The Return of Harmony Part 1

The Return of Harmony Part 1 is the first episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. This is the first episode of a two-parter, in which Princess Celestia tasks the ponies with retrieving the Elements of Harmony and defeating Discord.

Production
Showrunner Jayson Thiessen has stated that while the two episodes were produced at the tail-end of the first season, they were always supposed to be part of season two. This was done to shorten the production hiatus and to keep on as many of the show's staff as possible. Lauren Faust notes that the episode's writing was completed before the series premiered, and was not created or altered as a reaction to the fanbase.

Summary
The episode begins with Cheerilee walking her students through the "world-famous Canterlot sculpture garden". Her class consists of Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, Silver Spoon, Snails, Snips, Sweetie Belle, and Twist. She refers to her students as "my little ponies"–a phrase which is used repeatedly in the episode by Princess Celestia and Discord when addressing Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Cheerilee points out to her students statues representing friendship and victory that impress the Cutie Mark Crusaders but lead them to an argument, which mirrors one of Applejack and Rarity's arguments in Look Before You Sleep and leads to Sweetie Belle's "dictionary" moniker. Cheerilee calls them to join the rest of the group and points to another statue, asking "what do you notice about it?". The Cutie Mark Crusaders enthusiastically shout about the different animal body parts it's composed of, and Cheerilee proceeds to describe it as a "draconequus", "a creature with a head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things." She then asks her students what they think it represents. The Cutie Mark Crusaders start arguing that it represents confusion, evil, and chaos (during which Scootaloo, once called a chicken, is now called a "dodo"), and eventually start fighting. Just in that moment the statue shows some kind of heartbeat. Once the fight has been broken up, Cheerilee explains that they are all correct; the statue mainly represents 'discord', and because the three fillies showed exactly that, she gives them an essay to write on the subject as a punishment. As they leave, the statue begins to crack, followed by an evil chuckle.

After the introduction, Rainbow Dash is flying above Ponyville, when she spots a pink cloud. After chasing it down, she discovers it is made of cotton candy, and it starts to rain chocolate milk. The main cast, apart from Pinkie Pie, starts panicking, as the corn in the fields Applejack is tending to starts popping. As they watch, the rain hits apple trees, and the apples swell to extraordinary sizes, bending the trees under their weight. Fluttershy tries to convince her animal friends not to eat them, but they do anyway, and the rabbits along with Angel that eat the apples suddenly grow very long, deer-like legs.

Twilight Sparkle arrives on the scene with Spike, and says she has a new spell to counteract the strange weather and reverse the changes to the animals, but once she casts it, she finds that nothing has happened. Undeterred, she organizes the other ponies, getting Rainbow to corral the clouds, much to Pinkie's dismay, and with Fluttershy's help the changed animals are led to eat the clouds, and then follow up with the popcorn that lies everywhere. Not long after, Spike receives a letter from Princess Celestia.

They meet the Princess in Canterlot's castle, and they follow her to a corridor lined with stained glass windows. Celestia explains that the strange weather is being caused by a creature that existed in Equestria long ago whose rule caused unrest and unhappiness for all ponies until she and Princess Luna stood up to him - Discord, whom they defeated with the Elements of Harmony. However, since the two Princesses cannot wield the Elements any more, she tells the six ponies that it falls to them to use the Elements once again to defeat Discord. While Twilight promises that the princess can count on them, Pinkie interrupts them saying that chaos is a good thing if chocolate rain is involved. Princess Celestia opens the door at the end of the hall with her horn, and retrieves a box in which the Elements are stored; but to their horror, the box is empty.

Suddenly, Discord's voice echoes around the room, and he is soon spotted animating a depiction of himself in one of the stained glass windows. He displays uncanny knowledge about the main cast ponies, telling them about the Element they each represent, and leaves them with a riddle that hints of "twist and turns" and finding the Elements "back to where they began". This leads Twilight to suspect that the Elements have been hidden inside the castle's hedge maze.

As they approach the maze, Rainbow, full of confidence, flies up into the air to get a pegasus' eye view of the route; but with a flash, her wings are suddenly gone, and she crashes to the ground. A moment later, the same happens to Fluttershy; and only seconds later both Twilight and Rarity find their horns are missing too. In a flash, Discord appears, and explains to them that they are going to be playing a game - a game to find the Elements of Harmony - and there are two strict rules:


 * No magic or flying.
 * Every pony has to take part, or the game ends.

Confident in their friendship keeping them together, the ponies start into the maze, but suddenly additional hedges spring up in between them, separating them. They agree to meet in the middle of the maze.

Applejack tries to upset the applecart
As Applejack tries to find her way through the maze, she spots three apples, like the ones on her cutie mark, on the ground, which roll away from her. She follows them, and finds herself at the edge of an apple orchard. The apples start falling off the trees, and start animating themselves - they taunt her, and tell her to look in a pool nearby. She does so, and sees a vision of the six friends finishing an argument by agreeing never to speak to each other again. As she watches, the camera cranes up, showing Discord holding puppet crosses, animating the apples himself. Applejack cracks under the idea she needs to lie in order to preserve her friendship with the other ponies, and Discord hypnotizes her, draining her of color. Almost immediately the orchard fades, and a section of hedge vanishes behind her, revealing Twilight. Twilight tells her friend that she heard talking, and asks her who she was talking to; Applejack denies speaking, looking around shiftily. Twilight wonders for a moment about whether Applejack just lied, but she ignores it and continue on their way.

Pinkie Pie gets serious
Pinkie hops merrily through the maze, and stumbles upon a wide area filled with balloons, led by balloons akin to those on her cutie mark, all marked with smiling faces and laughing. She giggles her way through, until one of the balloons' strings ties itself around her leg and trips her into the mud, and she immediately stops laughing, but the balloons continue. Discord appears to her, and when Pinkie tells him it is not fun because the balloons are laughing at her, not with her. He tells her that it is the same story with her friends. She initially denies it, but when Discord makes her friends' faces appear on the balloons, she gives in: laughter can be cruel and hurtful. Discord hypnotizes her, drains her of her color like he did Applejack, and the balloons pop; revealing Twilight and Applejack. When Twilight runs up to Pinkie, the pink pony rejects her greeting, and walks away. Again, Applejack lies, saying she did not notice anything wrong with Pinkie; Twilight thinks it is the stress of the task causing their attitudes, and decides to pick up the pace.

Rarity finds a new best friend
Rarity walks through the maze, complaining to herself, until she suddenly hits her face on a large rock that blocks her path. Embedded in it are three diamonds shaped like her cutie mark. Discord appears in the diamonds' reflections, telling her it's her lucky day for finding the beautiful diamonds, which he describes as being the one thing that could rival his face in beauty. He starts to hypnotize her, but she resists, turning away, and she struggles to walk away, but to no avail. Rarity succumbs to her personal flaws in record time and runs back to the rock, losing her color as she begins digging. Eventually, covered in dirt, she reveals a huge diamond. As she starts to carry it away, the remainder of the rock cracks and collapses, revealing Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie. Twilight's greeting is interrupted by seeing Rarity—from her point of view all Rarity is carrying is a large rock. Rarity becomes very protective of her "diamond", refusing to share it with the others.

Rarity later names the boulder "Tom".

Fluttershy learns to sting
Instead of walking through the maze, Fluttershy hides in one of the hedges. Looking around, she climbs out, and starts giving herself a pep talk, but three butterflies, the same type on her cutie mark, interrupt her, causing her to dive back into the hedge in fright. Recognizing them immediately after, she follows them, unwilling to be left behind. She loses sight of them for a moment, but they appear behind her and speak to her - they were actually Discord in disguise. He tries to convince her that her friends believe she is helpless, and laugh at her behind her back, but Fluttershy proves resilient, accepting the fact that she is helpless and that her friends understand. Again, Discord tries to corrupt her, and again Fluttershy resists, accepting that her friends want her to know of her flaws so she can improve on them. Frustrated by how ineffective his words are, Discord gives up and forces her to lose her color and be cruel simply by touching her.

Another section of hedge disappears, revealing the others; but again, Twilight's greeting is answered with mocking statements from Fluttershy, who ends the conversation by whipping Twilight with the end of her tail, and continues to knock Pinkie Pie into the hedge. As Applejack laughs at her, and Pinkie responds in anger, Twilight realizes that something is happening to her friends, and it is not stress. Then she assists Rarity with her rock, but is warned that the rock is still the fashionista's.

Rainbow Dash takes wing
Rainbow Dash runs through the maze, checking each area ahead of her, and suddenly spots a cloud bearing a remarkable similarity to her cutie mark. Believing it to be her element, she chases it, only to find Discord lying on a hammock made of clouds. Ignoring Discord's attempts to be civil, Rainbow Dash tells him to prepare for a fight. Discord tells her that he is only there to deliver a message, which is a riddle about the consequences of picking the wrong choice. He then shows her an illusion of Cloudsdale collapsing. Rainbow Dash, being hypnotized, screams with horror at the vision. Discord then makes a box appear in front of her and drains her color, telling her that it contains her wings, and that she can either take them and leave, or remain in the maze forever.

Epilogue
With the others, Rarity has stopped carrying her rock, leaving it entirely to Twilight Sparkle. Twilight speaks, reassuring herself that the ponies as a team are unstoppable, and that Rainbow Dash would not let them down. However, Applejack spots her flying away, and as she does so, storm clouds gather, and the hedges tremble and sink into the ground, completely erasing the maze. Discord finally appears, telling them all that somepony broke the 'no wings, no magic' rule, and that they lost the game, and so have failed to find the Elements. After restoring the horns of Twilight and Rarity, and Fluttershy's wings, he opens an inverted umbrella, tells them to prepare for Chaos, and on his laugh, the episode ends.

Quotes

 * Sweetie Belle: It's not chaos, you dodo!
 * Scootaloo: Don't call me things I don't know the meaning of, and it is too chaos.
 * Sweetie Belle: Is not!
 * Apple Bloom: You're both wrong!


 * Pinkie Pie: Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys! CHOCOLATE! RAIN!


 * Rarity: You can keep the elements. I'll take that case!


 * Pinkie Pie: Well, if you excuse me, I'm going to go hang out in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw!


 * Pinkie Pie: [laugh] He's dancing on your head!


 * Discord: 
 * Twists and turns, are my master plan
 * Then find the elements,
 * Back where you began.


 * Twilight/Rarity: Your horn! My horn! [screams]


 * Discord: You should see the looks on your faces! Priceless!


 * Rarity: ...But don't get any ideas about my gem. I know where you live.


 * Discord: Oh, for goodness sake! [mesmerizes Fluttershy] You've been kind for far too long, my dear! Time to be cruel! Arrivederci!


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

Gallery



 * The Return of Harmony Part 1 image gallery

Trivia

 * Discord is voiced by John De Lancie, who is famous for his work in Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager as the omnipotent being Q, who shares many traits with Discord. Both are mischievous tricksters who delight in playing "games" with their victims.
 * Pinkie Pie interrupted Princess Celestia's speech saying that eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, a possible reference from Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain theme song.
 * The discorded version of Ponyville can be seen in the background when Applejack sees the vision of her friends splitting up.
 * For the third time in the entire series, ponies' quarrelings led to humorous reimaginings; this time, the Cutie Mark Crusaders' little spat during their field trip of the Canterlot palace grounds lead to Sweetie Belle being reportrayed by fanartists as a dictionary, and briefly, Scootaloo as a dodo. These new memes, however, hadn't completely caught on as quickly; Scootaloo reimagined as a dodo never caught on at all; her "chicken" epithet from Stare Master was still too popular. And there are only a mere handful of internet fanarts portraying Sweetie Belle as a dictionary.