The Return of Harmony Part 2

The Return of Harmony Part 2 is the second episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the twenty-eighth episode overall. In this episode, Twilight Sparkle must find the Elements of Harmony, and a way to restore her friends, in order to defeat Discord.

Development
According to Lauren Faust, Applejack was originally scripted to climb to the top of the balloon to get to the basket to rope Rainbow Dash.

Unlike in Boast Busters, Call of the Cutie, and Party of One, the Treehouse airing of this episode didn't mute the word "loser" when Fluttershy says it.

A storm of chaos
Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity argue in the remnants of the castle hedge maze in Canterlot. When Twilight tells Discord he unfairly claimed that the Elements of Harmony were hidden in the maze, he reminds her that he never said so. Discord leaves to begin his reign of chaos, mockingly telling Twilight that maybe the "magic of friendship" can help her. Twilight decides to search for the Elements of Harmony in Ponyville.

Finding the Elements of Harmony
On the return trip to Ponyville by foot, the disgruntled ponies encounter soapy roads and long-legged bunnies. Discord reappears, announces to Twilight that Ponyville will become the "chaos capital of the world", and vanishes. The ponies finally arrive at Golden Oak Library, but when Twilight tries to usher her friends inside, they lose even more of their color. Rarity refuses to go inside, saying she's on to Twilight's "plan" to steal "Tom" from her. Twilight finds out that Tom is Rarity's name for the boulder. Resigned, Twilight levitates the boulder and crashes it through the door, leaving a giant hole in the wall. Once inside, Twilight asks Spike to retrieve the book about the Elements of Harmony, but her friends play a game of Keep Away with the book, keeping it out of her reach. Once Twilight finally gets her hooves on the book, she finds that all of the Elements of Harmony are tucked away inside. The book containing the Elements of Harmony actually has the cover of the book that contains the original myth concerning the princess sisters. In Friendship is Magic, part 2, the book cover was red with a unicorn head facing the other way surrounded by six diamonds.

Frustrated that her friends no longer care about this discovery or the current crisis, Twilight forcefully puts the elements on Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike, who she assigns the role of Rainbow Dash. Twilight rallies the ponies with the plan of defeating Discord so they never have to see each other again, and they all gleefully go outside, except Rarity, who has trouble pushing "Tom" ahead of her. Twilight angrily chucks the boulder out the window, leaving another giant hole in the wall. Discord appears outside of the library, taunting them into stopping him by making a bulls-eye appear on his chest for them to "fire" at. Twilight attempts to combine the elements' power to defeat Discord, with Spike standing in for Rainbow Dash, but nothing happens. As the ponies go their separate ways, Twilight's colors turn dull and she sheds a tear that splatters in the shape of a broken heart. Discord celebrates his victory as Ponyville is driven even deeper into total chaos.

"With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?"

- Twilight Sparkle

Re-discovering the importance of friendship
Twilight throws away her element of Magic tiara and tells Spike that they are leaving Ponyville. However, Spike starts regurgitating a seemingly endless pile of scrolls from Princess Celestia, which turn out to be all of the friendship reports Twilight had sent to her during her time in Ponyville. After reading her own friendship reports, Twilight remembers the importance of friendship, regains her resolve and color, and sets out to recover the rest of her friends. The show chronicles twenty-four friendship reports that Twilight writes to Celestia prior to this episode, but there are many more scrolls that Celestia sends back to Twilight in this episode.

Reverting to their previous selves
Twilight finds Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres, and uses a memory spell to project memories of past adventures with her friends into Applejack's mind. Applejack regains her color and goes back to her original self. She confesses that she told lies because she could not face a future of their friendship ending. Twilight then performs the same spell on Fluttershy, and Fluttershy exclaims that she just had the worst dream. Twilight restores Rarity, who tosses away the boulder and says, "Let us never speak of this again." Next is Pinkie Pie, who laughs at her previous predicament.

The friends find Rainbow Dash, who is still brainwashed and sitting upon a small cloud, believing it to be Cloudsdale. Twilight and the other ponies sneak up to a sleeping Rainbow Dash in Twilight's balloon, and Fluttershy tries to hold down Dash so Twilight can restore her personality. However, Fluttershy, now back to her kind personality, cannot take an aggressive approach and wakes up Dash to politely ask her if she can hold her down. This prompts Dash to grab onto "Cloudsdale" and fly away. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie give chase in the balloon, which Fluttershy is pulling. Applejack manages to lasso Rainbow Dash, but the rope catches on Pinkie Pie and Rarity's hooves, dragging them out of the balloon as Rarity yells that Pinkie was supposed to secure the rope, still attached to the elusive Pegasus. Fluttershy is unable to keep up until she is reminded about Discord's rule over Ponyville. She outpaces Rainbow Dash and the others are able to secure her while Twilight reverts Dash to her previous self.

Confronting Discord
"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."

- Twilight Sparkle

The friends confront Discord, who is sitting on a throne holding a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks the glass and throws away the chocolate milk, which explodes. Discord, still confident of their inability to defeat him, makes himself an open target. However, now that the six ponies can wield their elements, they combine their powers and fire a giant rainbow, just like they did when they defeated Nightmare Moon, causing an explosion much like Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom. Discord watches in horror before he is turned to stone once more. Ponyville goes back to normal, and all chaos and disharmony caused by Discord is neutralized.

Ending
At the end of the episode, Princess Celestia holds a ceremony in Canterlot, honoring the ponies for defeating Discord, where a new stained glass window depicting the friends' victory is unveiled.

Closing sequence
According to director Jayson Thiessen, one of the storyboard artists decided to board the award ceremony sequence at the end of the episode as a shot-for-shot equivalent of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, though parts of the sequence were ultimately cut to shorten the episode.

Credits
This is the last episode where Lauren Faust is executive producer, the last episode to use the original theme song, and the last episode where DHX Media is credited as "Studio B". This is also the first episode to not feature the My Little Pony theme in the end credits.

Quotes

 * Discord: [laughing]
 * Pinkie Pie: And what are you laughing at?
 * Discord: Ho, you ponies are just the most fun I've had in aeons.
 * Pinkie Pie: Well, quit it! You'd better think before you laugh at the Pink...ie Pie!
 * Fluttershy: Oh, yeah? Well ha, ha.
 * Pinkie Pie: Quit it!
 * Fluttershy: No. Ha, ha.
 * Pinkie Pie: Quit it!
 * Fluttershy: No. Ha ha-ha ha ha.


 * Discord: Keep trying, Twilight Sparkle. [mockingly] Maybe the magic of friendship can help you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some chaos to wreak.


 * Fluttershy: Good boy, Angel. Mama's so proud!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Discord's turned our dirt roads into SOAP!
 * Discord: Beautiful, isn't it?


 * Discord: Picture it, the chaos capital of the world!
 * Twilight Sparkle: I can't picture anything, it's too dark.
 * Discord: Well, wait a few minutes and then you'll see the beautiful light of day, or not.


 * Spike: [snore] Ah! Brrr! What did you do that for, Fluttershy?
 * Fluttershy: 'Cause you just looked so peaceful.


 * Spike: Twilight? What's going on? Why does everybody look so…grey?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Don't ask.


 * Fluttershy: Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy, I've had just about enough–[splash]
 * Fluttershy: Your face! [bang]


 * Twilight Sparkle: Hey! Applejack, gimme that book!
 * Applejack: I don't have any book.


 * Twilight Sparkle: [strained groan] Give me that book! Where is she? Where's Rarity?
 * Applejack: Beats me.


 * Twilight Sparkle: See girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony! Together!
 * Applejack: [yawns]
 * Twilight Sparkle: You don't even care, do you?
 * All: No!
 * Twilight Sparkle: [sigh] I never thought it would happen. My friends... have turned into complete JERKS! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And big crown thingy! Come on everypony, let's go!
 * Spike: But Twilight, aren't you missing somepony?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Nope. We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute. That just about covers it.
 * Spike: But what about Rainbow Dash?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!
 * Spike: Me? B-b-but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her? [moan] That won't end well.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Too bad! You're Rainbow Dash!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Look out! Here comes Tom! [crash]


 * Twilight Sparkle: What's going on?
 * Applejack: Mine's workin'. There must be somethin' wrong with yours.
 * Pinkie Pie: I HATE the Elements of Harmony!
 * Fluttershy: Hmph! Garbage.
 * Rarity: MINE!


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


 * Spike: [moaning]
 * Twilight Sparkle: You're right, Spike. I've got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!


 * Applejack: Wh-What happened? Twilight! [sigh] I saw a vision of us feudin' and fightin'. I couldn't face the truth so I started telling lies. Can you ever forgive me?


 * Rarity: Let us never speak of this again.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Rainbow Dash!
 * Rainbow Dash: Hey guys!
 * Twilight Sparkle: We've been looking everywhere for you!
 * Rainbow Dash: That's nice.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Discord's still on the loose! We need you to help us defeat him with your element, loyalty!
 * Rainbow Dash: Pfft! Loyalty, schmoyalty! Have you seen Ponyville? It's a disaster! I'm staying here in Cloudsdale where everything's awesome.
 * Rarity: How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of clouds 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.


 * Fluttershy: Um, I'm just wondering if it's okay if I held you down against your will for a little bit.


 * Rarity: Oh, Fluttershy, would you be a dear and fly faster, please?
 * Fluttershy: [whimper] I can't!
 * Twilight Sparkle: If you can't catch her, Discord wins!
 * Fluttershy: That... big... dumb... MEANIE!


 * Rainbow Dash: Lemme go! I don't need you guys! Leave me alone!


 * Discord: [laughter] Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Not as wonderful as friendship.
 * Discord: Oh, this again?
 * [explosion]


 * Twilight Sparkle: All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!
 * Pinkie Pie: Wait-wait-wait! [drinks chocolate rain, growl]