It is also possible that Discord might have been responsible for corrupting Luna. He probably reached out telepathically and exploited her insecurities to his advantage, hoping that he'd be able to benefit from her rebellion.

@Karl: Nightmare Moon was just a title. I'm thinking that true Nightmares (if any exist somewhere in the world) are far worse.

edited 2nd Feb '12 10:48:49 AM by DemoralizedAnt

It might have been his last "present" to the sisters before he was originally petrified.

Then what did he do to Celestia? Or was she able to resist?

@ Demo Ant: I like your Nightmare idea, and have incorporated it into my headcanon.

He might have seen a more exploitable weakness in Luna, so he "gifted" her in the short time he had before going on the rocks.

It's interesting, however, how Discord did not cause any major damage. He was responsible for chocolate rains and weird animal behavior and flying houses, but not for rains of fire or large-scale devastation or anything like that.

The Reign of Discord looked like something that ponies could survive: a bizarre and unpredictable place, that's for sure, but not the primeval chaos.

Plus, the way in which he was defeated looked extremely suspicious to me. I mean, come on — just how many hints did he give to the Mane Six, and why did he just stay there like a chump and took the strike of the elements instead of running away? "He's a creature of chaos, and hence intrinsically capricious and unpredictable" does not seem to cut it as an explanation...

For fairness, I changed the Nightmares in my story into a secret organization, but they're still pursuing supreme domination. They're still the same, just shrunk down a bit so that they don't overpower Equestria...too much.

@Carciofus: The first one is easy. A catastrophe of biblical proportions would be a bit out of character for the show, recognized periphery demographic notwithstanding. I mean, for Equestria to suddenly switch from The Shire to Mordor would be a bit jarring.

As for the second concern, Discord's pride convinced him that his plan was foolproof and that the Elements wouldn't work. However, that seems a bit strange to me, since I'm sure he could plainly see that his spell was broken from how the Mane Six had gotten their color back (and that Rainbow Dash was present).

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:06:27 AM by DemoralizedAnt

"I'll take one Discord. On the rocks."
"Are you sure? It's a bit strong. And chaotic."
"Just hit me, barkeep!"

Ok. Assuming that Night Mare Moon was "created" by Discord, then what do we suppose the next villain will be? Cthulhu? My bits are on Cthulhu.

Given enough time, he might have. I think he was just warming up and having a little fun. As for why he was defeated so easily, I think that his reasoning was something like, "Celestia and Luna were two ridiculously overpowered ponies. The best they could do with the Elements of Harmony was turn me to stone. It sucked, but I've seen worse... Now, they send six ordinary ponies. The worst they could do is make me feel a little giddy and warm my coffee. And I like warm coffee. Lay it on me, fillies!"

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:10:24 AM by KarlKadaver

Cthulhu would be a step down from Discord, I think, in terms of raw power.

I cannot imagine a direct ship hit doing much of anything to Discord, after all...

Okay, lesse...Nightmare Moon tried to bring about Eternal Darkness, and Discord wanted Eternal Chaos...

The thing both have in common is that they are associated with destruction...

Aha! The next villain could be The Great Destroyer!

Or perhaps eternal terror, ergo, the next big bad will be Diablo.

Or perhaps there is no big bad, and all of the "narrowly avoided catastrophes" are part of a sneaky plan by Celestia and company to get the Mane Six to unlock the full power of the Elements.

Discord is actually just Celestia's boyfriend, who did her a favor and played the role of the "big bad" in order to force the Mane Six to confront their deepest insecurities.

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:16:41 AM by Carciofus

They might be on equal footing. Chthulhu is the size of a mountain and can make you go mad just from looking at him. Discord would have to go through the effort of making silly faces to make you go mad from looking at him.

Now, that I can get behind!

So, Trollestia is the Big Bad?

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:17:18 AM by KarlKadaver

Somehow, I feel as if this will trigger an eruption of fanfics. Perhaps one will be ascended to Fanon.

In a way, except that she is really acting in everypony's best interests.

Oh, and Cthulu is literally a Thing That Man Was Not Meant To Know. Ponies could be just fine with him

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:19:28 AM by Carciofus

Okie Dokie Loki.

Bah. Brought down by Exact Words. Feh...

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:25:52 AM by KarlKadaver

I remember I have read somewhere a pretty nice Thor/MLP crossover in which Loki was indeed the Big Bad. And Pinkie was his descendant, which made quite a bit of sense.

My Little Avengers? That one where Big Mac becomes an Thor?

Yes, that's the one. The ending felt a bit rushed to me, but the first part was nice.

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:34:44 AM by Carciofus

Linkspam time!

http://vjmorales.deviantart.com/art/Spike-Pilgrim-212578572
http://vjmorales.deviantart.com/art/Raremona-Flowers-213777546
http://vjmorales.deviantart.com/art/Applejack-Pine-217254650
http://vjmorales.deviantart.com/art/Big-Macintosh-Stills-251081793
http://vjmorales.deviantart.com/art/Applebloom-Chau-254485659
http://vjmorales.deviantart.com/art/SPvE-Evil-EX-1-Pinkie-Pie-tel-280622145

My headcanon is that the Nightmare was a leftover present from Discord. When it got Luna, Celestia didn't have a good enough handle on the Elements by herself to subdue and purge her without harming her, so buying some time to set up something more precise was about all she could do.

And just because I got so very, very tired of Luna Angst fanfic, my headcanon also involves the whole thing being Luna's gambit from the beginning to wipe it out for good by using herself as bait.

edited 2nd Feb '12 3:37:29 PM by Pykrete

I finally found a download with which to make this:

I know it's sort of an old issue, but seriously, the people complaining about derpy are really starting to piss me off! The people working on the show just try to be nice and give us a fandom nod, and now these fuckers have to WHINE about it, to the point where the episode got taken off of itunes! Ungrateful little fucktards....

I think the most hypocritically hilarious part of this whole thing is that even if you think Derpy is retarded as opposed to just clumsy and weird (i.e., most of Ponyville), she would be one of the highest-functioning mentally handicapped characters in animation. And that's the one the PC crowd wants stricken from the record. Not Ed, not Deedee, not Patrick, not Billy or Peter (who are both explicitly retarded), not even Snails from the same fucking show. Derpy.

The moral of the story: if you're going to write a mentally handicapped character, make sure to make them as ridiculously stupid and catastrophically obstructive as possible, because that's okay. But God forbid they're allowed to be a contributing member of the in-story community — no, apparently politically correct retarded people never do that.

What the fuck?◊

And you know what else?

You got Applejack's episode taken down over this shit too!◊

edited 2nd Feb '12 9:29:49 PM by Pykrete

I have not actually heard any complaints about Derpy, to be honest — everyone seemed quite enthusiastic about it, at least over at EQD (I basically just indulge in the MLP fandom here and there).

As for me, I was pleasantly surprised by Derpy's presence, but I did not really get the fuss. Yeah, it was a nice nod to the fandom, but I do not really understand the whole "OMG they know of us this is the greatest thing of the history of animation" reaction...

edited 2nd Feb '12 9:51:29 PM by Carciofus

, Guys, the episode wasn't taken down because of Derpy-hate. EQD posted screenshots (which were later removed, apparently, but the point stands) of someone sending an e-mail to Hasbro, asking them about it, and Hasbro showing mild surprise there had been any hate at all.

Don't spread discredited rumours as fact.

—

You're so lucky to have not seen that shit. Ponibooru was full of it, and Gingerninja from the Western Animation FIM thread said that he "fucking hates" Derpy for "stealing" Applejack's episode.

edited 2nd Feb '12 11:30:56 PM by Kerrah