Sunset Shimmer Redesign!
Sunset Shimmer is a kirin in my redesign! I wanted more diversity within the mane 7, and so I went with a kirin!
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Sunset's family moved to Sire's Hollow when she was just a filly. Her father left a little after the move, no one has seen him since. Sunset has one younger sibling, Sunburst. The two spent most of their time together trying to outwit each other with new spells. Sunset Shimmer always had a knack for magic and strived to be the most knowledgeable about magic in her town. After she left for Canterlot, Sunburst picked up where they had left off in their studies and continued to be the bookworm that he is.
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When she found out about Celestia's Academy for Gifted Unicorns, she wanted nothing more than to study under Celestia. For her entrance exam, Sunset had to hatch a phoenix egg, paralleling how Twilight had to hatch a dragon egg. And much like Twilight, Sunset was allowed to keep the legendary bird, naming her Philomena. Celestia saw potential in Sunset and took her under her wing. She had never met a kirin before and was definitely intrigued. Kirin magic was not researched, and so Celestia took this apprenticeship as an opportunity to get to know Sunset and kirin magic.
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Sunset befriended Twilight throughout her time at the academy and they became friendly rivals. Despite how antisocial Twilight can be, Sunset was always at her side and they were rarely seen apart. That is, until Sunset realized how powerful Twilight was.
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This is where my headcanons definitely steer from canon. I don't consider the Equestria Girls movies to be canon. For my Sunset, the portal to the human dimension has never existed and will not exist.
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Sunset Shimmer's downfall began when she realized how powerful her best friend was. Twilight's power made Sunset Shimmer insecure with her own and that led her to search for more ways to gain more magical power. Sunset went against Celestia's rules about the library and snuck in late one night to explore the restricted section beneath the castle. She found a spell that could harness her emotions to bring her more power, but at the time, her emotions were anger and jealousy. Had her emotions been different at the time of finding the spell, the outcome could have been much different.
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This spell caused Sunset Shimmer to shift into her nirik form and accidentally set a sectiom of the library ablaze. This led Celestia to finding her and attempting to capture her for trespassing and damaging the library. Celestia's guard soon arrived to attempt to capture her, but were not successful. There was a momentary showdown between Celestia and Sunset, but Sunset's magic became increasingly difficult for Celestia to handle. Celestia was able to stop her for a moment to try and understand what was going on, but Sunset got even more upset over the fact that her mentor was seeing her in such a state. Sunset fled Canterlot and retreated to the Peaks of Peril.
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She returned to Canterlot a few years afterwards and was treated as a threat to Equestria by Celestia and Luna. Sunset never meant to hurt anyone all those years ago, but she let her emotions get the best of her and the dark magic consumed her. She tried to explain this to the queens, but Celestia insisted that Sunset's use of dark magic is enough to deserve her a place in the Canterlot Gardens. Celestia was furious with Sunset for disobeying a very important rule. She was going to turn Sunset to stone for her crime of weilding dark magic.
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Twilight was in the castle at the time, on their way to a meeting with the queens. They entered the throne room to find Celestia preparing a magical attack and Sunset on the ground, pleading for forgiveness. Luna was standing behind Celestia, looking away in shame. Twilight ran to Sunset's side and deflected the blast, sending it crashing into the wall behind the queens. The queens stood in utter awe and Sunset shakily stood next to Twilight. Although the kirin was much larger than her pony friend, she felt so much weaker than her. Twilight stood in front of Sunset and insisted that the situation was unlike anything she had ever seen out of Celestia.
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I haven't really thought about it much past that point, but let's just say Twilight helped Sunset become more comfortable with herself and taught her about how powerful the magic of friendship is. Sunset ends up moving into the Golden Oak Library with Twilight and helps Twilight with her research about magic. Sunset still has a piece of the dark magic with her, but Twilight does what she can to keep Sunset's head high. Oh yeah, and they're dating BAHAHDH
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Sunset is bisexual and demiromantic. She uses she/her pronouns.