I woke up the next day and as I promised, I would take it easy no matter what happens today. After my breakfast, I walked out to see a beautiful day with a lot of pegasuses in town, which left me wondering why. I then spotted Fluttershy and Derpy which gave waves to both, then Rainbow Dash arrived on the scene with a bag of flyers.

"Calling all pegasus ponies! Meeting tonight!" We heard Rainbow Dash announce above us as she rained down flyers.

Derpy began reading one flyer that landed on the ground in front of her while a flyer landed on Fluttershy's mane. I noticed how Derpy moved her eyes in a reading motion, yet they remained crossed. Fluttershy grabbed the flyer off from her mane with her hoof. In only one second, she looked at the flyer and quickly fled away, catching Derpy's and my attention.

"Mandatory meeting for all Ponyville pegasi." I heard Flitter read nearby.

"Library, tonight. Be cool, or be mule." Rainbow continued, dumping all of the papers in her sack and flying near a familiar mule. "No offense."

"None taken." He responded.

I wondered why Fluttershy ran away when she saw the flyer...could it be to do with something that happened to her in the past? I wanted to know more, but I guess that will have to wait until nightfall when things become a bit clearer.

After a morning and afternoon of resting and relaxing, it was night time and I saw where the meeting was going to take place, I walked over to Twilight's home and saw many pegasuses in a line around the home with Dash outside.

"Alright, go on in, find a seat." She said, directing the ones in the line, causing them to walk in.

"Evening Dash, mind if I come in and see what this is about?" I asked.

"Well, since you have wings, I guess you can." she replied.

I saw so many pegasuses in one room...I was then joined by Fluttershy who was brought in by Dash.

"The presentation's about to start." She said as a film began playing as the lights were turned off. Based on how the film was displayed, I figured that it was a really old film…Once the countdown was complete, a black horse with wings was depicted on the screen and old music played and the announcer in the film began speaking.

"Every living thing depends on the life-giving nourishment of rainwater, and it is up to Cloudsdale to provide rain-filled clouds to every corner of Equestria. But how, one pony might ask, does Cloudsdale gather all this extra water? Tornado power! That's right, pegasi-driven tornado power. A team of pegasi combine their wing power to create a jumbo tornado, powerful enough to pull water out of the local reservoir, and funnel it all the way up to Cloudsdale. Remember, pegasi, your jumbo tornado must reach a minimum of eight hundred wing power to lift that water up to Cloudsdale. So, the next time you're wondering "Where does all that extra rainwater come from?", just remem-"

Everything in the film suddenly halted in a distorted way. This caused for the ponies watching to return confused chatter. When the lights turned on, we turned our heads to see Spike having some trouble with the projector as there was film spread everywhere in a mess. "Uh...intermission?" He shrugged.

"You really need to upgrade to HD." I said out of the blue.

"What's HD?" Spike asked.

I didn't wish to reply to that.

"So, here's the scoop." Rainbow Dash announced as she showed us several images. "Cloudsdale has chosen our own highland reservoir as a source of the rainwater they need for all of Equestria. And you know what that means. It means it's up to Ponyville's pegasi to bring that water up to Cloudsdale. Not only that, but Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts, will be here to oversee the water transfer and record our top tornado windspeed. Now last year, Fillydelphia broke the windspeed record with a top speed of nine hundred and ten wing power. But I think we can do better. I think we can get a top speed over a thousand! If each and every pony trains, and trains hard to get their wing power numbers up."

We then heard a bit of coughing.

"That coughing better be from a popcorn kernel, Thunderlane. Nopony's getting sick on my watch. So, are we gonna train hard?"

"Yeah!" The Pegasi cheered.

"Are we gonna be strong?"

"Yeah!"

"Are we gonna be fast?"

"Yeah!"

I noticed Fluttershy lying on the floor with her hooves covering her eyes, significantly growing my concern.

"Record-smashing fast?"

"YEAH!" A white big and buffed pegasi emphasized loudly.

"Who's with me?"

The crowd cheered loudly...she then noticed that Fluttershy was gone.

"Fluttershy!" she said to herself.

When the meeting was over, all of us left the house, I had to talk to Dash on why Fluttershy is scared of taking part.

"Umm Dash, could you explain to me why Fluttershy is behaving the way she is since earlier today?" I said.

"I actually don't know, she's always been that way since we were at flight camp." she replied.

"I could find out tomorrow."

"Yeah, do that and if you can, please get her to join me and the rest of the pegasi on the race track by the field."

"I'll try to....see you then."

Dash nodded as I trotted back to my home as there was nothing else I could do until tomorrow, I began to sleep and wondered why Fluttershy has a secret, could it be to do with the hurricane water collecting or whatever Dash called it?

Waking up the next morning, I left my home and walked over to Fluttershy's cottage, I knocked on her door...it opened slowly and I saw Fluttershy peeped through the door before opening it wide, she was dressed in her nightgown and had spots all over her face which took me back.

"What in the world?" I said in confusion.

"Achoo." she replied calmly, "Morning Bond Racer." she added before coughing a bit.

"Fluttershy, what happened to you?"

"Oh I" She sniffed. "I think I have" She coughed weakly. "the pony pox. I'm sorry, I really, really wanted to come to training day today" She weakly coughed again, sliding herself on the floor a little dramatically. "but this pony pox has really knocked me for a loop. Achoo." She coughed again.

"Oh, you poor thing." I responded. "You know, there's only one cure for pony pox."

"I know, plenty of bed-"

"Nope." I said as I cut her off. "You giving up faking the sickness and telling me the whole story."

I then walked inside and closed the door as we sat on the sofa.

"I want to know what's going on and what's making you act like this?" I said.

Fluttershy began to feel sad. "I'm…I'm afraid of others…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well back at flight camp when I was just a little filly, um…" She paused for a moment. "The others there used to tease me…a lot. Ever since, I've been afraid to perform in front of others, I just can't stand it, the fear is always there."

"Wait a second, didn't you tell me and the others about this before?"

"Yes, but that was to do with my cutie mark."

I put my hoof around her. "Trust me, nopony will tease you here if you try your best. And even if they do… I'll be there to make sure I kick their flanks...by magic of course."

"I understand, it's just so very hard and I don't think I can go."

"Well, whatever choice you make is yours but if you want my opinion, I think you should face your fear. But if it really hurts you too much to where you can't do anything about it then I understand, me and the rest of us will be there for you."

"Thank you Bond, you're a terrific friend." she replied with a smile.

I smiled back before we heard her door knocking.

"Fluttershy? I know you're in there!" we heard Dash call. "You're avoiding tornado duty and I want to know why!"

Fluttershy went to open the door and tried the same tactic on Dash, unfortunately she was a lot smarter to see through it. Fluttershy then yelped when Rainbow Dash suddenly rained down a bucket of water on top of her, drenching all of her mane and robe.

"Cold water! Those pony pox are clearing right up." She stated as the dots Fluttershy had wore off and sunk to floor.

"Oh, y'know, all of a sudden I'm, I'm starting to feel better." Fluttershy laughed nervously. "I'll just get out of these robes and-ow! Oh, my wing, oh, ow, it's hurt, I guess I can't fly after all-"

Rainbow Dash blew her whistle all of a sudden Fluttershy jumped and was flying again.

"Messed up wing, huh? Stop horsing around, Fluttershy, we've got a lot of training to do. Come on now, what's going on?"

"Well, y'see, uh, well...oh, Rainbow Dash, I just can't do it! I can't fly!"

"What are you talking about? What about the time you faced up to the dragon and also faced up against Iron Will when we heard about it? Just last week you went into that wicked nose dive to save that falling baby bird right before it hit the ground!"

"But that was different, that was an emergency! This whole tornado thing, it's more like a performance, and you know how I hate performing in front of others. Don't you remember flight camp? I couldn't gallop hard, or fly fast, not with everypony looking at me!"

"It wasn't that bad."

"You're right, Rainbow Dash, it wasn't bad. It was horrible!" She paused for a moment. "The other foals used to tease me, a lot...I just can't risk that sort of humiliation again."

"Suck it up, Fluttershy! This is no time for-"

"Ahem!" I intervened with a stern look at Dash, causing her to change her tone.

"-what I mean is...confidence or no confidence, I'm gonna need every pegasus to break the record, including you. I need every ounce of wing power I can get."

"Oh, I-I don't think so, Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy responded

Rainbow sighed again and began flying out sadly. "Thanks anyway."

Fluttershy frowned before she looked back at Dash, "Wait...I'll do it…"

"You will?"

"I will."

"You're game?"

"I'm game."

"Alright, good for you, Fluttershy." I said, "That's the way to do it."

"Come on, Fluttershy! The training is still going on!"

Afterwards, we began walking out the door and flying towards the training grounds. Arriving there, we saw Twilight and Spike sitting in the middle of the track with a small machine. I walked over to them with Fluttershy, hoping that seeing one of her good friends would calm her down a bit.

"Hey, Twilight, Spike." I greeted with a small smile.

"Hey, Bond." Twilight replied, "Are you going to train for bringing the water up to Cloudsdale?"

"Only if I'm needed cause of my status."

"I see and what about you Fluttershy?"

"Um…yes." Fluttershy replied with a bit of hesitation.

I leaned in towards Twilight a little and whispered. "She's a little nervous right now."

"Well, with all of us by her side, I'm sure she'll feel better." Twilight added confidently.

"I hope so…"

Just then, Flitter and Cloudchaser walked towards us, noticing the machine and asked about it, which was what I was going to do. "What exactly does this machine do?" Cloudchaser asked.

"This is an anemometer." Twilight explained, pointing towards the machine. "It measures your accelerative velocity and translates it into wing power, thus gauging your cumulative H2O anti-gravitational potential. Any other questions?"

"Yeah." Flitter answered after looking confused at Twilight's explanation. "What exactly does this machine do?"

"Um…I'm assuming it measures how fast your speed is and how strong your wings are?" Hence, the context clues "accelerative velocity" and "wing power".

"Ohhh...okay...I see..." The two Pegasi, including the crowd, responded and seemed to have understand.

"I guess simplicity won this round again."

Twilight formed a sort of irritated expression on her face until we heard a pegasus cough in the crowd. Twilight poked her head out to see who it was. "Is that you again, Thunderlane? Please…we need to have a germ-free environment."

She then prayed a can at Thunderlane.

"It wasn't me, it was Blossomforth." He complained.

"Don't worry, Twilight. Thunderlane's just cooking up an excuse to spend tornado day in bed. Why don't you get over here and be our first test flyer, Thunderlane?"

He flew over to the starting line of the track and readied his wings. Once he was ready, he fluttered his wings rapidly and flew past the anemometer, causing it to spin with the wind.

Once it stopped, Twilight analysed the gauge. "We have 9.3 wing power."

This caused the other ponies to congratulate and praise him, especially that rather large and muscular fellow who exclaimed his usual "YEAH!"

"Not bad...not bad." Rainbow Dash commented, looking at the notes Spike was taking. Then, she flew over to the starting line and once she was ready, she quickly flashed her wings, increased her velocity significantly and even created a rainbow behind her as she flew. The huge gust of wind she caused even made us feel like we were going to be blown away.

"16.5 wing power!" Twilight announced, leaving the crowd to respond in mighty cheers.

"Now listen up. If each of you can get your numbers up to at least 10.0 wing power by the end of the week, we'll no doubt set a new tornado speed record. We'll be number one!"

The other pegasi cheered and began flying around above us in excitement. However, Fluttershy remained staring at the ground sadly.

Later on, Twilight and Spike continued to measure each pegasus's wing power. Fluttershy remained behind the pack the whole time, seeming to become a little more nervous every time she saw a pegasus speed its way on the track. She dug her head in the ground as I could only watch and try to give her support. Finally, it seemed as if the last pegasus had had his turn, leaving only Fluttershy left. Spike revealed the records in the notepad towards Rainbow Dash, who observed them and smiled.

"Impressive. Fluttershy, your turn." Spike declared as Rainbow blew her whistle and clapped her hooves.

"Come on, Fluttershy. You'll do great." I said as she walked to the starting line. She noticed how every pony was looking at her. "Don't pay attention to any other pony." I added.

She took in a deep breath and began to fly and it seemed as if she was beginning to become a little more comfortable as she raised her head and continued flying, smiling at her wings. Unfortunately, those two other pegasi were watching and laughed.

"Hey, no laughing!" I exclaimed at them...that got them to stop right away. Fluttershy noticed this and immediately came to a very slow speed, looking back with a worried expression as she finished her turn.

"Tell her!" I heard Twilight say to Rainbow Dash in a hushed tone.

"No, you tell her!" Rainbow Dash argued in the same tone.

"No, you!"

"Um... great job, Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash gave up and placed her hooves behind her back. "You measured, uh, uh, .5."

Fluttershy returned a smile with ears perked up anyway.

".5? Isn't that like, less than one?" Spike commented, causing Twilight to bonk him on the head. "Ow!"

"Spike!" I exclaimed, "That is no way helping."

Fluttershy immediately shifted from her happy expression to a saddened one. Then, I noticed her staring at the other pegasi. They weren't laughing, but she took it the wrong way, before turning around and began running away, sobbing in her mane which covered her face.

"Fluttershy, wait!" Rainbow Dash called, "So some punks poked a little fun at you and you got stage fright, big deal. You aren't gonna go quit just because of that, are you?"

Fluttershy stopped and turned around, looking at Rainbow Dash with tears streaming from her face. "Yes!" She exclaimed through her crying.

As I saw her cry, I felt nothing but complete sympathy for her...I didn't feel like being a comedian at all.

"But I need you!" Dash pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy apologized, speaking between sobs. "I just don't have the courage right now..." She continued to gallop away as she cried, leaving Dash to buck the ground in disappointment.

"Just give it some time, Dash, I'm sure she'll come round."

Dash sighed, "If only there was a way to lift Fluttershy out of the dumps."

We both sighed as we walked back to the training grounds.

When it was sunset time, all the pegasi, Twilight, Spike and myself were at the big pond where the water was which I assumed was going to be carried up to Cloudsdale, here was also a huge anemometer near Twilight and Spike. I have never seen this tornado duty happening before so this would be a first for me.

We heard a whooshing above us, causing us to look up. If I remembered correctly, it was Spitfire from the wonderbolts. She flew towards us, stopping by the anemometer. Her presence allowed the other pegasi to cheer loudly as she waved at all of them. Rainbow Dash took notice and flew in front of the other pegasi.

"Are we ready to do this?" she asked.

"Yeah!" The crowd cheered.

Before Rainbow Dash could blow her whistle, Spike came running towards her.

"Look!" He said as he presented his notepad to her.

She analysed it for a moment.

"Lazy Thunderlane! Where is he? He's been trying to get out of tornado duty the whole time with his fake coughing and all. Rumble, where's your lazy brother?" She asked the little colt.

"He's got the feather flu. He's down at Ponyville hospital." He answered.

"But he's not the only one." Spike added, presenting his list again, showing several ponies absent as there was an x on each of their names.

Twilight grabbed an old calculator and began calculating the results with the missing pegasi. "Let's see, with those eight sick pegasi out with the feather flu..." She gasped. "Oh no…"

"Don't tell me we won't be able to break the windspeed record!" Rainbow Dash shared, becoming worried.

"No..." Twilight shook her head.

"Phew!"

"...you might not have enough wing power to create a tornado powerful enough to lift the water to Cloudsdale!"

"Well, should we pack up?" Spike asked.

Rainbow Dash stood silent as she looked at the other pegasi in line, especially Spitfire who was looking at her watch. "No. Of course not. Forget the record, Cloudsdale still needs water! Okay, everypony! Let's give it all we've got! On the sound of the horn, we take off!"

After checking the anemometer, Twilight tapped it, letting them know that it was good to go. Spike took in a deep breath and blew the horn. Every pegasi lifted off into the air and began flying in a formation, already creating a tornado that spun the anemometer.

"You think they're gonna make it to eight hundred wing power?" Spike asked.

"I sure hope so!" Twilight responded and began reading off the anemometer. "One hundred and fifty wing power. Two hundred and fifty wing power. Five hundred wing power!"

"So this is how they do it...and without magic too...damn!" I commented under my breath, continuing to analyse the scene. The water beneath them began being lifted.

"Seven hundred and fifty wing power!"

The wind was now growing really strong.

But then I heard some galloping and I turned around to see Fluttershy approaching towards us. "Fluttershy! What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I figured if I couldn't help Rainbow Dash with the tornado, the least I could do was offer moral support!" She exclaimed softly through the powerful wind.

"She could sure use it, considering eight pegasi are sick with the feather flu!" Twilight announced as I grabbed Fluttershy's hoof and helped bring her to me, where I held on to the machine.

"Oh no! That's terrible news!"

All of the water was beginning to lift up, but one of the pegasi became tired and softened his flying, crashing against the other pegasi which led to a whole mess. Every pegasi was thrown out and the water that was inside the tornado fell back inside, where it started. Rainbow Dash landed near us and on a tree before we rushed over.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked.

"I'm fine!" Rainbow muffled, trying to pull herself out.

I placed my hooves on her and helped her.

"Oh, you were so close to the eight hundred wing power minimum! I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash…" Twilight stated, sadly.

"We've got to try again!"

"But you've pushed your crew to their limit already!" Twilight responded, "If you break apart again, somepony could get hurt!" She paused as she pointed at the ponies that were lying on the ground. "You should quit, it's not safe!"

I wanted to help but this is the pegasi's job, not mine...as I promised myself before, I wouldn't help fight a battle that is too personal unless I was really needed to help.

"No! One more time! I've gotta know we gave it our all! If I'm going down, I'm going down flying! C'mon, ponies, let's make this happen!"

Spike blew the horn once more, causing the pegasi to fly in a formation again.

"Okay, here we go..." Twilight said as she observed the anemometer. "One hundred wing power! Two hundred... five hundred!" Inside, I could see Rainbow Dash trying to keep the pegasi ponies' motivation up. "Seven hundred! Seven hundred and fifty wing power!"

Fluttershy was forced to fall back towards the machine, causing her to hold on to it.

"They fell apart right after this!" Spike shouted out.

"Oh, I'm too nervous to look!" Fluttershy commented, placing her hooves on her face.

"C'mon! Just a little harder! I can see the water trying to funnel through!" I heard Rainbow Dash exclaim from inside.

"Seven ninety five! We are so close!" Twilight announced. "Fluttershy, they need you up there!"

"I won't make a difference!" She responded, shaking her head.

"You can make a difference!" Twilight argued.

"It's sticking at seven ninety five! I don't know if they've got any more in 'em!" Spike added after reading the anemometer.

"Do it for Equestria! Do it for Rainbow Dash! Do it for yourself!" Twilight held a pair of goggles near Fluttershy.

She only looked at them and then closed her eyes, looking away. "I can't! I just… can't!"

I sighed but then a light-bulb went in my head....it would be risky but it might help kill two birds with one stone...not literally though.

"I have an idea." I exclaimed to them as I began to run into the tornado.

"Bond wait!" Twilight yelled.

But I ignored her and plummeted right into the tornado and the feeling of it all, it was unbelievable. I was being thrown around in a circle. Luckily, I had my bubble spell activated to keep myself dry and to avoid having water filling up my lungs.

Soon enough, I saw Fluttershy being sucked in as if she forced herself to come in. She tried to strain herself to go fast, but she released a breath in exhaustion. Afterwards, I noticed her begin to struggle with herself once again as she placed her hooves on her eyes. She continued struggling for a moment until she finally strained her eyes and screamed out. "No!" She began racing towards me, faster than any other of the pegasi! She finally caught up to me, allowing me to grab her hoof and fly faster together.

I could see the water increasing and finally being lifted towards Cloudsdale! When all the water was lifted towards Cloudsdale, I heard Spike blow the horn, allowing all the pegasi to slow down and land on the ground as I landed alongside Dash. However, Fluttershy continued to fly around It wasn't until Rainbow Dash came by and stopped her with a cloud.

"Whoa, girl, take it easy!"

"Whuh, what? Did we do it?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, we did it! You did it!" Rainbow Dash replied as they hugged until they landed.

"Great job, Fluttershy, that was awesome!" Flitter praised.

"Yeah, we couldn't have done it without you." Cloudchaser added as Fluttershy rubbed her hoof embarrassingly.

"Nice job, Rainbow Dash. You may not have set a new record, but you showed a lot of guts." Spitfire showed up by Rainbow and congratulated her.

"Thanks, but if you wanna talk guts, then you've gotta give it to my number one flyer, Fluttershy. Let's hear it for Fluttershy!"

As Fluttershy placed her hooves on her face in fear, the crowd grabbed her and began throwing her up in the air, catching her in victory. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can really fly!" They chanted and cheered. They began carrying her and bringing her back to Ponyville for a quick celebration.

Once the mini celebration was over and every pegasi flew back to Cloudsdale, I walked Fluttershy back to her cottage. "You should be very proud Fluttershy as we all are very proud of you. You managed to overcome two odds in one swoop."

"What were they?" she asked.

"You overcame your fear of flying in front of others for good and you saved Cloudsdale from water shortage."

"Wow! Thank you Bond for what you did today and believing in me."

"It's alright, I owed you one for all the times and all the lessons you gave me about looking after animals."

"Do you mind if you take a letter for me?"

"Not at all." I then grabbed a piece of paper and pencil with my magic and prepared to write.

"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 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."

"Great lesson, I'll take this to Twilight right now...you take it easy for the rest day, okay?"

"I will, goodnight Bond." she then gave me a friendly hug which I accepted.

"Good night to you too, Fluttershy."

I left her cottage with the rolled up paper and flew over to Twilight's home where she was about to enter her house.

"Oh hey Bond, yet another letter?" Twilight asked noticing me.

"Yep, it's a great one too." I replied as I gave her the letter.

"I'll have this sent very shortly...by the way, thank you for helping Fluttershy out." Twilight gave me a hug.

"It's okay, I only helped and she fought another tough battle on her own...goodnight."

"Okay, goodnight Bond."

I then left her home and walked back to mine as the moon began to rise. I got in my home and got myself undressed, before heading over to bed and carrying on with my reading of the book which I was now halfway through reading. It felt so cool to see those pegasi use their wing power to bring up water to Cloudsdale, but they almost didn't pull it off until Fluttershy finally found her courage and succeeded. Two birds with one stone is the saying of the day as I began to sleep... Next Chapter: Ponyville Confidential Estimated time remaining: 17 Hours, 31 Minutes