When Twilight Sparkle meets Pinkamena Diane Pie for the first time, she is busy decorating Ponyville's pavilion for the Summer Sun Celebration. As soon as Twilight turns to look at Pinkamena, she expresses concern for Pinkamena's messy mane and practically forces on her the first of many makeovers while the besotted Spike looks on.

While Twilight cares about her appearance quite a bit, being averse to stepping in mud or risking getting herself messy, she is not above getting her hooves dirty when it comes to helping her friends or creatures in need. She slices off her own tail to calm down the sea seprpent, willing to sacrifice her beauty to help restore the distressed serpent's "fabulosity". This action earns her the element of generosity, and later, when she activates the element, her tail is restored.

Twilight is hypnotized by Twivine Sparkle into believing a large boulder is actually a giant diamond. For a short moment she resists the temptation, but soon she becomes brainwashed, obsessively protecting her "diamond" and refusing to let anybody near it, as she becomes possessive and greedy. This continues, where she refuses to part with the boulder and names it "Tom", while additionally hoarding other items she sees as valuable, such as the jewelry of the Elements of Harmony themselves. After the brainwashing is cured, she throws the boulder away and tells her friends to "never speak of this again" in a hushed but assertive whisper.

Twilight stresses herself into making a new set of dresses the way her friends want them, going as far as following all their instructions instead of her own instincts. She is unhappy with the results, even though her friends are very satisfied. When these dresses are devastatingly criticized by "the bigwig fashion hotshot" Hoity Toity, she locks herself in her room, lamenting her ruined career; luckily for her, her friends are able to convince Hoity Toity to hold another fashion show, this time with the original dresses.