MSFC07

## The Melody in the Dream

*Balala the Fairies: Magic Star Fate Castle, Episode 7*

梦中的旋律
*Mèngzhōng de Xuánlǜ*

"**The Melody in the Dream**" (梦中的旋律 *Mèngzhōng de Xuánlǜ*) is the seventh episode of Balala the Fairies: Magic Star Fate Castle.

## Summary

*Bai Yinyue hears a mysterious melody but is unable to confide in her friends. Meanwhile, Fesna hatches a new plan to silence the fairies.*

## Plot

In the auditorium, Yinyue plays the piano with Letong and Keke enjoying her playing from the seats. However, Yinyue thinks back to Letong and Keke finding their Star Pieces as she plays. She is startled when she hears Lubi says in a disappointed voice that “Only Yinyue is left” (without a Star Piece). She realizes that Letong, Keke and the Transfer Elves, even Lubi, have disappeared, leaving her alone on in the auditorium. Unnerved, she accidentally knocks over the metronome. As she picks it up, she wonders why she is the only one left, when the spotlight over her turns on. Startled, she realizes that even the piano has disappeared. A blue floating orb appears, and Yinyue believes it to be a Star Piece. However, it glows brightly and Yinyue wakes up in her room with Lubi shaking her, revealing it all to be a dream. Lubi is worried, as Yinyue seemed to be having a nightmare, but Yinyue doesn’t tell Lubi what it is about, finding it difficult to say.

At Fesna’s throne, Fuke and Pipi play around, pretending they have already received Butterfly Wings and arguing about whose is more beautiful. Fesna appears on her throne but quickly finds the pair’s bickering annoying. She creates two pink butterflies which disappear into the pair, rendering them voiceless. The pair briefly panic, but realize that Fesna’s magic was behind this. They silently beg Fesna to return their voices and she does so after a while. She explains that these were Anti-Speech Butterflies. She sends Fuke and Pipi to use the Anti-Speech Butterflies on the fairies so they won’t be able to communicate.

In class, Letong finds Yinyue asleep in class, a rare sight. She confers with Keke who tells her that it seems Yinyue has something weighing on her mind recently. Taking advantage of the situation, Letong attempts to paste a sticky note on to Yinyue’s face, but Yinyue wakes up before she could succeed. Keke brings up a strange dream she had last night, which Yinyue shows interest in. Keke explains that in her dream, there was a lot of things she wanted to tell Letong and Yinyue but she was unable to speak. Letong brushes it off, saying that if there was something she really needed to say, as long as she opened her heart to them, they would be able to get the message across without words. Letong gets curious about what kinds of dreams Yinyue have, and Keke is interested as well. Yinyue hesitantly starts to say… but stops herself when she hears a melody and clams up.

Milu and Buding examine Yinyue’s room. Lubi confides in them that Yinyue had been behaving strangely, seeming to have something weighing on her mind. Buding guesses that it is because Yinyue has yet to find a Star Piece of her own. Lubi defends Yinyue, saying that Yinyue is so excellent in everything that she’ll definitely find a Star Piece. Milu points out that it is the Star Piece that chooses the Fairy. It would depend on whether or not she is able to overcome her weaknesses and grow. Lubi defends Yinyue once more, saying that she is perfect, but concedes that she is unwilling to open her heart and takes everything upon herself. Milu suggests that they should help her overcome this problem, and the other Transfer Elves agree.

As Mr. Lu Ze gives his lesson about communication and how lack thereof could lead to misunderstandings, Yinyue can’t stop thinking about the melody she heard and wonders if it is related to the Star Piece. She ponders about asking Letong and Keke but worry about appearing weird. Her thoughts are interrupted by Letong and Keke, who tell her that Mr. Lu Ze split the class into groups for discussion. Yinyue decides to ask them if they ever heard a strange melody or seen floating light. The girls are confused, and believe that Yinyue has begun hallucinating due to pressure. Yinyue gives up on asking, her predictions having come true.

Outside the window, Pipi and Fuke find the classroom that the Fairies are in and send three Anti-Speech Butterflies into the classroom. Letong and Keke discuss on the topic they were assigned – communication, with Letong reducing it to just chatting, and Keke saying that communication is also to share your inner thoughts so others can understand you. Yinyue despondently says that not everyone likes chatting and that some thoughts, even when spoken out loud, might not be understood by everyone. Keke asks what thoughts Yinyue means, but before Yinyue can elaborate, she hears the melody again, and sees the floating blue orb of light in the classroom. The blue orb floats around Yinyue and flies out of the classroom. Yinyue follows it. Letong and Keke follows her, protesting that class has yet to end. In the confusion, Letong accidentally knocks one of the Anti-Speech Butterflies to the ground. Mr. Lu Ze sees the butterfly on the floor and picks it up.

Yinyue ends up sitting at the stands near the sports field contemplating the sound that appears and disappears without rhyme or reason, as if it was calling to her. She decides that she has to get to the bottom of it herself. Nearby, Fuke and Pipi find her and are about to release more Anti-Speech Butterflies, when Letong and Keke catches up and ask her what is wrong. Yinyue doesn’t to say anything. Keke jokes that Yinyue was hungry, and so was in a rush to get out of class. Letong pipes in to say that she heard a strange sound, which gets Yinyue’s attention. However, Letong clarifies that she means that she heard a stomach rumbling, which gets Yinyue down again. Keke apologizes and they ask Yinyue what happened and to talk it out with them. Fuke and Pipi takes to opportunity to release another Anti-Speech Butterfly. However, Yinyue says that even she doesn’t know either, and that the girls wouldn’t understand even if she told them, throwing off Keke’s hands and running off. In the confusion, the butterfly is accidentally knocked to the ground. Mr. Lu Ze arrives just in time to see Yinyue run off.

Fuke and Pipi find Yinyue in the auditorium. With one butterfly left, they are determined not to fail. As Yinyue begins playing the piano, she thinks back to Mr. Lu Ze’s lesson about communication and wonders if she should just tell Letong and Keke. Finishing the song, Yinyue feels much better after expressing herself through song and decides to find them after all. Fuke and Pipi sends the butterfly off which lands on Yinyue’s head. Letong and Keke find Yinyue in the auditorium. Yinyue tries to say something but realizes that her voice is gone. Fuke and Pipi celebrate that they have finally succeeded. Misunderstanding Yinyue’s silence, Keke and Letong believe that Yinyue wants to be left alone and agrees to leave her until she feels like saying something. Yinyue is unable to stop them from leaving. Fuke and Pipi open a Transfer Gate to the Moonsound Plane in the Star Fate Wonderland to send Yinyue there, so they can force her to find Star Pieces for Fesna. Yinyue is sucked in, taken by surprise, knocking over the music sheet and metronome.

Landing in the Star Fate Wonderland, Yinyue realizes that this was the doing of Fuke and Pipi. However, with her voice sealed, she can’t even summon her magic wand. Fuke and Pipi leave to report their success to Fesna. Yinyue hears the melody again and realizes that it is coming from the Horn Bridge. The bridge shaped like a French Horn is playing, calling for her. Yinyue realizes that she could still express herself through music. She uses local instrument-shaped flora as rattle hand bells and joins in the music of the Moonsound Plane. Eventually, the Horn Bridge reacts, and a Star Piece appears in her hands. Yinyue realizes that it was this Star Piece that has been calling for her all along. She is startled when Fesna appears overhead.

In the greenhouse, Mr. Lu Ze looks for something. Letong and Keke ask him what he is looking for and Mr. Lu Ze explains that he found what he believed to be an undiscovered species of Butterfly, but it disappeared into light. Behind him, a Transfer Gate opens and the Transfer Elves appear. Keke and Letong distract their teacher by telling him that they saw the same butterfly as well, at the sports field. Mr. Lu Ze teacher rushes off to get a look. Lubi asks where Yinyue is, and Keke says that she wants some peace and quiet in the auditorium. Lubi gets a bad feeling and they head to the auditorium, where they find the fallen objects and Elf-sized footprints. They put together that Yinyue must have been captured and they decide to save her.

Fesna taunts Yinyue, telling her not to pointlessly struggle and just hand over the Star Piece. However, Yinyue runs away. Angered, Fesna casts a binding spell on Yinyue, causing Yinyue to drop the Star Piece. Fesna telepathically retrieves the Star Piece and her power is boosted by it. Letong, Keke and the Transfer Elves appear through a Transfer Gate and yells at Fesna to let Yinyue go. They transform into their fairy forms. Letong casts a cure spell that releases Yinyue from her binds. However, they find that she is unable to speak. They promise to defeat Fesna and break the spell.

Fesna launches projectiles at them and decides to attack Lubi. However, she is distracted by the sound of handbells and Yinyue uses the handbells to get across that she is Fesna’s opponent instead. Angered at being challenged, Fesna uses the Star Piece to pour more power in her next attack and launches it at Yinyue. Keke casts a shield to protect Yinyue. However, it is not enough to completely block the energy and it knocks Yinyue down, causing the hand bell flowers to fall from her hands and break. Fesna gloats that Yinyue would keep silent now. Yinyue struggles to get up and the broken hand bells react to her. Yinyue realizes that if she doesn’t open her heart, she wouldn’t be able to get her feelings through to her friends, and they’ll never understand the real her. As she stand up, the hand bell flowers fuse together, revealing a Star Piece, which flies towards Yinyue. Yinyue declares that she’ll no longer stay silent, revealing that the spell of the Anti-Speech Butterfly is broken, which shocks Fesna. Yinyue transforms into her fairy form and augments her wand with her Star Piece, as well as the Star Piece which flies from Fesna’s hands.

Letong and Keke rush over to join Yinyue. Yinyue becomes awkward, but Letong says they can talk about it later. Fesna casts shadow butterflies at them. However, the fairies cast their own attack spells at Fesna, and their combined spell, with Yinyue’s powered-up spell, easily pierces Fesna’s shadow butterfly and forces her to retreat. After briefly celebrating, Yinyue apologizes for worrying her friends, as she isn’t used to expressing herself. However, Letong and Keke aren’t bothered, with Letong saying that she can teach Yinyue and Keke praising Yinyue’s piano playing. With her friends’ encouragements, Yinyue resolves to open her heart so that she can make real friends and be her true self. A Star Piece responds to her thoughts, revealing itself.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lu Ze searches around the school with a magnifying glass and resolves to find that mythical butterfly.

## Characters

*In order of appearance:*

* Bai Yinyue
* Lubi
* Xia Letong
* Buding
* Yan Keke
* Milu
* Fuke
* Pipi
* Fesna
* Mr. Lu Ze

## Trivia

* Star Piece Count: 7
	+ Xia Letong: 2
	+ Yan Keke: 2
	+ Bai Yinyue: 3
* The first scene is a call-back to the first episode, evident by Buding's position under Letong's seat.

## Errors

* Bai Yinyue was not able to summon her wand with her voice sealed, despite having previously done so.