A massive crowd of ponies wait in line to get into the stadium in Canterlot. Within, we find Rarity, Rainbow Dash in a soda hat and Fluttershy.
"Canter-Clash!" Rainbow proclaimed with glee, "THE biggest biannual mixed fighting tournament in Equestria! I can't believe YOU scored tickets to this, Rarity!"
Rarity replied "It was no trouble at all, darling. While I'm not a fan of such a barbaric sport, I knew you would be interested. Fancy Pants invited me plus two guests"
"There's so many ponies here" Fluttershy added.
Rainbow Dash, remembering that Fluttershy is with them, sighs and says,
"Too bad AJ sprained her hoof applebucking, but at least this'll help Fluttershy be a little more agressive"
Her and Fluttershy remembering the Iron Will incident, Rarity replys, "That's not a good idea, darling. I don't know what I was thinking"
After that, the trio encounters a rush of fans seperating Fluttershy from Rainbow and Rarity. After looking for what the rush was about, RD noticed that they were over by an Earth Pony in a Luchador outfit with a Cutie Mark of a jawbreaker on his flank signing autographs.
"OH MY GOSH!" the Rainbow-maned Pegasus cried pulling out a book and a pencil, "It's Jawbreaker, my favourite wrestler!" She flies over the crowd trying to get to Jawbreaker but is imediately blocked by other pegasi with the same idea.
Rarity, worried out of her mind about what she might do if the stress of being in the crowd would do to poor Fluttershy, Rarity started calling out her name. "FLUTTERSHY! FLUTTERSHY, WHERE ARE YOU!? REMAIN CALM!"
Suddenly, Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis show up in front of Rarity. "Good to see you again, Rarity" Fancy started as Fleur began her posing, "I was worried about you when I heard about that DREADFUL Griffin mess in Ponyville. Are you all right?"
The panicy unicorn then turns around looking at Fancy Pants. "Oh, I didn't see you there" she said in a nerveous voice, "You'll forgive me if I seem a little frazzled, darling, half of my plus two is missing"
Rainbow returns slighly bruised with her mane messed up and her hat on a slant. "My life...is complete" she said in sucess.
"Did you find her?" Asked Rarity.
"Who?" Rainbow Dash asks making rarity glare at her. She then remembers once again that Fluttershy was with them and says "Oh, right"
Just then a Griffin with a Manitcore tail and her head feathers fashioned like a puff of hair with a ponytail wearing a green shirt, grey pants and yellow sandals shows up saying "Make way, comin' though, trying to find the sign-up area before it closes"
Rarity looks at the monstrosity and tells her "My-my, how rude"
"Sorry, lady," the Grifficore replied, "Been trying to find the dang thing all night. I should've listened to the guys when they said we should sign up in advance!"
"Oh, it's just on the other side of this crowd" Rainbow Dash pointed out.
Rarity glares at Dash again asking "You could tell her that and not pay attention to where Fluttershy is?"
Rainbow gives a shrug. Meanwhile, we see Fluttershy on the other side of the crowd. She sees the sign-up desk behind her and walks up to the stallion tending it.
"Name?" the stallion asks.
"Um- yes- I- well-" Fluttershy stuttered.
The Grifficore flies over the crowd and walks over to the desk. "Hey there" she says to Fluttershy who suddenly looks away nervously. "What's with you?" She asks.
"...I'm sorry" Fluttershy apologizes after a pause, "It's just that my last couple encounters with Griffins haven't been very pleasant"
"Oh, you're from Ponyville. Well, you don't have to worry about me" she reasured the nervous pegasus showing her tail, "I'm half Manitcore" She then grabs the pen signing her name in and asks Fluttershy "So what's your name? I'll sign you in"
"F-Fluttershy" the nervous Pegasus said.
"Fluttershy?" the Grifficore replied. "Nah, you need a tougher name here, lady! Hmm...I'll put you down as...Hidden Dragon!"
She then shakes Fluttershy's hoof. "By the way, name's Grace. Good luck...With me and my pals in this, you're gonna need it"
"What?" Fluttershy asked.
The sign-up guy then puts a closed sign at the desk and announces "Sign-ups for the tournament are now closed!"
After a gulp, our heroine says "Oh...My..."
Fluttershy then notices her friends with Fancy Pants at the door. She gallops over to them.
"Is what I'm hearing true, darling?" Rarity asked.
"YOU signed up for the tournament!?" Rainbow Dash added.
"I thought it was the ticket booth and they take your ticket in advance!" Fluttershy replied holding up her ticket. "Now what am I supposed to do with this?"
"FREE TICKET!" somepony shouts making the group flee from the stadium.
"The tournament doesn't start until tomarrow" Fancy Pants said, "Why don't we retire at my quarters for the night?"
The next day, the five return to the stadium where they meet Twilight.
"Hi, guys" the mulberry Unicorn said, "What are you guys doing here?"
Rainbow then tells her "We're here to see the matches...Well most of us...Somepony wound up in the roster"
"Well, good luck, Rainbow Dash" Twilight said oblivious to the truth.
Rainbow then continues "I WISH it was me, but FLUTTERSHY is the one who signed up"
Twilight snickered then doubled over laughing. "Good one, one you guys!" She then notices nopony was laughing..."You're serious? How did this happen?"
Just then, two burly grey Earth Ponies wearing sunglasses and suits show up. "Hidden Dragon?" the one on the right asked.
Thinking quickly, Rainbow Dash comes up to the two saying "Present!" They looked at each other and laughed.
"Nice try, lady" said the one on the left holding up a picture of Fluttershy at the sign-up desk, "But after the Trotter Trounce Brothers incident last year, everypony who signs up for the tournament secretly has their picture taken. Come with us"
They grab our timid heroine and drag her to the Preliminary area as she yelped dropping her ticket. Hoofing the ticket to Twilight, a sightly discouraged RD says "Well, I tried, let's get our seats"
As the stallions drop Fluttershy off at the preliminary arena, she found Grace. "Hey, look who's here!" She said, "Nice to see you again, Hidden Dragon"
"There's been some mistake" Fluttershy cried, "I didn't want to be here, I just came to SEE the tournament, not PARTICIPATE in it!"
Grace then replied in an embarrassed tone, "Oh...Well, that's unfortunate, sorry about that. Here, there's a way to get out of doing this"
But before she could say anything else, the host of the tournament shows up. After giving the contestants the run-down on the tournament rules, the preliminaries began. Within her first match, something in Fluttershy snapped. From then on, she and 19 others breezed through the preliminaries. Just then, Fluttershy snaps out of her new-found mood.
"Oh no!" she cried
"Wow, didn't know you had it in ya" said Grace.
To Be Continued