You can have this when you pry it from my cold dead hands!  
And even then good luck, cuz I would’ve glued it to my cold dead hands!

If Juniper was smart, she would have grasped the lower parts of Starlight’s body with her other oversized hand. That would have disabled Star there.

Everypony was kung fu fightning.

@Dirty Bit  

 
I accept that some people don’t like Starlight, but going on about this is veering dangerously close to pettiness.

@edvd
 
Unfortunately

Starlight: Does anything interesting  
Derpibooru: REEEEEEEEEEE
 
It’s like a bad joke sometimes.

@Jman14102  
Theyre not complaining spesifically about the backflip. Stop creating overexaggerations to try justifying the fact that you cant handle someone not liking a poorly written character. The problem is that starlight can just do random shit that she couldnt possibly known how to do. This is a reaccuring problem, and people have every single right to express thier dislike for it. Its called an opinion sweetheart

@Background Pony #C8B6  
Don’t forget AJ’s surprisingly amazing mechanical knowledge for repairing things and Pinkie’s innovative engineering skills.

@Jman14102  
If it weren’t for the fact that this was another story where Glimmer saves everyone, because they were there stuffed into a locker mirror-void, I doubt as many would be questioning this. This is just adding to it.

Of course people are complaining about Starlight doing a backflip. Why should I be surprised at this point?

@Hateot  
Other than that feat being in line with her earthpony counterpart, pony race which is famed for their strenght, you mean?
 
@Background Pony #C8B6
 
Okay look, what I mean by that is that whether a character is shown to be proficient at something before the plot relevant part comes where those skills are absolutely needed. Humane Five were shown playing their instruments in the gag shorts which came before the movie and it came out of nowhere then, BUT those shorts were there to establish the premise for Rainbow Rocks. They didn’t get those skills at the begining or middle of the movie when it would have been convenient for them. When their first use of a power or skill comes at a critical moment without foreshadowing is when I raise an eyebrow.
 
I admit them knowing motocross came a little out of nowhere, but like I also said, that one was easier to swallow when it was Rainbow Dash who did it. Sunset being a much harder.
 
But I understand your point. It’s for the sake of telling a story. A Necessary Weasel in trope speak.

@Hateot  
Makes about as much sense as human Applejack lifting a heavy object well beyond her physical means before the influence of equestrian magic in Eqg4.

@Hateot  
@Hateot  

 
Your exact words. None of them were shown to be any good at any of those things before they were able to do them, so it comes a little out of nowhere, doesn’t it?
 
I agree that it’s weird that she’s doing back-flips that easily after such a short time (if it wasn’t on accident or Sunset didn’t take her doing parkour or something offscreen, if it turns out that’s something Sunset does in her spare time too), but it’s also weird that magic keeps popping up in front of potentially villainous characters, that magical resolutions to the immediate problem (like the changelings’ love-sharing) sometimes pop up out of nowhere as much as the talents, and hitherto-unmentioned family members (Shining Armor, Maud Pie, Zephyr Breeze) keep appearing as though they’ve always been there. That’s the kind of writing we’re dealing with, is my point.

@Background Pony #C8B6  
Like I said earlier, the excuse for Humane Seven having the know how to do human things like playing the guitar is that they have lived in the human world for a very long time. Besides, Fluttershy certainly wasn’t an archery expert, it was just Applejack. Pony Rainbow’s and Applejack’s physical prowess translating into various athletic talents in their human counterparts is much easier to swallow than, lets say, Princess Twilight suddenly doing it as a human. It was even pointed out that Twilight didn’t know how to play with fingers and didn’t have the time to learn how to.

@Hateot  
Given Sunset’s guitar thing, Rarity’s guitar thing, Fluttershy’s freaky knowledge of sewing, the Rainbooms in general having decent affinities for archery, roller-blading, and motocross, the lot of them literally gaining expert-level musical talent in seconds (complete with magical effect to show it) during the Rainbow Rocks shorts, and probably more I’m forgetting, sudden prowess out of nowhere is pretty par for the course at this point.
 
Sci-Twi even gets the power to unlock doors in Movie Magic, either learning to lockpick with telekinesis on the spot or just getting the hunch that her magic can do that now.

@Background Pony #D340  
Twilight’s fantasies weren’t exactly accurate, as everyone (even in-universe) noted. And being durable in a world where anvil to the head gag doesn’t kill anyone doesn’t translate into physical strenght.
 
People ofcourse can speculate and come up with headcanons on what she does in her time offscreen, but there’s been no concrete evidence or implication that she’s Rainbow Dash/Applejack level athlete.
 
The important part is that she hasn’t been shown to be athletic before and her suddenly being able to do something like this comes a little out of nowhere.

@Background Pony #D340  
What if she’s an artificially engineered weapon?

Starlight is shown to be durable like most other ponies, and if Twilight’s bizarre fantasy about her interaction with Ember is any indication, then Starlight’s probably more athletic than we are led to believe.
 
Starlight strikes me as a pony with above average stats all across the board. She’s clearly not the bookworm nerdy type who skips PE lessons. And she probably got physical once or twice in her villain days. Also being a villain means keeping alert and on the run, so she’s probably in good shape.

Then again, it’s not like Starlight had any special skills for this special so I guess they had to give her something to not make her look completely powerless.

I wouldn’t put it past human Rainbow Dash or Applejack for doing some impressive acrobatics like that.
 
Sunset would be somewhat understandable, considering she has been shown to be athletic and she’s been in the human world long enough to forget how to be a pony. And she may or may not know karate, assuming this wasn’t just a one-off joke. >>1260005 (merged)
 
But it’s a bit odd that Starlight can do that after being human for only a few hours. On top of that, I don’t think Starlight has never been shown to be that athletic, even as a pony.

@Delta Brony
 
I never realized how similar Starlight’s kick looked to Guile’s Somersault/Flash Kick

It might’ve actually been on accident, Starlight having tried to kick her in the face, swung too hard, and landed on her feet by luck before thinking “Didn’t work, LEG IT!!”

@ChuymaruZ
 
I’d chalk it up more to a Necessary Weasel more than anything else. Starlight is the only character left who can save them. She has to get the mirror, and in an expedient manner, due to time constraints and whatnot.
 
But still, that flip kick was damn stylish. If logically implausible. For just about anyone, bar RD or AJ.

@Background Pony #74A3  
You might be right…

@Sunset’s Minion  
if I told you she’s talented, you ain’t having that. If I told you I don’t know why she can do somersault without training, you ain’t having that either. if I told you Starlight’s broken, plot armored and is a precious creator’s pet, it will only confirm what you already know, and you get nothing new.  
Point is, at this point there is no answer that can satisfy you. We all know why Starlight is doing all this. So what we can do now is to make “joke answers”. Answers like “because Starlight has ninja blood in her” or “because Starlight has been charging that attack.”
 
And we know you like to bash Starlight and you may be well justified in doing that, and many would agree. But I’d just wanna say that…you might be secretly enjoying it; starlight bashing I mean.