@Background Pony #5C1E  
Wait, what ARE the reasons so many assumed the Sonic Rainboom and the Elements of Harmony have no connection, if Faust made sure their destinies were triggered by RD’s Sonic Rainboom?
 
While I wouldn’t go into that much detail, CronoM’s arguments do come across as the more intuitive while bingo77’s arguments sound simply pessimistic. Not to mention a little evasive.
 
 
@CronoM  
Well, the imagery of the Element of Harmony God does evoke Rainbow Dash’s basic details pretty clearly, so I personally can’t think on any way the writers could not have made that connection. I mean, of all the colors to give a rainbow haired god, why blue? Outside the fandom, RD and Pinkie Pie are the most recognized ponies of the Mane 6.
 
I personally don’t have any idea what special connection RD could have to the elements, but RD’s role on the team has always been a little odd. She’s quite often second guessing Twilight and/or Celestia, and half the time she’s right.

@CronoM  
The difference in focus I agree with, but that doesn’t have anything to do with Rainbow Dash. Like I said, any perceived similarities are just pure coincidence. There is simply no realistic way to imagine that there is any deeper significance to that angle.

Look, this is not wishful thinking and this is not trying to put Rainbow Dash on a pedestal.
 
You guys are simply being unrealistic.
 
There is almost no possible way they wrote, designed and animated this blue, rainbow-trail haired representation of the Elements of Harmony thing without thinking it would have an obvious resemblance to RD. At the theater I was in, kids, teens and adults of all ages remarked on the resemblance after and during the movie.
 
This movie had a complete 180 on not only the focus, but the morals surrounding Twilight’s purpose, teachings and morality, in contrast to Crystal Empire, MMC, EG, PTS and Twilight’s Kingdom. It more resembled the character development Twilight got in the recent comics, the same comics Meghan already mentioned being interested in adding some elements from into the show.
 
Making an argument that you guys KNOW the direction the writers are going to take after THIS movie, written by McCarthy, is absolutely absurd.

@Background Pony #CE15  
@bingo77  
OK, CronoM’s obsession with Rainbow Dash has made me roll my eyes so often that I’m taking medication for it now, but you guys are putting out even sillier statements. So far, Rainbow Dash is still the only pony confirmed to have produced an actual Sonic Rainboom; Twilight accomplished her effect through magic, not speed or flying skill. And Lauren Faust was keeping a very close watch on the storytelling in season 1; if she hadn’t wanted the first Sonic Rainbowm to be the trigger that connected the Mane 6, it wouldn’t have been.
 
Still, these statements are spot on: “Rainbows have been used for friendship power from the beginning” and “the only one of the mane six with their symbol on the EOH was Twilight”.

@Background Pony #CE15
 
“Rainbows have been used for friendship power from the beginning”
 
Yes, and many assumed the two powers, RD and the EoH, were completely separate from the very beginning. A complete assumption that was never backed up one way or the other.
 
“Also I have no idea what “unique power up” you’re talking about.”
 
When she transformed, her hair was made out of pure energy like Celestia’s and Luna’s, not just wavy hair like the other 5. It was perhaps an extra enhancement just due to the redundancy of RD getting ‘rainbow power’, but we don’t know.
 
@bingo77  
Who said anything about final judgement? We are only speculating right now, and you are giving some extremely weak arguments about how RD would of never even crossed their minds when making this creation.
 
“Heck, rainbow dash’s supposed “specialness” such as the sonic rainboom and Cutie mark chronicles were things just done by larson in his episodes, not by the people actually in charge of the show like faust or McCarthy.”
 
Now your just reaching. Assuming this is on the grounds that the writers have no collaboration whatsoever on the general direction of the show! While there are signs of some disorganization, ex. Trade Ya, that’s a rather huge assumption I DO hope you can back up.
 
I asked you to give me ANY possible real life scenario where this physical representation of the Elements of Harmony never occurred to them it somewhat looked like Dash…when the writer of this movie was MCCARTHY, not Larson. The same movie who also wrote Twilight’s princesshood off as a Designated Hero situation, and Sunset became an element of Harmony heretofore unknown. According to the tree of harmony, Sunset should not be able to use the Elements, let alone help summon its true form.
 
“rainbow dash really doesn’t have anything Special to her compared to any of the other mane six: I mean, the only one of the mane six with their symbol on the EOH was Twilights, not RD’s.”
 
A complete assumption. Based only on the tree and nothing more. The exact same assumption that would make Sunset using the elements impossible. Hell we don’t know if Twilight’s remark on the element’s resemblance to her own had any relevance at all…it could of been Star-Swirl’s Cutie mark.
 
We don’t know what direction the writers want to keep and what direction the writers want to abandon. Meghan’s Rainbow Rocks crumpled the concepts of MMC and PTS into a ball when they villainized the pressure and expectations Celestia made for Twilight and Sunset, and made Sunset be the 7th Elements of Harmony.

Heck, rainbow dash’s supposed “specialness” such as the sonic rainboom and Cutie mark chronicles were things just done by larson in his episodes, not by the people actually in charge of the show like faust or McCarthy.
 
As such, Drawing evidence for symbolism or special powers from the works of a lesser (in power) writer seems very poor grounds for judgement of anything.
 

 
 
rainbow dash really doesn’t have anything Special to her comapared to any of the other mane six: I mean, the only one of the mane six with their symbol on the EOH was Twilights, not RD’s.

@CronoM  
Connecting RD to this being is just silly. Pure wishful thinking. Rainbows have been used for friendship power from the beginning, and remember, Faust originally wanted to use Firefly, not Miss “always dresses in style.” It’s purely coincidence that she’s rainbow colored, and the sonic rainboom isn’t even all that unique to her any more. Also I have no idea what “unique power up” you’re talking about.
 
@cheezedoodle  
I believe you’re correct.

@bingo77  
I said ‘blue skin’ and ‘rainbow-trail mane’ didn’t I? I’m pretty sure I did, and that has absolutely nothing to do with Celestia, now does it? And, again, its drawn like a constellation, why would an entity like that even have a gender?
 
Again, less then 1% chance they didn’t think of RD when they created this thing. Please tell me a scenario where the writers thought this up and ‘didn’t’ say, ‘this sounds like RD.’ Just think about it, its a really stupid conclusion to think that never happened. RD is one of the 6 main characters of their show, I think she would come up talking about a blue, rainbow-trail-maned pony.
 
Do I assume I know the connection? No.
 
She is simply a character with an unknown mother and she released the Sonic Rainboom of legend when she was a child which caused the 6 of them to become elements and she resembles to true form of the Rainbow of Light, and got a unique power up from the Rainbow of Light. Take from that what you will, cause I don’t know the answers, I’m just pointing out some of the connections they write in.

Seems to me to be a physical manifestation of the entity behind the EOH/tree of harmony/lockbox/Twilight’s castle.
 
But then I haven’t seen the movie yet.

Okay, see that being right there? If you still think Celestia and Luna are “goddesses”, I think you’d better check again.

@bingo77  
Rainbow’s abilities are slightly suspect, but there’s literally less than zero evidence of her connection to Ancient Equestrian history, however, whatever DHX pulls will be expected to be… Egh, awesome. XD

@CronoM
 
Its facial model is in line with the Design used for Stallions in the show, not mares.
 
As for “why did they design it after rainbow dash?”  
the answer is, they didn’t. The elements of harmony are a rainbow, and As such the Alicorn they summoned via their song was designed to look like a celestial rainbow alicorn. There is no more connection with Dash here than there was with Rainbow power and rainbow dash.
 
rainbow dash’s color scheme is a rainbow, but this has nothing to do with the elements of harmony themselves, its just a similiarity. Just like how Dash isn’t somehow related to Celestia due to having a rainbow color scheme, Dash has nothing to do with this.
 

@CronoM  
You’re aware of Equestria Academy, right? ‘Cause I’m getting bunk with the Equestria Academy discussions on the leaked Rainbow Rocks images, and have the desire to shoot myself because of that. :\

@bingo77  
Umm….what? Dude, its drawn like a genderless constellation! How the hell could you assign gender to that? :/
 
Also, blue color scheme?  
Rainbow trail mane?
 
The statistical probability that RD’s appearance did not come across their mind when they designed and animated this thing is less then 1%.
 
Now of course, this is not RD herself. This is most likely the physical manifestation of the Rainbow of Light, something we never saw before in G1 or G4. But why did they design it to resemble RD, the one who gave everyone their cutie marks and destiny with her Sonic Rainboom? We don’t know. How is Sunset an element of harmony? We don’t know that either.
 
This movie raised a lot of interesting elements and questions, and I am eager to see the follow up.

@bingo77  
I really hope this thing appears in future seasons, where it speaks to the Mane 6 after they summoned him to defeat a villain. Like Captain Planet.

@CronoM
 
 
Eh, this thing is just a giant alicorn, the rainbow bit has nothing to do with RD. Besides, its clearly male.

This is the rainbow of light in pony form.  
Yep yep yep

ORA ORA ORA!
 

@Greaselover  
I dunno…they seem to have a habit of planning the first two acts per episode, but by the end they’re like “Screw it” and get to the resolution for the final three minutes. You’ve seen how fast Rarity and Pinkie’s “un-Discording” were, plus in the same episode they wanted to have a shout-out to Star Wars: A New Hope, but didn’t get enough time.

@HighRollerHydra  
I don’t really know if it’s rushed, per say.

@HighRollerHydra  
Perhaps yes or perhaps no.
 
The answer to that question depends on the very first voluntary use of that mirror.And the only person who knows that forbidden piece of knowledge is, well….Sunset.
 
Her ambition was only half of the reason for the falling out between Celestia and Sunset, the other half was finding out a forbidden secret Celestia buried from history. From the way they were talking, Sunset discovered Celestia and Luna’s origins.

@CronoM  
Bad writing?

@HighRollerHydra  
That’s hard to say.
 
How much has the two world’s been unsycronized? When Sunset Shimmer entered the world, she was there for about 2.5 years, yet for Equestria, ~10 years had already passed. For all we know, 1000 years in Equestria could of been just ~30 years in our world, which is what I am guessing.
 
Its only now that the two world’s are finally synchronized afterall.
 
When the EG movie first aired, a lot of us chalked up the time difference for Sunset’s backstory to ‘obvious plot hole is obvious’, but after reading the comic and watching the second movie, there might actually be some VERY good reason for time desycronization when traveling between the two dimensions.
 
While the dazzlings did come across as beings stuck in a dimension for longer then mortals their age, they definitely didn’t sound like they’d been through humanity’s last thousand years.

@OverlordScorpion  
What I mean is, were the girls living in the human world for thousands of years?