Sunset Shimmer is a fictional character who appears in the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and media franchise, beginning with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013). She serves as the main antagonist of the first Equestria Girls film before becoming a main protagonist throughout the spin-off franchise. She is voiced by Rebecca Shoichet, who also provides the singing voice of Twilight Sparkle. Sunset Shimmer is depicted as a former anthropomorphic unicorn from Equestria who becomes human after traveling through a magic mirror to the human world. Originally Princess Celestia's student before Twilight Sparkle, she abandons her studies in pursuit of power and crossed into the human world, where she becomes a student at Canterlot High School.
Appearances
Fourth My Little Pony incarnation (2010–2021)
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
Sunset Shimmer first appears as the main antagonist in the inaugural Equestria Girls film. She is introduced as Princess Celestia's former student before Twilight Sparkle who turned cruel and dishonest and eventually abandoned her studies and disappearing into the human world. At the beginning of the film, she steals Twilight's crown containing the Element of Magic, prompting Twilight and Spike to follow her through the magic mirror into the human world where they transform into a human teenaged girl and a dog, respectively. Sunset is shown to be a student at Canterlot High School and the ex-girlfriend of Flash Sentry, where she rules through intimidation and manipulation, and is assisted by the human counterparts of Snips and Snails. Her ultimate goal is to use the Element of Magic to create an army and conquer Equestria. During the film's climax, she transforms into a monster corrupted by the magic of Twilight's crown and is eventually defeated and reformed by Twilight and her new human friends. Sunset becomes a main character in the Equestria Girls franchise in subsequent media. In the second film, she is shown to now be ostracized by the other students save for the human counterparts of Twilight's friends. She uses a magic book that she had used to communicate with Princess Celestia when she was her student to warn Princess Twilight of the emergence of the Dazzlings, who can use their magical voices to brainwash others. After Twilight and Spike returns to the human world, Sunset reassures Twilight as she tries to write a counter-spell to break the Dazzlings' mind control spell over the school, and also expresses disappointment that she was not invited to join the Rainbooms, her friends' rock band participating in the Battle of the Bands. At the end of the film, she helps the Rainbooms defeat the Dazzlings and free the school from their spell, and is recruited to join the Rainbooms as the band's rhythm guitarist and keeps in touch with Twilight with her magic book. Sunset is the main protagonist of the third film, in which she participates in the Friendship Games competition as one of the Canterlot High School Wondercolts. Tasked with keeping magic out of the games to prevent accusations of cheating, she becomes suspicious of Twilight Sparkle's human world counterpart, who is a member of the rival Crystal Prep Academy Shadowbolts team and has been inadvertently draining Equestrian magic from her human friends. During the climax of the film, Sunset defeats and reforms Twilight when she transforms into a monster corrupted by Equestrian magic, in a role reversal of the first film, who then also becomes a main character alongside Sunset and her friends. In the fourth film, Sunset takes part in the school field trip to Camp Everfree where she is assigned to the same tent as Twilight Sparkle. When mysterious events begin happening at the camp, she becomes suspicious of Timber Spruce, one of the camp counselors and Twilight's new love interest, whom she suspects of attempting to scare away the campers using the legend of Gaia Everfree to force his sister, Gloriosa Daisy, to sell the camp. Later, she obtains the ability to read the minds of others through physical touch, and learns that Gloriosa is the one causing the mysterious events at the camp. Sunset, Twilight and their friends harness the power of magical geodes to defeat Gloriosa when she transforms into a monster corrupted by Equestrian magic, after which they help organize a fundraiser that saves the camp from closing. In the special My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship, Sunset, while working as president of the school yearbook committee, suddenly becomes the object of ostracization again by the rest of the CHS student body, including the rest of the Equestria Girls. She returns to Equestria and reconciles with Princess Celestia who helps her and Princess Twilight research the Equestrian magic responsible, eventually learning that the memory stone, an ancient Equestrian artefact capable of erasing memories is responsible. Upon returning to the human world, Sunset works with Trixie's human counterpart to help find the memory stone, and eventually, the memory stone is destroyed and the memories of the school are restored. Sunset also prominently appears in other Equestria Girls media, including the 2017 television specials, the Summertime Shorts, the web series, and in all other Equestria Girls specials, most notably My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Spring Breakdown and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Sunset's Backstage Pass.
Development
In March 2013, series developer Meghan McCarthy stated that Sunset Shimmer would not be featured as a storyline in the fourth season of Friendship is Magic. In a series of tweets in April 2015, Equestria Girls director Ishi Rudell wrote that Sunset Shimmer's phoenix-like appearance at the end of "My Past is Not Today" was a visual metaphor, and that "her hair is lighter... We wanted to tone her color intensity down a bit with the design of her new outfit." When asked on Twitter in mid-December 2016 if Sunset is one of the Elements of Harmony, Ishi Rudell replied, "In our world she is the 7th element! ☀️" later specifying said element to be "empathy". According to Katrina Hadley, Sunset's aura color was changed from cyan to red in Mirror Magic as a reflection of her redemption and the colors for when she ponied up in Rainbow Rocks. In Twitter communication, Katrina Hadley calls Sunset Shimmer's glowing eyes whenever she uses her magic geode powers an "empathy flash".
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
