Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. Winter has wrapped up, and sadly season two is almost ready to wrap up as well. But thankfully there are a few episodes left this season. And if they’re anything like this week’s was, then we’re in for some interesting adventures. Fluttershy returned to the forefront once more, but was this case of “Hurricane Fluttershy” a powerful storm, or a wimpy gust? Let’s delve into the 22nd episode of this season.
Rainbow Dash always rallies in style
We open the episode with Rainbow Dash flying across Ponyville dropping flyers on the ground and telling all the Ponyville pegasi to attend a meeting later in the evening. Every pegasus has to go… including Fluttershy. Despite Fluttershy’s best attempts to get out of the meeting, Dash still takes her. At the meeting, Dash shows a film that talks about how the pegasus ponies make a tornado of water for the sky city of Cloudsdale. The pegasi of Ponyville have been chosen this year to collect the rain water, and Spitfire of the Wonderbolts will be there to watch in case they break Fillydelphia’s wing power record, which Dash believes they can. Dash’s speech gets all of the pegasus ponies excited and ready to lend a helping hoof… except for Fluttershy.
The next day begins the training sessions as all of the pegasi are training as hard as they can, but Fluttershy is still the only pony not there. Dash goes to see her, and Fluttershy continues to make bad excuses as to why she can’t help. Dash gets Fluttershy to tell the truth, and the real reason is she’s afraid of humiliating herself in front of everyone, which has been a problem she’s had since she was a filly. Despite her doubts though, Fluttershy still agrees to help Dash and the pegasi with the tornado.
Fluttershy's paranoia gets the better of her
Back at training, all of the pegasi test to see how fast their wing power is, and all do an exceptional job. However when Fluttershy tests her wing power, it only does a measily 0.5 in comparison to everypony else’s wing power of around 10. This causes Fluttershy to get paranoid, believing that everyone will laugh at her, and she runs off crying. Her animal friends try to cheer her up, and eventually help her gain enough confidence to try again. We get a montage of Fluttershy training to improve herself, and it looks like even with her first failure, that she may have finally gained enough confidence to measure up to the rest of the pegasi.
Fluttershy can't face humilation, and quits
Fluttershy tries once again to test her wing speed, but it only comes out to a mere 2.3, which is still not good enough. This causes Fluttershy to once again feel like she’s going to humiliate herself in front of everyone, and she quits again. While it still looks like they may have enough speed to break the record, Dash is still concerned about her friend.
The day of the tornado making approaches, and as if not having Fluttershy to help was bad, things get even worse as eight ponies end up with the feather flu. This now means that the pegasi aren’t just below the speed to break the record, but lack the speed to make a successful tornado.
Fluttershy conquers her fears
Since she’s still too afraid to help physically, Fluttershy tries to give moral support to Dash, but it seems that even moral support isn’t enough to get the tornado going. Twilight tells Fluttershy that she’s needed, and Fluttershy finally faces her fears and enters the tornado. She starts to lose speed, and is once again suffering from her paranoia, but finally puts a stop to her worries, and flies faster than the other pegasi, helping to get the water all the way to Cloudsdale. While they didn’t break the record, the pegasi of Ponyville were still successful in their task thanks to Fluttershy. Fluttershy writes this week’s letter to Princess Celestia. The moral being that everypony’s contribution is important, no matter how small. And that if you believe in yourself and do your best, anything is possible.
Well, did “Hurricane Fluttershy” fly high? Or was it a stormy affair? Let’s whittle it down with the pros and cons.
PRO
I’ve been hard on Rainbow Dash a lot in the past. For her ego, and even her arrogance. But this episode was definitely a different situation altogether. Dash shined in this episode by being extremely supportive of Fluttershy in almost a big sister way. She wanted to see Fluttershy get over her fears, and she had faith that Fluttershy could deliver when it came down to helping in making the tornado. This was definitely a redemption episode for her.
This was also a great episode for Fluttershy. Far better than “Putting your hoof down”. As it wasn’t just a retread of her having to deal with being shy, or just conquering a fear. It was a story about her trying to prove not just to herself, but to everyone that she could be great. And the episode shined extremely well in that area.
This episode finally focused more on the pegasi, something we really haven’t done much of this season, and really haven’t done since Sonic Rainboom all the way back in the middle of season 1. But I think this episode handled it better as well. As we got to see more of them, and more of how they function. Now if they can do a similar idea for the unicorns in season 3 that would be nice.
I loved the new pegasus designs, but the one that stood out was this really buff one. He stood out so much, you’d swear he was from an episode of Ren and Stimpy, or in a brony way, the .MOV series by Hotdiggedydemon. While it could be considered very off putting for an episode like this, any time he was on the screen was hilarious in my opinion.
YEAH!
CON
I’d say there were a couple pacing issues, and a lack of some strong comedy elements, save for the muscle pegasus. There was a small bit missing that keeps this from being perfect.
But honestly, aside from those, there is really nothing I can find that really hurt this episode. If I were selfish I would say a lack of Rarity, but then again she has seen some classic appearances in some of the more recent episodes, so one without her is no big problem. And judging by next week’s clips, she’s in it a lot, so yay.
“Hurricane Fluttershy” is a solid episode, and definitely one of the best to come by in a while. The story is solid, the character development is some of the best the show has seen in a while, and the moral is one of the best, even if it isn’t really all that friendship related. After a few weeks of mediocre episodes, we’ve finally found a crown jewel episode. Hopefully not the last one we’ll see with only a couple more to go.
RATING: 9 out of 10
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! “Ponyville Confidential” sweeps Ponyville. When the Cutie Mark Crusaders join the school paper and create a gossip column under the name “Gabby Gums”, they become the hit of the town. But what will happen when their gossip goes too far? Find out in seven days.
Until next week bronies and pegasisters.