Imagine a tunnel, dark and cold. It's width reaches no further than the span of your arms, it's a few feet short of being tall enough to stand straight in, making you have to stoop. In the distance some unseen luminescent material casts a dreadful green glow against the walls, making them look almost alive as it flickers and makes them seem as though they're breathing. No other light is visible, and the green glow only illuminates the bare minimum for you to see, it's a cold, horrible place, and the stink, the stench of death surrounding you grants this place the deserving title of 'Hell.'
This was the tunnel that Luna found herself in now. As she pulled herself from the ground groggily and looked around, her head gave an agonizing pang. She yelped and reached up to investigate the problem, when she pulled her hoof away, she saw the faint speckle of red blood against it. When had she hit her head? When he had fallen? If so, she didn't remember which suggested that she'd been knocked unconscious, and judging by the bitter cold running up her body making her shiver, she'd been out for a while.
Luna glanced around the dark tunnel, it lead off in two directions, no sign or carving like the image of the moon could be seen. She had no idea which way to go. It was then she felt it again. Those dead hand groping and caressing her body, there were more of them now, many more! Maybe it meant she was closer to finding the source of the sense, but it still made Luna feel sick to her stomach. She felt the taste in the back of her throat, almost like acid burning away slowly making her almost gag and vomit right there. She fought back however, swallowed brought her growing nerves under control as best she could, and began to move down the tunnel, slowly and cautiously.
As she walked, she swore she could hear something, almost like a clicking noise, following her as she walked, stooped down low in the narrow passageway. She stopped and held her ears high, trying to discern if the noise was real or not. As she stopped however, all the noise seemed to die away once again leaving her in total silence. A little rumble as a stone fell to the floor just ahead made Luna jump. She looked ahead, and was sure she saw something... like a hoof... disappearing around the sharp corner ahead.
"Wait!" Luna cried, trotting forward to catch up with the pony. Her voice was shaky and squeaked with fear, but she was determined to catch whoever had just vanished around the bend. She would stop them, and make them explain what this place was! Normally, the idea of shouting in such a place, filled with Celestia knows what kind of creatures or threats, would have seemed foolish, but Luna's nerves were beginning to get the better of her. She refused to leave before there was genuine reason, but she no longer wished to be alone in this terribly dark place.
She rounded the corner, her hoof steps echoing loudly all around her. "Please wait!" She cried again. Then stopped. There was nothing. No other pony, no passageway, only a wall. Luna would have run straight into it if not for the glowing toadstools at the base, illuminating the end to the stone hallway. Luna scowled in complete confusion. She had been sure she'd seen somepony!
Annoyance quickly gave way to genuine fear when Luna began to ponder... if nopony was here now, and she'd seen one come around the corner, then where were they now? Luna's ears twitched again as another sound came from behind her. The soft rattle of a small stone falling again... and the distinct sound of something softly touching the floor. Luna whirled around, "I knew I saw somepo- AAAAHHHHH!!!" the princess screamed as something small and black leaped towards her from the gloomy shadows. All she could register before she fell backwards was the flash of sharp white teeth, and the gleam of two bright green, lifeless eyes.
She fell towards the wall, and hit her head again against the hard stone. Stars exploded into life around her vision, blurring her assailant threatening to drag Luna back into unconsciousness. For the second her vision was blurred, Luna lost track of her attacker, she only knew that it's weight against her chest vanished. When the stars finally disappeared, and the dim tunnel came back into view, there was no sign of green eyes or shining teeth.
Luna stared into the gloom, every inch of her quaking in terror at what had just happened. A second of pause passed, the she hear it above her, a scrabbling noise and the displacement of more stones. She glanced up to see a gaping hole in the ceiling, plenty large enough for that... thing, to climb into and flee. But what had it been? She hadn't seen it fully, and before she could truly see it, it had vanished.
The deep thoughts caused her head to pang hard. She winced and checked her head again, this time there was a lot of blood. The sight made her feel woozy, she swayed slightly and staggered back against the wall, she had just enough control to avoid another head bump while she thought.
She needed to go home, not out of fear -though every part of her shuck with plenty of it- but out of concern for her own well being. The blood coming from the multiple head wounds was far more concerning than investigating what was down here, she could always return, now she knew something was here -be it evil, or simply wild- she had evidence to present to Tia. She took a deep breath, cleared her mind, then began to think of Canterlot.
As her mind filled with the image of the city, with its castle's many flags and parapets, she wished to go home. She saw the tunnel walls glow with the blue tint of her magic and she sighed with relief. At least the blows to her head hadn't affected her ability with magic. She thought of her room. Her bed, her warm covers, the safety of the guards outside. Then finally, the word. 'Transport!'
Nothing.
She stared at the long tunnel ahead of her, still it was that dark green circle surrounded by black. It didn't vanish from sight in an explosion of her blue magic, the sound of the spell discharging didn't fill her ears. She still stood there, alone in the dark.
She tried again, this time closing her eyes ensuring she could concentrate fully, but yet again, when she opened her eyes, the grim passageway was there to great her. Luna was worried now, for some unknown reason, she wasn't able to teleport out of the dank and cold place. Nervously glancing up at the hole I the ceiling, conscious of the fact that the creature with sharp teeth could return while she was vulnerable, Luna decided to make her way back down the dark passage, towards where she had started.
So she did. Her hoof steps were far slower than before, more sluggish as well, she could hear the sound of her hooves scraping loudly as she put one in front of the other. Soon after beginning, she realised how bad the blows to the head had affected her. It was becoming a tremendous effort just to keep moving forward, and with each step she took, her head screamed in protest. She tried not to be sick, the pain coupled with the ever present dark sense made it difficult for the princess to keep her lunch down. However, by swallowing hard, and concentrating on where she was going, she was able to avoid emptying her stomach.
After what felt like hours of waling Luna stopped and looked around. She was sure she'd been here. Then again, being a simple tunnel meant that most of the walls looked identical and made it impossible to be sure if the night princess was near where she began or if she had passed it without realising. Luna glanced back, bighting her lip with worry. HAD she passed where she had awoken? She gazed up at the roof of the tunnel, hoping to find some tell tale sign of the hole she had fallen down.
Being the first time she had looked up, her mouth gaped in shock. Even if the hole he fell down was there, she had no way of telling. Hundreds gaping spaces were carved through the ceiling, plenty of them sizable enough to fit a pony of her build and stature through. Why were there so many? More importantly, what had made them? They were far larger than any subterranean creature she knew of.
"Hmhmhmhmmmmm..." Luna jumped, that was definitely a laugh again! Not an open cackle like a coyote, but the concealed giggle of a pony! Luna stared down the passage which she had not yet taken, sure the noise had come from down there.
"Hello?" She asked cautiously... remembering that that noise had been up on the surface just before she had been plunged into this dark nightmare. No response came. "I-I..." Luna began, trying to put some authority in her quivering voice. "I... am Princess Luna, ruler of the night... and you shall reveal yourself!" More silence.
Then...
"Luunaaaaa..." That same low voice whispered back, mimicking the name it had just been given.
"Yes! Now come out!" She ordered. A screaming silence came to great her, which scared the princess even more than the whisper, it meant that whatever it was, had either left her, meaning she was alone once more... or even worse it had stopped speaking so it could come closer without detection. Luna's legs began to shake violently. "Are you still there?!"
"Luunaaa..." The voice repeated, far more faintly this time. Down the passageway. Luna knew it would be foolish to follow, so she turned back, deciding to try and make her way back towards the dead end, she could try and blast her way out, at least with a dead end she knew whatever the voice belonged to couldn't approach without her spotting it quickly.
Luna turned, and screamed, as what looked like a thousand green eyes stared back at her from within the gloom of the tunnel. They must have dropped from those holes above, but how had they done it so silently, so impossibly? The closest pairs of eyes stared back, just beneath gleamed rows of sharp teeth. Luna let out another scream, and ran away, the only way she could, towards the voice.