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.”
It's finally done. 
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?
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38.media.tumblr.com/c26b20d3523d58572c00a59fabfc6650/tumblr_mtzmeqC16Z1qcga5ro1_500.gif
Bravo! Simply magnificent! Just as intriguing and gruesome as the prequel.
7126758 Ah, from Citizen Kane, good choice.
7126808
Well, it was a great story, I loved the the death senses
and the suspense of wandering what the doctor was going to do was a lot of fun, but I feel that the end was rushed, as in I would have feel better if the death of the Line family should had been done, I would have loved to see Stating trying to cry out tel that it is the doctors fault for killing his parents, and I would have loved to see the doctor play match maker with Party favor and DD, not that I actually like the shipping, but I would have liked to see DD squirm in seeing PF being friendly with the doctor, all the while saying praises to him. I think Starlight was underutilized in the story, as I would have loved to see her show to the doctor her ambitions to expand the community (she couldn't have anticipated to met the M6), or to show how ruthless she is in maintaining credos and see the doc show her pointers in how to improve her hold over the ponies.
I like the idea that the Towns ponies now have a stronger trust in Starlight, because she is portrayed as the hero, but I thing the final confrontation would have been better if Starlight was more about having her to silence the doctor who is threaten to revel her secret to the rest of Our Town, or something of the sort, but she twist the story it to make it look like the doc was about to kill her. Or, maybe the last project of the doctor would have taken Starting Line as a hostage, Starlight come to try to same him, with the towns ponies watching at a distance, one met the doctor show Start the truth about Starlight, and is willing to let him go on the condition that he is allowed to leave peace but Starlight is stuck with Starting line might reveal the secret to the rest of Our Town and she is confronted with idea that she might have to kill Start to keep her secret.Or maybe a poisoning of both SL and Start with only one dose of the cure witch they have to fight for it. I think the idea still need work, but I think it would have been good to show that how much of a hypocrite she is as well as calece she could be about life. What do you think?
Of course all this is just me being hypercritical about your work, I did enjoy the story from start to finish and I am happy as well as surprised that you have taken so many of my comment at heart so much and that you don't take offense too much for being so pushy.
I am looking forward to see more of your stories soon
7126906 I admit, I knew that this character of Dr. Lovejoy is so dangerous that I honestly think that killing him would be the best option. Still, it's rather funny how my mind works when writing this when at times I had one idea but it morphs into another or the influence from the comments of yours and everyone else's had.
Like I've said, I'm planing to go back and finishing/rewrite the Friends and Fairy Tales story before I move on. I have an idea that I've posted in a blog a couple of days ago with plenty of potential.
7126945 would it have been better if he had escaped? So that he can continue his art and would have show that the bad guy could still win?
7126951 But even so, where would he go at this point? He maybe dangerous, but he can't live forever.
Actually... I just had an idea, for a story sometime in October. We've only had a glimpse of his Book of Memories, after all, with so many victims with so many pictures, imagine what each of those photographs could tell? Perhaps I should do a short chronicle stories of the victims of his past, and how he was able to get away with what he did for so long.
That has some potential too...
7126962 that could work too
So does this have to do with their methods on season 4 or is this a universe on its own? I could see how the actions of the Doctor could have influenced the towns brainwashing methods later on.
Suspense kept me intrigued, characters were well done, but perhaps the one thing I didn't like, was the doctor himself. I know weird right the best part of the story to me was also the worst part. You managed to make a character I loved to see just so he could be off'd in the end.
7127503 Oh joy, I've just created another Alex from A Clockwork Orange.
7128033
??? Huh?
7129821 (Sigh) Alex is an anti-hero from a story called a Clockwork Orange. He's basically a psychopathic teenager that despite all the violence he causes, he's considered likable. And like the doc, he too has a strong love of classical music as he does said violence.
7129834 Oh, well to be honest classical music is my fave type but I also love opera. Part of the reason I liked him that and it was for art, and me being an art student it got me thinking into his reasoning.
I'm just glad Starlight and DD got him in the end.
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Bravo, such a great story, this is by far one of my favorites on this site.
Does Starlight Glimmer fuck this bitch up for murdering poor Andrew or does Lovejoy get away with everything, and is Dr. Lovejoy a reference to Dr. Strangelove?
and this lead up to Starlight's encounter with the Mane 6 in Season 5
8332597
Aye.
You're reediting it?
8453330
Not quite, the reviewer pointed out that the story lacked some introduction to the victims so I went out of my way to add a prologue in hopes to fix it a little.
10/10, wonderful follow-up to an already creepy story.