The first day of the true tournament came quickly, much to Rainbow Dash’s glee. By herself she had traveled back to the stadium and signed in again and was then brought out to the grounds of the stadium where the large ring was. Walking out there she finally got a look at the stands to see how many Reindeer were in attendance. She was disappointed that the stands weren’t completely overflowing but most of the space was still taken up. With her eyes she searched back and forth for Ark’Nogt but before she could find him she ended up being interrupted.
“Rainbow Dash, are you ready for your match?” Sia’Lorna asked as she walked up to her.
She turned and grinned to her Reindeer friend. “Hay yeah I am! Only problem is I don’t want to wait at all!”
"At least you’ll be able to watch a good fight or two before it from the competitor’s area,” Sia’Lorna said and pointed to a covered area on the left side of the stadium right below the stands. It was adjacent to the judge’s table and where the referees were. “That’s where we wait for our matches.”
“Cool, so are we waiting for something to start? I wanna show everyone here how awesome I am already.”
“Tiza’Nogt will speak to the audience and announce the beginning of the tournament. The first pair of fighters will then enter the ring and the rest of us will go to our waiting area. It should happen-” Sia’Lorna’s eyes lit up and she pointed to the ring. “Oh, look!”
Rainbow Dash looked and saw Tiza’Nogt walk into the middle of the ring carrying a large megaphone. The crowd cheered even louder at her appearance and stamped their hooves along the stands. She waved for a second once she got into the middle before clearing her throat and taking a deep breath to prepare for the tournament’s beginning.
“Hello everyone and thank you for coming to this tournament!” She paused for a moment to let the cheering die down. “In but a moment we will get underway with our first match of the round, I know you will be entertained and enjoy yourselves. Please give your support for all of these fighters from near and far as they battle to achieve their goal of total victory!”
A wave of yells rolled across the audience and it made Dash stand taller and puff out her chest as she drank it all in. Soon that cheering would be happening just for her.
“May the first two competitors please enter the ring!” Tiza’Nogt shouted.
Two Reindeer strode up and entered between the ropes while Rainbow Dash watched. A pair of bucks, both fearsome looking in their own right compared to the ones Rainbow Dash had fought so far. She was excited to see how good these two would fight. Tiza’Nogt wished good luck to them both while she stepped out of the ring and a referee took her place, she then went over to the judge’s table and spoke into her megaphone once more.
“All of the other competitors may now wait in the designated area!”
Rainbow Dash went with Sia’Lorna to their spot now. She saw Wandering Claw also standing around on his own and the griffon she was going to fight today kept glancing at her too. Probably trying to size her up before the match. Well, she didn’t really care about that since she had total confidence that she was going to win anyways. For now Rainbow Dash sat down and watched the two Reindeer facing each other. The match hadn’t started yet as the referee was still talking to the both of them but then he finally nodded over to Tiza’Nogt. The head of the tournament committee then traded her megaphone for a trumpet that had been on the table.
With a deep breath she blew loudly into the trumpet and the first match officially began.
The two bucks charged towards each other and smashed their antlers together, both trying to overpower the other. Seeing it was a stalemate they detached from each other and jumped back before charging forward again and releasing a devastating barrage of punches. Neither was backing down from this and both of the Reindeer just powered through every blow they took.
The whole time, Rainbow Dash just watched in growing anticipation of her fight.
When it was finally time for her to enter the ring she was practically exploding with excitement and energy. Here at last at the top of the world with a huge crowd of thousands getting to watch and see how awesome she is? There was no way she could stop herself from grinning. She walked alongside Graham towards the ring after being wished the best of luck by Sia’Lorna. The both of them stepped through the ropes and onto the stone floor they would be fighting on. In the middle the ref was waiting for them and the two fighters took their place on either side of him.
“You both understand the rules completely?” The ref asked them.
“Yes,” Graham said.
“Yep,” Rainbow Dash nodded.
“Then I wish the both of you an excellent fight,” the ref smiled and nodded towards Tiza’Nogt once more.
The both of them locked eyes and focused on each other as they waited for that trumpet to blow once more. Rainbow Dash had a confident smirk on her face and Graham a more neutral expression. Neither of them were giving anything away but both their bodies were tense and ready to react instantly. Graham was bigger than her (obviously) but just like her his greatest advantage in these fights was unavailable to him. Except it might’ve been even worse since not only could he not fly but he couldn’t gouge or cut with his talons either. He had still made it this far though and his calm attitude towards her gave Rainbow Dash the impression that he could fight plenty well without his wings or talons.
She could fight plenty well without her wings too though.
The trumpet blew.
Graham came at her with an underhanded right punch that was aimed to hit her right in the chin. Rainbow Dash just barely leaned back away from it to let his balled fist sail past her head. It didn’t put him off-balance at all though and his left fist came shooting straight at her chest. Rainbow Dash decided not to dodge this punch, she wanted to see how strong he was and how much force she could take. So she crossed her hooves in front of her chest and allowed him to punch her with all his might.
She grunted as his heavy fist impacted her front legs and sent her sliding back across the ring. That was a little stronger than she was expecting but she had taken far worse blows in the past. Her legs were still a little bruised where she had let them get hit though. But she was still able to fully block the blow nonetheless, her chest wasn’t injured at all.
“I thought you were supposed to be fast but you couldn’t dodge even a simple punch like that?” Graham looked down at her with a smirk on his beak.
Rainbow Dash smirked right back, happy to trade barbs with anyone she was fighting. “Actually I could’ve dodged that in my sleep, I just wanted to see how tough you were. Not impressed.”
“Oh ho ho, then let’s keep going,” Graham darkly chuckled and ran at her.
“Just what I was about to say!” Rainbow Dash ran to meet him.
Graham threw out a right hook aimed at her temple that Rainbow Dash ducked under and then she punched with her own right hoof towards his chest. However his left hand shot up and blocked her hoof, the talons then clenching down around her blue hoof and held her trapped there. Her eyes briefly widened before she found herself lifted up and over Graham’s body before he roughly slammed her onto the stone floor of the ring. He didn’t let his grip go either, picking her up again to slam her back down until she was out cold. But at the apex of the arc, Rainbow Dash twisted her body around and kicked his arm, making him release her as she flipped over to land safely on the ground in front of him.
Oookay, that really hurt. And I’ve gotta watch out for him trying to grab me again. That’s something he can do that Reindeer can’t. Rainbow Dash thought as she tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her back.
Graham wasn’t about to let her recover though, he came at her again and this time extended his long and broad wings around her like a great pincer to try and restrict her movements. Then he brought his fists up and prepared a one-two combo against her, satisfied that his superior strength would allow him to easily knock her out after just a few clean blows.
He wasn’t expecting her to extend her own wings to try to knock his away. And he sure as hay wasn’t expecting her wings to be so dang strong they were actually capable of doing that.
But they were. His wings buckled and folded back away from her, but Rainbow Dash kept running straight at him anyways. Graham growled and threw out his first punch with his right fist but Rainbow Dash parried it with her left hoof. His left then came at her head but she turned that to the side too. Now with all their limbs out of the way, neither of them could block or attack. Except with one thing.
Graham’s eyes widened as he realized too late what Rainbow Dash’s plan of attack was, she bent her legs and lowered her body and head together before shooting back up at him with a vicious headbutt. The crown of her head impacted the bottom of his chin and beak and sent him reeling with stars exploding in his eyes and pain cascading up from the bottom of his face.
For a moment he didn’t know where he was until he felt two powerful punches from her blue hooves hitting him in the chest as well.
The griffon fell over backwards onto his side and rolled away, trying to recover and get a little distance between himself and his opponent. When he looked up he saw that Rainbow Dash was still standing a little ways away from him, catching her breath and rubbing her head.
“Not used to headbutts… kind of hurt myself there,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
Graham snorted and rubbed his pained jaw. “Not as much as you hurt me.” He stood up and stared her down again. “I’m surprised how strong those small wings of yours actually are too.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “I’m the fastest flier in the world. Of course they’re strong.”
“Well as fast as you are you’re still going to need to hit a little harder if you want to beat me. I’ve still got the advantage in this fight, pony.”
“You’re acting like I’ve been taking this remotely seriously,” she told him, as obnoxiously as possible just to make him mad.
“Oh keep laughing as long as you can...” he blinked the last bit of dizziness away and ran at her.
Rainbow Dash was ready for him and decided she’d show off some of that speed that she was really known for. With a greater burst of speed than she had showed anyone in the tournament so far, Rainbow Dash circled around him to his left, almost fast enough to leave a trail of rainbow color behind. He wasn’t able to totally follow her with his eyes so he was still in the middle of turning to face her when she plowed into him.
The air left his lungs as he grunted thanks to Rainbow Dash leading with her elbow and jamming it into his side. Rainbow expected him to be knocked down again but much to her shock his eye spun around to glare at her as he dug his talons into the stone to stay up and swiftly opened up his left wing, hitting her right in the face with it. While Rainbow Dash winced and closed her eyes his fist came around and pummeled her across the face with a right hook. She was spun around and collapsed onto the floor of the ring while Graham wheezed and rubbed his bruised side.
Neither of them were having as easy of a time as they wanted.
But as Rainbow Dash struggled to get to her hooves she started to hear all the cheers from the crowd around them. They weren’t all specifically cheering for her or anything but they were still cheering. The Reindeer watching were having a great time and so many of them were watching her fight right now. It was clear they wanted more so certainly she wasn’t going to let them down. Nor could she stand the thought of losing in front of such an audience.
“Alright, alright, let’s have some fun.” Rainbow Dash licked her lips and sprinted at Graham.
With incredible speed she turned at the moment she got about five feet away from him and started running around and around in a circle. She was so fast that most of the creatures watching the fight could only see a blur. But Graham was a griffon and his eyes were much sharper than most creatures, and after last time he was used to this kind of speed from her. So when she finally did come at him from the right he was ready for her.
“You aren’t getting in close this time!” Graham shouted and extended his wing to smack her in the head with it. He smirked as she was going way to fast to dodge to the side or stop herself, she’d take herself out right here and now.
Rainbow Dash suddenly ducked under his outstretched wing and slid between his legs, jumping back up and punching him in the face before he could do anything. Another blow after another came at him as Rainbow Dash kept wailing away at Graham’s face. At last he was able to regain some of his wits and put up his talons to block her strikes, also wildly swiping out at her to try and defend himself and get her assault to stop. His attacks were far too uncoordinated though and Rainbow Dash dodged each one of them while still peppering his body and face with punches of her own.
Her blue hooves may not have packed the wallop that his bigger fists could but Rainbow Dash was still a very strong pony and the speed with which she struck added to the damage she could do. Graham attempted to grab her hoof again the next time she punched at him but the moment his talon began to close around it, Rainbow Dash pulled it away at lightning speed and did a backflip, kicking him in the chin as she went. She landed safely on all fours while he staggered back after the painful blow to his already injured chin. Rainbow Dash wasn’t in the attitude of giving him time to recover though, she was going to end this fight here while the cheering surrounded her. Going straight at him again she dodged the lazy right hook he attempted to hit her with and grabbed his right arm. Digging her hooves in she decided to repay the favor he gave her at the start of the fight.
Rainbow Dash turned and pulled his arm with all her strength over her shoulder, lifting the griffon off the ground and then slamming him back onto the ring.
It took a lot of her strength and she was panting pretty heavily but Graham was in way worse condition. The griffon was groaning in pain and not even attempting to get back up to fight more. When his eyes met hers and he saw how much energy and fight left in her he knew there was only one thing left to do.
“I… give up… you win.”
The referee immediately grabbed his whistle and blew into it. “Victor, Rainbow Dash!”
The crowd erupted in greater cheers and Rainbow Dash dropped Graham’s arm to take it all in. Victory. She had beaten her first real opponent at the tournament and it felt really good. This was just the kind of thing she had been looking for.