Okay, so between trips back home to visit friends, MFF, and then Thanksgiving, I've not actually gotten to comment on any of the episodes yet O.O
The first thing I'll say is that I'm SO glad that I got to watch this episode with a group of bronies at MFF. I think that in general, it's more fun to watch these with other people anyhow. But we had, what, 15-20 people crammed in one hotel room to watch it on Sunday night. Given the nature of this particular episode, it worked especially well for watching it with a group.
I'm still a bit torn on whether or not it was past that line of 'too many nods to the fandom'. And this is probably why it worked so well for watching in a group setting. The reactions from everybody else just helped make it that much better. Had I watched it by myself, I'd have probably been a little more put off by some of the things they did.
The biggest take-away I got out of it is that it seems that Pinkie somehow has some family backgroud that dealt with either superstitions or spells of sorts, despite not being unicorns (or as we learned in the past, she easily could have unicorn ancestors, too). I'd put it in a similar place to the sort of spells/sorcery that Zecora is capable of. It kinda explains some of Pinkie's Pinkie-ness.
As others have stated, I'm curious to see how the new writer handles episodes that might be a little more down-to-earth. Only time will tell!