Chapter 2: The Shoes
"How does the angle look?" Pipp asked.
Izzy looked at the screen on Pipp's phone, which displayed the pegasus standing at the foot of her own bed. Despite most of the clutter having been removed earlier on, the unicorn felt an urge to make a comment.
"It... looks good," she said, "but I think the mirror is in the way a bit."
With a quick float, Pipp went over to the tripod and stood next to Izzy. Looking at the screen herself, Pipp saw what her friend was referring to. A mirror on the left side of her bed was showing, and in its reflection, one could clearly see the two ponies next to the tripod. Luckily, the issue could be easily fixed.
"Oh, it's no problem," Pipp said with an unbothered smile. "Just have to tweak this a bit."
Using two of her hooves, Pipp touched the clamps holding her phone in place and twisted them to the right by just a small amount. When the pegasus looked by at the screen, she saw that the problem was solved.
"There. Now it's perfect. Are you sure you don't want to stay and watch, Izzy? I'm gonna do a few takes before I release the official video."
The unicorn shook her head. "Sorry, Pipp. But I have to finish up with some crafts real quick. I need to turn them in tomorrow morning for a foal I'm helping." Izzy went out of the room and headed downstairs. "But if I finish up real early, I'll try and come back!"
With her friend gone, Pipp went back over to her bed. Laying on the covers was the box where her antique dancing shoes were. She took the lid off the box and examined the red shoes surrounded by wrapping paper. They were just as beautiful and splendid as how she found them at that store not so long ago. And now that they were hers, she cherished them as she did with all her other possessions.
"Okay. Let's try you girls on," Pipp said with eagerness in her voice.
Hopping onto the edge of the bed, Pipp took a hold of one of the shoes and placed it on her right forehoof. She then used her right forehoof to put another shoe on her left forehoof. Finally, she used both of her forehooves to place the remaining shoes on her hindhooves.
When the final shoe was put on, Pipp felt something strange happen to her body. It was like a shock spread throughout her entire essence, and the ones affected most by the experience were her leg muscles, all of which suddenly tensed up for a brief second. However, when Pipp got off her bed and lifted her legs, one after another, she found nothing wrong with them.
"That was odd," she stated, before shrugging. "Must have been a little jolt from not doing much today."
With that concern set aside, Pipp went about working on her stretches, as it probably was not wise to start doing dramatic movements without warming up first. She was in a hurry to get her exercises done, though, so all that the princess accomplished was a bit of stationary jogging, some squats, and a few rotations of her joints. Working up a sweat was not a plan either, so it was best that Pipp did not focus on each set for too long.
"Alright, let's do this."
Pipp went over to her phone and clicked on the record button on the screen before returning in between the bed and the phone. The phone was already set to count down to ten before recording, so Pipp felt no rush to make it back to her original spot. She turned around to face the camera, waiting for the beep to sound off.
"Take one."
A second before the signal went off, Pipp immediately knew what to do. By sheer muscle memory, her mouth revealed a beaming white smile and her green eyes widen and twinkled like emeralds. It was all automatic, like a switch turning on in her mind, but Pipp did not see herself as a robotic prisoner to this trait. If anything, she was pleased to know that she knew how to present herself elegantly to a crowd --- whether it be in person or through a screen.
"Hey, there, Pippsqueaks!" Pipp greeted to the phone with a wave. "It's your favorite princess coming at you again from Maretime Bay with a special announcement." The succeeding words came to her head on the spot, yet she knew that once she reviewed the video that she would probably have to edit her sentences for the final piece.
"So, as you all know, a few videos ago I talked about wanting to give all of you a special little surprise. Now, it's not an actual present like you would get for a holiday or anything like that, but I promise you will all love it so much."
The pegasus backed away a bit more from the phone, hoping that her hooves were now on the screen. She proceed to talk again, making sure that she showed off each of her shoes to her imagined audience.
"As you all can see, I have these rather adorable things on. And before you ask, I'm sorry to say that there aren't any more of these things left for sale, but you can find all this other cool stuff at a shop here called Enchanted Antiques. The store sells..., well, antiques. Not just any antiques, but ones that used to have a wee bit magic in them, and it was there that I found these precious little shoes of mine. They're dancing shoes, and from what the owner told me, when they had magic they could help improve the dancing skills of the user.
"But back to my 'gift' --- it's a little something I've been planning for a while now. I'm pretty sure that many of you out there like to dance --- you know like gyrating and shaking that tail and all that. And while that's okay, I think it's time to bring back something more... old-fashioned. As fillies, my mom --- the queen --- had me and ZIpp do all of these ballet lessons so we can show off how elegant we were to those in court. While ZIpp is another story, I remember really enjoying those moments. But as time went on, and I had more princess duties to perform, those lessons sort of slipped away from my mind.
"Now, I know that ballet isn't exactly mainstream anymore, and it may be even a bit boring and stiff, but I think we should at least give the classics some appreciation. After all, dancing had to start somewhere small, and without the traditionals we might not have dancing at all! So, let's give a big hooray for tradition!"
The pegasus moved over to the right side of her bed, where a small pink stereo stood on a cabinet. The disc was already inside, all Pipp needed to do was press play. Clicking the button with the tip of her hoof, she raced back to the foot of her bed. In a near instant, the melodic sounds of flutes and piccolos resonated throughout the room.
"Alright, Pippsqueaks! It's time to dance!"
Though she knew that she was prepared, Pipp was taken by surprise at the sudden movements that her legs took on.
She took a quick skip to the right, then make two additional skips to the left. Next, Pipp spun around in a crouching motion before springing back up and spinning once more. She repeated this again two more times.
Without as much as a second thought, Pipp then stood on the tips of her hindlegs and pitter-pattered across the floor, with her forelegs forming a triangle above her head. After she was done pitter-pattering, she stretched out both forelegs and kicked out her right hindlegs behind herself, freezing in place.
The sudden movements definitely shook her up a bit, as evident by her wide eyes. Pipp could only assume that the ballet music activated a bit of muscle memory that she still had left in her. After all, the disc that was being played held the same songs that were used for her lessons long ago. But any concerns she had about her spontaneous movements were pushed aside once she realized that she needed to focus on the video.
Continuing on with the dance, Pipp brought her right hindleg in front of her and tapped the floor with the tip of her hoof. Each time she tapped the floor, she used her left hindleg to scoot herself forward. After several taps, she turned around and performed the same move in the opposite direction. Her forelegs were again on top of her head in a triangle formation.
So far, PIpp saw that everything was going smoothly. For a moment she was worried that the neglect of her dancing practices over the years would have gotten the better of her, but the pegasus felt as if she was in that very same ballroom years ago. Every move she performed was done so with such elegance and grace that she was surprised that she was able to move her legs without stumbling in any way.
If she could keep this up for the final video, she was sure that the Pippsqueaks would adore her dancing moves.
For over a minute, Pipp performed moves similar to the ones she started off with. Nothing too extravagant had to be done on her part, but mostly the pegasus had to stand on her hindlegs and stretch out her forelegs in various poses. But something was off to her. She knew that a change would occur, and that would likely be because of the music. It had been a while, but one thing that Pipp remembered was that her movements were mostly dependent on the tempo of the beat, and she had a feeling that would all change soon.
After that minute was over, a chorus of stringed instruments --- with Pipp guessing were mostly violins --- came from the stereo, but unlike the placid flutes and piccolos, these devices were played at a much faster pace. Pipp knew that they would come eventually, yet for her to encounter the change in tempo so soon made her worried --- even if this was a practice video.
But as she was wondering what moves she would take on to match the beat, the hooves began to do the work for her.
First, she twirled around in a circle rapidly before taking a small leap to the right, then she performed a similar twirl that ended in another leap to the left. Next, she jumped up in the air and landed with the right hindleg on the ground and the left hindleg pointed up into the air. Finally, she jumped up into the air again and landed with her hindlegs placed in opposite roles.
Throughout the entire minute, Pipp danced hastily and with excessive movements --- very much in contrast with the style she had performed earlier on. The pegasus was moving so fast and stretched out her legs so often that she was still amazed that she was able to do all this without having tripped even once. Most surprising of all was how her body was taking in all of this exercise, for not even a single ounce of her leg muscles felt worn out.
And as for Pipp's mind, it was doing quite well for itself. She assumed that she would have to keep track of her dancing and ensure that she performed the right moves for the camera, but her body seemed to know exactly what to do --- allowing her brain to simply cruise along for the ride without exerting much effort. If things continued on like this, Pipp was sure that she would have a good first draft video to build up on.
Once the minute of violins had passed, the music returned to the soft notes of flutes and piccolos, and in perfect synchronization, Pipp's dancing slowed back down. Like before, all the pegasus did were a few skips, twirls, and sliding. Though she still was left unexhausted, PIpp was glad that her moves were back to a normal pace, since things were getting intense halfway through the song, which she was sure would be over soon.
Around halfway through the third minute of the song, a familiar unicorn popped up into the room.
"Hey, Pipp," Izzy greeted. "I'm still working on my project, but I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to get dinner later. There's this restaurant in town that I've never been to before, but it looks really fancy, and I think that a fancy place would work out for you!"
Normally, Pipp would be annoyed at somepony interrupting her livestream practices. It was especially a pain when Zipp was the main culprit, with most of the time being whenever the elder sister felt like pulling a joke on her. But today was going good for Pipp so far, with her new shoes and her getting the dance routine right, so a little interruption was not a bother to her. Besides, the song was about to end in just a few seconds, and it would be nice to go out to eat before the week ended.
"Hold on, Izzy," the pegasus replied. "I just have to finish with this song real quick and then I'll be down with you."
WIth a calm shrug, the unicorn returned downstairs, leaving her friend to her own affairs. Within ten seconds, the noise of wind instruments left the air and was replaced by silence.
Once the music ended, Pipp let out a sigh of relief. For now, all that she was looking forward to was a break. Once she came back from the restaurant with Izzy, she was going to look over the video to see what kind of adjustment she would need to make for the next video or videos. Then she would practice one more take before going to bed. All she had to do next was take off her shoes.
"All right then, girls. I'm gonna put you back in the box until..."
Pipp had tried to sit down back on the bed, but instead of having her rear placed on a soft mattress, she stayed where she was, continuing to dance.
"What the..."
Looking at her forelegs, the pegasus tried to get them to stay still so that she can use her forehooves to take off her shoes, but those legs were doing their own routine. When she looked down at her hindlegs, she tried to summon enough willpower to get them to stop dancing, but like with her forelegs a strong force kept her from gaining control over her appendages.
Panic began to overtake Pipp, tossing out the peace that was once in her mind so that it could make a new home for itself. Her eyes darted back and forth between both pairs of legs, legs that were moving with such fluidness and grace. Normally, a pony would be pleased to see that they could dance so smoothly, and for a while, Pipp was that pony. But now the sight of her legs terrified her as one would be afraid of seeing a family of spiders underneath her bed.
"IZZY! IZZY!"
WIthout a moment's pause, the thumping of hoofsteps could be heard coming from downstairs, and eventually the unicorn herself popped into the room. Izzy looked at her friend with a face that anticipated a horror scene, but once she saw the pegasus simply dancing without any harm done to her, her expression turned into one of confusion.
"Pipp? What's the matter?"
Immediately, the stereo played a song that started off strong with a band of stringed instruments, and the smooth dancing that Pipp was going through transformed into a collection of fast movements. The first thing Pipp did was move on her tiphooves very rapidly before in both directions before spinning around three times in succession. Next, Pipp brought her forelegs down to connect with her raised right hindleg, causing her to crunch her abdomen. Finally, she lept to the side before performing the same act again from the beginning.
All while she did this, Pipp looked at Izzy with a scared look.
"Help me stop dancing!"
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I saw this coming. Still funny! Thanks for the update!
11359455
Thanks! I'm glad you like it! And you're welcome for the update
Ah, exactly what I was hoping to happen happened. :)
I recommend watching or reading ballet moves that can help you write how Pipp is dancing.
11359671
Thanks. I did watch one video but I was still in a hurry to finish this up. I'll be sure to keep doing that in the future.
11359812
Ok, I love ballet. I used to do Ballet for many years. Thinking of working back on it soon.
11359934
That's good to know! If you really want to try again, I hope it works out for you.
Good story. But try not to worry about the dance-sequences not being detailed enough. What you need to worry about is over-detailing. I personally just skipped over the dance descriptions. Detailing precise movements isn't necessarily a bad thing, but stringing it together for a much longer duration action can start to get a little boring to read through.
Try not to focus too much on each individual dance moves throughout too much of the routine so it doesn't distract from the main storyline. A little is fine at the start, as long as it doesn't get too repetitive. You didn't do it too excessively in this chapter, but it is something to maybe keep in mind.
11361064
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll be sure to remember that in the future!
So now the real plot begins.
I somehow knew that was going to happen. This should be interesting later down the line...
It's great to see your enthusiasm for the Dunk shoes! They are indeed beloved by many for their timeless style and comfort. The article highlights the shoes in a fun and creative way, making it an enjoyable read. Dunks truly stand out as a fantastic choice for sneaker lovers without any problems.