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So, according to Meghan McCarthy, Wonderbolt Academy originally had a different ending, but it got changed somewhere along the lines. I heard from someone else that the original ending had Rainbow Dash not getting back into the academy after she quit, but I can't find a confirmation of that anywhere. I think that might have assuaged a lot of people's concerns with how the ending played out, but would have also made more than a few kids sad.

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hi hi

So, according to Meghan McCarthy, Wonderbolt Academy originally had a different ending, but it got changed somewhere along the lines. I heard from someone else that the original ending had Rainbow Dash not getting back into the academy after she quit, but I can't find a confirmation of that anywhere. I think that might have assuaged a lot of people's concerns with how the ending played out, but would have also made more than a few kids sad.

It's assumed that's what happened.

She also said there was a bonus scene that was cut, but I'm not too sure if she just meant that the bonus scene was the original ending and it being cut meant they had to change a previous scene.

To top it all off, it's rumoured that the alternate ending is possibly going to be on a DVD with the episode.

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By the way, it appears there was an "OC purge" this episode.

Flowershine was originally Wild Fire (Sibsy's OC).

184647__safe_rainbow-dash_meta_wonderbolts-academy_wild-fire_milky-way_sibsy_lightning-dust.jpeg

While Thunderlane was originally Midnight Strike (Who ends up with only a mere cameo at the start).

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Hasbro apparently caught wind of this before the episode's airing, and told them that OC's shouldn't be getting this much air time.

Personally, I couldn't see Wild Fire acting the way Flowershine did this episode, and Midnight Strike is way too "Bad OC"-ish with her colour palette, so I think this was a good call.

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I liked that Spitfire was reasonable the whole episode. She didn't go soft on Rainbow Dash just because of their previous relationships (after all she was saved by Dash before and impressed by her at the Gala). She also acted as hard as you would expect someone who has to deal with recruits - wannabes who mostly don't have the skills for being a Wonderbolt - somehow has to sort them out right?

Also her shades... and that "serious business" face - awesome.

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It's possible that the they got the idea for that uniform by crossing military dress and commercial pilot attire. I mean I don't think commercial pilots get shoulder decorations.

All in all, the outfit is definitely one of my favorite things that I've seen a pony wear.

Actually, Spitfire's uniform looks very Naval Aviator or Top Gun style.

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So, according to Meghan McCarthy, Wonderbolt Academy originally had a different ending, but it got changed somewhere along the lines. I heard from someone else that the original ending had Rainbow Dash not getting back into the academy after she quit, but I can't find a confirmation of that anywhere. I think that might have assuaged a lot of people's concerns with how the ending played out, but would have also made more than a few kids sad.

That doesn't make sense with the rest of the episode. If it had turned out that Spitfire and co held Lightning Dust's attitude in high regard than it would have made sense, but would have also soured us towards them. And we WANT the wonderbolts to still be cool, so it would have been disappointing.

Not that it couldn't have been a powerful episode.

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One of my favourite episodes ever, and that's with It's about time and Sleepless in Ponyville in the running.

I was surprised at Spitfire's personality and her lack of recognition of dash at the start until I realised that she's doing the Drill Sergeant Nasty bit for the specific purpose of testing the newbies and under those circumstances _Celestia_ wouldn't get any favoritism. As other people have said, this is the first time we've seen her 'on the clock' in a training role. The other times we've seen her, she's either been off duty, or in social mode. Both at the Gala and during the Hurricane business she was interacting with dash as a civilian, a talented civilian, but not someone who had to live up to Wonderbolts standards.

You can bet she has a third face for when she's actually leading a team herself, more approachable while still being in command. To be honest, the normalthing is for the Captain/Officer (Spitfire) to be fairly benevolent, while you have a sergeant who chews you out and basically pushes you, but I can see why for the sake of simplifying cast and animation for a 22 minute episode they combeined the roles.

But the other half of it is Rainbow Dash. Dear sweet Celestia! How much respect does she get for the way she acted in this episode. After thej erk dash who showed up far too often in season two, this Dash is her at her very best. It came on top of her caring and promotion of Fluttershy at her own expense in Hurricane Fluttershy, her adoption of Scootaloo as honourary younger sister in Sleepless in Ponyville.

Awesome flying? Comes easy. Suppressing her natural desires to argue thast she's the better pony? Harder, and therefore worthy of respect. Being willing to argue with her idoland quit the Wonderbolts, her lifelong dream when she felt thay weren't living up to their own, and her standards? Incredible! I respect her more for that decision than anything she's ever done in the whole series. Jaw was on the floor, and the ending for me was perfect.

Also, it makes sense that she would understand the responsibilities of a leader, and to a team. As head weatherpony she leads weathereams all the time, and she lead the Hurricanne team. In fact, look at her own Drill Sergeant Nasty routine in Hurricane, and compare that with her usual playful, outgoing personality. I think she understood better than any of the others exactly where Spitfire was coming from. But as I said, she showed not simply courage and determination, but the rarer virtue of not subordinating her beliefs and ideals to her desires. And that is what makes the episode so amazing.

This was the very best

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Two things bothered me about this episode, but otherwise it was wonderful. The first was Pinkie Pie. I think her antics have been gradually getting wackier and taking up more screen time than they really need to. It felt a bit like her antics in "The Last Roundup", but with one very important difference - her antics were actually backed up by her love and concern for Rainbow Dash, instead of being entirely irrelevant and mostly showing disdain for Applejack. In this episode, they were heartwarming, and I loved the way she was so concerned about Rainbow's success at the academy, but I still felt they went on for too long and were over-the-top, even for Pinkie Pie.

The second thing that bothered me was Spitfire. If it weren't for her mane, I wouldn't have been able to tell it was the same character. I understand that as a military instructor, she'd dress differently from when she's performing as a Wonderbolt. I can appreciate that she'd present a different side of her personality under those circumstances. I also understand that voice actors come and go for lots of reasons. But all of those things together made it really hard to reconcile the Spitfire we see in this episode with the one we're used to. On my second viewing, I was used to all of it, and I actually rather liked this presentation of her. I liked the fact that she treated Rainbow Dash just like all of the other raw recruits, because it would have been unprofessional and unwise for her to do anything else.

However, the real problem I have with Spitfire in this episode is that, as far as I can tell, Rainbow Dash's accusation that the Wonderbolts were rewarding recklessness at the expense of other ponies' safety was actually accurate. Now, I'm generally very forgiving of thoughtless, reckless, selfish or irresponsible behaviour from the Mane Six and other ponies their age (like Trixie and Lightning Dust), because learning from those mistakes and growing into a better, more mature pony is the whole point of the show. Spitfire is (presumably) older and wiser, though, and moreover, she represents the entire Wonderbolts and possibly a substantial part of the Equestrian military. To see her exhibiting such bad judgement and a bad philosophy towards the Wonderbolt recruitment program really lowered my opinion of her integrity and wisdom, and that's rather sad.

Other than that, the episode was great! I loved the way Lightning Dust was presented as a dark shadow of Rainbow Dash, with all of the ambition and drive but none of the perspective or responsibility. Having a character like that around enabled us to see how responsible and mature Rainbow can be. The scene where she turned in her badge was exceptionally moving, because we all know how much that meant to Rainbow. The look on her face when she realised just what she had done was heart-wrenching. It was a lovely callback to her demonstration of loyalty against the Shadowbolts.

I found it really interesting that, despite what one might expect, Lightning and Rainbow weren't actually rivals. The problem wasn't which of them was better, but which one had the right attitude. I liked the way Rainbow initially fell victim to Lightning's philosophy, but rebelled against it when she realised the consequences. The fact that she was uneasy about it all the way through was good, too.

I really liked the other recruits, too. It seemed a bit odd that so many of them were from Ponyville, but eh, new characters cost animator time. The way Cloud Chaser and Horse Power stuck together was really cute, and I liked Horse Power better in this episode than in "Hurricane Fluttershy".

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About Spitfire condoning recklessness. As far as i can tell, she showed up to set the tasks, but she wasn't there to see them carried out, at least, Lightning Dust's reckless actions were out of her sight. Yes there should have been monitors around the flag and acrobatics courses to catch anything like that, but it seems there weren't.

The cloud clearing excercise definitely took place while Spitfire was in her office, and Rainbow Dash got there before any of the instructors could, or Spitfire would have known what happened. But all she was getting were the results. So from her point of view, Lightning Dash was a superior flyer who'd demonstrated the desire to push herself and consistently turned in record breaking performances. So her initial reaction to the hurricane incident made sense, especially as Rainbow Dash was part of the effort, and Spitfire _knows_ RD can handle a hurricane.

So, yes, reports of Lightning Dust's attitude and selfish actions should have reached her before things came to a head, but clearly they didn't. The way she reacted when she found out the whole story clearly shows what her reaction would have been if they had. Absent that minor plot hole, everything makes sense.

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I really liked the other recruits, too. It seemed a bit odd that so many of them were from Ponyville, but eh, new characters cost animator time. The way Cloud Chaser and Horse Power stuck together was really cute, and I liked Horse Power better in this episode than in "Hurricane Fluttershy".

Rainbow Dash brought in a bunch of ringers to break the record

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If it is true that the original ending involved Rainbow Dash leaving the academy for real, then Spitfire's actions make a little bit more sense. I feel like she could have taken some responsibility for what happened, since she was in charge. Not that it ruins the episode by any means.

I am not tracking you here. Could you explain? It seems that the most reckless of the actions were not observed by Spitfire.

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hi hi

Spitfire may not have observed most of Lightning Dust's reckless actions, but that doesn't really matter as far as Spitfire's responsibility is concerned. Because she was the main authority figure, instructor, and conduct/performance evaluator for the teams, her job requires her to observe them from a standpoint of making correct placements; and as an authority figure she was negligent in establishing and enforcing a proper code of conduct for her subordinates, whether directly or through a chain of command. She did correct her mistake by the end though, so it works out. (Seriously, they can't win. People get mad when ponies get punished, and mad when they don't.)

The episode had a lot to do with being the best you can possibly be, which includes having a good sense of moral direction. (And for the Wonderbolts, a good sense of physical direction too, a la dizzytron. An excellent metaphor if you ask me.) But it was also about leadership and responsibility. Lightning Dust was irresponsible, she didn't listen to or care what her subordinates had to say, but there was more going on than just that. A leader has to make good decisions on their own, regardless of what anyone else says. If someone tells a leader to do something that is wrong, it is the leader's responsibility as the decision maker to make the correct one. Lightning Dust's focus on pleasing Spitfire at the expense of all else makes her a better follower than a leader, and part of that mistake lands at Spitfire's hooves for not being clear from the beginning. That mistake made Rainbow Dash rather justified, if you ask me, in chewing Spitfire out at the end, since she was encouraging that behavior.

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Oh, one more thing for all the 'why is Spitfire being such a jerk to Rainbow when she saved her life?' whiners.

(I'm sorry, they're not whining, theyr're complaining...) ;)

First, did you see Spitfire's reaction to Rainbow Dash refusing to be intimidated by her drill sergeant nasty routine? She grinned. It's obvious that she knew RD wouldn't crumple like some of the other ponies.

Second, playing favourites, even when your alone, is no way to maintain discipline. In fact, if there's one pony she has to be harder on than any-pony else it's Rainbow (not that I think she really was). Firstly, because she knows the flyer who did a super-sonic dive and kicks dragons in the face can take it, and secondly, to make it clear that RD is not getting special treatment because of their previous relationship, both to the other ponies (most of whom are Ponyvillians and therefore know about it) and to RD herself.

Which would our polychrome maned flier prefer, that she earned her way in, or got in because of who she knew? My fic 'The Best Night Ever Extended Edition' covered my feelings on the subject.

Spitfire does know how much RD wants to be a Wonderbolt,as witness her utter shock when RD quits. And I don't doubt that when RD makes it, SF will greet her as a friend.

Oh, and one other thing. I withdrew my character Cloudius because one of his powers was to make clouds dense enough for non-pegasi to interact with. This was not canon I was told. There's no such power, and the fact that birds can somehow perch on clouds is irrelevant. But now we have canon evidence that such a power does exist. I want to reinstate my character.

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Is Pinkie-logic ever easy to understand?

She explained her thought process rather clearly (though quickly) in the pilot to Twilight:

Pinkie Pie[colour=#3A3A3A]: And if you're new, that meant you haven't met anyone yet, and if you haven't met anyone yet, you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, then I had an idea, and that's why I went [deep gasp]! I must throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville! See? And now you have lots and lots of friends![/colour]
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Pinkie-Pie... She actually makes a lot of sense when you look at why she's doing what she's doing... It's the part where she comes up with solutions that's a little... different than most people... and actually, when you think about it, she's probably a genius... She's certainly shown a knack for making devices for welcoming, parties, and getting up to the clouds with Rainbow Dash and Gilda... She just doesn't think the same way as we do... but she's definitely not stupid, or even necessarily random... Or that's just my opinion, at least.

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Interesting tidbit...turns out the voice actor behind this episode's Spitfire is the same one from Spitfire's previous appearances.

187219__safe_meta_text_spitfire_twitter_voice-actress_kelly-metzger.JPG

Sure fooled me. One thing though: she only started voicing her in Best Night Ever. Sonic Rainboom (the first time Spitfire actually talked) was a different person.

It seems the studio actually did want to imply Spitfire was putting a front as a "drill sergeant".

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