@maverick159  
Yes, because obviously the fact that it was soarin MEANS that they did it because of the fandom.
 
sigh…

@Meanlucario  
you’re talking with the bigest stereotype hater

@maverick159  
He’s just soar since he ships Dash with Spitfire of Fluttershy. Personally, I dislike the tomboy=lesbian stereotype, and see Rainbow shipped with a mare just as giving into stereotyping.

@Background Pony #E116  
and they could have put any male wonderbolt into that room

@maverick159  
He’s not, but he’s the only one “WE” know, and he’s the one that appears with Spit and fleetfoot in all previous interaction with the ponies, so of course he’s the one to interact with her here.

@Background Pony Number 17  
I think you just made this image palatable for me. In the real world (well, as real as Equestria is), it’s the crackiest of ships. But through a mother’s “I hope he finds a nice girl and settles down” eyes, it’s actually kind of nice. And it makes Fluttershy’s mom that much more adorable.
 
@Background Pony #EDDD  
I’m not keen on the idea of failing, either, but it’s never made me trick a child into doing my job for me or caused me to throw out things that are important to my parents for a “meditation patio”. And I don’t know if I’m the weird one, but my fear of failure has made me not hit on women, even if they hid their revulsion at the idea of dating me better than Rainbow Dash did.  
Zephyr has a fear of failure, and that can absolutely hold you back in life. But he’s also a jerk, selfish, a terrible house guest and kind of a creep. There’s no salt here and my butt is feelin’ fine. I’m thinking this as I type in a normal, calm brain-voice. I just don’t consider fear an excuse for the things he did, nor am I willing to tell myself that his interactions with Rainbow Dash are the basis for a viable ship.
 
And I still didn’t downvote this. It’s a solid drawing, people.

@Background Pony #E116  
and who said soarin is the only male wonderbolt?

@maverick159  
>she could have flirted with anypony, cuz they know how popular the ship is.
 
Or rather they couldn’t have her “flirt” with a female so they picked the only real male wonderbolt figurehead we know?
 
Cmon, it was a plot point of her “Rarity” phase, they didn’t do it “because it’s popular”. It’s attitude like this that makes people distrust ships.

@BillyGGruff  
it’s mlp. they already are getting a little controversy after that episode where big mac helped apple bloom by dressing himself as a mare, so i dont think they would ever make a homo couple there. And also, when rainbow flirted with soarin, she could have flirted with anypony, cuz they know how popular the ship is. Like i said, if they ever make soarindash canon (and thats a big fucking “if” if you ask me) they’ll have to come with a story that at least makes sence and its not rushed.

@SeraphimDawn  
Eh, sometimes it seems like we go ballistic over everything. I remember the whole ‘Vinyl’s eyes’ thing…. I feel old.

Reading the comments.
 

 
As a netfaring fandom. We sure love our ship wars.

Personally, I think they should have rounded his muzzle just a little.

@Meanlucario  
Artists could do that, but fanart isn’t exactly on a set timeline so it’s not like things have to be drawn in order. There are some artists who draw their shipped characters getting married or something else before anything else, and there’s nothing wrong with that, nor is there a suggestion it happened out of the blue without the two characters spending time together bonding and all that nice stuff.

I’m just going to assume this is in Fluttershy’s-Mom-Vision.

@maverick159  
Frankly there is more shipping fuel between Daring Do and Dash in that one episode she was in than with any other character that Dash interacted with in the series. She already showed quite a bit of interest towards her. Sure it could be taken as either “fangirling” or “crushing” depending on how you look at it; but neither take away the fact that Rainbow has NEVER behaved that way towards anyone else in the series.
 
Soarin and her really haven’t had anything resembling romantic interaction save for maybe that Newbie Dash scene where she was impersonating Rarity, and even that is kind of a stretch. I’m not saying I COULDN’T see it happening, but like you said there would need to be some lead up to it first.
 
As for Zephyr, she straight up just isn’t interested, pretty much to the point of finding the idea revolting. I couldn’t get behind a ship that one sided.

@Background Pony #EDDD  
Than why not make an image of Zephyr giving Dash flowers, trying to make up for the past?

@maverick159  
I’d rather them to avoid shipping altogether. This pic is an example of why, thank damn they dodged the bullet and made pretty clear that she wasn’t interested at all.

@AnotherGoddamnAccount  
I agree, but some people still be begging and nudging the staff to make it happen. I only hope it all stays in fanon as it should be.

@maverick159  
Personally, I ask why any ship should be canon?

@Meanlucario  
Well I mean, it takes spending time together, sharing feelings together, all that nice stuff, don’t really need to go into all the details there and such. But this is a piece of fanart, and presumably the artist is imagining that the art takes place after some of that stuff has already happened.
 
@maverick159  
He ended on good terms with all of the Mane 6 and others, a fact that some people will attempt to ignore in order to keep the hate train going to some extent. If he hadn’t been such an inconsiderate jerk in the first place, I doubt he would have ever even gotten on anybodies bad side. I don’t think any of the characters would have minded or thought twice about him staying with his parents if he wasn’t being so rude and disruptive to them.
 
Anyway, compared to characters like Discord and Starlight that the main characters managed to befriend, this guy is just a normal person with a fear of failure and a bit of an attitude problem, so I’m sure they’ll all get along well, don’t you think?

@maverick159  
Ugh, we don’t need that to happened.

@maverick159  
Well they’ve met many times so it is going slowly, but yes if they ever do it they must show it in more than one episode.

@Background Pony #E116  
IF they ever make soarindash canon, they’ll have to make quite a story so that it makes sence they fall in love, diferent from flash x twi, wich was completely rushed and clishe. I just hope they learned from the mistakes

Nice pic. Absolute trash pairing, tho, no matter how you look at it.