How to ship humans

by Lumos

An unexpected meeting

Marek slowly raised his eyelids, freeing himself from the shackles of sleep with success. For a second he was staring at the blue sky, until he finally realized that he was not in his bed but in a crown of a tree. His eyes went wide and his heart started to beat faster. He noticed with horror that he was quite far from the ground and that making sudden movements could end very badly. Don't panic. He frantically looked around in search of a way down. If I somehow came up here, I ought to be able to come down. He finally saw a massive branch below, which with a bit of luck could bring him back to the ground. Bingo. He bent his knees preparing to jump down, when suddenly he heard someone taking behind his back.

“Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie. Are you new here? I know…”

“Ah!” Marek jumped away frightened losing his footing and fell off the branches, screaming his head off while falling to his doom. After less then a second he met the ground hitting something along the way, which cushioned his fall.

He started to get up on his feet slowly, not being able to believe in his luck. If it wasn't for a blue pegasus effigy, he would certainly end up with more than a few bruises. His thoughts were interrupted by groaning and angry murmurs coming from under him and shouts from behind. Marek immediately jumped away. He was staring at the blue pegasus with a rainbow mane, who started to stretch her legs with pain and a unicorn with wings who ran up to her. It could not be counted as a frequent sight.

“Rainbow, are you okay?” asked the purple alicorn, inspecting the winged companion from each side.

“I think so. I've had worse accidents than this.” Rainbow smiled and then grimaced in pain. “By the way, what exactly hit me?”

“The answer to your question is literally two steps away from you," Twilight said, directing her gaze to the left of her friend.

“Wait, what?”

In response, Twilight held out her hoof in the direction of the human standing nearby. When Rainbow saw what her friend pointed at, her eyes narrowed to slits, and it sent shivers up Marek’s spine. The rainbow pegasus began to approach him, glaring at him all the time. It was too much for him.

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I got scared of somebody talking behind me and accidentally fell off a tree. I didn't know I’d fall on a live, uh... horse?” Marek tried to defend himself.

“Hey, are you seriously adding insult to injury! You'll regret this!” Rainbow shouted.

“Rainbow, take it easy! He didn't mean anything offensive! Have you forgotten what Klara said?”

“I'm sorry. I must have drifted away with my thoughts when you started to talk about topics interesting only to eggheads.” Rainbow lowered her head shamefully.

Marek took a few deep breaths until his heart stopped beating at a mad pace. Panic is not going to help me now. It's time to look at things with a cold eye, he thought.

“Ahem.” Marek cleared his throat. “Since we have already explained this misunderstanding, could somebody finally explain to me where I am?”

“In Equestria,” replied the purple hybrid. “And before you ask, we are not horses but ponies. There are earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi. There is also a fourth, least numerous group, which includes alicorns, that is, ponies with horns and wings. Belonging to it is, of course, associated with certain privileges, one of which includes the right to the throne of Equestria...”

Marek bulged out his eyes and in the blink of an eye his head ended up close to the ground.

“You don't have to bow before me.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “I know my status commands respect, but I still can't get used to being treated differently. Until recently, I was just a regular student.”

Marek stood up carefully, looking closely at his interlocutors.

“In all this confusion, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Marek, and I'm a human from planet Earth.” He held out his hand, shaking two hoofs one by one.

“Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship.”

“Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in Equestria,”, exclaimed the pegasus and proudly puffed out her chest.

Then out of nowhere a pink pony appeared and shook his hand.

“Pinkie Pie, but you probably know that by now!”

Marek opened his mouth in total bewilderment, not understanding what had just happened.

“Try not to think about it. That’s how she is. Trying to understand her will only give you a headache," the alicorn said.

“Getting back to my problem, I have no idea how I got here," Marek said, scratching his head. "The last thing I remember is that I nodded off yesterday after watching some videos about fixing things. Do either of you know how I can get home?”

Twilight winced slightly, knowing she wouldn't be able to tell the good news.

“There's something you need to know. Let's go into my library first. I have a feeling you might want to sit down.”

All four of them headed for the tree that somebody had turned into a building. As he passed the threshold, Marek noticed that it was filled with a large number of books. For a moment it occurred to him that this was a major fire hazard, but he quickly focused back on his current problem. Once everyone was comfortable, Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm the nerves.

“You're not the first human to show up in Equestria. Three years earlier Klara found herself here...” she said timidly.

“Does that mean you know a way to send me back to where I came from?”

“Not exactly... Since then, a whole team of outstanding unicorns has been working on a solution. From what we were able to determine, two universes in a 24-dimensional space had come closer to each other and for a while formed an unstable connection between themselves. Klara found herself at the place of such contact by accident, when she was running to a lecture in psychology. We tried to create an artificial portal because we succeeded in creating it for universes similar to ours. We discovered, however, that the lack of a thaumaturgical field on the other side makes it impossible to open the passage using magic. Nor can we use technology to do this, because Equestria is quite backward in this respect and it would take decades, if not hundreds of years, before we would be able to do so...” Twilight lowered her head dejectedly.

Marek had the impression that he’s just got the weight of the world on his shoulders. As soon as the alicorn stopped talking, he stood up and, despite the loud requests to wait, and ran out of the library, in need of some alone time. In a matter of minutes he passed by the village houses and shops, briefly drawing the attention of passers-by, but he did not care too much about their looks, although he normally slightly lacked self-confidence. In the distance he saw a hill that was on the border of the town and decided that it would be a good place for contemplation.

After reaching the summit Marek sat there for a few minutes, facing the gloomy reality. He could not accept the fact that he could never see his family and friends again. He knew that the pain would decrease over time, but at the time the future didn't look so great. Although he tried hard not to reveal that, he suppressed the feeling of overwhelming emptiness.

***

As usual, Klara was running a few kilometers, wanting to maintain her good physical fitness. Even before she got to Equestria, she often jogged and did not avoid going to fitness classes. She just had more opportunities to stay healthy here. Her well-toned calves and thighs fit well with athletic shoulders and average bust, making her figure quite attractive. Her long chestnut hair provided an additional bit of charm. However, she often had to brush her bangs away from her tanned face as they regularly fell into her eyes.
Why do I keep forgetting my hair pins? she thought with annoyance.

At one point the woman saw a man sitting at her favorite spot. He was a brunette with an average appearance and a little overweight. He was in his twenties just like her. She didn't remember ever seeing him before. However, she quickly connected the dots, guessing that he could use some company right now.

Klara approached him, then sat down beside him and remained motionless for a few minutes, admiring the panorama of the town in front of them.

“Hi! I'm Klara. What's your name?” she finally said.

“Marek,” the man mumbled.

“I'll ask you straight out. Did Twilight tell you about the odds of returning to Earth?” Marek nodded his head in the affirmative.

“I know how you feel. The first time I heard that, I was devastated. For some time every day seemed the same to me. However, with the support of Twilight and her friends I slowly went back to normal life," she sighed and started staring off into the distance. "It wasn’t easy for me to come to terms with this terrible truth and I still get the longing sometimes, but I try not to remember the past anymore and focus on here and now. It gives me motivation to face this alien world every day and to emerge victorious from these skirmishes.” She looked into his blue eyes. “I believe you can do it, too. I want you to know that you're not alone. I will accompany you on this journey, if you will allow me.” Klara put her hand on his shoulder.

Marek sighed.

“Thanks,” he uttered, and an almost unnoticeable smile appeared on his face.

***

“Hey, Rarity, what are you doing behind that bush?” asked Applejack when she saw her friend watching the top of the hill.

“Uh... I admire the beauty of the landscape,” the white unicorn answered hastily.

Applejack frowned.

“I know you're not telling the truth. You can drop the act.”

“There's nothing I can hide from you,” the white mare muttered. “I was actually listening to Klara talking with a man named Marek. Looks like they're in a similar situation. Oh! She put her hand on his shoulder.” Rarity’s eyes lit up. “It would be a shame not take advantage of that. The only two people in the whole Equestria. Wouldn't it be really romantic if they fell for each other?” The unicorn began rubbing her hooves at the thought of a plan to bring the couple closer together.

Applejack just rolled her eyes.

Author's Note:

As you probably have guessed, English is not my native language and literary English is my Achilles heel. Moreover, this is my first real story in English. I wrote it originally in my native language and then translated it all by myself. If you want me to continue writing more chapters, leave a like.

Comments

[Bronzedragon]

Do not look down on your abilities. This is better than some I have read who do not have the excuse that they don't speak English.
You have a reason why the two humans can't get back and why there most likely wont be more dropping in other than "oh well we can't send you back, so sorry". I hope you decide to continue this story. You do good work. keep it up.
B.D.

[Lumos]

9681441
You're right. I was being a bit over-dramatic. I'll try writing maybe a chapter or two more because I didn't plan for it to be long story. I just don't know when yet. Thanks for the pep talk.

[Pederson28]

For some reason my mind made a story of it's own using the characters in this and made it super dark and depressing and little hope at the end of it. It basically goes like this almost everyone tells marek that they'll help him and none of them do it because I'm finding it a little annoying that most writers do this character is depressed and wait for it and he's not anymore or when they do this have depressed character slapped by another character and saying stop being depressed. Which makes me feel that the writer has no clue what the fuck they're talking about.
I'm willing to tell a summary of it if the author is ok with that.