Over the next two days, Smolder helped her friends out with their own ideas and goals, allowing her to be more clearly seen implementing the goal-setting strategy she’d told Twilight she’d be putting into practice. She assisted Yona in kicking and catching her football, and helped Rarity form a pair of secure rubber caps for her horns so she wouldn’t puncture the ball.
“This is awesome!” Yona squealed, ramming the football hard and sending it flying across the gymnasium towards Smolder, who had to use all of her body strength to repel the blow and grab the ball, before tossing it back. Yona had incredible strength, even for a yak her size.
Silverstream, on the other hand, wanted to try dancing. It seemed like a good outlet for all her exuberance and joyful energy. It began at lunch time, when she was sitting at a table, only to find it shaking.
“And out, back-back and in, bounce to the beat, and strut! De-de-didi-da-a dooooo doooo!”
“What the hay are you doing, Silverstream?!” Sandbar exclaimed.
“Yona knows, she dancing,” Yona simply replied.
“Not the best place and time to do it,” Gallus added in a cross voice.
“It looks shoddy, but kinda cool too,” Smolder stated. “Maybe I can find something on it.”
And that’s how Smolder found herself in the library that afternoon, chilling with a book on dance moves.
“Hey, Smolder!” a voice called out.
Smolder looked up to see Twilight Sparkle up on the small balcony that overlooked the library’s first floor. “Oh, hey Twilight.”
“You’re busy helping Silverstream with her goals today?”
“Yeah. Busy reading a book on dance moves throughout Equestrian history.”
“Well, good luck with helping Silverstream!” Twilight replied happily. “You’ll be legible to receive your board back soon.”
Smolder’s eyes lit up and she nodded excitedly, quickly immersing herself in reading. Sometime later, she reached a chapter called “Pop Grooves”. How interesting.
Within lay a multitude of complex explanations that Ocellus would’ve drooled over, and among them, highly detailed illustrations. Smolder liked illustrations, because dragons relied on visual cues a lot.
“So, knee in, heel out, reverse, and back again as you bring it in. Shake arms a little, turn, and sideways shuffle if preferred…”
Feeling eager, Smolder quickly scanned to the next section that discussed how a ‘sideways shuffle’ was done. And then she found a whole two pages on a ‘slideback walk’.
“Looks so smooth if done fast. But why such a name?” she wondered. “Princess Luna’s just as graceful and smooth when carefully raising the moon. Should call it the moonwalk. Eh, whatever.”
The book did such a good job of laying out the moves and the methods for refining them and linking them to each other in cool-looking combos, Smolder ended up reading until sunset, when she finally reached the end of the book. However, she’d found that one chapter so fascinating, she’d reread it three times in a row. At the back of the book was a bonus booklet of sheet music to some pop songs to dance to, and she immediately took that without a hitch.
“I’ve got to learn these moves so I can teach you, Silverstream,” she thought excitedly. “We are gonna rock this school if I can get this to work all together fluidly.”
And so, at reading session a week later, Smolder got the book and flipped through it to that one chapter.
“Alright, Silverstream. There are several moves here, so we’re gonna start with one, and then slowly work our way to the one you were attempting that day. First, let’s begin with some back-and-forth moves. Push-and-pull, if you will. Like so.”
Smolder stepped out onto the stone pathway next to the bench they were on, and held out her arms, keeping them folded at a slight angle. With her legs slightly bent and feet wide apart, she wiggled her body abruptly and pulled her knees in, then pushed them back out.
“C’mon, you try.”
Silverstream stepped beside her, and mimicked the same moves as beset she could, only bending backwards, as her knees naturally were.
“Try pivoting your feet at an angle and adjusting it mid-way,” Smolder suggested. “Add some style and groove.”
With some practice, Silverstream soon got the hang of it, and enjoyed shuffling her shoulders too.
“Good. Now, let’s try to wiggle our right leg as we move our upper body just a little. Outwards – or backwards, in your case. Yeah, that’s it. Now, hoof outwards, knee inwards. Reverse, then back again and pull back in. Keep that leg straight as you plant it back on the ground.”
“Kinda hard to do it fast,” Silverstream admitted, after falling twice. “But the motion is relatively easy in itself.”
“You have it in your head, though, right?”
“I sure do!”
“Good, because next comes the coolest but hardest part of all – the slideback walk. You balance on your right foot at your toes and slide your left foot straight back – keep it flat. Once it’s behind you a length, snap the toe-standing right foot down and bring the left foot up on your toes. Switch and repeat. So, slide it, snap it, slide it, snap it. Slide-snap-slide-snap-slide-snap.”
“Whoa,” Silverstream squealed. “That’s so cool! It’s like your floating and being pulled backwards while trying to go forwards!”
“It sure is. Took me a lot of practice to do it myself so I could show you to begin with. Now, you try.”
It turned out, Silverstream had a heavy foot, and often would stomp it too hard down, causing abruptness and awkward near-tripping. “Take it lightly and smoothly.”
“Try pivoting your upper body forward a little,” Smolder suggested. “You’re leaning back unnecessarily.”
Silverstream did as she was told… and right away she found herself more balanced. “This is awesome! I love this!”
“Try taking that shuffle we did and put your own spin on it!” Smolder suggested next. “Throw your arms, pull them in, cross your legs, shuffle your toes! Be creative!”
It took a while, but just as reading session was being wrapped up, Silverstream was moving like water, with the occasional slip-up, assisted by her dragon friend.
“Okay, classes! Outdoor reading hours are over. Let’s wrap it up and…” Starlight’s words died on her tongue as she took in the sight before her. Silverstream dancing like nothing she’d ever seen before. Shuffling, throwing her arms out and in, jiggling her torso and abdomen, and sliding backwards like she was on ice. It was wild and mind-blowing.
“What was that?” Starlight asked eagerly, as Smolder and a now exhausted Silverstream walked back inside to the last class of the day.
“Just a couple dance moves I found in an old book in the library,” Smolder said casually with a coy smirk. “They were pretty interesting to be honest, so I taught Silverstream how to do them. And she picked it up really fast. I encouraged her to improvise, and she did – way beyond what I expected. And that’s the un-refined performance.”
“You are gonna kill it in the upcoming music show,” Starlight teased.
“I hope to win!” Silverstream replied excitedly.
“I don’t doubt it,” Smolder added. “Now, where is that board?”
Back in the library later that late afternoon, Ocellus, Smolder, Silverstream, Gallus, Sandbar, and Yona all snuck into the gymnasium and gathered around to discuss the next stage of Smolder’s idea.
“So, where did we leave off, again?” Gallus asked.
“I began by tapping the board’s tail hard enough to make it bounce, so next we need to work on how to pull it up into the air, and use the downward force of jumping to make it pop.”
“Well, I realized something very important from a fellow student who drew out Sasha’s jumping,” Silverstream said. “The little ferret pulled her front legs up and forward, as if trying to reach for an invisible object. So…”
“Try to pull the board forward with your front foot?” Gallus finished, catching on.
“Yeah, like that!” she replied, nodding eagerly.
“You’re moving forward to even out, like a see-saw,” Ocellus explained, quickly drawing out a diagram of a small triangle and a flat line, and repeated it three times with different angles.
“I think it’s possible if I jump off with my back foot extended to give that tap and pop,” Smolder proposed.
With a sigh and a quick self-talk, she stepped on the board and jumped up, pushing her back foot into the ground. The board’s nose shot upward and she immediately pushed her front foot back down to counteract it, resulting in an abrupt and wobbly landing.
“Phew, that happened so fast!” Smolder breathed, relieved that she didn’t fall. “Did I get it?”
“Almost. You have the motion, just need to time it right,” Sandbar said.
“Bring your front foot forward as the nose touches it, instead of just pushing it back down,” Ocellus pointed out. And once the back foot’s done the ‘snap’, bring it up gradually in time with the front foot. Let your body carry you forward and bring the board with you. You got this.”
Smolder tried again, this time getting her front foot further forward, but still lagging with her back one. Eventually, she got the back foot up at the right speed, but brought it too far forward, nearly bending the middle of the board and tripping forward.
After countless more tries, she began to feel more confident at controlling the board with her feet, and thus was able to work on positioning them correctly and refining the timing. Finally, just as the day ended and the school was about to close, Smolder gave it one last go.
The board popped and bounced, her front foot levelled it out, bringing it forward as she jumped forward… and her back foot kept in tune without throwing the board out of line. With both feet over the truck bolts in mid-air, she slowly lowered her arms a bit and landed back down, bending her knees to absorb the impact.
“Oh yeah!” Gallus exclaimed, clapping. “That’s it there! Best one yet! Keep it up tomorrow!”
“Great job, Smolder!” Ocellus beamed, hugging her friend. “You did it!”
“I think you could improve it even further!” Sandbar suggested. “Just like when you jump further, you’ll go further. Same with your board! And also, on the move!”
“Yeah, that makes sense too!” Smolder replied.
Gallus then pulled everyone into a group hug and Smolder gave her sincere thanks to everyone. She’d jumped with the board – which would later be called an ‘ollie’.