Nightmare Moon

**Nightmare Moon** is the evil form that Princess Luna took on when she fell to the Dark Side of the Force. But instead of having it vanquished, the Elements of Harmony pulled the evil form out of Luna creating another Alicorn which was brought to life by a Sith Cult loyal to King Sombra.

## Backstory

The origins of the Nightmare itself vary depending on the source. On here, it was a pre-existing being that was born on the Moon.

Long ago, Luna and Celestia were the diarchs of Equestria, a land inhabited by ponies. Every morning, Celestia would raise the sun, and every evening, Luna would raise the moon. Together, they kept the balance perfectly. However, as time went on, Luna observed how the ponies would be awake to enjoy the day and love, admire, and appreciate Celestia's work, but would always "shun" the night by sleeping through it, causing her to become resentful of her subjects and jealous of her older sister. One day, Luna finally became fed up with Celestia's success. Not only did she refuse to lower the moon, but also challenged Celestia for the sole rulership of Equestria. At that moment, the darkness in Luna's heart manifested and consumed her, transforming her into Nightmare Moon, a black mare of pure darkness. Celestia did not want to fight her younger sister and begged her to lower the moon, but the dark alicorn said her only royal duty was to destroy Celestia, and shot at her elder sister with magic beams, eventually knocking her down. Seeing no other way, Celestia reluctantly used the Elements of Harmony to overpower Nightmare Moon and banish her into the moon, creating the phenomenon known as "the Mare in the Moon" (a unicorn's face imprinted upon the surface of the moon).

Upon reading an ancient legend, Twilight Sparkle realized Nightmare Moon is about to return, however her mentor, Princess Celestia, encouraged her to make friends instead of worrying about the supposed "old pony's tale". Unfortunately, Twilight turned out to be right and Nightmare Moon was released during the Summer Sun Celebration, replacing Celestia who was supposed to attend it. Twilight and her soon-to-be friends chased Nightmare Moon into the forbidden Everfree Forest.

After conquering many obstacles left by Nightmare Moon in their path, they finally found the twisted mare herself along with the ancient Elements of Harmony, now reduced to inert stones. As Nightmare Moon whisked the Elements away, Twilight followed her into the portal and confronted her alone. She tried to use the Elements of Harmony as Celestia did, but for that, she had to find the "spark" that would make a sixth Element appear. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make the spark, and Nightmare Moon destroyed the Elements. Fortunately, when Twilight heard her new pony friends calling for her, she felt a different spark in her heart; making her realize that the real Elements are not just some stones: they exist in the hearts of her friends. That spark triggered the final element: Magic (also known, of course, as Friendship), and reanimated the shattered Elements, converting them into jewels for the six friends to bear. Using the Elements of Harmony, Twilight activated a spell that struck Nightmare Moon, exorcising the darkness from her and transforming her back into Princess Luna.

Celestia arrived in the ruins where the battle took place, admitting that she knew of Nightmare Moon's return, but knew the only way to defeat her was for Twilight to understand the importance of friendship. Celestia walked over to a cowering Luna, who apologized in tears for her actions, and was granted forgiveness. Later at the celebration (held by Pinkie Pie), even the other ponies forgave Luna, gifting her with a flower necklace.

## Bio

However, what everyone didn't know was, Nightmare Moon was not really gone. for many years no one heard from her, however she would officially make her reappearance

### Personality

Much like many archetypal, over-the-top villains, Nightmare Moon is overly confident of herself and dramatically declares that Twilight Sparkle is a fool (foal) for thinking she can defeat her, and that "the night will last forever." She is portrayed as vicious and maniacal, shown when she attacks Princess Celestia and cackles evilly.

The Book of the 2 Sisters speaks of Luna's bitterness which transformed her. When she first appears, she intimidates the ponies with her evil laugh and pointed questions. She snidely refers to the ponies as her "beloved subjects," but appears genuinely impressed when Twilight Sparkle recognizes her as Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon uses her magic to set obstacles in Twilight and her friends' path to the Elements of Harmony indirectly, making creatures unwittingly assist her. These include the manticore, whose paw she embeds with a thorn so he'd attack the ponies, or Steven Magnet, whose mustache she cuts off so he'd make the river impassible. She further indirectly attacks the ponies by causing a cliff side to collapse underneath the ponies' hooves and making trees look like monsters. As the Shadowbolts, she tries to persuade Rainbow Dash to abandon her friends so they won't be able to cross a fallen bridge and reach the Elements of Harmony.

Despite her indirect approach, when she is attacked by the royal guards, she quickly repels them with lightning, then turns into mist and floats away. She also confronts Twilight Sparkle directly when the two charge at each other, right before shattering the Elements of Harmony.

But during her years as a shadow force, Nightmare Moon's bitterness for Celestia grew bigger and even grew more as she watched her good ego gain more then she ever could.

Then upon making her Empire a reality, Nightmare Moon took to the throne with high regards, and kept a strong hold on the Empire. But she didn't tolerate incompetency, failure, and out right stupidity. Which she took to make sure no one made her angry.

But despite all of her evilness, Nightmare Moon did have some standards on things, such as learning Diesel 10 only needed her forces help to take over Sodor and kill Wilson, Brewster, Koko, and Zephie. Nightmare Moon was outright disgusted and angered that the Xenophobic Psychopath wasted her time with his obsession of destroying Steam Locomotives and those who sided with them as she took offense to this since her Empire utilized Steam Locomotives in it. And instead coming to his aid during the fight, she left him for dead stating he was a lost cause.

Moreover, Nightmare Moon didn't share most of King Sombra's beliefs on teaching apprentices while she did make them feel pain to drive their anger harder, she did try to stay refined in the training. As for her children, Nightmare loved them all quite dearly as she wanted them to carry on in her place should she die. But she saw Umbrina Shadow as a the new Queen material for the Empire. And saw her in high regard, and was visibly heartbroken when she was banished. Even going as far as to confront Sombra about the ordeal. But Nightmare was also annoyed with how Nightmare Trix and Black Hole acted whether it was pure immaturity, or rebellious behavior. And she was not afraid to give them spankings when the occasion called for it. Nightmare Moon was also willing to come to Umbrina's aid at many points.

Throughout the series,

## Physical Appearance

Nightmare Moon was a female alicorn that stood as tall as Princess Celestia with some resemblance to Princess Luna, but her coat was midnight black colored. While her mane and tail were transparent colored dark blue and flowed like wing with twinkling stars like Luna's own mane. While her eyes had cat-like pupils while her irises are colored teal with a lighter tint in the rest of her eyeballs. With purple eyeshadow on her eyelids with her eyelashes being colored with light purple eyeliner. Nightmare Moon also shared the same cutie mark as Luna but hers was a light blue moon on a big purple blot. But more differences with Nightmare Moon from Luna was her wings were much more pointy and she had a longer pointed horn. But one of the biggest features of Nightmare Moon was her light blue armor she wore. Which consisted of a helmet with a hole for her ears and horn. A chest plate with her cutie mark on the center and four big hoof guards. Most of the time, Nightmare Moon would wear dark purple (almost black) Sith robes with blue lining with a big black cloak. She would also wear a silk purple belt to carry her Lightsabers with.

## Skills and Abilities

### Nightmare Spirit

* **Unaging:** The Nightmare Spirit was immune to aging and could not be killed by natural causes.
* **Possession:** The Nightmare Spirit could possess and corrupt anyone it infected. It never seemed to take control of its hosts and instead simply warped thier desires and turned them evil.
	+ **Mass Corruption:** The Nightmare Spirit was able to corrupt the entire population of the Moon into its evil slaves.
* **Resurrection:** The Nightmare Spirit could resurrect itself every Moon cycle.

### Weaknesses

* **Emotional Vulnerability:** The Nightmare Spirit could only possess those who were emotionally compromised such as the jealous and spiteful Luna or Rarity and her worries over being replaced.
* **Sealing:** The Nightmare Spirit was able to be sealed away on the Moon for 1000 years by Celestia.

### Nightmare Moon

* **Alicorn Physiology:** Nightmare Moon was an Alicorn with incredible power as a result.
	+ **Magic:** As with all Alicorns, Nightmare Moon was a highly adept magician and had incredible magical powers.
		- **Illusions:** Nightmare Moon used her magic to create the Shadowbolts in order to try and make Rainbow Dash abandon her friends.
	+ **Flight:** Using her wings, Nightmare Moon could fly at high speed to anywhere she chose.

* **Strength:**
* **Durability:**
* **Force Skills:** Like her good ego, Nightmare Moon was highly skilled in the Force. Being a formidable user of it. She demonstrated great prowess and strength in the use of telekinesis. During her duels with and her escape from , she displayed great skill at using telekinesis in finer, more precise tasks, such as disarming while also levitating her against a wall during her failed attempt to kill her with . She was even capable of telekinetically manipulating people's motor skills, such as when she Force choked while simultaneously forcing . Nightmare was also highly skilled in the use of Force lightning, using it as both a means of torture and execution, and was able to use it in conjunction with telekinesis, usually to send a person flying with her lightning or even to levitate her opponents while using her lightning on them, as she demonstrated on

* **Lightsaber Combat:** Nightmare Moon was also a highly skilled Lightsaber duelist. Knowing all the Lightsaber combat forms Luna mostly favored but she was also skilled in **Form VII: Jyro**. But what made Nightmare Moon a skilled duelist was her use of 2 Lightsabers at one time, using curved-hilt sabers to give her a dueling advantage against those that crossed blades with her. She was also one to use saber throw techniques

## Trivia

* Nightmare Moon will make her first official appearance in the series in