Fanfic / It's The End Of The World As We Know It

It's The End Of The World As We Know It is a 2017 Equestria Girls fanfic by Samey90.

Taking place after the events of Friendship Games, the story is a Slice of Life/Teen Romance that follows the lives of Indigo Zap and her fellow Shadowbolts (Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, and Sunny Flare) throughout their final year at Crystal Prep Academy.

The story is notable for focusing almost entirely on the extensive secondary cast of Equestria Girls, with the main cast only making occasional appearances.

A sequel, Dungeons and Dimwits, was released in 2020, followed by a spin-off Wallflower's Rush in 2021.

There is also a non-canon fan parody, If Today Was Your Last Day, set after the events of the story.

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It's the End of the World as We Know It provides examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  Indigo: Sour Sweet sometimes says strange stuff since she's slightly sick.
  Muffins: Try to say that while drunk.
• Aerith and Bob: Most of the characters are named in the fanciful Equestrian style... except for one guy who is simply called Norman.
• Afraid of Blood: Sunny, Indigo, Muffins, and Crystal Lullaby all faint at the sight of blood (although it's claimed that Muffins is only affected by seeing her own blood, not other people's).
• Agony of the Feet: Varsity Trim borrows Sour Sweet's football boots for a training session, but they turn out to be too small, causing her feet to bleed.
• The Alleged Car: Sandalwood drives a Type 2 Volkswagen Transporter, which would be at least 50 years old by the time in which the story is set, and isn't in the greatest condition.
• All There in the Manual: Several characters in the story have a more marked height difference than they do in the show. The author created a table of character heights for reference, which is provided in the story comments.
• Ascended Glitch: While writing, the author kept accidentally writing the main character's name as "Indiana" instead of "Indigo". Eventually he just had characters call her "Indy" for short.
• Asleep in Class: After a late-night gaming session with Bulk and his brother, Indigo spends the next day sleeping through most of her lessons.
• Auto Erotica: Indigo and Bulk's first time takes place in Indigo's car.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Silver Spoon spent two solid nights watching footage of Crystal Prep's soccer matches, which helps Diamond Tiara to predict their every move.
• Bad Liar: Indigo has a terrible liar's face, and gets called out pretty much immediately every time she tries to tell a lie.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment:
  Varsity Trim: I'm pretty sure it's a disgrace to mention senators and serial killers in one sentence. For serial killers, that is.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: Sunny declines to hack the MIT recruitment process... not because it's unethical, but because people at MIT are more likely to catch her doing it than anyone else.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Muffins is generally a pleasant and polite girl; steal her bike, however, and she turns out to be capable of furious profanity that shocks even Indigo.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Sour Sweet's family. She has four siblings and, according to Sour, while their apartment is big, it's not big enough (she has to share the room with Sweeten Sour). When Sour was a child, her mother made her star in a Toddlers & Tiaras-style beauty pageants, leaving her mentally scarred. It is heavily implied that Sour's youngest sister may turn out to be like her, and even the relatively sane siblings like Sour Patch and Sweeten Sour still get hell due to Sour's antics. In the Christmas chapter, we also meet the extended family consisting, among the others, of sociopathic cousin Sweet Wine and a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, uncle Shaggy Defense. Ironically, Sour's parents are psychiatrists.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • In an early chapter, Sugarcoat recites two phrases in Latin: "Ira furor brevis est"^note "Anger is a brief madness" and the somewhat less profound "Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?"^note "Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just pleased to see me?"
  • During her radio show, Vinyl mutters the Hungarian phrase "Lófasz a seggedbe", which is decidely not something you would use in polite conversation.^note It basically means "Get lost", but literally translates to "Put a horse's dick up your ass."
• Bland-Name Product: iPear.
• Black Sheep: Sour Sweet has difficulty integrating with her own family due to her mental illness and violent urges.
• Blatant Lies:
  Indigo: I think my friend knocked himself out with a bowling ball.
• Blind Without 'Em: Sugarcoat is extremely short-sighted without her glasses.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
  The silence in the park was interrupted by only a few, mostly natural noises, such as crickets chirping, leaves rustling, and Lemon Zest throwing up by the shrubbery.
• Brick Joke:
  • Indigo mentions her climbing accident scar in chapter 2. It comes up again when she and Bulk have sex.
  • As a prank, Indigo tells Featherweight that Sour Sweet would love to model for his photo shoots. Unfortunately, Featherweight doesn't forget this, and brings it up many chapters later when he finally meets Sour. She does not approve.
  • About halfway through the story, Indigo throws Sunny's soccer boots up on top of the stop net, since she's in rehab and not coming to practice any more. Ten chapters later when Sunny returns, she angrily berates whoever did it.
• Broken Pedestal: Indigo used to look up to her big sister Lightning Dust, but eventually came to accept that she was just a bad person.
• Brutal Honesty: Sugarcoat's most prominent trait. Even when she's trying to be helpful, her bluntness tends to rub everyone the wrong way.
• Cassandra Truth: Bulk tries to explain the whole magical ponies thing to Indigo, but even though she's experienced magic firsthand, she still finds it too unbelievable to accept.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Muffins.
• Creator Thumbprint:
  • The author is fond of using the word "baboon", usually in the context of an insult. Possibly because it's an Inherently Funny Word.
  • Similarly, references to the liver.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • During the first football match with Canterlot High:
    Snails: Number one... Fleur Dis Lee. Is that a Canadian name?
    Snips: I'd say it's French.
    Snails: Really? Do they speak Canadian in France?
  • When Sunny tries to stay at Sour Sweet's flat:
    Sour Sweet: I have four siblings. This flat is big, but not that big. I'm almost nineteen and I have to share the room with my sister. Do you know what that means?
    Sunny Flare: Umm... watching porn gets really awkward?
• Compromising Call: Lemon stops Muffins from trying to phone her friends while they're running from the police, since in the movies this always results in someone being given away while they're hiding.
• Continuity Overlap: The events of Legend of Everfree, "Dance Magic", "Movie Magic", and "Mirror Magic" all take place during the first few chapters of the story.
• Cool Big Sis: Indigo used to see Lightning Dust this way when she was younger.
• Crash-Into Hello: Sugarcoat first meets Sandalwood by knocking him into a swimming pool.
• Crazy-Prepared: Things Sugarcoat takes on a mountain hike include a knife (in case they were chased by a serial killer), and twenty condoms in all of the most popular sizes.
  Sugarcoat: So, as I said, I have a knife, a rope, condoms, dry socks, a climbing harness, and a spare phone in case all our phones die at once, which would mean there's a serial killer nearby.
• Creator Cameo: The passenger in a bus who says "Considering all circumstances, I'd say you're dead." to Sugarcoat (and promptly gets flipped off).
• Curse Cut Short: Muffins, describing her bicycle:
  Muffins: Red, somewhat scratched, rear brake hardly working, white fringes on the handlebars, no rear suspension so it feels like taking it up the–-
• Darkness Equals Death: Indigo mentions the trope when walking down a darkened school corridor with Bulk, joking that he might want to kill her.
• Dreadful Musician: Plaid Stripes and the Great Scary Spoon manage to butcher every single one of their songs while opening for the Halloween concert.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Due to her mental illness, Sour Sweet often gets away with saying things that wouldn't be acceptable from anyone else. However, she crosses the line when she threatens to commit a school shooting, prompting Indigo to angrily check her schoolbag for firearms.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Shadowbolts.
  • Indigo is arguably the most normal of the bunch, aside from her tendency to solve her problems with violence. And then she gets pregnant.
  • Sugarcoat is pretty much Jerkass personified, with some outrageous views on environmental issues (though this may be to piss off Sandalwood).
  • Lemon Zest starts the story in the increasingly abusive relationship with Sour Sweet. Also, her mother dies. And to make matters worse, she might be Secretly Dying herself.
  • Sunny Flare's family is pretty dysfunctional on its own; Sunny herself is on her way to become alcoholic, culminating in her almost freezing to death and giving Suri Polomare the photos she stole from Sweet Leaf.
  • Sour Sweet is constantly trying to keep her "sour" side at bay in order not to hurt the people she loves. She fails.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Sandalwood is mentioned a couple of times by Bulk before his first appearance.
  • Muffins (Derpy) is brought up a few times as a possible girlfriend for Flash, but doesn't actually show up until the first soccer match with Canterlot High, several chapters later.
  • Sugarcoat spots Sweet Leaf on Sandalwood's phone, long before Sweet Leaf would become a significant character in the story.
  • Beauty Brass lends Indigo a pen in Chapter 2, and then doesn't show up again until almost the end of the story, when she begins a relationship with Lemon.
• Edible Theme Naming: A lot of characters — particularly Crystal Prep students — have names derived from food.
• Erudite Stoner: Despite being a persistent weed-smoker, Sandalwood is actually quite sharp-witted and intelligent.
• Europeans Are Kinky:
  Snips: What is with the players taking off their shirts after a goal?
  Snails: Dunno, she's European. They never waste an occasion to get rid of their clothes.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Hearing about someone collapsed in the school car park, the Shadowbolts try to figure out who it might be... eventually realizing that it's Sunny.
• Explosive Results: Muffins' attempt to make pancakes in the school science lab somehow blows it up.
• Family Theme Naming:
  • Sour Sweet's extended family nearly all have names that are variations on "Sour" or "Sweet".
  • Sugarcoat's family all have sugar-related names.
• Fingore:
  • Indigo once accidentally put her fingers into a running sewing machine.
  • Muffins nearly breaks her finger in a bowling ball when attempting to throw it.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In an early chapter, Sour jokingly suggests that they'd take care of Indigo if she became disabled.
  • After seeing Allie Way's baby bump, Indigo remarks that she never wants to become pregnant.
• Foreign Cuss Word:
  • "Lófasz a seggedbe", as described under Bilingual Bonus.
  • In Our Town/Notre Ville (located in somewhere like Canada) Sunny uses some Quebec French profanities known as sacres — including tabarnak, considered to be the most offensive one.
  • Fleur unleashes some French profanity ("Nique ta mère, connasse!") after being hit by Indigo's snowball, and also throws in an offensive European gesture.
• Foreign-Looking Font: The title of chapter 15 is "Å Skrü Løøse", which is "A Screw Loose" rendered to resemble Swedish. Most of the chapter takes place in an EqG equivalent of Ikea.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, and Gloriosa Daisy all dress as their canonical demon forms for the Halloween concert.
• Gentle Giant: Bulk is a huge, strong dude, but has a perfectly calm, gentle nature, especially compared to Indigo.
• Granola Girl: Sweet Leaf. Also, Sandalwood's mother.
• Groin Attack: With a bowling ball, no less.
• Harem Seeker: Norman.
• Height Angst: Indigo doesn't like it when people make fun of her for being short.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Bulk Biceps appears to be a big jock bodybuilder on first glance, but turns out to be a kind-hearted guy who listens to classical music, plays the violin and enjoys knitting.
  • Sunny Flare is a wealthy fashionista who loves making dresses... and is also a skilled computer hacker who speaks Japanese and Tagalog.
• Hippie Van: Sandalwood has one, naturally — a classic VW van. It's even been to Woodstock.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Bulk and Indigo, and to a lesser extent, Sandalwood and Sugarcoat.
• Imagined Innuendo: Indigo mentions to Sugarcoat that she and Bulk are building a boat, which Sugarcoat immediately interprets as innuendo.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Indigo tries to explain that she's grown out of her bullying phase, but then threatens to send Sugarcoat to the hospital moments later.
• Informed Judaism: Sugarcoat. She's shown celebrating Hanukkah, but, according to Sandalwood, she's not very religious.
• Innocent Bystander Series: The story focuses entirely on the daily lives of the non-magical secondary and background characters of Equestria Girls. Magical happenings are mentioned occasionally (usually by characters who have been accidentally caught up in them) but otherwise play almost no part in the story.
• Innocently Insensitive: Muffins tries to hook Lemon up with Wallflower Blush on the grounds that "she likes girls with green hair", referring to Sweet Leaf - this is a pretty bad thing to say, given that Sweet Leaf is in a coma and will likely never recover. (Coincidentally, Sweet Leaf and Wallflower do have very similar hairstyles).
• Insistent Terminology: Octavia (a British student) always corrects "soccer" to "football".
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When Sunny dons her "flawless" outfit to conceal her identity from Canterlot High:
  Sunny: Also, I can assure you that no one will recognize me.
  [Twilight walks in]
  Twilight: Hi, Sunny!
• Insufferable Genius: Ringo, the bassist in Flash's band. More insufferable than genius, though.
• Ironic Name: Sour Sweet has a little sister named Sweet Dreams, who suffers from night terrors.
• Irony: Indigo spends much of the story trying to keep her body as healthy as possible, but by the end, is in a worse physical condition than any of her friends. Even more ironically, it isn't any of her dangerous activities that end up crippling her, but a simple car crash.
• It Makes Sense in Context: "Strawberry condoms will be the death of you, Sugarcoat."^note Indigo was pointing out that in a horror movie, the most promiscuous girl usually gets killed.
• It's for a Book: Indigo, when buying a pregnancy test:
  Indigo: It's a... homework. Yeah, we have an assignment like that. Totally.
• Kids Are Cruel: Indigo admits that she used to enjoy bullying Twilight when she was younger, since that was considered normal behavior at Crystal Prep.
• Kissing Cousins:
  • Sandalwood casually mentions crushing on two of his cousins.
  • Sugarcoat also mentions having kissed her cousin, although she immediately regrets having admitted it.
• The Klutz: Muffins tends to be a walking disaster area. Those who know her usually know to give her a wide berth, particularly if she's holding something dangerous.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Indigo initially wonders if fellow student Cold Forecast is just a guy in a girl's uniform.
• Last-Second Word Swap:
  Sandalwood: Same goes for Sunset Shimmer, but you dumped her first, back when she was a total bi— douchebagel.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Sunny Flare has more money than she could ever need, but lives in a huge, mostly empty mansion, her father is nearly always out of the country, and her mother is an alcoholic.
• Long List: Muffin's list of grievances from the past year is so long that it lasts almost the entire Festivus meal.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Sour Sweet, Sweeten Sour, and their three other siblings.
• Mathematician's Answer:
  Sunny: You're pregnant? But how?
  Indigo: Well, when two people really love each other...
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Sunset Shimmer uses her mind-reading power several times in the story, but ends up regretting it more often than not. Suri Polomare turns out to be so unpleasant that she can't even touch her, and when she tries to read Lemon Zest's mind, she becomes disoriented by the drugs Lemon has taken.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Coach Sombra reportedly has a fascination with Crystal Prep's walls and the gym's stair climbing machine — a reference to the fandom meme of King Sombra being obsessed with crystals and stairs.
  • Vinyl claims that she never speaks in public; a reference to the fact that she is a "voiceless" character in the show.
  • Twilight claims that Rainbow Dash is much better at impersonating others than she is — this is likely a reference to the MLP episode "Newbie Dash", in which Rainbow infamously impersonates all of her friends.
  • The three "town sluts" in Our Town are based on the trio of flirtatious mares in the MLP episode "Hard to Say Anything", one of whom has a very similar color scheme to Sugarcoat, leading to some confusion.
  • Chapter 24 is titled "Baking Brad", and features Flash Sentry demonstrating his cooking skills. Flash was originally named "Brad" by the fandom before his official name was known.
  • Muffins mentions an English friend who taught her how to bowl; this would be Doctor Whooves, who learned how to bowl in the MLP episode "Slice of Life".
  • Near the end of the fic, Muffins mentions the head of the Gardening Club, who Flash doesn't remember at all — that's because this is Wallflower Blush, a villain who used a magic stone to erase people's memories of her in Forgotten Friendship.
• Naked People Trapped Outside: This happens to Sandalwood and Flash in Our Town after a sauna visit goes awry.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: We don't hear most of Muffins' profane rant when her bicycle is stolen, aside from a choice phrase relished by Indigo.
  Indigo decided that she had to include "butt-fucked kumquat twat" in her repertoire, if only for the phonetic challenge it presented.
• No Sympathy: While she doesn't completely lack empathy, Sugarcoat's blunt nature makes it near-impossible for her to express it even when she wants to.
• Oh, Crap!: After losing her glasses, Sugarcoat mistakes Principal Cinch for Sunny Flare.
• One Scene, Two Monologues: Actually two duologues, since it's two pairs of characters holding two different conversations at the same time. In a late chapter, Beauty Brass is trying to break up with Lemon while Flash and Muffins get distracted by a side-conversation about Wallflower Blush.
• One-Steve Limit: The Equestria Girls character Starlight shares her name with Starlight Glimmer, which sometimes causes confusion. To make it even more confusing, Starlight Glimmer also shares her name with her human counterpart, a deceased cult leader.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Muffins' real name is Guðrún Múffinsdottir (she's half-Icelandic).
• Orphaned Punchline: In the bowling alley, we hear the end of a joke: "One's fun to hit with a sledgehammer and the other is a watermelon!" This is actually a dead baby joke.^note The setup is: "What's the difference between a baby and a watermelon?"
• Passed-Over Inheritance: Sunny Flare is occasionally threatened with this by her father.
• Pet's Homage Name: Sugarcoat's rats are named after female scientists (Lise Meitner and Rosalind Franklin). Sandalwood's rats, on the other hand, are called Cheech, Chong, Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
  • Indigo is short, but also the most athletic of all her friends, and certainly isn't afraid to get into a fight.
  • Suri Polomare is a member of the Crystal Prep soccer team despite being only 152 cm tall, and specializes in fool play.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Sunset Shimmer fails to recognize The Lord of the Rings, on account of being from a different universe.
• Practical Voice-Over: The Canterlot High Radio segment provides exposition on the progress of Crystal Prep's football season, as well as setting up the imminent Halloween concert.
• Precision F-Strike: In-universe. Muffins almost never uses any strong profanity, so her dropping the c-word in response to her bike being stolen makes Indigo realize it's a pretty big deal.
• Pun: The Shadowbolts are all fond of these.
  • Chapter 2:
    Indigo: Your mom makes tampon ads now? That's some blood money if you ask me...
  • Chapter 6:
    Sunny Flare: I always wanted to hack iPear servers, but the only guy who knows how to do that only speaks Tagalog.
    Lemon Zest: Ah. So, you want to tag along?
  • After Bulk wonders what happened to the three sirens who tried to enslave Canterlot High, Indigo says she'll tell him if any new girls in Crystal Prep seem fishy.
  • When Indigo is in hospital:
    Indigo: Seriously, I'd ask the doctors to cut my leg off, but–-
    Sunny: You wouldn't stand it?
  • Sandalwood isn't above it either:
    Sandalwood: Can one say about a lesbian that she's pussy-whipped?
• Punishment Detail: At Crystal Prep Academy, disobedient students are forced to clean and polish the school's crystal walls as punishment.
• Pushover Parents: Sunny Flare's mother is an alcoholic who has no inclination to discipline her daughter, while her father is nearly always away and doesn't have time to do so. Because of this, Sunny gets away with pretty much anything she wants.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Christmas in Sunny Flare's house gets quite interesting once Sour Sweet gets involved. For starters, Sunny's parents keep an "unloaded" shotgun on the upper shelf of the closet, where Sunny can just grab it whenever she pleases. While Sour Sweet at first calls her out on her poor gun safety, in the next scene we see her trying to reenact Kurt Cobain's suicide. Cue this gem:
  Sunny: Also, don't aim it at your face. I'm not sure if it's loaded.
  Sour: Nah, it's too light. [shotgun fires, smashing the mirror on Sunny's ceiling] Jesus fuck, I'm deaf! What the actual–-
  Sunny: Leave Jesus out of this, it's his birthday...
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Sour Sweet's sister is Sweeten Sour, a fan-named Canterlot High majorette who had a non-speaking role in Friendship Games.
  • Sandalwood is Canter Zoom's son (which additionally makes him Juniper Montage's cousin).
  • Lightning Dust is Indigo Zap's big sister.
  • Bulk Biceps is Featherweight's older brother, and is also related to the McColts (or at least, their human equivalents).
• Revealing Cover Up: When she first arrived in the human world, Sunset pretended to be from Hollywood on the grounds that it was so far away, nobody would ever be able to check her story — not realizing that this choice of hometown would only raise even more questions about her origins.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder:
  Indigo: Can you stop reminding me of the worst parts of my life?
  Sugarcoat: No.
• Rich Kids: Everyone in Crystal Prep. Sunny Flare is the most glaring example, but even the more down-to-Earth Indigo doesn't quite grasp the concept of poverty.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Sugarcoat mentions that the oldest axe murderer was one hundred years old. This is actually true.
• Ritual Magic: Sugarcoat attempts a ritual spell in chapter 15, in an attempt to learn magic for herself. Surprisingly, it does actually seem to work, although she doesn't realize it.
• Running Gag: Sugarcoat and/or Sandalwood being told to shut up.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Sandalwood keeps trying to set Flash up with Muffins, despite Flash's stubborn refusal.
• Sherlock Scan: Sophisticata is able to deduce that Indigo is a Crystal Prep student from body language alone.
• Shout-Out:
  • Indigo is apparently a Bad Religion fan; in one chapter, she wears a T-shirt with the Suffer album cover art, and also mentions that she owns a crossbuster T-shirt. Chapter 34 is named after a Bad Religion song about a teenage mother.
  • In chapter 4, Indigo mentions the urban legend of The Licked Hand.
  • "The lambs haven't stopped screaming," Sour Sweet said.
  • Indigo's birthday is October 10th, the air date of the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • Indigo's name is sometimes shortened to "Indy". Her baby is referred to as "Little Indy" by Sunny Flare.
  • Sandalwood mentions that he fell into the cauldron with magic weed as a child.
  • Chapter 7 is rife with references to works of H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King:
    • One of the landmarks is called Lake Gardner, after the The Colour Out of Space character.
    • The roadkill creature that Braeburn shows to the main characters is taken from King's Mrs. Todd's Shortcut.
  • When Indigo finally sees the knife Sugarcoat brought to defend herself from serial killers, she remarks: "You call that a knife?"
  • In chapter 14, Crystal Prep's soccer team defeats Sunnydale High.
  • The guitarist of Sandalwood's band is named Captain Planet (the character's fan name), and the band itself is called The Planeteers.
  • Vinyl Scratch dresses as a vampire for Halloween.
  • In the Christmas chapter, Sour Sweet questions why Sunny is watching a cartoon about schoolgirls riding tanks.
  • The holiday of Festivus, as practiced by Sandalwood's family, was popularized by the Seinfeld episode "The Strike". Many of the practices in the Festivus scene, including the undecorated aluminium pole, the serving of meatloaf, and the Airing of Grievances, come directly from that episode.
  • Muffins became interested in extreme sports after watching The Dudesons.
• Sexual Euphemism: Sugarcoat tries to give Indigo some pointers for her first sexual experience by using football tactics as metaphors.
• Skewed Priorities: Sour Sweet violently attacks Suri Polomare, scarring her for life, but Suri's only concern is that she peed herself in fear in front of everyone.
• Slashers Prefer Blondes: Discussed by Indigo as they go to check out the attic where Muffins has disappeared.
  Indigo: In horror movies, the blonde dies first.
• Sock It to Them: While chasing down the thief who stole her bike, Muffins fills her own sock with coins and stones to use as a weapon.
• Soul-Sucking Retail Job: Drama Letter has several of these over the course of the story.
• Spiritual Successor: Several elements of the story — including Indigo and Bulk's relationship, and the vitriolic friendship between the Shadowbolts — originated in Samey90's 2016 horror fic Right on Schedule.
• Staging the Eavesdrop: Fearing that Sour Sweet is planning to do something terrible to Suri Polomare, Indigo loudly talks about school shootings in front of Dean Cadance, hoping that she'll pick up the hint. She doesn't.
• Stripperiffic: Sandalwood mentions that Sugarcoat wanted to dress as Vampirella for Halloween. Vampirella's costume is... not exactly suitable for public events. Fortunately she eventually decides on a plague doctor outfit instead.
• Supernatural Soap Opera: The supernatural elements are downplayed, but are nonetheless present in the world, even if they aren't directly experienced by the main characters.
• The Teetotaler: Indigo tries to keep her body as clean as possible, and therefore doesn't drink, take drugs, or even drink caffeinated beverages. She also avoids sex, although that doesn't last.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Indigo, shortly before having an accident on the ski slope:
    Indigo: I'll show you that it's totally safe...
  • Indigo, again:
    Indigo: I don't wanna get pregnant, like, ever.
  • Indigo, yet again, shortly before her soccer team scores an own goal:
    Indigo: Can this get any worse?
• That Came Out Wrong:
  Indigo: Bulk got stuck in some tight place and I couldn't get him out.
• Thrill Seeker: Indigo enjoys anything that gets her adrenaline pumping, which sometimes leads to her getting injured.
• Titled After the Song: Named after the R.E.M. song.
• Too Much Information: This happens a lot.
  Sugarcoat: [explaining why she has asthma] Also, since my parents are dentists, they're freaks about hygiene and I spent most of my childhood in a sterile environment, so my immune system got bored of being a rich lazy fuck and started behaving like your sister. Also, I was born via a c-section, so I had a bigger chance of getting asthma right from the start–-
  Indigo: We really didn't need that information.
• Unusual Euphemism:
  Muffins: Who is Party Favor?
  Sugarcoat: A dude Flash and Sandalwood met here. He has a really big... talent.
  Sandalwood: Not that big.
  Sugarcoat: I've seen it. It is quite a big talent.
• Use Your Head: Indigo headbutts Juniper Montage when she pranks her by pretending to be a ghost.
  Sandalwood: When normal people see a ghost who just murdered someone, they run.
  Indigo: So? I ran.
  Sandalwood: Run away, not charge at the ghost to headbutt them while yelling like a baboon! Besides, headbutts don't work on ghosts.
  Indigo: This one worked.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: All five of the Shadowbolts constantly snipe at and belittle each other, but are nonetheless close friends.
• Wham Episode:
  • Lemon's mother dies in Chapter 8.
  • Sour assaults Suri in Chapter 27.
  • Indigo discovers she is pregnant in Chapter 34.
  • Indigo has a car accident in Chapter 36.
• Wham Line: "Lemon's mom died." in Chapter 8.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: One of Sandalwood's friends is named Captain Planet.
• Worrying for the Wrong Reason: When Juniper locks herself in the attic to hide from Sandalwood's rats, Muffins "helpfully" reminds her that there are probably even more rats in the attic.
• You Can Always Tell a Liar: Indigo knows that Sugarcoat is holding back something important from her when she sees her fiddling with her glasses.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Indigo noticed that the Rainbooms had transformed into their "ponied up" forms in a music video, but assumed that she was just looking at cheap CGI.
• Your Mom: Sour Sweet is not above this.
  Sugarcoat: Sour Sweet, dear, why are you shrieking like a baboon in heat?
  Sour Sweet: Your mother was a baboon.

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