The Cutie Map

"The Cutie Map", also known as "Cutie Markless" by Shout! Factory and iTunes, is the collective name for the first and second episodes of the fifth season of the Canadian–American animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as well as the ninety-second and ninety-third episodes of the series overall. The two episodes focus on the group of Twilight Sparkle and her friends as they visit a village controlled by Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn who strives to achieve equality amongst all ponies by removing their cutie marks (individual talents). Both episodes were written by Scott Sonneborn and M.A. Larson from a story by Meghan McCarthy. It is directed by Jayson Thiessen and co-directed by Jim Miller with Stephen Davis, Kirsten Newlands, and Sarah Wall as executive producers alongside Devon Cody as producer. It was first broadcast on Discovery Family on April 4, 2015, with both parts airing as an hour-long event.

Part one
At Twilight Sparkle's new castle, she and her friends sit on their respective thrones to unwittingly activate a holographic map of Equestria, with floating images of their cutie marks pointing to a remote location on it. Deciding to investigate, the six friends follow the map to find a utopian village of ponies who share the same cutie mark, a black equals sign. The six become wary of the villagers' exaggerated smiles and overly welcoming nature, except for Fluttershy, who is charmed by their courtesy. The six meet the village's leader, Starlight Glimmer, who explains that all the villagers have given up their cutie marks under her philosophy that differing talents and opinions cause strife between friends. Starlight encourages the six to remain and experience the village life, expecting to convert Twilight, a princess, for the rest of Equestria to follow her example.

The six friends later argue over their purpose for coming to the village, which attracts the attention of Sugar Belle, a baker who regrets giving up her baking talent. Sugar Belle is perplexed when the six are able to set their argument aside, and asks to see them in private. The six meet with her alongside two other villagers, Party Favor and Night Glider, who all express eager curiosity over the six's cutie marks and friendship. Desiring to have their original marks again, the villagers inform the six of a cavern vault where their marks are stored alongside a mystical staff called the Staff of Sameness that, according to Starlight, grants her the ability to remove a pony's mark. Starlight leads the six to the vault, where the six become surrounded by the other villagers as Starlight forcibly removes their cutie marks with the staff.

Part two
Without their cutie marks, the six are trapped in a village prison chamber to be resocialized. Realizing they can escape by convincing Starlight they have conformed to her ways, the group sends Fluttershy – who has been the most open-minded to the villagers' lifestyle – to act the part. Fluttershy is successfully welcomed into the community, while Starlight punishes Party Favor to be imprisoned with the other five after he confesses to helping them alone, protecting Sugar Belle and Night Glider. Fluttershy later spies on Starlight to find she has sent her subordinate Double Diamond to collect the six friends' cutie marks, with larger plans for Twilight's mark. She then sees Starlight accidentally splashing water over herself, washing off her own equal mark to reveal her real, unremoved mark.

When Starlight releases the five friends and Party Favor the next day, Fluttershy splashes water on Starlight to reveal her real mark to the villagers. Starlight confesses that she removed the ponies' marks with her own magic, and that the Staff of Sameness is worthless. The villagers revolt and reclaim their original cutie marks from the vault, while Starlight flees into the nearby mountains with the six friends' marks. With the six hindered by their equalized abilities, Double Diamond, Party Favor, Sugar Belle, and Night Glider pursue Starlight and are able to recover the six marks using their own unique abilities. Starlight vanishes into the mountain caves while the villagers thank the six friends for helping them regain their individuality. The six later sense the map calling them through their vibrating cutie marks, determining that they have completed their work to bring friendship to the village.

Production and promotion
An 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 season 5 recap videos. On February 16, 2015 at PonyCon in New York City, Thiessen and Miller shared some concept art of various characters and settings for this season; one of which was the mountain area. On March 14, 2015, Discovery Family's "Pony Day" was announced; it included a six back-to-back season 4 episode marathon leading up to the two-part season five premiere, followed by the premiere of the 1986 film My Little Pony: The Movie. Under the approval of Discovery Family and Hasbro, BABSCon showed the entire two-part season five premiere commercial-free on the same day as it premiered on the East coast of the United States on April 4, 2015.

The map was designed by Rebecca Dart. Directors Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller along with art director Rebecca Dart and prop designer Charmaine Verhagen came up with the design for the Staff of Sameness; Miller denied that it was inspired by the Spear of Longinus from the 1995 anime television series Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Broadcast and reception
Both parts of "The Cutie Map" aired back-to-back on Discovery Family as an hour long event on April 4, 2015. Part 1 of the premiere was viewed by 509,000 viewers and Part 2 was viewed by 574,000 viewers. According to the Nielsen household ratings, both parts were watched by approximately 0.3 percent of American households.

Daniel Alvarez on Unleash the Fanboy gave the premiere a 9 out of 10, praising the general writing of the episodes, the moral, and Princess Twilight. He also considered Starlight Glimmer a "great antagonist". Brandon Morse of The Federalist stated that the episode was a counter argument to the equality movement. In 2016, the episodes were jointly nominated for the Hugo Award for "Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)".

Actor Billy Bob Thornton praised the episode during an interview with GQ: "“This was amazing because the Mane Six ponies, who are the stars of the show, they go out there because Celestia, who runs Equestria, she will tell Twilight Sparkle she needs to go somewhere, but she doesn’t tell her why.” Bear with him, it’s worth it, I promise. “So anyway, suddenly they get captured by them and told that they have to remove their cutie marks and get equal signs. But they said, you know what? No. So Fluttershy, who is my favorite because she kind of talks like Marilyn Monroe, says, ‘Oh, yes.’” (He says this like Marilyn Monroe.) “Fluttershy acts like she wants to become a member, you know? And so they give her the cutie-mark equal-sign stamp and everything. And then she notices something, like it rains, and it washes off Starlight Glimmer’s equal sign, and she’s got her own cutie mark. So she’s like a Jim Jones cult, you know, right?” Suffice it to say that Billy considers these to be essential lessons for his daughter: Don’t be like the phonies. Don’t go looking to homogenize everyone like Starlight Glimmer. Wear your own cutie mark. It’s yours. And when he can do this for his daughter—focus on ways to bring the world into focus for her — that does his anxiety more good than all the spa music and DOGTV in the world."

Home media release
Under the title "Cutie Markless", the two-part season five premiere was part of the "Cutie Mark Quests" DVD which was released on June 30, 2015, release alongside "The Show Stoppers" (Season 1, Episode 18) and the two-part season two premiere episode "The Return of Harmony" (Season 2, Episode 1 and 2). It will also be released as part of the complete Season 5 DVD set.