The Synthesizers

by Wiz Ahmad

Improving and Naming

The following day was proving to be even more difficult for Smolder to keep the board off her mind. What started as a simple skeptic guess back at a water treatment plant had turned into a scientific theory to discuss amongst her friends and now had become a reality. And shortly after accomplishing it, she realized how much more potential lay for her.

The stage-by-stage planning idea was working well, and other students began to implement it too, forming study groups and accomplishing goals more efficiently. Silverstream had worked on her dancing too, and could now stand bipedally and moonwalk without a hitch. Although not too keen on trying it out herself, Ocellus found ‘board-riding’, as she called it, very fascinating. Thus, she was keen to analyze it from a physics standpoint, with formulas, drawings, and more.

Exactly three weeks after running away to Canterlot, Smolder re-entered Twilight’s office, having been called there just as the final class of the day was about to end.

“Um, Ms. Twilight? May I enter?”

“Yes, you may. Come, sit.”

Smolder inhaled slightly and walked in, sitting down across from Twilight’s desk. “You’ve requested my presence?”

“Ah, yes, Smolder,” Twilight began. “I wanted to say, congratulations on developing and introducing a strategic group plan for your best friends. Now, almost every student is using it too! It’s proven itself to be effective and beneficial in keeping events in line with time and goals to be set and achieved. As a reward, you can have this back. And also, this.”

Smolder’s eyes lit up with joy and eagerness as Twilight levitated her board up and handed it to her, before holding up a set of keys on a small chain.

“What’s that for?”

“It’s the key to the gymnasium and the sports gear storage locker,” Twilight said proudly. “I’ve been doing some thinking with Starlight and I’ve decided you and Silverstream can have access to the gymnasium and your ‘toys’ when you wish, so you have a place to play and be creative. Just make sure to turn in all your homework, and the keys are yours. ”

“Thank you, Twilight!” Smolder replied with a happy smile.

“You’re most welcome, Smolder, and –”

Before Twilight could finish up, Smolder had her arms around her.

“Oh, um, okay. Thanks. I thought you didn’t do hugs.”

“Well, yeah. This is the exception, and I’m cool with doing it.”

“So am I. Make sure Silverstream wears a helmet though. Don’t wanna repeat what happened last time, right?”

“Can’t argue with that.”

Twilight returned the hug and waved goodbye to her student as she headed off down the hallway.

---

Late in the afternoon, in the library, Ocellus took a piece of chalk (which she’d borrowed from Fluttershy’s class), and began drawing a diagram.

“This line with small circles to represent wheels, here, is the board. Note how I’ve drawn a triangle over the back wheel, which indicates it’s the fulcrum. The big arrow pointing up and to the right shows your direction of motion and also where your front foot is travelling. So it goes up, far out, right up on the nose, and levels out, before gently coming straight back down with gravity, while still ‘holding’ the board.”

“Isn’t that what we established yesterday?” Gallus said.

“Never hurts to re-enforce and improve on what you already know,” Ocellus replied. “Now, the forward movement is divided into two parts. Each part works to moving forward – and up, too. One is the body, which accounts for like 50-70% of the driving force behind the movement, and the other 50-30% is the legs, which get the board popping and guide it through the air. So, by logical theory, the board should go higher and farther with not just jumping and popping harder, but putting the front foot a little further back before liftoff. That way, there’s more room to drag it up and forward, thus raising the board higher overall and pulling it further forward. Do you get it?”

“Yeah, it makes sense, given how the basic principle of achievement is that more of a certain action will deliver more,” Smolder said, nodding. “More effort, shift that foot back… yeah.”

“So, show me,” Ocellus challenged. “Right here, in the library.”

Smolder set down her board and stepped on, putting her back foot on the edge of the tail and her front foot behind the front bolts, then shuffled it back a little bit.

“Good! Good, that’s how to position it.” Ocellus said, nodding with confirmation. “The last part is something I thought of in class. If you can jump up and forward, that means you can roll up to something and jump up onto it, or over it. So why not try that?”

“Yeah, the gymnasium has all we need!” Sandbar added supportively. “Let’s go before it gets dark!”

Ocellus dropped her chalk on the board’s shelf and they all ran out of the library, rushing down the hallway to the gymnasium. Silverstream tugged at the door. To her surprise, it swung open.

Inside, Smolder headed straight for the storage locker, pushed the key into the lock, and turned it.

“Twilight gave you the keys?!” Silverstream exclaimed.

“Yeah, she trusts me and you with them,” Smolder replied. “So long as we return them when we’re done, and we can obtain them after confirmation that homework has been completed and turned in. Now, let’s see…”

Tucked in the far corner, covered in a thin layer of dust, was Spinner – Silverstream’s bike. Smolder walked in and gently pulled it out. A bit of squeaking was heard, but she ignored it.

“Yona thinks you need grease,” Yona remarked. “Ask Twilight for it soon. Don’t want bike to be damaged.”

“It’s not so bad now,” Gallus added. “But yeah, later it’s gonna be a problem. Probably just needs some cranking.”

“Yeah!” Silverstream said excitedly, rubbing the dust off and turning the pedals with her hands, letting the back wheel spin freely and smoothly.

“Focus, you guys!” Ocellus warned. “Let’s get to work on testing our theory. Gallus, get something we can use as an obstacle, please.”

Searching inside the locker, Gallus soon found two small yellow cones and Yona’s football.

“Perfect. Now place them in the center of the floor, here,” Ocellus instructed. “Okay, Smolder, we’ll start with some practice runs without anything, then start to use these, okay?”

“Okay.”

Smolder stood at one end of the gymnasium, dropped her board, and pushed off. Approaching the middle point, she crouched, ready for the off, but wobbled slightly and so just rolled onwards.

“What in Equestria was that?” Sandbar blurted out.

“Hang on, I didn’t get my position right and lost coordination,” Smolder replied. “I’ll try again.”

Coming to a stop, Smolder paused and gave herself a moment to gather her thoughts and visualized her movements. Then she pushed off again, picking up some speed. Nearing the floor’s midpoint, she crouched, snapped the tail down, and rose up and forward, keeping her front foot in the middle of the board, before dragging it out towards the nose, but not off it. Both Smolder and her board were now airborne and moving forward, with both foot over the board and keeping it in line. Landing was sketchy, with a near-slideout. It wasn’t far or high, but it was a big improvement over the previous attempts she’d done in the week.

“Nice! Keep your lower legs stiff and your weight balanced as you land,” Ocellus noted. “Round two now.”

Rolling around in a circle, Smolder pushed off again, jumped, and pulled the board forward with her front foot, this time landing a little better, only leaning a little too far forward.

“Again!”

Smolder pushed, jumped, landed, pushed, jumped, landed; again and again until her feet were sore. After more than ten attempts, she got her landings right and her jumps smooth and consistent. So now it was time to try the obstacles.

“C’mon, Smoldy! You can do it!” Silverstream squealed, cheering her friend on like a cheerleader… or a little kid.

Which she kind of was.

Ocellus set up the football, and Smolder pushed off, heading straight for it. Just as she was about to run into it, she jumped and snapped the tail, launching up and forward, just barely clearing it. It took a few more tries, but Smolder finally cleared the football with a decent amount of air space to spare.

“Now for the cone, and then we’ll be done for the day,” Smolder declared, panting in exhaustion and letting out a few small embers.

With the cone set up, jumping over it was a lot harder, given it was almost twice the height of the football. Several times, Smolder hit the top of it and had to bail out, running off or falling and rolling. Sometimes, she’d just use her wings and fly upwards and away from the board. After pushing herself to jump higher and harder, she began to increase her overall jumping height. Finally, after several more unsuccessful attempts, she cleared the top of the cone without hitting it, and landed smoothly too.

“Oh yeah!” Sandbar cheered, but ended up rolling his tongue, so it sounded like ooh-ley!

“Dragon’s cool jumping needs proper name,” Yona said.

“You’re right, Yona. We always used to refer to this as just jumping with the board, but it sounds too long and it’s just a description of what’s happening,” Gallus replied. He gestured to Ocellus. “What do you think?”

“Hmmm… Sandbar, what was that you said? It sounded like ‘lay’ or ‘lee’, not a ‘yeah’.”

Then Silverstream thought about it, and it came to her. “Sandbar, you slurred the word! Ooh-ley! Or Oolee… no wait… Ollie! That’s it! Ollie!”

“Ollie. That’s something new. Sounds like a nice name,” Ocellus said with a smile. “What do you think, Smolder?”

“It’s cool. Ollie. Ollie up and forward… Ollie ove the cone… Yeah. I’m cool with it.”

“Yona states, here on, we call the jump with the board an ollie!” Yona declared happily, pulling Smolder into a hug. Gallus, Sandbar, and Ocellus joined in, with Silverstream on top, all in a group hug celebrating the success of Smolder’s jump over the cone and the brand new name for the trick.

Author's Note:

Quick fact:

The act of jumping on a skateboard and bringing it up into the air beneath your feet was first invented in 1978 by a guy from Florida named Alan Gelfand (who was nicknamed "Ollie"), allowing him to rise up and off the tops of ramps and half-pipes. Later, in 1982, skateboarding icon Rodney Mullen adopted it to flat ground, and propelled the world of skateboarding into a new dimension.

Follow along as Smolder begins to explore a new dimension of fun, creative tricks - and Silverstream gets back on her bike and follows close behind.

P.S.: Check out the cover art for an ollie! I managed to get Smolder to do one with the power of Photoshop, of course