Looking back at Ever Let the Fancy Roam

Previously in this series: Sunset's Sales Snag.

It's a month and a half since I last did this, so let's bring up another of my stories for me to yatter on about. Take it away, RNG, please! And... okay, it looks like today I'll be talking about Ever Let the Fancy Roam. This actually won the "Making the Most of the Mundane" contest, which admittedly only had three entries. With a +34/-0 thumbscore as I type, this story has had a rather better reception than Sunset's Sales Snag. Well, mostly it has, and that's where I'll start this ramble.

You see, this comment was the first feedback I got after publishing it way back in February 2015. It's fair to say it wasn't the most complimentary note I've ever received. The writer suggested that I didn't care about Fancy Pants, that the characters spoke in clichés and lacked meaningful voices, that it was "a pastiche of weak "British" stereotypes¹ [that] drools out of the writing like cottage cheese."
¹ Dash it all, I am a weak British stereotype!

The weird thing is that this comment wasn't accompanied by a downvote. Since the writer wasn't personally offensive I did respond in some detail. That seemed to end the interaction, and the comment writer hasn't done much on Fimfiction – though they did apparently log in as recently as April this year. I feel I handled it reasonably well, though it wasn't the nicest way to start!

Fortunately, subsequent comments were nicer – not devoid of criticism, but that's no problem. The thing is, this story was a bit of an "I just want to write a Fancy Pants fic" deal rather than anything more considered. He clearly needed someone to interact with who wasn't Fleur, and so I gave him the kind of long-serving butler in Silver Cloud who I felt wouldn't be entirely a pushover.

Some of you may have twigged why I named him Silver Cloud already, but in case not: first, it's a good pegasus name and flight is clearly useful when working around a rambling old stately home. Second, it's the name of a classic Rolls-Royce model from the 1950s and '60s. Old-fashioned now but still well thought of. Could do worse for such a stallion, don't you think?

As for the plot of the story... given the contest it was entered for, it couldn't be too exciting, so it features Fancy and Silver making preparations for a little "At Home" soirée to which (due to unfortunate Canterlot social obligations) they have to invite Jet Set and Upper Crust. This is very much the "Sweet and Elite" Fancy Pants, by the way: I dislike how he was characterised in some later episodes.

As Present Perfect noted, Fancy is deliberately written with a few contradictions. He'll happily subvert some of the protocol and traditions, but there is still a line that should not be crossed between master and servant, as he makes clear to Silver at one point. Fancy's liking for backgammon is also deliberate, though here there's not a lot more to it than that I rather like backgammon.

The ending to Ever Let the Fancy Roam is its weakest part. I don't think it's terrible, but it is a little bit lacking in impact – and here I can't just point to the contest theme since there are various ways it could have been made better. My problem really is that I like feeble jokes, and so too often I end stories on them. Note to self: not every kind of fic works like a feghoot!

One commenter asked me if I was considering writing any more Fancy and Silver stories. I never have, but I do confess that I rather like the way they play off each other and so I won't entirely rule it out. (I will rule out ever making them a romantic couple, by the way. I just don't want to go down that route.) Also, it was nice to use "foalish" in a story. Stupid horse puns are important.