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[elementofloyalty]

PLAYER
NAME: Dragon
PERSONAL JOURNAL: dragonoflife
EMAIL: dragonslj@gmail.com
MESSENGER(S): AIM: Dragon of Anger, dragonoflife
TIMEZONE: Eastern
AGE (b. year): 32. :/
PLAYED CHARACTERS: N/A
LINK TO RESERVE: Dibs!



CHARACTER
NAME(S): Rainbow Dash
AGE: 21 physically, 18 mentally. Series creater Lauren Faust described the main cast of the show as "young adults, but with a maturity level of anywhere from 12-18", at least at the start of the show. After a few years of canon and character development, this is a little bit better, but while Rainbow Dash is old enough to have a responsible 'adult' job, she behaves like a teenager in a lot of ways.
FANDOM: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
Link from the Friendship is Magic wiki.

Background/Canon Summary.

Rainbow Dash is a pegasus pony residing in Ponyville, in the land of Equestria. Her parents are not (yet) canonically confirmed, although a flashback to her fillyhood shows her with a rainbow-maned stallion that receives no identification. Beyond this brief shot, Rainbow Dash's first chronological appearance is during her time at the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp. The flight camp, held in the floating cloud city of Cloudsdale, was for pegasus ponies only, intended to teach young colts and fillies how to fly swift and well. One filly in particular, a shy pony named Fluttershy, was bullied for her terrible flying skills. Rainbow Dash burst onto the scene and rose to her defense; the bullies challenged her to a race.

At that young age, Rainbow Dash was already an incredible flyer, and the sudden sheer joy of racing (and winning!) drove her to such speeds that she performed the nigh-mythical Sonic Rainboom, shattering the sound barrier and causing an eruption of rainbow light to blossom over all Equestria. Her cutie mark, the special flank marking that symbolizes a pony's discovery of the characteristic that makes them unique, appeared in that moment.

Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash, the Sonic Rainboom's effects were not confined to her. Across Equestria, five other ponies saw or heard the rainboom, and its effects led them to their own self-realization and their own cutie marks in turn. Without knowing it, the six ponies had forged a connection and a bond, long before they had ever met.

Despite this amazing achievement, Rainbow Dash remained the subject of teasing and bullying herself. She ultimately was kicked out of flight school; her laziness, rather than any fault in her skills, was to blame. One consolation from this time, however, came from meeting Gilda, a griffon, who became Dash's best friend during flight camp.

Even as a flight school dropout, Rainbow Dash next shows up as a weather manager in Ponyville. Her ability is such that she is assigned to clear the sky of clouds for the extremely important Summer Sun Festival. Instead of doing that, however, she manages to crash headlong into Twilight Sparkle, who is checking on the ponies in charge of various tasks. When Twilight asks about the weather, Rainbow Dash shrugs it off; she's busy practicing her flying routine as part of her goal to join the prestigious aerial-acrobatics team, the Wonderbolts. When Twilight challenges her abilities, Rainbow Dash proudly clears the sky of clouds in ten. seconds. flat.

With everything in order for the Summer Sun Festival to begin, the ponies of Ponyville gather for the festivities, awaiting the arrival of Princess Celestia, the winged unicorn (alicorn) who rules over Equestria and is also responsible for raising the sun and moon. At the moment of truth, however, Princess Celestia is missing. In her place rises the ancient, evil Nightmare Moon, the Mare in the Moon, who tried to shroud all Equestria in eternal night 1000 years before. Princess Celestia had banished her to the moon, but on this night the stars aligned to free her, and she had come to once again establish eternal dominion.

Rainbow Dash attempts to charge her. Luckily, her friend Applejack catches her tail and holds her back. A laughing Nightmare Moon turns to mist and drifts off into the night, disappearing before Rainbow Dash can catch her. She suspiciously confronts Twilight Sparkle, accusing her of being a spy because she recognized Nightmare Moon, but Applejack again calms her long enough for Twilight to explain.

According to legend, Nightmare Moon was defeated with the six Elements of Harmony, last known to be in an ancient castle in the Everfree Forest. Refusing to let Twilight Sparkle go alone, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity join the unicorn in seeking out the Elements of Harmony. Along the way, each of them has a chance to demonstrate a quality corresponding quite coincidentally to one of the Elements of Harmony.

Rainbow Dash's turn comes when she flies across a fog-shrouded chasm to reattach a rope bridge. Nightmare Moon's magic takes the form of the Shadowbolts, a dark mirror of the Wonderbolts Dash idolizes, who proclaim her to be the best flyer in Equestria and offer to make her their captain. When they lay down the ultimatum that it's 'them or us', when it comes to her friends, Rainbow Dash declines.

Reaching the castle, they retrieve five of the six Elements of Harmony; the other ponies back off so Twilight can try to figure out the 'spark' that makes the sixth appear. Nightmare Moon's magic steals Twilight away, and the evil pony crushes the Elements beneath her hooves. The other five ponies arrive moments afterwards, racing to rejoin their friend, and Twilight realizes that the Elements of Harmony are "right here". Naming each of her friends' Elements restores the shattered stones around them; Rainbow Dash receives the Element of Loyalty. With the five elements, and the 'spark' of friendship in Twilight's Heart, the sixth Element, Magic, is given to her, and the Elements of Harmony banish the corruption that is Nightmare Moon, leaving behind Princess Luna, Celestia's sister, who long ago had raised the moon as co-ruler of Equestria before jealousy and anger entered her soul.

Cue happy ending music of the first two-parter.

Twilight Sparkle remains in Ponyville with her new friends. Shortly thereafter she receives two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, the social event of Equstria, and Rainbow Dash joins the crowd of ponies begging, pleading, bribing or pestering Twilight into giving them one of the tickets. Rainbow Dash, frantic to show off her moves to the Wonderbolts at the Gala, makes special efforts to clear the weather for Twilight. The pestering and nagging drive Twilight into a near-breakdown, and realizing this, all her friends renounce their claims on the ticket... except for Rainbow Dash, who cheerfully declares herself the winner until general disdain makes her realize she needs to renounce it too. Happily, everyone gets a ticket in the end... (Or at least, at the time they THINK it's a happy thing...)

Sadly, though she had many new friends after all this excitement, Dash was destined to lose an old one. Gilda, her griffon friend from flight camp, visited her in Ponyville -- but spent her time with Dash pushing Pinkie Pie away and generally being cruel and callous to everypony she could while Dash was away. Pinkie Pie tried to improve her attitude by throwing her a party, but Rainbow Dash set up numerous pranks -- snakes in a can, dribble glasses, and so forth -- that she managed to run into. Believing Pinkie Pie to be the culprit, Gilda verbally tears her a new one -- only for Rainbow Dash to reveal herself to be the culprit. Given Gilda's hostility and refusal to accept Dash's new friends, Rainbow Dash sadly tells her that if being cool is all she cares about, she should find some cool new friends.

Ponyville being something of a danger magnet, Rainbow Dash found herself attempting to (and generally failing) to help out against various disasters. She almost saved it from an infestation of ravenous Parasprites by vacuuming up the bugs with a tornado, but Pinkie Pie got in the way. She also attempted to get rid of a dragon by kicking it in the snout, but that only made it mad. As part of her pegasus duties, she headed the snow-removal team during Winter Wrap-Up, the annual transformation of winter into spring.

Rainbow Dash's competitive streak comes to a head when she loses a game of horseshoes to Applejack. She challenges the earth (wingless, nonmagical) pony to an Iron Pony competition, in which the two face off in a series of contests. The two are tied evenly until Rainbow Dash begins using her wings, which leads to her dominating Applejack 15-5. A furious Applejack accuses her of cheating, but Dash just says they never said 'no wings'. As things rapidly stop being all in good fun, Applejack challenges Rainbow Dash to race in the Running of the Leaves, the annual event in which ponies run across the land so the thud of their hooves will knock the leaves off the trees. With her wings bound, Rainbow Dash sets up next to Applejack at the start line. Things almost immediately get ugly. The two trip over rocks and blame each other, hit each other with environmental hazards, swap signs, slam into each other, and ultimately degenerate into fighting their way over the finish line. This competitive spirit earns them a tie. For last place. And they both feel like idiots, especially when Princess Celestia herself shows up and reveals that she'd been watching. The two put their differences aside in the name of friendship and race off to do the job properly.

Competitiveness comes back to bite Rainbow in the butt soon thereafter, however; the Best Young Flyer competition in Cloudsdale has as its reward for winning a day spent with the Wonderbolts. Rainbow Dash is determined to win the prize, but try as she might she can't manage to replicate the Sonic Rainboom she performed all those years ago. She puts on a bold front, but no sooner does she return to Cloudsdale for the competition than she encounters her old bullies, who taunt her. Fluttershy, trying to be more assertive, steps in and defends Dash, challenging them to show up at the competition and see the Sonic Rainboom for themselves! Rainbow Dash, who up to this point has been putting on an air of false confidence and bravado, all but collapses at Fluttershy's feet as the pressure finally gets to her, wailing that she'll be a laughingstock.

Her moment of panic is interrupted, however, by the arrival of their other friends! Recognizing that Rainbow Dash needs the support of her friends, Twilight had used a powerful spell to give Rarity wings, and another spell to allow the other non-pegasi to walk on clouds. The arrival of her friends gives Rainbow Dash strength again... but it doesn't last, as Rarity begins to steal the spotlight with her magnificent wings, then even agrees to enter the Best Young Flyer competition!

Faced with this competition and still unable to perform the Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash dissolves into a quivering ball, pathetically sneaking around and swapping numbers so she's last to go in the competition. Due to time constraints, she and Rarity must perform together, and while Rarity dances about beautifully in the sky, Rainbow Dash proceeds to botch her routine terribly. Her only hope is to finally pull off the Sonic Rainboom, even as Rarity flies up to the sun so light can shine through her wings... which promptly dissolve. The unicorn falls, screaming and flailing, and though the Wonderbolts leap to her rescue, that same flailing manages to knock them all out. High above, Rainbow Dash hears her call out, spots her falling, and in an instant forgets everything but the desperate need to save her friend. She dives with all her heart and all the speed she can muster... and of course, performs the Sonic Rainboom once again, saving Rarity and the Wonderbolts mere feet from the ground. She saves the day, wins the competition, is acknowledged by Princess Celestia herself as the best flyer in Equestria, and accepts Rarity's apology graciously. "Best day EVER!"

The best night ever, the Grand Galloping Gala, proves to be anything but. The six ponies split up to pursue their own separate goals; Rainbow Dash's is to hang out with the Wonderbolts, which she accomplishes by saving a pie one of them dropped. They recognize her as the victor of the Best Young Flyer competition and the pony who saved their life, and ask her to join them for the evening. They prove too popular, however; Rainbow Dash can't get any actual time with them. She begins setting up ever more dramatic rescues to recapture their attention, to no avail. The six friends ultimately end up destroying the ballroom as all of their increasingly frantic efforts to accomplish their goals come to a head at once. Terrified and embarrassed, they retreat to a local doughnut shop to ponder their mistakes, and realize that they should have just hung out as friends. Princess Celestia herself arrives to tell them that she'd specifically invited them in the hopes that they'd liven up the Gala. Mission accomplished, Princess.

Equestria's days of peace and harmony are shattered, however, when Discord, the physical embodiment of chaos and conflict, escapes from the stone prison that Princesses Celestia and Luna had sealed him in ages ago. Celestia summons the six current wielders of the Elements to re-imprison him, but Discord has already stolen the Elements. He tricks the ponies into entering the castle hedge maze, then separates them to corrupt each of them and turn them against their own Element. For Rainbow Dash, Discord takes her wings, then forces her to choose between staying with her friends, and rushing to the rescue of Cloudsdale, which he heavily implies will be destroyed without her there. Corrupted by his power, Rainbow Dash chooses to reclaim her wings and save Cloudsdale, but her leaving the maze causes Discord to declare victory over the six ponies and dominion over Equestria.

Twilight Sparkle is able to reverse the effects on herself and the other ponies, but they find Rainbow Dash on a cloud she believes to be Cloudsdale, dismissing their concerns with 'loyalty schmoyalty!' To restore her, Twilight needs to cast a spell on her, but her ability to fly makes that a problem. Working in concert, the other five ponies finally manages to catch her and wrestle her to the ground, where Twilight restores her memories.

Together and whole again, the six ponies reclaim the Elements properly, and return to face Discord. The arrogant draconequess laughs off their claims that they can defeat him, but -- shock and surprise -- the power of the Elements of Harmony not only binds him back into a stone prison, but in one massive outpouring of energy reverts all the chaos and confusion he'd wrought across Equestria, restoring the world in one magnificent burst.

As life returns to normal, Rainbow ends up seeking out a pet, but out of some slight misinterpretation over what exactly the point of a pet is, she ends up hosting a series of games challenging prospective pets to prove they're fast, cool, awesome, radical, and worthy of her. This culminates in a dangerous race through an unstable gorge, and Rainbow finds herself trapped under a rock when she causes a rockslide. All the rest of the prospective pets fly ahead of her to win the race, but the tortoise who'd done terribly in every other event stops to rescue her and carry her across the finish line. Realizing the true meaning of an owner-pet relation, she chooses the tortoise as her pet and names him Tank.

Because of her speed and her willingness to help those in need, Rainbow becomes regarded as a hero in Ponyville after a run of saving ponies from disaster. The attention quickly goes to her head, inflating her ego and arrogance to the point that she becomes unbearable to her friends and begins doing heroic acts for selfish glory rather than out of a sincere desire to help. Her friends together join forces to serve as the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, whose heroics outshine all of Rainbow's and steal the spotlight from her. No longer in the spotlight, Rainbow begins to break down, trying to claim attention by mowing lawns and opening jars of peanut butter. At last she tracks down the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well and discovers the secret, which also reveals to her just how far she'd gone past the bounds of acceptable.

Rainbow later participates in a play about the history of Hearth's Warming, in which she takes the role of pegasus leader Commander Hurricane. When Applejack fails to win blue ribbons at a rodeo and doesn't come back to Ponyville in shame, she and her friends track her down and after an epic chase force her to confess and reassure her that it's not that bad. She and her friends then join the Apple Family as 'extended family' to help them squeeze enough cider to beat the Flimflam Brothers Speedy Cider Squeezey 6000 and keep the farm. They fail, but the brothers so compromised quality for speed that they are practically thrown out of Ponyville.

Rainbow answers the question "is it even POSSIBLE for her to get hurt?" with a painful 'yes' when she crashes in the middle of a stunt, severely injuring her wing in the process. Confined to a hospital bed, she is so bored she finally resigns herself to reading a book Twilight had left her, despite her protestations that reading is for eggheads. To her mixed delight and horror, she is immediately drawn into the action-packed tale of Daring Do, so much so that when she is released from the hospital, she sneaks back in and steals the book rather than borrow a copy from Twilight and in doing so admit she likes reading. This fails spectacularly, and she is forced to admit in front of everypony that she likes reading. No one judges her for this, unsurprisingly.

After a brief adventure in rescuing Spike from some dragons, Rainbow assumes command of the Ponyville pegasi to prepare for process of funnelling water to Cloudsdale by creating a hurricane. Fiercely competitive as always, Rainbow drives the pegasi to train all-out to increase their wingpower and create a record-breaking tornado, but Fluttershy is such a poor flyer despite her training that she quits in despair and refuses to participate. Come the day of reckoning, however, so many pegasi are ill that the remaining ones, despite all their efforts, are barely unable to create a tornado strong enough to lift the water from the reservoir. Fluttershy, however, joins in on their second attempt, giving them just enough wingpower to lift the water up.

In a pair of episodes worthy of being a season-ender, the Mane 6 travel to Canterlot to participate in the wedding of Princess Cadance to Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's brother. For a while, Twilight appears to be paranoid and envious, demonstrating anger and hatred towards her old fillysitter Cadance, but in the middle of the wedding her actions are proven justified when she appears with the REAL Cadance and unmasks the imposter as Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. Chrysalis defeats Princess Celestia in a contest of magic, and Celestia sends them for the Elements of Harmony. The six of them fight a massive battle against a huge number of changelings who take their form, but are overwhelmed by superior numbers. At the end, Shining Armor and Cadance defeat the changelings through the combined strength of their love and magic, and Rainbow Dash performs a Sonic Rainboom as a capstone to their wedding ceremony.

Rainbow plays a supporting role in Twilight's task to save the Crystal Empire from King Sombra, keeping the crystal ponies distracted with classic pegasus jousting while Twilight hunts for the Crystal Heart.

Her next major appearance comes when she accompanies the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their elder sisters on a camping trip, which Scootaloo hoped to use as a chance to finally get sempai to notice her. Scootaloo goes to so much effort to not be scared by Rainbow's scary stories that she ends up having nightmares, then freaking out completely and nearly plummeting into a raging river. Rainbow saves her, and when Scootaloo admits that she was just trying to be brave and cool to impress Rainbow so she'd finally take the filly under her wing, Rainbow happily agrees to do just that -- and admits that the first time she heard the story she told, she was scared too.

Rainbow is accepted to the Wonderbolts Academy, where prospective cadets train under the Wonderbolts themselves, but to her horror is assigned as wingpony to Lightning Dust, a pegasus who gives her a run for her money in speed and skill, but is much more of a loose cannon. Lightning Dust's antics and lack of regard for others become increasingly more dangerous, until at last one stunt nearly kills Rainbow's friends as they balloon up to visit her. Rainbow chews out Spitfire and the Wonderbolts at large for appearing to condone these antics, then quits, but Spitfire chases after her to say she agrees with Rainbow's views. Lightning Dust is demoted, and Rainbow is promoted to her place instead.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends get tasked with the duty of helping the Crystal Empire win the rights to host the Equestria Games. Rainbow takes this mission personally, revealing how heartbroken she was when Cloudsdale had failed to gain the Games in her youth. The six of them undergo incredible effort as they furiously attempt to sway the judgment of the entirely wrong pony, which fortunately ends up swaying the judgment of the right pony, and their mission is a success.

Twilight's attempts to master a spell left unfinished by unicorn legend Star Swirl the Bearded swaps the cutie marks of all her friends, and in complete confusion, they all start attempting to do one of the other pony's talents. Poorly. Rainbow ends up tied up by Fluttershy's animals which she is utterly failing to take care of -- but fortunately, Twilight manages to fix everything, complete the spell, and prove herself worthy of becoming an alicorn and a Princess.

Rainbow gets the pleasure of training Twilight to use her newfound wings, but Twilight's new status comes at a price -- when Celestia and Luna disappear and the Everfree Forest begins intruding on Ponyville, the Mane Six discover that the key seems to like in the Tree of Harmony in the depths of the Everfree Forest. The other five send Twilight back to Ponyville for her own safety, a mistake born of fear for Equestria and a disservice to their friend -- as Twilight tells them, when she decides to come back and rejoin them. Together, the six of them find the Tree of Harmony and return the Elements of Harmony to it to restore its strength.

PERSONALITY:

Almost immediately, Rainbow Dash makes a pony think "arrogant". She gives off an air of total confidence in her abilities and herself, asserting that she's the best and coolest pony as if it should be so obvious she shouldn't even need to say it. She's also eager to prove that she's the best, to the point of hypercompetetiveness; she'll make challenges readily and never back down from one, and is always on the lookout for an opportunity to show off her skills, especially by racing.

The darker half of this confidence is her absolute dread and terror of failure, or looking foolish. In friendly physical competitions with Applejack, she resorted to using her wings to gain an advantage over the earth pony, then later stooped to some fairly dubious and underhanded tactics to beat her. Despite her legitimate skill at flying, when she found her confidence undermined prior to the Best Young Flyer competition, she managed to freak out to the point of collapsing in a corner and quivering in a state of utter breakdown. Everyday slipups don't bother her much, because she's used to them and even she knows she's not perfect, but when it comes to failing to be awesome, she doesn't know how to handle that because she so rarely fails in that respect.

Her public image is incredibly important to her. A self-described athlete, she furiously refuses to try things that go against that image, and despite having an 'egghead' for a friend, she's expressed some unfortunately anti-intellectual sentiments on more than one occasion. Her attitude has relaxed markedly, however, since she discovered that she had a great love of reading, though it took a fair amount of self-reconciliation to accept this side of her.

Rainbow Dash is also impishly playful and mischievous; she had a love of pranks, but only ones in good fun. She won't pull a prank on someone who won't laugh at it later (like Fluttershy).

In many respects she's one of the laziest ponies around; she's frequently caught napping, and at one point it's implied that she rarely does her job of clearing the sky in a timely fashion. She was also kicked out of flight school at some point. This laziness seems to come from how she can succeed with barely any effort; she's been an amazing flyer since her youngest years, can clear the sky in ten seconds flat, and generally has no reason to exert herself. She's impatient and easily bored as well, so her general disdain for things she HAS to do is understandable. When it comes to her real dreams, like joining the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash puts an astonishing amount of practice and effort into her flying, routines, and maneuvers. She practiced her performance for the Best Young Flyer competition relentlessly, despite never being able to perform the Sonic Rainboom in her sessions, and even without a specific goal is constantly working on new ways to impress and awe.

Unlike most ponies, Rainbow Dash tends to be blunt and sometimes outright rude. She generally calls a spade a spade, for example pointing out to Rarity that she really is a laughingstock while her other friends are trying to cheer her up, or constantly complaining about Fluttershy's subdued cheering. Despite her impatience and irritation, though, she's never considered leaving her friends behind. Her Element of Harmony is Loyalty, and when the chips are down, she'll defend what's important to her without a second of hesitation. On some level she seems to understand that she needs friends who are stronger and more stable than she is, though she'd never admit it. She DOES admit, quietly and in private, that she hates being alone; beneath all that bluster, she's just a lonely girl who wants attention.

She is a three-dimensional creature. As an exceptional flyer, and thanks to pony-physics, which allow her to hover in midair effortlessly, Rainbow Dash is completely unbounded by any fetters of gravity. She's as likely to be found hovering a few feet up as standing, and moves into and out of the air with as little thought as a person taking a step to one side.

CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:

Twilight Sparkle

In many ways, Twilight is the glue that holds the Mane 6 together. Despite, or perhaps because of, their differences, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle get along just fine. Their worlds simply don't cross much; Twilight spends her time with her books and her studies and her magic, Rainbow with her racing and practicing and fun. Whereas Twilight is poorly socialized by nature, Rainbow knows of but doesn't care about social niceties. Rainbow's example encourages Twilight to be braver (if slightly dumber, since she decided, quite accurately, that Dash would attempt to deal with a hydra by charging it) and more socially outgoing, while Twilight helps put a damper on Rainbow's arrogance and pride.

Fluttershy

Fluttershy is one of Dash's oldest friends, despite how different the pair are. While Dash is tough and bold on the outside, insecure and soft on the inside, Fluttershy is meek, timid, and hard as steel when the chips are down. Dash challenges Fluttershy to be more assertive and to stand up for herself more, while Fluttershy serves as a voice of reason to the more impetuous and short-fused pegasus. Despite their abiding friendship, Dash has absolutely no patience for Fluttershy's meekness, and even goes so far as to take out some of her nervousness and frustration on the poor pony by blaming her poor cheering as the reason why Dash can't pull off a Sonic Rainboom.

Rarity

Rainbow Dash has absolutely no interest in the ladylike, fashionable interests Rarity has, and the two aren't often seen together, but that doesn't mean they're not friends! The two share a mutual respect. Rarity is the first to recognize that Rainbow Dash's bravado and boasting before the Best Young Flyer competition is pure stage fright, having put her own designs and talents on display herself. To support her friend, she all but demands Twilight Sparkle produce some sort of magic so the ponies who cannot walk on clouds can still support their friend. Although Rarity's vanity and ego lead directly to Dash's mental collapse, the moment Rainbow realizes Rarity is in trouble, she abandons everything for the sake of rescuing her friend. When Rarity apologizes for all that she'd done at the end, Rainbow accepts it without any hard feelings or extra thought.

Pinkie Pie

Though initially irritated by Pinkie Pie's randomness and antics, Rainbow Dash quickly warms up to her when she discovers the pink pony shares Dash's love of pranks. After a gleeful day of playing harmless pranks on others (and getting pranked herself), the two cement their friendship solidly. Though Dash can still be annoyed by the pony's whimsical nature when matters are serious, in lighter times she enjoys Pinkie's playful spirit. When Gilda, believing Pinkie Pie to be responsible for pranking her repeatedly, lays into Pinkie and expects Rainbow Dash to support her, Dash -- who was responsible for the pranks -- refuses to abandon her new friend even if it costs her an old friend. Rainbow Dash is also the one who seeks her out to bring her to her surprise birthday party, and when confronted by an irrational and deranged Pinkie Pie, literally drags her across Ponyville so she can attend the party.

Applejack

The one pony Rainbow Dash never insults or belittles, the one pony Rainbow Dash seems to hold the most respect for. Applejack is more mature, more humble, and more down-to-earth than Rainbow Dash, while at the same time being a physical match for the competitive and athletic Dashie. Though not addicted to competition and performance the way Dash is, Applejack takes pride in her abilities and skills, and while this is a more mature and sensible pride than Rainbow Dash's arrogance, the earth pony has a stubborn streak that can push her into fiercely defending herself when she's challenged. The two ponies become so intent to win their race they resort to dirty tricks and cheap shots that would ordinarily be beneath both of them. But once they realize that their competition isn't as important as their friendship, they make up and race off together as equals without regrets.

Scootaloo

The young filly has basically become Rainbow's little sister. Rainbow always thought Scootaloo had some good moves, but she accepts the little pegasus not for her strengths and awesomeness, but just for herself in general. Scoot's downright worship of her doesn't hurt, of course.

TIMELINE SUMMARY: Rainbow Dash is coming from the restoration of the Elements of Harmony to the Tree of Harmony. Having the strength of the Elements is a virtue, showing that she and her friends have the bonds of friendship necessary to use them in the first place, but giving them up for the greater good and trusting that they have the strength and ability to deal with any challenge without them is a defining moment of kindness, friendship, and trust.


POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:

Falling, falling, falling in silence. On the inside of her eyelids, the rainbow of colors and brilliant light of the Elements as they returned to the Tree still danced in negative.

Rainbow Dash came to the moment the stained glass floor touched her flank, as whatever power had spirited her away deposited her gently on the Station. She bolted upright immediately, wings beating to catch the air, but something went wrong; her wings lifted her a scant inch off the ground before her strength gave out and she dropped back down. Horrified, she spread them wide as she craned her neck to look at them.

Nope, still there. Her fear twitched inside her -- not because she worried for herself, but where were her friends?

"Twilight?" she called out to the darkness. "Fluttershy? Applejack... anypony?

Silence, echoing silence. She tried to fly again, but as if there was no air here, her wings couldn't support her. She growled, jerking her head left to right as fear began to twist into anger. What was going on, and how could she fix it?!

Only the strength of heart inside you matters here. Let it guide you.

"Who said that?" Dash said, turning to look for the source of the voice. Blackness and the Station only, still... until a shimmering staircase slowly formed, rising up into the blackness where moments before nothing had been. Dash didn't delay; as soon as she saw that staircase form she galloped up it, leaving the Station and the Equestrian flag wrought on it behind.

The stairs rose high up to a second Station, the sight of which gave the pony pause. Central and dominant, a wide-eyed picture of herself in stained glass formed the largest image on the floor. In an inset above that image, each of her friends faces sat in its own little circle, and around the perimeter in their own circular frames were images of her cutie mark, the Wonderbolts, even Scootloo. Rainbow stared at the image slack-jawed for a moment, trying to make sense of it.

Choose the form the strength of your heart will take.

Three equidistant pillars rose seamlessly from the Station floor. On the left one sat a starburst, surrounded by five smaller symbols: Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark. Directly before her, three apples: Applejack's cutie mark. To the right, a lightning-bolt rainbow striking down from a cloud: her own cutie mark.

"Pfsh. Well, duh," Dash said, rolling her eyes even as she cantered over to her own symbol.

The voice spoke into her head as she reached out a hoof to it. The power of the pegasus. Indomitable courage. The strength to achieve victory.

"Yeah, yeah, just gimme!" she said over the voice. As it faded, whatever seemed to prevent her from touching the symbol vanished. The moment her hoof touched it, power surged through her; strength, speed, agility, all the things she didn't realize she'd been missing until that moment. Before she even realized it, she'd taken to the air, hovering above the floor of the Station with powerful wingbeats!

The feeling left her speechless for a moment. Then she grinned. "All right! Rainbow Dash is back in action!" She proudly rolled a few times in midair, then set to looking about for the way out of here.

Instead she got only a voice. Choose what you will leave behind.

"What I'll leave behind? You mean... I have to pick something I don't get? But I'm a pegasus!" she said upwards to the darkness. "I'm not an earth pony OR a unicorn."

Silence. What did THAT mean? Confused, Rainbow Dash dropped back down in front of the second pedestal. She only meant to look more closely, but no sooner did she come near than the voice spoke again. The power of the earth pony. Indomitable strength. The strength that supports and defends others.

"That sounds like Applejack all right," she said, blinking. "Or even Pinkie. So what does the unicorn one say?"

She flapped over to it, waiting for the voice to speak. The power of the unicorn, it said. Indomitable will. Creation, transformation, destruction.

"Good summary." She looked back upwards. "So I only have to give up one?"

No answer. Well... if she only had to give up one, which one was it? It would be pretty cool to have magic, to be an alicorn like Princess Celestia! How would that be for awesome? Rainbow Dash, Princess! If they thought she was cool now -- and she could add magic to her aerial routine! The Buccaneer Blaze could have all sorts of colors and shapes. THAT would impress the Wonderbolts!

She started to trot over to the apple symbol, but paused. Looking at it.... was kind of like looking at Applejack, in a way. Strength. To support and defend others.

Celestia knows they needed it sometimes. "Sorry, Twilight," she muttered as she turned back to the star symbol. "Guess I'm just gonna have to outdo all your tricks without magic."

You've chosen the strength of the pegasus. You've given up the power of the unicorn. Is this your choice?

Rainbow took a breath. "Yes," she said, finally. "Now what was the point of all that --"

A black bracelet formed around her foreankle, but before Dash could do so much as look at it, the Station floor shattered beneath her. She spread her wings reflexively, but again they caught nothing, and for the second time, Rainbow was falling. "What was the point of giving me back my wing-strength then?!" she shouted up at the fading darkness, waving a hoof angrily at it.


SPECIAL ABILITIES:

Having selected the sword equivalent and given up the staff, Rainbow Dash has regained her full canon physical abilities, as well as the protective coat. She will have a great deal of trouble with even the basic spells that those who surrender the staff can still access. Magic is just not a pegasus thing.

As a pony, Rainbow Dash is generally stronger, quicker, and more enduring than a human. It's just biology.

As a pegasus pony, she is capable of flying. At lower speeds this is essentially three-dimensional hovering, able to move in any direction at any facing as well as remain motionless in midair, so long as her wings are flapping. She is also capable of standing on or moving through clouds as if they were solid or liquid, as well as moving clouds around by pushing or pulling and dissipating them by kicking them. She can also force various weather effects out of a cloud, such as rain or lightning.

Unique to Rainbow Dash among ponies is unparalleled speed and agility. In many respects she functions like a speedster superhero (e.g. the Flash). She is capable of immediately accelerating to a speed fast enough to leave (rainbow-colored) flames directly beneath her, as well as decelerating instantly. Even at very high speeds, she is capable of making sharp ninety-degree turns in rapid succession. By flying in a circle, she can raise enough wind to generate a tornado.

At speed, she is actually capable of shattering the sound barrier. Her wing strength is such that she can do this with barely any time to accelerate while flying straight up. By doing so she creates the Sonic Rainboom, which is a massive boom that also results in a circle of rainbow light expanding outwards from the spot where the shock wave originates. The feat, if math can at all be applied to Equestria, puts her at around Mach 10 speed.

When descending from a modest height at top speed, Rainbow Dash is capable of slamming into a target with enough force that the impact creates a mushroom cloud and a Rainboom-style circle of expanding light.

Especially for a pegasus pony, Rainbow Dash is surprisingly athletic and durable, able to compete equally with strong, capable Applejack on an even footing.

Oddly, she seems to be a capable practitioner of karate.

"It's a pony. A baby horse girl toy. Why is it so awesome?"



NOTES/ASPIRATIONS

Rainbow Dash would make an excellent PC Finder someday, I think, given her desire to prove she's awesome and her unquestioning loyalty to her friends, as well as the fact that she ended up with a coat from her choices.

RP experience has made it pretty clear that Kingdom Hearts and MLP:FIM are basically exactly the same. Kingdom Hearts is magic, and friendship is light!