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

[calmhrtprevails]

"Perhaps," Fawkes says as he watches the little reptile run away, "we ought to ask your friend if she has a book on how to disguise my appearance. It might make people less likely to run away."

[no_vampires_plz]

The little reptile's screams can be still be heard. "TWILIGHT! HEEEEEELP!"

"Spike, what's gotten into you?" That voice is familiar.

"There's a monster outside!"

"A what??"

"A monster! Like a gigantic green monkey! We gotta barricade the door!"

"Have you been reading those horror novels in bed again?"

"I'm serious, Twilight!"

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes would smile, if that face of his were capable. The best he can do is huff a laugh and call out, "He isn't entirely exaggerating.

[no_vampires_plz]

"It can talk??" Spike's voice shrieks from somewhere inside.

"Wait a minute. I know that voice..."

"Don't go down there! It'll get you! TWILIGHT!"

The sound of approaching hoofsteps, and then a familiar purple face peers out.

"...Fawkes??" Twilight boggles. "What are--how did you even get here??"

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes raises one enormous, thick-fingered hand in greeting. "It was an accident, I assure you," he says. "I'd meant to visit the place where we first met, and found myself instead in a forest full of snow. When I followed a trail, it led me here."

[no_vampires_plz]

"Well, don't just stand out there in the cold, come in, come in--" She beckons them in with a raised forehoof.

[calmhrtprevails]

"As you say," Fawkes says. He steps through and holds the door open for Pinkie. "Please tell your other friend that I mean him no harm."

[no_vampires_plz]

"Spike!" Twilight calls up the stairs. "It's okay, you can come down now..."

"Are you crazy?! The m-monster is still down there!"

"It's fine, Spike. He's a friend."

[calmhrtprevails]

"Perhaps," Fawkes suggests, "I ought to sit down somewhere on the floor. I'm less intimidating that way, or so I understand."

[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."