Just...really curious about this one. BESIDES the shipping possibilities (we already have a thread for that), what do you like most about the Princesses and their effect on your writing?

Personally, I like that their pasts are not well explained. We get a book exert about Nightmare Moon and a gloss over about Discord, but there's no real details about their pasts. Even the book might be a half-truth: 1000 years is a long time ago. There isn't even that much detail about our own past 1000 years ago, much less fully accurate detail. While the present and the Mane 6 are generally recognized and written about to a great extent, the past and the happenings with the princesses are found much less. One of my intentions, once I finish up the two stories I'm working on now, is to work more in the past, expanding on the goings on with Equestria before the Mane 6 were present. I doubt that there was a thousand years of perfection, right? =P

That they're so beautiful... Not just their physical appearances, obviously, but their voices and their movements and everything else...

just about everything. The most obvious being that, while close, they're NOT perfect. They're amazingly powerful, beautiful, and well-loved, but they're not Mary Sues, and have great potential for EPIC stories.

And I LOVE Epic Stories. Great battles, extensive world-changing plots, things like that. Lord of the Rings and Armored Core are the styles I go for in writing and the Princesses are perfect to take a starring role for them.

Their power. The power to move the heavens, live forever and as far as my stories go, level mountains. Powers that can change the world are a great responsibility and often leads to impossible decisions, making for epic stories, which I also love.
Power intrigues me.

They make for really adorekable Twilight stories.

281733 Seconded. My opinion in a nutshell
They're also so beautiful.

Princess Celestia
In the show: She's always in a bright mood unless something's threatening her kingdom. The way she speaks just calms me whenever I hear her voice. It's like menthol for my ears. And I love watching her hair flow even when no wind is present. I wish I could put my hands against it and know what it feels like.
From the fans: I love how she's been depicted as a sexual deviant. For some reason it really excites me to see a woman who's such a lech. It's all the same kind of behavior you'd see from those "dirty old man" type of characters, but since it's coming from such a regal princess, it makes it very entertaining.

Princess Luna
In the show: I absolutely loved her S1 appearance. It's too d'aww for words (besides d'aww). I like her S2 appearance too, in a way. Her personality scared me at first, but I grew to like it. Very commandeering when she's projecting, and very sweet when she's lowering her voice.
From the fans: They seem to have turned her into kind of a nerdy character. Also like she's still the younger sister who can get manipulated by her older sis, but she still at least tries to act defiant (in vain).

286605
Sounds right, yeah.

You know... reading what you said makes me feel a little weird about my own stuff. I think I strain Luna pretty OOC. I have Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna as more of a 'woona' character with teenage girl starry eyes about love, finding a true soul mate, wanting to connect unconditional, and so on. Almost like an 80s Pretty in Pink / Valley Girl stereotype and barely regal at all.

286608
The way you describe her really makes me think of her S1 appearance. In fact every time I hear the name Luna, that's the first look that flashes through my mind, then I have to correct my self "oh shit, she looks different now".

Heh, barely regal... heh heh.

I love how calm Princess Celestia is, but I also love that Trollestia is kind of canon. She's just an awesome character, and the way they portray her makes it seem like she's always kind of wanting ponies not to treat her as royalty, but like them. Such as the Cakes and that little prank. It's when I started to love her

As for Luna, the fact that she's so insecure but still desperately wants to be loved by her subjects is endearing. I also enjoy how the fandom has kind of made her a martyr against Celestia's monarchy. All in all, Luna is just an adorable character and we need to see more of her on the show!!!

I wrote Long Roll of Years because I love examining how an immortal goddess who interacts with people on a daily basis and sees them age. How DOES she avoid withdrawing from society?

290827
Because it's her duty. I'll bet at one point she actually did have a crisis of conscience, where she didn't want to get in touch with anypony because of the knowledge that they'd one day die. She needed the help of somepony very close to her to help her realize how important it is for her to keep her head held high and to stay relate able on some level.

Princess Luna: she is a very awesome character and she is very misunderstood. I like her because she is very nice and very .

Princess Celestia:... i guess she's cool

I think most folks like Luna because she is such a blank slate. There is so little that is cannon about her we can paint whatever we want to write about onto her. She is "feels" with a universal adapter.

You're all missing the primary pivot points for the entire sister relationship. At one point in time, both sisters ruled the kingdom (Princessapality?) together in unity(0). Then Luna turned on her sister in an act of rebellion.(1) Causing Celestia to have to use the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon (2) After a thousand years(3), Nightmare Moon returned, only to be transformed back into Luna by 6 perfectly normal ponies using the Elements(4) Now Celestia has forgiven her sister for the rebellion(1) and received forgiveness for banishing her to the moon(2)(5) and they have gone back to ruling the kingdom as co-regents (almost 0 but not quite because Celestia still is somewhat cannon as being *more* powerful than Luna, unless you look into the "Past Sins" fanfic universe which I really like)
I'm *deeply* impressed by the storytelling ability of the MLP authors, it takes more work to tell a story in 22 minutes than 2 hours.

So you have several themes that show here: Betrayal, Forgiveness, Acceptance, Friendship, Family, Power Corrupts, Immortality, Benevolence, Compassion, and the rest of the Elements. I've tried to write on how difficult it can be to Accept Forgiveness, and how Guilt can cloud your judgement, because I think the most powerful element in the whole series is Forgiveness just as it is in real life.

The second most powerful element is Compound Interest, of course. (my latest fanfic)

for celestia, I really love her design, and how pretty she is, but i really like her personality more than anything, she's wise, kind, and i get a motherly vibe from her.
as for luna, I really like both of her designs, and I love the fact that her story is a tale of redemption and trying to fit in, she's somewhat relatable. she also has some of my favorite lines in the show

I suppose it's because they're two sisters who both rule a country with equal powers. The fact that they are sisters, and are more than likely to get on each other's nerves can lead to something being hilariously blown out of proportion. For example, Luna not liking the drapes Celestia picked out for the throne room and using her political influence to start a petition to get rid of them.

Though, I kind of imagine Celestia to always be looking out for Luna, and Luna being melodramatic and somewhat spiteful.

>Gwenio >quillsaga Thirded!

I think what intrigues me the most is how little is actually defined about them. They're called "princesses" but sometimes fill the role of goddesses. Celestia has a thousand years of history that is unknown. (I mean, we can imagine that she was ruling peacefully during that whole time, or we can think that interesting things were happening.)

The fact that there was this huge betrayal between them makes for a fascinating relationship.

And they are written with such charm in the show. I love how down-to-earth Celestia is, messing with the Cakes, hanging out with the Mane Six in a donut shop (where she admits that she finds the Grand Galloping Gala to be awful), and complimenting Twilight's hairdo when her mane was messed up in It's About Time. She makes me think of this song.

And Luna's okay too.