@ClownDicks  
In some ways, I agree with that too. In particular I wish the movie was a bit longer and that more effort was put into developing its different plot points. I still thought it was fun to watch though, so it amuses me to come up with theories tying up the loose ends.

I think all y’alls are ignoring a much simpler, more likely explanation: EqG was a rush job none of the writers except McCarthy felt anything for.

@Trickquestion  
Well, that was a major rush job, ya know? There just wasn’t a whole lot of time to come up with something much better. At least, not something that didn’t involve violence in one way or another.

@Millennial Dan  
Still leaves the question of how, considering how totally incompetent her efforts against Twilight turned out.

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
According to the movie, (and further supported by the novelization), Sunset evidently became a master of humiliation, among other things. She smeared both Twilight and, much more successfully at an earlier time, Rarity, through her antipathetic tactics. She’s not the sort who likes to be stuck in a vulnerable position herself, so I tend to think that she would prefer methods of engendering fear and establishing control in other ways than whoredom.

@Millennial Dan  
She’s the type who likes to be in control, and there are plenty of high school girls who use sex to control the (much dumber) high school boys. I knew many girls in HS who did that. Really not hard to believe Sunset would use her body to get what she wants. Pride doesn’t factor into it; it’s a control thing. She doesn’t have friends, so she has to do it somehow.
 
Sure, she rules by fear, but how - aside from blackmail - could a weedy girl like her do it? By manipulating much stronger guys. How does she do that? Sex. QED.
 
And of course she manipulates Celestia & Luna by the time-tested method of projection.

@Millennial Dan  
Well, to each their own.

@Trickquestion  
Actually, you may call her plan stupid, but I see little reason why it wouldn’t have worked. It was straightforward enough, and I’ve seen weirder stuff succeed in the show.
 
As for her abrasive attitude, I took a different line of thought than yours. She kind of reminds me of some sort of street-urchin gangster type, with all that constant posturing. I imagine her to have grown up on the underside of Canterlot, or some similar ghetto. Maybe she was alone from an early age, perhaps as a runaway, and became very self-reliant and distrustful in the process. When she found herself in the human world, maybe her primary thought was to make the best of it that she could, and she tried to behave herself. Eventually, though, her thoughts turned back to Equestria, and the kind of power she could have possessed there. Thus, she ultimately began to settle back into her old aggressive habits while she developed a plan to steal the Element of Magic.
 
Obviously, I’m adding quite a lot to the story here, but I don’t think my little headcanon contradicts anything, so it works for me.

@Millennial Dan  
I didn’t have a bad time, so to speak (I met some of my best friends in High School as a matter of fact) but I was consciously aware of the screaming stupidity of my peers.
 
But it’s not that which inspired my posts, it’s Sunset herself. You see, in the movie, I found her to be such a stupid, senseless character, that the only reasonable explanation is that she’s a complete headcase who went insane after finding out what a let down high school would be in comparison to the wonderful world of Equestria. It would explain the idiocy of her overall plan and the pointless, tactically self defeating nature of her constant bitchiness.
 
tl:dr, I imagine Sunset’s insane to make up for EG’s bad writing.

@Trickquestion  
What the…  
Not to become all personal and stuff, but I’m sensing you didn’t get much out of the whole high school thing, did you?

@Millennial Dan  
Not in her conscious mind no, but in all that time she spent in the human world, you don’t think she had a little voice biting away at the back of her mind, reminding her how spectacularly her utter stupidity had screwed her? You think she didn’t realize, on some unknown level, that her actions alone have stripped her of her magic, and left her to rot in the wretched, stupid world she found herself in? Would she have spent all her time vying for a something as meaningless a prom princess, if not to reassure herself that she is still the brilliant dark lord she thinks she is, instead of the sad little jester she knows she is?
 
Enough to drive one mad.

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
@Trickquestion  
Neither of you seem to realize just how deep Sunset’s pride goes. Prior to her “reformation” at least, she seemed the sort who considered everyone else beneath her, and felt that she needed no one. Your theories of personal insecurity and promiscuity don’t really wash.

’Ello poppet. Nice to see you. :3

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
And that is why I say she cries herself to sleep. For all her bluster, she’s a hollow, unloved, broken being on the inside, made worse by the fact she has no one to blame but herself, no matter how much she denies that fact.

@PwnyPony  
Oh, definitely. (wrote old comment before viewing source) Honestly, I’d be okay with that.
 
The only thing that I’d be concerned about is I kind of imagine Sunset being something of a town bicycle (everyone rides her), and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with any of her many ex-boyfriends… or the diseases she probably got from them (I’d be concerned even playing it safe).
 
Let’s be honest, Sunset’s not a keeper; she’s a one-night-stand and I think she knows it. Girl doesn’t have an ounce of loyalty in her.

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
I think she would be the one on top.

@Trickquestion  
How so?

That’s the same outfit Carnifex had Rarity in. New Canterlot High uniform possibly?

That face says “Are you serious, you dirty peasant.”
 
But that body says “I cry myself to sleep every night.”

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
Actually, considering Sunset’s character, she probably would be a willing participant. Source panels confirm this.

I love Carnifex’s humanization style. BUT *sees source link* We all know what’s coming…
 
(bondage and rape nsfw stuff that she totally wanted to happen)

Lookin’ good.