The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1

The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1, also formatted as The Cutie Re-Mark - Pt. 1 and The Cutie Re-Mark Part I, is the twenty-fifth episode of season five of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the one hundred and sixteenth overall. It is the first part of a two-part season finale.

In this episode, Starlight Glimmer returns for revenge against the Mane Six and casts a spell that changes the course of Equestria's history.

Production
An animatic from this episode was shown at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. The clip reveals the return of Starlight Glimmer.

Both Zap2It and FiOS erroneously list this episode as episode 21 and lists it as having aired on October 19. The listings have since been corrected to include a November 28 airdate, but still show October 19 as the first airdate.

Cutie Mark Magic lecture
The episode begins with Twilight Sparkle at the School for Gifted Unicorns practicing for an upcoming lecture about cutie marks. During her lecture the next day, Twilight talks about the sonic rainboom that led to her and her friends getting their marks.

In the middle of her lecture, Twilight briefly sees Starlight Glimmer in the audience, but she disappears just moments later, making Twilight nervous.

Starlight's time scheme
On the way back to the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom castle, Twilight worriedly wonders what Starlight could be up to, and Spike considers that she might be returning for revenge after her previous plot had been foiled.

In the castle throne room, Twilight and Spike find Starlight sitting in one of the thrones. Using a magic scroll, Starlight casts a spell that opens a portal over the Cutie Map, and she vanishes through it, leaving the scroll behind. When Spike touches the scroll, the spell on it activates again, and Twilight and Spike are dragged through the portal as well.

Twilight and Spike land in Cloudsdale Flight Camp. When they see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as fillies, they realize they have traveled back in time to the day Rainbow Dash performed her first sonic rainboom. During Rainbow's race against Hoops and Dumb-Bell, Starlight Glimmer interferes and stops Rainbow from doing the rainboom. Starlight's intervention has a ripple effect that prevents Twilight's friends from realizing their true talents.

As Twilight confronts Starlight about what she has done, the time portal opens again and pulls her and Spike inside, returning them to the future.

The butterfly effect
As a result of Starlight's actions in the past, history has been altered: Twilight's castle is gone, leaving only the Cutie Map; much of Ponyville has been abandoned; Sweet Apple Acres is now an industrial apple-processing plant; and the Crystal Empire is encroaching upon the rest of Equestria. They find Applejack, and she explains that when the Crystal Empire returned, King Sombra waged all-out war against Equestria, and the rest of the Mane Six now serve as members of Princess Celestia's army.

Intent on setting things right, Twilight uses the scroll to travel into the past again. However, Starlight is there waiting for her, and she traps Twilight and Spike in a crystal block that plummets out of the clouds. After she frees herself from the crystal, Twilight goes to confront Starlight and finds her talking with filly Fluttershy and her bullies, convincing them to be friends.

The ever-changing future
With Fluttershy no longer being bullied, Twilight approaches Rainbow Dash and tries to convince her to do the sonic rainboom, but Rainbow flies away, unnerved by Twilight's behavior and Alicorn status. As Starlight gloats, Twilight and Spike are suddenly pulled back into the future again.

When Twilight and Spike return to the future, the timeline has changed yet again, with Ponyville being covered in dense trees. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie confront them at spear-point, accusing them of being changelings.

"All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods... must be destroyed!"

- Fluttershy

Quotes

 * Spike: [referring to Starlight Glimmer] I heard she wasn't very happy the last time you saw her.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Forcing everypony in her village to have the same cutie mark wasn't right. We had to do something!
 * Spike: And now she's coming back for revenge. Uh, or she was just really interested in your speech!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Maybe I was just more stressed about that speech than I thought.
 * Spike: Yeah. That sounds better than Starlight Glimmer coming back with an evil plot for revenge.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Well, when you say it like that, it does sound kinda silly.
 * Spike: Or it's totally true!
 * Starlight Glimmer: Welcome home, Twilight!