A few questions about Luna.

[Azureth 687]

1. When she transforms into Nightmare Moon does she actually get stronger or does she simply change her shape to look more menacing?

 

2. Why is Luna significantly smaller than Celestia?

 

3. Do you think Celestia and Luna are the same power-wise?

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

Disclaimer, these are just my head-canons, and have yet to be supported or disproved by the show.

 

1. She gets stronger in a way. Assuming Alicorn magic has the power to corrupt (explaining it looking like Sombra's Dark Magic), my theory is that Luna was overwhelmed and corrupted and Nightmare Moon has more power, but only because Luna chooses not to use it. You raise an interesting question, if NMM is a second personality which prefers a more menacing visage, she obviously requires the power to change appearance, though for now I'll think of that as a side effect or overflow of the Dark Magic.

 

2. Luna is a couple years younger than Celestia, and when they stopped aging they were young enough to be significantly different in size, so Luna stayed smaller.

 

3. Celestia is slightly stronger. Luna would probably have been drained from her imprisonment, and Celestia would have had that time to grow stronger, partly by necessity.

[Forlong 1,726]

1. Yes.  The NIghtmare Forces did increase Rarity's power significantly.

She's both younger than Celestia and probably just less height jeans.  Is that a thing?

Roughly.  Spells she's cast have been very different from Celestia's, so it's hard to tell.

[Pastel 7,630]

2. Luna is Celestia's little sister after all.

 

3. I guess Celestia is slightly more powerful than Luna, as she was able to defeat her 1000 years ago...

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,162]

1. I would have to assume that Nightmare Moon is indeed more powerful than Luna, and I judge this on two points. One, if we accept the comics as canon, which I tend to do, we see the Nightmare powers themselves make Rarity MUCH more powerful than she originally was. Now, of course, that depends on how you accept the comics as there is a bit of a plot issue in regards to Luna vs. "Luna Eclipsed," but on the whole I accept them as canon. On the second point it required Celestia using the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister to the moon. Now, that isn't solid evidence by itself, but it makes good sense to me.

 

2. Celestia does refer to Luna as her little sister, so it stands to reason that she is indeed young and, thus, smaller.

 

3. This is hard to judge, but I would think she is powerful, but not by a large margin. As we see in "Canterlot Wedding," Luna takes a shift watching over the city after Celestia. For me, this shows that with Celestia retiring to rest, Luna would be very well capable of handling the changeling situation had it occurred during the night.

[Eloquence 2,076]

It is greatly implied by the show that alicorn magic causes changes in a pony's appearance as it increases, mainly by making them larger and making the mane more... ethereal? Yeah, let's go with ethereal. This is supported by Luna, as she reverted to a much smaller version of herself with a short, standard mane and tail when she was defeated in Friendship is Magic, and is also supported by the subtle difference in height between unicorn Twilight and alicorn Twilight, despite the fact that a pony her age would presumably not still be growing under normal circumstances. 

 

That said, Luna is smaller than Celestia to reflect the fact that she is weaker than her, and Nightmare Moon would be Luna in her strongest form, although said strength is clearly one she cannot control, at least not yet (though there are rumors that this form will return next season, so perhaps she will soon learn to control it)

[Nulln 755]

1. When she transforms into Nightmare Moon does she actually get stronger or does she simply change her shape to look more menacing?

I'm not sure, but I think she'd have the same amount of power as before.

2. Why is Luna significantly smaller than Celestia? 

Because Luna is the younger sister.

3. Do you think Celestia and Luna are the same power-wise?

No, or else Celestia wouldn't have been able to banish Luna to the moon. 

[SeraphStar 398]

These will be highly assumptive on my part:

 

1) NMM is a separate entity from Princess Luna (comics; see Nightmare Rarity) so I would assume that when she takes over, there might be a sort of "power-augment" happening, which would indeed make NMM (when controlling Luna) stronger (I don't much care for NMM, but anyway... )

 

2) Little sister (not sure by how many moons)

 

3) I like Evil Dragon Master's view: Luna is probably around 5% weaker than Tia (a good estimate)

[Batbrony 16,056]

1. When she transforms into Nightmare Moon does she actually get stronger or does she simply change her shape to look more menacing?

 

2. Why is Luna significantly smaller than Celestia?

 

3. Do you think Celestia and Luna are the same power-wise?

 

1. Uhhhhhh... I think it's a mixed bag.  She might be stronger as far as her raw power goes, but you also have to keep in mind that at that point her magic and her entire being have been corrupted into a darker form of herself, so in some ways that kind of handicaps her.  But I guess overall, no, she doesn't just change shape to look more menacing, she actually undergoes a physical transformation that has effects on her entire body, mind, and soul.

 

2. Because she's her little sister, I guess?  I mean, yeah, might not make that much sense IRL, but I always just figured it was DHX's simple way of conveying to younger viewers through a visual medium that Luna is the younger sister of Celestia.

 

3. No.  I think maybe they started out with the same potential, but as they are princesses of the Day and Night, respectively, over time the similarities between their magic became less and less.  At this point, while Celestia might be the more powerful of the two simply from experience alone, the natures of their magic must be very different from each other just because they have very different responsibilities, so there's probably plenty of things that Luna is better than Celestia at as far as her magic goes.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

1. When she transforms into Nightmare Moon does she actually get stronger or does she simply change her shape to look more menacing?

 

2. Why is Luna significantly smaller than Celestia?

 

3. Do you think Celestia and Luna are the same power-wise?

1. Yes, but that also came at the price of having less self-control and being possessed by darkness and greed. Basically, it turned her evil, which is no good.

 

2. Because she's younger

 

3. Nope, but they're pretty close - I think Luna is stronger in some areas, but overall power goes to Celestia

[Adorkable 2,737]

1. When she transforms into Nightmare Moon does she actually get stronger or does she simply change her shape to look more menacing?

 

2. Why is Luna significantly smaller than Celestia?

 

3. Do you think Celestia and Luna are the same power-wise?

 

To answer your questions:

 

1. I think she gets stronger, for some reason.

 

2. Because she's the "little" sister, in terms of the actual meaning and quite literal.

 

3. No, Celestia is stronger. She is the older sibling, also she's bigger. I feel she had a greater strength in magic as well, because not only did she banish Luna to the moon, but took the role of raising the sun and moon fr 1,000 years. ALSO, while we're not sure how the Elements of Harmony actually worked, Celestia did manage to weld them all at once, as she did to defeat Nightmare Moon.

 

Hope that helps you out! ^^

[Nature's Spell 526]

1. NMM was more powerful in the same sense that Vader was more powerful than Anakin. Rage and hate can make you powerful, but will consume and destroy you in the end. Right now Luna is more powerful because she's at peace and knows who she is now.

 

2. Luna is younger of course and while imprisioned in the moon it's possible she did not age. Time stopped so although she's thousands of years old in theory her true age is mid-20s or early 30s. My daughter told me once that she read that Luna is 5 years younger, but I have no idea where she read that.

 

3. I would have to say different but equal powers and Celestia has the advantage of experience.