Candles were lit at dinner. As instructed, Wrecker poured a few drops of poison into the wine the grownups would be drinking, and some into the pitcher of juice for the kids.
"Is everything ready for tonight?" Silvaria asked.
"Yup. Dad's cookin' everything up." Wrecker said.
"Not dinner. You know..."
"Oh, yeah." Wrecker said flatly. "That poison?"
"Yes, that poison!" Palpatine said. "I shall propose a toast, and with one sip, the royal family will be dead before dessert."
"Too bad, because I hear there's chocolate cake for dessert." Wrecker said.
Silvaria rolled her eyes at Wrecker's childishness.
The royal family soon arrived at the table for dinner.
"Alright! What's for dinner tonight?" Anakin asked.
"I'm starved." Carmine said.
"Ruling the kingdom does work up an appetite." Kara said.
The little ones got to their seats.
"I just hope it's not deep fried nuna leg again." Gabby said. "We've had that three times this week."
"Don't worry, Princess Gabriella." said Jango. "Got a much different menu tonight."
And Jango and Zam served some soup to the royal family.
"Minestrone! My favorite!" Lamenta said.
"It was your grandfather's favorite too." Anakin chuckled.
"Wrecker, would you pour the royal family a drink?" Silvaria said with a nicer attitude than usual.
Wrecker then picked up the wine bottle and poured a cup for everyone.
"No, no, Wrecker." Carmine said, stopping Wrecker from pouring the wine into the kids' cups. "They're too little to drink that stuff."
So, Silvaria, with a groan, picked up the pitcher of juice and poured some for the kids.
And Palpatine raised his cup to propose a toast.
"To the royal family, descendants of King Qui-Gon Jinn." said Palpatine. "Long live the queen and her royal family."
And the entire royal family sipped their drinks. But while the family wasn't looking, Palpatine and Silvaria just dumped their drinks into some nearby plants.
Nothing seemed to happen at first. But then, Gabby felt a pain in her stomach and so did Lamenta.
"Daddy..." Gabby said, holding her stomach. "I don't feel good."
"My tummy hurts!" Lamenta cried, prompting Carmine to take her into his arms.
"Poor baby. It might've been something you ate." Carmine said, but then he felt the same pain in his stomach. "And something I ate too!"
Soon, Anakin and Kara felt odd too!
"Good work, Wrecker!" Silvaria whispered triumphantly.
"Now, we simply wait and get rid of the bodies." said Palpatine.
But then, everyone in the royal family let out a loud burp, and they felt much better.
The kids and Wrecker started laughing like crazy.
"That was funny!" Wrecker laughed.
Silvaria and Palpatine were confused.
"I guess it was just gas." Anakin laughed along with the rest of the family.
But then, all of a sudden, black pointy ears popped up on Anakin's head. Light brown ones also appeared on Kara's head. The kids were first to notice.
Carmine noticed too.
"Um... Auntie Kara?" Gabby said, sounding scared, not knowing pink pointy ears appeared on her head.
Soon, the family started to slowly change. Anakin suddenly grew a long tail the same color as his hair, which grew a bit longer all of a sudden, Lamenta started to grow purple fur, and Kara suddenly sprouted wings! Silvaria, however, was prepared for an event that the plan didn't work, and pulled out another vial. and threw it on the ground, a cloud of sleeping gas filling the room as Silvaria got herself out of the room, and so did Palpatine and Wrecker.
A few minutes later, once the clouds dispersed, the villains reentered the room and found no dead humans. Instead, they found five horses in the room!
The first was a golden brown pegasus mare with a dark brown mane with blue and yellow beads in it, the next two were a black unicorn stallion with a sandy blonde mane and an orange unicorn with a longer sandy blonde mane, and the last ones were two little alicorns. One was purple with a black mane with silver stars in it and sparkly feathers on her wings, and the other was light pink with a chocolate brown mane and fluffy sparkly feathers on her wings too. And they were all wearing the royal family's clothes!
"What?!" said Silvaria and Palpatine.
"Horses?!" said Palaptine. "They're supposed to be dead!"
"Yeah, weird." Wrecker said, scratching his head.
Silvaria slowly glared at Wrecker and held out her hand.
"Let me see that vial."
And Wrecker handed it to her. Silvaria at first saw a skull symbol, but then realized the label was rolled up, and when she unrolled it, it showed a symbol of a horse on it.
"This isn't poison." said Silvaria. "this is extract of... horse!"
Silvaria threw the vial at Wrecker's face, hitting him in the nose as she and Palpatine groaned and panicked about this situation.
"Uh... you know, a lot of those potions look the same." Wrecker said. "Might wanna put some signs on them."
"Take them out of town and finish the job now!" Silvaria instructed.
Wrecker looked at what the royals hadn't eaten of their meal yet.
"Can I have the rest of the family's meal?"
Silvaria face palmed at Wrecker's lack of focus.
"Wrecker, this is very important." Palpatine said.
"Aww! But I'm starving!"
Silvaria sighed and reluctantly told Wrecker,
"Fine! You can have a quick snack, then take them out of town and finish the job!"
Wrecker placed the royal family members into a bunch of sealed boxes on a wagon to make it easier to move them. Luckily, the crates had small holes in them that let air get inside.
Wrecker took the crates to a big river and prepared to toss them over, starting with the biggest crate, which held Kara in it.
"Okay... one... two..." Wrecker counted, getting ready to push the crate over.
"Uh... three...four...five...six...seven..."
Wrecker tried to push the crate, but found himself counting more and more instead.
"twenty-six... twenty-seven..."
Wrecker stopped.
"You're not really gonna do it, are ya?" said a voice in Wrecker's head. "Killing an innocent family with a couple of little kids?"
And a smaller version of Wrecker in a white robe with wings and a halo appeared on his shoulder.
"My shoulder angel?" Wrecker said.
"Don't listen to that guy." said another voice.
And on Wrecker's other shoulder appeared another mini version of him dressed in red leader with devil horns on his head.
"He's tryin' to turn ya to the goody-two-shoes path. I'm gonna show ya the path that's awesome!" said the shoulder devil.
"Oh, come off it." said the angel.
"You come off it!" said the devil.
"You!"
"You, infinity." smirked the devil.
Wrecker's angel growled in frustration.
The devil summoned a pair of glasses and a piece of paper.
"Now, listen up, big guy. I'll give ya three reasons you should just do it." said the devil. "Number one. Look at that guy, he's got that silly string thing."
Wrecker's angel glared at the devil.
"We've been over this," said the angel, holding up his instrument. "It's a harp, and you know it."
"Oh, right. That's a harp, and that's a dress."
"Robe!" corrected the angel.
"Reason number two." The devil said, doing a handstand. "Look what I can do. Ha!"
Wrecker was no genius, but he didn't see what that had to do with the situation at hand.
"You're confusing me now." Wrecker said. "So... be gone!"
And the shoulder angel and devil disappeared. But, Wrecker didn't know what to do! He couldn't let Silvaria and Palpatine find out he didn't finish the job. So, he did the first thing he thought of.
Wrecker moved all the horses into one crate, as three would catch too much attention, and he put it in a trailer and covered it with a tarp to move them somewhere else. But he wasn't sure where he'd take them.
But eventually, his trailer broke down, so he picked up the crate and moved it to another trailer. Except, Wrecker didn't realize the trailer was being pulled by a pink unicorn with red candy-cane-colored hair named Peppermint.
While Wrecker stood there, trying to catch his breath, Peppermint pulled the trailer up onto a ship, where she met with her owner Obi-Wan.
"Good girl, Peppermint." said Obi-Wan, untying Peppermint from the load as they were ready to head out.
By the time Wrecker turned around to move the crate again, the trailer was gone!
"Oh no! Where'd it go?!" Wrecker looked around and panicked. He looked all around, but he didn't see his crate. Not that he could tell anyway. Inconveniently, he was in the marketplace, and the shops were all receiving or sending out large shipments in large crates! So, Wrecker couldn't tell which one was his, and he began randomly smashing crates open.
He opened one crate; it was filled with jogan fruits. He opened another, it was filled with grain. He opened another, it was filled with horseshoes. And he opened another, and it had a bunch of teddy bears inside.
"Hello?!" Wrecker exclaimed, opening another crate. "any horses in there?!"
There were horses in the crate alright. Plush horses. But Wrecker started digging through them anyway, people thinking he was crazy.
"Anybody in there?!"
Little did he know someone else was in for a big shock of their own.