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. In this episode, Twilight Sparkle and her friends band together to defeat Discord.

Summary
Beginning where the previous episode left off, Twilight, and a corrupt Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity are arguing with each other in the remnants of the castle labyrinth Discord razed to the ground. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are arguing about laughing, whereas Applejack and Rarity are arguing about Rarity's "diamond".

Discord is seen sitting on a couch and eating popcorn, enjoying the spectacle. Twilight demands to know how they could get the Elements of Harmony when Discord took down the maze before they could reach the end. Hearing this, he laughs and shows Twilight a flashback to when he gave Princess Celestia and the others his riddle, reminding her that he never said the Elements were in the labyrinth. Discord leaves to begin his reign of chaos, mockingly telling Twilight that maybe the "magic of friendship" can help. Twilight wonders what Discord meant by "back to where they began", and concludes that it means returning to Ponyville.

During an arduous journey back, her corrupted friends continue to cause trouble. Twilight meets Discord once again, who talks to her about the now-disoriented Ponyville becoming the "chaos capital of the world", before disappearing once again. They arrive at the library where Twilight and Spike resides, but not before the corrupt ponies become even more corrupt, signified by more color drain of their coats and manes. Once inside, Twilight asks Spike to retrieve the book about the Elements of Harmony, but is disturbed by the other ponies' desire to play Keep Away, passing the book around and preventing her from reading it. Once Twilight finally gets her hooves on the book, she finds that all of the Elements are inside it.

Frustrated that her friends no longer care about this discovery or the current crisis, Twilight forcefully puts the elements on Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity, and also Spike, who has taken up the role of Rainbow Dash. 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 to defeat Discord, but it does not work, and after losing all hope and confidence in her friends as they split up, Twilight's color drains to gray.

Twilight, hopeless, tells Spike that they are leaving Ponyville. However, Spike is seen regurgitating a seemingly endless pile of scrolls sent to him by Princess Celestia, which turn out to be all of the reports about friendship Twilight sent to her during her past adventures in Ponyville. After reading these scrolls, Twilight once again realizes the importance of friendship, regains her color, and sets out to restore the rest of the mane cast.

Meeting Applejack at her farm, Twilight uses a memory spell to show her images of past adventures with her friends into Applejack's mind. This reverts Applejack to her previous self, and restores her representation of the Element of Honesty, as well as her color. She then does the same to Fluttershy, who has been restrained with ropes in order for Twilight to be able to restore her back to her representation of the Element of Kindness. Twilight restores Rarity, who now once again represents the Element of Generosity and then Pinkie Pie, who can now represent the Element of Laughter.

The ponies, now back to their previous selves, find Rainbow Dash, who is still corrupted. She is sitting upon a small cloud, believing it to be Cloudsdale. Twilight and the other ponies sneak up to a sleeping Rainbow Dash in her hot air balloon, and Fluttershy tries to hold down Dash so Twilight can restore her personality. However, Fluttershy, now back to her kind personality, refused to take an aggressive approach and wakes Dash up, prompting her to grab onto "Cloudsdale" and fly away. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie begin chasing Rainbow Dash in the balloon, with Fluttershy propelling it. Applejack manages to catch Rainbow Dash with a rope, but the rope catches on Pinkie Pie and Rarity's hooves, dragging them out of the balloon, still attached to the elusive pegasus. Fluttershy is unable to keep up, until reminded about Discord's rule over Ponyville, after which she outpaces Rainbow Dash and the others are able to secure her down for Twilight to revert her back to her previous self.

The ponies, now back to their old selves, encounter Discord again, who is sitting on a throne drinking a glass of chocolate milk–he drinks the glass and throws away the chocolate milk. Discord, still confident of their inability to defeat him, makes himself an open target. However, because the six ponies can now wield their Elements once again, they combine their powers and fire a giant rainbow, just like they did when defeated Nightmare Moon. Discord looks in horror before he is turned to stone once more, Ponyville is reverted back to normal, and all chaos and disharmony caused by Discord is removed.

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 is unveiled depicting their victory.

Twilight learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt that it was worth fighting for.

Quotes

 * Pinkie Pie: You'd better THINK before you laugh at the PINK...ie Pie.


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


 * Fluttershy: Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?


 * Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy, I've had just about enough–[splash]


 * Fluttershy: Your face!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash.


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


 * Rarity: Let us never speak of this again.


 * Fluttershy: That. Big. Dumb. MEANIE!

Gallery



 * The Return of Harmony Part 2 image gallery

Trivia

 * The award ceremony at the end of the episode is almost an exact recreation of the ending of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Similarities include: the music, a shot of guards at either side of the door as it opens and reveals the heroes followed by a shot from the back of the heroes marching through the crowd, alternating close-ups on the princess and the heroes, a wink by one of the heroes to the princess, and a shot of the assistant standing to the side.