Part 1
—The song that Lyra sings is based off an Irish ballad, Star of the County Down. She is of course singing about Bon Bon.
—"cailín": Irish, "young girl."
—It was like gazing into an abyss, only it gazed back unblinkingly: subtle reference to Friedrich Nietzsche: "When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." As a nihilist who believes that the strong should rule over the weak, Zugzwang would no doubt be attracted to Nietzsche's philosophy.
—"mein freund": German, "my friend."

Part 2
—The Count of Mare Cristo: ponyfied version of Alexandre Dumas' novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.
—recalling their adventure in the old Rainbow Factory: reference to Time Flies.
—"Crikey": Australian slang term, used as an expression of surprise.
—Of course, in real life, there's no such thing as front/back or left/right horseshoes. For the sake of the story, there are in Equestria.
—As Rarity and Rainbow Dash's dialogue reveals, this story takes place before the Season 5 opener.
—Phillip commits breaking and entering, demonstrating a Sherlockian willingness to disregard the rules if he thinks it's justified.
—After seeing the photographs of himself, Phillip gets an extremely strong crime sense warning that his friends are in danger.

Part 3
—Before going into the mill, Phillip is reminded of the night he came home to find his father dead.

Part 4
—"Piece of piss" : Australian slang term, "very easy."
—In the cipher that I made for this, the dummy sign said "Fool."

Part 5
—Applejack's trap is reminiscent of the deathtrap from Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.
—Iron pyrite is also known as "fool's gold," as it looks like gold.

Part 6
—Well, the average human can hold their breath underwater for two minutes. I'm not sure about ponies.
—"I told you once that I'm not a hero.": referencing their argument in Time Flies.

Part 7
—Phillip's pyrophobia comes into play again here.

Part 8
—Phillip uses a variation of the mind palace technique, made famous by the Sherlock TV series, to remember the order of the colors.
—Phillip flashes back to his father's death.
—One of my initial ideas for this chapter was for Phillip to resuscitate Flash by making a crude defibrillator out of nearby materials, but I scrapped it as being too unbelievable (and because I know nothing about electrical engineering).

Creating Zugzwang
—I realized early on that for this to be an ongoing series, Phillip required a real nemesis, an archenemy that could match wits with him. Zugzwang was born out of that. His inspiration was primarily Sherlock's archenemy, Professor Moriarty, mainly Andrew Scott's interpretation of the character for the Sherlock TV series. The Riddler and the Joker were also partial inspirations.
—The word zugzwang, which means "compulsion to move" in German, is a chess term referring to a situation in which the player will be put at a disadvantage no matter what move they make. It perfectly describes Zugzwang's character. The German root also inspired his "Gerwhin" background.
—Zugzwang's appearance was inspired by Andrew Scott's portrayal of Moriarty in Sherlock. His fur and mane colors, tan and walnut, are inspired by a wooden chessboard.

Part 9
—The confrontation between Phillip and Zugzwang mirrors the climax of the Sherlock episode The Great Game, which this story is partially inspired by. Some of the dialogue mimics dialogue from the scene.
—Trottgart, Gerwhinny: ponyfied version of Stuttgart, Germany. I originally wanted it to be Marelin (Berlin), but it didn't sound right.
—Zugzwang's faked death is similar to Sherlock's faked death in the TV series episodes The Reichenbach Fall and The Empty Hearse.
—"Entschuldigen!": German, "Excuse me!"
—"Danke" : German, "thank you."
—Zugzwang refers to Phillip's past cases in the series, revealing that he was the hidden power behind all of them.
—Arponi: ponyfied version of Armani.
—"...then you will have my permission to die.": reference to The Dark Knight Rises.
—He...gazed into the black abyss, and the abyss stared back.: again, referencing Nietzsche.
—Referring to Phillip as a "white knight" refers more to his being a highly maneuverable chess piece than his being a chivalrous, romantic hero (which he is not).
—"Auf Wiedersehen, liebling.": German, "Goodbye, darling."

Part 10
—And worst luck, there was snow and cold weather...: having grown up in the Aushaylian bush, Phillip dislikes snow and cold.
—"I know because Twilight actually wore a hole down in the middle of the library once...": referencing It's About Time.
—...to run and hide...: in a way, that's what he's been doing for years.
—"You are not alone. Nopony is alone.": reference to the song No One Is Alone from Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical, Into the Woods. Originally, the other ponies were going to sing a slightly adapted version of the song, but I cut this idea as it seemed out of place.

Author's Notes:

Chapter notes from the story.