Animals
Someone on staff knows their animals. Storyboardists Sabrina "Sibsy" Alberghetti and Raven Molisee attribute this to Lauren Faust; her series bible had both real horse pictures and anatomy next to her pony drawings to compare anatomy and how limbs and other parts would bend. The storyboardists also had similar pictures to work from. Lauren had insisted they avoid making the ponies perform actions that would be too much like a humans' action (bending a hoof like a hand grabbing something, for example).
Pony anatomy and behavior:
- In many episodes (one of the more obvious examples is at Gummy's birthday party in "Party of One"), the ponies are shown casually shoving each other around with headbutts and Ass Kicks. This isn't Slapstick though — Real Life horses are known for being very rambunctious when at play, which is why human roughhousing is sometimes called "horseplay".
- Horses will sometimes move one of their front legs in a kicking motion when they're nervous, which is what Fluttershy does after encountering Twilight Sparkle in the first episode.
- Horses flick their tails both to shoo away pests and to show they're starting to get aggravated. This shows up multiple times in the series, like Rainbow Dash getting annoyed after some bullies taunt her during "Sonic Rainboom" and Twilight using her tail to swat at parasprites in "Swarm of the Century".
- When Applejack pokes Big Macintosh in the ribs in "Applebuck Season", he responds by suddenly raising his hind leg up high and glaring at her, as any horse would do when they're getting ready to kick.
- The way the ponies move in general is very well done. When not being exaggerated for comedy, their joints bend in the same places a real ungulate would, and they have correctly animated gaits (i.e walk, trot, canter, gallop) depending on how fast they're moving.
- The ponies usually pin their ears back when angry or frightened.
- If pushed far enough, a disobedient horse will sit down on its rump and refuse to move, exactly like Pinkie does when she refuses to go with Rainbow Dash in "Party of One".
- Zecora's digging isn't explained in the show, but real zebras dig for water in the same fashion. The same behavior by a horse, however, is a threat display, so the scene actually makes MORE contextual sense — Zecora was probably just nervous or a little thirsty, but the ponies around her misinterpreted her body language as being grumpy and aggressive.
- In the song "The Art of the Dress", Rarity names specific equine anatomy terms as she designs and constructs the appropriate dress parts for them (ex: "Don't forget some magic in the dress/Even though it rides high on the flank").
- While Pinkie may be a little strange, she wasn't just rolling around in the grass to be weird in "Feeling Pinkie Keen". A lot of mammals, including horses, do that for any number of reasons, whether they're scratching a tough itch, relieving stress, or just having some fun in the sun.
- Pinkie Pie's method of removing pie filling from her face by covering it with molten chocolate, letting it dry, and then chipping it off is how some animals remove wet residues from their face. Problem is, the animals that usually do this are carnivores in the process of cleaning off blood.
- In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", filly Fluttershy is drawn differently from other on-screen fillies by being given a small body with long, gangly legs. It's accurate to how actual foals and other young ungulates look, but the rest of the fillies had more human baby-like proportions (round bodies, short and stumpy legs, large head with big eyes).
- In "The Return of Harmony Part 2", once the ponies capture brainwashed Rainbow Dash she starts to snort and flare her nostrils, which is equine body language for "get the hell away from me".
- The ponies' mindsets are also very accurate. Horses are incredibly skittish prey animals, and as a result, they can easily freak out and panic at the drop of a hat unless they get that jumpiness trained out of them.
- In "Hearth's Warming Eve", when Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead, and Commander Hurricane grew impatient they began stamping their hooves on their ground.
- The clicking noise Pinkie makes in "Baby Cakes" when she thinks Pound Cake has wandered off is a sound that people who work with horses use as a command signal to get the animal's attention.
- Fluttershy greets the Manticore by leaning forward with her nose. A friendly, relaxed horse does this when they're saying hello or curious about something.
- In "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", Pinkie Pie scratches herself behind her ear like a dog. Foals can do this when they're young and skinny, but are unable to once they're fully grown.
- From "The Cutie Pox": it's easy to miss, but every step of Twilight's buck when she dumps Spike (for a lame joke in a serious situation) is exactly how a real horse would dump its rider, including her flattened ears and leading with her front legs first to put the "snap" into the whole motion.
- Those aren't Wimp Fights that the Cutie Map shows Twilight in the Crystal War timeline from "The Cutie Remark, Part 1"; that's how horses really fight.
- Pinkie Pie's behavior in "The Cutie Map: Part 1" is exactly how an angry/scared horse would behave; she stands with her front legs locked and slightly splayed, her head slightly lowered and ears pinned (snaking) and when Starlight Glimmer moves behind her, Pinkie lifts a hind leg and glares at her, which is equine body language for, "Get away from me now, or I will hurt you."
Anatomy and behavior of other animals:
- Sexual dimorphism is accurately depicted in Fluttershy's mallard friends.
- In the episode "Dragonshy", Fluttershy is shown falling over stiff-leggedly on several occasions... accompanied by the sound of a goat bleating. This is a reference to fainting goats
, a breed of goat famous for their weird habit of freezing up and flopping to the ground when they're startled. - Little Strongheart from "Over A Barrel" is the correct size and colour for a young bison.
- The goats from "Putting Your Hoof Down" have rectangular pupils, as opposed to circular ones.
- In "Somepony to Watch Over Me", the chimera's snake head tells her sisters to speak up because she can't hear them very well. Reptiles have vestigial ears that can only listen to vibrations and low-frequency airborne sounds. As for her siblings, the goat head again has rectangular pupils and the tiger head is based off of saber-toothed cats. Not only does she have their signature oversized fangs, but also possesses a stocky build like larger sabretooth species such as Smilodon (although in "School Raze - Part 2" the sabretooth part of her has a long tail, which suggests she's probably a Machairodus).
- As Fluttershy points out in "Tanks For the Memories", some species of tortoises burrow into the ground and brumate for the winter, and Tank's digging animation when he prepares for brumation is surprisingly accurate to the real thing. The only incorrect detail is that it's still referred to as hibernation, but that's just for the sake of simplifying things for the audience since they're conceptually similar anyways.
- In "Surf and/or Turf", a bald eagle that briefly appears with Sweetie Belle during the song "Your Heart is in Two Places" lets out the cry of an actual bald eagle, rather than a red-tailed hawk screech. Sound editors usually make this mistake on purpose because bald eagle calls are actually pretty pathetic compared to the bird itself, so it's refreshing to see someone buck the trend here.
- Aurora, Bori, and Alice from My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever are female reindeer that all have antlers. Reindeer/caribou are the only species of deer in which the females have antlers like the males. Appropriate choice too, since males shed their antlers during the winter during which the special takes place. Usually, Christmas animated specials would omit the antlers of female reindeer due to confusion with other deer species. And in general, while they are still stylized the three look more like actual reindeer than most cartoon reindeer, particularly having just two nostrils rather than dog-like noses that may be shiny.
Other
- 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 from adding the melted gummy worms.)
- Applejack uses the correct game terminology while playing horseshoes with Rainbow Dash in "Fall Weather Friends".
- Fluttershy's "freaky knowledge" of fashion when Rarity presses her for criticism.
- Dragons are always shown hoarding treasure and eating gemstones, because classic mythology describes dragons using precious jewels to fuel their flames.
- A rock Rarity is looking at is broken by the effect of Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. It seems crazy, but sound waves can split rocks if they're concentrated enough; in fact, there's a form of kidney stone therapy called lithotripsy that uses ultrasound pulses to break them down into smaller pieces so they can be safely passed.
- There's absolutely nothing wrong with Twilight's description of comets in "Owl's Well That Ends Well".
- A minor one, but in "Luna Eclipsed", Princess Luna speaks in the Majestic Plural.
- 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. 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.
- One of Daring Do's nemeses is Ahuizotl, an authentic Aztec creature. Do they really expect kids to get these references?
- In another mythology example: Iron Will, who's a Minotaur, is initially encountered in a maze. In Greek mythology, the original Minotaur was kept in a maze constructed by Daedalus note under the order of King Minos.
- In "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" they show a lot of work: cider season is a real thing that only lasts a few weeks, homemade cider has no meaningful shelf life and must be fresh-pressed every day, 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.
- While the Chimera from "Somepony to Watch Over Me" has a few minor differences (the lion head has been replaced by a tiger, likely to distinguish her from the show's manticores, and the goat head has been moved next to the tiger head), she's otherwise very faithful to her mythical counterpart, having three heads and lacking wings. Her home, the Flame Geyser Swamp, may even be based on Mount Chimaera, a mountain in Lycia notorious for its constant burning fires which is believed to be the origin place for the myth of the chimera. This area is believed to be Yanartas, a geographical site of fire and methane eruptions found on Turkey. Her next appearance in the "School Raze" two-parter also shows her goat head as being able to breathe fire.
- "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone":
- Griffons hoarding treasure makes a lot of sense, since the original griffon legends painted them as guardians of riches and rare artifacts.
- Similarly, Arimaspi is based on a mythological race of one-eyed people who constantly feuded with griffons over the gold and treasures found in their northern homeland. The Idol of Boreas is named after the god of the North Wind, Boreas, who factors into this legend.
- Coriander Cumin and Saffron Masala, the father-daughter pair from "Spice Up Your Life", come from a culture based on India, and thus the restaurant's dishes seen on-screen such as naan (flatbread) and thukpa (spicy flat noodle soup) are actual Indian cuisine that's commonly eaten.
- The Kirin are represented as calm creatures, but when angered, they burst into flame. The mythological Kirin was indeed a peaceful creature, but would use holy fire if someone ever got it angry enough.
