My Little Pony: Worker Birds
Chapter 1: For Equestria
Equestria is a land always building and expanding. For such projects, you need machines. The thing is most ponies are not willing to take on such a task of operating said machines. That work falls to special folk like me. My name is Heloise. I am a recent immigrant to Equestria from the Griffon Kingdom, and started up my own business.
I know what you might be thinking. If I am from the Griffon Kingdom, how come my name doesn't start with a 'G' like most griffons? Well, there is a subspecies of hippogriff that lives among the griffons. We are different from the Common Hippogriffs under the rule of Queen Novo. Thus, our subspecies are known as Mountain Hippogriffs.
We are more griffon-like in appearance. For example, my front half and wings are of a Golden Saker and my back is that of a gold Gypsy Vanner. We have no manes, but we do have tails. We do not roar like lions either like griffons do. We use the calls of our respected avian halves. Now that everything is all settled down, please come with me.
I am head of the Eagle Mountain Excavation and Hauling Company. When you're with me be sure to have a hardhat on. Be smart and be safe. At my workplace, there is one shovel and two dump trucks. The one shovel is a Northwest 100DH hydraulic shovel, and the trucks are an 1986 Autocar AT64F and a 1987 Peterbilt 359 extended hood.
They are well aged, but I have taken such good care of them that they never grew old. Now my dump trucks are in need of some new drivers. It seemed I got a few in two griffons that seemed out of a job, and out of luck. I knew these two very well, and they go to show that there are many good griffons in Equestria like Gabby and Gilda.
"Hey now, what happened?" I asked, seeing them sitting at the fountain in Ponyville,
"I was fired by the postal service for a letter I forgot to deliver," sniffled Gabby
"My Griffon-scone business went down the drain, so I'm outta work too," added Gilda,
"What if I can offer you ladies some work? It's going to be tough," I advised,
Gabby's eyes lit up like lights on a Hearth's Warming Eve tree, and hugged me and spun me around, and nuzzled her cheek against mine, "Yes-yes-yes-yes, I'll do it! I'll do it!" Gabby cheered, "oh thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you! You have no idea how much this means to us! Wait...so what kind of work are we talking about?"
I checked to see their licenses to make sure they are up to date before bringing them to my workshop, "If you liked toys as hatchlings, well...your toys are much bigger now," I said, and introduced them to the shovel and the two dump trucks, "now that you're here, I will teach you two how to operate the hydraulic shovel, and drive these rigs,"
Hydraulic shovels and dump trucks work as well together as vanilla ice cream and cola. With hardhats and safety vests on, we got to work. It did not take long for these birdies to get the hang of it. We started at the gravel mound, and in no time these girls were filling trucks with ease, "Whew, this is fun, I think we'll like it here," said Gilda,
I promised to myself to treat these girls as I would treat family. They make rookie mistakes like missing the dump box on the truck, or accidently bumping it with the bucket. Instead of yelling at them, I would tell Gabby or Gilda to move the bucket a little higher next time. They would smile and nod back. I feel like I can count on them.
"So when'll we get to work on a construction site?" asked Gabby as we took a break,
"In time," I replied, ruffling the top of her hardhat, earning a chuckle from her,
"Yeah, I can't wait to get these trucks and shovel some action," Gilda stated happily
Suddenly, the phone at my desk began to ring, "Hold on for a moment," I said to the duo,
I picked up the phone and a stroke of luck, "Hello? Eagle Mountain Excavating and Hauling, this is Heloise speaking," I said as the phone greeting I had been working on, "you have a site we can work on? That's great!" I said, and turned to my two workers, "yes, we have two dump trucks and a Northwest 100DH shovel, yes...she is in working order,"
"One other thing, could you bring an oversize trailer for the shovel? You can? That would be lovely, alright, we will be ready by seven tomorrow morning," I replied back, and was hung up by the fore-pony at a site of a new building going up in Baltimare. We will show there is no rust in the bucket of our mighty shovel, and horsepower in our dump trucks.
I grinned back to my two workers whose eyes sparkled ready for the news, "We got a job today," I said, and group-hugged and nuzzled cheeks with Gabby and Gilda. The next morning, Gabby and Gilda were on time as was the oversize trailer with a Peterbilt 379 extended hood pulling a gooseneck trailer. The driver is a grey stallion named Long Haul
"Nice to see an old power shovel in such good shape," he said, inspecting the Northwest 100DH from tracks to bucket, "c'mon, let's get you ladies to the site," he said, and the shovel was driven onto the trailer, and chained down for transport. Once everything was ready, we revved up the diesel engines and we were off to Baltimare and our first job.