Video Game / My Little Pony (Gameloft)

aka: My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic

"I used to wonder what friendship (and lots of gems) could be."

My Little Pony (also known as My Little Pony: Magic Princess) is a village simulator created by Gameloft for the hit My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic TV series, now made available for iOS, Android, and Windows 8.

This game plays similarly to other mobile village simulators such as The Smurfs Village and The Simpsons: Tapped Out, with you collecting bits and gems and heart crystals to rebuild Ponyville, unlock more items and ponies and eventually defeat Nightmare Moon. As it is very closely bound to the mythology and themes of its parent cartoon, you can refer to the trope pages for the cartoon as well for even more info related to this game.

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This game uses these tropes:

• 20% More Awesome: Rainbow Dash will sometimes say "Needs to be 20% cooler" if you tap her.
• Accidental Pun: Minor meta example. You can visit Sweet Apple Acres, a location known for apple products, in a minigame that can be played on iOS devices.
• Ad Reward:
  • Watching an ad can grant one or two extra Gems or allow you to access certain minigame upgrades without paying.
  • If you die in the cart minigame, you can watch an ad instead of paying Gems in order to continue.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts:
  • It's been estimated that it would either take 3 years of completely free playing to earn enough gems to buy the required ponies, buildings, and decorations to complete the game, or about $80 (USD) to buy the needed gems outright. This doesn't consider all the side ponies that you may want to get (some only available in the Balloon Pop minigame, which rarely gives out ponies and costs between 20 to 75 gems depending on which tier you select, nor is it counting that some of the shops or items you'll need to complete the quests require payment in gems^note Also barring mistakes that would accidentally make you use gems- and due to the lack of confirmation dialogs, these mistakes are easy to make. More infuriating when you realize that some of these objectives cannot be skipped. All quests must be finished to complete the game, and so, this brings it up to a total of $200+, or 15 years or consecutive-day playing. There are two unskippable missions near the end that require you to purchase two ponies and one building. Prior to the June 2013 update, the ponies (Shining Armor and Princess Cadance) were 650 apiece, and the building (the Town Hall) was 600. In total that's 1,900 gems!
    • The Christmas update thankfully amended the issue for the most part. It increased the chances of getting a free gem from certain actions (especially finding Derpy) and lowered the prices for several ponies and shops required for the main quest or outright changed the price to bits in some cases. However, with the addition of new ponies bought for gems, the cost in total, if you wanted to get everything, remains roughly the same.
    • The Christmas update in 2013 again amended gem prices; Princess Celestia has been reduced to 500 gems (later dropped again to 430 gems with the occasional sale price of 215 gems) and other ponies have had their prices cut up to half of their original price. In addition, the Equestria Girls minigame has had the score difficulty lowered drastically, allowing players to earn certain ponies through gameplay instead of spending gems or hearts.
  • Hearts. While easier to obtain than gems once you know how to do it, let's take into account some of these players are quite young and their parent(s) will not allow them to make Gameloft accounts and thus, be able to send or receive hearts, and will be stuck indefinitely on the "She Scoots... She Scores!" mission^note  which requires you to purchase Scootaloo for 30 hearts. They can also be obtained by choosing to share the level up and quest completion messages. Not that the game ever tells you this. However, it does tell you that you can share your score on the Equestria Girls dancing game and get a heart.
  • Throughout 2016, several new ponies were added through updates that can cost between 400 and 800, in one case 900 gems alone. Even when on sale, their prices are still high when compared to other ponies, pricing in higher than Celestia herself. Later topped in late 2017 with the addition of Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon as purchasable Ponies for a whopping 1,000 gems each, followed by the introduction of the five Yaks, with each member costing upwards to 2,000 gems each.
  • 2017 saw the arrival of themed events with four tiers- each tier completed by collecting a special limited Token using two Ponies. However this process is painfully slow- To even have a chance of reaching the final tier in time and completing it, each tier has a premium Pony or a premium 5-Pony shop that can be unlocked for large amounts of gems or through special deals of roughly $10 each through in-game advertisements, requiring around 40 dollars total to unlock all the ponies and shops to unlock tasks that can collect double the Tokens.
  • Uncovering shadowed areas cost more and more bits every time you uncover one.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Prank to the Future Part Two" introduces Pinkie Pie's Prank Posse's Prank Plan Prime (they're still workshopping the name).
• Affectionate Nickname: In "The Pinkie Pie Parents Problem" event, Cloudy Quartz calls Pinkie Pie "my little rose quartz".
• Allegedly Free Game: If you want all of the ponies, you need well over 3000 gems, worth 200-plus US dollars. Celestia alone requires 40 dollars worth at minimum, with other ponies worth double that amount. And then there's all the limited events with required purchases just to collect all the prizes. Pretty steep for a children's game.
• Alternate Continuity:
  • The game's story assumes that Nightmare Moon was indeed able to cover Equestria in darkness more successfully than she did in the cartoon.
  • It also takes some liberties with the ponies and their hometown. Many ponies can live in Ponyville that, in the show, live somewhere completely different. The Canterlot expansion is more accurate (not counting the ponies that were already added to Ponyville despite being from Canterlot), with only Minuette being somewhat questionable.
  • The August 29, 2013 update added the spa ponies Aloe and Lotus Blossom for Canterlot, despite them only appearing in Ponyville in the show.
  • The July 11, 2018 update adds the Mean 6 to Ponyville, despite their episode being set only within the Everfree Forest. They even get their own house to stay in, called the Creepy Abode.
  • While the app generally follows the show canon, in the app's later years, ponies and stories inspired by the IDW comic series were added, merging their continuities.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Unlike the show, this was averted in the game by using 3D models of the characters, though in a few cases (Fancy Pants for one), the profile picture is contrary to the 3D model. In addition, cutie marks are clearly on both sides.
  • Though there are a few models whose left and right sides are noticeably mirrored, especially Rainbow Dash, whose yellow part of her mane is always on top whether facing left or right because when she's facing forward, it's centered on her head.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • By collecting materials via spending five Gems per three materials or winning said materials via other methods (or just buying the outfits outright with several hundred Gems each), the Mane Six can be decked out in numerous different outfits. An entire update (released June 2016) was dedicated to this feature. The outfits each have different perks, though - a boost in collecting bits, bonus points in the mine cart game, or bonus points toward stars.
  • Introduced in the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" event, "Hero Gear" are special outfits earned from upgrading a pony's power to take on enemies and bosses throughout the story. Each gear contains four complete outfits of two pieces each, and whatever the player earns will be kept once the event ends. Unlike the standard outfits, Hero Gear doesn't provide perks for shops or games.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The minecart game's Boost upgrade grants a short period of invulnerability immediately after its effect ends, which is very helpful because you can't control your pony while it's active and so might end the effect right next to a barrel, Diamond Dog or Shadowbolt. In addition, it also automatically clears gaps for you and has a magnetic effect so you don't miss any airborne bits.
• Anti Poop-Socking: A November 2023 update added a loading screen message that advises the player to take breaks.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • Any ponies living in the village will not take note of clearable objects, swarms (regardless of their feared status in the show), or other hostile environments/objects: thorns, hollow trees, dead trees, wild rocks, piles of trash, garbage bins, Parasprites, Changelings, Vampire Fruit Bats, and Tirek. They mostly serve as an obstacle to the player and the player only, taking up space in the village where players would want to put own structures and scenery.
  • Each pony uses the same exact model skeleton model (resized appropriately), and thus all are capable of doing the same actions/dances. Each of the Mane Six (and a few others) have their own actions exclusive only to them, and tall ponies/Alicorns (Celestia, Luna, King Sombra, and the Mane-iac) only have one animation when tapped.
  • Granny Smith's model combines the movement of the Alicorns with the idle animations of any Earth Pony. When she shifts between her Alicorn movement and standard Pony animations, it's very noticable.
  • The game will occasionally not count decorations from the player's inventory or already placed in the village for some missions (such as the large clock tower for Ponyville during the Rainbow Dash quest).
• Art Evolution:
  • Some of the newer ponies added in recent updates have noticeably more detailed sprites than the older ponies in the game.
  • Other ponies have had their sprites updated over time, usually to match changes to the characters' appearances in the show. The exception to this was Celestia, whose model was overhauled as part of the December 2017 update for no apparent reason other than to make her look better.
• The Artifact: You can still have the old evil Changelings in Canterlot after completing the event where almost all of the Changelings are redeemed and change their appearance thusly.
• Ascended Meme: A few of the quotes when you touch some of the original ponies (those who existed since the very first version) in the game.
  • Applejack: Speakin' in fancy.
  • Rainbow Dash: Needs to be 20% cooler.
• Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: Rainbow Dash in the mine cart minigame (or Spitfire if playing as Rainbow Dash). You still lose the game when it happens, it's really just to show your pony getting rescued from what could otherwise be a fatal accident.
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • Celestia can be this; she periodically generates element shards after being purchased, but at a price of 430 gems, most players that opt to earn gems without paying for them (such as finding Derpy, playing the balloon pop minigame, defeating parasprites, Sombra shards, vampire fruit bats, & changelings, spending element shards on activated harmony stones, having the game running at midnight for the daily bonuses, playing the Equestria Girls dancing minigame, watching in-game ads, participating in certain special events, or leveling up) will likely have all the shards they need long before they can afford her.
  • Several ponies who can be only unlocked after completing certain story quests; these include Princess Luna, Rara, King Sombra in the Crystal Empire and Detective Pony.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pinkie breaks the fourth wall and displays Medium Awareness on various occasions in "The Pinkie Parents Problem" event. When she tries to ask Lyra about Mrs. Cake as a parent in the future, Lyra denies having any knowledge of the future. Pinkie responds:
  Pinkie: Aaaah, come on, Lyra: There's been, like, two dozen different events about that already! I pay attention when you and Bon Bon talk in parentheses, you know.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory:
  • You can choose to spend real money on in-game purchases for more bits and gems. This does not help you get heart crystals, and trust us, the game does its best to make you want to keep spending money.
  • The special limited-time events introduced throughout 2017 give huge advantages to players willing to spend real cash to bypass certain missions and unlock the characters necessary to collect tokens needed during the event more quickly.
• The Cameo:
  • Archer makes an appearance in Ball Bounce to return the ball when it goes off-screen.
  • The human version of Vinyl Scratch can be seen in the background of the Equestria Girls' song selection screen.
• Canon Immigrant: The game has had numerous characters added that only appear in the IDW comics;
  • Nightmare Rarity, previously exclusive to the comics canon, was added to the game during the Nightmare Night 2017 update.
  • The December 2017 update added Chummer the cat, whose only appearance was in the IDW comic issue that established Capper's backstory leading up to the MLP movie.
  • Early 2018 saw the addition of more characters from the IDW comics, specifically Well-To-Do the minotaur and the deer from issues 27 & 28 of the comic, the latter having a special limited-time story event involving them which was timed around St. Patrick's Day.
  • The 2018 Nightmare Night update and related limited-time event are based off the "Night of the Apples" storyline from issues 32 and 33 of the comic.
• Cap:
  • Each variety of Elemental Shards caps out at 999, a cap that's easy to reach granted you don't waste them dealing with Parasprites/Changelings with all the shards except Shards of Magic.
  • All the ingredients used to make totem poles in the Everfree Forest max out at five.
• Chaotic Neutral: invoked In the "Guys' Night" quest, Discord outright says his alignment is Chaotic Neutral.
• Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys: The teaser trailer depicted the game as being made by Trixie's magic.
• Cliffhanger: Following the community event to revive the Tree of Harmony inside Everfree Forest which lasted from early December 2014 to early January 2015, the Tree of Harmony chest appears infront of the restored Tree. A popup then appears revealing that the chest's mysteries will be revealed in the next update.
• Clone Degeneration: The Changelings that invade Canterlot in the form of any of the Mane Six; they are easy to tell apart from their real counterparts because they don't socialize with other ponies and usually spend all their time in shadowy areas of the town. On some devices, they even only show up as Twilight, which makes them even easier to spot.
• Console Cameo: The Android version has a statue of the Android mascot worth 50 gems.
• Continuity Nod: All over the place. Appropriate for a game based on a show known for its continuity.
  • The description for the bowling alley reads "Where anypony can try their hoof at bowling (except the Cutie Mark Crusaders)."
  • A good bit of the OST is instrumental versions of songs from the show. Heck, the title screen music is The Smile Song.
  • Cadance is the only alicorn who starts at 5 stars that can play the minecart minigame, possibly a nod to the ride she and Twilight took in "A Canterlot Wedding".
  • Some mission names are titles of episodes. Including "Cutie Mark Chronicles", "Applebuck Season", "Hurricane Fluttershy", "Sonic Rainboom", "Swarm of the Century", and "Luna Eclipsed". Interestingly, one of them is "Mare In The Moon", a fan name of one of the episodes.
  • The description of the Café reads "A place for everypony to grab a quick bite to eat. Specials include daffodil and daisy sandwiches with a side of hay fries."
  • The description of the Joke Shop reads "Where ponies can get supplies for pranks, such as sneezing powder, disappearing ink, and joy buzzers."
  • If you tap the Apple Bobbing Stand, Derpy Hooves comes out of the pool.
  • Twilight's crown was modified with the Everfree Forest expansion to reflect the replacement one she got in the season 4 premier.
  • Dr. Hooves' description mentions that he sets the hourglasses for cider competitions.
• Continuity Snarl: In later years, the app began adding characters and stories from the IDW comic series, including some that contradicted the show canon. The most egregious example is the Siege of the Crystal Empire event; King Sombra is reformed, despite the app also considering season 9 canon, wherein he dies.
• Costume Evolution: Some ponies have their appearances modified from how they appeared on the show. The Mean 6, for example, all wear black clothing articles that help to better distinguish them from the Mane 6 while also symbolizing their connection to Chrysalis.
• Creator Cameo: One of the ponies added in the balloon pop minigame in the April 2015 update included Wild Fire, the ponysona of MLP storyboard artist Sabrina 'Sibsy' Alberghetti.
• Cuteness Overload: The "Return to Breezie Hollow" event reveals that Fluttershy loves the Breezies so much that she can't stand how cute they are. When Breezie replicas of her friends are made (via a spell by Twilight that went haywire), she has trouble trying to help them because she can't stop gushing over their adorableness (even bursting into tears for a brief moment). At the end of the event, when it is revealed that the Breezie spell hasn't worn off on Discord yet, Fluttershy is so overwhelmed by his cuteness that she cries out "EEEP! Isn't he just darling?!" before taking him back to her house to finish their tea party, promising to pour him a thimble of her new floral blend.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In the minecart game, the Shadowbolts automatically jump when they approach you, punishing any player whose reflex to seeing an approaching obstacle is to automatically tap to jump instead of seeing what the obstacle is first.
• Dark Is Evil: Let's see: Ponies scared to build stuff in the dark? Check. Thorns and hollow trees serving as clearable objects that have to be removed? Check. Shadowbolts in the flying and minecart games trying to take you down? Check. The game wanting you to defeat every Changeling that appears in Canterlot? Check.
• David Versus Goliath: The climax of the September 2017 limited-time event has Tempest Shadow facing off against the Ursa Minor which is roughly twice as big as she is (albeit with optional help from other ponies).
  • The December 2017 update likewise has Pharynx engaging the maulwurf, and can face it either alone or with support from other characters.
  • Another limited-time event had Fluttershy staring down the Sphinx.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After completing the Crystal Empire quests and defeating King Sombra, the player unlocks him as a playable pony who, like his Canterlot counterpart, lives peacefully with the same crystal ponies he attempted to enslave.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Spike the Dragon. He only appears in the game's plot, the Bits and Gems shops, and (on occasion) the intro to the Mine Cart game. His role is small enough to the point where he doesn't get his own 3D model. This has since been averted in the April 2016 update, where Spike is now unlocked after completing a very large sequence of events from Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich.
  • Discord as well, who only is present via the story introducing Everfree Forest, as well as the cutscene that plays when the player defeats Tirek for the final time. He eventually got his own in-game character, though, and he plays a big role in the Changeling Kingdom event.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • If you count the number of times the game would say "Play" between clicking on a home to start training a specific pony, twice on the "Ready to Play" screen, once on the instruction screen, and once on the bonus multiplier selector.
  • There are even instances when you get two buttons to exit the same screen (in addition to always being able to do so with the Return button on Android devices).
• Double Unlock: During the various timed events that occurred from 2017 onward (which require collecting a certain number of a specific token to win a limited-time Pony), the advertisements that appear to notify that the next Pony in the event is available are captioned with "[Pony Name] has been unlocked!"- but the player must still bring them the required number of Tokens to win them and welcome them to Ponyville.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: Got a pony that's at maximum level? Hopefully that character doesn't have a quest to play any of the mini-games coming up. Once the level is maxed out, that pony can't play the level-up games anymore. However, this was fixed in an update: if the pony in question is maxed out, that part of the quest will already be checked off/completed.
  • Can still apply with the social events, where the second or third tier rewards might actually be more desirable depending on your goals. For example, if, say, Prim Hemline is the top-tier reward, 30 Loyalty shards are the second-tier reward, and you still need shards to activate the Loyalty pedestal, you're probably only going to want to do just well enough to finish in the second tier and get those shards.
• Early-Bird Cameo: After being introduced as a pony in the Crystal Princess Celebration toyline, Sunset Shimmer from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls makes her second pony appearance in this game, hinted at in promotional clue images for the game posted by official Facebook pages.
• Evolving Credits: Every major update has a title screen that coincides with the additions.
• Expansion Pack:
  • The Royal Wedding update allows players to travel to and from Canterlot once they reach level 15 - later changed to 10, and Canterlot features its own set of ponies, shops, decor, and quests that mirror the Canterlot Wedding. You even "battle" the Changelings.
  • The "Sweet Apple Acres" update allows you to visit Sweet Apple Acres, once you reach level 6. Sweet Apple Acres features its own set of ponies, shops, decor, and quests.
  • December 2014 saw the Everfree Forest expansion which added the eponymous woodland to the playable location list and added a slew of new content. However, it's very limited in what can be done there, and therefore it doesn't qualify as a normal village.
  • September 2016 brought the addition of the Crystal Empire, the first true village to be added since Sweet Apple Acres.
  • May 2017 brought the Changeling Kingdom as well as a complete overhaul to the game's user interface.
  • The October 2017 update added Klugetown from the movie (along with many of the primary and supporting characters therein), and a revamp of the world map used to travel between the different "villages" in the game.
• Face Plant: Happens to Derpy whenever she stops moving.
• Fake Longevity:
  • As with every village simulator, nearly everything runs on a timer of sorts.
  • The August 2017 Friendship Festival event made to promote the movie has a particularly nasty case of this. The fourth to last mission "Encore!" forces to player to wait nearly a whole week for Spike to finish up his preparation for the show. Its Skip cost is also huge, raking it at nearly 400 gems, and it more seems to be a gimmick to force players to wait to give them less time (as low as only 4 days) to complete the final missions and win the event's ultimate prize in Songbird Serenade.
• Flock of Wolves: Can happen in Canterlot if players don't clear out the Changelings; in time, players may find Canterlot full of Twilight Sparkles or some of the other Mane 6.
• Furry Confusion: In "A Mistmane New Year", the Mane Six are partnered with other creatures as dance partners, most of whom are Civilized Animals like themselves. Pinkie Pie is partnered with a monkey and spends some time telling him about a story, only for Trixie to inform her that he appears to just be "a regular monkey".
  Trixie: Uh... Pinkie? I think that's just a regular monkey. Like... not the sentient kind? I'm sure he likes you, but I don't know if he understands... you know... any of that.
  Pinkie Pie: Really?! Aw, nuts... I thought he was just a really good listener!
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • It goes without saying that the game is very resource-heavy and if connected to the Internet, the game can become incredibly taxing on even higher-end systems, especially for long-time players due to the sheer amount of 3d models and 2d sprites that have to be loaded and shown all at once. Ponyvile in particular can slow to a crawl and potentially crash the game outright if there is a very large number of characters.
  • The "White Advertisement", when an in-game notification that pops up upon entering a town doesn't load properly. It cannot be exited out of in-game due to the "X" button not loading in the upper right corner, and thus the app must be restarted. Particularly frustrating is that you can get one of these on the "How to Play" screen right before you play a Clear the Skies (or later Ball Bounce) minigame; restarting the game will mean you lose three lightning bolts even though you never actually played the game.
  • A different crash related bug that seems to be non-device specific; when purchasing a pony, the game can crash before being able to place their house on the map. Should this this happen, the pony will still be removed from the store making it impossible to ever acquire them. If the pony is required to complete a checklist task (such as one of the mane-six), it becomes impossible to ever progress any further in the game.
  • The game has also developed a nasty habit of randomly losing track of the player's progress. This can be especially frustrating when you've worked all week to level up or collect items for a quest grind, only to have it all be for nothing when the game sets you right back where you started at.
  • In the minecart game, it's possible for your pony to just randomly drop through otherwise intact-looking tracks for no reason.
  • In Version 1.9 (the Sweet Apple Acres update), the RNG that determines the color for what variety of Parasprite/Vampire Bat spawns was accidentally tweaked to spawn those of only one variety (the red color killed by Rainbow Dash's Loyalty Shards). Thankfully it was fixed in the following build.
  • Sometimes when you remove a large amount of darkness in a part of a village, when you leave the game and come back, the darkness may respawn, meaning you flushed maybe several thousands of Bits down the toilet thanks to unintentionally respawning darkness.
  • In rare cases, when dealing with Tirek in Everfree Forest, Tirek may never respawn when his timer runs out. The update released immediately after Tirek's inclusion fixes this.
    • The Android version has a nasty bug where the timer never ticks down. It just stays at 24:00:00, and never counts down.
    • And NOW there's a problem in which you cannot land a hit on Tirek, forcing you to let him stay in Everfree Forest. The timer just ticks down anyway, with you unable to do anything about it.
    • At least opening a service ticket with Gameloft can fix that problem. It'll take a few days to process, but they'll update your save state to make it possible to beat Tirek.
    • The latest update (Nov/Dec 2016) fixes the "can't damage Tirek" glitch.
  • Staring in the July 2015 update, if you already have all the ponies in a "What's Hot" page when a new one is announced, you will be completely unable to earn the pony offered as a reward for completing that page.
  • In the update that introduced the (long since gone) Dragons, it is very possible that the game will crash upon trying to load another two that isn't the one you started up the game in.
  • Whenever there's a timed event that requires players to get a certain amount of points in the Equestria Girls minigame, it's not uncommon for the game to randomly refuse to count a session of the game (and the points earned within) towards the player's score, so entire dances (even ones where you win a lot of points) could be for naught.
  • Rarely, the game has a chance of re-playing the opening intro each time the game is started, severely increasing the wait time before the game properly starts.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • In the show, all the mane 6 (except Rainbow Dash) and the Cakes live where they work. In this game, that's not possible because their respective places of work are only considered houses.
  • Many of the ponies you can buy don't live in their locations assigned in-game.
  • The Wonderbolts Academy looks nothing like in the show. Instead of its normal mountaintop location, it's located on a cloud.
  • As of the Hearts and Hooves Day 2014 update you can unlock Daring Do in Ponyville and A.K. Yearling in Canterlot. For those unaware, they're the same pony.
  • In Clear the Skies' instructions screen, the earth ponies are granted normal Pegasus wings by Celestia, however the actual game depicts non-Pegasi ponies with butterfly wings similar to the wings Rarity received in the episode Sonic Rainboom, regardless of their gender.
  • Parasprites, Changelings, and Vampire Fruit Bats are fought with shards representing the Elements of Harmony in the game. In the show, the elements were never used against any of those creatures.
  • First-time players will be given a quest very early on to play the Equestria Girls dancing mini-game, complete with cutscenes showing Sunset Shimmer stealing Princess Twilight's crown. This in spite of the fact Twilight is only just dealing with Nightmare Moon and her eternal darkness, and is nowhere near becoming a princess yet.
  • Zecora's hut is located in both Ponyville and Everfree Forest, though Zecora lives in the former in-game, despite living in the later in the show's official canon.
  • The Tree of Harmony "minigame" uses the unicorn model for Twilight Sparkle, despite her being an alicorn when she dealt with that crisis in the show. Some of the dialogue in the cutscene following the completion of the event is spoken by different characters than in the show (such as Rarity commenting on the number of locks on the mystery box given by the tree, which was said by Luna in the actual episode).
  • After defeating Tirek, the Golden Oaks Library is not permanently destroyed as it was in the episode; it is simply placed into the player's inventory (though is reduced to a mere decoration and is not actually inhabited by Twilight or Applejack like it originally was).
  • The April 2015 update has the player fighting the three teenage dragons from "Dragon Quest" who have invaded Ponyville, which they never did in the show (not to mention that they were dealt with far earlier than the other events that have happened in the game).
  • It's possible to have both Countess Coloratura living in Sweet Apple Acres and Rara living in Ponyville simultaneously, despite them being different versions of the exact same pony.
  • Even after the player witnesses the events of To Where and Back Again and causes the Changelings to pull their Heel–Race Turn, evil Changelings (presumably remnants that remain loyal to Queen Chrysalis) will still attack Canterlot.
  • As of the December 2017 update, it's possible to have both pre-transformation and post-reformation versions of both Thorax and Pharynx.
  • During the questline to infiltrate the Changeling Kingdom, all characters (except Starlight, Trixie, Thorax and Discord) will flash green intermittently, suggesting that they may be changeling impersonators. They still talk and behave just like the originals. The changeling Mane Six will still do their best to stop Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, and Queen Chrysalis, if those questlines are still open.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The minecart minigame. How in Equestria are you suppose to get past those barrels plonked straight in your path when there's a piece of track above you? You jump straight through the piece of track! The games hints nowhere that you can do this, though you will figure it out soon enough.
  • Many of the ponies added in later versions of the game are event-exclusive, meaning you need to acquire the pony through means that don't include purchasing it from the Store (unless they are, in this case you must buy him/her for Gems). You'll have to do research to figure out what event unlocks what.
• Hammerspace: Many of the main six's idle animations use this trope.
  • Twilight takes a book out, and reads it.
  • Pinkie Pie eats a cupcake that falls from the sky.
  • Applejack bucks an apple and catches it in her mouth.
  • Rarity looks at herself in a handheld mirror.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Sombra and the Shadowbolts seem to switch between being on good terms with your ponies and being their enemies, almost at the drop of a hat. The Shadowbolts can be added to your villages like other ponies and will get along just fine with them, yet they will actively oppose you every time you play the Clear the Skies or Crystal Mine minigames. Sombra similarly can be unlocked after acquiring the Mane Six and similarly gets along with the other ponies just fine (even generating element shards like Celestia & Luna), yet he acts as the main antagonist in the 2016 Crystal Empire update, and must be re-unlocked for players that have acquired him in the past. The September 2017 update adds Nightmare Moon as a playable pony; depending on the player's progress through the main Ponyville story, they could be fighting to defeat her while at the same time have her as a benign resident of the same town she seeks to conquer.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • The Everfree Forest expansion added villain characters King Sombra, The Mane-iac, and The Shadowbolts as purchasable ponies. They interact quite amicably with the rest of the ponies once purchased, and Sombra even generates element shards like Luna and Celestia do. Discord and Starlight Glimmer don't apply as they went through Heel-Face Turns in the show, unlike the three characters described above. The September 2017 update adds Daybreaker, the Superpowered Evil Side of Celestia seen in "A Royal Problem" as a playable pony.
  • The October 2017 limited-time event offered the Storm King as a prize for completing all of the story missions in the allotted time. When acquired, he becomes a playable character in the game (despite being apparently Killed Off for Real in the movie).
  • One of the playable characters added in the December 2017 update was a pre-reformation changeling guard who lives in Canterlot and gets along just fine with the other ponies.
  • The July 2018 update also includes the Mean 6 as playable characters, and they get along with most other ponies, save for their counterparts.
• Hitbox Dissonance: The hitboxes for Parasprites are much bigger than the swarm itself. Which can be an issue when you're trying to move or clear objects around them, especially when they are the color of a crystal you are trying to stockpile so you can activate one of the Elemental Stones.
• Holiday Mode:
  • During October, Ponyville is decorated for Nightmare Night. The Mane Six even wear costumes!
  • During Winter months, snow covers the areas.
• Hollywood Darkness:
  • Nightmare Moon seems to be covering Ponyville in eternal late afternoon. Ponies refuse to build their structures in these unlit areas but don't mind about walking through them themselves.
  • The darkness was made much darker with the October 2014 bugfix update.
• It Makes Sense in Context: The making of a totem pole solely from a substance of magical liquid combined with three different species of plantlife. How it forms into a solid object is anyone's guess.
• Killed Off for Real: At first implied to Queen Chrysalis (and her entire army) once you beat the "Canterlot Wedding" event—rather than being sent flying across the horizon, they appear to be vaporized by the Elements of Harmony. Rainbow Dash's line about "getting rid of these Changelings once and for all" once you have all the Element shards necessary to do so doesn't bode well for the Changelings, either. This is soon revealed to not be the case, as it's later outright confirmed she survives during the Changeling Kingdom event.
• Lampshade Hanging: The February 2019 "Presentable in Periwinkle" event has Ember questioning why Canterlot Academy was in Ponyville, addressing the game's habit of having buildings being present in locations they shouldn't be.
• Last-Second Word Swap: In "The Crowning Achievement" event, Lyra introduces Bon Bon as "my f— I mean, my FRIEND".
• Lazy Alias: In "The Crowning Achievement" event, Lyra Heartstrings needs to disguise her and Bon Bon's identities, and claims that their names are "Harpy McCardio" and "Treatsy Realpony".
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • invokedIn "The Crowning Achievement" event, Future Pinkie talks about party cannons and says that sometimes it's nice to leave the contents of a cannon to the imagination. That way, you can have any ships you want — in case you throw a party on a boat.
  • In "The Pinkie Parents Problem" event, most of the actual gameplay is framed as Pinkie trying to understand her parents by thinking of it as "an event challenge" in her mind, complete with "imagining shooting Insight Orbs" at mental images of characters.
  • In the June 2022 update that expands Ponyville, Hoofbeard suggests building further out from town and Fluttershy is unsure if that's allowed, citing zoning restrictions.
• Level Grinding: Some of the ponies are very easy to rank up, whilst some of them will take forever (different EXP gain on top of cool down times). Ponies like Shining Armor will take a good few weeks unless you tweak with the clock setting or use score modifiers.
• Literary Allusion Title: The title of the event "Applejack Dreams of Robot Ponies" is a reference to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
• Lucky Seven: Lucky Clover, one of the extra ponies, costs 77,777 bits in the shop, and is unlocked when the player reaches level 7.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • Most of the minigames, although you can't really fail any of them, just score badly and receive little to no experience for your Pony. Ball Bounce was this until an update which fixed up the game to make it much more refined.
  • Every quest objective that requires you to collect Element Shards. While each shop is more likely to produce one type of shard than the others, you wouldn't know that without a guide, and even then it remains a gamble.
  • There's three quests that require you to find Derpy. Her spawn rate is incredibly low, and her box model easily blends in with the background, making her harder to spot. Even more frustrating when her box shows up in any of the villages except the one that has the active quest, and tapping her in those other villages don't count toward the quest.
  • There's no better example than Flim and Flan's Balloon Pop minigame. Winning ponies from the gold-tier (which as of now is 20 Gems to play, though for some time it was 10) level is extremely rare. And some quests require you to win certain items in the Balloon Pop. Good luck with that.
• Minecart Madness: An update on March 25, 2014 includes a new minigame that's basically this.
• Mistaken for Undead: In "The Pony Whisperer", the Ponyville hospital is thought to be haunted by a ghost. Said ghost turns out to be a regular pony who came from a costume party with a toothache looking for a dentist, his moans being mistaken for ghostly wails.
• Moveset Clone: Every single standard-sized pony. The only ponies with unique animations on the map are the Mane 6.
• Nerf:
  • Most of the prices had this done to them in the Movie Time update. That and the addition of the minecart mini-game, which makes grinding bits and shards a lot easier.
  • Also done to the songs in Equestria Girls dancing minigame in the Sweet Apple Acres update, mostly for the worse. On the one hand, it got rid of or replaced most of the orange horseshoe note sets, which required rapid tapping and tended to break combos. On the other hand, a lot of the notes were removed, which means less points gained per song and makes winning the prizes take that much longer.
• No Fair Cheating: Changing in-game values using third-party software will get you banned, costing you all of your progress. The December 2015 update also added the ability for players to report others suspected of cheating.
• One-Hour Work Week: You can assign each pony you control to work in a particular shop, but this doesn't stop them from spending all of their time wandering around the map and having impromptu dance parties whenever they meet each other.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Derpy Hooves is called "the pony in the box" on in-game Flavor Texts. The descriptions of the missions that require you to find her refer to her has different nicknames as well.
• Original Generation: The game features characters who don't appear in either the cartoon or comics. The characters are usually alternate versions of the Mane Six but others are featured as well. Some examples include:
  • The Mane Six, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna as both normal and dark Changelings.
  • The Mane Six, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna as both Kirin and Niriks.
  • Robot versions of Twilight and her friends, Grogar, Tirek, Discord, and Queen Chrysalis.
  • Twilight, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadance, Princess Skystar, and Queen Novo gain chaos forms from absorbing Discord's Chaos Magic.
  • The Mane Six and Cutie Mark Crusaders as Hippogriffs and Seaponies.
• Painful Rhyme: When the mine opens, Twilight will say "Of course, we'd love to help! Ponyville's got the best mine in the whole world! If you want bling, we've got your thing! ...That sounded better in my head."
• Palette Swap:
  • As in the toyline, Lovestruck and Forsythia are obvious recolors of Twilight Sparkle and Rarity respectively, with different cutie marks to boot.
  • Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot of the Wonderbolts use the same sprite with their flight suits being the only parts of them that are the same color.
  • Celestia and Luna both use the same model and animations, their colors being the only visual differences.
• Permanently Missable Content: To a certain degree. Once a pony reaches its maximum star ranking (5 stars), it can never be used to play any of the games that would grant that pony experience. If there is a certain prize that requires you to play either Ball Bounce, Apple Catch, or Star Gazing but with almost your entire town consisting of 5-stared ponies, you simply cannot complete the objective in time and win the prize.
• Play Every Day: The game used to provide a daily reward for every day the player logged in. The current version gives increasing rewards up to and including a free pony or shop but subverts this trope in that players won't lose progress in a given prize track if they miss a day.
• The Power of Friendship: As in the cartoon, the ultimate win condition over Nightmare Moon is to recover and activate all six Elements of Harmony, have all the mane 6, and finish all the quests. More importantly, you can make friends with other players of the game and send them gifts, which is the main way of getting heart crystals.
• Premium Currency: While Bits can be easily obtained through shops, games, and bushes, Gems are much rarer and often require days of playing to receive just a small amount, if they aren't given as a reward for certain accomplishments (like finishing a quest or completing a scrapbook page of ponies). Unfortunately, after a certain point in the game, Gems become the main way to purchase new ponies, and you're often required to use Gems to progress further in the game by buying a certain pony, shop, or prop.
• Promoted to Playable:
  • After spending years in the game Demoted to Extra, Spike can finally be unlocked and ranked up.
  • Since the beginning, Derpy was a background element that could be found hiding in a cardboard box and tapped on to receive a small assortment of items. In March 2017, she got a playable incarnation in the form of Lazy Fan, and an April 2018 update made her playable in her regular appearance under the name "Muffins."
• Real Men Wear Pink:
  • All the stallions can indeed take part in Clear the Skies. All non-pegasi stallions get the exact same fancy magic wings as the mares.◊
  • Before the update, the Royal Guard Pegasus got the butterfly wings along with his own wings. Unlike the other pegasi, he doesn't fly around in his idle animations.
• The Remnant: Even after all the Changelings turn good following the Changeling Kingdom event, Changelings still in their black, starving, hollow forms will continue to disguise themselves as the Mane 6 and invade Canterlot. Justified as their absence would result in a Game-Breaker as Canterlot would lose their "invader" characters.
• La Résistance: The October 2017 special event has the Cutie Mark Crusaders (and Trixie) taking up this role when Ponyville is occupied by the Storm King's army.
• Retcon: When she was first released, Fleur Dis Lee was mistakenly made an alicorn. A future patch updated her in-game model to make her a unicorn, and viewing her profile in the Album reveals that the Alicorn version was a Changeling. However, her image in the shop still shows her as an Alicorn.
• Rhythm Game: The Equestria Girls content is this, having the characters dancing to five possible songs, and being able to invite two friends.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Up until the December 2017 update eliminated hiring ponies to work at the shops, you could put that lazy Princess Celestia to grinding flour in the windmill, or Prince Blueblood selling ice cream...
• Rule of Cute:
  • Oh so much. The ponies you unlock wander around town and socialize with each other in adorable ways.
  • Derpy will fly or walk around after you reveal her, but will fall flat every so often in adorable ways.
• Scare Quotes: In "The Pinkie Parents Problem" event, Lyra tells Pinkie a "hypothetical" story about "two totally made-up twin ponies" and their parents to get around not being able to directly tell her about the Cakes' future. At the end of the story, Pinkie's playing along with the charade is indicated through the use of scare quotes around her words.
  Pinkie: Hmm… I see! And, just to make extra specially sure, these "parents"… they're "made up" and "hypothetical" too. "Right?"
• Secret Character:
  • There are many ponies that are not shown in the Shop and instead have to be unlocked by winning them though either the Equestria Girls Dancing Game, the Mine Cart Game, or being purchased or won from a timed event.
  • A later update issued in late 2014 added special ponies that players must compete for against many others by playing the mini games, the top 15 players will receive the pony free of charge, while runner ups will only receive the elemental shards associated with the Mane Six. Because more than 1,000 players may take part, it's worthless attempting to win a pony through this method unless you have lots of gems available.
• Secret Message Wink: In "The Pinkie Parents Problem" event, to get around not being allowed to tell Pinkie about the Cake family in the future, Lyra tells her a "hypothetical" story about "two totally made-up twin ponies" and their parents. At the end of the story, Pinkie winks at Lyra to show that she understands the charade.
  Pinkie: Hmm… I see! And, just to make extra specially sure, these "parents"… they're "made up" and "hypothetical" too. "Right?"
  Lyra: Stop winking at me every other word, Pinkie.
• Sequel Episode: The Thracian Infiltration is this to the Feats of Friendship comic. The storyline involves Swiftfoot returning to the School of Friendship to ask Starlight Glimmer to help convince her father King Diomedes from attacking Equestria.
  • The events Generations - Dance Party! and Generation Gap - Picnic Day! are this to the comic My Little Pony Generations. The former has Pinkie Pie throw a new Bestie Festie day after the previous one was ruined by the Smooze. The latter has Pinkie invite the Dream Valley ponies to a picnic in Equestria.
• Sequence Breaking:
  • It's possible to unlock most ponies before the story quests ask you to do so. The only limitation is your level (and if the pony costs hearts or gems, not even that). Same goes for stores.
  • Since you can access Canterlot quite early on, it's possible to have main characters like Rarity talk and give you quests in Canterlot even though you might not have them yet.
  • The Changeling Kingdom is unlocked once you're high enough level, even if the Royal Wedding questline hasn't been completed yet. Additionally, you get five-star versions of Starlight, Trixie, Thorax and Discord even if they haven't been obtained properly yet. (They are actually different characters, as they won't appear in Ponyville.)
• Sequential Boss: In timed story events that begun with the September 2017 update, at the end of each cycle of missions is a boss character that has three phases for each of the three missions dedicated to them (with a progressively more aggressive mugshot in each mission). For each phase, you can attack with just one character or up to two others to add a bonus to your attack power, an uncommon character the player is likely to own and a new character the released alongside the timed update that provides an even bigger bonus at the cost of being far more expensive to purchase.
• Socialization Bonus: There's a whole currency (Heart Crystals) based around this. You can receive a Heart Crystal if someone in your friends list sends you a treasure chest and/or a gift. However, each of those can only be done once a day, per user, so if you have many Gameloft friends, just sit back and watch the hearts roll in. This was made a little easier with the Equestria Girls dancing game. Sharing your score will give you a heart, and if you dance with friends, you'll earn a heart for each.
• Shout-Out: Primarily in pony names:
  • Two of the four ponies who showed up in The Cutie Pox bearing a resemblance to characters from The Big Lebowski now bear names similar to their human counterparts, and a third one (the one resembling Walter Sobchak) is simply referred to as "Bowling Pony" in gameplay but gets named Walter in the code.
  • Rarity's father is now named Magnum.
  • Derpy Hooves shows up (unnamed in-game) hiding inside a cardboard box. One of the missions that requires you to find her is called "Everyone's Favorite".
  • One of the idle animations has your ponies rear up and dance "Gangnam Style".
  • The mission to get DJ Pon-3 for Ponyville is called "There's a Pony for That", referencing one of Apple's advertising slogans (which has been parodied in an advertising for the show itself).
  • One of the Flavor Texts in the Equestria Girls mini game asks the player is her or she's "got hooves like Jagger".
  • During a mission, Zecora finishes one of her rhymes with "...as a wise man once said, 'the power is yours!'"
  • Clear the Skies is similar to Jetpack Joyride, the difference being that it's slower and you can't actually lose.
  • The Detective Pony earned by completing the 2016 Hearth's Warming Eve quests is a clear reference to the titular protagonist of Sherlock Holmes, and another pony made available at the same time is meant to be a ponified version of Dr. Watson.
  • Three of the ponies added in the "Crystal Ghost Chaos" siege bear a resemblance to three of the mad scientists from Mystery Science Theater 3000: Green-Coated Crystal Courtier (Dr. Forrester), Silvery-Haired Courtier (TV's Frank), and Pearlescent Courtier (Pearl Forrester).
  • Returning from her cameo in the second Issue of My Little Pony: Legends of Magic, the ponified Lucina was added to the game as the "Burning Sigil Princess" in February 2024.
• Sleepwalking: A glitch in the December 2015 update caused some players to see Pinkie Pie and Applejack apparently doing this; walking around and interacting with other ponies like normal, but with their eyes closed.
• Special Guest: Just as in the show, John de Lancie voices Discord, both in the story quest cutscenes involving him and when the player taps the character.
• Sue Donym: One possible scene in the "Trot Secret" group quest has Lyra Heartstrings disguising her identity by calling herself "Lara Heartthrob".
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity:
  • Sales occur with no warning and are decent way for players to stock up on large amounts of Gems if they have the cash to do so. Sometime after the sale ends, an event with high-price Ponies will launch.
  • Typically during a timed event when a player must farm for a particular Token, the "special" pony or shop that provides an increased drop rate for the Token can be purchased for Gems... or real cash through a special "Deal" which is less expensive than buying the pony with Gems.
• Temporary Online Content:
  • Once an otherwise unobtainable pony is no longer being sold as a sale in the shop or offered in an event, he/she is very likely never to appear again until another sale or event occurs down the line.
  • Jesús Pezuña is no longer purchasable in the game, though he is still present if the player had previously purchased him prior to his removal.
• Timed Mission:
  • Once you trigger Tirek's appearance in the Everfree Forest, you have to destroy his shields and make him flee a set number of times within several hours until the mission registers as completed. If you fail, Tirek will return to full strength and the timer will reset.
  • Many of the events held with (often secret and otherwise unobtainable) ponies as a prize fall into these. 2017 brought fourth many of these- which require players to collect tokens or in the case of the Changeling Kingdom event, Friendship Gems. Do it fast enough, and you'll reap rare ponies, otherwise they'll become Permanently Missable.
• Title Drop: One of Twilight's lines when she's touched is "Friendship is Magic".
• Trash of the Titans: Added in the April 2016 update are piles of trash and abnormally-large trash bins that serve as naturally-spawning clearable items. Depending on how the RNG spawns these, your Ponyville may become cluttered in filth when you log on.
• The Un-Favourite: The Windows 8 version seems to be this; being the last of the three versions to get updates, and sometimes not getting updates at all.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In April 2015, the system of (very slowly) grinding Sapphires that act as a pseudo-replacement to Heart Gems by shooing off dragons in Ponyville was introduced, and never explicitly was called a "timed event". It did give hints that it was only temporary days before it was chopped off with a popup exclaiming "buy these ponies to keep them forever" but there were no indications that Sapphires and the things they'd unlock would become lost for good. Starting from around the middle of May the same year, the mountains and lava pit the dragons resided in were cleared away, all the ponies and shops that once cost Sapphires were eliminated, returning those ponies to Secret Character status and the Silver tier Balloon Pop game went back to its original pricing (30 Heart Gems).
• Winged Humanoid: The human versions of Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash each sport a pair of wings in the Equestria Girls dancing mini-game, depending on which modifier you use.
• Winged Unicorn: If you play as any unicorn in Clear the Skies (all non-pegasi are given magical wings)
  • Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Flurry Heart, naturally.
  • Now includes Twilight Sparkle as of the October 2013 update, reflecting her ascension to an alicorn Princess in the show.
  • Also "Nosfurarity", the batpony version of Rarity from the 2018 Nightmare Night event.
  • The "Reflections: Battle for the Moon" event in August 2019 added an alicorn version of Trixie from an alternate reality featured in the IDW comics.
  • During the 2019 "Nightmare Night at the Museum" Halloween event, one of the outfits Starlight Glimmer dons is a Twilight Sparkle costume, complete with (fake) alicorn wings.
• With This Herring: Nightmare Moon must be defeated! Twilight starts off with... Spike, her library, and enough resources to build a windmill. First pony to come and help her? Bon Bon (possibly justified in hindsight, since it's been revealed in the show that she's actually part of a top-secret anti-monster organization in the Equestrian government).
• Would Hurt a Child: The Shadowbolts in the clear the skies minigame and Diamond Dogs in the minecart minigame have no compunctions about ramming head-on into the younger characters just like they do to the full-grown ponies.
• You All Look Familiar: It's possible for you and your dancing partners in the dancing minigame to all be the same character and all wearing identical outfits.
• Your Size May Vary:
  • In the mine cart game when playing as certain Ponies, looking real closely at the Rainbow Dash that rescues your character upon crashing shows her being much larger than even Big Macintosh. Inverted with the filly/colt characters, where Rainbow Dash is instead portrayed as much smaller in size.
  • The ponies are shown being much too big for the buildings they live and work in. Twilight for example is almost twice as tall as the front door of her palace in Ponyville.

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