In honor of Earth Day, I've decided to write a chapter that takes on the topic of pollution. But any day is a great day to think about how we can care for the planet. This planet is our home, and we need to take care of it.

Spring, a beautiful time of year. The flowers are in bloom, the grass is new and green, and animals are waking up from hibernation. Such a beautiful cycle existed on many planets of the Republic, and on many of the home planets of the Jedi.

On Coruscant, however, most of the plants that existed needed to have specially made grounds in order to grow, as most of the planet was made of steel and concrete. But in some parts of the planet, there were parks with natural beauty.

Today, Master Windu was accompanying his wife-to-be Brenda to a park where their kids Myra and Kade were playing frisbee with their friends Comedia and Round n' Round. This park was particularly great because it was one of the biggest parks on Coruscant with lots of plant life. There was even a lake to add some more natural charm.

For the last month, Myra began receiving Jedi training under her father's supervision. She wanted to make a lightsaber of her own, but Mace said they would get her into the Gathering once she officially turned sixteen next month. They had a lot of stuff for her to catch up on, and most of the time she used what Force abilities she learned to experiment with musical instruments.

"I'm open!" Round n Round called.

"Here it comes!" Myra cheered, and she threw the frisbee, the unicorn running after it, only to stop as she felt something disgusting on her hoof.

"Ugh! Gross!" Round n Round lifted her hoof and scraped it on the ground as she'd stepped into some sticky gum.

"What happened?"

"I stepped in someone's chewed gum!"

"Eww!" Comedia groaned.

"I hate it when people do this. It's not just unsanitary, it's gross."

While Myra took Round n Round to get her hoof cleaned, Kade and Comedia decided to keep playing. But as they ran across the park, they found a lot of trash on the ground that they had to avoid so they wouldn't get hurt.

Cans, bottles, plastic bags, candy wrappers, all kinds of garbage were all over the park. Comedia found this odd; she'd been here before, and there was not nearly as much trash on the ground. And then she stepped on something that got stuck around her leg. Comedia looked at it and saw that it was one of those plastic things wrapped around six-packs of soda.

Comedia tried to shake the thing off her leg, but it was stuck. She also tried to chew it with her teeth.

"Hey, Kade. Think you can help me pull this off?" Comedia asked.

"Sure."

Kade tried to get it off, but only succeeded in getting the plastic really tangled up.

"Uh oh."

"Stupid plastic." Comedia groaned, trying again to chew it off.

"I'll go see if Mommy has something we can use to cut it off." Kade said, running off.

"And I'll see if I can get this off myself."

So, Comedia kept trying to shake the plastic wrapping off her leg, but as she was chewing, she fell over and got her tail caught in a plastic bag, and an empty soda can got snagged too. Whatever was taking Kade so long, it sure wasn't helping Comedia avoid getting trapped in more garbage she ran into, but didn't realize how close she'd gotten to the lake... until she fell in and found it wasn't crystal blue water like she remembered.

"EWW!" Comedia gasped. "Gross!"

Even the lake was disgusting! It was all green and filled with even more garbage! It felt all sticky and gooey too, and Comedia was beginning to sink like in quicksand.

"Oh no! Myra! Master Windu! Someone! HELP!"

Comedia whinnied as loudly as she could to call for help. Fortunately, that was when Kade and Brenda arrived, and they panicked when they saw Comedia in danger!

Brenda immediately got out her phone and called emergency services for help while Kade ran for Mace and Myra.

"Time to put what I've taught you to the test." Mace told his daughter. "We gotta buy her time. Concentrate on Comedia."

But, Myra had never lifted a living being before, much less anything nearly as big as a horse, even a young one.

"Help me!" Comedia screamed, coughing as the pollution was starting to make it hard for her to breathe.

Mace and Myra concentrated together and started to lift Comedia out from the gunk, that proving difficult as whatever was in the lake was really sticky.

"Did someone dump a jug of glue into the lake or something?!" Myra gasped as she struggled to keep a grip on Comedia.

"Worse," said Mace. "This park is full of pollution."

Comedia tried to spread out her wings so she could fly out, but her wings were stuck to her side because of the gunk.

"I can't fly!" Comedia said, coughing more. "What is all this stuff?!"

Comedia whinnied in pain as she felt something scratching into her body.

"Something's poking me!"

"Don't worry, Comedia. Medics are on the way!" Brenda promised. "Just hang on. Don't move."

Medics soon arrived. Medical droids and veterinarians arrived quickly to tend to the alicorn princess.

The doctors carefully started to clean Comedia up, but the young mare was panicking too.

"Stay, girl." said one of the vets. "It's okay."

Comedia was coughing and whinnying weakly. All the garbage was definitely making her very sick. There was gunk and garbage all over her body and in her mane. And to make things worse, they found that the thing that had been poking her were shards of broken glass thrown into the lake that jabbed themselves into Comedia's side near her front left shoulder. She was scarred really bad.

Kade was definitely traumatized by this sight, and so was his sister.

Comedia had to be taken to the animal hospital to get stitches and a full checkup. Master Windu immediately called Master Mundi to let him know where his daughter was. And he also called Gabby to ask her if she could meet them there to heal Comedia.

The Windu family sat in the waiting room as Ki-Adi paced around in circles, looking very worried, on the verge of having a heart attack. As soon as he heard the words 'hospital' and 'Comedia' in the same sentence, he nearly had a heart attack. He fell onto Petro and knocked him down as he fainted, and the other younglings threw water on his face, which made him get up and go rushing to the hospital.

It felt like days to Master Mundi as he awaited what had become of his daughter.

"Master Mundi, will you calm down already?" Myra said.

"Calm down? My daughter is in the hospital, and you're asking me to calm down?!"

"Hey, I'm worried about Comedia too. But she needs you not to be panicking right now."

"If anything, I think Comedia would be glad to know he's panicking about her health." Mace said. "Remember, her birth parents were willing to sell her off to literally anyone."

Ki-Adi continued to pace as he tried to hold back tears that came to his eyes. He'd already lost seven daughters and only just got a second chance to be a father; he wasn't prepared to lose an eighth child. It should have been her to outlive him, not the other way around. Comedia was still so young and finally had the happy life she deserved, and all that seemed like it would easily be taken away because someone polluted the park with their hazardous junk!

"Who could've done this?"

"It's not so important who did this so much as how this happened," said Brenda. "Obviously this happened because most likely more than one person has been littering, using the park as their own personal trash can!"

"Why would someone throw trash all over the park when there are a bunch of trash cans to put it in?" Kade asked.

"That is a very good question, Kade. It might be that they are simply too lazy to find a trash can to throw trash into, or some people are just slobs."

"Either way, there is no good reason for polluting any world." Ki-Adi said. "We may have many planets in the galaxy, but not all of them can sustain life, and thus we must take care of all of them. What happened to Comedia today is proof of what can happen to innocent beings if pollution is allowed to continue."

Just then, a doctor came out with a smile on her face.

"Master Mundi?"

Ki-Adi looked at the doctor as she stepped aside, and out Comedia was walked by a medical droid.

"Comedia!" Ki-Adi rushed over and looked at his daughter.

Comedia looked exhausted, a little pale in her face, and she had gauze bandages around her front left side, and her mane and tail had been brushed and tied into a braid after they got all the gunk and trash out of it. The doctors also cleaned her up and gave her a vaccine that would fight any other infections that got into her bloodstream, and they'd had to given her stitches from the cuts she got from the broken glass.

"Hi, Daddy." Comedia said, sounding a little tired.

"Are you alright? I was so worried about you."

"She's a very lucky princess." the doctor said. "There was a lot of hazardous waste on her, and traces of it may have gotten into her bloodstream. Fortunately, there was not enough to leave any lasting effects."

The doctors also gave Ki-Adi some pills to give Comedia for the next couple weeks to ensure she recovered properly so they could remove the stitches.

"Just makes sure she takes one of them every six hours with at least one cup of water."

And then Comedia collapsed to the floor on her stomach.

"Who's spinning the room?" Comedia said dizzily.

"She's also going to be a little woozy for at least the next few hours." the doctor said.

Round n' Round came to help Comedia by placing her neck under Comedia's head and carefully helping her stand up again.

Ki-Adi got Comedia home and got her to take one of the pills before letting her get into bed to rest. How this could've happened was just unimaginably awful. Why would anyone be so careless with their trash and not consider that even one piece of trash would contribute to the build-up of hazardous pollution that would harm people, plants, and innocent animals?

But it wasn't just Comedia facing pollution.

Somewhere on Naboo...

It started out as a great Saturday. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the royal family decided today was a perfect day to go out to the lake for a swim. The water looked crystal shiny as the sun shined over it. Or, it usually did.

The lake was Padme's favorite place to be when she was a child. She had many fond memories of swimming to the island and back, bathing in the sunlight, and then teaching her little ones how to swim there. And today, she thought it was a perfect day to take the kids to the lake.

Goldie knew how to swim a little bit at least from spending time at a lake in her old village. But since she was still learning, Padme accompanied her and Mariposa into the water. Another great thing about the lake was that it was away from people, and Mariposa didn't have to wear her cloak or worry about anyone seeing her wings.

"Race you girls to the island!" Boba challenged.

He leaped into the water and took on merman form, so did Gabby and Lamenta. Omega put on the magical pearl Boba gave her and joined the others in the water.

Qui-Gon and Shmi held the babies as they were dressed up in their adorable little swimsuits.

"Ready for your first swim, little ones?" Qui-Gon cooed, nuzzling Leia.

The babies were held by their grandparents as they sat in little floats in the water, Luke splashing his grandmother the moment he felt the water on his little hands.

"Luke!" Shmi scolded, the baby boy giggling.

Except, that was when the adults heard screaming.

"MOMMY! DADDY!" Gabby screamed from the distance. "BOBA AND LAMENTA ARE IN TROUBLE!"

Padme, being the best swimmer, quickly started to swim out to help her kids, Anakin following on Carousella's back. But when they got to the sight where Boba was trapped, they were shocked to find that half the lake was covered in slime.

"What is this stuff?" Anakin said.

"I don't know," said Carousella. "But we best get the kids out of the water now!"

Carousella quickly used her magic to get the kids out from the water and back to the land, including Boba. Except, they found out Boba was in an absolute awful condition.

"Mom, help!" Boba gasped.

Not only was Boba covered in slime, but his tail was caught in a net of garbage bags, plastic wrapping, and who knows what else.

"What is all this stuff?" Wrecker said.

"Garbage." Echo said. "And a lot of some kind of grease."

"Stand back, everyone." Mariposa said. "I need some scissors, dish soap, a sponge, clean towels, and a first aid kit."

So, everyone quickly rushed to get everything Mariposa requested, and the doresho gypsy and her husband got to work while the others took care of the other kids, as they'd gotten some of that grease on them too.

"Hold still," said Tech, scrubbing Gabby. "You'll be okay."

Gabby giggled a bit as Tech scrubbed a ticklish spot on her stomach.

"I know it tickles, but you must hold still."

The kids were cleaned up, and so was Boba. Mariposa and Garrett managed to carefully get all the trash off his tail so he could change back to human.

"Are you okay, Boba?" Padme said, looking at her son worriedly.

"I'm fine, Mom. I'm not hurt at all."

"Thank the heavens none of that trash was anything sharp." Garrett said.

"What happened to the lake?" said Lamenta. "It was crystal blue and clear the last time we went."

"Yeah. What happened?" Omega said. "Where did all that grease come from?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Anakin said, punching his fist into his hand. "No one endangers my kids and gets away with it."

"Anakin, it's litter and grease that could've come from anywhere." Kara said. "We can't be sure who did so, but we can do something about it."

The royal family decided they needed to call in some people to help clean up the lake. But before they did, the kids took some pictures to make some visual aids. And they quickly found out that they weren't alone.

It turned out a lot of garbage was building up in a lot of other places too. On Alderaan, there was junk in a local park, oceans and lakes were full of trash, and people and animals were getting sick and hurt. On Batu, there was a lot of exhaust from old vehicles polluting the air and making it hard for people to breathe and made the air stink too. And there was garbage all over a bunch of parks on Naboo too and all over the school yards.

As you can probably imagine, there were plenty of people who were very angry with those litterbugs and careless folks who polluted the worlds of their galaxy, not once considering how the way they treat the environment affected everywhere else.

Caroline was furious when she realized how much worse of a condition her daughter and her nephew could have been from that slime. She'd taken Lamenta to the doctor to make sure she was alright, and thankfully there wasn't enough grease on her long enough to be dangerous. But it could have been a lot worse. What happened to Boba could have just as easily been all the other kids too. And it could have been even worse too.

Any of the kids could have gotten really badly hurt, sick, or even killed. Caroline looked at an old photo she had of her with her parents when she was a little girl. She remembered when she was about Lamenta's age, she used to love going to this park on one of the more natural worlds with them. At that park, she would roll around in the grass, play on the swings, chase butterflies, and feed the ducks with her parents. But then one day, that park was taken over by some greedy developers who turned the whole place into a junkyard and thus created pollution on that planet and destroyed one of the Mitchell Family's most precious places.

But she wasn't the only one.

Ki-Adi was still taking care of Comedia after her accident, and she was facing a few side effects from the medication, starting with stomach aches and nausea, which was also probably due to the hazardous waste she got trapped in. Whoever left all that trash almost killed his daughter, and no one was cleaning it up.

He tried calling the police, animal control, even EHC about this matter regarding his daughter and how something needed to be done. All of them said that they had no way of tracing who left the litter. But, he did contact Queen Reigna, and she said she was going to see what she could do to help, starting with sending Comedia a get-well package and taking a look at this pollution herself.

Ki-Adi sighed and looked at Comedia as she was sleeping. He held something in his hands as he sat down to think. A joy buzzer. The same one, in fact, that Comedia had pranked him with the day they met. While at the time he was a little shocked and found the prank unpleasant, he had to admit it was kind of funny, and Comedia probably saw it as a way of testing him like with her last twenty or so owners. After the way so many riders treated her, who could blame her for even being hesitant to let the Equinary choose a rider for her?

As for Anakin...

He paced around his room as briars were growing and growing when he started thinking about how badly hurt his son and niece could have been. Anakin remembered his days in slavery; he'd seen so many folks put into intentionally made poor conditions. Rooms that were filthy, had no windows or even beds, working in scorching heat, not to mention barely any clean drinking water. Some slave masters even threw their own garbage onto those poor enslaved prisoners.

"When I get my hands on whoever did this, they are gonne pay!" Anakin growled, grabbing his lightsaber.

Meanwhile, on Mustafar...

Mariverde was enthralled by the sight of three new potential victims in her magic mirror. And two of them were Jedi no less, and even better, two of them were members of the royal family.

"Three parents upset by the danger their children were placed in by others being slobs," chuckled Mariverde. "Why worry about cleaning up the mess when you can make the ones who did make the mess clean up their acts?"

And so, Mariverde created three mariclavas and sent them through three portals on their way.

"Fly, my pretties. Clavatize those two Jedi and the princess."

And so, the three mariclavas flew to each victim and landed on various items. One landed on Anakin's lightsaber, the second on Caroline's picture, and the third on the joy buzzer Ki-Adi held.

Elements of Pollution. Earth, Wind, Water, I am Mariverde. Your children were about to be killed because of the actions of those slobs who thought they could get away with making the land their personal trash cans.

"No! You can't clavatize me!" The three victims said.

All three of them tried to break out of Mariverde's grasp, but she was holding on tight this time.

Those folks need to pay for their actions. They threw trash where it doesn't belong. Is it not time for them to clean up their acts? Or shall your children pay the price of others' carelessness? Do they not deserve a clean, safe home where they will live and thrive?

That seemed to reel in the three victims.

I am giving you the power to find the ones responsible for this mess, and to make them clean up their act by punishing them in their own pollution. Do we have an understanding?

And then, all three victims succumbed to their emotions, and were transformed.