Area: Forgotten Factory
Year: 1944

As Scootaloo and her friends exitted the portal into the pony zone, a robot was activating on the top floor, her green eyes starting to eluminate the area.

SWEETIE BOT MODEL 4628491HF NOW ACTIVE.

INTRUDERS DETECTED AT FACTORY ENTRANCE.

ISSUING DISPATCH TEAM...

DISPATCH ISSUED.

Sweetie Bot's white titanium coat and titanium steel dual pink and purple mane and tail shine in the slowly activating lights of the factory.

CHECKING AMMO SUPPLIES...

AMMO RESERVES STACKED. BACK-UPS FULL.

Scootaloo looked at Jonathan and Charlotte, both of whom were ponies here since of course they were, and sighed. "Well great, our health is back to slabs meaning my hypothesis was correct, the four paintings we have to go through are harder versions of the ones we've already gone through. This one is 1691 Castlevania but I can tell it's been repurposed as a factory for robots and if my hypothesis is entirely correct, seems like we'll need to go to the top of the castle this time," Scootaloo stated, causing Charlotte and Jonathan to groan at the implications.

Entering the castle, one of the first enemies they find is the replacement for the zombies of the original castle. They have laser beams, good to know. Going through the area they find where Scootaloo had helped them skip ahead to find that there's now no way to skip going downwards. Going down revealed that there are water resistant robots here but they were easy enough to kill as the group moved forward and went up to where they would have been if Scootaloo was able to bring them here. Going forwards obe room revealed that the room was repurposed for dispatching robots through the factory but without a key card to the specific area, you could not skip ahead.

Right before the exit to this area was the area boss, a robotic bat acting as an observation system. The bat screeched to alert whatever undispatched bots that Scootaloo and friends had arrived... silly bat, you were toast the moment Scootaloo and friends entered the room. Jonathan used Death Mercury to whip the bat into submission. Or so it seemed. Scootaloo noticed that the observation bat was getting 16 new slabs of health as it reactived with just straight up guns on its sides.

REQUESTING WEAPONS PERMISSION...

PERMISSION GRANTED BY ADMIN ACCOUNT.

The bat screeched as its guns fired at the group. "Okay, what the hell do we do now? I don't think we can get close enough to use axes if we wanted," Jonathan stated while avoiding gun shots.

Scootaloo sighed as she grabbed the axe, she got it from a candle in this place, and chucked it at the bat, drawing it's attention and then Jonathan attacked, then Scootaloo, then Jonathan, until the bat was dead. No magic crystal spawned. "That's weird, a magic crystal usually spawns after we defeat a boss," Charlotte stated as if everyone didn't already know that.

"Trust me, I'm used to oddities, Cielo Soleado, or Princess Celestia, is one of my best friends along with Alucard, Shanoa, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow motherfucking Crash, or Rainbow Dash if you want to use her given name. Oddities are just normal for me." Scootaloo stated while dropping Celestia's legal name as Cielo Soleado.

The group moved forward, finding a warp room and then moving to the tower which, aside from the enemies being more robotic and artifical versions of the normal enemies, and the end was where things started to differ from the original. The boss was a red robotic pony made from carbon steel and a cutie mark of a M95 rifle painted right on the robot. Interestingly, the cutie mark is only on one side of the robot instead of both sides like ponies actually have. The bot held up a small pistol and shot, seeming to be missing a voicebox. "Hey! What the hell was that for?!" Jonathan yelled out.

"Seemed like it was giving us a warning shot with that pistol," Charlotte commented.

"Whatever it was doing, we need to kill it!" Scootaloo pointed out as she used a vial of Holy Water to deal massive damage to it. Hot Shot basically acted as if it wasn't hit by Holy Water. Great. Just great.

Hot Shot shot its pistol at Charlotte, who dodged just in the nick of time, before opening a compartment on the side without a cutie mark to reveal a built in M95 rifle. It fired the rifle before putting it away. Scootaloo was not pleased.

More Holy Water and the boss was done... until it regained those 16 slabs of health and the PA system turned on in the room.

ACTIVATING WEAPON SYSTEMS FOR HOT SHOT MODEL 537Q547HF

DISABLING VOICEBOX LOCK ON HOT SHOT MODEL 537Q47HF

Hot Shot's mouth opened as words as robotic as it is came out. "Finally... my voice has returned... now to eliminate the intruders for the admin!" Hot Shot said, its rifle coming out as well as a Gatling gun sort of weapon, "Rifle ammo reserves stocked, Minigun reserves overflowed."

"Well... this is not good," Charlotte said as she avoided a stream of bullets from the minigun. Charlotte basically said "Hey could I be used as a distraction while Scootaloo and Jonthan deal damage?" And life agreed.

16 slabs of health later and Hot Shot freaks out before short-curcuiting and allowing the group to move forward.

The outer wall area however... "Okay, who's bright idea was to place fucking spikes out here?!" Jonathan announced after he noticed the sheer number of spikes.

"None of us will ever know..." Scootaloo replied as she and Charlotte mutually agreed it was better to just ignore the odd spikes and move forward.

Reaching the end revealed a battle against... a cat. Like, no joke, just a normal ass cat. Scootaloo and friends proceeded to beat the everloving shit out of the cat. Oh wait... it's a bomb... wait... IT'S A BOMB! Scootaloo, Charlotte, and Jonathan ran away from the cat after coming to that realization. It blew up not long after.

Going forward proved they had to go back down and then complete the underground segment before getting back to the surface to slowly reach the area where the boss was. The boss looked to be using a bunch of scraps to make itself up as every part of it is different. It lifted a hoof and slammed it on the wall, causing debris to fall from the ceiling. Afterwards it fell to the use of Holy Water and opened the way forward.

Moving forward shows the group in a clock tower. Gears turning, drones droping bombs in the entire place, and spikes. This was more believable however since the Tower of Death had spikes. Also the first instance of Skeletons in this damn place, nice.

Beating the enemies eventually brought the group to a boss arena. This time it's a more "general purpose" bot. It came into the room, cleaning up the mess the remained before looking to the trio of heroes.

DISPATCH FAILED.

GENRO IN PASSIVE MODE.

ADMIN ACCOUNT REMOTELY DISABLED PASSIVE MODE.

ACTIVE WEAPON SYSTEMS.

As the heroes listened to the bot switch from its passive mode to the newly coined vicious mode. Shame Genro is not very smart to account for Holy Water. Genro fired three sets of three missiles which the group either deflected or destroyed with ease. Attacking Genro was far from easy. Genro fired a laser from its mouth, forcing the trio to jump away.

"Good to know Genro has fucking laser beams!" Scootaloo said as she remembered Portrait Pony's laser beam.

Scootaloo tossed some Holy Water and hit Genro taking... one slab per 3 seconds. So basically one slab per Holy Water. Thank God Holy Water stunlocks Genro. So, you know. Genro was stunlocked and fell over. Shorted out.

Exiting the clock tower area, the group arrived on a long bridge with a bunch of the observational Giant Bats but it wasn't that bad. Past the bridge was a much more obviously mechanical part of the castle, many many many more gears than the clock tower as if this was once the clock tower of the castle. There way too many of the bomber drones in the area but it didn't take long to reach the end where a staircase was all that remained.

"This is familiar. A lone staircase to the throne room," Scootaloo commented. Jonathan and Charlotte start climbing up, Scootaloo following shortly after. Reaching the top, the group sees... Sweetie Belle?

DISPATCH FAILED.

HOW COULD... DISPATCH FAIL?

ORGANIC LIFE IS OBSOLETE.

RUNNING DATA ANALYSIS...

ERROR. INTERFERENCE DETECTED.

MECHANICAL LIFE SHOULD BE PERFECT.

"Yeah well you clearly didn't account for sheer strength, did ya you mechanized thing."

...NO.

ORGANIC LIFE IS WEAK.

SWEETIE BOT MODEL 4628491HF IS STRONG.

"Before we start this battle, I noticed that both you and Hot Shot have "HF" in your model numbers right at the end... does that... mean something?"

HF IS A MONIKER.

SWEETIE BOT KNOWS NOT WHAT HF MEANS IF HF MEANS ANYTHING.

Sweetie Bot shot many many missles as its first attack. All the missles having an ominous H on them. They destroyed the missles before they could do any damage and rushed at Sweetie Bot, taking off three slabs per attack, three attacks were got off before Sweetie Bot rebounded them off and restarted attacking with the missles and teleporting meanwhile.

LAUNCH "Laugh_Track.MP3".

... FILE MISSING.

Scootaloo used the opportunity to hit Sweetie Bot's moment of slowdown, with Jonathan and Charlotte joining in the beat down and Sweetie Bot fell.

HOW DID SWEETIE BOT... LOSE?

ORGANIC LIFE SHOULD ONLY COMPUTE IMPERFECTION...

HOW DID ORGANIC LIFE DEFEAT SWEETIE BOT?

"Because we build off of each other's imperfections, us "organic life" aren't perfect but we don't have to be with friendship at our side."

"Yeah, Jonathan and Scootaloo may not be the brightest sometimes but I'm here to get them on the right path and they are there to help me with anything my magic cannot."

"And then there's me. I'm a "jack of all trades" sort of thing. Sure, on my own I'm powerful enough to defeat many things but I'm no master at anything. Charlotte and Jonathan pick up my slack in their own unique and childish ways. You have limits too, Sweetie Bot. You can only do what the code allows you to and with what materials and files you have. Nothing's perfect."

... NOTHING'S... PERFECT?

A magic crystal fell, Charlotte grabbed it and received a key card allowing the group to go to any area through the teleporter.

MAYHAPS... YOU MIGHT BRING SWEETIE BOT ALONG?

Scootaloo nodded as the group of now four left the top floor.

Area: Master's Keep
Year: 1944

The group exits the portrait and find both Wind and Rainbow Dash looking at the group. "Why is a robot among you?" Wind asked.

SWEETIE BOT REQUIRED LEAVING.

SWEETIE BOT MODEL 4628491HF IS ACTIVE.

Wind and Rainbow Dash reacted in a confused manner at how Sweetie Bot spoke... before Rainbow Dash looked happy. "Well I ain't complaning, Twi will be eager to research you, Sweetie Bot, but it should be fast," Rainbow Dash said to Sweetie Bot. Jonathan and Charlotte spent some time talking with Wind, Stella, and Loretta, while Scootaloo sat alone, content to let others enjoy the brief break before the move on to the desert portrait.

"You seem to be alone, something on your mind, Scootaloo?" Silent Night said after having a seat next to Scootaloo.

"Well... yes and no. Yes, in that I'm... concerned about that darkness you all told me about... what is the likelihood it returns? What even is it? A wraith? Dark magic? A demon? So many questions about it, no answers. But I'm not letting it slow me down, we have a vampire and changeling admiral to defeat, after all."

"Blood Rush is an interesting topic, all I can say is... be on the lookout for your darkness rising."

"You make it sound easy..." Scootaloo looked as Jonathan and Charlotte were waiting for her to finish her thought. Scootaloo stood up and trotted to the portrait.

Area: Forgotten City
Year: 1944

Scootaloo looked at pony Jonathan and Charlotte in the desert sands. "We should be out of a pony zone when we reach the pyramid... speaking of it... where the hell is it?" Scootaloo commented as she looked around and only noticed the Sphinx as she and the others trotted forward. They found mummies and Devil wheels and even a Dodo bird which they killed for a Heart Brooch.

Then they reached an area with a massive pile of sand. Scootaloo knew what to do, she trotted to the top and the pile went downwards before the massive creature called Poison Worm appeared. Against a three pony assalt though... it stood no chance.

Going down the hole, Jonathan and Charlotte looked at each other and smiled, they were humans again.

Going deeper and they entered what once was the boss room for Astarte, now a lady was just sitting in a chair. The lady had a red dress, black hair, and a golden headband. Attacking her causes her to drop the facade as she reveals a black one piece suit, cat-like ears, and big ol' boots. She really isn't hot stuff.

Scootaloo went towards the save and warp rooms while Charlotte and Jonathan went their own way. Scootaloo found the area was still about the same shape, even down to the door that was sealed shut. Scootaloo teleported behind the door and opened it before continuing to explore the area. Finding nothing of note so she went down the shoot and found a boss door where a Persephone once was and a save room right above it.

Scootaloo wasted time while waiting for Jonathan and Charlotte. And by that, she was planning for whenever Sweetie Belle would attack Equestria on her own. Scootaloo also had plans to make for 1999, she was in charge of making sure Equestria was well equipped and prepared enough to fight and defeat Dracula and his legions of evil. All in all, Scootaloo will be very busy during these moments of lonesomeness and after the adventure.

Jonathan and Charlotte got here a while ago and Scootaloo failed to notice them while she was in her thoughts. "Hello, Earth to Scootaloo, you there?" Jonathan asked while waving a hand in front of Scootaloo's face, getting the mare out of her thoughts.

"Yeah yeah, I'm here, Morris. Man, we're getting so close to the end of this journey that I'm actually planning for my future battles." Scootaloo stood up, and all three opened the boss door.

Upon entering the boss room, a foe that seemed oh so familiar appeared. The Mummy Man. And the Mummy Man had Equestrian magic, so this should be an interesting fight.

The Mummy Man started by attempting to trap the trio with blocks but they just jumped to get over the blocks then they attacked the Mummy Man, Death Mercury pulled on Jonathan's friendship with Charlotte to coat itself in fire for a moment. Scootaloo used Hellfire to deal damage to the Mummy Man who started glowing before turning into a mummified alicorn.

"Of course... a mummified royal corpse turns into a mummified alicorn. This is predictable," Scootaloo said as she dodged being buried in sand by the magic of the Mummy Man while Charlotte charged and activated Raging Fire which the Mummy Man did resist slightly better now that it was an alicorn but... it was still weak as hell to fire. It fell and Scootaloo left with her friends to go save.

Author's Note

Bosses Defeated: Observation Bat, Hot Shot, Exploding Kitten, Scrap Collector, Genro, Sweetie Bot, Mummy Man.

Time to finally do this.

Jonathan and Charlotte's pony forms are inspired by Portraits and Chaos. Yes, the Portrait of Ruin characters' pony forms are inspired by a post-Portrait of Ruin story.

For those wondering why Celestia is called Cielo Soleado, it's because that's her "legal" name in a story about a certain human-turned-pony named Source Code and I liked the name so I decided "fuck it" and used it.

So... I know Miniguns weren't invented till the 1960's yet Hot Shot has one. Reason? Because I fuckin' said so! Nah, Abandoned Factory is in the future(metaphorically, not literally) so it'd obviously have some weapons and items not even invented yet.

Hey! You, yeah you! Quick question... would you be interested in a short story based on Harmony of Despair, that one multiplayer Castlevania game that everyone pretty much forgot about? You know, the only Castlevania game with fucking Getsu Fuma as a playable character and the only game where Soma Cruz can use Dark Inferno by claiming dominance of Dracula's soul. Yeah, that game. Oh, don't worry, if I do it, it'll be completely non-canon to this so if you read it, it's completely your choice, no lore will be added through that story that wasn't already added through Grimoire of Souls being canon to this story(in the future). Fair warning, just like what happened with Order of Ecclesia, I haven't played Harmony of Despair so, while that game already took many creative liberties, I will have to take creative liberties to not only work Scoots into it, but also add content in an accurate way so Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom don't just *plop* in from left field. Also, starting that story can happen at really anytime(minus during this arc and during the next arc since Castlemania will have segments of it) and it may give ya'll a feel of how I'll write Soma Cruz in this story.