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Over a Barrel (March 25th 2011, 22 minutes)

Summary: All out war between Ponies and Buffalo in the great plains of Appleloosa.

Steam train, being pulled by ponies? Not sure exactly why it's necessary to pull when there is a very distinct engine on the train, but okay.

AJ is just as neurotic as the rest of the Mane 6, just in different ways.

Reference to Appleloosa, a pun on Appaloosa, a breed of horse from the Palouse River area of Washington and Idaho with distinctive spotted coat colors. Created from pied Spanish horses by the Nez Perce tribe, who were well known for their advanced livestock breeding methods in the 18th century.

Reference to Puff the Magic Dragon, song from 1963 by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Apparently the lyrics are from a poem that was inspired by a slightly older poem called 'Custard the Dragon' by Ogden Nash, a famous light verse American poet.

Buffalo, with eagle feather headbands, which is supposed to recall Native American tribes people, but honestly were only worn on a daily basis by a few Woodland tribes like the Abenaki or Lenape. These were worn by both genders and had no symbolic meaning, they were just considered pretty and fashionable.

Buffalo being a very important part of the Plains Indian tribe culture, such as the Sioux tribe. They would also wear eagle feathers, like the Woodlands, but they had symbolic meaning and would only be worn on formal or ceremonial times.

Buffalo are one of the few non-equine sophont race we've run into that appears to have their own detailed culture. Griffons and Dragons being the others, but at this point those cultures have no details, so we're dealing with a first here.

Braeburn's acting really weird, like he's trying to convince the girls to settle in Appleloosa. Actually, given the way the mare/stallion ratio looks like in Ponyville, and the apparent ratio seen in these brief scenes, it's entirely possible the Appleloosans are a bit desperate for mares to move out there. Much like many Western American towns in that period.

The terrain here is very much like the Painted Desert in Arizona, which was mostly Navajo which is not normally considered a Plains Indian tribe.

Tipis which are also Plains Indian.

And finally the big feather headdress is a warbonnet for Plains Indian tribes that were only worn ceremonially by those who had proven themselves in battle, each individual feather earned by an act of bravery. In these tribes the feathers were only worn in ceremonies. This conflicts culturally with the feathers worn by the Woodland tribes mentioned before. It may not seem like much difference to Europeans, but to the various tribes it is just as important differences as being Venetian and being Sicilian.

Multiple generations of Buffalo in this area.

Pinkie... how is this supposed to help?

Okay, what Pinkie is wearing is a typical 'Old West' corset dress, primarily from stripping Edwardian dresses down to more fundamental works with significant French and Spanish influences.

And the Western pie war is an homage to the Mel Brook's movie Blazing Saddles, which in turn is an homage to Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and the Three Stooges who have the definitive extended pie fight slapstick routines in their movies.