The Lost Crafter

by Jeffrey1000

Chapter 28: Preparation

“You mean the Lord of Chaos, Discord?” Steve asked, taking a seat.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Celestia replied solemnly. “The stone he is trapped in is slowly cracking.”

“Is there any way to stop it?” A pony asked.

“As far as we know right now, no.”

“Then we better start preparing.” Steve said. “How did you defeat him last time?”

“We trapped him in stone using the Elements of Harmony.” She said.

“Oh, okay.” Steve remembered reading about them, however, he didn’t know who the current element bearers are. “Where are the element bearers now?”

“In Ponyville.”

“And who are they?”

“Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.” Celestia said.

“Wait, they’re the elements?” Steve asked, surprised. Celestia nodded. “Interesting.”

“I shall inform them immediately. Steve, you said you had professional training, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you train the guards? While they are trained well, none of them stood a chance against you. I think you can teach them a few things.”

“Yes ma’am. I will begin training them.” Steve smiled. Time to make some lives a living hell.

---

“Go! Go! Go!” He yelled. “Come on, I’ve seen cadets move faster than you!”

He watched as ponies skipped across the obstacle course. They jumped from platform to platform. Sweat poured from their faces as the hot sun shone down on them.

“Keep moving! Don’t stop!” Steve yelled again. Several ponies groaned as they continued the course. “Come on, you’re almost there!”

The ponies swung from one platform onto a rock wall. They quickly ascended it before descending on the other side. He walked to the other side, which was where the end was. He watched as the last ponies jumped off panting. He looked at his timer. One minute and seven seconds. Pretty good for ponies. Despite being designed for crafters, the ponies sprinted through the course fast. The average time for crafters was fifty-two seconds, but the average time for ponies was one minute and five seconds.

“Get some water.” He told them. “You’ve got five minutes.”

Steve knew he had to time how long they had to get water, but he, also, didn’t want to rush them too much. The last thing he wanted was for someone to get cardiac arrest or a heat stroke. He watched as they walked over to the benches.

“Damn, this course is harder than I thought.” Stone said, panting.

“Tell me about it.” Eagle agreed. “No wonder Steve is such a good soldier. He had to do this daily.”

“Daily? There’s no way!” Captain Armor exclaimed.

“Well, we’ve seen him put up with this shit a lot.” Iron Wings stated. Most of the work they were doing was conditioning, so it was naturally tiring.

“Time’s up!” Steve yelled. “Let’s get back to work.”

---

“Why the buck are we doing this?” The Corporal whispered under her breath. She crawled through pipes that were sliced in half. They were just tall enough for them to get through.

“Come on Corporal, you’re falling behind.” Steve told her. They were now running individual obstacle courses. The last few exercises were team exercises, designed to build up teamwork. Now, he wanted to build up individual strength and endurance. She crawled her way through the pipes before emerging on the other side. She jumped up on some logs before tightroping across. Calling what she stood on a log was generous. It was extremely skinny, only a few inches wide. She was careful not to fall, as falling meant fifty more push-ups, as some ponies found out the hard way. They already had to do upwards of two hundred push-ups today. She didn’t want to have to do any more. She was too busy thinking about that, and she lost her balance and fell right off the log and into the mud.

“Fifty push-ups.” Steve said pointing at her. “Next!”

She sighed as she planted her face into the mud.

“Ah don’t beat yourself up about it.” The captain said.

“Why no-?” She was going to try to ask. She cut herself off when she saw him covered in mud, too.

“This shit is hard.” Stone said. “How many days did he say we were gonna be doing this for?”

“Five days this week.” The captain reminded him. Stone sighed.

“Five days of whatever this hell is.” He stated.

“Hey! You guys slacking over there!” Steve yelled across the course. “That’s twenty-five more! Now step on it!”

“Of bucking course.” Corporal Eagle said.

---

“Ready.” Steve said. The ponies complied and aimed pulled their bows back. “Aim.” He said. They took a second to aim. “Fire!”

They released and the arrows hit the target boards. Steve examined the hits. He checked how close they were. Some, landed on to the sides of the target. Quite a few got close to the bullseye. Steve was trained to hit the bullseye. He took hours of his day practicing his shooting. Steve looked at the clock.

“1900.” He stated. “Alright, it’s time to end today’s training. You did good. Go get some rest. We’ll start again tomorrow at 0600. Did I make myself clear?”

“Sir, yes sir!” They said.

“Dismissed.” He said. The ponies scattered, grabbing their gear so they could go home. Steve stayed until there was only a few left. His friends, Stone, Eagle, and Shining, were the only ones still there.

“What are you guys still doing here?” He asked.

“Oh, we were just wondering why you didn’t leave.” Stone answered.

“Oh, I was just taking a look at the course.” Steve said as he approached the individual obstacle course. “I remember having to do this every day.” He said without looking at his companions.

“Everyday?” Shining asked in disbelief.

“Yeah. I had to do it as fast as possible. It was painstaking, but I think it helped me become a better soldier.” They stood in silence as they continued to stare at the course. “You wanna see if I still got it?” Steve asked.

“What do you mean-?” Stone tried to ask. He was cutoff by Steve.

“Time me.” He said, handing Stone his stopwatch. Steve sprinted onto the platform and jumped across with ease. They watched as the crafter jumped, swung, climbed, or sprinted from platform to platform. They watched with disbelief as the time on the watch ticked on. Steve dropped and started crawling through the half pipes. He made it to the other side and jumped onto the log tightrope. He made it across quickly and with ease. He jumped off, climbed a rock wall, and started swing from log to log, like monkey bars. He eventually made it back to the ground where he stopped. He stood there panting.

“How’d I do?” He asked as he caught his breath.

“Fifty-three seconds.” Stone answered.

“Fifty-three? I’m going soft.” He said.

“Soft?” The Corporal asked. “You absolutely smoked the course and now you’re saying that wasn’t good enough?”

“Yeah. Back in my time in the Marines, we had to do much better. My squad’s average was forty-two. I haven’t trained in a while. I guess I’ve lost my touch.”

They stood in silence for a second.

“I guess I should head to the barracks.” Stone said.

“Yeah, we probably should, too.” The captain agreed.

“Alright, I’m heading back to the castle. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Steve waved.

---

Several more days of training went by. Nothing new happened. It was mostly the same shit over and over, with Steve torturing them all day, and him running the course at night. They were all steadily improving. The new average time was 59 seconds. Steve looked out his window that overlooked Canterlot.

“Is it all worth it?” He knew he had to get them to give their all, especially with Discord coming. They needed to be in peak performance. He sighed. “I guess we’ll find out.” He said.

They all anxiously prepared as the stone cracked more and more every day. Slowly, but surely, Discord was escaping. It was only a matter of time.

Author's Note:

Guess who’s back? It’s me, Jeffrey, back with another chapter for you. Anyways, I should probably start doing some fucking “research.”

Comments

[Movingtarget Productions]

"research"?

in my head atm: "oh shit."

[Jeffrey1000]

10870148
Lol

[VeryDeadlyBee]

The word chaos makes me think of Jevil (From Deltarune for those who don't know) and that also makes me think, what if Discord met Jevil?

[Jeffrey1000]

11487309
That would be very interesting. Perhaps you could find it in a different crossover lol