rainbow dash felt nothing when dust’s dreams were shattered
 
are you sure she’s learning  
or just doesn’t like lightning dust

actually, from the very beginning Rainbow Dash would choose her friends over her dreams.

HAHA who gives a fuck, it’s television.

Spitfire’s attitude suggests the Wonderbolt’s Academy has institutionalized pushing the limits and only pays lip service to being reponsible. She’s also the sort of personality that wouldn’t concede being right. The episode would have been much stronger if she let Dash walk out, if Twilight had said Spitfire’s responsibility speech and perhaps Princess Celestia shown up to say “there are a lot more important things you can do for Equestria than being a show-off.”
 
Standing on your principles, costs. Discovering your childhood dream isn’t all you thought it was, and having to get a new dream, is a valuable lesson. It would have shown Dash achieving her goals, then setting new, better ones, as well as incorporating the MDW ep. lesson. It would have made this ep something that could be looked back on, 30 years hence, as having a real nugget of truth.
 
Instead, ending is Disney-fied. Even kids get that when you do the right thing, it costs. I liked it, I thought it was great, but there was that little bit more I wish it was.

I always knew Rainbow Dash was best pony

Agreed, Gomenasai.
 
Dash is many things, but she is also loyal. As soon as she perceived that the Wonderbolts were willing to neglect other team members in order to achieve objectives/excellence, she immediately stood up to Spitfire, told her, and committed to leaving the Wonderbolts.
 
 
I’m not saying she hasn’t developed as a character. She showed some growth in Sleepless in Ponyville, but I don’t think that this was an example of that development.  
I don’t

There was a similar scenario in the second part of the pilot, but that was a more cut-and-dry “choose this or your friends” deal, to establish Rainbow Dash as the Element of Loyalty. Here was more of “dream vs. personal values” issue: did she really want to be in the Wonderbolts if they truly encouraged and rewarded the behavior Lightning Dust displayed? A bit more nuanced and internal of a conflict.
 
It could be growth, depending on how one looks at it. Let me put forth one viewpoint. Last season showed a pretty unflattering side to Rainbow, being self-absorbed, what with being the town hero and wanting a pet as “cool” as her. It could be she’s grown from that. There were shades in Hurricane Fluttershy where she showed some capability of being a leader (and even earlier in Winter Wrap-Up, I suppose). I imagine it could have been worse and Dash could have tried to out-do Lightning Dust, to be lead pony for her own sake, only for them both to get expelled for reckless behavior. But her doubt didn’t waver here, and while it may have taken an endangerment of her friends to really put her hoof down, she stood for what she believed was right rather than the sake of her own dream.
 
But, again, that’s just my view.

She still would have done this even if it was early in S1. Her instincts of Loyalty Element would have driven her to prioritize friends over anything.

@Blackie  
Actually no, in that it was the Shadowbolts she turned down, she knew it wasn’t the Wonderbolts, so it was some team like them but had never been around before and promising to make her better the the Wonderbolts, her dream is to join the Wonderbolts and maybe be the best of them, that was the dream she was willing to give up here.

Yandereshy?

Well, if that’s the case, I don’t see this character development you guys are talking about.

@Jack-o-Lantern
 
Yeah, but she’s a more bitter and aggressive incarnation.

@Blackie  
Yes.

I agree with OP

She’s going to become a WB. She really is. I don’t know where you people are getting your ideas.

@Miss Shy  
Are supposed to be our Fluttershy user?

This show isn’t made for keeping to the status quo like crazy. It’s simply not this kind of show. “Dexter’s laboratory” could have unchangeable status quo but FiM allows itself some changes from time to time.

Didn’t she do a similar thing in the first episode?

@BP the problem was, Lightning Dust was getting praised for almost killing everyone. Not that Rainbow had a problem with the way things were working.
 
She honestly thought they were endorsing manslaughter.

she didn’t  
spitfire tells her to give her 20  
and she does

I actually thought the execution was pretty bad, actually. She was willing to leave because she had this one little complaint about how the Wonderbolts were a bit excessive. Oh boo hoo, you hurt your wing? Come on now. It would be like quitting high school because of the way a bully bullied others. I think she was too quick to give up, considering her ambitions.
 
It would’ve been more impactful if her choice to leave had a stronger connection to her relationship with Spitfire. In fact, why didn’t we get more interaction between RD and Spitfire? You know, like one on one, getting to know each other type of thing.

also, did she give it up or not?  
the ending didn’t tell us

Friends come first. It’s lonely at the top, so bring your friends along for the ride up :V

one way or the other she was going to give it up. you can’t have a character in a show that relies on status quo do something would dramatically change the show.

And yet I’m still a quivering pussy.
 
Fucking.
 
Damnit.