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Everyone knows Fancypants is Canterlot's most important pony - but when did he become the most important? How did he do it? And where did he begin his rise to prominence? When Rarity puts the question to him, Fancypants decides to tell her his history in a series of letters, detailing his triumphs and tribulations on the road to the top.
Could you have Rarity have more of a presence in the letters? I know it's about Fancypants and not Rarity, but I think it would be fitting if you'd have Fancypants answer implied questions or at least be amused at Rarity's reactions to the events. You don't have to write a reply letter for Rarity, but it feels as though he's writing in a diary/biography and not a letter to her. Remember Fancypants is writing a letter to Rarity, not writing his life's story. He's relating the events to her. All in all a very good story, however. 
I look forward to updates! :)
Oh I do like this. I blame all the old Victorian themed movies I've seen, but I like a good rags-to-riches story with a few good ups & downs. Heartbreak & betrayal are always classic elements of this type of story, for a very good reason. 
Have a happy holiday & I look forward to more of this.
>>100840 Won't be as short as the gap between chapter 1 & 2, because I'm back at home, and now instead of being at the computer 12 hours a day, I'm off doing housework and other stuff, so I don't have quite as much spare time as I usually do.
That said, I was intending to publish the chapters approximately a week apart, so.... before 10th Jan, assuming I don't get distracted by Freespace 2? XD
The more I read this and the more I listen to The Expendables soundtrack, I now want to know what fancy Pants would be like as an Expendable. I mean seriously, literally kicking ponies out of warehouses, yet, being a successful business pony? Fancy Pants seems like a man of action. But hey, that might just be the expendables theme song talking.
"Dear Rarity,
It seems you have decided to sell my signed confession of assaulting a pony and of Fleur's past to a rather unscrupulous few."
This is how I'm imagining the final letter goes. Such is the business world and he's even given her the names of ponies that would probably pay out the nose for such a document.
>>145246 Yeah, I realised this rather conspicuous plothole about halfway through chapter 2 - and I couldn't actually think of any way to avoid it without scrapping the story completely, hence the prologue at the start to establish that the three have become good friends and they trust Rarity enough to tell her. It still isn't an ideal solution, but it was either that or axe the story after publishing the first chapter >_<
I apologize, I didn't mean it as a dig at you or your work, but just something I found humorous.
It is a very good point in the story and I feel you made the right decision to keep it how it was. I understand that she wouldn't actually sell the letter, but sometimes I like to assume the worst of characters if it leads to something I find funny.
Again, my apologies, and I look forward to reading more.
Good stuff! I've anticipated this chapter for a while.
"On the advice of Rapier Wit, I penned a letter to this detective, explaining the situation in as discrete a manner as I could, and including a letter of reccomendation that Rapier himself had written."
Should be "discreet" instead of "discrete".
I'm just concerned that Fancy Pants and Fleur mailing the stuff in the last couple chapters is like positioning a knife at both their backs. Granted, they obviously wanted the therapy of confiding in somepony, and I expect they're savvy enough to know that Rarity is one of the few businessponies in the area with both the discretion and decency to guard this story with her life. But...
I mean hell, imagine if Ditzy Doo spaced out and dropped it at the wrong address, or if Nasty Pimphooves has been rifling through Fancy Pants's correspondence, or if one of Rarity's clients starts trying to dig up dirt on her while she's in the other room and stumbles on this instead. This is playing with major fire for all three of them.
Not to mention there's a distinct chance we might get 
poking around for crusading supplies, stumbling on this, and asking some very awkward questions. No, you're not getting your cutie mark for escort service >_>
The story's excellent and I'm glad we heard it somehow; just saying maybe this is the kind of thing they should have confided in person if at all. You really captured the consummate candor that made us all love Fancy Pants when he was introduced, and his early tragedies lent a lot of depth to why he tries to be so wholesome -- it really feels like one of those backstories where what we already know just sorta feels like the natural conclusion without feeling forced at all. Fleur's vapid socialite behavior in the episode being a facade seems a tad cliche, but one that fits very well and also feels natural; probably what lent it so much credence is that it's the first thing Fancy Pants himself saw right up until she started kicking his tail.
>>165753 As a matter of fact, this was the major problem I had with the story - namely that it would never actually be commited to paper. Unfortunately I didn't realise that until about halfway through chapter 2, and by then of course I'd already commited XD. Still, I don't think I could have done it another way. I deliberately chose the style of a letter because I was going to be doing a lot of skimming over of individual details in favour of covering several years worth of events without timeskipping all over the place.
Good to know that the story worked regardless of that gaping plot hole, though :P
Making Fleur a secret con artist was actually what prompted me to start writing the story in the first place - the editor on Equestria Daily put out a joking request for someone to write a story where that was her personality and I thought "you know what, I could do something with this..."
You, quite frankly, are a genius! You conveyed the world of business as it really is, a game of intrigue that reveals the honest players and the cheaters alike. The great equalizer between ambition and compassion. So few stories use capitalism and the free market as anything other than a den of thieves in suits. I found this to be an excellent story for that alone. You took it a step further by actually expanding on not only Fancypants, but Fleur de Lis, as well as other members of the social circles. They are all unique and believable.
I must ask. May I include this work as fanon? I ask because I myself, am writing my very first fanfiction and Fancypants serves as the mentor figure and best friend of my central protagonist. (Admittedly a self-insert. What can I say? I think the two of us would get along.) You would be accredited, as well as the other bronies who I've asked to cameo.
Wow. I can just imagine Fancypants wrecking his office in a heat of anger like at the end of Citizen Kane. Great chapter.
And here ya go
I put it down to a combination of overconfidence from years of successful, unchallenged blackmailing (I'd imagine that back in Mareseille he almost never even had to produce evidence to get the aristocrats to cave in to his demands), and his belief that no upper-class pony, unicorn or otherwise, would so much as sympathize with an ex-escort, let alone cover for them.
S...SSSSSSS SEQUEL REQUIRED!!!
But seriously, this is a very good story featuring Fancypants and Fleur. You don't often see these letter written stories and this is an excellent example. I applaud the fact you've managed to characterize the ponies so well through the letters. There are a few uses of human expressions 'hands' for example, but apart from that the story is quite technically accurate and flows well. I do wonder what happens to Crystal Curl after she left Fancypants though... and there is something I don't quite get.
I get how Fancypants and Fleur have a sort of higher than friendship type of bond which led them to get married, but they do love each other... though Fancypants doesn't say so... I think that they do love each other, although it isn't the passionate type of lustful love, its more of the intimacy/commitment type... Mind explaining because I'm slightly confused by that.
I only wonder what type of response you'd get if you wrote this in third person and continued on with Fancypant's and Fleur's tale...
Oh and BTW... Rapier Wit is awesome.
Heh heh, good to hear - introducing OC's with a part to play in the story can be a bit of a gamble at times, good to know Rapier Wit came off right.
And yes, you've basically got it - when he says they're not in love, he means they aren't wrapped up in the "feeling in love" emotion which a lot of people think love is. Lot's of bad romances, on and off the writer's page, fall apart because people make the mistake of thinking that "love" is the same as "in love", when they're really completely seperate things and the existence of one does not mean the other exists as well. When it comes to a long-term relationship like a marriage, something as transient and temporary as being in love is a dangerous justification - for the relationship to last, it needs to be built around things like trust and mutual respect. So yeah, I threw in a bit of a moral lesson there :P
Chances are slim to none. There aren't really any avenues to expand on, and I don't like the idea of writing a sequel for the sake of writing a sequel. I would have to go away and invent a reason for a sequel to exist, and with nothing in the existing narrative to hook it into, it would seem tacked-on (because, well, it would be).
I'm not very good at the "making a story out of nothing" skill that more prolific writers seem to have. I wait around until I get an idea for a story that I really want to tell, and then tell it. Currently that means churning out 2 stories in a year is high volume production for me XD
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I can't wait till you release the next chapter 
amazing...
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