Of kirins and firefighters.
"Knock, knock."
Water Blossom moaned and trudged to the door. She was overcome by drowsiness, boredom, bad mood and other consequences of not drinking her usual coffee in the morning.
"What?" Mare said, looking out through the half-opened door.
"Good morning, miss! " Behind the door Blossom found.. An unicorn with a strange, lion-like, mane? No, horn also was strange... While mare wrinkled her forehead trying to figure out, how to call the creature in front of her, her visitor speaked, tapping her hoof on building's red brickwork. "I'm Violet Smoke and I wanted to ask you... What is this building?"
Water Blossom, who'd worked as a firefighter in Canterlot for the previous eight years, looked up at the symbol of Equestrian firefighters, hanging over the door and at the certificates for good service nailed next to it. Looked, sighed and voiced the obvious answer:
"It's a fire station."
"What station?"
"Fire station." Blossom repeated, but it did not bring understanding to the muzzle of her morning guest "You know, place where firefighters work."
"When where your sword? If you're a fighter. And what's the deal with fire?"
Water Blossom facehoofed. Somepony probably thought she was funny.
"You're kidding me, right? Absolutely everypony knows what a firefighter is!
"I've never heard of such in Kiria."
"Well, and how can I help you?"
"Oh.. Yes, yes, please tell me where I can find the serpentarium?"
Blossom flighted an urge to facehoof again. "Two blocks ahead and then turn right. There's a giant snake on the building, you can't go wrong."
"Thanks!"
Water Blossom slammed the door in this 'kirin' muzzle. And she trotted back to her hammock muttering to herself.
"Weirdo."
She quickly forgot about the visitor and about where she sent him. Tourist from Celestia knows where, big deal. By lunchtime, she had already had three cups of coffee, which improved her mood a little and solved a couple of crosswords. Although "solved" was a big word - both puzzles were filled with words by about a third.
"Ponies, we had a call! Gear up!" Shout came from the second floor.
The drowsiness disappeared. Less than a minute to prepare. Three minutes later, the fire brigade has already arrived at the scene, with water, sand, instruments, ladders - everything they might need in their work.
The oddities began from the very first minute. Firstly, there was no smoke. The building was not on fire. The walls were charred, of course, as was the decorative snake on the roof, but there were no active fire. And the onlookers gathered around said that they hadn't seen the building actually being on fire, just one bright flash of light. It was as if it was instantly burned after the unicorn's horn swung.
It didn't work out to ask the workers - the shaking ponies were hugging with their no less violently shaking serpentine wards. Water Blossom met the mad gaze of a mare in the form of a zoo director. A five-meter python wrapped around her pointed its tail inside the burnt serpentarium. After exchanging glances with her partner, Blossom went inside.
Inside, the two mares were met by the same picture - everything is charred and burnt, but it looked like the fire went out a couple of hours or maybe a day ago. Something was wrong.
They noticed the glitter in the next room and hurried there. The flame sounded strange though. Usually fire roared and crackled, now the it was coughing, wheezing and suffering from shortness of breath.
Firefighters did find the source of the fire. In front of them stood a creature wrapped in flames. Coat was liquid black fire, mane - blazing violet tornado, its muzzle turned into a mask of anger. The creature was breathing heavily, looking down at his feet and suddenly looked up straight at them.
"Ahhh, monster!"
Blossom wasn't sure who was screaming - she herself or her partner. Or both. A second later, the fiery silhouette disappeared under a wave of foam from two fire extinguishers. The flame immediately went out. Half a minute later, a voice reach out from under the pile of foam. rather familiar voice.
"Is this fing gone now?"
"The... The monster?" Blossom's partner muttered.
"Monster? No, there was a snake outside a cage! Or so I thought..." Violet Smoke's head showed up from the pile. She looked around and whistled. "Oops... Overreacted a little... Does Canterlot insurance cover nirik incidents? He-he."
Blossom's partner sat down on the floor to catch her breath. Water Blossom herself opened her mouth to ask what in the name of Luna was going on there and probably tell the foreign mare everything she thought about her. But then firefighter noticed that kirin was looking away with her eyes widened with fear.
"Oh no! It's back!"
Blossom barely managed to jump aside as flash lit up the hall.
"Kaboom!"
The rest of the day could be called more or less calm. Partner went to the hospital with surprisingly minor burns. Water Blossom herself dealt with kirin and tried to establish the cause of the fire. She would never have believed in 'emotionally-driven self-ignition' if she hadn't witnessed it herself. An attempt to issue a fine to the kirin for non-compliance with fire safety ended up receiving a puzzled look and a business card from the Embassy of Kiria. Apparently, fire-resistant business card, since it survived a day in Violet's mane.
Until the evening she was busy with papers, which did not add to the mood, even coffee did not help. But all work ends sooner or later and the change of Blossom has also come to an end.
While she was standing in front of the station door, her thoughts slipped to the walking and very cheerful branch of the pyrotechnics warehouse, which continued to roam around Canterlot. Not her problem anymore. Shrugging her shoulders, the firefighter opened the door.
"Ah!"
The mare backed away, slipped and landed on her rear as soon as she saw who was standing outside.
A figure, enveloped in black and red fire, stood outside the door. Blazing kirin shifted from one foot to the other and smiled awkwardly. Her teeth were also made of flame, the white one. Burnt hoofprints stretched across the pavement towards the visitor.
"Hello there! A little help?"
"You, you..." Blossom mumbled but then something switched in her head. "Violet Smoke?"
"Yes! Hi! How good that you remember me! It'll be much easier to explain then!" Kirin began to chatter "Pour this foam over me again! Or sand! Water, milkshake, cider, anything liquid! Except coffee!"
Blossom only looked at kirin in bewilderment. She and the bypassers, who watched the situation from a fire-safe distance.
"What... happened?" Firefighter managed to say.
"It seems that mixing a pepper sandwich and triple Abyssinian coffee with cinnamon was a mistake, he-he."