The Cutie Re-Mark

Did You Know?

• The two-part finale is included in the "Exploring the Crystal Empire" Region 1 DVD by Shout! Factory, released on February 7, 2017.
• It is also available on the complete Season 5 DVD Set released on July 12, 2016.

Plot

At the School for Gifted Unicorns, Twilight Sparkle gives a lecture about cutie marks and recounts how she and her friends earned theirs. She becomes nervous after spotting Starlight Glimmer in the audience, who vanishes. Returning to the Castle of Friendship with Spike, Twilight finds Starlight seeking revenge for the ruin of her utopian society. Using Star Swirl the Bearded's time travel spell, Starlight opens a portal to the moment Rainbow Dash performed her first Sonic Rainboom in Cloudsdale, the event that allowed Twilight and her friends to obtain their cutie marks. Twilight and Spike follow but cannot stop Starlight from magically halting Rainbow Dash. The portal returns them to a desolate, near-deserted Ponyville. At Sweet Apple Acres, now a heavily industrialized apple-processing plant, Applejack does not recognize them and explains that King Sombra returned, forcing Crystal ponies into his army and sparking a war against Equestria; the rest of the Mane Six are in Princess Celestia's army. Twilight reuses the spell, but Starlight has altered it to arrive earlier and befriends the bullies of filly Fluttershy. With Fluttershy no longer bullied, Rainbow Dash never performs the Sonic Rainboom and refuses Twilight's request to do so. The portal takes them to another alternate present where Ponyville is covered in dense trees. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, armed with spears, accuse them of being disguised Changelings. Zecora's potion proves they come from a different reality, and she leads them to a forest camp where refugees hide from Queen Chrysalis, who took over Equestria after a successful attack on Canterlot. Chrysalis and her Changeling army attack the camp, and Twilight and Spike return to the Cutie Map and go back to the past, where Starlight awaits.

Production

At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, a two-minute animatic was previewed. Character designs for both episodes came from Kora Kosicka and Fernanda Ribeiro. This season finale was Jayson Thiessen's last work on the series, as he then focused entirely on directing the 2017 theatrical film. The sole song, "Friends Are Always There For You," appears in part two, performed by Starlight Glimmer and the Mane Six. Daniel Ingram composed it, with Caleb Chan contributing the mandolin part.

Broadcast and reception

The two episodes aired back-to-back on Discovery Family on November 28, 2015. Nielsen household ratings recorded that 0.06 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at that time viewed the season 5 finale, totaling 325,000 viewers. Daniel Alvarez of Unleash the Fanboy gave the episode 8 out of 10 stars, noting the show's reputation for reforming antagonists is often labeled negatively; he felt the redemption was done well but at the expense of Starlight Glimmer's role as a villain, whom he called one of the show's finest antagonists. Screen Rant ranked "The Cutie Re-Mark" the seventh-best season finale according to IMDb, with Part 1 and Part 2 receiving ratings of 8.3 and 8.2 out of 10 respectively.