Chapter Zero: Prologue
“ Hey Smolder, look at that tree over there.”
Smolder, a small orange dragon with deep magenta spikes, looked over to where Gallus the blue griffin flying next to her had pointed. It was a wide patch of grass in the middle of the vast tree canopy of the Everfree forest, and in the center of it was a lone giant dead tree. She looked back at Gallus and gave him a deadpanned look, unamused at his irrelevant discovery.
“ Seriously Gallus? We’re looking for a place to hide, not just some random dead tree.”
Gallus shook his head at Smolder’s irked comment. “ No, I’m being for real. Look closer at the base of the tree.”
Although doing so with a heavy eye roll, Smolder stopped her flight and looked back at the tree Gallus was so earnest about. She glanced below the leafless brown branches and scanned down the dry trunk. At first, she didn’t notice anything particular about the tree’s bark— only seeing vine growth wrapping around like a large snake. But then she caught a noticeable rectangular shape indented in the wood. She squinted her eyes more on the shape, and to her surprise, it was a door.
“ What the…” She couldn’t see any finer details besides the light oak color, but it was certainly a door. If Gallus hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have spotted it; heck, she wouldn’t have even noticed the tree. She guessed his natural griffin eyesight really was as good as he praised it.
“ I know right? I just barely caught it before going to rescan west, so this is a pretty lucky find. Anyways, If that door means anything, then it means someone lives there. And that someone might lend us a talon in our situation.” Gallus smirked cockily, proud of his on-the-spot plan.
Smolder kept her gaze on the door as she contemplated his words. “ Who’d even live in a forest like this? From what the professors said, ponies are scared hideless of this place.”
“ Hmm, I don’t think that matters,” Gallus shrugged off her worry as he began to descend down to the tree canopy under them, “ I’ll tell the others about this find. I think they’ll also wanna see who lives there.”
“ H-Hold up,” Smolder waved her arms at him, stopping his descent. She frowned slightly with a sweat drop as she chose her words carefully. “ what if they’re not the… erm, helpful type?”
Gallus only snorted and gave Smolder a raised brow. “ What, you scared about some door or something.”
“ Wha- No, I’m not scared of the door! The hay? I wasn’t even talking about that!” She instantly snapped back, folding her arms with a stern stare at him. " that wasn't funny either."
“ Yeah, whatever." the blue griffin waved off her glare, " If the big bad monster behind the door doesn’t want to help us, then we'll soar away blowing raspberries at them. So if you could, keep an eye on it so we don’t lose it. I swear half of the trees I see in this forest just up and go the moment I look away.”
Smolder watched with a deeper frown as the Gallus flew down through the tree canopy, where their friends were trailing them behind by foot. Or at least what she expects they were doing… maybe they should be checking in on them repeatedly while flying this high. She looked back at the dead oak tree, slowly inspecting its dry features. Compared to the other trees, it looked really foreign, almost like the trees up north EQ.
But now that she’s staring at it more, the tree gave off some… unnatural vibes that, although she would never imagine to admit it out loud, gave her an unsettling feeling.
Gallus landed in the front, pointing a blue wing at the tilted dead tree. “ See, told ya.”
“ Wow, there really was a door here!”
Sandbar, a lime-green earth colt with turquoise hair, looked at the pink hippo griffin who just shouted next to him with a hint of exasperation. “ Silverstream, try to keep it down. We don’t know if they can hear us inside.”
“ But don’t we want them to know we’re here? Better they get a heads up that someone is outside beforehand, right?” Silverstream whispered back loudly.
“ Still, yelling is a bit too much.” he sighed with a slight headshake.
“ But this is so weird! I haven’t learned much about this forest but it, like, totally has the creeps. And there’s a door just sitting here!”
“ A very narrow door too.” Ocellus, a small blue bug-pony with red elytra, whispered out softly. She walked from behind the group over to the light oak door that was engraved into the tree. The door itself was tall, way taller than what Gallus and Smolder saw up in the sky. Even if they stood as a totem tower, the door would still be one Big Mac and a half taller than them. The vine growth was also unexpectedly bigger than what Smolder saw in the air; it looking more like a colossal dragons tail than the snake tail she compared to earlier. Yet none of it obscured the path to the door, as if someone was maintaining the plant life around. However, Ocellus couldn't see any cut scars on them.
Her eyes traced over the rather bland-looking door and found a sign that was in the top center. Most of the text was weathered down, similar to what remained of the white paint on the door, so all she could see was the letters “ous Sho'' written in a strange font.
“ Can you guess what it says?” Smolder asked, looking at the door with similar awe to the others. Seeing it from afar was confusing and… not normal. Seeing up close only makes her more confused about it. Not that she’s never seen a door, although the Dragon Lands didn’t even have any of them. It’s just the type of door it was. As far as she can remember, she’s never seen a door shaped like this. And by the confused looks that she also saw in her friends, the same went with them as well.
“ I think… although it makes no sense, I think the second word might be Shop. There are not a lot of words that start with ‘sho’, but that makes the most sense out of all of them. ‘ous’ is a suffix, which doesn’t help much, though I’m guessing it's part of the name of the shop or who lives here,” Ocellus looked back at her friends with droopy ears. “ To be honest though, I think this place might be abandoned.”
“ You got that right,” Gallus spoke up, swiftly flying around the entire tree and landing back. “ No windows or chimneys. It's an oversized owl's nest.”
" Aww, I thought we'd get to talk to some cool forest goblin." Silverstream pouted with a downcast look.
" Eh, not a problem," He shrugged and gave his friends a claw/thumbs up. “ If no one’s living here anymore, then we can still crash in this treehouse until the adults fix their mess."
Laughs and nods of agreement were shared amongst the group at his idea. Silverstream's posture turned one-eighty as she started bouncing in place with ecstasy, her wings fluttering in a pseudo-flight. “ Oh-oh, I’ve always wanted to try making a treehouse! Though this one’s already built… but I've never decorated one!”
“ Treehouse sounds fun! Yona wants to try tree house!” Yona, a young brown yak who stood at the back of the group, reciprocated Silverstream's excitement by jumping together with her. Though, due to her heavier size, the ground began to rumble slightly from every jump. This in turn caused Sandbar to involuntarily leap in the air with a yelp, getting a soft giggle from Ocellus.
The only one who didn't seem to share much enthusiasm was Smolder, who was internally rebuking herself for being all worked up about this strange door. There was literally nothing or no-one in this tree, so why was she still feeling ner-
Wait, was that light under the door?
" OOO, I just thought of a great idea for the walls! We can make the walls blue!" Silverstream clapped her claws together, a twinkle in her eyes as she admired the tree, completely oblivious to the light under the door.
Yona grunted and shook her head. " Yona likes yellow!"
" We can add that too. Maybe that could be the bathroom walls!"
“ Uh, guys…" Smolder tried calling out, her eyes widening as the light under the door slowly began to brighten.
" Nah, that isn't a bathroom color. Bathrooms should be all white, and I mean hospital white. Makes stuff look clean." Gallus suggested.
Silverstream cringed at that, " Err, but that's a super bright color Gallus. It, like, blinds creatures!"
" Why are we even talking about walls… shouldn't we be worried about food and water?" Sandbar whined in the back, rubbing his sore back.
Ocellus nodded in agreement. " He's right, we should worry about the food supply before decorations. Since he lives in Ponyville, he can go there and– "
"GUYS!" Smolder's shout caught all of them off guard, snapping their stares at her with wide eyes. The orange dragon was beginning to sweat more than she already was as she pointed towards the light under the door, which had amplified to several lumens.
"...Oh, maybe this place isn’t abandoned…” Ocellus said, putting a hoof over her eyes at the bright light.
" See, I said white is a blinding color!" Silverstream whispered loudly to Yona, who had turned around completely to avoid the bright light. In fact, it was so bright it overshadowed the surrounding shadows from the sun.
" Wow, they must have a lot of those royal candles ." Gallus whistled, flapping towards the door.
Smolder’s wings stretched out a bit as she stared at Gallus with wide eyes. She didn't know why, but she felt an instinctive part inside of her kick in and tell her that they should not approach the door. She waved her hands at him again, this time more frantic. " Gallus, back off from that door! Now!"
Gallus snorted once again at her but gave her squinted eyes. " Pfft, what's up with you today Smolder? You've been acting like a chicken ever since we found this door." He put his claws over the door handle and turned it. " Seriously, chill out. What's the worst that could happen... from a door?"
" Wait Gallus, she's probably right. You shouldn't-" Sandbar tried to add on. But the blue Griffin simply ignored whatever he was about to say and swung the door open without warning.
" See, what did I tell youAHHHHHHH, DEAR CELESTIA MY EYES!" Gallus screeched out as he instantly folded his wings across his face to protect his eyes. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. The strong light that had been seeping out from the bottom of the door was now fully revealed and ten times as strong, and with his enhanced eyesight, it was like having pure lemon concentrate poured on his eyes with lava under his eyelids. The others fortunately all covered their eyes just before this second sun completely flashbang everything in it's path.
And if things couldn't get even stranger– no, worse, Smolder suddenly began to feel a strong pull. Not like the tail pulls she got from her daily scruffs back home. No, it was like her very soul was being grabbed and yanked forwards.
Right towards the door.
" H-Hey, what is sweet Appleloosa?!" The shout from Sandbar was enough to know that she wasn't the only one being pulled, but the entire group. And it was only their group being pulled in, for not even the grass below them was folded.
That was the last intelligible thing said from then on, for they all began to scream in terror as the door rapidly pulled them into it's depths. Gallus, being the closest, was already gone in the light before their eyes— they couldn't even hear his scream.
Smolder, she's a tough cookie in her own right. She doesn't express "wimpy" emotions, especially around her dragon brethren. It was how she was raised up to be. But at this moment, at these closing seconds, she had never expressed so much fear in her life.
The final moment, the final images that will forever stay in her memories, was the silhouette of a large five-pointed claw closing in on her.
Author's Note
So, this is the first story I've ever published... ever. I don't have much planned for this but I've decided that it'll sort of be a test run for me. Really though, I have a crap ton of other stories drafted in my docs and I just couldn't decide which to begin publishing. 😂
Like I said in the story description, I'll accept all critics and inputs from you guys so that I can become a better storyteller. Thank you for the time you spent reading this! 😄
