@Background Pony  
mah headcanon says that only after coming back from the moon did she learn how to enter dreams.

It does confuse me why she’d be upset at ponies sleeping through the night if she can do this, though. I mean either wake them up or notice everypony’s enjoying their dreams that take place at night as much as they are the ones that take place during the day. Or in the magical land of blank-white-background.

My new head canon is that the entirety of Equestria exists in a dream.  
A dream that Lauren Faust first dreamt up. She shared that dream with the other staffers, who together then brought the dream to us.  
The more people that share that dream the more real it becomes.

The War of the Sun and Moon began one night when the entire nation of Equestria fell victim to the most horrifying nightmares, all at once.

What if.. from the time she appeared until they beat her with the elements in S1E2 was a dream?

I can think of a select number of fanfics that nailed this.

so basically she made it night forever than forced ponies to stay up by giving them so horrible dreams they couldn’t fall alseep

@BronyHeresy
 
Luna is best Daedric Prince!!

nightmare moon = darkari  
luna = cresselia

maybe the nightmares were designed to keep everyone awake through her eternal night.

Princess Luna: Guardian of Sleep, Lady of Dreams, and Mistress of Nightmares.

GUYS
 
WHAT IF
 
NIGHTMARE MOON
 
IS THE RESULT OF LUNA GOING INTO HER OWN TROUBLED DREAMS

@JohnSamer
 
We aren’t stupid John.

excuse me bronies
 
i think you need to do a little research into The Night Mare and the Hag Ridden.
 
It’s some old folklore from Europe that says that nightmares come from a horse known as the Night Mare that invades your dreams and makes you feel fear or sadness to feed the witches your feelings. I’m not making this shit up. Look it up. That’s where the term Nightmare comes from. Clearly the makers of the show know alittle about fairy tales.

aceofscarabs:
 
She’s probably been doing this for thousands of years. I don’t think there’s much that still surprises her.

Since she was reputed to eat ponies, I don’t think she needed special powers to give ponies nightmares.

I can only imagine her reaction if she dreamwalked into somepony having an erotic dream involving her

I dream of LUNA.

@Carrot Top  
But you are a carrot right now.

Luna is best Freddie

So that explains the time I dreamt I was a carrot.

No one was awake at her night.  
She was bored to hell, got angry and turned into Nightmare Moon.  
When she has been turned good again she started visiting ponies dreams to see them happy and “awake”.

Obviously it was during the time she gave ponies insomnia so they had little choice but to stay up at night that she earned the title.

She will show you fear in a hoof-full of magic.