So... I had my own movie night last night and I watched a lot of movies. A few of them were Barbie movies. Well, one of my favorites, Barbie: The Nutcracker, surprised me... After all the years of not watching that movie, I watched it. When the Nutcracker talked for the first time in the movie, I had gasped. It was Kirby Morrow! I was so happy. That got me to thinking... Why not make a Ninjago version of this movie? So... Ta-da! Here I am.

Anyways, hoped you liked my inspiration for this story. Hope you enjoy the first chapter. ^-^


(No POV)

Beautiful music that was written by Tchaikovsky, called Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet played while an older girl with her long red hair pulled into a tight bun, danced a routine with a younger girl, who has longer black hair in a ponytail. (Link to the song, they're dancing to: /watch?v=Rapf3g_XvCc) The younger girl makes watches the older to make sure she gets the footing right, but she keeps stumbling. As they dance the harder part of the routine, the younger groans and gives up. "You almost had it, Raylee." The older says as she stops. "Here. Let me show you." The older girl starts dancing again and Raylee starts dancing along with her. She starts stumbling again.

"Ooohhh..." She groans again and sits on the floor, resting her chin in her hands. "I'm never gonna get all these steps right, Skylor.." Skylor walks over to the stereo and stops the music before sitting next to the other.

"If you keep practing, you will." Skylor smiles at her.

"But... what if I freeze on stage in front of all those people?"

"You just have to have enough courage to at least try." She puts her hand on Raylee's shoulder then gets an idea. "Like Nya!" (I wanted to change who it actually was, so it wasn't Clara from the actual movie.)

"Nya? From the ballet?"

"Uh huh. Now you see, Nya lost her parents when she was very young. She and her little brother Kai were being raised by their Grandfather Garmadon. He loved them, but he was very strict." Outside the thick snow blew and created a beautiful white canvas.


-Garmadon's house-

"Candles! We need more candles!" An elder, scratchy voice says. The man looks over by the Christmas tree to see his grandaughter watching a beautiful snow globe. It had a small castle inside of it. "Nya, please. No more day dreaming. We have to finish decorating before all our guests arrive." The raven-haired girl smiles softly at him and politely puts her hands behind her back.

"Yes, grandfather." She says sweetly. Suddenly, the low chime of the doorbell is heard. Grandfather Garmadon checks his pocket watch. He shakes his head lightly.

"22 minutes early... Such bad manners." He walks away to go answer the door. The girl turns to the table again and opens a small red box. She pulls out an ornament of a ballet dancer with curled black hair and beautiful red outfit. Much like a princess.

"It's beautiful, Miss." The maid says. She smiles at Nya and watches her put it on one of the branches.

"My mother gave it to me the Christmas I saw my first ballet." The maid walks over to the table and gasps quietly.

"Oh dear, the mice have found their way to the gingerbread house and the cookies." Nya picks one of the nutcracker shaped cookies up and notices that one of the legs is broken off.

"You haven't seen Kai, have you?" They both start looking around the room for him until they hear a small crunching sound. Nya looks behind the couch to see her little brother munching on a cookie. She reaches down and grabs it. Kai gasps quietly and crosses his arms. "Mystery solved." She chuckles as Kai stands up. He has frosting all over his face. "You might wanna wash off that frosting before the mice take a bite out of you."

"You can't tell me what to do."

"No. But I'm sure Grandfather will suggest that you take a bath." Kai gasps quietly and goes to clean off the frosting.

Suddenly the door opens and a beautiful woman with chestnut brown hair walks in. "Nya...!" Nya turns around to see that familiar face.

"Aunt Garmadon!" She walks over and hugs her aunt.

"You're at least a head taller!"

"I thought you weren't coming this year!" Nya smiles widely.

"And miss a chance to visit you and vex my uncle?" They both chuckle quietly as the old man walks in.

"You are already conspiring against me."

"Don't worry. I'll wait until your party is over before I perform any mischief." He grunts and walks off. Nya grabs her aunt's arm and smiles.

"Where did you go this time? I wanna hear all about it!"

"Well let's see... I met an emperor, I sailed on a junk, I had my first rickshaw ride, and I hicked the Great Wall of China...!"

"I'd appreciate it, Misako, if you would stop filling Nya's head with your stories. Just because you go traipsing all over the globe, rather than stay put like a sensible person."

"There's a world full of wonders out there, Uncle, and Nya deserves to experience them." The low doorbell rings again. Grandfather Garmadon is about to say something, but Misako stops him. "Your guests are waiting." He sighs and walks out to the front door. "Some people never change... But we can always hope..."

About an hour or two later, Kai is sitting by the warm fire, playing with his toy army men. Nya is listening to Misako talk about all of her expieriences. "Then he bowed and asked me to dance."

"Did you?" Nya asks excitedly.

"I couldn't say no to the King!"

"You must've felt like a Princess. I wish I could've been there."

"Maybe next time, you can come with me." Nya sighs and looks at the ground.

"Grandfather would never let me." Misako gets up and walks over to a table that has two small boxes on it. She picks them up.

"Well surely he won't object to these." She hands one to Kai, "For you, Kai." ,then she hands the other box to Nya. "And for you, my dear."

"Wow! A Grenadier gaurd and a Bengal lancer! Thanks!" Kai says as he opens the box. Nya opens her box and smiles.

"A nutcracker...!" She moves the arm which opens the mouth. The nutcracker is wearing a gaurd's outfit and has wooden slicked back, black hair. "He's wonderful! Thank you, Aunt Misako!"

"He sure is ugly..."

"Kai!"

"Well on the outside maybe... but on the inside beats the heart of a prince." Misako says. She's so uplifting and sweet.

"Then I'll use him to command my army!" Kai gets up and grabs the Nutcracker. Nya tries to pull him back, but neither of them let go. The Nutcracker suddenly slips from Nya's hands and she hears something crack quietly. "S-...sorry.." Kai holds the figure in his hand. The Nutcracker's arm lays limp now instead of it being stiff and at his side.

"You're...impossible!" She takes the nutcracker and sits on the couch. She grabs a small piece of cloth to make a sling for the wooden figure. "Please don't be too angry at Kai... I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you..." She looks at the very detailed eyes of the nutcracker. Suddenly one of it's eyes shimmers and she gasps silently.

At around 11:40 PM, Nya is sleeping on the couch with the nutcracker by her arm. Her Aunt Misako and Grandfather walk in. "It's time to wake her."

"And spoil a beautiful dream? No... Let her sleep. Nya's not a child anymore. She deserves the chance to follow her dreams." Grandfather Garmadon walks over to a lamp to turn it off.

"A young girl needs to be responsible and practical."

"Nya is responsible. You've raised her well, Uncle. It's time you trusted her to grow up and make her own choices." Misako pulls the blanket on Nya closer to her shoulder. Grandfather Garmadon goes over to the tall Grandfather clock and winds it up.

At the top of the clock, there is a statue of a falcon. The eyes of it shimmer a dark green right before the clock strikes 12. The clock starts slowly chiming and then 12 low chimes echo. Through the mouse hole by the fireplace, some magic powers come to life and fly around the room. The falcon on top of the clock comes to life as some mice, who have on armor and have weapons come out of the mouse hole. They start hitting ornaments so they would fall and break. Then the magic reaches the Nutcracker, making him come to life. With his good hand he pulls out his sword and runs off to fight the mice.

"Insolent mice!" he yells as he runs. Nya then opens her eyes and sits up, looking for her nutcracker. She hears crunching suddenly. There a mouse soldier sitting on the arm rest. She shoos him off and he screams as he falls. Then she hears another sound. Swords. She looks over at the pile of presents and sees her nutcracker fighting off mice. "Back... off... you... traitors!"

"I think I'm dreaming..." As she looks over at the mouse hole, there are two more soldiers walking in front of a slightly bigger mouse who has a crown on his head. He growls and walks over to the pile of boxes, where the nutcracker is standing on top of.

"Even as a nutrcacker, you're a thorn in my side...!" Says the Mouse King.

"And a thorn to you, I shall remain!" The nutcracker pushes box over and it smash the king and two guards. He jumps off the tall box just as the three mice push the box off of them. The king points his septer at the nutcracker and starts to fight the nutcracker. The king hits the sword out of the nutcracker's hands and holds the septer close the wood man.

"It's time I turn you into something more useful. Like kindling!" The Mouse King turns his septer into an axe. Nya gasps quietly as she watches. She suddenly gets up and grabs an urn to put over the mouse.

"Not in my house." She walks over to them and the king turns around, changing his septer back to... a septer.

"Meddling human towering tall, let my septer shrink you small." His septer starts to glow yellow.

"Look out!" The nutcracker tries to warn her, but it's too late. The septer shoots a beam at her, making her drop the urn and start shrinking to the size of a mouse.

"This... is not good." She starts to back up as the king slowly approaches her.

"Not so fearless now, are we?" He growls at her. The nutcracker suddenly push a toy cart at the king, making him fall over. The nutcracker stands in front of Nya, keeping the guards away from her.

"Can you make it up the mantel?" She looks over at the garland going around the fireplace.

"There is no way..." She sees a big group of mice coming towards her. "That I'm staying down here." She grabs the garland and starts to climb. She watches the nutcracker fight the king by the fireplace fence. He gets cornered against the wire fence, but then he gets an idea. He sticks the blade of his sword through one of the slots and hangs from it, kicking some mice soldiers down.

"You've got nowhere to run, Nutcracker." The wood man tries to pull his sword out, but it's stuck. The king turns his septer into an axe again and aims for the wooden legs. The nutcracker flips out of the way and lands on his feet. "You're not gonna get away from me this time. Unless you'd like to be in the fire." The nutcracker looks for ways to escape, so he tries climbing up the fence with one arm. He jumps onto the garland and hangs on. The king changes the axe to a crossbow. He aims at the ornament next to the wooden man. He shoots but the nutcracker lets go but grabs another branch.

"Hey! Up here!" Nya yells at the king. He looks over at her just as she flicks her shoe off and it hits him in the face, making him fall off the pile of firewood. His guards pull him away and they all leave through the mouse hole. "Look out!" She screams as a part of her garland strand falls and hits the nutcracker. They both land on a pillow that's on the floor.

"Thank you... for saving my life. And for your superior nursing skills." He takes the sling off and hands it to Nya.

"Uh... You're welcome." She smiles at him. "This has to be a dream..."

"I'm afraid it's all too real. And I have to get back to Ninjago while I still have a chance."

"Well... Do you mind changing me back before you go? Remember? I used to be... taller."

"I'm afraid only the Sugar Plum Princess can reverse the spell."

"The... Sugar Plum Princess?"

"Yes. I've been trying to find her since the Mouse King turned me into a nutcracker."

"You mean.. you use to be...?"

"Not a nutcracker..." Suddenly a caw comes from somewhere in the room. They look up at the clock and see the once falcon statue flying down towards them and landing on the arm rest.

"Perhaps I can help." The falcon says. Nya comes out of hiding from under the chair. "You will find the Sugar Plum Princess on an island across the Sea of Sand." (It's actually Sea of Storms, but I wanted to make it more Ninjago related)

"But... it's impossible to cross the Sea of Sand.."

"It's very hot, yes, but not impossible." The nutcracker looks at Nya then walks towards the mouse hole. She watches him walk then she looks back at the falcon, who motions for her to go.

"Well? Are you coming?" He asks suddenly.

"Me? With you? In there? I don't think so..." She shakes her head.

"Surely you don't want to spend the rest of your life the size of a mouse." The falcon says, trying to convince Nya. The girl looks down at herself.

"But how would I get back?" The falcon suddenly flies off and pulls the small golden locket off of the neck of the ballet dancer ornament. The bird drops it into Nya's hands.

"Once you've found the Sugar Plum Princess, open the locket, and you will return home your normal size."

"But-..." She watches the falcon fly back up to the clock and become a statue again. The nutcracker waits for her at the entrance.

"Ready?"

"This is crazy... But yes." She walks in, followed by the nutcracker. Off they go on an amazing adventure.

Hope you enjoyed this! I would love feedback! ^-^