Shout Out / Friendship is Witchcraft

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame gets numerous allusions. For starters, in addition to Fluttershy's association with "Hellfire" serving as the Establishing Series Moment, it also provides her leitmotif in Episode 3.
  • Also, in the extended version of Pinkie's baking song, she says "God help the outcast" which, coupled with how Fluttershy keeps calling her a gypsy, makes her essentially Esmeralda.
    • Complete with a Sinister Minister lusting after her, apparently: Fluttershy warned Apple Bloom that Pinkie had "the voluminous hair of a temptress."
• The parasprite roundup in "The Perfect Swarm" uses the slide music from Super Mario 64.
• "It'll all be secret, but fun."
• "It's time to taste the painbow."
• Fluttershy's father Dragonshy once threw her velveteen rabbit in a fire.
• Apple Bloom fears that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are going to drop pigs' blood on her at the party.
• The class at the start of "Cute from the Hip" chant "phallic symbol, phallic symbol", mimicking the school scenes in both versions of The Wicker Man. Cheerilee identifies it as the Equestrian national anthem.
• Diamond Tiara's Mark Mitzvah "will have so many snacks it's gonna make the Grand Galloping Gala look like the Donner party!"
  • "As long as my mom doesn't get drunk and start singing Smash Mouth..."
• "The spinning cutie mark was already taken by our local Beyblade champion!"
• "Cutie Mark and the Funky Bunch!"
• Among the cutie marks Twilight gives Apple Bloom are the Ty Inc. logo, the eye of XANA, and Nyx.
• The use of "plot" in the sense fans of the show have come to use it.
• After watching Applejack and Apple Bloom herd some sheep into a pen, Sweetie Belle wonders, "Why have I seen these creatures in my dreams?"
• Spike singing "Reflection" from Mulan.
• "I've got soul, but I am not a soldier."
• The sheep leading the prison break is the falsely accused Jean Valsheep.
  • Also, in "Foaly Matrimony", Twilight's song about loving her own brother ends as; "How different now from what it seemed/ now life has killed the dream I dreamed"
    • Her vision of Francis in the scene also sings, "We went streaking in the park, skinny dipping after dark."
• Fluttershy's cult plots to revive the Smooze, a villain from G1.
  • "Okay, well, I'm gonna go schmooze. Nothin' can stop the schmooze!"
• I bet you don't even have a war face!
• A subtle one, but when Applejack and Rarity gasp at Twilight "getting the costumes", there's an interrupting Time Skip transition pretty much identical to the ones used in Majora's Mask.
  • The same sound plays when the day of the eclipse starts.
• Twilight's Rupony Kenshin cosplay.
• The dance party in "Lunar Slander" is set to a song from Arthur.
• "Excuse me, princess, I think our friendship is worth more than the life of one measly eagle!"
• Raincloud's death scene from "Cherry Bomb" is lifted straight from The Iron Giant, music and all.
  • This becomes even more awesome when you realize that Lauren Faust was an animator for The Iron Giant.
• In "Cherry Bomb", when Applejack throws a bale of hay, she hits Spike offscreen, causing him to yell, "Ow! My leg!"
• "Hot ziggety! I'm finally beautiful on the outside!"
• In "Dragone Baby Gone" Twilight introduces herself to Dragonshy as Twilight Acorna Sparkle.
• In "Foaly Matripony", Francis's band BBBFF is a takeoff on *NSYNC, with the name made up of parts of the bandmembers' names. BBBFF.net even was registered, and is identical in design to *NSYNC's extremely dated website.
  • Then the band bio page reveals that they were drawn together by a rainbow explosion created by Francis Danger.
• While... introducing herself to Cadence in "Foaly Matripony", Twilight recites lyrics from "Ms. New Booty" by Bubba Sparxxx.
• Princess Luna mentions in "Lunar Slander" that she has fanart of Danny Phantom.
• Also from Lunar Slander, during the spider-throwing, Applejack tells Luna/Molestia to "pretend it's a Neopet!"
• In "Foaly Matripony", Princess Celestia instructs Fluttershy to draw a maze in one minute that takes two minutes to solve, and Fluttershy says she'll draw a circle, a reference to Inception.

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