//------------------------------// // Light It Up // Story: Continuing the Dream // by Blue Breeze //------------------------------// Author's Note: ...Seriously? What is this still doing here? *whispers* Since the FCC demanded I put them here? Since when do I answer to them? *whispers* Oh... that's when. Hehehe. Anyway, on with the story. Hehehe... PLEASE DON'T CANCEL ME! Grim clutches the arms of his chair very tightly, putting cracks in them. "This cannot be happening." he grabs his head as it starts shaking. "This cannot be happening!" Graze chuckles at seeing Grim. "Oh, believe me, it's happening. They're on their way here, they're gonna free me, we're gonna kick your sorry flank, and then we're all going to go home." Grim growls angrily. "Not if I have anything to say about it! TOMBSTONE!" The grey, nervous earth pony quickly rushes in at the call of his master. "Yes, sir?" "Go get Glare ready. I'll be damned if I'm going to let those ponies reach down here." Grim does a quick salute. "I'm on it, sir!" he quickly dashes off and through the doors. Grim puts his hooves together as he scowls. "Glare better not fail me." "Oh, getting cold hooves, are we?" Graze taunts. "Not at all. I'd just hate to get my hooves dirty by squashing bugs." Graze waves him off. "Yeah yeah, keep acting tough. You're finished and you know it. There's no way these guys are going to lose after coming so far." "That's the thing about Taurtarus, every floor is harder than the last. Just because they got this far, doesn't mean they can't lose." "You wanna make a bet on that?" "Sure, I win then you die. You win then you'll still die from me." Grim starts laughing too himself. Graze just gives him a blank look. "Geez, what a flankhole." Up above After having taken care of Ignis, we had gotten Ciel and flew over to the side of the bridge opposite to where we came from. I could've swore after we left that I heard a loud, agonizing scream. Sounded kinda like Ignis. Understandable considering what Drax did to him. Anyway, on the opposite side of the bridge, we found this deep, dark, and damp cave that leads down wards to the next and final circle: Betrayal, the worst of all sins. Betrayal is for those who betray someone close to them like a friend, family member, or lover. Luckily Summer was the one who kissed me, so I don't have to worry about coming down here myself. This circle is also the residing place over Taurtarus' watcher, Grim Blade. Man, I can't wait to take him down for putting us through this. As we walk through the cave, there isn't much in the way of visibility. Even while squinting, I can barely see anything. "It's so dark in here." I say. "Yeah, I can't see a thing." Zeph says. "Ow." Vine says. "Watch it! That's my tail." "Oops. Sorry, Vine." Drax says. "This is even darker than all of those caves I've been in>" Orion says. "Agreed." Ice agrees(...no comment). "I could try to light it up with my horn." Rhino says. "Nah, I'll do it." Dark says. He starts making sparks come off of his hooves before they start glowing brightly. As the room illuminates, we see many ponies stuck to the walls, unable to move any parts of their bodies. "Woah, that's creepy." "Vine?" I say, knowing where to get the answer from. "We're not quite at the final circle yet. We're at the junction between the last two circle. This place is used as a holding ground for ponies who go to Betrayal, whom Grim Blade likes to deal with personally." "Sick buck." "You have no idea. And he and the ones before him have been doing this for millenia. Imagine the billions of ponies, griffons, mules, and diamond dogs alike who have come through here to suffer endless torture." "I'd really prefer not to." Rhino says. "Normally I'm one for this kinda gross and creepy stuff, but being caught in the middle of it just gives me a horrible feeling." Dark says. "Then I guess you can call it grimdark." I joke. All of them facehoof at the bad pun. "I swear, Blue. Your puns are getting worse and worse." Ice says. "You guys know you love me." "Which is lucky for you, or I would've broke you a long time ago." Drax says. "Let's just go. We're only another half mile away from the bottom floor." Vine says as she starts trotting away. "Since we're technically not in a circle anymore, that means we shouldn't need to worry about anymore ponies trying to jump us, right?" Orion says with a hopeful smile. "Seems legit." Zeph says. I just know that this will not end well. Just a feeling I have, and as you may know, these feelings are usually write. We start continuing through the cave when we suddenly see a light off in the distance. "What is that?" Rhino asks worriedly. "Light Lazer!" a voice screams. A beam of light comes from the direction of the voice and comes towards us at the speed of, well, light. I quickly charge my wings and push the others out of the way, using my wings to redirect the beam to hit the ceiling. I glare back at Zeph and Orion. "What did I say before?" Both of them droop their ears. "Sorry." "Okay, we'll give you two seconds to show yourself!" Dark threatens. From the shadows out steps a bright yellow pegasus stallion with a wjite mane and tail with darker yellow highlights in them. The stallion is glowing radiantly, lighting up the area around him. In all honestly, he's probably the most normal looking pony we've come across in this entire place. "The trespassers Tombstone and Lord Grim Blade warned me about." I sigh before taking out a notepad and a pencil. "Name please?" He looks at m as if I have a mental issue, which is a big possibility. "W-What?" "Name please? I'm trying to add you to the list." "Um... it's Glare." "Glare." I say as I write it down. I put the notepad and pencil away. "Thank you. Please procede." He snaps out of his confusion as he starts getting enraged at us. He stomps his hooves down. "Idiots! How you got passed the other eight circles with your lives I'll never know." "That's easy. Ten percent luck." "Twenty percent skill." Dark joins in. "Fifteen percent concentrated power of will." Zephyr continues. "Five percent pleasure." Vine says. "Fifty percent pain." Drax says. "And a hundred percent reason to remember the name." the others finish. Now Glare looks at all us, utterly confused by it all. He snaps out of it as he starts gritting his teeth. "Enough of this foolishness! Now you shall feel my wrath!" he starts glowing incredibly bright as he stands on his back legs and summons two twin swords of light. This should be fun. And I'm totally not being sarcastic at all. (Boss Battle 9: Glare. BEGIN!) He comes charging at us, blades ready. Dark and I each intercept him with our own blades as we start a two on one match. From what I can tell this close up, he's nearly as strong as Drax, making him able to go against the both of us with ease. While Glare is backing up from our duel onslaught of attacks, Rhino uses his Res to make him slip and fall back. Thinking we have an opening, we jump up, but Glare uses a flash attack that blinds us while midair. With us stunned, Glare bucks us both down to the ground. Vine tries sending a number of vines after him, slowly pushing him back. Similar to how we dealt with Alloy, Zephyr flies low and behind Glare, tripping him up. With a free hit available to him, Ice stomps his hooves, making a pillar shoot up and send Glare against the ceiling. Once the pillar breaks, Glare goes limp to the ground. As he gets back up, he fires several beams of light from his hooves to push us back. Using a spare minute to prepare for the fight, Glare summons up a bunch of light that takes shape into armor around his body. Drax decides to take charge and go in after him. He goes in for some punxhes on him, but the armor blocks the blunt force of the blows. lare creates a sword of light and swings it, but Drax catches it in his hooves. He tries breaking it, but the solid light is too strong for him. As it seems like Glare is going to cleave him in half, Orion comes crashing into Glare, breaking the sword and armor and sending him back. Orion starts circling around Glare, swirling his black star streak around him in a big circle. As the streak continues going around, Glare is swallowed into the ever growing darkness from the streak. "Pfft, is this the best you can do?!" Glare calls out. He tries to create more light from his hooves, but nothing illuminates. "This isn't just darkness, it's... advanced darkness." "Yep, and don't you forget it!" Orion yells as he comes in in the circle. He goes in fast and crashes into Glare, sending crashing hard into a wall. Getting angry, Glare starts shooting off beams of light like mad. Some of the loose crystals in the cave start acting like mirrors as the beams bounce off of them and all around. A beam ricochets and hits Dark, making him fall back. As Dark gets back up, he creates a greanade and chucks it into the open out of anger. Instead of trying to dodge, Glare begins charging up a beam in his hooves. The beam absorbs the grenade, making it grow in size. "Uh oh." Dark says. Glare smirks. "Uh oh is right." he throws his forelegs forward, making the beam shoot out. "SOLAR BEAM!" Hearing the name of the attack, Vine smirks. "Solar, eh?" she takes a step forward. "Allow me to handle this, boys." She summons a small vinus flytrap out infront of us. I raise an eyebrow at it. "This is something I've been working on for a while. Remember when you killed my last pet, Rosebud?" she asks the last part a bit bitterly. I give a nervous chuckle as I rub the back of my head. "Uh, yeah." "Well, meet Rosebud the second." Ciel looks at Vine a bit worriedly. Vine rubs its head comfortably. "Don't worry, Ciel. You're still gonna get plenty of attention from me." As the beam nears, Rosebud simply absorbs it into its body. Glare's eyes go wide. "WHAT?!" With the new source of great energy, Rosebud starts growing incredibly large, reaching right up to the cave ceiling. Glare starts taking steps back as the plant licks its lips. "N-Nice venus flytrap. G-Good venus flytrap." He tries to run away from it, but the plant grabs him by the tail and smirks before throwing it inside and chewing him up a bit. "No! Bad Rosebud!" Vine shouts. "We need him alive! Spit him out!" Rosebud groans a bit before reluctantly spitting him out. Vine pets the plant a bit. "Good Rosebud two. That's a good venus flytrap." With its job finished, Rosebud goes back into the ground to fight another day. (End battle music) Glare groans on the ground, being covered in pain, bite marks, and plant spit. Gross. I know what it's like inside there, and it isn't pleasant in the least. We all gather around Glare, him now defeated and barely conscious. He mumbles a bit, but it's inaudible to us. "Vine, if you will." I say. "With pleasure, Blue." she says. Her hooves glow as a dozen vines pop out and wrap themselves around Glare's near motionless body. Him defeated, we look out into the cave with serious faces. "You guys ready for this?" I ask. We all exchange determined glances and give silent nods. "Then let's do this!" We all cherr before running down the halls of the cave, on our way to the final circle, Grim BLade, and Razor Graze. Just one more circle. I know we can do it! Author's Note: Glare comes from Flutterkiin a.k.a. Buff. ...I've got nothing clever to say, so I'm just gonna cut it off here.