The Show Stoppers

Dear Princess Luna..

Added  a 'rogues gallery' to discuss the shows' villains, and updated a few things here and there, including the 'mane' cast page with some new details I learned from the past few episodes. =]


Also, Over a Barrel is by far the most popular post I got on here right now. Popular episode? Enjoy laughing at the bizarre pony related dreams I had? WW I song lyrics and poetry? I don't know, but y'all seem to like it, and if its good enough for U.S. Grant, it's good enough for me.

Another Cutie Mark Crusaders episode. (I think there has maybe only been one episode where the 'mane' characters in the intro don't have any other role, and that would be The Return of Harmony Part 1, where the Crusaders and co. are seen and then never again) Applejack is leading the Crusaders deep into the woods. Scootaloo gets hit in the face by a leaf.

"You know how you call me at night, crying and wanting to know why Diamond Tiara hates you? I think I know why now."

 Scootaloo is whining, Sweetie Belle is completely confused, they finally arrive at their destination.

"What the heck is this, Applejack?"

Applejack is giving them her old clubhouse to use. The thing is in obvious need of repairs, and Applejack says it just needs some TLC. Or Totally Lost Cause, according to Scootaloo. Applejack leans against a wall and falls through it, and says maybe they'll get their marks for house cleaning.

"I hate you Apples, I'm gonna see if Diamond Tiara will let me hang out with her instead."

We then see Scootaloo drawing some kind of map, stow it in her satchel, then take off on her scooter, busting out all kinds of crazy moves.

Jump a tree branch: like a boss.

She arrives at their new clubhouse, which has a road leading to it it would seem, and Applebloom has cleaned it up. They ask where Sweetie Belle is and she's dusting things with her tail and singing a Cutie Mark Crusaders song she made up. They also make sure to compliment each other on these things too, so presumably these are what their talents actually are. Singing, radical scootering, and home improvement. They ask Sweetie Belle to teach them the song and head inside.

Applebloom got this place cleaned up pretty good.

 Applejack wanders up, looking in the window and smiling as they sing, then cringing as Scootaloo
'sings' her part.

"Aww, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom sound as cute as a lamb in a strawberry pat- oh god what is that!?"

Applejack compliments them on fixing up the place. The Crusaders then say since they have a clubhouse, a map of Ponyville, and a theme song, they are ready to go off on an adventure and start rattling off phrases like 'Leave no stone unturned! No sock unworn!' and Applejack awkwardly excuses herself, saying she has to leave no apple unpicked.

"Alright Crusaders. First we cut off their fresh food supply by taking Sweet Apple Acres orchards and barns. Next, we assault Sugar Cube Corner and eliminate their food resources there. Next, we torch the library so they lose their spellbooks. After that, we mix some mane dying chemicals at Carousel Boutique and try to make mustard gas. The ponies will flee into the mountains, where we can let mother nature finish them off. To ensure our victory, we will then poison the water supply. Sound good?"

Their first destination is Sweet Apple Acres' barn, where they try to get their marks by feeding the pigs. This fails, and they cross out the barn. A plethora of things to do there I'm sure, and they pick the most random one. (Did any of them really want a cutie mark for feeding pigs?)

The next destination is Sugar Cube Corner, aka the Cake's bakery. They are trying to make taffy I guess? Scootaloo gets her tail caught in the machine and they all get dragged in trying to save her, they end up covered in taffy, but no cutie marks.

"Help! I don't want a mark for being an amputee!"

Next, Carousel Boutique, where they are selling or giving away free 'mane dressing'. One of the customers runs out in tears, her mane looking like a clown wig. Applebloom was out front ringing a bell to attract customers, the others follow the distraught pony out, once again, no cutie marks.

"What color did you say you wanted? Well, don't worry, we got some in here I'm sure."

It should be noted that Twilight's Library is on the map, but they skipped it to go to Rarity's, and are now going to the Sweet Apple Acres fields on the other side of town instead. At the fields, they are trying to see if Applebloom is psychic I guess? She fails to guess the correct symbols, gets frustrated, gets an epiphany, and hits all the buttons, making it spit cards out at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. No marks.

"Wait, if I was really psychic, shouldn't I have had a premonition tellin' me when I would get my mark?"

They them go mountain climbing, revealed to be a fairly small, but still big to them, rock formation, and struggle to get up top, losing balance and falling off. No marks.

"For once I hope I don't get my mark, this sucks!"

They head to the lake, where they go snorkeling, then swim away in terror as a giant squid starts chasing them. No marks.

Another dark aspect of the Ponyverse, murderous squid lurking in freshwater lakes.

They finally go to their last resort, the library. They try to be librarians by making a huge mess out of the books. Twilight is not pleased when she arrives, with Cherilee. Twilight tells them instead of trying things they aren't familiar with, try doing things that they already like. Cherilee has just the thing, a talent show.

"Are you sure a librarian is supposed to throw all the books on the ground, Applebloom?"

Aww, we hear what the Crusaders wish their talents were. Applebloom shouts out jugglin' or square dancin'. Scootaloo says acting or tightrope walking. Sweetie Belle says magic tricks or tiger taming. Twilight has to rain on their parade and reiterate her opinion that they should focus on things they already like and are good at. They all agree, and that whatever they are going to do, they'll do it as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"I think I'm good at pushing Twilight down the stairs..."

The Crusaders go around Ponyville and collect supplies. They steal fabric and other supplies from Rarity, borrow a fan from Mr. Breezy, get six wooden planks, four-by-eight plywood, a box of nails, four cans of paint and four brushes from a hardware store(?), and borrow "Ghost, Goblins and Ghoulish Figures" from the library.

They are going to perform a 'super awesome dramatic song' for the talent show.

"This is gonna be soo amazing!"

It seems Twilight Worth's lesson wasn't received very well, as the singer Sweetie Belle wants to do costumes and gets shoehorned into scenery as well (although to be fair it's because she wants to be like her big sister Rarity), Scootaloo, the one with radical moves, wants to sing, and Applebloom the carpenter gets stuck with choreography, which she accepts, figuring kung fu moves are close enough to dancing.

"I can't remember anything...Can't tell if this is true or dream.. Deep down inside I feel the scream..
This terrible silence stops me..."

Outside, Scootaloo is trying to compose the song when Applebloom, who is trying to dance, trips and falls on Scootaloo's tail.

"Applebloom! Your family has acres of land and you gotta be all up on me?"

 Scootaloo tells her she just needs to practice, and shows off how easy it is, performing a badass rapid spinning pirouette. Applebloom is amazed, then tries again, failing at it again.

"I'm glad that wasn't on my tail like her last clutztastrophe..."

Scootaloo is struggling to put the song together, when a thing of out of control fabric goes flying past. Sweetie Belle chases it, then checks in on Scootaloo. Scootaloo's song is not going well, she says coming up with the words is really hard. She has lines such as, "With our cutie marks we'll rock Equestria. We use our stomachs to digestia" Sweetie Belle comes up with new lyrics on the spot (although she may have already 'written' it in her head), Scootaloo writes them down, then the fabric rolls down the hill into a pond.

"Uh, Scootaloo, no offense, you might want to ask Miss Cherilee for some extra help after school."

With no one supervising her, Sweetie Belle's tasks are SNAFU. Her costume has 5 leg sleeves, she isn't using the dress form she took from Rarity (or even knows what it is), and her scenery is all the one shade. Turns out she was using the same brush, and never cleaning it. Applebloom fearfully asks if Sweetie Belle has been using power tools.

"I didn't know what to do with those other 3 brushes we got, so I threw them away."

Later, Applejack swings by again to check on them. They are in the middle of rehearsing, and apparently are constantly stepping on each other. Applejack backs away from the mirror in horror and tries to escape before they see her. They walk outside and excitedly ask if she saw them practice, Applejack meekly says yes, they ask how they did, the Honesty Element Applejack struggles to find something nice to say. Scootaloo is excited, saying it left her speechless.

"If I close my eyes, I'm invisible, I hope.."

The talent show begins. The first act is Snips and Snails, the questionable intellect ponies that made headlines in Ponyville Confidential. They were trying to do a magic trick by putting a rabbit under a hat, which would then magically become carrots. Snails ate the carrots and ruined the trick.

"God damn it, Snails!"

The next act is Sunny Days and Peachy Pie, reciting poetry on roller skates. Sweetie Belle tells them to break a leg, and has to explain that it's a showbiz term.

"Impressive. Most impressive. Twilight Sparkle has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me."

Twilight Worth arrives, making sure to tell them to just stick with what they know.

"You can either have the money and a disintegration beam, or you can walk out. You can't have both."

 Twilight assumes Sweetie Belle is going to sing, which upsets her. Scootaloo proudly announces she is going to sing, Applebloom is dancing, and Twilight guesses that Sweetie Belle is doing costumes. She does not trust their judgement or skill at any of the jobs they chose.

"Girls, I've told you how many times now that I want you to do what you know best, and you didn't listen!?"

The Crusaders are up next, they cast off their cloaks and head on stage. Twilight tells them to break a leg, Applebloom trips, Twilight says good luck instead.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders' performance begins.

Look, here, are three little ponies

Ready to sing for this crowd

Listen up, 'cause here's our story

I'm gonna sing it 

VERY LOUD!

The crowd is shown looking on in stunned horror. Applejack grimaces.

When you're a younger pony

And your flank is very bare

Feels like the sun will never come

When your cutie mark's not there

So the three of us will fight the fight

There is nothing that we fear

We'll have to figure out what we'll do next 

Till our cutie marks are here!

Scootaloo falls off her platform, Sweetie Belle's fog machine covers the stage. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle jump and smash into each other.

We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders

On a quest to find out who we are

And we will never stop the journey

Not until we have our cutie marks

Sweetie Belle runs in with a clock prop and trips, resulting in the spotlight being knocked off Scootalo onto Applebloom, who is surprised and starts doing her kung fu routine. She kicks and her foot gets stuck in the scenery.

They all say that you'll get your mark

When the time is really right

And you know just what you're supposed to do

And your talent comes to light

Sweetie Belle is supposed to put a blue 'lens' over the spotlight for the final line of this next piece, she fails to aim the light properly.

But it's not as easy as it sounds

And that waiting's hard to do

So we test our talents everywhere 

Until our face is blue!

Sweetie Belle runs past the fan and hits into it, activating it. I'm not sure if it was meant to be on or not, probably not, as it starts blowing the scenery around.

We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders

On a quest to find out who we are

And we will never stop the journey

Not until we have our cutie marks

Sweetie Belle struggles to keep the scenery from collapsing, but it all comes down anyway as their song ends. The crowd erupts into laughter.

We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders

On a quest to find out who we are

And we will never stop the journey

Not until we have our cutie marks!

The Crusaders walk dejectedly off the stage. Scootaloo says that did not go as she hoped, Applebloom can't believe they are laughing after they just poured their little hearts out and almost  got crushed, Sweetie Belle asks if they were really that bad.

Cherilee tells them to get back on stage for the awards ceremony. The Crusaders are upset, not wanting to get laughed at again. Cherilee gets them out there, and they hide behind the other kids. Diamond Tiara and some others are shown, but we didn't even get to see their acts.

"Are you kiddin' me? I DIED up there! It was brutal! And I ain't never goin' back up there again, 'cause I ain't funny... and neither are any of you. I'm dark and brutal and filled with hatred. I ain't got no sense of humor. You wanna do comedy? Do it without me. I'm leaving."

Snips and Snails win the award for best magic act, and start arguing over whose award (practically the same thing, if not the same) is better. Sunny Days and Peachy Pie win best dramatic performance. The final award (you'd think the namby-pamby pony school would have awards for all the kids, not just three), is for best comedy act, and the Crusaders win it.

They are excited, Scootaloo says she knew their show was good, and then they rip off their clothes to see if they got their marks. Nope.

Twilight walks up and congratulates them. She asks why they don't seem too happy, they lament that the prize they really wanted was their marks. Twilight then gets really excited and plans to write a special report to the Princess as they begin explaining how they think they tried too hard, and instead of forcing themselves to do something they should embrace their true talent.

"We sure did listen to you, Ms. Worth!"

 Twilight asks them what their true talent is..and they respond: Comedy!

"Th-that's not what I was trying to get you to learn at all! Why won't you listen to me?!"

 Hmm, I'm almost tempted to look this up. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash arrive to congratulate the Crusaders. Does that mean Rainbow really is Scootaloo's sister?

If not, then that's really sweet of Rainbow to have gone to this talent show just to support some random little filly she knows.

The episode ends with Twilight cryptically saying "One day," *laughs* "one day." to herself.

"They will join us or die, my master."

What I learned from this episode:

• The Crusaders will probably never get their marks since they never recognize what seems to be their real talents, and just pursue whatever the 'flavor-of-the-moment' is.
• Another episode with zero uses of magic I think. It was still a pretty good episode. I liked the early bit where they were going to all the destinations to try things, the music really made the scenes, and of course their musical performance was good. The Crusaders' episodes never fail to deliver though, they're all pretty good from what I recall.
• My QA on cropping pics and making sure not to leave white borders has improved drastically. Over a Barrel only had two foul ups, this episode has, as far as I can see, none. Some of the earlier episodes were pretty bad, I did go back the other day and clean up all I could see though. =]

Update - The song from this episode ended up being in my top 5 favorite song list:

The Crusader's theme song and attempt at getting their cutie marks. They prepared this performance for the school's talent show. Was doomed to fail, as instead of playing to their strengths, they chose whichever duty they felt like doing. Scootaloo sings, horribly. Sweetie Belle was in charge of costumes and scenery. Applebloom was doing choreography. They end up winning awards for Best Comedy, while not what they expected, it still pleases them.