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Hilarious In Hindsight / My Little Pony

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    Hilarious In Hindsight moments from My Little Pony 
General
  • During an interview at a MLP convention back in 2008, Bonnie Zacherle, the creator of MLP, stated that she originally envisioned the MLP franchise as gender neutral, in other words something aimed at both girls and boys. It was the suits at Hasbro who decided that the toys should be marketed exclusively to girls (which, among other things, meant amping up the amount of ponies with pink and purple colors). During the interview, Bonnie remarked that nevertheless there were definitely many boys who enjoyed the toys, and that she "felt bad" that the franchise came to be marketed exclusively to girls because "why shouldn't boys play with ponies too?". Flash forward to 2010 when a certain MLP-reboot is released that is specifically designed to appeal to both genders, and which indeed manages to attract an absolutely enormous amount of male fans. Bonnie must be happy!
    • Bonnie appeared at a 2013 toy convention and was asked point-blank about the Brony phenomenon by a female collector. Bonnie reiterated that she had always intended MLP toys to be gender-neutral and was pleased that boys and men were finally enjoying the franchise, though there had already been boys and men who were fans of past incarnations.
  • One of the ponies from the original series was named Princess Serena.
  • Do you know of this series now? Well try watching Fantasia...or just The first part of Pastoral Symphony. Or just look at the comments.
  • There were really only a few ponies with the title "Queen", unless you count Chrysalis in FIM. One was a "G2" pony named Sunsparkle and she had a Cutie Mark very similar to Celestia◊. In Friendship is Magic's development Celestia was meant to be a queen until Executive Meddling got their way.

My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)

You have to find a home;
How about the Astrodome?

My Little Pony 'n Friends

  • Moondreamers featured a bear named Ursa Major, something that would eventually find its way back into MLP-related media 23 years later in Friendship is Magic.
  • In Baby, It's Cold Outside, Megan and the ponies go north to find the southern birds.
  • Megan and Molly's brother Danny was essentially an in-universe Brony long before the term came about.
  • In "Mish Mash Melee", Shady, a pink pony, says "Okey dokey".
  • The conflict of "Crunch the Rockdog" centers around a benevolent, powerful Genius Loci (the mountain) turning evil when its heart is removed and another giant rock monster being stopped when the heroes successfully insert a heart into it. Make one Composite Character for the 2 villains and another for the group of female heroes on The Quest, and you have a condensed version of Disney's Moana.
  • During one of the song numbers, Wind Whistler suggests that a perfect gift for a troll would be a dictionary.
  • The sole unicorn Princess Pony was Princess Sparkle.

My Little Pony (UK Comics)

My Little Pony (G3)

  • After Friendship is Magic brought a completely redesigned Rainbow Dash, the line in the "G3"/Core 7 opening that says "Rainbow Dash always dresses in style" sounds pretty ironic, and of course it went through Memetic Mutation, as seen here.
  • Another one involving Rainbow Dash. She didn't believe in "flying ponies" (pegasi) in "Friends Are Never Far Away", but then comes in Friendship is Magic and her rebooted character is a pegasus. And not just "a" pegasus, but one of the strongest flyers in the series — and proud of it.
  • In the "G3.5" Twinkle Wish Adventure, a blooper gives Cheerilee googly eyes for about a second. This was over two years before Derpy.
  • In My Little Pony Live: The World's Biggest Tea Party, Spike mentions getting his "How to..." book from a "kindly old troll". If one considers the thousands-of-years-old Princess Celestia's memetic reputation as a troll, this is pretty snicker-worthy.
  • A "G3.5" toy had Pinkie Pie with curly hair◊ at a time when her mane was straight. Come a year or two later and Pinkie Pie actually has curly hair.
    • But her hair becomes straight when she's Pinkamena.
  • Tabitha St. Germain plays Wysteria, who is made a princess in The Princess Promenade. Come Friendship is Magic, one of her bigger roles is Princess Luna. At one point in the movie, Spike also says that a princess does not raise her voice. The Royal Canterlot Voice would beg to differ.
  • Here, Ellen Kennedy voices a stylist named Daffidazey who spruces Spike up after his 1000-year nap ends in the present day. ...then in FIM, she plays the Mane-iac, a stylist who turned into an insane supervillain.
  • "Rainbow Dash always dresses in style!" While this is true for the third generation Rainbow Dash, this is completely contrary to the tomboyish one of the fourth generation. This is because the Friendship is Magic Rainbow Dash is simply Firefly, an equally energetic pegasus who loved to fly, with Rainbow Dash's colors.
    • But then there's that preppy outfit she wore in May The Best Pet Win... And the gala dress Rarity made for her.
      • When Rarity gains Green Lantern-grade conjuration powers in Inspiration Manifestation, she promptly tracks down Rainbow Dash and conjures an elaborate dress around her in midair. Dash is not amused. The fandom is.
    • The garish outfit Fashion Style Rainbow Dash ships with. Dresses in style indeed.
    • In fact, RD doesn't hate all things "girly" the way a tomboy character is "supposed" to, and by now has "dressed in style" many times at major events instead of refusing as expected. (In fact, the famed "It just needs to be 20% cooler" line was about a dress.)
  • While we're on the third series theme song, the line after that is "Sweetie Belle's magic brings a great big smile." So naturally, FIM Sweetie Belle... is a filly who can't use magic yet. (Mind you, "G3" Sweetie Belle herself never made good on those lyrics either; a tiny spark gleaming on her horn when we hear that line is all we get, making FIM Sweetie Belle doing the same thing once when excited a possible Homage.) However, as of season four, Sweetie Belle is learning.
    • "G3" Sweetie Belle is a Supreme Chef. FIM Sweetie Belle manages to burn juice.
    • More incarnational irony in the form of Scootaloo: "G3" Scootaloo has a scooter when released in the "Scootin' Along With [name]" set. We only see it used in one very quick moment in the "Meet the Ponies" DVD. FIM Scootaloo on the other hand can do all manner of stunts and outrun a train. You'd really expect the toyline to feature what really is her trademark accessory. As Big Mac would put it... Nnnope.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • The best example has to this. Back in 2008 Lauren Faust posted a poll on her DeviantArt page asking if any of her followers were My Little Pony fans. At the time it wasn't announced that she was involved in a reboot and one of her comments says she has a "very specific reason" on why she's asking her fans about ponies. One fan, a male at that, says he likes cute ponies and isn't afraid to admit to it. Lauren had this to say.
    Lauren Faust: My favorite kind of guy!!!!! Wish there were more guys like you...
  • Twilight Sparkle was named before... well.note 
    • An "urban legend" that went around the Internet forums was the rumor that Twilight Sparkle was supposed to be named Twilight Twinkle, after a G3 pony. When someone asked Lauren Faust if "Twilight Sparkle" was intentional, the only reply she gave was "It passed legal."
  • The End of the Creator Driven Era mourned how terrible it was that such great people were going on to work for a show like MLP, and how it meant the end of original animation. The article actually caused people to watch the show that the writer decried, resulting in 4Chan picking up on it and a rapid surge in its popularity, leading to the brony fandom.
    • In turn, the success of Friendship is Magic probably saved creator-driven animation, as it gave Lauren leverage needed to start her own series, and it paved way for other, creator-driven series with similar themes like Steven Universe.
  • One of the common complaints about Twilight Sparkle's toy was that it had replaced Spike with an owl. Come the plot of "Owl's Well That Ends Well", however...
  • When Photo Finish made her début in "Green Isn't Your Color", nearly everyone compared her appearance to Lady Gaga. However, she is actually an homage to Vogue editor Anna Wintour. What makes this hilarious in hindsight? This statement from Lady Gaga, which has a minor Take That! to Wintour:
    I’ll never forget when Anna Wintour called me to play at this event, she called me and said, "I would like you to play at the Met gala, but I just want to make sure, because I’ve seen you perform before, that you won’t be swearing during the performance." So Anna, I will do my f#@&ing best!
  • Knowing anything about fashion makes MLP even funnier when you realize that Hoity Toity, who is based on Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, speaks with Wintour's accent, while Photo Finish speaks with Lagerfeld's accent.
  • Pinkie Pie's comment in the pilot about quiet parties being boring seems like a throw-away comment; fast-forward to the Grand Galloping Gala, and Pinkie's first excitement of the event is quickly dashed when she finds it's exactly the kind of quiet, stuffy party she lambasted.
  • Also from the pilot, Twilight Sparkle's mane and tail turn into fire thanks to drinking hot sauce. Fast forward to the high point of "Feeling Pinkie Keen"...
  • In "Sonic Rainboom", one of the pegasus bullies tells Rainbow Dash that she should get herself some wings like Rarity's. Almost six months later, the first image of the Glimmer Wings Rainbow Dash toy was leaked.
  • Before the show, a "pink pony" was (and still is, admittedly) associated with trippy hallucinations, a crazy person, or a Non Sequitur, *Thud* from someone who is just knocked out. Then in prances Pinkie Pie...
  • In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", Rarity finds a big rock and is underwhelmed by it. In the next season... Although this is due to Discord's mind-games and hypnosis taking hold of her.
  • This Real Trailer, Fake Movie, which was actually inspired by the Transformers (2007) and GI Joe movies, and predates FiM by about a year.
  • In August 2011, a fanfic called Writer's Block was released that revolved around Twilight Sparkle having trouble coming up with a friendship lesson to send to Princess Celestia. Then came the season 2 episode "Lesson Zero"...
    • Similarly, one fanfic submitted for Equestria Daily's "April Foal's" contest was "Big Dragon", in which Spike grows humongous overnight, gives in to his draconic hoarding instincts, and engages in a King Kong (1933) homage with Rarity in the Fay Wray role. This was published about eight months before "Secret of My Excess", in which... well, yeah.
    • The fanfic Fluttersertive was written well before "Putting Your Hoof Down" was announced, but both roughly revolve around Fluttershy causing trouble and becoming a Jerkass after taking some assertiveness training too far.
    • In Surprise, Surprise, Pinkie Pie is at first thrilled to meet the eponymous pegasus who is so much like her, until her friends take to the newcomer a bit too much, and she feels she's being pushed aside. Finally she has had enough, decides to fight for her place, then realizes she's been a big Jerkass about it, goes to apologize, and finds out that not only did Surprise not intend to steal her thunder, it was Pinkie herself who inspired the formerly unpopular Surprise to become a party-pony. Then "Pinkie Pride" airs... basically, replace Surprise with Weird Al. You gotta wonder if the writer was secretly a member of the show staff or something, because it hits every note in exactly the same order. Of course, Surprise isn't quite as epic as Weird Al, because who is?
  • Someone ponified Q and Picard well before Discord was revealed.
  • Fan-favorite background pony Carrot Top has a pretty epic scene in "Over a Barrel" where she jumps out of a building and kicks buffalo ass like an action movie star. She was eventually given the All There in the Script name Golden Harvest. It's fitting if you think about it.
  • The Riding Along with Rainbow Dash toy was released well before the first airing of "May the Best Pet Win!" (Word of God says that "May The Best Pet Win!" was conceived and written almost a year before it aired, and the toy was first revealed at around the same time, so there may or may not be a connection here.)
  • One fan made a custom Lyra Heartstrings toy by repainting a Twilight Sparkle toy, almost three months before Lyra's first official toy◊ was first glimpsed.
  • At the end of "Lesson Zero", Spike tries to add a postscript to the Mane Six's joint letter to Celestia that he didn't need to learn the lesson of the day. At the end of "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", Applejack actually does send a letter to Celestia stating that she didn't need to learn anything from the events of that episode.
  • Cadance, foreshadowed by Pink Hasbro Celestia. Which in turn was retooled into a proper Cadance toy.
    • Speaking of Cadance, anybody remember that banner with the Mane Six all in funny hats straight out of the Prince William wedding? Except Applejack, who's still in her cowboy hat - which didn't happen until the end of the actual episode.
  • Cadance bears a lot of similarities to Cadence from Club Penguin, mainly having almost the same name and color scheme. A few instances of this would be:
    • The episode "A Canterlot Wedding" with the song "This Day Aria" aired in the same year (but earlier) as Club Penguin's first music video, sung by Cadence.
    • During the Star Wars takeover party in Club Penguin, Cadence was in the role of Princess Leia, and went by the name of Princess Cadence. Name is the same even more than it already was.
    • Lastly, Cadence's hairstyle after her redesign in Club Penguin Island resembles that of Princess Cadance more than her original one.
  • In the first episode an exasperated Twilight Sparkle remarked: "All the ponies in this town are CRAZY!" Throughout the rest of the season, each of the mane cast (including Twilight herself) had a mental breakdown. It only got funnier when Twilight had an even bigger breakdown in "Lesson Zero".
    • If one stops to think about it, oddball behavior actually doesn't seem all that unusual for inhabitants of Ponyville in general, even the background ponies. So maybe Twilight inadvertently hit the nail on the head...
  • A bit of (arguable) controversy in the fan art community arose from the creator of Cteno, a blob monster masquerading as a pony, intended to troll the fandom. Now that other creatures masquerading as ponies actually did appear in the show...
  • Many episodes, most notably "The Best Night Ever" and "A Canterlot Wedding", contain some obvious Shout Outs to various Disney movies. Guess what company was rumored to be planning on buying Hasbro.
    • For the same reason, the title of this parody video.
  • In "The Crystal Empire, Part 1", Cadance comments "We should meet sometime when the fate of Equestria isn't in the balance." Eleven episodes later, they did in "Games Ponies Play"
  • This comic, made just before A Canterlot Wedding aired, features Rarity being excited that Twilight's brother is getting married, and laments that Twilight is not a princess, because she could marry a prince and have a huge wedding. At the time, it was a reference to The Ticket Master, but then came "Magical Mystery Cure", in which Twilight does indeed become a princess.
  • The Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) fanfic is funnier after you've read this article about Ikea selling horse meat in their meatballs, along with horsemeat being found in beefburgers sold by Tesco.
    • Funnier still when we find out that she really does have a secret basement full of information on every pony around. However, in the show it's depicted as how she's Crazy-Prepared for everyone's party needs, and that she's not as scatterbrained as she seems.
  • The fandom has made countless Fluttershy-as-The Incredible Hulk jokes. "Power Ponies" makes it canon.
  • On 28 December 2012, a fanfiction was uploaded to FIM Fiction Dot Net entitled Nosflutteratu. Precisely one year later, on 28 December 2013, the episode "Bats!" aired, in which Fluttershy turned into a vampire pony. This was not lost on several of the commentors, but it was brought to the limelight by one meme-asaurus, who was quick to comment on this and mentioning several things that happened in the fic itself that ended up happening in the show only episodes before.
  • Compare the climax of It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door to that of the season 4 episode "Three's a Crowd". In each, ponies set out to find a magical flower to heal a sick friend. In both cases, said flower turns out to be a) on a mountain and b) attached to the head of a very large snake-like monster that the ponies then have to fight.
  • The Equestrian currency is "Bits". They come in coins.
  • On the Heartwarming page is a story about how Princess Cadance being the former foalsitter to Twilight Sparkle had an uncanny parallel to Lauren Faust's own experience with a girl named Chrissy. Which goes into Hilarious if you know that "Chrissy" is now the Fan Nickname of the Big Bad during that story arc.
  • Discord eating the pages from Twilight's spellbooks becomes even more hilarious when you remember this scene featuring John de Lancie as Q.
  • Shortly after Magical Mystery Cure aired, M.A. Larson started joke-tweeting with Peter New (the voice of Big Macintosh) about how how was going to make Big Mac the next princess. Fast forward a couple of years to Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep. Big Mac became the next princess.
  • There exists some art of Cadance pregnant with a filly... But this was well before The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows! The art was posted on the last day of February 2014, and the episode aired October 17th, 2015.
  • Some fans of this series and Transformers: Animated would compare Pinkie Pie and Wreck-Gar because of their similar personalities. Later, the series would introduce Cheese Sandwich, who's not only similar to both Pinkie and Wreck-Gar, but is voiced by the same guy as Wreck-Gar! For bonus points, the two ponies are now married with a foal.
  • In "Bridle Gossip", Spike worries that everyone in Ponyville is hiding from "zombie ponies", and when Twilight Sparkle tries to tell him it's unlikely, he responds "Not likely... but possible?!" "28 Pranks Later" features everyone in Ponyville (including Spike) in a sort-of Zombie Apocalypse staged as part of a prank on Rainbow Dash.
  • It has been very popular in the fandom to depict the Apples as having a strong distaste for pears and pear farmers, ranging from culinary disagreements and economic competition to it being treated as an almost religious matter or a downright mafia-like setup (case in point, comics such as this one — which was made six years ago — or this one). With the reveal in "The Perfect Pear" that not only does a Pear-Apple feud indeed exist but that the Apple siblings are half-Pear themselves, these comics, fics and head canons have become quite funny in hindsight.
  • With the release of the My Little Pony tabletop game in 2017, Ogres & Oubliettes is now real.
  • In "28 Pranks Later", Rainbow Dash pranking Rarity by replacing her sewing machine with a duplicate made of cake wound up predicting the 2020 "Everything is a Cake" craze, spawned by a viral tweet featuring similar cake duplicates of everyday objects, which quickly became a meme as the cakes fell into the Uncanny Valley once cut into. The craze eventually spawned the reality competition series Is It Cake?, which debuted on Netflix the same year as the G5 series of My Little Pony.
  • In "Surf and/or Turf", Twilight casually mentions winning a trophy in a ring-toss game. Shortly afterwards, Rollercoaster of Friendship depicted Twilight's human counterpart (and Sunset Shimmer) miserably failing to win Flim & Flam's rigged ring-toss game, even after repeated attempts to apply Awesomeness by Analysis. One can only imagine her jealousy.
  • In 2013's Hot Minute preview videos, Rarity makes a comment implying Spike has wings, which was completely wrong at the time. It isn't now.
  • In this fan comic, Vinyl Scratch vaporizes Discord with Eye Beams. In A Matter of Principals, Starlight does the exact same thing with her horn magic.
  • The Season 2 finale reveals that Twilight and Cadence have exchanged a Secret Handshake with one of the phrases in it being "Ladybugs awake". Much later in the "Starlight the Hypnotist" short, Twilight confesses to be deathly afraid of ladybugs with the phobia being Played for Laughs.
  • In 2014, when the show first saw its debut in Croatia starting with season 1, a translation/script error crept in where Princess Celestia calls Twilight her faithful teacher instead of studentExplanation at the end of the third episode. Fast forward to season 8 in 2018 where Twilight opens up the School of Friendship and becomes an actual teacher.
  • In the show's early days, fans made memes insisting that Rainbow Dash isn't a lesbian. Fast forward to the series finale, and it's heavily implied that RD got together with Applejack.
  • The female equivalent of "brony" is "pegasister". Two of the main characters of the sequel series are pegasi sisters, AKA literal pegasisters.
  • It's rather humorous how Twilight becoming a princess caused cries of Ruined Forever and They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, and yet, she was actually a princess for 2/3's of the show's run, longer than she was a unicorn.
  • Rarity wouldn't be the last purple haired non-human with magic powers that Tabitha St. Germain would play in a Canadian-produced cartoon.

    ...and Others 
Hilarious In Hindsight moments from other works inspired by My Little Pony:

Fan Works

  • First off, the mother of all hilarious coincidences. In 2012, a fanfiction called Nosflutteratu appeared in FIMFiction, depicting Fluttershy as a vampire. One year to the day later, and the episode "Bats!" airs, in which Fluttershy does, indeed, become a vampire.
  • FO:E predicted Pink Cloud, a character named Pipnote , and Canterlot's city shield. A Running Gag on the fanfic's comment threads was, "Season 2 is still FO:E Compliant!".
  • The Pony POV Series had a side story called 'Pinkie's Fourth Wall Breaking Reality Show' where users could submit skits. One storyline involved the characters wearing full body suits of one another. Pinkie reveals she has one of Fluttershy in 'The Crystal Empire'.
    • King Sombra could've been replaced with a slightly altered Pony POV Series Grogar and there'd have been little difference to the story minus a somewhat more fleshed out character.
  • On a Cross and Arrow was a fanfic about the mane six meeting their colt counterparts. In the episode "Magic Duel". One of the magic tricks that Twilight does is turn Applejack into a colt.
    • Similarly, in the unfinished sequel, Apple Buck, the male counterpart of Apple Bloom, as a made-up an excuse for being in Ponyville, claims to be looking for Dusk Blitz, who can help ponies with their cutie mark. When the CMC finally do get their cutie marks, their special talent is helping others with their cutie marks.
  • The NSFW Twilight/Luna Slash Fic Late Night With Luna writes Spike out of the story by saying he went on a camping trip with Applejack, Big Macintosh, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Then came "Sleepless In Ponyville", which is about the Cutie Mark Crusaders going on a camping trip (although Spike and Big Macintosh weren't involved). Even better, Luna played a role in that episode.
  • Progress could practically be called Hilarious In Hindsight: The Series. Unlike other Luna-centered fics of the time - which near-universally depicted the Princess of the Night as a massive Woobie - this one has Luna being 1) Adorkable, 2) A Fish out of Water, and 3) A Dreamwalker. A few months later "Luna Eclipsed" aired, showing that this fic (and pretty much only this one) correctly predicted Luna's canon personality. In addition, there's one part where Trixie gets a Artifact of Doom to get revenge on Twilight Sparkle. Sound familiar?
  • Pink Personal Hell And Altering Fate features the act of altering ones destiny (fate) through supernatural means. Word of God confirms he did indeed laugh at the Season 3 finale.
  • A Perfectly Ordinary Day in Ponyville is a Parody Fic featuring Alicorn Twilight, humans, and Pinkie clones. Queen Inferno Blaze is also remarkably similar to Nightmare Star from the CCG.
  • Doctor Whooves and Assistant features a scene in part four of Derpy going into the TARDIS for the first time and declaring it "smaller on the outside", as opposed to the more typical Bigger on the Inside. A few years later, we get the Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Snowmen", where Clara sees the TARDIS for the first time and makes the exact same declaration.
  • One of the earliest popular winged unicorn Original Characters was named "Princess Lunarstar" of Worlds Apart or "Princess Luna", who had a moon as her Cutie Mark. Four years later we get a canon alicorn princess called "Luna".
  • Twilight's Kingdom Part 2:
  • In the Lunaverse AU, Carrot Top (officially known as Golden Harvest) is portrayed as a competitor to Sweet Apple Acres, with the latter's family not being as friendly as their canon counterparts, to say the least. In the "Sweet Apple Acres" update to the MLP mobile game that was released on June 5, 2014, not only was Golden Harvest was one of the new playable ponies, but she lives in the new SAA area and the Carrot Farm shop was moved there from the Ponyville area. Yes, SAA is part of Ponyville in the show, but became its own playable area in the game.
  • Background Pony:
    • In Chapter XVIII, which was written in 2012, Pinkie Pie finally tells Lyra the reason for the "Cheesestrings" name joke that's been a Running Gag from both Lyra's and the reader's standpoint: "Because it makes me think of how wonderful cheese can taste, especially on a grilled sandwich, and grilled cheese sandwiches make me happy inside, so that I want to smile. Heeheehee... Just like seeing you and hearing your name makes me want to smile." A little over a year later, there's a new pony in town named Cheese Sandwich with a grilled cheese sandwich cutie mark. While that's definitely a reference to Weird Al's Simpsons cameo, one has to wonder if it wasn't a double reference...
    • There's also Chapter XVI, where Mayor Mare's mane has been "morphed into an enormous cluster of tentacled branches atop her head".
  • The fanfic The Fantastic Adventures of Gen 1 and Gen 4 from 2012 correctly predicted that Tirek would return and (try) to team up with Discord. Unfortunately no G1 ponies were involved.
  • This exists as a tag on Derpibooru, with some of the stuff predicted by artists and the fanbase being eerily accurate. For a couple of specific examples, the nightmare in Bloom and Gloom where she's being exiled for not having the right cutie mark? The bronies called it years ago. Rarity getting her clothes vacuumed off by Discord and covering herself despite not normally wearing clothes? Rarity in that exact same pose, expression, and scenario was predicted in 2013 by PluckyNinja. This list could fill an entire page.
  • The opening historical anecdote for Act 1, Chapter 21 of Starlight Over Detrot (which takes place 60 years after Princess Luna's return) includes this line: "Notably, one of Equestria's most feared interrogators has earned dozens of confessions simply through hours of unrelenting whining." One commenter's reaction to that was, "Rarity going into the detective business? There's an interesting notion." The chapter came out in 2013 and the comment was made in 2014. In 2015, the episode "Rarity Investigates!, where Rarity plays detective, premiered.
  • Parting Words has Spike mention hearing a rumor that Princess Celestia was planning on turning Twilight into an alicorn and make her the new ruler of Equestria to which Celestia laughs at. She explains she doesn't know how to turn a pony into a alicorn and she would never make Twilight the ruler of Equestria as she would be miserable running the goverment. In the season 3 finale Twilight does become an alicorn and at the end of the series she becomes the new princess of Equestria.

Film

  • Twice from Transformers Film Series.
    • Transformers (2007) features a small cameo from Pinkie Pie (a little girl is holding an older Pinkie Pie plushie) as a nod to Hasbro owning both franchises. Suddenly this commercial makes a bit more sense. There's an even better reference to Transformers as a whole at the beginning of Equestria Girls, where Pinkie Pie makes the transforming sounds as she comes out of her little curled up ball after talking to Twilight Sparkle about being afraid.
    • During the production of My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), the writers pitched a scene where the ponies are spotted by G.I. Joe's Shipwreck... who then promptly throws away his bottle of booze. Hasbro execs' reaction was, essentially, "This is very funny. NO."
    • Then came Transformers: Age of Extinction where one of the mass-produced Transformers? It's a Rainbow Dash doll that turns into a gun.
  • Disney's Tangled came out little more than a month after the premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Now try to think of the sun-themed kingdom, the heroine's snarky reptilian sidekick, the fact that the royal army's got a horse as the one competent member, and most of all the fact that one of the Snuggly Duckling thugs collects ceramic unicorns (which happen to be same in color scheme to Twilight Sparkle) and not chuckle.
    • The coat-of-arms for the sun kingdom is, by sheer coincidence, nearly identical to Celestia's Cutie Mark.
  • If it's still up, take a look at the Pastoral symphony from Disney's Fantasia. Count how many comments there are about how the equines in act one happen to resemble ponies.

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

  • Julio Iglesias's Manuela, from 1974, has an intro that sounds note-for-note like the enduring theme song of the whole Pony franchise, and it predates Escape from Midnight Castle, the very first Pony show, by a whole decade.
  • The clean version of Tenacious D's "Kickapoo" replaces all the "fuck"s in the part where young JB is singing his vulgar song about slicing a dragon's "cockles" off to his Christian family with "buck". A lot of the bronies use this Unusual Euphemism as well.

Stand-Up Comedy

  • Stephen Colbert made a shout-out to bronies (admittedly without knowing much besides that they had recently become a thing). He made a pony joke back in 2009, confusing "G3" Scootaloo for Pinkie Pie.

Video Games

  • Before the announcement of Crystal Ponies in Season 3 Borderlands 2 villain Handsome Jack had Diamond Pony, a living pony made of diamonds, named "Butt Stallion". Cue "Butt Stallion is now canon".
    • Reciprocated later on: Butt Stallion actually shows up in one of the DLC packs, and she looks a lot like a crystal version of Rarity.
  • FiM already did a Shout-Out to Pokémon with Twilight's Burning with Anger moment, but as of Pokémon X and Y, Ponyta and Rapidash can learn Ally Switch, a Psychic-type teleportation move, via breeding. There's no way this can be a coincidence...
    • And then comes Pokémon Sword and Shield, which introduces Galarian Ponyta. Not only does it look like something out of My Little Pony, especially FiMnote , but it's also a unicorn with the Psychic-type. In other words, Twilight really can evolve into Rapidash now.
  • During one Have a Nice Death sequence in Star Trek: Borg, Q expresses disgust at the player's idiocy and declares his need to "renew myself in some alternate reality". Which is essentially what de Lancie did by choosing to play Discord.

Web Animation

  • In the Homestar Runner cartoon "Commandos in The Classroom'', the Cheat Commandos are settling to watch "Pony Fights 2" at the beginning of the cartoon. Who would have thought manly grown men watching ponies would eventually become a reality?
  • The Ace Attorney crossover, "Turnabout Storm" ends with the true culprit seemingly found out and the Judge is about to deliver a Not Guilty verdict for Phoenix's client, but Phoenix suddenly objects because he's spotted a detail which leads him to prove that not only is the witness on the stand not the real killer, but that the victim's death was ultimately an accident in the first place. Then Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies came around, and the ending of the DLC case "Turnabout Reclaimed" can be described the exact same way.note 

Web Comics

  • In the comment section of the final part of the webcomic Ensign Sue Must Die! a user sarcastically comments: "My Little Pony, eh? Now THAT'S a fan demographic waiting to happen..." in response to one of Mary Sue's reincarnations being a pony. The comment was made 1 month before the premiere of a certain animated show.
  • In the July 9, 2002 strip of PvP, Brent tells Francis about his latest plan with Cole to buy the rights to a classic 1980's work and turn it into a successful comic, assuring them that as long as it's retro, they can make it work. Cole informs him that he was only able to get the rights to My Little Pony, and Brent immediately declares that they can't make it work. Of course, Friendship Is Magic proved itself able to become successful as both a cartoon and a long-running IDW comic.
  • In this fancomic, Twilight is asked what the strangest spell she ever read was.
    Twilight: Summon Parasprite. Seriously, why would anypony want to summon those things?
    Twilight: There is indeed a spell to endow a pony with permanent wings, but it's extremely difficult and exhausting to cast. Only a real master of magic can hope using this spell without suffering a dangerous level of fatigue in the process.
  • In November of 2012, Tiffany Ross (of Cyantian Chronicles and Alien Dice fame) tweeted a link to this 2010 page of her comic Abby's Agency, saying "Reader just pointed out: IF Fluttershy was a human:".
  • "The ponies look like us now." in 2009
  • Toward the end of the first crossover guest comics between Campaign Comics Grand Line 3.5 and Friendship is Dragons, Rainbow Dash's player asks where she can find the Griffin race. Luke shows her the book, but the GM shoots that idea down. This is doubly funny given the end of the FiM episode from two years later, "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies": Rainbow Dash tells Twilight she "always kinda wondered what it would be like to be a griffin." Twilight tells her, "Not a chance," but Rainbow Dash won't give up so easily and asks about being turned into a dragon instead ("It doesn't have to shoot fire!").
    • During Friendship is Dragons's "Feelin' Pinkie Keen" arc, Cerberus shows up and is dealt with. Twilight brings him back, but it turns out that a prisoner escaped during his absence. Initially, the escape was exclusive to the comic, but then came the Season 4 two-part finale...
  • The web comic, "The Clone That Got Away", is about one of the Pinkie clones from "Too Many Pinkie Pies" witnessing the destruction of the other clones and deciding to move to Manehattan to escape the same fate. Fast forward to "The Saddle Row Review", where in one shot, we can see a Pinkie clone in the Manehattan diner where the interviews are being held.

Web Original

  • In The Nostalgia Critic's review of A Troll in Central Park, the NC lists several cutesy and girly franchises that he says are butch compared to the movie. One of these franchises is My Little Pony which was in the third series when this episode was released. Then Friendship is Magic came out and the franchise suddenly gained a huge Periphery Demographic.
  • During The Nostalgia Chick's My Little Pony review (which was made long before Friendship Is Magic aired), Nella tells us the tales of her own ponies, including that of the kindly schoolteacher with a heart of gold that all the children loved even though she was sometimes a whore. Flash forward to the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Call of the Cutie", the schoolteacher introduced in that episode, and the photo of the way she dressed back in the day.
    • Also, Chick said some peeves she had with the show were that the ponies never had internal conflict and Spike was the only male (and not even a pony). Then came Friendship Is Magic, which got rid of both problems.
  • In the Abridged Series Friendship is Witchcraft, Pinkie Pie is represented as secretly being a gypsy witch. In the FiM episode "It's About Time", Pinkie Pie dresses up as a gypsy when trying to see Twilight Sparkle's future. Also, Twilight actually has a brother, Rainbow Dash has to dash, and robots do exist in some capacity.
    • In "The Convention", a FiW parody of "At the Gala" that portrays the Mane Six as various types of con goers, Rarity represents the Cosplayers. The crowd's lines following her verse are, "Show off outfits that you sewed last night in your hotel room. People are less critical, here at the convention!" Almost two years later in "Rarity Takes Manehattan", Rarity's new fashion line ends up being done last minute at the hotel after she makes the mistake of giving some of her special new fabric to her rival. And Rarity won anyway!
    • In "Lunar Slander", which was posted before "Magical Mystery Cure", Princess Luna passes the title of "Princess of the Night" to Twilight. This and the short "Star Waving Mad" in particular are this trope not just because of Twilight's transformation but also because of events in the Season 4 finale. Luna (along with Celestia and Cadence) gives Twilight her alicorn magic to keep Tirek from stealing it and Twilight subsequently has trouble making the moon set and the sun rise.
  • This anti-Twilight picture from 2009, which predates the Twilight Sparkle character itself.
    • Even better read the title of this article, written in 2009
  • This Cracked article, which explains in detail why Boast Busters is a terrible episode. The logic they give is that Trixie is apparently boasting about everything she "did" to make money, and considering that she sleeps in a cabin, she apparently lives off of it. Therefore, when Snips and Snails unleashed the Ursa Minor, they effectively destroyed her career, and thus her life. They ended it with "Get ready for an episode in Season 2 where Trixie is begging on the street." Although it wasn't shown, there was indeed an episode in Season 2 that implied Trixie got reduced to just that.
    • The Season 3 episode "Magic Duel" (which was actually written during Season 2's production but got pushed back) confirmed that Trixie did indeed lose her job and was left working on a rock farm.
    • Speaking of Cracked, this article ends with Tirek losing to My Little Ponies.
  • Final Fantasy: Real Men has a scene where Jecht, one of the most manly fighters in Dissidia, confesses his love of ponies after a manly screaming session with Cloud. He is promptly hit with the Buster Sword. Looks like Cloud found too many references to the show on the world wide web for his liking.
  • An Amazon.com review of a DVD of My Little Pony 'n Friends (a.k.a. "G1") talked about how the woman brought it for her kids, expecting it to be like the third series, but got proven wrong, as this is the old series filled with Nightmare Fuel. It ended "So, if you are looking for Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Minty, this is not for you.". This was written when "G3" was the current incarnation. Years later, three of those four names got incarnated as My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters, a show that was heavily influenced by "G1".
  • This DeviantArt page, which you probably never heard of, might make you think that the user is a brony, but the account was made back in 2008, two years before My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic aired.
    • Similarly, this obscure YouTube user went by the name Rainbow Dash, despite the fact that his account was created in 2006. (Although Rainbow Dash did exist as a character back then)
  • Light Cut, a several-year-parody of the Dark Cut virtual surgery games that far pre-dates Friendship is Magic, features using a marshmallow to re-attach a unicorn's broken horn. Oh, and the unicorn is purple.
  • Pretty much every single frigging fragging frooging picture of Fluttershy as a vampire. Considering that she is now, kind of, a vampire.

Western Animation

  • Kimiko Glenn appeared in the DuckTales (2017) episode "Friendship Hates Magic", the title of which is a Shout-Out to Friendship is Magic. She went on to voice Izzy in My Little Pony: A New Generation.
  • The mere existence of "bronies" makes this scene from the pilot for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends where Terrence gets threatened by a bunch of pastel-colored male unicorns even funnier. "Youse thinks we're goily, huh?!"
    • Even funnier is that Lauren Faust worked on that show (she's married to creator Craig McCracken)
      • Even more hilarious when you find out who voiced Terrence.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "The Schlubs" opens with Grim watching Billy's My Troubled Pony DVDs and actually enjoying it. That episode first aired five years before Friendship is Magic.
    • That female pony also bears a striking resemblance to Twilight Sparkle.
  • On October 9, 2010, a season 2 episode of The Penguins of Madagascar had this scene that was intended as a joke about Private being...odd. The Hub and FIM would launch one day later.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls Christmas Special "The Fight Before Christmas", the Mayor asks Santa for a "My Little Horsie" doll, the joke being that he's a grown man. Even funnier — Lauren Faust worked on this episode. She must have been planning this whole 'brony' thing for years. And in "Him Diddle Riddle", Bubbles exclaims "I love ponies!" when the three debate how to get to their destination without flight. A few years later, Tara Strong goes on to play Twilight Sparkle.
  • The Arthur episode "That's a Baby Show!" features Arthur accidentally tuning into a Teletubbies expy called "Love Ducks" and becoming a closeted fan of the show, going to great lengths to avoid anyone finding out he enjoys it. Fast forward to early 2011, with the rise of Friendship Is Magic and young men across the nation are beginning to relate quite a bit. This might not have been accidental: Arthur itself has a prominent Periphery Demographic, which was already rather large, and the episode was meant as a message to them.
  • On October 22, 2012, "The Surfaces of Humanity" was posted on the FIM Wiki, spoofing the theme song of Disney XD's Crash & Bernstein. Half a year later, MAD did a joint spoof of both shows, which they dubbed "Rainbow Dash And Bernstein".

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