@Niggoslav_Krawczyk  
Yeah, but Celestia forgave Luna. My problem with this episode is that Luna is bordering on the psychotic: she insists that she can’t be helped by anyone even though Celestia, in the past, and her modern friends already helped her. She insists that as Nightmare Moon she did something so horrible that must be atoned for when in reality Nightmare Moon really didn’t do much, even to Celestia. Right now, Luna isn’t in the moon letting the sorrow grow. She can look at what she’s done, retrospectively, and she that she didn’t do that much damage and that she has friends to keep her from doing that thing. Luna’s already been let back in.
 
I’ll agree without a doubt that intention is enough to give you a lot of guilt and Luna IS fearing that she might try something like that again if she slips, but that fear is born off her guilt because she couldn’t forgive herself (which was actually the point of the episode). But Luna is putting too much stock in her ability to cause harm (BEFORE she lost control of Tantabus) when she can look at her past and see that she can’t cause all the damage she thinks.
 
This episode would work better if we didn’t know how things went down 1000 years ago (so we could believe Luna that she’s done something that can’t be forgiven) or if she was feeling guilt over the damage the Tantabus could have caused. I’ll put it this way: this episode tries to put the epic back into something that just lost it’s epic edge when it was revealed.
 
But I think you’re right saying that us seeing that they were close really would have given this episode a lot more impact.
 
@warrior_stew  
Are they immortal? She’s certainly long lived but we don’t know how long a pony can live. Granny Smith is at least 200 and counting. Saying that Celestia and Luna are immortal is a fandom thing.
 
Are they more powerful? Celestia gets her flank handed to her every time there is a villain. But I have to say that I can be wrong here… Chrysalis did seem impressed that she managed to defeat Celestia, but that isn’t an objective measure of Celestia’s power. I used to think that Celestia is more powerful because she is so big, but Troubleshoes disagrees. Well… Her mane still does that weird thing, which she lost when she gave Twilight her magic. Celestia and Luna being “goddess level” powerful is a fandom thing because of the time that moving the sun and the moon was impressive, before we learned that normal ponies can do that too. But I don’t really know.
 
But I also don’t know if ponies even had any sort of faith. But honestly, if there was a level of difference, as in Luna is a deity next to these mortal ponies, then I’d agree that her Nightmare Moon episode looks worse.

@RaineV1  
well then I’ll justr replace you with they

@Dr Outback  
No, look at the other comments. People are saying it was edgy, which is what I was mocking.

@RaineV1  
I think You confusing emo with edgy.

@RaineV1  

Wow, a character who has the power to kill off the entire world and tried to do it before is showing remorse? Oh god, EDGY! Quick guise, crop in a picture of Shadow!

@moonlightaveger  
What I mean by demigod is the are immortal and more powerful than most ponies, I don’t think they questioned celestias sanity so much as had their faith shaken up.

@Tragiclady @moonlightaveger Well, as we saw in the S4 premiere, she went a bit nuts. What she tried to do to ponies wasn’t that bad, but to her sister she has ample reason for piles and piles of guilt. Be like pulling a knife on your own kin and trying to stab them in a fit of rage, then only realising what you did 20 minutes after they shoved you out of the door and barred all the windows.  
Man, nah this can still work, but what the episode really needed was a princess episode to come before this. We can already guess how close the royal sisters are, but it hasn’t been overtly shown outside of that one flashback, and Luna’s prior statements about that time before this.  
It would have had more punch if there was an episode about them trying to reconnect like old times.  
Now imagine before you have time to apologise and explain why you were so PO’d, you got tossed into an island prison nowhere near the main continent for 50 years. Lotta time for that guilt to fester.

@PonyPon  
True.

@moonlightaveger  
Which is kind of unfortunate, really….

@gittonsxv  
She’s a shapeshifter. We’ve seen her change into Nightmare Moon form at will. We’ve seen her transform into three Shadowbolts at once.
 
What makes you think think that “Nightmare Moon” couldn’t make herself look like Luna? What makes you think that was her first transformation? It’s well within her capabilities to hold two separate forms at once. We’ve seen this multiple times, and simply switching between two would probably be child’s play for her.
 
How do we know Luna didn’t stage fights between herself and “Nightmare Moon” in order try to win over the public with her displays of heroism? Hod do we know she hadn’t been living a double-life and using her position as Luna to sabotage Celestia from the inside, as well as strike from the outside as Nightmare Moon?
 
We’ve seen the confrontation scene, and Celestia doesn’t even look slightly surprised at Luna’s transformation. It doesn’t even catch her offguard. It’s like she was expecting it the moment she came into the throne room.
 
Almost as if Celestia decided to privately confront her sister when she discovered the truth, and asked to meet her there after letting on that she knew.

@warrior_stew  
Define a “demigod”. Because what Celestia does raising the sun and Luna does raising the moon really isn’t that special. Luna’s dream powers kinda is, but that has nothing to do with what she did as Nightmare Moon. I think that the fandom (and I’m guilty as charged) are the ones that put the princesses in a pedestal. Most ponies treat the princesses more like celebrities than actual deities.
 
When she became Nightmare Moon, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the rest of Equestria only found out what happened when Celestia told them. The whole thing with Nightmare Moon lasted less than two minutes in the past.
 
I like what you’re saying, but it’s more headcanon than canon. I don’t think I ever saw a pony question Celestia’s sanity.

@ArrJaySketch  
I think you took my comment in a bit of a too personal way. For starters, Luna is not feeling bad because I said I think she is overreacting. We also know what happened in Luna’s case. We ARE talking about Luna here. I would never say someone to their face that they are overreacting because it certainly isn’t how it looks on their side. though I certainly would say it to other people, specially in the prospect of maybe bringing this person to reality.
 
And sorry. If you shoot someone and say “Oh my god! I could have killed millions of people”, and this person isn’t even gravely wounded, then you ARE overreacting. Luna hurt exactly ONE pony in this whole mess and that is all. I understand what you’re saying, but she never did really have the power to do what she intended, as Celestia proved right away. Unless we’re talking about “thought crime” here, Luna can’t be called guilty for planing something that would have led to bad things. Also, that one pony she actually harmed forgave her. Not only her, but also the Mane Six that she tried to harm and just couldn’t manage it. Nightmare Moon was very tame, specially compared to later villains.
 
Keeping herself under control is another story. I think I agree. I’m not sure. Luna… Well, she is overreacting. She still thinks that she’ll kill a million people with her “gun” in the same way she thought that in the past. Shouldn’t she feel some security in the fact that the Mane Six DID help her out of her episode? That her sister WAS able to help her (in a way) in the past? I think she is overestimating the threat she could be, all things considered. But instead she goes out of her way to lie to herself that others can’t help her.
 
She is more a threat for trying to ensure that she doesn’t cause harm than for actually causing harm in the past. Then again, maybe that is exactly the message. Does that make sense to you?

God forbid a character feel guilty about almost killing their sister and putting the world into an event that would realistically eventually kill everything over a fit of jealousy

@moonlightaveger  
So here is why I think she felt so guilty; she and her sister are demigods whose job is to lead the ponies of equestria. Not many ponies ever get to talk to the princesses and forget that they are just ponies as well. They put the princesses on a pedastel and assume that they are flawless beings who always know best.  
When Luna became nightmare moon she jerked all of the ponies out of that comfortable thought and brought them to the ugly truth; they are not perfect. The ponies realized one of their beloved gods was conflicted and corrupted. Not only did this make ponies weary of Luna, it probably made some wonder about celestias mental stability as well.  
In conclution, while she didn’t cause physical damage of any type, she did inflict unfixable mental damage to her subjects

CRAAAAAWLING IIIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIN

@Painkiller  
You can make mistakes as an adult, and those can be of more serious consequences. One may find those are even harder to forgive yourself, for. There’s honestly no end to the kinds of things one might not be able to forgive oneself for, and it can happen at any age.
 
 
@moonlightaveger  
There’s one thing I’ve learned that’s pretty useless. People often say, “they’re overreacting.” Well, no, not exactly. We don’t know their whole story. There’s usually a good reason for it, if one is willing to be patient and kind enough to dig for it. A better answer is, “I don’t know why they’re reacting like that.” A little empathy and treating others’ reactions as valid goes a long way. Sometimes it’s all someone needs to feel comforted, and maybe tell you more about why they felt the way they did.
 
I just know that I know why I feel a certain way, and you do, too. It’s really irritating to be dismissed as “overreacting” when you know you have a good reason for it.
 
For Luna, I think having the power to have potentially ended the world counts pretty strongly in the guilt department. I wonder if Luna is worried about losing control again, and if she really believes that she is no better now than she was. I think she did this to herself to keep herself in check.

@Painkiller  
exactly.  
and this was not some teenage fuck up, she nearly ended the world and killed her sister, that deserves some angst.

Tantibus: “Good. Gooood. You’re immense guilt makes me stronger.”

@gittonsxv
 
that and people today (like me, to a point) have a tough time letting go the wrongs they did or they THINK they did from years ago and they beat themselves up when things go wrong, thinking they deserve it because of insert childhood/teenage event here.

u.u

I love this episode. I really do. But what was so horrible that Nightmare Moon did that justifies this? The first time I watched this it was so sorrowful, so sad. But thinking about it, Luna is overreacting in epic scale. Mostly because we saw what happened when she turned into Nightmare Moon and it really didn’t get that bad. By the way she’s acting in this episode one would think that she caused the death of millions.
 
This episode would have been even better (dare I say perfect) if it had come earlier. At least before Luna was walking around ponies dreams talking about fears and sorrows. Unless I’m missing something.

 
“We shall write a song on how you feel. Then you can listen to it to feel better”

OW THE EDGE I CAN FEEL IT CUTTING ME.

@Ilsor  
Maybe she takes cat naps during her regulated break time.