Wingnut

Berry Pie x Buttercup!

84 BUCKETS OF OATS ON THE WALL, 84 BUCKETS OF OATS! TAKE ONE DOWN, PASS IT AROUND, 83 BUCKETS OF OATS ON THE WALL!

The better question is how many OTHER ponies were effected by Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom on that day...positively AND negatively?

 

That's a very good question.  In the immediate vicinity of Cloudsdale, everypony saw and heard it.  It wouldn't be surprising if a number of other ponies, primarily pegasi, were stimulated into getting their cutie marks and talents.

 

But the thought of how many other ponies could hear and see the sonic rainboom raises another important question.  In real life, sonic booms can't be heard hundreds of kilometers away from their source.  Most of us have seen the basic map of Equestria and if Equestria is roughly analogous to North America in size, there is no way a sonic boom in Cloudsdale could reach Canterlot, Manehattan, and Ponyville.  Not unless Rainbow Dash did a victory lap that had her fly over all these locations at supersonic speed.  More than likely, this sonic rainboom was a physical and a metaphysical event.  Because the Mane 6 embody the Elements of Harmony, the rainboom was bone jarringly real for them but it is possible that, in remote locations, they were the only ones able to see and hear it. 

 

I can imagine a few other ponies, especially those closest to the Mane 6, were able to sense it too.  For instance, Twilie probably told her parents about the boom she heard just before her powers went crazy.  They just laughed and said, "Twilie, you were the boom!"  But later that night, Shining Armor told Twilie about the strangest thing that happened today.  He told her about this explosion which caused him to assume a duck and cover position.  But all the other cadets were dumbfounded because he was acting like he had just lost his mind.  Twilie glomped her big brother, so glad to know she wasn't the only one who experienced it.  Awwwww! 

I don't know if Rainbow Dash will give up her goal to be a Wonderbolt forever, but my thoughts largely echo those of everybody else, including Spring Storm and Chaotic Discord.  Rainbow Dash should have more than enough speed and power to qualify, but questions surround her lack of finesse and ability to work as a disciplined team player.  And most of all, she wouldn't be able to spend much time with her friends.  It may have been unintentional, but Twilight Sparkle foreshadowed this dilemma when she said Rainbow Dash, "who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... loyalty" in the series pilot. 

 

If Rainbow Dash does join the Wonderbolts someday, it'll only happen at or near the series conclusion.  

Welcome to MLP Forums. Happens to me too. Incredibly long posts also tend to be ignored unless the poster already has some kind of reputation or the thread is still short, though somebody might still pass it over but give you a pity brohoof for putting so much time into it. I'm not sure what my most brohoofed post is, but I'll wager that it's a wordless, reaction image post buried somewhere deep in the Lounge.

 

Next time you post something you feel is really deserving of a read and/or reply, attach an image to it even if it's unrelated. It'll increase your chances of it catching people's attention.

 

 

 

dash-check.png

 

Thanks for the welcome.  Since I'm relatively new, I know what my most brohoofed post is so far.  Namely, it was something I put in the show discussion about Sleepless in Ponyville.  It was a very simple observation:  That Scootaloo's real fear wasn't that she'd be seen as fearful or uncool, but that Rainbow Dash wouldn't accept her as a little sister. 

 

I'll keep in mind what you said about using images to engage fellow members too. 

OK, I'll try to keep this a little shorter than a term paper...

 

@@MatrixChicken

 

I agree on Rarity. That's what I meant when I said spontaneous...it just happened with no voluntary thought or effort on her part.

 

But, you're going to laugh at my hypothesis about Fluttershy, huh? Squeaky Belle has something to say about that...

 

 

Hahahahahaha! All kidding aside, no, I wasn't saying Fluttershy can summon animals the same way Aquaman can summon fish. She was in danger and the butterflies were able to answer her distress call by whatever means it was made. Magic, telepathy, osmosis, whatever. Alternatively, the butterflies on Equestria may well have a role as a safety net for pegasi falling out of Cloudsdale. Considering how easy it is for an immature pegasus to plummet out of Cloudsdale, they'd be crazy not to have some safety measures.

 

And regarding people doing the impossible in a moment of crisis, that brings to mind stories of ordinary men and women lifting cars to free trapped loved ones. But it wasn't Fluttershy's life on the line, only her honor. It's not the same.

 

@@Zygen

 

If they really wanted the sonic rainboom to be the catalyst for uncovering the all other five's cutie marks and abilities, it would've been easy to do.

 

Let's say the butterflies catch Fluttershy anyway because they are the appointed safety net for falling pegasi. If Fluttershy was still just an ordinary pony with no affinity for animals, they would've started flying off after saving her. Fluttershy would've then said, “Wait, I want to thank you! Please don't go!” BOOM Then she saw not only the butterflies but all the other forest creatures running for cover. With her latent abilities finally awakened by the sonic rainboom, she then would proceed to comfort all the animals, romp with them, and sing So Many Wonders. Rarity's cutie mark flashback can be reimagined in a similar way if the writers genuinely wanted the rainboom to precede all other talent manifestations.

 

@

 

For what it's worth, I'm sure Rainbow Dash would've won the race against Hoops and the other boy with her natural ability. But watch how she dove with such acceleration her wake almost killed Hoops just before executing the rainboom. And consider that she wasn't able to do it again until she was grown. Yup, a greater power was intervening on this day.

Being a kid's show, only platonic shipping will ever be canon...

 

With that said, I cast my vote for FlutterDash.  At first glance, these two appear to be polar opposites in tastes and interests.  But that also means they compliment each other very well.  RD helps Fluttershy compensate for some of her shortcomings and vice versa.  They've been good friends since childhood and they show great chemsitry ever time they spend time together, especially in Hurricane Fluttershy. 

I just don't see this happening.  Two or three other threads have discussed whether or not Scootaloo will even fly or not.  Lauren Faust's original charactarization was that Scootaloo is a handicapped pegasus with little or no flying ability.  Being unable to fly would teach her to adapt and find other ways to pursue her dreams.  Meghan and the current writing staff may choose to have Scootaloo fly someday, but I honestly don't see them taking Scoots from one extreme to the other like that. 

 

But if you want to write a fanfic about a flying Scootaloo, don't let this stop you. 

...some of the posts and threads I really would like feedback on are generally ignored BUT other things I give little thought to are getting a lot of replies and brohoofs?

 

I'm not whining, just noting something I think we all experience online.  Is there a name for this pheomenon where the desire for replies is inversely proportional to the number of replies you actually get? 

Can I have some chocolate?

Spoilers are your best friend when it comes to such odd things like that...

 

I think you're right.  ^^;  But where is the spoiler option?  I've looked but I haven't been able to find it. 

For the time being, Spike is adequate as a little brother figure for Twilight.  And Fluttershy?  Well, her main focus is her animals, but maybe she could help somepony with extreme social anxiety in the future? 

 

But...why is Pinkie Pie being left out of the discussion?  Yes, she has a reputation as a party head who doesn't know when to take things seriously.  And even I was surprised that the Cakes considered hiring Rainbow Dash to babysit their foals before Pinkie Pie.  But she'd be a better adult role model than the person Powerpuff Girl Bubbles looked to as a mentor:  Townsville's Mayor, lol! 

 

Poor Scootaloo.  Maybe it's a good thing she can't break the 4th wall and see all the fun we're having at her expense.  Including the gobbling noises when she crashes, Scoots has now been compared to a chicken, a dodo, and a turkey.  I wonder how much longer they'll keep this running gag going. 

That derpiboo image reminds me of this eye popping lady.  Yes, some people can safely pop their eyes out like Pinkie Pie, but I'm gonna spoiler it to be on the safe side. 

 

 

 

She also did a commercial for Four Eyes but I wasn't able to find that on Youtube. 

Smells like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in here!

I'm last, so that makes me a moldy carrot!

Why doesn't anybody want to adopt a sweet, lovable changling like me?

If you've never seen this before, this is a very cool video.

Rainbow Dash gets the credit for the sonic rainboom and causing the other five ponies to get their cutie marks and, seemingly, their talents.  But there's more to the story than that.  At least two ponies were already using brand new abilities:

-Rarity, who could not yet use basic telekinesis, spontaneously executes a gem finding spell.
-Fluttershy summoned a swarm of butterflies to break her fall.  

And what about Rainbow Dash's performance?  She was a very good flyer for her age which we'd expect.  Most world class athletes start out strong from when they are small.  But for a little filly to break the sound barrier like that?  That's as likely as a 10 year old going to the summer Olympics and winning the 100 meter dash.  Other than admitting "I've never flown like THAT before," nothing is said about the inexplicable burst of power she displays during the race.  Only when RD reached physical maturity was she able to do the rainboom again.  

For what it's worth, the only other pony to have her cutie mark accompanied with an enormous amount of pure energy was Twilight Sparkle.  The others are subtler and easily understood, with the possible exception of Pinkie Pie.  What  was she doing in that barn all night?  Playing around with her new cartoon-like powers?  Did she pull all of those balloons and party decorations out of hammerspace?  

For the record, no, they don't need to make an episode that explains the origin of their extraordinary abilities.  If they were going to, they would've explained this by now.  It's more fun to discuss and speculate with fellow fans.  As far as I know, nobody was bitten by a radioactive spider or zapped by gamma rays.  Most likely this was the day the Elements of Harmony chose them to be their future holders.  As always, other theories are welcome.  No ideas are too silly, it's only a cartoon!  
 

I've always preferred the idea that Scoots just develops Dash as a surrogate sister and that's it; I don't care for any of her family back story to be given, personally. I imagine that's where the show is heading at this point. Season three, and they have yet to install any of Scoots' family, and have furthermore given her a sister/mentor figure that might continue on in future episodes as cameos at the very least. Won't be surprised if they just avoid it altogether.

 

As for Dash and Fluttershy, I'll be lazy and refer to something I said in a past topic:

 

 

As far as in-show reasons why we haven't seen them, I imagine it's all about storyline, as usual. Just haven't found a need or place for them. Yet.

 

I really can't argue with that...those are good reasons.  And in addition to being childhood friends, RD and Fluttershy may be unusually close because they don't have strong ties to their respective families.  Nonetheless, it's just strikes me as peculiar that only the pegasi have no visible relatives. 

i found psychological analyses on most of the mane 6, and found the papers to be extremely interesting, but for the sake of the topic, ill post Fluttershys paper. its quite long, but gives alot of excellent insight on her possible background. sorry for the length, but its worth a read. enjoy!

 

* original paper by the owner of http://kyronea.tumblr.com so all credit goes to them*

 

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Her ability to speak with animals in a Doctor Doolittle like way is arguably a magical ability, one linked to her Element. Cutie Mark Chronicles suggests that she was unable to speak with animals prior to the Sonic Rainboom, the event that, as I will reveal in future analyses, unlocked not just her ability but the abilities of several others amongst the Mane Six as well. The animals of Equestria, like the animals of Earth, are in general not as intelligent as the sapient races. Thus in order to communicate with them the way Fluttershy does, the ability MUST be magical. It’s an extension of her Element because her ability is something like a form of empathy…I imagine that, in addition her her animal communication, Fluttershy is able to, if not quite read other ponies emotions, then she is at least a bit better able to read them than others might, because she has so much empathy for others that she opens up her heart to them, letting them in, letting her see signs others might miss.

 

Since I'm not on Tumblr, I'll do the next best thing by brohoofing and quoting this instead.  One of the things I like about this article is that it identifies Cutie Mark Chronicles as a pivotal day in their life.  The Fantastic Four got hit by cosmic rays and became superheroes.  The Mane 6 got hit by, I dunno, the Elements of Harmony somehow?  Rainbow Dash gained super speed (by filly standards at least), Twilight started using high level magic (again, at least for a filly), Fluttershy got animal empathy, Rarity spontaneously executed a gem finding spell, and Pinkie Pie developed her cartoon-like powers.  And Applejack?  Well, she's damn good in the rodeo, but that's not really a power, is it?  Oh well, 5 out of 6 ain't bad.  Batman and Captain American technically don't have powers either. 

While I'm as pleased as punch to see Scootaloo finally get her own episode, we still don't know what her situation at home is.  Now, there's no need to actually see her with parents or a guardian.  The kids in Peanuts did just fine even though we never saw an adult and only heard them say "Wha, wha, wha, wha."  If they choose to leave Scoots' home life a mystery, I can accept that. 

 

But we never seen any relatives of Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash either.  Even if it was just a cameo in Cutie Mark Chronicles, we know all the Earth Ponies and Unicorns in the Mane 6 and CMC have families.  It's just very odd that the Pegasi are singled out to be "orphans."  Did the show's writers do this by design?  Is it to be understood that Pegasi aren't very family oriented?  That's a rather unflattering stereotype to make about someone's race, even a fictional one.  

 

This is not the first time I've thought about this.  But today's episode has brought it back to the forefront of my attention. 

In 5 more "real" posts, I will no longer be a cupcake. 

Heh, I liked reading the theories on how Rainbow Dash managed to save the day once again.  But arriving in the nick of time to save a "doomed" pony has become her forte after all, hasn't it?  While not exactly a Pinkie Sense, maybe her loyalty element lets her know when her friends are in trouble.  Either that or RD got up to pee, saw Scootaloo missing, and went out to find her. 

Maybe I haven't noticed it in the other season 3 episodes, but Rarity was at her "prissy" worst today.  Yes, I too get the comedic effect of having Sweetie pull a ridiculously heavy cart and being a slave in general.  Maybe SB had to agree to that to get Rarity to go camping in the first place?  Whatever.  But if I wrote the episode, I would've shown Rarity take at least one turn pulling the cart herself just to demonstrate that she is not self centered. 

 

Edit:  As noted above, this episode was done by a first time MLP writer, so not throwing in an aspect to soften Rarity's prissyness is an understandable oversight. 

i actually think that their dad is just  a stereotypical father, like the kind that fixes everything with duct tape and goes fishing

 

That's possible too...his three football cutie mark is open to more than one interpretation.  I'm just a sucker for "don't judge a book by its cover" tropes and Rarity and SB's surprising strength is a perfect example of that.