"Go get em Fluttershy." Rarity said taking her seat.
The excitement of the crowd meanwhile had built up to a fever pitch. Everyone was chanting "Fluttershy Fluttershy! Fluttershy!" over and over again. Truely a sight to behold.
"My my. I never would've imagined such an upset would be possible." Princess Celestia said "You have certainly come a long way. And now here you are, about to face off against me. Tell me how do you feel?"
"A little bit nervous. And a little bit excited." Fluttershy said "I never thought I'd make it this far though."
Princess Celestia chuckled a little "Well there's a first time for everything." she said "But don't think I'm going to go easy on you. If you want to win you'll have to push yourself to the limit."
"I know." Fluttershy said.
"Then prepare yourself." Princess Celestia said "I am the final obstacle that you must overcome in order to win. I'm looking forward to an enjoyable fight. Beat me and the trophy and prize money are yours"
"I'm looking forward to our fight as well." Fluttershy said, but on the inside she felt very nervous.
"Fluttershy are you ready?" Princess Celestia asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be I guess." Fluttershy said.
"Round 1, Fight!" Princess Celestia said.
Princess Celestia started things off with a bang. She lit up her horn and fired off a magic blast. Fluttershy barely dodged it.
She tried to attack Princess Celestia with a punch but Celestia seemed to shrug it off. Already the pressure was getting to her.
"I can sense you're nervous." Princess Celestia said.
"But how?" Fluttershy asked.
"When you've been the ruler of Equestria for as long as I have you tend to pick up on certain clues." Princess Celestia explained.
"Am I really that obvious?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes." Princess Celestia said "And if you allow your nervousness to get the best of you you'll never beat me." To prove her point she attacked Fluttershy with a kick.
Fluttershy tried to pluck up courage as she gave Princess Celestia "The Stare". Princess Celestia seemed to be immobilized. Wasting no time she summoned her animal friends with a whistle. Before Princess Celestia had a chance to respond she was overwhelmed by an army of forest creatures big and small.
Once she recovered from the attack Princess Celestia called out "30 seconds remaining." Both fighters had become bruised and fatigued and it was impossible to determine who had the advantage.
"Well you're certainly holding your own better then I expected." Princess Celestia said, panting heavily. "It's been a while since this has happened."
"Happy to help Princess." Fluttershy said "I'm just doing what I can."
"All the same you could be doing better." Princess Celestia said. She attempted to attack Fluttershy with another magic blast but Fluttershy dodged it.
"You really think so?" Fluttershy asked.
"No I don't think so." Princess Celestia said "I know so."
"But what do you want me to do Princess Celestia?" Fluttershy asked "I'm trying my best. Are you saying that my best isn't good enough?"
"I highly doubt this is your best Fluttershy." Princess Celestia said "And you can prove it by attacking me."
"Okay." Fluttershy said, she tried to throw as much strength behind a flying kick as she could. But Princess Celestia blocked it.
"That's an improvement but it's still not the best you can do." Princess Celestia said.
"Sorry." Fluttershy said "I'll try harder next time."
"I hope so." Princess Celestia said, she then called out "Time up! This round is a tie."
The audience was shocked. This was an unexpected outcome. And now the stakes couldn't be higher.
"Why the hay were you holding back out there?!" Rainbow Dash shouted "You could've lost Fluttershy! What's your excuse?!"
"My excuse? But I" Fluttershy said.
"You have no excuse!" Rainbow Dash shouted "Either fight like you mean it or don't fight at all!"
"Rainbow Dash would you kindly stop yelling into Fluttershy's ear?!" Applejack demanded "You're making her feel bad!"
"Well considering her perfomance in the last round she should feel bad!" Rainbow Dash said "That was pathetic and if Princess Celestia really wanted she could've wiped the floor with Fluttershy!"
"Rainbow Dash I know you want Fluttershy to win but this is not the way to encourage her or help her." Rarity said "You're not even telling her what she could improve on."
"If you're gonna offer criticism then it needs to be helpful." Twilight said.
"Yeah. Otherwise you just come across as a big old meanie pants and nopony likes you." Pinkie Pie said "Or at least it makes you seem like a jerk."
"But you heard what Princess Celestia said!" Rainbow Dash shouted "Fluttershy wasn't fighting at 100%!"
"Well yelling at Fluttershy won't solve anything." Twilight said "All it's going to do is make you seem inconsiderate and that could destroy your friendship."
"No, Rainbow Dash is right." Fluttershy said "I have no excuse for holding back. I panicked and that interefered with my fighting. I should've known better."
"Are you serious?" Rarity asked.
"Yes." Fluttershy said "But I've learned my lesson. I've come too far to back out now. In the next round I'm going to hit Princess Celestia with everything I've got. I'm going to win! And nopony is going to tell me otherwise!"
All of Fluttershy's friends were speechless. They had never seen this sort of behavior from Fluttershy before.
"Well if you're sure then I guess we'll support you." Twilight said "Right girls?"
"Um yeah? Right? I guess so?" Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity replied.
Fluttershy then felt Princess Celestia healing her wounds and restoring her stamina. "This is it." Fluttershy said "Guess I better get back on out there."
"You seem different now." Princess Celestia said.
"You could say that." Fluttershy said.
"Well I do hope you'll fight better this time." Princess Celestia said "Because if you mess up there will be no second chance. If you don't fight to the best of your ability you will not be able to defeat me."
"I know that." Fluttershy said "So let's not waste anymore time and get going."
"Very well then." Princess Celestia said "Fluttershy are you ready?"
"Oh I'm ready all right." Fluttershy said.
"Final Round, Fight!" Princess Celestia said
"Try to dodge this!" Fluttershy said, racing forward and hitting Princess Celestia with an uppercut. She then delivered a kick.
Princess Celestia was shocked but quickly recovered. "Nice one Fluttershy." Princess Celestia said "But it will take more then that to defeat me."
"Well there's plently more where that came from." Fluttershy said "I'm just getting warmed up."
"I hope so." Princess Celestia said, lighting up her horn and firing off a powerful magic blast. Fluttershy dodged it with ease and hit Princess Celestia with a punch.
"This is getting intense!" Pinkie Pie said.
"I know." Rainbow Dash said.
"You can do it Fluttershy!" Rarity cheered.
Princess Celestia attacked Fluttershy with a powerful punch. But Fluttershy shrugged it off and said "Is that the best you can do?"
"What?!" was all that everyone else including Princess Celestia could say.
Taking advantage of Princess Celestia's momentary distraction Fluttershy hit Princess Celestia with a flying kick, and then unleashed "The Stare". Princess Celestia was completly immbolized. Wasting no time Fluttershy whistled for her animal friends and within seconds they formed a mob and attacked Princess Celestia.
After that Princess Celestia began to try and tie things up but Fluttershy wouldn't let her. She continued to dodge and/or block every attack Princess Celestia threw at her. She would then counterattack with either a punch or a kick.
"Well Princess Celestia I believe I've taken the lead." Fluttershy said, she was slightly bruised and a little bit fatigued but compared to Princess Celestia she seemed fine.
Princess Celestia's majestic white coat was stained with black bruise marks and she looked like she was ready to pass out at any second. Surprisingly enough though her reponse to Fluttershy was "This fight isn't over yet!"
"But it will be soon!" Fluttershy said, using her wings to propel herself forward and knock Princess Celestia into the air. She then flew up and grabbed her, flipping her over onto her back. Then like with her fight against Derpy she attacked a pressure point hard enough to bring down Princess Celestia. It worked.
Princess Celestia crashed to the ground. "K.O.!" she muttered "The winner of this match and the Equestria Battle Tournament is Fluttershy!"
The crowd, including Fluttershy's friends were silent for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then they burst into thunderous applause.
"I did it." Fluttershy said "I won!"
"Yes you most certainly did darling," Rarity said.
"The way you fought back that. It was almost like you were a completly different pony." Rainbow Dash said.
"I never thought you had in you Fluttershy." Pinkie Pie said "Just wait til everypony back home learns about this."
"You certainly surprised me sugarcube." Applejack said "Now I can see why you didn't lose in the first round."
"I never thought Princess Celestia could be defeated." Twilight said "Especially not by somepony like you. I'm glad and a bit surprised to see I was wrong."
"Tell me darling where did you learn to fight like that?" Rarity asked.
"That is the million bit question." Pinkie Pie said.
"I don't know really." Fluttershy said "I guess something inside of me just snapped. This certainly isn't the first time it's happened and I doubt it will be my last. I can only hope it won't happen at a bad time."
"Maybe we can try to work on that when we return to Ponyville." Applejack said "But for now you should enjoy this hard earned victory."
"As I believe this old saying goes 'To the victors belong the spoils.'" Twilight said "And in this case you've certainly earned the spoils."
"You girls are the best." Fluttershy said. Princess Celestia then healed Fluttershy's wounds and restored her stamina.
"Darn right we are!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Easy there Dashie." Fluttershy said.