My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E02 The Return of Harmony Part 2

Continued from "The Return of Harmony Part 1".


"Twilight Sparkle: We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute! That just about covers it!"

"Written by M.A. Larson"

When we last left our heroes, Twilight's friends had all fallen under the influence of Discord and become their opposite selves: the honest Applejack is a compulsive (and transparent) liar, the generous Rarity is greedily obsessing over a boulder she thinks is a giant diamond, the fun-loving Pinkie Pie is a grump, the kindly Fluttershy is a Jerkass, and the loyal Rainbow Dash has run out on her friends. Equestria is doomed!

*cue happy theme music*

Twilight starts to call out Discord on not playing fair in his little "game" by removing the labyrinth prematurely; Discord points out that he never said the Elements of Harmony were in the hedge maze, and that Twilight misinterpreted his riddle and fell into his trap as a result. He stays around just long enough to mock Twilight and "the magic of friendship" before leaving to cause more chaos.

Twilight finally has an epiphany about the meaning of Discord's riddle, and concludes that the Elements of Harmony are hidden where her first adventure with her friends began: Ponyville. She drags the others back to Ponyville, which is showing Discord's influence: among other weirdness, buildings are randomly floating, the dirt roads are turned into soap, and day and night cycle seemingly at random. The attitude of Twilight's friends (which is getting progressively worse) isn't helping things at all, especially when they decide to play Keep-Away with her copy of The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.

Twilight, her patience with her "friends" wearing thin, finally gets her hooves on the book, and finds the Elements hidden inside. She forces the Elements onto the others (with Spike acting as a hasty stand-in for Rainbow Dash) and heads out to confront Discord, who seems resigned to give the ponies a shot at defeating him. Twilight powers up the elements, there's a familiar glow of power, and...

Nothing happens.

Without the bonds of friendship, the Elements are powerless, and Twilight's former companions leave in a huff. Twilight, utterly dejected, finally falls under Discord's corruption; she despondently walks home through the surreal madhouse that is now Ponyville, convinced that her friends (and any hope of defeating Discord) are lost for good.

"Twilight Sparkle: With friends like you...who needs enemies?"

When Twilight gets home, however, she finds Spike in quite a state, nauseous from burping up countless letters from Princess Celestia. They're copies of all the friendship reports she's sent to the princess during her stay in Ponyville. Reading over them, Twilight is reminded of her lessons of friendship, which breaks Discord's corruption and inspires her to redouble her fight. Tracking down Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, she frees them from Discord's influence by using a memory spell to remind them of all their good times. When they find Rainbow Dash clinging to a cloud that she thinks is Cloudsdale, the five endure a harrowing aerial chase before finally returning her to normal.

Once again, Twilight Sparkle and her friends are set to take on Discord, who fails to realize that they've broken free of his influence.

"Discord: Will you ever learn? Twilight Sparkle: I'll tell you what we've learned, Discord! We've learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!"

Discord remains smugly confident that the Elements of Harmony are still powerless, only to learn otherwise when they hit him head-on, trapping him in stone once more. Back in Canterlot, the bearers of the Elements receive much-deserved congratulations from Princess Celestia...as well as a new stained-glass window commemorating their defeat of Discord.

*cue epic mu......network promos*

Tropes (see here for YMMVs)
"Pinkie Pie: You better THINK before you laugh at the PINK! (*pause*)...ie Pie!"
 * A Glass of Chianti: Kid-friendly variation: Discord enjoys a chocolate milk of glass while lounging on his throne. It's non-alcoholic, but his mannerisms give it the same effect as it was.
 * Alone in a Crowd:
 * All Animals Are Dogs: When Twilight hears Discord insult Celestia and when Pinkie Pie gets in formation, they snarl like dogs. Discorded Big Macintosh acts like a dog/cartoon gopher hybrid.
 * Pinkie's growl was more big cat or bearlike than doglike.
 * Regardless of how Pinkie's growl sounded, both she and Twilight are on a human-level of intelligence and are therefore likely making an active choice to growl like that in the way angry humans will sometimes growl or snarl at the target of their anger.
 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle:
 * Anti-Magic: The protective bubble Twilight creates against Discord's telekinesis also turns the portion of the ground it lands on back to normal. Her own telekinesis still works inside it, allowing her to lower everyone down to the ground.
 * Anything But That: Fluttershy can't fly fast enough to catch Rainbow Dash (so they can cure her), until she's reminded of that if she doesn't, Discord wins, and Fluttershy is so angry at the thought that it causes her to double her speed.
 * Asskicking Pose: Subverted twice. Once with the apathetic corrupted ponies, and another when Pinkie decides to have one last sip of chocolate milk rain.
 * Astral Checkerboard Decor: creepy checkerboard ground in the scenes where the mane cast confront Discord on his throne.
 * Badass Boast: Parodied.

""This may look like it's fun, but it's not!""
 * The Bad Guy Wins:
 * Bad Liar: In addition to Corrupted Applejack, Corrupted Pinkie Pie turns out to be this. She's tries very hard to be taken seriously, and as such denies when she's having fun.

""Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, and... big crown thingy! All right, let's do this!""
 * Big No:
 * Big Yes/Victory Pose: Discord shouts "YES!" and does a celebratory fist pump after Twilight dejectedly says she's leaving Ponyville, broken completely thanks to his actions. This is perhaps one of the cruelest acts in all of Animation.
 * Big Ball of Violence: Happens briefly between Twilight and her friends when Twilight is trying to get the book on the Elements of Harmony.
 * Book Safe: The Elements of Harmony turn out to be hidden in a book in the Ponyville library.
 * Break the Cutie:
 * Brick Joke: The "slenderbunnies" (including Angel) from Part 1 show up to stampede over Twilight.
 * From the same episode, Pinkie Pie's love of the chocolate rain,
 * Buffy-Speak: Twilight descends into this...mostly due to frustration.

"Fluttershy: Um ... I'm just wondering if it's okay if I hold you down against your will for a little bit?"
 * Butt Monkey: Twilight, as usual (and maybe even worse)...
 * Also, Spike.
 * Call Back: Twilight recalls her attitude on friendship when she first arrived in Ponyville: "The fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends." She of course realizes now how wrong she was.
 * Cassandra Truth:
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Closest Thing We Got: "Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash!"
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Played straight for the viewers, teased in-universe.
 * Companion Cube: Rarity starts calling her "diamond" Tom.
 * Conspicuously Light Patch: The Elements of Harmony book really stands out against the others on the shelf.
 * Continuity Nod
 * Twilight's Exposition Beam contains flashbacks to numerous episodes.
 * The buffalo from "Over a Barrel" dance across the foreground a few times.
 * When Discord turns the roads into soap, Pinkie is able to "skate" along them easily, calling back to her job in the Winter Wrap-Up.
 * When the mane characters
 * Spike sending a hundred scrolls to Princess Celestia by accident was funny. Not so much the other way around.
 * The first time the girls (and Spike) try to use the Elements, their poses are surly/apathetic versions of the way they posed when defeating Nightmare Moon.
 * A subtle one in one of the old "friendship reports": "And like the path cut through the orchard, there'll always be a way through" isn't from any episode, but it still recalls "Over a Barrel", where the solution involved a literal path cut through an orchard, and where the actual report contained a close paraphrase of some lyrics from Pinkie Pie's song, the same song that ended with "and there'll always be a way through."
 * Rainbow Dash lounging on a cloud and idly waving a hoof is a duplicate of her introduction in the premiere, except this time she doesn't care about anyone else.
 * Crap Saccharine World: Discord's reign pretty much turns Equestria into this. While it looks silly on the surface, everyone seems to have gone insane and it's getting progressively more chaotic by the moment.
 * Cruel Mercy:
 * Darkest Hour:
 * Death by Irony:
 * Defeat Equals Friendship: Discord sarcastically tells the heroes to "friend me" with their Elements of Harmony. He knows as well as we do that that's not what they do.
 * Despair Event Horizon:
 * Didn't See That Coming:
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
 * Dramatic Irony:
 * Driven to Madness: All of Equestria pretty much after Discord takes over.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending:
 * Eldritch Location: Discord turns Ponyville into this. He changes the dirt roads into soap, has several buildings floating in mid-air, the water is pink, the ground is painted like a checkerboard, and cotton candy clouds hover over the city yet only rain on half of it. The worst part? This is just the opening act.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
 * Evil Is Petty: Discorded Fluttershy pretty much runs on this. If she sees the opportunity to be a jerk, she'll act on it in a heartbeat.
 * Exact Words: Twilight protests when Discord removes the maze without giving them a chance to find the Elements of Harmony. Discord responds by pointing out that he never said they were in the maze. Meanwhile, the maze was certainly part of his master plan as he said.
 * Exposition Beam: How Twilight undoes her friends' brainwashing, by reminding them of all the good times they'd had together.
 * Facehoof: Done by Twilight when Fluttershy actually asks Rainbow Dash if she can restrain her.

"Fluttershy: Hey, Twilight! What's soaking wet and clueless? Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy, I've just about had enough... (Fluttershy dumps a bucket of water on Twilight's head) Fluttershy: Your FACE! (Fluttershy slams the bucket on Twilight's head)"
 * Final Exam Finale:
 * Flaw Exploitation:
 * Floating Continent: Discord suspends several buildings in Ponyville on top of floating islands in the air.
 * For the Evulz: Not just Discord, but also Fluttershy under her new mandate to be cruel. Applejack gets a bit like this, too, but not really beyond the level of It Amused Me.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Rather than just Twilight, the entire mane cast sports these
 * Heroic BSOD: After spending half the episode trying to stop Discord,.
 * She's Back: All the mane ponies. Princess Celestia encourages this in Twilight with the letters.
 * Hollywood Darkness: When the night randomly comes.
 * Humiliation Conga:
 * I Meant to Do That: Corrupted Applejack is still a Bad Liar.
 * Ironic Echo: Twilight quotes that "the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends" after.
 * It's Personal: By the time all is said and done, Discord has pretty much done everything he possibly could to make his confrontation with the Mane Cast personal. Case in point, Fluttershy actually insults him. Sure, calling someone a "BIG. DUMB. MEANIE!" isn't exactly the worst thing you could call someone, but getting Fluttershy to say something insulting about him at all shows just how far Discord has pushed everypony.
 * Jerkass: All of the corrupted ponies, but corrupted Fluttershy deserves special mention. Her Fan Nickname is Flutterbitch for a reason.
 * Jerkass: All of the corrupted ponies, but corrupted Fluttershy deserves special mention. Her Fan Nickname is Flutterbitch for a reason.

"Twilight Sparkle: If you can't catch her, Discord wins! Fluttershy: (*gasp!*) That. Big. Dumb. MEANIE!"
 * Kick the Dog: Discord does this a lot, but his Big Yes/Victory Pose when he sees he's broken Twilight completely is the most notable. It stands out because out of all the horrible things he does, this is the only time he doesn't use his Faux Affably Evil act to hide the fact he's taking sadistic glee in the act.
 * Kirk Summation:
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Fluttershy is able to  when Twilight reminds her that the fate of Equestria is at stake.

"Rarity: How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of cloud is Cloudsdale? Applejack: The same way he got you to think that cheap rock was a bona fide diamond? Rarity: ...I thought we agreed never to speak of that again."
 * Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Rarity, post-corruption, word for word. Quickly subverted by Applejack.

"Twilight Sparkle: (dejected) I never thought it would happen. My friends... (pause) Twilight Sparkle: (angry) ...have turned into COMPLETE JERKS!"
 * Little No:
 * The Load: Tom.
 * Made of Explodium: Discord's chocolate milk of glass. He drinks the glass, not the milk, and the leftover milk blows up when he tosses it aside.
 * Memento MacGuffin:
 * Mind Screw: Nearly every aspect of Discorded Ponyville, though it's to be expected.
 * Mood Dissonance: After her failed attempt to defeat Discord, Twilight sadly walks back to the library, her head hung low...while all sorts of madness goes on around her.
 * Mood Whiplash: All the creepiness of the "Previously On..." followed by the cute-as-hell theme song.
 * Also done in-story when Twilight realizes her "friends" aren't interested in helping her stop Discord.

"Discord: Bravo ponies! Bravo! Harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools."
 * Eucatastrophe:
 * Never Say "Die": After, Discord declares harmony in Equestria to be "officially dead." It's hard to call the trope averted, though, since "is dead" is a fairly common expression for the end of a concept.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: At the end of part 1 when Discord  Discord actually gave Twilight the means to defeat him by doing this, as
 * No Ontological Inertia:
 * Nothing Can Stop Us Now: Discord pretty much gives one of these speeches after

"Twilight: All right, ladies. Let's show him what friendship can do!"
 * Not Quite Flight: Unicorn Twilight Sparkle appears to use this when teleporting directly into the air and projecting the force field around her friends.
 * Oh Crap:
 * Out-Gambitted: Discord has destroyed all of Celestia's defenses against him via impossible theft and by manipulating and breaking her champions. Celestia arranges his defeat by sending some letters.
 * Painting the Medium: During a pan of Ponyville in chaos, a pony runs along the edges of the frame.
 * Pass the Popcorn: Discord finds the ponies fighting most entertaining.
 * Personal Chocolate Raincloud: Twilight gets one when she walks home sadly after her failed first attempt to confront Discord with the Elements. Discord was most likely invoking the trope in order to be a dick.
 * Pensieve Flashback: Discord takes Twilight on a brief one.
 * Pet the Dog: Subverted. After Twilight, Discord seems surprised and concerned for a few seconds, making an attempt to  . When  , he stops and looks after her for a moment. Cue Big Yes.
 * The Power of Friendship: Even Twilight had forgotten just how powerful this could be.
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner:

"(after the day abruptly turns to night) Wow, I can see so much better now."
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "That big. Dumb. MEANIE!"
 * Putting the Band Back Together
 * Reality Is Out to Lunch: Ponyville under Discord's influence.
 * Reality Warper: Discord, obviously. To go into detail, towards the end, he holds out a glass under some chocolate milk rain, which fills from top to bottom. A moment later, he then drinks the glass and throws away the milk. Which then explodes. And the explosion makes things darker.
 * Rule of Symbolism:.
 * Running Gag: Corrupted Pinkie Pie angrily declaring "I hate ___!".
 * Sarcasm Mode: Some of Applejack's bad lies veer into this territory.

"Twilight: Where is she? Where's Rarity? Applejack: Beats me! Twilight: !"
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: One of the few examples where the evil is.
 * Shout-Out: A band of heroes being commended by the ruler of the land in a grand hall in front of a crowd in a mostly non-verbal scene and a swelling score, and then an Iris Out to the credits may remind you of something... (And if you need any more help...) Doubles as a Call Back to the way the corresponding episode in season 1 mirrors The Phantom Menace.
 * And directly before that
 * All of this is a bit ironic, considering the guest star of this two-parter is a Star Trek actor.
 * Additionally, Discorded Equestria seems to take a whole lot of cues from Wackyland.
 * Discorded Equestria also bears a resemblance to Skaia.
 * And the Special Zones in Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * In one "nighttime" scene, we see several buildings in Discorded Ponyville on floating islands, including a floating windmill.
 * Discord finishing his drink, then throwing it out before the final battle could be a Shout-Out to Castlevania
 * "Girls! I found the Elements of Harmony... You don't even care, do you?"
 * When the ponies unite using the Elements Of Harmony, their power forms a rainbow that turns Discord back to stone. It then turns into a double rainbow that restores Ponyville all the way back from what Discord had done to it.
 * Yes, that's a double rainbow...and eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain. Yay, memes!
 * Shut UP, Hannibal:
 * Shut Up, Kirk: When Twilight complains about Discord not playing fair, he reminds her that he's the spirit of disharmony.
 * Slippery Skid: Discord turns the dirt roads into soap.
 * Sneeze of Doom: Discord sprinkles Berry Punch with pepper making her sneeze which causes every tree and house around her to topple like pieces of cardboard.
 * Someone Elses Problem: Corrupted Rainbow Dash's philosophy on chaotic Equestria in general and Discord in particular.
 * Taken for Granite:
 * Team Mom: Twilight takes the position for most of the episode. Considering the circumstances, it's no wonder it's not working out at first.
 * Tempting Fate:
 * Ten-Minute Retirement: When  and her friends seem to be irrevocably corrupted, Twilight Sparkle is ready to throw in the towel.
 * That Liar Lies: When Twilight wants to know where Rarity took the book on the Elements.
 * That Liar Lies: When Twilight wants to know where Rarity took the book on the Elements.

"Maybe it's a little early for a group hug."
 * That Poor Cat: Lets out a yowl when Twilight begins fighting with her friends.
 * This Cannot Be!:
 * This Means War: When Fluttershy calls Discord a "Big. Dumb. MEANIE!" and gets downright furious at the mere possibility of him winning, you know he's in for it.
 * Title Theme Drop: A very brief and understated one (it's literally just a staccato piccolo playing the intro) when Fluttershy wakes up Rainbow Dash.
 * Transformation Is a Free Action: Played with. When the ponies power up the Elements of Harmony after reuniting, Discord just sits there on his throne not interfering, as he believes the Elements have lost their power.  However, he did actively try to steal them prior to that; Twilight cut his attempt off with a quick teleport and a barrier spell.
 * Victory Is Boring: Subverted; Discord seems disappointed when Twilight Sparkle refuses to react to the chaos around her and simply gives up, only to cheer loudly as soon as Twilight is out of earshot.
 * Villain World: Discord pretty much rules Equestria most of the episode, turning it into a chaotic World Gone Mad where everypony is Driven to Madness, with Ponyville as his "chaos capital of the world".
 * Wacky Sound Effect: Everything Discord does is punctuated by a weird sound effect! His umbrella meows, his claps are a series of random sounds, and his chocolate milk squeaks.
 * Wasted Song: The end credits use a modified sequence meant to go with the Star Wars shout out above... but The Hub's standard credit squeeze blocks it out. Some repeats and the iTunes version use the full sequence.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: "This is my book, and I'm going to READ IT!"
 * With Friends Like These...: Said almost word for word by Twilight when dealing with her corrupted friends.
 * Word Schmord: The brainwashed Rainbow Dash does this with "loyalty."
 * World-Healing Wave:
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle:

"Rarity: Oh Fluttershy, would you be a dear and fly faster please! Fluttershy: I can't! Twilight: If you can't catch [Rainbow Dash], Discord wins!
 * X Must Not Win: Where in this case, "X" refers to Discord. It's a major driving force for the main ponies, especially Fluttershy.

Fluttershy: That big... dumb... MEANIE!"