The Scary Side of Pony

[Mana Minori]

While many pony fans like to think that MLP is all pastel rainbows and sunshine, which- for the most part, it is; there are quite a few scary things- whether they be toys or elements in the animated series that MLP has done throughout its rich history of 36 years. Many g4 pony fans automatically pull up g3/ g3.5/ (Newborn Cuties) as being the weird/ scary part of the franchise, but what do fans of all the gens find horrifying? Personally, I feel like g1's BBE ponies and some of the plushies are pretty scary (some look more pig-like than pony),  Tirek in the animated series of g1, as well as g3's live show "The World's Best Tea Party", G4's Twilight and Rainbow Dash buddy cuddle pillows, and the scene where g4 Tirek is sucking Discord's magic out through his mouth and eyes.

[LadyMoondancer]

To me there's serious-scary, which would be scary elements like Nightmare Moon and Tirek, and then there are "unintentionally unsettling but also sort of funny" scary things, which is the category I would put the BBEs into (especially when their eyes turn rusty), as well as the Teeny Tiny ponies and Newborn Cuties.

To me the worst Newborn Cuties are the crawling ones because their hind legs bend the wrong way for horses and I just find it really off-putting.

[bright rabbit 1]

Majesty, is dark; because she punishes people for doing wrong.

Grogar is scary, he still scares me to this day.

Spoiler

You know the coachman from Pinocchio? I was having a lovely dream of FNAF/MLP, when it turned into a nightmare, there was the coachman, and Grogar just popped out of nowhere woke me up.

[WingsOfMasquerade]

Completely agree with the intentional-scare vs unintentional scary...both can be a fright!

Yes newborn crawling cuties with backward legs are like that backward crawlin' girl from that one movie who came out of the TV or something? Ring?
(not a horror fan, idk the title)

I'd like to add the sleepy time yellow G3 plush (plastic heads plush) where she talks but she says a sort of creepy religious prayer (not the real one, its been 'sanitized' for the toy in an attempt to not scare kids--it does so anyway) which reminds me more of the exorcist or something. I have her because I love yellow ponies but she doesn't get a battery.

Also the creepy "motion Rarity" fashion style size where she has blink-eyes but like they're all recessed into her head
Then TwiPinkie from the same line where Twilight has Pinkie's eyes and she looks like 'madman crazy twilight' or something

The 'dot eye' very 'insectoid' way they do baby ponies in G4 until they actually put some thought into it & had to take it all back while making Flurry Heart because if she'd of been that blank-stare Cake-Twins creature nobody wouldve' went for it.

There is a blink eye adult G1 prototype or something of...I think Sunlight/rainbow pony?
If someone posts it you'll probably have a fright.

I think for genuine-scare, Chrysalis could've been creepy and she had a creepy moment or two but then she was mostly ragey or screechy. If she was more stalking of them, or...something, she had potential. The toys did too but they kinda wasted it at every chance they got. The EQG of her was...exactly like every other EQG, and the brushables were literally Celestia with dots drawn on or ridiculous thigh-high stockings.

Bringing up the comics is probably a good point.
But I'm not familiar with them to cite much of anything.
Does Majesty have a kill count? If so, what is it? What was the most frightful thing she did?
(I seem to remember someone getting turned to what...stone/ice? And then broken to death?)

Of course Moondancer intending to steal a year of what...Peachy? life? Also puts her into the 'don't cross that one' territory.
But, if Peachy was mean to Moondancer first to bully or antagonize her...it's not that scary. Plus she took it back in the end.

I'd love to see other examples though as these are all I came up with

[Ponyfan]

Tirek and Grogar are some of the scariest G1 characters to me.  Tirek is willing to capture innocent ponies and transform them in to dragons without a second thought. He also made sure the ponies couldn't just run away to avoid being transformed.  It's clear that he will do anything to accomplish his goals and if someone gets in his way, Tirek will just get rid of them.

In the comics there's a story about the baby ponies that are looking for magical eggs or something and Masquerade is suppposed to dress up like a bunny for the babies, but a creature steals her bunny costume and dreses up so he can steal and eat one of the babies.  One of the babies even say "He really does eat baby ponies!"

And there's another one where Applejack and some babies jump in to a magical painting and are locked in cages by an old woman that wants to sell them or something?




Ponyfan

[Mewtwofan1]

Yeah, some things in mlp were really scary. I just remember watching the rescue at midnight castle, and seeing the scene where tirek turns applejack into that strange dragon dinosaur thing. I was fine with it. My little sister went and hid in the closet...
And I agree, newborn cuties was just unsettling. In some episodes. The mouths didn’t even move. And that walk/crawl thing was just strange. But what really is unnerving to me is the lack of eyes focusing on an item. The eyes were big and scary so you couldn’t tell what it was looking at. The wall, the picture, their friends, the demon who made that atrocity...

[KarentheUnicorn]

I've never considered MLP scary, maybe weird but I don't know that I considered it weird back then. I was never bothered by things like beddybyeyes - I actually disliked the lips on some of the sweetheart sisters more than the sleepy eyes.

I was a collector from the beginning so the G1 series presented an amazing attraction to want each unique pony, and at my age in 1983 when I started (10/11) I wasn't 'scared' of the toy or the cartoon.

[Taffeta]

It's not scary. It's just 1980s and 1990s toy concepts, which were far less governed by political correctness and this overall fear that children couldn't cope with anything done in shades of grey and black and shadow rather than pink and sparkly and shiny. I genuinely was never scared by anything in MLP as a child, although as an adult looking back I can see how some of the concepts are a bit dark at times, or creepy. I see it in a good and fun kind of way, though. I like that MLP went there, because it proved that it wasn't just a girly toy of pink and sparkle to patronise girls by shielding them in cotton wool. Bad stuff happened to the ponies. Bad stuff happened to their friends. The ponies argued with each other, got bewitched, enslaved, turned to stone, possessed, abducted, locked up in cages...you name it.

I don't think most fans think of MLP as pastel and rainbows, not if you're an original generation pony fan, anyway. I was categorically a hater of pink and girly when I was a kid, but I had MLP and loved it, so to me it's absolutely not a pink and sparkly girly toy and it never really was. It's got pinker and girlier with the last 2 generations, but most of the old ponies didn't even come in pink packages. G4 is vastly more girly than G1 ever was, and I think G3 is more girly than G4.

But if you put it in context with the eighties, and other TV shows and toys of the time, it really isn't anything extreme.

I don't think Majesty went out to kill anyone. The thing about Majesty is that she really is the symbol of authority. She protects her ponies but she also teaches them valuable lessons (sometimes in a slightly mischievous way, such as making Lickety Split lose weight by sending her with a pointless message to run all around ponyland). Of course, you probably didn't want to be a bad guy in Majestys range of sight - but then again, she wasn't infallible. One comic story from MLP and friends has her struck down with the other ponies by the smooze. Of course, the appearance of the smooze in this late point in the comic series is weird beyond weird, but anyway.

I think Firefly was one of the comic's more annoying characters. I think the story where she doesn't listen, eats the funny cake and turns out contrary is one of those examples where I can see Rainbow Dash being based on her (even though this is the UK interpretation). So add poisoned food to the list of slightly dark things that went on in the comics.

But I don't think of them as scary. I think of modern kids as soft instead I think the strongest message of old MLP was that actions have consequences and can impact on others.

Toys...I don't find any of them scary exactly. Again, quirky, weird and strange at times, but not scary especially. I like the BBE babies. I think they're cute. I'm not a fan of the G3.5, I admit - but the only really creepy pony on the market for me is that sausage-mermaid Pinkie Pie. It reminds me of the Polymorph from Red Dwarf and I can't get that thought out of my head.

[Miniature Sheep]

Well I wouldn't necessarily consider it scary so much as having some really dark implications, but the origin of the Twinkle Eye ponies according to the comics is pretty messed up. I was of the mind that they were just lovely magical jewel-eyed ponies but apparently they'd been enslaved by an evil wizard to mine gems and ended up with shards caught in their eyes. I really don't like to think of things being stuck in the general ocular region (even contact lenses give me the shudders!) D:

[Jorgito93]

Well i don't have any problems with the voluntarily scary.It sets MLP apart from the girly, boring and pink brand that some people think it is.G1 Tirek, Grogar and Lavan are pretty great, as is g4 chrysalis.When it's not intentional it gets interesting, because it makes things like the newborn cuties toys (the cartoon is not even creepy to me, it's just funny how it's badly done.It's probably the worst 2d animation i've ever seen)or the BBEs, or some of the plushies (mostly g4, some of them are so wrong they become creepy and funny at the same time)

[KarentheUnicorn]

Actually ill revise what scares me...when someone says they have ponies for you, but show up with a bag of fakies.


Fear...i see you, trying to pawn off your ugly cheap nonmlp on me. Trying to make me take your demon donkey...away with you evil one...away!!!

[Ponyfan]

I don' t remember being scared of Tirek when I was a kid. I watched Rescue at Midnight Castle a lot at my grandparents house. I think it was when I started looking back on it as an adult after not watching for several years that I saw how dark it was  But I also like that the ponies have problems and enemies and it's not just ponies living in peaceful, no conflict world.

One thing that amuses me about Majesty is that she has all of these powers yet in the Ember's Dream story the Man was able to force Majesty to invite the rainbow ponies to Dream Castle so he could cut their hair. But as Taffeta said Majesty could still get in to trouble as well.  I also like the idea that someone suggested that Majesty just let the Man think he was in control and played along with his scheme because she wanted to teach the rainbow ponies a lesson.

I think there's also a story where Majesty was briefly captured by a wizard in the comics.   I wish we'd gotten to see more of Majesty in the US.

I think the Twinkle Eye ponies had been enslaved so long that they went blind.  When  Applejack defeated the wizard, jewels from his throne got in the Twinkle Eye's eyes and they could see again. 


Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

Most fans don't think MLP is all sunshine and rainbows. Only loud-mouthed ignoramous fans think that.

Friends and FiM have adventure and danger. Tales has conflict and they're not always kind to each other. None of Friends villains ever frightened me as a child. I guess if you think about the dark subtleties of certain villains it could be a bit disturbing.

The Smooze-It covers the land and hardens instantly. Anything caught in its path would be crushed and smothered to death. It can see you. It can cross gaps. Nasty way to go.

Somnambula aged you in the space of hours. Taking literal years and health off your life.

If King Lavan hit you with lava blasts, you'd burn to death. Nasty way to go.

King Charlatan was willing to cause worldwide extinctions to expand his kingdom and was callous about the suffering of Edgar's bestie. He even continued putting up a macho front when he froze his own son, whereas as normal, decent fathers would be instantly horrified and guilty for accidentally harming their child. Parent of the Year right there.

BBEs only really creep me out because blinky eyed dolls creep me out. I've resolved to get some to try and help me over my mild fear.

Newborn Cuties wasn't scary, it was just plain dumb and badly done.

[Taffeta]

Most fans don't think MLP is all sunshine and rainbows. Only loud-mouthed ignoramous fans think that.

<3

Also, people in the media who want to belittle girls' toys when they do compilation shows about toys in x generation. Because how could girls possibly cope with peril *gasp*

I dunno, it just always really offends me when people say that about MLP, because if it had been that way, I would never have played with it. I hated all that stuff :/ but I did like playing zombie kingdoms and using my unicorns to put the fear of god into the boys who wanted to throw my ponies on the school roof

[Mana Minori]

I feel like people are taking my "sunshine and rainbows" comment way too literally, expecially with g1.  Guys, I am well aware g1 was really dark. Heck, it had a whole episode of young siblings wishing to kill off their baby siblings for heavens sake! Even g4 is dark.
I was mostly referring to g3 with that comment, just to clarify.