Star Swirl the Bearded

Star Swirl the Bearded is a male unicorn who is alluded to in various episodes and other media before making his first physical appearance in the season seven finale Shadow Play. He also appears in the IDW comics and Budge Studios' mobile game Harmony Quest. He is first mentioned by Twilight Sparkle in Luna Eclipsed as "the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era."

Development and name
M.A. Larson, the writer of Luna Eclipsed, It's About Time, and Magical Mystery Cure, selected the name Star Swirl out of a list of pre-approved locations and names by Hasbro, then added "the Bearded" because it didn't sound "quite old enough". Larson stated that Twilight Sparkle "would be the kind who'd idolize the great minds of the past."

The name Star Swirl was given by Hasbro to several Earth pony mares in toy lines of previous My Little Pony generations, and has been used in Friendship is Magic 's corresponding toy line for another Earth pony mare. A printable Twilight Sparkle paper cutout on The Hub's website, a post by The Hub's Facebook page, closed captions for Luna Eclipsed on the official HasbroEpisodes YouTube channel, different closed captions for Luna Eclipsed and closed captions for It's About Time both on the DVD My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Adventures in the Crystal Empire, closed captions for Magical Mystery Cure on the DVD My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Princess Twilight Sparkle, and a post by Wired 's Underwire blog have spelled it "Star Swirl" as this toy line has,   though Meghan McCarthy and Larson (both on Twitter), The Hub's Facebook app Ponyscopes, and closed captions for Shadow Play - Part 1 and Shadow Play - Part 2 have spelled it "Starswirl";  Enterplay's trading cards have used both spellings, and an Enterplay dog tag checklist has listed "Starswirl the Bearded" with a trademark symbol.

Season two
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 and displays part of his cutie mark above its door. 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.

Season three
At the end of The Crystal Empire - Part 2, Princess Luna summons a spiral-bound book that has a dark cover which shows four 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.

Season four
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.

Season five
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.

Season six
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".

Season seven
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" with Rockhoof, 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.

Season eight
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.

In A Rockhoof and a Hard Place, Mage Meadowbrook mentions that Star Swirl is still learning about friendship. In School Raze - Part 1, Star Swirl sends a message to the princesses in Canterlot explaining that magic is disappearing all across Equestria and will be completely gone in three days.

Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks
In 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.

Equestria Girls: Better Together
In Star Crossed, a statue of Star Swirl's human counterpart is on display at the Canterlot Planetarium.

Depiction in the comics
On page 19 of, Mr. Starswirl [sic] physically appears dressed as Gandalf the Grey in Discord's bubble reality. Of, cover A says "Behold the Secrets of Star Swirl the Bearded", and Star Swirl the Bearded physically appears on the Hot Topic cover.

In the issue, Star Swirl appears in flashbacks of Princess Celestia's past. Having discovered the secrets of cross-dimensional travel, he creates a magical mirror that allows travel to other universes. Star Swirl and Celestia spend decades visiting these worlds and learning about them. However, when he finds out that Celestia has been using the mirror to travel to one specific world numerous times, he closes the mirror before Celestia's actions endanger two kingdoms.

In, Star Swirl the Bearded appears in a stained glass window and in several flashbacks with Princess Celestia.

In, he appears again in various flashbacks and Twilight Sparkle briefly imagines him as an Alicorn.

In, he appears in a flashback with Princess Celestia and the alternate universe versions of King Sombra and Princess Luna and in another where he forgives Princess Celestia's actions.

Page 1 of involves two editions of Starswirl [sic]'s "Guide to Magical Pedantry" with different publication dates.

A poster of Starswirl [sic] is shown on pages 7 and 14 of.

Starswirl [sic] the Bearded appears in, in which he engages in several musical battles against the sirens and banishes them to the human world via the Crystal Mirror.

In, Star Swirl the Bearded pulls his cart up to an underground lake. Upon being bitten by a fly, he turns and sees that the tree in the middle of the lake is clutching a bone in its roots. Believing that the lake possesses evil magic, Star Swirl nails a warning sign to the tree. The crack left by the nail in the bark widens after he leaves, inadvertently enabling the changelings to emerge.

On page 14, Pinkie Pie mentions that Sugarcube Corner is "where Star Swirl the Bearded bought his favorite cookies", which Twilight Sparkle states is historically untrue.

In, Sunburst uses the records inside Star Swirl's private study in his research into the history of Equestria. Star Swirl also appears in flashback instructing young princesses Celestia and Luna in magic. He also appears on the covers B and RI and in, in which he first meets Stygian and the legendary ponies. In, he disregards Stygian's advice on how to confront the Sirens and banishes them, and in the present, Sunburst questions whether or not Star Swirl should be considered a villain. In Legends of Magic Annual 2018, he again joins forces with Stygian and the other Pillars to rescue Celestia and Luna from the Pony of Shadows of an alternate universe.

Chapter books
In Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity chapter 10 "Dyeing to Please", Twilight Sparkle gets Charity Sweetmint to take some extra books about Star Swirl the Bearded. Star Swirl the Bearded is also mentioned in Daring Do and the Eternal Flower.

In Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Forgotten Books of Autumn, Moon Dancer mentions the spell "Star Swirl's Seven Safeguards".

The Journal of the Two Sisters
Star Swirl the Bearded is mentioned several times in The Journal of the Two Sisters.

Celestia and Luna meet him at their Princess Coronation. Celestia reveals that initially, the responsibility of the sun and the moon fell to him and five other unicorns before Luna and Celestia. In the journal, Star Swirl's beard is brown, becoming shorter when he becomes younger due to a time travel spell gone wrong; later in the journal, his beard turns gray after his magic is depleted by a failed attempt to lower the moon by himself, but turns brown again after his magic is returned to him.

Baby Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook
Twilight Sparkle wears her Star Swirl the Bearded costume in episode 6 of Baby Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook, "Nightmare Night".

Fundamentals of Magic
Star Swirl the Bearded appears in an illustration in Spells, and in Magical Objects.

Software
Star Swirl the Bearded is in Budge Studios' mobile game Harmony Quest.

My Little Pony (mobile game)
Star Swirl is a character in Gameloft's mobile game. The game's description of him states, "Celestia's magic tutor and a wizard of great renown, Starswirl's reputation is as grand as his beard. Some ponies still dress up as him for Nightmare Night!"

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 Friendship is Magic Issue #17, Princess Luna describes Star Swirl as having a similar personality to Pinkie Pie. Flashbacks in the issue depict him as being eccentric and carefree, like Pinkie Pie. Like Twilight, he is shown to have a deep passion for magic and learning and a thirst for knowledge, as well as being very adventurous. He appeared to have a friendly relationship with Celestia, as she confides in him about her concerns about Luna and he encourages her to join him on his otherworldly escapades.

Despite his cheery demeanor, however, Star Swirl is also shown to have a serious side, as he puts his foot down for the good of the kingdom and seals the portal to the other dimension that Celestia had been visiting without his knowledge. He is said to carry huge grudges, as Celestia states her friendship with him was never the same after she lied to him. However, in Issue #20, he forgives Celestia and suggests they forget the whole thing ever happened.

In the season seven finale, Star Swirl is portrayed as slightly egotistical and narrow-minded, initially bitter toward 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.

Merchandise
A mini-figure toy of Star Swirl, as an earth pony, is included in the twenty-fifth wave of mystery packs. According to his brochure, which correctly depicts him as a unicorn, Star Swirl 'loves to help make gifts for the holidays'.

Hasbro also uses the name Star Swirl for an Earth pony mare with a powder-blue coat and a light purple and pink mane. Both toys of Star Swirl have only been released outside of the United States: the Playful Ponies version packaged with Rarity in the special edition of the Royal Gem Carriage vehicle set, and the mini-figure version as part of the second wave of mystery packs. According to the collector card included with the mystery pack toy, Star Swirl "always sparkles!" In the My Little Pony First Look and Find book, Star Swirl appears as one of the guests attending the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance.

Series 2 of Enterplay's trading cards includes Equestrian Magic cards featuring "Starswirl the Bearded's Book" and "Starswirl's Time Travel Spell", respectively cards #52 and #56. The back of card #52 includes the description "MANY HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO, Starswirl the Bearded used this book to scrawl notes about his most amazing works. The last page contained the most important spell of all: his secret unfinished masterpiece! Even Starswirl was unable to finish this spell, and the book was passed down through the ages to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Finally, this book landed in Twilight Sparkle's hooves, and her understanding of friendship allowed her to finish the spell and prove she was ready to become an alicorn... and a princess!" The back of card #56 includes the description "ONLY STARSWIRL THE BEARDED has ever whipped up magic strong enough to send a pony back in time! But, even his magic has limits. A pony can only use the spell once, and then only for a few moments. As Twilight Sparkle learned, using Starswirl's Time Travel Spell to warn the past about the future can have drastic results, so one should be very careful casting this spell! Maybe she should have gone back in time to warn Past Spike about Future Spike's tummy ache instead? Nah..."

Series 3 of the trading cards includes Character card #F4 of Star Swirl the Bearded. The back of the card includes the description "Star Swirl the Bearded may have been the most magical unicorn of all time—maybe even more magical than Twilight Sparkle herself! Star Swirl created many of the magic spells still used to this day, including dangerous time magic and the mysterious amniomorphic spell. He was the personal tutor of Clover the Clever, who helped found Equestria, and some say he even mentored Princess Celestia and Princess Luna before they learned how to move the Sun and the Moon!" Enterplay trading card series 4 card #F26 gives Nightmare Star the description "While visiting alternate worlds, Star Swirl the Bearded found one where Celestia ruled Equestria in eternal day as the terrifying Nightmare Star. He destroyed the mirror to that world and never told a single pony about it."

WeLoveFine sells an art print with a fan-design of Star Swirl the Bearded, a T-shirt showing Twilight Sparkle dressed up as Star Swirl the Bearded, and a T-shirt called "Mythical Star Swirl". Star Swirl the Bearded is also shown on Acidfree's first art print.

Promotional material
In The Hub's Facebook app Ponyscopes, of the horoscopes for January 8, 2013, attributed to Twilight Sparkle, the Sagittarius horoscope is "It's time to restock supplies! I always carry extra quills, scrolls, ink, books, and Starswirl the Bearded's tenants at all times."

In Hot Topic and The Hub's Hot Minute interview with Twilight Sparkle, she responds to the prompt "Favorite hobby" with the answer "Spending time with my friends. And this pony can never read enough about the bold and brilliant Star Swirl the Bearded."

A My Little Pony Equestria Girls promotional image showing Twilight Sparkle at the Crystal Mirror and attributing to her the quote "Star Swirl the Bearded never had an adventure like this before" was posted by Hasbro's My Little Pony Facebook page on June 20, 2013, months in advance of Reflections.

Quotes
"The best elements within us can spread light and virtue, and I know ponies who represent them all: strength, bravery, healing, beauty, hope, and sorcery."

- Shadow Play - Part 1

"What?! No, no, no, no! You must undo what you've done!"

- Shadow Play - Part 1

"Know this, fiend! We will not rest until we find a way to return you to limbo!"

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"It is an easy thing to say you have saved the world. It is quite another to do it."

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, Twilight, this is hardly the time to take risks on half-baked spells."

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"The Pony of Shadows was not interested in reconciliation. Once a villain, always a villain."

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"Long ago you needed our help, Stygian. But instead of listening, we turned our backs on you. Pride clouded my judgment, and I owe you an apology."

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"I simply cannot believe how tall you've gotten!"

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"If it is wisdom you seek, look no further than your own pupil. She showed me that the power of friendship is a magical force indeed. And that in turning away from others, you hurt yourself as well."

- Shadow Play - Part 2

"I spent a thousand years thinking the worst of a "bad" pony. You taught me to look for the best in him. Whatever Flim and Flam's past may be, starting this school shows they want to change for the better."

- Friendship University

"It seems I'll never stop learning from your example, Twilight. It is a valuable lesson to stand up for what you know is true. I wish I had known it, too."

- Friendship University

"Never doubt yourself... You'll do great things for your subjects. We all know that."

- To Princess Celestia, page 8

"Come along, princess. Adventure is out there."

- Friendship is Magic Issue #17 page 14

"I'm too old for this."

- Friendship is Magic Issue #17 page 18

"I'm sure we'll find much to explore! We've only been here a couple hours... This is just the tip of the ol' iceberg! Ooh! Do you have icebergs? Ours have lots of fat, little penguins. Ooh! Do you have penguins?!"

- page 5

"Making decisions you don't want to make is part of being a ruler."

- page 7

"This hat is amazing! It's the hattiest hat to ever hat! It just needs bells!"

- "How Star Swirl Got His Hat" short story

"Oh the ladies fair they are untrue— a too-ra-loo-ra-layyy— The ladies do not sing for you— a too-ra-loo-ra-leeee."

- Singing in page 17

"Well, I'm/Starswirl, the one with the beard, the one that you feared/I'm fishin' for new hears and it's your ears I've speared/I got more magic in me than Celestia's sun/And now the rest of you's done/Because the best of you's won."

- Rapping in FIENDship is Magic Issue #3 page 18

"Oh... I don't like the feel of this place at all. It's got some baaaad juju going on."

- page 21

"A #MLPseason5 is never late, nor is it early, it arrives precisely when it means to"

- Twitter post by Meghan McCarthy