I guess you can make it so they believe they’re good at something they aren’t, but it doesn’t look like you can actually make them good at it.

This begs the question:
 
IF you can change a cutie mark, can you effectively “reprogram” a pony?

It isn’t just that their cutie mark says they’re good at it, it’s that they remember always being good at it. It’s just that for some odd reason Rarity can’t seem to get the weather right today. And the farm isn’t nearly as fun as Pinkie remembers it…

I figured they all thought “Well my Cutie Mark says so, so I must be good at it” and kept on trying.

@sargesprinkles
 
Yeah but most PhDs are just for wonky academia stuff that’s only good if you’re a college professor. Sure, you don’t want to go swapping around like, physicians or engineers or astrophysicists – you know, the PhDs that decide whether we all live or do.
 
But I mean, if you’ve got a PhD in comp sci and you swap it and the associated job with someone’s that got a PhD in Russian literature, the 50% of the students that actually show up to lecture are STILL going to be too blazed on mescaline to even notice.

@EQUINE_excite  
no, because magic  
a PhD you earn after many years of hard work  
a cutie mark is a magic stamp that you get when have a simple revelation and get instant talent

The cutie mark switch is basically trading your PhD with another person, and then being put in their job believing it’s really yours. Apple Bloom was handed a virus-infected cheat code.

I thought that the Cutie Pox itself had the side-effect of forcing the infected to do whatever the marks dictated. That said, this is a world where /everyone/ has a cutie mark that tells them exactly what they’re best at. There is no questioning it as it’s something that never fails. If your cutie mark decides that you’ll be amazing at golf, you’ll be amazing at golf and you’re going to love to golf too since you’re so good at it. People tend to be happier doing the things they’re good at. In this case the cutie marks are telling them they’re amazing at something they actually suck at, but how can that be when cutie marks are never wrong?

see i don’t understand why they weren’t good at the new talents. the way the presented it, to the characters the marks have been there the whole time, so to them it was what they were good at.  
now maybe it was because she was sick that Apple Bloom was instantly good with the new talents, but it does seems strange the show that says being at something is because a tramp stamp(and not experience and hard work) suddenly changed the rules.

Their memories were altered. By “what my cutie mark is telling me,” they meant “the purpose and special talent that I remember discovering as a child and embracing for my life thereafter.” If anything, they were more confused as to why it wasn’t working now.

they only keep trying doing those things even thought they fail because they where brainwashed into thinking those where their talents all along.

That’s a pretty dark implication. I mean, it probably dosen’t happen very often, but what if some pony underwent a life changing experience that altered their beliefs and passions and made them hate their cutie mark? Would they be forced to slave at something they hate until death?

I think the obvious, and short, answer here is no.

Inescapable fate is canon, free will an illusion. Good to know.

No, they can’t help it. Applebloom was “forced” to do those things, that’s apparently how the CM’s work.

this was totally different from the cutie pox, spike even suggested using zecora’s cure on it but Twilight said it will not work.

Cutie marks decide your destiny, rebellion is futile.
 
All will/bow before their cutie mark overlords.