Discord

"Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?"

- Discord's famous phrase

Discord is a recurring character in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He is one of Twilight Sparkle's best friends.

Personality
Discord basically has the traits of a typical on-and-off hero.

He is a mischievous, sneaky, wacky trickster who effortlessly pulls pranks on his targets through the use of his powerful magic, illusions, and hypnotism; however, he has learned to consider his victims' feelings more though. He has a sense of showmanship and drama, preferring to be playful towards his victims before getting down to business. He laughs and amuses himself with his magical mischief, hardly at the cost of others. Fortunately, after having had his fun, he will switch it back to normal. He will also gladly spread fun chaos to anypony he can to create happiness and cheer in Ponyville.

In his first appearance in "The Return of Harmony Part 1 and 2," Discord breaks free from his stone imprisonment, takes the Elements of Harmony, and turns the ponies against each other, making Twilight miserable and depressed; in the end, he was overpowered and turned back to stone by the Mane Six. In "Keep Calm and Flutter On," upon the request of Princess Celestia, Discord was released from his stone imprisonment by the Mane Six to give him a chance to behave himself. He has begun to mellow out after meeting Fluttershy and admitting he has never had a real friend before, preferring to remain best friends with the ponies instead of thrive in total mischief and will aid them from time to time.

While a goodhearted friend, he can also sometimes be a braggart, arrogant, selfish, cocky, self-centered, stubborn, overconfident, and a bit of a liar. Despite having a fondness for chaos and mischief, he can become easily annoyed if things do not go his way.

Being a symbol of chaos, he dislikes order, cleanliness, and predictability. However, he has taken orders before, as well as cleaning up (i.e. taking a shower) and has been somewhat predictable at times. In "Discordant Harmony," Fluttershy states that she is pretty sure Discord hates gravity; however, he is aware of the necessity of gravity and actually likes it (as long as he can cause mischief). Overall, he will indulge in these things, despite his chaotic persona.

Ironically, he has a tendency to tell bad jokes and puns, which are often received poorly.

He uses less contractions in his vocabulary oftentimes, giving him a somewhat sophisticated, charismatic, archaic tone to his status as a "chaos god".

Overall, following the first past episodes, Discord has revealed himself to be a truly good person at heart and was simply causing mischief on Ponyville in his first appearance out of self defense, having never been purely evil at all.

Appearance
Discord is a draconequus. He has the head of a pony (even though his head is more goat than pony). He has a deer antler, goat horn, goat fang, goatee, and mane. He has a right lion paw, a left eagle claw, a right light purple bat wing, a left light blue pegasus wing, a right light green lizard foot, and a left deer antler.

Reception
Discord received negative feedback from fans and others and was one of the most hated main characters of the series.

Powers and Abilities
As an embodiment of chaos and mischief, Discord is borderline omnipotent. He has manifested a great number of abilities and skills over the course of the series – abilities he has shown so far include:


 * Hybrid Physiology: (Discord is a draconequus and so, has a body made of different parts of animals and creatures).
 * Nigh Omnipotence: (The source of Discord's reality warping abilities and among other powers, is the power to be near the pinnacle of omnipotence, which makes him the most powerful character in the series. He would may also flawlessly restore anything to its original state, possess a complete (or almost complete) and utter collection of powers, heal or fix anything without fail, or even control space-time or cosmic elements at will if given the proposition).
 * Chaos Magic: (Discord can alter reality into many ways and control the laws of nature and the physics of the world with his magic).
 * Reality Restoration: (Discord can restore reality back into its original state. Whichever is more efficient, this can count as a power to balance his reality affecting chaos magic or a counteractive ability to use against other reality warpers).
 * Size-Shifting: (Discord can vary in size from very large to being small enough to fit in a pony's ear).
 * Shape-Shifting: (Discord has taken many odd forms, some of which defy physics or parody characters).
 * Gesturify: (Sometimes, Discord has to require the use of snapping his fingers whenever it comes to most of the reality distorting powers he owns by far; otherwise, they would not function correctly as he expects them to. This is a sub-power that comes with his magic in general).
 * Probability Alteration / Logic Control: (Discord can make extremely unlikely events occur within his vicinity and alter the laws of logic to his whim).
 * Telekinesis: (Discord has enough telekinetic skill to lift the entire Mane Six up magically, such as when he once angrily "grabbed" them by their collars).
 * Hypnotic Magic: (Discord can corrupt others and is skilled at hypnotic magic. He can even outright take control of somepony's mind, though he prefers not to).
 * Telepathy / Vast Knowledge: (In "The Return of Harmony," Discord was able to know all the strengths and weaknesses of the Mane Six, as well as their names without ever having met them before. He also knew about Twilight's princess coronation and the "Winter Wrap Up Song," despite not being there, and he knew how Twilight felt about her role as princess. However, he was unable to predict that Tirek would betray him, so he is not omniscient nor even semi omniscient. As well, he tends to forget some things as just because he has powers does not make him perfect. He has even seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders before, though he has never really met him and therefore does not know who they are).
 * Fourth Wall Awareness: (Discord appears to be aware he is in a cartoon, even though he does not explain he does).
 * Teleportation: (Discord can teleport from one place to another. He can also teleport an object or a creature to him as well. He is also able to make objects disappear out of thin air. As well, he can use this to teleport across alternate dimensions, such as the real world of "Ogres and Oubliettes" and his our personal dimension).
 * Creation: (Discord is skilled with creation magic – he can create objects, creatures, and plants at will, including powerful magical creations like the Plunderseeds).
 * Levitation: (Discord can float in the air).
 * Flight: (Discord can fly using his wings. He can also achieve a supersonic flight similar to Rainbow Dash's).
 * Replication: (Discord can create copies of himself. He once displayed this ability to create a replicate of Trixie out of her hat).
 * Animation: (Discord can bring any inanimate object to life).
 * Appendage Generation: (Discord can grow extra body parts).
 * Anatomical Liberation: (Discord can make parts of his body come apart and is able to move them while detached so. He was also shown using this ability to remove Princess Celestia's tail without her noticing, though he did put her tail back on afterwards).
 * Object Possession: (Discord can possess inanimate objects. In "The Return of Harmony," he used his head to possess a balloon; he can also appear magically in various objects, such as gems and stained glass windows).
 * Transmogrification: (Discord can alter the appearance of objects and creatures, such as giving rabbits deer legs, making a squirrel and a rabbit large and hulking, and turning apples into oranges and oranges into apples).
 * Matter Ingestion: (Discord is able to consume matter, such as glass, a painting, and a tea cup).
 * Portal Creation: (Discord can open portals to different dimensions by using his eagle claw to cut through the fabric of reality).
 * Disease Generation: (Discord can infect ponies with any kind of diseases and illnesses).
 * Blue Flame Generation: (Discord can generate blue flames, as shown in "Three's A Crowd").
 * Smoke Generation: (Discord can display creating amount of smoke to cover a background as shown in "Ogres and Oubliettes").
 * Color Alteration: (Discord can fade others' colors. This is first shown in "The Return of Harmony," in which he faded Twilight and her best friends' colors; in "Three's A Crowd," he also changed his color to blue to make it look like he had the "blu flu" and turned a tablecloth from white to red by simply touching it).
 * Thought Manifestation: (Discord is able to show his thoughts to others by using clouds of smoke, such as when showing Twilight and Cadence a flower that would cure the "blu flu").
 * Enhanced Strength: (Discord is deceptively strong, enough so to take a tree out of the ground and taking a big rock out of the ground with just one arm).
 * Enhanced Hearing: (Discord is able to hear from far away).
 * Weather Magic: (Discord can control the weather by making rain clouds go crazy, causing thunderstorms or creating cotton candy chocolate rain clouds).
 * Animal Control: (Discord can control the animals' behavior by making them go wild unnaturally).
 * Daytime Control: (Discord can control celestial objects at will to bring about daytime or nighttime).
 * Gravity Control: (Discord can to make things float into the air and making objects lighter or heavier).
 * Time Travel: (Discord can project himself and others into events that have happened in the past).
 * Bubble Imprisonment: (Discord can imprison ponies in magic bubbles, which is a similar trait to Tirek).
 * Prehensile Tail: (Discord can use his tail to hold things and can make his tail tuft into a hand).
 * Cartoon Physics: (Discord can use cartoon physics by stretching his limbs, deflate like a balloon, moving very fast, turning his mouth upside down, and appearing out of unexpected places).
 * Magic Imbalance Detection: (Discord has the natural ability to sense major disturbances in magic, such as magic being stolen or transferred into others).
 * Immortality: (Discord seems to be immortal as he has stayed in his stone prison for thousands of years without dying, although he can die eventually. He is also presumably older than Celestia and Luna).
 * Master Trickster: (Discord is able to deceive ponies and make them do his bidding without even realizing it. However, there have been times where he gets caught tricking them.).
 * Old Prime: (Despite his age, Discord is skilled at water skating, as well as ice skating).

Weaknesses
Discord's strengths are many while his weaknesses are very few. Attacking him head-on is usually doomed to fail as he can easily thwart any assault through his reality-warping power. However, he is vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony, which have successfully turned him to stone twice in "The Return of Harmony Part 1 and 2." Using the Elements also dispels all of his magic, returning things to their rightful shapes and places.

One important weakness of Discord is himself: He tends to be overconfident and assured of his own invincibility that he will not go all-out against enemies. In addition, his tendency to underestimate opponents means he can be taken by surprise and beaten before having the chance to react. While intelligent, he is also not immune to being tricked as in "Twilight's Kingdom Part 1 and 2," he fell for Tirek's proposition to become allies, not suspecting Tirek would betray him in the end. Also, prior to his redemption, he secretly wanted a best friend, which allowed Fluttershy to sway him towards showing his true good colors.

In "Discordant Harmony," it is shown that if Discord exhibits as "normal" behavior more than his mischievous persona, he will slowly fade from existence, showing not being chaotic in nature will end up being destroyed. Luckily, Fluttershy manages to make Discord to snap out of it and was returned to his natural mischievous behavior, thus saving his life. This is why he should not avoid his position of what he represents (or at least for a long time). However, what actually happens after he fades out remains unknown for the time being.

Season 2

 * The Return of Harmony - Part 1
 * The Return of Harmony - Part 2
 * Hearth's Warming Eve (cameo)
 * A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 (cameo)

Season 3

 * The Crystal Empire - Part 2 (cameo)
 * Keep Calm and Flutter On
 * Magical Mystery Cure (cameo and flashback)

Season 4

 * Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1
 * Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2
 * Three's A Crowd
 * Trade Ya! (cameo as a lamp)
 * Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1
 * Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2

Season 5

 * Make New Friends but Keep Discord
 * Crusaders of the Lost Mark (mentioned)
 * What About Discord?
 * The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2 (alternate-timeline)

Season 6

 * Dungeons & Discords
 * To Where and Back Again - Part 1
 * To Where and Back Again - Part 2

Season 7

 * Celestial Advice
 * A Royal Problem (cameo)
 * Discordant Harmony
 * Fame and Misfortune (cameo)
 * A Health of Information1 (cameo)
 * Shadow Play - Part 2 (mentioned)

Season 8

 * The Maud Couple (cameo in photo)
 * The Break Up Break Down
 * A Matter of Principles

Films

 * My Little Pony The Movie (cameo)

Friendship is Magic

 * Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair (cameo)
 * My Little Pirate: Friendship Ahoy (cameo)
 * Reflections (cameo)
 * Discord in Time
 * The Good, the Bad and the Ponies (cameo)
 * Ponyville Days (cameo)
 * Siege of the Crystal Empire
 * Chaos Theory
 * Friendship is Magic Issue 57

Micro-Series

 * Micro-series Issue 8 (cameo)

Friends Forever

 * Friends Forever Issue 2
 * Friends Forever Issue 5
 * Friends Forever Issue 14 (mentioned)
 * Friends Forever Issue 16 (mentioned)
 * Friends Forever Issue 18 (mentioned)
 * Friends Forever Issue 20
 * Friends Forever Issue 28 (mentioned)

FIENDship is Magic

 * FIENDship is Magic Issue 2 (cameo)

Specials

 * My Little Pony Annual 2013 (name only)
 * My Little Pony Annual 2014 (cameo)

Trivia

 * Due to his extreme mischief and fondness of chaos, Discord is often thought to be an antagonist. This is definitely not true as the series has revealed that Discord was always just a misunderstood trickster and was never villainous (not even during "The Return of Harmony" or "Keep Calm and Flutter On").
 * Discord is the second character in the series to reveal their true good colors, the first being Nightmare Moon.
 * Discord is similar to Q, another character portrayed by John de Lancie. However, one difference between the two is that Discord was far more mischievous in his first appearance, as well as his usage of less contractions in his daily vocabulary.
 * Discord is often compared to Donald Trump.
 * His quote to make Ponyville the "chaos capital of the world" sounds similar to Trump's quote to make America "great again".
 * Another alleged similarity with Discord and Trump is that they both say different things that are obvious lies (i.e., having met a certain person before and later acting as if they never have).
 * Despite Celestia's claims that Discord once ruled Equestria, many people believe it to be false as Discord never mentions having ruled before. As well, while Celestia was acting serious, she has proven in past episodes that she is not always straight to the point and tends to be roundabout and secretive in her way of explaining things by covering up various aspects of her motivations. As well, it could actually be something more personal and she was just covering it up with the story and the blown-out-of-context windows.
 * It is hinted that Discord may have had a troubled childhood.