The Royal Protector
Chapter 4: The Fight Begins
Both J and Celestia stood motionless for a couple of moments. They were both trying to read the others emotion. It was clear on Celestia's face that she was scared of this fight. While on J's face there was nothing but darkness, he still had his hood up. They stood silently a little while longer until Celestia's horn started to glow. She had taken a hold of the sword strapped to Luna's back and brought it towards herself. She examined it closely before lowering it.
“Before we fight, it would be polite to know who I'm fighting.” Said Celestia looking at J.
J looked at the white pony and said nothing, this caused Celestia to sigh.
“Fine I'll go first.” She cleared her throat and continued. “I am Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria and this is my sister Princess Luna.”
J was conflicted; he worked to protect royalty all his life and now he was pitted against in a fight, probably to the death. Killing royalty that wasn't evil really didn't sit well with him. He had to come up with a plan to win without death.
“My name is J.” He said in a deep voice, much deeper than what he expected.
Celestia looked at him weirdly. “That's it, you have no titles to your name. I mean you are accompanied by an Alicorn, you must have a title?”
“I have many titles.” Said J, “They're not important right now.”
J then pulled out both of his daggers and readied himself for the fight. Celestia replied by raising the sword she still had gripped in her magic. Celestia nodded and both Celestia and Luna launched forward at J. Celestia raised the sword and swung, it met J's dagger with a loud clang sound. J had parried the swing expertly with one of his daggers while he thrusted the second one towards Celestia. She managed to jump back in time for the dagger to barely miss her stomach. Celestia pulled the sword back up and swung again. J blocked it this time but held the blade there as he looked around. He was looking for the other sister, Luna. He quickly found her as she closed in on Isabel.
Luna started to charge her magic and aimed it at Isabel. She was interrupted when she saw a dagger fly towards her. She easily dodged it and looked at J. He was holding the sword Celestia had in place while he held his hand out at the other sister. Both of them looked confused on why his hand was out. They both found out pretty quickly, in the form of a spinning sound. Luna looked to her side to see the dagger floating in place but spinning incredibly fast. It then launched itself at Luna who dodge it again but was too close. She received a medium sized cut on her cheek.
The dagger then returned to J's hand who then released the sword from its holding place and knocked it away. Both princesses were in front of him now. He was standing in front of Isabel, who was sitting down wide-eyed. He reached over to Isabel and pulled her to her feet.
“You have to help me Isabel; I can't beat them on my own.” Said J without taking his eyes off Celestia and Luna.
“I don't know how to help, I was never good at hand-to-hand combat and I don't know how to use my magic.” said Isabel looking down in shame.
J looked at Celestia who still had the sword. He looked at her horn and realized that is was glowing with the same color the surrounded her horn. J then came to a realization.
“Isabel, try channeling magic through your horn, try thinking about those two over there being held into place by something.”
Isabel looked flustered. “I'll try.”
Isabel closed her eyes and focused. She tried to remember all the things that J had taught her over their years together. She focused on anything she thought would hold the two princesses in place for J. After searching, Isabel found one spell in particular that stuck out to her. She focused on the spell as her horn began to glow a blackish color. Suddenly, the stone floor under Celestia and Luna began to break up. Under the stone floor, several vines, glowing black, started to snake out. Celestia turned to her sister and yelled.
“We must get off the ground!”
Luna nodded and both princesses launched themselves into the air. J turned back to Isabel.
“Get those vines to follow them Isabel, I need to get my sword back, it's the only advantage they have over us. If they find out how to use it, we're screwed.”
Isabel nodded and focused her magic even more and the vines shot out of the hole in the ground even bigger than before. Isabel had the vines launching themselves at the princesses who were trying to evade them. As the princesses were evading the huge vines being launched at them, they failed to notice J jumping from the vines getting closer and closer to both ponies. J saw the two princesses dodging and weaving throughout the vines. J quickly spotted the Celestia and his sword on her back. J then took a running jump and launched himself in the air. He found his target, a certain white pony with a sword strapped to its back.
J had grabbed Celestia by both of her wings so that they would fall. However, J's honor and title would not allow him to bring himself to kill royalty that did not deserve it. Noticing that the floor was closing in, J turn in mid-air, still holding Celestia, he was now under her so that he would take most of the damage. They both hit the floor with a sickening boom.
J groaned and looked around. He had made a decent sized hole in the floor where he landed. He looked across from him to see Celestia struggling to get up. He also saw the sword on the ground next to him. He carefully got up and walked over to his sword. He then picked it up and examined it. It was in its best condition, no chips, no scratches. He then started to slowly walk over to Celestia who was still trying to get up. He pushed her down gently with his foot and put the tip of the sword next to her throat. Celestia looked as if she admitted her defeat except there was one thing, she had a smile on her face. J looked at her and then looked behind him and found the reason for Celestia's new found happiness, and boy did it piss J off. Behind him stood Luna but she had something levitating beside her, that something was Isabel.
He looked back down at Celestia who was smiling as if she won the battle. J was going to swing the sword but found himself paralyzed and floating a few feet in the air. The last thing he saw was that stupid grin Celestia had on her face before he was thrown into a nearby wall at incredible speeds.
J hit the wall hard, he felt his whole body shudder with pain. He laid there under a pile of rubble unable to move due to the pain. He heard the familiar sound of hooves walking along on the stone floor.
“It is greatly injured, I can feel it.” spoke Luna.
“I honestly don't care right now, it could have easily killed us both but it didn't, it was toying with us but it paid a price.” Said Celestia
“I wonder what it is, and why was that sword is so important to it?” Asked Luna as she looked at the sword Celestia was now holding.
“It doesn't matter Luna, let's just get back to Canterlot and I'll order the guards to come get this thing, whatever it is.”
Luna nodded and both princesses started to walk away.
J listened to this conversation between the two princesses and he became extremely enraged.
“NOT EVEN ROYALTY WILL TAKE ISABEL FROM ME.” yelled J from under the rubble. He didn't care if the princesses heard him. They would pay dearly.
J put his hands to the rubble on top of him and blasted it with his magic. Every bit of rubble that was on him blew away. J slowly stood up only to be greeted by the two princesses. The look of horror was great on their faces. J hadn't realized it but his hood had been pulled down and the shadow enchantment dispelled, his face was revealed. His battle scars, his brown hair, and his eyes. He had blood slowly dripping down the side of his face and in the corners of mouth. It was clear that he was in great pain. The anger he had towards the princesses was so great that he simply ignored the pain.
J held his hand out and shot a huge wave of magic. It was enough to throw the princesses off their hooves and back several feet. J looked around and found his sword. He picked up quickly and made his way towards the princesses who were standing in front of Isabel like J did. He saw Celestia horn light up again and felt the feeling of being lifted. Not this time.
J concentrated on the source of the magic in hopes to cut it off. He attempt was successful, he blocked Celestia's magic and the feeling of being lifted stopped. He walked up to Celestia and Luna. He held the sword out and spoke very clearly.
“It is against everything that I do for a living to harm or kill royalty, I even tried to cause the least amount of damage as possible. However, you want nothing other than to take Isabel away from me. You take her away from me and you will regret it. I know you saw the two ponies next to that rock. They tried to take Isabel as well and look how they turned out.”
J paused for a moment and waited before continuing.
“Do you still wish to take Isabel against her own will?”
Celestia snorted, “You have no say in royal business, we will take her with us and if you get I the way, I will personally kill you.”
J shook his head, “I didn't what to hurt you, both of you. However, you leave me no choice.”
J took his sword in hand and held it out. He closed his eyes and began to let his magic flow through the weapon. This was a rare occasion, he rarely meet someone on the battlefield that made him charge his weapon with magic. He reopened his eyes and liked what he saw. In front of him was his sword but it was covered in yellow energy. He then lowered his sword.
“You wondered why this sword was so special to me, now you know.”
Celestia looked at the sword and back to J. The sword was radiating such incredible magical energy that even she herself couldn't control. She stepped back out of fear.
“W...what is that?” Celestia said while looking at the sword.
“This?” J replied. “This is the embodiment of my will to protect Isabel. It contains only a quarter of my magical potential.”
“Now, I'll ask you one more time, will you cease your attempts to take Isabel?”
Celestia looked J sternly, “My decision on the matter is final.”
J looked at Celestia and Luna before raising his sword into a combat stance.
“Then I'm afraid that you and your sister will have to die.”