Nidoran has good hearing, which presumably carries over to its evolution, & its opening move if it feels threatened is stabbing with its Poisonous horn. Plus there's toxic barbs all over its body that it extends. Similar is presumably true of Nidorino & Nidoking; I'd assume they also have these qualities, but.... About Nidoking:
Red
Blue | It uses its powerful tail in battle to smash, constrict, then break the prey’s bones. |
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| Yellow | Its steel-like hide adds to its powerful tackle. Its horns are so hard, they can pierce a diamond. |
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| Gold | It swings its big tail around during battle. If its foe flinches, it will charge with its sturdy body. |
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| Silver | Its tail is thick and powerful. If it binds an enemy, it can snap the victim’s spine quite easily. |
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| Crystal | It uses its thick arms, legs and tail to attack forcefully. Melee combat is its specialty. |
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Ruby
Sapphire | NIDOKING’s thick tail packs enormously destructive power. With one swing, it can topple a metal transmission tower. Once this POKéMON goes on a rampage, there is no stopping it. |
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| Shield | Nidoking prides itself on its strength. It’s forceful and spirited in battle, making use of its thick tail and diamond-crushing horn. |
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Going by Pokedex entries at least, it's abundantly clear Nidoking goes in close.
I do recall it using moves like Sludge Wave & Earth Power in the anime when a wild one battled Mew, but yeah.
& what's worse is a lot of this implies that its tail is its opening move.
Nidoking does not learn moves typically associated with attacking with the tail, other than Poison Tail.... As an Egg Move. (& it's not like its tail is implied to be one of the poisonous parts anyway.) It doesn't learn Tail Whip (Which is actually a Cute category move in contests, as it's more accurately translated as Tail Wag.), nor Pound or Slam, moves commonly presented as though they attack with the Tail.
It does learn Tackle, though.... As a Level-Up move exclusive to its Pre-Evolutions (Limited movepool due to being a Stone Evolution Pokemon.), only in Generation 1.
What's worse for it is current Pokemon Profiles give Pokemon all their "Abilities" at once.
Of course, Nidoking doesn't have the Hustle Ability its Pre-Evolutions have, which, for Physical Attacks, reduces their Accuracy by 20%, but increases their Power by 50%, because upon evolving into Nidoking, Hustle is replaced with Sheer Force, which removes the secondary effects of Attacks, & gives the affected Attacks an extra 30% power.
Poison Point is nice, since in gameplay, it's a 10% chance of inflicting Poison "on contact"; In gameplay, that's when the foe hits Nidoking with a move that makes contact, but, especially if Nidoking has barbs that, based on Nidorino's Pokedex entries, release toxins on impact, would make this especially likely, if Twilight Sparkle got too close. Problem is, I doubt she would.
The biggest problem, though, is two-fold?
Remember how Nidoking has all of its abilities? Including "+30% power but no secondary effects attacks Sheer Force"?
It also gets Rivalry, which powers up its attacks by 25%.... If it's against a foe of the same gender/sex. Nidoking is an exclusively male species. Against foes of the opposite gender/sex (& since Rivalry applies no matter what species Nidoking faces, this means ANY Female opponent.), it reduces the power of Nidoking's Attacking moves by 25%.
100 + 30 = 130. 25% of 130 is 32.5. 130 - 32.5 = 97.5
100 - 25 - 75. 30% of 75 = 22.5. 75 + 22.5 = 97.5
Crazy as it may sound, but 30% buff & 25% debuff result in 97.5% of usual power; About one 40th weaker than normal.
But the real kicker is that not only are Nidoking's attacks weaker than normal against Twilight Sparkle, they ALSO don't have any Secondary Effects, although it might still be able to Poison, since its horn is explicitly Poison, & Poisoning is a secondary effect added even to moves that don't involve its horn.
& of course, Nidoking's tactics do it no favors; It's aggressive, specialized in Melee combat, known to go into uncontrollable rampages, & favors smashing with its tail, especially to coil it around the foe & bind them, then crush their bones/spine. (Although, Nidoking cannot learn Coil, Wrap, nor Bind.) & also sometimes tackle or maybe stab with its horn. & its only tail-related attack is Poison Tail, a somewhat weak move.
Even if modifiers that come into effect after the match/passives are negated by the Stats Equalization, too, Nidoking is still operating with its moves effectively unboosted by Sheer Force, with their secondary effects practically negated.
Meaning Nidoking, seeing this flying pony, might still have its first instinct to be try & run at her, Tackle her, &/or then smash/bind her with its tail, if it somehow gets her in her grip, try to crush her bones/spine, &/or maybe try to stab her with its horn at some point.
All while weaker than usual, with no secondary effects to its attacks, against an intelligent, flying foe with telekinesis & teleportation.
Oh, & if Lifting Strength isn't Equalized, & this is any Pony Twilight Sparkle except Unicorn Twilight, Nidoking trying to bind Twilight Sparkle with its tail likely gets its tail snapped by Stellar Class Lifting Strength via Telekinesis, assuming she doesn't Teleport out or hit it with an effectively point blank magical blast or transmutation or hypnosis spell or something, lol.
