Shout Out / Pony POV Series

• One of the ponies Nightmare Moon tried to recruit for her Quirky Miniboss Squad during her initial rampage was Ruby.
• One of Trixie's memories is of speaking with a counselor with a resemblance to "Harry Potter".
• A lot of MLP fanfictions are referred to, existing either as alternate realities, in-fic canon, in-fic ghost stories, or Pinkie Pie telling us to stop talking about that stupid fanfic.
  • In the same story, Pinkie mentions an anime called "Narutrot"
  • Cupcakes is referenced again in the illustrations for the Bad Future's audio adaptation. This time, it's Fluttercruel who's pulling it off.
  • After Rainbow Dash snaps at Scootaloo in a short fit of anger, the filly gets afraid that Rainbow Dash will throw her into the "Pegasus Machine". Dash proceeds to reassure that there is no such thing as a Pegasus Machine and never will be except in stories, that if there was one Rainbow Dash herself would have been fuel for it long ago (as she was thrown out of flight school), and also that if the Factory wanted Scootaloo they'd have to go through her, Dash, in the first place.
• In the "Penultimate Beta 1" Chapter (AKA Fluttercruel POV Black Pearl), one of the tabloid articles Luna mentions claims that Luna was turned into Nightmare Moon because she was infested by an evil mind control slug.
  • Could also be talking about Goa'uld or be a reference to Brain Slugs.
  • Fluttercruel tells Fluttershy that she would love it if she could take Rainbow Dash's mind and reduce it to that of a newborn filly.
    • Also, Fluttercruel's speeches to Fluttershy are based off of Ichigo and his Hollow's.
  • Darwin The Dragon's law is mentioned which is obviously a reference to Charles Darwin.
• During Luna's confrontations with Discord, he says that he had to tell the same lesson to "A bald man," long ago. Doubles as a shout-out to the voice actor, but also subtly implies that Discord IS Q.
• Doctor Whooves' discorded version basically becomes Rassillon.
• One of Princess Gaia's brainwashing melodies is "Come Little Children" from Hocus Pocus.
  • Also, Princess Gaia's plan to save everypony by turning them all into foals harks back to a very nasty fanfic in which Fluttershy did precisely that to her fellow ponies.
• Upon seeing the Midsummer's Night Sisters' "Super Sentai" Stance, Twilight mentions it reminded her of something out of Mighty Morphing Pony Rangers. Their name is of course a reference to A Mid Summer Nights Dream.
• In "Links", Twilight and Trixie are reading Harry Trotter and the Lunar Hollows. Twilight wonders if the writer actually talked to any real magic users for the book.
• The Side-Story, where Luna is in a play, the story she tells is very clearly The Tale of the Three Brothers, with a horn standing in for the Elder Wand for the eldest brother, wings for the Resurrection Stone, and a horseshoe that would give him invisibility for the third brother's Cloak of Invisibility.
  • Turns out, like the Tale of the Three Brothers, this is real. The horn is actually called "The Elder Horn."
• One young pegasus in "Everkind Forest" is Link, who, in this timeline, has been granted a peaceful, happy life as a pony as a reward for all the battles he's had to fight throughout history. "Pearl Necklace Part 3" introduces his girlfriend, a green pegasus named Saria.
• The song brainwashed Cherilee sings while battling the heroes, Teacher Teacher, is obviously modeled on Margaret Moonlight's Philistine.
  • Celestia's song that she uses to unbrainwash Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper's foals is the G1 My Little Pony theme song.
• The title of the chapter "The Foal of Omelas" references the story "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas". Nightmare Whisper actually refers to herself as "the Forsaken Foal Of Omelas" at one point, taking the suffering for all of Equestria on herself.
• In "Pearl Necklace Part 4", Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie make these comments about Trixie and Fluttercruel being Elements of Harmony.
  Rainbow Dash: Is this gonna be like buckin' DragonEggs Z where everybody get an Element?!
  Pinkie Pie: Nah, pretty sure this is like Pony Rangers RPM, when the two other Rangers shows up and make the team stronger, silly!
• One of Luna's middle names is Nyx.
  • Alternatively, Nyx is the Ancient Greek Titan of the Night. Additionally, one of Princess Celestia's middle names is Amaterasu, the Shinto goddess of the sun.
  • In a more definite shout out to Past Sins, during Origins Celestia compares Shady's raising of the young amnesiac Discord to a world she saw in the Truth where Twilight did the same for a child born of Nightmare Moon's essence.
• Discord's brother Anarchy is causing chaos to combat entropy. Sound familiar?
  • Also, this might count as an Actor Allusion, the author gives Anarchy's voice actor as Quinton Flynn, and makes a lot of nods to Kingdom Hearts.
• Fluttershy's transformation into Princess Gaia mirror's Sayaka's transformation into a Witch. It helps that both scenes have the horrified bystander screaming out their friend's name as it happens.
  • On a similar note, Nightmare Whisper's goals closely resemble those of Kriemhild Gretchen, Madoka's Witch form, as described in supplementary material.
  • Also, two of the Virgacorns who died in the Apple Pie chapter of the Dark World arc were named Puella and Magica.
• Inverted with Getting Back on Your Hooves, which has Discord's manner of breaking Trixie during his reign be the same as it is in this series as a homage to it.
  • The Ask a Pony Blog Ask Pony Discord by the same author has referenced the fic a number of times. At one point, while Discord is discussing what happens if Canon!Discord shows up in the Heart World, Heart World is even followed by (© of Alexwarlorn).
• In her second side-story, Luna states that there was an "incident involving some kitchen appliances" drove her catch up on the times.
• Celestia's speech to Luna before revealing her Orion form is a Shout-Out to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Way Of The Warrior" when Sisko tells the Klingon fleet how they've had a year to prepare for a Dominion attack and are ready.
• In "AJ's Dream", many of the Alternate Universes she sees upon looking into herself/the Gate of Truth again are fanfic references.
  • One of the Alternate Universes shows a What If? scenario where Pinkie Pie becomes Nightmare Granfalloon. This is immediately followed up with a scene akin to one in Episode 10 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, wherein Mami/Rarity freaks out at the Awful Truth.
  • One of the Alternate Universes has a pony version of the Final Battle of season 1 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, with the mane cast as the rangers and Gilda as Goldar. Incidentally, Mighty Morphing Power Ponies is frequently mentioned as a Show Within A Fanfic throughout the fic.
  • Another alternate reality seen has the mane cast becoming Knight Templar dictators of their world using the Elements of harmony where any sign of disharmony or unhappiness is treated with brainwashing and other brutal methods, a Shout-Out to the Justice Lords. In fact, Word of God has said they originally wanted to call them the Harmony Lords but changed it to Harmony Queens due to gender.
  • One of the alternate universes is basically Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, with Surprise as Roxas, Pinkie as Sora, Minty as Xion, and Rainbow Dash as Riku.
  • A recent edit revealed what AJ ended up becoming the Element of Laughter: G1 AJ.
  • Another Alternate World has Twilight Sparkle facing off with Nyx from Persona 3.
    • Oh, and Nyx uses the same line that she uses before she starts throwing Night Queen around.
• Trixie makes a joke about Twilight "using a Geass" to make everypony fall in love with her doll at one point. Geasses are mentioned a lot in the series, actually. For example, Fluttershy's stare turns out to be one.
• Rarity's thoughts during her discording are reminiscent of a certain game.
  Isn't a pony entitled to the sweat of her flanks? 'No!' says Mayor Mare, 'It belongs to the poor!' 'No!' says Canterlot 'it belongs to Celestia!' 'No!' says Pinkie Pie, 'It belongs to everyone!'
• In "Cruel's Best Pet":
  "A beehive!", Shy thought suddenly.
  "NO, NOT THE BEES!"
• In "Generational Transitions"
  Strife: You have choosen...wisely.
• When Diamond Tiara becomes completely corrupted by Discord and goes Nightmare, her Cutie Mark becomes the Star of Chaos.
  • It's also strongly implied in the new Epilogue chapters that Discord's Equestria was attacked by alien invaders. After defeating them, Discord went to their ruler to toss a cream pie into his face... only to discover their ruler was a sick old man on life support.
• When Discord is explaining to Diamond Tiara that insanity runs in her family and lists a few of her notable ancestors — one apparently wrote the pony version of The King in Yellow, and another wrote the pony version of the Necronomicon. Speaking of which, Discord also offhandedly mentions his "cousin Ponythulhu".
• In "Darkest Hour", Cadence tells Twilight Tragedy that "destruction is the hope for a fresh start from zero".
  • During that same fight, when Cadence asks Rarigreed why she's serving Discord, she responds with a modified version of the fanon Orange Lantern oath.
• When Shining is describing his dreams in "ecnarbmemeR-Remembrance", one of them is a shout out to The Avengers (2012) (with Shining himself in the role of Nick Fury), with another being a shout out to Final Fantasy IV. Later on in the chapter, when Twilight is telling him about Nightmare Moon's impending return, he responds with two Big "WHAT?!"-s followed by a Flat "What", a'la the Doctor.
• "Modern Major Evil Overlord" is pretty much a Deconstruction and Parody of the Evil Overlord List. Not to mention a shout to Gilbert and Sullivan's famous "Modern Major General". Who knew Discord was a fan of light opera?
• The circle of ponies circling Twilight near the end of Party At Canterlot Castle/Daybreak could refer to either the TV ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion and a scene in the Recap Episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
• In "Apple Tree" one of the worlds is Twilight and Discord reenacting the filming of the Final Battle between GaoGaiGar and Palperapa, with Twilight as Guy and Discord as Palperapa. We also see that Rainbow Dash is playing J.
• In Part 8 of Dark World, Fluttercruel and Discord are at one point seen playing Space Invaders.
• Discord in Part 8 of Dark World also mentions that there's an Abandoned Warehouse District specifically so he can have giant monster fights without 'breaking his toys' in the process, even telling Fluttercruel she needs to watch more Pony Rangers since she didn't understand.
• When Twilight confronts Rarigreed in her mind, she makes statements very similar to when Ling calls out Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist.
  Twilight: A mare willing to throw away something precious to her has no right to call herself Greed!
• Dark World Part 11 briefly shows Anarchy feeding a pony version of Bane his lines during his big speech.
  • Chapter 22 has a flashback to Discord giving a similar speech when taking over Manehatten and driving everypony crazy. It also has a similar Kangaroo Court to the movie's.
• Santa Hooves breaking into Discord's castle yearly in the Dark World timeline has been confirmed by Word of God to have been based off this comic where Santa Claus does it to Darkseid (the occurrence) and the British ''Sonic The Hedgehog'' comics were Robotnik gets the visit (his Nigh-Invulnerable qualities and justification for them).
• When the new Mane Six go after Discord in Dark World 14, one of the Apple/Pie clan cheer them off with "Have fun defeating the evil overlord!"
• Derpy's "go sideways!" comment in "Six Points Of Light" was one to this video.
• During a flashback in part 3 of Shining Armor's arc, Twilight reads a tabloid story about fears that Hogwarts and the Unseen University will soon surpass Celestia's school.
• The head of Cadence's contingent of Air Naval Cavalry is Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan, while the captain of the ship she & Shining Armor are traveling on is a mare named Shepard, whose XO is a Commander Bond (who is later revealed to be in Intelligence).
• Part 4 of Shining Armor's arc is chock full of references: the Griffins have an Airborne Airship Carrier called the Galactica and a couple of Reaper-class ships called "Sovereign" and "Harbinger". Shining mentions a "Community Service Initiative" agent in Miamhay who keeps "making bad puns and putting on sunglasses". Among the Hooviets, Shining Armor meets two named Mason and Reznov, while the Hooviet leader has the surname Makarov. And later, when General-Admiral Makarov makes his big entrance, someone (presumably one of the nearby Hooviet expatriates), comments that everyone keeps forgetting that "the first tribe the Hooviets conquered was their own". And oh yes, they have a military officer with them named Sharpe who speaks with a British accent.
• In Patch's entry into "Gaiden: 7 Dreams/Nightmares", she defeats the dragon Basil and forces him to call her master. When he protests an order she gives him, she responds with "I am the Master, and you will obey!"
  • The author of that chapter has also stated that Patch and Buddy's relationship is based on Amy and Rory's, as another shout out.
• Shining Armor part 5 reveals that some of the other ships in Cadence's floatilla are commanded by ponies named Sisko, Archer, and Solo.
  • There's also a couple of pilots named Washburn and River.
  • In part 6, he references a game called "Call of Cutie", and is later aided by the griffin special forces Metal unit.
  • There's also Makarov's Shagohods, which are actually more like Martian Tripods. For bonus points, they're fought by Thunderchild, though he survives, unlike the ship.
• In Dark World 18, there's a heavy thematic reference to Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and what it means in relation to The Quest they are on.
  • Also, the chapter is called "The Ultimate Foe", the name of the last serial of the "Trial of a Time Lord" story arc of the classic series that the Valeyard first showed up in.
• Shining Armor 7: The Griffin General is named Goldeagle Shepherd.
  • Minuette also makes direct reference to The Sixth Sense. Bonus points for also being a Take That!.
• According to Discord in Dark World 19, one of Havoc's titles is Home For Infinite Losers.
• One exclusive to the Audio Adaptation, the super fast Pegasi that take Twilight to Hoofington in Episode 6 are dressed like the original Flash.
• Dark World includes a direct shout-out to the 9th Doctor as Twilight confronts Angry Pie.
• In Shining Armor Chapter 8 Pt. 2 we get a number of amusing shout outs, including one to Thunderchild taking out the Hooviet Tripods which doubles as an Incredibly Lame Pun if you remember what the Hooviets Real World inspiration were called; and comments on several warring factions in a nation that used to hire Diamond Dog mercenaries. factions with names like the New World Order and Nation of Domination and the Radicals.
• In Off Da Rails, Rancor tells the group to watch her "go Dragon Eggs Z" right before she transforms into her adult form. This may have even been a more direct reference to Cell, since Rancor could only mature into an adult by absorbing Destruction's essence.
• In Shining Armor part 9, Shining and Cadence meet with Cadence's friend, Princess Euphie of Neighpon, whose security detail includes a group of ninja named Taichi, Hikari, Takeru, and Daisuke.
• "No one builds a cart like Gaston" in Shining Armor's arc.
  • Shining Armor's story is named E-Com: Enemy Unknown.
• The trial in Starlight's Nightmares Chapter has several shoutouts to the Ace Attorney series, including the classic 'OBJECTION!', in this case shouted by Starlight's defense attorney.
• Dark World!Discord's death is almost identical to Father's in Fullmetal Alchemist Word of God has even confirmed it was inspired by it.
• When Twilight's Nightmare reveals herself, she sings a variant on "What Once Was Mine".
• The Nameless Passenger's origins is a reference to the ending of the Medieval Chapter of Live A Live.
  • She may also be a reference to Kriemhild Gretchen from Puella Magi Madoka Magica being the Superpowered Evil Side of the main character, powered up by multiple timeloops into an extremely powerful monster (only in this case, she's responsible for the loops), many of which end in her creation. In addition, she's also a Dark Messiah believing she's working towards a better world, which is also true of Kriemhild Gretchen.
    • She also resembles Walpurgis Night, particularly the various references to her being 'an Alicorn Witch' coming to destroy the world and being composed of multiple Nightmares merged into one, as well as being the final bady who (if Discord doesn't) causes Twilight to reset time.
• In Shining Armor Part 11, Shining, while mentioning another crazy rule involving Princesses, mentions they would soon be joined by 'princesses must learn the proper use of modern household appliances' thanks to Princess Luna.
  • Shining also mentions a Diamond Dog chief engineer named Scottie.
  • "You're in my spot, sir." is a reference to Spoony's Swat 4 playthrough. Complete with references to kicking people in the soul.
• In Duel of Tears, after Twilight's Emergency Transformation into Half-Light Noon the following reference to Mobile Fighter G Gundam is made:
  Rancor: Now Pegasus fight!
  Twilight: Ready!
  Nightmare Paradox:(Go!)
  • Likewise, Rancor says the following line in The Ultimate Foe:
  And you've given me a passionate fight by both sides my little ponies, -whoa that's fun to say- your love, your anger, and all of your sorrow laid bare!
• In one "Groundhog Day" Loop, Twilight, instead of killing Discord, cuts off his one remaining fang. After she had done that, she said, "Now they match..."
  • In another "Groundhog Day" Loop, she takes the previously mentioned Shout-Out up to eleven by doing the same thing to his horn, since Apple Pie had already managed to make him lose one of his horns in her Dying Moment of Awesome.
  • At one point Discord tells the Nameless Passenger/Nightmare Eclipse he hates her. She replies with a variant of Trunks' speech to the Androids after he returned to the future on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• When we learn about how Golden Tiara/Screw Ball's went insane in the "Butterflies" series there is a reference to The Yellow Wallpaper which is also about a woman descending into madness.
  I began to have strange dreams too, like that one time I thought I saw a mare moving behind the pattern on our wallpaper… I had it torn down and replaced. It was an ugly yellow anyway.
• Shining Armor part 12 shows the usual restraint for references...
  • Three British Comedies are referenced by Private Ranger's horrifying advice-seeking session: Squadron Commander The Lord Flashheart emerges as an erotic adventurer of the most deranged kind and advises something with a flying helmet, wet celery, and an egg whisk. Private Baldrick is also noted as having worked for Lord Blackadder for another reference.
  • The "Bread Cannons" are a reference to a real German field kitchen from the 1890s's dubbed a Goulash Cannon for the way it resembled a cannon when the stovepipes were folded for transport.
  • The bottle-lights used by the Zebra are a real invention used in the Philippines. The glowing mushrooms sometimes used as an alternative do not recharge batteries though - they just cause stomach problems. MGS gets another mention with references to a tank-shaped cardboard box complete with an Actor Allusion of Twilight Sparkle voicing approval of the idea, just like Paz.
  • Shining reckons canned food and shotguns are a good thing to invest in for the apocalypse.
  • In the arcade scene, the Dubyaplus M1 flamethrower is seen as somewhat noobish by Shining, and Audience earns a Holy Horseapples from all the kills he racks up.
  • The elite 18th Pegasus Legion, and the 82nd Regiment that is a part of it, are intended as references to the American XVIII Airborne Corps and the famous 82nd All-American Division of paratroopers.
• Part 13 is at it too.
  • The Prime Minister of Zebrawa is named T'Challa, is from a village called Wakanda, and has pet panthers.
  • The professor who's finds were destroyed is named Professor Elemental. Also, the archaeology student who informs him his assistant has woken up is named Nitoh and has a Cutie Mark of a Chimera.
  • Something of an Aircraft theme with some Pegasus names: The Meteor and Shooting Star were the first RAF and USAF jet fighters respectively, Supermarine refers to the manufacturer of such famous aircraft as the Spitfire.
  • A flashback dream recalls a meeting with Chief Inspector Triggert in Clydesdale. Complete with a near impenetrable Funetik Aksent that even Shining has to be on his guard with despite experience in understanding Baseplate.
  • Side Chapter 13.5 also has some moments. "Five Pegasi is a juicy opportunity, one Pegasus is a waste of ammo", Light airships called Orcas were apparently moments away from being involved against Spike in Secret of My Excess, "No member of the Guard should ever report for active duty in a ginger toupee", and as well as Quidditch, Calvinball is popular amongst the Guardsponies.
• Rainbow Dash's flying lesson to Scootaloo was a shout out to this fic.
• The Arc Words for the Shining Armor arc are Time is an ocean in a storm.
• In the Dark World, the Elements of Chaos basically were The Six Paths of Discord.
• Clover's Gaiden Story has Clover tell Shady that she's more brave because she's scared to do what she ultimately does to protect others. According to Godzillawolf this was inspired by The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Boogie Frights", specifically the Professor telling Bubbles being brave is doing what you're afraid of.
  • After breaking Pinkie out of her Heroic BSoD upon finding out she was an Imaginary Friend given life by the world changing spell, Luna mentioned Her Mother once helped Pandora create a distant world were everyone's imaginary friends became real.
• Celestia states that spending the Gaia Festival with Twilight in disguise is much more fun than the time she let herself get kidnapped.
• The bonus chapter "Nightmare House II" mentions a story about Morning Star pretending to be an innocent prisoner to trick a pony into letting him out, similar to The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "The Howling Man".
• Nightmare Paradox's judgement by Rota Fortuna is apparently based on Father's judgement by the Truth.
  • According to Godzillawolf, he edited the attack on the Nightmares that's actually a feint to set up their final blow to be a shout out to the ending of GaoGaiGar FINAL, which he's a fan of.
• According to Recursive Fanfiction, Pumpkinhead is one of Rancor's Champions.
  • That same chapter has Discord mention Strife's latest pet project of seeing how ponies using giant robots to fight monsters from another dimension would turn out.
• Chapter 14 of Shining Armor has a bunch of stuff from another world that's examined by Misfit and The Doctor. One of those items is a computer that suddenly starts playing Double Action Gaoh Form.
• And in chapter 15, when they meet Mother Deer and the deer who serve her as La Résistance against the Hooviets, one of the members is named Dima, and his weapon is the Leon Laser.
  • Also, there is a direct reference to the priest units in Age of Empires, and their ability to convert other units.
• In chapter 15, when Shining Armor is in the sickbay, the name of the doctor treating him is Ulshade.
• Pony Pan is mentioned several times during Sapphire Shores during her bonus chapter. Discord also finishes his Breaking Lecture by asking her to " take my hand, and come off to Never Never Land."
• Shining Armor 16 includes
  • Civilian ships with flags of convenience including the Svoboda flagged in Latveria and the Kono flagged in the Neighverlands.
  • Princess Yuffie, who is also a ninja.
  • Maasailand, an ominous secretive state where an Ancient Conspiracy called The Brotherhood are in power. Everything is red and black, covered in scorpion symbols, and they await their messiah. They also have spooky Gas Mask Mooks backing up Inquisitor-Cardinal Vectron. The entire nation turns out to be pacifists, and everyone else is simply unable to realise Dark Is Not Evil. They do not help matters with all the red glowing stuff, the easy to misinterpret language, or The Manticore of Peace and Happiness called Aaargh. ^note The Manticore was in the Back Seat the whole time.
  • The (former Kingdom) People's Greater Good Of Djelibeybi.
  • Hedgehog racing with blue hedgehogs.
  • The Hooviets were found performing a poorly-written propaganda piece in the style of the Ember Island players. Celestia's troll tendencies were turned up to eleven (and she was also fat), Cadence was a total moron and Luna is obviously evil, while Makarov was a perfect, boring and invincible hero while Shining was the main villain and powerful enough to come back to life again just to give Makarov another chance to kill him in the play. After the play ended, Cadance got the last laugh by ordering her group to remove their disguise spells and teleporting said disguises away to make it look like they had been there the whole time, then walking right up to the stage and telling the Hooviets what an excellent parody they had created, leaving them with the choice of either correcting her, thus revealing how egotistical and jerkass they really were, or agreeing with her and letting everyone see it as the propaganda that it was, but allowing them to save face and potentially attract a bigger audience in future performances.
• The final part of Shining Armor 17 is titled "Come Undone", the same as the final episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Fittingly, both involve the Big Bad Eldritch Abomination being erased from existence along with their influence and taint.
  • There's also PanDora the Explorer
  • "Did you hear that?" "I felt that.", seems to be a reference to Dragon Ball Abridged.
• In 18.1, Commander Bond'sh father, who ish alive in the repaired timeline, continuesh his son'sh Jamesh Bond shoutouts by being an expy of Sean Connery, right down to the shpeech quirk.
• Wabznasm and Manford Thirty-Sixborough are mentioned by Garnet and Gag, respectively, in 18.2
• In 20 Gag talks about a Manega called Penumbra Magical Filly Madoka. In the next scene Kyubey tries to make a contract with the CMC. The Empress and Emperor of Neighpon are named Haruhi and Kyon.
• Several of the alternate realities Shining sees in 21 during his fever dreams are shout outs — among others, there's one where he's Goku, one that's based on On a Cross and Arrow, and one that's a scene lifted straight from Rainbooms and Royalty.
• In "No More Script", after mentioning a reindeer on the crew named Dasher, they mention that Olive, the other reindeer, is on a search and rescue team. Running Gag lampshades the reference by replying Baw, bug and hum!.
  • There are also allusions to The Secret of Monkey Island and the light bulb-changing gag from Red Dwarf.
  • There is also a mention of burying a memory behind chains and black padlocks.
• In "Sands of Time", Captive Audience mentions he visited Ponsia on a family holiday as a foal, and would quite like to go back to Karkand.
• In "Hope in Unexpected Places", Lyra mentions she had a nightmare where everypony forgot about her and all evidence of her existence disappears.
• The line "It's still your little thing you can do." The Twilight in Trixie's dream tells her (after effortlessly out classing Trixie at stage magic during a performance identical to the one Twilight did to trick Trixie in "Magic Duel" which hasn't happen in this timeline) is a reference to a condescendingly sympathetic illusion of Caramon Majere that his twin Raistlin Majere witnessed in the book series Dragonlance, who 'revealed' to the physically weak but magically powerful Raistlin that he had always been able to do magic too, he just had no need for it since he preferred swords and shields.
• During an ambush, Pinkie Pie says 'It's a trap!' and even apologizes for the meme.
• During the theater fight, Pinkie Pie says about the changelings "Knockin' 'em down is easy, gettin' 'em ta stay down is the problem!"
• A Changeling says "I'm gonna suck yer feelin's dry till you can't pick your own-".
• Chrysalis refers to her past self as an 'insignificant nothing.'
• Chrysalis tells brainwashed Applejack "Bad property! Bad!"
• From "Escapes and Explanations" in the Wedding Arc, we have this gem of a line:
  Makarov: Changeling poison is deer poison?!
• Chrysalis' endgame plan is essentially Father's: perform a ritual using a gigantic rune that will rip something out of an entire country (in Chrysalis' case, all emotions) to become a god. Word of God has even stated that was the inspiration.
• During Shining's brainwashed fight with Twilight has this line Word of God has confirmed to be the case:
  Twilight: Be twisted into taffy! Can't teleport! See how far I can slide! The audience at this point is just keeping their heads low.
• During Scotaloo's rescue of Sweetie Belle. There's a reference to the fastest thing alive. In fact, the whole paragraph is a reference to the theme song.
• In Chapter 10 of the Wedding Arc, Pinkie looks into Chrysalis' soul and sees an image of Chrysalis in a devil suit dancing around her own grave, with the headstone bearing wings and a halo.
• Chrysalis trying to suck Twilight dry of love is a shout out to Father trying to tear out Edward's soul to restore his Philosopher's Stone. Both get shot before they can complete it.
• Rarity channeling Melody sings a version of Sorairo Days.
• The audio version of Trixie's reharmonization, we see the image of a fantastic racist who resembles a ponified Lucius Malfoy.
• Deathstalker orders his fellow Changelings "Strike hard! Strike fast! Strike now!".
• Turns out a Changeling impersonating Octavia brainwashed Vinyl Scratch by getting her to take off her sunglasses by telling here she has something in her eye and asking her to take a look..
• Brainwashed!Vinyl tells Octavia that "Ponykind, will no longer have to think!", a reference to an old, obscure cartoon clip from an old Cartoon Network blurb.
• Cadence declares herself "a sword of justice sent to smite evil!"
• Cadence seeing her reflection in a crystal and thinking its Chrysalis, causing her to realize she's letting her rage cloud her judgement is a shout out to "Jack vs Mad Jack".
• "Cadence vs. Cadenza" makes the Shout-Out that everyone had been hoping for at the end:
  Shining: These hearts of ours burn red! Their loud roar tells us-
  Cadence: To grasp happiness!
• The conversation between Chrysalis and Celestia after she is defeated is similar to the one between Pride and Kimblee after the former is defeated. Specially the last two lines.
• The Mane Six's confrontation with General Lone Ranger is one long one to Superman vs. the Elite, right down to some of Manchester Black's lines being quoted. Rarity even mentions her pretending to buy into Lone Ranger's mentality was possibly inspired by the pony version of the comic.
• At Fluttercruel's Cute-cenara Twillight Sparkle quotes Mark 5:9 almost verbatim.
• Sweetie Belle asks Blanky if he plans to switch appearances with her and then trick her sister into drowning her, similar to the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Chameleon".
• One of the rumors that try to possess Sweetie Belle involve her being a robot.
• In the Finale Arc, the epic duel between Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie borrows heavily from the fight between Homura and Mami, respectively, in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, complete with Rainbow Dash correctly suspecting that the local mysterious little girl is involved in things being not quite right in Ponyville, but incorrectly assuming that she's at fault and thus trying to destroy her, leading to the fight with Pinkie. Also, the scene where Rainbow suddenly realizes she's Nightmare Manacle resembles the scene where Homura realizes she's the Witch.
• A gossip column that magically causes rumors to become true? Where have we heard that before?
• As Fallen Alicorn!Rainbow Dash finishes telling everything about what happened to her to the Reharmonized timeline's Scootaloo in her dreams, she briefly sings some of the lyrics to Pollyanna.
• The Reapers wield Empathic Weapons similar to Zanpakutos from Bleach, complete with release commands.
• "The Smooze" chapter ends with the Green Smooze fusing with the Bushwhoolie Wishful when thrown into Discord's realm, turning it from a sapient cataclysm to the more child-like version it was in G4. Word of God has confirmed this was inspired by Maijin Buu and how absorbing the Grand Supreme Kai turned him from the Ax-Crazy Kid Buu to the happy, redeemable Fat Buu.
• The chapter where Golden Tiara is shown how her life would have been if she had never gone insane resembles the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Tapestry", and even paraphrases some of Picard and Q's lines.
• The CMC are confronted by Princess Liza Doolots and Truffle, who basically cosplay as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask and even use some of their powers and weapons.
• Button Mash uses one of Raiden's moves from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
• Nyarlathotrot says a version of AM's HATE speech from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
• Nyarlathotrot says a version of Benedict's "The Bad Guys Can Win" speech from Last Action Hero.
• Applejack's battle with Nyarlathotrot draws heavily from the Final Battle of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
• Applejack/Veritas's final kick to Nyarlathotrot launching his soul out of the universe all the way back to his Parent is based off of the final blow to the Final Boss of Bayonetta 2
• Judicium's avatar resembles Phoenix Wright.
• In "Friends in High Places", among the enemies are expies of Bayonetta, Asura, Kratos, and Demi-Fiend. When Button Mash foolishly tells the Kratos expy he and his friends are gods, leading to Kratos attacking them, Spike chews him out with, "Button Mash, when somepony asks if you're a god, you say 'NO!'", the opposite of a line from Ghostbusters (1984). Fauna Luster's avatar wields a Blue Lantern Ring.
• Philomena helps Flash Sentry and his group take out a basilisk by pecking out its eyes, just like Fawkes did to help Harry in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
• In "Sanctium", Apple Bloom is shown visions of several alternate universe versions of Diamond Tiara. They reference sources such as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Lanterns of Equestria: Blackest Night, Marionettes, etc.
• In "the end", the final rumor references the deleted twist ending of A Mighty Demon Slayer Grooms Some Ponies. Also, Apple Bloom confronting Diamond Tiara only to discover Diamond had already implemented her plan and there is no way to stop it references Watchmen.
• Diamond Tiara saying 'then we have a binding contract' after recruiting Alula and Tootsie is a shout out to Castlevania 64.
• The attempted Boss Rush in the world tower is one to the Boss Rush with the Magnificent 5 episode in the first Viewtiful Joe game.
• The main lower floors of the World Tower are a shout out to the final dungeon of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
• "NOT the End":
  • Diamond Tiara paraphrases Shodan's "I don't understand, you weren't supposed to be important!" line from System Shock 2 and Megatron's "Oh well, come on, let's have it. The usual 'destiny and honor' speech." from Beast Wars.
  • Button Mash and Featherweight reenact Iron Man and Captain America's tag team move from The Avengers (2012).
  • Diamond Tiara performs Xemnas' Beam Spam from Kingdom Hearts II.
  • Parts of the battle reference The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• "Song of Healing":
  • Trixie references the episode of The Fairly OddParents! where Timmy wished that everyone was the same and everyone turned into a grey blob, and that in such a situation, people would still argue about who was the greyest and the blobbest.
  • Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer's confrontation resembles Batman and Lord Batman's from the Justice League episode "A Better World".
• "Dawn of a New Day": Maud Pie mentions a dream where she was a superhero who could destroy anything with one punch and another dream where she was an android who was obsessed with birds.
• "Trixie's Back!": History class mentions a time "tombs" full of radioactive waste were discovered, like in The Writing on the Wall. At least here, Princess Celestia was able to cure the excavators of radiation poisoning.
• "It's About Time": The Lex Luthor cake meme happens when a dragon steals 40 cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner and Pinkie Pie complains, "That's as many as four tens. And That's Terrible."
• "Pony Power Up": After Mother Deer warns the heroes that sometimes, rushing forward and Cutting the Knot is not the best solution, Sweetie Belle compares it to the plot of a certain video game that resembles Half-Minute Hero.
• "Round 1, FIGHT!": An extended one to the Justice League episode "Divided We Fall", when Discord summons mooks and then Nightmare Diamond says they can do better than that and turns them into evil knockoffs of the heroes. Some lines from that episode are paraphrased.
  • The ideas that Fake!Eclipse suggests for Twilight keeping her friends with her are all shout outs to fanfics.
• "Dark and Light Miracle (The TRUE Boss Rush Begins!):
  • Batcord talks like the Batman from All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder.
  • Twilight freezes time with "STOPZA!", only for her opponent to get a Villain Override and keep fighting, like in the climax of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance].
• "The Name of the Nightmare": Diamond Tiara is described as a wound in reality, similar to Darth Nihilus from Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.
• In the same chapter, her One-Winged Angel transformation strongly mimics Flowey becoming Asriel again as the True Final Boss, right down to quoting him.
• "Diamond Tiara's Pandemonium Performance": Sweetie Belle attempts Giga-Slave while at the same time, Diamond Tiara attempts Black Coffin, though both are interrupted before the extremely destructive spells can be launched.
• The alternate timeline where Majesty got the Rainbow of Darkness, she destroys Tirek once and for all with a version based off of Queen Moon's Darkest Spell, and has the same intended effect.
• The True Final Boss battle against Paxphobia is one big homage to the battle against Metal Overlord from Sonic Heroes, right down to "What I'm Made Of" being the music choice for the battle.
  • Additionally, Luna going to every character of the series for them to lend the Mane Six their power against Paxphobia is a nod to the Thousand Lights in the climax of Digimon Adventure 02. Then the final blow on Paxphobia references the Final Color Blaster from Sonic Colors.