In a world where magical ponies roam free over the land and soar through the blue, cloudless skies, one speedy pegasus strives to be better than the rest. This is a story of blood, sweat, tears, ambition, and a mare’s determination to become the next legendary Wonderbolt, a protector and athlete of the skies. Amber E. May presents “Living the Dream” a Rainbow Dash story.

This is a story about how a blue pegasus named Rainbow Dash grew up constantly dreaming about becoming the next Wonderbolt, which is a team of pegasus ponies who train day and night to protect the skies of Ponyville. (They’re sort of like the Air Force.) Rainbow has trained her whole life, honing her speed and agility skills in preparation for the moment when the Wonderbolts finally recognize her. This video outlines the training she has undergone and it highlights some of her finer adventures. It includes a scene of her as a young filly performing the very first Sonic Rainboom in Equestrian history. However the video also shows a few of her slip-ups, proving that nopony is perfect.This pony has sadly been told countless times that she wasn’t going to become anything in life and that she should give up on her dream. Despite the endless bullying and putdowns though, she kept training in her air obstacle courses until she finally went down in history by saving ponies from an accident during the young flyers competition; also winning the competition in the process.  She was even praised by the Wonderbolts for her bravery and quick thinking. This video is only the beginning of Rainbow Dash living her dream.

This video was made in Final Cut Pro in a little over a week. Of course what one notices first is the immense amount of effects. If I named all of them, it would take up this whole post, but the main ones I used were the “Ultra Wide Screen” effect, color filter, “bad film” filter, desaturated filter, and the multiple screen effect. There were also places where I was able to fit up to 4 different video clips in the same viewing field. To do this I just make each separate video screen smaller. Another noticeable thing is the overlays and how they are used to simultaneously show 2 separate occurrences. At around 1:38 these overlays are used to act as Rainbow Dash’s thoughts as she’s performing the Sonic Rainboom; thoughts of her intensive training and the ponies who said she couldnt accomplish anything. I used all of these effects 1. to make the video as explosive and exuberant as possible and 2. to match Rainbow Dash’s quick paced personality. The music, entitled “The Wonderbolts Take Flight”, adds to this effect because it is meant to remind people of a high speed race. The music also plays a role in the timing and type of effects that should be used (a good example is at 2:04 when DJ-Pon3 is DJing and the music keeps her on beat. Another one is at 4:09 where Fluttershy’s eyes are dizzied after watching Rainbow fly in circles.) The song for the end credits is meant to further show Rainbow Dash’s passion for wanting to join the Wonderbolts. It is the solo she sang during the song “At the Gala” from episode 26.

This video is an example of a mashup because it is a combination of many episodes of My Little Pony and it includes a song from another source. As I said in last week’s post, I’d been creating remixes and mashups for years without even knowing it, and now that I realized it, I started using this media to focus on telling stories and evoking emotions from them. I feel like the emotion one should exhibit while watching this is support and empathy; wanting to cheer on the eager pony as we see her fight the odds. All of this emotion is brought out from just music, video, and special effects. It’s truly amazing what editing can make a person feel at that moment.

If this video doesn’t show you how badly Rainbow wants to be the best of them all I don’t know what will. She has spent her whole life preparing for the moment where the crowds will cheer when she soars overhead. I think she beyond deserves everyone’s recognition! This is a great capstone for Ds106 because it pretty much wraps up what we’ve been learning all semester; that you dont need words on a page to tell a story.