Continuity is a mess

It's best not to think about this panel for to long.

Friendship is Magic and by extension, Equestria Girls are two series often praised for their grand scale continuity, lore, internal history. And while the various writers have created some genuinely interesting mythology over the years...the series is a freaking mess when you actually take a deeper look at it. This page will attempt to chronicle the sheer amount of continuity misshaps and just plain confusing aspects of the show.

May Celestia help us all.

Before we start, we want to make one thing very clear. This article is not to diminish the work done by any creator. It's merely done for fun to poke out some plot holes. In addition, much of the inconsistencies discovered only happened due to how huge the show is, with many great writers simply forgetting small details we nerds obsess over. Don't worry, we all love you guys!

Equestria Girls continuity

Equestria Girls: Canterlot High Stories: Twilight Sparkle's Science Fair Sparks

• During "Dance Magic", Sunny Flare mentions that Principal Cadance took over Crystal Prep Academy as the new principal. In Equestria Girls: Canterlot High Stories: Twilight Sparkle's Science Fair Sparks, Principal Cinch is, once again, the principal of the school while Cadance is the Dean.
• This book has several oddities in general, though only a few are continuity-related. Flash Sentry and Sci-Twi are both heavily hinted at being in love with one another, with Twilight even saying that she always thought of Flash as "more than a friend", despite his entire character arc in Legend of Everfree being that he didn't have romantic feelings for this Twilight and thus doesn't didn't pursue her as a romantic interest.

Character histories

Sunset Shimmer

Let's get probably the worst offender out of them all.

• In "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer", we see Sunset as presumably either an adult or young adult, as she appears to be a fully mature pony of roughly the same size of Twilight Sparkle circa Seasons 1-2. However, in the same issue, we see Twilight Sparkle...as a filly. This would mean at minimal, Sunset would have to be around 10 years older than Twilight. However when she enters the Human world at the end of the story, she de-ages to that of a teenager. Even if we assume Sunset is a teenager during this time, it would mean she's been a teenager in the human world for again, at least 10 years.
• According to My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Sunset spent at least three years at the high school, making the special take place in her fourth. While this doesn't cause much issues
• Not technically a continuity error, but still an oddity. In "Happy Holidays", we see that Sunset Shimmer is essentially homeless and lives at Canterlot High School, sleeping in the library. However, in Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship and "Monday Blues", we see that Sunset lives in a small house alone, with a flat screen TV, gaming console and several electronics. While it's possible she simply bought a new house at some point, given her (presumably) low-paying job at a Sushi restaurant and lack of any family members, it's unclear how she got the money.
• In Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship, we see a photograph of Sunset in her Freshman year. Ignoring the fact that Sunset hasn't grown at all in 3–4 years, Snips and Snails are by her side, despite presumably only being Freshman's themselves during the current year.

Lyra Heartstrings

• Friendship is Magic #11 revealed that Lyra attended college in 1987, meaning she may have been born in the 1960s. Assuming Friendship is Magic takes place in an equivalency of the current years, starting from 2010, this would make Lyra in her 40s at least. In addition, the comic revealed that Lyra went to college at the same time as Shining Armor and thus would be around 10–15 years older than Twilight, who didn't even have her cutiemark at this point. However, "Pinkie Pride" shows Lyra as being roughly the same age as Pinkie Pie and thus couldn't be much older than Twilight.
• "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer" revealed that Lyra went to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns around the same time as Sunset Shimmer, which again, puts her at being around 10 years older than Twilight.

Twilight Sparkle

• Friendship is Magic #11 indirectly revealed that Twilight was born in the late 1970s to early 1980s, which would make her in her 30s to 40s by the time Friendship is Magic happened, once again assuming it takes place in a year equivalency, despite My Little Pony: 20/20 revealing Twilight would be in her early to mid 20s.