Discord

Discord is the former ruler of Equestria, and the main antagonist of The Return of Harmony in the G4 My Little Pony series. Once Discord escapes from his stone prison, Twilight Sparkle and her friends must act quickly to retrieve the Elements of Harmony in order to stop him. In Keep Calm and Flutter On, he returns after Celestia decided that he should be rehabilitated to serve good instead of evil, and was a lucky success, although the season 4 episode premere proved that Discord still has a long way to go.

Physical appearanceEdit

 * "This creature is called a draconequus.[note 1] He has the head of a pony and a body of all sorts of other things."
 * — Cheerilee

Discord has a horse-like head with a right deer antler, a left goat horn, a fang and a beard. He has a lion right arm, an eagle's talon for a left arm, a lizard right leg, a goat left leg, a bat right wing, a pegasus left wing, a snake tail and tongue and different sized pupils.

Personality
In The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2, Discord is shown to be a mischievous, manipulative trickster who uses powerful magic and illusions to alter reality and control others. During the two episodes, he seeks revenge against Celestia and Luna for imprisoning him in stone, by stealing the Elements of Harmony and causing disorder all across Equestria.

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, after he first appears. He delights in chaos and confusion at the expense of others and believes that the laws of reality are beneath him. While attempting to corrupt Fluttershy, he shows his lack of patience when he finds he can't corrupt her as easily as he did with the others.

Discord delights in causing others to act almost like their total opposites. In The Return of Harmony Part 2, he relishes breaking Twilight's spirit, and belief in the power of friendship, believing that he has now won, and that he and his chaos are unstoppable, due to Twilight's belief in friendship being the key to defeating him. His "Playful Persecution" shows through, as he acts the part of Twilight's friend; encouraging her to get in the spirit of the new, chaotic Ponyville, and attempting to get her to watch his tricks. When he sees her moping under a cloud of chocolate rain, he even removes it from above her, and eats it. However, when she says she is leaving, he celebrates the departure of one of the last who could stop him.

During the two episodes, Discord underestimates the ponies' ability to restore their friendship and wield the Elements of Harmony. During their final confrontation, he still believes that their friendship is broken, which leads him to sit idly by while the ponies use the magic of the Elements to turn him back into stone.

It is interesting to note that Discord displays little in the way of malice, anger, or hate - the Traditional "evil" emotions for a villain. His main motivation seems to be to have fun through chaos, however he has a complete lack of regard for the feelings of others, and the nature of his fun is usually at someone else's expense.

In Keep Calm and Flutter On, Discord states that he's never had a friend. He appears 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. He states at the end of the episode that he will use his magic only for good from now on..."most of the time".

History
Discord first appears in The Return of Harmony Part 1. Before he is introduced, the effects of his presence are seen, with clouds made out of cotton candy that move of their own accord, chocolate milk pouring down from the sky as if like rain, and animals that behave uncharacteristically and spontaneously change shape. Princess Celestia explains to Twilight and her friends that Discord is the spirit of disharmony. He preceded the Princess sisters as ruler of Equestria and caused unrest and unhappiness throughout all of Equestria for earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi alike. Celestia and her sister Luna rose up against Discord and used the Elements of Harmony to turn him to stone.

Celestia continues, explaining that since she and Luna are no longer connected to the Elements of Harmony, the spell imprisoning Discord broke 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, which Twilight connects with the Canterlot castle labyrinth.

When Twilight and her friends venture into the palace labyrinth, Discord magically removes the ponies' wings and horns so that they would be unable to use their magic or be able to fly to "cheat" in the "game" he forces them to take part in. He also separates them by raising sections of the labyrinth's walls. Discord uses representations of the cast's cutie marks to subtly manipulate them into behaving in discordance with the element they represent, with the exception of Fluttershy who doesn't fall for Discord's manipulation, leading him to snap and simply convert her by touch.

He eventually plays with Rainbow Dash's loyalty to her friends by showing her a vision that her hometown of Cloudsale 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 seeking the Elements. This tricks her into flying out of the labyrinth, breaking Discord's second 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. When Twilight lashes out at him, Discord warps them back in time, to help Twilight with the riddle he spoke of earlier, afterwards turning Ponyville into what he claims will be his 'capital of chaos'. When Twilight forcefully places the elements on the corrupted ponies and Spike, (substituting for the absent Rainbow Dash) the Elements don't work, so Discord continues his chaos. When Twilight finally cures all her corrupted friends, Discord continues to act calm and complacent, thus allowing him to be easily defeated with the reawakened powers of the Elements. After being struck with a rainbow similar to that previously used on Nightmare Moon, Discord was turned back into stone, but this time with an expression of horror frozen onto his face.

In "Keep Calm and Flutter On", 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."

Discord appears in the season 4 two-part premiere "Princess Twilight Sparkle" when the Mane Six summon him, accusing him of the chaos occurring in Ponyville. Discord denies any of this was his doing, claiming he enjoys the new style of Ponyville, but that he can't claim responsibility for it, mentioning that he is reformed. With Discord still claiming innocence, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash get ready to turn Discord back into stone. Fluttershy stands up the trio and gets them to stand down by mediating that he might not be lying after all. Discord thanks his friend "Shutterfly" whilst embracing Rainbow Dash, before Fluttershy corrects him on the name and the pony. Twilight Sparkle asks Discord to help them find out who is behind the trouble, but after showing a disapproval of the way he was treated, he points them with a large arrow towards Zecora as she was arriving. Afterwards, Zecora uses a potion to show Twilight Sparkle how Celestia and Luna first found the Elements of Harmony and used them to originally imprison Discord in stone. Later, Discord is still enjoying himself, even watching a few ponies getting squeezed by vines, up until Twilight Sparkle arrives to scold him, and demand he help, which he does by getting rid of said vine. He asks about the Tree of Harmony, and Twilight Sparkle tells of her friends' decision to have her stay behind. Discord is surprised that Twilight Sparkle agreed to such a plan, accusing her of keeping herself out of harm's way while her friends rush headlong into danger. The Draconequus' words get to Twilight Sparkle, and she races back to help her friends in the forest. Later on, after giving up the Elements of Harmony and saving the Tree of Harmony, Discord appears to congratulate the ponies as they emerge from the forest. This is despite the fact that, when the power of the Tree destroyed the vines, Discord reacted with disappointment at this outcome. When he asks about the Elements, the ponies inform him that they were gone. Discord is quick to ponder the possibilities of this, but Fluttershy swiftly warns him to control himself if he wants to remain friends. Applejack wonders why this all happened to begin with, and Discord mentions out loud that the seeds he planted should have sprouted long ago. Twilight Sparkle asks him what he means, and using Zecora's potion, Twilight Sparkle observes that prior to his original imprisonment, Discord had secretly planted his "plunder seeds" to steal the Tree of Harmony's magic and capture the princesses, but it was only until now that the tree had enough magic to keep the seeds from growing. Twilight Sparkle berates Discord for withholding this information, but Discord explains it was to teach Twilight Sparkle a valuable lesson about being a princess. It's argueable that Discord does care, it's just he likes to have an "unconventional" way of caring, in which no doubt will invite controversey. Also, some cronitcles episodes involving him being more firendly are offitcally before the canon show episode, and can be justifived that his jerk additude was a result of being accused before, but the cronitcles episode will be quick to explain that Discord will be to make up for lost grounds, espeically when there is a particular episode more or less dedicated to this called Discord's Dilemma.

In 'Three's A Crowd', Discord visits Ponyville claiming to be suffering from "blue flu" and asking for help from his pony friends. With Fluttershy away on a trip to observe the Breezies, it ultimately falls to Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence to care for him while he is ill. Ultimately, the blue flu turns out to be a deception. Discord claims that he was worried Twilight wasn't really his friend and concocted an elaborate test to determine if she would really act like a friend to him. He is overjoyed to see that she chose to help him, even though it interfered with her time with Princess Cadance. Ironically, Discord is infected with a real disease when a Tatzlwurm sneezes on him. He is placed in a quarantine bubble in Fluttershy's cottage where his Pegasi friend can care for him.

Role in the series
In the fanfiction series, Discord became a member of the Villain League. Thousands of years ago, he was one of Chernabog's 13 seekers of darkness. During the Clash of Blades, his keyblade, Chaos Ripper, clashed with Celestia's keyblade of light and helped to forge the X-blade (Which got his keyblade destroyed in the process). But he eventually indirectly quit the League during his change to good, cause reforming is technically a sure-fire indirect way to have your League membership expired. During his change to good, he gets the chance to reunite with his parents in his homeworld of Draconequua, and face a sentence to community service for violating the Draconequua Magic Border Line Law. He chose his community service to live with his friend, Fluttershy, and help her around with her cottage. But little does he realize is that an older brother of his is coming to deal with this, but not before an even bigger mess thanks to Qui and a mess of other villains in the formentioned episode about this section.