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My little… human?

"The magic of friendship never changes."
Tagline for the first film

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, shortened as EG, EqG or just Equestria Girls, is a toyline and media spin-off franchise of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, as well as a sub-series of the "Generation 4" My Little Pony toyline by Hasbro, beginning with the titular movie premiering on June 16, 2013, and had a limited theatrical run at over 200 US and Canadian theaters in June and July of the same year.

Taking place in an Alternate Universe inhabited by pastel-colored human counterparts of Equestria's pastel-colored pony residents, the spin-off series follows the adventures of Equestria's "Princess of Friendship" Twilight Sparkle and her baby dragon assistant Spike in the human world, together with the teenage human counterparts of her "Mane Six" friends — Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Aside from dealing with overflowing schoolwork, peer pressure, prom dance, and a possible teenage romance, Twilight and the rest of the Equestria Girls have to deal with the various recurring magical happenings that seep from the statue portal to Equestria and into Canterlot High.

Later installments have two additional main characters who substitute for Princess Twilight due to her princess duties in Equestria: Sunset Shimmer, a reformed school bully and Princess Celestia's former (unicorn) student; and Twilight's science-inclined human counterpart who also owns a pet puppy named Spike (who gained the ability to speak).

Also, various known characters from the main show (and quite some of the popular "background ponies") have made appearances in the franchise as human-like characters, such as Princesses Celestia and Luna, the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo), the Apple family, and fan-favorite ones like Muffins "Derpy" Hooves, Vinyl "DJ-Pon 3" Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops and Octavia Melody.

This My Little Pony spin-off then expands to include a series of tie-in toyline, sequel movies, comics, chapter books, mobile apps, soundtracks, three TV specials which aired on Discovery Family in the summer of 2017, a YouTube web series, and two 44-minute TV specials each in 2018 and 2019.

The franchise was put on hiatus in November 2019 with the release of Holidays Unwrapped, a collection of holiday-themed shorts. As per Word of God though, the special is not actually a Grand Finale to the franchise, just the last content produced for it by DHX.


    open/close all folders 

    Movies and Specials 
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013): The first movie in the spin-off franchise. Taking place between Season 3 and Season 4 of the show, the film follows Twilight and Spike in their quest to the human world, assuming the appearance of a teenage girl and a dog, respectively. Accompanied by the human counterparts of her Ponyville friends, Twilight will have to compete with the culprit, Celestia's former student Sunset Shimmer, to retrieve her stolen crown and Element of Magic before the portal closes for another thirty moons. The movie was written by Meghan McCarthy, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 16, 2013, and had a limited theatrical run at over 200 US and Canadian theaters in June and July of the same year. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the US by Shout! Factory on August 6, 2013 and later released on DVD in other markets worldwide, and aired later still on Discovery Family (formerly named at the time as The Hub) on September 1st, 2013.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks (2014): The second movie in the spin-off franchise. Taking place shortly after "Twilight's Kingdom" and immediately after the first film, Canterlot High is being plagued by the Dazzlings, a trio of singers whose singing voices causes an Hate Plague amongst the student body during a friendly talent contest. Once again, Twilight and Spike must venture back to Canterlot High and enlist her human friends into joining the Battle of the Bands in order to defeat the evil trio, bringing along reformed-but-not-forgiven Sunset Shimmer. Like the previous film, Rainbow Rocks is theatrically released on September 27, 2014, with the television broadcast set for October 17, 2014 and the Region 1 DVD/Blu-ray release exactly one month later on October 28, 2014.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games (2015): The third movie in the spin-off franchise. Taking place in parallel with "The Cutie Re-Mark", the film follows Sunset and the rest of the CHS students as they compete in the Friendship Games against Crystal Prep School, their undefeated rival school. To make things a lot complicated, Sunset and her friends will have to face Crystal Prep's "secret" weapon: Twilight Sparkle, the human world's counterpart of Princess Twilight. Unlike the first two movies, Friendship Games is released as an Direct-to-TV feature film in Discovery Family on September 26, 2015, and its home media release was on October 13 of that year. Unlike the previous two installments, this one was not given a limited theatrical release.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree (2016): The fourth movie in the spin-off franchise. In a departure to the previous films, it was released exclusively on Netflix on October 1, 2016. When Canterlot High goes on a camping trip to Camp Everfree to hopefully relax from the various magic occurrences in their school, The seven heroines find themselves in another magical adventure to solve the mystery regarding the legend of the camp's malevolent nature spirit known as Gaea Everfree. All the while, in-between learning how to control their newly manifested powers and preventing Camp Everfree from being closed down by Filthy Rich, Sunset and the others tries to help New Transfer Student Twilight Sparkle, who is haunted by her corrupted evil counterpart from the previous film, Midnight Sparkle.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night (2017): Tied in with the seventh season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, three special TV episodes premiered in summer 2017 on Netflix, and take place after the events in Legend of Everfree.
    • "Dance Magic": Rarity and her friends have to face off against Crystal Prep's Shadowbolts in a music video contest.
    • "Movie Magic": When the Equestria Girls are invited to the set of A.K. Yearling's upcoming Daring Do movie (much to Rainbow Dash's excitement), they have to track down a set of missing props to keep the production on schedule.
    • "Mirror Magic": When Sunset runs out of pages in her magic journal, she returns to Equestria to pick up a new one, meeting Starlight Glimmer and bringing her to visit the human world. However, a vengeful teen named Juniper Montage finds a magic hand mirror that can trap people within itself and sets out to even the score with Sunset and her friends.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship (2018): Sunset Shimmer discovers that she's been erased from the memories of her friends, and has to find the magic and the culprit behind who would do such a thing. Adapted into the novel A Friendship to Remember before the special's release. Takes place during season 1 of the Digital Series.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rollercoaster of Friendship (2018): Rarity gets a job as the lead costume designer for Equestrialand, only to find that the leader of PR for the park, Vignette Valencia, is more than she appears to be.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Spring Breakdown (2019): The girls go on a cruise for spring break, but discover magic running amok.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Sunset's Backstage Pass (2019): Sunset and Pinkie are the most excited to see their favorite band perform but when Equestrian Magic causes a "Groundhog Day"-inspired time loop to start, Sunset gets stuck reliving "Festival Day 1" forever! Adapted into the novel Make Your Own Magic: The Starswirl Do-Over before the special's release.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Holidays Unwrapped (2019): A collection of short specials set around Christmas time. It's the first holiday-themed installment of the series, and the final Equestria Girls content produced by DHX Media.

    Toyline and Related Merchandise 
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013): The tie-in toyline for the school-themed Equestria Girls movie.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks (2014): The tie-in toyline for the rock band-themed Rainbow Rocks movie.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games (2015): The tie-in toyline for the sports-themed Friendship Games movie.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree (2016): The tie-in toyline for the camp-themed Legend of Everfree movie.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Minis (2016 – 2019): A series of mini figurines featuring chibi-fied versions of Equestria Girls characters.

    Shorts 

    Soundtracks 
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Original Soundtrack
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks Original Soundtrack
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games Original Soundtrack
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree Original Soundtrack

    Novel series 
  1. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Through the Mirror: The novelization of the first film. While it follows the basic story beats and plot, it otherwise has major differences. Notably, the first and last Equestria Girls book written by Friendship Is Magic chapter book writer Gillian M Berrow.
  2. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks!: The novelization of the prequel shorts for the second movie. The first book written by Perdita Finn, who would write every subsequent Equestria Girls book; like Berrow's prior novelization, it adapts the basic premise in Broad Strokes.
  3. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks – The Mane Event: The adaptation of the second film proper. More faithful to the source than the first two books.
  4. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer's Time to Shine: The first original novel for Equestria Girls; it picks up some time after the events of The Mane Event/the Rainbow Rocks movie, focuses on Sunset Shimmer's attempts to find her place in the world she now calls home, and within her new group of friends. It's never quite so easy. It notably introduces character traits for Sunset that would become canon in later animated media, such as being Good with Numbers.
  5. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – The Friendship Games: The fifth book adapts the third film. Unlike Rainbow Rocks, the shorts aren't adapted at all.
  6. My Little Pony Equestria Girls Twilights Sparkly Sleepover Surprise: Direct sequel to The Friendship Games, starting at last book's epilogue. The human world's Twilight Sparkle adjusts to a new life in a new school with new friends following the rather traumatic events she went through in the last book. Unfortunately, a trio of her ex-classmates seem determined to sabotage her budding friendship with the rest of the Equestria Girls.
  7. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – The Legend of Everfree: The novelization of the fourth film, and the seventh book overall.
  8. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magic, Magic Everywhere!: The novelization for the three Equestria Girls specials ("Dance Magic", "Movie Magic", "Mirror Magic") as a single, cohesive story instead of three somewhat-independent stories. After a string of decently faithful novelizations, this one features major divergences.
  9. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – A Friendship to Remember: The novelization for Forgotten Friendship where Sunset Shimmer must team up with Trixie to figure out what is going on and how to fix it when her friends suddenly forget about their friendship and only remember Sunset as the jerk she used to be.
  10. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Canterlot High Stories – Rainbow Dash Brings the Blitz : This and subsequent Canterlot High Stories books are written by Arden Hayes. Rainbow Dash attempts to join a Blitzball league, but the coach Comet Chaser will not allow girls. She and her friends challenge his boys, and if her team wins, he must allow girls to join.
  11. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Canterlot High Stories – Twilight's Science Fair Sparks: Twilight Sparkle joins a science fair and is partnered with a Crystal Prep boy named Rising Star. As they work on their project, her friends begin to suspect Rising Star is up to no good.
  12. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Canterlot High Stories – Pinkie Pie and the Cupcake Calamity: Rarity becomes the new cashier at Sugarcube Corner, but she and Pinkie Pie do not see eye to eye. When a big, corporate bakery moves in and starts stealing Sugarcube Corner's customers, the two must work together.
  13. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Make Your Own Magic – The Starswirl Do-Over: A Gamebook where the girls go to a music festival, but Sunset Shimmer finds herself in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, so she and the reader must make the right choices to break it.

    Comics 
  • My Little Pony Annual 2013: The first annual IDW comic anthology tying in with Equestria Girls, which also features an 8-page prequel comic prior to the events of the film.
  • My Little Pony Annual 2014: IDW's second annual comic anthology, which includes a short side story involving Pony!Mane-iac meet her human counterpart.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Holiday Special: IDW's third annual comic anthology featuring an original Christmas-themed story set before the events of Friendship Games.
  • My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic issue #3: The third in IDW's five-part villain-focused MLP comic series, featuring the origins of the second film's antagonist, the Dazzling (a.k.a. the Sirens). Rendered non-canon as of the Legends of Magic comic series and episodes 25 & 26 of the main series' 7th season.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Canterlot High: March Radness: IDW's tenth comic anthology featuring stories set in the spring.

    YouTube Series 

For more detailed info on the Equestria Girls films, see the "Movies" folder above.

Has an official YouTube channel and Wikia page.

Not to be confused with the commercial for Friendship Is Magic, or the parody YouTube videos EQUESTRIA GIRLS.

Most of the following tropes below are not marked. Expect a LOT of spoilers!


Multiple entries in the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls franchise, or the franchise as a whole, provides examples of:

  • 20% More Awesome:
    • The Rainbooms are trying to buy time for Twilight to write the counterspell:
      Twilight Sparkle: Remember, we have to be good enough to make it through but not so good we let the sirens see the magic within us. They could realize we plan to use it against them.
      Rainbow Dash: Got it! Be cool enough to win, but not so cool that we end up showing off the whole ears and tails and rainbows thing. Sooo... about twenty percent less cool.
    • The soundtrack version of Rainbow's song "Awesome as I Wanna Be" has the lyrics, "When it comes to makin' music, I'm the ruler / You wish you could be twenty percent cooler."
    • Mentioned again during the song "Embrace the Magic" in Legend of Everfree.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: Filthy Rich is a reasonable and honest businessman in the main series, but a smug jerkass in Legend of Everfree.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Most of the characters who are portrayed in the main series as mean jerks had their personalities toned down to reflect the differences between them and their pony counterparts.
    • Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are seen sincerely getting into the cafeteria song, wearing the ears and tails and dancing with everyone else — unlike their mean Equestria counterparts. Though given what happens in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", it doubles as Foreshadowing.
    • Trixie is likewise less antagonistic than she is in the show. Although she becomes a minor antagonist in the second film, it is due to being Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • Adults Are Useless: It wouldn't be a high-school work without this trope. A few adults have rarely have their own moments.
  • Aesop Amnesia: An early episode in the Digital Series has the group subvert Mundane Utility with the discovery that constant use of their magic in everyday life overcharges their geodes and caused residual side effects they can't control. They thus agree to only use their magic on important occasions to avoid this happening again. Even within the Digital Series itself, though, the cast has no trouble or hesitation about using their magic whenever they like, and have suffered no further ill effects for it.
  • Age Lift: Several characters from Friendship Is Magic, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Snips and Snails, and a few other younger cast members are aged up to at least resemble high-school freshmen. Conversely, other adult characters who live on their own, and in some cases even run their own businesses, are aged down to meet this criteria.
  • Alas, Poor Yorick: Mocked with the green-haired member of the Dramas usually seen carrying around a skull (hopefully made of plastic).
  • All There in the Manual: Many of the staff's blogs, as well as some of the tie-in books and guides reveals some facts and references about the movies. For instances, during Twilight and Fluttershy's discussion of the Fall Formal Princess, Fluttershy says that the previous girl to go up against Sunset was utterly humiliated, but she never says who it was. According toinvoked Word of Saint Paul, it was Rarity, though a few lines imply that it was her.
  • All There in the Script: Many. For example...
    • From the toyline, Photo Finish's band in Rainbow Rocks is called the Snapshots, and her bandmates are Pixel Pizzaz and Violet Blurr.
    • Aria Blaze's name is not mentioned in the film, only in the credits.
  • All There in the Stinger: Rainbow Rocks ends with the human Twilight claiming that there is something strange about Canterlot High. Cue Friendship Games...
  • Alpha Bitch:
    • Sunset Shimmer is introduced as this in the first film. It takes a magical rainbow laser from the Equestria Girls to make her realize the error of her own ways.
    • The Crystal Prep Shadowbolts note , who are all bullying human Twilight throughout the third film, as well as antagonizing the Equestria Girls. This has serious consequences later in the film.
  • Alternate Self: Naturally, the human world has a human counterpart for everypony in Equestria. Twilight Sparkle meets the A.U. counterparts of her friends who are attending high school together. A.U. Pinkie asks Twilight if she had a twin since she vaguely recalls having seen someone similar with a purple and green dog named Spike in the city, confirming that an A.U. counterpart of Twilight does exist. This alternate Twilight later appears as an antagonist in the third movie.
  • Alternate Species Counterpart: The series is built around this trope, as it features a world like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic but with humans instead of ponies and set in a High School AU. A magic portal allows characters to travel from one world to the other, transforming them into the appropriate species in the process, and a few characters have met their alternate doppelgängers this way.
  • Alternate Universe: Twilight goes to one where the ponies are humans in high school, accessed via a Magic Mirror.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: The vast majority of the human characters still use the ponies' wide array of color schemes, though some still fall into normal human skintone ranges by coincidence, most notably Applejack. Big Macintosh and Celestia are standout exceptions, having Caucasian skintones instead of their normal apple red and pinkest white, respectively. Similarly, Cheerilee and Luna have their coat/hair color schemes reversed because their coats would still be overly dark on screen even if lightened a bit like the other characters.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Like in the parent show, since the characters are made of Flash objects, they (or parts of them) often appear mirrored. It's more complicated than a simple flip, though; they have a "good side" that, in nearly every shot, starts out facing the camera. When a character turns around while visible in a shot, all of her features remain left-right consistent, and the other side shows. It's more notable with the girls wearing hair decorations (Rarity, Fluttershy or Trixie), which flip from one side to the other between shots, or with Twilight's pink hair stripe.

    It should be noted, however, that the shows were getting better about it as the animation improved; by Legend of Everfree this was getting rare, and in the following series and specials the characters keep a coherent profile almost at all times (the only notable exception being Twilight Sparkle's stripe).
  • Ambiguously Bi:
  • Ambition Is Evil: According to the tie-in comic, Sunset Shimmer's fall from grace began when lured with the power that comes with becoming an alicorn and ruling Equestria, blinding her into believing she can do no wrong.
  • Amulet of Concentrated Awesome:
    • Twilight's Element of Magic serves this function in the human world. While unicorn magic is nullified going through the portal, the Element retains its power through the transition.
    • The ruby pendants worn by the Dazzlings amplify their magic in the human world, allowing them to inflict a Hate Plague on the people with their Mind-Control Music, and gain power through absorbing said negative emotions. Once the pendants are destroyed in the final battle, they lose their magic abilities and can no longer sing in tune.
    • The Equestrian geodes Gloriosa finds give her Green Thumb abilities. Once the geodes are transferred over to the Equestria Girls, they become lockets, which they decide to hold onto for the time being.
  • Animal Motifs: Canterlot High School is big on equine motifs. The school's logo is the letter C framed by a horseshoe (or just a horseshoe figuring the letter C), there are horse heads or galloping horses on banners everywhere, the students call themselves Wondercolts and wears pony ears and tails when affirming school spirit, etc. And of course, the statue before the front entrance is that of a Rearing Horse. Clearly, the portal to Equestria might not open often, but it did influence the place.
  • Apple of Discord:
    • Long before Twilight arrived, Sunset Shimmer broke the friendship of the human versions of Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash through misinformation: Rainbow Dash was given the wrong date for Applejack's bakesale; Pinkie Pie was told via text to throw a huge party that would scare Fluttershy's animals; and Rarity was told via emails that Pinkie Pie didn't need help setting up decorations for various school functions due to having enough volunteers only to learn later Pinkie set the decorations all up by herself.
    • The second film has the Dazzlings cause this for the rest of the movie via their enchanted singing voices.
  • Art Nouveau: The interior decoration of Canterlot High School seems heavily influenced by this style, with lots of curves and lines evoking plant life.
  • Ascended Meme: This spin-off series REALLY loves this trope.
    • Before the show was even announced, humanized versions of the ponies were popular subjects of fanart, particularly Friendship Is Magic by Mauroz, which predates the entire premise of the franchise.
    • The fandom usually portrays Octavia Melody as a classy cello player with a English accent. Octavia did speak in Rainbow Rocks with only one line... and with said accent.
    • The video Epic Wub Time: The Musicians of Ponyville features Vinyl Scratch using a weaponized sound system to defeat Discord. In Rainbow Rocks, Vinyl has a mobile sound system disguised as a car, which she used to help the Rainbooms and Sunset) in their fight against the Dazzling. That same video also introduces Vinyl's BASS CANNON, which she uses to fire the first salvo during the final battle.
  • Audience Shift: Compared to its parent series, this iteration is geared towards older girls, mostly between the ages of 8 to 12.
  • Big "SHUT UP!":
    • Twilight shouts "STOP!" when her new friends' arguing becomes too much for her to put up with.
    • Sunset Shimmer yelling "STOP! YOU HAVE TO STOP!" at the bickering Rainbooms while their magic is getting drained by the Dazzlings. Somewhat mirrors Twilight's use of the same trope in the first movie.
  • Big "WHAT?!": Human Pinkie delivers two in a row when Twilight tells her friends that the Fall Formal must be moved to tomorrow night because Sunset Shimmer ruined Pinkie's decorations for the formal. She tries to do it a third time when Twilight insists the formal must go on tonight, but Applejack slaps her hand across Pinkie's mouth.
  • Breakout Character: Sunset Shimmer was just another villain in the first film, but beginning with the second she started to shift into becoming the main protagonist of the series.
  • Brick Joke: Many.
    • Human Pinkie Pie once mentioned to pony Twilight that she saw someone like her who had a pet dog that looks like Spike. The Stinger of the second film reveals that she indeed saw human Twilight, who has been investigating the strange "activities" in Canterlot High.
    • Midnight Sparkle's first action after emerging is to blow up the "horse" in the statue portal, opening a rift to Ponyville in process. In its sequel, it results in the portal, still active, leaking out magic to parts unknown.
    • Also, while discussing the then-unknown identity of human Twilight, Pinkie suggests that she is a "magical portal maintenance maintainer", even pulling out a book on the subject. Turns out that book might have been more helpful than they thought.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Every (living) thing that goes through the portal turns into its closest human world equivalent and loses its magical abilities. Inanimate objects however, do retain their powers and can be used for magical effects, such as transformations.
    • Twilight and Sunset go from a magical Alicorn Princess and a magical Unicorn and Celestia's (previous) Magic Pupils to a couple of Ordinary Highschool Students. They and the rest of the girls eventually get a Magical Girl transformations.
    • The banished sirens become a trio of teenagers who are only able to make use of their entrancing magical singing through their pendants. Once their siren forms are destroyed and their pendants shattered, they lose their ability to even sing properly.
  • Buffy Speak: Pony Pinkie Pie coins the term "nervicited" at one point.
    Applejack: You do realize that's not a real word, right?note 
  • Canine Companion:
    • In the human world, Spike becomes this to Twilight.
    • Justified with Spike the Dog, who is human Twilight's only friend in a sea full of jerks.
  • Care-Bear Stare:
    • In the finale of the first movie, the girls hit Sunset with a giant Rainbow blast which transforms her back to normal, bawling and apologizing for what she did. Very much like the rainbow-de-brainwash-beam from the Trope Namer franchise.
    • Lampshaded by Sunset during the fourth film. She even calls it "magical rainbow lasers". The Equestria Girls do another one of these in the climax.
  • Cat Smile: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment during Pinkie's solo in the "Helping Twilight Win the Crown" musical, Pinkie manages to give a faint one while moving towards the camera.
    • Has another one in Rainbow Rocks.
  • Celestial Deadline: The portal only remains open for three days, and then closes for thirty moons when the moon reaches its peak on the third day. Subverted in the second film, as Twilight and Pinkie figure out how to bypass the "thirty moons" requirement to open the portal.
  • Chaos Architecture: Canterlot High for a brief moment — Twilight sees roughly five windows on one wall, yet when she runs towards the school, runs past a lot more than five.
  • Circle of Friendship:
    • Princess Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy form the heart-shaped version for the first movie's climax.
    • Again in the fourth film; this time, it's an actual circle of friendship that helps Twilight overcome Midnight Sparkle, finally embracing magic as her own.
  • Colon Cancer: Since every installment in the series includes My Little Pony: Equestria Girls in the name, the official names have to resort to em dashes to avert this. Some of the novels and other media fall into the trap, however, such as My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer's Time to Shine.
  • Comic-Book Time: The series begins in the autumn, with the Fall Formal being a major plot point. The fourth movie has girls go to Camp Everfree (seemingly taking place in the spring) in what's implied (and confirmed by Word of God) to be the same school year. Forgotten Friendship has them make a yearbook (implied to be the start of summer). Rollercoaster of Friendship has them get summer jobs and use the new powers they gained in Forgotten Friendship, which is referenced in Spring Breakdown set obviously in spring. Spring Breakdown is referenced in the final special set during winter, meaning the series takes place over 2¼ years. Add this to the main characters being significantly older then the freshmen human CMC and it becomes hard, if not impossible, to fit within the series within the 4 years of a traditional 9th to 12th grade high school, though it could also be a grades 6-12 high school which do exist. (Word of God has handwaved this by stating the setting isn't Earth so things don't necessarily correlate with their real life equivalents.)
  • Continuity Nod: Being developed after the original pony series, Equestria Girls gets to toy around with reusing plot elements (not just characters) of the show but now staged in the human world. For example:
  • Cool Gate: The portal to the human world.
  • Costume Evolution: Played straight for Sunset Shimmer post-Rainbow Rocks and Twilight Sparkle post-Friendship Games, but curiously averted for the other members of the Rainbooms. They're retained the same overly templated outfits, complete with identical skirts and garish-looking knee-length shoes, since the beginning. It's especially egregious when they've had numerous one-off outfits that look much better. It's not until the Digital Series and after that the rest get better-looking outfits.
  • Crash-Into Hello: A common recurring gag. Flash Sentry would sometimes bump into either versions of Twilight (pony Twilight or human Twilight), or more recently, Sunset. The first movie alone has this happens for no less than FOUR times. Lampshaded by Flash from time to time:
    Flash Sentry: [smiling] We've got to stop bumping into each other like this!
  • Cute Clumsy Girl:
    • Princess Twilight Sparkle in spades. Justified in that it takes some time to get used to a completely new human body.
    • Human Twilight Sparkle, fittingly her status as a science geek.
    • There are a few times that Fluttershy gets hit with things thrown to her.
  • Cyberbullying: The comic Holiday Special: Revolves around an online bully called Anon-a-Miss leaking secrets about students. Everyone thinks it's Sunset Shimmer but it's actually Applejack's younger sister Apple Bloom and her two friends.
  • Dance Party Ending:
  • Deadpan Snarker: Principal Celestia. She gets better later on, seeming a lot more like her counterpart towards the end.
  • Defeat Means Friendship:
    • Played with. Sunset is given a chance at redemption after her humiliating defeat in the first film, and stays in the human world so she can learn about The Power of Friendship from the human girls. Subverted in that all of the distrust and hatred for her past actions doesn't immediately just go away, but by the end of Rainbow Rocks, the Rainbooms and Sunset have become genuine friends and by Friendship Games, the rest of the school, including the Principal Sisters, has come to accept her as well.
    • Twilight also get this after reverting out of her Midnight Sparkle form by Sunset.
  • Dispel Magic: As is usually the case in the parent show, the Magic of Friendship's main effect is to dispel dark magic.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two movies and the shorts that accompanied the second are the only installments where Princess Twilight is a main character, as all later installments replace her with her human world counterpart.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Can be said about Sunset Shimmer, after helping to defeat the Dazzlings, it is shown during the end credits that the other Canterlot High students are finally starting to forgive her and see her as a friend.
  • Easily Forgiven:
    • Subverted with Sunset Shimmer, who really has to work to get everyone to trust her after all the years of being the school's Alpha Bitch. It all pays off in the end.
    • Human Twilight is forgiven immediately after she went power crazy and nearly tore open their world in an attempt to get to Equestria. Sunset Shimmer's example and lead certainly help. Everyone actually seems to blame Principal Cinch more (not without reason).
    • The mere sight of Human Twilight becoming power-crazy and almost destroying the world was enough for the Shadowbolts to reevalute their actions toward her, finally becoming friends with Twilight (and the Equestria Girls) in the end.
  • Eye Cam: The first view of the other world beyond the portal is through Twilight's eyes as she's opening them. This delays the reveal of her new body.
  • Fisher Kingdom: Twilight's arrival in the human world is accompanied by her transformation into a human herself, and Spike the young dragon turns into a puppy dog. As the series progresses, this property extends to anyone who passes through the portal in either direction, and Spring Breakdown demonstrates that the effect occurs with any portal, not just the artificial one in Twilight's possession.
  • Fanservice: Of the non-sexual variant, the Equestria Girls franchise usually includes some of the fandom's favorite characters and its interpretations, some of it was even carried on to the main show itself.
  • Fish out of Water: Unsurprisingly, Twilight Sparkle has some trouble adapting to being human.
  • Foreshadowing: Many.
    • The entire first movie turns out to be foreshadowing for the Reflections arc of the IDW comic, as it hints at the existence of The Multiverse. Remember how Celestia was worried about Twilight disturbing the balance of the alternate world? There's a reason for that...
    • "Do you have a twin sister living in the city? Has a pet dog that looks just like that one [Spike]?" Pinkie has actually seen Twilight Sparkle (and her dog) before.
  • Genre Shift: Once Twilight enters the world, it becomes a pretty standard teen comedy fare. Then in the third act it turns into a Magical Girl deal.
  • Girliness Upgrade: Compared to the main show, Equestria Girls is much more obviously "girly", most infamously with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who wear skirts. However, the personalities and roles of Twilight and her friends' human counterparts remain pretty much the same as in the main series.
  • The Ghost: Unlike with the parent show, A.K. Yearling is mentioned a few times in Equestria Girls but never shows up. Thus we don't know if she too has an adventurous alter ego. She does make an appearance in the "Canterlot High: March Radness" comic.
  • Heartfelt Apology: Sunset Shimmer returns to Canterlot to apologize to Celestia and ask for her advice.
    Sunset Shimmer: Princess Celestia, the last time we saw each other, I was your snide little pupil who betrayed and abandoned you.
    Twilight Sparkle: I wouldn't have said it that way! Ahem, What Sunset means to say is...
    Sunset Shimmer: I mean that I come before you a changed pony, humbly begging for forgiveness, guidance, and knowledge. [Celestia lowers her wings and approaches, her expression unreadable] Or, I could just go and you never have to see me again...
    Celestia: [puts a hoof under Sunset's chin and smiles] I've missed you, Sunset Shimmer.
  • High School AU: The human world where many familiar pony faces are attending (or teaching at) Canterlot High. Besides the Mane Six, clearly humanized versions of Celestia and Luna (as principals), the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Snips and Snails, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Big Macintosh, Cheerilee (as a teacher), Granny Smith (as a lunch lady), Mr. and Mrs. Cake (as coffee shop owners), Photo Finish, DJ Pon-3, and Trixie all show up throughout the movie. Even a humanized version of a certain blond and gray mare with wonky eyes shows up in the lower right corner of the screen during the "Cafeteria Song" number, and at the end of the credits with a muffin in her hands.
  • Hime Cut: Twilight's hairstyle as a human is a pair of forelocks and even bangs while long in the back. She's a princess, after all.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Lampshaded in the first movie where Twilight starts to use her usual "everypony" euphemism before getting slapped by Spike and correcting to "everybody."
  • Holy Is Not Safe: In the Equestria Girls spin-off movies it is generally shown that the magic coming from the Element of Magic — an artifact which is normally used to banish or purify evil by the heroes — can turn people in the human world very powerful, but also monstrous (and not just in appearance), crazy, extremist or all at the same time. This is seen with Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Gloriosa Daisy, and Juniper Montage. It's implied to be a side-effect of moving it into another dimension because Equestrian Magic works differently in the human world.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Late installments of the series increase Ship Tease moments between the petite Derpy Hooves and the towering Bulk Biceps, strongly hinting that they're an item.
  • Human-Focused Adaptation: The first My Little Pony (Generation 4) movie, the first theatrically premierednote  My Little Pony movie since 1986... and the plot is about human versions of ponies. Although it isn't played totally straight since the characters have been transformed or re-imagined as humans, rather than introducing completely new human characters. And of course, the main character is still a unicorn turned into a human. A theatrically-released film featuring Equestria and its residents would come soon enough.
  • Humanity Ensues: The inhabitants of the other world are humans, albeit ones with technicolor skin. Ponies from Equestria get turned into one upon arrival as seen with Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. Spike gets a variation on this by being transformed into a dog.
  • Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: Exaggerated — crossing the portal seems to increase the momentum of the traveler considerably. In Rainbow Rocks, if pony Twilight enters the magic portal just at a brisk trot, on the other end she plain and simply flies through the exit, landing a few meters away. It isn't shown whether it happens in the first movie, but would handily explain why Twilight was unconscious for a brief moment after crossing. "Mirror Magic" also shows it works in reverse: when Sunset Shimmer crosses the portal to Ponyville, she's literally propelled through the mirror on the other side across the Castle's library. By Friendship Games, Twilight seems to be expecting it and have learned to compensate, as she manages to bring herself to a dead stop right after crossing.
  • In Spite of a Nail: The human world, despite being basically magic-free and technological development being drastically greater than the pony world, has the human counterparts of the various characters taking on more or less similar roles. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were all friends prior to Sunset Shimmer sabotaging their relationship, and have all fallen into roles fitting those of their counterparts. The Crusaders are still friends, their desire for cutie marks translated here as similar ill-conceived attempts at being popular. Celestia and Luna run the school. Even Twilight's counterpart being absent fits with Twilight herself not coming to Ponyville until made to do so.
  • Interspecies Romance:
    • Both Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer are technically ponies from Equestria transformed into humans, and one of them has dated Flash Sentry (human) in the past while the other is being hit on by him, with implied reciprocation.
    • There's also Spike the Dog's obvious crush on human Rarity, as well as his crush on pony Rarity as a dragon.
  • In the Hood:
    • Sunset Shimmer uses this while stealing the crown.
    • The Dazzlings wears one each in their opening scene in Rainbow Rocks.
    • Twilight Sparkle wears a hoodie too while investigating the portal statue.
  • Jaw Drop:
    • This is anyone's reaction upon seeing Canterlot High's "magical students with wings" and its weird happenings.
    • This is Twilight and Spike's reactions when Pinkie Pie guesses up their whole situation entirely on a hunch.
    • Pinkie's reaction to Sunset Shimmer showing she can play the guitar in Rainbow Rocks.
    • The collective reaction of Principal Celestia, Vice-Principal Luna and Dean Cadance to Pinkie Pie's Mona Lisa cake in Friendship Games.
    • In Legend of Everfree, the general reaction from onlookers (mostly boys) seeing Applejack demonstrating her Super-Strength.
  • Jerkass Realization:
    • It's clear that the human versions of Twilight's friends feel this way when they realize Sunset Shimmer is the one who ruined their friendship. It's especially evident with Applejack as she guiltily admits she stopped talking to Rainbow Dash altogether instead of questioning her about that suspicious e-mail falsely saying the softball team would be coming to AJ's bake sale.
    • It's also apparent that when they pulled a Care-Bear Stare against demon Sunset Shimmer, this was the result.
    • After spending the entire movie antagonizing the Wondercolts, as well as constantly bullying Twilight to the point of turning evil and almost tear their world apart, the Shadowbolts quickly realize this is enough and help the distressed students.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Since this is set after Season 3, Twilight Sparkle is an Alicorn Princess now (before heading off into the Alternate Universe, anyways).
  • Luminescent Blush: About every other moment Twilight spends with Flash.
  • Magic Mirror: The portal that Twilight enters the other universe through (though it's technically not a mirror since it doesn't show any reflection). The official media tie-in even called it "Mirror Portal".
  • Magic Skirt: Most of the humanized female ponies wear skirts (although Rainbow Dash wears bike shorts underneath and switches to sweatpants from the Digital Series onward), so naturally this trope is in full effect.
  • Magical Girl: The Equestrian magic comes from Princess Twilight's crown caused Princess Twilight and her friends to gain pony ears, & tails to become human-pony hybrid girls.
  • Masquerade: To an extent. Humanity still sees things like "magic" as imaginary and for the most part it is, but with an inter-dimensional portal leading to Equestria every student at Canterlot High knows it by the end of the first movie. The girls never show any concern about using their magic in public either.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Almost goes without saying, Hasbro is releasing a new doll line with the movie.
  • Mickey Mousing:
    • A great deal of it when Twilight first discovers she's a human. Every wiggle of her fingers and movement (along with her scream) is accompanied by a different musical sting.
    • The entire "Music to my Ears" short is mostly nothing but DJ Pon-3 and the world around her moving in rhythm with electro music.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body:
    • Spike is prompt to get into dog-like habits, scratching his ear with the rear leg, barking, wagging his tail, eating dog biscuits or growling toward Sunset Shimmer.
    • Twilight Sparkle shows some mannerisms that are typical of a teenage human girl, and make no sense for a pony, like toying with her hair whenever Flash is mentioned. Her whole infatuation toward Flash Sentry can in fact be interpreted as a case of this.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • Twilight's crowning at the Fall Formal immediately takes a backseat to Snips and Snails dog-napping Spike.
    • The Legend of Everfree movie starts out as your run-of-the-mill slice of life, with teenage girls preparing for a trip to summer camp... then it turns utterly nightmarish with Midnight Sparkle's comeback and the world (including her friends!) dissolving around Twilight... except it's All Just a Dream, and we return to the real world in the bus, with Pinkie Pie's antics lightening the mood. That's within the first two minutes of screen time!
  • Morphic Resonance: Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer and Spike all still look like themselves when turned into human girls or a dog, respectively; Spike even mentions it. Twilight keeps the same hairstyle and skin color as her pony form, and her cutie mark is embroidered on her skirt. The same can be said of all the characters with pony equivalents, but here it isn't through shapechange but alternate-universe counterparts.
  • Mundane Utility:
    • Subverted. Twilight learns that she doesn't have magic in the human world when she can't open doors with telekinesis.
    • Legend of Everfree has a Sunset song that showcased this, "Embrace the Magic" where the camp's dock is fixed with magic.
  • Musical World Hypothesis: Generally the "All in Their Heads" type, as every song in the first movie is sung offscreen during a montage, the only onscreen one in the first movie being the Cafeteria Song. Rainbow Rocks is an overall exception, as all songs beyond the title one are sung in-universe.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Sunset Shimmer after her defeat. She immediately cries and apologizes for the way she acted. When Twilight tells her that friendship exists in places other than Equestria, she admits to not knowing about friendship since all she's been doing is driving everyone apart.
    • In Friendship Games, Sunset quickly feels bad when Twilight runs off in tears from Sunset's What the Hell, Hero? speech.
    • Unlike Principal Cinch, the Shadowbolts have this reaction when their actions turn Twilight into a monster and puts both schools (and the entire world) in danger.
  • Named After First Installment: The series name is also the name of the first movie, as both are about the concept of effectively, "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, but in a modern human world".
  • New Transfer Student:
    • Princess Twilight's explanation for her arrival at Canterlot High School. Sunset Shimmer must have used the same cover story when she arrived several years earlier.
    • Human Twilight, a Crystal Prep student, became this upon transferring to Canterlot High at the end of the third film.
  • No Ending: The series never had a proper conclusion with "Holiday Unwrapped", which is just a series of holiday shorts, being the final installment of the franchise.
  • Noodle People: The human forms, where Twilight's stomach is only slightly thicker than her neck. Averted with Celestia and Luna, who have more realistic proportions. Maybe it's just all the gangly teens?
  • Novelization: Pretty typical for movie franchise to have this in effect.
  • Oblivious Transformation:
    • The transformations produced due to crossing the portal between the Pony and Human worlds are barely noticeable. In fact, in the first film Twilight doesn't even notice that she is a human until a dog-turned Spike tells her she has changed as well.
    • Neither do humans Twilight and Rainbow Dash in the special Spring Breakdown, until Sunset uses her horn to illuminate the cave they are in, allowing them to see Sunset's Pony form and realize what happened. (It's also worth noting that the only reason Sunset knows they are in Equestria is because she realized the "quicksand" they found was just sand covering the portal they later used, and not due to the transformation.)
  • One-Winged Angel: This is what happens to those who uses magic for selfish reasons, or those corrupted by Equestrian magic.
    • Sunset Shimmer turns into a demonic form after getting her hands on Twilight's crown.
    • Happens to both Human Twilight and Sunset thanks to the pendant-like device. Twilight's transformation is uncontrolled, warping her into the dark Midnight Sparkle. Sunset, who has a better handle on the magic, gets a brighter transformation with energy wings.
  • Pillar of Light: Happens everytime there's a magic battle.
    • Sunset Shimmer is engulfed in one the moment she put the crown on her head.
    • Again in Friendship Games after Sunset reverting Human Twilight back to normal.
  • Pilot Movie: A variation. This is the pilot movie for a spin-off of television movies, rather than another series.
  • Power Floats: After the transformation into Magical Girls, even those without wings effortlessly float in the air.
  • The Power of Friendship: As expected of a spin-off to a series subtitled "Friendship Is Magic", friendship is central to the entire spin-off franchise.
    • The first thing Twilight has to do upon arriving in the human world is rebuild the friendships between the alt-Six, the Big Bad comes from a Friendless Background, and friendship is the key to defeating her, just to name a few of the most obvious ways it figures into the story.
    • This ends up allowing human Twilight to embracing her own magic in order to defeat Midnight Sparkle within her mindscape.
  • Precious Puppy: Spike gets turned into a baby dog instead of a baby dragon. Human-world Rarity and Fluttershy find him adorable.
    • Played in a tragic light in Friendship Games, as Human Twilight's pet dog, Spike, is the only companion she has in a school full of jerks and bullies. Spike the Dog uses this to momentarily bring humanity back in Twilight, allowing Sunset to revert her to normal.
  • A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Sunset Shimmer was Celestia's pupil before Twilight Sparkle. Celestia explains that she ran away when she wasn't able to gain power as quickly as she wanted. The tie-in comic clarifies that it was her interest in the mirror, and her belief that it could somehow turn her into a princess, that eventually drove Celestia to suspend her studies since she was clearly too selfish to ever become one.
  • Putting the Band Back Together:
    • At the start of the film, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity all utterly despise each other for various reasons thanks to Sunset Shimmer, and Twilight has to convince them to let go of their hatred and get along. The only exception is Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who still seem to get along fine.
    • This is said quote-by-quote in Rainbow Rocks after Sunset manage to stop the bickering between the girls.
  • Rearing Horse: The statue atop of the portal leading to Equestria is one of a rearing horse. This was destroyed two times in Friendship Games: first, as a metaphor during Crystal Prep's Villain Song, and second, as a demonstration of Midnight Sparkle's new powers, much to everyone's horror.
  • Recycled Title: "Equestria Girls" was already used by a Hub music video of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and in The Merch based on said music video. Also technically the cafeteria song fans commonly refer to as "Helping Twilight Win the Crown" is listed as "Equestria Girls" in the credits.
  • Replaced with Replica: In the first film and its novelization, Twilight's crown (which was part of the Elements of Harmony, the "most powerful force in Equestria") was replaced by a cheap-looking duplicate from an alternate universe where it was a Fall Formal Crown.
  • Rule of Symbolism:
    • Sunset Shimmer's cutie mark and T-shirt art prominently features a Yin-Yang Bomb, symbolizing her potential for remaining a villain or turning good.
    • "My Past is Not Today" later reveals that it symbolizes her constant struggles between returning home to Equestria, and staying to continue helping her friends in her new home.
    • This also symbolizes her nature to talk through people and helping them.
  • Satellite Love Interest: Flash Sentry looks nice, helps Twilight twice, plays a guitar, generally seems to be a Nice Guy, was Sunset Shimmer's ex-boyfriend, and his equine counterpart is a guard in Cadance's castle. And that's all we ever know about him.
  • Save Both Worlds:
    • Twilight has to get her crown back from Sunset, both because it could do harm to that world and without it the other Elements have no power.
    • Sunset and her friends end up having to do this in the third film, as they try to stop Twilight Sparkle/Midnight Sparkle before she could rip the human world apart and make it collapse on Equestria.
  • Short Teens, Tall Adults: Very much the case with school administration characters (Celestia, Luna, Cinch, and Cadance), who tower over their students. Downplayed with other adults in the series, such as Gloriosa Daisy and Vignette Valencia, who are almost always taller than the high school characters, but far less noticeably. Cranky Doodle and Granny Smith are at eye level with the teens, but they also have hunched backs.
  • Shoulders of Doom: The original fashion doll line occasionally featured these (or one of these) as part of its rather extravagant outfits. Unfortunately (or fortunately), they would usually get toned down, outright removed, or featured in outfits that went unused in the animated films.
    • Rarity dolls were the ones that featured these the most frequently; the Rainbow Rocks doll line features no less than four examples of this trope: her first doll for the line featured a single giant shoulder shaped like a cluster of purple crystals, her "pony and doll" version two silver pads, her "Neon" doll (featured in the film during the climax, but missing the giant shoulder) has what seems to be a hybrid between this trope and Giant Poofy Sleeves (and only on the right shoulder; her left has a more sanely sized decoration), and her "Rockin' Hairstyle" doll had blue epaulettes (which were retained in the "Friendship Through The Ages" music video, albeit in gold instead).
    • Applejack's "Rainbow Rocks Neon" doll had a giant green epaulette, which was toned down to be more realistically sized in the film.
    • Human Twilight Sparkle's "Sporty Style" doll for the third film's toyline had a fairly big golden right shoulder guard; her left was a puffy sleeve. Her fellow Shadowbolts Sour Sweet and Lemon Zest also featured decently sized (and brightly colored) shoulder guards.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own page.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • Rainbow Rocks features the main characters playing instruments in a band. The staff went to great lengths to make sure they were accurately playing their instruments, from the right finger placements for guitar, bass and keyboards to proper technique on the drums. Even the character who plays the tambourine realistically twirls and tams it.
    • Averted come Friendship Games, however. The marching band in Rainbow Dash's pep song generically loops through animations that don't line up to the sounds being played.
  • Slapstick: Like its parent series, the fact that this is a kids' cartoon filled with lots of hijinks and silliness and featuring an overwhelmingly female cast makes this trope practically a given. Special mention goes to the Friendship Games short "The Science of Magic", which is effectively several minutes of Sunset Shimmer being comedically battered as her attempts to study magic in the human world literally blow up in her face.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Subverted and downplayed most of the time; the vast majority of designs featuring spikes in some fashion belong to a member of the Rainbooms (a group of highly heroic girls), and more than a few villains either completely lack spikes or have studs instead. The spikes are also not very numerous, being relegated to belts or some other small accessory.
    • Sunset Shimmer subverts the trope even back when she was an Alpha Bitch; her old jacket had metallic studs, but not spikes, and she has a Heel–Face Turn by the end of the first film. Her jacket post-Rainbow Rocks has no spikes nor studs. Her "Rainbow Rocks Fashion" doll had a silver spiked purse. Her "Sporty Style" doll for Friendship Games has an spiked belt. Her powered up form and her Crystal Ball dress in Legend of Everfree have crystal spikes on the shoulder pads.
    • Rarity's gem motif leads to plenty of spikiness in her first Rainbow Rocks doll, as her top features embedded rhombus-shaped crystal details and a super pointy (and oversized) left shoulder. Her "Sporty Style" doll for Friendship Games features an spiked belt and purse.
    • At least two of Pinkie Pie's dolls feature an spiked belt in the Rainbow Rocks toyline.
    • Princess Twilight Sparkle's first doll for Rainbow Rocks had her with an spiked belt, a metallic shoulder pad with three spikes that wouldn't look too out of place as part of an apunkalyptic outfit, and her high heels had some dangerously pointy edges (as the heel was shaped like her cutie mark). Her "Neon" doll had a belt (out of four) with tiny spikes and similarly pointy high heels.
    • Adagio Dazzle, leader of the Sirens and antagonist for Rainbow Rocks plays it straight, having an spiked belt in the film, and her doll pairing it with an spiked neckline and single spiked bracelet.
    • Rainbow Dash's "Rockin' Hairstyle" doll has two spiked bracelets and also features the single spikiest pair of high heels in the whole doll line: two spikes on the toes, with multiple tiny spikes along the back of the shoe and heel, and a few on the sides.
    • Human Twilight Sparkle had an spiked belt in her "Sporty Style" doll. Of her fellow teammates and classmates in the same doll line, Sugarcoat has an spiked belt and spiked jacketnote  and Indigo Zap has two spiked belts; none of the others (which include Sour Sweet, the meanest member) have spikes.
  • Stock Scream: The famous "Wilhelm Scream" appears no less than 5 times over the course of the series, including the shorts.
  • Talking Animal:
    • When Spike comes to the human world, he changes from a talking dragon to a talking dog, which is still pretty unbelievable by that world's standards.
    • Human Twilight's pet dog later becomes one due to his exposure to Equestrian magic.
  • The Teapot Pose: One of the promotional images has Rarity and Twilight with one of their hands at their hip and the other one raised in the air. Rarity is an exuberant fashionista, so poses like this are par for the course. It seems a bit stranger with Twilight, until you remember that she has a tendency to take charge of situations and lecture people.
  • Series Continuity Error: The Humane Five are their current appearance during the Freshman Fair in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (IDW) Annual 2013. But their photo of this from the Equestria Girls movie shows them significantly younger, like the younger students from the movie, and with different clothes. Diamond Tiara is also shown at her present freshman age despite clearly being younger. It must be worth nothing though that the canonicity of the comics to the series has always been ambiguous and spotty so what is seen in that comic should be taken with a grain of salt.
  • Short Teens, Tall Adults: Celestia, Luna, Cinch and Cadance tower over the students, as made especially evident during the "ACADECA" sequence in Friendship Games. Some other adults are shown to be closer in height to the teen cast, however.
  • Tempting Fate: Much so like the parent series.
    • In the first movie, Sunset Shimmer saying "I'm not a monster..." can be seen as this, considering that a few minutes later she does become a monster, both in appearance and behavior.
    • In Legend of Everfree, Applejack expresses how stressful their battles against evil magic was, and how they are glad they wanted to go somewhere magic-free. Guess what happens later...
  • Title Theme Tune: Used for promotional videos.
    We're Equestria Girls and we're here to shout/That the Magic of Friendship is what it's all about!
  • Theme Music Power-Up:
    • The climactic Magical Girls Transformation Sequence of Twilight and friends is accompanied by a reprise of the movie's opening theme tune.
    • Taken to absurd heights in Rainbow Rocks, where everytime one of the competitors gain an advantage, they literally blow away their opponents. During the Final Battle, when DJ Pon-3 fires the first salvo with her BASS CANNON, followed by cutie-marks sparkles attacks, the music is a Triumphant Reprise of the theme for the first movie (specifically, from the moment the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls title card is shown on screen).
  • There Are No Adults: Downplayed. There's a good number of adults to be found in the world of Equestria Girls, but apart from school staff, Canter Zoom (a film director) and Vignette Valencia (a public relations manager), there are few adult characters shown in positions of authority. It's particularly evident in the Digital Series school play arc, where Sunset appears to be handling all the work in directing and stage management for said play. The absolute lack of parents is puzzling; the total absence of law enforcement after the giant fire-demon demolishes the front of the school totally boggles the mind.
  • Title Drop:
    • The six-to-seven protagonists have been officially called "the Equestria Girls" basically everywhere ever, except the actual movies. And each one is, individually, an "Equestria Girl". The name finally appears in the music video "I'm on a Yacht", where the characters refer to themselves as "EGs" and Spike (as part of his A Wild Rapper Appears! act) explicitly calls them "Equestria Girls"; the term appears one more time in "Cheer You On", where it's sung by Flash Sentry.
    • Excluding Friendship Games (which refers to the titular event), the names of each movie or special are never actually spoken by the characters. Rainbow Rocks and Legend of Everfree do get title drops in the songs that play during their respective opening credits.
  • Too Many Belts: The fashion doll designs heavily featured belts (and often multiple belts, hence this trope) in one way or another between Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games. The lack of elaborate paint applications can render them hard to see and notice at first, however.
    • "Rainbow Rocks Neon" Fluttershy has two purely ornamental belts as part of her top, and her high heels had either one long belt or multiple smaller ones wrapped around her ankles. The previous doll in the line had pink boots with three belts (one in black, the other the same color as the boot) and a chain (also pink) and a single ornamental belt on her top. "Rockin' Hairstyle" Fluttershy also has heels with at least two belts wrapping her ankles (in fact, they seem to be a similar-but-not-equal mold to the "Neon" ones).
    • Princess Twilight's first Rainbow Rocks doll (a modified version of the outfit would appear in "Perfect Day For Fun") features a spiked belt, what appears to be two silver belts holding her spiky shoulder pad, and at least three silver belts as part of her shoe design, wrapped around her ankles. Her "Singing Doll" has two buckled belts and one "studded" belt on the boots, and a studded belt on the waist. Her "Neon" doll (a modified design appears at the film's climax) has a whopping four belts on the waist.
    • Vinyl Scratch's "Neon" doll has two belts (or maybe a single very long one, simulating this) on the waist and two smaller belts on each boot.
    • Human Twilight's doll that came paired with Rainbow Dash (as an exclusive for a UK store) for the third film's toyline has accessories recycled from Princess Twilight's Rainbow Rocks's dolls, including the shirt with four completely unnecessary belts.
    • Amazon Exclusive Photo Finish also has two belts on the waist.
    • The Friendship Games "Sporty Style" dolls for the archers and to a lesser degree the roller skaters feature plenty of belts; more justified than other examples here, as their shoulder guards and waist-held arrow quivers need belts to be held in place. Not fitting this description is Motocross Indigo Zap's two spiked belts.
    • A science-themed Twilight Sparkle Mini doll set for 2017 has belts on her arms, for a Mad Scientist look. Obviously, they're unnecessary.
  • Transformation Sequence: Wouldn't be a Magical Girl-themed Spin-Off without one.
    • The Equestria Girls often gain Unusual Ears, wings (for the pegasi and alicorn), hair resembling tails, an outfit change (made more sparkly, to be specific), and a Theme Music Power-Up.
    • The villains more or less gets this at their respective climax.
  • Transformation Trinket: The magical geodes the girls gain in Legend of Everfree. Before that, they could transform with pony ears, ponytails and eventually rainbow colors, but they had little control over it and it didn't involve clothes (except with Daydream Shimmer, which was an All Your Powers Combined special case). The geodes give much greater control, allowing them to transform at will, and add a Magical Girl Instant Costume Change. However, this also introduces the Logical Weakness that the transformation reverses instantly if a geode is lost, since it now depends on it, as happens to Sunset Shimmer in "Cheer You On".
  • Two-Teacher School: Canterlot High's only visible staff are Principal Celestia, Vice-Principal Luna, Cheerilee who can be seen writing on a blackboard in a class and who helps Twilight in the library, Granny Smith as a lunch lady, Nurse Redheart as the school nurse, and Cranky Doodle as the math teacher. Other than that, there's way more students than these six faculty members. The comics add Ms. Harshwhinny as another teacher.
  • Undead Tax Exemption: Despite having several characters show up from another dimension where everyone's a magical talking pony, the pony-turned-human characters rarely seem to hit any snags with paperwork.
    • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle were both able to join a high school without any documentation. Sunset did it before the movie starts, and Twilight just walks onto campus and is assumed to be a new student, even when she talks to the principal, all without proving her identity.
    • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, the Sirens were also able to join the school with no trouble. They presumably used their Mind-Control Music to make authority figures look the other way.
    • As seen in Forgotten Friendship and the shorts "Monday Blues" and "Good Vibes", Sunset Shimmer has both her own apartment and a job as a waitress, despite presumably not having the documentation one would need for either of these. She also is able to legally live on her own, despite apparently being a high-school-age teenager.
  • Unusual Ears: Some promotional art and the dolls give the girls pony ears. They're part of a Magical Girl style transformation during the movie's climax and go away once Twilight returns home.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: At first, everyone in Caterlot High were weird out (or shocked) by the sudden appearance of magic, as well as some students sprouting pony tails (and wings for the pegasus and alicorn) and is able to use magic. By the third film, the student body are already used to it rather quickly, unlike the reactions of the students of Crystral Prep, who accused Canterlot High for cheating during the Friendship Games' second event.
  • Urban Fantasy: The contemporary, Earthlike alternate universe lacks magic, but the movie qualifies for this trope in a couple of ways:
    • The main character and villain get there by magic.
    • Spike can speak while in dog form.
    • The trope is fully embraced in the climax when Sunset Shimmer goes One-Winged Angel and the heroines get Magical Girl transformations.
  • Vague Age: In Equestria, there is an implied age gap between Twilight and Sunset (though they can't be too far apart since Sunset's pony form is the same size as the Mane Six). On "Earth", they are in the same grade. Similarly, several ponies that are working adults in Equestria are still in High School in the other world and characters who are millennia old in Equestria are adults well below middle age.
  • Visual Pun: Many.
    • In the opening credits, Ashleigh Ball's name is on a ball.
    • When Snips and Snails arrive in the library to spy on Twilight, they sneak off to get good vantage points. Snips slides along the wall, opening and closing his legs like scissors, and Snails slides along the ground, like a snail.
    • Flash's car, while not distinctly resembling any specific make and model, is clearly a pony car.
    • When the Equestria Girls go through their transformation, their hair styles gain pony tails.
    • During the Rainbooms' performance of "Awesome as I Wanna Be" in Rainbow Rocks, Rainbow Dash is both metaphorically and literally stealing the spotlights from her bandmates.
  • The Voiceless: DJ Pon-3 appears to be this. In the novelization of the shorts, she does not speak at all, instead communicating through text messages even to the people near her, which implies she may in fact be The Speechless. Zigzagged from Friendship Games onward, as Vinyl is shown speaking in some Freeze-Frame Bonus, albeit without a single sound coming from her mouth.
  • Wham Line:
    • In Rainbow Rocks:
      • On a meta level, "So the Rainbooms want to turn this into a real Battle of the Bands? Then let's battle." This is the moment you realize there's more to the climax than a One-Hit Kill after both sides transform.
      • "No doubt about it, Spike, there's definitely something strange going on at that school."
    • In Legend of Everfree: "Where did the [Equestrian] magic that hit this cave come from?"
  • Winged Humanoid: Twilight's crown transforms herself (and her human counterpart), Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash this way.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: A common recuring theme for the Equestria Girls movies. Equestrian magic isn't entirely evil, as seen with the heroines (and some of the other characters). However, if used by someone whose mind is unprepared, Equestrian magic can warp them and turned them evil.
  • Your Magic's No Good Here: Upon entering the Human World Twilight discovers, after walking headfirst into a door that magic doesn't work there. Or rather it doesn't work without magical items (which do retain their power), The Power of Friendship or The Power of Rock (in Rainbow Rocks).
  • Youthful Freckles: Human Cheerilee gains these (normally lacking on her pony form). It is most likely to help establish her age as a younger teacher, not too far outside the age that the students would be, compared to the more mature-looking Principals Celestia and Luna.

Alternative Title(s): Equestria Girls

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Friendship Games

When she can't contact Princess Twilight through her magic journal, Sunset Shimmer decides to use the portal instead. Sci-Twi, who's on the opposite side of the portal statue, detects Sunset's magic and drains it. Since the magic has to pass through the portal, both are drained and the portal is sealed.

How well does it match the trope?

3.86 (7 votes)

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Main / PortalSlam

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