Rainbow Dash

  Rainbow Dash is a pegasus pony and a main character in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. She is responsible for maintaining and clearing the skies in Ponyville. She is also a huge admirer of the Wonderbolts and dreams of joining their flying group. She represents the element of loyalty.

Development
Rainbow Dash shares her name and color scheme with a fashionista earth pony from G3 and G3.5, however, Lauren Faust gave her the personality of her favorite G1 pony, Firefly.

Personality
Rainbow Dash is a tomboyish pony, often bragging about her talents and accomplishments. However, she is also an unfailingly loyal friend. She is very competitive, often challenging others to various contests. Despite being somewhat lazy, often shown napping or slacking off, Rainbow Dash is a very accomplished pony, with a variety of aerial tricks to her name. She has also displayed qualities of helping others by attempting to help Apple Bloom gain her cutie mark in Call of the Cutie. Another quality she has displayed is being a good adviser by providing advice about how to obtain a cutie mark to the Cutie Mark Crusaders in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. Although, her aforementioned laziness occasionally gets in the way of helping others, such as in The Ticket Master, she does her best to overcome it.

Despite Rainbow Dash's confidence, she reacts poorly to failure, or even the possibility of failure. In Fall Weather Friends, Rainbow Dash got extremely upset over losing a simple game of Horseshoes to Applejack, stating that she "hates losing". Later on during the Iron Pony Competition, she eventually resorted to cheating when she felt she was about to lose. In Sonic Rainboom, she initially put on a face of overwhelming bravado about the Best Young Flyer competition but she soon revealed she was absolutely terrified of making a fool of herself, to the point where she briefly lost her sanity, almost refused to perform, and messed up several of her routines. She also seems to be a joker as in Griffon the Brush-Off, where she and Pinkie Pie pranked various ponies. This pranking attitude is also seen in A Bird in the Hoof when she tries to make the Royal guards laugh.

In The Return of Harmony, she and her friends have to fight against Discord to regain the Elements. She is initially eager to fight him, but falls victim to Discord's manipulation after being told "the foundations of home will crumble without you" and seeing a vision of Cloudsdale being destroyed. Corrupted, she abandons her friends to "save" a cloud she believes to be Cloudsdale, causing Discord to tell the other ponies they have been disqualified, as "everypony has to play, or the game is over". In Twilight's first attempt to defeat Discord using the Elements of Harmony, Rainbow Dash isn't present, forcing Spike to fill in for her; the attempt fails. When Twilight sets about finding her friends to undo what Discord had done to them, Rainbow Dash proves to be the most difficult and requires the combined effort of all of her other friends to bring her to the ground. Her first thoughts after her corruption is undone is whether Ponyville is safe.

Skills
Rainbow Dash is shown to be a very accomplished flier, being both agile and fast in the air. She can clear the skies of Ponyville "in ten seconds flat" (now a popular meme). She has also spent much time honing impressive and flashy aerial acrobatic maneuvers, including the "rainblow dry", a mini-tornado that sucks away moisture;(she uses it on Twilight in episode 1) the "super speed strut" in which she pantomimes running on the ground while flying at high speeds; the "fantastic filly flash", an impressive nose-dive followed by a swift recovery; and the "buccaneer blaze" which is not shown on screen and somehow produces lightning bolts and an explosion.

Rainbow Dash can fly fast enough to conjure up small tornadoes and rip water droplets from the clouds. She uses this ability for another feat by flying through clouds and using the rain to create a rainbow against herself on landing, although this trick has no known name.

Rainbow Dash's signature move is the sonic rainboom, depicted in the aptly-titled episode Sonic Rainboom. This is the second time she has performed this (the first was in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, which deals with the main characters' past), but is the first time it is shown. Before Rainbow Dash performed the sonic rainboom, it was considered a myth/legend. Her ability to create the move suggests she can fly at over Mach 1, as the sonic rainboom is obviously inspired by the sonic boom phenomenon.

Call of the Cutie shows Rainbow Dash with a black belt in karate, although she does not appear to actively display martial arts skills characteristic of this level throughout the series. It is plausible that she had donned the belt in order to provide the appearance of being an appropriate coach despite not actually possessing the relevant skill.She is a great singer(as seen in Best Night Ever).

History
When Rainbow Dash was younger, she attended the Junior Speedsters flight camp. As recalled in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Rainbow Dash defended Fluttershy from a pair of bullies (who had previously given Rainbow Dash the nickname "Rainbow Crash") by challenging the two to a race. In the ensuing contest, Rainbow Dash performed her very first sonic rainboom, not only gaining her own cutie mark, but inadverdently setting in motion the events that would cause Fluttershy and her future friends to gain their own cutie marks as well.

Sometime later, Rainbow Dash moved out of Cloudsdale to take up the position of Weather Patrol, being responsible for the skies above Ponyville. She, apparently, is to keep the sky clear of clouds during special events such as the Summer Sun Celebration, and make sure that Ponyville has clear, sunny mornings (although Spike states that she rarely gets up early in the morning). She lives in a cloud-house near Ponyville, which has the same design elements as her hometown.

Rainbow Dash first appears in Friendship is Magic, part 1, accidentally crashing into Twilight Sparkle. She then joins Twilight and the other ponies in Friendship is Magic, part 2, on the quest for the Elements of Harmony. Just as they are about to reach the castle where the Elements are located, Nightmare Moon takes the form of The Shadowbolts, a dark copy of her personal heroes, The Wonderbolts, and solicits Rainbow Dash into joining their ranks and abandoning her companions. Rainbow Dash remains loyal to her friends and declines their offer, which earns her the element of loyalty.

In The Ticket Master, Rainbow Dash is one of several ponies badgering Twilight for the extra ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, her reason being a chance to audition for The Wonderbolts who would presumably perform there (the Wonderbolts do indeed show at the Gala, although they are not seen performing, and due to being celebrities, they are unable to make time for Rainbow). She persists, even when Twilight calls her out on it, and when all her other friends say they don't need the ticket.

Rainbow Dash's home is shown in Griffon the Brush Off. She lives in a white cloud-house hanging low to the ground somewhere near Ponyville. It features not only a clearly defined door and cloud columns in a classical style but rainbow-colored curves and a "stream". In Dragonshy, Rainbow Dash is able to use this stream to make rainbow-colored facepaint. Her home is shown again in Party of One, with a different design from the first.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie decide to play pranks on the citizens of Ponyville in Griffon the Brush Off, and an old friend of Rainbow Dash comes for a visit around the same time. She is a griffon named Gilda, who knew her since her days in the Junior Speedsters flight team. For the majority of the time when Gilda is visiting Ponyville, Rainbow Dash is unaware that the griffon is being callous and rude to the other ponies behind her back. After seeing how the griffon acted towards her new friends at Pinkie Pie's party in Gilda's honor, however, Rainbow Dash realizes that Gilda isn't truly her friend, and ends their friendship.

During Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash must perform the Sonic Rainboom again, this time to win the Best Young Fliers' Competition. However, she can never pull it off in practice, and Fluttershy's cheering does not help matters. Nonetheless, they both head to Cloudsdale. To both of their surprise, their wingless friends have decided to follow them, easing Rainbow's fears. However, Rarity's new, beautiful wings, coupled with Rarity's attention-seeking nature, cause her to steal the spotlight. As a result, by the time of the competition, she is paranoid, but she performs anyway. She messes up the fist two rounds, hitting an obstacle and causing one of the spinning clouds to hit the Princess. At the same time, Rarity is preparing for her "grand finale", which involves flying into the sun and showing off her wings. However, her wings are very fragile, and they evaporate into thin air due to the heat. The Wonderbolts try to save her, but Rarity kicks them and they are knocked out. In a mad dash to save her friend's life, Rainbow attempts the Sonic Rainboom another time and succeeds, saving both Rarity and the Wonderbolts. Rarity is incredibly grateful that Dash saved her life, and apologizes to her friend, who accepts the apology.

Hasbro.com description
''Capable and athletic, Rainbow Dash lives for adventure! When any problem should arise that involves traveling to distant lands or dealing with a magical, mysterious beast, Rainbow is the first to volunteer! Brave and bold, anypony who has ever seen this rainbow-haired Pegasus in the air has been left in jaw-dropped awe of her speed, agility, and, well, her confidence. She's quite positive she's the fastest pegasus pony alive, and truth be told, she probably is. Yes, she's a bit proud, and a bit mischievous, and often lazy for somepony obsessed with speed, but when the chips are down, and danger is a-brewing, Rainbow Dash always, always comes through, proving time and time again that she is a true hero!''

Hubworld description
''Rainbow Dash lives for adventure! Whenever there's a problem that involves danger, distant lands, and mysterious beasts, she's the first to help. She's bold. She's brave. She's also a bit proud and mischievous -- but wouldn't you be too if you were the fastest Pegasus around?''

Teacher for a Day description
''Rainbow Dash is her name and adventure is her game! A true hero, this rainbow-haired pegasus pony is as fast as they come, flying through the air with jaw-dropping speed!''

''Athletic, brave and confident, she is also a bit mischievous - and always first on the scene wherever danger is at hand. Whether traveling to distant lands or taking on mystery and magic, this pretty pony is ready to fasten her seatbelt for the adventure of a lifetime!''

Relationships
Twilight Sparkle – As someone who admires physical skill, Rainbow Dash doesn't have a lot of respect for Twilight Sparkle's more intellectual skills, calling her "egghead", and is quite openly mocking on occasions; however, Twilight takes this in stride. Rainbow Dash admits that Twilight’s magical skills are very impressive, as well as finding her fun to be around when her nose isn't buried in a book.

Fluttershy – Despite both being pegasi, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have personality qualities that are polar-opposite of each other (Fluttershy's a passive introvert to Rainbow Dash's active extrovert). As a result, Rainbow Dash can often be short tempered with Fluttershy’s meekness and cowardice; despite this, the two are good friends, and Rainbow Dash clearly appreciates Fluttershy’s patience and support; in return, she tries to teach Fluttershy to be more "assertive" and looks after her. They have known each other since their fillyhood years, having both hailed from Cloudsdale and meeting each other in the same flight camp that they were both enrolled in.

Applejack – Applejack and Rainbow Dash are fierce rivals and firm friends, who are often seen together and even more often seen fighting and bickering. They enjoy a lot of friendly competition and their feuding can get quite intense- both have engaged in trash talk, cheating and outright brawls; but always end up laughing it off when the dust settles. The two both act very tomboyish, and typically have a disregard for what might be considered feminine traits and tendencies.

Pinkie Pie – "Pinkie Pie, you are so random!"

- Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash is the most open of the ponies in not understanding Pinkie Pie at all, and in Griffon the Brush Off, she goes to extreme lengths to avoid spending time with Pinkie Pie. However, the two eventually discover a mutual love of practical jokes, and Rainbow Dash has ended up enjoying Pinkie Pie’s eccentric personality and sense of humor, even if her hyperactivity and weirdness often irritates her. Like most other ponies, she is also a big fan of Pinkie Pie's frequent parties.

Rarity –

Rarity and Rainbow Dash are very different in some respects; whereas Rainbow Dash is very athletic and always on the move, and doesn't mind getting dirty, Rarity tends to prefer more collected activities, not being nearly as rough-and-tumble as Rainbow Dash. Despite this, the two hold a strong respect for each other and don't let each other's differences get in the way of being friends or cause arguments, unlike Rarity and Applejack's more adversarial relationship. Rainbow Dash doesn't mind Rarity's skills with "girly stuff" and has been seen going to Rarity's for a makeover, albeit generally accompanied by expressions of annoyance at the 'standing around' part of the process. In Sonic Rainboom, when the two participate in the Young Flyers' Competition (with Rarity having acquired temporary wings thanks to Twilight Sparkle's magic), Rainbow saves Rarity's life when the latter ruins her wings in the sun above Cloudsdale, not being able to walk on clouds; Rarity declares Rainbow "the best flier in Equestria", with Rainbow quickly forgiving Rarity for upstaging her in return.

Scootaloo – Scootaloo, the pegasus pony of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, idolizes Rainbow Dash. While Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are the younger sisters of two ponies from the main cast, Applejack and Rarity, respectively, it was thought by some of the fanbase that Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were related; but the show's creator has confirmed that they are not, and that "Rainbow Dash isn't the kind of character who would treat a younger sibling as well as younger siblings are expected to be treated in MLP". On occassion, Rainbow Dash has acted like a big sister figure toward Scootaloo, at one point affectionately referring to her as "squirt". This idea is furthered when she appears alongside with Rarity and Applejack to congratulate the Cutie Mark Crusaders for their performance during The Show Stoppers.

In The Cutie Mark Chronicles, it is revealed that Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom ever attempted allowed all the other main character ponies to gain their own cutie marks, symbolizing that Rainbow Dash and the others had a magical bond before they even met.

Appearances

 * See also character appearances

Rainbow Dash appears in all episodes so far except episodes eight, fifteen, and seventeen, with only a background appearance in episodes eighteen and twenty.

Gallery



 * Rainbow Dash image gallery

Trivia

 * Rainbow Dash claims that she was the first pony in her class to obtain her cutie mark in Call of the Cutie. Several of the bully ponies from Dash's flight camp in The Cutie Mark Chronicles already possess cutie marks, indicating either they're not from her class or her story is false.
 * Rainbow Dash is the only pony of the main cast who hasn't had a pet introduced in season one.
 * The design of Rainbow Dash's home is different in Griffon the Brush Off and Party of One.
 * Rainbow Dash's personalized formal dress resembles the outfit of the comic book character The Rocketeer.
 * Rainbow Dash is the only pony in the main cast to have eyelashes that are completely straight.
 * Rainbow Dash's cutie mark bears a close resemblance to The Symbol of the Gods in the animated film Hercules.