minutes after they had unloaded; unfortunately he was going around shirtless despite the chill in the fact winter supposed to be starting in just a month or so. “Glad you could make it,” said Spike, “and thanks for the heads up, Daring came up with a little practice for Fall we were all about to get to in the next couple of days. It’ll take another day or two of coordination then everyone will out and about.”

“And what might that be,” inquired Twilight, “I could help with the planning.”

“Naw,” said Spike, “she wants you all to relax and act as if you were tourists,” this caused Velvet and Night Light to brighten up with excitement, while also making Twilight and Shining look visibly uncomfortable. “She also has Stellar Weave working on winterwear for the whole town; it’ll be one of the few times Daring isn’t out and about in no attire to speak of.” Twilight and Shining showed some relief at this news, “but she’ll probably be going about like business as usual indoors, this caused the siblings to groan with a mix of disappointment and annoyance.

“I’m not sure we entirely follow,” said Night Light.

“Daring regularly goes around in no clothing at all, she’s gorging herself on treats as she plays with the foals at my shop right now. There’s this new card game that came out recently they seem to really like. And, for some reason, Daring is really good at it.”

“But first, let’s get our luggage taken care of,” said Twilight, “where are we staying during our visit?”

“Shining and Cadance will be occupying a guest room at the residence we set Flurry up in. As for Velvet and Night Light, what would you prefer? We were thinking of placing you in the same complex as Shining, Cadance, and Flurry but we thought it best to let you decide. We do have some spare rooms at our place, but there’s no furniture in them presently. Just our bedroom, the common area, and the kitchen are furnished. We’ll have the baby in the same room as us for the first few months of his or her life with us, and we’re trying to decide among the five spare rooms to dedicate to them after that.”

“A big decision,” said Shining, “we ran into a similar problem when we were deciding where to put Flurry’s bedroom and nursery. We decided to make them separate so that she would have her own play space as she got older that wouldn’t end up cluttering her sleeping area.”

“I suppose that was a good idea,” said Spike as he led them all toward Flurry’s place, “and we might turn one of the spare areas into a play area ourselves. Daring has mentioned wanting another one already, even though the first one isn’t quite here yet. By the way, Cadance, how’s your pregnancy?”

“Okay, I guess,” said the pink alicorn, “I’m still in the early months of my pregnancy, so at most, it’s just a few mood swings when I don’t get enough to eat.”

Spike gave a chuckle before saying, “Daring is already at odd cravings stage, and thanks to the baby being part dragon that includes a craving for gems. Thankfully, we found a substitute that ponies can eat. Here we are,” he stopped them at Flurry’s place. Word of warning, Flurry’s gotten into a little experimenting. She’ll explain why to you, just remember to keep level heads and ask the right questions. Night Light, Velvet, where would you like to hold up? Some of the houses here are still empty, and furnished with the most basic of furniture.”

“That actually sounds like a good idea,” said Velvet, “we can treat it like an auxiliary residence, maybe even reserve it for our own personal use. It might be nice having a retreat residence.” Night Light groaned in defeat, he knew what that meant all to well, and most of it had nothing to do with getting away from Canterlot.

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

A few minutes later, Spike had to rush out and get two sets of keys for the house that Velvet had chosen, they came up on his shop. Velvet and Night Light both gave compliments on the external design. When they stepped into the shop the two were taken aback by Daring’s look, seeing as she was far more voluptuous than they had anticipated. Daring herself seemed to be no longer in the play section of the shop and instead had a large looking cake that looked more like a ball of mud with bones adorning its outside, Spike knew that when you cut open the cake it would be just like breaking open a geode, hence the name for the confection.

“What is she eating,” inquired Twilight, “it doesn’t look too appetizing.”

“A geode fossil cake,” said Spike with a grin, “a little something I came up with around here to give her an excuse to visit more regularly during her pregnancy, turned into one of the more popular menu items. In fact, it inspired some of the foals to work on devising a game where you take on the role of an assuming archeologist or geologist and complete a series of tasks to...well, I don’t want to ruin the fun. The objective is decided by a unique means and is so integral to the game that saying any more than I have would ruin the fun for potential new players listening in. Since they only barely started, they’re still working refining the whole thing. But once they have it all figured out to the point they’re confident in it we’ll help them with publishing the rulebook and getting any special pieces made just for the game.”

The group of six then made their way over to Daring, as they circled around to the dining section a small collection of rock candies embedded in a hollow of the cake did indeed give the impression one was eating a geode. Looking around the visitors noticed a few of the other tables also had the confection heaped on them as well, mostly foals and their parents from the look of it.

Something Twilight noticed, that the rest didn’t seem to have yet, was a nondescript paper bag on the table almost hidden behind the absurdly large cake modeled after a geode. “Um, Spike,” said Twilight, “what’s in the paper bag next to the cake?”

“Oh, good eye,” said Spike, “she gets gingersnaps from the sweets shop twice a week these days, for some reason her craving for them has gone up a ridiculous amount. I shared the secret to the geode cake with them, I don’t mind sharing my recipes with others every now and then, and they’re hard at work on making a gingersnap geode cake. As you can see, mine is chocolate. I did it that way because of how easy it is to make a chocolate shell without a mold. The bakery had to send out a special order for a semi-mold to make sure the product maintains the proper shape long enough. The real trick is placing the rock candies inside in such a way they don’t get too distorted by the heat and stick to the walls of the hollow.”

Daring looked up from her overly large treat and greeted them, “Nice to see you all, I hope you enjoy your stay,” said Daring, “in case you were wondering, it only takes about twenty minutes or so to polish off this tasty confection.”

Twilight looked to Spike with surprise; his response was, “She has an intense appetite these days and a tendency to down more complex meals in the time it usually takes to go through an average one. Not that I mind, I love cooking for just about anyone. Still, her heightened appetite has prompted me to request for greater volumes in our monthly shipments.”

“It’s easy enough to explain that sort of thing away,” said Cadance, “especially when you’re allowed to use the truth. Not that the ponies in the Crystal Empire mind, I’m sure many of them would love to see images of Spike in his current attire.”

“I’m pretty sure a few are already in circulation by now,” said Spike, “seeing as the delivery ponies have recently been arriving with the newer camera models Twilight designed.”

“Okay,” said Twilight, “I might have rushed their production out a bit too early and probably should have waited until this project was much closer to being open to the public. Lesson learned; I’ll be a bit more cautious with my technological ventures from now on.”

“At least until she forgets about all this in her fervor,” said Spike in a goodnatured chuckle. “She does seem to forget those lessons pretty quickly.”

Twilight gave an amused huff of annoyance at Spike’s comment, seeing as his comment reminded her of when she had made similar declarations only to completely forget about them by the time her next big breakthrough happened.

“Care to join me with this,” said Daring, “these sorts of treats are always tastier with family and friends.” The rest of the family graciously accepted and Spike ordered some additional plates and silverware.

Author's Notes:

It thought it was about time we saw Twilight’s parents again. Also, this story is running a bit longer than I anticipated. I’m already having my mind wander to another story idea, so the next five or six chapters will be the last of the story; be prepared for a few time skips and overly early seasonal chapters.

Suggestions on the next few coming chapters would be appreciated.