“Move! Move!” Revan snarled, shoving a few clueless stallions aside as he rushed his way towards the far end of the Stronghold's corridor. One or two ponies gasped and leapt into opposite hallways, giving him an unobstructed path towards his destination. Once Revan reached the armory entrance on the far end, he shoved against it, but the lock held the door in place. Revan grunted and struggled. “Rnnnngh... dammit! Somepony—”
“Here, Revan,” a Southern Hoof thug rushed up, entered the appropriate access code, and opened the chamber with a hissss.
Revan, Cold Stone, and several other henchstallions burst in. They skidded to a stop, gawking at the sound of a metallic ringing noise.
Remna stood to the side, wearing a brown stetson. He was currently in the process of yanking a dull black lever.
Whurrrrrrr! Ahead of them, the metal grate separating the room from the wall of aquakinetic water slid shut. WHUDDD! The vertical columns of water shook, and as they settled the stallions could see three yellow figures furiously frog-stroking away into the jet black darkness.
Revan's eyes twitched. “... ... ...the buck?!”
“Hmmmm...” Remna blinked dully ahead of him, wearing Bard's hat. “I've always wanted to braid my mane...”
“Looks like just about everypony is gathered inside by now,” Echo muttered, staring at the relatively barren courtyard bordering the edge of the Marine Auction House. “Their meeting thingy must be underway.”
“No doubt.” Theanim Mane nodded, adjusting the folds of his robe. “Verlaxion-willing, Rainbow and our other friends are being rather timely with their tasks.”
“And just how will we know when it's our turn to steal the spotlight?” Echo asked.
Just as the sarosian voiced this, a random mare wandering by scuffled to a stop. The two stallions watched as she pivoted about, trotted directly to their shadowed pocket of the enclosure, and stood upon the fringes, eyes glowing bright green.
“The moment is upon you, gentlecolts,” the citizen slurred. “Be swift, righteous, and—above all—honest.”
Theanim blinked. He and Echo exchanged glances, then looked at the mare again. “Erm... by all means.” He gulped, tilting his head to the side. “Much thanks...Your Highness?”
She nodded. “I'm secretly harboring arduous feelings for my roommate,” the mare murmured. Then, with a twitch of one ear after the other, she shook her head. The green light in her eyes completely faded as she teetered slightly. “Mrmmmff... I-I'm sorry...” She squinted. “You two are...?”
“Erm... a pair of perfect strangers, milady,” Theanim said, bowing slightly. “Here...” He reached under his robe, produced a few bits, and placed them delicately in her hooves. “For... uhm... your troubles.”
“And you want advice on your roommate?” Echo droned, winking one eyeslit. “Go in for the kill.”
The pony did a double-take. “Wh-what...?!”
“Blast it, old chap!” Theanim hissed, yanking the sarosian along as he rushed for the Marine Auction House. “Move it!”
Echo saluted with a weak smile as the two scurried off.
“... ... ...” The mare pivoted about, staring at the bits in her hoof. Slowly, a rosy blush spread across her cheeks. “Hmmm... candle-light dinner in the kelp forest...”
“Mmmfff... gnnngh...” Remna suddenly stubbled back, dazedly shaking his head. “What... ? How...?” He gazed across the armory full of golden treasures. “...what am I doing here?”
Revan galloped past him and yanked the lever again. The crate swung open, revealing an unobstructed view of the watery basin bordering the Muddredge structure—not that it mattered. There was no sight of the three runaway divers at this point.
“What in Verlaxion's Sleet is going on here?!” one of the many thugs stammered. “Were there ponies in here just now?!”
“Hey!” Another thug pointed at the open metal locker to the side. “The diving suits are gone! All of them!”
“What?” A Southern Hoof guard shuffled over while Remna continued to rub his head. “But... there were more than three here! Where'd the others go?”
Revan spun towards his subordinate unicorn. “Cold Stone?”
The stallion stood in place, clenching his eyes shut. A beam of light pulsed at the end of his horn. “I sense three signatures... swimming... descending... curving towards the southeast...” He shuddered. “Seven other signatures... floating off at random...”
“They ditched the other suits!” a guard exclaimed.
“Well, did they steal anything?!” A Rust thug wandered around, shivering. “Looks like you guys keep all of your crap down here!”
“Everything's in tact, as far as I can tell,” spoke a Southern Hoofer. “Doesn't look like they stole anything other than the suits. Even the money supply's untouched.”
“You friggin' idiots...” Revan snarled. “They didn't need to steal anything to have screwed us down here!” He spun about, eyes flaring. “What we have down here is evidence! These manureheads carried a camera with them up in Rust! With just enough snapshots, they can bring this entire operation down on you and Jeryn as well!”
“Oh Goddess...” A thug slumped to his knees.
Frowning, Revan stomped across the room. “You!” He pointed an angry hoof at Remna. “What in the Queen's fiery pisshole were doing down there?! Helping them?!”
“I... I don't get it...” Remna blinked blearily. “I was... I was supervising the front post...” He glanced across the many angry faces. “...I didn't fall asleep, did I?” His eyes trailed with a faint cloud of luminescent green.
Cold Stone gasped. “Boss!” He pointed. “His eyes! It's—”
“Siren magic...” Revan gnashed his teeth. “So, she's onto us... how terrific...”
Remna's eyes crossed, spotting the brim of the hat. He reached up, felt the stetson, then glanced awkwardly at Revan. “...heh.” He bore a crooked smile, striking a pose. “Why, Boss Revan! Fancy meeting you here!”
WHUMP! Revan punched Remna in the chest, grabbed the stallion by the shoulders—“Rrrrrrrggghhh!!!”—and flung him out into the water, hat and all.
The hapless guard gasped and vomited bubbles, floating and flailing as he sailed off into the dark, drowning abyss.
The other guards all flinched, wincing.
SLAP! Revan yanked the lever, locking Remna's body out beyond the metal grate. SLAM! He spun and hollered at the ponies gathered, eyes flaring. “No stallion's guaranteed another night with their families until we catch those motherbuckers and string them up by their balls!” He spun towards the nearest unicorn. “Cold Stone! Where are they headed?”
“Descending... descending...” Cold Stone gnashed his teeth, concentrating.
“Well...?!?!”
The stallion looked up, his horn pulsing. “Downstream! Towards the underground chambers!”
“What—you mean the Tomb of the Sirens?” a Southern Hoof thug stammered.
“Well, what the Hell are we waiting for?!” Revan shouted, galloping straight out the door. “We have to cut them off at the head!”
“But... b-but...!” One of several guards protested, struggling to catch up with the stallion. “That place is off limits! Not even Boss Jeryn is allowed in there—”
“This is beyond him! Beyond everything!” Revan galloped forward, frowning. “If they get away from us—we're ruined! Now move!”
Echo getting into shipping/dating advice..
Revan, still vicious and violent, very much shaping up to be a new Shell.
What's that saying again?
Revan has been upgraded, he is now Shell v0.75
How is he going to cut them off anyway? Does the southern hoof have an interceptor submarine or something?
Bard's goin' hatless from here on out it seems. Poor hat. Poor Remna.
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
So they did get rid of the other suits, old Rainbow would never have covered her tracks like that. Good for her. Now with this chapter we are three quarters of the way done, seems like only yesterday that Ynanhluutr started.
RIP Renma.
Also, Echo is best love doctor.
Possession by a siren does seem to have interesting side effects.
"Your new roommates!"
Not cool Revan... the poor guy just wanted some potatoes and panties, is that really so unreasonable?
6345056
So, what, Remna likes braiding his hair, and has a secret stash of panties?
Renma, poor Renma! Such a short-lived character you got, remnants.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
Not the hat!
Excellent, if they're chasing after Rainbow they won't be after Theanim. Although how they'll get out into the water without any more suits...
6345013
Old Rainbow didn't really have ponies besides Roarke that would think to do that. Now she's got two technically competent mercenaries to think of the little things like that. Along with Twilight and Rarity.
6345094 Don't forget the hair braiding. He desperately wanted that too.
6345191 Technically he has three letters left, so maybe he'll become a place.
Echo is best
Swan Songshipper.Am I the only one who actually hopes the Princess sends a few sea ponies to grab Remna and get him to air or something? He doesn't deserve to die for being mind controlled and helping Dash and her crew.
6345013
But if that were true we'd only have 2 chapters.
Here we go with the chase. Now its time to see who will make it first, I sadly have the feeling is going to be Revan and crew.
6345436 6345094
He might still be able to swim to safety through some other "door"/"window".
As much as I want him to, I don't see Remna making it. It's the bottom of the ocean, after all. Pressure and laws of physics are sort of a thing in this universe.
6345757
if only there were Ponies that were aquatic....
6345191
Who knows, maybe a nice seapony samaritan will spot the poor fellow before he ends up sleeping with the other fishes. What can I say, I'm a relentless optimist.
Edit: Now that I think about it, Camellia is monitoring all of this anyway and can control minds, so there literally no reason she wouldn't be aware of Remna's predicament and could easily send a few Seaponies over to rescue him. In a city surrounded by water it's plausible there'd be multiple emergency methods of rescuing drowning individuals, and it kind of is Camellia ' fault Remna was in that situation to begin with, so being a responsible leader who would want to keep deaths to a minimum it's well within the realm of plausibility that she'd have this covered.
But again, I'm the untiring well of positive thinking, so this is just my head cannon barring any confirmation to the contrary.
A moment of silence for the hat, please.
Who is to say reven won't have a little "accident" courtesy of the princess?
6345765
6345685 I got curious and decided to do a little research on what the chances of a person surviving something like this would be... it's not looking too good for poor Remna.
Most medical sources I could find stated that brain damage would start to set in after about 3-4 minutes after total oxygen loss, which would have been almost immediately for Remna since he inhaled seawater. There's also the bigger risk that he would suffer a heart attack from the shock of being thrown into the near freezing water at those depths coupled with him panicking.
The one bright spot though is he shouldn't be at too big of a risk of forming an air embolism (gas bubbles in the bloodstream due to decompression) if he does get brought back into the city by a seapony since he expelled all of the air in his lungs.
tl;dr there's a slim chance he could make it but he would need immediate medical attention.
The scheme is that in the middle of the declarations of Theanim at the Auction House, news of Revan and the Thugs storming the tombs will be brought to everyone's attention by some panicky pony, cementing the charges of "evil bad guys" by the evidence against the Syndicate.
6345948
3 to 4 minutes can be enough time if Camellia was smart enough to surmise that a psycho like Revan might pull a stunt like that and as a precaution she already had help on the way, so a seapony was nearby to grab Remna within seconds. Its also plausible in a setting like this, an underwater magical city, that they have magical means of countering drowning (think the magic version of cpr). I know it's all a long shot, but like I said, I'm an optimist, and I'd like to think Camellia is a responsible and benevolent enough leader that she'd prioritize doing everything in her power to minimize needless deaths, especially with ponies she's personally manipulating into danger.
6345757
Not to mention some of the less friendly wildlife would probably snap Remna up before anything could save him.
6345998
Plausible indeed. Although leaving him to perish would also mean no more tainted drinking water.
Revan is more like a parody of She'll than anything.
Ranma 1/2 possed in water, be a seapony?
Revan cant follow using the Hoofs suits, but he can follow by using the City suits. Dash and co might be carrying out an action, but in doing so she is acting as a major distraction for Theanim and Echo to have all the very unhappy rioting crowds ready for Revans return.
We havent seen Camille control a Moray, Whale, Squid, Kraken or Leviathan yet. Never mind Pleiseiosar or other mega aquatic predator from time myths and legends.
Theres always the ultimate Abyss class Machine World action.
Shoggoth Rising.
Revan = Head^Ass
Yep, Revan is going completely Shell on us
6345191 6345765 Offscreen deaths don't count. He's just MIA until otherwise noted.
Also SeaShell confirmed for losing his marbles
6345367 If remnants still has three letters left... Hmm... Maybe IC could work in an upbeat techno song.
N-ts
N-ts
N-ts
6346256 That right there is an unsettling thought.
Don't approve of the language I'm quoted as using, as I am a man who never says anything worse than 'Crap'.
And really? Me chucking a guy out into the ocean because he had the misfortune of being mind-controlled?
REALLY???!!!
I simply would've stuck him in a prison cell and decided what to do with him later.
You know... Maybe Remna isn't dead. Maybe some seaponies save him and maybe he'll give evidence against the Syndicate. Maybe...
6345757 Actually, that's kind of a thing. Given deep-sea pressure he should've been crushed to a pulp the instance he crossed past that water barrier.
Well okay there Shell 2.0
Ok... That's pretty sad...
6347905
I was evil until I wasn't.
Sure your character is an intolerable, sadistic, conniving flankhole with no regard for equine life who burns ponies to death and curses like a pirate for NOW... but it's Ynanhluutr! Who KNOWS what could happen!
Camellia is totally screwing with these ponies. She might just be pretty cool to hang out with.
6345948 depending on how deep the ocean is here, I think water pressure is a much bigger issue.
No, not the hat!
I call BS. How the hell did Revan even know about the camera? He's too on point with everything.
6345837 That reminds me. When AJ get's back will she have a ghost hat?
6682429
1) He chased them off Rust.
2) he saw the camera on RD when she was running away from him.
C) He put 1 and 2 together and came to this conclusion.
He is the smartest "mortal" villain we've seen so far so this shouldn't be beyond him.
6873846
Well other than Nightshade. Nightshade had kidnapped numerous children [successful kidnappings without legal recompense]; found out how to build a super sequencer; stole and power boosted a spark with the intention of destroying all magic-tech / users in Ledomare-Xonan continent [and was for a while successful]; gave the Noble Jury the power boosting system that it enjoyed for a majority of their occupation; and was a part-time Lex Luthor.
Revan is a close second though, and is pretty funny to watch.
It's pretty convenient that Revan is basically breaking into the Southern Syndicate's base here - maybe he'll get the blame for the heist.
Hey Tavi, you're a long way from Equestria.
Poor Remna, he didn't deserve that.
He looks to be in distress. Maybe if he can simply signal SOS a helpful-as-can-be-pony will bring him back to shore.
Revan, you're making a decent start by drowning your minions, but at this point Shell had already slaughtered a village, tortured his wife to death and fed a whole bunch of civilians to a chaos monster for giggles - and those were just the people on his own side. You are no Shell.
RIP Bard’s legendary hat...
Oh, and the other guy too I guess.
I hope this unnamed extra wins over the heart of her roommate!
It's a pretty hilarious side effect of Siren Control when they start spouting out secrets at random.
Makes them super honest and stuff, if a bit delerious.
That better not be the end of Renma! He's my favorite character!
Oh, and the hat.
8180644
I'm reading a Jim Butcher novel with a main character named Tavi. This gave me a spook.