Luna's dream visiting: Was is something she learned only after her return?

[Never2muchpinkie 211]

Some of the fans wonder why, if Luna could visit people's dreams and help them with their nightmares, then why was she so bitter and felt unappreciated. I like to think that she didn't always have that ability at that time because it makes more sense. She raised the moon, and everyone else slept through her night. All she saw was people shunning her.

 

So after 1000 years and upon her return to good by the elements of harmony she finds herself in much the same position. She doesn't want there to be a repeat of what happened before. Being away from her sister for so long was too heartbreaking for her and she didn't want to become consumed with jealousy and rage again. As the princess of the night, reflecting on the lessons she learned, she sought a way to be of use to the ponies she watched over even if they weren't out admiring the night, in the form of dream-watching. As anyone who's had a nightmare, which is EVERYONE, you know that it can feel out of control and very, very real, as real as your waking hours, so it only makes sense that she found her own way of protecting her subjects from the problems that plague them.

 

 

On a side note, Luna seems a little arrogant for declaring it HER night considering Hearths warming eve showed that before her and Celestia were around unicorns were already doing their jobs. Granted it took a group of them rather than just one for the princesses, but still Luna didn't CREATE nighttime. 

[Planty 1,053]

 

 

On a side note, Luna seems a little arrogant for declaring it HER night considering Hearths warming eve showed that before her and Celestia were around unicorns were already doing their jobs. Granted it took a group of them rather than just one for the princesses, but still Luna didn't CREATE nighttime. 

 

to an extent that episode was AWESOME (im very much a lore person, its why I still follow wow lore) , but it just doesn't fit in that well with things we already knew from past episodes :/!

 

I favour the idea that the Luna scene was a flashback or something similar as opposed to Luna rising again. But If it isn't It doesn't fit in to well with the comics, where they defeat the nightmare forces on the moon (although its a reasonable explanation to say that she turned evil on her own with no nightmare force influence).

 

I guess what I'm saying overall is that I don't really have a clue ><

[Scootalove 10,689]

Well like we've seen before, Luna can't fit in well with the other ponies but that was also reflected in Luna Eclipsed. Luna had a flashback, so she probably sees the jealousy that she had before and turned into Nightmare Moon. For now, I don't know.

[MichaelxXxTrixie 433]

It's actually quite simple.

 

You can help people all you want but what are you in the end? A tool. She never felt appreciated because she was always on night-duty and everypony is asleep. And who is to say she also directly helps them? She is simply just watching over them which doesn't mean she'll show up in the dreams. 

[pinkiefan1287 610]

Most likely Luna has always had the power to enter dreams. It was her job to watch the night and take care of everypony at that time. So when need she could enter dreams. Most likely Luna used the dream entering ability during her time as Nightmare Moon. She would scare ponies in their dreams and force them to wake up.

[hawkflame 3,310]

Actually her being under appreciated makes sense if you consider how often we forget most of what happens in our dreams. In fact, that might contribute to it.

 

I'd be pretty peeved if I helped fight off someone's nightmares and they don't even remember it happening most of the time.

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

Maybe she did have her power before she was corrupted into NMM. It's possible that most dreams she went into had her subjects being happy and basking in the daylight while being scared and miserable during night ( which would take place in nightmares).

 

This is why Luna thought her subjects disliked her night and enjoyed the day; sparking more jealousy.

[Mutemutt 773]

I always figured she could dive into dreams ever since she was in charge of the night. I'm going to agree with Hawkflame in that the ponies forgetting that Luna helped them out in their dreams time after time left her feeling under appreciated. The resentment built up over time and then Nightmare Moon happens.

[Feather Spiral 1,892]

I think it does make sense that ponies forgetting their dreams "helped" the jealousy. I'm sure she felt like they were just forgetting her, even if her rational mind may know that wasn't the case.

 

And either way, she still would've felt it was futile, protecting all her subjects from psychological harm and not being recognized for it (like Sisyphus pushing his huge boulder up the hill, only for the rock to roll back down the other side, every time).

I'm actually familiar with the feeling one gets when one's intervention is too subtle to be noticed, despite being significant enough to change the outcome.

On a side note, Luna seems a little arrogant for declaring it HER night considering Hearths warming eve showed that before her and Celestia were around unicorns were already doing their jobs. Granted it took a group of them rather than just one for the princesses, but still Luna didn't CREATE nighttime.

Actually, it's not arrogance, she's just taking her duties personally.

A lot of companies didn't invent cars, but still call the ones they produce "our cars" because they have a certain assembling method, use certain shapes and designs... Same goes for political ideologies, today's communist parties didn't invent communism, but they can still call it "our ideology/program" (especially if they made "updates" to appeal to a wider audience).

Likewise, I certainly didn't invent pizzas, but I uploaded photos of "my" pizzas, for which I used different proportions and improvised toppings.

[Anadu Kune 668]

The whole dream walking ability being a problem thing always just seemed silly to me. Luna was consumed by jealousy and resentment was because  "The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night" The key word is shunned, Luna felt the ponies were shunning a large bulk of her work and her as well.  Assuming she had the dream walking ability the whole time this wouldn't alleviate that feeling. She is maintaining the peace of the dreams of the ponies who shun her work and her. Any interaction Luna has with them will likely be forgotten or just shrugged off as "just a dream". Heck that was Scootaloos first reaction upon waking from her encounter with Luna. So I think the ability to walk in ponies dreams would just compound the resentment, jealousy, and possibly lonliness. 

So to just sum up I think Luna has had the ability from the start and it was a contributing factor as to why she became Nightmare Moon. Heck the name makes far more sense that way. Perhaps she made all ponies have nightmares to make them fear sleep itself so they would spend more time awake to see her eternal night.