History YMMV / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E16TwentyEightPranksLater

** Rainbow Dash pranking Rarity by replacing her sewing machine with a duplicate made of cake wound up predicting the 2020 "[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tastys-these-are-all-cakes-video Everything is a Cake]]" craze, spawned by a [[https://twitter.com/tasty/status/1280966608933003264 viral tweet]] featuring similar cake duplicates of everyday objects, which [[MemeticMutation quickly became a meme]] as the cakes fell into the UnintentionalUncannyValley once cut into. The craze eventually spawned the reality competition series ''Is It Cake?'', which released on Creator/{{Netflix}} the same year as the G5 series of ''My Little Pony''.

%%* CrossesTheLineTwice: the brick sandwich

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The [[https://derpicdn.net/img/2016/8/13/1224146/large.png worm's-eye shot]] of a zombified Pinkie Pie emerging from the cupboard features what may be one of the most sophisticated lighting effects the show has used, which lends greatly to the legitimate creepiness of the scene.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Honestly, you really cannot side with either party in this episode. On one hand, Rainbow was being inconsiderate with the ponies she pranked. On the opposite side, while her victims were entitled to be upset with Rainbow, scaring her to death by making her believe she zombified them was too extreme, especially since some of the pranks she pulled on them had no lasting effects.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Many were worried this would be a retread of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E8TheMysteriousMareDoWell The Mysterious Mare Do Well]]", the mixed message of which split fans down the middle on its questionable Aesop. This time, the writers made sure to emphasize why Dash's friends (and the town for that matter) were teaching her a lesson. They even made a genuine attempt at talking to her about the problem, and when she wouldn't listen, requested Pinkie (the only one on Dash's side) to get her to stop. Pinkie only organized the zombie prank when Dash refused to relent, compared to the former episode where everyone skips the formalities and use the elaborate comeuppance as the default. Not to mention the episode does a pretty chilling, but entertaining zombie parody.

** The problem ultimately lies with the handling of Rainbow Dash's character. While those who liked the episode liked that it rectified the handling of the supporting cast in MMDW (namely by avoiding the DisproportionateRetribution aspect through them only resorting to the elaborate comeuppance ''after'' repeated pleading with Dash fails), its detractors didn't like that it came at the cost of Dash holding the JerkassBall even more persistently than said episode, especially since her jerkish behavior had been toned down since Season 2. As a result, many feel this episode would have worked much better as a Season 1/2 episode instead, or is merely a demonstration of what MMDW ''should'' have been too little too late.

* TaintedByThePreview: After this episode's synopsis was revealed, there were complaints that the idea of "ponies getting back at Rainbow Dash" is a rehash of "The Mysterious Mare Do Well". What really added fuel to the fire is that that plot point alone made "Mare Do Well" one of the most [[BrokenBase divisive]] episodes of the show. It was mitigated quite a bit since the episode [[AuthorsSavingThrow generally avoided many of of the pitfalls that made the the previous episode so unpopular]], [[BrokenBase though that hasn't stopped people from feeling otherwise]].

** Rainbow Dash pranking Rarity by replacing her sewing machine with a duplicate made of cake wound up predicting the 2020 "[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tastys-these-are-all-cakes-video Everything is a Cake]]" craze, spawned by a [[https://twitter.com/tasty/status/1280966608933003264 viral tweet]] featuring similar cake duplicates of everyday objects, which [[MemeticMutation quickly became a meme]] as the cakes fell into the UncannyValley once cut into. The craze eventually spawned the reality competition series ''Is It Cake?'', which released on Creator/{{Netflix}} the same year as the G5 series of ''My Little Pony''.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Many were worried this would be a retread of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E8TheMysteriousMareDoWell The Mysterious Mare Do Well]]", the mixed message of which split fans down the middle on its questionable Aesop. This time, the writers made sure to emphasize why Dash's friends (and the town for that matter) were teaching her a lesson. They even made a genuine attempt to ''try'' talking to her about the problem and when she didn't listen, asked Pinkie to kindly tell Dash to quit it. They only went through with their zombie prank when Dash refused to relent, compared to the former episode where they skip the formalities and use the elaborate comeuppance as the default. Not to mention the episode does a pretty chilling, but entertaining zombie parody.

** Is this episode a vast improvement over "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" that addresses and fixes/avoids the problems of the former? Or is it just as bad as that episode, if not ''worse''? It doesn't help that just like that episode and several other less popular ones, it's the writer's first script for the show (though at least the story concept is from Meghan [=McCarthy=]).

** Rainbow Dash pranking Rarity by replacing her sewing machine with a duplicate made of cake wound up predicting the 2020 “[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tastys-these-are-all-cakes-video Everything is a Cake]]” craze, spawned by a [[https://twitter.com/tasty/status/1280966608933003264 viral tweet]] featuring similar cake duplicates of everyday objects, which [[MemeticMutation quickly became a meme]] as the cakes fell into the UncannyValley once cut into. The craze eventually spawned the reality competition series ''Is It Cake?'', which released on Creator/{{Netflix}} the same year as the G5 series of ''My Little Pony''.

** There's been lots and ''lots'' of fanmade works about zombie ponies since ''Season 1'' with VideoGame/StoryOfTheBlanks being one of the oldest and most prominent examples. Now after 6 years, there's finally an episode that explores the surface of the concept.

** This episode was co-written by F. M. De Marco, who previously worked on ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' . Ordinarily, it'd be a writer from this series going on to write for LPS, not the other way around, which is funny in an ironic way.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Someone goes too far with their pranks, so all of their victims and then some piggy-back off of the prankster's latest prank to fake a ZombieApocalypse to prank the prankster as payback. Believe it or not, [[WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends Foster's did it first in their Halloween Special.]]

* EightDeadlyWords: Between Rainbow Dash's [[JerkassBall characterization]] and the rest of the ponies' DisproportionateRetribution, some people find this episode too mean-spirited and find it difficult to even sympathize with any of the cast.

** Rainbow Dash pranking Rarity by replacing her sewing machine with a duplicate made of cake wound up predicting the 2020 “[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tastys-these-are-all-cakes-video Everything is a Cake]]” craze, spawned by a [[https://twitter.com/tasty/status/1280966608933003264 viral tweet]] featuring similar cake duplicates of everyday objects, which [[MemeticMutation quickly became a meme]] as the cakes fell into the UncannyValley once cut into.

** Rainbow Dash pranking Rarity by replacing her sewing machine with a duplicate made of cake wound up predicting the 2020 “[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tastys-these-are-all-cakes-video Everything is a Cake]]” craze, spawned by a [[https://twitter.com/tasty/status/1280966608933003264 viral tweet]] featuring similar cake duplicates of everyday objects, which [[MemeticMutation quickly became a meme]] as they fell into the UncannyValley once cut into.

** The very concept of zombie ponies, prank or not, is considered to be a really cool idea by fans. Its too bad it was wasted on a recycled plot of a very unpopular episode.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Just because you're just playing what ''you'' consider a harmless joke, that doesn't mean you're not going to genuinely upset the victim.