Dapple was a unicorn who cared for nothing but to be chill and relax while giving others the chance to chill and relax. Along with his best friend Onyx, the green unicorn played the bongos at the Crystal Tea Room entertaining guests with some smooth jazz and slam poetry, the latter provided by Onyx herself. While the gray unicorn wore sockless flat shoes, Dapple tended to prefer flip flops, it was easier to put on and was perfect for taking them off whenever he needed to. Yet despite that, he mostly preferred walking around barefoot; The comfort of going around with his soles touching the ground makes him feel a lot more relaxed and even helps him with his music where he doesn’t feel restricted and lets his creative juices flow. Usually, he takes off his flip flops while playing but overtime he began to show up to the tea bar without them knowing that it’ll be redundant to bring them just to barely wear them. At first the owner Alphabittle was against Dapple walking inside barefoot, over time he got used to it seeing that business still flourished and even brought more of a crowd to observe him oddly enough. What he still isn’t used to is the hippie raising his feet up to his bongos and having his often-dirty bare soles exposed, a sentiment shared by Onyx herself. Dapple however, does not care at all and does it and knows that there are a few ponies in the crowd that stare at his feet.

Today, both artists have a new gig, playing at Maretime Bay. Ever since relations became established with all three races, there’s been a drive to show all cultures with one another and really experience each other’s towns. Seeking to broaden their reach, and with the request of Alphabittle, the two decided to not just play in the earth pony’s town, but even use it as a means of vacation and soak in their way of life. While the two were packing up and getting ready, Dapple went around looking for his flip flops but couldn’t find them anywhere, going around every room in the house trying to find them. When asking his friend, she told him that she didn’t know either and must’ve misplaced them back at the Crystal Tea Room from the last time they played. He realized that he accidentally left his only flip flops up there in the stage and maybe it was thrown out while the place was getting cleaned at closing time. The realization hit him that not only did he lose his only sandals, but his only footwear ever and now doesn’t have anything to put on his feet, knowing that wherever he goes, he must go barefooted. He shrugged it off immediately, got his stuff and went out the door with his friend out to Maretime Bay. Onyx immediately noticed and told him about it, and he replied that he lost them and didn’t need them, he never liked those sandals anyway and preferred walking barefooted. He never liked shoes anyway, they hindered his freedom and now it was the time for him to feel free and relaxed. Despite the moody pony’s objections, they were already on the move and the laidback hippie wasn’t going to budge.

After a long walk and feeling the dirt and grass from the path that connects the two towns, the artists finally arrived at the coastal town, and it was bustling with life from all species. His soles touched down on the cobblestone floor and it had a certain heat to it from the sun bouncing off of it but it wasn’t bothering him all that much. The first thing the two decided when they stepped foot into the town is get a taste of Sunny Starscout’s famous smoothies, so they headed to get in line to her smoothie stand. While in line, the ones behind Dapple couldn’t help but to look down at his bare feet in confusion until suddenly, the green stranger’s foot raised up and showed a lightly brown sole caked with dirt and grass blades, causing him to get really weirded out. Onyx bumped him in the arm and told him to knock it off, but Dapple said that it was his fault for staring and just wanted to stretch his leg; The goth pony wasn’t buying it. When they got there, the orange-colored earth pony greeted them and took their order without realizing that one of them was barefoot and after giving them their smoothies, he finally saw his bare feet as he was walking away and scratched her head in peculiarity. She has had some customers without shoes before, so she doesn’t know why this caught her eye. Sitting at a table, the unicorns drank their smoothie and were really enjoying the taste of it, they saw what all the hype was about. While sitting down, Dapple raised up one of his legs to the other and crossed them, showing off his soles to any unfortunate soul that walked by, which Onyx again objected to and told him to stop but he just laughed.

Continuing their trek, they saw a movie theater that was advertising a big blockbuster summer movie and since they still had plenty of time to kill, they thought to give it a shot despite not being into movies all that much. Before entry, Onyx was cautious in asking him if he was even allowed to walk barefoot and Dapple once again shrugged it off and said not to worry since he’ll just be a paying customer and not cause too much attention. She rolled her eyes, noting the irony while looking down at his feet which were only getting dirtier and dirtier. They both walked in after purchasing their tickets and it wasn’t too busy with ponies and the few who did walk by noted his dirty feet and stared in bewilderment. His soles felt the bristles of the carpet of the theater and gave him a mild ticklish sensation as he felt relaxed from the freedom of his feet from shoes. Onyx was slowly getting more and more embarrassed by simply walking alongside his friend who doesn’t look concerned at all, making himself look weird to others just by walking in public without shoes, but what could she do about his stubbornness? Strangely enough, no one else inside the building was making a deal out of it, not the moviegoers or the employees at all, which made the beret wearing pony wonder if it’s an earth pony thing. After they got their popcorn and drinks, the two walked towards the theater room that was showing the movie and Dapple stepped onto some loose popcorn on the floor which made light crunching noises as he stepped them over his soles and when they got to the theater, he unknowingly stepped on a dried-up puddle of cola, but he didn’t care. His footsteps now felt sticky as he moved towards his seat and sat down to wait for the movie to start. During the middle of the movie, he raised his feet up to the seat in front of him to further unwind and relax, which caused Onyx to groan and put a hand over her face in embarrassment. There was nobody on the front row in front of him to see the bits of popcorn stuck in his dirty soles and caramelized splotches of soda on his left foot.

After the movie, the two decided to go to one place before their gig to make their visit really last and looked around to see what there was to offer. By this point, Dapple’s soles were dirtier than ever with his soles being black from all the walking and absorbing what the ground has offered him, and he has never felt more relaxed because of it. Now pretty much almost everybody who came their way automatically looked down to his dirty feet and had a mix of reactions from confusion to disgust to oddly enough, a few who stared for a long time and blushed. Dapple didn’t mind the attention at all, as long as he was happy and content with his life. They saw an art museum and decided to walk in being connoisseurs of the arts themselves but before they could walk in, a yellow skinned and pink haired earth pony with a green beret stopped Dapple and told him he couldn’t come in and he needed to have shoes on. Onyx assured him that everything was fine and that he was with her, but Posey still adamantly refused and told him he needed to have shoes on before he could come in. When it looked like a tense standoff was going to happen, Dapple offered a sum of money to Posey as long as they didn’t cause any trouble and that he wasn’t going to cause a commotion to anybody else and just stick with himself and his friend. Posey struggled with the offer and against her guilty conscience and after sighing heavily, she angrily accepted the money and let them in through gritted teeth. The two musicians walked in and Posey could just stare in contempt as he saw that the green unicorn’s soles was pitch black as they slapped against the cold linoleum floor and she cringed in disgust and groaned to herself realizing that she accepted a measly bribe. Onyx and Dapple walked all over the museum to see the different paintings, sculptures and installations as the people around stared like usual at seeing a crazy pony inside a museum without shoes. The floor of the museum felt very cold underneath the bongo player’s soles and even gave him constant goosebumps, and when his friend was about to ask, he assured her that he’s fine, just not used to feeling a cold surface under his feet. After another half an hour of looking at art, the two walked away and the yellow pony felt relieved that he was gone and that she wouldn’t have to deal with that sort of situation again. That was until she was greeted by a purple unicorn with long blue hair awaiting entry and was also completely barefoot and she could only groan and do a double facepalm.

At last, the sun was almost setting, and it was performing time, so Onyx and Dapple set up their equipment in the area by the smoothie stand. Onyx set up the microphone and gave a welcome to all those who passed by and gave an introduction on who they are and where they’re from and that she had a special improvised poetry about freedom inspired by a friend who reminded her to simply kick off her shoes and relax, which touched the barefoot musician so much. She surprised him by taking off her flats and setting them aside while her bare feet felt the warm cobblestone floor and she let out a sigh of relief. Dapple began to play the bongos as she began to speak:

Freedom, it comes in many ways
Freedom, we experience it every day
Sometimes, what we all just need
Is to kick off the shoes off of our feet
So we can all experience the world beneath us
So that it can in turn bequeath us
And while others may judge and stare
All what matters is not what they care
For you are in control of your life
Free from all our inhibitions and strife
And I learned this all from a good friend
Who will always be with me until the end

As she finished speaking, Dapple became moved to tears as the crowd applauded over the performance she gave, and both embraced for a hug. The two continued for a couple of more sets, which were all received positively until the end when Dapple finished off his playing by raising his bare feet and exposing his completely pitch-black soles, which Onyx can now just roll her eyes in amusement while some of the crowd reacted with disgust and others with intrigue. As nighttime came, the two visitors headed off home as Onyx carried her shoes with her hand and felt the dirt underneath her feet and said that he was right that it did feel good to walk barefoot. Dapple jokingly asked if she was going to throw them away and retorted in his dreams as they laughed. Lastly, she asked if he was going to stay that way and not buy anymore shoes and he said yes, he likes the feeling of being a permanent barefooter and she can just smile and chuckle as both walked back to Bridlewood.