Key Keeper came into the cozy Study after dropping Sugar Belle off in the Billiard Room. The guests had already made themselves comfortable. The ponies choose to sit on the couches and armchairs, while Quivering Chassis had taken the small wooden chair next to the door. He watched Key Keeper warily, sipping a glass of ice water.
He walked over to the desk and grabbed a large lavender folder. "Ladies and gentleling, I have been instructed to tell you what you all have in common with each other." He glanced at the calm QC. "Unless you care to do the honors, sir." QC glared back. "Why? Do they know who I am?" "I don't think so, sir, you haven't told them."
QC leapt out of his seat, wings aflutter. "It's a hoax! I suggest we all leave!," he exclaimed as he ran out the door. "I'm sorry sir, but you cannot leave this house!," cried Key Keeper as he ran after him. The mares all followed after, and they found an irritated QC trying to magic the door unlocked.
"All the doors are locked, and all of them are laced with an anti-magic metal," explained Key Keeper as QC's green magic slid off the metal lock like liquid. "This is an outrage! You can't hold us prisoner!," exclaimed QC. The others began yelling in agreement. Key Keeper raised his hooves to quiet them.
"Everypony, please, return to the Study. I'll explain everything." They begrudgingly went back in. QC ran further into the house, key Keeper following him. He found the changeling in the Conservatory, readying a brick to throw. "You can't get out that way," stated Key Keeper calmly. QC laughed. "Why? It's only glass!"
And he let the brick fly, and it connected with the fragile glass.
In the same second, a large burst of green magic shot straight at the brick and destroyed it…and continued on.
Key Keeper came into the Study full of anxiously waiting ponies, leading a scowling QC with him. He flopped down in the wood chair, sipping at his glass of water, glaring at the ponies over the rim. They all decided at once that they didn't want to ask about his very scorched wing.
Key Keeper took his place behind the table, saying quickly this time, "Ladies, all of you have one thing in common- you're all being blackmailed." The guests shuffled their hooves uncomfortably. "For some time, you have been paying all you can afford to someone who threatens to expose you. And none of you know who it is, do you?"
Rarity laughed nervously. "Why, that's preposterous! My life is an open book, no one could hold anything against me- I've never done anything wrong!" She continued to laugh loudly and nervously, starting to sweat. The others stayed quiet, shifting on the cushions and shuffling their hooves.
Key Keeper glanced around. "Anyone else wish to deny it?" Rarity was still quietly laughing to herself. Fluttershy huddled against the couch, huddling her head over her hooves. Twilight was overly focused on a ordinary vase on the mantle, and Pinkie, thinking it was a game, was also staring intently. Rainbow was coughing into her hoof. Applejack bit her lip and began to sweat.
Key Keeper began to open the lavender folder. "Since we are all in the same boat, there should be no harm in divulging some information." Applejack cut in, "Couldn't you spare us the humiliation of...all this?" He gazed back. "I'm sorry." And with that, he pulled out the content of the folder- lots of papers and some photographs.
"Ah, Twilight Sparkle. A student of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns- one who is free-studying, under surveillance of guards, and barred from taking classes for a currently undetermined amount of time. Now why would that be?"
Twilight wrung her hooves together as he continued. "Reported hefts of supplies from chemistry labs and medical centers, on multiple occasions could be a possibility. Perhaps the numerous overtaken or out-of-control group projects?" He shifted through clipping of paper. "No, the reason is the counted three attempts of practicing her own invented spells-possibly dangerous- on a live subject without clearance from authorities." A gasp came from the others. "And she always managed to argue her way out of her expulsion for dangerous activities."
Key Keeper looked up from the folder. "And so Twilight stays on school grounds. She can be a student, as authorities are unable to expel her from campus." He flipped to the last page. "But they can bar her from getting anymore chances to try anything on live subjects, and punish her actions in some way." He flipped to the last page. "They also took away the dependant in her custody."
Twilight was squirming, trying to hide from all the pairs of eyes focused on her. Rarity shuddered, holding a hoof to her chest. "How could you use untested magic on...on another creature?" Twilight squirmed and muttered, "The spells replied on a specific alignment of the stars. By the time clearance would have come, it would be too late." She glared at Key Keeper, saying, "And all of those spells were meant to be beneficial to my very willing volunteer!"
Rarity huffed and shook her head. "Still, if they weren't tested, how do you know they would have worked? You could have seriously harmed them." Key Keeper, now holding the white folder, turned to her. "Are you making moral judgements, Mrs. Dapperpaws? Now how about receiving bribes from nobility in return for some untaxed, undeclared Abyssinian goods?"
She choked. "That's…that's a vicious lie!" Key Keeper flipped again in his notes. "Oh? They how about the paying of bribes to certain officials to keep Capper's license as an ambassador updated without them…looking into his past so much."
Rarity leapt up. "Now see here!" she yelled. "Capper was running away from a lot of debt. And yes, we were living a lie for a while," she hung her head, "he was...involved in crime before I married him, and when I learned, I...I started to help." The ponies murmured.
Rarity continued with head held high, "But Celestia eventually confronted and forgave us of it, helping with the debt and giving my husband a real license!"
Key Keeper raised an eyebrow. "And you still pay the blackmailer? Even if Capper was the mastermind? Even if it is all over?" Rarity's resolve withered. "Well…the letters told me to not tell Capper, just like they told me to not go to the Royal Guard. He does even know about the blackmail."
She shivered, saying, "And the princess kept the whole issue private between us. If word got out, the public might not understand- they could riot against us!" She huddled on the floor. "We can't be kicked out of Equestria- there's nowhere else to go! Abyssinia wouldn't let Capper back into the country as a resident after they found out he took those goods!"
Fluttershy sat on the floor next to her, rubbing her back soothingly. "Ah know how you feel," grumbled Applejack. "Ah'm bein' blackmailed for something I did a while back." "Same here," replied Rainbow. Pinkie, who had been staring into the distance, suddenly cried out "Oh! Is this about all those letters I got saying that if I didn't give them bits, they'd tell everyone how dangerous my parties are?"
Key Keeper flipped through the pink folder. "Yes, Miss Pie. Ponies have gone missing for days attending parties you host. Your business should have been investigated long before now." Pinkie smirked. "What can I say? When we party, we party hard." She wiped her brow. "Whew! I couldn't tell if this was about that or that poor Neighgarian prince who needed all those bits."
Twilight came over to Pinkie. "You do know that the Neighgarian Prince is a-" "Oh!" cried Fluttershy, her eyes wide. "Is that how you know Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow coughed into her hoof. "What's wrong with a party every now and then?" Key Keeper grabbed the blue folder.
"Nothing's wrong with a party, ma'am, even though you may or may not be ignoring important work, being reported as missing for days on end. Theoretically." Key Keeper flipped through the pages. "No, your blackmail stems from how in your squadron of the Wonderbolts, every place you went in the Griffonstone War was strangely devoid of citizens. And how you sent 'urgent' messages out after every strategy meeting."
Rainbows wings flew open. "So what? It's just a coincidence!" She flopped back onto the couch, her hooves crossed, and a pout on her face.
Key Keeper switched to the orange folder. "Miss Applejack. Running a large farm was difficult, even with two siblings helping. Business could be difficult." He looked at her from over the folder. "And then your brother married someone from a distant village. You were happy for him, but your elderly grandmother and young sister, a student, couldn't quite pick up the slack he left behind."
Applejack choked. "Wha…how did you-" Key Keeper continued, "And yet business continued, and profits even ended up increasing, even though there was only one full-time worker on the farm." He flipped to another page. "There is evidence that shows several stallions, known small-town suitors of yours, working in the orchards at night. A task to win your hoof, I presume?"
Applejack stood up. "Now listen here! Even if that was true- which it ain't!," she declared, biting her lip, "There's nothing wrong with hiring volunteers." Key Keeper sighed. "Working all night? That would be overtime. Many ponies would consider making them work like that to be unethical."
He flipped to the last page. "Furthermore, you haven't declared any volunteer work on your tax forms. That is especially illegal." He coughed into his hoof. "There's also the fact that several celebrities- Tenderhoof and Countess Colturara- have done the same work, at night, without pay, when passing through Ponyville." Applejack's cheeks flamed red. Rarity gasped at this, practically fainting.
Applejack protested, "Well...Rara wanted to help...And that Trenderhoof guy wouldn't leave me be...and the rest of them, they started doing thst themselves!" Key Keeper raised an eyebrow. "And you never asked them to stop, it seemed." For a few second, her mouth opened and closed, until she finally hung her head.
She sighed. "That was all years ago. Once my sister was old enough to do more of the work, I turned all of the stallions down, and they stopped coming." She held her hat over her chest. "But if this got out, business could drop, and I couldn't support my family. I just can't afford to take that chance." The ponies remained silent, gazing with sympathetic eyes.
Fluttershy suddenly stood up boldly during the bout of silence, surprising the ponies. "I have something to say." She wrung her hooves as all eyes focused on her. "I'm not going to wait for Key Keeper to…unmask me. I work for the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures. And I am an asexual."
Key Keeper raised an eyebrow over the yellow folder as the ponies let out small gasps. QC, who had been quiet, let out an almost inaudible hum of interest. Fluttershy continued, "Ponies aren't as accepting of being ace as much as…other sexualities or…interspecies couples." She lowered her head. "And I'm scared that if they learn, I…I could lose my job, and I wouldn't be able to help those poor creatures anymore." She sat back down, huddling into the couch.
Twilight stood up. "Well," she said as she walked, "That leaves QC." She stood in front of the changeling, who had been quietly watching all the proceedings.
"Ooooh, what's his secret? Was it theft? Kidnapping? Tried to take over Equestria?," cried Pinkie as she got up in Key Keeper's face.
Key Keeper looked at them in surprise. "Haven't you guessed? He's the one who's blackmailing you all."