//------------------------------//
// What's In a Name, Though? 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
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    “Let’s see now…”  Rainbow Dash sat back in a tree, hanging her saddlebag off a lower branch beside her.  Propping one of Spike’s books atop her belly, she reclined lazily and scanned the lines on the open page.  “‘For thousands of years, dragons have existed in Equestria--far longer than ponykind.  It’s believed that dragons even dwelled upon the flat plane of the world before the alicorns began their rule in Equestria.’  Dang it, book!”

She flipped several pages ahead, groaning in frustration.

“Everypony knows the world is flat!  Get to the stuff on dragonspeak.”

She came a stop, her fuzzy blue ears perking up.

“Ah!  Here we go.  ‘Dragon Languages and Discourse.’”

Rainbow squinted, leaning her head up to get a better look at the pages.  “Hmmmm… blah blah blah… yadda yadda yadda… ‘Draconian phonetics are beyond equine pronunciation...’”  She frowned.  “Then what’s the friggin’ point?!”

Several more page flips later.

“‘...in attempting to branch ambassadorial relationships between ponies and dragons, Starswirl the Bearded created an enduring lexicon of words that could approximate the meaning of dragonspeech.’  Oh!”

Rainbow slapped the book shut, shoved it into the dangling satchel, and reached in for another.  “That must be this thingy right here!” She opened the new tome up.  “Ah!  Sweet!  A dictionary…”  She squinted.  “Sort of.”  Refocusing her eyes, she pivoted the book left and right, flipped around, then found a page of interest.  “Here we go.  ‘B’.”  She ran a hoof down the page.  “Bee… Best… Bit… Ah ha!  Big!”  She squinted at the page.  “‘Aaata, in the Red Drake language.’”  She blinked.  “Well, that sounds right, seeing as they had red scales and all.  Now what about ‘Boss?’”  She flipped a few pages.  “Hrmmmm… there we go.  Big... ‘Xehh, also Red Rake.’”  She squinted curiously towards the horizon.  “‘Aaata Xehh?’  Well, that doesn’t sound all too menacing.”

It was around this point that her eyes caught a glaring footnote at the bottom.

“Hmmm… what’s this?”  She tilted the book closer to her face.  “‘Unlike Equestrian basic, most forms of Dragonspeech--most especially Red and Orange drake--have double meanings.  For example, the combination of two words, pronounced with the first syllable stressed, can produce a newer definition, typically used as a form of title or social designation.”

She rubbed her chin in thought.  Then, tossing the book back into her satchel, she brought out a third one, a pure dictionary of draconian terms.

“Please tell me something… please tell me something…”

It didn’t take long to reach the ‘A’ section.  She squinted at a word towards the bottom of the right page.  “‘Aatxe, a name traditionally meaning ‘Fire Lord of Unrelenting Death.’”  Her blue face paled.  “Ohhhhhh…”  She buried her muzzle into the book.  “Why did you have to tell me that something?!”

She heard a rattling sound.

Curious, she pulled the book off her face, blinking.  Rainbow Dash looked to her side.

The satchel was swaying back and forth… but there was no wind.

Biting her lip, Rainbow reached out and pulled the satchel open just a bit.  Situated beside the other two books was the pale granite horn.

Half a minute passed, and Rainbow shuddered.  “Yeah, Zecora.  I think I need to get that next dose right about now…”

Just as she was about to pocket the dictionary away, she heard a voice shouting from a distance--and it was a voice that threw her heart into a panic and a throb all at once.

”Con sarn it!  Get the heck out of here!  I done told y’all never to come here to this farm again!”

Rainbow’s voice cracked through a trembling muzzle.  “Applejack…?!”

Her hairs stood on end.  With one jolt, she kipped up from the branch, slipped the saddlebag onto her flank, tightened it, and dove off the tree branch.  She rocketed furiously towards Sweet Apple Acres beyond the nearest hill, dragging leaves and blades of grass along with her rapid flight.