Apr
7th
2015
Some Luna head-canon · 3:50am Apr 7th, 2015
Fanon says that Luna sleeps during the day and rules / watches the stars / walks thru dreams at night. I'm planning a couple of Luna short stories, and I thought, Wouldn't it make more sense for her to visit other ponies' dreams while she herself is asleep?
So she sleeps at night, like everypony else, but that's not when she rests; that's when she works--in her sleep. She isn't around the castle during the day, because when she wakes up, she's exhausted, and to get her rest, she has to play all day when she's awake.
Does that contradict canon? Please tell me that doesn't contradict canon.
I always maintained that when she did her dreamwalking thing, she was in a meditative state or something. I don't think your ideas contradict canon, though.
I like that headcanon. I say keep it.
This is how most dream work is done to begin with. It can be done in a trance state but I dont see that happening here. And trance states can be unstable depending on multiple factors. I havent done dream work in some time (mostly do to their being no current need). You also have to factor in the fact that dream walking allows access to a lot of other realms. The astral and realm of the dead, not just dreams.
We have also seen Luna around during the day many times throughout the show. We even see her at sundown raising the moon then going into her tower. We have also seen her awake at night. I would say she does two things. One being a normal wake/sleep cycle like you posit. Secondly I would imagine that a part of her mind is always in the dream world, keeping on eye on things so to speak. That if during the day she could trance out and tend to any sleeping ponies dream issues. The majority of her nightly dream issues/duties would of course be at night and she would be asleep to better facilitate this. I would also imagine with her power she could also be in more then one location at a time. Sort of like taking bi-location to a whole other level. That or she is assessing each nightmare on intensity level and intervening only in the worst ones when there a multiples cases happening at the same time.
This would depend on what you want to consider an alicorn. A pony with god level magic, or an actual deity figure. If just a pony then how much of this is mental training and magic (a bucket load of various spells interwoven to allow her to do what she does) or if a deity then splitting her attention across multiple minds at any given time woulndt be an issue. But then would she really need to sleep at that point? Or is her body mortal though unaging but her mind and magic (could actually be one and the same) the part that isnt and so can be in everywhere when needed.
And there is also the question of what else was she keeping at bay besides nightmares. If anything. I think other fanfictions i've read are bleeding into what I recall from the show and comics.
Eh, somethings to think on.
It contradicts the IDW comics canon.
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Possibly the show canon (Luna could have missed the Cadence's wedding 'cause she was asleep), but I don't believe it was ever explicitly stated. You could probably watch the beginning of Season 1, Episode 1 to see exactly what they say about Luna and Celestia.
On the other hand, it's your story.
The reason it seems canon for her to be active at night rather than day is fairly intuitive: She contrasts with Celestia (even in the depictions of them as sister alicorns ruling the night and day); dark and light, moon and sun, stars and earth, dream and reality (reality which Luna seems to have a harder time grounding in, if you set aside 1000 years of isolation).
I don't think there really is a canon to explain what Luna does during the night, aside from dream-walk. All else seems fanon to me, and I've wondered lately (for long-running story ideas) whether she is actually sleeping or simply meditating during her dream-walks.
I think it would be very interesting (and unique) to set aside that intuitive "canon" and go for what you're thinking. I have no doubt you could make it work.
The Mare in the Moon
Sits on her throne:
She's never asleep
She's never alone.
The Mare in the Moon
Comes in the night:
If you've been bad
She'll give you a fright.
The Mare in the Moon
Sits on her throne:
She's never asleep
She's never alone.
--from Princess Twilight's Castle, by Bobtail Silvermane
At least on the show proper, I don't think it does. In my mind, For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils actually supports your idea, since Luna appears in-person during the daytime
Consider the Season Two finale, A Canterlot Wedding. It gives us proof that Luna spends the day away from the castle. As night begins to fall, she flies in through Shining Armor's Shield to the tower with the telescope and says to Celestia, "...As always, I will guard the night."
Continuing from there, Twilight runs through the castle grounds (at night) and Luna calls out, "Who's there? Stay indoors, Twilight Sparkle."
And of course, she appears at the very end, as it transitions to evening, asking if she's missed anything. Once more, this suggests that she spends the day away from the castle, and even away from Canterlot.
It doesn't seem like a nocturnal cycle to me. If she were merely sleeping during the day, why would she leave the city to do it? Celestia sleeps in the castle, after all.
I think you're fine.
On an unrelated note, 2955146
I love disheveled Celestia. That is amazing.
No, your idea does not contradict canon, and may or may not be supported by it. Hard to say how dream walking works though; we've never actually see her do it.
I do think the idea of her being asleep for it is logical, but it obviously isn't the only possible way for it to work.
2955164
That's excellent.
2955181
In addition, in the shot where she flies through the shield, she begins it superimposed on the moon. Maybe she got so used to it during her exile, that she spends the day up there.
2955164
Dammit, when are you gunna wri-
Oh, right.
...
When are you gunna get featured again?
Given that apparently she has time during the day to break into ponies' homes to personally discipline and/or help random fillies that have been naughty at the precise moment when it's the most convenient, and then sticks around to appreciate the results (see For Whom the Sweetie Belle Tolls), I would say there is room to assume she spends a lot of her day just horsing around.
Seems like a fine bit of canon to me. Nothing immediately contradictory springs to mind, and even if it did there's nothing to say she always follows the same pattern.
Maybe she keeps a hoof in each realm just to keep an eye on things.
2955146
I just realized this is where Skywriter got the idea for the hilarious Snow Day Festival.
I heavily agree with this, as if she was up all night, she would have to deal with nightmares and other dream issues all night long, leaving for no other work being done, so your idea logically makes sense.
2955264
Yep!
It's a fine idea, but it contradicts primary canon and extended canon.
In primary canon, Luna takes over watch of the city when Celestia goes to sleep. She has only been seen in the early evening or at night. She missed the battle with the changelings because she was asleep. EDIT: She was seen once during the day meeting with Sweetie Belle, and on a couple of formal meeting occasions.
In extended canon, Luna handles the night shift of royal duties, which is far less taxing than the day shift. Because of this, she does some adventuring to help combat monsters. She probably also enters dreams during this time.
2955201
Really? See my response.
Well, we've never seen Luna's body when she's dreamwalking, so she could be asleep, and she was up and about in the day in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils". That said, she does spend some part of the night awake, as others have noted. Depending on how powerful you want to make Luna, she may not actually need to sleep as a form of physiological recovery and can be active whenever she wants to be.
(And honestly, between the comics and the sheer weight of minor details, the state of pony canon is becoming... tricky.)
Well, for starters, the day may be divided into two 12-hour slices, but most people (and ponies too, I presume) only sleep eight hours, more or less out of that, so there's substantial crossover between Celestia and Luna around Breakfast/Dinner. (reminds me of Ralph and Sam from Loony Tunes)
I don't see the Dreamscape as a physical place, but more a place where Luna can daydream her way into at any time she sees/feels a disturbance. (Her Highness looked a little distracted at Evening Court tonight, didn't she?) Even when Luna is sleeping during the day, she can still glide in and out of dreamers and daydreamer's minds, so she's the only alicorn on-call 24/7.
2955821
Also as NMM she could actually split her body into at least 3 separate ponies, whether this applies to Luna is anyone's head canon, I prefer to think all of NMM's powers were Luna's own and she was just being crazy given that she's later seen turning back and forth into NMM and that she was actually more magically impressive as Luna than as NMM in the show.
I've seen fics that have her using this ability very effectively, she could have some part of herself resting and another part out and about.
Canon, schmanon.
And here I was trying to sync Luna's sleep cycle up with the moon.
That is:
Celestia is awake when the sun is up.
Luna is awake when the moon is up.
Some days, they're awake for hours and hours and hours together. Some days, they hardly see each other. It's fairly predictable, so they schedule activities around it.
2956610
Pachelbel, Taco Bell
Maaaaaaaan...I literally just thought of this like last week! And I was all happy cuz i thought it was all original and stuff. Gruh. Well, you beat me to it. Though it does appear you're thinking about it in a slightly (but perhaps significant) different way than me. So yay.
But no, I don't think it contradicts canon, and even so, this is fanfiction brah--do what you want!
2959738 If you thought of it last week, then congratulations! You beat me to it.
2960826
Yeah but see I can't prove that, and you're the one who spoke up about it, so really you did beat me to it.
2961035 All that means is you can't patent it.
Definitely contradicts IDW comics canon - from Luna's wiki entry;
.
Show canon, however - well, asides from the fact that she went all Nightmare Moon over the fact that everypony else was awake during the day and slept through her night (S1 intro), there's nothing that explicitly says she doesn't _now_. I'd find it hard to reconcile those two facts, however - even if she no longer thinks it worth trying to kill her sister over, that she _used_ to think it was would indicate to me that she would be very unwilling to do exactly the same thing that p'd her off in the first place.
2962550 i think s2 finale (w/e the one with chrysalis is) makes that fanon impossible, as she specifically is seen watching over the town at night.
3053723 That's the one where she's on-screen for about 2 seconds, right? But Luna is so bad-ass she can watch over the city IN HER SLEEP!
But that can't be her normal duty. The monarch of a country doesn't spend her time on sentry duty watching over one city. And Shining Armor doesn't cast a shield spell over the city every day either. They were on heightened alert.