Discord

Discord is the Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, and the main antagonist of The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2. Once Discord escapes from his stone prison, Twilight Sparkle and her friends must act quickly to retrieve the Elements of Harmony in order to stop him.

Physical appearance

 * "This creature is called a draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body of all sorts of other things."
 * — Cheerilee

Discord has a horse-like head with a right deer antler, a left goat horn, a fang a beard, a lion's right arm, an eagle's talon for a left arm, a lizard right leg, a goat left leg, a bat right wing, a pegasus left wing, a snake tail and tongue and different sized pupils.

Personality
In The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2, Discord is shown to be a mischievous, manipulative trickster who uses powerful magic and illusions to alter reality and control others. During the two episodes, he seeks revenge against Celestia and Luna for imprisoning him in stone, by stealing the Elements of Harmony and causing disorder all across Equestria.

He has a sense of showmanship and drama, preferring to be playful towards his victims before getting down to business, even mocking and bantering with Celestia and the six main ponies in Canterlot Tower, after he first appears. He delights in chaos and confusion at the expense of others and believes that the laws of reality are beneath him. While attempting to corrupt Fluttershy, he shows his lack of patience when he finds he can't corrupt her as easily as he did with the others.

Discord delights in causing others to act almost like their total opposites. In The Return of Harmony Part 2, he relishes breaking Twilight's spirit, and belief in the power of friendship, believing that he has now won, and that he and his chaos are unstoppable, due to Twilight's belief in friendship being the key to defeating him. His "Playful Persecution" shows through, as he acts the part of Twilight's friend; encouraging her to get in the spirit of the new chaotic Ponyville, and attempting to get her to watch his tricks. When he sees her moping under a cloud of chocolate rain, he even removes it from above her, and eats it. However, when she says she is leaving, he celebrates the departure of one of the last who could stop him.

During the two episodes, Discord underestimates the ponies' ability to restore their friendship and wield the Elements of Harmony. During their final confrontation, he still believes that their friendship is broken, which leads him to sit idly by while the ponies use the magic of the Elements to turn him back into stone.

It is interesting to note that Discord displays little in the way of malice, anger, or hate - the Traditional "evil" emotions for a villain. His main motivation seems to be to have fun through chaos, as shown that he prefers to play pranks on the citizens of Ponyville--through the use of his powers--than actually hurting them, and when he laughs hysterically after pulling a prank. However he has a complete lack of regard for the feelings of others, and the nature of his fun is usually at someone else's expense.

History
Discord first appears in The Return of Harmony Part 1. Before he is introduced, the effects of his presence are seen, with clouds made out of cotton candy that move of their own accord, chocolate milk pouring down from the sky as if like rain, and animals that behave uncharacteristically and spontaneously change shape. Princess Celestia explains to Twilight and her friends that Discord is the spirit of disharmony. He was a powerful and anarchistic menace to Equestria that caused unrest and unhappiness throughout all of Equestria for earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi alike. Celestia and her sister Luna rose up against Discord and used the Elements of Harmony to turn him to stone. Celestia continues, explaining that since she and Luna are no longer connected to the Elements of Harmony, the spell imprisoning Discord broke and he has escaped from his stone prison. When the Elements of Harmony go missing, Celestia accuses Discord of stealing them, because they were held in a chamber protected by a spell that she believed only she could break. Discord appears in the stained-glass windows of the palace and replies with a riddle, which Twilight connects with the Canterlot castle labyrinth.

When Twilight and her friends venture into the palace labyrinth, Discord magically removes the ponies' wings and horns so that they would be unable to use their magic or be able to fly to "cheat" in the "game" he forces them to take part in. He also separates them by raising sections of the labyrinth's walls. Discord uses representations of the cast's cutie marks to subtly manipulate them into behaving in discordance with the element they represent, with the exception of Fluttershy who doesn't fall for Discord's manipulation, leading him to snap and simply convert her by touch.

He eventually plays with Rainbow Dash's loyalty to her friends by showing her a vision that her hometown of Cloudsale would be destroyed without her. He offers her a choice: she can either have her wings back and go to the aid of Cloudsdale, or continue seeking the Elements. This tricks her into flying out of the labyrinth, breaking Discord's first rule that magic and wings are forbidden, so he wins. Discord then causes the entire labyrinth to collapse, and standing before the five remaining ponies, gleefully states that Equestria will now be thrust into eternal chaos.

When Twilight lashes out at him, Discord warps them back in time, to help Twilight with the riddle he spoke of earlier, afterwards turning Ponyville into what he claims will be his 'capital of chaos'. When Twilight forcefully places the elements on the corrupted ponies and Spike, (substituting for the absent Rainbow Dash) the Elements don't work, so Discord continues his chaos. When Twilight finally cures all her corrupted friends, Discord continues to act calm and complacent, thus allowing him to be easily defeated with the reawakened powers of the Elements. After being struck with a rainbow similar to that previously used on Night Mare Moon, Discord was turned back into stone, but this time with an expression of horror frozen onto his face.

Gallery



 * Discord image gallery

Trivia

 * See also the corresponding episode sections on the animation errors page. 
 * See also the corresponding episode sections on the animation errors page. 


 * A creature composed of several different animals is called a chimera. While Discord is technically a chimera in that sense, this term is not used in the show.
 * The word "draconequus" is composed of Greek "drakon" and Latin "equus", meaning "lizard horse".
 * Much like John de Lancie's popular character Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Discord appears with a bright white flash, and the two even share some mannerisms, including a fondness for "games" and snapping his fingers to use his powers. [In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Q Who", Picard refers to Q as "...next of kin to chaos"]
 * When Discord manipulates Rainbow Dash, his horns are backwards.
 * After his encounter with Fluttershy, he says "arrivederci", which means "goodbye" in Italian.