"Misty! Misty! Over here kiddo!"

Misty looked about her. She was standing in a playground, with other kids having fun on various different bits of equipment and playing with each other. She looked up and saw a bearded man calling to her.

"Misty! I'm over here! It's time to head home now!"

Misty quickly dashed over to him, where he picked her up. "OK daddy!"

The man smiled. "Did you have fun today?"

"Sure did!" Misty replied, her face taken up by a happy grin.

Suddenly, an incredibly loud beeping noise cut through the scene, and Misty was abruptly jolted awake. She looked about her. She wasn't in a playground. She was lying on a rundown bed, in a dark, dingy room with no windows. A single desk was rammed up next to the wall, with only a pen sitting in a well. The pen, of course, had long since run out of ink.

A device sitting on a piece of wood that served as a bedside table went off again. "Misty, you don't have time to lie in and ponder! Get dressed and get to work!"

"Coming, Opaline!" Misty said. She pulled herself out of bed, finding she was in the same tatty clothes she had been wearing for years. It wasn't hard to see why- Opaline had said she couldn't spare any funds to acquire more clothing, which is why she'd had to make do with these rags.

She slipped a pair of squelchy shoes on, the firmness gone completely with age. She tried to brush some hair out of her eye, but there was too much for it to be handled. Misty didn't dare ask for a haircut, though- the last time she had Opaline had arranged for every bit of hair to be sliced off, leaving her bald for quite a while.

She took a quick shower, in what felt more like a prison cubicle than an actual proper shower in a home, and then made her way to the command room. Opaline was sitting there, with personnel monitoring displays and running equipment.

"Confirmation on possible energy track," said one soldier. "Moving from Dorset towards the West Coast Main Line."

"Keep a close eye on it," Opaline ordered. "It could be the breakthrough we were looking for."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Opaline looked up from the desk and saw Misty, putting on what was possibly the fakest smile in the history of fake smiles. "Ah! Misty, there you are. I thought you'd gotten lost- like the first time I brought you here."

"Well, the shower was a bit slow, and I grabbed a bite to eat whilst coming here, and-"

"I'm not interested," Opaline said. "Eat on the job, Misty, that's what I do." She indicated to an empty plate, which another soldier then took away. "More efficient. Now then, I have an important job for you."

"Yes?" Misty said.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, Opaline?" Misty replied, labouring the second word as much as she could. That had been a slipup. She couldn't afford another slipup- if she lost her three chances she'd be in for a beating.

"The East Entertainment Quarters need cleaning. If you can get the stuff cleared out by lunchtime there's a reward in it for you."

Misty nodded. "I won't let you down, Opaline!"

"Good girl. Trust and obey, for that will get you where you want."

Misty calmly left the room.

As she worked, Misty couldn't help but feel off. Throughout her day, she kept getting odd flashes of another life. Of two people, whom she presumed to be a mother and father. But that couldn't be possible. Opaline had told her that she was an orphan; her mother had died in childbirth and her father had been killed in a train crash.

So how could these people, whom she was calling 'mommy' and 'daddy' in what she remembered, possibly exist?

She tried to focus on her work as she went through the things, but still something was gnawing at her mind, gnawing like a particularly irritating beaver.

It was as she made her way through the piles of items she came across a box- a box simply marked To Misty.

A box for her? Misty's eyes lit up in excitement. Perhaps she had particularly pleased Opaline, and this was some sort of gift! Misty opened the box and set the contents down, looking in surprise at the contents.

There were photos inside, images of these two people. One showed the woman holding a baby, and other showed the couple with Misty between them.

And then, Misty remembered. She wasn't an orphan at all! They were her parents! She had to find them somehow!

"Sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, are we?"

Misty had barely any time to react before Opaline grabbed her and slammed her into a wall, boxes and items going flying. "I daresay you've become not very good at obeying orders Misty. Perhaps a little refresher course is in order."

"You've been lying to me," Misty said. "My parents aren't dead! You said my mom died in childbirth! How then can she be there in the picture?"

"Your father could have remarried?" Opaline suggested, before reaching behind her. "And I haven't been lying to you, oh no. I've just been improving the truth. Remember all you need for truth to become truth is for any evidence of contradictory narratives to be erased." She snapped her fingers. "Take the pictures and burn them."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" said a soldier.

"No!" Misty yelled. She would have said more, but was rendered speechless as her cheek and jaw exploded in agony.

"Talking out of line, are we?" Opaline said, still pinning Misty in place. "Where was I? All that is needed for the contradictory narratives to be erased. I will admit it's not perfect, but it works well enough."

She produced a stone from nowhere, which started to glow. "You know, Misty, I never thought I'd have to operate on you again... but needs must when the devil drives!"

Misty's eyes suddenly shot open, and she looked around herself in fright. Her forehead was drenched in sweat, and as she pulled herself out of bed she saw the bedsheets looked to be soaked with the stuff.

Now she knew. Now she knew why she didn't know them, and had struggled to recall anything about her life. As if on autopilot she began changing the sheets and putting the old ones in the laundry basket. If nobody found out about this, the better.

The next morning, Misty convened her friends and family at Falmouth Manor to explain what she had seen. "That's why I can't really know which of my memories are real and which aren't," she said sadly. "Opaline was selectively wiping them so often to ensure maximum obediance from me."

"But some information must have slipped through the cracks," Zipp said. "I mean, you were able to recognise Alphabittle when you met him in the forest, didn't you?"

Misty nodded. "I did. But I didn't recognise mom at all until I made the connection between her and a picture she had in her lab." She put her head in her hands. "I'm just so confused now. Just how much of my own past is lost, and how much can I truly know about myself?"

There was a moment of brief silence for all there, until at last Alphabittle spoke. "You're still my kid, Misty. No matter what, and no matter what Opaline did to you, that will never change. I'll always be here for you, as will your mother. Unfortunately she couldn't make it this morning as she's at the clinic, but you can pop down later to say hello."

"Not exactly helping, Alphabittle," Lady Haven said.

"And you've got us," Pipp said, placing her hand on Misty's shoulder. "There's an old saying that friends are the family you choose. Obvs not trying to downplay what Opaline did, but we can help you move forward. Life doesn't always go the way we expect, but sometimes we have to roll with the potholes."

"Especially given the wild day you two had recently," Misty said, as she looked up. "Thanks guys. I think I need a bit of time alone."

"What happened in the end?" Lady Haven asked.

Pipp shrugged. "The head nymph gave me a visit. He apologised for Milky Way's behaviour and stripped her of her license to perform wishes."

As Misty got up from the table and walked to the stairs, Alphabittle's eye was drawn to the calender sitting on the table behind them. "Do you guys know what day it is?" he asked.

"No. Why?"

"Today, twenty years ago, Misty was born," Alphabittle said. "When have you been marking her birthday?"

"May, around the same time as Pipp and Zipp," Lord Haven replied. "As we didn't know her date of birth we felt it would be easier if all three of them celebrated together."

Izzy looked up. "Is this conversation going where I think it is going?" she asked. "Because if it is then I am so onboard with this plan!"

And so, they began to talk- but I shan't say any more, or I will spoil the next story.

Author's Note

This chapter is based on a Thomas and Friends fan episode of the same name, which somehow manages to be even darker than Shed 17-something I did not think possible. Although the same basic premise is used, several elements were changed-the central narrative conceit of the engine's faces being removed and put on replacement bodies would not translate at all well to humans.

Opaline's dialogue is inspired by various real life cult leaders; Your Majesty is an allusion to various Jacobite cults that have existed over the years, whilst 'Trust and Obey' was the mantra of David Berg, the leader of The Family (a phrase designed to ensure blind obediance to him).

One of the described images is a reference to this fanmade comic cover:

Can you guess what the stone is?

And so, with the truth of Misty's birthday revealed, the story moves apace-onward, to our next adventure!