My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E22 Hurricane Fluttershy



"Twilight Sparkle: Seven ninety-five! We are so close! Fluttershy, they need you up there!

Fluttershy: I won't make a difference!"

"Written by Cindy Morrow"

At an all-pegasus meeting, Rainbow Dash announces that Ponyville's reservoir has been chosen this year to supply Cloudsdale with the water for all the rain for Equestria -- and Ponyville's pegasi will get the water from the ground to Cloudsdale by flying together and making a tornado of at least 800 wing power. Rainbow Dash wants Ponyville to break the record of 910 wing power set by Fillydelphia the previous year with a hurricane of over 1,000 wing power! Everypony's cheering is marred by a little coughing.

As training begins, Rainbow Dash watches over the proceedings, scolding the coughing ponies for attempting to malinger. Fluttershy is conspicuously absent -- she's at home, faking being sick and injured. Rainbow Dash spots the ploys, forcing Fluttershy to admit the real problem: she was humiliated by her weak flying in front of the other young pegasi at Flight Camp, and now she feels a crippling sense of performance anxiety. Rainbow tones down her usual brash approach and reminds her friend how important their mission is. Fluttershy agrees to try despite her obvious misgivings.

Twilight brings an anemometer to the training grounds to test pegasus wing power. When it's Fluttershy's turn, she makes a valiant effort, but when she hears laughter from twin pegasi on the sidelines, it causes her to Flash Back to being teased:

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can hardly fly!"

Fluttershy falters, resulting in a miserable score of 0.5. She runs off in tears. Rainbow Dash tries to bolster her spirits, but Fluttershy's nerve has failed. Alone with her animal friends, however, she soon musters up her courage and begins practicing on her own. When she returns, her wing power has improved significantly -- but it is still only 2.3, well short of the goal Rainbow Dash has set for all pegasi. Though both Rainbow and Twilight commend her for her significant improvement, Fluttershy still feels humiliated and useless, running away yet again.

On the big day, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts shows up to oversee the proceedings and witness the record-breaking attempt. Unfortunately, it turns out the coughing fits were genuine -- eight ponies are out with the feather flu! Not only does this mean they won't beat the wing power record, but they might not even be able to get the water to Cloudsdale. Determined to overcome these setbacks, Rainbow Dash and the Ponyville pegasi start the tornado, only to fail due to a mid-air crash. Despite Twilight's warnings that she's endangering the team, Rainbow Dash rallies everypony to try again, building a tornado of 795 wing power -- five short of the minimum needed. Twilight urges Fluttershy to help, but Fluttershy says her measly strength is too little to make a difference. When Twilight convinces her to try not just for Rainbow Dash or Ponyville, but for herself, the meek pegasus takes flight and enters the maelstrom.

In mid-flight, Fluttershy's the memories of being teased strike again, but she refuses to let them stop her, pushing herself past her limits. The sight of Fluttershy's determination encourages the other pegasi, Together, they generate just enough wing power to propel the water to Cloudsdale!

Spitfire congratulates Rainbow Dash, who graciously steps aside and gives props to Fluttershy, her number one flier! Everypony begins to chant:

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can really fly!"

Fluttershy narrates her letter to Princess Celestia from the shoulders of everypony: "Sometimes you can feel like what you have to offer is too little to make a difference. But today, I learned that everypony's contribution is important, no matter how small. If you just keep your head high, do your best, and believe in yourself, anything can happen!"

Tropes present in this episode (YMMV tropes found here.)
"Rainbow Dash: Be cool or be mule. (Flies over to the same mule from "Applebuck Season") No offense.
 * Absentee Actor: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity are not present, although Ashleigh Ball and Andrea Libman are still present as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, respectively. This leaves Tabitha St. Germain as the only main VA absent.
 * Actor Allusion: Twilight's comment about how she doesn't speak squirrel. Guess which one of Tara Strong's roles had that ability.
 * Adorkable: When asked to explain what an anemometer is, Twilight happily explains (in scientific jargon), before hopefully asking, "Any more questions?"
 * Twilight also closes her eyes and clops her front hooves when she happily explains the anemometer. She does this every time she explains something scientific (or inviting Applejack and Rarity to a sleepover) and the gesture makes her absolutely adorable.
 * Twilight's celebration dance with Spike is very adorkable. Apparently she's had some lessons since her birthday party in "Sweet and Elite"...
 * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Thunderlane gets one from Cloudchaser after his first anemometer test shows off his wing power.
 * Against the Setting Sun: Fluttershy's entrance to retest her wing speed after her intensive training.
 * Anime Hair: Cloudchaser.
 * Artistic License Physics: While the spinning air in a tornado can lower the pressure at the center, and a pressure drop can create some lift on internal fluids, it's not like it's going to suddenly shoot water high into the air immediately upon crossing some threshold. Furthermore, it's not like the trajectory of such a thing would be as reliably predictable as the trajectory Cloudsdale relied on.
 * Badass Adorable: One of the participant in the tornado making is a little colt, Rumble.
 * There's also Tornado Bolt shown just before Fluttershy's first measurement.
 * Bad Bad Acting: Fluttershy tries to fake sickness and a hurt wing. Unfortunately, her voice is too monotone to be convincing. Even her sneezes are grac-- erm, monotone.
 * Be Quiet Slap: Twilight does this towards Spike when he's accidentally being insensitive towards Fluttershy.
 * Big Yes
 * The muscular white pegasus, whose every appea--
 * YEAH!!!
 * ...whose every appearance has him shouting one of these.
 * And a completely serious one, with Fluttershy declaring that she is going to let her fillyhood trauma scare her away from joining the tornado.
 * Bittersweet Ending: With more emphasis on the sweet than the bitter..
 * Actually,
 * Break the Cutie: Fluttershy, 3 times (though twice it's partially self-inflicted). The poor girl just couldn't get a break the entire episode.
 * Butt Monkey: Fluttershy as a filly.
 * The Cameo:
 * Derpy is present, derped-eyes and all, throughout the entire show, including participating in generating the tornado. No surprise; she is a pegasus. Thankfully, it wasn't her fault the tornado failed the first time.
 * The same mule from "Applebuck Season" makes an appearance.
 * Call Back:
 * Fluttershy is disguised as a tree. Could it be any more obvious?
 * As Rainbow Dash flies around and announces the meeting at the library:

Mule: None taken."

"Rainbow Dash: No! One more time! I gotta know we gave it our all! If I'm going down, I'm going down flying!"
 * Fluttershy's and Rainbow Dash's time at Flight Camp is revisited.
 * Rainbow Dash coaches while wearing a cap and whistle.
 * When questioned by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy admits that she's capable of impressive flying,.
 * Fluttershy's wings snapping shut when she's afraid
 * Canon Immigrant: Blossomforth gets her debut in the show after making two appearances in the toy line the previous year.
 * Character Development: Rainbow Dash starts off as being very aggressive when confronting Fluttershy about participating in the tornado but seems to catch herself on this before switching to a gentler approach, reflecting a greater sense of empathy and understanding in her character.
 * This actually goes beyond this episode and for the rest of the series beforehand. In initial episodes like "Dragonshy", Rainbow Dash had zero patience for Fluttershy's cowardice and was most insistant she be left behind. While previous Season Two episodes made subtle pushes into a kinder role, this cements it, with Rainbow Dash being nothing short of gentle and supportive towards Fluttershy despite her excessive lack of self esteem.
 * Circle of Shame: Fluttershy keeps imagining that everypony is laughing at her like in her Flash Back.
 * Chekov's Cough: At first Rainbow Dash sharply tells Thunderlane not to fake a cough to get out of the competition. Then the mare next to him also coughs. Next thing you know eight pegasi are in the hospital.
 * Comic Role Play: Angel Bunny, the animals of the cottage, and the animals of the forest wear little outfits, some in pony masks, to help Fluttershy learn to cope with her fear of performing with other ponies watching.
 * The Determinator: Rainbow Dash and all of the Ponyville pegasi.

"Cloudchaser: What exactly does this machine do?
 * Fluttershy also becomes this when she sucks an about-to-fall tear right back up into her eye!
 * Delayed Reaction:.
 * Deliberately Monochrome: The educational film shown by Rainbow Dash to the assembled pegasi.
 * Die or Fly: It's established that Fluttershy is capable of flying pretty fast, but only when there's danger.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The overly-muscled pegasus stallion wi--
 * YEAH!!!
 * ...with disproportionately small wings is somewhat suggestive of steroid abuse. (Hence, why one Fan Nickname for this pony is "Roid Rage.")
 * Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Somewhat averted, everybody outside the tornado gets tossed around.
 * Dope Slap: Spike gets dope slapped a few times by Twilight during his bouts of being Innocently Insensitive.
 * Expy: Blossomforth was previously a G3/G3.5 Earth pony.
 * Fandom Nod: Fluttershy's disguise as a tree could possibly be one.
 * Spitfire being the leader of the Wonderbolts may count as well.
 * Fan Nickname: The white overly-muscular pegasus has been named many things, including Horse Power, Big McLargeHooves, Roid Rage, Pumped Up, and Snowflake.
 * Fantastic Measurement System: Wing Power
 * A fan did some work and calculated 1 Wing Power to be roughly equivalent to 19.5 Miles Per Hour.
 * Feather Fingers: Fluttershy (and Dizzy Twister in the background in another scene) were shown doing pushups with her wings, and another Pegasus mare is shown weightlifting with hers. It's used one more time when
 * Foreshadowing: The coughing pegasi.
 * Furry Reminder: Rainbow Dash bucking and snorting. Also, the Pegasi stomping in celebration.
 * Hair Decorations: Flitter wears a pink bow.
 * Identical Twin ID Tag: Flitter and Cloudchaser.
 * Innocently Insensitive: This week it's Spike, harping on Fluttershy's lowly wing power score. Twilight goes upside his head and gestures for him to zip it.
 * Instructional Film: With obligatory Stylistic Suck in parody of old 1950s films of this nature.
 * Jerkass Realization: When first confronting Fluttershy about skipping out on training, Rainbow is typically abrasive. Realizing this, she reins herself in and treats Fluttershy much more gently throughout the rest of the episode. Unfortunately, it doesn't spill over to her treatment of Thunderlane.
 * Similarly, Fluttershy is first convinced to do a test run out of guilt after a dejected Rainbow Dash submits to her refusal to train.
 * Kids Are Cruel: The fillies in Fluttershy's flashback tease her mercilessly.
 * Layman's Terms: Spike fills in for Twilight quite well.
 * Meaningful Echo: "Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly/really fly!".
 * Mythology Gag: A male pegasus spotted during the final tornado attempt is Caramel in G1 Firefly's colors.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Rainbow Dash calls out Thunderlane for trying to play sick to get out of training and tornado duty and forces him to train with the other pegasi.
 * Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Twilight seemed satisfied with her 0.5 first attempt, but Spike then had to be snide about it, sending the poor girl into tears. Twilight's thump to his head was well deserved.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash end up crashing halfway through a tree, neither suffering more than the minor inconvenience of being in that position. Rainbow's, we can sort of expect, given this was after being hastily ejected from the first failed tornado attempt. But Fluttershy's came while she was practicing with her animal friends to overcome her performance anxiety and she wasn't flying very fast. Ergo, all trees in Equestria must be made of balsa wood.
 * Non Standard Character Design: The white Pegasus with huge muscles and tiny wings, who has drawn compa--
 * YEAH!!!
 * ...who has drawn comparisons to the works of John Kricfalusi and been Fan Nicknamed Roid Rage.
 * Cloudchaser's Anime Hair is straight out of Final Fantasy.
 * Painting the Frost on Windows: Either normal water evaporation doesn't happen, or normal condensation doesn't happen, because water must be brought to the raincloud factory in liquid form. This itself requires a bare minimum of 80 pegasi with an average of 10.0 wingpower to generate a large tornado.
 * It could be the needed a lot of water at that immediate time and waiting for evaporation would take too long. Gathering clouds from across Equestria instead of manufacturing and distributing them from a central location would also greatly complicate things.
 * Performance Anxiety: Fluttershy is a great flyer when it's an emergency like catching falling birds and friends, but suffers crippling stage fright when it comes to a performance.
 * Power Levels: The anemometer readings definitely have this vibe.
 * Playing Sick:
 * Fluttershy tries to fake the pony pox to avoid having to get involved in making the tornado. Rainbow Dash "cures" her with ice cold water.
 * Subverted when Rainbow Dash thinks Thunderlane was faking sick. It turns out, he really was sick all along!
 * Rousing Speech: Rainbow Dash gives one to all the pegasi in Ponyville as they prepare to bring up the reservoir water up to Cloudsdale.
 * She gives one earlier in the library.
 * Fluttershy's animal friends all team up to give her one in the forest, though she's the only one who can understand them.
 * Running Gag: The muscular, white pega--
 * YEAH!!!
 * ...pegasus shouting exactly that.
 * Schizo-Tech: 1950 style propaganda films and the anemometer. And Twilight's abacus.
 * Also, in Dash's chart, Ponyville is represented by the expected thatched roofs and cottages, but Fillydelphia has a skyline full of skyscrapers.
 * Second Place Is for Winners: The pegasi might not have broken the previous wing power record, but Spitfire congratulates everypony for having the guts to keep trying.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Twilight naturally, when trying to explain the anemometer to Cloudchaser and Flitter.

Twilight Sparkle: This is an anemometer. It measures your accelerative velocity and translates it into wing power, thus gauging your cumulative H2O anti-gravitational potential. Any other questions?

Flitter: Yeah. (to Spike) What exactly does this machine do?

Spike: It tells you how fast you're going and how strong your wings are.

Pegasi: (collective "Ohhhh.")"


 * Shown Their Work: Twilight refers to a device to measure the "wing power" of the pegasi as an anemometer. While arguably the design is unconventional, this is a scientific device used to measure wind speed.
 * Shout-Out: To the My Little Pony and Friends episode "The Magic Coins", which was all about the importance of rain.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Fluttershy telling her own flashback of kids taunting her to shut up.
 * Spock Speak: Twilight's technical term-filled explanation of the anemometer.
 * Stylistic Suck: The educational film shown to the pegasi
 * Super OCD: While it is technically a character defining trait, Twilight is seen enforcing a germ-free environment. Absolutely germ-free. Turns out to be Justified when quite a few pegasi get sick and create a problem for Rainbow Dash.
 * Also the whole point of the job was to transport water up to Cloudsdale. If the pegasi moving it were sick, the water could've been tainted.
 * Suspiciously Similar Song: The song that plays during the training montage sounds similar to "You're The Best Around".
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: Twilight can't talk to squirrels but Fluttershy can.
 * Testosterone Poisoning: The white muscular pega-
 * YEAH!!!
 * WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT?!?!?
 * Training Montage: The training montage with the pegasi is mostly offscreen, but Fluttershy has one of her own that is played much more straight.
 * Translator Buddy: Spike plays this role after the pegasi are confused by Twilight's Spock Speak explanation of the anemometer.
 * The Walls Have Eyes: When Fluttershy panics, she envisions a monstrous tunnel of giant, disembodied eyeballs, their collective glare uniformly fixed on her.
 * When Things Spin Science Happens
 * Twilight's anemometer measures wing power by how fast the the propeller on it moves.
 * By creating the tornado's vortex, the pegasi are helping to draw water from the reservoir.
 * Writers Cannot Do Math: As Wing Power is stated to be cumulative for the 8 Pegasi missing to account for breaking the record versus barely not able to make the tornado would require them to have an average of over 13.75, unlikely given that only Dash displays a higher number. And that's only to beat Fillydelphia's 910, Dash's over 1000 goal would require the 8 to have been averaging over 25.
 * But then, Fridge Brilliance: are the numbers merely additive? Usually, flying on the air that has already been 'cut' by someone else makes you faster, so it's possible that the total wing power is not simply the sum of the individual wing powers of the ponies taking part in the tornado!
 * Yank the Dog's Chain: The first time Fluttershy attempts to test run, she gets off to a good start, but her trauma kicks in and she stumbles at the last second making only 0.5. After an intense training montage and bulk up in courage, she tries again, more hopeful and confident, but still only makes 2.3.

YEAH!!!