//------------------------------//
// Waltz of the Snowflakes 
// Story: The Nutcracker Colt 
// by Peewee the Dragon 
//------------------------------//

For a moment, Celestia lost her bearings in the blackness. It was only when she caught sight of a tiny source of light ahead of her that she realized she was in a tunnel leading to the world Nutcracker spoke of. Quickly, she began to move them forward again. Nutcracker was loosing far too much blood. She could feel it soaking through his coat onto the hand she had wrapped around his back. The end of the tunnel seemed impossibly far away. They would never make it in time.

"Please!" Celestia called out in desperation. "Please, somepony help us!"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, she felt a tug in her gut. She was being pulled forward, and the tunnel's end was rushing toward them, and she couldn't see, the light was too bright, when all of a sudden she tumbled out into a snowy clearing. She landed face-first in the snow and heard a thump as Nutcracker landed next to her. As she rolled over, she came face to face with a tiny, pale being.

She looked like a fully-grown mare, yet she was only about two feet tall. Her skin was only a couple shades darker than the snow around them, and her mane was pure white. All she wore was a short, paper-thin dress, despite the cold.

"Hello," she said, her voice high and sweet.

Celestia could only stare for a moment. "I'm sorry, this is terribly rude, but what are you?"

The tiny mare looked startled that she would have to ask. "Why, I'm a snow fairy, of course."

"Please, Miss Snow Fairy, can you help my friend? He's been injured."

They both turned toward Nutcracker, who lay face-up in the snow, unconscious. The fairy gasped.

"It can't be!" She looked at Celestia, her eyes wide. "Is that the Nutcracker?"

"Yes. Please help him, he was injured in his fight with the Rat King!"

Still the fairy did not move. "The Rat King is dead then?"

"Yes! Yes, what does it matter? Can't you see he's dying! Help him!" Celestia shouted, moving to cradle her Nutcracker's head in her hooves. This seemed to startle the fairy back to the present. She quickly began to gather snow into her hooves.

"Girls!" she called in the direction of the woods on the outskirts of the clearing. "Girls, come out here! The Nutcracker needs our help!"

A dozen more snow fairies stepped out into the clearing, each one identical to the first. They glided delicately over to Nutcracker's side, gathering their own hooffulls of snow.

"Could you please take his coat off for us?" one of them said. Celestia couldn't tell them apart any more. She undid the buttons of his coat as quickly as she could with her shaking hooves and threw it open. As the gash in his side was revealed, she gasped. It looked deeper than she had even imagined, completely soaking the brilliant white shirt he wore in blood. She gently peeled the shirt away from the wound so the fairies could set to work.

They all gathered around his injured side and, as one, softly blew their hooffulls of snow into Nutcracker's wound. It began to sparkle, and as Celestia watched, the skin slowly knitted itself back together. Soon, there was no trace that he had been injured at all. The color quickly returned to his cheeks as he opened his eyes. They immediately met Celestia's own.

With a cry of joy, she bent down to cover her Nutcracker's face with kisses. He laughed, painlessly, and reached up to cradle her upside down face in his hoovess.

"Thank you, my love, thank you," he said. He turned his head to the snow fairies. "My gratitude to you as well, ladies. You have saved me."

They giggled amongst themselves, hiding their mouths behind their hooves. Celestia helped Nutcracker sit up slowly and knelt in the snow beside him. She was beginning to feel the chill beneath her thin nightgown.

"My love, you're shivering!" Nutcracker said, alarmed. He turned again to the knot of fairies that still stood at his side. "My dear ladies, would you mind making something to keep her warm?"

The fairies gathered another hoofful of snow, but this time blew it into the air, where it turned into a fine cape As they fastened it around Celestia's neck, she felt immediately warmer. She smiled gratefully as they created a second cape for Nutcracker and mended his shirt and coat. When they had finished, he knelt and kissed each of their hooves.

"Thank you, dear ladies. I am forever in your debt," he said solemnly.

"Nonsense!" said one.

"Anything for the Nutcracker!" called another. This set them off in another round of giggles as they trotted gracefully back into the woods. Soon, Celestia and Nutcracker were left alone, except for the snow that gently fell from the sky. Celestia reached up to touch Nutcracker's cheek, now rosy from the cold.

"I was so worried," she said. "I just got you back, I couldn't lose you again."

He drew her into his hooves and guided her head onto his chest. "I knew that you would find a way to heal me, Celestia."

She realized that she didn't know his real name. "What should I call you?" she asked, looking up into his face.

"Nutcracker suits me just fine," he smiled. "It's the only name I've had for quite some time now."

Celestia nodded and laid her head back on his chest, closing her eyes. "What do we do now?"

"Now? Now, I think we've been summoned to a party." Celestia looked up at him quizzically. "Look," he said, gently turning her around in his front legs.

Drifting down from the sky were at least a dozen angels. Celestia gasped. They looked exactly like the ones that topped each tree in her home. But now, they were they same size as her, and as they landed all around her in the clearing, she found them strangely imposing.

As though sensing her thoughts, one spoke. "Be not afraid, child," she said. "The Sugar Plum Princess has called upon us to ensure your safety as you travel to the castle." As she spoke, a beautiful gilded sled began to materialize in the middle of the clearing in front of her.

"Thank you, my lady," Nutcracker said. "I'm sure Celestia feels much safer having a host she knows and trusts to accompany us."

Celestia stepped out of his front legs, nodding as she looked around at the angels assembled in the clearing. "It means a great deal to me."

The angels smiled tenderly and helped her and Nutcracker up into the sled.

"Very well," the first angel said. "Let us be on our way."

All at once the angels lifted off the ground, the sled rising with them. As they rose over the trees, Celestia couldn't help but gasp in wonder. Laid out before her was the most magnificent landscape she had ever seen. The snowy woods stretched to a wide glittering river that wound from distant mountain to distant mountain. Gentle hills rolled from the bank on the other side. She could just see the shining white towers of a far-away castle among them.

She turned to look at Nutcracker. "You had to go all the way there to get the toy troops?"

He nodded. "Yes. That's why I was late to the battle. I knew of the rat's plan to attack, and I meant to be there before they arrived. I left as soon as the coast was clear, but the journey took days. It's very lucky that the dolls were there."

"Days?" Celestia asked incredulously. "You were only gone for a few hours!"

"Time passes much more quickly in the Land of Sweets, my dear. A few hours in your world is the same thing as a few days here."

She looked around again in amazement. This land was so strange to her. She still couldn't believe it was real.