I go with Alicorns becoming bigger and having more ethereal manes corresponding to how much power they have, with them generally getting more power as they age. Luna explicitly tells us the Elements took away her powers and that was when she was at her smallest and the only time her mane wasn't made of night, Cadance gets an ethereal mane during the ACW at the end IIRC when using all that love power. Nightmare Moon was when Luna was at her strongest and she was largest then with the most impressive mane.
Tealove is best pony.
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Afternoon, gents. I'm spending the day at home because I was feeling kind of feverish. What's up?
And what is Luna's domain? The night. Her dark powers are presumably most of her powers.
Tealove is best pony.
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Would that qualify as a badass beard?
Roses are red, violets are blue.
I'm sorry to say, you've been eaten by a Grue.
Luna is definitely bigger in her NMM form than she is when she first escapes it. And she's definitely smaller than when she's at full power.
Dark was pretty implied to mean evil, the shadow powers NMM had, not her night powers.
It wasn't implied to be anything, you can take the line either way. Given I take Nightmare Moon as just being Luna I interpret the dark powers line to be just that her powers, which were dark based.
Tealove is best pony.
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Except why would she call her own power "dark". She was glad about it, glad that Twilight took it away, so it really did not come off as being her power, but rather the power that was influencing her.
Again, why would she be HAPPY about losing her powers and specify "dark". Those "powers" were clearly what was making her be NMM, or at least part of it. And we know now that NMM IS a separate entity with it's own powers. She was only referring to the Nightmare "dark" powers, not her ow.
Yup. It's amazing what big hair and dark colors do to people's perception of you, isn't it?
Yeah, the hair is probably what does it.
All spoilers are for the comic.
Given I take Nightmare Moon as just being Luna I interpret the dark powers line to be just that her powers, which were dark based.
The latest comic series actually confirms that
Nightmare Moon and Luna are separate entities, at least to a large extent.
However, your basic point (wavy mane = more power) seems to be essentially correct. It seems like it's more "how much power they're emitting" than "how powerful they are generally", but otherwise it's fairly accurate:
we see Luna go from "Friendship is Magic Luna" to "Nightmare Night Luna" when she leads the defense of Ponyville in the latest comic issue.
"If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing." -John Brunner
Why do I have this sinking feeling I'm going to be the hero to save us all from a pony withdrawal?
It's a Demonic Lighthouse Slide! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I beg of you, Durza, make it so.
-Azreal
No, NES! Don't be a hero!
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