//------------------------------// // Foreword // Story: Spear of the Windigos (Daring Do #2) // by BookeCypher //------------------------------// This story represents the first major divergence from original cannon of the stories – and, as is common, it is over Daring Do's past. Due to the great deal of time between the first stories being released and the first version of Spear of the Windigo's being released, other writers (amateur and otherwise) had a great deal of time to fill the blanks in themselves. And they had quite the choice of blanks to fill – from how Daring had first met Coco to the origin of her iconic hat, along with the dozens of so-called 'noodle incidents' that appear (including at least one actual incident involving noodles). The event that drew the most attention, however, considered Daring's best friend. Despite appearing in only one of the original stories, Zapapple Tock among the stories of the expanded cannon of Daring Do, and anypony can see why. After all, it must take a special sort of pony indeed to be the best friend of the world greatest adventurer, let alone such an influential figure in Daring's life. With so little known about such a major figure, the fans had what is known in literary circles as a 'field day'. Perhaps the best known – and most widely accepted version of the role Zapapple had in Daring's develop pre-sapphire stone is in 'Ballad of Chickerufus', if only due to it becoming the basis for the point of divergence in the highly popular alternate universe series by Muffin Parcel – the same stories that eventually led to the 'Universal Cracks' stories. Why Teal Roper decided that to have Zapapple appear in this tale we can only theorize, but given the rationale for this 'New Revision Edition', it is not hard to guess. Teal Roper has streamlines, as it were, Daring Do's backstory and in the process greatly amplified Daring's relationship (such as it is) with her archnemesis – to say more then this though, is to spoil things – at least for those unfamiliar with the original books. To those hoping for a different turn of events for the polychromatic maned earth pony this time around, I can only offer my sympathies and a recommendation to search the expanded cannon – given its breadth, there is likely at least one story that matches what you seek. For those of you who have been seeking this story in particular, the lateness of this release is regrettable. A freak accident in our editorial office meant we had to restart transcription from scratch at one point (as well as replace all of our typewriters – getting pudding out of those mechanisms is apparently impossible). T. Roper seemed to have a similarly interesting time, given the collection of stains and dirt smugs decorating the manuscript when it arrived. I'll leave you now with the words of Teal Roper, once again from a note left attached to this manuscript when it appeared on our doorstep: Ever hero needs a beginning.