Author's Note

Ms. Purple's POV

An Episode On the Floor: 4

I had just followed Pinkie Pie to the stage, from the SPA; where Aloe had been giving me a massage, which I have to confess, was quite the delightful treat.

Apparently, she pushed the door open and abruptly marched into the large room. The small stage is on the far wall in the other end of a very large room; the Auditorium, was it.

“Hiya, Ms. Scratch, and Ms. Octavia!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed; as she approached the small stage, on which I am supposed to have my first practice in but a few minutes.

“Hiya, Ms. Pie and Ms. Purple!” Vinyl Scratch responded.

“Greetings, and welcome to the stage; Ms. Purple!” Octavia added.

“Hiya, Ms. Scratch and Ms. Octavia!” I echoed Ms. Pie.

“I’ll see you galls with the next girl, when you have showed Ms. Purple the ropes!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed; as she excused herself and promptly left the room, closing the door behind herself.

I noticed that the girls on the stage merely nodded, as Ms. Pie excused herself and left the room I assume they are both close friends of hers, even despite their obvious, outwards and personal differences.

Ms. Scratch was looking like a rather outgoing and loud personality; where she stood behind the board, keeping a close eye on the music, while she monitored the lights on the stage.

There is a Cello on a stand; on the right short wall, behind the stage. Ms. Octavia is walking towards me; approaching me with a pair of slippers, that seems to be intended to match my suit. From what I could see; the slippers are a shiny, purple rubber, and a size that looks fairly close to mine.

“Have a seat, please; Ms. Purple!” she expressed, pointing at a share on the left side of the scene.

“Oh, okay. Thank you, Ms. Octavia!” I responded; as I walked over to the seat she had just been indicating, and sat down comfortably.

“Now, if you would slip these on, please; and we can get to the fun part!” she continued; as she handed the slippers over and pointed to a spot, over the tip of the slippers.

“Thank you, Ms. Octavia. I assume you will help me with the slippers, if and whenever I may need any help with them?” I responded; as I accepted the intended garments, before promptly slipping them over my toes and pulled them back over my heels.

“Good, Ms. Purple. How do they feel on? I will gladly help you with these, if you need help!” she responded.

“Just a tad loose, thank you for asking; but I have the impression you are about to help me fixing the problem, for me?” I responded.

As expected; based on previous experience; the slippers are made out of rubber, and just like the suit I wear, they are still too loose to be comfortable, or practical to perform in. If my previous experience is anything to go by; she is about to help me, making them tight and comfortable to wear.

“Oh, but of course they are too loose for practice. Place your thumbs on the tip, and press gently; should make them tight and comfortable within two or three seconds!” she explained, generously.

“Thanks, that sounds simple!” I responded, placing my thumbs where she had just indicated and pressed down; as I did, I feel the slippers tighten up, until they are skintight, but without actually make me feel any pressure.

As I pressed down, I feel the slippers tighten up to the point where my sensation shifts from feeling the skin of my feet within the shoes; to feeling the surface of the slippers, as if it had been my very own skin. I had pressed down, until the smooth surface of the sole of the slippers had turned into the sole of a pair of shoes; coarse, with the exemplary grip fit for a stage performer.

“If you walk around the stage; you should get a good feel for your slippers, in which you will be performing in!” she prompted.

“Sounds reasonable, these slippers are quite comfortable, thank you; Ms. Octavia!” I responded; before I rose to my feet and started to walk slowly, around the stage.

“Comfortable, comfortable indeed!” I mumbled under my breath; as I turned a tight corner, just for the feel of it.

“Note that your slippers only react on the touch of your thumbs; and nothing but the touch of your thumbs. Only when you press down both your thumbs simultaneously, does it affect the slippers!” Octavia clarified.

“Are you saying that they only react to my contact? Yet, the way you put this; there is something more you are about to explain, once I have gotten used to my slippers!” I put forth.

“But of course there is; which I will walk you through, after you have gotten through the walking pace comfortably. How about doing a few small hops and jumps, just to get the true feel of your slippers?” she prompted.

“Oh, okay; that does sound reasonable, to me!” I responded, with a slight hint of a giggle at the end.

At the next turn; I hastened my steps and made a few hops and jumps, just as she had instructed me, first tentatively, but more and more secure with each and every attempt; until I was feeling secure in what I was doing.

“There, there; I can see that you are growing secure in the saddle. The slippers are growing on you, are they not?” she eagerly put forth, as she followed my progress along the floor.

For a moment, I giggled insecurely at the expression; yet I managed to keep it in check and stay in control of what I was doing; even through the next turn, as I continued with the hops and jumps she had told me to perform.

“Why, it is starting to feel; almost as if I am barefoot, which is strange; considering the footwear I have on?” I then responded, while I continued the routine as she was directing me, and the jumps were growing steadily higher.

“Naturally! That is exactly the way it was intended to be, in the first place!” she conceded; with a firm, yet gentle nod of her head.

“Just a few more, now. Then I will give you the next step of your instructions, you certainly are progressing right on schedule!” she added, as she saw me along the front of the stage; intently following me with her eyes.

“Oh!” I merely exclaimed, as I happened to be at the top of the arch of the latest hop.

I had noted that she is standing in the middle of the scene; from where she could easily follow me and my progress, even at the risk of getting dizzy from turning around, as she followed my moves and hopping.

“You can stop jumping and walk up to me, for a moment!” she added, still looking at me intently.

I stopped, and turned into the centre of the stage; as I walked up to her, eagerly awaiting the next instruction and information she had deemed right to slip me, at this point of my practice.

“Yes?” I responded; bowing my head before her, as I patiently awaited the instructions.

”Now. If you would kindly bed over, and reach down for the tip of your slippers!” she instructed me.

“Okay!” I responded, as I bent forwards; reaching the spot I knew she was indicating.

“Press down firmly, for but an instant and let go!” she concluded, nodding at me.

“Naturally!” I responded, following her instruction to the letter; before I rose to my full height, once more.

Ms. Octavia looks approvingly at me, as she saw me performing; what she had just instructed me to do.

The next moment, I noticed a shift in the slippers I am wearing; as the sole slowly decreased under my feet, while I was growing increasingly rounder underfoot, as the tip of my toes started to develop the black sole.

I take the hint somewhere halfway through the change, and tentatively goes up to stand on the tip of my toes. Then I realize what she had told me to do, as the slippers slowly was bending in support of my new pose. Once this process had completed; it would have been impossible for me to stand, like I was used to; I am bound to tiptoe around across the floor.

Once the process had concluded, I could see how the slippers now had my feet pronounced rounded of the soles of my feet; while the flat sole now is the tip of my toes. The grip had moved from the sole of my feet, to the tip of my toes as well.

“This is the secret, of the slippers you handed me, for the pageant?” I tentatively inquired of her, in hopes she would confirm my suspicions.

“That would essentially be correct. I take it, you are ready to continue your training; towards what we are here!” she prompted.

“Oh yes, now I am ready to continue!” I confirmed, standing at attention.

“Just one small detail, before I will see you on the floor!” she cautioned; bending over in order to examine the effect the slippers had on my feet, only to stand tall before me once again.

I followed her example and bent over, in order to confirm what she had just approved. What I felt under the tips of my fingers are exactly the feet I had been walking around on before, only now they are covered in the thick and slippery rubber the slippers had been crafted out of; aside from the sole that now is under the tip of my toes. Then I can’t really feel a slight hint of my toes, but the smooth rubber; while the sole of my feet are highly pronounced rounded.

“Oh!” I gasped, in response to the effect I had just confirmed.

“Exactly!” she pronounced.

“What you were looking for, isn’t just that the slippers had acquired the intended form; but that my felt will look just as good as my body already does?” I breathed.

“Dressing you up, doesn’t make you into a natural actress; but you are showing me, what I am looking for in a participant of this pageant!” Ms. Octavia put forth.

“Then, I am ready for the next step?” I concluded.

“You are, indeed; now I need to see you back on the floor!” she conceded; nodding in the direction, she had expected me to go.

Even after the examination, and several minutes of merely standing here; I am still not quite used to what she had just made me do, and what I knew she expected out of me. What if I fell, and what if I failed?

In the end, there was but the one thing to do; I tiptoed out on the floor in the direction I interpreted her nod to indicate. Step by step; I am starting to feel more and more confident in myself, and that I will manage to perform for her as she was instructing me to. To my surprise, I was nowhere as wobbly on my feet as I had expected; I had actually been close to perfect, from the first step.

Tentatively, I make a soft turn as I approach the first wall. If I am too cautious in the beginning, but I do prefer to be safe over being sorry.

Once I am along the long wall, I start to pick up some pace; before I make a tight turn as I reach the next corner. I may still feel a bit odd about being on my toes, tiptoeing along the short wall; but I can’t claim that I am experiencing any trouble with my balance or the stance as such. Only now I have to bend my knees a bit; in order to compensate, for the otherwise lost flexibility.

“Since you have managed to pace along the walls, try a few hops and jumps for me; so that I can see, just how well you are adapting and adjusting to your slippers!” she incited.

“As you wish, Ms. Octavia!” I nodded; attempting a few small hops and jumps, as I turned out on the long side along the wall.

“I can clearly see that neither the stance as such, nor the hops and jumps are any challenge on you at this point. Jumping higher, or pacing faster would serve no purpose; I want to see you performing a measured gait!” she declared; as she nodded to an unseen position, beyond and under the stage.

The next moment; I hear a beat coming from speakers to the right and left, front and back of the stage. What she was telling me; is that she wants to see me following the beat, as if I had been dancing. I may not be the girl to pick the first dance of the day; but I have been to a few occasions, just as I have been on concerts as well. Following a beat is easy, if not quite second nature to me. I am doing the hops and jumps, when the beat told me to; even if I may have been imagining it. Yet, every time I look in her direction; I see what I think is an approving smile on her lips.

“How am I doing? Not too bad, I take it!” I thought, as I continued to follow the music of her choice.

I stop, when the music stops, and start, when her music starts. The beat had been steady, but a good support to what I was imagining had taken on more and more of the nature of a dance; as opposed to just prancing along the wall in a room.

“How about an actual challenge; I want to see you prance, stretching out your legs high when you jump!” she pronounced, nodding towards the mare out of sight.

“I think I feel secure enough, to accept your new challenge!” I offered, with a weak smile over my lips.

Should I have been surprised, or feel as if I was imagining it; but I feel the music shift as she prompted it and I was accepting her challenge. The overall beat stays the same, that part never changed; it is a beat, and nothing more. Yet, it is the nature of the music itself that was changing, I feel how additional beats had slipped into the stream of what could have been a song to me. From the small hops and jumps, I now make high prances with grace mixed in with the long hops.

I don’t miss a single beat, just as I don’t slack in a single prance or hop. Maybe I am imagining it, or she had chosen the beat after my stride; because all my hops and prances are just right, never coming too close to any of the walls or the turns.

Tentatively, I stretch out my arms in gestures that happened to feel right to the beat; now making the dance and prances into what I imagine is more of ballet, then mere prances on the open floor. Adding the arm movements, is adding challenge to the moves; but I don’t feel as if I am straining close to what I can be comfortable with.

“You seems to have this down to an art!” she put forth; as she reasoned, she had seen enough.

“You think; thank you, Ms. Octavia!” I responded.

I had signed up to the event, expecting it to be fun; but I had never expected quite as much joy as I had finally stumbled upon. I certainly had found something I knew I could enjoy doing. Maybe the title; Ms. Purple had not been quite as ill deserved as one may have expected, after all.

“A few more hops and jumps, then a few laps around the scene!” she pronounced.

I merely nodded, smiling; following the instruction, such as given to me. There had been too much fun to deny it. If she told me, I could slow down, it was what I was to do; thus I did as she told me.

“Stop on the middle of the back wall, then press the tip of your slippers!” she instructed me.

I continued to the point, where she had instructed me; before I pressed the tip of my slippers, just as instructed. The next moment; my slippers started to revert to the original, and I stand on the heels of my feet; once more.

“Three more laps; before you enter the center of the stage, bowing as deep as you can!” she instructed me.

I completed the circuits and entered the center of the stage; before bowing, as she had instructed me.

“Now, if you could pull your right and left leg up as far as you can, thrice?” she added, and I did as she told me.

“Again, but to the right and left!” she continued; and I eagerly followed her instruction, marveling at just how far up my feet reached, before I was forced to pull them down, once more.

“Again; but backwards, this time!” she followed up on the previous instruction, which I followed to the letter.

“Splits; back and forth, forth and back, thrice!” she instructed me, and I complied.

“Again; but right and left, thrice!” she added, and I continued as instructed.

“On the floor!” she followed up, and I threw myself onto the floor; finding myself on my belly in an instant.

“Slowly; bend your back as far as you can, then stay there!” she instructed me

”Sorry, but I can’t bend further!” I responded.

“Of course not, the floor is in your way. Sorry, I can do nothing about that!” she responded, but with a smile.

“Oh, okay!” I responded, smiling up at the ceiling.

“If you lift your hands up towards the wall behind you, and spread your legs as wide as you can!” she prompted, only to see me performing her latest order.

“If you lift your knees up to your shoulders?” she hastily added, as the final challenge.

“Uh? Oh, that is easy!” I responded, as I found myself in the pose she had indicated.

"Now, if you just untangle yourself and rise to your feet!” she pointed out; looking at me, as I rose to my feet after I had straightened myself out.

There is a knock on the door, just as I turned my eyes forwards.

“Enter!” Ms. Octavia exclaimed, only to see the door open and Ms. Pie entering the room from the other end.