Hello everypony! Before volume 6 of The Drake Chronicles begins, there are a couple short stories which need to be told. They exist for the single purpose of steering away from the lengthy adventures and the crime, and showing what day-to-day life is like at the Drake house. I hope you enjoy.
It was a quiet, uneventful day. I was laying in the formal dining room, on the antique tapestry sofa I loved so much, rather enjoying a lazy afternoon, and catching up on some reading. Suddenly, from out of the kitchen came a bloodcurdling shriek. My mind immediately switched into combat mode, and my heart raced as I heard the scream of mortal terror.
"EEEEEEE!" Budder squealed. "Holy crap! Oh Celestia...Draaaaaaaake!" I rolled of of the couch, where moments before, I had been reading a copy of Swords and Spears Monthly, and turned over the coffee table. I charged into the kitchen holding in my right hoof a stone bust of Strawcrates I had grabbed from somewhere, and stood ready to protect my little sister from her unknown attacker.
"Budder...what is it?!" I panted, searching the kitchen. The tan foal was hugging a chair and hyperventilating. "Sis...what?!"
"S...spider..." She choked out. "Big...freakin'...spider!" I followed the fearful gaze of her blue-gray eyes. On the floor, by the sink where she had been washing dishes was a big wolf spider, the size of a bit coin.
"Oookaaaayy..." I muttered. I walked over to the eight-legged monster as Rainbow Dash bolted into the room, her rainbow mane plastered to her head and dripping wet from where she had been taking a shower.
"Budder?! Drake?! What the hay is going on?!" Dash exclaimed.
"Just a little..." I mutered, stalking the spider with the statue raised high. "...itsy...bitsy..." I brought the bust down on the arachnid, splattering it on the floor. "...spider!" I raised the statue of the famed philosopher, and looked at the mess I had made of the bug. "Heh...if it moves, smash it." I held the bust out and spoke to it. "Pretty good philosophy, eh Strawcrates?"
"Ugghhhh..." Dashie groaned at my bad joke.
"I think you broke me." Budder whined.
"What? Whaaaat?" I grinned innocently. "At least it wasn't a snake. Now that would be a damned horror show."
"You know...I've been meanin' to ask you..." Dash began as I tried fruitlessly to wipe the bottom of the statue off on the edge of the garbage can.
"Hm?"
"What's with you and snakes?" Dash asked.
"Yeah..." Budder added. "Snakes are kinda cool."
"Well you're afraid of spiders." I countered.
"Yeah, but spiders are just...blechhhh!" Budder replied, making a disgusted face.
"Snakes just..." I began. "I dunno guys...two legs, four legs, that's like the natural order of things, ya know? Snakes? Lifeless little beady eyes...sharp fangs filled with venom...digesting other animals and creeping around where you can't see them, just laying in wait for you to walk by..." I shuddered. "Disturbing..."
"Huh." Dash said. "Why are you so afraid of spiders?" She asked my sister as an afterthought. Budder was now in the chair, rocking back and forth with tears in her eyes.
"Same...reason."
