Cutie marks

The My Little Pony franchise is famous for the symbolic cutie marks, unique tattoo-like features located on the ponies' flank or haunch. In Friendship is Magic, these marks are obtained by ponies when they discover a unique characteristic which sets themselves apart from others. Once this happens, the mark appears on the pony's haunches. Ponies are the only animals to have cutie marks, though Zecora's spiral suggests that zebras have them, too.

Some ponies have yet to gain their mark, like Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. They are derisively called "blank flanks" in Call of the Cutie by other young ponies (explicitly Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara), while more mature ponies like Twilight consider ponies without a cutie mark to be full of potential. Twilight Sparkle demonstrates and explains to Apple Bloom that magic can't make a cutie mark appear, and that the mark will appear in due course. Cutie marks come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, and their meanings are not always literal. For example, Cheerilee's cutie mark is three smiling flowers, which represent her wish for her students to "bloom" and be happy - not her love of flowers.

The episode Call of the Cutie features a party called a "cuteceñera" for filles who had recently gotten their cutie marks. The name is a play on 'quinceañera'- a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday.

Occasionally, an adult pony can be spotted without a cutie mark, which has been explained by Lauren Faust as oversights due to time constraits. Faust has also referred to cutie marks as "butt symbols" in her deviantArt comments section.

Designs
Cutie marks are often a set of three objects or animals, and usually feature between one and three colors. For example, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack all have cutie marks with three objects, and all of their designs have only two colors. One of the few ponies with a cutie mark with more than three colors is Rainbow Dash, whose rainbow lightning bolt has four. The other ponies with four- or five-colored cutie marks feature a more detailed image, so many of the colors are only different to allow for shading.

Although cutie marks are supposed to be unique, background ponies' marks are often chosen from a set of 'stock' cutie marks. Earth ponies have food-realted marks or horseshoes, and pegasus ponies have weather-related ones. Unicorn ponies have a more varied range of designs, but many have either gemstones or stars and moons. Music notes are another common mark, and are present on all three types of background ponies.

Gallery

 * For a gallery of cutie marks based on the ones seen on the show, see the fan labor page.

Trivia

 * The term "cutie mark" is a play on "beauty mark," a term for a prominent facial mole. Such moles have sometimes been considered an attractive feature.
 * Lauren Faust has confirmed that the cutie marks (or as she called them "butt symbols") of background ponies are chosen at random.
 * Since most ponies are conceived as toys before they become characters, they sometimes have the misfortune of being named after their cutie mark, which conflicts with the fictional explanation for cutie marks.if it's