In the months after two new friends of hers helped the Kirin Grove, Autumn Blaze was happier than ever before. Not only were the kirin able to get along with one another without getting angry and turning into a Nirik, but things had greatly improved since the day she met Applejack and Fluttershy. Her friends in the village were no longer afraid to speak their minds and Autumn was quite surprised to learn that some of them had the same interests that she did. They liked to sing, dance and share stories with one another, whether it be something comedic or a story of romance.
In fact, when Rain Shine told the village that she was invited by Princess Twilight to come visit the School of Friendship, Autumn was quick to ask if they could join her. Much to their surprise, the leader of the Kirin Grove was actually okay with it. After all, if Princess Twilight wanted kirin from the grove to be future students at her school, then they should take the opportunity to explore outside of the grove they were all familiar with.
Of course, with most common things to ponykind being rather unfamiliar to kirins… the strangest of circumstances can occur.
“Okay, girls. Ready to go out and-?”
When Autumn Blaze found the four other kirin that she called her friends, they were all gathered together near the center of a hallway. Whether they didn’t hear her or know she was there, their focus was completely elsewhere. Like a cat that just caught the sight of a mouse and was stalking it from a distance. Hay, even her friend Spring Glow looked like she was going to pounce.
“Uh, girls? Is everything okay?” Autumn asked, confused by why her friends were acting this way.
One of the Kirin with dark gray-ish fur and a faded blue mane, who she knew as Nova Glow, was the first to speak, “We were waiting outside for you, but Spring saw that… thing across the hall and now she can’t take her eyes off of it.”
“I told you, it’s up to no good! I mean, look at it,” Spring retorted, eyes fixed to what’s across the hall, “It’s just standing there, menacingly!”
It was at this point that Autumn Blaze looked at what it was in question and saw what she seemed fixated on. A red colored canister that was attached to the wall inside of some kind of case. There appeared to be a handle of sorts on the top with a black snake-like tube on the side of it with a label on it. She couldn’t see what was on it from this far away, but what she could see was a small sign above it.
A sign that read ‘Fire Extinguisher’.
“Girls, I don’t think it’s anything too bad,” Autumn tried to convince her friends, “It’s probably something they have here in case there’s an emergency.”
“That’s what we tried to tell her,” one of the other kirin that her back facing towards it, Cinder Glow, retorted, “Yet, Spring keeps insisting otherwise.”
“Yeah, because it is!” Spring Glow snapped, “I mean, we technically count as fire right? So this thing probably wants to… to… do whatever it's supposed to do to us!!”
Before she had the chance to move, another kirin by the name of Autumn Afternoon wrapped her forelegs around Spring to try and restrain her. Yet, Spring was not making it easy, for she was growling and hissing at this ‘extinguisher’ like an angry housecat.
“Look, I’m pretty sure that if we leave it alone and just go about our business, everything will be fine,” Nova tried again to calm Spring down. Yet, with Spring still struggling to break free, she looked at Autumn Blaze with a look that asked for her to step in before they do anything reckless. “Besides, I think Autumn wanted to find one of her friends that lived here.”
“Which one? Me or-?” Autumn Blaze asked, before she realized that Nova was talking about her, “Oh, right. What Nova said. You girls remember Applejack? Well, she actually lives outside of town. I thought that since we're in the area, we can go over and say hi!”
At that point, Spring just grit her teeth and straightened back up, “Grr, fine!” the kirin stated as Autumn Afternoon released her grip on her, “But if I find one of those things again, then it’s going to regret ever meeting me! And that's a promise!”
“Well, ain’t this quite the surprise. Didn’t expect ya to be in town so soon, Autumn.”
“Hey Applejack,” Autumn Blaze beamed as she looked back at her friend. Out of all the times that she had met and talked with the earth pony, this felt like a special occasion. Applejack always told her about Sweet Apple Acres, the giant orchard that was the home of not just her, but also the Apple Family. Yet, seeing it right in front of you was much different compared to hearing about it or seeing pictures. “Rain Shine’s talking with that Princess friend of yours, so I thought I’d come see you. I also brought a few friends with me if that’s okay.”
“Nah, it’s fine. The more the merrier,” Applejack replied as she welcomed them inside the orchard and they began to trot towards the barn, “In fact, ah was actually making some treats. Helping out my sister since she told us last minute that her class has a bake sale at her school tomorrow. But ah’m sure ah can spare a few for you and your friends.”
As Applejack and Autumn Blaze kept talking to themselves, the other four kirin were led inside and sat down inside the dining room. For a moment, they thought that they had a moment to themselves. To rest and catch their breath from trotting all over town and seeing how vastly different the town of Ponyville was compared to their grove.
That was until they looked over towards Spring and watched in fear as they saw her eyes burn with murderous intent… and found her staring at the shape of what looked like a familiar red menace. “Spring, don’t-!!”
“BEGONE, FOUL THING!!”
Moments earlier
“So, the friends you’re with seem kind of nice.”
“Yep. After you helped break the vow of silence from around the village, I found out that some other kirin were into acting and singing as well,” Autumn Blaze told the earth pony as she pulled a barrel of apples off the back of a cart. “We even thought about trying to come up with our own theater productions as a way to share stories.”
“Well, if it helps, ah might know a few ponies that could help ya out. Like give ya a few ideas to help get started.”
“That might help… Though, we’re kind of starting off small at the moment,” The Kirin replied, “Wanted to see how things would go with the rest of the village first before we try anything too dramatic-”
BOOM!
The sound from inside the barn was enough to startle both of them as they hurried inside to see what happened. Yet, when the two of them stepped in, they were not ready for what they saw inside. “What in tarnation-!?”
The whole kitchen was covered in a thick white foam as the broken shell of a fire extinguisher laid on the floor. On the ground, all four of Autumn’s friends were in a dogpile on the floor and covered in the same white foam, with Spring specifically being on the bottom. Spring herself looked satisfied to an extent, before she noticed both Autumn and Applejack looking back at the rest of them.
“What the heck happened?”
“Spring found that extinguisher thingy again!” Cinder spoke up, “We tried to stop her, but by the time we noticed, it was too late!”
“Eugh, this stuff got in my mouth!” Spring complained as she spat outwards, “Why does victory taste so awful!?!”
At Cinder’s remark, that just had Applejack look at her friend with a raised eyebrow. Which had Autumn give the earth pony an apologetic sigh, “I’m really sorry about this… Spring tends to be… impulsive.”
“Ah don’t see why she’d be impulsive about a fire extinguisher. Ah mean, it’s only used if-” At that point, something clicked in Applejack’s mind as she looked back at Autumn, before looking back at the other kirin. “Oh… Oh. Ah think ah see what the problem is.”
“You do?”
“Did ya seriously think that we would use these on you?” That single question had Spring nod her head, before the rest of friends gave her nervous shrugs. “No no, that’s not what we use Fire Extinguishers for.”
“Then what do you use them for!?”
“We use them in case we have an emergency. Most of the time if we have a fire like on the orchard, we have a pegasi bring a rain cloud to put out any fires that spark. Problem ya got is that ya can’t just have a pegasus appear on demand most of the time, so we use these to put out any flames before they start. We don’t use them on living creatures.”
That had all of the kirin look back at her with expressions of surprise, shock and also shame. All of them were pretty familiar with Applejack since she had seen the same expressions on the face of Applebloom and her friends when they did something that got them in trouble. Though, it left the mare with one particular question for them.
“Have any of ya heard of something called Fire Safety?”