Olive woke up early in the morning to a rather shocking site. Quickly gathering the other girls, they made their way to Drake’s bedroom in the hotel, Olive first knocking rather politely, with Kacie knocking slightly more aggressively when Drake didn’t immediately come to the door.

     “Mruh?…” Drake said, coming to the door groggy eyed, wearing a black bath robe. “Wassup?…” As his eyes finally adjusted he grabbed the bridge of his nose, sighing. “Bive me a minute…” He said, closing his door.

~~~

Faire Square

     Drake had gathered everyone in the courtyard, save for Dawn and Julia, and was nervously pacing back and forth as Martin grinned. “You know, instead of laughing, you could fix this issue right now,”

     Martin chuckled, “I warned you about specifying that the changes last for twenty four hours.”

     The reason that Drake was pacing around so fervently was because the girls who had been transformed into unitaurs had woken up this morning, only to realize that they were still in their changed forms. “I just meant that it would last for a day! We’ve literally never had issues with any other magician understanding that.”

     “Well, twenty four hours is twenty four hours Drake,” Martin laughed, “If you just wanted it to be the next morning, you should have specified it that way.”

     Drake looked like he was about to rebut Drake, when the satyr PA, Paige came over, looking nervously at her clipboard. “Um… Drake…”

     “Yes?” Drake sighed, looking at the nervous goat girl.

     “I went looking for Phian. They’re not in their room right now,” She bit her lip nervously.

     “That’s just great,” Drake rolled his eyes, “where did they end up going this time?”

     The video hard cut to where Phian was. They were sitting down at an outdoor cafe in their more feminine form, the Eiffel Tower just poking out from the view the camera had. They were sipping on a little china cup of tea and completely enthralled with watching the mime across the street.

     The mime looked like your average ordinary mime. Black and white striped outfit, black beret, white facepaint with black lipstick. However, it was quite clear they were using magic to make their invisible effects very real, managing to lift their body up into the air climbing an invisible rope, or float horizontally as an invisible wind threatened to blow them away.

     As the mime began the classic trapped in a box routine, Phian felt a rumbling in their pants, pulling out their phone, a little notification popped up saying: ‘Reminder - Change girls Back - 15 minutes’. Phian looked around the courtyard for the nearest waiter, telling them, “l’addition, s’il vous plaît.” Their check shortly coming out and being paid, as Phian began walking back towards the Wellspring entrance they had used.

     As they left, the camera panned back over to the mime, who had managed to completely compact themselves into a one foot cube.

     The camera cut back to the square, as Paige evidently finished explaining what Phian had done with their morning, and that they were on their way back now. Drake sighed, “At least their on their way back now…”

     Phian arrived back at Faire Square approximately five minutes before the twenty four hours were up, their hair short once more and wearing their professional magician’s outfit. Drake seemed more relieved than angry, as Phian produced a large, black sheet, instructing all the half unicorn girls to crowd together under the tarp.

     At exactly twenty four hours since they had first transformed them, Phian whisked away the sheet, revealing that everyone was once again normal.

~~~

Kacie’s Rehearsal

     Martin flashed Tetra one of his award winning smiles as she came into the room, “Let me guess,” he placed a hand to his temple, acting as though he was reading her mind, “You’re going to pick something that has to do with music?”

     Tetra gasped in mock surprise, “Oh my! How did you ever guess that?”

     Martin laughed, “Just call it Magician’s Intuition.”

     “Well,” Tetra’s avatar face stuck out it’s tongue, “I bet you can’t guess non-human I’ve picked-“

     “Siren,” Martin said, without even waiting for her to finish.

     Tetra laughed, “Well, I’ll give you partial credit.”

     “Oh really,” Martin grinned.

     “Yeah,” Tetra grinned right back, “It was too obvious a choice not to pick it, but not to worry, I’ve also got another idea up my sleeve.”

     “Alright then,” Martin smiled, “Let’s see what you’ve got then.”

~~~

Natalie’s Rehearsal

     “Martin, I really need your help,” Natalie sighed as she entered into the rehearsal space.

     “What’s wrong Natalie?” Martin asked, his face filled with concern.

     “How am I supposed to do a trick inspired by a non-human that’s also related to Big Box magic?” Natalie plopped down on the ground, “I’ve been literally racking my brain all night.”

     “Well…” Martin thought for a moment, “Maybe you could do something related to Pandora’s Box?”

     Natalie sighed, “I thought of that, but it doesn’t really fit the theme all that well.”

     “Maybe you could start out transformed into a non-human, and we could demonstrate one of Maya’s props on you?” Martin suggested.

     “But doesn’t that seem a little simple?” Natalie asked, sounding dejected as she continued “I’m worried that the only reason Rachel went home last week was because I wasn’t willing to push myself past my comfort zone.”

     “Hey now,” Martin said, walking over and giving Natalie a hug, “do not take the blame for Rachel getting eliminated. I can’t speak for the audience, but I know for a fact it wasn’t your fault.”

     “I-I know…” Natalie said, hugging Martin back, “I just wish there was something I could have done.”

     Martin pats Natalie’s head, “Don’t worry about it. You did all you could.”

     The two stood this way for a while, Martin comforting Natalie, until they split up, getting back to the business of brainstorming what exactly Natalie should do for her performance.

~~~

Mama Campo

     Dawn, Julia, and Phian sat at a yellow table right outside the Mama Campo restaurant, watching the birds fly around the Jardines de la Plaza de Olavide as they waited for their foot. Julia looked to be her normal nervous self, holding on to Dawn’s hand under the table, while Dawn watched Phian with interest, giving Julia the occasional reassuring squeeze when she sensed that she was getting spooked.

     Phian was once again in her more feminine form, this time wearing a black sundress. They seemed particularly interested in one bird that was flying around, it’s rainbow plumage twinkling as it flied. Phian took another sip from her water glass, before taking out their phone out and snapping a picture of it.

     “Sorry about that,” Phian smiled warmly at the two assistants, “That bird just looked really cool, and I thought it’d be interesting to design a dress off of them.”

     Dawn smiled back at them, nodding approvingly, “The wildlife in Spain is certainly more interesting than back home.”

     “Tell me about it,” Phian giggled, “it makes me want to just grow a pair of wings and fly off~” The two girls across the table from Phian giggled along with the mental image.

     Soon enough though, Phian got down to business, “So, I just wanted to touch base with you two, since I didn’t really get to talk to you both yesterday.”

     Dawn smiled warmly, “It’s understandable. We didn’t exactly have much free time yesterday thanks to Martin.”

     Phian grinned, “Oh! Thank you for reminding me,” Phian pulled out their phone, making a little note, “I’ve been trying to figure out a good time to drag him out to a spa.”

     Julia looks a little confused, her confusion beating out her general frightened attitude, “W-why do you want to do that?”

     “I think he deserves some R&R after the past couple of weeks he’s had,” Phian closed their phone, their attention shifted solely back to the two girls in front of her.

     “So anyway, I just wanted to ask… What makes you two happy?” Dawn and Julia seemed a little bit taken aback by the bluntness of the question.

     “W-what?” Julia’s free hand nervously reached up, starting to twirl her red hair around, “W-what do you m-mean?”

     “I just want to get a better sense of you two as people,” Phian smiled, keeping her eyes trained on the two girls “You know, why you two wanted to compete, what you hope to gain by being on the show, maybe some hobbies outside of ANGA. I feel like I barely knew anything about Dahlia, and I feel like I know even less about you two!”

     Dawn laughed as Julia continued to fidget with her hair, “Well, I believe that Dahlia’s audition tape did a pretty good job explaining my feelings,” She looked towards Julia, smiling at her and giving her a reassuring smile, “The thing that would make me happiest in the world would be getting to be a Magician’s Assistant with my best friend~” She squeezed her hand causing Julia to blush profusely.

     Julia managed to stutter her way through an answer, “A-and… I-I would d-do anything to make sure D-Dawn is happy~” she looked at Phian rather seriously, “I would gladly forgo my existence if it meant Dawn’s dream had a chance of coming true.”

     "Let's do it then!" Phian proudly boasted.

     “W-what!?” Julia squeaked, her hand taking an iron grip of Dahlia as she nearly jumped out of her seat.

     “I’ve been looking for some new assistants for my show, and since it’s clear you two want to perform together, I think we can help each other out,” Phian smiled.

     Julia shot Dawn a puzzled look, who simply smiled at Phian, “Maybe~ It all depends on what the WMO’s decision is. If they give the go-ahead though, I believe we’ll still be Martin’s assistants then and won’t be allowed to perform with you.”

     Phian nodded along, “Oh yeah… Well, maybe.” Phian took out there phone again, clearly jotting something down.

     Just then, the waiter arrived carrying out their food, their conversation taking a hold while they ate. Afterwards, the girls discussed for quite a while about various topics of their lives. Such as how they met (in college as randomly assigned roommates), their backgrounds (Dawn went on a particularly long diatribe about how happy she was to have grown up French-Canadian, while Julia short summarized her life with some one word answers: boring, plain, lonely), and their plans for the performance that week. The entire time, Phian listened with rapt attention.

~~~

Fairy Village

     “Alright,” Andrea smiled at the group of Olive, Paxton, Natalie, “Are you three ready?” She had offered to transform them in order to explore the four birdcages that composed the Fairy Village, as Paxton had expressed interest in exploring the tiny village, hoping it would be more productive in her search for her still missing inspiration than going to rehearsal.

     Andrea smiled, instructing each of the assistants to sit against the wall of the building in such a way that they would not fall over. Then, she walked up to Paxton, and like monkeys grooming their fellow primates, seemed to pull out a small, gray glowing fire fly, Andrea’s body growing limp as she did so. Upon closer inspection (done by Andrea holding it up to the camera), the ‘fire-fly’ was actually a fairy version of Paxton.

     She was wearing the exact same clothes, and looked more or less exactly the same as her larger self, however she was also glowing gray, with two majestic gray butterfly wings sprouting out of her back.

     Andrea repeated the process with Natalie and Olive, their perspectives radically shifting to their much tinier selves, as Andrea slowly carried them to the nearby Birdcage. As she spoke, from the prospective of the fairies, her words were much louder and seemed almost longer to get out.

     “I’m going to go run some errands. I’ll be back in an hour to change you all back. Meet up here.” And with that, Andrea was gone, leaving the contestants to take in their new surroundings.

     At their regular size, the bird cages had seemed pretty mundane, the tiny structures not really much to write home about, but being this small offered them a chance to appreciate the finer details that had been used in constructing the city.

     The city looked a lot like New York would on a busy day, various faefolk of all different shapes and sizes bustling about both on the ground and in the air.

     “Oh wow!” Olive said, “You certainly don’t see a site like this everyday.”

     From behind them, a voice suddenly spoke up, “Oh yeah. Fairy City’s practically always on the move.” All three of them jumped slightly, as they looked at the fairy who was talking to them.

     He was a rather plain looking fairy all things considered. He was wearing a brown leather jacket, brown khakis and had a brown aura to him. His brown hair stood up forming mini-spikes on his head, his slightly pointed ears framing a rather plain looking face with a slightly too large nose. “Sorry to bother you three,” he said, “but there’s a lot of creeps here in Fairy City, and I thought I’d be better if someone more normal showed you three nonfae around.”

     “Eep!” Natalie gasped, “How did you know we’re not fae?”

     “Well, I’m a pixie,” the mysterious fairy’s face seemed to scrunch up in concentration, as he held out his hand, several green crystals forming out from the pores in his arms, culminating in a small green ball which he crushed in his hand, small sparks shooting outwards. “And you three aren’t doing much to hide your magic signature at all.”

~~~

Bluebell’s Diner

     “Okay,” The mysterious pixie explained, “So, while there a bunch of different varieties of faefolk, they basically can be classified into three categories,” the pixie paused, taking a bit of his leafy sandwich.

     “There’s Fairys. They basically have no access to magic, however their magic reserves still produce magic waste, which they sweat out in what’s commonly known as fairy dust. For whatever reason, this dust causes nonfae to temporarily be able to fly after consumption.”
    “Then, there’s Sprites. They’re a sort of middle ground between the three types of faeries, because they do have access to magic crystal generation, however their magic is hyper-focused on only a single elemental branch.”

     “And then, there’s Pixies like me,” The pixie grinned, as several blue shards of a crystalline substance began to pour out from his arms, “Just like sprites, we’re able to access our magic reserves to produce magic crystals, however the magic we can conjure up is able to more or less only limited by what branches of magic we’re familiar with.”

     “Wait, magic crystal generation?” Paxton asked, clearly not familiar with the process

     “Yeah. Besides Fairys, most Fae’s magic reserves are perfectly functional. It’s just that our bodies can’t cope with the magic being produced, so our magic reserves evolved in order to release the magic in a crystalline form from our sweat glands. Enough magic crystals of a certain type, and then with a bit of mental focus, you’ve got yourself a spell.”

     “Wow…” Paxton grinned, the wheels in her head clearly turning.

     “That sounds amazing!” Natalie said excitedly, “Wait… So I’m assuming that a spell is similar to that green orb you produced earlier?”
    “Yep!” The pixie grinned.

     “Well, if it’s composed of pure magic, doesn’t that mean that anyone could use your spells?”

     “Why do you think we live in our own separate community in the wellspring?” The pixie grinned mischievously.

     “I just assumed it was because you guys were really tiny,” Olive mentioned.

     The pixie chuckled, “Well… That too,”

     Their talk continued on for the rest of the brief hour they had, the mysterious pixie walking them through the various factions of power at play, how their economy worked out, where the best restaurants were, and what attractions were free.

     Eventually though, an hour ran up, and the girls had to take their leave. Before they left, Natalie said, “Thank you so much for talking with us! I learned so much about fae life that I never knew before!”

     “Don’t mention it,” The pixie grinned, “But next time you’re in Fairy Town,” he reached into his pocket, producing three business cards. The names of which read, ‘Calvin Everglade’, “Feel free to hit me up. I’d love to talk to three nonfae folk as polite as you three.”

     Andrea soon came around, restoring the girls to normal, each of them finding the business card Calvin had gave them grew proportionally with them.

~~~

Faire Square

     Drake had gathered the contestants in the central square. Holding a manilla envelope in his hands. Andrea had transformed everyone back to normal, and now they waited with baited breath for the results of the WMO’s decision.

     “Girls,” Drake said, “This is a historic moment for ANGA. One that will decide whether or not we have our first ever disqualification. In my hands, I hold the WMO’s decision on the matter.”

     Drake popped it open, beginning to read the paper inside, “The World Magic Organization hereby enters into its bylaws Amendment 40319: Merged Assistantship Under False Pretense:

     In hereby recognizing that it is the responsibility of the Offering Party to ensure that the provisions detailed under subsection 136 D.) Requirements in Performance Contracts for Assistants Composed of Multiple Entities are met when offering a contract. Should the composite members of the Assistant Party choose to obfuscate their true nature for any reason and come into agreement with the Offering Party under a single entity agreement, in concordance with the general idea of free will for merged entities, the Assistant Party shall be allowed to continue under their single entity agreement in so long as they acknowledge that they have forsaken the right to the additional perks and protections offered in a standard multiple entity contract, with the understanding that any party may terminate the contract penalty free for up to two weeks after the initial revelation of multi-consciousness.”

     The amendment was rather wordy, but the gist was understood by the contestants and assistants, as they circled around Dawn and Julia, giving them a congratulatory hug, Olive of course beating everyone else to the punch.

     Drake smiled at this, folding up the amendment and putting it back in the manilla envelope, “So, Dawn, Julia. Let me congratulate the both of you. Dahlia is no longer disqualified!”

     More cheers erupted, but Drake held up his hand, “However… Let me be clear, the assistant contract signed initially for the show is currently only registered to Dahlia. Not the individual entities of Dawn and Julia. I’m afraid that you two will be required to stay merge during performances, otherwise we will have to disqualify you.”

    “Oh Drake,” Andrea smiled, “You really know how to kill a mood,” The assistants laughed, as they dragged Dawn and Julia off to go celebrate the wonderful news.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

& Question Corner &

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To the Horse Club: “Now have I been a bad person to "punish" you all, or was it fun to horse around and gallop? I actually, went back to my Hometown for a short shopping trip, you can Imagine the people looking at me. And before you ask I am not planning on staying in that form for too long, and no I absolutely didn't bought a saddle. Though I should have kept my rear in mind. Twice I blocked unintentionally the tram tracks, you can Imagine that ruckus. It was pure fun to join on the fun though, with all of you.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)

 Kacie: “He he. I will admit it was a good bit of fun. Especially when we found out we could shoot lasers from our horns! I might have to consider getting Joel to consider adding that as a feature to Tetra. Then I could really get the party started anywhere,” Kacie giggles, “We should totally do it again sometime!”

 Natalie: “I don’t consider you a bad person for what you did, Andrea. A little deceptive maybe, but I think it was worth it in the end since we all had such a great time being uintaurs! I bet you probably got a lot of strange looks back in your hometown (assuming that you don’t regularly go around transformed, that is).”

 Olive: “Oh dear, I know exactly what you’re saying. It kept feeling like I was accidentally running into people yesterday because I’d forget how far back my horse half would go. But yeah, all thing considered I had a pretty good time! I’d love to try it again!”

 Paxton: Paxton smiles, “Oh, it was definitely a lot of fun to gallop around with you! You were pretty fast at the Hippodrome. It’s a shame you didn’t buy a saddle though, I bet it would look really cute on you when you’re like that!”

To Dawn, Julia (and as extend to Dahlia): “It's good to see you girls back on board, what I said about you showing iron will and determination still holds true, regardless of what the WMO is saying. I am happy to know what wonderful and amazing potential you have. I'm looking forward to talk to more and more relaxed with you. Now that you haven't to hide anything.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)

 Julia: Julia squeezes Dawn’s hand.

 Dawn: Dawn smiles, “We’re just really happy we can compete again Andrea. While we haven’t formally me, I feel that we already have a good sense of the type of person that you are. Hopefully Julia and I will be able to hold ourselves to the same standard we’ve set so far.”

To Martin: “Quick Thinking my Dear, you know what, forget what I said about talking to you in a serious manner, you show that you regret your actions and that you stay with the girls. So I won't scold you as long you stay that way.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)

 Martin: “Thank you Andrea,” Martin smiles at the camera, “And please, if I fall out of line again, feel free to take whatever action you feel is appropriate to help pull me back.”

To Paxton: “Hugs to you. I think you found your inspiration, and I think it will help increase your magic reserves to boot. Hope you do very well.” James Schutter (@@James_MacCloude)

 Paxton: Paxton blushes, “Yeah. Especially after everything I’ve learned today~ I hope that I do well too, James~”

To Everyone: “Oh I love those forms! Having a horses body has got to be amazing. The power and speed is a lot greater than that of a Humantaur, like me. The closest I've gotten is that centaur costume from my movies. and I loved the horn.” Genie Schutter (@@James_MacCloude)

 Paxton: “I had a really good time as a unitaur! It was rather exciting to be so different from my normal self. I’d be willing to try it again.”

 Olive: “Oh, it was definitely way too powerful for me, dear. I kept accidentally running into things all day,” Olive seems a little distressed recounting it, “I didn’t have a bad time, but I think a humantaur would probably be more my speed if I had to have extra legs”

 Natalie: “It was a fun time being unitaurs, but I don’t know if we had the same sense of grace and mastery you had in your movies.”

 Kacie: “He he. If we had extra arms, then we’d really look a lot more like you! Although I was struggling enough with the extra legs, so I don’t know how well things would have gone if we had to have extra arms on top of that.”

To Kacie: “Oh you can count on an invite next year. Fairies are very cute and beautiful. I've known some myself. Though they can be mischievous at times.” -Jacob Schutter (@@James_MacCloude)

 Kacie: “Thanks Jake! I’ll make sure to get an awesome set list going for next year. I’m telling you right now, it’s going to be lit!

 And yeah, from what Paxton told me, I think beautiful and mischievous probably defines them pretty well.”