Obi-Wan continued to walk the royal family through the woods. It was still a long way to go to get to the bridge, and the little ones were starting to get tired.

"How much longer?" Lamenta whined tiredly.

"We'll be there soon." Obi-Wan said. "We just need to take this path, and we should be at the bridge within an hour."

"An hour?!" The others whined.

"My legs are killing me!" Anakin whined. "And I'm thirsty."

"Me too." Gabby agreed.

"Hmm..." Obi-Wan thought. They had been walking a long time, and Peppermint was getting thirsty too. It couldn't hurt to stop for a drink. So, he agreed to let the horses stop for some water. Luckily, there happened to be a clear river of water not too far from where they were where the horses could get a drink.


And not too long a walk later, Obi-Wan and the horses were safely at the river where there was lots of clear water, but the stream was moving awfully quickly.

"Be careful when drinking, everyone." Obi-Wan said. "the current looks pretty strong right now."

So, the grownup horses went first, being careful not to lean too far into the stream as they got themselves a drink of cool water. Gabby and Lamenta leaned in to get some water too. Lamenta's little tongue felt so relieved to get a taste of cool fresh water. Gabby, on the other hand, wanted more water, and she leaned in a littler farther into the stream, but didn't realize that...

"Gabby, be careful!" Anakin exclaimed. "That's too far into the-"

Gabby screamed as she slipped and fell into the river.

"Gabby!" The others exclaimed.

Gabby desperately tried to swim out, but the current was too strong.

Anakin immediately chewed his rope off and ran after his little girl.

"Hang on, Gabby! Daddy's coming!"

Anakin ran as fast as he could, which was not easy given that he hadn't yet mastered running on four legs. And then he decided to do something really reckless.

"Anakin! Don't!" Obi-Wan exclaimed.

Too late. Anakin jumped into the river and tried to swim to Gabby, but then he got caught in the current too!

Swimming as a horse was definitely not like swimming as a human!

"Hang on, you two!" Kara said, running to find a way to save her brother and niece.

Gabby desperately tried to keep her head above the water, Anakin equally desperate to get to his daughter.

"I'm coming, Baby! Daddy's coming!" Anakin panted, trying to overpower the current as Gabby continued floating away.

Meanwhile, the others kept running and trying to find a way to save them. But as they got farther down the river, they began to hear something.

"Why is the water getting louder?" Lamenta asked, sounding scared.

"Because they're heading for a waterfall!" Carmine exclaimed.

"Can't Kara just fly out and get them out?" Peppermint said frantically. "She's got wings!"

"I don't know how!" said Kara.

Gabby and Anakin both got scared as they saw the waterfall getting closer and closer, and they were drifting towards it faster!

Luckily, Gabby saw a big rock, and she managed to grab hold of it by wrapping her forelegs around it. But keeping her grip was not easy without fingers.

Anakin tried to grab onto a rock, but he didn't grab it in time, and he whinnied as he started to drift closer to the falls... until he felt a tug at his rear.

"Yowch! My tail!"

Anakin looked back and saw Gabby biting his tail, gripping her little teeth as much as she could. As much as it hurt, he never felt so happy to be bitten by a horse. But, he was slipping, and so was Gabby due to her father's weight!

"There has to be some way to reach them!" Kara panicked.

Kara looked around quickly and saw a long branch they could chop from a tree, and she started to kick at it to try and get it off, but Obi-Wan got out a machete and chopped it right off and held out the branch for Anakin to grab.

"Grab the branch, Anakin!" Obi-Wan said.

And Anakin grabbed the branch with his teeth.

"Keep holding my tail, Gabby!" Anakin yelled with the branch in his mouth.

The two horses were both really heavy. So, Peppermint bit part of the branch and helped Obi-Wan pulled Anakin and Gabby out.

Gabby was about to scream as the stream threatened to pull her over the falls. She clenched her teeth around her father's tail harder until Obi-Wan grabbed her out of the water and set her down.

"Are you both alright?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I think so." said Anakin.

But poor Gabby was shaking, and not just from the cold water she was soaked in. Obi-Wan picked her up and wrapped her in a soft towel to dry her off.

"You must be more careful, little one. The woods are a dangerous place to be when you are unfamiliar."

Anakin started licking Gabby to comfort her the way a father horse would do his baby.

"It's okay, Gabby. Daddy's here."

Anakin nuzzled Gabby, the poor baby scared to the ends if her hooves. Obi-Wan gently placed Gabby on her father's back and tied a rope again to make sure she wouldn't fall off.

Obi-Wan looked at his map again and started guiding everyone to the bridge again.

About an hour later, the group finally reached the bridge.

"This is the bridge I typically took when I came to the palace." Obi-Wan said.

"And you're sure we'll get back to the palace quickly?" Kara said.

"All we have to do is cross this bridge then head to the North Star Port to take a transport to Temple Range, where it will be only one more hour long walk until you are home."

But, the bridge they had to take was an old rope bridge that could only hold two people at a time. And since none of the winged horses knew how to fly, they had to walk across the bridge.

So, Obi-Wan and Peppermint went across the bridge first. The walk was fairly safe aside from the bridge swinging a little. Until... Obi-Wan stepped on a board, and...

SNAP!!!

"AHH!"

"Obi-Wan!" Peppermint and the others exclaimed.

Luckily, Obi-Wan was caught by some ropes on the bridge.

"Help me!" Obi-Wan begged.

"Don't worry, Obi. We're gonna get you out if there." Peppermint said.

Peppermint looked to the other side of the bridge and saw plenty of trees with strong branches.

"Just don't move," said Peppermint, running to the other side to find a stick to help her rider up.

"We have to help Obi-Wan!" said Lamenta.

"But how?" Gabby said. "The bridge won't hold our weight, and none of us can fly."

"Or maybe we can." said Kara, starting to spread out her wings. "Learning to fly might not be something we learned, but facing challenges is something we have."

So, the others soread out their wings and started flapping them as hard as they could to get themselves off the ground.

Anakin was the first to lift off.

"Hey, look! I'm doing it! I'm flying!" Anakin said. "Here I come, Obi-Wan!"

Anakjn flew out, but rather wobbly, as he hadn't yet mastered steering.

"Whoa! Hang on, Obi-Wan! Prince Anakin to the rescue. Whoa!"

Anakin kept getting all over the place, going backwards and upside down. But eventually, he made his way to Obi-Wan and got right underneath him just as Peppermint came back.

"Anakin...?" Obi-Wan said, sounding unsure.

"Peppermint!" Anakin called, getting the unicorn's attention. "Chew the rope off! I'm gonna catch Obi-Wan."

"Are you sure you can do that? You've never had a rider." Peppermint said.

"I've given piggyback rides to the kids lots of times. How different can this be?"

Against her better judgment, Peppermint cut the ropes with her teeth, and Obi-Wan fell onto Anakin's back and held on tight.

"Whoa!"

Anakin was quickly jerked downward as Obi-Wan's weight hit his back. Despite having a bigger, stronger back to carry things, Anakin was not used to piggybacking an adult.

"Don't worry. I got you- oh no, steering!"

Obi-Wan tried to help Anakin to steer, but only succeeded in making him practically crash land in some rocks down below, and the two of them got stuck.

Carmine ran onto the bridge, and so did the kids, but then the rooes started snapping!

"Uh oh!" Carmine yelped.

Kara quickly grabbed a rope with her teeth, but it wasn't enough to stop the bridge from dangling the other horses!

Carmine quickly wrapped his tail around one of the boards and caught the children in his forelegs.

"I got you!" Carmine said.

"But who's gonna rescue the rest of us?!" Peppermint screamed.