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

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • We have nothing to back up Bon Bon's provided backstory except her word and a suitcase she's carrying with her. She might be telling the truth, or maybe she's just crazy and paranoid.
    • Turns out it's the former, as Lyra becomes part of the agency as well in a tie-in book.
  • DJ Pon-3's complete silence in this episode has sparked questions if she simply didn't speak, or is actually a mute.^note She's spoken in comics and been quoted on TCG cards, but they're considered Loose Canon. Episode writer M.A. Larson has said she had dialogue in earlier versions of the script, but Hasbro stepped in and told him "she doesn't talk". The showrunners have since been very vague on the matter of if she can talk and just chooses not to, or can't, and prefer it this way since it makes her more interesting.
  • Some fans refuse to believe that this episode deconfirmed Lyra's human obsession, either saying the episode just didn't give it focus, or that it's not her "big secret" because Bon Bon and everyone already knows it.
  • Is Shining Armor crying at Cranky and Matilda's wedding because of what happened at his own wedding? Or is it just a silly jab at his "liquid pride"?
  • Given what occurred in the last few episodes of the series and their interaction in this one, was this episode the start of Lyra and Bon Bon's relationship as a couple?
• Awesome Music: Octavia and DJ Pon-3's duet. Cello and techno beats go together better than some people might think.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • One featuring a literal alligator: Gummy's monologue of his existential crisis. It's abrupt and has nothing to do with the events of the episode in any fashion.
  • One image of the freeze-frame collage before the booth crashes is the DHX staff wearing horse head masks.
• Broken Base:
  • This episode canonizes several background characters, whose popularity had been the fandom's most iconic feature for four years. Some have their fanon personalities, while deviate in various ways. This is beyond any Pandering to the Base with regards to the adult fandom, though fans disagree on whether that's a problem.
  • Lyra and Bon Bon referring to each other as "best friends" over and over while being very touchy-feely and making half-lidded expressions at each other the whole time, then arguing Like an Old Married Couple, then reaffirming their "friendship" is either epic Ship Sinking or epic ship confirmation, depending on what one's preferred reading of the two is.
  • The matter of voices and whether or not you thought each Suddenly Voiced character got an appropriate one. As for a certain DJ, either her status as The Voiceless/The Speechless (derived from her EQG counterpart) — whichever you believe her to be — is either an interesting touch that adds to her character, or it isn't and it just feels like a cop-out.
  • While some fans are happy to have an episode staring the background characters, others are upset that that they picked the 100th episode to do it on instead of focusing on the Mane Six, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Spike.
  • The blink-and-you-miss-it Visual Pun of Vinyl Scratch's turntable booth jumping over a toy shark. Hilarious Self-Deprecation by the show's staff or an in-your-face stab at fans who prefer the earlier seasons?
• Canon Fodder: The secret anti-monster agency that Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops used to work for. Is anypony else in Ponyville a former member? For that matter, what other kinds of No Such Agencies are active in Equestria under the aegis of Princess Celestia?
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Gummy's existentialist monologue was one of the most remembered parts of the episode, due to him waxing philosophical about his inability to get a Cutie Mark in a society that finds them important.
  • Bon Bon's reveal of working as a secret agent of Celestia's was completely unexpected, but that's what made it so memorable.
• Fanfic Fuel: The whole point of the episode. In fact, while the episode has Jossed a couple of head canons it confirmed far more, and by the time it ended the episode created a billion more.
  • What's the story of the changeling sitting in the back row at the wedding? If it's an example of the Changelings being an aversion of Always Chaotic Evil, is it the only one, or are there more? Why is everypony (except for a few foals) seemingly unworried by the presence of an undisguised changeling among them? Given that Word of God indicates that it's one of Matilda's friends, how did that happen?
  • Just what kind of missions has Sweetie Drops/Bon Bon been assigned to?
  • Now that the bugbear has been dealt with, what does this mean for Sweetie Drops and the monster-catching organization? Will they continue with their civilian lives, or will they be reinstated? Also, who else was in the organization? Are any of them also in Ponyville?
  • What other exploits have a cranky old donkey and a flamboyant sea serpent gotten up to?
  • What other kind of science adventures does the Doctor get up to, how often does Derpy join him, and how did those two even meet? And just what was the "traumatic event in his past" that got him to study time travel?
    • Related to that, given his voice actor's confirmation that Doctor Whooves is the Doctor as a pony, has the Doctor told Derpy—or anypony else—about his past adventures?
  • With Gummy: If he has an Inner Monologue, does that mean that other ponies' pets have this type of monologue?
• Genius Bonus: The equations shown when Doctor Hooves is trying to figure out how to bowl are proper equations relating to Newtonian laws of physics.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The entire interaction between Lyra and Bon Bon is this after their Relationship Upgrade at the end of the series.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Octavia and her cello on top of DJ Pon-3's rolling DJ station is going to remind some folks of the Doof Warrior, he of the red onesie and flamethrowing guitar from Mad Max: Fury Road, which had been out for about a month prior to the first broadcast of this episode.
  • Depending on your sense of humor, Gummy's monologue is either this or Harsher in Hindsight when you consider he may have been thinking this kind of stuff every time we've seen him.
  • The next Doctor Who series after this episode actually featured a character who simply calls herself "Me". Though why she does it, along with Whooves calling it an "unfortunate name", can push this into Harsher in Hindsight.
• Just Here for Godzilla: After years of just brief glimpses and cameos, the surprisingly popular background characters, for whom the fanbase has created detailed lives and distinct personalities, are finally put in the forefront for an episode. To describe the episode as "anticipated" would be an understatement.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The image of Derpy faux-flying a plane with a grin is popular, and the plane itself has been dubbed "Muffin 1".
  • Amethyst Star proudly says she was Ponyville's best event organizer before Twilight moved to town. This has led to the joke "so she's the reason the Winter Wrap-Up never finished on time?"
  • There have also been jokes that Amethyst Star is totally not bitter about having been replaced.
  • Derpy slamming the Town Hall door◊ has gone memetic, with various things behind the door that Derpy's slamming the door in the face of.
• Older Than They Think: Tina Guo describes the jam session between DJ Pon-3 and Octavia as "a huge electric cello dubstep situation". Vanessa-Mae popularized classical/techno fusion similar to this long before the word "dubstep" had been coined, and she wasn't the first to play in this style.
• Pandering to the Base: Much of the fanbase has wanted some canon characterization for the background ponies, whether it confirms fanon or not. Hasbro apparently pushed the writers to make this episode expressly for this purpose. The fact that the monster that the episode uses to distract the Mane 6 from having a big role in the episode is part panda is a pretty big lampshade.
• Tainted by the Preview: Considering that just one of the preview clips is over 2 minutes of a 22-minute episode, those who didn't want to be spoiled felt that Hasbro/Discovery Family is giving away too much and ruining the surprise of the episode. M.A.Larson himself compared it to watching half an hour of a movie as a preview trailer.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Fans who didn't like Featherweight getting off scot-free for his actions in "Ponyville Confidential" found long-awaited justice when he got squirted with ink in this episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: In an episode full of Background Ponies finally getting big speaking roles, Vinyl still remains The Voiceless as in Rainbow Rocks. This means that her entertaining interactions with Octavia (which is partially why the duo are so popular to begin with) are severely limited here compared to fanon.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • It's not impossible to expect the episode to be about Derpy and Dr. Hooves time-traveling, then Doc gets distracted and the plot begins to zigzag from one background pony to the next. Some fans may see this as a wasted opportunity.
  • After finding out about Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops' secret past as a spy agent under Celestia's command, you thought it would be brought up more, only for it not to be touched upon again.
• Unexpected Character: Several, like Steven Magnet, but a changeling showing up in the audience at the wedding takes the cake. Word of God is that he's a friend of Matilda's.
• The Woobie: It's hard not to feel sorry for Derpy when she laments that she screwed up big time.

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