Not much set Star Hunter apart from the crowds thronging the streets of Hollow Shades. His grocery in his saddle bags bore no distinguishing marks or features. Neither did the anonymity of his dark brown coat and that of his short and spiky mane. One might say he was more ‘bat-like’ than ‘pony-like’ than his thestral kin, perhaps. No, his only truly distinguishable feature was his cutie mark: a group of white stars connected by blue lines to create the constellation Orion.

Perhaps the best way to describe Star Hunter was that he was indeed very ‘thestral’, much like his home of Hollow Shades. His parents always told him he held the night and the stars in him, just like the town around him.

Then, as now, on either side of him were buildings made of the same dark wood as the trees in the forest his tribe customarily inhabited. Most of the ones on the ground were two to three stories tall, with curved roofs that ended in a point with tall spires in the middle. Among them were a scattered few whichs looked like towers topped with wooden domes. These ground level buildings were mainly shops, government buildings, and the like.

Above both was an entirely different district. Tree houses wrapped themselves around mammoth trunks with sidewalks circling each one. A separate set of streets linked the arboral homes; each were connected to the others by rope bridges and ramps that allowed those who could not fly up to the neighborhood above.

No matter how different, all the buildings in Hollow Shades shared one element in common: each one centered it’s facing with a large arching window, and from each came an orange light that carried with it the scent of burning leaves and wood.

After walking for a while, Hunter saw a familiar crossroad. The quiet stallion pondered his course. He could, of course, continue to go straight and reach his home all the more quickly so he could get to work writing the next chapter of his book. However, if he turned left he could visit one of his favorite stores in town to see if anything new had arrived.

In the end, he decided to turn left. He could use a little break; his deadline was still several months away. Besides, even if he didn’t see anything new there was always the chance he run into a friend or two.

Natalus Street looked just like every other street in town at first. The further Hunter trotted, though, the more it became apparent that he was in an entirely different part of town. The buildings here were spaced further apart. Most of their windows even had their shutters closed. Those that didn’t, had a dim red light streaming from within, instead of the homey orange.

The smoky crimson silhouetted groups of mares looking down at the streets for anypony who wanted company for an hour or two. There were even a few street trotters, wearing heavy eyeliner and fishnet stockings on their rear legs, who carefully approaching passers by who looked like they might be interested. Looking further ahead, he could see that many of the other ponies were tourists who had either gotten lost or were simply looking for a good time away from prying eyes.

Hunter was thankful that the building he was heading to was located right before he got in too deep. Not that he minded the mares ahead. Thestrals were more comfortable around the idea of sex in almost all of its forms than the rest of Equestria. There were only a few things they didn’t approve of, like cheating on your spouse or rape. And because of this, members of the Sol Invictus Church were almost non-existent here, a fact that made Hollow Shades the perfect place for the other pony tribes to come down to have a little fun. Still, Hunter couldn’t help but feel annoyed seeing them pretend that they were asking the mares for the time or making excuses for themselves.

A bell rung as he entered. He paused at what he saw. All around him were tables displaying various selections of dildos and flesh lights. Sex-based board games, fetish outfits, kink supplies, and more lined the walls. And, in the middle of the room, flapping her wings to stay in the air was Passionate Night, an ash grey mare with a black mane that had a green strip running down its middle. She didn’t turn around to greet him, instead she continued to work on installing a sex swing. Looking at it with its thick, black twisted rope, straps, and O-rings caused the stallion to pause for a moment.

Hunter walked around the mare, now safely secure in the sex swing, with a riding crop in his mouth. His slave was tightly secure with all four hooves strapped in tightly, her front legs held above her head by the black ropes. Her lower legs were a different story. They were kept at the mare’s body level and kept wide apart so he would have easy access to her two unoccupied holes.

The mare let out a moan, muffled by the ball gag in her mouth, as she stared at her master with anticipation. With a jerk of his head, the crop struck her flank, causing his cock warmer to cry out in both pain and delight. The sound pleased him greatly so he struck her again, right above her teats. He was rewarded once more with another delightful sound while watching her dripping wet foalhole wink at him. Hunter knew what his mare wanted, what she craved day and night. But he wouldn’t give it to her just yet. No, there was so much more he had planned before he used her to warm his cock.

And he had a whole stores worth of material to use. All he needed to do was-

“Hunter, you there?” The mare’s voice snapped Hunter out of his daydream with a start. Doing his best not to gasp out in shock, he noticed that the mare who had been putting up the sex swing now standing several feet in front of him with a concerned look on her face.

“I, er,” began Hunter, slightly embarrassed that his imagination had run away from him.

“I asked if you liked the swing,” said Passionate Nights, looking a little relieved. “You’ve been staring at it since you got here. It’s called the Ouch, made for ponies who like it a bit rougher. If you like it, it’ll only cost three hundred bits.”

“Oh,” said Hunter as he averted his eyes. “N-No thanks. I’m not into that kind of stuff. Just here to see if there are any new magazines and then I’ll be on my way.”

“Really? You sure?” asked Passionate with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” replied Hunter quickly, already making his way towards the magazines. As he did, he passed by some blow up sex dolls of all four princesses, Daring Do, and other famous ponies. The product promised a magical enchantment that would give them a more realistic feel, but that was all Hunter managed to read as he quickly made his way over to the magazines.

Hunter let out a sigh of relief as he arrived in the safety of the magazine corner. He looked at his usuals to see if any of them were good. The first one he spotted focused on mares in glasses with this month’s cover-mare appearing to be in a library, her lemon colored flank pointed at him with her tail half raised. However, something seemed off with this mare. She didn’t seem…nerdy or adorkable enough. It was as if they just got a model, slapped some glasses on her and thought nopony could tell the difference. Without bothering to look in the book, the brown stallion saw his next choice which, as usual, contained zebra mares getting gangbanged by pony stallions. The cover was very tantalizing: the zebra was on her back, her back holes covered by a censor bar, with five or six stallions in fake Royal Canterlot Guard armor. Yes, this promised to be a very good read.

As he picked it up, Hunter noticed the magazine next to it. It was a BDSM magazine. The mare on its cover was on her hind-knees with her forelegs tied behind her back. She had an O-ring in her mouth and a pair of clover clamps on her teats. . Next to said teats were a pair of weights suspended in a magical glow, threatening imminent contact with her clamps. Quickly, Hunter turned his head towards a farm mare porno mag before-

The scent of hay and manure filled his lungs as he took a deep breath. Neither of these things bothered him as he took in his prize. The well-toned earth mare’s white coat and neon blue braided mane were dirty, both from her hard day working on the farm and the tussle they had when he caught her. He had kept this slave guessing, never knowing when her master would come to her farm house to take her. She had no idea that for the last several days he had stalked her, waiting for the right moment to strike so he wouldn’t interfere with her work or worry her family. That moment had finally come as she was finishing up her chores and her little brother had just left to spend time with his friends. He had loved how she screamed in surprise when he had grabbed her from behind and then flown them into the farm house. Now here she was, on her knees with her forehooves and rear hooves tied together and pushing her stomach towards him.

In his hoof, Hunter held a clover clamp with a weight attached to it. His toy could see it clearly, looking at it with a mix of fear and desire. Perhaps she was afraid of the weight since it looked bigger than the ones he would normally use. But Hunter wasn’t worried in the slightest. She was a strong mare and he knew she could handle this. Once he clipped this onto her teat he would then take her throat, ramming his unsheathed cock into its warmer while her screams caused it to vibrate. Only when they dulled would he attach the next-

Hunter shook his head again, dismissing the daydream before his cock really did unsheathe in this store. He then quickly took the farm mare mag that had the picture of the white earth mare as well as the zebra one, went up to the register, and paid Passionate for the two of them before high tailing it home.

As Hunter flew home, he chastised himself for allowing his imagination to run wild like that, twice. These daydreams had been happening to him ever since his parents gave him ‘the talk’. He remembered the first one was just him and a filly from school, sneaking off behind the school building to kiss heatedly. But within a year or two, those innocent daydreams became more heated and vivid. Nowadays his fantasies had a common theme to them. A few days ago he looked at a trio of identical sisters and saw himself rutting one of them in the ass while he hoofed the other two’s pussies in public. Yesterday he saw the local school teacher and daydreamed about tying her up on her desk, legs spread so that she could not hide her moist flower as he wrote lewd phrases across her coat.

There was a part of him that wanted to try out one of these fantasies at least once. To find some willing partner who would submit herself to him. Yet with all the mares he had been with, none of them ever seemed to want to explore sex beyond a good rutting. He could have brought it up himself, however he was afraid of how they would react if they found out he was interested in that sort of thing and they weren’t. Best case scenario in that situation would be her calling him a freak and never speaking to him again.

The worst case was being reported to the Sol Invictus Church. As far as he was concerned, the Sol Invictus was a group of Celestia-worshiping prudes, doing everything in their power to keep Equestria looking squeaky clean. Legally, they couldn’t stop him, but they would ruin his life. Hunter had heard from a friend living in Fillydelphia that a store owner had been outed for having a watersports fetish. The Sol Invictus were on him like a pack of timberwolves, publicly shaming him and boycotting his store. It quickly became implied that anypony who shopped there supported both his and his ‘unnatural’ lifestyle. Not wanting to become targets themselves, ponies steered clear of the building until it went out of business. Now, the owner was a bum living on the streets.

There were similar cases all over Equestria going back as far as he could remember. If a spell researcher living in Canterlot practiced some unconventional sex, well, both he and whatever he was working on would be ruined. Actors and singers quickly lost their jobs. Authors had had their books taken off shelves and banned. That was something that Hunter refused to let happen! He had worked too hard, competing with hundreds of other ponies to get his books published by a major publishing company, he wasn’t about to throw it all away for some kinky sex.

Thankfully they couldn’t be everywhere and stop everything. And Hollow Shades happened to be one of the towns that they had deemed ‘unfit’ to set hoof in. Thestrals were considered ‘a lost cause’ and ‘Lunatics’ by the church. Those who left the safety of their home would either be shamed or asked if they had left to join the rest of Equestria in Harmony.

Finally, Hunter arrived home at his tree house. The inside was just as he had left it, somewhat messy but not to any extreme degree that would cause him any embarrassment should, say, an unexpected visitor dropped by. . As he walked past the kitchen table to put his groceries away, he placed the mags next to a stack of police documents from Fillydelphia. These documents detailed a few closed murder cases that Hunter needed for inspiration in his next detective novel.

Before he could open the fridge, however, there was a knock on the door. Sighing, Hunter set his saddle bags on the ground before heading to the door. When he opened it, he saw a pegasus mare smiling at him. She had a light blue coat and a white mane that had a yellow stripe zig-zagging through the middle.

“Hello,” she said politely. “Am I addressing Mr. Star Hunter?”

“Yes,” replied Hunter slowly as he eyed her.

“Excellent,” she said warmly. “There is something I would like to speak to you about. Do you mind if I come in so we could speak more privately?”

Hunter paused to think about this before answering. He had no idea who this mare was or why she was here. He deduced that she was most likely not a tourist. The lack of a camera suggested that much, so did the fact that tourists never ventured up here. Seeing as she knew his name, there was a possibility that she was a fan of his. That too seemed to be unlikely since his book sold only decently. Puzzled as he was, Hunter felt at least reassured by the fact that she didn’t appear to have any nefarious intentions. Yet.

“Come on in,” he said as he moved out of the doorway. “And just call me Hunter.” The mare thanked him as she walked in, Hunter closing the door behind her. As Hunter turned, he saw that the mare had moved towards the kitchen table and had seated herself down near where he had placed his porno. If she saw it or even cared was beyond him, her expression never changing.

“I’m sure you are wondering who I am and, more importantly, why I am here,” she said as Hunter moved to sit across from her. “My name is Lightning Wing, and I belong to a group that wishes to extend to you an invitation to join us.” With that, Lightning placed a card on the table.

For a moment, Hunter stared at the card with interest. It bore a two simple words written in bold type - Clocktower Society. He had never heard of this ‘Clocktower Society’ before. Who were they? What did they want with him? Perhaps they were a publishing house wanting established talent or something of that nature?

“Well I’m flattered by your invitation,” said Hunter as he looked up at her with a half-smile. “But I’ve never heard of this… Clocktower Society before.”

Lightning chuckled. “No, no you wouldn’t,” she said. “We are an ancient secret society that has remained hidden since the beginning of Equestria. The Clocktower Society exists to provide a place for ponies with certain interests to indulge themselves safely, without the fear of public persecution. Recently we were made aware that you shared in these interests. We would normally ask somepony close to you to handle the invite, but you have no friends or family members who are members. So I was given the privilege of opening this door for you.”

It was then that Lightning pulled out a document and set it on the table. Hunter could tell just by looking at it that were was a powerful spell on it. So powerful, in fact, that the air around it vibrated and glow blue with power. Giving the mare a quick glance, he then lowered his head to see what it said. Basically, if he were to sign this he would be unable to tell anyone, be they pony or otherwise, about who had seen or where the locations of Clocktower facilities were.

“You…you’re really dedicated to keeping this a secret,” was all Hunter could say when he looked up.

“Naturally,” replied Lightning. “I wish I could give you more details, but I cannot until you sign this contract.”

Hunter glanced downwards. “What happens after I sign this?” he asked. “Will you tell me what this Clocktower Society is about?”

“That and more,” replied the mare. “If you aren’t busy, I can take you there myself for a tour. You will be given a visitor’s pass and allowed a taste of what we have to offer. Then… the rest is up to you. You can either become a member, or you can walk away and nopony will think any less of you for it. Of course, if you do walk away you can always change your mind later. We are not putting any pressure on you to do anything you don’t want to do. The door is open Star Hunter. What happens next is up to you.”

For a moment, Hunter thought about just passing her the contact. It sounded incredibly foolish, and even dangerous, to sign up with some group he knew nothing about. Even more so to follow a stranger to a place he didn’t know. But perhaps it was because of her lack of pressure mixed with his own curiosity that was causing him to seriously considering this. How did that phrase go? Nothing ventured nothing gained?

So Star Hunter signed the contract right there, wanting to see what was through the door.