The Cutie Mark Crusaders — Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle — appear huddled together for a short moment at the end of the first episode (Apple Bloom had already been introduced earlier, but the other two wouldn't officially meet her until episode 12).
Adventures in Ponyville, a flash game on the Hub's website, revealed a few tidbits about the show during the long gap between the premiere and the second episode. Snips, Snails, and Cheerilee were first seen (though unnamed), Rarity's and Pinkie Pie's occupations were made explicit, and Twilight demonstrated the power to temporarily give wings to other ponies, an ability not seen until episode 16.
The premiere of the show made the series look more like a Magical Girl show. However, the Elements of Harmony are completely forgotten until Season 2, and the show turns to focus on one-shot episodes rather than an overarching plot.
It also took a while for the visual effects for unicorn magic to be standardized, and even then the Color-Coded Wizardry didn't really show up until "Lesson Zero".
Likewise, the exact nature of unicorn magic seems different early on. In "Boast Busters", unicorn magic appears to be entirely in-born. A unicorn either has an ability, or they don't. However, later episodes seem to suggest that unicorn magic is much closer to Rule Magic, thanks to the appearances of magical schools and spell books, wherein any unicorn's ability to learn a spell is limited only by aptitude at learning magic, rather than by simply being born with a given list of 'tricks'.
The third episode of the series, "The Ticket Master" was the first episode to be written, and it shows - Spike has no interest in Rarity, non-unicorn ponies can somehow levitate the tickets above their heads etc, though this could easily be explained by Rarity or Twilight holding their tickets for them or the tickets themselves being magical.
It's also the lightest episode plot-wise, as it was originally intended for a Two Shorts format.
Easily Forgiven: Many antagonists are forgiven quickly. Justified, considering the series main theme is friendship.
Downplayed with Luna. She tried to create eternal night and is immediately forgiven by her sister, the mane cast, and Ponyville. However, Luna Eclipsed shows that they are still terrified of her.
Edible Ammunition: The citizens of Appleloosa use apple pies to repel a buffalo stampede. The entire episode was a metaphor for the American Settlers encroaching on the Native's land. And the pie battle was very intentionally a tame version of a shootout, because you wouldn't get incapacitated by a pie, would you?
In "Dragonshy", Applejack demonstrated expert marksmanship with kicked apples. She didn't get to use them against the dragon, but she was ready to.
In the same episode, Angel beans Fluttershy with a half-eaten carrot.
In "Secret of my Excess", Pinkie Pie tries to fend off Spike by throwing cakes at him. He just catches them instead.
Edible Theme Naming: Applejack. Her entire family qualifies too, given that they're named after brands of, types of, or products made from said fruit.
Distant relatives seem to be named after different fruits, such as Aunt and Uncle Orange.
In "Bridle Gossip", when Applejack is shrunk, Spike dubs her "Appletini".
Both names are kinds of alcoholic drinks.
Seems to be a pattern with most (though not quite all) Earth Ponies; Pinkie hails from the Pie family, though makes her living with the Cakes; two of Equestria's founders were Chancellor Puddinghead and her secretary Smart Cookie; even Rose and Daisy could arguably count, since ponies have been seen multiple times eating flowers.
Many of the background pony names, too.
Edited for Syndication: The Japanese dub unfortunately has to cut out a few scenes in order to make room for the longer intro and outro. It remains to be seen if any future DVD releases will restore these scenes, not having to worry about ad blocks.
During the first season, the show was broadcast with an E/I logo in the upper left corner, but the only real concession it makes to being educational and informative is to have And Knowing Is Half the Battle dialogue at the end of every episode. (These days, simply claiming to encourage positive social values is often enough to allow the use of the logo.) Cable channels aren't required to air E/I programming, but there may be conditions to the partnership between Hasbro and Discovery Channel to form the Hub that the audience doesn't know about. Still, a cartoon that manages to be Edutainment, Merchandise Driven and genuinely entertaining even for adults all at the same time is a truly astonishing achievement.
The E/I mark goes back to the Discovery Kids days; the network adds E/I tags in electronic program listings to make it easier for parents to find actual educational children's programming. Since no other cable network (like Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network) uses the E/I tag, it's a really big advantage for The Hub to tag their shows E/I.
The show could be a Trope Codifier for Stealth Education. The writers are very talented at sneaking in educational tidbits without disrupting the flow of the show — going all the way back to the pilot, where Twilight explains that being "on the precipice (or threshold, or brink) of disaster" means that "something really bad is about to happen", and that "imperative" means "important".
A particularly stealthy tidbit they sneaked in was actual physics equations for time dilation, like Gamma Correction, in an episode dealing with time travel. Who knew you could learn college-level physics in a TV-Y program?
Hasbro has also released guidelines for some episodes for parents that want their kid to learn more.
The bug has been absent in Season 2 so far, which left certain fans wondering if Hasbro has ditched the Edutainment aspect of the show. Either that, or The Hub has since deprecated the practice all together.
Rainbow Dash can manipulate water to create rain (her profession), and also to create rainbows, as seen most clearly in with her stunt in "Boast Busters" (also, her name contains the word "rain"), despite the fact that one might think that Rainbow Dash, as a great flyer, might also be associate with the air
This seems to be a common thing with all pegasi, considering that Derpy Hooves caused lightning by hopping on a cloud, and that weather control is the job of the pegasi.
Rarity can magically locate pockets of precious or semiprecious stones within solid rock, meaning that she, despite not being an earth pony, has earth-based powers.
Pinkie Pie, despite being, paradoxically, an earth pony, has a clear affinity for the air, as noted here, and her speed and apparent teleportation abilities are also suggestive of air-based powers, as is the fact that her cutie mark is a bunch of balloons.
Twilight Sparkle could be seen with a fire affinity, given the way her mane and tail are transformed into flames at the party in "Mare in the Moon" and in her rage in "Feeling Pinkie Keen"; on the other hand, Twilight might also be seen as a fifth elemental, given her association with the stars; either designation would fit with her magical powers, especially since, in the classical schema of the elements, fire was seen as being the closest to the fifth element anyway.
Pinkie Pie represents Laughter (more traditionally known as mirth)
Fluttershy represents Kindness
Applejack represents Honesty
Rainbow Dash represents Loyalty
Rarity represents Generosity
Twilight Sparkle represents Friendship, in the show considered synonymous with the force of Magic.
Empathic Weapon: The Elements of Harmony. They only work for those who represent their Elements, stop working if the harmony between the users is broken, and can reform from being destroyed.
Enemy Mine: The main plot of "Keep calm and Flutter On" is to Rehabilitate or "Reform" the unfrozen Discord so Princess Celestia can use his magic for good.
Pinkie Pie: Oooooh... chocolate fountainy goodness...! And —>Pinkie Pie: Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys! Chocolate. Rain!
Et Tu, Brute?: Lampshaded by Rarity to Sweetie Belle in Ponyville Confidential, after discovering her sister stole her diary as fodder for the school paper's "Gabby Gums" gossip column.
Rarity: Et tu, Gabby Gums?
Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Celestia was originally supposed to be a queen, but was made a princess due in part to this trope, leading to a situation similar to that of the Mushroom Kingdom — a princess being the ruler of a land instead of a queen.
Princes and princesses can be the rightful head of state: such is the case of principalities (or princedoms) - Monaco, Andorra and Liechtenstein are real-world ones.
Evil Is Petty: While Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon aren't necessarily evil, for some reason they go out of their way to mock the foals in their class that don't have cutie marks yet.
Queen Chrysalis adores this trope, getting one several times in the first part of the two part Season 2 finale, and about once every five minutes, give or take, in the second part.
Evil Plan: Nightmare Moon's 'everlasting night' plan in the pilot. For a god of chaos, Discord is incredibly strategic about getting his "rulership" (AKA position to make up extremely creative and nonsensical torments for everyone) of Equestria back. Queen Chrysalis's 'first Canterlot, then all of Equestria' plan in the Season 2finale.
Averted in the closing credits, which list the same set of voice actors and roles for every episode regardless of which characters were present or absent.
No longer the case as of season three. The episodes themselves now specifically credit the voice actors that worked on the episode.
Exact Words: "You simply must stop reading those dusty old books!" is not the same thing as "I don't believe you". This is all part of the Princess' Batman Gambit, though.
Also done by Applejack, otherwise known for her honesty and integrity, when racing against Rainbow Dash with her wings tied up in "Fall Weather Friends", in which she has no problem hitching a ride on the Twinkling Balloon after Rainbow Dash sent her wildly off track. Her justification?
Rainbow Dash: What the hay—you said no flying! Applejack: No, I said no wings.
In The Return Of Harmony Part 2, Discord points out that he never said the Elements Of Harmony were in the maze. Twists and turns were his master plan, but it had nothing to do with the Elements.
Rainbow Dash: But I said whoever crosses the finish line with me gets to be my pet. Pinkie Pie: You did! You did say that! She did say that, that was the rule!
Hasbro occasionally mandates product placement for new toys in the show, although they are usually written in a way that is either subtle or works well with the story of that particular episode. Well, most of the time, at least...
Expanded Universe: The Gameloft app and the IDW comic series serve as the show's first real bits of Expanded Universe stories. Before those, there are mostly just short stories and stock-art comics that can be found in different countries' My Little Pony magazines and/or Sparkle World magazine, but they... don't follow the show very well.
Expository Theme Tune: "I used to wonder what friendship could be/Until you shared its magic with me..."
One could also make a case that Rainbow Dash is very, very much like Bloo from that OTHER show she worked on; Buttercup and Bloo are fairly similar, granted.
Fans have also drawn comparisons between Rainbow Dash and the titular protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
And Granny Smith is very similar to Madame Foster from the same show.
Parasprites are flying Tribbles. Exact same MO. Mass breeders, extremely cute, and eat everything.
Extreme Omnivore: Spike can eat fruit, grass, gemstones… and was the only one unaffected by Applejack's toxic muffins. In fact, he liked them so much that he went through the trouble of rescuing the "baked bads" from the trash so he could eat them all.
Oddly, he rejected an apple in "The Ticket Master" for having a worm. Maybe he wasn't in the mood.
Pinkie Pie is an Extreme Herbivore at least. The wormy muffins made her sick (she was the only major character to appear in the infirmary, in fact), but she has no problem eating cupcakes that are badly burnt or covered in hot sauce.
Pumpkin Cake from the episode "Baby Cakes" is just being a baby and chewing on everything in sight as they are prone to do, but it's possible for her to grow into this down the line.
The Parasprites can eat ANYTHING, especially after Twilight Sparkle magically changed their diet from food to non-food.
Rarity and Sweetie Belle's parents enjoyed the latter's horrible food, which included ashes (burnt juice) and a bowl of bubbling ooze (toast).
Twilight Sparkle: Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my AUGH!
F
Face Fault: The other ponies in "Dragonshy" when Fluttershy is to scared to go in the cave.
Rainbow Dash in "Sonic Rainboom", again because of Fluttershy. This time because she just can't get an outdoor voice "yay" from her.
Facehoof: Twilight's typical response to the strange happenings around her, though some other ponies get one in now and then, too.
Angel can be seen to facepaw at Fluttershy's clueless moments.
Now compiled in this handy compilation! Begins at 2:45.
Face Plant: Happens to most of the main characters at one time or another.
Apple Bloom has this as a running joke in "Hearts and Hooves Day".
Failure Is the Only Option: The Cutie Mark Crusaders' attempts to gain their cutie marks always fail, because otherwise there couldn't be more episodes about them attempting to gain their cutie marks.
Fanservice: Of the non-sexual variety. After Derpy Hooves took off within the fandom, animators started including her more and more often, sometimes in a scripted event and other times as a Funny Background Event - to the point that spotting her has become a Where's Waldo?-esque game in some circles.
However, by far the largest example of this is in "the Last Roundup", when the name Derpy for Derpy Hooves was made canon, as well as giving her a voice!
Played straight whenever Tara Strong decides to troll the fandom.
IDW's official comics are chock full of fanon shout-outs, although they also sneak in some played-straight fanservice once in awhile. It's not really more fanservicey than one might expect from a G-rated comic, though included are some sultry character poses and subtle ship teasing (Rarity's micro series issue has some of the more obvious examples thus far).
Fansub: An official Mexican My Little Ponywebsite used Wonderbolts Fansub's Spanish one of "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", leaving in the group's credits and even a MediaFire URL to download the first two seasons with Spanish fansubs.
Humanoid: The bison appeared to be this, but it turned out they are not exactly evil and eventually they learned to co-exist peacefully with the settler ponies.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To some extent. The aesthetics of pegasus society and Cloudsdale — especially architecture — seem to be based on Ancient Greece, with Disney's Hercules being a particular source of inspiration. Of course, the Pegasus is a creature from Greek mythology to begin with.
This also explains Rarity's inspiration for Rainbow Dash's custom dress.
The Appleloosan settler-ponies and the buffalo herd are quite obvious analogues to Wild West settlers and Native Americans, respectively.
Canterlot seems to be inspired by France with a dash of Britain.
The official map of Equestria reveals significant similarities to North America, albeit with as many horse puns as they can stuff in ("Manehattan" and "Fillydelphia" being the most obvious)
Fantasy World Map: There are many fan-made maps of Equestria, but an official one can be found here◊ (though it slightly contradicts Word Of God by placing the Everfree Forest south of Ponyville instead of to the west). It appears to be loosely based on the United States and part of Canada.
Fashion Shop Fashion Show: Twilight and Fluttershy go through this, courtesy of Rarity. Though Twilight doesn't buy anything and Fluttershy was just modeling.
The Fashionista: Not only is Rarity the proprietor of the Carousel Boutique, but there's an entire fashion industry in Equestria including designer Hoity Toity, photographer Photo Finish, print advertising campaigns, and trend-following audiences at fashion shows who can't seem to form opinions of their own.
Feather Fingers: This was averted initially. Ponies use their mouths, magic, or sometimes even tails to manipulate objects as long as it can be made to work. However, later Season 2 episodes features ponies using their hooves as hands more often, or in the case of pegasus characters (Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy), a literal feather finger.
In Hurricane Fluttershy, the titular character tries to improve her flying by training, including doing wing 'push-ups'.
Felony Misdemeanor: Only Rarity understands what a "crime against fabulosity" ruining the water serpent's mustache was.
Pinkie Pie's extreme attitude towards keeping secrets, which leads her to stalk Twilight all over town reminding her that she risks losing Rarity's and Fluttershy's friendship FOREVER! In a bizarre attempt to drive the point home, she takes an apple... and EATS IT. Possibly a representation of Twilight's head, considering her reaction to Applejack breaking her Pinkie Promise in "The Last Roundup".
In "Over a Barrel", everypony (and buffalo, and dragon) reacts to Chief Thunder Hooves getting a Pie in the Face as if he'd been mortally wounded.
In "Applebuck Season" the stampeding baby rabbits have devoured every plant in every pony's gardens.
In "Swarm of the Century" a parasprite ate Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings's cakes. Which made Lyra cry.
Filk Song: Covers of songs from the show, original songs, songs based on fanfics, with genres ranging from dance music to metal to orchestral arrangements.
Fire Breathing Diner: Twilight Sparkle suffered this after accidentally drinking some hot sauce. Even her tail and mane were on fire.
Gilda suffers this, too, during her Humiliation Conga. Pinkie Pie used the fire to roast some marshmallows.
Pinkie Pie discovers that rainbows don't really taste like Skittles, or vice versa, in "Sonic Rainboom".
First Name Basis: Pretty much anypony who refers to Twilight Sparkle simply calls her "Twilight." Interestingly, Princess Celestia is the only character to refer to her by her full name with any regularity.
Averted with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. The former can be either Pinkie or Pinkie Pie (and in one Full Name Ultimatum, "Pinkamena Diane Pie"), while the latter can be called by first name, last name, or both, with equal familiarity.
Five Races: The show refuses to fit into this well. All of the pony types would be considered Cute/fairies if they weren't surrounded by other ponies, and there are also non-pony races running around. This section will list which races could fit where:
Stout: Pegasi used to be a Proud Warrior Race before the founding of Equestria and are now doing jobs such as weather managing. Earth ponies develop great physical strength, and their magic makes them superior farmers. Buffalo, while rarely seen, have the physical strength to fight evenly with earth ponies and no overt magic of their own.
Fairy: Alicorn have both flight and magic; the more powerful ones are Physical Gods, though their rareness might preclude them from being considered an actual race in and of themselves.*
A grand total of four have appeared onscreen, and one of them use to be a unicorn.
Pegasi are also a good fit for this category, as they have the most consistently powerful magic, as compared to the parlor tricks used by most unicorns, and the most direct role in managing nature. All of the pony types would be considered this relative to non-ponies.
Mundane: Earth ponies lack the overt magic and flight that the other races have, but they can grow crops better than the others, and some develop vast physical strength. The buffalo also lack overt magic, and the one zebra seen uses herbalism and potions rather than inborn magic.
High Men: Unicorns are a Witch Species and each one can use magic associated with their special skill and have some traces of Proud Scholar Race.
Five-Temperament Ensemble: Applejack and Rainbow Dash (choleric); Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Luna (melancholic); Fluttershy and Princess Celestia (leuquine); Pinkie Pie and Princess Cadence (sanguine); and Spike (phlegmatic).
Flanderization: While the show is still a relatively new, this phenomenon is already beginning to happen to some of the characters.
It mostly happens during in season 2.
In "Applebuck Season" and "Winter Wrap Up", Big McIntosh has actual dialogue. Since then, most of his lines have been "Eeyup" and "Nope". Although later episodes give him more varied lines, though he's still usually quiet.
Rarity, who goes from a generous and occasional melodramatic Large Ham to still being generous but much more melodramatic.
Fluttershy was initially meek to the point of being somewhat aloof and barely able to conjure up sentences to even her closest friends. Her later appearances, though more cowardly, make her more cheerful and sociable. She was exaggerated in one area and rounded out in another.
Flash Forward: In the initial version of a recipes PDF on The Hub's website, the page for Cutie Mark Crusaders Chocolate Popcorn included Side Story Bonus Art (originally fanart drawn by layout artist Kat Stenson long before becoming part of the show's crew) that depicted Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all grown up with cutie marks.
Flat Character: Diamond Tiara. Lampshaded; her cutie mark matches her crown. This also applies to her BFF Silver Spoon.
Flower Pot Drop: Every episode involving "Pinkie Sense" has used this:
In Feeling Pinkie Keen, when the already horribly-injured Twilight Sparkle is assuring Spike that something is not going to fall, a flowerpot then crashes on her head. Then an anvil.Then a hay wagon. Then a grand piano. They all turned out to have fallen out from a delivery truck that Derpy Hooves was working at.
In The Mysterious Mare Do Well, during The Reveal that Mare Do Well is some of the Mane 6 teaching Rainbow Dash a lesson, Pinkie Pie says she stopped the building collapse with her Pinkie Sense. She then detects a falling flowerpot with it, and dashes away to avoid it.
In It's About Time, when Twilight asks the gypsy Pinkie Pie if she can use her Pinkie Sense to detect what will happen in the future, Pinkie explains that it's only for immediate emergencies. Cue flowerpot to Twilight's head.
Twilight then has to wear a white bandage over her head due to the injury for the rest of the episode. Which turned out to be the reason Future Twilight was wearing one.
Flying Cart/Chariot/Wagon: Pegasus tactile telekinesis can be used for a variety of flying vehicles.
Flying On A Cloud: While they don't fly around on them, pegasi and other creatures with wings (e.g. griffons, birds) can do this. A spell exists for non-pegasi to do it too; it gets a lot of use in Fan Fiction.
Foil: Interestingly enough, each of the mane six acts as a foil to another one. The most obvious pair in this regard is Applejack and Rarity; their scenes together emphasize Applejack's more blunt and tomboyish side while highlighting Rarity's mildly obsessive-compulsive girly-girl nature. Similarly, Fluttershy's soft-spoken and gentle personality wrapped around an iron core amplifies Rainbow Dash's personality as a loud, brash, and reckless pony with a soft center. Twilight's straight-laced no-nonsense approach to most things and love of organization contrasts particularly with Pinkie Pie's free-wheeling and scatterbrained pursuit of fun, as well as Pinkie Pie's sometimes irrational behavior against Twilight's preference for logic. These contrasts are almost certainly intentional, and used to help advance a less overt aesop about friendship; the mane Six can be such close friends and an effective team because of their differences, not in spite of them.
These are the more obvious pairings, but there are portions of each one's personality that serves to counter some part of the other in some way, shape, or form.
Food As Bribe: Twilight is faced with this several times throughout "The Ticket Master" by her friends in attempts to gain an extra ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, but Twilight manages to turn away the bribes each time despite stating several times how hungry she is. Pinkie Pie also uses this against Spike in "Party of One" as part of her Perp Sweating sequence.
As the camera follows Twilight Sparkle when she's dictating her letter to Celestia in the pilot episode, the hourglass distorts everything behind it like you'd expect, but replaces the unicorn head sculpture outside with Nightmare Moon's head.
In the same episode, Rarity is choosing decorative ribbons. Upon selecting a particularly glittery one, she declares "Sparkle always does the trick!".
Also in the same episode, Twilight exclaims, "the fate of Equestria does not depend on me making friends." By the end of episode 2, it's pretty clear that it does.
Listen closely to the music playing at Pinkie's surprise party in episode one. It's almost identical to the tune of her song in episode 2.
When Nightmare Moon shows up at the festival, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are briefly shown cowering in fear next to each other, despite the fact that this episode was before "Call of the Cutie."
The camera also pans across each of Twilight's friends as she lists each of the Elements of Harmony as they correspond to each pony.
In "Call of the Cutie", Rainbow Dash tells Apple Bloom that she got her cutie mark after her first race. In "Sonic Rainboom", she says that she's only done a sonic rainboom once before, when she was "just a filly." These are, in fact, the same event, which is shown in detail in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles."
"The Show Stoppers" hinted what each of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' special talents are. Apple Bloom's is designing, Sweetie Belle's is singing/song-writing, and Scootaloo's is dancing.
Pinkie: I can't tell you that, silly—then it wouldn't be a surprise!
In the first episode, Twilight proclaims that "all the ponies in this town are CRAZY!". By the time the first season ended, all the mane characters had had a mental breakdown at least once.
In "Lesson Zero", Spike mentions that Twilight has a cape, and that he and Twilight dropped it off at the cleaners. In the next episode, "Luna Eclipsed", Twilight wears a cape as part of her Nightmare Night costume.
In "Return of Harmony Part 1", after Rainbow Dash says that she'll always be loyal to the princess, Discord ominously says "We'll see about that...". He later gives her a Sadistic Choice and inverts her sense of loyalty.
In the same episode, when Discord is taunting Celestia about being imprisoned in stone, he is leaning on one of the pictures in a window, and then knocks on the forehead of the pony whose image he's leaning on. The pony in question is Fluttershy the only one he had to magically touch instead of tempt to turn bad and the pony that would eventually reform him.
When we first see the Elements of Harmony in their new forms in the second episode, Twilight's isn't a necklace like the other five, instead taking the form of a tiara (which she comments on in "The Return of Harmony part 2"). In "Magical Mystery Cure", when Twilight becomes an Alicorn and a princess, the tiara changes shape slightly and becomes her crown.
Forgot I Could Fly: Rainbow Dash NEVER forgets this, and is rarely seen walking on the ground. Fluttershy, however, is a mediocre flyer at best, and rarely flies if she doesn't have to, and on occasion, doesn't even remember she can. The other ponies occasionally forget that two of them (Although in practice, only one of them) can fly. In one instance, this trope is inverted, as Twilight Sparkle asks if she can help with weather duty, forgetting she needs to be able to fly to do that.
Applejack forgets that her friends can fly when she attempts a Train Escape in "The Last Roundup".
Forgotten Phlebotinum: After episode two, the ponies' Elements of Harmony powers and jewelry did not appear until the two-part Season 2 opener. They'd be overkill, anyway.
Four-Fingered Hands: Hands, as an unavoidable consequence of having four-legged animals as the dominant species, are rarely seen, but whenever they appear they have four fingers - an example comes from "Too Many Pinkie Pies", when one of the Pinkie clones causes three stubby fingers and a thumb to sprout from its hoof. Justified in the case of the more humanoid dragons (Spike, the teenage dragons seen in "Dragon Quest") as they aren't human.
Free-Range Children: The Cutie Mark Crusaders appear to have no constraints whatsoever, considering we see them doing things like practicing extreme sports deep in the forest or mountains with no supervision at all. Applejack never seems to worry about Applebloom unless the plot calls for it, and Rarity generally tends to get Sweetie Belle as far away from her as possible, due to Sweetie's tendency to cause havoc around her, though we have seen their parents, they only appear in one episode.
In "Griffon the Brush Off": When Rainbow Dash and Gilda race to a cloud, each claims to have been first, but Pinkie Pie claims Rainbow Dash won by just a little bit. To the naked eye it looks like a draw, with both arriving in a flash at the same time, but freezing the image at the right time shows Pinkie is right.
In "Sonic Rainboom": When Twilight Sparkle casts the wing-making spell, an outline of Rarity with her butterfly wings appears for a couple of frames in the explosion of light, several minutes before we get to see the results of the spell properly.
When her friends dismiss the broken table as who wants a hammer for a cutie mark, Apple Bloom looks dreadfully upset.
Just before Sweetie Belle starts singing, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom cover their ears.
In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles": During Fluttershy's flashback, at the end of her song, if you watch the upper-left corner of the screen carefully, you can see Rainbow Dash just as she hits her first Sonic Rainboom. See here.◊
In "Sweet And Elite": During Rarity's "Becoming Popular" song, close examination of the "talking portraits" scene reveals cameos from Hoity Toity, Sapphire Shores, Photo Finish... and Derpy with a paper bag on her head◊.
The dog anatomy pictures in the Vet's room all have the outline of Winona, Applejack's dog.
When Spike recovers his normal size and Rarity says "YOU were the rampaging dragon?" Spike grins and strikes a "let me explain" pose for half a second before plummeting to the ground.
In "Baby Cakes": If you look closely during the opening, the babies in the nursery have the same or similar color schemes as other ponies, though most of them match more than one other pony (two that can be pinned down are the ones matching Rainbowshine and Medley).
This promo from the Hub riffs on the 'There's an App for That' adds from Apple. Every pony app shown has an appropriately punny name and a matching icon (e.g. Wikiponia, Hooftube, etc.), proper use of pony terminology for various app functions, and even the 'PNN' news article with tiny text which flashes by at the end is fully coherent and readable. Someone at The Hub obviously knew that that the Periphery Demographic would examine every frame for details like that, going so far as to give a Shout Out to popular Pony Blog Equestria Daily.
Twilight Sparkle: Intellectual, driven, conscientious, principled, and dutiful, but also obsessive-compulsive, and at least initially cold and impersonal. (Superego)
Rarity: Driven, ambitious, orderly, meticulous, and also can be obsessive-compulsive. (Also superego)
Applejack: Responsible and sensible. (Ego)
Fluttershy: Also generally responsible, and tries to mediate conflict within the group, and in general. (Also ego)
Rainbow Dash: Brash, arrogant, voluble, but also lazy and prone to selfishness. (Id)
Pinkie Pie: Chaos incarnate. (Also id)
Furo Scene: There have been several scenes where the main characters bathe communally at the local spa, although these really aren't that exciting considering that they're just cartoon ponies who rarely wear clothes anyway.
Furry Confusion: On top of the usual ponies, this world also boasts talking cows, mules, sheep, and donkeys, along with non-talking birds, bunnies, dogs, cats, and equines.
Applejack mentions a zoo in "Applebuck Season". What could they possibly be keeping there? (Humans?)
Played with in both the pilot and "Over a Barrel", where we see ponies that are clearly sentient pulling carriages for other ponies.
Pony:(Looking back at the carriage he's pulling) Okay, you pull now. Noteworthy:(Leaning out the carriage window) Aww, we just switched!
Further backed up when you remember that in "Dragonshy", Fluttershy is brought along to deal with a fully sentient and talking dragon because of her "way with wild animals".
Winona. Diamond Dogs. The latter are meant to be troll analogues, but still.
Furry Reminder: Many. Lauren Faust wanted it to be clear that the ponies were ponies, not pony-shaped humans. In fact, her reaction to the Bridlemaids ad was, "HUMAN POSES!!! AAARRRRGH!!!" Even the slight Anthropomorphic Shift of Season 2 doesn't stop the reminders from coming.
When faced with a threat and it looks like Violence is the Only Option, most of the horses lower their head, snort, and paw at the ground before charging. The pawing part alone is sometimes used to indicate displeasure.
"I heard Zecora eats hay." "Pinkie, I eat hay. You eat hay!"
Pinkie remembers this later when singing to the buffalo: "We all eat hay and oats—why be at each other's throats?"
When the ponies are getting ready for the Gala, Rarity won't let Spike come in because they're getting dressed. Applejack reminds her, "We don't normally wear clothes."
Rarity's song about dressmaking includes a line about cutting out the parts of the dress: "Piece by piece, snip by snip/Croup, dock, haunch, shoulders, hip".
In the same song there are the lines: "Making sure it fits forelock and crest/Don't forget some magic in the dress/Even though it rides high on the flank/Rainbow won't look like a tank"
In "The Ticket Master", Twilight picks off a flower's petals to determine which of her friends she gives the gala ticket to, gives up after one round... and then proceeds to eat the fallen petals.
At one point, Pinkie rolls around in the grass. You may think it's just her randomness, but real horses do that a lot.
In the episode "Over the Barrel"" there's a saloon in Appleloosa called "The Salt Block" where ponies serve salt to customers. This may seem bizarre but if you're familiar with real horses then you would know that salt is an important source of nutrition for horses (usually served in a form of solid blocks of salt). It also helps them keep cool especially in hot areas (like the desert environment where Appleloosa is) through the minerals the salt they consume provides.
You can hear Big McIntosh let out an authentic neigh towards the end of "Lesson Zero".
You can also occasionally hear neighing and other horse sounds being uttered through out the show.
In "Return Of Harmony Part 2", Rainbow Dash gives some very horsey snorts, complete with little clouds from her nostrils, when the other five restrain her (which they do in a way one would restrain a real horse).
Pinkie makes a very horse-like snort of exasperation at (unsuccessfully) trying to get the infant twins she's babysitting to eat. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash have also both been made mad enough to snort at others on at least one occasion.
In "A Friend In Deed" Rose tosses a flower at Pinkie Pie, who catches it in her mouth and eats it.
In "A Friend In Deed" Cranky Doodle Donkey occasionally brays when something surprising happens.
Ponies have been known to buck or rear as signs of excitement or annoyance.
In some adventure/quest-based fanfics, (like It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door), the ponies don't pack as much food as one would think, as they can eat the surrounding grass and leaves to conserve their supplies or in case of emergency.
"Sleepless in Ponyville" sees Scootaloo run out of the cave everypony's sleeping in in a panic because she thinks she's heard the neigh of the Headless Horse. Turns out the real source of the noises is a sleeping Rainbow Dash.
G
Geographic Flexibility: Ponyville can gain features and buildings with no explanation or prior appearance should the plot require it. Equestria as a whole also qualifies, and although there is an official map, the map has the disclaimer: "Distance Not To Scale", most likely not to constrain the development in later episodes.
Genre Shift: The series premiere was a High FantasyMagical Girl story that just happened to star ponies. Once Nightmare Moon was defeated and the world was saved, the show instantly shifted to a Slice of Life ensemble comedy with An Aesop at the end of nearly every episode. While these make up the bulk of the series, the Magical Girl stories still return on occasion, usually in season premieres and finales. Note that this doesn't stop the Mane characters from being badass on frequent occasions, it just means the that thematic focus isn't on that part.
Sometimes individual episodes switch to another genre entirely, like Western or Mystery.
Gentle Giant: Turns out both the manticore and the sea serpent in episode 2 are friendly and easy-going beings.
Big McIntosh also qualifies for this, given his huge build, calm personality, and how he patiently puts up with Applejack's stubborn nature.
Celestia counts. She's bigger, and more powerful than most of the cast and is Large and in Charge.
Ghibli Hills: Surrounding Ponyville and Fluttershy's house.
Giggling Villain: While Chrysalis can certainly pull off a full blown Evil Laugh, she does tend to giggle creepily when amused.
Gilligan Cut: Done without a cut in "Call of the Cutie", when Apple Bloom declares that she won't go to Diamond Tiara's cuteceañera, which, thanks to the Rule of Perception, turns out to have already started Behind the Black. The show Justifies this by Apple Bloom forgetting Pinkie was hosting and she was already where the party was set to be held.
Used more conventionally to omit any explanation for how the Cutie Mark Crusaders ran into Twilight Sparkle in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles":
Scootaloo: Come on, girls! We need action! We need Rainbow Dash! (cut) Twilight Sparkle: As a young filly in Canterlot, I always wanted to go to the Summer Sun Celebration....
Girls Need Role Models: One of the biggest messages the show has to offer is that there is no wrong way to be a girl.
Giving Up On Logic: The episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is all about Twilight Sparkle trying to find a logical reason how Pinkie Pie has the strange ability called "Pinkie Sense". By the end of the episode, Twilight Sparkle gives up, and learns that not all things need to be completely understood to be considered real or true.
Goal in Life: Discovering your purpose in life creates your cutie mark on your flank. Given how permanent those things seem to be, one has to hope there's no pony equivalent to a mid-life crisis.
Well, considering most of the Mane 6's breakdowns had something or other to do with their cutie mark (e.g. Pinkie Pie in "Party of One", having an insanity scene; Fluttershy not being able to make the creatures of the Canterlot Gardens love her in "The Best Night Ever"; et cetra), it seems that the fan-named Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome is said equivalent.
The cutie mark just represents that particular pony's special talent, which often goes hand in hand with their chosen occupation. For example, Rainbow Dash's cutie mark signifies that her special talent is high-speed flying. She definitely enjoys it, and plans to make a career out of it by joining the Wonderbolts, but she's also shown great skill in weather control (clearing the sky in ten seconds flat, etc.). Another good example is Pinkie Pie. Her special talent, as shown by her three-balloons cutie mark is organizing parties. However, she's also an excellent ice skater and is able to play several instruments at once, which don't have any direct relation to parties.
Gosh Hornet: Twilight Sparkle has disturbed a bee's nest and been covered with stings twice: in "Winter Wrap-Up" and "Feeling Pinkie Keen". Rainbow Dash was chased by a swarm of bees in "Fall Weather Friends", but managed to get away from them. Interestingly, there's a beehive hanging from one of the upper branches of the library where Twilight lives.
Gonna Fly Now Montage: An almost literal one for Fluttershy in Hurricane Fluttershy, where she trains herself to be a stronger flyer (with her animal friends acting as motivational trainers).
Fluttershy: But Rainbow Dash, just because you failed the Sonic Rainboom a hundred thousand times in practice doesn't mean you won't be able to do it in front of an entire stadium full of impatient, super-critical sports fan ponies!
Played with in "Green Isn't Your Color". Photo Finish really wasn't trying to be reassuring.
Photo Finish: Nervous? Don't be ridiculous. You're only facing a large crowd of ponies who will be watching your every moves and silently judging you.
Green Rooming: Princess Luna and Zecora both got entire episodes dedicated to introducing each early on in Season 1, but neither really got any further screentime until Season 2 (barring one quick scene for Zecora in the episode immediately after hers).
Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Specifically the male ponies; most of them wear vests. As stated elsewhere, female ponies generally just wear some form of accessory.
Hard Light: Rainbows are a liquid. It's safely edible, but painfully spicy. It's also sticky enough to be used as war paint.
The Hecate Sisters: The three alicorns Cadance is the Maiden, Celestia is the Mother, and Luna is the Crone (despite being younger than Celestia, thanks to her role and personality).
Heel Face Turn: At the end of "Keep Calm and Flutter On" Discord finally fixes the chaos he caused after Fluttershy declares her friendship with him is over, realizing that he didn't wanna lose the only friend he had in the first place.
It's worth pointing out that he promised to use his powers for good instead of evil "most of the time," and that he took special interest in hearing that Twilight would be left in charge of the Elements of Harmony.
Hobbits: Of the pony breeds, Earth ponies seem to fit this mold best. They prefer the simple rustic lifestyle and their homes and gardens, and they appreciate good home-cooked food and parties. They also don't have overt magic or flight, making them a little more relatable to the audience.
"Cutie Pox" has Twilight discovering pony illnesses in a book: Hay fever, and The Trots.
The Theme Tune Extended (which can be found as a sing-along on the DVD The Friendship Express) includes puns on each of the mane six's names sans Twilight.
Also, in "Green Isn't Your Color" Spike gets mad at Twilight for telling someone about his crush on Rarity...while he's wearing a fanboyish t-shirt with her picture on, making his crush pretty darn obvious.
Lesson Zero has Rarity, who often performs cartoonishly overdone displays of despair at minor problems, call Twilight a drama queen. Cue the others glaring at her and subsequent Hypocrisy Nod.
In "May The Best Pet Win", Rainbow Dash tells the tortoise competing to be her pet, "This isn't a game, you know!" She immediately tells the rest of the prospective pets, "These games will determine which one of you has the most important qualities I'm looking for in a pet."
"Magical Mystery Cure" brings us a rare inversion when five of the mane six get their cutie marks switched.
Idiosyncratic Wipes: During the Title Sequence, each of Twilight Sparkle's friends in the Mane Six gets one, related to their specialities (and cutie marks): a dashing rainbow for Rainbow Dash, a party balloon inflating to cover all the screen for Pinkie Pie, a growing eye twinkle for Rarity, a shower of apples for Applejack, and a swarm of butterflies for Fluttershy.
I Just Want to Be Badass: Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo suffer from this. Many of the show's male characters are depicted as suffering from the complex as well, to varying degrees.
I Just Want to Be Special: The Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) want desperately to learn their special talents so they can earn their Cutie Marks and no longer be "Blank Flanks".
They happen several times in "The Ticket Master", where Twilight's friends fantasize about going to the Grand Galloping Gala. This is basically repeated in "The Best Night Ever".
Twilight imagines the Parasprites carrying away Princess Celestia in "Swarm of the Century".
Importation Expansion: The Japanese dub has a short segment after the show called "Little Pony TV".
Improbably Female Cast: With a few exceptions, almost all recurring characters are female.
Even the extras are predominantly female.
There are only eight significant recurring male characters; Spike, Big McIntosh, Snips and Snails, Donut Joe, Shining Armor, Mr. Carrot Cake, and his son Pound Cake. There are more significant background ponies than that.
The show has passed the inverse Bechedlt Test (two male characters who speak about something other than a female character) only in two episodes, once with Snips and Snails have an argument about getting stuck with bubble gum, and another where Donut Joe and Gustav were arguing about whose dessert was best.
In another situation, "I'm powerful late for... something."
Applejack "looking" at the time when her wrist is completely empty.
Rainbow Dash drawing a wristwatch onto her foreleg to look at the time. (Her and Fluttershy's excuse for avoiding Pinkie Pie's party, which was the most ridiculous, was the one that Pinkie Pie chose to believe.)
From Rarity: "I have to go, to do the thing, with the stuff, you know..."
Inherently Funny Words: According to Pinkie Pie, "Chimicherrychanga", "Kumquat" and "Pickle barrel".
Most of the main characters have names taken from the previous My Little Pony cartoon, but that's just out of convenience. Lauren Faust primarily based the mane cast's personalities on how she used to play with her own My Little Pony toys as a kid — toys that weren't even of the same characters except for Applejack. She also used the ponies from the G1 cartoon as inspiration. See 'Composite Character' for more information.
Also goes for many background ponies, both those that have been given a name in the show and those that only have Fan Nicknames.
Interquel: The German magazine comicApple Blooms großes Abenteuer is about the first meetup of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and is thus set after the episode "Call of the Cutie" and before all of the episodes involving the club.
Mules and donkeys have appeared in various episodes, which leads to the conclusion that ponies can have babies with donkeys.
Also, Spike the dragon's one-sided crush on Rarity the unicorn. Fortunately, with the show's Y rating, we can rest assured that we will be spared the mental imagery of their unholy offspring.
In the Name of the Moon: the first preformance of the mares as magical girls involved this; it's completely improvised, and almost perfectly executed (you can see Twilight's eyes glancing down for a second, looking for the right words) because Twilight Sparkle is just that eloquent. An especially ironic example given who the villain is.
Ironic Echo: Played with. During "Sonic Rainboom", Fluttershy says to Rainbow Dash (who's suffering a bad case of stage fright) that there's nothing to feel nervous about facing a crowd of ponies who will watch, criticize and judge each and every of her moves. Later, during "Green Isn't Your Color" Photo Finish gives Fluttershy a similar speech when the nervous pegasus is about to begin her first modeling pass.
In "Party of One", Pinkie says "Okie dokie lokie" with great enthusiasm. The next time she says it, however, it's with great skepticism.
Istanbul Not Constantinople: Strangely averted by characters making references to our Earth — Twilight calling Spike "Casanova" and "Romeo"; Spike wanting a "Fu Manchu beard" in "Boast Busters"; and "Suited For Success" with French haute couture, Dutch apple pie, and constellations as seen from Earth including Sagittarius, Orion, and Canis Major — as well as the Ursas Major and Minor.
Characters have spoken in familiar languages and accents (French, German, Italian, Brooklyn, etc.).
"I Want" Song: Played straight with Twilight's verses in "Winter Wrap-Up"; played with in "At the Gala" in an Almost There-ish way in that the ponies are singing about what they want with the anticipation that it's going to happen soon, not in some distant future.
I Warned You: Nearly every episode in which Twilight isn't the main focus has her basically lampshading the Aesop partway through the story. Plot-Induced Stupidity is essentially the only reason she lacks this kind of foresight in her own episodes.
I Wish It Were Real: Some bronies wished the show's ponies were real (either to show their fondness to the characters or they genuinely wished they exist in real life). Fan works depicting them as pets, friends or them popping out of TV screens/monitors or coming to life from paper drawings are common within the fandom (with Pinkie Pie being depicted quite often for obvious reasons).
Longing for Fictionland: The reverse is also prominent within the fandom. Fan works and discussions about what would happen if they get transported to Equestria are quite common. Often it involves turning into ponies themselves.
The Flim Flam Brothers from "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". They take this trope to such an extreme that, by the end of the episode, the entire populace of Ponyville runs them out of town.
The teenage dragons Spike encounters during "Dragon Quest". They bully Spike, call Celestia a "namby-pamby pony princess", and want to eat the Phoenix eggs.
Lightning Dust in season 3 episode "Wonderbolts Academy". She caused the other cadets to spin out of an obstacle coure and caused a tornado in order to clear the most clouds and leave the others in the dust despite she and Rainbow Dash being so far ahead it was redundant. The move went out of control and destroyed a portion of Cloudsdale as well as swallowed up Rainbow's friends who just happened to fly in to visit. Rainbow Dash managed to save her friends while Lightning Dash makes light of the situation. Rainbow Dash angrily calls her out on her stunts that could have potentially hurt some ponies or worse, but she doesn't seem to care because they "won".
Jerkass Ball: A large premise in most episodes (often combined with Idiot Ball). Expect the main dilemma of most stories to be caused by one of the ponies acting arrogant, self centered or even borderline insane. Every character bounces this at least once in the series (usually in their limelight episodes).
Jerk Jock: The three male pegasi who bully Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale. Their cutie marks are a dumbbell, three basketballs, and three American footballs.
Rainbow Dash herself and Applejack are milder examples of Jerk Jocks when they laugh at Twilight for entering the Running of the Leaves.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rainbow Dash is this the majority of time otherwise however, egotistical and aggressive, but loyal and altrustic to her friends. Do not bully them.
Rarity can be considered a mild example, she's vain and greedy at times, but it is heavily outweighed by her genorosity and empathetic moments.
Fluttershy's pet rabbit, Angel Bunny. He comes off as an abrasive spoiled child at times but he's shown that he really does care about his owner.
Spike also fits. He may be lazy and snarky, but he really cares about Twilight and the others, and is still a good guy.
Justified Trope: Revealing the source of a seemingly hard-to-justify trope is often used as a punchline.
Kick the Dog: The Villain Song "This Day Aria". "No I do not love the groom/In my heart there is no room/But I still want him to be all miiine!" Ouch.
Killer Rabbit: Angel is a light-hearted take on one. The Parasprites too — especially when they start trying to eat Ponyville.
Knockout Gas: In "Mmmystery on the Friendship Express", Pinkie gives explanations for how culprits could have committed a crime, all of which parodying movies. One of these involves her getting knocked out by gas.
Know Your Vines: In "Bridle Gossip", the mane six walk through a patch of bright blue flowers to stop Apple Bloom following Zecora. The next morning they wake with embarrassing changes, such as Pinkie's swollen tongue, that they blame Zecora for. Eventually it is revealed that the flowers were 'poison joke' and the effects were pranks. Played by the plant.
Kubrick Stare: Pinkie Pie give a surprisingly chilling one in "Party of One".
