Trivia / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S5 E9 "Slice of Life"

• Acting for Two: Several characters wind up sharing voice actors, but Matilda and Amethyst Star get points for sharing a dialogue together since both are voiced by Brenda Crichlow (Zecora's voice actor).
• Actor-Shared Background: Electronic celloist Tina Guo performed "electric cello dubstep" for Octavia, the cello-playing pony.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Word of God confirmed that some of the background ponies' personalities are based on the fandom's interpretations (such as Octavia speaking with a British accent and sharing the same house as Vinyl Scratch, for example).
  • Fanworks tend to have Octavia and Vinyl Scratch as friends and/or have them live together. This episode canonizes both of those points, showing them living in the same house and having a jam session together.
  • In previous appearances, Dr. Hooves was merely a generic background stallion, only getting his Fan Nickname because of his passing resemblance to the Tenth Doctor and his hourglass cutie mark. This episode plays up that resemblance, giving him a British accent and a backstory that involves research into Time Travel. He wears a bow tie like the Eleventh Doctor, the suit he needs tailored looks like something the Tenth Doctor would wear, and when he can't get it tailored in time he ends up wearing a very long scarf like the Fourth Doctor. He even says "Allons-y!" when entering the wedding hall. At one point, they even considered getting David Tennant to voice him to complete the living Shout-Out, but it didn't pan out, probably in part to allow Doctor Whooves to speak in any future episodes of the show (which he does in "A Horse Shoe-In").
  • As it turns out, apparently Derpy does work at the post office, which also doubles as a printing shop (something quite common in the real world).
  • A subtle one, but common fan theory is that changelings aren't Always Chaotic Evil. In this episode, one harmlessly attends the wedding without a disguise as a guest, implying this is true. They are still viewed as one, given the wide berth they're given. Apparently they're a friend of Matilda's.
  • Some of the darker fan works have featured secret organizations and government conspiracies, much like the No Such Agency that Bon Bon used to work for.
• Blooper:
  • When Derpy exits the bowling alley, she leaves the door open behind her. Next shot, Doctor Hooves is opening the same door to go after her.
  • It is strange we can't see Steven Magnet at the end with the shots outside the Town Hall, since he should be at the window just opposite to the door from the Mane Six. With his massive size, it's not like he can easily vanish.
• Executive Meddling:
  • According to episode writer M. A. Larson, the idea of the 100th episode being a Lower-Deck Episode was Hasbro's idea, with Larson himself actually being against the concept. He had warmed up to it by the time he finished the script.
  • It was also Hasbro that told Larson not to give DJ Pon-3/Vinyl Scratch any lines, resulting in her being The Voiceless like she was in the Equestria Girls films and shorts.
  • Hasbro were also against some of the gags that the staff wanted to include, most notably (according to Larson) a gag involving Flash Sentry being hated rather undeservingly, due to them being too much of inside jokes, even for this episode.
• Fandom Nod: This might as well be called "Fandom Nod: The Episode", as the entire idea behind the episode is to be a love letter to the brony fanbase that got the show to 100 episodes. From Derpy being friends with Doctor Hooves, to Lyra and Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops being best friends, to Octavia and Vinyl Scratch/DJ Pon-3 being roommates, a lot of Fanon and memes were made canon, or at least given a nudge and wink.
• Milestone Celebration: This marks the 100th episode of the series, and it commemorates the event with a Lower-Deck Episode that sidelines the entire main cast to honor the show's many Ensemble Darkhorses.
• Recycled Script: The climax of Vinyl Scratch and Octavia riding through Ponyville is based on another Script, which M. A. Larson wrote for Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil.
• Role Reprise:
  • Tabitha St. Germain voices Muffins/Derpy for the first time since her controversial scene in "The Last Roundup", albeit with a different voice from the original version and its redub (which was also done by Tabitha). She also reprises her role as Lotus Blossom, one of the spa ponies, whose last speaking role was in "Bridle Gossip".
  • Kazumi Evans, who delivered Octavia's single line in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, voices her again in this episode with even more dialogue.
  • Brenda Crichlow returns as Matilda after last voicing her in her first appearance, "A Friend in Deed".
  • Lee Tockar returns to voice Steven Magnet 98 episodes since his first (and last) appearance in "Friendship Is Magic – Part 2".
• Shrug of God: When answering why Vinyl doesn't speak, the crew said that "maybe she chooses not to speak", feeling that making her "the pony of no words" who communicates through music instead of words makes her cooler.
• Teasing Creator: Before the season premiere, Jayson Thiessen posted a series of tweets about upcoming episodes. Most of them were meaningless (e.g. "character will say Catchphrase"), but they ended with "Somepony will die" and a winking smiley. He immediately retracted it as a joke, but considering how somber the Walter expy looks holding a coffee can at the wedding, Jayson could have been referring to Donny.
• What Could Have Been: At the MSP-MLP convention panel immediately after the broadcast of the this episode for the first time, M.A. Larson revealed that many things were cut:
  • A background gag in which Celestia and Luna's guards do impressions of them while they're arguing.
  • The Doctor's childhood trauma was that he could never figure out how to bowl very well, failing to pick up a 7-10 split.
  • DJ Pon-3 was originally going to have a speaking role, but Hasbro told Larson that she doesn't speak.
  • Flash Sentry complaining to Cranky about how nobody likes him despite the fact he's never done anything bad.
  • When the Doctor goes to Rarity's house he was originally going to see Opal sitting on top of Tom the Boulder (and he would even say hi to them).
  • Some minor background ponies walk into a group of recolors and say "well, this is awkward."
  • Several changes such as Gummy having a French accent and the bugbear just being a bear.
  • The changeling in the audience would have tied into a gag where the episode ended with an entire swarm of changelings ominously flying towards Ponyville.
  • According to Peter New, at one point David Tennant was being considered to voice Dr. Hooves.
  • King Sombra would've somehow returned and cello-dueled Octavia The Devil Went Down to Georgia-style

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