List of allusions/Season four

The following is a list of allusions to other My Little Pony generations, works of fiction, people, places, events, and other cultural touchstones in the fourth season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Entries on this page must follow the similarity guidelines.

Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1

 * The black thorny vines bear a resemblance to those in Disney's Sleeping Beauty.
 * Also the black thorny clouds that shot lightning at Rainbow Dash resemble the villain Kracko from the Kirby franchise.
 * The half-day, Half-night sequence somewhat resembles a similar occurrence in the Lewis Carroll Poem, The Walrus and The Carpenter, seen recounted by the characters Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in several adaptations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, specifically the Disney adaptation and the 1999 live action adaptation.
 * When Spike straps into Twilight's back with a seatbelt, it is a reference to how Bernard and Bianca ride on the back of Orville the albatross in the 1977 Disney film The Rescuers.
 * Spike's regret about not taking the train also alludes to lines said by Bernard in The Rescuers.

Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2

 * During her battle with Princess Celestia, Nightmare Moon's magic beam which she fires at her sister sounds somewhat similar to a Dalek gunstick firing from Doctor Who.
 * The gas-spewing vines that attack Princess Twilight bear a resemblance to the facehugger parasitoids from the Alien film series.

Castle Mane-ia

 * Writer Josh Haber's inspiration for this episode idea and story was Scooby-Doo.
 * The title is an allusion to the Konami video game series Castlevania.
 * The dark hallway with torches/candles and the disembodied pony legs holding spears is a reference to the 1946 film Beauty and the Beast.
 * Pinkie playing the pipe organ is an allusion to The Phantom of the Opera. The most elaborate music she plays is reminiscent of J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, especially the pedal point.
 * The music that Pinkie plays on the organ after the "Charge!" fanfare sounds similar to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

Daring Don't

 * Much like in Read It and Weep, while in Rainbow Dash's imaginative scene, Ahuizotl is hijacked by another character, this time by Fluttershy.
 * The end of the cold open is a parody of the cartoon cliché of having birds or stars circle around a character's head when they receive a blow to the head.
 * The author of the Daring Do book series is named A.K. Yearling. This is a reference to the author of the Harry Potter book series, J.K. Rowling.
 * A.K. Yearling's name is also a reference to a yearling, a male or female horse between one and two years of age.
 * A.K. Yearling's name could also be a reference to Yearling Books, a company that reprints classic works of literature.
 * The traveling sequence with the red line being drawn across the map is a variant on similar sequences in all four of the Indiana Jones films.
 * Including Ahuizotl, the episode makes a number of references to Aztec history and mythology, such as Tenochtitlan and Quetzalcoatl.
 * On the cover of the book that Rainbow Dash receives in the mail, she is depicted as wearing a faded baseball cap similar to the one Short Round wears in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
 * Dr. Caballeron's henchponies' Cutie Marks are an allusion to comic book actions.

Flight to the Finish

 * The episode title is a play on the term "Fight to the Finish."
 * The Cutie Mark Crusaders carrying the flag to the Equestria Games is an allusion to the traditional carrying of the torch to the Olympic Games.
 * According to Daniel Ingram, Hearts Strong as Horses was inspired by a "modern classic from Disney".
 * During the musical number, Scootaloo doing crunches on the platform is an allusion to the Rocky IV training montage.

Power Ponies

 * The title is an allusion to Haim Saban's Power Rangers franchise.
 * The Mane-iac's origin is a reference to the Joker's origin in Tim Burton's Batman.
 * Maretropolis is an allusion to the city of Metropolis from DC Comics.
 * Each of the Power Ponies and their abilities were inspired by various Marvel and DC Comics characters:
 * Twilight Sparkle/Masked Matter-Horn: Cyclops
 * Applejack/Mistress Mare-velous: Batman/Wonder Woman
 * Pinkie Pie/Fili-Second: The Flash/Quicksilver
 * Rarity/Radiance: Star Sapphire/Green Lantern
 * Rainbow Dash/Zapp: Thor/Storm
 * Fluttershy/Saddle Rager: The Hulk
 * Spike/Hum Drum: Burt Ward's portrayal of Robin
 * Spike says, "Holy new personas, ponies!" like Burt Ward's role as Robin in the 1960s live-action Batman TV series. In addition, the color scheme of Spike's superhero costume is similar to that of Robin's.
 * Fili-Second's name is derived from the word "millisecond".
 * How the Mane-iac walks with her long mane and the manner in which she uses it as appendages is based on that of Doctor Octopus (AKA Otto Octavius) from the Spiderman comics.
 * The Mane-iac's powers resemble those of Sedusa from The Powerpuff Girls
 * Mistress Mare-velous using the lasso on the tornado is an allusion to Pecos Bill.
 * Spike's "Once again, the day is saved!" is an allusion to what the narrator ends each episode with in The Powerpuff Girls.

Bats!

 * The title is a reference to the 1981 musical Cats.
 * The title could also be a pun on the common saying "Rats!" which is said when something wrong or unfortunate happens.
 * The bats' screech right before the theme song (00:40) resembles a Boo's laugh from the Mario series.
 * Rainbow Dash's cry of "Won't somepony please think of the cider!" is a parody of the common phrase, "Won't somebody please think of the children!", which is most famously parodied on The Simpsons as Helen Lovejoy's catchphrase.
 * The ponies' use of "pony signals" imitates that of the Batman comics' own Bat-Signal.
 * At one point, Pinkie wears apples on her head like Brazilian performer Carmen Miranda in the 1943 film The Gang's All Here.
 * The scene of the bat licking the apples off of Rarity's hazmat suit is a parody of a scene from Alien.
 * The song bears a strong resemblance to "This is Halloween" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and the scene where the trees "dissolve" into crowds of bats, in a similar way to the lyric "The shadow on the moon at night"
 * The clouds, at 12:29, is similar in design to the cliff on which Jack Skellington stands on in the movie poster of "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
 * The idea of stopping bats from eating apples, the results of an "apple-test" on a bat, and Fluttershy turning into a vampire-pony hybrid are allusions to the 2005 film, Wallace &amp; Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
 * Twilight's diagram grid is done in the style of Tron and its sequel, Tron: Legacy
 * Rainbow's "She's coming!" is in a similar pitch to that of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
 * In the end, Pinkie does an impersonation of Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Dracula, even though he never said, "I vant to drink your blood" anytime during the film.

Rarity Takes Manehattan

 * The title is either a reference to the 1984 film The Muppets Take Manhattan or to the 1987 Leonard Cohen song "First We Take Manhattan" (which specifically refers to the fashion industry).
 * Manehattan's Fashion Week is based off of the real life bi-annual New York Fashion Week event where designers showcase their works.
 * "Bridleway" is wordplay on Broadway.
 * A bridge in Manehattan is modelled after either the Brooklyn Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge.
 * One of the buildings in Manehattan is modeled after the Chrysler Building, briefly the world's tallest building for 11 months.
 * In the Manehattan equivalent of Times Square, there is a billboard with two pony eyes with pony silhouettes in them, a parody of the logo for the Broadway musical Cats. There is also a juice box above it that has a parody of the Coca-Cola logo.
 * As with the bag in Sweet and Elite and Sleepless in Ponyville, the two horseshoes on Rarity's bag that Spike is carrying bears similarity to the Chanel logo.
 * There are four ponies present in the background that are modeled after characters from the television series, Mad Men, including Don Draper, Joan Holloway, Peggy Olson, and Roger Sterling, and the statue (first seen in The Cutie Mark Chronicles) resembles that of the Statue of Liberty.
 * One of the ponies has a cutie mark of Tardar Sauce a.k.a. Grumpy Cat. The pony even does her famous frown.
 * Rarity swings on a lamppost like Gene Kelly does in Singin' in the Rain.
 * Hinny of the Hills is a parody of The Maid of the Mountains.
 * Coco Pommel's character name is a play on fashion and makeup icon Coco Chanel.
 * According to Dave Polsky, the Registration Pony is based on the character of Grace from the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
 * For the voice, Tabitha St. Germain is doing an impression of Annie Potts from the 1984 film Ghostbusters.

Pinkie Apple Pie

 * Apple Bloom does her own version of the Twilightlicious meme; itself a parody of Fergie's song Fergalicious.
 * Before Apples to the Core starts, the clanging of the pans and the clattering of the cart resembles the beginning to The Open Road song in the 1983 Cosgrove Hall film adaptation of The Wind in the Willows.
 * During the song "Apples to the Core", Pinkie Pie says the lyrics, "Swim not sink" and throws a kitchen sink that she found from the cart. This is a reference to the common phrase, "Everything but the kitchen sink", meaning that someone packed too much stuff. This is further backed up by the fact that the cart collapses right after the song ends, and how many times the Apples mention over packing to Big Mac.
 * Pinkie Pie pouncing on Applejack resembles how Tigger pounces on Pooh in the Winnie the Pooh series.
 * The four photos taken on the waterfall are parodies of photos seen at Splash Mountain in the Disney Parks.
 * The fourth and final photo depicts Pinkie doing a duck-face.
 * At 17:04, when Pinkie pounces Applejack, a ponified version of Slender Man can be seen hiding behind the bushes in the background in a split second.

Rainbow Falls

 * The pony giving Spitfire a massage is a caricature of Burgess Meredith's character, Mickey Goldmill, from the Rocky movie franchise.
 * The Wonderbolts' training music is patterned after "Gonna Fly Now", the theme song from the original 1976 Rocky film.

Three's A Crowd

 * The title is a part of the proverb 'Two is company, three's a crowd', meaning that a third person spoils the ideal combination of a couple.
 * Pinkie chasing a red balloon is a reference to the French film Le Ballon rouge.
 * When Rainbow Dash asks what flew towards them and crashed into a nearby tree, Discord responds, "Not a what, but a who.", a quote taken from the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who.
 * Discord's thinking tree also resembles trees from Dr. Seuss' works as well.
 * The Star Swirl costume that Twilight wore in Luna Eclipsed is reused for the Star Swirl the Bearded traveling museum.
 * During the Glass of Water song:
 * Discord, Twilight and Cadance are standing before a castle dressed in black robes and ties and Twilight's wearing glasses, a reference to the Harry Potter series.
 * When Discord asks for lozenges, he is standing in front of a hilly background while a pony in lederhosen plays the sousaphone, a parody of the Ricola ads.
 * The shot of Discord looking out a window wishing on a wishing star is a parody of a scene in Disney's version of Pinocchio.
 * The shot of Discord holding a magic lamp is a reference to the 1992 Disney film Aladdin.
 * The line he sings during both of these aforementioned scenes, "I wish I may, I wish I might", is a reference to the nursery rhyme Star Light, Star Bright.
 * Discord holds up a glass of water victoriously against a black background like Luke Skywalker holding up his lightsaber in the theatrical poster for the 1977 film, Star Wars.
 * The shot of Discord pouring water on himself is a parody of the scene in Flashdance.
 * When Discord is giving directions, he dresses like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson and his fictional counterpart Raoul Duke.
 * Discord's chariot resembles Xerxes's throne from the movie 300.
 * Discord slides offscreen and reappears in sunglasses, a button down shirt, underpants and white socks like Tom Cruise does in Risky Business.
 * The Tatzlwurm bears a striking resemblance to the graboids from the Tremors series.

Pinkie Pride

 * The name of "Weird Al" Yankovic's character is "Cheese Sandwich". Cheese is a recurring motif in many of Weird Al's songs.
 * Cheese Sandwich is essentially a pony version of Weird Al.
 * He has a similar mane-style.
 * His cutie mark is a grilled cheese sandwich shaped like an accordion, Weird Al's signature instrument.
 * The Super Duper Party Pony and The Goof Off are done in the style of polka, which also include random sound effects in the background, like a slide-whistle, and the W.A.Y. Moby Polka melodies in the middle of the song. Weird Al is known for combining various parts of modern songs into polkas featured on his studio albums.
 * The colt version of Cheese has a "Jew 'fro" and large glasses, and an alternate version of Cheese in a police lineup has a technicolor shirt and mustache, much like Al did before he got laser eye surgery.
 * Cheese Sandwich is initially dressed like the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. He even speaks in a style reminiscent of Clint Eastwood and is accompanied by an Ennio Morricone-esque harmonica score.
 * Pinkie finishes off the episode by saying, "I never did catch that pony's name," as Cheese Sandwich trots off into the sunset, further cementing the comparison.
 * The song Pinkie the Party Planner resembles the song "Belle" from the 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast in that it features the protagonist singing about what she enjoys while the townsfolk sing about the protagonist.
 * The song Pinkie's Lament was based on Don't Cry for Me Argentina from the 1978 musical Evita.
 * At first, Pinkie suggests holding the goof-off at High Noon, but after seeing that it is already 3:00, she suggests 3:10 to Goof-Off, both references to classic western films.
 * The Goof Off song shares some elements with:
 * Weird Al's "W.A.Y. Moby Polka"
 * The Czech polka song "Škoda lásky" (known in English as "The Beer Barrel Polka")
 * American folk song 99 Bottles of Beer
 * The jump-rope rhyme "Miss Susie Had a Steamboat"
 * A portion of the Smile Song, from the Season 2 episode "A Friend in Deed"
 * "The Piñata Song", or "Dale Dale Dale" is sung at the very end
 * Cheese Sandwich says, "This cheese has stood alone a long time." This is a reference to a lyric from the nursery rhyme "The Farmer in the Dell".
 * Pink's "Raise Your Glass" was the inspiration for the song Make a Wish.

Simple Ways

 * The ending of the tango music heard under "Applejewel"'s first entrance is taken from the Uruguayan tango "La cumparsita".

Filli Vanilli

 * The title is a play on the controversial German R&B band Milli Vanilli.
 * The episode's storyline also shares some parallel with the band's infamous lip-syncing scandal.
 * Fluttershy singing to the animals closely references to Briar Rose singing from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.
 * Zipporwhill's name is a play on the nightjar bird, Eastern Whip-poor-will.
 * Applejack saying "For corn's sake", a line originally written for Fall Weather Friends, is a reference to the character Fred Mertz from the 1951 sitcom I Love Lucy.
 * She also says to Big Mac, "You've got some 'splainin' to do", a line attributed to, but never actually said by, Ricky Ricardo from the same show.
 * Pinkie climbing up the wall to Fluttershy is an allusion to the Marvel superhero, Spider-Man.
 * The reveal of Fluttershy singing behind the curtain is similar to the ending of the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain.

Twilight Time

 * Sweetie Belle says, "We made a huge mistake", an allusion to a catch phrase said by George "Gob" Bluth in Arrested Development.
 * A ponified colt version of Philip J. Fry from the animated sci-fi comedy series Futurama can be seen multiple times in the background.
 * The shot of the fillies chanting "Twilight Time!" while looking baggy-eyed and one of the ponies drooling is a nod to zombie movies such as George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead.
 * At the end of the episode, Apple Bloom's disguise resembles an outfit worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1963 film Charade.

It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

 * The title may be an allusion to the defunct Cheetos slogan "it ain't easy bein' cheesy".
 * The cold open of this episode is essentially a role reversal of the cold open of Sonic Rainboom, where instead of Rainbow Dash trying to teach Fluttershy on how to cheer loudly, Fluttershy is trying to teach the rest of the Mane 6 on how to cheer quietly.
 * The music that plays during the Breezies' party, up until Seabreeze breaks the musician's saxophone, resembles a jazz rendition of "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson.
 * Dr. Hooves passing by while wearing anaglyph 3D glasses is a reference to the tenth incarnation of his namesake.
 * Rose is next to Dr. Hooves, as a reference to Rose Tyler, a companion of both the Ninth and Tenth Doctors in Doctor Who.

Somepony to Watch Over Me

 * The title is a reference to the 1926 George Gershwin song "Someone to Watch Over Me".
 * The Flame Geyser Swamp is a reference to the 1987 film The Princess Bride.
 * The chimera's snake head briefly has hypnotic eyes, a reference to Kaa, the secondary antagonist of Disney's 1967 animated film The Jungle Book.
 * One of the Cajun ponies does Shermy's dance from the 1965 animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Maud Pie

 * Maud Pie's name is a play on mud pie, a popular dessert that originated in the southern U.S state of Mississippi.
 * Maud is said to be working on her "rocktorate in rock science", a play on the doctorate degree awarded by universities.
 * Rainbow Dash's line describing Maud -- "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an igneous" - is a reference to the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill's 1939 statement about Russia's initial role in World War II - "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma".
 * Pinkie does her own ponified version of "A Friend in Need", part of the "Dogs Playing Poker" series by C.M. Coolidge, during her amusement park montage.
 * The coloring that Pinkie Pie makes is resemblant of what the character Tyrone "TD" Kennelly does from the PBS Kids show "Martha Speaks".
 * The obstacle course Pinkie Pie sets up is reminiscent of the Nickelodeon children's game show Double Dare's stunt challenges.
 * Maud's spiked helmet resembles the German Pickelhaube.

For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils

 * The title is a reference to the 1940 Ernest Hemingway novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
 * Sweetie Belle's line "Ooh, dresses, dresses, dresses, dresses!" is delivered in a similar cadence to Jan Brady's famous catchphrase on The Brady Bunch, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"
 * The scene in which Princess Luna transports Sweetie Belle to the past, present, and future is a reference to the 1843 Charles Dickens novella, A Christmas Carol.
 * Rarity says, "What in the wide, wide realm of Equestria" similar to the line "What in the wide, wide world of sports?" from the 1974 satirical western film Blazing Saddles.

Leap of Faith

 * The music while Big McIntosh tricks Apple Bloom into thinking there's a shark in the water is a reference to the theme from the 1975 film Jaws.
 * Silver Shill's voice is modeled after actor Jimmy Stewart.
 * Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic is very similar to the song Passamaquoddy from the 1977 Disney film Pete's Dragon.

Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

 * The title is a common phrase used by musicians to test the volume levels of a microphone.
 * Twilight mentions Princess Celestia's favorite flight pattern as being the "Icaranian Sun Salutation," a reference to the mythological story of Icarus, who fashioned his own makeshift wings and fell to his death after flying too close to the sun.
 * During the rap song "The rappin' Hist'ry of the Wonderbolts," Pinkie wears an alarm clock on a chain, a reference to Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav, who often wears a huge clock on a chain. She also wears a hat similar to the ones worn by the members of the American hip hop trio Run–D.M.C.. Furthermore, it is reminiscent of '80s hip-hop, or early '90s rap, music videos.
 * One of the shots of the rap is a reference to the anti-piracy PSA "Don't Copy That Floppy".
 * Also during the sequence, the headphones that DJ Pon-3 is using are very similar that her human counterpart uses in Equestria Girls.
 * The founder of The Wonderbolts is named General Firefly alluding to the show's creator Lauren Faust's DeviantArt screen name and Twitter username; "Fyre Flye".
 * Rainbow Dash's consideration of learning to shine shoes, sell hats, and dig ditches is a reference to the 1952 musical film Singin' in the Rain.
 * During the flight over Ponyville, Filthy Rich is seen buying apples from Big McIntosh with a briefcase with unseen glowing contents, referencing the mysterious briefcase from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 black comedy crime film Pulp Fiction.

Trade Ya!

 * The title is a common phrase that nerds, geeks, and/or gamers use when they want to trade or exchange trading cards with other people.
 * Two ponies in the background of Applejack and Rarity's first scene bear a resemblance to Robert and Rosalind Lutece from the video game BioShock Infinite.
 * The pony who runs the antique chicken booth has a voice similar to that of American comedian and actor Paul Lynde.
 * The scene in which Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy attempt to cross a thoroughfare crowded with lines of ponies is a reference to the 1981 arcade game Frogger.

Inspiration Manifestation

 * The scene in which Spike finds the magical spell book is reminiscent of the scene in Disney's 1992 animated film Aladdin in which the title character finds the magic lamp.
 * Rarity saying "I'm so excited!" and Spike replying with "I'm so scared!" is a reference to the character Jesse Spano from the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell.
 * Claude the puppeteer pony's voice is modeled after the American comedian W.C. Fields.
 * When Spike decides to follow the golden road that Rarity created to find her, it resembles the famous "Yellow Brick Road" from The Wizard of Oz.

Equestria Games

 * The episode title and titular event allude to the Olympic Games.
 * When Spike sees the crystal statue in his likeness, he does an imitation of Barbra Streisand in the film/musical Funny Girl saying, "Hello, gawgeous."
 * Twilight says, "Equestria, we have a problem", a reference to the often misquoted dispatch from NASA's Apollo 13 space mission, "Houston, we've had a problem."

Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1

 * Tirek is named after and based off of the Generation 1 villain of the same name.
 * Scorpan betraying Tirek mirrors the events in the Generation 1 TV pilot, Rescue at Midnight Castle.
 * Discord makes his entrance dressed as Julie Andrews' famous portrayal of Mary Poppins.
 * Discord's army uniform, accompanied by the flag of Equestria behind him, is reminiscent of George C. Scott's portrayal of George S. Patton in the 1970 biographical war film Patton.
 * Furthermore, Discord's use of a corncob pipe and a pair of sunglasses in his military display alludes to the trademark appearance of General Douglas MacArthur.
 * Discord takes off on Blythe Baxter's electric scooter from Littlest Pet Shop.
 * When Pinkie Pie confronts Discord about how he knows what Twilight is feeling, he says a line from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "woe is me."
 * Rare Find walking down a deserted alleyway carrying oranges, only for him to become Tirek's first victim, is a "sly" reference to the 1972 Francis Ford Coppola film The Godfather.
 * Discord splitting his head in two to avoid getting hit by one of Tirek's fireballs is an obvious reference to Terminator 2: Judgment Day's main antagonist, the T-1000, who, being a robot made of liquid metal, reconstructs his head after it gets blown in two by a close-range shotgun blast.

Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2

 * Discord says he got Twilight's friends "...and her little dragon, too!". This is yet another reference to the "...and your little dog, too!" line from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
 * Tirek's defeat mirrors that of his Generation 1 version in the TV pilot, Rescue at Midnight Castle.