It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #165 · 8:02pm May 15th
So hopping along, the next of the Young Six I'm gonna pull out is Smolder. (This time it's only semi-random: remember me mentioning semillon last week? Yeah, I'm having to actually sort this series to make sure not to feature them twice in a row.) So who am I gonna pull out first for Scoota-dragon?
Another author who's been on my to-do list for a while. Matthais Unidostres is an author who's got a knack for coming up with unique ideas that make sense once you think about them but slip past folks. Like here: we see tons of 'Twilight is ancient and thinks wistfully about her friends/past'. We've seen it done with Spike, Sunset Shimmer, Tank, even with Fluttershy. But this is, I think, the only one I've ever seen where it asks it very logically of Smolder. And that's the hook of Smoldering For 1,000 Years.
One evening - years after Twilight's ascension to the Throne - the other five find Smolder sitting in the Treehouse, lost in thought. They pester and pester her until she finally admits what she's thinking about: that she's a dragon. And they're vastly more long-lived than other races. So she's going to keep going while they fade away and die of age. As it turns out, however, they have their own opinions on the matter.
So it isn't often you see the tags Comedy-Drama-Sad together. But here, it's appropriate and it works. The subject is sad - Smolder's dealing with a major problem, and one that's bound to end in tears and loneliness. It's also a comedy because, well… what gets revealed after Smolder vents her worries is utterly ridiculous. In the fun way! It's exceptionally silly. It starts out at Ocellus with a "Huh, okay, that works…" and eventually hits peak silly when Yona reveals Karshar, the ancient Yak artifact mace.
And that's what's wonderful about this one. The approach of having Smolder deal with the long life subject is interesting, but we've also got roughly eleventy billion stories where Twilight confronts the subject and is very sad about it. A dragon's perspective would be a bit different but I don't think it would be unique enough to really make it stand out. Turning the whole thing into a goofy comedy, though? That makes it a lot more entertaining. (Plus it still manages to be a bit sad at the end to keep it all balanced.)
And to contrast that, I'm gonna go with something that's much more straight serious: Imposter Syndrome by Jack of a Few Trades.
It's break, and the students are at their various homes. Except Ocellus. She's coming to the Dragon Lands to visit Smolder! She arrives in her dragon disguise (as seen in the Students' introductory episode) but that's kinda the problem. Ocellus is having a very changeling moment: she's wondering just who she is. Not just who 'Ocellus' is, but also if maybe it would be better if she was someone else - not burdened with all the baggage of her old life and of being a changeling. Fortunately, Smolder's pretty familiar with pretending to be someone who you aren't.
So if the description and the tags weren't a clue, this is good, solid Smocellus fuel. Unlike the last one, it keeps things pretty small and low stakes: it's a very understandable problem for Ocellus, and a very in character retort from Smolder. Subtle shipping's some of the best shipping, really, and this is a great example about how romance doesn't need to be big overblown gestures and declarations.
What makes this stand out more is the kinda reverse angle on it. Generally Smocellus leans heavily into Smolder confronting her feminine side and her hidden love of floofy cute things. It's infrequent that Ocellus' insecurities ends up as the instigating force, and even more rarely that she goes the direction of 'but what if I just stayed a dragon?' It takes them both out of the pony-heavy culture and lets them interact in a way that feels more natural and true to their heritages, and I quite like that.
Also, they're just so damn cute together. I love it.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
I’ve read Imposter Syndrome, but don’t remember a thing about it. Not even that it was a romantic ship, I’m so mentally used to Smolder, if paired with a canon character, being with Spike. And Ocellus, if it’s with one of the Young Six, not the dragon of the group.
Still, being written by Jack of a Few Trades, I’ll well trust it’s solid, even if I won’t personally be rereading it. Flipping the usual expectations as regarding personal crisis of faith is something, at least.
Partly I think because of the slightly weird insistence knighty (IIRC) maintained for several years that Comedy and Sad were incompatible and so Fimfiction would plain not allow you to put both tags on a fic. The same was true of Slice of Life and Adventure.
5780759
Which I just do not get. Obviously it can work!
Ah well, such is the way of things.
Thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed the story
ahHHHH I LOVE BOTH OF THESE SO MUCH
i didn't remember that first one at first but after you explained the premise i had a very distinct memory of me tearing up and also laughing to myself reading this four years ago
AND IMPOSTER SYNDROME!!!!! SMOLCELLUS!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS A JOY TO EDIT AND I'M GLAD THAT IT'S BACK AT THE FOREFRONT OF MY MIND SO I CAN REREAD IT