Okay, so this has been bugging me for a while, and I couldn't hold back any longer. What is Nightmare Moon's hidden talent?

I mean when Daybreaker emerged in Starlight dream, she could breath fire, which begs a question for another time. So what can Nightmare Moon do?

I know a lot would jump right to saying she can gobble ponies up, but I feel that was a made up story told to keep little ones from wandering off at night, and probably would have breathed true for Daybreaker had she been the ine banished, though I could be wrong. (Not that the show staff would validate, one way or the other anyways.)

I would think she has an ability to turn ponies over to the dark side to make them nocturnal. (hense why we saw bat ponies in the reality where she had won.) But how did she do it?.... vampiric bite perhaps? Would explain the elongated fangs she had. Other then that, I got nothing. But I'd like to hear what you think her hidden talent is.

I believe its that mist form/shapeshifting ability she had in the very first episode.

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Not that moving the moon is enough but being able to turn into any object Even if it's purple is probably the hidden talent she holds like AKA turning into mist, thorn, forming into something that caused them to slide down cliff, etc, etc (Hint, Hint, Morping)

6298994
I suppose. But I feel that Daybreaker could pull off something similar, like taking off in a stream of fire.

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That was a good deduction of the mist power. But like I said, I feel Daybreaker could pull off something similar.

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I would think she has an ability to turn ponies over to the dark side.

I'm going with this, but less about powers and more about sussing out and playing upon hidden resentments. She can perform all sorts of impressive things due to her nature and skill at magic, but her talent, what really motivates and defines her is a little more nebulous and unbounded.

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I believe its that mist form/shapeshifting ability she had in the very first episode.

That, and the 'turning into the Shadowbolts' thing.

Guess both could be 'simple' spells that Luna technically still know, but only Nightmare Moon had the raw power for, though.

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I believe your guess is technically canon. In one of the IDW comics on Nightmare Moon, I believe she corrupted the dream spirits... creatures... things... that were inhabiting the moon.

But it's also been a while since I last read that comic. I think its one of the fiendship ones.

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I'm pretty sure in the comic the Nightmare was one of the moon people, who'd convinced Luna to let them in.

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The Fiendship comic is a little bit weird, but we learn in the Nightmare Rarity arc that the creature is probably just called "Nightmare", since Nightmare Rarity talked about how the Mane 6 defeated her once before.
She didn't say "Nightmare Moon", "my former incarnation", "my sister" or anything like that, she directly says that they defeated her, nightmare rarity, in the past.
Which, in my opinion, tells us two things:

• The Creature is not just bound to Luna and is not a pony and names itself as a combination of "Nightmare" and the name of the pony (which leads us to)
• it's special talent is Possession

Later Nightmare Rarity reveals that she can create visions both of the worst
nightmare a pony has as well as of what they wish for the most. These powers might, however, stem from her connection to the race of the Nyx, the guardians and bringer of all dreams who live on the moon, as shown in her Fiendship comic.
There it is revealed that she tricked a Nyx into teaching her the craft of creating and manipulating dreams and, through that, even menories.

PS of course, since she isn't a pony but more fittingly described as a demonic creature, she probably doesn't have a special talent at all. At least not one like ponies have thanks to/in relation to their cutie marks. Nightmare Moon/Rarity doesn't have a cutie mark of her own, just the one her host has.