WMG / My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Discord

These Wild Mass Guesses are about Discord and they make no sense. If you want to look elsewhere then:

Setting Guesses go here
Mane Character Guesses go here
Secondary Character Guesses go here

Royalty Guesses go here

Villain Guesses go here

Minor Character Guesses go here

Future Stories go here

Comic Book Series Guesses go here

Jossed Guesses go here

Confirmed Guesses go here

and you can still go back to the Main WMG Page, here

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Origins and Nature

Discord is the Last of His Kind.

Considering how he has been labelled a Draconequus, rather than just Discord. This has implications that at one point, there were more than one of them. Whatever happened to the rest of them?

• Either he's a unique mythical creature like the Pegasus was (Pegasus was originally the winged horse's name), or he murdered the hell out of the rest and took their powers.
  • Or there's more of them but the rest have no interest in screwing with things the way Discord does.
    • Which would make some very meta sense. Discord is basically Q, John de Lancie's famed Star Trek character, in a children's cartoon. In Star Trek it is later found out that Q himself is a member of ancient evolved race of nigh-omnipotent energy beings also called the Q or the Q-continuum. The rest of the Q are completely ambivalent to the lower planes of existence and the lifeforms that inhabit it, and in fact hold a strict policy of non-interference. In fact Q's constant meddling in the lower planes - which he justifies as a way to satiate his boredom - greatly annoys his brethren; so much so that after one particular "final straw" they strip him of his powers as a Q, and leave him as basically a normally human on the Enterprise D under the watch of his frenemy Captain Jean-Luc Picard; much to both men's displeasure. The rest of the Draconequi could very well mirror the rest of the Q-continuum, powerful benevolent to ambivalent reality warpers who avoid meddling or involving themselves in the affairs of others.
  • Well, put it this way; Equestria is just one COUNTRY. It's not a continent or an island or the name of the planet. It's just one region of many, like North America or Japan or France. For all we know, Draconequestria could exist or maybe once did as well, maybe even next to Equestria. Discord may have been an oddball Draconequus and just wandered the world, or maybe he was exiled for his malicious nature, spreading hell where he went, and found ponies the easiest/funnest to torment and torture because of their general benevolent natures. This, or draconequus are malicious by nature but Discord is easily the worst of the lot, the other ones taking place my trying to get rid of each other in order to rule the other Draconequi (Draconequesses?).
    • Even scarier, what if Discord is the White Sheep of his species? What if the other Draconequi are even worse than him and he left whatever homeland they had because Even Evil Has Standards? Perhaps Draconequi spend all their time in a chaotic and violent assault on every other member of their species that warps the laws of physics beyond their breaking point and that distraction of messing with each other is the only reason Discord is the only Draconequus to have wandered over to Equestria to mess with the ponies. Let's hope the others never show up.
• The only pony to use the term "Draconequus" was Cheerilee, and she wasn't referring to Discord at all; she was referring to the statue in the garden she genuinely had no idea was actually an imprisoned spirit. It's a nice theory, but really, he doesn't have a species.
• Wrong. The species has been confirmed to be Draconequus in the season 6 finale and onwards.

Discord is an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

As a messenger of Azathoth, his ultimate goal is to bring Chaos to the universe. After taking out Humanity at some point, his attentions are now focused on ponies. Fortunately for them, the Elements of Harmony are able to shut him out so long as they are active.

Discord was created by humans.

Following from the WMG theories that Equestria is Earth after humans go extinct, Discord was created by the animosity and disharmony during the war that ended humanity. Either that, or Discord was created through ill-advised magic or science, and caused that war himself.

• Well of course Discord was created by a human.
• That sounds a lot like the origin of the Lich.

Discord was created by other animals.

He was going to be their avatar of revenge against ponykind for living magical, lavish lifestyles. They took the best attributes of themselves and combined it into one being, but the resulting spell drove it wild and created Discord. He slaughtered and scattered the various tribes of animals that he was meant to represent and turned to ponies next. For a long time, Celestia was unable to stop him. She went on a soul-searching journey and found five Animals, remnants of the tribes that created discord. A Griffon of loyalty, a dragon of generosity, an antelope of kindness, a goat of laughter, and she was the element of honesty. But they were never friends, at least not to Celestia. She was young and hotheaded and only cared to save her people from Discord. She didn't realize how special these "animals" were to her until it was too late. They had defeated Discord, but Celestia lost what could have been her very best friends.

Discord was originally a statue.

The Elements of Harmony's friend beam can't do anything to harm other creatures, that's why they could only send Nightmare moon to the moon, and later, return her back to normal. That said, it didn't petrify Discord; it only returned him to his original form. However, that means there are now two forces of evil out there that are liberated.

Discord was created by the ongoing disputes of the Gods.

Originally, there were many racial deities, but the ongoing feuds of how to run their respective lands led to conflict. Discord was born of those conflicts, and took the amalgamated forms of the other gods to mock them. Then he systematically purged the other gods (which is why we never hear of any Buffalo, Cow, Dog, Dragon, Griffon, etc gods during these worldwide crises) and even members of the Royal Pony Sisters extended family. That's why he ruled Equestria and not the world. He was trying to draw Celestia and Luna into open conflict with him where he could crush them. He didn't expect the Elements of Harmony though.

Discord is a genetically engineered being...

... Just like Luna and Celestia. Thousands of years ago, some scientists (were they pony? Were they human? Or something else? WE MAY NEVER KNOW) strived to create the "perfect being". Luna and Celestia were far from the only creations, but they were the most successful. Discord was initially declared a success, but since he's made up of so many different creatures, he had a mixed-up nature that made him crazy. (similar to how if you breed dogs from two different breed classes, they're often conflicted on their behavior) He easily broke out of the facility, killed the scientists, and took over the world. After a while, Luna and Celestia stood up to him. The reason they didn't kill him was pity, they knew it wasn't his fault he was so messed up. They intended to find something that could help him so he wouldn't have to stay stone forever, but their responsibilities to the rest of the world just kept getting in the way, not to mention the Nightmare Moon fiasco which made it even harder for Celestia to work on many things at once. It's one reason Celestia set up the institute of magic, as she hopes that one day, maybe another unicorn will find something to help him.

Discord is actually just another victim.

He was never evil to begin with, or a Draconequus, just an alicorn prankster. Like Pinkie Pie, however, he knew when a prank would be too much.However, one day, while he was up rearranging the stars (probably into some juvenile statement), he was attacked by some dark force that wormed its way inside him.

Though the attack seemed to have no effect at first, his pranks eventually started to get more vicious. Then he decided that it didn't matter if anyone else laughed, as long as he got a laugh. He went around, sewing chaos everywhere, and drawing power from the conflicts he caused. The dark force fed off this power, making Discord more malicious. As he grew more malicious, he caused even greater chaos to draw power from. A negative feed-back loop was formed.The dark force eventually began affecting his physical form, gradually twisting him into the monster we know him as now.

By the time the other alicorns figured out what had happened, he was too powerful for them to stop. He proceeded to wipe the alicorn civilization from the planet, until six young alicorns discovered the Elements of Harmony. By the time they engaged Discord with their new found power, the darkness in him was too powerful to be purged, but they managed to seal him in stone. During the battle, four of the six were fatally wounded, and during the sealing, a small portion of the darkness broke away and took up orbit around the moon. The two remaining alicorns, Celestia and Luna, last of their kind, preceded to rebuild civilization using the lesser pony races: earth, pegasus, and unicorn (and sea?).

The darkness eventually returned and attacked Luna, but Celestia, having seen the signs of corruption in Discord (particularly the first physical manifestation, those draconic eyes), banished her sister to the moon, isolating her from any source of power for the darkness to feed on, and giving her time to find new bearers for the Elements of Harmony. Since the darkness in Luna wasn't nearly as strong as it had been in Discord, Luna could be purified, but if she had been allowed to corrupt more thoroughly, her form would have also twisted, though retaining a lunar them, as opposed to Discords chaotic theme.

• If the Elements of Harmony alone weren't powerful enough to purify Discord, perhaps adding more 'good' elements will help?
  • Like Charity, Chastity, Diligence, Humility, Patience, Temperance, ^note Kindness is already an E.O.H. Courage, Love, Sincerity, Purity, Hope, Light, Miracles^note Friendship is Magic (w/c in turn is already an E.O.H.), and is Knowledge really a good element?, Determination, Hard Work, Honor, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Selflessness, Valor^note Can't really count Ambition, Love and Patience are already listed, Honesty and Loyalty are already E.O.H.'s, etc. SURE!
• He's been redeemed through friendship, not purification.

Discord was driven mad by the "normal" world.

Think this through. If Discord is chaos personified, imagine how mind-raping the "normal" world must be for him. With all the organization and structure of the world, he should react the way we do to Eldritch Locations (i.e. getting mentally screwed over). The world drove Discord insane (by his standards), which is why he makes as much sense as he does, much the same way that Eldritch Locations bring their disorder to our minds. After all, his Evil Plan to destroy the mane cast's friendship required planning, structure, and, most importantly, order.

• Nope nope nope. Think about it. Is the Everfree Forest normal? From the point of view of a world where physics and biology work without requiring magic, pretty much. Everywhere else in Equestria? It's not a zero on the discord scale, it's negative. Celestia making the world so orderly is like if we humans put away a criminal with chronic, sound-triggered migraines, then gave everyone free boom boxes and promoted the popularity of rock music.
• He's been functioning in the "normal" world pretty well after his reformation.

Discord was originally a neutral Spirit of Chaos.

Discord was originally the true spirit of Chaos, as in the balance between chaos and order. He was meant to provide the chaos needed to get the world to work as it needed to. However, eventually, he began to question why he needed to hold back on his fun just to work in harmony with the rest of the world when he had the power to do whatever he wanted to, and decided to do just that, turning evil. He then proceeded to conquer Equestria and turn it into his World of Chaos. It was at this point he was dubbed the Spirit Of Disharmony, as he'd gone from an entity filling its proper place in the world to one destroying everything For the Evulz and disrupting harmony. With his defeat, the world no longer had him to provide the chaos to power nature (thus why the ponies have to do everything), but Celestia promotes enough goodness in her subjects to counterbalance his absence on a social level. Alternatively, Pinkie Pie is his replacement and doesn't know it.

Any image of Discord can become Discord.

Like the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who, Discord can spontaneously arise from any depiction of him. The original spell that Celestia and Luna cast using the Elements of Harmony over a thousand years ago didn't turn him to stone as such, it suppressed this effect, so that when they destroyed his current incarnation, he stayed dead until the spell wore off at the start of Season 2. The statue of Discord in the Canterlot statue garden was literally just a statue until it became Discord himself. He didn't mess with the stained glass windows in Canterlot Tower - the depiction of him in one of the windows animated and became him, stuck in the windows. Celestia didn't destroy the statue and the windows because no matter how much damage Discord could do if he materialized in Equestria, it would be worse if he materialized inside Celestia's memory.

Discord was created/magically elevated to combat an entity embodying Order.

Ancient Equestria was once ruled by a tyrannical figure, whose rigid laws imposed divisions and hierarchy among ponies. His extreme, draconian rule led to the unicorns/alicorns powering/making Discord to counteract it. The Draconequus' chaotic abilities eventually drove the entity away, freeing the populace, but without any real opposition Discord's chaotic tendencies soon took over and he began to subject all of Equestria to his cruel whims. The Elements of Harmony were thus created by Celestia and Luna not only to defeat Discord, but also to embody a unifying force that was neither order nor chaos.

Discord was created/magically elevated by the Elements of Harmony.

The Elements of Harmony work in strange ways. In this case, Discord was fashioned in a time when Equestria threatened to be torn apart. Civil unrest, wars from outside, famines, freezing winters, scalding summers, plagues, monsters, volcanoes, earthquakes... all of these were ceased, and their chaotic energies were combined into a single entity. Why? So the Royal Princesses (or, perhaps, more ancient wielders of the Elements) could banish discord from Equestria. Naturally, there was some time limit, and he was turned to stone upon returning.

Discord is the brother of Celestia and Luna.

The three had been created one at a time to rule Equestia together, but each had to be raised as a child and go to a school to learn how to rule before they could do it, Discord was grown up long before Celestia, who didn't want to rule until Luna was grown up. He then began to rule on his own, and because he was the spirit of chaos he caused a horrible Crapsack World due to the lack of the harmony his sisters were supposed to control. When both sisters were grown up, they thought he was causing so much unredeemable chaos that instead of learning to rule together as they were meant to they turned him to stone to get rid of the chaos altogether. Celestia was so ashamed of him that she refused to mention that he was her brother, and he was so secretly mad at her that he didn't bother to mention she was his sister. It is because of his sociopathic chaos causing nature that he was somehow a mismatch mutation instead of an Alicorn, it's also possible he altered his own appearance so no one would assume he was related to the Alicorn sisters. Word of God said the sisters have no other siblings, but it makes sense for Celestia to want to deny being related to Discord.

Discord isn't really a Draconequus.

There's probably a race out there called "draconequus" (Mix-and-Match Critters, or perhaps just look like it), but Discord isn't a member. He probably just looks like a draconequus, and the ancient ponies didn't know better; or, he claimed to be a draconequus to obfuscate his true nature as a Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.

To add to the above: Discord does not have a "true" form.

I read on the Princess WMG a theory that the princesses only manifest into the form of ponies for convenience's sake. Discord seems to be either on par, or more powerful than them, so it stands to reason that he is very similar. I propose that the Draconequus is a mythical race found in old pony tales (just because you live in a world made of magic, doesn't mean there are no still mythological beasts) that a formless chaos being found out about. He knew the form frightened ponies (if he was being serious), or was hilarious to them (if he was being ironic). So, the once formless chaos being created a physical form similar to the being found in pony mythology, and made it a new, horrifying, reality.

Discord knew Celestia growing up.

We do not know how old Celestia and Luna are, but they are old enough so that their actions can enter the realm of folk culture. After all, wouldn't the ponies remember if Nightmare Moon was going to bring eternal night if it had happened within their parent's lifetimes? Rather than have characters like Spike speculating on whether or not it's an 'old ponies tale'? So obviously both Celestia and her sister are significantly old. Discord never specifies how old he is, save the 'eons' comment he makes. Eons are typically indefinite large periods of time, and even then, they are often used colloquially in speech. Celestia also makes no comment about Discord usurping power from her, only her and Luna defeating him, and then (presumably) coming to power. We can assume that Celestia wasn't in power then because she was too young.

With that established, we can speculate on what their relationship was. Perhaps This video is true. Maybe Discord was a social outcast isolated by his physical appearance (perceived as a deformed pony, even? Since that's how his statue was described), and only befriended by Celestia. His reign of terror could be attributed to his own weird 'chaos' morality and a desire to 'get back' at the ponies that were cruel to him.

• Or he, like Luna, was infected by a dark magic that was even stronger, turning him from a harmless prank player and their best friend into the creature we know today — and Celestia's greatest failure, because unlike Nightmare Moon who could be cured he could not so she was forced to forever seal him in stone.

Discord's defeat by Celestia

Equestria is apparently older than both Celestia and Luna, and before then the unicorns controlled the heavens. Equestria is still hyper ordered back then, too ordered for ponies to live without cooperating, so if Discord is the spirit of natural chaos it means he was sealed away even before the founding of Equestria. Discord must have come from somewhere, and sense he is so powerful and immortal it makes more sense for him to be as old as time itself than being created sometime after the founding of Equestria.

Discord is from Taurtarus.

In "It's About Time", Cerberus appears and Twilight informs that he is the guardian of Tartarus, which is apparently where a bunch of evil creatures are sealed. In Greek Mythology, where he comes from, Cerberus guards Hades, which can be viewed as an equivalent to Hell in some aspects. Discord was one of the evil creatures sealed in Tartarus, but he grew very powerful and managed to escape. He was too powerful to be put back so he was turned to stone.

• He does know another guy who was imprisoned there.

Discord is Q.

• Physical God, check. Trickster God, check. Creates chaos for his amusement, check. Screws with peoples' minds for fun and profit, check. Played by John de Lancie, check. Take Q, hop a few dimensions and add a new body (which must have been fun to make) and you have Discord.
• Also in "Return to Harmony part 1" he said his favorite element is Laughter (who is Pinkie) while in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Deja Q", Q gives Data a "going away" present. What was the gift? Laughter.
  • It's probably related to his personality, not the fact that "he" gave laughter to somebody.
• Alternatively, he could be a Mirror Universe counterpart to Q.
• If one pays attention to when he snaps his fingers to teleport or change something, the flash of light and chime will sound pretty

familiar.

Discord was created by Q.

• Young Q got bored one day, came across a planet populated by pretty ponies, and decided it could use some "spicing up". So he created a monsterous, chaotic being with reality warping powers like himself and set it loose upon the land to "test" the inhabitants.
  • This would also give Discord a rather tragic backstory — imagine finding out the reason you were different from everyone else was that you were created by a Mad God for shits and giggles?

Discord is a genetic creation by the Umgah.

I came up with this theory because Well, look at him, he looks like something the Umgah would make!I think that the Umgah created him to do havoc on planet of Equestria as a practical joke and whileDiscord was doing his Chaos the first time, you can bet those blobies were laughing so hard!

• Makes you wonder if the Flagship Captain could have made use of him.

Discord and Celestia were once best friends.

But, at some point, something happened to him and he became corrupted, possibly through magical means. Celestia didn't have the heart to kill him so she had him turned to stone, with the slim hope that someday, she can find a way to restore him to his good old self again.

• funny take a wild guess at what the next discord epiosde is about

Discord turns to stone if there's no disharmony for him to feed on.

He was freed thanks to Disharmony happening right in front of him and got progressively stronger as things progressed, or at least seemed to. He draws his power from Disharmony and blasting him with the Elements of Harmony is blasting him with the antithesis of his own power, draining it all from him.

• Optional WMG: If he returns, he won't be beaten with the Elements, but instead by the mane cast managing to starve him of Disharmony somehow.
• Not exactly. If he himself ceases to be discordant and chaotic, he simply... fades away.

Discord is a corrupted Starswirl the Bearded

Similar to the above genetic engineering WMG, to further test the limits of magic, Star Swirl dabbled in experiments outside of public view. His last experiment was to turn himself into the perfect being, giving him the magic, strength, and speed of some of the best animals in Equestria while still not completely changing his physical appearance (Summoning his wings when he wanted to fly, for example). Unfortunately, the experiment went out of control and turned him into the draconequus we all know and love. Upon his transformation, Star Swirl believed that he can further his studies despite his form to test the limits of the world, but felt that the harmony between ponies was getting in his way, so he sought to inject chaos into the world. Over time, his mind deteriorated and, in the end, lost sight of his original goal, becoming more focused on chaos and disharmony, eventually adopting the name Discord. However, because he kept his more unethical experiments to himself, everypony assumed he had died when Discord appeared and because his publicly distributed studies helped further develop unicorn magic, his name tends to be more fondly remembered.

• You mean like this?
• Partially supported by the documentary, where the professor voiced by John DeLancie is a unicorn, and near the end, has Discord like eyes.
• Season 3 seems to support this theory. Not only was Star Swirl working on a spell that may have been supposed to turn him into an alicorn, but it was never finished. Maybe something went horribly wrong....
• In "Keep Calm and Flutter On", it is also said that Discord has never had any friends. While in the finale, Celestia states that Star Swirl "Never understood friendship the way [Twilight] does".
• Then there are those possible leaked lines from an episode to come.
  • Weren't those lines rumored to be from Keep Calm and Flutter On?

• Would go with "not really spirit of chaos, i'm just bragging" below
  • Bonus points if Starswirl's brother was King Sombra.
• Jossed. Discord and Starswirl are separate people and both are present in the show's world independently of each other.

Discord never was an actual "spirit of chaos" to begin with.

He was simply lying about that all along to make himself sound that much more impressive and important. He's really just a super-powerful jerkass of unknown origin who has no actual essential function in the setting; the whole "chaos" thing is at least in part merely an act to mess with the usually order-loving ponies' minds.

• would go with the "discord=starswirl the bearded" above.

Draconequus are what ponies call Discord's race.

Discord's species may have a very different language of that the ponies. If ponies represent Western Europeans, then Discord's race may represent Asians as Discord looks very much like an Eastern Dragon. Perhaps in Discord's kind language they call themselves longs (chinese word for Dragon)

• It could be what eastern dragon call corrupted members of their kind.

Discord is Wyrm.

Think about Wyrm's goals, and how both Discord and Wyrm's magical seals were broken. This also explains Discord's serpentine shape and how he got his horn. The cockatrice in Stare Master was his herald.

Discord is a Shardholder.

Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere has great beings split from the God Beyond, Adonalsium, known as Shards. These Shards are identified by the trait that they exemplify most — Odium, Ruin, Devotion, Preservation. Specifically, Discord is the Shardholder of Discord, or perhaps Chaos, like Vin or Ati on Scadrial.

Discord is Spike and Sweetie Belle's son.

After they got married Sweetie Bell gave birth to Discord how was a kind careing soul how grew up listing to his aunts stories but then something very very bad happend. Sweetie was killed by a dimoned dog who thougt she was her older sister enraged by this Discord went on a rampage. Spike tried to calm his son but Discord turned on him blameing for failing to save Sweetie forceing a fight. Twilight sent Discord into the ancient past as the last option left after he mortally wound spike how later died from his wounds.

Discord is a Protean

In Pathfinder, proteans are serpentine outsiders from the Chaotic Neutral plane who revel in chaos and unpredictability and seek to erode all of reality back into the formless, churning chaos of the Maelstrom. Discord somehow became trapped in Equestria and went mad... or madder, at any rate.

Discord used to go by the name of Starswirl the Bearded.

As shown in the season 3 finale, Starswirl had been working on a very powerful spell, one that apparently fulfills a creature's true destiny. I propose the obvious conclusion that Starswirl may have very well completed the spell, though something may have gone wrong somewhere, to cause him to turn into the lovable force of chaos we know today. Now whether the spell was considered a failure because it went against his true destiny, thus chaos. Or if he did complete it himself, but it is considered a failure to Celestia because it turned someone she probably cared for into her greatest enemy for thousands of years to come, it's anyone's guess.

• Well, the effects of the incomplete spell are similar to something Discord would do. Maybe he was trying to turn himself into an alicorn, but instead of using the magic of friendship he accidentally channeled the power of Chaos instead, becoming a corrupted Draconequus.
• This becomes even more fitting in light of the fact that Starswirl is portrayed in IDW Comics as a fun-loving Cloud Cuckoolander comparable to Pinkie Pie in terms of personality.
• Jossed. Discord and Starswirl are different people.

Discord is Eris.

Eris was the Greek God of discord. Her Roman name is Discordia. Discord is male because he/she got bored of being female.

Discord has a Multiple-Choice Past.

He's a god of chaos and discord, so contradictory origins would just plain fit. Each of the parts of his body come from different origins, due to literal having multiple origins. Theoretically, this means that any and every Wild Mass Guessing about Discord's origin is canon, so long as this one is.

The pony statues next to Discord were what made Discord in a truly evil being.

Originally, Discord used to be a true Chaotic Neutral threat, being the Spirit of Chaos instead of Chaos and Disharmony. The statues were ponies who, whether intentionally or unintentionally, revealed to Discord that he could fun through tormenting ponies instead of just trolling them. Since Discord thinks acting morally equals causing chaos, it would be totally okay to make Equestria Hell on Earth so long as it's chaotic, insane and hilarious. The real question is if those statues/former ponies meant it or not.

• If they did, then they're arguably the most depraved ponies in Equestria. They purposefully tricked a nigh-omnipotent Reality Warper into becoming a God of Evil. If they did it because they thought it would make them figures of authority, then they're apathetic monsters. If they did it because they wanted Equestria to suffer, then they're sick monsters. Their And I Must Scream fate is completely deserved
• If they didn't, then we have some major Nice Job Breaking It, Hero going on. In some in-universe Ron the Death Eater, they believed Discord was an evil Reality Warper motivated by For the Evulz, instead of a Chaotic Neutral Reality Warper motivated by amusement. Discord overheard them, and was curious about the idea of truly screwing the lives of Equestrians over. If this is the case, the statues are of ponies so guilt-ridden they thought they only deserved an eternity of a fully aware and conscious statue.

Discord was created/summoned by some power-hungry ponies.

But as those ponies immediately learned, just because you create/summon something doesn't mean it will listen to you.

Discord's father is Typhon.

• It's not like the show hasn't drawn on Greek Mythology before, and Typhon is pretty much the final boss in the Greek myths, the greatest, strongest evil in all existence. What's more — Typhon arguably also fits the definition of a draconequus, as he's been depicted before with a mess of snake/dragon-like body parts, combined with the head of a horse or donkey. Series like Percy Jackson and the Olympians have even described him as having a hundred heads, all representing different beasts (to paraphrase Cheerilee's description: "He has the head of a pony, and the body parts of all sorts of creatures...").

Without Discord, friendship (and thus magic) would cease to exist.

Discord is, by his own words, a spirit of chaos; so it's logical that he is countered by the Elements of Harmony. However, if he were to be imprisoned forever or killed, all magic in Equestria could well go with him.

Chaos and Harmony are two sides of a coin; you cannot have Harmony without Chaos, just like you cannot have Chaos without Harmony. If one were to be lost, the world would be changed dramatically. Without Chaos, friendships do not last. Without Harmony, Chaos becomes Harmony, and thus would cease to function. Friendship is a form of magic in Equestria; and without Chaos, friendships are meaningless and void; they become words, not relationships.

Chaos is, by its own, a neutral entity; chaos can create as many positive events as negative ones. Discord (Chaos) is the balance between the Royal Sisters (Harmony) and Tirek (Disharmony); while Celestia and Luna tend to use magics with more positive aspects to the world, Tirek uses magic that negatively affects the world and Discord uses magic that does both; he both helps and harms the world, keeping the natural balance of both sides in check. If Celestia were to fall and Tirek was to take the throne, it's possible Discord would have fought him even without Fluttershy helping him, since he's, as the representation of Chaos, a neutral force and Tirek's plans were essentially to totally upset the balance of Harmony, Chaos and Disharmony, and thus negatively affect the world. Moral agency is something Discord has no need for; Chaos is neutral by nature, and thus so is Discord. Things like killing, destruction and suffering are negative forces, and things like life, building and joy are positive; being a neutral being, Discord can neither kill ponies or revive the dead without, in some way, unbalancing the order. He's, essentially, a strongly neutral being; if Celestia is lawful good and Tirek is chaotic evil, he's the middle ground; neither good nor evil, but a middle ground.

Should a being appear that would cause upset in the balance of the three, than Discord would most likely see to it that the threat is dealt with; a good character like Celestia would go the more friendly route, while a evil character like Tirek would outright kill the imbalance; Discord, being totally neutral, would be the easiest moral compass to choose; however, that does not mean he'd always be the most reliable compass, as Tirek was able to persuade Discord into joining his side through deception. But since Tirek was quite weak, he likely meant the words; at least until he became strong enough to try and fight Discord; Discord's own neutrality was his flaw. He only did what Tirek told him, and seemed quite uneasy over the acts he was aiding in.

Even when Tirek betrayed Discord, Discord did exactly what was needed and no more; he only gave Twilight her key, which allowed them to defeat Tirek; restoring the neutrality of the world. He could have taken on Tirek by himself, but he didn't; doing so would disrupt the balance of harmony, chaos and disharmony, and thus would only be making the issue worse. By acting in a moral, yet not harmonious, fashion, Discord restored balance to the three powers. The Rainbow Powers could well be something Discord had created at some point to help keep these powers in check; after all, with no Harmony, Chaos would be useless and without Disharmony, Chaos would no longer be chaotic.It's also worth noting what happened to each of the major villains hit with the Elements of Harmony or the Rainbow Powers; Nightmare Moon (a being acting under the influence of another) was reverted into her original state. Discord (a being of neutrality and chaos, with no absolute side) was imprisoned in stone and Tirek (a being acting out of malicious intent) was sent to Tartarus; thus indicating that Discord is a neutral entity.

Friendship grows with chaos; it's more fun to experience things with friends than it is to simply talk to them. Thus, Discord (in some kind of backwards way) is an essential part of friendship, and neutral by law. His positive and negative traits cancel the other out, leading to his neutrality. He makes no sense because he has no moral roots; Fluttershy's kindness to him contrasting with Tirek's treatment of him as a mere toy in his games is essentially boosting his power by keeping the balance in check on a personal level as well as the cosmic level.

Essentially, Discord is the Rayquaza to Celestia's Groudon and Tirek's Kyogre.

Discord was created by Starswirl.

There is a widespread theory that Discord is a transformed Starswirl the Bearded. However, given that Starswirl’s magical experimentation is canon, it is entirely possible that Discord was created by an untested spell Gone Horribly Wrong (especially if amniomorphic spell really is Malaproper for omniomorphic spell.) Either way, Discord certainly looks like what happens when one tampers with nature.

Discord is a native of the same dimension as Bill Cipher

Both characters are chaos-loving Reality Warpers with mean-spirited senses of humor (especially Bill and his posse). They largely stay out of each other's way though. Partially because Discord was turned to stone for a thousand years and partially because Bill respects Discord enough to not break his stuff, which is why he hasn't harmed Fluttershy whenever she visits Discord in their native dimension.

Discord is Grogar's Son

Grogar was known as the Father of Monsters. It wouldn't be surprising if Discord was one of his creations as well.

• Which explains him impersonating Grogar throughout season 9.

Powers

Discord cannot be defeated.

Because he is not evil, but a force of nature. Discord is the spirit of chaos and chaos is inherent to the world. Sealing him away was actually a huge mistake. Sure bad things happened, weather was stormy and animals were wild and unpredictable, but that's the way the world is supposed to be. Without him, the ponies had to take care of everything themselves and their world could no longer support itself without their intervention. His initial rampage at the beginning was because he was just so happy to finally be free he'd had so much energy pent up (and a little of it was just venting). Once he's amused himself, he will go about his own business, popping back every now and then to challenge the only ones he ever really had fun playing with.

• Despite what Princess Celestia said, Discord does not equal Chaos. Harmony is the balance of Order and Chaos, as an absolute of either would be very bad indeed (A cold, logical world without fun, games or feelings without any kind of surprise, or a zany world where nothing makes sense). Discord, on the other hoof, means an imbalance, in his case, bringing more chaos than order, due to his crazy personality.

Discord's only real powers are deception and illusion.

Rarity's diamond is actually just a regular rock, the critters he uses to persuade Applejack with are basically just puppets. These are clues that all his other powers are little more than glamors and illusions: the crazy weather,the stuff with the animals, the unicorns and pegasi losing their horns and wings, but notice the earth ponies don'tlose anything because they have nothing visible for his magic to act upon. And of course, the Elements of Harmony are still sitting there in the box, never having left. He merely waited for Celestia to move them to cast a concealment spell and then actually told the ponies that in his own riddling way: "...then find the elements back where you began."

• Notice though, that Rainbow Dash actually falls when her wings disappear. If Discord can make objects intangible/undetectable for anyone else, then it doesn't really matter whether it's "real" or not. Same goes for all illusions, if they're perfect.
  • If you were running and suddenly you couldn't feel your legs, I bet you'd trip too.
    • Alternatively, Discord is not a Reality Warper, but just an extremely powerful telepath, and everything he does is only in the ponies' minds. Mind you, if he's powerful enough to inflict this illusion upon all of Equestria simultaneously, that doesn't make him any less dangerous.
• Further evidence for this: Literally everything that Discord did is instantly returned to normal upon his defeat, as if it had never happened. Is it No Ontological Inertia... or did it never really happen? In his second appearance the most important things he does are undone with a snap of his fingers and noone acts as if they think there was permanent damage to Applejack's crop.
  • I was under the impression that the reason why everything Discord did is undone is that the Elements of Harmony are just THAT powerful.
• Just as powers of any pony who ever used illusions? You must stop calling everything clues about everything. To be closer to the subject, sure, he's so weak that he can only create illusions, and that's why ponies needed the Elements of Harmony to defeat him, not just Celestia or Celestia and Luna using their magic against him.

Discord has Hellish powers and may be the equivalent of My Little Pony Satan.

We already know Discord can manipulate ponies. In the released season 2 pic, where they're in a hallway, stained glass windows can be seen in the background. In one of them, we can see Discord as a puppeteer controlling the strings of an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus. More interesting, though, is that the ponies appear to be hanging over a pit of FIRE, and they seem to be in incredible pain. (and if you listen closely when Celestia tells the Mane Cast about him, you can here ponies screaming in pain in the background) He may be the pony equivalent of Satan, a Hellish monster with dark powers that wants to make ponies miserable.

• It may be a symbolic image of him tormenting ponies in his usual ways.

Discord's powers will revolve around The Power of Hate

Discord is, by virtue of meaning, the opposite of harmony, thus he's already partly the antithesis of the heroes' source of power. Since this is a show were the heroes power literally runs on the Power of Friendship, what better foe than one whose powers are the result of the opposite of friendship? Hatred. Discord literally means "the strife between people" (one meaning). Maybe he's an Anthropomorphic Personification of it or something, but his powers could revolve around hatred. Maybe he'll try to breed hatred between the heroes and break apart their friendship so they can't use the Elements Of Harmony against him, but that backfires by making their friendship stronger than ever. For irony, perhaps his actions end up uniting all of Equestria against him and he has a Villainous Breakdown when he realizes that. A possible way to defeat him would be Forgiveness, he wants to be hated so he'll be stronger, having no hate towards him would weaken him enough for the Elements Of Harmony to be used to reseal him.

• Alright, the rest is unconfirmed so far, but him breaking apart their friendship is confirmed.
• The newest preview seemingly confirms that he does feed off discord, possibly in the form of strife between people, as it appears that the CMC accidentally free him by getting into a fight in front of his statue and giving him the power to escape.
  • Perhaps his defeat will spark an Alas, Poor Villain situation?

Discord's personality-shift spells don't work on ponies who are already grey

So Pinky's sisters are perfectly safe. Her parents however...

• What of Derpy? Or Dinky?
  • Dinky's purple, so we could count on her being okay if this theory turned out to be true.

Discord can travel through time and different dimensions.

Hence why he makes so many references to human culture.

The reason Tirek could not win even with Discord's power is because he wasn't insane enough to understand the secrets behind his power.

Discord's powers are too chaotic for anyone of convectional logic to understand. Only some one of chaotic would truly understand how to put them to use.

Other Guesses

Discord is trying to test the mane cast, to see if they are ready for the real Big Bad

If they eventually pass the test and defeat him, good, that means they will be prepared for the Big Bad (and Discord probably has a backup plan to survive.) If they fail, then eternal chaos is a light punishment compared to what the true Big Bad will do to Equestria...

The Elements of Harmony sealed away Discord for good

When Celestia and Luna originally used the Elements, it wasn't strong enough to seal him for good. His grandiose pose when we first saw him in stone suggests that he already knew that it would only be a matter of time before he returns to Equestria and wreak havoc. This is why he underestimated the mane six when they came together again with the Elements. He thought it would be just like last time and that he would just be taking another short break. However, when they fired the Rainbow of Light, he realized too late that this one would actually seal him away for good, thus when he returned to stone his pose and expression this time was that of pure shock.

• Or, the first time, he had no idea what the elements were or that they could hurt him, so he had no reason to fear. The second time, he knew what he was in for.
  • Plus, it's possible that Celestia and Luna only had five of the elements instead of all six.
    • In the opening of Season 1 Episode 1, it shows all six, implying that Celestia used all six against Nightmare Moon.
• Jossed

Discord is color-blind.

He can only see different shades of grey. That's the real reason why he didn't notice that Mane Six were no longer under his spell at the end of episode 2.

• Similarly, Spike is apparently the only one to notice the grey. If it represents a spell that he can sense but Twilight can't, that'd help explain why Twilight was unable to figure out what was happening in the maze. Otherwise, she'd be holding the Idiot Ball for not making a connection between "I'm fighting a god of chaos" and "suddenly my friends are both acting wildly out of character and looking blatantly different". And the writers wouldn't do such a thing, right?
  • This could be Fridge Brilliance as a fair amount of animals actually can't make out colors. Granted, the colorful nature of Equestria suggests that ponies are among those, but Discord has a goat's head...
  • Actually when Spike sees them, they are in second-level greyness. A huge jump from original colour to grey colour is a significant change. But, Twilight? What she notices first is level 1 grey, then before they go in the house, they turn into level 2 grey. Besides, in that time, Twilight has started to lose patience and just wanted to settle things as quickly as possible, while thinking that defeating Discord might restore everything back.
    • My point: Either Twilight might not notice since it is a slow progression of greyness to her(unlike what a huge jump Spike notices), or she did notice but then she hoped that if she defeated Discord quickly with that party (that she still thought that there was hope), she could restore them back.
    • Maybe she DID notice the grey, but she just didn't know how to deal with it or what to make of it.
    • It's most likely that she noticed, but it didn't register. There was too much going on around her for her to really take proper note of her friends's new look when their personalities are suddenly so jarring, when they need to find the Elements of Harmony and each other, and when they need to stop Discord, who even Celestia seems to fear and is very wary of, when nothing else has thus far shaken her calm, collected, slightly amused demeanour.

Discord is incapable of accomplishing his ultimate goal, since his plan is unsound.

Alright, let's say that Discord manages to defeat, brainwash, and/or kill anyone who could be a threat to his plan. He then proceeds to create a world of perfect chaos, where every single thing is chaotic, disharmonized, and generally makes no sense. But in a world where nothing makes sense, everything makes sense. By creating a world of perfect disharmony, Discord will have created a world of perfect harmony. Discord has never had this pointed out to him, or gotten far enough in his plan to realize this on his own.

OK, I stole this idea from 8-Bit Theater, but I think it fits.

• So if everything is chaos... nothing will be?
  • worked for Linkara too
• In a world where nothing makes sense, there still isn't anything that makes sense. Perfect disharmony means no harmony, even on accident. Knowing that a situation will be unpredictable just means that you know that you won't be able to predict what will happen. If Discord imposed complete, total control over the world, it might become orderly to him, but he never tried for that level of control. Besides, his actions, especially his response to being defeated, showed that he wasn't trying to make the world truly chaotic, he was just using that as an excuse and theme for being a jerk to people.
• If indeed Discord is an Anthropomorphic Personification of chaos, it could be that it is physically impossible for him to win because winning is orderly. Much like Tzeentch, if his plans were to ever reach completion he would cease to exist, as he would no longer have anything left to corrupt into disharmony, thus by his very nature something will always happen to create disharmony against him and ensure he temporarily loses, until next time.

Remember Discord's pose he took when Celestia first made him Taken for Granite ?

• He was in that pose because he was in the middle of a Villain Song, and Celestia and Luna were simply pragmatic enough to blast him mid song.
  • He was mid-villainous laughter.

Discord is telling the truth when he says he doesn't turn ponies into stone, but it's not because he has standards.

From his perspective, turning people into stone is simply boring. Stone is static and unmoving, and cannot spread chaos on its own, unlike Discord's other alterations. Discord doesn't hate the concept of Taken for Granite because he has standards. He hates it because he thinks he can come up with better ideas.

• Oh God, you mean he's Hexadecimal? In addition to being Q?
  • Well, they both have a chaos motif.
• You gave me the image of Discord deciding to turn a pegasus pony to stone while she was above something interesting... But then reconsidering because it would be so much more interesting if she was made of silly putty. *shudders*

Discord was trying to turn the Elements of Harmony into the Elements of Discord.

If the Elements of Harmony were simply a threat to his existence, Discord would've just made them vanish with a thought; but that would be too easy. Instead, he performed Mind Rape on these 6 ponies and waited. Discord's tricks would've facilitated a Face–Heel Turn for each of them, souring the Elements the moment they'd use them. In fact, if the real Rainbow Dash had been there the first time rather than Spike, the Elements would've belonged to Discord, and the universe would've truly been at his disposal.

Discord's shuffling is the cause of Twilight Sparkle's freakout in Lesson Zero.

Stained Glass Discord dancing on the head of Stained Glass Twilight Sparkle messes with the head of the actual Twilight Sparkle, through a sort of voodoo doll effect. That's why her OCD kicks into mythical proportions during Lesson Zero - all a repercussion of Discord's mind-warp power.

Discord may have been defeated, but he's still an immediate threat.

The episode immediately after Discord's defeat, Twilight went crazy and displayed some very Discord-like tendencies. My theory is that, even after Discord's physical body was turned to stone, some part of him remained, at least in Twilight if not the other Element-wielders. I believe this is also what happened to Luna/Nightmare Moon; after defeating Discord the first time, she was altered/possessed by Discord.

• Probably Jossed.

There are cultists of Discord.

Because every Evil God needs a group of complete lunatics thinking he's the best thing ever. Surely there must be some cultists of Discord as well, worshiping him and maybe even making sacrifices to him in order to give him the strength to break out of his stone prison. Some of those would be sadists and masochists who revel in pain and suffering, and some others might simply be complete loonies (a bit like Pinkie Pie) who are simply into all the random events Discord can make happen, like the chocolate rain clouds. Possibly one of the later villains could be one of them or a whole group of them.

• This troper has noticed three ponies that just may be contenders for that position: they're nameless background ponies who each have flower-themed cutie marks (seen here), and are often the first to freak out when some huge chaotic thing happens in Ponyville. But their freak-outs are actually their own way of praising their master—what better way to pray to a chaos spirit than with uncontrolled screaming and hollering?
  • Seriously, you not talking about "The Flower Trio", aren't you?!
• I support this if keepers of the "Elements of Discord" are involved.
• This Troper had fan ponies with Discordian cutie marks before the character Discord appeared... when he showed up they were uqickly reworked to be Discord cultists. I'm glad others have this idea, too.
• Imagine a Discord-cultist fighting some changelings:
  Once the Dice of Chaos have been tossed, the result is nigh-impossible to replicate! Mimic this, muffinhugger! Mwahahaha!
  - Oddball, discontortionist extraordinaire
• Additionally, Pinkie used to be a Cultist, which might explain her unexplicable powers - she has the Gift of Discord. She left when she realized his power is more malevolent than just pranks and chocolate rain.
• Maybe they're the ones trading Discord lamps...
• since discord had a Heel–Face Turn we may see some of his worshippers as good guys (or at least Anti Heros)

Discord is a much more sympathetic and tragic character than most people think.

When Celestia and Luna were fillies, and playing with their magic, they accidentally merged many beings into one. The result was a strange-looking anamoly in reality. The resulting person was driven insane by all that had happened to him. As a result, he wants to create mayhem and suffering, either because he genuinely believes it's the right thing to do or to try to end his pain.

Discord literally could do nothing once the Elements were activated.

The Elements represent harmony, while Discord represents disharmony. And yet the Elements have proved to be more powerful than him on two occasions. When they're actually activated, their power exceeds his own. For the same reason Celestia and Luna couldn't take control of the moon and sun from him once he'd messed with him, he can't effect or counter the Elements with his Reality Warping powers because they're stronger than he is.

Discord and Nightmare Moon will be expies of Esmè and Olaf.

And yes, they ARE dating!

• We haven't seen the guy yet and shipping is already happening!
  • We have now, although the shipping thing, I'm not sure.

The vision Discord of Clousdale that Discord showed Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale.

Cloudsdale will crumble, but it will be because of a different villain. Perhaps in the next two-parter.

Celestia and Discord will turn out to have been lovers before he was imprisoned.

And even in the present there will be tons of tension.

• I'm probably just over-analyzing things like I always do, but something about the way and tone Discord recollected their past when talking to her in the hallway makes it sound like they've been together.

Discord will return as a less menacing recurring villain.

Don't take this the wrong way, I don't think it's a good idea to make him Lighter and Softer for the sake of having him stick around more permanently. That said, the writers have created an amazing character and it would be a shame to let him go after just two episodes. He may escape once again, but perhaps tone down the craziness a little, if only to avoid being imprisoned in stone again.

Twilight: Discord! You've unleashed your chaos upon Equestria once before, and we won't let you do it again!
Discord: Oh, what a poor first impression I must have made! I admit it — I overdid it a little back then. It's just that I hadn't seen any proper chaos in such a long time! Anyway, I've had a lot of time to think — one tends to have a lot of time on their hands when they're frozen in place — and I realized that neither of us are going to get what we want if I keep messing everything up!
Twilight: None of this matters to you, Discord! We're putting you back where you belong!
Discord: Oh, haha! How cute. No — you see, you never had a choice. As I mentioned, I've had some time to think, and I've learned from my mistakes. You won't be getting one over on me this time, Twilight.
Twilight: Grr! Stop stalling! Come on, girls! *prepares friend beam*
Discord: Forgive me! Here I was, thinking I was being a good neighbor and warning you. Toodles! *teleports*
* beat*
Pinkie Pie: *gasp* Does this mean we get chocolate rain again?

• And the Mariachi ponies are where?
  • On a time-travelling spaceship, collecting souls for pony-Satan.
• Semi-confirmed. He's a recurring character, but no longer a villain.

If Discord ever appears again the mane six will outright kill him.

Either with the fires of friendship or some other way since its clear that turning him to stone doesn't work and unlike Luna, He can't be redeemed in any way.

• Jossed. He is in fact redeemed in "Keep Calm and Flutter On".

This comic is true.

Because if it is, that means Discord is coming back. Squee!

• Alternatively, this comic is true. That said, it would still mean the same thing, but still.
  • Confirmed in "Keep Calm and Flutter on". At least the part of Discord returning.

Remember that throne Discord had?

That's Twilight's chair. It is a chair that is near and dear to her heart. Therefore, Twilight wants Discord to get out of her chair.

The Cutie Pox was Discord's doing.

The paleo-pony period could be the time where Discord's reign happened, so it could be possible.

The Windigos were Discord's minions.

Beings that feed off of hatred and drove wedges between the three tribes? What better minions for a being personifying Disharmony? Either he was pulling the strings behind the scenes and arrived shortly after Equestria's founding and conquered it or they were remnants of his rules that survived his downfall.

Discord is Fegelein.

FEGELEIN! FEGELEIN! FEGELEIN!

• Actually, this video suggests they are in fact two separate entities...and rivals.

  Fegelein: There Can Only Be One

You think Discord's outward appearance was strange?

Chances are that his insides make even less sense. Including, but not limited too:

• Instead of vertebrae bones, he has an exoskeleton, and a cuttlebone.
• Seven and a half kidneys. In his head where his brain is supposed to be.
• A digestive tract that loops several times in a mobius strip despite being a tube.
• Platypus Spurs, behind his ears.
• A magnetic tail so if you're made of metal, he can latch onto you.
• An extra pair of eyebrows, That only appear on Saturdays.
• An appendix that's larger then his stomach. Still useless.
• A pancreas that acts as a black hole.
• And above all: No Heart.
  • Not so much on the heartless anymore...

Tom Dan really was a diamond...

...enchanted so that everypony but Rarity would see it as a rock.

Wouldn't it have made so much more sense to give Rarity a rock and brainwash her to perceive it as a diamond? Yes. But what fun is there in making sense?

The prince's love poison was supplied by Discord

The story says "something about a dragon", "chaos reigned", and "a kingdom collapsed". After his creation/arrival/, his first act were to disable to the royalty so the kingdom by giving the prince the love poison (maybe as part of a Deal with the Devil) would descend into chaos, the perfect opportunity for him to seize the throne.

• Going further, while under the influence of the love poison, the two of them had a pair of daughters. Because of their parents' lack of interest in anything other than each other, the older daughter become a chronic workaholic to compensate for their poor governance, while the younger grew up to be eternally starved for affection. No wonder Celestia was so pissed off when she saw him.

Discord breaking free of his stone confinement was because the CMC where fighting so close to him

It doesn't really seem like there would normally be much fighting in the canterlot garden, so it must be proximity basedwell they where causing disharmony between them

• It's more likely that the CMC actually came to blows, rather than just arguing, because of the seal on Discord starting to wear off.

The reason why Discord corrupted Fluttershy telepathically?

He didn't simply choose to corrupt her that way after using mundane methods on the rest of the ponies - Fluttershy is just too nice to be corrupted without supernatural means, so Discord just used his magic.

If Discord comes back in Season 3, he'll be redesigned.

He'll have body parts from Season 2 antagonists, like maybe:

• Adult!Spike's right leg.
• The left leg of the timber wolves.
• The right arm of the wendigos.
• Flim and Flam's shirt and hat.
• Ahuizotl's tail.
• Iron Will's left arm and/or right horn
• The left wing of the leader of the teenage dragons.
• Queen Crysalis's right wing and/or left horn.
• Jossed, he still looks like he did in season 2.
  • Could be possible for him to transform at one point, knowing him it would be likely.
    • Also Jossed. He maintains his usual shape outside of quick visual gags.

Discord has permanently corrupted the cast.

We've seen most of the characters have at least one major freak out in season 2, often outright acting like they did under Discord's control. I think that he has driven them all permanently mad, and that they'll slowly grow madder and madder with time.Twilight in Lesson Zero, outright losing her mind. To a lesser degree in It's About Time.Fluttershy in Putting Your Hoof Down, acting almost identical to how she did under Discord's influence.Rarity in Sweet&Elite, ignoring her friends for material gain.Applejack in The Last Round Up, running away and lying to all of the others.Rainbow Dash in Mare Do Well, Not to mention the rather OOC actions of the rest.

• Pinkie hasn't had a significant freak out yet, but we know she's already prone to flipping, like in Party Of One.

When Discord returns, there will be a Villain Song

Considering that his voice actor has worked into music, it'll be a damn shame that he didn't sing. If he does sing, that I hope that Discord's Villain Song will also be the most badass songs ever.

• Jossed. At least in his first re-apperance. Still a shame though.
• Not a proper villain song, but he does get a musical number in "Three's A Crowd".

Discord's ultimate defeat would result an Alas, Poor Villain situation.

It is implied, if not fully shown that his power from hate. Plus, considering his name means "strife between people" Twilight (most likely) would deduct that because Discord's The Last of His Kind. And since there's no other Draconequus left, he strives making other races miserable because the jealousy and if he can't be happy, then no one else will. Similar to that of Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist, he breaks down into tears.

• Major points if he gives a Don't You Dare Pity Me! speech.

Discord has a twin sister.

And her name is Eris.

• Or Babel.
  • Bonus points if she is voiced by Ellen McLain! Who wouldn't want to hear GlaDoS and Professor Quadwrangle working together???
  • Or Marina Sirtis for more STNG references.

some one tell me how the hell is this not canon yet???

Granny Apple wasn't being forced to dance on a weak hip.

She was voluntarily dancing on a perfectly healthy hip. Discord thought that a spry old mare would be hilarious to watch, and then got bored of her without bothering to make her hip worse. He's not cruel, he's only the Element of Chaos. If he provided consistently negative effects, that wouldn't be very inconsistent of him, would it? Providing more chocolate milk rain after seeing Pinkie enjoy it, and never changing up the precipitation patterns beyond the rain of cola in Cloudsdale, provides evidence for this.

If Discord returns, he'll be (permanently?) defeated by a Logic Bomb.

Being chaotic with perfect consistency is hardly being chaotic at all. With the ponies knowing his tricks and having a stronger friendship from lasting through his earlier round of social discord, he'll no longer have a leg to stand on once Twilight (or whomever) takes away his "perfect" record of chaos.

• Jossed

Discord is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Let's face it. Nobody does things for no reason, and Discord, no matter how chaotic he looks and behaves, may be no exception. He may believe that most ponies are perfectionists (like Twilight Sparkle) who try too hard to control as much in their lives as possible. Thus, he creates chaos to counterbalance it all in hopes of restoring the balance between order and chaos and making everypony understand that not everything can be controlled.

Discord's mistakes and Kick the Dog moments were intentional.

Discord is not a being of chaos as such. He was introduced as an avatar of conflict. And he can't have conflict without an opponent, and as such, he cannot a) do anything that would make the game Unwinnable for his opponents, or b) allow his opponents to give up. Why did he tell anyone where the Elements really were? Because they couldn't defeat him if they couldn't work it out, and there's no conflict if one side can't win. Why didn't he destroy the letters or block the teleport? Because the letters were the only thing that kept the conflict going! Extending that last part, maybe Celestia had nothing to do with sending the letters, and it was all Discord making his puppets dance.

Discord does have an understanding of friendship, he just views it to be a shallow thing

Growing up, it's possible that Discord did have friends (for the sake of this WMG, i'll just say that these friends were Celestia and Luna), however when he drifted apart from his friends, he came to the conclusion that friendship is a trivial thing that can be easily broken. Discord adopts this cynicism towards all aspects of the Elements of Harmony, and his breaking apart of the main cast has him project his views on the elements onto Twilight and her friends.

• Honesty: When Discord spread relatively harmless acts of chaos, his friends enjoyed it. However when his antics got progressively more dangerous, he started to come into conflict with his friends. Embittered by the conflict, Discord starts to question if his friends actually ever cared about him or really enjoyed his chaos. In Discord's childlike world view, his friends protests of his chaos is the result of their true intentions becoming manifest. To him, honesty is a mere fallacy.
• Generosity: Seeing as how Discord is a creature of chaos, he might have actually believed to an extent that spreading chaos was a good thing. In adopting this viewpoint, Discord would seek to share the chaos that he so loves with other ponies. Of course, not all of them would necessarily enjoy chaos. This shakes Discord's faith in generosity, to him, it seems that the ponies only desire things that benefit them. However, whatever friendships Discord has are able to keep his faith in the element anchored. That is until Discord goes off the deep end. When his friends come into conflict with him, he concludes that they only actually enjoyed his presence for selfish reasons, that he was only kept around to keep others happy. From this point Discord comes to a conclusion, "I'm an omnipotent spirit of chaos. Why should I care about any of these ponies if they simply reject the chaos that I bless them with."
• Laughter: Growing up, it's likely that Discord didn't make friends easily, his unusual appearance, and strange personality would likely draw scorn and derision from the other ponies, who might even mock and laugh at him. Discord's faith in laughter is stabilized when he realizes that he's able to make those close to him happy, but when he comes into conflict with them, his warped mind concludes that his friends were laughing at him, that they had kept Discord around as a sort of jester for their own amusement. Seeking to make those who mocked him suffer, he began to delight in breaking the spirits of ponies for his own amusement. This is why Discord states that laughter is his favorite element, he still enjoys it, but unlike Pinkie Pie he doesn't view laughter as a way to bring ponies together, he views it as a selfish thing used to break ponies.
• Kindness: Going by the above theory that Discord didn't get along with many ponies, it's highly probable that he wasn't treated kindly, he might have even been called a monster. His friends did offer him kindness, but when his chaotic nature put him into conflict with them, they began to fear him and the worst Discord's got, the more his former friends resented him. Discord's warped mind comes to the realization that kindness, like honesty, is a fallacy. Going by the theory that Celestia and Luna were his friends, his cynicism is only amplified when he's punished, he starts to ask himself what kind of friends would punish him the way they have done.
• Loyalty: Going by all the text above, one can conclude that I view Discord to be a very childish being. A highly manipulative one, but a childish one nonetheless. And this childishness is especially important in regards to loyalty. Growing up it's highly possible that Discord's friends made the "best friends forever" promise to him. When Discord starts to feud with his friends, he views their protest of his actions as a betrayal. When they start to conflict with him it becomes worst. Now, going by the theory that Celestia and Luna were his friends, wouldn't it make sense that he'd view their imprisonment of him as the ultimate form of betrayal?
• Magic/Friendship: He doesn't use trickery to break Twilight Sparkle. Like her, he appreciates magic. Instead he shows her how easily friendship can be broken. Discord's fascination with Twilight is because she reminds him of himself at a young age. He views her as a naive child who wholeheartedly believes in the power of friendship, and because of this, Discord starts to loathe her. He doesn't like being reminded of what he believes to be a bunch of fallacies, which is why he so relishes in breaking Twilight. He loves showing her how easily her friendships can crumble.

In the end it isn't Discord's lack of understanding of friendship that leads to his undoing, it's that he can't possibly understand how ponies could mend a broken friendship. Due to his unwillingness to forgive his friends, or his friends unwillingness to forgive him, he believes that once a friendship is shattered, it can never be repaired. His cynicism makes him so confidant in his victory that he is unable to realize that the main cast have rekindled their friendship until it's too late for him. Now Discord waits in stone until he escapes again, , confused as to how those six ponies could possibly renew their bonds.

• Dammit, now I start to feel bad for Discord...

Going from the theory above about Discord understanding friendship, the Elements will drain Discord of his powers and he will eventually form an unusual friendship with Twilight Sparkle.

When Discord escapes again, it's possible that he won't be nearly as caviler when it comes to dealing with the elements bearers. Instead of using trickery like last time, he'll resort to brute force and will attempt to utterly break Twilight and her friends to an even greater degree than he attempted to last time. When his attempts to split up the main cast and push them past the point of no return blow up in his face, all the resentment and negative emotions he's built up throughout the eons comes spilling out. In an impassioned diatribe he questions the main cast and asks them how they can fight on despite everything that's he's done. They give a speech about persisting despite all looking bleak, and then proceed to activate the elements again. The Elements of Harmony, sensing the inner turmoil inside Discord that he had concealed the last time he escaped, decide not to imprison him again but to strip him of his powers. Now bereft of his reality warping, he's easily apprehended and incarcerated. Twilight Sparkle, ever the curious researcher, decides to try and investigate Discord in regards to his thought process and in regards to his species and what not. Discord initially accepts, seeing it as another opportunity to break Twilight. However, he eventually begins to open up to the young unicorn and start to make a gradual change for the better, and even teach her a few things. This scenario could lead to the exploration of a ton of themes for example....

• The purpose of chaos: Discord is the most prominent representative of chaos in this show. And going by the entire "harmony and chaos are two sides of the same coin" concept, Twilight Sparkle will learn that chaos is something that will be around forever, just like harmony. Twilight will learn from Discord that chaos isn't something you should try to fight, it's something that you have to live with, and on some level even embrace. As for Discord himself, he'll learn something about chaos as well. Despite loving it so much, he quickly reject any form of it other than his own if it inconveniences him (look at how he handled Fluttershy. He couldn't comprehend her so he just cheated in his game to bend her to his whim). The Draconequus will learn that chaos isn't just about wrecking havoc and screwing with the laws of the universe, it's also capable of producing miracles and bringing people together who are totally different. And think about this, to Discord, the main cast's friendship is something chaotic, to him it doesn't make sense how they could repair it. Twilight could point this out, and really make the guy think.
• Discord the immature: This is in part inspired by the "banality of evil" section of this analysis of In Cold Blood. Like the Perry Smith and Dick Hickock characters presented in the novel, Discord's reputation within the show and even inside parts of the fandom, is one of an utterly malevolent being. Now stripped of his powers, Twilight starts to see him differently. What she sees instead is a very sadistic, emotionally stunted child. For all his power, Discord is very juneville in his behavior. His treatment of the main cast in the Return of Harmony adds credence to this theory in my opinion. Think about how he treats his manipulations of them, he views it as a game. When he's confronted with Fluttershy, who doesn't play by his "rules" he throws a tantrum and just cheats to win, similar to a petulant child. He isn't a master manipulator, he's just an all powerful little boy who views ponies as a bunch of toys he can play with and break as he pleases. Now stripped of his omnipotence, he has to start viewing these creatures as equals instead of toys, he starts to comprehend what he was unable to, and might even start to feel remorse for what's he's done
• Punishing evil: Even before Discord would start his hypothetical turning of a new leaf, he'd still be able to plant a few seeds of doubt in Twilight's mind. Most notably, he'd get her to question if the punishment he's endured for the last 1000 or so years was really suitable. No matter what Discord has done or how terrible he is , Twilight starts to wonder if even he deserved a fate so terrible. Eventually coming to accept the role of chaos, Twilight concludes that Discord's punishment was wrong because it doesn't solve the problem, it only delays it and helps amplify the bitterness and hatred that exists within Discord. Realizing that the only other to stop Discord would be to take his life somehow, Twilight would go a third route and try to befriend him. Discord would brush of her attempts at first, but he'd gradually start to grow a spot for the unicorn. And who knows, maybe he could start to view her as a weird daughter figure of sorts.
• Forgiveness: This is going by the whole "Celestia/Luna were friends with Discord" theory so bear with me. But gaining the forgiveness of the princesses would be the final step in Discord's character arc. Of all the ponies that still live, Celestia and Luna likely have the greatest vendetta against the spirit of chaos. Unlike the main cast, they witnessed the horror of Discord's reign first hand, and what's worse, they had to deal with a fact that their greatest enemy was once their closest friend. They'd be unwilling to forgive him because of all the suffering he's caused, and due to the fact that they don't believe he can feel remorse, and Discord would be unable to forgive them due to them imprisoning him and because he doesn't want to risk getting into a friendship only for it fail. Enter Twilight Sparkle, as Discord would start to befriend her, he'd start to consider the possibly of mending the fences with his former best friends. Celestia and Luna on their part, would have to be convinced. Twilight would be able to convince Luna by telling her that "everyone deserves forgiveness, you of all ponies deserve that", and she'd convince her mentor by bringing out all the regret she's built up over imprisoning her best friend. In the classic, "students teaches something to the master" plot point, Twilight would tell Celestia that despite all that she and Discord have been through, their friendship is ultimately stronger than their animosity, and that what unites the two is stronger than what divides them. Discord tearfully reconciles with the alicorn sisters, and the elements, now seeing the good in him decide to return his powers to him. Discord remains in Equestria and becomes the being he was always meant to be. A representative of chaos that would put the ponies through various trails, but would genuinely care about them and try them so that they may grow.

And there you go, now if only the show could get John De Lancie as a regular VA.

Discord will pull a Redemption Equals Death or a kid friendly version of it.

Half of the fandom views him as an unforgivable demon while the other half gives him a pair of leather pants. If it was the latter, then he'll remember the friendship he had from the theory above. Prompting his redemption at the cost of his life/power/some other variation.

• Jossed (so far)

Discord was/is a Yandere for Celestia.

Going by the theory that he was ostracized by other ponies and only befriended by Celestia, he fell in love with her because she was kind to him. She probably didn't return his feelings, or loved him back but eventually broke up with him. Either way, he at first wrecked havoc in Equestria to get her attention, but eventually started causing chaos just for fun.

Going by the WMG above, Queen Chrysalis will attempt to make use of Discord's obsession with Celelstia

She will bring to the surface whatever twisted form of love Discord may still harbor for Celestia, exploit it, and use it to drain him of his power. Chrysalis was powerful to defeat Celestia by absorbing Shining Armor's love, imagine how powerful she'd be if she were to absorb Discord's power. In addition, it would also be oddly fitting for someone to play off Discord's doubts and manipulate them the way he did with the Mane six.

• Jossed (so far).

Discord chose soap for the roads...

...so that Derpy Hooves would fall into his trap.

Discord will return. And it will be awesome.

There have been rumors of Discord returning. If these are true, his return will go like this:

Celestia: Impossible! Twilight Sparkle and her friends have already took care of Discord a long time ago!
(Discord appears, wearing a sombrero)
Discord: Au contriare, ma princesse! Heeeeeee's back!
(salsa music ensues)

• Confirmed (sans salsa).

Discord created Snowflame.

Not that we'll ever see him, but I say he did. Discord just decided to create the most insane being possible, and then decided to go and send him to a different dimension because he didn't want to get the show cancelled.

Upon successful reformation in the upcoming episode, Discord will occasionally assist and/or fight alongside Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

For example, Discord might help Twilight Sparkle and her friends defeat future villains in Season 3 and/or 4. Perhaps this is Princess Celestia's plan all along; to help restore the balance between harmony and chaos.

• Confirmed, he has been helping them solve problems and helped them oust King Sombra when he took over Equestria.

Discord will be a recurring character in Season 4.

Given that the latest episode has shown that Discord has at the very least, started going down the road to redemption, and given that The finale of the current season has been confirmed to not be a multipart episode, it's possible that the writers will have Discord around a bit more in the next season. For starters, the premiere will answer why Celestia needed Discord reformed. But, this option would allow the writers to explore a lot of other facets of Discord's character. Such as his origins, how he came to rule Equestria, and how he'll interact with other ponies on more cordial terms.

• Confirmed.

Discord's reformation will backfire on Princess Celestia.

Having experienced the joy of friendship, he'll try to make more friends. Friends that aren't a stick-in-the-mud like Fluttershy. Friends that appreciate his jokes and jibes. Friends that have ideas on how to upset pony life.

• It counts as confirmed (sorta anyways), but it's a pony, but [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 the villian from G1 Lord Tirek himself.

Discord's magic is needed to turn Twilight into an Alicorn

Hey, if he take wings away, he sure can give them.

• Jossed.

Discord is not reformed, he simply put a sheep's clothing on.

seriously, it can't be that the most dangerous and powerful villain of the series, comparable to Darkseid for DC or Unicron for Transformers, simply got redeemed in one episode, not to mention his 'redemption' sounds and looks pretty forced. considering he's a Mad God and that it was pretty clear that despite his goofy appearance and over the top antics he was pure evil, he's probably also a Misanthrope Supreme who lacks empathy and simply laughs at the concept of friendship. also, we know that Discord is a Manipulative Bastard: finding himself on the razor's edge of behaving or being turned back to stone and being unable to Mind Rape the Mane 6, he pretended to agree, then he bewitched the beavers to cause the flood...it was his exact purpose to be discovered all along, meanwhile he acts like a jerk toward Fluttershy and then changes his attitude to make her believe it's actually working. as the flood is discovered(Just as Planned), he purposefully acted like a jerk (turning the flood into an ice skating rink) and gloated to provoke Fluttershy, knowing she's have been hurt and declared him not her friend anymore. he then pretended to be actually sorry because now he cares for her friendship and fixes everything. now that everybody believes him reformed, he is free to act out of surveillance, probably now he is carefully planning something very big(opening the gates of Tartarus, manipulate kingdoms to start a war, put the pony subraces against each other, release another Eldritch Abomination or two, et similia) to wreak havoc on the land and get his revenge. and reveal to the Mane 6 that he trolled them. Since Twilight is going to be crowned as a Princess, he may crash the crowning and corrupt her into a new Nightmare Moon. Or, since he can't corrupt the Elements anymore, he will awaken someone who can...

• Discord was hardly ever a complete monster. He wasn't even that dangerous, other than "discording" the ponies, the world he created was more insane than a total hellhole. Compared to Nightmare Moon, who would've wiped out Equestria, or Sombra, who enslaved the Crystal Ponies in a state of eternal misery, and actually had nearly everything planned out so he wouldn't be defeated, Discord really was never that dangerous.
• Half-jossed; although he does change sides again, he only does it after another bad guy talks him into it, not because he was planning to all along.

Conversely, Discord will actually complete his Heel–Face Turn.

This won't change his overall personality much — he'll stay a trickster, simply a more benevolent one once he well and truly internalizes that Good Feels Good and he can nonetheless still have fun along the way. He probably won't become a main character (unless John de Lancie somehow becomes available as voice actor for the duration), but as a sort of eccentric faerie grand-uncle who does things like dropping by for tea with a side order of practical jokes from time to time he'd certainly work well enough.

• Confirmed in the Season 4 finale.

Theories as to why Discord wasn't at Twilight's coronation.

• While not an outright villain anymore, he's still a chaotic prankster, and Celestia didn't invite him for fear of him turning the walls into marshmallow or something similar.
• He simply wasn't interested.
  • Just because he considers Fluttershy his friend doesn't mean he considers Twilight one. It's possible he genuinely didn't care that much.
• He was there. He just disguised himself as a normal pony so he wouldn't scare anyone.
• Public image problems. How do you think the general populace would react to Discord showing up at such an event?
  • Exactly the point of the one above this one.
• I figured he was watching from the windows, or conjured up some kind of magic tv set to watch it on. He was interested enough to watch the coronation (not like there was anything else going on at the time), but didn't feel like dealing with all the ponies that would freak out over him being there. The guards probably still don't trust him not to mess with big important events like this. Maybe Celestia made a deal with him not to mess it up?

Discord is the embodiment of Pride as well and wants to complete a set of the seven deadly sins by corrupting ponies.

Discord is Pride, Twilight and Rainbow Dash are Sloth (Despair used to be a deadly sin before it was replaced by sloth) Rarity is greed and Lust, Pinkie is gluttony and she and Fluttershy share wrath. Applejack is also Pride and he could recruit Trixie and Gilda as envy.

Celestia and Discord arranged his redemption beforehand.

• Fluttershy's attempt to get him to behave seemed a bit too quick.
• Thats why Celestia was so certain that they would succeed. It was to convince the public that Discord was reformed.

Celestia wanted Discord reformed as insurance.

Discord's reformation seemed a little out of place. Why was it so important that he be changed to suit her wishes? Quite simple: Celestia was taking a necessary precaution towards Twilight's magic. After the Sombra incident, Celestia and Luna are holding the book that contains Star Swirl the Bearded's destiny switching spell. Celestia needed a backup plan in case Twilight couldn't fix the spell, which would probably be a cakewalk for Discord to clean up.

Discord used to be a lot more evil back in the day.

You know that one stained glass image, the one where he dangles ponies above a pit of fire (and faint screams can be heard in the background)? Doesn't that seem a little... dark for a villain whose most evil contribution was to turn some ponies into jerkwads? Suppose Discord was far more evil a long time ago and was a murderous Mad God instead of a Trickster God, until he thankfully got bored of that when he realized dead ponies don't move anymore and therefore are, in fact, not very entertaining.

• considering that psychologically break people and then Mind Rape them is actually evil...

Discord likes the Everfree Forest, and it's the reason he chose Ponyville as his capital.

Ponyville seems a random choice for a capital, but remember what's right next to it. The only place in Equestria where nature works on its own without anyone to direct it. Discord has a natural appreciation for the place.

• It's where the first of his Plunderseeds start emerging, so there might be something here after all. Perhaps he wants to set up base there because of its proximity to the Tree of Harmony, so he can send waves of attacks against it.

Discord bears a Thou Shalt Not Kill code...

... but rather than out of moral considerations, he has it because bringing the dead back to life is beyond even his abilities. Tying into one of the WMG's given above — at the very least, he's aware of the fact that corpses aren't really much fun to play with after a while. But more than that, the very idea of death may be something that disturbs him on a fundamental level. It's a reminder that no matter how much of a Reality Warper he is, there are things even he has no power over — if he gets too rough with his toys, a higher power will come and take their souls away, and there's jack squat he can do about it.

• Alternatively, it may be due to how, as a villain, he didn't want to break his toys. As fun as destroying a hapless passerby might be in the moment, Discord was smart enough to realize that killing people willy-nilly would quickly leave him without any new victims to torment.
• Jossed, at least seemingly. Discord revived King Sombra as part of his Legion of Doom Batman Gambit while posing as Grogar.

Discord cannot approach the Tree of Harmony

Since it's basically his polar opposite, the Tree of Harmony could cause some adverse reaction if Discord ever got near it (and possibly vice-versa) . Anything ranging from mild discomfort to soul pains/ actual physical pain or weakening of his powers the closer he got to it.

• Well he was hanging out in the castle it made at the end of S4, but idk if that counts.

Everything that happened with the Tree of Harmony was Exactly as Planned.

Discord doesn't really care about the Everfree Forest overrunning Equestria - he can do the same thing with his own powers, as long as the Elements of Harmony aren't around to stop him. By planting the Plunder Seeds, he created a threat that could only be resolved by returning the Elements to the Tree. Now that the Elements are back in the Tree, nothing can stop him from ruling Equestria, which was his plan all along, once he realised that Celestia and Luna had the Elements and were about to overthrow him. Only his friendship with Fluttershy is holding him back now.

There will be an episode focusing on Discord's past.

Whatever backstory he may have.

Discord was the one who enchanted Spike's Power Ponies comic.

Because let's face it: what the hell kind of comic shop would stay in business if it handed those things out to all (or even a fraction of) its customers? I doubt most ponies - who probably haven't lived the life of adventure the Mane Six have - would appreciate being thrown headfirst into a dramatic battle of good vs. evil. Hell, they might not even get out alive.

So, the comic shop's name really was just hyperbole. Discord enchanted the comic for the lulz, and also possibly to shore up Spike's self-esteem.

Discord now lives in Las Pegasus.

Come on! If Las Vegas is known as SIN CITY than by association LAS PEGASUS would sound like the perfect place for Discord to live, maybe he'd become a casino owner and rig all the slot machines to squirt chocolate milk when 3 symbols match up! Or when you match certain others, you get other "prizes" like an apple pie in your face!

Discord really did turn good

Discord did reform in Keep Calm and Flutter On. He really does try to help the mane six, but just does so in under handed ways. The reason he didn't tell the people about his plunder seeds is cause they would try to make him get rid of them while they should have been focusing on the tree of harmony. He knew the mane six needed Twilight so that's why he tried to get under her skin. In Three's a Crowd he was trying to convince Twilight, and by extension the rest of the mane six; that if they wanted to have him reformed, they would have to commit to it. Instead of distrusting him.

Discord has become friends with other ponies besides Fluttershy.

How else would you explain that one store run by the pony in the wheelchair in Trade Ya having nothing but Discord Lamps?

• Discord visited the store and decided to redecorate?
  • If so, the pony's being a very good sport about it.

Discord is not inherently evil, just extremely confused.

Being a mix of many different creatures, and a spirit of chaos, Discord has a mixed-up nature. He's not inherently evil, but nobody understands him, which pushed him to that side. The concept of discord is not inherently bad, but it's confusing and scary and hard to understand, and the character reflects this.

Discord feared he would return to his old ways and betray his friends, and that's why he gave them the hint about the keys.

After all, we see that Discord can easily stop a low-powered Tirek, so it's not like he thought the Mane 6 would need a way to defeat the new villain... Unless Discord himself feared he would slip back into his old ways and refuse to help.

The reason that they needed Discord to be reformed was because something far worse is coming: the opposite of chaos

Initally, the heroes will think that the new arrival, the anti-Discord, is a good thing. After all, the opposite of chaos is order and order is pretty similar to harmony, right? Nope. Pure and perfect order would mean absolutely no change or spontaneousness. And if the Auditors have taught us anything, life itself is the most chaotic thing in the universe. As far as they are concerned, the ideal world would be a lifeless rock floating in space. And the more self-aware a species, the more chaotic and unpredictable they are. That means the ponies would be one of the first things to be destroyed. Good thing they have the spirit of chaos on their side now.

At some point, Discord will pop up with a marachi band.

Because that would be awesome and hilarious.

Discord lives in some kind of crazy funhouse.

The Mane cast will have to go to his house and find him, but it proves to be difficult since he lives in a maze-like funhouse.

Discord will stay good from now on.

He's the one who gave Twilight the item that turned out to be her key. The key is only obtained when one of the Mane 6 teaches another character about their element. Therefore, the necklace would not have worked as a key if Discord didn't truly learn a lesson.

Discord's "betrayal" wasn't.

It was all one big Xanatos Gambit. He knew that Twilight would never open the chest and reveal her true worth as a Princess without something huge happening. He didn't know what it was until Tirek made his offer. Discord chose to aid Tirek so that in the end, he alone could give Twilight the key to her chest, and he knew it would work because it would show that friendship is more powerful than even Tirek with alicorn magic and chaos magic.

• Notice how he also saved her friends and reunited the Elements of Harmony. He told Tirek that Twilight would give up her own magic if her friends were returned to her. Thus, Tirek does this, and the Elements of Harmony are back together again AND have the final key to open the chest.
  • This troper thinks Discord had at least SOME idea of what opening the chest would do and how to do it, since he particularly bookmarked the exact passages needed for Twilight to figure out what the keys were.
    • If this is true, it has disturbing implications, in that Twilight is apparently worth more than the countless background ponies Discord and Tirek harmed during their rampage such that they can be sacrificed for Twilight's worth. Given that Twilight claims that she's not better or more important than anyone else, I would think if she ever found out, Twilight would get super pissed, thus making it a betrayal in a different sense. I could see Twilight possibly considering rejecting her Rainbow Power in she found out he was faking all along and let Tirek consume the magic of everyone around her just so she could acquire it her new Super Mode, as it was bought with the unnecessary pain and suffering of the ponies of Equestria.
    • He just let Tirek drain their magic and helped a little. We never saw ANY pony get hurt or suffer due to this, they just passed out. And yes, Discord DOES consider Twilight and friends more valuable to him than the people who likely still see him as a monster and never forgave him. He ALSO seems to show this quite often. It's ONLY for Twilight and friends (mostly Fluttershy, but still) that he keeps his chaos under wraps, even though there is literally NOTHING but THEIR friendship holding him back. He couldn't give two flying fracks about those ponies who look at him like he's a monster. Ex: the scene in the theater. At first, all they see is Discord, they don't know about his betrayal yet, but they STILL look at him with suspicion. He DEFINITELY and OBVIOUSLY cares more for Twilight than any random background pony, including her brother. Twilight DID go to 'the ends of Equestria' for him in Three's a Crowd, showing that she does value him enough to help him, so...yeah, he wouldn't give a damn about the ponies who still think "monster" when they see/interact with him.
    • "He just let Tirek drain their magic"... that's like saying "He just let Tirek cripple them and violate their souls", and he was fully complicit in these actions, giving Tirek unfettered ability to move about. The ponies that were drained looked pretty frikkin' miserable, they weren't passed out, they were just too weak to do anything. And considering Discord was responsible for the Plunder Vines in Princess Twilight Sparkle (and the damage they did, the terror they caused, and the kidnapping of the Princesses), the fake illness destroying ponies' homes in Three's a Crowd, and his previous repeated attempts at trying to bring about the apocalypse, maybe the other ponies are right to think he's still a monster since every time he shows up, it's to cause massive problems and screw them? And saying "they're the only reason he's not terrorizing the population" means that Celestia is an idiot to let Discord out. And ultimately, it does not matter what Discord thinks. It matters what Twilight thinks. If she knew he screwed over all those ponies for her sake when he could have curbed Tirek's rampage before it could reach critical mass, I think she would flip out, and try to reincarnate the key and destroy it as a symbolic "It's over", or try to give her Rainbow Power to the citizens of Equestria as payment for the unnecessary suffering they had to endure on her unwitting behalf.

Mirror!Discord killed the Tree of Harmony

That's why they can't just use the Mirror!Elements to stop the Princesses. However, in its death throws, it subjected Discord to a My God, What Have I Done?, akin to what Lex Luther went through in All-Star Superman, and he became Captain Goodguy as penance. He also lost a substantial amount of power as a result, which is why he can't just magic Mirror!Celestia.

Partial alternative: Mirror!Discord isn't as powerful due to a Pyrrhic Victory with Mirror!Tirek.

He partially drained Mirror!Discord, but Mirror!Tirek was permanently dealt with by the Mirrorverse forces. Unfortunately, when Tirek was killed, he took with him all the magic he drained. It also might explain why the Normal!verse alicorns didn't just gang rush him when he was weak, because they had hoped to recover the drained magic, and if they killed him, all those ponies would lose their magic forever.

In the Equestria Girls universe, Discord is...

• A mental patient.
• A mad scientist. Could possibly show up as a science teacher.
• A science experiment gone horribly wrong and being kept locked away. For now...
• A parody of Dead Pool.

Discord isn't as chaotic as he or the fandom claims to be

He's methodical, has long-term plans, and he goes for the same plaid terrain/floating houses/personality inversions every time he gets a chance to. He's more in line with an insane, tyrannical Reality Warper. He is crazy for sure, but he either doesn't understand the difference between the two, or just prefers putting on the airs about being chaotic, either because he likes the sound of it, or because it lets him claim an Omniscient Morality License as an agent of chaos to those who would object to him ruining their lives.

Discord has worked with the Smooze in the past.

As seen in Make New Friends but Keep Discord, the Smooze and Discord are not close, but it's clear they know each other. Back when Discord was out to drive Equestria mad thousands of years ago, he employed the Smooze to cover the land in his goop, much like in My Little Pony: The Movie (1986). Only it was against the slime creature's gentle nature, and it didn't enjoy having ponies be afraid of it. Which puts a new perspective on its apparent joy at going to the Grand Galloping Gala with Discord: The Smooze thinks the Spirit of Chaos is trying to make amends.

Someone will try to understand either Discord or his power.

This will cause someone to (possibly Twilight) to Go Mad from the Revelation.

"Sense? Aw, what fun is there in making sense?"

Discord loves Fluttershy as more than a friend.

While how deeply Fluttershy's feelings for Discord go may be more ambiguous, there's a lot of evidence that Discord has a crush on her:

• He looks at her very dreamily, even when she isn't around (like in the newer intro)
• It's because of her that makes him hesitate to work with Tirek (and keeps a picture of the two of them on his nightstand)
• He apologizes to her first after he betrays the ponies and Tirek betrays him
• He comes off as a little obsessed with her at times, wanting to spend every moment he can with her.
• He squees at the very mention of her name.
• "I can't have you interfering with my relationship with Fluttershy!" Note, "relationship", not "friendship".
• Pretended to be sick just to spend alone time with her.
• "We don't make sense to anypony else!" as if they're star-crossed lovers.
• If the comics count, he dreams of having a family with her, and seems unsure when he tells Baast Fluttershy is "just a friend".
• The comic cover of him as King Jareth and Fluttershy as Sarah. A movie famous for its Villainous Crush and Ship Tease-ing.
• Why shouldn't he be attracted? She's beautiful (enough to become a fashion model, more than any of her friends), sweet, patient, loving, and understands him more than anyone. Discord has every reason to love her.

Being as new to friendship as he is, he may be confused about his feelings, but it seems clear he has a crush on Fluttershy and may like her even more than that.

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