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7470034 how many good things hide themselves in a positive society?
I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something that explains Twilight's reaction...
7483707 65.media.tumblr.com/33e92e94e2b2b02f7163d42eda1a52a8/tumblr_nqm3tlXTPT1s56yepo2_540.gif
Fluttershy: [reading] "Twilight Sparkle likes vanilla ice cream, red balloons, dancing..."
Twilight Sparkle: That's right!
Fluttershy: "But she's afraid of quesadillas."
Twilight Sparkle: No, I'm not! They're just so... [shudders] cheesy.
- Episode 102, Party Pooped -
..... was not expecting that ending....
I have a terrible memory, but I desperately want to steal Quesadilla Serious. Which also sounds like the name of the stalker in a dubcon fantasy fanfic Twilight could write to play around with her own fears.
Or a mariachi metal group.
I seem to have wandered a bit. Anyway, a number of smiles this time, though I think the conflict to cliffhanger at the end felt a little rushed; it might have been nice to have some lead-up referenced in some of the interstitials. If it's important, at least. If it's not, it's still a little jarring but less blink-inducing.
A good, serious willingness to forgive is so very Twilight. Especially in context of Quesadilla Serious. Looking forward to the next main chapter and interstitial alike!
I see what you did there....?
okay, I didn't understand that Doc Horse and Twilight were already a couple, or rather a herd. I didn't realized in this story you could be casually be part of a couple like that in this story, that your didn't had to have strong feelings with the rest of the herd to still be a part of it; I wander how it usually work when it comes to sharing each other.
It is interesting to learn that that Horse is the head dom of the clock tower in the area, and I ma hopping to see how he became interested in BDSM in the first place, I wander if he was as clueless as Twilight was.
I wander who was the first bdsm partner of Rarity, I am guessing maybe it was Blueblood, seeing that he was the only pony that she had interests in that night, but I am not sure.
70/30 Good/evil odds. The whole feeding ponies to tentacle plants still has me hung up
I'm desperate for the full action. Please don't take too long for the next chapter MH! The suspense is killing me!
Rarity! You go too far!
Twilight, you're a Princess. You're well within your rights to set Jet Set on fire. At least a little bit.
Glad Twi's finally gotten her explanation. In her place, though, I'd still make things hard for all my other friends for not telling me, at least for a little while...
For a chapter meant to allay fears, the fact that Twilight's sex life has now become a matter of politics pushes me way over into the "Evil*" camp. I can't give a compelling argument right now other than to say "DAMN that's creepy. And also none of their fucking business!"
Nice chapter one question what happend with Rarity and her first sub?
I'm not sure how I feel about how you've characterized Rarity in the start of this chapter. While it's true that Rarity is often overly dramatic, I think you've taken this trait and blown it out of preposition with her characterization. Rarity, to me, seems like someone who gets worked up over the small stuff, but when the big stuff comes around, the big problems, she's in control of herself and ends up being very level headed. When Rarity is captured in 'dog and pony show', she's probably frightened, yes, but her 'freak out' actually earns her freedom, which suggests she was being overly dramatic in that instance, on purpose, in order to free herself. With or without Spike and the rest of her friends, Rarity would have gotten out of that mine.
I'm not sure how I feel about Rarity's explanation for what went down, or Twilight apparently accepting it and forgiving Rarity. Don't get me wrong, Twilight is the sort of pony who forgives, and given Rarity is her friend, I think she's willing to give her the benefit of the doubt... but perhaps not right away.
The problem with Rarity's whole explanation is that it doesn't really make all that much sense. Twilight picks up a particular set of erotica, and suddenly the society thinks they ought to invite her? Let's take a step back here and consider the following scenario: Somepony picks up a set of Love Song's books, and finds herself invited to the society--and surprise, it turns out she's not that interested to begin with. What do they do? Kill her? Memory wipe her? They could swear her to secrecy, but what good would that do?
This makes no sense at all. As I've suggested before, even if someone was interested in BDSM, that doesn't mean they'd be interested in BDSM as offered by the clocktower--I realize it separates different fetishes spatially and such not, and not everyone has to jump in to everything, but I contend that the notion of the Clocktower is, in and of itself, to a degree, a fetish. Which not everyone will have.
What I can't understand here is that, if they thought she was interested in BDSM--not the society just BDSM--why wouldn't they do the normal thing--by normal thing I mean sit down and say, "hey, sugarpie, couldn't help but noticing you've been digging into those Love Song books something fierce, wanta try it out in real life?" This seems like a eminently the first step that should be taken. Communication.
Let's put this aside for the moment, though.
As 7484444 says, for a chapter that's meant to alleviate concerns, it doesn't really seem to do that. I said in the past chapter's comments that this is a hard nut to crack, somehow resolving the towering mass of trust violations presented to Twilight, and to do so in a way that makes sense. I don't really think that this chapter manages to do so.
The fact that Twilight's sexuality apparently is a topic for political discussion is frankly rather creepy. What's worse is that it's likely the whole tower ended up knowing about her supposed interests. This is like going and finding out your boyfriend's been writing sex blogs about you on the internet--without even attempting to hide your name. The whole 'They knew Twilight had bought the Love Song books' because Love Song is a member: another gross violation of privacy, I would think (and given that Twilight has worked, and probably continues to work as a librarian, a rather dangerous assumption to make). Finally, and this is particularly damning, for two months or more her marefriend and coltfriend have been sneaking around her back, bringing other ponies directly or indirectly into her and their sex lives, and it would seem they never intended to tell her about it.
How do you trust someone when you know they've been living a double life and essentially lying to you for more than the whole relationship?
There's so many layers to Twilight's violated trust here, I find it difficult to believe she could just forgive it all on the grounds that 'her friend acted out of love'. The only thing that's the result of love here is that Rarity was worried she'd end up getting Twilight hurt, none of the rest of it changes.
7483714
Damn, and here I thought Twilight would finally get the dicking she craved...
7484772 I'd be a little more inclined to see things from your point of view if you hadn't been so hell-bent on picking out every single possible flaw including the ones that aren't even there in almost every single chapter.
You argue that Rarity is normally dramatic over little things and is more level-headed when facing what you call 'big stuff'. Arguably her henpecking Doctor Horse here is her being overly-dramatic over something small. We then see her more level-headed side when Twilight confronts her.
I agree that the matter with Love Song's books is iffy, but it has also been mentioned that Cadence also assigns ponies to recruit potential members. It was mentioned that she sent out Wind Waker as part of a contingent of soldiers to Starlight's village where he went on to recruit Rosemary. There was no mention of Love Song or her books there so there's probably more to the recruitment process than Rarity's aware of.
As for communication, Rarity said they couldn't bring it up with her without lying about their reasons if Twilight had said she hated the very idea of BDSM. Plus Rarity and Doctor Horse's membership in Clocktower predates their dating Twilight. Who's to say they didn't put their society activities on hold while they debated what to do with Twilight? They're both portrayed as caring, decent folk here, the sort who seem to respect Twilight, her autonomy and her choice, even considering how the very act of asking her might inadvertently coerce her into something 'quesadilla serious'. If they're prepared to give her that much thoughtfulness, I'm sure they can keep it in their pants for a few months instead of, y'know, going wild behind Twilight's back. The problem here is, you're assuming stuff, so am I. The writer hasn't specified one way or the other. So unless Manifest outright says 'Rarity and Horse are horking about behind Twilight's back' I think it's unfair to assume anything.
As for Twilight forgiving Rarity, I find the way it was written here very believable. Twilight loves Rarity and was desperate to forgive her, to be able to continue loving her, that she wasn't about to nitpick over every single little issue.
7484100 From the context, I think that the 'threat' to Love Tap's husband was more of a grr-fierce-protective note from Twilight Velvet than an actual threat; the impression I get from the pamphlets and other out-of-the-action/sidestory elements is that the researchers come up with ways that make fantasies come to life. Based on that, I think the tentacle plants are probably just means to get one's tentacle fantasy on; there are subs who have that fantasy, and it's not logistically possible IRL without having some serious resources behind you. I could definitely see the magic types whipping up some biothaumaturgy and making a bunch of plants that will tentacle you to orgasm or whatever. Hell, we know that trees can respond to the rhythm of bark borer beetles on other trees; it's possible control could be putting in ways that they'd respond to patterns of safe bells or something similar.
Given the rest of the info, I'd say "fed to the tentacle plants" just means thrown into a pit of the experimental ones, or a NMF moment for poor Love Tap, or something similar, and from Twilight Velvet's POV, probably a grumpiness exaggeration.
7486059
Twilight nearly dying strikes me as the 'big stuff', though, and I don't know if we've ever seen Rarity being prone to dramatizing the danger after the fact, in this fashion. Arguably, the whole 'big stuff' situation is still on going as well, as Twilight sneaking that deep into the Tower and collaring herself and putting herself into a terrible situation out of ignorance is a big deal.
I agree she settles down after she pushes Twilight into the room--I think the author finds Rarity's voice better in that section, it's really only her characterization in the scene prior to this that seems off, to me.
I imagine there's a number of ways that somepony might get invited, I'm pointing out that Twilight buying these books and reading them is at best poor evidence that she'd want to go to the Clocktower.
I kind of see what Rarity is saying here, but it strikes me as hollow. My experience with women is that they're often open to talking about sex, and it doesn't strikes me as unfeasible or unrealistic to assume that, as a group of friends, the mane 6 might have brought up the topic one time or another. Rarity in particular strikes me as the sort to at least be reading romance novels, and there's a number of lines of communication that could evolve from that sort of conversation that would give Twilight's friends some sort of idea what she might like.
But perhaps my experience with friends isn't normal, or average, and I can accept that perhaps it might be the case that their conversations were perfectly chaste.
I think the risk of them bringing up BDSM to Twilight and her having a bad reaction and forcing them to lie about why they brought it up is on a different level than assuming she's interested in BDSM and then allowing her to wander into the tower. I think her 'bad reaction' to seeing it IRL would be far more of an issue than it would be otherwise.
It's completely possible that they might be. I'd even say it's reasonable that they are. The issue is two fold: let's say Twilight never bought those books: what then? Would they have given up the Clocktower stuff for Twilight? Would they have eventually found they couldn't live without a kinky lifestyle? Doctor Horse, at least, is apparently a highly placed member of the society, so it's likely he was still active in the organization while dating Twilight.
If they couldn't drop it out of their lives, would they have broken it off with Twilight? Tried to keep going but end up resenting her to a degree? And not even telling Twilight what the issue is?
I guess what I'm trying to stress with these 'what if's is that if Twilight had never picked up those books--and did so in secret, mind, since it seems implied she didn't bring them up to her herd--that this issue is always going to be in the background, they'd have to think about communicating their interest in kink at some point.
I, ultimately, don't have any issue with Twilight wanting to forgive her herd, or her eventually doing so, but these are not little issues.
I'll admit, I'm flawed, and perhaps I shouldn't be so... vehement with my criticisms or how I phrase them. I do like the story, or want to like the story, and I do find it's interesting, interesting enough that things like this are worthy of sitting down and talking about. I wouldn't be spending my time if it wasn't. However, I do apologize for my tone, as it were.
"So she really is the Princess. I think this goes much further than I assumed." Shadow thought while observing the conversation between the three ponies. He slowly continued his venture through the large area, still looking for the administration. "Safe word houses; public cum dump; CTR labs; Ah, there it is, main office." He knew he had to stop talking to himself, but he pushed that into the background and went inside the rather small building.
I think the primary problem that Clocktower has, in the end, is that being a secret society is fundamentally counter to their own stated objectives. They want to help ponies avoid harm due to inexperience with BDSM play by educating them... but you can't educate them if they don't know you're there to teach.
Hopefully, now with two Equestrian Princesses as members, they'll start moving out of the shadows; Twilight, I think, would especially want to prevent whoopses like what she got caught up in. When it comes down to it, even negative public perception is kind of irrelevant to Clocktower if they get revealed; they obviously have massive internal sources of funding, and they're not doing anything illegal that could be used against them anyway. Tia and Luna certainly wouldn't back any move against something the junior Princesses support.
I ... I dunno. I was expecting a lot more drama. Twilight went from "I don't know if I can trust you ever again" to "I love you and understand completely." She referenced Rarity's irrationality, but Twilight's acting far too rational. Maybe I'm projecting how I'd feel in her situation, but I expected tears, yelling, throwing things, running away. I expected Twilight to pretend to be okay with it, to want to be grown up like all her friends, apparently, to fake it until everything came bursting out at the wrong/right time (possibly with her getting railed by the doc).
That said, I'm still bursting with a need to understand and learn more about the society. I wanna learn what they meant by having Cadance choose them, about why Twilight's family is in on it. And I expect the point of this story isn't drama, but sex, which so far has been top notch.
Dang you. Now you've got me rethinking my entire character interaction in my own story. It's so much easier to write silly Dom/sub play when you don't overthink the amount of self awareness and terror the poor ponies must go through at revealing their kink to their loved ones.
Especially if you're a dom. But even a sub must go through a lot working up the nerve to confess their desires to their partner of choice.
*Pats Twilight on the head* Awww, she is going to fight as ferociously and angrily as a cornered hydra. How absolutely precocious! To the onlookers, that's about as threatening as a newborn kitten trying to appear big and fierce while clumsily stumbling about! You are not fooling anyone, Twilight (except maybe herself ) - after her ferocious display of might and skill in the previous chapter, the only one she can conceivably present a danger to in a fight is herself
As for the chapter itself ... hmmmm, I'm sorry to say I didn't really feel it :/
It's true that Rarity is an occasional drama queen in the show, but the way she was presented here felt quite over the top, both in intensity of her act and how long she kept it up. I kinda lost the ability to take the conversation seriously thanks to Rarity's characterization a few paragraphs in an I'm afraid the mood never really recovered - it was just so ridiculous!
Like, the matter they were discussing was serious, but the manner in which it was being discussed and presented actually kept me from taking it seriously. It didn't feel genuine and came across as silly instead, almost like the author of the story didn't have much of an interest in the topic and didn't really want to write about it, but felt compelled to address it because quite a few readers raised complaints about it in the comments and thus the result feels kinda uninspired, dare I say somewhat "sloppy" and forced-out, and (unfortunately predictably) immediately resolved just so one could say the issues surrounding Twilight's betrayal weren't ignored and were technically addressed :/
And now we have introduced a new issue in that Love Song apparently shares her client/buyer information with third parties and organizations without their knowledge or consent, which should honestly see her facing charges of some sort! And then there is still the issue if it's even legal that Twilight wasn't informed about this government-funded and supported society - right under her nose in 'her' town no less - soon after making Princess, and who should be answerable for that.
It's almost a shame at this point that the story didn't start with Twilight already a fresh member of the society, because then we could have avoided all this drama and nonsense that honestly feels like the author hadn't quite considered would arise thanks to the setup (which is normal - some angles only become apparent when exposed to more eyes!) and thus wouldn't have to stumble through these half-hearted attempts of dealing with it and could instead read about what this story was actually meant about, which is exploration of BDSM, which is obviously where the writing is the strongest and most vivid. This ... sadly isn't quite up to the same standard :/
7486122 I didn't think about that 90/10 Good/evil odds.
I'm really hoping that the next chapter is a clop. Please a sure me that is so. Please.
I mean I like the story, but it's not quite as much fun as reading plain story chapters.
Unf, I love this story. All of the fun of BDSM without (real) kidnapping and rape? Hello, new fetish.
I really hope you have Twilight confront....well, everyone! Has Rarity and Doctor been sleeping with other ponies? Has Rarity and Doctor horse bonded with each other in the society while Twilight was left out? Has her family fooled around with each other? How long has her family been a part of this? Does Twilight just not know who her friends and family are anymore?
I know that they were afraid to tell her but come on, Twilight was incredibly hurt when she found out that her friends spent a little bit of time with Discord in the show, having inside jokes and whatnot. I just feel like Twilight has not processed everything at the moment.
I don't know, I'm probably just rambling. I know this is a fun, fictional sex story but I cannot help but get emotionally invested in stories like this, especially when there is a level of betrayal and deceit. When there is a chance of someone becoming a real victim. The fact that is society drills the belief of 100% consent and you safe word is law helps me like the Clocktower Society but everyone in Twilights life avoiding this BIG topic, this large part of ALL of their lives bothers me. Can she truely say, at this point, that she knows her friends and family? (Even though she doesn't know about her family at the moment, but she deserves to know).
I'm to dumb to figure out how to spoiler multiple paragraphs at once
But all that aside, this is REALLY HOT. I love BDSM stories but allot of them go like this:
1. 'X' discovers secret society, snoops arpund and gets caught, gets forced to join either as a member or a slave.
2. 'X' discovers secret society, snoops around and gets caught, is tied down and raped by men and women, becomes a slave against his/her will and will never see their friends and family again.
3. Secret Society kidnaps ponies to physically, mentally, and sexually torture them, subjects them to brainwashing and drugs/chemicals easily break them, kidnapped pony's mind snaps, becomes a shell of who they once were and truely sees themselves as nothing more than a living toy to serve their master(s)/mistress(es).
4. Person is unsure about attemping to try BDSM/specific kink but is forced to do it anyways, eventually learns to love it.
Etc, etc.
I'm glad this story does it differently, everyone gets to fullfill their most depraved fetishes without fear of persecution while everyone involved consents to everything that happens until it is withdrawn.
So, please sir/ma'am, may I have some more?
I'm really enjoying your universe building, but I'm wondering if you have any intention once you've fully set the stage to do any stories where the bulk of the material is set within a scenario.
That's what has captured my attention about the concept. That it allows the potential for a story that is set around a long running continuing scenario where the players book in and out of a scenario and when they come back in they pick it up where they left off as the story evolves. Could just be a couple, or it could be a whole group basically doing a very perverted version of table top gaming.
7503191 Yeah, the spoilering multiple paragraphs thing is a pain for me as well. I always end up just doing each paragraph separate.
As a counter-point--Twilight feeling out of the loop and a little hurt/confused that a big part of her loved one's life is not really something she's, well, "allowed" to know about is pretty fair... but have you considered that perhaps you're framing it that way without considering another likely possibility? We can read their actions as "hiding" or "lying" to Twilight, when in reality the beginning with Rarity and Whooves makes me think the exact opposite--that in fact at least they are trying to guide her into the heart of the secret and share it with her. It's very likely that instead of everyone conspiring around Twilight, she was in reality kept out of the loop for far more benign reasons!
First, and perhaps the biggest: who knew if she would be interested? It's not something you can tell right away, you know? The fact there is the Society seems to suggest at least in part that this sort of thing is not really accepted enough to be actually mainstream or even an "off-broadway" version of mainstream. If Twilight herself isn't interested, revealing a part of one's life which might be considered deviant or unnatural or decadent would be kind of worrisome. On top of that, even if Twilight were tolerant (not to say she isn't, just that people and by extension ponies can be very different than we expect or hope!) it would/could fundamentally change her "image" of those friends and loved ones in ways they may not want it to.
It occurs to me that without some sign or clue as to whether or not investigating Twilight's predilications would be fruitful, the prudent course would be a conservative one--ask not, lest ye be asked, after all! Alternatively, at this stage I wonder if it would be fair for Twilight to know, if she were truly not already excited by what she's seen and experienced. Think for a moment about what it would be like to have all of your friends part of a super secret club doing slightly shady but not illegal things (like really badass free masons or something). Now pretend you have no desire to do anything that they do... but it would be kinda lonely to be the odd one out, y'know? While the Society is still secretive and underground because of societal pressures, it would be kind of unfair to introduce pressure to "be part of the group" on people like Twilight, whose friends and family are all part of something she would rather not be a part of but might feel compelled to join out of loneliness.
Can't really speak for them all yet, obvs. Just a thought--sometimes its easier to see a semi-malicious or neglectful motivation where one may not exist. Her confrontation--which I would really see more as a very intense questioning than anything really accusational--would be very much part of what I'd expect.
7524818 For my part I think it's obvious that there was never any malice on anypony's part in not telling Twilight, but rather the problem being of Twilight's perception of things, at least given her canon personality. I daresay copious hugging and an explanation would be enough to smooth things out in the end-she's a bright and forgiving soul-though I can imagine some revenge-snark here and there once she finds out the extent of who all she knows is involved.
On the other hoof I tend to identify with Twi, and I could be projecting my neurotic exclusion-phobia on her.
Finally caught up — Really looking forward to more!
Another question: Is there anything the Society does to denote a pony who is a switch (someone who alternates between dom and sub roles)?
This is incredibly well done, congrats and keep up the amazing work!!!
Reread this story... you've probably heard this multiple times before, but it's fantastic. Hell, it actually encouraged me to take a shot at something like this... difference is that it's not clop and there's a pretty good chance I won't end up publishing it anyway. But I still particularly enjoy the world-building chapters of this!
This. Just this.
7524818
You do raise a lot of good points, I see now that I have been very one-sided with my ramble but I cannot help but to be suspicious of this.
I can understand them intentionally keeping Twilight out of the loop for her safety and her image of them and not wanting her to feel forced to join just so she is involved with her friends and family, even if she has not interest in this lifestyle.
But a few things still bother me. Mainly, Rarity and Doctor Horse. They are part of a sex-based society, a society that have participants that (seemingly, I am not 100% sure) have no issue with having sex with strangers and ponies they do not know well. I know ponies with similar kinks will try to seek each other out if they do not have a friend or family member to play with. That being said, has Rarity and Doctor Horse had sex with other ponies? While we do not know if their relationship is "open" or exclusive, I can't help but think anyone in Twilight's shoes would be worried about that. Twilight has learned that not only her lovers horribly messed up and let her wander around without someone to ease her in (and could of led to her picking up a 'Free Use' collar) but they are a part of this sex-based society. Unless it was already stated, I don't not remember but god only knows how long Rarity and Doctor Horse has been visiting Clocktower during their relationship with Twilight (Implying that if they have been coming to the society at all since their relationship). Twilight could always think about this "what-if", she may never get that level of trust back. Even if they told her that nothing ever happened with other ponies, will she be able to 100% believe them?
Not only that but, they lied to her by omission. Their relationship seems to be serious and every person/pony is gonna have a kink. We know that Rarity and Doctor horse has some intense fetish that the society let's them play out. (Let's not think about Twilight's friends and family) Her stallionfriend and marefriend kept her out of the loop. In a relationship, if you wanted to play out a sexual fantasy or fetish and were in a serious relationship, a good idea is to talk to your partner about it and not try to seek it from strangers and potentially cheat. While it may be difficult and awkward to do so, discussing it is a good idea and I imagine the same is true for polygamy relationships. Again, while we don't know all of the information, a lot of what I am saying is based off of assumptions. Excluding the society as a whole, lets say Rarity and Doctor Horse enjoy bondage. While they can enjoy this kink with each other, they do not discuss this with Twilight. Just because they enjoy bondage with each other doesn't mean it's OK to hide it from someone they are in a relationship with. I know I would be upset if I had two lovers that decided to exclude me from their activities without even talking to me about it first. They just assumed I wouldn't enjoy it? Maybe I would it give it a try. Did they exclude me to protect me in some way or excluded me by accident? Of course, we currently do not know their true reasoning but something like that would upset me.
Aside of what I said above, a lot of the points you brought up did help ease some of my suspicions of the society. I have been looking out for some malicious intent but the main story has been Twilight's POV. We're seeing what she is seeing, so it just may seem like something shady is going on. Thankfully, the side stories show a contrasting view on the society and does help squash the whole "grr, brainwashing" feeling I have.
Maybe I'm just rambling again, I write this stuff at like 5:30 a.m. when I should be asleep
7532953 This is Clocktower Equestria East — this particular location is more mare-focused. If you're looking for sub stallions, you'd probably be more interested in wanting to visit Clocktower Equestria West.
7532953 i64.tinypic.com/spcjk8.jpg
i68.tinypic.com/4kbj3o.jpg
7532971 What this splendid chap said.
Hmm ... what to think, what to say?
The clop is good, though the mechanics and what-goes-where can sometimes be difficult to keep track of.
The worldbuilding is, um ... interesting, and has evidently been great fun to develop -- but ultimately it doesn't seem to offer me a lot of stable points to suspend my disbelief from. Many of my concrete misgivings, I see, have already been hashed out in the comments, so no reason to repeat that. I wonder if it's a tactical mistake to present so much of the worldbuilding in "handbook" style rather than reveal it piecewise as needed by the story; having it all collected more or less systematically seems to invite the reader to start wondering for themselves how the sheer logistics of a behemoth such as the Society can hang together. All in all, I can sort of appreciate the result for its scale and raw chutzpah, but it doesn't feel real enough that I'd want to tell an actual character- or emotion-driven story in it.
A few points that come to mind and don't seem to be covered yet, at least in the first handful of chapters where I read through all the comments.
1. The internal economy is said to be "mostly for doms", but the opportunities to earn currency seem to be mostly for subs. The support staff jobs advertised seem to be predominantly for subs; how would a random rank-and-file dom go about contributing to the Society in a way that earns internal currency? He can make donations in bits, but if that is the main source of currency for doms, that seems to lead to the somewhat uneasy conclusion that domming in the Society is only for ponies who can afford those additional donations.
In fact, since much of the Society seems to be set up to enable quick random promiscuity, there must be plenty of doms who are not in a lasting relationship. If I understand things right, they can't even hold money -- are they doomed to be penniless? If they had money (which they don't), they could buy a "purse" and hope she happens to be around in the Society on the same nights as the dom, but isn't there a chicken-or-egg problem here?
2. Plenty of comment space has been used on discussing how everyone Twilight knows seem to be in the Society. I'd like to point out that there's a flip side to this: everyone in the Society that Twilight has a meaningful random encounter with seems to be someone she knows by name. And it doesn't stop at ponies she know; several high officials in the Society that she hasn't met yet (but who appear in the worldbuilding chapters) are also family or personal acquaintances of Twilight. This is hard to reconcile with the apparent size of the whole thing; if, as asserted, there's on the order of a million ponies attending on a random night, the probability that Twilight would randomly bumble into even a few ponies she knows the name of while snooping around ought to be minuscule.
3. Furthering that thought: In the show, Twilight's story is not exactly rags-to-riches, but the clear impression we got in the early seasons was that Ponyville was a quite humble place and she liked living there exactly because it wasn't the more important Canterlot. This setting asks us to accept that many of the "ordinary" ponies she was sent to live among actually rank highly in a secret society that, for all intents and purposes, seems to be running Equestria from the shadows.
4. The clock strikes every day at seven, but what for? It's established later on that it's possible to choose to stay at the Society for days on end, so what's up with only opening the doors at a particular time each night?
5. It's a bit of a silly porn trope, but it bothers me a bit with the "milking" thing that apparently ponies supply sexual fluids as raw material for some vague industrial purpose, and while they do so they're fed on stuff made from other ponies' sexual fluids in the same way. Where does new organic material enter that cycle?
6. It feels a bit strange for an otherwise pretty permissive libertine society to insist on strict geographical separation of subs based on gender. It seems to be cool with polyamorous relations in general -- we saw a M/F/f one being established, a F/f/f in progress, and Twilight is apparently destined for a M/f/f one -- but apparently only as long as all subs in it have the same kind of genitalia. Is M/m/f or F/m/f somehow anathema to the Society?
For everyone else who've taken the time to write comments and questions, sorry I haven't been able to get to you. I will though.
7535147 Wow, thanks for the epic comment! It's comments like these that I write for!
1. So there are quite a lot of dom jobs, a majority of which is volunteer work which we mentioned. There's rather mundane work including helping with admin, being a dungeon/play monitor, or any other regular upkeep work. Then there's more fetishy things like demonstrating ropework techniques, helping with sub training for others, help build scenes up for others whether it be doing the bindings or the set up, 'assisting' in the feeding halls, staging live shows, etc.
Doms without subs use their phasers as a small wallet that can hold a small amount of currency. They can deposit their savings at the bordello which uses a dom-specific account system so a dom may end up withdrawing and depositing cash with a different brothel sub each time.
2. That's something called recognition bias. Twilight seems to recognize a lot familiar faces among the strangers because she only recognizes familiar faces. She wouldn't recognize strangers. And she tends to not pay as much attention to the strangers mentioned to be engaged in play, for example the other ponies in the slave pens or the random mare having an orgy on the street on her way through the main thoroughfare. She has 'meaningful encounters' with ponies she recognizes because she stops to pay attention to them exactly because she recognizes them. As for a lot of ponies she knows being in on it, if one were to, say, visit the only gym available in their local area, they'd end up bumping into a lot of people they know. Because Equestria's Clocktower Society is centralized into two sites, that's two gyms serving all of Equestria.
3. Are they running Equestria from the shadows? I must have given the wrong impression there then.
4. The doors are open all the time. However having a specific time everyone's encouraged to be in a play area will create an artificial peak time to ensure plenty of participants. Kind of like how meal times in Christian dormitories are made shorter to make sure everyone comes and sits together for meals encouraging social interaction. Ponies know there will be more ponies around when the bell sounds at 7, so they'll come at 7, causing more ponies to show up at 7, etc.
5. So the whole milking and feeding thing is done precisely because it's a sex trope, i.e. a relatively common fantasy. The whole society seeks to fulfill common fantasies. And new biological material doesn't need to enter the cycle because it's all make-believe. Real food is served in the society for those who aren't partial to cum play, because the key thing is everything is consensual and optional. Ponies don't have to be milked or feed on cum if they don't want to, they can have other fetishy ways of having meals (e.g. go to the food play section or pet play section) or eat a regular meal in the restaurant/tea shop on the main floor. And ultimately ponies will go home at the end of the day (or at some point) and have regular meals.
6. I just haven't had a good opportunity to bring it up, but there is a district of the upper dungeons of CEE that houses a teleport hub to CEW where M/f/m, F/f/m, M/F,f,m,f,m,m,f etc can play out.
7527319 There's unfortunately nothing specific other than simply swapping a collar for a mask (as Twilight Velvet did in Love Tap's chapter) or being in the Keeper's maid team helping looking after other subs. I should probably come up with something. Any suggestions?
7525811 I'd think that's the least of one's worries if that happens. It's just play money after all. As for funeral services, the Kindler church have their own rites and customs. They mainly practice cremation and believe that devotion keeps lovers together even beyond death, that everyone will one day be together in 'warm lands' where the Fire of Devotion originated (remember that the church was set up shortly after the big freeze). As for the Society itself, they do hold memorials for the deceased. Masks and collars and badges are placed in a place of honour in a vault at the root of the site. But ponies who do not practice the Kindler faith generally have regular funerals.
7507703 I'm thinking of one long term drop-in/drop-out scene involving a diamond dog mine, actually, with subs joining in as one of the mining/cart-pulling ponies.
7535242
occurs to me that this could kill two birds with one stone.
"No, no, it's only a saying Fluttershy. Don't look at me like that."
Anyway, in addition to the sub play, they have dom foreponies/foredogs, who are actually excavating new section of tunnels and chambers for the Society branch.
While the subs are 'slave' labour, the doms have the additional duty besides providing the subs with their scene of overseeing the work in a more professional context. They're not worried about it taking twice as long as the society believes in long term planning and long before they are ready to make use of the newly excavated space the diggers and haulers will have moved on to the next section.
7535242 A suggestion, you say? Hmm....
I think it'd make the most sense if a switch were to default to using either a mask or collar exclusively (personally I'd pick a collar, but it's not my AU ), and that they incorporate metallic gold or gold alloy in its design in some way. It'd be nice symbolism of a switch's nature, given that gold is a very malleable metal.
Alternatively, a different shaped collar might be something to consider as well, one that looks more authoritative than a traditional sub collar would.
Finally caught up. Thoroughly enjoyed. I like the hint of some internal politics and lore galore, all the touches. I'm actually really interested in the Kindlers. It sounds lik they basically have temple "prostitutes". That's some Babylonian/Aphrodite stuff right there. Neat!
7548752 Then you might like this story - https://www.fimfiction.net/story/344305/fishing-at-the-communal-cum-baths
I like your other story, but I still really want to see how this story plays on!!!
Please
7568844 In regard to switches, I asked that myself earlier in the comments thread and brought it to MH's attention.
As for male subs, the answer is much simpler: this story (the main story) takes place in Clocktower Equestria East, the venue where mare subs are trained. Stallion subs are trained at a separate location: Clocktower Equestria West, which is both discussed and shown briefly in this side story.
7568844 Hi, I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Regarding switches, switches wear both the sub collar and the dom mask at the same time and can remove one or the other as the situation demands. This is exemplified in Love Tap's chapter when Twilight Velvet swaps from her collar to her mask.
As for where the male subs are? As 7569518 very rightly said...
i64.tinypic.com/spcjk8.jpg i68.tinypic.com/4kbj3o.jpg i68.tinypic.com/689c8j.jpg
Clocktower Equestria West is briefly explored in that story 7569518 mentioned. It will also be explored in more depth by yet another author, more details and a delicious piece of cover art to come soon!
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Oh, so east and west are sorta gender specific for subs? I guess with portals it wouldn't be much effort to go to another one for that. As for the switches, good to know, I was worried that they would have to pick which one they would rather be while they're there. And, if they can only manage like, one night a week I'm sure they would want to have fun as both Dom and sub. If they're there everyday choosing a side each time wouldn't be so bad. Mind, I was only asking out of curiosity. I greatly prefer to be a sub myself. So, with little to no desire to Dom, I wouldn't need to know that.
Please continue this story! I'm going insane checking this page every few hours waiting for a juicy chapter and I swear to the stars I'm going to make the oceans run red!
7486891 four princesses. Luna, or LN-0112, is a member since banishment, and certainly so is Celestia - after all, she is the one that encouraged the "Lunatics" to seek shelter in it. And kept it working and backed by the government for a thousand years. Cadence explains herself by simply being
Well, just read all today. Interesting how much the comments debated the question of information. I didn't read them all (I'd be like reading the story twice, in length!), but I have my two cents to add.
Firstly though, I'd like to state that I did read the - quite some times repeated - reason Manifest Harmony had for Twilight not knowing about the society. And I agree with them.
I did like how this chapter explained why her herd/friends didn't tell her. They were looking at it as friends/lovers telling a friend/lover about some deep kinks and fetishes on a level unimaginable for Twilight. Rarity did push it too far not to tell too soon, but hey, to err is human - or pony.
Her parents? Well, would you introduce BSDM to your children? Would you like to be such children?
Now, the problem was not the question about inviting Twilight... but telling her of the EXISTENCE of the society. It's a multi millennia old organization funded by the state whose entire royal family is a member and may be or may be not responsible for maintaining the only thing that keeps the wendigos at bay. It would be logical to assume that ALL princesses should at least know about it so they could keep such a relevant institution existing through the impossibility of all other royals dying/becoming imprisoned/banished/etc...
Wait, did I say impossibility? I meant certainty. At least once every few years.
Twilight could be entrusted to heal Nightmare Moon. She could be entrusted to face Discord. To face Sombra. To become an Alicorn and the princess of friendship. To hold the magic of all tree alicorns so someone could keep the sun and moon in their cycle and keep it safe from Tirek, to safeguard the future of Equestria itself... Oh, and face Tirek too. Should someone who has already carried the burden of their nation and would most likely do so again in the future know about it?
"Nah, let's leave it for if she is into kinky stuff!"
In that, Celestia and Cadence are the guiltiest parts. Luna too, but she could attest to still be getting used to how big the organization got and maybe didn't think about how big it got.
But Heart Butt & Sun Butt? That's criminal negligence with the future of Equestria. They don't live in a time where they can wait for such things, they suffered in the last few years multiple situations where the current crown could be taken out of the picture, if not fully at least partially. Not informing Twilight was a HUGE mistake there.
And I repeat, not inviting, informing. As a princess and extremely rational pony she could understand, if explained by someone with experience, tact and patience - like the two guilty ones. She could see why it is worthy to keep around, specially with the services it provides for traumatized ponies.
Oh, and maybe, just maybe, Celly should realize that hiding the true history of Equestria's birth from Book Horse could blow up in her face when said Princess Book Horse ends up by finding out. The student would be quite hurt, I guess.
All in all, I quite like this story, have a fave. But either the other alicorns don't care about the society enough (because Twilight would NOT be happy to find about it by looking at tax reports from her dead or otherwise missing mentor and friend) or they have a lot to explain to her... starting by why the bucking tartarus they thought not telling her was a remotely good idea. Because Purple Smart thinks about things, and she will realize she was left out of the loop by her "equals". And as much as we know about her, she will not be happy about it...
Edit: Moar when? It's almost october, we needs moar
7592745 i64.tinypic.com/spcjk8.jpg i68.tinypic.com/4kbj3o.jpg i68.tinypic.com/689c8j.jpg
Click link to visit Clocktower Equestria West!
I'm just going to keep copy-pasting this message each time somebody asks that question from now on.
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It makes sense for Luna to be involved somehow. Given that her Night Guards are all over the place. But I don't think there has been anything mentioning her specific involvement. And, given the whole Nightmare Moon thing, I'd think Luna would be a dom. Though, that could be my own desire to be a sub to Luna taking. I guess. . .
Edit: I did go back and re-read everything to be sure, and just maybe LN-0112 could be referring to Luna. But if thats all you're basing it on, I'm not sure that that is sufficient evidence.
you know, I have finally figured out what I find unappealing about this kind of story.
It's the safe, sane consensual idea
For me, the idea of tying sex into so much just can't be all that. It can be mostly safe, but I don't find it sane to tie up that much of your life in sex and when you've tied up that much of your life in that how consensual can it stay. How many times can you say "I don't want to do that," to someone who really does want to do that, without it messing up your relationship, sexual and beyond.
Basically I don't believe people can compartmentalize aspects of their lives as easily as they believe they can. Feelings and events stray over top of the dam walls and flood the town(your life) you think you have so protected