Characters / Friendship Is Magic: Princess Luna

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Main Index The Main Cast: Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, the Cutie Mark Crusaders Supporting Cast: The Princesses (Princess Celestia, Princess Luna), Mane Family Members, the School of Friendship, Ponyville, Other Locations, Animal Companions Antagonists: Major Villains (Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow), Dangerous Creatures, Jerks and Bullies, Redeemed Antagonists (Discord) World of Equestria: Races, Historical Figures, The 2017 Movie, Expanded Universe, Toyline Exclusive, Miscellaneous Minor Characters: One-Shots, Other Characters, Background Ponies (Common Background Ponies, Special Background Ponies, Other Background Ponies) Equestria Girls: Heroines (Sunset Shimmer), Villains, Supporting Cast

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The original dark horse, literally!

^{Click here to see her alternate design from Season 1.}

"You no longer have reason to fear us. Screams of delight is what your princess desires... not screams of terror."

Debut: "Friendship is Magic, part 2" ("Elements of Harmony") (separate from Nightmare Moon)

Voiced by: Tabitha St. Germain^{Foreign VAs}Christine Byrd [Season 1], Irene Jiménez [Season 2], Laura Ayala [Season 3-onwards] (Latin American Spanish); Yumi Uchiyama [Season 1], Takako Honda [Season 2, Equestria Girls, MLP: The Movie], Rie Misuzu [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)
Singing by: Kazumi Evans ("Twilight's Kingdom"), Aloma Steele (Seasons 6-9)

Princess Celestia's younger sister. She co-rules Equestria alongside her older sister. According to the Creation Myth, she used to govern nighttime, but grew jealous of her sister and wound up sealed away for a thousand years as the Mare in the Moon. After being defeated by the reformed Elements of Harmony, she Heel Face Turns and becomes Princess Luna again, resuming her nighttime duties.

For her "corrupted" form, Nightmare Moon, see the Main Villains page.

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Tropes # to L

• 0% Approval Rating: Princess Luna's bitterness turned her into Nightmare Moon because she thought that absolutely nobody liked her. Ironically, her actions as Nightmare Moon made sure that nobody liked her for real. The meteor shower scene in "Owl's Well and Ends Well" is a testament that ponies do enjoy her night and thus her fears were groundless. Interestingly, she agrees her Nightmare Moon self should be feared and hated. Word of God states that Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon was because of evil magic and may not have been entirely her fault or choice. It doesn't help that she has a bit of a temper. Confirmed in the second arc of the official comic book, with Luna's Nightmare Moon form being created by the Nightmare Forces, who proceed to do to Rarity what they did to Luna. Quite a few ponies are still scared of her in the present day due to a thousand years of rumors that built up around Nightmare Moon's "Nightmare Night", especially because of the fact she initially resurfaced as Nightmare Moon to begin with. She's working off her reputation. By "Sleepless in Ponyville", she'd succeeded as Scootaloo isn't scared of her and is instead happy to see her. invoked
• Adaptation Name Change: 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." invoked
• All There in the Manual: For those who follow the IDW comic series, (and take them as canon) Nightmare Moon's origins are expanded upon. We learn that her corruption wasn't entirely her fault, and that a dark entity known as the Nightmare Forces preyed on her contempt and loneliness, expanding it and turning her against her sister and citizens in order for her to become their Queen.
• Always Second Best: She felt inadequate to her sister's greatness, and it tore her apart.
• And I Must Scream: Stuck in her Superpowered Evil Side for a thousand years. There was nothing she could do to change back when she was banished in the moon. When she is restored to her old form, she confesses to Celestia that she "missed her so much" implying a part of her normal consciousness was aware in Nightmare Moon.
• The Atoner: She tries to make amends for her stint as Nightmare Moon so her pony subjects won't be so frightened of her.
  • Her first attempt was on Nightmare Night which is probably not the best night to prove you're not scary, but still she's trying.
  • She decides to help Sweetie Belle through her relationship problems with Rarity, stating up front that she knows what it's like to feel outshone by her sister like Sweetie Belle does.
  • So great is her need to atone for her past, she created the Tantabus to torment her own dreams as a punishment for her time as Nightmare Moon.
• Badass in Distress: In the Season 4 premiere, she ends up being captured by Discord's plunder vines off-camera with her big sister, only to be saved by Twilight at the end of the two-parter. It happens again in the Season 4 finale, when she is imprisoned by Lord Tirek with Celestia and Cadance. Then in the Season 6 finale, she is kidnapped along with Celestia, Cadance, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, and the Mane Six. However, she does manage to send out an S.O.S. to Starlight Glimmer before being restrained. In The Movie, she is turned to stone by Tempest Shadow, and in "The Ending of the End", she and Celestia are captured by the villain trio after Cozy Glow uses Grogar's bell to drain them of their magic.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Pip's kindness towards her is the main reason she reinstates Nightmare Night after cancelling it.
• Big Damn Heroes: Nowadays, when a main character has a terrible nightmare, you can count on Princess Luna to step in and stop it just when help is needed most.
• Big Entrance:
  • How she enters in "Luna Eclipsed". Descending from the high sky in a chariot drawn by drago-pegasi then leaping to the ground as her Black Cloak disperses into a flock of bats. It also qualifies as a Not What It Looks Like moment for her because it made everyone think Nightmare Moon was back.
  • Also makes one in "Sleepless in Ponyville", though this one is much more heroic; appear in a flash of light and zap a monster.
• Big Good: Downplayed. She is technically equal in rank and power potential but has learned from personal experience to defer to her older sibling's superior wisdom.
• Big Sister Worship: Some of her entries in The Journal of the Two Sisters have the same kind of "My big sister is awesome!" gushing that would come from the CMC. No wonder she gets along so well with them. Of course, there was that period of time where she was in open conflict against Celestia but once the Mane Six cleared her head and Celestia forgave her, she ran for a hug.
• Breakout Character: She wasn't supposed to appear after she was defeated in the series premiere, which is why she isn't seen for the rest of season one. However, she became so popular that she was promoted to a major supporting character.
• Broken Pedestal: Helped save Equestria from Discord and then maintain Harmony all over the land, only to later turn into a villain herself. After her Heel–Face Turn, she's trying to become a Rebuilt Pedestal after being this trope for a long time.^note Intially the falling out of the royal sisters would be a big deal but after a few hundred years everypony thinks she's a myth.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Her brief initial appearance isn't much to go on, but definitely was not the Large Ham she showed up as later in "Luna Eclipsed".
  • Her appearance in "A Canterlot Wedding – Parts 1 & 2" shows that she's gotten much more used to speaking in what passes for a "normal" tone of voice among modern ponies, and she uses more modern lexicon as well.
  • Her speech in "Sleepless in Ponyville" is even better. Notably, it has become much like Celestia's, carrying all the weight and refinement you'd expect from a Princess, but no longer an intimidating shout-down to listen to. It's the best indicator that she's learning how to fit in, as when she first tried to speak in a "normal" voice, the result sounded frightened and unsure.
  • "Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep?" reveals that she still has a crippling guilt complex over almost destroying Equestria as Nightmare Moon, and she specifically created the Tantabus to haunt her dreams and give her a recurring nightmare of NOT being defeated as Nightmare Moon to eternally punish herself for said actions. In addition to this, her guilt leads to her inability to accept help from others regarding problems of her own making as she doesn't want any ponies to suffer for her sins like they did in the past. She finally comes to terms with the fact that who she is now is far removed from who she was when she became Nightmare Moon, and in doing so relieves herself of her guilt and absorbs the Tantabus into herself as a way of accepting who she was and is, and her end dream shows her peacefully sleeping away.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: There have been a few episodes where she helped a pony who had been having nightmares due to a psychological issue. It turns out that she had been going through the exact same kind of problem herself for a very long time. Though this is more a case of being unwilling to allow herself happy dreams than unable.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Her magic aura is blue.
• Commonality Connection:
  • In "For Whome the Sweetie Belle Toils", Luna relates to Sweetie Belle's frustrations with Rarity, knowing full well what it's like to stand in the shadow of an older sister.
  • She identifies with Starlight Glimmer, as they have both succumbed to the dark side of their natures in the past, and struggled through redemption. When she visits Starlight's dream in "To Where and Back Again - Part One", she admits that she sees a lot of herself in Starlight.
• Cool Big Sis: If Celestia could be considered the mother of all Equestrian ponies, Luna is developing to be their Big Sister as we saw at the end of "Luna Eclipsed", helping Scootaloo in "Sleepless in Ponyville" and a similar role to Sweetie Belle in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils".
• Compressed Hair: Somehow manages to hide her long horn inside a simple hood in "Luna Eclipsed".
• Creepy Good: She's not above showing even young fillies Nightmare Sequences in their dreams if it means teaching them a valuable lesson.
• Cultured Badass: Luna has shown to have quite an artistic and worldly personality every now and then, leaning more towards books similarly to Twilight in addition to enjoying attending plays and musical!
  • As shown in "Between Dark and Dawn" in Season 9, during the song, "A Lot of Little Things," She takes Celestia to go see the Equestrian version of the musical, Wicked.
  • Then later on when it was still her (Luna's) turn, the two went offscreen to go see a performance of the opera, "Ponygliacci," an Equestrian parallel and reference to the opera Pagliacci
• Dark Is Evil: Out-of-universe, this trope is a key reason why she didn't show up again in Season 1. Strangely, Luna is even darker (color-wise) when she returns, so they apparently got over it.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite riding a spiked chariot pulled by bat-winged guards into town, Luna just wishes for the acceptance of her subjects once again.
• Depending on the Artist:
  • As shown above, 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."
  • There's conflicting ideas on if the black spot on her flank is part of her cutie mark or her coat. In "Twilight's Kingdom" when the Princesses lose their cutie marks, the black spot remains while the moon is gone, but then in "A Royal Problem" when Celestia and Luna switch cutie marks, the black spot switches too (note that the moon would blend into Celestia's white coat otherwise).
• Depending on the Writer: Despite the Characterization Marches On above her speech and some personalty traits change based on what writers feel is best suited. In the cartoon she has become a regal and wise pony like her sister (at least in important meetings and with young foals) and has become much better socially adjusted, while in the comics she's a Genki Girl with a short temper who's eager for adventure and still slips into Ye Olde Butchered English as a sort of Verbal Tic. The comics also go more in-depth on her jealousy of Celestia and her continuing to be haunted by her time as Nightmare Moon while the show (while not void of such moments) more often depicts her using this to empathize with other ponies who feel overshadowed (especially by their older sisters).
• Defeat Means Friendship: After the Mane Six defeat her with The Power of Friendship, she's accepted back into Equestrian royalty by both her sister and subjects, but her subjects take longer.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Since she spent a thousand years as Equestria's Boogey Mare she works hard to earn her subjects' love and admiration once again, with little initial success.
• Does Not Like Spam: During her argument with Celestia in "Between Dark and Dawn", Luna takes a moment to remove the pickles from her sandwich.
• Dramatic Thunder: A signature feature of hers. The weather reflects her mood, or more precisely, her anger and excitement.
• Dream Walker: One of Luna's duties as the Princess of the Night is to check on her subjects' dreams and guard them from nightmares, as well as help them overcome them.
• Dream Weaver: Luna can manipulate dreams on a whim, up to merging the memories of other ponies into the dream, and projecting possible futures to make a point. She is powerful enough to create a shared dream for all citizens of Ponyville at once, though it takes a lot out of her.
• Establishing Character Moment: All thoughts of Luna being a mere Woobie are shattered when she makes her big entrance in "Luna Eclipsed" as PRINCESS OF THE NIIIIIGHT!!! Immediately following that grand entrance, Luna is utterly perplexed by everypony's frightened reactions and storms off in a huff.
• Evil Feels Good: In Nightmare Knights, she briefly acts like Nightmare Moon in order to convince some guards she's evil. While she doesn't do anything malicious aside from boasting about her villainous deeds, she admits to Stygian that the reason she hates acting like that is not because it feels bad. She hates it because it feels great.
• Eye Color Change: Luna has normal pony eyes, but when she's in her Nightmare Moon persona (or possessed, it's never entirely clear), she has reptile eyes with slit pupils.
• Face–Heel Turn: Princess Luna turning into Nightmare Moon in the Creation Myth.
• Fallen Heroine: Helped save Equestria from Discord before becoming so bitter (and corrupted by something) that she turned into Nightmare Moon and took over the villain role herself. Thankfully, she's back on the good side now.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Part of the reason Luna is received so poorly on Nightmare Night; while it seems to everypony else that she's still acting evil, in reality she's presenting herself with outdated royal etiquette. This involves using No Indoor Voice, Royal "We" and Antiquated Linguistics. Given the occasion, it's not altogether clear how much of that behavior is the "real" Luna and how much just her hamming it up on purpose in order to fit in; either way, it helps drive home the point just how long she's been trapped in the moon.
• Flashy Teleportation: Much like her sister, she can teleport large distances in a flash of blue light.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: As seen in "Luna Eclipsed", underscoring her Fish out of Temporal Water status. All her other appearances both before (in the series pilot) and since have her speaking modern English.
• Friend to All Children: She seems to like kids a lot and wants to make sure they have a fun Nightmare Night, but she has trouble doing so initially.
  • She immediately saves Pip when he falls in the water tank.
  • She also helps Scootaloo with her nightmares (by vaporizing the monster in it, no less), and telling the filly the real reason she was having them.
  • This makes sense when you realize her duties as Princess of the Night implies she guards the dreams of her subjects: who would need the most protection from nightmares?
  • The best example of her fondness for children comes in "A Royal Problem", where the only issue she cares about is the schoolkids' trip she mistakenly ruined. Her guilt over the matter, and irritation she can't fix it right away, suggest she deems the kids' field trip of more importance than political matters.
• Friendly Address Privileges: She would much prefer if her subjects simply drop the formalities, and address her as just "Luna".
• Full-Name Basis: She always calls Twilight Sparkle by her full name. In the case of single-named, full-grown ponies, Luna goes around that limitation by calling them "Fair Applejack" and "Dear Fluttershy." She doesn't do it with Scootaloo, so maybe she's broken the habit by the third season.
• Gale-Force Sound: Her magically-enhanced yelling (or even just talking) causes this.
• Genki Girl: In the IDW comics issues 9 and 10, while completing in the games for the Summer Warp-Up she is very energetic and spirited as she looks forward to the events. Is this in her Micro Series comic as well.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Brings these out occasionally when she's being theatrical or feeling frustrated.
• God Job: Making the moon rise long before she was banished into it.
• God Is Good: To a certain extent, mainly due to her being involved in the Creation Myth, making the moon rise, and being able to come into ponies' dreams.
• God of Darkness: Luna governs the night, while her sister Celestia governs the day.
• God of the Moon: Her chief duty is to raise the moon during the night.
• Good Counterpart: Her normal form is remarkably similar to a non-evil version of Nightmare Moon; Large Ham, Dramatic Thunder, and all.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: As Nightmare Moon, her wings were somewhat solid and batlike. As Luna, her wings have a softer feathery outline like Celestia's.
• Goth: Her chariot, the look of her guards, and cloak that disappears in the form of bats certainly indicate a dark aesthetic sense.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: She has a dark fashion sense and is an alicorn princess with powerful magical abilities.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: As shown in "Luna Eclipsed", it doesn't take much to bring on the thunder and lightning. This is also mentioned by Word of God. invoked
• Heavy Sleeper: Apparently slept straight through Queen Chrysalis' and the changelings' attempted takeover of Canterlot, explosions and all. How she managed that, we have no idea. On the other hand, she passed through the force field when relieving Celestia's watch duty so it's possible that she doesn't reside within Canterlot. This would explain how she doesn't know anything about modern customs in "Luna Eclipsed".
• Heel–Face Turn: Once the Mane Six defeat Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony she turns back into Luna.
• Hero with an F in Good: Luna really wants to be liked and redeem her image in the eyes of the common-folk, but she comes off as incredibly intimidating without trying. One thousand years of scary stories about her being a Mad God who tried to Take Over the World to bring about The Night That Never Ends, which then gave way to folk portrayals of her sbeing a cannibal predator that must be fooled with disguises and placated with tribute, is hard to live down. She's gotten better by "Sleepless in Ponyville" because Scootaloo is happy to see her.
• Hidden Depths: "A Royal Problem" implies that Luna has some knowledge of aromatherapy, as she makes an effort to line the hallway of the castle with lavender, in hopes that the scent will help the castle's inhabitants sleep well.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: In true events, she was turned into Nightmare Moon (possibly) due in part to some outside influence preying on her resentment and simply wanted to bring everlasting night (and usurp/kill her sister). In legends, she turned evil purely out of resentment and ate ponies.
• Home Field Advantage: Her powers are at their greatest when she's inside the Dream World being a borderline Reality Warper in it. According to Friends Forever #20, even Discord is at a disadvantage against her in his dreams (though he can still block her from actually accessing his in the first place). The only being that has been able to overpower her in the Dream World is the Tantabus which was her own creation to begin with.
• Hot Goddess: Though probably not as much as her older sister, she still counts as this, especially for a great deal of the fandom.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: She really wants to be accepted and to see ponies having fun in her night, but she comes off as intimidating.
• Incoming Ham: Her introduction in "Luna Eclipsed" was to ride into town on a black chariot while wearing a Black Cloak, then jump to the ground and dismiss her cloak (it turns into bats) to unfurl her wings, all while accompanied by Dramatic Wind and Dramatic Thunder. And that was before she started talking.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Her temper and hubris exacerbated by her insecurities over how much her people respect her were an enormous catalyst to her fall from grace into Nightmare Moon. Even to this day after being reformed, her dignified and occasionally hammy disposition only hide her fears of upsetting or letting down her kingdom.
• Ironic Fear: "Castle Mane-ia" reveals that when she was younger, Luna was frightened by Celestia's choice of decor.
• Jabba Table Manners: While not a villain, an IDW comic shows that Luna is quite the messy eater. Even her waiter thinks she eats like a pig.
• Large Ham: During "Luna Eclipsed" this can be attributed as part of the royal Canterlot tradition of speaking. She spent the episode learning to take the ham down a notch so she didn't scare people. This is taken further by the fact that she's far more assertive and liberal in her use of Royal-Winged-Unicorn-godpower than her sister. Thunder and lightning punctuate her sentences and she flies into the air when making her dramatic proclamations.
• Leitmotif: Nightmare Moon's theme accompanies Luna's return in "Luna Eclipsed". A brief variation of it also plays when she relieves Celestia in "A Canterlot Wedding – Part 1". She eventually gets a softer, more beautiful one in "Sleepless in Ponyville".
• Lethal Chef: Her attempt to make Celestia pancakes at the end of "A Royal Problem" leaves a lot to be desired. Celestia tries to stomach them anyway, but Luna, seeing right through Celestia's forced smile as she eats them, tells her that she doesn't have to be perfect for her as she does for the rest of Equestria, prompting Celestia to just toss them away and admit that they're terrible.
• Loyal Animal Companion: None in the show. The comics give her a pet possum, Tiberius, to match those owned by her sister and the rest of the mane cast.
• Lunacy: Goddess of the moon.

Tropes M to Y

• Modest Royalty: Much like her sister, she would rather have ponies just call her Luna and view her as just another pony.
• My Greatest Failure: Whereas Celestia feels this way about being forced to banish her to the moon, Luna feels this way about becoming Nightmare Moon in the first place.
• Nice Girl: Deep inside, she is very nice, but she comes off as intimidating at first.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Luna tries to be friendly; unfortunately, she has somewhat macabre tastes, is gothic and sinister in presence, and perpetually speaks in a booming echo of a voice. Nearly every pony is reduced to a trembling wreck before her. She's gotten better by "Sleepless in Ponyville", but still has some scary traits. Ironically, her job is to help ponies with their nightmares.
• No Indoor Voice: PRINCESS LUNA TALKS LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME, because her (outdated) royal protocol says so. It takes her a while to realize she's scaring everypony to death before settling for a (much) softer, mellow voice, but she quickly REVERTS TO TALKING LIKE THIS WHEN SHE GETS UPSET, EXCITED, OR VERY HAPPY.
• No Social Skills: Luna's obsession with (outdated) royal protocol and brutal lack of tact are extreme. This is mostly Played for Laughs, as she doesn't even know the meaning of the word "fun". Justified by the fact that the word "fun" is only about 300 years old in real life, meaning that the word could literally have not existed before she was banished. She seems to have improved during the Royal Canterlot Wedding two-parter and then got much better by Season 3. Although there's still the occasionally lapse into hamminess when speaking as the PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!
• Not a Morning Person: As shown in "A Royal Problem", Luna is barely functional in the morning. However, this isn't from having barely woken up — she sleeps during the day since she spends her whole nights looking over the dreams of the inhabitants of Equestria and fending off their nightmares. Comes the new eve, she's dead tired. One morning, she takes a bite out of a whole pineapple (rind and all); the next, she peels a banana, then eats the peel and drops the fruit.
• Not What It Looks Like: Everything she does in "Luna Eclipsed". She appears to be touting her old hammy evil routine, but she's really just out of touch with modern etiquette. Her Big Entrance is of particular note.
• One-Winged Angel: Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon.
• Out of Focus: Season 8 has her reduced to a voiceless background role until the season finale, where she gets only two lines.
• Perky Goth: Luna is now devoid of malice, but her personal tastes still look like something escaped from a horror movie, starting with her macabre royal chariot, her demonic-looking royal guards, and the idea that animating a group of giant, hairy spiders would be "fun" for everyone else. Ironically, it was realizing people liked being scared on Nightmare Night that let her win over her subjects.
• Physical Goddess: Like her sister. "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep" reveals Princess Luna has enough power to draw all of Ponyville into a gigantic shared dream by herself and still had enough power left over to do a few attacks on the Tantabus on top of maintaining that massive spell for an extended period.
• Power Echoes: Whenever she's using her loud voice.
• Power Incontinence: She exhibits a touch of this when she gets worked up, given the Dramatic Thunder and gathering stormclouds that kick in every so often.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: In her "grown" form from "Luna Eclipsed", she has a significantly longer mane and tail than immediately after she was rescued from being Nightmare Moon. Power also makes your hair ethereal, it seems. Lauren Faust has suggested after the events of "Elements of Harmony", Luna's magical powers were completely exhausted. It was only after she was able to rest and recuperate that her magical mane returned.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: French dub only. When she uses the Royal Canterlot Voice, her voice drops in pitch by a few octaves, making her sound virtually identical to Nightmare Moon.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: As of Season 4, she's standing beside Celestia when she receives the picture of Twilight and her friends.
• Royal "We": Her manner of speech, because it's dictated by protocol. See No Indoor Voice. She seems to have overcome it by "Canterlot Wedding" and "Sleepless in Ponyville" and she still sounds quite regal.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In the penultimate episode of Season 4, when a frozen cloud threatens dozens of her and Celestia's citizens, she joins Celestia and the Pegasus ponies in trying to save them.
  • In the Season 6 premiere, she and Celestia find themselves trying to protect the Crystal Empire from an eternal winter, putting their own lives in danger to buy time for the others to find a more permanent solution. Afterward, they assist with the Crystal Heart's restoration, saving their lives along with the Empire.
  • In School Raze, even when their magic was being drained away over several days, upon being warned of who was responsible by Chancellor Neighsay, she and her sister risked going in powerless to confront the Big Bad, with the support of an equally-powerless Neighsay and a whole battalion of Royal Guards behind them. Once Cozy's spell is broken and their magic is returned, Celestia and Luna quickly take flight once more with the Pegasus Royal Guards to reach Ponyville faster, arriving just in time to stop Cozy from escaping and punish her for her crimes, with Luna personally seeing to Cozy's incarceration in Tartarus.
  • In "The Beginning of The End", she and Celestia help Star Swirl deal with the out of control Everfree Forest. "Between Dark and Dawn" shows that this inspired them to take a more active role in helping their subjects (albeit in mundane matters such as fixing a broken bridge, or helping Granny Smith cross the street).
• The Sacred Darkness: While Nightmare Moon is an example of the "corrupted" type of darkness, Luna is the "pure" type because she co-ruled alongside her sister. The Creation Myth shows the two of them in a yin-yang design.
• Seers: Possibly connected to her dream abilities, but Luna had once shown Sweetie Belle what the future would hold for Sweetie Belle if she had gone through with pulling a mean-spirited revenge plot on Rarity and in the season 5 finale she informs Celestia that she had also dreamed of Tirek's return; this implies that Luna has some form of precognitive abilities.
• Shadow Archetype: A literal one for Princess Celestia, who is beloved and adored by everyone, Princess Luna desires the same admiration yet has no idea how to obtain it which led to her inadvertently intimidating everyone initially.
• Shock and Awe: De-corrupted, her magical beams take the form of lightning and she can also summon thunderbolts at will.
• Spock Speak: Although she doesn't speak in Flowery Elizabethan English anymore, her speech is usually very formal and she almost never uses contractions.
• Stealth Pun: "Luna" in Latin means "the moon", and she is colored a dark blue. She's a blue moon.^note A "blue moon" is the name for the second full moon that occurs in a single calendar month, since full moons usually only happen once per month.
• The Stoic: After being depicted as The Woobie in "Friendship Is Magic – Part 2" and a Large Ham in "Luna Eclipsed", she now tends to be portrayed in the cartoon as being very serious-minded, especially when protecting other ponies from nightmares. invoked
• Superpowered Evil Side: Nightmare Moon, of course.
• Teleportation: Not explicitely shown, but heavily implied. In "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", Spike sends a letter to her. She arrives literally seconds later. (You can actually hear the teleport sound effect just before she pushes the door.)
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • When she's not fresh off the Rainbow of Light and traumatized after a thousand years of exile, she's a capable leader of mares. She makes her entrance in "Sleepless in Ponyville" by vaporizing the monster in Scootaloo's nightmare.
  • In Friends Forever #20, it seems she's gotten powerful enough to where she can even knock Discord unconscious, when she was originally helpless against him without the Elements in the past.
• Tough Leader Façade: Of a different variety to her sis. Whereas Celestia's mask is that of an enlightenment monarch (late renaissance/early modern period), Luna's is that of Dark Ages/Medieval royalty. It's implied that a grandiose and intimidating demeanor was necessary because Equestria used to be a much more savage and inhospitable place and the sisters didn't have the centuries of tradition and religious reverence that they have now. Luna's mask was at odds with her kindly and fun-loving nature.
• True Blue Femininity: Everything about her appearance (mane, eyes, coat, hooves) are different shades of blue.
• Tsundere: Her emotions and personality paint her as such when only the audience (and then Twilight) get to see how hurt she really feels.
• The Unfavorite: How she thought the kingdom viewed her compared to her sister.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Princess Luna initially feared that she had a 0% Approval Rating, causing her to turn into Nightmare Moon and attempt to invoke The Night That Never Ends before she was stopped. After changing back, she seems to have gotten back in everypony's good graces rather easily, especially with kids. Protecting them from having nightmares may have something to do with that.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She was very nice until she was transformed into Nightmare Moon.
• Vague Age: Even though she's an immortal moon goddess and only slightly younger than her adult sister, her true form's biological age is ambiguous. It's made even more confusing as of "Luna Eclipsed", where Luna's colors are slightly different and her mane flows like Celestia's, though Word of God has given an (on-the-spot) explanation as to how it could have happened. Word of God says that "Luna is not yet full grown." invoked
• Villain Decay: In-Universe. Nightmare Moon is a Mad God who tried twice to plunge the world into eternal night and presumably almost succeeded both times. "Luna Eclipsed" showed that the public perception of Nightmare Moon is that she's a cannibal who young ponies can placate with their candy. Justified by the fact the Nightmare Night is a tradition going back centuries before Luna's return.
• Villainous Princess: As explained in the show's first episode, Princess Luna's jealousy turns her into the villainous Night Mare Moon and she becomes the Big Bad of the two-part introductory episode. Fortunately, she gets reformed when the Mane Six eventually turn Luna back to her old self.
• Vocal Evolution: Tabitha St Germain's accent for Luna fluctuates inconsistently between sounding rather regal and Fake British (much like her voice for Rarity) or more relaxed and plain, sometimes within the same episode. Also utilised In-Universe when doing away with her "Royal Canterlot Voice" to become more soft spoken in Luna Eclipsed.
• Voice of the Legion: Her "royal voice" has a reverb.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: She can assume her Nightmare Moon form at will, though whether it's a true transformation or just an illusion remains to be seen. Interestingly, despite these magical special effects, she still has to wear fake pointy teeth to replicate the appearance shown in Zecora's illusions. In the tie-in comics she's able to shift between her smaller and larger designs, though it's not clearly explained if it's involuntary and reliant on her power levels and/or self-confidence, or if Luna changed between the two at will given her confidence problems.
• Womanchild: Certainly in the comics, and consistent with most of her appearances in the show too, Luna is mercurial in her moods and frequently petulant and given to sulks and bursts of rage. Her immaturity in comparison to her sister is very obvious.
• The Worf Effect: While implicitly not as powerful as her elder sister, she is still an age-old alicorn princess. When she zaps monsters, it's usually a one-hit KO deal, so anything that can defeat her is a serious threat. In the Season 6 finale, Luna is kidnapped by Changelings alongside Celestia, Cadance, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, and the Mane Six, all replaced with Changeling imposters. No one knows how Chrysalis pulled this off without being discovered. (Luna is able to contact Starlight and warn her before she is restrained though, allowing Starlight to know the severity of the danger Equestria is now in).
• Would Hurt a Child: She helps turn Cozy Glow into stone in the Season 9 finale.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Averted. She uses "thou", "thee", and "thy" only when addressing single ponies and "you" and "your" when speaking to multiple ponies. Also, when speaking to single ponies, she attaches the "-est" suffix only to verbs where the listener is the subject.
• You Were Trying Too Hard: She ends up coming off as far more forceful and intimidating than she realizes partly due to this. Once Twilight helps calm her down and make everyone more relaxed around Luna, things go much better.

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