“I just don’t understand what’s going on in this city. I just really don’t,” Nurse Abernathy said with a stony expression of fear on her face as she rubbed a cream for burns onto Rainbow Dash’s wings. She looked at her patient with sympathy. “Just tell me if this hurts, okay?”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve gone through way worse.” Rainbow responded as she lied on her belly on the hospital bed, her back and tail were partially singed but her wings were the only part of her that had gotten badly burnt.
On the other side of the room, Barnaby lied back in his bed, only a few bandages and cooling packs on his body. Thanks to Rainbow Dash quickly throwing him out of the apartment he didn’t directly come in contact with any flames. The heat had still harmed him but no burning hot licks of flame had ravaged his body. He was lucky. The both of them were.
The cream stung for just a second before a cool numbness started to wash over Rainbow Dash’s wings and Nurse Abernathy began to wrap them in bandages.
“I’m not familiar enough with pegasus physiology so I don’t exactly know how long your wings will take to heal but I’d like you to keep them in bandages for at least three days to a week,” she said to Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash flapped her gums and sighed. “Kind of lame but alright, doctor’s orders...”
“I could give you a more accurate estimate if I was more used to pegasi but-”
“Like I said, it’s alright,” Rainbow smiled at her.
Abernathy looked over at Barnaby. “S-So it really was a bomb just like what happened in the mines? It wasn’t a busted gas pipe or anything?”
“I’m afraid so,” Barnaby nodded to her. He took a deep breath and rubbed at a bandage along his leg. “Abernathy? If you’re finished with Rainbow Dash can you leave us alone for a little while?”
The nurse looked a little worried as she fidgeted in place before nodding. “Of course, just let me finish up here...”
Rainbow Dash and Barnaby both waited patiently as Abernathy finished wrapping Rainbow’s injured wings. It was uncomfortable and probably going to get a bit itchy for her in a bit but she’d just have to deal with it. The last bit of bandages was cut off and stapled down so the whole thing wouldn’t unravel, Nurse Abernathy then gave a last look at her two recovering patients before leaving the room.
“Well...” Barnaby sighed. “I think we both know what happened.”
“Oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash stiffly nodded with a frown on her face.
“While you were under anesthetic, one of my investigators came and confirmed that it was a bomb. Apartment’s a complete loss but the fire department at least managed to fight the fire and get it under control. The top couple floors of the building will need to be refurbished but it’s not unsalvageable,” he told her.
Rainbow Dash sadly looked down at the floor. “So nopony else was hurt?”
Barnaby shook his head. “Thankfully not. The blast was controlled and the rest of the residents in danger were able to get out of the building before the fire had spread too far.”
“What a relief...” Rainbow Dash shut her eyes and relaxed.
“I think whoever’s planning these bombings honestly doesn’t want to hurt ponies if they can avoid it,” Barnaby said. “Otherwise it doesn’t really make any sense. The bomb that exploded in my apartment was just big enough to take it out while not directly blowing apart any of the other apartments on the top floor. But I still can’t figure out why anypony would be doing this in the first place.” He scratched his head. “Even if it is Lord Copper that almost makes even less sense… he’s already one of the most powerful and influential ponies in Oreville. What does he have to gain from doing this? Why is any of this happening?”
“Wish I could help you with that part but when it comes to foiling evil plans and stopping villains my specialty is kind of just, you know, beating them up,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Not saying I haven’t done the thinking and planning part before but it’s really not my strength.”
“I’d feel bad about asking even more from you anyways...” Barnaby bashfully responded.
“If it’s to do something awesome or stop a bad guy I don’t mind. I’ve never minded,” Rainbow told him. “And uh, on that note, it’s really pretty obvious that Lord Copper planted that bomb there. Or—well, had some crony of his plant it there on his orders.”
Barnaby nodded. “I agree. You remember the dinner with him and Lords Silver and Gold? Not just about how nervous he got when we brought up the mine bombing, but how he was perfectly okay with me taking you to find an apartment in my building? And how he heard that I would bring you to my home first of all.”
“He knew what we were going to be doing and had a bomb planted in your home sometime between that dinner and just now,” Rainbow narrowed her eyes.
“Yes. I don’t know if he could have timed it perfectly… perhaps somepony saw us entering the building and activated it remotely, or there was some tripwire we missed or something, but I doubt it was ticking away for long before we entered my home. Former home.”
Rainbow Dash absentmindedly tried to flutter her wings before realizing she couldn’t and frowned. “I wonder if he had the same pony plant the bomb as in the mines. Dolph?”
“Maybe. Lord Copper is very wealthy and has many ponies on his payroll… though I don’t know if he’d trust the average pony in his employ to do something like this. He certainly has connections to more unsavory types but would he trust them as well? There’s likely something more to it, Dolph’s friends did seem very adamant that he’d never do something like this,” Barnaby mused.
“I think no matter what we need to find this Dolph guy,” Rainbow said.
“There’s been no trace of him since that day in the mines. But I think a visit to his home could still shed some light on things,” Barnaby agreed.
“Also to be honest… I kind of got the impression from Lord Copper that he’s not the brightest or most competent stallion out there,” Rainbow rubbed her head. “I get that he’s probably good at his job and making sure there isn’t any solid proof connecting him to this and other bad stuff he’s done, but I feel like he’s in way over his head and not used to being challenged or seriously investigated at all.”
“Good for us then,” Barnaby said.
“Maybe,” Rainbow frowned. “Or it might end up leading him to do something stupid. Take it from a pony with a lot of personal experience—dumb ponies do dumb things. Especially when they’re panicked or scared.”
“We’ll have to be cautious in our investigation from here on out then. No talking to anypony else about it unless we can absolutely trust them. And certainly no mentioning anything in front of Lord Copper. Not until we have solid proof we can arrest him with or at least enough that would convince the populace of his duplicity,” Barnaby said.
“Got it,” Rainbow nodded.
“With how widespread Lord Copper’s influence is there’s a lot we’re going to need to investigate and I have some ideas for tomorrow already besides just visiting Dolph’s family.”
“What are we going to do about ourselves?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, it’s totally possible that he’s going to try and have us taken out again. Bomb or otherwise. If we start staying in the same place for more than a day or two he could have somepony sneak another bomb in there while we’re gone. I’m not just worried about us but I don’t want any other pony blown up because of me.”
“For now—for the near future and maybe for your whole stay here—I think it will be best if we both lodge in the Correctional Facility. My office has enough room where I can set up a couch for you and I can go use one of the bunks in the officer’s quarters. I know you don’t have the best memories of that place but it’s going to be the safest place in Oreville for the both of us. I doubt Lord Copper could even get a bomb inside, much less have the nerve to try and bomb it in the first place,” Barnaby said.
“Yeah...” Rainbow Dash rubbed her neck and then winced as she accidentally touched a healing burn. “I think you’re probably right but didn’t you say there are other constables you don’t trust? You said you were worried about Lord Copper buying them off. That’s kind of why I got beat up on his orders in the first place...”
“No place is going to be perfect. But even though there might be some of his lackeys trying to spy on us I still don’t think we’d have to worry about any of them attempting anything inside the facility. Most constables of mine are still perfectly upstanding and loyal. There are just a couple of bad seeds. It’s possible that this may even make it easier for us to weed out those bad seeds and hurt Lord Copper in other ways.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Well it’s your city so you definitely know best. Just saying that I’m going to be looking over my shoulder while I’m living in there.”
Barnaby smiled. “Trust me. I wouldn’t be saying all this if I didn’t believe it truly was the safest place for the both of us to be.”
Rainbow Dash smiled back at him. “I do trust you. You’re a cool dude, Barnaby. Worth not being able to fly for a few days if it meant saving your hide.”
“Hah! I guess I’m glad about that!” He laughed.
A knock on the door came and the two of them looked to see Nurse Abernathy hesitantly pushing it open. “I-I didn’t mean to intrude but I have some medicine for the both of you...”
“It’s quite alright,” Barnaby smiled to her. “We were mostly finished talking about everything important, thank you.”
“Yep, just one night in here and then we can get out onto the streets tomorrow,” Rainbow grinned.