Anakin couldn't believe his eyes when he got back to the Temple after his mission. He'd made his new wings appear again and took a good look at them. Although they made him look like a big butterfly or a fairy of some kind, he had to admit, they added a sense of power and majestic charm to his body when he literally spread his wings.

"I knew I was born to fly," said Anakin, admiring his reflection. "But this is a whole new level of amazing."

There was only one problem though...

Anakin didn't know how to fly using wings of his own. But... many of the horses he knew flew with wings. And so far, he knew how to flap; the first step to flying. How hard could it be?

All was peaceful as Gabby was walking with Ganodi and Petro down the hall to tell them all about their new visitors.

"For the Madrigals' sake, I hope we can at least find Rosella soon and get her to safety." Gabby said.

"Knowing from what I've heard about General Grievous," said Petro. "he won't make it easy."

"Is it true they're literally not even from our galaxy?" Ganodi asked.

"Sure is," said Gabby. "And it turns out, where they're from, their vehicles don't even-"

"DUCK!" a new voice shouted.

The three kids ducked and looked to see something black, green, and blue disappear around the corner, and someone else yelp and drop.

"Sorry, Camilo!" shouted the voice again.

"Was that your dad?" Petro said, sounding surprised.

"Oh no. Please don't tell me he's trying to fly himself." Gabby face palmed.

Anakin found it really hard just to stay in the air! He could barely control how high or low he flew, and he couldn't steer very well either.

"How do you steer these things?!" Anakin panicked. "Whoa!"

And then he crashed into a potted plant, breaking the pot, but luckily none of his bones. It hurt nonetheless, and now he was dirty.

"Great," said Anakin sarcastically. "These were my favorite robes too."

Anakin decided to try again, this time outside with some pillows placed on the ground so he would have something soft to land on.

"Okay, wings. Let's do this." Anakin gave each wing a firm look and got into position and started getting them flapping, only to lose his balance before he even got two inches off the ground. Luckily, he landed on a pillow.

Anakin tried again, but ended up front flipping and landing on his butt on the hard ground.

"Ouch!" Anakin got up from his sore rear and immediately realized this wasn't working. "Okay, clearly I'm not gonna be able to learn from experience without ending up in the hospital first. Not alone anyway."

Even Anakin was mature enough to see he was going to need help... from someone who actually knew how to fly.

"Okay, Anakin." Crescent said, stepping outside with Anakin. "First thing to know is that flying isn't all fun and games. It's serious business, especially when it's your mode of transportation."

Crescent spread out his wings and took off in a short flight where he did a graceful loop, flew all around the courtyard and landed safely on his hooves and folded in his wings.

"See? All that takes practice. When I was just a colt, I had strong wings, but I needed to learn how to control them. Mom and Dad always told me that even birds have to start somewhere with no knowledge on how to fly."

"So, how do I start?" Anakin asked. "I got wings now, but Dad is too busy to show me how at the moment."

"Well, why don't we start with seeing where you're struggling? Show me how you lift off."

So, Anakin got into position on all fours like Crescent had, and started to flap his wings to fly, only to lose his balance almost right away and fall flat on his stomach.

"Ouch!"

"Okay, I see the problem. First of all, you're flapping one wing faster than the other. You gotta flap both at the same time."

"I was. But these things don't seem to like listening."

"Oh, don't worry. It's more common than you think. There's a trick to flying. You know how when you're happy, or excited? That feeling you get when everything is going your way or you've just had a big win that makes you feel like you can fly? That's what you gotta think about. Anything that gives you pure, undeniable joy."

Crescent thought about what gave him pure joy. Feeling the wind in his mane when he ran, the smell of apple pie fresh out of the oven, his mother singing to him and his sister, and of course the day Carousella was born, and she walked to him for the very first time a few hours later when she mastered standing up. That last one never failed to bring joy to his heart.

"Think hard, Anakin. What makes you happiest?"

Anakin thought for a moment. He'd been through so much in the past; so much pain, sadness, and anger. But... even he knew happiness at some point, and he knew the very source of his happiest moments. His beloved wife Padme. She'd been the very thing to give him many other blessings in his life. How happy he felt whenever he held her in his arms, held her hand, heard her voice, saw her smile, hugged her, slept beside her, and especially anytime they kissed. She was the only woman who ever made him feel like he'd died and gone to Heaven just by her mere presence before and after they got married. He would never trade her for anything, and he was grateful to all the blessings he'd received from her.

Love, support, and a family to share those things with... words could not describe how happy Anakin felt when he thought of any of those things.

And to Anakin's great surprise, he found himself getting the hang of flapping and staying in balance.

"Good, Anakin! Good!" Crescent said. "Now for the hard part. Steering."

"WHOA!"

Crescent wasn't kidding when he said steering was difficult. That being proven as Anakin nearly crashed into one of the Temple's pillars as he and Crescent were flying together to practice steering.

"Don't worry, this happens all the time to new flyers!" Crescent called, then mumbled, "usually not pegasi, though."

"I heard that! Yikes!"

Anakin tried to keep himself steady. Key word: tried. But he kept getting flipped around or went up and down when he didn't want to. Crescent told him the way to steer properly, he had to angle his wingspan to move one direction and keep it balanced. Except, that didn't seem to be working in Anakin's case.

"Why isn't this working?!" Anakin screamed as he was flying backwards now!

He'd spun ships around, swerved them, and even made them flip before crashing them, but he'd never made a ship fly backwards before. Anakin still tried Crescent's methods, but instead found himself flying upside down.

"Uh, Anakin...? You might wanna work on staying right side up."

"Uh... you think?!" Anakin's frown may have been upside down, but so was the rest of him... until he managed to literally turn himself around.

"No worries. Let's try again.

But, Anakin didn't get much better. That being proven a few hours later.

Obi-Wan was walking with Sapphire down the hall, discussing some concerns they had about the war and their guests who needed help getting home.

"Oh, it's been heard of being able to travel between dimensions. But the ability to do so hasn't come so easily." Sapphire said. "Certain crystals and jewels do hold some power to doing so."

"Peppermint mentioned that jewel pegasi are said to be exceptionally powerful equines. Is it true?"

"Yes, but we are a rarity in recent years." Sapphire said. "Some years ago, the jewel pegasi clan just started vanishing. Queen Reigna sent out scouts to investigate, but so far no leads."

"Then I guess Anakin protects you as you do for him."

"I believe I do more of it for him. Some days I feel like I've had to be his mother."

Obi-Wan chuckled; he knew the feeling of parenting Anakin all too well. Anakin was a grown man, but he still needed a babysitter to keep him out of trouble so much of the time. And Gabby took after him in that respect where you look away for one moment, and things turn a bit more exciting than you might imagine.

"I can understand how you feel." said Obi-Wan. "You should've seen Anakin when he was a child. The first time he arrived, his first happy day was experiencing rain for the first time, which I can understand knowing how rare water is on Tatooine."

"If he was anything like Gabriella or Lamenta are now, I imagine he was an adorable child as well." Sapphire said. "Before you know it, they'll be ready to spread their wings and fly themselves... but hopefully neither of them inherit Anakin's habit of crashing."

"I wouldn't worry. No one crashes like Anakin, and fortunately at the moment, no ships have been crashing... assuming Anakin isn't in the hangar."

Obi-Wan stopped to think for a moment.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Anakin all day, have you?"

Sapphire shook her head.

"No, and it's odd. It's like he just disappeared. I just hope he isn't getting into trouble."

"No, no, NO!" shouted a familiar voice.

Suddenly... CRASH!

"Ooh!"

Many Jedi in the hall winced as they caught a glimpse of one of the windows where Anakin crashed himself into, his cheek smushed against the glass. Since that incident with Bariss, all the windows in the Temple were replaced with shatter proof glass that could only be broken with special emergency hammers.

"Anakin?!" Sapphire exclaimed.

Luckily for Anakin, Crescent flew in and got him unstuck. But when Anakin realized his master and so many other Jedi had seen him crash, he was mortified! How he wished he had Lamenta's power to turn invisible right now. For now, all he could do was let Crescent carry him on his back and make his own wings vanish.

Sapphire glared at the two guys and said, "Courtyard, now!"