Sunset Shimmer

Sunset Shimmer was a mare and the protege of, but due to a desire for power, she fled into the Magic Mirror, entering the world of Humans. A ruthless bully, Sunset Shimmer took pride in ripping apart groups of friends and hurting others, but never considered herself a monster and had limits, such as physically harming others. Nonetheless, she, along with her goons and  were voted the to be the biggest meanies in the school.

After being shown kindness by and acceptance by the girls she tormented the most, Sunset grew into a gentler, kinder and loving young woman who developed many genuine friendships with the people she used to bully. Embracing her artistic and geeky side in the process, Sunset started a secret art career as Flanksy, drew her own comic books and started an online streaming channel dedicated to video games.

Sunset was bisexual, though her only known romance was with, a gentle, brave and friendly, if somewhat vain, young man though the two broke up before Twilight journeyed into their world, presumably due to her awful behavior and his kindness. In addition, her friend and classmate, Sandalwood, once admitted to having a crush on her, but it was completely one-sided.

Though Sunset loved all of her friends dearly, she seemed to hold Princess Twilight in higher esteem, looking at her as both a close friend, and as a mentor who she often went to for advice on difficult or magical situations.

Life in Equestria
Sunset Shimmer was born in Canterlot, Equestria as a daughter in the Shimmer family. Much of her early life was unclear, but she ddn't have a good relationship with her parents, possibly being one of the reasons why she ended up so rotten and was perfectly okay with leaving her life in the realm without ever looking back. While studying with Celestia, and of course after, she considered herself to be extremely intelligent, so much so that she thought Twilight was an idiot in comparison.

Devil of Canterlot High
In her Freshman year, Sunset was awarded the "Biggest Meanie" award in the CHS Yearbook by an unanimous vote. In the same year, she met Wallflower Blush, but the two didn't get to know each other to well. Over the course of the next few years, Sunset would "run" for the position of the Fall Formal Princess at least three times, and won them all. Around this time, Snips and Snails became her loyal minions of sorts. During this time, she eventually began to date, but the two broke up before a little before 's arrival into their world. Although very mean and a huge bully, Sunset was aware of her underlining morality, being disgusted later when people though she was going to hurt animals, like.

Encounter with Princess Twilight
Around the time the Fall Formal was to begin, and during Twilight Sparkle's first Princess Summit, Sunset Shimmer snuck into the Crystal Castle, disguised by a hood and managed to steal the Element of Magic, replacing it with a fake. However in her retreat, she bumped into, waking up the princess and causing her to chase after. Sunset managed to escape by running into the Magic Mirror, transporting her back to the world of humans and ultimately causing the Element of Magic to be the prize for who ever wins the Fall Formal.

The following day, Sunset harassed in the hallway of Canterlot High School when she encountered Twilight Sparkle once again. Teasing and bully Twilight, Sunset walked away and continued to harass other students.

Later, with her two goons, Sunset and her goons, Snips and Snails, trashed the decorations put up by and  and insulted Applejack for being idiotic country folk. When she was told by Pinkie Pie that Twilight Sparkle signed up to run against her, she demanded to know where Twilight was, but attempted to put on a display of being merely curious.

Soon, she managed to track her down in a dark hallway to tell her she figured out who she was, insulting her for being the 'best' Celestia could find after she left Equestria. Threatening not only her but Spike, she bragged about how she already ruled the school and indeed, other students were scared just to see her, as she proved when she scared Norman for simply looking at her.

The next day, she noticed Twilight getting much more support due to the Canterlot Stomp incident so she got together with Snips and Snails and got the two to film and take pictures of her, editing them together to create a smear campaign to not only get Twilight in trouble, but to also delay the Fall Formal so Twilight could not compete in the Fall Formal, lest she be trapped in her world forever.

However, thanks to Flash overseeing the event, he convinced Vice-Principal Luna that Twilight was innocent, and the students helped repair any damages Sunset did.

During the Fall Formal, in an act of desperation, Sunset had her cronies kidnap Spike and lure Twilight and her new friends, the Equestria Girls out to the courtyard. A fight broke out for the Element, with ultimately Sunset Shimmer gaining it for herself. Using the power to become a demon, she mind-controlled the student body to do her bidding, but was soon defeated when the girls activated their magical powers.

Crying in a crater, Sunset was offered redemption by Twilight Sparkle and in the process, became friends with the Equestria Girls.

Coming days and Battle of the Bands
In the days after Sunset Shimmer attempted to better herself, she was understandably met with backlash from many of her classmates, who didn't gave her snide remarks and bad looks now that she did not threaten them or harass them. Nonetheless, her friends showed her lots of love as she struggled to show the others she truly did change.

Personal life
Sunset Shimmer lived in a small, brick house in an urban neighborhood. Sunset had never really been on good terms with her parents, which may explain why her personality was rotten for most of her life. She worked at Sunset Sushi, but didn't seem to enjoy her job much, at least for a little while, Sunset was also a street artist who worked under the name "Flanksy". Sunset's morning routine seemed to consist of sleeping, sleeping even more, then rushing out of the door before she was to late. On her way to school, she tended to stop by the Sweet Shoppe to buy a snack and always made sure to pet a local stray cat named Lemon Squeezy.

Sunset passed her time by playing video games, drawing, painting, hanging out with others and playing instruments. It's been shown that Sunset sometimes likes to visit the Pony world, such as when she spent a Nightmare Night with Trixie Lulamoon and Starlight Glimmer.

In terms of sports, Sunset was a fan of Blitzball but didn't seem to be well-versed in other sports. She was a fan of candies, especially gummy candies. Romantically, Sunset had only had one known boyfriend - Flash Sentry. Although they were no longer together as of the events of Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer's Backstage Pass, they did care about each other a lot, with Sunset sometimes showing Flash sisterly affection and helping him out with "tough love".

Sunset Shimmer was a huge fan of the band, PostCrush and traveled with her friends in Rarity's RV to see them perform at the Starswirl Music Festival. She was also a fan of country music, DJ music and heavy-metal. Another one of her favorite bands was Skullcrusher, who her friend Fluttershy was also a huge fan of.

Sunset had a pet lizard named Ray, whom she affectionately referred to as her "little buddy". She adopted the lizard at the Animal Shelter with the help of Fluttershy.

Sunset Shimmer was a user of MyStable and SnapGab, though mostly the latter. She wasn't as obsessed with the service as some people but followed her friends on it.

Musical talents
Sunset was the main singer of The Rainbooms and proved to be extremely talented, gaining the respect of many, if not all, of her students and several other residents of Canterlot. In Equestria, she founded her own band, Poney, which she was also the singer for and sung at the Anniversary of Ponyville's Founding with her bandmates.

Painting, drawing and writing
Sunset Shimmer was a very talented artist in both the ways of painting and drawing. As a painter, she had the secret identity of Flanksy who painted many large, impressive and inspiring murals across Canterlot. As an illustrator, she was skilled enough to draw her own comic books, though never published them. This would mean she also dabbled in the ways of writing, though her passions appear to be more artistic.

Gaming and technology
Sunset Shimmer ran her own gaming channel on the internet called Shimmer Code, where she played video games on air. She aired an episode with Fluttershy, but raged as Fluttershy proved herself to be much better at the game than she was.

Behind the scenes
Sunset Shimmer is, for all intents and purposes, the main character of the Equestria Girls brand, with a large portion of major storylines being tied to Sunset Shimmer in some way, and with her character arc being the driving force of the first two films, and part of the fourth. Rebecca Shoichet provides the English dub voice for Sunset.

Sexuality
Sunset Shimmer was said   bisexual by Katrina Hadley, but she left it open to interpretation ". This makes her the third Equestria Girls character to be the third Equesria Girls character left up to viewers interpretation to be , with the previous two being  and , who were revealed to be bisexual in older versions of Rollercoaster of Friendship and the fifth My Little Pony character after  and , seventh if one counts their   as other characters.

Family
In he comic story, Happy Holidays, Sunset Shimmer mentions her parents in passing, without a kind word to say about them. In a 2019 twitter Q&A, Big Jim said that, in his opinion, Sunset Shimmer is not related to Sunburst, but fans can decide. For the sake of simplifying organization on the wiki, we take instances of statements akin to this as "possibly canon, possibly not".

IDW comics
Sunset Shimmer made a few appearances in IDW Publishing's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic book series, mostly as a background character. She appeared in in costume with  and  at Nightmare Night and appeared in an issue of the ACCORD storyline in a picture frame as a meta-joke about how Starlight was considered a rehash of Sunset.

She had major roles in "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer" and "Happy Holidays". The former detailing her history right up to her entrance to the pony world and the latter being an original storyline set during a very long Christmas season.

Magazines
Sunset Shimmer appears in many Equestria Girls magazines, but information is scarce.

Films

 * My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
 * Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks
 * Equestria Girls: Friendship Games
 * Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree

Specials

 * Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship
 * Equestria Girls: Roller Coaster of Friendship

Equestria Girls Minis

 * "Dance Off"
 * "Adventures at Canterlot High: Sci-Twi's Lab"
 * "The Show Must Go On - Part 2"
 * "Beach Fun"
 * "Fun at the Theme Park!"

Choose Your Own Ending

 * "Opening Night"

Tales of Canterlot High

 * "Dance Magic"
 * "Movie Magic"
 * "Mirror Magic"

Summertime Shorts

 * "Mad Twience"
 * "Monday Blues"
 * "Good Vibes"

Better Together

 * "A Fine Line"
 * "Queen of Clubs"
 * "Overpowered"
 * "Display of Affection"
 * "Super Squad Goals"
 * "X Marks the Spot"
 * "Road Trippin"

Equestria Girls series

 * The Fall of Sunset Shimmer
 * Equestria Girls
 * Equestria Girls holiday special

Books

 * My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Through the Mirror
 * Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks (book)
 * Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks: The Mane Event
 * Equestria Girls: Magic, Magic Everywhere
 * Canterlot High Stories: Rainbow Dash Brings the Blitz