What if Sunset Shimmer never left Equestria and stayed. And Twilight failed her test and was just an regular unicorn.

Would Sunset Shimmer be the element of Magic? And she was the one who hatched Spike after Twilight failed her test. And hatched him without the Sonic Rainboom happening.

2444859 Hmm... I don't want to shun Twilight, but yes Sunset would.

2444864 I agree. She would.

2444859
...Hmm... except why would she need to hatch Spike's egg? She was already a student of the Royal Academy and Celestia's apprentice.

2444878 I don't know. Maybe she wanted a test? Or Princess Celestria told her to hatch it since Twilight failed to hatch him.

2444859

Well, Sunset still would be a power hungry loner like before she left. If we're saying she ATTEMPTED to jump into the mirror and failed, she would have been disowned by Celestia anyways. If the mirror didn't exist, she might have ended up doing something more reckless, or simply had no motivation to rush her studies. In THAT case, I can see her winding up in Ponyville during the pilot episode sans Spike, and being forced into the Element of Magic's position. It'd certainly be interesting to see an egotist like Sunset learning about friendship.

2444887 That would happen.

2444859 I seriously doubt Sunset Shimmer would ever be able to bear an Element of Harmony as she was before, because going to the other world didn't make her a bitch. Being a bitch made her a bitch. It took being force-fed a magic rainbow to unbitch her.

Does Sunset Shimmer have the magical power to be the Element of Magic? Yes.
Does Sunset Shimmer, pre-EG, have the personality to be the Element of Magic? No.
Would a reformed Sunset Shimmer be able to sub in for Twilight? Probably- it would depend on the relationship between her and the non-twilight Element bearers. If Sunset Shimmer was a friend of theirs? then yes.

2444887
>Well, Sunset still would be a power hungry loner like before she left.
Ergh. So, what? Why it is a bad thing?

2446833

It's not a bad thing. That's not what I meant; what I meant is that she'd still be the pony Celestia disowned, so I doubt her chances of making it as far as 'the Element of Magic' under Celestia's watch.

In her back story in the comics, she seemed to see other ponies as being either people she could gloat at, or use as pawns, despite Celestia trying to teach her humility and tact. her response to being asked to remember one of her lessons on humility in one panel was to roll her eyes and state "I remember it was boring." In Equestria Girls, she's not much better.

More than that, Sunset knowingly and voluntarily committed Break and Entry, Assault, Theft, and her plan for Equestria could technically be considered attempted regicide and/or a military coup, depending on how you interpret her actions.

Where Twilight was only antisocial due to being an awkward introverted nerd, Sunset makes Trixie look friendly by comparison. Without a massive change in her life to 'waker her up' from that mindset, she would never be suitable as a bearer.

...that said breaking her so you can change her is rather fun to write.

2444859 "What if Sunset Shimmer never left Equestria and stayed,and Twilight failed her test and was just an regular unicorn"

only the BEST STORY to come out of it.Some one do it.

2447813
You're making the same error. It is not necessary to be friendly with a person to care about his/her good. For example, every puppeteer cares about his pawns, keeping them in a good shape.
Of course, it won't be the same show we know.

2447833 I have a story like that. It's a a retelling of MLP, but with different main characters. And some episodes/chapters will be changed completely.

2447871
It is however necessary to be friendly to someone, to use a tool powered by friendship. Hence why she would be an unsuitable bearer.

2448263
The funny thing is, that Elements look like 5 of them provide energy to the 6th one. Given that, the operator of 6th one (Magic) doesn't have to be friendly, only 5 other have.

.... And as I recall, Celestia asked Twilight to make some friends, not to be a friend to someone. Funny coincidence.

2448335

a) you can't make friends without being a friend to someone.
b) Magic needs to do something, or the Elements would have worked the first time twilight tried it. As far as I can tell, Magic is the element that unites the others.

Maybe, like Twilight, she would read into the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration and try to stop Nightmare Moon like Twilight, (but for the reason of wanting adoration and perhaps for Celestia to trust her more and teach her more forbidden magics) only to meet and eventually grow to trust the rest of the Elements/AU Elements, which I think would be interesting because in my opinion, Sunset has severe trust issues, which is part of the reason why she has never had any friends. The Sunsetverse would base somewhat aroundthat concept. She would act a bit like Trixie, but... different. I'm not sure how to describe it. And as for the Spike issue, she seems more like a cat type of pony.
And for the record, if you have a hope at getting on EqD, feature a batpony as a main-ish character at least.

*whispers* Lunaverse

Are there any stories that take place in some kind of AU where Sunset didn't go to the Equestria Girls universe? Sunet Shimmer herself doesn't necessarily have to be the main focus, just a story that has her in the main universe, having for whatever reason never gone to the Equestria Girls universe.

So far this is the only one I've found.

2444859

It's hard to say because if the Element of Magic is the leader of the Elements of Harmony's bearers by default (as represented by its physical form residing in a tiara), it might require a bearer who is well-versed in friendship...or at the very least harmonious, so it would depend on how these changes would affect Sunset's personality from how she was when we were first introduced to her.

2991916

Since the story is described in the 'Shiny-verse' when you say 'main universe' I assume you mean where she stays in Equestria?

2992024 Yeah.

2461813
I'll keep that in mind when I write my own A/U Sunset story about this situation. Hmmm...yeah, I can see her as a 'cat-lover' pony, but at the same time, it would be cool to give her a raven (to contrast Twilight's owl).

2444859 yes yes and yeah

2444859
I think it depends a lot on the setting/situation. Anyways, I have at least two Sunset Shimmer fics that try to answer that.
One is similar to the Lunaverse, and other such AU mane 6/ elements of Harmony stories.

The other one is about how the portal was suddenly closed, forcing Sunset to flee from Canterlot. She ends up in the Everfree Forest and is later found unconscious by Fluttershy, who takes her back to her cottage. The rest of the story is basically about Sunset trying to adjust to life in Ponyville (and make friends)...and also the first (descent/ serious) Sunshy/ FlutterShimmer shipfic.

I think an even more interesting question is, what would have happened if Sunset stayed, but Twilight didn't fail. Would Twilight still become Celestia's protegeé? Whom would Celestia pick if she had to possible options for the Element of magic? Give Sunset's personality, it would be kind of probable, that she would see Twilight as a rival for Celestia's attention.
This would actually be a very cool concept for a story, starting of at Twilight's egg-trial and ending with the Nightmare Moon incident (or later) either from Twilight's or Sunset's point of view.

3758834 I think Celestia would keep Sunset Shimmer as her student, but bring Twilight under her wing as a second pupil. Celestia seems like the type of character who would be convinced she could devote equal attention to two or more students.

3759284
Yeah, that's a possibility too. And there are some fics that delve into that (a bit).

3484020
LOL first a cat, then a raven? She should start riding around on a broom too.

3784428
"My Little Pony: Friendship is Witch-"
"Finish that title, and you DIE!"

Still, I can totally see Sunset being a sexy witch.

Maybe the real reason Celestia told Twilight to go and make friends, was so that she didn't make the same mistake as Sunset Shimmer. If that's true then if Sunset never ran away, Twilight would of never met her friends, and they wouldn't bare the elements of harmony.

If Sunset stayed Celestia's pupil and didn't run away, then she would probably have progressed at her magic a lot faster than Twilight did, because if Rainbow Dash didn't pull off the sonic rainboom Twilight would of failed her test. Sunset probably passed a similar test to become Celestia's student, but she didn't have a sonic rainboom to help her, so her magic must of been much more powerful than Twilight's when she was the same age. If Sunset had such powerful magic at such a young age then it could only improve, probably at a much faster rate than Twilight's, so if she was still Celestia's student she would probably have magic at least twice as powerful as Twilight's.

3787179
That would totally make sense to me.

3787179
Well I'm not a particularly big Twilight fan, but I wouldn't go that far.
In Cutie Mark Chronicles, Princess Celestia told little Twilight: "You have a very special gift. I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities."
We have to take her word for it; it's canon after all.
However, raw talent is only one ingredient to being powerful. So even if Twilight is canonically the most talented unicorn in 1000 years, it doesn't make her unassailable in all contests of magic. For example, the illusion trap left behind by Sombra basically had her beat, and she needed Spike to rescue her. In this case being over 9000 meant nothing.