Minigame

There are six minigames in this game: Ball Bounce, Apple Catch, Clear the Skies, the Telescope Game, the Equestria Girls mini-game, and the Minecart minigame. Ball Bounce, Apple Catch and Star Gazing are played periodically to increase the ponies' star levels, while Clear The Skies is played when a pony is ready to earn a star.

Each time you play Ball Bounce or Apple Catch or Star Gazing you can pay 100 bits for a normal game, 1000 bits for a x2 score multiplier or 5 gems for a 4x score multiplier. At the end of each game your score will determine how many star pieces (each piece being 1/10 of a star) is earned. The amount of points needed to earn a star depends on the pony and the pony's level. (See stars section below for more theory-crafting.)

A Note/Warning:
It may seem like any experience that doesn't quite earn a star piece is lost, but it is not. Leftover points will be used the next time that pony plays a minigame and will not show until the pony's experience is calculated. However, points do not carry over to the next star!

For example, if you need 100 points for a star piece, you have 8 star pieces already and you got 400 points, you will only get 2 star pieces. This means that if you're close to getting a full star spending bits/gems on score multipliers may be a waste of resources.

Ball Bounce
The object of this game is to toss the ball at the pony, and get a volley going by hitting the ball back as the arrow indicates. Missing the ball will allow it to roll off screen. It will be pushed back by a dark blue filly.

The picture of the game that gives the instructions depicts Pinkie Pie and the cheapest ball.

Fall 2013-present
Points are scored for each hit. Hitting the ball in the direction indicated as the dashed target circle meets the colored scoring circle will award the most points. Hitting the ball early or late is worth less. When you hit the ball, the color ring will indicate how good your hit was and your score for that hit will be displayed. A perfect hit will result in a short glowing effect when you hit the ball. Good hits will increase the speed of the volley. As the speed increases so do the points awarded for each hit.

Hitting the ball off the ground is worth 10 points and starts the game and the timer. Points awarded will increase with the speed of play up to a maximum of 19 or 20 for your last perfect hit.

Fall 2012-Summer 2013
When you toss the ball at the beginning, you get 24 points. The amount of points you get per bounce depends on when you hit the ball. When the pony bounces the ball an indicator ring appears around the ball and converges towards it. If you hit the ball right as the ring reaches the ball you get 24 points. If you hit the ball before the ring converges completely you will get anywhere between 4 and 20 points. If you hit the ball after the ring disappears (or after the ball hits the ground) you get 4 points. During the last 6 seconds of play, if the ball hasn't hit the ground again, you will receive an additional 2 points on top of every bounce (perfect bounces means 26 points instead of 24, and so on).

Tips

 * The key to maximum scoring is to get the speed of the volley up.  The high passes take longer than the straight and bounce passes.
 * The first hit is the only one you should hit the ball up.  With practice and good luck, scores over 500 are possible.

Apple Catch
The object of this game is to catch apples. Pressing the screen to the left of your pony will move it left. Pressing to the right of your pony will move it right. You do not have to necessarily tap on the arrows on the bottom corners of the screen to make the pony move.

The picture of the game that gives the instructions depicts Apple Jack collecting the x2 variant red apples.

The apples will announce their appearance by first rustling the leaves. Once they come out, they can either shake and fall or fade into rotten apples, shake, and fall.

Scoring
Healthy apples give 20 points each, while rotten yellow ones stun you and make you unable to move for a bit. You have 30 seconds to catch as many apples as possible. Note that the "good" apples become red or zap apples if you purchased a score multiplier prior to playing the game.

The maximum number of points is 460 (23 apples). Any yellow apples that fall replace a green apple that would have fallen, thus reducing the maximum points by 20. The number of yellow apples that fall is random, with a minimum of 0.

Tips

 * The apples do not have to fall into your saddle-basket. You can in fact run into falling apples with various parts of the body (Head and legs but NOT tail) and still catch them.
 * Collecting a regular apple whilst stunned from a rotten apple cancels the stun animation. Though you are freed, you will not get the point from the regular apple.
 * In rare cases you can get an extra apple after the game ended, if it spawns right above you, so it might be wise not to rush with pressing OK

Star Gazing
The object of this game is to press, hold and drag a line across multiple stars in the sky in a connect-the-dots fashion. Once done, you will see an image of what was there appear, and then move on to the next set. The star patterns are known as Constellations. You must hold and drag along all stars, not releasing until you have completed the constellation. There will be two stars lit up; the one you must press on and drag from will be flashing. Once you press on the first star and drag to the second, the next will light up, and so on when you get to go to the next until you finish. The minigame ends after a timer of 30 seconds.

You get 5 points per star, and an extra 10 when you complete the constellation.

Tips

 * Don't rush. You will most likely make a mistake and have to start again.
 * Be careful with your finger. Not only can you make a mistake, you will have it get in between you and the star. Remember the next star's position and keep going.

Clear the Skies
Once you get a full star you will need to fly into the sky and clear clouds to collect it. This is really more of a bonus minigame. It does not cost anything to play and you will automatically be entered into it every time you earn a star.

The picture of the game that gives the instructions depicts several Earth ponies being given a flying spell by Celestia so they are transformed into Pegasi. In game however, all non-Pegasus characters have the same wings, akin to the canon wings Twilight gave Rarity in the Young Fliers Competition.

The objective of the game is to collect bits. Each bit collected gets added to your total. Press on the screen to go up and let go to go down. If you hit white clouds you fill up the Rainboom meter. Five white clouds gives you a turbo boost / invincibility for a few seconds, as well as collecting nearby coins in a fairly large radius during the boost. Staying around the middle of the screen during the Rainboom will result getting most of the coins on the screen.

If you hit storm clouds or Shadowbolts you will lose all your Rainboom meter and lose control for a second or two.

An exclamation point on the right side of the screen will alert you to an incoming Shadowbolt. It will home in on your current altitude before flying across the screen in a straight line.

You will also lose collected clouds slowly if you don't collect any for a while.

Tips

 * The controls are slightly different than similar mobile games like Jetpack Joyride in that acceleration is almost instant, so it may feel more sensitive than many games.

Equestria Girls mini-game
Added in the Dance Update, the Equestria Girls mini-game takes place in the world of Equestria Girls, with the humanoid versions of the Mane Six. The premise of the game is to tap the screen with one or two fingers in time to the music.

Unlike the other mini-games, rewards for this dance game are cumulative for a 7-day period. Rewards are granted when a certain total is reached for the week, rather than at the end of each game.

Scoring
Your score is calculated based on what "pony" you choose, what outfit you pick for her, how many friends you wish to dance with, and the number of "Triple Perfect", "Perfect" and "Good" scores received from taps.

When dancing with your friends, each friend's successful tap will be shown as a white bar above and/or below. If you tapped a "Perfect" which all of your friends also has successfully tapped, you will score a "Triple Perfect", it requires two friends.

Score Multiplier Summary:
That means you can have a maximum of 30% of score multiplier while a minimum, 0% you can get.
 * "Pony": ranged from additional base +0% to +4% by random
 * Number of friends, each friend adds 4%, maximum 8%
 * Outfit
 * Free: No bonus
 * 2000 bits: +2%
 * 3500 bits: +4%
 * 2 Gems: +8%
 * Pony level: Each star of the pony adds 2%, maximum 10%

Stars
My current conjecture is that the amount of star pieces you get is a linear function of your score, with a different slope depending on what your pony's current level is.

I've put up what I've observed as being the points/piece ratio for each game below. Feel free to add more stuff and/or correct me if you have a better idea as to what's going on. -sparklepeep

Honestly, I think it's more related to either your current level or the value of the pony you are playing with, for instance, scoring 650~ in the ball game with fleetfoot at level 35 only trains him up one point of star level 0. at 200+ minutes a minigame with him he's going to take days of minigame sessions to even get him halfway to 5 stars. - Slegutko

The amount of star pieces earned may seem linear, but it isn't quite. While trying to get a single star, the first few shards will be easier to get than the last few-- I've noticed a disparity of up to 50% (200 score will get you the first 3 shards of a star, but then 300 score will get you the final 3 shards). Also, there are two determining factors as to the amount of score you need to get a single star for any pony: 1. Which pony you use (i.e. it's easier to get Twilight Sparkle to 5 stars than it is to get Fluttershy to 5 stars-- and not just because Twilight can play more often), and 2. Which star you're working on (the 1st star is easiest, 2nd is a little harder, 3rd is a littler harder, 4th is harder, and 5th is hardest). Each star requires about 600 more score than the star before it. Connor Monson (talk) 03:16, March 2, 2013 (UTC)