Princess Luna's appearance in The Return of Nightmare Moon

[melody5697 195]

Yet again, I'm here to post one thread. Anyway, I'm reading the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comics, and I just finished reading the second story arc. Somebody said they consider the IDW comics fully canon, but that doesn't really make much sense. Those comics take place after season 2, right? Why didn't Luna have her sparkly mane and dark blue coat until close to the end? The only explanation I can think of is that she used magic to change her appearance in Luna Eclipsed and A Canterlot Wedding but she didn't in The Return of Nightmare Moon, either because she was in a hurry or because she was too stressed out about the Nightmare Forces.

[Jeric 46,851]

I believe the Nightmare Rarity arc takes place before Luna Eclipsed.

[melody5697 195]

No, that doesn't make sense. Look at the way she was interacting with the ponies in Ponyville.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

I think a lot of the problem in regards to the timeline with the show was a statement made by someone at IDW (I think) that said the comics generally take place after "A Canterlot Wedding." Now, if this refers to only the Queen Chrysalis arc or the entire series is debateable...

 

No, that doesn't make sense. Look at the way she was interacting with the ponies in Ponyville.

 

Well, that could be explained away in a number of ways. Plus, it's also possible some ponies were playing up being scared since it was Nightmare Night in "Luna Eclipsed."

[melody5697 195]

That's not what I meant. Luna was acting differently. She wasn't using the Royal Canterlot Voice in the Nightmare Rarity arc. Why would she use it on Nightmare Night when she didn't use it when talking to ordinary ponies before? And didn't you see Tank? Tank didn't become Rainbow Dash's pet until later that season. So it had to have been after Luna Eclipsed.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

That's not what I meant. Luna was acting differently. She wasn't using the Royal Canterlot Voice in the Nightmare Rarity arc. Why would she use it on Nightmare Night when she didn't use it when talking to ordinary ponies before? And didn't you see Tank? Tank didn't become Rainbow Dash's pet until later that season. So it had to have been after Luna Eclipsed.

 

In regards to the royal Canterlot voice, we see her using it in the episodes when she is in her restored form. In the comic up until her transformation she is in her weakened state. We saw how frail she was in the pilot after being released from the curse, so it's possible that her frailness is still there, and she probably doesn't hold the confidence to use the 'voice.' In the end it would probably take some time for her to return to her normal self as she was before Nightmare Moon.

 

Of course, I'm just talking about possibilities.

 

As for Tank, you have a point there, though at least it can be seen as a mistake that hardly hurts the narrative. Mistakes will happen.

[melody5697 195]

I know nobody's replied to this thread in months, but I just wanted to say that I saw something that said Luna was weakened again because of Nightmare Moon coming back. After reading "Princess Celestia and The Summer of Royal Waves", I thought maybe a magical mane can sometimes turn into a normal mane when the pony is under A LOT of stress since that appeared to be what happened to a character in that book, but "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep" disproved that theory.