Midnight Hour [Fall of Equestria ANTIDOTE story]

Canterlot Castle was built after the ascension of the Royal Sisters to the throne of Equestria; initially simply a summer palace, it none-the-less had a few secretive hooves aiding it's construction, building into it the future enclave of the IlLUNAnati. Their home at the Castle of the Two Sisters was cramped, having to be crammed into a corner as the original was built by the Sisters, Starswirl and Melvin the Manticore. Without ponies to guide the bricks, as it were, the IlLUNAnati were forced to adapt their plans to the castle, rather than the other way around. With Canterlot, they took no chances, and made absolutely sure there would be access for them and future members down the line.

While they were wise in this regard, they lacked the foresight to see Princess Luna's fall, and their enclave fell into disuse as the group disbanded out of shame and regret. Almost one thousand moons later, three new ponies rediscovered the secret organisation, found the enclave, and donned the cloaks of the ILUNAnati to aid the return of the Princess of the Night ...

The ILUNAnati of another world didn't know if this world had a version of themselves, but they had to guess that either it does, or did. If it did, this was a failure of their cause in the most grotesque way, even worse than the shame of the fall to Nightmare Moon. But if they did not exist at all, that would cause a problem as to how to rescue the Princess.
It was all very complicated and delicate.

"We must gain access to the Castle" Whisper Blue looked over her shoulder at the direction in which the castle lay, "We must understand who is on the throne here, if the castle has an enclave, and ... where Our Princess is"

"How would we get in?" Crystal Clear bit her lower lip, "I mean, we're fully dressed mares and no other mare seems dressed. And I refuse to be in that ghastly, beastly collar or to walk around like that!"

"I'll go" Silver Song said firmly, already moving to remove his cloak, "I'm a stallion, I'll attract the least attention, and I can keep my clothes. I'll find out if the Castle can be accessed by regular ponies, and ... if there is a way to find out who rules"

"This will be exceptionally dangerous" Whisper Blue's icy eyes bore into him, "We could fall here, and nopony would know. If you suspect they know you are not of this place, you will need to fly as hard and as fast as your wings can carry you"

Silver Song nodded. He knew the danger of what looking after a Princess from a silent distance would entail, and their cause was so quiet that not even the Princess herself was allowed to know. Blowing his cover could mean immediate death for them all ...
But they had pledged to protect Princess Luna, no matter what. And that meant doing whatever it took to save her in any other worlds.

"Good luck ..." Whisper Blue took hold of the cloak and secreted it in the dark depths of her own, Crystal Clear nodding her own good luck as they watched the pegasus stallion emerge from the shadows of the alley and into the bright light of this dark and unfamiliar Canterlot ...

Stepping into the streets of Canterlot shouldn't have caused Silver Song so much anxiety ... though, in a way, he was reminded of the first time he came to the capital in his world. Here to see the sights on a school trip from his home in the clouds, he was breathtaken from the moment they entered the Opera House, the moment he saw the vast and empty stage and the endless rows of red velvet seats waiting to be filled with a waiting audience. Hearing a performance of a Canterlot Academy Amateur Dramatics Society performance of The Threebit Opera changed everything for him ... He set his sights on becoming an opera singer himself, taking trips and practising in the Opera House to hopefully get his chance to take centre stage.

Performer's nerves, however, were tricky. They could either make someone so impossible to panic that they transcend into a state of total calm, or make even the slightest noise absolutely rattle them. For a stallion that aspired to be the centre of an adoring crowd, Silver Song would have paid rather more than three bits to make sure absolutely no-one noticed him.

While perhaps a touch more conservatively dressed than most stallions he encountered, he didn't seem to gain much attention, apart from maybe ponies noticing that he wasn't leading a mare. At least he wasn't the only one, though some stallions still carried a leash in the hopes of buying one.
Window shopping was perhaps one of the more subtle ways of gathering information. Silver Song was somewhat surprised to see that a lot of shops remained open, although their shelves were somewhat lacking compared to the choices in his world. A bookstore, a coffee shop, a restaurant ... it all seemed so normal, until he took a closer look. The bookstore had many raunchy titles on display, with the serving mares inside nude, copies of a magazine called Radiently Red taking pride of place in the window.

Silver Song couldn't believe the model on the front. Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, sitting with her back to the camera and looking over her shoulder coyly. Those red wing covers coated her wings, the ones he had seen before on a pegasus mare, and there was a matching collar around the neck. The headlines made his stomach turn ... 'Library Slut', to describe Twilight Sparkle? Asking about the health of 'my mare's coat', as if she were a dog? Warnings against spoiling a mare? It was all so ...

And that's when he noticed that the flag hanging above the bookshop, on a frame that normally supported hanging baskets of flowers, was not the same flag as the one used at home. Instead of the flag of the Royal Pony Sisters, one of Princess Celestia and Luna in opposite curves around a sun and moon - with the position of the sisters and the planets changing depending if it was day or night - this instead showed a combination of a sun and moon to represent the Princess' cutie marks ... only with a chain wrapped around it multiple times. Framing it was a pair of horns, Silver Song wanted to say that they were deer horns, but they were thicker, more curved and more shovel-like.

Whoever the horns belong to, that is the cause of this ...

He could have done with a coffee, but two things put him off going anywhere near the coffee shop; the first was the mare inside was, of course, nude, but the menu also was something he wish he hadn't read. While everything was perfectly normal in the first two categories - drinks and snacks - it was the last column that ruined his appetite. 'Mare' delicacies were, apparently, along the lines of drinks spiked with bodily fluids or aphrodisiacs, or else literally kibble designed for pets. Watching a stallion use a purple-collared mare as a footstool while she devoured her lunch out of a petbowl was rather enough for him.

The second thing was a mare that was leashed outside the building, with a sign above her that stated she was a 'Public Service Cunt', with times listed as to what service she would perform and when. Her collar was purple, her expression one of delirious confusion, her face stained by her ... 'duties'. It took everything in Silver Song's power to rip the leash from her throat and take her to Whisper Blue and Crystal Clear, but blowing his cover this early would be disastrous.

"Cum? Cum? CUM?" She barked at him as he walked past, pawing at the ground and swishing her tail to get his attention. Another stallion approached him as he passed her, and he paused just in case this one was going to question him.
"Hey, you gonna use that?" He pointed at the mare, to which Silver Song shook his head. Thinking fast, he had to come up with a reason not to in this world ... one that didn't come down to what the actual Tartarus is wrong with you?!.
"No, I don't deal with public mares" He sneered, pulling on memories of his snobbish first singing teacher to help with the Canterlot act, "Filthy, used up, what's the point in them? When I get a mare, I want her pure, clean, no-one touching her and she will service me and only me"
"Suit yourself" The stallion laughed, unzipping his pants, "More for me"

Silver Song turned away, trying his best not to hear what was going on behind him. This is madness, this is disgusting. I need to find Princess Luna, and I need to find her NOW

The most logical place to find her would be the Castle. As he made his way to the huge palace, he saw a small crowd outside, crowing around a stallion holding a very large sign.
ROYAL TOUR: SEE THE HISTORY OF DAINN'S CONQUEST! TOURS AT 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00

Taking a deep breath, Silver Song joined the crowd, and prepared for the horors he might see in the home of the Royal Pony Sisters ...