Saddle Bagged

by Silk Rose

First published 12th of August, 2018

Tim woke up in a weird place, on a trampoline, with nothing else to do, he jumps.

Tim woke up in a weird place, on a trampoline, with nothing else to do, he jumps.

Boing.

Boing

Walls… no, just one around what seems to be a trampoline… in what seems to be the worst practical joke ever in the history of ever… Who left me here and how and bloody why? Matters not, need to get out.

Very well, mental note: climbing is hard, those bricks don't offer much to hold on, guess it's time to jump. If I'm lucky, I'm gonna hit myself hard enough and probably wake up from this.

Boing.

LIGHT! That was unexpected.

Boing.

A shelf. Where am I?

Boing.

Something is coming my way.

Boing.

A purple creature. What is that?

Boing.

I can't see it anymore. Everything starts to move. What's going on?

Boing.

The entire wall is made of bookshelves. This place is huge, talk about Jack and the Beanstalk. How did I get here?

Either I'm conscious in my dream or I'm high on something. Gonna need some exercise after this, I'm losing my breath in my own fantasies.

Boing.

We are still moving. Where did the creature go?

Boing.

Seems we are heading outside. Why am I still jumping? I should grab the edge and get out.

Boing.

I seem unable to grasp the edge. Can anyone help me?! I'm freaking out, gotta think hard. Things that I can do here: not much. The bricks are useless to climb on. There's not much of a promise of what lies beneath the trampoline, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out, though the movement isn't felt on the inside I can see I am moving. It seems there's nothing else to do here: JUMP.

Boing.

What is this place? Like the frosting on a cake. Better than dull black from the inside.

Boing.

More of those creatures, slightly different, five I think, what are they? Horses? Are they using English? My they are! Please be friendly…

They sound feminine, that's promising. I see a yellow one with a long pink mane. She looks shy, is that why she is behind them more than in line with them?

Boing.

I see a pink one. You look like a happy gal. Just what are all of you.

Boing.

A white one with a purple mane. She has saddlebags, what do you have in them, darling?

Boing.

An orange one with a blonde mane. You kinda look like a country gal. You also sound like a country gal.

Boing.

The blue one has a rainbow mane. How much is spent on that? Hey girl with the rainbow hair, you rock it!

I need to stop talking to myself. Need to get out.

How does this work? Will I have to wait till whatever is on wears off? Am I dead? Starting to hate this.

Boing.

I think I heard something about a "mountain…" It's not easy to keep doing this, and not much can be heard inside. It seems those 5 ponies are following whatever I'm mounted on, has to be the purple one I saw earlier. The yellow one looks scared, The blue one and the pink one are overly excited. What are you planning?

Boing.

"Dragon…" What are they doing that involves a dragon? The yellow one quivers like it is scared, should I? Not so sure I like being able to understand them anymore.

Boing.

I see blue flapping wings. Can the Rainbow one fly? What is she?

Boing.

I see the white one getting into its left bag, pulling out… Damn, didn't catch what it grabbed, what are they talking about?

Boing.

I see the white one wearing a scarf? Doing a pose? What is going on here?

Boing.

The yellow one gulps at every moment the journey is mentioned. She looks really scared, why? What am I being involved in?

Boing.

I see the yellow one approach whatever I'm attached to and say, "Excuse…" Always getting cut off, damn. I need to find a way to grab the outside!

Boing.

"Could go th…" That has to be the voice of the creature I'm attached to. Who made that map, sweetheart? Are you seriously taking us to a dragon with a map drawn by a six-year-old child?!

Boing!

Jumping harder has paid off! Something tangible! My silver lining is the damn ceiling, useless if I can't grab it, gotta work on that.

Boing.

"…ershy" Shy what? At least we agree on something about that one, she is shy. But she is also looking sad. "No, we wa…" what is up with this scared yellow pony?

Boing.

"So uh I…" Darling, your mood changes at the drop of a hat. You are not giving me any confidence about this. What did I get myself into?

Boing.

Got it! The cover of this abyss is fabric, I was able to touch it! I might be able to move to the outside.

Boing.

Gals you are not much help, you lot are adorable but so far you are being useless, tell me something that can help me.

Boing.

"Ponyville" There you go, was that so hard? Is that the name of a location? At least I was half right about something, they are horses… small gigantic horses. Whatever I'm high on has to be the best stuff.

Gotta catch my breath and put some logic to this. Well, logic is down the drain.

Boing.

"I'll stay…" *well, the shy gal is not coming. And here I was starting to like her. *Okay, I need a way to hold to the ceiling, can't be hard to hold to some fabric, right? Not going to get cut off all the time.

Boing.

I hear the purple one say, "Wait," and the yellow one looked defeated. Maybe she is going. Where to thou?

Boing.

I hear the purple one say "surely come…" as the yellow one looked back at the purple one, looking sad. She seems like she doesn't want to go, don't make her go purple pony.

Boing.

The yellow one turned around looking worried as the purple one said, "Don't worry," and a weird two legged purple thing with green spikes on its head approached with some animals. What is that thing gonna do, eat the animals for lunch?

Boing.

I hear the purple one say, "Spikes go…" and see the purple thing look happy, the yellow one is looking at the purple one with a worried expression. Maybe she knows it's gonna eat the animals? Is its name spike?

Boing.

I heard spike say, "can coun…" and saw him look down at the animals. He looks happy, likes he's about to have a nice animal meal.

Boing.

I see the bunny on Spike's head start to rap its foot up and down on his head. Looks painful, maybe the bunny knows his plans to eat them?

Boing.

I hear spike say, "hey, he…" as the animals run away from him. Runaway animals, don't be spike food.

Boing.

I see spike running after one of the animals as the yellow one is saying, "I don't…" what am I doing? Am I becoming invested in a magical world of talking ponies? I need to get out of here.

Boing.

I hear the yellow one say, "I don't…" as I see as the rolled-up map heading for my face, it comes through the portal and falls to the ground. I stop jumping to pick it up and look at it. The map must be of this land. It has a long river running through it and a city that looks like it is built on the side of a mountain. There is a mountain with a little drawing of a dragon, that must be where they're headed. Why did the map come in here? Where does this portal lead to? Her saddlebag? I need to figure out what is going on.

Boing.

I hear the yellow one make a weird noise like she had given up fighting. Makes sense, I too would also not want to actively go towards a fire breathing dragon.

Boing.

I see the blue one talking to the purple one, I hear her say "Fluttershy…" Aha Fluttershy, that has to be the yellow shy one. So I know of spike and Fluttershy.

Boing.

I hear the blue one say, "That pony is…" She must be talking about Fluttershy. Is what?

Boing.

I hear the blue one say, "…own shadow." Fluttershy can't be… afraid of her own shadow? Is that what she is saying?

Boing.

I hear the purple one say, "Oh, she'll b…" She'll be what? Scared to death, most likely.

Boing.

I see the world and hear nothing. Why the silence, what are they looking at?

Boing.

I hear the purple one say, "Alright girls…" and see the white one, the orange one, and the pink one. The pink one has a balloon and lets it go, it flew around as it depleted. Why does the pink one have a balloon? What was she planning on doing with it?

Boing.

I see we're now moving a decent speed, and hear the yellow one? Making a noise. Are they finally leaving to go to the dragon's place now?

Boing.

I see the pink one running beside me, her eyes flop. What's up with that?

Boing.

I see the pink one again, her knee wobbled. Is she having a stroke?

Boing.

I see the pink one for the third time, her tail twitched. I'm just not gonna question that one anymore.

Boing.

I see the pink one, this time rummaging through her saddlebags. What's she getting?

Boing.

The pink one has a loaf of bread, she is looking at me. Can she see me?

Boing.

She is bringing the bread close to me. The bread falls inside my place. I stop jumping and take it. Thank you pink pony! She must be able to sense I'm here, or something.

Two bottles of water fall inside and land next to me on the trampoline. The pink one is now my favorite!

I sit down and start eating the bread, it's surprisingly good for just bread. I eat four pieces and save the rest for later. I drink some of the water to wash it down. I set the bread and water off to the side of the trampoline where it won't bounce around.

I decided to see what's going on outside. I wonder how far they've made it?

Boing.

I see some dark blue hair with a streak of pink in it flailing in the wind from the corner of my left eye. Must belong to the purple pony I'm attached to.

Boing.

The pink one is staring worriedly at where I am. She has to be able to see me or have some way of knowing I'm here. What does she know?

Boing.

"…looking at Pinkie?" one of them says. One of them noticed the pink one looking, her name must be Pinkie.

Boing.

Underground

I try again to grab the cloth flap of the saddlebag to no avail.

I stop jumping. There has to be some way out of this mess. Maybe I could see what's under the trampoline?

I move to the edge of the trampoline. Moving the blue protection flap off of the springs to get a better look at them. Just regular trampoline springs that I've removed hundreds of times. I remove a few of them and set them on the blue flap, so I don't lose them.

I hope there's something down there. I take the plunge and slowly lift myself below the trampoline, feet first.

To my surprise, only a few feet down I hit something hard, the floor. I descend all the way onto the floor. Once I'm on the floor, I feel it, it's dirt.

I decide to venture around on the floor looking for anything that would be of use. I don't have to look far, as in the center of the dirt ground is a small wooden frame built into the ground. What do we have here?

It's dark down here, so I mostly have to feel around it, on one side I can feel some hinges and on the other side, I can feel a handle. Not being brain surgery, I determine it is a door that leads somewhere. I open it and shield my eyes, not used to the amount of light that lay beyond.

Down the hatch is well lit. thank god. There is a ladder that leads down to a hallway. Having nothing better to do, I go down it.

Once I'm down the ladder, I look around the hallway. It's made of light gray stone and had an arched top running along its entire length. It was well lit somehow, I don't see any light sources. There was a purple carpet running down it to where it dead-ended at the ladder I just came down.

I walk down the hallway. What is this place? Why is it under a trampoline linked to a saddlebag? How is this even real? Am I in a coma? Where does this lead?

I find the answer to that last question in a short time as I come up to a door.

The door was shaped like the hallway with the arched top. It was made of wood and had no windows. The only thing giving it away as a door is the door handle on the right side.

I walk up to the door and turn the handle cautiously and pull it towards me slowly. On the other side to the left was another door just like it and to the right was a hallway like the one I had traveled down. How big is this place?

I walk through the door and decide to see what's behind the door to my left. Opening it reveals a hallway. I should have seen that coming.

I walk down it, the trip to the end was as boring as the first hallway. At the end was a ladder just like the first one. I go up it and open the door on the hatch and climb onto the ground. Yep, just like where I just was.

I go over to the side of the room and remove some springs, climbing up on the trampoline it hits me. This must be the purple one's other saddlebag. This bag is different however, on the trampoline is a pile of books and scrolls.

I sift through it; a book on how to climb a mountain, a book on dragon fire, a map of the area surrounding Ponyville. Basically all useless to me while I'm stuck in here.

I push it to the edge of the trampoline and jump.

Boing

I see the orange pony running next to me in the opposite direction I was used to. Man, they sure can run, I've been down there for a while.

Boing

Out of the corner of my right eye, I see the same hair from the other saddlebag flailing in the wind. That confirms it, I'm in her other saddlebag. Why do these 2 hallways lead to weird trampoline rooms linked to this pony's saddlebags? Now I'm even more curious about where that hallway leads.

Boing

AAH, Pinkie was staring at me with that same worried face, this time a lot closer. Where did she come from? I stop jumping from that near heart attack.

I decide to go see where that hallway leads, hopefully, a way out of here.

I go over to the edge and clamber under the trampoline, then crawl over to the ladder and go down it. I walk down the hallway at a brisk pace.

Once I get to the door, I go through it and close it behind me. I walk down the previously unexplored hallway. If I'm lucky, this will lead out of this crazy place.

The hallway is the same as the last two. At the end of the hallway is a door, like the last two made of wood, but this one had a symbol on it, a pink six-pointed star with a smaller white six pointed star behind it slightly rotated, and five smaller six pointed stars around that.

I open it, on the other side is a six sided room with five more doors just like the one I came through with different symbols. From left to right it went; The door I came from, A door with three apples on it. A door with three butterflies on it. A door with three balloons on it. A door with a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it. A door with three diamonds on it.

I know I've seen these symbols before, but where?