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Shout Out / Fan Works

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Many Fan Works use Shout-Outs — to things within fandom, and to other works, because it's all Just For Fun after all.

Works with their own subpages:

Other Fan Works:

    open/close all folders 

    Ace Attorney 

    Assassination Classroom 

    Bleach 
  • In Breaking Routine, Grimmjow goes for a walk and when the other espada learn of it, we get this exchange.
    Harribel: How much collateral damage are we looking at?
    Starrk: Oh... the Grimmjow amount.

    The Butterfly Effect 

    Crossover 

    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 

    Digimon 

    Doctor Who 

    Ed, Edd n Eddy 

    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.

    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 

    How to Train Your Dragon 

    Kingdom Hearts 

    The Legend of Korra 

    The Legend of Zelda 

    Life is Strange 

    The Lord of the Rings 

    The Loud House 

    Merlin 

    My Hero Academia 

    My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic 
  • Actually, I'm Dead:
    • Trixie quotes Dr. Facillier.
    • Wave Blaster 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:
    • 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.
    • To continue the Star Wars references, 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:
  • Chrysalis Visits The Hague:
  • 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 Albright 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.
  • 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.
  • Escape From the Moon: One of Doa’s false deaths, in her nightmare, draws from Georgie Denbrough’s death via having his arm ripped out of its socket in It. There are even more in the sequel The Mare From the Moon:
    • Nurse Crystal is an OC of SpaceBattles.com/FIMFiction user Tangent, who provided the name of the story.
    • Batty, another OC for Tangent, appears briefly in chapter 4.
    • The Old Man Henderson story is referenced in chapter 7 as "Old Mare Henderson".
    • Twilight gives a near exact quote from Star Wars: X-Wing #4 - The Bacta War, only replacing a character name with “We”.
    • Discord similarly borrows the majority of one of Commander Khashoggi's lines (changing the last word into a longer phrase) from We Will Rock You. He later paraphrases the Major General Song.
    • In chapter 8, Discord references Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There with the line "I do six impossible things before breakfast", a variation on a line originally spoken by the White Queen.
    • In chapter 9, Twilight describes dragons as both “extreme omnivores” and “obligate silicavores”, in reference to a scene from Saphroneth’s The Unicorn At Hogwarts where she used the same phrasings.
    • Also in chapter 9, Spliced mentions (when explaining why she doesn’t want to anger beings like Discord) that “You'd be surprised what you can live through, even without my kind of immortality.” The first half of that sentence references the Arc Words from Aladdin: The Return of Jafar.
    • Chapter 11 mentions one of Spliced’s old classmates who, during a history exam, made a mistake involving a war from long before their time — he thought it was named after one of the generals involved instead of the piece of territory where most of the fighting took place. This references a scene from the Johnny Dixon book The Drum, The Doll and the Zombie, in which the title character's father is noted as having made the same mistake on his own history exam (he thought The Peloponnesian War involved a general named Peloponnesian, instead of primarily taking place in the Peloponnese region). However, unlike the character Spliced mentions, Major Dixon acknowledged and accepted his error when it was pointed out.
    • During the aforementioned scene in chapter 11, Spliced refers to one of her classmates as “a gasbag of ego”. The same phrase was used by an annoyed character to describe one of her squadron mates in Star Wars: X-Wing #7 - Solo Command.
    • In chapter 14, Spliced references a quote from Socrates: "I am the wisest [man] alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."
    • The valley Twilight mentions as the setting for a weather control experiment (or rather, lack of weather control) is based on Perfection Valley.
    • During their discussion on weather control, Spliced names a method of creating new clouds that is straight out of Star Wars: X-Wing #2 - Wedge's Gamble.
    • Still in the same discussion, Twilight discusses the creation of rainbows; the methodology used comes from a scene in RealityCheck's The Audience. So does her usage of the term "morphic resonance field control".
    • During Chapter 15's scene in Rainbow Dash’s house, Rainbow Dash mentions that a compound named pyrobloin is mixed into the vapor used to make cloudstone. This is almost exactly how sea clouds and island clouds (like Skypeia) are created in One Piece, except there pyrobloin seems to be a naturally occurring compound that's expelled into the atmosphere via volcanoes.
    • In the same chapter, Twilight mentions that she's looking for an emotion that she can use to manually trigger her flaming form (the one triggered by her Rage Breaking Point in Feeling Pinkie Keen), and that she needs a positive one, since negative ones burden the spirit. This is inspired by a scene in chapter 23 of the Ranma ½ fanfic The Truth and the Tempest. The method she's currently using is reminiscent of Sanji’s "Hell Memories" technique.
    • In chapter 29, after being warned that another outburst could see her charged with contempt of court, Spliced thinks to herself that I have nothing but contempt for this court, a line from The Transformers: The Movie.
    • Late in chapter 29, Legal Preview says she’d be happy if Due Justice’s legal license was “dumped in some black hole where it belongs”. A similar line, except for referring to the case as a whole, was used in Star Wars: X-Wing #3 - the Krytos Trap.
  • 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 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.
  • 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: "Once you go Purple, you never go back!"
  • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • Skyline's griffon friend is named Revy.
    • [[{anfic/Progress Luna has an Abacus named Abacus.]]
    • One of the Summer Triangle ponies is named Altair.
    • Vega talks to midnight in the golden land.
  • 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:
  • 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.
  • Pages Of Harmony:
    • During Rainbow Dash's Mind Rape torture, the story slightly mentions both Rainbow Factory and Cupcakes, 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.
    • In a non-MLP example, Pinkie's gesture language and Rainbow Dash's interpretation of it is an 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, 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 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: At the end of chapter 13, Pinkie Pie's saying "Who's going to make the cake when I'm gone?" is a shout out to one of GLaDOS's lines near the end of the original Portal.
  • Pattycakes:
    • The beginning of Part One is one of Cupcakes, 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.)
  • Progress:
  • RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse:
    • When drunk, Trixie starts to quote Londo Mollari from Babylon 5.
    • Trixie's and Twilight's favorite novel is Don Rocinante of Equestria, an obvious shout-out to Don Quixote. In Longest Night, Longest Day, to keep herself amused, Trixie sings a few lines of "I, Don Quixote," slightly modified to fit into Equestria (i.e., "I am Don Rocinante" rather than "I am I, Don Quixote").
    • There's a subtle one in the third chapter of ''Boast Busted;; regarding the lack of personal entries or comments in Twilight Sparkle's journal, "not even so innocuous a comment as 'it was sunny today' or 'I saw a bird; it was pretty.'"
    • When Lyra says that Pinkie Pie is going to throw Trixie a party, Trixie's response is "Why are you saying that like it's synonymous with 'she's going to drag me into a basement and torture me'?", a reference to Cupcakes.
    • In Carrot Top of the Line: "Help me Rainbow Dash, you're my only hope!" The same reference turns up in Helping... Hands?, only this time Trixie to Lyra.
    • "Helping... Hands?":
    • In An Early Reunion, Luna's majordomo notices items in her chambers that sound suspiciously like the One Ring, the Ark of the Covenant, four of the five Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail.
    • Secret of Andalantis makes references to a musical called The Legend of Epona. Two of the songs mentioned are the Serenade of Water and the Bolero of Fire.
    • Pokey Pierce, at one point, claims that "he won't stop until he's pierced the heavens" with his horn, and he gets to quote Kamina's memetic catchphrase in The Hero of Oaton.
    • The name of Puissance's noble House, Optiebeurs-Golo, is the name of the horse that, in 1991, established the world record for the puissance jump.
    • The beginning of Luna's castigation of the Night Court is based off of the scene in I, Claudius where Augustus learns of his daughter Julia's whorishness.
    • Crisis on Two Equestrias:
      • Each chapter is named after a song with "magic" in its title. This ties in with the plot of the fic being that the Element of Magic is broken and needs to be fixed. Similarly, each chapter of The Return of Tambelon is named after a Babylon 5 episode, though it otherwise doesn't have anything to do with Babylon 5.
      • Mverse Twilight tells Mverse Trixie (who was arrested and had her property destroyed thanks to a misunderstanding thanks to Lverse Trixie) that she can stay with her until she gets back on her hooves.
      • When M!Twilight teleports herself and her companions so that they're falling up, she mentions "thinking with 'porting".
    • In The School Talent Show, When Trixie asks if Windowpane is stalking her window he replies that her window is putting his kid through college.
    • The Return of Tambelon:
      • The story features multiple nods to Baldur's Gate II, including some of Grogar's lines being verbatim copies of Irenicus' to the Bhaalspawn.
      • When the Element Bearers run into Bray, he pretends to be an innocent victim of Grogar's who managed to escape, a la Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
    • In one chapter of Old Friends, Applebloom has this thought process:
      Hey, does this mean I'm helping sell apples and apple acc... access... accessthingies? Yay! I'm helping my sister! And I should check with Miss Cheerilee what that word is again.
    • In Chapter 3 of Old Friends, the door-connecting spell that results in a Scooby-Dooby Doors incident appropriately came from a book written by Abracascooby.
    • Tales of Ponyville:
      • Raindrops' song in Chapter 1 is a parody of the "Gypsy Bard" song from Friendship is Witchcraft.
      • In Chapter 6, Ditzy comes across Pinkie singing a few lines from "Pinkie's Brew".
    • In Chapter 4 of "Eye of the Hurricane", Trixie finds out that Lyra ended up buying Iron Will's entire catalog. After spotting a "particularly grayscale book" among the purchases, Trixie asks, "And when are you going to be weaving baskets underwater?"
    • An Embarrassment in Three Acts is the Bearers getting the Ember Island Treatment. Trixie even notes the special effects are the only decent part.
    • During At the Grand Galloping Gala, Trixie orders the same kind of drink as James Bond in Casino Royale.
    • In Ocellus' Ordinary Day, she has a song scene where she sings a version of the song "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," by Queen, but relating to her (and replacing "Crazy," with "Tasty.")
    • When Ocellus starts speaking Protean, the changeling language, it turns out to be Newspeak.
    • One of the citizens in Treasure City is a pony named Titan Invincibleus Monarch, but "there are some who call [him]... Tim."
  • 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.
  • 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 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 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.
  • 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'."
    This is not a place of honor. No great deed is commemorated here. Nothing of value is here.

    One Piece 
  • New Game+: Oh, so much. In chronological order:
    • Vegapunk identifies his time machine as the Flux Capacitor.
    • The three members of Buggy’s crew that they pick up en route to Orange Town introduce themselves as Moe, Larry, and Shemp, collectively known as The Three Stooges. The author even lampshades it:
    Duncan: (A/N: Yes, yes I did just do that)
    • Nami mentions Lord of the Flies once in Chapter 3.
    • Luffy quotes The Charge of the Light Brigade in Chapter 4.
    Duncan: And yes, poetry was part of his training. Don’t ask why, you’re not ready.
    Moe: Really quite filthy down here.
    • Usopp debuts much in the same way as Oz, the great and terrible.
    • Usopp and Kaya, who have become a couple in this fic, refer to each other as Gatsby and Daisy.
    • Kaya is once described as ‘unconsciously channeling the best healer of Soul Society.’
    • A Shout-Out to the 4Kids dub when Sanji sucks on lollipops instead of smoking while in the vicinity of the recovering Zoro.
    • The Black Cat Pirates.
      • Kuro references himself from the 4Kids dub of the video game One Piece Grand Battle.
      • One is a short ginger-haired man named Oliver.
      • Abraham, Giuseppe, Casey, O’Malley, Toulouse, and Berlioz are all taken from The Aristocats.
    • Another one given to The Wizard of Oz in Chapter 8, though much briefer.
    • The other staff of the Syrup Village mansion are the staff from Beauty and the Beast.
    • The Veggie Trio quotes The Borg’s iconic “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”
    • Due to the Shock and Awe with which Nami defeats Arlong, her epithet is changed to “Lightning Thief. “
    • Luffy's freakout when he realizes a furious and vengeful Garp is in Loguetown ends with "DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL!"
    • When Cabaji remarks on how weird the armada is thus far and asks if it could get any weirder, Mohji replies that it could if they got an amorphous white creature with ADD and OCD that was a powerful Reality Warper and annoying enough to make the sun grimace. This, as well as the sun morphing, winking to the audience, and morphing back afterwards, is a clear reference to Soul Eater.
    • Alvida's description of herself after eating the Sube Sube no Mi comes directly from Shrek 2 after the eponymous ogre sees the result of him drinking the Happily Ever After potion.
    • This line from Usopp in Chapter 10: "By the time I'm done with you, every one of you will have more gadgets and gizmos than a billionaire vigilante with a flair for theatricality and some misplaced sense of self-righteousness."
    • Perhaps unintentional, as it was muffled by distance, but when Usopp chastises the owner of a Queen Transponder Snail about neglecting the poor creature, said owner's speech is about as coherent as any given adult in the Peanuts series.
    • After Zoro wins his "fight" with Tashigi by disarming her with a knife hand:
    Tashigi: You cheated!
    Zoro: Pirate.
    • Luffy compares Smoker to Javert.
  • Second Wind:
  • In Supernova One Piece, Vivi mistakes an ammonite for an Omanyte, only for Nami to tell her that it isn't Lord Helix.

    Persona 
  • Confide In Me:
    • In Chapter 10, Joker muses on combining Hifumi's and Makoto's hobbies into Shogi on motorcycles.
    • In the same chapter, Hifumi quotes Owain and his daughter Ophelia from Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates, a fitting series of games for someone who likes strategy games.
    • In Chapter 12, we get this exchange:
    Sae: Right, well, it seems you have a knack for getting yourself involved in bizarre scenarios with members of the opposite sex.
    Joker: Ok, that was like the most beep boop way you could have said that, Saebertron.

    Pretty Cure 
  • Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy:
    • Chiara's hairstyle as Cure Vanilla was meant to resemble Bubbles.
    • There is one to the Brazillian edition of American Idol in episodes 31 and 34, particularly to a contestant known as Marcos Paulo. He ended up being eliminated during the Top 6 (such thing did happen to his fanfic counterpart Hyosuke Holic during his second appearance) and never popped up at media again since then, but the author still swoons over him.
    • Ayameko nicknaming her guitar "Blue Moon" in episode 45, which also mentions "Second Spin" (Night and Sunday's finishing move) and includes a Ship Tease moment reminiscent of Asa falling onto Yoko in episode 10.

    Professional Wrestling 

    Psych 

    Real Person Fics 

     Sgt. Frog 
  • Yin And Yang Series: Oh so much.
    • Doraemon, in the first lines of the first story
    • Lupapa's design is based on Naruto's Kankurou, and her whole family are references to Naruto characters. Her name and thievery are based on Lupin III.
    • The character of Fujuju pays heavy homage to Doctor Who. He's British, wears a scarf, lives in an old telephone box that's Bigger on the Inside, and astonishes his human friends with alien technology.
      • Lampshaded once by Oliver.
      Fujuju: We're going to make [the telephone box] fly.
      Oliver: …Next thing I know you’ll be fighting trash cans and offering everyone jelly babies.
    • So does Botan, the Time Lord...er, Time Bender.
    • The designs of twins Maggie and Oliver are loosely based on Rin and Len, while their sister Frannie's design is based on Miku.

    The Smurfs 

    A Song of Ice and Fire 

    Sonic the Hedgehog 

    Star Trek 
  • Bait and Switch:
    • During Captain Kanril Eleya's Flashback Nightmare that takes up the first half of chapter one, one-shot character Crewman Davos drops the line "Bloody pirates" (referring to an Orion Syndicate Boarding Party).
    • Eleya notes in her narration that there's a theory that replicated food tastes a little artificial because it's exactly the same every time, whereas cooked food has variations (slight variances in ingredient proportions, cooking time, cooking temperature, etc.). This is borrowed from the nonfiction book Life Signs: The Biology of Star Trek (the biology equivalent of Lawrence Krauss' The Physics of Star Trek).
    • At the start of chapter two Eleya is playing Commander Marissa Allyn in a holonovel adaptation of Star Carrier: Earth Strike by William H. Keith, Jr..
    • In chapter six, Tess's and JG Park's "Conn, you gotta give me an Ivan." "Always wanted to try one!" exchange is borrowed from the pilot of Firefly.
    • In chapter seven, Eleya takes a page out of Jack O'Neill (from the Stargate SG-1 episode "The First Commandment"), demanding of an admin petty officer who's being an Obstructive Bureaucrat if it says "Captain" anywhere on her uniform.
    • Among the ships that make up the Marduk Carrier Battle Group is the USS Ivanova.
  • "Frostbite":
  • The Headhunt:
    • There's a reference to a Noodle Incident where some rogue Starfleet officers with a Section 31 obsession broke into Facility 4028 to extract an ally. This is a reference to the Foundry series Star Trek: Allegiance.
    • The C.O. of the USS Brisbane is named Sumati Chennapragada, the viewpoint character of a Star Trek lemon titled "A Bad Day for Shore Leave" (which we won't link due to it being massively NSFW).
  • "Last Rights":
    • The first line is Fallout's customary "War. War never changes." opener, albeit applied more literally than Fallout usually does (the following Opening Monologue talks about the necessity of surface armies even in an era of starships that can glass planets, rather than exploring human nature and fictional history).
    • The same monologue borrows a line from TV Tropes, specifically How to Invade an Alien Planet.
      "You can bomb it, you can strafe it, you can cover it with poison, you can turn it into glass, but you don't own it unless your army's on it and the other guy's isn't."
    • The author apparently couldn't resist throwing in a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference when Senior Chief Athezra is hit by Vaadwaur shrapnel.
      Athezra: Cap. How bad is it?
      Eleya: Just a flesh wound! Where's that damned medic!
  • "Past Continuous": Eleya's quotation that "spring wine is the Prophets' way of showing us they love us" is a slight modification of something Benjamin Franklin said about beer.
  • Peace Forged in Fire:
  • Reality Is Fluid:
    • The author's notes state that Professor Atani Dukat was inspired by Emperor Turhan from the Babylon 5 episode "The Coming of Shadows", inasmuch as they're both high-ranking members of an enemy culture who want to mend fences by apologizing for their fathers. Dukat has better luck than Turhan did, though.
    • One of the alternate timelines detected by the Schrodinger's Butterfly sensor array is the Star Trek Novel Verse, as evidenced by Deep Space 9 having been replaced by a Federation-built station on the same site.
    • Dul'krah, the Bajor's security chief, is said to have made the saboteur confess by glaring at him until he gave it up, in reference to Teal'c's favored method of interrogation in Stargate SG-1.
  • Reimagined Enterprise: Besides the internal ones to Star Trek itself, there are others.
  • Red Fire, Red Planet:
    • There's a mention of a freighter called the SS Ayanami, skippered by a Captain Ikari.
    • "Case Zulu" as an "enemies inbound, This Is Not a Drill" message is a reference to the Honor Harrington books.
    • When Norigom mouths off to General K'Bor, Brokosh borrows a line from the pilot of Firefly:
      Brokosh: Norigom, you will keep a civil tongue in that mouth when speaking to a superior officer or I will sew it shut. Do we have an understanding between us?
      Norigom: You don’t pay me to talk pretty. Just because—
      Brokosh: NORIGOM!
      Norigom: (meekly) Yes, Captain.
    • There's a MACO petty officer in chapter four named Gordon Freeman. The liner notes say that it was either that or "Django Freeman" and the author thought "Gordon" was funnier.
  • "Shakedown Shenanigans":
    • When Bynam test-fires one of the impulse engines it lets off a high-pitched squeal that he calls the "baby's cry", saying it'll go away by the end of the shakedown cruise. This is borrowed from The Black Fleet Crisis: Before the Storm.
    • At the end of the fic, pleased with the Bajor's performance, Eleya strokes the wall and whispers, "That's my girl. That's my good girl." Borrowed from the end of the Firefly pilot, where Kaylee did that after the dramatic escape from the Reavers.
  • The Wrong Reflection:
    • Eleya has posters on her bedroom wall for The Fifth Element and Mass Effect, and she ropes Gaarra into watching the former with her.
    • Riker tells Eleya he has "good news, bad news, and ... indifferent news", in reference to Rowan Atkinson's sketch "Pink Tights and Plenty of Props".
    • In keeping with Star Trek tradition of naming Starfleet shuttles after space scientists, Eleya's shuttle Shoemaker is named for astronomers Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker.
    • At the tail end of chapter 2 the fleet goes into a string of "X ship, standing by" messages, including Gray Leader and Gold Leader (the Peregrine fighter wings). Lampshaded when Eleya, who likes Earth sci-fi, comments:
      “Please nobody say ‘lock s-foils in attack position’.”
    • The comm chatter during the fleet battle in chapter three contains lines borrowed from A New Hope, Transformers, and Top Gun.
    • A double one to Stargate SG-1. Mirror Gul Antos remarks to Eleya regarding Dal Kanril, her mirror universe counterpart, that "I’ve been telling Morag for years he has a very insubordinate subordinate." Eleya openly admits that she's even worse.* 
    • To the Mass Effect fanfic The Translation in Blood, when Eleya manages to get Dal Kanril to snap to attention by acting like a drill instructor, and Dal Kanril responds, "Hey, that's cheating."
  • "To Absent Friends": To Jayne and Book's conversation in the Firefly episode "Objects in Space", when Biri has trouble believing that T'Var's a virgin.
    Biri: What, never?
    T'Var: No.
    Biri: "Not ever", never?

    Steven Universe 

    Super Mario Bros 
  • In Clash of the Elements there is one to Super Mario Bros. Z in Chapter 45 of Part 1 More specifically, the act of having the Star Spirits appear and using their energy to power-up Mario and the other heroes, a concept which, while it didn't get to appear in the actual series, was shown in the intro.

    Teen Titans 

    Total Drama 

    Warhammer 40000 

    Other 

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