FimFiction Link - Short ID: 535697/with-a-terrible-brightness
Published: May '23
With a Terrible Brightness is a 3,9k sadfic. In it, Celestia has to clean up a mess herself.
This was quite the enjoyable little story. Celestia is faced with failure as one of her students got uppity and tried to stage a coup. Now, she must carry out the sentence.
I like how this story gets into Celestia's mind. For as short as it is, I feel it presents a good view on how Celestia deals with some of the responsibility of being royalty.
I'm a bit confused as to when this story takes place. There's talks of old and new personal students, so I thought this was set before the events of the show, but the appearance of certain characters can only mean it takes place after Luna's return. However, these are just minor details that do not detract from the experience. As far as short pieces go, this may be one of my favourite Celestia renditions.
A definite recommendation.
7/10.
Celestia navel gazes for 4k while getting ready to execute a former student. As with most of the comments, I'm left scratching my head why, if neither Celestia nor the judiciary want the death penalty, they don't just get rid of it. The story does a very poor job of defending its need--and it would be a pretty easy defense given the context--and just makes Celestia come off as being angsty over something she could easily put a stop to no one really wants to begin with.