spoiler Would Nightmare Moon be a bad ruler?

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

It would be a short reign anyways.... Because Chrissy and Sombra would bring Equestria down.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

Nightmare Moon would be a much more effective protector and strategic mind than Celestia, but she'd rule as a tyrannical dictator reminiscent of fascists. Someone mentioned the biological effects on average ponies and how bat ponies would seem to be the only ponies that can handle eternal night naturally, which would effectively be repopulation by eugenics if all of the normal ponies died off and were replaced by them.

 

Celestia makes up for her waning abilities as a protector by making Equestria an open environment to self-discovery. The possible reason why her school exists is to find worthy ponies on whom to delegate her duties and authorities in her absence or incapacity. That's how she found Twilight. If Nightmare Moon has no equivalent and takes total control, she's on her own as a leader, thus if she fails, so does Equestria. Assuming the other villains took her on, it all depends on her.

[Quinch 1,119]

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.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,208]

Honestly, I have to agree with most of this. Nightmare Moon seemed rather harsh in some ways, but it didn't seem like they were in extreme peril. The only real danger we noticed was the 'rebel' ponies, beyond that, it seemed like she was pretty chillaxed about everything. The only downside is that Nightmare Moon is a force created by corruption, so I would be afraid of her unpredictability, but I guess if you don't get on her bad side, or I guess, badder side, things would be fine. 

[Scootalove 10,684]

Nightmare Moon could be a good ruler, but her tyrannical ideals wouldn't last very long where a rebellion could possibly rise up behind closed doors.

[Unamed 0]

Not bad, just new.
We all see how week our army of Equestria.
Can we every time rely on m6? I can say not. we couldn't and we don't.
Yeah that will be hard times, but if we don't do that now, after years will be too late.
We need a strong ruler and need him now!

[Concerned Bystander 2,901]

 

 

Nightmare Moon is evil so I don't think she would make a great leader. She would make a great dictator though.

 

 

 

While I agree that her rule would be a dictatorship,

 

 

 

I can agree about her rule being a dictator ship.

 

I'm pretty certain that Equestria already classes as a dictatorship.  The current autocrats were appointed to power over a thousand years ago (give or take) and I haven't seen any mention of elections since then.

 

That being said, the term dictatorship simply means that the person in power has ultimate authority with no avenue for change, it doesn't imply that the rule has to be brutal or unjust.

 

But to answer the actual question, unless there was some way around the whole 'no sunlight and therefore no plant life' then I'd say her hegemony would be, if nothing else, short.

[LHfunk 422]

In the brief glimpse we had, nobody seemed unhappy. However, that was all we saw. Everyone else could be suffering in the freezing dark. Plus, as people have stated, the plants would die soon after she took over. The only plants that don't seem to need sunlight are the ones in the Everfree Forest, and those are most likely inedible or have bad side effects.

[Toxic-gem 0]

She wouldn't necessarily be a "Bad ruler."

I believe she would care about her subjects (Seeing as they follow her and such) and there well-being.

She would be a steady rule and not a dictator because she knows that if she causes all of her subject to hate her even more they may get them selves executed.

And then once to many subjects are executed she has nothing to rule over anymore. 

[twiia 1,842]

Nightmare moon isn't necessarily a bad ruler. I think that with Celestia exiled to the moon, she is more content, and the ponies don't exactly seem unhappy. Maybe eternal night isn't as bad as it seems

[TBlaze 158]

Judging by the fact that rising the moon is seemingly just as hard as rising the sun, even though it should be so many times easier if Equestria worked as our world, I guess that the only difference between the sun and the moon is the amount of light on Equestria. Nothing dying, nothing freezing.