 " 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 <unk> 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 <unk> de Lancie has since re @-@ voiced Discord for later episodes of the series and promotions on The Hub . 
