Although there are no plans for her to become a permeant alicorn just yet, she is still an alicorn on the inside, since she can turn it on and off. It’s a common misconception for some folks to use “temporary”. Temporary would have meant it would have a time limit and you can’t use it anymore and have to find another one. Sunny can become an alicorn anytime she wants to however long she desires, tho she mostly turns it on during dire situations.

So you could say that she is indeed, a permanent alicorn, just not as 24/7 like the other true alicorns. let’s not forget that since earth pony magic is back, she has enhanced strength. She could at least deliver a powerful buck or something.

If the showrunners do decide to make her a permanent alicorn 2.0, let’s just hope there won’t be of a big outcry by the fandom, we already had one to deal with and still to this day some people still complain about Twilicorn. Though I am surprised that the Sunnycorn we have now didn’t get as much hate like Twilicorn. She had alicorn power literally in her first appearance. You could have the argument that it was the crystals that made her that. But I honestly don’t know how to compare Sunny’s “hard work” to Twilight’s hard work she actually did for three whole seasons.

@orion parish
My guess is that at first, Sunny will have the ability to summon her wings and horn for key moments in certain episodes of the series, all while she would need to be trained by somepony or creature.

Eventually, however, Sunny ends up doing something that allows her to ascend. She would even be taken to the same realm that Twilight traveled to in “Magical Mystery Cure”. There, she would meet Twilight and the other alicorns before being sent back, and she then has to learn to come to grips with her new power.

@Background Pony #24AB
Looks like you don’t have a clue what a “Mary Sue” is, either.

@Background Pony #24AB
A Mary Sue (as based on the original Star Trek fanfiction that the term comes from) is best defined as a character who everyone likes unconditionally and always agrees with, with the possible exception of any villain characters who are vehemently opposed to them. Just from seasons one and two, I can probably find ninety examples of times Twilight and someone else disagreed, notably her friends, who you’d think would be the most likely to agree with her.

Besides this, she absolutely does face consequences for her actions, like in Winter Wrap Up when she’s chastised for breaking tradition to try to fit in, or in Feeling Pinkie Keen where her own determination to break down reality into a cold hard science takes away from her enjoyment of it (represented by physical injuries). Most notably, in A Canterlot Wedding when, had Chrysalis not revealed herself, Twilight likely would have lost the support of her friends, family, and mentor all at once.

That all goes without mentioning that, on a more meta level, innumerable characters throughout the run of the generation have been forgiven for much more than is reasonable by our standards. Like how Sunset Shimmer by all accounts should have been arrested for destroying the entire entrance to Canterlot High, or how Starlight is forgiven when Twilight saw she was just misguided and needed rehabilitation. In any court they’d both be punished severely, but they were given the benefit of the doubt and given the chance to right their wrongs to prove they weren’t being malicious, or in Sunset’s case, that she didn’t want to be malicious any more.

@TwiNet
They do have a clue, and Twilight was MS through season 1 and 2. Artist comes to town to give a show? Let’s have the monster be both real and Twilight library contain a solution to it, even though said solution was both comically stupid and useless in earth pony town, then ruin said artist life for no reason except daring to show magic talent for good measure to show what awesome special snowflake Twilight is! Twilight brainwashes whole town into being animals so she can write a letter? No punishment! Twilight wants to stop time killing everyone in Equestria? LOL, no one cares, what are consequences of her actions?

These designs look REALLY sharp. Gorgeous.

@Background Pony #BEFF
alicorn =/= Mary Sue.
I would say twilight was closer to a Mary Sue in season one

Pretty much this. They’re concepting what she could look like in her alicorn form, rather than what she definitely will look like in the end

No… Just… Just no.

The design of the horn and the translucent composition were liked, but the off-white color… I don’t know, it looks like it was put in bleach, or that it is made of Ice xD.

@Background Pony #BEFF
I swear 95% percent of the people who use the phrase “Mary Sue” don’t have the slightest clue what it actually means.

That reference of Princess Luna looks just like the vector of her I made. (https://www.deviantart.com/andoanimalia/art/Princess-Luna-790073107)

I cannot believe that’s happened! I’m so honored!

@Saiph
This is concept art, it’s very probable that she won’t ever be a full alicorn.

They’re not real.

They’re made of magic. Symbolic!

Honestly glad Hasbro went with the translucent look. Yeah, Sunny earned her wings and horn. But they didn’t look permanent. Not yet anyway.

Twilight took 3 seasons. Let them be an off and on thing for Sunny. Or have her bumble her way to learning how to use them.

Perhaps they wanted to give her a unique design. Perhaps it is because she is an earth pony.

If Sunny is going to be a full alicorn. Why didn’t they make her taller? Even Twilight became taller when she transformed. Why did they make her wings and horn look like they are made of magic? It’s almost like she is an ‘incomplete’ alicorn. Sunny doesn’t even have the flowy mane. She has some rainbow-colored strips.

@Background Pony #3336
To keep in line with her famous “I am average height” line, of course!

@Background Pony #4866
You’re right. Why isn’t she taller in the final design?

@Background Pony #3336
Not only this, but also be taller.

@Saiph
According to someone on EQD, there’s another piece of concept art where her horn and wings are magical/translucent like in the film. So her horn and wings being permanent may have just been in the development phase.

Does this confirm the end of the movie wasn’t just a power-up, then? I know the ultimate outcome is alicorn Sunny either way, just a matter of ‘when.’

Regardless I hope we can get hi-res versions of those illustrations in the top right, super cute!

@Background Pony #BEFF
G4 had four Alicorns and none of them was a Mary Sue. Neither did Sunny came across as one. So I’m not worried.

So she was going to have corporal wings and horn. I wonder why they changed this idea.

No, just no, not another series based on yet another Mary Sue.