Trivia / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S3 E5 "Magic Duel"

• Actor Allusion: Trixie creates a window in space to view past events and uses a spell like a computer GUI to remove Pinkie's mouth. Trixie's voice actress, Kathleen Barr, also voiced Dot Matrix on ReBoot, a show where such things would have been commonplace.
• Ascended Fanon
  • A common story for Trixie in fanfiction is that, after the events of "Boast Busters", she became a laughingstock and was unable to go anywhere with her magic show without being laughed out of town. This episode officially canonizes that.
  • The term "Alicorn" is used, which is the term used by the fandom for Winged Unicorns even though the word actually means "unicorn's horn"; more on that in a second). Indeed, the Alicorn Amulet takes the shape of a Winged Unicorn. Given the context in which it is used, however, it can refer to both a Winged Unicorn and the material that a unicorn's horn is made of, as it is increasing Trixie's unicorn powers. (The show would later use the word "alicorn" to specifically refer to the species.)
• Creator Backlash: The episode was originally written for Season 2, and creator Lauren Faust wanted to do something else with Trixie, even wanting this episode pulled.
• Development Gag: Zecora was originally created to be a secondary mentor-figure for Twilight Sparkle, but the de-emphasis of adventure stories in the first season (because slice-of-life stories were easier to write quickly) caused the idea to fall through. In this episode, Zecora helps Twilight prepare her rematch with Trixie and teaches her how to be a Guile Heroine.
• What Could Have Been: This episode was originally intended for Season 2.
  • Also, the Mayor was supposed to have some lines when Trixie discovered that Twilight's amulet she got from Zecora was a fake, which is why Cathy Weseluck is still credited for her, but it got cut for time. The scene in question involves Trixie using her magic beam to attack the Mayor as a second target after it fails with Rainbow Dash, but it fails and the Mayor just indignantly orders her to stop.