Sunset Shimmer

"True magic comes from honesty! Loyalty! Laughter! Generosity! Kindness! I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all... the magic of friendship!"

- Sunset Shimmer to Midnight Sparkle after turning into Daydream Shimmer

Sunset Shimmer, is the reformed main antagonist of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, turned tritagonist in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks and the main protagonist in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Friendship Games.

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 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.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls
Sunset Shimmer first appears as the main antagonist in My Little Pony Equestria Girls. She steals Twilight Sparkle's element of magic crown and during a tussle with Twilight, the crown is thrown into the Crystal Mirror that acts as a portal to another world. She then follows the crown shortly after.

Princess Celestia reveals that Sunset was a former student of hers who began her studies not long before Twilight did. However, when she didn't get what she desired as quickly as she wanted, she turned cruel and dishonest, eventually abandoning her studies to pursue her own path. In this other world, Sunset has been living as a human and student at Canterlot High School for some time. She discovers that the alternate Fluttershy found the crown and turned it over to Principal Celestia, much to Sunset's annoyance.

After learning that Twilight will be competing against her for the title of Princess of the Fall Formal, Sunset employs various ways to hinder and humiliate Twilight. She has Snips and Snails record embarrassing videos of Twilight struggling to get used to the human world and releases the videos online, and she doctors photos to frame Twilight for ruining the dance decorations. But Twilight's friends help to counter these ploys by improving Twilight's reputation, and Flash Sentry, Sunset Shimmer's ex-boyfriend, helps prove Twilight's innocence.

At the Fall Formal, when Twilight is named princess and given the crown, Sunset has Snips and Snails kidnap Spike and threatens to destroy the portal to Equestria unless Twilight gives her the crown. Twilight refuses to give the crown up, stating that her being stuck in the human world would be worth stopping Sunset. As Twilight's friends commend her bravery and sacrifice, Sunset snaps and attacks her. Despite Twilight and her friends' efforts, Sunset succeeds in getting the crown and puts it on, and a dark magic aura transforms her into a demon. With her newfound powers, Sunset transforms Snips and Snails into similar-looking minions and brainwashes the other students at the school. She reveals that she never intended to destroy the portal and plans to invade and conquer Equestria with her army of teenagers.

Twilight is able to evoke the powers of the Elements of Harmony when her friends move to protect her from Sunset Shimmer's attack. Temporarily given pony-like characteristics, they use the magic of friendship to defeat Sunset Shimmer and return Snips, Snails, and the rest of the students to normal.

As everyone recovers, a beaten and repentant Sunset is reduced to tears and apologizes to everyone she's hurt. She admits to not knowing anything about friendship, to which Twilight says her friends can teach her. Sunset, Snips, and Snails are later tasked by Vice Principal Luna with rebuilding the part of school they had destroyed during their attack.

Rainbow Rocks (SPOILERS)
Sunset Shimmer re-appears as the tritagonist in My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, reformed from her villainous ways in the first film. With the exception of the Rainbooms, the rest of Canterlot High bears resentment toward her and she even resents herself for the actions she'd taken as what she refers to as a "raging she-demon". She even admits to herself and her friends that she only dated Flash Sentry to make herself more popular.

When Sunset gives the Dazzlings a tour of the school, she gets a bad vibe from them when Adagio Dazzle gets defensive about her pendant. Her suspicions are later confirmed when the Dazzlings mesmerize the students and faculty with their singing. Using a magical book with her cutie mark on the cover, Sunset sends an SOS to Twilight Sparkle in Equestria. During Twilight's role as the Rainbooms' lead singer, Sunset acts in a supportive role and keeps an eye on the competition, especially the Dazzlings during the Battle of the Bands.

When the Rainbooms lash out at each other during the final round of the Battle of the Bands, Sunset realizes the Dazzlings' true intentions and is able to stop the arguing. She even accepts partial blame due to her lack of knowledge on friendship.

When the Dazzlings overpower the Rainbooms during the film's climax, Sunset Shimmer steps up and sings on the band's behalf. Her help not only gives the Rainbooms the strength needed to defeat the Dazzlings, but she also undergoes a half-pony transformation like her friends. Afterward, Sunset joins the band as a singer and guitarist, and she uses her old journal that she communicated with Princess Celestia through to write her friendship reports to Princess Twilight Sparkle.

During the credits, Sunset is seen having now been accepted by the rest of the school, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders walk happily with her and Bulk Biceps helps her get Angel Bunny down from where he is stuck.

Sunset Shimmer is featured in the songs Welcome to the Show and Shine Like Rainbows during the film.

My Past is Not Today
Sunset Shimmer is the central focus of the musical short "My Past is Not Today", having solo vocals during the titular song. In the song, Sunset reflects on her past to show what lessons are learned. She explains about how misguided her goals were during the first film and decides to let go of the past. The phoenix appearance at the end shows how she is being reborn.

Friendship Games
Sunset appears as the main protagonist in My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Friendship Games, competing on the Wondercolts' team in the Friendship Games' motocross event. She is tasked with keeping magic out of the event, but she gets worried that she might fail at understanding how magic works in the human world and that she doesn't have Princess Twilight to help her with her task.

When human Twilight's device starts gathering magic from the main characters and she releases it under pressure from Principal Cinch, she becomes overwhelmed and corrupted by the power. Sunset uses the device to harness the magic of friendship from her friends to stop Twilight's rampage. In the end, Sunset realizes that she is fully capable of solving her own problems and that she can't always count on someone else to do it for her.

Similar Heroes

 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog)
 * Zero (Mega Man X)
 * Emilie de (Lili) Rochefort (Tekken series)
 * Karin Kanzuki (Street Fighter series)
 * Trixie Tang (The Fairly Oddparents)
 * Candace Flynn (Phineas and Ferb)
 * Cindy Vortex (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius series)
 * Penny Peterson (Mr. Peabody and Sherman)
 * Ryūko Matoi (Kill La Kill)
 * Pacifica Northwest (Gravity Falls)
 * Beca Mitchell (Pitch Perfect)
 * Kim Possible
 * Penny (Bolt) - Sunset's voice had just sounded similarly like Penny's voice.
 * Audrey (Lorax)
 * Gwen Tennyson (Ben 10 series)

Trivia

 * Sunset Shimmer has similarities to Golbez in terms of actions and personality. Sunset was a very misguided antagonist at debut. Her she demon form is her Clad in Dark. She felt horrified of her actions and feelings of hatred after snapping out of her misguided ways (she cried about it after her demon-transformation). Her and Golbez's old selves were awful. Her true self is a caring, self-sacrificing, and empathetic friend. Reforms near the end of their debut and becomes a hero afterwards. Everyone but the main cast hates Sunset Shimmer despite discarding her old, awful self. Sunset Shimmer payed for her crimes while learning about friendship. She relates to the main character, Twilight Sparkle, as she once was Celestia's student. Her friends forgave her after learning the error of her ways and changing for the better. She becomes assistance the heroes (unlike Golbez in Dissidia, she joins the heroes while remaining their friend). She found hope for the Rainbooms to defeat the Dazzlings. Sunset's goal in Rainbow Rocks was to save Canterlot High but kept it a secret to the Dazzlings' evil schemes. Sunset gave words of wisdom to the main six while giving them support to defeat evil. She made sure that her friends prevail in the end. She had lived up to her crimes at the end of her debut. Sunset assisted the heroes and worked with them (joined Twilight unlike Golbez in Dissidia). Sunset swore to defeat the Dazzlings after the atrocities they made at Canterlot High. Sunset Shimmer summoned powerful magic to defeat evil (god-like magical alicorn because of Sunset's singing in order to defeat the Dazzlings). She finally atoned for her past sins by saving the day after defeating the main antagonist in the sequel. Sunset Shimmer feels sorry for the Dazzlings. She still doesn't feel 100% confident about friendship. Sunset Shimmer had to do something about her past (erase it because she had so many bad memories).
 * Sunset's alignment is the reverse of Sephiroth. Sephiroth was once a hero but he turned evil after realizing that he was the last survivor of the Ancients and blamed the human race for the death of Jenova. Sunset Shimmer was once a villain resulting in her Demon Transformation but turned good after being purified by the Elements of Harmony and that her true intentions were just wanting to have a friend.
 * Her human counterpart has not yet been seen.