FimFiction Link - Short ID: 350443/never-open-the-door
Published: Oct '16
'Never Open the Door' is a two thousand and eight hundred-word horror oneshot in which Twilight investigates what secrets lie beyond a door Celestia explicitly forbade her from opening. Sadly the story is far too anemic to be considered any good. As it turns out the other side hides a deep cave system which houses hundreds of corpses from an old plague, along with a malicious force that tricks Twilight into following it before it tries to spook her. It just makes no sense. Why does this door even exist? If Celestia knew some ancient evil is lurking beneath the castle then surely she'd have the entrance walled up and forgotten about if she couldn't destroy the ghost for good. Or at the very least you'd think she would post guards in front of it or put a padlock on it. The way she almost teasingly tells Twilight that she can never open the door, which - of course - causes her to do just that, would make sense if she was possessed by the spirit or something, but the plot implies nothing like that.
The ghost itself is extremely lame too. It's your run-of-the-mill, black eyesockets, half-rotten creature that just half-heartedly chases Twilight around and then gives up after she blasts it with some magic. It doesn't even attack her, even though it had plenty of opportunities. At least it has some bomb-ass calligraphy skills.
Speaking of whom, Twilight acts like a complete retard in this story. She keeps ignoring every single warning sign and falls for the oldest trick in the book, when the ghost imitates Spike's voice, leading her to believe that he is too down here, even though she came alone. Sure, Purplesmart is emotional, but she's not an idiot.
Overall: 2/10 I guess the real horror is just how bad this fic is. I truly try to see the best in any story I read, but as hard as I'm trying, I can't say anything good about this one, except perhaps that the prose is okay enough to earn a point. Don't waste your time on this one.
4/10.
Celestia tells Twilight not to open a creepy door in Canterlot Castle but she's just too curious for her own good. If there was a horror oneshot that could be called bland, it's this one. The plot's very standard with the curiosity angle and the catacombs under Canterlot are rushed through with almost no suspense or lore built to keep things interesting. The monster is so vague and generic, it could probably be thrown into any horror fic and still work. This will definitely be one of those fics I encounter in five years and have zero memory of reading.