The Cutie Map - Part 1

The Cutie Map - Part 1,    also formatted The Cutie Map, Part 1 or The Cutie Map - Part 1 and also called Cutie Markless   Pt 1, is the first  episode of the fifth season My Little Pony Friendship is Magic  and the ninety-second episode overall. It is It is the first part of a two-part season premiere. Along with Part 2 of the premiere, these two will be the first episodes to premiere on the Discovery Family Channel.

In this episode, Princess Twilight and her friends unlock a magical map in her new castle, which leads them to a rather mysterious village where the inhabitants have given up their cutie marks.

Production and development
The animatic for this episode was first shown at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 25, 2014 and was later released as part of the "2014 San Diego Comic-Con My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Panel" bonus feature on the Season Four Disc 4 DVD. Some scenes from this episode were teased in Rainbow Dash's and Rarity's recap videos for the season 5 teaser trailers.

In early February 2015, Jim Miller guessed in a Twitter reply that whether Cutie Mark Magic is supposed to be season five's theme will become apparent when the season starts. A trailer for the season premiere, with the still vague premiere date of "Spring 2015", was released online by Yahoo TV Videos on February 11, 2015 and by Hasbro on February 12, 2015. A teaser trailer for the season premiere was released online by Hasbro on February 14, 2015.

The title "Cutie Markless, Part 1" was formerly listed in a pre-order listing for Shout! Factory's Cutie Mark Quests DVD including this episode. Said listing and March 3-5, 2015 Twitter replies by Jim Miller have together indicated at least the formattings "Cutie Markless: Part 1" and "Cutie Markless (1)" as wrong.

The Appaloosan Mountain range south of Equestria, first shown in the IDW comics' story The Return of Queen Chrysalis Part II, is shown for the first time in the television series: it, somewhat different than before, is included in the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom castle's map.

Both Meghan McCarthy and Jayson Thiessen's original charaters make cameos in this episode.

From AT&T
"The Mane 6 receives an urgent request to help bring a conclusion to a friendship problem, so they travel to the location from which the request came and they find a utopian village where everyone has surrendered their Cutie Marks."

From Discovery Family Channel website and press release and Action Figure Insider
"The Mane 6 are summoned to solve a friendship problem only to find a utopian village where everyone has given up their Cutie Marks."

From Discovery Family PR Newswire news release
"[T]he Mane 6: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack meet Starlight Glimmer when they are summoned to solve a friendship problem only to find a utopian village in which everyone has given up their Cutie Marks. At first look, the ponies in this village appear happy, but it soon becomes clear that Starlight Glimmer has a vastly different and rather sinister view on friendship and the individual talents that make Equestria's ponies so special. The season is full of Cutie Mark Magic!"

From NTVB Media
"The Mane 6, [sic] are summoned buy [sic] a magical map to a seemingly utopian village where everyone has given up their Cutie Marks."

From Shout! Factory
The Mane Six "...visit a village where… everypony has given up their Cutie Marks?!"

From TV Guide and Comcast
"In Part 1 of the two-part fifth-season opener, the Mane 6 discover a Utopian village where the inhabitants no longer possess their Cutie Marks."

From TV Guide
"[T]he friends set out on a road trip when they're summoned to solve a problem. They come upon a very peculiar town. How peculiar? Everypony has the same boring 'equal sign' cutie mark... and they're smiling entirely too much!"

From Yahoo! TV
"As Princess Twilight settles into her new castle, she soon discovers that the throne room comes with a magical map of Equestria that will lead her and the rest of her friends on adventures to unknown parts of the land."

From Zap2It and LocateTV
"The Mane 6 arrive in a village to solve a friendship problem and find out that everyone in the village has given up their Cutie Marks."

Quotes

 * Twilight Sparkle: Let's go through this one more time.
 * Rainbow Dash: [sighs] We've been over it like a million times, Twilight! We found all six keys, defeated Tirek, and got this sweet castle! End of story!


 * Fluttershy: I agree with Twilight. And Rarity. And Applejack. And Rainbow Dash. And Pinkie Pie...and probably Spike too.


 * Spike: [groans] Is that new? I like it.


 * Fluttershy: Um, maybe I'll just stay here with Spike.
 * Spike: Awesome! Me and Big Mac have a huge weekend ahead of us talkin' hoofball, and... And trading hoofball cards, and arguing about hoofball stats...
 * Fluttershy: O-o-on second thought, m-m-maybe I'd better go with them. In case they need me.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Looks like it's time for a road trip.


 * Twilight Sparkle: That's it! That's the place on the map!
 * Rarity: Right, let's get down there and find the spa.


 * Pinkie Pie: I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. I know smiles. And those smiles? They're just not right.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Forget the smiles. Look at the cutie marks.
 * Rainbow Dash: Okay, that's weird.


 * Rainbow Dash: I bet there's some sort of horrific monster behind it.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Why?
 * Rainbow Dash: 'Cause fighting a horrific monster would be super-awesome!


 * Applejack: Say what?


 * Twilight Sparkle: It's a trap!!!


 * Male Creepy Pony 3: Starlight, we have some new visitors.
 * Rainbow Dash: [whispering] Be ready to fight. We don't know what's gonna come through that door.
 * Starlight Glimmer: Welcome! I'm so pleased to have you here.


 * Starlight Glimmer: When the rest of Equestria sees that a princess gave up her cutie mark to join us, they'll finally understand what we're trying to accomplish.