This episode has always stood out to me for how contemporary it feels vs. the rest of S1. I mean, Suited For Success had that first fashion show, but seeing the way this portrayed the fashion
industry made it pretty clear that Equestria wasn't a typical medieval-ish fantasy world. I'm inclined to look back on the pitch bible, had this to say regarding the world:
The world of My Little Pony is not completely unlike ours.[...] Here, our little ponies live similarly to us. They care for their homes and families, have important responsibilities or even jobs, they spend time with friends, they run errands, shop and eat and just generally deal with the day-to-day tasks of living-- only every aspect of their lives has something “pony-esque” about it.
Now and then I still see complaints about bigger cities like Canterlot and Manehattan seeming like they don't belong, like any sort of big city like that shouldn't be in a world like this, but I wonder how much of that sort of feeling comes from typical tropes and expectations of the fantasy genre.
