Wonderbolts

The Wonderbolts are a squad of six or more pegasus ponies who perform aerial acrobatics and demonstrations. From the beginning of season one, Rainbow Dash had dreamed to meet and join this group. She wins the prize of spending a day with them in Sonic Rainboom.

Appearances
The Wonderbolts are first mentioned by Rainbow Dash in Friendship is Magic, part 1 as her idolized flight acrobatics group. In the following episode, Nightmare Moon takes the form of The Shadowbolts, to lure Rainbow Dash into joining them and abandoning her friends during their quests to get the Elements of Harmony. While Dash appreciated the offer, she declines and stays loyal to her friends. Upon hearing this, the Shadowbolts turn back into the purple mist and slither away.



The Wonderbolts attended the Best Young Flyer Competition in Cloudsdale as celebrity judges in the episode Sonic Rainboom. The winner of the competition would spend an entire day with the Wonderbolts. During the final performance, Rarity's wings burn up when she flies too close to the sun at the end of her act, similarities to the Greek hero Icarus' accident, causing her to plummet down towards the earth. Soarin', Spitfire and Misty then immediately take flight and race down to save her, but her flailing hooves knock each of the pegasus ponies out before they can save her. Rainbow Dash then saves Rarity and the Wonderbolts, and in the process she performs a sonic rainboom successfully. The Wonderbolt member Spitfire thanks Rainbow Dash for saving them, and Dash gets so overwhelmed with excitement that she can't utter a proper reply to her heroes. She then begins her day with the Wonderbolts, and the episode ends.

Spitfire and Soarin'
At the Grand Galloping Gala in The Best Night Ever, Dash meets the Wonderbolts again when saving an apple pie from falling to the floor, after one of the Wonderbolts, Soarin', drops it. The orange-maned Wonderbolt, later named Spitfire, mentions their encounter at the competition where Dash saved them, and invites her to join them at the gala. Unfortunately, throughout the evening, Dash can't seem to garner their attention.

Trivia

 * Usually depicted as having three members, six are flying during the opening of the Best Young Flyer Competition, and at the Grand Galloping Gala. Half are male and half are female. Two females and one male serve as celebrity judges during the event and are later rescued by Rainbow Dash. Two of the judges, Spitfire and Soarin', are named in The Best Night Ever.
 * There are seven pegasus on the Wonderbolts' poster, seen in episode 1, however we have only ever seen six of the Wonderbolts performing at once.
 * The Wonderbolts appear to be an amalgam of both the U.S. Navy's flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels, and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. They resemble the Blue Angels in uniform color (blue and yellow) and the "flying bolt" logo (evocative of the "flying shield" portion of the Blue Angels logo).
 * The Wonderbolts have never been seen without their uniforms on; every appearance of them has been "officially" as the Wonderbolts. The closest they have gotten is having their goggles up in The Best Night Ever. Consequently, none of the Wonderbolts' actual cutie marks were ever seen.
 * The Wonderbolts have two official emblems: One looks like a winged bolt mark, usually found on the flanks of the male members, and the other is a long bolt mark, usually found on the flanks of the female members. The emblems take the place of each member's cutie marks when wearing their suits. Interestingly, in Rainbow Dash's dream in The Ticket Master, when she imagined herself as a Wonderbolt her own cutie mark appears in place of the official emblem. This is likely an error, as when she imagined herself as a Wonderbolt again in The Best Night Ever, she was sporting latter official emblem usually found on any other female member.
 * In Rainbow Dash's dream in The Ticket Master The Wonderbolts appear very dark but in The Best Night Ever their outfits are lighter
 * There appears to be ten different Wonderbolt members in the VIP section of the The Best Night Ever, though they are generally seen flying in groups of six.
 * When flying, the Wonderbolts are capable of generating short-lived thunderclouds behind them that resembling smoke trails that shoot small bursts of lightning. It is possible this ability is part of what gave the team their name.