Chapter 8: The Visitor
"Okay, shoes, look. I'm sure we can talk about this," Pipp begged. "Maybe we can do this type of thing once a week instead of every day. I'm pretty sure you don't want to---"
The pleading on her part was futile, as soon the shoes began to work their magic. It started with a quick spin in the air with the pink pegasus unfurling her wings, though she soon was brought back to the ground. After that, she moved around the room a bit on her tippy hooves as if she was trying to avoid something, before doing another spin with the assistance of her wings.
Pipp went back to pattering around the room, though this time she was a bit more progressive with her movements. Some subtle changes included the swaying of her hips, her hindlegs kicking out occasionally, and her forelegs trying to grasp something in front of her. With the last detail that she noticed, it was almost as if she was dancing with another pony. This guess was supported when she leaned backward while kicking out a hindleg.
"I think that's salsa dancing," Zipp stated, withdrawing from one of the beds she used as cover. Sunny did the same once she knew that there was no danger anymore.
"Don't worry, Pipp!" Sunny assured her friend. "We'll find a way to get them off!"
Pipp was not convinced. "Sunny, it's hopeless. These monsters have a mind of their own! The only thing that can---"
An invisible presence gripped Pipp's waist and shoved her over to the side. It was a sudden and shocking moment for her and the others, as if a hook had taken a hold of her. She only slid a meter or two away, but she soon got back to dancing.
Pipp started off crouching down on the floor with one hindleg sticking out. Gradually, she began to spin rapidly, and soon she slowly elevated herself while still rotating. It did not take her long to realize that the shoes had switched over to ballet. Normally, the princess would be comfortable with such a familiar dance style, but under these circumstances, there was nothing for her to feel comfortable about.
The spinning stopped and the shoes guided PIpp on her tippy hooves through the bedroom. In between her pattering, Pipp would gallop into a sprint and jump into the air before landing back down. The few times she did this, she mostly either bumped into something hard or landed in a way that hurt her hooves, which brought out many an "ow!' and "oof!" from her.
When she reached the stairs, PIpp felt her wings spring out. As she slowly flew down, the shoes puppeteered her into performing gentle twirling movements, while at the same time Zipp and Sunny followed right behind her.
"I'm thinking we should get her to trip on something slippery," Zipp whispered to Sunny.
"What? Why?" Sunny asked.
"Don't you remember my theory about how the shoes came off because it was raining outside when she slipped? I can't think of any other reason besides that."
"But... won't we accidentally hurt her? I don't want that on my mind."
"We'll be extra careful. While the shoes do their thing, we'll move stuff out of the way before spilling something on the floor."
Sunny pursed her lips. "I mean... if we don't have any other option..."
"Like I said, we'll be extra careful. You move stuff around downstairs into corners or closets while I go in the kitchen."
When the two of them reached the bottom, they went their separate ways. Pipp, who had made it down first, was still in the process of switching between spinning, pattering, sprinting and leaping, and kicking her hindlegs out.
"Look, shoes!" she shouted out. "I get that nopony else wants to spend time with you because of how pushy you are, but I. Don't. Want. To. Dance! So quit it!"
Whether or not it was intentional, Pipp will never know, but her right forehoof smacked her across the cheek, leaving behind a hot red mark that would have been visible if not for the darkness. Her ballet came to a halt, but Pipp did not find herself regaining control of her body. Instead, she floated off and ground and found herself turned upside-down, and without any gentleness, the top of her head was forced onto the ground.
"Ow! I almost broke my neck! What the---"
Pipp began to spin --- not with the assist of her wings or her legs, but with her own head. Unlike the ballet forms, this type of spinning was blurry and nauseating, as was made clear once she realized she could not make sense of the world around her. But just as she was afraid that she would lose her dinner, the spinning came to a stop and her wings reorientated her off her head and on her hindquarters.
"Well... That was--- whoa!"
The pink pegasus flipped into the air and landed on her forehooves, with her hindlegs sticking up above her. Upside-down once more, Pipp soon balanced herself on only one foreleg as she began to spin, this time much more slowly. As she spun around, her hindlegs kicked randomly in various directions. To keep the momentum going, Pipp's foreleg would bounce occasionally whenever the spinning slowed down.
After a while, Pipp's wings flipped her around once more on all four hooves, and she began to dance in a rather fast and intense manner that required a lot of spinning, side-steps, and flips. The speed and rapid movements were a bit too much for Pipp to handle, but the pegasus seemed to notice a pattern of difficulty and pain that occurred every time she criticized the shoes, so she kept any complaints to herself.
Sunny, in the meanwhile, was busy moving furniture around the living room in preparation for Zipp's plan. Besides moving the couch with Izzy still on it, the task was relatively easy for the mare. In fact, she only had a few more things to move before Zipp was done in the kitchen. But just as Sunny was dragging away a potted plant, the doorbell rang.
Letting go of the pot from her mouth, Sunny trotted past Pipp and went to the front door of the Brighthouse. Opening the door, Sunny expected to find perhaps Hitch, as she did not know who else would be coming. But once the door was opened all the way, the orange mare was surprised to see who was in front of her.
"Hello there, Sunny," Rainbow said with a grin. "Can I come in? I don't like getting poured on by rain."
For a moment, Sunny was at a loss of words. She did not see the tall blue mare coming by for a visit this late at night. But remembering the situation at hoof, she shook herself out of her short-lived stupor.
"Um..., sure," Sunny spoke, moving to the side. "This way, please. Are you here because---"
"Of the letter?" the visitor replied. "Yep. And I guess that I was right to come here so soon --- by the way things look."
For a good few seconds, Rainbow stared at Pipp, completely unfazed by the random dancing going on. "If I'm correct, I think she's doing break-dancing."
"I... think you're right," Sunny said.
"Hello, Princess Pipp," Rainbow greeted with a bow. "It's nice of you to be wearing the shoes you brought from me. I'm truly grateful."
"It's not nice!" Pipp stated matter-of-factly. "These shoes have a mind of their own and have been bothering me all weekend! I don't know how to get them to cut loose!"
"Oh. I'm sorry, my princess. I was making a jest, is all." Rainbow rummaged underneath her coat with her forehoof. "Well, I think I have just the thing to help you. But I need to be sure..."
The tall pegasus pulled out a small, worn-out book from her coat. She flipped through a few pages until she stopped at a place where she was content. "Here it is!" She cleared her throat real quick. "Okay, everypony! Let's take five!"
When Rainbow had arrived, Pipp was in the middle of a helicopter technique, in which she, while squatting down, would swing her hindlegs around and would have to move her forehooves off the ground before her hindlegs touched them. But once Rainbow finished her sentence, the pink pegasus suddenly collapsed on her side. But as quickly as she went down, she quickly got back up once she realized that the shoes were not doing it for her.
"Whoa...," was all that Pipp could manage to say. Curious, she tapped her forehoof on the floor, seeing if perhaps it would wake up the shoe she used. But the act did nothing to awaken the hoofwear. With no other test left in mind, she used her mouth to grip the front of the shoe and managed to pull it off. Though she could not see it, she knew that she must have had the most confounded expression on the planet at the moment.
"You--- you actually did it!" Pipp said, turning to Rainbow. "You got them to stop! And I didn't even need to trip or anything."
Though humble, Rainbow seemed very amused. "It was no trouble, my princess. I'm sorry for all the problems that you must have been facing. After all, I did tell you that I wasn't certain if the shoes still had any magic in them. But I guess it's still on me for not checking them out before giving them to you."
Sunny approached Pipp, who was frantically trying to get the other three shoes off. "Are you okay?"
The pink pegasus did not give her friend any attention until the last shoe was removed, during which she gave a long relieved sigh. "Now I'm doing better."
"Okay, guys!" a female voice cried out. "I think I'm done!"
The three mares turned their heads toward the kitchen, where they saw Zipp fly out with a bucket carried by her teeth. The white pegasus slowed down so that she could stop in between Sunny and Pipp. Seeing the state that her sister was in, Zipp raised her eyebrow before letting the bucket full of liquid gently on the ground.
"So, um... I guess you got the shoes off," Zipp said to Pipp. "And we have a guest, too."
Pipp nodded. "Yep. It's because of our guest that they came off in the first place."
"Well, it's more so due to my great-grandma's notes here than me," Rainbow admitted. "Without this book, this problem would still be going on."
"No kidding," Pipp added in. "I probably would have been dancing forever if you didn't come by and stop me."
"Well, not forever. Just for four hours."
The younger princess' eyes widen a bit. "Four hours?"
"That's correct. There was never any danger of the shoes exhausting you to the point of death or anything like that. After four hours, the shoes would stop dancing to give you a quick break. Or you could do what I did and say 'Okay, everypony. Let's take five'".
"But slipping works, too, right?" Zipp asked. "Pipp was dancing in the rain yesterday when she slipped and the shoes came off."
"Do you know how long you had been dancing before you slipped?" Rainbow asked Pipp.
"Probably between.... three to four hours."
The taller pegasus shrugged. "Then the slipping must have been just a coincidence. I've checked the book and the two methods I mentioned are the only ways to stop the dancing. But, apparently, I should have checked the book again before selling the shoes to you."
Pipp tilted her head. "What do you mean by that?"
Though her confidence did not diminish, Rainbow let down her head a bit. "Before I left to come here, I looked in my book and saw what I think might have started all of this. Did you happen to say something after you put them on? Like maybe: 'It's time to dance'? Or maybe: 'Let's dance'?"
"I think I said something like 'It's time to dance', but that was almost two days ago."
"Well, then, I think that solves it. Saying something like that activated the shoes. I tried them on once, but now I'm remembering that I didn't say those words because I was still a bit afraid of them."
"But why were they just chasing after me? Why didn't they just latch on to the first pony they found after I tossed them into the water?"
Rainbow looked down at the book. "It says here that the shoes are very attached to the first pony that activates them. They won't work for anypony else unless the first user passes away. As for why they chased you through town, I don't know. The notes say nothing about that, only that one pony can use them at a time."
"Well, with the message that we got from the princess about magic being stronger, perhaps that's the reason why the shoes have been a bit... aggressive than the book states."
A look of realization came upon Pipp's face. "So I'm stuck with these shoes until I'm dead? Do I have to keep dancing for four hours every day? I can't do that! I got such a busy schedule with vlogs and merch! I can't let the pippsqueaks down with delays and cancelations!"
"No, my princess. There is a solution," Rainbow assured. "It's the reason for why I came a bit later, but I have a scroll with me." She went through the interior of her coat again to pull out a parchment of paper. "It's a spell meant for disabling magic in simple objects. A unicorn should be able to perform it."
Zipp took the parchment gently from Rainbow and flew over to the couch where Izzy was.
"Izzy. Do you mind looking at this spell and see if you can do something like that?"
Turning to face Zipp, Izzy looked at the opened scroll with strained eyes, leaning in closer to better read the words.
"Ooh!.... Aah!... I see... Hmm... Sorry, Zipp. I can't do anything with this. It's been a long time since unicorns have done anything other than floaty magic. As far as I'm aware, most of Bridlewood got rid of any spell books because we thought they brought bad luck, or something like that."
Zipp sighed. "I had a feeling that was your answer. Rainbow, could she teach herself how to do the spell?"
"It's possible. But it could take a long time. To make it easier for her, I have a beginners' book on simple magic for young unicorns. It's old and dusty, but it should do the trick."
Pipp raised her hoof. "So, what happens to me? You said that the shoes only give me a break, right? So soon they'll be back on again?"
Rainbow nodded. "Yes. Probably within an hour."
Pipp's ears flatten. "Oh, great! Well, I guess I'm not getting any sleep tonight." She groaned. "Or at least not enough sleep."
Rainbow retained her optimism. "It's not all that bad, though. You just have to complete the remaining four hours left and then you'll be okay for the rest of the day. You may have to work around changing your schedule, but it should work out for you."
"Really?"
"Yes. All you have to do is just let the shoes work their... magic. Just don't interrupt the dancing or insult them, cause that irritates them and can make things worse for you. You only get a one-hour break daily, so use it wisely. The shoes are meant to help you endure dancing for a long as possible, even if you get tired and sore. But if you want things to be easier for you, just pronounce a certain dance move or style that you prefer."
Pipp looked down at the shoes on the floor--- shoes that just moments ago were as alive as her and made quite a spectacle in the house. Though there was peace now, she knew that in just an hour the dancing would continue once more, and that even if it would be more manageable now, she would have to deal with it for many days.
"If you don't mind me asking," she said to Rainbow, "with that beginners' book, how long would it take for Izzy to do the spell?"
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Rainbow got the shoes to stop and I hope the spell that she's going to teach Izzy will work. Good job on this new chapter, I enjoyed it!
Love the dancing shoes!
11516652
Thanks!
11516650
I guess we'll have to wait and see for that spell to work. And thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Well now we are making progress! Thanks for the update!
11516671
You're welcome
Screw learning the counter spell. Just throw them in an incinerator.
Yay! They found a way to fix the shoes! They just need Izzy to learn a spell that nopony has even tried in a 1000 years and...
Oh dear.
11516672
You're welcome!
11516903
I doubt that the magic in those shoes would let them be destroyed so easily.
11516913
Yeah. Hopefully Izzy can do what needs to be done.
Well, at least there is a way to remove this horrible curse from Pipp. And at least Rainbow found a way to make this endurance less stressful.
I'm still curious though - is Rainbow the great-granddaughter of Rainbow Dash from Gen 4?
11517652
There are no such things as curses. They are only training shoes to help the dancer gain endurance and constance. To get used to the hash routines.
Also try to see the story from the shoes perspective. The passed from being desired to be thrown away and insulted when they only did what it was expected from them.
11517652
Yeah. Hopefully the situation will be taken care of. Also, more of Rainbow's background will be revealed in the next chapter, so please stay tuned
Great story so far! Very interesting! So... If the magic words to activate the dancing shoes is "Let's dance" and the magic words to take a break are "Everyone take five"... Shouldn't the magic words to deactivate the shoes be "Brava" or "Bravo"? (Brava, because Pipp is a girl.) By that logic, wouldn't that make sense? That's what's always said at the END of a performance. Simple, elementary logic.
11523648
Thanks for the compliment. I get west you mean about the bravo/brava part, but the person who commissioned this story wanted to shoes to only respond to two phrases (let's dance and take five), so it was their choice not mine.
11523775
Fair enough. Though maybe they weren't aware of this idea? Perhaps you could suggest it to the person who commissioned it? Just an idea. Still a great story.
11523648
It was always intended that the shoes could not be self deactivated, because it was intended for Lazy dancers who had trouble keeping up with their routines, otherwise in a lazy day they could simply decide not no practice by saying "Bravo" or "Brava". Also the practice should continue even after a good performance.
Also, in the past it was common to find unicorns who could cast spells, but not all them could. So it was difficult to deactivate the shoes but not impossible.
But that was a good suggestion. Thanks!
11524304
That's fair. I can understand that. It was a suggestion. Though that still puts Pipp in a very awkward position. She's not lazy, and she's a great dancer, and she practices what she does. There really ought to be a way for an experienced dancer to turn off the pretty dancing shoes and not be literally stuck for four hours. Perhaps Izzy can figure that out?
11524304
Also, just pointing out, I did not say "self deactivate". Bravo or Brava can only be said by the audience, or simply someone else. It's basically an unwritten rule. A performer can not "Bravo" or "Brava" themselves. (Besides that would look bad.) They are reliant on the audience big or small to say that. So, it could work in that context. Just saying.
11524507
Well... Pipp is kind of lazy in this story, since she is not used to exercise a lot in preparation for her dances, and most of them are flight based. However these shoes were aimed for the an specific type of ponies who were willing to accept the shoes stuck on their hooves for hours in order to become professionals or to reach certain role in a play. One thing is for sure they were made for "Tough love".
11524574
Okie dokie. That is true, and that's is a fair way to describe Pipp. Tough love is tough love. Naturally, I'm just thinking of how to help Pipp out a little. Logically, if it can be turned on, it can be turned off. I also can see the story from the shoe's perspective, that does make sense, but it does also seem they're being a little unfair by taking things a little too far. Yes, Pipp sorta insulted them, but she's really upset right now. Also, several months ago, I did something of a role play story where my character ended up with these same shoes and managed to become friends with them. Made a pretty good deal: take good care of them and wear them fairly often, and they don't go crazy for hours straight. Maybe Pipp should do the same. A thought.