Points of Canon: S5x09 - Slice of Life · 6:56pm Jan 4th, 2018
Well, my burst of actually writing was shorter lived than I wanted, but there’s still canon to play with.
Many people refuse to accept this episode as canon in the first place, at that, because it contains the highest density of references per frame. But it’s hardly divergent with everything else, unlike, say, Shadow Play, mumble mumble…
- General dating: This episode is quite disconnected from everything else, but we know that Twilight is an alicorn and the CMC are mark-less. Friendship Castle does turn up on screen, even if only in one shot. At least one winter must have passed between this episode and A Friend in Deed, see below. I am likewise pretty sure that if Starlight were a student at this point, there is no way she would have escaped participating in the fight against the bugbear, but that itself is not a hard lock – the hard lock is the absence of CMC marks. At least it’s somewhere within the Season 5 bookends.
- Matilda has a very obvious scotch tape dispenser on her desk as she is working on her scrapbook. She is also using a glue stick, which are, in our world, primarily acrylic glues, and were introduced in 1969. See chemical industry.
Matilda’s scrapbook is spiral bound, and includes photos, all of which are dated to post-reunion with Cranky, at least through the appearance of the orange wig on him:
- In Manehattan on the Times Square, or whatever the pony name is. Notably, the ads include a poster for the Cats musical.
- A picture of their house in what has to be winter: Both Cranky and Matilda are wearing sweaters and are pictured with cups of something steaming. Notice that the pattern on the sweaters – both of them winter landscapes – is not presented on the chest, but rather, on the sides.
- A picture of Cranky alone on what has to be Twilight’s coronation – at least, we have never seen her or Celestia wear these dresses otherwise, and I very much doubt they would wear them ever again. Notice that this picture gets scrapbooked the last for some reason, even though logically it probably should have been the first in this sequence, because the wedding invitation is immediately next.
- “The invitations are wrong! This says the wedding is today!” It’s a bit strange that nopony noticed, but not too strange.
- “The princesses have even RSVP’d!” The invitations were sent directly to the Sisters and got a reply. That’s some connections.
- For some reason, the trees around Cranky’s house are still orange, even though the rest of the town is much more summery. Looks like they’re just naturally orange around here.
- “You told me you could do it for half what the others charged, and then you sent the invitations to everypony in town with the wrong date!” Derpy didn’t just print the invitation, but also delivered them, making it easier for Cranky and Matilda to miss the date being wrong: They never had to handle the whole stack themselves.
- “Perhaps that explains why I never got mine!” Savoir Fare expected to be invited.
- “I feel just awful, Doc!” We still don’t know if he has a doctorate or not, but this episode is the only time he is addressed on screen.
- “I told Cranky I could get ’em printed for cheap, but that meant hiring somepony with no experience using a printing press.” The illustrative flashback shows Featherweight operating the printing press, and it’s pretty strange that he would have no experience at all, or would get the job if he didn’t. Likewise, it is pretty strange that the school press – because that’s the one – would be used for a commercial order.
The Doctor’s lab contains a gaggle of stuff, most of it unidentifiable. But some things are:
- A model airship that Derpy subsequently plays in. Whether this thing actually flies is anyone’s guess.
- Numerous high voltage devices, notably, a plasma globe.
- An anemometer.
- An incandescent light bulb.
Doctor’s lines need to be quoted verbatim:
Going back in time is old thinking, my friend. I was working off a cutting-edge theory of making time come forward to you. My life’s work, decades… centuries, really… of research and experimentation, and I nearly had it cracked! Turns out there’s a magic spell for it. Who knew? But there are so many things that magic can’t explain, where science and mathematics are the real magic! … I’ve been studying science my whole life. Ever since a particularly traumatic experience as a foal, I’ve been looking for ways to make sense of the world around me. Science provides explanations of things we never thought possible! Now, why did we come here again?
Very little of it makes much sense, particularly, because we have no knowledge whatsoever of a magic spell that would “make time come forward to you”. It is also entirely unclear how could he rack up centuries of experimentation, and whether he’s actually being literal. In any case, this speech actually precludes this guy from being identical to any incarnation of The Doctor, even though it establishes numerous similarities between them. The only remaining way to actually make them identical that would fit the canon of both universes would be a Chameleon Arch.
- We never find out why do the sleeves of Doctor’s suit need altering before he can wear it for the wedding. It would make sense if he needed repairs, but he explicitly requires an alteration. What’s up with that?… Notice also that he seeks Rarity to do it, which suggests that the Ponyville-local clothing designers depicted in Honest Apple turned up after this episode, since otherwise, they would also be a good option for the job.
- “Please! You’ve got to help me!” Nobody ever addresses Vinyl Scratch as Vinyl Scratch, and it doesn’t happen here either.
- Vinyl’s headphones actually work and play music. That’s not really a given.
- “What’s this word you keep using… ‘man’?” Surprisingly, the word does occur in primary canon otherwise – for example, in Party of One. Rainbow Dash and Spike are the primary users. My pet theory is that it is derived from “maneservant,” which is originally a term of respect used to denote a servant in a noble household, traditionally male, who was originally supposed to be in charge of keeping the master or mistress’ mane in order – as we know from It Isn’t The Mane Thing About You, a mane is a ridiculously big deal. Eventually it became a minor term of respect used among commoners, and survived the obsolescence of nobility. In any case, Doctor is not familiar with this usage, implying it to be regional.
- The diagram that Doctor imagines has already been exhaustively analyzed by someone else. Notice that this analysis implies that the basic Newtonian physics holds for Equestria, and that the mathematical syntax matches ours, at least before friendship problems get involved.
- “The way they’re huddled up like that, I’d say it’s either a friendship problem or a monster attack.” Apple Bloom had prior opportunities to observe the Mane 6 dealing with both, but I can’t seem to remember them being huddled up like that on screen before or since, implying numerous incidents of both friendship problems and monster attacks not featured in primary canon.
- “How am I meant to practice with a monster invading Ponyville?” Ponies in Ponyville are very much used to monster attacks being dealt with. For the rest of the episode, most ponies ignore the battle with the bugbear entirely. Notably, that includes the Flower Trio. There is no indication anyone but the Mane 6 used to handle them before, which sort of implies that monster attacks became more frequent since Twilight moved in.
- “Where’s Pinkie Pie?! I need my wedding planner!” Pinkie originally planned the wedding.
- The bugbear is pretty much the only monster to sport eight limbs.
- For some really bizarre reason, Featherweight is still drenched in ink from his flashback in the beginning of the episode, implying that it happened while Derpy was describing it.
- “I used to be the best organizer in all of Ponyville.” Notably, during the Winter Wrap-Up, Amethyst Star is in charge of the animal team, rather than is the all-team organizer – that position remains with Mayor Mare and Twilight occupies it by the end.
- “A broken stem on one of the zinnias!” Zinnia is a New World flower.
Bon-Bon’s entire tirade needs to be quoted verbatim:
Did you say bugbear? It found me! … My name isn’t Bon-Bon. It’s “Special Agent Sweetie Drops”. I work for a super-secret anti-monster agency in Canterlot, or at least I did until the bugbear went missing from Tartarus a few years back. When it escaped, we had to shutter the whole agency. Every last shred of evidence of the organization’s existence was destroyed. Celestia demanded complete deniability. … It was me who captured the bugbear. I had to go deep cover here in Ponyville and assume the name Bon Bon. I never thought it’d be able to track me, but now it has.
None of it makes much sense, the tirade is self-contradictory – there’s no way to say “I work” in present tense if the agency is actually shuttered, for one – and the primary canon never returns to the idea, but, in particular, Lyra and Bon-Bon and the mares from S.M.I.L.E., insists that Bon-Bon is indeed a secret agent. I have previously mentioned in RTAC #12 that I believe that Bon-Bon is, in fact, a secret agent, but for whatever reason, decided that while she needs to communicate this fact to Lyra, had to make up a lot of bullshit on the spot to “explain” the bugbear. After all, there’s no reason to trust her words at all if she’s admitting to lying anyway.
- Whatever Bon-Bon’s status actually is, she does have a “disguise” kit and a grappling hook in what looks like a hoofprint-locked suitcase with her at all times.
- The first Canterlot Friend to turn up, Twinkleshine, is right there when Bon-Bon exits the window.
“Wait! The flameless fireworks are extremely volatile! Without knowing what the trigger is, they could go off at any moment! My word, is that a bugbear?”
- So how does he know that they’re extremely volatile if he never managed to ignite them anyway?
- Doctor is the only character to recognize the bugbear on sight, but unlike Bon-Bon, he refers to him as “a bugbear” rather than “the bugbear”.
- “We once did a pony’s hair during the ceremony!” That happened.
“I’m Steven Magnet, Cranky’s best beast!” “You’re Steven Magnet?”
- “Best beast,” rather than “best man” or “best mare.”
- Matilda has heard the name before, but did not encounter Steven previously.
- The presence of Steven Magnet in the spa – right in the tub too – elicits no reaction whatsoever from Matilda or anyone else, indicating that this is an entirely normal occurrence, even while the actual person is entirely unfamiliar. A nice counterargument to the ideas of pony xenophobia.
- “Surely he must have told you about the time he saved me from Flash Freeze Lake?” Flash Freeze Lake is a place which is otherwise not present on any known maps.
- “If you believe that, I have got a bridge to sell you!” Notice that in our world, this idiom refers to a very specific con man. In any case, for it to exist, con men have to be sufficiently prolific with this particular kind of scam. Did Flim and Flam sell any bridges yet?
- Vinyl and Octavia live in the same house, sharply split in half and decorated in radically different styles. Dunno about you, but I agree with Firebrand’s idea that they’re sisters, otherwise, they’d kill each other before long. Unless they’re hooked on makeup sex.
- One prominent feature of the house is a set of organ pipes jutting out of the roof above Octavia’s half. Octavia plays an organ.
Vinyl’s sound gear includes:
- Speakers. Not the first time we see these.
- An electric bass guitar. No obvious pickups, but the shape implies absence of a resonant cavity, and it has EQ knobs on it, so that’s what it has to be.
- A DJ-style turntable with numerous knobs and obvious wires, with a lower deck for various pedal-controlled devices. Notice that this implies that half the time, Vinyl is standing on one leg to play her music.
- An extra turntable not meant for spinning.
- A disco ball.
As I previously mentioned on numerous occasions, none of this actually requires particularly advanced or digital electronics, a triode is good enough. Even the spectrum analyzer that appears in one of the subsequent frames does not, not at the resolution shown. That said, most of it is probably transistor-based. In fact, in most cases you would prefer analog electronics on the input chain anyway, unless your entire music production pipeline starts and ends within your DAW.
- Octavia’s gear includes a large violin family instrument, which is most likely properly classified as a large-ish cello, rather than a double bass, a grand piano, and a set of pan flutes, indicating she probably also plays those.
- Vinyl drinks from what has to be a milk bottle. We actually very rarely see ponies consume raw milk.
- Vinyl is at least moderately famous: Her side of the room includes at least two framed records.
- When rolling down the street in the speaker-mobile, Octavia uses just about the only streetlight on the entire street to turn.
- Button Mash is caught next to several arcade game cabinets. The screen on the one we can observe is completely dark, which precludes us from distinguishing a more modern, digital game from an electromechanical game, which were a thing, but ponies at least have electromechanical games. Notice that he’s hanging out next to the same ponies that were referenced in Sweetie Belle’s song in Hearts and Hooves Day when he first appeared – the stallion who is strangely obsessed with tubs of jelly and the stallion who is too flashy.
- The second Canterlot Friend to turn up, Minuette, finally shows up during the chase. Lemon Hearts turns up a few more seconds later. Why exactly is she handling the Twilicane, and how did she acquire it when Discord gave it to Twilight during Princess Twilight Sparkle, I have no idea whatsoever.
- Berry Punch appears in company with a barrel marked with an apple, an orange, a cherry, a strawberry, and a lemon. I think the only thing you can make with these is fruit punch, rather than wine.
- Cup Cake hauls the Cake Twins in her saddlebags, indicating that there’s nobody babysitting them today, at least. When everypony gets tossed out of the rolling speakers, we can observe that the twins are still in diapers.
- You obviously know about this frame by now.
- “What is life? Is it nothing more than the endless search for a cutie mark? And what is a cutie mark but a constant reminder that we’re all only one bugbear attack away from oblivion? And what of the poor gator? Flank forever blank, destined to an existential swim down the river of life to… an unknowable destiny?” So… why would Gummy be interested in cutie marks in the first place?
- For this wedding, the town hall is equipped with a white grand piano, which never gets used.
- Spike is in charge of delivering Twilight’s gift, it appears. Which is hardly surprising, since he’s the only one not dealing with the bugbear.
“I handled the gift for Cadance and Shining Armor! You were supposed to do this one, remember?”
- Cranky is quite important to Celestia, if not Luna: The sisters don’t just RSVP, but also handle his wedding gift themselves, instead of charging anyone to do that for them.
- Luna handled the gift for Cadance and Shining Armor. Which is a bit strange, as she couldn’t have known either very well at that point, and more importantly, she is late for their wedding for undisclosed reasons.
- “It’s alright. He always cries at weddings.” Actually, why?
- Lyra’s sitting posture is very explicit, this time: she has to bend the joints of her hind legs backwards to achieve this.
“You know those expensive imported oats you were saving for a special occasion? I cooked them up and ate them! All of them!”
- Oats can be imported, implying that at least some foreign trade exists.
- Oats are typically eaten cooked.
- “How do I look?” “Like a million bits!” This kind of implies a pricing scale for bits: A million is a lot. That is, unfortunately, not very helpful.
- Mayor Mare is officiating the wedding. Notice that nothing even remotely similar to a priest is involved at both of the weddings shown in the primary canon – it’s Mayor Mare both here and in The Perfect Pear – while the apparent funeral in Hearts and Hooves Day at least involves a clerical collar.
- “But I also see so many ponies from all trots of life, brought together by love.” Notice the use of “trot.”
- At least one cow is on the guest list.
- Now, the changeling in the room… Kevin. The source of the name is a Twitter post, so it’s just as nonsense as the justification (“A friend of Matilda’s.”) While all the children sitting in the back row are scared of him, he elicits no reaction from Shining Armor and Cadance – who are notably hostile to Thorax in The Times They Are A Changeling, which implies, at least, that he entered disguised as a pony, and only detransformed later. I can imagine why would a changeling want to attend the wedding, but why detransform at all? This never gets referred to afterwards, so we have no idea what the deal here is.
- “Cranky, do you take this donkey to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Marriage is regulated by law.
- “Then I’m proud to say, I now pronounce you jack and jenny!” Notice the use of species-specific terms.
- “They need love to ignite! How could I have missed it?!” Pretty easily. For us, it’s an indication that a method of detecting love is available at least to mad science, if not to mainstream science.
And we have no idea what became of the bugbear.
So I wonder. Now, I can see why Celestia gets invited – Cranky definitely was no ordinary donkey even when he was young and his search for Matilda had yet to start, they met at the Grand Galloping Gala, which is, as we know, quite an exclusive event. It would be impolite to invite Celestia without inviting Luna. Most of the Ponyville regulars would be there because they’re neighbors and friends of either Cranky or Matilda. But how exactly did Shining Armor and Cadance end up in this guest list, and which of them is the one invited and which is the plus one? The only Canterlot ponies in the crowd are the Canterlot Friends.
They're Ponyville locals? I always assumed they were visiting from Canterlot and that's why Applejack had to chase them down before they left.Ah wait never mind you already addressed this ^^Singularity Dream has an awesome headcanon about this.
This was also a reference. :)
4767037
Oh, man, I hope not. That's pretty extreme. And people still complain that my theory that the season 5 finale directly references Hard Reset is just a coincidence, so that's a pretty strong 'ask' right there...
So as for monster attacks before Twilight shows up, Celestial Advice shows that the non-Twilight members of the mane six did hang out together. So it's possible that some combination of them handled monster attacks before.
I feel like the xenophobia still has to be a thing, at least historically. The use of "anypony" vs "anyone" means that they have special word-forms for insiders.
Pretty sure this is the episode's attempt to offer a canon reason for that very absence, dude. As we have no other details on either the gift or Luna's personal schedule that day, it's entirely possible the gift was some sort of special order that couldn't be picked up before the wedding because of inconvenient timing or something like that.
It's been posited that Shining Armor has PTSD from the events of the Canterlot wedding. It might also be playing off his 'liquid pride' moment, or just a nice subversion of how it is normally the woman who cries at weddings. As for why the joke of 'X always cries at weddings' is a thing, I don't know. I think weddings are just emotional.
This whole case of pony xenophobia almost entirely builds on Zecora episode. But people for some reasons completely ignore the fact that no one back then knew that Zecora actually a zebra till Twilight point on it. Rarity has been sure that Zecora stripes are some sort of fashion statement.
My money on Shining (and Cadance a plus one). As far as I understand it been implied that Cranky some sort of adventurer so it is not surprising that sometimes he works with Royal Guards.
Quite a fun episode. And so much juicy canon!
Equestria had more urgent need for modern glues, since they weren't comfortable using our medium-tech solution (between plants and acrylics).
This episode's guest list and Cranky's travels are part of why he is such a likely candidate for a former SMILE agent. Certainly he was some kind of crazy adventurer.
Perhaps the trees near the donkeys house are more decayed because they are less likely to get a hit of passive earth pony magic that goes nearby?
This was kind of weird. Perhaps Muffins was getting her business off the ground and accepting ambitious contracts below cost to establish herself, then subcontracting out to a foal that SEEMED reliable (editor of the school paper) but who has never really had writing experience?
I think that is just babble for a different approach to time travel, like folding space for a hyperdrive. Doylistically, the centuries line was clearly supposed to imply he's the Doctor, Watsonianly I'd wager he means he is building on centuries of research? Either way, I don't want to start exploring Doctor Who continuity to determine if he can or can't be the Doctor, that rabbit's hole is a hundred times deeper than FiM could ever be.
I'd like to say he changed the cut, but I suspect it's supposed to be a hint that he underwent a regeneration. <sigh>
Or they were from Canterlot all along?
Sold! Makes sense to me. Zephyr Breeze also adds to the idea that manes are really important. They don't call farriers "hoof therapists."
Oh good, they call the strong nuclear force the Best Friend force and the weak nuclear force the Acquaintance Force, don't they?
When?
Besides pure narratavium, one idea is that Twilight's arrival coincided with the final stages of the Plundervines, which subtly disrupted the magical and ecological balance of the Everfree even before they fully burst, sending monsters wandering out of the forest more.
We may be dealing with an unreliable narrator here, or at least a very low bar for "best."
I really love your interpretation of her cutie mark, BTW. I do think its funny that for all the talk in Equestria Girls stories about how the Pedestria government could never be trusted with the secret of the portal because they would dissect Sunset Shimmer or invade or something, it's the Equestrian government that actually has Mares in Black who lock away weird potentially dangerous creatures in off-the-books black sites.
Big Darn Hero.
I gotta go with lovers. Guess the question is who you would be more likely to choose to live with when you have such divergent tastes.
We're still doing everything Watsonially right? Ok, Discord's weird dimension linking powers fired off because he wanted to mess with all the ponies riding on the amp-car.
I was just reading a brilliant story where Moondancer is working on something similar.
Final thought: I want the Canterlot Friends and the Big Lebowski ponies to date.
4767040 That's a good point. Those 5 did just roll up to the library in the Series Opener ready to go.
4767086 Agree on Cranky and Shining. Thinking about it, if Cranky was looking for Matilda for 40 years, he probably should have been able to personally meet every female donkey in every town in Equestria. Unless that is, he spent a large portion of that time getting sucked into random adventures/covert missions, in true heroic fashion.
4767136
There’s certainly room for it, though I’m partial to this interpretation.
Possible, but they’re the same color when it’s his first day in the house…
Don’t bother, I don’t have the whole thing cached in my memory, but my collection of the primary Doctor Who canon is just about as complete as possible without using a time machine. He can’t be. He references numerous things specific to this or that incarnation, but that’s it: there is no way to interpret this as him being The Doctor, unless he does not actually remember being The Doctor. Which is an option according to The Doctor canon, but requires a special device that stores his memories, creates a false (though resonant) personality and alters him to be some other species.
Doctor Who canon also insists he would be keeping this device very close by and avoid ever drawing attention to it, though.
Something I didn’t think about. At the same time, The Doctor has never worn a green suit…
So why is Rarity holding their show in Ponyville then.
Not to my knowledge, but Twilight several times attempts to take a cubic root of a cupcake, or do a similarly mathematically senseless operation that implies that friendship requires its own syntax which she invented.
No idea – but I’ve never seen them huddled quite like that.
Sold!
Good idea. :)
…They’re a bit old for the Canterlot Friends, though, aren’t they?
Presumably meaning she produces music, she doesn't just DJ it.
4767037
That seems unlikely, since the episode and that video were released to the world just one day apart. Unless it's a reference to the original.
4767152
I think that fits comfortable in the vein of "crazy adventurer."
Maybe he's disguised it as a pair of cutie marks! (Curse you Oliver, you're sucking me into a great dark void I have no means of escaping).
Perhaps because junior designers looking to make a name for themselves would have a better chance in Ponyville, that nice little vacation town with only 1 or 2 existing designers, than as designers #834-836 in Canterlot.
I've always wanted to see a story where a pony shows up at Twilight's house seeking to conduct scientifically rigorous experiments on the magic of friendship. When is Twilight going to start having Lyra levitated heavy objects while Bon Bon hugs her and see if the maximum lifted weight increases while Lyra is being hugged?
Not specifically, just where do they find the time? Imagine how much more cluttered our timeline would be with 1 year for 3 seasons and a bunch of noodle episodes wedged in between.
Age is just a number dude!
4767169
Probably not.
And does it depend on whether the heavy object is over Lyra’s own head or Bon-Bon’s head? Science must know the answer!
Only as long as its square root is still in single digits…
4767169 4767177
But is it a number with an imaginary component?
4767180
That would be a bit too complex…
4767166
I think you misunderstood :) The video is pointing out the reference to Ponies With Hats, which came out 2 years before "Slice of Life". (Ponies With Hats is itself a reference to Llamas With Hats).
4767182
Okay, I was dumb. I didn't spot that the video wasn't the actual Ponies With Hats, just a clip from it.
The ignition threshold must be quite high to only go off at the kiss of a wedding. Or, this can explain why Kevin's there--to keep down ambient love levels in order that the fireworks not go off prematurely. (Which suggests that the metaphysics of Equestria honor an action/inaction distinction; refraining from partaking ("Times they are a Changeling"?) is distinct from giving ("Where and Back Again"))
4767086
Dragons being as unknown and unstudied as they are to ponies…while the bison do seem to have some understanding of/with dragons. Also,
the Hearth's Warming Eve play depicting them as having racial strifes "within" ponies, between the three tribes. That they decided to immortalize tribalism in that play, too. It's not an isolated incident, but it isn't superbly-demonstrated, either.
4767040 And "anypony" etc. yeah.
4767152
How many time periods do the CF appear in fully-grown, again?
4767232
And you sure that it a problem on ponies side and not on dragons? Because of no one mind Spike, but at the same time, as far as I remember, Ember several times stated that dragons don't do friendship. And it also looks like that diplomatic relationship with dragons only starts after Ember becomes a Dargon Lord.
But for some reasons "xenophobic" ponies don't have any problems with putting Gilda in same flight camp as pegasi foals, don't have any problems with Gustave Le Grand, with iron Will (with exceptions of Flower Trio), with griffin team on Equestria Games, with Steven and so on.
4767244
It may speak more to Pinkie being raised by isolationists, 'tis true, 'tis true. And Ember claims dragons don't do friendship…but the bison seemed quite ready to befriend Spike, in a manner suggesting it wasn't a first.
4767247
Hard to say for sure. As far as I remember Spike said that bisons "respect dragons" but "respect someone" isn't exactly synonyms for "being friend with someone".
And Garbl and his gang definitely don't like ponies for some reasons but it hard to say if their dislike shared by all the dragons or Garbl teenage gang just stupid in general.
4767244
Actually, that bit is mostly on the pony side, dragons are, presumably, simply not curious enough about ponies most of the time:
4767446
Problem is that the dragons we see not exactly the friendliest bunch around and don't like ponies in general. In the finals of seventh seasons Garble and co. explicitly said that they tolerate RD only because Ember order them.
So I have sliiiiiight suspicions that ponies fear of dragons are justified and their knowledge about dragons are so abysmal not because of ponies xenophobic tendencies but because any dragon researcher has a big chance to end up with massive bodily harm. Or worse.