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“I have YOUR magic, remember? It doesn’t work in the dream realm!”
 
I want to unpack this little comment by Luna, because it contains some heavy implications about the two Royal Sisters, Nightmare Moon, and the Dream Realm.
 
If we take Luna’s statement at face value, it means the ability to enter the Dream Realm and confront ponies’ nightmares is tied directly to Luna via her cutie mark. No other pony, not even Celestia, has this power. This raises the question: what was going on in the Dream Realm while Luna–as Nightmare Moon–was banished to the Moon for a thousand years?
 
In the waking world, Celestia could banish Luna/NMM physically, but she has no power in the Dream Realm, no way to control her sister there. This would suggest that Nightmare Moon was running amok in the Dream Realm for a thousand years, which doesn’t seem supported by the show. Instead, the show treats Luna’s dream-walking abilities as something ponies have always known, unconnected to her evil alter-ego.
 
The only logical answer I can think of here is that Nightmare Moon only existed in the waking world, and Luna/NMM’s banishment was also only in the waking world. In the Dream Realm, Luna was still Luna, still herself, uncorrupted by her nightmare form. Though her body was imprisoned in/on the Moon, her spirit could still wander through ponies’ dreams and guard them against nightmares the way she always had before. She probably visited Celestia’s dreams many times, and those had to have been extremely uncomfortable for the Sun Princess:
 
“Why is my body imprisoned, sister?”  
“Because when you wake up, you’re a monster.”

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Sciencepone of Science!
No reason to assume her dream powers stopped. They had a celebration and parade when she reformed, but were scared of her again during Nightmare Night.
 
Honestly, I think she probably still visited dreams, but caused nightmares, hence her name, Nightmare Moon. But population estimates for 1,000 ad are around 300 million, say only 50 million are in Equestria, and ponies live an average of 30 years. 30*365 = 10,950 nights per life. Let’s say every night, Luna gives 10 nightmares, not focusing on one pony each night as you could argue she might, but spreading horror around. Then in 30 years she can visit 109,500 dreams. With a population of only 1 million, roughly one in ten people would ever have a Nightmare Moon nightmare in their life.
 
People really don’t have a sense of scale - huge pet peeve of mine - but even a tiny population is way too huge for Nightmare Moon to even be really noticeable, even if she ran rampant. Though perhaps over time, somehow people may notice her being a recurring character in nightmares, thus making her a thing of legend.
 
After all, we know enough about nightmares to know pantsless, out of control elevator, and teeth falling out nightmares are recurring themes among people. Perhaps, then, ponies might know her as another kind, though most would never even have one. She’d certainly be rarer than any of the nightmare types listed above.
 
… at least nightmares with actual-her would be. I suppose you could still dream of her without her visit.
 
Lol…
 
“Luna, what troubles you, sister?”
 
“It’s just that… today I got a letter from a pony named Velvet who apologized about what she did to me in her dream, and a letter from a pony named Sunny Skies thanking me for helping her with a problem… But I didn’t visit the dreams of any ponies with either of those names last night!”
 
 
Though honestly one line I thought was extremely interesting was how Luna said she could take her time with her work. So does she mess with perception of time to give herself days or weeks or even years to complete a night of dreams? Seems like the only viable way to watch the dreams of all your subjects, and the only way I can think of to explain why she felt no rush. It’s an interesting case, because then Nightmare Moon could visit many more ponies, though making time run slower would mean waiting a LOT longer to return, which she probably wouldn’t be a fan of…
 
Though maybe she can’t dream - hop without a body since it relies on her magic, which comes from the mark on her body, and unicorn and alicorn magic come from their bodies?
 
 
Another interesting possibility is that she realizes it’s impossible to save every nightmare, so she accepts that and just makes sure to do a good job on the ones she does intervene on. Though in that case “it’s been a busy night for all of us” wouldn’t make sense from when she said it in Bloom and Gloom.
 
 
@Softy  
Yes, thank you!
 
I think of the Moon as a kind of not-evil Horcrux for Luna. Elements killed her, soul went to Horcrux, and like Voldemort needing time to return or something, with enough time her soul and the Moon could magically reconstitute a body.
 
Mostly fanon, but the craters on the Moon strongly support Softy’s statement.
DonMaguz

@Softy  
I too think that NMM’s vanishing was similar to Discord’s sealing, with NMM/Luna not being able to use her magic and therefore incapable of entering the dream realm.
moonlightaveger

Careful with this sort of analysis in MLP… It hurts, being so inconsistent and plot-serving.
 
“In the waking world, Celestia could banish Luna/NMM physically,”  
She needed the Elements of Harmony to do that. Ironically, NMM didn’t in one of the Season 5 finale’s timelines. Do with that as you will.
 
“This would suggest that Nightmare Moon was running amok in the Dream Realm for a thousand years, which doesn’t seem supported by the show. Instead, the show treats Luna’s dream-walking abilities as something ponies have always known, unconnected to her evil alter-ego.”  
Luna’s power feels more like a retcon so that she would have reasons to appear over and over. Not that I’m complaining, but few things make sense in this stuff. To me, it wouldn’t make sense for Luna to be hurt that the ponies aren’t seeing her night if she’s guarding their dreams. What do you know? The cartoon isn’t perfect. XD
 
“The only logical answer I can think of here is that Nightmare Moon only existed in the waking world, and Luna/NMM’s banishment was also only in the waking world. In the Dream Realm, Luna was still Luna, still herself, uncorrupted by her nightmare form. Though her body was imprisoned in/on the Moon, her spirit could still wander through ponies’ dreams and guard them against nightmares the way she always had before. She probably visited Celestia’s dreams many times, and those had to have been extremely uncomfortable for the Sun Princess:”  
I love the theory, but you’re begging the question. That said, I could see this being true in a similar “retcon-y way”. Terrifying.
Necrikus

Truth be told, a lot about Nightmare Moon is troublesome and confusing, but I don’t think that’s a reasonable conclusion to make about her nature. I did have a nice paragraph’s worth of explanations and evidence as to why, but I’ll cut it for simplicity.
 
Luna states that [Celestia’s] magic doesn’t work in the dream realm. That’s it. It doesn’t say that nobody else can enter the dream realm, or that nobody can control it, or that anyone can stop her from entering it. Taking it from actual face value, all that means is that Luna cannot use Celestia’s magic in the dream realm. Stretching that to make wild assumptions about things never well explained is far from logical.
Prof.NightJack
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Gizmonics Scientist
@Softy  
Unless her powers need her to physically enter the dream realm, being locked in the moon doesn’t mean she can’t effect dreams.  
So if it was like a long sleep, then she can still connect to the realm like other ponies, by dreaming.  
So that might not be true.
 
Now if she needs to meditate or somthing when awake normally, then it would make sense she has less control when she herself is asleep.
Softy
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Nightmare Moon was locked away in the moon. People (and even the comics) seem to think she was prancing about on the lunar surface, but I always took it to mean that she was magically sealed away, unable to act in any way.
 
For a thousand years, the ponies had to manage their own dreams. Maybe there were some unicorn spells or herbal remedies to help, but Luna was simply not in the picture.
Prof.NightJack
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Makes sense, but what if during the time of banishment the power was also limited because of NMM, Luna was more free in the dream realm but couldn’t do a lot, keeping the dreams of ponies from becoming to bad but never fully free to really let any of them know she was there, likely for NMM holding part of the power, and maybe not fully aware of everything as well.  
That would give a reason why she saw fit to create Tantabus, she wasn’t uncorrupted in the dream realm, just not fully corrupted like in the waking world.
 
I mean if she was uncorrupted there for 1000 years and was able to visit ponies and help them, she wouldn;t have as much guilt over being NMM and thinking Tantabus was a good punishment to inflict on herself.
tu160

this makes sense, it also may help explain why the Ponies were so quick to forgive Luna and accept her back when she returned. To the modern pony NMM was a thousand year old legend; but they knew Luna as the protector of their dreams.
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I believe it means that while Luna was gone, nightmares had no opposition. For 1000 years, the dreams of ponies were troubled and they had no champion.
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Is it just hers or the usual pony magic in general? Last dream episode had all sorts of powers, so I guess it depends on the arbitrary limits of your own fantasy.
 
While Luna’s abilities are more grounded, just below that of someone in a lucid dream.
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That, or her powers don’t work when she’s not on planet. But that answer is boring.