First thoughts regarding "A Daring Day"

I'm pleased to say that the story itself is well on its way to being finished. I've got what will be the third chapter written and ready to go, and am most of the way through the fourth (of what will probably be five chapters). It'll definitely be done before the end of this month. Right now, though, I feel like elaborating a little bit on how this story came to be.

The initial idea for this story came to me years ago as a potential story for Quiver Quill, one that I thought would be interesting to pursue in light of what was established in Daring Don't. I mean, imagine him getting a chance to meet one of his favorite authors, only to realize that said author's stories were all based on her actual life, if not slightly adapted from it. As badly as Rainbow Dash put her up on a pedestal, he'd be even worse. In case folks haven't noticed, Quiver Quill is something of an insecure mess, for reasons I'm only beginning to explore. I initially considered scrapping it, however, in light of my plans for "Scars of the Quill", but decided against abandoning it as I thought this one still had merit regarding Quiver's development.

But I'm getting off-topic. The general plot line hasn't changed much from the story I'd originally conceived of, though the details changed over time. I'll get into those as the story progresses, however - I don't want to spoil anyone.

Things that did change from my initial idea were minor things from the start of the story. I didn't have that cold opening, for one thing - I chose to include it to help avoid larger bits of exposition later in the story. Quiver was always going to be reading a Daring Do book to a group of foals in the Golden Oak Library, but little character details like the interactions between Sweetie Belle and Button Mash and Scootaloo being a Daring Do fan were later concepts that I put into the story. I was very late in becoming aware of the Button Mash videos produced, but what little I've seen of them I've liked, so throwing in a nod seemed logical (plus I won't deny being something of a ButtonBelle shipper based on the little I've seen and the fanfics they've inspired). As for Scootaloo becoming a fan of the books...I like to think that Rainbow Dash introduced her to them.

Speaking of Scootaloo, establishing my minor OC Gilded Lily as Scootaloo's mom was a very last minute decision, brought on by a lot of conflicting back-and-forth discussion within the fandom regarding Scootaloo's familial status. And I don't regret it in the slightest. I hate the idea of Scootaloo being an orphan of any sort. Nothing in the show to this point has outright said that she's an orphan, and what little evidence the fandom can point to for it (especially her appearance in Parental Glideance), I can point to as saying that her parents are merely neglectful of her, something which can be supported by Lauren Faust's own original ideas for the character. I'm similarly not fond of the idea of her having cruelly neglectful parents, which led to Gilded Lily becoming Scootaloo's mother. I figure someone who deals in real estate is going to be fairly busy, and could justify the fact that Scootaloo herself seems to live in a very nice looking home (as seen in Flight to the Finish). Gilded Lily isn't herself a bad mother in the slightest, she's just lousy at finding time for her daughter. As for the father, well, I haven't thought that far, but he's definitely not in the picture. Maybe divorced, maybe dead, I don't know, but definitely not an active part of Scootaloo's life.

Getting back to the actual story, there were changes that I actively made as I wrote it. In one case, I planned on retconning the location of Daring Do's home from Equestria's northwest to the opposite side, its southeast, near where I'd placed Maretonia. I'd have explained it by Pinkie having purposely drawn their trail wrong on the map, as part of the effort to maintain the secrecy behind A. K. Yearling's double identity. The early release for Daring Done killed that idea, but also gave me a way to explain why a place located in Equestria's northwest would have names that sounded like they belonged in Central America - immigration and cultural importation. Again, I'll elaborate upon that with later chapters.

Another change I made came fairly late in the game. Originally, I was inspired by Baal Bunny's story Collaborators to include the mention that real individuals who appeared in the Daring Do books actually got a small cut of the profits from said books, as a way to prevent being sued (as happened to A. K. Yearling in the events of that same story). The trouble with that is that, if something like that happened, one could argue that Ahuizotl and Dr. Caballeron were profiting from their criminal acts as recorded within the books. I wanted to prevent that exact bit of Fridge Logic, so the mention was dropped. I do have other, equally unpleasant ideas for how the two continue to operate, however, especially in light of the events of this story, but it'll be a long time before those come to any sort of fruition.

And speaking of the Daring Do books...before anyone asks me where the three real world Daring Do books fall in this chronology, I'm of the opinion that the rough events of the first book, Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Marapore, have taken place, but the next two are still to come. And none of them have yet to be published as of the events of this story - as previously stated, I'm of the opinion that there were sixteen books in the series as of the events of Read It and Weep, with another six books minimum being published by the time of Season Six and the events of Stranger Than Fan Fiction - Ring of Destiny, the real-world trilogy of books, the unnamed volume whose delay kickstarted the events of Daring Don't, and the book that was released shortly before the events of Stranger. Daring Done? gives us an additional future book, which leaves a total of twenty three volumes...minimum.

What will the rest of the story bring? Well, I won't give out spoilers, but I will try to offer at least part of an explanation behind how and why Ahuizotl's able to move around and commit his crimes, where his supporters come from, explain exactly what the deal is with the pyramid (and why he captured Twilight), and include my own little fanon tidbits for Caballeron and Daring Do, the latter of which will have a nod to her copyrighted name from Hasbro - Daring Do Dazzle. The epilogue's also going to lay some groundwork for a future story, one that I still hope to get a start on this year in time for a particular anniversary, though serious work on it is going to be a long ways in coming. Once again, I'm jumping around a little, but for now, the next chapter is out on Friday.

Wish me luck, folks, and here's hoping the story continues to receive no downvotes.