After the less than family-friendly visit to Shining’s place, and thanks for picking up his slack, Spike took Twilight around to a few other places. Rarity, predictably, was working in her boutique, a boutique that made the Canterlot shop the white mare had back home look like a food cart. The store in question was easily a dozen times larger than Canterlot Carousel on the inside and the outside took up three and a half city blocks in addition to being five stories tall, all done up with an exterior design modeled after a fairytale castle. And to top it off, the name made Twilight want to laugh like a giddy school filly and barf in disgust at the same time, which she thankfully did neither of, but what could expect from a shop called “Regal Scale and Thread”?

Spike only stopped in at Rarity’s to check on the ivory mare’s business practice, citing several complaints of a lack of professionalism. After that, they were back to the castle, where Twilight spent a good four hours of paperwork that Spike clearly should have been doing himself before the violet mare was led through the castle to a location that was marked as restricted.

“And where are we going now,” inquired Twilight.

“I promised you I would be giving you a ‘special’ gift if you performed well,” said Spike.

“I thought you meant over the course of the week; I still have a few more bits of the mess you seem to be in to clean up. I didn’t think it would be on day one!”

“And that was my intent, originally,” said Spike, “but that little bit you came up with for your brother and the rest of our top gladiators made me decide that my original special gift wouldn’t be good enough and you deserve something that’s a bit more extensive.”

“Can we wait on it until a later date,” asked Twilight.

“Maybe, but I think you deserve a taste of it as soon as possible,” said Spike as he stopped for emphasis before a pair of palladium gilded doors with gold and platinum reliefs that were accented with a small assortment of emeralds. The whole piece of art on the door made a piece of art that seemed to show two alicorns, that looked suspiciously like Celestia and Luna, lounging about with no attire.

“Later, said Twilight with more expressed energy, “just showing me the way here was enough, for now. I think it best we head out for your regular inspection of produce and other food items.”

“Oh well,” said Spike, “we’ll visit this venue later,” he brought his mouth right next to her ear as he passed her and whispered, “count on it,” in a seductive tone. Twilight decided to just ignore that; she was very uncomfortable with Spike acting like that around her.

Twilight gave a polite cough before saying, “How about we get on that inspection as soon as possible. In other words, now, after that, it looks like you have a few days free from anything potentially pressing, but something could still pop up unexpectedly.”

“Sounds good,” said Spike, “we just need to make a few stops before heading out of the city.”

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

Apparently, “a few stops” meant a little over a dozen. All of them were businesses that primarily dealt with food, it was good to see Spike doing inventory. But for some reason, the last stop was Pinkie’s establishment. It looked like she had a new helper, Sweetie Drops, or was it, Bon Bon? Regardless, Pinkie seemed to be taking a bit more of an interest than she probably should have, no surprise there when you considered what was going on with this world and the places they were occupying. Spike went up to Pinkie and whispered something in her ear before telling Twilight it was time to go.

Twilight really wanted to know what he said to Pinkie but she didn’t have time to ask, they were off again.

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

Almost a half hours later they were coming up on the train station, Spike just said he was heading out for a quality check of produce and the ticket pony, a dark brown earth pony mare with a cherry pink colored mane in an outfit that looked more like a fetish version of a train station worker than an official outfit just nodded and pulled out a pair of metal sheets that were carved to look like tickets and handed them to Spike before saying the train should be arriving in a half hour or so.

After the train arrived the boarded on, all the passengers, dragon and pony, gave them a wide berth. Twilight was feeling uneasy, this was not the Spike she was used to, and all of this was just proving the point even more.

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

After what might have been the tensest train ride of her life, Twilight got off with Spike at what was geographically supposed to be Ponyville. Twilight almost afraid to ask for the name, but she did anyway, “And where are we now, Spike?” Twilight inquired.

“Dragon Reach,” said Spike, “be prepared to see ponies going around in much less than you’re used to, this is one of my breeding towns.” Twilight blinked in surprise, while her research hadn’t told her where any such communities were it had told her what they were. Breeding communities were places where parts of a dragon's territory that were dedicated to mainly breeding ponies. To think, Ponyville’s equivalent had been relegated to something so...shameless. She feared what the alternate versions of her friends here might be like.

Spike led her down the pathways, clearly having been here many times before. The path they were taking led straight to Sweet Apple Acres, or its equivalent in this world. The knowledge that Applejack’s family were still known for high-quality produce did begin to alleviate some of her anxiety; until she saw the orchard's and sign.

As they came up on the farm that Twilight had thought she knew she beheld a massive grove of Apple and Pear trees arranged in a surprisingly efficient and aesthetically pleasing manner. But what really caught Twilight off guard was the sign proudly proclaiming the place “Luscious Apple and Pear Groves” in lettering that made both fruits prominent.

“Um, what’s with the name?” Twilight inquired.

“Oh, a few years ago I presided over the wedding of Bright Mac of the Apple Clan and Pear Butter of the Pear clan. The two families were really competitive, but after I made sure the two were united with those two, things started getting like this. Those two had a few foals; their eldest actually is part of the arena elite, he willingly signed up for it.”

Twilight blinked a bit to get her bearings before saying, “I recall you mentioning Big Macintosh being among the gladiator elite, I just didn’t realize ponies could sign up for it.”

“Common misunderstanding,” said Spike, “very few dragons give ponies the freedom of choice, my siblings and I do, kind of funny when you think about it.”

“Because your parents were controlling to the point of micromanaging everything going on with ponies in their territories?”

“Good guess,” said Spike, “seeing as you probably don’t know anything about them, and yes.”

“But you came to the realization that ponies are more productive when they don’t feel like their choices are meaningless. I know that’s how it is for me, although, I do wish you would stop that habit of invading my personal space without permission.”

Spike gave a chuckle, Twilight was still clueless about his sexual advances on her, before saying, “A good assessment, but I will still continue those advancements because I find your responses and reactions to it all amusing.”

When they arrived at the house, which was a full story more than Twilight knew as the Apple family homestead a light orange mare with a dark orange mane met them at the door, Twilight was unfamiliar with this mare but she seemed to be quite a few years older than Applejack but easily younger than Granny Smith. She was dressed much like Applejack, aside from having her red plaid shirt tied into an impromptu support for her ample bust and the fact her blue jeans looked like short shorts, “Lord Spike,” said the mare in a cheery tone, “it’s been a while, I’ll get Applejack to show you around for inspection.” The mare then turned her attention to Twilight, “and who would you be, dearie?”

“Twilight Sparkle, I’m one of Spike’s magic researchers. I’m playing the part of his aide, for the time being, he’s kind of been putting stuff off a bit too long, it’s best he have someone to keep him organized. I’m looking into getting him a proper aide.”

“Oh good, then you can spend time discussing things with us inside while AJ takes care of showing him around. We have such a big family I’m sure you’ll find at least one or two potential candidates among them.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” said Twilight with an uneasy smile.

________________________________________

Meanwhile, at Pinkie’s shop, Pinkie had just finished getting sucked off by her fifth customer of the day, a mare that looked suspiciously like Fleur Dis Lee. Apparently, whatever Spike had whispered to her had caused her to lactate, excessively. After Sweetie Drops helped Pinkie bottle a gallon or two, after which Pinkie was still overproducing but just not as seriously, her new helper took to suckling Pinkie’s bosom.

Twenty minutes later she found herself charging a few visitors for the right to feed from her mammaries, they weren’t being bits but they seemed to be similar. The currency looked like scales off a dragon but were called “spines” for some reason. Pinkie wasn’t sure she should be happy or worried at this point, the pleasurable sensations of her breasts being suckled made it hard to focus. Things were getting messy, and she wasn’t sure if it was in a good way or not.

Author's Note

So yeah, a little more info on what the collars can do.

Heading out to Ponyville’s alternate in the next chapter.