The Sunset Shimmer Study

by DapperLilArts

Rating: everyone
Tags: Romance, Comedy, Equestria Girls, Midnight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Main 7 (EqG), Twilight Sparkle (EqG), Slice of Life
Length: 4534

Twilight Sparkle has discovered her new friend is a pony from another dimension. This requires further study.

Twilight Sparkle has discovered her new friend is a pony from another dimension.

She refuses to leave this stone unturned, and will get to the bottom of this through extensive research, whether Sunset Shimmer knows it or not. Midnight Sparkle, of course, has her two scents about this entire nonsense.

Still-- A magical pony from another dimension walks beside her. This requires further study.

Published 2024-09-20 15:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-09-20 15:00:00 UTC

According to my calculations...

I knew, the second that I began studying magic, that it was going to be extraordinary.

I did not, however, expect to fall upon a rabbit hole of pony madness and metaphysical applications of friendship as a real, tangible force that can affect the world and be weaponized.

I didn’t expect to ever make friends– Get superpowers, save the world, save my school, save anything.

I did not expect to develop an evil alter ego that resides permanently within my psyche as a minor nuisance, and I much less expected to be transformed into a dark angel demoness in the inception of that alter ego, and nearly rampage through a school.

Aww, you’re talking about me. Hi.

…And I much less expected to be saved by… who I was saved.

Sunset Shimmer. Ugh.

Sunset Shimmer. So, um, yeah. First impressions, complicated. Tall punk girl, understandably mad at me for tampering with forces I didn’t understand and nearly getting her friends killed by a giant plant monster, it is a long, sordid story.

Second impressions: Overwhelmingly positive, in which she literally transformed into an angel and ascended into the heavens to save me from my worst instincts.

Hi. Worst instincts here. You suck.

She, however, did surprise me, both on that day, and every day after. She was compassionate, caring, forgiving, and even inclusive, somehow. I am here because of her, above all. On any other day, I would have simply called this a complete win; I discovered what I wanted to discover, and had the door open for far, far more research, and even got into a nicer school, with really sweet and caring friends to boot! Not much could ruin this.

Heheheheh. Now comes the funny part.

Except, of course, this ‘Friendship Seraphim’, who ascended into the skies to save me from my demonic self, isn’t just an incredibly kind samaritan that was in the right place at the right time.

Here it comes!

She’s a pony.

HAH!

She’s a pony from another dimension.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAh, HAH!

And therein lies the rabbit hole. I refuse to leave this stone unturned. Friend or no friend, I have to dig deeper into this. There is a portal directly in front of our school that leads into another alternate dimension with pony counterparts of us– I wish I was joking, it is like one of those animes my brother used to watch, or something out of a children’s cartoon.

Nonetheless: This is the Sunset Shimmer study.

My goal with this operation: To analyze behavior, understand patterns and origins, discover how she differs from humans, whether drastic or subtly, and try to discern if this will affect the friend group we have somehow– Or this strange world-saving job we have now.

I especially want to unravel the connections she has with her own world, how strong they are, and if they are strong enough that she would leave ours.

Counterpoint: Get closer to her to find out her weaknesses. Exploit them. See if you can harness her power– Make it your own, or control her. Make her do our every bidding–

–In the interest of friendship, I will remain as courteous as possible, and do my best not to antagonize her, especially after everything we’ve done. She is kind to me, and I don’t plan on being undeserving of that.

Or better yet!! See if we can force her into transforming into Daydream Shimmer again!! Get a round 2!

But nothing changes the simple fact that my friend is a pony from a magical dimension, and I want to, I need to discover more. Here we go.

Ugh. You’re no fun.

General behavioral studies:

Sunset Shimmer is confident. She is headstrong, but also surprisingly caring of other people’s opinions. I have seen her more than once stop talking so others could speak– More than once, she noticed the group wasn’t listening to me or Fluttershy, and asked the others to be quiet so we could speak.

You should yell more.

There is certainly a performative nature to this attitude– Not that it seems fake, but entirely constructed. It feels like something she learned, something she practiced and perfected.

The art of not being a dick. Whoopdy do.

I devised a simple test. I spoke quietly, even muttering under my breath, while we were all going out together– And she caught on nearly immediately, asking the group to be quiet for me, even asking if I was feeling okay. It seems that she has a special care for those that are excluded; And/or has a great attentiveness to people’s emotions, likely connected to her geode powers. (View page 18)

Considering what I’ve researched of her bully years, (View page 12) It could be as a perpetual form of making amends, or perhaps it could be something telling to personal insecurities of hers. Requires further study.

Hehehe Sunny Bunny might be insecure. Or maybe weak willed, internally? That’d be a treat.

Hypothesis: She might have struggled with being heard or seen before in her life, and this is just the latest method of compartmentalizing her feelings. How was her life on Equestria? I aim to discover. (Breakthroughs on page 15)

Little Sunny must have not been loved! What a shame!

I have been told of her anger, which seemed to have been a much bigger issue before, on her bully days. It seems to be another thing she mastered, reigning in outbursts. I still see on rare occasions her getting unreasonably upset at things (Primarily video games) And with it, especially, losing.

You’ve seen it, though, haven’t you? You’ve noticed the beast that lies within. How she grits her teeths at mild inconveniences. Crosses her arms and looks away from problems. Huffs. There’s a fire in there.

…Since when are you poetic?

Shut up. Go back to doing your research.

Another example of her noticing the needs of our group was when we were all hiking on Everfree (Making a visit to the crystal cave) And she handed me her jacket without me even asking for it.

I had made very little motions to indicate that I was cold, and yet she noticed it right away.

Her jacket was too big for us.

Her jacket was too big for me, but it was still comfortable, and warmed me right up; I kept wearing it through the rest of the hike. I was hoping that I could sneak it home to claim DNA samples, but I realized at that point that the samples would be mixed with mine, so it’d be a pointless endeavor.

Also she noticed it and asked for her jacket back; because you suck at sneaking.

I did have a chance to give the inside of the jacket a smell check. It does seem like she sweats an average human amount, and it did not smell badly; A mix of whatever deodorant she was wearing that day, a bit of the same smell on her hair, and general body fluids smell. I had to do several sniff tests, of course.

I don’t think she noticed me smelling it.

I do lol

Hypothesis: Perhaps her warmer body temperature to average could have correlation to her pony origins? She doesn’t seem particularly uncomfortable in warm weather here, wearing those jackets even in summer, and I’ve hardly seen her need that many more layers in snowy weather.

Remember that time where she had her gloves off in the snow and when she wiped a fleck of ice off of our nose (curse Rainbow Dash for that foul snowball) and her fingers were warm?

It could be possible that this has some kind of connection to pony magic. She was an apprentice of the Princess of the Sun, and above that, she did once mention the frustration of not being able to use fire magic here. (Apparently it was a speciality of hers back home?)

I agree with her, burning things with our mind is funner.

On another behavioral subject: I have seen her, more than once, lose focus on the moment. What was it my mom called it when I did it?

Zoning out?

Yes. It seems that at some moments in classes, she’s unfocussed on the now. It is not something I see happening when she’s with friends, but I have taken into notice it happens when she’s understimulated.

I wonder where her mind wanders to. When those turquoise eyes lose focus, gazing out of the nearest window. What does she dream of?

…Back on track:

Her compassionate nature is loud and clear, that much is without question. Back on Camp Everfree, when I had regular nightmares related to Midnight Sparkle–

Hi.

–She was always there to comfort me when I woke up. I often apologized for the inconvenience of disturbing her sleep, but she never gave any indication of minding it, just helping me for the sake of helping me.

On more than one of the days where I followed her home, I saw her feeding street cats frequently. Whether it was from simple kindness or due to relating to them on some emotional level, undefined.

Update: She noticed me following her home and asked if I wanted to just walk home with her the next few days. I panicked, ran away, slipped, fell on my butt, and one of the cats came to lick me.

You are an embarrassment.

She helped me up without questioning why I would even run away.

Maybe I have spent too much time with Applejack, but I couldn’t help but confess the nature of my presence, even in parts, as to maybe seem a bit less strange.

Mission not accomplished.

I said I was curious about her and her life and wouldn't mind getting to know her better. Not the most ideal cover, it is still suspicious, but still.

You were a total creep, heheheh. I bet she hates you.

She said it was perfectly okay and even a bit funny. But stated that if I had questions, I should just ask them directly. Then she cleaned a speck of mud off of my cheek, made sure I was okay, and took me home.

The cats were fine too.

School performance studies:

Sunset Shimmer is in many extracurricular activities; Such as fencing and being a part of the yearbook committee.

As grades go, she doesn’t seem to struggle at all– Always above average across the board– Which is definitely a surprise, considering her origins.

How the hell is a pony performing well at a human school?

Hypothesis: She was an impeccable overachieving student in Equestria, and that skillset translated here. After all, that world may have magic, but it still has physics and math. So in that regard, she wouldn’t struggle.

It seems she is impressively well adjusted, for a being from another dimension.

Eh, we did see her bucking her locker that one time.

Update: I’ve interviewed Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna regarding Sunset’s performance in school, through the guise of a curious friend.

Although they did not let me see files, they did provide me with some interesting notes.

1: When Sunset first came here, her grades were inferior to now– Particularly in the history subject. They had her in special ed classes to help pick up the slack, a fact she was not fond of, but begrudgingly accepted.

Completely unsurprising.

2: Principal Celestia has offered Sunset a home and shelter under her care, of which she refused, stating she didn’t want to rely on others for living. This decision likely had some correlation to her connection with the Celestia from her own world, and the relationship they had. (View page 13)

In summation, Sunset Shimmer is intelligent, overachieving, but not necessarily studious, (at least anymore) From all I could ascertain.

She’s not smarter than us, that’s for sure.

…But she is a match.

General physique studies:

Sunset Shimmer is tall. I asked to measure all of my friends as a smokescreen to measure her height without suspicion, and after Rarity took off her heels, I confirmed that Sunset is the second tallest of the group– Rivaled only by Applejack.

She measures above six foot, which is quite impressive. I am below average height so I often have to look up to her, or I just find myself staring pointlessly at her general torso area.

I wonder how the weather is up there. I bet you love having to look up all the time when you’re next to her, huh? Either that, or stare at the chest.

Through closer inspection on day-to-day activities, I’ve ascertained that she is fairly strong too. Well, apart from the obvious and easy assessment of her physique when we were at camp everfree or at the beach.

And you just had to keep inspecting those broad shoulders, huh.

It is no surprise that horses, and even ponies, are stronger than the average human. I wonder if some of that physically transported as she metamorphosed into one of us? Ideally I could get closer and see if she has the same consistency as we do, but there’s only so much I can request before suspicions arise or I seem creepy.

“Hey Sunset Shimmer! Can I grope your muscles so I can check to see if you’re really human? This will only take a few hours! Swimsuits are not mandatory, but you will get extra credit!”

On the same subject of physicality, I've seen her jog routinely– One could think this is a direct connection to equines and their need to gallop.

Horses do go fast. Yay. I’m dying of boredom.

Upon hugging, she is firm, but comfortable. Soft, even. Those spikes on her leather jackets aren’t as pointy as they appear. And she generally does not smell badly, despite what I’ve ascertained from her living condition. (View page 16)

And she is surprisingly physically affectionate. Personally, at least before CHS, this was something I struggled with. But with the right trusting people, it’s not so bad. She often places hands on shoulders or holds other’s hands affectionately, and I haven’t seen any of our friends get uncomfortable with it. (I never do.)

Her hands are calloused and rough at places, with more than a few marks from her guitar playing and fencing practice, and the occasional scar from cats biting or scratching. They are strong and reliable, and I’ve seen her wear fingerless gloves, biker gloves, or rings. Her hands are also noticeably bigger than mine.

You’re omitting the part where you asked to hold her hands to get this information.

Does her comfort with physical displays of affection have some connection with her pony origins? From all I’ve gathered of Equestrian culture, physical affection is second nature there. I do remember seeing her head move as if she was rubbing her hair on us when we did one of those big group hugs Pinkie loves so much. Perhaps this was the ‘Equestrian nuzzle’?

If we nuzzled back, off would go the glasses, right onto the floor.

Applejack is the physically strongest of us, that much was obvious since before we had our geodes. But I’ve ascertained that Sunset is the second strongest, and there is nothing magical about her strength– Connections to her previous pony physique, maybe. I have seen her beat Rainbow Dash in more than one arm wrestling to know that the speedster doesn’t match.

It could be that this degree of physical affection (Such as placing hands on shoulders, etc) has some correlation to our newfound magic (View page 18) With the powers her geode provides, but Sunset does not strike me as the kind of person to read minds without permission. I will interview her about this in future magic studies.

If I can get a hair sample and a blood sample, I might be able to go a bit deeper on what she consists of.

Good luck finding excuses to get her blood, heh. I vote we stab her!

I am not stabbing her under any circumstances.

Last, most interesting thing of note: Sunset Shimmer has two large scars on her upper back, evidently caused due to the loss of wings while in human form. From the reports I’ve gathered, she transformed into a demon and rampaged through the halls of CHS once– Much like a certain someone in this conversation– But it seems that her transformation was more… Physical.

I wish I could have met her then. I bet we would have had fun together.

She does not seem ashamed of her scars, but she rarely displays them, and I have seen her try to itch her back more than once.

Only on the blessed swimsuit times…

Pony studies:

Unfortunately, this is the hardest part of this study, considering the struggles with crossing between our worlds.

Although I want to cross the mirror by myself to interview my counterpart, I do have some reservations, and often find myself without time to do it. If I were to do so, my first stop would be visiting my pony counterpart; Her desire for knowledge and study seems to be one of the traits we share– And she would unlikely suspect my recent interest in Sunset as anything more than curiosity.

Try obsession.

I haven’t gathered much from pony culture, I can imagine I’m only scratching the surface, but from what I've discovered, the culture is a lot more lax on displays of affection and physicality (The vast majority of them walk around naked, after all, which is completely unspeakable in our culture.) And most interestingly, it seems that attraction is less often bound by gender over there. I asked Sunset, and she informed me that the human counterpart to this idea is a term called ‘Bisexuality’.

She also confirmed to us that she’s that.

As I am straight, I am not sure what I could add to this. I did see her wear colors for pride month.

Hah. You? Straight?

I’m going to ignore that.

I’m literally a demon that lives in your brain. I’m telling you that one trip to your subconscious makes it easy to unravel your attraction to–

I’m not listening to a demon inside my head when she talks about my introspection. Bye.

How about that dream you had about our Sunny Bunny? Seemed pretty telling, the state you woke up in. Do I need to remind you the very vivid imagery of her–

NOT A PART OF RESEARCH. IT WAS A DREAM. BASELESS AND POINTLESS TO CONSIDER IT A–

Whatever. Continue your stupid study already.

–To reign in the subject back to the matter of importance: Pony culture. It seems that my pony counterpart is a Princess, an alicorn, the next in line to rule her world.

I have met her on more than one occasion. From what I could ascertain, she holds a critical role in Equestria, and is the de facto leader of her own group of world saving individuals. She does, however, not seem to share my same degrees of anxieties and social… Difficulties.

She’s not better than me.

Her relationship with Sunset seems close. They have a private method of communication in between the worlds in the form of a journal, one which Sunset takes with herself most places.

I’ve considered potentially sneaking a sentence or two in the journal to interview the Princess, but I realized it’d be an invasion of privacy, and easy for Sunset to see it. It seems that Sunset values quite highly what the other Twilight thinks and feels regarding her exploits in our world.

She’s not better than us.

Still, anytime I’ve seen them together, they seemed close. Whenever they meet, they instantly hug each other without failing, and both seem to be fond of it.

She’s NOT better than us.

She is an alicorn in Equestria, from what I can gather, they are the pinnacle of pony kind, capable of moving the sun and the moon itself, in fact, they are VITAL for the survival of their world. And she’s one. And she will one day rule all of it–

SHE’S NOT BETTER THAN US!!!

~~…Touchy touchy, stop it, this is relevant to the study–~~

Stop talking about the inferior version of us!! Talk about who matters here!!

…I still plan on discovering more of my counterpart, but until Midnight is okay with it, I guess I’ll focus this study further.

You better.

Last thing I need is you trying to rise to the surface to pick a fight with her.

For the record? I would totally win.

Sure.

I would!!!!

Sunset Shimmer has called me ‘Princess’ on more than one occasion. Originally she used to correct herself, but now she has just become comfortable with the nickname, and I don’t particularly mind it. Other nicknames she has called me are ‘Twi’ and ‘Sparkles’, neither of which I mind.

Which is your favorite? Mine is ‘Sparkles’.

‘Princess’. Regardless. I previously discovered that Sunset Shimmer wanted to be an alicorn, before she came here. She wanted to ascent into godhood and be the kind of being that can raise the sun. I do find it strange that she didn’t reach this goal, and that a version of me did instead…

…But I suppose this correlates to how she acted before we met. (View page 21)

Family studies:

This one will, unfortunately, be the shortest section, because Sunset Shimmer rarely ever talks about family.

The few small facts I’ve managed to ascertain are:

She is an orphan. Not like Applejack– She was raised in an orphanage. I know nothing of her biological parents, and I’m not sure she does either.

The Princess of the Sun, Celestia, was her legal guardian– I am unsure if Sunset was randomly selected by what is essentially a god to be raised, or if she demonstrated magical prowess that gained the Princess’s attention.

It does seem like her; To be so talented that god notices. She does have the skills for it.

Hypothesis: It is a mix of both. As my counterpart displayed, there's no shortage of talented unicorns in Equestria. Sunset Shimmer must have demonstrated impeccable prowess in that craft, but Celestia could have been looking for someone like her.

Issue: Did she, then, run away from a teacher, or run away from a mother? I’m inclined to believe the former, considering that she has remained away, even after having redeemed herself to my counterpart– And in all of CHS’s eyes. She still chooses to be here. To stay here.

That doesn’t prove anything. Running away from a mother’s wrath is even more necessary than a teacher’s wrath. Bottom line is: She ran away, and here she is.

And still, she has visited Equestria before, and met Celestia, too. I’ve been told they’re on good terms– Why isn’t she visiting Celestia more often, if she’s her mother?

There are things that an apology can’t fix.

…I suppose this hypothesis wont get me anywhere.

Update 1: She and Applejack talked privately about parental absence. I couldn’t get the jist of what they were saying, but Applejack cried.

Update 2: Sunset Shimmer has accidentally called Principal Celestia ‘mom’.

Magic studies:

Each of us has a geode with individual powers that we found in the Everfree forest, with ties to Equestrian magic. Our powers are all distinct, with varying levels of utility. (I struggle to imagine what Pinkie uses her powers for!)

Blowing shit up. Duh.

Sunset Shimmer’s power is a form of empathy telepathy. She can feel others feelings in proximity, if not only touch, and can go through their memories.

She has also described how it feels good to have physical contact with someone that she is close with, that is feeling akin to… I believe she used the description of ‘Like sitting by a warm fireplace’?

And she described touching Pinkie as being like touching a massage chair, heheh.

Out of all of us, her power is the only one that has no combat applicability. It is an interesting phenomenon– Because it has still been incredibly useful on occasion.

I can say with almost certainty that one of the primary reasons why she is so caring and understanding could be because of her powers.

If that’s so, then how come she was already super nice and understanding before?

…Because Sunset Shimmer is a good person.

I could have told you that. Is the study over now or what?

…I’m not sure.

I guess that’s the underlying truth around all this, isn’t it?

She’s not a threat, she is not a problem. Everything I need to know about her is on the surface. She’s a good person, and she’s my friend.

…Who cares what she was before, or who she is inside. All I need is on the surface.

That’s nice. But you don’t want to just know her on the surface, nerd.

…

You want what’s inside.

Okay nerd. When you wake up, read everything I wrote here, and read it well.

I’m going to make this very, very simple for you: This entire study was just your way to compartmentalize your attraction for her.

You can say it’s romantic, sexual, or even just fascination, whatever.

All that matters is that you have looked for every reason under the sun to be closer to her, and you’ve done so consistently and shamelessly.

So let me appeal to your logic: If you are in a romantic relationship with her, she’ll be much more inclined to accept any of your weird quirks and interests in discovering what makes her tick.

Deny it all you want, but you wrote all this because of her, for you. You want her, whether you like it or not.

So don’t be a wuss and act on it.

Oh, and last thing:

My one goal is to dominate our Sunny Bunny. Whatever form that takes, I’m game.

General attraction studies:

…

……

………

I have begun researching ‘bisexuality’.

Author's Note

No thoughts. Head empty.

Okay I will admit, although I'm enjoying writing one-shots, I REALLY jumped the shark with Celestia vs Celestia, there's absolutely no way I'm ever gonna write a better one shot than that, lmao. Sure, I could write that sequel, but I'm only doing it if I get the perfect manifested idea in my mind, it's gotta come from the heavens and bless me, lmao. I gotta do it justice!

Still though! I missed writing Scitwi stuff, and absolutely wanted to do something fun and a little bit different. (Plus I missed Midnight too, heh. Double package)

Anyone else also agrees that the first thing Scitwi would do before trying to 'court' Sunset is do research on things like bisexuality lmao

Also rare instance of me drawing skinny Twilight! I usually prefer to make her chubby, I think its a better look!

This is my shortest one shot, wow. (I don't count the end of gen 6 lol that was a favor to a friend)

I plan on writing a Wallflower one shot, and maybe a Nightmare Rarity one too!

But for now? Back on working on Forgotten Sun, heh.