Blog / Slice of Life

Four Cakes and a Pie. ^note Clockwise from the upper-left corner: Mr. Carrot Cake, Pinkie Pie, Mrs. Cup Cake, Pound Cake, and Pumpkin Cake.

Slice of Life is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Ask a Pony blog and webcomic. It is written and drawn by noted Pony fan artist Egophiliac.

As the title suggests, this is a slice of life comic focusing on the lives of the Cake family — Mr. and Mrs. Cake, their twins Pound and Pumpkin, and Pinkie Pie. The comic is set several years in the future of the series, when the Cake twins have grown up to about the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders are in the current series. Trials and tribulations include collecting candy on Nightmare Night, the fears of flight camp, sibling rivalry, and dealing with the wackiness of the denizens of Ponyville (and Pinkie Pie).

As of late 2014, the blog is on indefinite hiatus; Egophiliac has put it to rest for the foreseeable future. The comics are currently available here.

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Tropes:

• Aerith and Bob: Pony surnames are apparently like this.
  "Oh, Cake is just one of those common names. Right up there with Dream, Heart, Glimmer, Radiator, Wish..."
• Affectionate Nickname: Cup Cake and Carrot Cake have an endless variety of these for one another; the unspoken rule is that they won't repeat the same nickname in the same comic. Lampshaded in one exchange:
  Mrs. Cake: "Well, let's get this over with, ginger-beer."
  Mr. Cake: "We should probably knock, sugarpie."
  Mrs. Cake: "Oh, one of us should, toffeebean."
  Mr. Cake: "Sometime soon, fizzypop."
  Mrs. Cake: "Any time, gummi bear."
  Mr. Cake: "When you're ready, sugarpie."
  Mrs. Cake: "You used that one already."
• Ahem: Twilight Sparkle does one of these when she's trying to get the Cakes' attention.
• Big Eater: Pinkie Pie, naturally.
  Pinkie: "Betcha I can eat three cakes at once!"
  Pumpkin: "You're on!"
• Black Bead Eyes: Everyone, though the beads tend to be colored differently for each character.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: While trying to find a magic tutor for Pumpkin Cake, Pinkie asks around for ideas for a Nightmare Night costume. She ends up combining all the ideas she gets into one.
  Pinkie Pie: I'm the ghost of a fairy princess pumpkin! Who was also a witch.
• Call-Back: Several.
  • When Pinkie Pie tries to cheer up Pumpkin (who's been grounded), Pinkie use the same dump-a-bag-of-flour-on-myself gag that she used in the episode "Baby Cakes".
  • On Nightmare Night, Twilight Sparkle once again dresses as a historical figure that no one recognizes.
  • One of the trick-or-treating foals is dressed as Mare Do Well.
  • Spike once again dresses up as a dragon.
• Comically Missing the Point: After Twilight explains that you're supposed to dress as something you're not on Nightmare Night, Spike dresses as a red dragon.
• Cool Shades: Bon Bond.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Subverted for Diamond Tiara here. She passionately tells her father that she and Snails are in love and that nothing Filthy Rich says can stop them, either missing or ignoring the fact that he is fully supportive of the relationship and just wants his daughter to be home in time for dinner.
• Endangered Soufflé: Occurs in this installment, which shows off Pumpkin's depression and Pound's poor sense of timing.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Here, Pumpkin for Discord, in which he responds:
  Why does everypony say that?
• Faint in Shock : Mr. Cake has a tendency to do this, as part of a Running Gag.
  Mrs. Cake: "You'll get used to it."
• Fangirl: Scootaloo still thinks Rainbow Dash is "the most awesome pony ever!" But she's gotten a little wiser to her hero's hooves of clay.
• Fantastic Aesop: From the twins encounter with Discord:
  Pumpkin: "I learned not to accept favors from semi-omnipotent beings of pure chaos."
• Funny Background Event: Most of the time in strips with background ponies, Rarity's assistant being a recurring◊ example◊.
• Happily Married: Mr. and Mrs. Cake.
• Halloween Episode: The Nightmare Night story arc.
• The Hilarity of Hats: Pinkie's "Serious Hat", a black top hat she wears to show when she's being serious.
• Honor Before Reason: In the Nightmare Night arc, Pinkie Pie warns Pound and Pumpkin not to go in the haunted house because it's too scary for ponies their age. Pound tells Pumpkin that he doesn't want to risk punishment by disobeying Pinkie... until Pumpkin "double-triple-quadruple-diamond-dog dare[s]" him into going with her.
• I Got Bigger: Snails, who went from a lanky foal in the cartoon to a muscular motorcycle-riding jock.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The Bons.
• Inherently Funny Words: "When I started this tumblr, one of my goals was to have a panel where Mr. Cake screams 'croquembouche' for no reason. Now, I’ve finally achieved my dream. Feels good."
• It's All About Me: Pumpkin can't just be happy for Pound to start flight camp, and takes up the next few strips searching for someone to teach her magic before Nightmare Night. It's heavily implied that her desire to learn magic early is due to Pound going to flight camp.
• Jerkass: Bonnie.
  Carrot Cake: "You know, I think that was the most polite she's ever been!"
• Jumped at the Call: Invoked for a laugh in this strip, where Pinkie Pie flies into battle (on balloons!) to stop a rampaging monster from stomping Canterlot. Said scene is the current trope image.
  Pinkie Pie: "No time today, Mrs. Cake! The world is in danger!"
• Large Ham: Princess Luna
• Layman's Terms: When Twilight Sparkle offers to teach some basic magic to Pumpkin Cake.
  Twilight: I should mention I still get my stipend from the Princess, so this is purely a voluntary undertaking for the betterment of the community.
  (beat)
  It's free!
• Lethal Chef: With the comic set in a bakery, everypony falls prey to this trope sooner or later.
• Metaphorically True: Pumpkin Cake is fond of using these.
  Carrot Cake: Did you send this to the Princess?
  (Displays letter offering free cupcakes for life in exchange for magic lessons.)
  Pumpkin Cake: Technically, Spike sent it....
• Moment of Awesome: Invoked when Rainbow Dash describes her time at Flight Camp.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Pinkie's first time trying a cupcake leads to a reaction panel with rainbows, roses, and Tears of Joy.
  • When the other kids at flight camp find out that Pound Cake lives on the ground, they're very impressed.
  Lofty: "Is it true there are bears down there?"
• Mythology Gag:
  • Many background ponies are recycled from G1 pony designs, observed here◊, and as said here:
    I'm not anywhere near creative enough to make proper Original Characters, so they're all (with two exceptions) based directly off of G1 ponies. From top down, left to right:
    - Salty, Minty
    - Lofty, Softshoe, Mimic (she's a pegasus now because reasons), Heart Throb
    - Clipper, Powder, Gusty, Fizzy, Spring Song
    The kids are supposed to be slightly younger than the CMC in canon, so Gusty is somewhat precocious (and very smug) in having her cutie mark already.
  • Also, the G3 pony Minty is Rarity's new assistant.
• Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: The syllabus for Twilight Sparkle's magic class is at least twenty pages long.
• Never My Fault: A more lighthearted example when Fluttershy is telling Pound how horrible flight camp is. Anyone that's seen the episode "Hurricane Fluttershy" knows that flight camp instructors don't normally push ponies off clouds, Fluttershy was only pushed because she wouldn't jump.
• Nightmare Fuel: In-universe; Fluttershy's description of her time at flight camp does this to Pound Cake.
• Odd Name Out: "Cake is just one of those common surnames. Right up there with Dream, Heart, Glimmer, Radiator, Wish..."
• Oh, No... Not Again!: When Mr. Cake freaks out about the prospect of Pound having to get flying lessons, Pumpkin responds "Mom! Dad's broken again!"
• One of the Kids: Pinkie Pie
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Pumpkin Cake passes up the chance to make mischief, her parents and Pinkie can tell she's really upset.
• Retcon: Twilight Sparkle's appearance has been updated since the season 3 finale.
• Same-Sex Triplets: The Bons, who are actually heptuplets: Bonnie, Bombe, Bonelle, Bon Suite, Bon Bond, Bonita, and Bon-Bon.
• Secretly Wealthy: As seen, the Backstory of how Pinkie met the Cakes reveals that her family owns the biggest molassess company in Equestria, and she gets a REALLY big allowance as a result.
• Serious Business: Pinkie puts on her "serious hat", a black tophat, to indicate when something is this for her.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The very first strip, which involves a cake order.
  "Out of ten cakes, how many make it finally to the customer?"
• Shout-Out:
  • The Beverly Hillbillies: in the Pie family backstory.
  • During the Nightmare Night arc, Pumpkin tries to tell a ghost story referencing the mock-creepypastas "The Day of All The Blood" and "...And Then A Skeleton Popped Out".
  • Mrs. Cake used to do a lot of theater. She was in Spamterlot, Manespray, Once Upon A Haystack and of course her first big role, Friendship Express. Pound finds her Friendship costume and rollerskates in the attic.
  • When Pumpkin is trying to find a magic teacher other than Twilight Sparkle, Snails is busy serenading Diamond Tiara with a boombox.
  • The "Mystery At Sugar Cube Corner" arc is one big Scooby-Doo pastiche.
  • One of Bon Bon's almost identical sisters is:
  "Bond. Bon Bond."
  • Pinkie sings a wordy song explaining why she moved to Ponyville, then caps it off with "... I know, it needs a chorus", referencing a similar gag in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension.
• Sibling Rivalry: Multiple:
  • Pound and Pumpkin get into this periodically on a good-natured basis.
  Pumpkin: "Is Pound in trouble?"
  Mrs. Cake: "No, he's not in trouble."
  Pumpkin: "Can he be?"
  • Less so in the Flight Camp arc, where Pumpkin is so upset that Pound can learn to fly before she can use magic that they get into an outright fight.
  • Mr. Cake is implied to have one with his brother Gateau, who is more handsome and muscular than he is.
  • Discord mentions it by name, before he switches their magics.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Lampshaded in two instances when Mr. and Mrs. Cake exchange pet names with each other. In one, Mr. Cake reacts upon being called "Custardcakes".
• Southern-Fried Genius: Pinkie Pie's parents become this after the family discovers molasses on the farm — Pinkie's dad becomes the CEO of Equestria's largest molasses company, while Pinkie's mom becomes their head attorney and negotiator.
• Tears of Joy: Pinkie's reaction the first time she eats a real cupcake.
• Time Skip: The strip occurs several years after My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
• Trickster Twins: The Cake twins have shades of this, particularly Pumpkin.
• Undead Author: When Clipper tells a scary story in which his dad gets eaten by a sea monster, Pumpkin points out "Your dad didn't get eaten alive. He's right over there."
  Clipper's dad: Ahoy, kids!
• Unsound Effect:
  • When Twilight teleports into the library to begin her magic lessons, the sound effect is "Magic! Sparkles!" The post featuring this comic even features the tag "'magic' and 'sparkles' are totally legitimate sound effects la la can't hear you"
  • After their antics on Nightmare Night get them grounded, Pumpkin and Pound reconcile with an "AWKWARD SIBLING HUG".
• You Are Grounded!: Pumpkin and Pound get this after they sneak into a haunted house on Nightmare Night.

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