I rolled out of the way as the axe came swinging down, crashing into the place where I had just been. "What the Hell?" I muttered under my breath, trying to get back onto my feet- err, hooves. "Who are you?" I asked. "What do you want?"
My mysterious assailant didn't reply, instead simply swinging again at my rough location. Quite how anypony was supposed to fight down here with these gas masks on I had no idea, as they severely restrict your vision and hearing. And remembering that ponies in this world seem to be able to hear pins dropping from miles away, it left me deeply concerned.
Anyway, I had to somewhow win the fight against this lunatic who seemed to have gone a bit axe crazy. I waited for them to swing again, and then propelled my entire body weight into them, knocking them back and to the ground with a bang. There was a thud as they collided with the ground and some of their equipment got knocked loose.
I also made sure to confiscate their pickaxe in order to ensure they couldn't get up to any funny business. "That's quite enough of that," I said. "Who are you? Who sent you?"
The figure just looked up at me, seemingly confused. "Wh- where am I?" they asked. The voice confirmed them to be a mare.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"How did I get underground?" she asked. "I can't remember coming down here at all!"
"What's the last thing you remember?" I asked, trying to jog her memory as best I could.
"I was in my home, preparing for the day shift, and then I heard somepony knock at the door. I headed for it to answer it, and the next thing I know I'm fully kitted out and talking to you. What in Equestria happened to me inbetween?"
This mare was clearly hurting. Lost, scared, and confused- exactly what I'd been when I'd first ended up in this world. "Look. I'm not an enemy. I'm gonna help you out here, and get you to the surface. But first I need your help."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"There are some miners trapped underground near here, but the tunnel sections appear to have collapsed and I can't navigate them. How well do you know the tunnels down here?"
"It's my sector, so I know them fairly well." There was a pause. "I think I'll help you out. Follow me."
Well, that was surprisingly easy. What surprised me more was that we'd been able to have a comprehensible conversation in all of this heavy equipment. I guess that's another mystery solved on that front. I set my headlamp to be running in the forward position, and I followed my assailant turned ally as we headed deeper into the maze of tunnels underneath Hope Hollow.
The darkness continued to be oppressive and strange. Even though I'd been underground for what felt like hours my eyes still hadn't adjusted, which was probably due to a lack of ambient light sources.
I remembered what the ponies I had met at the tavern had said about local events, and I figured getting caught up on local happenings would be very useful. "So, has anything strange been happening around here lately?" I asked.
The mare started to speak, without turning back to look back at me. "The Coal Board will never admit it, but this place has seen some problems recently. These include the usual hazards of life underground, such as carbon monoxide, but the world also has other problems around here."
"Such as?"
"Quite the detective, aren't we?" she said, clearly unaware I was actually a Sheriff. "There have been unexplained shakings and odd underground activity. One group of workers narrowly escaped a flood of what turned out to be glitter. Nopony was able to figure that one out, as the last glitter seam down here was mined out years ago."
That did sound very strange. "Any other strange things going on?"
"Well, in one of the tunnels we found a strange golden machine which appeared to generate some form of light. We assumed it was some sort of entertainment device miners had used in the past, but the mechanics couldn't figure out how it worked. It seemed to follow no known rules of engineering or machinery."
No wonder they couldn't figure it out. If they were alluding to the Rainbow Generator, that needed magic to work- something this world completely lacked. "How strange. What was the Coal Board's response?"
"They've been suppressing any bad news for a while now," my new ally replied. "They control the local papers and the police are in their pocket, so that bit can be hard. Having said that the pay's good, and it's the only real employer around here. I can't afford to leave with what I have, so this work is my ticket to life in Fillydelphia or Trottingham, with hopefully a College degree inbetween."
She couldn't have known it, but that wasn't too different to the aspirations I'd had before being turned into an equine had spared me a horrible death. "I know the feeling," I said absent mindedly.
My ally then began to speak again. "As bad as things can be around here, we do need this stuff. Black gold is the main source of Earth Pony electrical power. And it can't be the authorities that are doing this." She stopped as we looked round a turn. "No. I reckon that the unicorns are behind this."
"What makes you think that?" I asked.
"We're within striking distance of Unicorn territory," the mare answered. "They could easily get here with half a day's gallop, do some sabotage, and then head back home without being noticed."
Half a day. I knew my top speed was about 20 miles per hour, so that would put us about 10 miles from the border. "What makes you think unicorns specifically."
"Isn't it obvious? They're sore losers after we kicked their flanks at the Battle of Thunder Bay, and have wanted revenge ever since."
Thunder Bay? This was news to me. Was this the 'epic battle' Sprout alludes to in the movie's prologue? "Thunder Bay? As you can probably tell I'm not from around here, so I may know the battle under a different name."
"Well, they do teach this in history class," the mare answered, sounding somewhat annoyed. "But sure, I'll tell the story. It all began after the Great Peace was established, and the world began to fracture. The truth is, harmony was nothing but a joke. The unicorns and pegasi secretly hated us. They looked down on us as their country bumpkin relatives, as we were far better at growing food and working heavy industry than they were. We also had the finest army on the planet, so their jealousy only continued to grow.
"Eventually, they allied to invade us and steal our food and coal and iron ore. The war was a long and difficult struggle for our independence against the imperialist Pegasi and cruelty of the Unicorns. But at the Battle of Thunder Bay we conclusively defeated them, and drove them back to their own lands." She fell silent for a moment. "It was a struggle that carried a heavy cost. But we emerged from it an independent, free, and democratic nation. Ever since, we've been on the watch for our enemies and whether they're gearing up to finish the job. If they do come back, we'll kick their flanks again."
That certainly explained a lot about why Earth Ponies thought the way they did before reunification. But something in me suspected that this wasn't the entire truth to the situation. Given how closely worked propaganda was into their society, I suspected the history was skewed somewhat. "I've never seen any of the other tribes," I admitted.
"Nopony around here has seen a unicorn or a pegasus for centuries," the mare answered. "But if they send their forces, we're ready. If they send a column of a thousand, we have ample trees to hang them from."
That got dark quickly. But I stayed quiet as she continued. "But I doubt the pegasi are gearing up for an attack. They're probably too busy eating each other. But what do you expect of cannibals, eh?"
Seems that was a belief held by both unicorns and Earth Ponies, then. I sighed, quietly to avoid being heard. I had to be careful what I said, as if my knowledge of human history was anything to go by earth ponies who expressed sentiments that went against the status quo quickly met a sticky end.
"If I ever encounter one," I said, "I'll be careful." Of course, I knew that was a certainty. Given I was chasing a unicorn to Zephyr Heights, where pegasi live, I'd definitely encounter them.
We reached another junction, and sure enough it was another flooded section of tunnel. How would we get around this one?