MY LITTLE PONY: EQUESTRIA GIRLS—MIRROR MAGIC
Written by Rachel Vine, Dave Polsky
Produced by Angela Belyea
Directed by Ishi Rudell
Assistant direction by Katrina Hadley
Transcribed by Alan Back (ajback@yahoo.com)
Prologue
(Opening shot: fade in to the interior of the Canterlot Mall, as seen in “Dance Magic,” during the day. Zoom in slowly on the gushing fountain at the base of the escalators, then cut to a couple of product displays set up directly in front of a blank video wall. As prospective customers look over the goods, Juniper Montage—the girl who raised the on-set ruckus of “Movie Magic” and got fired for it—clomps sullenly into view. A number of details about her appearance have changed considerably since then. The glasses, gold bracelets, film-reel hair clips, magenta shoes, and berry-trimmed white socks are still present, as is the magenta-dotted black skirt, but a second skirt in red/gold stripes covers this last. The magenta jacket and blue blouse are gone, replaced by a red vest with lapels and gold trim over a short-sleeved violet blouse with a magenta-buttoned white collar and magenta sleeve cuff edging. Atop her head is a small hat fashioned from coils and reels of film stock.)
Chorus of the Rainboom/Shadowbolt song in “Dance Magic”
Energetic synthesizer dance beat with electric guitar/bass/percussion, fast 4 (B flat major)
(The monitors come to life, combining to present a single image of Pinkie Pie dancing in the video. Juniper freezes in place for a moment, groans loudly, and stomps on as Sugarcoat’s sneaker-clad feet fill the screens. Throughout the following, all Rainbooms who appear on screen have ponied up.)
Rainbooms: It’s dance magic, once you have it
(Extreme close-up: Rainbow Dash flips up the bill of her baseball cap and poses with arms crossed. Zoom out; now Juniper is watching a monitor over the Aunt Orange smoothie stand.)
Juniper: Those girls!
(She turns away; another one flicks on, showing Rainbow and Lemon Zest on the multicolored dance floor set up in the Canterlot High School gym. The spectator whirls away with an indignant huff.)
Rainbooms: Let your body move, step into the music
(The move brings her face to face with another monitor, which activates to give a good view of Applejack, Pinkie, and Sunset Shimmer grooving on the floor. Juniper voices a cry of disgust and storms away.)
It’s dance magic, and it’s electric
Song fades away into the background noise
(During the fade-out, she finds herself confronted with clip after clip—some running on the monitors, others sloppily filling the screen. One last groan of supreme frustration escapes her lips before the camera cuts to the area just outside a movie theater, where a poster is displayed on a fold-out stand. It advertises the Daring Do film that her uncle Canter Zoom was directing in “Movie Magic,” and it displays the title character—played by actress Chestnut Magnifico—holding up the ruby-topped staff against a looming Stalwart Stallion. The much smaller figures of the Rainbooms are clustered together in a bottom corner, as is a nastily grinning black silhouette swathed in a dark cloak with a triangular gold pendant at the collar.)
Juniper: (backing into view toward it) First they get me kicked off the Daring Do set. Now…
(She turns to face the display once she stumbles against it and is rewarded with a good clear view of the poster. Zoom in on the seven girls she has blamed for the downturn in her fortunes, then cut back to her.)
Juniper: (hands to head) Ugh! They’re everywhere! (sourly) I bet they’ll be at the premiere tonight. I bet I’ll be the lucky one ushering them to their seats.
(She balls her fists and drops them to her sides, shaking and growling to herself, then fetches the display a whack that rattles it on its base. This is followed by a two-handed grab and vigorous shake. Snap to black, which resolves into a close-up of her enraged visage as the display is dropped—the camera has shifted to just behind it. A crackle of radio static jolts her out of this fit.)
Male radio voice: Juniper! Where are you?
(She digs a walkie-talkie out of her pocket—the source—with one hand and sarcastically mimes along with both the other one and her mouth.)
Male radio voice: We need you back at the popcorn popper, stat!
Juniper: (imitating bursts of static) What was that…boss? Can’t hear you!…Losing you!
(She walks away from the theater on the end of this, then approaches a kiosk with sunglasses for sale. A giant pair decorates the canopy that shades it. The walkie-talkie is back in her pocket now.)
Juniper: If those girls hadn’t shown up, I would’ve played Daring Do! Tonight would’ve been about me. (removing her glasses, donning a star-shaped pair) I would’ve been a star!
(She turns to the vendor, who has one pair on, a second propped above his forehead, and a third tucked into his shirt collar. He peers critically over the ones on his face, and shakes his head before turning his attention back to his cell phone and/or the headphones that cover his ears. Slightly deflated, Juniper picks up a hand mirror from the counter and regards herself for a moment.)
Juniper: You’re right. (Set it down; remove the shades.) They are a bit much.
(As she bends to return them to the shelf, a glowing mote of blue-green radiance approaches the ceiling’s domed skylight from above and passes easily through the glass. It snakes down to the kiosk and vanishes once it makes contact with the mirror, whose handle and frame transform to jeweled crystal. Juniper picks it up, having put on a different pair of sunglasses, and eyes her reflection sadly—and then it undergoes a drastic change. The face is hers, but as a confident, alluring young woman with hair cascading in waves down her back. The eyes are shadowed in purple and without any lenses, and the smiling mouth is outlined in deep pink. Juniper cries out in fear and drops the mirror to the floor, but the vendor takes no notice. Long silence.)
Juniper: What was that?
(Removing the second test pair of shades, she moves just a bit closer and touches one hesitant fingertip to the glass. The contact sets off a brief flare of green/purple fire; she recoils with another cry that again fails to attract any attention. Next she picks it up, donning her regular glasses, and sees her image become that of Older Juniper again with more detail revealed. The figure wears a strapless dress in magenta and blue-green, a cluster of berries as a pendant, and long green gloves. She winks and blows a kiss, bringing a smile to Juniper’s face and a gasp from her throat.)
Juniper: Incredible! (She tosses come cash to the vendor and walks off.) Keep the change. Something tells me this thing’s worth it.
(Fade to black.)
OPENING THEME
Act One
(Opening shot: dissolve from the title card to a long shot of Sunset, sitting at a table in the food court to write in her magic journal. Zoom in slowly through the shoppers passing to and fro.)
Sunset: (voice over, dictating) “Dear Princess Twilight: Tonight’s the night of the big movie premiere. All my friends are really excited, and I should be too, except—”
(Close-up; the zoom continues. She is now wearing the red sunburst pendant she received in Legend of Everfree.)
Sunset: (voice over) “—I can’t seem to keep my mind off anything other than our new powers, and the rogue magic that’s loose in this world, and how scary but exhilarating it all is.” (with mounting excitement) “How does it work? How can we be prepared for it? When will it show up again?” (She pauses and collects herself.) “Well, you see the problem. With the weight of all Equestria on your shoulders, you must have some advice on how to—”
(She stops short and glares at the book.)
Sunset: Oh, no! (sighing) Shoot!
(Pinkie walks over with a tray of burgers and sits, jarring one enough to land it on the table, as Sunset closes the cover. The party girl also has her pendant on—pink, with three balloons.)
Pinkie: What’s the matter, Sunset Shimmer?
Sunset: (forcing a smile) Oh, I just…ran out of pages in my journal, that’s all. (Rainbow walks up behind her with a tray and winks.)
Rainbow: Chillax, Sun-Shim.
(Longer shot: all seven girls have either seated themselves at nearby tables or are bringing their food in. Subsequent shots will establish that each is wearing her pendant.)
Fluttershy: Um, who’s Sun-Shim? (She sits by Applejack.)
Rainbow: That’s Sunset Shimmer’s new movie-star name. (Slurp at her soda.) I just made it up.
(Fluttershy’s pendant is partly obscured by a lock of hair, but enough detail is visible to mark it as yellow with a trio of butterflies.)
Applejack: For sweet apples’ sake, we only have bit parts in this flick. We’re not movie stars. (Rarity sits next to her.)
Rarity: Yet, darling. Yet.
Twilight Sparkle: There’s more bothering you than just journal pages, isn’t there, Sunset?
Sunset: Uh…
(She trails off into a lame chuckle before Pinkie sidles over.)
Pinkie: (coaxingly) Come on, share your troubles. (pinching/squashing Sunset’s cheeks) It might help soothe your stressed nerves. (She backs off.)
Sunset: Ah, I don’t want to take any of the fun out of our big night. (Pinkie leans over her.)
Pinkie: I SAID, SPILL IT, SUN-SHIM!!
(The one-time terror of Canterlot High is so cowed by this sudden crazed display that she shrinks into her seat for a moment, holding the journal like a shield. Once she gets her nerve back, she smiles and gently pushes Pinkie back.)
Sunset: Okay, okay. (opening journal; Pinkie eats a burger) It’s just that things have been calm around here, magic-wise.
Rarity: And that’s bad…how, precisely? (Cut to Pinkie and Sunset.)
Sunset: It’s not. (fiddling with pen) It’s just that instead of enjoying the fact that things are calm, I’m constantly thinking about things going wrong, even when they aren’t.
Fluttershy: (from o.s.) Ooh… (To her, Applejack, and Rarity.) …like…like what things? (Slow pan across all the tables.)
Sunset: I don’t know. I shouldn’t even be thinking about any of this stuff right now. (The pages flare faintly.) And neither should any of you.
(Pinkie proceeds to ignore the general mealtime etiquette rule of not reading at the dinner table by scooping up the enchanted book and standing up to peruse it.)
Pinkie: Look! Twilight’s writing you back! Hey, everybody! (She holds it out of Sunset’s reach.) Sunset’s getting an Equestri-text! (The irate owner snatches it down and opens it.)
Applejack: What’s it say?
(A moment’s silent reading causes the blue-green eyes to pop wide open in concern.)
Sunset: Princess Twilight wants me to come to…Equestria!
(Clock wipe to the lobby of the movie theater and zoom in on the concession stand, manned by an utterly enthralled Juniper. A cut to her perspective reveals that she is holding the mirror she bought and watching her older self smile and wave as flashbulbs pop and microphones are thrust toward her. The camera then cuts to her.)
Juniper: It’s like this mirror is the only one around here who gets me!
(The male voice that called her over the walkie-talkie in the prologue clears its throat impatiently. Zoom out quickly to frame him standing behind her: violet shirt, red vest with gold trim but no lapels, matching visor holding back messy green hair, dark gray pants, brown shoes, gray skin, wispy mustache, dark brown eyes. This is the theater manager, who holds a broom out to Juniper; he is not too much older.)
Manager: Popcorn spill at the condiment counter! (Juniper holds the mirror toward him.)
Juniper: Does this look like someone who cleans popcorn spills?
(Seeing only his own face in the glass leaves him more than a bit perplexed.)
Manager: (dryly) No. It looks like someone about to fire somebody.
(He emphasizes the point by thrusting the broom toward her again. Cut to a patch of the lobby that has been dirtied by the aforementioned spill; with a loud groan, she drags the broom into view in one hand and a long-handled dustpan in the other. A second groan follows as she throws both implements to the carpet.)
Juniper: This is the worst! (Soft gasp; smile.) Hey, I know what will perk me up…. (pulling mirror from a pocket) …a little mirror-me time!
(The surface flares to life, showing her older self autographing publicity photos for a gaggle of clamoring fans and tipping a wink.)
Juniper: (giggling) That’s more like it! (Sigh.) I wish this popcorn would just clean itself up, so I could just stare at you all day.
(She is not at all prepared for the thing to kick into higher gear, glow purple at its edges, and emit a broad beam of green/white light that vacuums up every last kernel and pulls them back into the mirror. Once the floor is clean, it reverts to its quiet, unassuming self. Juniper boggles at this strange turn of events as the manager happens by.)
Manager: Wha—? (Juniper quickly hides the mirror.) Done? Already? (She grins.) I’m shocked. (He walks off; she pulls it out.)
Juniper: (to herself) You and me both. (Weak laugh.)
(Dissolve to the front lawn of Canterlot High, on which various students are going about their business. One of them is Sunset, crossing from the front steps toward the base of the former Wondercolt statue, demolished in Friendship Games. Cut to a close-up of the bag she carries slung over one shoulder, then zoom out to frame her face as she stops before the base. The blue-green eyes flick from side to side, uncertainty mixed with perhaps a bit of caution to make sure no one else is watching, and she sighs quietly and gathers her nerve. Placing one palm against the vertical stone surface, she steps forward and vanishes through the portal to/from Equestria that it houses. The screen flares white and clears to show her following a screaming spiral down through the psychedelic color show of the passage between worlds, falling away from the camera.)
(After she has receded from view altogether, cut to the library within the Castle of Friendship. The rig that Princess Twilight constructed in Rainbow Rocks to facilitate travel from one world to the other is set up here. Zoom in on the uppermost portion, which holds the magic journal that used to belong to Princess Celestia, and tilt down to follow the crackle of magic energy from top to bottom. Pistons pump, wheels turn, wires glow, and one final flash brings the mirror at the heart of it all to life. Sunset is ejected with great force and speed, having been transformed back into her natural unicorn form as seen at the start of Equestria Girls.)
Sunset: Whoooaaa!
(Her forward momentum is arrested by a stack of books, which end up scattered all over the floor. Badly dazed and lying on her back, she shakes her head in an attempt to clear it but manages only a woozy moan. She is no longer wearing her pendant. A shadow falls over her; cut to her blurred perspective, looking up at a half-shadowed Starlight Glimmer.)
Sunset: (still half-out of it) Princess Twilight? (Back to her.) Is that you?
(Her perspective: the last of the fuzzies clear away and the pinkish-violet mare smiles down, the light illuminating her fully.)
Starlight: Nope. Starlight Glimmer.
(Cut to frame both; Sunset gets to her hooves with a sheepish laugh. The bag she carried is now a saddlebag.)
Sunset: Uh…oops.
(With another laugh, she rises to her hind legs and tries a few steps. However, the change in anatomy leaves her flailing for balance.)
Sunset: Whooaa…whooaa… (She gets it figured out.) …phew!
(She has missed the very funny look Starlight is aiming at her, and it intensifies once she puts her front hooves to her flanks in the manner of a person resting hands on hips. Once Sunset finally catches on to the mare’s reaction, she drops back to all fours. Behind her, the mirror has gone quiet.)
Sunset: Whoa. That feels a little weird after all this time. (crossing to Starlight) Starlight Glimmer. You’re Twilight’s student, right?
Starlight: Uh-huh.
(She floats up a journal virtually identical to the one Sunset has filled up, with one noticeable change. Instead of Sunset’s cutie mark, the cover depicts a stylized amalgamation of hers and Princess Twilight’s: a red sun whose left half is surrounded by yellow flares, while the right half is marked by alternating points of underlying pink and purple stars.)
Starlight: She wanted me to give you this.
(When she cuts her spell, it thuds to the floor just short of Sunset’s outstretched hoof. Sheepish smiles pass between the mares, after which the camera cuts to a close-up of it and the out-of-towner tries to pick it up the old-fashioned way. Frustrated grunts drift down as she nudges it this way and that, shifting to groans on her final try of scrabbling at the cover. Giving up, she offers an embarrassed grin to the puzzled Starlight, who points up at her own horn. Sunset catches the hint and, beaming, ignites hers to levitate the journal. Her aura is now bright red, instead of the blue-green that she used during the Crystal Castle break-in of Equestria Girls. During the next line, she waves it through the air and flips the pages, clearly enjoying the feeling of having her original magic back.)
Starlight: She wanted to give it to you herself, but then she and her friends were called away to solve a friendship problem. (dryly) That happens a lot around here. (Sunset’s eyes pop; she slips the journal into her saddlebag.)
Sunset: (dropping to haunches) That must be stressful, huh? Never knowing when you might be called on to save the day? (deflating) Dropping everything at a moment’s notice? (softly) How does she do it?
Starlight: Sorry. She just told me to give you the journal. (Sunset chuckles lamely.)
Sunset: So are you sure she won’t be back anytime soon?
Starlight: Pretty sure.
Sunset: (getting slowly up to hind legs) O…kay. I…guess I’ll be going now.
(Another bout of flailing reminds her that she should keep four on the floor, and she does so and offers Starlight an uneasy grin before starting toward the mirror.)
Starlight: What’s it like back there? (Sunset stops.)
Sunset: It’s pretty different—and not so different at the same time. (smiling) It’s kinda hard to explain.
Starlight: (pawing at floor) Huh. Guess you kinda have to go there to really get it, huh? I, uh, don’t suppose…
Sunset: You really think Princess Twilight would be okay with that?
Starlight: (slyly) I don’t know for sure that she wouldn’t be okay with it.
Sunset: That’s not a particularly compelling argument.
Starlight: She wants me to learn as much as I can about friendship, and I’m not learning a whole lot just hanging out here in her castle.
(Close-up: Sunset mulls this over for a few seconds, then smiles. Pan quickly to each speaker in turn.)
Sunset: Well, I haven’t ever seen you in that world, so chances are you aren’t gonna run into yourself.
Starlight: (dryly) —is something you don’t hear every day.
Sunset: So just lay low. Don’t draw too much attention to your—
Starlight: (winking) Pfft! You’ll barely even notice I’m there.
Sunset: Introducing you to my friends could be a nice distraction.
(The resident friendship student zips over to her.)
Starlight: But you’ll also totally notice I’m there, and it will keep your mind off of other things that might be bothering you.
(She leans in close, letting hearts and stars shine in two huge, expectant blue eyes.)
Starlight: So? What do you think? (jumping in place) Can I go back with you? (Close-up of Sunset.)
Sunset: Hmmm…
(Pan from her to the mirror, which kicks into gear again, and fade to black.)
Act Two
(Opening shot: fade in to the statue base on the Canterlot High lawn. The side facing the school flares white, brightly enough to fill the screen, and the view clears to a blurred, wobbly perspective of the front doors. Two pinkish-violet hands are raised into view, the left wrist bearing a watch whose face shows the four-pointed violet star from Starlight’s cutie mark, and she moans blearily as the image slowly comes into focus. This is her point of view.)
Starlight: (woozily) What happened? (Sunset steps to face her; pendant on and bag gone.)
Sunset: (taking one hand) It’s all pretty weird at first—
(Cut to frame both of them, then zoom out quickly on the next line as Sunset helps her up. Starlight has arrived in a pair of short-sleeved shirts, light green over bright pink, and a dark gray vest. Her pants are a lighter gray, with several rips, and she wears a white-starred knit cap in the same shade of pink as her undershirt. The camera angle obscures her footwear for the moment.)
Sunset: —but try to roll with it.
(Equestria’s newest species-jumper finds her knees giving out and starts to topple, but Sunset is there to grab an arm and hold her up. A brief flail of one leg reveals short, two-tone dark gray boots with high heels and bright pink laces.)
Sunset: (waving at a passing student) Hi!
(She slaps on a too-bright grin as Starlight starts to gain her footing.)
Starlight: (panicked, wiggling fingers) Are these—
Sunset: Hands.
Starlight: (looking down) And what happened to the rest of my hoov—
(Her perspective of the still-wobbly legs on the end of this, then back to both.)
Sunset: Feet. Those are feet. Remember the whole thing where I said you need to lay low? Now would be a good time to play it cool.
Starlight: (laughing) Oh! Right. Play it cool.
(She flicks her hair aside, does a quick bit of stretching—and then drops to all fours for a horse-like sprint toward the front steps and past the Cutie Mark Crusaders. These three can only stare in absolute confusion at the sight, and Sunset races up to grab Starlight’s wrists and pull her to her feet. The students passing in both directions eye this scrambled display of locomotion with lesser, but still noticeable, degrees of befuddlement.)
Starlight: (shrugging) You did say I’d make a good distraction.
(Sunset smiles at this and rubs the side of her neck as if to say, “Point taken.” Dissolve to the theater lobby and zoom in slowly. Juniper is working one of the popcorn machines behind the concession stand; in close-up, she scoops up a load and dumps it on the floor. The mirror is in her free hand, and she looks into it.)
Juniper: Mirror… (holding it toward the spill) …pick up this popcorn!
(The mess stays right where it is, to the puzzlement of two customers who have arrived at the stand. She glares at the item and decides to try another tack.)
Juniper: (looking into it, then turning it toward the spill) Mirror, I command thee. Pick up-eth this poppage of corn!
(Still no dice; cut to her.)
Juniper: (shaking mirror) Ugh! Why won’t this thing work anymore?
(She gets another scoop-load and makes to empty it on the floor, but one customer’s voice stops her short.)
Customer: (from o.s.) Like— (Cut to her and the other, unamused.) —we were gonna eat some of that.
Juniper: (facing mirror toward them) Mirror, make these annoying people go away!
(It remains just so much silvered glass and jeweled crystal, and the two fed-up customers depart. Cut to Juniper.)
Juniper: (smiling weakly) Well, that kinda worked.
Pinkie: (from o.s.) Juniper Montage?!
(The luckless employee yelps in surprise and pitches her popcorn scoop away. A longer shot frames all the Rainbooms save Sunset across from her; the scoop bounces off the counter and down, scattering its contents.)
Applejack: What in the blazes are you doin’ here? (Pinkie leans across.)
Pinkie: Were you invited to the Daring Do premiere? Ooh, that’s exciting, No, crazy! No, concerning! No, just no! (calmly) No offense.
Juniper: (slightly bitter, adjusting glasses) I wasn’t invited to the premiere. (gathering popcorn on counter) My uncle Canter Zoom felt bad for firing me, so he pulled some strings and got me this job.
(She holds up the end of her red/gold over-skirt on “this” to point up her contempt for it and all that it represents.)
Fluttershy: You work here?
Juniper: (sweeping spill over her edge) As little as possible. (She kicks a bit of the fallen corn away.)
Rainbow: You know, if you hadn’t tried to sabotage the movie, you could be celebrating with us.
(Caught in a sudden fit of pique, Juniper snarls through gritted teeth, flips up the hinged gate at one end of the counter, and steps out to face the six.)
Juniper: This should be my night! I would have found a way to be in the film if you all had stayed out of it! I would have been Daring Do! Everyone would have loved me! (facing mirror toward them) See?!?
(Nothing but their own perplexed images. Twilight moves up for a better look, nudging her glasses; cut to frame all seven. The five behind her mumble out their bewilderment, improving Juniper’s disposition not one iota.)
Juniper: (facing mirror to herself) Can’t you see what’s right under your noses? (Growl.) I wish you’d all just go away and leave me alone!
(One swing of her arm puts the business side toward the group; it flares with power, stronger than before, and blue/green beams lance out to drag them shouting into itself. The white butterfly clip in Fluttershy’s hair falls to the carpet in the process. Once they are gone from sight, a streamer of blue energy slithers up the arm holding the mirror and disappears into her eyes, causing them to glow an eerie green. She blinks them clear and smiles under lowered brows, glancing down at the floor; cut to her perspective. She picks up the fallen clip and inspects herself in the mirror.)
Juniper: Ooh. (The clip goes on one vest lapel.) Looks like I may be finally getting the hang of this!
(The image becomes that of her older self, who laughs and waves.)
Older Juniper: Hi, me.
(Cut to a corridor elsewhere in the Canterlot Mall. Sunset and Starlight walk along the storefronts, the former with her bag slung over her shoulder and checking her phone, the latter enjoying a triple-scoop ice cream cone.)
Sunset: Six cell phones, all straight to voice mail. (Close-up; Starlight’s lips are liberally smeared.)
Starlight: I’m sure they’re around. (Sunset pockets the phone.) What’s the worst that could’ve happened?
[Animation goof: During the remainder of this conversation, her mouth will switch between clean and dirty.]
(Sunset’s sudden stop prompts her to do the same, the topmost scoop falling off her cone.)
Sunset: Magic is on the loose here now, and it does not work the same way it does back in Equestria. Any number of terrible things could have happened. (Exhale; hand to forehead.) And lately I spend eighty percent of my time thinking about them.
(Starlight shoots her a concerned look while licking what used to be the middle scoop, and Sunset smiles in close-up.)
Sunset: My friends are probably fine. I’m overreacting— (Smile fades.) —but maybe not? Can’t tell anymore. (Both again on the start of the next line.)
Starlight: This is the problem you wanted to talk to Princess Twilight about, right? Because you can still talk it over with me if you want.
(The scarlet/gold-haired girl digs her new journal and a pen from her bag and prepares to write, sinking her traveling companion’s spirits a bit.)
Starlight: Or you could just journal with Princess Twilight about it. Whatever works. (Lick; Sunset pauses in mid-sentence.)
Sunset: It’s just… (Close the book.) …I know my friends and I have been given special powers for a reason— (It and the pen go back in the bag.) —and I want to be ready for whatever is gonna be thrown at us. I guess knowing that is making me feel like I can never really relax and let my guard down.
(Cut to Starlight on the end of this, looking up from her ice cream with real concern, then to both again.)
Sunset: So I end up obsessing about it and can’t get out of my own head.
Starlight: Hmm…that is a toughie. (smiling/winking; zoom in slowly) Guess my advice would be to just trust things will work themselves out in the end. If you spend too much time worrying about the bad things that might happen— (gesturing with cone; the second scoop falls off) —you’ll miss out on all the good things that are happening.
(Only after she finishes speaking does she realize that two-thirds of her treat has jumped ship.)
Sunset: Heh. Like how Princess Twilight’s student is teaching me a lesson right now?
Starlight: (smiling) Yep, like that. (She goes to work on the surviving scoop.)
Sunset: (chuckling) Come on. (pulling her close, taking her ice cream; they start walking) Let’s go take a look around the theater. I’m sure they’re fine.
(Fade to black as they approach the camera, then snap to a featureless grayish-white void in which a cluster of figures is visible at a very great distance. Zoom in quickly; they resolve into all of the captured Rainbooms except Pinkie. From here on in, all lines spoken in this no-place echo slightly in the emptiness.)
[Animation goof: Fluttershy is wearing her hair clip, even though she lost it during the group’s capture. It disappears and reappears at various times during scenes on this side of the mirror.]
Rarity: (shuddering) Uh, any clue yet where we are or what just happened? Anyone? (Pinkie leans into view in the fore.)
Pinkie: Pinkie Pie’s on the case!
(She reaches toward the camera, tilts it back and forth a few times, and lets go.)
Pinkie: Nope! No wall over here! (jogging o.s. left) Come out, come out, wall, wherever you are!
(Almost immediately, she emerges into view from screen right, far too soon to have circled behind the camera.)
Pinkie: I don’t get this place. (Exit left; now she comes back from behind the other five and stops.) There’s no walls in here anywhere!
(A great whooshing noise halts her exploration, accompanied by a faint pinkish glow from somewhere just o.s., and a zoom out shows the cause of both. Hovering at a slightly greater height than theirs, and tilted a few degrees off the vertical, is a large circular aperture that glows pink around the edges and is ringed with pale blue fire.)
Applejack: (pacing) Somehow, someway, that dang Juniper sucked us all inside of that mirror of hers.
Twilight: (adjusting glasses) Or into some kind of limbo behind it.
Fluttershy: (stroking her hair) I think I might be freaking out a little bit.
Rainbow: You call that a freak-out? (Close-up of Fluttershy.)
Fluttershy: (whispering) It’s sort of a deep-down-inside freak-out.
Pinkie: (from o.s.; Fluttershy yelps) On the upside—
(Cut to her, carrying a double handful of popcorn.)
Pinkie: (tossing it overhead) —there’s popcorn in here!
(The fluffy stuff tumbles to the “ground” around her boots as she catches whatever she can in her mouth, one piece lodging in her hair.)
Pinkie: Mmm, sticky.
(This would be the spill that Juniper accidentally cleaned with the mirror’s help in Act One, then. Zoom out to put Rarity in the fore.)
Rarity: How could this happen on the evening of my very first movie premiere? (Pinkie plucks down the stuck kernel and eats it.) Of all the nights! Curse you, cruel fate! (Zoom out again on the next line; Rainbow now in the fore.)
Rainbow: Not our number-one problem right now, Rarity.
Rarity: Mmm—true. But perhaps we can agree it’s in the top five.
Applejack: Is there really no way outta here?
(A hail of small brown objects comes flying through the opening, causing the girls to yell in pain and shock at the multiple impacts and cover their faces as best they can.)
Rarity: Oh, my heavens, what’s that?
(She touches her pendant and conjures up a small gem shield to block the projectiles from striking her head—the power she gained in Legend of Everfree. Rainbow, meanwhile, activates hers and uses the speed increase to deflect those coming her way. She catches one, runs a close eye over it, and is quite surprised to discover that they are being bombarded by…)
Rainbow: Chocolate-covered almonds?
(Now it is Twilight’s turn to fire up her pendant and exert a telekinetic hold over the offending snacks, stopping them all in midair.)
Pinkie: Dibs!
(She moves slowly from left to right, repeatedly opening her mouth as wide as it will go and snapping it shut again to chomp down any of them in her way. Behind her, the view wipes to Juniper in the theater lobby, idly using the mirror to Hoover up the contents of a dropped box of these very same treats—the cause of the captives’ woes. Sunset and Starlight enter, but stop short after only a couple of steps, and Sunset pulls in an almost inaudible gasp upon spotting Juniper back behind the concession stand counter. Starlight’s ice cream cone is gone and her face is clean again. The snack-slinger is preening in her mirror, so absorbed in her own reflection that she does not spot the pair. Sunset hauls Starlight toward one wall, and they stuff themselves into the gap between a pinball machine and a claw game—that is, maneuver a hanging claw over an assortment of prizes, then push a button to lower it and try to grab one up. Sunset peeks out first.)
Sunset: It’s Juniper Montage! (Starlight pops up, seen through the claw game’s glass panels.)
Starlight: (feigning surprise) No! (Gasp; smile.) Who’s that?
Sunset: She’s trouble. (looking ahead) Huh.
(Cut to Juniper, then zoom in on the stolen hair clip during the next line.)
Sunset: (from o.s.) That’s Fluttershy’s barrette.
(Back to her and Starlight; she ducks down to safety and passes her bag over, all cold resolve.)
Sunset: Wait here for me.
(Cut to Juniper, her back to the lobby and her entire attention riveted on the mirror in her hand. Her expression shifts from serene bliss to brain-locking shock in time with the approach of footsteps, and she sees one thoroughly displeased teen’s image approaching behind her own. Cut to a close-up; she has not turned around, and a smug smile has spread itself under her nose.)
Juniper: Sunset Shimmer. (Zoom out slightly; she moves aside, Sunset across the counter from her.) I was wondering if you’d show up.
Sunset: I’m, uh, looking for my friends. (fingering her pendant) I don’t suppose you’ve seen them?
(The adversary’s oily little giggle brings the brows down over the green-tinged blue eyes.)
Sunset: Where are they?
Juniper: I’ll never tell.
Sunset: You don’t have to.
(Five yellow-orange fingers wrap around a cream-colored wrist and her eyes burn white—her telepathy-by-touch, granted in Legend of Everfree, is kicking in. Zoom in quickly on her face, after which a flash of white fills the screen with swirling color. This resolves into an echoing flashback from Juniper’s memory, the colors still playing around the edges of the screen. Canter stands with Juniper in the lobby and gestures toward the concession stand.)
Canter: You’re lucky I offered to get you this job after the stunt you pulled on my set!
Juniper: (small voice) I just wanted to be Daring Do. I just wanted people to like me.
(A flash; now she glares and clutches the mirror.)
Juniper: Everyone would love me if it weren’t for you girls! This is all your fault! (Growl.) I wish you’d all just go away and leave me alone!
(She faces it ahead of herself just in time for it to fire up and drag in the six screaming girls now trapped behind it. One more flash ends the recollection and returns the view to the present; Sunset gasps in shock, her eyes back to normal, and Juniper yanks her arm away.)
Juniper: (annoyed) What?
Sunset: I know you want people to like you, but trust me. The magic in that mirror is only gonna make things worse for you.
Juniper: You’re just saying that because you want the mirror for yourself!
Sunset: What I want is my friends back! Please, Juniper! You wished them into that mirror. Maybe there’s a way you can wish them out. (It warms up in Juniper’s hand.)
Juniper: Or maybe…
(A pulse of power travels along her arm as it did after she captured the other six, and it sets her eyes to blazing green and rings them with bluish-white auras.)
Juniper: (thrusting it toward Sunset) …I wish you’d join them!
(Its field lifts the target off her feet and drags her toward the glass…)
Sunset: Whoooaaa!
(…then winks out once she has been pulled in. The glow around Juniper’s eyes vanishes as well, but the eyes themselves remain green. Zoom out quickly to put Starlight in the fore, peeking out around the claw game and stunned beyond belief.)
Starlight: (softly, gasping) Sunset!
(She ducks away with only a fragment of a fraction of a second to spare before those lurid green eyes whip toward the lobby. A cut to her perspective and slow pan reveal nothing out of the ordinary, as far as she knows. Back to Starlight, hunched down with hands over her mouth; she lowers them, showing naked fear scrawled over every inch of her features. Fade to black.)
Act Three
(Opening shot: fade in to the six Rainbooms on the wrong side of the mirror. The hail of chocolate-covered almonds has been cleared away. Fluttershy has hunched miserably down and is being consoled by Rarity, and Twilight is sitting on Applejack’s shoulders and straining to reach the bottom edge of the opening. She is well short of making any contact, though she is in prime position to see a bright red spark heading their way. She and Applejack hit the deck to avoid catching it with their faces, and it solidifies into Sunset.)
Sunset: (tumbling o.s.) Whoooaaa!
(A thud marks her touchdown, and the others hurry to her.)
Twilight: Sunset Shimmer! (Who moans weakly and is helped up by Applejack and Rarity.)
Pinkie: (hopping over, hugging her) Hooray! We’re all together again! (Cut to Twilight and Rainbow.)
Twilight: But wait. If we’re all together, then nobody out there knows where we are!
(Neither one has noticed that their pendants are now pulsing with light. Fluttershy glances down at her own and finds that it is following suit. )
Fluttershy: Um, girls?
(Cut from her back to the others on the next line; Sunset pushes Pinkie back, and all the magical jewelry has now lit up.)
Sunset: Starlight Glimmer does.
Fluttershy: Um, girls?
Rarity: You mean Twilight’s student back in Equestria? (Sunset grins stupidly.)
Pinkie: How would she know where— (turning to her, propping elbow on shoulder) —ohhhh!
Twilight: You didn’t. She isn’t.
Sunset: I kinda told her she could come back here with me.
Fluttershy: Girls?
Applejack: (to Sunset) You really think Princess Twilight would be okay with that?
Sunset: I don’t know for sure that she wouldn’t be okay with it.
Fluttershy: Um, so sorry to interrupt, but—
Rainbow: Whoa! Check out our geodes! (They all do; Fluttershy sighs, irritated.)
Fluttershy: That’s what I was trying to say.
(The no-space around them starts to pulse through the colors of their pendants, unnerving them greatly. Cut to Twilight.)
Twilight: Something’s changed. (Hers glows more brightly.) This wasn’t happening before. (Pan to Sunset on the next line.)
Sunset: Maybe it’s because all seven of us are together now. (Applejack’s goes to high gear.)
Applejack: Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
(A ray of orange light shoots up from it, joined in short order by six more from the other pendants in their respective colors. These meet at the center of the overhead opening and swirl within its circumference to become dots spaced around the edge. As the surrounding pink corona intensifies, a rainbow in all seven colors traces around the circle, setting off a crackling blue/green/white maelstrom within once the path is closed.)
Rarity: I’m going with “not a good thing”!
(Their pendants have stopped glowing by this point. Cut to Juniper in the theater lobby, lost in her adoration of her older self’s image. A flare of light at the junction of handle and frame surprises both of them, and the same rainbow draws itself in and sends a piece of itself up Juniper’s arm. The green glow in her eyes at the end of the previous act is gone, and she grins madly as a blue-green halo surrounds her entire form and she begins to grow. Starlight risks a look from her hiding place and is rewarded with the sight of the girl’s head rising toward the ceiling.)
(Close- up of a clawed hand in a long green glove, then of Juniper’s exultant head and shoulders. A black-tinged burst of white energy washes up from below, transforming her into the elegant older version of herself she has yearned to become. When the camera zooms out to frame all of her, though, it reveals a few not-so-glamorous tweaks. The long gloves she wears end raggedly at the elbows; the dress is green/black/purple/magenta, cut in layers to resemble wild feathers and hemmed in front to expose her lower legs; feathered green bands are on both ankles; black/magenta shoes not too far off from Juniper’s original ones; thick waves of hair tapering into slim curls at the ends; hook/claw-shaped earrings. She now stands roughly twice her original height, and she bends down to look herself over in the glass side of a popcorn popper before straightening up.)
Juniper: Now everyone will recognize I’m a real star!
(She walks toward the doors; Starlight takes cover just in time, waits a tick, and starts after her with fresh resolve, taking Sunset’s bag with her. Cut here and there among the shops in the mall proper. All is quiet until a tumult of screaming voices swells to accompany the giantess’s approach to the sunglasses kiosk where she bought the mirror in the prologue. Starlight is not far behind her.)
Starlight: Okay. First things first—
(Cut to just behind Juniper and zoom out to frame her on the next line.)
Starlight: —I need to get that mirror away from her.
(A few panicking patrons start taking pictures with their phones, the sight of which brings a satisfied blue flash to Juniper’s pupils. The camera cuts to her perspective, the freaked-out spectators becoming a throng of adoring fans and reporters who take pictures and clamor for an interview. Zoom in on two, a mother and son, then cut back to her.)
Juniper: (bending down to the boy) Want Mommy to take our picture together?
(They are, in reality, scared out of their wits. All three scoops on his ice cream cone plop to the floor, and he lets go with a piercing scream as his mother yanks him away. Starlight darts in a little closer, taking cover behind a planter, and sees Juniper turn her attention toward a few others near the now-inactive video wall that first set her off in the prologue. The massive monomaniac blows them a kiss, but all of them dive for the floor instead of swooning over this bit of attention. As she strolls about and blows another kiss, which sends a girl on the second floor into a screaming retreat, Starlight eases closer and finally lunges to grab at the mirror in Juniper’s lowered hand. There follows a brief, vicious tug-of-war, which ends when Juniper lifts Starlight off her feet, still clutching the handle. The visitor from another dimension resists an attempt to shake her off, then swings her legs forward and up to kick the wrist holding the mirror. This hit knocks it free, and Starlight completes the backflip to land on her feet and start running.)
(The mirror hits the ground, a couple of cracks forming at the edges. On its other side, the light show that triggered Juniper’s growth spurt has subsided, and the same cracks have appeared in the overhead portal. Other, much larger ones begin to tear through the no-color infinity around the Rainbooms.)
Sunset: The mirror is breaking!
(Twilight cries out as one fissure spreads beneath her foot, and Rainbow pulls her back from it.)
Twilight: If Starlight Glimmer doesn’t find a way to get us out of here soon, I don’t know what’s gonna happen! (More cracks spread in the portal.)
Sunset: Starlight Glimmer, I hope you know what you’re doing.
(The mall again; Starlight stands up, holding the mirror. Zoom out on the next line to frame the approaching Juniper.)
Juniper: (snatching at it; Starlight backs away) Give that back! (Duck behind a pair of planters.)
Starlight: No! This mirror is nothing but trouble! You have to realize that!
Juniper: (stepping closer) What I realize is that you are just like those other girls! (picking up one planter, exposing Starlight) I wish you’d join them.
(The pinkish-violet girl cringes mightily and faces the glass away from herself, fully expecting to be banished to the same place as the others, but absolutely nothing happens. Once her brain registers this fact, she blows out a relieved breath and darts away to avoid an oversized grab.)
Starlight: Looks like you can’t make that wish unless you’re the one holding the mirror!
(The plucked planter is pitched in her direction; she dives to the tiles with a yell, striking the mirror against them and knocking a few fragments loose. She straightens up and regards it with increased worry. Inside the mirror, a shard crumbles away under Fluttershy’s boot to reveal total blackness underneath and she whimpers in fear. Rainbow does a little high-speed bob-and-weave to avoid a split making its way toward her head, while Pinkie is forced into her own evasive action. All seven come together on a rapidly crumbling island.)
(In the mall, Starlight scrambles behind the sunglasses kiosk and peeks over the counter with a smile at the oncoming Juniper.)
Starlight: (holding up mirror) I wish Sunset Shimmer and her friends would come back!
(The implement crackles with a bit of power, but fizzles out to the sound of yet another shard dropping out of the frame. Juniper chuckles nastily and circles to bend down to her.)
Juniper: (grabbing; Starlight circles away) Looks like you can’t use it either!
(The two chase one another back and forth around the kiosk several times until the huge “movie star” groans and decides that she has had quite enough of this nonsense. She uproots the two product displays in front of the video wall, heaves them toward Starlight to score two incredibly near misses, and closes in on the scared teen.)
Juniper: Give it back to me!
Starlight: But my friends are trapped in there!
Same chorus as in the prologue
(The monitors come alive, an image of Rarity and Sour Sweet visible behind the supremely steamed Juniper.)
Rainbooms: It’s dance magic, once you have it
Let your body move, step into the—
Juniper: (over singing) Your friends stole my one chance at being famous!
(She whirls toward the wall with an infuriated scream, one fist rising for a haymaker of a punch; cut to Starlight, who recoils from the sound of shattering glass.)
Song ends abruptly
(The girl with the mirror hops over the circular counter and goes to the floor. Within the enchanted confines, Twilight and Applejack find themselves separately breaking free of the group’s island and floating away as a new tremor shakes the place—caused by Starlight’s hard landing. Fearful cries and exclamations rise from the seven, now adrift in a vastness that is more empty than full. Applejack hurls herself across the gulf toward the five and barely gets her boot heels on one edge, with Pinkie and Rainbow each seizing a wrist to keep her from going over. Twilight, on the other hand, finds her spot fracturing and falling away much too fast for her comfort, and Rarity and Sunset can only stare in horror. The camera stays on Twilight as the last little bit comes apart under her feet and she plunges o.s. with a scream.)
Pinkie: (from o.s.) TWILIGHT!!
(The bookish brainiac rises back into view, held within a translucent three-dimensional capsule of Rarity’s gem constructs. Cut to an overhead shot of the sunglasses kiosk.)
Starlight: Is fame really what you’re after— (Juniper looms over her.) —or are you looking for something else? (She ducks as two huge hands grab the overhead canopy.)
Juniper: (tearing it loose) Like what?!
Starlight: (smiling tentatively) Like…a friend? (This gives the gargantuan woman pause.)
Juniper: (lifting canopy higher) Who would want to be my friend?
Starlight: I would.
Juniper: Why?
Starlight: Because I understand you, Juniper. You think getting revenge is going to make you feel better, but it’s not. Please, don’t make a mistake that you’ll end up regretting for the rest of your life! (Cut to Juniper on the end of this.)
Juniper: I’ve already made too many mistakes. What I’ve done is… (She tosses the canopy aside.) …is…unforgivable! (Starlight stands up.)
Starlight: No, Juniper. I know they’ll forgive you. But first— (facing mirror toward her) —you have to set them free!
(On the other side, Rarity dispels her construct and Twilight lands on the safe terrain with the other six Rainbooms. A whopper of a quake starts it falling to pieces from the edges in as they cry out in fear. In the mall, Juniper glumly ponders Starlight’s advice and the almighty mess that her quest for fame has deteriorated into for a long moment. Finally making up her mind, she snatches the mirror from Starlight’s hand and strides a few paces away.)
Juniper: (voice trembling) I… (She glances back to Starlight, who smiles encouragement.) …I wish I could make up for my mistakes.
(A blue/white flash from the mirror fills the screen and clears to show Applejack holding up the other six girls in a stack—the result of the super strength granted by her pendant. She is down to the very last scrap of a foothold, which chooses this very moment to crumble away. The girls’ cries and whimpers turn to screams as they start the great free-fall into nothing. Before they can get too far, though, a spot of blinding white light kindles in the measureless distance and grows to fill the screen. This shrinks slightly, washed-out colors replacing it at the edges, and then disappears altogether to return the action to the mall. All seven girls have materialized in the empty space above and between Starlight and Juniper, a few feet above the floor, and they come down in a graceless heap. Juniper’s transformation has completely reversed itself, and the hair clip she took from Fluttershy is no longer on her vest lapel. Assorted sounds of relief from the bunch; Sunset is the first to get up, and Starlight comes out from the kiosk to meet her, no longer carrying Sunset’s bag.)
Sunset: (hugging her) Starlight, you did it!
(The others come up, hearing a mass of confused murmurings from o.s., and the camera zooms out to frame quite a few shoppers gathering around.)
Starlight: (to Sunset) So much for laying low.
Sunset: I think even Princess Twilight would understand.
(Apart from the congregated onlookers, Juniper lets her eyes drop to the mirror that touched off all this mayhem. Cut to her perspective: the frame has resumed to its appearance before the runaway magic hit it in the prologue, and all the glass is gone except for a shard that reflects half of her contrite face. She lowers it to look the other eight girls head-on; cut back to her.)
Juniper: I’m so sorry.
Sunset: (crossing to her) It’s okay. We’ve all been there.
Juniper: (skeptically) Really?
(Starlight’s hand shoots into view; cut to her, having retrieved Sunset’s bag.)
Starlight: Manipulated an entire town into giving up their talents so they wouldn’t think they were special. (Pan to Twilight.)
Twilight: Overpowered by magic I couldn’t control and created a rift between two worlds, almost destroying both of them in the process. (To Sunset.)
Sunset: Turned an entire school into my own personal zombie army in hopes of conquering a distant pony world.
(All three of these confessions are delivered in remarkably casual tones with self-deprecatory smiles. Hearing them in quick succession leaves Juniper at a total loss for words; cut to Pinkie with one elbow propped on Rainbow’s shoulder.)
Pinkie: Wow. We are a reeeeeally forgiving group.
(The jock grins, a cue for everyone to have a good laugh. Dissolve to a long shot of a subdivision, the camera angled to point over the houses, and tilt down to frame all nine around the statue base on the Canterlot High lawn. Sunset has taken her bag back from Starlight. They are occupying themselves in various ways; in particular, Juniper is getting her hair braided by Rarity as Pinkie removes her film-reel hat and tries it on for herself. The sight of it brings a grin to Juniper’s face, and all three cannot help but laugh. Pan to Sunset and Starlight; behind them, Twilight gets a rise out of the impromptu makeover and subsequent shenanigans.)
Starlight: (sighing) I’m so sad to leave. I haven’t really had the chance to get to know all of you.
(A brief twinkle of magic is heard from within Sunset’s bag during this line; after Starlight finishes, she pulls out her journal. Cut to the newcomer, the sound of pages being flipped is heard.)
Sunset: (from o.s.) Maybe you don’t have to leave yet.
(Both again; she is looking over a page, and Applejack/Fluttershy/Rainbow gather in to listen. Fluttershy’s missing hair clip is back in its usual place.)
Sunset: (reading) “Dear Sunset: Some lessons are better learned in action—”
(Cut to Pinkie/Rarity/Juniper, the last of whom is now holding her hat and gets Rarity’s arm around her shoulders as Pinkie grins.)
Sunset: (from o.s.) “—and you girls are great teachers.” (Back to her, increasingly excited.) “Starlight should stay for a few more days. Enjoy the premiere!” (Cheers all around; she shuts the journal and returns it to her bag.)
Starlight: Huh. (smugly) Think you can focus on the positive?
Sunset: Whatever happens is gonna happen. (thumping Starlight’s shoulder) I’ve just gotta live in the moment, right?
Starlight: Right.
(She returns the friendly hit with a wink, and the two throw an arm around each other’s shoulders and have a giggle. Zoom out to frame all of them and fade to black.)