Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26397825-20170730020549/@comment-26397825-20170804234548

Actually, Cinder made the floor explode in the fight against Amber using the same effect, entirely before she got the Fall maiden powers. The different is that she centered it on her arrows, which can lead one to assuming she had dust imbued in her arrows or arrowheads.

During the scene with the glass in the fight against Amber, she doesn't use sand created by Amber's fireballs. Cinder's dress lights up and then she creates the glass all by herself. And we already know she does have fire dust in the dress from the way it was glowing in V1 Ep1 and she didn't merely use fire, she actually gathered it from her arms similar to the way Weiss drew fire dust up the blade of Myrtenaster in the V5 Character Short.

As for "Why carry dust when you have Maiden powers"? Ask Amber. She carried around a staff with a great big dust crystal on either end. She didn't need to at all, yet she still did.