Splash woke up the next morning to the stomping of hooves. He made a movement to pick himself only to be picked up, and immediately thrown across the lake shore, he bounced twice before dragging his fingers against the dirt and stopping himself. He looked up and focused on the armor clad figure in front of him. A unicorn covered head-to-hoof in fencing gear, a sword in it's grasp.
Splash picked himself up with a groan. "This is more Roar's sort of thing."
"You, demon!" The slightly muffled voice called out to him. "You may have the rest fooled, but not me. I shall beat you where you stand!"
Splash cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to kick your ass for that rude awakening."
The man and pony charged each other, at the edge of his enemy's telekinetic grasp on his weapon, Splash slid past the unicorn's side and tripped them as he went. His target exposed, Splash rolled on his back planted a kick right on the unicorn's ass, as promised. The pony yelped and rolled away, picking himself up as Splash did.
The unicorn slashed at him with their sword, and in an attempt to lean back out of the swipe Splash received a cut on the neck. He found it was not life-threatening and charged the fencer. He grabbed the handle of the sword before his enemy could react and pulled, sending the unicorn sprawling towards the man, who then kicked him square in the chest. The telekinetic grasp on the sword was broken as the pony was sent flying backwards for a moment or two.
The enemy got to their feet and sent fierce magical blasts loose at Splash, he lost his grip on the sword and fell onto his back as they struck him. He looked up just in time to evade a downward stab from the sword, he rolled to the right and finally pulled loose his sidearm. Splash emptied the seven-round magazine into his enemy's side, the strange blue bolts of energy burning into the fencing armor. The unicorn went down with a whimper.
Splash picked himself up, holstering the empty sidearm and approaching his fallen enemy. He grabbed the pony up by his collar and growled.
"Who are you?"
He received no reply, instead he received a headbutt, stunning the man and causing him to drop his enemy. Splash heard hooves clopping away as he rubbed his head and realized the unicorn had fled into the nearby woods, there'd be no catching them. The man sighed, laying down with his hands intertwined on his chest and one leg retracted. He decided to rest more, surely his team would be coming to collect him shortly.
The sun was in the middle of the sky when the rumble of an engine and the creak of breaks alerted him to company. He opened his eyes, seeing the sun and the front end of a Stryker. He couldn't make himself get up, it was like his body was plastered to the ground. The clopping of hooves approached and Celestia graced his vision. The sun behind her nearly silhouetted her face, forcing Splash to squint so he could make out who it was. She looked down on him with a smile.
"Hello my human friend, did you need your device back?"
Splash blinked. "Yeah."
"That is fine, thought it would've been preferable had you asked." The princess' grin only grew.
The princess stepped back and was replaced by Raptor, who offered Splash his hand. The man hoisted up his friend and began explaining the situation.
"The guard as a whole has assumed you were a changeling due to the low-light in Celestia's room, though I doubt they would've acted any differently had they actually seen it was you. Celestia and a few guardponies found us at the FOB as we were setting up floodlights, though she was the only one that noticed that you weren't with us."
"Right." Splash said, balancing precariously on his feet. "So I take it the guards still don't know it was me. Why did the lights go out?"
Celestia shook her head. "I'm afraid we could not find the cause, though they are functional once more."
"Alright... Hey Raptor?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you tested The Rules That Bind lately?"
Raptor frowned. "No. Why?"
"I didn't see my altimeter as I was falling last night. I thought it'd be something to look into."
"Excuse me," Celestia said, walking between the two. "Rules That Bind?"
"Noosphere stuff, really funky stuff that he doesn't understand." Raptor butted in, earning a dirty look from Splash.
"I'm no expert," He continued. "But it's some invisible sphere of energy. In our realm it controls our emotions, acts, et cetera."
"It is also what brings us back to life." Splash added.
The two men fell deathly silent at that revelation.
Celestia spoke up. "So... If one of you die here, you run the risk of dying for good."
Splash stuck his hands in his pockets and scuffed the earth with his shoe. "I suppose so. Yeesh, Permadeath, that's a terrifying concept."
The princess nodded. "Luna and I have lived long; thousands of years in fact. As purebred alicorns it is legend that we shall not perish of old age. Waking up tomorrow with a wrinkle on my face would be an alien and terrifying thing."
The crew members chuckled with the princess.
"It's okay Princess. No amount of age could take away your beauty!" Splash joked, sending the mare bursting into laughter.
"Immortal or not, you my dear human, you just made me feel a thousand years younger."
A metallic thunk and grinding was heard, Roar poked his head out of the Stryker's driver hatch. "Hey, can we go now?"
"Oh, yeah. Sure." Raptor climbed onto the Stryker, leaning against the gun.
Celestia started for the vehicle, but was stopped by Splash, he held his phone out to her. "Here, you can have this back. I only needed it for a little."
Celestia took the device in her magic, smiling gratefully. "Why thank you."
The mare leaned forward suddenly, placing her mouth just to the side of Splash's head and whispered to him. "It's not like I was going to tell anyone about your fanfiction."
Splash choked as the princess turned and jumped onto the Stryker. Roar and Raptor looked at each other questioningly, but shrugged it off. Splash himself eventually clambered onto the vehicle and sat himself beside a smug Celestia just beside the driver's hatch. The ride seemed like it would remain silent, but Raptor noticed something odd about Splash.
"Splash, why is the slide to your nineteen-eleven locked back?"
The man turned to his leader, startled. He pulled out his sidearm, the slide was locked. The weapon was empty.
"Oh, that." He started dumbly.
"What does that mean?" Celestia asked.
"It means he used all of the ammo he had loaded, Splash what the Hell?"
Splash shook his head. "It's not what your thinking, I didn't engage any guards or anything. Well I engaged someone but they attacked me."
Raptor raised an eyebrow, frowning. "Someone or somepony?"
"What."
"What was your contact?"
Splash shrugged. "I don't know who. They had fencing gear covering their entire body. It was a unicorn, they tried to stab me with a sword!"
Celestia leaned forward with interest. "Did they say anything, perchance?"
Splash met her eyes. "Said I was a demon, had you all fooled."
"Fooled?"
The man shrugged. "Last time I checked, we were here for rest and relaxtion."
Celestia looked down, her eyes soft. "One of my ponies has attempted to murder you."
The group was silent for a few moments as the Stryker wound its way up the hill, then Celestia looked up with a ferocity in her eyes.
"This simply will not stand. We're going to the war room."
Once more they parked the Stryker in the throne room, the princess lead them on through the maze of corridors her castle contained, coming to doors that looked far older that the rest, completely made from a sort of metal unlike it's wooden neighbors. Princess Celestia pushed open the ancient decorative doors, wincing as the hinges creaked. There was nothing but darkness ahead of her and she grabbed for the unlit lights with her magic. One by one, as she found them, a yellow flame would appear in some of the scones adorning the walls at intervals. The room was lit and Celestia walked in with the Stryker crew in tow. A layer of dust covered the floor with cobwebs across the ceiling, old decayed maps littered the walls, the graphite on them smeared and faded. One lone table sat in the middle of the room, it glowed as the princess entered and what looked like a map of the entire world appeared atop of it.
Celestia set her hoof on the table longingly. "Ah, it's been far too long since I've orchestrated a domination."
Echo One passed concerned looks. Splash decided to address the scones.
"Only half of these lights have been lit." He said.
"Ah, that was a tradition between Luna and I in our old castle. Half the scones would be lit by me, she the other. Of course, I banished her because of an insurgency long ago, before this castle's existence. It's just that such habits die hard."
Suddenly the remaining scones burst into blue light, the men and alicorn in the room looked towards it's entrance at the voice that called out.
"In a time so peaceful as that which we live now one would hope such a tradition need not continue, my dear sister."
Celestia smiled at Luna. "Please Luna, do come in."
The dark alicorn walked in, studying the room. "My, I had expected after my banishment there was no need for such a room. Pray tell, what mighty conquests did you plan from here?"
The other sister grinned smugly, tapping her chin. "Well, I remember glassing Glascow as if it was last week. Spared the Ibex Empire total annihilation. We annexed Prance, but that wasn't anything special. Burned the Scorched Lands. Had Marelantis sank at some point. Then finally there was the incident at the Eternity Bridge."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "What happened at the Eternity Bridge?"
"Long story short, I sank it too."
A slap was heard as Luna put her hoof to her face. She grumbled, "I loved that bridge."
By this time the Stryker crew had subconsciously placed themselves against the wall away from Celestia. She only smiled and stared down at the map, her horn lit up and the map seemed to zoom in on Canterlot itself.
"Canterlot," Celestia began to explain. "Has produced the most recognized fencers in the entire world for decades on end. I suppose it would make sense that, if any, a pony involved in fencing would attack as they are fiercely competitive, and sometimes just plain aggressive."
"There has been an attack?" Luna asked.
"Indeed, Splash was attacked at the bottom of Canterlot Falls."
Luna moved up to the map. "We do not know by whom?"
"I am afraid not."
Raptor and his squad mates resumed their positions at the other side of the map.
"So," He began. "You think the fencer would be from Canterlot."
Luna spoke. "It would be a safe bet, Ponyville boasts no fencing community, and you have shown no presence anywhere but the small village and here in Canterlot."
"But why?" Roar asked, his arms crossed. "We just finished kicking changeling ass for you all."
"It's an odd manner." Celestia told them. "All our ponies seem to think of you as great heroes, the ones that know of you, anyhow.
Something clicked to Celestia. "Which as of right now, not many of them actually know of you three."
Raptor nodded. "That narrows it down. We can start making a list then and go through it."
"I'll start on it right away. It'll give myself an excuse to dismiss the court early if I even bother with it."
Luna snickered. "Well, you three could interact with the populace of the castle and possibly gather clues."
Raptor nodded to his crew. "Okay."
"We rollin'." Splash cheered as he left the room, his team mates in tow.
"So where are you guys heading?" Roar asked, looking at Raptor and Splash.
"My gun." Splash said, receiving a sound of agreement from Raptor.
Roar looked forward and nodded. "Same."