Hurricane Spectra

Hurricane Spectra is the twenty-second episode of the second season of Legends of the Multiverse; Friendship is Universe and the forty-eighth episode overall. In this episode, Spectra Vondergeist tries to overcome her self-consciousness in order to help Sally and the other Freedom Workers create a tornado powerful enough to lift the water required for the rainy season up to Cloudsburg.

Production and development
Storyboard artist Raven Molisee wrote on DeviantArt "... the first tree gag was in the script. The second one (if you mean the one with RD's eyes popping out of the tree) was me."

A layout artist wrote on The Allspark Forums "... in the script for Hurricane Spectra, there was both a Cloudchaser and Stormwalker. Stormwalker was cut before storyboards, and Cloudchaser was never designed. The storyboard artists used the Stormwalker design in the scenes where Cloudchaser was in the script and I posed them out in layout."

The scene when Spectra's animal friends try to give her confidence to become a great flier reappears in Memnagerie.

Prologue
The episode begins with Sally Acorn flying through Multiville while giving out flyers for a mandatory meeting she's holding for all Multiville Freedom Workers. Later on in the evening, Worker animals gather at the Destiny Library. Spectra Vondergeist waits outside disguised as a tree, but after a quick headcount, Rainbow Dash sees through it and pushes her inside.

The speech
Inside the library, Sally shows the group of Worker animals a cartoon film that explains how Cloudsburg requires rainwater to produce the rainclouds for Multitopia. In order to obtain this water, Worker animals must work together to make a tornado to funnel water up to Cloudsburg from a reservoir on the ground. The wind speed that a Squirrel can fly is measured in "wing power," and the minimum wind speed required for water to overcome gravity is 800 wing power. The film reel is then damaged in the projector that Olaf and Navi is working, so Sally takes over. She explains how this year, Cloudsburg has chosen Multiville's highland reservoir, and that Starfire, captain of The Freedombolts, will be present to oversee the water transfer and take the official record of their top wind speed. She also says that the year before, Phillipdelphia made a new wind speed record of 910 wing power, but believes that if they train hard, Multiville could do better and put out a wind speed power of over 1,000. The other animal react every time she speaks with great enthusiasm, but as they end the meeting with cheers, Sally notices that Spectra has vanished from where she was standing.

Spectra can't fly
After this, Sally appears on a training field in the daytime where a multitude of Worker animals are training for tornado duty, giving out encouragement and pointers where needed. Sally notes that every Workers resident is present except for Spectra. Sally goes to Spectra's cottage, finding her in a robe with red spots all over her. Spectra gives out a few fake coughs and sneezes and tries to claim that she "really, really wanted to come to training" but ended up with chicken pox. Sally does not fall for this ruse and sympathetically says that there's only one cure for chicken pox... and then dumps a bucket of cold water onto Spectra, rinsing the "chicken pox" away. Next, Spectra falls over and says that she hurt her wing and cannot fly, but Sally once again proves otherwise as she startles her with her coach's whistle, prompting her to fly into the air. Sally gently persuades her forehood friend to tell her what's going on and Spectra finally cracks, expressing to Sally her inability to fly in performances in front of others, which she believes tornado duty to be. She then recollects her experiences at flight camp when the two of them were younger, where her inability to fly properly led the other little animals to laugh at her. Although Sally at first snaps at her and says, "Suck it up, Spectra!", she calms down and tells Spectra that she will need every Flying Animal's help and every ounce of wing power she can get to break the record, including Spectra. Spectra refuses until, after Sally starts flying away sadly, she finally obliges to help.

Back at the training field, Kairi Sparkle, Olaf, and Navi are present and aid Sally by measuring the wing power of each Flying Squirrel, recording the results, and keeping the project organized and on track. Kairi attempts to explain how a machine she has, an anemometer with a wing power gauge, measures the power, but after no one understands her scientific terms, Olaf and Navi explains in simple English. Kairi then hears someone in the crowd cough; she suspects that it is Rotor Walrus, who earlier in the meeting had also been coughing. Kairi sprays him with a disinfectant spray, although the one who coughed was actually Terra, who is standing behind him, while Sally comments that he's trying to pull a ruse to get out of tornado duty. Rainbow starts off by setting Rotor around the track to measure his wing power and he gets a rating of 9.3 wing power. Then, Sally herself has her wing power measured, and she gets a rating of 16.5 wing power.

Sally states that if each and every Flying Animal can get their wing power above 10 by the end of the week, they will be able to set the new tornado speed record. After measuring some more Flying animals' wing power, it is Spectra's turn. As she slowly makes her way around the track, Tsukasa Hiiragi and Kagami Hiiragi begin to laugh, reminding her of being bullied at flight camp, which hinders her performance further. In the end, she obtains a wing power rating of 0.5; Kairi and Sally try to spin this in a positive light, but this is ruined when Olaf and Navi ponders the fact that this is actually less than 1 wing power, which earns him a smack upside the head from Kairi. Reminded of her bullying, Spectra's confidence is crushed. Sally asks her not to leave, but it is to no avail: Spectra bursts into tears and runs away, saying she does not have the courage to partake in the tornado.

Training for the tornado
Spectra is then shown crying next to a willow tree, being comforted by Kiko and her various animal friends. The animals attempt to give her the confidence to partake in the event, reminding her of when she instilled confidence in them. They succeed in this when Spectra says she will get her confidence up and become a great flyer.

With the help of her animal friends, Spectra trains by doing wing push-ups with animals on her back, tug-of-war with a pack of butterflies, and flying past dandelions to see if she can dislodge their seeds. As she trains more, she eventually gets better and better, until she can finally do push-ups with several animals on her back, beat a large pack of butterflies in a tug-of-war, and dislodge the seeds from a whole patch of dandelions. She does all this as her animal friends use pony masks to try and imitate the crowd who will be alongside her in the actual event.

Spectra arrives back at the track, surrounded by her animal friends, for a second run. She does improve her wing power rating, although it is still comparatively low at 2.3. This once again makes her upset, claiming that her nerves got the best of her. Sally tells her that she doesn't care if Spectra can't make it to 10 wing power, as every bit will count. Spectra asks how Sally would feel if it was her that could only fly at 2.5 when everybody else can do 10.0 (Olaf and Navi points out it was 2.3, earning him another upside-the-head from Kairi). When Sally awkwardly waffles on a direct answer, Spectra answers that she'd feel humiliated, exactly as she does right now. On the verge of tears, she apologizes and trots away saying she just can't do it. Olaf and Navi blithely tells Sally that she'll still have tons of wing power available to lift the water before an annoyed Kairi drags him away, but Sally just wishes that there was a way to lift her friend out of the dumps.

Spectra saves the day
The next day, the Flying Animal gather at the highland reservoir where Kairi is in charge of a very large and robust anemometer to record the tornado's wind speed, and Starfire arrives from Cloudsburg to oversee the transfer. As attendance is taken, it is shown that Rotor is not present, and his younger brother Skippy explains that he has the feather flu and is at Multiville Hospital. Seven other ponies are also absent due to feather flu, and Sally is worried they won't break the record - but Kairi calculates that they might not even have enough wing power to get the water up to Cloudsburg at all.

When Olaf and Navi asks if they should pack things up, Rainbow decides to ignore the record and just focus on getting the water to Cloudsburg. With the Flying Animal ready, Kairi gives the anemometer a final check then has Olaf and Navi blow on a very large and old carved wooden horn used to signal the start and the end of the tornado, and they begin to form the tornado with the Flying animals who are present. As the Flying Animal succeed in beginning to suck the water up the funnel, Spectra arrives on the scene to give Sally moral support. However, the tornado breaks down as the animals lose their coordination, tiring and knocking into each other. Sally immediately gets up to try again, but Kairi holds her back, concerned that if the formation breaks apart again, somebody could get hurt. Sally considers this, but decides to give the tornado one more shot, as she must know if she and her crew gave it their all. Once again, Olaf and Navi signals the tornado formation, and eventually, the combined power peaks at 795 wing power, just below the required 800 wing power to overcome gravity. With Starfire only there as an observer, Spectra is the only Pegasus left that can help.

After some encouragement from Kairi, Spectra puts on a pair of flight goggles and allows herself to be sucked into the tornado. After flailing a bit, she manages to place herself in formation. When Sally spots her, she is delighted that Spectra is flying with them and together they strain alongside the other Flying animals. She surpasses her previous best wing power rating as her effort causes the meter to climb to 798, but begins to tire and is overtaken by other Flying animals. This begins to remind her once again of the bullying at flight camp, but this time, it strengthens her nerves, allowing her to travel faster than previously. Spectra manages to peak out at five wing power, causing the tornado to reach 800.

The water overcomes gravity and to Starfire's surprise, suddenly explodes out the top of the tornado and is siphoned to Cloudsburg. Olaf and Navi signals on the horn once more, and the Flying Animal safely exit the formation. Once Spectra stops flying in circles, she receives much praise. Starfire congratulates Sally on showing "a lot of guts," but Sally directs the congratulations to Spectra, whom she dubs her "number one flyer."

Epilogue
A group of animals carries her away, chanting her name, as she recites her letter to Princess Palutena, in which she mentions her realization that although sometimes you may feel that what you can offer may make only little difference, every contribution counts, and that if "you just keep your head high, do your best, and believe in yourself, anything can happen."

Quotes

 * Sally Acorn: Library, tonight. Be cool, or be mule. No offense.
 * Little Mac: None taken.


 * Sally Acorn: That coughing better be from a popcorn kernel, Thunderlane. Nopony is getting sick on my watch!


 * Sally Acorn: So, are we gonna train hard?
 * Flying Animal: Yeah!
 * Sally Acorn: Are we gonna be strong?
 * Flying Animal: Yeah!
 * Sally Acorn: Are we gonna be fast?
 * Flying Animal: Yeah!
 * Sally Acorn: Record-smashing fast?
 * Kronk: Yeah!
 * Sally Acorn: Who's with me?
 * Flying Animal: Woohoo! [cheering]


 * Sally Acorn: Oh, you poor thing. You know, there's only one cure for pony pox.
 * Spectra Vondergeist: I know, plenty of bed-
 * [splash]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: [yelps]
 * Sally Acorn: Cold water! Those chicken pox are clearing right up.


 * Kagami: What exactly does this machine do?
 * Kairi 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?
 * Tsukasa: Yeah. [to Spike] What exactly does this machine do?
 * Olaf: It tells you how fast you're flying and how strong your wings are.
 * Navi: That Wings are Cool
 * Flying Animal: Ohhhh... okay... I see...


 * Sally Acorn: Um... great job, Spectra! You measured, uh, uh. .5.
 * Olaf: .5? Isn't that like... less than one?
 * [tok]
 * Olaf: Ow!
 * Kairi Sparkle: Bingo!


 * Spectra Vondergeist: [squeaks] [crying]
 * [squirrel chittering]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: Oh, thank you, but I'm afraid a couple of little acorns won't solve my big flying problem.
 * [duck quacking]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: I tried, but you should've seen those animals laughing at me...
 * [birds chirp]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: I know it's important to have confidence in myself...
 * [badger squeaking]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: Yes, yes, I do remember. The river was swelling...
 * [badger squeaking]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: ...and you were scared...
 * [badger squeaking]
 * Spectra Vondergeist: ...yes, I did tell you to never give up... and to believe in yourself. You're right, my friends. I shouldn't give up. I will get my confidence up and show everybody that I am a good flyer! A great flyer!


 * [squirrel chittering]
 * Olaf: What did he say?
 * Navi: Why Not?
 * Kairi Sparkle: Do I look like I speak squirrel?


 * Sally Acorn: So you won't fly with 10.0 wing power. Every bit counts!
 * Spectra Vondergeist: How would you feel if everybody else was flying with 10.0 wing power and you were flying with 2.5?
 * Olaf: Actually, it was only 2.3, and- ow!


 * Kairi Sparkle: If you break apart again, somebody could get hurt! You should quit, it's not safe!
 * Sally Acorn: No! One more time! I've gotta know we gave it our all! If I'm going down, I'm going down flying!


 * Kairi Sparkle: Seven ninety five! We are so close! Fluttershy, they need you up there!
 * Spectra Vondergeist: I won't make a difference!
 * Kairi Sparkle: You can make a difference!
 * Spectra Vondergeist: My measly 2.3 wing power is still too little!
 * Olaf: It's sticking at seven ninety five! I don't know if they've got any more in 'em!
 * Navi: What?!? Maybe is Flying Across the Street!
 * Kairi Sparkle: Do it for Multitopia! Do it for Sally Acorn! Do it for yourself!


 * Sally Acorn: Whoa, girl, take it easy!
 * Spectra Vondergeist: Whuh, what? Did we do it?
 * Sally Acorn: Yeah, we did it! You did it!


 * Spectra Vondergeist: Dear Princess Celestia, sometimes you can feel like what you have to offer is too little to make a difference, but today, I learned that everybody'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.


 * Kronk: YEEAAHH!!!