//------------------------------// // Mirror Image // Story: The Sword that is the Scabbard // by Boyzilla //------------------------------// The Sword that is the Scabbard Chapter 3: Mirror Image Twilight Sparkle thought that perhaps her status of being the student of Princess Celestia would be helpful in preventing certain conflicts. That, and she had a nagging feeling that she would be much safer with Shirou around. The twenty two year old human traveled just shortly behind her, eyes darting to numerous places that Twilight had little clue to why he looked to in the first place. "What's the matter, Shirou?" Twilight Sparkle asked curiously. "I don't know, I feel like we are being watched." Shirou replied to her, his hands twitching very slightly, on edge. The unicorn's eyes widened, and she attempted to look around, but her summoned human stopped her action by placing a hand on her head. Shirou whispered, "Don't act suspicious, just keep walking. Look, the food storage area is straight ahead." He finished, pointing toward the direction of a warehouse surrounded by a few granary. "How do you know so much?" Twilight whispered back. "Five years of experience." 'Five years?' Twilight thought, 'If he's been through this for five years, just where did he come from?' Approaching the warehouse, Twilight Sparkle knocked on the entrance of the building, it opened slowly, as if anticipating her arrival. She stepped inside, Shirou following closely behind. The room was quite dark, and she could feel a stone flooring beneath her hooves. With temptation creeping to her forethought, she lit up her horn and casts a simple lighting spell. The room lit up from the brightness of the spell, revealing an entire group of ponies dressing in different types of brown colored cloaks and hoods. Twilight took a step back in alarm, but then recollected herself. "I'm here to speak with your leader concerning the stolen food storages?" The nearest bandit, an young earth pony mare, walked over to her, "He's up ahead, I shall lead you too him." The bearer of Magic nodded, "Thank you," Suddenly Shirou spoke up in a whisper, "You're forced, aren't you?" The bandit's eyes widened slightly, before turning around and beginning to walk toward the direction of which the leader is located. Twilight looked up to Shirou with a raised eyebrow, before it dawned on her. "Forced, they're forced to be bandits? Then the leader must be another of the escaped villains..." She whispered to herself, following the mare with Shirou behind her. "Look at the faces of the bandits, Twilight." Shirou said, catching the unicorn's attention as she glanced at the direction of the numerous bandits. She took notice of it, identical, exactly the same, half of them were of the entire same appearance. "They're the same... Cloning spell? No, something different, clones are advanced magic and only then they last two minutes at most." Twilight whispered to herself. "Well, well, well, isn't it the esteemed student of Celestia herself... I've heard many rumors about you, Twilight Sparkle." He knew from the expression upon his master's face; Shirou Emiya could tell that she had knowledge of this particular person, and of it, he could tell that it wasn't one of friendship. This was a foe, an enemy most likely that of one of the many escaped villains Twilight spoke about. "Mirror Image..." Twilight trailed off her words. 'Mirror Image?' Shirou thought in confusion, was she referring to the villain or perhaps the correct spell of what he had used to create those identical looking bandits that surrounded them? The appearance of this stallion looked quite bland, his fur coat had a silver hue to it yet his mane held a contradicting black color, a lone horn sported on his head indicated his status as a unicorn. "How did you escape, Mirror Image?" She said out loud, looking toward the stallion unicorn. Mirror Image apparently is the name of the stallion in front of them, how odd, but Shirou wasn't one to question the naming policy of this foreign world. Suddenly his body twitched, muscles tensing as his eyes darted toward the direction of the bandit copies who began moving toward them in a charging matter. This unicorn foe apparently is not talkative type, that's fine, you shouldn't talk too much in a fight. Shirou switched on three of his magic circuits, his inner energy of Od, the living force of all humans and animals, channeled into them which absorbed the energy and began transferring it into prana at a prodigious rate. "Trace... On!" A nameless medieval blade formed itself into reality by Shirou's command, the hero struggling to be that of justice grasping its hilt with two hands. His actions surprised Twilight Sparkle who wanted to speak out only to silence herself by the realization that they were being attacked by Mirror Image's lackeys. *TANG!* Shirou parried a crude Equestrian-made blade, his eyes briefly trailed over the sword as his inner world copied and stored it for later use. He frowned as the history of the weapon came into being, the forgery of the word behind it riddled with flaws as is its use, a weapon copied numerous times incorrectly. He may also copy the blades of others, but Shirou Emiya had pride within his swords, the use of this blade mocked swordsmanship in every way except its use as a weapon. Shirou swung his blade across a diagonal arc, splitting the bandit into two pieces, or at least that would have happened otherwise. Upon striking a mortal wound, the bandit dispersed into harmless magical energy and dissipated into the air. 'These aren't clones, they're something else, I think the name Mirror Image is more literal in terms of magical copies of a single thing over and over.' He thought to himself, he felt a pull of magic emitting from Twilight Sparkle before briefly engulfed in light shortly after. He and Twilight Sparkle reappeared just a few meters away from the bandit copies and Mirror Image, at first he had thought she had used a Command Spell, but discarded that when he noticed she still retained all three of them. "What was that?" Shirou asked as he held his blade in front of him, his body positioned just a bit in front of her. "Teleportation Spell, we were surrounded, we could've died!" She exclaimed in worry. Shirou's eyes narrowed, not at Twilight, but at the incoming horde of images. They were not copies of Mirror Image himself, but some other pony, someone with more physical abilities than magical. "Stand back Twilight, let me do the fighting. I don't want to see you hurt." Shirou said, raising his sword to prepare for the incoming horde, switching a forth circuit on to create prana in order to reinforce his body's physical attributes. "You're my friend, Shirou! We'll defeat them together!" Twilight retorted as she prepared her own magical energy for combat. "No! You have to deal with Mirror Image himself, defeat him and his images should vanish. You can't handle this many opponents, leave it to me." Shirou countered, "Now go!" He exclaimed. With that, Shirou Emiya charged forward, the two-handed sword raised to his side. "Raaaaaaaaaah!" He yelled, swinging the blade down with extreme force, shattering the first image's sword in a single stroke. He quickly followed up, cutting horizontally through it before the flawed creation of Mirror Image dissipated into harmless energy. Shirou turned quickly, avoiding a weapon strike to his side, he brought the copied medieval blade soaring through the air and incapacitated the second image. He leaped back, avoiding another attack; using the momentum of gravity of his falling through the air, the moment he landed he swung the sword right through yet another's blade, breaking it apart into shards as his weapon sliced right through it and into the enemy's entire body. However, the recent weapon breaking caused his own to fall apart from the overuse. Quickly, Shirou traced into existence two nameless short swords within both his hands. The enemies were weak, though numerous, there was no reason to waste Noble Phantasms and prana on such opponents. "Grgh!" Shirou grunted as he avoided three unison attacks on his person, parrying two following strikes, he kicked the image in front of him away, before swinging both blades into the other two images that were alongside the previously kicked fake clone. His eyes caught Twilight's engagement with Mirror Image, the purple unicorn using a series of unknown magical bolts similar but not exactly like Rin's Gandr. Fast but small violet colored projectiles launching with increasing speed, impacting harshly against a mysterious barrier that looked like a large mirror-like construct. Each magical bolt creating sparks and flares of purple energy as it crashed on to the mirror shield. Emiya stepped out of the way of an incoming blade, the human's weapon pulled back from his right to his left side, before slashing out with as much strength as he could muster. The short sword came in swing, shattering the crude blade copy and going through the image like scissors to paper, however, the moment it touched the ground, Emiya's weapon collapsed into prana remnants. He clenched his teeth, a downside to his tracing, normal weaponry cost next to nothing but shatter easily when met with great force due to the strength he exerted when using them. However, they were not affected by the downgrading of bringing the weapons into reality from his inner world displayed in Noble Phantasms. The Hero of Justice brought his left blade to bear, parrying attacks as he weaved himself out of the way. Once again, Shirou traced the same nameless short sword into existence within the grip of his right hand, appearing forth with a display of bright blue light and arcing electric-like effects around his palm. 'This is taking to long, how many of them are there?' Shirou thought to himself as he crossed the two swords in his hands, blocked an improvised attack, he immediately countered by pushing forward with the crossed blades and then swinging them both in unison across each other, prana fueling his body's reinforcement and of the swords he carried. The result caused him to utterly annihilate another three images that had gotten in front of him, dispersing into energy as their forms were cut apart into pieces due to Shirou's counter attack. Rightly so, Emiya's traced swords shattered from the excessive force. He might have spent five years training his limited abilities, but his Tracing still had flaws he had yet to correct, structuring he had yet to understand and compensate. He took a few deep breaths, glancing around him to see half a dozen images still remained around him. His attention quickly turned to Twilight, whom seemed to have forgone the use of magical bolts, and teleported to the side to avoid a image that Mirror Image himself had just created. 'Twilight's having trouble, she's not used to combat.' Shirou thought to himself, 'I got to help you, alright, I have an idea!' He stood up tall, and raised his hands in a readied position, he could feel the four currently activated circuits burn in his body as Od channeled through them and converted into prana. "Trace... On." A longbow formed within Emiya's left hand, and an arrow appeared in his right. He leaped back, avoiding a sword strike from one of those fake images, and landed on top of a elevated platform. He put the arrow into his boy, pulling back the string as his breathing calmed, eyes focusing on the mirror-like barrier that disrupted Twilight's magical attacks. He poured prana into the arrow, reinforcing it to its maximum extend. But he knew that simple reinforcing would not penetrate the barrier enough to let Twilight get an advantage, and so... Shirou took a deep breath, before saying the words. "I am the bone of my sword." Instantly, ten of his magic circuits burst into life, Od flooding into them with like a painful electric current, prana being produced in waves as it poured into the arrow which began to emit a yellow light. For five years, Shirou has been looking for some sort of meaning to his inner world, strangely enough, this simple sentence seemed to feel like it defined him. It completed him, yet at the same time, it felt incomplete. He released the arrow, it soared through air with great speed, breaking through the resistance of air pressure as it passed by the groups of images. Within mere seconds the arrow impacted against the mirror-like barrier, and shattered it into shards of magical energy, but destroying the shield that protected Mirror Image was all the arrow could accomplish as it too dispersed into harmless prana. "What the-!" Was all Mirror Image manage to exclaim as Twilight Sparkle, even though astonished, reacted quickly to the situation. Her horn lit up with powerful magics, and a great bolt of violet color flew from her it and struck the surprised stallion. "Gah!" The unicorn foe exclaimed as he stumbled and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. The fake clones, images, all dispersed into harmless energy as Mirror Image was defeated by the combination of Shirou Emiya and Twilight Sparkle. Shirou let his weapons vanish from his grasp as he jumped back down and rushed toward Twilight. "Are you hurt?" He asked in concern. She breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath. "I'm... Fine... Mors was more difficult than this battle..." The unicorn said in between gasps for air. Both of them turned their attention to the painfully groaning Mirror Image, who looked up to them in expressions of fear. Shirou knocked him out shortly after. Twilight said, "We will bring him back to town, and let them give out judgement. They have magic inhibitors for unicorns like him." She finished, having now caught her breathing. With that, Shirou carried Mirror Image, Twilight convinced the forced bandits to return back to their homes, they having been relieved now that they no longer had to be villainous, and made their way toward Seaddle.