Wish slowly creeped down the long flight of stairs from tower to tower in near total darkness. There were less torches lit along the walls so she had to be extra careful with the steps. Thankfully she hadn’t even heard so much as a hoofstep from another pony so far. At this time of night most everypony in the castle had to be asleep. Her father, Dotty, most guards and Inquisitors. Wish figured there was probably just a skeleton crew left to do things and patrol the castle. She was basing that assumption on absolutely nothing but she wanted to be as positive as possible. Especially since there was a nagging feeling that she’d soon be seeing nothing good once she got into the dungeon.
So be positive, hopeful, and optimistic for now. Since it wasn’t going to last.
Wish frowned at the blatant contradiction in her thoughts.
I shouldn’t be thinking about any of this stuff right now… I need to just get back down to the bottom floor of the castle and find those stairs. She thought. There might still be guards there even… can I distract them if there are?
Sneaking in would be impossible since there was literally only one way down that she knew about. If guards were at the stairs she’d have to come up with an all new plan. And right now her brain was having trouble coming up with one. Most of all she was still hoping that she was right and there wouldn’t be guards at all. All her brain power was being used to try and bring that thought to reality.
When she reached the bottom of the spiraling tower stairs she stopped just before walking out onto the third floor of the castle. Taking a deep breath she peaked her head out and took a look around. It was much the same as what she had seen at the towers. A few weak torches and lanterns gave the bare minimum of illumination, and there wasn’t a guard in sight.
Wish let out the breath she had been holding in and wiped a hoof across her brow. “Okay, looking good so far.”
She needed to walk a little bit to the south side of the central part of the castle, not quite at the southern wing and opera hall, but along the part of the castle between it and the east wing. That’s where the stairs she and her father took down to get to the opera hall were. And it was at the bottom of those stairs that she knew where to look to find the dungeon’s stairs. Otherwise she’d have to go searching around a bit to find another way close to them.
There was a lot of open space to cover but the good thing was that with how small she was and the dim lighting, it would be pretty tough for anypony to see her if they were also around. Wish hated having to thank her small stature for anything.
She deftly walked across the stone floor of the castle, doing her very best to not make a sound. It was both thrilling and scary as she made the long trip to the other stairs in darkness. She hugged the wall when she could and went from dim light to dim light. Every now and then she would take a look around to make sure nopony was following her or walking around elsewhere. It seemed that perhaps the whole castle was as still as the grave though.
When Wish made it to the stairwell that would take her to the castle’s ground floor she paused briefly and stared down into it. She could still turn back now if she wanted to. Be a good little filly and obey her father and keep on smiling.
“No. I can’t. Not until these nightmares are gone,” Wish said and started her descent down the stairs.
Each step was soft and careful as Wish walked down the first flight, then the next, and the next. All the way until she finally stopped off at the ground floor of the castle. She briefly stopped again while her heart pounded in her chest, it was the moment of truth now. She needed to walk out a bit and look over to where those dungeon stairs were and hopefully she’d find that there weren’t any guards. Very, very carefully, Wish inched forward and got ready to peek her head out so she could spy on those stairs.
There was the edge of a wall still obscuring her view that Wish was getting closer and closer to. Sliding along it and sweating in nervous excitement, she was only barely going to peek just one eye around it to check out the stairs. Torches still lit up the walls down here, she was sure she’d have enough light to see them. Wish was breathing deeply and slowly to try and stay calm but each movement made her hooves tremble just a little bit more.
Finally she reached the moment when her chestnut face, and rose red bangs, managed to poke out from behind the wall.
Through the darkness of what she once thought was the bottom floor of Hoofica Castle—Wish looked towards the stairs that led down into the dungeon. Those stairs where the phantoms of her nightmares had gone. Where hopefully she could find some answers to the strange foreboding that filled her. Where hopefully there wasn’t a single guard standing guard right outside of.
Wish blinked. Torches were lit besides the stairs.
That was it. The orange glow cast by the flames revealed black steps going down into the ground, and that was all that was there. No guards, no Inquisitors, no other ponies or anything at all.
Wish practically passed out from the sheer relief that washed over her. It wasn’t a pointless trip. She still broke out in a flop sweat that made her earlier sweating pale in comparison but that was it. Her heart was beating so hard and she was practically feeling giddy enough to skip over to the stairs with a big smile on her face.
Common sense won out though and once she had gotten her nerves back in order she slowly slunk on over to the dungeon stairs from her wall. It was a pretty open space to travel through, no walls or statues to hide behind, so she simply kept low to the ground and hoped once more that no random guards would come by. The stairs leading down to the lower levels took on an ominous form to Wish, looking like a black hole or the gullet of some monster. She knew it was all in her head but it was difficult to separate the nightmares from reality.
In the end she came to a short pause right in front of the stairs. There weren’t any torches lining them on the way down that she could see, only a single light at the very bottom that barely illuminated anything. She was going to have to be very careful with the steps. Remembering her father’s words, she knew the first level was just a huge storage area too, and below that was the actual dungeon. So hoping the lighting was going to get better was probably a little foolish.
“I can do this,” Wish said and lifted her hoof to plant it on the first step.
Hard part over. Time to get moving.
Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. Her small legs carried her down the stairs towards the light.
She was doing something wrong. Against the rules. But there was absolutely no turning back at this point. It was scary to proceed and despite her best efforts she couldn’t help the echo that came from her hooves with each step. The resounding click bounced off the stone walls of this stairway down.
Wish felt herself shaking as she got closer to the light at the bottom of the stairs, she was so focused on it that she almost didn’t notice when she reached the final step. A yelp died in her throat as she caught herself and managed to not fall flat on her face, her stumbling form coming to a stop on a new level. Wish caught her breath and looked around her, finding herself at a small landing right at the bottom of the stairs with the faint torch providing the light situated on the wall in front of her. To her left and right were a pair of hallways and she wasn’t sure which one she needed to go down.
A look to her left showed a wide hallway that had door after door on either side of it and an even larger double door at the very end. Since there weren’t any stairs going down, Wish found it likely that that direction was for all of the storage rooms.
And to her right?
An exceedingly long hallway stretched down to the right, punctuated by a single torch in the middle of it and another one at the very end. Wish could tell it was the end because she could see the outline of another doorway.
She gulped. It was an intimidating hallway and going by how shadowy that doorway at the end was, it went down with stairs to a level below this one. Down to the dungeon she was looking for. Her heart quickened in her chest and she had to bring a hoof up to it and take a few slow breaths to calm herself down. The dark and silent hallway seemed to get even longer every time she blinked. But at least she now had her final destination in sight. Wish forced herself to lift her hooves once again and she slowly started walking towards the end of the hallway.
Her breathing now echoed off the walls too thanks to her being unable to properly close her mouth. She was too nervous, too excited, she had forgotten to attempt to be stealthy on her trip down the hallway towards the dungeon.
A glance over her shoulder showed her there wasn’t anypony following her. There weren’t any other doors either. She was alone. Alone and almost halfway there already.
A sudden draft of cold air came wafting on from the stairs ahead and Wish shivered.
Still shaking, she defiantly stared ahead. “I’m not scared.”
Wish went back to walking, at the halfway mark and walking right beneath the torch now. Its orange glow flickered overhead from the cold breeze and made her shadow jump. Wish ignored it. All she needed to do was keep walking and make it down to the dungeon, then-
“Well now, silly filly. You’re really someplace you shouldn’t be.”
Before Wish could turn around she felt a pinprick of pain at the back of her neck and she let out a startled yelp. “Ah!”
She stumbled forward as her eyes swam and a fuzzy feeling spread throughout her entire body--the walls and floor all started to merge together while the light of the flame disappeared. Dizzy, tumbling, she lost the feeling in her legs and darkness crowded her vision—the phantoms crowded around her, a white monster grinning down at her and a scream erupted through her skull-
Wish shot up in bed and screamed at the top of her lungs.
“AHHHHHH!”
Immediately the door to her bedchambers was thrown open and Wish heard a pony running from past her closed curtain, the curtain was then yanked away with enough haste to almost tear it and a terrified Dotty stood right beside Wish’s bed.
“What--Wish?! What is it?!” Dotty asked her, reaching up and putting her hooves on Wish’s shoulders to try and calm her down.
Wish was panting hard, sweating and hyperventilating as the memories of last night replayed in her head. “I-I...” She looked up at the fearful Dotty. What could she say? And... how did she get back here? Wish didn’t remember coming back to her room, she was down almost at the dungeon and then...
A cold shiver overtook her.
That voice. She knew that voice from her nightmares.
“I don’t know,” she lied to Dotty, not even sure why, Dotty likely knew what had happened. “I had a nightmare.”
“Oh you poor baby!” Dotty cried and wrapped Wish in a warm hug. “I’m so sorry, that must have been terrifying!”
“Yeah...” Wish blankly responded. “It was.”
“It’s okay now. You’re safe here with Dotty,” Dotty started rubbing her back.
Wish felt her lip quiver, surprisingly finding herself returning the hug. “Thank you...”
“If you don’t want to go to class today I’m sure your father and everypony else will understand.”
Wish looked past her at the clock on the wall and saw that it was slightly earlier than she normally woke up. “No... I think I want to go to class.”
Dotty let Wish go and gave her a smile. “Okay, if you’re up for it. Just don’t force yourself.” She then let out a relieved breath and went to get the step stairs for Wish to get out of bed. “Well I guess I shouldn’t say “good morning” right now, but how about happy Thursday instead?”
“Huh?” Wish blinked as she felt her body slowly calming down and getting back to normal. “Don’t you mean Wednesday?”
Dotty just raised an eyebrow at her with that wide and happy smile still on her face. “Nope. It’s Thursday.”
Wish sat there on the bed.
Thursday? But it was Tuesday night when she went out. What happened to Wednesday? After what happened down in the dungeon... had she been asleep for an entire day?
“B-But Dotty-”
“It’s Thursday, Wish. I’m supposed to keep track of your schedule, so I definitely know what day it is,” Dotty said.
The tone in Dotty’s voice was slightly different. Wish hadn’t heard Dotty speak like that before. She looked into her maid’s eyes and saw something there, not a threat, not malice, or any sort of warning. But worry. Fear. Pleading. The smile on her face was happy, but her eyes were begging for Wish to drop the topic.
“Okay... Thursday. I-I must’ve gotten my days mixed up... hehe,” Wish said, giggling weakly.
“It’s okay, that happened to me plenty of times when I was your age. Those were the days, just getting to be a carefree kid,” Dotty wistfully sighed.
Wish wasn’t sure if Dotty was talking to her or herself right there.
“Anyways-” Dotty continued. “Let’s have a nice and normal day now. I’m sure that now that you’ve woken up and you know that whatever you were dreaming about was just a nightmare and not real, that it’s already another ten out of ten day for you. Right?”
Wish hesitantly nodded. “R-Right. Ten out of ten.”
Dotty smiled. “Time for your bath then.”
It was difficult, but Wish did her best to not freak out as she went through the usual morning routine with Dotty. Maybe it was because what she had been through was most definitely not a simple nightmare, but Wish had no problem remembering it now after waking up. Which brought up some strange nagging feelings in her head. Like it was unusual and there was something else she should be thinking about, or something she should have realized. Unfortunately at the moment she just couldn’t figure out what.
Wish only managed a small smile as she took her bath and then had Dotty do her mane and tail (something Dotty had slightly improved at by now) but at least she didn’t look completely miserable. It was clear that everypony was going to be wanting her to keep smiling like normal. Something that might be tough today. She hoped she could see her father again soon, there were things she wanted to ask him. Things that maybe she was afraid to ask but knew she had to now anyways.
Once Wish and Dotty finished up with her beauty treatments, they went out so Wish could have breakfast like normal. The first thing she noticed—besides all the maids and butlers looking extra tense—was that when she glanced over to the small table where she had put her candlestick and wire last night, nothing was there. She wondered if the wardrobe where she had gotten the coat hanger from had been emptied as well, she’d have to check later. Either way it seemed like somepony or some group of ponies was trying to pretend like nothing had happened.
And Wish knew who.
That voice.
But why could she remember stuff now? She... was certain that this had happened before now. Previously it only resulted in phantoms and broken memories inside her head, fuzziness and nightmares. Did she not sleep for en entire day the other times this happened? What was it that knocked her out in the first place?
There were things in her head she was slowly starting to remember again, to piece back together. It was like a fog thinning in her mind and revealing to her the truth of Hoofica Castle. Wish could feel it. It frightened her, what she might remember, but she needed it.
What were those times when she had lost her memories like this? She could remember almost certainly now that it happened once when she saw the phantoms from her dreams carrying the blue phantom down into the dungeon. But Wish felt like there was another time too, an earlier time, where she had seen something and then... nothing. It was no good. She needed to jog her memory somehow, or force her way through the fog. Forget whatever she was supposed to be doing in class today, Wish knew what she was going to be focusing on.
I am not just going to be some smiling doll in this castle while everypony lies to me. I’m not. Wish resolutely told herself. I don’t care if I have to go searching through the castle at night again, or find a different way into the dungeon, or even l-leave the castle. This is all wrong, I’m not just going to keep doing this.
First thing was first though, it was time for breakfast. And possibly a day or two of her acting normal and pretending she didn’t remember anything. Pretending she believed Dotty about it just being a nightmare and not realizing she lost an entire day. Wish fought to not sigh and reached for a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of grape juice.
The food was still great—something she could be happy about. A full stomach would probably do her a lot of favors today. She even made herself eat a little more than normal to show Dotty that she was in a good mood. And truthfully she was just kind of feeling like a slice of pie anyways. It wasn’t as good as chocolate cake but Wish would apparently have to wait until dinner tonight for that.
Unless she confronted her father first or something else happened. Wish couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding, that something was going to happen soon. It was just a sense. A tenseness that existed in her and the entirety of Hoofica Castle.
She put her fork down after she was finished with the piece of pie and daintily wiped her lips clean. “Dotty? I’m ready for us to go to my classroom now.”
“Fantastic!” Dotty smiled and pulled out her chair so Wish could jump down.
Dotty sure was good at being as happy as normal. Wish figured it was a combination of a naturally bubbly personality and just being used to things. Or she was just a really good actress.
When she walked over to the front door with Dotty, Wish made sure to look up at the keyhole in the doorknob. Scuff marks. She saw the ones she had made from messing around with it last—two nights ago. It didn’t matter if other things were changed or moved and everypony tried to lie to her, Wish had all the proof she needed. No matter how messed up her memories were, that was something physical she could look to.
“Let’s have some fun and paint together again when you get back from class today, hm?” Dotty said as she opened the door.
Wish smiled up at her. “Okay, that sounds like a lot of fun.”
“If you want to work on still life’s again we can do that. Or maybe focus on drawing ponies? Whatever you wish,” Dotty giggled at her own joke.
“Hmm...” Wish thought for a second. The images of phantoms and ghostly ponies went through her mind, the colors of white, blue, glowing red, and rainbows. “I... I think I’d like to try painting more ponies.”
“Perfect! You’re already good at it, now you can become great,” Dotty winked.
"Thanks, Dotty,” Wish grinned.
“Hm, maybe I’ll paint up a good landscape while you work on your ponies. Then you can see how I do things. I can take you through every step for when it comes to landscape paintings,” Dotty proudly said.
“Do you think you can draw something with a lot of color in it? It would be nice to look at something, well, bright around here,” Wish said.
“Of course!” Dotty smiled. “Mountains, a bright sun in the sky, green forests, blue rivers and lakes. If it turns out well then maybe I can even put it in your bedchambers. That’ll give you something nice to look at in it.”
The fact that Wish couldn’t just look out the window for something nice silently passed between them.
After that the usual trip down to the classroom was taken in silence as well. Which made it unusual as far as Dotty went. She for some reason wasn’t as talkative right now, only holding a blithe little smile on her face. As they traveled around, Wish made sure to see how many guards were out and if there were any more than usual. It seemed like they were just being made to guard things like normal as well though. Wish saw the same armored ponies standing around, all of them not paying any attention to her.
When she and Dotty got to the third floor of the main part of the castle, Wish looked across the way towards the stairs she had walked down to get to the ground floor. Guards stood there like normal. She wondered if they were going to be there during the night now too. It was dizzying to think about what else she could do, or what options she had now for unlocking the puzzle of the castle. She needed to remember more.
If she could somehow find a way to get out from under Dotty’s nose during the day...
That probably wasn’t going to happen. Even if she could randomly try to run someplace it would be too easy for Dotty or any guard to find her. She’d have to find a way to totally sneak off without Dotty having any idea where she went.
Either way, Wish wasn’t sure she had the energy for that right now. Today she’d just go to class and see what happened.
And of course as soon as they got to the classroom, Dotty dropped her off like normal and went out to do whatever it was she did during their times apart. Wish then entered the room where she saw that a large math assignment had been written on the chalkboard. If that was something that was supposed to occupy all her brain power for the day it wasn’t going to work. What was Star Eyes going to do? Punish her?
“Good morning, Wish!” Star Eyes greeted her.
“Good morning!” The other students all greeted her as well.
“Hi, everypony!” Wish smiled and waved to them.
She was glad at least that Comet Burst, Bright Dawn, and Aqua Jewel all seemed to be doing okay. Their smiles and happiness were still faked, but nothing had happened to them.
Wish took her seat and turned to the colt. “Did you have a good day?”
His eyes twitched briefly and he sent a not so hidden glance to Star Eyes before answering. “Uh-huh, sure did.”
“Good to hear,” Wish smiled and turned towards Aqua Jewel and Bright Dawn, raising an eyebrow at her fellow fillies. “What about you two?”
“It was great! And I bet today will be even better!” Bright Dawn said.
“Yeah, yeah!” Aqua Jewel nodded along.
“Mine was really good too,” Wish said and sat back in her chair. “Ms. Star Eyes, are we learning more math stuff today?”
“That we are. You see, now we’re all going to learn about something called geometry together!” Star Eyes said, trying to be as enthusiastic as possible.
“Soooounds fun!” Wish saluted.
She’d play the happy student if she had to. The carefree filly who lived a life of luxury and had no reason to be sad about anything. All the while she’d be wracking her brain for answers and trying to pull out the memories she knew were buried inside somewhere.
This classroom was just an illusion, a falsity. A fake created to give her something that resembled the normal life of a young filly. She wouldn’t stand it for much longer.
Also it was easy to zone out from math and think about her nightmares because as it turned out; geometry was insanely boring.
The hours of class passed with her trying to figure out her memories and blatantly ignoring the lesson plan from Star Eyes. Her pencil tap, tap, tapped against her paper in an obnoxious rhythm while Star Eyes pretended to teach like normal. Wish knew there was a way through this mental block, there had to be or she wouldn’t have remembered what happened two nights ago so clearly. As much as she tried to focus on her nightmares and the things she could remember seeing in them, it was still tough to visualize things and get a clear picture. The memories were still a mess. She needed to find a better way to turn the phantoms in her mind into real ponies and things. Otherwise her mind would perpetually be stuck in a fog.
Wish suddenly blinked and looked down at her paper. In her malaise, she had unconsciously scribbled a bunch of circles on the paper.
“Painting...” Wish whispered under her breath.
She needed to paint. She needed to bring those phantoms into reality. There had to be something physical for her, just like the scuff marks on the keyhole.
“Wish? Did you say something?” Star Eyes asked her.
“Um... no,” Wish shook her head. “I was just talking to myself about geometry.”
“Alright, well I have some more to teach on the subject...” Star Eyes trailed off and went to write some more on the chalkboard. She likely knew Wish was just lying to her but of course she didn’t say anything.
It was easy now for Wish to wait through the rest of this pointless class as she had something to look forward to tonight. There was excitement building in her chest once more. She didn’t have to go out searching again tonight, or any other night, she could figure things out with her paintings.
She’d have to thank Dotty again.
Wish could hardly contain herself on the way back up to the third tower and it was something Dotty noticed immediately.
Her maid smiled widely as she looked down at her. “Wow, Wish, I’ve never seen you so excited after class. Do you want to paint that badly?”
“Yes I do,” Wish beamed back up at her. “I’m just really in the mood to paint, I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to get down on my canvas. And I want to see your landscape too.”
“Aww, thank you,” Dotty giggled.
Dotty spent the rest of the trip back to the room talking about different kinds of paints and brushes and how you were supposed to use them, but truthfully Wish wasn’t really paying attention to that either. Once the door was opened to her chambers, Wish almost went right to her painting supplies before remembering she needed to eat lunch first. She discreetly clicked her teeth and hopped up into her chair, digging into the feast splayed out in front of her with gusto while Dotty hummed nonchalantly behind her.
In the end she finished her lunch even faster than she had finished breakfast. She didn’t need to eat as much either.
As soon as she pushed a plate of salad away from her she looked over at Dotty with a smile. “Alright, how about we get to some painting?”
Dotty clapped her hooves together and went to get her own things as well. Her easel and paint supplies were put in the corner of the boudoir when she wasn’t using them. She put them up on one side of the coffee table in the center of them while Wish grabbed her things and placed her own easel with its blank canvas on the other side. Like this they couldn’t see what the other was doing, Dotty said it was to make sure they could both paint in peace and go at their own pace. Unless they were painting the same thing and Dotty wanted to give her tips she usually didn’t watch Wish when they were just free painting like this.
The first color Wish picked up was black.
The palette beside her was dabbed with a generous amount of the paint and Wish dipped her brush in it and quickly got to work covering the white canvas in black. The background came first, smaller details could be put in later. Black for the walls of Hoofica Castle, for the floors, for the gaping maw that led down to the dungeon. She could get a small amount of white paint to draw thin lines to make out the individual bricks, but even that wasn’t really necessary. She knew what she needed to make from her nightmares.
Soon a cold black canvas for her to paint the rest of her dream images on sat in front of her. Wish’s breath almost caught in her throat as she realized she was sweating again. Thankfully Dotty couldn’t see it, she was just humming along while she presumably painted her own landscape.
Now Wish hesitantly dabbed some white and red onto her palette. These colors... she needed them for the phantoms that scared her. The ones that surrounded the ghostly blue figure. Wish didn’t draw them as formless phantoms though. Not what she saw in her nightmares. She painted them as what she knew they actually had to be—white-suited Inquisitors. With the Head Inquisitor and her red eyes somewhere in there with them.
One, two, three, four, she ended up drawing ten of them, leaving enough space in the middle for the pony that they had chained between them.
Yes. Wish could remember just a little better. She could see the nightmare more clearly. It wasn’t just blue she grabbed now but every color of the rainbow. Another pony started to take form on her canvas.
She drew their outline and everything but once she thought she was finished she realized there was still something missing. What? What was it about the blue pony she had drawn that was wrong or incomplete? Wish bit her lip and gazed at the blue pony on her canvas. Suddenly her eyes lit up and she peeked out from behind her easel and looked at Dotty. And at the folded wings at Dotty’s sides.
That’s what it was. Wish brought up her brush and added wings to the blue pony. Now it was right. A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail being taken down into the dungeon. That was the painting she had created.
Wish stared at the painting, and slowly she felt something start to drip from her nose. She brought a hoof up and wiped away blood—she had a nosebleed. As she reached to grab a rag to clean it away a lancing pain far worse than any migraine erupted in her head. Wish clutched her skull in pain as memories and images flooded through her mind. She clenched her teeth and hissed, sucking in a sharp breath while Dotty obliviously kept painting right across from her.
A pegasus.
Inquisitors.
Nightmares.
The dungeon.
Fog.
Laughter.
Darkness.
“I remember...” Wish whispered. The gate had been unlocked. The frenzied nightmares morphed into true memories and Wish was left sitting there in cold realization. There were some details that were still fuzzy, but she finally remembered what had happened and why these nightmares first started. It hadn’t been for long. A relatively short amount of time compared to when she and her father had first moved into Hoofica Castle.
Back before guards and Inquisitors watched her every move. Wish remembered now, it wasn’t always like that, it only started after the pegasus arrived.
She remembered seeing her for the first time. It wasn’t when she was being taken down to the dungeon, but earlier. Wish watched from the window in her chambers as the pegasus flew around the castle, being chased by Inquisitors and guards. She didn’t know what the pegasus was doing but she looked angry, scary even, as she fought the guards and Inquisitors before being overwhelmed. Brought down somewhere out of view.
Wish ran down as fast as she could and arrived just as the pegasus was being chained up and taken down and then-
What happened next? She couldn’t remember it all, there were still blank spots.
There was another time too now.
Another time she remembered where her memories lapsed and nightmares emerged from. Wish could recall that it had happened before the time she saw the pegasus. She had walked up to the tallest tower, she wanted to see her father, she could recall that much. And... she had seen something. She knew she did. But she couldn’t remember what now, only that it was something wrong and uncomfortable. Something else had happened... another pony was there... and... that was it. Wish still couldn’t piece it all together.
But she would. The next time she saw her father.
With trembling hooves she got her rag and wiped her nose clean before getting some more white paint and covering up most of what she had painted. She didn’t want Dotty to see it.
Wish had to take another big, deep breath to calm herself down, but now she tried to paint something more normal. All the while her mind was racing with the memories she had uncovered and she could hardly process it all. She needed to figure out what was going on but right now in front of Dotty wasn’t the time to do it.
“How’s your painting coming along?” Dotty suddenly asked her.
Wish nearly yelled in fright but she caught herself before it happened. “I-It’s going pretty well...”
“Great! I can’t wait to see it!”
Wish forced a shaky smile that was more like a grimace onto her face. “I can’t wait to-”
She never finished her sentence as the door to her chambers was opened up and a pony stepped inside. Wish’s eyes shot wide open and Dotty matched her.
“Master Dreamweaver!” Dotty said in surprise and snapped to attention like a soldier, dropping her paintbrush.
“D-Dad...” Wish said, just as confused. It was the only word she could get out. Despite knowing she needed to talk to him, having so many questions, so many worries, her mouth just opened and closed a few more times with no words managing to form. She was helpless again. A porcelain doll too afraid to ask what needed to be asked.
Say it.
Say it.
Say it.
Say it.
Say it.
“Hello, Wish,” her father said as he smiled happily at her. “I’ve got some rather nice news. We’re going to be dining with the King and Queen for dinner tonight.”