//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Blessed Are The Peacekeepers // Story: Dragon Age: Equestria // by OkemosBrony //------------------------------// Twilight surveyed the Breach from the Inquisition camp, a few small tears starting to pool in her eyes. Its sickening green glow lit up the sky, even in the dark of night. She heard footsteps behind her. “You’re up late,” the Inquisitor said. “I know,” she sighed. “Worried about the Breach?” he asked, sitting down next to her. She nodded silently in response. “It’s understandable. I know it can seem hopeless, but you can’t lose hope. The night is long and the path is dark, but the dawn will come.” He laughed softly to himself. “Someone back in Thedas sang that to the Inquisition after we were attacked in our home of Haven. I suppose it’s better sung than spoken, but I can’t sing to save my life.” He looked at Twilight. “All you need is something to hold onto to give you hope. An idea, a person, a place, anything.” Twilight remembered her friends back in Ponyville. “Did you have anything like that?” He nodded. “Which one of those?” “People,” he said hollowly. “I had my clan back home, but I haven’t seen them since I left.” He paused and looked intently at the fire. “And I had someone that I loved. But...we can’t now.” “You can’t?” she repeated. “Why not?” “It’s complicated. We’re still friends, but we can no longer see each other.” “That sounds difficult.” “It is. But I still have my friends, and at least the problem is solved in Thedas.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, just looking at the Breach. “It’ll be alright,” he reassured Twilight. “I promise.” He stood up, then started walking towards his tent. “We’ll leave in the morning. I don’t think we can close the Breach just yet, but we can at least stop it from expanding.” Twilight stood by her chariot, anxiously awaiting the Inquisitor’s arrival. He walked up wearing the same dull red coat as yesterday, and three others were with him. “Are you ready to go?” she asked the group. “As much as we will be. These are my companions, by the way,” he said, pointing to the others with him. “Vivienne, Cassandra, and Iron Bull.” “Is he a minotaur?” Twilight asked, pointing to Iron Bull. “Minotaur? I wish!” he said excitedly. “Nope, just qunari. All the horns, none of the ugliness of being half-goat.” “You keep telling yourself that,” Vivienne muttered under her breath. “We should leave now,” Cassandra said, walking up to the chariot. “The sooner we can close the Breach, the better.” The companions piled into Twilight’s chariot, their large size almost giving Twilight no room to sit down. The pegasi pulling it grunted at the additional weight, but managed to take flight eventually. “Pretty cool,” Iron Bull remarked, looking out the side of the chariot. “Hey boss, how much you think these cost?” “We don’t have flying horses where we are,” Cassandra pointed out. “Ponies,” the Inquisitor corrected. “There a difference?” Iron Bull asked. “These ones can talk.” “How much do you think it would cost to hire these guys?” “They’re Royal Guards,” Twilight spoke up. “They can’t really be bought like that.” “Damn,” he muttered under his breath. “How much for guys like this?” “What would you even do with a flying chariot?” Vivienne asked. “I dunno,” he laughed. “But come on, the possibilities are endless! Imagine just flying into battle in a golden chariot pulled by flying horses, then jumping out and making as dramatic an entrance as possible. That would be awesome!” “Not to mention incredibly impractical.” “I had no idea mages didn’t know how to have fun.” “It’s not mages,” Cassandra corrected. “I think that would be a ridiculous action.” “Come on, boss,” Iron Bull pleaded to the Inquisitor. “Help me out, won’t you?” “You’d probably hurt yourself jumping out that high up,” the Inquisitor pointed out. “Then you’d just be a pile of broken bones on the ground.” “Bah!” Iron Bull vented in frustration. “You’re all no fun.” “So I take it you’re all friends?” Twilight asked with a small smile. “Friends?” Vivienne echoed. “Dear, I hope not.” “Don’t lie, Viv,” Iron bull said. “Deep down, you care for me.” “If I say yes, will you go away?” “Yes.” “Then yes.” “All I needed,” he chuckled, leaning back in his seat. The party continued the rest of the flight in silence, all of them looking out over the land below them. “We’re getting close, Princess!” one of the pegasi wheezed as they got close to Canterlot. “Where are you dropping us?” the Inquisitor asked Twilight. “Mount Canter,” Twilight replied. “The Breach is at the summit.” “Sounds good,” he said, picking up his staff. The rest of the Inquisition members picked up their weapons, as well. The pegasi brought the chariot down, and after a rough landing on the rocky surface, the five all jumped out. “Up ahead!” the Inquisitor pointed out. “There’s one of the Rifts!” “This is going to get good,” Iron Bull said excitedly to himself as they all pulled out their weapons. Private Armored Ward pulled his lance out of the big red fire-spitting creature that had spilled out of the hole in the sky. It threw its arms up into the air and dissolved back into the hole, no doubt to come out again later. Taking a moment to breathe, he did not even notice the green circle appear around his hooves. One of the green creatures jumped out and knocked him on his back, throwing his lance far to the side. As the beast raised its claws in preparation to strike him, he put his hooves over his face. He didn’t want to die. Not all alone. Not by some hideous creature. All of a sudden, he felt a wave of cold rush over him. When he didn’t feel the creature bring its claws down on him, he slowly moved his hooves and looked at the creature, which was now frozen solid. “How…?” Before he could finish his thought, another creature that looked different than anything that came out of the holes in the sky ran by and ran into the frozen creature, shattering it and knocking it onto the ground. The creature dissolved into the hole, and a beam of light shot out of it to something behind him. Turning around, he saw a tall and thin creature holding up its left arm, where the light was going towards. It swiped its arm to the side, and then he could hear a massive explosion. When he looked back to where the hole had been, it was simply gone; no light, no monsters pouring out of it. “That was awesome!” the pony on the ground yelled, hopping up to his hooves. Upon seeing Twilight, a look of fear immediately spread on his face as he snapped to salute. “P-Princess Twilight!” he stuttered. “It’s fine. You don’t need to do...that,” she said, pointing at the overly stiff salute he was doing. “Right,” he uttered to himself, stopping the salute. “And...who are they?” he asked, pointing at the Inquisitor. “I am the Inquisitor,” Mahanon replied. “And with me are Vivienne, Cassandra, and Iron Bull.” “‘Sup,” Iron Bull said with a slight nod of his head. “I...damn, I’ve got so many questions for you,” the pony said to himself. “Anyways, I’m Private Armored Ward. We were patrolling here when that hole in the sky appeared and started spewing monsters.” He glanced over at some of the dead bodies around them. “I’m the only one that survived.” “How do we get up there?” Twilight asked, pointing up at the Breach. “That path over there.” The Private pointed to a small path winding up Mount Canter. As they started to walk towards the path, the Private ran in front of them. “Inquisitor, wait!” he called out. “Please, let me join you. Those things killed all my friends, I have to be with you when you close the hole in the sky!” “So long as you can hold yourself in a fight,” Mahanon replied. “Yeah! Wait…” Armored Ward stood there for a moment with a quizzical expression on his face, then ran back and picked up his lance. “Knew I forgot something. Anyways, onward!” As the party walked up the steep and narrow mountain path, they would occasionally look off to the side to see the land below them. Fade Rifts had opened up all around the mountain, and the ponies were fighting off wave after wave of demons in a futile attempt to stop them from spilling out into the world. “Look,” Cassandra said, pointing down the base of the mountain. “There’s red lyrium here, just like at the Temple of Sacred Ashes.” “Oh, those crystals?” Armored Ward spoke up. “Yeah, that stuff’s been growing ever since the hole opened. We’ve been trying to take some and see what we can do with it, but obviously, getting near it and removing it is hard with all those holes opening up.” “Wait,” Mahanon said, stopping the party. “You’re taking red lyrium and using it?” “Are we not supposed to?” he asked innocently. “Red lyrium does real crazy shit to you,” Iron Bull added. “Makes you go crazy, and over time, it fuses with your body until you’re nothing but some red lyrium abomination in constant agony.” “That doesn’t sound good,” Twilight said morbidly. “Neither of you have touched it, right? Or spent lots of time near it?” Cassandra asked worriedly, her hand moving discreetly to her sword. “I haven’t,” Armored Ward said. “I’m just a soldier. Go and fight where I’m told to. It’s mostly the scientists that handle that stuff.” “I haven’t gotten any of it either,” Twilight said. “Though I remember reading some letters from Princess Celestia about it. I don’t think she’s been handling it, either, though.” “We’ll warn them after we seal the Breach,” Vivienne spoke up. “Right now, we have to stop the Fade from collapsing onto this world.” The party continued climbing the mountain path until eventually, they reached a large, flat area near the top where another Fade Rift was located. More ponies were fighting there than at the one where Armored Ward was, but judging by the bodies piled around, it was a fraction of the force that had ascended the mountain. “Ready!” Mahanon yelled, pulling out his staff. The rest of the party pulled out their weapons as well, and he felt Vivienne’s barrier engulf him. The battle began with Mahanon’s favorite spell: Static Cage. He cast it around a despair demon that had opened its hood and was too busy shooting beams of ice at a pony struggling to hold up her shield to notice the ring of electricity surrounding it. The rest of his companions except for Twilight, who was slowly backing her way down the mountain path in fear, had chosen their own targets and were helping the ponies fight off the demons. While he used his ice staff on the demon while waiting for his mana to regenerate enough to cast Spirit Mark, Mahanon silently cursed how seemingly everything he encountered resisted ice spells. Or at least, he always ran into enemies that resisted his specific staff’s element. By the time he was able to cast Spirit Mark, Iron Bull and the few ponies he was helping had killed their rage demon and focused on the despair demon. When it died, its body turned instead to a glowing blue spirit which turned on its former demon allies. When all the demons were defeated, Mahanon dismissed the spirit. Its energy went into the Rift, which opened up in preparation for a new wave of demons to spill out. “Twilight!” Mahanon called, startling the Princess. “Come join us!” “I don’t really know how to fight!” she yelled back, afraid. “Don’t worry, Princess!” one of the ponies called to her. “We’ll protect you! It’s our duty!” Nervously, she walked up next to Mahanon and looked up at him. “You sure about this?” she asked worriedly. “We’ll be fine,” he reassured her. When the Rift spit out the next wave of demons, it spit out shades. Mahanon again felt Vivienne’s barrier around him, and while most of the shades attacked other members of the fight, two of the honed in on Mahanon and Twilight and started moving towards them. “They’re coming straight at us!” Twilight panicked, her horn lighting up. “Not yet,” Mahanon said confidently. He spread his arms and legs wide, lowered his head to the ground, and channeled energy through his arms in preparation for casting a Horror spell. “What are you doing?” Twilight yelled at him. Not even responding, Mahanon focused on where he was going to cast the spell and when the shades would get there. When they did, he thrust his staff into the ground, causing the image of a great black skull to jump out of the ground and making Twilight’s wings to pop up in startlement. “What was that?” she yelled. The shades stopped dead in their tracks before scurrying away like bugs whose rock they were hiding under was suddenly lifted. “That one, on the right!” Mahanon ordered, starting to cast spells from his staff at it. Twilight did as he ordered, shooting a few beams of magic from her horn at the fleeing shade. The two quickly defeated it, then focused on the second shade, which was still fleeing. Mahanon quickly launched a Walking Bomb spell at it, causing a purple light to appear in the shade’s test. The two launched spells at it, and when it died, it exploded in a sound Mahanon found disturbingly satisfying. “The Rift is open!” Cassandra shouted to Mahanon. He put his staff on his back and put up his left hand, using the Anchor to seal the rift. When he did, he threw his hand to the left, causing an explosion. The ponies all cheered before realizing, just as Armored Ward had, that Twilight was with them. They all saluted towards her, although much less shakily than he had. “At ease, all of you,” Twilight said. “We’re glad to see you’re okay, Princess,” one of the ponies said, walking up to her. “But really, what are you doing here?” “We’re here to close the Breach,” she said, pointing up towards it. “And...who are they?” he asked, pointing at the Inquisition. “They’re the Inquisition, and they claim they know how to close it.” The pony looked at Twilight strangely, and she just shook her head and held up a hoof. “Long story.” “Whatever they are, we owe them a debt of gratitude. How was it you were able to close that thing?” “The Rift?” Mahanon held up his left hand, which sputtered with magic. “With this.” “With a hand?” the pony asked. “Or that thing on it?” “The thing on it is the Anchor,” he explained. “It’s connected to the Fade, which is where the Rifts are a connection to. I don’t much understand it either, but it works, and that’s all that matters.” “Fascinating,” he muttered under his breath. “And you don’t look like anything we’ve ever seen around here. What are you?” “I am an elf,” he said, pointing at himself. “Cassandra and Vivienne over there are humans, and Iron Bull is-” “Minotaur, right?” “Shit, are minotaurs real here?” Iron Bull proclaimed. “Because I’d sure like to meet one. I always thought they were real ugly, so I really hope the ones here aren’t. I’d hate to find out being called a minotaur is actually a kick in the pants here.” “...He’s qunari.” “Ah.” The pony pawed at the ground nervously. “Don’t really know what that is, but...well, I suppose now I do.” “What’s the fastest way up to the Breach?” Twilight asked. “The Breach?” he repeated. “Oh right, the big hole in the sky. Over there.” He pointed to another path going up the mountain, which was less steep and wider. “We’ll go up first,” Mahanon said. “You trail behind us and be ready for whatever is there.” “Right.” He turned to the rest of the ponies, who saluted him. “Guards, in formation!” They quickly moved into formation, and he turned back around. “Whenever you’re ready, uhh…?” “‘Inquisitor’ is fine.” He turned to his companions, who were now standing with Armored Ward. “Come on. We need to get to the summit.” The group started walking up the next mountain path. “None of you have touched any of the red crystals growing out of this mountain, right?” Cassandra asked the ponies. “No ma’am,” the captain replied. “Been too busy fighting those things to be able to go around touching everything.” “Good,” she replied. “It’s red lyrium.” After a few seconds of silence, the captain spoke up again. “Is that supposed to mean anything to me?” “I’ll explain later. But red lyrium is never good.” The group continued the rest of the climb in silence, everyone focused on their objective. When they reached the summit, there was a closed Fade Rift larger than all the others hanging high in the sky. “That’s it?” Twilight asked. “Perfect! You can just close it like you did the others.” “It’s not that simple,” he said, moving up to it. “This one is much larger. We’re going to need lots more power to close it completely. All we can do for now is stop its spread.” As we walked closer to the Rift, the Anchor suddenly caused an overload of pain to go shooting through his body, causing him to fall to his knees. “Inquisitor!” Cassandra yelled worriedly, and the whole group ran up to him. Fighting through the pain, he held his hand up and aimed the Anchor at the Rift, which eventually split open. Instead of demons spilling out, the image of Coryphaeus manifested instead. “Coryphaeus?” Vivienne asked to make sure she was seeing correctly. “Didn’t we kill him?” “This is in the past,” Cassandra replied. “It happened when we stopped the Breach when we first met the Inquisitor.” In the image, Coryphaeus walked up to a blank rock face, then studied it intently. Putting up his hand, a few small beams of light shot out of it, and the rock wall disappeared to reveal the Orb of Destruction on a pedestal surrounded by glowing fire. He held up his hand again, which dispersed the fire. Picking up the Orb, he smiled deviously, then walked away. “What was that?” Twilight asked. “Perhaps the Orb was not supposed to be taken from this spot,” Vivienne suggested. “And Coryphaeus taking it disrupted some natural order that ultimately caused the Breach.” “But you said the Breach was only here for a few months,” Mahanon said, still weak from pain. “Maybe it opened after the Orb was destroyed?” “Whatever caused the Breach, we must close it,” Cassandra said firmly. She helped Mahanon up, who then put an arm around her to keep from falling. “Ready, everyone?” he asked. Iron Bull and all the Royal Guards roared in agreement, Cassandra and Vivienne shot him confident looks, and Twilight just stood there looking nervous. He held his hand up to the Rift, and the link between it and Anchor was created. When the Rift split open, the form of a pride demon came out. “It’s one of the big ones!” the Guard captain yelled. “Guards, get ready!” They all let out a rallying cry, but Mahanon simply held his hand up again and used the Anchor to cast the Mark of the Rift on the demon, swallowing it up and banishing it back to the Fade. “...Success…?” one of the Guards asked. The Guards all remained quiet for a few seconds before erupting in cheering. “Well that was anticlimactic,” Iron Bull said, a little sad he wasn’t able to fight another demon. Holding up the Anchor again, Mahanon aimed once again at the Rift. The connection was established again, and the Rift exploded with force so massive that they were all knocked back. Just like at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, the force with which the Rift had fought back knocked Mahanon unconscious.