This is actually a second draft but I wanted to share. Please let me know if anything is unclear!
The thing is, Goldilocks thought it was her house. Not the bears' house. Not that it mattered when she saw the bears. Three, angry, large creatures with fangs and teeth looming over you. Terrifying, especially when you're an eleven year old child.
She didn't have the courage to fight them or confront them. So she ran back to the village, to find Prince Jayden, and tell him what happened.
Goldilocks didn't realize this, because she was young and only thinking about safety, but Prince Jayden was just telling a crowd about how they needed to kill the bears who'd killed poor orphan Goldilocks.
Prince Jayden pretended to be happy when the young, crying girl came into the crowd and hugged him. That the red on his face was happiness from being trusted, and not from anger and embarrassment at being proved wrong. At loosing face.
Once the crowd left he imprisoned her in a room. A nice one, so no one could say he'd been abusing poor orphan Goldilocks. But there were no toys, no books. Just a bunch of fancy pretty things Goldilocks was forbidden to touch.
The walls to that room were thick and heavy. So no one heard him yelling at Goldilocks. Accusing her of trying to humiliate him. Saying all sorts of obscenities, then berating her when she cried.
Then he left, and thought of what he needed to do. His people didn't trust him anymore! What could he do to fix it?
Jayden's advisors told him of a man-eating dragon.
Later, Jayden came to Goldilocks, pretending to be nice and apologetic. He told her he'd take her to her new house, and protect her from the evil bears. He even grabbed a bow and arrows to prove it.
Goldilocks didn't recognize the path. But she chalked it up to not knowing much of the city.
They stopped at a huge cavern. Goldilocks stood too close, looking at what was below.
Something shoved her. She fell, down, down, down. A scaly claw grabbed her. Goldilocks looked up to see a dragon. She screamed at Prince Jayden to save her, but saw him running away.
Goldilocks stopped screaming, then.
The dragon flew, with Goldilocks in his claw. Then it deposited her in its cave, because it wasn't hungry. Then it curled up to sleep.
Goldilocks also curled up. But not to sleep.
Plenty of time to think about what had happened. Prince Jayden giving her the map to the bears' house, yet berating her for surviving. Him running away instead of saving her. Maybe he'd been the one to push her?
No-Jayden was a kind, nice prince. He'd promised her a home, and family. It was the bears' fault, for breaking in and intruding.
Jayden would come and save her. At least, Goldilocks hoped so.
An hour passed. And an hour without anything to do often feels like a day, especially to children. Even a scared child.
Then two hours passed. Then three. Then four. Goldilocks gave up. Jayden wasn't coming. She'd have to save herself.
The dragon had slept forever. Goldilocks almost thought that the dragon would never wake up. That she could sneak out. She stood up.
The dragon woke up and glared at her. And then it started speaking in a raspy, high voice.
"You think you can get away like you did with the bears?" It asked. "Oh, no, no no no no. Unlike them, I can fully make sure you face the consequences of your actions. No matter how fast you run, little human, I will still catch you." The dragon smiled.
Then it glared at her again.
The dragon grabbed Goldilocks by the ankle and hoisted her high into the air. "You spoiled brat! You think you can get away with breaking into someone else's house? Not only that, but eating their food, breaking their stuff!"
"It was my house! The bears were just intruders!" Goldilocks said. She ignored the voice in her head, that sounded like Prince Jayden yelling at her for surviving.
The dragon shook Goldilocks, and berated her for lying.
Goldilocks protested. Saying that the prince gave her the map to the house he'd gifted Goldilocks. That it was supposed to be her forever home. Goldilocks even stated that she'd double checked everything just to make sure that it was her home and not a stranger's.
The dragon laughed and asked if he was truly supposed to believe it. No adult would make a child go alone to find her house. They'd bring her there. To do otherwise would be cruel.
Goldilocks said that dragons must have different standards, because adults were mean to children all the time. That they hit children and turned them out into the streets and took their stuff.
And lied to them...tricking them...for their own gain. Goldilocks stopped talking. Anger washed over her as she realized that yes, Prince Jayden had lied to her and hurt her.
The dragon didn't believe her. Goldilocks glared told it about all the times adults had hurt her and beat her and yelled at her.
A loud noise was heard in the middle of one of Goldilocks's stories. The dragon dropped Goldilocks, then went to see the disturbance.
It was one of the bears. They ran into the room, yelling about how the prince was trying to trick the dragon (who turned out to be named Jade) into eating Goldilocks and then having the justification to kill it without dragon advocates getting angry.
The bear even brought out a map to her house, with Jayden's writing on it.
The dragon froze, going even more still than it'd been when sleeping. Then it roared-Goldilocks covered her ears-and stormed out of the cave.
Goldilocks and the bear stared at each other. But then a noise was heard. Yelling. Prince Jayden came in, along with a crowd holding pitchforks and swords.
They stopped when they saw Goldilocks. The bear then pushed Goldilocks towards the crowd.
The crowd was angry. There was no dragon, just a bear. Jayden tried to speak up, saying that he'd been wrong about the bears and that they had freed her from the dragon.
The bear spoke up, talking about how it was all a trick by Jayden. Jayden started yelling back at the bear.
Goldilocks started yelling back at Jayden, saying that it was the truth, that he'd lied to her. The crowd started yelling, and then Jayden started yelling at them.
In the chaos, the bear left unnoticed.
Eventually Jayden realized that he wasn't going to win. He apologized. The crowd glared at him, then left, muttering the whole time.
Leaving Jayden and Goldilocks alone. Jayden glared at Goldilocks and tried to grab her.
Goldilocks used her escaping skills and dodged him. She ran out of the cave, Jayden hot on her heels.
But she was faster, and got away. She managed to get so far away that she couldn't see him anymore. Goldilocks stopped to rest.
Suddenly an arrow shot towards her and hit her in the chest. Goldilocks stumbled and went down.
Jayden came into view, and grabbed Goldilocks. He yelled at her, and pulled out a knife. He was about to stab her when a scaly claw grabbed him.
It was the dragon. It threw Jayden in the air then ate him whole in one bite. Then it grabbed Goldilocks.
Goldilocks screamed. And someone else did too. "Put her down, Jade!"
Goldilocks and the dragon looked to see two of the bears, growling. The dragon sighed, dropped Goldilocks, then flew away.
Goldilocks stared at the bears, then apologized for breaking in and said she'd fix the chair and replace the porridge she'd eaten.
The bears agreed to it. Goldilocks fixed the chair and made porridge.
She got ready to leave, but by the time she was finished it was raining there was a storm with a tornado. The bears insisted she stay, so she didn't die.
It was awkward at first. Goldilocks didn't know what to do. But then the little bear started talking to Goldilocks and asked her to play with him. He said he was lonely because there was no one his age to play with.
Goldilocks agreed.
The storm was still going strong when it was night, so Goldilocks ended up sleeping on the couch.
In the morning the storm was finished, so the bears said they'd escort Goldilocks to her house. Goldilocks frowned and said that she didn't have a family.
The bears paused, and went to the corner to talk a bit. The conversation looked pretty heated. When they came back they said that they'd be willing to take care of Goldilocks until a human family adopted her.
Goldilocks started crying and asking why they'd want to adopt her when she'd caused so much harm. The bears told her that they'd always wanted a child and knew it wasn't her fault. Plus, she'd made up for it by fixing the chair and making porridge.
Goldilocks didn't accept the deal at first. But one month later in the middle of a storm she asked them for shelter. They agreed.
It lasted for one day. But Goldilocks kept coming back, until one day she was staying with them permanently.
And she finally learned which bears were which, and later became best friends with Jade.
The tales of the monster lurking in the abandoned school always piqued Tenderheart’s interest. A building once filled with love and friendship plunged into darkness, the only memories of it now in the history books; even Princess Twilight refuses to speak of the cursed location. But Tenderheart was braver than many, she had read the stories, knew them by heart at this point.
The day of Graduation, a grand event meant to lead the students of friendship to start their own adventures or lives, was horrifically cut short when a dragon like creature appeared within the walls of the school. The Head-mare Starlight Glimmer tried her best to fight off the beast of during the attack while the students and families evacuated; everyone was safe, save for two lost students, presumed lost to the beast, and Starlight Glimmer having obtained significant damage to her horn, this would later require that amputation of her horn due to infection. The Princess had cast a magic field over the school within minutes of arriving, preventing the beast from being able to leave, however not preventing others from getting in.
Which is where Tenderheart currently finds herself, deep within the dark halls, on the hunt for this ‘beast’. Her talent made her naturally curious about the nature of creatures and from all written accounts this beast matched no one living creature: The head of a dragon, body of a lion, the claws and wings of an eagle, and the fangs of a snake. Now back then this would have been written off as an undiscovered species but with the recent introduction of fusion magic a theory had begun to circulate among small circles. Tenderheart being an avid studier of fusion magic, was willing to test these conspiracies; That two students under the emotional stress of graduation became the first documented case of none pony fusions ( A notoriously unstable form of fusion given most other races lack innate magic).
She furthered her way into the school, her torch held tight between her teeth as it guided her way. She hadn’t been in the castle long but already felt lost in its winding corridors and cold atmosphere, no maps of the school existed for public access. Old torn and moth eaten tapestries hung upon the walls and deep groves scared the floor, the smell of sulphur and ash clung to her nose. However what seemed the oddest to her was when her torch briefly flickered and a sudden heat hung over her, and if she held her breath for just a moment she could swear she heard the soft sound of rubbing scales and a low hiss.
Loved getting to work on this and basically took me all month! Meet Gallder and Tenderheart- you might actually end up seeing more of Tenderheart if you're lucky- for those who prefer seeing the whole fusion worry not! Here was the concept/design sketch for Gallder-
Imagine a dragon, but instead of a reptile it's a mammal, instead of breathing fire it shoots a dissolving water-like liquid, instead of 4 legs it has arms, instead of a tail it stands upright, and instead of wings it has opposable thumbs. Incredible
