| "The Return of Harmony" | |
|---|---|
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes | |
 Twilight Sparkle (front) with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy (flying, left to right), Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity (background, left to right) unite with the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord | |
| Episode nos. | Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2 |
| Directed by |
|
| Written by | M.A. Larson |
| Produced by |
|
| Editing by |
|
| Original air dates |
|
| Running time | 44 minutes (combined) |
| Guest appearances | |
| John de Lancie as Discord | |
"The Return of Harmony" is the collective name for the first and second episodes of the second season of the 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, while part two aired the following week, on September 24. The first 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.
The series follows a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Princess 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, while Twilight and her five friends discover that the Elements of Harmony have been stolen. They must retrieve them in order to save Equestria from eternal chaos but 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.