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]

There's no one around in the immediate area. But there's a track cut through the snow, as if someone had just walked through here recently...

[calmhrtprevails]

Which is better, or at least easier, than the alternative. Fawkes crouches down to see if he can identify the way the last traveler might have passed.

If not, well, someone had to come from somewhere and go to somewhere. There would probably be people at both ends of the trail.

[nponyc]

One end of the trail is right here. A few yards from Fawkes's position, it simply stops. No signs of a struggle, there's just no more trail anymore.

Reassuring.

[calmhrtprevails]

"How very strange," Fawkes murmurs, and looks up. Few things fly in Wasteland skies, but there are scavenger-birds around Megaton at times thanks to all the town waste available to pick at.

[nponyc]

Nothing moves above except a few clouds lazily drifting east to west. (At least, one assumes it's east to west if it's the same time of day here that it was in Megaton.)

[calmhrtprevails]

Well, then. Either something fell out of the sky and began traveling, or something was carried off some large creature that flew. He's heard, second-hand, about the cazadores in the Mojave. One of those might well be big enough to carry off a person. True, this isn't their kind of climate, but until he sees otherwise, it's all that he's likely to have to work with.

He'll start following the track the other way instead.

[nponyc]

The track moves straight through the woods; whoever or whatever made it evidently knew exactly where they were going.

After about twenty minutes, the trees begin to thin, and finally give way to rolling hills. The track leads across the hills toward a small village in the distance.

[calmhrtprevails]

Well, now. That's not what Fawkes expected to find. Although it could, he thinks, be far worse...

Best to approach carefully and slowly, and keep an eye out for any of the inhabitants. He knows he tends to make an unnerving first impression.

[nponyc]

Whoever the villagers are, they're clearly much less concerned with home defense than most people in the Capitol Wasteland. There's no wall, no sign of a city guard, no indication that they have any reason to fear outsiders. In fact, as Fawkes comes over the crest of a hill, he'll see three small children, well away from the city limits, playfully romping about and lobbing snowballs at each other.

Three small equine children, that is.

[calmhrtprevails]

Hm. Now that is interesting. Fawkes only really knows one equine, and that's Twilight Sparkle. She's a good deal older than these three, by the look of them.

Perhaps if he gets a little closer and waves while he's still at a safe distance, it might avoid trouble.

[nponyc]

The orange foal with the fuchsia mane notices him first. She stops in her tracks and stares, the snowball she was about to fling completely forgotten. Then white foal with the pink-and-purple mane (and a tiny unicorn horn) catches a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, and starts staring too.

The third foal, the yellowish one with the bright pink bow in her mane, frowns at her companions. "What're y'all starin' at? Why'd ya--" The complaint dies in her throat as she spots the behemoth lumbering toward them.

[calmhrtprevails]

"My apologies, friends," Fawkes calls out, stopping in his tracks. "I didn't mean to startle you. I'm afraid I'm lost."

[nponyc]

3... 2... 1...

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"

The three fillies take off toward the village, screaming at the top of their lungs.

[calmhrtprevails]

Blast.

Now he's either got to follow them, or stand out here and wait for the angry mob.

[nponyc]

"MONSTER!"
"A MONSTER'S COMING!"
"IT'S GONNA EAT US!"

Equine heads pop out of windows and doors as the three little ponies pass by screaming. Initially they seem irritated at the interruption, but their expressions quickly shift from annoyance to alarm as they spot the creature approaching the town. Shutters are slammed, children are pulled inside, and one pink pony even faints dead away on the spot. They even--gasp--take away the 'Welcome' mats.

[calmhrtprevails]

No! Not the Welcome mats!

Well, at least they're not shooting at him. Or throwing things at him. Or- he racks his brains for what else they might be doing- magicking him, maybe, or kicking him. Something like that.

He stops and cups his hands around his mouth to call out, "You don't need to do that, you know. I'm not going to hurt anybody. I'm just lost."

It may help, it may not, but it's better than just letting the screaming go on.

[nponyc]

They'd actually have to hear you over the screaming for that to be helpful.

Within seconds, the streets are completely deserted.

...except for a different pink pony who comes bouncing by, humming to herself without a care in the world.

[calmhrtprevails]

Ah! Perhaps this is a better opportunity.

"Excuse me," calls Fawkes politely. "I wonder if I could speak to you without you running away screaming?"

[nponyc]

"I dunno, probably!" she chirps. "I scream really good, though, you wanna see?" Before Fawkes can respond, she lets out an impressive high-pitched scream, complete with Home Alone hands-on-cheeks. It's slightly less impressive with hooves, but still.

[calmhrtprevails]

"It's a very impressive scream," Fawkes says after some time. "And very impressive lung capacity, too."

Seriously. She's got to stop sometime, right?

[nponyc]

Eventually, she does wind down and drop back to all fours, panting with exertion. "Whoof... gimmie a minute..."

[calmhrtprevails]

"Take your time," Fawkes says. "I appreciate the fact that you haven't run off."

[nponyc]

"*pant*--*wheeze*--okay." She looks up, pert and energetic again. "Hi! My name's Pinkie Pie. What's yours?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"My name's Fawkes," says Fawkes. "I don't suppose you happen to know a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, do you?"

[nponyc]

:D!

"Of course I do! She's one of my best friends in the whole wide world! I mean, she's super smart and organized and helpful and everything, what's not to like? Do you want to meet her? That's a silly question, of course you want to meet her, who wouldn't want to meet a super fantastically awesomely smart pony? Nobody, that's who. Come on--:

Somehow, Pinkie Pie has gotten behind Fawkes and is actually pushing him down the street.