My thoughts on Nightmare Moon. · 8:13am Apr 19th, 2013
I really don't believe some sort of dark power took over Luna as most fan works depict. Her line in “Luna Eclipsed” is very telling to me. “They have never liked us”. I don't think this was just Luna's low self-esteem. I think it was the truth of her pre-banishment life that stemmed from three factors:
1. She's probably always had difficulty with relationships. Even when happy, Luna seems to me to give off an awkward vibe even worse that Twilight. Looking at how poor that pony was at making friends at start of the series, you have to wonder how Luna did. I don't think early fan interpretations of her cloistered in the library with her abacus are too far off.
2. Luna has probably always been in sister's shadow, starting from Luna probably being the younger of the two. Celestia seems to have an easy way with people that Luna lacks. I'll bet from an early age Celestia got most of the attention, even when Luna was critical to any great deeds the two did. Luna must love her sister, but you have to to think the seed of jealousy was planted there and was at that point unrelated to their celestial roles.
3. The above two reasons must have feed into the fact that Luna probably grew up and came to power in a superstitious time where her affinity for the night made her a figure of fear. We can see from various episodes that ponies are quick to panic. A rarely-seen god-like figure that came out after dark? Of course terrible rumors would spread even if Celestia worked to correct them. From her two major appearances, Luna seems to have a special fondness for children and parents telling their kids “Eat your spinach or Princess Luna will come for you!” must have been cutting.
In the end I think Luna went gradually and quietly insane. Celestia must have known things were going wrong, but was unaware of the full scope and/or unable to solve the problem. I can see her trying to involve her sister in various activities, introduce her to potential companions, and just trying to have bonding time with it all failing in the end. Luna's growing jealousy of Celestia and the love she got from everyone must have worked against any intervention. Either what happened at the Crystal Empire was final straw or the last time the sisters ever worked together. Nightmare came soon after that.
Note: For a good example of my interpretation, see Obselescence's "Love, in All Its Forms".
Any (polite) thoughts are welcome.
This is exactly how I interpret it as well.
I would like to note that in the show, "dark powers" are usually accompanied by insanity.
The three best examples are Discord (duh), King Sombra (He manages to formulate a single three-word sentence at his best. Thousand years in a glacier can do that to you.) and, indeed, Nightmare Moon (who thinks that if she brings an eternal night that will destroy all life her subjects are going to love her).
I would assume that Nightmare Moon's dark powers either stem from her madness or Luna, in her madness, sought dark powers to overthrow Celestia.
Either way, the point is, as you put it very well, that Luna turning evil was her own decision (probably in a state of mental disorder).
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Thank you. We'll see how Season 4 will treat my hypothesis.