Shout Out / Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship

• In the rewritten Chapter 1, Buddy Rose insists that color of his apron is "lightish-red".
• Dark Conquest gets his soldiers riled up by repeatedly yelling, "Can you dig it?".
• Chapter 2 mentions Rocky Kockemoff who drank raw eggs, a reference to Rocky Balboa.
• Trixie's family is a mix of shoutouts. Her mother is from Twixie Answers, her large family is from Pony POV and her sister is a far kinder version of Checker Monarch.
• In Chapter 3, the doctor who takes care of Lighting Dawn is Crusher Bones, a shout out to Beverly Crusher from TNG and Leonard "Bones' McCoy from TOS.
• The team that Luna puts together has the same members of the Elements of Harmony from the Lunaverse.
• In "The Fall Begins", Gilda tells Rainbow to "Run Dashie run!"
• Vinyl and Octavia's radio station, K-COLT, makes an appearance.
• In chapter 8, Cheerilee is reading a book entitled "Our War Game".
• In chapter 8, Carrot Top uses bags of Killing Joke, a variant of Poison Joke from Neighpon, to take out some mooks. Killing Joke is originally from Fallout: Equestria. (It appears to be a much safer variant here, its only difference from Poison Joke is that it works instantly. The original version is as deadly as the name suggests.)
• The books that Dash gives to Fluttershy are: Watership Down, Felidae, and apparently a story based off of Kim Possible.
• An author's note straight-up claims that Rainbow Dash's Battle Cry in chapter 11 was derived from The Immortal Game. Additionally, Applejack's briefing of the Elements before the battle resembles the one Captain America gives in The Avengers.
• It is mentioned that Celestia and Luna's parents and Rarity's Uncle are respectively Titan, Terra and Esteem from The Immortal Game. Legendbringer even has AthesticB, the author, make a cameo.
• Chapter 8 features Trixie psyching Dimentia out by using a fake Dragon Slave, with the same incantation for the real one.
• In chapter 10, Pinkie Pie's story to Pumpkin and Pound Cake is the Digidestined's battle against Apocalymon.
• In chapter 10, when Rainbow Dash is fighting Rhymey and demonstrates the ability to vibrate one's body to destroy objects, she mentions that she read a book about an Earth Pony with Super-Speed who could do the same named "Buried Alien".
• Rep-Stallion preforms a superhero landing and even refers to it as such.
• Titan's monologue about the transience of memory in "Musings of Memories and Hearts" includes a line about how no one can remember how many breads they have eaten in their life.
• Ragamuffin from the chapter called "Trials of Hearts and Souls" is based off Ragdoll, possessing a similar name and similar abilities.
• Chapter 12 references:
  • Dimentia's flashback has Luna declaring the Nightmare Moon she and the Equestrians are facing to be an impostor; the only reason she could exist would be if a mad unicorn mixed the blood of the most powerful unicorn with the remnants of her armor.
  • When trying to inspire hope in the slaves of Conquest, Starla tells a story which is the tale of Perseus and Andromeda.
  • A stallion called Blaze Blue asks Starla for more stories, a possible reference to BlazBlue.
  • Rep-Stallion sings the line from Jump in Line, a song from Film/Beetlejuice, while preparing to dance with Inquirius.
  • Among the suggestions that Trixie posits for Luna's secret alliance, some are Trixie and Her Amazing Friends and The Rolling Storms.
  • During Carrot Top's trial, the prosecutor that interrogates her is named Gadot. To further drive home the reference, he is even drinking a cup of coffee.
  • Ditzy suggests 1-2-3-4-5 as the password to the prison database, but Trixie dismisses it by saying that only an idiot would make that their combination. Ditzy's right.
  • Three Jojo references: The warden of the prison planet is named Steel Balls, Titan references Dio Brando's famous line about bread when talking about the fallibility of memories, and the name Sun Star, according to the author, is another reference, probably the Joestar family name and also the art of Hamon, where one harnesses the power of sunlight.
• Chapter 13 has Fluttershy engaging in a battle of riddles. The one that she uses to finally stump her opponent is "How is a raven like a writing desk?"
  • Another of Fluttershy's riddles is "What sits in a tree, weighs six ounces and is very dangerous?". That one, he answers.
  • Fluttershy gets the help of a bear named Baloo to cut free Ditzy from the vines.
• The Starfleet Red Shirts introduced in Chapter 13 are named Terra, Copy-Cat, and Beast Boy (Beast Boy can even turn into other animals because he's really Thorax, a Changeling). Their codes are also shout-outs via Fun with Acronyms: AT4W (Atop the Fourth Wall), CW4L (The CW For Life), DB4E (Dragon Ball Forever)
• Beast Boy turns out to be a Changeling. One of the aliases of Garfield Mark Logan (Beast Boy) was Changeling. Doubles as a Stealth Pun.
• In Chapter 14, Pinkie Pie lampshading the Three-Point Landing.
  Pinkie Pie: Ooooh, superhero landing!
• In chapter 14, the characters are all appropriately dressed for Nightmare Night: Artie and Pinkie are Luffy and Nami, Rainbow Dash is Barry Allen, Glarity is Lust, Applejack is Kenshin Himura, Rarity and Spike are Emma Peel and John Steed, and the Umbra Circle are Power Rangers.
• Hamon exists in this setting as an Earth Pony magic created before the union of the Three Pony Tribes to give the Earth Ponies an edge over the Pegasi and Unicorns. In this context, the story that Belle mentions of "an earth pony that fought vampires with his hooves" is most likely a reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood.
• Lightning Dawn, while in disguise to learn the truth of the treatment of Equestrians, saves a colt named Yellow Arc, most likely a reference to Jaune Arc from RWBY.
• Eight reindeer enemies named after all of the other reindeer.
• Chapter 15
  • This chapter sees the debut of Trixie's pet, Sally the skunk.
  • Dragon Lord Torch commands his subjects to be in awe of Trixie's magic show. They say "Awwwwww", prompting Torch to clarify that he meant "A-W-E". This is similar to a bit from George of the Jungle.
  • Trixie ends her show by declaring to Abra that "You can call this fake, but this is real MAGIC!!!!", a reference to the song "Magic (Trixie)" by The Living Tombstone.
  • In a flashback, when Luna first finds Lyra, she is playing the song "The River" by Bruce Springsteen. When Luna requests a song by a bard of legend, she proceeds to play "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty.
  • After questioning why Grand Ruler would arrange for Lightning Dawn's homeworld to be destroyed, Cheerilee quotes "You can't be a hero, without a bit of tragedy" from a book she read.^note The author has said that the quote is one of his favorite lines from Professor Zoom.
• Chapter 16
  • Rainbow Dash meets an antelope named "Max Mercury". He also reveals the existence of the Speed Force which, like its namesake from The DCU, empowers all speedsters and acts as heaven for them.
  • The elephant shop owner that Rarity haggles with is named Quark. Also, the Elk Federation according to the author are deeply based on the Vulcans.
  • Conquest mentions seeing "moon princesses rise and fall", "monkey kings die screaming their last breath", and "met the Earth’s mightest heroes and have been found wanting more from them.". Also, he ends up sending Starla and the former prisoners to a universe where a bounty huntress wound up killing a bunch of scouts, which is a reference to a specific fanfic the author found disgusting where Samus Aran killed the Sailor Senshi.
  • Starla and other former prisoners of Dark Conquest are sent into a dimension that he conquered. Some of the former slaves are the Reds and Blues.
• Serpent-Tyrant/Serpentari's reference to the Power Rangers mecha Serpentera is further reinforced by retconning it into a planet-destroying superweapon. Furthermore, the one who designed it was under the impression that it would be used for mining desolate planets, which also applied to the Death Star in the Legends continuity.
• Cherry-Lei and Nurse Pony (who is the author's mother) makes an appearance in Chapter 17.
• The Diamond Dogs give Rarity Mithril so she can complete her friends' new armor.
• Chapter 17 has Cheerilee reading Starfleet Nemesis.
• Chapter 18 has Conquest quoting Frieza from Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
  "Oh no. You brought this on yourself."
  • Later on, he counts the heroic quotes GR makes. Again, like Frieza.
• When Fluttershy stops by at Rainbow Dash's place in Chapter 18, she paraphrases Timmy's Dad:
  "Rainbow Dash, I am respecting your privacy by knocking, but asserting my authority as your marefriend by using the key!"
• "The Light of the Twelve Stars Shine Anew"
  • One of the survivors that Starla finds in the alternate dimension is a human girl named Casca of the Hawk. Apparently, their world was protected by a group of soldiers and titans until one snapped and picked up a dark item that possessed him and made him destroy the universe, a reference to Griffith's betrayal of the Band of Hawks and ascendance into the God Hand. Though according to the author, Guts and Griffith were killed, and the battle with Conquest replaced the Godhand, so Griffith probably never betrayed his team.
  • Dementia, Rep-stallion and Mysterious' former code names when working for Grand Ruler were AV6N (The Angry Video Game Nerd, RW3Y (RWBY), and AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake.
  • Lightning consults a scientist named Osamu Ishinomori about his Enticorn form. The scientist's name is a two-fold reference: Osamu references legendary mangaka Ozamu Tesuzka and Shotoro Ishimori, creator of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.
• In The Fall Ends, Pt. 2, as Derpy fights Bella, she recounts the story of her foalhood, wherein she heard the tale of a world destroyed by a mad clown who represented chaos, only for a group of ponies to rise up from that world's ashes to confront him. This is a nod to Final Fantasy VI.
  • The FF references don't stop there. Cadence has a guard pony by the name of "Lion Heart" a reference to Squall Leonheart.
• The hypocrite joke is a modified version of the one from Suburban Knights.
• In chapter 19, the full Team RWBY shows up.
• Conquest keeps track of hero speeches, much like DBZA Frieza.
• Discord's love song before he runs off to see Celestia is played by a a plate of meatloaf, as in the singer. Appropriate, since the song is ‘I Would Do Anything For Love’.
• Discord and Celestia's son is actually Illusion, from the Kilala-verse.
• Serpentari's main computer, LOKI, is one to WOPR of WarGames fame, sharing the greeting "Would you like to play a game?" Additionally, Cheerilee beats LOKI's tricks by deciding that "the only winning move was not to play".
• When Celestia talks with Sombra, she mentions her flaws and how she lets others shine with her... before mentioning she can beat him and doing so with moderate effort, not much differently from Luffy against Arlong.
• In Return of the Light, Little Pip and friends from Fallout Equestria make their appearance.
• After telling Raven about her true memories, Conquest starts playing with figures of the Mane Six in a very similar way to Dark Helmet doing the same.
  Necromancer: Conquest! Are you playing with your figures again?!
  Conquest: Yes!
• Luna and Celestia's blades are the same names from The Immortal Game.
• Brain makes a mako reactor from FFVII.
• Members of Discord's wedding party include the God Hand, Kefka, and of course Sephiroth.
• Chapter 23 mentions the five colors of mana; Red, Blue, Green, White, and Black. With their representations being straight out of Magic: The Gathering.
  • The spell that Twilight Sparkle practices that requires her to combine all five colors of mana is called Ultima. Which is a spell that appears in many Final Fantasy games.
• When Pinkie Pie is searching for information regarding silver.
  Pinkie Pie: Silver eyed warriors, silver haired one winged angels, silverback gorillas, how to tell if your silver haired person is a bad guy in an rpg or just your rival character, silver haired characters: the alternative to golden haired fighters.
• In Twilight's dream, she has versions of herself in the forms of Ryu, Ken, and Wiz and Boomstick. She also had a dream scenario for the Death Battle.
• "The War Ends in Light"
  • When Rainbow Dash reaches the Speed Force, she sees ponies, humans, and hedgehogs.
  • Another Jojo reference: Applejack unleashes an actual Sunlight Yellow Overdrive on Emil Kudos... who, in this fic, resembles Chioccolata, who got the biggest beating in Jojo.
  • Dark Conquest's last defense is called the Suicide Squadron.
  • Conquest's trophy room includes a blue tiara, a headband with a metal plate, a giant metal arm, and a straw hat.
  • One of the moves that Twilight uses is called Ragna Blade.
• Epilogue:
  • The Doctor appears at Ditzy's house.
• Chapter 1 of Evolution of Friendship mentions the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
• Chapter 3 of Evolution of Friendship: Human!Starla describing her mother is almost word for word Yang Xiao Long describing Summer Rose in Burning the Candle.