The Pony Scariness Index. · 2:24pm Sep 18th, 2015
One of the comments on No Sale noted that sometimes, Rarity could be a special kind of scary.
True. But compared to some of the others, how scary is she when measured on an absolute scale?
So here's your non-assignment:
List your Top Five (or more, if you feel like it) Scariest Ponies. If you so desire, give your reasons for each ranking, mostly because it'll be that much more to argue about. And then, having established your personal list for the most terrifying denizens of Equestria, turn it around and give us your Bottom Three. The least frightening ponies. We're talking ponies whom you could encounter in the dead of night while they were wearing a mask and holding a blade between their teeth and the instinctive, correct assumption would be that they had gotten lost on their way out of the kitchen at a Nightmare Night party.
Let the fear flow.
Number one:
Number two:
Number three:
Number four:
Number 5:
Not to sure about that last one.
*Edit: least scary:
Number three:
Number two: (flower trio, collectively)
Number one:
Yes, Fluttershy is both scariest and least scary of ponies
Most Scary:
1. Luna. "Bluffs are only made by those who have no intention of following through."
2. Scootaloo. "The town's on fire, Discord is reverting, every villain ever is working with him, Canterlot is in orbit, the rest of the world declared war on Ponyville... and you think it has something to do with me trying to get a cutie mark in diplomacy? That's stupid! Every good diplomat should insult everything around them in order to establish superiority! -- no, I didn't read anything before I started. Why would I do something like that? I'm not trying for a mark in boredom..."
3. Twilight. "I can fix this. Before the deadline."
4. Celestia. "Do you know why I generally don't show anger? Would you like to find out?"
5a. Fluttershy. "...there's something you're forgetting. There are roughly twenty-eight aggressive carnivores on my property. And none of them... would ever eat me..."
5b. Fleur (local 'verse ranking only). "You know all those little -- quirks... yes, let's say 'quirks' -- you would never want anypony to know about? I witnessed all of them from your bed."
Least Scary:
3. Truffle Shuffle. "If you try anything, I'm going to root!"
2. Davenport. "I'm all out of scary right now. Could you use a completely inexplicable retail operation?"
1. Roseluck. "This ranking is absolutely terrifying!" *faints*
Ponies? Please. All the ponies, griffons, dragons, and other language-using intelligent creatures in Equestria could all team up against Angel Bunny and they wouldn't stand a chance.
You know, I can't remember the last time someone paid this much attention to a simple comment I said. It's pretty weird, but also kind of nice.
Top spot by far: Pinkie - pure, unbridled madness.
Runner up (quite far behind though): Luna - mysterious and likely capable of just about anything.
Nightmare Moon: pretty obvious, but at least you know exactly why.
Spitfire: to quote one of my favourite fics: a berserker leading a dance troup.
Fluttershy: a quiet, kind pony that deals with every aspect of life and never ever talks about it. What lurks beneath?
Least scary.
Snips
Snails
Twilight. Imagining Twilight in that villain outfit is almost sad.
Probably a tie between Pinkie and Fluttershy.
Pinkie is unstable and you just know that Fluttershy is a ticking time bomb.
I'm pretty sure, in theory, Celestia beats anything else.
She's calm, controlled, experienced, levelheaded, kind, motherly...
...and, should she even get a reason to lose it, controls the freaking sun.
Do I get brownie points if I say that Joyous Release is scariest pone?
Celly and Luna certainly act like she is, at least up to the last chapter when they finally get some concrete information about what's going on.
Ponies I wouldn't want to cross:
Twilight. Organized revenge is the worst kind.
Celestia. Someone that nice is probably repressing a lot of anger inside that's just waiting to come out. (Alt. Similar reasons for Fluttershy w less chance of a firey death but more bear mauling)
Luna. She would kill you and make it as public and humiliating as possible.
Pinkie Pie. Do I even really need to elaborate here?
Applejack is at the bottom, mostly because her strength is in the sheer number of bodies she can bring to aid her in ruining your life physically.
Ponies I hold no fear from:
Derpy Hooves aka Ditzy Doo. She would probably hurt herself more in the attempt.
Big Mac. It would take a monumental amount of effort to get him to move into the number of syllables required to threaten you.
Fancy Pants. He's a gentleman, therefore bound to duels and scholarly disagreements.
Scariest ponies... assuming I actually lived in that reality/dimension.
1. Celestia
2. Glimmer
3. Chrysilis
4. Sombra
5. Pinkie Pie
6. Derpy
7. Fluttershy
Least Scary.
1. Twilight
2. Scootaloo
3. Daring Do
I'm going to limit myself to your Continuum, and the ponies within. And I'm not going to rank them in any particular order.
Twilight Sparkle: Quite possibly has the raw magical power to unmake reality, the obsessive drive to be really meticulous about it, and just enough crazy to self-justify it as being the only possible option.
Luna: "I remember a time when I didn't have to suffer fools, and could entertain myself for days with ponies that I discovered to be so."
Celestia: "I am the picture of serene calm, because I know what will happen to you if I am not. Please continue to try to push my buttons, I haven't had the chance to lose my temper in over a thousand years..."
Flitter: "The problem with using lightning as a weapon is aiming it. Guess what, I've had a lot of practice during my recent certification exam."
Mayor Mare: (Even though you haven't used her yet.) "I am the elected official that gets to deal with the CMC, Discord, the Element Bearers, the CMC, the Everfree Forest, the Flower Trio's panic attacks, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie's parties, and the CMC. Surprise me. I dare you."
And for the second half of your question...
The Flower Trio: "Oh, no! Something completely innocuous! The horror, the horror!" *Fainting, X 3*
Rachette: "Let me fix that for you. Please, let me fix that for you."
Filthy Rich: "As a successful business pony I have an obligation to my customers, my staff, and the town. And not necessarily in that order."
Will your version of Fleur be getting a story appearance? Even if it not a story about that aspect of her life. Even if she is just a background character? Pretty please?
1. Luna. Immortal alicorn who has, in fact, fallen to evil before. Loud, booming voice. Might actually turn you inside out. Once tried to bring about eternal night.
2. Celestia. The kind of person that Terry Pratchett was talking about when he said it was better to be looking down the horn of a evil person than a good one. Might actually throw you in a dungeon in the place she banishes you to, if you're bad enough.
3. Twilight. She takes after Celestia, and is more powerful magically, but she doesn't actually rule a country, is less experienced, and is more easily intimidated.
4. Starlight Glimmer. She's an evil pony propagandist who had no trouble locking a bunch of people up in a room in an attempt to brainwash them, plus her whole "stealing cutie marks" schtick is pretty bad. Less scary than the others primarily because she lacks their power.
5. Fluttershy. She can intimidate creatures a hundred times her size. Enough said.
Least Scary:
1. Snips.
2. Snails.
3. Silver Spoon.
Hmm... Well, since it's scary ponies, I suppose Discord is out of the running. In that case...
5. King Sombra
I assure you, I'm going somewhere with this.
A lot of unicorn characters boil down to alternate paths Twilight could have taken. What if Twilight let her talents go to her head? What if her ambition outweighed her devotion to Celestia? What if her thirst for knowledge dominated her life? Sombra is a rather unlikely path: What if Twilight went full Evil Overlord?
For the most part, the rest of this list is terrifying for what they can do. Sombra is terrifying for what he did do. He doesn't get much screentime, but his handiwork does: The layers of physical, magical, and psychological defenses around the Crystal Heart. The lingering traumatic effects on the crystal ponies and their knowledge base to remove any mention or memory of the Heart. The willingness to take an entire magical city-state with him into oblivion. The patience to simply outwait the opposition, content to let slow corruption do his work until the alarm he installed told him he needed to shift to a more active plan, which he immediately implemented. Only an improbable, unforeseeable desperation tactic snatched victory from him.
For all we mock his stair obsession and limited vocabulary, Sombra was very competent, even when largely working off of contingencies he'd put into place before his dissolution. He may very well be the most competent equine antagonist in the show thus far. He just wasn't fighting in his weight class, whether going up against two alicorns or a city-sized emotional resonator.
4. Fluttershy
Not only does Fluttershy have the fury of nature at her beck and call, we've seen the rage simmering under the surface and what happens when she decides to bring it to full boil. Fluttershy is a quiet observer, silently cataloging all of the faults of those around her. If she wants to, she can utterly destroy a pony with a few choice words. That may be part of why she feels so uncomfortable around ponies; she can't help but make that list of their weaknesses. She demonstrates that you have to be cruel to be kind, or at least possess the capacity for it.
And then there's the fact that she's queen of her little slice of the animal kingdom. And wrestles bears. Even if she doesn't have a psychological angle on a pony, she can still pose a physical threat if pushed. With the Stare, she might not even need to.
3. Celestia
Twilight may be the Princess of Neuroses, but her fear of her mentor had to come from somewhere. It could be the incredible political acumen that's kept a nation stable and prosperous (if not necessarily appreciative) for a millennium and could easily destroy those who displease her. It could be the authority that comes from being god-queen of said nation. It could be the vast magical power at Celestia's command coupled with centuries of experience. It probably isn't that she had to fight long and hard to get where she is now; after all, Twilight, like most ponies, can barely conceive of a time before Celestia. Still, breaking from the framing device, that point stands. Celestia was not handed her current position. She earned it. She gets things done. And those things are threatening her ponies, they get a millennium-long time-out. And those are just the ones we've heard about.
2. Luna
Someone whose duties extend to monitoring the subconscious minds of her subjects is going to have an unavoidable air of Orwellianism, no matter how noble her intentions. The whole "Tried to douse the sun" issue doesn't help matters. And, of course, there's the fact that she's Celestia's equal and opposite. Same power, same determination, less experience in keeping herself controlled around the political parasites. Their different power suites also affect the ranking: Celestia can reduce a body to ash. Luna can reduce a mind to a gibbering mess. She would never do such a thing, of course, just as Celestia would never casually carbonize. But she could, and leaving a living testament to her dread power is all the more terrifying.
1. Twilight Sparkle
Twilight is to Luna as Luna is to Celestia: Younger, less experienced, and probably less stable. The matter of comparative power is unclear, but Twilight's intellect more than makes up for any discrepancy in raw strength. Even before her ascension, she was laying waste to towns, vanquishing living constellations, outmaneuvering vastly more powerful foes, and seeing through ruses that fooled Celestia herself. Twilight is methodical, and therein lies her most terrifying aspect. Given surprisingly little time, she can do just about anything. If she wanted to be a villain, I'm honestly not sure how she could be stopped. Wife tossing might prove instrumental... if she weren't aware of the tactic.
Least terrifying? Well, any number of ineffectual background ponies are probably contending for the top spot. Let's limit this to those who have at least had speaking roles. Not the Flower Trio; they might manage to incite a riot. Let's see...
3. Coco Pommel. I'm not sure if you've seen Season 4 yet, but Coco out-moe'd Fluttershy in her one episode. She's at the top of the bottom because she could still theoretically pose a risk.
2. Silver Spoon. Isolate her from Diamond Tiara, and she'll probably be too busy having an existential crisis to threaten anyone.
1. Tree Hugger. A Season 5 character who is essentially Fluttershy with the anxiety and underlying rage replaced with a blissed-out serenity so all-encompassing, I suspect her endocrine system produces cannabinoids. She simply doesn't spend enough time in this world to threaten anyone in it.
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Joyous Release would probably hunt down Starlight Glimmer as a willing subject. ..
Going mostly off of canon with some of my own ideas mixed in...
Most scary:
6. Rarity. If any of the Mane Six were going to kill someone for the greater good, it would be her. And she could probably get away with it, too.
5. Luna might rank higher on grounds of personal history, but I can't help but think her guilt over her past actions would be a massive restraint for her.
4. Twilight's not as powerful as Luna, and has never turn full-on evil. But she's way more unstable, and doesn't have a huge guilt complex holding her back. Plus, I can easily see her succumb to a "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" thing.
3. Celestia, on grounds of sheer power and how often her self-control might be the only thing between a pony and a pile of ashes.
2. Sombra is really the only all-out Evil Overlord the ponies have had, and only Tirek has come closer to victory.
1. Derpy, if you get between her and her kids.
Least Scary:
3. Derpy in literally any other situation.
2. Twist is basically a nerdy 10-year-old girl. Nearly the embodiment of nonthreatening.
1. Sweetie Belle is like you combined Derpy's gentle kindness with Twist's innocence, but somehow made it louder and even more incompetent.
3401081
We may have been neighbors once.
(I used to live across the street from someone whom, when seen from the older perspective, was very likely in organized crime. It was the safest street I've ever lived on.)
3401136
One of the ideas which I'll likely never get around to has our poor elected official coming up against election season and finding out nopony in town has filed to run against her, because if they somehow won, they would have to deal with it. All of it, without mercy, relief, or anypony stupid enough to run against them.
If the spa is booked beyond all hope of Rarity squeezing an emergency season in? She booked it.
I can say without fear of spoilers that the next chapter for A Mark Of Appeal opens with Celestia being openly irritated -- and scaring the Tartarus out of Chocolate Bear in the process.
(It's the medical exam. She's been fighting off examinations of her body for more time than she wants to think about, and now it's necessary. This is one of her personal/lesser bad scenarios, one which is finally happening with no way out of it. As she irritably explains to the surgeon, there may be such a creature as a Perfect Princess who would take this without a blink of complaint, but he is dealing with a pony who has been trying to avoid this for more than fifty generations and as such, regardless of that pressing necessity, she is going to be more than a little stressed out. Additionally, she is perfectly aware that he's going to need mane and tail samples...)
(And Vanilla Bear, Moon help him, drew Luna.)
If I can ever make myself start-and-finish on T(rav)apestry, she'll be one of the featured characters in a crucial scene.
Fleur is actually so scary, she makes other ponies scarier by proximity & proxy both: a great deal of Canterlot is wondering exactly what Fancypants has been told. (If anypony tells you they know whether that relationship is a sexual one, there's about a 99.9% chance they're lying.) But she's also... well...
...she's a spoiled brat.
One of my notes for Fleur is "Two steps forward, 1.999 steps back." She's used to being the most attractive pony in the room, to getting more attention than anypony else, and she doesn't deal well with being surmounted in either category. She's possessive, insistent, used to getting her way, still has trouble dealing with the very concept of "No", and deals with being put aside about as well as Twilight deals with purposefully-misshelved books. She has a sense of entitlement about a gallop wide, which means it fits comfortably within the wider range of her ego. Mentally, her main requirement for having an arrested adolescence would be gaining a few emotional years...
In the right situation, with proper supervision, she has the potential to be incredibly effective, and that's why she's Fancypants' student. And yes, she's scary. But she's also extremely immature -- and there are times when it backfires on everypony.
Let's see.
In no particular order:
Purplesmart. Reality-warping powers up to and including time travel. Capable of feats of flight, tremendously powerful telekinesis, and energy projection normally associated with people who wear spandex and capes--in a setting full of magical powers, she's a one-in-a-generation mutant freak powerhouse who almost self-immolated when her powers manifested. And she's... not especially stable. (you'd think equines would be stable, wouldn't you?)
orig09.deviantart.net/7f8c/f/2011/290/c/7/twilight_gone_mad_by_sircinnamon-d4d62th.png
As an amateur with an interest in abnormal psychology I throw out this:
She is absolutely brilliant, possibly with an IQ over 150, or equivalent. Despite this her behavior is frequently childish and irrational. For all that she's been the personal protege of a head of state and living goddess, she frequently demonstrates very poor judgment in matters that endanger those around her, and frequently behaves much more like a precocious nine-year-old than a grown-up. She's also high-functioning (at best) autistic--Asperger's is all over her--no "Spark" in Girl Genius has anything on "the Princess of Friendship" when it comes to utter, detached, contemptuous, ice-cold lack of empathy for those around her, when she has a "problem" she can solve by casting a horrifying mind-control spell on an object and tossing it out the window, resulting in onscreen riots and property damage that must have taken her years to pay off on a librarian's salary.
Also her catastrophizing is indicative of an anxiety disorder, and her compulsive list-making, note-taking, and unwillingness to deviate from previously created plans even for trivial matters are indicative of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Alternately, or possibly additionally, the catastrophizing, the obsession with Princess Celestia's approval and affection, the all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking she displays, the anxiety attacks, the barely-controlled rage we sometimes see, all of these could be used to justify a diagnosis of mild borderline personality disorder as well.
She's brilliant. She's driven. She means well. She's one anxiety attack away from making the continent uninhabitable, or worse--her time-travel abilities are game-breaking, reality-breaking, and absolutely terrifying. Fear the adorable tiny purple unicorn. She's a walking, talking potential XK-Class End-of-the-World scenario. ("Purplesmart is OP, nerf pl0x")
And then there's Ponka Poe.
p1.pichost.me/i/41/1645329.png
The Pinkster is cheerful and childlike. She also has reality-warping, reality-breaking powers, like a Tex Avery cartoon character. She seems to possess at least some degree of clairvoyance and is somehow constantly receiving messages about events in the future, even if she doesn't always understand them--which means that even causality breaks down in her presence. Terrifyingly, she's aware of the Fourth Wall, which makes her potentially even more dangerous than Purplesmart. She's also very, very obviously bipolar.
img14.deviantart.net/4bb9/i/2014/100/e/e/pinkamena_sad_by_j5a4-d7dwjvh.png
Her mood swings can last seconds or days. In fact her unnatural and crippling need for constant reassurance, her need to be the center of attention, her compulsion to present herself constantly as a bubbly, vivacious character, these could justify a diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder. Did I mention that reality warps itself to suit her whims?
And then there's Li'l Woona.
mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-2458236-2-800px-Luna_Angry_3_S2E4.png
She's a literal living goddess--one with a short fuze and a prickly sense of propriety. She still doesn't completely understand that the way she thinks things are supposed to work is incompatible with current social mores--which is hilarious until she decides that a Nightmare Night celebration is lèse-majesté and comes back with a troop of Royal Guards, or just raises an eyebrow and casts some spell that turns the town into a puddle of molten radioactive slag for their impertinence. ("Dost thou not recall the Minotaur Revolts, dear sister? We stood back to back as we razed Minos for their hubris and put all to the sword...")
Her immediate conclusion that Nightmare Night was an expression of widespread personal hostility for her, and refusal to listen to explanations, are straight out of the textbook definitions for "paranoia." Combine this with a VERY short temper--intermittent explosive disorder, as the DSM calls it. Combine this with--well, remember all of Purplesmart's powers, everything she can do? Princess Luna is all that plus at least a couple of zeroes added to the end. Be afraid.
The others... well, AJ's just naturally forthright, and that's not bothersome to me. She works hard, runs a successful farm business--not an easy thing to do if the economics of Equestria are anything like ours, suggesting that she may be brighter than she's commonly given credit for.
Squiggletail plays at being the drama queen, but I get the impression that for her it's mostly a put-on, a little private joke. She's capable of putting the fainting couch away and getting serious when that's appropriate. She's smart, creative, hard-working, and like AJ, has her wig on straight.
Skittles is impulsive, hypercompetitive, hyperaggressive, belligerent, and has an obvious, severe inferiority complex. She's also a bit dim. Her need to be at the center of attention, her need to prove herself constantly, her need for constant reassurance, suggest to me borderline personality disorder. However, she's not scary. She's in some ways pitiable. She's got the worst case of Short Man Syndrome I've ever seen in a character the audience is supposed to find sympathetic. What's she going to do when she gets old, and she's no longer the fastest flier, no longer can make the crowds cheer? She reminds me of another character, actually...
orig13.deviantart.net/e11a/f/2013/045/f/d/gif_soryu_asuka_langley__un_placer__by_flukeyouarenotalone-d5uww7a.jpg
...if you don't recognize her, it involved giant robots, conspiracies, tragedy, a cast of characters who were not what they seemed, and cosmic horror.
Buttersqueak and her cottage full of animals deep in the woods are more creepy and sad than frightening--when I look at her I see "crazy cat lady." To be a bit more serious, Bananahush has demonstrated an angry side once or twice, and her severe shyness speaks of both an anxiety disorder and functional autism but not functional on the same level that Purplesmart is capable of--she's really crippled by it. I would describe her as having severe Asperger's and very severe social anxiety disorder, to the point where she is barely able to function in society at all and pretty much HAS to live in a cabin deep in the forest, alone except for an abundance of not-quite-pets. Like Skittles, though, she's not scary, just pitiable.
Trixie, from what we see of her in the show--and 95% of it or more could just be stage persona, as distinct from personality--has an easily bruised ego and appears to be willing to mess around with dangerous forbidden magics to avenge real or imagined slights. She is still WAY out of her depth dealing with Purplesmart, who could swat her like a bug, magical amulets or no. Trixie doesn't appear to realize this, or maybe the amulet mind-controlled her. Maybe. Trixie isn't scary. Trixie needs a hug, and a show circuit on another part of the continent.
Sombra is a fearsome-looking villain, drawn in a manner visually contrasting most other characters. He also doesn't even pass a Turing Test. He steps on stage, slurs out three or four words, and gets magically zapped in a most authoritative manner, possibly dying onscreen. If we'd known something about his motivation, or his background--but no. He was less a character than a plot device, and less a plot device than a bit of scenery that moved and made noise for a few seconds so that the audience could see how powerful the Crystal Heart was. Someone get a broom and dustpan and clean up that dust that's scattered around the Sombra-shaped shadow on the ground near the gateway to the Crystal Empire. He might have been scary if he'd been onscreen long enough to say half a dozen words, but--
Discord isn't a pony (or a human, and attempting to compare him to human norms is attributing to him qualities that he may not have), but my opinion is that he was terrifying when he was introduced. He was basically Nyarlathotep, for those of you who've read your Lovecraft. He was an alien eldritch abomination from another dimension, with unimaginable powers, and he was playing a bizarre game with rules no one else understood. At the end when they turned him back into stone he made it pretty clear that they would NOT have been able to do this without his acquiescence. He was an evil insane god, cruel and petty, with powers limited only by his own bizarre and inhuman imagination. But then they made him a recurring character. Suddenly Nyarlathotep is attending tea-parties with Buttersqueak. Better to have left him in the garden. He's not scary any more.
Queen Chrysalis is a tragic supervillainess who doesn't appear to have read the Evil Overlord List. She sings and chews the scenery beautifully, monologues briefly, then gets smacked down rather decisively. She's not smart enough or powerful enough to be truly scary. Like Trixie, she needs a hug and maybe a new gig.
Lastly, character who would probably be very scary if the show explored her at all:
img08.deviantart.net/a04d/i/2012/302/6/4/nurse_redheart_by_drfatalchunk-d5hp6f8.png
Red hair? Check.
Nurse? Check.
Horse enthusiast? Heck, she IS one!
The only thing she's missing is the house full of cats, and maybe she's got that too.
1) Twilight "Hey, hi, I'm a walking bomb" Sparkle. She's beyond strong magically and if pushed, could cheerfully turn ponies who irritate her sufficiently inside out.
2) Princess Shouting Luna: Not only does she have the potential to go crazy again, she could accidentally deafen the world.
3) Fluttershy: Flip-flops between doormat and full-tilt raging maniac.
4) Pinkie Pie: That much naivete and weirdness is creepy.
5) Rarity: Capable of the coldly rational fury that could get somepony dead.
3401231 and that gives me a story idea.
3400943
I came here just to make that argument, so it's gratifying to see that the very first comment did it for me.
3401231
Throw me a line when it's up.
3401311 that was interesting.
3401425 You responded to yourself, silly filly!
3401431
Yeah yeah.... been a long day.....
Top spots for scariness (all only applicable when they're at their most unhinged):
Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy. In that order.
Top spots for least-scariness:
Twist, Fluttershy (under normal conditions), Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle. Or at least, those are the top spots for least malicious (I wouldn't want to stand near the crusaders when they have a bright idea).
Fluttershy when she loses it. She has made a Dragon cry & stared down a cockatrice
Twilight in Lesson Zero
Pinkie when she's lost it
Almost forgot Sassy Saddles (Rarity's assistant in episode 14) To me, she looks like a pony version of the gangers from the movie Clockwork Orange (Saw it in the theater 40+ years ago. An early Cyber Punk classic. The cutting edge slices & moves on. So would she)
Least Scary
Sweetie Belle She couldn't scare Pound Cake or Pumpkin if she came at them w a chainsaw while wearing a hockey mask
Flower Trio ponies. They were scared by a bunny stampede (Season1 Apple Buck Season IIRC)
Honestly, Fluttershy is simultaneously the scariest and least frightening of ponies. She's awesome that way.
Luna's terrifying too, but its less that I'm scared of her and more I'm in awe of her.
The scariest? Easily Chrysalis.
Perfect shapechanger, considers ponies to be toys and a food source. Rolled an adult alicorn and nobody caught on except Twilight (and probably secretly Celestia). Capable of mind control, not only in mastering a swarm of lesser changelings, but in being able to dominate a very powerful unicorn like Shining Armor with ease.
The only reason she didn't win was because Celestia is better at scheming than she is and set up her pawns in advance.
Discord is pretty abjectly terrifying when you realize that the sole thing keeping him from wrecking Equestria and tormenting ponies for his amusement is Fluttershy's good opinion... and at the end of the day, she is a mortal pony. She'll be around maybe another 75 years at the outside, and his nature is not going to be changing any time soon.
5. Celestia. Sun to the face. Only this low becasue she seems really unlikely to ever do something like that.
4. Luna. Possibly much less dangerous really, but she has power and proven that not only does she know how to use it but to do so with creepy flair. Oh, and that would Nightmare Moon thing of course.
3. Chrysalis. The individual changelings aren't much of a threat, but under the direction of thier queen they can be absolutely terrifying. The show didn't hit the full implications of this, but yea, a race of shapechangers that suck love is bad enough by itself, Chrysalis at the topand in command is so much worse.
2. Fluttershy. There is plenty of evidence Flutter is her own worst enemy, and when she is pushed enough to not hold anything back, just get the hell out of her way. Unless you're her target, in which case give up, there is no point in prolonging the inevitable. Determined Fluttershy is rare, but utterly unstoppable.
1. Twilight. She could make the universe go bye-bye. Even worse she could do it in the name of good.
3. Flash Sentry. Non threatening is his whole thing. Even when brainwashed he can't really manage much menace.
2. Twist. She has a lisp, makes candy, and enough appearances that her secretly being darker and edgier in any way seems unlikely.
1. Tree Hugger. Yea, hippies just aren't scary.
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I agree with your pony-only danger list in almost all aspects, except to add:
0. Pinkie Pie.
Ordinarily, Pinkie is happy and would not be a threat; even when she isn't, her style of insanity makes her madness mostly personal. However, should Pinkie go evil and keep enough sanity to put her abilities to full use, the entire MLP world (and potentially universe) are in danger. Twilight, with her enormous magical power, can casually flatten a town. Pinkie, with her awareness of the fourth wall and her ability to influence or break it, could threaten the entire existence of her world. And that's not even considering that she is capable of all sorts of "magic" that nobody in a highly magical world is remotely able to explain.
Fortunately, about the most she does with it is play around with iris-wipes and pop out of impossibly small places yelling "FOREVER!!!"
When I have more time, I'll compile a more complete list, but for now, have the scariest and least scary ponies on it, for different reasons: Pinkie Pie.
3402757 Just yesterday I read a fic, aptly called Pinkie Pie is an Eldritch Abomination, where Twilight almost goes insane after realising the true extent of Pinkie's powers, Lovecraft-style.
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I don't deny that Pinkie could be seen as having the potential to be horrifying. Goodness knows I've portrayed her as an eldritch entity more than once. But in canon, while she may have the potential to wreak havoc like a lesser Discord, she'd never choose to realize that potential. Even when she has gone insane, whether straight-maned or discordant, she's chosen to isolate herself at the earliest opportunity. In order for Pinkie to harm another, the action would have to increase or preserve current net happiness, as was the case during the changeling attack on Canterlot. Otherwise, she'd be betraying her fundamental purpose in life.
The Most Scary Ponies isn't really interesting to me - my opinion is mostly stuff that other commenters have already said. So I'll just note that Twilight takes the #1 spot and Starlight Glimmer gets an honorable mention for sheer uncannyness. Now onto the Bottom Three:
3. Mayor Mare. She's good at her job, that much goes without saying. But she's so kindly about it. If I had an unpaid parking ticket, the worst I'd expect from her would be reminder letters every week until I gave up.
2. Pound Cake. Listing babies isn't cheating! Anyone with the Cakes' genetics will surely grow up to be a sweet kid.
1. The Cutie Mark Crusaders (joint honours). They have about one malevolent bone in their three bodies combined. And if the success of their Cutie Mark Crusade is anything to go by, they're far more interested in having fun and hanging out than actually accomplishing any of their goals. Sure, a lot of stuff happens to get broken when they're around, but it's never intentional and they're always adorably sorry about it.
3401431 Do you know what else would be fun? If Starlight Glimmer tore off the cutie marks of those two trolls that hound the CMC. "Blank Flank!!!" ZAAPPP!!!
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Right, in the same sense that Celestia wouldn't just solar flare everything. But what if Pinkie's definition of "happiness" and her perception of pony utility functions changed ever so slightly? That's what I was suggesting.
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The thing is, none of my top five need an adjustment on that fundamental level. Adjustments are needed in many cases, yes, but it's a much smaller step for even Fluttershy to go actively malevolent than Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy's purpose is to communicate with and look after wildlife; it's a frighteningly easy step to let them forage for themselves in what more biased ponies would consider a populated area (as if only pony population counted towards that kind of thing!) It doesn't even need cruelty, just apathy.
Pinkie's purpose is to spread joy. For her to deliberately harm somepony would require much more than just a slightly adjusted value system. That said, the key word there is "deliberately." Just because Pinkie didn't crack my top five doesn't mean she isn't high on the list. She has great potential for mayhem, but also great effort needed to realize that potential. The formula I'd be using if this sort of thing could be quantized would have the final value be directly proportional to the former and inversely to the latter.
Well, actually, if that were the case, Sombra would probably be higher. Eh, this is clearly not a science; I certainly don't expect myself to calculate terror to four significant figures.
3402757 I have to hope that Pinkie's powers work on Rule of Funny, thus are quite hard to pervert to universe-destruction ends. (But not impossible, for a creative mind.)
In your ‘verse?
1. The Flower Trio, for being so easy to set off and so capable of setting off everypony and what they might indicate for the rest of pony-kind. “The only thing to fear is fear itself.”
2. Flitter. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will leave psychological scars that last forever.” What I do to set her off? Breathed, I guess.
3. The Cutie Mark Crusaders
4. Applejack, who will let the world die than break faith with her traditions. Though perhaps she wouldn’t and she seems to be cooling off from that.
5. Discord, the only being of terrifying power with a fragile egotistical disposal to mismatch.
Least terrifying:
3. The CMC. They’re honestly pathetic and broken at this point.
2. Fluttershy. All that awesome power and I’d have to be cruel to animals to have it pointed at me. Not a risk.
1. Twilight. All that awesome power and I’d have to step on a significant wider mine field than Fluttershy’s to set it off but still not a likely vocation for me.