The Cutie Mark Crusaders are excited to be going to the Appleloosa County fair, and have made sure they have their train tickets, snacks for the road, and plans for what to do once at the fair. But they realize at the last minute they forgot to figure out which of Applejack, Rainbow Dash, or Rarity would be their chaperone for the trip. They try to see if any of the three are available, but each has pressing needs that leave them unable to help. The CMC check with both Fluttershy and Twilight and find that they are studying a dying magical flower that Starswirl sent to Twilight, and are also unable to help. As Twilight and Fluttershy go off to find a book that may have clues about the powers of this flower, the CMC lament the need to have a grown-up and wish aloud that they were grown-ups themselves. The flower suddenly glows, loses one of its last two remaining petals, and an aura surround the CMC. When it dissipates, the CMC find they are now full-grown ponies.
After the initial shock, the three realize they no longer need a grown-up to accompany them, and race to make the train to Appleloosa on time. They talk about all the stuff they can do now as adults, but end up missing the proper stop for the train, and get off instead at Hayseed Swamp. The station's somewhat creepy conductor offers to draw them a map through the swamp to reach Appleloosa, and the three decide to walk the rest of the way rather than wait for the next train. En route, they get briefly separated and lost, but eventually find a main trail where they meet two foals, Spur and Biscuit. The two are arguing about Spur's pet, Bloofy, as Biscuit wants to take it to the Appleloosa fair, while Spur is worried how Bloofy will react around other ponies. The CMC, figuring the two can help them get to the fair, quickly assert themselves as adults and suggest they follow Biscuit's advice. They offer to Spur that if she needs any other adult advice, to just ask them.
At the fair, the CMC quickly bail on Spur and Biscuit to enjoy all the activities of the fair. Meanwhile, Spur becomes more concerned with Bloofy who is acting very anxious in its cage, and when they finally catch up to the CMC, Spur argues about their lack of advice. Seeing that there is a pet contest at the fair, the CMC agree with Biscuit to enter Bloofy into it, but this turns out to be a bad idea. As Bloofy gets more and more attention, it becomes more excited, and suddenly bursts from its cage and creates a massive whirlwind that ravages the fair.
As the crowd panics and runs away, Twilight and Fluttershy arrive, having learned of the wish-granting nature of the flower, and figuring the CMC used one wish to get them to the fair. They find the panicked crowds and the CMC trying to protect Spur and Biscuit from the out-of-control Bloofy. Fluttershy recognizes Bloofy as a whirling mungtooth, a creature that is normally calm but gets excited around others, and suggests that Spur help calm it. Between the CMC and Spur, they eventually get Bloofy to relax and back in its cage.
Twilight, who has brought the flower with them, lets them use its last wish to return themselves to their normal age. CMC apologize to Spur and Biscuit for pretended to be adults, realizing they are not ready for it, but want to come back to visit them later, as long as they have proper adult supervision.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- Don't be in a hurry to grow up. While there are a lot of things adults can do that kids can't, you should enjoy your childhood while you still have it.
- Age and maturity are two different things.
- Just because someone is bigger doesn't necessarily mean they always know best.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Crusaders wish to become adults, and get what they want thanks to a wishing flower. However, age without experience means that they still have the minds of children, and end up making a lot of the mistakes that adults said they would.
- Because I Said So: The CMC claim during their song that now that they're big they can win any argument with "Because I say so".
- The Bus Came Back: The same crazy train ticket pony from "Sounds of Silence" appears as the station conductor for Hayseed Swamp, scaring the Crusaders.
- The Cameo:
- Troubleshoes makes a brief appearance getting dunked during the fair.
- Lyra and Bon Bon can be seen riding the ferris wheel in the background of some shots of the fair.
- Twist briefly appears during "Being Big Is All It Takes".
- Continuity Nod:
- Twilight requests Fluttershy's help in researching the flower, referencing Fluttershy's skill in that area from "A Health of Information".
- Apple Bloom mentions travelling to Hayseed Swamp before.
- During the Crusaders' trek through the swamp, Scootaloo accidentally steps on the head of a Bufogren.
- At the Appleloosa fair, the horseshoe toss game has stuffed animal version of Phoenixes, Parasprites, and Ursa Major/Minors as prizes.
- Delinquent Hair: Scootaloo as an adult seems to have grown a mohawk of sorts, befitting her personality.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- The Crusaders plan out most of their trip to the fair, but all assume that someone else would ask someone to be their chaperone. By the time they realize this, it is last minute and everyone is already busy doing something else.
- After their age up, the Crusaders first thought is that they can now go to the fair by themselves. Though they still never worked out how to take the trip properly, and wind up getting lost in Hayseed Swamp.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Despite all the damage he caused and throwing everyone into a town-wide panic, Bloofy still wins the award for "Most Interesting Creature", having a blue ribbon for it at the end of the episode.
- Biscuit and Spur forgive the CMC after finding out the three of them are actually younger than them and gave them bad advice all day, with Spur even saying it is okay to visit them in the future as long as they have a real adult with them.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: At the end, Spur accepts that the CMC can visit them again... on the condition that they're accompanied by a real grown-up. Cue everypony laughing.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Fluttershy does this when she recognizes what creature Bloofy is and gushes over how cute they are, before remembering the situation.Fluttershy: Goodness! A Whirling Mungtooth! They are very rare and just the cutest little things when they're not excited. [a cart crashes nearby] This one's excited.
- Fantastic Flora: The mysterious flower that Twilight and Fluttershy are studying can grant wishes, at the cost of needing to consume a petal for each wish granted.
- Fictional Disability: Adult Scootaloo's wings are sized like that of a filly pegasus compared to any other adult pegasus, which suggests that her inability to fly is related to stunted wing growth. However, this raises the question of how Bulk Biceps, with similarly sized wings, is able to fly...
- Foreshadowing: The grownup ponies warn the CMC that they might get on the wrong train and end up lost in the wrong place. This is exactly what happens later on.
- Funny Background Event: Sweetie Belle's amateur teleporting skills accidentally causes her to teleport herself inside of a hay bale.
- Furry Reminder: Sweetie Belle shows her anger by reflexively bucking, kicking over the chart behind her.
- Growing Up Sucks: Implicit by the title itself, the CMC realize that there are responsibilities that come from being an adult they weren't ready for.
- Huddle Shot: The CMC huddle a few times to discuss things, like whether to try walking to Appleloosa through the swamp, or if they should let Biscuit bring Bloofy to the fair so they can follow him, despite Spur's disapproval.
- Idiot Ball: The Crusaders end up in Hayseed Swamp because they didn't realize you need to board specific trains to get to specific places, they just assumed trains went where you needed to go. Especially odd since they were able to successfully take the train to Scootaloo's aunt's house by themselves just a few episodes ago.
- Mad Eye: The train ticket pony has one very wide, round eye while the other is squinting, emphasizing his craziness.
- Make a Wish: The strange magical flower sent to Twilight Sparkle by Starswirl the Bearded for study happens to be able to grant wishes. When the CMC express their desire to be grown-ups out loud, it bathes them in pink light and encases them into a giant bloom, which opens to reveal they’ve been changed into adults. Each wish costs the flower one of its petals, and it had only two left when Twilight obtained it. By the end, the flower has no petals left and disappears entirely.
- Mythology Gag: When the CMC are pouting to Twilight after she explains why she can't take them to the fair, their expressions and faces briefly take on the characteristic of the baby ponies from the G3.5 shorts.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Sweetie Belle uses the ability to teleport to rescue a few foals from the tornado at the fair. Afterwards, her horn sparks and she worriedly rubs it, suggesting it was difficult. She also teleports herself into a hay bale when she does it, implying she doesn't really know what she's doing. Before, Sweetie Belle was capable of only basic unicorn levitation and a partial bubble shield, though it's easy to assume that unicorn magic strengthens as the unicorn gets older, which could explain this.
- Overnight Age-Up: The Cutie Mark Crusaders get magically transformed into adult mares when they wish on a magical flower. If Apple Bloom's wish is anything to go by, it made them as old as their sisters.
- Performance Anxiety: Seeing the crowd watching him causes Bloofy to become extremely nervous, leading to him creating a tornado.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode's title is a reference to the Neil Sedaka song "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do".
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Bloofy is absolutely adorable.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: After noticing one of the flower petals on the wishing flower is gone, Twilight and Fluttershy assume the Crusaders wished to be transported to the fair, and that's where they'll find them. They are right that's where they are, though the Crusaders actually wished themselves to be adults and went there on their own. Though Twilight and Fluttershy almost immediately figure this out themselves when they see the town-wide panic going on.
- Schedule Fanatic: Sweetie Belle plans out the Crusaders' entire trip to Appleloosa, complete with charts and graphs. Apple Bloom is quick to take notice of this:Apple Bloom: Are you sure you're not Twilight's sister?
- Seen It All: Twilight and Fluttershy are able to deduce exactly what had happened the moment they saw the chaos erupting from the fairgrounds. When the adult Crusaders come to Twilight and Fluttershy for help and explain the situation to them, Twilight and Fluttershy both just give an annoyed eye-roll in response rather than being surprised.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode has a magical flower under a dome whose petals magically fall. Sound familiar?
- A Ridiculously Cute Critter who makes squeaking sounds and is carried around in a small box? Sounds familiar. In fact, Bloofy's box looks very similar to Gizmo's from Gremlins.
- When Bloofy turns into a tornado, a pony gets pulled in that looks like Dorothy, along with a small dog that looks like Toto, both from The Wizard of Oz.
- Likewise, a cow gets pulled into the tornado.
- Fans have also noticed a similarity between the premise of this episode and the Tom Hanks movie Big.
- Shown Their Work: On official maps of Equestria, Hayseed Swamp is fairly close to Appleloosa and in the same direction as it relative to Ponyville, so it's perfectly believable the Crusaders could get on the wrong train heading south and end up in the swamp instead of the town, and then have to walk over.
- Skewed Priorities: The first thought that the CMC have when they discover they have triggered the magical flower and have been turned into adults? That they now can go to the fair by themselves.
- Spectacular Spinning: Whirling Mungtooths can spin their bodies fast enough to create a giant twister.
- Status Quo Is God: The wishing flower has two petals on it, allowing the Crusaders to turn into adults with one wish, then back to foals with the second. Had there been only one petal, the Crusaders would have been stuck as adults (at least until Twilight figured out a way to fix it).
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Over the course of the series, the CMC grew gradually more mature, got their cutie marks (which is the pony equivalent of entering puberty) in Season 5, and proved very adept at solving other people's problems related to finding their purpose. In "The Last Crusade", they even take the train to Scootaloo's aunts' house on their own. In this episode, they act under the notion that being adult is all about being big, they make mistakes that they shouldn't have reasonably made given their actions in previous episodes, and when they come across two people with a problem, they are suddenly woefully incompetent at solving it.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the ponies who know the Crusaders seem to notice that they have suddenly become adults. When the Crusaders come to Twilight and Fluttershy for help, the two of them seem more annoyed than anything else.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The CMC inadvertently cause a rift between Spur and Biscuit and cause Bloofy's destructive rampage by trying to act like adults.
- Vocal Evolution: The Crusaders' voices sound noticeably deeper and richer as adult mares. Since their actors have all gotten older, the Crusaders' adult voices are the same voices that they record, but without the artificial pitch-up that's usually applied.
- You Just Had to Say It: While watching the start of Bloofy's performance, Scootaloo asks "What could go wrong?" Then Bloofy creates a whirlwind...Scootaloo: Me and my big grown-up mouth.
- You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Comes up twice in the episode.
- First in the song, where the grown-up CMC imagine boarding a rollercoaster that two foals cannot because they're too small.
- Then at the fair, when Spur tries to follow the Crusaders in a Ferris Wheel, but is too short to be allowed in.
