Welcome, one and all, to the season two wrap-up of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!

We've only three more episodes to go before the finale. Will these final few episodes be the best of the best, or will they all suck Cranky Doodle Donkey's Skanky Noodle Honkey? Let's find out with tonight's episode: "Hurricane Fluttershy".

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So this episode opens up with Rainbow Dash (great start) flying around in the sky doing something I don't care about. I know, Rainbow Dash flying around doing something I don't care about is a pretty non-specific thing considering that's most of her screentime anyway, but trust me, it's just another one of those times. At least this time it's something plot-related, as she calls all pegasi in Ponyville for an important meeting. Fluttershy sees this and dicks out, until Rainbow Dash discovers her hiding as a tree. Hey! Remember that line in "Over a Barrel" or some shit when Fluttershy said she'd like to be a tree? Well that became a meme at some point. Don't you just love memes? Especially when they have no comedic grounding whatsoever?

Here's an idea: don't dress up as a tree in front of the place you don't want to be. Just fuck off somewhere.

After the title sequence slits my throat until I puke blue liquids all over my bathroom floor and pass out, only to have my corpse mutilated by Cheerilee and subsequently thrown into a trash compactor where my brains are then salvaged and repackaged as ground beef at a grocery store, we see that Rainbow Dash's meeting is regarding getting the water from Ponyville up to Cloudsdale using a wing-powered tornado so that rain water can be made. Why is this episode called Hurricane Fluttershy then? Did the writers not know that tornadoes and hurricanes are two completely different things? Anyways, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts will be here to monitor their progress, and Rainbow Dash would vastly enjoy impressing her by beating the record of wing-power. Everyone must be at the top of their game, and everyone except for Fluttershy is excited take part. Therefore, she pretends to be sick.

See this? THIS is what happens when you agree to "substitute" for Rarity!

However, Rainbow Dash pours cold water all over her and her bullshit is revealed. Fluttershy explains she has "stage fright" in a sense, and that she can't perform in front of people, comparing this tornado thing to a performance. And....I can understand this. I mean, the way Rainbow Dash is treating it, it is more like a performance than some kind of matter-of-course duty. As Fluttershy remembers the flying fuck-ups she's orchestrated at flight camp, Rainbow Dash explains that she needs everyone's support, including her. Fluttershy initially turns Rainbow Dash down, but after seeing her disappointment, decides she's gay game. Later, Twilight shows up with some fan doo-hickey that tells the pegasi how fast they're going. Thunderlane, a side-character we don't care about, reaches 9.3 wing-power, and Rainbow Dash manages to hit 16.5 wing-power. The goal is that everyone can work themselves to hit 10.0 wing-power by the end of the week, but Fluttershy becomes the weak-link at only 0.5 wing-power. Fluttershy has a breakdown afterwards.

Holy...shit.

So she runs away into the woods in what's an interestingly emotional moment, to be comforted by random wildlife swine. One of the animals (I don't know what the fuck it is) reminds Fluttershy that she told him/her/it/gender-ambiguous-pretentious-fucker/them that they shouldn't give up or something, and that motivates her to train her ass off. The animals help her as she breezes through a classic and mildly amusing training montage to overcome her fears. So she does, coming back to the ring in an admittedly awesome way, but is disappointed when the most she cracks up to be is 2.3 wing-power. Isn't that, like, less than one? Rainbow Dash tries to convince her that she's still worth having in the event, but all for not. Fluttershy snaps again, and when Spike mentions that they still have enough power to do the tornado and even possibly break the record, Rainbow Dash is still not happy that Fluttershy isn't up to par. What's this? Rainbow Dash showing empathy? Impossible! If season four taught us anything, it's that Rainbow Dash is still a pompous bitch cunt!

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Oh, right, sorry, this is the good season of this show. We actually have character development and shit.

Well, we're going to have to call the one pony we know that's good at cheering up friends............................................Diamond Tiara.

At the event, we learn that Thunderlane was in-fact not faking being sick, and a flu hospitalized him and seven other ponies. Now they won't even have enough wing-power to create a tornado with enough strength to make the water to Cloudsdale. Worst of all, Spitfire's already here! Dash decides to give it all they've got and fuck the record. Fluttershy shows up for moral support, but they just barely made it to the 800 WP minimum before everyone breaks. Rainbow Dash orders them to try again, and so they do, but the team once more are just barely making it to the 800 minimum. This means that Fluttershy has to help in order to make a difference. She must do it for Equestria! She most do it for Rainbow Dash! She must do it for hers-wait a minute. What kind of a tornado blows outward? Shouldn't everything be lifted up into the air, and not be pushed away? What kind of fuckery is this? Meanwhile, while I have a existential crisis, Fluttershy actually managed to help out and blow that water sky-high!

This is usually where I say "Shipping #1,483 confirmed" or something, but let's face it. Flutterdash is older than time itself.

In the end, Fluttershy learned that no matter how small the contribution, everyone's input is important. And so concludes "Hurricane Fluttershy".

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You know what? To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Sure, the physics are a point of debate, and Fluttershy's second breakdown felt a little repetitive, but look at all the great stuff that took place in this episode. Rainbow Dash actually displays strong empathy for change, and we manage to tap further into Fluttershy's psyche, building off of "Putting Your Hoof Down". On top of that, all the dynamic development going on between Dash and Fluttershy is off the charts, and while this episode didn't have me rolling on the floor, some of the comedic points are worth-while as well. When I was younger, I used to write this episode off as just an okay piece of skippable filler, but up on re-examination, this one is really special. I think the minor issues with it can be surpassed by the well-complemented writing overall here, and it's enough for me to give "Hurricane Fluttershy" a solid 10/10. Definitely an improvement over last episode's near-royal-fuck-up-opus.

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Well, friends, there's only two more episodes until the beginning of the finale. I wonder what will transpire.

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My guess is nationwide conversion to fascism and runny diarrhea everywhere, but what do I know? I was only born in Hell. Until next review!