Discord's Magical History Tour note (a.k.a Discord in Time note )
- Story by Jeremy Whitley, Art by Brenda Hickey
Fluttershy is about to set off with the Cutie Mark Crusaders on an animal-watching outing for their filly scouts, when suddenly Discord arrives via a meteorite, having come one week too early for his next scheduled visit with Fluttershy. He tags along with them as they witness rather mundane creatures and instead insists he can show them much more interesting things in Equestria's past. The CMC immediately are up for it, but only when Discord lures Fluttershy with the opportunity to see a beautiful butterdragon does she agree. Calling up his time machine, Discord and the ponies set off for the past.
Their first stop is the lost civilization of Anugypt (the Equestrian equivalent of Ancient Egypt) where the group is quickly captured by jackals under Anubis' orders, apparently due to a mess Discord made the last time. As Discord tries to talk his way out of Anubis' plans, he notices several cats nearby, and has his pony friends duck at the right, as Baast and her feline army attack the jackals letting the others escape; the CMC recognize some similarities to that of Baast and her other cats to the Mane 6, and Sweetie Belle recognizes that Anubis has been taken over by the same force that created Nightmare Moon. As Baast regroups and teased the fact that Discord claims Fluttershy as a friend, Sweetie lets her know how to stop Anubis before Discord, Fluttershy and the CMC return to the time machine.
After a few more stops, they end up in prehistoric Equestria where Fluttershy is taken in by all the animals she has never seen. Discord, watching the CMC, is too late to react when a roc grabs the fillies. Fluttershy chastises Discord for using his powers that get them into trouble but never to help save them, as she tries to follow the roc, but eventually faints from exhaustion. Discord realizes his mistake, and calls in a favor from an old friend, a butterdragon named Hubert. Hubert is able to save the CMC and get them all to safety. After talking with Hubert, Discord realizes that he is still learning to how to be a good friend, and after making sure that Fluttershy gets to witness the beauty of the butterdragon, he collects the ponies and makes good to return them back to their home.
This issue provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Biology: The alligator is shown with a zip-lock mouth, which is a common error in artwork. Real alligators have their lower teeth hidden underneath their upper jaw.
- Bad Future: Discord travels too far into the future and discovers that Equestria (and the rest of the planet) will be overtaken by aliens while the ponies themselves have been turned into ponified CyberMen. He quickly takes everyone away from that future and refuses to tell Fluttershy the future he just saw.
- Bigger on the Inside: Inverted: when the CMC comment on how big Discord's time machine is (roughly shown as the size of a small house in Ponyville), he comments that it's actually smaller on the inside. Later we see the five all crammed in tight inside it, proving Discord's point.
- Cats Are Mean: Inverted. Baast and her cats are an heroic group battling against Anubis and his evil army.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Nightmare Force from Issues 5 to 8 returns as the driving force behind Anubis' villainy.
- Discord tells Fluttershy he's an honorary member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, which he became in Issue 2 of the Friends Forever comics.
- One game Discord presents for them to play is Oubliettes and Ogres, which has been a stock Dungeons & Dragons parody in the series since issue #11.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Discord may be able to Time Travel at will, but he's unable to actually change history.
- Egyptian Mythology: While visiting ancient Anugypt, Discord and the ponies run into Anubis and Baast, among other tropes from that theme.
- Fridge Logic: In-universe, Sweetie Belle asks why Discord would be worried about running into a butterdragon (a huge butterfly), if they were harmless like he said.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Nightmare Moon corrupted Anubis just like she would eventually do to Luna and then Rarity.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: In prehistoric Equestria, the CMC get snatched by a roc (a mythological bird-of-prey so huge that it could carry off elephants).
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Discord, finding Doctor Whooves in his time machine, kicks him off panel, realizing there's already too many references in the story to this point.
- Mind Screw: In universe, the Plot Parallel with the cats has the CMC very confused.
- Plot Parallel: Sweetie Belle recognizes the events in "Ancient Egypt", from Anubis having been consumed by the forces that created Nightmare Moon, to Baast and her cat allies being color-matched versions of the Mane 6, are the same as from Twilight and her friends and how they defeated Nightmare Moon and offer this advice to Baast to help deal with Anubis in the future.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The apparent reason a pre-reformed Discord helped Baast defeat Anubis, he found the latters regime "boring".
- Prehistoria: Apparently, dinosaurs and ponies co-existed in prehistoric Equestria.
- Reference Overdosed: Lampshaded. When Discord opens the doors to his time machine, Dr. Hooves is waiting for them. Discord promptly says that this comic has too many references already and gives him the boot out of the story.
- Running Gag: Once again, Sweetie Belle is a dictionary. She even lampshades the fact that ponies are surprised that she knows these things.
- Second-Hand Storytelling: Apparently, Discord worked with Baast to steal Anubis's favorite bone last time he was in Anugypt.
- Ship Tease: The relationship between Baast and Discord, who licks Discord's cheek and nuzzles him. At the same time, this teases the relationship between Discord and Fluttershy as Baast hisses at her and eyes her angrily. Also, when Baast asks about Fluttershy, Discord looks away sheepishly despite saying that she's "Just a friend". Later while chastising Discord for never using his powers to help them, Fluttershy expresses mild jealousy over Baast and Discord's relationship.
- Shout-Out: The title is a pun on the Beatles number Magical Mystery Tour, similar to the episode Magical Mystery Cure.
- Shown Their Work:
- With mixed results. Fluttershy properly identifies a collective group of goldfinches as a "charm of goldfinches", which is the proper collective noun. However, her "confusion of guinea pigs" is not right - that's just a "group" (the mistake might come from the fact that there is a "confusion" of guinea fowl, which is the adjacent line on most collective noun tables.)
- One of the dinosaurs shown appears to be an enantiornithine
or even a properly-feathered dromaeosaurid.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Discord attempts to explain the ramifications of time travel to the CMC.
- Transformation Sequence: Discord has a very Sailor Moon-ish panel as he changes into his honorary filly scout outfit. He even ends with the "victory" pose that Sailor Moon would complete hers with.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Based on teaser images tweeted by artist Brenda Hickey, the whole story is a loose take on Doctor Who, from Discord donning a fez and bowtie, to using a time travel device similar to the TARDIS that's about reliable as the Doctor's, and even a point where some ponified Cybermen and Doctor Whooves himself shows up. Even the Hot Topic variant cover plays on the similarities between Doctor Who and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
