I’m so glad the series includes such a wide diversity of themes, it made it so enjoyable to watch. The lessons are so deep and portrayed in such a light hearted way. It’s so entertaining to watch our favorite characters go through different events and connecting with their feelings, Mlp is enjoyable to watch for all ages

In the original script of A Royal Problem, Luna's nightmare had her 'trying on' different smiles as if they were masks.

"What are they gonna do cancel us? Make it scary!" Is such a great thing to hear

What I love is that the writers were not afraid to intentionally put in subtle details to get our minds to think much more darker about a situation. Like, the swamp fever spore blossom trees originating from the more bone chilling thought of several ponies or other creatures bodies getting taken over and slowly morphed into the trees we see in the episode. With the cycle continuing for over 1,000+ years with the cure unknowingly being lost to time in limbo. What's even more frightening is we never learn the origin of said sapling.

8:12 Adding another layer of horror on this: She actually says "What my family WILL do," meaning the abuse is not just a possibility, but a guarantee.

I really like the sentence "Confront the possibility of the just barely kid friendly fate of forever tap dancing in French."

8:15
That is such a tiny detail, but such an interesting one. The original draft says 'what my family will do if I...', while the final draft changes it to 'what my family would think if I...', somewhat subtly steering around the possibility of literal child abuse, be it psychological or physical, to perhaps shunning.

9:55 ok, when you phrased it like that something in my brain just snapped into place and went like “Oh. That’s actually so sad.”

Watching the show for the first time,  I thought it was bold of them to do a cult episode. Not too many kid's shows tackle the subject of cults that often considering how controversial they can be at times.

The 'unintentional horror' category you mentioned could end up being quite vast.

From the top of my head, in ascending order of unease they presented me with:

Crystal Empire Part 2 -- Twilight could have been trapped forever if Spike weren't there. The evil door and anti-teleportation cage.
and both she and Celestia were insistent on her doing the task alone. Spike's stubbornness saved the day.

Inspiration Manifestation -- the book can be used as a weapon as long as the user doesn't have any good friends.
a super-villain that has no regard for everypony's safety or whether or not they're improving the world around them could use it without restriction.

Flutter Brutter -- Zephyr appears to be on the verge of suicide when living out in the woods and of course, the song lyrics:
"there are times when you want to give up, when you think you can't go on..."

The Last Crusade -- This entire episode.

I remember HATING “28 Pranks Later” when I was little and the only reason why was because of its zombie imagery. When I was younger and not really into horror, anything zombie related freaked me tf out and I don’t really know why. Anytime a cartoon episode slightly alluded to zombies it would give me nightmares. So you can only imagine how little me felt watching that episode, even if it was a prank in the context of the episode (from what I remember)

The 'turning into a tree' was an amazing episode to me. It's a fate worse than death depending on how you look at it. Zecora and Fluttershy were heading in that direction, but it was so offhandedly subtle that, if you don't pay attention, you won't even notice.

For me it was great, because it kept the cheery pony show vibe as a facade, while underneath characters were fighting for their lives.

Personally i feel as thought the spookiest/scariest imagery from the series comes from the Siege on the crystal Empire comic line that was shown briefly in the video. The panel in which Cadence Goes against the umbrum's wishes and uses her horn as a light to reveal this pale misshapen creature with Little white dots for eyes and pulled back gums showing crooked teeth sitting in the corner of the room makes for a unnerving shot in a piece of family media. really that entire comic arch playing with the ideas of things like a Kangroo court and self hatred, seeing yourself as something you Aren't really makes for an inserting footnote in Mlp media. those Umbrum designs man they are something...

28 Pranks Later is not the best episode, but I have a soft spot for that one. The zombies were executed fairly well, and referencing one of my favorite movies of all times in the title is a plus,

I'm glad creepy moments are sprinkled throughout the span of the show, it contrasts nicely with the colorful backdrop of ponies.


I'm surprised Lesson Zero isn't on here. Twilight's desperation is palpable, like you can feel the dread as the day slips away from her,  and no one takes her concerns seriously. She's alone, she's running around the town aimlessly, and getting nowhere, The Sun ticking like a clock is such a cool visual, too, and it probably doesn't help it's literally connected to the person she fears disappointing. As someone with obsessive-compulsive behaviors, something as small as a report sending her into a full-on panic, fully convincincing herself it's gonna completely derail her life, hits really close to home. Also, the Want-It-Need-It Spell and 'works everytime' gives us some dark implications with Twilight's magic use, pre-Ponyville, which I enjoy.  I consider it my favorite Twilight episode and one of my favorites overall.

8:25 Also because Filthy Rich doesn't seem like the kind of guy to abuse his daughter (Same can't be said for his Equestria Girls counterpart)

Party of One is scary as shit because I have BPD and have quite literally gone down her exact mental spiral from that episode hundreds of times in my life

A Canterlot wedding is my favourite episode in the series. When Shining Armour had to defend the fake Cadences actions, when watching it the first time, you actually think they make sense in a way. So then when Twilight gets comforted by the fake Cadence, we think everything is gonna work out but then they remind us “this is only part 1…”

I also liked at one of the Cons the VA for Starlight Glimmer mentioned the script laid out her character taking lots of personality from Jim Jones the cult leader. And some 60s cook show host. But the cult leader was a wild left turn.

As a kid I was completely terrified of Queen Chrysalis and every time my mom went out to get groceries I had an entire interview ready for her when she came home.
But now she’s my favourite character!

People love to make fun of MLP, but sometimes it nailed scaringly well how it feels to be a a traumatized young adult