History WesternAnimation / MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames

** This is CHS's reaction in general to losing, compared to the Shadowbolts' more ruthless attitude. For example, when Sandalwood and Microchips fail to build a birdhouse, their teammates reassure them, in sharp contrast with Cinch's harsh reaction to the Shadowbolts getting out-caked by Pinkie Pie.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Principal Cinch is apparently this, as she laughs with Twilight when she fails her ChairReveal.

** The last scene shows a Pinkie Pie emerging from the portal, high-fiving another Pinkie Pie and taking her place. Leans into AscendedFanon[[invoked]], as the theory that pony Pinkie Pie sometimes takes over the place of human Pinkie Pie at Canterlot High School is somewhat popular among fans, to explain the spot-on "guesses" about Equestria she makes in the movies.

** This is CHS's reaction in general to losing, compared to the Shadowbolts' more ruthless attitude. For example, when Sandalwood and Micro Chips fail to build a birdhouse, their teammates reassure them, in sharp contrast with Cinch's harsh reaction to the Shadowbolts getting out-caked by Pinkie Pie.

* SupernaturalIsPurple: The magic from the device is purple, just like Princess Twilight's magic.

* RingsOfActivation: When human Twilight activates her magic-collection device to unleash the power within, the initial explosion of energy is accompanied by two massive magical rings, [[spoiler:before a SphereOfPower lifts Twilight up and transforms her into a DarkMagicalGirl]]. The [[HeelFaceTurn redeemed]] Sunset then takes hold of the dropped device [[spoiler:and uses it on herself, again producing the rings, but this time resulting in an angelic transformation]].

* GenreBlending: The music of the ''Equestria Girls'' films already blends rock, pop, and EDM, but this becomes diegetic when DJ Pon-3 drops a heavy dance track on Rainbow Dash and the CHS marching band at the pep rally.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: The pep rally music begins with a small marching band accompanying Rainbow Dash. After the first chorus, DJ Pon-3 adds some heavy electrohouse to the mix.

** For someone so concerned about winning, Cinch's insistence on having Twilight participate is rather short-sighted. She wins the academic portion, but nearly costs them the athletic event singlehandedly. If not for Applejack taking pity on Twilight, Canterlot would have won the second event uncontested. Possibly {{Downplayed}} when she says that Archery is a standard requirement at Crystal Prep, so she probably assumed Twilight at least knew enough about it to pass the event.

** Pinkie still likes to pull stuff out of her hair. God only knows where she was keeping those party canons. So far they seem to be the only things she ''hasn't'' been able to just pull out of nowhere.

* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Human Twilight Sparkle at Crystal Prep, in part because of her social awkwardness and in part because the other students [[GreenEyedMonster resent her for her intelligence]]. In fact, at the start of the film, she had applied to an independent study group where her studies would be self-directed. However later on it is revealed that this isn't so much her (though they resent her more than each other for her intelligence) but the culture of her school, which drowns out any sense of companionship or group spirit in order to promote one's own talents. If someone shines brighter than others at Crystal Prep, then they paint a target on their back so everyone has it out for them.

** In previous films, Pony Twilight helped Sunset through her growth. Here, it's the reversal with Sunset helping Human Twilight. [[spoiler:Even the climax plays out similarly and, no joke, in virtually the same amount of time.]].

* TeenGenius: Twilight is the smartest student at Crystal Prep; the highest scores on everything academic and can even invent, from scratch, devices that can track and contain Equesterian Magic.

* AdultFear: Given Cadance and Shining Armor regard Twilight, respectively, as a figurative and literal sister, there's the scenario of a principal (namely Abacus Cinch) essentially bullying your child behind closed doors.

** [[spoiler:When Rarity attempts to save a pair of students from falling into the portal, one of them is Fleur Dis Lee, a Crystal Prep student.]]

* ExtremeSportExcusePlot: Neither Human Twilight nor Sunset Shimmer have been shown to express any interest in sports before. Justified since Twilight is being blackmailed/extorted into participating by Cinch because she's Human Shining Armor's younger sister. Since he helped win the Games the last time, Cinch wants to use that connection to further boost the school's reputation. Twilight, being the smartest student in the school, will also help her team win any academic events. It's further justified as none of the girls expect the types of sports chosen for the second event. It is even lampshaded by Sunset:

* MoodSwinger: Sour Sweet is prone to these, true to her name. One minute she's seemingly nice and sweet, then she turns sour and harsh.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: During "Unleash the Magic", when Twilight is about to open her magic device, her eyes flash with magic, briefly turning primarily bright purple with green irises -- [[spoiler:the same colors and patterning of Midnight Sparkle's eyes.]]

** The photo of Spike on Twilight's computer has him in a pose identical to one dragon-Spike made as a dog in ''Rainbow Rocks'' after he's caught photobombing Rarity; the only difference is that this Spike has a happy expression rather than a devious one.

* WrittenInAbsense: Sunset tries writing to Princess Twilight for help, but she never responds; she does not show up until the very last scene, where she apologizes for not writing back and the reason why she didn't was because she was caught in Starlight Glimmer's near-preventable time loop, as seen in "The Cutie Remark".

* INeverToldYouMyName: Human Twilight is quite perplexed that everybody at Canterlot High School know her name and give her a friendly welcome. Her bafflement increases tenfold when the Rainbooms recognize her dog, calling him Spike. By the time Principal Celestia addresses her by name too, she concludes with "This is getting ridiculous!"

* OpponentInstruction: When Twilight Sparkle is having trouble with the archery section of the competition, her opponent Applejack - paragon of honesty that she is- takes the time to help the former out.

* RealityEnsues:
** {{Discussed|Trope}} when Sunset Shimmer tells the others about the [[InTheHood hooded figure]] she saw snooping around the rearing horse statue and the portal in its base. The girls dismiss it as a CatScare over a Crystal Prep student planning to deface the statue.
--->'''Sunset Shimmer:''' It's not like we'll be fighting the powers of evil magic.\\
'''Fluttershy:''' No, we'll be fighting a school full of meanies. Not everything has to be magical to be important.
** When Sunset complains about Princess Twilight not responding to her book messages, Applejack and Rarity point out that Princess Twilight is a ''princess''. They can't expect her to drop her royal duties and just pop into their world at the top of a hat all the time, especially if it's for something as relatively minor as the Friendship Games and a few magical hiccups. [[spoiler:And sure enough, Princess Twilight was dealing with some things herself, namely [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 trying to fix]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E26TheCutieRemarkPart2 Equestria's timeline]].]]
** While Twilight is a good academic student, she's not ''athletic'', an oversight Cinch didn't take into account when forcing her onto the Crystal Prep team. Twilight wins her school the first round easily, but in the second round, which involves a relay race, she can hardly get past the first few hurdles and is useless in the archery portion since she's never handled a bow and arrow before. If Applejack hadn't helped her out of a sense of fair play, Canterlot could've won the second part uncontested.
** Once Cinch finds out about magic and that Twilight has been collecting it, she tries to force her to use it to give Crystal Prep an edge in the final round. Except neither Cinch nor Twilight really know ''what'' effects the magic could have nor know how to control it. When Cinch finally get Twilight to relent, Twilight is consumed and corrupted by the magic, nearly dooming both the human and Equestrian worlds.

* NotSoDifferent: This gets played up between Sunset Shimmer and Human Twilight in the [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2015/10/friendship-games-deleted-scene-and-its.html deleted/uncut version of "What More Is Out There"]], which reveals both are looking for more purpose in their life than just high school.

* DistantDuet: The CutSong version of "What More Is Out There" has both Human Twilight and Sunset singing parts of the song, drawing a parallel between Twilight looking for more in life and Sunset being unfulfilled by her mundane life. The piece in the final version of the film is a solo song by Twilight Sparkle.

** In the first film, Pinkie asks Princess Twilight if she had a twin sister in the city, alluding to Sci-Twi. In this film, Principal Celestia initially mistakes Sci-Twi for Princess Twilight's twin sister.
** In the first film, Pinki9e Pie asked Princess Twilight if she has a twin sister, alluding to SWci-Twi. In this film, Principal Celestia mistakes Sci-Twi for Princess Twilight's sister.

*** Twilight chooses to stay at CHS and not go back to Crystal Prep to study the magic of friendship. At the end of the pilot episode of ''Friendship is Magic'', Pony Twilight chooses to stay in Ponyville to learn the same thing.