@TwilightVelvetSparkle  
Twilight is actually usually the last to know where the book she needs can be found. It’s always Spike, or Pinkie, or Discord, or Zecora, etc. Plot convenience is everywhere in the show, but the impact it has on the story is usually a matter of differing opinion.
 
And apparently, that IS how Canterlot High’s victors are chosen. Candidates have to sign up beforehand, and then it’s a matter of popular vote. If there’s only one contestant, then she wins by default. It’s not a political office you know, they can make up whatever rules they want.
 
And using Twilight is exactly what Sunset ended up doing when she kidnapped Spike. If she wasn’t such a softy, she could have traded him for the crown directly.

@Millennial Dan  
Well to be fair, twilight is a librarian, and should know her Dewey decimal system. As for the contest, that’s not really how the formals work; the winners are chosen out of the most voted. If only two people voted, I’m pretty sure they would just cancel it.
 
Yeah, P. Celestia did hold on to it; you would think if SS didn’t know where it was, she would try and use Twilight to get the crown, and then steal it from her after she won. She could have pretended to turn a new leaf, helping Twilight be the obvious winner, and the ending revelation with SS asking for forgiveness would have had more weight…meh.

@TwilightVelvetSparkle  
As Sunset alluded, the normal rules regarding use of the Elements of Harmony don’t precisely carry over when taken through the portal. A convenient explanation in some ways, but hey, this is from the show where the heroes always magically find just the right book they need at just the right time.
 
As for her default win, it would work if Snips and Snails where the only ones voting for her. That’s why her main objective was to run unopposed.
 
Where stealing the crown from P. Celestia is concerned, maybe she just didn’t know where it was hidden, or couldn’t get to it for whatever reason.

@Roy-of-Asturia  
Maybe. Or, hammy, but a little more complex. Like somepony who creates turmoil not to feed off of it, but because they believe they are doing the right thing. Kids aren’t dumb, they can be challenged and grow from it.

@Roy-of-Asturia  
Moderate traffic in my encephalic network (in layman’s terms, my own mental block).  

This argument is getting redundant and hopeless. Either they are Villains by Default or they are just Generic Doomsday Villains.
 
The Good Guys Always Win in the end. Everything has a moral or an Aesop to tell anyway. Except for The Changelings and The Dazzlings, the Mane 6/7/8 often outnumber the villain of the two-parter. The ratio of 1 : 6/7/8. Then again, getting physical isn’t what the writers aim to do.
 
I would like to see Applejack, and only Applejack, go one-on-one against a villainous magic user or a stronger, faster, tougher Earth Pony. A mismatch it may be, but just think about it.
 
What’s next? Villains that feed on fear? Love and hatred are already given.  
Villains that use White/Light Magic whose goal is to fulfill the 4 cliché magic words (OF COURSE!)?
 
None of these villains are admirable leader types as far as I get the picture.

@Chapelseed  
About as much as Diamond is.

@Roy-of-Asturia  
Silver Spoon is at least redeemable…

@the metal bronyhead  
And leave Silver Spoon behind? That’s unkind.

replace Shimmer with Diamond Tiara

(sits back to watch argument thread with popcorn)

@Millennial Dan  
I don’t mean random in a sense that she didn’t intend to get it, I mean, for the element of harmony, that power she gained seemed pretty left field. It’s not like the triforce, the elements of harmony have shown that they’re fickle and only respond to the users when they come together for a good cause.
 
I’m kind of curious how she would win by default if nobody would even enter her into the preliminaries of the event. That said, I also wonder why she didn’t just take the crown to begin with, as she would have power to avoid any consequences for actions.
 
Then again, I also wonder why chrysalis didn’t simply capture and manipulate the princess of love rather than throw her into a crystal pit. That’s like poisoning someones crops and animals, when all you wanted was their food supply. I can forgive the rest of the villains, because they had logical downfalls.

@TwilightVelvetSparkle  
Thing is, the power she gained wasn’t random; it’s what she was aiming for the whole time, although she seemed blindsided by the demoness part.
 
And as for the Fall formal, she had never planned on winning by popularity, she was attempting to win by default. She was well aware of the fact that she would lose against anyone who stuck it out to the end.

@Millennial Dan  
You are right, most villain do appear in the episode they come from, so my bad there. That said, most of these villains show their potential abilities from the start.
 
As for powers, let me remind you that had the crown not randomly given her those powers, the mane six wouldn’t have needed their own.
 
As for the last bit, if her use of manipulating was more subtle (or she had actual minions) than it might have seemed logical. As is, she’s really a bully that wouldn’t win the contest like she was aiming for. I wasn’t actually saying anything about changing her personality; it’s what it is, lackluster or otherwise.

@TwilightVelvetSparkle  
>Came out of nowhere  
Literally every single MLP villain fits that description. In fact, unlike Sombra, Chrysalis, and all the minor antagonists, Sunset actually has a story.
 
>Mostly ineffective  
BS. The only reason Twilight and the others even survived is because of surprise harmony magic.
 
>Powers had no buildup  
If you know anything about the show, it’s obvious Sunset is very skilled with magic. Even after all that time in the human world, she can easily teleport around in her unicorn form, which is an ability that only Twilight and Celestia have demonstrated. Her abilities once she had the Element of Magic weren’t unprecedented at all.
 
>Your attempts at a rewrite  
Her manipulation methods would have worked just fine. I’m not sure what exactly you’re even objecting to on that point. As for the use of “force” instead of “appeal”, that doesn’t take Sunset’s character into account. Her personality doesn’t operate the way you describe, and that’s totally fine. Her methods were her own.

@Millennial Dan  
I think the reason people never cared about her was that she came out of nowhere, was mostly an ineffective villain (not very intimidating, her trying to stop twilight failed almost immediately), and her powers came and went with no build up (and lets not ask how she even got them in the first place).
 
She basically existed as a driving force for the plot and a paint by number scenario for the movie. Also, her “cunning” boiled down to using manipulation which wouldn’t even work in real life because of how illogical teenagers can be; using appeal would have actually been effective (plus, villains who gain the majorities trust and respect on their own are usually just as good, if not better, than villains who use force to do so).

@Chapelseed  
Villains who rely to heavily on their superpowers, if they have any, are pretty flat. It’s the cunning ones who are interesting. Besides, Sunset had plenty of that “cosmic power” stuff when she was ripping a building apart and hurling fireballs at people.

@Thanotos Omega  
cosmic power has a more physical intimidation that threatening action does, even with experience

@Millennial Dan  
Yeah,
 
Never got why folks thought so little of her as a villain, she only fell apart right at the end when she was driven insane, before that she was as effective as Discord Tirek or the Dazzlings, With No magic.

@RaineV1  
Primarily selfish ambition, actually.

Sunset Shimmer would be jealousy or something to do with holding onto grudges.

I would actually switch Sombra and NMM, since her being corrupted plays a bigger part in her character, where sombra’s darkness is far more prevalent. I mean, NMM has the light of the moon, but Sombra is the darkness of the abyss…