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 episode centers around an illness that afflicts Apple Bloom and makes cutie marks appear all over her body, which makes her constantly ply the skills they symbolize.

The bowling alley
The episode opens with the Cutie Mark Crusaders hoping that they will obtain their cutie marks 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" after rejecting "The Three Strikes" (it makes them sound like they struck out) and "The Pin Twins" (since there are three of them).

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
{C 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.

Apple Bloom takes the tooth-fixing potion that Zecora mixes up for her, and her tooth mends itself. She then looks 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, Apple Bloom notices a flower called 'Heart's Desire' which will supposedly help the rooster crow again. Zecora goes out to find amethysts for her potion, and Apple Bloom sets her sights on the flower in the bowl.

The schoolyard
{C In the schoolyard, Apple Bloom shows off her new cutie mark, a silver hoop. She demonstrates her skill at 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 the charge. 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.

At 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. Like often seen in other episodes, Spike keeps lounging on Twilights back mocking about her; this time, however, he gets bucked off. Just after that, Apple Bloom sports yet another cutie mark in the form of a fleur-de-lis and can now speak in French. The three ponies decide it would be best to seek out Zecora for help. The Cutie Pox progresses even faster as each new mark requires Apple Bloom to perform strange and arduous talents, mostly at the same time.

In town
{C Spike points out the nature of the plague to the townsponies which causes them all to panic, running into their houses and locking their doors. When Zecora comes into town, she is surprised to find everypony in full evacuation mode, thinking she had managed to overcome the town's fear of her. When 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. {C Pinkie Pie attempts to confess to eating corncakes - first three, then six, before recognizing that it doesn't help the seeds growing. Finally, Apple Bloom, speaking normally again, admits to her misdeed. She admits her cutie marks are all fake and that 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 receives forgiveness 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.

Apple Bloom's Cutie Pox
The following is a list of cutie marks and talents that inflict Apple Bloom, by time of first appearance.


 * Silver hoop -- Hula hooping and hoop related tricks
 * Sticks and plates -- Performing plate spinning tricks.
 * Clog shoe -- Tap Dancing
 * Fleur-de-lis -- 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
 * White long pole -- Tightrope walking
 * Red Glider -- Hang-gliding
 * Drafting Compass -- Math
 * 1000pt dumbbell -- Weightlifting
 * A pair of sponges -- 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 ?! ("Oh no! Darn it! Another cutie mark! [gasps] What is this?! I'm speaking French?!)
 * 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

 * The term pox is used to describe a variety diseases characterized by pockmarks, and in the archaic sense it may refer to disease in general.
 * A googly-eyed pegasus filly appears in the background while appleboom is showing her skills in schools. She shares Derpy Hooves's color scheme and mane style.
 * 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.
 * Applejack's question to Zecora, "Was your zebra sense tinglin'?" is a reference to Spiderman's catch phrase "My spider sense is tingling".
 * A version of the painting American Gothic, with ponies for people, can be seen in the Apple family's house.
 * 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 have no finger holes.
 * The Trots, one of the illnesses that Twilight mentions, is slang for diarrhea.
 * All of the main characters, except Fluttershy, appear in this episode.
 * This episode marks the first time Big Macintosh has is called "Big Mac".

Gallery



 * The Cutie Pox image gallery