Shipping Sunset Shimmer with Sci-Twi · 8:59am Mar 28th, 2021
I. A Tale of Two Shows When I wrote the few pieces of fiction I have set in the Equestria Girls side continuity, I wrote them from the assumption that Sunset Shimmer was heterosexual and passionate (though at first sexually-inexperienced, due to her youth at the time of entering the Humanoid world). Given this, my unfinished prequel (An Equestrian Gentlemare) was chiefly about Sunset Shimmer's love affair with Flash Sentry, in which they stop short of full genital intercourse, mostly because Sunset is at this time planning to return back to Equestria in triumph.
At the time, of course, I assumed that the Show would eventually resolve the rather obvious love triangle they set up between Princess Twilight, Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry, one way or another. Generally speaking, a writer does not set up such a triangle and then completely forget about it, and the fact that this is basically what the Show did (and even lampshaded for laughs) is in my opinion an early sign that the writing staff really didn't take EG very seriously.
If you think about it this is kind of amazing. Equestria Girls was supposedly aimed at an older target audience than Friendship Is Magic, yet FIM actually resolved many of its romance story arcs, including having at least three explicit marriages (Shining Armor x Cadance, Pinkie Pie x Cheese Sandwich, and Big Mac x Sugar Belle) and a few more implicit ones (Fluttershy x Discord, Applejack x Rainbow Dash, and possibly Sandbar x Yona). The farthest that EG could go was having both Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight ignore Flash Sentry, and confirm that Sci-Twi is dating Timber Spruce.
This is probably because Equestria Girls is stuck in an "eternal high school" setting convention that prevents them from having the characters ever grow up or do anything serious with their lives during the period covered by the show. In contrast, the main characters on Friendship Is Magic are in roughly the equivalent of very late adolescence at the start of the story, and are full adults by the time of the last season. (After the timeskip, some appear middle-aged).
All ths means that the two Shows take very different approaches toward storytelling and character development. FiM is about as mature as any "children's show" can be in the Anglosphere, which means very little explicit mention of sex, but romance is okay, and characters develop notably from season to season. EG had four decent movies and the rest of it was basically crap (sometimes amusing crap, but with zero character development or serious romance).
II. Needs More Lesbians!
This gets to an alternative and very popular explanation of Sunset Shimmer's sexuality and romantic conduct. She's a lesbian (or bisexual with lesbian preference); consequently, she was never much attracted to Flash Sentry, and feels bad not for using him but rather for lying to him and stringing him along in the first place.
She does pretty much say this (minus the lesbianism) in the second movie, and thereafter consistently tries to avoid a heart-to-heart with him, probably because she is ashamed and embarrassed about the whole thing. Her lesbianism would make her behavior make even more sense, as it would give her a very good reason not to want to get back together with Flash.
Many fanfic writers who have Sunset be lesbian pair her with Sci-Twi, aka the Humanoid Twilight Sparkle (the one with the glasses). This actually makes some sense, as I'll discuss in detail; for now I'll simply point out that they are shown as exceptionally-close friends in the Show.
The Oversaturated World of Fan of Most Everything uses this concept particularly well. In that world, Sunset Shimmer becomes a Goddess of Harmony, with powers even greater than most Alicorns, and helps the Humanoid world deal with the eruption of vast amounts of magic into it from the Equestrian world. There is a lot of clever, intelligent, imaginative and downright funny stuff in that story universe, and I urge everyone to read it.
Also in that world, Sunset Shimmer and Sci-Twi are very deeply in love, in all senses from being each others' best friends, to implied full sexual intercourse. There is every indication that their love may well last a lifetime, or more considering that both of them might well be immortal, one way or another.
So, does this concept, or indeed the concept of any of the Humane Seven (they and many major characters in the Oversaturated World are) being lesbians, make sense?
III. Sapphic Rainbooms!
Surprisingly, yes!
In the Show, the Rainbooms (with the exception of Sci-Twi and Rarity) display no romantic interest in members of the opposite sex. This is sort of weird, because these are girls in their late teens, exactly when one would expect them to be seriously courting boys. Even if we assume Applejack and Rainbow Dash are more into girls, like their Pony analogues (Pony AJ is lesbian and Dashie bisexual), what about Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy (whose Pony analogues both wind up in long romance arcs leading to long-term sexual relationships with Cheese Sandwich and Discord respectively)?
What we do do see them doing is having really intense female-to-female friendships with each other, rather like their Pony analogues save with far less serious romance with males. That would be entirely consistent with them being primarily lesbian.
IV. The Timber Spruce Problem
The question still remains -- why pair Sunset Shimmer with Sci-Twi when Sci-Twi is the character whom we've seen in Show have the most intense and serious romance with a male of any of the Rainbooms?
This is of course Timber Spruce.
Now to be fair, when they introduced him in the fourth movie, Timber Spruce bid fair to be nothing but a passing crush. He had a clean and boring personality, rather like that of Flash Sentry, save that he was oriented toward naturalism rather than music. He was handsome and he behaved romantically toward a girl who was almost certainly not merely a virgin but one who had probably never even dated before.
Fan of Most Everything probably assumed that the character would be gradually dropped from the Show, especially because he had less reason to stick around than Flash Sentry (who transferred back to Equestria High).
It was a reasonable bet.
Unfortunately, the Show for once decided to engage in character development and follow a romance story arc. And so we got several episodes of the mini-Show that focused on SciTwi's attraction to Timber Spruce.
(One thing that this revealed was that, unlike Princess Twilight, Sci-Twi is actually a fairly lusty little virgin. Maybe she should graft a long purple nanofiber muscle enhanced prehensile wig onto herself and court an Evil Overlord? She might just reform him and turn him against the even Bigger Bad he serves!)
Still, if you want to ship Sunset Shimmer with Sci-Twi, Timber Spruce is disposable. Their original attraction was fairly superficial, and they're really not all that compatible. The chances are that in real life they wouldn't stay together more than a few months.
But, still, why Sci-Twi?
There's a very good reason.
V. Compatibility and More
First of all, Sunset and Sci-Twi are, as I've noted, best friends.
Secondly, they have a lot in common. They are both supergeniuses, scientists, and investigators of the phenomenon of magic. They are both physically and morally brave individuals, with similar codes of honor.
Thirdly, they have both endured an experience that none other of the Rainbooms have.
They have both been possessed by Nightmare, and come out of it with their sanities intact.
Sunset Shimmer, of course, tries to use the Crown of Magic in the first movie, and cannot control its power, turning into a demonic form. And Sci-Twi becomes Midnight Sparkle when she tries and fails to control the magic she has absorbed from the Rainbooms in the third movie.
This can be viewed (as Alex Warlorn does) as a form of insanity caused by giving in to the temptation to abuse power; (as the Show does) as possession by the Nightmare Forces; or (as I do) as the consequence of possession by a Night Shadow (an evil monster from another multiverse).
The precise reason actually isn't all that important for this purpose. The fact is, that in all three views of it, becoming a Nightmare is an intensely horrible experience. One feels the agony of physical and psychological transformation, with one's good nature being suppressed under one's worst character flaws. One is very likely to commit horrible deeds, and (worse) even IF one manages to win free of this (which often requires outside assistance) one will remember what one did under the influence.
Sunset Shimmer and Sci-Twi both experienced this. They both remember this. Sunset Shimmer was saved by Princess Twilight, Sci-Twi's Pony analogue; Sci-Twi was saved by Sunset Shimmer.
This is something they share which no one else can really understand.
With all this, if they have a lesbian orientation and they are otherwise compatible, they would be very likely to fall in love with each other.
Conclusion
So it makes sense.
I'm not quite giving up on my heterosexual Sunset Shimmer from An Equestrian Gentlemare, but I'm definitely open to lesbian Sunset Shimmer falling for SciTwi, as well.
... Okay, I wasn't expecting to run into literary analysis of my work this morning. I'm not complaining, but it still feels very odd. But hey, I can offer feedback.
Pinkie's current relationship in the Oversaturated World was not my doing. Dash and Fluttershy are actually both straight, or at least leaning lower on the Kinsey scale. Pinkie was intended to be the same, but... Well, if RWBY's involved, assume it wasn't my idea to begin with. There are hazards with letting other people play in your sandbox.
I was planning some of the concepts in Oversaturation before Rainbow Rocks, much less Legend of Everfree. Timber never entered into the initial equation because he didn't exist at the time.
Glad you enjoy the Oversaturated World, and I appreciate the thought you put into this. (And for the record, I do have plans for the girls after they graduate.)
Guy characters just have a much harder time being accepted as romantic material in this fandom, unless they're Spike, Big Mac, or Discord. I bet you, if Stygian had been a mare, there would be a hundred or more Starlight/Stygiana fics on FimFiction.
I never really got a lot of the lesbian ships going strong. I've always wondered why that's the case. Perhaps because I don't find them inherently arousing. And yes, that's a shallow reason, but I would like to point out that there isn't nearly the same push to homosexual shippings as there is to lesbian ones, even in the cases of characters like Tirek and Discord, who had more than enough presence on the show to justify it.
Great essay/article as always, and I am delighted to see that you're still around! I hope you and yours are doing well right now.
5484836
FWIW, I don't think they came up with Timber Spruce until they needed him as a love interest for Legend of Everfree, and they were originally-intending him to be just a Shallow Crush Summer Romance, until either some focus group revealed that their purported target demographic liked him, or more likely some pointy-headed executive decided that it would be Super Woke to have a sympathetic "environmentalist" character. (Pay no attention to Fluttershy!)
Yeah, the Oversaturated World is one of the best fan made universes on this site.
5485021
I'm not sure why there's such a big disinterest in straight ships and male homosexual ships on this site, and in fandom in general, unless it's due to the fact that most fans are male and most males find lesbian sexuality exciting but male gay sexuality icky.
5485290
Thank you!
None of my family caught COVID19, as far as I know. Two people I know well -- Chibi and Chressa -- did catch it but got better. I'm bored and poor right now, as I can't work due to the crisis (call centers are death traps); awaiting my first innoculation against the disease (this week!) and hoping to get back to work again this summer.
5485358
Precisely. I also believe Spike is the go-to shipping male because he's closest to humanoid out of the core cast, so guys have an easier time projecting themselves onto him.
Thing is, I didn't think Timber was all that boring either. And I remember when, after people called Flash a boring Gary Stue love interest, he showed a bit of a flaw in one of the shorts (vanity about his hair), the same people jumped on him for actually having a flaw. In other words, it wasn't about Flash Sentry himself anymore, they had an opinion and they would not deviate from it regardless of evidence presented. Heck, any picture with Flash in it on Derpibooru will draw a disproportionate amount of downvotes for the sin of Flash being in it.
Timber had the misfortunte of both triggering the same response by the folks who didn't like Flash Sentry, and the dislike by the folks who did like Flash for sinking a potential Sci-Twi/Flash ship teased in Friendship Games.
5485360
I hope you get inoculated and that we can all get back to normal soon.
What's your opinion about the reveal that the story that was supposed to be the finale for Equestria Girls would be explaining why the weird stuff always happens around them and it lead all the way back to Sunset Shimmer's original sins and the answer to the question we've all been asking since the beginning: where the heck is human Sunset Shimmer?
5485957
That would be interesting. In my Shadow Wars story verse, the reason would be that Sunset Shimmer was both ridden by a night shadow and later became the focus of harmonic forces as the magic began to return to that universe. Her friendship with Sci-Twi -- whether romantic or platonic -- meant that she was in close personal and magical association with another former nightmare who also became a focus for harmonic forces.
They even met the humanoid verse version of the tree of Harmony. It's what gave them the geodes.
5487193
the biiiiig question they were going to answer drives me crazy...
we were going to find what the heck happened to human Sunset Shimmer.
5487367
Is there any possibility they'll do it as a final EG movie?
5487687
If we lived in a generous world. But I doubt we'll get one since they dropped the axe on Equestria Girls hard and fast.
5487700
I mean in a way EG deserved it because a lot of the stories were pointless and there was only minimal attention to story arcs, but then that was the fault of Executive Meddling ("WE know what preteen to early teen girls like, and the first four movies went right over their heads even if they WERE popular, so we're going to dumb it down and thus IMPROVE it!") and they've ended the main series and replaced it with G4.5 Pony Life / Teen Titans Go, and I have little hope for G5.
5487705
As long as it's not the same universe.
That'll shatter the dogma of 'G4 and its heirs are the only real MLP!' (Poor Minty.)
5487715
To be fair, Forgotten Friendship was good. The last gasp, really, of effective EG storytelling. Something real was at stake, and we got to see character development with Trixie.
Most of the rest of it has been lame villains or just fluff about how cute and wacky are the Rainbooms. The cruise ship story may have been the worst, because it was supposed to be dramatic and wasn't.
5487736
I showed the girls using their gifts effectively to save the passengers, and we finally got them to visit Equestria.
5487909
Yeah, but it did so by making every character who wasn't a Rainboom an idiot, even in their supposed specialties. Such as making Applejack more skilled with marine engine repair than the ship's crew.
Now, I love both versions of Applejack, and I'm glad when the show remembers that she's actually intelligent rather than some dumb hick, but while she has some skill with repair in general, and the Humane version would logically have experience fixing farm machinery, no way no how is Applejack likely to have a more extensive knowledge or capability with repairing the engines of a ship than with the actual ship's crew.
5488046
Sunset using her 'useless' power of touch telepathy to help a terrified and lost child in the middle of the crisis was fun.
And Ponyville having to deal with a horde of doubles around "Ah! Changelings!" "Ah! Mirror clones!" And the Pinkie Pies just sharing innocent whistles with each other.
And Twilight meeting with Flash, "Sunset told you WHAT?!"