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AU!Sunset Shimmer.

The faithful student of Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer developed an obsession with magic that led to her setting out on her own to try to discover the Elements of Harmony, convinced from her research that Nightmare Moon was approaching and they had limited time to work with. Instead, her magic combined with faulty Element-wannabes left all five of them unable to perform magic. They had enough of the qualities of personality to activate the Elements, but they weren't meant to wield them, and everypony went into magical overload.

Ashamed, Sunset was going to leave forever and go into the human world, where magic was minimal and she could never hurt anypony again. Her self esteem was so low that Princess Celestia found her halfway through packing, standing on the windowsill, ready to jump. Before she could do it, however, Princess Celestia talked to her. Although Sunset would never forgive herself, she was sent to recover in Ponyville for a year and think over her decision to leave to the human world before making it permanent. There, she met the actual Elements of Harmony, who refused to let her rotten attitude keep her from being their friend. Realizing this, Sunset kept up an act of arrogance, mean spirited jibes and constant pride so they wouldn't show up when Nightmare Moon did, trying to avert another disaster.

Instead, they came along not despite this, but because of it, having heard the whole truth from Spike secondhand. And thus Nightmare Moon was defeated and Celestia's other student, a young mare named Twilight Sparkle, continued her studies undisturbed far away from Ponyville, though Sunset did meet her and play with the rising star of a unicorn when they were young fillies.

Sunset can be a jerk, a girl of arrogance, genuine snobbery, and vicious words. But she will lay down her life not just for her friends but for her enemies; underneath the layers of sarcasm, superiority and eye-rolling, there is a scared little mare who can never forgive herself for causing five innocent unicorns to lose their magic. As unlikable as she is, it is only an act, a wall put up to keep the world safe from the pony she considers most dangerous: herself. She relentlessly practices with her magic to be, in her own words, better than perfect. She has to be, so she can defeat the dangers in Equestria so that the others won't have to fight. She does love her friends, even if she'd never admit it. Sunset Shimmer is a perfectionist burning herself out trying to grasp unreachable goals.