Backstory: Rainbow Dash

We've gotten past those other ponies and finally on to the good stuff. Smooth sailing from this point on. While before I had to hold back some of my disdain or disinterest, from here on out I may have to reign in some of my enthusiasm to keep from rambling on too much.

After a bit of flip-flopping back and forth, I decided to stick to the alphabet. So Rainbow Dash is next. She shares the top of my list, first place, with Twilight Sparkle.

Family

Rainbow Dash is the only member of the M6 who is an only child. Her parents are Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof. Unlike the others so far, we don't actually know what it is Rainbow's parents do/did for a living. We meet them in Parental Glideance and learn they're enthusiastic and doting on Rainbow Dash, supportive of her every action to the point of obsession and embarrassment. From a few pictures/flashbacks of when Rainbow Dash was a baby, we get a sense of her parent's style. It seems like the two of them dressed in a "rocker" fashion that wouldn't have been unusual in the 80's.

The fandom prior to S7 tended to have Rainbow Dash come from a broken home with a single parent, often with some amount of abuse or neglect, and Rainbow Dash hating or resenting her parent(s) for her childhood. Luckily for us, canon is so much better.

It is clear that Rainbow learned to value things like "coolness" from her folks. She gained tons of confidence and had their support in whatever she wanted to do, leaving her with only her own self-imposed limits and doubts to hamper her. At times she faced teasing from her peers for the antics of her parents, but we learned that Rainbow grew and excelled with their cheering her on. She may have been embarrassed that they would cheer her on for mediocre results but eventually, she came to earn that praise.

I think this is an interesting environment that Rainbow grew up in, and it really does explain her generally brash attitude. Not only is she willing and eager to jump right into things, she expects to excel at whatever she does and for everyone around her to notice and praise her when she does. When she does mess up at times, like at the Best Young Fliers competition in Sonic Rainboom, that unfamiliar doubt and fear is something she's not well-equipped to handle. At other times, like in Mysterious Mare Do Well, the tepid praise she gets for her heroics confuses her and tells her that clearly, she needs to impress everyone even more. We see this same conflict in Best Night Ever when she is largely ignored by the Wonderbolts.

I speculate that Rainbow Dash thought of Fluttershy like a little sister. Fluttershy's parents clearly welcomed her and were probably used to (or unable to say no to) her visiting often before the two left for Ponyville. Some of the early seasons shipping fuel for the two was probably intended to be this childhood friendship/sisterly relationship.

Cutie Mark

Rainbow Dash earned her cutie mark flying in a race to "defend Fluttershy's honor" from a trio of bullies. During the race not only did she win, but she performed the legendary Sonic Rainboom, sending a brilliant shockwave of color across the sky that was visible all across Equestria. The sight of her rainboom inspired the rest of the M6 to earn their own cutie marks either immediately or soon after.

Like Fluttershy, Rainbow's cutie mark is tied to a special talent. She's fast. Whether it is simply flying somewhere at mind-numbing speeds or darting back and forth across the sky to clear clouds, Rainbow can move. In fanfic, this idea has been explored to have her go so fast she breaks through to other dimensions/universes, travel through time, or simply fly East.

This is often expressed in her personality as impatience. She'll get bored easily if she has to stay put for very long (such as modeling clothing for Rarity). It also seems like her wings carry her around more easily than her hooves do, as it is fairly rare to see her walk or stand on the ground. She'll generally hover in place or fly. Other background pegasi tend to walk around much more than Rainbow Dash does.

On a more personal note: if I had to point to one single thing in all of MLP that represents what I love about the show, it is the Sonic Rainboom. It is bold, colorful, and imagination-inspiring. It's fantastic magic. Not just in the near-meaningless word-salad use of "fantastic" but it is the stuff of high fantasy. Of magic flying horses, and where a witch's curse can be broken by true love's kiss, because magic does fantastic things, instead of just some poorly understood scientific energy. It is a thing which inspired our main characters' lives, and without which Equestria would fall to any number of horrid fates. It is the pinnacle of one mare's will to push and succeed and win over the mere laws of physics that would get in her way. It is an icon of a fantasy world that we will never have in our real lives, but we can dream about and smile for doing so. I like ponies not because I think we can emulate them or find answers to problems in our world or personal lives. I like ponies because they're fantastic. They're that wonderful thing we imagined as children before the drudgery of adulthood forced us to fall in line. A time when imagination and expression of it didn't run into the barrier of "approval."

I've seen fanfics try to tap into the magic of the rainboom and fall flat. The show tried to tell us how great Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding was by having Rainbow Dash perform one to decorate the sky after their ceremony. In some ways, it feels like the Sonic Rainboom is too amazing and special to waste on frivolous scenes. It doesn't feel as awesome when it happens the second or fifth time. But I feel like the movie managed to capture the beauty and awesomeness of it in that scene, making it one of the best depictions. Nothing will top that moment of sheer amazing as Rainbow Dash pushed to save Rarity and the unconscious Wonderbolts falling to their deaths. But the movie's rainboom is certainly very pretty.

Element

The Element of Loyalty means more than simply not betraying your friends or ignoring them. It is about seeking out your friends to be with them, not letting minor hurdles stop you. Perhaps one of my favorite examples for this comes from Equestria Girls, near the beginning of Friendship Games. All the girls show up at the school in response to Rainbow's "emergency" text message. When they arrive, they find out she called them there because she broke a guitar string. Some, like Applejack and Rarity, complained about the inconvenience as they were busy. Sunset Shimmer gave her a spare string. But rather than going back to their busy lives, they tagged along to listen to Rainbow Dash put on a show for the CMC.

Most people missed that scene. If they saw it, they just chalked it up to Rainbow Dash being her thoughtless self again. But what it says to me is that the group of friends were letting their responsibilities and schedules get in the way of their friendship, and the broken guitar string was just an excuse to get them all together to hang out. Even though some of them complained, they all went along with her and had a good time together.

That's what loyalty means in the context of Friendship. It isn't about fighting bad guys together or waking up in the same jail cell as your friend with matching hangovers. It isn't about always taking your friends' sides in an argument. It is about accepting that your friends matter to you, and you matter to them. It is about making your friends a priority.

A lot of Rainbow Dash's conflicts deal with that set of priorities. In Wonderbolts Academy, Rainbow Dash faced the direct prospect of picking between her dreams of joining the Wonderbolts or her friends. The idea that the 'bolts would not consider the safety of her friends important drove her to choose to give them up as her friends were far more important to her. In Rainbow Falls, we had the same conflict pop up again, with Rainbow Dash being forced to pick between her original home of Cloudsdale or her new home of Ponyville, and again her friends/team (Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps) or the Wonderbolts.

When not stuck choosing which set of loyalties to stick with, Rainbow Dash is often vocal about others sticking true to themselves. Be it a bunch of pirate bird anthros, buffalo, or rooting for the Crystal Empire to host the Equestria Games because she remembers when Cloudsdale couldn't host the games when she was a filly. Or simply inspiring CHS to not give up before trying to compete against Crystal Prep.

Events

Back in Season 1 when we still had little backstory for any of the M6, Griffon the Brushoff gave us a little bit of Rainbow's past. She was friends with Gilda the griffon in her youth, having met in something called "Junior Speedsters." Their mutual appreciation for flying well, flying fast, and all things cool made it easy to see why they were friends. We later learn about griffon culture in The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, and still more in The Hearth's Warming Club. Gilda's side of their friendship was rather unusual for her culture, though Rainbow Dash didn't appreciate it until Griffonstone.

In Read It and Weep, Twilight Sparkle introduced Rainbow Dash to Daring Do, an adventuring pegasus whos exploits are recorded in "fictional" novels. While this is an event that takes place after the start of the show, it was such a fundamental change for Rainbow Dash that it feels like proper backstory material. Prior to the episode, Rainbow had been disdainful of reading as "uncool." Once she got past that disdain she embraced it with the same enthusiasm she puts into her other interests. As mentioned before, a lot of Rainbow Dash's limitations are self-imposed, based on her own (flawed) judgment of those things. A big part of Rainbow Dash's character arc has been for her to open up and set those limitations aside after giving many things a chance. She later gives things like the spa a chance and opens up to Scootaloo to take her under her wing as her adoptive little sister.

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Where Applejack and Pinkie Pie are interesting mostly due to their families, Rainbow Dash is interesting due to her own exploits and growth through the seasons. It feels like out of all the M6, she is the one who has grown the most. She's also exciting in stories because she makes things happen, for better or for worse. Where characters like Twilight Sparkle or Applejack will fret over how to do a thing, Rainbow Dash will generally already be flying into whatever it is and doing it. Where characters like Fluttershy, Rarity, or Pinkie Pie might hesitate due to concern for other's feelings, Rainbow Dash will ask for forgiveness later. Where Applejack or Fluttershy are content simply to be at home and do their daily routines, Rainbow Dash trains herself and pushes herself to get the most out of life.

Despite all of her growth and softening around the edges, Rainbow still possesses a great many flaws that can drive many stories forward. She can easily get into conflict with nearly any character and learn from her conflicts. She possesses a great many virtues, keeping her a likable and relatable character. She might mess up, but I always root for her.

Character Plugs

http://www.dashacademycomic.com/comic/view/1022

A comic imagining the "Junior Speedsters" part of Rainbow Dash's life. It details her pre-adult life and friendship with Gilda and Fluttershy, as well as several other characters. It also covers continued conflict with Hoops, Dumbell, and Score.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/25966/austraeoh

Currently in the process of reading this, so it is on my mind. This is what an epic tale is when one uses the correct definition and meaning of the word "epic."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1U87rNR7Q

Parodies of fanfics using the characters from the Mentally Advanced series. Linked here is the parody of "My Little Dashie," one of the "classics" of MLP's fanfiction. So you have a Rainbow Dash-centric AU of a Parody fanverse used to parody an AU fanfic of Rainbow Dash. Also, it's morbidly adorable.

Even when it isn't a reference to Rainbow Dash, rainbows often are a theme in the show for great things.

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Comments

[Jondor]

No errors spotted.

[scoots2]

Nice.