The mud baths actually were pretty nice.
In her immense excitement Pepper had completely forgotten to actually read the letter, when Applejack asked her if she was okay with just leaving it on her desk she said something about her heart already knowing the words of love Wavy wrote her. Whatever that meant. Why wasn’t Rarity here to help her with this kind of stuff? Pepper had shuffled Applejack and the disciples out of her office and the building and led them down several streets to a large clay dome. The entrance was underground, stairs were built into the ground that led down to it, simple sheets of cloth hung down from the entryway instead of any actual door. Pepper pushed them aside and led them into the building.
Now Applejack was neck deep in warm mud and she had to admit it felt pretty good. All her stress and soreness evaporated, it was just like a trip to the Ponyville spa. Beside her sat Obsidian and Pepper with the guys being in the bath right next to them.
“Isn’t this just the greatest?” Pepper said, releasing a deep sigh and resting her head against the edge of the bath. “Nothing beats a trip to the mud baths.”
“Mhm, this feels great, Pepper.” Obsidian looked like she was about to fall asleep from how relaxing it was.
“And you don’t have to worry about paying or anything.” Pepper smiled at them. “I want you to see the absolute best our town has to offer! You’ll love it here, and everypony will be super duper happy to see new faces and especially ones that are trying to help us!”
Her optimism was rather pleasant to Applejack but it really didn’t reflect reality so far.
“Are you sure? The ponies we saw didn’t look very happy. Nothing changed when they saw us either.” Applejack asked.
“Ehe, well things have been a little rough but when they get the full story they’ll be suuuuuper happy!” She jumped up a little, spreading her hooves wide and spraying Applejack and Obsidian in the face with some mud. “Oops. Sorry.” Pepper blushed embarressedly.
“I noticed how thin most ponies look, if that’s what you mean by rough.” Applejack frowned as she wiped the mud off her face.
“Yes, we have strict food rationing. There are a lot of personal little farms ponies have in town and there are several small plots of land tucked between the mountains that we use to grow food but we’re still always just barely scraping by.” Pepper sighed. “I wish I could do more.”
“Well...” Applejack almost raised her hoof to rub the back of her head but remembered she was in a mud bath. “If you stopped damming the river, Valley Town would be able to grow a large surplus of crops again and I’m sure they’d be more than happy to start trading with you again. At least Big Dad Redwood really seems to want to, he told us it was his idea to originally try to wring more out of you for the food and that’s why you dammed the river in the first place, but he seemed to really regret that.”
Pepper’s eyes grew sadder as Applejack talked. “It’s not so simple. I really want to get rid of the dam, honestly I don’t care about what Mr. Redwood did at all anymore, I just want the best for our town now. But so many ponies are still angry. They still feel wronged by Valley Town and they won’t accept the dam being taken down.”
“But this just doesn’t make any sense!” Applejack said. “Yeah, what Big Dad Redwood did was wrong but it wasn’t right of you all to dam the river too. Most ponies in Valley Town are just like you all, we’ve been there, they don’t feel anything bad towards ya, they’re just trying to live their lives. If you take down the dam you can really be the first ones to let bygones be bygones and show Valley Town that you want to go back to being friends.”
“I told you I’d like to but I’m not really the pony you need to convince you know.” Pepper said as she used her magic to fluff up her mane, rising from the mud bath. “Let’s get cleaned up, I’ll take you to the dam and the ponies that work on it.”
“So Wavy and I met years ago when I went to Valley Town with my father, there was this huuuge party at Redwood Manor and everypony was there! It was the best night ever! There was food, and music, and dancing, and I got to talk with soooo many interesting ponies. My dad said that they were mostly a bunch of hooligans or something but they were all really nice to me. And so anyways, Wavy was there and he asked me to dance and we danced and it was just so magical! It was like a spark between us! Love at first dance, have you ever heard of something so romantic? He told me how he just knew we were meant for each other and I totally agreed! I knew there was never ever anyway I could ever love somepony as much as him. We were totally destined for each other! You know?”
Pepper had been talking for a long time.
Applejack had stopped listening for a long time.
Marble stared ahead blankly, his mind numb from her endless prattling. Quartz and Bedrock looked the same as always, Obsidian had a plastic smile stuck on her face.
“By the way I was named after a special pepper that only grows in these mountains. Cool right? And I got my cutie mark in farming peppers! That’s just like the most awesome thing isn’t it! My dad thought so, he was so proud the day I got my cutie mark. I ate a whole raw pepper that night, it really hurt my mouth but it was totally worth it.”
The six of them now had been heading down another mountain pass that led away from the plateau. They were traveling south to the main river, for a while stuck between two cliff faces but now they had emerged onto a ridge that overlooked the entire valley. All of Valley Town was visible in the distance, Redwood Manor making a noticeable landmark on top of its hill, even the Y bridge and the small little settlement they had walked through before crossing the river were vaguely visible. The fort though was completely obscured by the trees, a good thing Applejack thought, if the Mountain Town ponies got curious about what that was things might have gotten pretty hairy.
The sun was almost at the horizon, its rays of light coming directly sideways at Applejack and the others.
Turning around the face of the mountain Applejack spied a tunnel ahead, it was well carved and lined with bricks, there was no lighting on its inside but Applejack could see the light of the exit a couple hundred feet down.
“Watch your step a bit. I know some ponies wanted to put torches along the walls in here but nopony has gotten around to it.” Pepper explained. “It’s not too long of a walk though, the dam is pretty much right beyond this. And there are some houses too, some of the workers live right on site. Pretty convenient, huh?”
They were about halfway through the tunnel when Applejack saw Bedrock perk up beside her. He started looking around in all directions before glancing up and keeping his eyes glued on the ceiling.
“Something wrong, Bedrock?” Quartz asked in a whisper so as not to alert Pepper.
“There are ponies right above us. And over on the other side of the mountain heading towards the dam as well. At least a dozen.”
“The workers?” Applejack asked.
“Why wouldn’t they just use the tunnel? And they came from the direction we came but aren’t using the set pathways, whoever these ponies are they’re trying to sneak up on the dam… or us.” Marble said.
“Something’s wrong, but act natural.” Quartz frowned and walked closer towards Pepper, who was humming some song.
“Hi there!” She said as he came up beside her. “Looking forward to seeing the dam? It’s pretty cool!”
“I’m quite excited.” Quartz’s eyes were stony and focused on the exit of the tunnel.
Bedrock turned to Applejack to whisper into her ear. “The ponies have stopped, they’re waiting around the exit to ambush us, get ready.”
When they finally exited the tunnel Applejack was fully able to see the dam. Tucked away a bit into the mountains so it wasn’t visible from downstream, it was a great wall of stone with huge wooden logs supporting it at the sides and bottom and a few metal pipes and grates that allowed the river to flow out at a much smaller volume. Applejack’s party was situated to the right of the dam, the path out of the tunnel branching off in two directions. Heading left would take one up to the dam itself, high fences built along the ridge-line for safety, while to the right were the houses Pepper mentioned. A large portion of the mountainside had been mined out for building room. The cliff-face was low to their right, it did look like ponies could easily climb over it if they didn’t want to use the tunnel or passes Pepper took them through.
“Ta-da! Isn’t it amazing!” Pepper shouted, spreading her hoof out in front of her. “Just look at it all!”
At that moment a number of shadows dropped in front of her, ponies that had leaped from above them.
The fifteen that Applejack saw stayed spread out, all of them earth ponies, they had a rough look to them and they all wore the same black scarves. One of them was carrying a large bag full with something on their back.
Pepper had a nervous smile as she looked at them. “Uh… hi? Who are you?”
The pony in the lead position, a stallion with a pumpkin orange coat, spoke up. “No concern of yours, but you could help us out, Miss Pepper. You’re going to tell all the workers here to stand down and leave the dam. We’re destroying it.”