The Return of Harmony

"The Return of Harmony"

"The Return of Harmony" is the collective name for the first and second episodes of the second season of the Canadian-American animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, as well as the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth episodes of the series overall. Both episodes were directed by Jayson Thiessen and written by M.A. Larson. Part one of the episode aired in the United States on September 17, 2011 on the Hub Network. Part two aired the following week, on September 24. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 0.2 and was viewed by over 339,000 viewers, making it the highest-rated episode ever broadcast by the Hub at that point. This is also the last My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode to be produced by Studio B Productions.

The series follows a unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Celestia guides her to learn about friendship in Ponyville. Twilight becomes close friends with five other ponies: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. In the first part of the episode, a draconequus named Discord escapes from his stone prison and Twilight and her best friends discover that the Elements of Harmony have been stolen. They must retrieve them in order to save Equestria from eternal chaos, but they have to contend with Discord's mind games first. In part two, Twilight is determined to find the Elements of Harmony after her best friends are hypnotically brainwashed by Discord and all of Equestria begins to fall into disarray.

Plot

Part one

Cheerilee walks her students through Canterlot's sculpture garden, where she shows her class a strange statue of a draconequus. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo get into a fight over exactly what the statue represents. Soon, the statue begins to mysteriously pulse; as the group moves away from the statue, small cracks appear along its surface.

Later, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity find strange phenomena occurring around Ponyville. However, Twilight's magic is not strong enough to stop it, though they can get some of the phenomena somewhat under control. Soon, Spike coughs up a letter from Celestia; on arrival, Celestia takes them to a grand hall with stained-glass windows. Celestia tells the ponies the strange phenomena is being caused by Discord. Celestia tells of how Discord once ruled Equestria in an eternal state of chaos before she and Luna defeated him by turning him into a stone statue. But he has recently escaped his prison and Celestia asks the Mane 6 to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord. As she offers the Elements to them, however, they are shocked to find the box is completely empty.

Suddenly, an image of Discord comes to life; Discord claims to have taken the Elements and alludes to where they can be located. After Twilight believes Discord is referring to the hedge maze near the castle, the six race there. Discord appears and challenges the ponies to a game; despite their handicap, the ponies enter the maze, but are soon separated by Discord's magic. He is able to individually test Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy against their respected Elements, making them be momentarily hypnotized, lose some of their color, and become a polar opposite of their Element. Twilight encounters each of them after this point, but is oblivious to their encounter with Discord. Soon, they find Rainbow Dash, having regained her wings, flying away from the maze and betraying not only her Element of Loyalty, but also forfeiting the game by leaving; the maze falls around them and Discord boasts his victory.

Part two

Twilight confronts Discord, accusing him of cheating; however, Discord counters this by reminding her he never said anything about them being in the labyrinth. As he disappears and teases the ponies, Twilight realizes a line from Discord's riddle refers to Ponyville itself.

Twilight leads her friends back to Ponyville, which Discord has altered in a chaotic manner. Discord continues to taunt Twilight, who is determined to get back to the library, while her friends lose even more of their color. Twilight and Spike are surprised and delighted to find the book contains the Elements. She forces her friends to wear the Elements; Twilight also assigns Spike as the temporary Element of Loyalty because Rainbow Dash is not present. They go to face Discord, but the Elements fail to activate. The other four ponies and Spike drop the elements and depart, leaving Twilight despondent and finally losing her own color.

Twilight sadly returns to the library, where she finds Spike coughing up letters. Twilight finds the friendship report letters and the memories of her friendships make her regain her color. She returns to her other four friends and uses a memory spell to remind them of their friendship.

Rainbow Dash, however, is still apart from the group and without her, the Elements will not activate. They find Rainbow Dash protecting a cloud and start to give chase, but Rainbow flies away; they commandeer a hot-air balloon to catch up to Rainbow. At first, Rainbow has the upper hand, but Fluttershy puts on speed and the ponies catch Rainbow and tie her down so Twilight can cast her memory spell. The ponies share a hug before remembering Ponyville is still under Discord's influence.

The ponies collect the Elements and re-approach Discord. However, with all six ponies restored, the Elements activate, firing a rainbow-beam of light that engulfs Discord and Ponyville. In moments, Ponyville has been returned to normal and Discord is once again turned to stone. The ponies' victory is celebrated at Canterlot, led by Celestia, who reveals a new stained-glass window of the six ponies defeating Discord.

Production

John de Lancie guest stars in the episode as Discord

"The Return of Harmony" was directed by James Wootton (with assistance from supervising director Jayson Thiessen) and written by M.A. Larson. John de Lancie guest stars in the episode as Discord. According to Thiessen, Lauren Faust had conceived of Discord while watching a series of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, using Q (portrayed by de Lancie) as a template. When it came time to consider voice actors for the role, the production team had considered using a stand-in for de Lancie, but were surprised to learn that de Lancie himself was available for the role. Upon hearing the news, the team altered some elements of the episode to provide more allusion to his previous role, such as the flash of light when Discord would appear or disappear. de Lancie was later surprised by the large positive responses from the adult fans of the series, leading him to learn more about this fandom and participating as executive director of the documentary about the fandom Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. de Lancie has since re-voiced Discord for later episodes of the series and promotions on The Hub.

The episodes were the final to feature Lauren Faust as executive producer. Near the end of the first season, Faust announced that she had left the series, and for the second season, she stepped down as executive producer, to become consulting producer. Her involvement in the second season consisted mainly of story conception and scripts. Despite her decreased participation, she still has high hopes for the staff members, stating that "the gaps I have left are being filled by the same amazing artists, writers, and directors who brought you Season 1. I'm certain the show will be as entertaining as ever". In addition, a new storyboard editor named Jim Miller was hired for the second season and a majority of the animation was "outsourced" to animation company Top Draw. According to Thiessen, this allowed for a greater pre-production process for season two episodes.

"The Return of Harmony" was the first episode of the second season. According to Thiessen, the Hub and its parent company Hasbro had "approved the season two before we were done with season one; they knew they had something good on their hands." He explained, "they saw [the success] of the show early on, which is […] rare because usually a season will be one and aired before a network will renew it because they want to know what the numbers are, but they, I guess, a bit of a risk on their behalf, but I'm glad they did." The finale scene of the episode is a parody of the ending from the 1977 movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. According to Thiessen, the joke was an "afterthought"; originally, there was going to be a more elaborate ending, but due to time constraints, a new finale was created. During the animation stage, one of the directors noted that the scene was "kind of like the ending to A New Hope" and so, the decision was made to create "scene for scene" parody of the original.

Reception

Ratings

The first part of "The Return of Harmony" aired on September 17, 2011 and the second part aired on September 24. The first part was viewed by over 339,000 viewers, making it one of the highest-rated episodes ever broadcast by The Hub. In addition, the first part received a 0.2 Nielsen household rating in the United States, meaning that it was seen by 0.2 percent of all households watching television at the time of the broadcast. The episode received a 0.1 18-49 rating, meaning that it was viewed by 0.1 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of broadcast. The episode was later beaten by "A Canterlot Wedding," which scored a total viewership of 483,000 and 475,000.

Reviews

Both parts of the episode received largely positive reviews from critics. Carina Belles from We Got This Covered, in a review of the first part, called the series "plain awesome", noting that it was "basically Lord of the Rings, only with ponies." Belles praised the expressing animation, writing that "the already incredible art has also improved, with a wider variety of styles being used." A review from Republibot of the first part of the episode called the plot "an interesting revisit of the premise of the pilot ['Friendship Is Magic']". Furthermore, the review called John de Lancie's performance "superb" and praised the animation. Reviews for part two were positive as well. Republibot gave the episode a largely positive review, however, the site did note that the episode "feels a bit rushed, even as a two-parter" and that "Fluttershy's and Rarity's restoration sequences in particular feel rushed and inadvertently echo [the mind wipe sequences from] Men in Black."

Many reviews praised the series' pop culture references. Carina Belles applauded the series for making subtle pop culture references, citing Pinkie Pie's mention of "Chocolate Rain", a reference to a popular Internet meme. Many reviews and critics positively commented on the episode's ending, which featured a parody of the closing scenes to the original Star Wars. Cyriaque Lamar from i09 wrote positively of the scene, writing, "Honestly, modern My Little Pony fandom is one of those things I'm live-and-let-live about, even though it baffles me entirely [but] this morning's episode of the show did a little homage to A New Hope." i09 later named the scene one of "The Best Television Moments of 2011". John Farrier from Neatorama wrote, "It’s hard for Bronies to get respect from some quarters, but [the closing Star Wars parody] scene alone says much in favor of the show." The entertainment site Dorkly, an affiliate of CollegeHumor, featured a video comparing the two scenes and wrote, "May the adorable be with you." Topless Robot writer Anne Mathews named the Star Wars parody the "Nerdiest Easter Egg" in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, writing, "This scene is a direct shoutout to the fans and completely cements the creator Lauren Faust's geek cred. The only thing missing is a Wookiee yell at the end!"

Home media release

The two-part episode is part of the Season 2 DVD set released by Shout Factory on May 14, 2013. It was also part of the "Cutie Mark Quests" DVD, which was released on June 30, 2015, alongside "The Show Stoppers" and, labelled as "Cutie Markless," the two-part season five premiere episode "The Cutie Map."

External links

• "The Return of Harmony Part 1" at IMDb
• "The Return of Harmony Part 2" at IMDb