"So hows this, ya dig it?" Two mirrors were levitated around me so that I could see the front and back of my mane. The unicorn stallion holding them had a proud smile on his face. I moved my head around a bit. With bangs still kind of long but no longer taking over my face whenever I look even a little bit down. I also had the beard cut as I was never a fan of having facial hair, but the barber convinced me to at least keep a goatee.

"Real nice! I wish I could give you a tip." I complimented the barber.

He nodded. "It's cool. It's cool. The mayor already sent payment over so you're all good." He then stuck a lollipop in his mouth. The stick looked much like a cigarette. That, along with his black leather jacket and slick back mane, was what made him look like a delinquent from the older films. He even acted like one.

"But if you can, tell the square of a mayor that I'm not a 'mane dresser'. I'm a barber. There's a difference. I got a reputation to uphold. Ya dig?"

I got out of the seat and shook his hoof.

"I dig," I answer.

It was a bit funny. Despite the tough stallion act he put on, I got a feeling he was a real nice pony.

Waving goodbye, I trotted back out into town where I was greeted by the mayor's secretary. She was quickly patting some powder on her cheeks.

"Oh, hello, Slowtrot,” she greeted me. “You're looking even better."

Miss Karat fluttered her eyes a bit at me, making her attempts at flirting as loud as possible, which made me a bit uncomfortable. She wasn't a bad looking mare, but I neither call her cute or pretty, though it was a bit hard to tell under all that makeup. I did feel a bit flattered, but any feeling of it was spoiled by the fact that she already had a stallion. I was not about to get involved in an affair. I had only just woken up over 200 years in the future.

"Thanks. I feel better, so where am I going?" I asked, trying to keep my time with Karat as short as possible.

She pulled out a clipboard. "Right. Doctor Quacksalver has a request for an assistant. With how much caps he brings to the town, the mayor decided he should be the first to get some assistance."

I raised an eyebrow as I asked, "Don't I need qualifications to assist a doctor?"

Karat chuckled. "Don't worry! The dock will provide you with the quills and any fi… ficatat… tool you might need."

Scratching my chin, I felt a bit confused, but she likely knew what she was talking about, or at least I think she did. "Alright. Take me to this doc."

Karat took me a bit closer to the town center, where she stopped in front of a tall but thin building practically wedged in between two shorter buildings. "Doctor Quacksalver clinic" a tall billboard said. It depicts the medical cross inside a bottle next to a smiling stallion at the top. Inside the building was the same dry mismatched wooden panels that seemed popular in this town. On one side of the narrow building, under some stairs, sat a few older ponies on a less than comfortable looking bench.

"Just follow me, Mister Slowtrot." Karat instructed me as she trotte over to the back of the building. I followed.

"Doctor Quack,” Miss Karat introduced, “the stable pony is here to help you."

Trotting into the back, I had stepped into what I could clearly recognize as a doctor’s office. It was very clean, white, and had a bunch of medical posters all over. There were also a bunch of odd things such as snakes in jars, brown dry plants in jars, different colored liquids in jars, and well… lots of jars with odd stuff in them.

Sitting on a very clean bed was an older mare that was being looked at by the doctor. He was doing the same kind of examination as Jali did, but he didn't seem to be paying all that much attention to what he was doing.

The doctor himself was a light gray unicorn stallion with a coamed back charcoal black mane, a very sharp well groomed beard, and in a pure white lab coat over a checkered suit.

Quacksalver puffed on his cigarette and then flicked it into a quite full ashtray before greeting the mare. "Karat, darling, thank you so much for bringing him here. I've just been so busy lately. I couldn't go find him myself."

"Oh, you know me. Always here to help," Karat said in a sickly happy tone. "So what are you doing later tonight?"

"Busy,” Quacksalver answers, “but with help, I might be able to join the dance tonight."

The dock then pulled out a pack of cigarettes, passing a stick to Karat. "Will you be there, darling Karat?" He asked as he put another cigarette into his muzzle then produced a lighter.

"Have I ever missed a social get together before?" She chuckled as she leaned in to let her cigarette be lit by Quacksalver.

The doctor smiled, letting some smoke leave his muzzle. "Well be sure to save a spot for me."

The two shared another chuckle before Karat turned around to leave. She gave one of us a wink before stepping outside.

Quacksalver pulled out a chair for me before turning back to his patients. "Your wife is quite lively, doc," I said. In response, he nervously coughed for a moment. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," he said as he put out his cigarette then motioned for the patient to leave the room. "Karat's not my wife. We’re… just close friends." Quacksalver then hopped onto the bed and looked at me with a smile. "Now I asked the mayor for some pony who can read. Please tell me you can read."

"Yes. I have a standard equestrian education. Doesn't everypony?" I asked flatly.

Quacksalver sighed. "Not everypony is a stable pony, but that aside, I'm going to need you to follow some instructions I have written down." He then picked up a clipboard from a nearby desk then passed it to me. "This has the names of my patients and what medicine they require. Also, on the fourth and fifth page is a list of symptoms, what you are allowed to give them for it, and how much it costs for that medicine. You can do that right?"

I looked at the clipboard. There were several yellow and worn out papers. The first three had a list of names with more information next to it. Basically, I was working as a pharmacist clerk. It was something I have done once before so I understood what he was asking me to do. "No problem, but where's the medicine?"

He smiled and pointed over to a well polished but still very old looking dresser. "I have everything perfectly organized in there with number one being the top drawer, two being the middle, and three on the bottom. Any letter after that number is the medicine in that drawer."

I looked at the paper. I saw what he was talking about; 2C, 1A, 1D, 3B, and so on. "Alright, easy enough to do. It’s almost too easy."

"You say that, but my last assistant didn't know what the letter "B" was. He also took some of the medicine whenever he got nervous. He was always nervous."

Quacksalver pulled out another cigarette and lit it.

"Also,” he went on, “I got a safe box in the corner for you to put the caps in." He pointed at what looked like a mailbox, then passed me a cigarette. "Now tell me about yourself. Anything might need to know?"

"Well I never picked up smoking as a habit, but thanks," I said as I turned down the cigarette. "I don't have anything in the way of health problems, though I just recently recovered from a defective pipbic injury."

"Pipbuck injury? How did that happen? Did you get clocked on the head?" he asked, looking a bit amused.

I shrugged. "Don't think Stable-Tec would like me talking about it, but I accidentally got a military pipbuck, and it had a nasty failsafe in it. That's how my luck goes."

He also shrugged. "Odd, but I've heard of stranger things happening."

"You have no idea, but at least this new pipbuck I have is a lot safer. I can do some intriguing things with it." I announce while presenting my pipbuck.

Quacksalver didn't look all that interested, looking down at a watch on his fenlock, it seemed cracked, but I couldn't get a good look at it. "Shoot, I got to run, I have a lot of paperwork to get through, and medicine to make upstairs, if you need anything, just knock on my door. Now do you got this?"

I looked down at the clipboard then back at the doctor. "Check to see if a patient's names are on the list. Give them their medicine in exchange for caps. If their names are not on the list, check symptoms and sell them the listed medication."

A big smile was on Quacksalver's face. "That's perfect? If you do a good job at this, then I can see you doing very well for yourself here." Hopping off the bed, Doctor Quacksalver trotted over and up the stairs, vanishing from sight beyond.

Left alone in the steiral room, it took me a moment to really let it sink in that I was back to working, despite it being over two hundred years in the future. Looking over at the front of the building, several older ponies were poking their heads out from behind the stairs.

"Uhh… I can help anypony who's next!" I offer.

The first was an old mare. She was the one Quacksalver was looking at when I had come in. She let me know her name. Since her name was on the list, I quickly went and got her pills.

"About ma back pain, the doctor said he got something to help with it?" the old mare asked hopefully.

"Lower or upper back pain?" I checked.

The old mare raised an eyebrow. "Well… lower ah think, but I do have a few akes where my battle saddle once went long ago, and now tat I think about it, ma neck has been sore too."

"So just the normal pains we all have to deal with some day." I flipped to page four, finding such things as hip pain, back pain, dizziness, vapors, dry mouth, but nothing about lower back. Page five was the same with little to nothing specific. I could only guess this was just a general aid, but I couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit too basic. "Right, I can get you something for your back for one-hundred caps, and neck for another fifty caps."

She grumbled for a moment, and pulled out a bag of caps. "If his medicine didn't work, I think you were triyin to rob me."

Counting the caps took a bit of time, but all together I had one-hundred and fifty caps. I deposited them in the safe box before I went to fetch her medication. Inside were rows of small glass jars, each in separate sections that were labeled. They are all very organized. Even the jars had the number and letter painted on them. Labels, other than the corresponding letter to help identify them. There were also proper words on the labels. One was "med-x infused xander root" another was "buck and broc blend" both sounded legit, but there was one that was labeled "viper oil extract" another "dride radscorpion venom powder" both I couldn't wrap my head around.

FIguring that the doctor knew better than I did, I picked up the pills then passed them to the old mare who quickly snached her medication and trotted off.

The next few ponies were more of the same, I found their names, saw if they needed anything else, accepted payment, and then they got their pills. The process was fairly quick with most of them, but significantly slowed down when a pony whose name was not on the list, though it just consisted of me listening to them for several minutes before seeing how much caps they had and what pain they felt more severe.

"Well, it turns out that yes, a radscorpion can still sting you even after you kill it. And that's how ma leg got fucked up. I mean, it got better, but healing potions can't get back the part of your body that melted off." An older stallion told me as he showed the dent in one of his legs. "Also, as it turns out, using healing potions when you got a broken bone poking ta wrong way is an invitation for a world of hurt. My brother learned tat ta hard way."

I passed him his pills. "I'll try to remember that the next time I see a… radscorpion you called it?"

"Right, big en black bitches." He said with a laugh, then trotted away.

"Next" I shouted. A very thin mare trotted in, black bags under her somewhat yellow eyes. She sat on the bed, and I looked down at my clipboard. "Name, and I'll see if you're on the list."

"Rhu… Rhubarb, I'm here for my sleeping pills." she said.

I cocked an eyebrow since she clearly needed more than sleeping pills. "Is that all?" I asked as I looked for her name.

"Ye… yes, the doctor just says that's all I need, but lately I've been having more trouble sleeping." she answered.

Finding her name, I let her know how much it will cost then fetched her medication.

"You know, if I had one of Lifebeats super healing potions, that would definitely help you get some sleep. The stuff knocked me out when I took it." I commented.

Rhubarb passed me the caps and took the medication. "Where would I find this pony?"

I thought about it for a moment, then sighed as I remembered. "Sorry, He died a long time ago, though Jali reminds me a lot of him. Maybe she can help you."

The mare's face scrunched up like she smelled something really foul. "I rather not let that thing touch me," she said, then got off the bed and quickly trotted off.

I felt it was more than harsh to call Jali a "thing" just because she was a zebra, though I remember harsher words being used back home.

Shrugging, I looked down at my pipbuck, flipping through some of the files left for me by the R&D staff. There was nothing major. Just little things that they thought would be a useful goodbye gift. A recipe for a cake that needed no dairy, how to make both the green nutrition soda and the glowing energy soda, gun maintenance and how to make my own gunpowder, and Lifebeats recipe for a super healing potion.

Selecting the healing potion, there was a note above the instructions. "I hope you find this useful, Slowtrot. You never know when you need a healing potion. Sometimes you need something even more substantial. I accidentally created this when trying to make a potion to cure addiction, so a happy accident. The potion itself is not actually any more powerful than a normal healing potion. It’ll stitch up injuries like any other potion, so please set any bones first before use.

“What makes it different is that it has a lingering regenerative effect that lasts a day. Twenty hours from my last test on it, where any injury you reserve will stitch itself up in a matter of minutes.

“Unfortunately, it causes major drowsiness for the first few hours and prevents normal healing potions from having any effect, do keep that in mind before use."

Peering at the instructions, it looked like it belonged in a cookbook, or at least that's what it looked like to me. I didn't understand some of the words on my pipbuck screen.

"Excuse me," a mare spoke up, taking my attention away from my pipbuck.

She was a grayish brown earth pony mare who looked healthy, but also very wethered, as though she spent her life trotting outside. Next to her was a small colt who looked far less healthy, but also far less worn down.

"Are you Doctor Quacksalver?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, I'm Slowtrot. I sell the medication. Do you need some?"

"I don't know," she admitted as she looked down at her colt, then back up at me. "My son has been sick for a spell and has not gotten better despite what I do. A pony told me that New Appleloosa has a good doctor, so we took the train here to see him. Do you know when he will be available?"

I nodded slowly. "I can go and get him. Just sit your colt on the bed."

"Thank you," she said as I trotted to and up the stairs.

The upstairs walls had several paintings and photographs of Quacksalver. It was also far less dusty up here. The floor actually looked polished.

Trotting to his door, I knocked. There was a bit of rustling before I heard hoofsteps come near. "What is it? I'm busy." Quacksalver said from the other side.

"There's a mare and colt downstairs. The colt is sick. They need you to look at him," I informed the doctor.

An audible groan came from the other side of the door. "Just find out the brats symptoms and give him the right medication. It's not hard to understand!"

"Alright," I said, sighing. I made my way back downstairs.

The colt was on the bed, being comforted by his mother. "The doctor said I can sell you medication. I just need to know his symptoms."

She looked at me, then at her colt, and then back to me. "Alright. It started a month ago where he started losing weight despite giving some of my own food. He also frequently has diarrhea and pain in his belly."

I nodded, finding diarrhea and stomach pain on the list, but nothing for his weight loss. "It's going to be 200 caps for the medication."

She pulled out a bag and placed some dirty caps onto the bed. "It's most of what I own. Are you sure this will help my son?"

"Can't say. I'm not a doctor." I answered as I looked in the drawer. For the stomach pain was some med-x buck pill blend, and for diarrhea it just said viper oil extract… closing the drawer, I turned to the mare. "You know what? I think your son does need to see the doctor. I'll be right back."

Trotting back up the stairs, I once again knocked on Quacksalver's door. "What is it now?" He said through the door, sounding very irritated.

I took a deep breath. "Sorry for bothering you Doctor Quacksalver, but I think the foal needs to be seen by you. I don't think the pills will be enough."

"Nonsense!." He said with an annoyed shout. "Just sell them these pills and send them on their way."

"Are you sure you can't take a look? The foal looks very ill." I said.

There was a pause, then a sigh before he spoke again."An examination cost three-hundred caps. Go see if they have enough to pay, then I'll come down to look at the brat."

I felt a lump in my throat, of which I forced it down with a swallow before speaking. "Docter, they barely have enough for their medication. I don't think they can afford to pay three-hundred caps."

The door then swung open. Quacksalver stood in front of it, his mane dishevelled. He had some white powder under his nose.

"Look, Slowtrot was it? I get that I'm here to help, but I can't do charity work. That's how you go out of business. If they can barely pay for medication, then an examination will drain them dry, and then they can't buy the medication. Sounds bad, right? So just sell them the pills. That's your job. That's all you are meant to do.

“Now fuck off and make me the caps." He then clapped his hooved two times. "Chop chop!"

Behind Quacksalver, I could see a somewhat messy room. He had a bit of a nice bed, but it also what looked like a small laboratory that had lines of white powder on it. Needles and inhalers were scattered on the lab table along with lots of M.o.M. pill bottles. It looked a lot like a scene from a propaganda film about the dangers of chem abuses and how to spot a zebra sympathizing chem dealer.

Not wanting to stir up trouble, I chose to ignore whatever Quacksalver was doing in there.

"Alright boss. You got it." I said with the enthusiasm and tone of a veteran of the equestrian retail workforce.

He smiled and shut the door.

Returning downstairs, the mare was now playing with her sickly foal, likely trying to not worry her little colt by being calm herself. She looked at me, her face hard, but eyes had some hope in them. "So, is the doctor coming down?"

"He said it will cost three-hundred caps for an examination." The words put a bad taste in my mouth, and the hope in her eyes faded, seemingly losing its color.

"Let me get you the pills," I decide.

Going over to the drawers, I reached out to open one, but then stopped and looked at my pipbuck. I had been reading Doctor Lifebeats note just a moment ago, and hadn't remembered something very important left with me. My pipbuck had a medical scanner spell built into it!

Again, I stepped away from the drawers then tapped through my pipbuck, trying to find the spell.

Sadly, unlike the notes left for me, I couldn't find anything involving spells.

"It would be so much easier if I could just tell it what to do…" I face hoofed, again remembering another thing this pipbuck could do.

"Right, was it steel… no it was Iron, I think, Iron stall… no buck, Iron Buck."

The pipbuck gave off a soft beep.

"Yes. Iron Buck, pull up the medical scanner spell."

The pipbuck beeped again. The screen flickers before showing me a cartoonish image of a pony. Turning to the mare and her colt, it gave them a warm smile.

"Actually I got something that might help." I said as I presented my pipbuck to them.

She raised an eyebrow. "That's a… pipbuck right? What can it do to help?"

I trotted over to them and held the pipbuck between me and the colt.

"Well, this one is a pipbuck 3200, so it’s got a lot of extra cool stuff in it. One of them being a spell that can tell me the heath of another pony."

An hourglass appears over the cartoon pony, indicating that the spell was working. After a couple of seconds, data started to appear. The cartoon pony's image got thinner. It looked unwell. More importantly was that the ailments were now being shown.

"Here. You can see what's wrong with your foal."

The mare looked at my pipbuck screen, squinting her eyes, then she said, "Sorry. All I see is an odd looking pony and gibberish." She then looked dejected. "I mean, I can't read."

I sighed, remembering that doctor Quacksalver did mention that a lot of the ponies around here were illiterate.

"It's fine. I'll read it off for you."

Looking over the ailments, there was one that stood out and made me cringe inside.

"I think this might be the issue. It says that your son had a parasite, a tapeworm to be exact." I explained.

What color the mare still had drain from her face. Tears began to form.

"It's okay. Now that we know what is wrong with him, we can make him better." I did my best to keep her calm.

Looking over Quacksalver's notes, there was nothing for parasites, so I turned back to my pipbuck.

"Iron Buck, show me cures for tapeworms."

The pipbuck beeped, and the screen changed to several lines of text.

"Wow, that actually worked!" I cheered.

On the screen was a list of several medications that I had a feeling we're not going to be easy to find, but on the bottom was one line listed as 'zebra herbal cure' with the rest of the line listing words I didn't quite understand.

Still, it was good news.

Great news, now that I think about it.

"Alright, I may not be able to do more, but I think I know where you can go for help." I said with a smile.

The mare sniffled as she regained her composure. "Where? Please tell me?"

"Right. Among the cures listed, one is called a zebra cure. Luckily there's a free clinic down the road from here that's run by a wartime zebra ghoul. If anypony knows a cure for tapeworms, she should," I informed the mare.

It was like the color returned to her. She somehow looked a rust color, with amber eyes, and not all gray.

"Oh thank you!” she exclaimed gratefully. “I'll go see her right away."

She quickly scooped up her foal and trotted out of the clinic, leaving the door open as she disappeared from view.

I couldn't help but feel proud in helping a pony in need. I quietly hoped that Jali would be able to take care of the rest.

Looking down at my pipbuck, I was still not sure if the last few days were just a fevered dream. Tomorrow I'll just wake up in my apartment with a vague recollection of this dream.

Still, real or not, this pipbuck has given me the opportunity to do some good.

"Next!" I called out, and another older pony trotted in.

Things went by a bit slower now, using the pipbucks scanner to see what their health was, along with taking names and asking questions. My pipbuck was not able to tell me everything about the ponies heath. A few times putting up a big "unknown" for why they were unwell, but it was able to detect the easily fixable problems. Minor radiation poisoning, known illnesses, and parasites were disturbingly common, making me wonder what was in their water. A few ponies suffered from cancer, or chronic illness. One my pipbuck just said "mutation", all of which I could not help. I sold them Quacksalver's pills.

For most of the patients, once I knew what was wrong with them, I directed them to the free clinic after giving them a note to what was wrong with them. There was medicine here, but they were just for treating symptoms, not for healing them.

As time went on, I sold less and less of the pills here. Before long the patient's arrival slowed to a stop, allowing me to rest.

The sound of hooves on creaky wood came from above. Quacksalver descended the stairs. He looked clean and well groomed.

"Oh, you're all done? Good. Lately more and more ponies have been showing up. I've just been falling behind on my other work." He levitated out a jar of pills. They were the same chocky white as all the others.

"This one here uses the miracle of micro vitamins,” Quackslver explains. “It took me a long time to get it just right but, with it, a ponies blood flow will increase, thereby helping them to gain better focus and help break down black blood."

"What’s black blood?" I asked.

Quacksalver shook his head and sighed. "I could explain it, but without a medical education like mine, you're not going to understand it." He passed me the jar of pills. "But trust me, it's a common ailment out in the wasteland. It’s hard to detect. It’s fatal if left untreated. Ponies from all around would come to me to cure themselves of the black blood. It will be good business for the town, I'll tell you what."

Looking at the pills, they just didn't look any different from his others. Then again, I am no doctor.

"Black blood does sound terrible,” I agreed. “Maybe that was one of the unknown illnesses my pipbuck scanned."

"Scanned?" Quacksalver looked at me with a cocked eyebrow.

"Oh yes. Doctor Lifebeat had made a medical scanner spell built into the 3200. With it, a pony can see the heath of another pony through the pipbuck just like they can see their own." I presented the pipbuck screen to the doctor, showing my own heath on it. "It was a big help with most of your patients. It turns out most of them didn't even need your pills."

"Wait! You did what?!" The doctor sounded confused. "Why?"

"Well remember that foal here earlier? Since you were unable to help them, I decided to try my pipbuck. Turns out he could be helped, but not here, so I sent them to the free clinic, as Jali might know how." I told him

Quacksalver then looked a bit uncomfortable. "You said patients. How many did you use that thing on?"

"I don't know." I said scratching my chin. "At first I waited for them to tell me about a new symptom, but then it just became easier to just scan them as we talked."

"And how much medicine did you sell as you did this?" He then asked.

"Well, at first I sold the normal amount, but turns out that a lot of them just needed radaway and some rest." I again answered . "Also, your medicine might have been made improperly. Maybe some pony sold you a bad batch."

Quacksalver took a deep breath as his eyes shifted around. "And how did you come to that conclusion?"

Nodding, I lifted up the jar of pills in my pipbuck hoof. "Iron Buck, scan medication." The pills then levitated for a few seconds. My screen flickered. Text then scrolled up showing me the ingredients. It is a lot of words long and hard to say, but also with shorter descriptions next to it.

"Right. From what I can see, this stuff is 50% sugar, 20% steroid buck, 20% stimulant mint-al, and 10% multivitamins, I think. A bit odd that half is sugar, and nearly the rest is chems. You sure this will help ponies?"

The jar of pills were snatched off my hoof. Quacksalver quickly put them back in his lab coat.

"Mister Slowtrot, like I said, you need a medical education like myself to understand how this all works." He started tapping a hoof on the ground, looking me in the eyes as if I did something wrong.

"That scanning spell you have... yes that thing, it… it may work as you say, but without the right education… yes without being educated on what is what, you could have hurt somepony. I mean what are you going to trust, some robot, or me, a real doctor? “Frankly, what you did was irresponsible. I am disappointed in you."

What he said did make sense. I certainly wasn't a doctor, but I went about telling ponies medical advice that I got from a machine. "Oh… Shoot. I overstepped here. I’m sorry."

"Yes, you did, and cost me a lot of caps. Now I'm going to need to figure out how to fix this, so you should take a walk." He huffed.

"So, does that mean I'm fired?" I had to ask.

Quacksalver looked at me, then down at my pipbuck. Here his eyes narrowed for a few seconds before looking back at me. "That pipbuck, with it around, you will be too tempted to use it again, and I can't have that. Unless you are willing to get rid of it, then yes, you're fired."

I nodded and said. "I'll give it some thought."

I turned and left the clinic.

New Appleloosa was just as busy as ever. The sun high in the sky, a bit passed noon.

Looking about, I was unsure what to do. Maybe return to the mayor,? Maybe ask around?

I couldn't help but feel stupid. I found myself once again looking for work.

No matter how things changed, everything was still the same.

"Excuse me!" A pony yelled before colliding with me. Metal scrap fell all over from to overly filled crates, and the two of us fell to the ground.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I said as I quickly scooped up the scrap then dropped them into one of the crates.

"No worry. I overestimated how much I can carry." He said, waving from behind a crate on his fenlock was a pipbuck. "Say, can you help me take this to my workshop?"

Finishing refilling the crate, I then nodded. "Ya. I can help you with that."