Shimmer become such a lovable character since the day she was introduced in equestria girls. But I always fathom at the idea of what if Sunset Shimmer never left Equestria and stayed while still being Celestia’s student and prodigy. How would her interaction with Twilight and the main six be like during the summer sun festival?

Two of my favourite ever Sunset fics actually look at that exact concept.

A Moment in the Sun

The Witch of the Everfree

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There are stories out on this site. I forgot the names but there is one that is a series that results in her hiding in canterlot caves

She’d try to sell them bootleg celestia merchandise and be run out of town. She would also be married to trixie.

I’d argue that Sunset wasn’t really loved until Rainbow Rocks. She was kinda mid in the first movie.

Why am I being downvoted? I’m right!

Depends.

If she'd learnt Celestias lesson then she might be something of a "cool older sister" for Twilight, someone she could confide in about the pressures etc. Having her turn up in lesson zero would be great.

If she hadnt learnt the lesson though (yet somehow hasn't ran away or been booted by Celestia) she could be Twilights rival, the alpha bitch and potentially even an outright villain depending how far her hatred goes.

In regards to the Summer Sun festival (Ep1/2)...

'Shimmer A' would probably be telling Twilight to relax and calm down, maybe offering some advice about her own friendship experiences, though perhaps sliding her some books about Nightmare Moon since "You'll probably do this freak out anyway, better to speed things up till its over". With Celestia kidnapped she'll focus on using her empathy and authority to ensure Ponyville doesn't fall apart, possibly even teleporting to Canterlot to inform them of whats going on.

"Shimmer B" would mock Twilights paranoia, brag about getting a closer seat to Celestia, throw the book about the Elements at her to read as "A fairy tale for foals" and generally piss off every Ponyville resident with mean spirited boasting. When Nightmare Moon arrives she'd immediately attack her, only to get stomped. Upon recovery she'd chase after the Mane 6, get caught in each trap, arrive just as all hope is lost (the elements are crumbled etc) and declare "I'll DEAL WITH THIS!" despite being a wheezing, filthy, mess. Despite all the fanfare, her horn lets out a pathetic fart of energy, having exhausted herself getting there. She is promptly knocked the fuck out by Nightmare Moon with a quip about "This gnat again?". Shimmer regains consciousness just as Twilight begins floating and giving her "...the magic of FRIENDSHIP!" soeech and is aghast that her dweeby rival is an ELEMENT OF HARMONY!

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If she'd learnt Celestias lesson then she might be something of a "cool older sister" for Twilight, someone she could confide in about the pressures etc. Having her turn up in lesson zero would be great.

I could definitely see her be a "cool older sister" figure for not just Twilight, but for the main six as well.

If she hadnt learnt the lesson though (yet somehow hasn't ran away or been booted by Celestia) she could be Twilights rival, the alpha bitch and potentially even an outright villain depending how far her hatred goes.

I wouldn’t be surprise. But at the same time though it would be interesting to see how it’ll all play out just like how it did in equestria girls but pony version. But through season 1/3 we slowly see Sunset no longer hating Twilight but still see her as a rival.

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Just... how does this make any sense to anything within the series outside of ones own personal headcanon? At least when it comes to silly things people do for the characters, it's stuff that actually works alongside what's been established, like Celestia's thing for cake.

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Considering the vast amount of one time characters that are used, never thought of again, and yet have a sheer massive amount of fanfiction involving them and focusing on them on this site alone much less any other fandom, I'd think it's safe to say that Sunset was popular from the outset. IIRC, Albinocorn's own story started not to long after the original EQG and the whole point of that story was to help further redeem the girl.

Rainbow Rocks probably just had more behind it for a lot of people mostly because the 'Human world but Pony characters' idea took off a bit more than the creators were expecting and they wanted to do more story with it... for both good and ill.

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For me, I think it would really depend on just how things would go for Sunset and Celestia that would determine how she'd doing things within Equestria instead of going to the human world.

The major thing is, really, that we don't know too much about Sunset's past at all, at least compared to the rest of the Mane 6. Where we've got a rough guidline to what happened to them as they grew up, who their parents are, and how they were raised, Sunset doesn't really have that. It's why we've had fanfics do everything from her being an Orphan with a mother complex with Celestia to being a failed copy of Sunburst. And without knowing that history, it's hard to predict how she'd act since everything then relies on her attitude we know from the comics and what caused the break off point between her and Celestia.

I would say that one major change that would definitely happen no matter what would probably be the flat out removal of Starlight Glimmer as a character from a writers perspective. The whole point of Starlight was that the Main MLP franchise wanted a Sunset of their own, but couldn't do it without disturbing EQG and if you keep Sunset in the main setting, especially as a Villain, than there would no reason to even bother with Starlight.

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Just... how does this make any sense to anything within the series outside of ones own personal headcanon? At least when it comes to silly things people do for the characters, it's stuff that actually works alongside what's been established, like Celestia's thing for cake.

I think that, if you analyze the characters’ personalities and motivations, as well as the setting, you’ll see that the two characters coming together in this way is not only inevitable, it’s practically predestined. Also, my dad (who works at Hasbro) told me that Lauren Faust personally explained this to him.

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Shimmer A sounds like Shimmer in the prime universe so I approve (although she would probably never surpass a secondary character role, which would be a shame and a waste).

Shimmer B sounds terrible. Like objectively worse than even the Original Shimmer, if that's even possible.

Sadly that would probably be exactly what Hasbro would do with her character.

On the plus side, at least she might mature enough for Diamond Tiara to look up to her one day.

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I think that, if you analyze the characters’ personalities and motivations, as well as the setting, you’ll see that the two characters coming together in this way is not only inevitable, it’s practically predestined. Also, my dad (who works at Hasbro) told me that Lauren Faust personally explained this to him.

Even ignoring the fact that you do the whole 'my relative who works here' argument and the fact that Faust left Friendship Is Magic long before Sunset Shimmer was even an idea they came up with, the idea of predestination for these characters is not only laughable, it's just downright ludicrous.

Going by their personalities and motivations, as you say, there's no reason for these two to be romantically involved, much less even tolerant with each other. Sunset, especially going by the way she's portrayed before breaking things off with Celestia, wouldn't care about anything BUT the power she craves and would step on any little pony who got in her way. If she's got no qualms about doing horrible things against Twilight, whose a magical demi-god princess when they meet, then what do you think Sunset will do to a half baked show pony with an over inflated ego?

That's not even mentioning how Trixie hates the idea of anyone showing her up, and that was with Twilight, who isn't going and shouting from the heavens that she was trained by Celestia. Sunset, on the other head, would very make specifically sure that Trixie knew just where Sunset came from and what her own magical chops were, especially if she were evil and rejected by the Princess as she was in the original story.

Now that's not to say you can't have characters share aspects of each other and use that as a basis for their relationship. There's a reason why I, and so many other authors, ship Sunset with Sci-twi, whom also goes through the whole 'transforming into a monster because of magic' experience. Because these are characters, who at that point of their story and with their experiences and values, feel like we could would make a realistic story about the two of them being romantically involved. Sunset never leaving Equestria is a long, almost impossible, stretch away from her hooking up with Trixie in terms of how the two relate.

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Even ignoring the fact that you do the whole 'my relative who works here' argument and the fact that Faust left Friendship Is Magic long before Sunset Shimmer was even an idea they came up with,

Those are the core pillars of my argument, why would you ignore them? That’s like going to Salvatore’s Fine Pizzas, ignoring the pizza, exclusively ordering the garlic bread, and then saying that the restaurant is bad because the garlic bread is bad.

What you should do is try the pizza, and then declare it’s bad, because it is. Salvatore’s Fine Pizzas serves terrible pizza. It’s made with things that crawl beneath the earth, and also frozen dough. I got botulism from eating there.

Anyway, my dad (who works at Hasbro) says you’re wrong. Sunset would sell bootleg Celestia merchandise in Ponyville. She would also be married to Trixie.

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Ah, troll account. Gotcha.

7736515 Not so! I am simply a silly little lad.

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Oh yeah, Shimmer A is DEFINITELY a secondary character. You might get three focus episodes starring her at most across the series.

Shimmer B amusingly would recurr significantly more often even post redemption.

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The sarcasm is pretty palable buddy. The "my dad works at Hasbro" thing was the neon sign.

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Never been good at reading sarcasm through text posts. And I've dealt with trolls who've done as much in other forums. Just don't see the point of just sprouting random bullshit in a thread that otherwise poses an interesting question.

7736563 Levity.

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You see... if we were talking about something dark, like Sunset committing suicide, or there was a fighting in the thread between two people disagreeing, then I could 100% understand coming in an being silly for the sake of Levity. That makes sense.

But you are the fourth post in a thread that actually asks an interesting question. There's no point in bringing levity to a conversation that otherwise could have been interesting and provoke some serious thoughts. That's why I called you a Troll account at first: because otherwise you're derailing a conversation that could produce something interesting.

7736793 The irony here is, if you had not taken an obviously facetious post at face value and attempted to engage earnestly with it, the conversation would have continued unabated, and my remark that Sunset would sell bootleg merchandise and marry Trixie would be a mildly amusing aside and nothing more.

But there is no use dwelling on what might have been. Come, join me at my home for some quality handcrafted gumbo.