"Silverstream I swear to Ember I will give you the worst noogie of your life—"
"Hey guys!" Silverstream said, sliding into the room. "Guess what I just found out!"
The rest of their little friend group was there (sans Smoulder) in the boys' room, sitting on the floor in a circle between the beds. Ocellus looked at her curiously. "What is it, Silverstream?"
The hippogriff could barely contain her excitement. "Smoulder has a full na—"
"Nothing!" the dragon cried out, finally catching up with Silverstream and wrapping a claw around her beak. "It's not important. Hey, we've got a project to get done for Miss Rarity's class, right? We'd better get on that before—"
Silverstream abruptly changed into a seapony, causing Smoulder to lose her grip and slip to the floor.
"Smoulder has a full name!" Silverstream said at last, immediately changing back.
"Smoulder's full name is not just Smoulder?" Yona asked.
Silverstream shook her head. "Nope! I overheard Dragon Lord Ember talking to Headmare Twilight, and she used it!"
Gallus eyed Smoulder, who appeared to be bracing for impact. He grinned. "Well, let's hear it.”
Smoulder shot a piercing look at Silverstream. "You don't have to do this."
"I don't?" Silverstream asked.
"No!"
"Huh. The more you know," Silverstream replied, nodding. "Anyway, it's 'Smoulder, Vain and Glorious, Precious Metal of the East Crater, Fierce Pony-Eater of the Rock'."
The room went dead silent. Smoulder went back to bracing for impact.
"Snrkt."
It was Gallus who broke through the silence as he broke down laughing, flipping over onto his back with his lion legs kicking into the air.
"It's not funny!" Smoulder hissed. “Dragons collect titles, okay? My mom picked all of that, not me!"
Sandbar tapped a hoof on the carpet. "Um... pony-eater?"
"When we were kids we used to pretend to hunt ponies!" Smoulder hastily explained. "It was a game! I just happened to be really good at it, so my mom... y'know!"
Gallus was still laughing. Ocellus frowned at him, then jabbed him in the side with a hoof.
"Ow!"
"Knock it off," she said, then turned her attention back to Smoulder. "I think it's a nice name."
"You do?" Smoulder asked.
"Well, it's... unique! It has character."
"Yona agrees!" Yona said, stomping a hoof. "Smoulder's mother has good naming sense! Make Smoulder sound strong!"
Smoulder sighed and got up off the floor. She dusted herself off and walked over to the edge of the circle, where she sat down. "Thanks. I still think it's dumb though."
"I have another name, too!" Ocellus said. That got everyone's attention; they all turned to look at her.
"You do?"
"Yeah! In Changeling."
"Wait," Silverstream said. "There's a changeling language!? That's so cool!"
"Yep! It was invented so that ponies and other species couldn't understand confidential communications."
"Say something in Changeling, then," Gallus said.
Ocellus opened her mouth. What followed were a sequence of clicks, hisses, and screeches unlike anything any of them had ever heard or would ever want to hear again. It sounded vaguely like:
"SKRR-HISS CLICK CLICK HISSSSSSSSS SKREEEEEEE CLICK-HISS."
There were a few seconds of silence following this outburst.
"That's hello!" Ocellus chirped.
"Goooot it," Smoulder said. "So what's your name?"
"HISSSSSS-CLICK-SKREEEE-CLICK-HISS-CLICK."
"I... see."
"Does it have any kind of special meaning?" Sandbar asked.
"Yeah! It means, 'she who snaps the necks of intruders to the hive cleanly'!"
This was said with a straight enthusiasm that brought a twinge to the stomach of the resident pony.
"That's... great," Sandbar said, trying to smile. "Hey, did you know I have a nickname?"
"You do?" Gallus asked. "Pony nickname. This oughta be good."
"Mildly racist as usual, Gallus," Sandbar said. If he'd had fingers he would have shot finger guns at Gallus, but he did not, so he did not. "Anyway, it's 'Bartholomew'."
Smoulder raised an eye crest. "Bartholo-what?"
"Bartholomew!"
"But... that's longer than 'Sandbar'!" Ocellus said.
"So?" Sanbar shot back. "You can have a nickname that's longer than your real name. There's no law saying you can't."
"Alrighty, Bartholomew," Gallus said. "Where'd that nickname come from?"
Sandbar shrugged. "No idea! My mom just calls me that sometimes. She says it comes from some place called 'Earth', and that she'll tell me about it when I'm older."
"Weird!" Yona replied. "Sandbar's mom is weird pony."
"Say that after you've met her."
Yona's eyes suddenly got big. "Is that an invitation?"
"Of course!"
"Oh, get a room you two," Gallus said, and Smoulder mimed sticking her claw down her throat.
"Oh, this conversation reminds me!" Silverstream suddenly said, sitting upright. "From now on, when I'm in hippogriff mode, I want you to call me 'Silversoil'!"
Everyone stared at her.
"...Silversoil?" Sandbar eventually asked.
"Yeah!" Silversoil said. "See, some of the hippogriffs back at Mt. Aris have started doing this thing where they have a different name when they're on land, and I think that's really cool! So, 'Silversoil'!"
"Okay, I get that, and I'll call you whatever you want to be called," Gallus said. "But... 'Silversoil'?"
"Well, my sea name is silver 'stream', so my land name should be silver 'soil'," Silversoil explained. "Why, don't you like it?"
"It's kinda lame," Smoulder said. "I mean, soil? That's like naming yourself 'dirt'."
"Or sand!" Yona said, which earned her a glare from Sandbar. She giggled.
Silversoil pouted. "So, no good on 'Silversoil'?"
"Technically speaking, a stream doesn't have to be a water stream," Ocellus said, gesturing to the sky. "It could also be an air stream."
Silversoil gasped. "Oh my gosh, you're right! An air stream! Forget 'Silversoil' then, it's Silverstream all the way, baby!"
And with that, Silverstream reclined against the bedpost. Things lapsed into an easy silence.
"Well," Ocellus said, “we should probably get started on this project—"
"Ah-hem."
They all turned to look at Gallus, who was doing his best to look away.
Ocellus rolled her eyes. "Yes, Gallus, did you have something to say?"
"Did you know that griffons have secret names?"
"Secret...?"
Gallus nodded. "When we're born, we're given two names. One is the name we use normally. The other is our secret name, which we only tell to those we trust." His eyes narrowed on the word 'trust'.
Everyone stared at him for a few moments.
"Why do you need a secret name?" Ocellus asked. "It's not like griffons are a species of espionage like changelings were."
"There's this old myth in griffon folklore that if you know something's true name, you can control it," Gallus explained. "So we have two names."
"So are you gonna tell us, or...?" Smoulder asked.
"Depends," he said, lying on his back with his arms behind his head. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Don't tease us like this!" Yona said. "Yona wants to know!"
Gallus opened one eye and smirked. "Fine. Then I'll tell you. But no one else can know, okay? I mean it."
He rolled onto his belly and walked over to his nearest neighbor, Sandbar. Bending down, he whispered into the colt's ear. Sandbar raised his eyebrows. Gallus nodded.
Sandbar turned and whispered it into Yona's ear. Yona whispered it into Ocellus' ear. Ocellus whispered it into Silverstream's. Silverstream whispered it into Smoulder's.
"There you go," Gallus said, sitting back down. "Now you know my secret name. If you blab, you're dead."
Everyone was smiling. Then, they all turned to look at Yona.
Yona shrugged. "Yona is just Yona."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"That makes sense."
"Anyway!" Ocellus cut in, glancing fearfully at the clock. "We still need to get the project done, remember?"
"Oh, right," Gallus said. "Hey, can you hand us the assignment worksheet, Smoulder, Vain and Glorious, Precious Metal of the—"
Smoulder leapt across the floor. "I'll kill you you bird-brained pile of—"