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

[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.

[calmhrtprevails]

"......."

Congratulations, Pinkie, you officially dumbfounded the mutant.

[no_vampires_plz]

"It's just Pinkie Pie," says Twilight with a little shrug. "Trust me, nothing good can come from trying to understand it."

[calmhrtprevails]

"Then I shall take you at your word," says Fawkes. He feels compelled to add, "It's a very impressive party cannon."

[nponyc]

"Thanks!" says Pinkie Pie. "It's custom-made."

POOM. And now the overhead lights are bedecked with streamers.

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes is just going to watch for a while. This is kind of fascinating. At some point he'll ask, "Is there anything I ought to be doing just now? Perhaps to help?"

[nponyc]

"You don't have to help, silly, the party's for you!" But Pinkie looks thoughtful. "Although... if you could help me hang this banner up..."

Said banner says 'WELCOME HOME MR. FOX' in bright purple letters. Again, where she got it from is a mystery.

[calmhrtprevails]

It's not how his name is spelled, and this isn't really his home, but she's being so nice that the mutant really doesn't have the heart to correct her. "Of course," he says, and stands up to lend a hand. "Thank you, Pinkie Pie. I'd be glad to assist."

[nponyc]

"Oh, this is gonna be so terrific! We'll invite everypony--well, not everypony everypony, Rainbow Dash is visiting her family in Cloudsdale, but everypony else will be here--"

Twilight holds up a hoof. "Uh, Pinkie? I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"Why not? Everypony loves a party!"

"But not everypony's going to love Fawkes," Twilight points out. "Didn't you see how Spike reacted to him? If we're going to introduce Fawkes to the rest of Ponyville, we need some way of making him seem... less intimidating."

[calmhrtprevails]

"Perhaps," Fawkes suggests, "if there might be some sort of way for me to assemble a shirt, or something like that. I've been teaching myself to sew, so that I could wear more civilized clothing around people."

[no_vampires_plz]

"In that case, you'd better go see Rarity," says Twilight. "If anyone can make clothing in your size, she can."

"But how're we gonna get him there without everypony freaking out?" asks Spike.

"Good question." Twilight rubs her chin thoughtfully. "I guess I could try out that invisibility spell I saw in 101 Charms and Conjurations..."