Trivia

The entire story is an homage to 80's action films, as the retroistic cover art suggests.

This story went through several drafts, all of which were discarded after this final version was finally published on the internet. They were all incomplete.

My first fanfiction written in prose. All previous works, even the earlier drafts of this story, were written in professional screenplay format.

"Alicorns" in this story are correctly referred to as "cerapters", as the more popular term is actually what one calls the horn of a unicorn or cerapter, or what the horn is made of, not a particular species.

With the exception of post-apocalyptic field-improvisations, most of the weapon systems used by the Phantom Raiders are existing systems used today.

Ray's character and plot went through many revisions with each draft of the story. In the first draft he was a full self-insert who starts off as a human in our world, then gets transported to Equestria in an alternate dimension and transforms into a mysterious cerapter. He was to be an expert of rotorcraft and introduced the technology to the ponies, helping them build prototypes of these strange flying machines. He was to also introduce 80's music to them, as his MP3 player went with him when he arrived at Equestria and his taste in music called for this specific era, instead of modern music. Several other plot points included being romantically involved with Rainbow Dash, and in the end help defeat a powerful foe with is cerapter powers. This form of Ray survived many revisions, with the only changes being the way he came to Equestria. Some notable ways were simply finding a portal and going there, going to sleep and waking up there, dying in the real world and coming back to life there, or simply discover it coexisting in the same world. Amnesia was also an optional plot device. In a much later draft it was decided that he stay a powerless human, and simply found Equestria without explanation. Except this time, he was to be chased there by a group of enemies, preferably mentally unstable individuals with guns, or a small group of terrorists, and have to finally fight them with the help of the ponies in the end. In the final draft it was decided Ray be only a slight self-insert in a distant, post-apocalyptic future. In this draft he is a road-dwelling driver of a weaponised El Camino, as a reference to Mad Max / The Road Warrior and the Twisted Metal game series. The enemies in the other draft were recycled and modified into a larger rogue military force with modern military technology, including aircraft. The Changelings were added as a useful subplot after being inspired by the Royal Wedding episodes.

The rogue faction's name, "Phantom Raiders", is a tribute to a 1988 action B-movie of the same name.

The faction's GPS setup is an homage to a similar system seen in the 2002 film Reign of Fire, in which three triangulator devices are planted in a certain perimeter to form a signal sent to computers in the ground vehicles and the helicopter in the form of a vectored 3D terrain map, capable of tracking their soldiers, as well as the apposing dragons in the film.

Tolwin sent three scout teams to set up special transponder devices and to survey the land. The first and second teams were originally codenamed "First Team" and "Super Team" as a reference to the Boeing-Sikorsky ("First Team") and Bell / McDonnell-Douglas ("Super Team") company collaborations on the LHX (Light Helicopter Experimental) program back in the 80's, the legendary experimental helicopter program that led to the development of the RAH-66 "Comanche" stealth helicopter. However, sure that no one would understand the reference, the idea was scrapped and therefore "Super Team" is simply referred to as the second scout team.

Tolwin's aircraft went through several revisions. Originally it was to be a Soviet Afghanistan-era Mi-24 "Hind-A", then a later-model Mi-24V "Hind-E". However, it didn't make sense that an American unit had so much Russian-made technology, so it was decided that American, French, and British aircraft would be likelier candidates. In one revision, it was a French Aerospatiale SA.330 "Puma" with weaponised wings in likeness to the Mi-24, but this felt too much like an obvious reference to the Rambo films. It was later decided that it would be an armed Chinook. The ACH-47 "Guns a' Go-Go" was one choice of armed Chinook configurations, but dropped since the only survivor of these Vietnam War-era machines is in non-flyable condition today. Another choice was field-improvisations, much like the Soviets did with their Mi-24 fleets during the invasion of Afghanistan. Late in the Vietnam War, there were many aerial rocket artillery proposals as possible alternatives to the ACH-47s, which included the installation of forward-facing 105mm howitzers on the sides of the fuselage, and WASP rocket-launchers. At one point it was decided that they use a post-apocalyptic improvisation based on this, however the aircraft was then changed to the still-functional BV-347 prototype with wings, having felt the longer fuselage and wings would help lift this heavy payload. In the final revision, The wings were given an Mi-24-style weapon load as a tribute to Hollywood modifications in 80's action movies. To lighten the load, the howitzers and WASP launchers were removed.

Ray's age is not mentioned in the story, but it is suggested that he is in his twenties or thirties - a fully-grown adult. In earlier drafts, he was a high-school teenager, around fifteen to sixteen.

In Chapter 4 it is mentioned that Tolwin's co-pilot, Riggs, had flown with his father in the Transavia PL-12 "Airtruk" when he was younger, and that it was the only copy of this aircraft ever exported to the United States. While it is a true fact that only one of these Australian-built argricultural planes were ever exported to the US, it is unknown whether it is still in flyable condition today. This backstory was added as an homage to Mad Max III: Beyond Thunderdome.

The characters Marchetti, Junkers, Agusta, Cattani, Breda, Blackburn, Dornier, Gulfstream, and Wulf (in reference to Focke-Wulf) are all named after well-known aircraft manufacturers. Gloster Grebe, Lancer, Albatros, and Tempest are named after aircraft themselves.

Although a handful of character names reference aircraft and manufacturers, Ray's full name "Skyray" is actually a mere coincidence.

Ray's modified WA-2000 was added as an homage to "signature weapons" of popular 80's action heroes.

Faust's character name is actually two references in one. Before I began writing Ray, I had previously been working on a sci-fi/horror fanfiction called "Imposters". One of the characters was named Faust in reference to Dan O'Bannon's original script for the 1979 film Alien, then called Starbeast. When Imposters was scrapped, the name was recycled into this story, now making closer reference to FiM's creator more than the original intention.