I'm not quite sure how it started, but Sunset Shimmer is quickly becoming one of my new favorite characters. Maybe it's my naive belief that everyone has a semblance of good in them making me like evil characters turning good, maybe it's the much better Equestria Girls sequel spending much of the movie focusing on Sunset's redemption or maybe Sunset's just really adorable, I don't know.

Regardless, My Past is Not Today is yet another masterpiece to come out of Rainbow Rocks. If Sunset's part in Welcome to the Show wasn't good enough to convince you that she's turned over a new leaf, then this sure as hell will, with Sunset outright acknowledging her past mistakes with the first line of "Power...was all I desired. But all that grew inside me was a darkness I acquired."

Though, having never seen the original EQG, Sunset's transformation into her demon form is even worse that I thought, clearly being a painful experience as her head is the last thing to fully transform.

Followed by this:

I'm an awful person, because for some reason this image of Sunset looking all dejected in the middle of a crater makes me laugh.

I just love the imagery here. Sunset essentially casts away her dark past and says she won't let it determine who she'll be in the future. Her smile at the end just sells it.

Something else I noticed is in the portrait scene. Maybe it's just me seeing something that isn't there, but look at the eyes in particular in all three photos and then look at Sunset herself. It's often a cliche that the eyes are the window to the soul, and from the first to the third photo, Sunset's eyes look like the get "sharper" to me as the years pass. And I'm not just talking about the area around the eyes, but the iris and pupils too.

One line in particular that follows strikes a real chord with me. When Sunset is being cheered up by the others after being (understandably) ostracized by the rest of the school, and she sings the line "...And I felt like I was home." In my mind, Sunset's home is the EQG universe. She may have been born in Equestria, grew up and spent most of her life there, but outside of being Celestia's student her life wasn't one of fond memories from what we've seen. In this world though, she's finally learned that friendship truly is magic and now has a group of people she truly considers with all her heart to be her friends. "Home is where the heart is" after all.

If Rainbow Rocks has proved anything, it's that when Sunset sheds her jacket, something awesome is about to happen. And what could be more awesome than SUPER SAIYAN SUNSET SHIMMER! (Try saying that five times fast...)

Not only is this awesome because it's a pair of wings of pure fire (once more tying into the idea of a phoenix rising from the ashes), but if you notice, this form is very nearly a 1:1 moral flip of her demon form, with her hair and ponytail being near identical and her bat wings replaced with feathery fire wings.

As a whole as well, the message of this song is one that can be greatly taken to heart. I don't care who you are, everyone has some mistakes or fears from their past that haunts them to this day and negatively shapes who they are as a person. Sunset however, decides that she won't let what's done and done define who she is and resolves to live in the now.

Though I noticed that Sunset apparently spends all night on this rooftop. She starts as the sun sets (Sunset at sun set...would that count as a pun? I'm not sure...), halfway through she looks up and notices that its a minute to midnight and finally the song ends triumphantly on a new day as the sun rises. Someone would have probably called the cops on her hours ago...

Finally, can I just say that I love Sunset's outfit in these RR Shorts? Since the basic character EQG female character model includes a skirt (especially on characters who quite frankly would never wear a skirt like Rainbow or possibly Applejack), her blue and yellow blouse feels like a nice change of pace. And I just realized her pants also gain fire decals when she transforms, which is a nice touch.