This story is a sequel to Rainbooms and Royalty
Dashverse: Rainbow Dash is geared up and prepared for the Best Young Flyers Competition in her hometown of Cloudsdale! And Rainbow is more than ready, having already used her Sonic Rainboom to help stop Nightmare Moon. When she and her friends arrive in Cloudsdale, things get even better: Rainbow has more fans than all the other competitors put together.
But that's when the problem starts. What's the cost of being the best? How can you have a competition when Rainbow is just that much better than everypony else? How will Rainbow Dash react to a horde of new fans? And how will her friends react to Rainbow's budding legend?
Chapters (5)
Nice to see another installment in the Dashverse. Because Rainbow Dash is awesome.
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2899685
Always.
Huh. Didn't expect to see another entry in the Dashverse before 'Hot Heads, Cold Hearts, and Nerves of Steel' wrapped up. What's the dealio, Trinary?
On to the story: it's an interesting take on the episode it's based on, in a manner akin to 'May the Best Friends Win' (although that one was an amalgam of 'Griffon the Brush Off' and 'Boast Busters'). I'm curious to see where this goes.
Hardly needs to be said, but I'm tracking this sucker.
I really need to follow this series...
I really do.
~Skeeter The Lurker
2899708
Not Trinary, but I know the answer. Short version is, inspiration struck.
This is looking good, and after the comments about Cloud Kicker in the last entry I am really hoping to see something develop between her and Rainbow in this story. Of course, she is probably going to try to leverage it into a foursome when Rainbow wins, but that is just how she rolls.
Hmm. Not an adventure, but I do like the verse. Might read.
Guessing this takes place between your 2 other Dashverse fics?
Does this constitute an alternate universe group yet?
20 to 5:00 time for bed
, hey Trinary posted a new story
, I can sleep when I'm dead...
Woot! Another Dashverse story! Keep up the brilliant writing here, Trinary!
I noticed a certain thing this one has in common with the Winningverse: the fluidity as regards to what name
D(itz/erp)y answers to.
Well here we go. I've made it no secret that Rainbow is my LEAST favorite pony.(I hate braggarts and she reminds of Ryan Locthe for some reason)
but...
You, again, are making an effort to make her more tolerable and I've learned from your previous efforts that Rainbow usually is an arrogant jerk for most of the story than learns something.
What I'm most interested in is the other competitors as they're going in as complete underdogs against a pony who has helped saved the world, has the Princesses backing, and a supermove. (Man,RD would make an excellent antagonist)
The original episode showed Dash going in as the underdog. Here you have reversed that so I can't really root for her.
If I were, say Lightning Dust, I would be pissed that all my years of hard work(my headcanon borrowed from Rated Ponystar that LD worked her way up from nothing) meant nothing because RD happened to be competing during the same year.
Question: Continued Cloud Kicker x RD shipping? Yes please. Nobody messes with RD's head like Cloud Kicker.
Also, can't wait for Divided Loyalty Dinky. "Both Mommy and Rainbow can't win? Who do I choose?!"
2900510 I'm just going to ignore that first bit in the interests of avoiding a flame war.
That said, you do bring up a very good point about how Rainbow has literally every possible advantage here. The rainboom is a proven move for her so there will be (almost) none of the anxiety that nearly crippled her in the episode, and everyone knows just how good she is thanks to the publicity she gained as Celestia's student and the two crises she has just averted.
It honestly seems to me like the best thing for her to do would be to bow out to give others a chance at taking first place, but I cannot see her doing that without some kind of incentive because it really is one of the key steps on her path to the Wonderbolts. Of course, they do know who she is and Celestia is involved so it is possible that they could work something out, but we will have to see how things unfold.
Also, on a totally unrelated note I am wondering if Rainbow is going to ascend like Twilight did in canon because the rainboom seems to indicate that her Pegasus magic is just as strong as Twilight's Unicorn magic and the roll of Celestia's student did switch so it could happen. Of course, a more likely solution is that there will be no ascension because that whole thing was kind of silly, and I am really starting to ramble here so I am going to shut up now.
As I stated, it's just my personal opinion. Don't know why people get upset that not all people like the same things. And yes I know it's odd that I don't care for Rainbow but at the same time can't get enough Lightning Dust. I'm just odd like that.
Not necessarily, because in the first story Celestia admits to telling the Wonderbolts not to take her, which they were all set to do when she was younger. That tells me that in this universe she automatically has a spot waiting for her. Basically rendering the entire Best Flyer competition worthless to Rainbow except as another ego trip.
And yeah, I don't see her bowing out UNLESS she comes to some sort of epiphany about letting others have a chance in the spotlight or something like that. Of course this is all speculation as to what moral this episode is going to go for as I can't see into Trinary's mind.
If I could I bet it's full of Rainbow Dash doing endless rainbooms and making mess.
Yeah that pretty much sums up Rainbow's entire personality.
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I suspect Dash won't be ascended, given that the Dashverse version of Cadance isn't ascended.
2900725 That is really strange that you like Lightning Dust but not Rainbow. Her entire purpose was to provide a comparison to where Rainbow started to highlight the character development Rainbow has received over time so she is very similar to season 1 Rainbow.
As for the contest, that could break any number of ways as you said so we will have to wait and see. Really the only thing it cannot do is end the way the episode did because Rainbow is not the underdog and Rarity is not there to make a mess of everything.
2900922 I was thinking the same thing (mostly because I do not like the random ascension), however she is enough of a mirror to canon Twilight that it is a possibility since the end of season 3.
Personally I hope not. But that is because I hate alicorn ascension in general. Giving characters more power makes them boring to me. Again just my personal taste.
I think because I felt bad for the way she was treated at the end of her episode. (The entire episode made no sense to me) And it showed a character who could match RD at her own game. I guess she has a Green Ranger thing going on which I dig.
2901007
I am very much with you on that, however it does make just as much "sense" as the canon ascension.
This is actually one of the few cases where I do agree with the treatment of the antagonist at the end of the episode. Lightning Dust was reckless and could have caused serious injury and/or damage even if the rest of the cast had not wandered into (presumably) restricted airspace which is absolutely unacceptable to a military unit like the Wonderbolts. That kind of incident demands a serious reprimand, and for a trainee in what is essentially a special forces unit I would expect nothing less than expulsion. After all, real world spec ops training actually includes exercises for the sole purpose of failing candidates out and fewer than one in four candidates generally makes it through. I remember hearing about one "exercise" which consists of nothing but standing in ice water until one of the trainees voluntarily drops out of training.
The other thing to keep in mind is that we do not know if she can reapply next year, because if that is the case then this is little more than a temporary setback to knock some sense into her.
My gosh, this story universe is quite immense. I have no idea where to start reading everything.
2901077
Logic: Buy me! My wings are so pretty! Let's fly to my castle! Tee hee!
Completely disagree. Lightning Dust's behavior can't be considered 'wrong' per say because it was approved on multiple occasions by her commanding officer, in this case Spitfire. Remember, through the episode Spitfire complimented everything LD did. She and the other officers must have been watching them fore evaluation the whole time and didn't say jack. Broke a new record? Impressive!
Used a tornado? Unusual, but creative! Hell RD didn't even tell her that she hurt her wing till the end. Basically I am saying it was Spitfire's fault because she seemed to go out of her way to reward reckless behavior which was something Rainbow called her on.
The alternate ending where LD just gets demoted to Wing pony and admits that Rainbow was right to tell someone makes more sense to me than the abrupt thing we got. The lesson being: If your friend is doing something dangerous/stupid tell someone. Friends don't let friends hurt themselves or others, blah blah blah.
Great
But I thought Rainbow Dash's mom had passed away. I don't think she was ever even mentioned until now. And her being dead was the reason Dash and Celestia developed a mother-daughter relationship.
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To toss in my view: I love the episode "Wonderbolt Academy" it highlights the things that make me love Rainbow Dash so much. As for the ending ... to be honest? I was more annoyed with Spitfire at the end than I was Lightning Dust.
This is my bias, since I work in education and all, but if a teacher encourages the wrong behavior in a student, then that makes the teacher responsible for what happens because of it. And for Spitfire to turn around at the end of the episode and go "Oh yeah, Rainbow Dash was right. Lightning, you're fired" was too abrupt and didn't even give Lightning the chance to adjust her behavior. Now, I think LD certainly SHOULD have been demoted for the stuff she pulled. But I think she should've been made RD's wingpony to give her a chance to learn another way, but not be kicked out, which is what the episode made it look like.
In the Elements of Harmony, the episode guide book, it says that Lightning Dust "was stripped of her title" which seems to imply that she wasn't expelled. I happen to prefer that, though that book has gotten stuff about other episodes wrong, so it's still debatable what actually happened.
PS
The bit about Celestia telling the Wonderbolts not to take Dash in R&R was cut after criticisms (that I agree with) for being OOC for Celestia.
2901282
Total agreement. I've managed people before. I can't just fire someone without correctives first. If I don't explain what I expect to be proper procedure I haven't got a leg to stand on if they screw up. Wonderbolt Academy would have been one of my favorite episodes if not for the ending.
2901163 I wholeheartedly agree that Spitfire was too lax and needed to do more to monitor the cadets, but there are a few things you need to consider.
The first is that like any elite unit, the Wonderbolts are always pushing the envelope so they have to be a little bit reckless in training. Most of what Lightning Dust was doing was really just putting herself at risk of minor injuries which is not a big deal in training, and is actually something those kinds of units select for because the individuals tend to know their own limits better than anyone else. After all, pushing the envelope always entails a bit of risk, and most of what she did worked out fine so it is not unreasonable to assume that she knew she could do it ahead of time from her independent training. Really the only major mistake she made before the tornado was pushing Rainbow into things rather than working out a more reasonable solution as a team, but that was less recklessness and more poor teamwork which did not seem to be the focus of those exercises.
The other potential limiting factor is instructors to closely monitor the cadets, but this is a justification for less cadets, not less monitoring. They really should have had a Wonderbolt with each wing pair at all times with Spitfire free to float around which would have stopped the problem before it got out of control, but that is an organizational failure, not a methodology failure.
One other little thing to keep in mind is that Spitfire had not seen what happened when she said the tornado was creative. She probably assumed it was one of the smaller ones that Rainbow whips up from time to time and easily controls on her own. This does not excuse the gross negligence of leaving the cadets unsupervised, but it does at least explain why she did not instantly follow Rainbow.
Now, all that is really an organizational problem rather than a problem with the punishment itself, and my logic above still stands. The Wonderbolts are a very elite unit, and part of the reason elite units stay that way is a willingness to flunk out potential recruits over relatively minor infractions. That does not mean it is nice, but it is necessary to maintain their high standards in all things and history has shown that this kind of overzealous weeding out of candidates produces exceptionally talented individuals at the cost of numbers. Incidentally, this holds true even if you are not trying to create an elite unit in the first place as in the case of the Tuskegee Airmen where brutal training and overzealous washing out to keep blacks out of the sky backfired and produced one of the most elite groups of pilots of WWII.
2901282 As I mentioned above, I agree that Spitfire screwed up big time, but given the status of the Wonderbolts as an elite military unit I do not think expulsion was an unreasonable punishment. For reference, the washout rate among US Pararescue trainees is about 95%, so if you applied that to the Wonderbolts class we see that would mean that the odds are against even one candidate making it through. Of course, the Wonderbolts do not get that kind of training (that would require them to be fully qualified paramedics in addition to their rapid response combat duties) so presumably more of them would get through, but even then I would not expect the average to be much above one per class.
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For such 'elite' unit the Wonderbolts don't seem to do much. They seem more of a government sponsored stunt team and an extension of the weather service. So comparing them to Seals, etc is false equivalence, in my opinion.
Lets take a look at what the Wonderbolts have done so far:
Stunt shows at special events. (Gala, Summer Sun etc)
Judge flying contest.
Rescue falling pony...fail.
Fly a race (Wonderbolt derby)
Fight a rampaging dragon in Ponyville... and fail.
Supervise Tornado day which apparently involves not helping at all even when it fails.
And exactly what military type things did they do at the academy? Most of the exercises were fly through bad weather, clear clouds, find flags.
Changeling invasion? MIA.
Why do I get the feeling that Fluttershy's teddy bear is an actual bear?
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Well, personally I think that Spitfire decission about LD was correct, and i'm going to give my reasons for that.
First LD didn't even care about the fact that she almost killed several ponies with her actions, rewatch the part where RD calls her out for her actions, she doesn't show any remorse, only AFTER Spitfire chews her out she realizes(too late in my book) that she screwed up.
Second, and related to the first, she didn't move a hoof to save the ponies that she put in danger, the wonderbolts aren't only a stunt team, they are a RESCUE team, and ignoring a group of ponies in danger is a clear sign that she isn't cut to being one.
Third, during the scene when RD chews her out for her actions, look at the rest of recruits, it's obvious that ALL OF THEM are tired of her reckless attitude, yeah, RD was the one who decided "screw it,i'm leaving", but something tells me that she wouldn't have been the last(look at how they salute RD when she leaves, even before being appointed leader, they respect her more than they respect LD)
In the end, LD deserved being thrown out from the academy, and she has to give thanks to not being put on trial for endangering lives.
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Okay, I'll give you point one. LD was a bit nonchalant about the whole ponies almost died thing. On the others I would have to disagree. (See danger zone comic)
On point two: Gotta disagree. Remember, Lightning was thrown out of the tornado so she wouldn't have had a chance to come back try to help with the saves.
On point three: Why should she care what the others think of her when her commanding officer basically rewarded her for her behavior so far? How is she supposed to know what is acceptable if no one tells her? She's not freaking psychic. She's not Pinkie Pie.
That doesn't make sense. That would be like a solider being charged if a civilian wandered into a military training area and got shot or something.
Also, why does LD get all the blame for the tornado? RD could have said no, but didn't. It took both of them to start the thing. In my mind she is just as complicit and basically threw Dust under the bus. As far Dust knew, no one was supposed to be in the area. The entire plotting of the episode was sloppy.
Hmm... maybe someone should write fic about the court-martial hearing or something. That would be interesting.
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Um, a soldier WOULD be charged with, at least, manslaughter if a civilian were to wander into a military training ground and got shot.
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About point two, If I remember well, I think that the other recruits also got thrown out for the tornado, and they still helped with the rescue.
About point three, she has to care, because it's her duty as a leader, you have to instill respect and loyalty in them, treating all of them like crap isn't going to do you good in the future and, add to that the fact that she never accepts the fact that her actions can put others in danger and you have a disaster waiting to happen.
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Okay maybe that wasn't the best example. What if they wandered on a mortar range or a mine field. Some place they weren't meant to be and the solider didn't see them.
You know what I am going for.
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The others weren't IN the tornado when it started. LD was thrown clear across the base.
I don't remember her treating the others like crap. We barely get to see them interact. It's not like she pulled a Gilda. Worst she did was buzz by them in one scene. Again, Spitfire didn't seem to care (Congratulations on the new record!) so it must be okay.
Personally, I'd say that Lightning Dust's disregard for the fact that she nearly got ponies killed is probably the most damaging thing for her cause. Given that rescue work seems to be part of what the Wonderbolts do, having a recruit show reckless disregard for the safety of other ponies would be an instant disqualification. At the very least, it raises serious questions about whether or not she's morally equipped to be a Wonderbolt.
That said, I'll agree that Spitfire did a lot to enable and encourage Lightning Dust's recklessness. Personally, Spitfire's reaction kind of comes across as her realizing she'd massively dropped the ball, and throwing Lightning Dust under the bus to save her own flank.
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Somebody would still be getting charged, at the very least, with dereliction of duty, because mortar ranges should be fenced off, with on site guards and cameras watching the area, and there's no reason to have a live minefield in a training camp. To put it simply, there is absolutely no excuse for a civilian death on a military site. If a civilian gets killed, or even put in mortal danger, in a training camp, somebody's military career has just ended.
On the subject of the story itself, perhaps I missed something, but did CK and Rainbow Dash just have a discussion about banging and threesomes in front of Dinky?
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Just to toss it in, but Meghan Mccarthy's tweets about what the script for that episode originally look like showed that Lightning wasn't actually expelled. She got demoted to a Wingpony, Rainbow Dash asks if she's alright and LD responds that she made the right call and she was out of control.
I'm not sure what was the reasoning for cutting out this important scene, but that's the call they made in the end.
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Probably time constrains, they have to put the episode in a time slot after all.
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The Twilight and co (not Fluttershy) almost died because of lack of signage?
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Hmm... Spitfire throwing a cadet under the bus because her own bad decisions almost got Celestia's student killed. I could buy that. Happens in military and other organizations all the times. Generals pass down the orders and the lowest ranks get in trouble. I could totally see that.
2901282
To me, it seemed that the Wonderbolt Academy was some kind of military academy, not a normal school. As such, they can't afford to baby the recruits. Either you make the cut, or you don't. The recruits weren't there because they had to be. They weren't there to learn teamwork. LD fucked up, and she got the boot. That's what happens when you put others at risk. I assume that in a team like the Wonderbolts, only the best are accepted. Well, that's how I interpreted the episode.
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No, Twilight and co(including Fluttershy because she forgot she could fly) were almost killed because of the recklessness of a cadet.
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Okay, as much as I love discussing about the show, I'm starting to feel a bit annoyed by the fact that the overwhelming majority of the comments (many of them quite long) so far have nothing to do with the story itself. If you wish to discuss the episode further, please do so in a forum or between yourselves through notes.
2902697
Sorry.
Speaking of the story, did you have RD and CK talk about banging and threesomes in front of Dinky, or did she just suddenly disappear during that conversation?
2902697
Sorry, just got carried away there. Nerd fight and all.
So... RD x Cloud Kicker shipping? Yay
or Neigh
?
2902697
Sorry got a little carried away.
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...I did not notice that. I think that makes this all the more unintentionally hilarious now.
Nobody shoot me, but I think I'd rather see more of this than Hot Heads...
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Dinky: Mommy, wut's a 'threesome'?
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i.imgur.com/b42I9GJ.png : A threesome is when three ponies get together and have a private party.
fimfiction-static.net/images/characters/dinkyicon.png : Oh! Hey mommy, can I have a threesome with Alula and Pip for my birthday?
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Kicky: AAAA GODS DERPY WHAT'D I DO!?!
Something tells me this is going to end badly for RD.
BTW we need a CK tag ASAP.
encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrAOBX6cfZQEvzdQFT5yXFBYhj9Q-UaH6f_qDE_hNUWe35MLHHEQ
Always wanted to do it...