Culture shock

"So, John, we meet again." A familiar looking, and somewhat standoffish neon blue horse approaches cautiously.

"Bedside Manner. It's been awhile." I frown, the tension is thick enough to drown in it. "Here for some payback?"

He pauses, thinking before speaking again. "Well, I was assigned to be your doctor, and as nervous as it made me, Celestia has made reassurances that you mean no harm. Still, seeing is believing."

"Yea, about that. I uh..." Damn, never thought I'd have to apologise for throwing a fist. "I'm sorry about beating you up. I'm trying to process what's going on here. I won't be doing that again."
He looks at me, skeptical. "If I examine you, will you remain calm?"

"Yes. All I ask is that you let me know what you're doing. Magic isn't unexpected anymore if that helps." I smile at him, hopefully it doesn't make me look crazy.

"I'll accept that for now." He lifts a needle. "You fuck around, and you're going to be taking a nap."

I sit up straighter, bracing for the tingling sensation. The familiar blue glow surrounds my left arm, and Bedside, looking at me, then my arm, comments on his observations.

"Your injury was strange. I've never seen anything like it. I had to remove a small piece of metal from your shoulder. For such a small object, it did horrendous damage. What was it?" He releases my arm, obviously relieved.

"Weapons are far more advanced where I'm from. The most advanced weapon I've seen here, besides magic, is spears. Since we don't have magic, we improved our weapons. The small piece of metal was called a bullet. I have a pistol that fires those. That's what Spike was holding when I got shot." I frown, wondering how Twilight and Spike are doing. Twilight might have been too drunk to remember, but Spike seemed pretty traumatized.

"So doc, when can I get outta here? I have amends to make with Spike."

He looks at me funny, then just shakes his head. "We changed our healing magic so that it can work on you. Your physiology is quite different from ours. You're fully healed now, but remember, just because we can magically heal you, doesn't mean we can magically resurrect you. So don't do anything to get yourself killed."

"M'kay doc" I chuckle at him, jumping out of bed.

"Hey Spike, how's it going?" The little green dragon jumps up, obviously lost in thought.

"Oh, hey John." He looks down at the floor, looking nervous.

"Spike, are you ok? I know you're probably hurting about what happened yesterday, but everything is fine. If anyone is to blame, it would be me. I didn't warn you that I had a weapon in there, plus I got a little buzzed. Where I'm from, mixing alcohol and weapons is frowned upon."

He looks at me, confused. "I'm not sure what it is you're talking about. I've never seen anything like that before. We should go see Twilight, she wants to speak with you. She's fairly concerned about what happened."

We head to Twilight's chambers. As Spike knocks, I realize that I recognize the guard from yesterday, he was the same one that responded to yesterday's incident. He almost looks scared.

"Enter."

Spike opens the door for me, then continues down the hall. I haven't seen Twilight's chambers yet. Despite it's size, it's amazingly simple and well organized, bookshelves going all the way to the ceiling. Twilight is laying on a cushion, reading a book.

Seeing me, she closes the book and gestures to a nearby seat. "Please, take a seat. Taking her offer, I wonder what she had to say. She sits up, looking nonplussed. "I hope you're not holding any grudges against Spike for what happened yesterday."

"No, I'm not," I frown. "I explained a little to him what happened, and I take full responsibility for it. There was no way he could have known. I should have explained to you the contents of my vehicle, and done so while sober."

She sits up while listening, adopting a more serious expression. "I wasn't able to fully recall what happened, due to my own inebriation, and I take responsibility for that. But I do recall your injuries. Judging by the wound you received, you're lucky to be alive. Though you seem to be fully aware of this already, am I correct?"

"Yes. Where I come from, it's quite common for everyday people to possess a weapon such as that. Some of it is done illegally, but for the most part there is no law against it. We know what they are capable of, and we have them for our own protection. My race, as a general rule of thumb, is capable of great violence."

She looks down, ears held flat. "I've seen some of what your kind is capable of. We have no place for that here. We strive for peace, and I hope that you would be willing to do the same. I can understand your desire to protect yourself in your own world, but Equestria is my world, so for the time being, your weapon has been taken into my custody for study, and for everyone's safety."

Damn. Not exactly a good impression to make on them. Getting my pistol taken sucks, but she makes it sound temporary.

"I suppose I could work with that. When you took it, did you do anything with it?"

"No." She shakes her head. "Is it dangerous?"

"Not on it's own. But if someone fiddled around with it, someone else might get shot, and they might not be so lucky. I need to unload it. Once that's done it's nothing more than a really expensive paperweight. At the same time, I can teach you about it, along with the nature of it's use."

She looks at me thoughtfully, nods, and opens a drawer, lifting the gun out with her magic likes it's a ticking timebomb.

I take it from her, unload it, and show her the various parts and how they all function together. She's obviously amazed that it doesn't rely on magic to function.

"So these little metal rocks that you put into it are the real danger? How can something so small cause so much damage?"

"This is where it gets ugly Twilight. My kind has been making these for hundreds of years, in various forms. We as a species are constantly fighting each other, often over trivial things such as fuel, or land, or even a perceived insult. There's always been a race to have the better weapon, ever since the first fight where someone picked up a rock and used it to smash someone else's head in. After that, someone made clubs, spears, bows and arrows, until finally, you have this." I look at her gravely. Shes starting to realize that my fight with the doctor was nothing compared to what people in general can be capable of.

"This isn't even our most powerful weapon. This is a small fry compared to other weapons, like our bombs. About 70 years ago, someone decided to go and drop a couple bombs that leveled two cities. All that to end the bloodiest war in human history." I look up, realizing I had gotten lost in my own monologue. Twilight is visibly shaken, ears laid back flat against her head.

"What caused that war?" She quietly asks.

"Hatred. It's what causes all wars. We claim to fight to protect our loved ones, but deep down, in the darkest part of our hearts, it's all because of hate."

A single tear rolls down Twilight's cheek, and she lays back down, putting her head down on her forelegs. I never realized how empathetic these ponies can be. I close the distance, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Twilight, while the vast majority of my people are like this, there are many who are like you, whose only desire is peace. I will never let the violence and hatred of my world come to pass here. I give you my word on that."

She looks up. "Pinkie Promise?"

"Um...."

"Here, I'll show you." And she walks me through the motions, and somehow I end up hitting myself in the eye.

"You're gonna have to explain that one to me." Not knowing what else to do, I gently hug her. She wasn't expecting me to be so warm to her, but she relented.

"Maybe we could find something a little lighter to talk about. Did you happen to find a small, flat black object in my truck?"

"Yea, I did, why?" She levitates my phone up.

"Well, I'm going to show you one of the better things that my people have come up with. We call it a movie."

After the movie, some light romantic comedy that my ex-girlfriend had, she seemed to be in better spirits, though she didn't understand some of the jokes. We had a light dinner, and I decided to show them the wonders of pizza.

"I'm not gonna lie John, this 'pizza' is pretty good." Twilight grins.

"It originally comes from a country called Italy. I'm a big fan of various cheeses and pasta, I'll have to show you some more of their foods. Most of it is based around tomatoes and pasta. It's also very vegetarian friendly."

Spike looks at the remaining slices, picks one up, and shoots green fire at it. "Let's see what Princess Celestia thinks of it." He says with a grin.

"Well, we will have to see tomorrow. She has summoned the three of us to see her. The chariot leaves first thing in the morning."