"Dot, can you hear me?"

There was no response from Dot as Yakko held onto her. Then she weakly opened her eyes and put her hand on Yakko's.

"Tell me the story."

"No..." said Joy.

"Once upon a time..."

As Dot told the story herself, Sadness called in every memory of Yakko's parents telling Dot the story of her birth. They used to be yellow and happy, but Sadness touched them and made them blue and sad. Normally, the others would yell at her for doing so, but they understood it was what she had to do. They were also too horrified to react as their eyes were glued to the cameras.

"...so they planted a garden."

Family Island glowed a light blue as Yakko joined in.

"...and every night at bedtime, they'd come in and say 'Who's the cutest girl?' and you'd say..."

"I am."

"And they'd ask 'How'd you ever get so cute?'"

Tears were forming in Joy's eyes as despair and heartbreak came crashing down on her. The way Yakko was acting towards his dying sister moved the emotions deeply, but there was no doubt that Joy was moved the most. Sadness called in the memory from the previous night, where Yakko told Dot the story himself. Sadness was a little reluctant to touch it, but Joy sadly nodded her head in approval. As it turned sad and played in Yakko's head, tears formed in his eyes.

"No," said Dot, coughing once more. "Just Dot. Call me Dottie and you...die."

She went limp and died in Yakko's arms.

"No..." Joy whispered.

Disgust stayed silent and dipped her head with grief.

"Oh, no..." said Fear. "She's dead! What are we gonna do?! We were supposed to stay together! What'll we do without her?! What'll mom and dad say-"

He gasped.

"Mom and dad! Oh, boy. They won't be happy when they see her joining them! They'll be disappointed in us! They'll be mad! They'll never forgive us!"

Fear ran around the room screaming as he made minor thoughts in Yakko's mind.

"Salazar!" Anger screamed. "That no-good, money-stealing, fun-destroying, sister-killing monster! When we're done here, I oughta..."

He screamed as his head lit itself on fire.

Joy was crushed. When Dot took her final breath, she forced her eyes shut as she died.

Stay strong, Joy! Stay strong!

Suddenly, a horrible sound made her open her eyes. She looked at the first person camera and just when things couldn't possibly get any sadder, Yakko was crying. Tears were streaming down his face as Sadness couldn't have him stay strong any longer. Seeing Yakko like that caused Joy to collapse on her knees, bury her face into her hands, and cry with him. Her crying kept her from noticing that a blue core memory was made and caused Dot to slowly crumble from Family Island and into the memory dump. While the other emotions were too busy making up minor thoughts for Yakko, Sadness was the only one who noticed Joy sobbing. She walked over to her and hugged her.

"This is all my fault," said Joy.

"No, it isn't-"

"Yes it is, Sadness! Don't you see? Everything Yakko believed in was because of me! I worked hard to keep him happy and positive, but it was all for nothing! I didn't try hard enough; I should have tried harder! I should have done something more to stop this from happening! If it wasn't for me, Dot would still be alive! Serves me right for making promises I can't keep! I'm sorry, Sadness. I let everyone down...you guys were right. I should have given up when I had the chance."

Joy expected Sadness to be disappointed, but she only held her closer. Joy burried her face into her fellow emotion's sweater in defeat.

"Joy, don't be so hard on yourself. If anything, we're the ones who should be sorry. We always depended on you to help us and the stress was more than you could handle. We're so sorry we put you under a lot of pressure."

Joy felt a little better, but still felt like she needed to take the blame.

"You know," Sadness continued, "you're the reason we even got this far."

Joy stopped crying and looked up at Sadness.

"You really think so?"

"I know so. If you didn't encourage us to make the journey, we'd still be in Acme Falls, starving and freezing to death. Your positivity may not have been enough to save Dot, but it was enough to get us through the hard times. Joy, your hope was the only thing that kept us and Yakko going."

Sadness handed Joy a box of tissues. She took one and wiped her eyes.

"Thanks, Sadness. But there's still one thing I'm worried about: if you're supposed to alert others when Yakko needs help, why isn't anybody comforting him?"

Sadness moved the 3rd person camera around to find the others crying behind the wall that imprisoned them.

"They're too busy mourning Dot's death to comfort him."

"Oh."

"Look, it's Vakko!" said Scratchansniff.

The emotions stopped what they were doing and looked at the cameras once more. Wakko ran at the speed of light towards the star.

"Help me, spirit, wherever you are!" he said.

Joy was filled with a newfound hope. Maybe Wakko's wish would be enough to to save Dot and the town...

"Come on, Wakko! You can do it!"

Suddenly, a cannonball was shot.

"No!" Joy screamed, reaching out towards the screen.

"Uh, oh!" said Sadness.

"Watch out!" said Fear.

Yakko was tempted to save Wakko, but he felt like he was supposed to stay by Dot's corpse.

"We can't lose him too!" said Joy, silently praying that Wakko would be alright.

Wakko took a leap of faith and jumped for the star. Luckily, the cannonball barely missed him and he hit the star. The emotions let out a sigh of relief.

"He's safe!" said Joy.

Suddenly, Dot sprung up.

"I'm feeling better now!"

Yakko jumped back in surprise as the crowd cheered.

"She's alive!" said Fear.

"Wait a minute, you mean to tell me she was faking it?!" said Anger. "Ugh, I feel so stupid! When we get home, I oughta-"

He made a fist, but glares from the other emotions made him stop mid-sentence.

"You know, I guess I'll get her another time."

Joy ran up to the control board and made Yakko hug Dot. Dot was brought back to the statue on Family Island, but the core memory of her fake death remained a core memory and strengthened Family Island instead.

"I guess those acting lessons payed off after all!"

"Do you really mean it?" said Dot.

"Nah," said Yakko, shrugging it off and tricking Dot into thinking he knew she faked it.

"We should keep it our little secret, don't you think?" said Joy.

The others nodded.

At long last, it was time to get their wish.

"Mr. Spielberg loves this shot!" said Yakko.

"Come on!" said Joy. "Let's grant Wakko's wish! By the way, roll credits."

Disgust rolled her eyes.

"She'll never stop cracking jokes, will she?" said Fear.

"As long as Zany Island's still running," said Sadness.

Yakko and Dot ran up to see Wakko staring at the star in awe. Pip's face appeared and congratulated Wakko.

"The power of the wishing star is yours. At the sound of the tone, please make any wish you desire."

A chime went off.

"Here it comes, here it comes!" said Joy.

"Ok, here goes! I wish for..."

"What's it gonna be?" said Sadness.

"Hurry up!" said Anger.

Wakko closed his eyes, made a wish, then looked at his hand.

"...not one, but two ha'pennies!"

He held them up in the air. Joy collapsed on the floor laughing.

"Oh, come on!" said Disgust.

"Really?" said Anger. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"There it is!" said Joy. "The big punchline I've been waiting for the whole time!"

"You were in on this?" said Fear.

Joy winked at him, then had Yakko poke one of the ha'pennies with Dot.

"They're real!"

Everyone in town ran towards the Warners.

"We did it!" said Joy. "We saved the town!"

"All thanks to you," said Sadness, putting her hand on Joy's shoulder.

"Hey, you guys played your parts too! Group hug!"

She grabbed her fellow emotions and hugged them. For once, they were all happy during Joy's occasional group hug. Even Anger, who normally loathed them with a burning passion, couldn't resist smiling.