I can't help but see a lot of subtle and not-so subtle references to the 1980's children cartoon (which aired after My Little Pony n' Friends), Moon Dreamers, which Hasbro also endorsed- in the recent MLP: Friendship is Magic series. Some references I see (just brushing up on the show in its Wiki page, and having watched the first episode and the last two-parter episodes of the series) are the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor appearing in Moon dreamers, and the two star bears appearing in MLP: FIM. Princess Celestia, who in MLP- has a job to raise the sun (and the moon, while Luna is banished) and care for an entire kingdom seems to have been inspired by (and perhaps serve as the polar opposite to) the Moon Dreamers character, Celeste, who fulfills her job to bring night to the earth so that dreams can be sent out (sound like a certain other pony who does this exact job?) While Galaxia, Celeste's magical space dragon, could've been what inspired Discord.
But the story of FIM wasn't written by Hasbro, it was (originally) written by Lauren Faust. There's a chance she might've been a fan of Moondreamers, i guess.
I wouldnt really know, since i never watched the Moon Dreamers, but it is possible - - Auto Merge - - I wouldnt really know, since i never watched the Moon Dreamers, but it is possible
It seems like Lauren would be the type of writer who would do something like that... I'd do some stuff like that if I were a writer.
