The Legend
The Nutcracker Prince
Chapter 1 - The Legend
The air was cold, the ground was covered in snow, and there was a general buzz of cheer among all the Canterlot folk. It was always this way whenever it came close to Hearth’s Warming, the celebration of the day in which the Fires of Friendship were created and Equestria began to form from the Three Tribes.
Everywhere you went, ponies were laughing, playing, taking part in the joy and festivities, and spreading it to others. Even the snobbish ponies, the Scrooges and the Grinches during the regular months alike, changed for those few weeks. Everypony took part in the festivities and got into the spirit of the holiday.
Everypony, that is, but one.
High in the towers of Canterlot Castle, in her personal chambers, the Diarch of the Sun herself stared out the window with a somber expression as she watched the ponies below laugh and play. She had never been happy around the time of Hearth’s Warming. Not even her own sister could remember a time in which it were the opposite.
Luna was the only one not fooled by the mask she wore. Twilight and Cadance both seemed fooled by it. They hadn’t questioned her about her somber mood. Not to her face, anyway. Perhaps they knew that something was off, that something was going on in the Princess’ life, but if they knew or suspected, they kept quiet.
This dreariness had only been intensified some fifteen years previously, and despite her lengthy absence, Princess Luna knew exactly why.
“Hmm,” Celestia hummed to herself as she watched the team of weather pegasi shape the clouds for a heavy snow storm that night. She was doing her best to get the mask back on, but it was tradition for the princesses to meet over Hearth’s Warming Week. With the storm tonight, they were going to be having a private get together, just the four of them. There would be a gift exchange, there would be fun, and there would be political discussion, because unfortunately duty was omnipresent.
“Your majesty,” came the voice of a guard behind her, “Princess Twilight and Princess Cadance have both arrived at the train station.”
“Thank you, lieutenant,” she said, nodding as she continued to stare outside the window. “You may return to your post.”
“Yes ma’am,” the guard said, presumably nodding and doing just that. Celestia didn’t know. She was still staring at the transparent reflection of her own room behind her.
“It has been one thousand, seven hundred and seven years,” she breathed, feeling her ears droop at the thought of such a long time. “Will this be the year?”
She asked the last line aloud. No one answered her. Sighing heavily, she turned and glanced toward a small wooden doll on her bedside table.
“Will it be tonight, Winter?” she strode over to it, and picked it up. “She comes again. What will happen when she lays her eyes upon you? Will you defeat him this year? Could this be the year?”
There came three knocks at her door, and she heard it creak open.
“Sister?” Luna’s voice asked.
“Sister,” acknowledged Celestia, looking over the silver doll, noting its piercing blue eyes that hadn’t dulled in centuries, its black and white-toned mane still in the same position as ever…
“You’ve been extra somber about it lately,” Luna noted, “and truth be told that is saying something.”
“And I am sure you know why, dear sister,” Celestia said, returning the doll to its spot on the nightstand and turning to face her younger sibling.
“You’re worried,” Luna said, staring past her, at the doll she had just replaced. “You believe it’s tonight.”
“I hope,” Celestia said, casting a forlorn glance behind her, “but my hope has been in vain these last many years.”
Luna’s gaze, which had been rather cold and calculating, softened. “Cheer up, Celly,” she said, walking forward and placing a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “It will happen eventually.”
“How soon is eventually?” Celestia asked, to which Luna had no answer. They both turned and stared at the doll a while longer, before Luna removed her hoof from Celestia’s shoulder.
“If you must wear the mask, I would advise you prepare it,” she said, before trotting out of the room. “I will meet Twilight and Cadance and show them here. And sister, if you are so hopeful that something might happen, leave it out and don’t hide it somewhere. Take a leap of faith, for once.”
Celestia had reached out and had been about to do just that, to hide the doll where it wouldn’t be seen, only to stop at Luna’s command as her nocturnal sibling exited.
“Very well, sister,” Celestia said, sighing. “For you. I just hope you’re right.”
Twilight and Cadance were giggling excitedly, almost like they were getting up to childish mischief as they had when Cadance had been Twilight’s babysitter.
“So what did he say?” Twilight asked, eager for some juicy blackmail material for her brother.
“Oh, he totally fainted,” Cadance said, remembering Shining Armor’s reaction to seeing her in socks a couple of weeks ago, when she had planned on giving him a special surprise as his wife. “He just fell flat on his back, legs up, and I had to call the hoofmaidens to get me some smelling salts.”
“But still, you’re pregnant! I’m going to be an aunt!” Twilight squealed in delight, glancing back at Princess Cadance’s belly, where a slight but noticeable bulge protruded from her usually thin figure. “Have you thought of a name? What about the gender? Is it a colt? It’s a colt, isn’t it. It’s like some curse in my mother’s family that the firstborn is always a colt--”
“Twilight, please, we don’t know right now,” Cadance said, chuckling at her friend’s enthusiasm. “And we can’t just name a baby we don’t even know the appearance of. What if we wanted to call it ‘Sapphire,’ only for it to turn out to be red?”
“Sapphires can be--”
“No they can’t,” Cadance said, shaking her head. “We looked into it. Since sapphires and rubies are both corundum-based, if it’s red it’s a ruby.”
“Oh. I need to find the book that said otherwise. Wouldn’t want other ponies receiving such faulty information.”
“You know,” Cadance said, looking back at her younger friend as they trotted past the throne room, “you’re taking the knowledge that a book actually led you wrong rather well.”
Twilight grinned sheepishly. “I’m not the same mare that enchanted a Miss Smarty Pants doll with a ‘Want-It, Need-It” spell just because I needed to solve a friendship problem anymore.”
“No, you’re not,” Cadane leaned over and hugged the younger alicorn affectionately. “You’ve grown into a fine young mare. Maybe you might have a chance at picking up a stud as awesome as your brother, now.”
Twilight’s pupils shrunk, her ears flattened, and she recoiled almost immediately.
“Cadance... just… EW!”
Cadance rolled her eyes and bumped her younger counterpart with her wither.
“You know what I mean. So tell me,” she said, her tone going scandalously low, “is it or is it not true what they’re saying?”
“Well I don’t know,” Twilight said, cheeks still burning from the unpleasant imagery of her and her brother. “Who is ‘they’ and what are they saying?”
“Is it or is it not true,” Cadance said, a strange glimmer in her eyes, “that you have a crush on a certain orange pegasus who just so happens to be one of my personal guards?”
If Twilight’s face had been red before, it was nothing compared to how deep her blush got after Cadance implied she had a crush on Flash Sentry. And Cadance didn’t even need her alicorn-of-love hocus pocus to know the obvious answer.
“Aww, that’s s cuuuuute!” she positively squeed as Twilight’s wings unfurled and hid her face from view. “Princess Twilight, the Exemplar of the Magic of Friendship, has a crush on Flash Sentry!”
“Not so loud!” hissed Twilight at her old foalsitter, who stuck out her tongue teasingly, but ceased.
“Oh relax, Twilight. Having a crush on somepony isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it’s perfectly normal, even healthy for a mare your age to have a crush on somepony. Especially after all the time you spent cooped up in that library.”
“Which one?” Twilight asked, teeth clenched.
“Both of them. Should I count your new castle, too?”
Twilight just grumbled and hurried ahead of her elder fellow royal. Unfortunately for her, that was precisely where Princess Luna had chosen to make her dramatic teleportation entrance, and Twilight was blasted backward from the intensity of the magical energy.
“Gah!” she shrieked as she was thrown into Cadance, and both collapsed to the ground with two loud “Oof!”s.
“As your common pony friends say, ‘smooth,’” observed Princess Luna dryly while her younger two counterparts struggled to untangle the mass of limbs and fur that was the both of them.
“No thanks *grunt* to you,” Twilight groaned as she managed to stand back up.
“You say that like I intended to blow you backwards into Princess Cadenza,” Luna noted. “If you want someone to throw you around, I suggest getting married. I hear wife-flinging is all the rage in the Crystal Empire.”
“That-- that was-- just once!” Cadance sputtered, her face going beet red as the memory of Shining Armor throwing her like a javelin to catch the Crystal Heart went through her mind.
“Why is everypony trying to get me to get married today?” whined Twilight. “First Applejack, then Rarity, now you and Cadance--”
“Well, we would stop telling you if you would just get married,” Cadance said, still very red faced.
“Easy for you to say, you’re actually married. What about you?” Twilight pointed an accusing hoof at Princess Luna. “You aren’t married!”
“Indeed we are not,” Luna said with a nod, “but that does not mean that we have not been."
Twilight blinked. “What?”
“We have had many husbands over the years leading up to our banishment, Twilight Sparkle. Surely the thought must have crossed your mind?”
“I… it did, but--”
“Ah yes, I forget, it is not common knowledge,” Luna said, turning around to lead them back toward Celestia’s room. “Well then, let me just say, while my dear Starstep was my favorite husband, being the most emotionally supportive and the most capable of defending himself, Goldwing was, without a doubt, the best in our bed.”
Another sputtering noise came from where Twilight had been following, and Princess Cadance and Princess Luna both turned to see that she had gone quite red again, and what’s more, her wings had sprung up too.
“But in all seriousness, my sister and I both had many husbands during our time as Equestria’s diarchs,” Luna continued as though Twilight's interruption hadn't happened. “I was the first to find somepony, but my romances were very few and far between. Celestia, on the other hoof, must have married at least once every two generations. And even more than that were here lovers that she kept outside of her marriages. And yet in no way did she love her grooms any less than I did mine.
“However,” she added, turning to give Twilight a very stern look, “do not feel pressured to take on a spouse, Twilight Sparkle. You and Cadenza are hardly the first ascended royals in Equestrian history, though you are the first since my banishment. But while Cadenza is hardly the first to be married to another pony, you would hardly be the first to go without, Twilight Sparkle. So we reiterate, do not feel pressured by our teasing.”
“However,” Cadance spoke up, “if you do choose to pursue a romance, we will pressure you to call it off if we feel that your candidate isn’t worthy of you or of the title consort.”
“Indeed,” Luna nodded, picking up on Cadance’s thread. “We have seen royals who married against our judgement before, that is mine and Celestia’s. Many times, they have justified to us that they would turn their partner into a good and worthy pony. And many times, we have watched as their partner led them astray from the path they were destined to walk. Such was the fate of Sombra’s wife, whom he married to usurp her position, and who tried to gain dominance over us in doing so.
“But, a few times, we have been surprised,” Luna went on. “For instance, Princess Blue Belle, who chose to marry someone we disapproved of, and while there was conflict at first, Blue Belle turned him over to the right side in the end.”
“Even though you know me and almost any kind of education,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes, “and I mean no disrespect at all, but can we not lecture me on romance? I’ll pursue somepony when I choose to pursue them.”
“Yes, let us put aside such heavy topics and instead, let us get into a festive mood!” exclaimed Princess Luna, for while Twilight had been stuck listening to them, they had arrived at Celestia’s chamber. “It is time to make merriment!”
Having only been in Celestia’s room once before, and at a much younger age, Twilight’s memory was quite fuzzy on what Celestia’s room contained. That being said, it surprised her that her teacher’s room was much less decorated than her temporary quarters a few floors down were. Celestia’s bed was a large circular mattress, with pink silk covers, but nothing ornate in the woodwork putting it together, nor were there so many pillows that it was a chore just to climb in.
The other floor space was mostly empty, save for a Hearth’s Warming tree set up opposite the bed, a few dressers, a vanity, an armoire near the glass door to her balcony, and a nightstand.
Despite Twilight’s fuzziness about the past occasion she spent in Celestia’s room, something seemed off about her nightstand. As if there was supposed to be something on top of it that wasn’t, but she couldn’t remember what.
Unbeknownst to her, Luna and Celestia both had exchanged glances when they’d noticed that Twilight had started staring in that direction.
“Twilight? Be a dear and put your gifts under the tree, would you?” Celestia asked, tapping Twilight on her shoulder.
“Huh? Oh! Sorry,” exclaimed Twilight, shaking her head vigorously, conjuring her three gifts, and placing them under Celestia’s tree, which she noticed wasn’t an actual tree, but one of those with the plastic leaves. She guessed it was since she wouldn’t allow many ponies into her room, this way a live tree wouldn’t die from all the lack of attention it would get with her performing royal duties all the time.
“I was just saying hello,” Celestia said. “You just zoned out while staring at my nightstand. Something catch your eye?”
“You could say that,” Twilight said. “What was on your nightstand? I could have sworn something was there last time I was here that seemed important. But what…?”
“Sounds like it wasn’t that important,” remarked Cadance, “else a mind like yours would have never let that information go.”
“Well, now that everyone is here for the evening’s exchange, shall we begin?” asked Luna. “I am quite ready to give everyone my gifts!”
“Yes, let’s do this,” Twilight said.
“Very well then,” Celestia said as they four princesses took seats around her Hearth’s Warming tree, “let me just add mine to the mix.”
Had Twilight been properly paying attention, she would have noticed that Celestia had only added two gifts to the pile under the tree, but her mind was still on whatever had occupied that space. Her last visit to Celestia’s room had been nearly fifteen years before, when she had first begun her tutelage under the diarch, and even then, it was a very fleeting visit. So why was this such a big deal?
“Allow me to go first,” said Princess Luna, picking up a parcel from within the pile, and levitating it over to Cadance. “I cannot help but notice your evening activities with Shining Armor, Cadenza, so I thought--”
“Auntie, you didn’t!” Cadance exclaimed, cheeks going redder than a tomato in only two seconds.
“Well, seeing as we are the Princess of the Night,” continued Luna, unperturbed, “we felt that it was prudent to give you something to… shall we say, spice things up.”
Twilight was snickering, despite even more unpleasant imagery of her brother and her foalsitter briefly appearing in her head. Celestia’s smile seemed a bit distracted, but she was chuckling at Cadance’s embarrassment nonetheless.
Shaking with mortified trepidation, Cadance began to peel the paper off of the rectangularly-shaped black-wrapped parcel, to find a blue edge to the contained box. As the seconds ticked past, and Cadance seemed to be going ever slower and slower with her unwrapping, Luna gave an impatient huff. This, it seemed, convinced Cadance to just get it over with, so she tore the wrapping clean off.
“New Super Pony Brothers 3D?” she asked dumbly, having expected something completely different, along with Twilight and Celestia. “For the Wii U?”
“Yes, we have seen how you and Shining spend hours every night playing Super Smash Brothers. We felt we would gift you with a new, more cooperative game.”
Cadance breathed a very audible sigh of relief, one that almost shook with laughter.
“Th-thank you, Auntie,” she said, inclining her head towards Luna.
“You are most welcome, niece. Now, about your’s and Shining’s sex life--”
“AuntieCelestiahere’syourgift!” interrupted Cadance, positively hurling her gift to Celestia out of the pile.
The gifting went smoothly after that. Cadance had gotten Celestia a very valuable necklace from the Crystal Empire, Luna had gifted her with some kind of magic that Twilight couldn’t comprehend, even with all her experience, and Twilight had gifted her with an old studying book they’d had when she was young, just for the memories.
As for Luna, all three of them had given her the same thing: a game. Granted, the games were different, but Luna was very easy to buy gifts for. Despite her allowance as a Royal, she was conservative with her game-buying. Celestia had gotten her a special copy of some fighting game that included her as a fighter, Twilight had gotten her the new Zelda, and Cadance had, funnily enough, gotten her a copy of New Super Pony Brothers 3D.
After Luna’s gift, Celestia had gotten Cadance a very comfy looking magical pillow, enchanted with a spell designed to enhance any reading experiences by apparently interpreting the words on a page and giving the reader a very lifelike vision in their head of it. Twilight had gotten her a scrapbook of her wedding, and of all the fun times they had had after Chrysalis had been dealt with.
Which, of course, left Twilight. Princess Cadance’s was probably the most predictable and the most infuriating. She had given Twilight nothing more than a piece of paper that read “The bearer of this certificate is entitled to one free military transfer of one pegasus trooper to any different post in Equestria,” and it had been signed by all three Princesses.
Obviously, they were winking and nudging her towards Flash Sentry, but Twilight was having none of it. Still, she kept the certificate, since you could never know when that might come in handy.
Luna’s intrigued her greatly. It was a very special journal and dreamcatcher that worked in tandem with each other. The dreamcatcher would actually copy dreams and preserve them in said diary, where at any time, Twilight could revisit them. She could relive very pleasurable dreams, or visions, or even nightmares if she wanted.
But to her disappointment, Luna’s was the last gift under the tree.
“Princess Celestia, did you remember to get a gift for me?” Twilight asked, feeling a mite let down at this. Surely the solar diarch wouldn’t have forgotten her most faithful student!
“No, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, smiling, “I did not. I was going to gift you with a special spell, but very recently, I was convinced by a close friend to change my gift. I believe the words she used were ‘take a leap of faith.’”
Her horn glowed, and in a flash of soft golden light, a strange, pony-shaped figurine appeared between them.
Had Twilight been paying better attention to her surroundings, she would have noticed that Princess Luna’s eyes widened, and that Princess Cadance, too, looked surprised, though her’s was more out of confusion.
“That’s it?” Cadance asked. “A nutcracker doll? Come on, Auntie, what’s her real gift?”
“This is it, Cadance,” Princess Celestia answered, as Twilight took the wooden pony toy in her hooves, staring at it intently.
What was it about this toy, this doll, that was so enthralling? Was this what had been missing from Celestia’s nightstand? It seemed to fit her memory, but she didn’t know why.
Despite the fact that it appeared to be in pristine condition, Twilight could almost tell that it was much older than it seemed. There were no chips in the wood, despite the fact that it was almost as big as an average book; there were no flakes in the silver paint; there were no bristles out of place in the white-streaked black mane and tail; and the blue beads that were its eyes looked completely clear. It even had a strange, piercing gaze when she looked directly at it.
Experimentally, Twilight found the little lever on the doll’s back and gave it a pull. Smoothly, as if it were brand new, the doll’s mouth opened, leaving enough space for almost any size of edible nut to fit.
“Have you ever heard the legend of the nutcracker, Cadance?” Celestia asked, not unkindly. “It’s not a common story, so I won’t be surprised. I doubt even Twilight here has heard it before.”
“Heard what before?” asked Twilight, still looking at the doll.
“The Legend of the Nutcracker Prince. It’s a tale as old as United Equestria itself is, though these days hardly anyone knows it.”
“N-no, I haven’t,” said Twilight, tearing her eyes away from the captivating doll to look at the Princess.
“Auntie, what’s all this about?” Cadance asked, sounding suspicious. “You’re just giving Twilight a regular old nutcracker doll for Hearth’s Warming? Are you trying to pass it off as an enchanted toy? Because there are hundreds of thousands just like it.”
Luna gave Cadance a very stern look from her seat, but unlike Luna’s usual death glares, she and Cadance kept eye contact for several seconds. Twilight felt a bit suspicious, since it was obviously a telepathic message. Just what was Princess Luna trying to keep from her? If it wasn’t otherwise, she wouldn’t have had any reason to hide it.
“What’s so special about this legend?” she asked.
“You should know better than anyone, Twilight,” answered Celestia, “that legends can sometimes be more special and truthful than they appear. Do you not recall the old legends of the return of Nightmare Moon? How no one believed you until it was too late?”
“Yeah, but a lot of people believe in the Strawberry Elves, and they turned out not to have existed,” countered Twilight.
“Quite right, they did not,” answered Luna. “If we recall, they were rumored to be located roundabouts where the Crystal Empire is located now. A little hard for two civilizations to occupy one place.”
“Whether or not you believe this legend is entirely up to you, Twilight,” Celestia said sagely. “We cannot tell you what to think. Would you like to hear it anyway?”
“Yes,” Twilight said, glancing down at the doll in her hooves.
“Very well, then,” Celestia said, as Cadance also turned her attention to the solar diarch.
Celestia cleared her throat, took a sip of some of the Hearth’s Warming wine they’d had for their little get together, the better to loosen her tongue, and took a deep breath before she began to recite her tale.
“In the old days of Equestria, shortly after the treaties between the three tribes yet before the true unification, there was a unicorn princess who was known for being a bit… selfish. She was very vain, very stingy with the currency she could call her’s, and she held very little regard for her fellow unicorns, much less her fellow ponies.”
“Was it Princess Amethyst XXII?” Twilight asked. “It sounds like her, except that she’s remembered as one of the better unicorn queens, but she was very vain and--”
“Twilight, does it matter?” chided Celestia, giving Twilight a very amused, but slightly annoyed look.
“I’m just trying to see if it really is historically accurate,” Twilight explained.
“Perhaps you should do that on your own time, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “Some of us have dream-watching duties we must attend to, soon, but we would still like to listen to Celestia’s story.”
“Sorry,” Twilight said, apologetically. “Please continue, Princess Celestia.”
“Very well. Yes, this princess was not one of the Unicorn Kingdom’s better monarchs. Relations between the other two races and the unicorns were very tense during her reign, but the earth pony chancellor and the pegasus general saw fit to send delegations for the princess’ birthday celebration, which coincidentally, was to occur two weeks before Hearth’s Warming.
“Now, the princess was very fond of a certain, then-difficult-to-acquire variety of cheese, and so she decided that for her birthday, her cake would be a cheesecake made with it. However, the castle had a rat problem, and this cheesecake proved itself irresistible to the rats, so they flooded the princess’ banquet in their attempt to steal the cake, which nearly succeeded.
“The princess offered a reward to whomever could rid the castle of its rat problem, and the earth pony delegate, a tinkerer known as Drosselmeyer, volunteered and was able to force out all but two of the rats, the Rat Queen and her son. As promised, Drosselmeyer was paid a hefty sum of gems for his work. However, the Rat Queen took her revenge that night, casting a spell on the princess, causing her to turn hideously ugly.”
“Rats can use magic?” Twilight asked, confused. “Now I know this is made up. Rodents can barely comprehend the Equuish language, let alone speak it or tap into magic.”
“What of dragons?” asked Celestia, arching an eyebrow. “Not dragons such as Spike, but fully-grown dragons that lived in Equestria before we did?” Twilight had no answer. “Before ponies found Equestria, many animals could use their own brands of magic. And rats are no exception.”
Celestia took another sip of wine, and continued.
“She offered a much grander reward to the one who could cure her of the curse. Instead of gems or currency, she offered the hoof of her daughter to the one who devised a cure. However, since only magic could cure magic, Drosselmeyer hadn’t any idea how to make any device that could cure her, and none of the unicorn nobles, not even the court mage, knew of a way to undo it. But it was then that the pegasus delegate, a captain and personal friend to the general, came up with an idea.
“There was a known rare nut that was grown in the snowy fields near present-day Stalliongrad, a nut that could remove all traces of curses from the body.”
“Oh, the Kurall nut,” Twilight exclaimed, looking quite pleased with herself. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”
“Yes, the Kurall nut,” confirmed Celestia, dipping her head. “It took almost two weeks for it to be imported, but the day it arrived was Hearth’s Warming Eve, much like tonight. Now, the Kurall nut’s shell has a certain magical property about it that prevents non-organic means of cracking it. The pegasus captain had to use his teeth to break open the shell of the nut, which he gave to the princess immediately. The princess was cured, and attempted to throw a celebration for both the curse being undone, and the wedding of her daughter and the captain, but it would all be for naught.”
“What… what happened?” Twilight asked, not noticing that she was clutching the carpet beneath her hooves.
“The Rat Queen returned, furious at being denied her victory by the captain. However, Drosselmeyer had anticipated such a turn of events and used a magical mouse trap to mortally wound both the Rat Queen and her son. But with her dying breath, the Rat Queen cast one final curse on the pegasus captain, transforming him into a nutcracker doll and binding him to an eternal cycle.”
“Twilight, are you alright?” came Cadance’s distant voice from somewhere to her right. Twilight blinked, and started as she felt something warm trickle down her cheek. Had she been crying?
“Perhaps we should--”
“No!” Twilight exclaimed, startling everyone else in the room. “Sorry,” she said apologetically, “but I want to hear how it ends.”
“There’s not much more,” Celestia warned. “It does not end on a happy note.”
“I don’t care.”
“Very well,” Celestia said, giving both Cadance and Luna a significant look that Twilight missed, as she had taken that opportunity to rub at her eyes. “The Rat Queen died, but her son vanished in a flash. And now, the pegasus captain, cursed to live forever as prince of the toys, cannot escape his fate on his own. Every Hearth’s Warming Eve, the Rat Queen’s son appears to do battle with the captain. To escape his fate, the captain must both defeat the Rat Queen’s son and win the heart of a beautiful mare. Only then will the curse be broken, and will he return to his true form.”
Once again, had Twilight been paying better attention, she would have noticed a tear trickle down Celestia’s cheek, but her gaze had been directed downward, to the nutcracker doll in her hooves.
Could you really be…?
“Well, with that out of the way,” said Luna, rising to her hooves, “I have my nightly duties to perform. We bid everyone a good night, and we will see you in the morning.”
“Hm? Oh, yes,” said Twilight, getting to her hooves as well. ”It’s getting late, and I’m tired from the train ride up here. Well, good night, everyone.”
“Good night, Twilight,” Celestia said back to her, as Twilight trotted out of the room, towards the wing of the castle that contained her quarters.
Really, who could believe such nonsense? she wondered. A curse transforming a pony into a nutcracker? Come on, now.
Yet despite her best efforts to put it out of her mind, the thought of the final fate of the pegasus captain kept returning to the forefront. It really was quite heartbreaking, what happened to him. Doomed never to be with the one he loved, forced to fight once a year with the Rat Queen’s son in a hopeless battle to escape…
Before she knew it, she was back in her room, laying belly-down on her bed, and staring at the nutcracker before her, admiring its craftsmanship.
It really is special, she thought. It’s so brilliantly painted… it almost looks as if it could have been a real pony.
As her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, she didn’t feel like moving under the covers and laying on a pillow. It was quite comfortable where she was at, after all. The nutcracker stood before her, held up by wrinkles in the comforter blanket, watching over her as her eyelids closed, and she felt herself growing lighter and lighter…
Until she suddenly found herself standing, quite upright, in the middle of Canterlot Castle Throne Room. For a moment, all she could do was wonder exactly how she had gotten there. Perhaps someone had seen her?
“Hello?” she called, and her voice echoed around the hall.
The room seemed quite empty. But then, the room always seemed empty. There was no way to tell for sure unless she could see that there was definitely no one on the throne, at the far end of the room.
Well, only one way to find out.
She trotted forward, along the red carpet, looking to get close to the throne to see if there really was someone on it.
And what she saw made her stop dead in her tracks.
Sitting upon the throne, with a definitely-wooden body painted silver, a black and white streaked mane and tail, piercing blue eyes, and wooden wings stretched out behind him, was the nutcracker doll, staring at her in shock, and looking very much alive.
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If this doesn't ring a bell.
Why is this in the League of Legends group? o_0
5416191
I put it in a folder for member, non-League related works.
5416423 Oh! Just curious...o3o
Hey! When's the next chapter coming out?
5420540
When it gets done. I had a full day yesterday, and I'm not fast enough to get 5k words in one day on a dime. I'm working on it though.
However, it's no longer a Christmas special, but a holiday special, but I'll get it finished as soon as I can.
5420888
You do realize that the first Sunday in January is the last day of the holiday season.
5424616
12 Days of Christmas. so a more accurate day would be Monday. Basically, I have 12 days to get ~12k words written. And considering I'm about halfway through C2, I have faith. But let's face it, better to get it done late than never at all.
5424642
True enough
I got to that point and literally couldn't continue for about a minute.