Night Mare Moon

Night Mare Moon is the Main Antagonist in The first episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and one of the Leaders of The Society Of Team Fortress 2 Bosses.

Depiction In the Series
The name incorporates several plays on words. She is, of course, a female horse, or "mare," and her black coat contrasts with Princess Celestia's white coat like night and day. But a "nightmare" is also a frightening dream. In folklore, a mare is an evil spirit who comes and sits on people's chests as they sleep, producing a terrifying sensation of suffocation. The original term is not historically related to the word meaning "female horse," but it has influenced folk tradition, so that in some places the evil mare is said to turn the sleeper into a horse and ride the victim until exhausted. The artistic design of Night Mare Moon may have been influenced by a famous painting by Henry Fusili, "." This painting shows a young woman tormented as she sleeps by an evil goblin sitting on her chest, while a pony with a coal black coat and prominent white eyes (like Night Mare Moon's) watches through a gap in the curtains.

In addition, when imprisoned in the moon, Luna appears as a dark area on the moon's surface. A similar shape in astronomy is called a lunar mare(Latin for "sea", pronounced "mah-rey").

Night Mare Night
====Despite most ponies not recognizing Night Mare Moon upon her return, the episode Luna Eclipsed shows the ponies celebrating an annual festival called Nightmare Night, where foals go door-to-door in costumes collecting candy, which they later offer to the effigy of Night Mare Moon. Zecora tells in verse of the legend of Night Mare Moon, which explains the customs of the holiday:====
 * Every year, we put on a disguise
 * To save ourselves, from her searching eyes
 * But Night Mare Moon wants just one thing
 * To gobble up ponies in one quick swing
 * Hungrily, she soars the sky
 * If she sees nopony, she passes by
 * So if she comes and all is clear
 * Equestria is safe another year
 * Fill up her belly with a treat or two
 * So she won't return to come eat you

When Princess Luna returns after her thousand-year absence, she is still mistaken by Spike and others as Night Mare Moon, especially by Pinkie Pie who rouses up a gaggle of foals by shrieking at misconstrued acts of violence perpetrated by Princess Luna.

Although she originally intended to change the festival into a "bright" celebration, at the end of the episode Luna accepts Nightmare Night for what it is: a night of innocent scares, harmless pranks, and lots of candy.

Personality
Much like archetypal, over-the-top villains, Night Mare Moon is overly confident of herself and dramatically declares that the protagonist is a fool (foal) for thinking she can defeat her, and that "the night will last forever".

Bitterness
The narration at the beginning of Friendship is magic, Part 1 speaks of Night Mare Moon's bitterness which transformed her. When she first appears, she intimidates the ponies with her evil laugh and pointed questions. She snidely refers to the ponies as her "beloved subjects", but appears genuinely impressed when Twilight Sparklerecognizes her as Night Mare Moon.

Manipulation
Night Mare Moon uses her magic to indirectly set obstacles in Twilight's and her friends' path to the Elements of Harmony, making creatures unwittingly assist her, like the Manticore whose paw she embeds with a thorn so he'd attack the ponies, or the Sea Serpent whose mustache she cuts off so he'd make the river impassible. She further indirectly attacks the ponies by causing a cliff side to collapse underneath the ponies' feet, and by making trees appear as monsters. As the Shadowbolts, she tries to persuade Rainbow Dash to abandon her friends so they won't be able to cross a fallen bridge and reach the Elements of Harmony.