Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash is an angel who has been sent to earth in the form of a pegasus pony and one of the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. She is responsible for keeping the skies clear in Ponyville. She is also a huge admirer of The Wonderbolts and dreams of joining their flying group. She possesses the element of loyalty. Lucifer has sworn to mate with her and sire the Antichrist. Rainbow Dash's friends have consitently driven the Devil off, and made him look frightfully silly in the process.

Personality
Rainbow Dash is shown to have a very boisterous attitude and often brags about her abilities. (That's why God sent her to Earth.) Other than that, she is loyal to her friends, which earned her the element of loyalty. She is incredibly enthusiastic and athletic, but is surprisingly lazy, often shown or mentioned to be sleeping in, napping, or slacking off. While she is often somewhat caustic and impatient with her friends, she enthusiastically boasts about her friends' unique talents.

Despite her confidence she reacts poorly to failure, or even the possibility of failure. In Fall Weather Friends she got extremely upset over losing a simple game of horse shoes to a good friend, 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's Competition but soon revealed she was absolute terrified of making a fool of herself, to the point where she almost refused to perform and messed up several of her routines due to her nervousness.

Skills
Rainbow Dash is a very accomplished flyer, shown to be both agile and fast in the air. She is said to have slain 800,000 demons during Lucifer's rebellion. Witnessing her fighting abilities is what first made Satan consider her as a possible mother for his agent on earth. She can clear the skies of Ponyville "in ten seconds flat" (a popular meme now). Besides these practical abilities, she has spent much time honing impressive and flashy aerial acrobatic maneuvers, including the Super Speed Strut (during 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 apparently far too amazing to show onscreen, and produces an incredible explosion of light somehow).

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

Her most spectacular move is the Sonic Rainboom, depicted in the aptly-titled episode Sonic Rainboom.

History
Rainbow Dash is the daughter of Saint Michael and his then-wife Ishtar. She was born in 19,754,321,803,129,552 BC. In 231,779,484 BC, Lucifer the Morningstar rebelled over God's plan to create a physical world. God's other three aides (Michael, Celestia, and Luna) remained steadfast (though Lucifer would eventually win Luna over). Ishtar, however, fell prey to Lucifer's lies and defected, breaking Michael's heart. Rainbow Dash distinguished herself in the battle against Satan. She became boastful of her combat prowess, however. Celestia, realizing that pride was LUCIFER'S chief fault, suggested to God that Rainbow Dash be sent down to earth in the form of a winged pony to teach her humility. God agreed and sent Rainbow Dash to Ponyville. Lucifer, meanwhile, had sworn to ravish Rainbow Dash and bring forth the Antichrist.

Rainbow Dash first appeared in Friendship is Magic, part 1, accidentally crashing into Twilight Sparkle. She then joined Twilight and the other ponies in Friendship is Magic, part 2, on the quest for the Elements of Harmony. On the way, Nightmare Moon (the now-fallen Luna) took on the form of The Shadowbolts, a dark copy of her personal heroes, the Wonderbolts, and solicited Dash into joining them and abandon her friends. Rainbow Dash (recognizing one of Lucifer's favorite tricks) declined the offer in order to help her friends, which earned her the element of Loyalty.

In The Ticket Master, she was one of several ponies pestering Twilight for the extra ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. Dash's reason being a chance to audition for The Wonderbolts who would perform there. Satan (as Nick Morgenstern) offered to sell her a ticket in exchange for her soul. She declined and threw garlic at him, driving him off.

She and Pinkie Pie decided to play pranks on others in Griffon the Brush Off. An old friend of Dash comes for a visit, a griffon named Gilda, who has known her since her days in the Junior Speedsters flight team. At the time when Gilda is visiting Ponyville, Dash was unaware that the griffon was being mean 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, Rainbow Dash realized that Gilda isn't her true friend, and broke off their friendship. Gilda also let it slip that she was a spy for Lucifer.

Relationships
Twilight Sparkle - As someone who admires physical skill Rainbow Dash doesn't have a lot of respect for Twilight's intellectual nature and is quite openly mocking on occasions, however Twilight takes this with grace and Rainbow Dash has admitted that Twilight’s magical skills are very impressive.

Fluttershy – Despite both being pegasi the two ponies couldn’t be more different and Rainbow Dash can often be short tempered with Fluttershy’s meekness and cowardice. Despite this the two are good friends, and Rainbow Dash obviously appreciates Fluttershy’s patience and support. Often, only Fluttershy's holy pureness can ward off Lucifer.

Applejack - Applejack and Rainbow Dash and 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.

Pinkie Pie – Rainbow Dash is the most open of the ponies in not understanding Pinkie Pie at all, and indeed in Griffon the Brush Off she went to extreme lengths to avoid spending time with her. The two eventually ended up bonding, however, after Pinkie revealed that she had escaped from Satan's harem, and Rainbow Dash has ended up enjoying Pinkie’s odd personality and sense of humor, even if her hyperactivity and weirdness often irritates her.

Little Strongheart – Rainbow Dash and Little Strongheart fought in the episode Over A Barrel, when Rainbow Dash expressed admiration for how fast Little Strongheart was "for someone so... bulky. (no offense)". She was angered when Little Strongheart defeated her by trickery and was obviously looking for a rematch, however when her tribes plight was explained the two patched up their differences and became friends, even fending off Nick Morgenstern together.

Appearances

 * See also: 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.

Trivia

 * Rainbow Dash is based on the G3 earth pony of the same name, but her personality resembles more of Firefly, an adventurous pegasus pony from the G1 line.
 * In Griffon the Brush Off, while it was more evident that Pinkie Pie set up all the pranks at the party aimed for Gilda, Rainbow Dash revealed to Gilda that she was the one who set up all the party pranks after the griffon showed her mean nature at the ponies. It is possible that Rainbow Dash stood up for Pinkie Pie and the rest of her friends than leave Ponyville with a false friend like Gilda, as this act stays true to her wielding the element of loyalty.
 * Dashhome.jpg during Griffon the Brush Off, we discover that Rainbow Dash lives in a permanent 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 "stream." In Dragonshy, Dash is able to use the stream to make rainbow-colored "anti-glare/warrior" marks on her face.
 * In Call of the Cutie, Rainbow Dash states that she was the first pony in her class to gain her cutie mark.