Luna moaned quietly as her aching body alerts her to the hard, cool floor she had been laying on for quite some time. Her eyes clenching slightly before she slowly opened them despite only being met with blurriness. She groaned once more and shifted her body, and she grits her teeth as her muscles objected to her cautious movements.

After a few moments the Princess rolled her body onto her belly where she remained there for a minute or so. Her eyes closed once more before blinking rapidly in order to clear the blurriness from them. Twisting her neck sharply she pops a few joints before stretching her wings and humming softly as they also crack. She takes deep breath and finally opens her eyes to observe her surroundings.

She was in a small, square concrete room with a long mirror outlining the middle of the walls around her. The Night Princess blinked once more and pushed herself onto her hooves, groaning as the sore limbs pop as her knees straighten out. Taking a deep breath, Luna glanced about the room, taking in the reflection of herself from every angle. Was she in one of her dreams?

No. That couldn’t be.

Then what happened to her room?

Where was she?

“Hello?” Luna called out, only to have the echo over her voice reply back to her, she frowned and closed her eyes. Concentrating on her magic, she focused on teleporting back to her bedroom. Her horn hummed to life and she could feel her warmth emanating outwards, her heart beating steadily, mane drifting lightly. Focusing all of her attention onto her horn, she tries to imagine herself being transported to her room, the layout of what her environment would be; the position of her bed, her closet, dresser and even the small bits of her royal armor scattered about on her bed. She imagines herself standing at the foot of it, gazing down over the lightly crinkled sheets and how her room had smelt after she had stepped out of the bath, or how the wind breezes past her balcony door and ruffles her curtains.

Smiling lightly, she concentrates all of her energy on those thoughts. Taking one last breath, Luna opened her eyes and frowns once more when she realized she hadn’t gone anywhere. “Now this is quite odd,” The Princess muttered to herself, Luna glanced about the small, square room once more. “What is this––” Luna suddenly jolts when a high pitched horn caught her off guard which in turn causes her to step back and arch her wings upward a tad.

Yet as quickly as the horn sounded, it ceased, and Luna glanced about quickly for where the sound had originated. Looking upwards she spotted a black oval up on the ceiling of the chamber by a circle shaped light source. Luna blinked curiously at it but was then distracted by the sound of a lock coming undone. Her eyes then fell back down and over to a door she hadn’t recognized earlier before immediately taking notice of a table inside separate, white room.

Luna glanced around curiously, the sudden feeling of something watching her striking her in the chest hard. She gulped nervously and gazed at her reflection before glancing up at the black oval above her. “D-do I need to go in there––” Luna was interrupted by a highly painful ring coming from the oval above, the hideous sound striking her eardrums and eliciting a pain filled yelp from the alicorn. Her knees buckled and she dropped down onto the floor and used her wings to cover her ears.

After a few moments the sound ceased and Luna sat there for a few moments before finally regaining her composure and clambering back to her hooves. Taking a breath she wastes no time in proceeding to the next room, upon doing so the door closed behind her and before she could do anything she heard the deadbolts kick in.

Luna nervously looked away from the door and towards the table in front of her, on it, she noticed a multicolored cube with various different colored squares. Gazing at the small object, she gulped and then cautiously took a few steps towards it. A loud honk startled Luna and nearly caused her to jump out of her coat, her eyes darting immediately to the ceiling she noticed a pair of red symbols that seemed to change every second or so.

Curious she cocked an eyebrow and examined the symbols as he each one changed with every second before suddenly realizing what it was, it was a count down. Luna’s eyes widened when she noticed one of the two supposed ‘numbers’ disappear, leaving only one changing with each second. Just as the last digit vanished, a sharp, painful screech filled the room and Luna plummeted to the floor and covered her ears.

When the sound ceased, Luna opened her eyes and looked up to see the numbers were back and we're counting down once again. Panicking, the Princess shot to her hooves and began look around for a way to stop it. “It’s test, I’m in some kind of test!” She realized during her panic state, frantically going about the room and searching for what the ‘test’ was before crying out when the screeching sound struck her eardrums once more.

Panting frantically Luna immediately confirmed that sound was not good, not one bit at all, and she needed to figure out a way to stop it. But how? There was nothing in the room except for the table and the small multicolored cube...Luna stopped and took a deep breath. Her eyes then glanced over to the table, focusing on the cube she slowly walked over to it before clenching her yes and yelping loudly when the sharp sound smacked her again.

Biting her tongue she opened her eyes and examined the cube on the table, concentrating on it, she could see her magic enveloping the cube before levitating it off the table. Her mind aching within only a few moments of suspending the object in mid air, it was as if something was restricting her from using her complete power, yet she couldn’t figure out what, or why that forsaken sound kept trying to make her ears bleed. Luna brought the cube directly to her face before cursing loudly and dropping the thing when the ear wrenching noise burrowed into her brain.

Luna groaned loudly and let off a whimper before levitating the cube back up and taking a closer look at. Twirling it around she looked at it from all angles, however, she couldn’t find anything interesting except for the fact it had six colors and all of them were jumbled up. Now frustrated, Luna gritted her teeth and twisted the cube with intention of breaking it, however, something else happened.

The two bottom rows of colors shifted.

Luna’s thoughts were quickly thrown off course when the sharp noise startled her once more and caused her to wince. Though this time she was able to maintain her concentration and keep the cube suspended, taking a breath she focuses on the upper row and twists it just how she did the bottom rows. They also moved.

Quickly Luna realized, this was the puzzle. Some kind of puzzle device, whoever was watching her wanted to solve. Biting her lower lip, Luna began to shift rows around, quickly learning that she could also shift the rows upwards as well. After a few minutes of figuring it out, Luna realized what he point of it all was. She needed to match each side of the cube to one specific color!

By that point Luna was actually finding the puzzle to be quite enjoyable, not only that, the horrific sound had ceased! Spending more time on the puzzle, Luna finally finished the cube device after about ten minutes. Feeling satisfied, she placed the cube back on the table and hums.

Behind Luna, she heard heavy thud, followed by the shrill of metal rubbing against each other. Turning around she noticed another door had opened, behind that, a white room with a single table.

Author's Notes:

A chapter I wrote in one night, I assume that shows. Anyhow, I hope you guys like it, I might make later chapters longer, as of now I'm just writing for my own enjoyment. Leave a comment or a rating if you liked it or not, criticism really helps and good ratings motivate me!