Princess Luna

Princess Luna, formerly Night Mare Moon, is a winged unicorn, the younger sister of Princess Celestia, and the antagonist in the first two episodes of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. She is transformed back to her former self by the Elements of Harmony and returns to her duty of raising the moon and stars over Equestria every night.

Development and character design
Princess Luna's design has undergone a few changes from her first appearance in Friendship is Magic, part 2 to Luna Eclipsed. Her mane changed from opaque to translucent, and she became slightly taller and more slender. Her old design is still used in the promotional online game Canterlot Castle. Lauren Faust has stated that Luna is not yet fully-grown, and that there was some evil magic which transformed her into Night Mare Moon. When Luna is fully grown, she will not look like Night Mare Moon.

Personality
As Night Mare Moon, she was vengeful, condescending, jealous, and angry because all the ponies slept through the nights she had once brought about, whilst they played during Princess Celestia's days. The legend narrated in the first episode tells that these negative feelings were what was transformed Luna into Night Mare Moon. As Night Mare Moon, Luna appears much older and larger than her true self, comparable in size to Princess Celestia.

After being defeated as Night Mare Moon, Luna seems regretful of her actions, and is soft-spoken and gentle, particularly towards her sister. Later, in Luna Eclipsed, she is shown to act very formally towards her subjects, quick to anger and easily offended. This off-putting facade of authority, however, is revealed to be a product of her thousand-year-old customs and ideas of propriety rather than intentional rudeness, and is shown to bely her fundamentally sensitive, caring, fun-loving nature.

Although she uses informal English as Night Mare Moon, and after her defeat when talking to Celestia, no official reason has been given as to Luna's reversion to the more archaic, formal speech. One theory says that she feels obligated to do so, as she is resuming her royal duties (she may not have felt she was doing this in Season 1), and has no knowledge of modern customs.

The results of Luna's thousand-year imprisonment in the moon and her subsequent unfamiliarity with more modern customs are quite apparent in the episode Luna Eclipsed. Her arrival in Ponyville is dramatic, almost theatrical, and she reveals herself to the townsponies with a very authoritative and regal bearing. Luna speaks in a powerfully (perhaps magically) amplified voice when talking to ponies other than her sister, which she claims is traditional for Equestrian royalty. Her general speaking style is very formal, almost to the point of excess, and makes occasional use of "hath," "thy," "nay," and "thou," archaic English constructs that date, in the real world, back to the Middle Ages and earlier. Luna often uses the majestic plural "we" and "us" instead of "I" and "me" and sometimes refers to herself in the third person, in the style of a stereotypical old royal. It is also possible that the habit of referring to herself in the plural stems from her co-rulership with her sister Celestia, indicating joint decisions and leadership. However, throughout the episode, Luna tries to train herself to use gentler, more casual speech, and succeeds.

In Luna Eclipsed, Luna determinedly attempts to win the hearts of her subjects - showing her outgoing personality and vim to be seen in good light. When her initial efforts fail, she shows a great amount of disappointment in herself - being unwilling to accept further help from Twilight and instead accept that she maybe isn't wanted around Ponyville, and also a temper, as she exclaims the cancellation of all further Nightmare Nights. However, when her efforts to become liked around Ponyville succeed with help from Twilight and Pinkie pie, she shows much joy - and remains enthusiastic as she continues to play with Ponyville's residents during Nightmare Night.

Skills

 * See also magic

Like her sister, Princess Luna possess magic far beyond normal unicorn ponies. Her most significant ability is to control the moon and the night sky, bringing them out at sunset and then moving them away to make room for the dawn. As seen in Luna Eclipsed, she can bring inanimate objects to life using her magic and also can also shapeshift at will, noticeably assuming the form of Night Mare Moon.

As Night Mare Moon, she was able to take the form of objects and other beings, among them mist, thorns, and a trio of pegasus ponies who present themselves as The Shadowbolts, the doppelgänger of The Wonderbolts. As Princess Luna, she retains the power to take on the form of Night Mare Moon at her discretion, as seen towards the end of Luna Eclipsed. Princess Luna also seems to have the ability to control stormclouds and lightning bolts.

History
In The Return of Harmony Part 1, Celestia tells Twilight Sparkle and her friends that when Discord ruled over Equestria, he kept it in a state of constant chaos. Celestia goes on to describe that, seeing how miserable life was for earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi alike, Celestia and Luna rose up against him, and after discovering the Elements of Harmony, they combined their powers and defeated Discord, using a spell that turned him to stone for eternity.

One Thousand Years Ago
The narrator from Friendship is Magic, Part 1 describes how one thousand years ago, the day and night cycle of Equestria was then ruled by the two sisters: Luna, the younger, brought the night, and Celestia, who brought the day.

Unfortunately, over time Luna grew jealous of her sister: the ponies of Equestria all enjoyed and loved Celestia's daylight, but were all asleep at night. No one was awake to appreciate the beautiful night she had worked so hard to create. Eventually, this jealousy and bitterness drove Luna to become Night Mare Moon, and prevented Celestia from bringing forth the sun. She intended to keep Equestria in eternal night. Her older sister, with great sadness and regret, stopped Night Mare Moon by using the Elements of Harmony, and imprisoned her within the moon. Henceforth she became known as the Mare in the Moon and knowledge of her slowly drifted to the area of myths.

Nightmare Night
Although public knowledge of Luna, by this point known as Night Mare Moon, faded over a millenium, her most enduring legacy was the Halloween-like Equestrian holiday Nightmare Night. The mythology behind the holiday is that Nightmare Moon still freely roams the world looking for ponies to "gobble up," at least during this one night of the year. If a pony were to disguise herself as another creature or an evil pony, Night Mare Moon would ignore her and move on. To be completely certain a pony would be spared Night Mare Moon's wrath, she should leave an offering of candy directly to Night Mare Moon.

Although the actual Night Mare Moon likely didn't consume other ponies, she did have a brief reign of terror as she held the world in perpetual night before being ousted by Celestia. A number of details about the holiday's myth - taking place during night, Night Mare Moon as a vengeful spirit demanding offerings - suggest that its origins do come from Luna's rebellion.

Escape
Eventually, a thousand years pass. The studious Twilight Sparkle reads about the legend which prophesied that Night Mare Moon will return on the night of the Summer Sun Celebration, held in honor of Princess Celestia and the longest day in Equestria. As foretold, Night Mare Moon escapes and soon appears in place of Celestia at the festival.

Twilight is the only pony, with the exception of Celestia, who anticipated Night Mare Moon's return; however, she did not warn anyone as Celestia encouraged her to use her time to make friends. Once again, Night Mare Moon desires to bring forth eternal night upon Equestria. Twilight knows that only the Elements of Harmony could stop her, and sets out on a quest to find them along with her five future friends: Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Having overheard this, the evil mare tries to stop them with different obstacles. After many hardships, the six ponies realize that their own virtues as a pony and a friend are the true Elements of Harmony. Using the six elements - honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, and magic, the ponies are able to transform Night Mare Moon back into Luna.

Redemption
Purged of her dark emotions, Night Mare Moon transforms back into Princess Luna. Celestia offers to put the past aside and start anew, with the two of them co-ruling Equestria together as sisters. Filled with remorse and shame for her actions, a tearful Luna apologizes to her sister.

The two sisters are reunited and the balance between day and night is restored.

Luna is last seen at the end of episode two, attending Pinkie Pie's party by her sister's side. She seems sad about attempting to shroud Equestria in eternal night, but is cheered up when the ponies of Ponyville welcome her and wreath her in flowers.

Season two
Princess Luna returned to the show exactly one year after the broadcast date of Friendship is Magic, part 2, in the episode Luna Eclipsed. The episode takes place in Ponyville during Nightmare Night. Princess Luna arrives in Ponyville and introduces herself to the townsponies, who are frightened of her booming voice and assertive manner. When Twilight Sparkle sees this, she approaches Luna and tries to get her to speak more softly and participate in the celebrations. This is somewhat successful, but through a series of misunderstandings aggravated by Pinkie Pie, Luna's efforts to endear herself to the ponies are seemingly set back. At one point the townsponies panic over Luna's behavior, and in frustration she decrees that Nightmare Night is canceled forever. With Pinkie Pie's insight, Twilight Sparkle realizes that because of the holiday, some ponies actually want to be scared, and arranges for Luna to purposefully scare several foals by playing the role of Night Mare Moon, even having Luna wear false fangs. One of the foals, Pipsqueak, approaches Luna on behalf of the children and asks her to come back and scare them again next year, even though she cancelled Nightmare Night. Luna begins to understand and reinstates Nightmare Night, at which point Pipsqueak declares her "his favorite princess ever," hugs her leg, and this makes Luna happy.

Appearances

 * See also character appearances


 * S1E01: Friendship is Magic, part 1 as Night Mare Moon
 * S1E02: Friendship is Magic, part 2 as Night Mare Moon and Princess Luna
 * S2E04: Luna Eclipsed as Night Mare Moon and Princess Luna

Gallery

 * Princess Luna and Night Mare Moon image gallery

Trivia

 * Princess Luna, alongside Princess Celestia, were both based on the G1 Princess Ponies from the 1980s animated series.
 * Luna means "moon" in Latin. The Friendship is Magic book, which comes with one of the gift sets of the toys, references her as Selena, "selene" (Σελήνη) meaning "moon" in Greek. More specifically, Luna is the Latin name for the Greek moon goddess Selene, who is the daughter of Hyperion and Theia in Greek mythology. Additionally, in the European French dub, Night Mare Moon was renamed as La Jument Séléniaque, which literally means "The Selene Mare."
 * When imprisoned in the moon, Luna appears as a dark area on the moon's surface. A similar shape in astronomy is called a lunar mare (Latin for "sea", pronounced "mah-rey").
 * Night Mare Moon's title, "Mare in the Moon", is a play on the mythological Man in the Moon.
 * Princess Luna's Royal Guards appear to be quite different from Princess Celestia's guards, wearing differently styled armor and, most significantly, having dragon- or bat-like wings instead of traditional feathered pegasus wings. It is possible that these alterations were brought about by magic and only made for the festive occasion of Nightmare Night.
 * Princess Luna's carriage appears to have several differences from the feather-winged chariot-style carriages seen in use by Princess Celestia: Luna's carriages have a more aggressive, gothic-like style with streamlined shapes evoking bat- or dragon-wings as well as arrowlike or spearlike accents, and are attached to her Royal Guards via heavy chains. Luna's carriages are also built low to the ground, and are styled as if they were built for speed. It is possible that this carriage was specially designed and built for use only on the Nightmare Night festival.
 * Princess Luna is able to instantly identify Twilight Sparkle's obscure costume as that of the venerable historical magician Star Swirl the Bearded (seemingly no relation to the already named pony Star Swirl), even going so far as to state that Twilight "even got the bells right," indicating that Star Swirl the Bearded lived during Luna's time and the Princess was familiar with him.