The name "Sunset Shimmer" makes her sound suspiciously like a Superpowered Evil Side of "Twilight Sparkle"... I wonder if this means we're going to get the Unicorn equivalent of "Wonderbolts Academy" in the upcoming season.

There's the idea of Twilight taking on an apprentice. That could be a way introduce a "new mane character" while not suddenly revealing a new Element of Harmony.

Season 4 will be good...I just know it...

@Hsere: Interesting notion... I had actually been considering that recently myself. It's possible that at the time Luna and Celestia were born and raised Starswirl was simply more well-known, though - bear in mind that they would have had to bee born at least one thousand and say, 30 years ago, and could go back much, much longer than that. IT'd be pretty hard to find the average person who knows what a historical figure from 1012 looks like. Now, if from your perspective they were a historical figure from 30 or so years ago, that's different. Luna could merely be commenting on the fact that a lot of history has been forgotten by the average pony.

There's also the fact that we don't know the princesses are officially a part of the royal line - strictly speaking there is no real royal line by virtue of their immortality. Blueblood is a prince, but Games Ponies Play hinted at that being more comparable to a Duke than a true prince. Plus, Twilight was promoted to a princess when she achieved alicornhood, so there's really no saying that Celestia and Luna weren't just a couple of exceptionally talented mares who kinda moved in and were promoted to princesses after beating Discord.

Calnos: Hehe, that could be quite amusing. Celly tells Twilight she has to find a student to take under her wing. She responds by holding a series of interviews and making a forty-year-long lesson plan.

There was also a word of god from Lauren (I think it was Lauren... man it's been a while) way back in season one that she had initially wanted Blueblood to be a Duke, but Hasbro vetoed it because they didn't think little girls would understand what that is.

edited 27th Feb '13 12:22:58 PM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

Which is silly because they could've spent like five seconds explaining what a duke is to Rainbow Dash so they could have the better-developed world and teach kids something.

Dash: "So...he's a prince minus the throne."

Rarity: *eye twitch* "...yes."

edited 27th Feb '13 12:34:59 PM by Pykrete

Here's some discussion food, lets assume they do expand the Mane Cast. What would Sunset Shimmer add to the Mane Cast? What kind of personality is missing from the Mane Six?

A unicorn personality.

Sunset will be the Token Evil Team Mate. Nah we've already got one in [[insert mane six member you hate here]].

edited 27th Feb '13 12:37:33 PM by Badwolfwho

You pretty much got all the basic personality types covered.

@Applelight: All I've decided about Season 4 so far is that if the first episode doesn't involve Twilight flubbing a landing, crashing into a tree, and getting stuck in it by her horn, I will be severely disappointed.

Bear in mind, Twilight is my favorite pony and I'm okay with Twilicorn so far. But that gag needs to happen.

@Kegisak: Yeah, those are definitely other possible explanations.

@Jakes Brain: Hmm, hadn't realized that before. Interesting.

edited 27th Feb '13 12:40:49 PM by Hsere

I think the fandom at large who are remaining demand that.

If they wanted to be cliche and milk the redemption angle even more, she could be a delinquent sent to Ponyville for probation on the Princess's order.

@Librarian: Then maybe I can help.

As for alicorns: Celestia said that Twilight was the first to ccomplish this, implying that she's the first ascended rather than born alicorn.

I still say that there is more evidence that Celestia and Luna are simply ridiculously long lived rather than immortal.

Star Swirl's time being pre-alicorn reign does not preclude it from being pre-alicorn. Luna could have met Star Swirl as a filly. I still consider her less than fully grown now.

And Blueblood being a Prince in no way implies that he is the crown Prince. Not to mention Shiny's comments and information recieved about alicorn Twilight imply that Equestria has multiple Princes and Princesses (which isn't even unusual in real world countries with monarchies anyway).

EDIT:I'm not. She's already clearly a better flier than Fluttershy. I'd rather they used that than try to cover it up.

As for Sunset Shimmer, the parrellel to Twilight Sparkle in name is obvious. Likely very important.

edited 27th Feb '13 12:54:00 PM by Sereg

Also have some unsanity.

What do rabbits have to do with heart attacks? They're not that cute or anything.

Also have some holy shit this is going to be amazing.

I really like the idea that Celestia and Luna ascended to alicorn-hood, but Celly's line in "Magical Mystery Cure"—that Twilight's ascension was something that has never happened before—rather clearly disproves that theory. Pity.

The heck is this gonna be about that makes it look so epic?!

I never expected MLP to reference THAT.◊

Unless...their ascensions were different somehow? Like to ascend to alicornhood, you must do something that has never been done before for the benefits of others?

EDIT:

This epiciness makes me have to re-evalute Batty...hang on.

edited 27th Feb '13 1:04:12 PM by ApplelightLimited

Ooh, ooh, Apple, Apple. What if Batty's dad was in the Night Guard, and he wants to prove himself?

@Meta How does that mean that Celestia/Luna didn't ascend? It just means that Twilight's method of achieving it was unique.

That could certainly work...

To be fair, the Twilight issue had nothing to do with her crazy-epic cover either.

@Sereg: I always took Celestia's comment to mean that Twilight was the first to ascend inside of her natural lifespan(Strictly speaking, since I also posit that she had to die in order to actually use the power she unlocked).

And yeah, hence why I say that Prince is probably analogous to a Duke in this setting. Prince of Canterlot, Prince of Crystal Empire, Prince of Manehattan, etc.

@Apple: Draaaaaaagon poooooooniees... Not trying to legitimately convince you of anything, just ahving some fun