I thought the entire reason he was freed is because the elements shifted from Celestia to the mane six. She sealed him with the elements, so when they changed hooves, the seal weakened enough for him to bust out.

Filthy heathen, you dare doubt the great Celestia? OFF TO THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Makes sense. I do not remember, did they state it outright?

But even then, shouldn't Celestia have known of that earlier? And anyway, who puts the petrified body of an ill-intentioned Reality Warper in the royal gardens?

That's the sort of thing that even the Evil Overlord List does not warn against not doing, because come on, it should be completely obvious...

''If I somehow manage to petrify a malevolent Physical God, I will not keep the statue in the palace garden or anywhere where some random fool could somehow manage to free him, no matter how much I am sure that this is impossible. I will break the statue into gravel, and have each single piece isolated in a different location and guarded by the most powerful means at my disposal. If for some reason I cannot destroy the statue, it will be kept in a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

But I am not doubting Her Royal Majesty, I am professing my admiration for her scheme!

edited 16th Feb '12 8:15:29 AM by Carciofus

I think she mentions it when she's talking to cast at the beginning. I assume that she didn't know it would happen because the elements have never switched bearers before, so there was no way of knowing that it would cause other problems. As for why the statue is left in the garden, Discord is capable of teleporting and whatnot, so once he's out of the statue, it doesn't really matter where he is. They could have put it in a prison or whatnot, but he'd just teleport out as soon as the seal broke anyway. Better to leave him where she can keep an eye on him.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:16:25 AM by JapaneseTeeth

Japanese Teeth is correct. The transcript from the episode in question (Return to Harmony: Part 1): Emphasis is mine.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:19:24 AM by KarlKadaver

Where'd you get the transcript from? I can only find the season 1 episodes.

It might have made it a bit more difficult for him to steal the Elements so quickly, though.

But even accepting the argument, the fact remains that he literally gave the Mane 6 the opportunity to win. "I'm a chaos god, I do random stuff even when it's disadvantageous because it amuses me" can only justify so much. Why, of all random things that he could have done, did he do the ones which allowed the Mane 6 to defeat him (but not before learning some Very Important Lessons about friendship and whatnot?)

All right then. My bad.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:22:50 AM by Carciofus

So many theories to test...

...Testing? Does this mean that we're going to be issuing Aperture Science Hoof Held Portal Devices and pressing some buttons?

We shall do it for science. You monster.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:34:16 AM by GespenstKAF

Transcripts. For all of your direct quote needs! Brought to you by Aperture Science: Equestria.

Transcripts may have the following side effects: Depression, Heart Attack, Lymph Node Infection, Nymph Lode Infection, Ear Infection, Dysintery, The Trots, Cutie Pox, Poison Joke Contaimination, Petrification, Solidification, Liquidization, Massive hemmoriging from the throat, eyes, or nose, Passing Wind, or Renal Failure. Aperture Science: Equestria will not be held responsible for any or all effects that may or may not occur, depening on Celestia's mood.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:42:46 AM by KarlKadaver

My take on Discord's (second) defeat:

He had a master plan, he said as much in his riddle. He tricked Twilight and the others into stumbling into the hedge maze, and manipulating all of them to sever their links to their respective elements. Even though the girls find the elements, they're useless. And when Twilight finally snaps and desaturates, Discord finally gets to relish his victory. That was his master plan, and it went off perfectly.

So he got complacent. The world is his plaything now, so what's to worry about? It's not like the Elements of Harmony can stop him, they already tried and failed miserably. But he wasn't counting on Celestia sending back all those letters, on Twilight having an epiphany and turning back to her normal self. On her turning the others back to their normal selves. By the time he realized that the threat was real this time, it was too late.

I hear that many Unicorn and Pegasus factions have protested against our research, spouting some nonsense about it "upsetting the balance of Equestria."

I say let 'em whine! Our goal is to further the cause of Science, and we're not gonna let some blowhards slow us down!

Yeah, but you'd think a being as powerful as him would be able to detect the spell being broken. And since he had cast the spell in the first place, he should have known if it was broken.

edited 16th Feb '12 9:29:45 AM by DemoralizedAnt

That song had better involve Celestia and/or Luna. And if it doesn't, the series finale absolutely must.

I'm guessing Nightmare Moon was Exdeath because they decided she was kinda VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID or something. Still...I'm curious why the Exdeath -> Kefka -> Sephiroth thing is titled "Several Mexican Children".

edited 16th Feb '12 10:50:43 AM by Pykrete

I wonder what Luna's up to...

Probably dealing with some weird astronauts,

Well, she's been slacking off lately with moving the moon out of the sky in the morning...

I mean, seriously, I could do a bet-

WHO DARES INSULT US?!

>_>

<_<

*points at Demo Ant*

I've always liked you, Luna. *sheepish grin*

edited 16th Feb '12 11:49:22 AM by KarlKadaver

TICKING

~Don't stop me now!~

¡Poder de la Varaaaaaaaa!

edited 16th Feb '12 12:02:27 PM by Pykrete

I want more episodes with Daring Do! She was so D'aaaawy :3

I think that anymore Daring Do episodes would cause our Daring Do page to implode from the amount of Retconing it would force us to do.

So Rarity's theme from Fighting is Magic is out.

...dunno what to think about this. It vaguely reminds me of Touhou with the fast-paced dance-ish bit, but it doesn't have the kind of presence the other two have so far.

Also, Tara Strong trolls people and winds up sparking enough shitstorms everywhere to make Celestia proud.

edited 17th Feb '12 12:09:56 PM by Pykrete

@Karl: I think the reason we still see the moon in the sky sometimes is because Luna is just checking on us. A good princess makes sure that her subjects are a-okay.

@Pykrete: Trollestia has taught her well...

Well-played, Madam Strong. Well-played.

Hmm...a challenger appears.

edited 17th Feb '12 6:51:13 AM by Hsere

My problem with that song is that it sounds too similar to the composer's earlier work (Twilight Sonata, I believe). And I've only listened to that song once, didn't think much of that one either. I guess it matches Rarity, if we have to use electronica for her theme. But it definitely doesn't have as much presence or impression as the other two.

edited 17th Feb '12 7:15:27 AM by Crowind

Sounds like something from Marvel vs Capcom 3, but I like it.

edited 17th Feb '12 7:51:50 AM by GespenstKAF