The painted arrow pointed Phillip down a long, dark hallway. He was resisting the urge to sprint down it: he knew that whatever was coming, he needed to save his energy for it. Coming to a corner, he turned and found himself facing a door. Opening it, he proceeded into a dark open area. His flashlight illuminated four objects on the floor before him. There was a small wooden box right in front of his hooves. Around it were three chests, all secured with a lock and chain. The first chest had a wooden sign on it that said "Gold," the second "Silver," and the third said "Gold or Silver."

Phillip had just enough time to wonder what all this was about before he heard a voice: "HELP!"

Looking up, Phillip saw Rarity hanging from the ceiling by a rope that secured her forelegs together. A magic suppression ring was attached to her horn. She struggled and kicked as she dangled in midair.

Almost as soon as Phillip saw her, Rarity was illuminated by a spotlight from the ceiling that snapped on. Other spotlights snapped on simultaneously, revealing several crossbows mounted in the walls and aimed at Rarity, all of them fully drawn and loaded with bolts, the heads of which shone dangerously in the light. With a click, a timer mounted high on the wall turned on, displaying 2:00 in red letters. Time began to mercilessly click down, second by second.

"Get me down!" Rarity cried, her panic multiplied at the sight of the crossbows.

"Hang tight," Phillip said calmly, bending down to examine the small wooden box. "I'm going to get you down." He felt strangely calm despite the situation. He had set aside his emotions and was in control. There was another pony in danger; he had a way to save them. Emotion could not be allowed to have any sway at the moment.

Opening the box, he found what looked like a set of wooden puzzle pieces and a note. He read the note quickly.

"One each of the three locked chests contains gold, silver, or bronze. The labels are all incorrect. Form the correct labels from the puzzle pieces here and place them on the chests."

Shaking the puzzle pieces out of the box onto the floor, Phillip quickly organized them and put the pieces together. It took longer than he expected, but he quickly managed to form four wooden signs. But what was on them caused him to pause, momentarily bewildered. They said, "Rafq," "Baaf," "Gzfcun," and "Knalhu."

Must be a code, Phillip thought. Looks like a basic substitution cipher. Three of these signs must say Gold, Silver and Bronze; one must be a dummy to slow me down. The six letter ones must be silver and bronze. Both words have an "e" in them. Let's see...He glanced up at the timer. He had forty-seven seconds left.

"Hurry!" Rarity shouted. Tuning out her frightened whimpers and ignoring the timer, Phillip turned back to the labels.

Great! They both have a "u" in them: that must be the "e." "Gzfcun" must be Silver, and "Knalhu" must be Bronze. Now for the four-letter one...oh, that's easy. "Gold" doesn't have any repeated letters: "Rafq" must be Gold." Discarding the dummy sign, he turned his attention to the three chests. Thirty-five seconds left. Rarity's panic was increasing, her cries becoming more frantic as she watched her final seconds running out.

If all the signs are incorrect...then the third chest must contain bronze. That means chest number one must have silver, and the second has gold. Piece of piss. Picking up the labels one by one in his mouth, he quickly removed the label from each chest and replaced it with one of his own. "Gzfcun" replaced "Silver." "Rafq" replaced "Gold." And "Knalhu" replaced "Gold or Silver."

As soon as the last label was in place, all three chests glowed with a faint golden energy. Phillip looked up at the timer: 00:10, 00:09, 00:08...for a moment, panic stabbed through his mind. Had he made a mistake? Was he too slow? Seeing that time was running out, Rarity gave a long scream and closed her eyes tight, waiting for the cold touch of the arrowheads as they pierced her skin...

Suddenly, the golden light vanished and the timer stopped at 00:07. Phillip breathed out a sigh of relief. With a whir of machinery, a crane mechanism lowered Rarity safely to the ground, where she stopped screaming and opened her eyes a second later once she realized that she was safe.

Calmly, Phillip used his pocketknife to cut the rope binding her hooves and removed the magic suppression ring from her horn. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you," Rarity said, breathing shakily as she recovered from her ordeal. She let out a little whimper as she examined her forelegs, which had been rubbed raw from the ropes cutting into them. "My coat is all chafed," she said. "Did that uncivilized brute have to tie the rope so tightly?"

"I'll be sure to ask him about it when I catch him," Phillip said, half-smiling.

Rarity examined the three boxes on the floor before them. "A...puzzle? Whatever could be the purpose of this? It's rather cliche."

Phillip nodded. "I think somepony's trying to test me, slow me down."

The two ponies heard a click and turned to see that a light had turned on, revealing the door that Phillip had entered the room through.

"You need to go," Phillip told Rarity. "Spike is waiting outside. You'll be safe. I'll find the others."

Rarity looked like she was going to protest, but nodded after a moment and quickly left the room. As soon as the door shut behind her, there was another click. A light turned on at the opposite end of the room, revealing another door. Without hesitating, Phillip walked through the door and continued deeper into the maze.

So it's a game you want? he thought, internally fuming at the thought of another pony using his friends, innocent ponies, as pawns against him. I can play games.

Flash had gone mad. He screamed and yelled at the top of his lungs, flailing and kicking at the darkness like a wild animal. His hooves repeatedly struck the walls of his coffin, but the wood, held down by the packed dirt, refused to yield.

Eventually, the adrenaline of panic wore off and he collapsed, panting and whimpering. Tears ran from his eyes.

What am I going to do?

Author's Notes:

Well, here it is.

I know, I know, it's kind of a gimmicky idea, but it's the one I had. What do you think? And would you have been able to solve the riddle?

More on the way!