Somewhere... else.

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes had spent quite a lot of time working in Megaton, looking after his friend's household, her Brahmin, and her plot of slowly-greening plants outside the city walls. But she'd been missing a month and more now, and it was beginning to worry him. Best, he'd thought, to see if something had gone awry at Milliways.

And it had. For him.

The place he found himself instead of his intended destination was... some sort of forest. The trees were too thick all around him to be anything else. Their branches were leafless, weighed down by heavy winter snow. The snow on the ground would have come halfway up a human's leg, he thought. On him, it was only deep enough to get into his boots.

This would not do at all. This didn't appear to be the area behind the Bar. Perhaps he had better look for someone to identify where it was.

Comments

[no_vampires_plz]

Twilight gestures at the mostly-empty floor; the only furnishings are a round table in the center of the room and a few reading stands set up here and there. "Be my guest."

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes nods politely and settles himself down with his back to a nearby wall. He's probably about eye level with the taller ponies this way, and still bulky as hell, but hey, at least he's trying.

[no_vampires_plz]

"Spi-ike..." Twilight calls again. "Don't make me come up there."

After a long moment, Spike's face peers down from the hole in the ceiling where the stairs go up to the second floor.

[calmhrtprevails]

Very carefully, Fawkes raises one hand and offers a finger-wiggle wave to the little dragon. He does not attempt to smile. It would not end well.

[nponyc]

"See?" says Pinkie. "He's not a monster! Well, maybe he is, but he's not a mean monster. He's a nice one, like you!"

"Not helping, Pinkie," mutters Twilight through clenched teeth.

There's another long pause, then, very slowly, Spike walks down the stairs to face Fawkes.

"Before you try anything," he says, "I should warn you, I can breathe fire."

[calmhrtprevails]

"Thank you for the warning," says Fawkes. "The only fire-breathing creatures I've met before this have been giant ants. They don't generally tell anyone that they can do so first."

[nponyc]

Annnnd cue three alarmed stares.

"Giant..."

"...fire-breathing..."

"...ants??"

[calmhrtprevails]

"There was a small colony of them not far from the town I now live in," says Fawkes. "I don't think there are very many left."

[no_vampires_plz]

"I certainly hope not," says Twilight.

"Y'know, if it weren't for the fire-breathing part, that'd be pretty neat," says Pinkie. "I mean, can you imagine the ant farm you could make with giant ants?"

"I don't think they make panes of glass that big," remarks Spike.

[calmhrtprevails]

"There are some giant ants that don't breathe fire," says Fawkes. "In Springvale, there's an entire colony of them. A woman named Tanya lives there, because she can speak with them and get them to do what she says."

[nponyc]

Spike looks perplexed. "What's a 'woman'?"

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes thinks for a moment, and then remembers what he heard Spike yelling before. "Something like a pink monkey," he says, "but with hair on its head like a mane, and no hair anywhere else, and taller than your friends, but shorter than me."

After a moment he adds, "Actually, that's a human. A woman is a female human. A man is a male one."

[nponyc]

"Weird," says Spike. "Are they from the Everfree Forest?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"I'm afraid I don't know of anywhere by that name," Fawkes says. "Is that the forest outside this town some distance?"

[nponyc]

"Yeah..." Spike looks even more perplexed. "You don't know what the Everfree Forest is?"

"Ooh! Maybe he has amnesia!" says Pinkie Pie. "Did you hit your head, Mr. Fox?"

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes thinks about this, and then glances over at Twilight. "No," he says, "I don't think I did. I do know there's quite a lot of things I don't remember."

[no_vampires_plz]

Spike and Pinkie are staring at Twilight now, too. "Twilight?" says Spike. "What's goin' on?"

Twilight doesn't say anything. She just cringes back, looking profoundly uncomfortable.

[calmhrtprevails]

"I'm not quite sure how to explain it," says Fawkes. "I've been traveling for some time- I was imprisoned by creatures very much like myself, who were trying to make me into one of them. I was only recently freed by one of the humans, and met Twilight Sparkle in my travels after that."

More detail, he thinks, can wait until Twilight feels it's appropriate. After all, she has to live here.

[nponyc]

"Ohmygosh. You were in prison??" Pinkie blanches. "How long ago was this?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"Some months, I think," says Fawkes. "I haven't looked at a calendar lately, but I was released sometime in Autumn."

[nponyc]

"Well, then," says Pinkie, "you're way overdue for a Get Out Of Jail party!" She beams again, bright and sunny as ever. "Oh, we can have cake and ice cream and chocolate pudding and a piñata and--"

"Here we go," mutters Twilight with a good-natured eyeroll.

[calmhrtprevails]

"Do you know," rumbles Fawkes thoughtfully, "I don't believe I've ever had a party? At least, not that I can remember."

[nponyc]

"Really??" Pinkie sounds even more astonished. "Ohmygosh! That means we'll have to make the party super extra fantastically fantastic to make up for it! Now, where'd I leave my party cannon..."

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes is just going to glance over at the others and mouth, 'party cannon?'. Because those are not words he thinks are supposed to go together.

[nponyc]

"Oh, here it is!" From... somewhere... Pinkie pulls a bright blue cannon out of... somewhere... and fires it at the round table in the middle of the room.

...don't ask, Fawkes. Just don't.