Area: City of Haze
Year: 1944

Scootaloo stared at the statue as she thought about the occurence that happened just now...

A death memory... I need to tell Jonathan and Charlotte. Scootaloo thought in a new found resolve. She exittled the save room to find Jonathan killing a Slinger skeleton with a smile on his face. Shame Scootaloo's about to ruin that smile. "Jonathan, Charlotte. If we aren't careful, the first boss we'll fight will kill us. It's Dullahan and from what my memory tells me, we'll only be able to damage the torso. Only thing I can really recommend is to not just rush face first into him and use the opportunities to learn his moves and dodge accordingly," As Scootaloo finished apeaking, Jonathan made it clear that he wasn't happy his usual style wasn't going to be happening. Still, it was good information none-the-less.

Going up, the trio found and defeated some Mini-Devils. One having dropped a tonic, a sort of crimson liquid and the first one Scootaloo saw, which would be helpful if Scootaloo or Charlotte needed an MP refill. Then they saw the boss door, its shining red gem just as familiar as before. Scootaloo approaches the door and finds that there's a second sensor as if this door only opens with the input from two people.

Charlotte seemed to realize the situation and approached the boss door to help Scootaloo open it before the whole trio entered to find the Dullahan.

If the number of floating platforms and giant ass suit of armor didn't give away Dullahan's size, the fact that his head has to float up towards the suit of armor's opening, did. Scootaloo smirked at the fact that this be a challenge for once. "Charlotte, use your magic spells from a distance and Jonathan, you keep your distance as well, no use getting close if any hit could be your last without this monster dying," Scootaloo said as she basically just reiterated "Don't get hit."

Scootaloo took the time to use Hellfire despite the heavy strain using it causes her with her low maximum MP. Jonathan rushed forward and used his whip to deal distanced damage as he and Charlotte looked at each other and did a Dual Crush where they summoned some Holy Lightning to deal a lot of damage to Dullahan. Safe to say this developement gave Scootaloo a bit of interest for Jonathan Morris and Charlotte... she just realized she never learned Charlotte's last name. Scootaloo'd have to ask about that later when they had the opportunity because now was not the time.

Scootaloo got to her hooves and smirked, she got a little close and threw two vials of Holy Water down with their expanding flame paths which dealt lots of damage to Dullahan and with Scootaloo and the others ensuring his head can't be put back on his armor, whatever that'd do, it was unlikely that Dullahan could kill them this time because of their familiarity with Dullahan's attacks. But then something changed. Scootaloo didn't expect for Dullahan to suddenly change his base species to a unicorn, that shouldn't have been possible as no amount of magic can do something that crazy. No amount of normal magic, for all intents and purposes.

Yet Dullahan had done it and now his attacks were much worst as he now had the ability to shoot hard magic at the group. "What just happened?" Jonathan asked as everyone avoid the onslaught of attacks from Dullahan.

"It would seem that the monster reconstructed its molecular structure to make this battle harder," Charlotte said in her knowledgable words.

"In simpler words for you, Jonathan, it just transformed," Scootaloo said matter-of-factly. As Dullahan's body went for a lunge at the group, Scootaloo and her friends jumped to the side and tried to attack the body only to realize that... "Shit... it moved the weak point to the head," Scootaloo explained causing everyone to groan.

Safe to say no one was having a fun time chasing after the head, hitting it a few times, then having to run off because the body's trying to skewer them. But it did end after a long while and when Dullahan died a small red orb was left in the place of the body, all three touched it but nothing happened so Scootaloo got out a container and just decided to store the orb thing for later.

"Okay, we just defeated the monster that seemed to be the core of the magic energy," Charlotte commented.

"Does that mean that Brauner can't use the castle's magic now?" Jonathan asked.

"Not entirely. His hold over the castle's magic has indeed decreased but by how much proves... troublesome. It's only decreased a small amount, the magical flow is still out of wack in the castle," Scootaloo explained.

Jonathan didn't look happy at the fact that they did chip work pretty much, and a mysterious lady appearing didn't help much help much. "My, oh, my... I knew I smelled something. Seems like some maggots got inside," she said, confusing everyone.

Jonathan gripped his whip as she showed a sigh of surprise, "A vampire!" He said as he seemed really to fight but Scootaloo put her hoof up to stop him from being rash.

"My, my, such attitude... you dare disrespect someone of my caliber? I am a LADY! Lady Loretta," The mysterious lady, Loretta, said, "As the chicken said, your battle may have weakened us a bit, but I have some tragic news for you... this wasn't the only one of my father's paintings," she added as Scootaloo felt a vein poke through her head at being called a chicken by Loretta.

"I know, I could tell based on the flow of magical energy in conjection to the fact that Brauner's power only weakened a little," Charlotte explained as Loretta laughs.

"Heh-heh-heh... how amusing that this child fancies herself an adult," Loretta said, much at Charlotte's dismay.

"Charlotte, Scootaloo, let's take her!" Jonathan said which Scootaloo and Charlotte instantly agreed with. Jonathan rushes and attempts to strike Loretta with the Vampire Killer... but he freezes and even he's surprised, "The whip!" He says, surprise clear in his voice.

"No way... is that Infirmitas being used by Loretta? That shouldn't be possible though..." Scootaloo said to herself.

"Jonathan, what are you doing?!" Charlotte said in extra clear surprise.

"Unforunately, I have strict orders not to fight you three, now if you'll excuse me," Loretta says as she vanishes right in front of them, leaving the trio with more questions that answers. But first, Scootaloo switched to her Shanoa-like attire and used Infirmitas to undo what Loretta did to Jonathan.

"Like I thought, Loretta used a version of Infirmitas on you, Jonathan, that's why you stopped attacking," Scootaloo commented as Charlotte had a question to ask.

"Isn't Infirmitas latin for Infirmary?" Charlotte asked as Scootaloo nodded.

"Yes but it's also a latin word for Helpless, hence why it made Jonathan unable to attack, it made him helpless," Scootaloo replied as she went back to her usual attire, "The fact of the matter is that we must keep an eye out for Brauner or Loretta now, as well as these paintings since they might hold secrets and upgrades for us," she added as Jonathan recovered from his temperary daze and they moved on from this room.

They find a cube which was also with a broken version of Scootaloo's artifical wings, "What did Death do to my Artifical Wings!?!?" Scootaloo exclaimed in horror at seeing her prized possession ruined like that.

Jonathan and Charlotte felt sorry for the filly who just seemed sad at the destruction of those artifical wings. Scootaloo collected them anyways and jumped seeing her increased jump height, and she moved towards Charlotte and lept off her shoulders to a platform Jonathan and Charlotte couldn't have reached by themselves. Charlotte was annoyed at Scootaloo using her like a footstool. It was bad enough that Jonathan had to do so as well.

A bit of exploring and they found a piece of nun's attire and moved on. They eventually found another cube, the Push Cube, that made Jonathan and Charlotte stronger when pushing together. Scootaloo helped just to speed things up. "Hey Charlotte, mind if I ask you a question?" Scootaloo asked when they finished pushing the carriage and worked their way back to the exit while collecting helpful items.

"Go ahead, Scootaloo," Charlotte replied.

"What's your last name?"

"My full name is Charlotte Aulin, why do you ask?"

"Wanted to know that fact. Plus, I think it's good to know as much as you can about allies since they can make or break a battle." Scootaloo said dismissively and trotted forward a bit faster, leaving Charlotte to think as they went towards the exit to go and return to Dracula's castle.

Author's Note

Bosses beaten: Dullahan

Relic(s) acquired: Acrobat Cube(Allows Charlotte or Jonathan to leap off the other's shoulders), Broken Wings(Increases Scootaloo's jump height and allows jumping off her friends' shoulders), Push Cube(Increase pushing strength by pushing as a team)

Unknown Items obtained: Red orb thingy(Dullahan Soul)

A bit shorter than more recent main chapters. My bad. This one was mainly focused on shpwing how different this adventure will be in terms of progression. But at least Scootaloo got her Artificial wings back, albeit broken. Whoops.

Also, for those wondering, yes. I did a Sorrow games reference and bought the recently released Dominus Collection and am loving it! Beat Malphas in Dawn today to refresh my memory of Dawn. Plan to eventually play Portrait and Ecclesia which, fun fact, is my first time playing any of the DSvanias on officially licensed hardware so... ye. :3

Also, Dracula is going to be peeved by the end of the story, I can assure you.