FimFiction Link - Short ID: 483048/magic-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-mightiest-of-them-all
Published: Nov '20 — Jun '22
Recently finished this. It's still ongoing, so for the record the most recent chapter that I read was the thirteenth, 'In An English Country... Suburb'. Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't judge anything from Harry Potter until they've reached Hogwarts. As luck would have it, my opinion on the fic hasn't changed since that point. The fic has two modes. One where it focuses internally on Sunset and one where the Harry Potter plot is happening. The latter is where the fic is weakest. The author claims they're trying to keep Sunset away from the story surrounding Harry, but the author's note for the 'When the Sun Sets' chapter is an admission of failure in this task. For example, she doesn't miss the troll, the first encounter with Fluffy, getting bullied by Snape, overhearing Quirrel and Snape, the dead unicorn, or the mirror. It's very much Stations of Canon, but with the added feature of Sunset doing little at said stations. It ultimately comes off as Philosopher's Stone with an extra character. I would praise it for at least skipping the final dungeon, but seeing how an author twists that is what I tend to enjoy most in book 1 fics.
The fic's other mode, where it focuses on Sunset's own issues, is much more interesting. However, it's a rarity compared to the chapter where the Harry Potter plot is happening. And frankly, I struggle to praise the author for doing a good job of writing Sunset Shimmer introspection. Sunset and her relationship with Celestia is one of the most interesting unspoken parts of the entire franchise and a blatant gap left by the first EQG movie. I can't name a single fic where an author has attempted to write about that and fucked it up. It's too easy to get right.
Overall, the fic is (currently) short and easy reading. However, on the assumption that the author will drag it out to cover the whole series, I can't recommend it. Given that only one of their nine stories is marked complete, I suspect they'll drop it at some point probably during Goblet of Fire.