How would Rainbow Dash's life have been different if she'd flopped at the young flyers competition?

[SteveMorison 404]

I know it's just a cartoon and at the end of the day it's just fun speculation, but let's hypothesise that Rarity's wings had not evaporated and RD didn't need to perform the Sonic Rainboom to save her from falling to her death. As a result she fails to do it naturally and her performance was a complete failure. 2 things would immediately be different, the 1st is that instead of now being recognised as a hero across equestria, she is now probably considered a laughing stock and a poor performer, the 2nd is that her confidence (at least in the moment) would be completely gone. With these differences, would it have been possible that RD's life would currently be completely different? that she as a result ultimately gave up on her dream of being a wonderbolt and even if she didn't she may not have been accepted into the academy as easily with a damaged reputation. The other possibility would have been that her friends helped restore her confidence, and she managed to overcome everything and still ultimately achieve her goals, even if it'd taken more time to get there.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

I don't think it would have derailed Rainbow's career, maybe it would have delayed it a bit, but not so much.

The way I see it, as Rarity said Rainbow had stage fright, adding to that the bullies and the fact that she hadn't been successful in doing the sonic rainboom during her practice made her all the more insecure about her performance (so much that she made big mistakes doing the tricks she had already perfected). Then when she needed to save Rarity, she finally succeeded to do the sonic rainboom, which tells us that she was already at the brink of doing it, she just needed to push herself harder.

And, what do we know about Rainbow Dash and her goals? That she always push herself harder! Sometimes in a good way (Wonderbolts Academy), sometimes in a bad way (Fall Weather Friends), but she always keeps going.

Of course, had she flopped the young flyers competition she would have not been appreciated by the Wonderbolts after the ceremony and later at the grand galloping gala. But she would have probably achieved the sonic rainboom a bit later (probably not during a public event) and she would have gotten into Wonderbolts Academy all the same (the rest of ponyville pegasi there were nowhere near Dash's flying skills even without the sonic rainboom). That's where she finally caught the eye of Spitfire and the rest of the Wonderbolts and the rest is history...

I'd say her career would lack a trophy, but her goal to become a Wonderbolt would have still been achieved by now.

Edited March 27, 2018 by DonMaguz

[RDDash 18,867]

Nothing really would stop her from joining up with Gilda, and together they would become the best punk duo

[kaiser5578 340]

She will be short one Rarity, thus next baddie wins due to lack of sixth element.

Edited April 3, 2018 by kaiser5578

[smk.png 181]

On 3/27/2018 at 3:40 AM, R.D.Dash said:

Nothing really would stop her from joining up with Gilda, and together they would become the best punk duo

Word.

[King of Canterlot 9,588]

I don't think it would have radically changed her life. I do think that it would have greatly danged her ego and persistence to get into the Wonderbolts, but I believe that some other event might have occurred, reinstalling these elements to her character. I think she still would have joined the Wonderbolts, however, it may have taken her a lot longer to do so. I think this because at the Wonderbolts training camp, they had ponies from all walks of life, some were clearly not going to make the cut, but that didn't stop them from trying anyways. I think that same would have been said for Rainbow Dash if she hadn't ever had to do any saving at the Young Flyers Competition. 

[bluseymoe 258]

I think she'd have gotten over it and bounced back in later competition. She and Rarity might be at odds for a while though. The other four would be pretty upset with Rarity too I bet.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

15 hours ago, bluseymoe said:

I think she'd have gotten over it and bounced back in later competition. She and Rarity might be at odds for a while though. The other four would be pretty upset with Rarity too I bet.

Why would they?

Rarity had nothing to do with Rainbow's stage fright, she did grab attention to herself and got carried away but she was also the reason that Rainbow's non-flying friends went to cloudsdale to support her.