Chapter 65: Tipping Point

"So what's the plan?"

James and Shining were both leaning over a well drawn map spread out over a table in the Captain's tent.

In a professional tone, Shining laid out his strategy, "We'll post archers and spear ponies in the fortifications on the beach as you suggested. They will try to hold back the invaders as long as they can. The main battalions we'll hold out of sight behind the ridge until enough of them make landfall. At that point, I'll order a charge and push them back into the water where the archers, and your sharpshooters, can continue picking them off."

"Sounds good. If we can keep their mobility hampered, we can wear them out faster and end this quicker."

"Any chance my fleet could participate?" A raven feathered griffon asked as he entered the tent.

"Silus, good to see you." James said in greeting.

"Likewise. Terribly sorry we're late, we ran into a little turbulence on the way over."

"If you're talking about that thunderstorm that hit here a couple days ago, you actually made really good time, considering."

"Hmpf, nothing compared to your exploits. If my sources are to be believed, you actually jumped through that horrible weather. All without conventional wings as well."

"It wasn't all that big a deal. It's what we had to do, so we did it." James replied with a shrug. "Come join us, we were just going over the battle plan."

"Of course." The large griffon approached the table, "If I may, I would like to volunteer or newly christened Sky Strykers."

"'Sky Strykers', admiral?" Shining asked with interest.

"Why yes, uh, James, I do believe you've already seen them in action, during one of your visits to High Tower."

"Oh yeah," James recalled with a smirk, "Shining, it's too bad you haven't seen them, very impressive. It's a joint team, combining some of our operatives with some of his own elite soldiers. They're extremely flexible and ferocious in a fight."

"I wasn't aware we were working so closely with the griffons." The unicorn stated with some surprise.

"Celestia approved it."

"Hm. Admiral, how about if we used them as a quick response force? If we run into any unexpected problems, they could handle it." Shining offered.

"Smashing Idea! I'll have them kept on standby aboard our carrier ship. From it, they can deploy anywhere on the battlefield in an instant." Silus said proudly.

"Well, as I'm sure James would put it, that sounds outstanding."

This earned a chuckle from them all.

"Alright, so we have a pretty good outline for how we want this to go. Now all we need to do is flesh out the details and execute." James said with confidence.

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Even after hashing out the major game plan, there were always a million minor details to worry about. James had never been so exhausted from such tedium in his life. He had never done anything on this scale before and it was wearing him down. So he was glad when Shining and Silus finally called it a day and left to go implement their new orders for their troops. With a brisk walk, James made his way back to his teams camp, eager for the comfort of his bed roll. Never had a nap been so enticing to him.

It was only just past lunch time, yet to the human it felt as if the whole day had already gone past. However, as he strode into camp, he was stopped by his engineer.

"Hey, you got a minute?" Sparks called from the Clipper.

James walked over to him, "Uh, sure, what's up?"

"I got something for you. Come check it out, it's in my locker."

James followed the unicorn into the airship to a floor locker located near the back under one of the benches. Using his electric blue magical aura, Sparks slid it out and magically undid the lock. He rummaged around inside the container for a moment before extracting an extremely familiar, digital camouflaged vest. It looked the same in almost every way, only the color pattern was different. Instead of the old desert pattern that it used to show, it had been converted to the same dark greens, blacks and grays that members of the RSTG now wore.

James took it and inspected the garment with awe, "My old body armor. And you fixed it!" He exclaimed, noting that the bullet holes and shattered ceramics it once held were now repaired and whole.

"Yep. Figured you might want to use something more familiar. I gotta say, the design is spectacular! Extremely light weight, yet it can distribute the energy of a potentially fatal impact safely over the wearer's body. I wish I had know about this before, I would have made more of these." Sparks rambled, getting a little carried away. He caught himself though, "I hope you don't mind me taking it. I found it in your room when I was fixing some of the house's wiring after the fire. I've been working on it ever since."

"No, it's fine. I'm kind of glad you did it. Yeah, this thing has saved my life more times than I can count. It can take a shit load of bullets and keep going. I'm not so sure about crossbow bolts though..."

"Well, we shouldn't even be getting that close anyway, right?"

"No, we're still sticking to the original plan. RSTG will be sharpshooters and point defense only. Shining's got a good sounding plan to keep them down in the water using just the main army, best we stay out of the way."

"Sounds good to me."

"Tell you what, brother, hold onto this for me," he handed back the body armor, "I'll get it afterwards. Besides, the armor you made for me hasn't failed me yet."

"Suit yourself. Mind if I experiment with the design a little?"

"Be my guest."

"Awesome. Oh yeah, before I forget, Dash dropped off this letter earlier this morning."

"A letter? From her?"

"Naw, envelope says it's from Twilight." Sparks' magic flared up and a small envelope appeared from a pocket on his uniform.

James took it out of the air, "Thanks."

James then left the unicorn to his own devices, the stallion was relishing the thought of having a new project to work on. The engineer was so enthusiastic about what he did that James sometimes wondered if he was somehow related to Twilight. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a low growl from his stomach. Suddenly he remembered that he hadn't really eaten all day. Quickly walking to his tent, he grabbed his pack and pulled out some food for his protesting stomach. A couple of apples, some carrots, bread and cheese, not the best meal, but it helped fill him up. Then James remembered that Silus was in camp nearby. Briefly, he entertained the thought of paying the griffon a visit, he might be able to get some meat out of it.

After he was done eating, the envelope he had just received came back to mind. Taking it out, he unsheathed his knife and used the blade to cut it open. Inside was a carefully folded piece of parchment paper. James opened it up, seeing the tight spacing and neatly organized writing of Ponyville's librarian. Eagerly, he began to read.

James,

I hope this finds you in good health. Myself and Fluttershy are fine, doing what we can to help with the situation back here. Recently, Applejack and her brother arrived and began helping with a lot of the difficult construction. I am mainly writing this letter because Rainbow Dash asked me to. She's extremely busy with her new job and misses you. She said 'Make sure to tell him not to get hurt, or I'll kick his flank myself.' Sometimes she can be so silly! She really worries about you a lot.

Other than that, I happily report that I have some good news for once regarding your little 'problem.' It seems that with the right spells and materials and enough energy, we might actually be able to force the 'tear' to collapse in on itself, effectively sealing it. I've done my research and believe I have the requisite spells. The only problem we face is finding the massive amount of energy required to actually make it work. Come see me when you get back and we'll brainstorm further on it.

Best wishes,

Twilight Sparkle

The letter brought some hope. He may never be able to go back to his old home and once again see his friends, no not friends, his family, but at at least there was now the possibility of staying here with his new one. The only thing that gave him pause was the mention of a need for a sufficiently large power source. From what he knew, Equestria largely generated electricity and energy with renewable sources, like wind and rivers, and magic. Magic. Maybe there was a way to harness and use the raw power associated with it. It was a thought he wanted to follow through on.

Sleep was starting to creep up on him, however, and the feeling was difficult to fight off. He resolved then to take his little nap. He would wake up in an hour or so and get himself a proper meal. as he lay down on his bed roll, the heavy folds of weariness began to cover him like a blanket, he soon drifted off into a restful slumber.

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"Wake up, wake up!"

James' eye immediately shot open. He sat up, Flash was standing over him in the tent.

"What, what's going on?" He said a little grumpily. He leaned over to his pack and fumbled around inside for his iPod. He pulled it out and checked the time. He saw he had only been asleep for about forty-five minutes.

"Let's go James," the pegasus urgently continued, "you gotta get down to the beach!"

"Alright, alright." He got up to his feet and exited the tent. "This had better be good." He grumbled.

At a brisk walk, he followed Flash down to the beach. It took them just a few minutes to reach the ridge and descend down the slope to the fortifications below. Up on the ramparts, waiting for them both, was Sparks, Shining, Silus and even Celestia. James ran up to their level and snapped of a quick salute to the Princess who acknowledged it with a nod. Quickly, he trod over to Sparks and Shining, who were looking out to the sea to the setting sun with serious expressions on their faces.

"What's going on?" He asked them.

Instead of getting an answer from them, Celestia spoke to him from his right, "Just be patient, Commander, and you shall see."

The Princess' horn began to glow with a soft golden light. Then it began to grow and intensify. Soon, the aura she was emitting started to rival that of the sun itself. James watched on in awe as the sun in the west began to move towards the horizon at a quickened pace. He stood there, taking in the beauty of the sight, until something caught his eye.

As the sun started to dip below the horizon, shapes on the water began to emerge. Only a few at first, but then it spread across the sea until a massively long silhouette could be seen stretching north to south, the whole thing lit from the back by the sun. James squinted his eyes and began to distinguish details. Great masted ships could be identified making sail for the shore. Around them were clustered many more boxy shapes of various sizes. The human's mind shot back to the lone barge they had encountered some time ago, drifting aimlessly in the sea. Only now, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of them. All pointed squarely at the beach on which James now stood.

After a split second of shock, James' mind sprung into action, "Flash, go alert our teams to man their posts and standby. Shining, have the army do the same, but douse any fires and stay out of sight. Silus, same for you. Order all sentries and lookouts on the beach to keep their heads down and movement minimal, I don't want them to know our true strength until the absolute last minute."

There was a flurry of movement as they all rushed to complete their tasks, leaving James standing alone on the rampart with Celestia.

"So, they finally come..." she commented. "Do you think we're ready?"

James looked down at the beach for a moment, pondering her question, "As ready as we can be." *sigh* "Time to get to work."

With that, he spun on a heel and strode down to the ground and back to his camp to get his equipment ready. The day had finally come. The day he had trained the Task Group for. The day he had dreaded for months. It was the day all out war would finally begin.