The Cutie Mark Chronicles: The Mane Six, the Elements of Harmony, and the Spark · 12:01pm Apr 16th, 2015

Inspired by the season five premiere, the Cutie Mark Chronicles is a series of blog posts (updated infrequently) where I will be explaining my head canons and interpretations of various characters cutie marks. If you have a character whose cutie mark you would like analysed, leave a comment.

The Cutie Mark Chronicles shows the audience the stories of how the Mane Six each received their cutie marks, culminating in a Rashamon-style reveal that they all got them at roughly the same time, and thanks to the same inciting incident of Rainbow Dash performing a sonic Rainboom. The episode ends with Twilight sending a friendship lesson to Celestia:

Today I learned something amazing! Everypony everywhere has a special magical connection with her friends, maybe even before she's met them. If you're feeling lonely and you're still searching for your true friends, just look up in the sky. Who knows, maybe you and your future best friends are all looking at the same rainbow.

Spike writes it off as her being overly cheesy, and considering the reveal, it would be natural for Twilight to romanticize the reveal a little. Still, combined with the other quirks of the show - that the six ponies who got their cutie marks all ended up in the same town, where they were perfectly placed to defeat Nightmare Moon and restore Princess Luna- there does seem to be some element of destiny involved.
(In fact, 'destiny' is a term that Celestia uses to describe Twilight's ascension, though exactly what that means in context is a subject for a different post).

It certainly seems as if the Mane Six were 'destined' to meet, and yet for me, this undercuts a lot of the show, and Twilights character development; her growing more comfortable with others and becoming friends with the reMane Five isn't such an exciting piece of character development if she was "destined" to become friends with them. .. though it might go some way towards explaining why the Mane Six are a pretty self-contained clique in Ponyville.

Either way, the idea of the Mane Six's friendship and status as the Elements of Harmony being predestined is something I've never quite liked. However, re watching the episode in question certain similarities between the Six emerge which suggest that there may be something connecting them, even if it isn't a nebulous concept.

Each member of the Mane Six was exposed to the Sonic Rainboom in one way or another when they got their cutie mark. The shock wave of it caused rarity's boulder to split in two and reveal diamonds, as well as scaring away Fluttershy's animals. The sight of it inspired Pinkie Pie to throw a party, and Applejack to return to her family.
However, while each of those characters credit Rainbow with them getting their cutie marks, none of their marks actually appeared during the Rainboom. Rarity got her's at the school play after she used the gems, Fluttershy after corralling the animals, Pinkie Pie after throwing the party, and Applejack after returning home to the farm. In each case, each ponies cutie mark only appeared hours (if not days) after the Rainboom.

The exceptions to this are the remaining ponies. Rainbow Dash got her cutie mark almost immediately after the Rainboom happened. Similarly, Twilight got her cutie mark either during (or immediately after) her magical surge at her entrance exam- a magical surge which was ignited by Twilight being startled at the Sonic Rainboom.

Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack's cutie marks- while representing different talents- are remarkably similar in design, each showing three objects (diamonds, butterflies, balloons and apples). Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle are unique in the group for having more abstract and stylized marks.

On their own, this may not seem like a big deal. However, when combined with the Elements of Harmony, it becomes more interesting. Rainbow Dash has a stylized rainbow lightning bolt mark, and she is the pony responsible for everypony else getting their marks. Twilight Sparkle (the only other member of the Mane Six to immediately get a cutie mark) also has a stylized symbol of a starburst.
Rainbow Dash "started" the Mane Six's journey by helping them find their cutie marks and leading Applejack (from Manehatten), Pinkie Pie (as seen in Cheese Sandwich) and Fluttershy (from the sky to the ground) to Ponyville.
Twilight, on the other hand, "ended" their journey's, when she named the group as the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon. Just as Rainbow Dash started the story by causing a rainboom (and causing their marks), Twilights realization of what "the Spark" needed to get the elements to work takes the form of a twinkle in her eyes, a star shine not unlike her own cutie mark.

My theory is that the Sonic Rainboom was like the primer for an explosion- or, for fantasy fans out there, like the return of magic to Westeros in a Game of Thrones. Twilight's realization catalyzed the potential within the Mane Six, which resulted in them becoming the Elements of Harmony- which is a fitting role for Twilight to have since, as the element of Magic and the Princess of Friendship, what she represents isn't any single element, but the result of all of them being mixed together.

"But wait. If the Mane Six's cutie marks are similar because they were primed to be the elements, doesn't that mean they were still destined to become them?"
Not quite. As established, there were a lot of ponies who saw the sonic rainboom. The final part of my head canon is that, while we haven't seen the cutie mark stories of other ponies, many of them probably recieved their cutie marks as a result of the rainboom, and have similar cutie marks to those of the Mane Six; three sweetdrops for Bon Bon, for example, or three rain drops for Raindrops. Those are two ponies who could have become Elements of Harmony, while those with more stylized marks (like Octavia, Derpy, or Minuette) may have got theirs as directly as twilight did, and so would be able to fill in as the Twilight/Rainbow of the group.

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