The next time Sunset was aware of her surroundings, she was dreaming, and more lucidly than she ever had before.

She sat up and looked around. She seemed to be in a lushy, grassy field bordered by a forest on all sides. Stars and a full moon gleamed above her. When she stood, she could see a light fog blanketing the ground.

“Hello, my little - well, pony-at-heart, I suppose,” a voice said.

Sunset spun around and stopped, confused. “Why am I dreaming about the vice-principal in a pretty dress?” For Luna stood before her, clothed in a dark navy gown reminiscent of the ancient Minoan style, solid fabric for the basic structure and a semi-translucent, lightweight cloth overtop. Diamonds studded the dress irregularly to create the illusion of stars twinkling in the night sky, and the outer layer seemed to shift and waver with the fog that roiled at Luna’s feet.

It only took a second for Sunset to take another look, see the darker blue skin, the hair that swirled with galaxies, and the crown and pauldrons made of polished obsidian, and realize her mistake. She dropped to one knee in a deep bow.

“Rise, please. You are by far not the worst thing I have seen while dreamwalking.” When Sunset stood up, both Luna’s face and voice were warm and without reprove.

“Uh, no offense,” Sunset said, “but how come I’ve never seen you before? It’s been... like a year. I get that you don’t exactly have a reason to talk to me, but there’s been a few times where some advance communication would’ve helped.”

Luna frowned, then gestured to Sunset. “Come. I have matters of import to discuss with you.”

They walked some distance in silence before Luna said, “You are not wrong. I have only of late been able to travel amongst dreams of such unfamiliar origin; as well, it seems I am confined to this form when I do. I suspect some Equestrian influence is at play, though if that is so, there is little we can do save monitor it.”

“You heard what happened at Camp Everfree from Princess Twilight?” Sunset asked.

Luna nodded. “But that is beside our point here. What knowledge have you of the Clocktowers of Equestria?”

“This afternoon, I would have guessed that they told time, but I’m pretty sure you’re about to tell me something completely different,” Sunset said dryly.

Luna giggled, which somehow seemed both incongruous and natural at the same time. “You know the story of Hearth’s Warming, then?”

Sunset nodded. “More or less, yeah, the founding of Equestria, be a good friend or the Windigos will come get you?” A thought struck her and she froze. “You don’t mean that myth is real.”

Luna arched an eyebrow. “You seem to have more information than I had presumed.”

Sunset closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were in the cavern, next to the small but distinct pink Fire. Luna stared up at it, the closest to shocked that Sunset had ever seen her.

“It survived?” she whispered, then shook her head and refocused on Sunset. “You had better tell me how you came upon your world’s Fire of Devotion.”

Sunset took a deep breath, and for a moment reflected that she didn’t feel nearly as embarrassed as she would have expected, telling a princess and a stranger these intimate things she’d felt and done. Bemused, she said as much.

“When you dream, your subconscious is closer to the fore,” Luna explained. “Metacognition slows so as to be nearly absent, unless bolstered through practice or magic, as I have mine. It is good that you do not self-censor reflexively; that bodes well for your mental health and the work that must be done. Now: the information is more important than your modesty.” She gestured for Sunset to take over speaking.

And so she did, running through the events of that night as accurately as she could. Luna occasionally reacted or interjected, but stayed for the most part silent until Sunset’s words petered out.

“That... leaves me a great deal more optimistic than I had been,” Luna said. “And you a great deal wiser. To answer your previous question, yes, Windigos are indeed real, though they have not been seen in Equestria for many centuries. However, I have long suspected that some may have fled to this realm, and they may propagate wherever there is distrust and unrest.”

“And just like in the Hearth’s Warming story, the Fire of Devotion wards against them,” Sunset realized.

Luna nodded. “As a natural fire does snow and ice.”

Sunset stared intently at the Fire. “Judging by the ring around it, it’s going to need to be a lot bigger, and we’re going to need to give it a lot more power.”

“Indeed. The founders discovered that the most ardent fuel came from, well, sex, to put it bluntly. Consensual sex, informed, but still with a power imbalance that came most naturally to the participants. Over time, what started as a secretive group of ponies indulging in their devotion to each other - in such a way that was and is still frowned upon - became a large network of dedicated, and usually quite innovative, like-minded individuals. The Clocktower Society is so named in reference to the original site, which is crowned by a clocktower atop a cliff, some ways from Canterlot. It currently spans the entire world and is responsible for a majority of technological and thaumaturgical advancement.”

Luna stopped and gave Sunset a wry look. “Here is where I would have explained that attempts were made to establish a hoofhold for the Society in the realm beyond the mirror, but after my banishment, the sites languished and were eventually abandoned for various reasons. I had assumed this meant the Fire of Devotion had been extinguished, but it seems there was sufficient residual magic and fuel to keep it going until you and your Twilight rekindled it. Regardless of how it happened, it will take a clever and delicate touch going forward. Now that the Fire is no longer banked, it will draw attention from all quarters, some with ill intent. Your friends may be able to help, but tread carefully beyond that. Interest and willingness must come before obligation; consent cannot be coerced.”

Sunset switched her look of disbelief from the Fire to Luna. “How exactly am I supposed to sell that, though? It’s not like it’s a topic that comes up all the time.”

Luna smoothed the fabric of her dress. “I would say to them this: in your truest fantasies, those that attempt to satisfy your deepest needs, are you....” She hesitated, then closed her eyes. “Do you feel it a great relief to lay the burden of choice at another’s hooves, to surrender your very will into a trusted grasp? Or the opposite, that you are only truly satisfied when that trust is placed in you, and you are so aware of your lover’s devotion to anything you might ask of them that it seems the very air is sweeter for it?”

She opened her eyes, only to find Sunset staring at her, rapt, cheeks flushed and jaw slack. Luna smiled, not unkindly. “Then I think you will not find as much resistance to the concept as you believe.”

Sunset had to take a minute to recover. “Could I...?”

“What?”

“I don’t think there’s a way I can phrase this that won’t sound weird, but do you think I could visit a Clocktower in Equestria? If we can take the structures that are already working and put them into practice here, that saves a lot of time and energy.”

Luna tilted her head. “I can’t think of a reason why not. You may bring your friends, but as their counterparts are well-known in Equestria, they would need disguises. Especially Twilight, whose counterpart’s relation to the Society is... delicate, currently.”

Sunset decided not to ask. “So I shouldn’t write to her to set up a playdate?” she guessed sarcastically. “Should I tell her the truth? I’ll have to say something, I can’t just show up in her house.”

“Actually, you could,” Luna said. “I believe she keeps the mirror in a side room in her castle when she doesn’t anticipate its active use, and a large part of the building is open to the public. I can alert Tall Order, who lives in Ponyville, to the endeavor, and I’m sure he would gladly afford you the opportunity.”

Sunset blinked. “Oh. Well. Okay then.”

“Unless there is someone you would find more suited to the task?”

“Uh - not that I can think of. I don’t really know anyone in Ponyville though.”

Luna nodded decisively. “I shall withdraw and communicate this plan to Tall Order via more traditional methods. There is always a chance some obstacle will make the journey more difficult, but his job is flexible and often involves administration work within the Society. Shall I arrange your meeting two days hence?”

“Wait, counting tonight, or-?”

“It is near seven in the morning in Equestria, on a Sunday. My sister will be raising the Sun shortly.”

“Okay, so, assuming the times match, and it sounds like they do, I can come over tomorrow - there’s no school on Sunday, so I’ll have the whole day. I might have to stay overnight, but the portal is literally in front of my high school so that’s not much of a problem. Also, wow, I can’t believe I just said all that with a straight face.”

Luna hid her grin behind her hand. “On the morrow, then, at noon. That should be plenty of time. Fare thee well, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Um, you too,” Sunset said, watching Luna walk into the darkness. When the last trace of the Princess of the Moon had vanished from sight, she woke up.

Her clock read 7:04 AM in glowing red letters, and just past the blinds, a glowing red sun peered over the horizon.

“Huh,” said Sunset Shimmer. “Kinky sex club with friendship lasers.” She thought about it for a minute, then shrugged. “Here we go.”

She texted Twilight first, electing to take the bus to Canterlot High rather than potentially have to leave her motorcycle unattended in a park all day.

Princess Luna visited me in dream. Said we need more people. Friends first.

Her phone buzzed as she stepped off the bus.

Are you sure it was real?

100%. Get everyone to meet where we were last night? I’m there now.

Okay. I hope this goes well.

“Me too,” Sunset muttered, shoving her phone in her pocket. It took a bit of hunting, but she did eventually find the pillar with what she now realized was a stylized C. Below the C, now visible in the bright daylight, a similarly stylized S had been carved in dark lines on the light granite.

“The Clocktower Society,” she said. She moved to trace the letters with her fingers, but as before, the rock shifted at her touch, folding back on itself to reveal the stairs.

Sunset fiddled with her suddenly pointier ears. “I wonder if that’s going to keep happening.”

As much as she wanted to wander down into the facility itself, she had to be visible to her arriving friends. Instead, she perched on a nearby boulder and waited.

Applejack was the first to arrive, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in tow.

Rainbow pointed an accusing finger at Sunset. “This better be super important, to get up so early on a Sunday for!”

“It’s eleven,” Applejack deadpanned.

“Exactly!”

Sunset stood up and stretched. “Well, it’s definitely not boring.” While she’d waited, she’d returned to human form, and the stone doorway had closed. She didn’t change either state just yet, instead walking closer to the group so they formed a loose circle. “What did Twilight tell you?”

“Not a lot,” Applejack said. “Something about a magic thing in the park, y’all needed us here. I take it the shiny rock has something to do with it.”

Sunset glanced back at the hidden entrance. “Um... yeah.” She took a breath. “Look, what I’m about to say... it might sound... weird. Just, before you do anything, keep in mind that at any point, you’re free to walk away, and I’ll never bring it up again, I swear. Please don’t tell anyone else, though.”

Now all three of them were looking at her skeptically - or in Fluttershy’s case, with a look of vague concern. “We trust you, Sunset, but... you’re not in any trouble, are you...?”

Count on Fluttershy to say something unexpectedly sweet. Sunset smiled. “Amazingly, no, that is about the one thing that’s not happening.”

“Great,” Rainbow said, apparently still a little grumpy about being up at the same time as the sun. “Spill.”

Okay. Okay. She could do this. “L-”

“Last night you and Twilight found a super old magic thingie and it turns out it’s powered by BDSM and so we all have to fuck to save the world!”

Rainbow put a hand to her face and scooted back to make room for the sudden inclusion of Pinkie Pie into the group. Twilight and Rarity followed at a distance, making their way somewhat more carefully through the underbrush.

Sunset’s brain caught up with her ears. “Uh, that’s - no, not - well, sort of - how did you know any of that?”

Pinkie shrugged cheerfully. “Sometimes I say the craziest things when I’m not really paying attention and then they turn out to be true. It’s kinda fun! So, who’s up for a kinky play party?”

“Slow down, Pinkie,” three different people said.

There was a pause while Twilight and Rarity caught up, then Applejack said, “So, wait, how much of that is true and how much of it is Pinkie being Pinkie?”

Sunset gave up on fighting the blush that was spreading down her neck. “Magic thingie yes, kink basically yes, save the world maybe, ‘have to’ no. And yeah, it’s-” She leaned back and swatted the rock with the palm of her hand. “Right here, actually. But remember, what I said is still true, if you don’t want anything to-”

“Are you kidding?” Rainbow said, finally alert and interested in her surroundings. “Sign me the hell up!” She glanced at Fluttershy. “I mean, that’s okay with you, right?”

Fluttershy nodded, smiling a little.

“Uh,” Sunset said, rather intelligently.

“Shucks, might as well throw my hat in the ring.”

“Bondage party with friends! Whoo!”

“Well, it seems I have indeed fallen in with the right crowd,” Rarity concluded slyly.

Everyone looked expectantly at a dumbfounded Sunset.

“We were all friends during puberty, remember?” Rainbow pointed out. “Except for those, like, six months where you manipulated us against each other. There was... a lot of awkward fumbling and weird conversations at a lot of sleepovers.”

Sunset shut her mouth. “...Y’know, that explains a lot. I hope you like stairs. I’ll tell you about the magic stuff on the way.”

“...no, Pinkie, for the third time, Equestria does not have a kinky sex holiday. And you, stop giggling!” Sunset threw up her hands in mock exasperation, blithely pretending that she wasn’t also laughing so hard she’d started hiccupping. “Children, all of - hic! - you.”

“Wow, even for me that’s weird,” Pinkie observed.

Without giving the group time to dissolve into more laughter, Rarity interjected, “Darling, I thought you said you needed flashlights when you were here.”

Sunset sobered. “Last- hic! Last time we did.”

That was clearly no longer the case. The Fire of Devotion hadn’t perceptibly grown, but the entire cavern was now softly lit with a gentle pale pink light. It was perhaps not bright enough to read by, but they could certainly see.

“I think it’s warmer, too,” Twilight said.

“Heating spells, maybe.”

As they walked closer, the Fire caught everyone’s attention.

“Oh, that is just gorgeous,” Rarity marvelled.

“Is this in another language?” Fluttershy asked, kneeling to look more closely at the inscription surrounding the floating heart.

“It’s some kind of fusion between an Equestrian alphabet that ponies don’t use anymore, and sort of... 14th? 15th?”

“Fifteenth century, I think,” Twilight said.

“Fifteenth century English, then. I’m honestly not sure how anyone was able to read it. Modern English and Modern Equestrian are basically the same language, but the alphabets are completely different, because we started with different pictograms.”

“Ooh, what were Equestria’s like?” Twilight asked. She’d sat down on the floor with most of their group, to give her legs a break after all the stairs. When Sunset looked at her, she practically had stars in her eyes.

Sunset chuckled a little and walked over to stand by Twilight and put a hand on the girl’s head. Twilight hummed and leaned into Sunset’s leg, while Rarity had what looked like a minor stroke in the background, muttering something about a cuteness overdose.

“I’ll get you a linguistics book later,” Sunset promised. “For now, I figured we should explore a little. From what Luna said, this place could be huge, and apparently there’s more than one. Even if a lot of it isn’t working, there’s probably some stuff that just needs magic to run on, and resources are the most important thing right now.”

With general murmurs of agreement, they spread out around the cavern in groups of two and three.

Now that the lights were on - for a given value of “lights” and “on” - Sunset could see that the main room was divided into three sections, with the boundaries marked by carvings, low walls, or simply a line etched into the floor. The first looked like a sort of atrium, and extended from the bottom of the stairs halfway to the Fire. Sunset suspected the floor plan had been arranged around the Fire, rather than the other way around, but the original architects had done a pretty good job, considering.

The second, on the far left side of the cavern, mainly featured a large, and dry, fountain sculpted out of the wall, and a set of inscriptions to either side. The fountain itself was fashioned in the form of several human figures in various poses; Sunset was too far away to tell much more than that.

The third section, into which Sunset and Pinkie were making their way steadily further, took up most of the available space. It seemed to be both a social gathering area and a terminal leading towards the deeper parts of the facility. There were some stone structures in place that Sunset guessed could serve as tables or benches, but of course any more forgiving furniture had long since disintegrated. Several archways opened to smaller passages, each labelled helpfully in a language none of them could easily read.

Sunset took out her phone and focused the flashlight on the writing above the doorways closest to them. “Let’s see... um... that one says... ‘Gates’? Maybe I’m translating that wrong.... ’Private Rooms’, uh, ‘Eldritch Delights’? And... that one just has a heart over it.”

“I know where I’m going!” Pinkie exclaimed, already bouncing over to the archway with the heart. Sunset followed more slowly, and groaned when the crystal lights flickered into life within the passage.

“Great. More stairs.”

Fortunately, they weren’t nearly as extensive as the steps down from the entrance. If everything was connected by stairs in this place, though, they were going to have to figure out some kind of wheelchair access. Not to mention the fact that Sunset herself wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of climbing up and down what felt like a half-mile of stairs anytime she wanted to go anywhere.

When she reached the top, she was surprised to discover Pinkie doing something so mundane as... sitting at a desk? No, wait. Sitting on a desk. Okay, it was still Pinkie.

“This looks like some kind of post office,” she said.

“A kinky post office!” Pinkie declared.

Sunset shot her a look and walked past her to investigate the part of the room past a low dividing wall... counter... thing. “I don’t think it gets more exciting if you just add the word ‘kinky’ to it. How would that even work?”

“Weeeeeeell, you’d have to tie your package up, right?” Pinkie said cheerily, bouncing along behind Sunset like a balloon in a hurricane. “Make sure nothing can fall out or wriggle loose. And then you’d have to make sure it got where it was supposed to go, so it would have to be addressed really clearly. And then-”

Sunset cleared her throat. “Okay! Point taken.” She turned her flashlight onto the box in front of her. It was the same nondescript grey as the rest of the room, save for the light crystals, but it was clearly made out of a different material. When she rapped on it, it made a hollow banging noise. “...Metal?”

Everything else in the Clocktower was made of stone or crystal, except for the Fire of Devotion. Where had this thing come from, and why?

She explored further down the box, until she found a handle that, when tugged on, revealed the box to be a cabinet full of drawers.

“This is a filing cabinet,” Sunset said, mystified.

“A kinky-!”

“No, it’s just a filing cabinet. There is literally nothing stopping you from getting this thing at Staples. I mean, except for the part where it’s five hundred years old.” Sunset looked around the room again. “I wonder if this is some kind of admin area. If we get more people we’re going to have to figure out who’s supposed to be here and who’s not.”

Nothing was in the cabinet in front of her, or in the next three she tried, but the fifth one yielded a handful of identical badges, with pins on the back so they could be affixed to clothing. Each resembled the bright metallic C that marked the entrance at ground level. Like everything else, they were spotless.

Pinkie snagged six and pinned one to her shirt. “Now it’s official! Everybody should have one!” So saying, she rushed back down the stairs, leaving Sunset alone.

She explored a bit more, but there wasn’t really much else in the room. A few counters and desks had been formed out of stone, and a few metal chairs, though none too sturdy, remained scattered about. Most of the drawers and storage spaces were empty, though one of them did hold what looked like a key ring with several metal tags on it. Sunset pocketed it to puzzle over later, pinned her own badge to her jacket, and wandered back to the main hall.

--Which was, abruptly, a much shorter trip than she’d expected. She turned around in time to see a pinkish-purple mirage fade from view behind her, with the same hue reflected in her badge.

Huh. Fixed-point teleportation. Well, that solved the stairs, at least.

Shit. Teleportation. Magic. Equestria. What time was it?

Sunset dropped her phone on the floor, retrieved it, and turned off the flashlight to learn that she had ten minutes to get her act together and through the portal.

Projecting, she shouted, “I’m going to visit one of the Clocktowers in Equestria! Mostly to do a lot of paperwork! If anyone wants to come with, I’m leaving now!”

Across the room, she saw Applejack visibly shrug. Rainbow looked incredibly excited and then disappointed at the prospects of Equestria and paperwork, respectively, while Fluttershy’s reaction was, naturally, subdued enough to be invisible at a distance. Twilight and Rarity, somewhat closer, conversed with each other for a moment before waving at Sunset and heading towards the exit. Pinkie was nowhere to be found, which after a second or two Sunset decided was both unsurprising and not really that concerning.

“You both want to come?” Sunset asked when she’d caught up. “It’s probably going to be a bunch of me talking to some stallion and taking notes.”

Rarity waved a hand dismissively. “Who says we won’t be taking notes of our own?”

“We found - it looks like some kind of research lab, by the fountain - for engineering, chemistry,” Twilight chimed in. “It wouldn’t actually take that much to turn it into a viable workspace, and if it’s here then there must be a reason for it. I’d like to get an idea of what....” She blushed and pushed her glasses up. “What they might be working on.”

“Not to mention the design aspects of such a thing,” Rarity practically trilled. “This is a secret society, and I refuse to be included in it if we don’t look the part.”

“You know, we could just not wear anything and look the part that way,” Sunset pointed out, mostly to see the flustered look on Twilight’s face. “But sure, I don’t see why not. They might put some kind of illusion on you, though, so you don’t get mistaken for... well, yourselves, but you know what I mean.”

“Mm.”

Thankfully, the badges did indeed let them skip most of the stairs, though the time they might have made up was instead spent on both Twilight and Rarity goofing off with the magic system, having never seen anything like it before. Sunset just waited, smirking and surreptitiously filming the whole thing on her phone for later. The portals seemed to be linked to each landing, so that instead of half a mile at an incline, the path to the Clocktower was about a hundred-foot walk on a level plane - a fact for which Sunset’s knees were incredibly grateful.

When they did finally emerge into the sunshine, it was almost noon, and Sunset shamelessly used the rush to pretend that she didn’t notice the trepidation over entering the portal to Equestria - her own or the others’.

When she opened her eyes again, it was to an empty crystalline room, twelve hooves in a hopeless tangle, and a sense of ambient magic that she hadn’t realized just how desperately she’d missed. For the first time in years, Sunset was home.