The Nutcracker's Queen

After nearly 5 minutes of arguing about who was right, I finally got Mouserinks and Phillip to work together. Mainly because I reminded them that we didn't have any time to be arguing with each other. "Now, Mouserinks. Show us, please." I say to the little mouse king and he nods. I place him down and he runs in the direction we need to go. We followed Mouserinks all the way to a wall grate out of the sewer.

We exited out of the grate to stand on the stone walkway next to the river...the river that led to the castle's waterfall and a very steep drop. "Where'd he go?" Phillip calls over the noise of the river to the two of us. I looked around and then pointed where I could see Mouserinks scurrying along. I slowly rushed along the slippery stone bank, trying to get to where we needed to go. We walked until finally, the three of us reached the edge.

The edge awaited and faced a nearly 100-foot drop straight off into rocks and water. "And now we pray." I say to Clara and Phillip as I look down a little. Clara points at the water wheels that were spinning, filtering water into the castle and creating smaller waterfalls. "We should be able to ride the wheels up to the engine room." She says to me and Phillip and I shake my head at her firmly. I knew I wanted to do.

"No, you and Phillip are going to find my mother, Mother Ginger." I order them, shoving my tiara into Clara's hands. "Tell her I gave you this, she'll listen." I say to the two of them. Phillip looked like he was about to protest about it, but Clara knew my look. She wasn't going to argue with what I was saying. She takes my crown firmly into her grip. "Those soldiers will be heading to the Fourth Realm. Go warn her." I order Clara. 

Mouserinks had settled himself on Clara's shoulder. Good, he'd lead the way back to my mum. "What? No! We're not going to leave you, (y/n)." Phillip says to me and I touch his face gently. I rub the apple of his cheek. "Trust me...and go." I say softly. He nods and I kiss him gently in response. I watched the three of them go to find Mum while I turned back towards the flowing water wheels. 

Slowly, I began to remove my shoes, my bare feet against the stones beneath me. I tore my skirt apart, tying it around my hands and feet to help me grip tightly to the stones. Carefully, I started slowly climbing down the massive stone cliff face. When I got down far enough, I slowly began to inch my way sideways toward the massive water wheels. I slip under the water wheel, counting shortly until I grab ahold of one of the paddles. 

My feet press to the paddle underneath me as the wheel lifts me up and into the same room as Sugar Plum. I knew what I had to do if Sugar Plum wouldn't give in. I had to return her back to her original form. I hid behind one of the many large cogs and gears making the room function. Peeking over, I watched as 2 tin soldiers were mass-producing more tin soldiers. One was pressing the button to make them grow. 

The other was dumping the soldiers onto the platform for them to be made human-size. As I was sneaking past to get to the machine, I knocked over a box of tin soldiers with my hip. However, this worked to my advantage as it made the tin soldiers head towards the knocked-over box, allowing me to slip past them and turn off the water wheels. By turning off the water wheels, I had stopped the power that flowed in and through the castle. 

I hid behind some more boxes, this time knocking over a box of wooden toy soldiers. At least I'm consistent. I ran away from the Tin soldiers heading towards me, only to be met by more soldiers. I whipped around and tin soldiers had come up behind me. I was surrounded by toy soldiers. I picked up a bat nearby and began defending myself against them to the best of my ability. It was a little sloppy, but if I could knock down a soldier, I did.

And I noted, much to my delight, that I could still kick them in the groin to inflict maximum damage. As I knocked down the last few, one of my mother's Pulcinella clowns came rolling in. And My mother popped out as it came to a stop. "Mum!" I cried, dropping the bat and running up to her. We embraced tightly. "At your service, your majesty." She said, half joking and half serious. I giggled before I ducked and she took out a tin soldier with her whip.  

"Impressive." I say before it comes back to me. I remembered what I'm supposed to be doing here. "I'm going to disable the engine. Clara told me how!" I call to her, scooping up my bat again. Mother nods at me, the nod simply saying 'go'. I rush off, leaving my highly capable Mother to fend for herself. I had to get rid of this before there were too many tin soldiers for us to stop...before Sugar Plum took over the Four Realms. 

"Mother Ginger, I'm just so pleased you decided to drop in." I heard Sugar Plum's voice before a heavy thud against the floor. I clench my fists as I realize that Sugar Plum either knocked over my mother or dropped her from a decent height onto the floor. Judging by the sound of the thud, it was probably from a decent height. I duck away and watch as Sugar Plum turns the water wheels back on, resupplying power to the machine that brought everything to life.

"You just had to interfere, didn't you?" Sugar Plum says, obviously talking to my mother. Meanwhile, my eyes remained glued to the mechanism of the machine. "I stopped you once before, remember?" Mother says to Sugar Plum and I pause. She had? It must have been a decent chunk of time ago because it just seemed to delay Sugar Plum off-course a little. And now she was back to where she needed to be.

"The Heiress...Your daughter...where is she?" Sugar Plum asks my Mother. It seemed like her voice always had a sweet sugary lilt to it, even when she was saying awful things to people. "She's gone! She's fled the realm with Clara. She's safe from you again!" Mother shouted at her and now I knew why I never knew my mother. By the way my mother sounded, the hysterical nature of her protecting me, Sugar Plum wanted me dead.

And probably, had tried to kill me just after I was born. "Then I am Queen of the castle and you're a dirty rascal." Sugar Plum sang and I shook my head, bringing myself back to the here and now. I needed to stop Sugar Plum and then I needed to shrink her. But there were also all the tin soldiers to worry about. I noticed the mechanism and the way it looped. But what interested me was the fact that there were extra parts. I could add a little pendulum kind of thing. 

So I added one, then went out to face Sugar Plum