History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E1TheCutieMapPart1

* FreezeFrameBonus: Among the cutie marks you see in the Vault are a [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokéball]] and [[FridgeHorror Trixie Lulamoon's]].

Trailers can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmeRpqUjj8 here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCob40t8dtE here]]. An animatic was previewed at San Diego Comic Con 2014, which can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfEsGkcydi8 here]].

'''Rainbow Dash:''' (''sigh'') We've been over it, like, a million times, Twilight! We found all six keys, defeated Tirek, and got this sweet castle. End of story!

-->'''Pinkie Pie:''' (''miserably'') I've accidentally eaten ''cardboard'' tastier than ''that.''

-->'''Starlight Glimmer:''' (''holding the Staff of Sameness'') I'm curious -- how did the subject of the vault come up?\\

'''Pinkie Pie:''' (''covers her mouth'') Oops!

(''later, upon seeing the town's clothing store'')\\

--->(''when asked if the Mane Six's friendship is ending'')\\

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Starlight Glimmer is really the BigBad of both parts.

* FalseUtopia: Starlight's society claims that everypony is equal due to lack of cutie marks, but it's quite evident that there's ''something'' wrong under the surface.

* NumberTwo: The white Equal Pony stallion, Double Diamond, to Starlight Glimmer.

* OrderVsChaos: Unlike most previous times, it's the ''villain'' that's on the side of Order, with the heroes on Chaos, with her trying to impose equality on everyone and the Mane Six trying to put a stop to it.

* StockSoundEffect: Twilight's cry of agony as Starlight removes her cutie mark is the exact same yell from the previous episode when Tirek steals her Alicorn magic.

* VillainSong: "In Our Town", sung by Starlight and her town.
* VitriolicBestBuds: An actual plot point; as the Mane Six get in an argument but quickly make up, something they do a lot in the series, the town folk find it amazing they can disagree to the point of arguing and still be friends, let alone come up with a compromise.
* WalkingInRhythm: The Equal Ponies march in-step during the SoundOff song. One of the Equal Ponies is briefly deliberately out of step in the bridge to lampshade TheEvilsOfFreeWill.

* WrongContextMagic: In the series, cutie marks are something not easily manipulated by magic forces: one can't force them to appear and removal requires incredible amounts of magic power (i.e. a PhysicalGod like Lord Tirek). Starlight Glimmer's ability to control this kind of magic is unique and unheard of.

* AbsenteeActor: This is the first time where none of the Royal Sisters make an appearance in the season premiere. Princess Celestia is mentioned, but that's it. However, none of them show up to rescue the Mane Six.

* TruthInTelevision: compassionate, non-competitive personalities like Fluttershy actually do tend towards ideologies that emphasize equality, including extreme ones.

* TruthInTelevision: people with naturally compassionate and non-competitive personalities actually are more likely to endorse Marxism and other egalitarian belief systems than the average person.

* NightmareFetishist:
** Rainbow Dash says that fighting a horrific monster would be awesome.
** In an OrangeAndBlueMorality version of this, Fluttershy finds the CityWithNoName charming and welcoming, contrasted with to her friends, whose doubts and suspicions cause them to find it disturbing at best.

* BodyHorror: Twilight and her friends writhe in agony as Starlight takes their cutie marks away from them.

* LogicBomb: Twilight finds herself in a conundrum when trying to talk the bullies back into teasing Fluttershy.

->Story by: Meghan [=McCarthy=]
->Written by: M. A. Larson and Scott Sonneborn

!! Continued in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E2TheCutieMapPart2 "The Cutie Map - Part 2"]].

-->-- '''Multiple ponies in [[AcendedFanon Our Town]] ([[IThoughtItMeant the town itself, not the song]])'''

-->-- '''Multiple ponies in the [[CityWithNoName Village with no name]]'''

* FictionalCounterpart: Hoofball, as a sport, is mentioned by name. Like its {{American|Football}} counterpart, fans collect trading cards, discuss stats, and use something akin to beer hats for guzzling beverages.

** The ponies in the town stepping in cadence has shades of "You Can't Take Me", even though they are more spread apart than in ''Film/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron''.

** Starlight Shimmer's insistence that female ponies braid their manes feels like a subtle shout-out to ''Literature/TheGiver'', a story about another dystopian society that preached perfect equality.

** This is the first season premiere where the main threat to Equestria is [[{{Mundanger}} a relatively ordinary unicorn]], and the SoundOff song is called "In [[Recap/TheXFilesS02E24OurTown Our Town]]", which references an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' that also has a {{Mundanger}} in a TownWithADarkSecret.

** This is the first season premiere where the main threat to Equestria is [[Mundanger a relatively ordinary unicorn]], and the SoundOff song is called "In [[Recap/TheXFilesS02E24OurTown Our Town]]", which references an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' that also has a {{Mundanger}} in a TownWithADarkSecret.

** This is the first series premiere where the main threat to Equestria is [[Mundanger a relatively ordinary unicorn]], and the SoundOff song is called "In [[Recap/TheXFilesS02E24OurTown", which references an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' with a similarly UncannyVillage.