Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone

  Everypony started to panic, searching in each other's pockets for the stone and accusing one another of thievery. As some started to run out of the hall to look for Harvest, Ditzy slammed the doors shut and scanned the crowd furiously. "Everypony calm down NOW! You all stay in here while I go down to the police station. Somepony in here has stolen the Sapphire Stone; if anypony even thinks about leaving before the cops finish the questioning, you will PAY FOR ruining my wedding!"

  Everypony stared at her in disbelief; not even Daring had ever heard her raise her voice like that. "Thank you," she said, returning to her calm self. "Daring, would you care to accompany me to the police station?"

  "There's no need for that now, dear Ditzy."

  "WHO SAID THAT? I SWEAR I WILL-"

  A dark hooded figure suddenly appeared at the door. Of course there's a dark hooded figure, Daring thought. A priceless artifact can never disappear and just have it turn up in some thief's basement.

  "Well," it said, regarding Ditzy, "Don't you look stunning? Isn't Golden Harvest a lucky-"

  Ditzy knocked the figure to the ground in anger and tore off its cloak, revealing it to be a stallion she had never seen before, although Daring recognized the jackal tattoo on his shoulder instantly. "The cult of Xaoixotal," she breathed. "I thought that was just a legend." Ditzy looked confused, so she explained herself. "Like Harvest said earlier, some say that the Sapphire Stone was stolen from a statue of Xaoixotal in South Amareica. There's actually more to the legend than most ponies know..."

  "It's not just a legend, you know, the Stone holds an immense amount of power," the stallion said. "Yeah," said Daring, "Enough to summon Xaoixotal from the Beyond and bring forth the end of the Equestria."

  Ditzy positively fumed by now. "Will somepony PLEASE tell me who this Xaoixotal is and what this has to do with Harvest?!"

  "There was a time," Daring said, "Before Celestia created the world, when the universe was ruled by an ancient deity. His name was Xaoixotal, and if ponies had existed back then... well, you don't wanna know what he'd have done. He was eventually dethroned and banished into the Beyond by Celestia, who, as everypony knows, wanted to live among beings like her, so she created our world."

  "Very good, Miss Do," the stranger said. "Would you happen to know what the Stone has to do with this?"

  "Well, I know that if something is done to it, Xaoixotal can be summoned again and he'll kill Celestia out of revenge then take over the world."

  The stallion laughed. "You don't know the half of it! Actually, that's probably a good thing, considering how I'm here to tell you the only thing you're allowed to know: Daring and Ditzy must come to the secret location alone before sundown on the third of September or you'll never see Golden Harvest again!"

  If Ditzy was mad before, she was infuriated now. "Don't you lay a HOOF on him, you goon!" She lunged at the stranger, fire in her eyes, and made to throw him across the room, but not before he managed to disappear. "COME BACK HERE COWARD! You never told us where to go!"

  Oh my gosh, Ditzy realized, if I hadn't tried to strangle him he'd probably have told us where to go! How could I be such an idiot?!

  "I think I know where we need to go," Daring said. "Does anypony know where the coordinates three hundred seven degrees north, fifty-two south are?"