That’s Moonprancer. Second cousin.

@Phantom Rider: Hair dye elixir. The same elixir is used Inigo, Owain, and Severa in DLC for Fire Emlbem: Awakening. As can be seen here.

@Pepsi_Al  
Dunno her. But why does the last one have black hair?

@Phantom Rider: What about a case like this one?

@Registered Anon  
Or changelings.

@Phantom Rider  
Identical twins separated at birth?

@Wiimeiser  
But if you ever meet someone who looks almost just like you and has the same set of friends as well as having the same name, then something is seriously awry. As in, “better get Mulder and Scully in on this.

You also have to take into account the fact that names are almost never unique. I was one of about eight boys in my school (or even grade) with the same first name. Then there’s all the Johns, Neils, Liams etc. In fact, I headcanon that Sweetie Belle and Sugar Belle actually both have the same exact first name (at least in the Equestria Creole), just different surnames (Rarity/Sweetie Belle Topaz and I don’t have a last name for Sugar Belle). Two ponies named Moondancer isn’t an issue unless we go by the “all ponies have unique names” headcanon (such cultures exist IRL but are primarily if not exclusively tribal societies), it’s like Liam Hemsworth vs Liam Neeson.

@Phantom Rider  

Which brings me back to my Nurse Joy comparison from earlier.
 

That’s not how characters work in a series. If they’re not the main characters, chances are, they have a look-alike in some form or another. (Otherwise, how do you explain Sweetie Drops having a different voice every time she appears?) The only exceptions made are when non-Main characters have an impact on the episode or arc in some way. While this is the case for the Moondancer in the show, it doesn’t seem to be the case for the pony-not-explicitly-named-Moondancer-despite-being-referred-to-as-such in the comics.

changeling!!!

@Background Pony #926C  
Just that when they get lines and are actually acknowledged, it’s consistent. The Canterlot gang even has the same VAs as from the very first episode when hardly anyone would’ve cared if they hadn’t. In crowd scenes, the same ponies appear over and over even in the same crowd.
 
If the explanation we’re really going with is “everyone’s got twenty clones,” then for all we know it’s not even the same Mane Six from one week to the next (why should they be the only unique ones, after all?)

It’s called generations. IDW!Moondancer could be an older relative and/or Show!Moondancer’s namesake.
 
Remember, Twilight was still a filly when The Fall Of Sunset Shimmer happened.

@Background Pony #0329
 
This isn’t due to a lack of communication, that particular comic came out nearly two years before the episode with Moondancer. The comic pony is never even named Moondance in the issue itself, or any other issue for that matter.
 
In Cutie Mark Chronicles we see filly Twilight at the same time as adult Lyra, Minuette and Lemonhearts. Does that make season 1 deuterocanonical? Of course not. But the comics should not be treated differently, the show gets retconned just as hard in this matter.

This is why the comics are considered ‘deuterocanonical’ and not necessarily to be taken along with the show. They dont communicate on canon so this will happen often

@Phantom Rider: And characters like Doctor Whooves got speaking dialogue and still remained “crowd filler” prior to “Slice of Life”. What is your point here?

@Background Pony #926C  
Gets Lines and characterization. Not quite the same as crowd filler.

@Phantom Rider: In that case, wouldn’t the pony in the comic (which wasn’t actually explicitly called “Moondancer”) be a “bp clone”?

@Background Pony #926C  
I don’t think we’re quite meant to take the bp clones seriously… (though Lyra - at least the one we’ve been seeing lately - would have no end of fun with the four or five Bon Bons we’ve seen at once in big crowds.)

@Phantom Rider:  

You forget just exactly who the target audience is. Not many, if any, among the target audience is going to know about the comics. So I’m pretty sure that the comics not being acknowledged at least directly is understandable. (Even though Babs getting her cutie mark has been foreshadowed in them. And they Established the Shadowbolts as one of the Wondercolts’ competitors long before an EQG sequel was even announced.) Not to mention that the show isn’t even in continuity with itself at times. (Case in point: “Family Appreciation Day”.)
 

It’s “two or more”. And you act like such a suggestion is impossible when it’s not actually too far from the truth if you think about it. Otherwise, how are you going to explain the fact that Lyra, Minuette, and Twinkleshine are adults in Twilight’s Cutie Mark Chronicles flashback, as seen in the picture below, even though Amending Fences establishes that she studied with them?
 

@Background Pony #926C
 
If everything that happened in the comic were intended to have happened in the show there’d be some mention of it somewhere, all these mentions of the incident later. Especially when the point is how bad Luna feels about her actions. That’d be a reeeeeeeally good time to say “Uh, remember these ‘Nightmare Forces’ that can hop on anybody feeling bad and take you over? Didn’t we have to stop Rarity from ending the world?! It wasn’t you, it was them! Okay, okay, it wasn’t all you, it was 90% them!’” if any such thing were true.
 
All that and the Moondancers. Or do you suggest that there are two of her and all their friends running around Canterlot? Because the rest of the Canterlot Six are portrayed as being adults at the same time, when Twilight was a filly.
 

Twi’s dialogue… I’m pretty sure it’s from a Roseanne episode.

@Background Pony #926C: I also just realized that I brain-farted when writing the whole “she/he/it” thing. Seeing as the Nightmare Forces’s leader is referred to as the “Queen of the Night”.

@Background Pony #926C”:/932458#comment_3824973: were*
 
Sometimes I just hate autocorrect when I’m using stuff like tablets.

@Phantom Rider  

If you look at Luna’s reaction when transforming into Nightmare Moon at 0:56 in this video, you’ll notice that Luna has a shocked expression on her face. Indicating at the very least, she did either did not know what would happen if she became Nightmare Moon, or that she didn’t intend on becoming Nightmare Moon. Considering that the comics show that her transformation into Nightmare Moon in the first place pretty much involved a Deal With the Devil, I hardly would ever find it surprising that she would indeed be shocked during such an event in the show.
 
And to be fair, there’s nothing in the comic that shows that jealousy wasn’t at least something like a trigger for something like a demonic possession. The Nightmare Forces’s leader seems to imply negative emotions, and somepony’s willingness to accept her (or “it”, if you prefer) into their body, we’re both needed for her/him/it to take over that pony’s body. (For reference, the Nightmare Forces’s leader says “If you had taken my offer and became Nightmare Moon once more, your precious ponies would be spared.” And she/he/it also says “I needed a being that was… Pliable. Rarity was so eager to help. So generous with her gifts. But she had a deep, dark secret. I was sure she would cave.”) And if you ask me, the fact that Luna managed to let something like that happen to her in the first place still pretty much makes it her mistake. It’s not a blame she has all to herself, I’ll grant you. But it would be natural for her to (want to) take responsibility regardless. Seeing as she would have regrets and emotional scars from turning into Nightmare Moon. Considering that Rarity described her experience as Nightmare Rarity being cold, dark, and lonely, one can only imagine just how many emotional scars Luna must have gotten from being Nightmare Moon.
 

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your current filter.

 
If you’re talking about the fact that Twilight Velvet has a “Daring Do award”, that could just very well be a sort of an honor award for accomplished authors in Equestria. Or something given for writing something about the character. Both of those things don’t necessarily have to entail being the author of the Daring Do series.

@Background Pony #926C  
It’s a similar but distinct world. Moondancer’s older, everyone portrayed as being the same age as Moondancer is therefore also older, Luna was affected by “Nightmare Forces” and not acting on her own (in the show, it’s a big part of her characterization that it was totally her mistake and her jealousy.) and Twilight Velvet wrote the Daring Do books. And the Changelings are significantly more threatening. There are nitpickier differences but you get the picture.
 
The comic isn’t in lockstep with the show. I don’t see why saying so upsets people; it doesn’t mean the comics are bad or anything. “They’re not the same” only means “They’re not the same,” not “they’re evil and bad and smelly and so are you if you like them.” Some people choose to hear it that way, but… you’ll have lower blood pressure and such if you’re not one of them.
 
And of course, your headcanon is free. Anywhere they don’t directly contradict, no harm in continuing to assume that the same thing happened in both. “That thing the show doesn’t give an answer on probably happened the same way it did in the comic written to answer that, until such a time as as the show says differently a la Luna, Moondancer, etc.” is probably plenty plausible.