The city was quiet for the rest of the day. There were reports of heated arguments and the occasional scrap between small groups, but for the most part the two families seemed content to lick their wounds and hole up in their own territories. The city Watch made a show of force, putting as many hooves on the streets and waterways as they could manage, but given the persistent rumours of house allegiance being rife amongst their number, it was hard to say how much use they would be in an emergency. The ordinary ponyfolk of the city, sensing that they had not seen the last of the previous night’s chaos, stayed indoors.
With Stonefeather’s shoulder bandaged - it had turned out to be nothing worse than a nasty sprain - Hearthfire, Stonefeather, Arbor and Cas trotted their furtive route back to the Hearthfire’s hotel room. No pony suggested that they go anywhere. A repressive air of tension pervaded the cramped room, and even simple conversation felt forced. No pony was really listening to each other, just talking to fill the space.
“Two days,” Hearthfire sighed, restlessly, sometime around the sixth hour. “I almost managed to last two days in a new city without anything going wrong.”
“I just wish we knew what was happening out there. Whether they’ve found Rainbow Plume or not,” Arbor complained.
“They will. I’m sure of it. She probably... got blown off course by the storm, and ended up miles away. She’ll find her own way back, you’ll see.”
“You don’t think maybe, somepony did do something to her? I mean obviously,” Arbor added hastily, “not Blossom. But some of the ponies in my family get pretty scary when they start talking about the Feathers.”
That gloomy thought hung over the group like a cloud for the rest of the afternoon, and persisted until Arbor announced that he should go home.
“Mum and dad will be worried about me if I’m gone all night without letting them know I’m all right, especially with things being as unsettled as they are.”
“Won’t they be angry after what we did today?” Hearthfire asked.
“No, they’ll understand. They’re good ponies.”
“How about you, Stonefeather?”
“I’ll stay the night. Ah, if you don’t mind. I don’t really have anywhere else to go.”
“His parents live with that prat Dancing Pinion,” Arbor supplied.
“...Yes. If we could afford to live on our own, we would! But -” Arbor held up a placating hoof.
“Sorry I mentioned it. I didn’t mean anything by it. Please let him stay here, Hearthfire. At least for tonight.”
* * *
The next day dawned grim and overcast. The pegasi were working hard hold back the worst of the wind, but over towards the mouth of the bay, dark clouds were gathering, preparing for another storm.
Something was wrong with the skyline.
“Stonefeather, you might want to have a look at this.”
“Hmm...?”
He flexed his neck and shook his limbs, stiff from sleeping on some blankets on the bare wooden floor, and trotted over to the open window.
“There.” Out towards the edge of the city, one of Whinnycia’s countless clock towers was sliding inexorably sideways. The top was swaying perceptibly, but it was staying upright. Hearthfire thought she could just make out the distant silhouettes of pegasi clustering around its peak. Now that she was looking for it, there was other, smaller towers moving, too. And a warehouse, out towards the docks.
“Oh...” Stonefeather took a second to process what he was seeing. “No no no no. They can’t. It’s not time yet! Not for days! What in hay are those two clowns playing at? Come on!”
“What? Where are we going?”
“Whichever one of them is responsible for this madness will be co-ordinating it at the city hall. The archives with all the building records are in there. They’ll have to have access to those to have any hope of avoiding a complete disaster!”
“All right. Cas! Wait here, this might be dangerous.” She shouldn’t have wasted her breath. Cas had absolutely no intention of staying behind.
Word was spreading through the waterways already, as those who had noticed the morning’s events streamed over to get a better look, and others joined the flow to find out what was happening. Finding someone going towards the city hall, almost directly away from the edge of the city where the excitement was occurring, turned out to be almost impossible, and the three of them instead found themselves once again navigating the after-thought pedestrian routes towards the city centre.
Upon reaching it, they found that the city hall was a mad whirlwind of activity. Ponies galloped in all directions, some in the uniform of one family or the other, some bearing city watch badges. The common theme was that all those flowing away from the city hall were carrying bulky cardboard cartons, which were being piled into two flotillas of barges waiting at the wharf. Wild Reed and Dancing Pinion - his wing splinted and bandaged - stood by their boats, screaming encouragement at their followers.
“We’ll beat them yet, my Feathers! Go like the wind! Forget the ballot! Our Plan is the right one, we’ll do it ourselves!”
“Hurry, hurry! We’ll show the dirty cheaters whose vision for glorious Whinnycia is superior!”
There were fights breaking out all over the market, and likely inside the hall too, as ponies squabbled over the cartons. Already, the market square was littered with spilled papers as roughly handled boxes burst.
“This is insanity,” Stonefeather wailed, “What can doing this possibly achieve?”
He ran forward, shouting to be heard over the din, “Uncle! Stop this, please! What are you doing?”
There was a glint in Dancing Pinion’s eye as he caught sight of his nephew. The wounded pegasus threw back his head and roared with crazed laughter.
“We’re done, Stonefeather. They think they can beat us by resorting to cold-blooded murder? We’ll show them that we don’t need to stoop to their level. If they are willing to go that far to win the vote, we’ll show them what we can do without even needing to consult them! Our engineers are already starting to dismantle the city! We’ll implement our Plan, our way, and Heavens help any pony who stands in our way!”
“You stupid old bastards! There’s no way this can work! Everypony, listen to me, please!”
He dashed from pony to pony, trying to wrestle boxes from them, stop them being carried to the boats, but no sooner than he had snatched one away, three more would carry on passed him, unheeding, with fanatic determination etched onto their faces. In minutes, he had exhausted himself, taking boxes, breaking up fights, running back and forth like a mad beast; he slumped on the city hall steps, wheezing in huge gulps of air, almost in tears at his own impotence.
“Sometimes, you just have to let things take their course,” Hearthfire advised, put a comforting hoof on his shoulder, but he shrugged her away, looked up at her with pleading eyes. “I’ve learned that lesson many times, but it never gets easier.”
“Ponies are going to get hurt.” His voice was almost deadpan. Hearthfire nodded:
“You can’t do anything to stop it.”
“That’s what I’m supposed to take from this? That I can’t do anything?”
“Sorry. I wish I had a better answer for you. Sometimes ponies are greedy or stupid or stubborn, and nothing you say will make a blind bit of difference to them.”
“That’s the worst lesson I can imagine.”
“That’s fair. Like I said, it never gets easier.”
The two of them were a brief island of silence and calm in the chaotic battle to secure the city’s archives. Out in the bay, the storm seemed to still be growing, despite the efforts of the pegasi working out on the cloud bank. Hearthfire resolutely refused to think about what would happen if the pegasi failed, and the storm was allowed to strike the city, with teams of engineers already working furiously to rearrange the interlocking parts that made up Whinnycia.
Stonefeather stood up.
“No way.”
“Hmm? They won’t listen, you know.”
“I know.”
“So what are you intending to do? Kick them all senseless?”
“Let them do what they want. I’m going to do whatever I can.”
“Oh-o? And what’s that, then?”
“There’s going to be chaos, all over the city. If that storm hits, there’s going to be hundreds, thousands, of ponies who need help. I’m going to help them.”
Hearthfire looked over to the south, where the storm clouds seemed to be getting closer by the minute, and couldn’t help but grin.
“That might just be crazy enough to work.”
* * *
They misappropriated an unattended gondola from the wharf, and rowed out into the chaotic waterways. By now, some of the ordinary citizens were catching on to the huge mess occurring at the city hall, and worried ponies were heading that way to try and find out why the entire city seemed to have gone completely mad overnight. They’ll not be disappointed, Hearthfire reflected as she watched the seeming tide of boats heading in the opposite direction, and imagined them arriving at the besieged marketplace. What would they do, when they saw it? The smart bits say they’ll just stand and watch.
It only took a few minutes for Stonefeather to bring the borrowed gondola to a stop alongside an unassuming jetty in one of the more expensive Whinnycian neighbourhoods. It seemed almost deserted, only one or two boats visible at the mooring points that lined the street, and few signs of habitation in the nearby houses.
“Where are we?”
“Arbor’s house. We’re going to need his help. I’m going to find every last Feather and Verdant in this city who has chosen not to help with the family heads’ lunatic showdown, and I’m going to get them to do some good for once.”
It took hours, and it was painfully slow. The families were scattered, and easily half of those they visited wanted nothing to do with any plan involving working with ‘the enemy’, but eventually they had a ragtag band. Stonefeather split them up, sent them off to knock on other doors, asked the more senior and respected family members to try again at the doors where they had been turned down. Somehow, it all worked. Stonefeather was constructing his own flotilla, and as it gained momentum, fewer and fewer ponies were willing to say no.
“Those two old foals might run the family, but they’re not the only ones who are respected,” Stonefeather noted, as yet another cluster of boats hove into view.