Let me just start by saying that when this episode was first announced last year, I wasn’t exactly hyped for it. Even with what little they revealed, it was obvious that the episode would be nothing but fan-service and pandering of the highest order and that to me smelled like the perfect recipe for disaster. I’m pretty sure most people still remember the debacle that ensued after Derpy’s speaking role in “The Last Round-Up” and I just pictured it being like that, only on Red-Bull. I tried to be as neutral as possible going into it, but I wasn’t keeping my hopes up.

Anyway, onto the episode itself. “Slice of Life” follows a similar pattern to the old Simpsons episode “Stories of Spingfield”, feature several short scenes featuring mostly secondary characters, all loosely tied together with a single plot thread. The plot thread in question is, thanks to an error in the invitations, Matilda and Cranky’s wedding has been moved up to today rather than tomorrow, throwing Matilda into a panic as she tries to push everything forward and get ready for her big day. While all this is going on, Twilight and the others are pre-occupied with a monster attack Ponyville, an insectoid-ursine hybrid literally called a Bug-Bear.

Now, this second conflict serves a few purposes. The first is to act as a thinly veiled excuse to keep the Mane 6 busy so they don’t swoop in and solve the conflict themselves, which is especially bad because not only is Pinkie Matilda’s wedding planner, but give Twilight ten minutes and she would have formulated a plan like she did with Winter Wrap up.

The second reason, whether intentional or not, is to show just how jaded the citizens of Ponyville have become since the show’s beginning. A small crowd gathering near the huddled heroes even has them remarking with a surprising amount of nonchalant that it’s either a friendship problem and will get cleared up in a half hour or a monster attacking town. When you live next to the Everfree Forest and have had the Guard Dog of Tartarus, a massive bear made of the night sky and the God of Chaos among other things just passing through, a monster attack is really nothing more than a minor convenience. This is also shown that despite frequent glances of the Mane 6 fighting the beast all throughout town, even incurring property damage, this registers as nothing more than background noise as ponies just continue on with their day as if this is just another typical Tuesday.

The third reason is as a possible stealth pun. According to TvTropes, the term “Panda” is now shorthand for pandering, and considering the beast’s colors bring to mind a panda bear, this could very well be literal “Panda”-ing.

Moving on, we get our first bit of fanservive, when we learn that the one responsive for the incorrect invitations is none other than fan favorite Derpy (though she goes unnamed throughout the entire episode for obvious reasons), who even offers Cranky a muffin in apology.

I’m half tempted to keep a running count of all the fanon made canon in this episode, but I’m pretty sure I would lose count very quickly.

Following the opening, we cut back to Derpy, who laments at an outdoor restaurant about how much she screwed up. And who should she be talking to but Time “The Doctor” Turner, who immediately whisks her off to his laboratory which is clearly in no way meant to resemble the inside of the TARDIS. I mean, it’s funny as an inside joke and in the comics, but I’m not sure how I would feel if this Doctor was actually THE Doctor. Time Turner also has neat moment where he remarks on the marvels of science and how he’s been studying it his whole life, or, quote, ”centuries really.”

After Derpy remarks on his fire-less fireworks (I spy an obvious Chekhov’s gun!), Time Turner realizes he hasn’t had time to get his suit tailored (spouting off the very Doctor sounding catchphrase of Great Whickering Stallions as he does so), and rushes off to Rarity’s, who is once again currently indisposed. But Vinyl Scratch just happens to walk by and, just like her EQG’s counterpart, has her music cranked up so loud she can’t understand when Time Turner asks where Rarity is.

This ends up with Vinyl leading them to the bowling alley last seen in Cutie Pox and, just like in that episode, Time Turner runs into the Big Lebowski look-alikes, who were a quick gag to begin with and really have no business being here. Seeing as how their forth guy is missing (oh yeah, they keep uttering the word “man”, which boggles Time Turner’s mind), they convince him to help them bowl in exchange for fixing his suit.

At the same time, Derpy tries to make amends by picking up Matilda’s flowers while the latter runs off with Amethyst Star, who claims to be Ponyville’s premier event planner before Twilight moved into town. Yeah, considering how well Winter Wrap Up turned out before then, I wouldn’t brag too much about that fact. Anyway, this brings Derpy to the Flower Trio of Roseluck, Lily and Flower Wishes, who I don’t think we’ve seen for some time. And, just like they are want to do, they give Rarity a run for her money in overreacting to everything, even freaking out when a single stem is bent on one of the arrangements. Yet the Bug Bear gets zero response, once more proving my point.

From there, we cut to Lyra and Bon Bon (who is very clearly voiced by Andrea Libman this time around for how much she sounds like both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie) helping decorate the inside of town hall, stating multiple times how much “good friends they are!” Yeah, I don’t care what anyone says, just the way they talk and act still makes me think these two are together without outright saying so. Shipping goggles or not, this ship is still seaworthy!

Moving right along from my delusional fantasies onto someone else’s delusional fantasies, neither is concerned with the fact that a monster is attacking Ponyville, until Lyra mentions that it’s “some kind of ‘bug-bear’.” Bon Bon suddenly becomes serious, freaking out and saying that “it’s finally found her.” Lyra is of course confused, which leads to Bon Bon revealing that her real name is Sweetie Drops, and that she’s a secret agent from a recently disbanded government funded monster-hunting agency founded by Celestia herself and that she’s been hiding in Ponyville under the alias of “Bon-Bon” for some time now ever since the Bug Bear escaped from Tartarus after she personally captured it.

…I’m sorry, but could you run all that by me again? Because it sounds like she’s gone cuckoo for cocoa-puffs. Was this supposed to be a joint attempt to explain why not only her toy goes by the name Sweetie Drops, but why she has had no less than four different voices throughout the series? Because if so…it really doesn’t work, and just leaves me scratching my head in confusion.

Lyra is just as confused as I am, but is more distraught about the apparent fact that their entire friendship was all a lie. Bon-Bon/Sweetie Drops tries to reassure Lyra that it wasn’t all a lie, before climbing from the window using a grappling hook she apparently carries around with her to climb to the ground below and disappear into the crowd.

Well, that was a thing.

Back to Time Turner, he’s interrupted by Derpy coming to the realisation that the Doc’s fire-less fireworks (told you they would become important!) look like flowers, so she rushes off to get them. Don’t know why she didn’t do just do that in the first place rather than tell him this first, but whatever. He runs after her, remarking that the fireworks are extremely volatile and since he doesn’t know what sets them off, they could go off any at moment. He also happens to notice Rainbow Dash tussling with the Bug-Bear, but he has more pressing concerns to attend to!

Cutting away to Lotus and Aloe’s spa, Matilda is fretting over her rapidly approaching wedding before running into yet another surprising cameo: Steven Magnets, the sea serpent from the second episode. And yes, he literally says his name is Steven Magnets, I kid you not. If that weren’t enough, he remarks on how he and Cranky are old time pals and traveled the world together while Cranky was off looking for Matilda, who is in utter disbelief this entire time that she’s talking to a very campy sea serpent.

But, because we can’t have nice things, Steven ruins it by saying that no one cares about whether Matilda and Cranky have a happy marriage, but that the wedding is the single most important part of a marriage, throwing Matilda into another full-blown panic attack.

Smooth Steven…real smooth.

From there, we see Vinyl arriving at a home that looks like it was built by Discord considering it looks like two halves of different houses glued together, revealing one half containing her DJing equipment, and the other featuring Octavia practicing for the wedding. Don’t worry, I’ve removed my shipping goggles for this one, even I can see that Vinyl and Octavia are just roommates, or at the very least share a practicing space.

What follows is a duet between the two of them, involving a dual record/bowstring spin that left me crying with laughter. But because the wedding (and the end of the episode) are fast approaching, Octavia says that they need to leave, doing so by riding through Ponyville on Vinyl’s record set-up, still playing the whole way. It is as ridiculous as it is awesome.

Discord would be impressed by the chaos that ensues. Barreling through the streets (and once again completely ignoring the ensuing battle with the Bug-bear), they proceed to run into Button Mash, the Jelly pony and shiny pony from “The Perfect Stallion” song, Colgate, Ace, That pony seen with the moving truck before Derpy dropped it all on Twilight’s head, Truffle Shuffle, Filthy Rich, Berry Punch carrying a massive barrel of “fruit punch”, Davenport, Raindrops, Pipsqueak, Thunderlane, the window cleaner from “Sweet and Elite, Pokey Pierce, The Cakes and Matilda in her Wedding gown, Aloe and Lotus and finally Cranky (who dodges and only loses his wig) before tripping over the Twilicane of all things, which then hurtles them through the air towards the Town Hall.

And then…I have no idea how to properly describe what happens next.

In a literal “Big Lipped Alligator Moment” from an actual alligator, we inexplicably delve into the head of Gummy of all creatures, who erupts into this really disturbing and nihilistic inner monologue about how life is nothing more than a meaningless search for a Cutie Mark when death could by looming overhead and that life is thus meaningless for a being who could never hope to achieve a Cutie Mark like himself.

I...I just…I can’t even begin to make heads or tails of this scene. Did they need a space filler at the last second and just threw in whatever they had lying around? I’ve said this before, but I can only imagine that this is what it would be like to be on some seriously wicked drugs. I’d use the “What are you blathering about” clip again, but I’d rather just move on.

Anyway, in typical cartoon fashion, everyone and everything lands perfectly into place within the wedding hall. We then get a scene of Celestia and Luna having a sibling’s spat over the fact that they forgot the wedding gift at home, slipping back on their regal masks when someone comes into earshot.

This could very well be one of the favorite scenes in the entire episode, because it shows that despite being immortal all-powerful rulers, they are still family and siblings at that and can be prone to arguing at even the best of times (As someone with multiple siblings, I say this from experience). From there it pans over a few aisles to show Princess Cadence comforting a blubbering Shining Armor, in which she informs an attendee sitting next to them that Shining always cries at wedding…though usually he doesn’t start until after the wedding begins.

As Derpy remarks on how beautiful the fireworks look, Pinkie Pi— no wait, it’s just Bon Bon with Pinkie’s voice telling everyone that the Mane Six have successfully defeated the Bug-Bear off screen. Once that’s done, Bon Bon trots over to Lyra, who is sitting in her own unique way and very clearly still cross with Bon Bon. Lyra reveals that she has her own deep dark secret…she ate all of Bon Bon’s expensive and important oats she was saving for a special occasion. How evil!

So yeah, they make up, Celestia and Luna bicker some more, Time Turner comes running in wearing the Fourth Doctor’s scarf, Derpy hugs him and reaffirms the DoctorXDerpy ship before he ushers them inside with an “Allons-y!” and finally Steven uses his mustache to replace the wig Cranky lost in a nice reversal of the events of the second episode (he even uses his own scale to do it too!)

As Cranky and Matilda step up to the altar, Mayor Mare asks if everyone is here. Twilight and the others come running up to the town hall…just in time for Derpy to slam the door in their faces, which locks shut behind her.

Mayor Mare then give a beautiful speech as the camera pans across the room, remarking on how many ponies from all walks of life have gathered to see these two donkeys wed and how everyone is the star of their own story and no matter whether they be a main character or not, everyone makes life special. During all this, Celestia and Luna wordlessly make up, Shining Armor and Cadence hug and five or six foals are huddled together as far away as possible from a lone, undisguised Changeling sitting in the back row, who has a look on his face that just screams “What? What are you all staring at? Do I have something in my teeth?”

I shall name him Bob. Or maybe Larry.

Cranky and Matilda are officially married to a resounding applause, and their kiss causes Time Turner’s fireworks to all go off, prompting the stallion to excitedly hug Roseluck while remarking that all they needed was love to ignite.

Finally, the episode ends with the Mane Six watching all this from the window, Twilight pulling the others into a group hug while saying how lucky they all are to live in Ponyville and how much she loves them all.

In the end, what did I think of all this? As I said, I went into this with already low expectations, so I’m happy to say I did end up enjoying what I originally feared could only end in a total disaster.

Yes, this was packed to the gills with pandering and fanservice, but not only was that the entire point, but I admit that said pandering was caused most of my enjoyment. The story itself isn’t fantastic, but it’s just enough to keep things on track while looking into the lives of background ponies, and having a few of the more popular fan theories become canon did manage to bring a smile to my face for whatever reason.

Not to mention that the voice cast was excellent as usual, especially the new characters with Time Turner surprisingly voiced by Peter New, Derpy once more by Tabitha despite what happened the last time, Ashleigh Ball as Lyra and Andrea Libman as Bon Bon. Which means that, despite being bit players in their own show, Twilight’s single line at the ends means that all the main VA got a moment to shine.

It is not without its fault though. There are the weird scenes like the Gummy and Bon Bon one that sours the mood a little and leaves me confused, and they do go a bit too far in trying to satisfy as many fan theories as possible that once or twice it felt they were throwing in whatever came to mind and saying “This is popular, right? You like this, right?”

With that said, this is still a strong episode. The last few scenes especially were filled with so many "Aww..." moments that I'd be amazed if even the coldest of hearts didn't melt. It’s not an amazing episode by any stretch, but as a milestone celebrating what is now Hasbro’s longest running and still ongoing series ever, it more than delivered. Were I to give it a score, I would rate it a good 7/10, or a B.