Discord (My Little Pony)/Synopsis

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 Sparkle
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.