CHAPTER 1

Hello everypony! After a long hiatus, I'm back with more of the Drake Chronicles, and I'm sure many of you had just about given up hope. If you haven't read the first three stories in the series, please go do so now. You won't be disappointed, and it will put a great deal into context for you. If you're too lazy, that's fine. As I mentioned in previous volumes, these stories can be read as separate, stand-alone works. You must also check out a recent story by ShadowBudder239. Her work plays into this story, as does her OC, as you will see. This Volume is a bit different than the previous three, and I did say that Drake's life would change a great deal in the next couple stories. That said, I hope you all enjoy this volume, and continue to follow Drake's saga.

This volume is dedicated to my little girl. Thanks for getting me into MLP, Budder. And thanks for keeping the boat afloat. We're family, and we will prevail, angel.

On with the story. Please send me reviews.

The gray earth pony sat at a table outside of the cafe, sipping his coffee nervously. He glanced at the large clock across the street at least every twenty seconds, as if his very life were tied in with the slow movement of the hands of the clock. If you could look at somepony, and just know they were up to something, it was this stallion. Two tables down, the only other patron in the outdoor patio area of the small cafe sat, a light blue earth pony mare, wearing a floppy, wide-brimmed hat trimmed with spring flowers, and a pair of red-rimmed sunglasses. The young mare seemed oblivious to the devious antics of the other diner as she sipped her tea and read a book.

Suddenly, another pony approached the stallion's table. This newcomer was a sable-colored stallion with a dark blue mane and tail. He wore dark sunglasses and carried a brown attache bag. Suspicious pony number two glanced around cautiously before taking a seat across the table from suspicious pony number one. After a few moments, he spoke.

"How are the children?" The sunglasses-wearing stranger asked.

"Well. They are well." The gray stallion replied. "I just have to pay the foalsitter."

"Do you have the money?"

"Of course...here." The nervous stranger said, pushing a rolled-up newspaper across the small round table. The newcomer grinned, and slid the briefcase under the table.

"Treat them well, my friend." He muttered. "The children are very precious, you know?"

"And I will make sure they get back to their new home safely."

"Um...excuse me...sir?" A voice spoke. The two stallions paused, and looked over to see the blue mare in the hat standing by their table, and innocent smile on her face.

"Whaddya need?" The sable pony asked irritably.

"Hum? Oh...quick question," She replied. "Do you have the time, please?"

"Clock's over there.." The angry stallion answered. "...ya know, on the clock tower?!"

"Oh...heh...silly me." The mare giggled. "Oh, and are those the stolen Maretanian blood diamonds?" She asked innocently.

"What the..." The stallion in the sunglasses growled, slowly rising to his hooves. The mare tossed off her glasses and her hat to reveal a rainbow-colored mane, and deviously-narrowed magenta eyes.

"Gotcha!" She said happily, spun around, and bucked the stallion across the patio. He landed on his side with a pained grunt, then jumped to his hooves and hurled a nearby chair, which the rainbow-haired pony easily dodged. She galloped toward him, then leaped into the air nimbly, and sent all four of her hooves crashing into him, sending the criminal into a cart of pies. The nervous criminal, seeing an opportunity to escape during the chaos, grabbed the briefcase in his teeth and galloped away as fast as legs could carry him. He got to the row of bushes bordering the cafe, but no further. He stopped dead in his tracks, looking cross-eyed at the tip of my dragoon sabre. I grinned at the diamond thief.

"I would surrender now...just a friendly piece of advice." I stated cooly.

"Eheheh..." The thief chuckled nervously.

"The diamonds, Back Alley." I said, now more seriously. He opened his mouth, letting the briefcase drop to the ground. With a sigh, he sat down on his haunches in defeat. "Good call." I said. "Dash?"

"Harumf!" She called back, pulling taut the rope she'd just hog-tied the other pony with. She grinned at me. "Who da pony?"

"Aww damnit, you got the tough one. No fair." I fake-pouted.

"Well you got the diamonds!" Dashie pointed out.

"Oh, so I did." I innocently remarked, rolling my eyes. "Oh, almost forgot...come on fellas, they're all yours!" At that, several ponies in black ties and dark sunglasses materialized out of the surroundings where they had been concealed. Two of them moved to each subdued criminal and began the process of arresting them properly, while the others secured the loot in the attache bag. From the throng of official ponies stepped a well-groomed gray earth stallion with handcuff cutiemarks. He trotted up to us and lowered his dark Brayban sunglasses on his snout.

"Detective Drake...detective Dash." He greeted formally.

"Agent Shakleford, good to see you outside of the Hoofer Building for a change."

"Hum." The agent muttered, unamused. "Good work, you two...capturing Shady Deals and Back Alley. We've been after these two and the diamonds for weeks.

"Aw, no big." Dash replied nonchalantly.

"Well...I'm sure that you will have the appreciation of Princess Celestia yet again for this one, Drake." Shackleford groaned, rolling his dark gray eyes.

"Chin up, Agent Shackleford," I replied. "I'm just glad we could help the agency with its little problem." Shackleford stared at me a moment.

"Yeah, alright...I'll admit it, our agencies working together was the right thing to do, and it worked to our mutual benefits, you happy?" The EBI special agent gave a cynical smile.

"Now that's something to put in a friendship report." Dash laughed.

"Dashie...friendsh...oh lord..." I sighed. "Ugh...anyway, good working with you, Agent Shackleford." I said. He pushed his signature sunglasses back up on his face.

"You too, lieutenant." He said professionally. The EBI agent turned and walked back toward his field agents.

"Come on, sweetheart, we're done here." I sighed. We turned and walked away from the scene, where it was obvious that our part in the work was finished. I nudged Dash gently, and she turned towards me. "You did good." I said. She gave me a cocky grin.

"What did ya expect?" She replied.

"Well...I dunooooo..." I said, pretending to be deep in thought. "Your attack back there was...I dunno...only about, say 17...maybe 18 percent cooler..."

"Oh shut up!" Dash exclaimed, giving me a playful shove. "Oh and 'I would surrender now...' what was that? I swear, sometimes I think you believe you're some kind of action hero or something."

"Well, maybe I am." I replied smartly. "And you're my intrepid sidekick." Dashie facehooved at that.

"Have you been reading my Daring Do books?" She groaned.

"Why would I?" I answered. "Daring's got nothing on my Dashie."

"Aww Draaaake." Dash squeaked. I sneaked her a quick kiss on the cheek, one of my little 'thanks for being awesome' rewards.

"Want to grab some dinner?" I asked, before we could get too mushy.

"Sure, I could eat." Replied Dashie. "What were you thinking?" Oh boy, this was too good...I couldn't resist bringing up our very first date.

"Flaaaaapjaaaacks." I drawled in my best hillbilly-sounding voice. Dash stared at me a moment with wide eyes, then I saw the edges of her lips turn up in a smile. She snorted, cupped her hooves over her mouth, and erupted with laughter.

"Ohhhh no...no, no, no..." She laughed. "Not...the pancakes...Draaake..."

"Haha...couldn't resist." I chuckled.

"You can be so immature!"

"Only with you, Dashie." I said lovingly. She smiled sweetly.

"Mmm, Drake." She whispered.

"Okay...revision, dinner, then home." I grinned. She blushed.

"Oh, you're on." She taunted coyly.

We took our seats in the diner, sitting across the table from each other, still relieved about solving the case we'd been working so hard on for nearly two weeks. Two weeks of stakeouts, observing, intelligence gathering, all of which had kept us away from home and out in the field. Now, we relished the opportunity to just kick back and relax. We picked up the menus and gave them a quick once over.

"What can I get ya?" A mare in a pink apron, obviously our waitress was standing by our table. She was a pale teal color, with a brown mane in a beehive hairdo, wore dated blue eyeglasses, and was wearing a pair of awful pineapple earrings worthy of noting. I glanced at her nametag. It read 'Flow'.

"Hayburger and fries." Dash said. "And a large iced tea, extra sweet."

"Sure thing, sugar." The waitresspony named Flow said. "And fer you, hon?" I grinned at Dashie.

"Oui, madamoiselle...L'un honey fried hay sandwich, on rye veuillez ...um, pardon moi, ami...could you eh...saute le potatoes with mushrooms et add a bit of vinagrette?" I said in a thick accent.

"I...I guess that's be alright, sir." The waitress replied. "And to drink?"

"L'un cafe au lait." I smiled.

"Coffee with milk?" Flow asked.

"Oui, absoulement." I replied, smiling innocently. "Merci beaucoup." The waitress forced a polite smile and walked away. Dash was snickering into her forelegs.

"What the hay was that?" She finally asked.

"Couldn't help it." I said with a small laugh. "I order the most bizarre, random things at restaurants."

"Well I know that." Dash replied. "But were you just speaking...Prench?"

"Oh, that...heheh, yeah...I speak a little Prench, why?" I answered.

"That's actually pretty cool." Dashie said.

"You think so?" I asked seriously.

"Uh, totally! Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Eh. Didn't think it was that important." I replied. "I mean, I speak a little Prench, some Mexicolt I learned out west, it's just...a thing, I guess."

"Your drinks, folks." Flow declared, setting our beverages before us.

"Merci." I said with a smile. The waitress just trotted off to the next table.

"So, where'd you learn to speak in Prench?" Dashie inquired, taking a sip of her sweet tea.

"My father was from Prance. My...biological father, I mean." I stated. "I figured I'd learn, you know?"

"Your...father?"

"Mm...oh yeah, I guess I never mentioned him..."

"Drake...sweetie, you've never really talked about your real family at all." Dash replied. "I just never wanted to...you know..." I sighed, and took a sip of coffee. Too weak.

"Well Dashie...maybe I should." I said. We were far beyond my whole secret past thing at this point, or should have been long ago anyway. Why not? I guess I owed it to her.

"Drake?"

"Alright...my father was a military officer from Prance." I began.

"Wow."

"Yeah, well...he knocked up my mother, who was a well-to-do mare from Canterlot. He'd been sent there as a diplomat, and the whole thing could have been a scandal, so they made a choice, I guess."

"Wait...they adopted you off?" Dash asked in surprise.

"Heh. Not exactly. More like dropped me off. In a basket. With a bag of gold coins and a note, no less. Pretty cliché, right? Well, fortunately they picked the right door to leave me at. Silver Cutlass took me in and raised me as his own."

"Drake..." Dash whispered, touching my right hoof with hers comfortingly.

"It's okay...really."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I never really knew them, so I can't hate them or anything. I don't know if I even felt bad when I found out that they'd died." I said.

"What?!" Dashie exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, my parents are both dead. They ended up getting married after they ditched me from what I hear, and about ten years ago, the ship they were on went down in a storm on its way to Prance."

"How did you find out?" Dashie asked, still sounding concerned. I sighed.

When I was twenty, my last year at academy...right before graduation, actually, I thought about tracking down my real parents. Dunno why really, I mean...what was I gonna do, drop in for a visit? 'Hi, surprise! Guess who?'".

"Geez Drake..."

"Well, I went searching during my breaks. Heh. Silver Cutlass had figured it out long before, of course. I guess he had his ways. He gave me the names, and...well...I guess I was a couple months too late..."

"I...I don't know what to say..." Dash muttered.

"Don't worry about it. I don't." I said. Dashie still looked a bit down. I smiled at her. "I have you now, right?"

"Yeah."

"Food's ready, folks." The waitress announced, placing our plates before us. I nodded politely. "Need a refill?"

"Oui madamoiselle." I nodded, keeping up my ruse halfheartedly. She poured more coffee into my mug before leaving to wait on the other patrons in the small diner. I eyed my food eagerly, the aroma making my mouth water. I glanced back at Dashie. "Thank Celestia...real food." I grinned. "Dig in!"

So ends chapter one. What did you think? I would love to hear from you, my loyal readers. I will try to have chapter two up in the next couple days if I can. On weekdays, expect a chapter a day to be the norm. Until next chapter, thanks for reading, everypony! -Drake