Equestria Girls

The Mane Six presented as humanoid dolls

Equestria Girls is the name of a product line associated with Generation 4 of My Little Pony. The product line's backstory revolves around an alternate world where the characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic appear as humans, with some pony-like features. Equestria Girls is designed to appeal to slightly older girls than the main My Little Pony toys. The vast majority of merchandise consists of humanoid dolls based on the characters of the films, usually the Mane Six and associated secondary characters and antagonists.

The main characters have been released as humanoid dolls, and usually include fashion accessories.

Media

To promote the line, full length films have been have been released, at a rate of one per year. The first two films had limited theater releases, while all movies since have debuted exclusively on television. While the films take place in the same canon as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and reference events from the series, events in the films typically have no bearing on the TV series. The world of Equestria Girls is one that can be traveled to via a magic mirror portal, and is an alternate universe where human counterparts of the ponies reside. The main setting is Canterlot High, a school headed by Principal Celestia, and Vice Principal Luna, which most of the human characters attend.

Four films have been released so far. The first, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, was released in June 2013, and featured Twilight Sparkle traveling to the human world after her Element of Magic tiara is stolen. The sequel, called Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks, was released in September of 2014, and revolves around a band competition that the main characters compete in. The third, entitled Equestria Girls: Friendship Games, has the students of Canterlot High competing in the titular Friendship Games, a series of athletic and academic events, against the students of the accomplished Crystal Prep Academy. Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree has the girls spending time at Camp Everfree, which is plagued by strange magical events.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

DVD

Blu-Ray

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, takes place sometime after the Season 3 finale, "Magical Mystery Cure". Twilight, and her friends travel to the the Crystal Empire where Twilight is to attend her first princess summit. Twilight is shown to be struggling with her new-found alicorn status, and the potential responsibilities of a princess. While Twilight is sleeping that night, a unicorn, Sunset Shimmer, comes and steals Twilight's crown, with the intention of replacing it with a fake. While Twilight discovers the attempt, she is unable to stop the unicorn from traveling through a mirror, actually a portal to another world, after the crown falls through it.

Twilight is forced to enter the other world to retrieve her crown, as it is the element of Magic and key to the defense of Equestria. In the other world, Twilight becomes a teenage girl, and is must cope with her new body and lack of magic as she navigates the high school Sunset Shimmer attends. There, Twilight learns that to retrieve her crown, she must become Princess of the Fall Formal. Twilight then works with five girls who closely resemble her pony friends to win back her crown and return to Equestria. However, at the same time, she must deal with the machinations of Sunset Shimmer, who wants the Element of Magic in order to use its power to take over Equestria.

Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks

Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks, takes place some time after the Season 4 finale. As a result of Twilight's actions in the previous film, Equestrian Magic has entered the human world, causing a variety of effects. Meanwhile, the human counterparts of Twilight's friends have put together a band called the Rainbooms for an upcoming concert, while Sunset Shimmer is attempting to atone for her earlier actions. However, a mysterious trio of girls arrive and immediately turn the friendly exhibition into a battle of the bands. When Sunset Shimmer realizes that something is off about the trio of girls, she manages to send a message to Twilight Sparkle, who manages to open the portal to assist the humans with a magical counterspell to fight off the intruders.

Eventually, the trio of strangers are revealed to be sirens from Equestria who had been banished to the human world. The influx of magic had strengthed their natural ability manipulate others through song, allowing them to gain power from their victims. Luckily, the Rainbooms are able to harness their own magic through song, and during the Battle of the bands finale, engage in magical combat. However, they are only victorious when Sunset Shimmer arrives on stage to assist them. The Sirens are rendered powerless and are defeated.

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games, takes place sometime during or after the Season 5 finale. Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms are helping the school prepare for the upcoming Friendship Games, which is held every four years against Crystal Prep Academy, who has never lost. In addition, it seems that the Rainbooms collective magic is changing, after Rainbow Dash is seen "ponying up" while leading a pep rally. Sunset is charged with keeping magic a secret during the games, to avoid accusations of cheating. Meanwhile, the human counterpart of Twilight Sparkle is shown as a student at Crystal Prep. Since the events of the second film, she has been studying magic, which she assumes to be an unusual form of electromagnetic energy. Feeling like an outcase at her school, she plans on furthering her research during the friendship games, which she believes will allow her to enter a independent study program. However, Twilight is forced into competing at the games by Crystal Prep's Principal Cinch, who insists on maintaining Crystal Prep's high standards and winning record.

At the games, Twilight attempts to investigate the unusual energy with a device meant to detect it. However, the device also drains and stores magical energy, eventually resulting in Twilight unknowingly draining each of the Rainbooms energy. Meanwhile, the existence of magic is revealed during the second event, as a result of Rainbow Dash ponying up after saving Sunset Shimmer from a carnivorous plant that appeared as a result of Twilight's device. Principal Cinch assumes that Canterlot High is cheating and manipulates Twilight into releasing the stolen magic as a way of evening the score. However, the magic transforms Twilight into a magically-empowered monster that seeks to understand magic, no matter the destruction. However, the release of magic also restored the Rainboom's magic. Sunset Shimmer uses Twilight's device to tap into the magic of friendship, granting her her own magically empowered form. Sunset is able to get through to Twilight, who returns to normal. Principal Cinch threatens to go to the school board, but is countered with the fact that they are unlikely to believe in the existence of magic, which would ruin her reputation. Afterwards, Twilight transfers to Canterlot High with the goal of understanding the magic of friendship.

Merchandise

Merchandise for Equestria Girls takes the form of human dolls based on the characters from the film series, mostly focusing on the Mane Six; supporting characters have also been released. The dolls are mostly humanoid, but retain several pony-like features: hair and skin colored to match their pony counterpart, pony ears, a longer lock of hair meant to resemble a a pony's tail, and in the case of dolls based on Pegasi or Alicorns, a pair of wings which attach to the back. Each doll usually comes with at least one outfit and a few accessories, though some releases feature more. Some dolls have also included either a molded figurine or a Playful Pony toy of their pony counterpart.

Dolls released in conjunction with the first movie have a marking on the cheek resembling their pony counterpart's cutie mark. These dolls do not have feet; instead, the dolls shoes attach directly to connectors on the feet. A brush that looks like a stylized pony is included. Basic dolls had limited articulation, while others had articulation at the elbows and knees.

Dolls released as part of the Rainbow Rocks series feature multicolored streaks in their hair, and a marking over one eye based on their pony counterpart's cutie mark. These dolls feature more traditional feet, and usually have music oriented clothing and accessories.