Hearts and Paws Day

Hearts and Hooves Day is the seventeenth episode of the second season of Legends of the Multiverse: Friendship is Universe and the forty-third episode overall. The Cutie Mark Crusaders create a love potion in hopes of making Miss Caline Bustier and Li Shang each other's "special somepony," but when they discover the serious side effects of the concoction, they quickly regret their actions.

Release
The episode was released on iTunes two days prior to its scheduled television debut with the erroneous air-date of "Feb 12, 2021" and was removed within a few hours.

Online Puzzle Game
A Flash game called "Hearts and Paws Day Puzzles" was made available on Hasbro.com ten days before the episode's scheduled airing. The puzzles include several images of Li Shang, Caline Bustier, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, set at a picnic, at the treehouse, and at other locations. A few of the images feature two small glasses filled with a hot-pink drink, and one of the images features Caline Bustier in a nuptial veil.

Finding a special somepony
The episode opens with the Cutie Mark Crusaders creating an enormous Hearts and Paws Day card for Caline Bustier. When they show it to Caline, she thanks them but mentions that she doesn't have a special somepony. Therefore, the Crusaders take action to find her one. In The Perfect Mammal, the Crusaders look for the ideal mammal for their teacher, but their initial candidates are either unsuitable or already have special someponies. When they spot Li Shang piling haystacks, they eagerly ask if he has plans for Hearts and Paws Day, and when he answers no, they decide he and Caline are right for each other. Aurora Amano suggests that since Li Shang is so shy, it will be up to Caline to ask him. The Crusaders set up a romantic picnic, and lure Caline there by asking her to identify a tree near the gazebo. Li Shang arrives with a toolbox to fix the gazebo, but the three fillies have already fixed it. The fillies quickly hide in a bush to spy on the couple as they awkwardly chat. They are excited when Caline appears to be leaning in for a kiss, but she matter-of-factly points out that Big Mac has something stuck in his teeth.

The love potion
Dejected that they were unable to help Caline and Shang get together, the Crusaders bump into Kairi Sparkle, who is reading a book about Hearts and Paws Day. According to the book, the tradition started because of a love potion. The interested Cutie Mark Crusaders ask to borrow the book, and Kairi lends it to them. She tries to bestow another book, but the excited fillies have already left. The Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately rush to their clubhouse to create the love potion using "a tuft of cloud" and "a bright rainbow's glow." The book then instructs to stir the mixture with a Pegasus feather. The potions turns bright pink and emits heart-shaped bubbles.

Later that day, they bring Cheerilee and Big Mac together once more to test the potion, telling them it is punch they made. While they hide in the bushes, Caline finally realizes the fillies' plan to bring them together and tells Li Shang to play along and try the "punch." They drink it and the potion quickly takes effect. Caline asks the stallion to be her "very special somebody," and he accepts. The girls are thrilled until they hear the couple calling each other pet names, such as "shmoopy-doopy sweetie-weetie animal pie" and "cutie-patootie lovie-dovie honey-bunny." Disgusted by this strange level of love, the Crusaders wonder what's gone wrong.

Realizing their mistake
Back in their clubhouse, Aurora consults the book again and finds out that the love potion is actually a love poison. The book states that a long time ago, an Earth pony prince had given an Alicorn princess the drink, intending to make her fall in love with him. However, they were so lost in each other's eyes, they were unable to perform their duties, and their kingdom fell into ruin. Sheriff Lonnie panics, believing she and her friends may have inadvertently doomed Multiville. Fortunately, the book also provides a way to break the love poison spell: the lovestruck animals must be kept from looking into each other's eyes for an hour. The Crusaders go to Corona Sugarcube Corner, where Caline and Li Shang are lovingly sharing a milkshake. Queen Arianna mentions that two animals so clearly in love will probably want to plan a wedding soon. Aurora decides that if they can keep the two love-struck animals away long enough to "get ready" for a wedding, the spell will wear off. The Crusaders suggest a wedding to Caline and Li Shang, who are excited by the prospect and rush off to prepare for one.

Breaking the spell
Aurora helps Caline select a wedding dress at Carousel Boutique while barricading the dressing room to keep her inside. At the jewelry shop, Lonnie helps Li Shang select a diamond ring, as Alicia Acorn keeps track of how much time remains until the spell is broken. When Lonnie is talking to Alicia, Li Shang quickly purchases a diamond for Caline and hurries to Carousel Boutique. Lonnie asks Alicia to hurry and warn Aurora, while she attempts to slow down Li Shang. However, the determined mammal is too strong to be stopped. Being weighed down by oxen and a cart full of anvils fails to stop him, and even being tethered to a house only slows him down. As Li Shang approaches the boutique, he falls into a large pit in the ground dug by Aurora and Alicia and lands on a mattress at the bottom. At the same time, Caline bursts out of the barricaded boutique and runs towards her love. The town clock rings the hour mark just as Caline jumps in, and the spell is broken. Caline has no idea why she looks like she is about to get married at the bottom of a pit, and Li Shang returns to his normal, taciturn self. The Crusaders explain that it was all because of their selfish motives to make them fall in love with each other, and they apologize for the ordeal.

Caline and Li Shang decide that a fair punishment would be for the fillies to do all of Li Shang's chores. With the free time that Li Shang now has, he and Caline decide to have lunch together at the gazebo, calling each other "sugar bear" and "pumpkin pie" and teasingly winking at each other behind the fillies' backs. The Crusaders are comically horrified by the thought that they're still under the effects of the love potion.

Animals featured in The Perfect Mammal
The musical sequence led by Sweetie Belle features some more common ponies and some unusual ponies, which are all listed in the table below.

Quotes

 * Alicia Acorn: I think we're gonna need a bigger envelope.


 * Caline Bustier: It's lovely. And so... big!


 * Sheriff Lonnie, Alicia Acorn, and Aurora Amano': Hi, Miss Caline Bustier.
 * Caline Bustier: So you three said you needed help identifying a tree you found here near the gazebo?
 * [ricochet]
 * Caline Bustier: [dryly] That's an apple tree.


 * Sheriff Lonnie: "Oh c'mon, Miss Caline Bustier...Ask him to be your very special somebody."
 * Aurora Amano: [gasp] Oh my gosh, look!
 * [Caline leans her face towards Shang's]
 * Caline Bustier: Li Shang...
 * Li Shang: Eeyup?
 * Caline Bustier: You have something stuck in your teeth.
 * [record scratch]
 * Aurora Amano: OH COME ON!!


 * Caline Bustier: Would you three like to tell us why it was so very important that we meet you her-
 * Aurora Amano: -Punch!
 * Caline Bustier: Excuse me?
 * Aurora Amano: Punch! We made punch. We were gonna set up a stand and try to sell it but, heh, we needed some pony to taste-test it first.
 * Sheriff Lonnie: Yup.
 * Aurora Amano: We thought you two would be perfect together... to test it... together. So, ah, we'll just leave you two alone... together, to test it.


 * Caline Bustier: He's my shmoopy-doopy sweetie-weety animal pie.
 * Li Shang: You're my shmoopy-doopy sweetie-weety animal pie.


 * Caline Bustier: Girls! Can you explain why I look like I'm getting married at the bottom of a pit?
 * Aurora Amano: We may have given you the teeny-tiniest bit of love potion... that may have turned out to actually be a love poison, and you may have gone just a teeny-tiniest bit nutty.


 * Caline Bustier: Since you three are doing all of his chores, Li Shang and I thought we'd have a picnic at the gazebo. Ready, sugar bear?
 * Li Shang: Eeyup, pumpkin pie.
 * Sheriff Lonnie, Alicia Acorn and Aurora Amano: [gasp] NOOOOO!!!