@Pinkbeardedpony  
There was literally zero reason for them to be such dicks to her, though. At the very start of the episode she displayed ZERO hubris. She made sure to point out to Scoots that she wasn’t actually on the team. She was just backup and she didn’t even sound resentful. She appreciated the opportunity and respected how important even her small role was. When she was told she’d be a member she was excited but at no point did she act haughty.  
Dash has matured a lot.

You know, based on your well-reasoned comment earlier in this thread, TJ, I almost think you need to tell people you’re not being super serious with these. :P

@Flick Mare  
Pretty much this.

@Seenty  

Understood. I thought you might be talking about lances made for jousting. The lance is such an iconic and unique weapon, I can’t say no to pegasi aces carrying one into battle. The concept of pony Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen having a dogfight with pony Captain Arthur “Roy” Brown using lances is just too splendid. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

@Pinkbeardedpony  
shakes fist after remembering all the fun with mongol horse archers in total war games  
I’m English and have a soft spot for the good old fasioned longbow, so all these easterners with there fancy foot bows or mounted archers get not but scorn from me! However they certainly were effective and intuitive. And in the world of equestria could be used by a pony unlike real life traditional bows which obviously require hands.
 
And the lances aren’t “shatter point” lances per se, that was poor phrasing on my part, i should have said a tourney lance. Basically the tourney lance was thinner meaning it was more prone to shattering as at a tourney you didn’t want to kill your fellow knight and a lance blow was worth one point, a shattered lance on your oponent was 3 points and a de-horse was 5 (in general, in the Europe’s a big continent and some courts had different rules and points), this also meant the riders impact force was lessened as well as the person receiving the blow, applied to the concept of a pony warrior it could be made deadly by sharpening the lance and building in weak spots

@Fiero
 
It feels more to me like Rainbow picked up the stupid ball just for this episode. Remember when Rainbow Dash was talking to Twilight about how she has to multitask to keep safe while flying? Having to notice everything around her to avoid collisions? That goes right out the window when the plot demands Rainbow makes a rookie mistake. That’s how you know she’s picked up the stupid ball, which she continues to carry by ignoring any and all friendship lessons she’s ever learned.

@Seenty  
Those are both really interesting examples, Seenty. I’ve never heard of “shatter point” lances before.
 
The only reason I would really pull for footbows is because of the Mongols and their infamous horse archers. If you thought highly mobile ground-based archers were annoying, wait till you get a load of archers that non-flying infantry can never close with, move faster than the speed of sound, aren’t subject to the difficulties of poor conditions on the ground or the air, can conceal themselves on a moment’s notice, can induce lightning strikes and create tornadoes, ignore most types of cover, and whose arrows gain the full benefits of terminal velocity on every shot. (۶ꈨຶꎁꈨຶ )۶ʸᵉᵃʰᵎ

@Flick Mare
 
Everyone’s got to be the FNG at some point in their life.

Rainbow Dash does not appear to be known for thinking things through fully, she dives face first into problems and thinks about by the end of the episode.

@Pinkbeardedpony  
Foot bows not a bad suggestion, but may i offer than instead of lances, a hanging flail might be a better option than lance or spear as historically, while not common it was heard of to dangle a flail off the side of a horse and ride past someone letting the flails head(s) cause the damage, at supersonic speeds this could cause wicked damage.
 
Also the potential danger for lances could be mitigated by the use of shatter points, you only need a few inches penetration to cause a fatal wound, so if the lance shatters and the heads in the body then thanks to the shattering the user would be alright, but the enemy if hit would be toast!

@Background Pony #EA2A  
if we had a comment rate system I would fave it, gold it and print it.

@Lawful Girly  
With the chintzy golden armor and everything? I hope they would at least paint it to take advantage of countershading.
 
My dream is that they would introduce footbows as the Equestrian Air Force’s weapon of choice. Using lances and spears while moving at supersonic speeds seems like it would do almost as much damage to the wielder as the foe man s/he’s skewering. (x_x)☆
 

I think it should have been more obvious to Rainbow Dash that the nickname wasn’t meant to be cruel. The people that have pointed out that this is how teams/military units behave for good reason are correct.
 
However, I never liked the Wonderbolts from the start, particularly not Spitfire. Thanks to the writers needing her to fill certain roles to get the episode’s ‘lesson’ across, her track record is one of incompetency, stupidity and outright dishonesty.
 
This episode was yet another instance of Spitfire’s inability to read the situation. When Rainbow asks if she can just have her real name on her jacket, that should clue Spitfire in that maybe the newbie doesn’t quite get it yet. Especially since Rainbow looks particularly distressed when she sees it.
 
I don’t agree with this poster saying that the Wonderbolts are ‘abusive’ or that they throw around childish insults. However, I do think that the Wonderbolts, and particularly Spitfire often end up appearing stupid for the purposes of the plot.
 
I also can’t side with Rainbow Dash on this one either, since her solutions to the problem just increase in degrees of stupid. You’d think she’d try and make friends with some of her teammates, rather than put on ridiculous antics. Asking what some other pony’s nickname means would probably be a good start. That would not only solve her problem, but actually help her bond with her teammates by understanding the in-jokes they have with each other.

@AaronMk  
Yup.

@Lawful Girly
 
But like the rest of the Equestrian regulars all they do is sit around.
 
Maybe more literally than the others.

@Pinkbeardedpony  
I imagine the actual main Equestrian Air Force would just be made up of pegasus Royal Guards.

I couldn’t disagree more with the argument put forth by the artist. I have always wished that Spitfire would chew out Rainbow Dash much more than we have seen her do thus far.
 
On the other hand, I was happy that the Wonderbolts finally acknowledged that Rainbow has considerable personal clout already (element of harmony and savior of the world), which I would speculate is true reason they didn’t give her the boot after endangering herself, the crowd, and deliberately ruining the performance.
 
It would be interesting to see what the main Equestrian Air Force looks like, if there even is one. They could show Spitfire being deferential for once. (ﾟ⊿ﾟ)

Let’s have an episode where Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts off on a real combat mission! This is assuming that they actually DO do that kind of thing…

Yeah, pretty much sums these guys up.
 
The biggest problem with the Wonderbolts is while they were originally portrayed as a military force that does stunt shows on the side like the Blue Angels & Air Force, as the years went by we get 2 military actions where they were found cowering inside their makeshift cage after Spike beat them followed by Tirek taking them ALL out in one shot, and 1 by accident rescue mission involving Pinkie.
 
Everything else they’ve done is just air show, stunt show, and athletic events.
 
More and more these guys look less like a military unit, and more like a circus act.
 
Then we get episodes where the writers have them try to act like a military unit, there’s just this big disconnect between what they’re supposed to be showing, and what we’re actually seeing on screen. Which is a bunch of douche bags ragging on the new guy before they go to practice their performances.
 
If Dash had joined the Wonderbolts to protect Equestria, fight its enemies and everything like that, then I’d probably be more on the side of the Wonderbolts because if you can’t take being called names, then you don’t belong in the military.
 
But she didn’t join a military unit. The bolts have NEVER been portrayed as a military unit when Dash talks about them. She joined a circus act, where showboating as a group was the whole point of the job. While she did focus more on standing out, it was in response to her insecurities that these guys continued to poke with a stick because of one stupid mistake that was connected to a mild childhood trauma.
 
So yeah, these guys are dicks.

But the uniforms are stupid.

@Lawful Girly  
Yeah. I keep making the mistake of thinking of them as comparisons to the Mane 6 and not as comparisons to the Blue Angels. They’re a stunt show. The military culture they have going on keeps confusing me into thinking of them as combative fliers. After rethinking it I can completely get why Dash would be interested in that.

@Aasha  
Well, that’s because we expect to see cool things such as monster attacks, superpowered magic, etc., because it’s a TV show.
 
For an everyday pony, a performance by skillful fliers is a really neat thing.

Well when I was in the Navy, that was exactly the way we treated each other, so pretty standard for that sort of team I’d think.

@Background Pony #12AE
 
@fandechimie
 
@Background Pony #12AE
 
Eh. I’ve been in the military. It has decent people in it. It has bullies in it. It has people in it - not character archetypes. Some people are bullies.
 
Honestly though I’m on the fence about the Wonderbolts. They don’t do anything that really strikes me as cool - other than Dash gushing about them.
 
Edit: Actually I take that back. They do perform shows which is some level of “doing something cool”.

It’s just lad banter bro.
 
Lad, military banter bro… I think.