When Luna was reformed why did she turn into her teenage body and not her adult body

[Kaitlynne 110]

I was just curious because she is seen in her adult body later. Why did she turn into a teenager just after she was reformed?

[Will Guide 21,365]

Just a case of early installment weirdness in the show where they didn't actually finalize her design until later. And an in-Universe explanation could be that she was simply put in a weakened state that she spend all off screen of season 1 recovering so that when she does finally return at the start of season 2 she's back in her true form.

Not to mention the fact that her weaken state was literally in the pilot episode and no show is ever truly perfect in the pilot episode. The world of Equestria, its history and how it works is not fully cemented until later seasons show more. That also applies to the Elements of Harmony itself and what they can and cannot do.

[Evil Pink One 13,523]

must mean nightmare moon and Luna are different entities

[Will Guide 21,365]

2 minutes ago, Starforce said:

I personally viewed it as she lost most of her magic when the elements hit her and she quickly re-grew her strength afterward. 

I brought this many times before and other topics but remember that originally it took both Celestia and Luna to use all six elements to their full potential so when Celestia had to use them alone it actually exhausted the magic of The Elements of Harmony causing five of them to turn to Stone and the six went to disappear. If so what they were able to use them on her own it would have restored Luna right away but because they couldn't at the time it did the next best thing and locked her away on the moon

Only once six new ponies who could embody The Elements of Harmony arrive could the element be used to their full power again and restored Nightmare Moon back to Luna

[ExplosionMare 18,114]

I imagine that the Element blast Luna received severely weakened her. Her old design could also be a semblance of what she looked like 1,000 years ago. Once she re-established her place as coprincess, she built up her full magical potential once again (i.e, her ability to raise the moon) and got the new shiny mane that comes with it. This unfortunately doesn’t explain why her coat got so much darker, though.

[Splashee 28,589]

Maybe they just tried to make her look like the younger sister, and later realized she didn't fit Nightmare Moon's size for the Luna Eclipsed episode.

[Steve Piranha 29,481]

8 minutes ago, Splashee said:

Maybe they just tried to make her look like the younger sister, and later realized she didn't fit Nightmare Moon's size for the Luna Eclipsed episode.

A shame. She was kind of a cute poneh 

[Fhaolan 4,488]

One theory I had way back when is based on the demonstration that Nightmare Moon was a proper magic-based shapeshifter. Which means her appearance at any time was what she *wanted* to look like, and didn't need to have any relation to the way she looked if all her magic was stripped away. So when that Nightmare Moon-ish personality was stripped away from Luna, it would supposedly revert her to her actual appearance at the time just before she turned into Nightmare Moon.

Then when Luna showed up later looking more Celestia-like, that made me think 'Huh'. Did that mean that this new appearance was a projection, once her alicorn magic had regenerated? A sort of 'actualized self-image' to make her look more like her older sister. Which might mean *Celestia's* appearance was also a actualized self-image, and not what she really would look like when her magic was stripped away? Celestia wants to look imposing and impressive and super-magical as the ruler of Equestria, so that's exactly what her alicorn magic makes happen, probably completely subconsciously at that. 

Cadance's appearance would therefore be because she doesn't *want* to look too different from her natural appearance due to a subconscious belief that it would separate her too much from from her husband... And Twilight would grow into super-tall, flowy mane appearance over time as her self-confidence grows and she believes she is becoming more and more like the Princess Siblings.

Then the Tirek thing happened, and the theory died when the alicorns dumped their magic into Twilight and Celestia and Luna retained their 'adult' appearances. Pity. I know that the animators just didn't think of it, and they probably didn't want to build a new Celestia puppet for the brief time she was going to be de-powered. But there we go.

[Kaitlynne 110]

6 minutes ago, Fhaolan said:

One theory I had way back when is based on the demonstration that Nightmare Moon was a proper magic-based shapeshifter. Which means her appearance at any time was what she *wanted* to look like, and didn't need to have any relation to the way she looked if all her magic was stripped away. So when that Nightmare Moon-ish personality was stripped away from Luna, it would supposedly revert her to her actual appearance at the time just before she turned into Nightmare Moon.

Then when Luna showed up later looking more Celestia-like, that made me think 'Huh'. Did that mean that this new appearance was a projection, once her alicorn magic had regenerated? A sort of 'actualized self-image' to make her look more like her older sister. Which might mean *Celestia's* appearance was also a actualized self-image, and not what she really would look like when her magic was stripped away? Celestia wants to look imposing and impressive and super-magical as the ruler of Equestria, so that's exactly what her alicorn magic makes happen, probably completely subconsciously at that. 

Cadance's appearance would therefore be because she doesn't *want* to look too different from her natural appearance due to a subconscious belief that it would separate her too much from from her husband... And Twilight would grow into super-tall, flowy mane appearance over time as her self-confidence grows and she believes she is becoming more and more like the Princess Siblings.

Then the Tirek thing happened, and the theory died when the alicorns dumped their magic into Twilight and Celestia and Luna retained their 'adult' appearances. Pity. I know that the animators just didn't think of it, and they probably didn't want to build a new Celestia puppet for the brief time she was going to be de-powered. But there we go.

That’s a pretty good theory though!

[Orchid_Fiore 200]

I always thought it was because she was suspended in the moon...