I didn't like NMM being retconned as a demon neither. I mean the pilot doesn't make sense in this way (Why does Celestia ask Luna to apologize if the latter is a mere victim of possession?) The other thing that was bad was the Mane6 being able to summon the rainbow of light without the elements of Harmony just like Equestria Girls. Otherwise I did like the arc but yeah I see this as non-canon.
Actually, the whole "Nightmare Moon is due to an outside corrupting force" thing was actually Word of God since way back in season one.
Still a retcon I quote the pilot
"the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon"
Well, I thought that Luna was still bitter about the ponies not appreciating her nights, and that the Nightmare's just took advantage of this.
In fact, the Mane Six got friendship powers without even Twilight's crown this time. There was also the matter of lassoing the moon, something I thought was a bit much even for Equestria. But both of those were minor annoyances in comparison.
"Nightmare Moon is due to an outside corrupting force" does not imply a puppeteer parasite. It is like the difference between falling to the dark side of the Force and being possessed by the ghost of a Sith. Just imagine Darth Vader now separate from Anakin and wearing Lando's body! And even if it were exactly what the original author had wanted all along, I would still call it a terrible idea.
The Nightmare did appear to take advantage of inner fears and negative feelings. But we saw the whole process at work on Rarity. All it took was one moment of fear, confusion and doubtful consent. Plus there is another monster queen who can feed on and control ponies through their emotions... of love. Is Shining guilty too?
The thing is, if Luna's Nightmare Moon stint had been fully her own doing, then the ending of the first episodes would have been much MORE jarring. It would have made Luna too evil to be redeemed with a simple apology. She tried to kill her sister, for crissakes!
I actually think it's possible to reconcile both points. Nightmare Moon being an outside force isn't entirely incompatable with Luna herself falling to darkness, if you just consider it like this:
Luna grew to resent her sister over getting all the attemtion and no-one paying attention to her night. Eventually, her bitterness led to her planning to overthrow her sister and bring about eternal night. But she knew she wasn't strong enough to defeat her sister alone, she needed more power. She researched dark forces behind her sister's back and eventually found the Nightmare force and realised it was the kind of power she needed.
So instead of an unlilling posession, she made a consential deal with the Nightmare: it would give her the power to defeat her sister and in return she would use her eternal night to create a kingdom for the Nightmares.
She may have got more that she bargained for, but the whole plan was her idea, which explains her present guilt.
Personally, I get a Tales of Graces vibe from this. That game has a Big Bad who starts acting crazy and is posesssed by a demon, but it's later revealed the possession was not unwilling: this character agreeded to let the demon-like thing posess him as part of his plan for revenge, and it's more like a symbiotic relationship than an actual unwilling Demonic Posession, and he's mostly in control of all his actions.
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My Little Parallax
In the original two-parter episode, Nightmare Moon was spooky, loud and vindictive, with a tall figure, a black coat and a starry mane, while Luna was cute, shy and lonesome, with a comparatively short height, a blue coat and a light blue mane. This left fans debating how much, if at all, the two of them were the same character.
When we rediscovered the princess in Luna Eclipsed
, she was both cute and spooky, she hid her shyness behind a loud exterior, her estrangement brought her to fits of outraged anger, she had grown to an intermediate height, her coat had turned dark blue and her mane had retrieved some of its ethereal properties. The episode had Luna learn that she could be loved for being Nightmare Moon, or at least the holiday version of her. It all seemed to scream at us that what we had seen before was two extremes of a complex personality. And the whole did prove to be greater and better than the sum of its parts.
The second story arc of the comic book series, spanning from issue #5 to issue #8, takes the complete opposite route. We learn that Nightmare Moon is a demonic spirit of fear with a separate existence, this time possessing the body of another pony, while Luna herself seems entirely based on her brief season one appearance, with only occasional nods to her later episodes. This leaves Nightmare Moon without motive, her host's insecurities being only a mean to her control. Meanwhile, Luna is guilt-ridden, presumably over failing to stop a menace rather than over personal misdeeds. Thus, the arc uses a generic villainess and a generic heroine in place of an atoner. It is all a huge step down from everything that made Luna such an interesting character.
TL;DR Broken headcanon, aw boo hoo hoo!
Alright, alright, there is a lot more to this arc and it is actually quite good. But I stand by my points.