G1's Cotton Candy and G1's Sweetheart were first release as blank flanks.

[Carrehz]

Cotton Candy does have a symbol in Rescue at Midnight Castle, the screenshot in the wiki just happens to be at an angle where her symbol is obscured. (It's hard to get a screenshot from RaMC that properly shows her symbol anyway, since a lot of copies of RaMC have deteriorated in quality over the years and her symbol, being white spots, tends to blend in with her body in old VHS copies of the special If that makes sense).

I really have no idea what to tell you.. you're looking at this from a G4 perspective. Some pre-G4 ponies have slightly different symbols between releases for much the same reason that half of the G4 main 6 re-releases have variations on their symbols (i.e. symbols down their legs, over their eyes, etc) - if it's different, it's new, thus giving you more incentive to buy the re-release.

[LadyMoondancer]

G1 was weirdly silent on symbols considering they're one of the most distinctive / recognizable things about MLP.  There had been horse toys before, probably even horse toys with brushable hair, but My Little Pony was the first horse with personalized flank markings.

But, yeah, G1 never really explained them or referred to them. (Like, the ponies never said "Ooo, cool symbol!" to one another or anything.) 

[Taffeta]

But, yeah, G1 never really explained them or referred to them. (Like, the ponies never said "Ooo, cool symbol!" to one another or anything.) 

Pocket Friends (Precious Pocket) ponies used to talk to their symbols quite a lot in the comics. I think the fish etc all had names, too...

[lunar_scythe]

*grins* this is going off my memory here, but didn't Bonny say(the first time she was at the MLP Fair) that when someone suggested pastel ponies, she made a sarcastic remark about 'why not give them hearts and stars instead of spots, then!' And someone thought it was a good idea...

To be honest, original My Little Pony cartoons and movies were never really given any kind of long term plot or planning; unlike the modern cartoons(and you could even say the later MLPTales series), the early MLP cartoons were just supposed to be longer ads with enough story behind them to keep kids entertained and want the toys; the cartoon was never supposed to be successful by itself, and as long as it was watched enough for the channels to play it, that's all that really was expected of it.  There's things in the cartoons that contradict themselves, poor animation, and so on.  They are good for what they were, but they aren't works of art that cartoons are today.  At the time, *every* successful toy had a cartoon!

[LadyMoondancer]

Oh, I hadn't heard that story about Bonnie before!  LOL, I love it!

It's true, 80s cartoons were basically 30 minute commercials.  But usually the companies at least kind of tried to explain.  Like with Transformers, Spike (not the dragon one, ha ha) asked why they transformed and the Autobots said "for DISGUISE . . . and so we don't have to walk everywhere."

I don't know how much of a disguise turning into a car or a plane is on a planet where every vehicle is a person, though . . . Maybe there were non-sentient cars too?

I do remember Soundwave, who turned into a boom box after he got to Earth, turned into a lamp post when he lived on Cybertron.

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[Artemesia's Garden]

[Taffeta]

I am pretty certain that MLP was never aired on TV in the UK during the 1980s. Or if it was, I have no idea when or where. All the eps came on VHS but that was it.

I think in 1996 they were all aired on Sky 1 for some unknown reason. A friend of my sister's recorded them all then and Naynie borrowed them.

But we had the comics *shrug*.

[ponyqueen]

LOL and ditto!   

[ember86]

LOL and ditto!   

Same here.

[FarDreamer]

Lord only knows why I'm spending so much time on this, but after reading the original post three times I finally follow.  You're just reading too much into it.

[Ponyfan]

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Here's a screencap of Cotton Candy from RAMC that shows her symbol although this was the best scene I found where it was clearly visible. 

I agree with the idea that the G1 cartoons were meant to sell more ponies and didn't really build upon the previous cartoons. Otherwise we would have seen the ponies from RAMC in Escape from Catrina and there were many contradictions between the cartoons. For example at the end of Escape from Catrina Megan gives the Rainbow of Light back to the ponies but in the MLP movie they had to find Megan to get it.




Ponyfan

[Strawberry Swirl]

Actually Cotton Candy's symbol was indeed meant to be an appaloosa pattern.  Originally the plan was that MLPs would be "real horse" colors with real horse patterns.  Then the idea evolved to "fantasy colors" with real-horse patterns.  This is seen in the Year 1 commercial, where ALL the Collector ponies have appaloosa spots, and also on front of the Year 1 backcard, and on this Year 1 brochure:

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Ah, thanks a lot! I was wondering when a decent looking copy of that image would turn up.
It's kind of interesting learning about how MLP came to be what it is.

Also, I think OP's headcanon of Sweetheart's symbol being more of a birth mark until she's older is interesting.

[WickedWonderland]

This theory has already been somewhat of my headcanon, but I don't think Sweetheart's symbol is a birthmark. It's very representative of her character, but it's more likely that symbols can change with age (like how baby Bowtie has 4 bows and adult Bowtie has 6) or if there is a shift in the pony's personality (such as Sweetheart's trait always being sweet and caring, but the symbol expanding when she discovered nursing was her calling.)

I don't think there's really anything more to Cotton Candy's symbol besides the design team finally deciding to give the ponies symbols and going "Okay, stars, flowers, clovers... what are we calling this one? Cotton Candy? Eh. Dots look kinda like little balls of cotton candy. Good enough. Next!"

[Carrehz]

but it's more likely that symbols can change with age (like how baby Bowtie has 4 bows and adult Bowtie has 6)

The baby ponies are seperate characters, though. They're not baby versions of the mother ponies.

[Leave a Whisper]

I don't think I'm following you.... to my knowledge there were no prototypes of Cotton Candy or Sweetheart that were released without symbols.  Also, the idea of ponies earning their symbols isn't something that was well established prior to Friendship is Magic.  It's true that it is hinted that Baby Ember has to earn her mark and was released with no symbol but all subsequent baby ponies, even newborns, were released with symbols.  If it's true that a pony has to earn her mark in G1, then why would newborns have symbols, when they cannot even talk yet? 

Actually, you are making the mistake of assuming something that G1 clearly started as something G4 started.

If you look at the back cards before the point where any resembled of story was removed from them, you would see the occasion story that dealt with the different types marks.  The ponies earned their flank symbols or other type of mark rather than be born with them in every 1 of those stories.

Ah. I stand corrected on that one. Doesn't make her a blank flank though. That's strictly a G4 term.

Actually, blank flank simply means: pony without a cutie mark.  The G1 term for cutie marks is flank symbols.  Hence a pony without a flank symbol is a blank flank.

I grew up with G1s and know what a symbol is. Cotton Candy still has symbols on her, as simple as they are and the term blank flank did not come into use till G4. Once again, the idea of earning symbols is also a G4 thing.

The conversation between Twilight and Baby Ember was more of a child's curiosity thing; Can I do this or that? And nothing to do with, When will I earn my symbol? Especially considering 1Baby Ember came out with a Star. The Sweetheart theory makes literally no sense whatsoever.