We've been getting into My Little Pony lately and I wanted to create Ponysonas for ourselves. I wanted my Cutie Mark to reflect an aspect of myself without resorting to using the same old pencil that MLP artists tend to use for their Ponysonas.
Sakura's tea-house/kimono motif was inspired from the fact that they haven't come up with Eastern/Asian ponies yet, hehe :P