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Description
An opposing picture to my Imperial Authority, featuring a completely redesigned Nightmare Moon. What a lovely alicorn she is in her fancy uniform, if you don't look at her more sinister side with the mask.

A drawing of Luna by Soirema-pl has greatly influenced this drawing and the way I draw alicorns in general. Check it out here:
soirema-pl.deviantart.com/art/…

Nightmare Moon, originally an aspirant for the throne of Equestria as the ruler of batponies and the sovereign Queen of the Night. That was of course before Solar Flare kicked her flank out of the newly established Solar Empire with little trouble, as she had the majority of the population on her side at the time.

Well it is said that everything bad is good for something. Nightmare abandoned her former intentions to become the ruler of Equestria and shifted all of her focus to bringing forth the Eternal Night, forming the New Lunar Republic insurgency as a tool to cripple the Empire.
This turned out to be the smartest decission she ever made. Since she lived in hiding, facing harsh conditions, many begun to view her as a humble freedom fighter and welcomed this new alicorn personality unlike the somewhat greedy and narcissistic empress Solar Flare. Soon the rebel group turned into a new state with numerous camps and hidden cities housing all who were fed up with eternal day babling and wished to smack the Empire. It is true that the NLR is a much more free society, however hardly an actual republic. More like a weird combination of an anarchy and despotism.
The most distinct quality of Nightmare Moon is her apathy to anything ponies do, so everypony is free to do pretty much anything they want to. Of course this often results in a somewhat unstable situation, usually involving cider, loss of control over one's emotions and many bruises (exactly in this order). That is the moment when the despotism comes in as the chaotic melting pot of colourful coats is put in order, using the most persuasive argument if needed: violence. Everypony quickly starts to behave, either because they remember the respect they have for the effort of the NLR against the Empire or because they wouldn't want to have a one sided conversation with the Mare of the Night or be put on the "ponies to be induced with nightmares" list.
To correct my previous statement, she does not care about anything EXCEPT that which is related to the night and as the NLR populace are all potential soldiers, she cares about maitaining order, to a certain extent.

As written above, the NLR is only a mere tool for Nightmare to bring forth the eternal night, so everypony must do his part and be of some use to earn the relative freedom. You can even light fires and do other light and day related stuff, however if a batpony is present it is not exactly appropriate because it pokes in the eyes quiet a lot. It doesn't really help that Nightmare is a little bit paranoid, she has this tiny problem with ponies. Since they did not supported her night at first, she is not very trusting towards them and is always on the lookout for a possible sun loving face conspiring against her. It is also recomended to be mindful of your behaviour if she is in your presence and wears her mask. She is essentially saying: "I am having a bad night, don't mess with me." If you stare at her stupidly or make any sudden fast movements, you give her an excuse to buck you in the face and then have the whole night guard land on you, which is neither pleasant nor healthy experience.
The good thing is that Nightmare is also very practical and wants to utilize anything she finds to achieve her final goal so she does not torture (well, apart from some occasional nightmare inducing) or kills anypony. Experience taught her of inefficiency and wastefulness of such practises. Instead everypony gets to do something more productive in the suicide squad, where they will partake in crucial missions such as being strapped onto a carriage and used instead of armor or used as ammuniton for catapults (that's mainly for winged pegasi though, smart projectiles which can alter their trajectory are prefered). The bebefit of this punisment is that if you manage to survive, you will recieve the "I helped bring forth the Eternal Night by (insert suicidal activity here)" badge. With it, batponies will respect you and ask you kindly to cease doing whatever day related thing it is you are taken by in their presence. You know, instead of doing all the nasty stuff above. That's quiet useful.

As much as cold and indifferent Nightmare is, she has a very soft spot for her nightloving underlings. You just gotta show you that you care about the night, mostly through understanding the batpony philosophies and helping the war effort in some way (helping it A LOT). In that case, you will be accepted to the inner circle, where you will see Nightmare in her calm mood, be able to call her Moony (without recieving a buck) and if you ask nicely, she will even create a constelation which will be seen on the night of your birthday (sorry, I meant to say BIRTHNIGHT). How nice of her. Of course she will still expect you to pay the price to bring the eternal night. Unless you by some miracle surpass her empire crushing knowledge, you better listen to her carefully. But if you managed to get this close to her you are surely a faithful follower of the night and don't have a problem with any of this, right?

She might not be much of a ruler, in fact all the rulling she does involves walking around in her mask so that ponies remember to do their job. She is more of a general than a queen, after all, NLR was originally a resistance movement. It is very joyful for her to see all those arogant "light lovers" fall before her, so she does her best to exploit the battlefield, weather conditions, terrain, visibility and strenghts as well weaknesses of her troops (somebody needs to be that carriage armor after all) and the arogance of those who believe batponies to be a bunch of poor peasants.
She even goes on a solo operations deep behind enemy lines, where she enjoys sabotaging and invoking fear in her opponents. Her code is "Win a battle before it happens or let others win it for you." That is propably the reason why she, although more than sufficiently capable to kick major tail, spends her time circling around the battlefield, observing the situation, relaying orders to troops and poking all the pegasi who dare fly in her way with her custom made double-sword. This cutting-edge (that's a pun, you see) close range weapon can also be thrown and return to you like a boomerang (presuming you have something like the Nightmares mane to throw and catch it). You know, to hit all those overly annoying ponies who are not even worth to be struck by a beam of magic.

Description
An opposing picture to my Imperial Authority, featuring a completely redesigned Nightmare Moon. What a lovely alicorn she is in her fancy uniform, if you don't look at her more sinister side with the mask.

A drawing of Luna by Soirema-pl has greatly influenced this drawing and the way I draw alicorns in general. Check it out here:
soirema-pl.deviantart.com/art/…

Nightmare Moon, originally an aspirant for the throne of Equestria as the ruler of batponies and the sovereign Queen of the Night. That was of course before Solar Flare kicked her flank out of the newly established Solar Empire with little trouble, as she had the majority of the population on her side at the time.

Well it is said that everything bad is good for something. Nightmare abandoned her former intentions to become the ruler of Equestria and shifted all of her focus to bringing forth the Eternal Night, forming the New Lunar Republic insurgency as a tool to cripple the Empire.
This turned out to be the smartest decission she ever made. Since she lived in hiding, facing harsh conditions, many begun to view her as a humble freedom fighter and welcomed this new alicorn personality unlike the somewhat greedy and narcissistic empress Solar Flare. Soon the rebel group turned into a new state with numerous camps and hidden cities housing all who were fed up with eternal day babling and wished to smack the Empire. It is true that the NLR is a much more free society, however hardly an actual republic. More like a weird combination of an anarchy and despotism.
The most distinct quality of Nightmare Moon is her apathy to anything ponies do, so everypony is free to do pretty much anything they want to. Of course this often results in a somewhat unstable situation, usually involving cider, loss of control over one's emotions and many bruises (exactly in this order). That is the moment when the despotism comes in as the chaotic melting pot of colourful coats is put in order, using the most persuasive argument if needed: violence. Everypony quickly starts to behave, either because they remember the respect they have for the effort of the NLR against the Empire or because they wouldn't want to have a one sided conversation with the Mare of the Night or be put on the "ponies to be induced with nightmares" list.
To correct my previous statement, she does not care about anything EXCEPT that which is related to the night and as the NLR populace are all potential soldiers, she cares about maitaining order, to a certain extent.

As written above, the NLR is only a mere tool for Nightmare to bring forth the eternal night, so everypony must do his part and be of some use to earn the relative freedom. You can even light fires and do other light and day related stuff, however if a batpony is present it is not exactly appropriate because it pokes in the eyes quiet a lot. It doesn't really help that Nightmare is a little bit paranoid, she has this tiny problem with ponies. Since they did not supported her night at first, she is not very trusting towards them and is always on the lookout for a possible sun loving face conspiring against her. It is also recomended to be mindful of your behaviour if she is in your presence and wears her mask. She is essentially saying: "I am having a bad night, don't mess with me." If you stare at her stupidly or make any sudden fast movements, you give her an excuse to buck you in the face and then have the whole night guard land on you, which is neither pleasant nor healthy experience.
The good thing is that Nightmare is also very practical and wants to utilize anything she finds to achieve her final goal so she does not torture (well, apart from some occasional nightmare inducing) or kills anypony. Experience taught her of inefficiency and wastefulness of such practises. Instead everypony gets to do something more productive in the suicide squad, where they will partake in crucial missions such as being strapped onto a carriage and used instead of armor or used as ammuniton for catapults (that's mainly for winged pegasi though, smart projectiles which can alter their trajectory are prefered). The bebefit of this punisment is that if you manage to survive, you will recieve the "I helped bring forth the Eternal Night by (insert suicidal activity here)" badge. With it, batponies will respect you and ask you kindly to cease doing whatever day related thing it is you are taken by in their presence. You know, instead of doing all the nasty stuff above. That's quiet useful.

As much as cold and indifferent Nightmare is, she has a very soft spot for her nightloving underlings. You just gotta show you that you care about the night, mostly through understanding the batpony philosophies and helping the war effort in some way (helping it A LOT). In that case, you will be accepted to the inner circle, where you will see Nightmare in her calm mood, be able to call her Moony (without recieving a buck) and if you ask nicely, she will even create a constelation which will be seen on the night of your birthday (sorry, I meant to say BIRTHNIGHT). How nice of her. Of course she will still expect you to pay the price to bring the eternal night. Unless you by some miracle surpass her empire crushing knowledge, you better listen to her carefully. But if you managed to get this close to her you are surely a faithful follower of the night and don't have a problem with any of this, right?

She might not be much of a ruler, in fact all the rulling she does involves walking around in her mask so that ponies remember to do their job. She is more of a general than a queen, after all, NLR was originally a resistance movement. It is very joyful for her to see all those arogant "light lovers" fall before her, so she does her best to exploit the battlefield, weather conditions, terrain, visibility and strenghts as well weaknesses of her troops (somebody needs to be that carriage armor after all) and the arogance of those who believe batponies to be a bunch of poor peasants.
She even goes on a solo operations deep behind enemy lines, where she enjoys sabotaging and invoking fear in her opponents. Her code is "Win a battle before it happens or let others win it for you." That is propably the reason why she, although more than sufficiently capable to kick major tail, spends her time circling around the battlefield, observing the situation, relaying orders to troops and poking all the pegasi who dare fly in her way with her custom made double-sword. This cutting-edge (that's a pun, you see) close range weapon can also be thrown and return to you like a boomerang (presuming you have something like the Nightmares mane to throw and catch it). You know, to hit all those overly annoying ponies who are not even worth to be struck by a beam of magic.