Sunset Shimmer

Sunset Shimmer is a fictional character from the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls spin-off franchise. She is the main protagonist of the series of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls films and television specials, as well as a background character in the series finale of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She is voiced by Rebecca Shoichet.

Sunset is depicted as being the ex-student of Princess Celestia who left her mentor's teachings to seek power in the human world. She serves as the primary antagonist of the first Equestria Girls film, returning to Equestria to steal Twilight Sparkle's crown, which contains the Element of Magic, and then serving as Twilight's opponent in the election for princess of the fall formal. In the climax of the film, she takes Twilight's crown and places it upon her head, transforming herself into a demon. Twilight and her human friends then use the magic of friendship to defeat Sunset, turning her back to normal. She is forgiven for her wrongdoing and undergoes a redemption arc, serving as the protagonist of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree.

Sunset was created by Meghan McCarthy and is based on earth pony toy Sunshimmer from the third incarnation of the My Little Pony toyline. According to Ishi Rudell, the director of Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree, she represents the Element of Empathy, which is meant to be a seventh element that goes along with the Mane 6 representing the Elements of Harmony.

Voice
Rebecca Shoichet became involved with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic due to her frequent collaboration with the show's composer, Daniel Ingram. Shoichet gained notability for her performance as the singing voice of Twilight Sparkle on the show. She was cast as the voice of Sunset Shimmer in Equestria Girls and reprised the role in all of her animated speaking appearances.

Reception and analysis
Sunset Shimmer's character has largely been positively received by fans and critics. Daniel Alvarez of the website Unleash the Fanboy stated that Sunset has "a great name and design" and served as "a memorable antagonist" in the first film. Alvarez later added in his Friendship Games review that Sunset is "one of the most engaging characters of the entire franchise" and "a great focus". Sherilyn Connelly of The Village Voice highlighted Sunset's redemption as an example of Rainbow Rocks ' strong writing, a sentiment that was shared by Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter, who noted that the Sunset's story accomplished the theme of forgiveness "without a drop of mawkishness or self-congratulation". Ed Liu of Toon Zone described Sunset's redemption arc in Rainbow Rocks as "satisfying" and praised the amount of "sensitivity" the movie exercised with the subject. An analysis on Equestria Daily regarding "My Past Is Not Today" described Sunset Shimmer as "a character we didn’t know we needed before but [we are] glad to have now."

Fan theories
A popular fan theory is that Sunset Shimmer is related to Sunburst, a unicorn stallion from Friendship Is Magic who has a similar name and color palette. When asked if Sunset and Sunburst were related in a Q&A, Friendship Is Magic supervisor Jim Miller left the question up to fan interpretation.