Blue Syringe
As I sit in this lonely carriage, hoofsteps outside tapping the miles away, I start prepping the medical apparatus I am going to need.
Should in theory be okay to do so, it doesn't mention what type of gases my clients died to but I'm going to assume a carbon based one at the very least, Appleloosa is a frontier town still reliant on wood stoves and the variety, some houses don't have chimneys and you leave the windows closed because it's chilly and suddenly everything is dead.

Depressing state of affairs and not exactly fair.

The other slight issue, that I need to prepare for, is decomposition. It's nasty, bodies rot and that makes it very hard to resurrect them. I actually have a lot of constraints around my spell, I need to basically make their body livable again, if you are missing a heart, tough luck.

This is where the handy dandy burn elixirs come in.

A complete accident that I found this really, back when I was in school I'd found out that these fire elixirs were magically sympathised to deal with dragons, so I got curious.
Interestingly, I'd assumed that it basically scrubbed the dead cells and promoted cell regeneration, that's what most other ones did but no, it somehow reversed cell stages.

An absolute miracle cure, in theory you could even de-age someone if you had a ton of bits to research how to amplify it. and it was being completely ignored due to it being a burn potion that was deemed to be subpar as it caused itching.

It therefore is actually very good at reversing rigor mortis and general decay, let me tell you I was glad to find that out as I found out very young what happens when you bring back a pony into the body otherwise, so that's going to be the second thing I prep.

As I prepare the second vial, I glance down at my bag and notice the shape of the large tome forming the bulky outline.

I sigh to myself and bring my attention back to the vial. I'd really hoped that I wouldn't stoop so low as to buy 'The Secrets and Rumours of The Elements: Harmony or con artists?' but apparently no one I know has any form of information on them nor are those who have information writing about it.
So apparently trudging through rumours and hidden family scandals is my only avenue forward.

Great.

I finish the vials, place them in my saddlebags and pull out my notebook along with the detestable book. I wonder if anyone ever wrote a book about me?

Starting with the element of magic, I start flicking through the pages and one of the first catches my eye 'Near disaster at Celestia's School for gifted unicorns'.

I didn't realise she was a fellow alumni, maybe we can meet at the next school reunion!

Yeah, that's going to happen for sure.

I continue reading down the page, ignoring the opinions the actively seem to slip into the story, and read 'Those that bore witness to the event say that Twilight Sparkle managed to beat the test in a way that most other students- by hatching a dragon egg and turning her parents into a potted plant.'

I blink to make sure there was nothing in my eyes and re-read the sentence but evidently I read it right the first time, she hatched the egg?

I remember that damn test when I went through it, no pre-warning and no time to prepare your thoughts. If I remember correctly it was supposed to measure tolerance to failure and how the individual should remain calm and collected and work out every avenue.
If I remember correctly, I tried to calculate the amount of energy needed to cause a dragon into a hatching stage based on the egg's size and showed that to hatch it at the rate I could output would require about five months.

And she hatched it in one magically surge?

Oooo-kay want to avoid pissi… You know what just avoiding her in general.

The rest can't be that bad, right?

I stumble out of the cart, reeling from what I had just read. Maybe the rumoured part of the title overplayed their accomplishments?

Turning to the cart owner, I pull out some bits and hoof them over.
He turns to me and says "I'll give ya a discount as a thanks for the quiet ride. My last client kept jumping out of the window for Celestia's Sake. "

"Thanks, sounds like a real hoof full."

He gives a nod "She means well, heart of gold and all that, usually does my children's parties"

I blink at this extra information and say a quick goodbye.

Turning around I am confronted with Appleloosa, and more distressingly a lot of sand and dust, the wooden pioneer town itself.

And now apparently with buffalo.

That was a new revelation in itself, I distinctly remember last time I'd visited the area while treating a buffalo child that the hostilities between the two communities was brewing into something that required guard intervention but apparently it'd managed to resolve itself.

I notice one of the locals giving me a look as I am just standing in the street.

I straighten my suit, how on Equus ponies wear these on the regular shock me, and trot over.

"What'cha want, stranger?"

"Hi there, I'm from Pills Incorporate" I say, apparently it's an actual company and this particular character is a consultant on paper for them "my company recently heard there was a tragedy in the town and decided to send myself to investigate."

The local squints his eyes, looking me up and down, and after a few moments says "Y'all here for the Shell family then, you'd probably be wanting to talk to the sheriff then. I think he's at the tavern, I'll take ya."

I am brought across the town and into a two-story wooden tavern, I give a glance around and see a few ponies drinking, playing card games and one stetson adorned pony seemed to be reading a letter.

"Can't see 'im in 'ere, Lemme go check upstairs for ya" the local says while he pats a stool "Have a seat, got the local brew of the cider harvest in last week and it's got a real kick."

I sit down at the bar as I watch the very helpful stallion saunter up the stairs as I order a non-alcoholic cider, to make sure that I keep myself sober for the procedure and I never got into alcohol to begin with, and while I wait for my drink to come I hear a conversation start up behind me.

One voice starts "Want 'nother cider, Braeburn? my treat."

A rustle of paper echoes , I presume the letter reading pony is the one who is being talked to, as the page is put down on a table.

"Reckon I need one, 'Jack sent me a letter and oh boy is it a doozy" Braeburn responds, I assume I've not actually looked round yet.

I feel the presence of a pony come up the counter on my left and order two ciders.

Additionally, I hear the banging of a hoof on the door upstairs with a call of "Sheriff, got a pony here to see about the Shells."

The conversation starts back up again after I hear a glass slide across the table "So what's this letter?"

After a pause and a audible gulp, Braeburn starts speaking again "Gotta keep an eye out for a pony, doctory type, apparently has annoyed the princess something fierce."

I try to remain calm as I hear this behind me, nursing this cider does seem to do the heavy work on that front, and look towards the stairs in the hope this bloody sheriff shows up promptly.

"She wants us to look for a doctor?" the first voice says inquisitively.

"Yeah, she doesn't go into much detail. Says that this doctor apparently does miracles and the like but is actually a con-artist that usually wears disguises. Apparently if we see something like that then try to catch her and contact her."

I either have the worst or best luck, at the very least I heard the damn conversation, but I don't have much time to react before I feel a tapping on my shoulder and I turn to see a Black Stetson adorned Stallion.

"'Ear you've been looking for me, something to do with the Shell family."

I stand up and with a slight bow I motion towards the door and mention "Shall we talk outside Sheriff, I'd rather not interrupt the mood of the establishment."

"Fine, you first" he says, obviously reticent about my presence.

I walk out of the tavern with the sheriff in tow but glance towards Braeburn before I leave only to find him staring back, I can practically hear the gears clicking into place, and now I'm on a timer before he figures it out.

I turn to the sheriff and say "I'll make this brief sheriff, Pills incorporated has been working on a new medicine designed to bring patients out of a monoxide coma."

The sheriff doubtfully responds "Monoxide coma?"

"It's a state close to death but we've found that some doctors unable to find any signs of life after a carbon monoxide accident will declare them dead whereas the patient is actually clinging to life. I've been sent out to inspect the corpses to ascertain if any are in this state and with your permission I would administer the new drug in the hopes we can bring these poor ponies back" I say with my usual waft of nonsense.

I do wonder if I am actually damning the Equestrian medical system with these little lies that I spread so I can actually work.

"I see, do you have any documentation I can see to prove this?" the sheriff asks.

A lot more doubt than usual about this sheriff, but I suppose that means he's probably decent at his job annoyingly, but I pull some official looking documents out of my bag with official marks.
I was reluctant to take this character out, ponies are nervous about large corporations in general but the paperwork and credentials I had made it quite a sturdy disguise.

The sheriff reads through quickly and we start walking over to the morgue but I notice that there are some louder than usual voices as I leave.

I am brought to a 'morgue'-like building and presented with 5 bodies with a very unpleasant smell in the air.
"Ahm not going to come in, if that's alright. Rather only see what I need to in regards to this."

I give an internal hoof-bump to myself as I walk into the hut and close the door behind me.

Sighing to relieve the stress, I bar the door as I'd wager that Braeburn figure is probably about to run up and blow over my whole story.
I then run up to each of the corpses and bypassing my usual checks I begin the arduous spell casting of carbon removal from their cells

After about 5 minutes, I hear muffled voices through the door, and just as I'm finally finished the last removal process, I start hearing full on shouting and someone starting to buck the door.

I hesitate on what to do, I cannot stay long enough to give them my full litany of treatments but I might be able to at least get them going but I can't imagine they'd like me after.

I pull out the syringes and plunge it in each patient's heart.

Logically the heart can spread the solution across all of their body and will do it a lot more quickly then I could, the issue is normally i have the time to treat the body so the decayed cells are minimal when they come back.
This method means the cells come back after they come to life and will leave them in a fair amount of pain, at least they will be alive I suppose.

I hear the door crack as I spin up the resurrection spells and fire them off into each patient but luckily I can see the bolt is holding. I look around the room afterwards and see a boarded up window that I break apart using magic and I jump out.

I wince after I hit the ground as I hear a litany of painful moans along with the sheriff shouting "Where are you, snake? I will drag you into a cell myself!"

Author's Note

A bout of rotten luck for our poor little necromancer!

But she has now been witnessed presenting a new source of information for the Mane 6