Webcomic / Moody Mark Crusaders

Best friends until the end...of the world.

Moody Mark Crusaders is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic webcomic by Slitherpon, following the adventures of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo wandering through Equestria turned to post-apocalyptic wasteland in unknown circumstances. Can be read here. Also available on tumblr.

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Contains examples of:

• Alas, Poor Villain: Although Apple Bloom is a jerkass, it's hard not to feel sorry for her when she's Taken for Granite.
• All There in the Manual: The name of Dinky's father, as well as the fact that Trixie and Dinky are cousins is revealed in this picture.
• Apocalypse How: Some details still wait to be explained.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: A shop named Knives, Evil Cloaks, and Sofas. Apple Bloom forgets about the sofa.
• Art Shift: After a year on hiatus, the comic returned with a slightly different art style.
• Atomic F-Bomb: Scootaloo's sudden "Everypony shut the buck up!" in the page 21 left everypony speechless.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Sweetie Belle in the page 31.
  OMG! Ice cream cake!
• Berserk Button: Any mention of Applejack is that for Apple Bloom.
  • Yelling at Diamond Tiara is that for Silver Spoon.
• Black Cloak: Apple Bloom and the members of Dinky's family are fond of these.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Dinky briefly shows those in the page 45.
• Blatant Lies: Apple Bloom in 3rd strip:
  Ah'm the kindest, most innocent filly in Equestria.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Sweetie Belle's list of things for a slumber party involves punch, cake, cupcakes, a jumping castle, spin the bottle, a pillow fight arena, a makeover station, and a board for contacting the dead. Which may come in handy, given Apple Bloom's state. Reinforced by clever use of colours: previous items are shown in bright, pastel tones, the Ouja board is drawn in dull brown and the letters in Sweetie's speech bubble get a temporary Ominous Visual Glitch.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sweetie Belle in the first page is talking to "the ponies of the 9th dimension".
  • Last three panels of the fifth strip.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Silver Spoon imitates Applejack's accent in the strip 17. Apple Bloom threatens to decapitate her.
• The Cameo: Button Mash and Dinky Hooves in 20th page.
• Captain Oblivious: Whatever happened to Sweetie Belle, left her completely disconnected from the rest of the world. Based on Cadance's conversation with Apple Bloom, Sweetie is connected to an Element of Harmony, most likely Laughter, which would easily explain her Pinkie Pie-like behavior.
  Apple Bloom: Ah don't get it, Sweetie. Your sister and her friends are dead, Equestria has fallen to horseapples all around you, and yet you still smile like an idiot about everything.
  Sweetie Belle: Silly filly! Rarity and the others will be back! They're on vacation!
  Apple Bloom: For four years...
  Sweetie Belle: Yup!
• Cloudcuckoolander: Sweetie Belle.
• Conspicuously Public Assassination: Deaths of Celestia and Luna. Silver Spoon thinks it was a plot to frame Twilight Sparkle.
• Cool Shades: Silver Spoon sports a pair of steampunk-inspired aviator goggles.
• Crazy People Play Chess: Subverted. Dinky invites Silver and friends for a friendly game of Jenga.
• Creepy Child: Dinky Doo manages to make a game of Jenga sound vaguely ominous and threatening.
• Deadpan Snarker: Scootaloo. For instance, when Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon are arguing with each other.
  Diamond Tiara: I guess we should probably stop them from ripping each other apart, shouldn't we?
  Scootaloo: I dunno. Depends on who's winning...
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Sweetie Belle attempts this on Dinky. And nearly manages to do that.
• Determinator: Silver Spoon.
  Pointless Distractions! The whole of Equestria is at stake here!
  • Also, Apple Bloom. Even her death didn't stop her.
• Deus ex Machina: Lampshaded by Apple Bloom, when the gang gets an airship-advertising leaflet:
  Well... That was convenient.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Dinky seemingly has nothing against having a sleepover with the CMC, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon.
• Dismotivation: Diamond Tiara, in contrast to Silver Spoon.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him Apple Bloom. Not that it stopped her.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Silver Spoon in the sixth strip. Her first proper appearance is 11 strips later.
• Easily Forgiven: Sweetie Belle immediately stops worrying about the cockatrice when Apple Bloom tells her about an ice cream parlour. Well, it's Sweetie Belle we're talking about...
• Enemy Mine: Scootaloo and Silver Spoon in page 22.
  Scootaloo: Actually nevermind, you're pretty cool, Silver.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • In the first strip, Sweetie Belle is smiling widely while breaking the fourth wall; she also seems completely oblivious of her surroundings or the fact that Apple Bloom tries to kill her.
  • Apple Bloom's "Go to buckin' Tartarus, Sweetie!" from the first strip.
• Expressive Hair: Sweetie Belle's mane in the strip 13.
• Eye Glasses: Silver Spoon's goggles.
• Face–Heel Turn: Apple Bloom, probably before the apocalypse.
• Failed a Spot Check: Apple Bloom on page 26, when she doesn't notice that she died.
• Flowery Insult: Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon's argument contains gems such as "Useless flankface", "Demented hillbilly", "Spoon sucker", and "Pear lover".
• Foreshadowing: When Dinky talks about Sweetie Belle in the page 46, Pinkie Pie's cutie mark can be seen in one of the frames.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Sixth page, which consists of a narrative told by Silver Spoon, shedding some light at the backstory.
• Funny Background Event: Pop-ups ocasionally, usually as a graffiti or posters on the walls.
• Good-Times Montage: Page 18.
• Head Desk: Silver Spoon at the end of page 39.
• Idiot Houdini: Sweetie Belle. She survives every one of Apple Bloom's assassination attempts, despite being bubbly and naive.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: Apple Bloom in the page 31.
• I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Apple Bloom in 12th strip.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Apple Bloom.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Strip 9.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Scootaloo:
  I often lay awake at night wondering if our lives are secretly dictated by some cruel overseer in another dimension.
• Madness Makeover: Everyone, especially Apple Bloom and Cadance.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Dinky playing Jenga comes with a dramatic speech on the top of the flame-engulfed tower. According to Silver Spoon, she's always like that.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Sweetie Belle, to Apple Bloom's fury.
• Noodle Incident: Several. How exactly Scootaloo injured her wings? What happened to Equestria?
  • Whatever happened to the Mane 6. Their cutie marks on the trees, Apple Bloom's expression when Scootaloo mentions Applejack and Apple Bloom's reply give rather disturbing clues.
  Remember the iron maiden?
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Apple Bloom thinks Sweetie does that.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: How did Sweetie Belle tame the cockatrice and make it change Apple Bloom back to normal?
  • Also, whatever Scootaloo did to Apple Bloom between strips 22 and 23.
• Offscreen Teleportation: In the 4th strip, Sweetie Belle managed to get out of the river and get back on the bridge in 2 panels.
  • Dinky Do also possesses that skill, as demonstrated in the page 43.
• Oh, Crap!: Apple Bloom's face at the end of page 9.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Apple Bloom's sudden change of mood when she thinks Sweetie Belle is dead in strip 4.
  • Also, Sweetie Belle after Apple Bloom bucked the cockatrice into the tree.
• Parental Abandonment: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon:
  Silver Spoon: Our parents are going back to Canterlot soon and they tend to forget about us on trips like this...
  *Beat*
  Silver Spoon: ...and in general.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Or rather, "well, that's just silly".
• Perpetual Frowner: Apple Bloom, with a few exceptions.
  • Scootaloo as well. Also with a few exceptions, but in a good way.
• P.O.V. Cam: After Apple Bloom is turned back to normal.
• Precision F-Strike: Scootaloo delivers one in page 21.
• The Quiet One: Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Scootaloo, of all the ponies, delivers one to Apple Bloom. When she's turned to stone by a cockatrice and can't hear her.
  • Then in page 22, she finally gets the courage to tell it to her face.
• The Reveal: Cadance is the queen.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Sweetie Belle.
• Scenery Gorn: Desolated Ponyville in page 8.
• Seen It All: Apple Bloom at the beginning of the seventh strip.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Dinky and her father speak like that.
• Shrinking Violet: Diamond Tiara, at least when Apple Bloom is around.
• Shout-Out: To Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, in both the title and Silver Spoon's dialogue for this strip.
  • Dinky's house looks like the Addams Family Mansion.
  • The cupcakes Sweetie makes in page 52 have a "pony free" tag. Which is rather reassuring, given some other Cupcakes the fandom came up with.
• The Shut-In: Apple Bloom locked herself in her room for two months after Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo confronted her about her letter.
• The Stoic: Scootaloo.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: After twenty minutes of climbing to an airship, Apple Bloom falls down the stairs. She isn't saved by the laws of cartoons and the impact kills her.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Totally not an ice cream parlour".
• Taken for Granite: Happens to Apple Bloom in the 10th strip.
• Tempting Fate: Just when Scootaloo mentions that everything is okay, Randolph says that Dinky will visit them. Knowing that Dinky was on the Queen's list...
• Totally Radical: A part of Scootaloo's "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  Let's face it. You're a complete douchebagel. Like, totally evil douchebagel.
• Uncanny Valley Girl: Dinky.
• Unsound Effect: Scootaloo's yawns and sighs are rendered as *scootayawn* or *scootasigh*.
  • Also "Loud Noises!" in 20th strip.
  • *Scootaboss*, *Scootaleader*, *Scootatakecharge*.
  • Applies to other characters as well. Has practically become a Running Gag at this point.
• The Voice: Apple Bloom, for the first 2 strips.
  • Downplayed with Dinky's father: we see him in the picture, but in the comic we can only see his cane.
• We Can Rule Together: Cadance to Apple Bloom in the 10th strip.
• We Have Reserves: Implied by Cadance crossing out Apple Bloom's name in page 32.
• Wham Episode: Fifth page. We learn that Apple Bloom serves the mysterious "Queen" and her mission is to kill Sweetie Belle.
  • Sixth strip even more so.
• Wretched Hive: Hoofington:
  Apple Bloom: This is my kinda town. Dark, crowded, full of ponies that aren't you two nutjobs.