Talk:Lightning Dust/@comment-24.237.34.127-20121219120003/@comment-4818418-20121219194149

No, she didn't mean to hurt anypony, but she didn't apologise either, and its not like she wasn't told what she did wrong, she just chose to brush it off. Half the stuff she did wasn't even "pushing her limits" as much as just showing off or trying to upstage the other cadets, even if "pushing limits" is what she called it, but to be fair that's a common indicator of recklessness. Also, her attitude isn't very great either: saying "she made me the leader and you the wingpony" when Rainbow told her what she did wrong, she implied that this somehow made her own opinion more valid. I could really see her having been willing to see Rainbow Dash fail if it meant she would succeed and I believe this was an intentional move by the writers to make her contrast more with Rainbow by giving her an opposing trait to Rainbow's loyalty. I couldn't imagine her taking it well if she had been the wingpony instead, she made it clear enough she thinks being lead pony means you're better, and clear enough that she expected Rainbow to agree with her on most everything. However, given her reaction at the end of the episode, I do believe that she is willing to accept someone else's decision, even if she doesn't like it.

And everything I've described above, with the exception of the last are her flaws. The only reason we don't see her good points is because she'd need another epsiode for that and because its her flaws the writers wanted to focus on. If she does return, she should have realised where she went wrong, or the episode could be about her learning there's nothing wrong with her skills, just her attitude. If she were to return alongside Gilda as an antagonist then it should be that Gilda has been a negative influence, otherwise it should be that she has a positive influence on Gilda and both reconcile with Rainbow. None of this "villain teamup" rubbish.

There's a lot of potential in what the episode left us with. It'd be a waste of a character to not have her turn up again.