Fridge / My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games

Fridge Brilliance

• Who better to raise school spirit than Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty?
• "What More is Out There" is a song with strong Disney-esque qualities. Makes sense. After all, Pony Twilight is a magical princess.
• Pinkie Pie being the first one to realize Human Twilight is not Princess Twilight. In the first film, she mentioned having seen a girl that looked just like Princess Twilight's human form with a dog that looked just like Spike's dog form. So this, combined with Human Twilight physical appearance, her attending a rival school, and not remembering the Humane Six, allowed Pinkie to realize who they really were talking to.
  • In the first film, Pinkie is shown to known both Sci-Twi's appearance and Spike's name, yet this film shows them meeting each other for the first time. Thing is, we only knew that Pinkie knew how Sci-Twi looks and Spike's name. That dosen't necesarily mean that they talked to each other. She may have overheard Sci-Twi calling for Spike one moment and she briefly turned to see. This is further shown by how she dosen't seem to be puzzled by Princess Twilight and Sci-Twi having the same name, same appearance, and similar looking dogs, as it implies that she didn't knew her name. Additionally, Pinkie also knew that Sci-Twi lived in the city, so she most likely walked around near her house when she overheard Spike's name and saw Sci-Twi.
• Pony Twilight is getting very little attention in the toyline and trailers for this movie whereas her Alternate Self is. This is a Call-Back or Continuity Nod to how she and Celestia had told the Mane Five to not follow Twilight in order to prevent too much disruption.
  • The absence of the Princess of Friendship may also be a nod to how this movie is being released around Season 5's midway point. The implication is that unlike the previous installments which took place between seasons, this one is set sometime during Season 5.
  • Alternatively, it was supposed to be set at the end of the season (which was delayed due to the summer hiatus), which explains the time travel comment, which is what the last episode of season five revolves around.
• Spike becomes able to talk after getting caught in the blast when the amulet was absorbing Fluttershy's magic. What's Fluttershy's special talent? Communicating with animals on a higher level than others.
• While the magic mishap gave Spike the physical ability to speak, it makes sense that he already had the knowledge and vocabulary — he does admit that "it's so easy". Why? Because Twilight talks to him constantly, using full, proper English and not puppy talk. By every indication, she's been holding full (though slightly one-sided) conversations with Spike for years, giving detailed explanations of her thoughts and actions and never speaking down to him. Every word Spike knows he learned from her.
  • Which is just like how babies learn how to speak, by learning words from its parents, and Spike is a puppy. And if Twilight had him ever since he was born, that would make her his surrogate mother. Just like how Princess Twilight could be one to Spike the dragon.
  • It makes sense why Spike jumping into Fluttershy's magic stream would cause this, as it's shown that Equestrian Fluttershy's Cutie Mark's ability is giving her a Universal Translator for animals. Hence, it's logical that an animal gaining a portion of that magic would cause the reverse.
• That Midnight Sparkle is willing to destroy her own world to learn Equestria's magic, makes sense when you realize she's never fit in and was treated as an outcast. It meant little to her normal human self, so it means even less to her insane magically mutated self.
  • Related to this, Midnight Sparkle refuses to listen to Sunset when she tries to talk her out of her madness. While it could be chalked up to her being Drunk with Power, there are actually two possible reasons why she refuses to listen to Sunset. One, why should she do it? They barely know each other and the last time they met, Sunset gave her a scathing speech that sent her crying. Two, Twilight is the smartest student at Crystal Prep. She believes that she's smart enough to know what she's doing despite being driven insane by the power of the Elements of Harmony.
  • And the one that snaps Midnight Sparkle/Twilight out of her insanity? Spike, Twilight's only friend and the only one Twilight would care how they see her. When Midnight Sparkle saw Spike looking up at her, Twilight saw how much of a monster she became in her only friend's eyes.
• Had Spike not intervened, Midnight Sparkle would have won in her battle against Sunset in her Golden Super Mode. While Sunset may understand friendship now and can use the Elements of Harmony, Twilight is still the rightful bearer of the Element of Magic, even if this version of Twilight doesn't understand friendship at the time.
  • There are also a few other possible explanations for that.
    • Twilight's device had taken the magic that existed in the portal, giving her an additional boost.
    • The girls weren't fully ponied up when Sunset absorbed their energy.
    • Sunset was fighting alone. In a show where The Power of Friendship is one of the strongest powers there is. Sure, she got a power-up from her friends but ultimately, she was fighting Midnight Sparkle alone.
    • Sunset doesn't want to hurt anyone but Midnight has no reason to hold back. It's not that Midnight is stronger, it's that she doesn't care what kind of damage she causes while Sunset has to hold herself back.
    • The device had much more magic when Twilight used it, as she acquired large amounts of magic when she drained the Humane Six. Sunset only had the energy they'd regenerated in the few hours since their energy was stolen.
• In the first movie, the Element of Magic gave the girls their own magic, which eventually evolved into the other five Elements of Harmony. And with those five Elements of Harmony, they created the Element of Magic again, inside the amulet Twilight invented. They've gone a full circle here, creating a new set of the Elements of Harmony for the human world.
• When Sunset absorbs magic from her friends to gain her Golden Super Mode, they're not tired out or drained like other times, instead smiling. Unlike Twilight who unwillingly stole it, Sunset is merely using the connection she already has with them from the Elements to draw on their strength. It's also rather similar to how the Elements reacted when Twilight ascended to an Alicorn.
• Sunset's interest in empirical science over Twilight's theoretical science actually ties nicely in with her and Twilight's differences. Sunset was an Alpha Bitch who became a "raging she-demon" who used her magic to mind control people to conquer Equestria; she was always more interested in the physical world and was more interested in practical results that resulted in power. Twilight was a Shrinking Violet who began destroying her own world out of apathy as she tried to portal herself to Equestria to study magic; she doesn't care about the physical world and is much more interested in magic as a concept.
• Not only is she more powerful, Midnight Sparkle has a more human-like appearance than Demon Sunset, despite being corrupted by magic just like she was. Unlike Demon Sunset, Twilight is the rightful bearer of the Element of Magic, meaning she can bring much more power out of the elements than Sunset. She got enough power to go straight past the Bishōnen Line when she was corrupted by the magic.
  • Midnight Sparkle is also, unlike Sunset Shimmer, actually a human. Her demonic form noteably lacks pony ears like Sunset's did. So it makes sense that her demonic form looks more human than Sunset's, which was more... well, animalistic.
• Besides the obvious parallels between demon Sunset and Princess Twilight's fight in the first film, the conflict also parallels Princess Celestia's conflict with Nightmare Moon — night-themed character who feels unhappy with her position is corrupted by power and threatens to hurt others to get what they want and sun-themed character draws on the Elements to stop them. Except since there wasn't an outside force corrupting Twilight, only the amount of power she gained from the Elements, Sunset was able to talk her down after one good hit and get her to willingly relinquish the power.
  • Sunset Shimmer also has the advantage of... well, actually having failed, turned evil and made enormous mistakes. Contrary to what she thinks, this might have just given her the key advantage over Celestia in this situation.
• While Sunset's anger at human Twilight was brought on by human Twilight trying to meddle in things she doesn't understand, part of it could also be coming from her feelings towards Princess Twilight^note Whether you view them as platonic or not. Earlier in the film, the girls talk about how human Twilight is different from their Twilight at which point Sunset talks about her expertise with magic and how things would be different if she were around. Then, when Sunset starts snapping at human Twilight, some of her lines come off as her projecting her view of Princess Twilight onto human Twilight, as if saying "You wear her face, but you're nothing like her!"
  • Her anger towards human Twilight may also be due to the fact that human Twilight is messing with a power she does not understand, much like Sunset herself did in the first movie.
• During her Villain Song, Cinch mentions that she had students as smart as Twilight before, but the "good ones disappear before [she blinks]". It's possible that they figured out early that Cinch was going to exploit them to boost her own reputation, and left Crystal Prep before that happened. Which also explains why she's so controlling over Twilight. She doesn't want to lose Crystal Prep's brightest student before she can use her.
• Twilight's amulet only detects and drains the magic of the Humane Five when they pony up, but both her PKE meter and amulet detect Sunset Shimmer constantly (you can see Twilight's confused expression up when she points the PKE at Sunset in her first scene, and she approaches Sunset from the other side of the portal before Sunset ever touches it). Sunset's magic is also the only one drained without her ponying up, and she is not as physically affected by it as the others. Because Sunset is actually a unicorn, her magic is something she was born with and is naturally occurring, not something given to her by Princess Twilight's crown like it was to her human friends.
• Why does Sour Sweet mock Applejack's sound advice to Twilight on leading the target when firing the bow even though she's clearly good enough to hit a bull's eye? She used Multishot to hit it, meaning she's not actually that precise of a shot.
• Why does Pinkie ask Twilight for help setting up the party, when she clearly doesn't need it? Because she saw that Twilight didn't have any friends, and wanted to include her.
• On the subject of the portal being closed, while it's logical that Human Twilight accidentally absorbing some of the magic from the portal caused it, the time mess that Pony Twilight was involved in could also have caused the two worlds to lose their connection or it could have been a mixture of the two.
• Principal Celestia's confusion over the existence of Human Twilight, and her wrong conclusion about the possibility of her being a twin sister of the Twilight she knows, makes a lot of sense if you consider that she probably doesn't even know about the Alternate Self aspect of the two worlds. She learned at the end of the first movie that Princess Twilight and Sunset Shimmer were from another world, certainly also that they were ponies in their true form... but that their respective worlds were populated by counterparts, even if those were of different species? It was not relevant at the time, not to mention confusing, and — since only people with no immediate counterparts in sight (Sunset, Twilight, Spike, the Sirens...) had ever crossed the portal — hard to guess anyway without someone explicitly mentioning it. No wonder the Principal was perplexed.
• In the previous movies, Princess Twilight Sparkle got literally propelled out of the portal upon arriving in the human world (not seen in the first, but the probable explanation of why she lost consciousness). In The Stinger of this one, she also emerges from the portal rather fast, but this time she is ready for the discrepancy in momentum and manages to bring herself to a sudden stop.
• The uncontrolled portals in this movie don't seem to cause any transformation to those going through it, as seen with the carnivorous plants, Spike, the jackalope, or the students almost falling through the hole in the sky. This implies that the transformations from pony to human (as well as the addition of clothes) is a property of the permanent portal to Equestria, and not of the world itself. It was probably manufactured this way to avoid that travelers between the worlds would stand out like a sore thumb and allow inconspicuous visits.
  • The comics reveal Star Swirl the Bearded built the mirrors, and traveled to several different worlds using them. He was also aware of the properties of the world as he knew they would neutralize the Sirens, making it likely he traveled there himself. Almost certainly the enchantment was his, and made for that very purpose.
    • This finally explains why Spike is a dog, as dogs in our world aren't magic. Clifford the Big Red Dog is excluded.
• Magic in the human world is different than Equestria magic, as Sunset finds out. She does her best to try and understand the magic but fails multiple times in her experiments. While she does get a better understanding of how human world magic works, there is another possible reason for why she couldn't understand it before. She was studying the magic like it was just Equestrian magic when the girls' magic came from the strongest magical artifacts in Equestria, the Elements of Harmony. And the magic of the Elements of Harmony is not a toy, especially in the human world where not using it with the purest intentions can backfire badly. It backfired on Sunset because she didn't understand the Elements of Harmony at the time and assumed the girls' magic can be harnessed and controlled like normal Equestrian magic.
• If Human Twilight is anything like Princess Twilight (and she most definitely is), then she's read a very wide assortment of books. She must've read a lot of classics and mythology, stories with a hero and a monster to be slain. After reading so many stories like that, it makes sense why Midnight Sparkle is so afraid of Sunset after she's been beaten. In that situation, she's smart enough to realize that Sunset is the hero... and she's the monster about to be slain. Thankfully, Sunset isn't that kind of hero, choosing instead to help Midnight Sparkle regain her humanity.
• The credits for "Slice of Life" give Sweetie Drops/Bon Bon's name as "Bon Bon", while the credits of the short films and this movie list her as "Sweetie Drops". Of course — in the human world, she's an actual high school student and has no need for a Secret Identity.
• Why is Human Twilight, and by extension Midnight Sparkle, so fascinated by magic to the point of wanting to understand everything about it? Well, the reason is so simple and obvious. Magic has been stated to be friendship throughout the whole series and human world magic even more so, needing an understanding of friendship in order to be used without corrupting the user. Human Twilight wants friends, even if she doesn't know it, and that's why she's so fascinated by magic.
• In "Photo Finished", Watermelody choosing to paint an alicorn isn't so surprising if you consider this takes place after the climax of Rainbow Rocks. Like all students she witnessed "Rainbow Lumen" defeating the Sirens and was impressed.
• Despite them being the same individual, Human Twilight and Princess Twilight had the opposite reactions to bumping into Flash Sentry. The Princess was immediately attracted to him while Human Twilight merely brushed him off without a second thought. This could be explained as Human Twilight being exactly the same as Princess Twilight before she moved to Ponyville. Princess Twilight and her human counterpart saw no value in relationships, romantic or platonic, caring only about their studies to the point of shutting almost everybody out. It's more than likely that Princess Twilight would've had the exact same reaction to Flash Sentry if she met him before learning about the importance of friendship.
  • Human Twilight also had no idea who Flash Sentry even was before coming to the school, and Flash Sentry immediately treated her as a friend even though they just met, which might have put her off. Also, the circumstances of Human Twilight and Pony Twilight differ from each other. While Pony Twilight and Flash had a Crash-Into Hello moment, Human Twilight did not share the same moment with Flash.
• Why did Midnight Sparkle briefly regain her sanity when she saw Spike looking up at her? Because seeing Spike reminded her of the only friend she's ever had. Human world magic corrupts those who use magic without an understanding of friendship and for a second, Midnight Sparkle had that needed understanding to control magic and regain her sanity.
• Recalling the events of the original Equestria Girls and that the Equestria Girls world has its own equivalent of YouTube, one can actually find a possible reason for why the students of Crystal Prep are unfriendly to Human Twilight. Sunset Shimmer posted her smear campaign videos on said site. If anyone from Crystal Prep saw it, they would have thought it was their Twilight trying to win the approval of a rival school!
  • And with a bit of Fridge Horror, imagine how Human Twilight would feel seeing that video of her pony counterpart. It'd be like watching an embarrassing video of yourself and yet, have no memory of it ever happening as well as proof that you never there.
  • For even more of said horror, what would happen if Human Sunset Shimmer discovers the videos made by her counterpart or the hears about the Rainbooms concerts? What if someone she knew found videos from when Sunset Shimmer was a bully and thought it was her? That could raise uncomfortable questions at best or an incident with the police at the worst!
• After Midnight Sparkle starts opening portals willy-nilly, strong winds are blowing all over the place. Beyond providing the necessary Dramatic Wind, it stands to reason that several random spots all over Equestria, as well as Canterlot High, would have completely different levels of air pressure, thus fully justifying the gales as the air is rushing though the portals.
• Remember how many fans were confused and skeptical about Demon Shimmer's Informed Ability to pose a significant threat to Equestria? Well, as Midnight Sparkle demonstrates here, it's possible for a One-Winged Angel-type being to utilize the portal's magic (among others') and become a destructive, large-scale Space Master. Had the Humane 6 not cut Demon Shimmer off, it's quite possible that she would've discovered how to do something similar on the way back to Equestria with her new "army".
• Sci-Twi built her pendant as "sort of a spectrometer that tracks E.M. frequencies and contains anomalies". While E.M. normally means "electromagnetic", think about what else it means in the context of the film's plot: "Equestrian Magic"! Yes, without even realizing it, she's been tracking Equestrian Magic from the start and didn't even know what it was!
• It seems weird that Sunset Shimmer doesn't "get" the importance of the inter-school competition. But remember that in her Alpha Bitch days, her tactics focused on taking down any rival before they could take into prominence, as noted on how she managed to be the Princess of all the school dances by virtually being the only candidate. The idea of actually waiting until the actual competition to take the other down is still new to her.
• Cinch is concerned that Canterlot High's performance is rapidly rising and she can't figure out why. The obvious answer is that the school has come together in friendship to help each other, but it's also because in the past months,^note As Pinkie says explicitly in Legend of Everfree, all the movies take place in one and the same school year. Princess Twilight managed to reform Sunset Shimmer, who'd been terrorizing the student body for quite some time. Being united and willing to help each other along with no longer having to worry about Bad Sunset's shenanigans let the students better focus on school.
• During her solo in "Unleash the Magic", Twilight's irises, for a split second, turn light blue, just like Midnight's scleras.
• It is no surprise that Princess Twilight was The Illegible in the previous movies, given she's used to write with telekinesis and not with her hand. But to compound the problem, human Twilight is left-handed (as shown during "ACADECA"). Since they are counterparts, Pony-Twilight-turned-human would have had better luck learning to write with her left hand rather than using the right one like she tried to.
• Principal Cinch is an Evil Counterpart to both Princess and Principal Celestia.
  • With Princess Celestia:
    • Both saw potential in their respective Twilights, and both took them under their wing. But Cinch is the kind of mentor who lives up to Twilight's fears: strict, high expectations, and unforgiving.
    • The princess also made an effort to recognize Pony Twilight was her own person. Cinch, on the other hand, only saw Human Twilight as a pet project to further her own means.
    • What sets them apart the most, though, is how each went about guiding "her" Twilight. Princess Celestia did not give Pony Twilight what she wanted (to study at Canterlot by herself), and sent her to Ponyville to make friends. Principal Cinch, in turn, held out Human Twilight's desire to study alone like a carrot under her nose to motivate her. But even if she make good on her word, she would simply be giving Twilight exactly what she wanted to the girl's own detriment.
  • With Principal Celestia:
    • Cinch gives Death Glares to her students for something as minor as losing a cake contest. Celestia comforts Sunset who's beating herself up over failing to keep magic under control, which is a much bigger deal.
    • After the Tricross Relay crisis, Celestia suggests ending the Games in a tie right there and then. Cinch refuses, not wanting to be "forced" to acknowledge the Wondercolts as equals to the Shadowbolts, because it would've hurt her reputation.
    • After having indirectly made her turn into Midnight Sparkle, Cinch calls Twilight a monster and wants nothing more to do with her. By contrast, Celestia welcomes the girl with open arms as the newest Wondercolt, even though Twilight has just tried to destroy the world (and managed to destroy the Wondercolt statue). All it took was one conversation with Dean Cadance, which — given Celestia's overall personality — might have been a rather short one.
    • And, most importantly, Twilight looks uncomfortable every time she interacts with Principal Cinch, despite having spent about 2 or 3 years at Crystal Prep. Yet, she seems to already trust Celestia, whom she knows for (presumably) one day.
• The One-Winged Angel Midnight Sparkle was created by the opposite of the Elements of Harmony from Crystal Prep Academy.
  • The opposite of Kindness: The Crystal Prep students are so unkind that it just hurts.
  • The opposite of Laughter: Principal Cinch takes care of that; her very presence drains the fun out of a room.
  • The opposite of Generosity: Principal Cinch keeps promising to get Twilight into her preferred school, but only if she does something in return.
  • The opposite of Loyalty: There's nothing any more disloyal than treating one of your own (in this case, Twilight) like dirt.
  • The opposite of Honesty: Towards the end, Principal Cinch and the Crystal Prep students were willing to cheat in order to win.
  • The opposite of Magic: Midnight Sparkle and the nature of her transformation is a twisted version of the way Twilight gained the Element of Magic:
    • While Pony Twilight gained her powers through study, Sci-Twi gained magic through ripping it away from the Rainbooms, which was not a fun thing for them to experience.
    • While Pony Twilight became the Element of Magic through coming together with her beloved friends to defeat a magical foe, Sci-Twi's transformation was precipitated by her bullying teammates who manipulated her into cheating. Pony Twilight went through a bond-building experience with new friends while Sci-Twi experienced a soul-crushing competition alongside her cruel cohorts.
    • While Twilight the alicorn used her power to spread harmony and friendship through Equestria, Midnight Sparkle just wanted knowledge, even at the expense of another world.
• Some people might find it unsatisfactory that the Friendship Games ended in a tie. But this is a pretty fair deal! This teaches that it's neither bad to be about friendship or education. Canterlot High may not be prestigious about education, but they teach you that school is incomplete without friendship and socialization. Crystal Prep students may be aloof, but they're focused on what school is about, learning. By ending the games in a draw, they ultimately show that school should be about both friends and education.
• Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy's cake winning one round isn't just because it's that good: reconstructing the Mona Lisa would hint at Hidden Depths that Canterlot High is more intellectually inclined than Crystal Prep gives credit.
• So why is Spike a dog? Because a dog is a [wo]Man's Best Friend.
• At one point during "Unleash the Magic", Cinch sings that "as for [her] and all the others, [they] only want what [they] deserve". One Midnight Sparkle crisis later, she loses everything. Given how she's treated Twilight throughout the film, she didn't deserve anything less.

Fridge Horror

• Even if Midnight Sparkle succeeded in destroying her own world to get to Equestria, she wouldn't have understood magic. Would she have tried to destroy Equestria too when she learned that friendship is magic, unable to forgive herself for destroying her world for such a simple answer? Or worse, what if she couldn't accept that answer and felt the need to keep searching?
• Aside from the above, the circumstances of Midnight Sparkle's birth are partially due to irresponsible use of magic. A circunstamce that is not strictly exclusive to the Human world. Anypony who uses magic irresponsibly in Equestria could basically become a pony version of her. And who are most likely to use magic irresponsibly: children! (and inmature adults).
• The enormous lack of concern from Principal Cinch regarding her students' well being, be it physical or psychological.
  • As she makes plain in "Unleash the Magic", she knows and always knew that Twilight is an outcast at her school, but apparently doesn't do anything about it.
  • She doesn't let her students mingle with their opponents in a party meant just for that.
  • During the Academic Decathlon, when her students fail at the cake-making contest, she gives them a Death Glare and they can be seen actually shaking in fear to the point of dropping the cake.
  • When the giant monster plants start popping up during Motocross Race, she's only shocked at the possibility of CHS cheating by using magic, and not, say, the fact that three students, two of which are hers, came dangerously close to actually ending up dead or otherwise seriously injured.
  • She only cares about her school's, and by extension, her own reputation, and is willing to do nearly anything to keep CPA's spotless undefeated streak — from using Twilight's brother's status to guilt-trip her into participating, to actually blackmailing her with what is, essentially, her future.
  • And finally, she convinces the Shadowbolts to join her into having Twilight unleash the magic that she has already seen is very, very dangerous just for that. For her reputation. For her school's reputation. It's rather disturbing, actually. What caused her to end up like this?
• If Principal Cinch had been manipulating someone less mentally stable to abuse magic, the Crystal Prep Academy could've fallen victim to horrific events much like the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
  • Everyone would've fallen victim to horrible events. Also, Cinch mentions that she had other students as brilliant as Twilight, but that they were gone before she could blink. Think a bit about it: did she try to pull similar (but admittedly less world-wrecking) stunts? Did the students leave, or did something happen to them?
  • What if she tries again with another student at some point down the line?
• Given the Sirens' power source, imagine if they'd shown up at the Friendship Games instead of the talent show given the amount of hate and disagreement already existing between the two schools.
  • Imagine what would happen if they used their magic on only the students from Crystal Prep. All of their hatred and anger would be focused on the one student, Twilight, who made them lose the second event instead of each other.
  • Even depowered, the Sirens would be dangerous to Twilight. If they caught even a glimpse of her pendant absorbing magic or making portals, which would have been quite possible during the Tricross Relay, they might get the idea that she could make something to compensate for their lost powers. It probably wouldn't be hard for them to manipulate Twilight, and they could easily nudge her down the road to full-blown Mad Scientist to make sure her creations suited their goals.
• In "Twilight's Kingdom", we learned Celestia and Luna sometimes get precognitive nightmares about impending threats, and Discord spasms wildly whenever he senses big-time magical disturbances. Now think about how Midnight Sparkle's Reality Bleed could've affected them, without them even knowing why!
• A bit of fridge tearjerker: the lifespans of the two Spikes are the exact opposite. Spike the dragon will most likely outlive the Mane Six and any other pony he befriends. The human world Spike is just a somewhat normal dog with a normal dog's lifespan. He doesn't have to worry about outliving his human friends because they will definitely outlive him.
• As with the first incident, thank God that there weren't any police officers or SWAT teams around! They probably wouldn't do any good.
  • Assuming there are police, anyway. Considering what type of world they live in, they might be of the non-lethal kind anyway, only being able to wield tasers or other non-lethal weaponry (e.g., truncheons).