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Review: "Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen" · 5:12am May 15th, 2013
Hello everyone! Hope you all are having a great week. Tonight, I'll be reviewing a story for a friend as part of a review trade. The story I will be reviewing is none other than the eloquent and creative tale, Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen by the awesome Vren55.
Review under the break!
Name of Story: Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen
Rating: Everyone
Status: Incomplete
Summary (no spoilers):
At the Royal Wedding, Chrysalis and the Changelings were revealed to all of Equestria.
But another mask was torn away that day. A mask born for a thousand years. A mask created on one promise. A mask, that has become synonymous, fused, to its bearer.
A mask that when ripped off, causes Twilight, her friends and Luna to question everything they ever knew about the one pony, one very important pony.
At the Royal Wedding, the meaning of the phrase 'Princess Celestia' changes forever.
Grammar Score: 6/10
Pros:
1) This story experiments with using both first-person (pony?) and third-person omniscient perspectives, switching appropriately and poignantly between chapters/sections. As a result, the reader is both able to intimately examine the internal thought processes of "Princess Celestia" and experience the emotions of the other characters--Twilight, Luna, Cadance, Blueblood, Shining, and others. It's been a long time since I've seen an author attempt to do this beyond, say, occasionally writing "I-statement" thoughts of a character (i.e. "I sure do like pie," Soarin thought). Vren pulls this off perfectly--there was no jarring or confusion when shifting between perspectives in the story, and makes for an interesting read.
2) The backstory for "Princess Celestia" is examined and described in an eloquent and engaging manner. No spoilers here (thus, I will be purposefully vague), but it offers us some interesting explanation of Changeling society and biology, as well as giving an explanation to Chrysalis' behavior, among other things. The reveal takes place towards the latter half of the story (as it stands so far), and proves to be worth the wait. We truly do not know much about Changelings from the show itself. Vren takes up the torch and illuminates the species quite imaginatively. Frankly, I was impressed! And I haven't even begun to touch on the most powerful scene of "Celestia's" backstory of all--the encounter between the Changeling Alternia and (the true) Princess Celestia. This scene is beautifully written and almost brought me to tears. Not a lot of stories--fanfic or not--can do that to me.
3) All of the canon characters--from Luna, to Twilight, to "Celestia" herself, even in her hardest moments--are wonderfully in character. Their reactions following the reveal of their beloved Princess' true self are quite believable. Emotions of all sorts are displayed and reasonate to the reader--confusion, rage, sorrow, fear, etc. Vren has especially written a convincing Blueblood here. While most writers simply potray him as a haughty, sharp-tongued nitwit (if he is used at all), this author conveys his love for his aunt no matter who or what she is in a profound way. I actually gained a little respect for the Prince, and considering he's far down on my list of favorite characters, that's saying something. Mad props to Vren for that one!
Cons:
In all honesty, my cons for this story are purely nit-picky things.
1) In spite of the word choice and general eloquence of this story, I spotted several noticeable mistakes each chapter. While I'm almost undoubtedly certain that these were purely unintentional--missing/improper punctuation comes to mind, along with a few misspellings--I had to give this story a grammar score of six instead of seven or eight. With a quick run-through and a cleanup, this can be easily fixed. (So, yeah, this is me mostly being a stickler. Sorry. :P )
2) Although the "Adventure" tag can be used on FimFic to describe a story that contains world-shattering events (even if the world-shattering events aren't an epic quest for the lost Elements of Harmony or a pony war or something along those lines), I truly feel this should be more "Slice of Life". To properly explain, I am going to have to spoil a bit. You have been warned. Spoilers: It seems that Alternia's personality and the real Celestia's personality are quite similar, and Alternia seems to love her little ponies just as much--or more--as their "true" ruler did. Therefore, while her true identity has been revealed, as things stand, nothing has really changed in Equestria. Barring any sort of mutinous uprising, or Luna deciding to turn against her for some reason, I really don't see things changing TOO much for Equestria. However, since the story is not complete, the reactions of those who now know her true identity may prove to make this an "Adventure" story after all.
3) There were a few details that I would've liked to see in the story. For example, the first chapter (not the prologue) discusses Shining's proposal to Cadence, some ominous suspicions "Celestia" has, and shows a little interaction between the two alicorns and Celestia with Blueblood. The next chapter jumps right to Shining and Cadance blasting the Changelings from Canterlot. The wedding preparations, wedding, and battle between "Celestia" and Chrysalis are untouched. Now, I'm guilty of doing this sort of "episode-jump" myself (so maybe I don't have room to talk!) but I would have liked to see this examined further, especially from "Celestia's" first-pony perspective.
Ending Thoughts:
Apart from my nit-picky cons, this is a solid story that tackles a concept I have never seen before (for Celestia--there are a lot of other "X is a Changeling" stories out there). Vren55 has taken on this challenge in an entertaining and well-written manner. I am glad to have read this story and am eager to see what unfolds in further chapters. If you are looking for a good Celestia story, a good Changeling story, or a good drama, I would definitely recommend you read Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen.
I would add imput, but I haven't read this story XD
Thanks a dozen for the review and people have been pining at me to put in a chapter that explains the Royal wedding... I will flesh out Blueblood, Cadence as we progress and probably in rewrites.. However, for Royal Wedding... the problem is I have no idea how to handle the "Idiot ball" that Celesta underwent...
And Blueblood is getting more devs.
1080921 I would ask you to read it, but that'd be blatant self promotion XD
And one more thing, I will get to Sweet Apple Anthology and Severed Roots soon. :D
1080938
You're welcome!
I have faith that you can tie up those loose ends there. Definitely wanna see more Blueblood. MORE! 
1080945
You're too much! You're just too much.
Thank you!! 
Although, I do have a request...think you can hold off on SR until it's done?
I just ask because there's a lot of story to go, still...and I hope it proves to be worth the wait. But it's up to you of course, my friend.
1080982 Yeah, I believe I shall do that.
Bernie... madhoof... Evil Bastard was a compliment...
Oh I love Braeburn and Citrus. It took too damn long for you to get dem together and the Turner and Libra... D'AWWWWWWWW and "ouch" (poor Turner :P)
.... And oh god that plot twist... Turner and Madhoof, who the hell would have known...
1081031
Awesome!
"Evil" doesn't even begin to describe him.
Yeah, you weren't the only one calling for that shipping. Took 'em long enough, but hey, at least they're moving forward. Same with Turner and Libra.
Yup, I know I made some jaws drop with that one.
You have captured my interest my good sir.
Duly checked out the story, found it eminently fave-worthy.
1082480 1083193
Glad you guys are interested, it's an awesome story!