Professor Layton took them over to the dome over the crystal ball, and said some magic words and then Daisy's storybook began to glow in her fingers and it JUMPED out of her hand and landed on the dome.
"Many centuries ago, a King and Queen had a beautiful baby girl named Briar Rose, but on the day of her christening she was cursed by an evil Godmother that was uninvited to the party that in her 16th year she shall prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. The youngest fairy was able to change and soften the curse saying that only true love's kiss can reverse the curse."
"We already know this story though. It's Sleeping Beauty, right," Mario remarked, and the rest gave him an irritated expression.
"You didn't let me finish," Layton said. "On her 16th birthday, Briar Rose was lured into the tallest tower to see a strange contraption sitting there. It was the last spinning wheel that the evil Godmother created, as all the others had been burnt by order of the King. She pricked her finger upon the spindle and fell into a sleep LIKE death, as did the whole castle,while the castle itself became filled with briars and roses. Well, one day a prince from a far off land came and was entranced by the Sleeping Beauty and kissed her. The castle awoken, but Briar Rose did not even stir a bit. They waited for weeks on end for her to wake up, but she never did and this was forgotten and became known only as the Sleeping Beauty," Professor Layton said sadly. "You as Defenders, must save the sleeping Briar Rose and gain her medallion and stop those thorns from encasing all the realm," Professor Layton to see the children still in shock. He sighed and said, "As Defenders you will see that most fairy tales that Daisy's predecessor wrote, were made for children and weren't the truth."
"Where is the Sleeping Beauty?" Daisy asked, her voice hurt a little.
"The city you call Edinburgh," and they looked at each other in shock.
"We can't go to Scotland. We have school tomorrow, and our family's we'll be scared out of their minds when they can't find us," Penny replied, sadly.
"We have already figured had that figured out. Long before your parent's were even an idea," the fairy of wisdom and hope said. And each of them touched the amulets around the Defender's necks, and the fairy continued by saying, "Just say, 'dopple come out and play, I need to go and save the day.'" The defenders repeated what they said, and in seconds the amulets shone brightly and shot a beam of golden light at the floor. In seconds they were staring at exact copies of themselves (apart from them being a tad paler and far less energy). "These dopples will take your place while you take over as Defenders. They are hollow creatures with your memories and when you want to call them back just shout, 'Dopple your time is done, now it is time for we to become one."
"This is really creepy," Luigi remarked, as he stared at the strange magic...thing. "But, I guess it does solve school and stuff. But, how do we even get to Scotland?"
"Ask your brother?" the fairy of generosity and compassion remarked. Luigi, Penny, and Daisy were confused but when they looked over they saw Mario muttering something, and grabbed one of the arrows from its quiver and shot it at the wall. In an instance, the wall began to form a portal and they saw the castle from Daisy's vision.
"Is it safe? Because I'm not putting my sister through a magic portal where she might become jelly."
"It's safe, Daisy," Mario insisted and he went through himself. Daisy sighed and followed him, then Penny, and Luigi was the last. In only a flash they were standing on the cobblestone ground of a castle surrounded by thorns of all kinds, and they were all carrying some sort of sack. Daisy wore an old fashioned medicine bag and inside was the storybook and a worn leather bound and a quill with magic ink, Mario's was his quiver which he learned could carry a few more things than just arrows, like swords and small potions, Penny's was an embroidered purse that she wore on the beaded belt above the skirt, and Luigi's was a common sailor's bag that you carry over your shoulder but it was surprisingly light. They looked over at the different briars, and Penny scraped her hand against a thorn so sharp it drew her thick red blood. "We can't let these briars encase Edinburgh and Europe," Penny remarked as they passed through a wooden door where they saw a statue of a beautiful maiden, with her hair flowing loose around her shoulders and wearing a long gown and holding a staff with a rose. They looked at a gate but it was covered by thorns, "I have a sword, maybe I could cut away the thorns," Mario said, and began to slash at the thorns but it barely dented them.
"Leave the puzzle solving to me, Mario," Daisy said, her eyes narrowed. She walked back over to the statue and saw some an inscription printed on the bottom that featured a lion, a swan, a dolphin, and an eagle. She quickly looked through the storybook to see if anything matched, and it did. On the first page was the same exact animals surrounding the amulets, "I got it!" Daisy cried, while they listened to Luigi play a song on the sea-themed violin. "We need to use our tools together!"
"Which song?" Luigi asked, while Mario slapped his forehead.
She looked at the book and it said to just think about what you want it the weapon to do. "Just think about removing the briars," Daisy said, and grabbed her staff and began to think of nothing but removing the briars. Luigi, being the Defender of belief, played a song and not thinking of the creepy castle they were about to enter, together the briars began to inch away and Mario and Penny began to help them. The briars started to recede faster, until they disappeared all together. "I think someone owes someone an apology," Daisy cockily said, and Mario muttered an apology.
"We need to go free the Princess," Penny cried, grabbing her sister's and best friend's hands, as Luigi chuckled behind.
She let go once they saw a gate and a strange crow sitting upon the heads of the King and Queen from the Storybook. That's odd, Penny thought to herself as she looked at the panel. It doesn't have a key, just portraits! Penny continued to think and she pulled her sister over to the portraits. "Solve it!"
Daisy, Mario, and Luigi gave Penny a confused look, but she continued. "Tap it with you staff, and then solve it," Penny said, and Daisy complied. In seconds a the owl's stone eyes burned a light-green and revealed several tiny pieces with pictures of royal items that was used in the Medieval Ages that fit into the small hole that surrounded the portraits of a king, queen, and prince. Daisy quickly began to assemble the portraits with the matching picture pieces and it opened once she solved the whole thing. The gate creaked openly, just enough for them to fit through, and the pedestal the king had been sitting on opened. Daisy, lit up her staff, and it revealed an item. It was just a common door handle, but it could be useful. She quickly grabbed it and placed it in her satchel and wrote in her journal there exploits so far.
"We should get going. It's getting really dark here," Mario insisted, and the three others nodded and headed through the gate.
"Was it just me or did those statues look so...life-like. Like they could come alive at any moment?" Daisy asked as they came across another, but smaller courtyard with a fountain still flowing with water.
"Maybe the king and queen's ghost inhabit them, and if we're not careful they will jump out and take our souls," Luigi goofily said, but it still scared Peach and she raced under Daisy's cloak.
"Oh come on, Luigi. They have been dead close to a thousand years," Daisy said, slapping her forehead, and Peach inched her way out of her cloak.
Meanwhile, Mario had been observing the next gate, this was green with a giant missing crest in the center. "Hey, guys do you think the crest could be in that fountain," Mario asked as he saw a small ruby jewel gleaming in the fountain.
"It could be," Daisy remarked and she and Luigi knelt down and searched for the lost stone fragments that lie on the water.
They were all in pieces, and they grew discouraged until Daisy remembered her storybook. She flipped through some pages to see that Penny's ribbon could fix anything that had been broken. "Penny, wrap your ribbon around the emblem," and she nodded. She tied the ribbon and it beamed a bright golden color, but when she unwrapped it they were disheartened to see it was only a half of the emblem. Luigi then walked over to the brick wall that surrounded the courtyard covered in briars.
"Luigi, wait!" Mario cried, but these briars retracted the second his amulet scrapped the thorns. It revealed a courtyard leading to a bridge with a rust covered swing and a moss ridden column.
"What are you waiting for? Come on!" Luigi cried and they all walked in the new courtyard, and Daisy quickly placed the star emblem into her satchel.
Below them was a four-sided star, and their weapons seemed to be ripped right off their backs and were placed neatly in the center facing the four directions and from the nearby rose petals formed a beautiful young woman that looked exactly like the statue from earlier. The children backed away, but the women said, "Welcome, Defenders. Do not be alarmed, for I am Briar Rose, and I wish you four no harm. The curse has returned and a great danger looms, but I can stop it, before all Europe is consumed. My body lies in repose, in a castle room deep; to vanquish the Briard Curse, you must wake my from my eternal sleep."
"But, how?" Mario asked, skeptical as this could be the Evil Godmother's doing.
Briar Rose pointed lowered her head. "The Evil Godmother haunts this place; be wary or fail this case. Vanquish the godmother, and I will be set free; though this will not be easy. Now come with me," Briar Rose said, and began to walk towards the castle before disappearing.
Luigi looked over at Daisy, and gave a smug smile, "I told you ghost were real," as they grabbed their tools and placed them on their backs.
"It's not wise to gloat to someone carrying a giant stick," Daisy responded and she headed off to the bridge. Penny, meanwhile, had grabbed a doll that had appeared after Briar Rose disappeared, and placed that in her pocket where it shrunk to the size of toy car.
They passed the graveyard of the King and Queen, where Daisy knelt down next to the statue of the King and Queen to see the pedestal had decorations with the heads of a rabbit, a mouse, and a monkey along with a rusted keyhole. She grazed the stone tiles until she felt a lose one and carefully pulled it out to reveal a rusted key that fitted perfectly into the keyhole and another puzzle appeared before her. It was a slide puzzle that she completed in only seconds, but another puzzle awaited her. She needed to ring the bells in the order the animal heads shifted and though this took a bit longer, she completed in ease and like the one before a the pedestal door opened to reveal the bell tower's key.
"Hey, Dais!" Luigi called, as she placed the bell tower's key in her bag. She looked back to see her friends standing over a tile with strange markings and writings. "Weird looking, right?"
"Yeah, but we need to focus on the task at hand," she commented and told them to follow her to the bell tower. Outside the bell tower there were two pedestals, one with a statue and the other was missing.
Penny walked over to the one with the statue and read out loud, "'The Godmother of Rose.'" She looked back to see Mario standing by her. "Probably the Sleeping Beauty's Godmother."
"Yeah, most likely. Are you okay? I mean you always believed in-" Mario began, until they heard the creaking of the gate to the bell tower, and their respective siblings walking up the stone stairs.
"I'm...okay. But we better hurry up to the others," Penny says, and she and her best friend raced up the stairs where they got a whole view of the eerie Scottish castle. They saw it was surrounded by mountains, but were disheartened to see how far the briars had actually gotten as they were close to the outer walls of the castle and felt the weight of their mission for the first time.
Mario peeked through the telescope in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Sleeping Beauty so they would at least know where they were going. "Don't bother, Mario," Luigi said, who had been helping search for the second half of the sun emblem (which was the pale moon). "It's too dirty to see through," Luigi remarked, as Penny wrapped the moon half in her ribbon and then reunited them as one.
Mario slapped his forehead and turned the telescope around wiped the outer part with his thumb, and spun it back around. He looked through it to see the princess sleeping in the highest room of the tallest tower, and quickly told his friends, "But we need to place the emblem in the door."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Daisy remarked and they headed for the fountain. Mario quickly placed the emblem in the door, and Daisy locked it in place. They entered and they dreaded what may be behind the door.
Author's Note: So, we're finally getting into their first mission and if you want to solve the mystery yourself check out the game for yourself or the YouTubers who've played.