The poor Shadowbolts and my opinions of them. (warning, extremely boring, read at your own risk)

I am an extremely stupid person. A very obnoxious, rambunctious person whose theories are both nonsensical, poorly founded and whose words should be ignored.

It's more likely than not that before you have even read one more sentence of this poorly written and badly typed piece of garbage that you will fall asleep, especially because this piece of badly typed garbage asks you to sympathize with what many people would call "Villainous villains." .

And that's only by the few people lucky enough to know them by name, which many of you probably don't (I wouldn't blame you.)

For those of you who don't know, the Shadowbolt's are a group of students from a rival school called Crystal Prep who were obsessed with winning the friendship games against Canterlot high in the third movie, to keep their long standing reputation in tact.

But lets get to the point.

Many people would say the Shadowbolt's are a mixture between "Bland and boring" and "Remorseless and selfish."

In other words, the Humane 6 without any redeeming qualities.

I (being the stupid idiot and prick I sadly am) wholly disagree.

With what little screen time they got, and with the "Friendship games" not being friendship games at all but a fierce and competitive showdown between two rival teams eager to make the other eat their dust, not at all what friendship is.

I will admit, the Shadowbolt's didn't exactly treat their opponent team with respect or politeness. But they didn't exactly cheat either (unless you count them trying to get Twilight to use her magic necklace near the end). They played fairly (even if they did lose a bit sorely) and in a event as competitive as this, some rivalry between the two schools was only natural when the Shadowbolt's had much higher stakes to play for than Canterlot high.

The longer you hold a winning streak for, the higher the stakes are and the more upset you'll be when you fail to keep it going. Canterlot high only cared about finally getting a victory. The Shadowbolts had a very strict headmistress to impress, and were most likely threatened with severe punishments if they failed their orders. Cinch showed she had the power to take away Twilight's chances at an independent study program at the drop of a hat which would ruin Twilight's potential future (in that moment at least when she didn't realize a better way out) it's not a far stretch to say that she had similar power over the other students.

To put it simply, they were a lot like puppets on a string.

Possibly, they were afraid of mingling more with the rival school because

1. The two schools had been rivals for a long time and thus, the Shadowbolts were just as afraid of the Canterlot high students.

2. They were afraid that it would upset Cinch and she would punish them like she did with Twilight.

3. It's fairly clear that many of the Canterlot High Students treated the Crystal Prep Students badly (which is why Twilight was very surprised when the Humane 6 showed her any kind of care or sympathy) and that it was seen as taboo to interact with them. It's not too far fetched to think that Indigo Zap and the others on that team were afraid that they'd be seen as outcasts by others from their school as well.

"But even then the Shadowbolt's are just dull carbon copies of the original mane characters who aren't needed and who do nothing but harm to the society" I hear you say.

But allow me to do a little more defending first.

If the Shadowbolt's were truly cold blooded, they would have left their rivals to be consumed by the portals knowing full well how dangerous those things are. They came through when it truly mattered.

If you compare them with some other well known Characters from other works of fiction, you'd really begin to see what I see in them when I say they're really not that bad.

(Note: continue reading at own risk. Many people will not understand the references that come next.)

Indigo Zap (soul of bravery) Items:Tough glove and manly bandana.

Indigo Zap can be seen as far less malicious and cruel when compared to "Mangle", a well known character from Fnaf.

Like Mangle was designed to be an improved, kid friendly Foxy, Indigo was designed to be a team encouraging, better athlete than Rainbow Dash. While Rainbow Dash was well liked and well known among her school as a great captain, the little evidence we can gather from the brief movie shows Indigo being viewed far less favorably even among her own school. It's likely that the other Shadowbolts were her only friends as she only interacted with them.

Disliked by even her own school as well as the rival school, it was little wonder Indigo didn't seem the most friendly person, though she did try to lead her own team well (possibly unaware of Twilight's situation since she was so busy trying to make sure everything else went well for her team.) Indigo can be seen as the soul of Bravery as Bravery is an important quality for every team leader and her choice of sport, motorcycling is a sport that requires a lot of daring and she refused to give in even when it was clear that to continue the race would be risky (when Twilight's necklace started malfunctioning).

Also, being what seems like a sport's captain of sorts in her school, its not inconceivable that Indigo would have a tough glove and bandana for some of the wide range of sports she would play in. (Bandana's are a piece of uniform in some sports like boxing)

Sunny Flare (soul of Justice) Items:Cowboy hat and empty gun

Sunny Flare has flaws and traits comparable to Toy Chica. To put things more into perspective, think of Rarity (Sunny's direct counterpart for a lot of people) as original Chica. This comparison might seem odd and nonsensical (it probably is) but both Rarity and Sunny have similar flaws. Sometimes they both let their vanity and need to appear attractive get between them and their friends. Both probably have an affinity for fashion, yet while the original Chica will be kept for several generations more to enjoy while the Freddy crew battle to repair her, Toy Chica was quickly scrapped and thrown away.
By this I mean that Sunny will never have the chance to grow as a character or get a chance to make up for her mistakes (quite possibly because now that they lost their reputation she will be punished quite badly alongside her friends).

Sunny Flare can be seen as the soul of justice as she outright put her anger against Cinch's cowardice into words when she refused to leave with Cinch and stayed behind to help Twilight and the others. If the theory that Cinch and her are related holds true, then it took the most guts for her to stand up against Cinch, especially since she was the only Shadowbolt who received a direct order to leave. This could be seen as a strong sense of morality even if it surfaced a bit late.

Being from most likely a wealthier family than the other Shadowbolts, its not unlikely that she would have the greatest chance to get close to a firearm and to then be formally trained in its use (if you think of that infamous scene where the executive drew out his gigantic rifle as he yelled "Say hello to my little friend") . The cowboy hat could simply be a church hat, stovepipe or another kind of fancy hat that looks similar to a cowboy hat. Or it might be one of many hats in the large collection of hats that a wealthy, appearance conscious fashionista is bound to keep.

Sugarcoat (soul of perseverance) Items:Cloudy glasses and torn notebook.

Sugercoat's honesty, even if it came in a brutal and somewhat snarky package, can be seen as both a flaw and a redeeming quality. With a small amount less snark and a little more consideration for others, she could easily pass for another element of honesty bearer. Possibly she can't distinguish between too little and too much honesty and thinks its best just to tell the whole truth (and aside from in the courtroom, that is more often the case than not in many more situations).

It took Sugercoat sometime to apply that to herself and her friends but it's an understandable mistakes. It's much easier to see your neighbour's faults than your own and the closer you are to someone, the more difficult it is to admit their faults. Obviously, during the friendship games, it was very easy to distance oneself from the rival team and from a more introverted teammate who didn't seem as concerned about winning the games as you were.

If you think of phone guy as he tries desperately to warn you of the oncoming dangers you would face in the coming nights despite his obligations towards the place he worked for, you'll see that sometimes brutal honest advice even though it might not be very pleasant, can save your bacon since you'll pay more attention to it this way.

Sugercoat can be seen as the soul of perseverance because despite the differences she clearly has between her more talkative and less deadpan friends (not unlike the difference between Maud and Pinkie Pie) and how she still chooses to stay friends with them. Perseverance also prefers to take less action unless pressed to and to try and accept things as they are, which may have contributed to why she also didn't notice Twilight's odd behaviors. Being what seems like a more bookworm type person, a torn notebook is probably one of the first things you would expect to see in her pack with all her secret thoughts (quite often, very honest people keep more secrets than not honest people which they are not willing to reveal) and notes. She wears the cloudy glasses throughout the film, possibly due to eye damage from all that reading.

Lemon Zest (Soul of Kindness) Items: Burnt pan and Stained apron.

Lemon Zest is thought by many to be nicer than her teammates since she did try to share her music with Twilight (seen as the only kind gesture any Shadowbolt made to Twilight for most of the film). I to some extent agree with this. She certainly seemed less snarky and insulting than her teammates towards Canterlot High. Most likely since the part of her personality she shared with her supposed counterpart Pinkie, wanted to make others smile and laugh while causing as little sadness as possible. A big part of kindness is about making people smile.

This leads us to an interesting comparison between her and balloon boy as similar characters. The reason shouldn't be difficult to figure out. She certainly seems like the balloon boy (or girl at least) for her team. What seemed like a fun harmless game for Balloon boy , is a dangerous, life threatening hazard for the night guard, though he'd have no way of knowing since they think differently.

It's in the name. Lemon Zest's name clearly shows a fondness for cooking things, especially sweet and tasty things (even supported by the fact one of the events in the games was a cooking contest). A pan and a apron are the two most basic things to have for every chef in any kitchen.

Sour Sweet (soul of integrity) Items: Ballet shoes and Old Tutu

It takes a lot of grit, courage, and by extension integrity to live with a mental condition such as bipolar disorder. You often find yourself in front of the mirror wondering who you really are, since your personality can change so unpredictably at a moment's notice and there's nothing you can do about it. Mood swings prevent you from making good impressions on people and by extension making friends. The inability to stay in one train of thought or one emotion often impacts grades and other talents negatively.

But Sour Sweet can be seen as an exception. It takes very good grades to get into a high ranking and strict school such as Crystal Prep (much harder than Canterlot high) which would show dedication to schoolwork.

She also does have 4 very close friends (who despite not suffering from any noticeable personality disorders still accept her as a friend) and a signature sport which she is undeniably very skilled in. And that is archery. She is able to fire even 3 arrows at a time so that they all hit the board and one hits the red. (It'll be a very useful skill for when z day comes but thats another story of course).

This shows that despite her jekyll and Hyde like personality quirk which handicaps many people, she did in a sense "find her cutie mark", her calling in life. A useful skill that she could use to make something of herself that she shows uncanny talent in. And she didn't let it get in the way of her schoolwork or grades (which is very hard).

She also shows integrity by taking her share of the blame despite shifting most of it to Cinch. (I'd probably give most of the blame to Cinch if I was in the same situation, I'm not gonna lie)

Twilight Sparkle (soul of patience) Items: Faded Ribbon and Toy knife

The human Twilight spent much of her life being beaten down by the school and world around her. Cinch badly abused her and the other Shadowbolts weren't much better off. The implication is that this unjust treatment had gone on for years, but Twilight never openly insulted or tried to call the others out for it. She could have sworn at Indigo or the other Shadowbolts when they kept insulting her, but didn't and instead tried her very best to shrug off their behaviour even when it was clear they weren't very good friends. That shows patience, and mercy, a very important skill to have both in friendships and in everyday life. Patience is a virtue.

Twilight's patience is what makes her just as likable as her pony counterpart. It takes a very strong person to withstand so much crap being thrown at them without lashing out in rage, or responding in kind. It is indeed tragic that Cinch and the other students would take such patience for granted, and even more tragic that this patience stopped Twilight trying to ask for help (though it's not far fetched that Cadence, the only responsible figure in her life was very busy and didn't realize sadly that there was a problem since Twilight never tried to bring it up).

Twilight's faded ribbon (which she probably uses to tie up her hair during experiments) is a key feature in her appearance that separates her from her pony self. It might not be very clearly seen in the movie, but she would need something to tie her hair up with something and a ribbon seems like a logical choice.

Its also not unlikely that she has a small scalpel of some sort with how many experiments her curiosity drives her to carry out since Scalpels are a definite staple for most scientists.
If Twilight in the pony world never learned the importance of friendship or tried to step out of her comfort zone to try something new this was most likely how she would end up. Human Twilight makes us appreciate just how much Princess Twilight has grown as a character.

And Last but not least: Lightning Dust (Soul of determination) Items: Real knife and heart locket.

(Warning: even less Canon)

"Being kicked from the Wonderbolts despite coming so close to your lifelong dream fills you with determination". A lot of people seem to have it out for Lightning Dust, the one that was kicked out of the Wonderbolts after the tornado anyway.

A high percent of people talk about Lightning Dust coming back for revenge to try and get Dash kicked out of the academy. But that's not what I think would realistically happen at all based on the "Wonderbolts academy episode". More people seem to think of Lightning Dust coming back for revenge after seeing Starlight Glimmer. When they think of returning characters with a major role you think most likely of Starlight and her convoluted plan to take away the sonic Rainboom to make Twilight sad.

What you don't think of is ,say Coco Pommel, who wanted to host a show to make Manehattan a friendly and happy place again, to encourage ponies to work together instead of living alone. She was (despite not being as malicious as Suri) an antagonist in her debut episode (Made in Manehattan) yet came back later, clearly reformed and ready to try and redeem herself for her past mistakes.

Lightning Dust was not trying to make Rainbow Dash's life sad or miserable. The worst thing she did was ignore Rainbow's wing injury, so that they could go to the next task, but sometimes small injury's (both in sport and in military) have to be ignored when the situation is urgent. With how many times Rainbow has crashed during her practice flights, its not a far stretch to assume that Dust hadn't endured much of the same. And whether the Wonderbolt's are a military or sport team, being able to tough through an injury until the smoke has cleared is an important aspect (How many soldiers do you see that give up and refuse to stop going simply because of a leg injury that can probably be fixed after the battle is over. Especially if the injury isn't life threatening. And how many times do you clap when you see athletes that keep trying to play on despite a clear injury that is causing them hurt.)

As for how she didn't seem as sad as Dash when the tornado turned out how it did, I attribute it to a deer in headlights syndrome. When you're under pressure, sometimes words slip out when you're desperately trying to make the situation seem not as bad. And don't forget that if Rainbow Dash hadn't agreed to help Lightning with the tornado, it would never have happened, so even though Dash is a good character, she should still take some of the blame since she could have refused.

Also if you watch closely, Lightning Dust was thrown by the tornado, so was less able to help than Dash. She probably didn't realize what was going on until she recovered from the daze, by which time it was too late to try and help.

She also didn't try to yell back at Spitfire or Dash when they took her badge, and seemed actually to take it pretty well.
So why is Lightning Dust on this list.

My thoughts are this. Lightning Dust was originally going to be in the movie but was replaced with Indigo Zap. What this probably would mean story wise, is that since every pony does have a human counterpart, Lightning's human version probably also goes to Crystal Prep (since most Crystal Prep students tend to be either rivals to the mane 6) or at least went to Crystal prep some time ago, but was either not selected to play in the friendship games or kicked out (which would make her backstory similar to her pony counterpart)

Lightning Dust's defining trait is determination. She loves to try harder and harder to impress Spitfire and improve her talents, to try and work her way to the top. She won't settle for second best. Not unlike a student who will settle for less than A star (a very rare sight nowadays) or an athlete who will settle for nothing less than the gold.
Determination is an important quality, it's what makes a main character a main character.

As a general rule, you cannot kill the main character. They will always find a way of coming back from the dead, even if you put them into situations where every other character would have seemingly no way of surviving, say a crashing plane. You can't hold the main character back from their goal either. You can send villain after villain to try and stop the main protagonist from achieving their self assigned goal, but they'll only find a way to tough through it and grow even more determined in the process since every obstacle they manage to overcome gives them more confidence in themselves (and quite possibly allies who are impressed with the main character for being so strong and decide to support their cause).

This is Lightning Dust for me. While she does have her flaws, her work ethic still speaks for itself. And at the end of the day, for me at least, a person's flaws are just as defining as their good qualities. And knowing how determined Lightning Dust is, I'm certain that even if you've broken her dreams, you haven't broken her spirit. She'll just pick up from where she left off, more determined to improve on her flaws and succeed than ever before. Wherever she went. Learning from mistakes instead of being overcome with self pity is another luxury that determination gives for those that have it.

The Wonderbolt's are based off a real life military flight demonstration team (the blue angels I think). It therefore leads me to believe therefore that human Lightning Dust is some sort of military pilot, or at least has some sort of military role. This would make sense as the army is a place not many people are brave enough to go into and Lightning Dust seems like the daredevil sort of pony used to the harsh conditions it would bring.

I like to picture human Lightning Dust with combat fatigues and possibly goggles (though possibly not since human Rainbow Dash isn't a pilot despite being a good flyer as a pony). Quite possibly also an AK-47 for some reason (though that would ruin the purpose of the show, which is to teach friendship and peace).

I do think Lightning Dust had potential, really I do. But at the same time, I don't think saving her until the show runs out of other ideas for a new original character is a bad idea either.

You will be very surprised when I tell you which character Lightning Dust is comparable to. Very, very surprised (and for many people, very angry at me for being vague and talking nonsense). I compare Lightning Dust to Springtrap the animatronic when my opinions on her begin to worsen, and once again my sympathy for her returns.

Not because I feel Lightning Dust is a remorseless serial killer, I'm not implying that at all. But the fact one hasty decision made without adequate planning led Springtrap to his downfall and the fact Springtrap was sealed away for several years where no one could find him and no one ever went back to check if he was alright is very similar to the current fate Lightning suffered.

Though like Springtrap, hopefully some years or seasons later, someone will bother to look for the forgotten Lightning Dust so that the now empty fright attraction (or empty book of ideas for the show since the writers used them all up long ago) will still have one real animatronic to scare the socks off the visitors and stay authentic and entertaining instead of having a lame performance of a bad actor wearing a poorly designed mask. But I digress.

I do believe that Lightning Dust will get her chance to shine too one day, but until then she will have to wait patiently and in solitary confinement, quite possibly a prison (since the way the guards restrained her as they led her away implies she would not simply get to go free).

I can't defend everything the Shadowbolts did in the movie, and I do still admit they were wrong to do as they did. However I also think that since they were little more than puppets on a string, that there is a more benign and sympathetic side to them that we'll likely never see. They certainly are more than just paper cut outs of the original main characters, and certainly have enough mystery surrounding them that they could be used as plot devices in a future episode or movie.

And of course, it begs the question. Do they have pony counterparts as well, and if so, where are they and what are they like? Could they serve as emergency bearers for the elements of harmony in case the mane 6 get into trouble and can't do it themselves one day. Or are they heroes of another story, and were dealing with other threats to Equeestria, unbeknownst to mane 6. And with no lucky Rainboom, how did they meet each other as friends.

I already have my own theory that they met at different times and that Indigo met Sour Sweet defending her from some bullies, but thats just a theory.

To conclude this awful piece of garbage writing (for anyone kindhearted enough to have read up to here) there are two words I would use to describe the Shadowbolts. Two, solitary words sum up just about everything about them much better than a long essay ever could.

Not "selfish" and "uncaring" (if they were they'd leave the Humane 6 to their fate when the portals started appearing). Not "Dull" and "Boring".

The two words I would use would be "New and shiny." They were designed to be "new and Shiny" versions of our original characters who could out perform them so that Crystal Prep would keep its reputation as a top school in check.

I still feel that with how talented they clearly were at the games, it will only be a matter of time before the mane 6 are paying them to do the hard, dangerous work so that Twilight and the others can finally take the day off and get some much needed rest from all those threats that they've had to cope with nonstop. Indigo Zap could replace Rainbow Dash as the element of loyalty and speedster for the team. Sunny Flare could be the Fashionista that makes the outfits and negotiates better deals to benefit both sides. Sour Sweet could repress her sour side so that the conflict could be solved nonviolently (or provide some epic long ranged support with that epic compound bow of hers when that fails). You get the picture.

But until then. Thank you for reading and sorry for ruining your day. I really would like to hear your thoughts if you have time. Otherwise, thanks anyway.