Chapter 7: The Night Chase
Zephyr Heights.
At the palace with mom.
That was what Pipp thought.
If she could make it back upstairs quietly before the shoes could spot her, she could make an escape through one of the bedroom windows and fly her way toward her hometown. Sure, it may have been dark and pouring outside, and the girls might wonder where she went, but it seemed like the best choice. Besides, the shoes were only after her, or otherwise they would have latched themselves to somepony else by now. In addition, it would take the shoes some time to reach Zephyr Heights, and hopefully by then Rainbow would have found a solution.
Still floating in the air, the pink pegasus backed herself up the stairs, her keen eyes focused on the darkened area below. Without the assistance of lighting, she could not tell where the shoes were. Once she reached the bedroom, she knew that she would have to be very careful in not making too much noise when removing the blankets and duct tape from any of the windows. As long as she went through the process at a good speed, she knew that she would be out of there soon enough.
"Hey. What are you doing up?"
As soon as Pipp heard that voice, her rear bumped into something soft and smooth, which of course was not a wall. Without thinking, she let out a very audible yelp as she turned around. These shoes were full of surprises, from having a conscious of their own to being able to swim to sea just to find her, so in that moment of panic she thought that the words spoken were from those shoes, which somehow managed to creep up behind her despite them being downstair just moments ago.
As expected, Pipp yelped out loud as she turned around. However, instead of finding four floating shoes as she anticipated, all that Pipp saw was a tired unicorn mare out of bed.
"Izzy?" the pegasus stated with confusion. In return, her sleepy friend gave out a quick smile.
"Yep. It's me," Izzy said softly. "Is everything alright? I noticed you were out of bed."
At first, Pipp was relieved that her expectations were let down. It was only Izzy, which means that there was no shoes between her and the upstairs windows. But just as she was about to tell her friends about the intruders downstairs, she had a recollection of her recent and loud announcement of her fears. Her eyes widen in panic as she realized that Izzy was the only individual to hear her scream.
Abruptly, she turned around in the direction of the descending stairs, and what she saw was terrifying. In fact, it was so horrifying that she did not even take a second to warn her friend about what was transpiring. All she did was let out a shriek loud enough to be heard from all of Maretime Bay and flew right past a perplexed Izzy and right upstairs.
"Pipp? Bestie? Where are you going?"
Taking her eyes away from Pipp, the unicorn saw what had spooked her friend and gasped. All four of the enchanted dancing shoes were hobbling their way up the stairs in a haste. Each shoe's impact on the stairs was easy for Izzy to hear, and it did not take her long to realize who they were after.
"Oh no, you don't!" Izzy scolded with a scowl.
Wasting no time, the unicorn brightened her horn and levitated the shoes off the stairs. She brought up to her own eye level, shining magical light all over her face.
"You're not hurting my friend, again! Go dance somewhere---"
The act itself was unexpected, though Izzy herself should have seen something like a kick to the face coming her way. The impact was rough, as if there was an invisible hoof in the shoe that did the deed. As the kick was right between the eyes, Izzy's vision was blurred and distorted, like the view of somepony observing fish through shimmering water.
"Whoa... I don't feel good..."
The effect of the kick cascaded down the rest of her body --- ending at her wobbly legs. As soon as Izzy took a step forward, her own weight threw her down the stairs, causing her to yelp "Ow!" with each stair she bounced off of. With her focus gone, the magical aura disappeared around the shoes, which dropped on the top of the staircase.
"Okay!" Pipp said, huffing and puffing. "Come on, duct tape! Be my friend today!"
The pink pegasus tugged and pulled at the cohesive strands, which were glued around a folded blanket that blocked the glass of a window. When her hooves were not doing enough for her, Pipp did not hesitate to pull at the duct tape with her teeth, but all that resulted in was a taste of rubber and furry blanket threads. Pipp knew that Izzy was quite a builder, but she never thought that the unicorn would have something so tough in her arsenal --- even though the pegasus told Izzy to use her best tape.
After a few useless pulls, Pipp let go of the tape and tried to spit out the awful taste.
"Well, that went nowhere."
The sound of something light hitting the floor made Pipp turn around to see the shoes once more. For a while, the two entities simply stared at each other, though Pipp's expression was more fearful than stoic. But once the shoes started to hobble, that was when the pegasus unfurled her wings out of instinct.
Tears nearly formed out of Pipp's eyes as she floated.
"Can't you just leave me alone?!?" she whined as she zipped over them.
It was not much use for her to keep trying to undo the windows in the bedroom, so it was best to go downstairs and leave through the front door. After that, she would head home towards Zephyr Heights. Even if the shoes would track her down, it might take days given the expanse that was the Equestrian wilderness. Besides, if she was lucky a wild animal might try to eat them.
For a quick second, Pipp looked down, wanting to see where the shoes were. She watched just in time to see one of the shoes jump into the air and try to reach her hooves. With a quick squeal, she moved to the side just in time so that the shoe only touched empty air before returning to the floor.
Pipp flew down the curved stairs toward the front door and along the way spotted a dazed Izzy laying still at the bottom.
"Don't worry, Iz! They're just after me! We'll both be gone soon!"
Pipp stopped midair when she reached the door, and the sight before her made her slap her hoof against her face for forgetting such an important memory.
There was a huge cabinet blocking the door --- an idea that belonged to Sunny once she thought that perhaps the shoes were capable of twisting knobs.
"Okay. Don't freak out, Pipp. Maybe you can..."
She hovered over to one side of the cabinet, putting one hoof on the thinner side and the other one on the thicker back of the furniture. With as much force as possible, she tried to sway the cabinet away from the door, just enough so that there was enough space for her to squeeze in between and open it. But the weight of the cabinet was too great for her to overcome.
"IZZY!" Pipp shouted. "Could you use your magic to help with this cabinet?!?"
The unicorn tried to get up, but immediately flopped back to the floor after that attempt. "I... uh..., think that the ground is my best friend right now."
The sound of clopping from the spiral staircase alerted Pipp as to who was coming down. Shifting her attention back to the cabinet, she pushed once more, straining her muscles against the inertia and ignoring the soreness in her hooves. With that much effort, she guessed that around an inch or two was accomplished, but she knew that she would be able to fully uncover the door before the shoes came down.
She flew away from the cabinet and headed for the window that had been broken into. To Pipp, perhaps that was the best escape plan, as there should be as little glass left to hold her back.
"Just got to squeeze through and be careful. Then it's on to---"
She stopped. The broken opening in the window was there, but it was smaller than Pipp anticipated. There was no way for her body to squeeze through without getting poked and cut by the jagged edges. An idea that popped into Pipp's mind was to smash the rest of the glass so that she could escape.
But there was a problem with that.
Doing such a thing might get glass fragments in her fur, which could be hard to get out once she reached home. Despite everything that was happening, the last thing PIpp wanted was to risk having glass irritate her.
Not only that, but what if striking the window could cause her to bleed? Even with all the rain outside, it might not be enough to wash off the red from her fur, and she could already imagine the petrified look on her mother's face if she came to the throneroom with a bloody hoof.
A flash of lightning brightened the room once more, and through the glass, Pipp could spot the shoes just yards behind her. Before the light faded away, one of the shoes lept into the air, and at that sight, Pipp screamed and elevated herself upward. Just as her last hoof went above the window frame, the shoe soared just below her in an arch before slamming against the glass and sliding off.
The pink pegasus turned around to look down at the shoes. The jumper that had failed bundled up against its three companions, and the four of them continued to approach her --- hopping along the way. Not wanting to stay around, Pipp rushed past them once more and headed for the stairs, ignoring her sister and Sunny, who had come across a disoriented Izzy.
"Izzy!" Sunny said with worry in her voice. "Are you okay?"
The orange mare placed her forehooves underneath her friend, lifting her off the floor. Though her legs were wobbly, and her head swayed back and forth, Izzy managed to look at the other two with a smile. "I'm doing a bit... alright. I just... need to lie down."
"What happened to you?" Zipp asked.
The question was answered when she saw the shoes race up the steps one at a time. Shocked, Zipp looked over at Sunny, whose affronted glare was focused on the stairs.
"Did you just---"
"I saw," Sunny answered without abandoning her gaze. "We got to get them away from her. Izzy, just rest on the couch. We'll help Pipp."
While Sunny and Zipp headed upstairs, Izzy took her time in reaching the living room. "That's a good... idea," she said all slurred. "Just be careful. Those shoes... are really tough."
When the duo reached their room, they were treated to a small spectacle. Pipp was buzzing around the room like an anxious fly, going from one window to the next and trying to pull off the blankets covered with duct tape. Each time she spent at a window was cut short by one or more of the shoes jumping right at her. Besides the rolling thunder outside, the room was mostly occupied by Pipp's constant whimpers and the shoes' clopping.
"Don't worry, Pipp!" Zipp shouted. "We've got this!"
Spreading her wings, the older pegasus lept into the air just as Pipp and the shoes were traversing across the room just next to the elevator. Once Pipp had passed her, Zipp managed to wrap her entire body around two of the shoes, while the other duo continued their pursuit.
"Gotcha ya!" Zipp shouted. She hugged the shoes close to her chest as she made her way downstairs. She did not know exactly what to do with the shoes once she had them. Perhaps she would take them outside or trap them in a closet, but all that mattered right now was getting them away from Pipp. Hopefully Sunny would have found a way to take care of the others.
Before she could reach the stairs, though, the pegasus felt a sudden shift against her chest and decided to look down. To her misfortune, one of the shoes was crawling down her left foreleg by using its unfurled bow. Once it made its way to her hoof, the shoe inserted itself onto her. All of a sudden, Zipp came to a stop when her hoof automatically slammed on the floor.
"What the---!"
Outside of her own control, Zipp found her entire weight being pulled forward, until at the end she was standing upside-down on her left foreleg. Though she could not see it, the pegasus could feel the other shoe crawl up her right hindleg until it rested itself around her hoof.
It all started with a few awkward hops on her left foreleg, but that soon transpired into Zipp doing a rather fast yet bizarre dance when she flipped on to her hindlegs. As she could not look at her own body from a third point-of-view, Zipp had a hard time understanding what the shoes were making her do, but it appeared that her moves were all erratic and sudden, indicating that there was no well thought out routine. If she had to take a guess, she must have looked like a tipsy dancer lacking any sobriety with all her hoof-flailing.
Eventually, the dance came to an end when Zipp found herself flipped over on her backside with her legs pointing up into the air. The shoes, out of their own free will, hopped off the two previously occupied hooves and scrambled away, presumably to their other companions. Zipp stayed where she was for a bit, not exactly due to exhaustion but rather because of a sense of befuddlement.
"Ok... That didn't work."
Sunny thought that several well-planned leaps were enough to catch the shoes, but each time they jumped away further than she thought they were capable of jumping. This led to most of her attempts ending with her hitting her chin or face against the floor.
"Pipp! Try to fly closer to the ceiling!" the orange earth pony suggested.
Her words seemed to reach her friend, as the pink pegasus did just that, fluttering higher up in the bedroom. Pipp floated still for a moment, looking down at the shoes below that desperately hopped up and down trying to reach her.
"I don't know why I didn't just do that," Pipp commented to herself.
With the shoes staying mostly in one place, Sunny knew that she had to act fast. She was not certain that it would work, but for Pipp's sake she had to try.
Just like earlier today, the earth pony closed her eyes and breathed deeply --- each exhale increasing the orange magical aura that had started to appear around her. Soon, that aura popped out a pair of wings and a unicorn horn on the young mare.
Rising off her hooves and floating just inches off the floor, Sunny aimed her horn at the shoes and shot an orange beam of magical energy at the shoes. Even with her power her alicorn magic was, Sunny was not confident in her ability to strip away the magical properties that the items possessed. She just wanted the shoes to change into something that nopony could wear, so many images popped into her mind such as a rock or a tree branch or a brick. If she could save those three foals from an ocean wave by turning it into glitter, she was sure that she could do something similiar for Pipp.
When the beam made contact with the shoes, the shoes glowed a bright orange as they were lifted up. A loud, pulsating hum resonated throughout the room as the beam continued to stream out of Sunny's horn. All the mare was focused on was transforming the shoes into something else, not even paying attention to an approaching Zipp.
"Whatever you're doing," Zipp said, "I hope it works!"
"Yeah!" Pipp agreed, still floating in the same spot.
Things at first were going well for Sunny. Though there was not an instant change as she had hoped, she was able to keep her magic under control. But she soon felt a sudden shift with the beam. LIKE a fishing line being tugged, the mare could feel a pushback against her own spell. The idea of her getting fatigue was her initial thought, but once she saw the shoes, she knew where the resistance was coming from.
A white light had replaced the orange glow that encased the shoes, and instead of floating still they were now vibrating midair. Stopping her spell, Sunny looked on in fear as the shoes continued to shake --- especially as a fierce, violent hum grew louder and louder for everypony to hear.
"Everypony, duck!" Sunny shouted.
With the beds as the nearest place of refuge, Sunny and Zipp opted to hide behind those pieces of furniture. Pipp, however, was hesistant with returning to the floor, fearing that she might not find the right cover in time.
Without warning, the shoes blasted several jets of white light that shot out across the bedroom. Each jet made contact with something different, but every object that was hit was transformed into something else. An alarm clock was changed into a brown stuffed teddy bear, a lamp had become a brick, and a Zipp's chair was morphed into a large potted plant.
A few of the jets only hit the walls, causing healthy tree branches to spring out. One such jet hit a portion of the wall next to Pipp, and immediately afterwards a branch popped out that struck the young princess across her back. The push sent Pipp crashing into a wall on the other side, from which she soon slid off of before hitting the ground.
Landing on her back, Pipp groaned in pain. With how bad this day had been, she wanted nothing more than to rest, and so she closed her eyes. But a sudden change overtook her once she felt something on her left forehoof. Sprouting right back up, she looked at her hoof to see one of the shoes there. Eyes widen and with a horrified gasp escaping from her lips, Pipp rushed to remove the shoe, but when she reached with her right forehoof, she saw that another shoe was on there, as well.
Involuntarily, Pipp felt her forelegs pin themselves to the floor. The helpless, whimpering mare could only watch as the remaining shoes took their reserved spots on her other hooves, no matter how hard she tried to kick her hindlegs. When the last shoe was placed on, Pipp stood up --- not ready for the next performance.
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That can't be good.
Poor Pipp… pls save her
I somehow knew that this was going to happen, so... Here we go again, again.
Another good one, I must say. Let's just hope that someday, the ponies can find a way to remove this horrible curse from Pipp...
Oh no, the shoes are fighting back...
11497836
No, it can not
11497896
Hopefully somepony will
11498067
Thanks for the compliment. Hopefully there's a way to stop the shoes.
11498213
Those shoes are very powerful
11498432
(Turned pale) I was afraid you say that.
What if they encased the shoes in concrete?
11499791
That might work. I guess we'll have to wait and see.