"It's quite all right, dear." The queen responded with a reassuring smile, "You are my beloved daughter, but I also trust our people and..." She turned to Ace and wore a dry smile, "...I suppose your points are sound enough. Very well, I shall leave the staff in your hands."
Hearing this, Ace smiled victoriously as she humbly received the gold staff from her mother with both hands, "I'll guard it with my life, Your Majesty!"
She then stepped onto the stage and walked over to Ortho as the fairy emcee murmured in shock, "What's this? The star of the next illusion will be Her Majesty?! What will happen next? The whole audience is watching with bated breath!"
"Welcome, Your Majesty! It's an honor to have you!" Ortho welcomed her with a bright smile.
"Why, thank you. What shall you have me do?" The queen smiled excitedly as though she was still just a newborn fairy.
"I'd like you to stand here and wave to the audience. That's all you have to do." Ortho led her to the center of the stage.
"That's it? Truly?" The queen said to them in disbelief.
"Yep! While you're doing that, I'm going to make you disappear...all without using magic!" Ortho declared with a wide smile.
"No way. Is that even possible?" Igni jumped in bewilderment.
Aqua looked to him hesitantly, "Surely you can't make someone disappear without magic..."
"Heh heh heh. There are things in this world even more amazing than magic, you know. Here goes!" Ortho replied with a wide smile.
Having said this, Ortho and the other two on stage began to do a count down, "Three, two, one!"
Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke as everyone was startled in surprise and left anxiously awaiting what happened next as the smoke began to dissipate. Ortho's voice suddenly erupted from the smoke as he said with a wide smile, "Her Majesty the Queen...has now been drawn into a mystical realm!"
"H... Her Majesty... SHE'S VANISHED!"
The fairies cried out in bewilderment as they panicked, "Where, oh where has our queen gone? Is she safe?!"
Seeing her mother disappear before her, Peony was left startled with a hint of fear before she composed herself as she noticed some subtle changes and frowned, "Order! Her majesty is still here. I can feel her mana even now. She is still on the stage..."
Hearing this, Ace and Ortho looked to her in surprise as a voice spoke up in disbelief, "Truly? I have vanished? But I'm standing right here. Can you not see me?"
"Huh? The princess is right?!" Maisey exclaimed in bewilderment.
"Huh? I can't see the queen, but I can hear her. She's definitely still on stage." A noble fairy nearby noted in surprise.
"So she simply faded from sight!" Aqua shouted in shock upon seeing this.
"The audience is riveted! This is like nothing we've ever seen before!" The fairy emecee declared in awe upon seeing this.
Peony could feel the bewildered nature of her mother's mana coursing from her as she made her way to the edge of the platform and stated, "But I have. Your majesty, please calm yourself. We can all hear you. I can assure you that you did not simply vanish. Remember. This is but an illusion. Everyone is here."
"...Now!"
Peony frowned as she noticed Ace's voice mutter something she could not convey too well, but she could tell for certain that it must have been the signal to swap the gem. Hearing her voice, the fairies muttered amongst themselves in awe, "That's right! I remember that the princess was sent to study abroad from a young human age and has seen many sights and learnt many arts and culture around the world."
"If the princess is not worried, then the queen has to be all right, right?"
Hearing this, Peony huffed, "The queen is powerful. She won't just disappear and never come back. Mother will be back. I know it."
"Aw." Ortho sighed in disappointment, "Then, may I ask her highness to refrain from revealing the secret to everyone? Worry not, everyone! We'll return Her Majesty right back to where she was... Three, two, one, PRESTO!"
Suddenly, the queen reappeared on the runaway with a puff of smoke as "The queen popped back onto the runway in an instant. What a truly exceptional illusion!"
Igni muttered in disbelief upon seeing the sudden reappearance of the queen, "To think we witnessed something so amazing..."
"First a fashion show that ushered in spring, and now a disappearing queen! Incredible." Aqua muttered in surprise.
"That's one show I won't ever forget!" A wood fairy cheered with glee upon seeing it.
Ortho flew into the center of the stage and smiled wide as he guided the queen off the stage carefully, "Thank you all so much for watching our show. Did you enjoy it?"
His question was met with a loud cheer as Ortho smiled wider upon hearing their applause, "Heh heh heh, glad to hear it!"
Ace led her back to her throne where Peony watched carefully as he returned the staff to her mother, "Thank you for your generous assistance, Your Majesty. Here's your staff."
"And thank you all for putting on such a lovely show today." The queen smiled back as she reached out and grabbed a hold of her daughter's outstretched hands reassuringly, "It's all right, dear. I'm right here."
Though hesitant, Peony slowly nodded her head before noticing something was off.
"This has been 1A251B111C292A22! Goodbye, folks!" Ortho waved as he hurriedly flew off the stage with the guys with the tremendous applause sounding behind them.
Peony watched them leave before noticing something was off and turned to her mother who gave her a look of confusion, "What's wrong, dear?"
Peony peered at the staff before her jaw dropped but she quickly covered it up with a hand as she quietly whispered to the queen, "Mother, it's best to act now before the guards noticed they switched out the staff already. They did a terrible job making a fake staff! There's the logo on the clasps that it was made in the human's Far Eastern Continent!"
"What?!" The queen was shocked as a trouble look came over her, "Oh dear! Quick, call for Maisey-!"
"A-Achooo!"
The loud sneeze shook their environment as Peony noticed the evident problem that stood out like a sore thumb as a fairy caught on shouting in disbelief, "Hey... Isn't that fairy holding the queen's staff? It just popped up out of nowhere."
"But the queen's got her staff. There's two of them!"
"Wait a minute. Looking at him more closely... He's no fae at all!"
"Oh crud. I must've shook off my fairy dust when I sneezed!" Jack panicked silently upon seeing the chaos!
"You there! Hand over that staff at once!" The guards jumped in much to their bewilderment and snatched the staff back before hurrying to hand it over to the queen.
Regaining her composure, the queen compared the two staffs innocently, "Hmm... Comparing the two, their magestones have a slight difference in shimmer. It appears my staff has been replaced with a facsimile."
A roar of anger raised up as the fairies began to shout angrily in disbelief and disgust!
"How dare these humans steal Her Majesty's staff@ They snuck into the Fairy Gala for their own nefarious scheme!"
"So much for our amazement! I bet that show was just a bunch of flimflammery too!"
"BOOO! BOOO!"
As the audience continued to jeer at them, Peony was left in a confused state. She could totally bail them out, but they would have to leave without the staff. On the other hand, she could blame it on them. Yet, it is against her own morale to bail out and leave her allies in a ditch! Not only that, but it would make Yuu sad if he knew of this as well.
"Okay, I've had it up to here with all this..." Ace grumbled before he began shouting at the top of his lungs, "Where do you get off calling us underhanded?! This magestone is valuable school property that YOU ALL stole first!"
"Ace, don't!" Silver tried to stop him but Jack pulled him back.
"No. I might've bungled our whole plan, but I'm with Ace on this." Jack growled, "All we did was try to take back what was rightfully ours."
"That's right! And we were TRYING to do it with a nice show, so that we wouldn't spoil the mood for you fairies." Ace responded, "You call us nefarious, but you have no clue why we did it! I don't have to take this!"
With their response, the fairies were outraged as they shouted angrily, "Can you believe their righteous indignation?!"
"I was ready to let it go if they admitted it and apologized, but not after all that!"
"This is the problem with humans!"
Hearing this, Ace angrily shouted back, "You wanna try sayin' that to my face?!
"What a development! What was just a scene of merriment is now a scene of strife! You could cut the tension with a knife! Any spark will set off a free-for-all!" The fairy emecee announced much to Peony's disappointment.
"Oh no, what do we do...?!" Ortho gasped in horror upon seeing this chaos.
Everything was thrown up in the air as Peony, hesitant, took a quick glance at her mother who looked just as confused, bewildered, but also deep in thought before noticing her daughter's glance. Peony then saw her nod and realized what was going on.
This was her test...