Star Swirl the Bearded

**Star Swirl the Bearded** is a male unicorn who appears in the season seven finale Shadow Play and is alluded to in other episodes and media. He is first mentioned by Twilight Sparkle in Luna Eclipsed as "the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era." Twilight, Spike and Pinkie Pie visit a wing in the Canterlot Library named after him, which houses time-related spells, in the episode It's About Time.

## Bio

Star Swirl the Bearded is first mentioned by Twilight in Luna Eclipsed when she explains her costume to Spike. She calls Star Swirl "the father of the amniomorphic spell", "the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era", and adds "he created more than 200 spells! He even has a shelf in the Canterlot library of magic named after him." Later in the episode, Princess Luna recognizes Twilight's costume as Star Swirl and compliments her for it, stating she "even got the bells right", but other ponies guess that Twilight is dressing as a "weirdo clown" or a "country music singer". In Dragon Quest, a photo shows Twilight wearing the costume.

According to the pageant staged in Hearth's Warming Eve, Star Swirl was the mentor of Clover the Clever, one of the founders of Equestria. In It's About Time, Twilight searches for time spells in a wing of the Canterlot library that is named after Star Swirl. Twilight says that it is the most secure section of the archives, and is eventually let into the section by one of the guards patrolling the library.

At the end of The Crystal Empire - Part 2, Princess Luna summons a spiral-bound book that has a dark cover which shows two stars and a swirly pattern. In Magical Mystery Cure, a flashback shows the book having been mailed to Twilight in a package with a letter from Princess Celestia. The letter states that the last page of the book contains Star Swirl's "secret unfinished masterpiece", an abandoned spell which he was never able to get right. When Twilight finally fixes the spell Princess Celestia states that Twilight accomplished what even Star Swirl could not, because he did not understand friendship like Twilight does.

In Three's A Crowd, Twilight and Princess Cadance visit a traveling museum dedicated to Star Swirl the Bearded. Twilight wears her Star Swirl costume to the museum, and seven other ponies are seen wearing their own variations of the costume: Amethyst Star, Meadow Song, "Ponet", Warm Front, "Serena", Prim Posy, and S04E11 Unnamed Earth Mare #1. At the museum, the two princesses spot a candlestick that was used by Star Swirl to light the way when he was exploring the caverns of Maretania.

Star Swirl is depicted in a storybook illustration in Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1, addressed as "a young unicorn wizard" by Princess Celestia. He is shown to have befriended Scorpan, leading him to turn against his evil brother Lord Tirek.

In The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1, Starlight Glimmer modifies Star Swirl's time travel spell and uses it to travel into the past and change history. At the end of The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2, the scroll containing the spell disappears through a time portal.

In A Hearth's Warming Tail, Twilight Sparkle says that "everypony knows that Star Swirl was an expert at everything from transfiguration, dimensional calibration, [and] teleportation".

In Celestial Advice, a photo of Twilight dressed as Star Swirl is seen in Twilight's bedroom. Starlight also mentions one of Star Swirl's spells in a simulation made by Twilight.

In the season seven finale Shadow Play, Star Swirl is revealed to be one of the six "Pillars of Old Equestria" withRockhoof, Mistmane, Flash Magnus, Somnambula, and Mage Meadowbrook, representing the Element of Sorcery. Long ago, he and the other Pillars were brought together by the unicorn Stygian to battle a great evil. When Stygian later turned into the Pony of Shadows, Star Swirl and the others sacrificed themselves to imprison him in limbo.

In present day, Twilight casts a spell to free Star Swirl and the Pillars from limbo, inadvertently freeing the Pony of Shadows along with them. Due to his lack of experience in friendship, Star Swirl initially dismisses Twilight's help and blames her for the Pony of Shadows' freedom. He eventually learns to recognize both Twilight and Starlight Glimmer's talents, and he and the other Pillars team up with the Mane Six to separate Stygian from the darkness and banish it to limbo once again. At the end of the episode, Star Swirl reunites with his old pupils Celestia and Luna and departs to see how much Equestria has changed in his absence.

In School Daze - Part 1 and Non-Compete Clause, a bust of Star Swirl appears in the School of Friendship. In Horse Play, Sandbar portrays Star Swirl in Twilight's stage play, which depicts how he and five other unicorns would raise the sun in the days before Celestia took on the responsibility.

In Friendship University, Star Swirl enrolls at Flim and Flam's titular school to learn more about friendship after spending some time traveling Equestria and helping ponies. When Twilight shows distrust toward Flim and Flam and their true motives for opening the school, Star Swirl expresses disappointment at her apparent jealousy. However, Flim and Flam are eventually revealed to have been scamming ponies out of their bits in order to fund the expansion of their Las Pegasus resort, and Star Swirl forces the two to refund their students' money and close the school.

## Depiction in *Rainbow Rocks*

In the film *My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks*, Twilight Sparkle discovers through research that Star Swirl banished three sirens from Equestria to the human world, believing that their magic would have no effect there. Once again, he is only seen in storybook illustrations.

## Personality

According to Princess Celestia in Magical Mystery Cure, Star Swirl the Bearded did not understand friendship like Twilight Sparkle does, and as a result, his secret last spell remained unfinished.

In the season seven finale, Star Swirl is portrayed as slightly sarcastic towards Twilight for releasing the Pony of Shadows from limbo and believing that villains are incapable of befriending others, putting him at odds with Starlight Glimmer. With both Twilight and Starlight's help, however, he recognizes his prior pettiness and poor judgment, and he reconciles with Stygian after the darkness inside him is banished.

In season eight, Star Swirl has become more humble and easygoing since the battle with the Pony of Shadows, befriending and helping several ponies during his travels and regularly sending Twilight postcards of his experiences. He has also become more trusting and idealistic, even giving Flim and Flam the benefit of the doubt.

In the season nine premiere, he is saddened by the loss of the Tree of Harmony (stating that it felt like a part of himself had perished), but assures Twilight that he doesn't blame her when she apologizes for it.

## Trivia

* Star Swirl the Bearded physically appears and make his debut in *Thomas' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic- Shadow Play (Full Movie).*
* Star Swirl the Bearded, along with the other Pillars of Old Equestria guest star in *Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!**, Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! (TV Series)* and *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of The Travels of the Young Marco Polo- Journey to Madagascar**.*

## Gallery

Bubble reality version "Mr. Starswirl"Depiction of Star Swirl on Legends of EquestriaStar Swirl's human counterpart depicted in statueStar Swirl's human counterpart