The Horror of Happiness

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Welcome
Chapter 2: Tea Time
Chapter 3: Eleven o’clock Reading
Chapter 4: Dinner with Party Favor
Chapter 5: Of a Broken Leg and Painting
Chapter 6: A Mare Named Night Glider
Chapter 7: Of Underground Greenhouses and the Newcomer
Chapter 8: Dinning Conversations with Hidden Trek
Chapter 9: The Puppet Masters
Chapter 10: Foalsitting Starting Line
Chapter 11: The Flight of Check Mate
Chapter 12: Of Suspicion and Trade
Chapter 14: Salt
Chapter 15: Party Favor’s Newest Letters
Chapter 17: Starting Line’s Discovery
Chapter 18: The Book of Memories
Chapter 19: The Promise
Chapter 20: A Family Visit
Chapter 21: Mummification
Chapter 22: The Cave
Chapter 23: The Psychical Analysis of Starlight Glimmer by Dr. Reverie Lovejoy
Chapter 24: Ashes and Ashes
Chapter 13: The Conversion of Hidden Trek
Chapter 16: Sugar Belle’s Visit
Chapter 21: Breakfast at Sugar Belle’s

Prologue

In some places in the world and with many ponies lives, their day it seems to run on clockwork. With a force that turns the gears from the moment they awake, eat, work, play and go back to sleep again – only to repeat themselves over and over. This idea of routine is especially true in a tiny, tucked away village of a few houses, and the ponies that reside in them.

Inside one of these houses, an earth pony mare known was Lilly was waking up from the light that was shining into her humble bedroom. Like a mechanical toy, she awoke refreshed and got out of bed with her usual day that she had done the day before. She got up, went to the bathroom to use the toilet, brush her teeth, and combs her once bright white mane that has turned into a ghostly gray. Nevertheless, she still has that permanent grin on her face that reminded her that she is still better off than ever before.

Soon enough, she was out into the only street in the village for her to get her usual breakfast from the only baker within miles: Sugar Belle.

“C’mon, hurry!” it was the only warning she gotten before suddenly shoved over by two colts. “Sorry!” they said in unison as they immediately helped her back up.

“What’s the rush you two?” she inquired.

“We’re really sorry,” the youngest, a charcoal black pegasus with a combed-back sandy mane apologized.

“It’s our turn at the gardens,” the slightly eldest replied. He was a light brown with a dulled mane that, like the other colt, had his mane pulled back in the same way. “Mom wanted to make baked potatoes for lunch so we figured that if we hurried, we could make it back before noon.”

“You know, Start and Finishing,” Lilly replied. “You two don’t have to run over there like that. Starlight did say that it’s at walking distance so why not do just that and walk?”

“Because it takes a while to get back here on hoof,” Finishing pointed out. “Even flying over there takes a while if we just walked over there.”

“It’s just so that you won’t be faster or slower as him when you do.” She let the two of them go, hearing them grumbling under their breath of being so restricted. Even for Lilly, she admits to herself that her time in the village is a rather challenging one. Sure, her life was now simple and she had to live without luxuries of the outside world. But it’s for her own happiness after all.

She continued on towards the lonely bakery until she reached one of the wooden tables in which the baker was serving two ponies that she knew: Double Diamond and Party Favor.

“Hey Lilly,” Sugar Belle smiled politely, “Here for the usual?”

The mare nodded and waited at her seat while the baker disappeared into her kitchen.

“You know,” the snow-white stallion across from her said. “It has been a while since anyone new has come to town.”

Party Favor nodded in agreement. “It’s been about four months now. You’d think that we might get some lost soul to wonder in any day now. I do want to see some new faces around here.”

“I admit, I want to know how much Equestria has changed. Who isn’t curious nowadays about how bad the outside world has gotten.”

“But we don’t know that.” Party pointed out. “For me, I just want someone to stay here that might help replace that doctor that passed away last year. You know it’s amazing that nopony has gotten sick or anything.”

“Guess we’re that lucky,” Diamond shrugged and ate his deflated, flavorless muffin.

Lilly however, thought that while all of this was true, she did wonder how long their luck would last. Sure, there have been a few colds here and there, but even then they could just rest it off until they were better. But on the other hoof, who do they turn to if something serious happens like a broken bone for example?

“Morning Lilly,” she has pulled away from her thoughts as a gray stallion with a black mane sat down across from here.

“Hey Checkmate,” the mare smiled politely. “Glad to see you again, did you just got released this morning?”

He nodded. “I’m thankful that Starlight was merciful this time, only four days this time around. Hopefully, I’ll be good enough not to be sent back into the Equalization House.”

“You are good now, are you?” Lilly reached out to pat one of his hooves in sympathy.

“Uh-huh,” he nodded and smiled. “I did promise Starlight that I’ll be better than before.”

“Here’s your muffins,” Sugar Belle reappeared with a tray of gray pastry in her aura. After thanking her and splitting one of the muffins to Checkmate, Lilly began happily eating her flavorless breakfast.

_*_

After breakfast, Lilly heads off towards the underground gardens in which she checks to see which of her personal crops were ready to be harvested. On that day, she managed to pluck up small potatoes, some radishes and onions to be in her basket to be taken back home. To her, this was her most favorite time of day, when it was just her and her little garden. Sure, it wasn’t the same when she was planting flowers. ‘They might have been pretty,’ she thought to herself. ‘But they were unnecessary. Starlight says so herself. This is much more practical.’

But even as she toiled in the soil, underneath the light of the solar stones, she knew in the back of her mind that it wasn’t all true. Of course, she had a love of gardening. Ever since she was a foal, she once had a passion for planting brightly colored flowers. However, she has needed to satisfy over her wants, and that was to be sure that she could eat that day.

After she filled up her basket with what she needed and replaced the empty spots with seeds, she returned back to the surface. Back in the sun, she began her trek towards the village. Letting her thoughts fill the silence of the desert.

“Happiness can only be obtained through sacrifice.” She recalled what Starlight Glimmer once told her. “And I know how hard it is to just give up what you’ve been attached to for so long. But trust me, if you give in, I promise you that you’ll be happier than you’ve ever been in your life.”

Of course, in her heat, she knew that such philosophy was true. How could she doubt it? She remembered the pain of having too big of a dream and a large an ambition. ‘In hindsight, I didn’t know how difficult it was to sell flours in the first place. Just to maintain and taking care of all those flours outside of their season was too difficult and I should have just had not done it at all. Plus, I wasn’t any good at business anyway so I was already doomed to fail from the start.’

Then, from the corner of her eye, she spotted something moving along the hot sand. After squinting her eyes, she saw that it was the same colts that had ran into her that morning. They were again in a rush from one boulder to the other. One was flying through the air while the other was in a gallop. However, as she noticed, they were going at the same pace so it was to no surprise that by the time they got to the other rock that they reached it at the same time.

She could hear shouting while they were at a distance from her.

“Ugh! Again! How are we keep ending up in a tie?” Finishing Line flew up in frustration. “How are we supposed to play if we keep ending up in a tie?”

While Lilly couldn’t hear what his brother’s reply was, she didn’t have to guess as the younger colt snapped back at him.

“This has nothing to do with luck Starting! I tell you that this place is cursed! Ever since we’ve moved here, we can’t ever win at anything! Not at racing, cards, or even throwing dice. Dice! Just for once, can one of us loose every once in a while?”

This she saw had started to make his older brother cry. Despite how upset the younger colt was, he stepped back from his temper tantrum to hug him. Lilly felt sympathetic and was compelled to change course towards the boys. By the time she got there, she heard Finishing trying to apologize for lashing out at him like that. “Hey, are you guys okay?”

She knew that they weren’t, the older colt sniffled and said. “Yeah, we’re fine. We were just playing.”

“Nothing’s wrong ma’am,” Finishing gave a lying smile.

“You sure?” Lilly questioned. “It looked like your brother was in tears just a moment ago.”

Both colts gave a nervous glance. “Uhh…” the young pegasus’s eyes shifted back and forth. “Don’t tell Starlight. We don’t want to get into trouble.”

“Y-Yeah,” Starting said. “It was just an accident. You’re not going to tell because we just made a mistake, would you?”

Lilly glanced around to make sure that nopony was listening. “I’ll tell you both this – I’m going to let you off the hook just this once. However, if I do see something like this again, then I just have to tell Starlight that you’re not playing nice. Are we clear?” They nodded. “Why don’t you two head back into town? I’m sure that your parents have chores for you to do.”

“But we don’t-” Finishing was interrupted when his older brother pulled on his wing.

“You know what; we should start heading back home.” Starting told him as he dragged his younger sibling towards the village.

That was the end of it as far as Lilly was concerned. After all, she needed to head back home herself to wash and prepare the vegetables she’d collected. Reminding herself to get back to her routine that after lunch, she needed to catch up on her chores around her house such as sweeping the floors and getting the dirty dishes put away. That and she must get back to her readings of Starlight’s books on Equality in her free time.

After all, her routine was like clockwork. She didn’t want one second, or one incident to make her skip a second of her time.

Chapter 1: Welcome

“When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster?” – Graceling.

There is a village in Equestria that’s so small, so out of the way, and so isolated that if one were to blink, sneeze, cough, turn their heads, or simply glance over on a map; they would have missed it. Before the arrival of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends had come to this village, extremely few have even heard of this place. This was a place that not even the Equestrian Railway would dare venture beyond the mountains that surrounded this desert valley because, for most ponies, this was indeed the middle of nowhere.

So it stands to reason of why very, very few ponies would not only venture but explore into this valley where it lies. For some, they came to make themselves a brand new life. For others, they came by accident and for one reason or another decided to remain there among the other smiling ponies. But for one that came to this village, it was simply because he needed a place to hide.

Pulling the cart behind him, a unicorn named Dr. Lovejoy carried everything that was worth of value to him. From his personal collection of classical music with a working phonograph, his bed, a photographic camera on a tripod, a collection of books, some tools of his trade, some tools such as a shovel and a hatchet, some rolls of canvas, rope, a pocket watch, some food and water, a tea set, a box that had vials of various liquids, several empty glass jars, a compass, and a map of Equestria; just to name a few. This stallion pulling this cart wasn’t young. He was quite old with his wrinkly orange coat, his brown mane with sweat underneath his hat, and he could feel an ache coming from where his cutie mark is – a blood red cross with two red snakes circling around it.

He stopped for a moment, sitting down on his hind legs to take a sip of water. “I wonder,” he said as he unrolled the map in his aura. “Do I have to keep going up North ‘til I reach the Crystal Mountains? Surely... there must be something out here.” He looked around at the narrow canon of earth between him. “I wonder if this trail would lead me somewhere.”

After resting for about fifteen minutes, Dr. Lovejoy started his trek up once more. He knew that what he was doing was dangerous, being out here by himself. However, by his nature, he was a careful stallion. While he knew what risks might lay before him, it was necessary due to what happened in Fillidelphia. For one might say that he was trying to get as far away from potential trouble as he possibly could.

By the time his hooves reached a high mark in the road, he noticed something truly remarkable. He saw that the trail he was on lead to a village in a desert valley. From what he could see, the houses in two, perfect and equal rows with the exception of the one house that marked the end of the trail. He squinted his eyes to see that there was, indeed, life in this tiny town.

He hummed in thought, “A village in the middle of nowhere… No other signs of communication to the outside world… Miles and miles away from the nearest pony settlement… This looks promising.”

“Welcome.”

These are the voices that Lovejoy heard as he pulled into the one lane village. As he walked passed these smiling ponies, they greeted him, stallion and mare, foals and grown-ups. Almost as if they were expecting him.

“Welcome.”

Yet, what astounded him the most were the ponies themselves. Apart from the pale color of their coats, different types of ponies, ages, and even degrees of body physique, everypony looked exactly the same! From the uniform manecuts to their wider-then-a-mile smiles, and even had the exact same cutie mark! In all of his years of research, Lovejoy had never even heard of such a phenomenon.

“Welcome,” he stopped in front of a very white earth pony and a turquoise blue unicorn with a deeper blue mane.

“Oh, afternoon,” the elderly stallion nodded. “Who are you?”

“I’m Party Favor,” the turquoise unicorn said, “and this is Double Diamond.”

“Yes,” Lovejoy lit up his horn to grab out an empty canteen, “I was hoping if somepony would get me a drink of water?”

“I’ll do that,” a voice said, the doctor looked down to the dull butterscotch pegasus colt. “Can I?”

“Please,” he gave the canteen to him, in which he watched him trot off to the lonely water pump up the road.

“I see you have your own cutie mark,” the blue unicorn pointed out.

“Pardon?”

“I’ve never seen one like it,” Diamond told him as he craned his neck over, “Especially that deep shade of red.”

“Well... thank you?” Lovejoy raised his eyebrow. “But in all seriousness, I was running out of the water.”

“You’re quite lucky to have found us,” the white pony told him. “We have the only water source within several miles.”

“So I’ve noticed, I was hoping if I could speak with whoever is in charge, for I am quite tired from undergoing such a long trek.”

“Of course,” Party said as he and the other stallion turned around. “You could talk to our town’s leader, Starlight Glimmer.”

“Thank you, kind sirs,” the elderly stallion pulled his cart up to the lonely house at the end of the road. While he, at last, unstrapped himself from it, the blue unicorn went inside the house first while the snow white pony waited for him to enter.

As he entered, Lovejoy found another pony waiting for him. A mare that had a brighter pink coat, bright violet, and blue mane then compared to the other ponies he’d seen. But unlike the villagers, the unicorn’s smile before him looked genuine.

“Welcome to our little village,” she said, “Please come right in, how can we help you?”

“Hello, are you the one in charge?” the doctor inquired as he reached his hoof to shake hers.

The mare shook his hoof, “I am indeed, my name is Starlight Glimmer, the founder of this village. Tell me, what brings you here? You look awfully tired, could I get you anything?”

“I had some colt run for some water for me,” he said, looking out the window towards the water pump. “In fact, that’s him over there.”

Starlight looked, “You mean little Finished Line? Ah yes, what a helpful little thing he is. Diamond, could you go tell little Line that the new gentlecolt is right in here so he wouldn’t get lost?”

The pale Earth pony nodded and exited the cottage.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Starlight exclaimed, “I don’t think you’ve told me your name, what is it?”

“Lovejoy, Doctor Lovejoy ma’am.”

“A doctor you say?” She walked over to the modest table at one corner of the room, waving a hoof to invite him over. “We haven’t had one of those in quite a while.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just that we haven’t had anypony that was a doctor for a couple of years now. So tell me, what are you a doctor of?”

The elderly unicorn sat down across from her, “I have a major in medicine, and a minor in Psychology, Philosophy, and Photography. And at the moment, I’ve been recently retired.”

“Ah, I see,” Starlight nodded as the colt Finish Line entered with the doctor’s canteen. After thanking him, he was excused as the mare continued, “That’s very interesting. So what’s a retired doctor like you doing all the way out here?”

“Well, I was hoping for a place to spend my retirement at and beside the fact that I was running out of the water, this place looked promising. I take it that there’s not very much going on here?”

“Not really, it’s nice and quiet out here. Our ponies are like that since we have no problems or quarrels among us to separate us. We’re a strong community that embraces true friendship. For you know, we would be more than happy to offer it to you,” she said with a smile.

Lovejoy, however, frowned, “As kind as your offer is, I’m afraid that I have to decline.”

“What? Why not?”

He looked around before lowering his voice, “The truth is ma’am, I’m not sure if I’ll live long enough to enjoy such a community that you and your ponies had created.”

“But, why?” Starlight’s expression turned more sympathetic.

“For you see, Ms. Glimmer, I’m a dead pony walking,” he said tapping the side of his head, “Aneurysm, right here. My next breath could very well be my last. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve retired. After all, it’s come to a point where I couldn’t help my patients at a hospital in Fillidelphia. I could literally drop dead while I’m treating them.”

“Oh… I’m so sorry about that.”

“You have nothing to do with it. As a stallion that has lived a full life in the physician area, and who doesn’t have a family or real friends to turn to, all I want is a peaceful place to be in before I go.”

“I see,” she thought for a moment, “What if we take care of you?”

“Sorry?” he blinked.

“What if I make it a priority for this village to take care of you? You may say that you have no friends, but I can assure you, that you now got an entire town to look after you.”

“Oh no, you don’t ha-”

“I insist,” Starlight smiled, “We’ll have you stay in one of the houses that you can spend your final days at. Free of charge, and you’ll have the whole village to come by to see if you needed something. In fact,” she got up from the table and went to the front door. “You there, Lilly, would you come here?”

A moment later, a yellow earth pony mare came through the door, “Yes Starlight?”

“We have a new pony that will be moving in, and he’s very sick. So, I was hoping that you could assist him for tonight. That is if that’s alright with you.”

Lilly’s eyes shifted nervously for just a moment, something that didn’t go unnoticed for the doctor. “Of course I can. Anything you say Starlight.”

“Well, in that case,” Dr. Lovejoy stood up, “For you Lilly, I have two questions for you: Do you like tea?”

“I don’t mind it,” she said.

“As for the other, are you happy?”

The mare’s grin grew a little wider, “Why yes indeed! I am very happy here.”

Lovejoy gave a smile of his own, “Wonderful, perhaps after all of my things have been moved in someplace, could I interest you in some tea I’ve brought with me?”

Chapter 2: Tea Time

“What!” Double Diamond exclaimed, “You wouldn’t let Lovejoy join our community fully?”

Starlight Glimmer sighed, “Believe me, Diamond, as much as I don’t like this, the doctor has a point. He’s not sure how much longer he has to live, and having him go through the Equalization process in his frail state, I don’t know if he’ll even survive it. Besides, even if he does, what if he passes before he could get the chance to enjoy the life we’ve created?”

“But,” the pale pony’s eyes looked uneasily back and forth, “This isn’t right. How could you exclude him from our way of life? What if he’ll live for a couple more years?”

“And what if he’ll live for a couple of minutes?” the mare questioned as she looked out of her window towards the end of the street with the last house, where the village has gathered to move the elderly doctor’s things. “The thing is that neither he nor I have any clue how much time he has left. Not only that, but I don’t want the rest of the village to think that the Equalization process would be the source of his death. So... I think, for the time being, we just simply need to take care of him.”

“But, we could still teach him our ways, can’t we?”

Starlight gave a motherly grin as she turned to him, “Why, of course, we can. Just because he has a different cutie mark, doesn’t mean that he can’t learn about what makes this town so special. So for now, we’ll show him by example of what true friendship is really all about. If we’re lucky, maybe the good doctor will change his mind. But only when he says so.”

“That’s a great idea,” Diamond exclaimed, “Show by example! He’ll be joining us in no time.”

“We’ll have to see,” she looked back down at the last house on the right, “If our new friend might be up to it.”

By the time the sun was on the horizon, Lilly trotted over to Dr. Lovejoy’s new home. As she approached the front door, the yellow earth pony mare had to stop for a moment, for her ears had picked up something unusual. There was a sound that was coming from the house, a very beautiful sound that she hadn’t heard in years. It was a slow, dreamlike noise... she heard something that was truly rare. It was music being played on an instrument.

She knocked on the door, and it opened up to the orange stallion, “Well, hello again Lilly. Please do come in, I’ve just taken the kettle off the stove.” The mare did, and she was stunned when she walked through the door. Lovejoy noticed this and asked: “Is something the matter?”

Blinking, she replied, “This place is… luxurious. I’ve never seen more stuff in this home before.”

Raising an eyebrow, he looked at the converted living room. Yes, there was the row of books on the floor, several stacks of records lining up against the wall, a couch that came with the house, a simple table, a playing phonograph, a camera on a tripod, several photographs of nature scenes, a colorful rug, and Beethooven’s Moonlight Sonata playing. But other than those, the room was plain in his eyes.

“Why do you think so?”

“I mean, your library, and these photographs, not to mention all of these records too.”

“You mean to say that you don’t keep any records?”

Lilly shook her head, “The only phonograph we have in town belongs to Starlight Glimmer, but she only uses it for the Equalization House if anypony forgets about her brilliant philosophy.”

“But you don’t have records for pleasure, such as listening to music?”

“Not at all, we sing for music.”

The doctor stared at her before closing the door behind them, “Interesting… Well, would you care to sit down while I go get the tea?”

She told him that was fine. For a couple of minutes, she looked at the photographs that hung on the walls. Some were black and white, while others were in full color. They showed a variety of pictures from soft rolling fields of grain, to a forest of pine, a lonely sandy beach, even a still life of a park somewhere.

The doctor returned with a tray in his magic. A tray that held porcelain cups, little plates, a sugar bowl, and a teapot with a thick blue stripe and beside the cups were two silver teaspoons.

“Were you ever rich, Doctor Lovejoy?” Lilly asked politely.

“If you’re asking if I ever lived comfortably with the job I had, then indeed. Sugar?”

She gasped, “You have sugar? Then you really are rich.”

The doctor tilted his head, “First no music, and now no sugar?”

“Well, our little town is all based on the idea of equality. If there’s not much of anything to go around, it's simply banned.”

“Yet, I’m not exactly a citizen of your little town,” Lovejoy pointed out as he poured their share of the tea.

“That’s right, I’ve heard about your choice for not joining us. But I’m rather confused, what’s making you stopping from becoming part of the community?”

“Simply put, I’m dying and I don’t know how much time I have left. One lump or two?”

She put a hoof to her mouth, “Oh dear… sir… I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

The elderly stallion chuckled, “It’s perfectly alright. All I ask for at the moment is a peaceful place... surrounded by my beloved works of art and listening to beautiful music. Still, sugar?” Lilly asked for two lumps in her tea, in which Lovejoy gladly did. But before she could get the steamy liquid to her lips, the doctor stopped her. “Wait, before you do, may I have the liberty in taking your picture?”

Lilly gave him her wide smile, “Not at all.”

With that, the stallion put down the teapot and went straight for his camera in which he set it in front of her. “Just look right above the lens… look down a- there! Just hold that pose for just a second…” He snapped her picture, “there we go, I’ll have it developed by tomorrow morning.” While he set the camera aside, he made sure that the curtains were drawn, “As you were.”

To Dr. Lovejoy’s delight, the mare took a sip from her cup, “It’s wonderful! Best cup of tea I had in years.”

“An honor ma’am,” he took a seat across from her. “So since you’re here, can I tell you a little secret?”

“But Doctor Lovejoy, this village has no secrets to keep.”

The stallion chuckled, “Nonsense my dear, everypony, and everything has a secret. Why, if everything didn’t keep their secrets, half of the planet would be eliminated.”

Lilly blinked, “You have a very strange way of thinking.”

“Still, can I please tell you my little secret, please humor me for a moment?”

“Well… oh alright,” she said, putting down her cup on the table. “I’m listening.”

“Good,” the elderly stallion smiled warmly like a grandfather seeing his children. “You see Lilly,” he said as he took both hooves into his own and with a happy grin said, “You’re going to die in a minute,” added a pat on one of her hooves, “Isn’t it wonderful?”

Lilly’s wide smile had, up until now, began to diminished as she took what she heard in. “W-What?”

“You’re going to be dead in a minute,” he told her again without losing his genuine smile. “Congratulations by-the-way.”

She blinked, her head getting fuzzy, “This, has to be a joke of yours?”

“Oh no, it’s no joke. I’ve laced poison in the sugar lumps, so quickly! How do you feel?”

Lilly was starting to get scared, “Sir, I think I’d better leave.”

“Why? You’ll be on the floor by the time you reach the doorknob.”

She turned towards the door and felt that her hooves were heavy, “Lovejoy… I don’t think… this is funny.”

“Wait, there’s nothing to be afraid about.”

“Doc…” Lilly trailed off before she collapsed on the floor. Her forehoof tried to reach the door.

Lovejoy got up from his seat and went over to her, placing one hoof on her cheek, “Now now, don’t be scared. Just let that heaviness take over. You’re just going to sleep. Once you do, you’ll be truly free of every worry, every problem, and every trial you’d had to face. Just close those heavy eyes, and sleep.”

Her hoof shook for a few seconds until it lay on the floor like a doll’s hoof, and her head fell to the side. The mare’s chest was still.

“There, now to make the last minute touches,” he said as he levitated the cup over to the corpse, turned her cup over on its side of the plate, letting the poison spill onto the plate and the planks of the floorboards. He then levitated the camera to make a few adjustments before snapping a picture. “Thank you so much, Lilly, because you’ve been so polite, I’ll make sure to have your name carved on a rock somewhere tonight. You’ve been wonderful dear.”

He turned around to the kitchen to fetch a rag, “Oh, retirement is going to be so much fun.”

Chapter 3: Eleven o’clock Reading

Over the phonograph, a violin held a long note before it descended into a sleepy melody in the warm noonday sun with the sounds of the string orchestra. Right on the steps of his new home, Dr. Lovejoy rocked softly back and forth in the rocking chair that he brought with him. On his lap was an open book that he was reading, every so often his horn would glow in order to turn to the next page. Although he was tired from last night about dragging Lilly’s body into the desert, digging a shallow grave and carving her name onto a bolder, he was still awake enough to read from the books he brought with him.

“Lovejoy?”

The elderly stallion looked up to find Starlight Glimmer before him along with two smiling stallions, “Hm?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but can I ask you a few things?”

“I don’t see why not,” he said closing the book, “I think I need to rest from reading for a while.”

“Very well, I just want to ask if you’ve seen Lilly as of late. Nopony in the village has seen her this morning. So, do you know where she happens to be?”

Lovejoy shrugged, “I’m afraid not. I’ve seen her from last night when I had my nightly tea, but that was about it. She was quite polite too.”

“But do you know where she went?”

“All I know is that we sat down for some tea, had a pleasant conversation, she said goodbye, and left before I went to bed.”

“So you really don’t know where she’s gone to?”

He shook his head, “That was the last time I’ve seen her. I don’t keep track of ponies that I had tea with Ms. Glimmer.”

“Thank you, we just wanted to know.”

“What was the other thing you wanted to ask of me?”

She pointed at the phonograph, “Why are you playing music out here?”

“Well, from what Lilly has told me from last night, this village doesn’t have any records for pleasure, do they?”

“If we wanted music,” Starlight told him, “We would sing about it.”

“But no instrumental music?”

She smiled and shook her head, “It wouldn’t be fair for everypony that if one could play an instrument and the other couldn’t. Here, when it comes to music, nopony is any better or any worst than the other.” The two stallions besides her agreed with her.

“Yet, what’s wrong with me sharing what I have for those who have an ear to listen? After all, I’ve only brought the phonograph with me and a collection of the best recorded music I could find, in Classical music terms. Not only that, but I’m sharing it to everypony in the open air as I read. So really ma’am, what’s wrong with sharing the greatest art in history to your fellow townspony? In spreading a little culture if you will.”

“The only problem I have is that we’re trying to be careful about what kind of… culture comes in. We don’t want our impressionable ponies getting any dangerous and false ideas.”

“I’d be careful with that if I were you,” Lovejoy wagged a hoof at her, “The more strict you are with keeping your village ignorant about what goes on with the outside world, the more they’ll be willing to find out. After all, most of my collection contains lyrical songs, even in a foreign language; contain immortal elements such as the subject of brotherhood, love, hope, the essentially Classical themes basically. I hope that this village doesn’t house anything against something like brotherhood, love, and hope?”

Starlight tried to say something, but for a moment, she was speechless. “Well… not exactly, we’re just trying to be careful is all.”

“Very well,” Lovejoy’s eyes returned to his book, “Any other complaints?”

“No, but I do have one last inquiry though.”

“Oh?”

“I’m starting to wonder, what are you planning to do with your possessions when the time comes that you would have no need of them?”

“Ah,” he nodded, “I’ve already thought about that, and may I ask for some paper along with something to write on?”

One of the stallions next to the mare was told to fetch the items and returned shortly. Now in his aura, the doctor said aloud as he wrote down, “‘I, Doctor Reverie Lovejoy, give full permission to the citizens of…’ I’m sorry; I don’t think I’ve got the name of this village.”

“Our Town,” Starlight answered.

“Yes, of course, it’s your town, but what’s the name of it?”

“Our Town,” said the stallion on the left.

“I know, but what’s the name?”

“Our town,” the other stallion on the right told him.

“Wait… wait-a-minute; let me try to wrap my mind around this.” He said, putting both hooves to his wrinkly forehead, “Are you three just telling me the words ‘Our Town’ to play a joke on me, or that really is the name of your town?”

“Lovejoy,” Starlight spoke up, “the name of this village, really is called, ‘Our Town.’ ”

He blinked, “And why is that?”

“Our community is based on the idea of true equality. Together we named this place ‘Our Town,’ because everypony here lends a hoof in keeping it running. This place belongs to everypony, including you.”

“…. Okay then,” he returns his gaze to the paper, “'full permission to the citizens of… ‘Our Town’… that in the event that I happen to die within the boundaries of this village, that all the earthly possessions that I owe, will go to the citizens and they may do with them as they see fit.’” He signed his name on the paper before handing it over to the other ponies, “Can all three of you sign this to show that there were witnesses?”

The three of them looked at one another before signing their names on the paper, “I must say,” Starlight said, “This is quite generous of you.”

“I might as well make sure that my things have someplace to go after I die and you guys happen to be here.”

“Before we leave, I want to tell you that I’ve invited Party Favor over to your home this evening.”

“Very well, I’ll keep that in mind,” he said as he opened his book, “Tell him I’ll be expecting him for dinner.”

“Will do,” she said as she and the other two stallions walked off.

Now at peace once more, Dr. Lovejoy returned to his book, ‘Ancient Coltypt: Everyday Life and Death on the Nile.’ He flipped through the pages until he returned to the chapter he was reading. ‘Chapter 28: The Art of Mummification.’

Chapter 4: Dinner with Party Favor

The record floated over to the phonograph, Lovejoy lifted the needle up from the previous record to switch it for a new one. A few cranks of the handle later, a royal sound of strings poured out into the kitchen area where he and his guest were dining in.

“What’s this one?” the blue unicorn asked.

“Moztrot’s Symphonie Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, I think this is the first movement of it.”

“How many records do you own?” he asked as he picked up another spoonful of soup.

“I think about…” the elderly stallion lifts up a hoof, pointing in the air to count his collection in his mind. “Nearly five or six hundred, but I had to narrow that down to about thirty… seven of my most favorite pieces with me. After all, there was only so much room I could fit in that cart.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard any songs from Moztrot before.”

“Really? You’ve never heard anything from Moztrot?”

Party Favor shook his head, “I don’t think so. By the way, this soup is incredible! There’s so much flavor in it.”

“It’s just a simple potato soup, nothing more.” Then a thought came to the doctor’s head, “Where does all the food come from? I haven’t seen a farm for miles.”

“Starlight orders everything to come by train. There’s a set of tracks a couple of miles from here that comes by to drop off whatever we need. The same goes for the wood, tools, paper and such things.”

“Were you born in this village or from someplace else?”

“Oh,” he set his spoon down. “For me, I came here a couple of years ago. Back then, I was a party planner for foal’s parties in Manehattan. In fact, I was an assistant in a party company for a time before it closed down, leaving me out of the job. I tried to find work, but even when I did get employed, I was never really happy because planning and setting up parties was my passion in life. I was never cut out as a bus-colt, or a guy that hulls stuff around, or even a janitor. So I moved away to find a better life outside of the city. I was lucky to run into Starlight Glimmer, in which she showed me that my own cutie mark is what’s keeping me back, and offered a way for me to be happy once more.”

At this point, both ears on Dr. Lovejoy’s head perked up, “Oh? Your cutie mark was keeping you back?”

Party nodded, “Yes sir, it was. But she removed it with the Staff of Sameness to replace it with what I have now. So because of her, I won’t have to worry about my own special talent from keeping me back ever again,” he ended it with a grin.

Lovejoy’s eyebrow rose, “Fascinating…” He stood up from the table and walked over to the counter, “I think it’s about time we have some dessert. I’ve baked some snicker-doodles earlier, and they just need one final touch.”

“Mmm,” Party hummed, “I haven’t had cookies in years and those sound really good to me.”

The orange unicorn nodded, looked over at the row of cookies that now have been cooled. He opened up a small jar nearby that contained the sugar and cinnamon mix and sprinkle some over the treats. But before he placed them on the plate, he eyed the poison nearby it. “Party Favor, can I ask you a personal question?”

“You sure can.”

“Be honest with me when I ask this, as of now… Are you happy?”

“I…” curious at his trailing off, Lovejoy looked behind him to find that his guest looked nervously at the windows.

“Is something the matter?”

“I… I don’t know. You can keep a secret, can you?”

Frowning, the elder stallion picked up the cookies with his magic to put them on a plate. “May I remind you that I am a doctor, Party, both of medicine and of Psychology? With anypony that comes to me, anything that my patients have to say to me, I keep it confidential to only myself and those that seek my help.” He turned around, carrying the plate of baked goods to the table to sit them down. “So tell me, Party Favor, what’s on your mind?”

“In truth doctor,” Party rubbed his hooves, “I don’t know exactly what to feel now. You see… a couple months back, I’ve been starting to be receiving some… love notes, but I don’t know who it’s from.”

“You have a secret admirer?”

“I think so,” he nodded, “I’ve never had anypony tell me that they had feelings for me before. And for a while, I had a guess who it might be… that was until today. I thought it was Lilly that was sending those notes, but now… I’ve got a new one right before I came here, telling me that they were sorry for Lilly’s disappearance. Isn’t that weird? You would think that if it was her, she would have told me that she was fine or where she had gone to. But now this… I’m wondering if it’s somepony else.”

“Forgive me for asking this but… why are you telling me this? This sounds like something you would tell a close friend.”

“That’s… what I’m kinda afraid about.” The doctor asked him to clarify, “In Our Town... only a committee with Starlight Glimmer at the head could decide who we should love who, romantically that is. If anypony in the village wants to court another, they needed to go to them, and if they said no, that’s it. I’m afraid that if they found out about that, then…”

“You may never get the chance to date this secret admirer?”

“Yeah...” Party nodded, “Exactly! Whoever it is, they sound really nice and I’m curious to really know who it is.”

“Now there’s something I don’t understand,” Lovejoy sat back down, “How could you say that you’re happy here when you’re not exactly free to date whoever you want?”

There was a pause, the Party looked at the plate of cookies and immediately put one in his mouths. “Mmm, shat’s rely goot,” he said between mouthfuls.

The elder stallion narrowed his eyes, “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“Oh, look at the time!” the aqua pony stood up, taking a few cookies in his aura, “I’m really sorry, but I’m afraid that it’s close to curfew, so I must be going!” With that and a forced smile on his face, he quickly excused himself from the doctor’s house, closing the door behind him.

Lovejoy sighed, “Great… no luck tonight. Oh well, better luck next time I suppose.” He went up to the living room of the house to look at the window towards Starlight Glimmer’s home. “What exactly did you do to these ponies anyway?”

Author's Note

Nope! Party Favor's not dead! Boy do I love playing with the readers expectations. :ajsmug:

Chapter 5: Of a Broken Leg and Painting

Author's Note

So... yeah, I think I've got myself a little carried away with this one.

Chapter 5: Of a Broken Leg and Painting

Later that night, Lovejoy’s mind was in full gear. Gathering up whatever books on Psychology that he’d brought with him and recalling his time in the village, he studied them by the flicker of candlelight on his bed stand. After giving some thought, he returned to his notebook.

November 9th – In the space of a day, I have observed that this village of “Our Town” is withholding a much deeper secret than I anticipated. It’s quite clear now that the small population is being controlled by its founder, Starlight Glimmer. On the one lane street, every single pony is a little too perfectly uniformed. Each wears a forced smile, same mane style, and even the exact cutie mark: an equal sign. It is also noted that everypony’s coat shade is almost muted… all except for the founder.

The townspony are almost completely cut off from the outside world, with no visible police enforcement, and they live very, very simple. Instrumental music, sugar, and even the freedom to date anyone or even to move freely at night are prohibited. From one pony when I questioned him about the way this town worked, he immediately left, as if somepony was listening in.

As of now, since I’ve poisoned a mare from last night, I think it’s more important now than ever to be careful how many ponies I could turn into works of art without anyone from the village getting too suspicious. Otherwise, I would need to get creative in the answers they ask me where those ponies have gone to… Then again, it does present an interesting challenge of who I can kill off without getting noticed… Note to self: Keep an eye out for anyone that most likely would run away.

For the time being, I should focus on the leader, Starlight Glimmer. Because from what I could see and what I was told indirectly from these villagers; she seems to be very manipulative in what her ponies can or cannot do. Also, she has a kind of high minded charisma towards her citizens. Although I think I need to study her a little more, I’m beginning to suspect if she’s a goal-driven psychopath or sociopath. Unfortunately, she’s most likely lean towards being all powerful than taking away lives. How dull!

However, I need to run a few tests without her knowing somehow, something that would test her empathy as well as her sense of morality, and to see how her self-esteem is compared to others. Firstly, I’ll need to devise a controlled situation in which I would see personally her reaction to a ‘random’ act of pain from her villagers say… a broken leg?

In the broad daylight, Dr. Lovejoy was waiting. With a book of Post-Impressionist Art on the table, he was looking out on the street. Some of the doll-like ponies were keeping an eye on him as well. Although he was calm on the outside, he was thinking, calculating, narrowing down which pony to subject to his empathy test.

He was also waiting for Starlight Glimmer to come out of her home as well, and he was waiting for- “Here you go, sir.” Lovejoy snapped his attention to the mare that set a plate down in front of him. “Here’s your muffin.”

“Thank you, Ms. Belle.” He nodded to the mare with a bun in her mane, and then looked at the muffin at the table. “I’m sorry, but has something gone wrong with the baking?”

The unicorn mare blinked, “What do you mean?”

“Please, don’t think of me as rude, but… a little baking powder, sugar, and butter would do wonders for this thing.”

Her ears folded back a little, “I’m sorry sir, but this is really the best I can do with what I have.”

The doctor’s eyebrow rose, “Wait, are you telling me that this village has no baking powder or butter? So how is it that you’re able to bake, Sugar Belle?”

“You’d be surprised of all the things you can do without,” she smiled politely.

“They’re just living by their means doctor,” he looked up to find Starlight walking up towards him. “So, how are you this morning?”

“A little tired ma’am,” he said. “I think I was up a little too late reading.”

“Like that book?” she pointed to the open book on the table.

“Yes, it’s a captivating book on Post-Impressionism Art. Like the styles of late Moneigh, van Gogh, and Gauguin,” from the corner of his eye, he spotted a family, and behind the parents were two colts. The little family was so ordinary looking that he noticed that nopony was paying any attention to neither them nor they to him. This looked promising, “It has wonderful artwork and is a fascinating read.”

“Let me see that,” while Starlight and Sugar Bell glanced at the book, Lovejoy’s horn glowed briefly to pick up the stone from underneath his seat, took aim, and quickly fired at the family. Then, in the morning air, the high pitch scream of a colt shattered the calm air.

Dr. Lovejoy’s eyes were now on the founder to see her reaction. While Sugar Belle looked up in horror, he noted that while Starlight looked up, there wasn’t shock on her face, but curiosity. When she went over to see what was going on and saw the colt’s foreleg bend at an acute angle where he was balling his eyes out, the doctor took mental notes that she didn’t seem too fazed about it.

Starlight turned around, “Who did this!” she demanded. “What happened?”

But when nopony responded, the doctor looked at a nearby gray stallion and pointed, “He did it,” he said, “He threw the stone.”

“What!” the accused stallion cried as Starlight marched over to him.

“Check Mate, how could you!” she asked him bitterly. “How could you throw a stone at Starting Line?”

“B-But I didn’t.”

“I saw you,” the doctor interjected, getting up from his seat and trotting over to the crying colt, “I saw you picked it up and threw it. Honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

“That’s a lie!” Check exclaimed, “I didn’t even touch-”

“Check Mate,” the crossed mare interrupted, “This is a new low, even for you. For this, you’ll be spending the next few days in the Equalization House.”

The stallion’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks, “No, please! I didn’t-”

“Double Diamond,” she called out, and the white stallion was by her side, “Would you please take Check Mate here to the Equalization House so he may think over what he did.”

Diamond nodded and pulled at the stallion’s tail, dragging him through the dust, “But it wasn’t me, I swear! It was him! He threw it!” but his cries were ignored as he was pulled into the house that was across the street from the doctor’s residence.

Meanwhile, the elderly unicorn lit up his horn. “Now, now... child, you’re in good hooves, I’m a doctor.”

“Starting?” a butterscotch colt asked in concern, “Are you okay?”

Lovejoy examined the broken limb, “We need to make a splint,” he said, looking up at the parents, “I need two pieces of wood and something to tie them together.”

“And… there we go,” the doctor said as he wrapped the last bandage on Starting Line’s foreleg. He turned to his parents, “That ought to do it, just make sure he stays in bed for the next two weeks to heal, but the cast itself should only come off after six weeks.”

“Six weeks!” Finishing Line exclaimed, “But we were supposed to have our race tomorrow!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid your big brother is in no condition to go anywhere,” Lovejoy lifted the colt onto the mother’s back.

“It’s not fair,” the little pegasus said. “Everything’s not fair since we’ve moved here.”

This got the doctor’s attention.

“Now Finish,” his father told him, “You know that’s not true.”

“But he has a broken leg,” the colt pointed out. “And none of us had any candy ever since we’ve moved here.”

“Finish, please,” the mother stepped in, “We can talk about this at home.”

“No! I hate it here!” he exclaimed.

For Dr. Lovejoy, he sensed an opportunity. “Excuse me,” he said as he went into the kitchen. “But I think I might have some candy with me.”

This got the whole family’s attention, the older brother’s neck craned upward, “You have candy!”

“Only some ginger hard candies,” he said from the kitchen, “Now where did I- ah! Here they are.” He returned to the living room with a little bag, he used his magic to pull out four pieces to them.

The younger brother, Finishing Line immediately unwrapped the treat and stuffed it into his mouth. “Mmm! This is so yummy! Thank you, Doctor Lovejoy, you don’t know how happy this makes me feel right now.”

Lovejoy stared at him, “Are you sure you’re happy right now?”

He nodded his head.

The mother went up to him, “This is really generous of you. You’ve been so kind.”

“Likewise,” the elderly stallion said with a smile, “Actually, if it wouldn’t be too much to ask, could you ask Starlight to have Finishing Line to check on me tomorrow afternoon? After all, I’m going to need a little help tomorrow and I was hoping that I could get someone over to help.”

“After your kindness,” the father told him, “Of course we can.”

“Thank you, and Finishing Line,” he gave a warm, grandfather-like smile; “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The little pegasus knocked on the doctor’s door the next day. Lovejoy answered the door, “Why hello, come in.”

He did, “So doc, what do you need my help for?”

“Well, you see,” he said as he heads towards the kitchen, “I’ve been looking for a little rolled up the jar of a film for my camera, and I think that the ponies that helped move me in, has placed it between a set of boxes in the basement. I’m afraid that I can’t exactly reach it or move it, so, with your size, I was hoping if you would crawl in and see if that jar is there?”

“Um… okay.” The colt followed the doctor into the kitchen, opening a door to the basement and lighting a lantern. He followed him down the steps where the doctor lit a few more lanterns to help illuminate the room beneath.

At one corner of the wall, there were barrels of dry goods like flour and salt that were kept, in another, there were boxes and trinkets that the elderly stallion had brought with him. In the center of the room, there was a table with trays and chemicals. “That’s for the photos,” Lovejoy explained. Yet, underneath that table was a funny looking low table that has several beams stretching across like a wooden mattress frame.

“Over here,” he said, pointing at the gap in the boxes. “Could you crawl in to see if the jar is in there?”

“Sure,” Finishing said as he stuck his head in. “I think I see something,” he started to crawl into the narrow gap. In the dim light, he could see a labeled jar; he reached to take a hold of it. Once he got it in his hoof, he turned it around, but was confused for a moment when he read, “Hold still?”

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pinch in his back, “Ouch!” he cried as dropped the jar and back out from the tight space to find the doctor has an empty syringe in his aura. “What was… uh… doc?”

The door leading to the basement closed shut.

Finishing Line looked at the stallion, “D-Doc, what’s going on? What is that?”

“This?” Lovejoy looked at the syringe, “Oh, this is a painkiller. Within the next couple of seconds, you’ll won’t be able to feel a thing, and soon, you’ll be pretty much be paralyzed from the neck down.”

“Paralyzed?” the colt started to stumble, “Why would you want me paralyzed for?”

He chuckled as his horn glowed, moving the table away, “Why, so I can kill you of course.”

“W-What!” the pegasus fell over, quickly finding that he was losing control of his legs and wings. He was suddenly picked up in the unicorn’s aura like a rag doll.

“Now, just to be clear on a few things,” he said as he placed him on the wooden bed frame. “For starters, you can scream your head off all you want. You can cry for help, beg for mercy, but I’m afraid that won’t do you any good... because I’ve soundproofed this particular room so nopony except me can hear you.”

He then levitated a roll of canvas and lifted the bed-frame up for just a moment to unroll it underneath it, “Also, in case you’re wondering, the answer is no, you didn’t offend me in any way. I’m not doing this because I hate you, but rather because I’m doing this for your benefit.”

“B-Benefit?” Finishing asked, getting all the more frightening. “W-What are you going to do to me?”

“To put it short,” he said as he took his camera, having it pointed at the scared colt. “I’m going to have you killed by bleeding to death.” A flashbulb lit up the room for a moment before the doctor propped the camera by the wall, “Except, I will be doing it in a unique way.”

“How?”

“Let’s see,” he went over to the boxes to open one of them up, pulling a rolled up cloth, he unfurled it to reveal a row of surgical tools. “No. No. No… Definitely not… You’ll do,” he pulled out a scalpel from it, and the colt’s eyes widen. “Oh, don’t worry; you won’t be able to feel a thing, even when you’re slowly dying. This reminds me…”

Lovejoy turned his attention to the phonograph under the stairs; he cranked it a few times until the spin table was moving. He set the needle down on the record which projected a soft drumming sound, followed by a mournful cello. “Much better,” the doctor smiled, picking up a paintbrush from another box, he turned to the mortified colt, “Let’s begin, shall we?”

“P-Please, don’t,” Finishing begged, his eyes tearing up, “Why are you doing this?”

Lovejoy hummed as he moved the scalpel and the paintbrush underneath his back, “A stupid question, but politely asked. Simply put, because you’ve answered correctly to the wrong question.”

“What does that mean?” the little pegasus could now hear wet dripping sounds that were falling on the canvas beneath him along with the brushing of the paintbrush. “What question?”

“Do you remember yesterday, when I gave you and your family that hard candy that you said and I quote: ‘Thank you, Doctor Lovejoy, you don’t know how happy this makes me feel right now’? When I asked you if you were sure that you were, indeed happy, you nodded in agreement, giving all the permission I need to turn you into an art project. And now, here you are!”

“Y-You’re going to kill me because I had a piece of candy?”

The doctor shook his head, “No no. It’s not that, it was because you said that you were happy. Simple as that… Hmm… I’m going to need more paint,” more dripping sounds were heard.

“But… I don’t understand,” the colt said, tears now flowing down over. The increasing sound of the funeral march on the phonograph still played on.

“Here’s a question for you: What is the ultimate goal in life? Really think about it when you still have time.”

“I… I don’t know,” Finishing Line started crying. A staccato of brush strokes was busily painting the stained canvas in rich streaks of red.

“To be happy,” Lovejoy answered. “Regardless of age, occupation or species, all living, thinking creatures live to be happy. It’s something more prized than wealth, security, or even family. Yet, I’ve noticed in life, that happiness never lasts for long. We ponies are cursed in that once we do find any true forms of happiness; it goes away, never knowing when or if it’ll ever return. Like, for example, when I was just a little colt, I found my happiness in art. However, when my parents pointed out that I couldn’t exactly live as an artist, they had me learn things like pony biology and medicine, I’ve ended up getting a cutie mark that would forever deny me of being truly happy. But, I’ve learned that I could still be an artist by doing what I’ve always loved since and that is being able to do just that, photography. Then, I’ve found out several ponies that one day was happy with their lives, the next they were depressed because something went horribly wrong. So, this is the reason why I’m killing you so that the last thing you’ll remember from your life is that you were happy. You’re welcome.”

“But… I don’t wanna die.”

“At this point, I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice.”

For a while, Finishing Line didn’t say anything, the phonograph still played on for a while until the doctor broke the silence.

“It’s Mahler’s First Symphony, the Third Movement in case you’re wondering. I’ve always loved this particular piece because he ingeniously combined both a funeral march and a wedding together in the same movement. I guess it’s rather fitting, you scared and I just enjoy painting on your burial shroud. For really, there’s nothing like murdering somepony to the sounds of an orchestra.” But when the colt didn’t respond, he looked up from his work, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m never going to see my parents, o-or my big brother again.”

Lovejoy rolled his eyes, “Believe me when you’re dead, then you’ll have absolutely nothing to worry about at all. I still don’t see what’s so hard to grasp.”

He sniffed, “Y-You’re a-a-a mons-ster!”

The doctor shrugged, looking at his work, he said, “If your family is here right now, what do you want to say to them?”

Finishing sob, “Oh Celestia! I didn’t even tell them goodbye!”

“I’ll tell you what,” the elderly stallion leaned over, “Once I have you buried, I’ll tell them that you said goodbye. What? Just because I’m a monster, doesn’t mean I don’t have the capability of being kind.”

“I feel lightheaded...”

Lovejoy smiled, “That’s good, very good. That means we’re almost done. Just a few more minutes, and you’ll never find a reason to cry about ever again.”

The paintbrush still went on, doing quick brushes here and there on the canvas until, finally, the little pegasus, Finishing Line, stopped breathing altogether.

“Dead already?” he asked. “Oh well. Anyway, my boy, thank you for the paint, I must say, I’ve really outdone myself with you. Plus, tonight you’ll have your name carved on a rock somewhere.”

He lifted up the camera over his head until it was looking straight down at the colt, who was over the canvas of a pair of bloody wings that he was about to be buried in.

Chapter 6: A Mare Named Night Glider

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 7: Of Underground Greenhouses and the Newcomer

“I’m still rather surprised,” Starlight said, “that you’ve taken an interest in our gardens.”

Lovejoy coughed for a moment before answering, “I was rather curious is all. When Ms. Glider told me about these greenhouses, they sounded a little too good to be true. So, I had to see this place for myself.”

The founder smiled, “It’s a noticeable achievement of ours. After all, in all the years since I’ve founded this place, nopony has ever gone hungry.”

“But how’s that possible?” he wondered aloud when they neared the cliff side where the entrance lies. “How can there still be food to go around when it hasn’t experienced famine or disease for these crops?”

“Just follow me, and I’ll be more than happy to show you.” Starlight was the first to enter into the cave, in which the elder stallion found that it wasn’t completely dark at all. Sticking out of the walls and the ceiling, glowing a bright, dull yellow were crystals that illuminated their path.

They went into the earth until they came across a dugout chamber, in which Dr. Lovejoy found a patchwork of vegetables, green leaves that had long sprouted! Astounded, the unicorn went up to one of the potato plants and touched the soft, moist ground. “How are these gardens being watered? I thought you said that the village has the only water resource around.”

“But we do,” she pointed upwards, “Just look above you.” He did, he saw stalactites above him. Each rocky spike slowly dripped water from above to the soil underneath. “We’re somewhere underneath our water reserve.” Starlight explained, “The stones provided all the light these crops needed, and the stalactites provide the right amount of water for them to grow. Plus, these caves provide the perfect temperature all year long.”

“I can see that!” the doctor told her. “But, what do you do for fertilizer? Surely you need something to give these plants nutrients for them to grow.”

“Have you noticed that there are no garbage heaps for leftover scraps?” she asked. “Come with me a little further and see for yourself.”

The orange stallion followed Starlight further into the caves, in which he began to notices some of the villagers were there. He was pointed to one chamber in which he saw a smiling stallion dumping old or leftover greens onto a patch of ground in which he mixed it into the soil. “Good afternoon, Flag Runner,” the mare called out.

The Earth pony turned with his wide grin, “Hello, Starlight.”

“Flag, would you kindly tell the good doctor what is it that you’re mixing in?”

“Yesterday’s garbage,” he said. “Scraps from vegetables and stems are going to help grow my radishes.”

As the stallion returned to his work, an idea was starting to form in Lovejoy’s mind, “I don’t suppose you folks have a garden for me as well?”

“We’re working on it.” The lilac unicorn told him, “At the moment, we’re sharing our crops to support you, but if you still stay around long enough, then you too will get to have a garden to tend to. Your cave is being laid out as we speak. Once we gather the tools, enough seeds, and your scraps too, then we’ll have your plant with the rest of us.” Then Starlight paused for a moment, “You can still do that, can’t you?”

“As long as it doesn’t require of me running around, then I’ll be perfectly fine. After all, I’ve heard somewhere that gardening is good for somepony my age.”

“Are you sure? In Our Town, we have to carry the scraps and carry whatever vegetables are ready. I can always get some volunteers to help you.”

“Oh don’t you worry about me too much, I think that if I needed help for something, I would ask. But what about your garden, can I see it?”

“Of course you can, right this way,” the unicorn said as she went further down to the deepest level of all. At the very end of the tunnel, it opened up to a space that was four or five times bigger than the other gardens he’s seen. It had with it several rows of carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions that some of them look ripe for being dug up.

Dr. Lovejoy raised an eyebrow, “This is your garden? Doesn’t this seem like a little bit much for one mare?”

“Oh, all of this? This isn’t just for me; it’s my ponies as well. As the first garden created down here, most of this is in case something goes wrong with the other gardens and they need my help to save them from starvation.”

To the doctor, it’s now becoming clear. Manipulative, has high minded charisma, shows little empathy, but has a sense of right and wrong, and has a grandiose idealism of being a kind of savior to these ponies. From the elder’s stallion’s psychological experience, only one word comes to mind that diagnosed this mare next to him what she really is.

Sociopath. Starlight Glimmer is a goal-driven, power-hungry sociopath.

“Starlight!” a voice called out from behind them. They found Double Diamond come running down the cavern. “Starlight, good news!”

“What is it? Have any of the missing ponies been found?”

A sense of dread froze Lovejoy for a moment before the pail Earth pony said, “No, we have a newcomer!”

Above the surface, the villagers have gathered around with their best smiles. They now have a newcomer. A rather creeped out unicorn that held onto his saddlebag tightly, his eyes dashed back and forth from pony to pony. “Uh…” he said, “Can I… help you?”

“Welcome,” Starlight’s voice was heard, and the townspony backed away for their founder to greet the new pony in question. Lovejoy stayed in the back and observed the newcomer. The stallion in question was reasonably built muscles, yet had a dusty chocolate mane underneath his wide-brimmed hat. Lovejoy also noticed his cutie mark was an unfinished map. The founder went up to him and shook his hoof. “Welcome to our little village, I’m Starlight Glimmer, and you?”

“Hey there,” the stallion nodded, “Name’s Hidden Trek, or just Trek for short.” He glanced around at the grinning ponies, “I’m guessing you’re the mayor of this place or something?”

“I wouldn’t say mayor or anything like that,” she said, “I’m more of the lines of a founder of the most wonderful place in Equestria. So, how did you come across our town?”

“Well, I’m a kind of an explorer,” he said, “I go into unknown places and map out the details. To be honest, I’ve never really expected to run into a whole town.”

“Would you want to stay here for a while?” the mare asked. “None of us would mind.”

The stallion looked around, “I am a bit tired from all the walking I had to do to get here.”

“That’s great,” Starlight grinned, “Although, I’m afraid that at the moment, we’re a bit full for newcomers, unless…” she turned towards the elderly unicorn, “Doctor Lovejoy, you wouldn’t mind sharing your new home with Mr. Trek, would you?”

“Not at all ma’am,” he said, “I wouldn't mind having a little company around.”

Chapter 8: Dinning Conversations with Hidden Trek

November 15th – I have come to the conclusion, that the founder of Our Town, Starlight Glimmer, is a sociopath. For me, this is rather exciting, since this is now the very first time in several decades that I meet another sociopath whose drive is to control a group of ponies in the middle of nowhere. Personally, I consider it a dull occupation, but, who am I to judge?

From what I could gather, many of the ponies that came here did so, because they were down on their luck or curious. Yet, I wonder, how does one go from being an average pony to these grinning things that have the exact same cutie mark? While I’ve seen how they could be kept busy and how they’re trying to be self-sufficient, that alone still hasn’t answered my question.

Luckily, a newcomer has arrived today by the name of Hidden Trek, a young explorer who has stumbled into the village. Since we’re sharing the same house for the moment, perhaps now he would give me the opportunity to see how these ponies are really converted. Maybe he could provide the key to get to know who Starlight really is.

As a side note, I think I should lay off making art projects for the time being. I almost slipped up when I’ve bled the young Finishing Line and I can tell that his parents are now very cautious of me. Still, I must be on the lookout for more happy ponies for the near future. After all, there’s something I’ve always wanted to try, but I need somepony to fit perfectly for that upcoming art project.

“Hey, doc!” a voice from downstairs cried out, “Dinner’s ready.”

“In a moment,” Lovejoy called back as he slipped the journal behind the rows of books. He walked down the steps to where he could smell the stew coming from the kitchen. “What is it that you’re making?”

“Stewed carrots,” Trek answered. “Something I’ve learned from Dodge City, really tiny place I must say.”

The elder stallion stepped into the kitchen, “How close are you?”

“They’re pretty much done. You wanna set the table?”

Lovejoy took out the white and blue china from the cabinets, along with the silverware and glasses. “I must apologize, Mr. Trek, that I’m afraid that we only have room temperature water here. There’s no milk or anything else for miles, and getting ice is nearly impossible to transport and to store as well.”

“I’m fine with that,” the younger unicorn took the frying pan off the stove. “As long as I have something to drink, it’s perfect for me.” He began splitting the meal between him when he asked, “You know, you’re not exactly like those guys out there, why’s that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You have a different cutie mark, and you look like you’re the oldest guy around… eh, no offense.”

“None taken,” Dr. Lovejoy turned to the phonograph, “before I answer that, you wouldn’t mind of me playing some classical music while we eat?”

“You kidding? From a guy that’s been out there for weeks on hoof, anything sounds great.”

“Very well,” the orange unicorn selected one of his records and levitated one to the phonograph. A few cranks and the needle being placed down, the horn produced a harpsichord and string orchestra playing cold notes before the singing of a soprano in the old Baroque style.

“Istallion, isn’t it?” Trek asked. “I recognize the language, but who’s it from?”

“Vifilly. I think it’s from one of the operas he composed.”

“I think I’ve heard the opening before,” he said taking his seat as the doctor took his. “It sounds like his winter concerto.”

“It does have that feel, yes.”

“I’ve heard his Four Seasons when I was in Istaly. Live too.”

Lovejoy’s eyebrow was raised, “So, you’ve taken the traditional Grand Tour?”

“Several others actually,” Trek chuckled, “I’ve always had a love of traveling. Going into places where very few think about going to. And it’s not just other countries, but in Equestria too!”

“Which begs the question, what exactly do you do as a job?”

“As I’ve said, I go into the most hidden places in Equestria, to places where ponies don’t even think about going to and explore it. Map it out; give detailed descriptions and the like so they’ll be published in a travel magazine that I work for. The best part about it is that I can go wherever I want and get paid for it.” The elderly stallion nodded as he munched away at the carrot dish, “So what about you? What’s your story here?”

“Me?”

“Yes, like I was saying, I’ve noticed that you’re the only one around here that doesn’t have an equal sign as a cutie mark, why is that?”

“I’ve only arrived here about a week ago.”

“Okay, so from the cutie mark, I’m guessing you’re the doctor here?

“Retired, actually,” he corrected him, “I was looking for a place to spend my last days in, and I found it.”

Trek blinked, “Last days?”

“Simply put, I have a brain aneurysm that could kill me at any moment. Mind passing the salt?” but the younger stallion stared at him.

“Whoa, are you’re just… okay with this? I-I mean, you’re not scared of this fact?”

Lovejoy chuckled, “Why, of course, I’m scared, terrified even! I find it’s best to either not think about it or find some humor in it.”

“Doc I… ponyfeathers, I’m so sorry about that.”

The older unicorn waved a hoof, “You had nothing to do with it. At least I’ve found a nice, quiet place to spend my retirement on. But, let’s not focus all this on me. Let’s talk about you. Where are you from?”

“Baltamare,” he answered. “Really boring place after you grow up in it for a good fifteen years. I guess that when you already know the city inside and out to the point where you can literally walk around the streets blindfolded and not have a problem getting lost… I’ll bet even you couldn’t help but want something a little more. So I started traveling, but not towards the places where everypony could simply point it on a map, but rather to the places that no one’s ever heard of before. You might say that getting lost is part of the job description,” the brown stallion chuckled.

“Lost?”

“Well, if you want to find something that nopony knows about you must first get yourself lost, otherwise everypony would know where to find it.”

Lovejoy shrugged, “Can’t argue with that logic.”

“But what about you and this place, do you know why all of them are all… creepy like?”

“Not at the moment. I do know that Starlight Glimmer is the real leader of this place, and they’re trying to be self-sufficient as they can. Although I’ve been here for about six days now, they’ve kept mentioning how equal they all are here. It’s as if for some of them life has wronged them in some way that they formed this community to counter that.”

“Ooh… Now that’s fascinating,” Trek said, “I think that my readers are going to be really curious about this place. Perhaps I can get straight to the bottom of all of this.”

Lovejoy thought for a moment, “Perhaps I could talk to Starlight for you to have the grand tour of this place. Who knows, maybe you’ll find out something about this place that I haven’t yet to find out.”

Chapter 9: The Puppet Masters

The next morning, Trek woke up on the couch, stretching his limbs and neck as the sun lit up the room of photographs. Not wanting to wake his temporary housemate up, he decided to cook some breakfast. He decided to use the dry-packed meals to make the powdered eggs and hot oatmeal. As he was near finishing, he heard hoofsteps from upstairs.

Dr. Lovejoy came down the stairs, a yawn escaping his muzzle. “Where did you get the eggs?” he asked as he appeared in the living room.

“They’re from my rations actually,” he said. “They’ll be done in a moment.”

“Take your time,” the elder unicorn said as he pulled out his camera. Curious, Trek saw the stallion setting up the tripod in front of him of the couch in which he sat down and took his own picture. Once that was done, he went upstairs again for a moment before coming back down with a picture of himself in his aura. He walked over to where the garbage bin was, tore the picture into pieces and threw it away.

“Why did you do that?” Trek wondered, “Do you do that every morning?”

“Quite,” he said as he sat down at the simple table. “Ever since I found out that I was a dead pony walking, I always took a picture of myself every morning of every day because it could very well be my last self-portrait. But if it so happens that I’m still alive the next morning, I would tear that old picture apart for the new one.”

“That’s a little grim isn’t it?” Trek asked as he started to dish out the breakfast between them. “Taking what could be the last photo of yourself.”

“You may see it that way. But I wish for whoever comes across my photos see what I was like on the very day before I passed away. If anything, this isn’t anything new to me, after all, when I got into photography, the hospital that I practiced in encouraged me taking pictures. Both of the living and the dead for future study, so you could imagine that I took plenty of post-mortem portraits.”

The younger unicorn shivered, “You mean like one of those pictures that look like they’re alive, but they’re really not? I think I’ve seen those before in a few museums, but those things always give me the creeps.”

“For me,” Lovejoy said as he started to take a forkful of fake eggs, “I found that there’s a certain… art to taking those photos.”

“That’s because you’re a doctor, so I guess you’re probably used to that sort of thing.” Trek sat down across from him, taking a spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth.

“What are you planning on doing today?”

“Well, speak with the locals a bit; see how they live and all that.”

“That’s right,” the doctor realized, “I’ve nearly forgotten! I need to speak to Starlight about having her giving you the tour of the village.”

“I suppose that’s a good place to start.”

“So, Dr. Lovejoy,” Starlight said as she offered the elderly stallion a seat, “What brings you to my humble home?”

“I have an inquiry for you that I think you might be interested. It’s about the new arrival.”

“Oh?” the mare sat down next to him, “What about him?”

“You see, Ms. Glimmer, I’ve talked with the young stallion, and he’s very curious about how this tiny society works. For you see, he’s a writer for a travel magazine that explores the unknown part of Equestria.” When he saw that this caught the mare’s full attention, he grinned and continued, “I think ma’am, that while I’m an old and frail stallion that is just lucky to have stumbled onto this place, perhaps Mr. Trek would prove something beneficial for you.”

“You don’t say,” Starlight raised an interested eyebrow, “what exactly are you suggesting?”

“I was thinking, that if you wanted to gain attention to more ponies that are lost and looking for a better life, don’t you think that this provides the excellent opportunity to expand your community?”

The lilac unicorn hummed, putting a hoof to her chin, “An interesting and insightful idea indeed.”

“I was also wondering if you would take the time to show him the town yourself,” Lovejoy added. “That is unless you have something else to do today.”

“Oh, no-no! I’d be more than happy to give him a tour of our village,” Starlight stood up, “In fact, why not you came along too? I’m sure what I’ll have to show you and Mr. Trek will be quite enlightening about the nature of cutie marks.”

The elderly stallion stood up as well, “As intriguing as that is, I’m afraid that I have to pass on the offer. I want to take my noonday nap and catch up on some reading today. But you can show the young fellow around if you wish.”

Starlight frowned, “Oh… that’s alright. Still, I’d be more than happy to show him around our lovely village.”

“Keep in mind too, that he’s interested in mapping out the area as well, so I think you two will be at it for the whole day.”

“That won’t be a problem,” she said, “for the stallion that’s from a travel magazine; I’ll take all the time in the world to answer all of his questions.”

“Four, five and six barrels. Yes, this should be plenty,” Dr. Lovejoy muttered as he observed the barrels of salt in his basement. Looking at the book of ‘Ancient Coltypt: Everyday Life and Death on the Nile,’ the doctor scanned again at the list of items he scribbled at the side of the book. “Let’s see… I’ve got plenty of salt, plenty of bandages… but what do I do for rising? They’re no trees around here, so I wonder if candle wax would do the trick.”

He paused as he looked at his basement once more, “And suppose somepony were to come down here, where do I hide the body then?” He looked around at the layered bricks that lined the entire outline of the walls. His eyes fell upon the shovel he brought with him when he got an idea. “What if...” he wondered aloud as he trotted up to the wall right beneath the stairs, looking between it and the shovel, “Could it work? Then again Trek is gone for the whole day…”

Making up his mind, he took the shovel, a hammer, and a chisel, “Better safe than sorry.”

It was almost dinner time, and Lovejoy still hasn’t seen his new housemate since this morning. Although he made some soup earlier, he sat rocking in his living room while the phonograph plays some Buch as he waited. What was taking Hidden Trek so long?

Looking at his pocket watch, it was almost seven o’clock. “Where are they?” he muttered. He went up to the window to peek through the curtains, looked up and down the street in hopes he would find anything. For a moment, there was nothing, but before he turned away, he saw some movement that was coming from the bared house from across the street.

Narrowing his curtains to a crack, he saw one of the villagers, then three, then five, until there was a crowd that gathered at the front door. There was a violet glow that moved from behind the house to the front door, but Lovejoy couldn’t make out what it was. Then suddenly, the light went out, and the villagers calmly returned to their homes.

“What was that all about,” he wondered as he waited until the last pony was out of sight. Exiting from the back door, he kept to the darkness as he headed towards the town’s “Equality House,” to peek through the side window to see if there was anything new. To his surprise, along with the stallion he framed that sat in a corner, in the dim light was Hidden Trek. Only, his entire coat and mane color were muted, and his cutie mark now bared a black equal sign.

“Mr. Trek?” Lovejoy asked.

The younger unicorn snapped his attention, “Doc? Oh thank Celestia Doc,” he said as he went up to the barred window. “You’ve got to help me! Starlight’s a nutcase!”

“What happened to you? And what happened to your cutie mark?”

“She took it.”

The doctor paused for a moment, taking in what he’s just heard, “Come again?”

“I’ve figured out why everypony in this town has the exact same cutie mark, she stole them!”

“Calm down, calm down, just tell me what happened.”

“Well, she showed me around the village, showing off all the shops, that bakery, the underground greenhouses, and even the opal farm too. Along the way, I asked her why everyone has the exact same cutie mark. She told me that she came up with a philosophy in which that the only reason why there’s a conflict between ponies is that we have different talents, hence cutie marks. And instead of looking at them as a good thing, she sees it as the cause for dividing ponies up or something like that.

“Then I had the mistake of asking how it was done, and she led me to a cave in which housed a glass vault that held everypony’s original cutie mark. And by it, there was a stick called the ‘Staff of Sameness’ where Starlight took it and said that there’s a better, easier way for me to understand her insane thinking. But when I turned to leave, I found that the villagers were there, cornering me. Then… that witch levitated me, kept me paralyzed in the air as she used that stick to rip my cutie mark off! I’d be surprised if you didn’t hear me scream back there. Now, she’s thrown me in here, and she wouldn’t let me out until, as she puts it, ‘completely understand our great philosophy.’ But what does that even mean?”

That answer came when from inside the darkened cell, the voice of Starlight Glimmer saying, “Exceptionalism, is a lie. Free yourself from your cutie mark. To excel is to fail,” and so on. By the sound of it, the doctor quickly realized that this was a recording.

Lovejoy’s eyes widen, “Ooh… now it makes sense.”

“Doc?”

The elder stallion chuckled, “Oh that’s clever! She’s brainwashing you!”

Trek’s eyes widen, “She’s what?”

“Now I understand. The strong sense of community, the emphasis of equality, and why every single pony in this town is always smiling! Oh, that is just beautiful!”

“Uh doc,” the nervous stallion behind bars interrupted, “That’s nice and all but, could you let me out? I really want to get as far away from this place as I can.”

Lovejoy tapped the side of his face, humming, “Nope.”

Trek’s face piled, “No?”

“No,” he grinned, “If anything, I actually want to take this moment to thank you for enlightening me. Now I’m starting to understand what this mare is truly capable of. Good night Trek,” he smiled before he started to walk back to his home.

“Uh, doc?” Trek called out, “Doctor Lovejoy, you’re not going to leave me in here, are you? Doc? Doc? Doc! Wait! Please come back! DOC!”

Chapter 10: Foalsitting Starting Line

November 16th – I now know the secret to Starlight’s success in this village. Thanks to the assistance of Hidden Trek, I know why these ponies have the exact same cutie mark, and why so many are loyal to her. For what I’ve been told, she has a cave that inside there lays a glass vault where she stores all of their original cutie marks. It is from there that she uses a powerful spell to remove those marks to be placed into storage. Thereby giving those ponies completely blank slates for her to carve their destinies however she wants.

After that, they are placed in the Equalization House from across the street to brainwash them by having a loudspeaker giving an endless loop of slogans to listen to. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re book and posters that gives those who are subjected to only her philosophies.

Since Trek is now in there and had his cutie mark removed, I wonder several things, how long will it take for the house to break him? Will he change his view of the world because of this? And more importantly, once the unicorn has been indoctrinated, what kind of task will Starlight gives him?

I must say, as part psychiatrist, this is rather creative for Ms. Glimmer’s part. I mean... the idea of removing not just their cutie marks, but also, their identities are rather ingenious for a fellow sociopath. While the obvious end result isn’t something I would do, I will give her credit about the efficiently of it all.

Still, this leaves me open to a few more questions. What drove her to form this philosophy of equality in the first place? Is there some sort of traumatic or some harsh experience that’s driven her to do this? How long has she been doing this for? Where did she learn to do this?

These questions come about because I know that, unlike psychopaths who are born with an unbalanced brain, sociopaths are created by the experiences of childhood and throughout one’s teenage years. The more I know about her past, the clearer it’ll be for me to know what it is I need to do with her. So in the meantime, I will carry on as usual and witness the brainwashing effects on Mr. Trek from afar.

Sugar Belle entered through the front door of the Line’s home. As she entered, she saw that at one end of the room, sat Dr. Lovejoy in his rocking chair – his phonograph playing a slow melody of an orchestra and a piano. On the other side on the couch was the Earth pony colt with his foreleg in a cast and his mother. Sandy Line looked over to the baker, “So, any news?”

“Well, Check Mate was released,” she said, “and he confessed of hurting your son. But as for Hidden Trek, however, he still hasn’t seen the light as of yet.”

“What about my little brother?” Starting asked.

Sugar Belle shook her head, “Nothing from what I’ve heard. It’s so odd too, I’ve never heard of anypony this young just up and leave.”

The mother got off the couch, sighing she said, “I really hope that we hear something from Finishing soon and that he’s alright.”

“Don’t get your hopes down Ms. Line, I’m sure he’ll come back any day now.”

“Anyway, I want to thank you for coming over on such short notice, I have to help my husband out with the garden and I needed somepony to watch over Starting while we’re gone, as well as Dr. Lovejoy.”

“It’s no problem at all. Even though it’s not really my turn to look after the gentlecolt yet,” she nodded over to the aged stallion.

“Before I head off, can I have a word with you real quick?” the baker told her that she can. Once outside of the house and closing the door behind them, Sandy leaned over to her ear and whispered, “I need you to keep an eye on both of them as much as possible. There’s something off about Lovejoy that I don’t trust having my son being around for too long.”

“Why’s that?”

“He was the last one to have seen Finishing before he disappeared. I’m going off of a hunch, but please be sure that he doesn’t do anything harmful to our son.”

“Sure, of course, I’ll keep an eye on the both of them.”

The mother smiled, “Thank you so much, Sugar Belle. I must go now, take care.”

The unicorn waved her goodbye to her as she entered back into the living room. She trotted over the injured colt, “So, Starting, how’ve you been today?”

Starting looked down at the cast, “I feel really itchy with this thing. Doc, are you sure I can’t take this off for a moment?”

He shook his head, “You’re not ready. If that were to come off, you’ll be in serious pain. However, with your permission, I know such a spell that takes care of such itching without taking off the bandages.”

“Please,” he said, “I think I’m gonna go crazy if this keeps going.”

“Very well,” Lovejoy’s horn lit up, “Now, hold still.” His aura surrounded the colt’s injured leg for a brief moment. A sigh escaped Starting’s mouth, “Better?”

“Much,” the colt reclined his head on a pillow.

“You know, since you two are here, I was wondering if I could ask you both a question.”

“Yes?” the baker asked.

“How did you two come to this village in the first place?”

Both, Starting Line and Sugar Belle. looked at each other, as if deciding which one should go first. “Well, for me,” the mare said, “I came because of a failed business I had and I borrowed from too many ponies to pay back.”

“From where?” the doctor asked.

“Applewood. I was given a loan on my little business but… as a baker, I wasn’t making nearly enough. Remarkably, when it went under… I found myself surrounded by several angry ponies that wanted their money back… that I didn’t have. So I uh,… ran for it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still ashamed of it, but what could I do? Then one day, I founded this place and they were in need of a baker so, I’ve stayed here ever since.” She ended it with a smile.

Lovejoy turned to the colt, “What about you and your parents? What’s your story?”

Starting shrugged, “Well, before we were… what’s that word? Evicted? Yeah, before we were evicted from our home, we had a house that was right next to the sea. In fact, my parents say that they built the house on the very spot that they first met. Back then, we would have the beach all to ourselves, where we play for the whole day.”

“You sound like you were happy then.”

He nodded but then frowned, “Yeah… but I remember mom and dad getting into fights about how to pay off for the stuff they used to build the house. My dad said that he was going to get a better job at something so they could pay it off… I don’t remember why but he was turned down so many times that by the time those ponies came and said that we had to leave; he begged them to give him more time to find some way to pay them. But as you can guess… that didn’t work out very well. We lost our home and we wondered through Equestria to find someplace that would give us a home. Then one day, we found this place.”

The doctor closed his eyes and nodded, “I see. How long have you been here?”

“About three years,” answered the colt.

“Eight years for me,” Sugar Belle told him.

“Tell me, do either of you know how long this village has been around?”

Starting tilted his head in confusion, looking at the mare for answers. “To be honest… I’m not exactly sure,” she said, “However, I do know that Double Diamond was one of the very first to come here about… ten years ago, I think? No, I’m sorry; he was the first pony in the village to follow Starlight now that I think of it.”

“Ah, this is a very young town,” the doctor continued to rock in his chair. “You know, this is a very curious town, full of so many questions. Like for example, I’ve noticed there’s a good size of foals running about, did they came here with their parents like yours Starting or were some of them born here?”

“Sometimes, we’d get a few babies,” the colt told him. “And since some of us who hadn’t earned our cutie marks before we came to this town, we didn’t have to go into the Equality House as the adults do. Instead, our neighbors teach us about how we should live and stuff like that.”

“That’s very interesting. But I’m wondering, what do you guys do to get those equal signs as cutie marks?”

“Well,” Sugar said, “When I first came here, I followed Starlight to a cave where she kept all of our past cutie marks so she could take them away and replace it with these,” she pointed at her flank. “For foals in Our Town, as soon as they get a different cutie mark, they go straight to Starlight so they could have theirs removed as well. You might say it’s like a rite of passage around here.

“You know Doctor Lovejoy, I wish that you would join us as well,” she smiled, “For the past week, you’ve started to become something like family to us. It just pains us that you still have your cutie mark.”

The doctor stopped rocking; he looked at his own blood-red mark. “You might say that I’m a little too proud to have this thing being taken away.”

“Excuse me, Dr. Lovejoy,” the colt asked, “What about you?”

“Pardon?”

“How did you come to the village?”

He smiled, “Let’s just say that I want to live the rest of my life in a quiet place where I could live life to the fullest. Oh, and before I forget,” Lovejoy turned to his worn out saddlebag and with his magic, pulled out a pouch, “Here you go, it’s the hard candy I have, you can take all of it.”

Starting Line’s eyes widen as he was given the bag of ginger candies, “You’re amazing, thank you!” with that, he immediately unwrapped one and shoved it into his mouth.

“Wow,” Sugar Belle said, “That was really kind of you.”

“It’s one of the very few things that I like being a doctor,” he told her, “is that I enjoy making other ponies, sick or depressed, quite happy.”

Chapter 11: The Flight of Check Mate

It was nearly three that Dr. Lovejoy put the kettle on the stove. He got done writing notes on Hidden Trek, who has spent his second day in the Equality House, was sleep deprived but hadn’t cracked yet. The elderly stallion concluded that it shouldn’t be too long until his former housemate gives into the artificial insanity.

While he waited for the steam to build up, there was a knock on the door, “Hold on, I’m coming,” he said as he walked over to open it. “Yes?”

There before him was a gray Earth pony stallion with a dull black mane, “Dr. Lovejoy? Hey there, I’m Check Mate, and Starlight told me that it was my turn to see how you’re doing.”

The old unicorn looked at him for a moment, “Aren’t you the fellow that was released from that house yesterday?” he pointed to the barded house across the street.

Check folded his ears, “Yeah… I’m the guy that threw that rock a while ago. Honestly, I had no idea what I was thinking then.”

Lovejoy raised an eyebrow, “Well, won’t you come in, I was about to have some tea. You don’t mind having a cup would you?”

“You have tea? I hadn’t had a cup for a long time,” he said as he trotted into the living room.

The doctor closed the door behind him, “Are you angry at me Mr. Mate?”

“What?” the stallion turned to him in surprise, “Why would I be angry at you?”

“You do remember that I accused you of breaking Starting Line’s leg, right?”

“Of course I do,” he said as he went over to the couch, “Although, I was the one that threw it because Starlight said I did. And if Starlight says that I did it, I must have done that wicked act.”

“So you blame yourself for it?”

Check nodded, “I did it, but I had no idea why though. You did what was right and sent me to be corrected.”

“Ah, I see.” Lovejoy started to walk to the kitchen, “How is the village treating you now?”

“Many of them are upset and shocked for what I did. I don’t think many ponies are as forgiving as Starlight, it may take a long time before I come back to everypony’s good graces again.”

“But how are you feeling now that your punishment is over?”

“For one, I’m actually happy that I’m back in the open again.”

The older stallion paused for a moment, “Are you happy really?”

“Oh yes,” he nodded, “especially that you’re not being judgmental about me.”

Lovejoy hummed as he entered the kitchen, “Mr. Mate, would you excuse me for a moment, I’ve just realized that I need to fetch something from the basement.”

“Go ahead, doctor.”

Opening the door to the basement and turning on the lights, the old stallion went down the stairs towards the boxes that contained some of the small glass jars he brought with him. “Let’s see… where did I put that liquid fungus? I know I’ve brought it with me…” He picked up each individual jar, examining each label carefully. Then he picked up a jar that says: Sanctuary’s Qntal Fungus Extract.

“There you are,” he mused as he went over to the other side of the basement to pull out the jar of sugar cubes and carried them up with his aura, “I’ve completely forgotten about the sugar cubes,” he said aloud.

“You have sugar?” Check sounded in awe.

“Yes yes, I’ll be there in a moment,” the doctor turned took out his tea set and poured out the sugar cubes in it. Then with the extract and a teaspoon, he carefully let the liquid drip over one side of the bowl, letting the white cubes absorb the drug. Not too long after, the kettle whistled loudly and the doctor placed the spices with the hot water mix into the teapot before he carried the tray into the living room. “There we are, hope you like Saddle Arabian Spiced Tea.”

“I don’t mind at all.” He said.

The old unicorn began pouring out the steamy liquid into his guest’s cup. “Would you like one lump or two?”

“Two,” at the answer, Lovejoy smiled as he served the Earth pony the soaked cubes from one side of the bowl and one for himself on the other side.

“Before you drink that, may I take your picture?”

Check Mate didn’t mind, so the doctor flashed his photo before he let his guest have his first sip.

“So sir,” the old unicorn asked, “You say that I’m not judgmental of you, what do you mean by that?”

“Oh,” Check set his cup down, “as much as I like living in the village, I’ve always got into trouble.”

“What kind?”

He shook his head, “Just little things. Like going out of the house after curfew, or flirting with the baker Sugar Belle when I’m not supposed to, things… like that.”

“Does this happen very often?”

“Sometimes, but maybe that’s because I’m not exactly liked- no... That’s not a good word, respected is more like it. I guess from an outsider’s point of view, that you might think that I’m-”

“This town’s whipping colt?” the doctor interrupted.

“Something like that, but I don’t mind, really.” Check Mate picked up his cup once more, “If anything, even with the punishments, it’s nothing depressing or anything.”

“Who said anything about depression?” Lovejoy raised an eyebrow. Check Mate’s eyes widen nervously, taking a quick sip. “Is there something wrong sir? You do know that you can tell me these things, I’m a part psychiatrist after all.”

Another sip, “Oh doctor, you don’t want to hear-”

“I insist, whatever is troubling you, I will do everything I can to make you happy.”

Check breathed deeply for a moment, “Do you know why I stayed? It’s because Starlight was right about something about me. My, original cutie mark was the source of my misery.”

“Do tell.”

“Well, as you could guess by my name, I used to be really good at chess. There was a time that I was a bit obsessed with the game. Yet… I was a little too good at it. So much that my friends left me because of my talent, they couldn’t relate to me at all. Eventually, playing the game was all that I was good for. It didn’t help me when I was looking for a job. After all, would you hire somepony who wasn’t good at math, or had poor typing skills, or couldn’t do anything right except win a game of chess?

“I know what you’re thinking,” he continued after taking another sip, “Why didn’t I just join the military if I’m good at planning out when and where to move something? Well… I’ve heard all the horror stories about boot camp, and I was too fragile emotionally. In fact, every time I have turned down a job, I cried. You might say that there was a time that I absolutely hated myself because of my special, useless talent. I thought that I was useless.

“But then, I found her, Starlight Glimmer. She was the one that told me what I’ve known all along. My cutie mark was holding me back of the good life that I was long denied. So I agreed to have it removed and to live here with other like-minded ponies.”

Lovejoy nodded, finally taking a sip from his cup, “I see. Tell me, do you ever have any recurring dreams that you can remember?”

He tilted his head, “What does that get to do with anything?”

“I sometimes find that the dreams that ponies had repeatedly can reflect about the state of their lives. So, did you ever have any dreams with a similar theme?”

Check put a hoof under his chin, “Well, I used to have this same dream where I could fly, and that I had these beautiful wings too. A little weird, isn’t it?”

“Oh no,” the doctor took another sip, “Flying dreams are a commonplace among ponies, and not just the Pegasi either. It’s a commonly held belief that flying dreams represent a craving for freedom by the subconscious. That one’s life is so earthbound that they want to have a free life of moving away from their troubles or wanting to go to a much better life that’s out of reach.”

The gray stallion nodded, “That I could relate,” he said before taking another sip.

“But what if I could make that dream come true?”

Check looked up in shock, “What?”

“What if I was able to make that dream of having wings become real?”

“But… how? There’s no spell out there to make that happen… is there?”

Lovejoy smirked, “Want to find out?” He nodded, “First, close those eyes tightly,” Check did so, “and think back to that dream. Try to recall those wings. Can you see the length of them on your back? Do you feel the soft feathers against your coat? Can you hear them rustle as they open? Do you see the strength of those wings that while they’re light, they could lift you off the ground to that paradise you always wanted to be in, those wings that will help you fly away from your depression? Now open your eyes.”

Check Mate did, as he looked at his sides and gasped, the doctor knew that the drug was now taking its effect. “Holy Celestia! How-” He got off the couch, looking at the empty space on his back, “It’s… They’re just like the wings in the dream! Doctor Lovejoy, how did you do this?”

“Magic,” Lovejoy smiled.

“This is incredible! They’re so light! So beautiful!”

“Yes, they are quite magnificent indeed.” The old unicorn nodded, “How do you feel now?”

“Doc, I can’t begin to describe how happy I am to see these,” Check said, giving the most genuine grin he’s given in years.

Lovejoy looked over at the tripod and the phonograph, “Check Mate, how about we go somewhere to test your newfound wings?”

The younger stallion looked at him, giving a puzzled look, “Why? I bet I could just jump right now and I’ll be flying circles all over the room.”

“Yes I know, but I think that now you’re a Pegasus, I think we need to do something that’s a little more… traditional?”

“Remind me why we’re here again?” the hallucinating Earth pony asked as he looked down from the edge of a cliff side.

“In Pegasi tradition,” Dr. Lovejoy said as he set up his phonograph, “when a child is confident enough to spread their wings. Their family would gather at the edge of a cloud where that said pony would jump off of to see if they would really fly.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then it would be up to the parents to catch them, of course,” by now, the unicorn had cranked the machine and set the needle on the record. “But if you were ever to fall, which is unlikely, then I’ll use my magic to catch you. However, with your new wings, it ought to be very safe for you.”

Check looked at his back with pride and breathed in deep, “You know, I never thought that this dream would ever come true. This time, it won’t just pretend, I will fly for real. Oh, doctor, I’m just so excited.” He paused for a moment to listen to the music, “Is that Swan Lake?”

“A piano transcription of Tchaicoltsky’s famous piece, why yes. Yes, it is. I figured to see you fly like a swan to this would be absolutely perfect.”

The Earth pony smirked, “I should have brought my tutu then,” he said. “Perhaps it’ll be best if I do a swan dive.”

Lovejoy laughed, “Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea! After all, with those magnificent wings of yours, you could now swim through the air. Gravity is all nonsense to you now. So don’t be afraid now Check Mate, whenever you’re ready, spread those wings and jump.”

Check Mate, with a satisfied smile on his face, changed his direction to the edge of the cliff. His eyes closed, he felt the wind blowing through his short mane. The cold air on his coat felt numb at the nervous excitement of what was to be made a reality. “Doc,” he said, “Thank you. I don’t know how I could ever repay you for fulfilling something that I thought was unreachable.”

The old doctor chuckled, “It’s nothing really, all I want, is to be sure that you are happy.”

“I feel more than happy doctor,” he looked at him once more, “I now know what joy feels like.”

Lovejoy said nothing when the Earth pony faced the open air, taking a few steps back, and listening in on the record, he waited for the piano’s great crescendo in which he galloped forward, jumped off with a smile and spread forelegs as he fell downwards towards the rocky earth.

The old unicorn looked over the edge, keeping his eyes on the falling pony, “This is beautiful,” he thought, “Suicide with a side of Tchaicoltsky, and they go together like expensive wine and cheese.” Although Dr. Lovejoy couldn’t hear it from all the way up there, he did see the body made its immediate, violent, bone-crushing impact upon the desert floor.

Taking the tripod with him, he teleported down to where the mangled body was and applauded, “Brava, Mr. Check Mate! Brava! That was the most elegant death that I’ve ever seen! Absolutely wonderful!”

But Check Mate didn’t make a sound.

“Now, one last thing before I head off,” Lovejoy angled the camera to just the right lighting to where even the blood shines brightly in the afternoon sunlight.

“Starlight!” Lovejoy cried as he ran out of breath through the tiny village, “Starlight! Help!”

“Hey,” Party Favor waved a hoof, “Doctor, what’s-”

“Where’s… Star?” the old stallion heaved, “Check… Mate…”

“What’s going on here?” the founder asked, “Doctor, have you been-”

“Terrible… Awful…”

“Calm yourself, Dr. Lovejoy,” Starlight urged him to one of the open tables, “What’s gotten into you.”

The stallion took several minutes to catch his breath back, “Check Mate… dead.”

Several voices of shock were heard all at once.

“What!” Starlight asked in surprise.

“I’ve tried… to stop him… I’ve noticed he was… walking away… from the village… I’ve followed him… to the cliff sides,” he pointed towards the place where he left the stallion’s body. “I followed him… When I saw… him on the edge… I tried to talk to him… out of it… I really… did. But he… wouldn’t listen… and he…”

“Doctor,” the unicorn mare said, “I think you’re in shock now. Please, go home, and lie down for a while.” Starlight turned to the crowd, “Double Diamond, Shore Line, Night Glider, come with me. Sugar Belle, be sure to put him to bed.”

The townsponies obeyed. The baker helped the shaken pony up on his tired hooves and led him to his bedroom, and put Lovejoy into bed.

“Is there anything I can do?” the mare asked, and the doctor shook his head.

Several minutes after Sugar Belle left the house, he had his breathing back to normal. The elderly stallion went downstairs to the camera that he teleported it and his phonograph before he ran to the village to avoid suspicion. Taking the camera off the tripod, he went down to the basement, his horn giving a red light so he could develop the new photos for his memory book.

Chapter 12: Of Suspicion and Trade

“You have to admit,” Double Diamond said, “That something really weird is going on.”

Starlight was in deep thought as she looked from her window that overlooked the town. First the two mysterious disappearances, and now a suicide, and this was from only one week! “I know what you’re going to say, it’s all connected to the doctor.”

“A foal would easily see that,” he trotted up to her, “Face the facts Starlight, he was the last pony that Lilly and Finishing had been with before their disappearance – and now this? You’ve to see that something is going on.”

She sighed, “I don’t want to admit this, but you’re right. Ever since Dr. Lovejoy had arrived, the townspony keep disappearing left and right. Along with they all have him in common. At the same time though, we all have to open to the possibility that the simplest explanation might be the most likely answer. For example, with Check Mate’s death, there’s a possibility that Lovejoy’s story might be true. After all, you told me that the Skyland children said they did see Check rushing out of his door with the doctor running after him. Perhaps he was trying to stop him from jumping off.”

Double Diamond shook his head, “Makes me wonder, if he’s right, why would Check Mate commit suicide for?”

“Isn’t it obvious? He’s not exactly like in the village. He’s been sent to the Equality House several times for bad behavior before, and giving his past before he came to Our Town; perhaps it was all too much for him.”

“Are you sure? Last time I’ve checked, he didn’t seem that depressed. Besides, nopony has ever done this before since you founded this village. Sure, we’ve buried a few ponies now and then, but they were from natural causes. So what’s changed? It’s because of him. I’m telling you Starlight, Dr. Lovejoy has been bad news from the start.”

Starlight broke away from the window towards the white stallion, “Diamond, I know where this is going, and the answer is no, I can’t banish somepony unless I have absolute proof or reasonable cause that they should be evicted from us. Have you considered the possibility that if I did, I might be kicking out an innocent pony that just happens to have a string of bad luck? But even if he was responsible, what’s the motive? Why would he go after Lilly, Finishing, and Check Mate for? He only met all of them once.”

“I know. But maybe you should seriously question him. What if he’s up to no good? What if he’s some criminal that we don’t know about?”

“Okay, I’ll tell you what,” she put a hoof on his shoulder, “I’ll ask him to have dinner at his home. Once I’m there, I’ll ask some critical questions and judge for myself whether or not he should be banished. And don’t worry, even if he does do something threatening, I should be able to take care of myself.”

A phonograph played a soft, melancholic string quartet. Slow in melody, like a funeral eulogy, set the mood of the dinner scene that was before Starlight. Across the table was Lovejoy, who hasn’t spoken much since the burial. The meal that was prepared was very simple: mashed potatoes with gravy, a shredded carrot and turnip salad, and a glass of water.

After taking a bite of the mash potatoes, Starlight began, “How’ve you been feeling?”

The old stallion looked up for a moment before returning his gaze to his plate that he barely touched. “A little better, I suppose.”

She nodded, “I understand how shocking all of this is, even the entire town is terrified of this. We’ve never had anything like this happened before.”

Lovejoy said nothing.

“Just, out of curiosity,...” Starlight began again, “...what exactly happened that made Check Mate suddenly run out of your house? He seemed perfectly fine before, right?”

“Depression, Ms. Glimmer, is very tricky to spot from other ponies. You see, what happened when he came knocking on my door was that he was sent because he was told it was his turn. I offered him tea and I was curious about how he came to the village. Such a sad story really, about his cutie mark is the cause of his misery. Then I asked him if his time here was any better, but he told me that he wasn’t that much liked among the villagers. I think I’ve overstepped a little with my curiosity because he suddenly got up and started to head away from the town. Believe me; I did try to go after him to apologize for getting into something so personal. I followed him to the cliff side and pleaded him to stop... to consider what he was actually doing. But… he jumped. Just like that.” The elderly unicorn took a drink of water, only realizing how empty it was. “Oh, here,” he took Starlight’s glass in his aura, “Let me refill that.”

As she watched him going over to the barrel of fresh water, Starlight asked, “Doctor, do you know why I’m here?”

“Because it’s your turn?”

“No, it’s because I’ve heard some rumors about you – nasty ones – saying that with the disappearances and the suicide in the past week, my fellow town ponies are thinking if you had something to do with it.”

Lovejoy snapped his attention to her, “What! They are accusing me? But, whatever for?”

“Well, you were the last known pony that all three of my villagers had met before something bad happened to them. Considering that these events had never happened before, and your arrival makes-”

“But, why would I do any of that?” Lovejoy interrupted, “For crying out loud, I’m a doctor. I’ve sworn to do no harm or cause any pain. Sure, I unintentionally had broken Check Mate’s to the point of suicide, but I didn’t want him to do it! Please understand, I didn’t come here to tear up your village, Ms. Glimmer.” He said as he started to refill the cups, “I just want a place to stay for the remaining life I have.”

“Doctor, I’m sorry,” Starlight said, “I didn’t come here to offend you. I just want to know what’s going on.”

Lovejoy, with both cups in his aura, walked back to the table. “I just can’t believe that your ponies are blaming me for all your troubles.” He placed his cup on his side of the table before proceeding over to giving his guest her cup. “But I guess with hard times, things are easier when you- whoa!” the old stallion’s hind leg was caught from one of the legs of the table, making him drop Starlight’s glass fall on the mare’s side. “Starlight, I’m so sorry, I didn’t…”

That was when he saw something when he tried to pick himself off the floor. Where the water had drenched the founder’s side, it ran over her flank, in which he saw something unusual. The black equal sign was smudged. An eyebrow was raised, “Ms. Glimmer? What’s wrong with your cutie mark?”

Starlight’s eyes widen as she took a closer look. Grabbing the napkin with her forehoof, she tried to cover it up, “I-It’s nothing!” she quickly stood up. “I’m just a little wet is-... wait!”

But the doctor’s magic took hold of the napkin, cleaning up the makeup to reveal her true cutie mark.

There was a silence between the two of them for a moment until Starlight took a defensive stand. “Why you- you clumsy old fool!” she shouted, trying to light up her horn only to find nothing but sparks to come out of it. Her face dropped, “W… What?” Starlight tried as hard as she could to summon magic to her horn but quickly found that she couldn’t. “What’s going on? Why can’t I use my magic?”

Lovejoy sighed, “Somehow, I knew that this was going to happen,” he said as he returned to his seat, picking up a forkful of mashed potatoes and gravy.

“What did you do?” the mare demanded.

“To put it short, I had a feeling that you came here for more than just to have dinner with me. So... I’ve put an extract of the anesthetic Fructus stellarum nocte. (Something that I have very little of mind you.) It is used for unicorns before they undergo surgery for the purpose that the doctors won’t get shot at while they’re carrying a certain procedure out. I knew that you were actually going to come here to confront me about Check Mate’s death, so I took the precaution to put the extract into the gravy so that you and I could discuss this without you hurting me. Basically, just so we could talk,” he swallowed his forkful of potatoes with the gravy. “There, now like you, I won’t be able to do any magic until morning. So, Ms. Glimmer, if you would please sit back down, I want to tell you something.”

With a scowl still on her face, she complied, “And what is it, Doctor Lovejoy?”

“There’s another reason why I’ve chosen to stay in this village.” He said, “The truth is, I’ve been experimenting with drugs and herbs to see what effects it has on ponies. Now, I admit, I’ve been disgraced from the medical community completely for doing this. The truth is I think I have discovered certain drugs that can be proven to be incredibly useful in the right hooves. But the problem is that I didn’t have enough funding to get any test subjects. Recently, I’ve been caught, and I threatened to go to jail for drugging my patients without them knowing it. But with the possibilities of the formulas that I’ve discovered, what choice did I have?”

“Are you telling me that you’ve been drugging some of my ponies this whole time?”

“Not all the time. And I’ve tried to create a careful situation in which I could monitor closely that, if anything did go wrong, I would give them the antidote. I confess that when I laced my newest drug, an antidepressant, to Check Mate, I didn’t predict that he would go and kill himself. I admit, that was my fault, and I know what I did was wrong for not telling you up front, but I was afraid that you and your ponies would say no before I could tell you the possibilities I could give you.

“But now since we’re in this situation, where you now know my terrible secret, and I know yours… why not we both make a deal?”

“What deal?”

“How about this, since you know my secret, I will trade, for security, a drug in which I have successfully tested to give ponies a controlled hallucination in which whatever you tell or show them, they will accept the experience as truth. All you have to do is give them something like a cup of water or some food in very small trace amounts, give them a few minutes to have it enter the bloodstream, and then you can tell them anything you want them to believe.” he paused for a moment.

Then he continued saying, “At the same time, since I know that you still have your original cutie mark, you will trade to leave me well alone to conduct my own experiments where I promise that I’ll be more careful about. That from here on out, I will test these drugs more carefully so that the unknowing subjects will be perfectly safe. And the moment you say yes to this, I will keep your secret to the grave. So, Ms. Glimmer, do we have a deal?”

Starlight thought about this long and hard until she finally said, “Only on one condition: that if you’ll give this drug to me so that I can give it to Hidden Trek and if he joins our community overnight, only then, do we have a deal.”

The old stallion nodded, “Fair enough ma’am. I’ll give you the bottle right away, as well as lending you a towel when it's time for you to go.”

Chapter 14: Salt

Author's Note

Well writing this took longer then I thought... I hope it's any good.

Chapter 14: Salt

November 21st – Over the past several days, I’ve collected further data on Ms. Glimmer. For one thing, I’ll be adding compulsive liar to the list as I’ve accidentally discovered that her equal sign cutie mark is a fake! I believe she had it covered with makeup. Considering the way that she’s been viewed and tries to uphold a facade, it’s quite clear now that she is lying to them for the sake of power. In a way, it explains quite a bit in how she is able to do something as complicated as removing one’s cutie mark.

However, in that same evening, in order to gain her trust, I had to make a trade and… make up a story of what happened to one of her followers. I “confessed” to her that I was experimenting with the effects of certain drugs upon the town ponies, and that I made a deal with her. The deal was that in exchange for my silence about her real cutie mark, I would give her the liquid fungus from Sanctuary’s to help convert Mr. Trek to her way of thinking. Of course, this is quite the gamble, but on the other hoof, I’m the only one who can supply it to her. I could sense that she’ll betray me somehow for the sake of power. But then again, if she or her hench-pony Double Diamond were to pressure me, perhaps I could find some way to turn them into works of art as well. However, she knows that I’m still using in keeping this town healthy. After all, she knows very well that Starting Line still needs somepony to look after his broken leg, and probably treat anyone else who might fall ill. Yet, since I know her secret, I believe she’ll do everything to keep me quiet so I need to be on my guard.

Hidden Trek has once again proved useful in seeing Starlight’s psyche up close. Since I was present as she gave the young fellow a speech of rejecting his true talent, I can’t help but think that I’m actually listening into how she became a sociopath. This mare clearly was rejected at some point in her life that had a major effect on the way she views the world. Most likely sometime during her foal-hood, probably around the time, she earned her real cutie mark. I noticed too that she had empathized on the importance of friends, but said little about family. Which makes me think that Starlight was either an orphan or was neglected as a foal, so in that state, she would try to reach out to someone who she could relate to. Perhaps a close friend, this sounds the most likely that perhaps he/she, for one reason or another, had abandoned her too thus shaping her world view. Starlight also has shown signs of high intelligence like myself, in which she uses some Psychology, magic, and leadership skills to achieve the goal of gaining absolute power in this village.

What I’m worried now, is Hidden Trek himself. With him now converted to her cause and considering that he works for a travel magazine, my biggest concern is what he’ll be saying once he does return to work. After all, the police are still looking for me since October, and the last thing I want is for him to say my name to the world and where exactly I am. After all, it’s too soon for anypony to call for help.

“Above all,” Hidden Trek said, “I want to thank you, doctor.”

Lovejoy raised an eyebrow as he took the kettle off the stove, “For what?”

“For helping me,...” the younger unicorn told him, “...that is, for you and Starlight giving meaning to my life.” The elderly stallion looked over at the table; it’s been a week since he converted to the founder’s cause. Teaching him about the virtues, the benefits, the efficiency, and the philosophy of Our Town, he now has the same smile and uniformed manecut. “I admit, at first I thought you were cruel for leaving me in that Equality House, but now I realized that you were really trying to help me.”

“Truth be told,” the doctor replied as he combined some of the spices into the teapot. “I don’t really care about Starlight’s Philosophy, only her hospitality for an old stallion like myself. But she asked for my assistants and I offered it.” He glanced over at the table in the living room where his saddlebag that no doubt held a prepared article for the travel magazine to be carried out. “I’m amazed that you’re leaving tomorrow though. I would have thought that Starlight would keep you around longer.”

“But I am going to carry out an important mission,” Trek grinned, “after all, I have this wonderful village to come back to, and the wife I’m going to be paired up to as well.”

Lovejoy snapped his attention, “I beg your pardon?”

“Oh? Didn’t you hear? Starlight has made a promised to me that as soon as I can get back from my mission of spreading the good news to Equestria, I’m gonna be courting Sugar Belle. Isn’t that great?”

“Have you ever met her yet?”

“Well, not exactly, but what Starlight has told me is that she’s really nice. So, I can’t wait to meet her when I get back.”

The old doctor’s eyebrow didn’t drop, “Tell me, just out of curiosity, what are you going to tell your former employers when you get back to civilization?”

“Oh, lots of things! I’m gonna tell them about Starlight’s great ideas, how nice everypony is, the efficiency of this village, its values, the opal farm and the underground greenhouses, everything! And don’t worry, when I get there, I’m gonna tell them that I have Starlight Glimmer and you to thank for helping me see the light.”

Dr. Lovejoy paused for a moment, “You’re going to tell the world about me too?”

Hidden Trek nodded enthusiastically, “Of course, to give credit where credit is due.”

The old stallion slowly turned his gaze that the teapot, “Can I ask you a personal question, Mr. Trek?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Are you happy?”

The younger unicorn chuckled, “Why of course I am! I’ve never been this happy in all of my life!”

Lovejoy looked back at him with a smile of his own, “Just making sure. Now, let me give you your cup before you leave. I don’t want to keep the rest of the village waiting for your departure.”

“From this day forward, a new day in the name of equality shall be widely known!” Starlight declared to her followers on the edge of town. “Our newest member has agreed to return to Manehattan, where he shall publicize to all of Equestria of the evils of the cutie mark, and show many desperate souls the truth so that Our Town can show them the way to true happiness!”

All of them cheered, but the mare wasn’t finished, “Hidden Trek shall go forth to spread this good news, and when he returns, he shall be a hero to us all. We shall wait for his return to our village, and hope that he shall have a safe journey to the corrupted world. But remember this Hidden, when that day comes that you do come back, we shall welcome you with open hooves.”

With the saddlebag on his back, the unicorn waved to them one last time before he started on the trail towards his destiny. As the town ponies applauded him starting down the lonely road, there was a flash that was coming from the top floor of the Doctor’s home.

Hidden Trek didn’t think that he was ever this confident in his life. Trotting down the road to tell the world of the greatest wonder of the world, into the rocky pass to where the railroad where he will be carried to the city. He daydreamed of going up to that office, delivering that article to share among the miserable, lost ponies of Equestria that seeks for a better life. And to return as a real hero among his new free-

He suddenly felt a sharp, pinching pain in his neck in which he cried out. Trek quickly turned to find an empty syringe pulling out from his neck.

“Mr. Trek,” he spotted Dr. Lovejoy in the shade of a shallow cave, “We need to talk.”

“D-Doctor?” the young unicorn asked, noticeably feeling weaker every second. “What are you doing out here for?”

The elderly unicorn walked out, putting a hoof on the traveler’s back before his horn lit up for a moment. A flash later, Trek found himself in a candlelit cellar. His legs gave way before he fell flat on the dirt floor. The young unicorn tried to move, but he found that none of his legs would respond, nor would his horn assist him.

“Dr. Lovejoy,” he cried, “What’s going on! What are you doing!”

Lovejoy unstrapped the saddlebag off of him, moving its contents until he found the scroll he was looking for. In his magic, he unrolled it and read through it. “Just as I thought,” he said, “You’ve given my name away.”

“Doc?”

The orange stallion shook his head, “I was afraid that this would happen. Say your name once to someone in the media, and you risk getting arrested too soon.”

“What are you talking about?” Trek demanded, “Why can’t I move?”

“It’s quite obvious, is it not? You’ve been drugged so that you’re temporarily paralyzed and I made sure that you couldn’t use your magic for a while. Simply put, you wrote my name down, you said you were happy; therefore it compels me to bury you alive.”

Hidden Trek’s eyes widen to the size of dinner plates, “WHAT!?”

“And another thing, my cellar – as you will find – has been enchanted having a soundproof spell. So you can scream all you want, but it won’t do you one bit of good.” He levitated the younger stallion’s body over to the bed frame. “But I suppose, like all the others, you have no idea why I’ve decided to kill you.”

“O-Others?” the younger unicorn trembled.

“Yes, others,” he sighed, “To be honest, I’m still surprised that you of all ponies haven’t heard of me. Well, in case you don’t know, I’m wanted in Fillidelphia for ‘multiple murders’ or something of that line. In other words, I’m a sociopathic serial killer.” Lovejoy smiled down at him, “Any questions?”

Jaw gaping open, Hidden Trek could only look on in horror while the doctor took out his camera and took his picture. “But… why do you have to kill me?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” the doctor asked as he proceeded to strap him down. “I’m doing this for two reasons: the first being that you were about to tell the world that I’m here. And I don’t want to be arrested, or have the entire Equestrian Guard come marching in. I’m trying to hide from the rest of the world as long as possible.”

“B-But, I won’t tell anyone! Please, just let me go, and I promise that I’ll never let your name be published!”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me right now?” Lovejoy questioned, “After all, this morning I asked you if you were happy and you said yes to it.”

“What does being happy got to do with anything?”

“Celestia, I hate it when they don’t get it,” he grumbled as he strapped his head down. “Believe it or not, I was once happy just like you are now. I was once ignorant of knowing that happiness never stays around. For really, why do we think that because we’ve found something that makes us happy, that we’ll forever remain so? It doesn’t. Happiness never stays. Once that joy I felt had left me was the lowest point in my life. Believe me, Mr. Trek, nopony should ever feel like that. To ensure that misery day after day, year after year, decade after decade,... never knowing if that same happiness will ever come back!

“So, please don’t think for a moment that I’m doing this out of spite. It’s not. I’m doing this so at least the last memory that will go through your head is that you knew what happiness was when you had it.”

The young unicorn shifted his eyes, “Why are you strapping me down? I thought you were going to bury me alive?”

“Oh relax; you’re not going to die right now. That’s going to be about… seventy days later give or take.”

Trek blinked, “What?”

“You see,” the doctor went over to a table, the contents in which the younger unicorn could not see. He turned his head to the phonograph underneath the stairs; he activated the turntable, in which the horn began singing. “Anypony could bury anypony alive. Dig a hole in the middle of nowhere, put a live pony in, put the dirt back into that said hole for them to suffocate. It’s easy and unmemorable. I mean really, murder these days! Where’s the creativity? Where’s the gravitas, the elegance, or the art of it all? Nowhere I tell you! ‘Mare stabs husband to death,’ ‘Third filly found drown in a river,’ ‘Coltfriend tied to chair and burned alive.’ I mean really? That’s the best that any of those murders could do? No given thought to it? No… (Where is it?) No creativity? Those sorts of things are tragically too common nowadays, where a pony dies, but there’s no effort being put into it. I swear I must be the only killer on the planet who takes the art of murder seriously anymore. But enough of my ramblings, let’s get down to immortalizing you.”

“What are you talking about? What are you doing?”

Lovejoy sighed, “Typical journalist, asking so many questions but not enough conversation.” He turned around with a bone saw and a jar of honey in his aura. “I’m going to have to prepare you. Firstly, that horn needs to come off before I can proceed.”

“No! No! Please! Don’t do that!”

“Then how else am I going to prevent you from using that magic of yours from escaping? I don’t have an anti-magic ring on me so we have to make do.” He blinked for a moment before realizing, “Oh! You think that you’re going to feel the pain of being sawed off?” Lovejoy laughed, “Oh no! Trust me, you won’t feel that for the next several hours,” he levitated another syringe and move it to Trek’s forehead. The needle went underneath the skin in a few spots that circled around his horn, injecting the painkiller into his skull. “Don’t worry, physical pain among my art projects when it’s not necessary is at the moment cheap, but the psychological and emotional pain that I’m going to inflict, however – priceless.”

“B-B-But, there must be some other way!”

The doctor thought about it, gliding the saw to the base of the horn, “I don’t think so.”

Although true to Dr. Lovejoy’s word, Trek didn’t feel a thing, yet that doesn’t help but feel queasy of the very thing he gets to see and hear. His eyes looked as far up as they would let him, he only saw the older stallion taking the tip of his horn with one hoof and heard the grinding, skin crawling, toothed blade eating away at the base of his horn.

“Please! Stop!” Trek screamed, “I-I lied about being happy okay! Let me go, I promise I won’t ever tell!”

“How do I know if you’re not lying?” the doctor asked calmly as he continued to saw away.

“Please don’t do it,” the younger unicorn begged, his eyes watering. “I can’t function without my magic!”

“Considering what’s going to happen, magic is going to be completely useless anyway. You young ponies are very weird when you’re facing death in the face. As I said, you’re not going to die right now. Only within the next seventy days. Oh! I don’t think I’ve told you what exactly I’m planning to do, have I?”

“Uh… something about turning me into a work of art?”

“Ah yes! Right, right, right, right! Forgive me for being a little unfocused, because I’m really looking forward to this.” He paused his sawing for a moment to wipe the blood off of Trek’s forehead, “In a way, you should be honored. You, sir, are not only going to be the first pony in modern times to be buried in the desert, but I’m going to have you mummified. But you’ll be truly unique, because not only will you be the first Equestrian mummy,... but the very first in history to be mummified alive! Isn’t that great?” he asked with a smile.

Hidden Trek could do nothing but look up in horror. “You’re insane. You really are a psychopath.”

“No-no-no-no! How many times do I have to repeat this, I’m not a psychopath, I’m a highly functional sociopath. Honestly, what do they teach you in schools these days?” Lovejoy resumed sawing. “We’re almost done with the first bit. Now, to be honest, mummifying you are going to be quite of a challenge. Because from what I research from Ancient Coltypt, the way they do it is that once they have the body, they take out the brain by sticking a metal stick into the nostril until they punched a hole in the skull, whip the brain until it's mush and let it drain it out. After that, they take out all of the organs; coat the inside of the abdomen and the skull with resin and spices, place the organs underneath some salt, and place the heart back in because they thought that’s where a pony’s soul came from. After they stuff the body with sand, they sew the body back up and pile a mound of salt over it for seventy days. In which it helps dry the body, coat, flesh and all from moisture. After seventy days, they uncover the body so that they could put a layer of resin over it so that the wrappings could stick to it. They repeat this coating and wrapping a couple of times while putting some religious charms and just like that, you have a mummy.”

When the doctor finished this explanation, he finally sawed through the horn, when this was done; he quickly coated the bloody base in honey. “Of course,” Lovejoy added, “Since I’m mummifying you alive, I have to change a few things here and there. Like for example, I have to skip taking out all of your organs for the time being. So to keep you alive as long as possible, you and your horn will be buried underneath a mound of salt for seventy days, which is why you’re strapped down so that you won’t be able to move during that time. But before I do, I have to stick a few tubes in you. One for your mouth so you can breathe and be fed on a strict diet with a ration of water, another will collect your urine and the last…” He smirked, “You can guess where that will be going. The goal, for now, is to get you as dry up as much as possible. After that, I’ll have the liberty of removing some of your organs like your liver, spleen, kidneys, that sort of thing. After I sew you back up again, you’ll be coated in candle wax before applying the bandages, and I’ll repeat this a couple of times before I bury you in the desert. But before I proceed, are there any questions?”

“But… what if somepony comes down here and finds me? What if you get caught?”

Dr. Lovejoy chuckled as he went to the boxes to fetch the pipes, “You’ve taken me for granted Mr. Trek. Even if that happens, I have ways to make you disappear when I need you to. As for getting caught,” the old unicorn chuckled darkly, “I find that… rather unlikely.”

A few hours later, with the pipes for waste was put in place leading to a chamber pot beneath the wooden boards that upheld the salt, Lovejoy poured another barrel of salt that covered every inch of Trek’s body – all except for the head that is. He looked down as he opens the last barrel, Hidden Trek ears were folded back and his nostrils were closed shut from the surgical tape. It was also used to tape his mouth to the tube that he was breathing through.

The young unicorn looked up at him, his eyes pleaded for him to stop.

“You would want to close your eyes if I were you,” Lovejoy said before pouring the salt over his head. Unintelligible sounds were heard through the feeding tube as the muzzle was being completely covered. “There we go,” he said as he placed the barrel aside, “If you can still hear me, I suggest you better get used to being bored out of your mind, as well as being thirsty for a while. Now, I’ll be sure to give you your first ration of water before I go to bed, but for now, I better go make myself some dinner.”

With that, he took the phonograph up with the stairs with him, leaving the poor unicorn in the dark.

Chapter 15: Party Favor’s Newest Letters

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 17: Starting Line’s Discovery

Author's Note

After several days of interruption, on-line tests, family dinners at a relative's house, and having to do some yard work, here's the new chapter, I hope it's any good.

Chapter 17: Starting Line’s Discovery

To anypony outside of Our Town, December 5th was just another day. There wasn’t anything significant to the date to a majority of Equestrians. To the village, however, this day was very significant. Banners of Equal Signs were strung up, and every table that the villagers had was placed in the middle of the street.

“Remind me again why you’re borrowing my kitchen table again?” Lovejoy asked Night Glider.

“Today’s Equality Day,” the blue Pegasus told him as she adjusted the table that was at the very end. “It’s the day that Our Town was founded, and when Starlight Glimmer gained enlightenment.”

“In other words, today’s a holiday?” she nodded, “How many holidays does this village celebrate?”

“Only one,” Double Diamond said, placing the mashed potatoes down on the table. “Starlight banded all other holidays except for this one.”

“But whatever for?” the doctor questioned, “Does this mean you don’t celebrate birthdays, or Hearts and Hooves, even Hearth’s Warming?”

He shook his head, “Starlight said that if we have holidays in which would create division among everypony like if one pony gets one present too many, or that pony doesn’t even get a card, it just wouldn’t reflect our values of Equality. That’s why she created a new one, set on the anniversary she founded the village where we have a feast while giving thanks for being rid of our cutie marks to be truly equal.”

“Here here,” Party Favor declared, “well-spoken Double Diamond.”

He smiled, “Still,” the pail earth pony turned to the doctor. “I think for you it might get a bit awkward for you since you still have your own cutie mark.”

Before Lovejoy could respond, he was interrupted by another voice, “How are you doing today doctor?” they turned to find the Line family there. Sandy added, “We were wondering if we could sit next to you when the big feast is ready?”

The doctor waved his hoof, “You can, for I have no objections to the matter.” He turned to Diamond, “I wouldn’t think so Mr. Diamond, after all, you’ve tolerated me for this long. Besides, I’ve enjoyed myself to the peace of this place.”

“What are you bringing to the table, Dr. Lovejoy?” Shore Line asked as he, his wife and child sat down.

“Some rolls from a recipe from my grandmother and something on the phonograph. Oh!” the old unicorn stood up, “I’ve completely forgotten to bring them out. Perhaps I should-”

“Can I go them?” the little colt asked.

All the adults looked at him, “Are you, sure child?” Lovejoy inquired, “You still have that cast on.”

“I can walk around now,” he protested. “Even the cast, I’ve learned how to move around. So please can I go get them?”

They all looked at the doctor, “Very well. The rolls are by the stove. Still, don’t you want some he-”

“I’ll be fine,” Starting Line hobbled off into Lovejoy’s home and went straight towards the kitchen. It wasn’t hard to find, he found the rolls in a wicker basket with a checkered cloth that kept those rolls warm. Before he could snatch the basket, his ears picked up an odd sound and quickly located it from the crack of a door leading to the basement. “What was that?”

He hobbled over to the door, opening it a bit more until he saw the steps to listen in. From the darkness, it sounded like something was shifting. Starting craned his neck over to the open front door where the doctor was in view. He seemed to be preoccupied with talking with his parents.

“Maybe I should go check it out,” he said to himself as he reached for the light switch. As he slowly descended, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary of what he expected a basement to look like. There were boxes, trunks, cans, barrels, and so on. However, what bothered him was the smell, as if he was in an outhouse, only it wasn’t as strong.

But as he got a view of the whole basement, he paused at something very unusual. In the middle of the room, there was a mound of grainy white substance on a low make-shift table with pipes sticking out of it. At the end of the table, two of the tubes seemed to have poured out to a porcelain pot. “What is that?”

The very young earth pony reached the bottom of the stairs and went straight towards the table to examine it closely. The smell was indeed coming from the porcelain pot. Starting put his free hoof on the white grains of the mound, sniffed it, and took a lick of it. “Salt?” he looked at it quizzing, “Why would Dr. Lovejoy need all this salt for?”

With his cast free hoof, he moved around into the dry salt until he felt something. He pulled it out before his eyes widen and quickly dropped it, “Is that… a horn?” There was little question in the colt’s mind that something sinister was going on. He dug into the salt, moving it away until suddenly, a part of the mound moved! It was a hind leg that rose from the pail like a mummy rising from the sand. “Oh Celestia!” Starting, as quickly as he could, tried to uncover the body from the other end of the table.

There his hoof touched a very dry, but still alive muzzle. After dusting away the salt, he gasped as he found it was none other than Hidden Trek. His eyes opened to a bloodshot, redden eye, and from the pipe that was taped to his mouth, a sound came from it of a weak cry. There was a stump where his horn was supposed to be on his forehead. But what really caught the colt’s attention was not only how dry his coat was, rather Hidden looked like he aged by several years.

“Oh dear…” Starting Line let out a scream as his neck snapped over to the staircase, where with dread he spotted the old doctor halfway on the steps. “I knew I was forgetting something.”

Starting squabble over behind the table, “S-Stay away from me!”

Before the doctor reached the floor of the basement, he coughed and said, “You know, I thought I had the door closed before I came out of the house. I really should look into that.”

“What are you doing to him?” Starting questioned.

The doctor went up to the table, “Oh dear… his muscles have really shrunk, have they? I really ought to tighten these more often and look at the mess too. Maybe I should have added a board or something around it.” He looked up at the frightened colt in confusion, “I don’t know why you are so scared about.”

“A-Are you g-going to hurt me too?”

Lovejoy tilted his head, “Why? You’re not happy at all, it’s clear you’re scared out of your wits. So it just wouldn’t be fair if you ask me.” The colt backed himself to a corner, “Besides,” the old unicorn said, his horn glowing to cover Trek’s face in salt. “He’s clearly not ready yet.” He looked up, “As for you, I suppose this is the part where you go running out screaming bloody murder to all those ponies outside where you expect to drive up a frighten and confused mob to come storming down those steps to arrest me for what I’m doing then, no?”

Starting only looked at him.

The doctor rolled his eyes, “You can tell them I’m making a mummy, now go on, off with you,” he said with a dismissive hoof. “You have mass hysteria to cause.”

Although completely uneasy at this, Starting Line stuck to the sides of the walls of the basement, his eyes stayed on the old doctor before he made a mad dash up the stairs. Even with his stiff cast, he tried to gallop as quickly as he could up the stairs, round the kitchen, through the living room and out the front door, “MOM! DAD! EVERYPONY! COME QUICK!”

“Starting?” his father went up to him, “Starting what’s wrong?”

“He’s in the basement!”

“Who is?” the colt’s mother inquired.

“Hidden Trek! He’s never left! The doctor is turning him into a mummy!”

“What’s all this screaming about?” the family turned to find the founder trotting up.

“Starlight, thank Celestia! You gotta come with me quickly! Dr. Lovejoy is doing something to Hidden Trek, and I think he sawed his horn off!”

“What?” several voices of the villagers asked.

“It’s true; he has Mr. Trek in his basement, strapped to a table covered in salt. I think the doctor is really hurting him!”

Starlight turned her gaze at the house, “This I got to see,” she, along with the villagers went in through the front door, across the living room, around the kitchen, and down the stairs into the kitchen.

What she and the townspony did find the old unicorn, however, there was no mound of salt nor Hidden Trek strapped down. Instead, they found the doctor looking over some pictures besides a table in the middle of the room. On that table was a lantern with red lenses, two trays of chemicals, and overhead hung by twine and held by clothes pins were photos of the village.

“Well that’s just wonderful,” Lovejoy said with disappointment, “The pictures are ruined.”

The young colt pushed his way past the grown-ups, “Wha… But… He was right here!”

“Who is,” the doctor asked.

“Hidden Trek!” he pointed an accusing hoof, “You foal-napped Hidden Trek!”

The older stallion looked at the villagers with a puzzling look, “What is he talking about?”

“Starlight, I saw him!” Starting tapped his hoof underneath the table, “He was right here, covered in salt. Look! There’s some salt right here.”

“I was refilling for a jar when I spilled some,” he looked at the founder, “Ms. Glimmer, what is this all about?”

“Well, it seems to appear that Starting Line was accusing you of keeping Mr. Trek in your basement, doing something harmful to him.”

“Why would I do that? And more importantly, how could I? He left Our Town several weeks ago.”

Starlight looked down at Starting Line, “Young stallion, did you just lied to us?”

“No! I’m not lying, I know what I saw!”

“Oh…” Lovejoy realized as he put down the ruined photographs, “I think I know what this is really about.”

“You do?” one of the villagers asked.

“I think,” the old unicorn placed a hoof on Starting’s shoulder, who flinched at the touch; “I think it might have been his imagination over reacting to a scary looking environment.”

“What!” the colt questioned.

“It’s not uncommon you know,” the doctor went on. “Many foals his age that experienced tragedy, their minds tend to experience daydreams that are strong in order to cope with a loss. I think what happened here is that the unfamiliar environment of my basement had triggered in him a kind of fantasy that seemed a little too real to him. Ms. Glimmer, don’t be angry at him, it was an honest mistake, no need to ruin this holiday over it, no?”

Starlight took a deep breath, “You’re right, we still have a feast to look forward to. And it seems that nopony is harmed, so Starting Line, for the future, please be careful of whom you accuse who of what. After all, you don’t want to be responsible for having an innocent pony punished for no good reason, do you?”

The colt was about to object, but he felt a pat on his shoulder and looked up at the smirk that the doctor was giving him. “Uh… no, ma’am.”

“Back outside everypony,” the founder said, “there’s no need to worry. Let’s get to our feast.” The ponies that followed her went upstairs, she turned to Starting, “You too.” And with him looking back at the old stallion several times, he obeyed. “I’m so sorry about that doctor, I never expected this.”

“Oh no harm done, all my things are still intact, and the only damage there are a couple of photographs that have been exposed to light too soon.”

“I see,” Starlight nodded, “By the way, you don’t happen to have more of the fungus on hoof, do you?”

“I’m making some more if that’s what you’re asking. So don’t worry, give me a couple of days and you shall have a vile of your own.”

She smiled, “Wonderful, now come along, we have a holiday to celebrate.”

“In a moment, I think that I should put a few things away since I’m down here. If you could have somepony get the rolls upstairs, I’ll come out with the phonograph.”

Starlight agreed and went upstairs also. Once all signs of other ponies were gone out of sight and out of earshot, Dr. Lovejoy went up to the wall underneath the staircase in which he tapped on it, “I do apologize for the sudden intrusion Mr. Trek, but I’m pleased to tell you that all those nosy ponies are gone. Ha, good thing for digging out that little space for you and a false brick wall, no? It tends to help when you plan ahead, and a good thing too! However, with the little colt seeing you so early, perhaps I should make a side project since you're taking so long. So, I’ll be off to the feast, you should have enough air for a couple of hours and I think I should be back by then. So sit tightly Mr. Trek, and happy Equality Day.”

It was noon, and in the center of the street along a long line of tables with whatever food they could afford to spare, several smiling ponies sat in front of it. At one end stood the Founder looking proudly at the feast before her; while at the other end was Dr. Lovejoy, with a phonograph by his side that was waiting to play.

“Fellow ponies,” Starlight declared, “We have much to celebrate for. Today is officially the twelfth year that our beloved village has been founded, where the idea of true equality has been put into practice.” There was a moment of applause, “While this year was tough, concerning of the death of Check Mate and the loss of Lilly Garden and Finishing Line, we have gained so much in just this year. Our crops have been plentiful, our Opal farms producing much for the trade, and with Hidden Trek, I believe we shall be a shining beacon for the whole world to come forth.

“Everypony, look around at the great accomplishment of what the philosophy of all ponies is created equal. Look at the great advantages of sacrificing our cutie marks for the sake of peace. We are indeed fortunate of this, for we know what true destiny lies are while the world is confused in passing trends in which they will never know true happiness.

“In the coming year when Hidden Trek returns, our village will be visited by ponies that seek a better life where their cutie marks had disappointed them. We shall offer them refuge and comfort in the joys of assimilation.” Here, applause erupted once more before she lifted a hoof to let her continue, “Once they see the light, we will have enough for more ponies like Hidden Trek to go forth into Equestria and beyond to spread the great news, that peace is possible in giving up the talent that separates you. There is a place in the world were sanctuary has opened its doors to. A place called Our Town!”

Her followers approved at this as their hooves tapped on the table, “Before we begin, I want to take a moment to thank the good Doctor Lovejoy, while he doesn’t know when his time would come to depart, has shown his selflessness to us. While although not a member, he has contributed much to our cause. He has offered his service to the wounded of body and mind, even though he is separated with his own cutie mark, he has become like family to us. We only wish for you to live long, and maybe one day, he shall join us fully in embracing the true meaning of equality.

“So, without further ado, let’s celebrate!”

Thus they did, food was passed around, and plates were being filled before the villagers dug into their meals. While this was going on, the doctor lit his horn, turned on the machine and places the needle on the record until a song of thanksgiving was poured out. Piano music mixed in with the conversations and small talk.

“Aren’t you hungry, Starting?” the colt’s mother asked, “Would you care for some rolls or potatoes?”

The little earth pony didn’t say a word as he reached for a spoonful of the white, yet chunky, mashed potatoes, all the while looking at the pony at the end of the table. There was confusion, as well as a sense of dread for Starting. Surely he did see Hidden Trek in the basement. He smelled the foulness and the ugliness of what he was doing to the hornless unicorn.

How could anypony dream something like that up? How could the table, salt, pony and all been there one minute and suddenly disappear the next? But more importantly, as Startling looked at the old stallion munching away at his roll, now that the doctor knows that he saw something in his basement, what was going to happen to him? What was going to happen to his parents now?

Although throughout the feast, while Starting didn’t show it, he was very scared of a monster in their midst – a monster that could not only talk his way out of anything, but one that the whole village trusts, and that there’s nothing that Starting Line could do about it.

Chapter 18: The Book of Memories

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 19: The Promise

Panic was screaming in Double Diamond’s brain as he tried to make a mad dash towards the door, but he quickly found that he couldn’t move. He was engulfed in dull yellow light, “Double-” the doctor started but was quickly cut off.

“HELP! SOMEP-” but the white stallion’s mouth was silenced as well.

Dr. Lovejoy rolled his eyes, “Really now, Mr. Diamond, I just asked you a question and suddenly you started to run off screaming. You know, it’s rather rude to not give an answer before you start running off.”

Using his magic to close the door to his room, the old stallion went over to the photo album. “You know, I had a feeling that you or Starlight would show up sooner or later. Paranoia does make us do rather rude things like breaking into other ponies’ houses and looking through their things.” He looked up at the paralyzed earth pony, who he could feel was shaking. “What?” he asked as he let go of his mouth.

“Y-You’re g-gonna k-kill me, aren’t y-you?”

“Why Double, I’m offended. Just because I’m a serial killer, doesn’t mean that I have the urge to murder everything that walks. That’s just barbaric after all. And before you ask,” he pointed at him, “the answer is no, I’m not going to kill you because it would be too obvious for Starlight that her hench-pony had disappeared. Not to mention it would raise too many questions as it is. That, and it’s clear that you’re now terrified of me, which, if I was planning to kill you, it just would be considered cheating in my book.”

“But… what are you going to do to me?”

“Well, before I let you go,” he said as he flipped to the next page, “I want to ask you since you’re here,” he levitated to book up to him, “What do you think?”

Diamond saw two pictures, both featuring Check Mate. On the upper corner of the left page, there was a black-and-white photo of him sitting on the couch downstairs; in his hooves was a teacup. While below it in color, this one entitled, “Flight of the Imagination, Ops 80.” This one showed the stallion dead on the desert floor beside the cliff in which he and several others had found him in. There was a splatter of blood; limbs bend at odd angles, teeth missing, and a collapsed chest. At the same time, however, the page on the right was completely empty of photographs.

“Well?” Lovejoy inquired, “What do you think?”

“It’s… uh…” he looked between the revolting picture and the stallion.

“Come on, please be honest with me, I’m not going to cut out your tongue if don’t like it.”

Gulping, Double Diamond looked at the picture once more, “It’s… terrifying. This whole book is like something out of Tartarus. All the pictures with the dead ponies are horrifyingly ugly.”

“Ugly? You think it’s ugly?” the doctor tilted his head, “Well, of course, it’s ugly, but is it beautiful?”

“I… I don’t understand.”

“He doesn’t understand,” he muttered, “You see Mr. Diamond, this lifelong project of mine, this photo gallery, it’s meant to challenge your sense of beauty. With these pictures, I’m opening art to the ugly, to the hideous. You see, the problem in art nowadays is that we either focus on the absolutely beautiful, or if that doesn’t work, we go down to the most basic of instincts. I’m sure at your age you’ve noticed this. Artists, writers, songwriters, sculptures, even chefs and bakers bombard you with only the most basic of instincts like sex, adrenaline, fear, anger, things like that – or they go to the opposite extreme and create something that’s painstakingly beautiful with no tolerances for flaws. But have you noticed that there’s next to no middle ground to give that said art multiple meanings? To weave the ugly and the beautiful, the classical and the modern, life and death together to create harmonies that open up to all sorts of possibilities for future artists.”

Double only stared at him, “That’s… great. But what I don’t get is why you’re letting me go. You aren’t you afraid that I’m gonna tell Starlight about this? I mean, we’ve been housing a psychopath for about a month!”

“Sociopath,” the old unicorn deadpanned. “For the last time, I’m not a psychopath. Besides, those ponies have no sense of grace whatsoever. But back on topic, there’s a simple reason why I’m letting you go, and that’s because I know what I’m about to say, you won’t dare say a word to Starlight Glimmer about my book.”

The white stallion gulped again, “Are you threatening me?”

Lovejoy laughed, “Me? Threatening you? Of course not! I’m don’t make threats Mr. Diamond,” he smiled, “I make promises. So, I’m going to make you a promise that you won’t say what you’ve found today to her.”

“How you’re gonna do that? Are you gonna kill me if I tell her then?”

“No.” He shook his head. “As a psychiatrist, I’ve learned that ponies are often times pressured into things in which they morally know are wrong because of two things: Fear, and Love. So, this here is my promise: if I catch word that you told her about my photographs, then I’m afraid an unfortunate accident will certainly happen to… a particular unicorn you admire.”

Double’s eyes widen, his jaw dropped, “W-What?”

“It’s rather a lucky accident that I happen to run into you this morning.” He said, pulling out the parchment written in pencil and a letter. “Because in a way, it gave me an idea what you’re, let’s call it, your pressure point is. Tell me, do you recognize this letter? Party Favor got it yesterday and I asked him if I could borrow it. On the way back here, I couldn’t help but notice that the characteristics of this letter, from Mr. Favor’s ‘secret admirer,’ look very similar to the sentence you wrote this morning. And before you say anything, the answer is no, Party Favor doesn’t know anything about this.”

“P-Please!” Diamond begged, “Do whatever you want to me, just don’t hurt him!”

Lovejoy chuckled, “Oh? What’s this do I hear, concern for the blue unicorn’s well-being? I see now, giving that the whole village’s couples are all straight, I’m guessing this kind of relationship is forbidden by Starlight?”

The earth pony didn’t say anything.

“Must be so, otherwise, why would you send these notes in secret? Especially when it’s her that decides who should be a couple and who shouldn’t? Ah! Could it be possible that you’re afraid; both Starlight and Party’s disapproval for having such feelings? Perhaps when you do tell Starlight about me, I would tell the young fellow about it before I-.”

“Shut up!” Diamond shouted, “Don’t you DARE hurt him you selfish demon!”

Dr. Lovejoy smirked, “As long as you don’t tell her, that I give you my word that Party Favor will remain untouched, and the whole village will never know of your secret. For maybe I am a serial killer, but I have something called standards too. I know it’s hard of you to comprehend coming from an old monster like myself, but I’m telling you the truth. As long as you stay quiet, not a hair on the Party’s head would be put out of place. So, Mr. Diamond, do you accept?”

Although clearly angry, the white pony knew that the doctor was giving him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. After all, he’s dealing with a murder that sees killing as an art form. He had seen the photos, of all the ponies that died horribly, and at a sheer number too! That was what scared him the most, with eighty victims photographed in his book, which meant that this old and frail stallion is dangerously clever. Would he risk Party’s life if he did tell Starlight?

“I see, you’re blackmailing me too? Do you always do this to ponies that found out about you?”

He shrugged, “Only for security reasons. I often find that ponies would fight tooth and hoof to make sure that the truth stays hidden. Let’s face it, you and Starlight can’t handle the truth about yourselves to the point where you’ll do anything and everything to make sure it goes with you into the grave.”

Double could only look at him in discuss, “Lovejoy, what are you?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m a doctor.”

Later that day in Starlight’s home, Double Diamond entered through the front door.

“There you are Double,” the mare said as she entered into the room. “So, what did you find?”

With a forced smile, he replied, “Nothing.”

This came to a surprise to Starlight, “Nothing?”

He shook his head, “I searched his home from attic to the basement, and I couldn’t find a thing.”

“Are you serious? All this time and you didn’t find a thing?”

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

Starlight flopped onto the couch, “Great, just great,” she put her hooves over her eyes. “We’re practically back where we started.”

“Starlight,” Diamond said, “I was wondering if we could make a change in the rule. You know where we take turns visiting the doctor.”

“What about it?”

“I think that from now on, we there should be two ponies to look after him, not one.”

She lifted the hooves from her eyes, “Why’s that?”

“Well… let’s just say that while he came clean, I still have my doubts about him. As of now, I don’t trust Dr. Lovejoy.”

“Are you sure that you didn’t find anything to discredit him with?”

He shook his head, “Not from what I could find.”

Chapter 20: A Family Visit

“Couldn’t we get someone else to look after him?” Starting Line asked, “L-Like maybe the Brushes from across the street?”

“Seriously Starting,” his mother turned to him, “What’s gotten into you? Why are you so dead set against checking up on Dr. Lovejoy?”

“He’s trying to get your leg fixed after all,” Shore Line pointed out, “You’re acting like we’re going to see Nightmare Moon or something.”

“I don’t wanna go!” the colt protested. “I’m telling you, he’s evil!”

Sighing, Sandy place a wing over him, “Start, I know this is a stressful time for you. I get that. I miss Finishing too-”

“It’s not about him mom,” he interrupted, “I know what I saw! He has a pony in the basement that he’s drying him out like a prune. Why would you believe me?”

“We did see his basement,” his earth pony father said, “along with the town, and all there is a dark room for his pictures. There’s nothing there except pictures and his supplies. I think that your worry for your brother has gotten you into seeing things.”

“Hon, please understand, you can’t be upset at the doctor. He’s trying to help you, and Lovejoy knows what he’s doing.”

As they approached the last house at the end of the street, Starting looked up at his mother, “Just promised me that neither of you will be alone with him, that you’d have me or dad by your side – and you too dad?”

“We won’t be there for long.” His pegasus mother smiled down, “So you don’t have to worry your little head about it.”

The family walked up to the door, his father knocked a few times until the old unicorn answered. “Good afternoon, I just pulled the kettle off the stove a minute ago. Would the three of you come in for some tea?” The three of them entered, “By-the-way, Starting, how’s that leg doing?”

Starting hid behind his father, “You have to forgive him,” Shore said, “He’s been like this since the 5th. I think he’s scared of you.”

“Really,” Lovejoy raised an eyebrow, he craned his head down to the colt’s eye level, “Now why would you be afraid of me for? I’m just an old stallion after all.”

When the little earth pony didn’t respond, the mother decided to change the subject, “It smells good in here, what are you making?”

“It’s spearmint and honey with a hint of ginger. So shall we have our tea in here or in the kitchen?”

“H-How about the kitchen,” Starting suggested.

Lovejoy raises an eyebrow, “Very well.” He turned towards the kitchen in the next room in which the family followed. “Have yourselves a seat while I finish up. After tea, I’ll have to look at your son’s leg to see if it’s healed yet.”

The three of them sat down at the table, watching the doctor place the teapot, cups, sugar bowl, and spoons onto the tray, “How are you doing today doctor?” Sandy asked.

“It’s been a good day so far, I’ve taken a few excellent pictures the other day and they’re developing quite wonderfully. Besides, I’ve heard from Starlight that I’m going to have my very own garden soon, which is nice of her.”

“Indeed,” the father nodded. “Starlight Glimmer is quite generous of everypony.”

“Which reminds me,” the old unicorn said, lifting the tray in his aura, “I was wondering if I could ask the three of you something. What do you think of this town?” He asked, setting the tray down.

“We love it here,” Sandy smiled, “We’ve been given a home with like-minded ponies.”

“The ponies here are polite, everypony’s very happy here, and there’s no discrimination at all,” Shore added.

Lovejoy raised an eyebrow, “Give me a moment as I put something on,” he went to the phonograph, in which he selected a record to play. Soon, the house echoed the sound of a piano and a violin duet. “I hope you don’t mind some Moztrot,” he inquired as he took his place at the table.

“Not at all,” the mother said, “You may not know this, but this village does appreciate you playing your records. For some, it’s been literally years since we’ve heard something as wonderful.”

The doctor started to pour out their drinks, “That’s rather a sad thing to hear. I don’t know about you, but of all the things I had to give up, my love of music is a very stubborn thing to let go of. Why I think I would have gone mad if it wasn’t for music.”

He passed out the cups one at a time to the three of them. “You’d be surprised of all the things you don’t really need,” the father told him. “With Starlight giving us something to do, we don’t have time for things like reading books or play games. We all have our gardens to tend to so that we’d have something to eat. I think it would be good for you too.”

“Do you two like to do garden work?”

“It isn’t the first time we’ve gotten our hooves dirty,” Sandy answered. “We’ve built a house after we got married. While we didn’t end up keeping it, we agreed on the fact that we’ve built something out of a labor of love.”

“Another question,” Lovejoy asked, “Well, two questions really, do you want sugar with your tea?”

All three of them pushed their cups forward, giving a soft chuckle, he placed a couple of sugar cubes into their cups before he asked, “And as of now, are the three of you happy?”

Starting raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you pleased with your lives you have now?”

“When you put it like that,” Sandy said, taking a sip of the hot, flavorful liquid. “I guess you can safely say that we are both happy and grateful.”

Dr. Lovejoy smiled, “That’s good to hear.” He said as he poured his drink, added the sugar and took a sip from it. “You know, there’s a particular place that I want to photograph. A place that I don’t think I’m familiar with.”

“What place?” Shore inquired.

“I’ve heard about a pass that’s North East from here. The one that’s up in the mountains where there’s an entrance to a cave that leads to a labyrinth. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Both husband and wife looked at each other, “I think we know what you’re talking about,” the earth pony stallion said, “But why would you want to go there? Unless you know your way, it’s very dangerous there, you might get lost in it.”

“So I’ve heard, but I just want to go into the mouth of the cave and take a few pictures. I’m not talking about going into the labyrinth itself, just someplace adventurous to get some great shots. So,” Lovejoy was cut off with a cough. “Excuse me. So I was hoping if either of you knows how to get there to the mouth of the cave?”

The little colt gulped, “You don’t mean right now?”

Lovejoy shook his head, “Not today, I’ve still had some work in the basement that needs to be taken care of. Cleaning up and whatnot,” he winked and Starting Line shuttered.

“There we go,” the doctor said as he unwrapped the bandage from the colt’s leg. Lovejoy couldn’t help but notice that Starting seemed very nervous while sitting on his couch as if he knew what was coming. “Now, tell me if you feel any sort of discomfort,” he used his wrinkle hoof to prod at the leg in several places. He pressed gently into the bone and joint structure all along the colt’s leg and to the relief of his parents, Starting didn’t flinch in pain.

“Well, the good news is that your son no longer has to wear a cast anymore. He should be able to walk as normal now.”

“Oh thank you, Doctor,” Sandy smiled as she hugged her son, “You know, as a way of giving our thanks, we’ll have a talk with Starlight to have you see the caves tomorrow.”

“That’s wonderful,” Lovejoy stood up and went to the door, “and I want to thank the three of you for coming to visit.”

“Please,” Shore Line went up to him and shook his hoof, “It’s the least we could do.”

“Now, if you would excuse me, I have a basement to straighten up,” the doctor usurer them out the front door, wishing them goodbye before closing the door.

Now on his own, the old unicorn made his way downstairs to the basement. “Well now, Mr. Trek,” he said as the flicker on the light, “How are we today?”

At the center of the room, the drying bed was now an open box that helps to keep most of the salt in. Moving the salt around, the unicorn dug in until he reached the dried forehoof of the younger stallion. “My, you’re as dry as a canvas already. This is quite the surprise, you’re early.” With a wide, happy, excitable grin, he trotted to the other boxes to take out the candles and a big pot before heading back upstairs to the kitchen, “Oh this is going to be so much fun!”

Chapter 21: Mummification

With the turntable spinning, Lovejoy gently placed the needle at the edge of the black disc. Soon enough, an orchestra of Buch’s music was projected in the basement. Sighing, he turned to the converted autopsy room where a seemingly aged stallion was strapped down to the very wooden bed that he’s been lying on for months. However, Lovejoy was pleased with the result of the stump of what used to be Trek’s horn. The honey and salt now set in a caramelized, red cap on top of the stump.

By now, what remained of his mane, eyebrows, and even his tail was shaved off for the preparation of the procedure. Trek’s ears and nostrils were at last freed from were at last freed from the surgical tape, however, a thick piece of it was now over his very dry mouth. As for the eyes, those red dried out eyes, they followed the old doctor over to the table next to him.

“Okay Mr. Trek, I think we’re just about ready,” he pulled out a stool up to the improvised surgical table. “Let me do a quick check up before we begin.” Dr. Lovejoy turned to the other low table, “Sterilized tools by flame, plenty of cotton balls and a clean rag the for bleeding, sewing needles, silk thread, scissors, straws for the nose, tons of bandages, melted wax on the stove upstairs, a bit of some anesthetic to prevent you from dying of shock, some alcohol to prevent you from catching something, the sand is over there next to the jars of salt…” He tapped his chin, “But what am I forgetting… Oh! That’s right,” he turned to the lantern with shiny metal bowl overhead, “Almost forgot the light.”

He lit a couple of candles to illuminate a flickering spotlight on the dried victim, “I still need be able to see what I’m doing after all.” The doctor looked around the basement, “Camera’s over there, phonograph’s playing… Welp,” he smiled, “I think we can now begin.”

Taking one of the cotton balls and a bottle of rubbing alcohol into his aura, he used it to rub on the former unicorn’s right abdomen. “Remember when I said that in the original method of mummification that everything was taken out. Well, since I want to make sure that you’re still alive by the time I bury you in the desert, you’ll have the privilege of keeping your lungs and heart intact. As for everything else, however…” He turned to a syringe and picked it up with his magic, “I’m afraid that those have to go.”

First, he aimed the needle at the back of the neck and penetrated it deep underneath the skin and in-between the vertebra of the spine before injecting the painkiller. Trek winced at this for a moment, he whimpered in his gag. He felt an icy feeling that coerced through every nerve in his body until he couldn’t feel anything at all. Once this was done, Lovejoy picked up a scalpel and a rag, angling the sharp tool for a moment like a painter deciding how to place the first stroke on a blank canvas.

Like an experienced painter, he lightly cut into the side. This got a reaction from the gagged pony as his ancient eyes shut tightly and gave a muffled scream as Lovejoy cut deeper. Although the painkiller was effective in it that he couldn’t feel a thing, his own mind knew that he was being hurt, which terrified him beyond physical pain. Once the dark red liquid started to flow, the doctor immediately levitated the rag over as he slowly pulled the scalpel lower. Hidden Trek convulsed in his restraints, but being so weak of lying down for months, his muscles proved no use.

Whipping up the blood, and using a pair of a shiny clamp, he opens the gash a little wider for the old doctor to peer through. “Let’s see… My, this is going to be easier than I thought; it looks like most of your internal organs have shrunk a bit from the diet I had you on. Let’s start with your liver…” Reaching a rubber glove into Trek, he felt around while ignoring from the cries of his victim. “Oh yes, it’s a little smaller than normal, but it’ll fit in those jars perfectly.”

Taking his bloodied hoof out, he uses the scalpel along with a few other tools to try to cut the organ out in one peace. Trek screamed louder in his gag, and when the doctor looked up, he found something surprising, “Tears? Huh, you would think that those would have been dried up too. Equally interesting that you can’t even feel anything... Oh well, let me focus for the moment.” A minute later, he pulled out the blood-soaked liver.

Lovejoy smiled, “There we are!” he declared as he cleaned it up with the rag. He opened one of the mason jars, emptied its contents before placing the liver in and using his magic to return the salt. “You know,” he said as he turned his attention towards the stomach, “I have to admit, this isn’t the first time I performed surgery while the patient wasn’t fully under. I mean, just think of the agony you’re going through right now yet can’t feel the hot pain at the same time. You could just feel the blade slicing away at your insides whole, can’t you?” He paused as Trek balled his eyes out. “Still, this is all rather exciting. The first Equestrian mummy, can you imagine it? Perhaps a couple thousand years give or take; maybe some archaeologists would dig you up and put you into a fancy museum along with the other mummies. You would be studied; parents will have their kids take pictures of you, and then wonder why you look a little off compared to other mummies like not being in a coffin for example.”

Slowly, he removed the stomach and placed it in salt, “I think you will be very unique compared to my other creations. I’ve turned ordinary, happy ponies like yourself into angels, dolls, marionettes, paintings, concrete statues, turned them inside-out, outside-in, put them into a jar, stretched them, twisted them, and reshaped them into wonderful art pieces. Sometimes recreate deaths from books and artworks from all over the world.” He then started to remove a kidney, “But I’ve never mummified anyone alive before. Although it’s taken such a very long time, I’m really looking forward to the result.”

Organ after organ came out of Hidden Trek, but just as the doctor promised, he did leave his lungs and heart untouched. Kidneys and entrails were removed much to the poor pony’s discomfort. Lovejoy then proceeded to stuff the stallion with sand until he looked somewhat as he did before the operation. After sewing him back up, the old doctor said, “Now all I need to do is to wrap you up, so before I go get the wax, are there any final words you like to say to me before you could no longer speak?”

He carefully freed Hidden’s mouth, a dry sob was heard, “Please kill me.” He whimpered, “Kill me now.”

“Now now,” Lovejoy patted his head, “Just a little longer I promise, and then you’ll be free,” he then slapped the tape back on him as he headed up the stairs. On the stove was a huge pot of the hot, milky wax in which the doctor pulled off and rushed downstairs.

Before he took out the bandages, he stuffed straw in each of Trek’s nostrils. Now prepared, the aged unicorn took out the ladle of the scalding hot wax, and poured a layer over the victim’s hind leg. Each time it was applied to his coat, Trek would scream out as it covered him. While this was going on, Lovejoy began to wrap the bandages, with the warm wax now holding in place as he went up the body.

When it came to cover the whole head, the doctor was careful that not a drop of it would go down the straws and quickly wrapping the rest of the head. When that was done, he repeated the process again, trying both legs closer, weaving the bandages together like an oddly shaped basket.

As time went on, the wax cocoon had hardened, thus the old unicorn finally undid the straps before applying the blistered, exposed skin to the wax and bandaging them up. With a third and final layer, Lovejoy put a hoof over the straws that still stuck out, being pleased that he’s still breathing.

With a wide smile, he photographed his living mummy and turned the music off.

“Now there’s only one last thing to do,” he then teleported himself and Hidden Trek out of the basement and into the night. Lovejoy could still see the shadow of the village in the moonlight, but his attention was toward elsewhere. Picking up the body, he began trotting over to the place where Lilly Garden and Finishing Line were buried.

At the foot of an arched rock, the doctor found his shovel waiting for him. Its metallic plat was still in the soil right next to the carved names in the side of the massive red rock. Placing the body down, he set to work in digging out a shallow grave for him.

“Now then,” he asked himself as he loosens the soil, “What to do with the Line family?”

Chapter 22: The Cave

When Dr. Lovejoy and the Line family left the village, Double Diamond was called up to the cutie mark vault. The pale pony obeyed quickly, for he decided that since the very pony that was blackmailing him was out of town, now was the time to execute his idea into action by taking a very big risk. It was a risk that came with a plan.

“There you are,” Starlight waved over to him. “Double, I have some bad news that I think you should know before we tell the village.”

“What bad news?”

“This morning, when I went into the vault,” she took in a deep breath, “I found that Hidden Trek’s cutie mark has gone out. “

Diamond looked at her for a moment, “You mean that he’s dead too?”

“I’m afraid so. When I walked in, I just saw his cutie mark fade until it disappeared. This sets everything back now that Mr. Trek is now deceased. We don’t know if he gave that scroll to that magazine or not since I don’t know what just happened to him.”

The pale pony looked over to the four moving dots that were headed towards the mountains. “Actually, maybe there could be a way.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“Look, since the doctor has just left to go to the mountains, I really need to tell you something and we need to do something fast. The truth is Starlight, the doctor is incredibly dangerous.”

“I don’t understand, I mean sure, he had tested some drugs in the past. But wha-”

“No, whatever he told you, it’s not true! Look, I’ve been blackmailed too so he could prevent me from telling you what I know. But since he’s out of the village, we need to act fast if everypony is to live. Starlight, Dr. Lovejoy is a killer. He’s a clever, manipulative monster.”

“What on this planet are you talking about? Why would he blackmail you too?”

“Because I’ve found something in his house that he doesn’t want anypony to see before he dies. A photo album straight from Tartarus, half if it has pictures of…” he took in a breath, “bodies. Dead bodies in which he created some sort of sick art within, I’ve seen at least eighty of them in which he admitted to having killed all of them! All including Lilly, Finishing Line, Check Mate, and if anything that Starting said was true, he’s just killed Hidden Trek as well! Starlight, I’m begging you, he’s promised that if he found out that you knew what I’ve just told you, he’s gonna kill somepony close to me in the village as well! We’ve got to do something while he’s out of the village, and maybe help the Line’s while we’re at it!”

“But where’s your proof? If any of that’s true, then what sort of evidence do you have to back this up?”

He looked at the last house at the end of the village, “I know where he’s kept his photo album. If I show you, we must do something to stop him right away.”

With an eyebrow raised, Starlight’s horn glowed, and out of the cave was the Staff of Sameness, “I will, but show me the book first.”

The doctor was thankful that his saddlebag and a scarf that helped him keep warm on the rocky path to the caves. Strapped to his back are the tripod and a camera, along with a set of tools in his bag. He could see from high up the desert valley, before him on the gray mountainside was the Line family with Starting looking back at him every few minutes as if he could sense what was about to happen.

“Excuse me, Sandy,” he said, “how much further to the caves?”

“We’re about there,” the pegasus answered. “Why, are you tired?”

“Almost, but I can still go for a bit.”

“We just need to round this corner and cross a stone bridge. Once we go over it, we’ll be at the mouth of the caves in no time.”

Lovejoy observed the snow that was collected on the tops of these mountains, the still solid blue sky and the cool breeze that drifted over. In a way, this was the perfect setting for his next art project. It was tranquil, so isolated, so timeless, that he thought through what sort of background that the family will be placed in once he’s done with them.

But just as he was thinking, the doctor paused when he felt his head ached. He placed a forehoof over his right eye.

“Doctor?” Shore Line turned around when he noticed that the old stallion stopped, “Are you okay?”

“Sorry, just… give me a moment.” His forehead wrinkled at the pain behind his eye.

“Is something wrong?” the mother asked.

“Headache, but I don’t think it’s anything to be worried about. Perhaps it’s the pressure of the air or something.”

“You know,” the colt began, “Maybe we should go back. I mean, if the doctor isn’t feeling too well-”

“I’m not going to let a headache get in the way of our hike.” The old unicorn interrupted, “After all, I wouldn’t be asked the three of you to lead me up here if I knew I wasn’t able to.” His ears picked up on a soft sound in the quiet air. He concentrated on it for a moment; it didn’t take long to figure out that they were being followed. “I’ll be fine. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

The family and the doctor proceeded along the trail with Lovejoy silently cursing that he now has to make new plans.

Around a corner, they came to the arched bridge in which nature had carved out. Thankfully, it was wide enough for three ponies that stood at abreast could easily walk comfortably across. However, as Starting Line’s parents started to walk over it, he, on the other hoof, froze in place.

“Start?” his mother craned her neck behind her, “Starting are you coming?”

He shook his head, his eyes glued down into the cavern of ice and stone below. His legs shook the longer he stared.

“I think your son has a fear of heights Mr. and Mrs. Line,” the doctor pointed out. “Did you know this?”

Sandy flew up to them, “No. I honestly didn’t.”

“I’m not going!” Starting objected. “I don’t wanna fall.”

The doctor got an idea, “Here,” his horn lit up, taking off his scarf and putting it over his eyes. “Perhaps you won’t be so scared of crossing if you can’t see what you’re crossing.” He then levitated the blindfolded colt over to his father, “Here Mr. Line, how about you carry him over.”

“Hold on tightly, Starting,” Shore Line said before he started off with his son clinging onto his neck for dear life.

With the whole family going across the bridge, the doctor’s ears picked up that the sounds of distant hoofsteps were getting louder. “Wonder who’s following us?” he muttered as he too trotted across.

Several minutes later after they passed by a pair of skies sticking out of the snow, the four of them finally made it to the cave. “So we’re not going too deep in there, right?” Starting asked, looking into the gaping abyss of the entrance.

“Not really,” Lovejoy responded as he placed his camera on the tripod. “I’m sure we’ll find something interesting in there. Oh! I have an idea, why not I take a family portrait of all of you in the cave?”

“Really?” the mother asked, “You’d do that for us?”

“Well, since you’ve gone through so much trouble of bringing me up here; it only seems fair that I do something for all of you in return.”

“Yeah,” Shore nodded, “We haven’t had our picture taken for a long time.”

“Excellent,” Lovejoy said as he trotted in, with the camera in his magic, “Just follow me.” The family followed behind into the mountain. Not far in, the doctor placed a camera over to a wall where sunlight illuminated it. “Just group up over there and get yourselves ready.” The family did so, with the father on the right, the mother on the left, and a nervous colt in the center. After the doctor asked them to smile, Lovejoy took their picture with a flash of a bulb. “Very good,” he said, looking at the open portals that lead deeper into the darkness, “How about we-”

“Doctor Lovejoy!” a voice thundered, the family leaned over to see who was entering into the cave.

“Starlight?” Sandy inquired, “What are you doin-”

“Get out of the cave right now,” she warned, with the Staff of Sameness in her aura and four other stallions from the village. “Somepony in here is in very, very deep trouble!”

For the doctor, he didn’t bother to look behind him, “I take it that Mr. Diamond has told you about my book?”

“I for one am very shocked at you! You had lied to us! We’ve trusted you, take you in, and what did the ponies of Our Town get in return?”

“Great artwork?”

“YOU KILLED THEM!”

Starting Line looked up his parents and tugged at their forelegs, “Mom! Dad! We’ve got to get out of here now!”

Lovejoy shook his head, “Oh Starlight, Starlight, Starlight,” he raised his forehoof, and when he slammed it down, his horn lit up, lifting everypony in the cave off of their hooves, paralyzing them in the air. “I’m very disappointed in you that it took you this long to figure it all out.” His horn glowed brighter; two entrances into the labyrinth were caved in, leaving a pocket in each of them. He tossed the stallions from the village into one of them and made that cave in, trapping them inside. The doctor looked at the shocked and frightened family, “I’ll take care of you three a little later,” he said, tossing them in the other and caving them in as well.

With Starlight still in her aura, she struggled to free herself, “I wouldn’t cast any spells if I were you. I think you know if you did, your horn would short-circuit. Possibly damaging that magic of yours, hmm? What’s this?” his magic lifted a jar from her saddlebags. “Let me guess, the fungus I’ve given you? Oh, Starlight, you won’t be needing this stuff anymore,” he tossed the jar into one of the open caves where there was the sound of glass breaking.

“Now, since you’re here, I’d need to ask you one important question,” the old stallion went up to her, lowering her until they were face to face. With a smile, Dr. Lovejoy asked, “Starlight Glimmer, are you happy?”

Chapter 23: The Psychical Analysis of Starlight Glimmer by Dr. Reverie Lovejoy

Starlight tried to move against the old unicorn’s magic as much as her limbs could, but they proved to be useless. From his saddlebags, Lovejoy pulled out a rope in which he hogtied the mare before he let his magic off of her except for her horn. She was sat down by one of the collapsed entrances where the frightened family was behind.

“First of all,” the doctor said as he sat down right in front of her, “I want to apologize for not bringing my tea set or my phonograph along. I prefer murder with a side of class like say… strangling you to the Violin Concerto of Moztrot or watch you fall to your death with a cup of spiced tea. However, before we get to the dirty business, perhaps we should have a bit of a conversation before I kill you.”

Starlight looked at him in disbelief, “I just found out that you’re a serial killer, and the first thing you want to do is to have a chat before you ax me off! I thought real villains kill their opponents, not monologue them to death.”

He shrugged, “It is the most civil thing to do, isn’t it? I don’t see anything wrong with per-say. Well, you might, but I don’t. Personally, I don’t see why not since you can’t really do anything about it.”

“What is it that you want?” she demanded.

The old doctor smiled, “Oh good, straight to the point then. Well, as I’ve said, I am retired from my previous job from Fillidelphia’s hospital. Truthfully, I’ve chosen my retirement here for two reasons, that it is well outside of the law to catch me. And with all these happy looking ponies around, I feel like the colt that’s been given the key to the candy shop. In your village, I have all the possibilities of potential artwork that I could ever want in one area, this is practically heaven to me.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Starlight clarified, “what are you going to do to my ponies when I’m gone?”

“Oh. Just continue doing what I love to do, of course, kill them artistically when they say that they’re happy. But I’m afraid we’re getting off topic. Let’s quit talking about me, let’s focus on you.” He leans forward, “You know, as a doctor with a Psychology degree, I have studied a few interesting cases in my lifetime. Yet, you are by far, have been the most fun to study out of all of them. I’ve watched how this society of yours works, I’ve seen how you behaved, I’ve listened to how your citizens talked about you, and since you’re at the end of the line, I think it’s about time I personally give you, your psychological analysis.”

“You don’t know me! You’ve only been here for a couple of months, what could you possibly know about me?”

“You’d be surprised.” He leaned back, Lovejoy felt his headache started to intensify, but he ignored it. “From the day I’ve walked into Our Town, it’s clear as sunlight that something was completely off about this place. A brain dead, blinded foal could easily see that something was wrong with the forced smiles, the endless praise of the idea of equality, and the way that literally every single pony is just too kind. It took a while, I’d admit, to come up with a diagnosis for you and relate to what the cause of it might be. For you see, I’ve come to the conclusion, that your self-grandeur, manipulation of others, lack of empathy, strange sense of morality, quick to anger, want things to be run in a certain way, and that you encourage others to give you praise has to lead me to think that you have the same mental condition that I have.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow, “And what is that?”

He smiled, “Congratulations, you’re a Sociopath too. Not the murdering type, but the one that’s obsessed with gaining as much power as ‘Equality’ as possible. Better yet, I think I know exactly of the cause of this might be.”

She scoffed it off, “What are you going on about?”

“You see Starlight, on the night that I found out that your cutie mark is a fake, I had to ask myself some important questions: In a town that has a philosophy of Equality, why would the leader of it all not have her cutie mark removed and instead covered it up with make-up? Why would she demand obedience among her followers? And why would she want to control nearly every aspect of their lives?

“It’s all quite simple for me to understand, really. You, Ms. Glimmer, have never grown up.”

This took Starlight completely by surprise, “What are you talking about! I’m a full grown mare!”

“Are you? Especially when you order about your so-called village with your mindless, inexhaustible, unstoppable, repetitive, nagging demands.” and here, the old stallion’s voice became whiny, “I want my friends to be with me forever! I want them to never go away! I want to be the boss! I want to be the heroine! I want to be the leader! I want everypony giving me praise! I want to be a genius! I want, I want, I want, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now!” Here, the doctor coughed, returning to his usual voice, he added, “Face it Starlight, you may want to have the façade of looking like a grown-up mare that’s clever, but I can see through you and see the little, emotionally hurt filly that’s so petrified of being alone that she would do anything and everything in her power to make sure she doesn’t feel it again.”

For a moment, the purple mare stared at him without saying anything, folding back her ears, she responded. “No… You don’t know that. You don’t know anything about me!”

“Do I? Tell me, ma’am, would your worst foal-hood memory happen to include being lonely where your family was either never there to take care of you or have neglected you?”

Her eyes widen, “How did you-”

“But then you had a friend, that for a while you could rely on him or her to give you the support, the love, the attention, the guidance that your family never could present to you. Then one day, that said friend left you, perhaps over a cutie mark most likely. That is what it’s got to be about, isn’t it? That’s where this obsession with having everypony in that village to remove the past identities of their cutie marks came from. It is so that you won’t have to remember being signaled out because of what you have on your flank.”

Starlight shook her head, “Stop it.”

“That’s why you’ve crafted this village. With an event like that, how could you trust another pony? If in the end, you know that you’ll just end up losing them again, and again, and again, over and over? You couldn’t. Why would you trust anyone, even somepony like say… Double Diamond, unless you have his cutie mark removed and placed in a jar somewhere? After all, if your friend for your childhood, that was as close to a real family you could get didn’t stay long because of a simple cutie mark, what’s preventing of such a thing from happening again with everyone else?”

“Just shut up,” the mare shut her eyes tightly.

“For what? Telling you a hard truth about yourself that you don’t want to hear? I mean, it’s so obvious! This fear of being alone must have been a motivation to you, isn’t it? Why else would you study powerful magic that could remove another’s cutie mark? Or how you would know brainwashing techniques for your Equality House? You’ve created this village in the middle of nowhere so that you can have your ponies…”

Still ignoring the throbbing pain in his head, he shook it and said, “No. These villagers aren’t ponies at all. Let’s call them what they really are Ms. Glimmer. Toys. Living dolls for you to play with. Each one that’s been scraped of who they really were so that they could look the same, talk the same, act the same, have the same personalities, have the same opinions, and each of them comes with a painted smile. You made them believe that their talents are evil and you promised them relief for the exchange that you can tell them what to say, what to think, what to eat, what to drink, when to sleep, when to work, who to date, when to make children, what they should be doing for the rest of their lives… You’ve done all of this, so you could pretend that you have friends, pretend that you are loved, and pretend that you live in a perfect world where nopony will ever think about leaving you to be forever alone.”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Starlight screamed at him, tears now starting to flow from her eyes.

Lovejoy chuckled, “Yet, you can’t tell me I’m wrong, can’t you?” she didn’t reply. He sat down on his hunches, with a hoof over his right eye. “Look, from one sociopath to another, believe it or not, I don’t really care about how and why you run your little town. I don’t care if you have to mentally torture these ponies into your way of thinking. If anything, I’ve been fascinated that you’ve performed what is essentially a forbidden social experiment. But as much as I like you for it, I confess, you were a bit… sloppy.”

The bounded unicorn looked up with angry eyes, “What do you mean sloppy!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love how you brainwash your dolls and ripping their identities from them. I also like how you have a philosophy in place that would get the weak minded sucked into. But, I have to say, your execution of it is rather… sloppy at best. I mean really, with the lack of communal meals or having your other toys go door to door to see if everyone is complying; it’s amazing that there hasn’t been a revolution in your town yet. There could be ponies in the village right now that might be conspiring against you and you probably wouldn’t know it!” Lovejoy shook his head, “Still, it’s rather sad that your main goal is just power alone.”

“Why?”

“Because power eventually fades, no matter how popular or feared you are, you’ll eventually lose it by either being overthrown or by death. You should have chosen the path of art because it is immortal. My photographs in that book, I don’t think even you would throw it away because of the artistic and sentimental value those pictures have been beyond measure, especially to those who knew the victims. Your equality makes everypony equally forgetful, while I may have broken some of your toys; at least I’ve made each of them timeless. Which comes to the fun part,” the old unicorn got up and went to the saddlebag. “I’m going to have you be the first to have the privilege of deciding how you want to die.”

“Hey doc,” a third voice said, turning to where the source of the voice came from, the doctor was blinded for a moment from the flash of his camera before he felt something hard hit against his head.

After Double Diamond threw the rock at his head, the aura that the doctor kept on Starlight’s horn quickly faded, thus freeing the unicorn from her captive. “Double, where-”

“Followed you,” he said grabbing another rock. “Quick take him-” he felt his neck being grabbed in tight magic, bringing him face to face with an angry doctor with blood flowing down the side of his face like war paint.

“You just won’t learn, don’t you? You stupid,” he flung him hard against the ground, “filthy,” slammed him against the cavern walls, “stallion-stuffing,” tossed him up to the ceiling before letting him drop to the uneven floor, “mud pony!” With a bonfire in his eyes, he marched over to the stallion that was flung around like a rag-doll. He placed a hoof over his air pipe, lifting it up. “I do hope you end up in the deepest regions of Tartarus you…”

Double Diamond waited for him to stomp on him. But as he watched in shock of what the doctor was about to do, he saw him froze. Lovejoy was in a familiar, aqua blue aura of Starlight Glimmer’s magic. In which, the old unicorn found himself being thrown out of the cave. It was then that when the doctor landed, there was a loud CRACK that was heard.

Loosen herself from the rope, Starlight went to see what just happened. She found the doctor, the back of his head was resting on a rock, and dark red blood was oozing from it, turning his face paler by the second. The mare was shocked, she meant to hurt him, but didn’t intend to make him bleed.

Lovejoy chuckled weakly, “You… are full of surprises Ms. Glimmer. I guess you and I are really are alike after all… both monsters.”

Starlight narrowed her gaze, “I am not a monster, I’ve just slain one.”

But the doctor continued to laugh, “Remember Starlight… Those who fight with monsters… might take care… lest they thereby become… a monster…” With a joking smile on his face, the old doctor went still.

The mare looked at the body for a whole minute, her horn still flared ready for whatever trickery this beast had in store.

Yet, he didn’t move. After another minute it was clear.

Dr. Reverie Lovejoy was dead.

“Starlight,” Diamond called out.

She turned around, returning to the cave to the white stallion, “You okay?”

“I think I’m bruised, hurt all over, but I think I can still get up.”

The mare turned her attention to the two collapsed walls, “If you’re up for it, help me get everypony out. Can you work with that one wall while I uncover the other?”

Double Diamond got up onto his hunches, “I think so… just… give me a minute.”

Chapter 24: Ashes and Ashes

According to the only will that Dr. Lovejoy left behind, all of his worldly possessions will go to the citizens of Our Town, so that they would do with them as they see fit. When the Line family, a hoofful of the other villagers, a bruised Double Diamond and Starlight Glimmer brought with them the doctor’s body, it was widely agreed what was to be done. As soon as the town was organized together, everything that Dr. Lovejoy had ever own was taken out of his house into the desert to be piled on the old unicorn’s body.

From his mattress to his books, surgical tools to barrels of sugar, teacups to the chemicals for developing photographs, nearly everything from his house was taken to where the unicorn lied. By sunset, this task was completed when the villagers tossed bundles of sticks, twigs, and tumbleweeds onto the funerary pyre. Starlight herself stood before her villagers with a lit torch in her aura.

“Friends,” she began, “I’m sorry to tell you, that everything that we’ve thought the doctor was is a lie.” There were whispers from the crowd, “Dr. Lovejoy has betrayed, manipulated, and used our hospitality to his own gain. I’m also sorry to tell you, that this pony that lies underneath all of this is the one that has murdered Lilly Garden, Finishing Line, Check Mate, and…” she bowed her head, “even Hidden Trek.”

Confused and shocked voices rang out in a disorganized choir before she continued, “We have been fortunate enough that we’ve prevented the rest of the Line family becoming his next victims, and we are relieved to have them here safe with us.” Many nodded, “Regardless how you feel about him, this stallion has lied to all of us, putting each and every one of you in danger. From here on out, we must be more cautious than ever to prevent such a thing ever happening again. At the same time, let us remember, and move forward, of those that he has harmed. With this torch, let us burn the evil from our village! Let this light banish the dark memories from us! May it erase this dark chapter of this town’s history so that we can become wiser of the monsters that are out there.”

With that, she tossed the smoky torch onto the pyre in which its bright light spread among the doctor’s things. The bonfire grew in brilliance and it’s intensity in heat as it crawled from one thing to another. Odd scents and crackling of wood soon came as the white smoke trail rose into the skies.

“Starlight,” she turned and found Mrs. Line who had a wing over her son, “I wanted to say, thank you for coming to our rescue. If you and Diamond weren’t there, I don’t know what would happen to us.”

“Nopony has thrown away the photo album, have they?” Shore inquired.

She shook her head, “I hate to admit this, but the doctor was right, as much as I detest that book, I don’t think it would be a good idea to throw it away.”

“Starlight,” Starting said, looking up at her, “If you have it, could we have Finishing’s picture? When he was still alive?”

She knelt down, “Of course little one. I don’t think we should burn everything he has. After all, we still need something to remind us not to take in strangers at face value.” The mare looked at Sandy, “How’s Mr. Diamond?”

“He’ll heal. Of course, I had to use Lovejoy’s first aid kit to clean him up. But at least he’s bruised and hasn’t broken anything.”

Starlight nodded, “Where is he now?”

The family pointed over to the village, “He’s by the water pump,” Starting told her and the unicorn thanked him as she went away from the warm bonfire.

Starlight headed out into the cool night, the conversations of her ponies dimmed until all she could hear is her own hoofsteps and the crickets. The town itself was quiet, except for the swishing of water and the squeak of the pump at the end of the street. By a lantern, she found Double filling a bucket.

“Feeling any better?”

Diamond looked up, “I’m still sore, but I think I’ll be alright. Although I have to say that it did hurt back there.”

She nodded, “I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you earlier. If I had taken a look at who the stallion really was earlier, we would have spared some of the heartaches.”

“What’s done is done,” the white earth pony let go of the curved bar, dropping onto all four hooves. “So, what do we do now? Are there going to be any changes from now on?”

“Yes. I think that for now on, whenever anypony comes into town, we should have them convinced to give up their cutie marks as soon as possible. But in the meantime, we need to form a new little group where we check on each other to see if everyone is in line with the teachings of Equality.”

“Anything else?”

“Indeed, I think that starting tomorrow; we should all try to eat together for all of our meals.”

Double raised an eyebrow, “What for?”

“The doctor pointed out a weakness in this village, in that we need a stronger community. For now on, we must become tighter than ever if we’re going to permit something like this from happening again. I’ll post some new rules by tomorrow, but for now, we need to rest tonight.”

“Understand, goodnight Starlight,” with that, the mare went up to her house and went inside.

She went upstairs to the bathroom where she began to fill up the tub. Closing the door and drawing the curtains, she lit the oil lamps and removed the makeup off of her flank. She turned to the new phonograph and the music collection to choose from. “Lovejoy maybe was insane, but at least he had good taste,” she muttered as she moved from one record label to the next.

After settling on a record of Horseshoepin’s music and turning the turntable on, she turned off the facet and stepped in as piano Nocturne began to play. Letting the warm water dig underneath her coat to relax her muscles, “I’m no monster,” she muttered, closing her eyes.

“Neither am I a filly. He’s just a senile old fool, who was crazy enough to kill ponies. I’m not a monster. Tomorrow’s going to be better, I’ll make my legacy last longer than his stupid art.”

Yet, no matter how much she tried to relax to the water and the melody of the piano keys, Starlight couldn’t get what that doctor said from the cave out of her mind. Nopony in her life ever talked to her like that before. He penetrated her with those cold words like being impaled by icicles, surely she was loved. Everypony in the village says so. They were her real friends. She is the one that makes all of them happy. She did her duty to be the hero, and for today, that was enough.

“I guess you could say, I am happy now doctor. Oh so happy.”

Author's Note

It's finally done. :ajsmug: This turned out quite nicely I must say.

So, with this being over, I want to turn to you, the readers that have been watching this, what do you think?

Chapter 13: The Conversion of Hidden Trek

“Are you sure this will work?” Starlight asked with a raised eyebrow.

Dr. Lovejoy nodded, with the drugged piece of bread in his aura, “I’ve done this sort of thing before. To completely change one’s mind is a delegate procedure of psychology. The drug itself works on giving the participant a verbal and optical illusion in which would be so convincing, that he would have no choice but to believe in it.” He paused before the door, turning to Double Diamond, “Make sure you give this to him. Wait for about a couple of minutes, then let me enter, and I will take care of the rest.”

Nodding, the pale pony took the bread, unlocked the door to the Equality House and went in for a moment before returning to lock the door.

Starlight looked at the old doctor, “What do you need me for?”

“To teach you how this is done, and you’ll play a very important part at the very end where you’ll… lead him to the light, shall we say. If such a metamorphosis is to happen, I must first lead him into the darkness, but before the drug will wear off, I’ll need you to show him a way out.” Lovejoy looked down the empty street, “I trust that you’ve informed everypony to stay inside while we conduct this experiment?”

She told him that she did. Taking out his pocket watch, the stallion waited for several minutes before he made Diamond hoof over the key to the prison. Lovejoy carefully fitted the key into the lock and as quietly as possible turned it to open.

Gently pushing the door open, he found Hidden Trek staring out the barred window; his “lunch” was already reduced to crumbs. The doctor cleared his throat, getting the younger unicorn’s attention, “D… Doc? Doc! You’ve come back!” he rushed over to hug the stallion.

“Good morning Mr. Trek,” Lovejoy pushed away, “I must apologize for leaving you in here, I could only imagine that you must have been quite lonely.”

“You have no idea,” he grabbed a lock of his mane, “Nopony has been willing to talk to me. Not even the guy who was here on the first night. Even that pale guy who comes here to bring in food and water – and to take out my waste, never says a word. That stupid voice keeps me up at night, and everything in here has an equal sign. Even all the pages in the books have equal signs. I swear I’m on the edge of snapping here.”

“Oh, I can imagine.” The doctor tilted his head, “But I don’t suppose that this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

Trek snapped his head up at him, “What?”

“You said that you grew up in… Baltamare, wasn’t it?” he nodded, “You said yourself that you already knew your way around the city to the point you could walk blindfolded without a problem. But I wonder why? Is it because that you knew the layout of the city better than you knew ponies, or perhaps, more than they knew you?”

Trek stared at him, “I uh… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Ah, I see.” Lovejoy nodded, “You must be one of those, alone in a crowded city kind of ponies. Where you’ve always felt lonely and lost to the point that it manifested itself as a cutie mark?”

“Doc, what are you saying? I really don’t like where you’re going with this.”

“Let’s face it, Mr. Trek, this isn’t the first time that you felt like the invisible stallion. Maybe that’s why you go into the unknown so that you would find something to give you the attention you rarely got.”

“B-But doctor, t-that’s not true! I have friends. I have a life.”

“Yet, do any of those friends, or rather, your family... are they even interested in what you have to say? Do they always have something that’s so important that hearing whatever thoughts and opinions you have is merely insignificant compared to what they have? Why I wouldn’t be surprised that with the kind of life you have now, why would they want to listen.”

“Shut up,” the stallion covered his ears, “Doc please, just… just shut up!”

Lovejoy smirked, “Why? I’m telling you the truth. Do you wish to not want to hear it? My, my... it’s no wonder why you go off into the unknown, for you have more in common with it than with other ponies. Perhaps it’s little wonder why you got yourself a job that tells you to get lost.” The doctor trotted out the door with, “Then, I guess you don’t need my help to find the path to happiness then.”

“Doctor Lovejoy!” Trek rushed after him, “You take that…” but as soon as he exited from the door, he slowed to a stop.

From the side of the house, Double Diamond, Starlight, and the doctor peeked around the corner while still keeping out of sight. “What’s he doing?” the light Earth pony whispered.

“Just watch,” Lovejoy said.

And they did, Hidden Trek looked up and down the empty street. “What?” he craned his neck upward, circling around, “Baltamare? How did I get back here?” He looked around, “Hello? Anypony?” He waited for a response, “Hello! Is somepony out there?” He started to walk away from the town and towards the desert, calling out for someone. Unbeknownst to him, the three other ponies followed behind him.

“Hello!” Hidden Trek shouted. But everywhere he looked, he found streets, parks, skyscrapers, even apartments, empty. He turned another corner but stopped, “Wait, didn’t I come to this street already?” He looked up at the green and white sign, “This can’t be Gallop Street, I’ve already passed it. What’s going on?”

His ears stood up as he heard something. Although he couldn’t make out what it was saying, he heard a voice. That means that there is someone here! Trek quickly scanned the boulevard in which his eye caught something moving. One of the doors from the houses had closed so he galloped up to it.

Finding that the door was unlocked, pushing it open, he found that it wasn’t somepony’s home, but an open photo gallery. But again, the place was empty. Raising an eyebrow, he walked up to one of the photos, and his eyes widen, “Wait, mom and dad? No that… that can’t be right,” Hidden Trek examined the picture carefully. He remembered it well. It was from the vacation to Manehattan when he was a colt. It was a picture of the crowded Times Square, his father on the left, his mother on the right and him in the middle.

Only, the picture he was looking at, his younger self wasn’t in it. There was nothing but space between his smiling parents.

He moved on to the next photo of his tenth birthday. There was the banner, the lit cake that illuminated the darkened room. There was the table with all of his presence in the corner. But there was no him sitting at the cake, waiting to blow them out. The next photo was his graduation picture of the students jumping and throwing their caps, but once again, he was absent in it. Picture after picture, of familiar photographs that he had seen in his family’s photo albums, he wasn’t there. It was as if he was erased from the past completely.

“This has to be some sick joke,” he told himself. “There’s no way any of this can be real.”

From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a moving shadow. Hidden Trek went after it, only to find that the gallery had dissolved into a mountain pass. He quickly turned around, and the gallery he came out of, was no longer there. “I’m dreaming! That’s what this is, just a dream!” Trek tried to bite his hoof hard enough until he could no longer take it, but the forest was still there, “Come on,” he bangs his head against a rock, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”

But feeling his head start to hurt, he plopped down on the ground, “What’s happening, and more importantly, where am I exactly?” His ears picked up on more whispering, “I know you’re there! Come on, show yourself! Why do you have to keep running away from me?”

He looked at both sides of the pass, catching some pony’s tail disappearing behind one of the stone walls. Trek took chase as he rounded the corner. He knew somepony who was there, someone who was just barely one step away. The unicorn tried to keep up with this elusive pony until he found that the pass opened up to a familiar plateau that overlooked a bustling village surrounded by pine.

“Is that…?” he walked closer over the cliff side. “Hoofinberg? But, that’s in Germaneigh. How did I get here?” Before he could answer this question, he saw from the corner of his eye the mysterious pony galloping down the path towards the tiny town.

Following the trail, he came, to his relief, the tiny town filled with ponies. He went up to what was the first pony he’s seen all morning, a filly with a braided mane. “Oh thank Celestia, I’ve found someone.” But she didn’t look up at him; she had her focus on picking flowers. “Oh, right,” Trek cleared his throat, “Guten Morgen mein Lieber. Ich hatte gehofft, Sie mich für einen Moment helfen könnte?”

But still, the little filly didn’t acknowledge the stallion’s presence. Giving a raised eyebrow, Hidden Trek tried waving his hoof in front of her face, but she didn’t even flinch. As if he wasn’t even there.

Growing concerned, he went up to the other villagers who went about their lives, but not one of them noticed the new stallion. “Entschuldigen Sie?” He said to one pegasus with a thick mustache. No reaction. Trek went up to a mare, “Hallo? Kannst du mich sehen?” she didn’t even look at him. Then he went up to a colt constructing a castle of blocks. “Du da drüben! Können Sie mich hören!”

Nothing, no matter who he went up to, he got no reaction from them.

“Why is nopony listening!” Trek shouted before a piece of paper flung to his face. Taking it off to examine it, he found that it was an incomplete map, something that resembled his original cutie mark.

He glanced upward to find that the green village had suddenly been replaced with an endless desert before looking back at it. “I don’t get it,” he said, plopping down on the sand. “Why is everypony ignoring me? I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want everyone not knowing I’m there!” Growing angry, his eyes sharpen on the unfinished map. “Why couldn’t this thing ever be useful? Why doesn’t this give me an idea where to go!” he shouted as he tore the map to pieces with his hooves. As he tore it, a wind let those pieces fly into the oblivion of the wilderness.

When he found that he could tear no more, Trek only stared at the horizon as those pieces flew away. Overcome with a sense of hopelessness, he covered his eyes with his hooves and cried.

He heard whispers, but he didn’t care anymore. All he now asks for is to have this nightmare to end.

“Hidden Trek?” the stallion snapped his attention behind him, finding the purple mare that had imprisoned him.

“G-Go away!” he yelled at her.

“Wait, just hear me out,” Starlight said, “I know exactly how you feel right now. That you feel confused, lost, and unwanted. You were gifted with a cutie mark that’s given you nothing but grief. Forced to wander to places where nopony in their right minds would go to, and for what? What sort of praise do you get to earn from ponies that are not thankful for the work you’ve put into? Mr. Trek, I know what it’s like to have a cutie mark come between you and being happy. I know what it feels like to be isolated because of a special talent that only proves to be a curse.”

The unicorn mare went up to him, putting a hoof on his shoulder, “Realize that you don’t have to live like this. That you don’t have to be ignored for simply existing, for you need real friends that will listen to you, and love you – ponies that will care because they too have experienced the very thing you’ve suffered. Let me ask you, Hidden Trek, has that cutie mark ever done you any real good to bring you the friends you needed the most?”

Trek only closed his eyes tightly and shook his head.

“What do you think your life would have been like if you never had that mark?”

He sobbed, “I-I-I w-wished th-that I n-n-never had it!”

Starlight smiled warmly as she sat in front of him, “Hidden, look at me,” he did, “You don’t have to live like this. I’m more than willing to offer you a newer, better life. One in which your cutie mark would never come between you and your friends. A life where your task is just as valued as the next one, where you’ll never have an argument, a fight, or being told that you’re less than what you’re actually worth. For in that life, you will never, as long as you live, be alone again. I can give you that! I’d be more than happy to give you that life only ponies as you could only dream about!

“And if you help me, you’ll be the key in spreading the good news to all of Equestria. Where true happiness is possible! Where cutie marks won’t get anypony in the way of having a good life! And, in a society where your efforts will never, ever be forgotten, so tell me Hidden Trek, is this the kind of life you’ve always wanted?”

Whipping the tears from his eyes, he nodded. “Please, I’ll do anything so I won’t be alone again.”

“Then come with me Mr. Trek,” Starlight stood up, “We have work for you.”

Chapter 16: Sugar Belle’s Visit

Dr. Lovejoy was doing some reading in his rocking chair while the phonograph played a duet largo of two cellos. It was almost sunset when there was a knock on the front door. “Just a moment,” the old unicorn called out as he looked up. Putting his book aside, he used his magic to open the door before quickly raising an eyebrow, “Ms. Belle?”

“Good evening doctor,” she nodded, “I was hoping if I could take a moment of your time?”

“Not at all, come inside,” the mare did so, “Would you like to have something? I have some candies in the-”

“Actually, I won’t be here long Dr. Lovejoy. I just came here for some advice.”

The old stallion waved over to the couch, “By all means, ma’am, have a seat, and tell me what troubles you.”

She hopped on the couch and asked, “First of all, how are you this evening?”

“Oh, quite well today,” Lovejoy smiled, “I’ve been developing some photos of the village today, and so far, they’re turning out nicely. Plus, that fellow… Mr. Case I think it was, had visited me his afternoon when I woke up from my nap.”

“That’s… good,” Sugar nodded politely.

Lovejoy raised an eyebrow, “Ms. Belle, is everything alright?”

She glanced at the windows to see if anypony was out there, “Well, you see doctor, I was wondering if you could give me some advice on… acceptance.”

“Acceptance for what?”

“Oh, you know. Just accepting to something that you don’t… fully agree with but you must, because everypony is looking at you to follow up to the status quo. That sort of thing,” she ended it with a forced grin.

“But I don’t understand what exactly the circumstance of this is. I’m afraid that I can’t really do much if I don’t know the context of what you’re asking.”

“Well…” she looked to the side uncomfortably, “It may or may not have something to do with my… husband-to-be. Hidden Trek.”

“Ah,” the doctor ceased rocking, “I’m guessing this has something to do with uncertainty?”

She placed a hoof on her shoulder, “Please understand, it’s not that I don’t trust Starlight’s judgment on it. I do in fact. I’m sure that Mr. Trek is a nice stallion but…”

“You don’t feel much for the fellow?”

“Truth be told… not really.”

Lovejoy shrugged, “Couldn’t blame you for it really, he wasn’t here for very long and practically left as soon as he came. Not much time to get to really know a partner in any sense.”

“He’s just not my crush,” Sugar Belle blushed.

“Oh,” the old doctor nodded, “You’re already set for someone else?”

“Well… Yes, sir. That is the case, only… I don’t think he knows it yet.”

“Is it somepony I know?” he chuckled.

“I would think so. Does the name…” she looked at the windows before whispering, “Party Favor, sound familiar?”

“Ah! So you’re really are the one that’s been sending love notes.”

Ms. Belle’s muzzle turned a shade of crimson, “He… told you about that.”

“Ma’am, as a doctor, I’m always entrusted with confidential information of my patients on a daily basis. Now, I will not give the exact details about the matter, however, I will say that recently he’s starting to suspect that you could be his secret admirer.”

“Wait! He knows!”

“I said suspect, not full out knowing who it is. As far as he knows, you’re the most likely but he’s not absolutely sure about it. He came to me recently, saying that he would respond, but at the moment, he has some personal problems to settle first.”

“Oh,” she folded her ears back. “I see.”

“Now, let’s get back on topic for a moment – what sort of advice do you want to hear about?”

Sugar Belle shrugged, “I guess… how do you let go of somepony you care about when you know you’ll lose in the end?”

Lovejoy hummed as he rocked back and forth in thought. “Did you tell Mr. Favor about this through writing?”

“A little bit. But… is it selfish of me that I’m not exactly ready to let go? What do you put into writing to the pony you’ve had some crush on for a while now to tell him that it’s not going to work?”

The doctor cleared his throat, “Ms. Belle, don’t ever tell anyone I’ve said this. But in a way, I can relate to what you’re feeling right now.”

She tilted her head, “You do?”

“Quite. Once upon a time, shortly after dirt sneezed into existence, I was a student at a medical school where we have to read up anatomy and the effects of certain drugs. And I don’t think there’s a word out there to describe how much I loathed that school. I was quite bitter beyond belief, to be honest. But then, one day I ran into someone who was trying to earn her degree as a psychiatrist. Her name was Fox Wit.

“At the time, we were taking a course in psychiatry for one of the general courses. I tell you, this mare was very sharp, quite observant, and… to me, the most helpful during a difficult time. She thought that it would be best if she had somepony to practice on to gain experience for the sake of her future clients.” Here, the old doctor chuckled, “You might say, that her sessions in just talking to me were our way of dating. In a way, I needed someone to talk to, and she was there.

“Not only did she help me understand the ins and outs of what goes on in a pony’s mind, but as we neared graduation, I assisted her to give her what she always wanted, to be truly happy. Well, not long after we got our degrees, she proposed to me.”

Sugar Belle “Awed,” at the story, “That was incredibly sweet.”

“I know,” he nodded, “I still remember her saying that she knew what joy was when I told her yes. Then, the next day, she died.”

The mare’s expression changed in a heartbeat from amused to shocked, “Oh…” she covered her mouth, “Doctor I… I’m so sorry.”

He waved it off, “At least the last thing she knew before-hoof was how happy she was. I couldn’t ask for more. So, after the burial, I will tell you that it was… quite difficult to accept this fact. You might say that I did get myself married, and it was to my job. So the advice I could give you is this: don’t tolerate accepting a role in life that you know won’t make you really happy. Take it from someone who has lost that happiness all those years ago, even if Ms. Glimmer won’t approve, always follow your happiness. Who knows,” he smiled, “Perhaps it’ll lead to a happy ending. Have I been of any help Ms. Belle?”

The mare got out of her seat, “I think so, but I would need to think about it.”

“Fair enough.”

“Besides, it’s almost sundown, and I really need to get home.” She headed towards the door. Before she opened it, she added, “Doctor Lovejoy, thanks for listening.”

“No problem, come back any time.”

Once she exited the door, the old unicorn took the needle off the phonograph and went upstairs. To open back to the page of Fox Wit from the hidden album, and looked at the two photographs: on the left, was a black-and-white picture of the two of them in their white uniforms. In Lovejoy’s aura was the ring that he was purposed with by a lake. On the right, in full color was Fox Wit by herself. In the light of a flaming orange sunset, her body floated above the water. Her mane, tail, and the open white uniform seemed to spread like she was in mid-air. The earth pony’s jaw hung open, filled with still water and her eyes were looking straight up at the sky. Underneath this picture, it was entitled: Angle in the Water, Ops. 1.

Lovejoy gave a small smile, “Even in death, you always were beautiful.”

Chapter 21: Breakfast at Sugar Belle’s

In the early hours of the morning, Double Diamond sat at his usual table at the bakery. Ever since the encounter with Dr. Lovejoy, he has been very worried about Party Favor. Not to say that the thought of what the old stallion could do to him kept him awake into the final hours underneath the Twilight sky.

“Excuse me, Double?”

“Huh?” the white pony startled himself awake, finding it was the baker was talking to her.

“Sorry, but are you alright, you don’t look so good.”

The stallion rubbed his baggy eyes, “I just haven’t slept well.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s nothing,” he yawned. “So, since you’re here, can you get me a muffin?”

“Of course,” she nodded, “but they’re still in the oven, they should be out in a couple of minutes.”

He waved her off and the unicorn mare went inside of her shop. Mentally he confessed that it was still too early for most villagers to be out and about. The sun was just peaking above the rocky land, and the air was quite cool. His ears picked up hoofsteps coming towards his direction. Looking up, and with a sigh of relief, he found Party Favor, still alive and unharmed.

“Morning Double,” he said as he took his usual table. “You’re here early today.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Diamond yawned again. “Party, how are you this morning?”

“A little tired, but fine,” he shrugged. “I’ve got some scraps for my garden that I really need to take care of today.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Morning Party,” a third voice said, the blue unicorn quickly found that Sugar Belle was coming out of the shop. “Here for breakfast?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “and maybe some for lunch too. I think I’m gonna be pretty busy today so I might as well have breakfast and pick up something before I head off.”

“Understandable. The muffins are about done. So… could I get you anything else?” she smiled meekly.

“Not really. Just some food,” Party looked down at his hooves.

Once Sugar excused herself, Diamond asked, “Something on your mind?”

“Hm? Well, yeah, a bit.”

“Care to talk about it?”

The dull blue unicorn tensed up, “I… I don’t know…”

“Are you worried about Starlight finding out?”

He nodded, “Something like that.”

“I can keep your secret.”

Party raised an eyebrow, “You?”

“Yes. Look, I can tell that something’s bothering you, and I want to lend a hoof.”

The unicorn looked around for a bit, “You promise you wouldn’t tell?” Double nodded, “Well… for some time now, I’ve been given notes from two different ponies.”

“What kind?” the pale pony asked, his heart started to quicken.

“Let’s just say that there… love notes. Both of which are anonymous, but I think I know which one might belong to.”

Double paused for a moment, “Really? Who?”

“I think,” he looked over his shoulder, “That one of them is Sugar Belle’s.”

“Oh… and do you know who the other might be?”

Party shook his head, “No clue. I’ve talked with the doc a while ago. He said that he would help me figure out who the other admirer is from the writing. But so far, I haven’t heard anything back from him.”

“I see… But do you have any guesses who it could be?”

“As the doc pointed out, it could be anyone at this point, and that’s what I’m afraid of.”

“How come?”

“I mean, think about it,” the blue unicorn straighten up, “I now know that Sugar likes me. Okay, but what about this other pony? It’s like I’m making a decision only I don’t know what the other choice is if that makes sense.”

“But you’re not choosing-”

“I know that. Starlight finalizes the choice who gets paired up and what have you. But for the moment, I don’t know how to deal with a love triangle that I’ve never been in one before. To make things even more complicated, the doc asked me something that’s considered a possibility.”

“That being?”

“Well,” he looked around once more, “this might sound a bit out of nowhere, but the doc does have a point. How do I know if this other secret admirer is a stallion? What do I do then?”

Diamond looked away, “I… can’t say for meself.”

“I know it’s like one of those things you don’t really think about, right? That anypony in the village could trot that way and you’d never know. Do you think it could be possible?”

The pale Earth pony shrugged, “What if there isn’t?

“But what if there is? It could be you for all I know,” Double Diamond’s head snapped his attention towards him before Party quickly added, “not that I’m saying that you are, it's just… I don’t know for sure.”

Double sighed, “Out of curiosity, if you did somehow found out, would it make any difference if it was one gender or another?”

“I never really had a special somepony before. Even in Manehattan I didn’t have much luck in the dating field, so to speak. Although, that’s not to say that I’ve never met anyone that was like that. I mean, I knew a neighbor on the same floor as I that they guy did prefer dating stallions. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what his name was, but I do remember that he was nice. I remembered once when he told about himself to me that I asked him if he thought that I would be the kind of pony he would date. He told me not really since he saw in me more as a friend than anything else. Not really to his tastes so to speak.”

“So wait,” the white Earth pony raised a hoof, “why did you ask him that anyway?”

“What? I wasn’t asking him on a date, but rather if I were the kind of pony he would date. There’s a difference. I asked because I want to get someone’s point of view since I don’t have much luck with the mares and wanted to know why.”

“What about mares?” Sugar Belle’s voice inquired. The two stallions now noticed the unicorn coming outside with a tray of gray muffins. “Sorry, what were you two talking about?”

“Um…” Party started, “I was telling him about not having a special somepony when I was in Manehattan.”

“Oh you poor thing,” her ears folded back. “Well, maybe things will change. I don’t think Starlight has paired you up with anypony yet, has she?”

He shook his head, “I could always hope though. After all, there is a hoofful of villagers that haven’t been paired up with. I kinda hope that Starlight would choose someone wisely.”

“I’m sure she will,” the baker smiled gently. “So anyway, here are the muffins you needed. So, is there anything else I can get you?”

“No, this will be plenty for me, thanks, Ms. Belle.”

She smiled gently after she placed Double’s plate down and returned to her shop, she looked behind her to look at Party Favor eating away, giving a caring look that made Diamond’s eye twitch.

“Good morning gentlecolts,” the sense of jealousy was quickly replaced with dread as Dr. Lovejoy called them up. The white pony saw the old stallion, yawning as he approached them. “Are the muffins any good this morning?”

Party looked up from his plain muffin, “Morning doc, you didn’t sleep too well too?”

He shook his head, “No, it’s just that I’m getting ready for a little hike today.”

“Where?” Diamond inquired.

“You see those mountains over there?” he pointed, “I’ve heard that there’s an entrance to a cave where it’s like a labyrinth. The Line family had agreed to take me there so I could take a few photos of the caves. I think I would do them a favor and help them get prepared before we go up.”

“Does Starlight know anything about this?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll tell here before we go.”

“Say, Dr. Lovejoy,” Party Favor piped up, “Did you figure out about which hoof-writing belongs to yet?”

The old orange unicorn looked over to Double Diamond, “Why, I think I’d need some more time.” He turned to the blue unicorn, “But I can rest assure you that you’ll find out soon enough.”

“I hope so, once I find out who the other pony is, and then I can figure out where to go from there.”

“Still, I have to caution you, there’s always a chance that the answer might,” he glanced over to the white stallion, “change your way in how you see them.”

Once again, Diamond’s eye twitched, and Lovejoy smirked.

“Good morning doctor,” Sugar Belle said, “I’ve just taken some muffins out of the oven, would you like some?”

“Yes actually, and kind I get about a dozen of those?”

“A dozen?”

“I and the Line family am going on a hike into the mountains for me to take pictures from. I thought I’d get everything ready to go before they wake up.”

The baker said that she would, but as she reentered her shop, Double’s eyes narrowed, wondering what was his blackmailer up to. But then, with the suspicious circumstance, it gave the stallion an idea on how to trap the doctor.