The Royal Protector

Chapter 19 Part 1

It was been two days since J, Connor, Order, Shining Armor, and Blackout vowed to fight the corruption. After they left the garden, Shining and Blackout left to inform the ponies that would help us. J went to inform Celestia that Connor, Order, and himself were going to stay in Canterlot for a couple days. He also asked her to send a letter to Twilight and Isabel explaining his sudden disappearance. Celestia clearly showed extreme hate for Order. She even went as far to give Order an old guest room at the far side of the castle, as far away from Celestia as possible.

For the next two days, J, Connor, and Order wandered around the castle and gardens sharing stories about their countless battles and major victories. Over the last two days, they became close friends. They made their way to the guard barracks to make use of the sparring area there. While there, J and Connor demonstrated their skills to one another in the form of trading blows. A group of fresh recruits watch the fight with pure wonder. The speed both J and Connor were moving at was incredible. Every hit that was blocked sounded as if an explosion had gone off. 3 hours later, the fight was over. It was a clear tie seeing that neither could land a hit on the other.

After the sparring match, the three ate dinner with the recruits and separated to go to their rooms and get some sleep.

"I see that you have found the being of order and justness." J heard as he opened his eyes quickly. He looked around and saw that he was in The Keeper's throne room.

"He was right in front of me the whole time and I didn't even notice it." as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I had a feeling you'd find him, I never doubted you."

J smiled and looked at the green orb of light that was The Keeper.

"Is there any reason in particular that you call me here?"

The Keeper was silent for a moment but then answered J.

"I noticed that you have made a plan to deal with The Corruption. I just wanted to say, if you need me all you have to do is call for me, I'll help the best way I can."

J smiled, "With you helping, I have a good feeling we might actually succeed in this task."

"Whatever you do J, don't get cocky. That is how Gaia was killed. She was sure that her power alone would have been enough to defeat the corruption. She was wrong and paid with her life."

"You are right Keeper." said J. "I don't need to get cocky. I am not cocky about our abilities to complete this task, I have faith in them. I trust all of my friends with my life and will do everything in my power to save them. So to say, I'm not cocky, I'm confident."

The Keeper let out a small chuckle. "You remind me of myself before I become what I am now."

There was a short pause before J decided to speak.

"Hey Keeper, I have a question about this sword."

"What would that be J?" The Keeper asked.

J pulled the sword and began to talk.

"I've made several observations of this sword and I noticed something strange. When I first grabbed the sword, I received a vision about the death of the last owner. According to you, the last owner of this sword was Gaia herself. My question is about the rune on the hilt. It is very similar to the runes that Isabel and myself saw before we were pulled into this world. What does this rune mean?"

"That rune was something that Gaia used for just about everything. She put it on that sword so all she would have to do was channel magic into it to cause an effect."

"I now understand what the rune was used for but that still leaves one question. If Gaia is dead, then who's runes were those in the Yree forest that night."

"I am afraid that I cannot answer this question, I do not know the answer. However, I feel that the answer will be revealed if you are persistent in wanting to know the truth."

J simply nodded as The Keeper continued.

"It is time for you to wake J, Celestia's sun waits to greet you. I wish you luck in your upcoming trials."

That morning, J was awoken by a loud knock at his door. He got up slowly and walked to the door. He opened it and saw Shining Armor standing there.

"J, I have some news that you'll like to hear." he said with a smile on his face.

J opened the door wider. "What would that be?"

Shining cleared his throat and began. "The first thing is that the ponies that I said would help us are gathering in the sparring area to be briefed on the situation. Secondly, I sent a letter to Cadance saying that you wish to meet her. To say the least, she was thrilled to finally get to meet you and scheduled a dinner tonight. I was also able to convince Celestia to let us have a joint training session in the area surrounding Ponyville. I told her it would last at least two weeks."

J smiled, "Thank you for the great news Shining. If you'll give me a moment to get dressed we'll go to the sparring area together and inform the others."

Shining nodded and stood outside the room while J got dressed. J exited the room and followed Shining to the barracks. Once inside, Shining and J went straight to the sparring area. J took a deep breath and stepped through the door. As he entered, he was astonished by the number of ponies in the room. J looked around and saw the graduated recruits turned soldiers that Shining was talking about. Right next to them, J saw Earth Turner, Sunspot, and Furybolt talking amongst themselves. In the middle was an even mix of Royal Guards and Lunar Knights. Towards the back of the area, J saw Blackout talking to about 12 ponies, all Lunar Knights. Shining and Blackout held up on their part, everypony they said they could get was here.

J was brought out of his thoughts when Shining started to speak.

"Attention everypony, I bet you all are wondering why we are here this early in the morning. I however, will not be answering this question. Instead, J has come to inform all of you on why Blackout and myself has gathered all of you here."

Shining looked at J and motioned him to speak. J cleared his throat and spoke with authority.

"Only a handful of you know the real reason why you're here so let me go ahead and say it, Equestria is in danger. The thing that endangers our great country goes by one name, The Corruption. Over my three months serving Celestia, I have encountered three times. The first in the Everfree forest were it had took control of three unicorns. The second and third time, The Corruption directly approached me and told me that if I became its loyal servant, it would grant me unimaginable power. Both time I turned it down and drove it away."

"Now I don't expect you to believe me, not at all. Most would have called me crazy and left the room. However, I don't ask you to help as a favor for me, I'm asking you to help for the betterment of Equestria. It is my job to insure the safety of both princesses and to do that, the country of Equestria must be safe. Looking around this room I see many young and able ponies. I see the look of determination in your eyes so I'm not going to lie. Some of you will die from what we are trying to accomplish. The Corruption will not be destroyed without taking a few with it. However, I can't do this alone, I need comrades to back me up and fight the fight as well. If you think that this isn't worth losing your life over then by all means, you may leave right now.

J expected half of the ponies in the room to leave. After a long pause, nopony moved what so ever.

"It feels me with confidence to see that you all are willing to give your lives for this cause. You are all now part of this cause. This is not to be mentioned to the princesses or anypony else unless they are willing to help. The more invisible we keep our operations, the more the enemy won't suspect a thing. In a couple days, everypony here is going to be moved to an area outside of Ponyville. Thanks to Shining Armor, we are under the ruse that it is a simple joint training exercise. While we're there, each of you will undergo training that will prepare you against The Corruption and whatever it can throw at use. So prepare to move out. You are all dismissed."

With those words, all the ponies in the room started to file out of the sparring area. The only ones remaining were Shining, Blackout, and about a dozen ponies that J had never seen before. Blackout approached J first.

"J, I want you to meet the units I was able to get a hold of."

Blackout bolted over to the one of the groups of Lunar Knights.

"These are the Shadow Strikers, the best stealth operatives we have in the Lunar Knights. The moment I approached them with this offer, they immediately accepted."

Blackout then pulled one of the pegasi out of the group. He was about the size of Blackout himself but he was skinny.

"This is Nightshade, the leader of the Shadow Strikers."

Nightshade approached J and stuck his hoof out.

"So I finally get to meet the infamous J I've heard so much about."

J smiled and grabbed Nightshade's hoof and shook it a few times.

"The one and only, so Blackout says that you are the best in the field of stealth."

Nightshade nodded, "Our biggest mission to date was sneaking into the castle of the griffin king and releasing several ponies he had imprisoned there. We got in and out with out killing or alerting the enemies."

J crossed his arms and smiled. "I already have something in mind for your squad Nightshade. I have a friend named Connor that is a human like me. Back in our world, he was part of an assassin organization known as The White Circle. You and your squad will train under him to make you better at what you do for a living."

Nightshade smiled as well, "I can't wait to meet him."

"He's probably in the gardens right now. If you find him, inform him that your squad will train under him. The rest will happen in time."

Nightshade nodded and motioned his squad to leave the sparring area. Blackout then introduced the next unit to J.

"This is a group of some of the best fighters in the Lunar Knights, I like to call them The Reapers."

"Who is the leader?" asked J.

Blackout smiled and walked next to the squad. "I'm the leader."

"You did more then I thought you would. Thank you Blackout, your devotion to a cause is legendary."

"I do my best." Blackout said as he puffed his chest out.

J smiled, "Until we finish our current objective in Canterlot, give your squad and yourself so time to rest and relax."

Blackout nodded and directed the squad out of the sparring area. That left Shining and J all alone.

"That went better then expect." said Shining as he walked over to J.

"I'm just glad that they all decided to stay when I gave them the choice to leave. I warned them of the danger and they didn't care, they want to help."

There was a moment of silence before J began to speak again.

"So, what time is this dinner with Cadance?" he asked.

"It's later this evening, it will be me, you, and Cadance. This should give us the best chance of convincing my wife to help."

"Good." said J. "If everything goes according to the plan, we should be in Ponyville in the next two day. Until then, let us prepare for this dinner."

Shining nodded and led J out of the sparring area.

Hey everypony, here's the first part of chapter 19, enjoy.

Sorry for being late with the chapter. A snowstorm knocked out the power to my city. So I was without power for about one week. Also, I decided to slow down on the updates. The story is nearing it's final stretch and I want to take time in writing the chapters. So from now on, chapters will be released every Thursday instead of every Monday and Thursday.

Big thanks to Frees for prereading/editing my story.

Feel free to leave a review. Remember, the best gift a reader can give to the writer is a well rounded review.

See everypony next Thursday.