Anakin struggled as he was trapped in chains that held his hands above his head.

He couldn't get over the fact that he'd been helping the princess of Naboo and didn't even realize it. Not only that, but he'd almost kissed her! He almost kissed a princess! So many boys would've killed to receive a kiss on the cheek from a beautiful princess like Padme. But Anakin almost got one lips-to-lips.

"She was the princess. I can't believe it." Anakin sighed to himself. "I must've sounded so stupid to her."

Ruff! Ruff!

Anakin looked up at a dungeon window to see Artoo with a ring of keys in his mouth.

"Artoo! Down here." Anakin smiled.

Artoo managed to squeeze through the bars of the window and get down to his owner.

"Hey, come on. Help me out of these." Anakin said.

Artoo barked as though scolding his owner and seemed to act out that if he hadn't gotten so distracted by the princess and fallen down, they wouldn't be in this mess.

"I know, but she was so kind and helpful." Anakin said. "Ah, she was worth it."

Artoo set the keys down and pawed at them, trying to find the right one to release Anakin.

"Don't worry, Artoo." said Anakin. "I'll never see her again. I'm a street rat, remember? And even if she did want to be with me, there's a law. She's gotta marry a prince."

Artoo found the right key and held it with his teeth as he freed Anakin from the chains.

"She deserves a prince." Anakin said, rubbing his wrists. He sighed. "I'm such a fool."

"You're only a fool if you give up, boy." said a new voice. A rather raspy sounding one.

Anakin and Artoo looked into a darker section of the dungeon, where there sat an elderly man in a dark cloak, his hood concealing his face, a long white beard being the only thing visible.

"Who are you?" asked Anakin.

"A lowly prisoner, like yourself." said the old man, shakily walking over with a cane aiding him. "But together, perhaps we can be more."

Anakin was intrigued.

"I'm listening."

"There is a cave, boy, a Cave of Wonders, filled with treasures beyond your wildest dreams." the man held out a hand, showing some beautiful emeralds he held. "Treasure enough to impress even your princess, I'd wager."

"Master, can you hurry up?" whispered Amedda, sweating under the cloak. "I'm dying in here."

"But the law says that only a prince can-" Anakin started until he was interrupted.

"You've heard of the golden rule, haven't you?" said Sidious. "Whoever has the gold makes the rules."

"So, why would you share all of this wonderful treasure with me?" Anakin asked.

"I need a young pair of legs and a strong back to go in after it."

"Uh, one problem. It's out there. We're in here."

The old man shook a finger at the younger man.

"Uh-uh. Things aren't always what they seem." and with his cane, the old man pushed a big block of bricks, revealing a way out of the dungeon. "So, do we have a deal?"

Artoo and Anakin looked at each other with uncertainty.

Out in the desert, a sandstorm was beginning.

Anakin and Artoo pulled on the reins of a horse that carried the old man through the storm.

After what felt like hours of trudging through the sand and storm, they were astonished by the appearance of the great Cave of Wonders.

"Who disturbs my slumber?" asked the dragon head.

"Uh, it is I, Anakin." said the boy.

The cave looked at the boy with her glowing white eyes and said, "Proceed. Touch nothing but the lamp."

And the cave opened her large mouth for the boy to enter.

"Remember boy, first fetch me the lamp," said the old man. "and then you shall have your reward."

Anakin looked at the cave again.

"Come on, Artoo." said Anakin.

And together, the street rat and his dog entered the Cave of Wonders without any trouble.

Anakin and Artoo walked down a very long staircase that went down, down, down, deep into the cave. It seemed to go one forever until eventually they came upon a golden light.

And through the door from which that light came, Anakin couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what lied within.

"Whoa... would you look at that?" smiled Anakin.

The amount of treasure in the cave was unbelievable! There were literal mountains of gold, jewels, artifacts.

"Just a handful of this stuff would make me richer than the king." said Anakin.

Artoo started to sniff around at some of the treasure.

"Artoo!" Anakin scolded. "Don't touch anything. We've gotta find that lamp."

But as Anakin and Artoo looked around for the lamp, they didn't know that someone was watching them.

Artoo whined as though saying "Huh?" as he heard footsteps behind him.

But when the dog looked, no one was there.

He sniffed around. Artoo could swear he smelled someone else was there. It smelled like... horse? And... feathers?

Artoo ran to his owner and barked like crazy.

"Artoo, will you knock it off?" Anakin said.

That was when, from behind one of the statues, a blue nose sniffed near the pocket of Anakin's pants, as inside was an apple pastry he'd forgotten was there. And it reached in and started munching.

Artoo saw and barked like crazy, jumping on Anakin and knocking him onto his stomach.

"Artoo! Are you crazy?" Anakin scolded.

Anakin and Artoo both looked up and couldn't believe what they saw.

Right there in front of them was a beautiful blue mare with sparkly silver streaks in her mane. But not just any horse. A pegasus. One with a sapphire jewel in the center of her forehead and sparkling wings. She was eating the pastry happily as though she hadn't eaten in a long time. The half she managed to bit out of Anakin's pocket, anyway.

"A jewel pegasus." Anakin gasped. "I thought those were a myth."

The pegasus mare licked her mouth as she finished the delectable treat.

"I guess she likes fritters." Anakin chuckled. "Come on. Come over here, girl. We're not gonna hurt you."

The pegasus looked curiously at Anakin, but she didn't come.

Anakin, however, realized he still had some of the pastry in his pocket. He held his hand out flat with the treat in it.

"You hungry?" asked the boy.

The pegasus sniffed the air in front of her and slowly came to Anakin as he also slowly stepped forward and offered her the treat. And the pegasus ate the pastry right out from Anakin's hand, the boy petting her muzzle as she did.

The pegasus then sniffed Anakin's hair.

"I guess you must be a guardian of this cave, huh?" said Anakin.

"You'd be right to guess." said the pegasus.

Anakin was startled by that.

"You can talk?!" gasped the boy.

"Now that you're not a complete stranger to me. Sapphire is my name."

"Anakin. And this is Artoo."

Artoo barked.

"Maybe you can help us." Anakin said. "We're trying to find a lamp."

"You're in luck." said Sapphire. "I know exactly where it is. Hop on."

Anakin carefully climbed onto Sapphire's back, and the pegasus flew down the hall, Artoo following suite.

In a darker part of the cave, there was another staircase that led right to the lamp.

"This is as far as I can take you." Sapphire said.

"Thank you, Sapphire." Anakin said. "Artoo, wait here."

While Anakin was walking up to the lamp, Artoo got curious about some jewels that were nearby and started sniffing around them.

Anakin walked up the stairs, and on a pedestal found a beautiful oil lamp of brass. It wasn't made of gold or encrusted with any jewels like all the other treasures in the cave. Why was it so special? Anakin wondered.

"This is it? This is what we came all the way down here to..."

Artoo got way too curious as he spotted a golden bone.

"Artoo! NO!" Anakin shouted.

But he was too late.

"INFIDELS!" said the angry voice of the cave. "You have touched the forbidden treasure!"

Artoo dropped the bone, but it melted, and so did some other things.

"Now you will never again see the light of day!"

The pedestal on which Anakin retrieved the lamp blew fire like a dragon, and the stairs became a slide that was about to throw Anakin into a pool of boiling lava.

Luckily, Sapphire swooped right in the nick of time and caught Anakin on her back!

"Artoo!" Anakin exclaimed, seeing Artoo stuck on a rock, the poor pooch whimpering in fear.

Sapphire flew down closer as fast as she could, Anakin managing to grab his dog right in the nick of time.

"Hang on tight!" Sapphire shouted, flying faster to get them out as a wave of lava came after them.

The entire cave was crumbling from the inside out! They had to hurry!

Rocks were falling, the lava was flowing faster by the second, flames igniting. Sapphire worked to dodge every one of them to get the boys back to the entrance.

Outside the cave, the dragon was roaring and a storm was brewing as it was falling apart.

Suddenly, a big rock fell onto Sapphire's flank and threw her off course, but luckily Artoo managed to jump to safety, Anakin grabbing onto a rocky ledge before he could fall. But, Sapphire's tail got caught in some more rocks.

Anakin saw the old man right nearby.

"Help me out." Anakin begged.

"Throw me the lamp." said the man.

"I can't hold on. Give me your hand."

"First give me the lamp."

Anakin didn't have time to roll his eyes at this man's audacity. He pulled out the lamp and managed to hand it to the old man, who laughed maniacally as he held it up victoriously.

"YES! At last!" cheered Sidious.

Artoo bit the back of Anakin's shirt and started to pull him out, but Sidious kicked the dog away and grabbed Anakin by his wrist.

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked.

"Giving you your reward." said Sidious. "Your eternal reward."

And Sidious pulled out a big, red-handled knife.

Artoo growled when he saw the blade and immediately attacked the old man by biting his hand, but that also made the man drop Anakin back into the cave. And the man threw the dog in shortly after that.

The boy screamed and the dog howled as they fell down, down, down!

Fortunately for them, Sapphire got her tail unstuck and flew in and caught them on her back before she got them to a hollow part of the cave and protected them from the remains of the crumbling cave.

Outside, the dragon head of the cave shut its mouth once more, and it looked like it was permanent this time.

Sidious chuckled to himself as he removed his fake beard.

"It's mine. At last. It's all mine."

Sidious reached into his cloak, only to find the lamp was not in his pocket.

"I... where is it?" He looked around. "No!"

And then, Sidious remembered when the dog attacked him. If the lamp didn't fall into the sand, it must've fallen back into the cave!

"NO!"

Meanwhile, at the Naboo Palace...

"Padme?" said Ruwee, seeing his daughter in her room with Vivian, both of them looking depressed.

"Oh, dearest. What's wrong?" asked the king.

Padme sniffled and looked teary-eyed at her father.

"Palpatine has done something terrible." she cried.

Ruwee hugged his daughter.

"There, there, my dear." Ruwee soothed. "We'll set it right. Now, tell me everything."