Yeah as awesome as it would be for her to be going THAT fast, it's something you gotta chalk up to Artistic License I still see it as her only breaking the sound barrier, not going full hyper sonic.

@JT: Oh, well, going chibi is just a temporary change in artstyle, equivalent to suddenly switching to black and white film. The world didn't just change colour, it's just a style change for emphasis.

Also, made another edit to do some fanboying.

EDIT: Of course, I've also become used to characters who are way faster than that. I've even written some!

EDIT: However, we know from Pinkie that A sonic rainboom is faster than just breaking the sound barrier.

edited 7th May '13 1:51:25 PM by Sereg

No we don't, she never specified a speed, just creating a sonic boom, which only requires going faster then sound.

Pinkie: A sonic rainboom happens when a pegasus like Rainbow Dash gets going so fast that they make a sonic boom and a rainbow happen all at once!

This tells us that the only difference in technique between a sonic boom and a sonic rainboom is that a rainboom is faster.

i always thought that the Sonic Rainboom was breaking the sound barrier and fragmenting the light spectrum at roughly the same time.

Yeah I read it as breaking the sound barrier, and some effect of pegasi magic causing a rainbow to happen a the same time. Or it's simply a part of Equestrian physics that the force of a sonic boom causes a shattering of the light spectrum.

The fact that she knows what a sonic boom is though, tells us that their are many other cases of pegasi breaking the sound barrier without the rainbow. And Rainbow claims to be faster than all of them.

Even besides that, Celestia and Luna have to be moving the sun and mon well over sound speed to get them round the planet every 24 hours.

It may also have something to do with her Multicolored Hair and tail. Especially since that tail leaves a rainbow streak when she flies (though that could just be the speed).

Buf other pegasi can break the sound barrier and RD couldn't until Sonic Rainboom, she wasn't faster than them.

EDIT: And Pinkie's words were "so fast that" indicating a speed difference between techniques.

edited 7th May '13 2:16:38 PM by Sereg

Or Pinkie just doesn't know what she's talking about, or a Sonic Boom is something different in MLP. There's not enough info to really know.

Pinkie's audience included Twilight and RD and they didn't call her out.

I thought that "So fast" mean the sonic boom part of it, and that the rainbow is some pegasus whoosits going into effect.

I personally like going in for Watsonian explanations. They allow me to overthink the show, which is always a fun pastime. And if I can find an explanation hat is elegant, makes sense, and is consistent, then that's just a perfect day.

For example, I believe that the Everfree Forest is the way it is because of the big battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, which would explain the location of the Elements, the broke castle, and the wild magic of the forest. That map in the comics showing an area similarly effected by a battle with Discord makes it even more appealing to me.

Twilight being in the audience doesn't mean anything. She had never heard of a sonic rainboom before.

Also; would Pinkie (or anyone) know the exact mechanics behind the trick, if it had only allegedly happened once? Kind of hard to calculate the parameters of a singular event.

edited 7th May '13 2:22:35 PM by Enlong

@Harmony Theory. Quite the iconic scene there. That gave me an awesome image of a rainboom I'm sure is worthy of the show's animation.

edited 7th May '13 2:24:11 PM by darkabomination

Agreed.

As for Twilight, I meant she'd cll out Pinkie if her explanaition didn't make sense.

EDIT: @dark: Well, Rainbow hasn't quite reached Rainboom speeds yet in the fic, she always gets interupted ust before hitting those speeds.

edited 7th May '13 2:28:00 PM by Sereg

Yeah, nothing in Pinkie's explanation sounds like RD needed to be going significantly past the sound barrier, and I'd be hesitant to accept a scientific (or magitific, whatever) explanation for something at the best of times, let alone for something legendary. Twi not calling Pinkie out is as simple as her not knowing much about sonic rainbooms herself.

Basically what Enlong said.

edited 7th May '13 2:26:11 PM by Crowfall

Then it must be some truly powerful stuff if Rainbow never actually finished one. Of course, the author added the physical elements and a bit of explanation, but still...

According to a Faust q and a, the Everfree has nothing to do with the battle with Nightmare Moon.

@ Dark

That's right, according to her the Everfree forest is just a literal force of nature that's always encroaching on Equestria. That's pretty awesome actually.

Still ignoring the fact that they knew about others faster than sound before RD apparently was.

I wouldn't trust Pinkie as the best reference on such things.

I hardly doubt RD is the fastest pony in history, so this is my playing Devil's Advocate, but they could have known about the sound barrier as a theory, rather than having first-hand evidence. Similar to how we 'knew' about Black Holes before discovering them, ponies could have concluded mathematically(And by experiencing the wind resistance) that there was a theoretical 'barrier' when one approached a certain speed, a barrier it might be possible to break with sufficient effort. Hence why the sonic rainboom was legendary.

edited 7th May '13 2:51:27 PM by kegisak

Considering you can literally bounce off this barrier, I agree with you keggy.

Ah! But sonic booms are more well known than sonic rainbooms! But sonic rainbooms are still known! That's odd if they're both purely theoretical.

I still think the most sensible explanation is that the reason they're rare is because a rainbow colored pegasus is required.

A rainbow pegasus braking the sounarrier would mean their are other pegais who can break the sound barrier and are therefore faster than RD.

Also, RE Enlong's theory about the Everfree being the site of a large battle, that makes sense - fit's with my own fanon too, about their being several magical 'hotspots' caused by magical battles or cataclysms. Also, looking again at the comic's map, that region would actually make a really interesting setting for fanfic. IT's got a guard outpost, a prison, and enough interestingly named landmarks to probably fuel a really interesting plot... I can see the outpost being like a sort of Briggs Wall.