"It's not Key Keeper!,” whispered Rainbow. The ponies all gathered around the collapsed Quivering Chassis. His eyes were wide open, and had turned into a grayish color. He had fallen forward, so he was slumping onto his front hooves, which were bent underneath him.
“Stand back!,” cried Twilight, pulling odd tools and devices from her pocket dimension. Examining the changeling with a few devices, she soon pulled away, turning to the others. “He's a victim of that dark spell. His memories are currently flowing to the gem.” They all gasped.
“Which gem is it?,” questioned Applejack. “The magenta one,” muttered Twilight. “Then you did it!,” cried Rarity, moving away from her. “I didn’t!,” shouted Twilight. “Someone grabbed for my gem in the dark, and when I was wrestling for it, they activated it!”
“We should have seen movement,” stated Key Keeper, “all the gems were glowing.” “Well,” started Twilight, “suppose someone set theirs down…” The ponies glanced at Fluttershy. She looked around at all the pairs of eyes on her.
“I didn’t do it!,” she cried, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Key Keeper came over to Twilight as the other ponies stumbled over each other to apologize and calm her. “You’re our magic expert here. How will the gem change after use?” Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “Well...as memories transfer, the gems should start to glow brighter, and be brightest when it’s finished. The process starts immediately after connection is made.”
Key Keeper pointed to the spark-shaped gem, which still barely glowed. The others watched as Twilight lifted it carefully and began to examine it. “It's impossible…but it couldn’t be any other…but he…then why…,” she murmured to herself.
Rainbow coughed into her hoof. “Hey, Twi, mind telling us what's happening?” Twilight looked up, startled. “Oh! Well, it’s just that even though QC is showing signs of a magically induced coma, none of the gems show any signs of activation. And it’s impossible for us to be outside the range of transfer.” She started to pace.
“So not only do we have a pon- a changeling under a dark-magic induced coma, we don’t know who did it or how they did it,” she concluded. Pinkie bounced along beside Twilight. “At least we know where it was! We’re a third of the way there!” The other stared at her in confusion.
“Oh, this is all too much!,” moaned Rarity. “I need a drink.” The only beverage in the room was QC's glass. Not caring that it had been used, she grabbed it with her magic and took several large gulps of water.
Twilight leapt up and pointed a hoof at the glass. “Maybe he was poisoned!” Rarity dropped the glass and began screaming. Fluttershy calmly took her by the hoof and led her to sit down on the couch, saying soothingly, “Its okay, Rarity…it’s fine…Rarity, it’s okay…”
The unicorn continued to scream as she sat on the couch. Mascara started to run down her cheeks, washed down by hysterical tears. Fluttershy looked annoyed, and brought back her hoof. The other ponies held their breaths after small shocked gasps. Fluttershy swung her hoof toward Rarity, only to stop at the last second a give her cheek a light tap. Rarity stopped screaming, a puzzled look on her face.
“I-I had to s-stop her screaming,” mumbled Fluttershy to the others, wringing her hooves. They stared blankly at her, but focused their attentions to the glass. Fluttershy sat on the couch next to Rarity and began to rub her hoof against her back.
Twilight, who had brought out more tools, was disappointed to find that the water had soaked into the carpet, and that there was no trace of liquid left in the glass. Pinkie held the glass upside down over her eye. “I guess we’ll never know,” she sighed, “Unless Rarity also goes into some freaky magic coma.”
Twilight leapt to her hooves. “That's it!” She trotted up next to Rarity, the other following to watch closely. “How lightheaded are you? Do you remember when you came to the mansion? What did we eat for dinner?”
Rarity, glancing at the faces so close to her, opened her mouth to answer, when suddenly, a scream echoed through the house. All the ponies got up and ran to the door. Rainbow and Applejack got stuck when they tried to go out at the same time, but Pinkie gave them a push, causing the three to tumble in a heap. Twilight dashed uncaringly over them, while Fluttershy did her best to step between them.
Key Keeper burst out of the door, carrying the ring of keys in his magic. With a burst of magic, the heap of ponies were separated and back on their hooves. The group followed Key Keeper as he ran to the Billiard Room and frantically tried to unlock it.
Twilight crowded behind him. “It's got to be the criminal! What else could it be?” “But why would they be screaming?,” pointed out Fluttershy, who was staying at the back of the crowd. Applejack crowded on Key Keeper’s other side. She declared, “They must have a victim in there.” As he bfought a hoof to her mouth in horror. “Oh Celestia, Sugar Belle!” Fluttershy gasped.
Key Keeper finally got the door unlocked, and they all tumbled in. Sugar Belle cut off in the middle of a scream to gawk at the pile of ponies collapsing on the floor. Fluttershy, the only one standing, gave a small wave. Sugar Belle waved back, a dazed look on her face.
Key Keeper stood up, lifting the mares off of him and placing them into a neat line. “Good to see you well, Sugar Belle.” Sugar Belle glared at him with tears pooling in her eyes. “Well? Well!? You brought me into danger! You never mentioned danger! I was just supposed to bring snacks and serve drinks!”
Applejack started looking around. The Billiard Room, aside from the pool table and the tape recorder on it, was empty. “Uh…what danger, exactly?,” she questioned, eyebrows raised. Sugar Belle began to whimper. “It-it has to be one of you who did it. One of you used dark magic! And then you were saying the water could be poisoned, and I remembered I drank some of it earlier, and-" she was cut off by her own sobs.
Fluttershy and Pinkie went to her side to comfort her. “Come on back with us,” said Fluttershy. “Then we can work on this together.” “A-a-and be w-with the o-one who…?,” Sugar Belle sniveled. Rainbow gestured to the door. “There's safety in numbers, and we all need to figure this out before we all end up convicted for it! So c'mon!” And with that, she was out the door.
Back in the Study , Sugar Belle and the six suspects were sitting around QC. They had placed the crystal next to him, to prevent any damage to the changeling’s mind, but it still showed no signs of activation or transfer. Each pair of eyes stared intently, as though that would somehow make a clue appear.
Key Keeper came in, carrying the tape reels from the recorder. He sighed when he saw the circle, and levitated the tapes to the desk. “We need to find out who did this within forty minutes. We need to use this time wisely.”
Fluttershy dragged a front hoof in circles across the carpet. “How are we supposed to find which of you did it in that time?” Twilight’s head snapped up. “What do you mean which of 'you' did it?” Fluttershy began to shiver, and held a hoof to her chest, crying, “I didn’t do it!”
Key Keeper looked at them all. “You all had an opportunity, you all had a motive, and one of you must have done it.” Pinkie began to rock back and forth, babbling, “We’re all gonna go to jail! I can’t go to the big house!” Twilight pointed out, “Maybe it…wasn’t one of us.”
Rainbow crossed her forehooves and huffed. “Well, who else could it have been?” Twilight held up a hoof and turned to Key Keeper. “Who else is in this house?,” she inquired.
Key Keeper and Sugar Belle both replied, “Only the cook.” After a second, the ponies cried at once, “THE COOK!,” and galloped to the Kitchen.
They found it empty. Dishes had began washed and set to dry, knives were sheathed and put away, and any leftovers had been apparently taken care of. The cook was nowhere to be seen.
Fluttershy was the ‘volunteer’ to explore first (they gave her a light push down the stairs). She wandered about, her head lowered, her un-bandaged wing visibly shaking. She stopped next to the fridge and lifted her head up, seeming to gain some confidence. “Well,” she said, “I guess she's not here.”
The fridge door began to creak open.
Pinkie Pie screamed.