Princess Luna

Princess Luna is a character from the My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic franchise.

Princess Luna is Princess Celestia's younger sister and Equestria's co-ruler, in the first episode of season one, she was the antagonist Nightmare Moon who threatened to create an eternal night. She was later purged by the Elements of Harmony, and was invited by her sister to rule by her side. Princess Luna now enters the dreams of her subjects, mostly children, to assist them in defeating their nightmares.

Appearance
Luna is a small alicorn with moderate cyan eyes. She has sapphire-blue hair and has a dark-blue coat and wings.

As Nightmare Moon
Much like the archetypal, over-the-top villains, Nightmare Moon is overly confident of herself and dramatically declares that the protagonist 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 in Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2.

Bitterness
The narration at the beginning of Friendship is Magic, part 1 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.

Manipulation
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.

Remorse
Once transformed back to her former self, Princess Luna is remorseful and tearful upon seeing her older sister. She runs to Celestia's side, apologizing for what she had done. The two sisters later join the celebration in Ponyville, where Luna receives a welcome wreath in wonderment, and gazes up with an anxious smile at her older sister. However, as stated in Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?, Luna's sense of guilt causes her to create the Tantabus in order to give herself nightmares every night as punishment for the suffering she caused as Nightmare Moon.

Excessive Decorum
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. Despite wanting to win over the citizens of Ponyville, the townspeople are frightened of her booming voice and assertive manner. Twilight Sparkle tells Spike that Luna must be having trouble adjusting after being gone for a thousand years.

When Luna tries to express her happiness with being purged of her dark powers, Twilight tells her that she sounds like she's yelling, and Luna explains that she's using the "traditional Canterlot voice," the royal we, and high volume in order to properly address her subjects. She uses archaic terms like "hath," "thy," "nay," and "thou," as well as other constructs.

Twilight encourages Luna to lower the volume of her voice, but Luna is hesitant. Twilight Sparkle recruits Fluttershy's help in teaching Luna to speak in a softer voice, and later takes her to Ponyville so Applejack can show her how to be likable. For a short while, Luna manages to mingle with the villagers of Ponyville and have fun with them, by playing games where she throws toy spiders or pumpkins onto a target. In Sleepless in Ponyville she seems to show less of her former decorum, dispensing with the royal we, and speaking in a far less harsh manner.

Temper
Princess Luna reverts to her intimidating self after Pinkie Pie accuses her of eating Pipsqueak, while she was actually saving him from drowning in the apple bob. She attempts to endear herself to the villagers by turning toy spiders into real spiders, trying to elicit "fun" by making them crawl on their own to the bulls-eye, but the spiders only frighten everyone. The villagers panic and flee, and after a few seconds of indecision, Luna stops the commotion by shouting "Be still!" in her royal Canterlot voice, to the accompaniment of a crack of thunder. She then decrees in anger that since the ponies dishonor and insult her with the celebration, Nightmare Night is canceled forever.

Playfulness
Thanks to Pinkie Pie's insight, Twilight Sparkle realizes that because of the holiday, Pinkie Pie and her entourage actually want to be frightened, so she arranges for Luna to purposefully scare them. Luna appears as Nightmare Moon, scares the ponies, and bares fangs. After the ponies run away in fright, she changes back to her usual appearance and spits out the false fangs she was wearing, confused as to why Twilight wanted her to do that. Then Pipsqueak approaches Luna on behalf of the children and asks her to come back and scare them again next year, even though she canceled Nightmare Night. Luna begins to understand and reinstates Nightmare Night, at which point Pipsqueak declares her his "favorite princess ever" and hugs her leg.

The princess manages to relinquish the use of her royal Canterlot voice, and in the epilogue she plays a variety of games with the villagers, accepts the foals' candy, and frightens Rainbow Dash by firing a bolt of lightning behind her, a trick that Rainbow Dash had been playing on other ponies over the course of the night.

Kindness and Wisdom
In the episode Sleepless in Ponyville, she displays kindness and offers wise advice to Scootaloo when she tells her to face her fears. At the end of the episode she gives Scootaloo a wink and a smile, as she knows that Scootaloo has faced her fears and she also knows that she has Rainbow Dash to help her overcome them.

In For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, Luna once again appears in a nightmare; this time, in Sweetie Belle's nightmare. She gives advice to Sweetie Belle and tells her that she as well has a sister that often "shines more brightly" than her and that she struggles with it. She then takes Sweetie Belle into the past at her fifth birthday party and shows her that Rarity did not want to take over the party, just simply save it. Later, Luna tells Sweetie to go inside a door of what the future might hold if she does not fix her sabotage of the headpiece Rarity had designed for Sapphire Shores. Later in the episode, Luna appears again in Canterlot in order to help Sweetie Belle undo the damage she did to the headpiece.

Abilities

 * Alicorn Physiology: Being a Alicorn, Princess Luna can fly and use magic.


 * Magic: Luna has great levels of magic just like her older sister Princess Celestia.
 * Spell Casting: Luna can perform many magical spells.
 * Moon Control: Luna is powerful enough to make the moon rise.
 * Transformation: Luna can transform into Nightmare Moon.
 * Weather Manipulation:
 * Transmutation: Luna can turn toy spiders into real spiders.
 * Dream Walking: Being the "Princess of the Night", Luna can enter any pony's dream.
 * Dream Manipulation: Luna can other ponies' dreams to other through doors, She cam also use the Dream World to show the past, present and future as shown with Sweetie Belle, She can allow ponies to share a dream with ease other and combine other ponies' dreams into one.
 * Magical Beam Emission: Luna can shoot magical beams from her horn.
 * Telekinesis: Luna can use her magic to lift and control objects.
 * Flight: Luna can use her wings to fly.

Trivia

 * The single-volume storybook adaptation of the pilot episodes refers to her as Selena; Word of God says "Her name was Selena for a short time, but there were legal problems with it. Guess the book writer didn't get the info."
 * Luna has two designs; the dark blue coat with ethereal mane is her main design used now, but her light purple design with a normal blue mane was used for her first appearance in the series premiere, before she debuted the other design in Season 2 and kept it. Lauren Faust said Luna's smaller form upon her initial restoration was due to her low power levels, and she later recovered and took on her larger form as the show now depicted, but admits she made up the explanation on the spot and (at the time) didn't know how the current showrunners would explain it. They didn't, and while the show now ignores the original design (even flashbacks use the current design), other materials including the comics, toyline, and the mobile game, use either design interchangably, making it unlikely that a real explanation exists beyond "they use the design they feel like using."
 * "Castle Mane-ia" reveals that when she was younger, Luna was frightened by Celestia's choice of decor.