Headscratchers / My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games

• How did Twilight manage to build her magic-tracker/collector in the first place if she had no prior knowledge of, let alone access to, magic?
  • Not all scientists know what a type of energy or radiation is when they create something that can track and quantify it. Creating something that can track and quantify an unknown form of energy or radiation is often an early step in actually identifying and studying it.
• When Sunset tells Twilight that one day everyone will forgive her for the stunts she pulled as Midnight Sparkle... what exactly does Twilight need to be forgiven for? It seems as though it was fairly obvious to basically everyone involved that she only did what she did because Cinch and her Crystal Prep teammates pressured her into doing so. That's more their fault than Twilight's. And it's not as if anybody knew what 'unleashing the magic' was going to do until it was too late, plus Twilight clearly wasn't in her right mind when she nearly destroyed the human world, so perhaps she wasn't completely in control of her actions. Why does she need to be forgiven, in that case?
  • It's not that debatable that Twilight was "clearly" not in her right mind. Even if we assume she wasn't in control of herself, there was no way for everybody to know that. Maybe they didn't know her that well, and thought this was her true self that she'd just hid all along.
  • And the rivalry between CHS and Crystal Prep has been going on for a while - so a few might be prejudiced against Twilight for being a Crystal Prep student.
• During the CHS Rally song, we see that the marching band counts six members, plus the drum majorette. However, in the scene where they upturn the panels sporting the CHS logo and the images of Demon Sunset and the Sirens, they would need to be thrice this number, since there are 18 panels in total.
  • The ones holding the panels could be backup players. It would have been rather unwise of the school's (more or less) official band to have no "emergency" members, after all.
• At this point does the human world in general know about the existence of magic or not? The heroes mock Principal Cinch when she threatens to expose their use of magic at the school board, implying that no one would ever believe her, but how on earth could Canterlot High possibly cover up three separate, very public magic duels that have taken place at this point? Not to mention other instances of magic being publicly used, such as Applejack and Rainbow "ponying up" in their Rainbow Rocks shorts out in public, in full view of people who don't even attend the school! Is the series trying to pull a Revenge of the Fallen on us?
  • Well think of it like this. Principal Celestia should either be in jail or fired because she let five unregistered students with no homes, families, or any information on them into her school willy-nilly. You could probably argue that the Dazzlings sang to Celestia and Luna which let them allow to enter, but Twilight and Sunset have no such excuse because they didn't have magic to get into the school whatsoever. If you also take into assume that the first movie takes place 2013, the year it came out, than that would seriously be a very dumb and stupid thing for Celestia to just let Twilight get in the school because ever since Sandy Hooks shooting, schools would lock the front doors, have a police or security to check, anything! Sunset has been there much longer (30 moons= approx. 2 1/2 years) and we still have no idea where she's been living or how she's being able to provide herself with food and clothes. In the end, what I'm trying to say is that if you place the reality of the whole "HOLY CRAP MAGIC EXISTENCE AND IT'S PRACTICED BY SEVEN GIRLS INCLUDING ONE WHO HAS BEEN IMPERSONATING A STAR STUDENT AT AN OPPOSITE SCHOOL!" you're going to have a much darker story where all our favorite characters are just taken, questioned, and experimented on by the government. Best do what the Canterlot High students and faculty do is just accept it and just say "hey cool they're doing a thing". They freak out only when the magic is mind controlling them or destroying their world, which is a pretty reasonable reaction.
    • Or maybe they somehow managed to explain the whole thing to the outside world as staged performances and special effects. In a world where magic normally does not exist, most people would probably happily swallow that up rather than having to reevaluate their worldview.
    • Agreed. Anyone who's open-minded enough to be able to accept that magic is real would definitely also be able to believe that magic can be faked by clever special effects.
    • The EG universe is clearly different than ours, why would you assume the same shootings happened in their world?
    • Why are you assuming that EG takes place in the US? Remember, the production studio is Canadian.
• What were the stakes of Canterlot High losing the Friendship games? We know that if Crystal Prep loses, Twilight will be punished by Cinch. But Canterlot High losing doesn't have any consequences other than another defeat. Sunset's goal of tracking down Twilight and getting the magic back has nothing to do with the games. She could just get a bus to Crystal Prep and confront Twilight after the games are done, as Twilight herself did. You could argue that if Twilight wins and gets her scholarship, she could relocate to a different place entirely and be lost to them, but the possibility is never stated and Sunset knows nothing about Twilight's application.
  • There isn't any grand motivation. They just want to win. The games are a Framing Device for the actual story.
  • As mentioned above, there is no grand motivation. Twilight might have a bigger stake in the Friendship Games than everyone else, but the motivation for both sides is just to win the Friendship Games, CHS so they can end the losing streak and the ridicule and Crystal Prep so that they can continue their streak and boost their (Ahem) Rrrrreputation.
  • It doesn't have anything to do with the Games other than occurring at the same time as the Games. Sunset knew that Twilight was messing with a force she did not understand and wanted to prevent something bad from happening. Vice-Principal Luna also told her to keep magic contained so that Principal Cinch would not accuse Canterlot High of Cheating, which is exactly what happened when the magic in the amulet started going wild.
• What happened to this world's Sunset, if this world has a Twilight? It seems like Canterlot High and Crystal Prep are very large schools but she is not a student or past student of either. Juvie?
  • The schools seem to be parallel to locations in Equestria, with a little fudging on the names because "Ponyville" would be called "Humantown" if it was a one-to-one thing. Canterlot High is Ponyville, Crystal Prep seems to be Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, and the Everton program is most likely parallel to the Everfree Forest. Since Celestia doesn't teach math and science, Sunset probably still lives in her hometown and is wrecking the grade curve there as the academic answer to Rainbow Dash. After all, when a gifted kid says, "Hey, this crap is too easy, I want harder schoolwork", most teachers aren't going to give them the "You're not ready because I don't like your attitude" tripe about math.
    • According to Wikipedia, there are four cities called Manville, which is close enough. There is also a Mannville in Alberta and a Mannsville in New York. All in all though, maybe this is the material for the fourth story, as it'll be...interesting, to say the least, if Sunset meets up with her human world's self.
  • I've been assuming she's homeschooled in the same town as Crystal Prep is, so nobody's really seen her. After all, Pony!Sunset never stopped being a private student (when she was a student, that is), never going out on her own to learn things first-hand, so it's plausible her human counterpart is taught at home with a private tutor.
• Where does Sunset live and what does she eat?
  • The broom closet back when she was a brat and probably lives with the Human Five after her reformation.
  • Or less ridiculously, maybe Canterlot High is partially a boarding school, and she lives on campus with other students.
  • Probably in a tent.
  • I think one of the shorts showed that she does have her own living space, possibly an apartment.
• Dean Cadance discourages a student from going to what is apparently a very exclusive independent study program because "she might miss out on something". She's clearly talking about making friends, but Human Twilight is an openly-acknowledged outcast. What friendship did she think Twilight was missing out on? It's not the Friendship Games, because she wouldn't have been involved without Cinch wanting her to compete, and since Human Twilight is interested in science and math in that world because magic doesn't normally exist there (and Cadance doesn't know about it anyway), it's not "the magic" of friendship. What the Hell, Cadance? You want your best student to undercut her academic future and limit herself in her own interests so she'll better appeal to the peers who already rejected her? In the show proper, Celestia has a very clear ulterior motive for telling Twilight to go out and make friends because of the Tree of Harmony and destiny and whatnot, but Dean Cadance doesn't have that. It sounds more like Cadance is nerd-shaming Twilight and trying to frame it as a "for your own good" thing.
  • Cadance wasn't trying to make Twilight stay at Crystal Prep, she just didn't want her to go into even greater isolation once she left the school.
    • Left the school to go where? You don't need your high school principal's permission to apply to university, and she transfers to Canterlot High at the end, so she's not graduating.
    • Cadance in the human world appears to be Twilight's legal guardian. Twilight also may be too young to make those decisions on her own. Their specific grade isn't mentioned. Either way if Twilight is 17 she can't legally do anything without her guardian okaying it. There is also the possibility that she is incredibly smart, as in graduating a year or two early because she's simply that far ahead of the curve. Finally she may just have a lot of respect for Cadance. All evidence suggests that most people in Canterlot High have similar social connections to their Equestrian counterparts. So even if Cadance isn't her legal guardian it's entirely plausible that she babysat her so much that they maintained a relationship all the way to the present.
    • Twilight already has parents, Cadance isn't her legal guardian and has no control over what programs Twilight applies for. And Twilight submitted her application to the program herself through the school, which is why Cinch even knows about it. Twilight is incredibly smart, but she's also loathed by the other students at her school. She even says it herself, there's no point in staying at Crystal Prep because she's learned everything she can. She still could learn about friendship, except she's never going to be able to do that in a place where everyone already hates her. That's like telling somebody "You could transfer to a different school, but it would be better for you if you just stay where you are and get bullied every day until you learn to stop being such an awkward nerd."
  • This is simple. Humane Twilight is effectively what Mane Twilight would be without the benefit of four seasons worth of growth with her friends. She's a highly intelligent recluse and while the show tries to play it up primarily as her going to a school filled with jerks the truth is she's every bit as 'broken' as Twilight Sparkle was prior to meeting the Mane 6. Cadance believes, largely correctly that Twilight will struggle later in life because she didn't do any of the normal socialization activities people are expected to have done. And yes Princess Celestia had an ulterior motive but given how quickly she let Twilight stay and with little reason she did genuinely want Twilight to make friends.
    • Okay, so Cadance wants Twilight to make friends because she cares, but that's not the question I asked. The question I'm asking is, "What friends did Cadance expect Twilight to make?". There's no benefit to staying at Crystal Prep for Twilight. Twilight wants to pursue her academic dreams, and she'd prefer to do that in an environment where everyone around her doesn't treat her like garbage, but Cadance says she doesn't want her to "miss out" on anything. What would she be missing out on, exactly? A chance to study all the new and exciting ways her peers will find to shun her?
  • Twilight wouldn't want to transfer to a less prestigious school, so her only given option was to transfer to a academy where she would be completely socially isolated. As long as she stays at Crystal Prep there's a chance she'll make friends, and she always has Cadance.
    • There's really not, though. The entire school hates her. In every scene that takes place at Crystal Prep/around Crystal Prep students, there's always at least one student that actually gets distracted from what they were doing just so they can turn to glare at her or otherwise give her grief, even when she's not in the way. And Cadance's friendship can't really be what she's talking about, or she would have just said "I'll miss you" and not "You'll miss out".
    • Yeah, mostly. The only one who seemed genuinely nice was Lemon Zest, and that impression is based solely on the part where she put her headphones on Twilight. Granted, Twilight didn't seem to enjoy the experience, but LZ didn't know that. She probably just thought, "Hey here's this music I like; maybe you will too!" But she seems to be unique, at least until the end of the movie.
    • Maybe the whole school seems to be rather cold to Twilight because Twilight herself is so focused on her own studies and avoids socialization? Granted, Crystal Prep students don't seem to be as warm as those in Canterlot High, but Twilight's attitude does not leave her particularly open to making friends either. She's the kind of person with whom the answer to "You wanna hang out?" is always going to be "No, I have studies to catch up on/a project to finish/a book to read/anything to avoid social interactions". So Cadance would naturally like her to at least try to make some friends (just like Celestia tells pony!Twilight in the first episode of the show), rather than closing herself off even further.
    • So... what you're saying is, she actually is nerd-shaming Twilight? It's her responsibility to put aside her dreams because it might make people who already hate her decide to give her a chance? Maybe? Because that doesn't sound like friendship, that sounds like sucking up to the popular kids, who are the source of 100% of the hostility here. Pony!Twilight from the first episode spends most of her time in Ponyville acting like a snob because she's worried about that pesky little "Nightmare Moon is about to escape" thing and thinks making friends is a waste of time because Celestia didn't tell her that friendship can be weaponized in this universe, and we know that she actually did have friends, only to neglect them because she cared more about her studies. Human!Twilight, on the other hand, is a shy, mousey geek who shuts herself away because practically, if not literally, all her peers would prefer she not be in their presence at all. It's not really a fair comparison to say that Human!Twilight must have done something to irrevocably piss off the entire student body with her snotty attitude when she clearly doesn't have one.
  • I don't think Cadance was totally aware Twilight is hated by her schoolmates. I myself work for schools, and I have been bullied not unlike Twilight. It's funny how many staff members are totally blind to the goings on between their student body since, oddly enough, there's a lot of kids at these schools. As the dean of students, Cadance would be dealing with more problematic or at least disruptive students, like Indigo Zap, than any other students. The higher up you are on the staff food chain, the less familiar you are with the goings on in school (unless it's something really big or repeating issue). Things escape our notice, even with students who we're more familiar with, because we have hundreds of other students to deal with. I don't think Cadance so much didn't want Twilight to pursue her academic career, as she didn't want that to come at the cost of a social life. Twilight seemed totally thrilled that she'd be totally on her own, and I think that may have been a cause for concern. You have to remember that all Cadance was seeing was Twilight willingly and eagerly isolating herself from her schoolmates with no signs of any negative inspiration for why she'd want to. She assumes Twilight is willingly throwing out the chance for a social life (like pony!Twilight did), rather than being denied one. While Cadance is clearly wrong, as far as her knowledge would seem to go, she thinks, not unreasonably, that it's true. Cadance never acknowledges Twilight being bullied, so she presumably has no idea it's going on because of how subtle it is, seeing as Cadance is supposed to be a kind and understanding entity it would be out of character for her to not bring it up if she were aware. Cadance's opinion also probably relates to things she hears from Shining Armour, who also probably has no idea how Twilight is treated. Also, related to an earlier point someone made, while Twilight may not have a snotty attitude, people may perceive her as having one (of the "I'm too smart for all of you" variety) if she doesn't talk to them, even if why she doesn't talk is because she's shy. When you consider the attitude Twilight had when meeting Flash- utter disinterest in him and far more in her studying- it's not unreasonable that people who have tried to talk to her would get that kind of response, fanning the flames of everyone's opinion that she's arrogant. The TLDR version is that Cadance likely misunderstands Twilight's situation with her schoolmates, and it's plausible Twilight's schoolmates misunderstand her.
    • That's pretty obviously not the case. Twilight is mousy and shy with body language to match, and the other students are constantly shunning her, glaring at her, shutting blinds on her, they even outright bully her into using her magic holdy compact thing when she clearly doesn't want to. They may misunderstand her, but there's nothing about her that projects arrogance, and the students are very consistent about treating her like she doesn't belong there. They look down on her and behave as if that's just the standard way to treat her, they don't comment on her being a snob or thinking she's better than everyone else, and Twilight doesn't rub her intelligence in other people's faces because other people don't want her that close to their faces in the first place.
    • Actually, I still think they misunderstand her. It's likely they interpret her dodging students in the hallway as her thinking she's too good to touch any of them, and shrinking up like she does is her way of "protecting" herself from everyone else. You have to think like someone at Crystal Prep would, based on how they're shown and what Twilight says about how none of them can be happy about anything they didn't do for themselves. Look at how Sour Sweet treats her, for instance, before and after getting on the bus. Twilight cuts in line and gets in her way after knocking down Sunny Flare, and Sour Sweet clearly doesn't accept Twilight's apologies as sincere, and nor does Sunny Flare. That is, none of them buy Twilight's apologetic and meek attitude any more than they buy Sour Sweet's "sweet" act. Twilight's determination to do the Everton Programme is probably likewise interpreted as Twilight thinking she's too good for Crystal Prep, and she doesn't need to rub her intellect in people's faces- they think she is just by getting the highest score on every test and studying constantly. Sour Sweet does comment on Twilight's intellect, by the way. When Twilight get in the line in front of her, she makes a sarcastic comment about it, how "someone as smart as you should totally go in front". While she's just one student, I figured the other students probably shared her opinion, and Sour Sweet was just the voice for the rest of the students, as she does most of the talking. It didn't help, I bet, that Cinch later says Twilight "single-handedly" won the first event of the competition, despite only being shown participating in the equation challenge. The other students shunning her appears to just be how Crystal Prep students treat one another unless they have to- it's almost never implied once that Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, and Sour Sweet are friends, unless you count Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare's high five over getting to do the skating race, and if you look at the hallway scenes, especially during Twilight's song, you can see that A) most students don't even notice each other and B) the groups not only stand very far apart from each other, but the students in each group aren't very close to each other, either. Not compared to CHS.
• Okay, I understand why, narratively, Twilight had to be the one in the archery portion despite needing instruction on how to hit a moving target. Applejack needed to showcase her Honesty (more effectively, I might add, than her pony counterpart did in the pilot) and Rarity and Pinkie Pie needed to win their part by a small margin rather than being completely blown away. But does it really make sense from Cinch's perspective? Why not just utilize her strengths (the knowledge portion) and leave the archery to someone who doesn't need AJ's advice?
  • It seems that this was inevitable. It appears that all the students who advanced that far were required to also participate in the athletic portion of the Games. Cinch tried to cut her losses as much as possible by making Twilight compete in the portion that she should have been capable of completing - since archery is mandatory at Crystal Prep - but apparently Twilight still sucks at it. The best course of action for Cinch would probably have been not to make a student with such a clear imbalance between mind and body part of an event which requires both brains and brawn in the first place.
  • Yep. At the end of the academic portion, Cadence announces the six students advancing to the next round and Twilight doesn't seem surprised, so she appeared to know she'd be going through. The questionable thing is why Sunset still advances to the next round if she lost the academic bit.
  • Twilight choking seemed to be less out of inability and more out of stage fright; she had no issues drawing and firing the arrows, and just needed a calm reminder to lead the target in order to actually hit it. Considering doing so takes a decent level of intelligence to do the mental math of where the target will be, Twilight probably would have had no problems on her own in a less stressful situation. As for Sunset, maybe she still scored high enough to qualify to move on even if that wasn't an overall win for Canterlot High; the work shown between the two seemed close enough that Sunset probably understands the math involved but made a minor mistake somewhere that got her the wrong answer down the line.
• And speaking of AJ's advice, what's up with Sour Sweet's mocking of it? Clearly, she'd had to have known it was good advice, or she would have missed the targets herself, and it would be — and was — beneficial for her team for Twilight to follow it. But Sour Sweet seems to be trying to discourage it?
  • Sour Sweet is so good at archery she doesn't need to aim, and you can tell she didn't because of how quickly she moved. She fired three arrows at once, and one hit the bullseye. I'm assuming all Crystal Prep students are that good or around there, and Cinch knew Twilight was below average but not outright bad (and indeed, she may not be, but it was distress, embarrassment, and nerves that made her aim poor and made her forget what she should already know, if not from archery class, from using maths).
  • Alternatively, Sour Sweet didn't care if it was good advice, she just didn't like the person saying it.
  • I'm going to assume that this had more to do with the fact that it was the opposing team that was giving the advice.
• What happened when Twilight tapped into the magic she was collecting? It transformed her into a demon, yes, but what caused that? You could chalk up Sunset Shimmer's similar transformation to hatred and vengeful thoughts but none of that was present in Twilight, she was just at worst dangerously curious. Did she Go Mad from the Revelation and that channelled the magic into something corrupt and twisted? Is that how magic works in their world (it is mostly uncontrollable and chaotic, bending more to a person's current state of mind than their intention)?
  • It seemed to me like it was an "absolute power corrupts absolutely" kind of thing. They got enough power to get what they wanted (revenge and knowledge respectively) and neither of them had enough empathy to keep them from destroying everything to get it because neither of them had any friends. Sunset's reasons sort of depend on how you interpret her start of darkness, but Twilight spent her whole life surrounded by assholes and ineffectual teachers who didn't or couldn't help her, she had no reason to spare any of them anyway.
  • That, and she's trying to tap into the Magic of Friendship despite not really understanding magic nor having had any friends in her life. Even though she was not a Jerkass like Sunset in the first movie, it's hardly surprising that she would get overwhelmed and overpowered by the magic. Whereas Sunset Satan emphasized Sunset's ambition and wrath, Midnight Sparkle is born of Twilight's own negative sides. Her desire to obtain knowledge regardless of the cost is a major part of it, but so is her inability to relate to anyone, her resentment at having been a tool to Cinch and a Chew Toy to other Crystal Prep students, and at the same time her desire to pursue her own ambitions.
  • And the magic was stolen forcibly from the others. When Twilight took it from them, it drained them of energy. They gave their magic freely to Sunset, which is why she was able to use it properly.
• If (according to Twilight's aspirations) there's another school apart from Canterlot High and Crystal Prep then why do Friendship Games are always only held between these two?
  • Twilight wants to go into an independent study program where the students work alone, there's no reason for it to participate in a team-based event.
  • Maybe the Everton study program wasn't another school, but just a series of classes and/or a different curiculum that Twilight would be following. She'd still be going to school at Crystal Prep but studying on her own? Or maybe all her coursework would be done from home.
• Silly headscratcher, but why are Shadowbolts not called "Shadowcolts" just like Wonderbolts are called "Wondercolts" in human world?
  • Shadowbolts is the name of the fake team Nightmare Moon conjured up in the series premiere. Presumably they just thought the name sounded cool. Also Canterlot High seems to be horse-themed - horse statue outside, another above the door etc - so their team name references that.
• How did Luna and Cadance come to be friends, anyway?
  • While we have no idea how exactly what happened, Luna generally being more sociable as the CHS Vice-Principal in comparison to the pony Princess of the Moon goes a long way towards explaining. Whereas Celestia seems to be often occupied with administrative duties, Luna is regularly interacting with students.
  • Fair enough when it comes to CHS students. However, I assume Cadance wasn't one of them; I just can't imagine Cinch engaging and/or keeping a former student of a rival school, especially one she sees as inferior. Which still makes the question valid. Could it be that Cadance once participated in Friendship Games and somehow helped Luna out, or vice versa?
  • Assuming that they aren't related to begin with.
  • Considering they're both working in the educational field, maybe they went to the same college and happened to hit it off.
• With the airing of "Cutie Re-Mark", we know exactly why Princess Twilight couldn't come to CHS' aid this time around, but it also opens up some questions. Throughout "Cutie Re-Mark", we see present day Equestria changed thanks to Starlight Glimmer's meddling, but when Midnight Sparkle starts spamming portals, Equestria is fine. All of Equestria's various locations are intact, all ponies seem fine (Though weirded by the portals opening up), and no trace of the war or destruction that plagued all the Bad Futures. Outside of DHX wanting to keep the-yet-to-be-released-at-the-time season finale from being spoiled, why does Equestria still look fine despite what happened in the season finale?
  • There are lots of possible reasons for this with the easiest to swallow being that the exact moment the the portals started opening up was after Twilight finished her struggle. It's not completely clear how long passed between the defeat of Midnight Sparkle and the stinger scene nor is it clear how long Twilight and the Mane 6 spent deciding Starlight's fate and welcoming her to the club. Only that with all of that Twilight didn't get around to checking the book until it was too late for her to help. Alternatively Zecora realizes when she uses her dust on Twilight and Spike that the world is fake not the alicorn and her dragon. So the portals might have simply appeared over real Equestria and not any of the alternate dimensions created by Starlight.
  • Nobody else in the 'mane' timeline noticed anything weird, either, so why would the folks at CHS? At the very least, the two 'dimensions' have been intertwined since Starswirl exiled the sirens there.
  • Maybe the time travel stuff happened before the Friendship Games, and the reason Twilight didn't answer Sunset was because she was too busy trying to work out what to do with Starlight. The entire movie takes place over just a couple of days, so that could feasibly how long it took for Twilight and her friends to decide how to rehabilitate her.
• Now that it has been confirmed that "Equestria Girls" is canon to "Friendship is Magic" it raises the question of why aren't their worlds where Sunset or the Sirens were victorious? Sure Sunset stole the crown from Twilight but we're never given any reason to believe that she knew what was happening in Equestria so she would have come back regardless and she's got to be at least as likely to take over Equestria as Flim and Flam.
  • If Sunset really didn't know about anything going on in Equestria, then she wouldn't have had a clue that its equivalent of the Fall Princess' crown was actually a very powerful magical artifact. Thus, it's pretty safe to assume she did some *ahem* research. However, the Element of Magic only took the shape of the crown when Twilight first used it. In the season 5 finale, she was unable to do because the antagonist messed with the time. So in all the alternate Equestrias there was no magical crown for Sunset to steal, which in turn means that if anything, she would never have been reformed and instead would have continued to terrorize her co-students until she graduated; and the sequels simply wouldn't have been kickstarted.
  • It's implied in the first movie that Sunset is much older than Twilight and studied under Celestia years before her. So Sunset was probably already in the human world when Twilight got her cutie mark. So if Sunset returned to Equestria in the alternate timelines, she'd just be one unicorn up against whichever villain was in power.
  • As for why the Sirens aren't in power in the alternate timelines, they were banished centuries ago by Star Swirl the Bearded. Long before the Mane Six got their cutie marks. And in the second movie, none of them knew that there was a portal back to Equestria. And without Twilight hooking the mirror up to her machine, the portal would only open every 2.5 years. So it's plausible the Sirens never knew.
• Principal Cinch's claims that Canterlot High is using magic to gain an edge in the Friendship Games are treated as being ridiculous, but are they really? We know that in Equestria, it is magic that give unicorns their powers, pegasi their flight and earth ponies their strength. Could the magic in the human world do something similar, given that it does do things as radical as altering biology (lengthening hair, growing wings and ears), and that's not counting the magic lasers or portals? Sunset herself admits that she doesn't understand how magic works in their world, and her equipment to study it is limited by the fact that she gets it from a high school, so it does leave the possibility that she may not understand what the magic is doing to them. They may not actively realize it, but given what magic can do, their abilities being passively enhanced is not outside the realm of reason.
  • Principal Cinch's claims of magic are treated as being ridiculous. Celestia and Luna wanted to keep magic away from the games entirely because even if it weren't cheating, beyond certain physical tasks it remains speculative at best that wings would be useful but it would clearly be implied as cheating. This is standard in fiction where magic isn't supposed to exist. It is undeniable that in physical contests like the skating and dirt bikes that the wings at the very least couldn't hurt and probably help. It seems unlikely to help with your math, chemistry or even archery.
  • If it's passive (and undetectable by Twilight's device, as the hypothesized passive effect must be) then there's no way to say how much of their abilities are magic and how much non-magic. Heck, since the suggested passive effect doesn't show up to Twilight's gizmo, it stands to reason that, should it exist, it's a completely different thing to the Harmonic magic brought by Twilight's element, and therefore native and just as likely to be passively in use by the Shadowbolts.
  • Note that when Rainbow Dash gains wings in the motocross portion, she doesn't use them to give herself an unfair advantage. All she does is try to keep the monster away from Sunset and the other two. So when Rainbow was presented with a possible advantage, she took herself out of the competition to avoid tipping the scales unfairly.
• Why did Cinch make Twilight participate in the Games in first place? It's not like there was any reason to think she'd be a huge asset.
  • Not a huge asset? She ate the academic portion for breakfast. True, she choked with the Archery portion, but that was primarily because of nerves rather than an actual inability; she was at least strong enough to pull the bow back enough to hit backboard, she just needed to be reminded how to aim at a moving target—something that takes a good bit of mathematics skills and mental timing so Twilight probably would have managed that had it not been for stage fright. Also, she's the younger sister of a Crystal Prep Alumni who participated in the previous games, and it's implied Cinch thinks that'd add to the reputation boost.
  • Cinch mentions during the party that Crystal Prep selects its top twelve students to participate in the friendship games, period. Twilight has no major athletic skill, but she's second to none in academics which is why she's counted in that top twelve. Both sides didn't really want her participating, but as far as the principal's concerned, there's no other choice.
  • Yes Twilight was chosen mainly to be used in the academic portion. Presumably she would have been useful in the third event that never happened too.
  • The third event is said to be a capture the flag challenge. So presumably Twilight's organisation and planning would be a big help there - deciding who would search where etc.
  • Capture the Flag was the tie-breaker challenge. While it's true that Twilight wouldn't have been completely useless there, Cinch probably didn't count on Canterlot winning the second round to force that tie-breaker and so didn't think that far ahead.
• Are Canterlot High and Crystal Prep Academy supposed to be in the same country? (Taking in count that each one is their only rival in the games) Crystal is clearly based in a British school while Canterlot is based in an American school but Crystal students just arrived by bus, so?
  • Crystal Prep fits just as well as an American private or charter school as it does a British school.
  • It's a prep school. Duh.
  • Earlier in the film, there's a mention that the bus Twilight arrived and left on is the city bus - so they're in the same general area. For some reason they just decided Principal Cinch should have an English accent.
• For someone so dedicated to science and academia, what did Twilight actually think she'd learn simply by releasing the magic her device stored? The events of the Games take place in a single day, there's no time, offscreen or not, for her to run any sort of study or research on the magic her device has been stealing. This supposed "study" of magic has been following her magic detector and being helpless as things happen against her will. Then there's seeing what the device has done when opened on accident, she would already have a good idea of why not to open that thing without proper containment and protection. I get peer pressure and whatnot, but honestly logic should have been screaming in her ear. How was Twilight supposed to do any learning simply by opening Pandora's Box?
  • She might have been thinking like the scientists of old, like Isaac Newton or Archimedes, who would watch the world around them or build things, then observe and take notes. The other thing is that she has always worked alone, either in the classroom, in the lab at her home, or in what seems to be private research rooms at Crystal Prep dedicated for her. This is the first time she's conducted any sort of study involving other people, and without any social skills, she just kind of becomes a deer in headlights when things don't happen as she's planned. I think she's also there to test her storage device, with studying the energy it collects as secondary to that (and maybe on her own time).
  • She wasn't thinking in her right mind. Cinch was threatening her with not getting into the Everton study programme, which meant that her fate was going back to Crystal Prep where she was ostracised by everyone. So after being pressured by her peers, she opened the device to keep them happy.
  • Twilight may have also felt that she might be able to control how much magic is released. If it's her device then maybe she can release just enough so that she can study its effects. So far magic has only been sucked into it at random (as far as she knows) so it's possible she did already want to release it from the device to study it. She may be smart but she is still an emotional teenager.
• As I said before, this movie shouldn't have been possible. Earth's history is tied with Pony Twilight's actions and fate, so Starlight's meddling with the timeline should affect Earth as well. There's no logical reason as to Earth is unaffected, since Starlight would have erased the chain of events that led to this movie.
  • Except beyond Twilight having been missing while she was dealing with it everything else in the real timeline went on as normal while the time loop was happening. And even if Earth was effected the effect would have been nullified and rendered as if it had never happened once the time loop was fixed. Recall that in the real Equestria all anyone noticed was that Twilight had been missing for a while and that there was a bright flash from her castle. To everyone except Twilight, Starlight and Spike the alternate timelines never happened.
  • Time is clearly not the same between Equestria and the human world - such as Sunset being implied to be several years older than Twilight in Equetria but still a teenager in the human world. So it's possible the world was not affected by Starlight's plans.