Ladder Company 6 (Engine Company 22)

by TheFlyingHippogriff

Protect and Serve

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Ladder Company 6 (Engine Company 22)

Chapter 4: Protect and Serve

(Side Note: Gretchen the Griffon appears in MLP: Friends Forever Issue #24. She is the first comic-only character to appear in my stories)

Our sleep was interrupted in the early hours of the morning by the station alarm. We were out of our beds and in our gear exiting the station in sixty seconds flat. The sirens and our airhorn sounded in the darkness of the early morning. The darkness of the morning was broken by the lights of other trucks, and a warehouse at the port was on fire.

It was a three alarm fire, and we were the third alarm, "Echo 101, this is Ladder 6 and Engine 22, what've we got?" Captain Gordon asked the other station captain on sight amid the roaring orange flames and thick black smoke. This captain is from the other station a few miles down the road near downtown. His name was Captain Five Alarm.

"Structure fire, could be faulty electricity, but we can't rule anything out just yet," said the other fire captain on site.

"Let's go those hoses on the fire, move your tails ladies!" Gordon blasted at us amid the roaring fire, we moved as fast as we can

Gilda and I were connecting the hoses to the fire hydrant while Genevieve and Greta operated the outriggers and pressure valves to make sure the ladder goes up in the air, and the right amount of water pressure hits the flames. I overheard that nopony or nobirdy was badly injured or killed, "That's a relief, alright Gretchen, you're going up!"

"It's just like we practiced!" Gilda called up to her to give our rookie some confidence while Gilda and I put on our breathing apparatuses,

"Let's do this!" said Gretchen, Greta raised the ladder up in the air with Gretchen in the basket after Genevieve set up the tower unit's stabilizers. The fire was raging out of control. There were bits of burning debris falling from the sky. The entire building looked, and felt like hell. The fire was so bad that helicopters were called in to bring water.

I signaled for Giselle to run the hydrant after Gilda and I were ready with the hose. Greta and Genevieve held onto the other hose, and we began to fight back the blaze. Giselle went to the helm of the monitor or deck gun on the pumper-tanker. As the fire raged into the darkness, the large structure creaked and weakened in the intense heat.

A backdraft blasted out as the structure collapsed, "Look out, it's coming down!" Greta warned us, as we backed off.

As we were getting the fire under control, we moved in to finally put the blaze out. It was the early morning by the time the fire was out. The sun was just coming up over the horizon. Our feathers were caked with sot and sweat. It turns out the fire was caused by a cigarette, probably from a bunch of colts hanging around town on a late night.

The ladder was brought down with Greta at the controls, and I was at the control panel that operated the outriggers. The warehouse was now a burnt out shell of itself, and we help treat the security-pony that was on duty for minor burns from the falling debris. It was confirmed in our report that the fire was an accident, irresponsible teenagers.

We gave our reports to the police-colt on the site, "Good work, Couettes ('Pigtails')," I said to Gretchen and ruffled her hair for a job well done. Gretchen helped put out her first fire. She got a hug from Gilda and Greta, and hi-fives from Giselle and Genevieve. Even Captain Gordon gave her a light smile, and a salute. He is the hardest to please.

"Remember Gretchen, we're firefighters, we're family" I said, gently putting my talons on her shoulders, she smiled up at me.

"That's right, we look out for each other as we will look out for you," said Gilda, she looked around at us, and we all agreed. It was great to have Gretchen around. It makes me wonder when more griffons or hippogriffs will suit up like us, "c'mon, let's pack everything up, and see if the IHOP is open," with that, we cleaned up, and went out to eat.

Pancakes feel great after waking up at dawn to put out a fire, "I don't know about you ladies, but I'm looking forward to the Firefighting Convention at the Civic Centre" said Genevieve, cutting and eating a piece of her stack of pancakes, "it's too bad we're probably just going to look around, Fillydelphia hasn't been too kind to us with our budget,"

"It's the whole 'pony-griffon' thing, I tell you, we're lucky to even have the equipment to bring to a fire," said Gilda,

"I wouldn't go that far, Gilda," said Greta, "the city has given us used trucks and an old station, but look at us now, we care for those rigs and under our care, those trucks and our skill as fire-griffons make us just as good as any engine or ladder company in the city, any company," soon to all our surprise, Captain Gordon came out to join us.

"That's what I like to hear," said our captain, enjoying his cup of morning coffee, "alright ladies, we'll eat some chow, clean up the equipment, and get some rest, then we'll go to the convention, I hear there will be a demonstration of the E-One Quest, hopefully it won't make our tower unit jealous," he joked, "the big girl has feelings, you know"

"Yeah, this company wouldn't be the same without Ladder Six," said Gretchen, having shaken off the 'rookie' label from her feathers.

After breakfast, we went back to 'The Castle' to clean up both our rigs and equipment as well as ourselves. After we washed up and the equipment was cleaned up and ready for action, the fire alarm went off again. This was an easy one in Ponyville as Opal Essence was stuck in a tree. The party never stops when you're a professional fire-griffon.