Equestria Girls: Holidays Unwrapped

Equestria Girls: Holidays Unwrapped is the fifth special in the Equestria Girls series. Unlike previous specials, this one is an anthology of approximately seven-minute long short stories that all take place in the holiday season.

The Snow Day
All the girls pulled an all-nigher in Twilight Sparkle's house, though all fell asleep halfway through with the exception of. By the time they woke up, they all lamented over not fully studying for a test, but Dash had a plan to convince Principal Celestia that it was a snow day instead. Though skeptical, her friends eventually went along with the plan since they had nothing else to try. After they left, a still sleeping Pinkie Pie woke up, not wishing to miss a montage with her friends.

Over the course of the next two hours, the girls prepare a fake blizzard to fool their teachers. Pinkie Pie makes a potato snowman, though got into a fight with over it, Applejack carried several metric tons of ice, which Fluttershy had a pair of woodpeckers carve into a beautiful statue of Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle used her magic to simulate snowfall, Rarity made winter clothing and Sunset Shimmer painted a massive fresco. For a second, both Vice-Principal Luna and Celestia were fooled, though Mr. Cranky told them it was "phoney baloney" and punished the girls with detention.

In detention, Rainbow Dash claimed her actual plan was to give the girls a more hands-on approach to studying for the test

The Soufflé
Pinkie Pie bakes a Soufflé for Rarity. She does this every year to give her a gift as elegant as she is, but every year it deflates before she can give it to her. With the help of Sunset Shimmer, she vowed to give her the Soufflé before it defalted, however, a massive snowball fight broke out on her front lawn. Though they tried to argue they weren't apart of the game, declared it to be a war. After getting serious, Sunset got Flash Sentry to help them out and the two managed to get Pinkie out of the firezone. Pinkie still couldn't get to Rarity's house, however, though she met up with her anyway. Rarity enjoyed the Soufflé though Rainbow Dash tried to attack them as a snowman - a disguise she was in for two days, only for Rarity to block her with her shield magic.

The Cider
Every year, the host an annual cider festival for their friends, but every year, the   brothers sabotage them, such as stealing their ladders and giving them a pet worm. This year, Twilight Sparkle aims to beat the Flim Flam brothers by a series of switcheroos that ultimately makes the brothers think they won by making them think the cider they got was bad, but in actuality, they got the real cider an gave it back to the family.

The Break In
As the Toys For Kids Festival is about to begin, Sunset Shimmer lost her key for her storage locker and soon realized it was left at school. The girls travel back to school in order to retrieve it, but when they discover the school was closed, they plot to break in. Sunset and Pinkie both devise complex crimes to break in, while Applejack suggests they use their powers to pick the school up and smash it. Twilight, on the other hand, simply calls Principal Celestia and asks if she could open it for them. They get the key and the festival goes by swimming. All the kids loved the toys they were given and many passerby's smile at the warm site. After it was all said and done, they decided to cash in their gift cards, but they forgot those back at school, leading Twilight to "come up with a plan".

The Gift
Rainbow Dash was late for a meet up in the Canterlot Mall Food Court. After talking with her friends, she was told about the "Secret Present Switcheroo" and realized she didn't get a gift for Fluttershy. Running across the mall, she eventually found a shop called Trend of the Line, a place where worked who tried to sell her worthless knickknacks that Fluttershy wouldn't like, such as a High-Five Stick, which Snips ended up buying for Snails. He ultimately sells her a Instant Camera, as Fluttershy's own camera broke a year ago and she hasn't bought one since. Dash was surprised by the thoughtfulness of Zephyr and purchased the item before running off to give it to Fluttershy. As the gift exchange goes, everyone gets exactly what they want, whether it be video games, books, tools or clothes.

The Photo
Applejack decides to start a new holiday tradition with her friends in which they all dress for a themed card. Applejack decides on a cornucopia theme and though her friends are super embarrassed to dress up as fruits and vegetables, they do because they love Applejack. Rarity designed the costumes and they all hated them, except for Fluttershy since she was grapes. As they tried to march through the hallways, they became a laughing stock as every student laughed and took pictures of them or recorded them. By the time they got to the auditorium, they told Applejack what had happened but that they loved her anyway. Applejack told them that she wasn't going to have them dress up - that was Granny Smith's tradition, not hers, but Sunset convinced Rarity to get Applejack to wear her costume, a tomato. In the end, they wished the audience happy holidays with love, even if they were wearing silly costumes.

Places

 * Twilight Sparkle's house
 * Canterlot High School
 * Principal Celestia's office
 * Sunset Shimmer's locker
 * Drama Department
 * Costume Room
 * Pie residence
 * Rarity's house
 * Sweet Shoppe?
 * Canterlot Storage
 * Yoga Studio
 * Canterlot Mall
 * Canterlot Mall Food Court
 * Game store
 * Canterlot Mall Glasses Shop
 * Canterlot Mall Textile Shop
 * Canterlot Mall Jewelry Shop
 * Trend of the Line
 * Crystal Prep Academy
 * Canterlot Waterfall
 * Camp Everfree
 * Camp Everfree Dock
 * Camp Everfree Beach
 * Everfree Lake
 * Camp Everfree
 * Camp Everfree Dock
 * Camp Everfree Beach
 * Everfree Lake

Events

 * Toys For Kids Festival
 * Winter Break
 * Secret Present Switcheroo

Organizations

 * Equestria Girls
 * Apple family
 * Celestia and Luna's family
 * Lily family
 * Flim Flam Brothers
 * Shy family

Species

 * Bird
 * Woodpecker
 * Owl
 * Raccoon
 * Worm
 * Goat
 * Goat

Continuity

 * The first story references the events of Equestria Girls: Spring Breakdown and Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer's Backstage Pass.
 * When Sunset reads the memories of a snowflake, she sees its memories of Camp Everfree, a reference to Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree.
 * Pinkie Pie mentions her friend Lily Pad, this is a reference to "Pinkie Sitting". Notably, the two haven't been seen together since "Friendship Math".
 * The Parrot Plushie Sunset gave Twilight was the same one they spent hours trying to get in Rollarcoaster of Friendship that ultimately went to Mint Chip.
 * The video game Sunset gets from Fluttershy is the sequel to the one they played in "Game Stream"
 * Victoria was seen holding Lily Pad's hand, further implying they may be related.
 * Wiz Kid and Curly Winds exchange presents and give each other a big hug as they blush, which is a reference to their friendship, which has always been depicted in the background.

Cultural references

 * The Soufflé sequence is a homage to war films, particularly World War II films.
 * When Twilight says "That's horrible, and to think Bow Ties used to be a symbol of integrity that only cool people wore", this is most likely a reference to the "Bow ties are cool" running gag in Dr. Who.
 * Several scenes reference anime conventions.
 * Apple Bloom and Colonel Wiggleworth playing together referenced an anime trope in which the background becomes a different color (in this case, pink) to symbolize characters in a state of extreme joy.
 * When the Flim Flam brothers scammed the Apple family, a sequence akin to an anime "Transformation Sequence" played out.
 * When Twilight revealed that she outsmarted them, her glasses glew white and she had a smug smile, a common anime trope.
 * When Pinkie Pie is announcing her plan to sneak into CHS, for a scene, her face resembles the owo (alt: :3) emoticon, a popular expression in anime in order to give a character a few expression.
 * A few memes are references, such as:
 * When the Flim Flam brothers walk away, they briefly dab.
 * The Fedora Pony in Tend of the Line is a reference to the "M'lady meme", and Zephyr even mutters the phrase.
 * The Fidget Spinners on display are a reference to the real life product, which were a fad for a few months.
 * The High Tech Basketball Loop apparently yells for the user to "git gud" if they fail to get shots.

Trivia

 * When Pinkie goes through her list of friends, she mentions characters who have only appeared as toys thus far, such as Daisy and Zecora.
 * When Apple Bloom realizes that Twilight used a cut out of Scootaloo, she remarks "No wonder Scootaloo was so quiet". This may be a reference to the fact the CMC rarely have any spoken dialogue in the specials amd films, and have been oddly quiet in most of their appearances.
 * The last handful of Equestria Girls specials were based off the relationships of two characters. Rollercoaster of Friendship was Rarity and Applejack, Spring Breakdown was Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash (+Twilight Sparkle) and Sunset Shimmer's Backstage Pass was Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie. This special did not focus on the dynamic of two characters, breaking the streak.
 * The winter clothes worn by the Mane Six is a reference to the clothes they were throughout My Little Pony: Holidays Unwrapped, but now fit for humans.
 * Rainbow Dash says that getting nothing for gifts is worse than getting clothes when she worries that the Toy Festival will be canceled. However, she gets a jersey for Christmas and is ecstatic.
 * Sunset Shimmer mentions a student from Crystal Prep named Hoops. In "Happy Holidays", it was revealed that their already was a student at CHS named.

Fourth wall breaks and self-aware humor

 * Pinkie Pie says that she almost missed a montage, a reference to the editing technique used where several actions that would otherwise take quite awhile are condensed into bite-sized bits.
 * Twilight Sparkle says Sunset Shimmer's plan could be dangerous if a young person saw it and tried to intimate it, a reference to the fact that kids watch the cartoon.
 * The fact that they dress up as a cornucopia, an item often asscioated with Thanksgiving rather than Christmas, may have been a self-aware nod to how the special aired in November rather than December.
 * The last scene with the girls wishing the audience a happy holiday was likely directed at the actual audience, as there was no one in the auditorium.