Silverstream and Smolder set out to enjoy their new toys, and team up with Scootaloo to create a team called "The Synthesizers", discovering a whole new world of creativity, freedom, fame, and adventure.
Silverstream and Smolder start to discover all the fun and joy there is to BMX and skateboarding. Scootaloo soon joins in with her scooter, and they decide to form a trio team called "The Synthesizers". However, their stunts, tricks, and high speed runs are soon picked up by newspapers and photographers... and The Washouts.
As the three set out on a journey to have wild and daring fun, conflicts with legal authorities, the lingering effects of injuries, fame, and money start to drive the close-knit trio apart, threatening their friendship.
NOTE: "Sad" tag for the low and solemn moments in the story. Also, the bike and skateboard shown on the front cover are mere placeholders - they are not exactly the same as the ones mentioned in the story.
Loosely inspired by the Bones Brigade skateboard team from the '80s. Learn more about them here.
The moon was just fading, ready for the sun to take its place. Most creatures at this time would still be sleeping, trying to obtain maximum amounts of slumber from the long night before it officially ended. But not Smolder the dragon. Since the second half of the night had begun, an urging feeling of exploration and lateral thinking had nagged her to the point of being unable to sleep. For a couple hours she fought it off, but now it had become too much to bear.
Sliding out from under the covers, Smolder reached under her bed and carefully slid out her board, ensuring no sudden sounds were made. Standing upright, she held it under one arm and tiptoed across the room, her little dragon feet pressing down on the carpeted aisle without so much as a rustle or scratch. Turning the door handle smoothly and slowly, she eased it open - surprisingly, without any squeaks. It seemed like Twilight had been keeping extra tabs on the maintenance staff to lubricate all hinges.
“More power to those trying to sneak out,” Smolder thought, fighting back a snigger, and slipped through the door before quickly shutting it.
Out in the halls, vision was minimal. Only a few lights were on, and they were dimmer the further you were away from them. Shaking her head to try dislodge the heavy feeling of slumber, Smolder gripped her board and walked down the hall in one direction, trying to remember where the gym was located. Most of the school’s floor was carpeted, which meant it was impossible to push off and glide. However, the gymnasium had smooth, hard tiled floor, which had a small amount of overall traction, but could allow wheels to glide across it nonetheless.
After five minutes of running down stairs, peeking around corners and tiptoeing down halls, Smolder finally found the gym and grabbed the door handle. To her surprise, it was unlocked. Pushing the door open, she flipped a switch, lighting up one end of the room. Carefully shutting the door, she walked over to the lit area and set the board down, and stepped back.
With a claw to her chin, she stared at it, pondering over how she stood on it and the resulting movements when she moved her feet. She knew pushing down on one end would cause the other end to rise up - basic principle of a first-class lever. However the upwards force was so strong that she fell off on her first attempt. It seemed to be a matter of how much effort was exerted on either side by her.
Hopping onto the board, Smolder pushed down on the tail - but gently, exerting an equal force with her front foot, then gradually imbalancing the pressure until the tail touched the ground. However, her pressure was still almost all in her back foot, causing her to fall backwards… again.
“Ow!” she yelped, biting her lip to muffle the sound. Through half-closed eyes, she caught sight of the board slapping the ground and rolling away… and it came to her.
Just redirect the effort of pressure.
Back on the board, Smolder rose up the nose, but lifted some pressure off the tail and back into her front foot. A slight wobble was achieved before she transferred all of the pressure to her front foot, thus slamming the board back down. Tightening her legs, she “pulled” the board back with her thighs to stop it sliding outwards, then relaxed and adjusted her posture.
Repeating the process, she then got the tail to just gently rest on the ground, and used her upper body to turn a little, before continuing with bringing the nose up the down.
For the next half hour, Smolder kept hopping on and off the board, trying to get a proper feel for it. She pushed off and skated down to one end of the gymnasium in a straight line, then pushed off in the other direction. She shuffled her feet and took note how each slight movement led to various positions and their effect on her balance. Then a short scene flashed through her head. It was a day in Fluttershy’s class, where Gallus was fiddling with a quill pen. He’d put it between two claws and by rapidly alternating the pressure and movement of each one, the pen flicked back and forth - or up and down - rapidly.
Glancing at the board, Smolder wondered: could she sort of “hold” the board at opposite ends and then flick it one way?
Walking back over to the board, she thought again for a second. It would make sense to flip the board from upside down to right side up, so she turned the board upside down and put one foot on the tail’s backside. Pressing down a little, she slid her other foot under the front - just behind the nose - and jumped up. In a second or two she was on her back, groaning in pain with her legs knotted together.
“What happened?”
Repeating the process - albeit with some back soreness and wing pain - Smolder found herself continuously falling backwards with her legs twisted together. How could she do this properly?
Slowing down her movements, she soon noticed it: her back foot was locked and stationery, instead of rising and coming around to catch the board like the other foot had. Additionally, her body was also fixed and not shifting sideways as the board flipped. Realizing her mistakes, Smolder set the board down wrong side up, slid her front foot underneath, and jumped up, shifting her body weight in the direction the board would flip. As soon as the board went past halfway to vertical, she slid her back foot out of the way and rose it up, allowing her front foot to spin the board over. Right as the board turned right side up, she quickly slid her back foot around to catch the board… and missed, causing her front foot to exert too much pressure… and the board slid out.
And she was on her back again.
“Argh! Come on, dragons are better than this! But it’s fun trying to see how this can be done with little moves exerted properly. I just have to get the little moves right.”
Smolder flexed her arms and rubbed her sore wings, slid her foot under the upside-down board, and tried again. After twenty tries, she finally got it.
“Yes!” she squealed, before slapping her hand over her mouth. Thankfully, nopony entered, and the silence continued on. Having accomplished an extraordinary feat, she rested the board on its side and lay sideways on the gym floor, slowly flexing her wings to relieve the soreness in them and giving her leg muscles a rest. However, all the while her eyes kept glancing at her board, triggering a set of thought processes in her mind that hadn’t been exercised before. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a large, virtually endless pool of tricks and movements possible with the board - all just waiting to be discovered.
Some fifteen minutes later, Smolder rose up again, awoken from her cat nap. Having landed one trick shortly earlier, she then decided to take it easy for the rest of the early morning. Walking over to her board, she hopped on and adjusted her legs, simply practicing balancing on the board in various simulated upper body positions. After more falls it became clear that leaning too much in any one direction would cause a “under-slide-out” in the other direction.
Basic physics, she thought.
After some rolling around, the flutter of wings was heard clearly from the door. Instinctively Smolder retracted out of the light and into the shadows, pressing herself into the wall in an attempt to stay as hidden as possible from whoever had just entered.
Then there was a click and a slight squeak of another door opening, then another slight click. From the shadows, out stepped a pair of hooves and sky-cornflower blue feathery wings, along with a pair of jet black wheels.
“Silverstream?” Smolder whispered.
“Smolder?! Is that you?” Silverstream replied, peering through the darkness beyond the single overhead light.
Smolder smiled and sighed. Hopping onto her board, she rolled out into the light.
“Good morning Silverstream, why are you up so early?”
“I wanted to practice with Spinner. You remember, the bike?” Silverstream replied excitedly.
Smolder nodded. “I haven’t forgotten. I’ve managed to get a decent amount of balance thanks to my short stature and strong legs, but I just barely managed to land a upside-down two-footer flip. I don’t even know if I can do it again.”
“Well, it just takes time to learn and get comfortable with what you do, and it’s all in practice and also observation,” Silverstream reassured her. “And the thrill of wanting to enjoy trying new things and getting them to perform the way you want kinda gets to you, you know? My wing still hurts, but I’ll keep riding! You ready to move and not give up?”
Smolder tapped the tail of her board, caught it, and held it up proudly. “I am ready. Dragon and hippogriff, creative riders!”
“Now until the end of time!” Silverstream added, sharing an air-punch of agreement, pride, and commitment, before gripping the handlebars and hopping onto her BMX bike.
With a few more light switches flipped, Smolder and Silverstream continued to ride around in the gym. Smolder tried to come up with a few new moves, while Silverstream attempted to get the hang of speeding up and slowing down smoothly. Smolder tried to slide her feet off the board, push the nose up, and then slowly but forcefully pull her arms in in an attempt at an upside-down spin, with the board’s tail as a pivot point. Silverstream squeezed the brakes hard to try and give a little leverage to lean forward and balance on the front wheel. Both got thrown off and fell hard - Silverstream got thrown over her handlebars and Smolder slammed face first into the hard floor. The consecutive “OWs!” rang out, but were followed with repeated attempts.
Just as a “YES!” rang out even louder, followed by a high-five, the gym doors opened up again, followed by a loud throat clearing.
Standing in the doorway with a cross look on her face was none other than the headmare herself, Twilight Sparkle.
Smolder held up her hands. “Let’s face it, this isn’t the worst thing we’ve done. We just… wanted to practice early before class began. There’s a lot that we can do, we just need to discover it as part of our play.”
“Yeah, as part of having fun!” Silverstream added. “Though… we should’ve asked you first.”
“Exactly,” Twilight hissed. “And that’s why four hours of detention are atop both of your heads. If you wanted to have fun, you could’ve just waited until gym class and we could’ve sorted things out with an adjusted schedule and everything. Now put those wheels away, breakfast awaits. I will be expecting your arrival in the cafeteria in three minutes.”
Without another word, Twilight turned tail and strode out of the gym.
“I can’t believe all this time we only managed to get two moves!” Smolder grumbled, kicking her board in disappointment. “I need to be the best board rider there is!”
Silverstream sighed and half-rolled her eyes. “I wish I could be the best biker too, but it’s going to take some time. A good amount of time, preferably periodically. And as you demonstrated by flipping the board from upside down to right side up, we need to innovate. We need to try and tell ourselves, how many different ways can we do this? Can we ride in this way or that way? No limits except that of our own minds and levels of balance.”
“Yeah, that…” Smolder nodded, vaguely pointing. “Balance. To do any of that, we have to perfect our balance. So as you said, basics for now, simplistic tricks and movements, then see how far we can take ourselves with balancing. Now let’s put our stuff away before Twilight comes back.”
Silverstream slid her BMX bike back into the gym storage room, while Smolder ran back upstairs, slid her board under her bed, and raced off to the cafeteria.
Breakfast was a rather noisy affair. Everyone seemed to be onto Silverstream and Smolder, questioning where they’d been and what had happened. However, Smolder shut them all down.
“We woke up early, and we practiced with our ‘toys’, if you will, in the gym. Silverstream on her bike and me on my board. No biggie.”
The air stood quietly thin for a moment, before Yona broke the silence with a proclamation.
“Yak interested! What is this “practice” you speak of?”
Twilight’s ear caught wind of that, and she eyed Yona. “If you’re interested, they’ll be practicing tomorrow after school for a couple hours.”
“Just having creative fun,” Silverstream quickly added.
In Fluttershy’s class on nature and the physical aspects of biology, Silverstream sighed loudly and tried to keep upright in her seat as Fluttershy herself walked into the room, pulling a stack of papers and some chalk out of her saddlebag.
“Good morning Professor Fluttershy!” the students all replied politely in unison.
“Good morning class,” Fluttershy replied. “Today we’ll be learning about the movement of various animals as they travel from place to place.”
She then began by quickly sketching out a bird in flight several times, showing how the wings moved and rotated slightly with each stroke, then went on to describe a few details of how air currents work, before abruptly stopping. She pointed to the third row.
The bored hippogriff sunk in her seat. Please not me. Not me.
“Silverstream, would you be so kind as to quickly demonstrate for us how wings work?”
Silverstream let out a long sigh and shrugged. “Why not.”
Standing up, she spread her wings and hovered, flapping her wings rather fast, then did a pass in front of the whole class at a moderate speed, allowing Fluttershy to provide a better explanation.
Next, Fluttershy brought out a ferret and - with Applejack’s help - a long table.
“This is Sasha, a little brown-and-white ferret. Now, I need you all to pay attention to the way she runs. Take note of how her little legs move in succession to each other.”
Now Silverstream was interested. She shifted all the way to the front row and peered as closely as she could without disturbing Sasha. Riding a bike meant pushing up and down on the pedals. However, a cranking motion - a motion of bringing one foot forward, under, and then backward, then up and forward again - was needed. And Sasha appeared to be doing almost the same thing, except using both feet simultaneously. The rotational cranking motion of a bike’s pedals would make that impossible. Yet, Silverstream kept observing and taking mental notes of Sasha’s running pace and individual body and leg movements.
A downward push was needed to propel the little ferret up and forward, as well as a strong “surge” movement from the chest muscles. Sasha’s front legs also extended outwards and were aimed at the next place of contact with the ground. For a split second her body leveled out, albeit with a bit of a curve in her back.
Silverstream kept replaying the basic sequence of Sasha’s short running sequence in her head, over and over, trying to get something to click. There was something intriguing about it that she thought could be used in a way. But there was still one more small thing that she needed to know; could the same liftoff technic be used when actually jumping?
Sasha then performed an actual jump on Fluttershy’s command - and the same “punch-down, self-propel-and-lift-up” strategy was used.
Silverstream’s eyes glowed with realization: if something underneath could be held and pushed and pulled, then…
“Got it!” she whooped, startling Sasha who ran and hid behind a bush, and all the other students turned to stare.
“Oh my, is there something that’s got you all excited?” Fluttershy inquired after fetching Sasha.
“Just...figured out how amazing Sasha’s running movement is,” Silverstream replied innocently, though her actual brainwave was hundreds of times more exciting.
“Okay class, that is it. Thank you for attending and I’ll see you-”
Fluttershy had barely let the word “later” leave her lips when Silverstream bolted out of the room, far ahead of every other creature. While they may simply be eager for a good lunch or to prepare for gym class, Silverstream had other plans.
“Smolder!” she called out, pushing the cafeteria doors open with a bang! That sent everyone’s heads spinning around. Glancing around, she desperately looked and searched for the little orange dragon, eager to tell him about her revolutionary brainwave. Staff and the noise of cookery machines aside, the room was quiet.
Silverstream frowned. Had Smolder stayed behind for extra help during her class? Or had she snuck out with her board on some wild dragon adventure?
“Smolder? Smoooooolderrrrrrrr!” she called out, running down the hall, frantically glancing around for her friend. Reaching the end of the hall, she noticed a plump little rump with a purple tail disappearing into another room.
“Twilight, Twilight!” she called out, flying over as fast as she could, skidding to a stop in front of the headmare just in time.
“Woah, Silverstream, what’s got you so hyper?” Twilight Sparkle inquired.
“It’s Smolder,” Silverstream replied, catching her breath in short pants. “I looked around in the cafeteria and she wasn’t there! I really need to tell her something important!”
Twilight shot the tense hippogriff a shrewd look. “I suppose it has something to do with Spinner?”
“Yes, I can’t wait!”
“Well, let’s look for her. Maybe she’s still in class trying to study something.”
The two walked back down the hall and returned to the cafeteria. Sandbar, Yona, and the others were there, and so were almost all of the other students. But not Smolder.”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “Interesting. We already established no students can leave by their own will, and must have a verified valid reason for doing so. So why don’t you go on ahead and eat, and I’ll see if she’s still in class. If so, I’ll let you know right away.”
“Okay.”
Feeling a little more at ease, Silverstream rushed into the cafeteria, put together a quick meal of mackerel and kelp salad, and sat down at a table in the corner, though still visible from the entrance door. She took a few bites from the salad, gazed out to the rows of tables where other students were happily chatting together in groups, and sighed sadly. Without her friends for company and support, eating felt like the most boring thing ever. She could only hope that Smolder would show up soon.
As if on cue, Yona trotted up, a soft, almost motherly concerning look across her face.
“Why Silverstream sad? Anything yak can do to make hippogriff feel happy?”
Silverstream looked up from her platter of food and smiled, albeit sadly. “I’m just eagerly waiting for Smolder because I really really wanted to tell her something amazing I discovered and I don’t want to forget it before she arrives!”
Yona sat next to her. “Well, maybe you can tell me it first. Even if it may not be to my complete interest…”
“Letting it out will help you hear your own thoughts as you wish to present them. That way they’ll stick with you longer,” Sandbar added, walking over and sitting across from them both. “So, what’s the big discovery?”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Silverstream began to explain how she had closely observed a ferret’s method of running across a long table in Fluttershy’s class and the method of transferring the energy of jumping, in addition to shifting weight forward.
“Sounds interesting, actually,” Sandbar admitted. “I’ve never thought of jumping that way before.”
Just then, Smolder flew in through the doors and put together a quick lunch. Spotting Silverstream at a table in the corner, she sped over right away and set down her tray.
“Hey Silverstream, so sorry for being late. Battling my inner competitive side was a real fight in Rarity’s class, and so was my fiery breath. But hey, I discovered I’m almost as fast as her at sewing!”
“Go figure, you have fingers,” Sandbar mused. “But experience with telekinesis always wins.”
With Smolder now at the table, Silverstream quickly reiterated her thoughts and the events of Fluttershy’s class.
“I mean, it’s no clear-cut answer to the puzzling thought I had earlier in the gym this morning, but-”
“What in Equestria are we waiting for?” Smolder blurted, gobbling down the rest of her lunch. “Let’s do this. I believe we can coax Dash into a few extra minutes in gym class.”
Silverstream gobbled down the rest of her mackerel, sipped some water, and slid her tray onto the pile of used ones. Wiping her mouth, she then headed out of the cafeteria, with her dragon friend right behind her. Galloping down the halls, they skeetered into the gym and pushed the doors open, only to find the room empty. No one was around - not Rainbow Dash, no staff, nothing.
“Well, free for all! Let’s -” Smolder huffed, then bit her lip upon realizing her skateboard was still under her bed.
“Oh, great! I left it upstairs, didn’t I?”
Before Silverstream could even respond, Smolder was halfway down the hall. Just as she turned around a corner, her heart froze. Twilight was there, but her back was to the dragon, talking with some of the staff members. And the door to the stairwell was on the other side.
Smolder sighed and her face fell. How was she going to get her board now without being noticed? There was no way around the crowd without being seen, and crawling across the ceiling would be too noisy.
A slight breeze gave her the answer. To her left, a window was wide open. If she could get through it and fly outside, then…
“Aha!” Smolder thought, running to the window. Although it was fairly large, she just about squeezed through. Popping her wings open, she flew up and around, glancing at the windows.
So if that was the window at the hallway corner, then the stairwell must be there, and...yes! It should be this one.
Pinpointing the dorm window, Smolder flew straight towards it and pulled at the shutters. Thankfully, they were still unlocked, and with a little effort, she climbed through and landed in the dorm with a plop. Right there, still under the bed, was her beloved board. Reaching under, she grabbed it, closed the shutters (which were swinging in the wind) and raced for the stairs. Just as she reached the bottom, the commanding get somewhat genial voice of Twilight Sparkle rang out.
“Alright, so do we all agree on this?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now, would you please get to work on the dorm?”
Smolder didn’t really care for what was said, she just didn’t want to be seen. And now one of the cleaners was coming right this way! His hoofsteps were close - there was no time to run back up the steps and dive out the window - at least not without being seen and/or heard.
Looking around, Smolder found the answer again - a small chandelier hanging above her in the stairwell. Flying up, she planted her feet on the angled ceiling and held onto the chandelier’s chain with one hand, holding the board in the other - all while keeping as quiet as possible. Once the cleaning-stallion had safely passed on by, all the way up the steps, Smolder flew back down onto the steps and peered out into the hall. A quick click of a door latch indicated Twilight was back in her office. The coast was clear. Gripping the board firmly in one hand, Smolder ran and ran down the halls as fast as she could, almost bumping into two ponies on her way. Finally she burst through the doors and into the gym, where Silverstream already had her bike out and Yona was also practicing bouncing her ball from horn to horn.
“You ready, Smolder?” Silverstream called out.
“Definitely!”
“Alright, let me break it down as best as I can remember.”
Silverstream hopped onto her BMX bike and began thinking of what she’d seen in class. All the minute details of Sasha preparing to run and jump - the little ferret’s feet, the muscles’ movements, and the body’s postures.
Sasha’s feet were flat, so Silverstream leveled out her pedals. Leaning forward and gripping the handlebars, she tried to remember how the little ferret readied for the forward movement. A pull backward like during the “punch” that gave energy for a jump, and tucking the front legs back along with the body, and pulling the back up and forward…
Before she could think about it too much, Silverstream tightened her arms and squatting forward, straightened out her legs and pulled back hard. There was a clang and a crash, and her vision went blurry, then to black, and then to blurry again. Smolder’s voice rang out, yet it sounded distant.
“Silverstream! You okay?”
“Uuuuuunnnnnnnggggggghhhhhhhhh,” was all Silverstream muttered in return. When she reached for her head, a zap of pain shot through her skull, causing her to pull back.
“Here, let me help you,” Smolder offered, lifting the poor hippogriff off her back and upright on the gym floor. After a few minutes, Silverstream found her bearings and immediately noticed her bike on its side.
“W-wh-what happened?”
“Well, you pulled on the handlebars too hard and flipped over backwards, and hit your head pretty hard. I think you need to pull a little less harder.”
Yona then spoke up, peering at Silverstream from behind.
“Yak think hippogriff needs ice pack and a long rest to recover. Well, because she not as strong as yak!”
A good while later, Silverstream lay in the Ponyville hospital bed, her head bandaged up and her belly full of food and some medicine. At the other students’ insistence, Twilight declined to destroy the bike or the skateboard, but had them confiscated under lock and key until Silverstream had fully recovered.
Her eyes droopy from the medicine, Silverstream looked up at the plain, bland ceiling, thinking longingly about her beloved BMX bike, then felt her wrapped-up head again. She wanted to just get up and rest her legs on those pedals, to grip those handlebars, to ride again. So badly. Deep down, she knew the technic and had a strong feeling that it would work.
Except this time it didn’t - and had painful consequences.
As Celestia’s sun faded and Luna’s moon rose, all of the students at the Friendship School prepared for a good night’s sleep in. Many had had a great day learning new topics and expanding their knowledge on what had already been learnt. Gallus had invented a new trick to score more points in quidditch, and Sandbar scored a A+ on a geology test. Yona had a blast with her football, having perfected her technic of bouncing it from her horn onto her back and then kicking with her back legs.
Smolder, however, had not perfected any tricks, nor had she learned the key technic that Silverstream’s mind held. And she had attempted to release it in the form of a demonstration involving a blend of explanatory words and action. But that action had led to overworking a motion, resulting in a head injury. Twilight had stated it would take about three weeks for Silverstream’s head to heal, but even for Smolder, who’d come to tolerate and even admire Silverstream’s exuberancy and passionate sharing nature, three weeks was too much.
By nine p.m. all the students were quietly snoozing away in bed - except for one restless dragon. Smolder was too dazed, disappointed, sad, and even a little frustrated to care for sleep. She wanted to visit her friend in the hospital. She wanted to ride her board again, too - but how, with so little time and such stiff restrictions? Twilight’s friends had praised her abilities in class to perform well and cooperate despite being naturally competitive. But now, there wasn’t anything to compete against or to strive for. There was just an urge and a longing. A longing to be independent, free, and creative no matter what the environment or those within it threw at her.
Which left one option: escape.
Smolder slipped through the doors and raced down the steps, heading straight for the nearest classroom. She gripped the handle and tried to turn it. It was locked. She tried the next one, and then the next. All locked. Finally, she found one with the door slightly ajar.
Perhaps one of the staff forgot this one while closing up, she thought, stepping inside. Without any lights, the room was completely dark - apart from a few beams of moonlight poking through the windows. Finding her bearings, Smolder found a quill pen, ink, and some paper by the teacher’s desk. Moving over to one of the moonlight beams, she sat down and raised her hand… then hesitated. Was this choice sincere? Did she really want to sneak away, just to be free with her board? There was no guarantee that the rest of Equestria would welcome her, in spite of the friendship school’s growing popularity.
Swallowing the lump in her little dragon throat, she lowered her hand and started to write.
Dear Twilight,
Thank you for all the amazing support and effort to teach so many young minds of all kinds about the magic of friendship. While part of me wants to continue learning and expanding knowledge, I feel that I need some... extended time off. I have found my mind too occupied with a fascination of this board that I have to be able to properly focus and dedicate myself to learning friendship and the other activities your school has to offer. By the time you read this I’ll be long gone, having traveled to a place where I can be free to let my mind have ample time to exploit all corners of creativity in coming up with new ways to have fun with my board. Once I feel at ease with this burst of eager creativeness, I’ll be able to return and get my mind clear and focused on learning friendship properly. Please don’t worry about me - I won’t be gone for long. Like I said, I just need some time.
- Smolder
With the words sealed in ink, she rolled it up and stuffed it under the door to Twilight’s head office, before heading back up the steps into the dorm. With one last look at all the sleepyhead students, Smolder’s heart sank a little as she noticed Silverstream’s empty bed. Gripping her board, she pushed the window open, stepped onto the sill, and took off into the night.
Flapping her wings a little harder to cope with the added weight of the board, Smolder really didn’t know exactly where she’d be going, but wanted to be in a well-lit area where her mind could de-stress and release all the creativity within. Her eyes weren’t super adept to low light, but with the aid of Luna’s bright warm moon, she could make out the town square. The road looked flat and without any lights on.
Aha! she thought, and raced down towards Ponyville.
But upon a closer investigation, her hopes were quickly crushed as she noticed a rather pebbly surface of the road, and many house lights still on, with some actually starting to turn on. Added to which, there was still a few ponies walking about for who-knows-what reason. Smolder didn’t think of it twice and flew off out of ground-level sight, fast. If anypony saw her, they’d want to know why she, as a dragon, was meddling in their little town, and then they’d report her to Twilight - who definitely wouldn’t be happy at all. Worse yet, they could perceive her as a spy or a threat to their kind.
Speeding off back northeast, Smolder again was confronted with the same question: where exactly to go? She’d been so hasty to try and fix all the complexities of her restlessly troubled mind that she hadn’t completely thought her escape plan through.
If she actually had one, that is.
The chugging sound of a train soon gave her a solution - ride the rails to Canterlot and find a place there. The elites may not like it, but there wasn’t much they’d be able to do about it - right?
Deeming her plan feasible, Smolder chased after the train as it left Ponyville, flying towards the caboose and gradually reducing her altitude. Once low enough, she gently landed on top of the car’s roof and laid back, resting her board on top of her belly, keeping one hand close by in case it fell off.
The journey to the big city took a while, and Smolder passed the time by forcing her slumber-ridden head to think of what Silverstream was attempting to do. She’d whispered the sequence to herself before pulling up her bike’s handlebars, but it hadn’t been loud enough for the little dragon’s ears to hear clearly. The only option left was to use rough guesses to fill in the detailed spaces from what Silverstream had excitedly and hurriedly summarized over lunch break.
“Just do what you wish, and apply whatever you can remember along the way. Creativity has no bounds.”
The train pulled into the station with a loud screech and steamy hiss, jolting Smolder awake with a shock and throwing her prized board off the caboose’s roof - towards the tracks. She shot her arm out and caught it just in time. Several ponies got off - but only about ten or so. Fortunately the train’s night crew were already well into their shift and so there wasn’t much to worry about her being noticed. There still was the issue of those who were present noticing a flying dragon. So Smolder simply sat back and waited. Once everypony was inside the station building and the platform was clear, she gripped her board and took off, flying over the station building and into the city. Like in Ponyville, there were a few townsfolk still out and about, but not too many.
To make things easier, Smolder flew in an irregular pattern over the city, such that her shadow would not be directly cast over the streets below. For the most part, the streets were wide and the buildings tall and elegant, their designs clearly exhibiting the luxury aesthetic feel they were designed with in mind. Keeping her eyes peeled for any movement or pony-shaped figures on the ground below, Smolder soon found an empty street and dove straight down, curving her flight path horizontal and upwards at the last moment to avoid a crash. Her eyes glowed with delight as a brief stroll revealed what she’d been looking for - flat, smooth ground with no overly bumpy or rocky texture.
“Yes!” Smolder quietly exclaimed. Looking out down the road, she saw that the rest of the road had the same texture. Now all she had to do was find a wide enough space with a good amount of moonlight.
Back in the air, it took a mere minute to spot it: a wide open space where an alleyway and three large roads met, with a statue of Princess Celestia adorning the middle with two benches off to the side. With a smooth, elegant surface, the ground was perfect for skating. Furthermore, no lights were on, and the air was dead quiet - apart from a very slight, gentle wind.
Flying in, Smolder set her board on the bench and sat down to relax for a bit. She looked around at the ground, the flat, circular pedestal that the statue stood on top of, and the dancing flames of the streetlights on the sides of the surrounding buildings. Her eyes drooped and her body felt limp. It was time to call it quits. Now that she’d found a place, all that was needed was to wait until early morning, between the fade of night and sunrise - during which she could practice with her board and try to unleash all of her stuck, overbearing creative side.
Morning was approaching, and the night fading fast. Well before Celestia took over for her younger sister’s night shift, somewhere near the city’s center, a little dragon with a big heart and an energized mind was awakening, ready to begin a long and tedious but very rewarding journey – in a city intersection.
Stretching, Smolder reached out and rolled over in her sleep, yawning in a half-awake state. The sound of a shopkeeper’s key quickly alerted her to the fact that she was a dragon smack in the middle of a city of elitist ponies, many miles from the safety of the school she attended. Pushing herself upright, Smolder rubbed her eyes and sat up on the bench, then stood up and peered under the bench to check if her beloved board was still there. Happily, it was.
Hopping on, she began with a rotating scoop, which was a simple foot repositioning in a fluid and well-proportioned manner. Bringing her back foot forward, she then “scooped” the board’s nose backward while simultaneously using her front foot to bring the board around, returning to the same stance. Turning her whole body didn’t go so well, though, resulting in many slams.
“Ow!” Smolder yelped for like the tenth time, rubbing her sore hip and arms. But after several more attempts, she got the hang of the motions required and refined it further using her front foot’s toes to swing the board around; in addition, she kept her upper body straight, instead of turning her shoulders simultaneously with the movements of her feet, thus allowing it to be done quicker. Next she simply rolled around, practicing her balance to allow for just enough nose lift to turn the board smoothly. It took countless tries – even after her gym session and the first experience up on the hilly meadow.
Finally Smolder felt comfortable enough to do some actual, real tricks – though the sun had risen by now. Which meant the elite ponies would be out and about – and they wouldn’t take too kindly to dragons, given what Twilight had taught them in history class. But Smolder wasn’t going to back down over the mere opinions of some high-hung noses, and so she kept skating as the townsfolk begun their day, blowing out their fire-lit streetlamps, unlocking their shop doors, and opening shutters.
“What-what is a dragon doing in our fair city?!” a scoffing shout was heard.
Smolder paused and turned, eyeing a cobalt-blue stallion on the far side of the statue. She rolled up and gave a mocking wave before riding off, leaning and turning, using kickturns occasionally. After a good ride she sat back down on a bench outside a restaurant to relax… or so she thought. Barely a minute had passed before the townsfolk began ganging up on her.
“Who are you?”
“Get out of our city you vile creature!”
“Dragons should be in the dragon lands, because they don’t know love and friendship like ponies do!”
That sentence sent Smolder’s lungs surging with fire. With an angry breath, she pushed the half a dozen or so elitists back a good couple of yards before collecting her thoughts.
“Excuse me, but who gave you the idea that friendship was limited to and controlled by you?” she snapped, staring squarely back into their now cowering eyes.
“I am a student of Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship. Do you know what that school is? Have you visited it to understand its purpose? I’d suggest you do. And… give me some space, just like you would want some space yourself.”
“But why are you here in our city?” one stallion still challenged.
Smolder turned and locked her gaze right onto him like a sniper. “I’m here to cruise around, to have fun, and to try and invent – to come up with new ways to have said fun with this.”
She held up her board, then spun it vertically with a flick of her fingers, before letting it drop to the ground, and rode off without another word.
Finding another open area with minimal traffic, Smolder sat back to relax, fiddling with her board, before starting work on her next trick – nose up, front foot under the nose, jump and flick simultaneously to flip the board around and ‘guide’ it with her back foot. Jumping up, she could only get the board up and rotating sideways, landing forward instead and stumbling. After ten tries, she gave up and flopped down on the side of a fountain to rest.
“I’ll get back to that one later,” she thought, reaching out and letting the water trickle down her scaly arms, cooling them down. Sitting back upright, she lowered her gaze and noticed how her board was resting on its side, with the edge facing up.
“How about the edge of the board? The wheels could provide somewhat of an extended surface for my feet…”
Eager to try out her idea, Smolder didn’t even wait for an opportunity to sneak away to an open spot – she simply slid off the fountain’s stone ledge and stepped onto her board sideways. At first it didn’t go so well. One foot on the back wheels and the board tipped up and over. Using one hand to hold the nose down, Smolder tried again, only to flip head over heels. Unfortunately, a unicorn mare was just passing by with a bag of fabric, thread, and other supplies – which all went flying and rolling out onto the street.
“Hey!” she snapped, turning to face whoever had hit her. She turned a full circle. Smolder was already getting to her feet and picking up all the items.
“Get away from me, you dirty dragon!” the mare snarled, taking a threatening step forwards.
Smolder quickly looked down at her hands and held them up. “Look. Not dirty. Now, at least let me help you.”
Without waiting for a confirming reply, she continued picking up all the items and neatly arranging them into the mare’s saddlebag, before holding it up, as if presenting. Still skeptical, the distrusting mare looked all over the fabric and thread. Not a smear of dirt or grime was to be spotted.
“If I really was a ‘dirty dragon’, I’d have messed up all your precious items for the fun of it, laughed, and ran off. But I didn’t, because that’s not who I am,” Smolder explained.
Flattered and humbled, the mare took hold of her bag. “Thank you…”
“- Name’s Smolder.”
“Thank you, Smolder.”
“You’re most welcome.”
“You too. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get going before I’m late.”
With that, the mare disappeared into the crowd, and Smolder was alone again, many ponies not even bothering to take note of her. Taking advantage of this invisibility, she tried to stand on her board sideways again, this time getting her front foot quickly on the front wheels in time with the release of her hand. Smolder quickly rose upright and fought for balance, only to fall again. After three tries she finally got it. Hopping off, and on, then back off again, she soon noticed that the board seemed to turn longitudinally a little, as if wanting to rotate. Could she get it to, though?
Once more, Smolder hopped back onto her board, this time at a slight angle, remembering from her previous trick attempt that a vertical rotational force was needed to get the board to spin. Shifting her back foot slightly back, off the wheels and on the tail, she let her toes hang over the edge. All at once, she jumped, flicked the board hard, and spun 180 degrees. Many times the board failed to land right, and Smolder found herself biting her lip in pain as the soles of her feet hit the trucks’ bolts hard or slipped on the board’s underside. Taking breaks, the dragon kept work at it, adjusting herself a little each time.
After what felt like the hundredth time, Smolder stretched her now sore legs out a little, walked over to her board, got the position proper, hung her toes out, and flicked hard.
CLACK!
The noise of wheels hitting the pavement hard split the air above the streets of Canterlot, and Smolder’s eyes went wide seeing the board flat, right side up, under her feet. She had just landed it!
“YES! YES!” Smolder whooped, fist-pumping the air with delight, pride, and overwhelming joy.
“Oh my, I can’t believe you actually pulled that off,” one stallion complemented. “I’d been watching you for a while and I thought that would be impossible, but you proved me wrong. Wow.”
Still in glee and awe of her accomplishment, Smolder looked up and turned to look at the face behind the voice that had applauded her efforts. He had a smooth green-azure mane with a dark blue body, and a small burst of water as his cutie mark.
“Thanks,” she replied with a smile, tapping the board’s tail and picking it up by the front trucks. “What’s your name?”
“Cerulean Filter. I own and work at a large treatment plant here in Canterlot, and manage all the water systems to ensure everypony here gets fresh, clean water in every building.”
Smolder’s eyes widened. “Could you show me it?”
“Why not. You’ve kinda won me over with your footwork, after all.”
“Wow, this place is huge,” Smolder breathed, as she and Cerulean came out of the crowd and approached a large L-shaped building on the edge of town. Behind it, the mountainside towered even higher, and fast-running currents of water trickled down grooves in its rocky surface, leading into a large river that flowed straight through the city.
“See those waterfalls?” Cerulean said, pointing up. “I’ve rerouted all those to enter into a narrow canal using a system of barriers, from which a group of pumps extract the water. I’m thinking of taking all the water from the one on the right and redirecting it straight into the building with a series of chutes and pipes, just to make the flow faster and more efficient than sucking the water straight out of the little ‘lake’ that forms behind. If you peek at the back of the building you can see what I mean.”
Smolder dropped her board and flew up and over. Peering at the water, she could see it all. A cleverly designed system of wooden planks tightly bonded together to divert some of the water into a tight area to make it flow faster, with some large metal units sticking out of the building directly over the water’s surface. She could only presume those were the pumps.
“Pretty cool,” she remarked as they approached the building’s side door. “All those wooden planks you installed yourself?”
“Yeah,” Cerulean stated proudly. “All when I was a little filly. My father used to own this building as a factory, but I wanted to do something that could outdo everypony else in providing for the city’s residents. Back then in Canterlot, everypony just pulled water from wells. So with help from some school friends who were also into it, we set up a system for how to extract water from the waterfalls and began working. My father wasn’t too pleased at first, but soon relented. After graduating from school I got straight to work on it, renovating the building with whatever funds I could hustle. Mind you, Canterlot wasn’t the brightest when it came to cleanliness earlier in its development. The city’s residents increased hospital visits due to sickness caused by waterborne illnesses only increased the demand, and so I encouraged those graduating from engineering, chemistry, and biology to help me out. It took twenty years, but I finally realized my dream.”
“Now let’s go inside, ‘cause that’s where the real magic happens,” he added with a smile, opening the door and ushering Smolder inside.
“Whoa,” Smolder gasped, taking in all the sights of large metal pipes, gauges, switches, and other operating machinery, along with the large lights and skylights high above.
“Let me give you a quick run-down of how all this works,” Cerulean offered, excitedly leading her up a set of metal stairs and onto an elevated hallway that overlooked the whole section. Behind them, up on the wall, stood a whiteboard. Cerulean, who was a pegasus, took hold of a marker and started drawing.
“So all the water from those pumps you saw outside, comes in like so,” he began, drawing five arrows on the top right. Smolder grabbed a nearby stool and sat down to observe, just like she’d done in class back at school.
“Now, all that water is pushed through a coarse filter in the pipes before they enter the pumps – coarse meaning that the holes are somewhat large. This prevents a build-up of pressure which could cause a burst. All these pumps run on electricity. I generate that electrical energy from a gym downtown, as well as from several other waterfall wheels I hooked up and solar panels.”
Smolder nodded. Interesting.
“All of these pumps pull out the water and then direct it to the far end, where another filter removes smaller minerals, debris, and other unwanted items.” Cerulean pointed to a green tank opposite the pumps. “That’s a holding tank for a special chemical I created in a lab. It is added thereafter in the next section of the building to cause organic particles and other items to stick together and thus increase in size.”
“I suppose the next challenge would be to remove them,” Smolder inferred.
“Exactly!” Cerulean exclaimed. “Now let me show you the next section.”
Picking up her board, Smolder walked down the elevated hall into the next area of the building, where a large pipe split into several smaller ones and entered what looked like an enormous covered tray, split into two sections. Ever so enthusiastic about his work, Cerulean began again.
“All that water is then slowly stirred, to get those unwanted particles to actually stick. It takes a while, but eventually they do. Once they – ”
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
“Ooh, looks like it’s time!” Cerulean announced, flying down to the main floor and pressing a few keys on an instrument panel, before pulling a lever and flying back up.
“I’ve added some pre-treated water high in oxygen into the next section, which, along with some air bubbles, will get those clumps of dirt to rise…”
“…Where you can skim them off,” Smolder chimed in. “Just like foam with raw milk.”
“You’re a quick learner,” Cerulean remarked with a wink. “Exactly. Now what do you think needs to be removed next?”
“Invisible particles?”
“Indeed – they’re called bacteria. Harmful bacteria.” Cerulean pointed to two tanks on the main floor at the opposite end of the room. “With help from Cloudsdale, I extract oxygen from the air and liquefy it, then zap it with electricity, which creates what’s called ozone. The ozone deals with the bacteria, and afterwards the other tank adds sodium bisulphite to remove any extra ozone. Next comes another tank with even more filters, which cause the dirty water to rise, where I can pump it out and return it back to an earlier stage.”
“So, would the water then be clearer?”
“Absolutely. But not completely safe. Let’s head into the third and final section of the building.”
Smolder smiled as she walked down the elevated halls, gazing down at the system of mechanical parts below her. It would never have occurred to her that such an elaborate system was needed to give Canterlot such fine water, let alone exist.
“And here is the final stage of processing,” Cerulean announced proudly, pointing to four tanks and a unique system of wide pipes with bright lights inside of them.
“First, I add chlorine to remove the remaining harmful bacteria, and then another chemical that restores the acidity level, so the water tastes as it would be from the original source. The last unwanted particles are removed by spitting a special light through holding tanks. The UV levels of the light render the particles harmless. Finally, ortho phosphate is added, which prevents build-up on the pipes. And voila! The water is finally at the end of its purification stage and I then pump it throughout the city, monitoring pressure levels and adjusting them to ensure no bursts or slow drips. On occasion my lab team tests check the water to ensure it is truly safe to use, and also routinely check the systems for any leaks, damages, or symptoms that need replacement.”
Smolder stood back, feeling grateful and humbled. “I can’t believe you did this all… for everypony. For every creature.”
“Where there’s clean water, there’s flourishing life. And it’s my goal in life to ensure clean water for all. Thirty ponies manage this facility, including myself. We’re all a team.”
“I wish more of Canterlot’s residents could be like you,” Smolder said sadly. “You’re kind, respectful, and don’t exhibit even a shred of snobbish attitude or rudeness.”
Cerulean sighed. “I know. Many aren’t even that grateful, given all I sacrificed in life to build this facility. For years I once lived in the streets because I gave up everything of value just to keep the pumps running. I thank Celestia for speaking up for me and ordering more to help me out. I sucked a ton of money off Canterlot’s economy, but it was all worth it. Now the money is more settled, and several business owners still donate to keep this place running.”
“Could I skate here?” Smolder asked excitedly.
“Sure,” Cerulean offered. “Just watch out for workers moving around. Your best bet would be back by the side entrance where the main pumps are. There’s a lot of space, and not many workers frequent there – only to check on the pumps and monitor pressure. I’ve got to get back to work writing up reports and checking up on several teams of workers. Afterwards we’ll spend the lunch break together. Have fun!”
“Thanks for the tour!” Smolder called out, waving as she took off back down the maze of elevated hallways.
“You’re welcome!”
Navigating her way down the halls, she soon found herself back to where she started – at the main pumps. They were pretty loud, but the smooth, hard floor surface was too good to pass up. Not wasting another second, Smolder leapt off the rail, flew down, and started skating again, perfecting and refining her moves and tricks she’d learned so far.
Tail-slap to flat.
Tail-slap to Casper flip.
Casper flip.
Truck-stand 180-Casper spin to Casper flip.
Rail flip to flat.
Tail-stand vertical spin (one-foot version shown)
She fell time and time again, scoring a couple times but still slipping up occasionally. At times it became frustrating, but in her mind, Smolder felt happy and free. All the energy from within her creative spirit could be set free. Undeterred by her sore muscles and beaten bones, she kept going, trying each trick until she could cleanly land it consecutively three times in a row without failing. It would be some time before her mind was relaxed enough in its eager state to return to school – which was news she had yet to tell Cerulean Filter.
Skateboarding was hard, no doubt about it, Smolder thought, limping to one of the pumps and resting back against the pipe after hitting her leg hard against the trucks while attempting a previous flip trick. However, it was equally as rewarding once you got a trick correct. It’d also sucked the wind out of her, considering that it’d taken nearly forty tries to get the truck-stand 180-casper spin to flip correctly, since the board’s rounded ends made balancing very difficult. And the other tricks weren’t much different, although the rail flip to flat was somewhat easier given the level of practice she’d done in the streets.
While she lay exhausted, dizzy, and a little frustrated, Smolder pondered over how much she’d progressed in her tricks that she’d come up with and what needed to be done to give herself a full sense of accomplishment from her creative drive – which is what had pushed her to run all the way out to Canterlot in the first place. She’d flipped the board over and spun it, but only while the board was stationary to begin with. Recalling the moment when Silverstream fell, Smolder attempted to remember what exactly her friend was attempting to do. She’d gripped the handlebars and leaned back hard – in fact, way too hard.
“Hang on,” Smolder pondered. “Isn’t jumping about going forward? Maybe that’s what Silverstream intended, but going backwards first. Now that I think of it, I haven’t really jumped with the board, I’ve only jumped off the board.”
Feeling eager, she had to keep a lid on her enthusiasm, given that her body wasn’t exactly ready to try out her theory – at least not just yet. Added to which, she was hungry. It was noon now and all she had to eat was yesterday’s dinner back at the school. Minimal movement last night (thanks to the train ride) and a short sleep had helped, but only a little. Her stomach felt parched, and up here in Canterlot there was no abundance of gems.
“Guess I’ll have to just eat pony food then,” she said with a disappointed sigh.
Right on cue, Cerulean Blue appeared above on the elevated walkway.
“Hey Smolder! How’s it going? Uh…” The eager, joyful smile on Cerulean’s face drained away as he spotted the little dragon curled up in the corner, looking like the sad, sore, beaten-up, hungry dragon she was.
“I’ve worked so hard,” she muttered, barely loud enough for him to hear, “but I still haven’t refined many of these tricks. I’ve also discovered something revolutionary, but it’s all theory for now. I need to test out, but my stomach is empty, my head is swimming, and my body is absurdly sore.”
Concerned, Cerulean flew down next to her. “Have you been skating since I left? Without a break or relax period?!”
“I’ve stopped a few times, yeah, but I for the most part I kept going because I loved it so much.”
“I’m no doctor, but there can’t be a better cure for exhaustion and a stressed mind than a quick chat and a visit to a restaurant.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Out on Restaurant Row, Cerulean headed to his favorite restaurant, The Aqua Blaster, and proudly marched in, with Smolder right behind, holding her board.
“Hello there, two cups of juice, two hay burgers, and a bowl of gems please.”
“Sir, we only have a small supply of gems and -”
“If there’s only a small amount left, then that it is, please.” Cerulean cut in, raising his voice slightly.
With their meals ready, Cerulean and Smolder sat down at a table outside, since there weren’t too many noisy ponies around.
“So, what’s with your board obsession?” Cerulean began, attempting to formally discuss instead of shooting the breeze.
“Well, I simply couldn’t contain my excitement and eagerness to keep practicing what I knew of riding my board, as well as trying out new methods of creative play,” Smolder replied, taking a bite of a large sapphire.
“I see. How do you pace yourself to develop and practice new tricks?”
“Well, I look at each one I’ve done and observe the minute movements my legs and body make and try to improve and switch things up a bit with each position or first move. Jumping first, then later trying to flip while jumping, and later rotating.”
“Interesting. So you observe a sequence of events involving gestures that cause physical movement for one trick and then deduce how to perform the next trick.”
“Exactly.”
Cerulean was impressed with the way his new friend could think and articulate herself. But he still needed to ask one important question:
“Where did you come from? In all my more than forty years of living in Canterlot I’ve never seen a dragon enter the city - apart from a few attacks by massive ones.”
Smolder bit her lip and sighed, feeling defeated. This was something she’d been trying to avoid but was foolish to leave right out in the open for him to throw at her - and now she had no choice but to catch it.
“I… ran away,” she replied with a sad sigh. “I am a student at Princess Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship. During a little adventure, my friends and I discovered a few interesting items - one of which was this board, and…”
Cerulean reached over and let an almost-teary-eyed Smolder rest her chin on his hoof. “It’s okay, Smolder. You can tell me anything. We’re friends, right?”
Smolder nodded and managed a little smile. “Y-yes. We… we are. One of my friends - my fellow students - also found something during that little adventure, which Twilight called a ‘bike’. While attempting to demonstrate something, she fell over backwards and hurt her head really badly. Annoyed and upset, Twilight took her bike away, but I asked her to let me have my board. For some reason I couldn’t take it anymore, and left. I wanted to keep going at my newfound love for my board in a place where no one could confiscate it or have control over me.”
“Even if it meant running away from school? And your homeland?”
Smolder nodded sadly. “I just don’t really know what to do.”
Cerulean lifted his friend’s chin and smiled, though remained serious. “You need to pace yourself and train your mind just as you trained your desire. Remember how you developed a trick in incremental stages of observation and repetitive attempts?”
“Yes?”
“Well, you need to use the same basic concept in your day-to-day life at the school. Tackle each day in stages. Furthermore, train yourself to store your exciting thoughts and ideas in a portion of your mind for later retrieval. Right now you feel the irresistible urge to immediately try out something as soon as it hits the inspiration-molding and motivating part of your brain. This is where you have to stop and tell yourself internally that no, I’m not going to do this right away, I’m going to collect it, visualize it a little maybe, and then store it for later.”
“Now after classes or during off times, you can then retrieve those ideas and thoughts, ready to implement them. It’s all about the right action at the right time. Prioritizing, it’s called.”
“So, how would I go about doing this?” Smolder asked, sipping her juice.
“Well, you need to work out a schedule. Ask Princess Twilight how often and how long you’d like to skate and what times would be appropriate in relation to your classes and homework time slots. Based on what I remember about school, you should be able to manage about two to four hours per day - enough to practice learnt tricks and develop the basis for a new one.”
“Sounds like a good plan. You’re right. I need to reevaluate my daily routine and build skateboarding around that, not my school around skateboarding,” Smolder said confidently.
Cerulean chewed up the last of his second hay burger and gulped down his juice. “Well, you’d better get going. I’m sure Princess Twilight’s already got a search party organized.”
“But… she’ll be real mad when I return!” Smolder suddenly pouted. “Apologies won’t work at all!”
“I’m sure they will work,” Cerulean replied confidently. “Have faith, just as I had faith in you to be able to be a kind, caring, and respectful dragon.”
Smolder gulped and sighed, picking up her board. “Well, I’d better get going.”
“Wait.” Cerulean pulled a few bits out of a pouch strapped to his leg. “For your train ticket.”
“Thanks so much,” Smolder replied, taking them in her hand and giving him a big hug. “For being a kind, inviting, and respectful friend.”
“You’re welcome.”
With a fresh, balanced mind, Smolder flew up and located the train station. Then she came back down, grabbed her board and ran off with it briefly, before hopping on and pushing hard, zipping down the streets of Canterlot at high speed. Adjusting her feet ever so slightly allowed her to weave in and out between ponies with ease - and within five minutes, she arrived at the station.
“A dragon?” the ticket clerk exclaimed in bewilderment.
“Yes. Name’s Smolder. Thanks for the ticket. Have a fantastic day.”
After presenting her ticket, Smolder stepped onto the train and laid back on a seat. With her board laid across her chest, she sighed and started thinking up the hard and complicated answers she’d have to tell Twilight as soon as she got back.
The ride home was a long and solemn one, as Smolder was honestly fearing the worst, despite the reassuring words of her new friend, Cerulean Blue. If her board was confiscated, she’d be crushed. Her board was everything to her. It allowed her to be creative, just like in the classroom - but openly and freely. Skateboarding was prideful, almost rebelling, in its attitude, but also disciplined, precise, and somewhat brutal. A failed trick meant a hard hit to hard ground, but also a compelling call to try again to ensure that such an event wouldn’t happen. In a way, being beaten half to death by the ground beneath her had motivated Smolder to be more motivated and willing to be insightful and innovative. All that was needed was to bring such a newly refined and boosted mind and attitude into the classroom without any tampering or discardment.
Yet an additional element kinda worried her - others around her in close proximity. Sure, the elitists of Canterlot were bothered and annoyed - but they were disturbed by her presence, not her skating. In Cerulean’s treatment plant, she could do everything by herself, for herself.
“However, the premise of wanting to be alone kind of defeats the purpose of being together in peace and harmony with other students and teachers at school, doesn’t it?” Smolder challenged herself, before drifting off into a nap, amidst the other talkative pony passengers.
Less than an hour later, she was awoken by a screech and a heightened level of talking. Pushing herself upright in her seat and rubbing her eyes, Smolder turned and glanced out the window. It was the Ponyville Train Station. She’d arrived.
Upon exiting the train, she noticed a painter pony atop a ladder. Having finished a brief paint job, he then began descending down, soon reaching the second last step… and the ladder began tipping backward.
“Gah!” Smolder gasped, dropping her board and flying over to help. With a quick thought, she spun upside down and grabbed the top of the ladder, gripping the underside of the train station canopy with her feet as an anchor, thus allowing the ladder to be stable enough to allow the painter to fully dismount, while two pegasi workers helped carry it away.
“Thanks for that,” the painter said with a smile, trying to hide his feeling of bewilderment.
“My pleasure,” Smolder replied, suddenly realizing that she was hanging upside down from a train canopy like a giant bat. “And thank you for making Ponyville’s train station look refined and beautiful as it should be.”
Hopping back onto her board, Smolder pushed off, gliding down Ponyville’s roads and trails, looking for the Castle of Friendship. Finally locating it, she kickturned and sped down the road towards it, before grabbing her board and flying off to the adjacent School of Friendship. Without even slowing down, she burst through the doors and sped down the hallways without a breath, eventually finding herself at the doors to HeadMare Princess Twilight Sparkle’s office.
Letting out a pitiful sigh of defeat, she collapsed onto the floor and waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the powerful, authoritative figure appeared in the hallway. Before Smolder could even blink, Twilight was all over her, rubbing and investigating as if he was some sort of alien.
“Smolder! Oh, I missed you! Are you okay?” She then noticed the little dragon’s bruises and chipped scales. “What happened?”
“WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA WERE YOU THINKING!” Rainbow Dash bellowed, rushing over as Rarity, Applejack, and the others arrived outside Twilight’s office.
Smolder looked down sadly and used every ounce of internal will to fight back tears… or charring the irate pegasus’s mane to ashes. “I… ran away. To have some alone time to be free and creative.” She shot Dash a venomous glare. “Unlike you, who only knows how to yell.”
“But I - ”
“That’s enough, girls,” Twilight commanded. “Smolder and I will need to talk alone. And when we’re done, you have some apologizing to do, Rainbow. It isn’t right to run away, but neither is erupting in rage.”
Without another word, Twilight took Smolder under her wing into her office and shut the doors, before sitting at her desk.
“Why did you run away, Smolder?”
Smolder pushed her board aside and slid onto a chair. “I… I fell apart. When Silverstream was admitted to the hospital, it meant that I wouldn’t have anyone to practice and learn alongside. My own creative and innovative spirits felt encaged and suppressed. I couldn’t take it, so I ran away to Canterlot, where I found some space and time to skate and not worry about anything else at all. I felt free and capable. As you’ve seen already, I fell, yes, but I kept on going.”
“Eventually I landed one particular trick, catching the eye of one friendly stallion. He led me to his workplace, where in an open area, I kept going at it until I was too sore to stand up and too thirsty and hungry to see straight. I skated as hard as I could - refining tricks I’d invented and trying to make new ones based on the subtle movements - the little components - that made up each trick. Eventually over lunch he lured me into revealing the truth, and helped me understand what I did wrong and how I could fix it without having to quit enjoying my board. So with a train ticket paid by him and a new mental and spiritual outlook, I decided to return. Now before you, I come as a beaten-up board lover with a willingness to balance my life and prioritize my mind and heart, humbly asking for forgiveness. I promise, I’ll never run away again. I have no right whatsoever to make you or all your teachers worried.”
“Especially given that we are responsible for you on behalf of your land’s rulers,” Twilight added with a slight scowl. “I do forgive you, but I will be keeping this out of usage for a while.”
“Nooooooooo!” Smolder wailed as Twilight levitated her beloved board and slid it into a large cupboard in her desk under lock and key.
Twilight chuckled and smiled. “It’s not going to be gone forever. You have made a confident statement about a self-improvement plan. I will be happy to assist you in formulating it, implementing it, and perhaps teaching others about it too. Once I have observed and tracked that you are truthful, committed, and consistent with this plan, then you’ll be worthy of possessing your board again. The same goes for Silverstream.”
“Can Silverstream benefit from my new approach?” Smolder asked quickly.
Twilight nodded with a smile. “Indeed. Now let’s get you a good, proper meal to fuel that little dragon brain of yours so it can tackle some leftover homework. After that you can rest.”
Smolder nodded, making sure to stand up only after Twilight did. Together they left the office and headed to the cafeteria, where they ate together.
“By the way, who was that pony who let you skate at his workplace?”
“Cerulean Blue, founder and owner of the Canterlot Water Treatment Plant,” Smolder recited proudly.
Twilight’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? That’s quite… an amazing achievement. Both for him and you. Looks like you have learned a good amount of friendship and harmony on your little trip after all.”
“I’m just happy to have my mind open to the right understanding of my life’s structural order and knowing I’ll still be happy and free on my board at the same time,” Smolder confessed, chowing down on the last deep-fried gems in a bowl.
“Welcome class!” Rarity began, pulling out a small box of chalk. “Today’s going to be a rather different session, as Smolder is going to be doing the explaining and I will elaborate. She’s come up with a method of planning out your daily routines and how to handle creative ideas.”
With a brief glance of pre-approval from Rarity, Smolder grabbed a stick of white chalk and stepped up on a stool in front of the board.
“Let’s face it, we all have got incredible creative ideas at some point or another. The challenge is – and a question I’d like to ask you – how do you manage all those ideas and thoughts? Remember, they’re all vibrant and bubbly within, eager to rush out and be implemented.”
For a moment, everyone fell silent. It really did appear to be an eye-opening question. However, a little changeling hoof was soon raised.
“You can always write down your thoughts and ideas,” Ocellus suggested. “That way, they stay in a form that’s readable and thus understandable, so you can sort of… reinstall them into your mind.”
Yona was next, her hoof to her chin in a somewhat excitable manner.
“Yona thinks to recite them quietly from time to time, so they don’t get lost.”
Another student then had his turn.
“How about sharing said thoughts and ideas with a friend? That way, they can be more easily understood and even be shaped into a form that’s easy and fun to remember and implement. Not necessarily a set of mnemonics though.”
Smolder’s eyes widened in amazement. Her friends and fellow classmates had been pretty sharp at rationalizing and deducing, but yet here was a little colt she’d never met before and he had the most elaborate and well-rounded answer.
“Well done to you,” Rarity declared with a smile. “That’s exactly it. It isn’t one definite answer, but rather several components combined into one complex answer.” She pointed to the little colt. “You have provided the largest and most vital of said components.”
“Alrighty,” Smolder began, drawing a long thick line across the board, then a thinner, vertical one to the far left. “Let’s break this all down into proper, easy-to-understand components. First, on the left here, we’ll list out all our thoughts and ideas, just like Ocellus had suggested. What should I add?”
“Pen rotation.”
“Dancing!”
“Study group!”
“Forward jump!”
“One-handed underhand ball throw!”
“And mine, one-foot balance hop, and jumping with the object. Good job everyone,” Smolder proudly announced, a big smile on her face as she joyfully raised her arms in congratulation. Then to the right of the vertical line, she drew four large circles, then four smaller ones filled in a little.
“Now that we have all our thoughts and ideas listed out, we can then work out the various times of day when we can discuss and possibly implement them,” Smolder explained. “These little circles represent when we wake up in the morning, when we have lunch, the end of school, and before we go to bed. The corresponding large circles represent groups.”
Catching on to the concept, Rarity then stepped in, and Smolder passed her the chalk stick. “Now in each group there will be a number of you who will then discuss and share, as was stated previously – ”
“And take notes,” Ocellus quickly added.
Rarity gave her a disapproving look, but smiled slightly. “Yes, Ocellus. Notes too, can be taken to assist. Once these group sessions can be held, the organized ideas and plans from them can be formatted – that is, placed and arranged in a certain manner.”
Smolder then continued, pointing to the third column with the chalk stick. “And then, here, we create a list of the exact time slots and locations we’ve decided on to implement our ideas and plans. Again, in an ordered manner. And that, is it. We can recreate this with some big paper later if you wish, Ocellus. I hope you all enjoyed this session and look forward to hearing positive, productive results from Rarity and the other teachers.”
“Thank you, Smolder!” a row of young fillies cheered from the back row, causing the little dragon’s mouth to form a little gasp of surprise. But she maintained her composure and humbly stepped off the stool, before Rarity wrapped her hoof around her.
“My word, Smolder that was a very impressive planning strategy! You’re quite an intelligent dragon.”
“When you’re away from everything you’ve come to know and have nothing but a board with wheels, interesting things happen up here,” Smolder replied, pointing to her head.
Rarity chuckled heartily. “True that. Well now, on to your next class.”
“What’s a one-foot balance hop?” Ocellus inquired as they all walked down the hall.
Smolder glanced at her with a smug smile. “You’ll see soon enough.”
And so, at precisely three minutes past the let-off point in the afternoon, the discussion began around a table in the library. It took a bit of careful planning and negotiation, but Smolder soon got Twilight to allow her board into the library, so she could explain the plan more clearly.
“So, Ocellus, here’s how this works,” she began. “From what Silverstream explained to me from watching a little ferret named Sasha in Fluttershy’s class, all acts of jumping need a push to get momentum.”
“Ah yes, as I call it, the push force!” Ocellus replied excitedly.
Smolder smiled back at her. “You enjoy those areas of science, don’t you? Now, this ‘push’ is done downwards with your feet.”
“Yeah, like, it’s how we jump!” Sandbar said joyfully, catching on as he leapt straight up and back down, barely avoiding slipping on the floor pillow he’d been sitting on.
Smolder let out a pleased laugh. “All items that have a lower level of rigidity will bounce. We’ve all seen this when we play buckball. So, if I push down hard on the tail here, then it should bounce back up.”
She hit the tail of her board multiple times, but it never bounced – only the nose rose straight up.
“That explains why the gym floor is hard,” Ocellus explained. “C’mon, let’s go there. It may be closed, but we can always come up with excuses to enter.”
After discussing plans to assist each other in the other ideas and goals they each had, the six students left the library and headed down the hall towards the gym, taking the long route around so they wouldn’t have to pass Headmare Twilight’s office. To their surprise, it was open.
Gallus flicked on the lights and they entered. The storage room was locked, though, so Silverstream couldn’t get access to her bike. Nonetheless, Smolder still had her demonstration to perform.
“So, again, push down on the tail, should come up.”
Smolder put her foot on the tail and pushed it down hard. The board vibrated with a resonating click sound, but only shook under her foot.
“Try lifting your foot right after you push it down, so the board has room to actually bounce,” Gallus suggested. You’re pushing the board down and holding it, when you need to bounce it.”
Smolder gave a slight nod. "Yeah, that was what I was aiming for."
Giving it another try, she pushed down and pulled back up a bit. The board snapped down and popped back up, vibrating a little. Acting quickly, Smolder moved her foot forward and down again, grounding the board to a standstill.
“Hi Gallus! Um… wait. What are you all doing in here?” Starlight interrogated as she passed by the door, having obviously heard their voices and bouncing noises of the board.
“Just a scientific observation with a tool for observation of principles and theories,” Gallus replied, trying to shrug it off. “We’re actually almost done.”
“Mmm. Okay, because Twilight’s requesting that board back.”
Smolder sighed and nodded. “I know, Starlight. Thanks.” She turned back to face her friends. “There’s still a few more questions and areas of examination though…”
“If something’s in the air, can’t it be pulled forward through the air?” Gallus proposed.
“And that’s just tapping the board hard enough to make it bounce, or ‘pop’,” Ocellus added. “Could there be a way to still control the board while doing that tail tap? And still jump up?”
“Yak mind cannot fully comprehend, but Yona think Smolder’s done good job explaining,” Yona said with a pleased smile.
“We’ll just have to figure it out another time,” Silverstream concluded.
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’.
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!
“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.
As the sun began its journey towards the horizon, Silverstream and Smolder entered Twilight’s office.
“It’s good to see you two again. You know, it’s incredible how one little incident can trigger someone to change. All over the school, I’ve seen and heard about students using your new goal-setting and idea-sharing strategy to achieve and succeed. I too have been planning, and I’m going to extend the gym provisioning one step further.”
“Does that mean I can ride Spinner again?”
“Wait for it. After school hours, Starlight will check up on you both to ensure that homework is finished and checked in. Once that’s been confirmed, you can have access to the gymnasium keys until bedtime. Additionally, each month I’ll be allowing you to visit Ponyville, and bring your toys on a field trip to Canterlot. Sound fun?”
“Wooo-hoooo! Absolutely!” Smolder exclaimed with a fist-pump. “There’s so much we can do!”
“Well, then, I’ll see you again later after work’s done. And Smolder, here. You deserve this.”
Twilight unlocked her desk cupboard and pulled out the skateboard, holding it up. Smolder eagerly but gently took it and gave a polite thank-you before leaving, with Silverstream in tow.
“Yona find math so complicated!” Yona groaned, peering over the equation for the fifth time.
“Hey guys!” Smolder said excitedly, running down the hall to the table where Gallus, Yona, Sandbar, and Ocellus were gathered. “We got our toys back!”
“Oh, it’s in the gymnasium,” Silverstream replied, shrugging it off. “Starlight found some grease for it, so I should be good to go this evening! After homework, of course.”
In the next few hours, the six friends peered over their homework, examining each question and answering them properly across a variety of subjects they’d been taught – biology, mathematics, the history of Equestria, and more. At last, all the work was done – only for one thing.
“Think we still got time?” Smolder asked, gesturing to an open window that showed the sun setting.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine!” Silverstream replied, nodding excitedly. “C’mon, let’s get those keys!”
The two left their homework by the table and raced off.
“Yona will bring these to Headmare Twilight, too!” Yona declared, piling all the books onto her back, only to have some of them fall off.
“I’ll help ya,” Gallus sighed, picking up a few and flying off, Yona following close behind. They soon caught up to Silverstream and Smolder. Sandbar opted to stay behind and read some books instead.
“Here’s all our homework,” Gallus declared, setting down a large handful of books on the desk, before adding Yona’s house of cards to the stack. Twilight’s eyes almost bulged out at the sight of it, but held her cool.
“Took you quite a while this time ‘round, but it’s done. Here ya go,” she said, handing the keys to Smolder. “Have fun and try not to cause damage, alright?”
“We promise!” Silverstream replied, clasping her hands together in a solemn pose.
The two friends ran down the hallway to the gymnasium and unlocked it. Inside, Smolder flicked a few switches, unlocked the storage room, and pulled the door open. Flicking on a light switch, she found Silverstream’s bike and pulled it out. Armed and ready with her grease, Silverstream got to work, gently lubing the chain, gears, axles, and headset join points. Rubbing off the excess with a rag, she cranked the pedals and flicked the handlebars, ensuring they spun smoothly without any resistance. Now she was ready to begin with her friend.
Smolder walked over to the middle of the room and just dropped the board, before circling around it, observing closely all the different components and how to effectively use them. The creative juices were starting to flow.
In a quick move, she stomped on the tail with her left foot, grabbed the nose, and gently hopped upwards, swinging her right foot around and onto the back trucks in a precarious balancing act. A quick thought rushed through her: if I gently hop off, that’ll free the board, and then...
With a gentle hop, Smolder ‘hovered’ for a bit, then quickly flicked the board with her fingers. It spun right side up, and she dropped back down onto it, adjusting her balance and rolling away. Turning in a half-circle, she tail-skid to a stop and closed her eyes, tracing out the movement with her finger.
“Into the midpoint, around, down on the side, hop onto the wheel, flick out to spin. Push, hop, flick. Go.”
Smolder angled herself parallel to the board, and pushed the board sideways to the left using her front foot, in an opposite stance. Right as the board fell on its side she hopped onto the back wheel with her right foot and flicked outward, using her left foot as a guide to spin the board around. However, the board just scooted out in front of her. So she tapped the tail, got the nose in the air, and tried again and again. And again, and again the board just wouldn’t spin – it’d just scoot out.
After twenty-five tries, she took a break and flopped down on a floor pillow, her body exhausted and her feet sore. But the voice still remained in her head: you can do this. You have to do this.
Meanwhile, Silverstream was having a good deal of fun. She’d figured out how to use her wings to balance while standing on the front wheel pegs, and holding the seat with one hand, so the back of the bike rose up. She also held out her other hand for extra balance.
Then she tried to turn…and fell over. After several failed attempts, she finally managed to turn in a full circle without losing balance.
“Try that again!” Smolder laughed. “It was impressive. How about balancing on the back peg?”
Silverstream’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “Are you suggesting I try a new trick?”
“Yeah! Go for it! You have very good balance naturally as a hippogriff.”
So Silverstream got back on her bike – the right way – and put her left foot firmly on the back wheel peg and leaned forward and up, making sure she didn’t shift her body weight too far forward. Then, gripping the handlebars, she kicked out with her right leg and pulled herself in a circle, using her wings to assist balance and rotation. Curious and excited, she grabbed the front wheel peg with her left, switched feet, and pumped with her left leg, causing her to spin even faster. It was practically bike pirouette.
Feeling happy for her friend, Smolder fought to hold a manual, and used her arms to pull herself in an inward motion. Now she was spinning as well. They made some ten rotations… only to be interrupted by a whistle and gasp from the gymnasium entrance. Apparently, all the movement and the whirling noise had caught some attention.
“Whoa, that’s so cool!” Starlight squeed, having walked in. “You two are better than I thought! I can see you’ve got great talent with your toys!”
“Oh, yeah…whoa!” Smolder replied with a gasp, slipping off her board in surprise at the appearance of the guidance counsellor. “We’ve been practicing different tricks using nothing but our creative minds.”
“Oh yeah! Wheeeeee!” Silverstream cried, having been lost in the moment as she stood on the front wheel pegs with one foot and hurled the bike around, kicking at the air and the front tire.
Starlight gave a pleased laugh. “Anyways, it’s time for an evening snack and bedtime.”
“Aw!”
“C’mon,” Starlight coaxed. “You can always come back tomorrow evening. Better yet, since the weekend’s coming up, why don’t you visit Ponyville?”
Smolder and Silverstream shared a look. It sounded like the perfect idea. With some warm-up sessions, of course.
It’d been almost a month since Smolder and Silverstream had discovered their ‘toys’. For the most part they’d been just learning how to move around and rotate and spin on the spot, or ‘freestyling’, as Starlight Glimmer had put it. But then, through close observation of a ferret, Silverstream had discovered the key to jumping, and with Ocellus’s knowledge of physics, Smolder invented the ollie – jumping up and forward with the board. And for the next few days, that’s all Smolder had been doing – literally.
Just jumping up and over stuff. She fell many times but kept going – tough as a brick.
Silverstream, on the other hand, was too occupied with just spinning and going in circles in different balancing positions. She had mastered the art of manuals and nose manuals, though. But she couldn’t jump or hop. Which Smolder knew how to do almost effortlessly.
“Well, it looks like the teaching roles have switched, huh?” Gallus smirked, as they gathered in the gymnasium for a quick session one day.
“It certainly has!” Silverstream exclaimed, looking like she was having more fun being the student rather than the teacher.
“Let’s see here…” Smolder began, letting her little dragon brain process all the little details. “Okay. First few things, Silverstream. Keep your pedals level, like my feet when they’re on the board. And those knees and wrists, bent and loose. Stiffness is the last thing you want, because movement can’t be done with something that’s stiff.”
“Can confirm,” Ocellus added with a proud smirk.
Smolder returned the smile and continued talking, tapping Silverstream’s wrists. “You want these pointed downwards, so you have some leverage. Just like when climbing up rocks, you have to heave yourself upward. Now, you mentioned that you saw Sasha crouch and jump up and forward, right? Well, there’s also a level of leaning back. So here, you’re going to lean forward, back, up, and then forward again.”
“Like this?” Silverstream asked, leaning far forward so her head was beyond the handlebars.
Smolder had to release an amused laugh. “Close. A bit up more – keep a slight bend in those knees. Feel the weight pressing down more at the front than the back? That’s what you want.”
“Now back, you said?” Silverstream said excitedly, yanking her arms in and nearly toppling over.
“Whoa, easy!” Smolder gasped, rushing in to stabilize the bike. “Nuh-uh. Not with your arms. Opposite of that, really. Straighten ‘em out and use the force of your body’s core to pull you back. Not too far, just enough to raise the front wheel.”
“Like a manual!”
“Yeah. Exactly like that. Keep your feet firmly planted and level. Don’t try to pedal. Just roll.”
Realizing she was exaggerating the efforts, Silverstream eased off and paid closer attention. Shifting forward and then backward made raising the front wheel much easier.
“Don’t ‘throw’ the wheel back down,” Smolder advised, making air quotes. “Just use a little bit of your arms to ease it down. Doesn’t have to be super slow either. Figure out what works best. Keep practicing that.”
For all her exuberance, Silverstream was a quick learner, and after just a few hours she had the bike’s front wheel up and down like a swinging pendulum. It wasn’t long before Gallus picked up on Starlight’s footsteps and gestured over his shoulder.
“Time to go. We’ll come back again tomorrow.”
The very next afternoon, Silverstream rushed into the gymnasium so fast she almost crashed into the storage room door. Frantically unlocking it, she pulled out her bike and hopped on, remembering to strap on a helmet. Smolder had brought along her board, and so the teaching session continued.
“Now that we’ve brought the front wheel up, let’s bring the back wheel up. For this, it’s time to use those furry hooves of yours. This is where it gets tricky, because you don’t necessarily have toes. So, you’ll have to use your ankles here. Can you bend them forward?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, so as you shift yourself and push forward, dig into the pedals with your feet and point your hooves down and pull up with your feet.”
With some effort, Silverstream figured out how to apply pressure where needed. With a good hour and a half of practice, she got it to work. Now her back wheel was moving up and back down without hassle.
“Now this afternoon, we’re going to combine the motions,” Smolder announced as Silverstream rolled her bike out of the storage locker the following day. “We’ll start with two small books. Much like I did, but with a twist.”
“Which is?” Silverstream asked eagerly, tapping her fingers in earnest.
“You need to just bring the front wheel up over the books, then the back wheel. Just keep doing that for a while. Don’t worry if you hit the books.”
“Alright!”
Silverstream began pedaling a little, then levelled out her pedals, and shifted her weight back, letting the front wheel rise up off the ground, clearing the book. Right afterwards, she yanked the back wheel up, almost throwing herself off.
“Take it easy,” Smolder advised. “Just enough to raise it.”
After ten attempts, Silverstream found she could do it quickly and almost effortlessly. At twenty-five tries she started to merge the two motions together, guided by Smolder’s fast-paced instructions and signals. After forty tries, she became tired, but could now rise up and down with barely half a second in between motions.
“Ah! I’m tired.”
“But we gotta do this! You’re very close now!” Smolder urged.
“Okay, I’ll try a few more times,” Silverstream replied, sipping some water and wiping her legs and head with a small towel.
With ten more tries, Silverstream started to clear the books more smoothly. At last, she cleared the books in a smooth, low hill-shaped arc, with both wheels off the ground in the process.
“There it is! There it is, Silverstream! You’ve done it!” Smolder exclaimed, pointing in excitement and joy. “You’ve cleared the books in one smooth set of motions!”
“I… I did?” Silverstream asked, panting a little from tiredness.
Smolder nodded. “All we have to do now is get you higher and farther! But that’s for tomorrow. Be proud! We’ve crossed another milestone.”
“Yay!” Silverstream squealed, pulling her friend into a hug. “Thank you!”
Smolder blushed a little and wrapped one arm around her friend’s fuzzy warm body. “You too, Silverstream.”
By the end of the week, Silverstream and Smolder’s legs were sore and numb as a frozen tomato, but they’d cleaned up and mastered their jumps, managing to get them high and decently long. Now it was time to use what they’ve learned in a new environment.
“Are you serious? You two are gonna ride through Ponyville?” Sandbar exclaimed, as they gathered around their favorite table in the library.
“We sure are!” Silverstream exclaimed. “It’ll be so much fun seeing all the market stands, the houses, and the town hall!”
“Silverstream’s right,” Yona replied firmly. “Very good to explore new places. Yona think it not wise to stay in gymnasium all evening.”
“I want to buy some fruits for Applejack’s cooking class,” Gallus added. “So if you two don’t mind, I’ll tag along…”
“Aww, of course you can come, Gally!” Silverstream cooed, pulling him into a half-hug and nuzzling his cheek, much to his offence and dismay.
“OFF.”
“Personal space, Silvy,” Smolder added in a stern voice.
“Now, now, everyone,” Sandbar interjected, keeping his voice calm yet assertive. “No need to get upset here. Let’s focus on our weekend excursion. Gallus, you’ll be visiting Ponyville to buy apples, right?”
“Yep.”
He then turned to Ocellus, and Yona. “What about you three?”
“Meh! We’ll just be chilling on the school grounds,” Yona replied.
“And some studying,” Ocellus added.
Sandbar’s eyes softened, and he affectionately rubbed the little changeling’s head. “You gotta take a break sometimes.”
“Alright, I’ll come too,” she agreed.
“Yona made promise not to smash, so she’ll come too,” Yona declared excitedly.
“Then it’s settled – we’ll all go,” Sandbar concluded. “Ocellus will be with Silverstream and Smolder, while Yona, Gallus, and I will visit the marketplace.”
It was a rather intensive evening, and no after-hours gym session was done due to the higher amount of homework. Fluttershy did everything hands-on in a fun and fully interactive way, so there was literally no homework assigned from her. The other teachers… were a different story. Rarity had the least amount of assigned work, while Applejack had the most.
Nonetheless, the six friends helped each other out as best they could to understand and solve what they were faced with, and by nightfall every last question from each subject was answered.
By breakfast time the following morning there were more butterflies in Sandbar’s stomach than there were in Fluttershy’s classroom. It was the defining day.
“Heading out now?” Starlight Glimmer asked, taking note of Yona walking down the hall, a saddlebag atop her back, accompanied by Gallus, who was also carrying a small basket and holding some coins.
“Yep,” Sandbar replied, walking up behind. “We’re all heading out for the weekend.”
“Okay, just be sure to return back for lunch!” Starlight said with a smile, watching the students head off towards the door.
What she didn’t see was Smolder and Silverstream sneaking their toys out from the gym and carrying them out through a window, where they then flew down onto the stone path to join their friends.
As soon as they hit the hard concrete where Ponyville’s street met the path that lead to Twilight’s Castle, Smolder just dropped her board and took off, pushing and pushing. Silverstream climbed onto her bike and began pedaling, following her friend in eager pursuit. Ocellus happily fluttered alongside the cycling hippogriff.
“Well, there they go,” Yona stated bluntly.
“And Twilight’s gonna have a lot to pay for by noon,” Sandbar muttered. “Rest in peace, dear Ponyville.” He turned to Gallus. “C’mon, let’s go get some fruit.”
With hardly any consideration for traffic, Smolder and Silverstream powered through the streets, weaving in between ponies and jumping over anything that came in their way. Arriving at a turn, Smolder squatted and used her body and arm to carve around the turn at high speed without losing momentum. Silverstream, on the other hand, wanted to get up on stuff. So, she headed straight for the town center, where all the action was. And then she spotted it – the hard-polished stone ledge around the fountain. Pedaling hard, she approached the edge and pumped up and forward as she’d practiced before.
SSSSKKKKRRRRTTTTT!
Her back peg hit the edge hard, and she adjusted herself to keep balance. With some of the water acting like wax, she slid across the edge, the metal grinding it down like a nail file. As the edge curved in a circle, she soon had to slide off. So, she hopped up a little, letting the peg run off the edge without throwing off her balance.
All around, ponies gazed – some in awe, some in disappointment and anger, given the damage done to the polished edge of the fountain.
Turning and jumping over a group of three barrels, Silverstream soon caught up with her friend, who was trying to jump off the stairs of the Town Hall building. Every time, Smolder’s feet kicked out too hard and the board flung in front of her, or she missed the last step. It was a five-stair set, with no handrail and a six-foot-something distance to clear. But she wouldn’t give up, even after chipping a scale on her leg and the soreness within her body. And then, weirdly, chants of encouragement were heard.
“Keep going!”
“Try again! You’re so close!”
Smolder turned to see a crowd of ponies, their eyes all eagerly fixed on her and what she was attempting to do. It felt kind of intimidating, like she had to do it for them instead of herself, but she pushed that away, and instead focused on pushing towards the stairs. Towards her goal.
She popped hard, brought out her foot, paid close attention to how it was underneath her feet and how far she was going over the stairs… and landed, the board’s tail just shy of the last step by mere millimeters. Squatting low and firmly placing her weight over the bolts, she stabilized her landing and rolled away, much to the cheering and exclaimed gasps of many of the townsfolk. Still in awe, Smolder remained unaware that several cameras had flashed behind her as she’d leaped. Silverstream was estatic, leaping off her bike and grabbing Smolder into a snug hug.
“Ohmigosh, Smoldy! You did it! You did it! You finally did it!”
“That was… incredible,” Ocellus added with a proud smile, stepping out from the crowd. “Props to you for not giving up.”
“I… think I’m good now,” Smolder blushed, easing out of Silverstream’s crushing embrace. “Let’s try some more spots!”
“And that’s almost all of the bits spent,” Gallus declared, adding a dozen pears into his basket. Yona’s saddlebag was full of apples, and Sandbar had bought a bunch of cherries… which he carried in a bag held in his mouth.
“Lethsssse eaaathhee,” Sandbar mumbled through his mouthful of bag, before letting it down temporarily. “We can go to the Hay Burger restaurant. I’ve been yearning to try something there.”
“Hmmm,” Gallus pondered, holding up three bits. “Not sure what I can get with this, but it’s worth a shot.”
“YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!” a shop vendor shouted, scrambling to pick up a pile of spilled oranges.
“I… I’m sorry,” Silverstream pouted, rushing to assist.
“JUST GET LOST!” he snapped, nearly hitting her in the face.
“Um, okay,” Silverstream whimpered, hopping onto her bike and pedaling away with tears in her eyes. She’d been trying a difficult trick – a nose manual tailwhip – on top of what she thought was a hard elevated surface but turned out to be a large crate of oranges. Just as she nearly completed the trick, the crate failed to hold the combined weight of her and the bike. The wood top spit and wobbled, causing her to fall off with her bike – and spilling the oranges everywhere.
Smolder and Ocellus had figured out how to grind on ledges and were scoping out any storefronts with large elevated steps. It wasn’t easy, but with some grease, Smolder was soon sliding across the edge – after many tries, of course. This attracted unwanted attention, however, and soon the storeowners came rushing out to find the cause of the noise, only to find their highly prized steps being worn down by a rebel dragon.
“We shouldn’t keep doing this,” Ocellus pleaded, as they took off down a narrow side street to hide after running from the third enraged store owner.
“It’s not like they can catch us,” Smolder shrugged. “And even then, what would they be able to do to us to fix the problem? It’s not gonna make themselves feel better or anything.”
“I expected you to be more considerate of a friend,” Ocellus glared. “Now let’s find our friends.”
It didn’t take long for Smolder’s energy to run low, thus directing them to the source of good food – the Hay Burger restaurant. Smolder pulled the door open and stepped inside. Sure enough, the rest of their friends were gathered around a table, trying to console a grieving Silverstream.
“B-b-but I destroyed his oranges!” she sobbed. “All his hard work, gone. Because of me.”
“Silverstream, you have to accept that fact that some damages are irreversible,” Gallus insisted.
“Yona knows frustration and anger,” Yona added, patting and caressing her sad hippogriff friend. “But Yona keep going, and accept when others refuse kind gestures.”
“Your ‘sorry’ was enough,” Sandbar added. “Even if he didn’t accept it. Ponies will be like that sometimes. They’ll be so wrapped up in anger they’ll block out anything positive or kind offered to them.”
“Guess you haven’t had a nice encounter either,” Smolder said, pulling up a chair and joining her friends. Gallus had just enough left for a burger and a drink, and so they shared it between all, while discussing the events that occurred during the past three hours or so.
“I think you two going to get a lot of attention now,” Gallus stated, wrapping up the serving packaging and tossing it into a trash bin. “And it may not be all positive. I was thinking you both should visit Canterlot next, but now, it doesn’t seem like a good choice. For now, though, these run-ins don’t seem too serious. But try avoiding them. Now, let’s get back to the school so we can bake.”
“Got it all,” Gallus announced, stepping into the kitchen, with Yona and Sandbar in tow. He laid down a basket of pears, and assisted Yona with her two large bushels of apples. Sandbar plopped his bag of cherries on the large table and they all gathered around to begin baking.
“Howdy y’all! Wait, where’s the other three?” Applejack inquired upon entering in a chef’s hat and a cloth around her neck.
“Oh, they’re still in town,” Gallus said casually. “Still having fun.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed. “Seems like they’re doing more than they’ve told. I’ll be right back.”
“Where you headed?” Sandbar asked quickly.
“To tell Twilight and Starlight.”
Meanwhile, Smolder and Silverstream had returned to the marketplace to look for the vendor whose oranges were ruined. It didn’t take long for them to find him – still at his stall, the wooden crate half-empty and his tip jar a quarter-full. There were still a few small bowlfuls of oranges left to sell, but no pony wanted to buy – it was past the peak time of the buying rush hour.
“Keep yourself out of sight,” Smolder instructed her friend. “It’s best we handle this from an indirect approach through me.”
Smolder approached the stall and gazed eagerly at the bowls, giving the impression of an impressed customer. “I see you’ve got a few nice oranges.”
“Well hello there, dragon,” the vendor replied. “Yeah, sucks that no one’s buying them. The customer flow’s been oddly infrequent today. I could’ve sold more if some blue-furred rascal hadn’t ruined all my prized fruit.”
“Some of it,” Smolder corrected. “Look, I’m not here to buy, because I don’t have any bits with me. I’m here to make a mutual agreement. Since obviously no pony’s gonna be buying these spoiled oranges, I kindly ask if I can have them. I can find a good use for them elsewhere. In return, my friend and I will earn some bits and you’ll have half of our earnings to make up for the value of the damaged fruit. How’s that sound?”
The vendor stepped back and thought about it for some time. Finally, he pulled out a roll of paper and a quill pen. “It sounds… alright. Keep your promises, and I’ll keep mine. Here’s our confirmation and agreement letter.”
Smolder took the paper and read over it. It wasn’t too hard to understand or read, and she soon got the gist of it – she’d take the ruined oranges, he’d receive monetary compensation for them, and be able to sell more oranges. The one part that felt uneasy was the fact that Smolder had just four weeks to return the monetary amount – which felt tight. But she had to practice what she upheld by and was pursuing learning – friendship and good moral conduct.
“Thanks,” she replied, creating a signature on the spot and returning it to him. “I’ll pick up the crate of oranges later this afternoon. Will you be here still then?”
“Yes, I’ll be around until close to sunset, really.”
“Alright, sounds good. Have a good day.”
“You too.”
Smolder headed off, gesturing to her friend to follow. Silverstream crept out from behind a tree and followed, passing the orange vendor like he wasn’t even there. Not a single bit of eye contact was made.
Piece of cake, Smolder thought naughtily, dropping her board and pushing. Silverstream pushed on her pedals and cycled after her, as they rode off into town to find more spots.
Taking the back roads, they jumped and spun, laughing with glee and joy at the adrenaline, bliss, and freedom that wheels gave them. Soon, they approached a red-roofed building – with a stair set. It was only three stairs, but Smolder knew there was more to it.
“How about a backside turn? I think I can do it.”
“Go for it, Smolder!”
With no little fillies around – or anypony else for that matter – to distract her, Smolder could focus more on letting her internal willpower and mental focus push her to complete the trick. Quickly hopping up the steps, she reached the door, turned around, and pushed off. Reaching the edge of the stairs, she skidded to a stop and nearly fell over.
“Gotta get the speed right!” she called out to Silverstream. “I think I need a little more.”
Returning back to the schoolhouse doors, she set the board down and pushed off again. Just as the front wheels hit the edge of the stairs, she popped hard, soaring through the air and landing… on her back. She’d leaned a little too far forward.
“Again!” she declared, already walking back up the stairs. Pushing off again, she ollied into the air and soared over and down the stairs, landing crouched to absorb impact. The sound of the hard thud rang out in a unique tone that Silverstream picked up on – and would later be known Equestria-wide. Standing back up, she rolled away towards the main street, where Silverstream was watching.
“Nice one!” she exclaimed, and they shared a fist-bump. “Now for the hard one.”
“Yep.”
Smolder pushed off and ollied again, but this time she turned her body as she did so. The board just fell out from underneath her, and Smolder quickly bailed, using her wings to pull herself away from hitting the ground.
“Looks like this is gonna be a lot harder than I thought,” she admitted.
“What the…” Twilight exclaimed, as she approached the schoolhouse, hearing the sound of popping and a hard thud and rolling. Starlight, always a helpful friend and guidance counsellor, stood with a coy smirk by her side, unfazed. She knew how much Smolder had been practicing hard in the gymnasium to jump up with the board, so it didn’t come much of a shock to see her attempting to use what she learned to try and create something new out of it. But being a physical act of jumping at speed, it was brutal.
“I think that’s enough now,” Silverstream said sheepishly, as Smolder dusted herself off for the tenth time.
“Not yet,” Smolder confidently declared. “I’m very close. It’s just my timing’s off because I have to start spinning exactly as I start to leave the ground.”
“Alright, one last time… oh boy.” Silverstream’s words died on her lips as she noticed Twilight and Starlight approaching – and they did not look happy.
“You two okay?” Starlight asked worriedly.
“Why didn’t you…” Twilight began, only to have her jaw drop and her eyes bulge in shock.
Smolder approached the stairs, popped and jumped, spinning around half-way as she did so… and landing, feet placed properly atop the bolts as they should be. Keeping her balance by crouching as usual, she slowly rose back up and rolled up to Silverstream.
“Not go back to school?” Smolder finished, turning to face Twilight and Starlight. “I wanted to try and find a few more spots, and the stairs of the Ponyville Schoolhouse seemed like the best place at the time.”
“Well, you didn’t inform your friends of how long you’d be,” Starlight pointed out. “Now they’re concerned.”
“I…also have something I need to get,” Smolder said slowly and awkwardly. “It’s for Fluttershy. I’ll be back at the school in a few minutes.”
In a flash, she flew off to the marketplace, and landed right in front of the orange vendor she’d talked to just an hour before.
“Uh… came to get the bruised and crushed oranges,” she stated.
“Sure, take ‘em.”
“Thanks again.”
Smolder reached over and lifted up the crate. It was only half as big as the school desks and just a third full, but it was still heavy. She had to walk rather precariously all the way to the school, balancing it in front of her, with her skateboard placed on top. It took a good twenty minutes to walk all the way back to the school.
“What’s in there?” Starlight asked, greeting the little dragon as she entered through the school doors.
“Hah, uh, phew…” Smolder panted, feeling worn out. “Oranges. But they’re not…edible. For a reason. I-I’ll explain later in the kitchen.”
Starlight took the crate and set it down beside a large counter. “So, what happened, exactly?”
Smolder bit her lip and let out a long sigh. “As we set out to have fun, Silverstream ran into some trouble. She hopped onto this crate to try a trick, thinking it was solid. And it was… but not enough. So the lid broke, wood snapped, she fell, and ruined some of the oranges inside. The vendor was shocked and burning with rage – naturally so, given that that’s his prized crop and all.”
“Did he yell at Silverstream?” Starlight asked worriedly.
Smolder nodded. “Yep. Told her to ‘get lost’ even when she tried to help him. Took us all some time to console her and make her feel better. But I decided to take it a step further. I made a written deal with the vendor that if I could have the damaged fruit for free, I’d pay him back the monetary equivalent of fresh, undamaged fruit. I got four weeks to get this done and truthfully uphold my side of the deal. I was thinking about converting them into compost or grating off all the rind.”
Starlight just smiled, completely moved by the kind, loving, supportive, and brave acts of her students. “You didn’t have to conduct such a risky operation, you know. You could’ve just asked Twilight or me to come down and talk with him. We could’ve paid it back.”
“It’s better for me to show support for my friend,” Smolder stated firmly. “And I wish to uphold my honesty and kindness to both the orange vendor and my friend.”
“Then it’s my duty to assist you in fulfilling your promise,” Starlight replied, affectionately rubbing the little dragon’s head. “Why don’t you go have some lunch with your friends – that small shared burger definitely isn’t enough. Let me inquire with Fluttershy about garden compost and we’ll discuss about the best course of action to take with the oranges.”
Smolder smiled. It seemed like a good idea to take a break. But she’d be back for more.
Starlight returned with Fluttershy… and some gardening tools.
“Oh hey Fluttershy,” Smolder said with a smile and wave.
“What a move you’ve made,” Fluttershy complimented. “We can use some of the rind for baking later and add the rest to compost. However, we’ll need to remove all the mushed-up fruit inside – which can be done with a knife and spoon. Let me show and assist you.”
“I’m all eyes and ears.”
Smolder observed closely as Fluttershy cut a crushed orange into quarters, then Starlight eased the knife through on the inside, cutting away the mushy fruit pulp. The pulp was discarded, while the rind was slit into thin strips, then chopped widthwise into small pieces and placed into piles.
“Seems simple enough,” Smolder thought, taking a knife handed to her and slicing one orange into quarters. Cutting off the mushy sour pulp was a challenge, however, given how slimy and wet it was. At times it felt frustrating, and she had to pull back often as the knife slipped and threatened to slice her fingers off.
“Guess this really is a big task,” Smolder sighed, glancing over at the pile of oranges at the far end of the table.
“You gotta hold up to it,” Starlight said slyly.
Smolder nodded seriously and went at it again. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she soon figured out a few little tricks to cutting off the peel properly: cleaning the blade often and applying the right pressure at adequate moments. Soon all the pulp was off and she was slitting the rind quarters like a ninja. Dragons weren’t creatures of high-grade precision, so her chops were rather odd and wide-spaced. After a few more oranges, she had the confidence to chop finely.
After an hour, all the orange rinds were chopped, except for four which Fluttershy had set aside for grating. Smolder slid the pile into a bucket and headed for the door.
“Wait!” Fluttershy called out, rushing after her. “Where are you going?”
“To your house,” Smolder replied, picking up a few pieces that had fallen out of the bucket. “I was informed that you had a composter there.”
“But I…how?!” Fluttershy exclaimed, running up to her.
Smolder gave a coy smirk. “One thing I learnt from Rarity is how you can boost your knowledge levels through networking. You get to know ponies who know other ponies who are friends with other ponies, and information about topics and subjects passes through via conversation and interactions.”
While Smolder and Fluttershy headed to the latter’s house, Starlight cleaned up the kitchen, only to be interrupted by a shuffling sound outside the door.
Peeking her head around the doorway, Starlight caught sight of what she wasn’t expecting, but should’ve.
There, in the middle of the hallway, on her hind legs, was Silverstream, dancing in a way that shouldn’t even be possible. Her hooves were shuffling as her feet moved in and out, but in a smooth way, like a ballerina, all the while her arm swinging. Then she turned one way, and then another. What followed next was the move that Starlight knew from Trixie’s presentation of her wagon to another pony, but hadn’t seen it being executed so smoothly. With a turn-and-a-half and her head half-bowed, Silverstream walked backward, appearing as if to slide backward while attempting to move forward. It was a lot better than what she’d done in the school’s reading garden, at least by Starlight’s standards.
“Whoa,” she whistled… and caught Silverstream’s attention, who whirled around at the sound. Yet, the hallway appeared empty.
“Wooo!” Silverstream whooped joyfully. “That was good. A few more rounds and the talent show will be fluid!”
Down near the Everfree Forest, Smolder and Fluttershy arrived at the cottage, with Smolder still holding her prized possession of orange peels. Almost immediately the aura of the surroundings enveloped them.
“Wow,” Smolder breathed in awe. “You’ve got a really nice home. It feels quite peaceful here. Like, the green and yellow of the trees and the birds, along with the flowers and other plants – it all just relaxes you.”
“Thanks, Smolder. It is a wonderful place to live. Now, let me show you how this compost is made.”
Fluttershy walked around to the back of the house, where a large dark grey container stood at the end of the garden.
“What’s with that?” Smolder asked, swatting at a few flies that had taken notice of her now fragrant bucket.
Fluttershy popped off the container’s top lid and set it aside, releasing a large cloud of thick, humid air that reeked of soil, plants, and organic matter. Smolder grimaced. It wasn’t totally putrid, but it was strong and prominent.
“So… how does this work?” she mumbled, afraid to open her mouth at the fear of the buzzing flies darting in.
Fluttershy shook her tail at the flies in annoyance. “We’ll rake up the soil and grass that lies on top, add our fruit pieces, and cover it all up. That way, the orange peels can decompose straight down along with the other organic matter.”
She handed the dragon a hand rake, a beckoning look over her face. Reluctantly, Smolder took the rake with one hand and pinched her nose with the other. Steeling herself for a bunch of ants to come shooting out and bite, Smolder reached in and gave a few strokes.
Peering over the composter rim, she got a brief look at what was actually happening. Amidst a few flies and some ants, there wasn’t much inside – it just looked like soil and dead grass. Speeding and amplifying her strokes, Smolder pulled back the layers of grass to reveal the decomposing matter below. The aroma shot up like a lava fountain, hitting her hard in the face. She jolted backward as if poked sharply.
“Oh! Are you okay?” Fluttershy gasped.
Smolder nodded. “I just was not prepared for that. Let’s get this over with before my face decomposes along with this gunk.”
Holding her breath as best as she could, Smolder gripped the bucket and shook out all the orange peels into the composter. They piled up like an orange mountain, so she spread it out evenly. Using a rake was out of the question, so Fluttershy retrieved a trowel.
“A lot easier now,” Smolder admitted, gently tossing mounds of dead grass and plant matter on top of the orange pile. Soon the composter was full, and the peels compeltely covered.
“Well done, Smolder!” Fluttershy exclaimed as the little dragon put the lid back on. “You’re done!”
“But… what about the repay?”
“It’s alright. Leave that to Twilight and I. We’ll collect the due amount and inform you on time so you can bring it for the orange fruit vendor.”
“Alright, cool.”
Having finished her random dance routine, Silverstream checked on Applejack’s baking, before getting a quick drink and heading off to the gym. To her surprise, she came across four ponies trying to squeeze something through a door. It looked like a small… stair set of sorts.
Stairs? Oh, yes, STAIRS!
Without a second thought, Silverstream rushed over in excitement. Stairs were her favorite item of architecture and she loved to take time to admire their design and the concept of climbing small flat planes to get to a higher elevation – something that would be impossible underwater. However, her arrival was rather shocking for the poor stallions that were struggling.
“Aaah!”
Somehow, the fright from her sudden appearance gave them the push and drive they needed, and with another heave and push, the contraption was successfully pushed inside the gym – albeit with some minor door frame damage. Once inside, they let it down on the floor with a thud and a synchronous sigh of exhaustion and relief.
“So, is this where you wanted it, Twilight?”
The headmare was sitting in a far corner of the gym, reading over a book as usual. “Yes, indeed. You all may go.”
With the worker stallions gone, Silverstream then entered the gym and got a good look at the contraption they were trying so hard to move. It was made of wood and screwed tightly together, with metal edging. The whole thing was made in a rectangular shape – around eight feet wide and fifteen feet long, with three wide steps leading up to a small flat area, with a sloping ramp on the other side.
“I had no idea you could make stairs so unique!” she squealed, peering down at the unit and running the back of her claw across the edge. “Wow, this is quite hard and smooth!”
“It certainly is, Silverstream.”
Silverstream flew back and darted around, trying to find the source of the voice. Could the stairs talk, or was it somepony hiding somewhere?
It didn’t take long for her to spot Twilight in the corner, looking up from the book she was reading. “Oh, hi Twilight. What brings you here?”
“Well, I see you’ve already taken interest in something I made for you and Smolder,” Twilight said excitedly, flying over eagerly and tapping the wooden unit. “This is a stairset combined with a sloping ramp. Somepony gave me a copy of the Ponyville newspaper, and I saw how you two were trying to slide across edges as well as gain some air while jumping. However, a public place with lots of ponies walking about probably isn’t the best place to do so. So, I made this for you to enjoy. When playtime’s over, I’ll simply park it in on the side, or teleport it into a storage area elsewhere.”
“THANK YOU!” Silverstream squealed with joy, pulling the headmare into a snug hug. “It’s amazing! Can I try it? Please please please?”
Twilight smiled softly and caressed the neck of her student. “Yes, you may. But only for the afternoon. After that, it’s reading time and then dinner.”
“Okay!” Silverstream replied joyfully, rushing around to the storage room and pulling at the handle. To her surprise, it swung open. Holding the center of the handlebars, she pulled the bike out and swung the door shut. With a quick flap and a firm hop, she vaulted onto the bike, dropping her hooves onto the pedals and her hands onto the handlebars. Briefly adjusting her balance, she eased her feet forward and around, pedaling until she felt comfortable and had built up a good level of energy.
Starting at one end of the gym, she paused, taking a few minutes to plan and calculate a few factors – her angle of entry, speed, and style. A simple grind with both wheels seemed like a good idea, but would only increase friction.
Just then, Smolder walked in, carrying her board. By the way she was positioned, it was quite clear what Silverstream had in mind. So, she spoke up.
“Hey Silverstream,” Smolder greeted with a smile. “Oy, SILVY! Figuring out the line of attack?”
“Oh, hey,” Silverstream replied, snapping out of her concentration bubble. “Yeah. I want to try get at the top stair, but I don’t want to fall short on sliding across it.”
“Go at a slight angle,” Smolder suggested. “It’s what I did when I tried getting on the edge of ledges in Ponyville.”
“Note taken.”
Pedaling around in circles for a bit, Silverstream took the time to build up speed, consistency, and confidence, jumping up now and then to get her muscles used to the motion. For Smolder, the key was to simply get good speed and ‘lock it in’ at an angle, while keeping balance yet allowing for forward movement and avoiding excess friction.
With her second warm-up session over, Silverstream pedaled quickly down the length of the gym, before gently squeezing the brake and turning perpendicular to the stairs, ready to pedal hard, bank, and jump onto the ledge. This was it.
Gripping the handlebars tightly, Silverstream pumped the pedals hard, gaining speed as she rushed towards the stairs. Just as she came in front of it, she pulled back and up with her whole body – hard. Now airborne, she tucked up her whole body and then pushed forward, still pulling back with her hooves. She planted the front wheel peg onto the ledge, leaned too far forward and left… and flung forward, slamming straight into the ground. Pain shot through her shoulder, and her left wing collapsed in with a faint pop. Her back bounced off the ground, sending her skidding for a good foot or two, before coming to a stop.
“YEOW!”
The whole act was so fast and brutal, Smolder had to struggle not to blink. When she eventually did, she realized what happened and rushed over.
“Silvy! You okay?”
“Yeah. Just… that really hurt. Can’t tell if I sprained my wing or not. But I can still move. Can you get some ice?”
Without a hitch, Silverstream got to her feet, rubbed her sore body, and walked about to relieve some of the soreness, while Smolder ran off to the kitchen. There really was no margin of error on this. Either you got it right, or you didn’t and were brutally punished for it.
Five minutes later, Smolder flew into the gym, holding up a bag of ice with a grin on her face.
“Managed to get here without turning it into water, hehe.”
“Not the time for gloats! Bring it, please!” Silverstream begged.
“Right. Sorry.”
Smolder sat down and gently pressed the bag into her friend’s shoulder and back, gently touching her wings with it too.
“I think we should stop and come back tomorrow after homework,” she suggested.
Silverstream glared over at her dragon friend, instantly taken aback. “What? After just one attempt? I-I mean, we, are not used to this is all. It’s fun, but brutal when it doesn’t go right.”
“I’m sure Headmare Twilight wouldn’t be too happy seeing us get beaten up like this,” Smolder countered. “But she might admire our persistence.”
And so, after a good fifteen minutes of cold application, Silverstream rose to her feet, hobbled over to her bike, and started pedaling again. Smolder, however, had an idea.
“Wait a moment.”
Darting out of the gym, she returned with a candle, which she then broke a chunk out of.
“What are you doing?” Silverstream cried in astonishment.
“Smoothening the surface,” Smolder replied, rubbing the stair’s metal edge with the candle’s wax consistently along its length. “Rarity showed us a technique like this in a class about detailing surfaces. And wax is slippery, so go figure.”
“Try it now. And keep yourself centrally positioned. You only need to lean forward enough to guide the bike into position. Keep the weight above the peg – better yet, shift the back of the bike inwards towards the ramp.”
“Got it.”
Silverstream pedaled in a circle once more, gaining momentum and speed. She jumped up, keeping her eyes on the edge as she pulled the back up with her hooves and planted the peg onto the edge at a slight angle, keeping her arms firm and angling inward a little, using her hooves to control the bike frame. The bike slid forward and skidded to a stop just before the edge of the stair, so Silverstream just hopped off sideways.
“Awesome!” Smolder cheered. “You’re getting the hang of it. Just a bit more speed and control and you’ll be able to slide off the edge with ease. Keep practicing and get a feel for the bike’s movements as you move, too. The way I see it, now, it’s all about perseverance and practice. We have to practice more.”
