Ladder Company 6 (Engine Company 22)

by TheFlyingHippogriff

The Firebirds

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Ladder Company 6 (Engine Company 22)

Chapter 1: The Firebirds

I had been summoned to Cantorlot by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I had been told that they have a special position for me. I soon noticed that my friends Gilda, Greta, Giselle, and Genevieve had also been summoned to the Royal Palace, "I wonder why we're here," Gilda whispered to me, "think it's something special?" she asked me

"Possibly, I think the princesses have something in store for all of us," I replied back, suddenly the Princesses arrived and we bowed before them, "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, it is an honor to be in your presence," we said in unison as a show of respect to the Rulers of Equestria. They lightly bowed back to us. Princess Luna smiled at me.

"We thank you all for coming on this most beautiful of mornings," said Princess Celestia happily to us, "we have summoned you all here because we have a very important task, we have looked over your training records and credentials from the Westland and Griffonstone, and we have come to the conclusion that this position is a perfect fit,"

"Firstly I see that this may fit with your plans of settling down, Gilda, I've heard from Twilight that you want to settle down away from Griffonstone?" Princess Celestia asked

"Yeah? What about it?" Gilda asked back sarcastically, I scolded my friend by punching her in the wing, "ouch! I mean umm...yes Your Majesty," she said correcting herself,

"Well then, I feel this would be a good start for you...you and all your friends here," said Princess Luna, "I must advise that this position we are bestowing upon you is very dangerous, and will be the first time your kind have been given this great task before you, from your good deeds done in the past, you are seen by some as heroes,"

"You are all to become the first ever fire-griffs, Fillydelphia is looking to expand their fire department, and we are having you answer the call, just like Princess Luna said, this is a very dangerous task, fire-ponies have died in the line of duty, but your training in Griffonstone and the Westland has made you more than qualified for this task at hoof,"

My eyes widened at the thought of being the first ever fire-griffons to be commissioned, "For you Wilhelmina, you are the keeper of an element of harmony, the element of courage, and with the strong bond of friendship that you share with these griffons, I feel you all will make quite the team, remember you put other ponies before yourselves,"

When we were dismissed, we bowed to the princesses and made our leave, "So we're going to be fire-griffs, so that means we fight fires and save lives," said Greta excitedly,

"Yeah, you see those guys going into a burning building, that's gonna be us too," Gilda said giving Giselle headlock and a noogie, I am happy to see how much she changed.

"But it's like Princess Luna said, this is dangerous work, if we're not careful, we're all going to be Southern Fried Griffon," Giselle reminded us, a few days later we arrived at our station in Fillydelphia. It was a brick station two-stories tall with copper cloth-like sculpturing on the front above the entrance with lettering reading 'Ladder Company Six'.

"This is a beautiful station," said Genevieve, and we saw the fire apparatus that we would be working with. It is a 1997 Simon-Duplex LTI 2000/300/102'. The truck was red, white, and gold with shiny chrome wheels. As we were looking at our rig, and the equipment in the station another griffon showed up. It was a male, and one with authority.

"Like what you see, ladies?" He asked. The griffon had a yellow beak like Gilda but had light silver feathers, brown eyes, and wings and a pelt in a slightly darker shade of grey, "in my office now," He said, and we followed him, "normally, I don't do hens, but seeing your creds coming from Celestia and Luna, you all have to prove yourselves"

"My name is Gordon, and to you ladies it will be Captain or Captain Gordon, understand me?" He asked, we all nodded, "this is your home ladies, so you treat it as such,"

"If you are going to see me, I suggest you ladies wear your uniforms properly, button-up your jackets, polish your boots, and wear your caps properly," he ordered to us, "welcome to Ladder Company Six, and Engine Company Twenty-Two, this is the busiest station in Fillydelphia, 3,500 calls a year from this station alone, it's a lot of action,"

"Hmm...we seem to have a hippogriff with us, Wilhelmina is your name, yes?" he asked me, I nodded yes to him, "well, your name is too much of a mouthful and too much trouble to spell, so I'm going to call you 'Billie', that's okay with you, Thunder Flanks?" He asked, I chuckled alongside my friends at my nickname, and nodded 'yes' to him,

"Remember equipment comes first, and flying comes later, I don't want to see any of you ladies flying while on the line of duty, there's always a risk of falling debris on a sight, and I don't want to see anybirdy getting hurt, or worse killed, the lives of others are in your talons ladies, you're dismissed, try to settle down around here," He said

We did just that. Giselle and Greta were making the beds. Genevieve was polishing the pole, and Gilda and I were cleaning and polishing the rig, "Bossy Beak," she grumbled,

"Gilda, he is our captain, he runs things around here, and we have to listen to him, okay?" I replied, to her. Gilda sighed, and smiled back, "by the way, you missed a spot,"

Gilda gruffed, and threw a sponge at me, and hitting me in the tail. I laughed and threw it back. We laughed, and within an hour the rig was nice and clean. So far, the alarm has not gone off yet. We pulled the truck back into the station to a waiting Captain Gordon, "Good work, now remember ladies, be smart, think on your talons and think fast,"