Webcomic / The Sunjackers

"... and I still have to run on fucking cobblestones."

"Like hell for the living."

Ask the Sunjackers is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fancomic and Ask a Pony created by CaptainHoers, the creator of Firestarter Spitfire, Agents of H.E.A.R.T., and a few others. It follows a group of original characters in a dystopian future where the sun has vanished and rampant capitalism rules Equestria.

The titular Sunjackers are a trio of outlaws and smugglers based in Canterlot trying to counter corporate power by stealing vital resources and putting them out on the black market for cheap. The crew consists of Atom Smasher, a streetrunner with a grudge against authority; Candy Chip, a hyperactive hacker with a sugar addiction; and Throttle Track, the grumpy getaway driver (plus his cat Torpedo and his car, Eileen).

The comic can be read here on Tumblr.

We are the suntropes

• After the End: The sun disappeared and what remains is a corporate dystopia.
• Aesop Amnesia: Played for Laughs. Candy Chip lost her right hoof to diabetes due to her addiction to Destiny energy drink. After getting a prosthetic, she went back to drinking six cans a day.
  Candy Chip: DON'T JUDGE ME
• Agent Provocateur: The police makes extensive use of this. Atom Smasher was originally arrested because the police had left a box of heliodryl lying out in the open, covered by a security camera, in order to tempt ponies into comitting theft. While doing forced labour, one of Atom's fellow workers warn her that when she's let out, the cops will have someone standing at the bus stop with a capsule of heliodryl lying to the side. Any interraction with the capsule would count as a repeat offense so she could be arrested again.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Sunstone, and its refined counterpart Heliodryl, is a yellow glowing substance that provides power and warmth similar to that of the sun. It is used both for usual energy purposes, and to power cybernetic limbs. It can also stabilize the components of cybernetics, making sure they won't react poorly with the body. Of course, it's tightly controlled by a single corporation.
• Artificial Limbs: Very common in the setting. Of the main characters, Atom Smasher has all four legs replaced due to a car accident, and Candy Chip has her right hoof replaced after losing it to diabetes.
• The Atoner: Kobal, the gryphon informant who tattled on the sunjackers under threat of force, later helps Rainbow Code find Atom, citing his guilt over selling them out.
• Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Discussed. The entire police system of Equestria serves corporate interests, mostly trying to imprison ponies on minor offenses so they can be used as cheap labor for the megacorps. Naïve and idealistic cops like Rainbow Code are tolerated and used mostly for public image.
• Been There, Shaped History: Atom suggests that the accident that took her legs might have been what caused manual driving to be outlawed.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: It is an ask blog, so the characters regularily address the audience. Taken a step further when Atom literally leans out of the panel.
• Cain and Abel: Between Atom Smasher, a smuggler and outlaw, and her brother Rainbow Code, a member of the skyguard, a pegasus-only police unit. Atom Smasher is the Abel in this instance, as the police force is inherently corrupt and enforces an oligarchical system.
• Cast Full of Gay: The main characters are lesbian Atom Smasher, trans sapphic Candy Chip, and asexual Throttle Track. Supporting cast includes nonbinary Concorde, bisexual Spitfire, and the lesbian couple of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Act 3 introduces Applejack and Rainbow Dash's trans masc son, Zap Apple.
• Chekhov's Gun: Waaaay back in one of the first updates, Throttle mentions "The fucking nuts who blew up princess street". The significance of this isn't known until a bit into arc two, where Atom reveals that Princess Street was one of Canterlot's major railway stations. It was targeted by unknown radical anarchists who sent a car filled with explosives at it, killing 97 and injuring four times that. The incident gave the police the excuse they needed to crack down on groups like the mutual aid Atom was part of at the time.
• Connected All Along:
  • Candy's grandmother is Pinkie Pie.
  • Rainbow Code's boss is Concorde, Spitfire and Soarin's offspring. A flashback also reveals that Concorde's former officer in the civil defense was Rainbow Dash.
  • It's strongly implied that Jump Cannon drove the car that maimed both her and Atom Smasher.
• Cool Old Lady: Pinkie Pie is still kicking, and just as energic and upbeat as ever. The same can be said for Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who are more than happy to help some young criminals.
• Crush Blush: Atom gets one when Candy hugs her.
• The Cracker: Candy Chip. She even has a custom computer rig specifically for hacking and a dedicated AI she uses to keep out the city's security AI.
• Cyberpunk: The primary genre. Equestria is all but ruled by various megacorporations, the world is reliant on a single resource, technology is more advanced than ever, and there is a distinct lack of natural sunlight.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Concorde being nonbinary was not decided yet when the comic started, so a few early author's commentaries refer to them with female pronouns. After their gender is settled as nonbinary, any use of different pronouns from then on is treated as misgendering.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When the sunjackers track Father Corona to find that he was put on trial and convicted in just two days, Rainbow Code claims that it's a good thing because with how many defendants are coming through, they'd all be rotting in jail awaiting trial if not for the various means to make sure the legal system moves quickly. He then realizes that so many defendants that you have to rush them through as quickly as possible is probably not a good thing.
  Rainbow Code: ...that's gonna happen a lot, isn't it?
• Fun with Acronyms: Candy uses a program called GUMBaLL, which stands for General Use Machine Building and Learning Library.
• Good Shepherd: Father Corona, a priest of Celestia, uses his church to shelter ponies who can't afford proper healthcare, and helps them using illegal heliodryl donated by Atom. His Kirk Summation to Jump Cannon is taken almost wholesale from the Archdeacon's words to Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney).
• Heel–Face Turn: Rainbow Code leaves the skyguard and joins the Sunjackers in the third arc.
• Hollywood Hacking: Discussed and averted. According to Candy, she does very little actual manual hacking. Instead, she uses a program called GUMBaLL to keep the security AI occupied while she does whatever she needs to do.
• I Call It "Vera": Throttle's car is named Eileen.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When Rainbow Code enters Silent Spring's store, she points out that she doesn't serve cops. He claims that he's not a cop, and she holds up an article with him pictured in a sky guard uniform, asking if he's a stock footage model.
• Meaningful Background Event: While Candy is rambling about her computer setup, two bottles marked Estradiol and Spironolactone can be seen on her desk. Estradiol is an estrogen supplement and spironolactone is a testosterone blocker, and both are used in hormone replacement therapy for trans women.
• Meaningful Name: Father Corona, a priest of Celestia. A stellar corona is the outermost layer of a sun's atmosphere. It also means Crown in latin.
• Mythology Gag: Throttle's car is named Eileen, a reference to the song "Come On Eileen" by Save Ferris. Captain Hoers has previously made an animated music video for one of his other comics, using that song.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Atom Smasher and Candy Chip are a mutual case for each other, even before their Relationship Upgrade. As Atom puts it, they were "clinging on to each other for dear life as soon as we met."
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Rainbow Code shares his first name with Rainbow Dash. There is no known relation as of yet, though Rainbow Code has the same rainbow mane as Dash.
• Painting the Medium: Most of the dialogue in the comic is written in an all-lowercase, digital-looking font, but the dialogue of characters who were adults during the events of the show, such as Spitfire, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, are written in a more traditional comic sans-esque font.
• Pet the Dog: The doctor that treats Rainbow Code warns him that he shouldn't fly if he hopes to recover. Rainbow points out that, if she hadn't, he'd likely have to come to her again and give her more money. She admits that she could have, but she has enough professional dignity left to warn him.
• Police Brutality: Jump Cannon in a nutshell. The opening animation shows her firing at Atom with a deadly weapon while in populated areas, and once they meet in the comic proper, she gives her a concussion by smashing her into the pavement. This is apparently the norm in the modern police force.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: While hardly surprising for a cyberpunk setting, Jump Cannon refers to Concorde (whose pronouns are they/them) as He, and when asked about it, says they "identifies as cuck". In a comedic animation for the "Welcome to the Internet" song, she's used as the example for "Tweet a racial slur".
• Queer Colors: Candy's primary color scheme is pastel pink and blue which, along with white, are also the colors of the trans pride flag, one of many hints that she's a trans mare.
• Queer Establishing Moment: After several hints, Candy Chip is confirmed as a trans woman when she responds to a fan question about when she started transitioning with "That's not a first date question, silly".
• Relationship Upgrade: Candy and Atom, after numerous hints throughout the story, finally get together at the end of the second volume. They are seen sleeping in the same bed at the beginning of volume 3.
• Rousseau Was Right: The Mutual Aid system Atom used to be part of relies on this. Equestrian society relies on ponies being isolated from each other, working too hard and long to socialize and using single-occupant sleeping capsules, because it means they are easier to exploit and can't work together to oppose their oppressors. Mutual Aid works by having ponies work together in simple ways, giving what they can and receiving what they need. It works until the police raided them.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: This updatestarts off with a news story about a governor being removed by the police, before devoling into Atom and Candy gushing over how cute Throttle's cat Torpedo is, before getting back on serious topics.
• Shared Universe: Downplayed. There is large crossover between this comic and Firestarter Spitfire, Hoers' first MLP comic, including Spitfire and her kid Concorde showing up as minor characters, but the connection is intended to be vague and Sunjackers is not necessarily canon to Firestarter.
• Shout-Out: Since the release of My Little Pony: A New Generation, several G5 characters have cameod in the comic, such as Pipp as an in-universe celebrity, or Sunny as a member of one of Atom's polycules gunned down.
• Shown Their Work: During a brief aside where Throttle answers asks, he shows knowledge of types of cars, the chemicals used in gasoline, and Initial D.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Candy Chip has Pinkie's pink coat, blue eyes, and bubbly mane.
• Stylistic Suck: While discussing Hollywood Hacking, Candy suddenly gets a pair of poorly photoshopped sunglasses.
• Trans Tribulations: Candy Chip's mother lived through the Sunfall and turned to religion to cope with it. When Candy came out as trans, her mother turned to her preacher for advice, with terrible results. In her brief appearance, she refers to Candy by the wrong pronouns, and Candy hides in the attic to avoid her.
• Uncertain Doom: Rainbow Dash was drafted into the border defense 40 years ago. The last we know of her is that she ran back to Ponyville, living at Applejack's farm. It's unclear if her dodging the draft had consequences for her.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Discussed and Played for Laughs. Shortly after Candy's introduction, a few fans express surprise that Atom is a mare, having assumed them to be a stallion. Candy is trans, but apparently Atom is the one that gets people confused.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Of the mane six, the fates of Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Rarity are undisclosed. Twilight appears in a flashback as the Prime Minister, but it's possible that she has passed away in the 40 years since then.