The Stars on Our Ponies
- Story by Christina Rice, Art by Agnes Garbowska
"Hey trust us, it only took us dozens of tries to get our marks."
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders have a new challenge when a young pony doesn't want to follow in her family's footsteps. Will she chose her family or her calling?"
This issue provides examples of:
- Be Yourself: Scootaloo convinces Gilded Lily to embrace her talent, and not worry about supposedly being incapable of following in the rest of her family's hoofsteps.
- Berserk Button: For Gilded Lily, getting the constellations wrong is this; After a few moments of hearing her fellow campers mess up their terms, she explodes and quickly corrects them, earning her cutie mark in the process.
- Black Sheep: Gilded Lily is afraid her talent will make her outcasted by the rest of her family.
- Call-Back:
- The CMCs' Cutie Mark Day Camp is a major part of the story.
- The Sirens are referenced via a constellation.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: After embracing her talent, Gilded Lily lets her mane down.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle unknowingly hurt Scootaloo's feelings by shooting down her extreme sports suggestions for the camp-out.
- Fancy Pants unknowingly puts extreme pressure on his niece to find a talent revolving around "being important and influential" like the rest of the family.
- So Proud of You: Despite Gilded Lily's fears, Fancy Pants is this when he learns about her talent for astronomy. He admits that he has always known that she prefers outdoor activities to socializing. He assures Lily her cutie mark doesn't make her any less a part of their family and has faith that she'll be important and influential in her own way.
