My Little Pony The Movie is an animated feature-length film based on the My Little Pony franchise and the series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. It was released theatrically on October 6, 2017 in the United States.

In the film, Twilight Sparkle and her friends embark on an adventure beyond Equestria to save their home from a new force of evil, making new friends along the way. The film takes place between the season seven finale and the season eight premiere.[60][61]

Summary

The Friendship Festival

Twilight meets with the other princesses.

The film opens in Canterlot, where ponies from all over Equestria have gathered for the first Friendship Festival, and Spike runs through town with an armful of scrolls. At the castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle nervously prepares for a meeting with the other princesses. When Spike arrives, he assures her that everything will be fine.

Twilight enters the throne room and meets with Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance, asking that they reposition the sun and moon for the concert performance of pony pop star Songbird Serenade. However, the princesses tell Twilight that each of their magic serves a purpose and that, as the Princess of Friendship, she already has all the magic she needs to make the festival a success.

Twilight's friends assure her that she's got this.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Mane Six set up the festival's main stage area: Rainbow Dash clears the weather, Pinkie Pie makes balloon animals, Fluttershy rehearses with her chorus of songbirds, Applejack hands out apple cider, and Rarity decorates the stage. Twilight approaches and shares with them her disappointment in the other princesses' rejection of her festival ideas. Despite her nervousness, her friends have the utmost confidence in her, leading into the song We Got This Together.

At the end of the song, Pinkie Pie accidentally fires a multi-layered cake from her party cannon that lands on Twilight and makes a mess. When Songbird Serenade arrives for her sound check, Twilight briefly embarrasses herself by splattering cake on Songbird's jacket.

Storm over Canterlot

"Ponies of Equestria, we come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty... Storm King!"

— Grubber

The Storm King's forces invade Canterlot.

All of a sudden, a black storm cloud appears in the sky over Canterlot. A large, ominous airship emerges from the clouds and lands on the festival grounds. A small hedgehog named Grubber comes out of the ship, announcing his arrival on behalf of the Storm King, and introduces the Storm King's lieutenant Tempest Shadow, a unicorn with a broken horn. When the four princesses greet Tempest, she demands the immediate surrender of their magic. When they refuse, more airships appear, and an army of monstrous Storm Guards invades the city.

Tempest uses magical orbs to turn the princesses into obsidian statues. Just before she is petrified, Celestia tells Luna to go south beyond the Badlands and seek help from the "Queen of the Hippo". Tempest almost turns Twilight to stone as well, but Rainbow Dash swoops in to save her, causing Muffins to get caught in the crossfire. The Mane Six and Spike try to escape the city, but the Storm Guards cut off their escape route. Twilight blasts them with her magic, but it reflects off one of their shields and destroys the bridge they're standing on, and they plummet into the river and over a waterfall.

A mission/threat from the Storm King.

Once the ponies are safe from danger, they try to decide what to do. Having heard Celestia's earlier instructions to Luna, Twilight suggests they go south and seek out the "Queen of the Hippos" themselves. Some of the ponies are scared of traveling beyond Equestria's borders, but they stick with Twilight nonetheless.

Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, all of the ponies have been captured and put in chains and cages. In the throne room, Tempest communicates with the Storm King via potion spell, who asks if she's captured the Alicorn princesses. Because the Storm King needs the magic of all four princesses to empower his Staff of Sacanas and restore Tempest's horn, she tells him to give her three days to prepare for his arrival. Unfortunately, Grubber enters and informs her that Twilight escaped.

City in the desert

The Mane Six meet Capper.

Some time later, the Mane Six travel through a vast desert, and Pinkie Pie is getting delirious from the heat. As Spike collapses from exhaustion, he discovers a cobblestone road leading to a small, industrial city called Klugetown. The city is populated by shady creatures looking to buy and sell anything, and the ponies' arrival is noticed by an anthropomorphic cat in a red coat. Twilight suggests they not draw too much attention to themselves, but Pinkie immediately does just that by asking around about the Queen of the Hippos.

The creatures of Klugetown become interested in buying the ponies and Spike, but the cat in the red coat intervenes, claiming them to be infected with a fatal illness called pastelus coloritis. The creatures flee from the "infected" ponies, and Twilight's friends thank the cat—who introduces himself as Capper—for his help. When Capper offers to lead them to the Hippos, Twilight is wary about trusting him, but he assures them through song that he can guide them through this unfamiliar and dangerous city. Near the end of the song, Capper tells a creature—Needy—outside his home to inform someone named Verko that he has something to settle his debt.

Capper tries to sell the Mane Six to Verko.

Meanwhile, Tempest and Grubber arrive in Klugetown in pursuit of Princess Twilight and ask around for her whereabouts. A large fish creature believes Tempest is an accomplice to Capper's early deception and threatens her, but she incapacitates him easily and asks for more information.

At Capper's house, the ponies are taken by his various belongings, and they regale him with stories of Equestria. As thanks for his assistance earlier, Rarity fixes up Capper's coat, and he is surprised by her generosity. In her search of Capper's collection of books, Twilight discovers that Celestia was referring not to the Queen of the "Hippos" but rather the Hippogriffs, half-pony half-eagle creatures who live at the top of Mount Aris. Just as Capper offers to secure them an airship for their journey, mob boss Verko arrives to buy the ponies from him, revealing his true intentions.

Capper giving "directions" to Tempest Shadow.

Tempest and Grubber soon arrive as well, and the ponies escape using Verko as a distraction. After a hectic windmill chase across the city, the Mane Six stow away on an airship just before it departs from the Klugetown docks. Meanwhile, Tempest takes Capper prisoner and demands to know where the Mane Six are going. Capper, remembering the generosity that Rarity showed him, points Tempest toward Black Skull Island—in the opposite direction of Mount Aris.

Celaeno and the pirates

On the airship, the ponies hide from its crew of anthropomorphic parrots, but they are soon discovered. As indicated by the insignia on their uniforms, they are also in league with the Storm King. As the parrots decide what to do with the stowaways, they turn to their leader Captain Celaeno. After consulting the Storm King's rule book, Celaeno declares that they be tossed overboard. But just before they do so, the union whistle blows, and the ponies unwittingly join the parrots for a gruel lunch.

Rainbow Dash inspires Captain Celaeno to be awesome again.

Celaeno and her crew are indentured delivery parrots for the Storm King. When Twilight asks to "deliver" her and her friends to Mount Aris, Celaeno refuses out of fear of suffering the Storm King's wrath. The ponies learn that before the parrots served the Storm King, they used to be sky pirates. Through the song Time to Be Awesome, Rainbow Dash and her friends encourage the parrots to oppose the Storm King's iron-fisted rule and return to their swashbuckling ways. Inspired by Rainbow's words, the parrots discard their uniforms and raise their ship's rainbow-colored sails. In celebration of the pirates' return to glory, Rainbow Dash performs a sonic rainboom against Twilight's wishes.

Twilight and friends escape to Mount Aris via hot air balloon.

In the distance, Tempest sees the rainboom, realizes Capper lied to her, and turns her airship around. As Tempest's ship approaches Celaeno's, the pirates hide Twilight and her friends below deck. Tempest and Grubber board the ship and asks where Twilight is, but Celaeno and her crew claim ignorance. Below deck, Twilight fears the pirates will give them up and comes up with an idea. She opens the hatch on the ship's undercarriage, and the ponies fall through the sky. In midair, Twilight uses a crate, a Storm King flag, and some rope to create a makeshift hot-air balloon, and she and her friends fly toward Mount Aris.

Back on Captain Celaeno's airship, Tempest finds Twilight's map and learns of her and her friends' next destination. As punishment for harboring the princess in secret, Tempest destroys Celaeno's ship.

Kingdom of the seaponies

The Mane Six meet the seapony princess Skystar.

After climbing the long stairs leading up Mount Aris, the Mane Six and Spike finally reach the Hippogriff Kingdom but find it to be abandoned and in ruins. As the ponies start to wonder if their journey was in vain, they hear someone humming and follow the sound to an underground pond. When the humming creature hears the ponies approach, it escapes into the water. Twilight and her friends try to pursue the creature into the pond, but they are suddenly sucked into a whirlpool and trapped in a submerged cavern. Before they drown, magical air bubbles appear to allow them to breathe, courtesy of the creature they encountered earlier. When the creature learns that the Storm King invaded the Mane Six's home and that they are looking for the Hippogriffs, she reveals herself to be a seapony named Princess Skystar. Understanding the ponies' plight, Skystar takes them to meet her mother.

The Mane Six are transformed into seaponies themselves.

The ponies find themselves in the underwater kingdom of Seaquestria, home to the seaponies. In the throne room, Skystar introduces the ponies to her mother Queen Novo, who is furious to see surface dwellers in her domain. After Skystar vouches for them, Twilight asks what happened to the Hippogriffs, and Skystar tells the story against her mother's wishes. Long ago, the Hippogriffs did indeed live on Mount Aris, but the Storm King invaded their home, and they fled. Skystar reveals that the seaponies are, in fact, the Hippogriffs themselves, transformed by Queen Novo's magical pearl. Novo demonstrates her pearl's power by transforming the Mane Six into seaponies and Spike into a pufferfish. Twilight asks if she can use the pearl to save Equestria from the Storm King, but Novo refuses in order to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

As Novo leaves for her seaweed wrap, Skystar, eager to make new friends, invites the ponies to stay in Seaquestria forever, but they decline, saying their home and families are in danger back in Equestria. Though saddened, Skystar understands and leaves. Pinkie Pie feels sorry for Skystar and asks if they can stay a little longer. Twilight unexpectedly agrees and urges Pinkie and the rest of their friends to show Skystar a good time.

Twilight tries to steal Queen Novo's Pearl of Transformation.

Pinkie approaches the sad Skystar and starts singing One Small Thing, offering to have some fun with her before they leave. Their games together slowly turn into a celebration, and the rest of the seaponies join in. Even Queen Novo gets swept up in the friendship party and decides to trust the outsiders. However, before Novo can offer to do something to help them, an alarm is heard, and Twilight is caught trying to steal Novo's pearl. Novo, hurt and angered by Twilight's deception, banishes her and her friends from Seaquestria.

"You don't deserve to be one of us."

— Queen Novo

Return to Equestria

Twilight is captured by Tempest Shadow.

Back in their original forms, the Mane Six and Spike wash up on the shores of the Basalt Beach near Mount Aris; Twilight's friends are furious with her for going behind their backs and trying to steal from the seaponies. Twilight defends her decision by saying they aren't in Equestria, and that their usual methods of resolving problems aren't good enough to save their home. As Pinkie and Twilight get into a heated argument about how little Twilight trusts her friends, Twilight angrily lashes out by saying she'd be better off without friends like them. Twilight tries to take back what she said, but Pinkie refuses to hear it and walks off, with the rest of their friends following after. Spike attempts to comfort Twilight, but she falls into deep remorse over her actions.

All of a sudden, Spike gets seized by a Storm Guard. As Twilight tries to save him, Tempest captures her. On Tempest's airship, Tempest taunts Twilight over losing her friends. When Twilight asks Tempest why she's doing this to her fellow ponies, Tempest sings Open Up Your Eyes and reveals her tragic backstory. As a young filly, she was friends with two unicorns named Glitter Drops and Spring Rain, who lost their ball in the cave of an ursa minor while playing one day. When young Tempest tried to retrieve the ball, the ursa broke her horn. Her magic became unstable and dangerous, causing her friends to shun her out of fear.

The rest of the ponies and the new friends they've made come together to save Twilight.

Tempest learned from then on that friendship is a foolish notion, and she takes Twilight back to Canterlot, where the ponies are still kept in chains and cages, including Songbird Serenade. Tempest returns to the castle with Twilight in tow, just in time for the Storm King's arrival. With the four Alicorn princesses gathered together, the Storm King uses the Staff of Sacanas to steal their magic and make himself even more powerful.

Back at the Basalt Beach, the rest of the Mane Six feel bad about abandoning Twilight. As they consider going back to apologize, Spike appears and informs them that Twilight's been captured. The ponies believe there's no way to get back to Canterlot or challenge the Storm King's forces, but Capper suddenly appears with the cavalry: Captain Celaeno and her pirate crew. Princess Skystar, having used Queen Novo's pearl to transform back into a Hippogriff, also joins them—at the risk of getting in trouble with her mother.

Battle for Canterlot

The Storm King betrays Tempest Shadow.

With the magic of the Alicorn princesses, the Storm King is excited by his power to control the sun and moon. At the Canterlot city entrance, Capper disguises himself as a pastry chef delivering a congratulatory cake for the Storm King, and the ponies pull the cake cart while pretending to be captured. The gluttonous Grubber sees the cake being carted through town and takes a bite out of it, and he notices the eyeball of someone hiding inside. With their cover blown, Skystar and the pirates burst out of the cake, and a battle breaks out between the ponies' forces and the Storm Guards.

The battle reaches the castle courtyard, and Twilight and Tempest look down at it from the balcony. The Storm King is sickened by the "magic of friendship" and uses his staff to create a giant lightning storm over Canterlot, forcing Twilight's friends to take shelter. Tempest reminds the Storm King of their deal for him to restore her horn, but the Storm King goes back on his word and reveals that he merely used her for his own ends. The Storm King attacks Tempest, who nearly flies off the balcony and into the cyclone, but Twilight saves her.

Tempest Shadow: Why are you saving me?

Twilight Sparkle: Because this is what friends do.

Tempest sacrifices herself to take down the Storm King.

The Storm King prepares to finish off both Twilight and Tempest, but the rest of Twilight's friends use Pinkie's party cannon to launch themselves through the cyclone and knock him over. While Twilight reconciles with her friends, the Staff of Sacanas' magic surges out of control. Together with her friends, Twilight races to seize the staff before the Storm King does, and both Twilight and the King are lost in the raging storm. Just as it appears that Twilight is gone forever, she floats back down with the staff in her possession, much to her friends' relief.

Just then, the Storm King returns holding another orb to turn Twilight and her friends to stone. Before he can do so, Tempest jumps in the way, and the orb turns herself and the Storm King to obsidian. Twilight keeps Tempest from falling off the balcony, but the petrified Storm King plummets down and shatters into pieces. The ponies are shocked by Tempest's sacrifice, and Twilight uses the Staff of Sacanas to de-petrify her and the princesses, free the ponies from captivity, and restore Canterlot back to normal.

Fluttershy: Now what?

Tempest Shadow: Now... we fix everything.

Epilogue

The Friendship Festival continues as originally planned.

The Friendship Festival continues, and Songbird Serenade takes the stage to thank Princess Twilight and her friends for saving Equestria. As Songbird performs the song Rainbow, Rarity gives Capper a new cape, and Queen Novo and the other Hippogriffs join them—with Novo grounding Skystar for leaving home without permission.

In the middle of the festivities, Twilight notices a sad Tempest all by herself. She invites Tempest to stay in Equestria and offers her friendship, but Tempest is still upset about her broken horn. Twilight tells her that her magic is still as powerful as the pony who wields it. In acceptance of their new friendship, Tempest creates fireworks for Songbird Serenade's performance. When Pinkie Pie compliments Tempest's magic display, Tempest reveals her real name: Fizzlepop Berrytwist.

"That is the most awesome name ever!"

— Pinkie Pie

Tempest Shadow becomes friends with the Mane Six.

As the "pointy art"-style credits roll, the ponies, their new friends, and the Storm Guards celebrate together, and Songbird Serenade's song transitions to Off To See The World. As the ending crawl begins, Spike waves goodbye to the departing audience. Gummy, some baby Hippogriffs, as well as Skystar's oyster friends, Shelly and Sheldon, all play with the ending crawl. At the end of the credits, Princess Celestia raises the sun.