Last time on 'Make Evil Dead Jokes Even Though They're Not Really Undead But Whatever' Quest:
>Went with Pinkie and Rarity into the Everfree Forest, hoping to lose the mushroom/Snips and Snails and find Zecora.
>Got ambushed a few times.
>They tried to grab Pinkie and ended up having a game of tug of war.
>Barged into Zecora's hut and explained the situation her her quickly.
>She went to work on trying to find a cure while you and the others got to work on barricading the doors and windows.
>OH GOD THEY GOT PINKIE.
>OH GOD THEY GOT RARITYoh wait never mind.
>Eventually, the mushroom creature broke through the front door and got inside with its thrall ponies.
>Farted spores all over the room.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human with no memory who has found himself lost in Equestria.
Currently, you are in Zecora's hut, sprawled on the floor where you were thrown. Zecora and Rarity are here. Fluttershy is too, but she's still out of it. In the middle of the room is the giant mushroom creature, having just sprayed every inch of the room with spores. Around it are Snips, Snails and Pinkie Pie, who are under its control and are standing between you and it.
The pollen is everywhere; floating in the air, clinging to furniture, sticking to walls, in your eyes and pony hair.
Inventory check:
Earlier, you had shouted for the others to hold their breath and it seems like they still doing it with you. You motion for Zecora and Rarity to try to get outside, as you go to get Fluttershy, who is still lying on the ground where you left here. As you do, two things happen:
First, as you crouch to pick up Fluttershy, you hear a commotion and turn to see the thrall ponies converging on Zecora, blocking any place to escape and completely ignoring Rarity. She's trapped.
Second, Fluttershy bites your hand. It takes everything in you to not shout out and keep holding your breath. The whole scene is eerily silent with no one talking.
You pry Fluttershy off of your hand. As you do, she gets to her hooves, shaking the blanket off of her and stretching out her wings. You back away from her, to the door and rummage through your pockets, finding the remains of your pocket knife. Luckily, it appears Rarity got the message and is out of the hut.
Seeing an opening, you hurl the knife handle at the zombies, hoping to distract them away from Zecora. The metal handle hurdles through their end over end and bonks Pinkie in the side of the head. She turns to face you and advances, along with Fluttershy. Zecora is still suck on the opposite side of the room, with Snips and Snails. The mushroom creature is standing still in the center of the room, still as a statue.
Your lungs are starting to burn.
Pinkie and Fluttershy are advancing on you, pushing you further back from the others. You look desperately around the room for an opening or something you can use, anything! But you don’t see a way for you to save the little zebra. Zecora looks at you desperately across the room as the colts surround her, clearly straining to keep holding her breath.
There’s nothing you can do.
You flee from the hut, the door close to where you were. Pinkie and Fluttershy chase you out, but stop after a few feet and seem to stand guard at the door, staring at you. You go as far as you can before collapsing in the snow and taking in a much needed breath of cold night air. You feel terrible and it has nothing to do from exhaustion or holding your breath.
"Rusty!" Rarity whisper shouts from a near by snow drift, half concealed from the view of the hut. You crawl over next to her. "What happened? Where's Zecora? And Fluttershy?"
"I... I couldn’t save them. I'm sorry."
Rarity doesn’t say anything, just look at you with her hooves over her mouth and her eyes wide. For a few minutes, the two of you just sit there together in the snow, the fact that you both just lost some friends hitting you both. You get up and look back the the hut. Pinkie and Fluttershy haven’t moved.
"We need to get back to Ponyville." You say determined, heading back down the path you came. "Twilight will know what to do."
Rarity stays quiet, but follows along. The two of you walk along in silence, except for the crunching of snow. The foot prints have already disappeared from when you and the others first came down this way. Rarity lights the way with her horn, making it the journey easier in the dark. It doesn’t take long for the two of you to reach the forests edge again, Ponyville not far in the distance.
Things look peaceful in the snow, although it seems like another foot of snow has come down since you first entered the forest. It's beginning to get difficult walking through all the slush.
You and Rarity trek through the snow. Its really coming down now, but thankfully there’s no freezing wind blowing. As the two of you get close to Ponyville you see that its actually full of activity. Pegasus ponies are zipping high in the skies, disappearing and reappearing through the black clouds. Ponies on the ground are trying their very best to shovel the snow out of the streets. As it is, there’s only a few walkable trenches in the streets.
You and Rarity stay quiet as you walk through town. You feel terrible, leaving the others back at the hut. Maybe if you tried to force your way past Pinkie... no, no, there’s nothing you could have done. Or maybe there was and you were just too scared to try it.
Twilight's house looks like an extremely top heavy ice cream cone, full of snow, the big branches leaning under the weight slightly. You pound on the door. You hear the latch click and Twilight opens the door.
"Oh good, you're back!" She says smiling and leaves the door open for you as she trots back inside. Its warm and well lit in here. Twilight has a pile of books laid open on the big table.
"Where's Pinkie? And Fluttershy?"
"They followed us to Zecora's," You begin, already feeling you face get hot. "We tried to keep them out while she looked for a cure but... they got Pinkie and the others. I couldn’t save them. I was standing there and I just left them there!"
"Shhhhh, Rusty," Rarity says, standing by your side and rubs you comfortingly with a hoof. "I was there. There was nothing you could do. And if you weren’t there, I would probably be one of them now."
Rarity's words make you feel a little better, but there's this terrible knot in your chest.
"Pinkie." Twilight says, her hoof to her mouth and looking lost in though. "Fluttershy..."
"Twilight." Rarity says calmly but very firmly, snapping the other unicorn back to the present. "What did you find, darling?"
"Right," Twilight says rubbing her head, her eyes wide. She trots over and hands you a book. On the open pages, there’s an anatomical drawing of what appears to be that walking mushroom. "I was able to find out what that thing was. It's called a Helmet Head. They live deep under ground in caves. It's said that if they grow old enough, they unplant themselves and walk around."
"This is all fascinating, Twilight," You say, your voice cracking slightly. You clear your throat and flip through a few of the pages. "But how do we stop it? Or help the others?"
"I'm sorry," Twilight says, looking ashamed. "I only have the abridged version. All that book tells me is how the spores attach to nerves in the sinus and take control of the host. Usually Helmet Heads live deep underground and use this ability to protect themselves. I've been searching though all my related books on a cure, but I haven’t found anything."
"So we have nothing?" Rarity says. "While that horrible creature has our friends?"
Twilight nods solemnly.
"Attached to the sinus," You echo Twilight, thinking. "What if made them sneeze?"
"Make them sneeze?" Rarity says, raising an eye brow. "Really Rusty, that idea just sounds-"
"Brilliant!" Twilight interrupts.
"Really?" You and Rarity say at the same time.
"Yes. In theory, if we an flush the mind altering spores from their system, they should return to normal!"
"In theory?" You say, not liking that word. "So you don’t know?"
"Well, no. It's not anywhere in my books, but it sounds like a sound plan."
"OK, fine great. Know any sneezing spells?"
"Sneezing... spell?" Twilight repeats, like she doesn’t understand what you just said. "I.. is there even such a thing..."
"Oh my yes," Rarity says, rolling her eyes. "Young colts are always playing tricks on each other. Makes all sorts of disgusting bodily noises."
"So you know a sneezing spell then Rarity?"
"Of course not!" Rarity says, her hoof going to her chest and looking like you called her something horrible. "I just know OF them. I would never do something so... so vulgar."
"OK," You say, thinking. "What if we just... you know, kill the helmet head? Would the other go back to normal?"
Twilight goes over her books again, speeding through the text. She looks back up to you and gives a shrug.
"Well, who would know a sneezing spell?"
"Probably some school foals." Twilight says, speculating.
"Sweetie Belle?"
"Definitely not!" Rarity says with a huff.
"Alright, alight," You say, putting you hands up defensively. "What about maybe some sneezing powder?"
Twilight lets out a sigh and looks down. "Pinkie would know."
"You guys are her friends. Don't you know where she gets that sort of thing?"
"Pinkie and Dash are usually the ones who play pranks," Twilight says, going over to a window laden with snow. "But I haven’t seen Dash in hours. Or Applejack. It's really coming down out there."
"Or maybe we could try and find a joke shop in town." You say, pitching ideas. "If they're playing pranks they must be getting material from somewhere. Or maybe we could try the school. If nothing else, we'd probably find a teacher who would know about this sort of thing."
"I suppose those ideas could work." Rarity says. "Oh, we're wasting time while our friends need us. Rusty, what do you think we should do?”