Discord

Discord is the antagonist featured in The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2. In The Return of Harmony Part 1, Princess Celestia explains that before their rule over Equestria, she and her sister had imprisoned him in stone using the Elements of Harmony, but now that the sisters are no longer connected to the elements, the spell has broken. Discord begins to break out of his prison when the Cutie Mark Crusaders start bickering about the very meaning of the word "discord". After Discord escapes and begins to wreak havoc in Ponyville, Celestia sends Twilight Sparkle and her friends on a quest to recover the missing Elements of Harmony in order to stop Discord. However, the Elements' physical tokens have no effect on him, and he is vanquished only when the friends unite against him and unleash the power of friendship. The word Discord is defined as a lack of harmony or a disagreement.

Development
Jayson Thiessen, the show's director, stated that the character Discord was "straight off Lauren [Faust]'s pen" and was inspired by John de Lancie's popular character Q from the Star Trek television series. At first, the production was planning on having a voice actor that sounded like de Lancie, and were later thrilled to find that they could have de Lancie himself for the part. John de Lancie let slip at a Calgary Expo panel that he had lent his voice again for a future episode; he later confirmed this on Twitter. He has not explicitly referred to Discord by name as the character he voices.

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".

Starting with season 3, this will be the first time in the series that a major antagonist is in an episode rather than the premiere or finale of a season.

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

The word "draconequus" is composed of the Latin "draco" and "equus", meaning "dragon-horse". Discord is a combination of many body parts from different creatures. His head is horse-like, much different from the other character's head styles, with a deer antler on the right, a goat horn on the left, one long fang, different-sized pupils, a snake tongue, and a goat beard. He has the right arm of a lion, the left claw of an eagle, the right leg of a lizard, and the left leg of a goat. In addition, he has a bat's right wing, a Pegasus' left wing, a horse's mane and a dragon-like snake's tail with a white tail tuft. The shape of his body resembles that of a snake. While Discord is technically a chimera, which is a creature with parts from multiple animals, this term is not used in the show. Interestingly enough Discord also bares a striking resemblance to the Chinese dragon, often described as having a serpentine body, but with elements of a horse, reindeer and even lion, or tiger.

Personality
"Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?"

- Discord

In The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2, Discord is shown to be a mischievous, manipulative trickster who pulls gags on his targets through the use of his powerful magic, illusions, and hypnotism, with little to no consideration towards his victims. 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. He is seen laughing at the expense of others and often manipulates the laws of reality for the sake of his own amusement, often at the cost of others. Among other things, Discord reverses the ponies' behavior, making Twilight Sparkle miserable and depressed, and generally causing ridiculous and horrific things to happen.

Discord is arrogant and overconfident, as he underestimated the ponies' ability to restore their friendship and wield the Elements of Harmony. Despite having a fondness for anarchy and chaos, he can become easily annoyed if things don't go according to his plan; he becomes impatient when he cannot corrupt Fluttershy as easily as the other ponies.

History
Discord first appears in The Return of Harmony Part 1 during the opening scene, encased as a statue in the Canterlot sculpture garden. The statue is posed in a cheerful manner, in contrast to the frightened pose that Discord assumes when being turned into stone at the end of the two episodes. Cheerilee, who is taking her Ponyville class on a field trip, stops the class to point out the draconequus, and the three Cutie Mark Crusaders get in a fight over what he represents.

Before he is introduced, the six leading characters witness the effects of his power in Ponyville. Inexplicably, things begin acting irregularly, such as clouds made out of cotton candy that move of their own accord, chocolate milk pouring down from the sky as if it were rain, and animals that behave uncharacteristically and spontaneously change shape. Princess Celestia explains to Twilight Sparkle and her friends that Discord is the spirit of disharmony in a way similar to Cheerilee's teaching. He caused unrest and unhappiness throughout all of Equestria for Earth ponies, unicorns and Pegasi alike. Princess Celestia and her sister, Luna, rose up against Discord and used the Elements of Harmony to turn him to stone. However, since she and Luna are no longer connected to the Elements of Harmony, the spell imprisoning Discord has broken 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, leading Twilight to believe that he hid the Elements in the Canterlot castle labyrinth.

When Twilight and her friends venture into the palace labyrinth, Discord prevents them from "cheating" in his "game" by magically removing the ponies' wings and horns. This enforces the first rule of his game: no flying and no magic. The second rule is that they must play the game, or else he wins. He physically separates them in the maze and the game begins. Discord uses representations of the friends' cutie marks to psychologically brainwash them into contradicting the elements they represent. The one exception is Fluttershy, who is not embittered by Discord's claim that her friends think she is helpless; he gets frustrated at the difficulty of upsetting Fluttershy, and manually brainwashes her. He bids her goodbye with an extremely agitated "arrivederci".

After making Applejack untruthful, Pinkie Pie disagreeable, Rarity selfish, and Fluttershy unkind, Discord plays with Rainbow Dash's loyalty to her friends by showing her a vision that her hometown of Cloudsdale 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 to seek the Elements. Falling for the bait, she flies out of the labyrinth and breaks Discord's "no flying and no magic" rule. Discord, having "won," destroys the entire labyrinth and proclaims that they "might be due for a big old storm of chaos".

Twilight is upset when Discord takes away the maze before they can find the Elements of Harmony until Discord reveals they were not in the labyrinth. Discord magically shows her the riddle again, and she realizes that the Elements are "back where she began". Afterwards, Discord turns Ponyville into what he claims will be the "chaos capital of Equestria". Twilight finds the elements and forcibly places them on the corrupted ponies and Spike (substituting for the absent Rainbow Dash). However, Discord is unimpressed and the Elements fail completely. Twilight loses faith in their mission until she re-reads the letters that she wrote to Princess Celestia about the magic of friendship. She cures all her corrupted friends by making them remember the wonderful times they had together. Discord continues to be unconcerned about the power of friendship and is easily defeated with the reawakened powers of the Elements. After being struck with a rainbow similar to that previously used on Nightmare Moon, Discord is turned back into stone, but this time with an expression of horror frozen onto his face.

Discord is set to return in the upcoming episode Keep Calm and Flutter On in which the ponies are tasked to change his evil ways but only Fluttershy is willing to give him a chance.

Hub promotions
At The Hub's website's 2011 "Naughty or Nice?" contest, it was stated that he is a dragon. The part of the text that said this was later removed, though at least one link to the page still referenced it in its URL. Commercials for the contest initially included a fan-made picture of him, which was used again in a promotional image for the 2012 Hub "Naughty or Nice Awards" contest.

Discord also appeared in the commercial for a Naughty or Nice Awards contest, saying "I wasn't nominated?"

Merchandise
A trading card was released of Discord in 2012. As a gag, the text, which says Discord can turn Equestria "upside down", is deliberately upside down.

WeLoveFine.com carries T-shirts, hoodies, and other merchandise of Discord.

Quotes
"Oh, what fun is there in making sense?"

- The Return of Harmony Part 1

"Twists and turns, are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began."

- The Return of Harmony Part 1

"When all the truth does is make your heart ache, sometimes a lie is easier to take."

- The Return of Harmony Part 1

"Oh, for goodness' sake! You've been kind for far too long, my dear. Time to be cruel. Arrivederci!"

- The Return of Harmony Part 1

"A weighty choice is yours to make, a right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue the foundations of home will crumble without you."

- The Return of Harmony Part 1

"I'm naughty..."

- "Round 1" commercial for The Hub's 2011 "Naughty or Nice?" contest

"I told you I was naughty."

- "Round 2" commercial for The Hub's 2011 "Naughty or Nice?" contest

"I'm naughty... and nice!"

- "Closed Voting" commercial for The Hub's 2011 "Naughty or Nice?" contest

Gallery

 * Discord image gallery