The Nutcracker Part 2
Blueblood marched up to the Princess, frowning. "So... you didn't take the ring?"
"I uh... forgot about it?" Twilight said sheepishly.
"Oh well... I suppose it's unfortunate you had to pick one of the 'old' presents. What is it even?"
"A nutcracker."
Blueblood winced at the thought and stepped back slightly. Across the floor Oscuridad found himself incredibly cheery. "Why would anypony need something like that?"
Twilight levitated a small walnut over from a table. "Like this, it breaks the shell open so you can eat it." She demonstrated, smiling at the cracking sound of the nut being opened. Blueblood looked at it, before getting a certain sparkle in his eye.
He levitated the largest walnut from the pile, making a test crush with his magic. After not even shifting he smiled. "Might I try?"
"Uh, I suppose, it's mostly for decoration but-"
He stuck the too-large walnut into the nutcracker's jaw and shoved the wooden back on the back of the nutcracker closed, Twilight winced as the handle on the back cracked and the jaw came loose, the wooden insides of the toy's mouth bruised and slightly splintered. Twilight gasped and snatched the toy away, frowning at Blueblood. "It's for decoration! This nutcracker is probably almost as old as me! Why would you do that?"
"Sorry... I just figured it would be better built. I guess that must be the cheapest present somepony could buy." He smirked, "So, about our marriage plans-"
"No."
"Huh?"
"Of course I'm not marrying you!"
"Wha- but I'm a Prince! Every mare in Canterlot, no, the world would be happy to-"
Twilight sighed. "You're full of yourself, you treat everypony with no respect, including me, an alicorn, with an army. You were a jerk to my friends and probably everypony else, and treat your title like a toy." She said calmly. "Honestly, I'm out of your league, and you're fooling yourself."
"But-"
"And you broke my Hearth's Warming Eve present. Guards! Oscuridad! Blueblood here has told me he has to leave rather urgently. Please see him out."
"Gladly." Oscuridad said with a smile giving Blueblood his most demonic glare, black smoke from the tear-ducts and everything.
She looked down at her Nutcracker sadly as six terrifying Longma dragged Blueblood out the door. "Twilight!" Rarity called, fuming.
"Rarity? What's wrong?"
"Sweetie Belle got a... gift... from Blueblood... with an attached note that was altogether not appropriate. I now have to have a certain conversation with that filly that I was hoping my parents would have to deal with."
"He... just left it on the pile?"
"It was on the very top with a lavender bow!" She growled. "Where is he? I'm going to punch him in the snout."
"Oh, my guards kicked him out just a few minutes ago, you can probably catch up."
"Thank you." Rarity stomped off, grumbling under her breath.
Twilight walked tiredly into her room in the library tree, setting down the broken Nutcracker on a shelf and teleporting out of her dress, landing in a tired heap on her mattress. "That... was exhausting..." She whispered to no one in particular. She smiled slightly at the plate of gingerbread ponies that had been left by her bed. Spike was such a dear. She frowned slightly as a mouse crawled up the table and sniffed at the cookie. Twilight made a noise at the small creature and it immediately ran off. She would have to call Fluttershy to coax them out of her house soon. She frowned slightly at the implications of the thought, but she assumed Owlicious had always taken care of the majority of them, she was seeing more of them than normal scurrying around the library. If any of them were eating the books so help them... she yawned, glancing one last time at the Nutcracker.
And she fell asleep, thoughts of mice, gingerbread, and Nutcrackers dancing in her head as she drifted into unconsciousness.
It didn't last long.
"What is... huh?" She screamed as she noticed the two massive mice standing above her, brandishing spears and wearing noble suits. "What's going on?!"
The two looked at each other, before turning tail and dashing away, off the side of a cliff- She looked around. Off the side of her bed.
They came back quickly, with reinforcements. She backed away slowly as the line of mice slowly came closer, twirling their spears effortlessly and almost whimsically. She looked from side to side, before unfurling her wings and blasting away from them. She looked in amazement as her little bedroom seemed to be the size of- well, the closest was the regal ballroom in Canterlot, but even that was dwarfed by the massive room she was now in. She landed on the arm of a chair, and she stifled a shriek as three dozen mice appeared from the woodwork to surround it.
Then the mice slowly backed away from the chair. Twilight stared in amazement as another mouse walked slowly out from under the chair. He wore a golden crown and a had a massive flowing red cape. He marched with great dignity and pose, every direction he looked had mice bowing. Then he turned dramatically, his cape making a circle around him as he turned toward her on the chair. He gestured with one claw and the mice formed a living staircase up to the chair arm in almost an instant, and an instant later he was standing above her on the chair leg. His draconic eyes were ruby red, and shone with a dark intelligence she had never expected to see in a mouse.
She stopped herself from smiling as the thought passed her mind that this mouse made a far better Prince than Blueblood. He held out a claw and bowed slightly, as if asking her to dance. She was spooked, as if reading her mind, the sound of light drumming and trumpeting was heard in the distance of the room.
Before she could react, the mouse took her hoof and gently led her down the staircase, to the center of the floor, he then swung her around and around in an intricate waltz without her giving any input. The mouse then jumped at the sound of a drum, and looked up at her bedside table as dozens of gingerbread stallions, suddenly given three-dimensional shape, galloped down the side of the table and began to combat the mice. Twilight was left confused and slightly dazed by what was happening in the center of the floor as open war between cookie and battle-dressed mice began. She looked up nervously as a gingerbread stallion stopped next to her and offered her a hoof and a look of concern. She reached out a hoof to take it, unsure, but drew it back as the cookie was beheaded by a sword swipe from the Mouse King.
She shivered as she saw the same noble and intelligent expression in the Mouse King's ruby eyes as when he was dancing with her, even as he ran his sword through another cookie, who shuddered like a pony, despite not making a sound. The battle continued raging around her as she turned to fly away, try to understand the situation, but before she could take off the Mouse King set a gentle paw on her wing, his sword still brandished and covered with the moisture of recently-baked gingerbread.
She stared at him, slowly backing away from the armed rodent, when his attention shifted up toward the top of her shelf. He jumped back, his cape billowing, as a wooden stallion jumped down, his own sword brandished in one hoof, his jaw nearly falling out of his body, his back broken, he shifted back in forth in what was pain, but showed determination.
She stared, unbelieving at her Nutcracker as he turned his glass eyes toward her, filled with a deep devotion and determination. He turned back to face his opponent, a second later, their swords met. The Mouse King had the advantage, jumping back and forth gracefully on two feet and swinging his light sword with one paw. The Nutcracker moved with a different grace, shifting his larger and heavier sword from one hoof to the other as the two danced around each other, the rest of the battle halting to surround Twilight and the two duelists in a circle of dancing bodies.
It was definitely getting weird for her.
She watched with concern, the Mouse King with his deadly expression, and the Nutcracker with his strange devotion to her. She saw them both meet swords and twirl around to do it again, her eyes widened as she saw the Nutcracker wince as he turned, his injuries making him hesitate. She gasped and blasted the Mouse King with a beam, knocking the King to his stomach, where the Nutcracker pinned him there with the sword. The mice all began shivering and looking around nervously before filtering out the room through their various passageways, the corpses of the Gingerbread stallions taken with them, leaving only about half the cookies left. The Nutcracker himself pulled the sword of the way, knocking the crown off the Mouse King, but letting the creature get itself up. The King pulled off his cape and draped it over the Nutcracker, before bowing graciously to Twilight and walking away with dignity back into the darkness under her chair.
She turned back to the Nutcracker, only to find him staring at her with the same devoted expression.
"Uh... thank you... I guess. I'm not one hundred percent sure what happened here... but I'm pretty sure you were trying to save me." The Nutcracker bowed, before wincing at his injuries. "Um... here, just, lay down and I'll see what I can do." The Nutcracker obeyed and she sat next to him, looking him over and feeling, impossibly, as his wooden chest expanded and contracted slightly as he breathed. She reached out with her magic to repair the wood, but impossibly, the magenta glow of her magic shifted to a warm goldenrod, and the Nutcracker shifted and got up, appearing as a white stallion, a real flowing black mane and real moustache on his muzzle. He looked at her with the same crystal-blue eyes, and she couldn't help but notice he looked familiar. The now living made of flesh stallion looked to her, and spoke with a familiar voice, but with the least amount of malice or force she ever heard it.
"Would you... care to dance, Princess?"
"I..." She looked into his eyes, and they seemed so familiar, but she had never seen them before in her life. "...you know what, why not? I have to warn you though... I'm... fairly terrible at dancing."
The Nutcracker smiled at her for a little while longer, before taking off his crown and revealing a curved white horn. "I know." He said in the too-gentle familiar unplaceable voice.
And they danced.
And she only stepped on his hooves three times.
Twilight cracked open her eyes, and she jumped from her bed, looking around in every direction. "Wha- I... It... it was just a dream..." She put a hoof to her forehead. "Of course it was a dream. I could never dance that well, even while being led around by a mouse..." She chuckled slightly and turned to her table, freezing in place slightly as she noticed a fair percentage of the gingerbread ponies were missing. She turned her head again, and her eyes widened as she saw the Nutcracker missing from it's spot. She calmed her beating heart slightly before walking out of her room to throw some cold water in her face.
"Good morning Jaeger, did you have fun at the party, no sweets this time around?"
"NONE." He said with too much effort. "I am not repeating the Nightmare Night incident ever, ever again."
She chuckled slightly and joined her guards for breakfast. "Excuse me Princess."
She turned around and nearly jumped as she saw the large white stallion, with a black mane and curved horn. "Nutcracker?"
"Uh, yes, I'm sorry for not asking your permission, but you seemed exhausted. I repaired the damage done." He set down the wooden stallion, which seemed fully repaired, even polished up a bit. She smiled at the shine in the crystal blue eyes. "I hope I didn't spook you."
Twilight turned to look at him and smiled. "Thank you, Oscuridad, I can't tell you how glad I am it isn't broken... I had the most interesting dream about it last night."
Oscuridad raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue, but Twilight didn't say anything more. Twilight looked into his eyes and smiled a little strangely. Once he walked away she studied the Nutcracker a little more, turning it this way and that with her magic.
Draconic and cold ruby-red eyes. A snow-white coat. A quiet intelligence. A devoted follower. Sharp fangs, a curved horn... "I wonder... the Mouse King, or the Nutcracker..." Twilight whispered to herself. "...I wonder which he is."
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That movie gave me chills when I was young
Yeah, I thought you were going down that route. 'Twas interesting to read for me, I haven't reviewed the Nutcracker story in like forever, so I'm rather rusty on the finer details of it. Did fill me with nostalgia nonetheless. Wonderfully fantastical tale, The Nutcracker.
Anyway, interesting chapter due to its implications. Pity it's technically non-canon.
Should've told Blueblood "no" sooner, Twi...
At the rate people have been updating their fanfics this past week, I'm not going to be doing anything but read fanfics for Christmas at this rate.
3678057 I've had a few comments about that. Don't worry, none of the Mane Six are going to die, in fact, it's unlikely there's going to be any deaths (no promises though). The 'tragedy' tag refers to two things; the Civil War a thousand years ago, and an event that may or may not occur in a later chapter, depending on whether or not I feel it fits at the time. This story is the aftermath of a tragedy for the Longma, and might eventually lead to a tragedy, though I promise the story will end on a happy note, because I'm that kind of guy. I'm glad you like the story, even though you aren't sure if you want to read a certain genre.
3678838 What implications are you talking about?
3681253 See, that's exactly what I'm talking about!
Genius Chapter!
And very well written. I wonder where the nutcracker is from.
My favorite version of the nutcracker is the one from the 80's that used to appear on PBS every Christmas. It was an incredibly ornate production.