The Cutie Pox

The Cutie Pox is the sixth episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and the thirty-second episode overall.

The Bowling Alley
The episode opens with the Cutie Mark Crusaders exclaiming that they will be obtaining their cutie marks today at the bowling alley. They have a go at thinking of names for their trio after they obtain their cutie marks, since "Cutie Mark Crusaders" would be obsolete, and they settle on "The Bowling Dolls".

Once inside the bowling alley, Sweetie Belle bowls first, but her ball rolls into the gutter. Then Scootaloo's turn is up, and she bucks her ball, ricocheting it around the alley, knocking other player's balls around, after which the ball ends up in the gutter at the other end of the bowling alley. Apple Bloom bowls her ball accurately, but after thinking that she gets a strike, it turns out that another player did, and her ball in fact did not have enough speed to knock over even one pin.

Going to Zecora's
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exclaim the fun they had bowling, whereas Apple Bloom walks sadly alongside them, not saying anything. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle try to cheer her up with a cupcake from Sugarcube Corner, a party with Pinkie Pie, or a new hat from Rarity. Apple Bloom walks away from her friends, but trips over on a tree root, and falls down, chipping her tooth. Zecora finds her, and brings her to her hut to give her a potion to fix her tooth. Apple Bloom expresses her feelings about her cutie mark to Zecora, who tells her that she simply needs to wait for the right time.

After Apple Bloom takes the potion, her tooth mends itself. She then takes a look around Zecora's ingredients, looking for a possible brew to force her to get a cutie mark. When Zecora begins to make a potion to help a rooster fix his morning call, she shows her a flower which will induce him to attempt to fix his morning call. Zecora goes out to find amethysts for her potion, and Apple Bloom sets her sights on the flower in the bowl.

The Schoolyard
In the schoolyard, Apple Bloom finally obtains her cutie mark, a silver hoop. She then proceeds to show off her skill with hula hooping and various other tricks with a silver hoop, much to the dislike of Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. Cheerilee enters the schoolyard, and after seeing Apple Bloom showing her prowess with the hoop, she asks her to give the class a demonstration and help them play with hoops.

While performing a very advanced trick with her silver hoop, she suddenly sprouts another cutie mark just under the first one - an image of plates rotating on top of poles. Diamond Tiara suggests Apple Bloom's cutie marks are fake, but Apple Bloom denies it entirely. At that time, Snips and Snails throw her two plates and two poles. Apple Bloom balances the poles on her nose and manages to keep the plates spinning, all the while twirling a hoop around her tail. The class is astounded and cheers for her as they make their way down the streets of Ponyville.

The Apple Family's House
After performing a few tricks and astounding the whole of Ponyville, Applejack takes Apple Bloom home. When they get there, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh are there to congratulate her. Applejack tells her how proud they all are of her getting not one but two cutie marks. Apple Bloom heads up to bed to rest up after such a big day.

Late at night, Applejack is shown to be rolling around in bed trying to keep herself from hearing something that sounds like hooves tapping. She gets out of bed eventually to investigate, realizing the sound is coming from Apple Bloom's room. Upon opening the door, she sees Apple Bloom tapping frantically and she notices yet another cutie mark on her sister, this time of a tapping shoe. Apple Bloom looks to her and asks for help while Applejack looks horrified.

In the library
The next morning, Applejack take Apple Bloom to Twilight Sparkle's house to search for a cure. Luckily, Twilight had just read something about what was happening to her and reveals Apple Bloom has Cutie Pox - a strange and mysterious disease that swept over ponies during the Paleopony era. The afflicted ponies would sprout multiple cutie marks and had to act on each one of them, even against their will. Unfortunately no cure was found, as the disease had disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared before. Around this time, Apple Bloom sports yet another cutie mark and can now speak in French. They decide it would be best to seek out Zecora for help. The Cutie Pox progress even faster as each mark possess uncontrollable talents as each marks appeared.

In Town
Spike points out the nature of the plague to the townsponies which causes them all to begin panicking, running into their houses and locking their doors. When Zecora returns, she is surprised to see that the town is in full evacuation, thinking she had managed to overcome the town's fear of her. Applejack reveals the nature of Apple Bloom's curse to her, Zecora mentions that around the time Apple Bloom was alone in her hut, some of her ingredients went missing. Fortunately, Zecora has the cure for the Cutie Pox - the seeds of truth, which bloom when the truth is told. The resulting flower can be eaten to end the pox. Pinkie Pie attempts to confess to eating corncakes - first three, then six, before admitting she can't handle it. Finally, Apple Bloom, speaking normally again, admits to her misdeed. She admits her cutie marks are all fake and she stole the ingredients - most importantly the Heart's Desire, from Zecora in her absence. Just as promised, the seeds of truth bloom into a flower which is quickly eaten by Apple Bloom, ending the pox.

She apologizes to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo for getting too carried away with her cutie mark quest, and to Zecora for taking her ingredients without permission and recieves forgiveness back from all of them.

Letter to Celestia
Apple Bloom then writes a letter to Princess Celestia about learning a new lesson - there are no shortcuts to getting a cutie mark, and that good things come to those who are patient and wait for it.

Immediately after Spike sends the letter, however, the Cutie Mark Crusaders decide they've waited long enough and escape into the distance, eager to try and get their cutie marks.

The Cutie Pox Symptoms
The following list of Cutie marks and talents that appear on the episode, by time of first appearance. Times are approximate.
 * Silver hoop -- Hula hooping and hoop related tricks
 * Sticks and plates -- Performing plate spinning tricks.
 * Clog shoe -- Tap Dancing
 * Fleur-de-lys -- Ability to speak French
 * Mallet and chisel -- Sculpting
 * Cap and chimney cleaner -- Chimney sweeping
 * Accordion -- Playing the accordion
 * Whip and lion -- Lion taming
 * Chess pieces (a king and two pawns) -- Playing chess
 * Crossed swords -- Fencing
 * ??? -- Tightrope walking
 * Red Glider -- Hang-gliding
 * ??? -- Math
 * 1000pt dumbbell -- Weightlifting
 * A pair of handbrushes -- Window-washing
 * Tornado -- Whirling around

Quotes

 * Sweetie Belle: I know just what you need to put the bloom back on your apple.


 * Applejack: Yee haw, little sis! Congratulations on gettin' not just one, but two cutie marks! We're mighty proud of you, right Big Macintosh?
 * Big Macintosh: Eeyup.
 * Applejack: I've never seen anythin' like it, have you Big Mac?
 * Big Macintosh: Nnnope.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Cutie pox. This puzzling pony plague afflicted a pony population back in the paleopony period!
 * Spike: Say that ten times fast!


 * Apple Bloom: Oh no! Sacrebleu ! Autre marque de cutie! [gasps] Qu'est-ce que c'est ?! Je parle français ?!
 * Applejack: My sister's speaking in fancy!


 * Apple Bloom: Yup! All good things come to those who wait. [pause] Well! I've waited long enough.
 * Scootaloo: Actually, that was way too long.

Trivia

 * Cutie Pox resembles smallpox, as it is a disease which causes irregular marks to appear on the victim's body and was rumored to have began long ago with no know reason and no known cure at one time. Unlike the Cutie Pox, small pox did not disappear on its own, rather it was eradicated after two centuries of vaccination programs on all living humans, and WHO confirmed the eradication during the 1970s.
 * At the bowling alley, some of the background ponies look similar to characters from the film The Big Lebowski, which features the theme of bowling.
 * "Was your zebra sense tinglin'?" is a reference to Spiderman's catch phrase "My spider sense is tingling".
 * A parody of the painting American Gothic, with ponies for people, can be seen in the Apple family's house.
 * This episode marks the first time Big Macintosh has been called "Big Mac" on the show.
 * This is the first episode to show the interior of Sweet Apple Acres.
 * One of the cutie marks Apple Bloom receives is a red shoe which causes her to dance uncontrollably, like the main character in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Red Shoes.
 * The statue Apple Bloom constructed was The Birth of Venus, a masterpiece made during the Renaissance era.
 * The bowling balls seen in this episode do not have finger holes in them, a reference to the fact ponies lack fingers.
 * One of the illnesses that Twilight mentions, "the trots," is a real life slang word for diarrhea.

Gallery

 * The Cutie Pox image gallery