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 and the twenty-eighth episode overall. In this episode, Twilight Sparkle must find the Elements of Harmony, and a way to restore her friends, in order to defeat Discord.

Chaos wreaks
Beginning where the previous episode left off, Twilight Sparkle and a brainwashed Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity argue with each other in the remnants of the castle labyrinth Discord had razed to the ground. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are arguing about laughing, whereas Applejack and Rarity are arguing about Rarity's "diamond" when Applejack lies once more telling Rarity that Twilight said that they should split it six ways since they found it together.

Discord is seen sitting on a couch and eating popcorn, enjoying the spectacle. Twilight demands to know how they were expected to get the Elements of Harmony when Discord had taken down the maze before they could get to the end. Hearing this, Discord 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 of Harmony were in the labyrinth. Discord leaves to begin his reign of chaos, mockingly telling Twilight that maybe the "magic of friendship" can help her. Twilight wonders what Discord meant by "back to where they began", and concludes that it means returning to Ponyville.

Finding the Elements of Harmony
During an arduous journey back filled with soapy roads and long-legged bunnies, her brainwashed 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. They finally arrive at the library where Twilight and Spike reside, and upon Twilight pleading to get her friends into the library, they lose even more of their color. Rarity remains outside, and says she's on to Twilight's plan to steal "Tom" from her, then explaining that Tom is the name that she has given the boulder she believes to be a diamond. Resigned, Twilight carries the boulder inside for Rarity and crashes it through the door, leaving a giant hole in the wall. 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 of Harmony are inside it. The book containing the Elements of Harmony actually has the cover of the book that contains the original myth concerning the princess sisters. In Friendship is Magic, part 2, the book cover was red with a unicorn head facing the other way surrounded by six diamonds.

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 she assigns the role of Rainbow Dash. The ponies cheer to the idea of defeating Discord and never having to see each other again, and they all gleefully venture outside, except Rarity, who has trouble pushing "Tom" ahead of her. Twilight angrily chucks the boulder out the window, leaving another giant hole in the wall. 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, with Spike standing in for Rainbow Dash, but it ultimately fails because not only Rainbow Dash is absent from the group, but the ponies cannot access their elements, due to their disharmony state that they're in. After losing all hope and confidence in them as they split up, Twilight's color changes to gray and she sheds a tear that splatters in the shape of a broken heart. Discord celebrates his victory as Ponyville is driven ever deeper into total chaos.

"With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?"

- Twilight Sparkle

Re-discovering the importance of friendship
Twilight, hopeless, throws away her tiara of the Element of Magic and 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. After reading these scrolls, Twilight once again realizes the importance of friendship, regains her resolve and color, and sets out to recover the rest of her friends. The show chronicles twenty-four friendship reports that Twilight writes to Celestia prior to this episode, but there are many more scrolls that Celestia sends back to Twilight in this episode.

Reverting to their previous selves
Meeting Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres Twilight uses a memory spell to push images of past adventures with her friends into Applejack's mind. This reverts Applejack to her previous self, confessing that because she could not face a future of their friendship ending, she ended up telling lies. Twilight then does the same to Fluttershy, who now believes that her cruelty was nothing more than a dream which she describes as "the worst dream ever." Twilight restores Rarity, who tosses away the giant rock she had been keeping and asks never to speak of this event again. Lastly is Pinkie Pie, who laughs at her previous predicament.

Chasing Rainbow
The ponies, now back to their previous selves, find Rainbow Dash, who is still brainwashed and 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, refuses to take an aggressive approach and wakes Dash up to ask her politely if she can hold her down. This prompts Dash 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 as Rarity yells that Pinkie was supposed to secure the rope, 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 Dash back to her previous self.

Confronting Discord
"I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for."

- Twilight Sparkle

The ponies, all now back to their old selves, encounter Discord again, who is sitting on a throne holding a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks the glass and throws away the chocolate milk, which explodes. Discord, still confident of their inability to defeat him, makes himself an open target. However, because the six ponies can now wield their respective Elements once again, they combine their powers and fire a giant rainbow, just like they did when they defeated Night Mare Moon, causing an explosion much like Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom. 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.

Ending
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.

Closing sequence
According to director Jayson Thiessen, one of the storyboard artists decided to board the award ceremony sequence at the end of the episode as a shot-for-shot equivalent of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, though parts of the sequence were ultimately cut to shorten the episode.

Credits
This is the last episode to use the original theme song, the last episode where Lauren Faust is executive producer, the first episode to not feature the My Little Pony theme in the end credits, and the last episode where DHX Media is credited as "Studio B".

Quotes

 * Discord: [laughing]
 * Pinkie Pie: And what are you laughing at?
 * Discord: Ho, you ponies are just the most fun I've had in aeons.
 * Pinkie Pie: Well, quit it! You'd better think before you laugh at the Pink...ie Pie!
 * Fluttershy: Oh, yeah? Well ha, ha.
 * Pinkie Pie: Quit it!
 * Fluttershy: No. Ha, ha.
 * Pinkie Pie: Quit it!
 * Fluttershy: No. Ha ha-ha ha ha.


 * Discord: Keep trying, Twilight Sparkle. [mockingly] Maybe the magic of friendship can help you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some chaos to wreak.


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


 * Spike: [snore] Ah! Brrr! What did you do that for, Fluttershy?
 * Fluttershy: 'Cause you just looked so peaceful.


 * Fluttershy: Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy, I've had just about enough–[splash]
 * Fluttershy: Your face! [bang]


 * Twilight Sparkle: [strained groan] Give me that book! Where is she? Where's Rarity?
 * Applejack: Beats me.


 * Twilight Sparkle: See girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony! Together!
 * Applejack: [yawns]
 * Twilight Sparkle: You don't even care, do you?
 * All: No!
 * Twilight Sparkle: [sigh] I never thought it would happen. My friends... have turned into complete JERKS! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And big crown thingy! Come on everypony, let's go!
 * Spike: But Twilight, aren't you missing somepony?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Nope. We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute. That just about covers it.
 * Spike: But what about Rainbow Dash?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!
 * Spike: Me? B-b-but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her? [moan] That won't end well.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Look out! Here comes Tom! [crash]


 * Twilight Sparkle: What's going on?
 * Applejack: Mine's workin'. There must be somethin' wrong with yours.
 * Pinkie Pie: I HATE the Elements of Harmony!
 * Fluttershy: Hmph! Garbage.
 * Rarity: MINE!


 * Twilight Sparkle: With friends like you, who needs... enemies...?


 * Spike: [moaning]
 * 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.


 * Rarity: How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of clouds is Cloudsdale?
 * Applejack: The same way he got you to think that cheap rock was a bona fide diamond.
 * Rarity: I thought we agreed never to speak of that again.


 * Rarity: Oh, Fluttershy, would you be a dear and fly faster, please?
 * Fluttershy: [whimper] I can't!
 * Twilight Sparkle: If you can't catch her, Discord wins!
 * Fluttershy: That... big... dumb... MEANIE!


 * Discord: [laughing] Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Not as wonderful as... friendship!


 * Twilight Sparkle: All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!
 * Pinkie Pie: Wait-wait-wait! [drinks chocolate rain, growl]