"A hoof-bump? Seriously?" Rainbow Dash asked, shocked and angry as she pushed Lightning Dust's hoof away. This was the straw that broke the pony's back, and she finally had to say something about it. "You made me clip my wing. You sent half of our class into serious tailspins on the obstacle course. You unleashed a tornado that nearly demolished my friends!"
"Yeah, and?" Lightning Dust said smugly, grinning.
"And, I get that you want to be the best. So do I," Rainbow said, making one last attempt to reach out to Lightning Dust and give her another chance. "But you're going about it in the wrong way."
Lightning Dust was unmoved. "The Wonderbolts don't seem to think so." she replied, taking to the air and showing off a bit. "After all, Spitfire did make me the leader, and you the wing pony." she said, pointing derisively at Rainbow Dash while looking down on her from her elevated position.
Rainbow Dash sighed and looked at the ground for a moment before looking back up at Lightning Dust again. "You're right. She did." Dash turned, and started walking away from the group. "Excuse me," she said, not looking at anypony as she walked.
"Oh! Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie started, now eager to give her the care package she'd brought, and perhaps lift her spirits.
"Not now, Pinkie," Rainbow said sternly, a serious look in her eye that told Pinkie she meant business. "There's something I have to do," she said, and walked on.
* * * * *
A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash entered Spitfire's office. "This better be important!" Spitfire told her as she opened the door. "You're supposed to be up there busting clouds with your partner."
"We're done with that, ma'am." Rainbow told her, saluting as she did so.
"Already?" Spitfire asked, surprised as she removed her sunglasses and cast a glance at the clock. "That's an academy record! Explain your methods!" she demanded, turning back to Rainbow Dash.
"That's why I'm here, ma'am." Rainbow told her. "Lightning Dust decided to use a tornado."
Spitfire was surprised again. "A bit excessive for cloud busting," she said as she thought it over, and then smiled. "But judging from your time it was obviously an effective tactic."
"Yeah," Rainbow yelled, her anger rising as she moved closer to Spitfire until she was nearly in her face. "Well that 'effective tactic' nearly took out my friends!"
Spitfire was shocked and confused. "Took out your friends? What do you mean, cadet?"
"I mean that my friends from Ponyville came to visit me here at the academy in a balloon, and it got sucked into the tornado. If I hadn't saved them, they all would have died!"
"What?" Spitfire gasped.
"And then, when I confronted Lightning Dust about it afterwards, she acted like she didn't even care! No pony got hurt, so to her it was just a cool stunt, or something."
Spitfire was stunned. This was a serious charge, and she said nothing as she rolled over in her mind what she'd just heard, trying to make sure she'd heard it right, and trying to decide how to proceed.
Rainbow Dash stepped back and composed herself a bit before continuing, now in a more moderate tone. "You made Lightning Dust the lead pony because you said she pushed herself harder than I did. No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can, and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it."
Spitfire wasn't sure how to respond. She thought Rainbow Dash had come here to tell her about a serious incident that had happened during training that may have been caused by her partner, but this was suddenly going in a completely unexpected direction. "What are you saying, newbie?" she asked.
Rainbow Dash removed the medallion from her flight suit and slammed it onto the desk. "I quit," she said firmly, and then walked out of the office, leaving Spitfire staring after her.
Closing the door behind her, only then did it fully register to Rainbow Dash what she'd just done. Her life-long dream... was over. Just like that. She walked on, planning to go back to her bunk to gather her things, but only made it a few steps before choking. 'No!' she thought. She wasn't going to cry! Not now! This wasn't the time or the place for it. There would be plenty of time for that later when she was back home, safe in her warm bed where no pony else could see her. If she cried now, everypony would see, and she couldn't let everypony see. She especially couldn't let Lightning Dust see. That thought made her angry, and she used that anger to help push back the tears until she could continue. Finally, her inner rage securely kindled, she walked on.
* * * * *
Back in Spitfire's office, Spitfire finally managed to pick her jaw up off the floor. She slammed the intercom button with her hoof, harder than she should have, and yelled at the pony on the other end. "Get Lightning Dust to my office immediately!"
A few minutes later, Lightning Dust stood before her. Spitfire had used the time to compose herself, learn more about the situation from her subordinates, and consider what she was going to say so that there would be no hint as to what she was thinking. "So," she began pleasantly. "I hear you and Rainbow Dash used a tornado to break the cloud busting record."
Lightning Dust perked up, eager to talk about her great idea, and certain she was going to be praised. "Yes, ma'am!" she said, proudly.
"Most impressive." Spitfire said, taking mental note of Lightning Dust's reaction. "But don't you think it might have been a bit over the top for the task at hoof?"
"No, ma'am!" Lightning Dust replied, still confident. "We used the most effective method possible, and obliterated those clouds faster than anypony's done before! I'd say the results speak for themselves, ma'am."
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she asked. "But I hear it also put some ponies in danger?"
Lightning Dust's mood instantly dropped. Is that what Rainbow Dash had gone to do? Rat her out? "Er, well," she said, searching for the best way to spin it. "It's true there was a minor incident, but everything worked out, and no pony got hurt."
Spitfire had to consciously keep from rolling her eyes. "Yes, I've heard," she said. "But tell me, when this 'incident' occurred, what did you do to help resolve it?"
Lightning Dust's heart sank into her stomach. "Um..." There was no good way to say it.
Spitfire was far from satisfied with that reaction, so she pushed harder, now with a very serious tone. "Five ponies were falling to their deaths, cadet. What did you do about it?" she demanded.
Lightning Dust's skin went cold under her fur. An uncomfortable moment passed as she considered her options, but there just weren't any. "Nothing." she finally said quietly while looking down at the floor.
"Nothing?" Spitfire repeated.
"I... I thought they were goners, ma'am!" she said, pleading as she looked back up at Spitfire. "There was nothing anypony could do to save them!"
"And yet Rainbow Dash, on her own, did exactly that!" Spitfire yelled, standing up suddenly and slamming her front hooves on the desk, causing Lightning Dust to jump back a bit. She'd seen enough and was no longer trying to maintain any semblance of politeness. This was a serious infraction. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I... I..." Lightning Dust stammered.
Spitfire continued. "The other cadets aren't fast enough, yet they still did their part. But you could have helped Rainbow Dash and made her job easier, and yet you did nothing?"
Lightning Dust could only stand silently staring at the floor again, ashamed at herself, and angry at Rainbow Dash.
Spitfire let the silence hang in the room for a few moments, and then sat down before starting again in a more subdued tone. "A year ago, a similar incident happened at the Best Young Flyers Competition in Cloudsdale. Perhaps you heard about it?" Lightning Dust glanced up, but said nothing. "Four ponies were falling to their doom, and Rainbow Dash saved them, all of them, when no pony else could. I was one of those ponies."
Lightning Dust gasped and looked up. She'd heard a little about it, nearly every pegasus had, but she hadn't known that.
"Rainbow Dash is the only pony in Equestria able to perform a sonic rainboom, but even that doesn't guarantee her a spot on the Wonderbolts," Spitfire said, her tone slowly rising again. "The Wonderbolts are more than just fancy fliers at air shows, cadet. We're charged by Princess Celestia herself to guard and protect Equestria from any and all threats. As a Wonderbolt, you would also be expected to help other ponies when they're in trouble, whether you think you can save them, or not! Rainbow Dash was willing to put her own life on the line to save us from a horrible accident, while you wrote those ponies off, even though you were responsible for the tornado that would have caused their deaths!"
Lightning Dust's head was nearly touching the floor now, and she wished it would just open up and swallow her whole.
"No pony so arrogant or irresponsible could ever be a Wonderbolt," Spitfire declared with an air of finality, and then walked around from behind her desk to open the office door.
Lightning Dust was sure she was going to be told to leave, but instead Spitfire ordered her to follow, and she obeyed as two airponies, who'd been waiting outside, joined them in tow as escorts. Spitfire led them in search of Rainbow Dash, but found that her bunk had already been emptied. She hurried back out to the training field, hoping Rainbow Dash hadn't already left.
* * * * *
Back at the airfield, Rainbow Dash broke the news to her friends as she put on her saddle bags, and no pony could believe what they were hearing.
"You did what?" Applejack asked in surprise.
"Being a Wonderbolt was your dream!" said Rarity.
"Not anymore." Rainbow said, shaking her head, still angry. She was angry at Lightning Dust, angry at Spitfire, and angry at herself for having wasted so much of her life following that worthless dream.
Twilight moved closer and put a comforting hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash," she said sincerely. "I know how much this meant to you."
Applejack also moved closer, and she and Twilight nuzzled Rainbow in a hug that was joined by the rest of her friends.
"Rainbow Dash!" Spitfire yelled, having finally found her as she trotted towards the group. "How dare you storm out of my office without giving me a chance to respond!" Rainbow Dash turned to face her, ready to give her what for. Once Spitfire had reached her, she continued. "The Wonderbolts are looking for the best flyers in Equestria," she said, removing her sunglasses so she could look Rainbow in the eye. "But you were right. Being the best should never come at the expense of our fellow ponies. It's not just about pushing ourselves. It's about pushing ourselves in the right direction. You've shown that you're capable of doing just that." Dash hadn't been expecting this, and perked up at the compliment as the two ponies shared a brief smile.
Spitfire then motioned behind her for the airponies to let Lightning Dust approach, and Lightning complied, a sullen look on her face. Spitfire went nose to nose with Lightning Dust and glared at her before roughly ripping the medallion from her uniform, tearing a hole in the process, and then pointed for her to leave.
Lightning Dust knew what this meant. She was out of the academy, and Spitfire had made sure to throw her out in front of Rainbow Dash and her friends to further rub it in. She turned to leave, her head hung low as she walked. She paused briefly, looking back while flaring her wings, a common gesture pegasi used to say goodbye when they knew they might not see each other again. Among friends it meant, "fair skies and good flying," but in a situation like this its meaning was often somewhat more crass. She then continued walking as the airponies walked with her, escorting her back to her bunk to collect her things.
Spitfire turned to address Rainbow again. "You're no wing pony, Rainbow Dash," she said, pinning the gold medallion she'd taken from Lightning Dust onto Rainbow's uniform. "You're a leader."
It took Rainbow Dash a second to fully realize what had just happened, and she could hardly believe it. Not only could she stay at the academy, but she'd been promoted! A huge grin spread over her face, and she flapped her wingtips in excitement. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" she said, unable to contain herself. Her friends all beamed, happy for her, and even Spitfire couldn't help but smile briefly before she put her sunglasses back on to help regain her air of authority.
Once back in command, Spitfire's grin disappeared. "Now get up there and give me twenty!" she yelled at Rainbow mercilessly while pointing at the sky.
"Yes, ma'am!" Rainbow Dash replied, and saluted before taking off into the sky so fast that her saddle bags were left behind. She flew up to her classmates, who were waiting for her, and they saluted. Rainbow returned the salute proudly, and then set out around the track at the head of the group, no longer racing them, but leading.
