"Until next time..."
"Staaaaay fresh!"
The light on the camera blinked out, and the two went over to a nearby table, small smiles still on their faces.
Their seats gave them a good view of the nearby plaza, where they could see several individuals of varying fashion senses running around, talking with each other, or visiting the nearby shops.
Also in view was a green tower, which had a large fish perched on it, occasionally sparking slightly.
The one wearing purple smiled a bit wider at the sight. "You think anyone wonders why the great zapfish is back, now, Marie?"
The other one, wearing green, shook her head. "Callie, I honestly don't think a single inkling really cared too much in the first place."
Callie shrugged. "Well, it's back, and it's all thanks to us!"
Marie gave a blank stare. "You realize that the new guy did most of the work?"
"Oh, details."
Meanwhile, some distance away, a small team of inkling scientists were poking around various bits of machinery. Next to them, a rather old general was overlooking the work.
"Those octarians sure do have a lot of fancy gizmos!" he said, honestly clueless on what anything in front of him did.
One of the scientists let out a mildly annoyed sigh. "Yes, but these 'fancy gizmos' are actually rather low quality," she said. "They may look impressive, but from what we've seen, they break down easily."
Next to her, another scientist opened up a large box shaped object, which revealed a glowing purple interior. "Fascinating..."
Against his better judgement, he reached a hand into the object, only for it to glow brighter. The scientist yelped, turning into a squid as he jumped away, gaining the attention of everyone else. Once he was sure the glow returned to its original intensity, he turned back, laughing sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry, false alarm."
As the general watched, he cleared his throat. "Y'know, couldn't we just ask our friend here what this junk does?" he asked, pointing to a nearby giant snow globe containing a rather irate purple octopus wearing a crown of sorts.
"No way I'd help a bunch of slimy hipsters like you!"
The scientists just looked at the general in silence, and he shrugged at the apparent answer.
Suddenly, while looking at the back side of the glowing object, one of the scientist accidentally bumped it, causing the glow to intensify once again. However, when she backed away, it kept getting stronger.
The other scientists noticed, and started panicking as they tried to figure out just what was happening. One of them tried touching it again, but that just made the object fall over onto its side. It then started rapidly vibrating, the glow managing to show through all sides of it now.
The scientists knew a dangerous lost cause when they saw one, and one of them quickly pulled out a small weapon and fired it behind him, leaving a trail of bright yellow ink. He then jumped into it, turning into a squid, and quickly swam off, while the others followed him.
During the object's convulsing, it ended up flipping over again, the glow now almost blinding. Then, it intensified even more for a split second, before going dark, and falling to the ground, lifeless.
Not only that, but where there was once the proud city of Inkopolis, there was now only empty space, parts of the land showing where the city was previously connected.
Meanwhile, the octopus opened his eyes to see the scene before him. Not only that, but now he was left alone.
"Finally! It's time for me to remix my revenge!"
He let out a yell as he charged the glass, only to impact it dully and slide to the bottom.
"Ow..."
Callie and Marie watched the plaza with mild interest, waving at the occasional fan that looked their way, when suddenly the sky started glowing a faint purple.
At first, few of the inklings noticed, but as the purple in the sky grew stronger and stronger, they stopped what they were doing and looked up, dumbstruck looks on their faces.
Callie and Marie did the same, before looking back at each other.
"It's the octarians, isn't it?"
"Probably."
Suddenly, the sky flashed bright purple, and everyone found themselves thrown to the ground by what felt like a massive earthquake. After about a minute, it stopped, and everyone slowly started to get back to their feet to see what had just happened.
For one, the sky was no longer purple, but something about it seemed... off.
A few buildings were damaged by the earthquake, but thankfully it was nothing major.
The plaza was filled with the sounds of concerned conversation, while Callie and Marie felt their phones buzz. Looking at them simultaneously, they then looked back up at each other, and nodded.
Getting to their feet, they subtly opened a hidden hatch, before entering and closing it behind them. After changing into more appropriate outfits, they armed themselves and walked over to a nearby grating. They nodded at each other once more, before turning into squids and passing through.
After a brief journey through some tubes, the two changed back after exiting through another grate. However, instead of the familiar sight of Octo Valley, they were greeted with an unusual sight.
Ahead of them was a beach, the water just barely poking around the lower edge of the city. Past the beach they could see a dense treeline, and past that they could see the top of what looked like another city.
What was really odd, though, was the amount of colorful... somethings they saw flying in the air above it.
It also didn't help that it looked like a whole section of the city was cleanly carved off, with a few severed pipes spewing ink onto the surrounding sand.
Next to them was a group of panicked scientists, along with a familiar face.
Callie groaned. "What did you do this time, gramps?"
"Princess Celestia!"
The princess in question halted her sip of tea to see a guard running towards her, barely managing to stop and quickly bow in time. From the look on his face, something serious had happened.
"Something serious has happened!"
Well then.
"What is it?" she asked, concern filling her voice.
"A... an island has suddenly appeared off the coast of Manehattan, your highness!"
Well, this certainly sounded serious. "An island?"
"Yes, your highness. It appears to hold a city of some kind, and it looks as if... something is slowly spreading on the ground near it, and in the surrounding water."
Somewhat disturbed by the news, Celestia nodded. "Very well. I will investigate immediately. Dismissed."
The guard nodded, and left the throne room. Celestia quickly levitated a blank parchment and quill to herself, where she hastily wrote out a letter. After sending it, she powered up her horn and teleported herself.
She opened her wings in anticipation, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the island the guard was talking about, just barely resting on a beach close to Manehattan. Just as he said, something brightly colored was spreading from certain points onto the nearby sand and into the water, but she couldn't tell what it was from this distance. Not only that, but she could see a tower rising from the middle of the city, and there seemed to be something curled large around it.
Suddenly, there was a small purple flash and a pop next to her, and she turned to see her former student, Twilight Sparkle, flying beside her.
"Sorry I took so long, Celestia, I came as quickly as I could!"
Celestia smiled at the younger princess's behavior, before turning back to the island.
Twilight followed her gaze, and gasped. "What is that?"
"I'm not too sure, Twilight."
"Is... is it dangerous?"
Celestia smirked. "That is what we are here for."
Suddenly, she noticed some movement near the base of the island. She couldn't tell from here, but it looked like a small group of some kind of creatures, barely shown under the overhanging edge of the city.
She pointed them out to Twilight, whose eyes widened. Celestia then started descending towards them, and Twilight hesitantly followed.
"Oh, Agents 1 and 2! Glad you got here so quickly!"
The scientists, thinking the situation was somewhat under control now, nodded to the others before heading over to the grate, where they turned into squids and passed through.
"So what's going on, Grandpa Cuttlefish?" Callie asked.
"I'm not too sure myself. One moment, we were poking around with some octarian doohicky, and the next thing you know, Inkopolis is here now!"
Marie looked around. "Wait a second, where's-"
Suddenly, there was the sound of goop forming behind them. Turning, they saw another inkling emerging from the grate into the city, holding his weapon, and wearing an outfit similar to theirs.
"Ah, Agent 3!" Cap'n Cuttlefish said. "Glad you could make it, bucko!"
"So why did you need us?" Callie asked.
"Seein' how we're a bit clueless here, I was thinkin' you three could go and investigate the area!"
The three nodded in acknowledgement.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna try and make sure the young'uns don't get too freaked out."
With that, he went back into the city, leaving the three agents standing by themselves.
"Did he just heap most of the work on us?" Marie asked.
"Looks like it," Callie answered. "Well, let's get moving."
The three of them started to walk away from the city, when suddenly they spotted something in the sky.
It appeared to be two flying... things, one white and one purple.
"You see those, right, Callie?"
"Yes, Marie, I see them."
Before they could further contemplate just what exactly they were looking at, the two objects began flying towards them.
Twilight and Celestia quickly approached the creatures, and they noticed that they had spotted the two of them, as well.
There were three of them, each one holding what looked like a weapon of some kind. They also appeared to have tanks on their backs connected to the weapons, and it looked as if they were filled with the same stuff that was spreading onto the environment.
The two princesses landed, and they looked over the strange creatures, while they did the same to them. They appeared to have several characteristics similar to monkeys, yet at the same time something seemed... different. For one, it appeared that they didn't have any hair on their body; even the "hair" on their heads looked like something else. Plus, the hair itself looked to be made up of tentacles near the end.
Their eyes also had an unusual black outline around them, giving the impression that they were wearing masks. And their ears were pointed, though one of them was wearing some sort of covering over theirs.
The two groups just stared at each other for a little while, until Celestia began to speak. "May I ask who you are, and what you're doing here?"
The look of confusion on the creatures' faces just grew when she spoke, and they softly began talking with each other. When they did so, Celestia realized that she couldn't understand a word they were saying, and that the reverse was also probably true.
Twilight noticed this, as well, and began to charge up a small spell to assist matters.
"What do we do? I think it's trying to talk to us."
"Yeah, because I totally know what to do for this, Marie."
"What do you think, 3?"
He just shrugged.
Suddenly, they noticed that the purple one's horn was glowing softly. Just as soon as they noticed, it stopped.
"What do you think that was about?" Callie asked.
"Well, that takes care of one problem."
The three jumped as the white one talked again. This time, it seemed like she was speaking perfect Squiddish, for some reason.
"Now, may I repeat my question of who you are and what you're doing here?"
The three inklings looked at each other, before Marie shrugged and stepped forward slightly. "Honestly, we're not even sure. Apparently this was an accident."
"So, who and what are you?" the purple one asked, bringing attention to her.
Callie could tell which way the conversation was going to go, so she just stepped back while Marie took the brunt of the questioning.
"This is totally not fresh."
Author's Note
At the time this was written, there was not a single Splatoon crossover on Fimfiction.
Surely this will not do, so I had to act.
Thankfully, the initial conversation didn't take too long. Marie briefly described what an inkling was, Celestia told them where they were, and Marie told them that it was just ink spreading into the surrounding wilderness, and that it was harmless. This, however, led to a new line of conversation.
"So, you can... shapeshift?"
"Yes."
"And then... swim in your... ink?"
Marie tried her best to not groan at Twilight's questions. "Yes."
"Could you... demonstrate?"
Wordlessly, Marie looked back at Callie, who looked back at Agent 3. He rolled his eyes, before aiming his weapon off to the side, and firing a short burst. It covered the ground in a patch of green ink, which he started walking towards. Once he reached it, he jumped into the air, where he rapidly shifted into a squid. Once he hit the ink on the ground, he splashed into it, making it look as if he had just vanished.
Twilight watched in awe, and even Celestia was impressed.
After a few seconds, a goopy form emerged from the ink, turning back into Agent 3, who wore a bored expression on his face.
With the brief example done, conversation then turned onto the ponies. Namely, what Twilight had done with her horn earlier. She had given a short explanation of magic, and also said that she had cast a translation spell, usually reserved for diplomatic meetings and such. It wasn't permanent, but it generally lasted long enough.
This allowed Celestia to segue into another topic. "So, may I ask who exactly is in charge, here?"
The three inklings looked at each other. "...not really anyone, now that I think about it," Callie said.
Marie nodded. "Yeah, whenever there was something important to decide on, we pretty much just took votes from everyone."
Celestia was slightly taken aback. This society was a full democracy? Sure, she was no stranger to the idea, but in all her years she had never heard of one being fully and successfully enacted.
Suddenly, a pair of devices in Callie and Marie's pockets started to make noise, causing them to take them out and see what it was. Once they saw, their eyes widened.
"Uh, sorry, but we have to go now," Marie said, somewhat quickly.
"Nice meeting you and everything!" Callie added, before the two of them ran over to the grate leading into the city, and turned into squids, disappearing in a brief splash of ink.
Agent 3 looked between the now-gone squids and the confused ponies, before shrugging and waving goodbye. Then he too vanished into the city.
Twilight and Celestia just tilted their heads in confusion, and looked up at the underside of the city. "So, should we go in there?" Twilight finally asked.
Celestia thought over it. "Maybe not quite yet. Let's give them some time to adjust."
Nodding, Twilight followed her into the air, heading back to the castle. These were strange times they lived in, but then again, every day is strange in Equestria.
After a quick outfit change, Callie and Marie were once again ready for television. However, this time was a first in that they would have to be a little bit more serious.
Outside their studio, they could see several dozen inklings and jellyfish talking to each other, no doubt wondering what in the world just happened. Hopefully, this next broadcast would shed some light on the situation for them.
The cameraman started counting down, and the two got into position. They didn't have any pictures for the upcoming story yet, but hopefully the effect would be the same.
Then that familiar opening tune played, and it was showtime.
"Hold onto your tentacles..." Callie started.
"...it's Inkopolis news time!" Marie finished.
With the intro out of he way, it was time to get down to business. "So, you're all probably wondering what just happened," Callie said.
"I know I am!" Marie remarked.
"Well, apparently something went wrong in one of our labs, and the whole city ended up getting teleported somewhere completely different."
"That's certainly not fresh."
"We're not quite sure who the locals here are, but hopefully they'll prove to be friendly."
"So, just stay calm through this, we'll be fine."
"Oh, and for obvious reasons, turf wars will be postponed until further notice."
"That's the worst news so far!"
"Until next time..."
As the two did their catchphrase, they surveyed the crowd. Though there was some grumbling about the postponed turf wars, it seemed that they were now going about their business, not a hint of panic to be seen anywhere.
Once the cameras were off, Callie and Marie walked over to their usual table. "So, when do you think those... 'ponies' will start visiting us?" Marie asked.
Callie put a hand to her chin in thought. "I'd say about a week or two."
"I just hope gramps doesn't declare war on them or something."
Callie started laughing, then winced when she realized Marie was right. "Yeah, we should keep an eye on him."
Meanwhile, the team of scientists that (accidentally) caused this whole mess was now excited. This was likely a chance to meet a whole new species, never before seen by inkling kind!
After all, surely nothing bad could come of it.
Right?
Probably not.
