My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, known simply as Friendship Games, is a 2015 animated musical sports fantasy film which is a part of Hasbro's My Little Pony: Equestria Girls toy line and media franchise, itself a spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of the main My Little Pony franchise. The film was animated using Adobe Flash, directed by Ishi Rudell and written by Josh Haber, and was produced by DHX Media's 2D animation studio in Vancouver, Canada for Hasbro Studios in the United States, as a sequel to 2014's Rainbow Rocks film. Unlike the previous two films, Friendship Games had no theatrical run in the United States and Canada (apart from a premiere event at Angelika Film Center on September 17, 2015), but the film was first shown on Discovery Family, a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro, on September 26, with a home media release on October 13 that year by Shout! Factory; it also had a limited theatrical run in the United Kingdom and Australia beginning in late October 2015.
Like the first two Equestria Girls films, Friendship Games re-envisions the main characters of the parent franchise, normally ponies, as teenage humanoid characters in a high school setting. Set during the events of the fifth-season finale of Friendship Is Magic, the film's story centers around a sports competition between the students of Canterlot High School and their rivals at Crystal Prep Academy, one of whom is Twilight's parallel universe counterpart, who has been investigating the magical activity around Canterlot High.
A fourth Equestria Girls film, subtitled Legend of Everfree, was released on Netflix on October 1, 2016.
Plot
The students of Canterlot High School prepare for the Friendship Games, an academic and sporting competition held every four years between their school's team, the Wondercolts, and the undefeated Shadowbolts from Crystal Prep Academy. Sunset Shimmer, who has been observing her friends' magical ability to "pony up" – grow pony-like ears, tails, and wings – whenever they play musical instruments, becomes concerned when Rainbow Dash transforms during a pep rally, seemingly at random. Tasked with finding the cause of this development, Sunset attempts to contact Twilight Sparkle for advice but receives no response.
Meanwhile, one of Crystal Prep's students, Twilight's counterpart in the parallel world, investigates the magical activity surrounding Canterlot High. Twilight builds a locket-like device to detect and contain the magic for further study, hoping this will secure her application for Everton, a coveted independent study program. However, Principal Cinch threatens to revoke the application to blackmail Twilight into participating in the Friendship Games and maintain Crystal Prep's victory record.
Upon Twilight's arrival at Canterlot High, her device detects Sunset and her friends' magic and leads Twilight to them; as she approaches, the device inadvertently drains Rarity's magic when she "ponies up" after making uniforms for the other girls. Sunset, initially mistaking Twilight for her Ponyville counterpart, quickly realizes the misunderstanding and considers consulting Twilight in person. When Crystal Prep's Twilight follows her to the portal to Equestria, the device absorbs the portal's magic and seals it off. The device similarly affects Pinkie Pie when she tries to ease the tension with a party and later Fluttershy when she attempts to cheer up a distraught Twilight, creating dimensional rifts to Equestria and giving Twilight's dog Spike the ability to speak.
Following Twilight's victory in the games' academic decathlon, the games continue with a "tri cross relay", a relay race between archery, speed skating and motocross. Applejack transforms after she advises Twilight, causing the device to steal Applejack's magic and create a rift that summons monstrous plants. Rainbow Dash "ponies up" to save the other competitors before losing her magic, allowing Canterlot High to win the event, but causing Cinch to accuse Canterlot High of cheating due to their perceived magical advantage. Frustrated by her failure to keep the magic protected, Sunset furiously berates Twilight for endangering her friends, regretting it when Twilight runs off in tears.