Tales of an Equestrian Mare

by Durandal

Chapter 9

They were accumulating ponies of all ages, and not all of them were from the Families; they were also gathering ordinary ponyfolk, some looking to help out, some confused and happy to follow anypony who looked like they knew what was going on. They set up camp in the near-deserted Water Market, and it swiftly began to fill to capacity as more and more boats streamed in from all over the city. Between the hulls, dozens of sea pony heads poked through the surface. The chaos above the waterline had caught them just as off-guard as it had the other citizens of Whinnycia. Stonefeather had enlisted the help of some of the more experienced engineers of the two families to co-ordinate the group’s efforts, and they had commandeered a barge to use as their base of operations, a map of the city spread out in front of them. They received reports from new arrivals and from ponies sent out to scout, and marked the map, showing where each family’s supporters were clustered, and which buildings were being moved.

“All right. What’s the next bit of this plan, then?” Hearthfire asked as she took in the ragtag mob of ponies. There was an air of excitement in the market, as ponies who had previously felt caught up and swept along in events began to hope that they might be able to do something about them.

“See what useful equipment we can gather, then wait for it all to go belly up, I suppose, and be ready when it does.”

They didn’t have long to wait. A pegasus dove from on high, bringing tidings that a tower had fallen to the south, as Feather and Verdant engineers fought to drag it in opposite directions. The surrounding buildings had not been properly evacuated, and it was likely that there were ponies trapped in the rapidly destabilising area. Stonefeather despatched a score of ponies, about a third of those gathered, to help get the situation under control and evacuate any pony trapped or left behind.

The next messenger relayed that a warehouse had caught fire to the east, and was threatening to spread to nearby buildings. More hooves were needed to help separate the adjoining rafts and stop the spread of the blaze. Stonefeather asked for volunteers; it was likely to be dangerous, as the winds were getting stronger by the minute, and the fire would be wild unpredictable. There was no shortage of willing ponies.

More disasters came and went, ponies were sent out to help. They were overstretched, but they hadn’t expected any less; the entire city was a huge accident waiting to happen as the two families fought their proxy war. Everything seemed to be going well, until the storm hit.

It was never quite clear what had happened, whether the storm had simply been too much for the pegasi to handle, or whether, as some ponies suggested, factional infighting had led to the breach in the city’s weather defenses. Regardless of whether any pony was to blame, the outcome was no different: the storm raged in across the bay mouth and struck the vulnerable city. By now, dozens, perhaps hundreds of buildings had been detached from their moorings, were awaiting relocation by one family or the other. The storm scattered the vacant buildings like ninepins. Within minutes, swathes of Whinnycia’s architectural heritage was crumbling into the waters of the bay.

It wasn’t just the safely evacuated buildings that were in trouble, either; much of the city’s integrity came from the way its parts were linked to form a cohesive whole, and there were gaps all over the place. Stonefeather’s band were utterly swamped, between helping those in need and gathering much needed supplies from wherever they could be found. Still, they soldiered on, braving the waterways even as the winds rose and the rain intensified, lowering visibility to a few meters and soaking every pony foolish enough to stay out in it to the bone.

“This is hopeless, Stonefeather.” They had erected a canopy over the makeshift command barge, to keep off the worst of the wind and the rain, but even so, it was damp and uncomfortable. It was an earth pony, Quill, who voiced the thoughts of everypony present. “We’ve done a lot of good today, but it’s getting too dangerous out there. If it gets much worse, we’re just going to be adding to the casualties!”

Stonefeather’s expression was pained, but he couldn’t argue with Quill’s wisdom.

“The sea ponies are doing everything they can, around the collapsed areas. It’s safest for them, and at least they should be able to make sure we don’t have any drowned ponies on our hands. The pegasi can barely even fly in this, and the waves are starting to make things dangerous for our boats...”

“At least the families will have to stop their madness, too. There’s no way they can keep working in these conditions. Do we have any idea how many casualties we have so far?”

“Hard to say. There’s been a lot of injuries, to be sure, but no reports of deaths so far. The sea ponies are much better organised than we are, I swear. Of course, there might be ponies who were trapped when buildings went down who we haven’t found yet. They’re still looking.”

“Well, that’s something, at least... we’ll bring everyone back in who we can get messages to, and see what we can do once the storm lets off. If the pegasi stick to the waterways and use the buildings for shelter -”

The flap of canvas that was serving as the door of the barge’s marquee was pushed aside by a rain-drenched pegasus, out of breath and wind swept. “Something’s going on at the city hall! It’s listing, looks like it might be going down!”

“That’s impossible,” Quill stated. “It’s on a huge raft, it’s got to be one of the most stable buildings in the city. A storm shouldn’t even touch it. What happened?”

The messenger pegasus gulped in another breath, shook his head in disbelief, “One or the other of the families tried to move it. I think they’ve started fighting over it.”

* * *

The city hall was indeed listing; some of the floats that kept it buoyant had been damaged or broken free, and the building was slowly tearing itself apart as the left side slid inexorably into the water. Already long tears had appeared in the structure, dividing the building down the middle. Even through the driving rain, Hearthfire could already see what would happen once it had separated into two halves. Freed of its twin, each half would most likely roll and spill its precious cargo of floats, condemning the building to the bottom of the bay. Ponies were leaping from windows, diving into the churning waters of the bay; were it not for the presence of the sea ponies, many would have been pulled down and drowned by the maelstrom.

A brief glance around confirmed that Dancing Pinion and Wild Reed were nowhere to be seen in the market square. Hearthfire grabbed a fleeing unicorn mare, shook her until she held still.

“What in the hay happened here?”

“Wild Reed told us to take the city hall! It was chaos in there, the Feathers were trying to snatch it right out from under us, but we gave just as good as we got!”

“You tried to move it, in this weather?”

“Wild Reed said we could manage it! I’m sure it was the Feathers, they realised they couldn’t take it from us, and decided it was better to sink the whole thing!”

“That’s crazy!” Crazier than trying to move a thousand tonnes of building through a raging storm? “Is there anypony still inside?”

“I don’t know, probably! We were fighting them off on every floor! Who knows how many ponies are still in there? The Feathers will pay for this!”

She pushed the unicorn away in disgust, and glanced over at Stonefeather.

“I’m going in there, too.”

The earth pony looked away from the languishing city hall, his expression one of surprise.

“Why? I mean, not that I don’t appreciate you seeing this through with me as far as you have, but it will be dangerous. Really dangerous.”

“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me. Besides, I’ve been in worse scrapes before, and for much less selfless reasons.”

“Whatever happened to, sometimes, you just have to let things take their course?” Stonefeather smirked, but there was a note of relief in there, too.

Getting in was easier said than done. As water began to flood the sinking left side of the building and tipped the entire structure, the family’s teams had severed it from the adjoining market place raft. It had swiftly reached the point where none of the entrances were flush with surrounding buildings, or, indeed, the water level.

“This is it, Cas. You’re not coming with me this time.” Cas whined, and leapt onto Hearthfire’s back, but the unicorn lifted her up, heedless of her friend’s claws attempting to cling on, limpet-like, and deposited her back on the ground. “I mean it.”

Hearthfire and Stonefeather paused at the edge of the gap that stood in their way, glancing down into the roiling waters below. Judged the distance.

Sailed across the gap. Hearthfire’s stomach turning flips as her hooves left the solid flagstones and arced into empty air. Forced herself to keep her eyes on the target.

We’re not going to make it...

They hit the ground halfway up the incline of the steps. Stonefeather stumbled, drawing a sharp breath as his injured shoulder absorbed the impact. The feeling of the ground slowly tipping was terrifying.

“All right,” Hearthfire announced, looking up at the giant tear in the building’s facade. “I’ll go left, you go right.”

“No. I know my way around the building, I can get in and out faster than you can. I’ll take the left.”