Sunset Shimmer

Sunset Shimmer (サンセット・シマー, Sansetto Shimā) is a female unicorn pony and former antagonist introduced in Legend of the Avenge Landers Equestrian Sonic Boom. She is a student at Canterlot High School, a former student of Princess Celestia, and Flash Sentry's ex-girlfriend. Following her appearance in Equestrian Sonic Boom, she has since appeared in other films, the animated shorts, software, film novelizations and chapter books, and several IDW comics.

"Sorry it had to be this way... princess!"
 * —Sunset Shimmer to Twilight Sparkle.

Appearance

 * Voice actor: Rebecca Shoichet (English), Ami Koshimizu (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Fu Qihui (Chinese), Not Known (Danish), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Hebrew), Marcella Silvestri (Italian), Not Known (German), Ilona Molnár (Hungarian), Amy Burgess (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Paulina Raczyło (Polish), Ioana Calotă (Romanian), Olga Shorohova (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Amanda Renberg (Swedish), Not Known (Turkish), Not Known (Ukrainian), Not Known (Norwegian), Gloria Cano (European Spanish), Circe Luna (Latin American Spanish), Fernanda Bullara (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (European French), Gloria Cano (European Spanish)


 * Voice actor (Singing voice): Not Known (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (French), Maria Silvia Roli (Italian), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Paulina Korthals (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (European Spanish), Tori Domínguez (Latin American Spanish), Mônica Toniolo (Brazilian Portuguese), Ana Vieira (European Portuguese)

Biography
Sunset Shimmer is one of the most promising students at Princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Her cutie mark is a shimmering sun.

Personality
Throughout the first film, Sunset Shimmer is shown to be self-absorbed, condescending, manipulative, and dishonest. She frequently insults and belittles others and thinks little of it. According to human Fluttershy, Sunset makes life miserable for "anyone who stands in her way." As a result, most of the Canterlot High School student body is afraid of her. She is also not above making threats and blackmail in order to realize her goals.

When Sunset puts on the element of magic, she transforms into a demonic visage of herself. While in this form, she becomes more ruthless, going so far as attempting to dispose of Twilight. After she is defeated, Sunset Shimmer becomes immediately repentant and apologizes for her actions, appearing to renounce her prior dishonest and unkind ways.

In the second film, Sunset Shimmer has completely discarded her old self and starts believing in friendship, being kind toward others and befriending former enemies. She is also deeply repentant for her actions in the first film, referring to her transformed self as a "raging she-demon". However, she suffers from a lack of confidence, keeping silent in situations she feels it isn't her place to speak up and falling prey to the Dazzlings' taunting. During the final battle, she finally overcomes her insecurities and joins the Rainbooms in defeating the Dazzlings, gaining a half-pony form in the process. By the end of Rainbow Rocks, Sunset starts writing friendship reports to Princess Twilight using the book she once used to communicate with Princess Celestia.

By the third film, while Sunset has managed to fully integrate herself into the group and take mentions of what she did in the past with good humor, she also harbors a fear of losing her school's newly gained trust, and she becomes deeply depressed when she believes she has let them down, despite their assurances. She also becomes increasingly irritated and stressed by her struggles to understand how magic works in the human world, briefly snapping at her friends at one point. When the human Twilight Sparkle endangers her friends, Sunset's anger explodes as she berates Twilight for meddling with forces she doesn't understand, taking her own frustrations and self-doubt out on her. However, she immediately regrets her harsh words and reaches out to Twilight in friendship by the end of the film.

In the Legend of the Avenge Landers: Equestrian Sonic Boom Holiday Special comic, Sunset Shimmer displays a forgiving and compassionate side when she forgives the Cutie Mark Crusaders for framing her as the rumormonger "Anon-a-Miss".

In Sunset Shimmer's Time to Shine, Sunset displays a considerable level of intelligence, being ahead of her friends and classmates in school and smart enough to develop various computer applications. Her affinity for science and research is also seen in The Science of Magic, where she explains she prefers a hands-on approach to studying magic over "studying ancient books".

History
Like Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer is a magical prodigy. However, unlike Twilight, she's also quite boastful and condescending toward others, despite Celestia's lessons about humility. Celestia shows Sunset the Crystal Mirror from the film; in it, Sunset sees herself as a powerful Alicorn—one who could rule Equestria. Sunset briefly sees something else in the mirror, but Celestia guides her away from it before she gets too curious. During the weeks that follow, the mirror is all Sunset can think about, and Celestia repeatedly tells her that she'll learn about the mirror and other lessons "when [she's] ready".

Not convinced, an undeterred Sunset Shimmer begins researching the mirror in a dark magic library behind Celestia's back but is soon caught by the princess and her royal guards. Sunset berates her teacher for hiding such magic from her and demands to be made a princess. Celestia refuses, saying that being a princess must be earned, and removes Sunset from her position as her student and banishes her from Canterlot Castle. She has the royal guards escort Sunset out of the castle, but Sunset overpowers the guards and escapes through the mirror.

As Celestia has the mirror moved to her throne room, Sunset Shimmer emerges in the human world as a teenage girl.