The Cutie Pox | |
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Season №: | 2 |
Season episode №: | 6 |
Overall episode №: | 32 |
Original airdate: | November 12, 2011 |
Written by: | Amy Keating Rogers |
Storyboard: | Tom Sales & Dave Weibe[1] |
Featured characters: | Apple Bloom Zecora |
See also | |
credits • transcript • gallery • allusions animation errors • statistics • speculation | |
Episode guide | |
Previous Sisterhooves Social | Next May the Best Pet Win! |
Production
The library scene was at the animation rough cut stage on August 2, 2011.[2][3] Two name options for the owner of the bowling alley that weren't used were Pony Bowl-ony and Mr. Incredi-Bowl.[4] There were several deleted scenes of Apple Bloom displaying more cutie mark talents, one of which was a 'scootering' talent, which outraged Scootaloo.[5]
Summary
The bowling alley

Goodbye, Cutie Mark Crusaders - hello, Bowling Dolls!
Sweetie Belle rolls her ball into the gutter—but remains in high spirits—and Scootaloo bucks her ball and sends it flying all over the alley before it too rolls into the gutter. Apple Bloom clumsily rolls her ball and appears to knock over all of her pins. The crowd of ponies cheers, with Sea Swirl remarking, "Cool! A bowling cutie mark!" Apple Bloom excitedly examines her flank, which is still bare, and sees that the crowd's cheers were directed toward a colt who'd just gotten his cutie mark. To Apple Bloom's disappointment, her ball hadn't knocked over even one pin.
Heart's Desire

"I bet you could mix up a brew to fix... anything."
Apple Bloom takes Zecora's tooth-fixing potion, and her tooth is instantly mended. She then looks at the various potions and tonics around Zecora's hut, looking for a possible brew to bring about 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 causes one's talent to "come into view" and will supposedly help the rooster crow again. Zecora goes out to find amethysts to complete her potion, and Apple Bloom sets her sights on the flower in the bowl.
Apple Bloom's cutie mark

Apple Bloom shows off her cutie mark.
While performing an advanced hoop trick, Apple Bloom suddenly sprouts a second cutie mark: an image of plates rotating on top of poles. Diamond Tiara suggests the cutie marks are fake, but Apple Bloom denies it. Snips and Snails throw her two plates and poles. Apple Bloom balances the poles on her nose and spins the plates on top while twirling a hoop around her tail. The class is astounded by Apple Bloom's talents and cheers for her as they make their way down the streets of Ponyville. In the streets, she nimbly performs tricks such as using a well-thrown hoop to style Twilight Sparkle's mane in the manner of Rarity's.
The cutie pox

Apple Bloom can't stop tap-tap-tapping!
Late at night, Applejack is rolling around in bed, being kept awake by an incessant tapping. She gets out of bed to investigate and discovers that the sound is coming from Apple Bloom's room. Upon opening the door, she sees Apple Bloom tapping her hooves frantically, as well as yet another cutie mark on Apple Bloom's flank: a tapping shoe. Apple Bloom, unable to stop herself from exercising her "talents" all at once, cries out for help while Applejack looks horrified.

"Sacrebleu!"
- "Sacrebleu! Plus de marques de cutie! [gasps] Qu'est-ce c'est?! Je parle français?!
(Darn it! More cutie marks! [gasps] What's this?! I speak French?!)" - — Apple Bloom
Seeds of Truth

Weightlifting is just one of her many talents.
Applejack plants the seeds in the ground and pleads for somepony to tell the truth. Pinkie Pie attempts to confess to eating more corncakes than she claimed she did, but the seeds don't bloom. Apple Bloom, speaking English again, finally 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. During the process, the townsponies all begin to calm down when they hear Apple Bloom's truth. Just as promised, the Seeds of Truth bloom into a flower, which Apple Bloom quickly ingests, causing her cutie pox to vanish.
Apple Bloom apologizes to everyone for the entire ordeal (including lying) - especially to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo for getting too carried away with her cutie mark quest and to Zecora for taking her ingredients without permission. Realizing how sorry Apple Bloom is for everything and how she learned from her mistakes, Zecora and Apple Bloom's friends accept her apology.
The importance of patience
Apple Bloom writes a letter to Princess Celestia about what she learned: there are no shortcuts to getting something you desire the most, including a cutie mark, and that good things come to those who wait.
However, immediately after Spike sends the letter, the Cutie Mark Crusaders decide they've waited long enough and run off into the distance, eager to again try and get their cutie marks.
Apple Bloom's cutie pox
Heart's Desire

Heart's Desire
Cutie pox
When Apple Bloom develops a third cutie mark and discovers that she's unable to stop performing the various talents the marks signify, she's taken to Twilight Sparkle's library. After consulting her books, Twilight diagnoses the ailment as cutie pox. "This puzzling pony plague afflicted a population of ponies back in the Paleopony period. Random cutie marks appeared all over the ponies' bodies, causing them to perform all the talents that came with them. The cause of the breakout was never discovered, and the cutie pox disappeared as mysteriously as they arrived." Twilight suggests that Zecora might have a cure.Seeds of Truth

The flower that grows from the Seeds of Truth.
Cutie pox afflictions
Throughout the episode, various cutie marks and talents afflict Apple Bloom. The following list of cutie marks and talents is sorted by time of appearance.
- Silver hoop – Hula hooping and hoop related tricks
- Sticks and plates – Performing plate spinning tricks.
- Red tap shoe – Tap Dancing
- Fleur-de-lis – Ability to speak French
- Mallet and chisel – Sculpting
- Cap and chimney brush – Chimney sweeping
- Accordion – Playing the accordion
- Whip and lion – Lion taming
- Chess pieces (a rook and two pawns) – Playing chess
- Crossed swords – Fencing
- White long pole – Tightrope walking
- Red glider – Hang-gliding
- Drafting compass – Math
- 1000-lb barbell – Weightlifting
- A pair of sponges – Window-washing
- Tornado – Whirling around
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 equations Apple Bloom draws under the affliction of the Math cutie mark are difficult to identify without context, but the first two sections state the equivalence between integration of continuous functions and the sigma operation upon discrete functions - a concept important in digital signal processing. The meaning of the remaining three equations has yet to be determined, and they may be simply random math-symbols to fill the board.
Quotes
- For more quotes, see the episode's transcript.
- Apple Bloom: Why, after today, we won't even be the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore! We'll be the... the Three Strikes!
- Scootaloo: That makes us sound like we've struck out.
- Apple Bloom: Mmm. How 'bout the Pin Twins?
- Sweetie Belle: But there are three of us.
- Apple Bloom: Okay then... Um... the Bowlin' Dolls!
- Sweetie Belle: The Bowling Dolls! That's it!
- Scootaloo: Perfect!
- 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 McIntosh?
- Big McIntosh: Eeyup!
- Applejack: I've never seen anything like it, have you Big Mac?
- Big McIntosh: Nope!
- Twilight Sparkle: Cutie pox. This puzzling pony plague afflicted a population of ponies back in the paleopony period!
- Spike: Say that 10 times fast!
- Apple Bloom: Sacrebleu! Plus de marques de cutie! [gasp] Qu'est-ce c'est?! Je parle français?! (Darn it! More cutie marks! [gasp] What's this?! I speak French?!)
- Applejack: My sister's speakin' in Fancy!
- Lily Valley: She's cursed!
- Rose: Hexed!
- Daisy: Enchanted!
- Spike: No, she's not.
- Daisy, Lily Valley and Rose: [sigh of relief]
- Spike: She just has some weird mysterious disease with no known cure called cutie pox.
- Everyone: CUTIE POX?! AAAAAAAAAAH!
- Pinkie Pie: Yesterday I told Mrs. Cake that I ate two corncakes, but I really ate three! [pause] Okay six! I ate six corncakes! [pause] Make it stop! Oh, make it stop!
- 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.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Raven Molisee's DeviantArt journal (2012-02-23). Retrieved on 2012 February 23.
- ↑ Jayson Thiessen's Twitter account (2011-08-02). Retrieved on 2012 July 4.
- ↑ Jayson Thiessen's Twitter account (2011-08-02). Retrieved on 2012 July 4.
- ↑ Jayson Thiessen's Twitter account.
- ↑ Bronycon 2013 Voice Actors Panel II. Equestria Daily.
Episodes, films, and animated shorts |
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Season one | |||
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Episode 1 Friendship is Magic, part 1 | Episode 2 Friendship is Magic, part 2 | Episode 3 The Ticket Master | Episode 4 Applebuck Season |
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Episode 5 Griffon the Brush Off | Episode 6 Boast Busters | Episode 7 Dragonshy | Episode 8 Look Before You Sleep |
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Episode 9 Bridle Gossip | Episode 10 Swarm of the Century | Episode 11 Winter Wrap Up | Episode 12 Call of the Cutie |
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Episode 13 Fall Weather Friends | Episode 14 Suited For Success | Episode 15 Feeling Pinkie Keen | Episode 16 Sonic Rainboom |
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Episode 17 Stare Master | Episode 18 The Show Stoppers | Episode 19 A Dog and Pony Show | Episode 20 Green Isn't Your Color |
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Episode 21 Over a Barrel | Episode 22 A Bird in the Hoof | Episode 23 The Cutie Mark Chronicles | Episode 24 Owl's Well That Ends Well |
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Episode 25 Party of One | Episode 26 The Best Night Ever |
Season two | |||
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Episode 1 The Return of Harmony Part 1 | Episode 2 The Return of Harmony Part 2 | Episode 3 Lesson Zero | Episode 4 Luna Eclipsed |
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Episode 5 Sisterhooves Social | Episode 6 The Cutie Pox | Episode 7 May the Best Pet Win! | Episode 8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well |
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Episode 9 Sweet and Elite | Episode 10 Secret of My Excess | Episode 11 Hearth's Warming Eve | Episode 12 Family Appreciation Day |
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Episode 13 Baby Cakes | Episode 14 The Last Roundup | Episode 15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 | Episode 16 Read It and Weep |
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Episode 17 Hearts and Hooves Day | Episode 18 A Friend in Deed | Episode 19 Putting Your Hoof Down | Episode 20 It's About Time |
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Episode 21 Dragon Quest | Episode 22 Hurricane Fluttershy | Episode 23 Ponyville Confidential | Episode 24 MMMystery on the Friendship Express |
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Episode 25 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 | Episode 26 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 |
Season three | |||
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Episode 1 The Crystal Empire - Part 1 | Episode 2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2 | Episode 3 Too Many Pinkie Pies | Episode 4 One Bad Apple |
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Episode 5 Magic Duel | Episode 6 Sleepless in Ponyville | Episode 7 Wonderbolts Academy | Episode 8 Apple Family Reunion |
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Episode 9 Spike at Your Service | Episode 10 Keep Calm and Flutter On | Episode 11 Just for Sidekicks | Episode 12 Games Ponies Play |
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Episode 13 Magical Mystery Cure |
Season four | |||
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Episode 1 Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 | Episode 2 Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2 | Episode 3 Castle Mane-ia | Episode 4 Daring Don't |
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Episode 5 Flight to the Finish | Episode 6 Power Ponies | Episode 7 Bats! | Episode 8 Rarity Takes Manehattan |
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Episode 9 Pinkie Apple Pie | Episode 10 Rainbow Falls | Episode 11 Three's A Crowd | Episode 12 Pinkie Pride |
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Episode 13 Simple Ways | Episode 14 Filli Vanilli | Episode 15 Twilight Time | Episode 16 It Ain't Easy Being Breezies |
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Episode 17 Somepony to Watch Over Me | Episode 18 Maud Pie | Episode 19 For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils | Episode 20 Leap of Faith |
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Episode 21 Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 | Episode 22 Trade Ya! | Episode 23 Inspiration Manifestation | Episode 24 Equestria Games |
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Episode 25 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1 | Episode 26 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2 |
Season five | |||
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Episode 1 The Cutie Map - Part 1 | Episode 2 The Cutie Map - Part 2 | Episode 3 Castle Sweet Castle | Episode 4 Bloom & Gloom |
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Episode 5 Tanks for the Memories | Episode 6 Appleoosa's Most Wanted | Episode 7 Make New Friends but Keep Discord | Episode 8 The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone |
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Episode 9 Slice of Life | Episode 10 Princess Spike | Episode 11 Party Pooped | Episode 12 Amending Fences |
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Episode 13 Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? | Episode 14 Canterlot Boutique | Episode 15 Rarity Investigates! | Episode 16 Made in Manehattan |
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Episode 17 Brotherhooves Social | Episode 18 Crusaders of the Lost Mark | Episode 19 The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows | Episode 20 Hearthbreakers |
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Episode 21 Scare Master | Episode 22 What About Discord? | Episode 23 The Hooffields and McColts | Episode 24 The Mane Attraction |
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Episode 25 The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1 | Episode 26 The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2 |
Season six | |||
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Episode 1 The Crystalling - Part 1 | Episode 2 The Crystalling - Part 2 | Episode 3 The Gift of the Maud Pie | Episode 4 On Your Marks |
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Episode 5 Gauntlet of Fire | Episode 6 No Second Prances | Episode 7 Newbie Dash | Episode 8 A Hearth's Warming Tail |
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Episode 9 The Saddle Row Review | Episode 10 Applejack's "Day" Off | Episode 11 Flutter Brutter | Episode 12 Spice Up Your Life |
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Episode 13 Stranger Than Fan Fiction | Episode 14 The Cart Before the Ponies | Episode 15 28 Pranks Later | Episode 16 The Times They Are A Changeling |
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Episode 17 Dungeons & Discords | Episode 18 Buckball Season | Episode 19 The Fault in Our Cutie Marks | Episode 20 Viva Las Pegasus |
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Episode 21 Every Little Thing She Does | Episode 22 P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View) | Episode 23 Where the Apple Lies | Episode 24 Top Bolt |
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Episode 25 To Where and Back Again - Part 1 | Episode 26 To Where and Back Again - Part 2 |
Season seven | |||
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Episode 1 Celestial Advice | Episode 2 All Bottled Up | Episode 3 A Flurry of Emotions | Episode 4 Rock Solid Friendship |
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Episode 5 Fluttershy Leans In | Episode 6 Forever Filly | Episode 7 Parental Glideance | Episode 8 Hard to Say Anything |
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Episode 9 Honest Apple | Episode 10 A Royal Problem | Episode 11 Not Asking for Trouble | Episode 12 Discordant Harmony |
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Episode 13 The Perfect Pear | Episode 14 Fame and Misfortune | Episode 15 Triple Threat | Episode 16 Campfire Tales |
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Episode 17 To Change a Changeling | Episode 18 Daring Done? | Episode 19 It Isn't the Mane Thing About You | Episode 20 A Health of Information |
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Episode 21 Marks and Recreation | Episode 22 Once Upon a Zeppelin | Episode 23 Secrets and Pies | Episode 24 Uncommon Bond |
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Episode 25 Shadow Play - Part 1 | Episode 26 Shadow Play - Part 2 |
Season eight | |||
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Episode 1 School Daze - Part 1 | Episode 2 School Daze - Part 2 | Episode 3 The Maud Couple | Episode 4 Fake It 'Til You Make It |
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Episode 5 Grannies Gone Wild | Episode 6 Surf and/or Turf | Episode 7 Horse Play | Episode 8 The Parent Map |
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Episode 9 Non-Compete Clause | Episode 10 The Break Up Break Down | Episode 11 Molt Down | Episode 12 |
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Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 | Episode 16 |
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Episode 17 | Episode 18 | Episode 19 | Episode 20 |
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Episode 21 | Episode 22 | Episode 23 | Episode 24 |
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Episode 25 | Episode 26 |
Feature films | |||
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Equestria Girls | Rainbow Rocks | Friendship Games | Legend of Everfree |
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My Little Pony The Movie |
Equestria Girls specials | |||
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Dance Magic | Movie Magic | Mirror Magic | Forgotten Friendship |