List of allusions

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 series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Entries on this page must follow the similarity guidelines.

Development
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic incorporates elements of classic fantasy, fairy tales, and mythology. Among the works mentioned by Lauren Faust as inspiration are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Faust saw the inclusion of European and Greek mythologies as obvious, since the characters, unicorns and pegasi, themselves draw from mythology.

Character names and design

 * All the designs of the leading characters, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike are inspired by G1 characters: Twilight, Applejack, Firefly, Sparkler, Posey, Surprise, and Spike, respectively.
 * Applejack's name is the name of an alcoholic beverage, and the derisive nickname "Apple Teeny" that Spike gives her in Bridle Gossip is pronounced the same as "appletini", the name of another alcoholic beverage.
 * Big McIntosh, Granny Smith, Braeburn, and several of the Apple family members' names are of apple cultivars. Other members' names are of culinary dishes made with apples.
 * Big McIntosh's design is inspired by the G1 Big Brother Ponies.
 * The royal guards wear crested helmets reminiscent of Roman galea.
 * Snips and Snails, two colts, are a reference to the nursery rhyme "What Are Little Boys Made Of?".
 * Twilight Sparkle's mom is inspired and designed after the G1 Twilight.

Other names, titles, and design

 * Canterlot is a portmanteau of "canter", a three-beat horse gait, and Camelot from Arthurian legends.
 * Canterlot's design is inspired by the city Minas Tirith from the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien.
 * Cloudsdale's suffix, "dale", is an old word for a valley or open river valley, but the name is also a play on the Clydesdale breed of horse.
 * Manehattan is a play on Manhattan, a borough of New York City. New York City is also known as the Big Apple.
 * Fillydelphia is a play on the US city of Philadelphia.
 * In Stare Master and Luna Eclipsed, a city called "Trottingham", a pun on the city of Nottingham, England, is mentioned.
 * Twilight mentions a place called Saddle Arabia in Magic Duel. Saddle Arabia is a play on the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 * Las Pegasus is a play on the city of Las Vegas, though the writer of the episode felt that the latter was not a very successful pun, and it was eventually re-interpreted in the map of Equestria poster as Los Pegasus.
 * Baltimare is a play on the city of Baltimore.

Mythology
Lauren Faust and Rob Renzetti encouraged the writers to infuse mythology into the series.
 * The show features dragons, griffons, unicorns, and Pegasi in multiple episodes, and several other mythological creatures detailed in individual episode sections below, like manticore, hydra, cockatrice, a minotaur, and others.

Audio

 * The Wilhelm scream is used in Magic Duel when Trixie is about to drop a cart on Shoeshine, in Apple Family Reunion when Apple Bloom falls over while running around the tree, in Keep Calm and Flutter On when Angel falls down in Fluttershy's house when Discord keeps spinning her house, and in Games Ponies Play when two male athlete Crystal Ponies are knocked away by Ms. Peachbottom. Dick & Roger's Sound Studio designers worked the scream in a few episodes.
 * Granny Smith's voice clips from Friendship is Magic, part 1 are re-used to make every speaking appearance she has throughout season 1, excluding Griffon the Brush Off. In Family Appreciation Day, the voice clip "Move your caboose!" is re-used later in the episode after the third sign, along with the "That's what I said!" voice clip from Sisterhooves Social being re-used, and the "Soup's on" voice clip being re-used yet again. In Ponyville Confidential, the "Move your caboose!" voice clip from Family Appreciation Day is re-used again.
 * Fluttershy's nervous squeal from Friendship is Magic, part 1 is reused twice throughout the series: in A Bird in the Hoof where she is crying over the supposed death of Philomena and again in Hurricane Fluttershy where she is crying under a tree.
 * The voice clip of Pinkie Pie's gasp upon meeting Twilight for the first time in Friendship is Magic, part 1, is re-used five times throughout the series: later in the same episode when Rarity confirms that Princess Celestia is missing; in Bridle Gossip, when everyone thinks that they crushed Applejack in the tub; reversed to form Fluttershy's inhalation in Sonic Rainboom; as Mrs. Cake's voice in A Bird in the Hoof, when Pinkie eats Princess Celestia's cupcake; in MMMystery on the Friendship Express, when Pinkie sees that the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness has been eaten; and in Too Many Pinkie Pies when the Pinkies find out that Twilight's test is watching paint dry.
 * Twilight's cry of "Pinkieee!!!" is used twice in the series, the first being in The Ticket Master and the second in Hearth's Warming Eve.
 * The voice clip of Pinkie talking to Twilight at the beginning of Griffon the Brush Off is re-used in Sweet and Elite when Rarity regains consciousness.
 * The musical backing to Pinkie's Hop Skip and Jump song in Dragonshy is re-used in The Crystal Empire - Part 2 when Pinkie is juggling flugelhorns.
 * Rarity's scream after Pinkie leaves her to fend for herself in Swarm of the Century is re-used three times throughout the series: in Lesson Zero, when Twilight runs to the Boutique; as the mother's scream in The Mysterious Mare Do Well; and in Secret of My Excess, when Spike's claw reaches through the window to grab Rarity.
 * Pinkie Pie's one-pony band fanfare to rid Ponyville of the parasprites in Swarm of the Century is re-used as the party music in Pinkie's flashback scene in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. Its ending from The Cutie Mark Chronicles is re-used in Sweet and Elite after the first time Pinkie fires her party cannon. The music is used again in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 when Pinkie leads Chrysalis disguised as Cadance to her reception plans, and in One Bad Apple for the parade fanfare.
 * Rarity's crying near the end of Winter Wrap Up is re-used in Suited for Success.
 * The music that plays during Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera party in Call of the Cutie is the same music that plays during the montage of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' attempts to earn their cutie marks in The Show Stoppers and during Pinkie Pie's birthday party toward the end of Party of One.
 * The line 'Holy guacamole!' is spoken by Spike twice in Feeling Pinkie Keen.
 * Rarity's shocked reaction towards Twilight's mane from Friendship is Magic, part 1 is recycled as her excited laugh in Sonic Rainboom.
 * Applejack's line "Get back here, you thievin' varmints!" from The Cutie Mark Chronicles is repeated later in the episode when she is done with her story and the rabbits run away.
 * Golden Harvest's scream from Luna Eclipsed is used again from off screen in The Mysterious Mare Do Well.
 * The Sorcerer's Apprentice inspired background music from Secret of my Excess is used again in Hearts and Hooves Day when the Cutie Mark Crusaders are gathering the ingredients for the love potion.
 * In Dragon Quest, Crackle's noise is a pitch shift of Spike screaming in A Dog and Pony Show.
 * The mule who appears in Applebuck Season and Hurricane Fluttershy uses the same "None taken" voice clip in both episodes.
 * In Friendship is Magic, part 2, after Rarity sacrifices her tail for the serpent's mustache, Twilight begins to sympathize for her, beginning with, "Oh, Rarity!" This audio is re-used in A Dog and Pony Show after the team attempts to find an open hole in the ground to save Rarity.
 * Scootaloo's wolf costume from Luna Eclipsed is shown in One Bad Apple and worn by Babs Seed to scare the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
 * Rainbow Dash's use of "Oh my gosh" was first used in Sonic Rainboom and was used again in Wonderbolt Academy.
 * Rainbow Dash's laugh sequence that was used in The Mysterious Mare Do Well was re-used and reversed in The Crystal Empire - Part 1.
 * Fluttershy's laugh that was used twice in Stare Master is reused in Over a Barrel.
 * Applejack's little giggle that was first used in Griffon The Brush-off was used again in Look Before You Sleep and The Crystal Empire Part 1. In Look Before You Sleep, it was tied in with the laugh the was created specifically for that episode.
 * Rainbow Dash's first laugh, which was heard in Season 1 Episode 1, is used two more times, in Season 2 Episode 8 and Season 3 Episode 1.
 * Twilight Sparkle's scream from Winter Wrap Up in the ice skating scene, is reused in Secret of My Excess.
 * The CMC's laughter from Stare Master when they were zooming past Twilight, was reused in Call of the Cutie.
 * Rainbow Dash's laugh in "Fall Weather Friends", where she flipped the sign causing Applejack to go the wrong way, was reused again in "A Bird in the Hoof".
 * Spike's laugh, first heard in season 1 episode 1, was reused in "It's About Time" and "Just for Sidekicks".

Animation

 * Rainbow Dash's jumping on a cloud animation in Friendship is Magic, Part 1 is used as the basis for the same animation used in Apple Family Reunion.
 * Pinkie Pie's crying animation in Friendship is Magic, Part 2 is used as the basis for the same animation used in Baby Cakes.
 * Pinkie Pie's jumping animation from The Ticket Master is reused in Hearth's Warming Eve.
 * Pinkie Pie's dancing animation from A Friend in Deed is reused in Too Many Pinkie Pies.
 * Pinkie Pie's skipping rope animation from A Friend in Deed is reused in Too Many Pinkie Pies
 * The animations in the background as well as the animations of Cutie Mark Crusaders running from Babs Seed and singing part of their song are repeated throughout the song played in One Bad Apple.

Friendship is Magic, part 1

 * The image of Luna and Celestia working together to keep the day and night cycle in balance is similar to the symbol of Taoism which is made of Yin and Yang.
 * The episode's title that appears in Hasbro's viewing guide, and Night Mare Moon's "book" name, Mare in the Moon, is a play on the mythical Man in the Moon. The man's image is actually composed of Lunar maria, the darker sections of the moon's surface.
 * Moondancer, mentioned but unseen in the episode, is the name of a G1 and G3 pony.
 * Twilight Sparkle resides in a literal ivory tower.
 * One of the costumes Twilight tries on in Rarity's boutique looks like the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
 * When Spike enters Twilight's room from the party, he is wearing a lampshade on his head which is considered a symbol of drunkenness commonly used in media.
 * One of the names Pinkie guesses to Nightmare Moon is "Hokey Smokes", a phrase used by Rocky the Flying Squirrel from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
 * Another one of the names Pinkie guesses is "Black Snooty", a reference to the famous titular character of Anna Sewell's 1877 novel, "Black Beauty".

Friendship is Magic, part 2

 * In the opening moments, with Night Mare Moon apparently victorious, the Mayor shouts, "Seize her!" and Nightmare Moon replies, "Stand back, you fools!" This is a quote from a famous moment in the 1959 Disney film Sleeping Beauty, when the evil fairy Maleficent disappears after cursing the newborn princess.
 * Applejack's "Git along, little dogie" refers to the traditional cowboy ballad Git Along, Little Dogies, also known as Dogie's Lament. A 'dogie' is a motherless calf.
 * Fluttershy pulls a thorn from the manticore's paw, much like the classic tale of Androcles and the Lion.
 * The sea serpent's cry of "What a world! What a world!" is a reference to The Wizard of Oz.
 * The magic of the Elements of Harmony manifests as rainbow that envelops Night Mare Moon. The scene is reminiscent of the Rainbow of Light from the 1984 My Little Pony pilot episode Rescue at Midnight Castle, where Megan defeats Tirek in a similar fashion.

The Ticket Master

 * The episode's title is a play on the American ticket company Ticketmaster.
 * Fluttershy's line "Loons and Toucans and Bitterns, oh my!" echoes the quote "Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!" from The Wizard of Oz.
 * When Rarity is done with Spike's makeover, the harpsichord tune playing in the background is the beginning of J. S. Bach's Two-Part Invention in F major, BWV 779, except transposed to E major, and with an altered middle/end.
 * Fluttershy is singing the My Little Pony theme when Twilight Sparkle finds her cleaning the library.
 * The scene where Twilight and Spike are chased by a mob of ponies features bluegrass style sound-alike music of Yakety Sax from The Benny Hill Show.
 * The Wonderbolts are possibly inspired by the Blue Angels.
 * The plot of the entire episode is reminiscent of a My Little Pony Tales episode called "And the Winner Is..." In that episode, Clover wins two tickets to a concert, and has great difficulty in picking a friend to go with her. She and her six friends have a randomized drawing and the two tickets end up going to Clover and Melody. While the two are at the concert, Starlight, Sweeetheart, Bon Bon, Bright Eyes, and Patch are at home watching the concert on TV. However, just before the concert starts, Clover and Melody show up at the door with pizza, acknowledging that the concert would have been no fun without everyone present.

Applebuck Season

 * The stampede scene features bunnies running around a pony lying on the ground in a down shot, much like the scene in The Lion King when Mufasa is killed by the stampede.
 * The stampede of the bunnies might also be a lighthearted reference to the 1972 cult/camp horror film Night of the Lepus in which "killer rabbits" (in reality, just domestic animals) are frequently shown running over people with accompanying stampeding sound effects.
 * During the bunny stampede, one of the background ponies, Rose, delivers the line "The horror, the horror...", which is from Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel Heart of Darkness, also used as one of the final lines in the Francis Ford Coppola film Apocalypse Now that was based on this novel. This line is repeated in Bridle Gossip.

Griffon the Brush Off

 * When Pinkie Pie is chasing Rainbow Dash, she uses the same bounding gait as Pepe le Pew uses when chasing his unwilling paramour in the Looney Tunes cartoons. The music heard is also in the same style as the aforementioned chase scenes.
 * Spike hums the My Little Pony theme song when gathering scrolls at the town hall.
 * When Gilda crashes into Fluttershy, she quotes the famous line "I'm walkin' here!" from Midnight Cowboy.

Boast Busters

 * The title of the episode is a play on the title of the Ghostbusters franchise.
 * Spike's line "Hello Rarity!" alludes to the Animaniacs catchphrase "Hello nurse!".
 * The Great and Powerful Trixie shares her title with "The Great and Powerful Oz" from The Wizard of Oz.
 * Trixie's challenge to the audience echoes the phrase "anything you can do I can do better", which originated with the song of the same name from the 1946 Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun.
 * The ursa bears are named after the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
 * Snips and Snails's exchange in which Snips asks "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" and Snails replies "Why is it dey call it a flea market when dey don't really sell fleas?" is an homage to Pinky and the Brain. A running gag in Pinky and the Brain was that Brain, the smarter and shorter one, would ask Pinky, the taller and stupider one, "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?", and Pinky would reply with a bizarre non sequitur.

Dragonshy

 * As the main six are getting ready, a version of the theme from The A-Team plays.
 * When Fluttershy hears the dragon's snores, she stiffly falls to the side accompanied by a goat bleat, alluding to the behavior of some breeds of goat to stiffen and fall over after being startled, called Fainting Goat Syndrome.
 * Pinkie Pie's costume is similar to Daffy Duck's body in a scene from the Looney Tunes cartoon Duck Amuck.

Look Before You Sleep

 * The title of Twilight Sparkle's book Slumber 101: All You've Ever Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid to Ask is a namesake of popular book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) and the comedy movie that was inspired by it.
 * The phrase that Twilight opens her ghost story with, It was a dark and stormy night, is the opening phrase in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel Paul Clifford. The line has become a signifier of purple prose.
 * Twilight mentions the ghost story of the Headless Horse, a play on the Headless Horseman of European and American folklore.
 * The episode title itself is a pun off of the phrase "Look before you leap", meaning to check your sources before jumping to a conclusion.

Bridle Gossip

 * The title of the episode might a pun on the term "idle gossip" or "gossip's bridle", also called a "scold's bridle", which is a medieval punishment and mild torture device used on women who were verbally abusive or unpleasant.
 * After having been affected by the poison joke, Rarity's coat and mane resemble the fur of a Komondor or a Puli, two Hungarian breeds of dog with matted locks of fur.
 * The nickname Spike gives to Applejack, "Apple Teeny", is pronounced the same as the name of an alcoholic drink appletini, paralleling her original name which is also the same as an alcoholic drink.
 * Poison joke is explicitly compared to poison oak, a real-life poisonous plant.
 * When Zecora comes back to Ponyville, one of the ponies delivers the line "The horror, the horror..." for the second time in the series. The line originates from Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, which was later used in the Francis Ford Coppola film, Apocalypse Now.

Swarm of the Century

 * The title of the episode is a pun on the term "Storm of the century", which refers to a particularly damaging weather event.
 * The premise of this episode is similar to that of the Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles.
 * The "Princess Celest" banner is a reference to The Commitments.
 * Writer M. A. Larson had Gremlins in mind when writing the episode.
 * The scene in which Applejack uses her herding skills to collect together the parasprites features sound-alike music of the theme song from the television series Bonanza.
 * The infestation and Pinkie Pie's use of music to lure the parasprites out of Ponyville were adapted from the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
 * Twilight's plan to build a fake town is a reference to the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles.

Call of the Cutie

 * The episode title is either a play on the phrase "call of duty", or on the title of the classic novel The Call of the Wild, which tells the story of a dog trying to find its true identity, or on the title of H.P. Lovecraft's famous short story, The Call of Cthulhu.
 * Diamond Tiara's "cute-ceañera", "a party celebrating me and my fantastic cutie mark", borrows its name and purpose from the Latin American celebration quinceañera, a coming-of-age party for girls reaching the age of fifteen.

Fall Weather Friends

 * The title is a play on the term "fair weather friends", which refers to people who are only friends when it is convenient&mdash;fair weather&mdash;and will abandon their friends in hard times.
 * The Iron Pony competition's name and purpose are similar to those of the sports competition Ironman Triathlon.
 * When Applejack bucks the tree Rainbow Dash is sitting under, the apples fall onto Dash's head to the tune of Shave and a Haircut.
 * Rainbow Dash says Applejack's accusations of cheating sound like "sour apples", a parallel to the idiom sour grapes from Aesop's fable The Fox and the Grapes.
 * Rainbow Dash say to Twillight: "What'd you read? The "Egghead's Guide to Running"?" An allusion of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 * The Running of the Leaves tradition has its roots in the famous Running of the Bulls tradition in Spain.
 * The bell and phrase "and they're off" that starts the Running of the Leaves is also used in track horse racing.

Suited For Success

 * Rarity's Dressmaking Song is a direct homage to Stephen Sondheim's song Putting It Together from the musical Sunday in the Park with George.
 * Pinkie Pie's line "I love something. Something's my favorite" echoes the line "I love smiling. Smiling's my favorite" from the film Elf.
 * When Rarity considers exile she says, "Where would I go? And what would I pack?" in a fashion that echoes a line by Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 classic film Gone With The Wind: "Where shall I go? What shall I do?"
 * The sequence where Rarity has locked herself in her room and says "I vant to be alone" with an Eastern European accent echoes the famous phrase associated with actress Greta Garbo from the 1932 film Grand Hotel.
 * Hoity Toity bears a strong resemblance to Karl Lagerfeld, head designer and creative director for the Chanel fashion house.
 * The headdress for Rainbow Dash's "perfect dress" strongly resembles the shape of the helmet of the comic book character The Rocketeer.
 * The musical opening of Rarity's second fashion show has a short sound-alike segment for Also sprach Zarathustra, a tone poem by Richard Strauss, popularized in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * The music that accompanies Fluttershy is a sound-alike of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.
 * The music that accompanies Pinkie Pie is a sound-alike of The Strangeloves' I Want Candy.

Feeling Pinkie Keen

 * The title is a play on the phrase feeling peachy keen, which means to feel great or exuberant.
 * The episode was developed from the old wives' tale of achy joints predicting the weather and the Raining Animals Phenomena, which was expanded into Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense.
 * Twilight Sparkle mounts a literal soapbox to give Pinkie Pie a speech about the difference between her Pinkie Sense and magic.
 * Fluttershy's fear prevents her from flying, as it does in Dragonshy. However, when she has to jump to safety, she uses what she learned from Dragonshy and works up her nerve by repeating a line from Pinkie Pie's song.
 * The episode features a Hydra, a mythological creature of Greek legend.

Sonic Rainboom

 * Rarity's hubris, leading to the loss of her wings to the sun, echoes the story of Icarus from Greek mythology. In the story, Icarus attempts to escape Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Overcome by his pride, he ignores instructions not to fly too close to the sun, which melts the wax and causes him to fall to his death.
 * The music that plays during Rarity's performance is a rearrangement of the waltz from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
 * The episode title is a pun on Sonic Boom, which is associated with shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound.
 * Cloudiseum's name, the area where the Best Young Flyer Competition was held, is a reference to the Roman Colosseum.
 * Spitfire's namesake comes from the Supermarine Spitfire, an iconic British fighter plane used by the Allies during World War II.

Stare Master

 * The title is a play on the exercise device Stairmaster.
 * The episode features a cockatrice, which is a creature of legend mentioned from antiquity to the Middle Ages.
 * When Rarity holds the cut gold silk, a violin shrieks in the same fashion as the shower scene in Psycho.

The Show Stoppers

 * Daniel Ingram, the show's music composer, describes the Cutie Mark Crusaders Song on his website as "cheesy '80s with 3 out of tune soloists". The song itself has very similar melodies to the 80's hit (I Just) Died in Your Arms and Holding Out For A Hero.
 * In addition, the costume designs also strongly reflect 80's fashion- most notably, Apple Bloom dons a bandanna on her head a la Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses, and both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are decked out in typical glam rock facepaint and body suits with big hair, first pioneered by David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust phase in the 70's and widely imitated by the 80's "Hair rock" artists.
 * Scootaloo hitting her head against the piano while shouting "NEVER NEVER NEVER!" parallels the same behavior by Don Music in Sesame Street.
 * The lighting during the first part of the Crusaders' song, showing only their faces surrounded by shadow, is similar to the music video from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

A Dog and Pony Show

 * The phrase "a dog and pony show" originated in 19th century America as a term for small traveling circuses that toured through rural areas. The modern usage refers to an over-staged performance. Typically, the term is used to connote disdain, jocular lack of appreciation, or distrust of the message being presented or the efforts undertaken to present it.
 * The episode's plot is reminiscent of the O. Henry story The Ransom of Red Chief, in which a young boy's antics drive his kidnappers so crazy that they end up paying his family to take him back.
 * Sapphire Shores' upcoming tour, Zigfilly Follies, is a reference to the Ziegfeld Follies series of theatrical productions.
 * The bejeweled costume bears a very striking resemblance to the jumpsuits worn by Rock & Roll Legend Elvis Presley during his 1970s heyday, with a large heavy collar, flared wavy cuffs, and a golden belt.
 * The Diamond Dogs take their name from David Bowie's famous concept album and its titular song, Diamond Dogs. Fluttershy also mentions scary monsters, another Bowie reference.
 * In Spike's fantasy, the Diamond Dogs attack with the characteristic slow-motion leap and 'bionic' sound effect from The Six Million Dollar Man.
 * Applejack's phrase "Kick 'em up, kick 'em out. Buck 'em up, buck 'em down" is a reference to Rawhide, a song performed by Frankie Laine.
 * Spike's chant, "Hi-ho Twilight! Away!" is a parody of the line "Hi-ho Silver! Away!" from The Lone Ranger.

Green Isn't Your Color

 * The color green, mentioned in the episode's title, is sometimes associated with envy.
 * Photo Finish wears the same distinct hairstyle and sunglasses as Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine.
 * Photo Finish' name comes from a "photo finish", when two racehorses cross the finish line together and a photograph is used to determine the winner.
 * Photo Finish' deep voice and German accent were developed by voice actress Tabitha St. Germain, based on her experiences with an old Austrian lady whom she met on occasion.

Over a Barrel

 * The main locale of the episode, Appleloosa, takes its name from the Appaloosa breed of horse.
 * Fluttershy calling Spike "Huffy the Magic Dragon" is a reference to the 1963 folk song Puff, the Magic Dragon sung by Peter, Paul and Mary.
 * The battle scene at Appleloosa when a buffalo strikes a haystack with an anvil behind it is the same gag from the 1953 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bully for Bugs, in which a bull hits an anvil behind Bugs' toreador cape. A bit earlier, one of the buffalo is sharpening its horns on a grindstone wheel, which is done by the bull in the aforementioned cartoon.
 * At the start of Pinkie Pie's song, she rises out of a giant clam shell, reminiscent of The Birth of Venus - an iconic Renaissance painting and a recurring motif in artistic media.
 * The buffalo wear traditional Native American headdresses.

A Bird in the Hoof

 * The episode's title is a play on the phrase "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
 * The scene with Angel holding a pocket watch references Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which one of the characters is a white rabbit that carries a pocket watch and is always running somewhere due to being late. In addition, Fluttershy's remark "I'm late, for a very important date" is a quote from Disney's 1951 film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
 * Fluttershy stresses over how she looks and what to wear, and looks through a rack of dresses which carries the Grand Galloping Gala dresses from Suited for Success.
 * The scene where the ponies pursue Philomena is accompanied by sound-alike music to Yakety Sax, made famous in The Benny Hill Show chase scenes.
 * The scene where Fluttershy attempts to feed birdseed to Philomena was storyboarded to look like a talk show, and Philomena's bird-seed-eating gag was styled after similar gags from the Roadrunner Looney Tunes cartoons.
 * Also, Fluttershy, thinking Philomena has been fooled, looks into the camera with a smirk and declares "always works!"- this is a reference to Billy Dee Williams' famous tagline in the old Colt .45 Malt Liquor commercials in the 1980s.
 * Hummingway, Fluttershy's hummingbird, is a play on the name Hemingway.
 * Fluttershy hums the My Little Pony theme song in this episode again.

The Cutie Mark Chronicles

 * "Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns" is similarly named to Marvel Comics X-Men's "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters".
 * The Orange family's name is a reference to the phrase "apples and oranges", a comparison of two very different things, much like how Applejack does not appreciate the Orange family's very different lifestyle.
 * The school play for which Rarity designs costumes is a reference to elementary school productions which educate both students and audience about the food groups, proper nutrition, and eating healthily. The five food groups represented in Rarity's school play appear to be fruits, vegetables, cake, hay, and flowers.

Owl's Well That Ends Well

 * The title is a play on the phrase "All's well that ends well."
 * When Spike falls asleep in the punch bowl, Pinkie Pie says "And now the punch has been... Spiked!", a play on "spiking the punch", which means adding alcohol to the punch.
 * The constant double meaning of Owlowiscious's hooting "hoo/who", especially in his comedic interactions with Spike, is an allusion to the classic comedy routine "Who's on First?" by Abbot & Costello.

Party of One

 * The title comes from "party of one", which is used when booking a reservation for a single person at a restaurant or hosting establishment.
 * The scene where Rainbow Dash is trying to get away from Pinkie Pie but Pinkie appears everywhere Rainbow goes is similar to some Droopy cartoons, where Droopy pursues a wolf in this manner. The bouncing exhibited during this is similar to the way Pepe le Pew of Looney Tunes fame would chase after Penelope Pussycat.
 * Pinkie Pie's chant to Gummy: "Go Gummy! It's your birthday! Go Gummy! It's your birthday!" is a paraphrase of hip-hop artist 50 Cent's In Da Club.
 * At the party near the end of the episode, when Spike tries to dance with Rarity, he does a dance move made famous by the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.
 * The Once Upon A My Little Pony Time short "So Many Different Ways to Play" (one of two shorts released at the end of Generation 3.5) showed the G3/G3.5 Pinkie Pie as an infant having a tea party with inanimate objects with which she would engage in conversation, in that case a teddy bear and a rubber duck.

The Best Night Ever

 * The episode has several fairy tale references:
 * The magical apple carriage, the mice being turned into horses, and Rarity accidentally leaving her glass slipper are elements from Cinderella.
 * Mr. Greenhooves maintaining the garden says he likes to "whistle while [he] works", a reference to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The whistle is the same tune Snow White sings into the well.
 * Fluttershy's plan to catch the animals, complete with maniacal laughter and the phrase "I'll catch you yet, my pretties", somewhat echoes the Wicked Witch of the West from the 1939 film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.
 * Princess Celestia creates an arc of twinkling stars over her castle in the same manner of the Walt Disney Pictures title sequence.
 * The song sung before the gala is a sound-alike of Ever After from Stephen Sondheim's fairy-tale-themed musical Into the Woods.
 * During the carriage ride towards Canterlot, ​Spike mentioned the princess' golden apple tree. Golden apples are a reoccurring element in both Greek and Norse mythology.
 * Pinkie Pie's Pony Pokey is a version of the hokey pokey dance.
 * Pinkie Pie's song I'm at the Grand Galloping Gala is sung to the tune of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.

The Return of Harmony Part 1

 * Discord is inspired by John de Lancie's popular character Q from the second Star Trek television series. After the part was written, de Lancie was contacted to provide the voicework for Discord. Q and Discord share a fondness for cruel games, amusing themselves at the expense of others, occasional use of rhymes, finger snapping to use their powers, and a white flash accompanied by a similar chime-like sound effect signifying the use of their powers.
 * Pinkie Pie refers to the "chocolate rain" caused by Discord, a choice of words that evokes the title of a popular YouTube video "Chocolate Rain" by Tay Zonday.
 * The rabbits that are transformed by Discord grow long bony needle-like legs, similar to creatures found in paintings by the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí (for example, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, The Elephants, and Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening).

The Return of Harmony Part 2

 * The scene of pigs flying over Sweet Apple Acres alludes to the idiom "when pigs fly."
 * According to director Jayson Thiessen, one of the storyboard artists decided to board the award ceremony sequence at the end of the episode as a shot-for-shot equivalent of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, though parts of the sequence were ultimately cut to shorten the episode, such as a cut shot of Pinkie Pie beeping like R2-D2.
 * In one of scenes where is Discord sitting on his throne, background resembles Alice in Wonderland.

Lesson Zero

 * When Twilight is talking to herself, it resembles the scene from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where the character Gollum is talking to himself.

Luna Eclipsed

 * The episode title is a pun on lunar eclipse.
 * The holiday featured in this episode, Nightmare Night, borrows aspects from the holiday Halloween as celebrated in the United States. Both holidays involve children going door-to-door in costumes to collect candy, costume parties, and spooky decorations.
 * At the very beginning of the episode, when Spike and Twilight first appear in their Nightmare Night costumes, the music played is a variation of the famous "In the Hall of the Mountain King" aria from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt suite.

Sisterhooves Social

 * Rarity parodies the famous line from the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" Fluttershy does the same later on Putting Your Hoof Down.

The Cutie Pox

 * At the bowling alley, four of the male ponies present are modeled after characters from the film The Big Lebowski, which features a bowling alley in its opening sequence.
 * Apple Bloom exclaims, "Oh my star apples!", referencing a real life plant.
 * A pony version of the painting American Gothic hangs on the wall in the living room of the Apple family's house.
 * One of the cutie marks Apple Bloom receives is a red shoe which causes her to dance uncontrollably, like the main character in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Red Shoes.
 * The Paleopony Period is a reference to The Paleolithic Age of human prehistory, a large part of the stone age.
 * Applejack asks Zecora, "Was your zebra sense a-tinglin'?", which is a reference to Spider-Man' ESP super-power the spider-sense, which is often declared with the line "my spider-sense is tingling."
 * The statue Apple Bloom carves is Venus Anadyomene, a common figure in art in antiquity and the Renaissance.

May the Best Pet Win!

 * The episode is an allusion to the famous Aesop fable "The Tortoise and the Hare".
 * The bat contestant plays the My Little Pony theme song on a glass harp.
 * The streaks left behind by Dash's sprinting bears resemblance to those of the lightcycles from Tron.
 * The music that plays while Rainbow Dash flies through the canyon, up until the rockslide, is "Ride of the Valkyries" by German composer Richard Wagner.
 * The song Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sing was inspired by the song "Fabulous Places" from Doctor Dolittle.

The Mysterious Mare Do Well

 * The episode's lead storyboard artist, Sabrina Alberghetti, commented on how the crew incorporated "one [superhero] cliché after another" in a "fun tongue-in-cheek kind of way." Among them:
 * Rainbow Dash's catchphrase, "never fear, your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is here!" is a play on both "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" and "There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!"
 * The Mysterious Mare Do Well shares the same purple-and-black color scheme and wide-brim hat and black ribbon as Darkwing Duck. Alberghetti had worked on Darkwing Duck comics before; however, she did not design the character.
 * Pinkie Pies' use throughout the episode of the pinkie sense, which enables her to detect potential danger, parodies Spider-Man' own ESP super-power, the spider-sense.
 * The fanfare, accompanying music, and rally posters of the Mare Do Well strongly resemble the same from Batman: The Animated Series.
 * The musical score as the cart rolls uncontrollably downhill mimics the score of the film Speed.
 * Part of the scene where Rainbow Dash is chasing after Mare Do Well has Mare Do Well running by in the foreground, Rainbow rushing where she saw her, Mare Do Well running by in the background, Rainbow running over there, Mare Do Well running by in the foreground, and so on. This is similar to a scene from the Looney Tunes cartoon What's Opera, Doc?, when Elmer Fudd chases a disguised Bugs Bunny.
 * The name "Mare Do Well" is an ironic reference to the term "ne'er-do-well", a person who does no good.

Sweet and Elite

 * Among other places Rarity visits in the montage is an art exhibit, where the central painting on the wall combines elements of Salvador Dalí's paintings, particularly The Persistence of Memory. The painting to the left resembles Pablo Picasso's signature style of Cubism. The painting to the right is an abstract style akin to the works of Kandinsky. The show's director, Jayson Thiessen, had hinted about avant-garde art in an interview in September 2011, long before the episode's initial broadcast.
 * When Rarity examines the art exhibit she is dressed in stereotypical Existentialist/Beatnik fashion, itself denoting the stereotypical hipster artist: a scarlet beret with a black turtleneck and black slippers, and her mane let down with bangs hanging straight across her forehead.
 * One of the bags holding Rarity's purchases in the scene where she runs into Fancy Pants has two horseshoes arranged to imitate the Chanel fashion house branding.
 * The music played when Rarity washes Opal in order to make her look sick for Fluttershy and the others is a tribute to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero".
 * The scene at the Wonderbolts Derby is an homage to the Ascot Opening Race sequence from My Fair Lady.

Secret of My Excess

 * The title is a play on the movie The Secret of My Success.
 * One of the working titles of the episode, "Attack of the 50 Foot Dragon", is a play on the movie title Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and it hints to the episode's "giant monster rampaging through a city" theme that was popularized by the 1954 film Godzilla.
 * The scene in which Spike wears the white hat and carries the ball is an allusion to The Godfather II, when Fanucci walks along the street also wearing a white hat and with an orange in his hand.
 * The kidnapping of Rarity and subsequent aerial assault on Spike parallels scenes from the classic 1933 film King Kong.
 * The line "Twilight, get my rope" was inspired by a 1980s Pace sauce commercial.
 * Spike's greed-induced transformation alludes to the origin of the dragons in Norse mythology, with Spike being a pastiche to Fafnir, a dwarf prince who transformed into a dragon after being consumed with greed.
 * The song played at the beginning of the episode, while Twilight is organizing the books, is inspired by the Paul Dukas's symphonic poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The scene is a parody of the Walt Disney movie Fantasia, specifically on the scene where Mickey Mouse is using his powers to move everything around him.

Hearth's Warming Eve

 * Some elements about the Heart's Warming Eve celebration mirror Christmas: holding a pageant that depicts the origins of the holiday; red and white candy canes; and decorating trees.
 * The ponies in the past sequences sport a mixture of medieval and renaissance clothing, with ethnic German garb and Roman legionnaire armor (similar to that of the present day Equestrian Royal Guards) for the Earth Ponies and Pegasi, respectively; Spike also dons Renaissance garb as he narrates on stage.
 * A creature similar to Discord is depicted fighting a Pegasus on a relief in the theater.
 * Some of the music that plays towards the end is based on the English folk song "Greensleeves".
 * Pinkie Pie's quote, "...I am just about to be brilliant," mirrors one of Donald O'Connor's lines in Singin' in the Rain. He sings the song "Make 'Em Laugh" in the film.
 * The creatures in the play share their name and some characteristics with the Wendigo from myths in Algonquin-speaking tribes. They are strongly related to winter and starvation.
 * Applejack's line, "Then, this is our fault; we three tribes," is a reference to the Christmas carol, "We Three Kings".
 * The system established by the three tribes is identical to that of the three social classes of the Feudal system. The Earth Ponies represent the Peasants (farmers, craftsmen, and other occupations). The Pegasi represent the Knights, who protect the peasants and the higher classes. And the Unicorns represent the Church and Nobility, who dictate the actions of the lower classes and collect taxes from the peasants to pay the knights.

Family Appreciation Day

 * The period dress of the citizens of Canterlot in Granny Smith's flashback are representative of human fashions circa the latter half of the 19th century.
 * The Cutie Mark Crusaders manipulating a sleeping Granny Smith with a series of ropes to make it appear as if she was awake and speaking is similar to a scene in the film Weekend at Bernie's.

Baby Cakes

 * Pound and Pumpkin Cake's mannerisms mirror those of Bam Bam and Pebbles, respectively, of the Flintstones series.
 * The brief screeching violins that play when Pinkie Pie finds Pound Cake on the ceiling echo the musical piece The Murder, made famous by the film Psycho, while the scene itself is an homage to the film Trainspotting.
 * The music that plays when Pinkie Pie urges the Cakes to pick her as babysitter is based on Aquarela do Brasil, a Brazilian samba standard from the 1930s.
 * Pinkie's instructions for using the crib mirrors a line from The Simpsons episode The Last Temptation of Homer.

The Last Roundup

 * The music used in the beginning of the episode where Applejack is running an obstacle course is similar to Bonanza's theme.
 * Dodge Junction is a namesake of Dodge City, a famous locale for Western films.
 * Rainbow Dash asks Applejack if she saw "Wild Bull Hickok" and "Calamity Mane", whose names are similar to the Wild West figures Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
 * The scene where Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy work at a conveyor belt and can't handle the pace is a homage to the television series I Love Lucy. The scene replicates one from the I Love Lucy episode "Job Switching", where Lucy and Ethel wear mushroom-like hats and work on a production line wrapping candies. They can't handle the pace, so they stuff the chocolates into their hats and mouths.

The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

 * The musical number The Flim Flam Brothers shares many similarities with the number "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man. Specifically, the identical rhyming styles, staccatos, and theme of smooth talkers trying to win over a small town. Mid-song, the ponies chant "cider, cider, cider" in the same manner that the people of River City chanted "trouble, trouble, trouble" in the Music Man number. The Brothers' style of dress and performance is also a nod to Vaudeville.
 * The competition between the Apple family and the machine alludes to the legend of John Henry.
 * Granny Smith refuses to have a competition with the Flim Flam Brothers until one of them says, "What's the matter, Granny? Chicken?" At this point Granny Smith begins to scream at him and insist upon the competition. Later, Apple Bloom points out that "nopony calls Granny Smith chicken." This sequence may be a reference to the film Back to the Future.

Read It and Weep

 * The scene when Rainbow Dash is bouncing a ball against the wall mirrors the Cooler Scene from the film The Great Escape.
 * The musical cue that plays when Rainbow Dash looks at the book and starts reading is very similar to the one that plays in a similar scene in the film The NeverEnding Story.
 * The quote of Pinkie Pie saying "Did the crash somehow give her super-duper spider powers?" and the doctor saying "No, nor did it give her amazing healing powers" allude to the powers of Marvel comic-book characters Spider-Man and Wolverine respectively.
 * The game that Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle play with Rainbow Dash is very similar to Battleship, which is produced by Milton Bradley and owned by Hasbro.
 * The ahuizotl is a creature of Aztec mythology with a hand on its tail, which is blamed for the drowning of humans in shallow water.
 * Ahuizotl petting his white cat at the end of the Daring Do story is a cinematic element made famous by the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the James Bond series.
 * There are several allusions to the Indiana Jones franchise, primarily to Raiders of the Lost Ark:
 * The pizzicato (plucking the strings) that plays when Daring Do first enters the temple is similar to the music that plays early in the film, when Indiana Jones and his partner have spiders on their backs.
 * The sunlight shining into the chamber parallels the Indiana Jones map room scene where the sunlight shines on a crystal in the center of the room.
 * The way Daring Do makes her way to the Sapphire Stone's pedestal mirrors a scene in The Last Crusade where Indiana Jones navigates a trapped floor by stepping on the tiles marked with the correct answer to a puzzle.
 * The scene where Daring Do retrieves the Sapphire Stone mirrors a scene in which Indiana Jones retrieves a statue of an idol from a pedestal.
 * Even Daring Do herself and the books featuring her reference Indiana Jones.
 * The scene where Daring Do is pursued by numerous big cats, followed by a small house cat that meows cutely at her, parallels a scene in The Emperor's New Groove where Emperor Kuzco is pursued by several panthers followed by a tiny panther cub that meows cutely at him, shortly before being rescued.

Hearts and Hooves Day

 * The holiday featured in the episode shares many similarities with Valentine's Day and was originally aired a few days before the holiday. It features couples spending time together and the exchange of greeting cards.
 * The story behind the Love Poison shares many elements with the Arthurian legend "Tristan and Iseult", where a prince and princess both ingest a love potion to disastrous results.

A Friend in Deed

 * The episode's title is part of the phrase "a friend in need is a friend indeed".
 * "Cranky Doodle Donkey" has the same meter as Yankee Doodle Dandy, a pejorative song sung by the British to mock the American revolutionaries.
 * The song Pinkie sings at the end of the episode is based on the version of the song from the film of the same name.
 * Pinkie's line "Ooh, what does this bauble do?" has the same meter as "Ooh, what does this button do?", the catchphrase of the character Dee Dee from the cartoon Dexter's Laboratory.

Putting Your Hoof Down

 * The title "Putting Your Hoof Down" is a play on the saying "putting your foot down."
 * Fluttershy parodies the famous line from the 1939 film Gone with the Wind "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" much like Rarity in Sisterhooves Social.
 * When Iron Will appears at the beginning of his assertiveness workshop, the background music borrows from the primary motif of "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.
 * Iron Will's presentation takes place in the center of a hedge maze, a reference to the Labyrinth of Greek mythology, which held the Minotaur (a half-man, half-bull creature) at its center.
 * Iron Will uses a variation of the phrase "I pity the fool", the catchphrase of Mr. T, played by Lawrence Tureaud.
 * The storyboard artists had professional wrestler Hulk Hogan in mind when posing Iron Will, who uses hand gestures that mimic Hogan's signature taunts.
 * Iron Will's use of illeism (referring to himself in the third person) is similar to that of professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
 * The episode incorporates a sound-alike of the theme "The Lonely Man" from the CBS television series The Incredible Hulk.
 * Pinkie Pie switches sides to win a rapid-fire argument between herself and other characters, which is the hallmark of the Bugs Bunny cartoon Rabbit Fire.

It's About Time

 * This episode borrows elements from Greek mythology:
 * The Cerberus is the three-headed canine that protects the gateway to the Hades, the realm of the dead.
 * Tartarus, the area that the Cerberus in this episode guards, is one of the darker and deeper depths of the Underworld where the wicked are said to depart to after death.
 * Future Twilight's arrival is preceded by wind blowing paper around, then she appears in a bright flash and electrical discharge while crouched on the ground, in homage to The Terminator. Present Twilight also refers to an "epic pony war in the distant future", a crucial part of the premise of the Terminator franchise.
 * Spike's query of "Isn't this where we came in?" while wandering the Canterlot library echos Pink Floyd's The Wall where the exact line is used to connect the end and beginning of the album into a repeating loop, similar to the time travel cause-and-effect in this episode.

Dragon Quest

 * The episode shares its name with a popular RPG series.
 * The episode's plot is similar to an episode from the 1980s series My Little Pony, "Spike's Search", where Spike goes on a quest to learn to be a dragon and gets involved with a group of dragons who turn out to be thieves and bullies.
 * The scene with Spike traveling down the river on a boat with Cranky Doodle Donkey bears a resemblance to Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
 * The game "King of the Hoard" the teenage dragons play appears to be the same as the children's game "King of the Hill".

Hurricane Fluttershy

 * Fluttershy's training montage features music very similar to Joe Esposito's "You're the Best", as featured in the 1984 film The Karate Kid.

Ponyville Confidential

 * The title of the episode is an allusion to James Ellroy's 1990 novel L.A. Confidential and the 1997 film adaptation. The episode's theme is a reference to its Hush Hush Magazine subplot.
 * Diamond Tiara's drive to make the paper successful by any means necessary is similar to the rise of Charles Foster Kane in the movie Citizen Kane. Her introductory speech in front of a large portrait of herself is inspired by the scene of Kane's campaign speech.
 * The headline "Snips and Snails and Bubblegum Fails" is an allusion to the nursery rhyme "What Are Little Boys Made Of?".
 * Rarity's line "Et tu, Gabby Gums?" is an allusion to the Latin phrase "Et tu, Brute?", traditionally attributed to Julius Caesar's last words in the Shakespeare play of the same name, and is meant to express great shock against a trusted one's betrayal.
 * "Gabby Gums'" line "XOXO, Gabby Gums" is an allusion to the book and TV series "Gossip Girl", where the voice of the character always signs out with the phrase "XOXO, Gossip Girl".
 * One of Apple Bloom's baby photos is posed the same as the Coppertone girl ad.
 * Ponyville's newspaper, The Ponyville Express, is similar in name to the Pony Express, a famous mail service used in 1860 and 1861 in the United States.
 * The headline "Fluttershy Has Tail Extensions" references the real-life practice of hair extensions.
 * Pinkie Pie's reaction to the headline "Pinkie Pie is an Out-of-Control Party Animal" is reminiscent of the classic dramatic archetype of an addict breaking down and admitting that they have an addiction.

MMMystery on the Friendship Express

 * The title of the episode references the 1934 crime novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, as does the outcome of the case: nearly every passenger is responsible for one part of the "crime".
 * The hat Pinkie Pie wears and the bubble-blowing pipe are references to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Twilight's hat also resembles that of John Watson, Sherlock's partner.
 * One of the books sticking out of Twilight's bag in her first appearance in the episode is the history book from the beginning of "Friendship is Magic, Part 1."
 * When describing the cake, Pinkie Pie references the Cole Porter song "It's De-Lovely."
 * Mulia Mild's name and mannerisms are a reference to Julia Child.
 * Pinkie's fantasies of the other bakers during her accusations are all allusions to multiple styles and genres of film:
 * First, the Gustave le Grand fantasy references black and white silent films, with Gustave playing the role of the dastardly villain often associated with films from the period. The vignette may also be a specific nod to Snidely Whiplash, himself an animated parody of over-the-top silent film villains (antagonist of Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties segments on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show).
 * Donut Joe's persona in Pinkie's fantasy, "Con Mane", is a reference to fictional secret agent, James Bond; additionally, the opening to this fantasy parodies the franchise's iconic gun barrel sequence.
 * Finally, Pinkie's fantasy about Mulia destroying the cake is a reference to Japanese ninja genre films.
 * At one point Pinkie Pie says she wants to know "who done it" before Twilight Sparkle pedantically corrects her grammar. The type of mystery being spoofed in this episode is known as a "Whodunnit" as opposed to a "How Catch 'Em" or "Procedural".
 * The episode also references the 1943 film I Dood It, starring Red Skelton.

A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1

 * The Canterlot wedding and the advertisements and promotions for the episode are all a nod to the Royal Wedding of 2011. Specifically, the characters' attires match that of the special guests.

A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

 * When we pan up to the ceiling in Princess Cadance's room, the chandelier comes from the library in Myst.
 * At the end of the fight sequence, the six ponies burst through a group of Changelings as a dramatic music cue plays. This is parallels a sequence from the second Matrix movie, where the protagonist Neo escapes a mob of Smith clones in the same fashion.
 * The changelings resemble Kelpie of Celtic folklore, spirits that terrorizes the rivers of Scotland and usually take the form of a horse. Their modus operandi also mirrors that of Faeries and Succubi in European lore.
 * Bridal Chorus, composed by Richard Wagner, is used during the wedding sequence. A single phrase is also played during the wedding rehearsal in the prior episode, as a background clip during Twilight and Cadance's confrontation with the bridesmaids.
 * During the wedding sequence of the real Cadance, after the bridal chorus starts and before Cadance walks in, a pony resembling Harry Potter is visible in the back near the right edge of the screen.
 * The Changelings' appearance, use of cocoons and shape-shifting abilities are based on the biology of metamorphic insects such as butterflies and moths. This is solidified with Queen Chrysalis' namesake, which is the term used to describe the Pupal stage of a butterfly.

Season three

 * Keep Calm and Flutter On, Just for Sidekicks, Games Ponies Play, or Magical Mystery Cure was inspired by an episode of Fawlty Towers. Games Ponies Play is similar to The Hotel Inspectors.

The Crystal Empire - Part 1

 * King Sombra's appearance, personality, powers and history refers to archetypal "Dark Warlock" from fantasy fiction, e.g. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, who is whom Meghan McCarthy had in mind when she conceived of the character.
 * King Sombra strongly resembles the Zoroastrian god of darkness and decay, Angra Mainyu/Ahriman, especially as he's portrayed in the 2008 video game Prince of Persia.
 * King Sombra has the bent and tri-colored horn of the Asian unicorn Karkadann, as described by Ctesias.
 * The scene in which Shining Armor greets the main ponies parallels that of when Han Solo searches for Luke Skywalker on the planet Hoth during a blizzard in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Too Many Pinkie Pies

 * Twilight attempts to perform a spell that turns an apple into an orange, echoing a similar idiom.
 * One of the Pinkie duplicates narrowly misses being crushed by the falling barn by being precisely in a window opening – a nod to the famous scene with Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill, Jr.
 * One of Pinkie Pie's duplicates makes a 'crazy face' that matches the G3 version of herself.

One Bad Apple

 * The episode title is a reference to the saying: "One bad apple spoils the bunch."
 * In a scene during the Babs Seed song, the gala dresses from Season 1 make a return, along with a number of the Nightmare Night costumes from Luna Eclipsed.
 * Scootaloo's comment about the Dark Side is a reference to Star Wars.
 * When the Cutie Mark Crusaders are building the float to get back at Babs, a version of The A-Team theme plays.
 * The "Babs Seed" sequence is reminiscent of early 1970s cartoon shows like Josie and The Pussycats with its chase scenes and bubblegum pop melody.
 * The movie scene is a reference to Let's All Go to the Lobby.
 * The costumes the Cutie Mark Crusaders wore during the musical number is a reference to The Three Little Pigs with Babs wearing the wolf costume.
 * The float the Cutie Mark Crusaders built is an allusion to the Golden Apple, a recurring object in Greek and Norse mythology.
 * Babs Seed speaks with a noticeable Brooklyn accent, alluding to her coming from Manehatten.

Magic Duel

 * The episode contains references to previous episodes:
 * Spike mentions being crushed by a snowball in Winter Wrap Up.
 * Trixie plays clips from Boast Busters on a magic screen.
 * Twilight summons a parasprite, seen in Swarm of the Century.
 * When Trixie makes Pinkie dance, one move she makes is her "Evil Enchantress" dance from Bridle Gossip. Another is from the wedding reception of A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2.
 * Zecora drinks tea, as mentioned in Stare Master by Twilight.
 * Pinkie using 10 instruments at once is a reference to Swarm of the Century.
 * Pinkie's father from The Cutie Mark Chronicles is shown.
 * Twilight's training with Zecora references Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Twilight, much like Luke Skywalker, seeks a mentor to defeat a corrupt enemy. Zecora directly quotes Luke's mentor, Yoda, as she instructs Twilight to "unlearn what you have learned." Also within this scene, Twilight loses focus with her magic as she remembers Trixie's control of Ponyville, much like how Luke loses focus during training as he has a vision about his friends.
 * Though it may just be a coincidence, Trixie in this episode is played as a spoof on a Sith Lord from Star Wars. This is suggested by the fact that she wears a black cloak and hood in the episode and her magic aura is changed to red when wearing the amulet (the color of sith lord's Lightsabers). Twilight's training also casts her in a Darth Vader role.
 * The pawn shop owner in the beginning is modeled after the bookkeeper from King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow.
 * When Trixie summons the fishbowl to cover Ponyville, a musical score closely resembling 'Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium' by the classical composer Camille Saint-Saëns can be heard.
 * The show at the end, where Twilight is levitating the critters in the shape of an infinity symbol, matches "The Magician" tarot card, where the magician in question has an identical symbol above his head.

Sleepless in Ponyville

 * The episode title is a play on the 1993 romantic comedy movie Sleepless in Seattle.
 * The entire opening scene is a throwback to the act after the introduction in The Show Stoppers. The two ponies Scootaloo rushes past are the same (Shoeshine and Cherry Berry), Granny Smith appears, and there is also an obstacle in the middle of the road which Scootaloo catches air from, though the scenes are in a different order and the ponies react differently.
 * As with the bag in Sweet and Elite, the two horseshoes on Rarity's bag in her camping cart bears similarity to the Chanel logo.
 * Rainbow Dash tells the story of the Headless Horse, an allusion to the Headless Horseman. It is also a callback to Look Before You Sleep, where Twilight told Applejack and Rarity a story about the Headless Horse.

Wonderbolts Academy

 * There are "several references to Top Gun throughout" the episode.

Apple Family Reunion

 * The "Pappy Pony" tongue twister is likely a reference to the well-known tongue twister Peter Piper.

Keep Calm and Flutter On

 * The title is a reference to the 1939 British WWII propaganda poster Keep Calm and Carry On.
 * The original title of the episode, Fluttershy's Home for Reformed Draconequi, alludes to the title of an animated series, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which writers Amy Keating Rogers, Meghan McCarthy, Cindy Morrow and Chris Savino have all worked on. Also of note, Lauren Faust had also worked on Foster's prior to her work on Friendship is Magic.
 * Before the friends leave Fluttershy's house, there is a reference to Alice in Wonderland with Discord in the Mad Hatter's outfit.
 * The dancing candles are a reference to the 1991 Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.
 * This episode once again features a character (Fluttershy) growling like a dog. This occurred in The Return of Harmony Part 2 when Twilight and Pinkie Pie both growled at Discord, and in Cutie Pox when Diamond Tiara growled at Apple Bloom.
 * Twilight's line at the dinner party, "Hold on to your elements girls.  It's going to be a bumpy night." is a reference to the movie All About Eve. Bette Davis as Margo Channing utters the famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."

Just for Sidekicks

 * The title is an allusion to the term "just for kicks".
 * The song Spike sings at the beginning of the episode: "Spike is great, making a jewel cake", is a reference to a famous skit performed by Bill Cosby about giving his children chocolate cake for breakfast. In return his children sang, "Dad is great, gives us chocolate cake!"

Games Ponies Play

 * The title of this episode alludes to 1964 bestselling book, Games People Play.
 * The Equestria Games are based on the Olympic Games.
 * The winged shoes the messenger was wearing is an allusion to the ancient Greek god Hermes, who wore winged sandals which enabled him to fly. Hermes, having the ability of flight, played the role of messenger for the Olympian Gods, and was likewise a patron of sports. The winged shoes also allude to the myth of Perseus, a hero who borrowed Hermes' sandals during his ventures.

Magical Mystery Cure

 * The title is a reference to the 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles.
 * When Twilight says "I consider myself the luckiest pony in Equestria", it mimics Lou Gehrig's speech at Yankee Stadium; specifically, the portion where he said, "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth".

Television

 * Equestria Girls is a direct parody of Katy Perry's 2010 single, California Gurls, borrowing the entire song structure from the tempo to the melody.
 * The commercial entitled There's a Pony For That is a paraphrase and parody of the Apple commercial There's an App For That, even showing pony equivalent of smartphone applications such as Yahoof! and eNay.
 * 8 bit features Pinkie Pie playing an 8 bit video game on a console in the same vein as Atari consoles.
 * One commercial is a direct reference to the The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Billboards

 * Billboards in Los Angeles, California that promoted the show in June 2011 reference the film Bridesmaids. It shows the main cast against a brick wall in poses similar to the women in the poster of Bridesmaids, under the parody title Bridlemaids.
 * Billboards for season 2 show Pinkie Pie with her hooves against a "snow screen" TV with the caption "They're baaack!" This references the 1982 movie Poltergeist, which has a poster where the little girl Carol Anne has her hands on a "snow screen" TV and the tagline "they're here!", and its sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side, which has the tagline "they're back."

Newsprint

 * On January 8, 2012, a full page ad ran in the LA Times, referencing the opening to the AMC television show Mad Men. It shows Rainbow Dash, wearing a suit, falling in front of pictures of the main cast, with the parody title of Mad Ponies.

Trading cards

 * Time Turner's card describes him as being "[responsible for] pretty much all things timey wimey". The phrase "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey" originates in the Doctor Who episode Blink.

Issue 1

 * On the 3rd page of the comic, two blue stallions are seen overlooking a balcony in suits. Their design is a reference to the 1970-80's band and film The Blues Brothers.
 * That page also contains other references besides just The Blues Brothers, such as Earl Hickey from My Name Is Earl.
 * Rainbow Dash telling Fluttershy to be "nice until it's time not to be nice" is a reference to Road House.

Issue 2

 * In the chamber where the troll is, on the shelf is an Optimus Prime toy from the Transformers series.
 * The scene in which the troll picks up one of the rock ponies made by Pinkie and Rarity and calls it "George" is a commonly used allusion to the character Lennie in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men.
 * Queen Chrysalis's chambers are an allusion to the Wicked Witch of the West's from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
 * Also, the panel that Queen Chrysalis send out the changelings mirrors the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West sends out the flying monkeys.
 * When the group stands in front of the entrance to the cave, the names under the two gargoyles are "Ziggy" and "Stardust" a reference to the stage name used by British rock musician David Bowie.

Issue 3

 * Fluttershy's line, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" is a line from Spock in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
 * Rarity's line, "Why did it have to be snakes?!" is nearly a direct quotation of Indiana Jones's famous line.

Issue 4

 * There are numerous references in the doors that the ponies open in the changelings' castle:
 * The clown that Fluttershy finds behind her door is a reference to Pennywise from the 1990 film It.
 * The twins that Rainbow Dash finds behind her door are a reference to The Shining.
 * The pony that Applejack finds behind her door is a reference to Mola Ram from the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
 * The pony that Rarity finds behind her door is a reference to The Phantom of the Opera.
 * Princess Celestia mentions a giant marshmallow pony attacking Manehatten; this is a reference to Gozer's final form from the movie Ghostbusters.

Issue 5

 * The logo on the coffee cup Spike holds bears a strong resemblance to the Starbucks logo.
 * A pony resembling Sailor Moon can be seen in a panel.
 * A panel features a pony named "Maybelle", who bears a strong resemblance to Mabel Pines from the Disney Channel original series Gravity Falls.

Micro-Series Issue 1

 * Summer Mane mentions a "silly series with the vampire pony", in reference to the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer.
 * Twilight mentions having read a book entitled "Of Ponies and Prejudice", in reference to both Of Mice and Men and Pride and Prejudice. The next book she mentions having read, "The Horseback of Notre Dame", is a reference to The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
 * The title of a book Twilight mentions, "I Have No Snout yet I Must Whinny", is a reference to the 1967 postapocalyptic science fiction short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
 * The bookstore that is selling Jade Singer's new book in the end, "Barns and No Bell", is a reference to the bookstore chain Barnes &amp; Noble.

Micro-Series Issue 2

 * The speech at the bottom of page 4 is a reference to Roy Batty's final words in the film adaptation of Blade Runner
 * During the scene where Rainbowdash falls she says the lines "Hey! Take your stinking claws off me, you darn dirty gremlin!" This is a refrence to the film "Planet of the apes".