//------------------------------//
// Glutton for Punishment 
// Story: Continuing the Dream 
// by Blue Breeze 
//------------------------------//

Author's Note: Just another generic warning, but this one is pretty dark. If you've seen the movie this is based on, you'd know what I mean. Now, on with the story.

Back down in Grim's throne room

Tombstone walks up to Grim, who is sitting in his throne, looking ever more worried. "Sir." Grim doesn't respond. "Sir?" a snoring sound comes from Grim. "SIR!"

"Huh? Uh? What?" Grim says as he looks all around from being woken up suddenly. He rubs his eyes to refocus them on Tombstone. "What is it, Tombstone?!"

"We have just received news that the ponies that are trespassig..." he trails off, worried how his master will react.

"Yes, Tombstone?" Grim asks, leaning in closer.

He gulps. "We have received news that the trespassing ponies have defeated Desire and her forces and are making their way down to the third circle."

Grim sits back in his in his seat. "Is that all? I expected this. So what if they passed the second circle? There are still seven to go, each more terrible and gruesome than the last. Alala should be able to take care of them."

"Um... If you say so, sir."

"Do you doubt my decision, Tombstone?" Grim asks, somewhat annoyed.

Tombstone freezes up. "N-No! Never, sir!"

"Good, now go get me more wine."

"Yes, sir!" he dashes off quixkly, leaving dust behind him.

Grim smirks. "I do so love being evil." he begins to silently laugh to himself.

Graze looks on in anger. He starts thinking to himself. 'Yeah, just keep laughing, flankhole. Your time's gonna be up pretty soon.'

Back to us again

Now we enter upon the third circle of Taurtarus: Gluttony. The circle where those who spend their time doing almost nothing but eating are sent to. I myself eat a LOT of chimicherrychongas, but I seriously doubt I'd be sent here for that. The whole reasoning behind this circle is that those who spend their lives trying to fill something they can't are to be tortured for their entire afterlife.

I seriously don't get what the princesses' beefs are with ponies who eat a lot, but this seems pretty harsh. Oh well.

We walk through the circle, the scenery looking similar to what the inside of a monster may be like. There are puddles everywhere, and the walls are pink and flesh-like.

Rhino shivers. "This place seriously makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, bro." I say. "Let's just keep moving. Sooner we get out of here, the better."

As we walk, we come to a big open area with gargantuan monsters devouring condemned ponies, blood pouring out of their mouths like fountains.

"Could we maybe go a bit faster?" Zephyr says.

"Yes."

As we approach, we come up to a humongous, tentacled beast with mouths at the end of each tentacle, and a slimy hole for a mouth on the largest head. The best uses its tentacle to consume ponies, as well as pull ponies into its largest mouth.

"What the buck is this... abomination of nature?" Rhino asks in shock and disgust.

Looks like it's time for Vine to do more explaining. "The kraken, guardian of the third circle, Gluttony. It's job is to consume passing ponies to forver suffer in its insides."

Ice tries to keep himself from puking. "This is seriously disgusting."

Suddenly, it sends a bunch of its tentacles at us. "And it's seriously dangerous!" Dark shouts. He flies up and cuts one off with a lightning blade.

(Mini-boss: The Kraken. BEGIN!)

The chomping tentacles fly at us droves, ready to grind us to rivets. As one approaches, I do as Dark did and slice it off with a charged wing before firing it off and slicing another one.

Using his Res, Rhino jumps on one and slides down it. Eventually, another goes to bite him, but he jumps off, making the second tentacle bit off the first.

That tentacle open, Ice stomps his hooves, sending  pillar up and straight through it. While he isn't looking, another wraps around him and pulls him off the ground.

Noticing his friend in trouble, Drax flies up and pulls Ice out and puts him on his back. The tentacle comes at them, but Drax catches it and holds it. With a free shot, Ice send some ice shards through the tentacle, making blood spill out all over as it falls.

Orion flies around as a tentacle chase him, avoiding its strong chomps. As they reach a pillar, Orion flies around it in a circle, the tentacle doing the same. It gets stuck, trying to pull itself towards Orion. The only thing this accomplishes though is ripping itself off of its foundation and ending its own life.

Putting his amazing flying skills to use, Zephyr flies away from a pursuing tentacle. He causes the tentacle to fly into a wall at a sharp turn, but it continues chasing him. Leading the tentacle to be in close range, Zephyr flies closer to Vine. With the tentacle now in range, Vine stomps hard, sending a bunch of hard vines to shoot up and stab the tentacle straight through.

The two of them highhoof for a successful plan.

(End battle music)

We gather around, the tentacles that were chasing us all defeated, but the massive monstrosity still standing.

We all stare it down. "We need to take that thing out." Vine says.

Dark cracks his joints. "With pleasure. Just give me a minute and-"

He's cut off as a piercing scream goes off, making us all cover our ears.

"WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT?!" Drax shouts through the scream.

The screaming subsides as a bluish pegasus mare with a bluish-grey tail and no mane lands. She has sharp teeth and eyes that look very faded.


She growls at us. "Grr, ponies sent from Celestia."

I step up, not in any mood for this. "That's right, so you best back off, lady. We're not afraid of you or anything down here."

"I didn't think you would be. But for being ponies from Celestia, you shall pay for her wrong doings against me! You shall be destroyed because of her! FEEL THE WRATH OF ALALA!"

Now not only do we have to deal with the kraken, but now this Alala mare too. Celestia dang it. Quite literally in this case.

(Boss Battle 3: Alala. BEGIN!)

She flies at us, ready to attack. Drax steps and gets in a defensive position. "I've got this."

She flies at him and they push back and forth, hoof to hoof. She actually manages to make Drax slide back a bit, making his forelegs shake a bit as they tussle.

Drax struggles a bit. "I like strong mares, but this is ridiculous."

Alala grabs him by a foreleg and throws him up. Drax looks back to see a tentacle from the kraken just before it knocks him away.

"DRAX!" I shout. I look back at Alala. "You're mine!" I fly forward towards her, intent to put her down. But before I can reach her, she does another scream that causes me to stop.

With me unable to focus, Alala comes in and gives me a strong punch to the face that knocks me back. Vine uses her powers to sprout a vine that catches me just before I fall off a cliff.

She looks back at Alala and makes several vines sprout up that grab her and throw her into a wall. Alala gets back up, looking really angry. She flies at Vine. Vine prepares for a defensive move, but Alala screams, making Vine grab her head.

Though it may look like Alala has a free shot, Zephyr comes in and tackles her out of the way.

Dark tries going in for a move, but is busy dodging tentacles from the kraken. "THIS IS HORSE-APPLES!" he shouts. He slices off another tentacle in anger.

Alala tries getting revenge on Zephyr, but finds him to quick to hit. Zephyr smirks at her. "You can't catch me! You can't catch me!"

Frustrated, Alala gives another scream that stops him. She grabs him and drags him along the ground as she flies low.

"Oh no you don't!" Ice shouts. Before he can go in to stop her, a tentacle strikes infront of him. He looks at the kraken in anger. "I've had just about enough of you!" He looks at the others. "Orion! Dark! I'm gonna need some help here!"

"You bet! I'm sick of these things!" Dark shouts.

"Tell me about it!" Orion says.

"Alright. Orion, you carry me in close! Dark, you hold off oncoming tentacles as we fly in!"

"Got it!" they both say.

Orion goes over and carries Ice under him as they fly. Dark stays close to them, watching for any threats.

Over on our end, Rhino uses his Res to raise the friction on Zephyr and make Alala stop. She tries moving him, but is unable to.

With an open target, I fly over and give her a good Hurricane Hoof to the side, making her help in pain and sending her away.

Shee stands up and goes for another scream, but Vine uses a vine to silence her. "That's quite enough of that." she says smugly.

Alala distracted, Drax goes in and punches her, sending her back more. Before she can even get fully back up, Zephyr goes in and bucks her.

"That's for shoving my face into the ground!" he shouts.

In the air

Orion carries Ice towards the kraken, Dark occasionally blasting or slicing an oncoming tentacle. As they get closer, Ice properly prepares his shot at the creatures mouth.

"Okay, this is good! Stop here!" they stop flying as ordered. Ice's horns giving off an immense amount of fog as he starts forming a giant ice shard. Once it's done forming, he gets ready to shoot it. "Okay, let me go!"

"WHAT?!" they both shout.

"JUST DO IT!" Orion lets him go onto the shard. Ice fires it directly at the mouth, going straight through to the creature's insides.

Orion and Dark both stare down in disbelief at what had just happened. "ICE!"

Inside the kraken

Ice gets up, having fallen down upon entry. He rubs his head. "Okay, not one of my better ideas."

He looks around, seeing many poor souls swimming in pools of some kind of fluid from the kraken, looking incredibly thin and hungry.

Ice looks more and notices a giant, black, fleshy orb. He smiles as he gets an idea. "That looks important."

He stomps his hooves, making an ice pillar shoot through the orb, making blood spill out from it and everywhere else inside.

Back outside

Dark glares angrily at the kraken and charges some grenades in his hooves. "You're gonna pay for eating my friend!"

Before he can throw his explosives, blood starts pouring from all of its mouths as it thrashes around in pain. Inside of the flowing blood, Ice comes outside of the creature's belly, messy, but unharmed.

Orion and Dark fly down to meet their still living friend. "Nice going, Ice! You did it!" Orion sheers.

Ice shakes his head. "Remind me never do THAT again."

While all of that had been happening, Alala was still where Zephyr had bucked her to. Before she went in for another attack, she hears a roar behind her, making her look back to see a tentacle from the fallling kraken collapsing towards her.

She tries to fly away, but Rhino uses Res again to keep her in place. "You're not going anywhere."

Unable to get away, the tentacle falls on Alala, knocking her out.

(End battle music)

Dark, Ice, and Orion all come back over to join us, looking accomplished. Well, Ice looks grossed out.

"Nice going on the kraken, guys." I congradulate. "How'd you do it?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Ice says.

"But-"

"NO!" he screams.

Vine goes over to Alala, examining her. "Okay, she's still alive, and luckily this tentacle is great for making sure she stays down."

"Better make sure to tie her mouth up too." Rhino says.

"Right." she summons a small vine and wraps it around Alala's muzzle, making sure she can no longer scream.

"So, now what?" Zephyr says.

I look around for our next path to travel. The only thing I see is a deep pit off the side of a cliff. I sigh. "Well, looks like down is our only option here."

Not having any other options, we descend down the extremely deep pit, on our way to our next challenge.

One third of this place done. Only two more to go.

Author's Note: Alla comes from Gutter_Cat. So, what do you guys think of the fight? I personally think it's one of my best fights so far.