Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S2 E16 "Read It and Weep"

Take a look, she's in a book, a Reading Rainbow!

Twilight Sparkle: I think you'll like Daring [Do], she's a lot like you! Adventurous, fierce, and undeniably, unquestionably unstoppable!

Written by Cindy Morrow

Twilight Sparkle finds Pinkie Pie and Rarity watching Rainbow Dash performing a new stunt flying routine. The girls are impressed... but less so, and even a little worried, when Rainbow Dash suddenly crashes.

Rainbow Dash awakens in the hospital, with her concerned friends huddling around her bed and one wing in bandages. Sentenced to a few days' bed rest, Dash is convinced she'll be bored to tears with nothing to do and nopony to talk to except her room-mate, who's in a full-body cast and obviously not the best conversationalist. This gives Twilight the idea to pluck a book from a passing book cart, and recommend it to Rainbow Dash. Despite all her friends insisting that she'll enjoy the adventurous tale of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue and that reading is something anypony can enjoy, Dash refuses to give the book a try.

Rainbow Dash: No thanks! I so don't read. I'm a world-class athlete! Reading's for egg-heads like you, Twilight... no offense, but I am not reading. It's undeniably, unquestionably uncool!

After her friends leave, however, the tedium of her hospital stay quickly gets to Rainbow Dash, and she starts reading. She's quick to identify with the adventurous Pegasus protagonist, and is taken in by the description of Daring Do's escape from a pack of ferocious wild cats.

Rainbow Dash: I hate to admit it to myself, and I would really hate to admit it to my friends, but... I love this story! I love reading! ...I'm an egghead.

Dash reads on about Daring Do navigating the many traps of an ancient temple, and finding the treasure she's been seeking, the titular Sapphire Statue... only to be pulled back into reality by the arrival of Twilight and Fluttershy, who've brought her favorite board game and offer to play it. Rainbow Dash agrees to play, but ends up throwing the game in order to get it over with as soon as possible so she can go back to reading her book without revealing to her friends that she's into reading after all.

Daring Do manages to navigate the traps guarding the treasure, and snatches it from its pedestal... only to set off another big trap that causes the room to fill with lava! She manages to escape by climbing to a hole in the roof using collapsing pillars, but just when she thinks she's in the clear she's confronted by the evil Ahuizotl, who also has designs on the statue... and Pinkie Pie's voice?

No, it's just Dash being interrupted by her friends again, this time by Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity. Fortunately, it's also dinner time, and Dash manages to drive them off with her messy eating so she can get back to the story.

Daring Do puts up a brave fight against Ahuizotl and his feline minions but is captured and tied to an ancient death trap: spiked walls closing in, spiders, snakes, and sand flooding the room for good measure. Unfortunately, Dash gets interrupted again, this time by the doctor. Not only has Rainbow Dash been up all night reading her book, she's being discharged from the hospital soon — right now, in fact.

Desperate to see how the cliffhanger is resolved, but equally desperate to keep her new love of reading a secret, Rainbow Dash tries to get back into the hospital by playing sick. When that doesn't work, she dresses up in a black cat-suit and sneaks into the hospital, slipping under the bed of her former hospital room (which is occupied by a new patient). She manages to find the book, but before she can get to reading the hospital staff is alerted to her presence!

A frantic - and eerily familiar - chase ensues, which ends when Rainbow Dash is cornered outside Twilight's library. Confronted by the hospital staff and her friends, Rainbow Dash is forced to admit that she had enjoyed the book after all and needed to know how it ended.

Twilight Sparkle: Wow... I knew the book was good, but I didn't know it could drive a pony to petty theft.
Rainbow Dash: "Good"? Try "awesomely amazing"! That book is undeniably, unquestionably un-put-down-able!

Fortunately, Twilight is willing to loan Rainbow Dash her copy of the book, along with the other books in the Daring Do series. Rainbow Dash admits she's learned that you shouldn't knock something until you've tried it, and that you shouldn't be ashamed of your interests... though she's too busy rushing off to finish Quest for the Sapphire Statue to really put it into the form of a letter to Princess Celestia.

Dash finally finishes her story, reading how Daring Do manages to escape the death trap through judicious use of her explorer hat, then snatch the Sapphire Statue out of the paws of the evil Ahuizotl and escape. Which means now Rainbow Dash is free to start the next book in the series, Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet.

The Daring Do book series^note the non-canon, entirely-fan-made one has an actual page on here now!

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Tropes:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Daring Do.
  • Pinkie Pie and Rarity call Rainbow a "dazzling daredevil".
  • Daring Do, Sapphire Stone/Statue, Griffon's Goblet...
  • Twilight and Rainbow's trio of "un-" phrases.
• An Aesop: "Books are for everyone, not just eggheads", "Don't knock it 'til you try it", and "Don't be ashamed of the things you enjoy". Dash is too preoccupied with finishing her book to write the Friendship Report herself though.
• Artistic License – Biology: OK, we didn't expect magical talking ponies to follow any strict rules in this area, but the X-ray of Dash's wing does not resemble the bones of any bird with its Stock Femur Bone and finger bones inside some of the feathers.
• Audience Surrogate: It's pretty easy to identify with Rainbow Dash if you're one of those people who spent some time laughing at your Brony friends, before checking out the show yourself. Or even simply just prefer to hide your fondness for the show from those you know.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Rainbow Dash, when she's trying to get back into the hospital. Doctor Caramel isn't fooled.
• Bandage Mummy: The pony resting in the bed next to Rainbow Dash.
• Battleaxe Nurse: The second nurse has elements of this given the chase scene.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In-Universe. When Ahuizotl captures Daring Do, he has her surrounded by his lackeys, all of whom are flesh eating big cats... And instead leaves her alone in his spike trap.
• Boredom Montage: Dash gets one (which only lasted a minute), which eventually drives her to give the Daring Do book a try.
• Brig Ball Bouncing: After hurting her wing and getting stuck in a hospital bed, Rainbow starts killing time by bouncing a ball against the wall... until she flubs a throw and the ball rolls to a stop a couple meters from her bed.
• Cabin Fever: Rainbow Dash claims this will happen to her if she has to stay in the hospital for a few days.
  Rainbow Dash: You guys have gotta get me out of here! I'm gonna climb the walls!
• Chekhov's Gun: The pony doctor tells Rainbow as they are dismissing her from the hospital not to use the wing for a few days as it is still healing. Then, later, when Rainbow is trying to steal the book from the hospital, she attempts to take off and fly away but the wing appears to snap (quite painfully, in fact) and causing Rainbow to crash into the book cart.
• Closet Geek: Rainbow Dash is a closet "egghead". She's horrified at the idea of her friends finding out that she likes reading.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Rainbow Dash called Twilight an egghead in "Fall Weather Friends".
  • Twilight and Fluttershy are suspicious when Rainbow Dash is nonchalant about losing the board game they play with her, noting that she normally hates losing.
  • The last time a Griffon was even mentioned was in "Griffon the Brush Off"
  • The old nickname from her youth in Cloudsdale, "Rainbow Crash", gets an overdue Deconstruction.
  • "Barking Mad/Screwloose" shares some of Twilight's facial tics.
  • During the previous episode's Cold Open, Fluttershy found Rainbow Dash pulling the covers off her while she was in bed. This episode, she's apparently begun wearing a nightie to avoid the same thing happening again.
  • When Rainbow Dash crashes into a bookcase during her hospital escape and loses the book, one of the other books that falls on the floor is Super Naturals.
• Crashing Dreams: A version of this occurs twice, both times when Rainbow Dash is engrossed in reading her book.
• Creator Cameo: Director Jayson Thiessen voices the hospital security guard.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Rarity tries to reassure Rainbow Dash by pointing out "The hospital gowns, they... match the curtains!"
• Delusions of Doghood: Literally in case of the pony who runs away from the hospital — at least behaviour-wise, which, since she's a pony, is also a sort of weird justified semi-example of All Animals Are Dogs.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the first episode to feature Daring Do, and the only one that reenforces that she is a fictional character without any hint of her being real. In fact, all the Daring Do action happens within Rainbow Dash’s Imagine Spot.
• Fangirl: Rainbow Dash for Daring Do, very quickly. Also, Twilight as well.
• Faux Horrific: "I'm an egghead!"
• Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Spike does this complete with the "kiss what isn't there" gesture.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The phrases Pinkie Pie stumbles over in the cold open are synonymous with "derring-do".
  • At the beginning of the episode, Rarity mentions silk pajamas. Later in the episode, Rarity is shown wearing silk pajamas.
• Furry Reminder: Rainbow Dash nickers like a horse in fake disappointment.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: On a couple of mosquitoes buzzing around at the beginning of the first book sequence.
• Guilty Pleasures: The whole premise of the episode. The ultimate lesson is that you don't need to feel guilty about them.
• Head Desk: Rainbow Dash to the back board of her hospital bed after the Boredom Montage.
• Heel Realization: Rainbow Dash takes her sudden realization that she really enjoys reading the same way that others might take a pang of conscience.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: When Rainbow Dash suddenly jerks and disturbs the patient's sleep, her tail becomes a built-in homing device for security.
• Hilarity Ensues: When Rainbow Dash breaks into the hospital to snatch the Daring Do book from her old hospital room.
• His Name Is...: The name of the "Battleship" parody played by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle is cut off just before the latter names it.
• Hollywood Board Games: A bedridden Rainbow Dash gets enraptured by an adventure book despite her initial reluctance. This initially embarrasses her, so when her friends bring her a Battleship knock-off (with a pony and a cumulus for ships) to play, all Rainbow wants is to finish quickly the game and resume reading her book. Her friends are flabbergasted by this behavior because not only Dash is acting suspiciously but they thought they'd have better luck at cheering Rainbow up with a board game. Under normal circumstances, Twilight and Fluttershy would have been right.
  Rainbow Dash: Aw, shucks! You rained on my cumulus!
• I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Rainbow Dash in regards to reading. Complete with "shouldn't knock something until you've tried it" aesop.
• Impairment Shot: We see the rest of the Mane Six and the Doctor out of focus in the eye-shaped shot indicating Rainbow Dash is returning to consciousness after her crash.
• Insistent Terminology: There's a brief debate over whether Rainbow Dash was causing a ruckus or a fracas.
• Jabba Table Manners: Rainbow Dash invokes this, hoping her friends will leave her alone so she can get back to reading. It works.
• Life Imitates Art: In-Universe Several scenes during Rainbow's stealth-mission into the hospital and subsequent escape mirror scenes from the story. Mostly played for laughs, as some of the things she does were completely unnecessary, such as swinging over a stream when a perfectly fine bridge was already next to her.
• Major Injury Underreaction: The cold open has Rainbow injure herself off-screen while Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight watch. Pinkie's response? "So much for dazzling..."
• Match Cut: One of the times Rainbow Dash is drawn out of the story, the background fades into the hospital room, and an actual color morph from Daring Do to Rainbow Dash occurs.
• The Mentally Disturbed: When the doctor and company finally catch Rainbow Dash, we find out that the angry dog barks heard during the chase were made by a mentally disturbed mare who took the chance to join the chase for fun. She's quickly chased back to the hospital by a security guard.

• Mythology Gag:
  • When Rainbow rips the juice glass off, her face morphs into an old G1-style◊ elongated snout◊, complete with wink-at-the-audience Title Theme Drop.
  • What is she injured doing? Judging by how the other ponies follow her flight, Firefly's trademark Double Inside-Out Loop.
• Noodle Incident: It's anyone's guess as to how Rainbow Dash's roommate in the hospital got banged up so badly.
• Offscreen Crash: Rainbow Dash, at the start of the episode.
• Orphaned Punchline: During Rainbow Dash's Boredom Montage.
  Rainbow Dash: ...to get to the other side! [Beat] Get it?
• Palette Swap:
  • The trainee nurse is a recolored Twist with a nurse's cap instead of glasses and a different cutie mark.
  • Daring Do is a recolor of Rainbow Dash. The varying shades of black on her mane and tail (and the compass that makes up her cutie mark) are what gives it away.
• Pastimes Prove Personality: The aversion of this trope is the aesop for this story as Rainbow Dash realizes that simply because she learned that she likes to read doesn't change essentially who she is.
• Playing Sick: Rainbow Dash does this to get back into her hospital room and finish the book. The doctor doesn't buy it for a second.
• Product Placement: What do you know? Rainbow Dash's favorite board game happens to a pony version of a certain Hasbro property.
• Reaction Shot: We never exactly see how Rainbow Dash lost control and crashed, we can only rely on her friends' reactions.
• "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: The letter to Celestia this time around is this trope.
• Running Gag: "It's undeniably, unquestionably un________!"
• The Runt at the End: When Rainbow is trying to escape the hospital, she finds her way blocked by Dr. Caramel, two fairly imposing nurses, and... an adorable little trainee nurse. (Which mirrors a scene from the book.)
• Schizo Tech:
  • The hospital can take an X-ray of Rainbow Dash's broken wing, but she has to use fireflies in her lantern to read at night.
  • The hospital staff also have flashlights.
  • The doctor's cutie mark is an EKG screen. For that matter, we can hear an EKG beeping in the hospital room, but don't actually see it.
  • Let's not forget Dash has a lamp on her bedside table, but still makes use of a lantern. Notable as the lamp clicks on and off as though powered by electricity (well, magic), but the lantern has fireflies.
  • The hospital's security guard has a police-style radio mic clipped to the shoulder of his uniform.
• Separate Scene Storytelling: How the "Daring-Do" story is presented.

• Shout-Out:
  • A bored Rainbow Dash bounces a ball like Steve McQueen's in The Great Escape.
  • Pinkie Pie wonders if Dash gained spider powers from crashing. The doctor then states she did not, nor did she gain healing powers.
  • Pinkie's earlier reaction before Dash crashed? Alpha 5 would be proud.
  • The game Twilight and Fluttershy bring for Rainbow is pretty much Battleship (also a Hasbro-owned property) with a Pegasus-appropriate theme.
  • When Rainbow Dash first starts reading the book, the musical cue and narration echo Bastian's first look into The Neverending Story.
  • Also, this episode is about a pony named Rainbow discovering the joys of reading.
  • Applejack says the food in the hospital is "hoof-lickin' good", arguably a reference to a long-time slogan of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
• Show Within a Show: ''Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone''. (See the separate section below.)
• Sickening "Crunch!": The noise that Rainbow Dash's wing makes when it snaps again is quite cringe-worthy.
• Sick Episode: Broken-wing episode.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Pinkie Pie doesn't think her head is shaped like an egg. More like an apple, or an orange — but a really big orange! Or more of a grapefruit, maybe...
• Sounding It Out: Rainbow Dash being unused to books, she apparently needs to read out loud.
• Something Itis: Rainbow Dash fakes being injured after recovering because she wants to continue reading Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. The doctor sees through this and diagnoses her with "lazy-itis".
• Spy Catsuit: Rainbow Dash dresses in one to sneak into the hospital and finish the book.
• Stealth Pun
  • What does the mentally ill pony have for a cutie mark? A screw. A single screw. In other words, a "loose screw". She's also quite literally barking mad.
  • Dash is literally reading "tales of derring-do" (stories in which the title character's name is Daring Do).
  • Her "blowing out" the lantern, which consists of trapped fireflies.
  • The aesop, "Don't knock it 'til you try it", is another way of saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

• Stock Femur Bone: The X-Ray of Rainbow Dash's wing shows it being made up mostly of stylized femurs.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Rainbow Dash denies wanting to read the Daring Do books when Twilight says "do", even though she wasn't even talking about the books.
• Take Our Word for It: We see none of the dazzling, daredevil flying tricks Rainbow Dash was performing at the start of episode save for a single loop-the-loop, nor her apparently horrific crash at the end. Probably wise, because it would have to be pretty horrific to be worse than everything that's happened to Dash on-screen so far.
• Technicolor Ninja: Rainbow Dash has no trouble sneaking into the hospital in her catsuit. But then we get to the reading scene under the bed.
• Time-Compression Montage:
  • The whole episode is pretty much a giant montage, as time passes extremely quickly between transitions of Rainbow reading the book and events outside of the story.
  • Subverted with Dash's Boredom Montage; the montage ends up taking up the same amount of time in-universe as it did on the screen (about 60 seconds).
• Twisted Ankle: The reason Rainbow Dash was running instead of flying, making it possible for the ponies to catch up to her.
• Unmanly Secret: Rainbow Dash feels that nobody can know that she, being the sportish flying pony that she is, likes something egg-head like such as reading and she goes to increasingly elaborate lengths both to hide it and to get her book back.
• Urgent Medical Alert: The "she's stealing my slippers!" alarm brings the entire hospital staff (and one mental patient) running.
• Vocal Dissonance
  • Played for laughs. Pinkie Pie greets Rainbow Dash just when she first reads about Ahuizotl, causing the character to temporarily speak with her voice.
  • And later we discover that the attack dogs we kept hearing during Rainbow Dash's chase scene were just the barks of a mentally disturbed mare who used the confusion to leave the hospital.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: Rainbow Dash awakens in the hospital after her accident.
• With Cat Like Tread: Rainbow Dash sneaks into the hospital wearing a Spy Catsuit that doesn't even cover her tail, and she gets caught up in a fantasy when she finds the book.

The Book Within the Show Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone provides examples of:

Note: For an in-universe trope page of the series, click here.

• Abnormal Ammo: One death trap that Daring evades are ravaging crocodiles — from the ceiling.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Daring Do braves a jungle and a temple of doom and a Bond Villain to find a priceless artifact. No wonder Rainbow Dash fangirls her.
• Animal Assassin: Spiders and cobras are part of the Death Trap.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Daring Do is attacked by a cheetah, a panther, a tiger, a lynx, and an adorable pussycat.
• Big "NO!": Ahuizotl lets one out after Daring Do steals the Sapphire Statuette away from him.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Ahuizotl captures his nemesis, puts her in a Death Trap and then leaves to her to her own devices with no one to keep an eye on her.
• Booby Trap: Of course, being an Indiana Jones parody, this includes... Rise to the Challenge, Spikes of Doom, The Walls Are Closing In and a variation where all three happen at once. With added poisonous animals.
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The pattern for the titles of the Daring Do books.
• Cliché Storm: The book is an in-universe example, condensing every Adventurer Archaeologist cliché into a few minutes and boasting a more generically extremely clichéd villain.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Daring Do's escape from a room filling with lava, at one point with her standing inches above it (bare-hooved, even), without harm. She even gets a face-full of steam with no ill effects.
• Covers Always Lie: In-Universe. The scene on the cover of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue never occurs. Also, the title appears to read Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, as this is what Rainbow Dash calls the book when she's holding it (near the end of the episode, she says "statue" instead of "stone"). The MacGuffin in the book is most definitely a statue, not a stone.
• Death Course: Daring Do goes through two of them one after another, but only one is ever shown on-screen.
• Death Trap: Ahuizotl puts Daring Do in one after he captures her, instead of just having his animals just maul her to death. Then again, it was a really, really good death trap.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Daring-Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone is a tautology. "Sapphire" already means "dark blue precious stone". Unless it's the adjective sapphire, which just means "dark blue".
• Evil Is Hammy: Ahuizotl loves to gloat and then shout how his heroine nemesis has foiled him.
• Expy:
  • Daring Do is clearly an Indiana Jones expy (right down to the hat), although the way she dodges traps also has elements of Lara Croft. She's also an in-universe example of RD, of course.
  • Ahuizotl is René Belloq meets Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Ahuizotl's eyes are a little too close to his nose. Or, if you compare his head to a canine's, he has eyes where his nostrils should be (with his real, small nose crammed between them).
• Failed a Spot Check: The book opens with Daring Do "surrounded by the sounds of predators", upon which one particularly nasty-looking cat appears RIGHT IN HER FACE.
• Handicapped Badass: Daring Do spends the whole story with a damaged wing, unable to fly.
• Homage: Daring Do and her whole adventure is a pony version of Indiana Jones. The story Rainbow Dash reads includes references to the "step on the right tiles" puzzle from Last Crusade followed by a gesture-by-gesture recreation of his stealing the idol from the opening of Raiders.
• Improbable Weapon User: One of Ahuizotl's cats is holding a mace as they corner Daring Do.
• In Medias Res: The book Rainbow Dash reads is supposed to be the first one in the Daring Do series. It begins with her as an already established adventurer, in the middle of an adventure, and talks about her nemesis as if the reader should already be familiar with him.
• Indy Hat Roll: A variation, as Daring doesn't have to rescue her hat.
• Irony: Ahuizotl (who, as in Aztec Mythology, is dog-like) surrounds himself with cats, and even has a cat whistle.
• Knife Outline: One trap triggers a volley of arrows that form the shape of a pegasus pony on the opposite wall.
• Large Ham: Ahuizotl has a presence as big as Rainbow Dash's ego.
• Long Runner: Assuming that giant stack in the final scene is completely made up of this series. It's enough to induce Archive Panic by proxy.
• MacGuffin: The Sapphire Stone/Statue. Apparently Ahuizotl wants it as part of his plan to take over the world, but it's far from clear how.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: In true Indiana Jones fashion, Ahuizotl captures Daring Do and steals the Sapphire MacGuffin as soon as she escapes from the temple with it.
• Mayincatec: The architectural style of the temple where the Sapphire Statue is kept. (However, the statue itself looks like a two-headed Anubis.)
• Meaningful Echo: The story Rainbow Dash reads starts out exactly the same way as the episode itself, with Daring Do injuring her wing in a crash landing and unable to fly for a few days.
  Rainbow Dash/Daring Do: A few days? It might as well be a few months, or a few years...
• Meaningful Name: Daring Do (derring-do, being a word for heroic escapades) is a perfect description of what said character does.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Parodied — a lynx, a panther, a cheetah, a tiger, and an adorable putty tat all chase Daring Do through the Equestrian analogue of the South American jungle. This is later justified by the reveal that they're actually Ahuizotl's henchmen, and thus not actually native fauna of the area.
• Mythology Upgrade: Ahuizotl goes from being a mindless predator to a Bond villain. Then again, considering his Bond Villain Stupidity, it might be a downgrade.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: God knows how an ancient being of vaguely Mesoamerican background would speak, but it's probably not with a phony-baloney Hispanic/Transylvanian vampire accent.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Daring Do says "Uhhh, not again." when Ahuizotl flips a switch and leaves her tied up in a Death Trap.
• Older Than They Think:invoked You might think the villain Ahuizotl was made up for the episode, you'd be wrong.
• Palette Swap: Daring Do is a palette-swapped Rainbow Dash; specifically, a yellow coat, gray-scale mane, different eye color, and a different cutie mark. Probably, this was done to highlight the similarities between them, as Twilight notes.
  Twilight Sparkle: I think you'd like Daring — she's a lot like you!
• Panthera Awesome: Ahuizotl employs a pack of them, including a tiger, a panther, a cheetah, a lynx, and an adorable little white kitty cat.
• Pinball Projectile: Daring Do's safari hat when she launches it to release the lever in the deathtrap is one of these.
• Pressure Plate: All over the Temple of Doom, naturally.
• Raiders of the Lost Parody: An Adventurer Archaeologist protagonist? Check! Mysterious temple filled with booby traps? Check! A hidden treasure that upon removal sets off an ancient self-destruct-like mechanism? Check! Managing to escape only to be captured by the Big Bad? Double Check!
• Red Herring: Admit it: you were expecting the giant boulder when the idol stealing scene started.
• Retraux: The whole Indiana Jones motif is furthered by utilization of film grain and color fading, to make it look like it's being played by a film projector. Additionally, the 2.35:1 aspect ratio is emulated with letter-boxing.
• Right-Hand Cat: The fluffy white kitten from earlier in the episode, to Ahuizotl. He even does the classical cat-petting while monologuing.
• The Runt at the End: Daring Do is pursued by a tiger, a cheetah, a lynx, a panther, and... an adorable but very angry white kitten.
• Say My Name: "CURSE YOU DARING-DOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
• Shaped Like Itself: Daring-Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone is a tautology. "Sapphire" already means "dark blue precious stone". Unless it's the adjective sapphire, which just means "dark blue".
• Shout-Out:
  • Ahuizotl and his little white cat to the James Bond villain Blofeld.
  • At the end of the episode, Dash begins reading the second book in the Daring Do series. Its title? The Griffin's Goblet. Also worth noting that this is the sequel to The Sapphire Stone. The number of books in the series doubles as another Harry Potter Shout-Out.
  • The way Daring Do escapes from the deathtrap might be a shout out to Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • After Daring clears the picture-tile trap, the music briefly sounds like something out of The Legend of Zelda.
  • When Daring Do stumbles across the temple, and later when first walking into it, the music is reminiscent of Aladdin. Also, the temple itself has jewels for eyes, a gaping maw for an entrance, and disturbing the treasure inside leads to the floor crumbling into lava.
• Shown Their Work: Ahuizotl is based on the creature of the same name from Aztec Mythology. His depiction is pretty much exactly the same as the character in Aztec Mythology (albeit very slightly Lighter and Softer), and his appearance is almost dead on (any alterations can be explained as fitting the art style of the show).
• Show Within a Show: Daring Do is a book series in Friendship Is Magic.
• Stealth Pun: The cat whistle. Would that make it a cat-call?
• Stock Parodies: Indiana Jones, of course. Perhaps even a parody of a parody, as Daring-Do's method of "carefully" retrieving the Stone are about as, er, meticulous as when "Weird Al" Yankovic does it in his stock Indiana Jones' parody in the film UHF.
• Sudden Name Change: When the book first appears, it's explicitly name-dropped as "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone". When Dash first begins to read it, it's suddenly "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue" and remains as such for the rest of the episode (though the cover still says "Stone").
• Temple of Doom: The ancient looking temple with the sapphire stone and the death traps.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Ahuizotl traps Daring Do in a room with closing spike walls, poisonous spiders, and cobras. All while the room is filling with quicksand.
• Two-Fisted Tales: If the "Quest for the Sapphire Statue" is any indication, the Daring Do series of books would fall under this genre.
• Weight and Switch: Spoofed when Daring Do makes a big show of preparing for it then just grabbing the idol off the platform.

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Rainbow Dash: And so, with Ahuizotl defeated and the Sapphire Statue secured, the world was safe and sound once again. Thanks to Daring Do!
[set book aside, picks up another]
Rainbow Dash: Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet... Awesome! /)^3^(\

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