Daring Do and the Secret of the Fourth Wall - Author's Note Chapter 8 · 8:32pm Jan 5th, 2014
Repurposed old blog-post.
(Originally just an announcement stating that chapter 8 had been released.)
What follows is the original, "blog-post"-length Author's Note from chapter 8 of Daring Do and the Secret of the Fourth Wall.
If you have not yet read chapter 8, then please turn around and do so first. 
Commence extra spacing to prevent
SPOILERS for CHAPTER 8
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A very special thanks goes to my new editor, lightfox lowell! Consulting him has certainly helped me plenty!
Turns out that talking openly to somepony who's invested in the story but at the same time doesn't care about massive spoilers can be quite productive indeed!
Always could use more people like him. 
Alright, let's address each of the elephants in the room.
1) “Omfg, you left on a cliff-hanger in teh last chapter, this is just a lazy cop-out!” 
Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. 
I mean, we've all seen this executed poorly before. There's a major tease, but the next thing you know the character just makes up a completely transparent lie and/or the other character gets distracted, then it is never brought up ever again.
I sincerely hope it does not come across as “back-peddling” from the cliff-hanger. Or, if so, I've tried to handle it as maturely as possible.
Thing is, I never even wanted to end on that cliffhanger. I kinda would've gone on and written what has since evolved into chapter 8 as the second half of chapter 7, before releasing it. ...Which of course would've delayed chapter 7 a whole lot longer. 
Not to mention that in the draft way back then, Daring and Dash simply duked it out in a staring contest, and Rainbow Dash just happened to win by being confident, the end. You can guess why I didn't deem that part ready for release. ;-)
Due to personal RL circumstances at the time, I just wanted to get something done and posted, and that cliffhanger was simply the natural point to cut the chapter in half. 
2) “Why does this take so long?”
For the details on that, let me refer you to this blog-post.
In my defense, I haven't only been working on this chapter... Though I'd prefer not to make promises I cannot predict I'll be able to keep or not. 
However, I am happy to report that chapter 9 should be done relatively fast – albeit relative for my standards, that is. Eheheheh... heheh... ^_^;
Oh dear. Please don't hit me.
3) “New” story released: 'Spike and the Curse of the Mouse Cursor'
"While cleaning the library, Spike encounters a floating white 'arrow' suspended in one of the window-frames. Absurdity, and lots of eye-twitching ensues. Then things get strange."
As an apology/late xmas-gift, here's a very old, never-before-published MLP-fanfic of mine. It's somewhere between silly/ridiculous/crackfic, and I honestly can't tell which one. 
Though it may not be up to my present-day standards, it should still be hilarious in its sheer absurdity. Although because of the aforementioned "not up to my current standards"-statement, I do not intend to upload it to fimfiction itself.
Instead, the finished story (22 pages, 1:12h audio book) can be found here on my deviantArt account.
4) “Daring Don't” and “The secret of the Fourth Wall”.
Does it make sense that Daring Do suddenly is considered a non-fictional character in-universe? No, I don't think it does, but then again I suppose I am heavily biased. ;-)
To sum up my prior blog-post on the subject: Well. What can I say – awesome episode as always, though the story's definitely no longer canon-compatible. That's blatantly obvious. It's a risk for every fanfic-writer. - _-;
And to that I say - well, thank Celestia at least it's blatantly obvious. Because then people won't confuse the story for a post-s04e04 fic and get suddenly jarred out of the experience mid-chapter by some unexpected divergence.
As for the massive amount of hinted-at "Daring Do"-lore, I guess I'll cherry-pick my own head-fanon there.
5) “Power Ponies” and “The secret of the Fourth Wall”.
Again, an awesome episode – and of course it yanks at the rug right under my feet yet a second time. 
“Why is that?” you may ask. Well, I'm a bit concerned new readers going into the story may have false preconceptions on a, err, conceptual level.
Without spoiling anything, let's just say that the whole “enchanted book”-mechanic from the episode isn't exactly in tune with my long-term plans for this story.
Not to mention the casual way in which the episode treats a detour into another reality simply does not apply here. (“Oh! It was an *enchanted* comic, that explains *everything*. Hahaha!” *shrug* )
So for the purpose of this story, there is no store selling “enchanted” comics/books.
Although, that by itself opens up a whole barrel of comedic situations – I'll probably write a more detailed blog-post on the episode sometime.
Just think about those poor carbon-copy green-maned minions for a second. And what would've happened if the mane six had lost? Why did an enchanted comic sold to a minor not have a warning-disclaimer on it? What would be the job-routine of somepony working at that “enchanted” store? And why do I have a feeling Pinkie Pie would be on the store's ban-list? 
6) Miscellaneous
6.1) Lastly, I'm strongly considering to remove the comedy-tag.
This does not mean that the story will shift in tone, it's just that after reading through fimfiction's writing guide – managed to put it off for more than 1.5 years, go figure – I've realized that, while the story certainly has a tendency for funny moments, it's not outright a “comedy”.
I suppose when I chose tags way back then, I conflated “comedy” with “overall more-or-less positive attitude” (or simply “not-dark”). *shrug*
In the aftermath of “Power Ponies”, a comedy-tag may also lead to some false assumptions regarding a “stuck inside a fictional world”-story.
6.2) Originally, I was planning to add properly timed background music for this chapter's audio book, similar to what I did for chapter 5. There, it really added to the mood, and I was extremely satisfied with the result – even if literally only three people ever even mentioned listening to it. 
Here, I just sort-of got stuck trying to find the right music pieces for the whole Daring/Dash back-and-forth part. Too bad, had some really nice track for the part where Dash struggles with what she should tell Daring Do.
Ah well. Mayhaps some other time. 
6.3) As always, spelling miskates and poor grammar welcome to pointed out.
Aaaaaand that's all, folks!
...Huh, I guess there weren't as many spoilers for chapter 8 in this as I thought. Ah well, better safe than sorry. 
