Well, it’s time for another episode review. And after getting two “meh” episodes in a row, let’s see if we can at least get something with a significant impact, for good or bad.

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And…it’s…NUMBER 46! Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce “Hurricane Fluttershy.”

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TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 2
Episode: 22
Written By: Cindy Morrow
First Aired: March 24, 2012

SUMMARY:

One day, Rainbow Dash gathers every Pegasus in Ponyville for an important meeting, including a very reluctant Fluttershy. Ponyville’s reservoir has been selected to supply the water Cloudsdale needs to produce the rainwater Equestria needs to survive, and the town’s Pegasus population has to train their flying ability so that they can reach the minimum of 800 wing power necessary to funnel the water upwards. There is another angle, however; if their combined wing power can exceed a thousand, they’ll not only be 1/9th of the way to a long-dead meme, but they’ll also beat Fillydelphia’s top speed last year of 910 and set a new record. And to top it all off, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts will be supervising the event. Dash’s pep talk is enough to raise everypony’s spirits and get them excited to train…except for Fluttershy.

The next morning, every Pegasus is out at the track, stretching and working out their wings in preparation…except, again, for Fluttershy. Upset that she’s trying to duck her responsibility, Dash goes to her cottage to check, only to find Fluttershy sick with the Pony Pox. Unfortunately for her, Dash sees through her obvious excuse and her attempts to follow it up by faking a wing injury. Finally cornered, Fluttershy admits the truth: she’s scared. Because of her traumatic experience at Summer Flight Camp, she’s afraid to go out there and humiliate herself again. Dash tries to gently convince her to go out and try anyway, and Fluttershy finally relents.

Back at the track, Twilight and Spike have set up anemometer to measure everypony’s wing power, as well as their progress over the week. Meanwhile, one of the stallions, Thunderlane, is coughing up a fit, but Dash thinks this is another dodge and forces him to keep working. After setting 10.0 WP as the minimum level for each pony, the first day of training goes off without a hitch…until they reach Fluttershy. She actually gets a decent, albeit slow, start, but about halfway through two other Pegasi, Flitter and Cloudchaser, start laughing at how slow she is, causing her to seize up and score a measly 0.5. When Spike becomes a flankhole and starts pressing the point (despite Rainbow Dash and Twilight being as gentle as possible), Fluttershy has a panic attack and flees. When Dash tries to bring her back, she just tells her she can’t do this and runs away crying.

Fortunately, her animal friends come by to cheer her back up and encourage her to try again. It takes a few tries, but she finally sets out to show the world that she’s a great flyer. After a training montage under the tutelage of Coach Angel Bunny, she returns the day before Tornado Day and…scores a 2.3. Dash and Twilight try to convince her that it’s a tremendous improvement, but all Fluttershy can see is that she’s still leagues behind everypony else after working so hard. Utterly defeated, she leaves the team and goes home, while Spike continues to make me wish Kuchen wasn’t just a product of my sick mind.

Finally, it’s time for the big event. Cloudsdale has been moved into position, Spitfire has landed next to a massive machine meant to measure just how much wing power they’re using. Unfortunately, Dash pushing Thunderlane turned out to be a bad move; not only was he sick with the highly-contagious feather flu, but they’re now down eight Pegasi. Not only will they have no chance of breaking the wind speed record, but they might not have enough power to get the water up to Cloudsdale in the first place. Nonetheless, a determined Dash marshals her remaining forces into trying to form the tornado. Even Fluttershy arrives, if only to provide moral support.

Unfortunately, the group stalls at 795 WP, causing the tornado to collapse. Twilight recommends that they quit before somepony gets hurt, but Dash wants to make sure they gave it their all and sends the group in again. When they get stuck at 795 again, Twilight pleads with Fluttershy to go in and help, but she’s still convinced that she won’t make a difference. After a few tries, however, she finally gives in and enters the tornado. Almost immediately, she starts hearing the voices of her foalhood tormentors laughing at her, but this time she pushes herself past them and actually exceeds her previous record, bringing the tornado just up to the minimum needed and successfully sending the water up to Cloudsdale.

Spitfire congratulates Dash on a job well done, but she says that Fluttershy deserves the most praise. All of the Pegasi carry Fluttershy off as she narrates her letter to Celestia, telling her that everypony’s contribution is important, and that if you believe in yourself, anything can happen.

REVIEW:

Here’s the TL;DR version: I love this episode. I love love love love love love love love love this episode. It’s definitely in the top three for Season Two (if not the absolute best), and in the top five for the series as a whole. If you wanted an episode that features almost everything that makes this show great, then this would be the first one I’d choose. The comedy is good, the animation is spectacular, but most of all, there’s a definite heart to this story that makes it stand out and touch me on a personal level.

The opening prologue is mostly there for some more comedy, although I loved Fluttershy’s terrified expression as she reads the fliers Dash is distributing. It reuses the mule gag from “Applebuck Season,” but since I’m no longer allowed to complain about reusing gags, I won’t criticize it. I will say that I was never a fan of “Fluttershy wants to be a tree,” but her little tree disguise is just so adorably complete, and Dash is so quick to discover it, that I just have to laugh.

While the presence of film in FiM is sometimes criticized, I really don’t have a problem with it. I loved how they framed the story of rain cloud production using something that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1950s classroom, complete with animation at about the same level of quality as a television cartoon from the same era. And of course, it ends with the classic gag of the film breaking, segueing us back to the “real world” of Equestria.

Dash’s speech, much like her portrayal in this episode, is fantastic. The basic point of the speech is to provide all the exposition we need to get the episode going, but the way she delivers it sounds like a coach prepping her team for a big game, or a drill sergeant speaking to her privates. She goes over how the wind power works, why Ponyville has been selected, and the goal their shooting for. And given that Spitfire, the Captain of her heroes, the Wonderbolts, will be supervising, it’s obvious that she really wants this to be spectacular. Not only will she get the record and provide Equestria with rain water, but she’ll earn the respect of her idol. In any case, her speech is so invigorating that it psyches up the entire town, including a horrifyingly overmuscled stallion who fans have decided to name Big McLargeHuge!

…Okay, it’s Head Strong. Sorry, that was just the…old MiSTie in me speaking up.

The training scene is mostly a series of visual gags, with Rainbow Dash providing a commentary on what’s going on. I loved Blossomforth being so flexible that she gets herself tied in knots, as well as the mare benching a barbell with her wings. And of course, [strike]Bold Bigflank[/strike] Head Strong popping up again was kind of funny. He might be one joke (he looks like something from Ren and Stimpy more than this show), but he’s one of the funniest parts of the episode. I also like Rainbow Dash as what amounts to a winged track coach; if the Wonderbolts career never works out, or if she makes it and needs something to retire to, she has a future here. If she can get out of bed, that is.

Rainbow Dash confronting/comforting Fluttershy is one of my favorite moments of the series. Fluttershy’s utterly pathetic excuse to get out of training (I was making better excuses when I was eight) was hilarious; her little fake (as in, nonexistent) sneezes were adorable, and I loved how quickly Dash figured out what had happened. And when she tries to act like she’s injured her wing, her monotone betrays hers her yet again.

But then we get to what I really love about this scene. After exposing Fluttershy’s “brilliant” tricks for what they are, Dash actually asks her in a comforting tone of voice what’s wrong. After a whole season of angry, in-your-face Rainbow Dash, it’s nice to see her actually treating a pony she knows is hypersensitive well. When Fluttershy says she can’t fly, she even points out that she’s already shown that she can pull some amazing stuns in the air…but only when there’s an emergency. This is a performance.

So yes, this is another “Fluttershy must overcome her shyness” episode. What separates it from the others, though, is that the actual problem is handled much better than her dragging the group down in “Dragonshy” and becoming a rage-addled sociopath in “Putting Your Hoof Down.” The problem here is performance anxiety, which is something that anyone can experience, not just a shy person. Even better, we get to see why she has this problem; she was ruthlessly teased as a foal during flight camp, and she can still feel the trauma. If you’ve ever been bullied like that, or have known anyone who’s been in a similar situation, then you should have some inkling of what’s going on here.

Dash’s response to this only heightens my love for her this episode. She starts by being her usual brash self, but after remembering who she’s talking to and what’s going on, she changes her tune and becomes much friendlier. It feels like there’s more to this than just the tornado event – and I don’t mean shipping, but rather a desire to have one of her foalhood friends take part in a momentous occasion. When Fluttershy rejects her again, she’s so saddened that she doesn’t fly so much as slowly glide across the floor on the way out. And when Shy finally accepts the proposal, she grabs her in a hug and flies off to the ceiling.

(By the way, when I was watching this episode again, I noticed that whenever Dash’s body moved in a way that caused her whistle to move, you could barely make out a little rattle. That is an amazing attention to detail.)

Twilight setting up the anemometer (which is an actual thing designed to measure wind speed and direction) is your basic “smart person is too technical” joke, but Flitter’s and Cloudchaser’s reactions to this are pretty funny. This is also where Thunderlane’s illness starts to infect others, beginning with Blossomforth. Granted, Dash probably should have had him at least checked out, but she had just busted one pony for faking sickness, so she’s not about to let her entire team use that excuse to get out of training. We also see how the measurement of wing power works, and Dash creating enough wind force to blow ponies over is an oldie but a goodie. And of course, it gives us more [strike]Crud Bonemeal[/strike] Head Strong.

And then we get to Fluttershy’s first attempt, and things immediately change. Flitter and Cloudchaser laughing at her (or possibly at something else, but she thinks they’re laughing at her) causes Fluttershy to have a pathetic showing, although she really wasn’t going to wow crowds anyway given her takeoff speed. Twilight and Rainbow Dash are both in good form as they try to gently tell her what her wing power was, and she even seems happy with the results…UNTIL SPIKE HAPPENS. When the dragon reminds her that 0.5 is less than one…this happens:

Thank you for watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We hope you keep us in your heart as your children spend the next several years in therapy after watching this scene.

But in all seriousness, I’ve been where Fluttershy is at this point, and it’s rarely happy. She’s so worried about everypony else’s perception of her that she goes into complete panic mode and runs off. And when Dash tries to get her to come back…

The whole fifteen seconds here are some of the most heartwrenching moments in the show so far, going head-to-head with the team disbanding in “Return of Harmony” and Twilight being abandoned by everypony in “A Canterlot Wedding” in terms of how much they tear at my cold, dead heart. Dash’s little buck as Fluttershy runs off is downright mournful and depressing. The following scene starts off on a similar note, with Fluttershy sobbing up a storm while her animal friends try to help her. Fortunately, the narrative gradually builds up to something less melancholy and more triumphant, and Fluttershy setting off to become a great flier takes us to the next part of our tale: a montage.

The montage is great, not because it’s anything groundbreaking (it’s just your typical training scene with a cover version of “You’re the Best Around”), but rather because of what Fluttershy is actually doing. The main focus of the training isn’t just for her to get stronger, but to overcome her fear of others watching and judging her. She goes from collapsing completely whenever anypony else looks at her to finally being able to perform at her full potential and then some. Even better, though, this scene goes a long way to redeeming Angel after “Putting Your Hoof Down.” He coaches her along throughout the montage, and at the end celebrates when she actually shows significant improvement.

Twilight asking if it looks like she speaks squirrel is funny on its own, and even moreso if you know what other role Tara Strong voiced that could speak to squirrels. Fluttershy’s grand entrance is the stuff of legends, and it’s always wonderful to see her brimming with confidence. Of course, then the shoe falls and she only scores a 2.3, far below the 10.0 Dash asked for. Besides Spike being even worse than usual (again), the scene is actually kind of interesting in that both sides have a point. On the one hand, Twilight and Dash both point out that this is almost five times as well as she did last time, which is an amazing amount of improvement considering the time frame she had to work with, and that every little bit helps. On the other hand, Fluttershy is right that she’s still far behind all the others, and it would be embarrassing to have everyone else doing the job while you just lagged behind. Dash’s look of utter defeat as she leaves helps to show just how devastated she is as well; no matter what she does, she can’t find a way to help Fluttershy here.

The third act opens up with Cloudsdale now hanging over Ponyville and Spitfire flying down. I love Rainbow Dash’s little smile as she looks upon her hero, before entering SERIOUS mode and preparing to break the record! That is, until Spike runs in and brings the Thunderlane plot to an end. First, his little brother, Rumble, is adorable. Second, it highlights one of the episodes (very) few problems: the math. Eight sick Pegasi are enough to not only cost the entire group a chance at the record, but to make it almost impossible for the remaining ponies to generate enough force. Still, it’s just a minor point. Oh, and we get more [strike]Roll Fizzlebeef[/strike] Head Strong.

The tornado scene is a downright impressive bit of work. The way the water slowly bubbles up is actually pretty astounding, especially considering this is Flash and water is a pain in the butt to animate as anything besides a solid blue mass. Fluttershy trying to climb over is also a bit of fun, and helps to highlight the intensity of the tornado. Of course, it fails, and we get a good-looking shot of ponies getting tossed everywhere before the water collapses in a big bubble. When Twilight shows Dash the carnage, you can really see that yeah, somepony could have been hurt (if not killed) by this job.

And before anyone brings up why Spitfire wasn’t helping, Dash’s next scene establishes why. She wants to make sure she gave it her all before it calls it quits. This is more than just a job; the pride of both her and the town is on the line, and if she’s going down, she’s going down flying. This is Rainbow Dash in a nutshell, to the point that some fans call this episode the apology for how the writers treated her the entire season. I won’t comment on that, but the point is, she’s a great character here and I would love to see more of her like this.

And now we get to the climax. Fluttershy continues to refuse to join, as she still feels that her low wing power won’t make a difference. It isn’t until Twilight tells her to do it for Equestria and almost slams the flight goggles in her face that she finally relents, joining in and actually doing well once she gets straight. Even better, she can finally push through the self-doubts and childhood trauma and actually surpass her previous record. After all, she’s in a desperate situation, the day can only be saved if she flies really fast, and we’ve established that she’s a great flier when the chips are down, so it makes sense that this is the moment where she finally triumphs and wins out over her doubts.

So the water finally shoots out, landing perfectly at the right spot in Cloudsdale so they can start churning out rain clouds. Fluttershy still flying in circles with her eyes closed is adorable, as is that little “high wing” she and Dash give each other. And of course, Rainbow Dash gives the glory to Fluttershy, who finally gets a standing ovation that counters the nightmare mantra:

The actual lesson is a fairly basic “believe in yourself” message, but what I like about it is how maturely it’s handled. Fluttershy doesn’t become a great flier after only a week of work; she improves, certainly, but she’s still on the low end of the wing power scale unless the situation demands it. The town doesn’t break the record, but they still get the job done, and Spitfire is still impressed that they managed to get the job done considering the number of Pegasi that called in sick. And the message that “every little bit helps” is a very adult lesson that all kids (and grown-ups) need to understand. You don’t have to be the best, but you should just do your best to help out, and your contributions, however small, will always help out.

CONCLUSION:

This episode is almost perfect. The comedy bits are all well-executed, and I found myself loving [strike]Bob Johnson[/strike] Head Strong more than I should. But more than that, there is a soul to this episode that few other stories in this series can match. Everypony is in character (even Spike, sadly), Dash and Fluttershy are now my favorite non-shipping pairing in the series, and the moral is more mature than you would normally expect even from this show.

So yeah, I love this episode.

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Well? Did you enjoy me gushing for a change?