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    Ace Attorney 

    Animorphs 
  • Animorphs Redux;
    • When the Animorphs first meet future!Cassie after a confrontation with David, Marco observes that this crisis has become so confusing that he hasn't "questioned [his] sense of reality so much since the moment Buffy suddenly had a sister".
    • Demonstrating her sci-fi fan status, Melissa compares the Ellimist to Q from Star Trek and David to Sauron as a whiny, emo teenager.
  • Dæmorphing:
    • Loren's daemon, Jaxom, is named after a character from Dragonriders of Pern.
    • The Mielan spawning are named after Jake's Yeerk from Voluntary.
    • Essa 283, the Yeerk who gets put into Dan, is named after Essa 412, which is what Tom's second Yeerk was called in Eleutherophobia.
  • Eleutherophobia:
    • In These Are the Damned, Tom discusses the concept of "thoughtcrime" from Nineteen Eighty-Four.
    • In Total Recall, Tom reads a book about 80 people fleeing a doomed Earth, which is clearly meant to be Remnants, another K. A. Applegate series.
    • In Escape from L.A., the password to enter the Yeerk Pool under the YMCA is "We're here on behalf of the Village People", the band who made the "YMCA" song.
  • Sporadic Phantoms:
    • The tiger at The Gardens is called Hobbes, as in Calvin and Hobbes.
    • Crazy Helen's advertisement in episode 9 includes a soundbyte of a Dalek saying "EXTERMINATE!"
  • The author of What if the Yeerks Were the Good Guys? admits in an author's note that Mrs. Chapman's first name, Allison, was lifted out of the aforementioned Eleutherophobia series.

    Assassination Classroom 

    Bleach 

    Bug Fables 

    The Butterfly Effect 

    CSI 
  • Fanfiction.net has a humorous CSI fanfic in which Ray takes 'Morpheus' as an online username, a shout out to his The Matrix role.

    Death Note 

    Deltarune 

    Diary of a Wimpy Kid 

    Digimon 

    Doctor Who 
  • The Bugger Anthology:
    • When the Daleks rewind some video footage with the Tenth Doctor and try to identify him in "The Bitch Fight of Canary Wharf", the subtitles suggest he's Killgrave, another character portrayed by David Tennant.
    • "The Stink of Humanity":
      • The first time Jack Harkness speaks, the captions refer to him as "Captain Jack Sparrow".
      • The name of one of the Daleks quotes the superlatives associated with Iron Fist, though the character's name is rendered as "Iron Plunger" due to Daleks lacking hands.
      • The Title Drop of the video is accompanied in the subtitles by the phrase "roll credits".
    • The Dalek that accidentally shoots the Doctor in "It's me, Davros" is named Barley Chucket.
    • "The Clash at Dalekdome":
      • The name of the video is a nod to fictional band The Clash at Demonhead.
      • When the New Paradigm Daleks leave for their next gig, the Supreme Dalek says "Chewie! Punch it!". A Wookie roar is heard in response.
    • As a nod to the episode's time loop premise, "Groundhogmanay of the Daleks" has the Daleks announce "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" whenever they teleport in.
    • "Bitch Fight II"
  • In Keep On Running, the author named planet Zetakid after a planet in one of her files of Spore

    Ed, Edd n Eddy 

    Encanto 

    Fire Emblem 
  • An Eagle Among Lions:
    • Several chapter titles bear allusions to poems and song titles, among other things:
      • Chapter 14, "The Fire in Which We Burn", comes from a poem by Delmore Schwartz entitled "Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day".
      • Chapters 41 ("I'm on the Lam But I Ain't No Sheep") and 57 ("I Am the One You Warned Me Of") are Blue Öyster Cult songs.
      • Chapter 70, "Some Destinies Should Not Be Delivered", comes from the BOC song "In Thee".
      • Chapter 71, "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky", is the name of a Season 3 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
      • Chapters 78 and 79 ("Time May Change Me..." and "...But I Can't Trace Time") are lines from the chorus of David Bowie's "Changes".
    • In Chapter 17, during the judging of the White Heron cup, Ferdinand brags that his "inventive" dancing style has been "passed down the Aegir family for generations".
    • In that same chapter, Ingrid mentions a fable she learned from Ashe called the "Ballad of the Wind Fish".
    • The line "Come with me if you want to live" is uttered in two different instances: from Ingrid to Edelgard in Chapter 58, and then from Edelgard to Marquis Vestra in Chapter 78.

    Fireman Sam 

    Fullmetal Alchemist 
  • The Elemental Chess Trilogy has a few, both in-universe and otherwise.
    • In the first story, the three main characters sneak into besieged Central City using a hot air balloon, which is a Call-Back of sorts to the 2003 anime adaptation.
    • Edward Elric's son is named Lucas, after Luke Triton from the Professor Layton games.
    • The Brotherhood anime showed a photograph of Roy Mustang after the end of the series in which he has a mustache, for reasons unexplained. Many members of the fandom prefer to believe that, as the picture in question belonged to Ed, he had drawn the mustache onto it; this Epileptic Tree is firmly planted in the fanfic.

    Friday Night Funkin' 

    Glee 

    Gravity Falls 
  • At one point in Faking It when Bill is suggesting to Dipper different things they could conquer, he suggests taking over a "Tri-state area."

    Harry Potter 

    His Dark Materials 

    Homestar Runner 
  • Several times in Cheat Codename.
    • The first chapter has a shout out to the infamous My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction "Fanfic/Cupcakes". It shows an expy of Pinkie Pie named Rosy Cake killing an expy of Rainbow Dash named Color Rush to bake her blood into a pie.
    • A shout-out to the infamous Sonic Sez short where Coconuts runs away from the abusive Dr. Robotnik and is told to return by Sonic.
    • "Realizing is part of the fight." Is a parody of "And knowing is half the battle!"
    • Reynold's line "Ahh, that was the best one yet, I feel bad for who has to go in there next." is a parody of a line from Phelous's Beauty and the Beast review.

    How to Train Your Dragon 

    Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 

    Jurassic Park 
  • Jurassic What If...?:
    • The series title sequence is a homage to that of the similarly "What If?"-themed episodic, animated series What If…? (2021).
    • Marshall Brody, an original character who is InGen's chief aquatic geneticist and assists Henry Wu in creating the Mosasaurus in Episode 6, is a very clear shout-out to Martin Brody, the protagonist of Jaws who battles the hostile shark. The video even uses a screenshot of Martin Brody from the film when mentioning him.

    Kingdom Hearts 

    The Legend of Korra 

    The Legend of Zelda 

    Life is Strange 

    The Lord of the Rings 

    The Loud House 

    Marvel Cinematic Universe 
  • Because I Knew You; Reference to Wicked is a key point in both fics;
    • In "Because I Knew You", Peter and Wanda first admit their knowledge of each other's secrets after watching the play when Wanda and Peter are each struck by the similarities between them and Elphaba, Wanda obviously drawing analogies to how Elphaba was condemned as the villain and Peter comparing his current secret to how Elphaba never told Glinda the truth about her survival.
    • In "Clea Cut" after Wanda is manipulated into dreamwalking into her counterpart in another world, the already-displaced Peter of her world confirms her identity by singing lines from Wicked; he had already established that show doesn't exist in Earth-717, so the "local" Wanda wouldn't understand the reference.
    • Aside from Wicked, it’s stated that several 80s horror movies were inspired by contact with the Dark Dimension, such as dreamwalking inspiring Freddy Krueger; Clea mentions that the Dark Dimension is still earning royalties from a writer who created a series about "a Darkhold ripoff and a guy with a chainsaw hand".
    • Also, "Clea Cut" features more than one Star Wars reference when Peter and Wanda learn that their counterparts on Earth-717 are married, the two comparing their reaction to that idea to the thought of how Luke and Leia must have felt about their kiss on Hoth after learning about their real relationship.
  • In The Other Side (memoriaeterna), after the Snap killed the other half of the universe, when Yelena Belova makes contact with Peter Parker she concludes her introduction by saying "I think you are missing a Black Widow on your team so I volunteer as tribute, Peter Parker."
  • Sixes and Sevens:
    • After telling Emily about an encounter with Fighting Jack Churchill, Emily exclaims "You should go into battle with a sword, Carter!" Generation Kill, of which the author is also a fan of, has a similar line.
      • The above chapter's title came from the book One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick, who was an officer featured in Generation Kill.
    • The final chapter gets its title from a famous exchange in Lawrence of Arabia, along with a quote from Lawrence's book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
    • Emily tells Michael that if he gets out of line after getting the serum she'll shoot him like Colonel Kurtz.
    • A subtle reference is made to Band of Brothers when Emily tells Mark Anthony Todd that there's "dust on your jump wings, cowboy."
    • The codename of the team's contact in Shadow of the Eagle is Nausicaä - and while the anime character is named for an actual greek figure, the umlaut is only included for the former.
    • When Michael tells Robbie not to try anything untoward with Emily, Robbie responds "I would never steal a friend's beau, you whore."
    • Chapter 5 of Shadow of the Eagle is described as an homage to Old Gods of Appalachia; specifically, Mark's tale about meeting a mysterious women in Barlo, Kentucky who appears to be Daughter Dooley.
    • Mark also mentions encountering Barrow and Locke Mining and Railroad Combine back home in chapter 7, and the footnote claims that the company would "is a fine addition to Marvel's many corporations of dubious repute".
    • The Haunting of Villa Layla is a reference to the Doctor Who episode "The Haunting of Villa Diodati". Much like the historical inspiration for the episode, the story also features a group of characters being trapped in a home due to grim weather and telling spooky stories to pass the time.
    • The third chapter has two to the infamously memetic Amazons Attack!. First is when Robby casually snarks "my God" after determining Fritz von Meyer's plans. After concluding his story and being met with middling reviews, he mopes that they "should all be thanking [him] for stopping a deadly bee weapon".
    • Emily's chapter in The Haunting of Villa Layla mentions the Crimson Abbess and Bonewhite Jacques from Jemjammer.
    • Chapter 5 of Phantom Pain Emily tells Dottie that sometimes "dreams are messeges from the deep", directly quoting Dune.
    • Chapter 11 of Phantom Pain is titled "Do You Think Love Can Bloom, Even on the Battlefield?", a quote from Metal Gear Solid.
      • The same chapter opens with Howard telling a phone operator to connect him to the University of Los Angeles and, after a moment, he reiterates that "it's in Los Angeles".
  • Spider-Man: Finding Home;
    • When Peter, Kate and Yelena take part in a LARPing session, Yelena’s attire resembles Astrid of How to Train Your Dragon, with Peter and Kate vowing to watch the film with Yelena once she reveals she hasn’t seen it.

    Merlin 

    Miraculous Ladybug 
  • Maris Stella:
    • When attempting to hit Avalon's energy attacks back at her, Maris refers to the technique as the Dead Man's Volley.
    • A sleeping supervillain is named Princess Nemo.
    • When wielding the Horse Miraculous, Owen adopts the name Artax, after the horse from The Never Ending Story.
    • Hallie as the Tiger Hero goes by the name Tigris Cantus after a character from The World Ends with You.
    • Mouse themed supervillain Mouseacre makes a reference to Population Bomb, signature move of mouse-themed Pokémon Maushold.
    • When Naota's Aunt Rinoa is Akumatized, she's given a dog to fight beside her. The character she is named after, Rinoa Heartilly from Final Fantasy VIII, fights with a dog for a partner.
    • Momster is a supervillain who fights with various children's toys and playthings. While wielding a kendama, she threatens to tear the heroes apart with her indignant judgment. Indignation Judgment is a special attack in Tales of Symphonia, used by the kendama wielding character Genis.

    Monsters Vs Aliens 

    My Hero Academia 

    My Little Pony 
  • Actually, I'm Dead:
    • Trixie quotes Dr. Facillier.
    • Magenta Cat makes several shout outs to Mortal Kombat throughout the story, most notably, one of Trixie's mentors, "Kunai Tail" is obviously a ponified Scorpion.
    • Trixie and her mother Hope's mentors, including the aforementioned Kunai Tail, are basically the pony equivalent to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but with a different roster.
    • The Canterlot Court House, bears a strong resemblance to a certain other hall of justice.
    • According to the author, Trixie's dark green Alien Blood, after her tranformation, is one to the Xenomorphs of Alien fame.
    • Trixie not being able to get drunk, is also kinda sort of inspired by a certain scene in Captain America: The First Avenger.
    • One of the artifacts Trixie listed to Twilight, is the name of another Fan Fic: Hurricane’s Champron.
    • A grumpy, smoking stallion who is knowledgeable in Dark Magic and is named Hell Blazer. For everyone knowing the similar named comic book series, those character traits should sound familiar.
    • After Lightning Dust comes surprisingly close to taking out the Dark Force, said dark force quotes the Linkin Park song, "In the End", while taunting her.
      Dark Force: You tried so hard. You got so far. But in the end, it doesn't even matter.
  • All-American Girl (Shinzakura):
    • Applejack's first werewolf transformation is largely based on the famous sequence in An American Werewolf in London with some changes due to her being a pony.
    • The latest book in the Daring Do novel series is Daring Do and the Philosopher's Legacy
    • The three main characters of The Golden Armor make a brief appearance in a restaurant setting, and later end up saving Applejack from making a bad situation worse where one of the trio is thanked by name.
    • "Wrote lots of books and spells, head of the mage guild, Princess Celestia's protor... protoss... personal apprentice!"
    • One of the worlds' most popular movie series is Arddun Lleuad.
    • "Well, my parents were both military, and my mom has a small armory she keeps around the house for weapons reference for her artwork, so yeah, I know how to shoot. Learned on Dad’s Seburo M5 9mm."
    • The title of the sidestory anthology — Be Human — is a reference to one of the Scott Matthew songs from SAC, and in universe it's DJ's favorite song, for obvious reasons.
    • When a young Mike asks his sister for advice in dating DJ — an alien — his sister questions whether or not he'll wake up one day with DJ talking about 'yellow perpendicular with making blue bisector'.
      • Funnily enough, years later one of DJ's favorite games is shown to be a future version of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
    • When Cadance asks Lyra on advice for childrearing, Lyra makes light of how things have changed between former foalsitter and foalsat:
      Lyra: Just don't expect me to do the whole Darth Vader thing.
      Cadance: Darth... Vader?
      Lyra: Star Wars reference — hubby's a big fan of those old movies. "When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master."
    • During a Halloween party, Erica dresses up as the assassin Ambika from Claude & Monet.
    • In chapter 11 the Changelings get "educated" on the difference between tacics meant for terror and tactics meant for war by the Belgian special forces.
      • The start of chapter 6 shows several characters travelling through a portal from Earth to Equestria, and it's described as very similar to a Stargate.
    • Derpy's otherdimensional-sensing device is known as the Stereolab.
      • For that matter, she boards an airship called the Serene Velocity, also the name of a Stereolab album.
    • Somebody claims that mystery girl Subaru may be a student at Furinkan High School in Nerima.
      • For that matter, Tsubasa and her fellow students attend Tamagawa Mikami High School note .
    • One original character is named Tiny Dynamine and her unusual magic aura resembles butterflies.
    • Combined with a lovely Take That! in the following line:
      Discord: Would you care for a cupcake? Never cared for them myself. Too bloody.
  • Anchor Foal:
  • Anthropology:
  • A Chance Meeting of Two Moons:
  • Ascend (xTSGx): To TV Tropes directly, in the title and contents of an in-universe book from Chapter One:
    A Troper's Guide To: Clichés
  • Book Of Days: Part 3: Translator's Hoofnotes [2] makes one to Red Sonja, but calling her "Red Ponya" instead:
    The common popular image of Commander Hurricane as a long-maned amazon off the cover of a Red Ponya comic book is quite different from the image of the actual historical mare who appears in glimpses through Lady Clover's journal.
  • Chrysalis Visits The Hague:
  • Contraptionology!:
    • Rainbow Dash tries to use the Voigt-Clopff test to check whether Applejack is a robot.
    • Frankenstein (1931): When Twilight finishes her robot, she lets all of Ponyville know with a jubilant scream of "It's alive! ALIIIVE!"
  • Death is forced to take a vacation: As with any work that Anon e Mouse Jr. participates in, these happen.
    • Chapter 1:
      • Helheim, the Lady of Death in this dimension, is named for the region where the dishonorable dead (meaning those who didn't die in battle) go in Norse mythology. Related to this, one of her other Reapers is named Nidhogg, after the creature that gnaws on the world tree Yggdrasil.
    • Chapter 2:
      • Fall Harvest reveals his knowledge of Earth pony magic applied to farming; his information, including the consequences of letting things grow too fast, are based in part on Applejack's own knowledge in Project Sunflower.
      • Fall Harvest's bit about grinding up someone and putting them through the finest sieve references a similar line in Hogfather; this was Evilhumour's idea.
      • Fall Harvest remembers, to himself, a story from another adjunct of Death from another dimension who was waiting for a soul to realize they were dead; their story is the events of the The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "The Hitch-Hiker".
    • Chapter 4:
      • Fall Harvest is an Adjunct of Death, currently hiding his identity, who says that "I'm just a guy on vacation." A mortal who's mistakenly believed to be Death, or at least the inspiration for him, says the exact same thing on a regular basis in Make a Wish.
      • Fall Harvest paraphrases the last lines of the last strip from Calvin and Hobbes. Helheim promptly lampshades it.
    • Chapter 5:
      • It is mentioned how a speedster ran to the end of the universe, pursued by their Death (or at least one of the Deaths of that universe); having literally reached the end of their universe, that Death ceased to be. These events take place in The Flash Vol 2 #141, when Wally West ran to the end of the universe and back to escape the Black Flash. (This reference was also Evilhumour's idea.)
    • Chapter 6:
      • Two of the ponies named in this chapter are Redbird and Blackwing. Redbird’s name comes from the car used by Robin; Blackwing is the name of a starfighter squadron that plays a minor role in Star Wars - X-Wing #5: Wraith Squadron. In the same chapter, the character of Green Lake is named for Camp Green Lake in Holes, and the character of Light Peanut is inspired by the character of Rube from Dead Like Me (these last two were Evilhumour's idea).
      • At least some of the scenes set in the afterlife are inspired by scenes from the Rod Allbright Alien Adventures series and the Camp Haunted Hills series.
  • The Differentverse:
    • Moondancer's lashing out and calling Twilight "snooty and stuck-up" in class one day was inspired by a similar scene in Juliet Dove, Queen of Love.Explanation
    • Velvet's line of "Come to Grandmare" is a direct quote of one of her only lines in canon as of the fic's publication (specifically from The Crystalling, part 2).
    • Nightmare Moon's declaration of "Now, oh fools, you shall deal with me and all the powers of Erebus, the everlasting Darkness!" was inspired by Maleficent's Badass Boast in the 1959 film.
    • Word Of God is that Scootaloo's real parentage is one to another fic, and will be identified in the first sequel.
    • The final author's note, announcing the next story in the series, is purposely styled after the announcements at the end of most of the James Bond films of the 1960s-1980s.
    • The sequel's title (but only the title), A Case of Family, was inspired by that of the Michael Crichton novel A Case of Need.
  • Discord's New Business:
    • To The Infinite Loops in Celestia's chapter. Queen Novo in this storyline subscribes to the idea of 'seapony diplomacy.' Her method of dealing with pirates who kidnapped her involves dropping a tsunami on them.
    • In Sunset's chapter, during Pony/Draconequus!Fluttershy's attempts at transforming Sunset (which don't work like she expected), one of the transformations is into Twilight. Spike's amused response: "Oh no, it's Lavender Alicorn Syndrome!"
  • The Elements of Friendship:
    • Crescent Rose is a reference to the scythe weapon of Ruby Rose. Strengthening the connection is her apparent penchant for cookies.
    • NightMare Moon's chant as she casts a forest of thorns around Canterlot is spoken to the same cadence as Maleficent's as she does the same to King Stefan's castle in Sleeping Beauty. Fitting, since NightMare Moon was effectively an Expy of Maleficent in the pilot.
    • The scene where Selena finds Tiberius and makes him her familiar is an almost word-for-word remake of a similar scene in The Nuptialverse.
    • Discord turns a canary inside-out, undoubtedly a reference to Magic Man.
  • Equestria: A History Revealed:
    • The fic is full of these, even from the main character's name, Loose Change, calling out a prominent 9/11 truther film to fit in with her crazed conspiracy beliefs.
    • The Lemony Narrator uses the phrase "hot topic" in passing, which is then followed with a tiny "Buy MLP shirts today!"
    • One of the cited sources in the bibliography on Starswirl the Bearded is written by "Fedora the Neckbearded".
    • Princess Luna, during her transition into Nightmare Moon, was quoted to be Darker and Edgier. This is then followed by Linkin' Park lyrics.
    • The Lemony Narrator mentions many snack food brands, like Doritos and Skittles, even going so far to call for compensation in the Bibliography for the free advertising.
  • The First Steps Of The Rest Of Your Life: Hydro Pump.
  • Friendship Is Magic: The Adventures of Spike:
  • Friendship is Magic: Discord Did It:
  • Friendship Is Optimal: The Law Offices of Artemis, Stella & Beat: To Phoebe and Her Unicorn, which inspired Vibrant's Major General Song.
  • The Games We Play: To various memes in the MLP fandom, including cameos from Derpy Hooves, wingboners as plot points, "I emptied your fridge", and etc.
    "We gotta be sneaky, Dashie! Sneaky!"
  • Getting Back on Your Hooves:
    • During an argument with Rarity, Applejack comments that "Ah ain't got no accent!" In fact, the entire subplot going on there appears to be based on that fic.
    • Checker Monarch appears to be based on Azula, a perfectionist Manipulative Bitch Chessmaster who is jealous of a younger sibling whom she bullies and has an overbearing father. Moreover, both characters are deeply insecure beneath all their arrogance.
    • Trixie is apparently a big fan of the Harry Trotter novels.
    • Several Shout Outs to the Pony POV Series were included due to the author being friends with Alexwarlorn.
    • The charity play Trixie puts on with help from her friends and Princess Luna is "Rescue at Midnight Castle", the original G1 My Little Pony TV special.
      • She later tells the story of Grogar to the Cake Twins. Both of those stories are used by Trixie to defeat Checker in her final dream attack.
    • Ditzy, when talking about how she accidentally wrecked city hall with her flank, says that isn't the only time it's happened, and starts to recount another time it's happened until she remembers the Doctor told her not to tell anyone about it.
    • While travelling through the Everfree Forest, the Cutie Mark Crusaders realize their path will go past Zecora's hut. Scootaloo suggests a path leading off the one to Zecora's hut, but Apple Bloom quickly shuts down that idea after remembering where it goes.
    • Pinkie Pie doesn't make cupcakes where audiences can see anymore, and angrily mutters about wanting to sue someone for defamation of character.
    • In chapter 11, Applejack mentions a time Twilight messed up a spell and sent the six of them to a gender-flipped alternate universe.
    • Chapter 12 takes some references to Persona 4 including Checker's One-Winged Angel transformation into an Ursa Major referencing the Shadows' transformations.
    • Pinkie's dream (confrontation with Checker) in chapter 12 contains references to both Scooby-Doo and Wile E. Coyote.
  • The God Squad: To the various properties that the squad comes across in its travels.
  • A Hairy Problem: A new pony in town, Sandalwood, is a deliberate Alternate Universe version of DJ Martinez from
  • Hands: All the time, though no-one ever gets Andrew's references.
    • The two people onboard the Enterprise whose iPhone Andrew and Twilight discover are named after the main characters from Dead Space.
  • The Immortal Game: To Sherlock Holmes (2009). For a while, the duel between Twilight and Esteem plays out just like the one between Holmes and Moriarty in A Game of Shadows.
    His advantage: Experience. Our advantages: Power. Mobility.
    • During that same fight with Esteem, Twilight makes one to the famous tank chase from [PROTOTYPE]:
    Twilight Sparkle: Where have you run to now? Nothing can save you from me, Esteem! Not ponies! Not puppets! Not gods!
    Twilight Sparkle: How do you feel?
    Princess Luna,newly infused with Terra's magic: Taller.
    • Titan is ASSUMING CONTROL OF THIS FORM.
      • Twilight's Godslayer spell is more or less a magical version of the Thanix cannon. Later versions even use the same combination of elements as the Normandy's main gun.
    • Rarity and Esteem have a conversation taken almost word for word from The Empire Strikes Back:
    Esteem: "It is useless to resist! Don't let yourself be destroyed as your mother did!"
  • Inner Demons:
    • Queen!Twilight's mind control spell is very similar to a Geass. In fact, her statement when shutting down Cadence's magic — "Never use magic again!" — is very similar to Lelouch's "Never speak again!" moment with Mao. Lezard even refers to this ability as "the Power of the Queen", and his explanation of how it works sounds very similar to the mechanics of Lelouch's Geass.
    • When Applejack finally gets a chance to confront Queen!Twilight, the latter states "Element of Honesty... Come to die."
    • When Apple Bloom meets with Trixie in the afterlife, it plays out similar to a scene between Harry and Dumbledore in The Deathly Hallows.
    • When Lezard brings up reincarnation and its implied Eternal Recurrence, the phrase "All this has has happened before, and all this may happen again" comes up.
  • It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door, and its sequel Besides the Will of Evil:
    • There are quite a lot to The Lord of the Rings, being the story heavily inspired by Tolkien’s works.
      • The title of the first story itself is a reference to a quote from The Fellowship of the Ring.
        Bilbo: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
      • The same applies to Besides the Will of Evil:
        Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
        Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.
      • Balrogs are mentioned as one of the possible threats outside of Equestria, and as one possible identity for the creature lurking in the cave in the Drackenridge Mountains.
      • Gildedale and the Daleponies stand in for Rohan and the Rohirrim.
      • The deer of Shimmerwood are fairly clearly meant to be Tolkien’s Elves, and Lady Falalauria is specifically an expy of Galadriel.
      • In A Day for Spike and Twilight, it's revealed that the current emperor of the dragons is named Ancalagon, and his predecessor was Glaurâg.
      • Many of the prominent deer characters are based on those found in The Silmarillion. Lady Falalauria is based on Galadriel, and besides her most elk are named after prominent elves, such as the elk king Gil-Galad, or Feanor and Glorfindel. Reiziger shares traits with both Sauron and Morgoth, including one of his old names, Annatar, which was one of Sauron's many aliases.
      • The monsters Reiziger has created for his armies include fell beasts and ungoliants.
    • One of the titles the author was originally considering for Besides the Will of Evil was The Crawling Caribou.
    • When Rainbow Dash first uses the lightning powers she learns from the pronghorns, she says "I am a leaf on the wind". Even better, her mentor who had also been taught by the pronghorns was called Firefly. Though this may just be a coincidence, given that her mentor is an expy of a past-gen pony by that name.
    • Dragons are apparently from Carcosa.
  • Knights Of Equestria: There's quite a few Doctor Who references spread throughout both stories... which is a given since the Doctor is a character in both.
  • Letters From A Disgruntled Friendship Student:
  • The Life and Times of a Winning Pony:
  • The Light in the Darkness: Pinkie Pie is a fan of the Marx Brothers.
  • Magnetism: To The Legend of Zelda, after Rainbow successfully makes cereal. The line before is a shout out to an episode of The Simpsons where Homer makes cereal and it catches fire.
  • Major League Pony:
    • The fight between the Mane Six and the manticore, takes the form of a Pokémon style battle.
    • During Nightmare Moon's flashback to her days on the moon, you can see the Space Sphere from Portal 2 flying by her.
    • From the same flashback, Nightmare Moon claims her only friend was a small meteorite named waffles, who's face was just a bloody hand print, much like Wilson the volleyball from Cast Away.
  • The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo: The entire premise of the story is to insert Scootaloo into different origin stories.
    • Two of the latest chapters have seen Friendship is Witchcraft and On a Cross and Arrow referenced.
    • Spike's story is a mash-up of elements from James Bond, Burn Notice, and The Emperor's New Groove.
    • The author apparently loves Animaniacs, as Cadence's chapter featured 'mini mares' who find Princess Scootaloo, three of whom are named Yakko, Wakko and Dot. Later, in Discord's chapter, the chaos god opens with his version of The Muppet Show theme.
    • According to Snips and Snails, Scootaloo is a vampire slayer, with Twilight as her Watcher, the rest of the CMC as her team, and Angel Bunny as her vampire lover. Spike, who is the audience while Twilight is getting much-needed reprieve from the madness, is less than enthused to be cast as the villain.
    • Rainbow Dash combines The Six Million Dollar Man with The Incredible Hulk (1977).
    • Zecora borrows material from Dr. Seuss.
    • In the intro, brfore the origin stories start, there is a reference to the CMC summoning a "winged squid creature" while trying to be witches. The context seems to imply it was Cthulhu.
    • A nasty rumor involving Pinkie Pie's cupcakes is mentioned, then subverted when Twilight reveals it's not what we think... The rumor was actually that Pinkie used artificial sweeteners.
  • Memories of Days Long Past: Pinkie provides most of these; in the prologue, upon hearing the setup, she directly references Inception, then asks if their ancestors were assassins.
  • Mendacity: One of the... things... that Bon Bon sees when she almost passes into Faerie appears to be a ponyfied Slender Man.
    • The faerie homeland of Tir na Nog?
      • Nope, that's a reference to real-world mythology.
  • Midnight Green: During Midnight's Dynamic Entry into Ponyville, he screams "LEEEEROOOOOOOOOY JEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!!!"
  • A Minor Variation:
    • Rarity's introduction to Discord.
      Rarity: Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony? Good evening, my name is Rarity Bell. As a member of the country and world of Equestria, I ask you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the next convenient parallel dimension.
    • When Rarity mentions how Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon, Jackie wants he to clarify whether she was imprisoned IN the moon, or having adventures on the surface in the form of an adorable filly.
    • One of Fluttershy's Omega Flight classmates is named Dorothy Gale, who ends up carried off by a tornado to a faraway land.
  • Miscellaneous:
    • The beginning of chapter 4 appears to be a reference to The Hangover. Quill wakes up with no memory of what happened the night before, wonders where Filter is, and proceeds to find him on the roof of Sugarcube Corner.
    • When Filter reveals that he has two hearts, he wonders if that has been used before.
    • Dual Image might as well be renamed "The Doctor Who Shout-Out Chapter". Not only do Quill and Filter quote the Doctor various times, the scene where Filter, powered up by King Sombra, completely overpowers Trixie and forces her to surrender before forgiving her is taken straight from "Last of the Time Lords".
  • The Monster Mash:
  • Frequent in My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic, to the point of plagiarism.
  • My Little Mages: The Nightmare's Return:
  • Nine Days Down:
    • The concept of deities having multiple souls and distinct bodies, which exist in concert but have distinct senses of self and personalities, is noted by the author to have been derived from Exalted.
    • Yothga, a magic-eating plant found in Tartarus and which holds a powerful being imprisoned in its vines, is from the Conan the Barbarian story "The Scarlet Citadel".
  • The Non-Bronyverse: TD's lectures to the DORKS on the history of the Human race are entirely composed of references to everything from Star Wars to Kickassia.
  • Of Mares and Magic: Sprinkled throughout, including;
    • Sea Pony Lyra makes an appearance.
    • At one point, Trixie ends up heading into the Everfree Forest to find the CMC, and stumbles upon a certain village.
  • On a Cross and Arrow: Pinkie Pie suggests space as the Mane 6 hiding spot. For a moment, she turns into the Space Core whilst doing so.
  • On A Whisper Of Wind: A magician named Presto? Seems familiar...
  • Our First Steps: Apart from shout outs to movies like The Right Stuff and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, there are numerous allusions to various works on the subject and to the American and Soviet space programs.
  • Oversaturated World: There's a lot. Here's some:
    • Oversaturation:
      • When talking about Mr. Discord's "Not A Human Testing Facility". Not: a reference to Portal:
        Pinkie beamed. "Is there a homicidal AI made by a company that originally made shower curtains?"
        "He looked for one, but they were outside of his price range." Fluttershy dipped her head. "He was so disappointed."
        Pinkie backed away a step. "I was joking."
        "So was he." After a moment, Fluttershy added, "At least, I'm fairly certain he was."
      • Bland-Name Product such that Street Fighter = Alley Brawler and "M. Bison" = "F. Buncher", leads to a reference with Bison's memetic "OF COURSE!" from the movie for a text notification tone:
    "OF COURSE!"
    Everyone jumped at the sudden outburst. Rainbow Dash then laughed. "Really? F. Buncher from the Alley Brawler movie?"
  • Pages Of Harmony:
    • During Rainbow Dash's Mind Rape torture, the story slightly mentions both Rainbow Factory and Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles), two other well-known gorefics. While Cupcakes is only slightly alluded to with Pinkie in one of Rainbow's Mind Rape visions threatening to hack her wings off, the Rainbow Factory mention is quite blatant... and it makes everything much worse.
    • Pinkie's gesture language and Rainbow Dash's interpretation of it are a reference to Haroun and the Sea Of Stories, when Mudra the Shadow Warrior communicates to the Storyteller Rashid in this manner.
  • The Palaververse:
  • The Party Never Ended:
    • Star Catcher is the name of a G3 pegasus pony.
    • Rainbow Dash mentions the "Swayback Mountains" at one point. This is a nod to a previous Applejack/Rarity fan fic Butterscotch Sundae wrote.
    • Chapter 11 opens up with what can only be described as a Take That! parody of Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles), and later, Rocket to Insanity. Made awesome by the fact that it's Nightmare's Mind Rape... which Pinkie subverts by lucid dreaming.
  • Party of None: A reference to Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) is made when Rainbow Dash is hesitant to accept a cake from Pinkie Pie, fearing it may have been drugged or poisoned. It’s safe, but Pinkie thinks it’s her worst batch ever.
  • Past Sins:
  • Pattycakes:
    • The beginning of Part One is one of Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles), which also began with Dash having a good day.
    • Dash falls under the effects of Instant Sedation and wakes up tied to a table.
    • Fluttershy calls for Pinkie to bring cupcakes in one ending of Part Two.
    • The song Fluttershy sings is based directly off Want You Gone.
    • The foalmula is described as odorless, colorless, and tasteless.
  • Pink Personal Hell And Altering Fate:
  • The Powers of Harmony:
    • When Blair enters Luna's room at the beginning of the story, he sees she has an abacus.
    • Rarity's morning activities in Chapter 7 include a reference to Lyra's endeavors in Background Pony.
      Rarity worked all throughout the morning, only stopping briefly to enchant a soundstone for a mint-green unicorn wearing a gray hoodie. After finishing that, she continued to work on the necklace.
    • Celestia's response to whether she'd taught Twilight any offensive magic in Chapter 17 is a nod to The Immortal Game. Also a bit of a Take That! to the plot.
      "If she does, she didn’t learn it from me." Celestia adjusted one last feather and looked up at Luna. "We covered a few theories on why certain spells have been declared forbidden, but it's not like I was prepping her for war. The next thing I'm going to hear you say is that I was secretly turning her into a brilliant military strategist so that she'd rise up and become the ultimate weapon."
      Luna rolled her eyes. "Now that's just absurd."
    • "Rarity" asks Grovi about an artifact from The Flight of the Alicorn while they're walking into Canterlot Castle in Chapter 21, and an airship by the name of 'Fancy Free' is seen from a distance in Chapter 27.
      "Is it true that Princess Celestia keeps the Heavenstone from the Pre-Discordian Era in the Royal Vaults?"
    • Blair responds to Piro's needling about Libra's actions in Chapter 25 with a line similar to one uttered by Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises:
      "Celestia forbid you actually have to make a hard decision by yourself, Piro. Be grateful you've somepony to plunge their hooves into the filth for you."
    • Norric grew up in Gildesdale.
    • Zemblani and Elo's pre-duel banter in Chapter 19 references the famous exchange between Peter Pan and Captain Hook:
      "I suppose we can do this your way, little clone," Zemblani said. "Prepare to meet 'thy' doom!"
      "Dark and sinister mare," Elo answered. "Have at thee."
    • Speaking of Elo, he was the result of an affair between members of rival families Mont'hequ and Gallopulet.
    • Applejack's group visits the town of Gallopfrey, whose ecology causes red grass and silver-leafed trees.
    • That same chapter has a cameo by the title character of the MLP fic "Echo the Diamond Dog".
    • Pilgrim/Pupa's story is based on the MLP fic "The Three Sisters", with some minor modifications. (And permission from the author.)
  • Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead:
    • When Sunset is home sick with the flu, she's mentioned as watching a cartoon that Celestia doesn't recognize but describes as being "Something about fusions, and Crystal Gems?"
    • While confronting Iron Will during the attack on Canterlot High, Chinch repeats Dracula's "What is a man?" speech from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, throws her drinking chalice to the ground, and rips off her suit to reveal a high-collared cape, white shirt and burgundy pants based on the other vampire's.
    • The epilogue lifts a brief conversation between Sunset and Celestia regarding where the swords are kept from Hiimdaisy's comics on Persona 4.
  • School Daze: Dozens of lines of dialogue are lines from 80's songs, especially Men at Work and Talking Heads.
  • Scootamom:
    • Scootaloo's introduction to her auntie involves her walking across the ceiling with suction cups, à la a certain Ask a Pony blog.
    • "She seems to be more caffeine than mare now. Twisted and jittering."
    • Celestia also mentions that Luna once got her face covered with alfalfa sauce.
    • Word of God hasn't confirmed this one yet, but the fact that Luna has a magma-powered forge and warns Scootaloo against exploring the castle cellars on her own has led SpaceBattles to conclude that she set the Hidden Fun Stuff loose in her big sister's basement. Whether or not Canterlot also has a Fuck The World lever is also unknown as yet.
    • The old shopkeeper introduced in the second half of Celestia vs. Knitting is known simply by his nickname 'Uncle', has a collection of animal talismans, and Dope Slaps ponies to keep them in line.
    • Pinkie Pie's siblings and father are named Inkie, Blinkie and Clyde.
  • Sophistication and Betrayal:
    • The protagonist's favorite drink is Sparkle Cola.
    • Pinkie Pie takes on the name of Tenacious P for one of her songs. This is immediately lampshaded by the protagonist.
    • To Star Wars, when the protagonist compares unicorn magic to The Force.
    • To The Dark Knight when the protagonist responds to her comment with "We kill the Batman?". Rarity naturally doesn't get the reference.
    • "Time is money, friend"
    • To Pink Floyd numerous times, including Chapter 14's title, "Wearing The Inside Out" and Chapter 17's title, "High Hopes".
    • Eric Clapton during Chapter 3, when the Protagonist starts singing "Wonderful Tonight" to himself while waiting for Rarity to get dressed.
    • Bob Seger as well, in passing.
    • Airplane! gets in with the usual Shirley reference. As above, naturally Rarity doesn't get it.
  • The Story Shuffle series of anthologies: In their Tables of Contents:
    • That of the first series, Story Shuffle: To some summaries of Warhammer 40,000, that go like, "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war."
      26. Marine Biology (EoH compatible)
      [...]
      In the grim wetness of the ocean depths of Ungula, there is mostly war.
    • That of Story Shuffle 2: Double Masters: To BioShock's line, "A man chooses, a slave obeys."
      16. Intrusive Thoughts
      [...]
      A pony chooses. A slave obeys.
  • Stroll:
    • Wallaby Way is mentioned multiple times.
    • One of the snacks the burglars stole is called Dixie Biscuits.
    • Octavia eats snacks from the brand Host and hopes they go out of business.
    • Octavia narrowly avoids comparing a sheriff's hat to Calamity Mane's.
    • The deputy who helps Octavia is Deputy Beagle.
    • The fake name Octavia gives to the two police officers is Chell.
    • Cigare Brûlé (Burnt Cigar in French) is a subtle reference to Bon Iver.
    • In Devastation, the griffons mention Trainspying.
    • The captain of the pirate ship (who appears in Intelligence, Stupidity, and Disappointment) is Andy Trout. His ship is called the Scuttlebug and he calls to the main group with "Avast, ye scuttlebutts!"
    • Three successive chapter names are Town, Barter, and Run.
  • Strykes Random Elements: “There's the Discordians, the Cultists for the Second Coming of the Mag'ne, the Sect of the Horned Rat just to name a few and far to (sic) many others." Including the meat-eating White Sock Society.
  • Triptych Continuum: Many. Here's a few:
    • From Triptych:
      • To Flash Fog: Chapter 3 reports that Fluttershy's income includes a small stipend with associated tax break from the Weather Bureau which she's never quite explained. Word Of Fanfic Author says that in this continuity, the cottage is serving as a first-alert station, with Fluttershy sounding the alarm if she spots a major uncontrolled weather system emerging from her neighboring wild zone.
      • To Gone with the Wind In her desperation to make dresses (plus one tuxedo) for everypony in time for the party, Rarity winds up cannibalizing a set of Quiet's curtains.
      • To On a Cross and Arrow: Chapter 14 has Twilight being asked/made to attend and bless the birth of two foals. Both are then named in tribute to her: the pegasus filly Dawn Sky and a unicorn colt named Dusk. A few chapters later, we meet the latter's father — and find out the last name is Shine.
      • To Edvard Munch's painting, The Scream: In Chapter 15, a ponified version is described:
        "Y'see that paintin' on the wall?" Applejack inclined her head towards the ornate frame. "The one with what Ah think is s'posed t' be a stallion on some kind of bridge, with the sky all red an' somethin' wrong with the water an' two strangers approachin'? An' he's jus' screamin' at the air?"
      • To Dungeons & Dragons: In Chapter 13, Rarity reveals that the Diamond Dogs call her the Tyrant of the Underdark. She thinks it's meant with respect.
      • When Gentle Arrival discusses his list of "infusion" experiments, he mentions an earth pony with an incredible instinct for unicorn workings, and an instinctive ability to dispel most magics, which he uses to pursue a career as a wandering tutor for young unicorns — this is a reference to Green Grass, the male protagonist of the The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian series.
    • From A Total Eclipse Of The Fun:
  • Ultra Fast Pony:
    • Pinkie's references to The Lord of the Rings imply that Wacarb is a fan as well. One does not simply reference Bill the pony via pop cultural osmosis.
    • A few to Homestar Runner. Marzipan's "Oh Yeah Yeah" song is used for two separate montages. Photo Finish sounds like (a slightly less Cloud Cuckoolander-ish) Senor Cardgage. The background "music" in "Stay Tuned" is very similar to the music from the Dangeresque films.
    • Wacarb is a fan of PurpleEyesWFT's abridgements. Diamond Tiara's voice sounds a lot like Nina's voice from Code MENT. And the joke where DT complains about Scootaloo being incomprehensible is very similar to the joke where Nina makes fun of Suzaku for having a stupid voice.
    • As young Rarity gets dragged towards her new destiny, the Wallace & Gromit theme music plays. A caption appears, reading "I love this song".
    • When Rarity reaches her destiny, she's disappointed that it's not Pride Rock, just an ordinary rock.
    • "There's no such thing as too much David Bowie!"
    • Some of the many incorrect names Pinkie Pie gives to Cranky include Diddy, Dixie, Lanky, Funky, and Chunky.
  • The Wedding is Off! features some lines that are reworked quotes from The Little Mermaid (1989), The Lion King (1994), iCarly and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
  • The Witch of the Everfree:
    • At one point Sunset quotes Jaya Ballard, task mage.
      Sunset: Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.
    • One of the books Sunset finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "The Book of Megan".
    • During their fight with Nightmare Moon, Sunset tells Twilight to cross the streams.
    • During the same fight, she pulls a Vaarsuvius: "I prepared explosive runes this mor-"
    • When Pinkie is listing the Noodle Implements she'll need to test the possibility of creating a pinata full of pinatas, she closes with "an old priest and a young priest."
  • The Writing on the Wall:
    • The story contains a shoutout to the curse of King Tutankhamen's tomb and to the poem Ozymandias in Daring Do's speculation about what the eponymous, then untranslated writing on the wall of the Ancient Tomb meant:
      "'This is the tomb of the great and terrible So-and-So! Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! Whosoever steals the treasure will face the gods' curse, and the sky will fall on their heads, et cetera'."
    • The entire story is a shout-out to a proposal for an as yet unbuilt nuclear waste storage facility. The Reveal turns the story into a Horror story, as the reader realizes that the ponies who got sick are suffering from radiation sickness.
      This is not a place of honor. No great deed is commemorated here. Nothing of value is here.

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