“What are you doing, Miss Shimmer?”
Sunset growled at the interruption, but caught her anger boiling and sighed. “I asked to be left alone, Commander Okada.”
“I was sent by Captain Kurokawa, Miss Shimmer.”
Sunset exhaled. “Very well.” She paused a moment to collect her thoughts. “Twilight Sparkle is an intelligent Unicorn and an excellent magician. To defeat her, I must be prepared--she is a difficult adversary, even outside her element. And so, I’ve procured one of your large projectiles to experiment on.”
“The Captain did tell me you required one of our ten-inch shells, specifically a high-explosive one.”
She smirked. “He didn’t tell you why, did he?”
“No. He uncharacteristically said that you would be better at explaining your own motives.”
“‘Shield’ is an effective spell to protect oneself or others,” Sunset said. She opened her eyes and stood. Around her, the busy machinery and open decks of Amagi’s stern filled her sight. Turning around, she saw Okada in the shadow of the superfiring stern guns (where one turret was placed slightly higher so it could fire “over” the other), attended by a young ensign. “And there are two ways to defeat it. You can either go around it, as I have already tried, or you can go through it.”
“You expect to use Amagi to do your magic for you?”
Sunset laughed. It was a cackling laugh reminiscent of Nightmare Moon’s own, and she saw it raise the hairs on the back of Okada’s neck. “Not at all! I expect Amagi to use the magic I provide. Do you know what a shieldbreaker is, Commander?”
Okada seemed confused by the question, but he quickly recovered. “I’m afraid not, Miss Shimmer, but it sounds fairly obvious.”
“You’re right, it’s exactly what it sounds like.” Her eyes narrowed, and she glared at the shell. “It’s also extremely difficult. Shieldbreaker spells are best when applied to a projectile of sorts--at least that’s what the history books say. So I will work to ensure that when we encounter the American destroyer, Twilight Sparkle’s spells will do nothing, and with her magic out of the equation, our targeting only needs to get close enough to do damage.”
“And you are certain that this ‘shieldbreaker’ will work?”
“Yes. If it doesn’t, simply shoot another. I intend to spell most if not all of your projectiles. With Nightmare Moon’s help, the forward magazine should be done by the time we reach Surabaya.”
“I suppose it is a necessity,” Okada conceded. “Are you willing to pause your efforts for a short while? I have a few questions regarding your interactions with our other…guest.”
Sunset briefly checked her mage-battleaxe, similar to the rapiers Twilight Sparkle had produced at Surabaya, and nodded. “What do you need?”
Give him nothing, Nightmare Moon hissed in her mind. The American has nothing of value. He is a wretched, broken form of a creature, and he--
SHUT UP! Sunset internally screamed. Get out of my head, and let me decide what to say. Any information we can gather and interpret could actually help us defeat Twilight Sparkle better than your half-baked plans!
Very well, but remember whom you serve! Nightmare Moon’s presence left her mind, and the temporary void made her dizzy for a second as her own mind rushed to fill it.
She shook her head and realized Okada had already asked something. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”
“I said, ‘How long were you with him?’”
“I can’t give you a specific time, but probably no longer than a couple months.”
“Did your magic seem to…heal him?”
“I don’t really know.”
“When did you discover you could still use magic?”
“We reached Madras. I was on the upper deck with him, not blindfolded for once, and I could see the city. I realized I still had magic when I somehow healed my own leg.” Sunset lifted her pant leg to reveal a long, light scar. “I don’t know if it really means anything.”
“Do you know why he collapsed when Nightmare Moon first…used her magic on you?”
“I imagine that his strength relied on my magic. I don’t know how it could’ve happened, but perhaps there’s a link on the subconscious level. Non-Unicorns can use magic on occasion, but it’s very rare. They often require a Unicorn or even an Alicorn to channel the power, but an artifact could work as well. As I said, however, it’s beyond rare.”
Okada held his breath for a moment, then turned to the young man a step behind him on his left. “Ensign, please inform Captain Kurokawa that I will be here with Miss Shimmer for a while longer if he requests my presence. I wish to observe her magic,” he said quietly. The ensign bowed and gratefully left.
Sunset glanced at her hand and lit a small fire on her fingertip. “There isn’t much to observe, Commander.”
“I wish to learn, Miss Shimmer, not impede. A tool that I do not understand is a tool that can be used against me.”
“Suit yourself.” She sat back down on the deck, closed her eyes, and let her magic flow into the naval shell. Its grooves and fins seemed to really like her presence, but the chemicals within felt agitated, angry. They felt like they would explode with just the slightest provocation, and of course they were the subject of her spell.
Sunset carefully worked her way into the chemicals. Magic could be explosive by itself, as her fuzzy memories told her, and adding it to an already-volatile mixture of crudely refined chemicals could be deadly, with catastrophic results. One of the materials in particular, a crystal, shook when she touched it, and she almost didn’t get it back under control.
“Are you alright?” Okada’s voice penetrated into her mind and startled her, nearly destroying her concentration. “You look quite pale.”
“I’m alright. Just a little shaken. It’s all under control. Please don’t startle me, or what’s left of us will feed the fish.”
After that scare, she stayed as far away from that stuff as she could. The other main material was quite friendly--and familiar for some reason. It felt almost completely inert to her magic.
Which made it perfect as a spellbinding agent. The more reactive a material was to magic, the more likely it would react, destroying the spell and material in the process. In order for her shieldbreaker spell to successfully break through Twilight Sparkle’s shield spell, the two spells had to come into direct contact. The shell itself was too exposed--her shieldbreaker would be ripped off by air resistance alone. So the payload would have to do, and finding that part of it was excellent for spellbinding felt like a Christmas present.
She carefully bound her shieldbreaker to the nonreactive chemical and made a mental note of the concentrations of each material in the shell. Luckily, a loose “blanket” spellbind would be more than enough to turn the high-explosive shell into a weapon of magic destruction.
When she finished, she opened her eyes and smiled at Okada.
“One down, a bunch to go.”