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// Prompt #211: Not Success 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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The scenery couldn’t really have been more appropriate, if Rarity was honest with herself. She was standing, just inside the sparkling clean and empty Boutique, her bags packed and waiting only to be taken to the station and then onward to Canterlot. Outside, Rainbow Dash stood, wings spread against the darkening sky, and Rarity could hear the faint rumblings of thunder beginning in the distance. 

They both lived for fame, both wanted glory and praise for their accomplishments. What differed was how they went about it, and Rarity was ashamed to admit that it had been her that crossed the invisible line. 

“Why?” whispered Rainbow Dash, “why’d you do it, Rare?”

“I thought that this was what you wanted, Rainbow? A chance to fly with the best, to finally achieve your dream. I just...advanced the schedule a bit.”

Rain began to fall, slowly at first, but quickly picked up into a heavy torrent.

“Not like this!” bellowed Rainbow, “you had no right, Rare! You might not see a problem with cheating your way to the top, but I sure do!”

Rarity flinched back, wincing at the venom in Rainbow’s voice.

“This isn’t a game, you know. It’s not one of your fancy parties where your career depends on knowing the right pony. This is – was – my dream. I wanted to get into the Wonderbolts on my own merits, not because I had a friend in the right place, who schmoozed up to the right pony. You know what they’re calling me? Buy-in, the favour and everything under the sun that says I don’t have the skill to make it in on my own, that I got in just because I had friends in high places. It won’t matter how many times either I or Spitfire tell them otherwise, that’s what I am to them. And you know what? Maybe they’re right.”

“Rainbow, I never meant for it to play out like that. I’m...”

“Save it, Rarity. Just...don’t, okay?” said Rainbow, “you just don’t get what this meant to me. You look at this, and you don’t see what I see. That, I can deal with. But you just don’t get it, or you wouldn’t have done this.”

“Rainbow, I was only trying to...”

“Shut up,” said Rainbow, cutting Rarity off. “We’re done, Rarity. I resigned from the Wonderbolts ten minutes ago. Take your stupid generosity, and go bother somepony else with it. Don’t talk to me again.”

With that, Rainbow Dash tore a gold pin off her Wonderbolt recruit uniform, and tossed it into the puddle of mud that was forming just in front of Rarity’s door. Then she took off, punching a hole in the cloud cover that soon filled itself back in, while her backdraft covered Rarity in muddy water, but Rarity barely noticed. Instead, she levitated the Wonderbolts pin, depicting a pegasus with wings fully outstretched, and stood there, staring at it.

“I just wanted you to be happy,” she muttered. Then, gathering her bags in her telekinetic grip, she began the trudge to Ponyville station, and onward to her fate in Canterlot.