The next morning it was not Dotty who stood by Wish’s bedside as she woke up. It was her father.
“D-Dad?” Wish blearily said as she rubbed her eyes and yawned, seeing her father standing there. It was quite early in the morning and she was still tired and groggy from just waking up.
“Good morning, Wish,” he said to her in an even tone.
The filly yawned and stretched, her vision now coming into focus and seeing the serious look on his face. A nightmare had of course visited her and normally seeing her father right as she woke up would be reassuring. But right now she was just confused and worried. “What’s wrong?”
“We have something important to talk about. Come with me,” he said and turned to leave her bedchambers. The door opened and closed with barely a creak.
Wish fought down a growing sense of unease and quickly hopped out of the bed as well. There was no Dotty, that was obvious, and she didn’t hear any other pony out there. The only pony she didn’t want to see right now was the Head Inquisitor anyways. When she opened up her door and stepped into the boudoir, she noticed it truly was all empty aside from her and her father. There was no huge meal for breakfast on the table either, but a mere bowl of oatmeal and glass of orange juice.
Her father was standing in front of her chair, looking at her.
“I-” Wish started to speak before being immediately cut off.
“It’s come to my attention that you’ve made a couple of visits down to the dungeons and spoken with the pegasus prisoner. Alone,” Dreamweaver blinked at her. Like he was so good at, his face didn’t betray a sliver of emotion. “That on its own I don’t have a problem with. I allowed you to speak with her, and while speaking to her alone wasn’t what I had in mind, I would’ve trusted you enough with it if you didn’t want Vox or Dotted Easel to be there with you.”
Wish gulped, being pretty sure of what was coming next.
“However-” her father now frowned. “What I do have a problem with is how upset it made you yesterday. I heard from Vox, you ran away crying from the dungeons.” He kneeled down to look at her at eye level. “I can not have that, Wish. Your happiness means everything to me and I simply can’t have you do things that may potentially upset you like that. So henceforth—you will not be allowed to visit the dungeons again. Under any circumstance. Dotted Easel has also been instructed to not let you out of her sight so you may attempt such a thing for a while.”
In truth, Wish wasn’t even sure if she wanted to go back or not, but it bothered her to be expressly forbidden from it. And the fact that Vox had clearly told him just to get back at her. “B-But-”
“I will not budge on this, Wish. You know how I feel about you. You’re my precious daughter,” he lifted a hoof up and affectionately rubbed her head.
Wish thought about arguing with him—an image of a chained up Rainbow Dash with the metal cage on her head flashed through her mind—but she found she couldn’t. Her head hung down as she looked at the floor. “Yes, father.”
“That’s my darling,” Dreamweaver smiled. “Now, I do have some good news to share with you as well. That’s the other reason I came down to see you this morning.”
Wish’s head snapped up to look at him curiously. “What is it?”
A delighted chuckle came from her father. “My work in the castle is nearing completion, soon everything will be done with, I’ll be able to show you at last. And because I’m not so busy now I thought I would come back tonight for dinner. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
“Yes!” A happy smile lit up Wish’s face.
“I thought it would,” Dreamweaver chuckled again. “You can go along on your day like normal now. I’d love it if you went to class and had some fun. Dotted Easel is waiting outside the door for you once you finish breakfast. But of course if you just want to walk around the castle courtyard or paint all day I’d understand that as well.”
“Thanks, dad,” Wish said and hopped forward to hug him. “I’ll be looking forward to dinner tonight.”
“So will I,” Dreamweaver said and detached from her. The smile on his face was full of warmth.
Wish smiled back up at him as he went to the front door and stepped outside, waving at her.
“Goodbye, I’ll see you tonight.”
“See you later!” Wish happily waved after him.
Once the door closed, Wish hummed in joy to herself and climbed up her chair to eat breakfast at the table. Getting to spend more time with her father was always the one thing that could put her in a positive mood. The rest of their conversation didn’t even matter to her. The oatmeal being delicious and the orange juice being as fresh as could be also did a lot to help. Wish was feeling decently tired from her not so pleasant night of sleeping… and what had happened yesterday, so she had quite the appetite this morning. Oatmeal wouldn’t have been her first choice but it was good enough to not matter.
When there wasn’t even enough for a single spoonful left, Wish wiped off her mouth and jumped off her chair. If Dotty was really waiting for her right outside the door, Wish didn’t want to keep her there all alone for long.
She opened up the door and stepped out of her chambers. Sure enough, Dotty was standing right in front of her in the tower’s open hallway. She had a smile on her face but Wish could see the slight uncertainty behind it. Dotty didn’t know how Wish would be feeling after yesterday or if something bad was going to happen again. The maid probably chiefly didn’t want to run afoul of Vox but at least part of her was possibly genuinelly concerned for Wish as well and just wanted the filly to have a happy and normal day.
“Good morning, Wish,” Dotty greeted her.
“Good morning, Dotty,” Wish smiled at her to try and show the maid there was nothing to worry about today.
It seemed to do the trick as some genuine brightness returned to Dotty’s eyes. “And what would you like to do today?”
“My father said he would like it if I at least went to class today so that’s the first thing I’m going to do. After that I want us to come up here and paint, he’s coming back for dinner and I want to have a new painting to give to him,” Wish beamed.
Dotty enthusiastically giggled. “Alright, let’s head down to your classroom right now then!”
There was almost a skip in Wish’s step as she trotted to the stairs with Dotty. There was nothing to be sad about, nothing to worry about, nothing to think about. All she needed to do was be a good little filly and believe in her father. He loved her. He wasn’t evil. Those two truths alone were all Wish needed.
Nothing.
Else.
Mattered.
Perhaps at some point she could make Vox go away, or convince her father to have the Queen lower the barrier (if she actually was capable of that—if there even was a barrier like that in the first place) but she wasn’t going to misplace her trust with a pegasus who just wanted to hurt her father. Wish couldn’t believe she almost fell for that. That pegasus had been trying to get her to doubt everything she knew, sure, Wish knew something strange was going on here, but that pegasus was crazy. Her father was just a normal pony from a normal town out in the countryside. He was a psychiatrist for pete’s sake!
Wish shook her head. It was silly. It was too silly to even entertain.
That’s why she was going to class now and having a normal day. As long as she held her father close in her heart, the nightmares would go away one day too.
As she stepped into the classroom after the long walk, Wish felt like it had been ages since she was last here instead of really it just being a few days. Her classmates and teacher were already there of course. Waiting for her. As big smiles stretched on their faces, Wish smiled back at them. Maybe she could become real friends with them? Maybe she could bring them along to other parts of the castle?
Whatever she did—in class and later with them—Wish was going to keep a positive attitude now.
The smile wouldn’t be fake. It wouldn’t be forced. When she said she was a ten out of ten she’d be telling the truth. Optimistic. Positive. Those were her words now.
“Hi, Wish!” The class said to her in unison and waved.
“Hi, everypony!” Wish said and waved back.
A stroke of the brush outlined the trunk of a tall tree Wish was painting on her canvas. The brown line connected to the green of the grass below and would soon be joined by others, filling the tree out. Then branches would emerge from the top and Wish would paint all the green leaves that went with them. Perhaps a hole in the middle of the tree where animals lived would be added, or a squirrel running along one of the branches. It was just going to be one of many trees in the painting, she had a lot of choices.
Wish wasn’t painting any sort of forest or garden in particular, she was just using her imagination and thinking about the kind of place she’d like to go to with Dotty, her classmates, the fillies and colts from New Pasture, and her father. Once she was done drawing the rest of the nature in the painting she’d move on to the ponies.
As always, Dotty was painting across from her at her own easel. She hummed in a good mood, showing a lot of improvement from earlier this morning.
“What are you painting this time, Dotty?” Wish asked her.
“I’m going a little out of my comfort zone. No landscapes this time, I’m painting my family who live back in Old Bark City to the east,” Dotty replied with a smile.
Dotty had never really talked about her family, it certainly made Wish curious. “Can I see it when you’re done?”
“Of course!”
Wish smiled and got back to her own painting. She was going to put in some birds flying in the sky too, along with a few puffy clouds, and—Dotty was a pegasus wasn’t she? Wish had just never seen her fly, but she could put her in the sky too. Yes, this was going to be a happy painting, and Wish’s technical skills when it came to painting had gotten better and better too. Once it was done it should look a lot better than her old paintings. Her father would be proud to hang it up on the walls of his lab.
-if that was true then why weren’t any of the other ones she had given him decorating his lab already?-
Her hoof wavered and she accidentally messed up the line of one of her trees.
“Oops,” she said, frowning at it briefly before shrugging. Not like every tree stood up perfectly straight in real life.
After a few more minutes of painting the forest and putting in a bunch of flowers in the grass at the bottom of the painting, Wish began to draw all the ponies she’d be including. She certainly knew some colorful friends, it was going to take a lot of cleaning her brush off and redipping it each time. Maybe it would be easier to one day learn how to paint with charcoal?
Despite ponies being her specialty when it came to painting, because of how many she was putting into this one it took a long time for her to paint them all. Dotty had actually finished her painting already and was now doing some cleaning, leaving Wish alone at her easel. Most of her friends and the others were done with so the final two ponies to add were just her and her father.
- in a cold dream she looked over a throng of miserable ponies from on high with-
She used a smaller brush to give herself better control of the details when it came to her and her father. Every strand of her mane, the errant locks on her father’s head, his clothes, her musculature. In the end the two of them really stood out against the others. Wish could potentially go back through the painting and add to the others some more, but she kind of liked it like this. It was almost all done now too and she really just had to add the finishing touches and correct any mistakes, then it would be good enough to give to her father.
Idly she looked back at her flank to see if her Cutie Mark had miraculously appeared but again she had no such luck.
Wish rolled her eyes and looked at the wide smiles she had drawn on her and her father’s faces.
-dark cells with ponies imprisoned and asking for help-
She looked at the large grandfather clock in the boudoir. It was getting a little bit late, her father would be here for dinner in just a few hours. The thought made her face reflect the one she had painted.
“Have you finished your painting?” Dotty suddenly asked from elsewhere in the room.
“Yep! Just now,” Wish replied.
Seeming to have a psychic connection to Wish’s thoughts, Dotty also looked at the big clock. “Hm, it’s not too much longer till dinner. I’ll finish up my cleaning and once he arrives I’ll let the two of you dine on your own. You probably want your private time with your father.”
Wish wouldn’t have exactly minded Dotty being here too but it was true that she kind of just wanted to spend the time with her dad. She smiled at her maid and nodded. “Okay.”
-her old maid Sweet Candy taken away, vanished without a trace, replaced by-
Stretching after setting down her brush, Wish yawned and took a deep breath. There was a slight throbbing in her head that foretold a possible headache so she reached up to rub her temples a bit. But otherwise she was feeling great today.
“Oh! Wish! Your nose is bleeding!” Dotty shrieked in shock and quickly ran over.
“Huh?” Wish said and looked down, a small trail of blood dripped down from her nose and a few drops had already stained the carpet.
“Oh dear, oh dear...” Dotty said as she used her apron to wipe Wish’s nose and face clean. “You didn’t accidentally hit your face on anything or hurt yourself, did you?” Dotty asked and looked at the floor after Wish was taken care of. “I’ll need to get some soap and bleach for the carpet now too.”
“Nope,” Wish shook her head. “I don’t know where it came from...”
“Well lots of kids get nosebleeds, nothing to worry about really. I was just surprised,” Dotty smiled at her.
Wish sniffed, feeling her nasal passages clear. “Yeah...”
“You just sit back and relax now while I get this cleaned up. Wouldn’t want you tired for dinner,” Dotty said.
“Thanks, Dotty,” Wish said as she jumped onto the couch and tried to relax.
-the things Vox had said to her inside the royal carriage on the way back from New Pasture-
Wish yawned again and looked out the window at the capitol city of Hoofica. The day was slightly “brighter” than normal, though that really wasn’t the right word to use at all. Dark clouds still spread out from the castle and covered everything while lightning struck in the distance. Down in the streets ponies were getting their last few bits of work in before preparing to head home and have dinner themselves. Despite the changes to Hoofica, life moved on more or less.
-the strong eyes of a pegasus that filled her with warmth and convinced Wish she was a good pony-
She had spaced out for so long that she didn’t even notice Dotty finishing her cleaning and how much time had passed on the clock.
“There we go! Sometimes I really surprise myself,” Dotty said as she looked down at the now sparkling clean carpet with pride. Her eyes then glanced up at the clock. “Oh, well look at the time, dinner in just about an hour. Hmm… maybe I should get you cleaned up a bit more. Would you like that?”
Wish looked from the window and raised an eyebrow at her. “Hm? Oh, okay, sure.”
“Thinking about something?” Dotty asked.
“Not really, was just kind of tired I guess,” Wish shook her head.
“Well I think a quick hot bath will wake you up… er, wait, are hot baths supposed to make you tired?” Dotty rubbed her chin in confusion.
Wish snorted and giggled. “I dunno, Dotty. But a bath sounds nice anyways.”
And it certainly felt nice to get her face and mane washed and restyled by Dotty afterwards. As Dotty’s brush combed through her tail, Wish closed her eyes and just enjoyed the scents of shampoo and soap that had been used for her bath. Refreshed and well-rested, by the time it was over it was just about dinner and her father should be back here any moment. Hopefully the chefs from the kitchens were bringing chocolate cake along with him. Anything a little more filling, tasty, or sweet than oatmeal would make for a good dinner.
Wish and Dotty of course waited for Dreamweaver’s arrival in the main room, now with neither of them really having anything to do. Wish found herself almost constantly glancing at the clock and out the window as the world grew darker outside.
-a black band around everypony’s necks that appeared when the sky went dark, everypony except for-
The great doors leading out into the hallway opened and her father appeared there with a cadre of butlers, maids, and chefs carrying plates of food and utensils. Wish immediately trotted over to him with Dotty right behind her and smiled up at her father.
“Good evening, I trust you had an enjoyable day?” Dreamweaver asked her.
Wish nodded. “Yep! And it’s about to get even better.”
“Of course it is, I brought chocolate cake,” Dreamweaver chuckled.
“Heh—that’s not what I meant,” Wish giggled and blushed.
“It’s still true though,” he winked at her.
“Hehe, yep!”
It took the other ponies but a minute to finish setting up the table for father and daughter, then with a silent bow the whole team shuffled quietly out of Wish’s chambers. Dotty of course left soon after that. Right before she closed the door as she exited, she gave Wish one last smile and wave.
-ordered by her father to not let Wish speak to Rainbow Dash anymore-
Wish then of course sat in her normal chair again while her father sat to her right. There were several different dishes splayed out on the table before them, from garden salads to eggplant steaks and chocolate cake. Wish poured herself a glass of sparkling cider from a bottle and sliced herself a piece of cake, and that along with some vegetables and a cream of mushroom soup and she had a nice dinner already on her plate. Her father didn’t have much of a sweet tooth or anything though, a beet salad and some seasoned hay balls were all that he was going to eat for the moment.
“I’m glad things have worked out so well lately. I was thinking how fortunate we both are. My work in the castle is proceeding excellently and soon I really will keep my promise with you, you’ll be the happiest pony in the world,” her father said to her. “Getting to spend some more time with you before that is just icing on the cake.”
Wish felt the smile pulling up her cheeks at his words as she took a piece out of her slice of cake with her fork and brought it to her mouth.
-a starving pegasus, thin, ribs visible, chained down to a table-
“Is it as good as always?”
“Oh yeah!” Wish replied after swallowing down the cake.
Dreamweaver laughed as he chewed on his own food. “Which would you choose? Eating that chocolate cake or having dinner with me?”
Wish sputtered. “Eating dinner with you! Duh!”
“Hahahaha,” he laughed harder and winked at her. “I’m just teasing you of course, my darling. Your answer was always crystal clear to me.”
-the Queen telling her father that she was keeping the crystal he had given her that makes all this possible safe in her room-
Her fork paused in midair between her mouth and plate, a sudden chill freezing Wish down to the bone while a wooziness invaded her head. She stared down at the piece of chocolate cake impaled on her fork before slowly setting it back down on her plate. Like her body was made of lead, she managed to barely turn and look up at her father.
“Hey… dad? Can I ask you something?”
“Hm?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
Wish blinked, her face much more passive than before. “I just remembered something and I was curious. You, um, you remember when he had dinner with the King and Queen last time? The Queen said something about a crystal you gave her, what was she talking about?”
Dreamweaver didn’t blink as he stared back at her. “Oh, you remember that?” He said and then turned to take a drink of water. “Well yes, I gave her a crystal as a gift for all the help she’s given me.”
“But… where’d you get it from? We didn’t have any crystals back home or anything...” Wish said.
He looked at her and steadily tapped a hoof on the table before responding. “It was a gift given to me by another pony shortly before we came to the castle. I didn’t have any use for it so I decided it would make the perfect gift for the Queen when the opportunity presented itself.”
“Oh, okay...” Wish nodded, she looked down at her plate and then back up at his eyes. “So what is it?”
“What do you mean?” He asked, a look of confusion coming over his face, the only emotion he had shown since she first asked him about the crystal.
“What does the crystal do?”
Dreamweaver took another drink of water while keeping his eyes focused on her. “It’s just a fancy crystal. It doesn’t do anything, Wish. It’s just jewelry—a decoration.”
“Yeah, right, I was just curious about it,” Wish said and went back to her meal. Her fork though just repeatedly stabbed at her cake and started breaking it apart. It was obvious her mind was elsewhere.
“Do you have another question, my darling?” Her father asked her as he noticed her behavior.
“Um… I just wanted to ask...” Wish bit her lip.
“Yes?”
She looked up at him with her big eyes, trying to look for the love and warmth in his. “When this is all over, when your work here in the castle is done, what’s going to happen to Rainbow Dash down in the dungeon.
For the briefest of instants his expression darkened before returning to normal. “Well… she’ll just stay there.”
“Stay there?”
“Yes. Imprisoned for the rest of her life I suppose. However long that is. There’s no need to execute her or anything, but she’s still a dangerous pony who attacked the castle and terrorized Hoofica. You don’t need to worry or feel bad for her, on the contrary, think of yourself as fortunate. A pony like her doesn’t deserve pity or sympathy. Your happiness is all that matters,” he smiled and reached over to her, gently patting her head.
A happy smile was on her face, a scream from her nightmares was in her heart. “Thank you, father. I guess I was just being silly.”
“Not a problem, my darling. But enough of that, let’s enjoy our dinner,” he said and levitated a forkful of food to his mouth.
Wish nodded and went on to finish her chocolate cake. It tasted like nothing.