Daring Do Adventures: Daring Do and The Sapphire Stone

Chapter 1: “A Daring Beginning.”

As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle,the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky. But her crash landing had injured her wing and left her grounded for a few days.

“A few days? Might as well be for a few months. Or a few years!” daring thought bitterly as she continued to slog through the jungle with the blistering sun baking everything under its sweltering heat. Mosquitoes buzzed loudly,macaws cried from high trees,and yet all of these distracting noises were not enough to cover the sound of predators following her every step. Daring stopped as she heard a close growl echo amongst the trees. It sounded as if it was very close. “They got my scent.” Daring said quietly, looking back through the rough weeds and tangling vines behind her. Her eyes scanned the environment but found nothing hiding in its wake. Daring turned back and started to walk forward again. “I’ll have to be careful.” She said still looking back, but facing forward so as not for something to sneak up on her. She heard another growl and gave a quick backwards glance which was somewhat interrupted when she sensed her face collide with the nose of a tiger.

The tiger roared scattering various birds from their perches amongst the treetops. “Whoa!” Daring exclaimed, jumping backward and kicking dirt into the tigers eyes blinding it momentarily. She hopped over a log to put some distance between them, but then daring heard another roar. Different this time. Daring looked to see a panther emerge from the other direction,and soon she was surrounded by a ring of cats of all shapes and sizes. They all growled almost in unison like a symphony of the jungles top predators. Including a soft,fluffy white kitten. Spotting the kitten,Daring smirked. “There's my exit!” She leapt over the kitten and took off through the jungle with the entire pack in pursuit.

She could hear there snapping jaws and drooling mouths,over her heart pumping loudly in her chest. She spotted a canyon just ahead and tore through the trees and vines,while the predators were gaining on her. Daring cried out as she leapt into the air catching a stray vine between her teeth,and she swung the length of the canyon. “See ya later,cats!” Daring called back to the pack who stood angrily watching her escape from the Cliff side. Safely landing on the other side,daring finally allowed herself a moment to breathe. She turned around to see herself face to face with the long lost temple that she had sought tirelessly for over sixty days and nights. Daring gazed up at the temple and smiled. “I finally found you.” She said proudly.

Several weeks had passed since that faithful day in the royal university of Canterlot.

It had been the very first day of the new school year.

Several Weeks Ago: Canterlot University (New Semester)

The bell rang as several students,new and old,found their seats in the cluttered classroom. As they sat down the door opened,and Daring do walked in with several books and maps slung over her back. “Alright Ponies,Settle down settle down. My name is Daring Do and I’m teaching this class!” Daring said setting down several books on her extremely cluttered desk. “At least I think I am,this is my class right? The archaeology class?” The students didn’t answer but were too surprised to have spoken anyway. “Good!” Daring said ,answering her own question. Daring set down her satchel on the floor and stood to the side of her desk. ”Anyways,please call me Daring Do,or Daring. Do not call me Mrs. Do,it sounds formal and stupid.” Several students laughed and the rest smiled. Daring smiled back. ”Glad you agree!” she exclaimed. Daring walked over to her board and picked up the chalk in her teeth. ”Now the name of this class is Awesome Archeology 101. That’s AWESOME archaeology.” Daring underlined the word awesome on her chalkboard. A few more students chuckled.

Daring turned back to her class,who she could tell were already in love with her. “We WILL be skipping the boring parts.” Daring said seriously. Daring set down her chalk then looked thoughtfully up to the ceiling. “Uh,lets see there was something else I wanted to mention,oh yes. We have a very special schedule in this class,normally class starts at nine,however if I'm not here by nine ten,I would like you to assume I'm in an ancient temple somewhere recovering a priceless artifact,thus I wont be here and I want you all to do independent study.” Daring smiled at the surprised and excited expressions on her student’s faces. She spotted several new students who seemed frozen in shock. Guess they weren’t expecting for their teacher to be a world class treasure hunter,huh? Daring continued. She walked over to her desk. “My notes are over here on my desk,you can take a look at those or you know just go outside and start digging somewhere. See what you can find!” Daring exclaimed her eyes twinkling. She looked around the room,at all the various expressions on her students faces. Surprise,shock,happiness,excitement. Daring smiled again.”Any questions?” she asked.

For a little bit no one said anything,they just looked around to see if anyone else had raised their hoof. Then a young colt raised his. “Yes,you!” Daring said calling on him. The colt put down his hoof as he asked. “Um…did you just say your going to skip class?” the colt asked. Daring smiled again. “Yes I did.”she said happily. “and I also have no attendance policy!” she added,making everyone's eyes widen. “If you want to skip class,that’s fine,just come back with something cool and your off the hook.” Daring said cooly. Almost every student in class lit up with smiles and expressions of happiness and excitement. Daring was the best teacher any of them could ever have! Daring pulled down a large chart from above her board. The chart showed an enlarged picture of a laid out scroll with several odd looking glyphs and markings written across its surface,as well as picture in the middle depicting a temple. “Alright,this is an enlarged picture of a scroll that was found in Timbukthri.” Daring announced. “In the middle is a drawing of a long lost temple.” Daring pointed to the drawing of the large and powerful looking limestone temple in the center of the scroll. “If we translate this scripture below it,it says Temple Of The Twin Jackals.” “Now,can anyone tell me where this temple is located?” Daring asked her class. She looked around and once again everyone looked around with her for someone to answer her question. Only this time no one did. “Anyone?” Daring asked hopefully looking around the room. Still no one answered. “Anypony?” Daring asked once more. The only response Daring received was a cough from a colt in the back row.

Finally Daring gave up with a sigh. “Dang It!” she exclaimed surprising her class. She turned to look at the picture. “I don’t know where it is either,I was hoping one of you might know.” She admitted with a slight smile. Daring Do had a well-earned reputation as the most eccentric teacher in school. She didn’t teach the “boring parts” of Archaeology such as excavation, mathematics, fossil forensics or dirt and rock cataloguing. Instead she taught how to properly use a whip to defend against mummies. How to outrun a giant boulder. How to replace a priceless idol with a potato without setting off traps and of course how to properly wear a stylish pith helmet. Needless to say, Daring’s class was the most popular one at Canterlot University and she loved teaching it. “And that is why you should never try to hoof wrestle with a mummy. Because they’ll get embarrassed when their arm comes off.” Daring announced,ending her lesson just as the bell rang. “Alright that’s it. Pack it in,pack it out. See you on Wednesday!” Daring said as her students gathered their things and left through the door. When the last student had left,Daring smiled hopefully to herself and said under her breath “ Y'know...Maybe.”

“Can't You do better than maybe?” came a gruff yet smart voice from the hall. Daring smiled as the owner of the voice strolled into her classroom. “Hey Storm.” She greeted nonchalantly with a smile. “Professor,if you don’t mind.” The teacher said. Professor Storm Talon taught international studies at the university. He was a grizzled old griffin,but he had a commanding presence. His Tail and one of his hind legs were prosthetics. The real ones had been lost in Navy battles. Daring finished putting away her books,then turned to her colleague and friend. “Professor?” She asked with a smile. “I should call you captain.”She said slyly. Storm ruffled his feathers at the response,but gave a weak smile in reply. “I’m retired Daring.” He said clearly. “You may call me captain,if and when I command an airship.” He said seriously. Daring stood on her hind legs and saluted Storm. “Sir,Yes Sir!” She said enthusiastically. Storm smiled and walked to Daring's board,looking over the notes she had written on it for her students.

“So how was your first day?” he asked in an interested tone. Daring dropped a large bag full of,what storm guessed was several ancient gold coins shed picked up from one of her adventures,and smiled at her friend. “Eh..it was alright.” She said nonchalantly,throwing Storm off a bit. Daring looked at the chart that still displayed the scroll from her lesson. “I just cant figure out this scroll though.” She said a little frustrated. She walked over to her board,sat down and stared out at it,as if waiting for it to talk to her. “The one you’ve displayed here?” Storm walked over to her and scanned the picture as well. “Yeah that one,it traces back to the old jungle wolves in the amazon. They had this Temp-“ Daring was interrupted by Storm. “Ah right…The sapphire Stone.” He said with an air of awe. Daring walked back over to her desk and produced one of  her journals. She read through it proudly. “A statue of twin jackals. And within the statue,a precious stone said to contain the wisdom of the ancient spirits.The Ancient Wanderers.” Daring read aloud,her voice full of wonder. Storm piped in. “You mean the roads of Dhartan?”he asked smartly. Daring closed her journal. “That’s exactly what I think.” Daring announced smiling.

She looked at the picture on her chart. “I think this is a Dhartan Stone. One of the lesser stones,probably only good for one use.” She went back to her desk and unfolded a parchment. The parchment displayed two ancient warriors holding a statue with twin jackal heads and a glowing blue orb floated above them. The Sapphire Stone. Below it were several scratched out notes,That daring had crossed out and rewritten herself many times. She was trying to crack the secret of the words needed to activate the stone’s power, but to no avail. “And if you know the right words…”Daring said looking over her scribbled out notes. “That one use could do an awful lot.” Storm cleared his throat,getting daring’s attention. “Well that is to assume that the roads of Dhartan even exist.” He stated plainly. He walked over to Daring who had put the parchment away. “And besides you cant do anything until you find the stone.” He said matter of factly. Daring closed her drawer. “But I still don’t know where it is!” daring exclaimed. “I even asked the students to see if they knew anything.” Daring said in a defeated tone. Storm gave Daring a slight glare,as if asking that to her students could be surmount to using them for her own needs. “Hey don’t look at me like that,it was worth a try.” Daring reasoned. Storm rolled his eyes slightly. He turned to the picture again.”Does the scroll say anything?” he asked. Daring walked over to him. “Nothing but the name of the temple.” Said daring. “Whats this figure on the side?” Storm asked pointing a talon to a strange glyph near the left half of the scroll. “Some sort of symbol. I don’t know what it means” Said daring with a shrug.

Storm examined the marking with curiosity. “It’s a strange shape.” He said,still looking it over. “Daring.” He finally said. Daring looked over at him,curious. “What if this symbol is in the shape of a geographical feature?” Storm asked. Daring thought for a moment. “A geographical…”Suddenly Daring’s eyes lit up. “Maps! Show me the maps!” Daring ran over to her desk and began unloading every drawer she had with a map in it. They piled the floor rather quickly,as daring continued to frantically rifle through her desk. “come on,come on. There should be something. Its shaped like,Here!” daring unfurled a very old map and layed it out on the floor for Storm to see. “The basin,The Marenti Basin!” daring announced,her eyes still flashing with excitement. “Storm you’re a genius!” Daring complemented her friend. Storm looked proud himself. “Well thank you,I- What are you doing?” Storm was stopped mid sentence as Daring suddenly rushed over to her desk and began packing two satchels full of maps,pens,a compass,her journals,and other things. “Just getting my stuff together,You think coco is still around?” daring answered without stopping. “I'm gonna need an airplane.” Daring said dumping an entire drawer of parchment into her bag.

Storm was stunned. “You..cant be serious.” Storm stated watching Daring roll up the parchment on the floor and tuck it into her bag. Daring ran over and took a large sack of gold from her desk,dumping it into her bag as well. “Of course I'm serious,its like a thousand miles away,you expect me to use my wings?” Daring asked,again not stopping for breath. Storm was beside himself. “I expect you to teach your class!” He said rather loudly. Daring stopped for but a moment. “Oh right…the class.” Daring thought for possibly only a split second before she began packing her bags again. “Well you know just tell Archie to cover for me.” Daring said,removing a few books from her bookshelf and putting them in a separate satchel. Storm narrowed his eyes. “Archie is already teaching three classes this semester,hes busy!” he said,obviously losing his patience. “Well you can cover for me.” Daring said with a smile. Storm's eyes widened. “I'm not even in the same department as you.” He said plainly.

Daring tied a bundle of journals together. “That’s fine,you know what your doing.” She said encouragingly. Storm wasn’t amused. Though he knew better then to try and talk the famous Daring Do out of an adventure. Giving in,he sighed.  “How long will this take?” he asked,knowing he should just go along with it. Daring closed a drawer and put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Well,I don’t know exactly where in the basin the temple is,so id have to fly in circles for a bit,check out a few places,I'm guessing…three weeks,maybe four.” Daring answered with a slight smile. Storms eyes widened. “Three Weeks?” he repeated in a shocked tone. Surely she wasn’t being serious. Daring tied a bag shut then walked over to her friend,whom she could see was worried. Mostly about her career. And his. “Hey,hey storm. Listen: It’s the sapphire Stone. Its legendary! Y’think I'm just gonna let it sit there?” Daring asked with a smile. This didn’t really help ease Storms worries. He looked down at Daring. “Mazra will have your head for this.” He warned her. Daring shrugged. “She might. She might. But shed also get a new priceless artifact for that museum she’s so proud of. So…I think it works out.” Daring said,clearly happy with her reasoning.

Storm couldn’t be further from understanding Daring’s reasoning. Nevertheless he went with it. He sighed. “Fine…I'l handle the students.” He said,knowing he would probably regret it later. Daring smiled as she loaded her bags on her back,and made her way out the door. “What would I do without you storm?” she said as she left the classroom. Storm grumbled to himself. “Oh I don’t know, maybe you’d teach a class once in awhile!” he called out to her,but Daring was already through the door down the hall, and out of the building. Storm sighed as he walked over to Daring's desk,just in time to see Daring rush by the classroom window. “Thanks buddy!” she said smiling and waving at the annoyed Storm. “Ridiculous” He said to himself.