Of Claws and Hooves

by Cloud_Surfer

Prologue

Of Claws and Hooves
Prologue

It was early-afternoon by the time Drake woke up. Stretching his joints out, he got out of bed and headed over towards the window. Gazing over the vast expanse of trees before him, Drake could just make out the new farm, Sweet Apple Acres, which had just been built not even a month prior. He and his master had been living in these woods for nigh on thirty years, inside a tree that his master’s magic formed into a two story home. Heading down the stairs, Drake started returning the books scattered about to their proper places in the plethora of book shelves that allowed Drake’s master to continue his research. Reaching the main room, Drake noticed a letter sitting next to a breakfast his master had laid out for him. Drake reached down and read it as he ate,

Drake,

I went to the cave labs today. I feel I’m about to make a major breakthrough in my research. Once you wake up and get something in your stomach, I’d like you to join me as quickly as possible.

Waxing Crescent

‘That’s strange,’ Drake thought, ‘We haven’t used the cave labs in a while. Must be something that could explode he’s working on. This should be a fun day; I just wish I wasn’t so tired.’ With that, Drake yawned and headed over towards the basement stairs, then paused as the sun shone through the windows. ‘The passage from the basement lab is the fastest way to the caves, but it’s such a nice day out, I’m sure Waxing won’t mind if I fly over instead.’ Drake abruptly spun around and bounded for the door. Once outside, he spread his black wings, and with a great surge of strength, shot up into the clear blue skies.

After about an hour of soaring, Drake finally had arrived at the entrance of the cave. Lighting the torches that lined the cave walls, Drake headed deep underground for another hour and a half by the time he reached the door to the lab. Shoving it open, he saw his master, Waxing Crescent, fiddling with a tube that had a few buttons on the side, and a diamond glinting at one end. Clearing his throat, Drake announced his presence in the lab. Without even bothering to look, Waxing Crescent said “Sleep well eh Drake? Well now that you are here, would you go get the scroll labeled ‘Sealing Spells of the 2nd Age” from the top shelf? I would do it myself, but I want to get this last button installed before I continue.”

Drake unfurled his wings and slowly lifted himself forty feet into the air, to the top of the shelf and started digging around for the scroll requested. “Why don’t we have a ladder in here again? I couldn’t be that hard to have the Princess send us one. Or hay, I could even build us one. How hard could it be?” Drake shouted down, unrolling scrolls as he did. “Also, why didn’t they ever label their scrolls back in the 2nd Age? Make my job a lot easier.”

“The reason we don’t have a ladder is because I have such an excellent assistant. Why if it weren’t for your wings, I doubt I’d get half of my work done,” the dark silver unicorn replied, not taking his eyes off of his work. “As for the labeling, only the extremely wealthy owned scrolls back then or ponies that wrote their own scrolls. There was no need to label them. The only reason I have any that old is because Princess Celestia allowed me access to them. A perk of being a personal student of her’s I guess.” Using his magic, Waxing Crescent just managed to get everything into place on the funny little tube he was working on.

“What’s it going to do?” Drake asked as he descended with the requested scroll. Placing it down, he peered over his master’s shoulder to get a better look. Before him were a dozen hollow tubes, with only one end sealed by a diamond with a flat top, allowing the tube to stand erect on the table. On the outside where three buttons, a black triangle, a red circle, and one by the opening at the top that looked like a locking mechanism, except that it was glowing.

“That I’ll explain once I finish them. All that’s left is to construct the magical sealing lid, and then they’ll be complete. Why don’t you go downstairs and take a nap while I work? It’ll probably be another day or two before I finish them all,” Waxing Crescent stated as he started pushing his assistant towards the stairs.

“A two day nap?!” Drake exclaimed. “Have I really been sleeping that long recently?” A sense of worry was beginning to creep over him. Looking back at the deep blue eyes of the elder stallion, he knew it was true. “How much time do I have left?” Drake asked in a concerned whimper, as if he was only ten years old again.

The silver unicorn stroke his long white beard with his hoof, gazing at his assistant. Drake’s bright red eyes stood out from the rest of his black body, and could not contain the sadness that Drake felt at that moment. Waxing Crescent answered him, with a heavy heart, “I’d say about a week from today, but don’t worry, I’ll stay with you until the end. I promise. Now get downstairs and sleep, I’ll be needing you for the next part of my invention.” Drake followed his master’s wishes, and curled up in the basement and fell asleep.

Six days later, Drake woke up. Before him was a pile of gems that he’d never seen before. There were jewels of every type, emeralds as green as leaves, sapphires as blue as the ocean, and diamonds as clear as glass. All of those were overlooked by Drake, as he rested his eyes on the top of the pile. Sitting at the peak of the immense stack were hundreds of fire rubies, one of the rarest gems in the world. On top of those, were black gems that Drake had never seen before. Scratching his head, he went over and picked one up. Before he could do anything else, a voice answered the question that was buzzing through his head.

“Those would be black diamonds my boy. That pile there was sent to you by Drago, from about 45 years ago. White dragon flame works that way. That is how Starswirl the Bearded developed his future sight spells,” Waxing Crescent said from the top of the stairs, looking down at his assistant. “You have a day left, and there is much work to do. Please follow me,” he continued somberly.

Drake complied, following his master up the flight of stairs into the main lab section. Sitting on the work bench were but a dozen tubes sat six days prior, now sat almost a hundred. “Been busy I take it,” Drake sighed. “Sorry for..for…” Drake couldn’t finish that sentence. He knew deep down that it all ended tonight. Drake would never see Waxing Crescent again, and he had trouble accepting that. Looking at the pony working at the bench, Drake couldn’t help but think back to when the coat shined like polished silver, and had a golden flowing mane and tail. That had long ago turned white, and that’s when the beard came, because “a gold beard would be ridiculous” Waxing Crescent had explained. Knowing today was going to be the last time to see him was left Drake cold.

“Don’t be. We’ve both knew this day was coming, ever since Drago taught you what being a dragon assistant was all about. And my have you become a stunning example of a draconis,” Waxing Crescent said kindly. Looking at the dragon before him, Waxing Crescent couldn’t help but remember the tiny black ball of scales that hatched for him ninety years ago. Now at ninety years old, Drake’s was as tall as Princess Celestia at his shoulder, with a body thick with muscle and twice as long as it was tall. His long neck with black spikes running down the length of it, towards the tip of his tail, was longer than the princess was tall as well. “Every dragon must go through their hundred year slumber; it is how they truly grow. Just remember who you are when you awaken.” With that, Waxing Crescent walked back towards his bench.

“Now what I need you to do is breath your black flames into this end of tube. Simple enough?” Waxing Crescent explained, as he levitated a tube into the air. “Just enough to fill it.” Drake shot a burst of his black flame into the tube and watched his master seal it shut. “Excellent, now if this works properly, I’ll just have you fill them all up and we can go about making you comfortable.” Waxing then turned around, hit the red button and, while pointing the diamond towards himself, shouted “Test one, test two, test three. Does this thing work?” He then took his finger off the button, and pressed the black triangle. The latch opened up and released the black flame onto the ground, inside of which the image of Waxing shown in color saying “Test one, test two, test three. Does this thing work?” before vanishing.

“You made a recording device?” Drake asked. Out of all the things his master had made, this was probably the least spectacular.

“Indeed, and I’m thrilled that it works. Now fill up the rest please,” Waxing Crescent requested with a grin on his face. Within the hour, all the tubes were full of black flame, and Drake was almost asleep on his claws. “Let’s get you downstairs now.”

Drake managed to get his way to the basement, and crawled on top of the pile of gems. Turning his head towards Waxing Crescent, he couldn’t help but feel tears coming to his eyes. “I don’t want to sleep though. Who will I wake up to? You’ll be gone just like Twilight Sparkle died 5 years ago. I miss her as much as you do. She was like my mother,” Drake started, failing at his attempt to not cry. “And you just became a grandpa, and I haven’t gotten a chance to congratulate Shining Star on her son. And all of my friends back in Canterlot. What’ll I do without everypony?” Drake was sobbing at this point.

Waxing Crescent walked up and laid down next to the dragon that he had raised. “Princess Celestia will still be there, and you’ll be sure to make new friends. I doubt the dragon that you’ll be in charge of teaching will let you wallow in sadness. You didn’t let Drago do it once you met him now did you?” Waxing Crescent consoled Drake. “I know Twilight would have agreed with me, when I say anypony would be lucky to consider you their friend. She was the best wife I could’ve hoped for. She gave me quite a few foals, but I already had a son well before I met her. I’ll always love you Drake, never forget that.” Waxing Crescent stated, as he nuzzled his adoptive son from so many years ago, adding his own tears to Drake’s.

“I...I love you too… Daddy,” Drake managed to choke out between his sobs. He could feel himself drifting off already, but was too afraid to slip into his sleep. He spent his entire life with Waxing, helping him invent a multitude of objects that had improved everypony’s lives. All the failed experiments, that often ended in an explosion and both of them covered in soot. The day Drake grew his wings and how Waxing Crescent managed to have a Wonderbolt teach Drake how to fly. Finally, after crying himself dry, Drake drifted off to his century long slumber.

“Good night Drake, I love you,” the old unicorn sighed. Kissing Drake on top of his scaly head, he went up and collapsed the roof and walls around the staircase, sealing Drake away from any danger that may occur to him. He then turned to his work bench, gathered as many of the recording tubes as he could, and teleported to Canterlot. After a month, Waxing Crescent returned with only a dozen of the hundred recording devices, placing them on the table with a letter that had tear-stains written on it. Princess Celestia joined him for his last visit to the lab.

“I’ll make sure that he receives these Waxing, I promise you,” the Sun Goddess told him.

“Thank you Princess. Would you also do me the favor of destroying the rest of this lab? I’m too weak at this point to do much of anything,” Waxing asked. “I want no pony to find this spot and disturb Drake’s slumber.” After seeing the Princess’s nod, the old stallion teleported with her back to Canterlot for the last time, determined to finally join his lost wife.

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100 years later

Spike hurried to keep up with Rarity. Spike had seen Rarity use the gem seeking spell countless times, but he never saw it drag her across the gorge like it was this time. Running as fast as his baby dragon legs could take him, he barely reached Rarity in time to stop her from crashing into a wall. “What’s going on Rarity? We’ve never been this far in the gorge before,” Spike panted out.

“I’m not sure Spike. I was focusing on finding fire rubies, for an order made by Fancy Pants, and my horn just took over,” Rarity explained. “Thankfully it hadn’t rained recently, or I would be absolutely filthy. Regardless, there seems to be a large amount of fire rubies beyond this wall, shall we investigate?”

Spike didn’t even need Rarity to ask. He was already clawing his way through the mountain, not only because Rarity requested it, but his hunger for a fire ruby was so intense that he’d rip through the entire cliff side if he had to. He wasn’t prepared for only digging for five feet, and falling down a blacken staircase. “What in the hay?” Spike muttered to himself. He was sitting in a big empty room, and that was about all he could see at that moment.

“SPIKE?” he heard Rarity shout down to him. “Are you ok Spiky?” Rarity had begun her descent using her horn as a light. “Oh my word,” Rarity could hardly understand what she saw before her. What appeared to be a destroyed workplace with nothing remaining except a stone table with a dozen dusty tubes sitting on it. “Oh, but what is this?” Rarity voiced aloud as she saw a letter. Looking at the letter, she saw Celestia’s royal seal and it being addressed to somepony named Drake.

Spike was busy using his nose to sniff out the fire rubies Rarity’s horn had detected. Spike’s trusty nose had led him to another wall that he instantly started digging out. Just like the first, this one hid another staircase that Spike wasn’t expecting. Falling down his second flight of stairs, he descended into a second darker chamber. It seemed that the ceiling sloped down, for the darkness was much closer to the ground on the other end of the room. He could also hear a slight breeze flowing through the room, and noticed it was slightly damp.

Shrugging this off, Spike found a torch and lit it with his breath. He promptly dropped it to the ground. There before him was a stack of gems that had more fire rubies than he’d ever seen before. “Rarity, I found all the fire rubies you could ever want down here!” Spike shouted to his companion as he headed to the pile.

Climbing to the top, by the low black ceiling, he stopped and picked up one of the rubies. “She’ll never miss one of these,” Spike mentioned to himself as he tossed it up in the air and caught it in his mouth. With a resounding crunch, Spike swallowed the delicious gem. Turning around to grab a second, Spike was confronted with a bright red eye, the size of a dinner plate glaring at him. He screamed louder than he had in a long time, as a black claw the size of a chair reached out and grabbed him.

Comments

[Trickquestion]

Wow, that was beautiful man. Tracking and a thumbs up.

[UltiXevoz]

Can't wait to see where this goes

[Razalon The Lizardman]

Red Eyes Black Dragon . . . .