Misty joins the Cutie Blossom Bash to celebrate getting her cutie mark.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Opaline rants about "her" being missing, seemingly referring to Misty. Then she calls out for "Gertrude", her mane brush.
- The Cake Is a Lie: While gloating to herself that Misty will eventually come begging for Opaline to give her a cutie mark like always, Opaline remarks it's silly to believe she'd ever actually do it.
- Call-Back: Like in "Growing Pains", The Power of Friendship amps up Hitch and Sunny's Green Thumb magic, growing a huge Together Tree from a small sapling.
- The Cameo:
- Grandma Figgy briefly appears taking care of Sparky.
- Posey and Dahlia are among the ponies in attendance for the Cutie Blossom Bash proceedings.
- Continuity Nod:
- While onboard the Marestream, Misty stands on the same spot the others wondered about back in the Winter Wishday special.
- As they near Zephyr Heights, Pipp sings along to a recording of "Everything Is Gonna Be Okay", which was first heard back in the opening special.
- Misty mentions Madame Taffytail, the doll she made last season as a Companion Cube.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Opaline believes Misty's lack of activity is because she's "sulking" in her room.
- Dramatic Irony: Queen Haven asks Zipp to take measures to protect the celebration from an incoming rainstorm, both ignorant of the fact that the pegasi are able to manipulate the weather (given how long magic has been gone for, that knowledge has seemingly been lost to time).
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Misty's mane is given a new color scheme in preparation for her big moment. It takes a couple of tries before Izzy and Pipp hit on one that works — first red, then green, and finally purple/pink.
- Flashback: A series of flashbacks tells how the Mane Five got their cutie marks.
- Flashback To Catch Phrase: Pipp and Zipp's flashback shows that Pipp adopted the "Pipp, Pipp, hooray!" chant from the cheering of ponies after her first public performance.
- Sunny defused an argument between two ponies over who would get the last lemonade she was selling by splitting it and giving each half.
- Zipp figured out how to glide by jumping between high objects.
- Pipp was inspired to sing by seeing Zipp gain her cutie mark.
- Hitch played with a filly who was excluded by the others.
- Finally, Izzy took a pile of junk in Bridlewood and turned it into a fountain.
- Formal Full Array of Cutlery: Before the Bash, Haven invites the honorees to a feast that involves multiple utensils. Misty picks the wrong fork for her meal and is corrected by Seashell, to her embarrassment.
- Gilligan Cut: Misty worries that Opaline has realized she's gone and is plotting her revenge. Cut to Opaline worrying about Gertrude, her mane brush.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Hitch and Zipp use walkie-talkie-like devices that are dubbed "Trottie-talkies".
- I Call It "Vera": Opaline named her favorite manebrush "Gertrude".
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Izzy does her own echo for her flashback, and even calls it such as the scene changes.
- Literal-Minded: When Zipp assures Misty they won't let anything rain on her parade, Izzy thinks Misty is getting an actual parade.
- The Mole: Misty decides to return to Opaline to keep an eye on her and feed her plans to the Mane Five.
- [Popular Saying], But...: Invoked by Sunny when she tells the story of how she got her cutie mark.Sunny: ...my dad always said, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! ...And sell it to raise money for the library!"
- Pun: Queen Haven refers to the appetisers as "Zephyr Bites" (which she claims was Cloudpuff's idea).
- Record Needle Scratch: Misty talking to the photo of her friends is interrupted by Opaline demanding her presence, accompanied by the scratch of a record needle.
- Series Continuity Error:
- In Sunny's flashback, the Mane Melody logo is visible on a wall behind Argyle when Sunny is on stage, even though this is set well before the tribes reunited and Pipp opened her shop.
- Past Queen Haven has her current purple headdress, not the blue Unity Crystal she had back them.
- Super Gullible: Opaline easily buys Misty's claim that her new look is the result of her falling into a bush created by Earth pony magic.
- Tempting Fate: After a nervous Misty tries to convince herself that the Cutie Blossom Bash will be "smooth sailing". the Marestream encounters a massive storm cloud. She even lampshades it.Misty: I just jinxed the whole "smooth sailing" thing, didn't I?
- Title Drop: A twofer. Despite the obvious "Cutie Blossom Bash" taking place, Queen Haven tells the fillies and Misty that they'll "make [their] mark" as they grow.
- Verbal Backspace: Pipp mentions some saplings she's been singing to - or rather, nurturing for a while.
- Weird Moon: Bridlewood experiences a "translucent moonstone moon" at intervals.
- Written-In Absence: Sparky doesn't join the ponies for the trip to Zephyr Heights, with Hitch explaining that he's recuperating with Grandma Figgy.
