Picking Apart "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", Season 2 Episode 17

Hearts and Hooves Day

The Cutie Mark Crusaders are back again, but this time they're not focusing on earning their cutie marks, far from it.  Instead, they're focusing on trying to give their own schoolteacher, Cheerilee, the best Hearts and Hooves Day ever.  Now this day is obviously the equivalent of Valentine's Day here in the U.S. and...

Wow, look at the size of that!  Look how impressive it is!  So we can surmise that in spite of all the unintentional mischief they cause trying to earn their cutie marks, like in past episodes, these three fillies have good hearts and do everything they can to butter up their teacher.

I guess they really are sweet little angels.

So they somehow manage to drag in their big gift and of course Cheerilee adores it despite the size, so the thought counts too.  But to their shock, they learn that Cheerilee doesn't even have a boyfriend.

Wow, that's...  Eh, never mind.  So the Cutie Mark Crusaders decide to bring it upon themselves to fix her up with a date, despite her clearly saying she'll enjoy Hearts and Hooves Day regardless.   And then they sing about their plan.

[Sweetie Belle]

Cheerilee is sweet and kind.

She's the best teacher we could hope for!

The perfect stallion you and I must find.

One to really make her heart soar!

At least Scootaloo barely sings, but as usual Sweetie Belle steals the show.  Well, all hearts point to Big Macintosh as the one stallion singled out, so they for some reason decide to set him up on a date with Cheerilee, believing them to be perfect for each other.  Hmm, I don't know about this.  What do you think, the Chazz?

"Hm?  I got nothing."

Yeah, that's what I thought.  So the Cutie Mark Crusaders set them up, but it turns out that Cheerilee seems to be just as shy as ol' Big Mac.  They don't actually get anywhere.  They just seem to.  Kinda awkward, really.

"Eeyup."

Well, after they go their separate ways, the Cutie Mark Crusaders bump into Twilight and she makes the mistake of telling them the origins of Hearts and Hooves Day from reading a book, which also seemingly includes a recipe to make a love potion.  Now if I knew all the crazy stuff these fillies have gotten themselves into so far, the last thing I would do is give them any bright ideas that might lead to them doing something stupid, even if I didn't know what they were thinking.  Now it's obvious that the three stooges are gonna get into trouble again, which they do.

For one, Twilight gets suspicious that they took off so fast.  That means this episode is gonna take a tumble despite creating the plot.

So they follow the recipe guidelines for creating a love potion for both Cheerilee and Big Mac, but somehow they screwed up.  I don't know how, but I'm guessing Meghan McCarthy made it happen deliberately because there would be no plot otherwise.  But why?  They followed the directions carefully.  Did the writer make them screw up intentionally because they're kids?  Come on!  They have the best of intentions at heart!  Why not make something go right for them for a change?  Would things really be that bad if they actually succeeded?

So after Cheerilee and Big Mac give the three fillies the benefit of the doubt, it is discovered that what had been created was in fact a love poison, which works ten times stronger than a love potion.  So now they can't take their eyes off each other nor can they stop spouting indistinguishable fancy love talk.

Cheerilee: He's my shmoopy-doopy sweedy-weedy pony pie.

Big Macintosh: You're my shmoopy-doopy sweedy-weedy pony pie.

Ho boy.  So now the Cutie Mark Crusaders have to come up with a way to undo the mess they've created.  Typical.

Well it turns out they did follow the recipe exactly, but they failed to read further on and discover that the intended love potion never existed.  Sorry, writers.  Didn't see that coming.  Turns out the only cure to this disease is to separate them from making eye contact for a full hour.  Easier said than done.

"Is that so?  Why couldn't they just blindfold them?"

Well apparently, their idea of separating them is prepping them up for marriage.  While they're dating at the Sugarcube Corner, Cup Cake starts getting weirded out, but opens her big mouth and has to say this.

Mrs. Cake: Well, these love birds will probably be planning a wedding soon.

This gives Sweetie Belle the idea of preparing them for a wedding, which does sound like it could separate them from more than enough time.  The trouble is, it's not that easy.

Cheerilee is getting frantic just being away from Big Mac trying to pick out a dress quickly.

Sweetie Belle manages to bar her in a dressing room while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo keep Big Mac busy.  But with 25 minutes remaining, they lose sight of him after finding out he already made his purchase.

So while it's Big Mac's turn to go bouncing around like Peppy LePew, as if he knows where Cheerilee is, Apple Bloom tries to slow him down, but with no success.  Not even a whole house can stop him.  But a pit can!  Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had dug up one with a mattress on the bottom.

Cheerilee then bursts out of the dressing room taking out a whole wall of the Carousel Boutique in the process and just as she falls into the pit, the spell wears off.  Well, so much for humoring the little fillies.

So the Cutie Mark Crusaders are put to work doing all of Big Mac's chores, which seems to be pretty much it considering things could have gone a whole lot worse.

But it turns out they decide to get them back in spades by pulling a fast one and pretending to be back in love again.

And that's that.

"I told you, they should have blindfolded them."

Well, would it have made things easier?  Would it have even worked?  We may never know now.  But you know what I think?  I think that the Cutie Mark Crusaders trying to be good to Cheerilee may just be their saving grace... six episodes later.

"Yeah, can't wait to find that out."