According to this (not sure how accurate), it started from a group on a brony website but again, not sure. I don't know for sure where it came from, but I definitely know it wasn't because of that fanfic as the New Lunar Republic and the Celestial (or Solar) Empire happened way before the Season 2 finale. I can't say exactly where the terms 'Republic' and 'Empire' came into play, but that was what was popularized - the idea that Luna would lead some sort of popular revolution, which would be opposed by a tyrannical empire. Conversely, they played up S1/2-era Celestia's manipulative streak. Or lady.ДЄ lot of people began to pedal the idea that Luna was not the fearsome threat the story made her out to be, and instead that she was the victim of this whole thing somehow. And the second Luna comes back, she's openly apologetic and tearful. Nightmare Moon attacks the guards, sure, but her obstacles to the Element-Bearers are, well, childish.

And the thing about the premiere, is that. No, I mean it - we've not seen sight nor sound of Luna since the premiere. It's late-2010, we're about halfway through Season 1, and Luna is completely missing. To explain this, let's take a trip back through time to the very earliest days of the fandom. New Lunar Republic and Solar Empire were a thing long, long before Harmony Theory.

Mlp new lunar republic