The scene changed to a different room and is where Estelle appeared.

"What the... Where am I?" Estelle asked.

There was a girl with long blonde hair in a pink dress. She looked behind her and saw Estelle and walked over to her. "W-Who are you...?" she asked, a little unsure. "Are you one of Aunt Drosselmeyer's friends?"

"Um, n-no, my name is Estelle, I don't know how I got here." Estelle said.

The girl looked curious of how that was. "Well... My name's Clara," she offered a friendly smile. "Welcome to our home."

Estelle smiled to her, she was worried on the inside, but making a new friend kind of calmed her down. "Thank you, um... Clara..."

Clara smiled back, then jolted once a sharp male voice called. "Candles, we need more candles! Clara, please, no more daydreaming. We have to finish decorating before our guests arrive."

"Yes, Grandfather," Clara gave a small, polite nod to him, she then looked to her new friend. "Want to help?"

"Of course, sounds like your grandfather might need all the help he can get." Estelle said.

Clara took Estelle to a box and she opened it up, she smiled once she saw a ballerina figure.

"It's beautiful, Miss!" a maid smiled to the girl.

"Mother gave this to me the Christmas I saw my first ballet." Clara smiled at her memory as she hung the figure onto the tree.

The maid found biscuits half-eaten and looked alarmed. "Oh dear!" she cried out. "The mice have found their way into the Christmas boxes!"

"Looks like it could be mice or just a younger sibling eating them." Estelle guessed.

The words 'younger sibling' made Clara think and she smirked to the maid. "You haven't seen Tommy, have you?" she looked behind the sofa.

There was a boy there who must have been Tommy, he was in fact eating the biscuits.

Clara took one away from him, making him snap at her. "Mystery solved. You might want to wash off that frosting before the mice take a bite out of you."

"You can't tell me what to do!" Tommy hissed at her.

"Yes she can, she's your older sister," Estelle said. "And besides, shouldn't you wait until after dinner to have a cookie?"

Tommy snorted, folding his arms.

"I'm sure Grandfather will insist on a bath." Clara smirked to her brother.

This sent Tommy running.


The door opened and Clara was very thrilled of who had come this time. "Aunt Drosselmeyer!" she beamed, running to the woman and hugged her tight.

"Clara..." the woman hugged her, smiling. "You're at least a head taller..." she then noticed Estelle. "Um, who's this?"

"This is my new friend, Estelle, she actually doesn't know where she came from." Clara explained to her favorite relative.

"Actually, I was right in the middle of my ballet dance class and then me my cousins and our new friend, Kelly got our ballet dancing shoes and then we started to dance to practice for the real thing as we were going to be performing in front of everyone and then I appeared in this house." Estelle explained as best as she could.

"How unusual..." Aunt Drosselmayer didn't think Estelle was crazy, she was wondering how that was even possible, but she didn't want to hurt the girl's feelings by her story.

"Aunt Drosselmayer travels around the world," Clara told Estelle. "She can tell us stories."

The woman nodded and decided to tell them one of them, hoping to make Estelle feel more comfortable around here.

"I'd appreciate it, Elizabeth, if you'd stop filling Clara's head or her new friend's heads with your stories," the grandfather nearly snorted. "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 Clara deserves to experience them. Your guests are waiting," Aunt Drosselmayer told him, making him go to the door for more guests. "Some people never change. But we can always hope." she then went to continue telling stories to Clara and Estelle.


These stories seemed like they were adventures in their own way, including fantasy as she mentioned that she even met a prince.

"I'm sorry I don't have a present for you, Estelle." Aunt Drosselmayer said as she took out presents for Tommy and Clara.

"That's okay, ma'am... It's nice to meet you anyway." Estelle said with a smile, she didn't need a Christmas present anyway, she wasn't a member of this family.

"A nutcracker!" Clara loved her present. "Thank you, Aunt Elizabeth!"

Tommy wrinkled his nose. "He sure looks ugly."

"Tommy!" Clara glared at her younger brother.

"Well on the outside, maybe," Aunt Drosselmayer tried to soothe Clara. "But inside beats the heart of a Prince."

"Yeah, it isn't what's on the outside that counts, it's what's on the inside." Estelle said.

"Then I'll use him to command my army!" Tommy snatched the nutcracker from his sister.

"Hey!" Clara whined, trying to keep it from him.

The two kept fighting and this caused for the Nutcracker's arm to break off.

Tommy looked at what they had done. "Sorry..."

Clara looked to him, a little hurt and angered. "You're... Impossible!" she stormed off and sat on the couch with her nutcracker.

"Do you need help fixing him?" Estelle asked her new friend.

"If you want to..." Clara said to her softly.

Estelle sat next to her, deciding to help.

Clara smiled, she felt lucky to have found and met this girl. "Please don't be too angry with Tommy," she told the doll, even if she knew it wouldn't answer back. "I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you."

"Maybe we can use something to hold his arm up like what they do to soldiers' arms when they're injured." Estelle suggested.

Clara and Estelle set to work as the party was going.


To Estelle's surprise, one of her 'uncles' appeared. "Uncle Forte?"

"Hello, Estelle..." Forte greeted, a little surprised to see her as well.

"You guys know each other?" Clara sounded shocked.

"I'm sorry to intrude, I'm just looking for someone and need help..." Forte said.

Aunt Drosselmayer knew Forte as well. "Charles, what brings you here?"

"I'm looking for my wife, Elizabeth."

"Wait, Aunt Cherry is here too?" Estelle asked. "And how do you two know each other?"

"I've met Charles when I visit England once," Aunt Drosselmayer smiled. "He was a little lost and alone, so I decided to take care of him until he was ready to go back out. We were almost married..."

"What happened?" Clara asked.

"We just had some differences... Estelle, have you seen your aunt?" Forte asked, assuming his wife might be here if Estelle was.

Estelle shook her head apologetically. "Sorry, Uncle Forte..."

Forte heaved a sharp sigh. "That's alright... I don't know what happened, I saw her before we went to bed, but something happened and she was gone without a word... It's not like her to leave without telling me."

"I'm sure Aunt Cherry will turn up soon." Estelle soothed.

Forte helped the girls and soon enough, the nutcracker was all fixed.

"Oh, thank you, sir!" Clara beamed.

"Anytime..." Forte smiled to her.

Clara smiled, she then decided to play with Estelle until they would get tired. Estelle and Clara seemed to already be fast friends as they began to play together.


The girls had a lot of fun, they tuckered themselves out and seemed to fall asleep on the couch together. The grandfather and aunt discussed about Clara of how responsible and friendly she had grown to be and was raised well after the tragic disappearance of her parents.

The girls were asleep and unaware of what was happening around them as it was just like any other night, but once midnight struck, it seemed as though magic had been blessed in the house as the nutcracker came to life and there were mice with weaponry unleashed. That could not have been a normal occurrence. All of this, of course, wouldn't go unheard as it all seemed to only cause for the girls to hear it all and for them to wake up.

It looked as though Clara's nutcracker were alive and was fighting the mice like a brave and heroic prince.

"We must be dreaming..." Clara murmured.

Estelle rubbed her blue eyes. "That is not normal... And I've seen a lot."

There came an evil mouse that had a crown on its head like a king. "Even as a nutcracker, you're a thorn in my side!"

"And I thorn to you I shall remain!" the nutcracker retorted, dropping a box on the evil mouse, but not squashing it.

"It's time I turned you into something more useful!" the Mouse King turned his scepter into an axe. "Like kindling!"

"Oh dear, he's going to kill him, we have to help." Estelle said.

"Not in my house..." Clara took a vase as she stood with Estelle.

The Mouse King looked to the girls, sneering at them, he decided to use them too. "I'm not letting tall humans push me around..." he grinned darkly as he waved his scepter, reciting a shrinking spell. "'Meddling humans, towering tall, make my scepter shrink you small'!"

"Look out!" the nutcracker called.


It was too late, the girls were shrunk in size and were now the size of the mice and the tree looked so huge compared to them now. This was alarming and overwhelming for the girls.

"This is not good..." Clara whimpered.

"Not so fearless now, hmm?" the Mouse King taunted them.

"*gulps* Listen, you shouldn't be here, Clara's grandfather is here and when he sees you and your rat friends, he going use the broom and shoo you all out into the cold!" Estelle threatened the best way she could.

"I'd like to see him try..." the Mouse King grinned evilly.

The nutcracker kicked him away, looking menacing to him, but gentle with the girls. "Can you make it up to the mantle?" he asked them.

"There is no way," Clara declined. "We're staying right here."

The mice suddenly came closer.

"I think we're better off on the mantle!" Estelle said, she then noticed garland and decided to climb it. "Come on, Clara!"

Clara gasped and went with her to avoid the bad mice. The mice seemed to be more vicious to them at this size, so avoiding them was a smart thing to do.

"You've got nowhere to run, Nutcracker," the Mouse King taunted as he got the nutcracker on the floor really close to the fireplace. "You're not going to get away from me this time. Unless you'd like to feed the fire..." he grinned darkly. He turned his scepter into a bow without the arrow and aimed it at the wooden hero.

"Nutcracker!" Clara called.

The nutcracker looked up to see the girls.

"Hey, up here!" Estelle also called.

Clara took off one of her shoes and threw it at the Mouse King, but this made the garland slip about to take the girls down with it. The girls gripped to it and they hit the mice, sending them away for now with the knocked out Mouse King.


"Well, that's one way of taking out an army of mice." Estelle said, getting up and then helped Clara up.

"Thank you for saving my life," the nutcracker told the girls. "And for your superior nursing skills."

"Uh, you're welcome," Clara smiled. "Maestro nursed you though..."

Estelle looked around. "Is this a dream?"

"I'm afraid it's all too real," the nutcracker told the girls. "And I've got to return home to Parthenia while I have the chance."

"Can we go with you?" Estelle asked.

"Could you also change us back?" Clara added.

"I'm afraid only the Sugarplum Princesses can reverse the Mouse King's spell." the nutcracker informed her.

"Sugarplum Princesses?" Clara and Estelle asked together.

"Yes, I've been trying to find them since the Mouse King turned me into a nutcracker." he explained to them.

"Oh dear, well then, do you mind us helping you find them?" Estelle asked.

"That would be acceptable." Nutcracker replied.

"I don't think so..." Clara didn't sound like she was up for an adventure.

"Perhaps I can help," an owl advised to them, even Clara could understand it. "You will find the Sugarplum Princess on an island, across the Sea of Storms."

"But it's impossible to cross the Sea of Storms." Nutcracker replied in defense.

"It's dangerous, yes, but not impossible."

Nutcracker nodded. "Come on, Clara... Surely you don't want to spend the rest of your life the size of a mouse?"

Clara agreed now, but was worried. "But, how would we get back?"

The owl took the locket from the ballerina figure on the tree and gave it to the girls. "Once you've found the Sugarplum Princesses, open the locket, and you will return home your normal size."

Clara was still unsure, but since Estelle was going, she decided to go along too.

"Thank you, Miss Owl." Estelle said to the owl.

The owl nodded to her, then froze back into place. Nutcracker walked with Estelle and Clara, but once they came through the mouse hole, they fell through a colorful portal which took them from this world to a whole other one. They all yelled a little as they were falling and once they left the portal, they fell into an ice cave. Luckily, they weren't hurt.