The Universal Race

After a short while Rainbow Dash awoke from her slumber. She had a very restful sleep and almost didn't want to get up, but she remembered that she had to meet up with her friends. Rainbow Dash slowly rose up from her bed and opened her eyes with a yawn and a stretch. Rainbow Dash looked to her left and saw someone sitting on the bed next to her.

She was a very small girl, with black hair and big green eyes staring at the tv across from her. The girl sat the with her arms wrapped around her own legs with one hand flicking the remote, changing the channels on the tv. She had an intense anger look in her eyes, it intimated Rainbow Dash a little. Rainbow Dash brushed off the feeling and got off her bed to introduce herself.

"Hey, I'm Rainbow Dash.", She said getting off her bed with a smile, and putting a hoof out to greet her. The girl ignored her, still flicking the channels. Rainbow dash's smile weakened, "What's your name?", She asked, trying to make her situation less awkward. The girl's eyes turned, still with the same intense anger.

"Buttercup. I know you should already know my name, Rainbow Dash.", She said in annoyance, looking back at the tv. Rainbow Dash flinched at Buttercup's attitude towards her. Rainbow Dash just wanted to be friendly and get to know her room mate more, she already knew her room mates name, thanks to Cosmo at the entrance. She tried to recover.

"So.. Are you participating in the race?", Rainbow Dash asked with the nicest voice she can muster. Buttercup sat there for a few seconds still flicking the channels before answering.

"Yes.. Why do you care?", Buttercup said sternly. Rainbow Dash jerked back a little, surprised that this little girl had such an attitude. Rainbow Dash stuttered.

"I was just.. I.. I..", She stuttered trying to think of something to say. She was starting to get angry. She was not going to allow herself to get talked down to like that. She jumped on Buttercup's bed in the way of her view from the tv. She glared down at her.

"What is wrong with you! Why are you being such a jerk!" She said, putting her face up to Buttercup's. Buttercup didn't flinch, her eyes now filling with fury. She flicked the tv off with the remote and shoved Rainbow Dash off of her. Buttercup jumped off the bed and picked up a bag near her bed and grabbed a towel off a rack. She looked back to Rainbow Dash with a glare, before opening the door and leaving the room.

Rainbow Dash stood there, confused and pissed off. It wasn't even 5 minutes of meeting her room mate, and she already hated her. Rainbow Dash let out an annoyed sigh. She lowered her head. This was going to be a long three months... She shot her head back up.

"Oh shoot! I'm supposed to meet the girls!", She said to herself. She looked at the clock on the table that sat in between beds. "Crap! It's 5:58. I gotta go now!", She said. She darted to the door and saw her reflection for a split second as she darted by it. Rainbow Dash walked backwards and looked in the mirror and saw her head was a mess from the short nap. She shook it and tried to fix it with her hoofs. After a few seconds of frustration from trying to fix her mane, she decided to ignore it and fix it on the way. With that, she dashed out the door and hauled it to the cafeteria to meet with her friends.

Rainbow Dash made it to the cafeteria and saw her group of friends. All chatting with each other in line. She smiled and walked up to talk to them. She was quickly cut off, as a massive group of people decided to run in and get a spot in line. All the bodies of people cutting in front of her and pushing her back.

"Hey! I was here first!", She exclaimed, but to no avail as she tried to shove her way through the crowd, only to get pushed back even further. After a few failed attempts she gave up with a huff and just stuck with her spot in line.

The line went fairly fast, even though it was zig zagged across the room, the line kept moving. After surprisingly just a few minutes, she made it to the front. She grabbed a tray with her teeth and finally got a good look at the cafeteria. Just like the rest of the place, it was huge. In front of her were hundreds of long tables that stretched back. At the end of the room was a staircase that led upstairs where more tables were at, those tables overlooked the tables beneath them. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw the stairs went up 10 floors, with a glass roof overlooking the stars. It truly was beautiful, even though it is just a cafeteria..

"Dashie! Over here!". Rainbow Dash heard a voice and looked up to her right. She saw a smiling Pinkie Pie turned, waving a hoof to Rainbow Dash on the second floor. Rainbow Dash gave a smile, Pinkie Looked like such a goofball. Rainbow Dash turned to the buffet tables to gather her food and meet up with her friends.

Rainbow Dash got her food and walked upstairs to meet with her friends. She overheard the many conversations that went on as she passed by...

"Kakarot! Why are we even here.. Why can't we just use the dragonballs to wish that nobody wins but us? This is absolutely stupid.", A voice said in annoyance.

"I already told you Vegeta, It is out of the dragons power. He can't do anything about it. I already tried.. we just have to win. We can't let that kind of power fall into the wrong hands.", The figure in the orange jumpsuit said next to him.

"Hmmph.. Pathetic.. I swear that dragon is just coming up with excuses nowadays..", the other figure responded.

Rainbow Dash continued walking...

"I know he's here somewhere... I know Zim is up to something...", the boy with glasses jumped onto a table. "YOU HEAR THAT ZIM!? i KNOW YOU'RE UP TO SOMETHING! AND I WILL FIGURE IT OUT!", He yelled out. A muffin flew and hit him in the face.

"Ahh, shutup already kid!", a random voice yelled out to him. Probably the same voice that threw the muffin.

Rainbow Dash finally got up stairs and went up to the table. She saw her friends, sitting next to the eds. Pinkie smiled as she scooted over and patted the empty seat next to her. Dash put the tray of food and sat down. Pinkie Pie immediately began talking rapid fire.

"So as I was saying, she says that she went off to fight the war for her father, and then she realized she couldn't because she had to be a guy, so she cut her hair and dressed up as a guy, and then she trained with the army, and then, and then, and then, a big fight happened! and she almost fell off a mountain! But she was saved! And then she was sad. But then she returned! and explosions! and kablooey! Fireworks were everywhere! And get this, she saved her whole country! Crazy right!?", Pinkie Pie said at an incredible rate, surprisingly not out of breath. The girls just stared at her and smiled, they only heard half of the things she said. Rarity turned her eyes from Pinkie to Rainbow Dash.

"So, darling. How about you? How's your room mate?", Rarity asked, her horn glowing as an orange slice floated into her mouth. Rainbow Dash glanced down to her food, remembering what happened earlier.

"Well...", Rainbow Dash started saying, before being interrupted by Eddy, who was sitting next to Rarity.

"Hey. Your room mate is Buttercup, right? Ain't she the girl that lost her-hoomf-", His voice was muffled by Double D's hand. Double D gave an awkward smile. Rainbow Dash furrowed her eye brows. She was curious.

"No, let him finish. I wanna know.", She asked in a demanding tone. Double D lowered his head and sighed. Double D removed his hand from Eddy's mouth as Eddy looked up and gave Double D a glare.

"Oh dear...", Double D said and a quiet tone. "Do you want to hear the long version or short?", Double D asked looking up with sorrow in his eyes. Rainbow Dash started to feel uncomfortable.

"Uhm..", Rainbow Dash said, unsure if she wanted to hear it after all. "Well.. Might as well hear the whole story..", Rainbow Dash said. Double D took in a breath.

"Okay.. Here goes.", Double D started. He let out deep breath of air before he started. "Buttercup... Well.. She's different. She's unlike anyone I've ever seen before. She has fire in her heart, an everlasting flame of strength that pushes her to her limit. She always exceeds to do her best and prove to her sisters that she can handle things on her own."

Rainbow Dash interrupted, "She has sisters?! How many sisters?", Rainbow Dash asked with shock. Double D looked up at her.

"Yes, I was getting there. She has two other sisters named, Blossom and Bubbles. They were created by their father, Professor Utonium, to create the perfect girls. As you can probably tell, it was a success. Much more so, infact, they actually have super powers.", Double D said.

Rainbow Dash put her hoofs on the table with shock, "They have super powers!?", She asked. Double D nodded.

"Yes, they do. They have the power to lift mountains, fly through time, and can even take explosions to the face without a scratch.", Double D said. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. Double D continued, "Yes, well, even with all those super powers, there is one super power they do not have...", Double D said, lowering his head. Rainbow Dash looked at him with concern on her face.

"What... What happened..?" She asked, her voice stuttering. Double D closed his eyes and responded.

"They... They lost him..", Double D said quietly. Rainbow Dash felt body numb. She stared at Double D for a few seconds, trying to come up with words.

"L-Lost.. Who?", Rainbow Dash asked. Double D looked up.

"Their father...", Double D said. Rainbow Dash sat there, speechless. How could a little girl go through such a thing? she thought to herself. Double D spoke up again. "The girls were fighting off against the villains in town, the villains decided to make one final stand to try to take over the town. They girls fought against them, unaware that it was a distraction, and just the beginning.. The girls were losing badly. They were getting thrown around like nothing. There was too much for them to handle. Buttercup wasn't giving up, she fought as hard as she could. She threw everything she had against them. Eventually she actually was starting to win, her sisters had been beaten down and were unconscious. Buttercup knew if she failed, the town was done for."

Double D took a sip of his drink before continuing. "Buttercup actually managed to pull it off, she had beaten all the villains in town. Except for one. She knew this particular one was missing, and it was the biggest threat. HIM was nowhere to be seen. She looked everywhere in town. She heard a whispering, menacing voice for her to go home. Buttercup panicked and screamed, cursing HIM on her way home, fearing that the worst was about to occur." Double D said with a sorrow expression.

Rainbow Dash pressed on. "Then what happened?, She asked. Double D turned for a few seconds, before turning back to lock eyes with Rainbow Dash.

"She.." Double D looked back down again. "She lost him... She got home. Opened the door. And saw the scene before her. Her father was laying on the floor, sprawled out, eyes.. Lifeless..", Double D said. "The walls of the house were covered in blood, with repeated, 'HA-HA's over the walls, as well as the dark laughter of HIM, echoing through the house, before quietly disappearing... She ran to her father and did everything she could to try to wake him up.. Buttercup knew it was no use.. She had lost her father, and for the first time in her life. She felt... defeated.", Double D said with a sorrowful expression on his face.

Rainbow Dash looked away from Double D. She had no idea Buttercup went through so much. She felt horrible. She sat there. Motionless. Eddy swallowed the remaining sandwich he was eating.

"How do I know none of this is bogus, Sockhead?", Eddy said in an annoyed tone. Double D turned and glared at Eddy.

"Well, Eddy, maybe if you were nice to people maybe you'd actually find out from her yourself", Double D retorted. Double D got up from his seat and lifted his tray. "I'm going to go now, please try not to be a jerk to our new friends, okay Eddy?", Double D said.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, sockhead..", He grumbled. He put his elbows on the table and rested his head on his hands. Ed, who was sitting beside him, looked at Eddy's tray.

"Are you gunna finish that cookie, Eddy?", Ed asked with crumbs flying out of his mouth from his sandwich. Eddy glanced up at Ed, and slid the tray to him. Ed smiled and slammed his face down onto the tray. The six ponies winced as his face slammed onto the tray. Twilight looked back at Rainbow Dash.

"I can't imagine what going through that must be like.. I hope she's alright.", Twilight said. Rainbow Dash looked back at her and the rest of the girls. Rainbow Dash got up from her seat.

"I'm.. gonna go girls.. I need to get some shut eye for tomorrow.", Rainbow Dash said. The rest of the ponies understood and  got up as well. They all agreed they needed some shut eye as well. They bid their farewells and went on their way.

Rainbow Dash walked back to her room, thinking about all she heard tonight. She walked along, not looking at anything that passed by her. She had a lot to think about.

Rainbow Dash finally reached her room and unlocked it. It was getting pretty late, it was 11:13 P.M. She knew she needed a good rest before tomorrow. She walked in to the dark room. She walked over to her bed, passing by Buttercup's bed. Rainbow Dash saw that Buttercup was sound a sleep. Buttercup was quietly sleeping, a smile on her face from the relaxing warmth of the covers. She hugged a small green blanket in her arms. Rainbow Dash gave a small smile. Just seeing a smile on Buttercup's face made Rainbow Dash feel a lot better.

Rainbow Dash crawled into her bed quietly, just to make sure she doesn't wake up the resting girl next to her. Rainbow Dash managed to quietly get into bed and pull the covers over herself. She lay there for a few minutes, looking back at Buttercup behind her. Rainbow Dash thought of everything she heard tonight. She felt.. Sadness. After a few minutes she managed to finally drift off to sleep.

A tear slowly slid down her face.

-END OF CHAPTER 3-