Princess Luna could not believe that she had once gone to war with her sister in order to become sole ruler of Equestria. Of course she’d been more than a little insane at the time. She gave a rather bitter smile as she thought that insanity was likely a prerequisite for actually wanting this job. No wonder her sister had only done the absolute minimum necessary while leaving the bulk of the running of the country to her little ponies. Not that doing so didn’t come with its own set of problems.

She had never realized how shielded she had been from the pure politics of the role by her older sister. While they might reach a decision together on a given situation, it had always been Celestia who had implemented policy. Mostly because everypony was asleep during Luna’s nighttime vigil of Equestria. It had not been Luna’s job to deal with those ponies who for one reason or another might be upset over the decisions their rulers had made.

But now, she was the sole ruler of Equestria while her sister was incapacitated by the loss of most of her mana. Not many ponies knew that, in fact, as far as all but a very, very, few ponies knew, Celestia was taking a long and well earned sabbatical and would be out of contact with the realm for the duration. She certainly was not a golden-coloured earth pony named Sunny Days who was currently mewed up in Canterlot Castle.

Almost from the second she had stepped forward to take the throne she had been bombarded by ponies who were either complaining about current laws or who wanted new ones passed. And they all acted like Luna was a mental defective who had to be taken by the hoof and led through the intricacies of government policy. The fact that she actually did need that made it no less irritating.

And that wasn’t even getting into the sizable contingent who were actively trying to get enough votes in the Senate to force a change in government, with Luna being delegated to nothing more than a ceremonial role in the running of the kingdom. And if they got the votes they could do it. Her sister had spent hundreds of years encouraging them to do that very thing, with no success at all. Luna had only had the throne for a week and was doing such a good job that they couldn’t wait to kick her to the curb and take over running the government themselves.

Which was all fine and good and perfectly legal and frankly, there were many things she’d rather be doing, like bending over a table while Big McIntosh plowed her ass with that big mare tamer of his. Walking away from the throne and leaving them to fend for themselves would be wonderful. Unfortunately that was not an option. Equestria could be facing an invasion from a foe unlike anything it had faced before. A foe who would insinuate itself into the very fabric of Equestria and rot it out from the inside. Unless, that is, Luna managed to pull the rug out from under their plans by orchestrating an infiltration that would destroy their entire culture and make it impossible for them to even think about anything but their own troubles.

On the surface the two schemes seemed exactly alike. The difference was that Equestria did not possess a culture that gloried in the subjugation of every sentient female within its borders. In Equestria, a mare got to choose if she wanted a stallion to ream out her ass while calling her filthy names and slapping her around like a two bit whore. “Oooh, a two bit whore,” Luna moaned as she imagined how thoroughly Big Mac’s cock had wrecked her tight little ass the one and only time he’d had a chance to cut loose on her.

Luna gave her head a shake and told herself firmly, “Focus, Luna. First fix the problem, then get laid.”

If only all of her sister was still here, instead of just a pale shadow of her former self. Celestia was now, by all appearances, a teenage, golden-brown, earth pony. That alone might not have been such an issue. Their little ponies had seen far stranger things. Except that Celestia’s appearance also reflected her current mental development. The bulk of her sister’s thousands of years of experience and hard-won wisdom had, along with her alicorn avatar mana, been magically stolen away from her and sealed in a specially constructed magical artifact in Caridoon that had been created for the sole purpose of containing the alicorn avatar force.

Based on what Applejack had told them, it was most likely a specially constructed room festooned with generations of Unicorn horns attached to the ceiling.

Luna shuddered at the thought. Even at her worst as, Nightmare Moon she had not sunk so low that she considered graveyard chic a valid decorative option.

However the theft had been done, it had left Celestia, currently going by the name Sunny Days, with the attention span of a toddler and the self-preservation instincts of a rabid lemming, at least in Luna’s exasperated view.

Luna had been forced to deliver several over the lap, bare-bottom, spankings in an attempt to beat a little common sense into the featherhead her wise sister had become. In the most recent case it had been done in order to convince her that declaring herself to be Princess Celestia, true ruler of Equestria—despite looking like she wasn’t even old enough to vote—was a bad idea. And this despite the fact that it had been the fully integrated Celestia who had left the plans for Sunny to be Sunny in her diary before she had taken the action that had resulted in her diminishing.

Eventually Sunny had conceded the necessity of going along with her former self’s plan. But not before she ended up needing several fluffy pillows in order to sit comfortably.

Yet, despite that, It had taken a direct order from Luna to Sunny Days’ guards to prevent the silly pony from dashing straight to Ponyville and jumping right through the gate Luna was currently guarding as soon as she got word of its existence. A gate that Sunny was positive was a backdoor to Caridoon.

Despite her sister’s current level of immaturity, Luna had no reason to doubt Sunny’s guess. Her now much younger sister seemed to have received a faint mental communication from her better half, currently trapped in Caridoon, informing her of the gate’s existence. Somehow the trapped avatar force had managed to make a connection to the magic that had turned Caridoon into a massive prison for criminally inclined tribes and used it to open a hidden doorway through which a rescue operation might be mounted.

Or at least Luna hoped that this was the case. It would be disastrous if the gate led to some other place totally unrelated to Caridoon. It would leave her with the possibility of yet another threat to Equestria besides Caridoon. It would also mean that the only option left to her would be forcing open a gate to Caridoon through sheer brute force. That might take decades, and announce her coming to anypony with the magical sensitivity of a slug. She was deeply fearful that she might not be able to win such a battle. Her responsibility to Equestria might mean she could not risk it, even if it cost her sister the loss of her true self forever. On the other hoof, if the gate in front of her really was a route into Caridoon the chances of restoring her sister increased by a factor of hundreds.

That is, if certain ponies had not managed to waste the opportunity due to their foolish headstrong behavior. For a moment Luna’s expression flickered and the shadow of Nightmare Moon overlaid her normal appearance as she remembered how Rainbow Dash had tricked her out of position so she and her griffon friend could sneak through the gate. An action that Sunny Days would likely approve of wholeheartedly. An action that, in all honesty, Luna herself might have cheered on, before she found herself in her current position of being solely responsible for the safety and security of Equestria.

And that thought brought her back around full circle to her regret over her older sister’s absence. She had done the correct thing by forbidding Rainbow Dash from going through the gate in pursuit of her friend Fluttershy, whom Rainbow Dash claimed had been kidnapped by a monster. And when Rainbow Dash had gone through anyway, along with her griffon friend, Luna had done the right thing in not pursuing the foolish pony herself, nor informing Twilight Sparkle of the situation.

Not letting Twilight know what happened was of paramount importance. There would be no way the newly minted princess would allow her friends to face the perverted natives of Caridoon on their own, and the very last thing Luna needed was to lose yet another Alicorn to that filthy, disgusting realm.

In pursuit of keeping Twilight in the dark, Luna had co-opted three young, enthusiastic fillies to help her guard the gate when she had caught them creeping around in the bushes. Besides keeping them from spreading tales, this had the beneficial side effect of segregating Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s friend and assistant, away from the Princess of Friendship. This helped preserve the secret of the gate until Luna could take steps to secure it. A matter of critical importance. Rainbow Dash had done one good thing when she had flagrantly disobeyed her rightful ruler: She had shown Luna that extraordinary measures would have to be taken to guard access to and from the gate. Measures that were even now nearing completion. Very shortly it would be impossible for anyone to go through the gate without Luna’s approval, and just as importantly, that nothing from the other side could enter Equestria.

All of this had been carried out with the clear knowledge that the three females who had gone through the gate were very likely to suffer a terrible fate as a result of Luna’s actions. Her blood burned with shame at having to accept that consequence. There was no way around it, however. Anypony who went through that gate would pick up the Caridoon taint. Any pony Luna sent through the gate would be infected and rendered helpless and compromised by the effects. The only pony currently in Equestria who possessed both the taint, and a power level high enough to make a difference was herself. Unfortunately, Duneyrr had proven he had the ability to drain an alicorn of her magic when he successfully did so to Celestia. As the last bulwark between Equestria and Caridoon, if the worst should happen, Luna could not afford to risk herself, or Twilight Sparkle.

It was also vital to the safety of Equestria that the existence of the gate be kept as tightly guarded a secret as possible. Luna was firmly convinced that the only way to neutralize the threat Caridoon represented was via secret infiltration of the country. She had to create a fifth column to sabotage and eventually overthrow the rulers of that land. She could only pray that the three who had already gone through would not reveal its existence. If they had, it was very possible that in the end Equestria might fall to Duneyrr’s ambition, and become as much a hell-land as Caridoon itself; where every mare was a slave and subject to the depraved lust of the male population.

Not that there was anything wrong with depraved lust, she should certainly do with some of that herself at the moment. But even a horny slut like her knew that sometimes other things needed to take priority. Like making sure every mare in Equestria didn’t become rape bait.

None of that made it any easier for her to do what she had done, and the thought of the eventual confession she would have to make to Twilight Sparkle made her nauseous. She fully expected that she would forever lose the friendship that had been given without reservations after Nightmare Moon had been driven from her body. Some actions were simply unforgivable, no matter how justified. The one and only good thing about this whole mess was that according to Sunny Day’s dreams, her celestial self seemed to have her situation well under control and there was no danger that Duneyrr would be able to tap her power for his own use. As long as that situation remained Luna had time. Time to plan, time to take careful action. Time for so many things. Except for one.

Luna’s stomach roiled some more as she considered that she had just about run out of time to put off informing Twilight Sparkle of the situation. The blockhouse she had ordered her hired engineers to build around the gate for security was almost finished. Soon she would not be able to justify her constant presence here. Which was likely just as well. She had neglected her duties in Canterlot, and she greatly feared what certain members of the senate might have gotten up to in her absence. With that thought in mind she examined the gatehouse she had ordered to be constructed.

In front of Luna, the area around the gate had been cleared of all the trees and boulders she had earlier torn up to contain anypony coming through from the other side. In their place, a massive guard house of heavy, magically infused blocks of crystal had been constructed around the portal. A thick iron door engraved with Zebrician runes of strength and protection sealed the entrance, but it wasn’t the only barrier. The block house contained two rooms. One room in which resided the gate, and one room that connected to the outside. Between them was a massive door capable of holding anything that didn’t have the ability to exit through the walls themselves. Unlikely. Luna had not made the classic mistake of building a door stronger than the walls it was set in.

The room the gate was situated in was only large enough to hold at most six ponies, if they were very friendly. Narrow viewing portals using polarized mirrors and magic allowed ponies outside the block house to see the inside of the gate room in its entirety. It would be impossible for somepony to hide out of sight. Or in any way to influence the watch tponies.

Naturally the entire edifice was airtight. Luna was not about to take any chances that the Caridoon taint might infiltrate Equestria through the very air itself, even if she didn’t think it likely. She was just this side of positive that the taint required some sort of environmental magic to propagate. A magic that did not exist in Equestria. But she was taking no chances that she didn’t need to.

The room that contained the exit also came with viewing ports. The door between the two rooms was linked to the outside door and the only way to open one was if the other was shut. This created a lock through which ponies going in or out could be filtered. It was impossible for an invasion force from the other side to overrun any guards by sheer numbers.

Measures had also been taken to decontaminate any ponies who had come through from Caridoon. The taint itself could not be removed from a living thing, but anything clinging to them, or present in the air, could be neutralized. Luna already knew that the taint could not be transmitted by contact with a carrier. She had certainly never been able to transmit it to another pony, and back before Celestia had banished her to the moon she’d certainly tried her hardest to do so.

For just a moment Luna wondered how different history might have been if there had been a pony like Big Mac back then. His reserves of earth magic were incredible, so strong that he was capable of replacing the magic his slave Bother needed to remain healthy and sane. If she’d had a lover with his abilities back then, would she have gone insane and tried to overthrow her sister? Luna shook off the thought and the regret. What was past was past, it was the future she needed to be concerned with now.

Returning her focus to the gatehouse, Luna felt the anxiety that had been plaguing her from the moment she had heard about the gate retreating. Now that it was complete, Equestria was once again secure. A foal could bottleneck an army with this setup.

Which was the lure Luna had used to convince the Cutie Mark Crusaders to help her stand guard, so they could learn all about the mechanism. A thin excuse they had accepted instantly. Luna had been a bit afraid that Twilight Sparkle’s dragon assistant might be a bit more discerning. But it had soon become clear that the three fillies had him wrapped around their little hooves. Luna allowed herself to feel a momentary sense of amusement. It was funny watching the maturing dragon trail after the three fillies. Mentally, his nose was shoved so far up under their cute tails that the rest of the world might as well not exist for all he paid attention to it. And the little minxes were fully aware of it.

The four not-so youngsters anymore were standing pressed up against each other as they diligently peered through a viewing port. Well, the three fillies were. Spike just looked like he was enjoying being surrounded on all sides by soft, sweet-smelling mares who were not in the least shy about rubbing their bodies up against his smooth scales.

Luna could not help but notice that he had certainly grown under their influence. Dragons were a bit like goldfish. Their environment tended to dictate their size. It also tended to influence their body type. Spike could have grown into a massive multi-ton beast under the right circumstances. Instead, living with Twilight had kept him small and cute. Now under the influence of the three teen-age mares he was no longer exactly small, though to the right mindset he was certainly cute. But he was not dragon big, just pony big being a little taller than Big Mac, and maybe a little lighter, though that heavy muscular tail likely added a fair bit to the total. The important point as far as he and the mares was concerned was that he was still small enough to be sexually compatible with them, if only just, whenever matters reached that stage. Luna was pretty sure it hadn’t yet. For one thing the girls had shown no discomfort during the past few weeks as they walked around the facility. If they’d been having a massive dragon wang shoved up their tight little pussies on a regular basis that would not be the case. And it would be on a regular basis. Dragons tended to extremes, and at some point those three were going to discover the sort of fire they had been playing with. Luna hoped she’d be around to see it. It promised to be quite the show. Luna clenched her belly in erotic anticipation.

Pulling her mind out of the gutter, with difficulty, she really needed to get laid, and soon, Luna turned her attention from the bunker to the beings who had built it. While the majority of the construction crew were ponies, it also included a selection of all the races who had immigrated to Equestria from their native lands. There were several zebras, a couple of minotaurs and even a griffon. They were mostly male, but several of the ponies were mares. The smaller slighter females might have looked a bit out of place among the burly construction workers but they had proven to be just as capable, not to mention as rough and tough as their male counterparts. In fact the forepony in charge of the whole project was a middle-aged mare who was not in the least shy about tearing a strip off of even the biggest member of her crew if she thought he was either slacking or screwing up. Ms. Whip Crack was a superlative site manager. She really lived up to her cutie mark of a snapping bull-whip. But, that was to be expected, given her secret life.

Thinking of Ms. Whip, and the construction crew she had gathered, Luna felt a warm glow. After so much had gone wrong, it seemed like the universe had decided to make it up to her. If she had not stumbled into the mind of Milktoast two weeks ago while dream surfing she would never have found this crew, or the very capable Ms. Whip, or discovered the existence of the social group they all belonged to.

Milktoast was a low level castle functionary who had something to do with cleaning supplies inventory. He had fallen asleep in his little cubbyhole of an office and slipped into a horrific nightmare. Luna was naturally drawn to ponies in the grip of bad dreams, and she’d seriously needed a distraction from her current situation. What she had found in his dreams had at first filled her with terror, and then with hope.

Because it seemed that Milktoast belonged to a secret society that among other things seemed to celebrate the slavery and subjugation of mares. Her first reaction was that somehow the Caridoon leaders had already managed to infiltrate Equestria under her sister’s very nose.

But, a close examination of Milktoast’s dreams, with a little direction from her, had revealed that this “Clocktower Society” was a far cry from Caridoon. For one thing it had safe words. Part of Milktoast’s nightmare revolved around his safe words being ignored. Which was another thing that was different. No male, however wimpy, was enslaved in Caridoon—at least that she ever saw—but it was very clear that Milktoast was not only a slave, but that his owner was a mistress.

All of this had been intriguing, but it had been far overshadowed by the cause of Milktoast’s bad dreams.

Milktoast’s mistress had set him the task of going through the society’s personnel records and putting together a highly qualified construction team to build a new annex onto one of their existing locations. Which was apparently in some sort of cavern system.

Luna had been struggling with how she was going to set up a training facility to teach her volunteers how to cope with Caridoon culture, and how to deal with the sort of sexual activity they would have to engage in once they were tainted by Caridoon’s magic. This Clocktower Society offered the possibility of solutions to two problems. A place to train her volunteers, and a source of volunteers as well.

If Milktoast’s dreams supplied an accurate assessment of the society's culture,that is.

Luna had decided to throw the dice and use Milktoast’s list of construction ponies. She had sent agents out across Equestria to approach those ponies and present them with a royal decree to make themselves available for a project of the utmost importance to Equestria. One and all they had answered the call. That either showed their loyalty, or was suspicious as hell, as of course any infiltration agent would give their hind teeth for a chance at being involved in a secret government project.

And for the last week Luna had been carefully watching them in action.

A task made much more enjoyable by all the large buff stallions that choose to take advantage of the rural setting and away from the rather prudish city culture to work in the nude.

Now after watching them work, and surfing their dreams in the evening, she had decided that the Clocktower Society might just make the difference between survival and submission for Equestria. Not to mention the restoration of her sister.

No small part that last one. Besides her personal desire to see her sister restored, there was also the small fact that her chances of being able to adopt her slave persona and get the Tartarus screwed out of her were slim to none if she didn’t put her sister back on the throne. It was the only way she would be able to take time off and let Big McIntosh whip her ass till she couldn’t sit, and then shove that huge cock of his down her throat till she couldn’t breathe. She licked her lips as she enjoyed the memory of his cum coating her tongue and face.

Or so she had thought. Maybe, if the Society would accept them as members, Big Mac would have the opportunity to do even more interesting things to his royal slave. In a private setting that had a long history of keeping such behavior a secret.

“Princess Luna,” a voice intruded on her thoughts in a polite deferential tone. Giving a sigh—she couldn’t even have a good sex daydream—Luna opened her eyes and looked down at Ms. Whip, an eyebrow lifted in an interrogatory manner.

“We’ve put the final touches to the block house. Do you have more for us to do? Or can we start packing up our tools and shelters?” While the words were spoken in a calm direct manner, the marble colored pony with the brick red mane could not keep a touch of nervousness out of her voice, or from showing up in her expression. Like most of the crew Ms Whip had chosen to work in the nude, and that made her body language very easy to read for someone as old as Luna.

“The block house was urgently needed as fast as possible. We still need more work done on the support structure, but you can give your workers time off and we can discuss what needs to be done. Those who have duties elsewhere are free to leave, but we will need to replace them in due time,” Luna said. Ms. Whip visibly relaxed and gave a nod of her head.

“But, I have something I need to discuss with you once you’ve instructed your crew. If you could join me in my tent afterwards, it would be much appreciated.”

Ms. Whip winced, but gave Luna an obedient nod as she said, “I’ll be back quickly, Your Highness.”

Luna watched as the forepony hurried away, her cute but muscular ass twisting with each stride, her red tail swishing in agitation. She then turned and went into her tent to set the tea to brewing.

Luna was much older, and much better at concealing her feelings than Ms. Whip, but that did not mean she didn’t have reservations or nervous attacks. So much depended on the conversation she was about to have. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that the entire future of Equestria might rest on the next half hour. And while that of course was paramount, there was also the chance that it might also improve her sex life, and given the taint she suffered from that was no small thing to her.

Once again Luna felt the pressure of being the one true ruler. It seemed that every minute of every day was critical, with one wrong step having the potential to destroy the country her sister loved so much.

None of those worries showed on Luna’s face ten minutes later when Ms. Whip coughed at the entrance of her tent. “Come,” Luna called from where she was sitting at the simple camp table. Doing her best to channel her sister, she gestured to the chair on the other side of the table, bidding Ms. Whip to sit as she used her magic to lift the teapot and pour. “I believe you take your tea without sugar or cream,” she said politely as a clearly nervous Ms Whip carefully sat down.

“Yes, thank you, Princess. What was it you wished to talk to me about?”

Luna composed herself and prepared to lie through her teeth. “First, I wished to thank you and your crew for the superlative job you did on the guardhouse. I am very impressed on how well you organized a crew where so few of them had worked together before. They were drawn from all over Equestria, I believe.”

“Thank you, Princess, but my job was not that difficult. They were all first class tradesponies who needed very little direction from me to do their jobs.”

“Yes, and then there is the fact that they all belong to different branches of the same social club. That must have helped,” Luna said casually as she took a sip of tea. She didn’t even bother to hide her amusement as Ms. Whip jerked in shock and fumbled with her cup, spilling tea all over herself and the table.

“Why so surprised, Ms. Whip? Surely you must have realized it could not be a coincidence that every member of your workforce belonged to the same secret society? What is it called? Oh, yes, The Clocktower Society.”

Ms. Whip looked pale as she said, “We had hoped it was a coincidence. That we had only been selected because of our public faces and skill-sets. We are all at the top of our field after all, and it was made clear to us that this project was of critical importance to Equestria.” The distressed pony swallowed nervously and then asked, “I assume since you are showing your hand that the raids have already commenced on our various compounds?”

Luna took a sip of tea and let Ms. Whip simmer for a bit before finally taking mercy on her. “I will admit that I had several squads of troops on standby. Being very careful not to allow them to know just what the targets were. Considering how many of your society members are in the royal guard, that seemed the best course.”

Ms. Whip’s cheek twitched, and Luna took note that she’d made a hit. While normally finding out that members of the royal guard belonged to a secret society devoted to BDSM games would be troublesome, in this circumstances it was actually a relief. Her infiltrators were going to need to have far more skills than simply an ability to fuck convincingly.

Having paused for just a second to let her point about the guards sink in, Luna continued. “But it seems that there is no need. According to the historians I have had rummaging through my sister’s records for the past week, your society is not a danger to Equestria. In fact she believed you performed a vital function, a pressure relief valve if you will. And then of course there is my own observations of you and your crew. You had no idea what I was guarding against, and if you had been the threat I initially feared, you would have.”

Ms. Whip still looked pale, but had recovered enough to try and take a sip from the teacup that was shaking in her hands, only to discover it was empty. Luna levitated the pot and topped up her cup. “What… what is this threat?” Ms. Whip asked in a shaky voice.

“Caridoon!” Luna said, imbuing the one word with all the weight her skill as an orator allowed. Every bit of her attention was focused on Ms. Whip to see how she would react to that word.

Ms. Whip didn’t just spill her tea this time. The cup fell right out of her hands and shattered on the hard ground below her feet. Her expression ran through a gamut of emotions, shock, suspicion, fear, and finally, hope. “You know what Caridoon means?” she said in a whisper. “We’ve never known. We’ve only come across it a dozen times over the centuries, but it has always been associated with the most vile of organizations. The few times we were lucky enough to get our hands on one of their higher-ups they mentioned Caridoon. But none of them were highly enough placed to put it into context.”

Luna leaned forward, her expression intent, “So, as far as you know your society has no idea what Caridoon is.”

“We’ve always assumed it was the name given to the organization behind so many Tartarusfire clubs. They all share the same theme, total subjugation of females, with genuine non-consensual slavery. It was also thought it might be the name of some individual, but if that were the case either he is immortal, or it is passed down from one leader to another because our records go back over three thousand years, to the time of Celestia’s Unification of Equestria.”

“You know about the part my sister played in that?” Luna asked in surprise. Celestia had spent a great deal of effort in removing herself from history. There was truth behind the Hearth Warming, but that truth was a fraction of all that had lead to the unification of the three pony races. But the important bit, the kindling of the eternal flame, that was true.

“We are almost as old as your sister. I suppose I should not be surprised that she knew of our existence.”

Luna wondered if her sister had known about the society back when she’d been having her trouble. If she’d been honest back then about what was causing her so much distress would Celestia have been able to point her in the right direction to get her many itches scratched? Another lost opportunity, and a lesson in not keeping everything to yourself. Which was ironic given her current behavior. Maybe she’d been making a big mistake keeping Twilight out of this matter. For the moment she needed to focus on what Whip Crack was saying.

“As I’m sure you are aware Equestria was not a friendly place for people who enjoyed, shall we say, alternative sexuality. After the unicorn dynasty was overthrown there was a backlash against anything but the most basic and vanilla sex practices. Not all of the slaves prior to that had found their position distasteful, and not all of the masters and mistresses had been cruel monsters. Our society was founded by those who wished to pursue that lifestyle. But at the same time they wished to do everything possible to prevent the culture that existed under the unicorns from happening again. That is why the very first and primary law of the Clocktower Society is, ‘Your Safeword Is The Law’.”

Luna was impressed with how Ms. Whip managed to capitalize those last few words.

“That sounds admirable. But I have learned that such high-sounding principles can erode over time.”

“We have guardians who worship the true flame of harmony. And they have an enforcement branch. I will not say we have never had dark periods. At the very beginning there was a small faction of Unicorns who wished to use the society to return to the lifestyle they enjoyed when they were the undisputed rulers of the land. They were even supported by some earth ponies who had enjoyed privileged status under the old order. They were driven from the society. Our halls sealed against them.”

Ms. Whip gave a bitter laugh. “They are our boogeyponies. The story we tell young ponies who are inducted into the society. ‘They are out there, somewhere,’ we say, ‘plotting for when they can restore Equestria to the old ways.’”

“And are they?” Luna asks. “Could their descendants be associated with Caridoon?”

“It has been proposed. Please, your highness, understand that I am a member of long standing, but I am not part of the upper echelon. I know the stories that are passed around the members, but I am not privy to the deeper secrets. It is possible that our leadership knows the truth about Caridoon and simply have not chosen to share it with the membership.”

“Would you like to know the truth?” Luna asked. “Would you carry that truth to your leadership for me?”

“Of course. I would be honored,” Ms. Whip said in a hoarse voice thick with strain. She leaned in close, her entire body tensed as a coil spring as she focused every bit of her attention on the princess.

“Caridoon is a place. A vile prison where the worst of the worst have been locked away for times uncounted. A land where to be a female is to be a slave. Where all males are predatory. A land that intends the subjugation of Equestria, with the goal of enslaving our mares and corrupting our stallions. And if we can not stop them, they might very well succeed. They are trapped at the moment, but I know for a fact that they are striving with all their might to escape. I mean to take the fight to them, but it will not be easy. Caridoon has its own magic. Invasion is not an option! Our troops would be overwhelmed! I intend to infiltrate them! And your society might make that possible!” Luna was using the full Royal Canterlot Voice by the time she finished.

Ms. Whip was shoved back into her chair, which went up on its two back legs, from the force of Luna’s voice. She looked more than a little shellshocked.

Luna looked a little self conscious at having gone overboard. She had intended to slowly work her way through the full story and explanation. Taking in Ms. Whip’s wide staring eyes, she gave a sigh and rubbed her forehead just below her horn. In a slightly calmer voice she said, “Caridoon’s culture is one of male domination. All females are slaves. I wish to remove the threat with as little bloodshed as possible. That means I have to get a small strike force within range of the ruler. I need to send in infiltration teams, not just to make the actual strike but to set up supply and support bases. And those teams will have to blend into the Caridoon culture. That means the mares will have to pass as slaves, and the stallions as their owners. I think you can see why the society would be a great help in training and supplying those infiltrators.”

“Why not just send stallions?” Ms. Whip asked, having finally recovered her usual personal control.

“Because Caridoon is protected by a magical taint that was intended to control the population. Any pony who enters it will be infected by an incurable corruption. Sex will go from being a simple means of reproduction and pleasure to a necessity of life. At least for stallions. What information we have indicates that a stallion who has been infected will have to have sex daily in order to retain his health and to go more than a week without will result in a painful death. Long before that we fear they may become so lust-ridden that the veneer of civilization will be stripped away and they will rape any female they can get their hooves on.”

“And of course if we sent only females in they would fall prey to the native males?” Ms Whip said in a questioning tone.

“An astute deduction, you have it in one. And females are not immune to the taint. It may not cause their death, but it inflicts a never ending arousal that may only be soothed by a direct infusion of male sperm containing the counter taint on a regular basis. And there is no cure.”

Ms. Whip rubbed her chin in thought. Having been given a problem that she could focus on and for the time being ignore the implications. “I think I understand now. You need to send in small groups that have been trained to blend into the environment. Because of the permanent taint you would prefer volunteers. And of course the best volunteers would be those who would actually enjoy the situation.”

“Exactly! Verily you have hit the horseshoe nail on the head. In truth I had not hoped to gain volunteers who would enjoy the experience. I was at best hoping for those who could endure till they could return. But your reasoning is most sound. Do you truly think you can garner such volunteers from your society?”

“I can not speak for the society. But I know for a certain fact that there are enforcers who would give their right tit for a chance to take down Caridoon. It’s been a dream for some of them from the time they enlisted in the guard.”

“Can you get word to your society quickly?”

Ms. Whip’s brows furrowed in thought, and Luna could almost read her mind. She was trying to come up with an answer that would not give away too much information about her society.

“There are channels I will have to go through,” Ms. Whip said at last. “But for something this important I’m sure it will go to the top very quickly. I can’t give you a definite time, but I would not be surprised if we did not hear back in no more than two or three days.”

“I would hope for quicker, but I have already resigned myself to the fact that I may have to play the long game in this matter,” Luna said. “Send the word. In the meantime, after your break, now that the main defence structure has been erected, we will need several outpost buildings. Quarters for those that will oversee the gate and those passing through. Those for the latter should reflect their new roles.”

“I will see to that at once,your highness,” Ms. Whip said as she rose from her chair and knelt in respect to Luna before rising and hurrying from the tent.

Princess Luna felt her gut fully unclench for the first time since her sister’s diminishing. For all her brave talk of revenge and taking the fight to Caridoon she had never been able to completely dismiss the fear that King Duneyrr might succeed in his goal and bring all of Equestria under his sway. Now things seemed to finally be going her way. She had discovered a backdoor into her enemy's stronghold she hoped, and it was blockaded so that the Caridoon natives could not use it. And now she had gained what might be a vital resource. With the Clocktower Society she had a weapon that might prove capable of neutralizing Caridoon’s strongest defenses. Their culture and the magic nature of that land.

She felt like celebrating.

The first thought that popped into Luna’s mind was to pay a private nighttime visit to Big McIntosh Apple. The very thought of being in his power again was enough to make her quiver in anticipation. But that wasn’t possible. Until he gained a Caridoon taint he had no energy to spare for her, the little slave doe Bother needed all of his attention, the lucky little slut.

Maybe she could pay a visit to Rarity Belle’s dreams this evening? It had been a long time since Dreamy Slumber had attempted to attack the Element of Generosity in the dream world. Luna was sure Rarity would have dreamed up numerous new punishments to inflict on the brash youngster. It might not be as satisfying as being ridden hard by Big Mac, but it was a close second.

Luna clenched her thighs in memory of some of the things Rarity had done to Dreamy Slumbers during previous sessions. It was a pity she had promised herself that she would keep as many of Twilight’s friends out of this situation as possible. She would have really liked to have experienced what Rarity could learn from spending several months being trained by the Clocktower Society.

Thinking of her promise to keep Twilight and her friends safe spoiled her good mood as she recalled that two of those friends were lost in Caridoon and likely suffering at the hands of its vile male population.

That brought back her earlier thought that she had been falling back into her old habit of keeping everything to herself. Twilight might be young, but she’d proven herself. It was time Luna to bite the apple and bring her into the situation.

A sudden commotion from outside her tent drew Luna’s attention and she stuck her head out through the flap to see what all the fuss was about. The various construction workers were running all over the site. They were gathering up handtools and congregating in front of the bunker’s main gate with expressions of worry and determination on their muzzles. The few Royal Guards who were present were quickly bucking themselves into their armour and weapons as they too formed up around the bunker’s main door.

“Rainbow Dash is back!” the Pegasus filly named Scootaloo squealed at Luna from where she was standing next to the observation port.

Luna’s head snapped up and her heart jumped in her chest. Hope bloomed, they were back! They were safe! She broke into a dead run, her wings spread so that she covered the distance in long hops, all thought of royal dignity thrown out the door as raced to where three fillies and a dragon were crowded around the small square viewing port.

“No, why’d she go back?” Scootaloo cried out.

“Wait, she’s back, and she’s with... is that Gilda?” Apple Bloom shouted out.

“Let me see, girls!” Luna snapped, barely restraining herself from magically flinging the girls away from the crystal view screen. She settled for picking them up bodily and setting them down a dozen or so feet away. Much to the girl’s annoyance.

“Ah, it is them!” she gasped as she spotted Rainbow Dash’s distinctive colouration as well as the griffin she’d been with when they had snuck by her a week before. The two of them were holding onto a rope that led into the portal and were pulling hard on it.

Luna heart sank slightly as she saw that both young females were sporting black leather collars, and she was pretty sure that the glints she was spotting from their bouncing breasts—well not so much bouncing as jiggling in Rainbow Dash’s case—were coming from slave rings threaded through pierced nipples. It seemed that her fears had been realized. Both girls had run afoul of the Caridoon slave culture. She drew some comfort in the fact that at least they seemed to have escaped whatever situation they had found themselves in, and if the rope was any indication, they might have actually captured one of their abusers. That could prove a valuable information coup. As long as they did not have an army on their tails. Luna felt anger threatening to overwhelm her as she considered that Rainbow Dash might have destroyed any chance Equestria had of saving itself. She quashed the reaction. She needed to be calm and get the facts, but Rainbow Dash was not going to escape the consequences of her actions, no matter how much she ended up smelling like a rose, if she did.

A moment later a large dusky yellow creature was dragged through the portal, drawing a gasp from the youngsters, and Luna, as they spotted the large thrashing bat-wings and the tell tale fangs jutting down from his upper muzzle.

“A vampony,” Apple Bloom squealed in excitement. “A real honest to goodness, sure as shooting, vampony.”

“How cool is that,” Scootaloo chimed in. “Leave it to Rainbow Dash to capture a monster like that.

Luna said nothing. She was reeling in shock. It wasn’t possible. All her loyal transformed followers had died during the War of the Sisters. There couldn’t be any Alucards left. How was this possible? A chill went down her spine. She hadn’t exactly been sane when she’d created the Alucards. They had been loyal to her, but they had not been by any stretch of the imagination good ponies. Had Caridoon drawn them in, just as it had so many other evil beings and tribes? And if it had, what would she do? Evil or not, they were still her responsibility, her children almost. Could she save them, or would she have to put them down like mad dogs?

Author's Notes:

Sorry I've been away so long. Several things led to me having a hard time writing. One of them was I found myself looking down a hundred thousand word road to get to the fun stuff. I had spent so much time world building and seemed no closer to getting to the point where I could simply write stories set in this BDSM world.

At last I decided I simply was not going to try. With this story I'm abandoning a huge chunk of story telling I had planned and jumping forward. I know exactly what happened to the gang in Caridoon, and if anyone wants to write their story I'll be glad to help. For now you're going to be subject to lots of teasing as I have them think about and mention events that happened there.

You can get a taste from Theonewithoutaname who has written some of Dash and Gilda's story. For now and likely the future it's canon.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/371717/dusk-shine-rising-rainbows-and-gildas-sexventure

Now for the good news. The next chapter is finished and has been turned over to the pre-readers. so at least for one more chapter you won't have a one year wait.