It had all gone sideways, even as the sirens wound down and ponies unhooked. Rescue could see it had gone wrong. Laying on the ground was one of the night guards, smoke rolling off of his form. Behind the downed thestral, flames licked up around the left side of a small cottage. Even from ten feet away, Rescue could smell burned flesh, he instantly leaped into action.
“Ice, get the boxes!” he ordered as he spun and crashed his hoof into one of the small wagons side boxes, the door popping open letting him grab the blue box inside, also hearing Bull start up with the commands in that deep tone of his.
“Team one and two, get me two lines down and get the fire under control. Sempar, Thunderlane, harness up and break out the stokes and be ready for transport.”
Rescue gave a nod as he skidded to a stop on his knees. “Don’t move, soldier. If you can hear me, just stay still,” he could see the winged pony was burned across the left side of his face, down his neck, and across his chest. He was breathing, but he was struggling.
“Shadow!” he heard the captain’s voice call out, then the bass tone of Big Mac as the apple pony got in the two soldiers way. “Eenope, y’all gotta let them work.”
Ice slid up next to him, already breaking open the two boxes she had brought. He turned and gestured. “Get me out an IV, rig it for the stokes,” his hooves flipped the lid up on the red box and he spun the antenna up. Grabbing the handset, he pressed down on the switch even as he called out. “Captain! I need his age and his name,” then into the phone-like handset “Mercy, this is Rescue One, do you copy, over.”
Static then two clicks followed, and most close by could hear, “Rescue One, Mercy copies. What do you have?”
Turning to look at the pony, he gestured with one hoof to the rear leg, pointing where the vein was. Ice was trained but she wasn’t quite paramedic material. She was the best he had as a partner right now and he was glad to have her at his side, watching her start the needle in before grabbing a pressure cuff out of the blue bag.
He could hear the captain call out. “Shadow Slinger, twenty-eight.”
“Mercy, I have one burn victim. Age twenty-eight, thestral pony. Looks to be third-degree burns along the left side of the face, left neck, throat latch, and anterior chest. Victim is having trouble breathing, over.”
It only took a few seconds before the speaker on the box squawked again. “Rescue One,” sounded like Mercy Heart himself. “Start an IV with dextrose five percent in ringers. Push five CC's Deltorphin. Can you intubate? Over.”
Rescue glanced over at the stallion's face and mouth area even as he snapped open the brown case and spread it open, reaching into one slot and pulling out a small syringe. He knocked the cap off its container and pulled it out, checking it again over then holding it out to Ice, who took it quickly.
“Mercy, I think we can. No burns around mouth area, over.”
Again, a small pause, then the speaker once more crackled to life. “Rescue One, intubate and transport ASAP, Burn team will be standing by.”
Rescue glanced over at Ailan and Thunderlane who were half way into their gear already, yelling over to them. “Get a move on!” then into the handset. “Mercy, we have air transport outbound in five, over.”
“Rescue One, copy. Land him on blue one, over.”
He barked out. “Copy, out,” then tossed the headset down, reaching into the blue box and getting out several items. Flipping the laryngoscope around, he glanced up to make sure Ice had pushed the pain killers. He noted her checking vitals and gave a nod. Leaning over, he said, “Shadow, if you can hear me. I need to scope you and push a tube into your throat. It will help you breathe, but it's going to suck. I am sorry, son, just bear with me.”
Angling the scope in, he gently used it to spread the stallion's maw open. Having to fall down on his side because the victim was prone. He brought up the endotracheal tube and gently started to push it in. Slow, easy, he pushed in, speaking as he did. “Come on, son, don’t struggle... There, done,” as he ripped the laryngoscope out and tossed it into the blue box once more.
Almost instantly, the bat-winged stallion's breathing got easier. Rescue gave a nod and yelled, “Thunderlane, get me the backboard!” hearing the captain just over his left shoulder.
“Will he make it, Chief?”
Rescue glanced at the worried Lunar guard. “I sure as Tartarus am going to do my best to make it so,” turning back as Thunderlane jogged over and lay the board out. Ailan, Thunder, himself, and Ice lifted the injured pony up just enough to slide the board under him. Keeping the burned side free and untouched. Soon as he was on all four lifted him up and put him into the stokes basket.
Looking to Ailan and Thunder “Blue pad, get moving!” He ordered, watching both nod and hook up. Take off was a bit rough, but not horrible. Soon enough, they were out of sight, and Rescue let out the breath he was holding. Turning some, he noted of now-nine Lunar guards all observing him.
“Mercy Ponyville is four kliks that way,” he pointed with a hoof, watching the captain point at three of his stallions, and as a group they took off, noting the sergeant stayed behind with the other four. Rescue also noticed Crash talking to two town guards off to the side.
Taking his leave, “Ice, box it up and inventory what we used...good job,” he smiled at the fact her usual demeanor broke, and she gave a slight hint of a smile.
“So, like I said, we saw somepony come out of the shadows and called him out. Then, the Lunar guy, he just appeared up out of the shadow of that tree over there, like... Well, like he climbed out of a pond! So, the suspect suddenly set off a large strobe, blinded all of us, and it turns out he hit the Lunar guard right in the face with it.”
Rescue cut in. “Are you two sure? It was a cast not something he tossed?”
They shrugged “No clue, sir, we're sorry.”
He nodded to Crash. “Make sure you get a full statement before you hand them over to the guards,” he said, trotting over to where the victim had been. Looking closer now, kneeling down, he started to sniff around, noting of the blanket that had been used to snuff the fire out. He then spotted something.
Rescue moved his focus up to see how the other teams were doing, and saw they were mopping up. He would have to check that, but before he could, he lifted the blanket up, and something yellow fell to the ground. He reached back to his saddle bag and pulled out a pair of tweezers and an evidence bag. Lifting the yellow object up, it reeked of some sort of chemical, and it looked like...a burst water balloon?
Frowning, Rescue bagged and closed it up, writing down a few things on the outside of it with a marker, before tucking it back in his bag and trotting over to the rest of the crew.
Backfire shook her head and motioned to the side of the house. “Looks like they caught him before he was set up. Basement was not fully involved. Give us an hour to air it out, and you can start, Chief.”
He gave a nod. Yep, it was going to be a long night.
---
The Lunar guard captain, and his counterpart from Princess Twilight's guard, watched from the doorway. They knew getting involved in the room could compromise the whole investigation. Rescue stood with Crash as he taught the young hothead unicorn the art of arson investigation.
Looking up along the rafters of the burned out basement, he gestured. “Tell me what you see.”
Chewing on his lip as he looked about, Crash tilted his head. “Strings, and down here, what looks like melted puddles of rubber?”
He gave a nod. “Old arson trick, fill a balloon with accelerant, hang it above a candle. The heat from the candle slowly causes the balloon to melt and then,” he tapped the floor once, “Time-delayed fire. Our culprit likes to use yellow balloons, always yellow for some reason. He always uses white candles, and always kite string,” motioning again. “See how it didn’t burn as much? It's the cheap stuff, splits up easy so they impregnate it with a product kind of like tree sap. Side effect is it burns real slow.”
Both guard captains kept a close ear, there was a lot of decent information being passed on here. Rescue glanced over at them and gave a nod. “You boys can move in, over near that table there,” he pointed, looking back to Crash. “Good, use your nose, your ears, tell me what else you find.”
Again, the unicorn looked about, then he squatted down and sniffed. “Accelerant of some kind. You can smell it near where all the puddles of wax and rubber is."
Rescue nodded once. “Good. Break out a knife, peel up some of the burned wood and wax, and get a scraping from under it.”
And so, it went the whole day he spent teaching and at the same time finding what he suspected. After he found himself tired, dirty, and still with things to do, Twilight had summoned him so he could allow Crash go return to clean up and rest.
Reaching the castle, he was again met by the two captains. Rescue looked to the Lunar guard.
“Any news on your soldier?”
A grim nod followed. “He is alive and in intensive care, they have the best burn doctor in Equestria with him. He is only alive because of your quick actions, Chief.”
Rescue shook his head. “I do what I'm supposed do, and I am glad he is stable,” giving off an exhale and gestured. “Shall we?”
---
“So, in short, it looks like our guy caught this fire bug coming out of the building. The guy hit him with—” looking to the fire pony, the Lunar guard captain lifted a eyebrow.
Rescue flipped a page and interjected. “—what looks to be a balloon filled with tetrahydrofuran”
The purple alicorn lifted her hoof, “Wait, a quick question, Chief, why can’t we just look for sales of this tetrahydrofuran?”
Glancing at the guard captain to make sure he was okay with a tangent in his report and seeing not, Rescue shook his head. “It’s been banned for over twenty years now, Princess. Also, it was never sold openly, it was only sold industrial. The way I have it, I figured our firebug found, or knew, how to produce a large batch, possibly a few barrels worth of the stuff from some old factory, or auction.”
The Lunar Captain picked back up. “Lucky for our guy, Captain Bell’s team was there, and were able to snuff out the fire before it…” he shook his head and the white unicorn next to him lifted his golden-shoed hoof and put it on his counter's shoulder. “We will get him.”
Pinkie Pie, who had been very quiet the whole time, in fact was just holding the evidence bag with the remains of the yellow balloon in it. She kept turning it over and over again, rubbing it in the bag. Her mane suddenly went straight out from her head like a mohawk and both ears started to wiggle faster than a bee’s wings. To her side, Rainbow Dash spun. “What the hay, Pinkie?!”
She kept shaking like that, then she leaped into the air and shouted “I know!” Landing again as she spun to look at Rescue who had an eyebrow lifted.
“Chief, Chief, this is a funtimeco model one one two yellow super-stretch.”
Looking at her, then over at the rest of the girls then back at her. Rescue sighed and said in a quiet tone. “Okay, so we know what brand. It doesn’t help, they are likely sold everywhere.”
She shook her head hard. “No, you don’t get it, Chiefaroony, not this balloon. Funtimeco stopped making this one almost five years ago now. I know because I use to love them. They are super stretchy and they can stand up to a lot of squishing and—”
She droned on, but Rescue found himself thinking about what she said at first. He looked at Twilight, who looked back at him. Then, he said “Pinkie! Stop. Just, back up.”
She paused and looked over at the fire pony. “You are sure? You are one-hundred percent sure that is what that is?”
She gave a big grin. “Yep, see!” pulling out of her mane, a board, that folded out. On it, a sample deflated balloon of what must be two-hundred types. She held the little evidence bag up next to one yellow one near the top. “See, perfect match in color and thickness, plus the balloon edge has a reverse roll, only Funtimeco does that!”
From the other side of the table, he heard Captain Bell sputter. “How, what, where did she—” only to be cut off by everypony in the room at once saying. “Don’t ask, just don’t think about it.”
Rescue stood up and walked over, the pink party pony bouncing in place next to the sample board. He took the evidence bag from her and looked closely at it. Sure has heck, she was right, reverse rolled lip, thick rubber, shiny on the inside, right shade of yellow.
“Pinkie, you may have just given us a lead. It's not much of one, but...” looking around.
“Whoever our firebug is, he or she has access to old stock. How? Where?” He asked himself, tapping his chin and looking at Princess Twilight. “Princess, can you get the records from Funtimeco for who they sold off their remaining stock of this balloon to?”
She gave a nod. “Yes, I will get right on that.”
He breathed out and looked around. “We have thirty-one days before he strikes again. Let's catch this guy.”
Everypony in the room gave a nod of their head to that.