What's wrong with Rainbow? · 1:53am Apr 19th, 2013
Harken back, if you will, to my blog post from a month ago. "Magic isn't magic?", I called it. In it (specifically, in footnote [2]), I mentioned my intention to someday explore the nature of pegasus and earth pony magic. Well, that day is not today.
Originally, that's what this blog post was going to be about. I had actual pages of notes written out, just waiting to be condensed into a chewable, cherry-flavored form. What I found in the course of my research, however, was that one specific aspect of pegasus magic is really, really weird. That's why I'm going to be talking about rainbows.
Let's start with S1E06: Boast Busters. In it, during Rainbow Dash's stunt, we get this little beauty:
This is a rainbow as we would understand it. It's just sunlight refracted through tiny droplets of water. Sure, it might not make sense with the sun as it is, and the radius is almost certainly too small, but I'll write that off as stylistic choice. What it shows is that optics in Equestria seem to work the same way as they do on Earth.
But then what about S1E07: Dragonshy? There, we get this scene:
So rainbows are sticky liquids now? Well, maybe this is just a weird exception. It's Rainbow Dash's house, after all; maybe she just keeps a specially-dyed pool of paint next to her door. Hey, I'm not one to judge.
Oh, wait, in S1E14: Sonic Rainboom, this happens:
Apparently, all rainbows made by the weather pegasi are the same kind of spicy, liquid rainbows we had at Rainbow's house.
But wait, there's more! Look at this scene from S2E17: Hearts and Hooves Day:
Um... what? So, the rainbow is just a layer of paint applied to an actual, physical structure? Who sets it up? Does it come pre-painted, or do they build it and add the color later? Does it fade away over time, or does somepony have to take it down afterwards? If that color is the same as the stuff in the pools, and it's obviously still liquid enough to be cleaned off, isn't that an environmental hazard?
Oh wait, no, it's obviously fine. There are natural rainbow falls in S3:E08: Sleepless in Ponyville:
They're water-soluble, then.
So, rainbows in Equestria are weird, but that's just the way their world works. There's obviously some set of rules here, which all rainbows follow. All but one...
Clearly, Rainbow Dash is some kind of physics-breaking abomination, able to twist the laws of Equestrian optics to her own, twisted ends. It's a good thing she's so lazy, or the world would be doomed. Hooray for Rainbow!
EDIT: Literally two minutes after I hit submit, I came up with an alternate explanation for the anomalous rainbow. Rainbow Dash dyes her hair. It's beautiful in its simplicity. When Rainbow flew through all those clouds and splashed herself with that water, it actually washed off some of the (water-soluble) rainbow paint and suspended it in the air.
As for the Sonic Rainboom, well, it'd be a bit of a stretch to say that she has that much dye in her hair, and that it all happened to vaporize in such a spectacular way. The answer to this conundrum is, of course, that it's Friendship Magic (TM).
huh You know I never noticed just how much rainbows were present in the show. Though I suppose it makes sense for a little girls show. Still I like your analysis on I laughed at the part about Rainbow Dash's laziness.
Friendship powers activate!
I think the Scootaloo thing really tells you all you need to know. All pegasi, even one as (currently at least) piss poor as Scoots can do whatever the heck they want with weather. That's a normal enough looking vaccum after all. Scoots is vaccuming the color out of the rainbow because she's a pegasus and feels like it. Everything else is small potatoes compared to that. For that matter that might be the standard way to make liquid rainbow if it's not a natural substance.