Mina, you’re behaving less like a maverick and more like a maniac…

Spike: I need an adult.
 
Mina: I am an adult.

…Ew.

@dynamicv  
I distinctly remember Luna being drained of her full-alicorn magic until she conquered her fears of Nightmare Moon. No celestial-black hair or anything. (checks comic) Yep, that’s true. She was in her shorter, ‘woona’ form, which was a really nice touch. The only reason her power would be held back was if their power stemmed from the exact same source, and until she gathered her courage, her now-awake Nightmare side was the dominant one.
 
(Honestly, a lot of people were hoping to see both Luna AND Celestia in their non-emporered form, including mortal pink-haired celestia, when they gave away their powers in the last finale. No such luck :/ )
 
Nightmare moon existed for 1000 years, it wasn’t going to die the very second Luna achieved courage :/ I should hope something like that struggled, and it did.
 
Besides, I don’t think Luna alone could off destroyed it without Rarity’s help by the time she had become Nightmare Rarity. While Nightmare Moon was all from Luna, its remaining hatred chose Rarity for a reason….her repression, her self-esteem issues, and an unknown ‘secret’ she buried deep that she would instantly have her cave. Some of Rarity’s traits DID appear in Nightmare Rarity, like all the comments of being ‘hot’. In other words, by that time, Rarity had to fight it too.

@CronoM
 
I distinctly remember Luna overcoming her fears happened before they saved Rarity. It didn’t affect the Nightmare at all. If that’s all it took, they wouldn’t have needed to do that memory spell on Rarity afterwards to destroy it.

@dynamicv  
“I’ll have to re-read carefully.”
 
You do that.
 
Like I said, your concept great fanfiction, but its in direct contradiction with the comics and that exchange was exactly what you’d expect from one separated dark half to the host.
 
Luna swore she would take over Equestria as Nightmare Moon, and ‘Nightmare Moon’ is the living embodiment of those intentions. Now Luna is saying no. This is exactly what Nightmare Moon would say without spoiling that the promise to her was a promise to herself, without spoiling what she said to everyone in the last issue.
 
Both times she internalized it, it was about her lie about its origins. In the last issue it was revealed in her ‘I have been dishonest with you, do you still accept me despite this?’ speech
 
I suspect Celestia already knew, but didn’t want to press the matter because Luna didn’t want the Mane 6 and the others to see her as the source of all their current troubles, which she indirectly was. She was trying to redeem herself.
 
Besides, its a moot point even if you ignore Luna’s constant reminders that she was lying about where it came from. When Rarity shook the half off and Luna finally conquered her inner demon, the living ‘Nightmare’ was completely gone and part of her normal subconscious again. That would not have happened if it wasn’t directly connected to Luna.

It’s weird but pleasant to see Spike interact with another comedic dragon.

@Background Pony #AD4F
 
I always imagined that, when they used the EoH on NMM, it didn’t just reform her, but banished the Nightmare Forces to the moon. Or her “dark powers”, as Luna states in Luna Eclipsed.
 
Though the villain micro might prove me wrong, I assume that lunar banishment comes with a spell to prevent leaving the moon. Which is why the Nightmare Forces had to wait before coming back (gaining energy from the lunar cycles).

@CronoM
 
I don’t remember her claiming her back-story was a lie, and looking through the comic real fast I can’t find this admission. She lied about something but I can’t seem to figure out what. Rarity being safe? I’ll have to re-read carefully.
 
I forgot to mention in my post that the Nightmare Forces (and Luna as well) say that Luna made a promise to them (ruling Equestria), which supports my theory.

@dynamicv  
more than likey she let something in to begin with. it survived the elemetns of harmony because it still had hosts on the moon.
 
dark magic is shown to subvert the minds of its users on many an occassion in mlp. whatever occured, be it her own darkness or a demon, it became the nightmare force.

@dynamicv  
A nice bit of fanfiction, but Luna already admitted it was a lot of hooey. At least 3 times in fact, twice internally and one in front of all the people of Ponyville.
 
And its not as if 1000 years is a short amount of time.

@Background Pony #AD4F  
By very definition of Luna being alive, Nightmare Moon, her darkness, cannot be a complete person. She still carries a large amount of Nightmare Moon’s personality traits, but without a body of her own, she was living off of 1000 years of hate to still exist, which she combined with Rarity. Even though she was called Nightmare Rarity, she still had some dominion over the moon until Luna challenged her directly.
 
Sort of a mix between King Piccolo from Dragon Ball and Voldemort in the first Harry Potter movie.

@CronoM  
@Background Pony #AD4F
 
Not so sure about that. The fact that there are legends about the Nightmare Forces mean they must have been around long enough for legends to be written about them.
 
Since they also seem to be the source of NMM’s desire to cause eternal night, it makes more sense to me that Luna struck a deal with them: ruling Equestria together in exchange for some help overthrowing Celestia. They do something similar to Rarity, except they did force her a bit.
 
It preserves Luna’s culpability since she chose to use their power instead of being simply controlled by it.

@CronoM  
acutally not personified. becomes an ifnection of sorts that possessed others.
 
i do think that at some point there was a demonic possession. the nightmare forces are created from nightmare moon, not before her.

@DoomPony  
Actually, its a jab at the fans who hate the Nightmarity Arc. XD This is meta-humor remember?
 
There’s a notorious group of fans that have latched onto the idea that Luna was actually telling the truth in the first few issues, despite the fact she internally admits she is lying about it constantlly and owns up to it outloud in the final issue and admits the nightmare forces are simply her dark half personified.

@toonbat
 
She wouldn’t have known about alternate Sombra.
 
But we do. So it makes a funny bit of dramatic irony for the reader.
 
 
@Background Pony #A28F
 
Practice what you preach. His post was not whining, but yours is.

@toonbat  
Redundent Reflection-Whiners can exit the door to the left. We do not need them on every page in Derpibooru, Derpibooru’s already a laughing stock for its pathetic Reflection-whiners.

So Mina is not a fan of the Reflections story arch, I take it?

@LuminoZero  
Guess I might be reading to much into it, since it’s put alongside Lumbra shipping.

Shippers are now canon in MLP continuity…I’m so scared.

@DoomPony
 
I believe what you meant to say was ‘reference’. A jab would imply that they were making fun of it, which I don’t see at all.
 
-Lumino

A nice little jab at the Nightmarity arc.

@GekkanShounen
 
Discord/Luna shipping is brought up on the last page.

@PonyPon  
This means the review is a bit off though, since those villains aren’t reformed, as it were. I guess you can argue for NM but Sombra was more blown up than reformed, unless they meant that literally.