Discord (My Little Pony)

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

- Discord

Discord, also known as the Spirit of Disharmony, is a main antagonist before being redeemed in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He is also known as the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Discord is one of the two main antagonists, alongside Queen Chrysalis, in Season 2 before becoming a supporting protagonist in later seasons. He suffered a brief backslide in Season 4 before his true redemption.

He was voiced by the legendary actor, John de Lancie, who also played Q, who was Discord's main inspiration.

Personality
As the incarnation of chaos and disharmony, Discord professes great inclination to these two subjects. Every movement he performs is related someway with this. Discord possesses a very questionnaire sense of humor, many times grazing the madness, which is strengthened by his powers of reality bending. He specifically enjoys dressing up with different outfits, (some of them referencing to human topics, what raises the opportunity of him traveling to other worlds, such as our very world). As a semi-omnipotent deity, Discord considers himself above all the rest, diminish magnitude to every setback presented before him, including those which suppose a threat to him. It could be said that Discord suffers of an superiority complex, something that has lead him to find himself trapped in a rocky prison twice. However, after every defeat he learned from his mistakes. After his first escape he did not underestimate the Elements' power and tried to get rid of them, however, his overconfidence implied his failure once more when after corrupting the mane six he thought they were not a menace anymore.

After he was released under Princess Celestia's supervision, he tried to find a supernumerary way to counter the Elements power by manipulating Fluttershy for his own desires behind the trick of a false friendship, which eventually resulted counterproductive since he especially developed strong feelings for her. This leads to two prominent attributes in Discord's character. He is highly duplicitous, manipulative, uncompromising, and unscrupulous, showing no hesitation in lying, tricking, playing filthy and diverse mendacious methods in order to achieve his goals. He seems to have a rather sadistic side to him, such as when he was gleefully lying back and watching Cherry Berry and Comet Tail struggling to get untangled from the Plunderseeds, and due to the fact that he constantly laughs at other's dismays. In Keep Calm and Flutter On, he is seen wearing dead bunny slippers and chuckling at the ponies misfortunes at the dinner party. In fact, he is a supporter of physiologic torture, as he enjoyed Twilight's despair once she found herself abandoned by her friends. However, if he can't obtain the expected results with his charming skills he doesn't doubt in using the force to brain wash his victims. However, there is still some good inside him. In the moment, Fluttershy declared to consider him a friend Discord showed to be really affected by this statement, as he mentioned that he had never had friends before. Many fans consider this fact as the motivation that drove Discord the way he is. Until the moment Fluttershy had shown to see Discord as more than a monster but as a true "sweetheart" he hadn't realized of how alone he was. If fact, he hated his loneliness that much that just for not being on his own again he renounced to domain the world as he had ever desired. However, since then, it seems that he still remains his mostly naughty and disobedient self.

In "Twilight's Kingdom", it shows that Discord has begun to truly understand friendship with all of the ponies and fell guilty when he has allowed Tirek to drain their magical powers. He then asked Twilight for merciful forgiveness and thanks her for saving him. At the end of the second episode, it shows that Discord made friends even from Celestia and Luna - his formal nemeses. Twilight even included him into her kingdom "court" as one of her closest, dearest, and most loyal friends.

However, despite this, come "Make New Friends but Keep Discord", Discord still apparently struggles with understanding the concept of friendship, and still shows his mischievous, problematic, and self-centered traits, feeling that he was replaced by Fluttershy's new friend Tree Hugger and that Fluttershy no longer cared for him just because she had chosen to bring Tree Hugger over him. As well, he brings the Smooze as his friend to the Gala, knowing about the Smooze's benevolent, but rather obstreperous, troublesome, disruptive, truculent, uncaring, and dangerous nature, intentionally trying to cause mischief just to make his point to Fluttershy.

Appearance
Discord is one of the species called a draconequus, as explained by Cheerilee from the beginning of the episode. Discord is a combination of many body parts from different creatures which also makes him a chimera. He has the body of a brown horse, the head of a grey pony, with an ivory deer antler on the right, a turquoise goat horn of the left, one long fang, yellow eyes with red pupils, an orange snake tongue, a black donkey mane, and a white goat beard. The rest of his body consists of the right paw of a pale yellow lion, the left yellow talon of a brown eagle, the right leg of a green lizard, the left leg with a sepia hoof of a chestnut deer, the right wing of a purple bat, the left wing of a blue bird, and a red dragon tail with a white tuft at the end.

The Return of Harmony, Part 1: Introduction
Discord made his debut as the main antagonist in the Season 2 two-part premiere, The Return of Harmony. In his first appearance in Part 1, Princess Celestia explains to Twilight and her friends that Discord was her predecessor as ruler of Equestria and caused chaos throughout for earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi alike. Nobody dared stand up to his outrageous rule until Luna and Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to turn him to stone, and took his throne from him. Celestia explains that since she and Luna are no longer in connection with the Elements of Harmony, the spell imprisoning Discord has failed and he has escaped from his stone prison and stealing the Elements of Harmony, implying to have hid them in the Canterlot castle labyrinth. With nothing to keep his powers in check, he begins to wreak chaos throughout Equestria, turning clouds into cotton candy that move of their own accord and rain chocolate milk, and causing animals to become wild and automatically change shape.

When the Mane Six venture into the Palace Labyrinth, Discord magically stole the pegasi's wings and the unicorn's horns so that they would be unable to use their magic or ability to fly to "cheat" in the "game" he forces them to take part in to find the Elements, and separates them by raising sections of the Labyrinth's walls. Discord used representations of the cast's cutie marks, and (with the exception of Fluttershy and Twilight) subtly manipulates them into questioning the morality of their element, which drains them of their color and severs their connection to the element they represent, causing their personality to become their polar opposite. He eventually plays on Rainbow Dash's loyalty by showing her a vision that her hometown of Cloudsdale would be destroyed without her, and offers her wings back and a choice to either go to its aid, or continue seeking the Elements. This tricks her into flying out of the Labyrinth, breaking Discord's first rule that all of the ponies must participate, or 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.

The Return of Harmony, Part 2: Defeat
In The Return of Harmony: Part 2, Equestria is thrown into eternal chaos, and Discord points out that he never said the Elements of Harmony were in the Labyrinth. It is not until she returns home that Twilight realizes the answer to Discord's riddle was that they were inside a book at her house. With the Elements, the ponies (minus Rainbow Dash, who is replaced by Spike) attempted to use them on Discord, but failed. Twilight was however able to restore them by using her magic to show them images of past adventures. She did this with Rainbow Dash last, after which they confronted Discord, who was still confident that they could not defeat him, and makes himself an open target. As the ponies' representation of the elements are restored, however, they use them on him in a similar style to Nightmare Moon, turning him to stone, this time with a look of horror frozen in his face.

Keep Calm and Flutter On: Beginnings of a redemption
Discord returns to begin his journey to redeption in Keep Calm and Flutter On. Celestia brought the stone Discord before the Mane Six and told them she could make use of his magic if they could reform him. As a precaution, she gave them their Elements of Harmony, enchanting them so Discord couldn't use his power on them. Twilight released Discord from his stone prison. With a combination of Fluttershy's stare and the threat of being turned to stone again, Discord didn't do much chaos, but brainwashed some beavers behind the ponies' backs. Fluttershy (whom Celestia was most confident in) was the only one willing to give Discord a chance, and had him stay at her house. Discord didn't act evil, but was trying to trick Fluttershy into eventually removing her necklace. He also ate several pages from books including a reforming spell Twilight planned to use on him.

While Discord was eating with the Six, attacking the other five for making comments about him, Fluttershy said she and Discord were friends, which affected Discord as he never had a real friend before. When the corrupted beavers flooded Sweet Apple Acres with their dams, Discord said he'd fix this in exchange for Fluttershy's promise not to use her Element of Harmony on him. Discord broke the deal and froze the water instead of removing it. Twilight wanted to turn Discord back to stone, but Fluttershy refused, having promised Discord not to. When Fluttershy walked away, however, Discord couldn't stand losing his only friend and restored everything to the way it was.

Fluttershy showed Discord how important friendship was to him, and once he had it he didn't want to lose it. Discord also said, rather reluctantly, "Friendship is magic", the first time the line was ever spoken in the series. However, the episode ends on a bit of a wary note as while Discord openly says he'd never use his magic for evil, he quietly adds "Most of the time", hinting that he might relapse into his former evil self. Celestia also, rather practically, leaves the Elements of Harmony in Twilight's position, just in case. Discord overhears Celestia revealing her intention to Twilight and shows a face of concern, possibly because of the lack of trust they have in him or because it will make any future evil plan of his harder to pull off. Whether Discord will truly reform entirely with everyone else in the series or relapse into his old ways has yet to be seen.

Princess Twilight Sparklen
Discord's final steps toward redemption as well as his past arew revealed in flashbacks in the two-part fourth season premiere ''Princess Twilight Sparkle. ''Discord appears when the Mane Six summon him, accusing him of the chaos in Ponyville.

With Discord claiming innocence, the girls prepare to turn him back to stone. But Fluttershy stands up for Discord, saying that he is indeed reformed. Discord thanks his new friend "Shutterfly" while embracing Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy corrects him on name and pony. Twilight asks for Discord to help her find out who's responsible for the chaos, but he refuses, telling them to ask Zecora instead.

After Twilight witnesses Princess Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon after drinking Zecora's potion, she sees all of her friends looking strangely at her. Discord informs her they are doing so because of all the "talking to Luna and Celestia" and crying she did while witnessing the fight between Luna and Celestia, openly mocking her for doing so. After drinking the potion again, Twilight witnessed the first confrontation between Luna, Celestia and Discord. In the vision, Celestia and Luna order Discord to stand down and stop causing chaos and destruction, but he does not take them seriously and ignores them, all while eating and tossing around a bag of seeds. When the Princesses prepare to use the Elements of Harmony on him, Discord begins to laugh uncontrollably and does not notice the Princesses using the Elements' powers on him and is turned into stone.

Later, Discord is still enjoying the mess in Ponyville and even enjoying the suffering of others, watching Cherry Berry and Comet Tail struggle from vines up until Twilight arrives and scolds him, telling him to help them, which he does. He asks Twilight what she's doing back already and Twilight tells Discord she left her friends behind because she needed to. Discord began taunting Twilight, saying that he was shocked that she would leave her friends in danger. Discord's words get to Twilight and she leaves to save her friends. Discord waves as she leaves.

Later on, after she gave up the Elements of Harmony to the Element tree saving Equestria, Discord congratulates them and asks how they did it. They say they gave up the Elements of Harmony, Discord sees this as a chance to relapse, but Fluttershy warns him of the consequences, meaning he'll lose his friends. Discord agrees to clean up the mess, but he won't do the Windows. Applejack wonders why all this happened to begin with, and Discord mentions out loud that the planted seeds that should have sprouted long ago. Twilight uses Zecora's potion to see that Discord really did his Plunderseeds that were supposed to steal the Element Tree's power and capture the princesses, but the tree's powers were too strong. Twilight scolds Discord again saying they could have used this information, but Discord explains it was to teach Twilight a valuable lesson about being a Princess.

Twilight's Kingdom: Betrayal, forgiveness, and final redemption
Discord's redemption has a bit of a backslide in ''Twilight's Kingdom. In this two-part episode,'' Celestia seeks the help of Discord to fight Lord Tirek instead of Twilight, as he could sense magical imbalances. Delighted with the news, Discord arrives to taunt the ponies, specifically Twilight. While taunting them, Discord reminds them of how they haven't opened the Tree of Harmony's chest yet, revealing his interest in the chest's contents. Before leaving, Discord gives the Mane 6 back the journal they've been writing in, with bookmarks on specific pages. He then asks Fluttershy if they are still going to have tea later, stating that he will bring the cucumber sandwiches before opening a door to Tirek's current location. While re-reading the journal, Twilight realizes that the pages Discord bookmarked were about the times they had to represent their element in a difficult situation, changing some-ponies' life in the process, realizing that Discord was actually trying to help them, albeit in his own way.

While in the alleyway that Tirek was residing in, Discord disguised himself as a unicorn and successfully attracted Tirek. Recognizing him, Tirek commended Discord on his escape from his stone prison, only for Discord to bind him with shackles, Tirek believing that someone as powerful as Discord wouldn't want to share power. However, Discord informed him that he was actually re-imprisoning him for his friends, who required him to do so. Seeing this as his chance, Tirek manipulated Discord into thinking that his new friendship was just a new form of prison, as he had to give up his natural destructive nature in order to stay in their good graces and convinced him that, if they worked together, he would have something far more valuable that friendship; his freedom.

Thinking it over, Discord decided to join Tirek and help him steal all of the magic in Equestria. When the three princesses got word of this, the immediately summoned Twilight and informed her of what Discord and Tirek had done. First, they went to a magic show where Discord teleported Tirek in front of a crown of helpless unicorns and absorbed all their magic, next, they attacked the Wonderbolts and Pegisi and easily to defeated them all and stole their magic as well, and finally, they went to Appleloosa and stole the magic of the Earth Ponies and presumably went to multiple other locations and stole the magic of everypony there. With no other options, the princesses gave all of their magic to Twilight, as Tirek was not aware of her existence, and Discord sensed the magical imbalance, but decided not to tell Tirek. He and Tirek effortlessly defeated the royal guards and a weakened Shinning Armor asking him why he would do something like this, only for Tirek to tell him to go have fun while he dealt with the princesses, with Discord looking on with a sadistic grin. After Tirek banishes the princesses to Tarturus, Discord changes all of the stained glass windows to images of him and Tirek causing mayhem. When Tirek sees the window displaying the Alicorn Twilight, he angrily demands why Discord didn't tell him that there was a fourth princess, only for him to state that he would after he knew he could truly trust Tirek, and now that he can, he tells him about where she lives and her friends. As a sign of gratitude, Tirek gives Discord a medallion that was given to him by "someone close to him."

After getting them to Ponyville, Discord sadistically imprisons Twilight's friends in a cage, informing them of his betrayal. Surprisingly, Discord looks away in shame as Tirek steals their magic, although he instantly goes back to his evil behavior after he's done. Almost immediately, Tirek uses his newfound strength, betrays Discord and steals his magic, stating that the medallion he gave him was given to him by his brother, who betrayed him, and that the medallion, much like his brother Scorpan, was completely worthless.

After their legendary battle, Tirek forced Twilight to choose between her friends and her magic, with her friends stating that they're not worth it, although the now remorseful Discord states that Fluttershy was worth it. After Twilight decides to exchange all her magic for all of her friends, including Discord, he gave her the medallion Tirek gave him as a symbol of their 'friendship'. The necklace turns out to be the final key that unlocks the chest which contained rainbow power. After Tirek is defeated, everyone, including Discord, gets their magic back.

By now, Discord has officially joined Twilight's group of close friends, although he didn't end up receiving a throne like all of her other friends.

The Cutie Re-Mark: Alternate timeline
The fifth alternate timeline created by Starlight Glimmer has Discord still evil and in power, chasing Celestia and Luna around. This timeline along the others that were created by Starlight Glimmer were all erased when Twilight Sparkle convinced Starlight Glimmer to let Rainbow Dash do her Rainboom and history was restored to its original state.

PONY.MOV
A heavily modified version of Discord is also the main antagonist of Hotdiggedydemon's .MOV series. For more details on that incarnation, see Discord (Hotdiggedydemon.com).

Others
Fans have picked up on the Satanic elements present in Discord's character, notably him being a semi-omnipotent, malevolent trickster and tempter who stands opposed to Order and Harmony itself. Many depictions of Discord thus cast him as the Ultimate Evil present in Equestria. In many fanworks, he's been portrayed as Pure Evil in stark contrast to his portrayal on the show.

Some other depictions cast him and Chaos as a necessary force that balances Order. Occasionally, fans may straight-up portray him as a good-natured fun-loving guy (this is often accompanied by depicting Princess Celestia as an oppressive tyrant).

Powers and Abilities
As an embodiment of Chaos, Discord appears to be borderline omnipotent. He has manifested a great number of abilities and skills over the course of G4 MLP - abilities he has shown so far include:
 * Hybrid Physiology (Discord has a body made of different parts of creatures and animals).
 * Nigh Omnipotence (The source of his reality manipulating abilities, is the power to be near the pinnacle of Omnipotence, which makes him the most powerful character to be seen in the show. He would may also flawlessly restore anything to its original state, heal or fix anything without fail, or even manipulate space-time, or cosmic elements at will if given the proposition).
 * Reality Warping (Discord is capable of alter reality into many ways and manipulate the laws of nature and the physics of the world - he is also able restore reality back into it's original state).
 * Size-Shifting (Discord has varied in size from very large to being small enough to fit in a pony's ear).
 * Shape-Shifting (Discord has taken many odd forms, some of which defy physics or parody characters).
 * Probability Alteration/Logic Manipulation (Discord can cause extremely unlikely events to occur within his vicinity and alter the laws of logic to his whim).
 * Telekinesis (Discord has shown enough telekinetic skill to lift the entire Mane Six up magically, such as when he angrily "grabbed" them by the collars).
 * Hypnosis (Discord has shown the ability to corrupt others and is skilled at hypnotic magic - he can even outright take control of someone's mind, though he prefers not to).
 * Telepathy/vast knowledge (Discord was able to know all the strengths and weaknesses of the Mane Six as well as their names, without ever having met them before, He also knew about Twilight Sparkle's princess coronation and the "Winter Wrap Up Song", despite not being there, and he knew how Twilight Sparkle felt about her role as princess. However, he was unable to predict that Tirek would betray him, so he is not omniscient, nor even semi-omniscient).
 * Fourth Wall Awareness Discord appears to be aware he is in a cartoon, so far he is the only being in MLP that has this trait save for Pinkie Pie.
 * Teleportation (Discord is able to teleport from one place to another - He can also teleport an object or a creature to him as well - He is also able to make objects disappear out of thin air - He can also use this ability to teleport across alternate dimensions such as the real-world of "Ogres and Oubliettes" and his our personal dimension).
 * Creation: (Discord is shown to be skilled with creation magic - he is able to create objects, creatures and plants at will, including powerful magical creations like the Plunderseeds).
 * Levitation (Discord is able to float in the air).
 * Flight (Discord can fly using his wings - He was also able to achieve a supersonic flight similar to Rainbow Dash's).
 * Replication (Discord can create copies of himself - He also display this ability to create a replicate of Trixie out of Trixie's hat).
 * Animation (Discord can bring any inanimate object to life).
 * Appendage Generation (Discord can grow extra body parts).
 * Anatomical Liberation (Discord can make parts of his body come apart, and is able to move them while detached so - He is also shown using this ability to remove Princess Celestria's tail without her noticing though he did part her tail back on afterwards).
 * Object Possession (Discord was able to use his head to possess a balloon, he can also appear magically in various objects, such as gems and stained glass windows).
 * Transmogrification (Discord can alter the appearance of objects and creatures, such as: giving bunny rabbits deer legs, making a squirrel and a bunny rabbit large and hulking, and turning apples into oranges and oranges into apples).
 * Matter Ingestion (Discord is able to consume matter such as glass, a painting, and a tea cup).
 * Portal Creation (Discord can open portals to different dimensions by using his eagle claw to cut through the fabric of reality).
 * Disease Generation (Discord can inflict ponies with any kind of diseases and illnesses).
 * Blue Flame Generation (Discord is able to generate blue flames, as shown in Three's A Crowd).
 * Smoke Generation (Discord display creating amount of smoke to cover a background as shown in Ogres and Oubliettes).
 * Color Alteration (Discord was able to fade Twilight's friends' colors, he also changed his color to blue to make it look like he had the "blu flu" and turned a tablecloth from white to red by touching it).
 * Thought Manifestation (Discord is able to show his thoughts to others by using clouds of smoke, such as when showing Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence a flower that would cure the "blu flu").
 * Enhanced Strength (Discord is deceptively strong, enough so to take a tree out of the ground and taking a big rock out of the ground with just one arm).
 * Enhanced Hearing (Discord was able to hear Applejack from far away).
 * Weather Manipulation (Discord is able manipulate the weather by making rain clouds go crazy, causing thunderstorms or creating cotton candy chocolate rain clouds).
 * Animal Manipulation (Discord is able to manipulate the animals' behavior by making them go wild unnaturally).
 * Daytime Manipulation (Discord is able to manipulate celestial objects at will to bring about daytime or nighttime).
 * Gravity Manipulation (Discord is able to make things float into the air, and making objects lighter or heavier).
 * Time Travel (Discord is able to project himself and others into events that have happened in the past).
 * Bubble Imprisonment (Discord is able to imprison ponies in magic bubbles which is a similar trait to Tirek).
 * Prehensile Tail (Discord can use his tail to hold things, and can make his tail tuft into a hand).
 * Cartoon Physics (Discord is able to use cartoon physics by stretching his limbs, moving very fast, turning his mouth upside down and appearing out of unexpected places).
 * Magic Imbalance Detection (Discord has the natural ability to sense major disturbances in magic, such as magic being stolen, or transferred into others).
 * Immortality (Discord seems to be immortal, as he has stayed in his stone prison for thousands of years without dying. He is also presumably just as old as, if not older than Celestia and Luna).
 * Master Trickster and Manipulator (Discord is good at deceiving ponies and making them do his bidding without even realizing it).
 * Old Prime (Despite his age, Discord is shown to be skilled at water skating as well as ice skating).

Weaknesses
Discord's strengths are many, while his weaknesses are extremely few. Attacking him head-on is usually doomed to fail, as he can easily thwart any assault through his reality-warping power. However, he is vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony, which have successfully turned him to stone twice. Using the Elements also dispels all of his chaotic magic, returning things to their rightful shapes and places.

He has also been shown to be vulnerable to other entities of immense power, such as a sufficiently empowered Lord Tirek. Discord was not able to escape Tirek's telekinetic grasp, nor stop the villain from draining all of his chaotic magic. This may be due to Tirek's anti-magic properties shutting down Discord's magic when sufficiently empowered. Similarly, a sneeze from the Tatzlwurm was able to infect him with a severe illness he was not able to cure himself of.

One important weakness of Discord is himself. He tends to be very overconfident and so assured of his own invincibility that he will not go all-out against enemies. In addition, his tendency to underestimate opponents means that he can be taken by surprise and defeated before having the chance to react. While intelligent, he is also not immune to being manipulated and fell for Tirek's proposition to become allies, not suspecting that Tirek would betray him in the end. Also, prior to his redemption, he secretly wanted a friend, which allowed Fluttershy to sway him towards the side of good.

As shown in Discordant Harmony, If Discord exhibits as normal behavior more than his chaotic persona, He will slowly fade from existence showing not being chaotic in nature will up destroyed. But lucky, Fluttershy manage to make Discord to snap out of it and was returned to his natural chaotic behavior, thus saving his life.

Trivia

 * He is the second major villain on the show to have been presumably redeemed (the first being Nightmare Moon) and the first major villain to have been redeemed via non-magical means (without the use of the Elements of Harmony).
 * He is also the only being in the series so far who has been proven to be completely immune to Fluttershy's stare. Given that The Stare has in the past reduced a full-grown dragon into submission and overpowered the magical stone gaze of a Cockatrice, Discord shrugging it off like it was nothing is a testament to his incredible power.
 * Discord made a cameo appearance in the first ever fan-made My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode called Double Rainboom as a front cover of the book that Blossom was reading in the ending credits.
 * Discord can also be seen in the intro of Seasons 4 and above, in Fluttershy's house.
 * Discord is one of the most powerful characters in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the others are; Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, Tirek and Starlight Glimmer.
 * Although Discord has been reformed, he still performs acts of questionable ethical integrity, for example, not saving ponies in danger by the Plunderseeds (and appearing to take joy in their suffering), manipulating Twilight to venture into the Everfree Forest, or not telling the Plunderseed´s origin until the problem was completely solved. He also considered the possibility of going back to his old ways in the moment he was notified of the disappearance of the Elements, only to be stopped by Fluttershy. It is perhaps on this that Spike tells Twilight that Discord is "reformed, but not that reformed". This is all before the fight with Tirek which presumably sees him fully reformed.
 * It is implied Discord was much more evil in the past; one stained glass shows him dangling screaming ponies over fire.
 * He is the second major villain to have a song (the first being Queen Chrysalis). However, his song came after his redemption.
 * Discord is the only major antagonist who is confirmed to be behind another major antagonist. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Sunset Shimmer, and Tirek were acting on their own motives but the Plunderseeds were created by Discord.
 * According to the Elements of Harmony book, Discord's redemption was done so new stories could be told with his character and to turn him from the known enemy into the "not-always reliable ally".
 * He is the third most recurring antagonist in the show, the other being Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon (not counting Nightmare Moon).
 * Discord is currently the only villain who successfully defeated the Mane 6, even if it was for a brief amount of time.
 * Discord is the first male major antagonist in the show (the others being King Sombra and Tirek).
 * He is also the first major antagonist who is not a pony.
 * Discord lives in a chaotic dimension as it was revealed in the episode, Make New Friends But Keep Discord.
 * Discord bears a similarity to Eris, since both enjoy "glorious chaos" and use the protagonists (Sinbad and Fluttershy) to help them reach their goals (stealing the Book of Peace/Stealing the Elements of Harmony) and both have red and yellow eyes. Unlike Discord, Eris still continue to cause chaos while Discord quit causing chaos when he became a friend with Fluttershy.
 * His alternate timeline in "The Cutie Re-Mark", despite being heavily implied to be one of the worst possible fates for Equestria, is arguably the most lighthearted, as he merely resorts to juvenile hazing toward Celestia and Luna instead of being a destructive conqueror like the other villains. This is most likely due to his anti-villain status.
 * Discord is the only main villain to be a threat more than twice in the show. Nightmare Moon, Sombra, and Tirek were imprisoned a thousand years ago, returned, and were reformed, destroyed, and permanently reimprisoned, respectively, by the end of their episodes, while Starlight Glimmer was the main villain of both the Season 5 premiere and finale, reforming in the latter, and Chrysalis has so far appeared twice. Discord was a threat four times: Before being turned to stone a thousand years ago, in the Season 2 premiere, in Season 3 before Fluttershy reformed him, and in Season 4 when Tirek convinced him to turn evil again.