Last time on 'You Just Left Them! They Needed Your Help And You Just Left Them Behind' Quest:
>The giant mushroom got into Zecora's hut with the ponies under its control.
>Rarity was able to escape, but Zecora was cornered.
>Running out of air, you had to leave.
>Got away safely with Rarity and returned to Ponyville.
>All the towns ponies are hard at work, doing what they can with the snow, which is coming down harder and harder.
>Made it back to Twilight and told her what happened.
>She was able to read up on the monster and discovered its a fungus creature that lives in deep caves called a Helmet Head.
>Talking it over, you had the idea that if you could just get the ponies to sneeze, it might make them normal again.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human with no memory who has found himself lost in Equestria.
Currently, you are at Twilight Sparkle's tree house, talking about your next course of action with her and Rarity. You are trying to decide what would be the best way to get ponies to sneeze; either by trying to find a younger unicorn that might know a sneezing spell, find a joke shop that might have some sneezing power or maybe just find a whole lot of pepper.
"Well, I say the best thing we can do is buy some sneezing powder. I have like 15 bits or so. We should be able to plenty with that, right?"
"Sounds like a plan!" Twilight agrees. The three of you return to the cold and she locks the door.
The snow is still coming down, at least a foot of it has fallen already and there’s no sign of it letting up any time soon. In the dark over cast, you can see the occasional pegasi pony flying through the clouds, doing something. Thankfully, Rarity's outfit you made is decently warm and there’s not wind.
"OK, which way to the joke shop?" You ask.
"Uhhh," Twilight says, walking tentatively in one direction, then turning around and heading the other way. "I'm... not really sure. Rarity?"
"I certainly don't."
"Don't the two of you live here?"
"Well, yeah." Twilight says, shivering a little in the cold. "But this is more of Dash and Pinkie's thing. I don't think I've ever been there."
"Maybe we can ask some of the pegasi ponies flying around to give us directions." You speculate aloud. You start waving your arms and shouting, trying to get the attention of the flying ponies high up in the dark clouds. "Hey! We need some help here!"
A brilliant spotlight flashes on and starts shining through the clouds, making some kinds of singled movement. You look over and see it's coming from Twilight, using her magic to make the light. It seems to do the trick, cause a few moments later, a pony flies down to see what's going on.
Oh great. It's Derpy.
"Hello everyone!" She says cheerfully, hovering just a few feet off the ground, waving at each on you individually in turn. "Look at all this snow!"
"Yes, there’s lots of snow." Twilight says dead pan, turning off her horn. "Derpy, do you know where the joke shop is in town?"
"Ahuh ahuh!" She says smiling happily and shaking her head. The pegasi points down the road. "Head two blocks north and take a right. It will be the third building down."
"Thank you." You say.
"OK bye bye!" Derpy says and darts back up to the clouds like a shot. The three of you each exchange a silent look with each other and head down the road, trekking through the snow.
Even with the ponies shoveling the snow as best they can, it's hard going. It's certainly not easy for you, but it's worse for Twilight and Rarity. The snow is practically up to their chests. It takes forever to get to the joke shop, but it was easy enough find.
The big front store shop window is dark. On the door is a sign saying "Sorry, we're closed." with a picture of a frowning clown.
"Shoot!" Twilight says, seeing the sign. "Now what?"
"I guess we could try the local school." You say, folding your arms. "One of the little unicorns might know a sneezing spell."
"Oh, but the school is on the other side of Ponyville!" Rarity says upset, shaking the snow flakes out of her mane. "We're going to walking around all night in this dreadful snow!"
"We'll just have to get through it," Twilight says determined, leading the way.
It's starting to get late now, though with all the heavy cloud cover you could only guess how later. Many ponies are still around, having managed to mostly clear at least some of the side walks. Many of the houses have smoke billowing from their chimneys, warm inviting glows coming through the windows. You wish you weren’t fighting through all this slush, but you have an important job to do.
Plus you doubt you could live with the guilt.
After what feels like the better part of half an hour, you reach a small school house on the out edge of town. The near by playground is desolate and smooth white. There are lights on at the school house.
You go straight to the front door it give it a couple knocks. It opened by a purplish, pinkish mare with a wool blanket lights wrapped around her. Standing there, she slowly raises her head, fallowing up to you face. She seems taken aback, taking a step away, clearly not expecting someone so... tall.
"Uhh, can I help you?" She says slowly.
"Hello Cheerilee." Twilight says coming to your side with Rarity.
"Oh, Twilight. Rarity. I didn’t see you two there." She says, still glancing up at you a few times. "And you must be the Rusty I keep hearing so much about. What can I do all of for you?"
"It's a bit of a funny story," Twilight begins. "But we sort of need to talk to any of your unicorn students."
"Unicorn students?" Cheerilee says, raising an eye brow. "I guess that would be OK... but it's the middle of the night. All my students went home hours ago. And if this snow doesn’t let up, class will be out for a while."
"This is a bit of an emergency," You start. "You see there has been another monster attack."
"Oh goodness!" Cheerilee, covering her mouth in shock.
"But no one's been hurt! To make a long story short, we need to get a couple of ponies to sneeze. We were hoping one of your more... prankster students might know a spell that could do that and teach it to Twilight and Rarity."
"Or maybe you might have confiscated some sneezing powder from some troublesome colts." Rarity adds.
"Sneezing spells," Cheerilee repeats aloud. "Well, as a matter of fact, I did confiscate a can of sneezing powder just the other day. I guess you can have it."
Cheerilee goes inside for a moment and returns with a funny little shaker can in her mouth. As she gives it to you her nose wrinkles a bit and she lets out a sneeze.
"Excuse me." She says, rubbing her nose. "And if you want to know about a sneezing spell, the one you should be asking is your sister, Rarity."
"What?!" Rarity shouts, both surprised and offended.
"Mhhmm," Cheerilee says, nodding. "She and her little friends are always causing a little mischief. Nothing bad, mind you, just some childhood fun."
(Lines missing here are Rusty, Twilight and Rarity deciding to find Sweetie Bell to learn the sneezing spell. They arrive at the Carousel Boutique and enter.)
"Now Rarity, there no need to get upset with Sweetie," You say. "I'm sure she and her friends were just having a little fun."
"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity continues to call out, ignoring you. She trots up the stairs to whats left of the second floor. "I am in no mood for games, Sweetie!"
You and Twilight share a concerned look then both start looking for Sweetie yourselves. You head into what you guess was the kitchen. The large appliances are still intact. You spot a note stuck to the fridge door by a magnet, the white paper highly contrasted against the soot marks. You take and read sprawled crayon letters.
"Sis, you were not home. Was cold so I went to Apple Blooms."
"Twilight, Rarity!" You call out. "She's not here!"
The other come to the kitchen and you show them the note. This doesn’t seem to improve Rarity's mood.
"That silly filly! We're wasting time running around all over town like this!"
(Missing lines here are Rusty, Twilight and Rarity walking to Sweet Apple Acres)
"You two go and check the house," You say to the ponies. "Chance's are Sweetie's inside. I'll go see what Applejack is doing."
"Alright," Twilight says, Rarity having already trotted up the front door. You head into the orchard in the vague direction you thought you heard Applejack.
Luckily, she's not that far in. You find her, Applebloom, Big Mac, Sweetie Belle and an elderly looking green pony all hard at work. They seem to be gathering apples at an extreme pace, as well as covering the trees with these heavy looking brown tarps and tying them down with ropes.
As you approach, crunching through the snow, the green pony notices you first.
"Ahhh! Munster! Munster!" She yelps and pulls out a walking cane, holding it between her teeth. She charges... really really slowly. If you don’t move, she'll hit you in about a minute.
You easily skirt around the elderly pony and walk over the others. She corrects course and continues her slow motion attack.
"Howdy Rusty!" Applejack says as you get closer. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle also trot over in the heavy snow, looking you up and down. "I sure am glad you showed up. We're in a real bind here."
"I'm sorry Applejack, but I actually came here for Sweetie Belle."
"Me?" Sweetie says. You can barely see her camouflaged in the deep snow.
"Yeah, it's a long story. Basically, I need to borrow you for a bit to teach Twilight and your sister a spell."
"ME teach THEM a spell?" She says, surprised. "Usually it's the other way around."
"Like I said, it's a long story. But it's an emergency. I'm sure you can come back here if you want when we're done."
You pick up the little filly out of the snow, cause you really don’t want to wait on her struggling through it on the walk back. As you do, something bops you in the side.
"Oot eer own!" The elder play yells through the cane clinched in her teeth. She's finally reached you and it whacking you with the cane. It's a little annoying, but not doesn’t hurt.
"Please stop that," You say to the old pony. She continues bop you. "Sorry about all this Applejack, but it's an emergency. I'll be sure to bring Sweetie back soon, if I can. Also, don’t let anyone go off alone, it's not safe out now."
"I understand," Applejack says, then addresses the other ponies. "Alright, breaks over! The weather ain’t napping so neither are we!"
You trek back to the farm house carrying Sweetie Belle close, the elderly pony giving you a few more bops with her cane for good measure, but you out pace her pretty fast. You run back into Twilight and Rarity just a they exit out the house.
"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity huffs, storming over. Even you take a step back from her. "Where have you been? We've been running all across town because of you!"
"I-I-I'm sorry," She says, shrinking into your arms a little. "I didn't think you would mind if I came over."
"Don't worry, we've just had a run in with some trouble." You say, giving Sweetie a little reassuring hug and then set her down on the front porch. "We need your help to learn a sneezing spell to help some other ponies."
"OK," Sweetie says, a little unsure. "I've never really taught a spell before."
"Just do you best, Sweetie," Twilight says comfortingly. "We really need you help."
"Alright. We'll, the way I always do it is, first I take a deep breath..." Sweetie goes over how to do the sneezing spell with the two older unicorns. A lot of what she's saying goes over you head, using concepts and terms you don't understand. You think it's a unicorn thing. After about fifteen minutes, Sweetie finishes explaining and uses you as a demonstration.
The magic hits you right in the face and you instantly have the desire to yawn. It builds up in the back of your head, tickles you nose and before you know it, you let out a big sneeze, spraying spittle everywhere.
"Excuse me."
"OK, now you try, Twilight!" Sweetie cheers on the purple unicorn. Twilight takes a deep breath and blasts you with magic, replicating the spell and making you sneeze again. You're feeling a little light headed.
"Great. Now you go Rarity!"
Rarity, looking determined, steps in front of you and also hits you with a blast of magic. You feel the sensation yawn and... that’s it. No sneeze.
"OK try again. I'm sure you'll get it!" You say, reassuringly.
Rarity seems kinda deflated, but nonetheless gives it another go and you take another one for the team. The magic hits you, giving the familiar sensation at the back of your throat and you sneeze... sorta. It wasn’t as powerful as the last two and it shows. Sweetie and Twilight were like being in a spring field full of pollen. Rarity was more like having the sniffles.
"OK, I guess that will have to do," Twilight says and pats Sweetie on the head. "Thank you Sweetie. You might have just saved us with this."
"Really?" Sweetie says, excitedly and full of disbelief.
"Mmhmm," you say, picking her back up. "Thanks. I'll drop you off with the Apples and I'll catch up with the two of you back at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres."
"Got it!" Twilight says, galloping off.
"We will have a long talk later, Sweetie Belle," Rarity says to her sister coldly and follow Twilight.
You quickly run Sweetie back to the Apples in the orchard, dodging the old pony. They're still hard at work saving their trees. You meet up with Twilight and Rarity at the end of the path a few minutes later.
"OK, we have spells and we have powder," Twilight says, "Let's go save our friends!"
"Yeah!" You and Rarity say together and all three of you run, heading straight into the Everfree Forest. Again, it's pitch black and Twilight lights the way as you all run down the familiar path.
Thanks to the trees, the snow isn’t so deep here and all make good time, reaching Zecora's little hut in no time at all. You all take cover by a near by tree and stealthily sneak looks out at the hut.
"Do you see anything?" Rarity whispers.
"No," You reply. Fluttershy and Pinkie are no longer standing guard at the door outside. The windows a all dark and its deathly quiet. You pull out the sneezing powder, just in case.
You wave the other over and they sneak over to you.
"What is it?" Twilight whispers.
"I can't see anything but I think they're gone."
Twilight creeps forward ahead of you and lights up. The inside of the hut is illuminated and you see...
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
No giant mushroom, no ponies, no barricades, no furniture, no masks, nothing, its all gone. The entire hut has been cleared out. The only thing that seems to be left is Zecora's cast iron cauldron, laying on its side in a corner.
"Where'd they go?" Rarity says, looking all around.