If Spike hadn’t been too nice to use his firebreath, they would have gotten themselves killed. Probably taking Ponyville with them.
 
Everything I’ve seen about the Wonderbolts makes me think they’re professional athletes. Skilled ones, in a setting with super powers, but still just athletes, and not soldiers.

In a continuity already oversaturated with female characters, do we really [i]need[/i] to genderbend an already male character? And of course, thanks to [url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FirstLawOfGenderBending]the First Law of Gender Bending[/url], Shining Armor will be stuck as a female basically forever.

@Sjogre
 
I like to think of the wonderbolts as the aerial branch of the military, kind of like the Air Force. Yeah, there are pegasi in the royal guard, but those are only for support, just like the army has helicopters.
 
And yeah, they didn’t exactly shine against Spike, but that was a smart rampaging dragon. If they didn’t get trapped, I do think they could have done a number on him. Just look how one of them just cuts through his spines.
 
Although that’s just my headcanon. You can have yours, of course.

@ ZORDON
 
Never clarified. Given how quickly that situation ended, and how poorly they performed, I think that they were the first group to arrive, but not the ones actually qualified for that situation.
 
@ SlayerBVC
 
Yeeeesss? Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies are all part of the same military, so it would be kinda weird for the Wonderbolts to have a different dress uniform. They aren’t really treated as being part of the military.

Lots of places have tough training camps, especially in fictionland.
 
But that was just a week long, which really isn’t enough time to cover military training, and they were concentrating solely on flight. If the Wonderbolts were actually a part of the military, they’d either be recruiting from other branches of the military, like the Blue Angels do, or they would be actually inducting their recruits in the military.
 
They didn’t do either. Tough training doesn’t automatically equal military.

@Sjogre
 
The only other military dress uniform that we’ve seen in show is the Royal Guard’s.

I might be wrong, but, on “Secret of my Excess”, the Wonderbolts were dispatched to stop Spike. I think that’s confirmation enough.

@Sjogre  
What about Wonderbolts Academy?  
It seemed like a military establishment.

Really? They didn’t look like the dress uniforms worn by the members of the actual Equestrian military. Civilian pilots still have uniforms.
 
The Blue Angels need a military budget to maintain their military aircraft. That doesn’t hold true for the Wonderbolts.
 
I always thought that they were like a turn of the century civilian airshow, and haven’t really seen anything to contradict that.

@Sjogre
 
It’s never indicated in-universe. But given what they’re supposed to be based on in real life (the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds), it’s a safe assumption on the fans part. That and we’ve seen Spitfire AND Soarin both wearing military dress uniforms.

They need a Navy, Armour, ans Spec Ops branch.

Since when were the Wonderbolts actually military? I thought that they were a civilian stunt team.

“Spitfire, is very much a mare”
 
 
I beg to differshot

Flash Fire PUNCH!

I think she’s just jealous…

Id love it if I have a bodyguard who beats the shit out of people who just walks past me.

If the wonderbolts are a military group… then why the hell haven’t they been replaced with some competant ponies by now?

@G.S.
 
The Wonderbolts are pretty much the flight demo squad of the EAF, much like the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds are for the U.S. Navy and Air Force. Also in case if you forgot in Secret of my Excess, THEY RESPONDED TO A FREAKING AIR RAID SIREN!

the wonderbolts are basically a rescue team.

okay, when the hell did the Wonderbolts become a military branch?
 
this was never stated in the show

Man, these images are to dang big.
 
They break before the full size loads fully.

@Robomorons  
Basically.

So she’s just beating the shit outta every guard Shiny walks past?