When My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic first aired, I noted how cutie marks represent both growing up and spiritual calling. Since then, the show has explored cutie marks in much greater depth. Wrapped up in cutie marks is all the bliss and anxiety about identity–when will I know what I’m supposed to do with my life? What if I don’t like or understand my cutie mark? What happens when I’m forbidden from living out the purpose for which my cutie mark stands?
Now, there’s a new cutie mark question to ask: Can anyone have a cutie mark, or is it just for ponies?
In “The Fault in Our Cutie Marks,” a Griffon named Gabby comes to Ponyville seeking the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who have been living out their newly discovered purpose of helping other ponies discover their identities (and thus receiving their cutie marks). She wants so much to participate in the kind of transformative love that she witnessed when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie visited Griffonstone that she is determined to get a cutie mark of her own. Who better to ask than the Cutie Mark Crusaders?
However, no creature except ponies has ever had cutie marks. Receiving one, and thus having a visible mark of one’s purpose, is an experience unique to ponies. Can a Griffon partake in something that is so deeply rooted in pony culture?
This episode’s answer is yes, but not in the same way and that’s okay. Griffons can’t receive cutie marks. No mysterious branding appears on their flanks that tells the world what they’re meant to do in life. The exact ways in which ponies discover their purpose and then live in community with one another according to that purpose are not possible for Griffons.
Once the CMC realize that it’s truly impossible to help Gabby receive a cutie mark, they become distraught and think they’ve failed in their purpose. In truth, they just need to rethink how one can have a cutie mark. They manage to find a way to “extend the table” of this unique pony experience to other creatures by accommodating a different way of presenting a cutie mark. They give Gabby her own cutie mark pins that she wears on her mail bag. Not only does this extend the cutie mark experience to another race (which historically has a rocky relationship with ponies), but the fact that Gabby’s cutie mark pins match the CMC’s cutie marks welcomes her into community with them.
Early Christianity faced a similar question of just how far the transformative experience of Jesus truly stretched. Was it also for Gentiles, and if so, did they need to be circumcised? Throughout Christian history, the sacrament of communion has also had specific barriers placed around it determining who can partake and who can’t.
One phrase many Christians use to talk about communion is “extending the table.” In progressive churches like mine, this means we practice open communion where anyone who wants to partake may do so. They don’t have to be members. They don’t have to be confirmed or baptized. There is no spiritual milestone or requirement that they must meet to be part of our church community. We may adapt how we provide access (such as having gluten-free wafers for those with allergies), but all are still able to participate no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey.
In the same way, it’s okay that Gabby can’t have a cutie mark that physically appears on her body. She can still be part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and spread everything she’s learned from them to her own community, which will hopefully help other Griffons experience the love she’s so readily seen among ponies.