Quivering Eyes: Used mainly by the cuter characters, but you'll find an example of it for practically anyone, and for a wide range of different emotions.
Raised by Grandparents: Granny Smith is the only parental figure Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom seem to have. Lauren Faust has said on her Deviantart page that the status of their parents is up in the air (she'd like to say they're dead, but the executives would never let that fly), so for the moment it's this trope.
Reality Warper: Pinkie Pie is not only constantly Leaning on or Breaking the Fourth Wall, she can do Offscreen Teleportation, pop out of the most unlikely places, and many more weird things. She once held up six hooves (as a pony she has only four), physically handled an object (a check mark) from her own mental processes, has been on-screen in multiple places more than once, passed a wall by diving under it, appeared in the reflection of a mirror, etc.
Also Discord, who manages to bend Equestria into a virtually unrecognizable, chaotic plane.
Record Needle Scratch: Variations of this are very common as part of the Mickey Mousing, but some examples are more literal and/or noticeable than others, for example when Apple Bloom runs into an actual record player in "Call of the Cutie".
Recursive Adaptation: Toys → animated series → toys. Hasbro is basing more and more G4 toys, blind bag ponies in particular, on the show. Lauren Faust based the show on her childhood idea of the G1 toys (as opposed to Hasbro's shallow animated versions) plus the names of several G3 ponies. So if you buy a Rainbow Dash toy today, you acquire a toy which is based on a character in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic which in turn is Lauren Faust's interpretation of the G1 toy pony Firefly combined with the name and certain appearance details of the G3 pony Rainbow Dash.
Reference Overdosed: The series is loaded with these, but tend to be subtle for the most part.
Canadian So Soft talking dolls (at least So Soft Newborn Rainbow Dash) can speak English or French.
There are several European special editions with often-exclusive bonus contents, the most prominent of the exclusive bonus contents being brushable Rainbow Flash (in a 1 + 1 pack with brushable Rainbow Dash), brushable Skywishes (in the ride along brushable Rainbow Dash set), brushable Star Swirl (in the Rarity's Royal Gem Carriage set), and a carriage (in the Rarity's Carousel Boutique set). Brushable non-Glimmer Wings Daisy Dreams (in a 1 + 1 pack with brushable Fluttershy) currently falls into this category, but will stop being completely exclusive once Toys "R" Us releases their upcoming Pony Scooter Friends Daisy Dreams & Rarity set as part of their upcoming Pony Friends Forever line.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Dragons are the most recurring antagonistic monsters, though it varies between episode and each dragon how antagonistic they are. In the "Dragon Quest" episode, The dragons that get any dialogue are cruel (although this might be because they are decpicted as teenagers). They even go so far as to try to smash a nest of helpless, unguarded phoenix eggs. There's also the hydra from "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
Reptiles aren't Always Chaotic Evil — Spike and "Steven Magnet" aren't (most of thetime) and Pinkie's pet baby toothless alligator Gummy may also be nice, as while it bites Pinkie (and other characters) regularly, it could just be how it shows affection. However, in "Secret Of My Excess", Spike's transformation into a mindless greedy monster is accompanied by his more blatant reptilian traits: long thin tongue, eye membrane, etc.
Reveal Shot: This show is all about camera dynamics. For example, in "Bridle Gossip", the camera is zoomed into Twilight Sparkle's face as she wakes up to hide the fact that her horn is "cursed" by Poison Joke.
Rhymes on a Dime: Zecora, to the point that she does it without even knowing what she'll say next. Discord does this on occasion, too, especially when he's using his "Keepers of the Grove of Truths" puppets.
Riddle For The Ages: Where do winged unicorns come from? They didn't exist during the time period depicted in the "Hearth's Warming Eve" pageant, and "A Canterlot Wedding" doesn't explain if there are any others we haven't seen besides Princess Cadance.
The ponies themselves qualify in this incarnation, thanks to Lauren Faust's distillation of their designs.
Even more so in "Cutie Mark Chronicles", where the mane cast has flashbacks to the days when they were just little fillies. It also shows Spike just after he was born.
Pumpkin and Pound Cake especially.
Pretty much anything in the series that isn't supposed to be scary falls under this, especially Applejack's dog, Winona, and the bunnies that Fluttershy takes care of. Even if Angel wants to kill you.
The Parasprites even qualify in-universe. Fluttershy can't resist keeping one, because they're so cute.
Birds have to keep flapping their wings in order to stay airborne, and hitting anything will cause them to fall — unless you are giving a mid-air high-five to the princess's awesome pet, Philomena.
Even worse, in "Hurricane Fluttershy", Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy high five eachother in midair using their wings.
Crossing the sound barrier doesn't create a spectacular light show, it's just extremely noisy — also, any light would reach any witnesses before the audible shockwave, instead of the other way around... unless caused by a rainbow-haired pegasus.
Do note that Equestrian physics might be different from those that apply in the real world.
Well, apparently so, because there is something that allows Rainbow Dash to pull 1670 Gs when she rockets out of the dive at a 90-degree angle in "Sonic Rainboom" and somehow not get ripped to shreds.
An adorable, baby fire-breathing dragon is permitted to live in a library full of paper books and scrolls. His fire is known to only teleport scrolls to Princess Celestia rather than burn them, but the same doesn't seem to apply with the book in "Owl's Well that Ends Well".
This is sort of justified considering that when Spike accidentally sneezes fire into a book, the pages are burnt to a crisp while the cover is unaffected, apparently protected against fire in some fashion.
He seems to be able to control what his fire does. The default is probably "burning" while his secondary is "teleporting". The evidence is that his fire does both, but it can be involuntarily skewed either way. He's shown using his flame at cooking temperature in "Over a Barrel" and early in "Bird in the Hoof", but accidents like the ones in "Griffon the Brush-Off" (sending a hundred scrolls to Princess Celestia for no reason) and "Owl's Well that Ends Well" (sneezing into a book burns it beyond recovery) do happen.
It is plausible that it is involuntary. When he teleports the scrolls, he is merely blowing on them, and in "Griffon the Brush Off", he accidentally teleprts the scrolls because he has the hiccups. A sneeze is much more intense than a hiccup or breath, and even causes human reflexes to kick in.
In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", when visiting Manehattan, a young Applejack is shown carrying a Bindle Stick — without actually holding on to it, but somehow effortlessly balancing it across her back despite the high end being heavier than the lower end.
The same should also have applied to Rainbow Dash pulling her Sonic Rainboom to save Rarity and the Wonderbolts.
Similarly, in "Applebuck Season" Applejack Face Plants from a two-story high dive four times, disoriented but unscathed each time.
Actually, since the pegasi' innate ability seems to alter force, it may be possible. Force=Mass X Acceleration, so regardless of the velocity at which she was falling, the force may still be minimal. And in the second example, the Wonderbolts are all pegasi, and Rarity was under the effect of Twilight's spell. Rarity's wings were even more delicate than any pegasi wings, so some part of the spell must have affected her body weight.
Equestria is, for lack of a better term, a nudist civilization, however characters till wear clothing often either as a sign of their occupation (mail carriers wear uniforms, doctors wear white coats, etc.) or as a sign of social status (the wealthy often wear dresses and dress jackets). Applejack lampshades this when Rarity insists on having privacy while getting dressed for the Gala, pointing out "we don't usually wear clothes."
When settler ponies raising apple trees are offered a chance to find out why a buffalo tribe doesn't want them around, while at the same time the buffalo could find out why the ponies planted trees on their land, the main characters get in the way and accidentally push both sides into an actual battle.
When a visiting stage magician brags about how great her powers are and starts humiliating some of the main characters, the character who knows magic like the back of her hoof refuses to do anything because she's afraid of also appearing to be a show-off.
A pony-drawn locomotive (that is, a train with a working steam engine being pulled along by horses).
In the episode "Applebuck Season" we see one of the ponies who ate bad muffins throwing up into a bucket. Real horses can't vomit, but cartoon animals do.
Pretty much anything Pinkie Pie does.
In particular, Pinkie Pie once appeared in a mirror to chastise Twilight for telling Spike's not-so-secret secret.
Rule of Glamorous: Many of the outfits that Rarity designs would be worth millions of dollars in the real world due to the sheer amount of precious gemstones that she sews into them, however even with her talent for finding gems she is still just a small business owner and not a mining tycoon. The implication seems to be that gems are a lot more common in Equestria than real life, and they tend to be much bigger than even Earth's largest precious stones. Mr. and Mrs. Cake even put sapphires on a cupcake as a birthday present for Spike (who, being a dragon, eats gems as a delicacy).
Rule of Perception: Played with in "Call of the Cutie": when Apple Bloom is trying to hide, she chooses several spots that would be in plain sight to anyone actually at the party, but hide her from the viewers.
At the beginning of "Owl's Well That Ends Well", when Rarity walks in front of her, Rainbow Dash randomly starts hovering in order to remain visible to the camera.
The coloured auras that appear around a unicorn's horn while they cast spells or levitate objects are only visible to the audience. While some spells are visible to the characters, they can't identify a spell caster the way the audience can. This comes up a couple of times at the end of the second season, first rendering a character unable to tell that magic was used, and then to give the audience a clue that the characters can't perceive.
Not to mention in "The Return of Harmony", Twilight Sparkle could not see the color fading which was a cue for her friends' corruption, seeing only that her friends have suddenly become jerks and she doesn't know how orwhy.
Rule of Three: Each of the main ponies' cutie marks have something to do with the number three. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie have three apples, gems, butterflies and balloons as their cutie marks respectively. The lightning bolt on Rainbow Dash's cutie mark is composed of three colors.
Also, all of the lead characters barring Twilight Sparkle have exactly three syllables in their names.
Also applies to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. There are three of them, and all three have names that consist of three syllables.
There are three types of ponies (Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi), and both the mane cast and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are made up of an even balance between these types.
With the two groups combined, there are three of each.
Story-wise, many episodes rely on a minimum of three ponies regardless of how many are the actual focus characters - "Look before you Sleep", based around Applejack and Rarity, adds Twilight Sparkle to the mix, and "Putting your Hoof Down" has Rarity and Pinkie Pie in a Fluttershy ep.
This often ties in with the concept of the Freudian Trio, especially in Season 1 episodes where Twilight Sparkle usually acted as the Ego (such as "look before you sleep" where Applejack was the Id and Rarity was the Superego). The show likes to invert the freudian trio a lot too, where the central character's behavior is out of balance and two other characters will try to correct them.
Applejack biting Rainbow Dash's tail to stop her when she tries to dash away or charge against a much stronger foe.
Twilight also uses her magic to grab RD's tail a few times as well.
Three earth ponies called Rose, Daisy and (fan-nicknamed) Lily going hysterical and overblowing things out of proportion at the slightest hint of danger. ("The horror... THE HORROR!")
Rainbow Dash has a tendency to... drop in unannounced. Onto your head. Hey, she wasn't called "Rainbow Crash" for nothing.
Twilight becoming slightly neurotic whenever Princess Celestia comes to Ponyville, insisting everything be perfect for whenever Celestia comes to visit, even if it's unofficial.
Taken up to eleven in Lesson Zero when she believes her normally flawless work ethic is at risk, a prospect which causes her great distress.
Ever since the debut of the "Pinkie Sense" in Feeling Pinkie Keen, every few episodes, Pinkie Pie has a bout of "Twitchy-tail," which indicates something falling. Every time it has happened outside of that episode, it has always been a flower pot. The first time it happens, there's a perfectly logical reason as to why it fell. Someone opened their window, and knocked it loose. The second time, it happened inside a tent, and it still fell from the sky. No damage to the tent whatsoever. They make sure to lampshade it.
Pinkie Pie: Oh, my fortune telling has nothing to do with my Pinkie Sense, silly. It's only good for vague and immediate events.
*Cue flower pot drop to Twilight Sparkle's head*
Pinkie Pie: Like that, see? *Beat* Where did that even come from?
She also came dangerously close to returning here throughout "Feeling Pinkie Keen". Trust us, trying to figure out a pony like Pinkie Pie can make you crazy...
She tried to work a tree falling through the window into the concept of a slumber party in "Look Before You Sleep".
In her defense though, she might have been concussed by the tree falling on her head
Also in "Green Isn't Your Color", thanks again to Pinkie Pie convincing her "Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever!"
Even Fluttershy suffers this during "The Best Night Ever" after repeated failures in getting to spend time with the animals at the gardens of the Gala, and even caps it off with an Evil Laugh.
Santa Claus: Appears in a British Boomerangcommercial and game, though both times only in silhouette. In canon, Santa-like accessories have been seen on a mannequin in a costume shop during the episode "The Ticket Master".
Anvils and horseshoes, but not one single blacksmith, and the characters don't even wear horseshoes (they have boots and shoes that fit over hooves, instead).
Thatched-roof cottages in Ponyville, but a more Crystal Spires and Togas style of architecture in Canterlot.
Streetlights that seem to contain fireflies (or Navi?), but also lanterns containing candles, and flashlights and spotlights as well as light switches.
Hourglasses, cuckoo clocks, pocket watches, stopwatches and wrist watches.
Modern carnival rides are seen in Twilight's flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, several years before the story is even set!
Photo booths, old-fashioned daguerreotype cameras that can take color photos, and hoof-free cameras with built-in flashes.
Quill pens, corrective tooth braces, implied crimping irons, walkers with tennis balls on the feet, helium tanks with pressure gauges, hip replacement surgery, microphones, megaphones, telescopes, sewing machines, jackhammers, ice boxes, tape measures, joy buzzers, diving/snorkeling equipment, microscopes, bowling alleys, hang gliders, hazmat suits, stand-up arcade machines, vacuum cleaners...
"Feeling Pinkie Keen" brought confirmed electricity and added a myriad of tech that seems taken from a Frankenstein movie (for when Twilight Sparkle tries to understand Pinkie Pie's ability to predict the future with SCIENCE!).
Way back in "Look Before You Sleep"" Twilight Sparkle explains that her tree is protected by a magical lightning rod. As explained by Word Of God and in-universe, it is Magitek.
Fluttershy has a steam radiator heating system in her sod-roof cottage.
Knowledge of comets that seems just a little too advanced for the displayed technology/society so far in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". Though given that Equestria's rulers have dominion over celestial bodies like the sun and the moon, they might have just gotten such information from Luna/Celestia.
The entire town has centralized plumbing, complete with only one shared source for heating water for everypony (Spike managed to use all of it by taking a seven-hour bubble bath).
"The Mysterious Mare Do Well" features a hydroelectric dam with a set of tesla coils (presumably for wireless energy transfer) and a construction site with a mechanical crane (which appears to be made mostly of wood). The dam is shown again in "It's About Time".
Faust says that the team tried to leave electricity out of this world as much as possible, except when it would help with the story, or went by Rule Of Cool or Rule of Funny. As seen, they were extremely loose with this rule!
This toy commercial gives us Pinkie Pie's RC Car, and the toys themselves have that and a lot more technology—Applejack has a Farm Truck and a TV, and Canterlot Castle contains a television set, a microwave oven, and a dishwasher. The description of Twinkleshine also implies that movies exist. An upcoming Pony Weddingtoy package will give Twilight Sparkle a car that appears to be a Palette Swap of Pinkie Pie's RC Car.
One of the Polish and Norwegian magazine stories has a sick Pinkie Pie make a phone call to Twilight Sparkle.
The Hub's advertisements for the show have some technology too. The There's a Pony For That commercial shows Twilight Sparkle using a Hub-brand smartphone (complete with pony-themed apps and Internet access), and the Ponygeist◊ billboard shows Pinkie Pie in front of a Hub-brand TV set (which is larger than either of the TVs seen in the toys). An 8-bit video game is seen in this so-titled ad.
If technology from other shows counts, then there's also Dan's car (remodeled by Pinkie Pie) in this commercial, and even Megatron in thesetwo commercials. ThisPound Puppies ad features Pinkie Pie (and Discord!) videochatting, which implies computer, internet, and video camera.
Interestingly enough, the aforementioned scene in "A Bird in the Hoof" doesn't bend physics to the degree that most examples of the trope do. If you watch carefully, the characters always come out of a door that's set in the same house (or adjoining house) as they door they went in.
Screen Shake: Standard effect for emphasizing an impact, as well as some other things.
Season Fluidity: Aside from the two-part season premieres and second season finale, every episode is a stand-alone story.
Second Place Is For Winners: An ongoing theme of the series is that winning a competition is less important than bonding with your teammates, and that cooperation is better than competition. Winning for its own sake is not usually the point.
In the running of the fall leaves, both Applejack and Rainbow Dash are so focused on defeating each other that they both come in last. Twilight Sparkle places far ahead of what anyone expected... but even she only comes in fifth place, and is quite happy with that.
In the Sisterhood Social race, Sweetie Belle and Rarity place second, but both are so happy to have reconciled with each other that they don't even care.
In Rainbow Dash's pet race, Rainbow Dash ends up giving the prize (pethood) not to the winner of the race but to Tank, the turtle who stayed by her side and helped her when she was hurt. The falcon, who technically won the race, accepts this with good grace.
In the cider-making competition, the Apple family loses to the Flim Flam brothers's Wonderful Machine even with the help of the rest of the cast. But because they refused to sacrifice quality for quantity, they win anyway when the other ponies drive Flim and Flam out of town.
The central conflict of "The Last Roundup" occurs when Applejack takes second place at the Equestrian Rodeo, instead of the expected first, and runs away because she can't bear for her friends and family to know of her failure. The others must convince her that they value her more than any victory or ribbon, and that they're just as proud of her even if she doesn't place first.
In the yearly water lift to Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash initially is gunning for setting a new wing power record. When her best flier and a number of other pegasi fall ill, they are unable to set a new record, but with Fluttershy's help they at least manage to complete the water lift, which is a triumph all by itself.
There's even a sub-example here; Fluttershy's best speed of 5.0 is still considerably below the average of the other pegasi, but because it was enough to put them over the top, they all cheer and celebrate it for her anyway.
Serendipity Writes The Plot: In the Canadian live show, Rainbow Dash is mentioned to have hurt her wings, leaving her unable to fly.
In "Mare in the Moon", the Cutie Mark Crusaders are seen huddling together in fear of Nightmare Moon. The problem? They supposedly first meet in "Call of the Cutie", eleven episodes later.
Fridge Brilliance: in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" it is said that friends share a special connection, even before they meet.
It's also entirely possible that they just all ended up huddling together coincidentally, being frightened young fillies looking for any source of safety and comfort. They didn't properly "meet" at this time.
In Twilight's flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", the egg Spike hatched from is shown to have been purple with darker purple spots. But in "Mare in the Moon", Spike said that he "started out as a cute little purple-and-green egg." (He could've been wrong, though.)
Is it ever stated that that is him? Spike can't be the only dragon with those colors.
It's highly doubted that the showmakers intended it to be any dragon other than Spike.
We never saw the other side of the egg...
Also, in various flashbacks where the moon is visible, Nightmare Moon's silhouette is no longer cratered on the surface... did she escape early?
At the end of "The Ticket Master", when everypony is given a ticket to the gala, they each appear to pick up their tickets via levitation, when the rest of the series shows that this is a talent which only unicorn ponies have.
Note however that the tickets do not possess the purple aura typically indicating unicorn magic. Which means this is either a double Series Continuity Error, or the tickets themselves are magical, and float to their owners.
In "Call of the Cutie", Applejack tells Apple Bloom that she was the last in her class to receive her Cutie Mark. In "Cutie Mark Chronicles" however, she begins her story by saying that she was "even littler than y'all". So... did she get her mark at a relatively old age, or a relatively young one?
Not necessarily an error, if all the ponies in her class got their Cutie Marks young she could have been younger than Apple Bloom and still be the last to get her Cutie Mark. Also, there's no indication of how long Applejack lived with Aunt and Uncle Orange - she may have stayed there long enough to go from being littler than y'all to being a relatively old blank-flank.
The opening sequence shows Twilight Sparkle and Spike arriving in Ponyville via Twinkling Balloon; in the actual show, they travel there using a Pegasus-drawn chariot. Though this may be more a metaphor for Twilight coming down from Canterlot to Ponyville (becoming more down to earth) rather than a literal retelling.
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: In order to be more appealing to girls, the toy versions of Princess Celestia are pink rather than white, and most toys of Applejack don't include her hat. (The ones that do make her hat light blue or pink instead of brown.)
They also made Princess Luna purplish-hued instead of dark blue and black.
Word Of God: "I must admit I'm disappointed Celestia is pink. I'm not sure why they went that way, but my experience with the toy industry (through my Galaxy Girls project) is that you often have to to bow to the will of the 'buyers' — the guys who decide what they are going to put on the shelf in their store. Often they will say things like 'I'll buy 50, but if you make it pink I'll buy 500' and since the toy company makes their profit from the buyer and not the consumer, it makes sense for them to compromise. It's a really stupid, frustrating business."
Speaking of which, most of the ponies that come with an animal pet don't have the same pets as seen in the show.
The biggest offender being Twilight who is lacking Spike and has an owl instead. The only toy of Spike that currently exists is part of a multi-character pack where half of the characters are missing.
Does Spike's jealousy over Owlowiscious in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" mean the toy was supposed to tie into the episode, or is that just the crew venting?
Now Spike does come with Twilight as part of her Twinkling Balloon play-set. Yay!
The commercial is hilarious because even though the audio makes no mention at all of Spike his toy is featured prominently, as if Hasbro is saying "There! Twilight and Spike, together at last!" Are you happy now? Please buy our stuff!
Speaking of Spike's toy, he comes permanently posed on all fours, and while he does stand like this in the show on occasion, he mostly stands on his hind legs.
Since the toys were designed before the show, many of them have fairly little in common with their animated depictions—especially for more stylized characters such as Pinkie Pie. And because Lauren chose to assign different personalities to the show versions (and in some cases add wings to characters whose toys didn't have them), some of the box text can be humorously inaccurate.
Some of the ponies introduced in the toy-line are recolors of the mane Six, while the recolored artwork that appears on the package doesn't match the character the toy was based on. For instance, the toy of Blossomforth is Fluttershy with a white coat and a red-and-green mane, but the package artwork shows Rainbow Dash with the same colors.
Conversely, for a very long time there were no toys of of the background ponies who frequently appear on the show - including no male ponies whatsoever. The eventual stock of male ponies are all recolors of Big Macintosh.
Among the blind bag ponies are several recolors that actually resemble some background ponies in the show, like Rose (called Roseluck here) and Lily Blossom, the closest thing we have to an official Derpy toy (ironically, in the brushable toys she's one of the few Canon Foreigners to not be a Palette Swap of a pony from the show). As an amusing side note, Fluttershy and Cheerilee are demoted to Rainbow Dash and Applejack recolors!
Relatively minor, but one of the first things most fans of the show do after purchasing Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash or Applejack toys is to take a pair of scissors to all that excess mane.
Horses will sometimes raise one of their front legs in a kicking motion when nervous, which is what Fluttershy does when she encounters Twilight Sparkle in the first episode.
Similarly, horses flick their tails in annoyance to shoo away flies and the like. You can see this happen several times in the series when pony character is annoyed (e.g. Rainbow Dash looking non-nonplussed when the three bullies brag at her during "Sonic Rainboom".)
When Applejack pokes Big Macintosh in the ribs in "Applebuck Season" he responds by raising a haunch and glaring at her. That's an actual threat display by a horse about to kick!
The way the ponies move in general is very well done with the joints bending at the right places and in the right directions.
Fluttershy also greeted the Manticore cat-style, leaning forward with her nose for a moment.
Sexual dimorphism is accurately depicted in Fluttershy's mallard friends.
The loon in Fluttershy's fantasy in "The Ticket Master" has a red outline on its eye. Red eyes are a distinguishing characteristic of loons.
Zecora's digging goes unexplained, but real zebras dig for water in the same fashion. The same behavior by a horse, however, is another threat display, so the scene actually makes MORE sense — Zecora was probably just nervous and a little thirsty, but the ponies around her misinterpreted her body language as grumpy and hostile.
In the episode "Dragonshy", Fluttershy is shown falling over stiff-leggedly with fear on several occasions... accompanied by the sound of a goat bleating. This may be a reference to fainting goats, a breed of goat which stiffens and falls over when startled.
It could just be a coincidence, but it would appear◊ that potato chips and soda can indeed produce something that could be mistaken for a muffin. (The main problem in that picture seems to be the effects of the melted gummy worms.)
Ponies move their ears back when angry or frightened, just like real horses do.
Applejack uses the correct terminology while playing horseshoes with Rainbow Dash in "Fall Weather Friends".
In the song "The Art of the Dress" many references are made to actual equine anatomy...and then appropriate parts of the dress are shown being designed and constructed for them, making it clear the writers didn't just grab random words from a "Parts of the Horse" chart. "Parts of the Pony," by the way, would be an excellent song in MLP.
Not to mention Fluttershy's "freaky knowledge" of fashion when Rarity presses her for criticism.
While Pinkie may be a little strange, in the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen", she is shown rolling around in the grass. That's not her being strange; real horses and ponies will roll around in the grass like that.
Dragons are routinely shown hoarding treasure and eating gemstones. In many myths dragons ingest precious stones in order to fuel their fire.
Pinkie Pie removing wet pie filling from her face by covering it with molten chocolate, letting it dry and chipping it off is how some animals remove wet residues from their face using mud. The problem is, usually animals that do this are carnivores removing blood.
In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", filly Fluttershy is drawn differently from most other fillies, having proportionally longer legs than her adult self. This is the correct body proportion for young equines. It also applies to other quadrupeds like deers and antelopes too. Other fillies were drawn in what would be more "human" baby proportions.
A rock Rarity is looking at is broken by the effect of Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. In real life sound waves can break rocks, and they've actually been used to break kidney stones. Also, the writers have shown their geology. Large rocks that are covered in gems when split open? They're called geodes.
Unrelated to animals, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Twilight's description of comets in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" (also see Schizo Tech above).
In "The Return of Harmony Part 2", once the ponies capture brainwashed Rainbow Dash, she starts to snort and flare her nostrils, an activity consistent with real-life horses under duress. Earlier in the first part, a brainwashed Fluttershy swats Twilight with her tail, this is also something horses will do when particularly annoyed.
A minor one, but in "Luna Eclipsed", Princess Luna speaks in the Majestic Plural.
All of Luna's dialog is grammatically correct Elizabethan English (with one minor mishap), averting Ye Olde Butchered English.
The Windigos in "Hearth's Warming Eve" are represented with frightening accuracy as spirits of famine and cold that feed off hatred and in-fighting.
Debatable. The "famine and cold" part is correct, but many Wendigo myths involve cannibalism more than hatred and in-fighting. Though this could be Justified with it being a kids' show and all, despite what the fandom says.
Well, when Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead, and Commander Hurricane grew impatient. They began stamping their hooves on their ground just like real horses when they're annoyed.
The ponies' mindsets are also very accurate. Horses are incredibly skittish creatures due to being a prey animal; as a result, they often freak out and panic at anything that frightens them, which shows up as background ponies freaking out.
The bad guy in Read it and Weep is Ahuizotl, an authentic Aztec creature. Do they really expect kids to get these references?
Little Strongheart from "Over A Barrel" is the correct size and colour of a young buffalo.
The goats from "Putting Your Hoof Down" have oblong pupils, just like real goats.
In Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 they shown a lot of work: Cider season is a very real thing and last only a few weeks, cider has no meaningful shelf life so must be made fresh daily, the cider press shown is a real, and very old-fashioned, model, and the eponymous machine would indeed outperform the Apples' old method by about five to one, as claimed.
In ''MMMMystery on the Friendship Express, Pinkie Pie scratches herself behind her ear like a dog. Actual ponies and foals will do this when they're young, but are unable to do this once they become fully grown adults.
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Adventures in Ponyville is the title of both a game and a DVD.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is both the title of the show and the title of a Novelization of the pilotepisodes of the show.
The Magic of Friendship Storybook, the book The Magic of Frienship [sic] and the Sparkle World story The Magic of Friendship have very similar titles (two of which would be exactly the same if not for a typo in one of them).
The DVD Celebration at Canterlot and the toy set Celebration at Canterlot Castle have very similar titles. This was most likely intentional, as they're both part of the Target-exclusive Canterlot set of merchandise.
65-Episode Cartoon: Although there's as of yet no evidence that the show will end on this mark like several other cartoons, Season 3 (what's been officially confirmed of it, anyway) brings the episode count up to 65, perfect for syndication.
Slapstick Knows No Gender: The ponies see their share of Amusing Injuries, particularly Applejack, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Dash doesn't have the nickname "Rainbow Crash" for nothing.
The crew tries to ensure that Rarity's perfect coiffure is ruined at least Once an Episode.
Slasher Smile: Pinkie Pie gets a frightening one in "Party of One" when she was playing a party with inanimate objects as her guests. Twilight Sparkle gets several in "Lesson Zero", but most frightening was when she bursts out of the bushes, complete with insane giggling. It didn't help that she was watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the time, which gives the impression that she's a... yeah.
Slice of Life: Many of the episodes are like this, at least by Pony standards. The show seldom uses antagonistic characters, so the problems the ponies must overcome are usually those with relationships or their surroundings.
Particularly Slice-of-Life-ish episodes are Look Before You Sleep, The Show-Stoppers, Luna Eclipsed and Sisterhooves Social.
Ponies, zebras, donkeys, griffons, and buffaloes are Body Type 6Civilized Animalsnote Though this might not be entirely accurate as they have displayed feats, intelligence and motivation comparable if not exactly like that of a human yet they still retain a quite a few animal behaviors.. Crosses Funny Animal territory at times especially in comedic situations.
The diamond dogs and the fictional character Ahuitzotlnote The closest thing to classify him as at least. are Body Type 4Petting Zoo People.
Some farm animals like cattle (bulls and cows) and sheep are Body Type 6Talking Animals.
Hydras, manticores, cockatrices, phoenixes, most woodland creatures (especially the small and furry ones) and some of the mane cast's pets are Body Type 6Nearly Normal Animals.
Iron Will and by extension the rest of his kind are Body Type 3Petting Zoo People.
Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Level 5 - all hoofed animals seem to be able to converse freely with the ponies. Pets, monsters and other creatures reach various levels of Intellectual Animal, but generally can't communicate beyond their species.
Fluttershy breaks this occasionally, but she's explicitly stated to be able to understand animals "on a higher level". Probably part of being a Friend to All Living Things.
The one exception to the above appears to be goats, as seen in "Putting Your Hoof Down."
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Quite idealistic, but with a satisfying dash of cynicism mixed in. For example, in "Over a Barrel", the conflict driving the episode is ultimately easily solved because both sides are basically decent — but at the same time, the idea that it could be solved by singing a cute song that will make everyone love each other is mercilessly mocked. In general, problems often arise because the characters aren't perfect, but there's nothing the Power of Friendship won't solve by the end of the story, even if it involves punching out Cthulhu.
One good example of this series' usage of Mostly-idealistic-but-with-a-dash of cynicism is the ending of "Suited For Success". After a nice show of friendship and a heartwarming moment where Rarity does forgive her friends, she then points out that her career is still ruined. It was then saved by a second chance by Hoity Toity.
The Something Song: Although many of the musical numbers have been given names by the fans, composer Daniel Ingram's website lists many of the songs as "Laughter Song", "The Gala Song", "The Ticket Song", etc.
And Word Of God has hinted that it may have been another more powerful/evil force that corrupted Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon, and helped free Discord.
Then, at the second season finale, there was Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling armada. While perhaps not quite up there with Discord, having made a number of grave mistakes regarding Twilight, she still came very close to succeeding. Her plan on the whole went off without a hitch, her armies defeated the mane cast before they could even get to their greatest weapon, and more importantly, she made a fool of Celestia the whole way through, with both deceit and raw power.
The show's ending credits list the names of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle as main characters right from the debut episode. Less of a spoiler given that half the season goes by before they appear again, and viewers wouldn't know who they are until that point.
Squashed Flat: Twilight Sparkle in "Feeling Pinkie Keen". A door slams into her twice in the episode, resulting in this trope. (Sort of)
Also Applejack in "Applebuck Season", when she hit the ground after missing the mark jumping down onto Rainbow Dash's catapult.
Fluttershy in "Luna Eclipsed". While trying to make an escape into her house, Twilight shuts the door, causing her to pancake herself on it.
Squeaky Eyes: Used for some emphasized blinking, as when Fluttershy is being persuasively cute or Pinkie Pie is being ditzily innocent. Besides of this specific trope, eyeballs moving in some notable way also sometimes make noises.
Squee: This noise gets made when some of the mane cast grins.
In-show, this is Rainbow Dash's reaction every time she's within a parsec of the Wonderbolts.
Standard Snippet: Ride of the Valkyries during the air race in "May the Best Pet Win".
Status Quo Is God: Every other episode each of the main cast needs to re-learn how to be a good friend.
This might be a meta-Aesop, though — that building and maintaining strong friendships takes constant work. It's even Lampshaded in the aesop of several episodes, such as "The Return of Harmony" and "Sisterhooves Social."
Not to mention the fact that in spite of saving all of Equestria at least twice, no one outside of Ponyville seems to know them. They're on stained glass windows in the castle, for goodness sake!
When Nightmare Moon was imprisoned in the moon, she appeared as a large dark spot on the moon's surface, and is referred to as The Mare in the Moon. A dark spot on the moon is known as a sea, or in Latin, mare.*
Yes, everypony knows it's pronounced differently, but still.
There's also the more obvious pun behind her name where she's a mare who controls the night, making her literally a Nightmare.
The Wonderbolts are heavily based off of the Blue Angels (and other aerobatics teams), and utilize a winged thunderbolt as their logo. The dark-mirror Shadowbolts used, as their uniform Cutie Mark, a winged skull. A winged skull logo was also used, at one time, by the Hell's Angels. Subtle, but very clever.
The two male ponies, Snips and Snails, are a pun based on the old adage that girls are made of "sugar and spice and everything nice," while boys are made of "snips and snails and puppy dog tails." Given this show's status as a kids' show, it's probably unlikely that we'll see a boy pony named "Puppy Dog Tails," but the other two can work as names in a fictitious environment.
Ironically, the very next colt introduced is the British Pipsqueak... who looks very much like a dog.
It is worth noting that Lauren Faust also wrote Powerpuff Girls, meaning that Snips and Snails might be an allusion to the Rowdyrough Boys.
The civic leader of Ponyville is an old, grey Mayor. Or maybe not so old afterall... we find out in Ponyville Confidential that she dyes her hair grey.
Not very stealthy, but Twilight Sparkle really hopes the legend of Nightmare Moon is just an old 'pony tale'.
In the beginning of "Boast Busters", Twilight's magic abilities are referred to as "tricks," and Spike mentions that most unicorns can only do a small amount of magic related to their profession. Which, one might say, makes them "one-trick ponies."
And the other magically skilled pony in the episode is named Trixie. Tricks-y
The name "Trixie" means "Bringer of happiness". Trixie in an entertainer.
No it doesn’t. But it is a diminutive of ‘Beatrix’, meaning ‘voyager, traveller’, and Trixie is a travelling performer.
"You're like the queen of stares!" "You're the Stare Master!"
Applejack's story in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" details her attempt to move to the city to live with her Aunt and Uncle Orange. The City Mouse/Country Mouse plot is played completely straight, revealing to Applejack that she's nothing like the city folk. It's like comparing Apples and Oranges.
Similarly, she says "I'm so hungry, I could eat..."
"The book said when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed." Spark or Sparkle?
Nightmare Moon: The spark didn't work! Twilight Sparkle: But it did. A different kind of spark.
When defeating Discord, the mane six literally form a "double rainbow".
Rarity is a pony who designs clothes. She's a clotheshorse.
Rarity owns a female cat named Opal, which is a type of gemstone. In "Return of Harmony", Rarity brings home a large "diamond" named Tom.
In "Feeling Pinkie Keen", when Twilight is explaining how magic works in light of Pinkie's ignorance of the subject, she stands on a literal soap box.
Twilight's costume in "Luna Eclipsed" also resembles Yen Sid in...TheSorcerersApprentice.
In "Over a Barrel", we see a train pulled by several ponies. We just saw the pony express.
In "A Friend In Deed," Pinkie parodies a few lines from the song "Yankee Doodle Boy" (also called "Yankee Doodle Dandy"). In the musical that popularized the song, the "Yankee Doodle Dandy" was a horse jockey.
The song also borrows lyrics from the folk song that inspired it, "Yankee Doodle." What did Yankee Doodle come to town riding on, again?
In "Swarm of the Century," Pinkie plays music to lead pests out of town. She's the Pinkie Pied Piper.
Stock Footage: There's a lot of detail going into the animation for this show, so the animators sometimes reuse objects in different episodes, sometimes leading to a continuity error. For example, in "The Ticket Master", Fluttershy imagines herself befriending Canterlot's wildlife, including various colored jays. Those jays can be seen in a birdhouse near Fluttershy's home in "Party of One", when she and Rainbow Dash are Stereo Fibbing to Pinkie Pie. Also, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie's gala dresses are in Fluttershy's closet at the beginning of "A Bird in the Hoof".
Perhaps she was just holding them for the time being? Though one would think Rarity would have enough space.
Rarity's boutique also plays host to a violent cat and (on occasion) the destructive force known as Sweetie Belle. Fluttershy seems like a much safer bet.
Sometimes done for laughs, like Rarity's Hollywood-fainting twice in a row in "Bridle Gossip".
From "A Bird In The Hoof", Fluttershy's high-pitched whimper as Philomena's ashes fall through her hooves is identical to her whimper when she met Twilight Sparkle in part one of the pilot.
While trying aromatherapy, Philomena's sneeze is the same as Rarity's sneeze during "Griffon the Brush-off".
Granny Smith angrily yells her groggy "Soup's on!" from the first episode when Scootaloo clips her on her scooter.
The screech Rarity unleashes upon losing her diamond-encrusted purple ribbon in "Lesson Zero" is the same one she lets loose with in "Swarm of the Century", when she finds herself trapped in Carousel Boutique as parasprites actively devour it and everything inside.
The clang of Sweetie-Belle running into a metal fan during "Show Stoppers" is the same sound used for impacts with metal in Half-Life 2 (most noticeable when using the crowbar). This has not gone by unnoticed.
In the same episode, we have one of the "impact with wood" sounds from the same game when Apple Bloom trips and falls flat on her face on the way to the stage. It later appears in The Cutie Mark Chronicles when Scootaloo hits a tree branch, and again in Sisterhooves Social when Applejack slams a door with her hoof. Guess the show's staff has been killing some headcrabs lately...
Another one is the contraption Applejack works at in The Last Roundup. The sound it makes as it spins is somewhat common in video games where sliding doors made out of stone are present (Blood and Unreal are two examples).
The sound of Spike's quill on parchment in Dragon Quest is the exact same sound of a note being jotted down in both the Penumbra and Amnesia series.
Story Arc: Although the episodes besides the two-part pilot are self-contained, as Hasbro wanted, "The Ticket Master", "Suited For Success" and "The Best Night Ever" form a three-part story arc about the Grand Galloping Gala. The writers were also able to slip in some Continuity Nods throughout the first season.
Conversely, the second season doesn't really have much of a story arc, which was unfortunate because there was no opportunity to set up Twilight's relationships with Shining Armor and Princess Cadance in advance.
Strange Minds Think Alike: Spike's nickname for Rainbow Dash in "Bridle Gossip" was "Rainbow Crash". It turns out to also be her nickname while she was in Pegasus flight school.
Also, Spike and Princess Celestia have remarkably similar thought patterns, such as trying to get Twilight to lighten up and make some friends in the pilot, and encouraging the mane cast to hang out together as a group at the Grand Galloping Gala rather than splitting off to do their own things (since the Gala itself is kind of a boring party anyway).
Fridge Brilliance: Word Of God has said that Spike was raised by Princess Celestia for most of his early life before Twilight took over caring for him. Like mother like son, I guess?
Sudden Anatomy: Applies to pony eyebrows not just on an individual-case basis but as a rule. They don't normally have them, but automatically generate some whenever they wear an expression that needs them. Also unlike the usual case, it's so subtle and looks so natural that it's easy to miss.
Sugar Apocalypse: Discord gives Rainbow Dash a vision of Cloudsdale crumbling away to convince her to throw the game that they're playing. Possibly Subverted in that we never personally see whether it was actually happening or not. Played straight when Discord throws the rest of Equestria into chaos after the "game" ends.
Much like Applejack's vision of the main ponies' friendship ending leaving out critical details, he allows Rainbow Dash to end the game by making the wrong choice - taking the wings. He lets her assume that staying in the game will doom Cloudsdale while in fact it is taking the wings and leaving that would do so as Equestria falls into permanent chaos.
Also in "Dragonshy", a recurring bit of music is reminiscent of the Fellowship leitmotif from the Lord of the Rings films, though only the first couple of bars match well.
"Call to the Post", the standard fanfare opening a horse race, is used in the Running of the Leaves in "Fall Weather Friends", while a Suspiciously Similar Song of the Notre Dame Victory March shows up during the Iron Pony Competition.
In "Sonic Rainboom", Rarity performs to the a Suspiciously Similar Song version of Swan Lake, and the song that plays over the view of the colosseum sounds a lot like the theme from Gradius.
"At the Gala" is based on another Sondheim musical number, "Ever After" from Into the Woods — which, if you know the context, fits perfectly with the "subverted Cinderella" theme.
In the beginning of "Luna Eclipsed," there is a snippet very similar to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg.
The music played at the actual festival is essentially the opening from The Munsters.
Averted in "May the Best Pet Win!", which uses Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" during the final race. Rainbow Dash even whistles along with it at one point.
Pinkie Pie plays an instrumental song that sounds very similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme at Twilight's birthday party in "Sweet and Elite".
Earlier in the episode, when Rarity... retrieves Opal for Fluttershy, an adaptation of Ravel's "Boléro" starts up in the background.
In "Hearth's Warming Eve" when all the tribe leaders and their assistants are making up, there are small snippets that are very reminiscent of "Greensleeves" playing.
The Flim Flam Brother's 'I Am' Song / Villain Song is intentionally based on We Got Trouble from The Music Man, down to the crowd chanting "cider" in the same way the crowd chanted "trouble" during the bridge.
"Putting Your Hoof Down" contains a very mildly offkey version of Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger".
Team Mom: Applejack frequently takes on this role.
And you may have huge teeth and sharp scales and snore smoke and breathe fire, but you. Do. NOT. Hurt Fluttershy's friends.
Twilight also gets into this occasionally.
Teen Genius: The Mane 6, in their respective talents.
Twilight Sparkle is quite possibly the most powerful unicorn to ever exist.
Applejack is the undisputed strongest mare in Ponyville, due to her job bucking apples.
Rainbow Dash is likely the best and fastest flyer in Equestria, probably even better than the Wonderbolts themselves.
Pinkie Pie make just about anyone smile, and throws the best parties in Ponyville.
Teleport Spam: Twilight Sparkle, who normally only teleports once every few episodes or so, is teleporting all over the place for no apparent reason in the episode "Lesson Zero".
Unnecessary teleportation seems to be an indicator of declining mental stability on Twilight's part. She winds up doing it again in "It's About Time".
Tempting Fate: Twilight Sparkle seems to be at the butt end of the "can't get any worse" tempting.
Then in "Look Before You Sleep", as she finally loses her patience with Applejack and Rarity's constant bickering at her slumber party, she shouts something along the lines of, "Can this night get any worse?" Cue lightning striking a nearby tree, endangering Twilight and her home.
Twilight Sparkle: Sorry I asked.
After Spike runs away from home in "Owl's Well That Ends Well", he trudges through the Everfree Forest and asks himself "Can it get any worse?" It promptly starts raining.
Spike: I guess that's a yes.
Twilight does this in "The Best Night Ever", too. When she sees the chaos caused by Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity, she says "Well, it can't get any worse..." Then, a horde of animals bursts in, pursued by a VERY pissed off Fluttershy.
Twilight adamantly stating in the first episode that the fate of Equestria does not rest on her making friends. IT DOES.
Happens when the mayor gives a speech about Applejack, calling her "a pony of the utmost trustworthiness, reliability, and integrity. Ponyville's most capable and dependable friend: Applejack!" But then... she doesn't show up on time.
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The male ponies' manes are less inclined to be particularly frilly or oddly-colored, but that probably has to do with personal grooming.
As far as secondary characteristics go, males lack eyelashes and have more angular muzzles and narrower ears than females. Some are taller and stockier, but not all; for example, the exposed muzzle is the only way to determine Wonderbolt (and Shadowbolt) genders. That's about it, unless the animators really want you to be sure.
There's one prominent case of false TSCs. Lots of casual observers think Rainbow Dash is The One Guy because it's exactly the sort of art style where a blue character would generally be Color-Coded for Your Convenience, and her mane (though still long) is a lot closer cropped than the rest of the mane cast.
Doesn't help that Rainbow Dash has the deepest and roughest (though still female sounding) voice of all the mane cast and also tends to show very tomboyish behavior.
The Four Loves: The need of Phileos love is a main theme of this series.
Theme Tune Cameo: Spike and Fluttershy have both hummed or sung the theme song. The bat from "May the Best Pet Win!" uses sound waves to play the theme tune on wine glasses... and then uses its sonar to shatter them.
Thick-Line Animation: Though unlike the recent glut of cartoons that use this style, this show has a unique way of going about it, using colored outlines instead of plain black.
This Trope is [BLEEP]: Almost every instance of the word "loser" is blanked out when the show airs on Treehouse TV. Needless to say, this makes sentences containing that particular word sound more dirty.
Three Faces Of Eve: Pinkie Pie is the Child, Fluttershy is the Wife / Mother and Rarity is the Seductress.
Tie-In Novel: Several storybooks (many of them packed with toys) and magazine stories (not all of which are in English). Only around half of the magazine stories are Novelizations.
Cheerilee, Celestia, and Discord all refer to her class (in the case of the former) and the mane six (the latter two) as "my little ponies" in "The Return of Harmony".
Title Theme Tune: My Little Pony, anyway. The theme begins with the traditional "My Little Pony" theme and transitions into a zippier, fast-paced theme.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Several pairs in the mane six alone: Applejack (Tomboy) and Rarity (Girly), Rainbow Dash (Tomboy) and Fluttershy (Girly) especially.
Tongue on the Flagpole: In "Hearth's Warming Eve", Scootaloo and some other poor anonymous filly get their tongues stuck to a huge (Christmas-tree-sized) candy-cane prop
Took a Level in Badass: Rainbow Dash was upgraded from earth pony in the previous toy line to Pegasus for this series, and revels in every second of it.
Fluttershy got one in Season 2. So far, she's been able to resist the embodiment of chaos attempt to corrupt her until he resorted to brute force, outraced Rainbow Dash, and seemingly wrestled a bear (turned out to be a massage, but that still took some strength). Note that she was already a Bad Ass Pacifist capable of giving angry/disappointed lectures to shame the monster of the week into submission in combination with her infamous Stare, this is merely expanding her repertoire.
It looked at first as though the future-Twilight of "It's About Time" had gotten one (due to her spiky mane, eyepatch, scar, ripped black bodysuit, etc.) but the differences in her appearance were just coincidental results of her trying frantically to evade the "disaster" that she assumed had caused her future self to look like that.
Too Long; Didn't Dub: Most dubs leave character names, Cutie Mark, and My Little Pony in Gratuitous English. Possibly the most extreme example comes from the Turkish dub, which leaves the entirety of Pinkie's Cupcakes song entirely untranslated.
Pinkie Pie seems to be able to play around with this trope at will, at different times floating in mid-air, interrupting fade-outs, and appearing in a mirror while not being inside the room.
Pegasi (as long as their wings are flapping), can hover in the air, and any cart they are harnessed to will also hover or follow the pony without any drag, inertia, or gravity effects.
Top Ten List: On the 11th of February 2012, The Hub compiled a list of the most fan requested episodes out of the first 38 that had been aired*
To the extent that the fans have been raving over the advertising.
Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: The Cutie Mark Crusaders engage in some relatively dangerous activities without any adult supervision for the sake of finding their cutie marks. "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" has Applejack travel all the way to Manehattan and back to the Apple family farm in Ponyville all by herself.
Truck Driver's Gear Change: In the OP itself, as if hammering home the fact that this won't be your usual MLP.
Unstoppable Rage: This can not be stressed enough: Do not, I repeat, not, I'll say it again, Not, and I'll reiterate one more time, NOT break a Pinkie Promise. Lest ye incur the WRATH! Of Pinkie Pie.
Unusual Euphemism: Being a kid's show, the characters have unique phrases they say in place of swearing.
Rainbow Dash: [realizing she's at the rear of the pack after tricking Applejack in "Fall Weather Friends"] Oh horseapples!
Up, Up and Away!: Many pegasus ponies (usually Rainbow Dash) often do this when flying fast.
Upper Class Twit: A rather large number of the wealthy of Equestria come off as this. Of course, we don't actually hear what any given high-society pony does besides... be part of high-society, so it's unknown how many of them truly fit this trope, and how many are actually useful to pony society.
Prince Blueblood, however, is undeniably a twit. He has absolutely no manners or redeeming features and his high class living is all but guaranteed to be simply as a result of his royalty.
Subverted with Fancypants, who is a rather nice chap.
Utility Magic: Rarity's magic is mostly useful for things like sewing, and Twilight Sparkle, although she can do more impressive magic, mostly uses hers for things like turning pages and writing. In fact, it's implied that most unicorn magic only works for things like this. Their magic is usually related to whatever their special ability happens to be, but in Twilight Sparkle's case, her special ability is magic, so she can do more.
Later episodes make it unclear whether other unicorns are only able to perform magic in line with their talents, or if a unicorn is theoretically capable of any magic, but that most unicorns only know magic that is related to their talents and interests. In the second case, Rarity (or any unicorn) could learn much of the magic Twilight knows, but are simply not dedicated enough to the study of magic itself.
Vanilla Edition: The two pre-Shout! Factory DVD volumes. Like the other DVDs, neither of them include closed captions, and besides their menu music (a fully instrumental version of most of the theme song), they only contain the following:
"Call of the Cutie" has a scene with a close-up of Apple Bloom, who is feeling depressed, when Rainbow Dash sticks her head into the audience's view:
Rainbow Dash: Whoa. Looks like somepony's got a dark cloud hanging over her head! Let me do something about that... [The camera pulls back, revealing the dark cloud that was hovering just a couple feet above Apple Bloom]
During Rarity's first fashion show in "Suited For Success", Hoity Toity says Rarity's designs were "a piled-on mishmash of everything but the kitchen sink." Cut to Rarity kicking a kitchen sink away behind the curtain.
In "Feeling Pinkie Keen", Twilight stops to give a speech about the difference between magic and the Pinkie Sense — after literally stepping up onto a soapbox that happens to be nearby.
During Braeburn's tour of Appleloosa in "Over a Barrel", he points out the horse-drawn carriages, then immediately mentions "horse-drawn horse-drawn carriages" as the camera cuts to several artists sketching out the horse-drawn carriages.
Voice of the Legion: In "The Last Roundup", Pinkie has this when Applejack breaks her Pinkie Promise.
Queen Chrysalis has this, although a less pronounced version than most.
Vomit Discretion Shot: "Applebuck Season" features a scene with a bunch of ponies who got sick from some poorly prepared baked goods. Pinkie Pie has just enough time to declare them "baked bads" before she begins throwing up. The camera cuts away just before it happens.
Genius Bonus: When Philomena is restored at the end of the episode, her beak has a wicked, sharp hook to it—a predator's beak. Of course she would puke up the birdseed, her digestive tract is meant for meat, not plant matter.
In "Swarm of the Century", Rarity discovers that this is how the parasprites reproduce.
Spike receives mail by gagging, then burping out a flame (in a barfing manner) that forms the message.
Walking Disaster Area: If her one appearance is to be believed, Derpy Hooves is one of these. She manages to completely tear apart town hall merely through clumsiness, not looking where she's going, and just sitting down.
We'll See About That: This is Discord's response to Rainbow Dash's statement that she'll always be loyal to Princess Celestia.
Wham Episode: Season 2 premiere revealed Equestria's horrible past, broke Celestia's pedestal of perfection, brought an hyper competent villain who curbstomped the mane Six without breaking a sweat and closed the deal with a lot of Nightmare Fuel. And on the next episode? It Got Worse.
"Secret of My Excess" also surprised everyone by making Spike confess his crush to Rarity... and Rarity not only already knew, but she also took Spike's confession with a smile and teary eyes.
"The Canterlot Wedding", otherwise known as the Season Two Finale, gave us Queen Chrysalis and the changelings. Not only did it add more to the world of Equestria and give us an impressive villain, it surprised EVERYPONY, seemingly coming out of left-field. Especially notable, considering the advertisement for it.
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.
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.
Probably since the whole pie battle was supposed to be a tame version of a gun fight.
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.
Wheel o' Feet: Granny Smith, Photo Finish's helpers and a few background ponies do this now and then.
Hilariously played with in Granny Smith's case: She does it after been tricked into thinking she saw a snake... and then proceeds to walk away very slowly.
The "Great and Powerful" Trixie does this when she sees the Ursa monster come into town.
Wingdinglish: Used inconsistently. In Swarm Of The Century we can see a banner with English words, but in Sisterhooves Social the posters have their text written in some sort of Latin-like language with a weird font (although still with Arabic numerals). Finally, Ponyville Confidential manages to use both conventions in one episode.
Witch Species: The unicorns are basically this with regards to other ponies. Only they are able to consciously perform magic and all of them are born with this ability; although many unicorns pursue non-magical careers, seemingly only able to perform basic telekinesis and magic related to their special talent. More advanced magic requires extensive studies.
Wizarding School: "Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns," which Twilight enrolled in. She also once mentions that there's a magic kindergarten.
The Worf Effect: Rainbow Dash appears to be the lovechild of Scrappy Doo (though, and this is important, she is not The Scrappy) and Commander Worf; never tiring of recklessly charging straight at big scary monsters and getting swatted out of the sky. Applejack and Rarity often find themselves on the wrong end of this too; all three were soundly thrashed by the Manticore and Trixie in just the first few episodes.
"Over a Barrel" had a hilariously straight playing of this, when new character Little Strongheart shows up. How is she introduced? By instantly running rings around Rainbow Dash and tricking her into plowing into a railway sign. The poor girl can't get a break.
Twilight Sparkle gets a lot of this, too, in order to prevent her immense magical power from being story breaking. Her powers will function correctly when and only when they are needed in the plot. Otherwise, her spell will end up being useless or make things even worse.
Happens to Celestia, of all ponies, in the second season finale
A Worldwide Punomenon: The place names. Some of the character names, such as Trixie and Granny Smith, also qualify. Do you also think it went unnoticed that one of the Apple family is names Macintosh?
Worthless Yellow Rocks: Stick a shovel in the ground in Equestria and you'll likely come up with a spadeful of gemstones. At least they're pretty on dresses.
Gems are common enough, in fact, that nopony thinks twice about letting Spike eat them. (of course, as mentioned under Shown Their Work, dragons might have to ingest precious stones in order to breathe fire anyway.
Not all gems are created equal, though; in "Sisterhooves Social", Sweetie Belle uses Rarity's gems for a picture assuming she can just go get more, but it turns out they're a particularly rare variety. However, the trope is strengthened even further later, when Rarity is able to fill a huge bag with new ones in what seems like less than an afternoon. Rarity still flips out about it, though. Probably because this was the last drop after a day of Sweetie Belle continuously getting on her nerves...
Diamonds also seem to be worth more than other gems, since Diamond Tiara's diamond tiaradoes seem to be a status symbol.
Not to mention the fire ruby from "Secret Of My Excess", which Spike aged for a long time specifically to have it in top quality for his birthday dinner. Rarity goes into paroxysms of delight and longing upon seeing how flawless the ruby is.
Xanatos Gambit: "The Return of Harmony": After Discord has stolen the Elements of Harmony, he tells the ponies to meet him in the labyrinth. As it turns out, the Elements aren't even in the labyrinth, and Discord wanted the ponies in the labyrinth only so he could separate them from each other and corrupt them.
Going beyond even that the corruption led to corrupting Twilight by proxy; Discord mentions that her Element is the hardest to pin down, and so, difficult for him to take on directly. But destroy her friendship...
Twilight Sparkle says this after Spike asks what an Ursa Major is like after an Ursa Minor rampages through Ponyville. The audience, however, knows that the Ursa Minor was towering over every building in Ponyville — and the Ursa Major is several times bigger.
