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.”