Author's Notes:

So in the last Author's Note I said I would have something done by February.

So... to make a long story short. There was an entirely different chapter written up back in January. The data file that held the chapter got corrupted. I had to start from scratch and it was difficult to rustle up the drive to write up a new chapter after I had lost thousands of words that took hours of work.

Moral of the story. Always keep your files backed up somewhere else.

“Falca young lady get down from there this instant!” Professor Ludo called from down below on the practice mats as I stood on top of the flight perch. I stuck out my tongue and giggled when I saw Professor Ludo huff up and bristle his feathers. Professor Ludo was so funny when he was angry.

“Princess, you can’t do a sky breaker yet! Your wings haven’t grown enough yet. Please come down from there.”

“Nuh-uh!” I replied as I shook my head. “Get Momma! I want to show her that I can do it. I know I can do it now!”

“No, you can’t! Get down here you blasted cub. NOW!”

I stuck my tongue out again.

“I said NOW!”

“Make me,” I said as I smiled and giggled again. I knew Professor Ludo couldn’t get me down because he did something silly last week and broke his left-wing. He can’t get to me even if he wanted to.

“If you don’t get down here this second I’m going to double your math homework.”

“I’m going to do it!” I declared loudly while ignoring him. “Go get Momma.”

“Your Mother is getting ready to go into labor soon. Your father has prevented anyone from seeing her, and that includes both you and myself. She’s not going to come, so for the love of the Ancestors, get down here and cease this foolishness.”

“Nuh-uh!” I shook my head again.

“You’re testing my patience! You can’t do it you blasted cub! Just wait a year for your fledgling feathers to grow out and THEN you can do it.”

“I can do it right now. Watch!” y

“DON’T!!! I’ll call for the guards!”

I had already extended my wings and was prepared to push off with my back paws. I remembered exactly how Momma maneuvered her wings to perform a sky breaker when she would carry me on her back and I had been practicing endlessly in my gliding lessons to find the right momentum. With the right amount of speed, I was sure I could do a sky breaker even with my stupid fledgling feathers.

“PRINCESS FALCA!!!”

I pushed off the flight perch and began by slowly gliding down to the floor. I tipped my wings to gain a little more momentum and when I felt I had gathered enough speed I pushed off with my right-wing and twisted my body around to make an extremely tight loop. It felt like I had given myself a wide enough radius to get air flowing beneath my wings and when I finished the first part of the sky breaker I flapped my wings together to do a backflip mid-air.

For a moment I was completely vertical from the ground and I flapped my wings furiously to complete the backflip. But… I wasn’t flipping around like I was supposed to.

I continued to rise vertically until I had spent the rest of the momentum I had made with my initial glide and I could feel myself slowly beginning to fall. I kept trying to flap my wings to keep moving up but I panicked and flapped my wings in an uneven pattern. Instead of completing the backflip I dipped forwards and started to fall towards the ground. My uneven flaps twisted me into different directions and no matter what I tried I couldn’t get myself back into a simple gliding position in the air.

I screamed.

I could hear Professor Ludo screaming something as well but couldn’t understand what he had said. I only continued to plummet towards the ground. I briefly saw the blue floor of the practice mats until…

WHAMMMM!!!

“PROFESSOR LUDO!”

“Stupid cubs. Always doing something or other to make my life harder… will they do what you say? Nooooooo… Professor Ludo is just spitting nonsense out of his bunghole. The old bird’s got nothing worth listening to. Let’s go try to break our necks and force the elderly to save our good for nothing tails!!!”

Professor Ludo continued to limp down the castle hall as furiously as he could manage while grumbling to himself. I slowly trailed behind him shamefully and winced whenever the old griffon would stop at the end of a hall, grab the wall to catch his breath, and then would continue his escort to march me to my room.

Professor Ludo had thrown himself underneath me before I had crash-landed on the practice mats and the professor’s soft underbelly had cushioned the fall but it had caused my tutor a lot of pain in the attempt. He had a hard time breathing for a couple of seconds after he had caught me but he assured me he was alright after I had come close to panicking and running for help. He then told me to follow him to my room and told me to be quiet when I started to apologize.

As we got closer to my room it became increasingly harder to keep my beak shut whenever I saw Professor Ludo wince in pain. I NEEDED to let him know I was sorry.

“I’m really sorry profess-,”

“NOT ONE WORD!” Professor Ludo bellowed as he turned around, eyes wide and hot.

“I-I I am-,” my lower beak was beginning to tremble.

“Blasted cub! Will you please just do ONE thing for me today?”

I didn’t speak after that. Instead, I just lowered my body closer to the ground and nodded my head quickly.

Professor Ludo grumbled something I couldn’t understand before he turned around and continued leading us on our path towards my room. I sniffed and slowly followed him again. When we finally reached my room the old professor aggressively opened the door and marched in and pointed me towards my writing desk. After I sat down, professor Ludo limped over to a bookcase containing my personal library and picked out my copy of Rigalo’s Primary Mathematics for Advanced Learners, 1^st Edition, and dropped it onto my desk.

“You are going redo the last three problem set worksheets you’ve had this week and you will write down your work for every single problem. You will then read ahead on numerical expressions and you will prepare yourself for a review problem set I will create for you tomorrow morning. You can also expect a quiz tomorrow that will review ALL that you have learned from this textbook so far. Oh, and I swear if I find even a single mistake on that quiz I will take us back to the beginning and make you review simple addition until you can add to infinity. Am I clear?”

I nodded my head.

“Am I CLEAR?!”

“Yes, Professor Ludo!” I said while wincing at the volume of his voice.

“Good! Now I EEEhhhh-Gahhh,” Professor Ludo winced and held his side as he sat down on the floor beside my desk. He looked over to me when I tried to leap off of my chair to try and help him but he barked at me angrily. “Never mind me, just get started on your work young lady! I just need to rest for a moment.”

Professor Ludo turned away when I nodded my head and opened my textbook. He took long steady breaths and he looked down at the floor before he grumbled again something silently to himself. I flipped the pages of the textbook until I found the first of the worksheets that Professor Ludo wanted me to work on and then I took out an ink bottle and quill from a drawer along with a few sheets of paper. I was beginning to solve the first problem but my head refused to shut up.

‘Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why couldn’t I do the stupid maneuver? I should’ve had it! It felt like I was moving fast enough so why didn’t it work!!!’ I made a mistake in my work on the second problem and I huffed as I scratched it out of existence with ink before I wrote it up again. ‘Now Professor Ludo is mad at me. He’ll likely tell Papa and he’ll get mad at me. Then Thistle and Takada will laugh at me when they hear what happened. Then when Momma hears about what happened she’ll get mad too and she’ll-,’

I sniffed and had to rub my eyes after my vision got a little blurry from a few leaking tears.

‘It’s not fair! I just wanted to see Momma! Is that so wrong? She’s been gone for over a week to prepare for labor and no one will tell me why it’s taking so long. They won’t even allow anygriffon to see her. Why is this labor prep taking so long? Why won’t Papa or anyone else tell me anything? Why couldn’t she even come to my birthday…?’

More tears began to leak and a few drops streaked off my beak to land on the still fresh ink of my math work. I sniffed and rubbed my eyes angrily as the water smudged and ruined parts of my work and I cried helplessly as the tears refused to stop coming.

“Bloody Ancestors Falca are you crying?” Professor Ludo asked as he slowly stood up, his eyes now replaced with concern rather than anger. “I know I just gave you a lot of work but I know that you know all of this. This should all be a breeze to you at this point. If it’s about the quiz for tomorrow you should know I was just kidding about taking us back to the beginning. I wouldn’t dare waste our time with something as trivial as the basics again. You’ve already come so far and you’ve-.”

“It’s not about that.” I interrupted with a sob. “I just want to see Momma again okay!”

After my outburst, Professor Ludo didn’t chastise me like I had expected he would and he just continued to stand there out of the corner of my eye.

‘This is stupid. Takada never cries so I shouldn’t cry either. I am not a child, I am Princess Falca of House Hialla and princesses do not cry!’

I returned to my work and began to rewrite the work that had been ruined by my tears. Eventually, I began to run out of space to work and flipped the first sheet over to write on the back. I was just getting myself worked up over nothing. Momma was gone for a good reason and I shouldn’t get upset over this. Momma will come back eventually and she’ll come back with a new baby brother. A prince of House Hialla who will make us all proud and who will finally make me glad to not be the youngest of my siblings. I should be glad that my mother is being taken care of. Even if it means she had to miss my birthday, she’ll be around for the next one.

“Listen Falca, I uhh,” Professor Ludo spoke up all of a sudden and it abruptly brought me out of my concentration. The professor started at the corner of my desk as he struggled to find the words to speak. “I shouldn’t reward my students for bad behavior, but I think you deserve to at least hear from your mother again. It is odd that Queen Scylla has been gone for this long.”

I dropped my quill and I swore I could feel my heart swelling with hope.

“I have a friend that’s currently working in your mother’s nursing team. I could ask her to smuggle in a message for you but that’s all that I’ll do for you. Understand?” The professor said as he looked around my room as if he was afraid he would be caught doing something naughty.

“Yes, YES! Thank you so much, Professor Ludo!” I cried cheerfully.

Professor Ludo returned his gaze to me and then he pointed to the sheets of paper at my desk.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Write up the bloody message.”

The sun had gone down a long time ago and I had just finished writing up the rest of the work Professor Ludo had assigned to me. I read up on the section that dealt with numerical expressions and practiced on a few exercise problems to make sure I had a grasp on the material.

“I am going to ace that quiz tomorrow,” I said to myself satisfied and happy.

I was exhausted and was ready to get into bed and fall asleep. I dragged myself away from my desk and made my way to the foot of my bed where a row of my favorite plushies sat waiting for me to choose one of them. I always brought a sleeping buddy into bed with me and I always made sure each plushie had a turn to be my buddy for a night. Today was a Sunday, so tonight it should be my Princess Celestia plushie’s turn.

I remembered how I was when I met the real Princess Celestia and showed off my plushie of her during one of her visits to our kingdom. She always reminds me of Momma when she comes to visit. It seemed right that her plushie should be my sleeping buddy for tonight.

I crawled into my bed snuggled the Princess Celestia plushie as I yawned and got ready to fall asleep. However, there was one thing that was missing.

‘Momma’s bedtime song.’

I thought I would get used to it over time, but ever since she’s been gone I couldn’t shake the empty feeling I felt at the absence of her songs. It felt wrong. Like she was gone and would never come back to me again. It’s made sleeping a pain to deal with but I had found ways to help me fall asleep again.

I stared outside the window next to my bed and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw moonlight. I soon found the moon, and with it, the Mare in the Moon. The shadowy impression of the pony within the moon had always managed to calm me somehow. It helped make me feel like I wasn’t alone and that someone was keeping me safe. If Momma couldn’t be here to help me fall asleep then at least I had the Mare in the Moon.

I stared at the Mare in the Moon for some time until my eyes began to feel heavy. When my eyes started to close a yawn slowly crawled its way out of my beak. And then…

…

…

…

One Hour Later…

…

…

…

“Falca”

I groaned as I felt something softly petting the feathers on the top of my head. It was a nice feeling but it had woken me up from a wonderful slumber. I squeezed myself to my Princess Celestia plushie and groaned again as I tried to get back to sleep. Hoping whatever had disturbed me would just go away.

“Falca sweetie, please wake up.”

‘What?’ I thought as the sound of that voice suddenly became very familiar.

I opened my eyes and turned to see a griffon figure standing at the side of my bed. The figure was tall and when the moonlight shined on her feathers I saw traces of beautiful golden feathers intermingled perfectly with a majority of dark brown ones. The same feathers I shared with my mother. It was mother’s talons that were gently nudging me awake. Those were mother’s eyes I was staring in to.

‘Why did they look so sad?’

“Hello my little Starlight, I’m sorry that I woke you up. You weren’t dreaming were you?”

I let go of the Princess Celestia plushie and immediately reached for the talons that were petting my head. I hugged Momma’s talons to my chest and any hint of sleep had left my mind entirely.

“Momma!” I couldn’t contain my joy. I clutched onto Momma’s talons like they were the most precious thing in the whole world. I nuzzled into her feathers for a brief moment and as I looked back up into her eyes I was startled when I saw another pair of eyes skulking behind my Momma.

The other eyes, cold and colored like steel, were staring down at me briefly before they turned to my mother. The figure that owned the eyes were shaded from the moonlight and it was impossible to tell who or what it was. When the eyes turned to Momma she must’ve sensed their stare and her eyes glistened as the sadness in her eyes began to leak out.

Then Momma began to pull away.

“Momma?”

My grip tightened on my Momma’s talons and I refused to have them leave my chest. But slowly, little by little, her talons were beginning to slip away. I was beginning to cry. I had no idea why but I knew something was terribly wrong. It was almost as if I could literally feel the sense of dread in the air.

“Momma, what’s wrong? What’s happening?” I soon had a hold on only one talon left and I growled as I gave it my all to hold on to her.

“I love you so much.” My mother said as she suddenly stopped pulling away. “Your big brother and big sister have already received their lullabies for tonight. It’s your turn now.”

“Eeep!”

Light flashed through my eyes as I opened them in response to the sound. I felt unusually warm as my senses slowly started to come alive once more and I felt an all too familiar feeling creep its way to my beak as I began to drawl out a slow morning yawn. I ruffled my feathers a little bit as I tried to blink the sleep away.

When my eyes finally cleared I noticed I was still holding something to my chest. They weren’t my mother’s talons like in the dream, instead, it was a hand wrapped in white bandages that was pressed up to the feathers on my chest. My eyes traveled up the arm that was attached to the hand and I soon found myself staring at a familiarly burly crimson chest. I shifted around to get a better look at what was sharing my bed and figured out why I woke up so unusually warm.

“Ummm…Jack? Why are we in bed together?”

I had to cover my face when the sun’s rays stung my eyes as I stepped out onto the top deck of The Extravagant. However, the pain was only momentary as a fresh sea breeze passed through my lungs and left me feeling slightly more refreshed than I did before. Falca followed me up the main deck and we looked around to find that the ship wasn’t moving and that the anchor must’ve been dropped. Thistle and Hyde were at the bow of the ship seemingly arguing as they stood over a newly placed table with maps organized across its surface.

Thistle looked like he had seen better days but was surprisingly eloquent in how he carried himself despite the injuries he suffered because of the storm. He wore a new cape, almost an exact copy of the one he wore before, but he still had on the wide-brimmed hat with the large purple feather. The forelimb that had the split-open talon was in a sling and the injured talon itself was in a splint wrapped with fresh gauze. With the new cape covering his wing, I had to reach out with the Force to evaluate how damaged it was and found that while the wing was still broken it was only a minor fracture and seemed to have been properly treated. The grisly memory of Thistle’s talon was still fresh in my mind and I was thankful that I only suffered a few burns rather than an appendage torn completely open by lightning.

Hyde, however, was a stark contrast to his injured but still well-groomed older brother. His feathers were unkempt and wild while his eyes were wide and bloodshot. He definitely looked like he was sleep-deprived and when he rolled his eyes at something that Thistle said to him he nervously scratched at a tuft of feathers on his chest with his talons. The scratching knocked out a healthy feather that looked like it should not have been plucked this early. Hyde looked back down to his maps as he ignored a concerned Thistle.

I looked down at Falca and she was already making a beeline towards her siblings as I soon followed directly behind. Our footsteps alerted the two brothers to our presence and when Thistle looked up at us his concerned face melted away into his trademark smile and I didn’t need to wonder if it was sincere or not when I saw tears glistening in his eyes. Hyde also smiled happily in relief for a few moments but when his eyes met mine that smile faltered and began to fade away as we got closer.

“My little sister!” Thistle screamed in delight as he limped his way over to us to meet us half-way on the main deck. Hyde made his way over to us as well but slowly. When Thistle reached Falca he flung his other foreleg across Falca’s back and hugged her close as he pecked her on the cheek and forehead with kisses. Falca returned the hug in kind, and despite her previous promise to kill her older brother for putting us in a bed together, she seemed utterly happy to hold the foppish griffon in her arms.

“Oh sorry, I’m such an ugly crier.” Thistle said as he broke off from his hug to sit down on the deck to wipe his eyes with his talons. “Seeing you weak and so exhausted from the storm really pulled at my heartstrings. Now seeing you standing tall and proud is-is… oh, darling, it’s just too much.”

“I’m okay Thistle,” Falca said as she rubbed one of Thistle’s shoulders. She looked down to examine his injured talon before grimacing. “I think I got off pretty easy. How are YOU doing Thistle?”

Thistle moved his injured talon up and down as if he was waving off her question.

“Oh don’t worry this is nothing. I’ve suffered more grievous injuries from feisty ex’s than I did from that frivolous little experience. Oh and…” Thistle’s warm smile turned into a shit-eating grin as he looked to me then back to his sister. “Did you enjoy your little surprise? Honestly, I didn’t expect you two to be up this early. I had hoped you would at least take your time with him Falca. You both were knocked out for a whole day yesterday and I hoped you two would at least try to work out your muscles.”

My eyes widened and my thoughts screeched to a halt as I took in what Thistle said. I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks and looked away as I tried my best to show that I wasn’t embarrassed. I almost didn’t care that Falca and I had skipped a whole day asleep. Falca, on the other hand, didn’t look the least bit embarrassed at all. In fact, she was smiling.

“Yeah about that.” Falca’s right talons reached down to gently caress the splint that held Thistle’s talon together before she violently squeezed it and pulled her brother towards her. Thistle squeaked in alarm and his shit-eating grin turned nervous as Falca brought him low and stared him down. “We need to talk about these concepts called ‘personal space’ and ‘respecting social boundaries.’ For some reason, you seem to think that placing people into your own sister’s bed is funny. I didn’t find it funny at all.”

“Now come on now Falca. No need to make such a fuss.” Thistle struggled to keep up his smile as Falca visibly squeezed harder on his injured talon “I was just trying to do what I could to keep you both comfortable. You both were so drained after the storm and when I placed you both together it was so cute when you both snuggled up to each other. If I had the proper tools I would’ve painted a picture.”

Falca squeezed even harder and Thistle yelped as he nearly dropped to the floor and looked up at Falca pleadingly.

“Oh come on Falca! It was only a little joke. There was no malice behind it. I’m sorry!”

Falca tilted her head to the side and looked up to the sky as if she was thinking over the apology. She then nodded a few moments later after Thistle gave a loud painful groan.

“Well, you’ve apologized to me. Now apologize to Jack.” Falca said as she pulled Thistle’s injured talon to the side so he could face me.

“Jack darling, I’m so sorry. There was no malice behind my actions. Honest! If I made you feel uncomfortable then I’m sorrier than you could possibly imagine.”

It was an embarrassing experience if I was being honest with myself. But if I was being truly honest then it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable either. I felt like I could forgive and forget. After all, we did just destroy his chandelier just a few minutes ago with our study of Falca’s Force abilities.

“I forgive you, Thistle,” I said with a nod. The prince smiled and looked back up to Falca with expecting eyes.

“I’ll let this go for now,” Falca stated as she let go of the injured talon and allowed Thistle to come back to his full height. “But we are not done talking about this.” Thistle nodded in acceptance but I sensed that he had a desire to roll his eyes at the promise of the future conversation.

After that topic was properly closed Hyde seemed to find this the perfect time to enter the conversation. The little prince was still scratching at his chest feathers and I had to hold back my surprise as I saw another loose feather glide down onto the deck. The feather looked like it had been as completely healthy as the other feather that had fallen previously before it.

“I-It’s good to see you up again Falca. It’s good to see you too Jack. How’s your arm?” Hyde asked as he sat down before the group and looked up at me with his tired eyes.

“My arm is throbbing a little bit from the pain, but otherwise, it’s healed rather nicely so far. But hmm-,” I trailed off as I looked around the main deck to find Katy’s unicorn handler and Thistle hippogriff bodyguards. “Where are the Twin Serpents and Vigilant Star? We didn’t see them on our way up here.”

“Vigilant Star is resting in my room for the time being. It has a better bed and the poor darling was nearly comatose by the time we laid him down. He needs it more than me at the moment. As for my two little serpents, they’re prepping the blimp and checking for damages.” Thistle directed our attention upwards and, sure enough, when I reached out with the Force I could sense both Kaa’s and Xaa’s presences on top of the slowly inflating blimp.

The sails rigged into the sides of the masts were beaten and a little torn after the storm but they had a little patchwork done to them and they appeared to function as normally as they had before. The blimp itself appeared to be halfway complete with a soft, almost untraceable, humming sound coming from its center mass. A newly extended tail wheel and rudder projected themselves from rear of the blimp wafting side to side as the winds jiggled with it. If we were in a controlled port rather than the open sea I presumed that this process would’ve been completed a long time ago. However, if the hippogriffs have been at this since the crack of dawn then by the time noon comes around I predicted that we would be sailing through the air rather than through open water in no time.

“Once we get The Extravagant in the air we’ll have a wider range of view and will cover the sea much faster. However, we only have enough fuel to last 24 hours and it’ll be seafaring from there on out. Hopefully, we’ll find Katy before that happens. Rescues out on the open sea are hard enough in the air, let alone at sea level.” Thistle said apprehensively. As he said that I remembered that we had another ship that could accomplish the same job probably ten times more effectively.

“Did HK-55 ever report back to The Extravagant after he rescued Falca?” I asked looking down at the older prince.

“No, not really. The droid gave Falca to us and looked down at your unconscious body for a minute before he threatened me to keep you healthy and flew back to your ship. I tried to ask him where the storm threw your ship but he just called me a ‘gaudy meatbag’ and flew off on that fire-spewing backpack of his. Pfft, ‘gaudy’, the machine is colored a metallic gold and black and has the audacity to call ME gaudy.”

I reached into my lower robes and found the small rounded holocommunicator before I clicked it on to contact either the assassin droid or 2V-R8. During the storm, the Fury didn’t respond to any of my hails and I was worried that the lightning strike had damaged the communications equipment along with the engines. Thankfully, as the signal went there was a response almost immediately. A small holographic image of HK-55’s appeared in my hand but the image was fuzzy and would occasionally fade in and out of existence.

“Report HK-55. Can you hear me?”

“Mast-, fwefsdgegge… contact is-… dfedfwef one mome-.”

It was impossible to understand what the assassin droid was saying and I suspected he couldn’t interpret anything that I said as well. The hologram reached down as if he was typing on a console before the image got even fuzzier and the blurred image of the droid straightened up and walked away. After a few seconds of looking at absolutely nothing, another figure appeared in the holographic image and bent over to type on the console as HK had done before. The image slowly started to clear up, and soon I was looking at the hologram of 2V-R8 instead of HK-55.

“I’m running a diagnostic. Can you hear me, master?” The protocol droid asked as he stopped typing to look back up at me.

“I can hear you,” I confirmed. “What’s your status and the status of the ship?”

“Oh, master it’s been absolutely horrible!” The protocol droid cried as he looked back down on an invisible display to type again. “Once the Fury crashed into the sea we’ve been left floating in this miserable brine as that horrible storm continued to batter us around and ruin the hull. I had to clear over three million, THREE MILLION, data packets on co-species communications within my data banks just to make room for all the…uhhh… engineering and emergency response protocols to respond and make repairs to the ship. HK-55 could’ve chipped in and made room in his data banks to help but nnnnnooooooooooo! Apparently, his assassination and combat protocols are far more precious than anything contained in my hard drives.”

2V-R8 continued to rant as I looked up from the holocommunicator and saw the griffons around me staring at me strangely. I gave them an apologetic grin and looked back down at the communicator as the protocol droid’s ranting got even louder. His personality matrix going above and beyond to express the droid’s frustration.

“I’m a protocol droid, not some blasted astromech unit. What’s it matter if I have to remove a carefully crafted data file on all 30 traditions and protocols required to diplomatically drink tea with ithorian consuls. At least the assassin droid will know 30 different ways to kill an ithorian with a blasted teacup!”

“R-8!” I interrupted as I realized that this could go on for quite a while. “I hear your status loud and clear. Now, what is the status of the ship itself?” That seemed to bring the protocol droid back to its senses as it paused for a moment then returned to answering my question.

“Power, engines, and communications were all overloaded by the lightning strike from the storm. Damage to the ship’s hull has largely been superficial but we received a few breaches after the storm tossed us around the sea. After we patched the breaches we sealed the ship and pressurized all cabins to keep the ship afloat. I diverted power from non-vital systems to perform these actions but I was soon able to get the power core back online after I had downloaded all the files I needed to accomplish the repairs. Communications have just recently gotten back into operation but engines are still requiring modification. They’re operational, but I still need to run a few programs and test them before we attempt a launch from a water surface.”

“How long do you think that’ll take?” I asked. So far this was going a lot better than I had hoped.

“ETA is currently three hours and twelve minutes. But that is subject to change as I continue with the tests. If I had more help and a little extra processing power from… oh, I don’t know… another droid with a perfectly capable core processor!” R8 said as he turned his head to direct his voice to something behind him that was invisible on our end. “Maybe I could get these tests done faster.”

“Alright this is good,” I said as I rubbed one of the small bone spurs beneath my chin. In over three hours we could have the Fury scanning the sea for life signs and between the scanners and my Force senses we could find Katy as easily as we found Hyde’s sunken treasure ship. “Keep me updated regularly on repairs and notify me when the Fury has achieved liftoff. Can you locate me using my holocommunicator?”

“Naturally master,” R8 confirmed.

“Alright, good luck on the rest of the repairs.” I paused as I was about to click the button to end the connection. “And good job R8, you took initiative and saved my ship. You’re an exemplary protocol droid.”

2V-R8 stopped typing into his console and began to stutter as his vocabulator struggled to piece together a sentence. If droids couldn't be flushed then R8 was defiantly exhibiting that behavior.

“Thank you, master.”

With that, the hologram winked out of existence as I pushed a button and slipped the holocommunicator back into my pocket. With that matter taken care of, Hyde was the first to break the silence after we all quickly sighed in relief.

“Good, we’ll need the extra help. I’ve already created several different search patterns we could consider before you two had woken up. Falca I’d like to go over-”

“Oh no you don’t!” Thistle said sharply as he got between Falca and their little brother. “You are going to take a damn break, Hyde. That is what you’re going to do little brother.”

Hyde sighed angrily before he flapped his wings and turned his gaze away from his older sibling. “Thistle I’m fine! Will you please just drop it? You’re not my Ancestor damned cubsitter!”

“I’ll act like your damned cubsitter when I see that you can properly maintain yourself like an actual adult. And would you stop scratching your feathers like that?!” Hyde was about to scratch his chest feathers again before he stopped himself. “Your feathers are starting to litter all over the deck.”

“Well if you’re worried about me soiling your “precious” ship deck with all my feathers. I will gladly clean up after myself when I help find Katy.”

“That wasn’t my point.” Thistle sighed as he rubbed his eyes, obviously irritated. “You haven’t slept since the storm and this new bad habit you’re developing is a side effect of stress.”

“Of course I’m stressed!” Hyde yelled suddenly in disbelief. “A freaking storm literally hunted us down to kill us all. Our sister nearly died. Jack’s sister is lost at sea. And to top it all off, this all happened because I brought us out here to find a sunken ship for my stupid thesis. I’m stressed because, once AGAIN, I’ve screwed up and made everything around me worse!”

My brows creased just as Falca came up behind Thistle to try and comfort her brother

“Hyde none of this is your fault. You can’t-”

“So I should just allow you to pluck yourself until your head is bare like a turkey?” Thistle interrupted before rolling his eyes. “And there you go again. Getting worked up over things you can’t control. If you continue to insist that working yourself to the bone is the best way to handle every single one of your mistakes then I’m sure even father will outlive you at this rate. You need to relax.”

“I can’t relax if I know I could do something to fix this. How can I even sleep if I know that Katy is out there, lost and alone and that I knew I could do something about it?” Hyde asked as he swept his talons around the deck to point out at the wide-open sea.

“How in Tartarus do you expect to do anything when you’re half-awake and barely able to focus on even a compass? Hyde, my sweet little brother, please take a page out of my book and just leave your responsibilities in the talons of someone else once in a while. It’ll do wonders for your complexion.” Thistle said dotingly but with a haughtier tone.

Hyde glared at his older brother as if he had just been insulted in the worst possible way. His beak twisted into a fierce scowl and the bloodshot in his eyes did much to help express the rage held within them. His wings twitched in irritation and he took a step towards his brother as Thistle timidly leaped off his haunches to limp away in alarm.

“Take a page out of your book huh?” Hyde said in an unrecognizably angry voice. “You think I should worry about my complexion? Take a load off and let others do the work for me like some posh royal who can’t be bothered to work hard for once? Are you saying that I should be more like you, brother?”

“I-I never said that, don’t go putting words inside my beak Hyde. I never said you should be more like me.” Thistle’s ever-present smile had vanished and he seemed very concerned with how heated this argument had become.

“No, but the tone of your voice said it all for you. Maybe next you’ll suggest that I take a longer break from my studies on the Nether Isle and go sate my vices in places like the Isle of Gaiety more often? Maybe I should put all of my responsibilities to House Hialla on the side and just focus on what keeps me a happy little prince. Maybe, like you, I should go to parties and let myself get fucked by everything with a pulse then act like the biggest, manipulative aristocrat in the world and get off on toying with people to get what I want. You perverted prick!!!”

“HEY! That’s enough,” Falca shouted as she got between her brothers.

Thistle and Hyde matched each other’s glares and Thistle’s now almost equaled his brother’s ire. Despite Falca interposing herself between them, I could tell that they barely even noticed that she was there. They would go through her to get at each other if this argument continued to escalate. I sensed their rage coming off them like a surge through the Force.

“Hyde, you are tired and you’re letting yourself get too wound up. Thistle, you’re just poking a hornet nest at this point, so please just stop.” Falca extended her wings to break their eye contact with each other and when her brothers couldn’t channel their glares towards each other they instead focused them on their sister. “We all just barely survived that storm. This is not what we should be focusing on right now. Before either of you say a single word to each other, think… think long and hard about what you two are feeling right now before you both say something you’ll later regret.”

A few moments passed as I awkwardly stood in the background of this family dispute. Thistle, with a sneer, was about to open his beak to say something before Falca noticed and cut him off.

“Think longer,” she ordered, and so he did.

Half a minute passed and the only sounds that could be heard were crashes of the waves against The Extravagant’s hull. The anger and resentment on both of the brothers’ faces began to fade away like a mist. The surge of rage that I once sensed through the Force had dwindled into a dispassionate current. With his anger gone, Hyde’s emotions began to drift between panic and dread. Thistle, on the other hand, was harder to read. His sneer was gone but his trademark smile had yet to return. His emotions were hard to discern through the Force although that might have been because of the enchanted pink diamond ring he wore that shielded his thoughts.

“I’m sorry Thistle,” Hyde said at first, breaking the silence at last. “I’m just really frustrated and I need to do something… anything. Do you get it? I can’t live with myself if I stop to take a break, my brain just refuses to shut down. I didn’t mean to call you a pervert.”

“I know what I am Hyde. I am a perverted prick, but at least I can accept what I am and still live to love myself.” Thistle sighed before he continued. “I am just worried about you. That’s all there is to it. I’m worried that my little brother is hurting himself.”

Thistle’s last sentence struck a familiar cord and brought up an old memory. It was too familiar. It was a memory of a time before the Force, before magic, before this world. A time when my big sister was worried about her little bro. When I was just Jack Krieger. Human, younger, smaller, and filled with nothing but anxiety from work or school. It was a time of weakness that seemed so distant and forgettable as I walked around in this large crimson form.

“I can’t stop Thistle. I can’t,” Hyde moaned as he sat down on the deck and rubbed his eyes with his talons. “I can’t sleep. I need this, I need to help find Katy.”

“Hyde,” I said at last. “Thistle is right, you need to take a break. I think I know what’s going through your head right now and trust me you’re going to break if you don’t take a nap.” Normally I would’ve suggested sleeping pills, or whatever sleeping aids this world considered to be its equivalent. However, out in the middle of the sea, I doubted we had access to that luxury. So instead I reached into the Wrath’s memories and searched for the experiences and knowledge of a Force power that I knew could induce the weak-minded. Especially if that mind had gone over 24 hours without sleep.

“Jack I-”

“You do not need to think anymore,” I commanded with a wave of my hand, interrupting the small Hiallan prince. Hyde’s beak went slack and his eyes eerily went empty as I had my thoughts intermingle with his own. The Force carried my every word into Hyde’s mind and the griffon offered next to no resistance to the mental intrusion. “You are tired and you want to go to bed.”

“I am tired and I want to go to bed,” Hyde repeated in monotone.

“You will go find your cabin and sleep for as long as you need to,” I ordered.

“I will go find my cabin and sleep for as long as I need to,” Hyde said as my order became the whole of his thoughts.

My Mind Trick had worked splendidly. I turned around and gestured for Hyde to make his way below deck and both Thistle and Falca could only stare, stunned, as their brother walked across the deck to carry out my order. By the time Hyde disappeared below deck Falca sputtered something unintelligible before she collected herself and spoke again.

“How did…you can do that?” Falca asked in utter bafflement and alarm. “The Force can allow you to mind control people as well?”

“It’s not entirely like mind control. What I did to Hyde was more like a Force imbued suggestion that influenced his subconscious. It’s a simple Jedi Mind Trick and it only works on the weak-minded. Or in Hyde’s case, the sleep-deprived.” Although, as I thought more on the subject I remembered that there were plenty of Force users who could use the Force to do more than simple mind tricks. “However, mind control isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility. I can’t do it, but some Force users could dominate other sentient intelligences and have them obey the Force user’s will entirely. It’s a very complicated and powerful technique.”

“I would hope so. Was that how you made me and all those ponies back in Ponyville so angry at Princess Celestia? I remember how I lost myself to my emotions and wanted to attack her. Was that a Mind Trick?”

“In a sense,” I said as I scratched the back of my head and winced in embarrassment as I remembered that little incident. “The Dark Side was stemming from me like a wave back then. It wasn’t my intention but you and the other Mane Six got swept by my rage and the Dark Side must’ve pierced your subconscious. Because of our friendship, your mind was probably easier for my power to influence. I’m still really sorry about that by the way.”

Falca shook her head as she tried to take all of this in. “So wait, if you can influence another’s thoughts and feelings, can you also read or listen to their thoughts as well?”

Thistle bounced up suddenly and hid his beak underneath his talons as he tried to suppress a giggle. Falca looked at him strangely before she looked back up at me with wide eyes. I averted my eyes and vainly tried to find something on the ship deck that was more interesting than this conversation. Weeks of snooping and peering into other people’s surface thoughts just suddenly ran through my brain like a heavy-duty, guilt-ridden train. Especially when Falca’s mind was one of the places I’ve visited most often.

“Jack?” Falca pressed.

“Uhm…Yeeeeesssssss.” I said as I looked back up at her then immediately averted my eyes again. Her talons and feathers were far easier to look at.

“And you knew about this?” Falca asked as she turned to her older brother, who was failing at this point to suppress his laughter.

“Well yes, I thought you already knew.” Thistle said before he cleared his throat. “I knew when Jack tried to read my mind back at the top of my hotel.”

Falca continued to stare at her brother then blinked several times before she returned her gaze towards me. I tried to gather my courage to meet her gaze once again, and when I did, I was surprised to find a light blush blooming through her feathers on her cheeks. Now it was her that was avoiding my gaze. Her tail wagged behind her erratically and her wings began to ruffle themselves across her sides as she turned her attention towards the rail of the ship.

“So have you been listening to other people’s thoughts, Jack? Have you been listening to mine? Recently?” Falca asked weirdly shy. I had expected her to be enraged or accusing. I didn’t expect her to be trying her best Fluttershy impression.

“Kindaaaa.” I drawled out slowly again then winced when I saw her tail swing even more erratically and watched her grimace. “I’ve been listening to yours’s and other’s thoughts since I realized I could do it back at the castle in Horaca. I listen to surface thoughts but most of the time I just use the Force to sense people’s deeper emotions. But I haven’t been listening to your thoughts recently if that makes it any better.” Although I knew better that it wouldn’t.

The blush in her cheeks had begun to fade and her face had become harder to read. She stared at me in silence for a moment, judging. Her gaze made me want to squirm.

“Breaching one’s privacy by listening to their thoughts can seriously harm your reputation among our people if this knowledge was widely known. Magics that allow people to alter or breach into one’s mind is very illegal almost universally among griffons. You cannot discuss this power with anyone unless either I or one of the royal family gives you their explicit permission. I am serious here. Do NOT speak of this power with anyone else!” Falca emphasized with newfound urgency.

“Umm…of course! I won’t speak of it with anyone else. I swear.” I said while placing a hand over my heart to take in the vow. Her reaction to my admission of telepathic snooping was still surprising to me. First, she was embarrassed, then she was judging, but now she only seemed worried. I wanted to use the Force to listen to what was going on inside her head but my recently exposed guilt had me shame myself for even considering the idea. The only thing to do now was simply ask.

“Falca, are you mad at me?”

Her features softened. Maybe by simply asking the question helped assure her that my answers to her were true. “Yes…no? A little bit. I mean, I guess I’m more surprised than anything else. If this is another power the Force can give to a person then I suppose I’ll have to learn to live with it eventually. Especially since the Force seems to now be coming under my control as well.”

This was true I supposed. If Falca were to learn how to use the Force then she will eventually have to learn how to connect and listen to all sentient and intelligent life that surrounded her. Being connected to the Force and only being aware of one’s own connection to it would greatly limit her power over it. The Force, in all its forms and energies, was connected to everything and everyone and understanding those connections were critical to being a Force-sensitive. Whether it be through telepathic thought or otherwise.

Thistle suddenly looked very confused. “Wait a moment. Under your own control? What are you talking about Falca?”

Falca and I gave each other a look then we turned towards the older Hiallan prince. We knew we would have to explain how Falca was able to quell the storm eventually. A pity that we couldn’t tell Hyde. I was sure he would’ve been both overjoyed and fascinated that a griffon could wield a power like the Force. It probably would’ve adjusted his mood considerably.

By the time we finally finished explaining Falca’s newfound connection to the Force the blimp connected to the mast above The Extravagant was nearly full. Thistle had taken the news that Falca could wield the Force rather weird. He gave both me and Falca estranged looks and he laughed in disbelief for a few moments when Falca described how she had used the Force to protect herself from the Storm Entity’s lightning.

Eventually, we told him about how we practiced Falca’s power when we were resting in the cabin and his reaction was even weirder. His expression was neutral when we told him that Falca had accidentally destroyed the chandelier in the cabin room. In fact, he asked Falca to go into more detail on what she felt when she wielded the Force in her talons. He hung on to Falca’s every word and when she finished explaining the experience to him he reached beneath his cape to pull out a single golden bit.

“Show me.” Thistle said as he held his talons out with the coin sitting in his palm. “Take the bit and do something with it with the Force. I want to see it for myself.”

“I’m still learning how to control it, Thistle. The last time ended in disaster. I need time and training if I want to use it more properly.”

“I don’t want you to demonstrate how you can use the power properly I just want you to show me that you can do it. Lift up the bit, bend the metal, obliterate it for all I care. Just show me something that Jack can do.”

Falca stared at the coin for a second, shrugged her shoulders, and then tenderly reached out with her talons. A moment passed and the Force began to swell and fill her being. It answered her call, but just like before, it coalesced within her talons then did nothing beyond that. Falca took a deep breath and just as she was beginning to tap into her emotions she looked away from the coin and back up to her brother.

“Could you put the coin down or something? I don’t want to risk hurting you.”

Thistle’s eyes widened in realization and he set the coin down on the deck immediately as he walked over to stand closer to me for protection. He nodded for Falca to continue and she took a deep breath again as she closed her eyes to concentrate.

Seconds passed as a nice sea breeze brushed passed us and just as I was about to offer a word of support to Falca I could sense a heat beginning to rise off her. Through the Force, I could tell that Falca had decided to tap into her anger again but this time it was being tempered by another emotion. It was hard to interpret at first. It almost felt like fear. Her rage was like a campfire that was being restricted from spreading by a ring of stone. Hot and dangerous but easily contained and controlled.

Except, it wasn’t providing the results that Falca wanted. The coin continued to sit on the deck and only moved side to side as the ship continued to skid along the waves. Falca began to express her frustration again as her beak twitched into a grimace but she quickly regained her composure. She refused to allow her emotions to get the better of her again. It was understandable that she didn’t want to control the Force through passion alone but the Force didn’t seem to want to respond to her in any other way.

‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ I thought as I observed my friend. It was still filling her, ready to grant its strength to her, but nothing else besides her emotions seemed to provoke a reaction from the Force. The emotions were there so why do they have to be so uncontrolled if she wants to use the power? I may use my rage to fuel my powers at times but I don’t need to throw a tantrum just to levitate a freaking coin.

Minutes passed and Thistle began to look at me and Falca as if we had been pulling his tail. Falca looked a little sheepish as her brother gave her the look but she still refused to surrender to the taunting coin. Fed up, she huffed and I could tell she was about to throw caution to the wind and allow her anger to fully express itself. She squeezed her talons together and before the Force finally released itself from her talons to smash into the coin…

There was a disturbance.

I sensed trails of a strange magic approaching us on the ship and before any of us could react a puff of light and smoke appeared in front of Falca to produce a wrapped paper box. Falca released a soft yelp as the invisible Force energy coalesced into her talons sputtered into nothingness as she grabbed the box before it could fall onto the deck. The whole experience reminded me of the message scrolls that Princess Celestia would receive from Twilight via Spike’s dragon fire.

Falca stared down at the package strangely as Thistle left my side to nonchalantly pick up the coin while his trademark smile returned to his beak.

“That must be from Father. He probably got fed up and wondered why we’ve been taking so long to return.” Thistle said as Falca continued to stare at the package. Thistle raised an eyebrow after Falca offered no response after a long pause.

“Falca?” I asked uncertainly. The anger I had sensed in her previously had been replaced by a feeling of astonishment tinted with fear. When she looked back up at us she visibly gulped as she pulled a side of the package to her chest. It was as if she had been caught doing something wrong and was trying to find a way to hide.

“That is from Father right?” Thistle asked.

Falca stared at her brother for a minute, sighed as if in acceptance, then she shook her head and turned the package over to us to reveal the side she had clutched to her chest. The package was shaped like a book and wrapped in a thick brown paper. A wax seal was embedded in the middle of the package and I had to lean over to get a better look at the seal. The seal’s wax was as red as my skin and the symbol imprinted into it was unfamiliar. It wasn’t the Hiallan crest of the Aper Major emblazoned on a shield.

The crest depicted what looked like a solitary mountain with a sea of stars in its background. A single shining star rested on the mountain’s peak with twin rearing lions standing within the mountain itself. There were words along the circumference of the seal. They read “A people of excellence, molded by the mountain, blessed by the stars.” It sounded like the motto for a nation.

“That is House Ridara’s seal.” Thistle said before his smile left his beak again. “Why did you receive a package from House Ridara? How could they even send it to you via dragon fire? I thought that-”

“Look before you freak out.” Falca interrupted. “Let’s just see what’s in the package first okay.” Thistle looked like he wanted to protest for a moment before he conceded and motioned for Falca to open it.

I reached out with the Force to see if there were any dangers concealed inside the package just to be safe but noticed nothing that was particularly dangerous. The package was just a simple paper covering a plastic case containing an unremarkable object. When Falca ripped off the seal and opened up the package to reveal the object we all saw a simple hand-held mirror with a few gems dotting around the mirror’s edges. I was confused as to why House Ridara would send Falca a mirror and Falca herself seemed to be just as confused as I was. She flipped the mirror over and checked the package again to see if there was supposed to be a note but could find nothing else.

Thistle and I crowded around her to get a better view of the strange mirror just as the gems dotting around the mirror began to glow. Emerald lights sparkled across each gem as a swirling cloud animated itself across the mirror’s reflective surface.

Startled, Falca dropped the mirror before I reached out telekinetically with the Force and caught it just in time before it hit the deck. I kept the mirror a fair distance from us as we watched the clouds inside the mirror continue to swirl and started to form a figure. It became more avian as the seconds passed and it soon took the form of a griffon. More features started to take form and produce colors as the clouds produced a fairly muscular-looking griffon male. His feathers were almost uniformly white with shades of red dotting around his head and the sides of his neck. Twins tufts of feathers extended from the side of his head like ears and they held a pair of rimmed rectangular glasses to his face as they rested on the bridge of his beak. Half of his feline half was partially visible as the bottom edge of the mirror cut any sight of it but what was visible showed a coat of white as pure as snow.

The griffon was squinting at us through the mirror before the clouds produced velvet curtains in the griffon’s background and he smiled, as if in relief, as his eyes settled on Falca’s.

“Falca! You’re okay.” His voice was pleasingly husky and gentle. Both the griffon and Falca smiled at each other warmly for a moment before he noticed me and looked at me in surprise. “Is- Is that…?”

“Zalto,” Falca interrupted quickly. "It is… great to see you but you kinda just blew over a decade’s worth of secrecy. The enchanted mirror is nice and all but I hope you have a good reason for not contacting me at our regularly scheduled time instead.” Falca said as if she were making an admission as she closed her eyes to avoid Thistle’s stare. Her older brother watched the exchange in surprise at first, then there was a look of realization, and he gave his little sister a haughty grin.

“There is… and it wasn’t my choice.” Zalto said dejectedly and Falca’s eyes went wide after that statement.

“Ohhhh he had a choice,” said a new disembodied voice from within the mirror. This new voice was feminine and silvery but it carried with it a malevolent undertone that gave me goosebumps. Another griffon joined Zalto in the mirror and it was clear she was the owner of the voice. She shared Zalto’s red speckled feathers but the rest of her feathers were a stark grey and her feline half was like a black panther’s. “He could’ve told me no and deny that he had any contact with you but he got all worried when I told him how you may have been hurt. I wish you could’ve seen him, it was so heartwarming to see him run for the dragon fire ink to check on his secret little crush.”

“Is someone going to tell me who you people are?” I said butting into the conversation. I had a bad feeling about this griffon. She seemed a little… off.

“It’s rude for pets to speak without being spoken to first. Especially in conversations between royalty. You need to get him better trained Hiallan.” The griffon female said to me before directing her last sentence towards Falca.

‘Wow. In just a few sentences she already got me to completely hate her.’

“Royalty? Mirran, how could our House’s Warden expect you to be royalty when nothing but sewage comes out of your beak?” Falca replied with a hard gaze.

“Hmmm….,” Mirran hummed unimpressed as her eyes turned to Thistle and her voice turned coy. “Heeey Thistle, you look like a fabulous little tramp as always.”

“Mirran darling, so good to see you. Have you plucked the wings off of any breezies lately? Or were you supposed to be drowning puppies this week?” Thistle asked sweetly.

“I’ll tell you if you tell me how many STD’s you’ve had to magically remove this past month.”

Both parties of griffons, except Zalto, glared at each other silently while showing small but obviously fake smiles. Zalto looked like he wanted this whole conversation to go away.

“Jack, this is Prince Zalto and Princess Mirran of House Ridara,” Falca said while keeping her gaze with the Ridaran princess. “Why have you contacted me? How did you even know that I may have been hurt?”

Mirran looked up in the air and tipped her shoulder upwards as if she didn’t know what Falca was talking about. “Just a lucky guess I suppose. I knew my brother wouldn’t hold out on me for long if he thought that his favorite little Hiallan princess was in trouble.”

‘A lucky guess? I sense a lie.’

“As for why we’re having this little meeting.” Mirran continued. “I just wanted to discuss how we help you save your pet Warden’s sister.”

Now the only one of us who was smiling was Mirran. I tried, but I couldn’t stop my emotions from expressing themselves in my voice.

“Where? How do you-? What do you know about my sister?!” I demanded. The Ridaran princess ignored me and only spoke to Falca.

“Tell me Falca, have I engaged your interests?”

Falca ignored her and glared at Zalto silently for nearly half a minute. The Ridaran prince squirmed and adjusted his glasses for a moment to distract himself, then slowly turned his gaze downwards in shame. Mirran only glanced at her embarrassed brother for a moment before her smile turned smug. Falca’s expression shifted into one of disappointment but it quickly returned stern as she turned her gaze back to Mirran.

“What do you know about Katy Krieger’s whereabouts Ridaran?”

“Well, Hiallan, recently I have been in contact with a pirate named Captain Vile. He claims that the alien ended in his possession after his crew found her unconscious and floating out in the middle of the sea-”

“Is she okay?” I blurted out uncontrollably. I needed to know.

Mirran blinked, but she kept her gaze firmly with Falca’s. “Hiallan, if your pet can’t keep its mouth shut then this is going to be a very short meeting.”

Every single drop of my blood boiled in rage as Ridaran princess continued to ignore and insult me. I did my best to keep it hidden but my thoughts were caught up in a hurricane of anger. ‘Does she actually believe that she is safe from me behind that mirror? That I can’t hurt her even as hundreds of kilometers separate us?’ My gaze focused around her neck and its vulnerability filled my mind with sinister thoughts. ‘All I need to do was reach out with the Force… and squeeze. A lesson in humility will teach this princess that a little respect could save her from choking on her arrogance.’

A pair of talons took my left hand just before the thumb and index finger on my right hand could squeeze closer together. My concentration on the Force was lost and I looked down to see Falca holding my hand and staring up at me. She looked up at me as if she knew what I was trying to do. Her eyes were rimmed with concern but were full of understanding. It was as if she were the one reading my thoughts now. But that was impossible. I would’ve sensed her intrusion if that was the case.

But she knew. Somehow she knew.

I continued to look into Falca’s eyes and the rage swiftly began to subside inside me. Falca was silently pleading and I deduced that she was asking me to trust her. She squeezed my hand gently. It was subtle, but I understood her.

…

…

…

After a few moments, I squeezed her talons in return. Threats of harm may not be the right move to play right now. At least not yet. Falca nodded her head softly before letting go.

We looked back to the mirror and the Ridarans. Mirran’s smile had reduced itself a bit but one of her eyebrows was raised slightly in curiosity. Zalto, however, was staring at the point my hand had held Falca’s talons.

“You may continue, Ridaran.” Falca said.

“Excellent. Anyway, the pirate Vile found the alien and now has her chained in a cell inside his ship. He contacted me and somehow got it into his head that my House was interested in buying aliens.”

“How does a pirate have connections to a princess of House Ridara?”

Mirran sighed as if concerned then shrugged her shoulders. “I believe one of our merchant lords might be selling illicit information to some unsavory people. Some of that information may have been ways of contacting important Ridaran lords and ladies. In my case, it was through the use of arcane mirrors similar to the ones we are using right now.”

“I hope your people are taking this breach of security very seriously,” Falca replied in concern but I sensed that she didn’t believe a single word of Mirran’s explanation.

“Oh we will. You can trust that I will see to it personally. Isn’t that right little brother?” The Ridaran princess rubbed a talon briefly under the larger griffon’s beak and Zalto, rather meekly, gave his sister a brief nod. “In any case, this pirate Vile has provided for us a unique opportunity to work together. I, Princess Mirran of House Ridara, would like to officially offer House Hialla assistance in the negotiations between yourselves and these brigand pirates to return to you a prisoner of obvious importance.”

Thistle scoffed and shook his head while Falca kept her body language calm and composed. “This is quite unprecedented Princess Mirran. The animosity between our two Houses at these times would suggest that such an offer would be practically unheard of, but I am humbled to see you extending this offer to work together. Helping us to return Katy Krieger to safety will earn you much of House Hialla’s appreciation.”

Mirran nodded her head but laughed softly before she replied. “It is our honor princess Falca. However, I hope you can understand that we seek more than House Hialla’s appreciation as a reward from this collaboration.”

“This is a person’s freedom we are talking about here,” Falca said a little passionately. “Katy Krieger’s very life may be in jeopardy and you are asking for favors?”

“Katy Krieger is a convicted felon and a complete stranger to House Ridara Princess Falca. We pity her capture at the hands of these pirates but we will not go out of our way to work with our rival House and assist in her return just out of the goodness of our heart. We require some compensation for our service as silent negotiators between you and these pirates.”

“Well, considering that you’ve informed us of Katy’s capture by these pirates I’m not sure that we will even require your assistance in the first place. House Hialla has proven itself time and again that we excel in tracking down and hunting pirates more than any other nation. Sooner or later we will track down this pirate named Vile by ourselves.”

“Indeed, I imagine that you would have no problem hunting down Vile himself if that were the only case,” Mirran said with a glint in her eye. “However, I did fail to mention that Vile isn’t the only pirate in possession of Ms. Krieger’s person. You see before Vile contacted House Ridara he had offered Ms. Krieger as tribute to the Pirate Queen herself.”

Falca stiffened and was silent for a while as Mirran allowed that information to sink in. Thistle cursed softly underneath his breath and displayed obvious discomfort at the new information. I, however, could only feel more restless as I felt that this new information had considerably made Katy’s capture much more complicated.

“Vile had sought to curry favor from his Queen by offering up his newest prize but it hasn’t been going the way he had planned so far.” Mirran continued, seemingly reveling in the stunned silence she had created. “He contacted our House to try and pick up a quick sale before his queen goes through with her plans for Ms. Krieger. Also, the fact that one of the Pirate Queen’s oldest captains is rebelling against her should be information of great interest to House Hialla. That little piece of info is free of charge by the way. But back to the business at hand. You know as well as I do that if the Pirate Queen doesn’t want to be found then she won’t be found. If she carries Ms. Krieger to the depths with her then you know you’ll never see her again for a long, long time.”

When Falca finally found her voice again her calm demeanor had cracked a little bit to show some agitation. “The Pirate Queen is with this Captain Vile as we speak? Can you confirm this?”

“Captain Vile was quite nervous when he first made contact with me and made his offer to sell the alien. It was like he was scared to speak inside his own ship. It is only speculation, but I do believe that the Pirate Queen is with him on his flagship at this very moment.” Mirran said with a shrug of her shoulders. Then the Ridaran princess squinted and scrutinized Falca for a moment before the right side of her beak curved into a smirk. “I know what you are thinking Falca and let me stop you by saying that you won’t have enough time. The Pirate Queen is going to disappear with her newest prize by tomorrow afternoon. Vile informed me that if House Ridara wants to take Ms. Krieger for ourselves then we must strike a deal with him by tonight while he still has her in his flagship. I doubt you can find a single pirate ship in the middle of the ocean in a single day. You need me Hiallan.”

Falca went silent again as she considered everything that Mirran had said to her. I as well found myself lost in thought. If what Mirran was saying was true then that would mean that we barely even had a single day at all to search for Katy. Even by the time the Fury got back online and started scanning the entire ocean to find my sister we would still never be able to find her in that short amount of time. With Hyde’s treasure ship, we at least had old ship route records to give us a clue on where it could’ve been lost in the middle of the sea. We wouldn’t even know where to begin if we tried to search for them now. If the storm blew Katy who-knows-where away and this Captain Vile had a whole day to take her wherever he pleased then he could be thousands of kilometers away in any direction.

“You already know where they are don’t you?” Falca spoke up all of a sudden. “I believe you’ve already made a deal with this Captain Vile and he is already preparing to deliver Katy Krieger to you as we speak,” Falca spoke with conviction but Mirran didn’t look impressed at all.

“Falca the more time we waste here the less time I will have to settle a deal with this pirate. He is waiting for an answer to his proposal. If we-“

“I know how people like you work Mirran.” Falca interrupted, causing Mirran to finally express something on her face other than an air of constant arrogance. The Ridaran princess actually started to look irritated for a moment. “People like you never deliver upon something unless they are absolutely sure they can deliver it. You value your pride far too much. Captain Vile must’ve done something to assure you that he can deliver Katy to you on time even with the Pirate Queen aboard his own flagship. Either that or you are somehow assisting him in some way.”

That moment of irritation was gone and Mirran quickly adopted her arrogant expression once more. “And so what if I have? I merely have to redact on whatever deal I have with Vile and simply wait for the Pirate Queen to drag your pet’s precious sister away into a place you’ll never find her. If you ever want to see Katy Krieger again it will be on the Pirate Queen’s terms. Won’t that be humiliating? Your House, your father, having to negotiate with the Pirate Queen to recover an Equestrian prisoner that you lost under your own supervision. It was embarrassing enough for your family when the world realized that your father did not finish killing the Pirate Queen. It’d be a terribly haunting embarrassment for King Grinnail to suffer, especially in the last few years of his reign before he eventually passes his throne on to one of you. Do your big oaf of a father a favor and try to keep this problem at sea before it becomes an even bigger problem.”

“Don’t you dare insult our father like that you scheming little witch,” Thistle spoke up all of a sudden. Mirran didn’t react at all to Thistle’s declaration so either she expected the insult or she probably was used to such slurs at this point.

“Make your choice Hiallans. You can either search for Katy now and pray you can find her in time or you can work with me and save House Hialla the political trouble of publicly negotiating with pirates. Clock’s ticking.”

I gulped as I looked down at my griffon friends and saw the perturbed look on Falca’s face. I didn’t know which one was the right choice but I knew I couldn’t allow this Pirate Queen to take Katy away. Who knows what she’ll do to my sister if we couldn’t find them in time. Would the Pirate Queen even want to negotiate for Katy’s release in the first place?

“Zalto,” Falca spoke with a small tremor in her voice and the Ridaran prince perked up as she spoke his name. “We’ve kept in hidden contact with each other for nearly half a decade. We’ve been friends for longer than that and we could’ve been… something else, if circumstances between our houses hadn’t continue to deteriorate. Help me out here, please.”

Zalto gawked at Falca with what looked to be a mixture of sadness and regret. He pushed his glasses back up the ridge of his beak and his eyes darted around the ground as if he was trying to find an answer.

“I-,” but before he could speak, Zalto’s smaller sister flicked him on the beak and shook his glasses enough for them to fall off. They fell onto the floor off-screen in the mirror and Zalto panicky darted down to pick them back up.

“He doesn’t know anything and he never has known anything Hiallan. Your spy in the heart of our house has known nothing since the minute you decided to play with his heart and have him dance to your tune. Maybe if he wasn’t such a meathead and actually attended a council meeting once in a while I may have been worried when I found out about your little correspondence. It was cute, and honestly, waiting to use him to get to you like this has been the most satisfying experience I’ve had in quite a while.”

When Zalto picked up his glasses, he rose up from the ground staring at the floor and didn’t even try to put them on. The prince looked like he was trying to absorb every word his sister said. He flinched when Mirran finished her last sentence and I could sense through the Force the anger slowly stirring within him but it was quickly being drowned in a deluge of self-loathing.

“Zalto?” Falca pleaded but the Ridaran prince didn’t even have the willpower to look her in the eye anymore.

“I’m sorry,” Zalto said as he stared down at his glasses in his talons.

Falca shook her head and breathed in a deep sigh. “Then I guess we were just fooling ourselves. It was a good dream, but I guess not all of us were willing to fight for it.”

Zalto looked up at Falca immediately after she said those words. His eyes were hurt, then confused, but eventually they turned stern. He blinked and put his glasses back before he looked at Mirran briefly then walked away from our view through the mirror. Mirran watched her brother go and she chuckled as she turned her attention back to us.

“Ahhh, it looked like you hurt his little feelings.”

“Do you think you can stop enjoying your little power trip for just a moment? Before we choose anything, what exactly is it that you want for helping to return Katy to us?”

Mirran hummed and inspected her talons for a moment.

“Well, House Ridara is most certainly interested in all that technology that fell from the sky along with your pet alien. Maybe something can be worked out when your father comes to force a conversation between our two houses. I, on the other talon, would be very interested to know what it was that managed to wound your little pet.”

Mirran finally seemed to acknowledge my presence for once. She seemed particularly interested in the bandages that covered my right arm.

“Something that can hurt someone as powerful as a Warden of the Shattered Isles is something that interests me very, very much. So how about you start with- UHHHHHH!!”

In almost an instant, Mirran was brutally tackled by her brother Zalto from the right side of the mirror and was pushed off-screen. There was a loud crash and Zalto looked back into the mirror again to see our undeniably surprised faces.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble for this. The last known location Vile gave to my sister was 34.5643 by 181.4708 in latitude and longitude respectively. Hurry, my sister may try to warn-,”

Suddenly a tangle of black iron bands burst forth from the left side of the mirror and wrapped themselves around the Ridaran prince’s appendages. Zalto grunted as the animated pieces of metal roughly hogtied him and forced him to lose his balance. Before we lost sight of him one of the thicker bands muzzled his beak shut before he could say another word. Mirran came back into view limping with what looked like a wand in her talons.

“Zalto!” Falca cried in alarm.

“Damned love-sick idiot. You ruined my fun. Sometimes I don’t know how we are even related.” Mirran flicked the wand towards the mirror and smoke enveloped the mirror briefly until we only saw ourselves on the deck of The Extravagant. I levitated the mirror into my hand and looked down at Falca and Thistle as I repeated in my head the numbers Zalto told us before he was swiftly silenced.

“Well let’s not waste any time.” Thistle said as he got up to march towards the quarterdeck and the helm of the ship. “We’ve got to get moving, that wicked little witch is going to warn the pirates just to spite us. Kaa, Xaa!”

The two hippogriffs leaped off from top of the now almost fully inflated balloon atop the mainmast and flew down to stand at attention in front of Thistle. “We’ve found Katy’s location and need to take off immediately. Jack’s ship will soon be up and running in a few hours so that gives us time to catch up to it when it eventually passes us and gets to Katy before we do. Kaa, get ready to raise anchor. Xaa, finish up any remaining adjustments and get the blimp ready to go. I want this ship moving at top speed as soon as we reach the skies.” The twin hippogriffs didn’t react at all to the news that we somehow found Katy’s location and simply moved to carry out Thistle’s orders.

‘Thistle must’ve been taking notes after watching Falca command the ship during the storm.’

“I honestly didn’t expect him to do that.” Falca was still staring at the spot where I levitated the mirror that allowed Mirran and Zalto to communicate with us. “I knew he would close up but I knew I had to try either way. But instead of closing up he went above and beyond to help me. He finally stood up to his family.”

I barely could even process what had just happened. Let alone comprehend what Falca must be feeling. I just had my first meeting with House Ridara, the rival griffon house to the people I was sworn to defend, and it had quickly waned into an exchange of quid pro quo. While at the same Falca just revealed that she apparently had been keeping correspondence with a prince who displayed some rather enamored behaviors towards her. She’s been a constant every day in my new life but there seemed to be always something more to learn about her.

“So I take it you two were kinda close at some point?” I asked as I kneeled to pat her on the back.

“Yeah, once upon a time we were both engaged to be married.”

“Oh…wow. Uhhh”

“It was a political marriage, Jack.”

“Right, right of course. So what happened?”

Falca didn’t look at me and instead kept her gaze on the mirror in my hand. “Before King Stormbeak and my father, my grandparents sought to create a stronger peace between House Ridara and House Hialla. There were talks of marriage to unite our two families to create another unified griffon kingdom but the scars of the civil war that ended King Grover’s dynasty were still too fresh. So it was decided to skip over another generation before talks of another marriage could begin again and both Zalto and I were the youngest in our families at the time when they finally started.”

“That must’ve been kinda weird.” It was all that I felt I could say.

“It was weird,” Falca confirmed as she broke away from the mirror to smile up at me with a nod. “I really hated it at first. But, my mother set me and Zalto up on some play dates and we actually started to form a real friendship after a couple of years. Zalto could be considered my first real friend outside of my family.”

“So what happened?”

“Hyde was born, my mother passed away while giving birth, and she was really the only one who kept the potential alliance together. My father couldn’t… pick up where my mother had left things and could never really agree upon anything with King Stormbeak without mother to temper him. Zalto and I eventually had to be split apart.”

‘So that’s what happened to her mother. Ok, now I’m starting to understand Hyde’s sense of self-loathing.’

“However, you two got into contact with each other again?” I asked.

“For a time, we never really saw or heard from each other again. But I got older, and I got smarter, so one day I was wondering how my old friend Zalto was doing one day. I snuck out some dragon fire ink from the royal reserves and I’ve kept in contact with him ever since.”

“Yes, we do need to talk about that at some point!” Thistle snarled as he limped back over to us. “Or rather you need to tell father when we get back to the Isles. I knew you were a dabbler into spycraft Falca but I never would have thought that’d you keep a contact like that in your pocket.”

“I wasn’t using him as a spy Thistle!” Falca protested.

“It doesn’t matter because that is what the rest of Zalto’s family will see after Mirran finishes with him. King Stormbeak may or may not do anything about this but father needs to know about this now that this little correspondence between prince and princess is now out in the open.” Thistle grunted softly to sit down and adjust his cape as the breeze began to pick up. “But that doesn’t matter right now. We have got to get moving now before the pirates make away with our Katy. Falca can you handle the helm while I work with navigation.”

Falca responded with a nod of her head.

“Jack take that mirror below deck and lock it up in a dark empty box somewhere. We’ll figure out what to do with our gift from House Ridara later. In the meantime, I believe you will require some time with a wardrobe. Your vacation attire doesn’t feel suitable for what is to come.”

I responded with a nod as well as we all set out to accomplish our tasks. As I took my steps below deck I pulled out my holocommunicator to contact the Fury once more. I needed my armor prepped as soon as the droids have caught up with us.