Evening the Odds

Chapters

Prologue
The Camping Trip
The Verification Chamber
Questions and Answers
Family

Prologue

The automaton simply stood as its master - a stallion garbed in resplendent golden finery - lay splayed out on the ivory floor. Crimson lifeblood stained the ground, slowly pooling beneath.

Next to his form, a mare garbed in identical robes stood against a wall of pure gold, engraved with memoirs of the master’s previous conquests. She looked over the master’s prone form with dead eyes. “And now for my little secret,” she said, a slight smile creeping onto her face. She leaned down to his ear and whispered. “I never loved you.”

The master’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly, his face growing pale. His lips quivered as his ebbing life made speaking difficult. He lifted a hoof to caress the face he had loved for many moons. “You… bi....”

Life faded from his eyes as his limb limply fell to the floor.

The automaton merely sat and watched.

Next to the fresh corpse was a massive stone circle in the floor, ringed by four smaller circles - three of them similarly gray stone, and the fourth a slab of gold - the only disturbance in the otherwise pristine ivory floor. The mare stood swiftly and moved to stand on the golden circle.

Blue lines of magical energy ran through the floor, racing toward the circle. It glowed, engulfing the mare in blue light.

“One,” the automaton stated with a booming voice that thundered out from somewhere in the center of its head. A replica of the mare appeared in the large grey circle. After several seconds, the image of the mare faded, and then was replaced by another image of the mare, but this time her belly glowed faintly. “Two.” the automaton continued. “Answer verified. Result: Even. Predicted: Even. Matched. Please proceed to the next chamber.”

The golden door in the wall creaked and groaned as it slowly sunk into the ground, allowing the mare to advance to the next - and final - room. She walked through the door without any hesitation.

She paid no mind to the unassuming chamber. It was no larger than a bedroom, with little more than a small golden door, not much larger than a pony, and another set of the circles in front of it.

“The Chamber of Truth” the automaton stated matter-of-factly.

The mare shook her head, immediately crossing the chamber to stand on the next golden circle. Blue lines once again traced the circle in the floor. This time the projection showed the ghostly forms of the now-dead master and the mare, who was performing fellatio upon him. After a few seconds, the image faded, only to be replaced with the master going down on the mare. Moments later, that image faded, too. Yet another image of their sexual exploits came to life.

“This will take a while,” the mare muttered. She sat back and watched the gallery of her own sex life playing out before her with disinterest.

“Why must the master die?” the automaton asked after several silent scenes.

The mare glared at the construct. “He was an awful stallion who tortured ponies for his own self-gratification,” she growled through clenched teeth. “If it weren’t for him, my sister would still...”

She trailed off as another several scenes played out in silence.

“The master was… bad?” the automaton finally asked.

The mare nodded. “The worst.”

“Oh,” the automaton said, almost as if depressed. The astral projections continued to chronicle the mare’s intimate encounters as the mare sat in silence. “Then… what will I do without the master?”, the automaton continued.

She looked up at the automaton, confused. “What?”

“If the master will not use his temple, what is to become of me?”

The mare frowned, glancing at the door that would soon open. “Don’t you desire freedom?”

Finally, the blue light went still.

“The truth has been revealed,” the automaton intoned, following its preset directive. The pony-sized golden door sank into the ground revealing a portal out into the warm light of the sun. The mare jumped to her hooves and trotted through the door, halting just on the other side. She turned to face the automaton.

“Freedom?” the mare asked, extending a hoof.

“What is ‘freedom’? the automaton replied. “I do not understand.”

“Come with me,” she beckoned. “I will teach you.”

The Camping Trip

“How much farther is it?” squeaked Sweetie Belle.

Her father, Hondo Flanks, stopped and looked up at the mountainside above them. A deep snow covered the trunks of the trees. He glanced along the trail they were following. He thought the trail was there, at least. He’d hiked this route many times in past years, but never when the trail was covered in three feet of snow. He looked back at his daughter, her ivory coat almost invisible against the snow.

“We should be almost there,” Hondo replied, hoping he wasn’t lying as he continued to press onward.

“Oh, good,” Sweetie’s sister complained, following right behind him. “This snow is simply abhorrent. It is going to ruin my hiking dress!”

“Rarity, a hiking dress is the most impractical thing I’ve ever heard of,”.her mother, Cookie Crumbles, scolded. “I respect that you want to make it in the fashion world, but a large part of fashion is knowing when fashion doesn’t matter.”

“Fashion always matters,” Rarity rebuked her mother.

Hondo shook his head as they came around another bend. The last thing he intended to do was get involved in a fight between two of the three most important mares in his life. He stopped as a wide, flat area devoid of trees revealed itself, and a wide, icy lake beyond that. Finally, they would be able to stop. He raised his hoof and pointed.

“Look,” he shouted. “There’s our campsite.”

In truth, Hondo wasn’t sure where they were, but he knew if they continued much further, his family would mutiny. But, if this was the same lake they had set out for in the first place - one he had been to plenty of times before - it didn’t look familiar at all.

The rest of the afternoon had been spent setting up their camp, after which the siblings had gone out on the lake to ice skate. Hondo peered over at his wife, who was gazing out across the ice, covered by a light dusting of snow that was almost completely unblemished.

The setting sun cast orange and red light across the mountainside. “It’s beautiful, Hondo,” Cookie murmured. “You were right. It was worth the hike. I can’t believe I considered staying home and missing out on this.” The campfire next to her had a kettle set to boil, finally calling out a hiss of steam.

Hondo settled in next to his wife, smiling as he watched his daughters spin and slide around on the lake, illuminated by the brilliant display of color. “I know. And tomorrow, we will have some of the best ice fishing we’ve ever had.”

Cookie grimaced; she didn’t care for fishing, but it was her husband’s passion. “I’m sure it will be lovely,” she replied.

Sweetie Belle slid off the lake and stomped her way awkwardly over to the campfire, the blades of her boots sinking into the snow. “You should join us out on the lake,” she excitedly said as she took the kettle off the fire and set a tea bag in it. “Then we can skate as a family. It’ll be fun!”

Cookie and Hondo looked at each other and shared a shrug. It had been some time since they’d gone out and enjoyed a family activity like this and it was long overdue. After donning their own skates, the two parents stomped their way over to the edge of the lake and then slowly edged out onto the ice. It wasn’t long they were all laughing, spinning, and skating around another on the frozen lake.

Sweetie Belle eventually started trying to emulate some of the ice skaters she’d seen in the newspapers, jumping and spinning recklessly about the ice. She veered too close to her father, and her skate accidentally clipped his. The two went down to the ice, and the heavy weight of the pair suddenly slamming to the frozen surface was accompanied by a loud cracking sound as a massive chunk of ice began separating.

Rarity and Cookie watched in horror from a short distance away as cracks spidered out from their point of impact, quickly overtaking where they were standing. Before any of them dared to move and risk disturbing the ice further, a massive amount of ice gave way. All four of them held their breath, bracing for the possibly deadly cold of the frozen water beneath. Instead, they fell - far longer than would be expected - with no water below the ice to break their fall.

All four ponies landed with a whump on a soft surface, blocks of frozen ice bouncing around and away from them.. Far above, dim light from the hole in the ice shone down, providing scant illumination that revealed the almost unnaturally vertical walls of the lake bed. The softness they had landed in was a thick, dull yellow patch of a long-dead mossy plant material - apparently untouched by decay in the dry, cold chamber.

“Good heavens!” Cookie Crumbles cried out. “Is everypony alright?”

A small chorus of voices confirmed nopony was hurt.

“I’m fine, but it’s itchy!” Sweetie Belle complained, though too embarrassed to mention where the itch was. She bounded away from the mossy patch as best she could, and onto a nearby raised surface sticking out of the vegetation. Her skates caused her to stumble on the suddenly solid ground, and she face-planted, hard. A small trickle of blood ran from her nose as she sat back up. “Oww…”

“Sweetie, dear, are you alright?” Rarity shrieked, carefully making her way over to her sister.

Meanwhile, Hondo Flanks was looking up, evaluating their situation. The ice above was far too high to reach, and there were no openings along the massive walls that he could see. They were stuck in a giant hole under the lake - the lakebed was completely dry. Where had all the water gone? “I don’t think we’ll be able to climb back up,” he muttered.

His thoughts were disrupted as Rarity let out a gasp. “Gold!” she cried, pointing with a shaky skate at the surface Sweetie Belle was seated on. A solid gold slab, raised up only a few inches from the bottom of the lake bed. It was massive, with the far edges sinking into the bottom and sides of the lake bed.

“Well, it’s a good thing we didn’t land on that,” Cookie Crumbles muttered, dragging herself up onto the golden platform and removing her skates.

Hondo clambered up next and gasped at the blood running down Sweetie’s face. “Are you okay, Belle?” A drop of blood dripped onto the golden surface, which immediately began glowing with an aquamarine light.

The light slowly spread along unseen lines in the golden surface, and all of them scrambled away from the lines, afraid of whatever magic might have been activated. A massive mural slowly revealed itself as the lines continued to spread, revealing a surprisingly detailed image.

“That’s…” Cookie murmured, trailing off.

“An erect stallion.” Rarity finished, matter-of-factly.

The mural was so large that a pony could lay down within the outline of the stallion’s member, despite being to scale. When the glowing lines had finished outlining the entire image, a low rumbling shook the ground and the massive phallus sank into the ground at an angle, forming a weirdly erotic ramp down into the strange golden structure. Then, the glowing lines faded back to blend in again with the gold surface..

Hondo looked around at his family. All three mares were clearly apprehensive; Sweetie Belle was shaking, her eyes dilated. Rarity edged closer to Hondo’s side, while Cookie simply scooted away from the mural on her rump.

“Well, we don’t need to go down any further than we already have,” he said. “I’m going to look around for a way up.”

But it stayed in the back of his mind.

It didn’t take long before the sun had set. The lakebed had long grown dark, and a deathly cold had settled upon the family that was gathered around the strange golden penis-entrance. A pile of the strange, dead vegetation smoldered among the discarded, burning remains of sixteen ice skates - the results of their attempts at building a fire. It wasn’t enough heat to ignite the apparently fire-retardant moss. And the smell was terrible.

Cookie and Hondo were standing over the golden ramp, horns illuminated. Sweetie Belle was already shivering, wrapped in Rarity’s hooves as the two tried desperately to share their warmth.

“I know it’s creepy and weird, dear,” Hondo argued. “But we can freeze to death here hoping for help that might not ever come, or we can hope to find something in there. You can all wait here while I go check it out.” He pulled Cookie in for a kiss, momentarily stopping her trembling lips until he pulled away.

“Be careful,” Cookie cautioned as Hondo began his descent.

“Father, wait,” Rarity cried. “We’re coming with you. Sweetie Belle is freezing up here, and I fear it won’t be much longer for the rest of us.” Cookie opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off by Rarity. “I know you’re scared, but don’t worry. I am no stranger to adventure, and really, neither is Sweetie Belle. We will be perfectly fine.”

Cookie closed her mouth and nodded meekly.

At the base of the ramp was a long hallway, devoid of any blemish or dust upon its pristine surfaces. The walls and ceiling were made of pure gold, while the floor was made of pure ivory. It was dead silent, save for the sound of their hoofbeats against the floor as they walked.

After about a minute of walking, the hallway opened into a massive antechamber. The far end of the room had a raised platform - perhaps eight feet high - that spanned most of the width of the room, with stairs at either end. Iron braziers sat at regular intervals along the edge of the raised platform, but they couldn’t see up onto the platform. The only hint that the room didn’t extend much further beyond it was the wall extending far up to the ceiling, which must have been twenty feet high.

Eight golden pillars supported the ceiling in pairs leading up to the platform, each with an iron sconce toward the center of the room. The pillars perfectly framed two large dark red gems that decorated the side of the platform - one in the center, and one to the left, as well as a third one that had presumably been on the right when it was built, but the platform had suffered extensive damage at some point and had partially collapsed there. Below the two jewels were small alcoves, large enough that a foal could stand in it. The one on the left had something in it. Between the pillars and much closer to them was a wide pit, filled with an unknown material.

The family of four stopped and gazed upon the room in awe. Whatever they had stumbled upon, it was incredible, even in the meager light of Hondo’s illumination spell.

“Woooooow.”
“This is incredible.”
“Amazing.”
“It’s just like one of Daring Do’s adventures.”

As if reacting to their voices, the sconces on the pillars lit up in magical fire, two at a time. After the last pair ignited, the braziers on the platform’s edge did the same, starting with the outer two and finishing at the center. With the sudden ignition of the flames, the chill in the room fled, rapidly heating the chamber to a pleasant warmth.

Hondo stared at the wide pit in the center of the room. In the light, it was much easier to see what was inside. Charred wood… and bones. He quickly made the decision to avoid drawing attention to it and hoped the others didn’t notice.

Meanwhile, the mares were gazing upon the walls. The light had made it clear that the walls were covered in artistic engravings. Dozens of scenes, engraved with thick, deep cuts. The murals depicted pornographic scenarios all the way around the chamber, some more perverse than others, and each one with a heavy emphasis on the sheer size of the stallion’s cock. Sweetie’s itch returned with a vengeance as she felt a blush rising to her cheeks.

They slowly trotted toward the platform, approaching the large red gems over the alcoves. As they got closer, the gem above the left side alcove began glowing with a brilliant crimson color, and the small lump in the alcove suddenly stood up - it was dark gray in color, but otherwise shaped like a featureless young pony.

“Welcome,” it boomed cheerfully, with a voice far too loud for its tiny size. “To the Temple of Carnal Self-Knowledge!”

“Carnal Self-Knowledge…?” Rarity repeated.

The creature ignored her, tilting its head and trotting around the family. A thin blue line of light erupted from its head, right where the eyes should have been, and passed over each of the family members in turn. When it was finished, it turned to Hondo.

“Have you explained the rules? You do have three very beautiful mares with you, if I do say so, but they deserve to know the rules.”

“You can keep your flattery,” Cookie snapped. “How do we get out of here?”

The creature stopped and turned to Cookie. “The exit opens for those who answer with the truth.”

“Answer what with the truth?” Cookie pressed.

“The questions. If you answer truthfully, the doors will open. If you do not answer with the truth, you will be unable to proceed until the answer you gave becomes the truth.”

Hondo couldn’t help but examine the creature in detail, trotting around behind it as it conversed with Cookie. Two ancient runes were marked on it. He had taken an ancient runecraft course in college, before he had met Cookie and decided that he didn’t want to pursue an archaeology degree: He knew those runes - one meant ‘slave’, and the other meant ‘truth’.

“You’re an automaton,” Hondo declared.

“A what?” Rarity and Sweetie Belle said in unison.

“An automaton,” it answered. “An artificial construct controlled by runic magic, to serve a singular purpose.”

“Can we trust it?” Cookie asked, glancing up at her husband.

Hondo nodded his head. “You can trust it. I remember these runes from college - it has been marked with ‘slave’, and ‘truth’. It has free will, but it cannot disobey the orders of its master, and though it may not tell the whole truth or refuse to answer a question, it cannot tell a lie. Automatons like this were used regularly before the unification. They made better laborers than unicorns, and were usually created to cultivate food or other labor-intensive tasks.”

“Sounds like a robot Applejack,” Sweetie Belle muttered. Rarity had to stifle a giggle. “Can I call it Jack?”

The automaton tilted its head. “Nopony has given me a name before.”

“Jack it is, then,” Hondo declared, smiling at his younger daughter.

“Okay, then, Jack,” Cookie grumbled. “What question do we have to answer to get out of here?”

Jack shook its head. “I cannot tell you right now.”

“Right now,” Hondo repeated. “Which means you can tell us some other time. When?”

“When all living ponies in the temple are standing on the circles, the question will be asked.” It gestured up toward the raised platform above.

Hondo trotted up the stairs to the upper level. Four squares, roughly three feet in each direction, sat in a diamond-shaped arrangement before a massive golden door. The squares were divided into two halves, and each half was covered in dots. If you were to look at the slabs while facing the golden door, the dots followed a pattern - on the right side, a single dot at the top, and then three dots beneath that - adding two additional dots all the way down to the bottom of the slab. On the left side, the top row was blank, but the second row had two dots, then four on the row below, and so on. In front of each of the squares was a small circle, barely larger than a pony. The circle nearest the door seemed to be made of gold, but the other three were a dull grey stone.

“I don’t understand,” Cookie said, staring at the slabs. “What does it mean?”

“Maybe it means ‘even’ and ‘odd’,” Sweetie offered. “Look: each row has a different number of dots. The left side are all even, while the right is all odd.”

“It certainly seems that way,” Hondo agreed.

“The gray stone clashes horribly with the ivory,” Rarity observed.

Hondo glanced at his eldest daughter and shook his head. Only Rarity would care so much about beauty in this situation, but her ability to see the beauty in things was a quality about her that he really admired.

The automaton spoke. “When you are ready, step on the circles to begin.”

“And what if we don’t?” Rarity demanded.

“You can take all the time you want. Nothing in this temple will bring you to harm. But be aware that there is no food and no water in this part of the temple. You will not survive. And this is the only exit.”

Hondo sighed in defeat. “The way we came in is blocked off. If the automaton says the only way out is through this door, then this is the only way out.”

“Will it be dangerous?” Cookie wondered aloud, her voice filled with worry.

“As I said, nothing in the temple will bring you to harm. The only danger you face is the potential harm inflicted on you by your fellow ponies. Not all ponies are prepared to handle the truth.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Is there something in this temple that might force us to hurt each other?” Hondo inquired.

“Any action you take against your fellow ponies is purely of your own will.”

Hondo glanced at his wife. Cookie nodded back, stepping onto the golden circle. Sweetie Belle followed suit, stepping onto one of the stone circles. Hondo followed her shortly afterward. Rarity held back momentarily before carefully stepping onto the final stone circle.

The edges of the circles began glowing with a soft blue light. The automaton also glowed with the same light.

“How many different dicks have you sucked off?” the automaton droned.

“What?” Cookie shouted, startled. “What business is that of yours?”

“It’s right there in the name,” Sweetie Belle argued. “The Temple of Carnal Self-Knowledge. It’s testing what you know about yourself. In carnal fashion.”

“Correct,” the automaton agreed.

“If you answer truthfully, the doors will open,” Rarity repeated to herself, her stress becoming visibly apparent.

“I’ve sucked one,” Hondo said out loud.

“Hondo!” Cookie glared at him. “Don’t crack jokes like that.”

“I’m not cracking a joke,” Hondo said defensively. “I went through an… experimental phase before we got together.”

Cookie fumed. “That’s not the sort of secret you keep from your wife, Hondo. I…”

“Mother,” Rarity chastised. “Father is just trying to get us out of here. Besides, I’ve...” she paused, still trying to recount all of her trysts in her head. “Jack, be a dear and tell me exactly what you mean by ‘sucked off’, please?”

Jack nodded. “To put a penis in your mouth and stimulate it to orgasm.”

“Then, zero,” Cookie blurted. “And I’ll ask you never to bring it up again.”

“Zero for me, too,” Sweetie Belle chirped.

Rarity stared at the ground, trying desperately to recount which stallions had managed to finish in her mouth and which ones had been too drunk to do so.

“Seventeen… I… I think,” she whispered.

“What was that?!” Cookie shrieked.

“It’s none of your business, mother!”

“Nooooooo~!” Cookie wailed. “I didn’t need to know that about my baby girl.” She turned away from Rarity and went to swoon into Hondo’s embrace… except Hondo had a half-cocked grin on his face. Her eyes flashed with anger. “And what are you laughing at?”

“Uh… nothing.”

“What do you mean ‘nothing’? Nothing about this situation is funny!”

Hondo held up his hooves in surrender. “Sorry, honey, I’m sorry.”

“You better be!” she snapped.

…

“The door hasn’t opened,” Sweetie Belle observed dryly.

“The door has not received your answers,” Jack replied.

“Wait, we answered the questions!” Cookie argued. “Why didn’t the door hear us?”

Jack gestured at square runed plates. “The answers must be given with the plates.”

“Even and odd,” Sweetie mumbled, looking at the patterns again. “Is zero an even number?”

“Zero is an even number,” Jack confirmed.

Sweetie Belle jumped onto the square plate, landing on the side with the even numbered rows. The dots glowed in the same blue that seemed to permeate the magic on the temple, and then a line engraved in the floor lit up, highlighting a massive rune on the door that matched the even Sweetie stood on.

“You mean I didn’t even need to say it?!” Rarity wailed. Hondo burst out laughing.

“HONDO!” Cookie screamed. “That is enough! That is your daughter!”

Hondo shook his head, stepping onto the odd numbered side of his square. Like Sweetie Belle’s, it glowed blue. The rune on the door faded, and a new one lit up - this one matched Hondo’s ‘odd’ number pattern.

Cookie stepped onto her ‘even’ rune, glaring at Hondo the entire time. The door glowed brighter for a moment, but the rune did not change.

Rarity grumbled a curse under her breath and stepped, uncertainly, onto the ‘odd’ rune. Once again, the rune on the door faded and the large ‘Even’ rune on the door illuminated again.

“All answers accounted for. Prediction Confirmed: Even,” Jack droned. The golden door slid upward, allowing the family to continue. “Please proceed to verification.”

The Verification Chamber

Beyond the door they could see a large room, not much different from the previous room. It lacked the red gems in the raised platform and their associated alcoves, and the wide pit in the middle of the room had been replaced with an empty wooden coffin on a pedestal, but it was otherwise identical.

Cookie Crumbles was the first one to enter the new chamber, angrily stomping her hooves as she crossed the threshold. Sweetie Belle followed behind her. Rarity’s head hung as she shuffled along slowly.

“It’s alright, Rare,” Hondo spoke in a low voice, trotting beside her. “Your mother isn’t that big of a prude. She’s just very sensitive about… well… this.”

“This?” Rarity whispered. “This what?”

“The… well, the blowjob thing.”

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, Father!” Rarity scoffed loudly, trotting faster. “I do not need to know about my parents bedroom issues!”

“Hondo!” Cookie yelled. “What are you telling her now?”

Hondo heaved a heavy sigh, realizing that the automaton was right: the biggest danger to him would be his wife by the time this was all over.

“Nevermind,” he huffed. Looking ahead, he could see Cookie and Sweetie had already reached the top of the stairs talking between themselves, while Rarity was just beginning to climb, but Jack seemed content to follow behind the group.

At the top of the stairs, Hondo had expected to see another set of circles and squares for their next challenge. Instead, he only saw one large stone circle surrounded by four smaller circles. Once again, the circles were in a diamond shape, and the one nearest the door was made of gold while the remainder were stone. The door had two massive runes on it, again with the even patterned dots on the left, and the odd patterned dots on the right, but there were no square runes on the floor.

The mares had already sat down in three of the smaller circles. Cookie had once again settled onto the golden circle, keeping her back to the rest of them and grumbling under her breath. Rarity was blushing furiously and desperately trying to occupy herself by fussing over her mane and tail. Sweetie Belle simply sat on her circle, shifting back and forth trying to get comfortable as she pondered the pornographic artwork all over the walls.

“So, you’re all just going to go along with this?” Hondo asked aloud

“It’s not like we really have much choice, Dad,” Sweetie Belle replied. “Unless you have some other plan to get us out of here.”

Hondo nodded and took his place upon the fourth small circle. Immediately, the door they had entered from slid closed, sealing them inside.

“Verification in progress for question: How many dicks have you sucked off?”

The first circle glowed, surrounding Cookie in a blue light. The outline of the Even side of the rune on the door also began glowing. The circle faded. The second circle surrounded Rarity, and suddenly an apparition appeared in the larger blue circle between them. It was Rarity, enthusiastically blowing Thunderlane. The Even rune on the door faded, and the Odd rune lit up, this time with the top, singular dot glowing in red.

“One,” Jack announced.

Cookie stared in wide-eyed horror at the scene playing out before them. Sweetie Belle forced herself to stifle a giggle.

After about ten seconds, the apparition blinked out of existence, only to be replaced with another image of Rarity being brutally face-fucked by Davenport, the proprietor of Quills and Sofas.

The rune on the door changed back to Even again, and the red dot on the one odd dot faded as the two dots at the top of the Even rune glowed red.

“Two,” Jack announced.

“Wait!”Rarity screamed in a panic, cheeks flushed. “You can’t do this to me!”

“Oh my Stars!” Cookie mumbled. “Rarity, you…!”

“Just cover your eyes, honey,” Hondo advised. Cookie did as suggested.

“Three,” Jack announced.

Hondo didn’t recognize the next stallion, but Rarity was going down on him like a consummate professional. It was incredibly erotic, and Hondo found himself briefly wishing that the apparition made sound.

“Four,” Jack announced.

“Dad, eww…” Sweetie Belle complained.

Hondo glanced at Sweetie Belle, who was staring at him with a look of disgust. He looked down at himself, suddenly becoming acutely aware that his dick was peeking out of its sheathe, and growing noticeably more erect with each passing second.

“Five,” Jack announced.

Hondo looked up at the next stallion, again one he didn’t recognize.

“Father, stop,” Rarity screeched. “Just... stop looking!”

But he couldn’t help it. Watching his daughter getting throat-swabbed by a massive stallion prick was… fascinating. Like watching two pegasi collide in mid air in slow-motion, only it wasn’t two pegasi colliding - it was a pair of hefty balls colliding with his daughter’s gorgeous face. And it wasn’t in slow motion.

“Hondo!” Cookie warned, her hooves no longer covering her face. “Take your eyes off our daughter this instant!”

“Six,” Jack announced.

As the fifth apparition disappeared, Hondo finally tore his gaze away, staring at the fiery eyes of his wife instead. Cookie glared at him intensely, her normally fuschia cheeks tinted red, as he stared back at her, trying his hardest to not break eye contact.

“Seven.”

Hondo steeled himself, running the numbers in his head. At about ten seconds per recollection, and Rarity’s given number of seventeen, would leave ten to go. He only needed to keep his attention on his wife for about two minutes and it would be over.

“Eight.”

“Nine.”

Cookie’s anger seemed to be softening as Hondo kept eye contact with her.

“Ten.”

“Eleven.”

“Twelve.”

Now Cookie was merely looking at him sadly, the reality of her daughter’s situation taking a toll on her. Hondo didn’t like seeing his wife this way, but he kept his eyes locked on her.

“Thirteen.”

“Fourteen.”

Sweetie Belle gasped.

“No, no, no, no-no-nonononono!” Rarity began to yell. “Not that one!”

At that outburst, Hondo couldn’t help but look. Even Cookie turned her head away to see what the problem was.

The apparition showed Rarity delicately lapping at Spike’s engorged hemipenis, the little dragon shuddering in pleasure. Then Rarity engulfed them entirely, bobbing up and down.

“Fifteen.”

Even though the automaton had counted out another, the image didn’t change. Spike had clearly been a quick shot, as it took only moments before his entire body convulsed and Rarity sat back, visibly swallowing and then opening her mouth for the small drake to see. Hondo’s dick went rock solid.

“Wait!” Rarity shouted suddenly. “That counts as two?!”

Jack didn’t seem to respond, continuing to count.

“Sixteen.”

“Rarity!” Sweetie fumed. “How could you?! You know I have a crush on him! Why would you…!”

“You hadn’t told me, yet!” Rarity snapped. “He was desperate, and I …” the already rosy color in her cheeks deepened to a cherry red. “...And I really just wanted to know what a dragon tasted like,” she whispered.

The apparition of Rarity was now blowing Hoity Toity. The sisters continued to bicker as the image of Hoity Toity faded.

“Seventeen.”

Fancy Pants appeared next.

“Rarity…” Cookie Crumbles growled, threateningly. “What have I told you about using sex to further your career.”

“I know you think that it is loathsome, mother,” Rarity shot back, turning away from Sweetie Belle. “But I prefer to think of it as shrewd negotiation. And I do like to have a stallion’s pride at my mercy, and if I can get what I want, and give somepony what they want while also getting something else that I want, then I don’t see the problem with it.”

Sweetie Belle jumped to her hooves. “How truly generous of you~!” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“Eighteen.”

“And you said seventeen!” Cookie shrieked.

“I didn’t know Spike would count as two!” Rarity countered.

“Why does his count as two?” Hondo asked, confused.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Because dragons have two dicks, dad. Try and keep up.”

Hondo glanced down at his turgid shaft. “Easy enough,” he muttered.

The light from Rarity’s circle finally faded, and Hondo’s circle lit up.

“Oh, shit,” he rumbled, as he suddenly realized what was about to happen.

“Nineteen,” Jack uttered.

An image of Hondo giving a blowjob faded into existence. Every pony froze.

“Is… is that Uncle Peanut Brittle?” Sweetie asked, her face contorted in confusion.

Cookie went pale. “Y-y-y… You! You sucked off my brother?!”

“It… was a phase,” Hondo replied, sheepishly. “Your brother and I were good friends. We fooled around a little bit, and I learned very quickly that I wasn’t gay.”

“But my brother isn’t gay!” Cookie yelled.

“Uh…” Hondo tried hard not to argue. “Look, let’s just… move on, alright?”

“Move on to what?”

The circle faded and Sweetie Belle’s lit up briefly, before fading away again.

“Answer verified. Result: Odd. Predicted: Even. Mismatched. Please resolve to proceed.”

“Like moving on to how we resolve this?” Hondo offered. He turned to Jack. “How do we resolve this?”

“The answer must be made into truth.”

Sweetie Belle cocked her head to the side. “The answer must be… made into truth?”

Jack shrugged - a strange expression on the faceless automaton. “The temple does not discriminate. When you sit on the circles again and the total is Even, the door will open.”

Cookie stood between Hondo and their daughters, blocking their view of his erection. “Absolutely not,” she growled, giving Rarity a pointed look.

Rarity nearly choked. “Mother! What is wrong with you? I have absolutely no intention of servicing my father’s…” She couldn’t even bring herself to finish the thought aloud.

“I guess we die here, then,” Sweetie Belle mumbled.

“What? Why?” Cookie asked, confused. “I can just… erm… fellate…” She stopped, frowning. “No, we are not talking about this!”

“Mom, you’ve never sucked him off before,” Sweetie Belle pointed out. “So either you’ve never tried it before, or you’re really bad at it.”

“I am not ‘bad’ at it!” Cookie objected. “Your father just can’t get off from… that kind of stimulation!Now, both of you, go down the stairs until I call you up,” Cookie hissed.

Sweetie Belle didn’t hesitate, bounding down the stairs. Rarity followed behind. “You too!” Cookie commanded the automaton. The faux pony moved to join the sisters wordlessly.

She stared at her husband’s erection. It was true that she didn’t even try to suck him off often, and that she had never succeeded. But if there was ever a time to dedicate herself to the task, it was now. Her lips parted and she quickly drove herself all the way to his base.

At the bottom of the stairs, Rarity cringed at the sound of her mother gagging, choking, and then coughing violently.

“See?” Sweetie Belle said. “She can’t do it.”

“Sweetie Belle, I do not want to think about what’s going on up there and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t speak of it again. Jack?”

The automaton turned toward her.

“I would like a distraction, please. You said this is the Temple of Carnal Self-Knowledge, but could you explain why the temple is here?”

“The king built this temple to test candidates for his harem. I have learned many things from him in the time he used the temple. He did not want virgins, and would often slay mares who were revealed to be prudish. Similarly, he did not like mares who had too many partners. He built this temple as a way to filter them out.”

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “Okay, but why the even-odd thing?”

“The master said the threat of death was an exhilarating and effective way to get mares to service him.”

“I thought you said the temple wasn’t dangerous?” Sweetie argued.

“It is not dangerous. The master was dangerous, but the temple is not. It can be unpleasant, and require unpleasant things of the occupants. But it is not dangerous.”

Rarity and Sweetie Belle both shuddered, locking eyes for a moment.

“No more mistakes,” Sweetie Belle said.

“No more mistakes,” Rarity agreed.

Several minutes passed as Rarity and Sweetie Belle tried to coax more information from the automaton, though none of their queries produced any useful information.

“Rarity?” Cookie’s voice floated down. “Come here please.”

Rarity closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Coming, mother,” she sighed.

The first thing Rarity noticed was her father’s semi-flaccid member, looking like the saddest penis she had ever seen. Hondo himself was leaning back on his forelegs, eyes darting around as if he couldn’t decide where to look. Sitting up between his legs, Cookie was flushed red as a cherry, refusing to meet Rarity’s gaze.

“Can you-” Cookie began, but trailed off.

“Absolutely not!” Rarity declared, turning toward the stairs.

“Rare, wait!” her father cried. She stopped.

“Don’t you ‘Rare’ me, father. I will not--”

“Your mother just wants advice.”

Rarity was silent for a moment, slowly turning back to face her parents. “You intend for me to… advise… my own mother on how to properly service a stallion?”

“I’m sorry,” Cookie cried, letting out a sob. “I’m terrible at this. It’s disgusting and--”

“Mother, you stop that right now,” Rarity demanded.

Cookie blinked away the tears in her eyes, her lower jaw trembling, but she stopped.

“Firstly, you will never be able to succeed with that mindset. You can’t hate what you are doing - you need to love his cock. To want it. To worship it with your tongue, your lips, your throat. Tease him. Make him want it so bad that you can see the sparkle of lust in his eyes.”

Cookie stared at her daughter in disbelief. “How can you…”

Rarity held up a hoof. “If you can’t learn to suck father off, we will be stuck here until we starve.” She steeled herself for what she was about to say next, gesturing at her father’s stiffening stallionhood. “Look,” she said through clenched teeth. “He already wants it.”

Before Cookie could object, Hondo pulled her into his embrace, giving her a tight hug. After a moment, they parted, and Cookie was finally smiling. She turned to Rarity. “Alright. I’m… going to try. Tell me what to do.”

“Start by taking his tip into your mouth and stroke his lower shaft with your hoof.”

Cookie did as instructed, opening her mouth wide and taking Hondo’s engorged dick into her mouth just a little ways, and stroked him with a hoof. Hondo grunted as he felt the glans of his cock brush lightly against her tongue.

“Do you hear that, mother? That grunt of satisfaction? Take that sound and savor it. The first step to enjoying what you are doing is to enjoy what he is feeling. Try and coax more of it from him. Bob your head up and down slowly, working yourself a bit deeper. Use your tongue.”

Cookie closed her eyes, listening to Hondo’s hitched breathing. Her tongue rolled against his tip, drawing out another grunt. She tried to do as Rarity suggested, focusing on just his sounds - sounds she was responsible for. It was strangely calming once she managed to tune out everything else. She went deeper on his shaft, and soon had to swallow a lump of disgust welling up in her throat. Hondo groaned loudly when she swallowed and his hips rocked forward, forcing more of his length into her throat. His hoof began running through her mane, grasping at the silken strands.

“Very good,” Rarity coached. “He’s getting into it. Now, whenever you are ready, try and take him deeper. You’ll need to open up your throat and suppress your gag reflex. Go at your own pace.”

Cookie opened her eyes and saw the remainder of Hondo’s dick sticking out of her mouth. She could feel Hondo’s grip on her head, relaxing and grasping again, like he wanted to just thrust into her throat but didn’t want to ruin the moment. She closed her eyes again, once more focusing on the sounds he was making. Slowly, she pressed forward. The head of his cock pressed against the back of her throat, and the gagging sensation returned.

Following Rarity’s advice, she tried to open up her throat and will the gagging sensation away. Listening to the sexy sound of her husband’s groans helped her to relax and take a little bit more of him into her. After several seconds, the cock hit the back of her throat and she opened her eyes. Only a few inches left.

She swallowed. Hondo moaned out, his grip tightening on her mane as he began to thrust his hips ever so slightly. Cookie held her breath as he pressed in, his shaft angling ever so slightly as it ingressed to her throat. He pulled out just a little more, giving her a moment to breathe before pressing back in again. In a matter of moments, she had lost all control as Hondo began holding her head and thrusting softly.

His thrusting escalated, his cock driving even further into her throat. His hips bucked wildly, and suddenly Cookie’s snout bumped into something. She opened her eyes again - she was staring straight at her husband’s gut, the entire length of his member disappearing into her throat. He pulled back again and thrust forward, pumping his length into her throat. She couldn’t breathe, but she was awe-struck by her own achievement - she’d never managed to come anywhere close to taking him this deep.

Hondo thrust to the hilt again and held her there, a shudder running through his body. His groan of ecstasy was enthralling. Cookie felt a swelling in her throat and a burst of liquid sensation ran down her throat to her stomach - he was cumming! And… she could taste nothing but the taste of his pre. It wasn’t terrible, but she needed air - pressing insistently against Hondo as he held her head in place.

“Oh Stars, Rares,” Hondo uttered with a low groan as his load blasted down his wife’s throat. Cookie’s eyes went wide as a heated need began burning in her nethers. He had called out their daughter’s name, and yet… why did that turn her on?

His throbbing continued for a few seconds before he began to withdraw. Cookie coughed as she was finally able to get air again, the taste of semen flooding her mouth as the trail of semen retreated from her mouth. As soon as she was done gasping for breath, Cookie looked askance at her husband. “Rares?” she inquired.

“For the advice,” he quickly defended, raising a hoof. “I’ve been wanting you to do that since the day we got together, and thanks to her coaching… you were amazing.”

“Yes, yes,” Rarity blurted, beaming with an awkward sense of pride, but wanting to distance herself from the situation. “Can we move on from this?”

Hondo looked at his wife, a thin strand of his cum running down her chin. Then at the door - still closed. “Sweetie Belle?” he called. “You can come up now.”

The family worked their way to each of the circles and the temple’s blue apparition appeared again - this time only showing a brief snippet of Hondo and Cookie’s activity of the last several minutes.

“Twenty,” Jack stated. The ‘Even’ rune on the door lit up, the row with 20 dots illuminated in red. “Answer verified. Result: Even. Predicted: Even. Matched. Please proceed to the next chamber.”

The door slid open, and the family proceeded forward.

An unsettling feeling fell over Cookie Crumbles as she realized the temple would force them to divulge everything. Her secret could come out.

And it might ask them to do far worse.

Questions and Answers

The next chamber was identical to the first chamber, sans the strange fire pit and the alcoves. The square runes, each paired with a circle, once again sat before a large door.

“So, we just keep going?” Cookie asked.

“Yes,” Jack replied. “Each room has a different question.”

Cookie sighed, taking her place on one of the stone circles. The rest of the family took their places as well.

“The golden circle must have the same pony each time,” Jack cautioned.

“Sure, alright.” Cookie and Hondo switched places.

“How many pussies have you eaten?”

Cookie, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle all immediately moved to the even runes. Hondo stepped on the odd rune.

The Odd rune on the massive door remained light.

“All answers accounted for. Prediction Confirmed: Odd,” Jack droned. The golden door slid upward, allowing the family to continue. “Please proceed to verification.”

“None of you have ever even tried it?” Hondo asked as they moved toward the next verification.

Cookie frowned. “I don’t recall anypony saying that.”

“Well, none of you took any time to think about it before jumping right to even,” Hondo argued.

“And why do you care so much, Father?” Rarity asked, glaring at him. “What were you expecting to see?”

Hondo hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. If somepony was wrong with their prediction, it would mean…

He glanced at his wife, and then at his daughters. He couldn’t deny that the thought of seeing that was strangely erotic.

“Uh, nothing,” he said, turning his eyes toward the platform ahead.

Settling in on the circles before the door, the blue light appeared around Cookie. Nothing happened.

Then the blue light appeared around Rarity, but again, nothing happened.

“See?” Hondo argued. “You haven’t.”

The light enveloped him, and the apparition of himself eating out his wife appeared before them.

“One,” Jack replied.

The light faded.

“You really didn’t do it with any other mares?” Cookie asked, incredulously.

“You’re the only one I wanted,” Hondo said, holding up his hooves.

A warm happiness filled Cookie as the light surrounded Sweetie Belle.

The sudden appearance of her daughter aggressively licking at Apple Bloom’s vagina appeared in front of her.

“Two.”

“I knew it!” Rarity shouted happily. “Applejack owes me 20 bits!”

“What the hell, Rarity?!” Sweetie shouted.

While his daughters bickered, Hondo stared with rapt attention as the image faded away and was replaced with Sweetie Belle going down on Scootaloo. The erotic imagery of young mares in front of him was enough to bring his erection back. He carefully shifted, hoping none of the mares would see.

“Three. Answer verified. Result: Odd. Predicted: Odd. Matched. Please proceed to the next chamber.”

The door opened. Hondo quickly scrambled into the next chamber, leaving his bickering progeny behind.

“You were getting turned on by that?” Cookie growled.

“It just reminded me of how pretty you were at their age,” Hondo replied defensively.

Cookie Crumbles glared at him. “Are you saying I’m not pretty now?”

“N-N-No,” Hondo said, backing away from his wife. “I’m just saying I wish it was you!”

“So you were imagining me… with our daughter going down on me?”

Yes. “No!”

Cookie glared at Hondo suspiciously as they walked up to the next platform. The girls followed shortly afterward, their argument resolved. Each of them took their places.

Three chambers later, they had all learned far more than they wanted to know about the rest of their family, but at least all of their predictions had been accurate.

Hondo sighed as he sat down on the next circle. His growing horniness at the constant exposure to the sex lives of the mares around him was not doing favors for him - his dick ached.

“How many ponies have penetrated you?”

That was easy enough, Hondo thought to himself, stepping onto the Even rune.

He didn’t even bother paying attention to what the mares did - the truth would come soon enough.

“All answers accounted for. Prediction Confirmed: Even,” Jack droned. The golden door slid upward, allowing the family to continue. “Please proceed to verification.”

“Sorry,” Rarity apologized. “This is going to be another long one.”

Hondo tried to ignore her words - he was about to be assailed by a lot of imagery of sex again. He was beginning to think it would be best to just fuck his wife and get it out of his system, but… he didn’t want to do that in front of the girls. Things were awkward enough already.

He paused, realizing that his wife was still sitting in her golden circle.

“Cookie?” he called back. “Honey, is everything alright?”

She glanced up at him and then away again. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

“Huh?”

Cookie said nothing, walking slowly up to the verification circles. Once she was seated, the light surrounded her again. An image formed - again, the image of Peanut Brittle, hilted deep inside Cookie, then pulling out and slamming into her again.

“One.”

Hondo’s jaw dropped. “You fucked your brother?!” he shouted.

“I told you he isn’t gay,” she whispered softly.

“Mother, that is unconscionable!” Rarity objected.

The imagery had already faded away, replaced with Hondo and Cookie. If Hondo had thought about the fact his daughters were going to see him fuck his wife anyway, he might have just done it. Fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately - nopony was paying any attention thanks to the massive bomb that had just dropped.

“Two.”

“It was my first heat!” Cookie explained. “I asked him to help me out because I was desperate. I started dating your father soon afterward.”

“But you said you were raped,” Hondo responded. “You came to me, crying.”

“I was crying because I knew what I had done was wrong,” Cookie replied. “And I was terrified I would be pregnant, so I…” she trailed for a moment. “...I lied to you, hoping…”

As the blue glow surrounded Rarity, her eyes went wide, a terrible realization dawning on her. “Am I…” She turned to her father, desperation in her eyes. “Are you my father? Please! Tell me that you are my father!”

Hondo hung his head sadly. “Truth is, Rare... we don’t know. We had sex almost immediately after. And Cookie refused to get a paternity test. I knew the possibility was there, but I never suspected that the other stallion was...”

“Does it really matter?” Sweetie Belle asked aloud.

“Of course it matters!” Rarity shouted.

“Eight,” Jack continued counting.

“Shut up!” Rarity hissed at the automaton. “You stay out of it!”

“I’m sorry,” Cookie whispered.

Rarity hung her head, her swirling emotions stealing her ability to think.

“Sixteen,” the automaton finally said, as the glow surrounding Rarity faded.

The light passed to Sweetie Belle briefly before fading away again.

“Answer verified. Result: Even. Predicted: Even. Matched. Please proceed to the next chamber.”

“Wait, so you haven’t masturbated before, and you’re a virgin?” Cookie asked, trying desperately to change the subject.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. This temple was far too embarrassing. “No, mom. I just haven’t had a dick in me.”

“It’s the same thing,” Cookie accused.

“We’ve literally already been over this,” Sweetie said, heaving a sigh. “Scootaloo is a champion at linguistics, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time practicing myself.”

“What does linguistics have to do with anything?” her mother asked.

Sweetie Belle face-hoofed.

Sweetie Belle stopped and stared in confusion at the ancient device on the floor. Unlike every ‘question’ room before, this one did not have a series of square runes, nor the four circles that accompanied them. Instead, the door to the next chamber had two square runes on the floor - one on either side of the door - and a single golden circle in front of it. The one on the left was the Even rune - on the right, the Odd rune.

“This is different,” Hondo observed dryly. “What’s the deal with this one?”

Jack spoke up. “You are getting very close to the end of the pyramid. Only one more question before the Chamber of Truth.”

“The Chamber of Truth?” Rarity wondered aloud. “Isn’t this whole place one big exercise in truth-telling?”

“Okay, but what about this door?” Cookie asked, ignoring Rarity. “How does it work?”

“This rune responds only to the Golden One,” Jack responded.

“And where is the Golden One?” Hondo asked.

“The Golden One is the pony who seated themselves on the golden plates.”

Cookie smiled. “Then I am the Golden One?”

Jack nodded. “You are the Golden One.”

“Alright. What is the question?”

“How many ponies are alive here in the temple?”

Hondo tilted his head. “That seems pretty straightforward. But just to be sure, are we the only living ponies here?”

“There are no living ponies in the temple that are not in this chamber.”

“Then, four.” Cookie said, matter-of-factly, pressing her hoof to the Even rune.

The door grinded open, revealing a scene straight out of a horror film. Dried blood coated the walls and floors. Instead of the pornographic etchings throughout the temple, the etchings in this room were violent displays of power - a stallion cutting down mares with blades. The room smelled of death, and the mummified corpse of a long dead pony lay near the exit, dressed in immaculate golden finery.

“This is unusual,” Jack observed. “A temple servant should have disposed of the body and cleaned up the blood.”

“W-w-w-what do you mean?” Sweetie Belle said, shaking in fear.

“The Master always ensured he was the Golden One. If the Master had not been entertained throughout the temple, he would answer the question wrong on purpose, requiring the death of a pony in order to proceed. Sometimes he would kill a pony himself. Other times, he would have them fight amongst each other until one of them had been slain.”

Rarity gasped in shock. “How is that Carnal Self-Knowledge? Is not the purpose of this place to find out about our carnal deeds?”

Jack’s eyeless gaze turned to Rarity. “The Master was not a stable pony. His worst deeds are best left unspoken.”

Sweetie Belle and Cookie Crumbles shared a glance, both shuddering with recognition.

“Let’s just move on, shall we?” Rarity said, trotting across the chamber.

“Yes,” Hondo replied, marching behind her. He approached the four circles at the other door, trying not to pay any attention to the long-dead pony near them. The rest of his family hesitantly followed.

Once they were in place, the circles began to glow. As before, Cookie Crumbles was scanned first. The specter of Cookie appeared in the center and then faded.

“One,” Jack intoned.

Sweetie Belle.

“Two,” Jack continued.

Hondo.

“Three.”

Rarity.

“Four.”

The blue apparition faded, but the glow around Rarity did not. A second apparition appeared - Rarity again, only this time, her belly seemed to glow.

“Five. Answer verified. Result: Odd. Predicted: Even. Mismatched. Please resolve to proceed.”

Hondo and Cookie stared at the circle where the apparition had stood. Sweetie Belle stared at Rarity’s belly. Rarity stared at Jack.

“I’m pregnant!?” she shouted at the little automaton, shaking with excitement..

“The temple cannot make mistakes,” Jack replied.

“That’s wonderful, Rarity!” Cookie gushed. “I know you two have been trying for so long!”

“Yeah, wonderful,” Sweetie Belle deadpanned. “Because now we’re stuck here in this dumb temple.”

Rarity and Cookie both immediately deflated, averting their eyes.

Hondo shifted uncomfortably. “Then… One of us has to die to get out of here?” he mumbled.

“Absolutely not,” Cookie objected.

Hondo glared at his wife. “What else are we to do?! Shall we just wait here until one of us starves, so that the others may eat?”

Cookie stared at the floor, shuffling her hooves nervously. “I would rather die,” she confessed.

“And you think I could live without you? Any more than I could sacrifice one of my own daughters?”

“I…” Cookie began, only to be interrupted.

“Stop,” Rarity cried. “Stop this. Nopony is killing anypony. Nopony needs to starve to death.” She stood on her hind legs, bracing herself against the wall. “Father, come here,” she commanded, her lip trembling.

Hondo walked over to Rarity, confused. “Rare?” he probed. “What are you doing?”

Rarity closed her eyes. Her demeanor crumbled, and she sobbed openly, tears running down her cheeks as she stood against the wall. The rest of her family just stared at her in confusion.

Cookie pulled Rarity away from the wall and into her embrace. “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.

“If my…” Rarity started, before letting out another choked sob. “If my child is going to…” she trailed off, unable to verbalize her thoughts and breaking into tears. After a moment, she resumed. “…then father should just kick me. And then the baby will… and nopony will know the difference...”

“WHAT THE HELL, RARITY!?” Sweetie Belle shouted.

Cookie shushed Sweetie Belle and stroked Rarity’s mane, silently horrified that her daughter would even consider such a thing. “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay, honey. You don’t have to do that. You’ve been trying for far too long to do that.” Hondo also stepped in and hugged his wife and daughter.

“Look, it’s late,” Hondo said, though they truthfully had no way to know what time it actually was. “We should get some rest. Maybe we can think of a solution once we’ve gotten some sleep.”

Family

“We wait for a search party,” Cookie had decided.

The rest of the family agreed. It was the best solution - somepony would come looking for them eventually. Before they starved to death. Hopefully.

Hondo sat alone, gazing into one of the braziers. The rest of his family had fallen asleep, and now he watched the flame flickering and licking at nothing, fueled by an unseeable magic.

He knew that a rescue wouldn’t be coming. It was supposed to be a week-long camping trip. They would survive perhaps a few days, but without water, they would be dead before anypony would even think they had gone missing.

Would it be enough to burn him to death? He stuck a hoof over the flame. It was warm, but it didn’t seem to harm his unshorn fetlocks. He lowered it into the brazier. Nothing happened.

The sound of hoofsteps clipped behind him - somepony else was awake. And had probably just seen what he was doing.

After a few steps, two white hooves circled around him, hugging him from behind. Was it Rarity? Or Sweetie Belle? Whichever it was, she wasn’t speaking.

“Can’t sleep?” he finally asked.

“Mm-hmm,” came the dulcet humming of Sweetie Belle’s voice. “It’s not easy to sleep right now,” she continued. “Even without all this stress.”

Hondo nodded, uncertain what she had meant. “I can’t sleep either.”

Sweetie hugged him tighter.

“It’s all my fault,” he continued. “I’m the one who took us out here on this stupid trip. I should be the one to die, and yet… I’m not brave enough to end my own life.”

“You don’t need to do that, dad,” Sweetie whispered in his ear. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“How can I not? I’m the reason we’re here. And I don’t know what to do now that we’re stuck.”

“Subtraction isn’t the only way to make an odd number even,” Sweetie breathed.

Hondo froze as thoughts raced through his mind. If there was a way other than taking away from their family… then it would be to add to it. But Cookie was too old to bear another child, and no longer went into heat…

He pulled away from Sweetie Belle as realization set in. Turning around, he stared at his younger daughter. Sweetie Belle had put the kettle on the fire, and then just before they got trapped here, she’d started steeping a bag of…

“Moon tea,” Hondo muttered. “You were brewing moon tea.”

Sweetie Belle nodded slightly, a faint rosy color on her cheeks. “I started my cycle a few days ago.”

“How much did you drink?”

“I haven’t had any yet this season.”

“So, you mean if we-”

Sweetie Belle pressed her hoof to his lips. “Please don’t say it out loud.”

The two stared at each other in silence, though Hondo’s erection gave away which station his train of thought had just arrived at. Sweetie Belle tried not to look at it - tried not to imagine that feeling of it plunging into her. The forbidden thoughts were driving her crazy. It was so wrong to want her father’s child. But a part of her carnal self just wanted to be filled with that thick meat - to have him plunder the depths of her moist treasure and leave behind his pearl.

And it would save their family. That was important, too.

Hondo glanced furtively at Cookie Crumbles and Rarity, both of whom were laying with their backs turned. A gentle rise and fall of their chests suggested they were sound asleep. He turned back to Sweetie Belle.

“You’re absolutely certain?”

“This is a matter of life and death, dad. Possibly the most literal interpretation of it you can imagine. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea, but it’s the best one we have.”

“But you’re a virgin,” he protested.

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I may not have ever had a stallion, but I’m far from a virgin, remember?”

“Right,” Hondo replied, suddenly remembering the results of the “How many pussies have you eaten?” question. “Then, how are we going to-”

His question was interrupted as Sweetie Belle pressed her lips to his, aggressively probing with her tongue. Hondo was caught completely by surprise, falling backward to the hard floor as Sweetie Belle’s weight came down on top of him. Air rushed from his lungs at the impact, and she seized the opportunity to dart her tongue into his mouth.

Hondo’s eyes widened as her tongue roamed around his mouth, exploring his teeth. He cautiously lifted his tongue to meet hers, wrestling in the confines of his mouth and slowly pushing her tongue back. He chased it into her own mouth, continuing the delicate dance of oral maneuvers.

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and moaned into Hondo’s mouth. His erection was rubbing against her damp, needy sex, and she involuntarily began rocking against it, grinding her winking clit against his stiff shaft. His lips parted from hers and he pulled back, giving her a questioningly uncertain look. Sweetie Belle simply smiled at her father, grinding even harder against him and then lifting herself up and placing his tip firmly against her entrance.

He could feel Sweetie Belle trembling slightly as she brought herself to his tip and suddenly became acutely aware that he was about to take her maidenhead. He rolled over onto his side, gently carrying her with him and laying her against the cold ivory ground. From this position, he would have more control over the insertion, hopefully lessening her distress.

“Please,” she whispered in his ear. “I need you in me so badly.”

The desperation in her voice combined with the sheer taboo of the act spurred Hondo into action, pressing forward ever so slowly and parting her folds. His tip began to sink in, only to find a shallow barrier. Sweetie gasped as the turgid cock kissed her hymen.

“It might hurt,” Hondo warned her.

“It’s okay,” Sweetie Belle replied. “I’m ready.”

Hondo pushed forward slowly, putting an ever increasing pressure on his daughter’s flower until it suddenly gave way and he sunk deep into her untouched passage.

“Mmmm!” Sweetie moaned. She had been prepared for a lot of pain, but that wasn’t what she had felt. Instead, she had felt a little bite of pain - not unlike getting a shot at the doctor’s office - and then nothing but pure pleasure as his shaft slid deep into her, his length grinding against her pleasure button as it sank to the hilt.

Hondo was in a perilous heaven of his own making. The tight confines of Sweetie Belle’s tunnel felt divine against his cock - the one cock that shouldn’t have ever breached her depths. And yet he had no regrets. It somehow felt… right. The times he had glanced at his daughters with a lustful thought only to mentally shout himself down ran through his mind.

“Oh, goddess,” he moaned. “It’s so much better than I’d imagined.”

“You’ve imagined this before?” Sweetie Belle asked, pulling herself up slightly before pressing herself back down. She had never even used a dildo before, so she didn’t have much to compare her father to. Thoughts of Spike ran through her mind. Would Spike be able to fill her up the way her father was now? A vivid image of Rarity suckling his dual cocks came back to her mind - they hadn’t seemed so large. But it happened a long time ago, hadn’t it?

“Though I hate to admit it,” Hondo groaned, slowly withdrawing and then sliding himself back into her. “I am a hot-blooded stallion, after all. And both of my daughters are the most gorgeous mares I’ve ever laid eyes upon.”

Cookie Crumbles tried very hard not to stir as she heard her husband breeding her youngest daughter behind her. She didn’t know why she hadn’t stopped him. Even though she knew they had found a solution that would save their family from a horrible fate, it still repulsed her. Yet she didn’t stop them. And she didn’t know why it was turning her on so much, as a forehoof trailed down her own chest, stopping to tease at one of her teats while the other forehoof trailed down lower.

Was it her place to even judge, after what she had done with her brother? Visions of Peanut Brittle’s cock came back to her mind, and she began grinding her hoof even harder into her snatch as Sweetie Belle’s moans took her back to that day, so long ago, when she herself was crying out in ecstasy on her own brother’s dick. Could she truly fault her husband, especially now, when he knew what she had done?

A thought came to her mind, unbidden. Could she maneuver around to watch? She had never thought herself a voyeur before, but morbid curiosity took her as she slowly shuffled around, trying her hardest not to make a sound. Surely they wouldn’t notice her, as engrossed with each other as they seemed to be?

“Harder,” Sweetie Belle groaned. “It feels better when you thrust harder.”

“Are you sure?” Hondo replied, stopping his thrusts and gazing into her eyes. When she nodded, he rolled her onto her back and began slowly gliding into her, testing her depths. Satisfied that her canal was deep enough he wouldn’t hurt her, he withdrew until only the tip was inside.

“Just tell me if it’s too much,” he cautioned her, before slamming his hips forward.

With his weight behind him now, Sweetie Belle gasped. This was entirely different than the slow, pleasurable strokes her father had been doing moments before. She felt the tip of his rod kiss against the entrance of her womb over and over again as his hips slammed into the cushion of her buttocks, sending her whole body quaking and writhing in indescribable pleasure. Her pussy clamped down on his rod as he pounded away, her first penetrative orgasm milking his rod and begging for the seed her heat so desperately demanded.

What her father had been doing before, she realized, was making love to her. But now? Now he was rutting her - claiming her as his own, and frenetically driving toward a climax that they both so desperately craved. Her clit winked against him repeatedly as his cock battered her insides, and she loved every moment of it.

Hondo wasn’t sure how much longer he would last. He’d thought of this moment so many times before - admittedly, more often with Rarity -- that finally experiencing it in reality was taking him to his peak far faster than he expected. He gazed into Sweetie Belle’s eyes as he pounded into her, fascinated with the deep, sparkling green. He loved the way her curled mane bounced back and forth with each stroke. He loved the way her little gasps and moans left her lips.

“Mmm… Come on, daddy,” Sweetie Belle murmured, hugging her forelegs tightly around her father’s barrel. “Give me your baby.”

Her words pushed Hondo over the precipice, his balls drawing up tightly as his flare exploded outward inside his daughter. He slammed himself into her one last time, hilting her as thick semen spewed forth straight into her fertile womb. “Oh, Sweetie Belle,” he groaned, throbbing and pulsing within her.

A shiver went up Sweetie Belle’s spine as she felt his flare spread her deepest depths wide, and a warming sensation spread through her nethers as his essence spilled into her womb. The spasms of his shaft against her sensitive nether lips combined with the satisfaction of her body’s most basic desire brought her to another peak. Her entire body seemed to explode with pleasure as her marehood gushed out upon the ivory floor.

Cookie watched with rapt attention as her husband impregnated her daughter in front of her very own eyes, her hoof assailing her own marehood with impunity. The sights and sounds of Sweetie Belle’s orgasm brought her to her own peak. Her body shuddered as she, too, came - though without Sweetie Belle’s voluminous gushing.

“You were incredible, Belle,” Hondo murmured. “Thank you.”

His wife continued to grind her hoof against her marehood as she listened to her husband’s words of adoration. This shouldn’t have happened - she shouldn’t have let it happen. Yet it had, and she had to admit that she had enjoyed every moment of it.

Sweetie Belle turned her head and their eyes met. Time seemed to stop - as if two deer had been caught in spotlights, simply staring at each other. Mother and daughter both locked eyes. A warm smile slowly crept across Cookie’s face. Sweetie Belle hesitantly smiled back, a strange sense of relief washing over her.

“Six.” The glowing apparition of Sweetie Belle’s belly appeared.

“Father?!” Rarity shrieked. “How could you!?”

Sweetie Belle and Hondo exchanged a glance.

Sweetie leapt to her father’s defense. “It was my idea,” she shouted.

“Answer verified. Result: Even. Predicted: Even. Matched. Please proceed to the next chamber.”

Rarity glared at Hondo.

“I had little choice, Rarity,” he replied sternly. “I couldn’t live with myself if I had to lose any of you. And that includes your little one.”

Rarity averted her gaze, staring at her own pregnant belly as the door to the next chamber slid open.

The room beyond was much smaller than any of the chambers that had come before, with nothing more than the same set of circles that had sat at each verification door before. The actual door by the circles was the size of any ordinary door, instead of a monumental entryway.

“Welcome to the Chamber of Truth,” Jack uttered.

“The Chamber of Truth?” Cookie asked. “Why does this one have a name?”

“Because it is the only one the master named,” Jack replied, matter-of-factly.

Hondo shrugged and sat down on one of the circles. “Yeah, that doesn’t really answer anything, but we know the drill.”

The rest of the family followed suit. The glowing blue light surrounded each of them for a few seconds, and then promptly faded. The small door opened, revealing a passageway that gently sloped upwards. The sound of birds could be heard, and a glint of sunlight shone down on the ground.

Finally, the temple could be put behind them. They were free.

“So, wait, what did that one verify?” Sweetie Belle wondered aloud.

“The Chamber of Truth shows every time you have ever done something sexual against your will,” Jack replied. “The master would use it to punish those who committed heinous acts against his preferred concubines.”

Hondo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, each one blushing furiously.

Cookie cleared her throat. “I think it’s time to leave.”

The rest of the family agreed, trotting up the ramp and back into the outside world above.

Author's Note

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