Out of curiosity, I decided to explore the claim that Rainbow Dash can clear the sky in ten seconds flat. What I discovered is that RD may be the world's fastest unassisted fictional character. In fact, to go any faster, you'd need to be in a spacecraft.
Now, typically, the small, low-level clouds that populate the sky around Ponyville can be seen for about two to three miles. We'll assume, then, that the space to clear is about a 4mi x 4mi square, thus measuring sixteen square miles. Also assumed is that RD flies straight through each square once, thus getting about sixteen linear miles.
16 miles. in ten seconds. The result? 1.6 miles every second, or
5,760 mi/h!!! That's
Mach 7.5 at sea level! I think that the sonic boom from that alone would clear clouds in quite a wide swath.
Compare this to other fast horses. Sea Biscuit could only do around 35 mi/h (.05 mach), while a Ford Mustang is limited to about 155 (mach 0.2), The Prancing-Horse-shod Ferrari Enzo hit 212, (.28 mach) and Dago Red, the world's fastest P-51, has a record of 517.323. (Mach 0.69) Even the F-104 9-99, painted in Rosso Scuderia and with the Prancing Horse emblazoned on the vertical tail, can only do 1676.4 mi/h, or Mach 2.2. Rainbow Dash is one fast pony.
But Wait! What about other characters? Well, unless you can stop time, (mach infinite) which is considered cheating, there's only a couple that can even compare. The Road Runner is fast, very much so, but still roughly subsonic. Then there's the claimed "Fastest thing Alive" ((That's what Princess Sally Said)) Sonic the Hedgehog. His top speed is somewhere over 1.0 Mach, or 762 mi/h, at sea level. I don't think we've ever seen him go Hypersonic, though.
So, say hello to the new fastest thing alive...
and hold your ears.
To be fair, though, that DOES explain the short wingspan. They're not so much for lift as for use as a control surface. XP
