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// As time passes 
// Story: The Equestrian Adventures of Tucker the Great  
// by kfish5050 
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When I woke up, Drake was still snoozing. I felt refreshed, having the burdens of the loss of family and personal possessions lifted while I was away in some happy dreamland. I was starving, so I decided to head to breakfast. I wondered how Drake could be so fat when he didn’t even eat breakfast, but pushed thoughts of him outside my head as I left the room.
When I got to the cafeteria, I walked quietly to the back of the line as usual, waiting by myself until I got my food. But today, Stacy spotted me and invited me to sit with her. For the first time since the ship had departed, I smiled. I barely knew her, yet I felt there was already something between us. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions just yet, so I put these thoughts to the back of my mind. We went to her table, where there were two other girls and a man. She introduced me to the man first, whom, she explained, was her cousin, Henry Rivershine. She said the other two girls were Henry’s wife and her best friend. Their names were Jane Rivershine and Kelly Collins, respectively. As I spent breakfast with these people, I learned that Kelly had also worked on the ship, and she was  handy with technology. Jane didn’t seem too special; she had been around Henry the entire time, and her story was practically the same as his. Before I could get to know them more, breakfast was over and we headed off to our rooms.
Drake was still knocked out when I returned. I threw some of his dirty magazines at him, (I don’t even know why he has these, as most people left their possessions behind to be able to get on the ship, and the few that do have stuff that is critical to their health or something that they would simply die without) and eventually he woke up. At first he was startled, wondering where he was and what had happened, before he remembered and slumped back down in his bed. I told him to get up and “clean” up, although “clean” to him meant changing his shirt and wiping his face with a moist towel at the most. After living with him for a month, I had given up on convincing him to shower more than once a week. At least laundry was being taken care of the ship’s crew, because all of his clothes were absolutely putrid after a few weeks.
The ship had set up activities – mostly sports – for us to spend our time with, but they weren’t mandatory, so I usually went to the computer room to play some games. When I first got on the ship, I had a flash drive in my pocket with  some of my favorite games on it. I usually met Daniel there so we could play together, but today he had to help monitor the other activities. Most people just sit on the bleachers and watched because they didn’t have anything else to do. When I got to the computer room, Kelly was standing outside, saying she wanted to mess around with the computers. I’d been in this room almost every day since leaving Earth, but I had never noticed her here. She explained that she usually spent time with Jane, but today she was able to do what she wanted. We ended up playing games together. It was fun, but before I knew it, it was lunchtime.
We headed off to the cafeteria together, talking about the fun we had had in our virtual world.  We met up with the rest of the crew, and were also joined by Daniel, whom I introduced to everyone. Usually at lunch Drake came to find me because no one else wanted to sit with him. Today was no different. He found us and sat next to me, although he disgusted the other people at our table. I let him introduce himself, and he managed to make a fool of himself as he tried to impress my new friends.  We tried to pretend like he wasn’t there, but at the end of every other sentence he felt the  need to add an unintelligent remark to the conversation. I hoped that he would stop coming, but I was wrong. Every day afterwards was the same. Drake even started to show up at breakfast. Afterwards, Kelly, Daniel and I went to the computer room and hung out, while the other four participated in the activities put on by the ship. More activities followed lunch, but these were usually educational, since the captain believed everyone should continue their education. I couldn’t agree more, but I knew that Drake would have much rather been alone in his room with one of his special magazines.
After a while, dinnertime was more pleasant. The cafeteria was set up with two chairs to each table. I usually sat with Daniel, but Daniel began sitting with Kelly, and I sat with Stacy to avoid being stuck with Drake. I had grown fond of her, since we had so much in common. She seemed like the only person that could actually make me smile. I believed she felt the same way because she kept saying how much she loved talking to me. I wished we could be more than friends, but I needed to know more about her. I couldn’t risk ruining our friendship. I had to find out if she really liked me.
But before I could, something happened.



Twilight and the other fillies were heading back to Ponyville. They couldn’t help but wonder what it was that Princess Celestia thought was so important. What did she mean by unnatural? What possible thing could it be? Why did she feel this was somehow connected with her strange dream she couldn’t remember? Twilight decided she’ll rest and deal with it tomorrow, when the “thing” arrives. Right now, she would like to go to sleep. The trip to Canterlot and back on foot had made her exhausted. When she arrived back in her library, she met up with Spike. She filled him in on the details she learned from her trip, and shared her ideas and feelings about how she thinks it somehow connected. Spike again told her that dreams are just dreams and don’t mean anything. Twilight agreed to his debate, especially since she was extremely tired. She just wanted to curl up in bed, pull the sheets over her and doze off. She started to dream of a strange creature, one that she’s certain she had seen before, but she didn’t feel like herself anymore...