Sunset Shimmer vs Starlight Glimmer
Sunset Shimmer vs Starlight Glimmer
“You sure about this?”
“Yeah, been looking forward to it all week. It’ll be fun”
“Are you absolutely sure? They say that magical atrophy-“
“Twilight, relax. I’m a grown woman... mare... whatever. I can make up my own decisions. So, are we still on?’
Twilight Sparkle sighed as she leaned over the Princess Celestia’s magic book. The Princess had used the tome to communicate with her pupils. It’d been less than a week ago that Twilight had casually mentioned to Sunset Shimmer that her own pupil, Starlight Glimmer, would really benefit from having more than just Twilight to magically spar with. Unfortunately, there were very few ponies on par with Twilight’s and Starlight’s abilities and Sunset had jumped at the opportunity to test her mettle against the Princess of Friendship’s student once she found out.
It wasn’t like Sunset coming to Equestria was anything new. Sure, she spent most of her time in the dimension beyond the mirror, but she stayed over for a weekend now and again. But that didn’t stop Twilight from being nervous. Starlight might overexert herself, and Sunset might not be prepared for Starlight’s power. Starlight was quite possibly the most powerful unicorn to ever roam Equestria. While Sunset had been chosen as Princess Celestia’s prized pupil, living in the human world for so long had left her severely out of practice. But alas, once Sunset had her mind set, there was no stopping her.
“We’re still on. Give me a few to get everything ready.”
“Great, see you then!”
A few minutes later in the great antechamber that now served as Twilight’s new library, the mirror portal violently rocked back and forth as it began to glow. With a burst of sparkles, a tangerine unicorn emerged.
“Ugh,” She moaned as she teetered on her hind legs, and fell with a slight womp back on all fours. “Every time,” She chuckled, as she trotted forward to greet the two purple ponies in front of her.
“ I always get a bit disoriented too.” Twilight smiled warmly, trotting forward and hugging Sunset. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” Sunset replied before turning to the other unicorn in the room. “Hi! You must be Starlight Glimmer. I’m Sunset Shimmer! It’s great to finally meet you.”
“Hello,” Starlight said, slightly timid as she moved to greet the new visitor. “Twilight’s told me a lot about you.”
“Not too much, I hope,” Sunset chuckled.
“No... Just that you stole one of the Elements of Harmony to brainwash an entire school, turned into a she-demon before being stopped by the very thing you stole, and redeemed yourself around to blast 3 evil sirens with rainbow lasers,” Starlight said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
.
“HAHAHA!” Twilight gave a very uncomfortable laugh. “I think what Starlight means is that she knows how far you’ve come, and how hard you keep trying to show that you’ve changed! Isn’t that right, Starlight?” she said, slightly flustered as she put a hoof around her student.
Sunset smirked as she turned her attention to Starlight. “Did Twilight also mention that she hesitated when I offered to help her up the first time she came over after the Fall Formal?”
“What- No- I mean-” Twilight sputtered as Starlight looked on inquisitively.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sunset chuckled. “I would have done the same thing if I were you. But anyways: Starlight, how are you?”
“I’m doing well. Thanks for asking,” Starlight said.
“Yep! Everything’s good! Everything’s fine! Great! Dandy!” Twilight squeaked out as beads of sweat formed on her brow.
“...Are you always like this?” Starlight asked Twilight.
“You haven’t been around Twilight long, have you?” Sunset chuckled. “Anyways, is this where we’ll be having our little sparring match?” Sunset gestured at the room around them.
Recomposing herself, Twilight cleared her throat. “Yes, that is, unless you want to have it somewhere else?”
Sunset studied the room for a quick minute, looking at all the books on their shelves and the cases themselves., making quick note of things like ceiling height and amounts of books and shelves. “No this will do fine. But what I’d really like to see is a little taste of the competition.” She turned towards Starlight with a cocky smirk.
Starlight turned to Twilight, who in turn nodded her approval. “Okay, stand back,” Starlight said as she flared up her horn. Instantly, all of the books were spinning around the room in a mesmerizing dance, bathed in a teal glow, as Starlight focused intensely on the dance.
“Impressive, most impressive,” Sunset said as she lazily trotted across the room, studying Starlight. “Okay, you can stop now. I’ve seen enough.”
Starlight momentarily snapped as Sunset’s voice shocked her, her attention being on the books. “Okay,” Starlight acknowledged and with that the books flashed back to their alcoves. “Swan-Boat Levitation Configuration.” Starlight said with pride. “Just learnt that one last week. But levitation’s foal’s play. You know, I’m so glad that I have someone else that I can practice magic with. Twilight’s great, but it’s nice to get a bit of variety, you know?”
“And it gets her out of your hair for a while,” Sunset added with a smile.
“And ‘she’ is still in the room,” Twilight deadpanned.
“Well, I’m ready when you are,” Starlight said, turning back to her magic companion.
“Woah, hold your horses,” Sunset said to the confused look of her companions. “I just got back. Need to stretch the old magic muscles, if you get what I mean. I need a little warm up time.”
“Yeah, Starlight, I’m with Sunset on this. Let her get acclimated to magic again before we do anything crazy.” Twilight said. “Let’s leave if off until Sunday.”
“No need to wait that long,” Sunset said. “Give me about three or four hours and I’ll be good to go.”
“What?!” Twilight shrieked. “Sunset, you just arrived! You haven’t used magic in Celestia knows how long! And no your last visit doesn’t count, you only levitated a fork. There’s no way you’ll be good to go in three hours.”
“Don’t worry, Twilight. I’ll be fine,” Sunset said. “So three hours then?”
“Yeah, three hours works for me.” Starlight said. “I need to catch up with Trixie anyways. Her still-unnamed tour has some scheduling to do. I’ll meet you then!” With a flash and a pop, she vanished.
“Not one for goodbyes, is she?” Sunset said. “Anywho, let’s get to magic practice!”
And with that Sunset took to reacquainting herself with Equestrian magic. Twilight watched on, “helping” ,or rather, nagging, with everything Sunset did, whether it be proper form, or effect, or just the amount of sparkles. Sunset practiced levitation, teleportation, magic beams, and more, but it was all very basic. No high end magic, no super-tricks or complex shield spells. It was all just basic Celestia’s School techniques. After about two hours, Sunset stopped, her forehead beaded with sweat.
“Well,” Sunset said wiping the sweat off with a foreleg. “I think that should cover it.” She made her way to the door. “Kitchen’s that way right?”
Twilight nodded along, then realized what Sunset said. “Wait. What do you mean, ‘that should cover it’? Sunset, all you’ve covered is the basics of Unicorn magic. There’s no way you’re ready,” Twilight explained. She then let out a long sigh. “Look, Sunset. I know you haven’t really seen her in action, but Starlight is incredibly powerful. There’s no way you can win right now. Let’s just call this off for now and get you back into magical shape.”
“I said I’m fine, Twilight,” Sunset said with an eye roll. “And no. We’re not cancelling this sparring match. Starlight will be here in an hour, and I need to rest up. I can’t be exhausted before this thing even starts! Besides, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” She winked at Twilight. “...Or I would if I had any sleeves that is.”
After getting a glass of milk and a celery stick, Sunset trotted back to the library and sat down with a newspaper.
“Hey Sunset!” Twilight asked as Sunset turned her head.
“Do you want to read Starswirl’s Solutions for the Sporadically and Spontaneously Stripped of Spells?”
Sunset let out a long sigh. “Maybe not right now,” she said, flipping a page.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Sunset exclaimed. She then turned over the newspaper in her hooves. “Man haven’t seen one of these in ages.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“And what about the comics? Where are you supposed to go and find those without a newspaper?” Twilight sputtered on, a good thirty-seven minutes into her rant as Starlight walked into the library.
“What’s happening here?” Starlight asked.
“Twilight’s upset about the portal world’s lack of respect for newspapers,” Sunset giggled.
“I’m not upset! My distaste in your world’s lack of proper journalism and intellectual pursuits is perfectly valid!” Twilight huffed.
“Hey, not ‘my world,’” Sunset said deflectively, before turning to Starlight. “You ready to go?”
Starlight snapped out of watching Twilight’s rant, shaking her head around, “Oh right. Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Hey, so I was thinking,” Twilight began, trying to change the subject, “It’s such a lovely day out. We should really postpone this and spend the day out on Sweet Apple Acres, helping Applejack and having a nice workout so we’re all tired out and forget about magic. GAH! I mean... so that we can help her family out! Yeah! That’s what I mean!” Twilight frantically burst out.
Sunset and Starlight looked at each other for a moment. “After you,” Sunset said to Starlight. And with that, Twilight was enveloped in Starlight’s magic before being teleported right outside the library's doors.
“Hey! Wait a-!” Twilight shouted as the doors were slammed and enchanted. She let out a long sigh. “Second.”
“Okay, that’s taken care of,” Sunset said. “You ready?”
“Sure am,” Starlight said. The two ponies moved to opposite sides of the room, both eager to start the show.
“Just before we start, I want to thank you for doing this,” Starlight said. “It’s not often I get someone new to challenge magically. I’ll try not to go too rough on you.” Starlight quipped.
“I’m sure you won’t” Sunset shot back as the two bowed to each other, the standard sign of respect before a duel such as this.
Sunset immediately got the drop and shot a beam directly at Starlight, but Starlight was too quick, and had a shield up in no time at all. Sunset’s blast didn’t even move her opponent an inch.
After the blast subsided, Starlight fired her own counterattack, which Sunset easily dodged, leaping around the energy beam to come out unscathed as she fired her own horn in retaliation.
It when back and forth, each of them throwing beams back at one another, either blocking them or dodging them. After a minute of this Sunset was pressing the attack, sending beam after beam at Starlight. Starlight blocked them with expert shield spells as she retreated from the onslaught, making sure her kept her distance. Starlight then tripped over a lamp post behind her that had fallen in the course of the battle. Sunset moved it quickly to the fallen Starlight but Starlight recovered rapidly. Firing a quick short burst at near point blank range sent Sunset tumbling into the wall.
“Come on Sunset, I thought you’d put up more of a fight.” Starlight gloated as she got up. “I mean, even a foal could cast magic stronger than you have.”
“Oh great, she’s a talker,” Sunset muttered as she picked herself off the floor. “Well then, how about this?!” A cyan aura surrounded at least 6 shelf's worth of books, leaving them hovering in the air for moment, only to rocket straight towards Starlight.
“Levitation? Really? That’s foal’s play.” Starlight said as she formed an expanding barrier that cleared away all the attacking books, only to be greeted with a magic beam straight from Sunset’s horn. Not having any time to think, Starlight teleported to the center of the room, a few feet up. Not having a moment to gain her bearing, she was immediately pelted by 2 dozen tomes about the Pre-Celestia era, and the odd book about silverware placement.
Starlight landed, slightly paper-cut, but overall fine. “Tracking spell, clever,” she said, clearly annoyed. Of course, Sunset’s restrained laughter didn’t help.
“Sorry, I guess I should have taken you for a light reader.” Sunset quipped.
“Haha, very funny,” Starlight said as she fired back, not waiting a moment for a reply.
Sunset dodged the attack, circling around the energy beam as she let loose her own beam. Starlight, expecting this, cast her magic shield spell. But the beam passed right by Starlight and hit behind her.
“You really need to work on you aim,” Starlight gloated as she charged up her horn for another attack.
“Really now?”
“Yeah, you do-“ A bookcase slammed down on top of the mare, bouncing a few times before coming to a rest.
Sunset tried to hold back her laughter. “You okay in there?” She said in-between fits.
With a massive surge of magical energy, the bookcase splintered into a thousand pieces as Starlight, covered in her own magic aura, slowly lifted into the air, anger burning in her eyes. “This ends. NOW,” she said, letting loose a supercharged magical blast.
Sunset just barely escaped the magic and the bookcases now slamming down around her, before yet another beam came flying towards her. It was easily dodged, but another attack quickly took its place, causing a massive explosion. “Okay, Starlight, this has probably gone a bit too far. You can stop now.” Sunset yelled, struggling to make her voice heard over the battle. In response, she got beamed in the chest, flying back into a pile of disheveled books that had formed from the toppled shelves.
Starlight slowly levitated over to Sunset, who was still lying in the pile, muzzle down in books. “It’s over!” she said, charging up another blast.
Sunset whirled her body around, putting her hooves to her horn.
“Solar Flare!” she shouted, causing a blinding light to flood the room.
Starlight couldn’t see. Everything was a bright white. She whirled her head around and continuously fired her horn as she grimaced. She slammed her eyes shut in pain. Then she felt a hoof land hard on her right cheek, knocking her off balance. It was followed quickly up by an uppercut to the bottom of her chin, and then finally a dual hoofed slam against the center of her forehead, knocking her out cold.
A few minutes later, Starlight regained consciousness. “Ugggh,” She groaned, as Sunset helped her get back onto her hooves. The room was swimming while doing pirouettes, and it was as if somepony was using a jackhammer on her head.
“How are you feeling?” Sunset said, gingerly leading Starlight to a plush armchair, which Starlight sunk into.
“Like my head has a fault line running through it, and it’s causing a level 9 earthquake on the Richer scale.” she groaned. “What happened?”
“Well... you went kind of crazy, slammed me into a wall, then I blinded you and knocked you out.” Sunset said.
“Whose technique did you use? I swear, I’m going to feel this for a year.” Starlight rubbed her aching head.
“A wise Earth master known as Bruce Lee. It’s called the ‘Punch them until they’re down’ style” Sunset concluded.
“You punched me?!” Starlight yelled and immediately regretted it, rubbing her head. “That’s not how magic duels work.”
“No but then again, you didn’t exactly follow the rules either.” Sunset said.
Starlight’s face flashed with anger before sagging in depressed resignation. “It seems like everytime I try to take one step forward I end up taking three back.” She moaned.
Sunset trotted over to her saddlebag and grabbed a cup of water and some ibupastern. “Here. drink this,” Sunset said, handing the water and the medicine to her. “You’re being a little hard on yourself,” she went on. “I wasn’t exactly presenting the best attitude out there. But there is a lesson in there that I was trying to teach you. One that actually had some correlation with friendship.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow at that. “A lesson, really? What was it?”
“Do you know why I beat you?” Sunset asked.
“Because you punched me and then knocked me out?” Starlight guessed.
“Well, yes,” Sunset chuckled, “But what I mean is: You’re clearly got more magical potential than me. You’re in a league all in your own, I have no problem admitting that. But do you know why I was able to gain the edge on you?”
Starlight looked puzzled. “No. How?”
“It’s because you’re too focused.” Sunset said. “You look only at your goal and what’s there, you never take in your surroundings. You’re so fixated on the endgame, you don’t take into account what’s happening around you. That’s how I was able to win.” Sunset reached over and grabbed a bottle of water for herself, taking a sip from it. “And from what Twilight’s told me, it’s a problem you run into regularly.”
Starlight perked up her ears at this. “Yeah, Twilight’s told me a lot about you as well,” Sunset went on. “How you focused on trying to get a friend as a diner guest but ended up getting sour with Mrs. Cake and Big Mac, or how you mind controlled everyone so you could complete some friendship lessons,” Sunset said as she curled up the newspaper in her magic and hit Starlight in the head with it. “Don’t ever do that again, by the way.” she let out a sigh. “Look. The point is, you look to what the “solution” to the problem is, how to finish as fast as possible, but you never seem to take the time to look around you and see what the problem is. You need to be more aware of what you’re doing, and why you are doing it. With both with magic and with friendship.” Sunset concluded.
“Thanks, Sunset. ...I guess I still have a lot to learn,” Starlight said, still a bit depressed.
“Don’t worry about it, Starlight! From what Twilight’s told me, you’re doing great,” Sunset smiled. “...Except with that whole ‘mind control’ thing. Seriously. Never again.” Sunset gave Starlight a stern look. “Anyways, it wasn’t too long ago I was paddling the same boat as you are.”
“Really?” Starlight asked.
“Eeyup. Wasn’t too long ago I was constantly questioning if what I was doing was right, how people saw me, and if the mean ones were right. I was constantly wondering what the other people were thinking of me.
“Erm… What are ‘people’, anyways?” Starlight asked.
“Er... it’s the population on the other side of the mirror,” Sunset explained. “But back to the topic at hoof. Do you know what I did?” Starlight shook her head.
“I kept my head held high, told myself it was all worth it in the end, and pressed on. You just need to take it one day at a time. You get it?”
Starlight nodded, a faint smile spreading across her muzzle.
“Trust me, it gets better,” Sunset said as Starlight smiled. “And even if you do screw up, don’t worry. You have one of the best teachers a pony could ask for in your corner. Oh! Which reminds me, we’d better let her in.”
And with that, Sunset undid the magical barriers keeping Twilight out. In a flash, the doors to the library burst open.
“Is everything okay? Is everypony alright? Does anyone need to go to the hospital?” Twilight panicked, flying around the room, then seeing the two unicorns neatly seating at the nearby table, seemingly fine. “What the heck happened in here? And what did you two do to my Daring Do collection?!”
“Um... Well... You see...,” Sunset and Starlight scrambled for excuses as Twilight’s fiery stare met their much more timid eyes. The princess’s gaze was like a million sharp daggers piercing the soul.
“I just remembered I have to go meet Rainbow Dash for that thing with the stuff bye!” Sunset blurted out before leaping up and darting straight into the mirror portal, the mirror shimmering.
“And I have to go do something with Trixie… Again!” Starlight teleported away, leaving Twilight alone in the library.
“Oh, you’ll repair half of a school or the space-time continuum, but help me clean your mess in my library and you both disappear!” Twilight grumbled, grabbing a broom in her magic as she began the long task of cleaning up the mess her two “friends” had made.
End
But didn't Starlight magically clean up the library in less than 10 seconds last time?
No Shut up! We don't talk about that!
Anyways my own personal headcanon. While I think Starlight has more raw magic at her back, Sunset is has a far better tactical handle on magical situations and more experience. Also that Starlight has a glass jaw.
That being said if Sunset went Super Saiyan into her Daydream Shimmer form, Starlight wouldn't have stood a chance.
Debated for a while whether or not to call it 'Solar Flare' or 'TAIYōKEN', but I went with Solar Flare since I figured most people would get the reference better and it would make more sense, what with Sunset being Celestia's former student.
Once again, thanks to Galactic Raincloud and Arzoo for all the help!
Constructive Criticism welcomed.
Edit: And sequel pic to my cover art:
Image source: Link to source
Clearly the one on the leftt is the correct image 
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- LunaEclipsed15 · 4.3k words · 89 2 · 3.8k views
- Quillamore · 3k words · 107 2 · 2.9k views
- Misty Meadow · 2.9k words · 55 1 · 1.6k views
- Z-blade Gracin · 4.5k words · 16 1 · 501 views
- Twilight Star · 25k words · 33 6 · 2.4k views
- Horizon Spark · 1.8k words · 178 3 · 6.1k views
- Ghostfriendly · 30k words · 81 8 · 2.9k views
- Sidral Mundet · 2k words · 49 2 · 2.4k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.122 seconds
Total duration
998 users online
1,295,724 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sunset wins.
Wonder what the other 3568 words are.
7767331 damn straight!
glad sunset won because starlight is kid for irritating like hwo she can somehow take on an alicorn in a fight when she is jsut a normal unicorn plus her crimes were more severe than sunset's yet she doesn't even get the cold reception that sunset faced before everyone at the school warmed up to her.
7767331 Yelling at the top of their lunges for
20 episodes5 minutes.Never underestimate paper-cuts. Never!
Nice story.
Very interesting headcanon. (Except for the glass jaw. Where did you get that from???)
Some people theorize Sunset became an alicorn during her quests in the human world. What do you think about that?
7767900 They only threw Twilight out of the library.
The glass jaw thing is mostly from TV Tropes and as a way to balance out Starlight's magical powers.
As to the Alicorn Sunset I think she can be one but I'd rather her not be one.
>Implying Starlight's tutelage under Twilight ever had anything to do with learning magic.
Seriously, Starlight would have won in the S5 finale had Twilight not talked her out of it. She is much more experienced in combat magic(1) than Twilight. I would assume—after watching that episode—that Celestia only really teaches her students how to dissolve a situation without violence. It was strongly implied that Starlight's studies are meant to be about friendship, because apparently thats something that needs to be taught (easiest class ever.)
(1) Twilight being the element of magic might have more raw power and probably knows more about less practical forms of magic.
Let the headcanon battles begin.
Still an enjoyable read. Nice job!
Fun fic, yeah, while (unfortunately) Starlight probably has more raw magical power than anypony, I could Sunset being more clever at fighting (ah, one of the most useful DBZ moves ever). A bit surprised that Twilight let them fight in the library in the first place rather than some other room in the castle (or somewhere outside), considering how Twilight and Starlight's last spar went. And I see you added in references to some other fics (if Sunset had used that newspaper in the fight, it would have been over in seconds... then again, Sunset did go unconventional, which is something Twilight probably would have never resorted to).
Big sis sunset is best sunset. I like the characterization here, starlight has problems but she isn't a monster and sunset can sympathize and help her be better, wheras twilight is kind of a doof.
7768125
Your common-sense has no place in this dick-measuring contest.
7769434 Ummm no not really.
Where have you been?
Enslaving villages I guess....
This is a very nice and well thought out story. The characterization of all three felt spot on. I'm glad to have read it.
Cheers from a fellow author in Iowa.
7768125
I think it's a bit premature for that. The only time we've seen Twilight & Starlight "fight" has been heavily modified by outside influences.
In the Season 5 Finale Twilight had been away from home for multiple days giving a presentation in Canterlot. She was obviously not taking great care of herself (sleeping/eating) while doing so (given Spike's reactions), as Twilight is known to do when stressed/being a perfectionist. Then as she returns home, she is ambushed by Starlight who knows this battle is going to happen and has likely done everything she can to give herself edges (scouting the area of engagement, resting, perhaps doing any short term power amplifying abilities she can, ect...).
When the battle actually happens, the majority of the time (especially the first few engagments where Twilight is less tired) Starlight has surprise firmly on her side, often attacking Twilight while she is distracted and from outside of her vision.
During the fight their mentalities are entirely different. Twilight is surprised, confused, and emotional unbalanced (especially after seeing the alternate realities brought on by Starlight). While she certainly stands firm and isn't about to let Starlight win she isn't enraged as much as she is determined (and rage is quite useful for magical power, see her fight with Tirak). Starlight on the other hand is both enraged and fanatically driven during this fight.
Finally the very nature of the fight means Twilight has laughably fewer options than Starlight. Twilight can't afford to draw any attention to the fight itself (so no light or sound) or Starlight wins. She can't let Starlight affect the race in any way (even a minor shove) or Starlight wins, She can't be seen by any random Pegasus (who is that Mystery Alicorn Princess?) or she loses. Starlight begins with a headstart (as we can see when Twilight comes back and Starlight is already talking to the young ponies about being bullies) which means she both gets the first attack and Twilight has to "catch up" with whatever she's doing this time.
One of the only times we've actually seen Twilight enraged in a fight (especially post ascension) was during her battle with Tirak. While she had the powers of the other three Alicorns at the time, even if we only ascribe a small fraction of the power displayed there to her, it's still an order of magnitude stronger than anything else we've seen in the show.
Starlight's "greater experience" with "combat magic" is also completely unsupported. We've been given no indication that she has had any specific training at all in any form of magic (combative or not, she is either very well self taught or has some training though). Likewise we have no idea what Twilight's training with Celestia consisted of (or what "combat training" consists of in Equestria, after all one assumes Shiny has more combat training than Starlight or Twilight does yet he has never displayed anything resembling special combat techniques. Then again he's only been against the big bads each time... All of whom overpower him laughably).
I'm not saying the writers can't/won't make Starlight stronger than Twilight (would be pretty stupid if they did but that's just my opinion) but I wouldn't say it has been shown as such just yet.
7772235
A large portion of your explanation is based on assumptions. Don't get me wrong, its very logical and you clearly put much thought into it. But seeing as it's a cartoon with cartoon laws, much of your argument just doesn't feel like something the show writers would take into account.
You were correct that the odds were heavily stacked against Twilight, so even if she did overpower Starlight, the unicorn could very easily just alter time again and have a small breather. But in the scenes where they did fight, Starlight clearly had better aim and overall just felt more combat-ready than the alicorn who almost never solves her problems in fights (Not ignoring the Tirek fight, but she was pumped with the power of two goddesses and one love-magic demi-goddess.)
While likely unintentional by the show creators, your explanation could provide for a very logical headcanon if it's needed. Hell, my argument is nowhere near as structured as yours. I'm pretty much stating that either of us could be right because the show is so obscure and open-to-interpretation on how magic works, that unless the writers give us an actual guide on it, us fans are doomed to argue over it until the eventual death of the show.
Honestly, I imagined something more like this (try to ignore the hands from the creator):
Oh yeah, I can see the fight going like this. Starlight's got power, but Sunset's got smarts.
Sequel image link Sequel to the cover art I used.
The one on the left is obviously the correct one.
I love the newspaper bit. Once again, a newspaper solves everypony's problems. :)
As for the Starlight/Twilight/Sunset power level argument, it's pretty clear that Starlight is one of those prodigies Celestia would be looking for all the time. And with Sunset on Earth, and Twilight having become a princess, it actually would be about time for the Princess to find a new student. So it's not unreasonable that prodigies show up every ten years or so, with Starlight being the (currently) youngest magical prodigy in Equestria. The fact that her education can be farmed off on Twilight is probably something of a break for Celestia. Although given that she probably enjoys teaching, she might actually be finding herself at loose ends without a student to teach. Which, of course, means she might start sneaking glances in the general direction of the mirror, to see if just maybe an older student might be willing to finish her education once she graduates from CHS...
“No... Just that you stole one of the Elements of Harmony to brainwash an entire school, turned into a she-demon before being stopped by the very thing you stole, and redeemed yourself around to blast 3 evil sirens with rainbow lasers,” Starlight said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
I know that this your head canon and all, but according to the canon timeline,starlight glimmer is only with twilight after the 3rd movie of equestrian girls.Did you just make it so twilight didn't mention that to Starlight or something?
part of me want the reason for the fight being that they both were in love with twilight
The fandom sure does love Sunset.
Sunset literally went Kung-Fu on Starlight lmao