I don't know, I doubt she ever thought that far about the whole flightless comments. All she was focused on was how to unsettle her rivals' performance to give her a better edge at winning, but likely didn't think at all about the extent of how hurtful her words might have truly been. She can at times be so driven to get to a point that she suffers from a bit of tunnel vision and only thinks of the desired outcome without bothering to weigh every pro and con against one another. If she just gains a little more perspective on things outside of her little "rich girl bubble," I think DT is perfectly redeemable.

Then again, that's just an assumption since the episode itself doesn't explain squat about how the spell works or what it's true effects are, let alone the extents to which it shapes the surrounding world alongside the cutie marks. And what you said would still not really explain why some ponies were not actually adhering to "what their cutie marks were telling them" as based on The Chronicles.

I was always a bit conflicted about this episode, and am even more so now once we passed the first season. While it was a real treat to see where the various ponies came from and how they got their marks, the focus being on Rainbow Dash was frankly a weird one. I mean, season one was very heavily Twilight centric and the episodes pretty much revolved around Twilight learning how to function in society and learning stuff - hence she had to be written into every single episode one way or another so that she could report on her personal findings to Celestia. But then comes this one where Twi is most decidedly on the backseat and suddenly for this one episode RD was the most important pony in the group. It makes this episode stand out like a sore thumb amongst the other S1 episodes and in the wider context of the series at this point makes little sense.

Once the "Twilight is the clear main character" stuff was dropped in season two for a decidedly more ensemble cast mentality - where none of the characters were more important than the other and existed pretty much on the same level of relevance (this yet again retconned in season three) - is where "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" would have fit in much better at. But as it is, the episode just feels at odds where it was placed. And to only further muddy the issue, then we have "Magical Mystery Cure" (also ironicaly written by M.A. Larson) which pretty much openly contradicts at least a couple of the cutie marks' meanings (destiny, how it was got, meaning behind it...) - particularly those of Rainbow Dash and Rarity.

Really, this episode has some really good things in it, but it's also one of the most abusive to the series itself in the long run. I just wish this series would at least keep some kind of consistency when it comes to dealing with cutie marks, but ho hum, guess nobody can really give two shakes to write a couple of lines on the do's and dont's to keep these things straight.

I don't know. I'd punch Luna's face, probably even more so as a filly. ;-P

The soundtrack appears to be taken entirely from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

I have to say I quite like this episode for it being the only true "crusading" episode in the entire series (namely this is the only one where the three do nothing but trying to get their cutie marks). There seriously is no other episode like this in the rest of the series and thus is a good way to get all of their basic goals for the characters established right off the bat so that they don't need to be obsessed with in future episode. And sure they do fuss about their possible marks in other episodes too, but those always have another additional angle to them (Stare Master is about Fluttershy babysitting, Cutie Mark Chronicles of how the Mane 6 got their marks, Hearts and Hooves Day about shipping Cheerilee & Big Mac, etc.).

Though at the same time I do prefer other CMC episodes to this, Show Stoppers (dropping in at #31 on my favourite episode list) is still a necessary episode that I find is pretty well laid out, written and paced throughout to not make it an abjectly "bad" entry. Though I can see why it would not appeal to people at the same time, I can't say I ever had anything major against it. And personally I thought the talent performance was entertaining and fun, so that was just another thing I liked about it. Eh, t'is a perfectly fine episode as far as I'm concerned.

Isn't that the pony in Fluttershy's fashion show, the one who flipped her opinion the moment she saw Rarity? Seems like her anyway.

Well seeing how I'm pretty slovenly, have zero fashion sense, don't have major OCDs, and prefer my quiet without regular drama meltdowns, I'd think Rarity would be an awful choice as a roommate for me. Twilight and Applejack could probably be acceptable, but definitely not RD or Pinkie.

I dunno. Rarity's my absolute favourite character on the show, but as a living companion? I don't see that turning out all too well... which is why I went with Flutters instead.

Actually Cloudchaser's cutiemark is a kind of a shooting star. But I've seen quite a few people actually give her Cloud Kicker's mark instead. I wonder if people are just confusing the two names and using the wrong mark rather than it being intentional.