A Daring Proposal - Author's Notes

tl;dr: Ever notice how Spike is summarily dismissed or removed from fanfiction for plot purposes? “I left him at Rarity’s.” “He’s on a Dragon vision quest.” “Sorry, Spike. Maybe when you’re about a hundred years older.” Like he’s some sort of plot parasite. Lazy authors, the lot of ‘em.

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Hi!

Daring Do and the Lost Tome of Shadows has been in the works for nearly three years. It’s the longest single project or commitment I’ve ever taken on, except of course for my mortgage :) so thanks for choosing to read this.

Also, tell everyone you know, then like, favorite, comment, +1, thumbs-up, retweet, report spam, etc. so I can make it onto the Featured list over and over and die happy. TELL EVERYONE -> DIE HAPPY.

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I really wish there was more Daring Do fanfiction. I’m by no means the biggest or nerdiest fan of Indiana Jones but I really love the stories: Ruins, lost cultures, treasure, traps, danger—basically the rawest exploration still left on our planet.

And not for long. Now that we’ve reached an era of digital recording and satellite mapping, I don’t think we’ll ever lose another city or culture. Sure, both wax and wane, but they’ll never be lost again. Truly forgotten places and peoples are quickly becoming a thing of the past, because there’s simply nowhere for them to hide anymore.

Well, except the ocean floor. I suppose we might one day find Atlantis. That will be super cool. Until then, the lands around Equestria are still mostly uncharted.

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I just googled Map of Equestria. Holy hell, have you seen some of these fan maps? Are these all places from various fanfictions?

I am out of my league. My favorites so far are

* The Broken Leylands
* The Breach
* Ruins of Eternity’s Bridge

Ha ha, looks like Rainbow Dash should’ve flown west :) Also, what is it with fanfiction straight up wrecking Equestria? Very compelling.

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Applejack: You sure you’re okay?

Twilight:

-from Gun Show Comic

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Anyways, I have read some other good Daring Do fanfiction, namely Treasure in the West and . . . hmm. Actually I guess I’ve only read the one. But The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog looks good. Three thousand comments? Nice. So maybe I shouldn’t go saying I wish there was more Daring Do fanfiction; looks like I just need to sit down and read more often.

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Twilight: I enjoy roleplaying.

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I started thinking this up way back before the Season 3 finale, but only really settled on the story during the summer between Magical Mystery Cure and Daring Don’t. Imagine my surprise when we discovered Daring Do was a real character in the universe and not simply a fictional character! Oh, well. This story takes place after Twilight gets her wings and before they find out there’s competition for the title of Coolest Fucking Archaeologist this side of the Equestria.

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So. Here’s what you can expect:

* Brawling, explosions, and general violence
* Swearing, cursing, and bad language
* Innuendo (In your end-o!) and dirty jokes
* Bad decisions
* Shitty poetry (actually I’m quite proud of certain upcoming iambic hepta-/octameter stanzas, but you can’t really brag about writing poetry without being one of those writers, yunno?)

I'm posting the next chapter, Welcome to the Jungle, at the same time. After that chapters will be released regularly.

With assistance from Daetrin. Cover art by Foxinshadow. Alternate cover art by Diremuffin.

-wr