"You bastard!," cried Rainbow, flying over to the changeling. "You're gonna pay! C'mon, put um up!" She stood in a fighting stance, front hooves circling at the ready.
QC stood up, magic swirling around him. In his place now stood an older pegasus mare. "Dashie, you wouldn't hit your own mother, would you?" The mare pleaded. Rainbow lowered in hooves for a second, her eyes blank.
The rattling sound started once again, causing the image of Rainbow's mother to vibrate and become blurry. "Crap," she muttered, before the illusion disappeared with a pop! Rainbow raised her hooves, preparing to lunge at the undisguised changeling .
But her defenses had lowered. QC took this opportunity to kick her in the shin, causing her to topple over. She tried to sweep him off his hooves, but he leapt over it. He landed on top of her, using gravity's power to force his back hooves into her stomach.
Rainbow crawled away before getting onto her hooves shakily. "You…fight…dirty," she grunted between her teeth. QC grinned at her, showing off his fangs. "You did call me a bastard. You expect me to be fair to you little puffballs?"
She growled and was about to lunge again, but Fluttershy held her back. It wasn't doing much- barely slowing her down, even. Pinkie, Twilight, and Rarity came to help her, all pulling back on Rainbow. But the pegasus was seeing red, and their efforts were barely fading her.
All of them stopped, though, as a large lasso of curtain rope fell around QC. They all stared at it in confusion. "What the-" was all QC could say before the rope tightened in on itself, tiring his legs together.
Applejack walked to the bound, hissing changeling and double knotted the rope. "You're welcome," she said to the others with a smug smirk. The others released Rainbow, who looked a bit put out. They all gathered around the changeling. "What do you reckon we do to him?," asked Applejack.
Key Keeper gave a small cough. "I recommend you turn him over to the Royal Guard when then get here in about forty-five minutes." The ponies hummed and chattered about this idea. After a beat of silence, they turned to Key Keeper simultaneously. "WHAT!?"
Key Keeper calmly explained, "Black mail depends on secrecy. You tell the Royal Guards how he's blackmailed you, he'll be convicted, and your troubles will be over." The ponies glanced between each other nervously. QC worked his hooves out of the slippery rope.
"'S not so easy," he grunted. "You'll never tell the Guards- wouldn't want to reveal your secrets, would you, ponies." Key Keeper stood straighter. "I shall tell them, then. I have evidence of everything, and everything said here is being tape recorded." The ponies looked around the room, all but Pinkie and Rainbow covering their mouths and blushing.
QC kicked the slick rope completely off of his hooves. He quickly got up and walked towards the door. "And just where do you think you're going?," asked Key Keeper. QC smirked. "I think I have something to help them…make up their minds."
He came back in a minute, levitating a black suitcase in his magic. Setting it on the ground, he popped open the latches. Pinkie and Twilight cranes their necks to see what was inside, while the others backed away. Key Keeper stood near the door, watching stoically.
Inside the suitcase were six small black boxes, all of equal size, all tied with six different colored ribbons- lavender, white, pink, blue, orange, and yellow. QC took one in his hooves at a time and began to carefully pass them to the ponies with the respective coat color.
"We didn't know we would meet you, but did you know you would be meeting us?," asked Twilight. He grinned and nodded as he passed her the lavender-ribboned box. "And what were you told?," asked Applejack with a raised eyebrow.
He grinned. "Just that we would discuss our little…financial arrangement." Rainbow snatched the box from his hooves. "And regardless of whether I showed up or not, Key Keeper would turn the evidence over to the Royal Guard." A trembling Fluttershy delicately lifted the box out of his hooves, squeaking as he suddenly moved away from her.
"Naturally, I couldn't help but make an appearance, with that kind of invitation." Rarity took the box calmly, crossing her back hooves to hide them trembling. "A word to the wise, though, Key Keeper, I don't like being threatened. Especially by little pastel powderpuffs." Pinkie bounced over to him and eagerly took the case.
QC looked around to see that all the ponies were seated (Pinkie Pie had chosen the desk as a seat), but none had made a move to open their boxes. "What are you waiting for. Open them already!," he snapped at them. The ponies quickly looked away from his glare and began to untie their boxes.
Pinkie was ripping her ribbon into shreds. "I love getting presents!," she babbled, "I also like getting surprises, or giving presents, or giving surprises, or both, like a surprise present party-" she lifted the top off the box. Inside, on a black cushion, was a balloon-shaped gem. It was mostly clear, but there was a light blue tint to it. When she lifted it out of the box to compare it to her cutie mark, she could feel a shiver travel up her hoof and down her spine.
All of the ponies had brought the hoof-sized gems out of their boxes. Applejack's was an orange-tinted apple, Fluttershy's was a pink-tinted butterfly, Rainbow's was a red-tinted lightning bolt, Twilight's was a magenta-tinted…spark…thing, and Rarity's was a purple-tinted gem.
Each pony shivered when the touched their gem. Just looking at the gems, everyone in the room could tell there was just something… wrong about them.
QC chuckled darkly at their scared and confused expressions. "What you're holding are some…special magic artifacts." They all looked at him, confusion written across all their faces. "There're quite simple to use- focus on your target, and the little gem will do it's work."
"Target?," questioned a glaring Rainbow. QC nodded. "A one-use artifact- a memory capture system." Twilight raised an eyebrow at him, asking, "Why a memory copying spell? That doesn't do anything to benefit you…"
QC erupted into laughter. "C-copy?! Hah!" He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. "No, that is a memory transfer object- as in, every memory in your target's mind goes into that little gem."
Twilight gasped. "That's…that's dark magic!" Fluttershy, who had been inspecting her gem, squeaked and dropped it on the floor, and began scooting away from the edge of the couch. QC nodded. "It's not a quick spell- the victim is unconscious for about 24 hours during the process- but it will work well for us."
He continued, "If you turn me in, your secrets will all be exposed. I'll make sure of it in my trial." They all squirmed under his gaze. "But…we could all leave. But who here has the keys to get out? And who would turn over all your secrets?"
Key Keepers eyes widened as QC glared at him. "Target Key Keeper," he shouted, "and not only will he be left unconscious, but he won't even remember anything- none of you, none of your secrets!" He whirled around the room to glare at the ponies.
"Naturally, there are other, more…permanent ways to accomplish this," QC sighed, "But you ponies are much too squeamish about such things. Even you, Rainbow," he sent a glare to the veteran. "And yes, if the gem and target are too far away, there is a chance of the target's mind simply being lost to the ether, but even a painless, easy method like that is too much for you!"
He walked past a shocked Key Keeper to the door. Shutting it, he told them, "But if you don't want to find yourselves on the front pages, the only solution is for one of you to attack Key Keeper." He placed a hoof on the light switch. "Now."
And then there was darkness. All six of the gems were softly glowing. A sudden flash of magenta light blinded everyone, and there was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. Fluttershy screamed.
Rarity, holding her gem, rushed to the switch and turned the lights back on. She gasped and dropped her artifact when she saw what happened.
There was a body on the floor.