There are a boatload of references and Running Gags taken from the source materials. There are also some references to the MLP fandom itself (e.g. memes, popular fanon, and background ponies).
Mythology Gags are listed here as well.
Mythology Gags
- The Fluttersleuth sequence is an homage to Problem Sleuth, the predecessor to Homestuck.
- Rarity finds Sparkler's name appealing "for some undefinable reason", a reference to the G1 pony Sparkler who Rarity was based on.
- A mysterious pony tries to remember Fluttershy's name — "Posie or something?", a reference to Posey, the G1 pony Fluttershy was based on.
- The Batterqueen's retinue are all old-generation ponies. In her challenge against Minty, she makes a magic heart-patterned candy cane, while Minty presents a sock. This is a reference to the direct-to-DVD movie A Very Minty Christmas.
- Non-pony mythology: For the baking competition, Love Lock hired an official time keeper. Said keeper is a curly-maned pony with a long scarf and hourglass cutiemark, aka the ponified Fourth Doctor, with the task of determining the best timed baker.
- Most of the Rainbow Ponies
are G1 characters who appeared in the "Ember's Dream" cassette story. - Rainbow Dash's "Aunt" Ember's design is based on Ember◊ from My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle.
- Ember and Velvet go way back in more ways than one — in Rescue at Midnight Castle, Velvet's counterpart Twilight was protective◊ of Ember's counterpart Ember.
- Shadow Lobster Kingpin is a play on Shadow Mobster Kingpin from the Problem Sleuth secret pages.
MLP Fandom Shout-Outs
- It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door:
- "Certainly you got rather more adventure than you bargained for today — it’s a dangerous business, really, walking out your front door..."
- In [S] R: Walk around, this message pops up when trying to cross the Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence as Rarity, referencing a certain plot point and the setting of the Shimmerwood from the fanfic:You cannot cross the fence because you don't know how to teleport.
If only you would encounter some sort of mother goddess figure of another species who could teach you to sort of shimmer in and out of existence, far more elegantly than even Twilight does. Such a shimmer would be wonderful.
- Friendship is Witchcraft:
- There's a reference to Friendship is Witchcraft's unusual Sound Effect Bleeps when Twilight accidentally uproots one of AJ's trees.
- Cloud Kicker is unable to say anything other than "Cloud!", a trait shared by background ponies in that particular abridgement.
- Rarity mentions the Sleep Song.
- Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles):
- Rainbow Dash crashes into the taffy machine. "Boy, when you go to visit Pinkie, you expect to have a good time, not to be turned into some sort of colorful food!"
- In order to enter the Medium, Pinkie Pie needs to destroy her cruxite artifact, shaped like Rainbow Dash, with a knife. Unlike a certain fanfic counterpart, she does not savor the idea of carving up Dashie.
- The page "TS: Play a wicked trumpet solo to unwind a little" contains a reference to the Funny Background Event in "Rhythm is Magic: Peckish Pony 2".
- One of Granny Smith's stories contains a Shout-Out to APPLE.MOV: "...and she ate eleven apples and five of those were in a single sitting! Why, the rest of us just sat there and stared, I can tell you. 'Apple Bloom,' we told her, 'you can't eat all those apples!' But she went and said..."
- The shutting down of Ponibooru gets a nod when Pinkie explains how she had to abandon a certain hole she'd been using for her emergency stash of pony figurines. "Rest in peace, pony burrow."
- Maplejack, Love Lock and Dizzy Pinwheel are from this MAD episode, which itself is referencing My Little Pony. While it's somewhat hard to see, Twilight has a portrait of Starlight Bright in her library, while Rainbow Dash has one of Snow Cone.
- Golden Rule gets into an argument with Skaia over the latter's insistence that Applejack is best pony.
- Carrot Top refers to herself as a "simple mare [with] simple dreams", referencing the fan song "Beyond Her Garden". And later: "I'm going far, far beyond my garden, Bubblecup."
- A few book titles can be seen here, all the names of post-apocalyptic fanfics: Antipodes, Fallout: Equestria, and The End of Ponies.
- Bubblecup says "I am not a clever pony", alluding to the fan musician iamnotacleverpony / Not A Clever Pony.
- The Dewey Decimal System of Twilight's Fetch Modus has the same name as another pony's adopted father. This may be unintentional, though.
Other Shout-Outs
- Applejack's Fetch Modus is based on Apples to Apples.
- Friendship specibi can potentially be set to sassygaykind. Also joeykind, monicakind, phoebekind, rachelkind, chandlerkind, and rosskind.
- Pokey Pierce is turned into Pokey the Penguin.
- Fluttershy recalls the story of Daring Do and the Lady and the Tiger.
- The time-travelling Mysterious Mare-Do-Well paraphrases Back to the Future Part II: "Third, if you ever have a daughter who, when she's eight years old, accidentally sets fire to the living room rug, go easy on her."
- Pinkie Pie has a variation of shinigami eyes, as shown when she's setting up the Pegasus Rescue Party. In her case, it shows a pony's name, description and time until their next birthday, rather than time until death.
- The rainbow ponies have a song about a naughty horse named Latawnya.
- Some writing on the wall can be seen here saying "The cakes are alive."
- LoSaD as a pony is known as "Sailor LoSaD". What does that remind you of?
- If you notice closely, on Twilight's cruxite artifact, you can see the Triforce — or something resembling it, anyway.
- "All you have to do is be that authority and say something simple like 'come with me if you want to live,' and they'll follow along without asking any time-wasting questions."
- These two pages include an obvious reference to The Simpsons in Berry Punch's lines.
