My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E01 The Return of Harmony Part 1



"Discord: You should see the looks on your faces! Priceless!"

"Written by M.A. Larson"

Cheerilee and the kids are visiting the world famous Canterlot Sculpture Garden, where there are statues representing friendship, victory, and... a tall slender fellow with a head of a pony and a body made of many different animals, like a lion's paw and a snake's tail. Cheerilee asks the class what that represents, and Cutie Mark Crusaders respond with a variety of answers, calling Scootaloo a dodo in the process.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders begin to fight amongst each other until Cheerilee explains that, in a way, they're all right. The statue represents discord, and because they demonstrated it so well they have to write an essay. Cheerilee and the kids head off and did that statue just laugh?

Back in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash is flying around when she is hit by a low-flying pink cloud. Now, we know this is a Sugar Bowl, but it's been established that clouds do not move on their own outside the Everfree Forest. They are also not made of cotton candy. Suddenly, cotton candy clouds are everywhere. And they pour out rain made of chocolate milk.

Soon the rest of the Mane Six meet up at Sweet Apple Acres, where cornfields are turning into popcorn, apples are growing to mammoth sizes, and rabbits are growing deer legs. The girls manage to calm the candy storm and the mutated animals through teamwork, only for Spike to burp up an emergency letter from Princess Celestia.

At the palace, Celestia informs the girls that an old foe has returned...Discord, the mischievous Spirit of Disharmony... and gives some backstory on Equestria. Discord once ruled the land in eternal chaos and unhappiness, until Celestia and Luna discovered the Elements of Harmony and turned him into a garden ornament. However, since Celestia and Luna are no longer connected to the Elements (probably because of that whole Nightmare Moon business), the spell on Discord has lifted. It is now up to our heroines, the champions who defeated Nightmare Moon and redeemed Princess Luna, to wield the Elements of Harmony once again to defeat this dark god of chaos.

...But they're missing! Who could have stolen the Elements of Harmony? The stained-glass windows begin to move by themselves, all handiwork of the culprit, Discord.

It seems Discord has "borrowed" the Elements, and he already knows all about our heroines and which Element of Harmony they represent. Celestia is getting impatient with Discord's escapades, and let us remind you that she usually has the patience of a saint. Discord gives our girls a riddle.

"Discord: To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan, then find the Elements back where you began."

Twilight believes Discord is referring to the hedge maze out back... where the children were arguing earlier. Surely with the magic of flight Rainbow Dash will find the Elements in no time. That is, if her wings were still on her. Fluttershy's wings and the unicorns' horns disappear as well, and Discord appears! He says that it's time to play a game. The first rule is no flying or magic. The second rule is everypony has to play, or the game is over.

The girls enter the maze and, with their first united step, are instantly divided by Discord's magic. He then takes the time to manipulate all of Twilight's friends to reject the elements that they represent, finishing the job with magic and causing their colors to desaturate.


 * Discord uses piles of talking apples claiming to be the "Keepers of the Grove of Truths" to show Applejack the "honest truth" of what will happen; the Circle of Friendship will be broken. After facing her with how much the truth can hurt and the idea that lies might be easier, he makes her chronically dishonest (that is, lying through her teeth).
 * He uses balloons with the faces of Pinkie's friends to laugh at her, suggesting that her friends don't really like her. After a brief "torture" session consisting of all the balloons laughing at her, Discord hypnotizes Pinkie, making her unhappy and unfriendly.
 * He tempts Rarity with a beautiful shiny something, and she becomes enchanted as soon as she succumbs to the temptation to dig it out. It turns out to be a diamond bigger than herself that she becomes extremely possessive of. However, the "diamond" is actually a giant rock; Rarity is brainwashed into seeing it as a jewel.
 * He tries to turn Fluttershy against her friends, but she has too much trust to think they abandoned her, and too little ego to mind being thought of as weak or being criticized... so he just goes ahead and magics her into being cruel anyway.
 * He presents Rainbow Dash with conflicting loyalties: stay in the maze and continue searching for her friends and the Elements, or take back her wings and go save Cloudsdale from destruction, betraying something she cares about regardless of what choice she makes. Of course, he hypnotizes her before she can make the choice.

Twilight meets up with all her friends, who are all now the opposite of their Elements, and they spot the disloyal Rainbow Dash flying away. The game is over and Discord has won! Black clouds and lightning abound! All is lost, a storm of chaos has arrived! Equestria is doomed!

"Discord: Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos! (Evil Laugh accompanied by Dramatic Thunder)"

TO BE CONTINUED

*cue happy credits music*

Tropes (YMMV items can be found here)
"Scootaloo: Don't call me things I don't know the meaning of!"
 * Actually Pretty Funny: When Discord stands on the head of an image of Twilight Sparkle and does a little dance, Pinkie Pie can't help but laugh. She does represent the Element of Laughter, after all.
 * Apple of Discord: Played quite literally with Applejack by Discord himself, and more figuratively with everypony else.
 * Art Shift: A minor one. Everypony else remains the same, but Discord's first appearance takes place as he magically slinks around the stained glass windows of Canterlot Tower.
 * As You Know: Celestia and Discord take a few moments to remind the viewers of the series premiere and what Element each pony represents.
 * Ascended Meme: In "Stare Master", Apple Bloom calls Scootaloo a chicken. Naturally, the fandom took this and made it into a meme. In this episode, she gets called a dodo, another flightless bird.

"Applejack: Rainbow Dash, what's going on with this rain? I mean, chocolate milk? I mean, chocolate milk rain?"
 * Awful Truth: Discord's manipulation of Applejack starts by telling her that the truth can hurt, and there are some truths she'd rather not know.
 * Bad Bad Acting: Fluttershy using "reverse psychology" on the animals to get them to eat away the candy clouds and popcorn.
 * Bad Liar: Applejack was always a bad liar, but this episode takes it to a new extreme.
 * Beware the Silly Ones: Discord may bring the sensibilities of Q in prankster mode, Large Ham and all, but he has a very cruel sense of humor and the competence to carry it out.
 * Big Bad: Discord.
 * Big Ball of Violence: Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo form one when they can't agree on what the body structure of the Draconequus represents.
 * Big Ham: Discord.
 * Big No: Rainbow Dash lets loose with one when Discord.
 * Body Horror: Think about it, being a pegasus or unicorn and having a perfectly good part of you (wings; horn) dissappear would have to be pretty upsetting.
 * Bread Eggs Breaded Eggs:

"Apple Bloom: (to Scootaloo) Cool... if you were actually victoryful at somethin'.
 * Break the Cutie:
 * Brick Joke: In an earlier interview with Jayson Thiessen, Season 2's executive producer, he explicitly said that Salvador Dali would not appear in the show, and the interviewers laughed it off as a non-sequitur.
 * Brought Down to Normal: Discord has the power to instantly take away pegasus wings and unicorn horns, though he at least gives them back eventually.
 * Call Back: Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle make a subtle one to their respective sisters' behavior in "Look Before You Sleep".
 * Call Back: Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle make a subtle one to their respective sisters' behavior in "Look Before You Sleep".

Sweetie Belle: That's not a word!"

"Pinkie Pie: Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys! Chocolate! Rain!"
 * Cassandra Truth: turns out to be the only thing Applejack wasn't lying about.
 * Circle of Shame:
 * Conflicting Loyalty: How Discord
 * Continuity Nod
 * One of the stained glass windows in Celestia's palace depicts the Mane Six defeating Nightmare Moon. Bonus points for mirroring the storybook illustrations from the series premiere.
 * A more subtle one happens when Discord nudges Applejack after taking away Rainbow's wings, saying he did so to ensure there would be "no cheating" during his game.
 * Another subtle one happens during the stained glass windows scene. When Discord is calling Celestia out on turning him into stone, he rests and knocks his claw against the image of Fluttershy, who previously fought off a cockatrice.
 * What he does to Pinkie Pie takes advantage of her insecurity about whether or not her friends love her like she thinks they do.
 * And if he's really into in-universe Continuity Porn for irony's sake, he could be intentionally inverting the story of how Rarity got her Cutie Mark. ("A ROCK?! That's my destiny?!")
 * If one pays attention to Discord's component parts, he's got pieces from every species who played an antagonistic role in season one. One of his horns is like a unicorn and he has a horse (or possibly buffalo) leg (Trixie and possibly the buffalo), a lion paw (the Manticore from the pilot), a griffin-like mane body and arm (Gilda), a green dragon leg (the dragon Spike encountered), a red reptilian tail (the red dragon from "Dragonshy"), a pegasus wing (Nightmare Moon), and a bat-like wing (which looks a lot like the cockatrice).
 * Covered in Mud: Pinkie, as precursor to Discord twisting her.
 * Cutting the Knot:
 * The Dark Times: Celestia refers to an era in which Discord ruled and caused endless suffering for Equestria. It is depicted in a stained-glass window as Discord holding ponies by puppet strings over a pit of fire.
 * Darkest Hour:
 * Delicious Distraction: Pinkie Pie kind of overlooks the whole Crapsack World aspect of Discord's rule in favor of the fact that it has chocolate rain. "Chocolate. Rain!"
 * Deus Ex Machina: Lampshaded and averted when Twilight arrives with a "spell that will fix everything". It doesn't work, possibly because of the influence of the God of Chaos himself.
 * Divide and Conquer:
 * Doomed Hometown:
 * Downer Ending:
 * Dramatic Irony: We know what Discord is trying to do after he, but the rest of the characters don't, leaving us to watch helplessly as.
 * Dramatic Thunder: Discord doing his Evil Laugh. Since he's a Reality Warper with a flair for the dramatic, this is probably intentional on his part. Happens again at the end
 * Eldritch Location: The hedge maze gets really weird, to the point that it's once shown as an Escherian structure with ground level of varying orientations. The rest of Equestria is liable to go this way too, if Discord gets his way.
 * Emotion Eater: Implied with Discord. The Cutie Mark Crusaders fighting in his presence evidently provides him with the power to escape,
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Discord might have no issues tormenting ponies with his mind games and insane challenges, but turning them to stone is right out.
 * Then again, he probably only thought it wasn't funny because it happened to HIM.
 * Everythings Better With Chocolate

"Rainbow Dash: I'll always be loyal to the princess!
 * Evil Counterpart:
 * Discord himself is a complete antithesis of the Elements Of Harmony. He represents chaos and was awakened by a conflict between friends instead of the bond between them that activated the Elements Of Harmony.
 * Establishing Character Moment: The Mane cast each gets one in the first scene to refresh everyone of their personalities. Discord also gets one saying there's no fun in making sense.
 * Evil Laugh: Discord has a great one.
 * The Eyes Have It: Discord first introduces himself to the ponies by manifesting himself as part of the stained-glass windows in Celestia's castle.
 * Flaw Exploitation: How Discord
 * Failsafe Failure: Borders on Lampshade Hanging, even. Twilight learns a "failsafe spell", which she believes will counter the wacky weather plaguing Ponyville. It fails. She even says, "My failsafe spell... failed!"
 * Fallen Heroines: What the discorded mane ponies become after Discord brainwashes them.
 * Foreshadowing: The scene where Celestia fills out Discord's backstory drops quite a few hints that he's far more evil and dangerous than he seems. Including Celestia being nervous and taking Discord dead seriously. There's also the fact that when she discusses what it was like under Discord, the screams of suffering ponies can be heard in the background...
 * And for those careful listeners:

Discord: We'll see about that..."

"Discord: Well... it must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless [your friends] think you are.
 * When it rains chocolate milk on Ponyville, Rainbow Dash tells Applejack that it is simultaneously raining cola on Cloudsdale, but not to worry because she will help her friends before going off to help her town. This mirrors the choice she is given later on.
 * The GM Is a Cheating Bastard:
 * Gold Fever:
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: Somewhat more benign than most examples, but still counts.
 * Gratuitous Italian: Discord's angry yell of "Arriverderci!" after.
 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: When Rainbow's wings vanish.
 * Half Truth: When Applejack asks the pool that shows the truth what will come of their mission, she sees the Mane Six's friendship ending. What was true... as far as it goes.
 * Heart Light: The first sign that the Draconequus statue is coming alive.
 * Except it's not light so much as pulsating darkness.
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness:
 * Insult Backfire:
 * Jaw Drop: The mane cast and Celestia when it's revealed that the Elements of Harmony have been stolen.
 * Just Toying With Them: Without the Elements, the ponies wouldn't stand a chance against Discord if he didn't choose to play the maze game with them... nor do they, as it turns out, even then, as he doesn't follow any rules himself.
 * Knighting: Princess Celestia does this to Twilight just before everypony goes off to retrieve the Elements from Discord. There's no ceremony involved, just the shoulder-to-shoulder motion with her horn as a stand-in for a sword.
 * Knight of Cerebus: After a season of mostly A Slice of Life episodes, we get a villain who is dangerously competent despite his silliness. Even Nightmare Moon was a relatively manageable threat in comparison..
 * Lecture As Exposition: Cheerilee in her role as teacher explaining just what "discord" means, which, while a vocabulary question, is highly relevant for the plot. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are put to do even more of the exposition for the audience by coming up with more common related words and acting discordantly, but Cheerilee is the one to point this out, too.
 * Mass Hypnosis:
 * Mass Oh Crap: (even Pinkie, though it doesn't last long) when the chest containing the Elements turns out to be empty. The look of abject horror on the normally placid-faced Celestia really underscores how bad this is.
 * Meekness Is Weakness: Discord tries to use this trope to hypnotize and corrupt Fluttershy, but it doesn't work.
 * Mind Control Eyes: Anyone in the process of coming under Discord's influence gets these, as extra insurance in his More Than Mind Control act.
 * Mood Whiplash:
 * Discord goes from his evil laugh to making fun of the ponies for their reaction.
 * Like the pilot episode, the cliffhanger suddenly cuts to the upbeat end credits.
 * Discord in general is a good use of this trope. Part of the thing that makes him  so horrific is you never see it coming considering how silly he looked and acted when we first see him...
 * More Than Mind Control:
 * Mythology Gag: By taking away their wings, Discord effectively turned Rainbow Dash into her G3 incarnation and Fluttershy into Posey.
 * Never Split the Party: Twilight declares (more than once, in fact) that they're at their strongest when they stick together. So of course they get split up the literal second they step foot in the maze.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The preview footage released made it seem like Discord would be powerful, but more silly and lighthearted, which disappointed a few people expecting a more Darker and Edgier villain.
 * Nice Job Breaking It Hero: The Cutie Mark Crusaders, by fighting in the presence of Discord's statue prison (i.e., creating discord), provide the means for his escape. Though, in their defense, his prison had already weakened enough that all he needed was a little bit of discord to break free.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It's explained that 1000 years ago, Celestia and Luna rose up against Discord's reign of chaos and terror and brought it to a halt by turning him to stone with the Elements Of Harmony. We don't know much about what happened, but it certainly sounds epic.
 * OOC Is Serious Business: Princess Celestia paces nervously and acts grave. Then she's surprised and shocked. Then she has no patience for fooling around with Discord. Until now, we'd never seen her any other way than calmly in control of the situation, with an appreciation for mischief and idiosyncrasy to boot. The simple fact she takes Discord so seriously and is so unnerved by his reappearance is the first sign he's a lot more dangerous than he appears to be.
 * Then Discord Hannibal Lectures and Mind Rapes the Mane Cast...
 * Order Versus Chaos: In a world where Harmony is evidently the most powerful force for good, it's not surprising Discord would be embodied with similar strength.
 * Perfectly Cromulent Word: "Victoryful".
 * Plot Mandated Friendship Failure:
 * Popcorn On the Cob: Applejack's corn field.
 * Rhymes On a Dime: The Keepers of the Grove talk like this.
 * Discord himself has a tendency to slip into rhyme when telling riddles.
 * Sadistic Choice:
 * Sanity Slippage: The discord mane ponies spends the two part episode having their misbehavior made worse every passing minute.
 * Scenery Gorn:
 * Screw This I'm Outta Here: Played for laughs when Pinkie's reaction to the Elements of Harmony being stolen is to go drink some more chocolate milk rain.
 * Played for Drama when Rainbow Dash takes her wings back and leaves for Cloudsdale
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Discord had been imprisoned in a stone statue by Celestia and Luna in ancient times. The Cutie Mark Crusaders release him by creating discord (fighting) in front of it, giving him the power to break free from his weakened prison.
 * Self Deprecation: Taken to comedic lengths with Fluttershy.

Fluttershy: Not at all. I am weak and helpless and I appreciate their understanding."


 * Self Fulfilling Prophecy: Kind of. Invoked by Discord when
 * Shout Out: To Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain", of all things.
 * The rabbits with long legs resemble Salvador Dali's paintings of elephants.
 * In a similar vein, when Rarity is wandering the maze, we see that it now defies gravity in a manner reminiscent of an Escher painting.
 * Discord is basically a Darker and Edgier Q with a weird body, which makes sense as Q's actor is Discord's VA!
 * Not only that, but Picard explicitly called Q "Next of kin to chaos" in Q Who.
 * Rainbow Dash charging at the stained glass window may be an allusion to Worf pointing his phaser at the viewscreen when Q's face appears on it in "Encounter at Farpoint".
 * Discord's status as a "silly" acting villain with reality warping abilities whose method of choice is psychologically attacking the heroines and breaking apart the bond they share may be inspired by Him from The Powerpuff Girls (which Lauren Faust worked on as well). He even appears as butterflies with his own face on them to tempt the yellow furred Nice Girl of the group, something Him did with Bubbles in "All Chalked Up".
 * Speak in Unison: Discord briefly holds a conversation in the form of a trio of butterflies.
 * Sugar Apocalypse:
 * Surprise Creepy: Discord was a silly looking Mix and Match Critter. The episode starts with chocolate rain from cotton candy clouds.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: All of the corrupted ponies, especially Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.
 * Visual Pun: More then one:
 * Applejack is, quite literally, tempted by apples of Discord.
 * The buffaloes appearing from time to time are doing the Shuffle Off to Buffalo.
 * Wham Line: The line that showed us once and for all that Discord meant business:
 * What the Hell Hero: Discord delivers one to Celestia.
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway: Discord's Break Them By Talking to Fluttershy calls her out as the weakest and most helpless of the ponies. He's been confined to a pedestal in a sculpture garden, so he probably didn't see Fluttershy's spotlight moments when she's shown that Heart Is an Awesome Power.
 * The Worf Effect: The ruler of Equestria herself, Princess Celestia, can do nothing at all against Discord since she has lost her connection to the Elements of Harmony.
 * World-Healing Wave: Twilight tries one, but it fails horribly; see Failsafe Failure above.
 * Xanatos Gambit: