"Bye, sis," Penny called, as the eldest ran to the sixth grade part of the school. When Daisy was out of sight, the three younger ones made their way to the younger portions of the school. "So, Mario. Did you study for Mr. Miyamoto's test?"

Mario scratched his head, and chuckled nervously. Penny and Luigi slapped their foreheads, and Luigi said, "You know you can't get a bad grade on this test, or you can't be in Romeo and Juliet with Penny."

"I do NOT want to end up kissing Marth!" Penny cried, for in this production Mario and she plays the titular characters, but if Mario, who has been doing terribly in school, fails to keep his C- he'll lose his privilege to be in their plays. "Look Mario. Shockingly, I actually want you to do well in school."

"Come on, Penny. I've always gotten through school," Mario said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Just try hard, okay," Penny said, when a thought came to her. "We still have a bit of time before class," with that she grabbed Mario's arm and forced him to head over to the library. The library was circularly-shaped where books upon books were stacked together, where stories on fiction and fact all were there (and Daisy had read them all), and through the blue doors, Penny pushed Mario into the building.

"Come on, Pen!" Mario cried before Mr. Zhao, their librarian, shushed them. "Oops, sorry, sir," Mario whispered, and Mr. Zhao then went back to sorting the new books. "Penny, it's almost time for class, and it's not going to help if we're both late."

"Mario, just a little while. Please," Penny begged, giving her the cute eyes and Mario slapped his forehead.

"Fine. You're worse than Luigi," Mario stated, but Peach had already ran over to fact section and grabbed a book on the statehood of New York. She sat Mario down at one of the tables, and opened it up to a section and began to practice.

RING! The first bell at rung, and they raced to the third floor of a thick red brick building where Mr. Miyamoto's class was. The classroom was 18 by 18 room with about twenty-four desks in rows by last names, and covered in the children's drawing; at the front in, big black-marker letters STATEHOOD. Mario and Penny were the last to enter the class, and in a flash took their seats, next to Mario's strange friend, Dylan Kong Junior or just DK.

"Late again I see," DK said, getting way too close for comfort. DK was the same age as Mario and Penny, with a similar colored hair as Mario, and always wore a red tie. Suddenly, he paused and began to sniff around Mario's backpack and then turned back towards the owner and said, "I know you have bananas!" he said, pressing his nose against the boy.

Mario pushed him away, and said, "I don't actually know what I have." Suddenly, Mr. Miyamoto, handed out the tests and gave a disapproving look at DK.

:"Now, please, no cheating and good luck," Mr. Miyamoto said, and took a seat at his desk, and Mario and Penny took up their two yellow pencils and began to circle each letter in the paper. Penny, meanwhile, glanced over to keep an eye to see if Mario was actually concentrating, not just putting A for every question. Luckily, he wasn't. Penny sighed happily and went back to work.

"Time's up!" Mr. Miyamoto called, and all the kids placed their pencils on the side. He walked around and grabbed their papers off their desk. The rest of class was pretty standard with books and math, and then it was time for the concert.

Every month they hold a different concert with a different emotion, and the kids had always signed up with their voices, and Luigi's violin skills. Mario and Penny walked out, as they saw the different students walking out as they waited for Daisy and Luigi to come. "There goes Zelda Nohansen. Poor girl," Penny whispered to Mario, as a young girl their age walked by wearing a long gown in the style of a Victorian woman that was much too big for her, and her head was tilted down to the floor.

"Yeah," Mario said. They both knew she was bullied constantly by some of the older students and they hated this, but they were always too afraid to tell. They looked at some other students, until they saw their siblings rushing over. "Oh, hi guys," Mario said, as they took long deep breaths. "Are you ready to go?"

The little brother kept panting and the oldest started to worry. Luigi had been born with asthma and had to carry an inhaler with him and his doctor's note. Quickly, he searched his backpack with the elder kids helping him until he found, but Daisy said, "Yeah, and sorry we're late. I got hounded by Marth who was," she then said in a mocking tone, "'how unfair it was to nine year olds in the parts of Romeo and Juliet,' and not him and Minerva."

"We worked our butts off for those parts and he has no right to tell you what to do!" Mario cried, then pouted.

Penny looked away and said, "If they're being mean to you, Daisy, I'll back out of being Juliet." The three other kids looked over, and gave her a surprised look.

"B-but you love Romeo and Juliet," Luigi said, because Penny had wanted to play the female lead for years on end.

Penny looked down and said, "If they harassing Daisy, because of this then I don't want to be in the play at all."

The two boys looked over at the eldest, who was still in a state of shock. "Well, I won't let you."

"What?" Penny asked.

"You did nothing wrong, so there is no reason for you to leave," Daisy explained, and Penny was about to retort, but Daisy stopped her.

"Besides. You and I are going to be awesome," Mario said, and Penny smiled. "Happy now." Penny nodded, and he replied, "Good, now let's head over to audiotorium." The four then headed over to the auditorium, when Mario felt like they were being watched again.

"Mario?" Penny asked. Mario quickly looked up and she said, "Are you happy to be playing Romeo?"

"Of course! I love to rub that fact in that jerk's face," Mario replied, happily, until they noticed Daisy giving Mario her signature death glare.

"We do not rub the fact we got a big roles in other people's face," Daisy said, as they approached the auditorium.

"Mario," a voice whispered, and Mario quickly spun around only to see that no one was present behind him. "Mario," it whispered again and Mario was getting slightly annoyed (and a bit paranoid) and looked behind.

Come on, Segali; you're just stressed, because of the test, the concert and...and the play. Right? Mario thought to himself and shook his head and followed the rest of the kids into the theater. The theater was already prepared for Romeo and Juliet, specifically the balcony scene where they confess their love for each other.

Daisy took her seat at a table below stage as she was president of the Film and Theatre club, therefore the director as well. "Places people. Places. We have two more weeks to get this perfect!" Daisy called to the actors and actresses who cleared off except for Mario and Penny.

Penny climbed up to the balcony while Mario stayed below, and recited some lines from his script, "But, soft! By yonder window..." Mario became unsure and called out, "LINE!"

Daisy slapped her forehead and said in a dramatic tone, "But, soft! By yonder window breaks."

"Okay," Mario sheepishly replied, while from the backdrop Luigi (who was playing Mercutio) was laughing like a shy hyena.

Mario scowled at his brother, but composed himself once Daisy said "ACTION!"

"But soft! By yonder window breaks," Mario began before reading the rest of the part to the entirety of the Shakespeare's Sonnet.

"Well, that was well d-" Daisy began, before just staring at nothing, and their teacher grew worried. She began to feel sick to her stomach as flashes began to take over her mind and soon she couldn't even think straight. She began to see a vision of a girl with long beautiful golden hair that peeked out a dark purple cloak, or at leaqst she looked like a girl, but she couldn't really make out whether or not it was.

"It's your turn now," the vision said, and a golden light broke her mind. As she saw another vision this time of a stone castle covered in thorns!

"Daisy?" someone said, breaking her from her trance. She felt like she was about to faint, right then and there in front of everyone. Using her strength, she saw it was her teacher and supervisor, Mr. Yokoi. "Is everything alright?"

"I don't know," she answered blankly, but went back to work directing everyone.

After rehearsals wrapped up the four made their way to Library as it was the best place ever (well for them anyway)! "Hey, sis. What was with that blank stare back in the auditorium?" Penny asked, neatly organizing her ballet slippers and tutu for the recital soon. As they passed by the dance class she fell to the ground in a faint. Quick as a flash, her friends crowded around to check her pulse, but it was alive and healthy, but her eyes stared blankly ahead.

Meanwhile inside her mind, a similar vision was shone but it was on a lake under moonlight where a young woman wearing a tutu of silk and feathers with hair black as the velvet. "It was our turn, but now it's yours," the woman said, and she melted into feathers.

"What happened?" Penny asked, only to see herself in the nurse's office and her friends crowding sitting on the opposite bed.

"You fainted, Pen," Mario replied. Penny sat up, and told them the whole story. Mario and Daisy looked uncomfortable, while Luigi just looked a little confused. "A lot of weird stuff's been going on recently, hasn't it."

"I guess, but I'm alright now," Penny replied, and they helped her up and they just noticed the time.

"Looks like it's time to sing," Luigi said, and they made their way to the theatre and quickly went to the nearby bathroom and redressed in their fancy outfits that Daisy made for each of them. He looked around the room and realized he forgot his violin. "I need to go grab my violin," Luigi said, and then ran to his cubby in the Kindergarten section of the school. He ran for his green cubby, and grabbed his violin case. But the second his fingers brushed the case, he fell onto the shelf and a vision haunted him. He was lost on a distant shore, when a beautiful music filled the air, and he made his way to the music. The music came from another hazy figure, wearing a coat of green and a seafarer's brown pants, playing a violin of shells and sea rocks.

The only time he looked up was at Luigi, and said, "Your turn," and faded to sea foam. Luigi looked around, and thought nothing of it until he was in the auditorium where most of the families were already seated in their seats. "There you are!" his brother shouted, and grabbed his younger brother and marched him on stage.

(IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS DURING THAT SCENE CHECK OUT MY DEVIANTART, SO GO CHECK THAT OUT! Sorry I just have to keep those dumb jerks I mean the "fanfiction police" off my back)

"Good job, little br-" Mario said to his brother, now dressed in his normal clothes, when he saw a strange shadow crawling across the ceiling. "Do you see th-? Mario asked, but his friends were chatting away like usual, as if nothing happened. Mario quickly looked back at the ceiling only to see there was nothing at all. He grabbed his forehead in a panic, and thought It's official, I'm going nuts!. Desperate not to show this, he plastered a smile and still tried to seem cheerful despite this. Still he felt a little scared and unnerved by the strange creature as he and his brother left with their parents to a celebratory dinner for another job well done.

"Mario. Mario!" his mother called. Their mother's name was Evangeline and bears far more of a resemblance to Luigi than Mario being a fairly tall woman with short bobbish blonde hair that ended near her shoulders,and she was a maid and always went over to her clients' homes for work. "You seem very distressed. Is everything alright? You haven't even touched your pizza," their mother asked.

"Sorry, ma. There's just been a lot of strange things happening, but I'm alright," Mario replied as his raven-haired father and teal-irised eyed brother. I mean I think I'm alright, Mario thought as he took a large bite of his pizza.

Mario and Luigi woke up the next thing only to see, something glowing under their pillows. Mario and Luigi threw off the pillows to see it was two strange amulets with unknown symbols but they were both compelled to put them on. The amulets chains weren't cold or icy, but warm and loving, but they couldn't think about this too long when they noticed what time it was.

"Well, I'm going back to sleep," Luigi asked but the moment he set his head upon the pillow, he and his brother disappeared into nearly thin air. They seemed to be transported through a long, narrow portal as images sped by at such a speed, that they could barely see who it was. Mario grabbed his brother and hung on to him, for this whole thing seemed disturbing but extraordinary at the same time. He kept his brother close, until they found themselves in a library where four humanoid creatures with long butterfly wings of rainbow colors (one severely injured), a man in a tall top hat and an orange shirt, and Penny and Daisy, sitting around a domed table with a crystal ball sitting inside and diamonds for reflecting light.

Mario and Luigi ran towards them to see they were similar amulets as they were and rushed over to them. The humanoid figures and the man turned around and said, "Ahhh. You finally found the amulets. Good. Now we can explain everything," the one with green-blue wings said.

"Why did you kidnap us?" Daisy asked, hiding the three other kids behind her.

"I'm sorry children, but we were desperate. The Goose Mother has grown so powerful that if we don't start training you, she will be unstoppable," the man said.

"The goo-? Like Mother Goose! If this is a joke, my father can put you away forever!" Daisy cried, and the rest of the children nodded in agreement. Suddenly, a gold and silvery light surrounded them and when they opened their eyes opened again, they were no longer in their regular clothes. Mario was now dressed in a muted green and red medieval style outfit with a hood, a leather hood connected to the jerkin, and black boots; Luigi was dressed in a seafarer's white shirt, black pants, with a light green long vest, brown boots, and golden gauntlets; Penny was dressed in a white and light pink ballet tutu that fell to her knees surrounded by white feathers, feather sleeves that were unconnected to the her tutu, and her hair was tied in a ballerina style bun; and Daisy wore a long dark purple cloak that nearly hid her eyes over an orange dress that had an A-line skirt and bodice with a crisp yellow petticoat, and white sleeves. To three of them, the clothes were familiar.

"W-who are you?" Luigi asked in disbelief.

"I'm Professor Layton. These women are the fairies of the Defenders," the man said, kindly, slightly easing the children's mind on the situation.

"I am the fairy of wisdom and hope," the fairy with golden wings said, then summoned a staff of gold and fairytale book embedded with rubies, diamonds, and a golden bound book and handed that to Daisy. "And you are my Defender."

"I am the fairy of generosity and compassion," said the fiery-red and silvery winged fairy, and, like her sister, summoned a silver bow and quill that could catch fire when Mario wanted it to. "That is what you will Defend."

"I am the fairy of love and grace," the third fairy with heart-shaped wings and in a warm, good smile. She then summoned a ballet ribbon attached to a pearl-encrusted handle that fit comfortably in her hand, and ballet shoes made of pink silk. "And with your loving heart, that is what you'll defend."

"I am the fairy of belief and innocence," the critically injured fairy said, and with every bit of strength she summoned Luigi's weapon, and Mario grabbed his brother who looked in a daze. The weapon was the seashell violin he saw in his vision, and nearly fell over, but was caught by the other Defenders.

"It's a little hard to take in," Luigi said, as he took the violin. "But what do we have to do?"

Author's Note: Now, we're almost to the plot of the First Dark Parables: Curse of the Briar Rose. Now, here's my question to you, as the reader, from just the way the costume and weapons are detailed, who are the first Defenders? (Hint: They're fairy tale characters that don't appear in the actual games.