Hearts and Hooves Day

Hearts and Hooves Day  is the seventeenth episode of the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the forty-third episode overall. The Cutie Mark Crusaders create a strong love potion, or love poison, as they later find out, in hopes of making Miss Cheerilee and Big Macintosh each other's special somepony, but when they discover the serious side effects of the concoction, they quickly regret their actions.

Release
The episode was released on iTunes two days prior to its scheduled television debut with the erroneous air-date of "Feb 11, 2011", and was removed within a few hours.

Online Puzzle Game
A Flash game called "Hearts and Hooves Day Puzzles" was made available on Hubworld.com ten days before the episode's scheduled airing. The puzzles include several images of Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, set at a picnic, at the treehouse, and at other locations. A few of the images feature two small glasses filled with a hot-pink drink, and one of the images features Cheerilee in a nuptial veil.

Finding a special somepony
The episode opens with the Cutie Mark Crusaders creating a Hearts and Hooves Heart for Cheerilee, making an enormous one that they take to school. When they show it to Cheerilee, she tells them she doesn't have a special somepony, so the Crusaders immediately take action to find her one. They search for the best possible stallion for their teacher, though all of them are either too strange or already have a special somepony. When they spot Big Macintosh piling haystacks, they eagerly ask if he has a special somepony. When he answers no, they rejoice and later in the Sweet Apple Acres barn, decide if he and Cheerilee are right for each other. Sweetie Belle suggests that as Big Mac is so shy, Cheerilee must ask him to be her special somepony. The Crusaders set up a picnic, and lure Cheerilee there by asking her to identify a tree near the gazebo. Big Macintosh arrives with a toolbox to fix the gazebo, but finds the three fillies have already done so. They immediately run off and hide in a bush, leaving Cheerilee and Big Macintosh to chat awkwardly under the Cutie Mark Crusaders' surveillance. At first, they see the two sparking up a conversation and Cheerilee appears to be leaning in for a kiss, but she merely points out that there was something stuck in Big Mac's teeth, much to Sweetie Belle's dismay.

The love potion
Dejected that they were unable to help Cheerilee and Macintosh get together, they bump into Twilight Sparkle, who is reading a book about Hearts and Hooves day. According to the book, the tradition was started because of a love potion. The Cutie Mark Crusaders ask to borrow the book, which Twilight allows. They immediately rush to their clubhouse to create the concoction.

Later that day, they bring Cheerilee and Big Mac together once more to test it, under the guise that the potion is punch, which they made. While they hide in the bushes, Cheerilee finally realizes the fillies' plan to bring them together and tells Big Mac to play along and try the "punch". After drinking it, the potion quickly takes effect, causing Cheerilee to ask the stallion to be her "very special somepony", to which Big Mac answers "yep". The girls are excited by their success, until they begin to hear Big Mac and Cheerilee call each other endearing pet names, such as "shmoopy-doopy sweedy-weedy pony pie" and "cutie-patootie lovie-dovie honey-bunny". Disgusted by this strange level of love, they believe that something may have gone wrong.

Realizing their mistake
Back in their clubhouse, Sweetie Belle finds out they may not have given them a love potion, but a love poison. The book with the recipe states a prince had given a princess the drink long ago. However, they were so lost in each other's eyes, they were unable to perform their duties, and their kingdom eventually fell because of it. Apple Bloom panics, realizing that they may have put Ponyville in the same predicament. After finding out the antidote, which is to prevent the ponies afflicted by the poison from looking into each other's eyes for an hour, they go to Sugarcube Corner, where Cheerilee and Big Mac are sharing a milkshake. Mrs. Cake mentions that two ponies so clearly in love will probably want to plan a wedding soon, which Sweetie Belle then suggests to Cheerilee and Big Mac. Sweetie Belle decides that if they can keep the two love-struck ponies away long enough to "prepare" for the wedding, the spell will wear off.

Breaking the spell
Sweetie Belle helps Cheerilee select a wedding dress at Carousel Boutique while barricading the dressing room with random items to keep her inside, including Rarity's fainting couch (last seen in Lesson Zero), and a kitchen sink (last seen in Suited For Success as a gag). Apple Bloom helps Big Mac select diamonds, as Scootaloo keeps track of how much time they still need to keep Big Mac and Cheerilee apart. While Apple Bloom is consulting Scootaloo on this, Big Mac quickly purchases a diamond for Cheerilee and hurries to Carousel Boutique. Apple Bloom asks Scootaloo to hurry and warn Sweetie Belle, while she attempts to slow down Big Mac. However, the stallion is too strong to be stopped. He is weighed down by cattle and anvils, and even tethered to a house, all of which fail to stop him. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo dig a large hole and place a mattress at the bottom. When Big Mac reaches Carousel Boutique, he falls into the pit, and Cheerilee rushes to his aid. The Cutie Mark Crusaders do their best to prevent their eyes from meeting, and the spell is broken by the time Cheerilee jumps in. Cheerilee, perplexed as to why she is at the bottom of a large pit with Big Mac, and also wearing a wedding veil, receives an explanation and apology from the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Cheerilee and Big Mac decide that a proper punishment would be for them to complete all of Big Mac's chores. When they finish, Big Mac and Cheerilee decide to have lunch at the gazebo, and call each other "sugar bear" and "pumpkin pie" (they wink at each other afterwards), which horrifies the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Ponies featured in the musical sequence
The musical sequence led by Sweetie Belle features some more common ponies and some unusual ponies, which are all listed in the table below.

Quotes

 * Scootaloo: I think we're gonna need a bigger envelope.


 * Cheerilee: It's lovely. And so... big!


 * Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle: Hi Miss Cheerilee.
 * Cheerilee: So you three said you needed help identifying a tree you found here near the gazebo?
 * [ricochet]
 * Cheerilee: [dryly] That's an apple tree.


 * Cheerilee: Big Mac...
 * Big Macintosh: Eeyup?
 * Cheerilee: You have something stuck in your teeth.
 * [record scratch]
 * Sweetie Belle: AW COME ON!


 * Cheerilee: Would you three like to tell us why it was so very important that we meet you her-
 * Sweetie Belle: -Punch!
 * Cheerilee: Excuse me?
 * Sweetie Belle: Punch! We made punch. We were gonna set up a stand and try to sell it but, heh, we needed some pony to taste-test it first.
 * Apple Bloom: Yup.
 * Sweetie Belle: We thought you two would be perfect together... To test it... Together. So, ah, we'll just leave you two alone... Together, to test it.


 * Cheerilee: He's my shmoopy-doopy sweedy-weedy pony pie.
 * Big Macintosh: You're my shmoopy-doopy sweedy-weedy pony pie.


 * Cheerilee: Girls! Can you explain why I look like I'm getting married at the bottom of a pit?
 * Sweetie Belle: We may have given you the teeny-tiniest bit of love potion... that may have turned out to actually be a love poison, and you may have gone just a teeny-tiniest bit nutty.


 * Cheerilee: Since you three are doing all of his chores, Big Mac and I thought we'd have a picnic at the gazebo. Ready, sugar bear?
 * Big Macintosh: Eeyup, pumpkin pie.
 * [Cheerilee and Big Mac wink at each other]
 * Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle: [gasp] NOOOOO!!!

Gallery

 * Hearts and Hooves Day image gallery