Back at Knapford Yard, shunting was still ongoing. Wilbert was doing a fine job shunting the trucks, but he was only one engine, and the loads were extremely heavy. No sooner had he finished assembling one train, another arrived to be taken away. He had been going flat out for hours, and he felt tired. "I'm not normally one to complain about workload," he said. "But this is a lot of trucks!"
"Tell me about it," Torque Wrench replied, wiping her brow. "This is far heavier loads than we had to handle at Bickershaw!"
Thomas suddenly returned to Knapford. "Having fun?" he called.
"We can manage!" Wilbert replied.
Sir Toppham Hatt emerged with his office, not looking his best. One could only infer that the stress of running the railway in this state was starting to get to him. "Ah, Thomas, there you are," he said. "We're one engine short at Vicarstown, so I need you to head there and assist with clearing the yards."
"But who will help Percy at the docks?" asked Thomas.
"I'll dispatch another engine to assist Percy once the extra engine from the mainland arrives to help at Vicarstown."
"Can't James go?" Twilight asked. "Oliver and Duck have been doing a superb job on the passenger trains."
"James is busy with goods traffic," Sir Toppham Hatt replied. "Faust only knows there's a lot of it."
James rushed past with a cattle train as Thomas set off for Vicarstown.
The docks were still in a mess. Lines of trucks miles long snaked through the yard, and Percy was having a hard time keeping track of it all. "I hope another engine gets here soon!" he said. "We're rushed off our wheels here!"
"I don't have wheels, I have hands!" Pinkie said. "Though I did once see another me that did..."
"Incoming!" Cranky called, dumping yet another load of crates on the dockside. Percy backed into these by mistake.
"Hey! Stop unloading things whilst I'm still working!"
"We really need some help," Cranky sighed. "Those boats aren't going anytime soon."
Thomas rolled to a stop at Vicarstown as Bear roared away with a passenger service for Vicarstown. He was, however, rather surprised to see Albert already there, shunting in the yard. "Sir Toppham Hatt said you wouldn't be here until later!" Thomas called.
"We were cleared through ahead of a passenger train," Albert replied. "Myself and Arthur have got this yard covered. You're free to head back to Knapford, as I believe your instructions tell you to."
"Good lot of trucks here, eh Albert?" Arthur called, as he moved some more to a stop. "It's busy here."
Thomas started his run back to Knapford, worried at what would happen next.
When he arrived, Sir Toppham Hatt dashed onto the platform. "Thomas, we're in a massive muddle!" he said. "You can't go to the docks yet, as we've got some new diesel fuel to replace the contaminated loads. You need to take that to Crovan's Gate."
"What about Percy?" Thomas asked.
"We don't have enough engines to do all the work allocated!" Sir Toppham Hatt said.
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked. "There's Bill and Ben, and Toby, and several others to name a few."
"They're all busy elsewhere!" Sir Toppham Hatt replied. "I'm having to juggle everything right now, and it's all a massive mess."
Things were about to get even messier. Percy was trying to navigate through the massive mountains of crates piling up on the dockside when suddenly, it happened. Stepney was trying to move his coaches into the sidings so he could help move some trucks, but one of the crates was positioned far too close to the line. The coach knocked it out of place, and with a crash it collapsed.
This, in turn, started a chain reaction. The mountains of cargo began to collapse. It fell off the sides of the harbour. It piled up in towers on the lineside, spilling goods everywhere. It collapsed into giant tunnels, burying anything underneath. It flattened anything that was sitting on top of the trucks. It trapped Percy and Pinkie in a massive pile of rubbish. The only thing that didn't happen was what should have happened- the mess staying upright.
It was about to get worse. Mountains of crates fell on top of a set of fuel drums, which were leaking. The sparks created by the accident caused an explosion, and a warehouse caught fire.
Thomas saw the explosion from several miles away, and gasped. "Percy's in danger!" he said. "The docks are on fire!"
His worst fears were confirmed when he saw Harold fly by, followed by several fire engines from stations all across the island. Driving, not flying.
"I know what we must do," Twilight said. "The engines at Knapford should be back in working order by now, and we can get their aid!"
Thomas rattled to a stop at Knapford as Gordon and Henry were being readied for duty. "Hopefully the smaller engines will have cleaned up most of the work," Henry said. "They have been buzzing about like bees today."
"You'll need to help sooner than you think!" Thomas said.
"Really?" Murdoch asked, half asleep as he rolled into the yard. "I thought you guys had handled most of the work."
"As you can probably see from the smoke and flames," Thomas continued, "the docks are in terrible danger. They need help to clean up a mess, put out a fire, and get all those trucks moved out of the way. Not least rescue Percy."
"Has he been working there?" Gordon asked.
"We've been rather out of the loop, as you can probably guess," Rainbow Dash said.
"It may take all night to clean the docks, rescue Percy, and save our friends," Thomas continued. "Those crates may take our sleep, but they will never take our Percy!"
There was stunned silence. "That film was terrible," was all Murdoch had to say.
At the docks, the firefighters were trying to hack their way through the mountains of garbage to get to the fire, but no sooner had they cut through one load of boxes, another load fell into their place. "We need backup!" one shouted. "Request additional manpower!"
Stepney was trying to move wagons as best he could, but the loads were too heavy, and plucky spirit only got you so far. "We need help!" he called.
Just then, Sweetie Belle heard puffing in the distance. "There's somebody approaching!" she said.
Harold hovered over to see what it was. "There are several engines approaching!" he called. "Help has arrived!"
The increased power was more than enough to help clear the mess. The engines worked incredibly hard to move the wagons away from the danger zone, and with that the fireman could get through to the blaze and start to fight it before it spread. More rubble was carted away by the combined power of the locomotives, and at long last Percy was freed and recovered.
Thomas looked worried when he saw how dirty and messy Percy was. "Percy, I'm so sorry I didn't come and help like I'd promised!"
"That's alright," Percy said. "I forgive you. Besides, it's been a busy one for us all!"
At long last, the disaster was over, and life on Sodor could sort of return to normal. Not least as all the diesels still needed fixing.