The Cutie Mark Crusaders are the most powerful beings in Equestria

Spoilers for the latest episode after the break. Also, pseudo-philosophical navel-gazing.

The Crusaders finally got their cutie marks, and they weren't what I was expecting. It probably threw you for a loop, too.

That's because The Show Stoppers implied that Sweetie would become a singer, Apple Bloom would be a construction worker or engineer or something along those lines, and Scootaloo would do something kinetic involving sports or something. The Crusaders really do have those talents, and that is probably what the show writers had in mind at first. Had the fillies not formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders and been left to fend for themselves, they probably would have gotten cutie marks in those talents.

But when they did get their marks, their special talent turned out to be helping other ponies understand their own talents. And how did they acquire that ability? Through their own efforts. They spent hours upon hours trying to find their own, becoming close friends in the process, and ended up helping others along the way. And that turned out to be their shared destiny.

In other words, the Cutie Mark Crusaders altered their own destinies.

And they did it through sheer force of will alone! Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer both did something similar, but it required powerful magic and was, in both cases, temporary. The Crusaders forged their fates. Their actions left an indelible mark not only on their bodies, but on the very fabric of existence itself.

Hence the blog title. Being able to unintentionally do what Twilight cannot is pretty impressive, don't you think?

Of course, I'm being a little facetious. But this is more support for my headcanon: that a special talent and its accompanying cutie mark isn't a matter of what might be called fate. It's not the design of some disembodied providence declaring that this pony is made for that purpose. Rather, talents come from a combination of a pony's natural inclinations and affinities--and, more importantly, their own decisions.

From what I've seen, other fans have developed fatalistic interpretations of the cutie mark system, that it's something that just happens to a pony when they discover The Thing They're Good At. I've never agreed. Ponies can be good at lots of things, so something else must be the determining factor in a cutie mark. And this season seems to be doing everything in its power to distance "Cutie Mark Magic" from that sort of conception of destiny. It's not something that just happens to a pony. It's something that results from a pony's life. And when their potential is fully formed, they have matured enough to gain that ultimate reward.

Yet that's not the end of the story. It's not about the mark. It's what you do with your life. The Crusaders have taught that to two ponies already, and Diamond Tiara won't be the last.

Needless to say, I thought this episode was absolutely brilliant.