100 deviantart points per story to the first reader who identifies the two stories that large parts of the first two paragraphs are stolen from, and 200 points to the first reader who identifies the one-sentence theft in chapter 3 (not from Doyle).

And 200 points to the first reader who finds all 4 secret messages!

Updates will be every day starting Monday at 9 or 10pm.

If anybody can think of a catchier name and/or description for the story, please suggest it in the comments.  A name change is likely, because this is a boring title.  A cover picture change is also likely later on, because I haven't got anyplace in the story to put the original cover art.  I'll avoid changing both at the same time.

Thanks to Ickhart, GhostOfHeraclitus, and Vimbert the Unimpressive for pre-reading and pointing out many problems!

Luna's Starry Night is by RK-d.  atryl designed French Rarity and the gallery setting; BB-Kenobi put them together and re-illustrated them.   Brianna Wainwright (DracosDerpyHooves on deviantart.com) did the EqD cover image, and two other drawings that you'll find within the story.  Other credits are given with the pictures.

The fact that this has gone unnoticed is a travesty.

>>912800912800

Thanks!  But I haven't submitted it yet.  Still revising.  How did you find it?

>>912961912961

Oh, derp. Wow. I'm an idiot.

Yeah, I liked it a lot. Guess I've tipped my hand now by doing such a stupid thing, but oh well.

The first paragraph is from a Scandal in Bohemia. I recognize the second paragraph, but I don't have the time to go through the stories and find it.

I don't remember where I saw van Gogh's Starry Night, but the description in the story was how I felt about it.

>>953207953207

Correct!  PM me with your deviantart account, if you have one, & I'll send you

Image: http://i.qkme.me/35ze3t.jpg

... Well, no.  But you will get

100 DEVIANTART POINTS!

(This is evil on a budget.)

>>953321953321 Holy crap, really? I feel validated now. I actually read your first comment as 100 internet points.

I always feel considerably less intelligent after reading stories as well thought out and executed as this one is for some reason. I don't know if it's the fact that so many words that I've never used are used in them or what, but yes.

Good show old bean, jolly good show.

There was only one minuscule error. A Mr. F. When. (that gets me too).

I would read more but I hear coffee calling.

This is relevant to my interest, keep up the good work.

[strike]Comments from a week ago. Front page today.

Not sure what's going on, but I'll refrain from pointing fingers due to the possibility of me being wrong.[/strike]

Nevermind; I just read the comments. I'm a retard.

I am so following.

Wonderful.

I'll consider reading it when it's finished.

I'm rapidly running out of reasons to not read the source material.

BRB, googling "Arthur Conan Doyle"

I've had the exceptional pleasure of helping pre-read this lovely thing. I can't recommend it enough. Also, since I know how the rest of the story goes allow me to share a not-really-spoiler: It gets even better. Seriously. The story goes to a very interesting place that took me by surprise. Read it. You won't be sorry.

>>953892953892

The name is "Mr. F."  This is a Victorian way of writing - the premise was that the viewpoint narrator is telling a true story, and making real-life characters semi-anonymous by using only their initials.  Unfortunately the F came at the end of a sentence.  I think that's the correct way to write it.  It is jarring, though, so correctness is a poor excuse, and I changed it.

A work of art this is, I only hope that the latter pieces are as good as this one

Wow This story is SOOOOOOO good! Cant wait to read more!

OK, I'm baffled.  Why isn't this story called "A Scandal In Equestria"?

>>955452955452

Hmm.  On one hand, it doesn't involve anything I'd describe as a scandal.  On the other hand, that title would give readers familiar with A Scandal in Bohemia an idea where the story is going.

Plus, I could lure in readers hoping for some Twilestia...  How would this do for the cover art?

Image: http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7677/twilestiabysbshouseofpa.png

UH Oh! A clash of egos the size of Holmes and Trixi might cause a sigularity to form. I suprised they do not knock heads together when the both enter a room :)

the beginning sounds like the intro of a scandal in Bohemia from the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Loving this so far.

Mystery that not only doesn't shy away from magic but brings it to the forefront, and well-written Trixie, and earth pony/unicorn tension?  Instant follow.

"It is the dregs, the leavings, the last resort. It is, in a word, ours, Watson."

Just wonderful.  Cannot wait to see where this goes.

I liked this the first time I read it and I still enjoyed reading it a second time! Congratulations on the excellent story and the feature on EqD!

>>954719954719

Makes sense, but I couldn't help thinking of the Arrested Development connection.

Anyway, Fetlock seems to have an issue distinguishing bluster from actual ability, kinda odd when it seems that he deals with lies and half truths on a day to day basis, but maybe he sees something I don't.

>>958122958122

I'm committing the oft-committed sin of making Trixie more competent than she is in canon.  Let's say she's had time to improve.  She's more generally useful as a character this way.  But you're right - I assumed by default that Holmes had done his homework, but Doyle would have stated that explicitly.

>>956919956919

No, no.  That's,

Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide,

no escape from reality...

>>956919956919  Had the same feeling.  I was reading it 2 weeks ago and I thought Bad Horse was rewriting the whole thing.

A marvelous distraction if I do say so myself.

the second paragraph is also familiar but i can't put my finger on it...

Nice plan.

Awaiting MOAR .  Only time I've used that!

I'll give Trixie that she has massive pony stones, for walking in there, breaking the painting out, and putting it right back in it's hole. Almost would be worth the hours of interrogation.

for the update!  And no, I am not claiming... (someone else can get in trouble for that )

I checked the view count when I posted the chapter update: 475 readers.  I checked again one hour later, after the story had scrolled off the "Latest Updates" page: 477.  Ouch.  I had 700 referrals from EqD in the story's first day.  About 500 of them followed the link here to fimfiction, then left without clicking on the first chapter.

Here's a question for all of you.  Why did you decide to read the story?  Did anything almost make you not read it?

I just thought this looked interesting, i am not sure why so many people didnt read this.

gotta give you credit, you've got me interested. Bring in the worlds greatest detective, Trixie, and an original adventure, and suddenly you have me hooked on this story, Hope to see more soon, keep goin and stay golden^^

This is one of the best fics I've read across all the fandom.  You capture the Victorian writing style, as well as the personalities of Holmes and Watson, with excellent accuracy and precision, and combine it with an intriguing plot that has a high dose of realism.  It is truly a delight to read.

>>967721967721 Honestly the length of your individual chapters may be what's turning people away. I usually don't read a story unless it averages at least a thousand words a chapter. The only reason I decided to actually read your story (no offence intended) was because I followed the Equestria Daily link.

>>971089971089

Do you prefer longer stories and avoid short stories?  I break stories up into 1000-word chapters because I look at the view counts on each chapter to find out where people stopped reading.  This is usually somewhere within the first 2000 words, so the first 2 chapters can be at most 1000 words each to learn where people stopped reading.

>>971515971515 I avoid shorter stories for many reasons that probably only make sense in my head. The foremost reason is because I find longer chapters give the author a chance to do a better job of both world building and characterization. I also prefer longer stories because I enjoy stories that take more than three minutes for me to read. I think my total words read on fimfiction at this time is over 22 million [22,904,897(I had to check...)] I read quite quickly and I prefer a fully thought out single chapter that is several thousand words long to several snippets of story that leave me unsatisfied.

I could never publish the first chapter to a story before having written the ending - I always have to go back and change things to make the pieces fit together right.  The reason I release chapters one per day, instead of all at once, is so that the story will appear on the "Latest updates" page and attract new readers.

However, this isn't happening.  From the rate at which first-chapter views increase, it appears I've gotten approximately zero new readers from the "Latest Updates" page.  But I've lost about 160 readers who read the first 4 chapters, which were all posted at once, and haven't returned.

Is it better to release chapters on a regular basis, or put an entire story out there all at once?  Would you appreciate a story more, or less, if you didn't have to wait for the updates?

ADDED:

I have another story that's been troubling me for a long time, a tricky story with touchy subject matter.  It's a Fallout: Equestria one-shot, darker than this one.  I don't know if I should release it, re-write it, or obliterate it like a device heretic blog post.  The secret unpublished link is here.  It's not violent, but it is sad, sweet, and terrible.  I'd appreciate your opinions.

I haven't read a detective story in quite a while.

Honestly, I've been reading this for a while- just never bothered to log in. xD

I'm rather a fan of this story so far, and I am keeping a steady eye out for it. I'd love it if you posted the rest of the story so I could just scarf it all down, but if that's not your style, then okay. I'd think a lot of other folks would feel similar. (That they'd like to be able to read the whole thing from word go, so to speak.)

Actually I prefer a somewhat longer wait. Sort of like French cuisine. Anticipation makes it all the more enjoyable.

>>972456972456

I would suppose that it depends on the length of the chapters.

With shorter chapters it would be better to post them all at once. This allows the readers to read at their leisure.

With longer chapters spreading them out might work towards your advantage, seeing that the story has a large word count might stop them from beginning it in the first place.

EDIT: I know that when I post new chapters I pick up about ten new readers. How far they make it is a different issue...

great chapter, by the way, nice job with the hiding of the web address. Identical partials... i may have to look into that. keep goin and stay golden^^

>>972456972456 "Would you appreciate a story more, or less, if you didn't have to wait for the updates?"

Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Twilight_Sparkle.png

I appreciate a story based on how much I enjoy it and for how long.The update schedule doesn't matter to me so long as I find the story to be worth the time I spend reading it (yours falls into that category). Now personally I would prefer to read a story in its entirety in one go. I find that it makes it a more enjoyable read when I don't have to try and remember all of the important details that may have been lost to time. An easy way for me to better explain my opinion is to use the tv show Lost. If you watched Lost every week you had to either remember all the minute (but incredibly important!!!) details, and if you forgot something you could find yourself confused as to what is going on. The other option at the opposite end of the spectrum would be to marathon the show in it's entirety over the course of several days. By leaving less time between episodes you have less difficulty remembering all the little details. The same thing happens when you read a story all at once, because there's no time delay between information.

>>972456972456

Hi.  I'm loving this story, but I mainly wanted to comment to explain the effect you are seeing with lots of people reading the first four chapters and not coming back.  A lot of people (myself included) only read fanfiction that shows up on EQD, and are only aware of updates when those updates are posted on EQD.  The only reason I knew about the additional chapters was because I noticed a comment you posted that said you were going to update daily.  Most of the readers who got here from EQD are probably not aware that additional chapters exist.  I expect you will regain those readers once an update to the story is posted to EQD.  As an aside, some people only read stories once they are finished, so you might also notice an influx once the final update is posted on EQD.

As for whether I prefer it to be posted all at once or in chapters, I don't really care so long as the chapters come out in a timely fashion.  For stories where there are months between chapters, I always wait until they are finished before reading them.

>>972456972456

If you're updating daily, you should E-Mail an update to EQD probably twice a week or so. I know you're featured, but I haven't seen the updates on EQD, so you probably aren't taking the time to e-mail that you've updated. You'll probably see quite an influx of readers from just that. Some readers just wait till a story is complete, others might jump in when they notice it on EQD's front page as often as all that. You've already been featured, so you don't need to worry about the pre-readers anymore, just beam 'em whenever you update. EQD is probably the best source for increased readership, but making sure they're updating is up to you, the author. Trust me, I speak from experience.

>>973735973735

>>974367974367

I knew I'd forgotten something.  Don't they have a minimum update size, 3000 words or something?  Anyway, I just sent them an email; so maybe they'll mention it tomorrow.

>>974395974395

It's about 2000 for updates--that's the average length of one of my chapters--and if you're, you know, a couple hundred words short, it's not a big deal, but it does mean you wouldn't want to E-mail them every update, though I'm pretty sure you you'd be able to hit the limit at least twice a week with daily updates.

>>972456972456 "see wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_Particles"

Don't think I didn't see that...

>>974428974428

... but did you check the comments?

>>972456972456

I had told myself I wouldn't pick this fic up again until it finished, as I like to read a few chapters (to see if a fic is good) but then wait until it completes to read the rest.

That is not what I ended up doing.  You should take this as a complement.  I simply became too impatient to see what was happening to wait any longer.  I would note that Chapter 4 is where I stopped reading while awaiting completion.

As for the question of scheduling I must say that my own preference is more than anything that the schedule be regular.  As you said was your own practice, I am not intending to publish any of my stories until I finish them.  Once I have done so, I intend to edit them into chapters of approximately the same size, and then publish one chapter per Sunday.  Shortly after daybreak, perhaps; I can usually plan on being alert then without any pressing business to attend to.  Although I hasten to add that I'm not recommending this specifically.  It's simply a preference on my part that if I publish anything it should update regularly in some predefined manner.

Once daily maximizes the 'latest updates' pagetime, but so very much of what is produced on FimFiction is not worth reading that ponies have more hooves than I have times in which I have read an enjoyable story I picked up from the 'new stories' or 'latest updates' bins.  I would point that once daily also means that the story will complete sooner, and anyone who is awaiting for it to do so will pick it out then.  On the other hand, if you lower the rate slightly, you can probably get EQD to post a story update post every time you update it yourself, and if you wish to maximize readership that is probably a better bet.

Oh, and in a bit of feedback on the story, that closing line was genius.  "Must Trixie do everything for you?" indeed!

>>974505974505 Oh I did.  The Wii usually lets me see like 1 or 2 [but they were empty... and only yours had a few words (bandwith issues maybe....)] comments now for some reason and the wikipedia thing doesn't show on my TV unless you highlight.

interesting, you know, I believe I am beginning to see who and what Trixie is. I can't be sure yet, but I have a theory. Great chapter, it's interesting to see how all three characters meet meet up. Keep goin and stay golden^^

I am severely tempted to gush like the Holmes fanboy that I am at this story. You are doing a remarkable job, and I thoroughly look forward to reading more of this!

You really captured it. And it is one seriously small hotel room.

I like this story and the style in which it is written.  It has the feel of coming from the pen of  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Huh.  This story just showed up in the featured box for the first time.  I'm thrilled, but mystified.  I just posted a chapter, but nobody's viewed it since I posted the chapter update, and the story isn't anywhere on the "Most Popular" list.

I ain't complaining!  Just curious.

...Aaaand it's gone, after 5 minutes and 6 new viewers.  Sic transit gloria Malus Equus.  Aha!  I had 8 views of chapter 9 almost immediately after I posted it.  Must have been the concentration of a few views in a short time.  Either that, or appearing on the Latest Updates paged, pushed it into the featured box.  Thank you, readers!

This chapter makes me want to read more right away! A well done transition chapter.

Post more updates, this story is good

and I know how she did it. very clever if i am right.

Cant wait for the next chapter.

You still have me fascinated enough to read the next chapter instead of waiting.  Oh, what teasingly short chapters they are, too.

The features box does seem to prefer time-concentrated viewership over absolute viewership.  Hmm.  Let me call the feature-competitiveness of a fic its "feature score".  The five boxes give different scores.  I do not know the details. I do know that the first three boxes discount a fic's feature score by its age, while the last two do not.  When Romance Reports updated with the start of an alternate ending (and oh what a glorious alternate ending it was), it immediately exploded into the fourth slot on the features box.  It was not eligible for one of the first three because the age-discount was too severe for it to overcome.

The older a story is, the harder it is to get featured in the first three slots, but the easier it is to get featured in the last two.

I should've mentioned this when chapter 4 was new, but I have to say, as you've described Trixie's show I think I would enjoy it.  It sounds exciting!  Sometimes it's really fun to be scared.  

I wonder if Mr. F recognized the teleportation trick's difficulty?  Since it fell flat on so much of the crowd and all...

This is one of the most well-written fanfics I've ever seen, I think

Bravo!!!

Wow, that was heart-rending. I really want to know how this ends, even if it's sad.

The moment she set out three cups I knew that she expected Holmes and Watson... But this? No, I did not expect this.

How sad for Trixie.

Continue my good sir/madam

The poor dear. I honestly feel sorry for Trixie, and that's after reading 'Piano Man'.

Chapter 11 is the final chapter.  I'll post it at 7pm.  There are still 500 unclaimed deviantart points from my first comment.  500.  Not 300.  Hmm.

Thanks to everybody who stuck with the story all the way to the end!  Please don't lynch me.  If you're near Fairfax VA, send me a PM.  I'm going to have a party some Saturday in August.  The regulars are mostly geeks, gamers, anime fans, and Asian Meetup group renegades (long story).  It would be cool to infiltrate it with bronies.  Then we could call it a Twilight Sparkle "Hooray, school is starting again!" party.

>>912800912800>>953428953428>>954281954281>>955296955296>>954129954129>>956979956979>>957028957028>>970413970413>>964256964256>>975937975937>>978299978299>>978257978257>>988289988289>>982925982925>>983246983246>>986991986991>>990565990565>>991376991376

Thank you.  Your comments mean a lot to me.  I didn't respond to them individually only because I didn't want to clutter the place up with me saying "Thank you" over and over again.

Instead of self-promotion, let me push some short stories that deserve more love:

How to Do a Sonic Rainboom by bookplayer

The Birthday by NorsePony - read it, it's only about 500 words

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream by Georg

Pinkie's Last Party by Quixotic Mage

Severance by RedSquirrel456

Moonspire Run by titanrising

8The Old Stories by Thanqol

Whom the Princesses Would Destroy - bug GhostOfHeraclitus

I'm working on a system to give personalized recommendations based on your favorites list.  How can you find out about this when it comes out?  It's easy!  You go to the top of this page and click "Watch".  Try it now.  Just to see if it works.

(Did I say "instead of self-promotion"?  I lied.  It's okay.  I'm evil.)

A couple of notes about views, for other authors:

- EqD originally linked to the story main page.  Most people, something like 500 out of the first 700, clicked on the EqD link, then got to the fimfiction link, which had exactly the same picture and description, and mysteriously didn't click on the first chapter link.  I asked EqD to link directly to chapter 1 instead.  This made my view count shoot way up.  But it didn't increase readers by much.  Before the direct link, 60% of people who read page 1 went on to page 2.  After the link went to chapter 1, only 30% of people who read page 1 went on to page 2.

- The strategy of releasing one chapter per day and hoping to get new readers from "Latest Updates"?  Backfired.  I have 122 views right now of chapter 10.  The day I released the first 4 chapters, 134 people read all the way through chapter 4.  Everybody who read chapter 2 went through to chapter 4, according to the count anyway.  So I might have gotten more readers to finish the story by just releasing the whole thing at once.  Doing updates gained 300 more readers, but I lost 300 readers who never came back for updates.  (OTH, the story has 128 favorites, so maybe those people will come back later... maybe.  Readers, y u give favorite but no thumbs-up?  You know who you are.)

i am really liking this story please continue

I wouldnt be surprised if the people who clicked on the EqD link without continuing were adding the story to their read later list. I do that alot.

>>993705993705

Aha.  That makes sense.

My goodness. That was an intense ending. I should point out that the story is still listed as incomplete though. My hopes were up for some sort of reconciliation between the two, but then I saw your comment that said that this was it.

>>983005983005

So... were you right?  (About Holmes' theory.)  I want to know if it was figure-out-able.

>>993894993894

Thanks.  It's complete.  Fixed.

>>993997993997

Now, you see, while pre-reading I was told that there's an epilogue to wrap things up but I was never given access to it. And now I hear the story is complete as-is. This, well, this wakes in me the glorious hope that there might be sequel.

>>880316880316

"A Scandal in Bohemia"

Is the first I should think, but it has been awhile.

The other I would not even hazard a guess.

I have two guesses for the sentence from chapter three.

I had the odd sensation of having fallen into a parallel universe where some chance circumstance had made him something less than what he ought to be.

-or-

"Regardless," he said slowly, "crime is a terrible profession.  The work is unsteady, the risks are high, the payoffs usually disappointing."

(I chose these, not because I recognize them, but by elimination. First identifying important or memorable lines. Second by removing any that had names attached. If I have to choose I pick the second.)

>>994074994074

Scandal in Bohemia:  Yes, but that's the one that's already been found.  Chapter 3: I'm glad you found my sentences memorable, but no.  The sentence from chapter 3 is stolen from a Peter Beagle story, and refers to the same person that it did in that story.  And there are still 200 points unaccounted for.  This is a hint as to where they are hidden.

>>994062994062

Apparently I was utterly mistaken about there being an epilogue. I must have misremembered something. Sorry if I've inadvertently raised anyone's hopes up.

>>994122994122

It's okay.  I'll get over it.

Writing a sequel would at least be a less-reprehensible way of getting into the featured box than ponifying Lolita and calling it "My Little Rarity".

>>994155994155

AAaaaaaaah!

I just got that notion out of my head, you know. I used an entire bottle of bleach, too.

...unclean...unclean...

>>994166994166

How about  "Hugh Hoofner's Little Playmates"?  "Crusaders Gone Wild: Uncut Edition!"  Wait, I know - "My Little Adolf - A HiE clopfic."

>>994395994395

Image: http://scranton.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw5634-29394__safe_princess-luna_luna_macro_image-macro.png

Forget bleach. I need a bottle of chlorine trifluoride.

>>994120994120

Ah well, gave it a shot.

>>994395994395

And I think this is the only solution...

Image: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvvfjucJKE1qzlbt4.gif

Bravo!  Quite an appropriate ending.  Sad, but appropriate.  Poor Watson.  Poor Trixie.

>>994395994395

There is a wealth - although I hesitate to use that term - of 'controversial' fics that never get featured.  I daresay "Crusaders Gone Wild: Uncut Edition!" would never hit the features box, even if it was executed masterfully, because the title would turn away more readers than it intrigued.  I am unsure about "Hugh Hoofner's Little Playmates".  It might have the right mixture of memetic toxicity that people would read it from grim fascination.  I'm also unsure about "My Little Adolf".  My instinct is that anyone foolish enough to do it is not smart enough to do it well.

Hm.  I do wish I could toy with the feature box just a little bit.  If I could lock it to 'Everyone'-rating stories, I would do so, for myself if not others.

>>994515994515

Brilliant!  I can use that GIF for the story's picture!

>>994537994537

Watson is best pony.

Your optimism about humanity is a nice note on which to end this topic.  (Unless, of course, I think of something even worse.)

...he thinks things through TOO much sometimes.

...and i just gotta ask, is your name some sort of Dr. Horrible refrence?

>>994537994537

Poor Holmes.

alas, this story is at an end, but I felt that it did cater to the Sherlock Holmes that literature portrayed him as. While I am not in Fairfax, I do live in Burke VA, but due to an incredibly long vacation, I'll be anywhere between California and New York. Never the less, I wish you well. Keep goin and stay golden^^

>>994820994820 "...and i just gotta ask, is your name some sort of Dr. Horrible refrence?"

Dr. Horrible?  The name sounds familiar.  I believe I have his application here somewhere...