Mahanon woke up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar house. He smiled lightly; at least he had known to expect being knocked unconscious and waking up in a strange place this time. Saving the world was easy once you knew what to expect.
Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he looked around where he was. The ceiling was short and the whole space was cramped, so he figured it was built for ponies, not anything full-sized. Shakily making his way to the front door, he opened it and had the full force of the sun meet his eyes.
Shielding himself from the blinding rays, he walked out, then put his arm down to get a better look at the camp. It still had the camps the Inquisition used on the coast, but with a few houses, some in better shape than others. A great stone wall rose around the city, which Mahanon took comfort in.
“Inquisitor!” Twilight called out, walking up to him and smiling. “I’m so glad you’re up! I thought you were going to die!” she cried out worriedly.
“I was going to be fine,” he laughed. “Happened to me once before, I knew what to expect.” He looked around once again, then settled his view on Twilight. “Where are we?”
“We’re at the Inquisition’s Equestrian forward camp!” she said excitedly. “It was an old Royal Guard outpost that was abandoned, so we took it over since it has places to stay and is pretty safe out here. Welcome to Neighven!”
“Neighven?” the Inquisitor asked.
“Yeah,” Twilight responded. “Neighven.”
“Did you choose that name, or did someone else?”
“It was always named Neighven,” she replied, not sure why he was confused. “Why?”
“I...you know what? It’s not important.”
“Okay…” Twilight said, somewhat weirded out by the conversation. “Anyways, we need to see you in the command center.”
“There’s not anyone trying to get me imprisoned, is there?” he asked, walking with Twilight towards the large building overlooking the rest of the fortress.
“Why would they do that?” Twilight asked, even more confused than before. “You saved lots of Royal Guards, closed some Rifts, and stopped the Breach from expanding. Why would we want you imprisoned?”
Mahanon simply laughed. “I suppose in Thedas, we have other ways of showing our appreciation for things like that.”
“By...throwing people who save you in jail?”
“People were just worried,” he said dismissively. “They thought I had killed the Divine, the leader of the Chantry, which oversees religion in Thedas. So naturally, they weren’t too fond of me at the start.”
“Why did they think that?”
“Wrong place, wrong time. She died when the Breach opened, and I was the only one alive. You have to admit it didn’t look good for me.”
“Did they not ask you what happened?”
“If only it were like that,” he said warmly. “The Inquisition believed me. But the Chantry wanted nothing to do with me, partly because people believed the Anchor was given to me by the goddess Andraste. So they started calling me the Herald of Andraste, which the Chantry took as a threat against them. They thought I wanted to undermine their authority.”
“Wouldn’t they be excited if Andraste sent down a Herald in their time of need?”
“Wondered that myself for a while.” They reached the command center and opened the large wooden doors, which opened into a large hallway with numerous smaller hallways spitting off in every direction. “It’s so big,” Mahanon noted when they walked in.
“The room they’ve set up as the war room should be through here,” Twilight said, turning down one of the numerous hallways. They walked through a maze of cramped and musty hallways, which he figured hadn’t been used for ages.
They finally reached a smaller door, which Twilight opened and walked into. Being built for ponies, Mahanon had to duck down when he entered, but once inside, the ceiling rose high into the sky, giving him plenty of room.
There was one wooden table in the center of the room, which looked as though it had been there since the fortress had abandoned. Scout Harding stood at it studying a map, while Cassandra stood off to the side, leaning up against one of the walls.
“Good to see you’re up, Inquisitor,” Cassandra said as she noticed his entrance.
“Come here and I’ll show you what we’ve done so far,” Scout Harding said, beckoning him over. He walked to the other side of the table where she was, then leaned far down to be level with the table.
“Is this a map of this continent?” Mahanon asked, looking at the unrecognizable shape on the map.
“Indeed.” Scout Harding pointed to a red X on the map in an area called the Unicorn Range. “That’s where we are.” She pointed to a green X on a mountain near a city named Canterlot. “That’s where the Breach is.” Finally, she pointed to another red X north of a city named Los Pegasus. “And that’s where we landed. They have these crazy motorized carriages here called ‘trains’, and we were able to use them to take some of our things up here. But they only got us so far, and we still have a lot of gear out in the wilderness being transported here. We all came here first because we wanted to get everything settled.”
“Princess,” Cassandra spoke up, “Didn’t you say you were going to ask another Princess to send us aid?”
“I did,” Twilight responded, defeated. “She says she’ll send what she can, but it’s not a lot since most of Equestria’s resources are going to closing the Rifts.”
“Have we contacted the Inquisition back at Skyhold?” Mahanon asked.
“We can’t just yet,” Harding said, a little disappointment in her voice. “We only took one ship here, and we haven’t unloaded everything. And then once we do, sending the ship back to Thedas means we’re stuck here for another two months while it sails there and back.”
“We can’t operate with this few people,” he proclaimed. “We need advisors, soldiers, anyone we can get out hands on.”
“I already thought of all the people we’ll need,” Cassandra said, pulling a crumpled-up sheet of paper out of one of her pockets and passing it to him.
“Let’s see...military advisor and/or general, spymaster, diplomat, informants, soldiers, an apothecary, a blacksmith, a researcher...I’m not going to read these all.”
“I can send this to Celestia,” Twilight said, taking it in her magic. Looking at the paper intently, there was a bright purple flash, and all of a sudden, the paper was gone.
“What was that?” Cassandra jumped.
“Saw one of the Guards do that a few days ago in camp,” Harding said with a smile. “Something about instantly sending letters to others. Surprised no one in Thedas has managed to find a way to do that yet.”
“It’s not the best system,” Twilight said. “Dragon fire is a much more efficient way to send messages, but we don’t have one with us here now.”
“Last dragon fire I encountered burned my eyebrows off,” Cassandra said.
“I promise you won’t have to deal with that again,” Twilight giggled.
“If everything’s done here, I plan to go check out the camp,” Mahanon announced.
“I’ll show you around,” Twilight said happily.
“You know where to find us, Inquisitor,” Harding said, returning to her map.
Twilight lead him through the maze of the command center before re-emerging into the cool spring air. Around the fortress was a thick forest, which seemed to block almost all light trying to escape down to the ground. As the fortress was on a hill, Mahanon could look out over the mountains, where the forest seemed to go on forever, blanketing the entire world in green. Peeking over the also densely forested mountain in the distance was the Breach, a grim reminder of why he was no longer in Thedas.
“Inquisitor!” an eager voice called out. Mahanon turned to the source of the voice to see Armored Ward running up to him.
“Good to see you, Private Ward,” he said with a smile.
“Just call me Ward,” he said, waving his hoof. “All my friends do.”
“Well, Ward, I would’ve thought you’d be reassigned to another squadron since your old one was all killed.”
“Princess Twilight got me to be transferred here,” he said proudly. “I’m a part of the Inquisition now!”
“We’re happy to have you, Ward.”
Ward shot a quick salute his way, then turned around and ran back to wherever it was he came from.
“Anybody else I should know that’s moved in?” Mahanon asked.
“Not really,” Twilight replied. “The rest of your companions arrived, but some of your scouts and foot soldiers are still bringing things up, as Scout Harding said.”
“Do you have any ideas on what our next move is going to be?”
“No,” Twilight said sadly. “I don’t even know why I’m here. I’ve never really done anything like this before, so I feel like I’m not adding much.”
“I felt the same way when I found out I was the Herald. You’ll find your way, I’m sure of it.”
Twilight smiled, then her horn lit up. “Quick!” she said, panicked. “Get me some paper!”
“Some...paper?” he asked.
“Yes! And quick!”
“I...suppose maybe there’s some inside the command center, but I-”
Twilight screamed, then a mass of black light shot out of her horn as she aimed it towards the ground.
“...What was that…?”
“Princess Celestia’s response to our letter,” Twilight panted. “The words just come out. If you don’t put them on paper, they just spill wherever you point your horn at.”
Mahanon grimaced. “Doesn’t sound like the best form of communication.”
“It’s not,” she admitted. “That’s why I said why dragonfire is better.”
“I suppose we shouldn’t let this go to waste, then,” he said, moving next to Twilight and reading the message now etched into the dirt.
Dear Twilight Sparkle and the Inquisition,
Many of the things you requested cannot be provided at the time. I will try and relocate ponies to help you, though there are a few ponies I know of that you could go and get yourselves:
For a chief diplomat, I suggest Fancypants, the Canterlot elite. I do not know exactly where he is hiding, although I believe he may be hiding in his cabin near Neighagra Falls. He is very well connected, and if you go to him, he will likely help you.
Twilight, I know you will not be happy to hear this, but the pony I believe is best suited for role as a spymaster is Trixie Lulamoon. She may be arrogant and you two may have a bad history, but she has traveled far and wide and is a master of overhearing secrets and using them to her advantage. She was last seen in Baltimare, though she may have moved on since then.
However, I do know of a general you would like: Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire. He is still in the Crystal Empire, so he is unavailable for the time being, but I expect him and Princess Cadence will be joining you shortly, without need for a rescue.
Good luck to both you and the Inquisition.
-Princess Celestia
“I suppose that’s a better lead than anything,” Mahanon said. “I seem to understand you don’t enjoy the Princess’ choice of spymaster, however?”
“Just make sure to keep an eye on her,” Twilight said with annoyance in her voice. “She just likes everypony to be looking at her.”
“Doesn’t sound like the best choice for a spymaster, then,” he pointed out.
“I trust Princess Celestia. And she does have a lot of ponies that follow her, they’d be willing to work for the Inquisition if she asked them to. Two colts in Ponyville even once released an ursa minor just to see her vanquish it like she claimed she had.”
“An ursa minor? I have never heard of that.”
“Nopony’s ever mentioned them since it happened,” Twilight pointed out. “A lot of things seem to happen like that.”
“Odd. And do you know the Prince she suggested?”
“He’s my brother!” Twilight said happily. “He’ll help us, for sure.”
“Sounds good.” He looked down at Twilight and smiled. “Sounds like we should start rounding up the advisors, then. Do you have any suggestions on which one to go after first?”
“Not really,” she shook her head. “Fancypants sounds like he’ll be easier to find, since we know where he is. But Trixie is easier to get to. It’s up to you, really.”
“Guess this tour of camp will have to wait.” He looked down at the letters in the dirt. “Are those permanent, or…?”
“I think?” Twilight said, trying to recall some long-forgotten knowledge. “Yes, yes they are.”
“Well then.” The two just stared at the letter for a while. “Well, on the bright side, I suppose Neighven has its first decorations.”