//------------------------------// // Siege Fire // Story: The Sword that is the Scabbard // by Boyzilla //------------------------------// The Sword that is the Scabbard Chapter 5: Siege Fire Twilight Sparkle stealthy walked to the best of her ability, sneaking toward the planned place, the Void Scar, in which she would meet with Shirou Emiya after he had successfully halted the siege weapons in the changeling's control. In all honestly to herself, she had doubts that her newly acquired human 'servant' could manage to destroy siege weaponry without getting caught at all. No offense to his skills, but Shirou did not seem like one sneak around. Then again, perhaps it was best not to underestimate him. She had many too many mistakes, so many that it ailed her heart. Perhaps one of the major mistakes was her overestimation of her own abilities and skills, thinking that she could handle someone like the pyrokinetic minotaur, Mors, by her lonesome. She needed her friends, the ones who stood beside her through thick and thin for such a long while, the ones who helped her beat both Nightmare Moon and Discord. They were always strongest when together, and it wasn't just because that they were the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, but primary the reason lied in their strength as a team, a team of friends. The purple unicorn hid behind a tall formation of rocks, keeping her breathing silent despite her heart pumping anxiously at the slightest chance of being discovered. 'Twilight you're stupid, why didn't you just listen? Shirou will find out eventually, what will he think of me if he figures it out when we meet Fluttershy? Maybe he'll just ignore it? Perhaps I'll get lucky and he won't know? No, he'll figure it out, he's smart... Although a bit suicidal...' The bearer of Magic thought to herself. She shook her head, recollecting her focus, 'Now's not the time, you got to concentrate on getting out of here with Shirou first!' Twilight suddenly could smell the familiar scent of ash. The unicorn took a glance to the side, looking toward the direction of the changeling encampment. Her eyes caught sight of Shirou, moving quickly, a single blade in his hand. That blade, the sight of that single sword, froze Twilight Sparkle to the core as her mind tried desperately to wrap around on how he could possess it. 'That- That is Mors Flamma's sword!' Twilight thought, nearly saying it out loud. 'Didn't he destroy it though? The shards of it were sealed after it was found in the fires! So how did he obtain it and repair it?' Twilight Sparkle bit her lip, 'Stop getting distracted, you can't act like a little filly at a time like this! Void Scar, Void Scar, Void Scar...' She trailed off her thought as she approached her destination. Shirou Emiya made his way down a steep hillside, pebbles beneath his feet lodging out of their homes and falling down to the lower levels as the living human servant stopped himself just behind a sizable boulder. He leaned just a bit to the right, allowing him to see his targets. There were a grand total of twelve siege constructs, each of them nearing completion. Changeling patrols guarded the area as others worked diligently on the weaponry. 'So these are changelings?' Shirou thought to himself as he observed one of them. They were quite identical to Twilight's physical appearance in terms of shape, however they had black chitin instead of smooth fur coats. Also, the changelings held both horn and wing appendages, like a combination of both a unicorn and pegasus turned into a insect-like creature. He noticed that a few hovered, indicating they had flight capabilities. By the knowledge of what they were building, and having seen a few pegasus back within both Pony Cities. The siege weaponry was meet to disable enemy flying combatants, allowing air superiority to the changeling forces. It is possible that Los Pegasus' main regiment is a type of air force, and the main city will lose a huge defensive advantage should the changelings have their 'net guns'. If Shirou was alone, he could probably trace some sort of noble phantasm that would cause a large area explosion, effectively destroying all the siege weaponry and ridding vast amounts of enemy troops. However, killing such large amounts of people were against the ideals an Hero of Justice strives for, unlike Mirror Image's copies, these were real living sentient beings. Not to mention, an explosive of that size would kill Twilight from the blast radius alone. The siege machines are made out of wooden materials however, if he destroyed those with some sort of mass fire, not only would they have to reconstruct them, but also the fires would spread to their other resources, effectively ridding those as well and forcing the changelings to fall back for supplies. Can't have net-firing devices with no nets to speak of after all. But, what would cause a type of fire of that much wide area spread? He felt his inner world shift to this question, revealing in his mind a number of potential choices, there were only a few, but one in particular caught Shirou's attention. "Trace..." He said to himself, feeling two of his twenty-seven circuits fire on, "On." A dim flash of light erupts in his hand, a long sword forming within Shirou's hold. He could feel the drain on his circuits, he underestimated the cost of the weapon. This nameless sword, once held by Mors Flamma, had to ability to create a wide range of flames with a single stroke of its blade. Of course, normally fires like these would be ineffective against opponents because the fire would pass through them for only a very brief moment, dealing very little burn damage. The main use of its magical ability is more along the lines of demolition. However, it appeared that this weapon drew upon the surrounding mana to use its attributes. The fact that it did that would explain why it costed him as much prana as a D-rank noble phantasm, despite it's more E-rank offensive magic. A thought past Shirou's mind if perhaps all weapons in this world drew on mana from its surroundings, but he didn't have enough experience in this world to justify that yet. 'I can see why Rin says my mind wanders too much sometimes...' Shirou inwardly chuckled at his own expense, imagining the tsundere mage pointing a finger at him while lecturing about something. 'Let's hope my unicorn master ain't the same... Though let's face it, with my luck she'll be as troublesome as Rin.' Shirou Emiya stood up with sword at hand, aiming it toward the general direction of the first of many siege machines. He brought it diagonally to his side, before slashing downward to his other. The magical properties of the traced weapon activating, conjuring forth a wave of reddish orange fire and lighting up the target area. This action caught the attention of all nearby changelings, whom scrambled about to drowse the flames with anything they could find. It was quite a comical sight if Shirou didn't know they were trying to invade a city. The living Servant's active magic circuits hummed and burned within him, generating their maximum output of prana as he used the energy to keep the traced blade of Mors Flamma in existence, preventing whatever force of this realm from trying to correct and destroy the weapon. Shirou came out of his hiding place, and rushed toward the position of where his other targets were placed. His speed was phenomenal, almost like a blur but yet still could be seen with the naked eye. Though in the future, he would get much faster with experience and development. His feet skid across the ground briefly, dust being thrown into the air as he stopped his movement suddenly. Our Hero of Justice gripped his weapon with both hands, and then released another blast of flame, destroying entire swaths of the siege constructs. The entire area burned as the wooden framework turned into charred remains. Black pillars of smoke rising to the air, embers climbing alongside it as the changeling forces desperately tried to halt the spreading fires, only to fail. Shirou kept his breathing in check, he wasn't exhausted nor was he low on od, sure Mors Flamma's weapon might cost prana to keep. But in comparison to many other weapons he's projected before in the past, this was but a love tap. Plus, it also helped that his reserves restored themselves more quickly due to the pact between himself and Twilight, that purple unicorn was a massive reservoir of mana. Shirou's senses picked up the change of movements, the changelings now had divided themselves between trying to rid the fires and finding the culprit behind it. Well, his mission was successful, the changelings would be forced to retreat and resupply, it's now time for him to meet his master at the Void Scar. He moved as quickly as he could, speeding through the open flames. He heard the outcry of a changeling, which were followed by screams of anger as they soon figured out he was the one responsible. Shirou's five year honed survival instincts screamed at him, allowing the swordsman to spin quickly and block a few sickly green bolts directed at him with the blunt side of the blade. He could feel the blade be stressed, his mind quickly picking out a crucial detail. 'Ah, Mors Flamma's blade is simply a decorative tool. The sword itself is terrible, but the magical ability behind is its primary means of offense.' Shirou thought to himself, letting the weapon disperse into prana particles, and bringing forth into existence a zero point seventy-five meter long roman spatha. The roman spatha, a more advanced sword coming around in the first century, slowly replaced it's more popular known gladius. This weapon had a longer reach, and a sharper point which later down the road, would be modified by the vikings into their own weapons. But more memorably to Shirou, was that this same weapon would be the basis in which knightly swords were to be created. However, for the meantime, this traced construct is lighter and smaller, yet still gives that extra arms length he needs in order to preform his next action. 'Wait, are those crossbows attached to their hooves?' Shirou thought in shock, seeing a small number of changelings then arm their crossbows with arrows, and launch towards him. The human servent brought forth the roman spatha, and deflected the arrows that would have had made contact with his body, the rest of them bouncing off the ground and fueling the flames with their primitive wooden shafts. Shirou Emiya used the extended reach to cut apart some rope holding together a large amount of spared barrels, he quickly stepped out of the way, allowing the supplies of the changelings to roll helplessly into the fires. With this in mind, he ran toward the Void Scar, smoke and wind passing by his face, he escaped the area, but with enemy forces at his heels. He spotted Twilight, her purple fur coat quite the contrast to the light grays and tans of the rocks. She waved at him, her eyes seemingly bulging outward in shock and surprise when she saw the dozens of changelings heading his way. "Prepare whatever spell you got!" Shirou yelled towards his master, knocking her out of her stupor as she changed her expression into one of determination and concentration. Her small, yet powerful, unicorn horn lit up in a spectacularly display of raw, yet focused, purple hued mana. 'Rin would have a field day with her...' Shirou thought to himself, stopping himself abruptly in front of Twilight Sparkle, turning one-eighty degrees to face the opposition. 'Twenty or so of them, possibly more to come.' He smirked, 'Saber would never be intimidated by this number, then again, when is she intimidated by anything?' Shirou thought amusingly, before his image was surrounded by a bright flash of light, then replaced by a terrain. The young human adult scanned the area around him, then spotted the other side of the Void Scar many, many meters away. "Whoa, Twilight, I really didn't expect you to teleport us this far..." He said in awe, "That's fantastic!" He complimented her. The teen unicorn giggled, but her voice sounded slightly exhausted, "Thanks... But she should get moving quickly, they can fly and we can't. Thankfully, I know a certain area around here that we can hide in." "Alright, lead the way," Shirou replied, letting the roman spatha disperse into prana remnants, which themselves dissipated into nothingness. Twilight Sparkle and Shirou Emiya both would find a secluded, abandoned, pony-built shelter, made for the purposes of natural accidents for any tourists, it would now serve as a sanctuary for our heroes to quickly rest before making their way toward Los Pegasus. Where Twilight Sparkle will meet and face her friend, Fluttershy.