This special takes place at a theme park called "Equestria Land", where social media celebrity Vignette Valencia (had to look up the MLP Wiki to make sure I got that name right) is planning the parade that will be on opening day, though she's struggling to get things done in a way that would satisfy her. However, yet another loose piece of Equestrian magic comes along, in this case altering her smartphone so that anything she takes a picture of immediately disappears and she can then create altered holograms of those objects.
Rarity and Applejack both apply for a summer job to run the caramel apple stand at the theme park, but while Applejack is rejected, Rarity is instead offered the position of lead fashion designer for the parade, which she accepts despite Applejack's disappointment of not being able to work with her. Later, Rarity invites her friends to the park to meet her employer, Vignette, who upon hearing of them as the band "the Rainbooms" eagerly decides to put them in the parade. While Rarity continues working, the others go off to explore the park. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy go on a roller coaster, Twilight and Sunset try out a ring toss game, Pinkie Pie takes on a self-imposed duty of "fun inspector", and Applejack discovers that Micro Chips got the job she had applied for.
Vignette takes Fluttershy aside to share her vision for the Rainbooms' upcoming show, but when Fluttershy refuses to go along with it, Vignette uses her magic-powered phone to make her disappear. Applejack tries to find Fluttershy, but all of her friends are too preoccupied to bother. Eventually, an incompetent security guard allows Applejack to use the park's security cameras and ends up watching Vignette use her magical phone to make Rainbow Dash disappear too. With the rest of her friends with Vignette, Applejack confronts her, but she plays innocent. It's not long before Rarity and Applejack get into a big argument, with Rarity accusing Applejack of being jealous for not getting the job, and Applejack accusing Rarity of being so caught up in her new job that she doesn't even care about her friends. When some really hurtful words are spoken, they both agree to just walk away.
Vignette approaches the three remaining girls (Twilight, Sunset, and Pinkie) and shares her latest ideas for their band, even changing their name. The girls refuse to perform, especially without any of their friends, so Vignette digitally traps them too, then replaces them all on the stage with altered holograms. When Rarity returns and sees for herself the true extent that Vignette seems to care only for herself, Rarity escapes the same fate as her friends (thanks to her magical powers) and catches up to Applejack. They both apologize to each other and agree to work together to free their missing friends.
From within the completely featureless area the girls are trapped in, Twilight is able to call Applejack and tries to explain her plan to get them out of Vignette's phone, but Applejack hears her voice elsewhere and discovers they were actually just teleported into an empty room all along. However, they realize that if Vignette decides to get rid of a displeased crowd, they would become dangerously crowded into a tiny room, so the girls quickly confront her just as the parade starts, and transform into magical ponied-up forms to destroy Vignette's magical phone. As they talk about things, Vignette eventually admits that despite having millions of followers online, she doesn't actually have any true friends, which Rarity and Applejack are happy to offer.
Okay, I have to say, this special was nowhere near as great as Forgotten Friendship was. The antagonist seemed very hard to sympathize with (probably because I've never really cared for any of that social media hype), and the magical powers she was given initially seemed like a repeat of Mirror Magic, only to later be reveled to be even more underwhelming as simply teleporting things to some empty room (though I will admit the threat of doing it to a huge crowd of people is legitimate). On the plus side, this special focuses on Applejack and Rarity rather than Twilight or Sunset, so at least we can be sure that any potential future specials can focus on any of the other characters. Even so, I'd rank this as among my least favorite installments in the Equestria Girls series.
