Return to the main page here.
- Seeing the Mane Six getting Discorded from their perspective.
- Rarity's first chapter. The other girls get a Journey to the Center of the Mind, or some sort of fantastic element. Rarity gets plain, vanilla PTSD — and you get to experience her fear in first-person!
- There is this one nightmare she ends up having that is particularly disturbing; Tom crashes into the boutique, bellowing for Rarity to marry him. Rarity begs him to stay away from her but suddenly a cockatrice pops out of one of the bouquets he's holding and turns her to stone. Rarity then stands there, terrified, helpless and immobile as a bunch of rock servants show up and force her into a wedding dress. Tom then excitedly declares that he and his "rock princess" will be together forever…whether she wants it or not. Not only is it scary, but it's also practically dripping with Marital Rape License implications.
- Worse? The latest dive into the Bad Future reveals Greedity views "Tom" as her husband and her rocks as her babies.
- The Audio Adaptation
makes all of this absolutely terrifying. Especially when Rarity snaps and goes berserk. The voice actor's emotion really helps.
- Loneliness. Everything about her and everything she does is absolutely terrifying.
- In particular, there's her introduction.
Trixie doesn't need to go outside…EVER!!! - The Bad Future where Discord is the absolute master of the world. Let's just say that the dead rising from their graves to devour the living daily and the fact that he has magic users, even fillies mass executed are the least horrifying things his reign entails.
- Discord basically turned the Mane Six into his version of the Nazgûl, and is shown forcing all of them, but especially Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, to relive the moment of their utter damnation over and over again.
- As surprising as it sounds, the audio adaptation is worse. The images, which pull no punches don't help one bit.
- It may be an Alternate Universe story, but a story revolving around Discord (implied to be the canon version) in Limbo and looking into the Truth well reveals even HE was horrified by how that world's version of him ran things. So much so it triggers a Heel Realization that nearly drives him over the Despair Event Horizon. Yes, Epilogue!Discord drove another version of himself close to giving up all hope!
- It may be an Alternate Universe story, but a story
- Angry Pie's attempt to absorb the rest of Pinkie Pie's personality and take over. She doesn't just try to absorb them, she tries to eat them alive!
- Once more, the audio adaptation makes it a thousand times worse. Thanks to a mix of the images, music score, and voice work, it plays like a horror movie. There's good reason it's this page's image!
- Sweet Celestia, Angry Pie's Slasher Smile.
- Also, somehow, the audio adaptation manages to make sleep-deprived Pinkie sound TERRIFYING.
- Once more, the audio adaptation
- Applejack's reharmonization shows what happened to the ponies of Equestria when Discord took over and their PTSD afterward; some of it (like Dr. Whooves calling himself "Queen of Eagleland" and Photo Finish streaking and eating her own dresses) are hilarious, but most aren't, like Apple Bloom being turned into a necropony, Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle being turned into dolls and exchanging body parts, Bon Bon being turned into her namesake as her best friend Lyra squeezes and tries to eat her, Derpy wishing death on her daughter, Dinky, Silver Spoon's father trying to kill her with an axe, Twist's limbs twisting wildly out of control as if they were taffy, like some kind of demented Uzumaki homage, Prince Blueblood being turned into a living ice sculpture of a mare being chased around by a living sun that wants to rape her to death and Philomena being forced to rebirth herself repeatedly and then being reduced to ashes, placed in an urn and tossed into the deepest of the Gala's fountains. The following sums the whole sequence up perfectly:And AJ knew, AJ KNEW, that this was only a TINY PORTION of every pony in Ponyville!
- Not to mention the visuals in the audio adaptation showing what the other ponies went through, each bit actually narrated by said character.
- The part near the end when, in an effort to stop herself from closing the Well, Applejack jams her hoof into the gears.
- It says a lot with the Nightmare Fuel and depravity of Discord in other fanfics has begun to be measured using this story's Discord as a ruler.
- GET OUT!!!
- The Audio Adaptation adds some...disturbing Imagine Spot visuals as Twilight wonders if Celestia had set up the events of the first two episodes by practically breeding the Element Bearers through the generations.
- How Trixie looks in the visual panels.
- It also makes the aboved mentioned Wham Line even more terrifying. Not only is the line monstrously distorted, we get a lovely picture of Loneliness's equally monstrous eyes.
- Loneliness in the audio adaptation. Dear lord, Loneliness in the audio adaptation! The images combined with the voice acting makes her absolutely terrifying!
- Rainbow slowly turning into...something in her "True Healing" chapter. Fluttershy and Pinkie stopped it in time, but still…
- As can be expected, the Audio Adaptation makes this about a thousand times worse. Not only are the visuals are terrifying, the distortions of her voice makes it absolutely terrifying.
- Fluttershy's transformation into a Nightmare Moon-esque monster, and Fluttercruel possibly dying immediately after. Even the author admits he went too far with this one.
- Princess Gaia brainwashing the reader at the beginning of "Teacher Teacher". Made even worse by the fact she still acts like Fluttershy, which makes it much creepier.
- We finally get a good look at the Ponyville Bedlam House Screwball stays at…just in time to see Princess Gaia Mind Rape most of them out of frustration. And then there's the Pegasus who seems to regain her sanity, only to realize her wings have been chewed off.
- Princess Gaia changing "Everfree" to "Everkind". It's like she's taking away their freedom, forcing them to live in her own world, whether they want it or not.
- Nightmare Whisper's True Form. Now in fanart form.
- Nightmare Whisper's True Form. Now in fanart form
- Luna outright exploding at Fluttershy and Fluttercruel for their crimes. Its pretty much Mind Rape.
- And the published version was edited, the original was apparently a good bit worse!
- Celestia making a full 180 after an entire chapter of "good cop" and doing just about the exact same thing Luna did (only goes more out of her way to comfort Fluttershy after the What the Hell, Hero? part is over with), but this time without giving 'Shy the comfort of her alter ego. It was enough to make her stain the mental floorboards.
- And on that note, how about the revelation that 'Shy very nearly killed every single unborn foal in Equestria through her de-aging all the pregnant mothers. All forty-two million of them. Celestia had absolutely every right to be ticked off at her.
- The worst part? Celestia admits that, had Fluttershy's magic not spared the foals, she would've flown into a berserker rage, ripped her soul out of her body and imprisoned it in the sun for a lifetime for every life she killed! Oh, and Fluttershy would've felt every second of it. It takes a lot to get Celestia truly enraged, but you won't like her when she is!
- And after that? Freed her, given her a guest room in the castle, and introduced her as a long-lost relative. That either makes it better, or worse.
- In the latest chapters, Applejack gets to see several truly charming alternate universes including: one in which Rainbow Dash becomes Nightmare Manacle, another one in which the girls conquer Equestria and turn it into a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic version of Brave New World, complete with reeducation camps where you get mentally and physically transformed into forms the Mane Six find more pleasing. Worst of all, though, is a reality in which Pinkie Pie becomes Nightmare Granfalloon, tries to gouge Applejack's eyes out, turns Ponyville into a Circus of Fear, and makes the ponies under her influence Ax-Crazy. Rainbow Dash is then forced to kill her — at which point Rarity snaps, kills Rainbow Dash, tries to kill all of her other friends so that none of them will become Nightmares, and then is killed herself, at Fluttershy's(!) hooves. Yikes!
- Nightmare Granfalloon deserves special mention for being completely Ax-Crazy and scary as all get out. Some readers even admit that she gave them nightmares. now in fanart form.
Nightmare Granfalloon: Anger is dead-dead-dead! Pinkamena is dead-dead-dead! Bad foalhood memories are dead-dead-dead! Now there's only happy thoughts!- A bit of Fridge Horror about that? Remember that Pinkie's foalhood memories are represented by a baby version of herself…
- Nightmare Manacle is definitely on par with, if not worse, than Granfalloon in the nightmare fuel department. She chains ponies together in pairs, binding them together and forcing them to share each other's thoughts and pain.
Nightmare Manacle: ONCE EVERYONE'S CHAINED TOGETHER YER GONNA HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER YOU BUNCH OF LOSERS!- And then we have Scootaloo as Manacle's Brainwashed and Crazy Dragon, who stops anypony from coming near Manacle while endlessly reciting a Madness Mantra. If that's not bad enough, try Scootaloo chaining up her fellow Crusaders as they try to restrain her, only to start repeating Scootaloo's Madness Mantra.
- It's not as obvious as the Brave New World universe, but it's certainly pretty dark. Even with Princess Gaia leaving a lot more free will in the process — Applejack's suggestion that Gaia didn't take in the central POV universe — it's still very much an assault on agency and personality. May count as an Esoteric Happy Ending for others, though, depending on how much you count being foaled as Mind Rape, as it is shrinking the sum of all evils in Equestria.
- Nightmare Granfalloon deserves special mention for being completely Ax-Crazy and scary as all get out. Some readers even admit that she gave them nightmares. now in fanart form
- When he was Discorded, Silver Tongue tried to kill his daughter Silver Spoon with an ax. Let's just say the Emergency Response Team was very fast.Silver Tongue: Once I get your little head to the taxidermist you'll ALWAYS BE PRETTY!!!!!!
- The effects of Onyx Tiara being Discorded: everypony he touched (save for himself — and yes, he tried) became a physical match for his beloved wife, whom he'd lost to mental instability. He proceeds to turn all of his servants into a harem of false Golden Tiaras, consummates with them — and when his real wife shows up, mind cleared and willing to love him despite finding him surrounded by his clones? He dismisses her as a parody and drives her off in tears.
- And then when the Mane Six defeat Discord he awakens to find himself surrounded by his traumatized servants, one of them a horrified colt, and they all remember everything that happened. EVERYTHING.
- Oh, and the colt? Let's just say there's a reason Featherweight didn't talk in "Ponyville Confidential"…
- And then when the Mane Six defeat Discord he awakens to find himself surrounded by his traumatized servants, one of them a horrified colt, and they all remember everything that happened. EVERYTHING.
- Entropy. Just Entropy! The entire scene with her is just terrifying.
- And if a certain Loose Canon story is to be believed, she can literally make it so you never even existed to begin with.
- Season 4: Generation Transitions & Origins reveals that the universe of Generation 3 ended when it started to fall apart due to paradoxes in reality, forcing the Alicorns and Draconequi to Ret-Gone the individual ponies in it one by one before restarting the timeline. Imagine being one of these ponies who's lived in a Sugar Bowl your entire life, where everything is happy and beautiful every single day. One day you wake up to see everything is turning grey. You're losing your memories of your beloved friends and all the wonderful adventures you've had. No matter how hard you try to hold on to them, they just keep fading away like melting snowflakes. You run into a strange creature that looks like a mishmash of other animals and a winged pegasus-unicorn, and they explain to you that you're about to vanish and literally nothing can be done about it. Then, poof. You're gone, forever, as if you never existed, and so is everyone and everything you ever knew.
- We see later in origin Discord's reign in all its horrifying glory, but one that stands out is his previously mentioned Flutterpony genocide. He made a public butterfly collection out of them.
- Galaxy/Wind Whistle's (Celestia refuses to tell which) fate. Dear lord…
- Made worse by the fact he morphs her body into his. And just imagine how Twilight feels hearing that the Discord she and her friends encountered was a spirit using a pony's body as a host!
- Pretty much Discord's power use in comparison to his canon personality. He uses his powers for much MORE evil and destructive acts, in torture and even when fighting him. His fight with Mimic, the only mortal pony who ever hurt him is a proof of this.
- Even with a Villainous Breakdown, Discord still broke Mimic's horn and pretty much was about to kill her when he had her in his grasp. Once she did her Dying Momentof Awesome, Discord's hatred calmed him down and he gave her a Literally Shattered Lives death in response to her knocking his tooth.
- It's much worse because this historical moment shows that Discord is invincible without using the Elements of Harmony. A kick at the speed of sound from a pony's hoof would be the equivalent to a cannon ball to the face, an instant decapitation. Discord took a thousand of those in one second and only lost a tooth. The sheer destructive power of that attack is the equivalent of having the best machine gun in the world but capable of shooting cannon balls instead of bullets. All of that power should have obliterated Discord's head and even destroyed his body if Mimic had chosen to kick everything she could hit had that happened and yet he only got the equivalent of a hard blow to the face, painful but still bearable.
- It was worse in Mimic's case as kicking something a thousand times at the speed of sound that is capable of resisting such pummeling in the first place resulted in her breaking her own leg and one of her golden horseshoes.
- Discord's treatment of Diamond Tiara. He alternates between abusing her verbally and just flat (mundane) out Mind Rape, stringing her along with enough praise to keep her listening to him. What makes this even more terrifying is this is how actual abusers behave!
- And how can we forget the utterly charming dream dear Diamond Tiara has while sleeping in a Canterlot park? The one where she finds herself alongside thousands of other ponies — Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, Flutterponies, even sea ponies — pulling a massive chariot with a gigantic horned serpent in it whipping them all and laughing as he roars, "Cry Havoc!". Word of God is that the scene was based on a similar one from All Dogs Go to Heaven.
- While Diamond Tiara is in Canterlot she runs into a rather…disturbing Stallion. Who tries to kidnap her and do Celestia knows what to her! The only thing we get about his plans is this:Stallion: You'll make such a wonderful doll. Pretty, silent, and obedient. Don't worry. You'll be pretty forever. I'll wipe away all those painful and annoying memories. They'll be nothing except being a nice little doll for ponies to look at and play with.
- In a later chapter we find out that Filthy Rich's unicorn maid apparently met that same green unicorn. He did… things… to her that left her with a phobia of the color green. She was handling it, but unexpectedly seeing something green could set her panic attacks off. Then the Day of Discord came and guess what Discord made everything look like to her. Though it could have been worse. She could have turned everyone she touched into him, like Filthy/Onyx and his wife.
- Although things thankfully end well, in the Loose Canon story "Not One of his Kind", seeing Canon!Discord's version of Fluttercruel trapped in Limbo, covered in bloody scares and missing both her wings and almost all of her limbs was pretty unsettling.
- The trailer for the audio version of "Reharmonized" manages to take the hilarious "Queen of Eagleland" speech and make it utterly terrifying.
- In keeping with the tone of "Discorded', the trailer focuses on the darker parts of "Reharmonized", including, among other things, Loneliness' reveal, Angry Pie's rampage, Mitta being dragged back to Sunnyville at the end of the Gaia arc, Silver Ax's rant, and, of course, Discord.
- And then there's The Stinger;
"Where are you?" - In keeping with the tone of "Discorded', the trailer focuses on the darker parts of "Reharmonized", including, among other things, Loneliness' reveal, Angry Pie's rampage, Mitta being dragged back to Sunnyville at the end of the Gaia arc, Silver Ax's rant, and, of course, Discord.
- In the Mind Games arc, at one point Diamond Tiara experiences a memory of Discord's time as an innocent creature among the ponies, back when he was Shady's son and actually innocent and capable of love. As he's possessing her at the time, she sees some of his memories. She asks him what that was, and Discord goes wild with rage, screaming that it's all nothing and meaningless and she is never to bring that up again. EVER.
- Also during the Mind Games arc, we get another glimpse of the Epilogue timeline (or a similar enough one) via a nightmare shared by Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. In it, Traitor Dash kills an adult Scootaloo (who's apparently a Rebel Leader), and Discord decides to "reward" her by creating a play about her victory, and having her attend every single performance. Oh, and a detail that shouldn't be overlooked — during the fight, Scootaloo runs Traitor Dash through, but she doesn't die because the Element of Chaos Discord gave her has taken the place of her heart.
- Worse? We later find out how that happened. He literally shoved them into their chests.
- In Mind Games Part 7 we finally learn what made Filthy Rich send his wife Screwball off to the Bedlam House she occupied until recently (she broke out). Screwball found out that Diamond Tiara got into her jewelry and left it "Out of place!" This sends Screwball into an Unstoppable Rage as she screams at her that she's nothing, a mistake, that her husband probably cheated on her to produce such a stupid and worthless foal and that it's time to get rid of this 'failure' and try again. Indeed, she says that to her husband's face, accompanied by a seductive wink, when he finds her strangling Diamond Tiara to death with her bare hooves. And just how does the little filly learn all this? From Discord, when he tells her:
- "Different From Everypony Else" gives us a depiction of Discord's attack on the insane asylum outside of Ponyville. What he did to the ponies working there, who, despite Onyx's opinion and how Discord depicted the place, are pretty decent ponies, is just absolutely horrifying. And the scene ends with Discord holding down the character whose point of view we're seeing through and preparing to drill into his skull or something equally as horrifying we thankfully don't see (he didn't kill or seriously hurt the guy, but that doesn't change what happened!).Discord: This will only hurt for a second! So be sure to struggle and squirm a whole lot!
- Mind Games Part 8. Discord finally manages to break Diamond Tiara, and she breaks so hard that she goes Nightmare. She even gets a new Cutie Mark out of it: the Star of Chaos.
- The sight of the Sea Ponies in the Epilogue Timeline. Sure, it seems nice on the surface, then you solely realize they know only a history their version of Discord wrote, completely unaware the original ones were wiped out by him and he uses threats of their destruction as part of a Sadistic Choice with Traitor Dash without a second thought.
- Also from the Epilogue Timeline, Discord thanks the Doctor, now called "The Valeyard", for the help he gave in beating back the Empire of Man when they invaded his kingdom. As he cheerily says to the giggling and insane pony:
- Want to know what's worse? One of the snide nicknames Six had for the Valeyard in Trial of a Time Lord was "Knacker's Yard".
- A mysterious voice has started answering readers' comments since the Dark World Arc started. We don't know who or WHAT it is, except it doesn't seem to be Discord (and seems to hate him) and is very creepy in rather subtle ways.
- The voice isn't confined to the comments anymore; something is talking to Twilight Tragedy, goading her on in certain directions. It's very creepy. We ultimately learn that it's Sparkle, a third part of her personality that utterly hates Discord and her once-friends and wants to destroy Equestria and kill everypony to end her pain…or so it seemed, as the statements continued after she faded away…
- During the audio adaptation of Rainbow Dash's reharmonization story, we see an image of a terrified Scootaloo running in fear from her Discorded friends, that is…unsettling to say the least.
- Fluttershy's fate in the Epilogue Timeline. Queen Cadence tells the Elements in her final battle that Fluttershy is still alive inside Fluttercruel and is so horribly broken by all the horrible actions her body has done that she just wants to die to stop Fluttercruel.
- The final fate of Cadence. That sound you hear is your brain trying and failing to delete the image of Fluttercruel devouring Cadence's burned remains out of your memory. Have fun with that.
- And if Fluttershy is still inside her, this means that she feels and tastes everything.
- The scene in "Apple Tree" where Liarjack is dragged off by Entropy's shadows of existence, while Apple Bloom and the Father of Alicorns can only watch. It doesn't last long, but it's disturbing while it does.
- We get two more horrible moments in Chapter 9 of the Dark World arc. We first see Greedity using her telekinesis to make her own Grand Galloping Gala, with every one of the celebrants a lifeless stone statue. The whole thing has a creepy 'Dance of the Dead' vibe. In the second, Discord gets a warning that something's going wrong with Spike and breaks the spell that was holding his bestial instincts in check. In a heartbeat, Spikes goes from Twilight and Applejack's friend to: an utterly self-centered monster who desires Rarity the Beautiful above all else -- regardless of her desires. And the words Discord uses on Spike to cause this?
- And as always with Discord, it was going to be worse. Word of God has it that originally Discord was going to lift the spell on Spike and turn him loose on Greedity to see what draco-ponies would look like.
- A minor but downright chilling one in part two of Chapter 9 in the Dark World arc. Tom finds himself on the edge of Entropy's realm, and the pony shadow that comes for him has the same Cutie Mark as poor Toola-Roola. And Word of God definitely says that is her.
- Epilogue shows that Dinky was turned into a muffin by Discord. Dark World 14 confirms Twilight's earlier fears that she's been aware of everything that's happened over the last thousand years.
- The dog/wolf... thing that's stalking Shining Armor throughout his arc. What makes it worse is that it's apparently able to Retgone anything it touches, and seems determined to do so to Shining.
- Worse? In the previous chapter, he heard something sniffing around in the embassy, it was in the building with him!
- After the Duel of Tears, Rarity is overwhelmed by her Element of Desire and attempts to take Rainbow Dash's Element of Treachery by cutting it out of her, knowing full well that this would kill her. Fortunately, Twilight talks her down.
- The Valeyard remembering his granddaughter. Particularly nasty considering caring for his daughter is the one redeeming quality that Discord has.The Valeyard: Ah, Susan…Haven't seen you since my fifth regeneration. Looking back from where I now stand, I so dearly miss how ridiculously easy it was to make you scream, cry, and suffer nervous breakdowns!
- Also in that chapter, the Valeyard meets his old friend The Master, who has just drained the power from Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Discord to become lord and master of all reality. With the unwitting assistance of the Sea Ponies, the Valeyard reduces him to catatonia, at which point he smilingly tells the Master that he's not afflicted with his "moronic mercy" anymore, so he wants to see how many times the Master can regenerate back from death before he gets tired of killing him.
- The Valeyard No Selling the Memory Spell. Not only does he confirm afterwards that it didn't work because he's not Discorded and did all the heinous acts he committed without Discord's taint, a contingency he put in place in case Twilight used it on him tries to hijack her mind and turn her into a Valeyard clone, only being stopped by having Derpy and Rarity smash her head so she could regenerate a new brain cleansed of it.
- While he undoubtedly deserved it and it was vital to stopping him, Derpy beating him to death after his regeneration template is destroyed is still kind of unnerving.
- Similarly, "Love/Hate Bedlam" confirms that Fluttercruel, like her main POV counterpart, is indeed a separate being from Fluttershy, and reveals that she tortured Fluttershy for five hundred years before Cadence's spirit saved her, and is only upset that she can't do it anymore. The Elements of Harmony are horrified and disgusted by this, and Rarity actually goes into a Tranquil Fury over it, saying that she'll kill Cruel for it.
- In Dark World Part 20, it's revealed that Fluttercruel inherited Fluttershy's Stare and intentionally held it back as a trump card in case the others went rogue. She was capable of using that power all along and nearly killed Rarity with it. The only thing that saved Rarity from getting butchered was some pragmatic use of Tom's fragment.
- Angry Pie brutally takes down Twilight, smashes her horn, and even steals her Element. The chapter ends with Twilight slowly drifting out of consciousness.
- In the following chapter, Twilight turns out to be Not Quite Dead... and she proceeds to start torturing Angry Pie to death, saying how she's tired of trying to reason with Angry and is going to "end her". Aside from the obvious He Who Fights Monsters aspect of this, there's the even more horrifying implication that she's turning into a Nightmare in the process.
- Possibly just as frightening, the Voice's reaction to this. 100% supporting Twilight going Knight Templar.
- The mental Hell Twilight sticks Angry in, complete with a monster version of her (probably her Nightmare self) tormenting her. Fortunately, this gets called off before it goes too far, but still...
- In Off Da Rails, we discover that Fluttercruel is not just immortal, but whenever she DOES die she can just usurp the nearest convenient body and carry on like before. Worst part? She tells the New Elements of Harmony this while using the body of Derpy's daughter Sparkler.
- The group's reactions to Rancor/Disruption opening a portal to Entropy's domain. They are all absolutely terrified by a mere glimpse of Entropy; this is the first time we've seen a normal pony's reaction to viewing an Eldritch Abomination, and it's as bad as you'd think.
- Fluttercruel's Villainous Breakdown and subsequent transformation into a full Draconequus.
- Seeing Rancor consume the shadows of existence is creepy to say the least, but at least she was made to become one of them. To think that you're watching a pony eat those same shadows is very unsettling, especially in that her teeth changed by eating before the rest of her body changed.
- The mere presence of the Shadows of Existence causes Applejack to have visions of Primal Fears. For a few fleeting moments she is in the body of a horse with a broken leg being put down by her human owner, a filly among many other fillies committing genocide against another pony race, and a little girl in a pit with a giant bag of vicious animals tearing their way out.
- Fluttercruel's MEGA Stare. It comes from everywhere! And works uber powerfully.
- While otherwise upbeat, part nine of Shining Armor's Arc has an overall feeling of Psychological Horror as the Paranoia Fuel caused by the Wolf stalking him makes Shining Armor a nervous wreck. Even though the Wolf never appears once the entire time.
- The truth about Makarov and what he really is. To put is mildly, Word of God calling him an existence vampire couldn't be more accurate.
- Shady's spirit appears in Dark World and says the Nameless Passenger is worse than Discord. She outright admits that Discord's been a monster (even if she still loves her son), but still considers the Passenger worse. Let that sink in for a moment.
- Discord's death. Entropy drags him into her realm through his chest wound, pretty much making him implode.
- The Reveal in "All Things In Twilight". It turns out the entire Dark World arc has been a "Groundhog Day" Loop created by the Nameless Passenger to eternally torture Discord, and its been going on for eons. When the Passenger is trying to convince Twilight to reset time to before the events of "Return of Harmony" (which, by the way, would result in the deaths of the several million inhabitants of the Dark World, many of which are completely innocent), we're shown several of the time loop's past conclusions in rapid succession, each one more terrifying then the last.
- The worst part? The Passenger's true identity; Twilight's potential Nightmare. And she manifests herself by possessing Wind Whistler's rotting corpse.
- Gets even worse in "Give A Reason" as we get to know Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox. Between her actions, her Faux Affably Evil personality, and just how much she's like Twilight, she is absolutely frightening.
- She manages to be the Knight of Cerebus for Dark World. That is all.
- Cream's fate in Sweetheart's 7 Dreams/Nightmares Gaiden story. She's 'locked in' by the explosion, leaving her with brain damage that paralyzed her body completely, unable to move or speak, but fully aware and conscious.
- There's also the Simurghs, eagle/wolf hybrid mutations created by the blast (by Discord's influence) that attack in packs. They nearly kill the family if not for Scout. They actually did kill Cream, which has an added level of horror due to the fact she was fully aware of what was about to happen to her, but unable to do anything about it, not even scream. And that's if they decided to kill her and just didn't eat her alive.
- Finally, the Whispering Plague, a supercharged, mutated version of The Black Death that not only kills rapidly with the normal horrific symptoms, but adds in terrifying voices actively trying to drive the victim over the Despair Event Horizon. Thankfully, Sweetheart (posthumously) and family wipe it out.
- The fact Nightmare Eclipse erased the universe and condemned countless souls to Oblivion several hundred million years worth of times.
- "All My Friends Are Here": The Final Battle with Nightmare Paradox contains quite a bit. One moment that stands out is her lighting Apple Pie on fire and nearly killing her!
- Nightmare Granfalloon is back! And she's not alone.
- The apocalypse that destroyed the Tales civilization and the fall out from it big time.
- From Bright Eye's Gaiden story, we get to see the Parasprites from the Breezies' perspective. It's essentially a Zombie Apocalypse.
- The implication that a lynch mob showed up at Bright Eyes' estate to kill her when she was giving birth to Keen Eyes. They were stopped, but still...
- The flashback Bright Eyes has where she's being chased by coyotes trying to eat her with Strife singing a Villain Song in the background. Keep in mind Bright Eyes is just a filly at the time and her parents have no idea where she is. Thankfully, this is followed by Sweet Dreams Fuel.
- D___t's Shadow of Existence trying to consume Bright Eyes' soul and concept. The mere idea is horrifying, though it turns into a Moment of Awesome as she fights against and ultimately defeats him.
- The assassination attempt on Fluttershy. The implications that not only are a lot of ponies still enraged over the Princess Gaia incident, but are more than willing to act out their rage, is not only chilling, but casts Fluttershy's future into uncertainty. Who can you trust in a world where nearly everyone wants you dead because you made one mistake?
- Dark World 31: The bad end we're greeted to that depicted the Nightmares unleashing a World-Wrecking Wave and wiping out everything except Twilight who becomes Paradox. It isn't the real ending, but still!
- Clover's story has Clover, Dandy, and their son be fused together by the spell, creating G3 Minty.
- Her Nightmare section begins with Clover and company emerging from the subway into a post apocalyptic Manehatten with ponies laying dead in the streets and buildings leveled. Out of all the Gaiden stories, this is the only one to show the effect on a major population center, and it is horrifying.
- There's something rather unsettling about Fluttercruel's Punishment outside the normal discussions on mercy, justice and parental punishment. The biggest one would be seeing the gigantic line of ponies, changelings, virgacorns, hippogriffs, dragons, donkeys, goats, space marines, and more that Fluttercruel killed in her lifetime. It was described as "really long", but given what Twilight mentioned about her, it's quite likely that the line was in the thousands at least, if not in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.
- While Fluttershy is trying to defend her daughter, a mare near the front of the line carrying a canister of liquid nitrogen and a sledgehammer yells, "Let me at her already!" Fluttershy asks what Fluttercruel did to her, and it turns out that Fluttercruel murdered her and her two children were left to freeze to death in the next flash winter. Her son died first, then his corpse was reanimated as a zombie and forced to do something so horrible to his sister that his mother can't even bring herself to say it.
- Stitches' situation is absolutely terrifying. Imagine you and your family are just trying to help heal others...and then an immortal, unstoppable Serial Killer becomes ticked off you're healing the ponies they've hurt and murders your mother...Then decides to dedicate herself to hunting down you and your siblings one by one, slaughtering anyone who gets in her way. And then they get to you, drag you to their Torture Cellar, and disable you completely, torturing you to death as slowly as she possibly can, constantly reminding you that if you go insane and stop being 'fun', your baby sisters are next, meaning you're the only thing prolonging their lives. The worst part? You find out after you die that you are her living through this as your Ironic Hell punishment after her death.
- Shining Armor Part 14-3; the Stalker shows up again, chasing Shining across an airship in the dead of night. The real frightening bit? It's a ship that Cadance is sleeping on, and the Stalker is supposed to be incapable of getting within a certain radius of her. It's evolving, or just so determined to erase Shining from existence that it's now willing to defy a goddess to do so.
- Not just that, but the Hooviets sneak into Twilight's house in the dead of night, take pictures of her sleeping, and send them to Shining. One can only imagine how utterly terrifying that must be for Shining.
- Cadance's original self, Cadenza. Seeing one of the most innocent, kindest and motherly characters in the series as a hateful, spiteful monster willing to tear her own wings off just so she could murder an innocent mare in cold blood is absolutely chilling.
- Scarier? She thinks she's doing the right thing. She's seen the evil that magic can do. From her perspective, just by existing, Amicitia is the bad guy. In a way, that makes her scarier because you know in her heart she thinks she's right.
- Shining Armor 15-1. The Hooviets launch a helicopter attack on a completely innocent village and some of the villagers actually die. The ponies are rightfully horrified by the brutality.
- In part 2, we find out that Marakov has forcibly converted hapless ponies into killer cyborgs and has turned others into monsters!
- In 16.5, Makarov's Villain Episode, Makarov casually performs genocide on the Changeling race with a single paragraph. The scariest part? Moth, a benign Changeling living in Ponyville, is reduced to a state were she is completely aware of everything, but incapable of being seen, heard, or otherwise interacting. The worst part is Lyra and Bon Bon think she's dead and discuss it right in front of her, unaware that she's there.
- In 17, Makarov unleashes his endgame. This involves using Deadly Gas to perform a dragon genocide, starting a global war, and finally unleashing one of his superweapons, Skyfall. What does this do? Rob everything but his flag ship and helicopters of their ability to fly, resulting in every airship, pegasi, and griffin falling right out of the sky. To make it worse, Shining hears them bouncing off the roof of Makarov's ship and knows every hit is someone dying. In one chapter Makarov manages to go from a silly Parody Sue to a mass murderer.
- While also satisfying given the above, Shining snapping and trying to outright murder Makarov is rather frightening given how dedicated he is to his Thou Shall Not Kill philosophy.
- In 17 Part 5, we finally get to see Makarov 'consume' someone (a deer technician), and it's as horrifying as you'd expect. To make it worse, everyone (with the exception of Shining) watching it has their memories of the unfortunate deer disappearing from their minds as they're watching him be consumed, and when Makarov is done nobody other than Shining remembers it even happened or that the just-consumed deer ever existed.
- Makarov's True Form.
- There's something frightening about how easily the Wolf takes out Makarov. Shining's been struggling for the better part of the story to defeat Makarov...and the Wolf erases him in minutes. Shining is terrified of the the thing for good reason!
- Chapter 20: Thought that getting rid of Makarov would get The Wolf off Shining's tail? Nope!
- And then it's revealed that Shining is the nail between the main timeline and Dark World. If it gets him...
- Chapter 21: During his fever dreams, Shining sees what seems to be a memory of the Blank Wolf (as it's revealed in the flash back to be called) seemingly possessing Gaffer and trying to erase him during one of their O&O games. As if that's not scary enough, there's this poem it seemingly gives Poindexter basically spelling out its status as an Implacable Man who will never stop until its got its target:The blank wolf.
It follows you. Everywhere.
Every step you take, it takes another.
It follows your path, hunts down your actions.
Blank wolf, tireless hunter.
Blank wolf, perfect tracker.
Blank wolf, never stopping, never resting.
Not white for white is a color.
Not an animal for animals hunt for only for food.
The blank wolf, never tiring, never resting, never stopping.
Blank wolf. Always following. Always hunting.
It never tires. It never falters. It never yields.
It follows you. Without beginning, and without mercy.
Blank wolf. It is not blank, nor a wolf. But no name fits it better. - The two season 3 episode based stories that Alexwarlorn has done are both absolutely terrifying.
- The first is King Sombra's origin, which is reimagined as a Cosmic Horror Story with Sombra has the personification of the Crystal Empire's collective fear.
- The second has the fate of the Pinkie Pie clones from "Too Many Pinkie Pies" (literally, as they're the Heart World ones). Do they die? No. worse. They go to Oblivion! And for the first time we see exactly what the place is actually like from its inhabitants point of view, not to mention seeing all the G3 Ponies reduced to twisted, sadistic Empty Shells. Their Villain Song is also utterly terrifying.
- For that matter, the original erasure of their world, from their perspective and them unknowing of why this was happening.
- In the Chapter based on the Events of One Bad Apple Silver Spoon is FORCED to do all the things she did till she finally breaks free of Nightmare Diamond's Illusion
- In the same Chapter Nightmare Diamond talks about driving the CMC to suicide
- Chrysalis in chapter 16 of the Wedding, for multiple reasons. While the glimpse of the Bad Future Cadence sees is horrifying, the real terror comes from just how little Chrysalis seems to be doing with her power. Instead of plotting further or performing some complex plan (which she's already delegated to brainwashed Twilight), she plays with her brainwashed slaves in a manner that's both sadistic and childish. It just goes a long way to show something is seriously off about the Changeling Queen.
- After Cadence defeats Chrysalis' minion turned avatar, Dustmite, Chrysalis leaves the poor Changeling's body...and Dustmite starts screaming in agony from the damage she sustained in the fight. The scarier part is Chrysalis just tells her 'suck it up you baby' to a Changeling who, if Cadence hadn't healed her, would have never flown again. It shows how little Chrysalis cares for her own people.
- While Applejack using her truth vision on Chrysalis was awesome, the aftermath is disturbing, especially when you consider how psyche-locks work.
- Scootaloo gets her Big Damn Heroes moment, sweeping Sweetie away, only for her love to be unable to free the filly in an increasily disturbing way.
- Oftentimes, the author will roleplay as the characters when responding to comments. This can often get very unsettling whenever he's roleplaying as one of the villains, or as the brainwashed Sweetie Belle during the Wedding Arc.
- Sweetie's Stockholme Syndrome towards Chrysalis.
- Chrysalis having a Villainous Breakdown after Sweetie is freed. Its even more disturbing since Crysalis has no idea why she's feeling that way.
- Kabuto makes an appearance fighting Misfit Actual, and the changeling Mad Scientist proves to be not only just as bad as described, but a lot more dangerous that he looks, even before he goes One-Winged Angel.
- The fact that Lone Ranger even exists. Even taking into account the fact that he's obviously insane, (maybe since Discord's brief reign, maybe before) and thinks that the best way to protect Equestria was to allow Chrysalis and her forces into the capitol, the fact that there's a pony even willing to consider genocide, let alone endorse it is frightening beyond measure.
- The changelings brainwashing civilian ponies in Canterlot to either complete the rune or act as living shields.
- The creation of Kabuto guarding the door.
- The Duel to the Death between Twilight and a still-brainwashed Shining Armor, all to amuse Chrysalis. Just to make it all worse, Shiny knows whats going on but can do nothing. Twilight thankfully escapes before it gets too nasty.
- Chrysalis's Villainous Breakdown has reached new heights.
- Chrysalis trying to drain the group of their emotions.
- There's also Chrysalis transforming into an Alicorn. Unlike the more majestic transformations seen with Dark World Twilight and Rarity, her old skin essentially becomes a shell that falls off of her piece by piece, ending with her removing her own face and crushing it to dust to reveal her new form, an Evil Twin of Cadence.
- The fact that the Changelings are willing to sacrifice their lives like that, and the fact that "Cadenza" is so willing to accept it.
- Cadence nearly losing herself to her rage before catching herself.
- Rarity seemingly killing General Lone Ranger. Justified in that she was trying to be terrifying in the same vein as Superman in Superman vs. the Elite.
- The fact that General Lone Ranger had gone so crazy that on the Day of Chaos, Discord took one look at him and said "No, you're good." Discord didn't even NEED to do anything directly.
- Kabuto's fate. Remember what Celestia would have done to Fluttershy if Nightmare Whisper had accidentally killed the unborn foals?
- In the Button Mash chapters, there's what Discord does to him, giving him a hopeless game that plunges him into utter despair when he plays it, and Button's mother who is turned from a loving mother to a bitter harpy who almost kills her own son with her own hooves. Button's reaction afterwards is just innocent enough to make it worse:"Why is there red all over me and mom?"
- The shadowy creatures that try and attack Sweetie Bell while she sleeps. Luckily the Blank Puppy saves her.
- Discord's end game. DEAR LORD DISCORD'S ENDGAME.
- The deaths of Oratorio Waltz and Tempo Wave, two of the Dazzlings who didn't survive the G2 Apocalypse. Tempo is impaled through the chest on a piece of wreckage and Oratorio is horribly deformed and mutated to the point it's probably a mercy she died when she did. Adagio's reaction to their deaths is just as horrifying. Is it any wonder the poor mare ended up so screwed up later on?
- The events of Rainbow Dash's Awesome Adventure start out odd if seemingly okay, but it swiftly becomes very obvious that someone's tied reality up in knots. To the point where it's as though the CMC, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon have never changed from their first appearance, Fluttercruel has vanished from Fluttershy's mind, and Zecora (briefly) becomes the fiend the ponies once saw her as.
- And in the very next chapter, Dash discovers that the ponies of Cloudsdale and Ponyville no longer seem to have lives or even exist save when she interacts with them. Worse still, Scootaloo is plain gone and nopony even remembers her.
- The orphanage in the chapter sounds like something out of Dickens from the description, and the name does not fill one with confidence: Chains of Love Orphanage.
- Tirek's rise to power. All of it. To say it's a Bloodbath Villain Origin is an understatement. By the end of it, he created a horrific plague that only effects his own species, has his entire species slaughtered, and sadistically tortured his own family to death. Applejack losing her lunch and needing a few minutes to recover after hearing of it is very understandable.
- The Villain World that Discord's group has turned the world into. Let's put it this way: every grimdark fanfic in existence is happening at once. The CMC's reaction to this is completely justified.
- Scootaloo ending up in Cheerilee's Garden. It's every bit as horrific as one would think, even if she manages to free Cheerilee and break the spell in the end.
- The Concept Killing Spear in general is pretty unsettling. The one time it successfully killed someone, It Unmade him, completely erasing Cupid and All of his works and even his parents' relationship all together.
- The pony who made it pretty much caused more deaths than the end of G3, all because she didn't find her own love, Despite Constantly Spurning Stallions. What's more her reaction when Venus came to avenge Cupid boiled down to "Great! I get to kill Love Itself Too!" before she was nuked.
- When the Crusaders find Twilight. Unlike the rest of the characters we've seen up until now, Twilight wasn't turned into a single evil version of herself from a single grimdark fanfic. Double Emphasis on the word single... Twilight's been turned into ALL the grimdark versions of herself all at once! Numerous different grimdark Twilight Sparkles all combined into one monster!!!
- Umbra Breeze's hound. It's an Evil Knockoff of the Blank Wolf.
- Scootaloo nearly getting killed by the corrupted Rainbow Dash. Made worse by how close the two are in this story.
- The fact the Apple Family was corrupted into a cult of some sort and Granny Smith apparently intends to sacrifice Sweetie Belle to something.
- Applejack seeing Nythy's "masterpiece" timeline: A world where the heroes are turned into twisted, hollow shells of themselves, and fighting each other. This is goes nearly Warhammer 40K terms of tradegy.
- What 's even worse than that? When Applejack taunts Nythy, he becomes so enraged to the point that he shows his true form to her, making her slowly go mad from revelation! If Dark World!Nightmare Mirror/Apple Mirror hadn't saved her right then, AJ would've effectively been a goner!
- With every closer step to Diamond Tiara and Discord up in the World Tower, CMC and friends start noticing how some places they were expecting something to happen, but nothing ever did, and passageways having a sense of emptiness. The worst thing is that they do not know exactly what kind of Nightmare that Diamond has become. They expected her pride and ego being shown throughout the Tower, but they have not yet known she doesn't have anything in her heart.
- When Apple Bloom finally reaches and confronts Diamond Tiara, Diamond Tiara reveals her final rumor: that Celestia and Luna were really Tirek and Grogar in disguise, a rumor powerful enough to completely wreck reality. Before Apple Bloom can do anything, Diamond reveals she had already typed it and then destroyed the magic printing press, preventing anyone from stopping it. As the rumor starts to take effect, Apple Bloom falls over helpless as reality starts to unravel.
- As a result of the rumor Diamond created, Celestia and Luna start transforming into Tirek and Grogar and struggle to remain themselves.
- Diamond Tiara stabs Applebloom in the back with her horn. The wound gets cauterized, but it doesn't make it any less nasty.
- We get a look at the Equestria Girls version of Discord, despite him only appearing via cell phone call. Somehow he manages to be scarier than his Equestrian counterpart. In part because he comes off as even more deranged and psychotic to the point in universe news articles actually called him a Mad Scientist. The fact he managed to pull off his Equestrian counterpart's gambit with human Diamond Tiara (until the Equestrian Diamond intervened) with intention to steal Equestrian magic for himself while under house arrest, and in a way frighteningly possible in real life. Thank Fauna Luster he never got to see his plans through to the completion...
- The scene in the recursive fanfic where Fleur was taking a shower to get the mud off after the day of Discord (where Fancy was turned into a paranoid usurper and Fleur was made to think eyes were watching her and hooves reaching out for her), she admits she HALLUCINATES hundreds of eyeballs on tiny stalks crawling up her like worms, and was screaming when Fancy rushed into check on her... that was genuinely SCARY to read!!! What makes this worse is that this ISN'T something Discord did, she was seeing things simply from the mental and emotional trauma.
- When the group arrives in the Canterlot Statue Garden to confront Discord in the Final Battle... and discover Wind Whistler's shattered statue in his place. No one sugar coats the fact they just discovered a corpse. Luna is right to remark it's a good thing the body remained petrified. Then comes the reveal that Diamond is Discord's new host, and has been this entire time.
- Diamond Tiara's Nightmare responds to Discord's resolve faltering by usurping him as the final Big Bad of the story, cementing this promotion by taking an adult form and revealing her long-obscured new title: Nightmare Nhilis.
- Nhilis trying to destroy Ponyville to force the heroes to kill her.
- Sweetie Belle and Nhilis powering up Unholy Nukes that if they were to collide would end very badly and if messed up could send their souls to Entropy's realm.
