A few days after her first open sermon after the town was opened up to the public, Daring went down to Melody Falls with Lilac and Cadance; Spike was a little busier than he had anticipated and the rest of the family was occupied with other things. Cadance came along because she was curious about the place and wanted to spend more time with Daring and Lilac.

After they had cleared out all the potentially sensitive or fragile items from the house Twilight got to work on the logistics of turning Daring’s foalhood home into a museum. Daring wasn’t happy with the idea, and was very much against it but still understood why Twilight had wanted to do that. So instead, Twilight and Luna had worked with politicians for the town to allow tours through the town, the mayor and town council were all for it since they were looking for ways to help keep the town relevant while maintaining its older charm. The tours poured through two or three times a month.

Thankfully, it wasn’t tourist time just yet when Daring, Lilac, and Cadance arrived in the town. They made a quick stop off at the house so Daring could show Lilac the place she had grown up. After a quick tour of the house, which Cadance also seemed to enjoy, they headed down to the waterfall.

“See that peach tree all by itself,” said Daring gesturing at the plant,” Lilac nodded, “that was my mom’s favorite spot in the whole world, she would spend hours, sometimes whole days, beneath that tree.”

“I find it odd that no other trees have grown around it, especially with all the overripe fruit that must have fallen around it.”

“Yeah, something about the tree’s placement and location makes sure it’s the only large plant in the area,” said Daring, “all the fruit seems to just roll a good ways out and get snatched up by various animals that cart it all a considerable distance from here. Maybe we should take some of the peaches when they get ripe and take them back home with us and grow our own trees from it; I’m sure my mom would have found that amusing.” Daring then made a subtle gesture with her hand to Cadance to indicate someone was following them.

“I would love to see the memorials you placed for your parents,” said Cadance, seeming to haven’t noticed the warning her partner had given.

“I would love to do so as well,” said Daring, “but I think we should check to see if we have any uninvited guests, I don’t want the wrong sort going there. It’s supposed to be a sacred place my sister and I put up in their memory.”

Cadance nodded before saying, “We can wait under the tree, if they don’t give up by sundown we can just try again another time, pity your daughter will miss out on the experience.”

Almost as if on cue five different media ponies and about twice as many news ponies broke their cover to protest the sentiment. “How many did you count,” Daring said nonchalantly as she approached the nearest news pony, with Lilac in her yellow sundress of Rarity’s making, in her rose blue sundress that had been made by Stellar Weave for the ‘out of town’ selection. “I counted a dozen easily.”

“I counted almost this exact number,” said Cadance calmly, “although, there are only about half as many news ponies as anticipated, the rest of the numbers are pretty close to what I had them pegged at.”

“Are you aware that you are trespassing?” Daring said to all of the ponies gathered; she suspected there might be more keeping hidden and waiting for an opportune moment.

“Um, no?” One of the news ponies said, “we were unaware this was private property.”

“Ha, as if you would be so lucky,” said Cadance with an amused chuckle, her mulberry colored spring dress shaking at her belly and bosom as she laughed, “this clearing and the waterfall are a joint ownership of princesses and their families.”

“It’s been that way for the past fifteen months,” said Daring with a smirk, “but we’re not surprised you didn’t know, we did a pretty good job keeping the whole venture from being broadcast. Although, admittedly, it was done to keep ponies from developing over the site. This is just a nice little bonus.”

“We had considered putting up a small manor at the site,” said Cadance, “but during those discussions, we realized it would just ruin the grandeur of the site to do so. Now, if you all aren’t off this property in the next few minutes I will be contacting all your parent companies to inform them of your lack of preparedness.”

“And she does mean all,” said Daring with a smirk, “no newspaper or media outlet in the country will be spared.” There was a chorus of audible gulps before the sound of dozens of ponies scrambling to leave the site. “And that,” said Daring, turning to her daughter, “is how you deal with problematic guests.” She then turned to Cadance, “Are we good now?”

“Surprisingly, no,” said Cadance, she pulled a pair of news ponies; a blue unicorn mare in an ironically peach colored outfit and an earth pony stallion in a suit that almost matched the tree’s bark, out from hiding in the tree itself, both had ink black manes, “it seems these two either forgot how to get down or are extremely dedicated to their work.”

“A bit of both,” said the unicorn, “I’m Azure Scribble and he’s Bark Pen. We just want a few words and we’ll be on our way.”

“While knowing where the memorial of Astra Shower and Keen Note by their own foals would likely make any news pony’s career,” said Bark Pen, “we have no plans on doing so just yet, maybe if we get a bit more desperate. But no, we just want to know what Daring’s daughter is like, besides adorable.”

Daring groaned a bit in annoyance, “She’s not very comfortable around non-family, which is why she retreated behind Cadance and myself as soon as she thought it was safe to do so. Also, her appetite is equal parts dragon and pony; she likes to eat pony foods and gems almost equally as possible. She also is very smart with an incredible memory and will likely remember this whole exchange. Is there anything you two would like to add?”

Lilac just poked her head out from behind her mother and adorably stuck out her tongue, Cadance said, “Just like with anyone else you will ever meet, she has her own personality and should not be treated as someone or something that is an example of a broader group. Also, she is only known pony/dragon hybrid to Equestria but we have heard that some other nations have stories about pony/dragon hybrids.” While saying all this she set the two down at the entrance to the cove.

The two expressed their gratitude and left, once they were out of sight Lilac said, “Are there anymore hiding somewhere?”

In response Cadance spread out her senses through her magic to find any stragglers they might have missed, “I don’t sense any more potential interferers,” said the pink alicorn, “let’s go make that visit.”

Daring and Lilac nodded and Daring led the way to the place she and Star Log had laid their parents to rest. Once they were there Daring said, “This is where my parents were laid to their final rest, they passed on many years before you were born,” she hugged Lilac to her, “but I still wanted to bring you here to have some semblance of meeting them. My dad and sister were both unicorns, we’re still trying to find out the fate of my sister, and my mom was a pegasus, like me. You actually have more in common with your aunt and grandfather than me or your dad, mostly because the pony traits you express most strongly are those of a unicorn.”

“When we finally find Daring’s sister,” said Cadance, “we’ll make sure she knows some of her family is still around and where to find them.”

When they finally entered the shallow cave that held the simple graves Cadance gasped before saying, “Flurry and Twilight mentioned this to me, but I hadn’t that it would be so elegant in its simplicity. Did you two really do all this yourselves?”

“Yep,” said Daring as she led Lilac to the graves, once she and Lilac were a few feet from the graves she said, “hey mom, hi dad, I finally had my first foal. Her name is Lilac Alloy,” she presented the filly to the graves, “give a greeting to my parents, Lilac.”

“Um, there are no ponies to greet here,” said Lilac.

“It’s symbolic,” said Cadance as she came up next to Daring, “it’s a way of helping you have a semblance of a connection to grandparents you’ll never meet.”

“It’s so at the very least you can carry on with the memory of who they were,” said Daring, “even if you didn’t know them, you can at least know about them. Knowing of someone doesn’t mean you know about them, and only family know about each other better than most.” Lilac nodded to her mother and took a few steps towards the graves.

After she was a few steps between the graves and her mother she said, “Hi, grandma, grandpa, I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you when you were still around, I hope I can at least get to know you soon.”

“That sentiment you said about family,” said Cadance, “it was beautiful, so was her little greeting to your parents.”

“Speaking of family,” said Daring as she led the two back out of the shallow cave, “you should have around three more months before your new baby gets to see the world.”

“Why do you think we rode a private car down here,” Cadance replied.

Daring stopped with her leading and turned Lilac and said, “Is there anything you would like to do before we head back home?”

Once they were back on the train, Daring whispered a promise to Lilac to show her pictures of her parents and tell her some stories about them. The filly was very excited by this; she was also noticeably hungry. Thankfully, Daring could feed her both her milk and had brought a few boxes of rock candies with Cadance for those little gem cravings her daughter was prone to as well. Daring was carrying and suckling her daughter before they had even made it halfway to the train.

Author's Notes:

Just one chapter left, it will hopefully wrap up the story while leaving things open for more at a later date if I ever decide to revisit this universe, or someone else wants to play around here. You’re more than welcome to make use of this universe and characters. I know quite a few characters were introduced and had very little done with them, that was mostly intentionally, they were intended to be minor characters and those mostly relegated to the background. If you want to use any of them just let me know which one and I’ll help in any way I can. Also, if you’re going to make use of this universe, be sure make sure its series of events line up with what is present in what is provided in this story.