
However, she is disappointed upon discovering that the egg is only a music box. Clara and her soldiers head towards Mother Ginger and steal the key the mouse had snatched.
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Clara notices that its keyhole matches that of the one on her egg. The Sugar Plum Fairy says that she can use it to defend the other three realms against Mother Ginger, the Regent of the Fourth Realm, but it needs a key. She later explains that Marie animated everyone with a machine that can turn toys into real-life people. Watching a ballet that tells the story of their world's creation, the Sugar Plum Fairy, regent of the Land of Sweets, explains to Clara that Marie created this world as a young girl. They tell her that they are at war with the Land of Amusements which they now refer to as "the Fourth Realm". He then guides her to the palace, where she meets three regents of each land.

He leads her across the bridge into the Fourth Realm, but they are unable to obtain the key from the mouse. Unable to reach him, who crosses a frozen lake, Clara approaches Captain Phillip Hoffman. Before she can grab it, a mouse snatches it. Clara finds a string with her name on it, signifying her gift, and follows it into a forest in a parallel world where she sees the key. She calls him self-absorbed and obsessed with his family's image since Marie's passing, after which Drosselmeyer announces it being time for the children to receive their gifts. Returning to the ballroom, Clara gets scolded by Benjamin for not dancing with him. He then reveals to her that it was a creation of his that he gifted to Marie when she was younger, and that her wish was to bestow the gift to Clara.
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Refusing to dance with Benjamin, Clara scurries from the crowd to ask Drosselmeyer how to unlock her egg. The family then heads to a Christmas Eve ball, hosted by the children's godfather and skilled engineer, Drosselmeyer. In the package, she discovers a note from Marie that states that the inside of the egg is all she would ever need. Clara receives a handcrafted egg-shaped box, which she is unable to unlock. In London, England one Christmas Eve, Benjamin Stahlbaum gives his children, Louise, Clara, and Fritz, Christmas presents to fulfill his wife Marie's dying wish.
