Jonestown was the first hing I thought of when I saw the SDCC animatic of the episode. It even had the same rigid, cookie cutter layout of the houses.
 

@RIG  
He was a cult leader who took a thousand of his followers to “Jonestown”, a remote jungle village in the Guyana jungle. He preached equality, but was a controlling tyrant to his followers. Rumors of torture and abuse attracted Congressman Leo Ryan to the village as part of an investigation. Jones actually managed to fool Ryan into believing that the cult was benign, but several cult members insisted on leaving Jonestown, and Jones was convinced that their “betrayal” would bring about the end of the cult.
 
Just as Ryan and his group was about to depart at a nearby airstrip, Jones’ thugs showed up and murdered the congressman and several others. Jones then led 909 of his followers in a mass suicide.
 
You can listen to the recording of Jones’ final speech here.
 
As Pinto Bean noted, Jones’ use of loudspeakers throughout Jonestown was eerily similar to what Starlight Glimmer was doing.

She definitely reminded me of Jim Jones/Jonestown with that loudspeaker mind control stuff.

Yes, that girl has cult written all over her.

@RIG  

 

@Background Pony #AC61  

 
IT’S HAPPENING!

@Background Pony #4267  
Ehh… I thought the same thing, but I think it ended up being a lot more cult-ish and reminded me of 1984.

@RIG  
You ever heard of the phrase “don’t drink the kool-aid”?

@RIG  
Founder of Jonestown, one of the worst cults of the semi-recent past.
 
Personally, I was thinking Communism the whole time I saw this.

@RIG  
Infamous scumbag of a cult leader.
 
He and his followers committed the S-word with cyanide-laced drinks.

@SUBSTANCE15  
WHO?

@RIG  
Jim jones

who is that?