Bronydom Fanfic Reviews: For Her

Do you have any idea how rarely I find a good Celestia fic?

Today's subject: For Her
Author: Pyre
Genre: Tragedy
Short summary: A thousand years is a long time to lose someone.

Review: It's so hard to find fanfic that doesn't blame Princess Celestia in some way, shape, or form for the Nightmare Moon business.  When I do find one, it's worth acknowledging.

The story covers a few months before Nightmare Moon awakens and (with appropriate dilation) the thousand years afterwards.  Put simply, Celestia went through her own personal hell without her sister, and even after she got past that and focused on trying to get Luna back, she still suffered - a lot.

This is that rare depiction of Princess Celestia that shows her in three dimensions - devoted to her people and her sister, but not infalliable and with lines she cannot cross, which cause her agony when forced against them.  (She almost causes the catastrophe Nightmare Moon attempted from sheer despair-borne apathy after her.)

Granted, this story won't be for everyone - there are long stretches without any dialogue, summarizing Celestia's actions over the centuries.  The author tagged it "Tragedy/Slice of Life" for a reason.  And more importantly, some fans might take severe exception to Celestia's manipulations.  Certainly it inches a bit close to some of the "Dumbledore as evil chessmaster" portrayals from the Harry Potter fandom.

But I personally found this to be an amazing story.  Princess Celestia never wanted to harm her sister in any way, and this story is written by someone who gets that.  The idea of her inadvertantly creating much of what we've seen in canon as a result of trying ot save her just seems to fit.

This is one of my new favorites.