To be honest, I always had a strange fear of heights. I didn't mind airplanes, but skyscrapers and tall buildings made me quite uneasy. And the fact that I would not only be flying in midair, but doing so without a parachute or any kind of safety equipment was quite unnerving for me. But at the same time my new body was making me conflicted. It certainly wanted nothing more than to fly. 'Why did I agree to this again?' I asked myself as I was led out of town by Rainbow Dash.
My nervousness was interrupted upon hearing my name called. I turned around to see Spike running at full speed towards us. "Vlad! Rainbow! Wait!" he yelled.
We stopped and waited for the small but energetic dragon to catch up. By the time he reached us he was clearly exhausted as he had to take a minute or two to catch his breath. "Soooooo... What's up Spike," I said breaking the awkward silence.
"*Huff* The princesses are back at the library and they want to speak to you. *Huff*"
"Oh... Well I was about to start flying practice with Rainbow Dash can this wait?" I said although not really meaning it.
"Princess Celestia said that she's afraid you'll have to cancel for today. Sorry Vlad."
"Whelp. I guess I don't have much of a choice. Sorry Dash. Tomorrow same time?" I asked a now dejected pegasus.
'Fuck yea! An excuse to hold off flying for another day! Even if I have to talk to the dictators that aren't really dictators.'
"Yea I guess... See ya tomorrow," Rainbow said flying off.
I sighed. "Alright Spike let's go."
Walking back into town the market was at its peak. It seemed that most of the towns population was out and about at this point shopping and enjoying themselves. "So Spike. Did Princess Celestia tell you what this is all about or did she just send you to collect me?" I inquired.
"I don't know. Her, Princess Luna, and this other mare arrived around thirty minutes ago and sent me to find you," Spike said with a shrug.
Deciding to not push the topic any further, I continued walking towards the library which was now in sight. Stationed out front was what looked like a carriage as well as a platoon of armed pegasi guards. They were all the same shade of white and had matching golden armor. I assumed they were there for the safety of the princesses even if their spears and pikes seemed a bit... primitive.
I approached the front door of the library and was about to enter when the two guards standing on either side of the door stopped me. "Halt! State your name and business," one of them barked.
"My name is Vladimir Korzhakov and I was summoned here by the princesses," I said trying to sound as straight-forward as possible.
"Ah, Mr. Korzhakov, go on in the princesses are expecting you," the guard replied waving me through.
I entered the library followed by Spike who ran over the kitchen and started making tea. In front of me were Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and the other mare that Spike had mentioned. "Ah Vlad! Please have a seat. We have much to discuss. I see you have received your cutie mark. I warms my heart that you have found your special talent so soon after your arrival," Celestia said while motioning to a empty chair that I didn't remember being in the library before.
"Uh, thanks princess. I was just thinking about what I enjoyed doing after repairing a cider press and it appeared," I replied.
"Most foals receive their cutie mark upon discovering their passion or talent. Since you are much older, it is no surprise that you already had a good idea of yours," Celestia explains.
"Eh, it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I honestly could take it or leave it. A mark doesn't change what I'm good at, it just advertises it to the world. Now what is it that you wanted to discuss?"
I sat down and waiting for someone to speak up. Eventually Celestia cleared her throat and began to address me. "We would like to know everything you know about your species, their history, their technology, ect... We may find the information you provide us will be very useful to our society so we brought along with us the Royal Archivist Ms. Written Script," Celestia said acknowledging the mare beside her.
*gulp*
"Are you sure your highness? My world was not a place that I think you ponies would find appealing. My species are no saints either," I say hoping to deter them.
"Please young Vladimir. Our sister and us hath seen countless horrors and fought many dangerous foes. Thou describing thy world will not scar us, if that is what thou art implying," Luna scoffed rolling her eyes.
"What about them," I reply gesturing to Twilight and Written Script.
"I trust Twilight as my personal student to listen in on this conversation. It will be a good learning experience for her. As for Written Script, she has read and heard of many of the horrors of the past being the Royal Archivist. I have the utmost confident in her ability to listen to and record anything you may say," Celestia said with a warm smile.
"Well, if you're sure..." I reply hesitantly.
I started off simply by going into the basics of the human species. I described to the best of my ability the anatomy of a human and how we descended from apes over millions of years. The ponies seemed intrigued when I mentioned that humans almost always wore clothes outside of bed and the bathroom and that not doing so in modern times was considered indecent. I explained that humans had next to no hair on their body outside of specific areas so clothing was also needed to stay warm in some instances.
Twilight had interrupted at that point asking if I felt uncomfortable being without clothes as a pony. To be honest I was at first but didn't have much of a say in things considering I woke up in the middle of the Everfree without a scrap of cloth for miles. After a day or two I mostly got over being constantly naked. All the important bits were mostly hidden away from view. Having a fur coat was surprisingly similar to wearing clothing and with having wings on my back and a tail sticking out from my rear, putting on a shirt and pants seemed like a massive undertaking. Twilight informed me that ponies do wear clothes, just not usually all the time and rarely covering their full body.
Next, I began telling all I knew about the history of humanity. The ponies in the room seemed surprised about the constant violence and warfare that humanity created so I assumed that war was not a large part of Equestrian history. I told stories about the Egyptians, the Persians, the Romans, and other great empires from throughout the ages.
When I reached the part about World War II the looks on the faces of those listening was indescribable. Twilight looked like she was going to be sick when I briefly mentioned The Holocaust so I decided not to stay on that topic for very long. When I mentioned the approximate total death toll from the war Luna and Celestia seemed appalled. They told me that world population here was only around 500 million creatures across all nations and that the war I described would be devastating.
I told them that the world population at the time of WWII was between 2 and 2.5 billion people and while the war was devastating, it had not preventing the world population from continuing to grow reaching over 7 billion in modern times. I informed them that I had no intention of ever bringing war to their world and had no idea how to manufacture weapons. Despite my engineering background, I swore off ever designing or manufacturing weapons and never took the time to properly learn how a firearm works much less how to make one.
From there I moved on to more modern history. I mentioned the Cold War between my birth country and my adoptive nation as well as a few other minor conflicts. I also mentioned the war on terror and incidents like the Gulf War, 9/11, and the strife and wars in the Middle East in the 21st century. I tried to get through these topics as quickly as possible because I assumed my image in these ponies eyes was getting more and more tarnished by the second.
Things got less... tense when I mentioned the technological advancements of humans. Everypony seemed extremely impressed about how humanity was so far ahead technologically. I concluded that due to our lack of all things magic, we instead turned to technology. I briefly explained things like computers, modern medicine, and even the Apollo Program which seemed to catch the attention of Luna. All the while Written Script was jotting everything I said down at unimaginable speeds not even asking for clarification once.
Things got out of hand when I moved to the dietary habits of humans which I had forgotten to mention earlier... "Humans are... omnivorous meaning we can digest both meat and plant material."
I was interrupted by Twilight who once again looked sick. "Do you mean...? You ate meat... like from an animal?"
I sighed. This was difficult to say carefully without sounding like some sort of monster. "Yes Twilight, humans ate animals. We mainly ate cows, chicken, pigs, and sheep along with fish and other seafood."
"You... didn't eat ponies did you?" Twilight asked her lip quivering.
"No, ponies... or horses as we usually called them... were usually used for farming, transportation, and combat. They were never really used as a food source outside of desperate times or certain cultures. I've certainly never eaten horse," I replied carefully.
Twilight let out a noticeable sigh of relief before turning her expression to anger. "How could you eat animals like that! That's so... cruel! Cows, sheep, pigs are all living, talking members of society!" she exclaimed.
"Now Twilight, he can't help what his race eats," Celestia defended.
"I guess... but it still makes me sick!" Twilight snapped.
"That is exactly why I was reluctant to tell you about my species. None of those animals are sapient in my world! I knew you would react the wrong way..." I said sadly.
Twilight decided to back off upon seeing me noticeably upset and allowed Celestia to speak up. "Well that certainly was interesting. I believe we have indeed gotten a good start on documenting this matter. The books on humans before you came around were purely fictional and have little in common with what you described. Now I'm afraid we must depart. Until next time!" Celestia said before walking out the door with Luna and Written Script in tow to return to her castle or fortress or whatever it was.
I decided to follow her out the door as I didn't really want to converse with Twilight. Stepping outside I realized just how long I had been in the library. The sun, which had been at its apex when I went in, was now nearing the horizon in the west. I decided to just head back to the farm and call it a day.
While walking out of the town I began to wander as I was often prone to doing. 'I hope Twilight doesn't go around saying I'm some sort of cruel meat-eating monster or something. I'd hate to have to leave town now that I've begun settling in. No... she's a logical mare... she'll know better than to go around spreading rumors...'
Feeling that the information on my former dietary habits was confidential, at least for now, I continued my way towards the farmhouse. Humming a favorite tune of mine as I went, I didn't hear the very obvious whistling sound approaching me until it was to late. All of a sudden, something collided with me going at dangerously high speeds. I flew through the air flipping and screaming like a little girl until I hit a tree and slumped to the ground.
Groaning, I sat up and was met by Rainbow Dash's face once again... and boy did she look pissed. "What did you do mister?!!" she barked.
"Ugghh. I... dun know. What's wrong?" I answered groggily.
"I just came from the library. Twilight's all upset over something you said. What did you do?!!" Rainbow demanded.
"Well, um. The princesses wanted me to tell them all about humans. When I said that humans ate meat from cows and pigs and stuff Twilight just freaked the fuck out! I tried to reason with her but she was having none of it!" I snapped back.
"What? You eat cows? That's horrible!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"I couldn't help it! It was just the way I was born!" I defended.
"It doesn't make it any less horrible! I'm going to make sure Twilight's ok. I knew I couldn't trust you!" Rainbow yelled before taking off back towards town.
'Just fucking great. Twilight has the sense to not start rumors, but Rainbow? She'll have told the whole town by tomorrow morning. Better get prepared to be run out by an angry mob... And just when everything was going so great! Fucking hell!'
I slowly walked towards the now in sight farmhouse with my mood completely gone sour. I was mostly angry at myself for tarnishing my image but they asked for everything on humans and I gave it to them. It didn't help that I had cravings for meat every now and again. I had very little meat during my apartment days due to my poor budget, but when I was able to afford it, I thoroughly enjoyed every last bite.
I walked inside right as the sun dipped below the horizon. I walked into the dining room just as the Apple family was settling down for dinner. Applejack noticed me and motioned me over to my spot for some grub. To be honest, I wasn't all that hungry after what I just had to endure so I took a few bites of corn and a bit of bread before excusing myself to go to bed.
I went upstairs and flung myself onto my bed not even bothering to the put the blanket over me. After just lying there for a few minutes in my own sorrows I heard hoofsteps out in the hallway. I heard my bedroom door open and somepony come in. I looked up to find Applejack standing in the doorway with a concerned expression on her face. "Sugarcube whats wrong? Y'all didn't eat no dinner and ya seemed like ya were in a foul mood."
"Sorry Applejack. I just... screwed up today and I might of soiled my whole reputation." I said sadly.
"Now c'mon sugarcube, it can't be that bad," Applejack said.
"I told Twilight and Rainbow that I used to eat cows and pigs and stuff when I was a human. Those animals aren't talking members of society in my world! I wouldn't dare eat them in this world knowing their sapient! And now they're probably spreading rumors about me all over town. How's that for bad!" I exclaimed.
"Hey. Just because y'all USED to eat cows and pigs doesn't mean anypony should judge you accordingly. Ah know a honest pony when Ah see one and Ah know yer telling the truth when ya say ya wouldn't eat them now that yer here. If things come to worse, Ah'll be there to back ya up. Now get some rest, yer gonna need it."
"Thanks Applejack. At least somepony doesn't immediately jump to conclusions." I said with a small smile.
"Ah bet Twi and RD will come 'round eventually, just give 'em some time."
"I hope so... G'night Applejack!"
"G'night Vlad!" she replied before leaving the room closing the door behind her.
As sleep's warm embrace took me I couldn't help but wander what tomorrow would bring. Maybe, just maybe, things wouldn't be so bad...