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The Return of Harmony Part 2
Season №:	2
Season episode №:	2
Overall episode №:	28
Original airdate:	September 24, 2011
Written by:	M. A. Larson
Storyboard:	Kenny Park & Mike West
Featured characters:	Discord
	See also
	transcript • gallery • allusions; animation errors • statistics • speculation
	Episode guide
Previous; The Return of Harmony Part 1	Next; Lesson Zero

The Return of Harmony Part 2 is the second episode of the second season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the twenty-eighth episode overall. In this episode, Twilight Sparkle must find the Elements of Harmony, and a way to restore her friends, in order to defeat Discord.

DevelopmentEdit

According to Lauren Faust, Applejack was originally scripted to climb to the top of the balloon to get to the basket to rope Rainbow Dash.^[2]

SummaryEdit

Chaos wreaksEdit

Beginning where the previous episode left off, Twilight Sparkle and a brainwashed Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity argue with each other in the remnants of the castle labyrinth Discord had razed to the ground. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are arguing about laughing, whereas Applejack and Rarity are arguing about Rarity's "diamond" when Applejack lies once more telling Rarity that Twilight said that they should split it six ways since they found it together.

Discord is seen sitting on a couch and eating popcorn, enjoying the spectacle. Twilight demands to know how they were expected to get the Elements of Harmony when Discord had taken down the maze before they could get to the end. Hearing this, Discord laughs and shows Twilight a flashback to when he gave Princess Celestia and the others his riddle, reminding her that he never said the Elements of Harmony were in the labyrinth. Discord leaves to begin his reign of chaos, mockingly telling Twilight that maybe the "magic of friendship" can help her. Twilight wonders what Discord meant by "back to where they began", and concludes that it means returning to Ponyville.

Finding the Elements of HarmonyEdit

During an arduous journey back filled with soapy roads and long-legged bunnies, her brainwashed friends continue to cause trouble. Twilight meets Discord once again, who talks to her about the now-disoriented Ponyville becoming the "chaos capital of the world," before disappearing. They finally arrive at the library where Twilight and Spike reside, and upon Twilight pleading to get her friends into the library, they lose even more of their color. Rarity remains outside, and says she's on to Twilight's plan to steal "Tom" from her, then explaining that Tom is the name that she has given the boulder she believes to be a diamond. Resigned, Twilight carries the boulder inside for Rarity and crashes it through the door, leaving a giant hole in the wall. Once inside, Twilight asks Spike to retrieve the book about the Elements of Harmony, but is disturbed by the other ponies' desire to play Keep Away, passing the book around and preventing her from reading it. Once Twilight finally gets her hooves on the book, she finds that all of the Elements of Harmony are inside it. The book containing the Elements of Harmony actually has the cover of the book that contains the original myth concerning the princess sisters. In Friendship is Magic, part 2, the book cover was red with a unicorn head facing the other way surrounded by six diamonds.

Frustrated that her friends no longer care about this discovery or the current crisis, Twilight forcefully puts the elements on Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity, and also Spike, who she assigns the role of Rainbow Dash. The ponies cheer to the idea of defeating Discord and never having to see each other again, and they all gleefully venture outside, except Rarity, who has trouble pushing "Tom" ahead of her. Twilight angrily chucks the boulder out the window, leaving another giant hole in the wall. Discord appears outside of the library, taunting them into stopping him by making a bulls-eye appear on his chest for them to "fire" at. Twilight attempts to combine the Elements to defeat Discord, with Spike standing in for Rainbow Dash, but it ultimately fails because not only Rainbow Dash is absent from the group, but the ponies cannot access their elements, due to their disharmony state that they're in. After losing all hope and confidence in them as they split up, Twilight's color changes to gray and she sheds a tear that splatters in the shape of a broken heart. Discord celebrates his victory as Ponyville is driven ever deeper into total chaos.

"With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?"

— Twilight Sparkle

Re-discovering the importance of friendshipEdit

Twilight, hopeless, throws away her tiara of the Element of Magic and tells Spike that they are leaving Ponyville. However, Spike is seen regurgitating a seemingly endless pile of scrolls sent to him by Princess Celestia, which turn out to be all of the reports about friendship Twilight sent to her during her past adventures. After reading these scrolls, Twilight once again realizes the importance of friendship, regains her resolve and color, and sets out to recover the rest of her friends. The show chronicles twenty-four friendship reports that Twilight writes to Celestia prior to this episode, but there are many more scrolls that Celestia sends back to Twilight in this episode.

Reverting to their previous selvesEdit

Meeting Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres Twilight uses a memory spell to push images of past adventures with her friends into Applejack's mind. This reverts Applejack to her previous self, confessing that because she could not face a future of their friendship ending, she ended up telling lies. Twilight then does the same to Fluttershy, who now believes that her cruelty was nothing more than a dream which she describes as "the worst dream ever." Twilight restores Rarity, who tosses away the giant rock she had been keeping and asks never to speak of this event again. Lastly is Pinkie Pie, who laughs at her previous predicament.

Chasing RainbowEdit

The ponies, now back to their previous selves, find Rainbow Dash, who is still brainwashed and sitting upon a small cloud, believing it to be Cloudsdale. Twilight and the other ponies sneak up to a sleeping Rainbow Dash in Twilight Sparkle's Twinkling Balloon, and Fluttershy tries to hold down Dash so Twilight can restore her personality. However, Fluttershy, now back to her kind personality, refuses to take an aggressive approach and wakes Dash up to ask her politely if she can hold her down. This prompts Dash to grab onto "Cloudsdale" and fly away. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie begin chasing Rainbow Dash in the balloon, with Fluttershy propelling it. Applejack manages to catch Rainbow Dash with a rope, but the rope catches on Pinkie Pie and Rarity's hooves, dragging them out of the balloon as Rarity yells that Pinkie was supposed to secure the rope, still attached to the elusive Pegasus. Fluttershy is unable to keep up, until reminded about Discord's rule over Ponyville, after which she outpaces Rainbow Dash and the others are able to secure her down for Twilight to revert Dash back to her previous self.

Confronting DiscordEdit

"I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for. "

— Twilight Sparkle

The ponies, all now back to their old selves, encounter Discord again, who is sitting on a throne holding a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks the glass and throws away the chocolate milk, which explodes. Discord, still confident of their inability to defeat him, makes himself an open target. However, because the six ponies can now wield their respective Elements once again, they combine their powers and fire a giant rainbow, just like they did when they defeated Night Mare Moon, causing an explosion much like Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom. Discord looks in horror before he is turned to stone once more, Ponyville is reverted back to normal, and all chaos and disharmony caused by Discord is removed.

EndingEdit

At the end of the episode, Princess Celestia holds a ceremony in Canterlot, honoring the ponies for defeating Discord, where a new stained glass window is unveiled depicting their victory.

Closing sequenceEdit

According to director Jayson Thiessen, one of the storyboard artists decided to board the award ceremony sequence at the end of the episode as a shot-for-shot equivalent of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, though parts of the sequence were ultimately cut to shorten the episode.^[3]

CreditsEdit

This is the last episode where Lauren Faust is executive producer, the last episode to use the original theme song, and the last episode where DHX Media is credited as "Studio B". This is also the first episode to not feature the My Little Pony theme in the end credits.

QuotesEdit

For more quotes, see the episode's transcript.

Discord: [laughing]

Pinkie Pie: And what are you laughing at?

Discord: Ho, you ponies are just the most fun I've had in aeons.

Pinkie Pie: Well, quit it! You'd better think before you laugh at the Pink...ie Pie!

Fluttershy: Oh, yeah? Well ha, ha.

Pinkie Pie: Quit it!

Fluttershy: No. Ha, ha.

Pinkie Pie: Quit it!

Fluttershy: No. Ha ha-ha ha ha.

Discord: Keep trying, Twilight Sparkle. [mockingly] Maybe the magic of friendship can help you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some chaos to wreak.

Fluttershy: Good boy, Angel. Mama's so proud!

Twilight Sparkle: Discord's turned our dirt roads into SOAP!

Discord: Beautiful, isn't it?

Spike: [snore] Ah! Brrr! What did you do that for, Fluttershy?

Fluttershy: 'Cause you just looked so peaceful.

Spike: Twilight? What's going on? Why does everybody look so…grey?

Twilight Sparkle: Don't ask.

Fluttershy: Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?

Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy, I've had just about enough–[splash]

Fluttershy: Your face! [bang]

Twilight Sparkle: Hey! Applejack, gimme that book!

Applejack: I don't have any book.

Twilight Sparkle: [strained groan] Give me that book! Where is she? Where's Rarity?

Applejack: Beats me.

Twilight Sparkle: See girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony! Together!

Applejack: [yawns]

Twilight Sparkle: You don't even care, do you?

All: No!

Twilight Sparkle: [sigh] I never thought it would happen. My friends... have turned into complete JERKS! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And big crown thingy! Come on everypony, let's go!

Spike: But Twilight, aren't you missing somepony?

Twilight Sparkle: Nope. We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute. That just about covers it.

Spike: But what about Rainbow Dash?

Twilight Sparkle: Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!

Spike: Me? B-b-but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her? [moan] That won't end well.

Twilight Sparkle: Too bad! You're Rainbow Dash!

Twilight Sparkle: Look out! Here comes Tom! [crash]

Twilight Sparkle: What's going on?

Applejack: Mine's workin'. There must be somethin' wrong with yours.

Pinkie Pie: I HATE the Elements of Harmony!

Fluttershy: Hmph! Garbage.

Rarity: MINE!

Twilight Sparkle: With friends like you, who needs... enemies...?

Spike: [moaning]

Twilight Sparkle: You're right, Spike. I've got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!

Applejack: Wh-What happened? Twilight! [sigh] I saw a vision of us feudin' and fightin'. I couldn't face the truth so I started telling lies. Can you ever forgive me?

Rarity: Let us never speak of this again.

Twilight Sparkle: Rainbow Dash!

Rainbow Dash: Hey guys!

Twilight Sparkle: We've been looking everywhere for you!

Rainbow Dash: That's nice.

Twilight Sparkle: Discord's still on the loose! We need you to help us defeat him with your element, loyalty!

Rainbow Dash: Pfft! Loyalty, schmoyalty! Have you seen Ponyville? It's a disaster! I'm staying here in Cloudsdale where everything's awesome.

Rarity: How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of clouds is Cloudsdale?

Applejack: The same way he got you to think that cheap rock was a bona fide diamond.

Rarity: I thought we agreed never to speak of that again.

Rarity: Oh, Fluttershy, would you be a dear and fly faster, please?

Fluttershy: [whimper] I can't!

Twilight Sparkle: If you can't catch her, Discord wins!

Fluttershy: That... big... dumb... MEANIE!

Rainbow Dash: Lemme go! I don't need you guys! Leave me alone!

Discord: [laughing] Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Twilight Sparkle: Not as wonderful as... friendship!

Twilight Sparkle: All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!

Pinkie Pie: Wait-wait-wait! [drinks chocolate rain, growl]

GalleryEdit

The Return of Harmony Part 2 image gallery

ReferencesEdit

↑ Raven Molisee's deviantART journal (2012-02-23). Retrieved on 2012 February 23.
↑ Lauren Faust on Twitter. Retrieved on 2013 March 15.
↑ BroNYcon Jayson Thiessen Q&A (2011-09-24). Retrieved on 2011 September 25.

v • e My Little Pony Friendship is Magic — episodes

Season one

Episode 1 Friendship is Magic, part 1	Episode 2 Friendship is Magic, part 2	Episode 3 The Ticket Master	Episode 4 Applebuck Season


Episode 5 Griffon the Brush Off	Episode 6 Boast Busters	Episode 7 Dragonshy	Episode 8 Look Before You Sleep


Episode 9 Bridle Gossip	Episode 10 Swarm of the Century	Episode 11 Winter Wrap Up	Episode 12 Call of the Cutie


Episode 13 Fall Weather Friends	Episode 14 Suited For Success	Episode 15 Feeling Pinkie Keen	Episode 16 Sonic Rainboom


Episode 17 Stare Master	Episode 18 The Show Stoppers	Episode 19 A Dog and Pony Show	Episode 20 Green Isn't Your Color


Episode 21 Over a Barrel	Episode 22 A Bird in the Hoof	Episode 23 The Cutie Mark Chronicles	Episode 24 Owl's Well That Ends Well


	Episode 25 Party of One	Episode 26 The Best Night Ever

Season two

Episode 1 The Return of Harmony Part 1	Episode 2 The Return of Harmony Part 2	Episode 3 Lesson Zero	Episode 4 Luna Eclipsed


Episode 5 Sisterhooves Social	Episode 6 The Cutie Pox	Episode 7 May the Best Pet Win!	Episode 8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well


Episode 9 Sweet and Elite	Episode 10 Secret of My Excess	Episode 11 Hearth's Warming Eve	Episode 12 Family Appreciation Day


Episode 13 Baby Cakes	Episode 14 The Last Roundup	Episode 15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000	Episode 16 Read It and Weep


Episode 17 Hearts and Hooves Day	Episode 18 A Friend in Deed	Episode 19 Putting Your Hoof Down	Episode 20 It's About Time


Episode 21 Dragon Quest	Episode 22 Hurricane Fluttershy	Episode 23 Ponyville Confidential	Episode 24 MMMystery on the Friendship Express


	Episode 25 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1	Episode 26 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

Season three

Episode 1 The Crystal Empire - Part 1	Episode 2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2	Episode 3 Too Many Pinkie Pies	Episode 4 One Bad Apple


Episode 5 Magic Duel	Episode 6 Sleepless in Ponyville	Episode 7 Wonderbolts Academy	Episode 8 Apple Family Reunion


Episode 9 Spike at Your Service	Episode 10 Keep Calm and Flutter On	Episode 11 Just for Sidekicks	Episode 12 Games Ponies Play


Episode 13 Magical Mystery Cure