Root cause:
This is a Salesforce known issue when deploying object with MasterDetail relationship.
Assume you have two objects Invoice and InvoiceItem with InvoiceItem being a child of Invoice. InvoiceItem.Parent_Invoice is a master-detail lookup to Invoice. If you only deploy InvoiceItem, the above error will occur.
Workaround:
Add the object referenced in the master-detail lookup field to the deployment (even if it has not changed) to your deployment selected list.
In the example above, add InvoiceItem.Parent_Invoice to the list, in addition to InvoiceItem object.