31 years before the return of Nightmare Moon, a three-year-old filly awakened her cutie mark, revealing to be blessed by the entity that lesser creatures call “sun”.
This blessing, however, quickly turned into a curse, as the filly’s inexperience and childish innocence caused the destruction of her hometown, and the death of many. But one of those deaths was caused by the weapons of others, who ended up at the mercy, or rather, fury, of the small filly.

Celestia, at the time sole ruler of Equestria, made several decisions that night which would haunt her for the rest of her days. She lied and brainwashed her subjects to keep the event secret from them. She adopted the small filly, taking her as her pupil, and even created a false school to keep her educated under her watch. And finally, to prevent the incident from repeating itself, she took the filly’s soul and broke it apart, separating her blessing from the rest of her magic, and sealing it inside her. The now broken soul had no memories of her previous life, no family of her own, and no purpose in the world.

This filly grew under the watch of the princess, receiving the name; Sunset Shimmer, and while the alicorn did her best, her guilt and fear poisoned her motherly actions and her judgment, leading to a clash of mentalities. One kind and knowledgeable, and the other logical and ambitious.

Desperate, Celestia showed Sunset a magical mirror, capable of revealing one’s future. There, the rebellious pupil saw three visions of herself: One as a ruler. One as a crying mare. And one as a monster.

This only worsened the relationship of the two, as Sunset stubbornly demanded to know about the secrets of the mirror, until she decided to seek the information herself.
She broke into a library seeking forbidden knowledge, but when she was about to commit the act that would set her life into a path of abandonment, jealousy, anger, regret, redemption, and empathy, something called to her, and planted a question, a question that made her cautious, and abandon this path.

However, the new path that was made for her was no different.

The princess, hurt by the betrayal of trust, found a new student, one more capable and privileged than a pony that was half of what she could be. Sunset made her best to keep her anger and jealousy of the new student at bay, but then it came the day that would change her life forever.

Nightmare Moon returned, and the broken mare confronted her in protection of the student that replaced her, who by that time she had started seeing more as a sister than competition. However valiant this act was, it was also foolish, since to the dark alicorn, she was just a particularly noisy insect.

A simple fall from the top of a gorge would be the end of the broken mare, but the same creature that felled her also saved her. To escape from destruction by the instruments of Harmony, the true form of Nightmare Moon, a winged serpent, found shelter in Sunset’s body, and healed it from all wounds to maintain her hiding spot.

From that day forward, Sunset Shimmer was set in a path of self-discovery, questioning Celestia’s teachings, learning from the student that she now called sister, and her friends who, after a rough start, considered her one of them. However, even with all the help she had given to others and the teachings of the ones closest to her, the concept of friendship escaped Sunset Shimmer.

It wasn’t until the discovery of her other half that this started to change.

Dawn Shimmer, the half soul that the princess had tried to hide away, had survived, taking the form of a powerful demon, trapped deep inside Sunset’s mind.
This discovery changed the actions of Celestia, setting her at the start of a road toward the correction of her mistakes. But this ended up being a pointless effort. A simple question shattered her lies and gave Sunset almost full knowledge of her past. In her enraged state, Sunset placed a curse on the princess, destroyed part of Canterlot castle, and begged Princess Luna to end her life.

Or at least, that’s what everypony thought. In reality, Nightmare Moon managed to save her host, cursing her previous vessel to make her slowly fall into the same insanity that drove her to ruin.
It was at this time that the Element Bearers decided to abandon the comfort of their rulers and act against them to help their friend, stealing the Elements of Harmony and looking for the unicorn inside the castle.

But once again, it was a pointless endeavor. During the Galloping Gala, an argument between the attendants and the Bearers awakened an ancient threat; Discord.

The Lord of Chaos stole the Elements and proved to be too much for the Bearers, who ended corrupted by his magic.

In their moment of weakness, Sunset Shimmer made her return, recovered the Elements of Harmony, forced their power to obey her, and confronted the Lord of Chaos in single combat. And while she faced her greatest foe yet, inside her mind, another battle was being fought.
Dawn Shimmer had managed to escape her confinement and was now battling to defeat Nightmare Moon before she could take over Sunset and gain the power of the Elements for herself.

When the battles were over, both Discord and Dawn Shimmer ended up trapped by the powers of the Elements, right before the artifacts got destroyed by Sunset’s misuse.

However costly, this was a victory for Equestria, but rather than being celebrated, Luna’s madness caused by the curse made her declare Sunset Shimmer an enemy of the country, and weren’t for her older sister’s intervention, the unicorn would’ve been forced to battle the entire might of Equestria just to survive.

Sunset Shimmer found herself at her lowest point, struggling to find purpose in her life, but it was at this bottom of the barrel that she found what set her in the path that she now walks.
A kindred soul, who understood her pains and offered her help despite the dangers. It was thanks to this mare, Trixie Lunamoon, that Sunset finally discovered the meaning of friendship, and her purpose in this world.

Her tale is far from over, but her path has already been set, and her enemies, numerous and powerful, will soon make a move against her, and her allies.

– Forge the Prideful, Loremaster of Knowledge.

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