After the mildly awkward time with Applejack’s family, which was driven to extremely awkward when the Orange mare returned with Spike and her bosom free for all to see and none of the ponies seemed to have no care about her breasts being on display for all to see. This Applejack had a rack that was noticeably bigger than the one sported by the Applejack she knew, and Twilight felt a need to scrub her mind clean when she found her mind wandering that way. Shortly after a short exchange between Spike and the Apple family, Spike and Twilight were off on their way to look over the rest of the town. For the most part, Dragon Reach looked nearly identical to Ponyville, if discounted the fact almost all the ponies were going around in skimpy outfits.

They stopped for some food at what looked like Sugurcube Corner with an additional level to it. “Ah yes,” said Spike when Twilight stopped to stare, “this is where I first encountered Pinkie Pie. That was, oh,” he made a show of thinking about it for a few minutes, “six or seven years ago. Of course, you didn’t actually meet her until a few years after she came to Dragon Crown anyway.”

“To be fair,” said Twilight, “I tend to block most things out when I’m absorbed in my work, I think I’ve been told about how I’ve missed entire days a few times.”

“Yes, that is a bit of nasty habit of yours,” said Spike, “let’s go in and say hello.”

When they entered the facility Mrs. Cake was a bit more rotund than the one Twilight knew, the blue mare with a pink mane also was only in an apron, much like Pinkie in this world. This Apron was adorned with a nearly identical one to the one Twilight was familiar with, the only noticeable differences were the cherries on top were dragon-shaped and the center one was being snatched up by a purple dragon’s hand. Also of note, Cup Cake sported a collar just like every other for Spike’s ponies Twilight had seen when she had gotten a closer look at them. Twilight blinked a bit, when she looked around the main floor it was practically identical to the inside of the Sugurcube Corner she was familiar with. The only other thing of note was what looked like a corner for foals near the cutoff to the kitchen area.

Twilight’s expectations about things suddenly came to a screeching halt when she heard the sound of several tiny hooves descending the stairs, definitely more than two. She looked over to where the stairs were and soon was greeted by the sight of six foals, three colts, and three fillies. She spotted Pound and Pumpkin easily enough, the pair now looking more like four-year-olds than the pair that was just barely older than two she was familiar with. In addition, she saw filly that had Cup’s coat color but Carrot’s mane color, this filly seemed to be about a year or so younger than Pound and Pumpkin. Then what looked like a set of triplets, with two colts and one filly among them to bring the whole set up to six. The triplets all seemed to have cream colored coats with their manes being the only major difference between them; one of the colts had a chocolate brown mane, the other had a whipped cream colored and shaped mane, the filly had a ginger-colored mane that seemed to be imitating Cup’s mane style. All three seemed to be two or three years of age.

Twilight blinked a bit before saying, “I was unaware you had so many foals,” she really didn’t want to tip anyone off about her unfamiliarity with the world just yet.

“Oh yes,” said Cup, “it’s nice of you to say,” she then shot the foals, who were all in simple shorts and shirts with no adornments, with a look of annoyance, “but they were supposed to be napping for another few hours.” All the foals gave sheepish grins before making their way back up the stairs. Mrs. Cake gave a slightly exasperated sigh, “Sorry about that; I was sure it would be another hour or so before they did something like that.”

“No Worries,” said Spike, “we’ll take two sample platters to go, how much?”

“Oh, um,” said Cup as she started placing various confections in a pair of boxes, “Twenty spines, I’m giving a bit of a discount since you are the one who technically owns everything.”

“So,” said Twilight, “where is your husband?”

“Oh,” said Cup, “he’s out making a delivery, he should be back in a few days.”

“I thank you for the treats,” said Spike, “and your honesty.” A few minutes later they were handed the boxes and made their way out of the shop after Spike gave a set of gold coins that looked like dragon scales in an equal number to what they were charged.

“Pinkie used to work here,” said Twilight as she carefully fished out a mini-cake, “she’s mentioned working at Sugurcube Corner a few times. It’s nice to get out and see things like this once in a while.”

Spike chuckled before saying, “Now, that’s something I never thought I would hear from you, Twilight.”

Twilight mentally gulped, “Well, I keep getting told to take a break from my research, and I’ve read that a little spending a little time away from your work can help your productivity.”

“Now, there’s the purple bookworm I know,” said Spike as they moved through the streets. Twilight did her best hide her discomfort when poorly covered ponies passed them by.

“So,” said Twilight, “we’re headed to Big Macintosh’s farm after this?”

“Yup,” said Spike as he tossed a small handful of cookies into his mouth and vigorously chewed them. As they traveled through the town Twilight saw how the architecture was similar yet different from what she knew was present in Ponyville, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on how or why that was.

The only thing that looked like it was changed from Ponyville in a noticeable way was the library. Instead of being an oak tree, of any kind, the tree that served as the library was a dragon blood tree that was a bit taller and wider than the Golden Oak. No surprise that the castle the Tree of Harmony gave Twilight wasn’t present; she doubted the tree itself even existed in this world.

Spike and Twilight went to take a closer look at the library, “Have ever been in this library?” Twilight asked Spike as they approached it.

“Nope,” said Spike, “I was here for its planting two or three centuries before I became the Dragonlord, I was still pretty young and foolish in those days.”

“Because at the time you didn’t know Dragonblood trees usually don’t grow in these sorts of environments,” said Twilight, “they come from an arid island near Saddle Arabia.” Shortly after her statement Twilight realized that the name of that area probably wasn’t the same here, she might have just blown her cover.

“Okay, yeah, I see your point,” said Spike, “Those texts of yours are pretty old, that nation hasn’t had that name for at least a thousand years, my archives really are too out of date.”

Twilight let out a mental sigh of relief, looked like she wasn’t in hot water just yet. “But still, how did you manage to get a healthy one so big in town in a temperate climate?”

“With a lot of help from the earth ponies in my territory at the time, after it got about knee high the tree didn’t need any more attention, the town just had to make sure the moisture levels for its area were a bit less than the rest of town for a few years.” After that, they went into the library for a bit; Twilight was a bit excited to see what this library tree was like.

The only thing of note for Twilight was the lack of her friends’ alternates. She already knew where Pinkie and Rarity were, they had even passed by an alternate version of Sweetie Belle making merry with alternates of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. However, regular scanning of the skies and trees brought no signs of an alternate version of Rainbow Dash, and none of the ground moving pegasi resembled Fluttershy. It really looked only Applejack was the only one of her friends’ alternates that resided in this place. Sweetie Belle’s presence confirmed, on some level, that Rarity had been residing here before being moved to Dragon Crown.

“I’m curious,” said Twilight, “are there any available facilities for this town? It could help with deciding possible places for ponies to go after the match with Garble.”

“Oh, good thinking, Twilight,” said Spike with a grin, “let’s go check with the mayor.”

A few minutes later they were at the town’s central administration building. A pony that looked like she was a dark blue unicorn mare with a lollipop green mane, in a very skimpy secretary uniform met them and just redirected them to the mayor the moment she saw Spike.

As soon as they entered the room Twilight noticed mayor looked a bit younger with a mane that was dark pink with a light pink stripe instead of the gray she was used to. “Nice to see you again, madam mayor,” said Spike as the door closed behind him and Twilight. The mayor herself was in a conservative business suit, “I need to see that you are holding up with my attire requirements before we proceed.”

“Of course, Lord Spike," said the mayor, at this point Twilight wasn’t surprised by the fact that every pony seemed to have a collar almost identical to the ones she had seen in Dragon Crown, and pulled her jacket and shirt aside to reveal a sling bikini colored like Spike’s body with a scale pattern all throughout it, slightly straining to hold back her DD-Cup breasts, before placing the jacket and skirt back into position. “What can I do for you during your visit this time around? It’s been some time since you last visited my office.”

“I’m going to need a list of the locations of all the facilities currently not being occupied in town,” said Spike, “I have an event coming up with the potential for new ponies joining my territory.”

“Oh, of course,” said the mayor before going over to her door and asking her assistant, whom she referred to as ‘Algae,’ before closing the door again. “It might take a while to find the appropriate files.”

“We can wait,” said Twilight, “Spike has recently come to the realization that some things need to be improved more than he thought.”

Spike gave a polite cough before saying, “Yes, Twilight is quite right. She’s my best researcher, with an extended focus on magic. She’s playing the part of my much-needed aide for the time being, hence why she has fewer restrictions on what she is permitted to say.”

Twilight had a bad feeling about this, “What do you mean by that, exactly?”

“Most ponies aren’t allowed to call me out if the situation doesn’t demand it,” said Spike, “but I can understand you not being properly aware of this. Also, most ponies have trouble telling when the situation demands, your lack of awareness of such things is more of a relief, to be honest.”

The mayor blinked a bit between for a minute or two; then her secretary entered with a small bundle of files. “I’ll get on making that list for you, your lordship, right away.”

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

There were over a dozen residences not in use among the buildings for the town, but it had taken the mayor almost a half hour to find the addresses and transcribe them onto a fresh sheet of paper. Where they now really did drive home to Twilight just how much the rest of her friends were not in this town. House number nine on their scouting of fifteen was the tree that should have been Fluttershy’s residence. To make matters more annoying, it looked like the house hadn’t been used in years. The library also had residential rooms, but it was also devoid of any residents in addition to apparently not having any staff. Twilight had asked about the library and school before she and Spike left the town hall, the mayor informed her that Cheerilee was indeed the school’s teacher, much to Twilight’s relief she chose to not show, and the library hadn’t had any staff or residents for the past twenty years or so, Twilight showed her annoyance towards the mayor’s lack of concern regarding an overseer for the library for so long, much Spike’s amusement.

“This is a nice little place that’s out of the way,” said Twilight, “a good place for a pony that might require some time away from the rest for extended periods of time. Like maybe, a shy pony.” Twilight was doing her best to keep it together, but seeing Fluttershy’s cottage so devoid of the life and energy it seemed to hold when her friend resided there was really hard, she had almost given away the ruse, again.

Author's Note

Any suggestions on what the next chapter should focus on?