Alt Name: | Most Likely to be Forgotten |
Composer: | William Anderson |
Editor: | Nick Confalone |
Language: | English |
Runtime: | 44 minutes (TV edit) 50 minutes (unedited) |
Network: | Discovery Family (TV edit) YouTube (unedited) |
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship, also known as Most Likely to be Forgotten on the extended YouTube release, is a 2018 animated one-hour television special which is a part of Hasbro's toyline and media franchise, itself a spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of the main My Little Pony toyline. The special was animated using Adobe Animate, written and edited by Nick Confalone, and directed by Ishi Rudell and Katrina Hadley, and was produced by DHX Media's 2D animation studio in Vancouver, Canada for Hasbro Studios in the United States. Premiered on Discovery Family (a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro) on February 17, 2018, Forgotten Friendship is the first one-hour Equestria Girls television special, followed up with Rollercoaster of Friendship (2018), Spring Breakdown (2019), Sunset's Backstage Pass (2019), and Holidays Unwrapped (2019).
Sunset Shimmer and her friends, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle, prepare Canterlot High School's yearbook. At the office, the group meets Wallflower Blush, a meek and quiet girl who has been ignored and forgotten by the school even though she has been there for years. Trixie then appears, demanding that Sunset puts her in the yearbook as "The Greatest and Powerfullest", which Sunset points out is not a real category. Trixie responds that Sunset was selected as "Biggest Meanie" in first year, but Pinkie Pie points out it was because the whole school voted for her in that category as a product of her previous actions as a bully. Angered, Trixie claims that she will have her revenge, before leaving.
The next day, Sunset goes to the beach to hang out with her friends. However, upon arriving, she discovers that most of her friends' memories of her have been erased, with Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack only remembering her misdeeds as a bully, and Twilight merely remembering the time she yelled at her during the Friendship Games. After failing to convince her friends that she's their friend, she writes to Ponyville's Twilight Sparkle a message asking if she remembers her. When Twilight answers positively, Sunset asks her to meet her in Equestria. Once she returns to Equestria, Sunset explains everything to Twilight's Ponyville counterpart. With no other options available, the two travel to Canterlot to consult Princess Celestia, Sunset's former mentor whom she betrayed before traveling to the parallel world. Once in Celestia's castle, Sunset apologizes for her actions and the two reconcile, after which they and Twilight go to the castle's library's restricted section to investigate, suspecting Equestrian magic to be behind everything.
After hours of research, Twilight and Sunset find ancient writings about the "Memory Stone", a magical artifact capable of erasing both memories and fragments of memories, and ended up in the parallel world after Clover the Clever defeated a sorceress using it. Realizing somebody is using the stone to make everyone hate her again, Sunset returns to the parallel world, where she once again tries to explain her friends everything, only for Trixie to refute her claims. Suspecting Trixie is using the Memory Stone as her revenge for what happened the previous day, Sunset confronts Trixie in the school, only to realize she is innocent. After Sunset explains her situation, Trixie offers her help in exchange of appearing in the yearbook, which Sunset agrees. The two interrogate students throughout the school, but fail to find out anything about the stone or who has it. Meanwhile, in Equestria, Princess Twillight discovers that the stone's effects become permanent if the stone isn't destroyed by the third day after its use, after which she sends a warning to Sunset.
In the school's yearbook office, Sunset reads Princess Twilight's warning, which also includes a drawing of the stone's possible location. Realizing that the drawing is strikingly similar to a picture in Wallflower's screensaver, which Wallflower says she took at the school's garden, Sunset reads her mind and discovers that Wallflower is the culprit, having erased everyone's good memories of Sunset as revenge for her never noticing her. As Wallflower explains her motives, Sunset tries to steal it, but Wallflower grabs it in time as Sunset furiously threatens her. In order to prevent them from trying to take the stone again, Wallflower erases Sunset and Trixie's memories of their meeting, and locks them in the office. However, Sunset had previously recorded everything in a drone the parallel world's Twilight previously made, making the two remember the incident. Trixie then uses one of her stage tricks to help Sunset escape, but is forced to remain behind.
Sunset confronts Wallflower at the school's parking lot, to talk to her instead this time, where Wallflower accidentally reveals her actions in front of Sunset's friends. After Sunset fails to reason with her, Wallflower tries to erase all of Sunset's friends' memories of high school, thus destroying their friendship. Sunset, however, jumps in and lets herself getting hit instead, erasing all of her memories of the parallel world. Feeling remorseful, seeing that Sunset was telling the truth the whole time, but touched by her sacrifice, Sunset's friends openly declare her their friend once again. After this, their geodes activate, transforming them into their powered forms, after which they destroy the stone, restoring everybody's memories. The six friends then apologize to Sunset for being unfriendly to her when they had their memories erased, but Sunset doesn't blame them and is just glad to have them back to normal. Wallflower then apologizes, explaining that she became corrupted by the stone's power after continuously using it to erase embarrassing memories of herself from others, and the group forgives her.
The next day, Sunset informs Princess Twilight of the stone's destruction while thanking her. The school's yearbooks are released, with Trixie discovering that Sunset kept her part of their deal, and Wallflower discovers that her picture as best garderner contains the signatures of Sunset and her friends.
Forgotten Friendship premiered on Discovery Family (a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro) on February 17, 2018.
On YouTube, the original 50-minute version of the special (now titled Most Likely to be Forgotten) was released by Hasbro's channel, divided into five parts. Its first episode was uploaded on March 9, 2018, and its last episode on April 6.
On October 1, 2018, the special was made available on the Netflix video streaming service in the United States alongside Rollercoaster of Friendship.
It was bundled with Rollercoaster of Friendship and released on DVD on November 1, 2018 in the United Kingdom.[1]
A novelization by author Perdita Finn, titled A Friendship to Remember, was published on December 5, 2017.[2]