Post by Nightmare Moon on Jul 24, 2011 0:21:47 GMT -5
(Note: This entire post is OOC)
(Note 2: This post is very out of date. Nightmare Moon has obtained a true body, and no longer requires a mortal host. She has also regained the entirety of her former powers, and stands equal to Celestia and Luna in this regard.)
As a major character in the first two episodes, everypony should already know who Nightmare Moon is. However, not much information was actually provided by the show regarding her powers and motivations, so I've had to develop a lot of fannon for my ask tumblr (some of which, up till now, only existed in my head). I present here things that I hold true about the particular incarnation of Nightmare Moon that I play here (in the main time line, at least) and on my blog.
Origins:
Nightmare Moon is a being of dark magic, originally created by Princess Luna accidentally, in a fit of rage and sadness she experienced when everypony forgot her 14th birthday. Luna came to treat the strange new voice in her head as a kind of imaginary friend, in whom she confided the jealousy, anger, and loneliness she felt at a world she thought had abandoned her. As Nightmare Moon grew rapidly in power over the next several months, she came to truly love and adore Luna (who was mother, host, and companion all in one), and to hate a world that could cause her beloved such pain. In time, however, Nightmare Moon grew so powerful as to subsume Luna's consciousness and take over her body. She immediately attempted to bring about eternal night, believing it would force everypony (especially Celestia) to respect and love Luna. As everypony knows, she failed, Celestia banished her to the moon, she escaped, and was defeated by the mane six.
After the defeat:
The power of the elements of harmony forcibly tore Nightmare Moon from Luna and severely weakened her. However, the elements could not destroy her entirely, and she was left a broken, incorporeal spirit, bereft of any power to manipulate the physical world. Over time she pulled herself together, moving through Equestria invisibly and spying on the mane six. A year following her defeat, she had managed to regain enough of her former power to manipulate small objects (and by extension, electrical switches inside computers), an ability which she used to manipulate several ponynet routers, creating a blog to taunt her enemies (and embezzling several hundred thousand bits from various royal and governmental expense accounts).
Recent history:
(These events occurred on my tumblr and are summed up here for those who missed them.)
Nightmare Moon began sending stalkerish comments to Princess Luna. She was contacted by Arcel, an illusionist pony interested in trying to reform her. Arcel aided her in acquiring a coma patient to use as a new host body. Nightmare Moon encountered the young filly Sunny Days wandering in the Everfree Forest, and tricked her into getting stuck in a mire. Typewryter, Sunny Days' godfather, used illusions to trick Nightmare Moon into swearing an oath to never intentionally harm him or Princess Luna. Arcel, as a reform attempt, challenged Nightmare Moon to live as a mortal pony, inspiring her to create Nightsky Melody ponysona. Most recently, Nightmare Moon has provisionally accepted Arcel and Typewryter as her friends, after a drinking experiment lead to an alcohol fuelled breakdown which caused her to admit feelings of loneliness and uselessness at being separated from Luna.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
When incorporeal, Nightmare Moon is extremely vulnerable. She has little to no defence against magic in this form. However, she is naturally invisible, invulnerable to non-magical injury, and is only able to use her ability to manipulate machines while in this form. Additionally, she retains the ability to produce non-tactile illusions, and can (with extreme difficulty) lure simple-minded creatures (insects, parasprites, and other purely instinctual creatures) to do her bidding.
When inhabiting the body of a unicorn, she regains a larger portion of her former power. In terms of raw power, in this form she would fall somewhere above Trixie but below Twilight Sparkle (and vastly below Luna and Celestia). While she often uses illusions to make herself appear to be an alicorn, she cannot truly fly in this form.
Though she has not yet inhabited an earth pony or pegasus, if she ever should, she would temporarily lose access to her magic while inhabiting said host, gaining the host's strength or flying ability at whatever levels the former owner possessed.
As an additional note, Pinkie Pie is completely immune to any illusion Nightmare Moon can produce, and can see her even when she is incorporeal.
Nightsky Melody:
Nightmare Moon's mortal disguise, Nightsky Melody, currently rents a small apartment in Ponyville, and works at Sofas & Quills levitating heavy pieces of furniture around. She claims to be from Fillydelphia, having moved due to her house and possessions being destroyed by parasprites.
Appearance:
When incorporeal, Nightmare Moon is either invisible, or uses illusions to depict a fuzzy, shadowy image of a mare.
When inhabiting her current host and undisguised by any illusions, she looks like this:
Normally, she uses tactile illusions to make her host appear as she did in 'The Mare in the Moon':
When disguised as Nightsky Melody, she looks like an ordinary unicorn with a moon and musical note cutie mark:
Addendum: I didn't think this would ever come up again, but everypony seems to keep getting drunk and pulling NMM into it. Due to NMM tampering with her host body's metabolism, she gets very drunk, very quickly. The upside to this is she gets over it very quickly too, and can survive what would be fatal alcohol poisoning in any other pony.
(Note 2: This post is very out of date. Nightmare Moon has obtained a true body, and no longer requires a mortal host. She has also regained the entirety of her former powers, and stands equal to Celestia and Luna in this regard.)
As a major character in the first two episodes, everypony should already know who Nightmare Moon is. However, not much information was actually provided by the show regarding her powers and motivations, so I've had to develop a lot of fannon for my ask tumblr (some of which, up till now, only existed in my head). I present here things that I hold true about the particular incarnation of Nightmare Moon that I play here (in the main time line, at least) and on my blog.
Origins:
Nightmare Moon is a being of dark magic, originally created by Princess Luna accidentally, in a fit of rage and sadness she experienced when everypony forgot her 14th birthday. Luna came to treat the strange new voice in her head as a kind of imaginary friend, in whom she confided the jealousy, anger, and loneliness she felt at a world she thought had abandoned her. As Nightmare Moon grew rapidly in power over the next several months, she came to truly love and adore Luna (who was mother, host, and companion all in one), and to hate a world that could cause her beloved such pain. In time, however, Nightmare Moon grew so powerful as to subsume Luna's consciousness and take over her body. She immediately attempted to bring about eternal night, believing it would force everypony (especially Celestia) to respect and love Luna. As everypony knows, she failed, Celestia banished her to the moon, she escaped, and was defeated by the mane six.
After the defeat:
The power of the elements of harmony forcibly tore Nightmare Moon from Luna and severely weakened her. However, the elements could not destroy her entirely, and she was left a broken, incorporeal spirit, bereft of any power to manipulate the physical world. Over time she pulled herself together, moving through Equestria invisibly and spying on the mane six. A year following her defeat, she had managed to regain enough of her former power to manipulate small objects (and by extension, electrical switches inside computers), an ability which she used to manipulate several ponynet routers, creating a blog to taunt her enemies (and embezzling several hundred thousand bits from various royal and governmental expense accounts).
Recent history:
(These events occurred on my tumblr and are summed up here for those who missed them.)
Nightmare Moon began sending stalkerish comments to Princess Luna. She was contacted by Arcel, an illusionist pony interested in trying to reform her. Arcel aided her in acquiring a coma patient to use as a new host body. Nightmare Moon encountered the young filly Sunny Days wandering in the Everfree Forest, and tricked her into getting stuck in a mire. Typewryter, Sunny Days' godfather, used illusions to trick Nightmare Moon into swearing an oath to never intentionally harm him or Princess Luna. Arcel, as a reform attempt, challenged Nightmare Moon to live as a mortal pony, inspiring her to create Nightsky Melody ponysona. Most recently, Nightmare Moon has provisionally accepted Arcel and Typewryter as her friends, after a drinking experiment lead to an alcohol fuelled breakdown which caused her to admit feelings of loneliness and uselessness at being separated from Luna.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
When incorporeal, Nightmare Moon is extremely vulnerable. She has little to no defence against magic in this form. However, she is naturally invisible, invulnerable to non-magical injury, and is only able to use her ability to manipulate machines while in this form. Additionally, she retains the ability to produce non-tactile illusions, and can (with extreme difficulty) lure simple-minded creatures (insects, parasprites, and other purely instinctual creatures) to do her bidding.
When inhabiting the body of a unicorn, she regains a larger portion of her former power. In terms of raw power, in this form she would fall somewhere above Trixie but below Twilight Sparkle (and vastly below Luna and Celestia). While she often uses illusions to make herself appear to be an alicorn, she cannot truly fly in this form.
Though she has not yet inhabited an earth pony or pegasus, if she ever should, she would temporarily lose access to her magic while inhabiting said host, gaining the host's strength or flying ability at whatever levels the former owner possessed.
As an additional note, Pinkie Pie is completely immune to any illusion Nightmare Moon can produce, and can see her even when she is incorporeal.
Nightsky Melody:
Nightmare Moon's mortal disguise, Nightsky Melody, currently rents a small apartment in Ponyville, and works at Sofas & Quills levitating heavy pieces of furniture around. She claims to be from Fillydelphia, having moved due to her house and possessions being destroyed by parasprites.
Appearance:
When incorporeal, Nightmare Moon is either invisible, or uses illusions to depict a fuzzy, shadowy image of a mare.
When inhabiting her current host and undisguised by any illusions, she looks like this:
Normally, she uses tactile illusions to make her host appear as she did in 'The Mare in the Moon':
When disguised as Nightsky Melody, she looks like an ordinary unicorn with a moon and musical note cutie mark:
Addendum: I didn't think this would ever come up again, but everypony seems to keep getting drunk and pulling NMM into it. Due to NMM tampering with her host body's metabolism, she gets very drunk, very quickly. The upside to this is she gets over it very quickly too, and can survive what would be fatal alcohol poisoning in any other pony.
