Luckily there was enough food to go around, mainly muffins, one of the tech said that it was because so many ponies were wining about not getting any, that Pear Tart made a tone more this time. There were some all green one, of which I did not pic. What I did enjoyed was a nice blueberry and a chocolate muffin, along with some apple cider.

"so after he installed the dance program into the pipbuck 2800, he took it to the dance floor confident that it was going to work it's first try." Cloud Bank had a smirk on his face as he was telling the story. "I tried to tell him that even though the S.A.T.S. can help with targeting a weapon, but getting it to pull out dance moves may overtax it. Well he proved me wrong when turnd it on. I've never seen an old pony move like that before, real five star stuff, But only one problem, the dace moves were for ponies younger, and far more flexible then he was. The poor fool threw out his back, and had retire."

That sounded both painful and hilarious at the same time. The others just chuckled at it, I could only guess that they had heard it before, they were probably there when it happened.

Cloud Bank sighed, "because of that, and a few other accidents, we had to put most S.A.T.S. research on hold."

"I miss that old fool, he may have been foolishly overambitious, but he was a real charmer." June voice sounded a little sad as she spoke. "I remember when he tried to make a chat option list for the S.A.T.S. for when he was talking to mares. But seeing that he time and agent getting cups of water splashed in his face, I tried it on to see what was wrong with it. As it turned out, he used some dating simulation game for the text options, all of it was cheesy and stupid. He still doesn't forgive me for deleting it."

"I remember that," Cloud Bank chuckled, "He vowed revenge over that, and stuck duck tape all over your work area, and your terminal."

June groaned, "I sould have known that was him." taking a sip of her cider, June looked over at me. "So Slowtrot, got any story's? I've heard that Applewood can be a crazy place at times."

"Well, Let me think.." there was a few things that I had seen over the years, mainly it was drunk ponies, doing stupid drunk ponies stuff. "there was one time some pony burst out into song, but I think they were just off their medicine or something, so every pony ignored it."

"That's all, what about the times you went out to the bar with your friends, or had a party with your roommates." Emerald added.

I fiddled with the remains of one of my muffins, another kind of question I strongly disliked being asked, as I never had a good answer other then a lie. "Well I never realy had the time for that stuff, when I did have a roommate, we were too busy to do much." it was more that my roommate at the time had other ponies to hang out with, and I just did a hole lot of nothing with my time, mainly walk around the city before it got dark.

"well you must at least have had a few friends you handed out with." Emerald pushed, It felt annoying, but I knew she meant well.

"I did have a friend I hanged out with a lot, but we drifted apart after he confessed his love for me. I wasn't into stallions, he was, and I don't think he could be around me when he still had feelings." And now everything was awkward, too much information Slowtrot.

Cloud Bank snickered, "So how many Stallions have confessed to you?" he was trying to hold back his amusement, and was doing a poor job of it.

"just the one," I said as flatly as possible. It was not a topic I wanted to get further into.

A long yawn cam from June. "I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I need to get some rest. Cloud Bank, take the teem to the testing chambers, see if you can get it set up in an hour, come get me when it's ready."

"you know I need some rest as well." Cloud Bank responded with a huff.

"and you will get some when your done." June got up, and walked away.

Cloud Bank paused for a moment before looking upset. "That's not fair, there are laws about this, LAWS!" He futilely waved a hoof at June, but she was already going out the door.

Sighing, Emerald got up out of her seat at the table. "alright every pony, we got some teleportation tests to do, so let's get to it." she had a hoof in the are in excitement, and the rest of the techs cheered with enthusiasm as they got out of their sets, and were lead out the door by Emerald.

Cloud Bank Floated out of his seat, his wings flapping very slowly. "Just stay in Labs B Slowtrot, and we will come get you when were ready." his wings still flapping slowly, he floated out of the cafeteria.

It was nice to have everything all quiet again, not that I didn't like their company, I did, but all the same I didn't like being in crowds all that much, and most of the techs would keep glancing at me. Though to be fair, It was probably the pipbuck they were looking at, but it still bothered me.

It wasn't even all the tech's that had left, Pear Tart was also in the back room sorting out his supplies, it was something about keeping track of the numbers. I didn't understand the terminology every pony here like to throw around, but I understood what they were basically saying: every pony down here here was doing some sort of research, so a janitor was never simply just a janitor, and had a far better education then I did. Now thinking about it, if I'd applyed myself more at college, I might gotten a job... no, no, even knew I'd come up short no matter how hard I worked, always did. And now I made myself feel depressed.

Turning my attention back on my food, the blueberry muffin was long eaten up, Pear Tart knew what he was doing, with the right amount of moister to then, it was one of the best blueberry muffin I ever had. I finished the rest of my chocolate muffin, it was awesome as well, most bakers tend to go with simple milk chocolate, good in its own right, but he had managed to get the dark chocolate just right for it. Washing the rest down with the cider, it all felt warm in my belly, though it might have been just the cider, it being 1% alcohol did a nice trick at helping everyone relax.

Looking at the counter, there was still more food and cider, and I felt I could eat a little more. refilling my glass, then lifted a different muffing with the pipbucks levitation spell, and placed it on the table before doing the same with the glass. I was realy liking this levitation thing, hooves were good for walking, but not good for holding anything. The new muffin was the apple crumble, I have had it before back home, but never liked how it would just fall apart everywhere. Luckily this muffin was not as crumbly as I remember them to be, but still a few bits did fall to the table.

"Enjoying yourself?" I almost jumped out of my seat, and chocked on the muffin. Phobetor sat across from me, how she got there and not be seen when I sat down, I do not know.

"duunff duuu tuut" I guzzled some of the cider to help swallow the mouthful of muffin. "Don't do that." I gasped.

"Oh settle down Slowtrot," Phobetor waved a hoof, the pipbuck on it did seem to fit rite, or well look right. "you shouldn't be so easily frightened, not of little me."

"I was not frightened, you just startled me that's all." seriously, this mare was starting to creep me out a bit. Why was it that the only two mare here that were around my age, also happened to be the crazy ones. "you missed the upgrade to the pipbuck."

"oh I didn't miss it, it provided some entertainment, as well as being educational." Phobetor had a smile on her face that did not sit well with me, but I don't know why. "But that moment has passed, and I have something I need you to do for me."

I was feeling conflicted, I had only met the girl earlier this morning, so I was hoping it was something stupidly simple, like open a jar of pickles, I could do that, well some of the time. "right, what do you need me to do?"

"well it's nothing like opening a jar of pickles, I just need you to pickup something from the overmares office. Just canter on over there when you have a moment." Phobetor got out of her seat, "oh and before you ask about what your looking, you will know it when you find it." she held her smile, and then walked over to, and out the door.

"Seriously Phobetor?" I just scratched my chin, and groaned.

Pear Tart trotted out of his back room. "Who were you talking to out there, unless you were talking to yourself?"

"Just... another one of your strange tech's down here." what ever here talent was, it probably involved giving others heart attacks.

"Is that all, if they were here for a potato, tell them that we have spark battery's, they sould just use them." and now more stuff that flew over my head, I was starting to suspect that it had to do less with me not being all that smart, and more to do with every pony here being weird.

"I'll remember that if any pony asks me." I turned my attention back to the muffin, and I savored every bite of it.

Labs B was busy again, though there was no massive change in ponies down here, more rooms had their lights on, and every now and then a pony would be going from one room to the next. Most of the ponies would not give me much of a glance, of which I could understand, as they must all be busy with something.

As I trotted around, I could hear the sound of a pop now and again, it being out of place from the sound of tapping keyboards, and the hum of the terminals. Tracking the sound, I found it came from a room which still had it's door open, which to me meant I could at least take a look around.

To my amazement, the room had guns and gun parts all over the place, everything neatly lined up, and having it's own place. Taking a closer look, each table had just one kind of gun on it, and a ton of parts that looked to be for that gun. One table had a pistol, another had a shotgun, a third had a rifle, but what caught my eye was a table that has some kind of boxy thing with a mouth trigger attached to it.

"that there is a magical energy gun kiddo." the voice of an old stallion surprised me, almost making me jump.

Turning around, I saw the old stallion from the small party yesterday, this stable barding had a number of belts, of which had rifle holsters on it. I could not remember his name. "sorry, the door was open, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to take a look."

"No harm done, ya didn't touch the guns, so I got no reason to get upset." his accent reminded me of some of the miner ponies that lived in the mountains, they always had some story's about dealing with the monsters that lived near them. "by the way, ya got dat fat pipbuck the others were making a fuss all over."

I lifted my left leg, a wiggled it a bit, the pipbuck was still heavy, and made the leg to stiff to wiggle, so it just shaked a little instead. "yep, they got it all fixed too, I'm just waiting for them to set up the test chamber."

The old pony just eyed the pipbuck for a few seconds, stroking his beard. "I bet June gone and went and removed the combat program on da ting, she always dos." he nodded his head at his own words. "say, ya want to do some targets practice?"

Wait he was asking me to shoot a gun, it was not something I had ever done before, and the only gun I had ever seen fired was an old musket... Musket Ball, that's what his name was! so he wanted me to shoot a gun, sadly I didn't own any. "with what?" I knew I just made an idiot of myself as soon as I had said the words. I was in a room filled with guns, and he would know that I didn't have any on me.

Musket swiveled his head around before looking back at me. "good question, I'd sat we could shoot shit from a cat's ass, but aint got no cats, so let's start with thees guns."

I got to say that was one of the more creative ways to call me an idiot, so I ain't even mad. "sorry, I mean which one sould I start with?"

"take a look, and pick two. We can try em out in the range." He then pointed to another room with his hoof.

Right, pick two guns and try em out, easy enough. Starting with what was closes to me, I lifted with the levitation the boxy gun, the magical energy gun as he called it. the levitation was no good cor controlling the ting in the air, so I still had to manipulate it with my hooves so to get a closer look. I found one spot were I guessed that the ammunition would go, and turning it around some more, I eyed a peace of glass that I guessed was were the thing shot out the magical energy.

The gun was snatched from my hooves so quickly, I didn't even have time to be startled. "your a real igit aren't ya son! don't go looking down the barrel of a gun, not till ya know its got no ammo to shoot it it." Musket Ball gave me a stern look as he put the gun back into it's place. "unless ya like the idea of becoming a pile of ash."

"Uhh, sorry, I thought it was safe."

Musket raided an eyebrow, making me feel stupid again. "It's not safe, it's a gun."

I figured that the boxy weapon was not for me, and moved onto the other tables. The next three tables had pistols on them, the first two tables had pistols I had seen before, one was the kind that military ponies like to show, the other was the kind that I would see on sale anywhere that sold a gun. the third table on the other hoof had the kind of pistol that reminded me of some of the movies I would watch, where the hero would whip this kind of pistol out just in time to save the day. "mister Musket Ball, what's this one called." pointing at the movie pistol.

Musket Ball trotted over, giving me an annoyed look, but oddly smiled when he saw what I was pointing at. "that there is a classic, the .45 Auto Pistol, the Equestria's military was using it before the M.W.T. decided to switch to the 10mm pistol. An excellent gun for thous who remember what a pistols meant to be."

"And what's a pistol meant to be?"

"That being ta gun you use before getting into hoof to hoof combat. Son, you be a fool to think a pistol is in any right a fist choice gun. Ya pull this thing out just to get empty into what's attacking ya, and pay to Celestia that it is enough for your hovoes to finish the job." he looked back at the pistol a hoofed it into his belt, giving me a wink. "I think this will do, trust me."

so with the handgun decided, I was not going to argue with the old stallion, I moved onto the next batch of tables. This time it was a hole bunch of shotguns, some short barrel, others were pump-action, the kind I's see in movies, but nothing that catching my eyes. Now that I think about it, in the movies it was mostly unicorns that used the shotguns, the times when it was an earth pony using then, it was normally by battle saddle.

A sharp whistle from Musket ball caught my attention. "ya want to try anther early war weapon as well?"

Shrugging "Why not, what do you suggest?" the old stallion knew more then me on this, might as well follow his lead.

"A battle rifle, sure it's not your spray and pray that the M.W.T. gives to all our troops, but this girl is the best rifle to ever be made." he picked up a large rifle in his hooves, "This here is the best battle rifle ever made, and first to be used for battle saddles, the M1G."

I trotted it over as he hoofed it through one of his belts. "Are you sure, I've never fired any kind of gun before."

"trust me, ya fire diss, you will be throwing bit's at me to own it." Musket then pointed to the other rifle on his back with his hoof. it was the same kind of rife, but along the side it said, 'Well This Machine Kills Stripes' along the side. "diss was my grandsons when he fought in the war over ten years ago, got him though that mess, and back to his Mare." The old stallion beamed with pride.

"well I guess I now have to give it a shot." I gave Musket a smile.

He rolled his eyes and trotted of to the other room, I followed. The other room definitely was a shooting range, like the kind I'd see in the cop movies. it having six coves from were to shoot a gun, and had better ventilation then any room I had been in before. To my surprise Under Brush was there, she was cleaning a pump-action shotgun, and how she just floated it around just cemented my though of shotguns being a unicorn gun. Musket Ball whistled again, getting her attention, "Brush, you want to see a greenhorn soot a gun?"

Under Bush smirked. "do bears like tea party's?" she then put her shotgun down, and trotted over to us.

Musket Ball placed both guns in one of the coves, and waved me over. "now I'm going to show ya how to properly load these two, I'll just need to get some ammo first." the then trotted off to the side.

Looking at the guns, this time with my hoof, they were surprisingly heavy, and didn't shine like they did in the movies, the mettle was more black then silver. A soft laugh came from Under Brush as she walked next to me. "this will be fun, trust me. The old fool makes all his own parts, so the guns you got their are practically hoofed forged." I looked at the guns again, feeling impressed. "you know how Stable-Tec's catch phrase is built to last, well old Musket Ball here applied the same to his guns, you could probably smash through our surplus gun up in security, and still fire those." She shrugged, "Too bad Stable-Tec doesn't sell weapons, they make a killing." Under Brush laughed through thru her teeth, the smell of moonshine waffled a little off her breath. I had almost forgot he gives out moonshine.

Musket Ball pushed Underbrush back and out of the way, she found a nice seat not far from us. "now to load the pistol properly, keep your mouth on the bit, turn your head, and use both hooves to push in the magazine in, also have one hoof lower so you can use it to push the magazine the rest of the way in."

I followed his instructions, fumbling with the magazine the first few tines, but eventually after a good ten tries, I was getting the hoof of it, not that I was any good, but I was not dropping the magazine anymore. It all felt awkward for me to do, and my neck was quickly getting sore.

Musket then moved onto the M1G, but unlike with the pistol, it loaded from the top, and needed clips for loading. The rifle was also heavier then I thought it was going to be, and made me thing that this thing could be a damn good club. "now your going to want to watch out for your hooves to do this right, just keep one hoof on the loading trigger, put in the clip, and pushes it down with your other hoof." I did as he asked, using my mouth to put in a clip but as I pushed it down, my other hoof lost it's grip, and the hoof that was pushing in the ammo got a small bit of it sheared off. Both Musketh Ball, and Under Brush laughed. My next few tries were mush more successful, and didn't involve me loosing a small but of my hoof.

"I think that is well good enough, so put these on before shooting the thing off." he pointed at some earplugs, and over the head earmuffs, both Musket Ball, and Under Brush were already putting on their own.

First was the M1G, and this was quite awkward to even hold. I had to use the table to hold it up, and my hooves to am it. But once I had the target in my sights, it was easy to keep it still for me to line up a shot. When it pushed the tong trigger, I felt a shock wave from the gun, and a slight crack through the earplugs. letting go a breath I didn't know I was hold, I could feel my hooves shake a little, and my heart beat faster, I don't know why, but firing the rifle had sacred me, or exited me, I didn't know what I was feeling, but I didn't like it. I felt it was best to waited for the shaking to pass. When I felt better, I fired a few more shots, the rifle holding only eight at a time, I made each shot count. I was able to get four shots into the target on my first clip, and all into on the second.

.45 Auto pistol was next, the thing had a bit of a kick to it, but not the same as the M1G, but I didn't hit the target with any bullets from the first magazine. I did take my time with each seven shots of the magazine, but only nicked the target with the second magazine. With the third magazine I actually hit it, with three shots going in, two just a bit off, and the last two missing. I was given a fourth magazine, and I managed to get all seven shots on the target, but nothing that hit the red dot in the center. Overall I was ok with shooting it, and I might be able to see the fun in it, might.

After I had fired the forth magazine, Musket Ball tapped my on the shoulder to get my attention. He had taken off his ear protection, so I did the same. "now why don't we try and use the S.T.A.T.'s, but first let me see that pipbuck. I got to check and see if it even works on it." I hoofed over my left hoof, and he started to press a few buttons. "eyep, I thought so, Miss I don't make weapons removed the targeting part of your S.T.A.T.'s you can slow time for ya to think, but nothing else."

"so, no targeting from the pipbuck?" it was no big loss for me, I was not expecting to go fight in the war, or realy wanted to fight anyone in the first place.

Musket ball chuckled, "got a nice little work around for tat, just need to install a new targeting program, and I got a new one I've been testing out right here." he puled out what looked like a metal bar and plunged it into a port on my pipbuck. "this is the tactical movement and targeting program, dose the same thing as S.T.A.T.'s but also will help reload a gun, or help move your flank to a new position."

Now I was confused. "How in Tartarus dose it do that?"

"Well like how it helps you target and shoot your gun, making makes your body move all aromatic. It will do the same for reloading your gun, or moving short distances, just tell S.T.A.T.'s to do it, and it will do the rest." Musket Ball then pulled out the bar he had in my pipbuck. "try out the reloading."

It did sound cool, so I took hold of the M1G, a pressed the button to activate S.T.A.T.'s, stopping time. Now if I remember, the energy needed to use the targeting spell was called action points, or A.P. and the amount I had to use appeared in my vision along with targeting an enemy, of which, this did not happen. What I got was something called Action Turns, or A.T. and an option to act, move, or end. Not needing to move, I chose the option act, and now both the target I was shooting at, and Musket ball were highlighted, along with another option to attack, reload, or end. Selecting the reload I was taken back to the first three options, now with my A.T. sating that one was being used, and one more ready to use. The options also now had 'back' as something I could pick, but I chose end.

My body quickly moved, puling out a clip, pushing it in, and locking the chamber in a near fluid motion. I would feel impressed with myself if I was the one that did it, but the hole thing was inventory, for the short seconds I did not have control over my body.

Musket Ball chuckled again "Works like a charm don't you think. It's to bad that it never got passed development, normal S.T.A.T.'s worked well enough, and the pipbucks 3000's were all already out in the world."

"It said I only have two A.T. why that?"

"That's because it uses more power, but recharges a little better. I say it's a good trade off, the normal S.T.A.T. has ya just standing around after shooting your gun, open to any fool who could still shoot back. With this, you can shoot and jump for cover, or get to cover then shoot." Musket Ball then looked back down range. "Now try shooting the target again, with S.T.A.T.'s.

Putting back on our ear protection, I turned S.T.A.T.'s back on, our little chat was the time the pupbuck needed to recharge the spent A.T. so picking act again and then picking attack, I selected the targeting dummy's head, it giving me a %75 to hit. Doing the same thing with my second A.T. time then sped up as I felt my body take the shots, with both hitting their target, though not getting the red dot in the center.

Musket Ball gave me a little push on the shoulder, I let go of the rifle, and took off the ear protection. "easy as cake. Though be careful with the moment option, it can push you to move when you don't feel like you can, but it won't if your to hurt to do so."

"And I certainly hope he won't ever need to use it." Emerald Field was standing in the doorway, looking irritated. "you have doors Musket, close them when shooting, we can hear the gunshots through the lab." her eyes then looked at Under Brash, who was hiding her face with a bottle of what I could only guess was moonshine. "And you, didn't your brake ended over ten minutes ago, just because Brass Badge is out, dose not mean you can get lazy." She then looked at me, "and you, were ready to start testing, I just hope you weren't given any of that gut-rot, teleportation can be dizzying on it's own." with that she trotted out of sight.

Putting the rifle down, I gave the other two a smile. "I guess it's time to go."

"Eyep," Musket Ball stepped out of the way, and sat next to Under Brush. "Come back if ya want to shoot some more, ya might have the making of a trooper, but I think I can see the spark of a hunter."

"ahh, can you ask Emerald to not tell Zaan for me" Under Brush waved her hoof at me.

Stepping out of the shooting range, I could see that Emerald was waiting in the hallway. Before closing the door, I felt I needed to ask one more question. "So do bears actually like tea party's?"

Under Brushed laughed, "only with a little yellow pegasus"

I shrugged and closed the door, the answer was good enough for me.

Footnote:

Tactical S.T.A.T.'s enabled. - Two execution strikes (E.S.) unlock.

E.S. - Neck Snap - in hoof to hoof combat, if Slowtrot catches and enemy unaware, he can perform this through S.T.A.T.'s using two A.T.

E.S. - Navy Buck - In hoof to hoof combat, Slowtrot can now perform a full Buck through S.T.A.T.'s using two A.T. This attack has a +%10 to critical chance, and a +%50 to critical damage.