Quinch

Eh, not really - I mean, the voices changed gradually over time for most of the cast. Look, for example, at Applejack in the first season. She sounds a lot more high-pitched at first than later.

He can't stop smiling and talking in a sickeningly cheery tone.

I think it's less of a question whether the show is following fanonservice {that's a word now. I'm declaring it a word}, or if they're merely winding up on the same path. A lot of things fans are clamoring for tend to lean towards things we haven't seen in the show before. Likewise, since there is only so much one can meaningfully do with only six characters, the writers have been expanding secondary characters and locations more, which in turn aligns with fan demands.

I haven't read many fics since way back pre-S2, but one I really liked was Simply Rarity. It's been completely decanonised by now, of course, but it's still a very touching, if sad background story for our element of generosity.

Really halfassedly? For me, the episode was a very mixed bag. On one hand, Spike finally seems to be growing out of his bumblefbee stereotype, and the variety of dragon designs was very nice to look at. On the downside.... it was really, really, really predictable. Of course they would team up, of course Spike would give up the throne in favor of his friends, and of course Ember would start learning the meaning of friendship. It was, beat by beat, a story most of us have seen at least a dozen times over in other shows. The Garble slapstick was fun as hell tho.

@, you're exaggerating. It's only one city.

Since there's not much we can go on from the two-minute glimpse we've gotten into a Nightmare Moon-ruled Equestria, what we can do is combine it with what we know of Nightmare Moon initially and make some speculations. First, we know that Nightmare Moon was created from Luna's bitterness and insecurity {true or not} about being overshadowed by her sister, and her main goal was to regain - and keep - recognition for her rulership over the night, to the point of excising daylight. Second, she rules from the Castle of Two Sisters, which happens to be situated smack dab in the middle of Everfree Forest, rather than Canterlot. It's also evident that Everfree is as dangerous - if not moreso - than before her reign, despite her being able to mow down an entire pack of timberwolves without so much as breaking stride. That, in turn, leads us to conclude that, despite being the sole ruler of Equestria, Nightmare Moon definitely does not welcome visitors. Furthermore, since she doesn't care to secure the area around her own centre of government {such as it is}, there is little reason to expect that she would care about the safety in the rest of the kingdom, which means that the ponies are suddenly in a position where they have to protect themselves from nocturnal predators. Touching back on her initial motivations of recognition and admiration, therefore, we can confidently assume that ponies primary purpose is, as far as Nightmare Moon is concerned, consists of pleasing her, praising her, and remaining loyal to her and, assuming she does make forays outside her castle, it is to enforce that. Speaking of loyalty, it is surprising to see Rainbow Dash as a captain of her royal guard. Given that Celestia is no longer in a position to resist Nightmare Moon's reign, and she makes it clear she doesn't considers her, or her return a threat, either through her own means or by other ponies. There is no resistance to her reign - that she knows of. That, in fact, might be the reason for the terrified expression Rainbow Dash and the other guards give Twilight when she mentions Celestia - assuming they can play to her sense of unthreatened supremacy, it is the perfect place for a band of secret Celestian loyalists. After all, if Nightmare Moon has no threats to her reign or safety, she would most likely be keeping them on hand as a matter of glorified pest control of whatever Everfree monsters wander close enough to possibly bother her. tl;dr: Nightmare Moon doesn't care about anybody but herself - therefore she would be a terrible ruler.