//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: False Heroes // by RadicalDishonesty //------------------------------// The morning sun brings searing pain, lancing through my window to my eyelids with cruel  precision. I groan and roll over, grabbing a bottle on my nightstand and lifting it to my throat. None of the blissful liquid pours down it, though. I drop the bottle and grab another, but it too is empty. I finally hazarded cracking my eyes open, only to find every bottle is empty. There won’t be getting away from my hangover. I slump back on the bed, staring up at the very-unwisely placed Wonderbolts poster directly above it. It was the first poster I got, too, at that Equestria Games years and years ago. A filly like me from Fillydelphia never got the chance to see any really amazing stunt teams. This may be one of the biggest cities in Equestria, but as far as the Wonderbolts cared, it might as well be in the boonies. But… well, when my older sister tells me she scored tickets to the Equestria Games, I didn’t really get what a big deal that was. At least until I actually saw them. They swept all the pegasus events, and put on a bonus show. It was the coolest thing ever. I had never seen anything like it, but I knew instantly I wanted to be part of it. And afterward, I made my way to ask the star of the show how I could be as good as he was. And you know what he told me? That I had to work my butt off, to push myself as far as I could go, and someday I might be able to join. To be one of the best. So, when I got home I flapped my heart out, zipping around every chance I got. I flew, and I turned, and I played with the clouds and the lightning, trying out everything I could. But… a poor filly from the boonies didn’t have a lot of chances to learn expert flying. This wasn’t an important city like Manehattan, or a pegasus city like Los Pegasus or Clousdale, so pickin’s were slim… but I made it work. Watched quality flyers. Asked them for pointers. But most importantly I never gave up. I pushed myself every day. I got a job with the weather bureau just so that I could practice while I was working. Do everything as fast as I could. Volunteer for everything. Push myself for everything. That totally destroyed tornado windspeed record? I trained hard and roped a bunch of other pegasi into it too, and made sure nopony was slacking off. Finally caught the eye of the Wonderbolts themselves... And now everything is totally gone, because of that rainbow-maned dream wrecker! I yell and throw the bottle in my hoof across the room, wincing as the shattering of the bottle causes a lance of headache pain. All those years of effort… all my life. All gone. Because I was doing what Spitfire wanted in camp. Would it have killed her to like say ‘hey, back off Lightning Dust’ before throwing me out and blacklisting me. I scoff. Probably. Probably would have hurt her precious reputation to not throw me out like it was 100% my fault. What’s that? Admit fault? Nooo let’s blame the rookie that’s conveniently there! There is a loud rapping at the door and my headache explodes with pain. I yelp in pain and fumble off of my bed onto the floor, causing my headache to throb with the collision. I groan, flumping down in a pile. At least until the second volley of knocks causes my headache to flare up. “Ohhhh my god!” I yell. “I’m coming. Gimme a minute!” I wrench myself up, muttering expletives under my breath and make my way through my messy apartment, made only slightly worse by the liquor bottles strewn around it, to my door. Throwing the door open, I point my hoof accusingly at what I expect to be head height, only to find I’m pointing at some pony’s chest. Following it up I see a tremendous mare, a head taller than me and built like a house. She’s wearing a plain black suit and dark glasses, obscuring whatever expression she has. I stamp my hoof down. “Whaddya want? It’s too early for this.” She purses her lips together. “It’s past lunchtime, Mrs. Dust.” Scowling, I spit out, “Still too early to be woken up with a hangover. What. Do. You. Want.” “Your presence is requested by Dough Roll for a meeting this afternoon,” she says rather mechanically. Who? I groan. “What for?” “To entice you with an opportunity.” I stare up at her. “An ‘opportunity’? Of what type?” “She would rather discuss that with you in person.” Uggh, really? She’s gotta be all cagey with it? I go to slam the door, catching a glimpse of the catastrophe my apartment is right now. Not a place I wanna stay now that I’m out of booze. The last few days really destroyed it. I need to get my mind off… things. I glare back at the mare in the doorway. “I’m hungover.” “So you’ve said, so what?” “So, I need coffee if I’m gonna meet with anypony. And a shower. She so impatient that she can’t wait another half hour?” Her expression doesn’t change. “She could wait, yes.” “Great,” I say, slamming my door and making my way over to the kitchen. I look out over the vista ahead of me as the elevator continues to rise. It’s a really fancy one, with a big glass window looking out over the city. Maybe someone else would be really impressed by being up this high, but I’m a pegasus, so I see this every day at work. Well, used to see it every day at work. That being said, we’re going up really high. I have never been in any of the upper floors of the twin towers of this city. Just how important is this person I’m meeting with? The door dings and the bodyguard steps out, and I follow. It’s the swankiest floor I have ever seen. The tiles are some kind of speckled polished rock, and the walls are amazingly white, with these glowing crystal chandeliers lighting the whole place. I’m led right past the waiting room and receptionist, to this dark wood door, and the bodyguard thumps on the door. There’s a muffled noise from inside I can’t understand, but the bodyguard takes it as permission to enter. Like the rest of the floor, the office is hyper-nice. Plaques on the walls, and a nice big glass wall that opens out to a balcony. Sitting at the table, looking up from her paperwork, is a pudgy cream colored pegasus mare, dressed up with a fancy collar and whatever that fluffy thing is called on her neck. When we come in she breaks into a smile. “Lightning Dust! Just the mare I had hoped to see!” She closes her paperwork into a folder and trots around her desk. Smiling, she offers a hoof out. “I trust that Tough Cookie didn’t catch you at an inopportune time?” I glance back at Tough Cookie who doesn’t make any expressions. It kinda was an ‘inopportune’ time but… “Nah… it was alright.” I reach out to her and she excitedly grabs my hoof, shaking it with hers. It’s a surprisingly solid grip. “Wonderful!” She trots back out to behind her desk. “Please take a seat.” I sit down at the desk across from her. “So… what do you want?” She plops down in her seat. “I’m glad you asked! I am Dough Roll, and let me first tell you what an honor it is to meet you.” I roll my eyes at her obvious buttering me up. She rolls her eyes too, but there’s a smile on her face. “Don’t give me that,” she says with that same smile on her face. “You’ve accomplished a lot in this town!” I scoff. Sure I did. She raises an eyebrow with a smirk on her face. “Well, you’re the fastest pony on the weather team-probably the fastest in the whole city, and your cloudclearing times are record-breaking.” I guess... “But, quite possibly most importantly, we have the tornado wing power record because of you. You were the one that pushed everyone to even try for the record in the first place!” Well… it’s not like I wasn’t responsible for it. I was the one kicking everyone’s asses, making sure nopony slacked… not like I got a lotta credit for it around work, though. Once we got the record itself, everypony else was pattin’ each other on the back, and all they remembered was how I had to yell at em once or twice to keep them going. Good to see somepony noticed. “I can tell you,” she said, flapping her wings out. “That was putting us on the map! It’s been a long time since ponies were abuzz about how the pegasi of Fillydelphia were doing great things. I was rootin’ you on the whole time.” I can feel a smile creeping onto my face. She sits back down. “Of course… all that recently came to a halt.” And my smile is gone. “It only took a couple of days for that to spread, huh?” She smiled an apologetic smile. “I’m afraid everyone who’s everyone knows about the blacklisting, Lightning Dust, especially with the way you stormed out of your place of work.” I curse under my breath. Just fuckin’ perfect. “I think it’s a huge injustice. Right after your dreams were dashed--” “Don’t you think I know that already!” I shout and slam my hooves on her table. I am suddenly aware of a presence behind me. Whipping my head around I saw Tough Cookie looming over me. “Calm down, Cookie,” Dough Roll says. “Lightning Dust is understandably angry about this.” She raps her hoof on her desk lightly. “She’s not gonna break this baby by slamming her hooves anyway.” Cookie’s lips purse, and she steps back into the corner of the office. I give her a smirk and sit back down in my seat. “As I was saying,” she continues, “this is an injustice… but not one that you cannot recover from.” I raise my eyebrow. “You are a tough go-getter, Lightning Dust. You push yourself and you push everypony around you to even higher heights. But--” she fluffed up her wings “--this ruffles feathers.They see you pressing forward, but they only pay attention when you have a misstep, when you stumble.” She smiles at me. “The Wonderbolts and the team have the wrong idea, Lightning Dust. They’ve decided that you’re not on the side of law and order… that you’re too reckless.” “Great, you love me, but what’s your point?” She looks me directly in the eye. “I know what you can do to prove to them you deserve to be trusted. To show them they’re wrong about you.” I… really? … I could get back my dreams? I try to speak but my mouth is dry. I manage out, “S-so what is it?” Her visage darkens. “In the past few weeks, there has been an individual troubling the Fillydelphia PD, as well as business ponies like myself. She runs around, attacking our businesses, wearing a mask.” What? No way she could be talking about-- “And the ponies of the city have been calling her,” she scoffs under her breath. “Mare-Do-Well.” She is. “And I want you to catch her and expose her identity to the police.” I spend what feels like a full minute staring at her dumbfounded. She waves her forehooves in front of her in a panic. “Now… now if you’ve heard of her I’m going to have to explain myself! She puts on a really impressive show for the populace, and they think the world of her, but in reality she--” I shake my head to break the spell. “Attacks ponies in their offices and burn them down, right?” She rears back in shock. “You… you already know?” I smirk. “Yeah, I saw it in action just a couple nights ago. She was escaping a burning building that she set on fire herself. She carried out the pony that was working there, so the townsponies thought she was the good guy, but she really attacked him and set his building on fire.” “Yes!” she shouts and slams her hooves on the table. “That’s what she does! She masks her criminal actions with ‘good intentions’. She’ll sabotage a business but make sure everypony gets out safely and the populace eats it up like she was rescuing them.” I snarl. “And she does it pretending to be a hero.” She nods, her face becoming serious. “That she does. She’s a serious problem.” I slump back into my seat. “And everypony is convinced, huh? I don’t see why catching her would do it.” She looks down at her desk and pats some papers. “Well, I already have evidence against her… but without knowing who she is, it’s all useless. Without an actual criminal, the police can’t make any arrests, and they aren’t up to the task of actually catching her in the act.” She looks back up at me. “But you can catch her. You’re fast, faster than any police officer by far. You’re tough, because you have to be to earn the Wonderbolts’ eye.” She gives me a wicked look. “And, maybe most importantly, you’re tenacious. You know the things worth doing won’t just fall into your lap like the lazy police force we have. You know that to do what needs to be done you have to work hard.” She looks into my eye with a challenging glare. “You may be the only pony who has a hope of catching Mare-Do-Well. And by doing so you’ll prove, once and for all, to the police, to the weather department, and to the Wonderbolts that they were wrong about you.” Yeah… yeah! I could show all those so-called heroes just how wrong they are about me. That they don’t know the first thing about me and that I deserve to be up on top. Not that traitor Rainbow Dash. I slam my hooves on the desk again. “I’ll do it! I’ll find Mare-Do-Well and show everypony what a fraud she really is!” She bangs on the desk herself. “That’s what I like to hear!” Grinning, I sit back in my chair. “So, you got any idea where to start?”