Not to be confused with Sunny Flare and Sunset Shimmer.
Anthony Douglas Alexander Shimmer, more widely known as Sunburst, is a male unicorn pony, Starlight Glimmer's childhood friend, Sunset Shimmer's little brother and Flurry Heart's royal crystaller featured in the TV show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. As of A Horse Shoe-In, he is the vice principal at the School of Friendship. He first appears as a foal in The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2 and he appears as a full-grown stallion in present day in The Crystalling - Part 1. His human adaptation is present in the film The Race to Equestria.
Portrayers[]
Sunburst is previously played by Ian Hanlin, but now played by Nicolas Cage across the Equestria Girls film lineup.
Depiction In Friendship Is Magic[]
Season 5[]
In The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2, Starlight Glimmer takes Twilight Sparkle and Spike back in time to her youth, where they witness a young Sunburst and Starlight playing a book-stacking game. When Starlight's move nearly causes the books to topple onto her, Sunburst saves her using telekinesis, earning him his cutie mark. Starlight loses touch with Sunburst afterwards due to earning his cutie mark before her and assumes that cutie marks ruin friendships.
Season 6[]
In The Crystalling - Part 1, Sunburst is mentioned by Starlight deeming that knew everything there was to know about magic when they were foals, contradicted in the flashbacks by Starlight being better at spells than him, and would occasionally help her along in her magic development. When Starlight later approaches him in the Crystal Empire to reunite with him, he mainly acts awkward around her and purports to be an important wizard.
However, it is later revealed in The Crystalling - Part 2 that he is less talented at casting spells, despite his deep knowledge. He uses this knowledge of magic to help Starlight and her friends restore the Crystal Heart and complete the newborn baby Flurry Heart's Crystalling ceremony. Following this, Sunburst is appointed as Flurry Heart's crystaller and magic advisor, he and Starlight promise to stay in touch.
Sunburst also appears in The Times They Are A Changeling, staying close to Flurry Heart during a suspected changeling incursion. In To Where and Back Again - Part 1, when Princess Cadance, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart are kidnapped by the changelings, Sunburst dispatches Thorax to notify Twilight in Ponyville and to help save Equestria.
Season 7[]
Sunburst appears at Starlight's graduation ceremony in Celestial Advice and during a magic simulation when Twilight considers possible places to send Starlight. He is also verbally alluded by Trixie in All Bottled Up.
In Uncommon Bond, Sunburst visits Starlight in Ponyville and learns that he shares Twilight's love of antiquing, Trixie's love of stage magic and Maud Pie's passion for geology, much to Starlight's disappointment. When he realizes how left out she feels, Sunburst organizes a life-sized version of their favorite board game for them to play together.
In Shadow Play - Part 1 and Shadow Play - Part 2, Sunburst comes into possession of Star Swirl the Bearded's lost journal, and he plays a role in both releasing the Pillars of Old Equestria from limbo and saving Equestria from Stygian (The Pony of Shadows).
Season 8[]
GUYS!!! WE DON'T WANT YOUR HELP!!!
In The Parent Map, Sunburst and Starlight are called by the Cutie Map to their old hometown of Sire's Hollow, where he is forced to deal with his mother Stellar Flare's overbearing concerns about his future. As he looks for the friendship problem he was called for, Stellar puts constant pressure on him to succeed, eventually causing him to explode at her in anger. Realizing his strained relationship with his mother is the very friendship problem he was summoned to fix, Sunburst talks it out with Stellar Flare and they reconcile.
Season 9[]
In Student Counsel, Sunburst attends Maud and Mudbriar's spring solstice party and helps Starlight and Terramar search for Silverstream in the Everfree Forest, where they run into a flock of cockatrices during their migration period.
In Between Dark and Dawn, Spike mentions Sunburst when he gives Twilight instructions on how to fix the amulet that controls the sun and moon when it malfunctions.
Hey, Sunburst, you got a massive beard!
In A Trivial Pursuit, Sunburst takes part in Ponyville's Trivia Trot game. Partnered with Cranky Doodle Donkey at first, he is forced out of the game when Cranky is disqualified for sleeping (thanks to Twilight). After Twilight gets Pinkie Pie disqualified, Sunburst partners up with Twilight, but upon seeing how frazzled she is, Sunburst tries to get her disqualified in order to preserve his right answer percentage record. Twilight is outraged by this at first, but the two reconcile when she realizes she had done the same to Pinkie.
Sunburst appears in A Horse Shoe-In when Trixie recommends him to be Starlight's vice principal at the School of Friendship. With Sunburst no longer needed to serve as Flurry Heart's crystaller, Starlight hires him. In The Ending of the End - Part 2, Sunburst takes part in the final battle against Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek and Cozy Glow. In The Last Problem, Sunburst attends Twilight Sparkle's coronation ceremony. He later appears as an older stallion still serving as the School of Friendship's vice headmare in future Ponyville during the song The Magic of Friendship Grows.
Depiction In Equestria Girls[]
The Race to Equestria[]
Sunburst makes his first return in the final Equestria Girls and Sofia The First film starting with The Race to Equestria in which he gives advice to Jacob Wilde, a human being regardless of Princess Twilight Sparkle's death due to murder by Holly Westlake. And thus, the duo uses the Crystal Mirror used by Sunset Shimmer in the first Equestria Girls film stealing Princess Twilight's crown and after entering the human world, a terrified Sunburst screams in horror for losing his horn after turning into a human being. Afterwards, he and Jacob left CHS and enter the car. As Jacob and Sunburst got to the parking lot behind the school, a dismayed Jacob wails that his Dodge Dart is stolen until Sunburst finds a designo Mocha Black 2012 Mercedes-Benz S600 (pictured on the right) as the only car remaining in the CHS parking lot, so the duo enter the car and left the school.
Throughout the film, Sunburst ended up meeting Princess Amber, Princess Sofia and Lemon Zest at the restaurant until the 3 woman joined the trip, he sleeps in the front passenger's seat as Jacob sings the song This Day Aria at night until he crashes the Mercedes into the barn due to his stupidity, ended up sleeping in the barn, chased by hunters the next morning due to invading private property, confronts a trio of men wearing Star Wars costumes heading for comic-con in New York City, sleeps with Sugarcoat and he even has a late night chat with Sour Grapes. However, despite all the chaos he experiences, Sunburst still manages to reunite with Sunset and Starlight again. He also joins the war in defeating Westlake and bring back the Magic of Friendship to Equestria.
Prince Jacob Wilde[]
Sunburst returns in the film Prince Jacob Wilde in which he, Soarin and Spitfire enters the Castle of Friendship. Greeted by Sofia, the 2 pegasi kneels down in pity about the Mane 6's death, leaving a concerned Sofia being aware of the news until Sunburst meets Jake, Izzy, Cubby, the Pirate Princess and the Shadowbolts for the very first time. To make matters confusing, Jewel takes a chance to give Sunburst, Soarin and Spitfire a DVD of the old Disney Junior TV series Jake and the Never Land Pirates, leaving an excited Sunburst about the show itself, despite being aimed for children below the age of 5. When Sunburst asks Jake regardless that the pirates know Sunset Shimmer or not, Jake claims that he knows Sunset in the previous film, leaving Sunburst delightful. Afterwards, the whole crew (including Spike) left Equestria for the human world.