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* PoorCommuncationKills: Sunset was so used to Celestia being a TricksterMentor and SecretTestOfCharacter that she assumed that when she told her that she would only become an alicorn "when she was ready," it meant she wanted Sunset to figure it out on her own, leading Sunset to start researching dark magic.
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* AscendedToCarnivorism: Sunset likes bacon, despite ponies being usually herbivores. Presumably, either ponykind as a whole are omnivorous but prefer greens, or Sunset is a special case.
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* AlternativeCalendar: Sunset comments at one point on how the griffons have to adjust their dates every four years because of their wind-based calendar, suggesting that Equestria's calendar is based on something which ''doesn't'' require that.
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* AlternativeCalendar: Sunset comments at one point on how the griffons have to adjust their dates every four years because of their wind-based calendar, suggesting that Equestria's calendar is based on something which ''doesn't'' require that.[[note]]On Earth, leapyears exist because what we call a year is actually 365,25 days, meaning that there is no way to divide it into even months without adding an extra day every four years.[[/note]]
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* ShoutOut: At one point Sunset quotes [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Jaya Ballard, task mage]].
-->'''Sunset:''' Of ''course'' you should fight fire with fire. You should fight '''everything''' with fire.
** One of the books she finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie1986 of Megan]]".
-->'''Sunset:''' Of ''course'' you should fight fire with fire. You should fight '''everything''' with fire.
** One of the books she finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie1986 of Megan]]".
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* ShoutOut: ShoutOut:
** At one point Sunset quotes [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Jaya Ballard, task mage]].
-->'''Sunset:''' --->'''Sunset:''' Of ''course'' you should fight fire with fire. You should fight '''everything''' with fire.
** One of the booksshe Sunset finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie1986 of Megan]]".
** At one point Sunset quotes [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Jaya Ballard, task mage]].
** One of the books
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-->~The story's short description
to:
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* CelebrationMiscalculation: Since Pinkie doesn't know when Sunset's birthday ''actually'' is, she just takes guesses, leading her to throw Sunset a "birthday" party every month or so.
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* [[NotTheirBirthday Not Her Birthday]]: Since Pinkie doesn't know when Sunset's birthday ''actually'' is, she just takes guesses, leading her to throw Sunset a "birthday" party every month or so.
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The less potholes that confuses the 1986 movie and the G4 2017 one, the better.
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** One of the books she finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie of Megan]]".
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** One of the books she finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie1986 of Megan]]".
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Link to actual story
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Following [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW her dismissal as Celestia's student]], Sunset Shimmer doesn't go through the mirror to the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Equestria Girls]] universe. However, she still wants to be somewhere outside of Celestia's influence, so after [[FakingTheDead accidentally faking her death]], she hides out in the Everfree Forest, where she slowly [[StartingANewLife starts a new life]] as the forest's resident [[SolitarySorceress scary-but-benevolent witch]].
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Following [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWAnnual2013 her dismissal as Celestia's student]], Sunset Shimmer doesn't go through the mirror to the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Equestria Girls]] universe. However, she still wants to be somewhere outside of Celestia's influence, so after [[FakingTheDead accidentally faking her death]], she hides out in the Everfree Forest, where she slowly [[StartingANewLife starts a new life]] as the forest's resident [[SolitarySorceress scary-but-benevolent witch]].
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Removed per TRS.
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* {{Badass}}: Sunset, who can easily back up her claim to being the most powerful unicorn alive.
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** During their fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], Sunset tells Twilight to [[{{Film/Ghostbusters}} cross the streams]].
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** During their fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], Sunset tells Twilight to [[{{Film/Ghostbusters}} [[{{Film/Ghostbusters 1984}} cross the streams]].
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* AntiHero: Sunset
* {{Badass}}: Sunset, who can easily back up her claim to being the most powerful unicorn alive.
* {{Badass}}: Sunset, who can easily back up her claim to being the most powerful unicorn alive.
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** Sunset also had this. Her refusal to be controlled by Celestia ended with her plummeting into a river.
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* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Applejack gets snapped out of her blind rage at the Great White Wolf for killing her parents when seeing Sunset slowly killing it for her. Her reaction in turn causes a milder one in Sunset, who then [[MercyKill finishes it off quickly]].
** When Pinkie is listing the NoodleImplements she'll need to test the possibility of creating a pinata full of pinatas, she closes with "[[Film/AustinPowers an old priest and a young priest.]]"
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** [[spoiler:"Twilight, it’d take an escaped god of chaos to keep me away."]]
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** [[spoiler:"Twilight, it’d take an escaped god of chaos to keep me away."]]"]] This one gets lampshaded by the narration.
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* CoveredInScars: Sunset, after her encounter with the manticore when she first enters the forest.
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** The exact nail appears to be Sunset having a panic attack right after Celestia throws her out, which prevents her from overpowering the guards escorting her out and heading for the mirror.
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** Special credit goes to her fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], which ends up leveling upper half of Ponyville's town hall.
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** Special credit goes to her fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], which ends up leveling the upper half of Ponyville's town hall.
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-->'''Sunset:''' You’re not going to take me down that easily. Do you know who I am? I’m Sunset Shimmer! I burned down half of a ''stone castle''! I threw myself out of a train because I don’t let ponies tell '''me''' what to do! [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW I blew up my professors '''on purpose''' as part of my mid-term!]] You’re just a stupid monster and you don’t have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus against me!
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-->'''Sunset:''' You’re not going to take me down that easily. Do you know who I am? I’m Sunset Shimmer! I burned down half of a ''stone castle''! I threw myself out of a train because I don’t let ponies tell '''me''' what to do! [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW I blew up my professors '''on purpose''' professors]] '''[[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW on purpose]]''' [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW as part of my mid-term!]] You’re just a stupid monster and you don’t have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus against me!
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_witch_of_the_everfree.png]]
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->"My name is Sunset Shimmer. I am the strongest unicorn in all of Equestria, and my life is over. I'm in hiding and on the run, and I have no idea where to start putting things back together."
-->~The story's short description
''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/252269/the-witch-of-the-everfree The Witch of the Everfree]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' ForWantOfANail fanfic by [=MagnetBolt=].
Following [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW her dismissal as Celestia's student]], Sunset Shimmer doesn't go through the mirror to the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Equestria Girls]] universe. However, she still wants to be somewhere outside of Celestia's influence, so after [[FakingTheDead accidentally faking her death]], she hides out in the Everfree Forest, where she slowly [[StartingANewLife starts a new life]] as the forest's resident [[SolitarySorceress scary-but-benevolent witch]].
----
!! This fanfic contains examples of:
* AlternativeCalendar: Sunset comments at one point on how the griffons have to adjust their dates every four years because of their wind-based calendar, suggesting that Equestria's calendar is based on something which ''doesn't'' require that.
* AmbiguousSituation: It's not clear whether or not Sunset is correct in thinking that [[spoiler:Celestia comforting her when she has the Feather Flu]] is [[AllJustADream a hallucination]].
* AnimalNemesis: The Great White Wolf becomes one for Applejack after it kills her parents.
* BadassBoast: Sunset to a manticore:
-->'''Sunset:''' You’re not going to take me down that easily. Do you know who I am? I’m Sunset Shimmer! I burned down half of a ''stone castle''! I threw myself out of a train because I don’t let ponies tell '''me''' what to do! [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW I blew up my professors '''on purpose''' as part of my mid-term!]] You’re just a stupid monster and you don’t have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus against me!
** She also gives a nicely understated one to [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]]:
-->'''Sunset:''' In case you hadn’t heard, I’m the strongest unicorn in Equestria, and I’m villain enough for this town. I’m going to send you back to [[spoiler:the moon]] in pieces.
* BigEntrance: Sunset likes doing these when she attends parties in Ponyville, using illusions to lower the ambient light, make her voice echo, and generally seem more dramatic.
* BigWhat: When Twilight tells Sunset that she wants to visit her, Sunset lets out one of these.
* BoobyTrap: The castle already has a bunch when Sunset finds it, and she adds ''even more'' herself.
** She also sets up a huge one for Celestia during the Summer Sun Celebration, which she repurposes for [[spoiler:use against Nightmare Moon]] when it becomes clear that [[spoiler:[[AllPropheciesAreTrue she actually exists]]]]. [[StuffBlowingUp It levels half of Ponyville's town hall when it goes off]].
* BrickJoke: Sunset teaching Twilight to interrupt monologues.
* BurnTheOrphanage: Sunset inadvertently destroyed the orphanage she grew up in when some bullies who thought she was magically weak [[MuggingTheMonster dared her to cast a spell]] and she responded by putting [[ExplosiveOverclocking every bit of power she could]] into a light spell.
* CassandraTruth: Twilight manages to predict both Nightmare Moon and Discord's returns before they happen, but Sunset doesn't take her seriously, assuming that if they were actual threats Celestia would be doing something about them.
* CharacterDevelopment: Celestia learns from the mistakes she made [[ParentalSubstitute raising Sunset]], and generally manages to avoid repeating them with Twilight. [[spoiler:Or with Sunset, once they reconcile.]]
** Sunset learns the value of friendship, and tones her {{Pride}} down to the point where she can actually admit her mistakes.
* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]] is impressed with Sunset's willingness to blow up Ponyville's town hall for the sake of stopping her.
* CompanionCube: Applejack [[ContinuityNod is in the habit of]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E21OverABarrel naming her trees]].
-->I groaned and leaned against an apple tree. It was probably named Rupert or Jackanape or something like that.
* DeadpanSnarker: Sunset has her moments.
-->'''Twilight:''' Sometimes I don’t sleep for days!
-->'''Sunset:''' I usually sleep at nights myself.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: After Sunset throws a fireball at a tree in the Everfree Forest:
-->'''Twilight:''' You could have killed us! Using fire in the forest is going to… you know! Start a fire. A forest fire. ''In the forest''.
-->'''Sunset:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Eloquent.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Applejack, during her quest to kill the timberwolf that killed her parents.
-->She gave me a determined look, the kind only a foal with no sense of self-preservation could have. I was pretty sure I’d given ponies that exact look a few times.
* DontLookAtMe: Sunset keeps herself covered in her cloak whenever she can, because she doesn't like letting ponies see her scars.
* DramaticIrony: Twilight tells Sunset that she needs her to be at the Summer Sun Celebration in case Nightmare Moon shows up, because she wouldn't trust Rarity to help her banish an ancient evil.
-->'''Twilight:''' I doubt she even knows how to cast a fireball spell!
* TheDreaded: Sunset eventually becomes this to the creatures of the Everfree Forest; as time goes on, they become increasingly prone to avoiding her, since attacking her is overwhelmingly likely to end with them being burned to a crisp.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even at the peak of her rage against Celestia, Sunset makes a note to minimize casualties among [[JustFollowingOrders Celestia's guards]] when she comes back for revenge.
** She's also shocked by the extremes of Twilight's imagination regarding how bad she used to be.
-->'''Sunset:''' I told you I was a bad pony who did bad things, remember? I meant it.
-->'''Twilight:''' What was it? Necromancy? Blood Magic? Chaos Magic? ''Double'' Chaos Magic? ''Necro-romantic spells''?
-->'''Sunset:''' Wow. Your imagination went right to some ''really'' dark places when I said I was a bad pony. I’m not a '''monster''', Twilight. I was just [[{{Jerkass}} a jerk]].
* ExplosiveOverclocking: Sunset, after reading the Clover Manuscript, figures out how to force extra mana into simple spells. However, as more mana is put into a spell, the spell becomes increasingly likely to blow up in the caster's face.
* FakingTheDead: While Sunset doesn't actually ''intend'' for her escape to look like a death, after she realizes that it ''did'' look that way, she goes out of her way to avoid letting Celestia realize that she's actually still alive.
** [[spoiler:She's not quite as thorough as she hopes to be; Celestia realizes that she's alive as soon as she starts writing back to Twilight.]]
* FoodAsBribe: Cadance distracts Twilight from asking about [[MayflyDecemberRomance how old she is compared to Shining Armor]] by offering her coffee.
-->'''Cadance:''' Hey! Wow! They have lava cake on the menu! Let’s get a round of those, and I’ll let you have coffee if you stop asking questions.
-->'''Twilight:''' Celestia says I can’t have coffee after [[NoodleIncident the accident with the west garden]].
-->'''Cadance:''' That’s why it’s bribery, Twilight.
-->'''Twilight:''' ...Deal.
* ForgetsToEat: Twilight, according to Spike.
* ForWantOfANail: The story starts with Sunset staying in Equestria instead of going through the mirror, and diverges from there.
* FriendlessBackground: Sunset never bothered to make friends despite Celestia's pestering, which leaves her without anywhere to go after she's kicked out of Celestia's castle.
* GreenEyedMonster: From the moment they met, Sunset resented Cadance for having been adopted by Celestia, which Sunset wanted to happen to ''her''.
** Cadance, meanwhile, was jealous of ''Sunset'' for her closeness to Celestia; while Cadance was the one Celestia had ''officially'' adopted, Sunset was the one she spent all her time with.
* GuiltyPleasures: Eating bacon, for Sunset. Understandable, given that ponies are typically herbivorous.
* HeroicBSOD: When she thought Sunset had died, Celestia had to cancel court for a week because she couldn't keep herself together.
* HighDiveEscape: Sunset pulls one to get away from the guards who have her cornered on the train to Ponyville, teleporting off the train as it crosses a high bridge.
* IncompletelyTrained: Cadance, as an alicorn, has a huge amount of magical power, but she barely knows any magic, so ends up much weaker in practice than either Sunset or Twilight.
* IndyPloy: Sunset starts out thinking this way, but she isn't quite as effective at it as she thinks she is, and eventually starts coming up with actual plans.
-->I didn’t need to plan. I was Sunset Shimmer, the strongest unicorn in Equestria. Planning was for ponies who didn’t have the strength to just do what they wanted. I could do '''anything'''.
* InSeriesNickname: Pinkie starts calling Sunset "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E3CastleManeia the Pony of Shadows]]" after her BigEntrance to Applejack's birthday party. [[spoiler:She eventually rejects the name after her VisionQuest.]]
* {{Invisibility}}: One of Sunset's precautions when she decides to stick around for the Summer Sun Celebration is to turn invisible.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sunset starts out as this, but the "jerk" part [[CharacterDevelopment fades out over time]].
* KillItWithFire: Sunset's default strategy in combat. Made easier by the fact that she enchanted herself to be fireproof, allowing her to light her surroundings on fire without needing to worry about getting burned herself.
* LargeHam: Sunset isn't one in ordinary conversation, but she hams it up ''a lot'' whenever she either [[TheDreaded wants to intimidate someone]] or wants to make a BigEntrance.
* MachineMonotone: Sunset enchants her journal to recite any messages Twilight writes to it, but she doesn't know sufficiently advanced illusion magic to get an actual voice link going, so instead it recites the text in her own voice with a completely deadpan tone.
** She updates it to use Twilight's voice after they meet in person, but never gets around to fixing the tone.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: After Sunset [[spoiler:hits her hard enough to visibly burn her mane, Nightmare Moon banishes Sunset to the dark side of the moon with Celestia]].
* ManipulativeBastard: Sunset sees Celestia as this for the first few years after she runs away, interpreting her TricksterMentor act as just a facade.
* MultiDirectionalBarrage: When Sunset is surrounded by timberwolves, she's perfectly fine with it, labeling it as a "target-rich environment" rather than the ambush it was intended to be. Then she proceeds to drive almost the whole pack away with a single spell.
* MundaneUtility: Zecora's cauldron is useful, not only for potion-making, but also for ''tea''-making.
* MustMakeAmends: Fluttershy nearly died in an accident (implied to be [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles her fall from Cloudsdale]]) and Rainbow Dash blamed herself for not being there, so she dropped out of school in order to stay with Fluttershy and make sure that she ''would'' always be there for her in the future.
* NervousWreck: Sunset has a series of panic attacks in the immediate aftermath of her removal as Celestia's student, and thereafter whenever she comes too close to encountering Celestia.
* NoodleImplements: Pinkie Pie on whether it's possible to make [[MatryoshkaObject Maretyoshka pinatas]]:
-->'''Pinkie Pie:''' I will need to do ''party science'' to find out. I’ll need five hundred pounds of paper mache, two bags of glitter, an old priest, and a young priest.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Everypony assumes that Sunset is dead after she takes a long fall into a river.
* NoSell: [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon's magical aura]] is sufficiently powerful to absorb everything Sunset throws at her before it even ''hits'' her, at least until Sunset realizes what's going on.
** [[spoiler:She ''appears'' to do nearly as well against Sunset's followup attack, but Luna tells Sunset later that it actually came much closer than it looked to beating her, even if she didn't show it.]]
* NoSocialSkills: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. While Sunset has no interest in day-to-day politeness or friend-making, she ''can'' be polite when she cares enough to try.
* [[NotTheirBirthday Not Her Birthday]]: Since Pinkie doesn't know when Sunset's birthday ''actually'' is, she just takes guesses, leading her to throw Sunset a "birthday" party every month or so.
* OhCrap: A few times in a row during [[spoiler:Sunset's fight with Nightmare Moon]]. First Twilight has one when Sunset mentions that her "exit strategy" has a [[StuffBlowingUp blast radius]], then Sunset has ''two'' in quick succession when [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon manages to NoSell Sunset's trap and comes out of a [[ExplosiveOverclocking super-compressed]] beam of fire with no visible damage beyond a burned mane]].
* OrphanageOfFear: Sunset analogizes her orphanage's ''social'' food chain to the Everfree Forest's ''physical'' food chain.
* ParentalSubstitute: Celestia was one for Sunset before their fight, but she didn't directly acknowledge it, leading Sunset to become [[GreenEyedMonster jealous of Cadance]] for having been officially adopted by Celestia. [[spoiler:After their reconciliation, Celestia starts actually calling Sunset her daughter.]]
* ParentheticalSwearing: When Sunset attacks [[WhenTreesAttack the Great White Wolf]], she yells "Take this, you ''[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch birch]]''!"
* PerceptionFilter: One of Sunset's stealth aids at the Summer Sun Celebration is a ''Background Pony'' spell, which makes her and her surroundings appear utterly uninteresting to any observers.
* PetTheDog: When she's ejected from the palace, Sunset notes that the guards escorting her out are [[JustFollowingOrders just doing their jobs]], and resolves to minimize casualties when she comes back for revenge on Celestia.
* PlayingWithFire: While Sunset has a wide variety of spells at her disposal, she has a particular affinity for fire magic, and has a set of enchantments on her to make herself fireproof.
* PowerPerversionPotential: Rainbow's "thing with the thunderclouds".
* {{Pride}}: Sunset's main flaw at the start of the story. She [[CharacterDevelopment gets better about it over time]], to the point where she manages to shock Cadance by admitting that Twilight is smarter than herself.
* ProperlyParanoid: When Sunset feels like she's being followed, she assumes she's just being baselessly paranoid, but casts a scanning spell anyway. Turns out she was completely right, leading her to turn around and decide she actually wasn't being paranoid ''enough''.
** Twilight manages to correctly predict both Discord and Nightmare Moon's returns, even if [[CassandraTruth nopony believes her about them]].
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Much to Sunset's surprise, the prophecy about Nightmare Moon which Twilight got out of an old storybook is actually ''true''.
* PuppyDogEyes: Applejack pulls them on Sunset when she's on the verge of refusing to help find [[AnimalNemesis the Great White Wolf]].
** Rarity pulls them too, trying to draw a story out of Sunset after she offhandedly mentions having met a griffon ambassador.
* RageAgainstTheMentor: Sunset gets a short one at the very beginning of the story, when she's removed as Celestia's student.
* RebuiltPedestal: [[spoiler:Sunset eventually realizes that Celestia actually ''did'' love her and that her own actions were the main driving force behind their initial conflict.]]
* RevengeBeforeReason: After her parents are killed by a timberwolf, Applejack goes into the Everfree Forest determined to make it pay, ignoring both the dangers of the forest and the fact that she doesn't know where the timberwolves actually ''are''.
* ScarsAreForever: Sunset gets pretty majorly scarred by a manticore when she first enters the Everfree. It's exacerbated by her habit of scratching at her wounds.
* ShipperOnDeck: Cadance seems to ship [[PortmanteauCoupleName SunLight]].
* ShipTease: At one point Twilight is on the verge of talking to Sunset about "strange feelings" which she considers to be "too personal" to discuss in front of Cadance, but Cadance [[MomentKiller kills the moment]] before she can spill the beans, and she never brings it up again.
* ShoutOut: At one point Sunset quotes [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Jaya Ballard, task mage]].
-->'''Sunset:''' Of ''course'' you should fight fire with fire. You should fight '''everything''' with fire.
** One of the books she finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie of Megan]]".
** During their fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], Sunset tells Twilight to [[{{Film/Ghostbusters}} cross the streams]].
** During the same fight, she pulls a [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Vaarsuvius]]: "I prepared explosive runes this mor-"
* SolitarySorceress: Sunset spends her first few years in the Everfree as this, and actively cultivates it as her public image. She becomes more social as time goes on, though, starting to visit Ponyville occasionally.
* StartingANewLife: The story is all about Sunset doing this following her fight with Celestia.
* StuffBlowingUp: Sunset's combat strategy in general is pretty heavy on explosions.
** Special credit goes to her fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], which ends up leveling upper half of Ponyville's town hall.
* SuicidalGotcha: Sunset pulls one to get away from the guards who are following her, [[HighDiveEscape teleporting off of a train as it crosses a bridge]]. Unusually, she has no specific survival mechanism in mind, and ends up only surviving by dumb luck.
* SurpassedTheTeacher: [[spoiler:Twilight]] eventually surpasses [[spoiler:Sunset]] at magical theory. Unusually, rather than dropping out of their mentor-student relationship at that point, they just ''switch'', with [[spoiler:Twilight]] starting to teach [[spoiler:Sunset]] instead of the other way around.
* TakeAThirdOption: Sunset does this when cornered by guards on the train to Ponyville, [[HighDiveEscape teleporting off a bridge]] rather than either fighting them or talking to them.
-->'''Guard:''' There isn’t anywhere to run, so you can either listen peacefully or we can do things the hard way.
-->'''Sunset:''' There's always a choice, as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences.
* TemptingFate: "Don't be stupid. I’m a unicorn. We can’t ''get'' the Feather Flu."
** [[spoiler:"Twilight, it’d take an escaped god of chaos to keep me away."]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sunset has liked [[CarnivoreConfusion bacon]] ever since she had a dinner with some griffon ambassadors who fed it to her.
* TreeCover: [[ShipperOnDeck Cadance]] tries to surreptitiously watch Twilight and Sunset's ShipTease moment from a tree branch. Then she accidentally rustles it, [[MomentKiller killing the moment]].
** Sunset accidentally teleports herself into the branches of the [[ArborealAbode Ponyville library]] when she sees Celestia's guards arriving in Ponyville, and proceeds to curl into a ball and hope the guards don't notice her.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: After Sunset kills the Great White Wolf for her, Applejack realizes that it hasn't made her feel better at all, and isn't going to bring her parents back.
* VisionQuest: Sunset has a short one after she accidentally terrifies Twilight: she asks Zecora for help, and Zecora suggests finding her spirit guide, which will [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor help her see herself as others see her]]. [[spoiler:She sees a ponified version of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls her demon form]].]] Her [[AmbiguousSituation maybe-hallucination]] [[spoiler:of Celestia]] may or may not have been part of it too.
* WildMagic: The Everfree Forest has a haze of magic which scrambles incoming scrying spells, making it an ideal hiding place. However, it also makes it somewhat more difficult to cast spells while inside it, which prevents Sunset from teleporting out of danger as quickly as she would otherwise be able to.
* YouAreNotReady: Celestia repeatedly telling this to Sunset was one of the things which initially drove them apart; it didn't stop Sunset from continuing to research the mirror and alicornhood on her own, but it ''did'' cause her to become increasingly resentful of Celestia, as well as leading her to incidentally read some books on dark magic in the process of her research.
----
-->~The story's short description
''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/252269/the-witch-of-the-everfree The Witch of the Everfree]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' ForWantOfANail fanfic by [=MagnetBolt=].
Following [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW her dismissal as Celestia's student]], Sunset Shimmer doesn't go through the mirror to the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Equestria Girls]] universe. However, she still wants to be somewhere outside of Celestia's influence, so after [[FakingTheDead accidentally faking her death]], she hides out in the Everfree Forest, where she slowly [[StartingANewLife starts a new life]] as the forest's resident [[SolitarySorceress scary-but-benevolent witch]].
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!! This fanfic contains examples of:
* AlternativeCalendar: Sunset comments at one point on how the griffons have to adjust their dates every four years because of their wind-based calendar, suggesting that Equestria's calendar is based on something which ''doesn't'' require that.
* AmbiguousSituation: It's not clear whether or not Sunset is correct in thinking that [[spoiler:Celestia comforting her when she has the Feather Flu]] is [[AllJustADream a hallucination]].
* AnimalNemesis: The Great White Wolf becomes one for Applejack after it kills her parents.
* BadassBoast: Sunset to a manticore:
-->'''Sunset:''' You’re not going to take me down that easily. Do you know who I am? I’m Sunset Shimmer! I burned down half of a ''stone castle''! I threw myself out of a train because I don’t let ponies tell '''me''' what to do! [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW I blew up my professors '''on purpose''' as part of my mid-term!]] You’re just a stupid monster and you don’t have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus against me!
** She also gives a nicely understated one to [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]]:
-->'''Sunset:''' In case you hadn’t heard, I’m the strongest unicorn in Equestria, and I’m villain enough for this town. I’m going to send you back to [[spoiler:the moon]] in pieces.
* BigEntrance: Sunset likes doing these when she attends parties in Ponyville, using illusions to lower the ambient light, make her voice echo, and generally seem more dramatic.
* BigWhat: When Twilight tells Sunset that she wants to visit her, Sunset lets out one of these.
* BoobyTrap: The castle already has a bunch when Sunset finds it, and she adds ''even more'' herself.
** She also sets up a huge one for Celestia during the Summer Sun Celebration, which she repurposes for [[spoiler:use against Nightmare Moon]] when it becomes clear that [[spoiler:[[AllPropheciesAreTrue she actually exists]]]]. [[StuffBlowingUp It levels half of Ponyville's town hall when it goes off]].
* BrickJoke: Sunset teaching Twilight to interrupt monologues.
* BurnTheOrphanage: Sunset inadvertently destroyed the orphanage she grew up in when some bullies who thought she was magically weak [[MuggingTheMonster dared her to cast a spell]] and she responded by putting [[ExplosiveOverclocking every bit of power she could]] into a light spell.
* CassandraTruth: Twilight manages to predict both Nightmare Moon and Discord's returns before they happen, but Sunset doesn't take her seriously, assuming that if they were actual threats Celestia would be doing something about them.
* CharacterDevelopment: Celestia learns from the mistakes she made [[ParentalSubstitute raising Sunset]], and generally manages to avoid repeating them with Twilight. [[spoiler:Or with Sunset, once they reconcile.]]
** Sunset learns the value of friendship, and tones her {{Pride}} down to the point where she can actually admit her mistakes.
* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]] is impressed with Sunset's willingness to blow up Ponyville's town hall for the sake of stopping her.
* CompanionCube: Applejack [[ContinuityNod is in the habit of]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E21OverABarrel naming her trees]].
-->I groaned and leaned against an apple tree. It was probably named Rupert or Jackanape or something like that.
* DeadpanSnarker: Sunset has her moments.
-->'''Twilight:''' Sometimes I don’t sleep for days!
-->'''Sunset:''' I usually sleep at nights myself.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: After Sunset throws a fireball at a tree in the Everfree Forest:
-->'''Twilight:''' You could have killed us! Using fire in the forest is going to… you know! Start a fire. A forest fire. ''In the forest''.
-->'''Sunset:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Eloquent.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Applejack, during her quest to kill the timberwolf that killed her parents.
-->She gave me a determined look, the kind only a foal with no sense of self-preservation could have. I was pretty sure I’d given ponies that exact look a few times.
* DontLookAtMe: Sunset keeps herself covered in her cloak whenever she can, because she doesn't like letting ponies see her scars.
* DramaticIrony: Twilight tells Sunset that she needs her to be at the Summer Sun Celebration in case Nightmare Moon shows up, because she wouldn't trust Rarity to help her banish an ancient evil.
-->'''Twilight:''' I doubt she even knows how to cast a fireball spell!
* TheDreaded: Sunset eventually becomes this to the creatures of the Everfree Forest; as time goes on, they become increasingly prone to avoiding her, since attacking her is overwhelmingly likely to end with them being burned to a crisp.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even at the peak of her rage against Celestia, Sunset makes a note to minimize casualties among [[JustFollowingOrders Celestia's guards]] when she comes back for revenge.
** She's also shocked by the extremes of Twilight's imagination regarding how bad she used to be.
-->'''Sunset:''' I told you I was a bad pony who did bad things, remember? I meant it.
-->'''Twilight:''' What was it? Necromancy? Blood Magic? Chaos Magic? ''Double'' Chaos Magic? ''Necro-romantic spells''?
-->'''Sunset:''' Wow. Your imagination went right to some ''really'' dark places when I said I was a bad pony. I’m not a '''monster''', Twilight. I was just [[{{Jerkass}} a jerk]].
* ExplosiveOverclocking: Sunset, after reading the Clover Manuscript, figures out how to force extra mana into simple spells. However, as more mana is put into a spell, the spell becomes increasingly likely to blow up in the caster's face.
* FakingTheDead: While Sunset doesn't actually ''intend'' for her escape to look like a death, after she realizes that it ''did'' look that way, she goes out of her way to avoid letting Celestia realize that she's actually still alive.
** [[spoiler:She's not quite as thorough as she hopes to be; Celestia realizes that she's alive as soon as she starts writing back to Twilight.]]
* FoodAsBribe: Cadance distracts Twilight from asking about [[MayflyDecemberRomance how old she is compared to Shining Armor]] by offering her coffee.
-->'''Cadance:''' Hey! Wow! They have lava cake on the menu! Let’s get a round of those, and I’ll let you have coffee if you stop asking questions.
-->'''Twilight:''' Celestia says I can’t have coffee after [[NoodleIncident the accident with the west garden]].
-->'''Cadance:''' That’s why it’s bribery, Twilight.
-->'''Twilight:''' ...Deal.
* ForgetsToEat: Twilight, according to Spike.
* ForWantOfANail: The story starts with Sunset staying in Equestria instead of going through the mirror, and diverges from there.
* FriendlessBackground: Sunset never bothered to make friends despite Celestia's pestering, which leaves her without anywhere to go after she's kicked out of Celestia's castle.
* GreenEyedMonster: From the moment they met, Sunset resented Cadance for having been adopted by Celestia, which Sunset wanted to happen to ''her''.
** Cadance, meanwhile, was jealous of ''Sunset'' for her closeness to Celestia; while Cadance was the one Celestia had ''officially'' adopted, Sunset was the one she spent all her time with.
* GuiltyPleasures: Eating bacon, for Sunset. Understandable, given that ponies are typically herbivorous.
* HeroicBSOD: When she thought Sunset had died, Celestia had to cancel court for a week because she couldn't keep herself together.
* HighDiveEscape: Sunset pulls one to get away from the guards who have her cornered on the train to Ponyville, teleporting off the train as it crosses a high bridge.
* IncompletelyTrained: Cadance, as an alicorn, has a huge amount of magical power, but she barely knows any magic, so ends up much weaker in practice than either Sunset or Twilight.
* IndyPloy: Sunset starts out thinking this way, but she isn't quite as effective at it as she thinks she is, and eventually starts coming up with actual plans.
-->I didn’t need to plan. I was Sunset Shimmer, the strongest unicorn in Equestria. Planning was for ponies who didn’t have the strength to just do what they wanted. I could do '''anything'''.
* InSeriesNickname: Pinkie starts calling Sunset "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E3CastleManeia the Pony of Shadows]]" after her BigEntrance to Applejack's birthday party. [[spoiler:She eventually rejects the name after her VisionQuest.]]
* {{Invisibility}}: One of Sunset's precautions when she decides to stick around for the Summer Sun Celebration is to turn invisible.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sunset starts out as this, but the "jerk" part [[CharacterDevelopment fades out over time]].
* KillItWithFire: Sunset's default strategy in combat. Made easier by the fact that she enchanted herself to be fireproof, allowing her to light her surroundings on fire without needing to worry about getting burned herself.
* LargeHam: Sunset isn't one in ordinary conversation, but she hams it up ''a lot'' whenever she either [[TheDreaded wants to intimidate someone]] or wants to make a BigEntrance.
* MachineMonotone: Sunset enchants her journal to recite any messages Twilight writes to it, but she doesn't know sufficiently advanced illusion magic to get an actual voice link going, so instead it recites the text in her own voice with a completely deadpan tone.
** She updates it to use Twilight's voice after they meet in person, but never gets around to fixing the tone.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: After Sunset [[spoiler:hits her hard enough to visibly burn her mane, Nightmare Moon banishes Sunset to the dark side of the moon with Celestia]].
* ManipulativeBastard: Sunset sees Celestia as this for the first few years after she runs away, interpreting her TricksterMentor act as just a facade.
* MultiDirectionalBarrage: When Sunset is surrounded by timberwolves, she's perfectly fine with it, labeling it as a "target-rich environment" rather than the ambush it was intended to be. Then she proceeds to drive almost the whole pack away with a single spell.
* MundaneUtility: Zecora's cauldron is useful, not only for potion-making, but also for ''tea''-making.
* MustMakeAmends: Fluttershy nearly died in an accident (implied to be [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles her fall from Cloudsdale]]) and Rainbow Dash blamed herself for not being there, so she dropped out of school in order to stay with Fluttershy and make sure that she ''would'' always be there for her in the future.
* NervousWreck: Sunset has a series of panic attacks in the immediate aftermath of her removal as Celestia's student, and thereafter whenever she comes too close to encountering Celestia.
* NoodleImplements: Pinkie Pie on whether it's possible to make [[MatryoshkaObject Maretyoshka pinatas]]:
-->'''Pinkie Pie:''' I will need to do ''party science'' to find out. I’ll need five hundred pounds of paper mache, two bags of glitter, an old priest, and a young priest.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Everypony assumes that Sunset is dead after she takes a long fall into a river.
* NoSell: [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon's magical aura]] is sufficiently powerful to absorb everything Sunset throws at her before it even ''hits'' her, at least until Sunset realizes what's going on.
** [[spoiler:She ''appears'' to do nearly as well against Sunset's followup attack, but Luna tells Sunset later that it actually came much closer than it looked to beating her, even if she didn't show it.]]
* NoSocialSkills: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. While Sunset has no interest in day-to-day politeness or friend-making, she ''can'' be polite when she cares enough to try.
* [[NotTheirBirthday Not Her Birthday]]: Since Pinkie doesn't know when Sunset's birthday ''actually'' is, she just takes guesses, leading her to throw Sunset a "birthday" party every month or so.
* OhCrap: A few times in a row during [[spoiler:Sunset's fight with Nightmare Moon]]. First Twilight has one when Sunset mentions that her "exit strategy" has a [[StuffBlowingUp blast radius]], then Sunset has ''two'' in quick succession when [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon manages to NoSell Sunset's trap and comes out of a [[ExplosiveOverclocking super-compressed]] beam of fire with no visible damage beyond a burned mane]].
* OrphanageOfFear: Sunset analogizes her orphanage's ''social'' food chain to the Everfree Forest's ''physical'' food chain.
* ParentalSubstitute: Celestia was one for Sunset before their fight, but she didn't directly acknowledge it, leading Sunset to become [[GreenEyedMonster jealous of Cadance]] for having been officially adopted by Celestia. [[spoiler:After their reconciliation, Celestia starts actually calling Sunset her daughter.]]
* ParentheticalSwearing: When Sunset attacks [[WhenTreesAttack the Great White Wolf]], she yells "Take this, you ''[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch birch]]''!"
* PerceptionFilter: One of Sunset's stealth aids at the Summer Sun Celebration is a ''Background Pony'' spell, which makes her and her surroundings appear utterly uninteresting to any observers.
* PetTheDog: When she's ejected from the palace, Sunset notes that the guards escorting her out are [[JustFollowingOrders just doing their jobs]], and resolves to minimize casualties when she comes back for revenge on Celestia.
* PlayingWithFire: While Sunset has a wide variety of spells at her disposal, she has a particular affinity for fire magic, and has a set of enchantments on her to make herself fireproof.
* PowerPerversionPotential: Rainbow's "thing with the thunderclouds".
* {{Pride}}: Sunset's main flaw at the start of the story. She [[CharacterDevelopment gets better about it over time]], to the point where she manages to shock Cadance by admitting that Twilight is smarter than herself.
* ProperlyParanoid: When Sunset feels like she's being followed, she assumes she's just being baselessly paranoid, but casts a scanning spell anyway. Turns out she was completely right, leading her to turn around and decide she actually wasn't being paranoid ''enough''.
** Twilight manages to correctly predict both Discord and Nightmare Moon's returns, even if [[CassandraTruth nopony believes her about them]].
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Much to Sunset's surprise, the prophecy about Nightmare Moon which Twilight got out of an old storybook is actually ''true''.
* PuppyDogEyes: Applejack pulls them on Sunset when she's on the verge of refusing to help find [[AnimalNemesis the Great White Wolf]].
** Rarity pulls them too, trying to draw a story out of Sunset after she offhandedly mentions having met a griffon ambassador.
* RageAgainstTheMentor: Sunset gets a short one at the very beginning of the story, when she's removed as Celestia's student.
* RebuiltPedestal: [[spoiler:Sunset eventually realizes that Celestia actually ''did'' love her and that her own actions were the main driving force behind their initial conflict.]]
* RevengeBeforeReason: After her parents are killed by a timberwolf, Applejack goes into the Everfree Forest determined to make it pay, ignoring both the dangers of the forest and the fact that she doesn't know where the timberwolves actually ''are''.
* ScarsAreForever: Sunset gets pretty majorly scarred by a manticore when she first enters the Everfree. It's exacerbated by her habit of scratching at her wounds.
* ShipperOnDeck: Cadance seems to ship [[PortmanteauCoupleName SunLight]].
* ShipTease: At one point Twilight is on the verge of talking to Sunset about "strange feelings" which she considers to be "too personal" to discuss in front of Cadance, but Cadance [[MomentKiller kills the moment]] before she can spill the beans, and she never brings it up again.
* ShoutOut: At one point Sunset quotes [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Jaya Ballard, task mage]].
-->'''Sunset:''' Of ''course'' you should fight fire with fire. You should fight '''everything''' with fire.
** One of the books she finds in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is "[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials The Book]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie of Megan]]".
** During their fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], Sunset tells Twilight to [[{{Film/Ghostbusters}} cross the streams]].
** During the same fight, she pulls a [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Vaarsuvius]]: "I prepared explosive runes this mor-"
* SolitarySorceress: Sunset spends her first few years in the Everfree as this, and actively cultivates it as her public image. She becomes more social as time goes on, though, starting to visit Ponyville occasionally.
* StartingANewLife: The story is all about Sunset doing this following her fight with Celestia.
* StuffBlowingUp: Sunset's combat strategy in general is pretty heavy on explosions.
** Special credit goes to her fight with [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]], which ends up leveling upper half of Ponyville's town hall.
* SuicidalGotcha: Sunset pulls one to get away from the guards who are following her, [[HighDiveEscape teleporting off of a train as it crosses a bridge]]. Unusually, she has no specific survival mechanism in mind, and ends up only surviving by dumb luck.
* SurpassedTheTeacher: [[spoiler:Twilight]] eventually surpasses [[spoiler:Sunset]] at magical theory. Unusually, rather than dropping out of their mentor-student relationship at that point, they just ''switch'', with [[spoiler:Twilight]] starting to teach [[spoiler:Sunset]] instead of the other way around.
* TakeAThirdOption: Sunset does this when cornered by guards on the train to Ponyville, [[HighDiveEscape teleporting off a bridge]] rather than either fighting them or talking to them.
-->'''Guard:''' There isn’t anywhere to run, so you can either listen peacefully or we can do things the hard way.
-->'''Sunset:''' There's always a choice, as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences.
* TemptingFate: "Don't be stupid. I’m a unicorn. We can’t ''get'' the Feather Flu."
** [[spoiler:"Twilight, it’d take an escaped god of chaos to keep me away."]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sunset has liked [[CarnivoreConfusion bacon]] ever since she had a dinner with some griffon ambassadors who fed it to her.
* TreeCover: [[ShipperOnDeck Cadance]] tries to surreptitiously watch Twilight and Sunset's ShipTease moment from a tree branch. Then she accidentally rustles it, [[MomentKiller killing the moment]].
** Sunset accidentally teleports herself into the branches of the [[ArborealAbode Ponyville library]] when she sees Celestia's guards arriving in Ponyville, and proceeds to curl into a ball and hope the guards don't notice her.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: After Sunset kills the Great White Wolf for her, Applejack realizes that it hasn't made her feel better at all, and isn't going to bring her parents back.
* VisionQuest: Sunset has a short one after she accidentally terrifies Twilight: she asks Zecora for help, and Zecora suggests finding her spirit guide, which will [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor help her see herself as others see her]]. [[spoiler:She sees a ponified version of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls her demon form]].]] Her [[AmbiguousSituation maybe-hallucination]] [[spoiler:of Celestia]] may or may not have been part of it too.
* WildMagic: The Everfree Forest has a haze of magic which scrambles incoming scrying spells, making it an ideal hiding place. However, it also makes it somewhat more difficult to cast spells while inside it, which prevents Sunset from teleporting out of danger as quickly as she would otherwise be able to.
* YouAreNotReady: Celestia repeatedly telling this to Sunset was one of the things which initially drove them apart; it didn't stop Sunset from continuing to research the mirror and alicornhood on her own, but it ''did'' cause her to become increasingly resentful of Celestia, as well as leading her to incidentally read some books on dark magic in the process of her research.
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