Discord

Discord is a recurring character introduced in The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2, serving as the main antagonist. Prior to the series, Princess Celestia and her sister saw that Discord ruled over Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness. They discovered the Elements of Harmony together and used them to imprison him in stone, establishing order to the land. Though the spell was intended to last for all time, it was weakened after the Elements were no longer connected to them. 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".

Season 3 marks the first time in the series that a major antagonist is featured in a single episode rather than a traditional two-parter at 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 little trickster who effortlessly pulls pranks on his targets through the use of his powerful magic, illusions, and hypnotism selfishly. 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 eradicates  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 grotesque 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. In Keep Calm and Flutter On, Discord states that he's never had a friend, which is implied to have led to his lack of restraint and empathy. He is touched when Fluttershy declares herself to be his friend, and it is that glimpse of genuine friendship that causes him to undo the unnecessary chaos he has wrought.

The Return of Harmony
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 statue. The three Cutie Mark Crusaders bicker over what it is supposed to represent, resulting in his statue beginning to crack.

Before he is directly 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 the world". Twilight finds the Elements and forcibly places them on the corrupted ponies and Spike (hastily substituting for Rainbow Dash). However, the Elements fail miserably just as Discord expected. Twilight loses faith in their mission and almost becomes entirely corrupted herself until she re-reads the letters that she wrote to Princess Celestia about the magic of friendship. With renewed motivation, she cures all her corrupted friends by making them remember the wonderful times they had together. Discord continues to be unconcerned and is easily defeated by 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 shock frozen onto his face.

Keep Calm and Flutter On
Discord's next appearance is in Keep Calm and Flutter On, in which Princess Celestia delivers his statue to Ponyville in the hopes that the main six can successfully reform him as a mutual ally. She casts a protective spell on the Elements of Harmony and personally requests Fluttershy to give him a chance. Once Celestia leaves, he is released by the elements and reveals that he has heard everything while imprisoned in stone. He resides in Fluttershy's Cottage for most of the episode, taking advantage of her enduring patience and hospitality. During his stay, he is legitimately surprised to hear that Fluttershy defends Discord's actions and even considers him a friend.

The situation soon becomes critical because of an earlier prank resulting in the flooding of Sweet Apple Acres, so Fluttershy asks Discord to reverse everything. He says he will do so on the condition that Fluttershy will never raise her element against him, so she reluctantly agrees much to the chagrin of her friends. This leads to Discord betraying her and only freezing the water, believing that he is finally free to wreak havoc and offering Fluttershy to indulge in ice skating with him. Though Fluttershy does not break her own promise, she angrily renounces her friendship with him and walks away.

Initially, he brags about how no one tells him what to do and asks if she truly believed that he cared if he lost his first and only friend. This results in an epiphany as Discord realizes that he actually does value her friendship. He returns everything to normal after finally understanding the magic of friendship, if somewhat embarrassed to admit it. When Princess Celestia arrives later, he announces that he is ready to put his magic to good use "most of the time". While Celestia senses a change in Discord's outlook and is eager to accept him, she is aware that she is dealing with the spirit of chaos and leaves the Elements of Harmony in the possession of Twilight Sparkle as a contingency plan. However, Fluttershy holds his paw and reassures that he is really a sweetheart once you get to know him.

Depiction in comics
A map of the region that the main characters are traveling in is included with Issue #2 of the comic series. Notably, there is a region to the west of the Forest of Leota known as the "Sight of the Battle of Discord (Quarantined)," which is a desert-like area with odd chaotic structures. Discord himself has no confirmed appearances at the moment.

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 2012 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

"Looks like we might be due for a big ol' storm of chaos!"

- The Return of Harmony Part 1

"I like it better my way, but I guess when you're friends, you can't always have things exactly your way all the time"

- Keep Calm and Flutter On

"Friendship is magic."

- Keep Calm and Flutter On

"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