Celestia Trigger

by Thadius0


Chapter 14 - Nobody likes the future

The four of us made for the still empty town of Truceburg, and warped back to the End of Time with little fuss. Next came the hard part, picking a point in the future we thought we could visit for Copper and Justice.

"Hmm," I muttered, twirling the Gate Key as I thought about our options. "Copper, how about the Trott dome? We could start there, see what lines are open if we can find the train station."

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed. "Plus it'll give me a chance to refuel."

I nodded and turned to Zehan, before getting down on one knee and looking him in the eye. "Where we're about to go, when we're about to go, it is a terrible, blighted wasteland. A future we are trying to alter. I would not blame you if you decided not to go, or wanted to come back as soon as we arrived. I go for the sake of Copper and Justice getting their upgrades. I will not force you into following me."

Zehan swallowed thickly before nodding once, resolutely. "Wherever you go, I go," he said firmly. "I don't expect any coddling or special treatment."

"You say that now," I said, getting back on my feet and raising the Key high. "I promise you, you'll change your tune in the first ten seconds of being there."

I was nearly proven right when we materialized in Trott dome, circa 2299. Zehan's breath hitched and he staggered, nearly falling over. I was at his side in an instant, wondering what was wrong and doing my best to keep him on his hooves. Eventually, the zebra spoke to me.

"The...the very earth is dead...the magic is gone...what...happened here?"

"Remember that mighty foe I talked about?" I asked, causing him to nod once. "He did this. His name is Lavos, and we're gonna find a way for him to grow weaker at any cost. And then when he's at his weakest, we'll take him down before he does this."

"Against a foe that can do this...what hope have we?" Zehan asked as he finally stood on his own power.

"Wrong question," I said, letting go and standing up. "Against a party of adventurers that can skip across the time-stream and will not stop until their goal is accomplished, what hope has he?"

"I find the second question far more agreeable to our current mission statement," Justice commented. "Question, how do you intend to procure upgrades for myself and Copper?"

"The good old fashioned way," I said as I drew my katana. Copper finished the sentiment.

"We're gonna bust some robot heads," she said. Justice whirred a little bit, and I was afraid he would condemn our current course of action for a moment...before he nodded.

"That is the most efficient way to go about procuring the supplies I require for an upgrade," the robot agreed. "Where will we be doing this?"

"Well, let's hit up the train station first and call the train here from Trott dome, then we'll see where we can go," I said, leading the party out of the basement we were in. It was a bit of a search, finding the rail station, but once we did, I activated the terminal and called the train from Aerie dome. The terminal promised that the train would be here in an hour, so we waited for it to arrive. There was an occasional mutated creature roaming the ruins, and I prompted Zehan to use his new magic to try dealing with the monstrosities.

It was funny, watching his reaction to the fact that he could call up chunks of ice around foes. Against the larger ones, the rest of us would chip in what we could, but he dealt well with the wandering foes.

Eventually the train pulled in, and everybody else piled on while I pulled up a list of destinations we could travel to. Surprisingly, one option that had been previously blocked off wasn't anymore.

Canter dome. I punched in that destination, then jumped into the train before making my way to the engineer's compartment. Quickly entering the command to disable the boosting technology, I was rewarded with a screen telling me that at normal speed, it would take us an hour to get to our destination.

"I can deal with an hour long wait," I said aloud, before rejoining the group. I got general sounds of agreement from my companions, and settled in for a quick nap.


I woke up to the sound of squealing brakes as the train pulled into Canter dome. Canterlot, the capitol of Equestria. I had had vague hopes about seeing it in one day, but I had rather hoped that day would not be this one. Where the city had been rent asunder and the population destroyed.

Still, we'd be able to give the citizens of this dome hope and freedom from one sort of menace at least. The four of us made our way to the part of the service area for the dome that was still intact, and found the ponies there to be much like the rest we'd encountered. Dreary, hopeless. Seeing us did briefly bring a light to their eyes, but it faded just as fast.

Copper used the Energizer to fill up her fuel tanks for her flamethrower, and the four of us descended into the depths of the dome's tunnels. We were instantly set upon by a small troop of robots, causing Zehan to look from Justice to the 'bots, then back at Justice. "Is there some relation here?" he asked.

"Only in the sense that we are both robotic life-forms, yes," Justice said as he warmed up his weapons. "Try not to damage them too badly. I may require some of their components for my up-grades."

"Got it," I said as a charge ran down my blade.

"No sweat," Copper said as her flamethrower kicked on. "I need their parts too, you know."

"I shall try," Zehan said as he drew his staff, a shimmer of his ice magic dancing along the weapon.

And together, the four of us went to work depopulating the robots of Canter dome. Every time we needed to recharge, one of us would dart upstairs, hit up the Energizer, then dart back down and take their spot in the melee again. At least, once we told Zehan how to use the thing.

Between fire, ice, lightning, and lasers, we dominated the robots utterly on the field of combat. They just hadn't been prepared for something like us. And while time blurred and hunger gnawed at us, at least, those of us that ate, the pile of scrapped robots kept growing.

Eventually there wasn't another robot for us to fight. The silence reigned for about a minute as we kept looking down the tunnels. Eventually Zehan, Copper, and I sighed and lowered our weapons, while Justice merely powered his down.

"Copper, please assist me in locating the requisite parts from the slain drones," Justice said as they walked over to the largest pile of scrap.

"Yeah, and you can help me find some parts for my plans as well. I got a few ideas I want to run past you..."

I sheathed my blade and leaned up against a wall while I watched the two of them go to work.


After a length of time I didn't care to mention, the pair of post-apocalyptic beings had finished checking each individual scrapped bot for supplies and were working on their upgraded gear. That was when we heard a clanking noise from down the hall, and Zehan and I snapped out of our near-stupors and got ready to defend our inventors. Fortunately, it faded away before it drew too much closer, and we breathed a sigh of relief.

What felt like thirty minutes passed before Copper shrugged her new harness on, Justice helping her hook everything up that needed to be.

"Okay, so now what can you do?" I asked.

"Oughta be able to shoot beams of energy with the push of this dial," Copper demonstrated, flicking a dial near her mouth, causing the turret on her back to stop emitting flames, and start glowing instead. "We hooked up a few cubes together, so it should last me quite a while as long as I don't push it too far." That demonstration done, they took off one of Justice's covers before she carefully inserted pieces into him as per his directions.

"Installing new hardware," the robot said. "Calibrating. Optimizing. Installation complete. Use of electric based attacks now possible."

"Neat," I said. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Use of long-range 'Hoof of Justice' technique now available."

I blinked a little at that one before raising an eyebrow. "Show me," I told the robot.

Justice turned to one wall, raised a forehoof, and there was a hiss of air before his hoof exploded off and hit the wall, giving it a nasty dent. The hoof was retracted back to his leg via a chain, and there was a click as it connected again. "Demonstration complete," the robot informed us.

"Remind me to never get on the wrong side of that," I said, suitably impressed.

"Noted," Justice commented. "When shall we return?"

"How about...yeah, how about we go back now, to High Aerie of the past?" I asked my companions. "I wanna check up on Gregory."

The ride back was nearly uneventful, except I forgot to disable the boost, causing me to black out again...


When I came to, I found the other three on the train platform, making a game out of dealing with the mutant creatures of the day before they got too close to my unconscious self.

"Justice," I groaned. "Remind me to either get better at dealing with that boost, or disable it every time we enter a train."

"Logged," the robot said as I groggily got off the train. "Shall we be off then, sir?"

"Yes, let's," I said as I led the group back to the basement, and from there, to the End of Time.