Forcing? No you can't force a being like him to listen.
There is a tale that I love regarding the administrator taking down a higher being who doesn't embody a concept by bringing it to a place where it will embody one, mainly a humanoid. The admin literally shoots the higher being with a shotgun and proceeds to beat it up with a chair to death. Discord already has a form, Clef doesn't need to go to the lengths of his superior to trick his opponent.
Discord likely does embody a concept, though, & can be physical, &
Regeneration (Mid-High.
Regenerated from a cloud of dust) says Cleft tries shooting him, & Discord gets annoyed, I imagine.
Also:
Conceptual Manipulation (Was changed so thoroughly that the
very concept he embodied changed from chaos to order and was able to change back at any time)
If Discord's conceptual nature WERE changed, it seems to me, like he would be able to change it back.
Also Discord has demonstrated the ability to be erased. I don't know if he was fully conscious or aware since he was simping hard for Fluttershy at the time but one can assume he knows he's erasing himself.
IIRC, isn't him being orderly a VERY gradual process of weakening himself towards existence? & in that case, it's because of his own actions undermining his concepts; It's a little antithetical for the Spirit of Disharmony to be Harmonious.
Also, I'm unsure if it's entirely relevant, but:
Power Nullification (Resisted Twilight's attempt to reverse his magic,
Was unaffected by the Smooze's ability to nullify magic)
Probability Manipulation/
Causality Manipulation/
Law Manipulation (
Discord's chaos negates normal effects of probability, causality, and universal laws due to lacking the logic that makes them work normally),
Dream Manipulation (
Can keep Luna out of his mind)
Corruption (Type 1,
anyone comparable to or superior to Celestia should be able to resist corruption via sheer magical power) (Although, this is the Physical kind of Corruption.)
Transmutation (
Has been transmuted and simply changed back), and
Conceptual Manipulation (Discord was only
changed by the cosmic conjunction because he allowed it to happen, and as Accord,
promptly changed back on a whim)
Discord doesn't resist Existence Erasure specifically, but he resists a lot of things that are probably similar, or involved in the ability. For example, if it's a Law/Rule or element of Causality that anomalies being near Dr. Clef gets them erased, this might not work on him.
Funniest thing is if he needs to keep someone's attention for a long time, he actually has a comedic list for him to brag and it's not even his feats, it's
Dr. Bright's. And lastly due to him being a rather old character, he still maintains some traits from the LOLFoundation run. Most of them have been fleshed out to make him a character but he can commit wacky stuff occasionally if it means containing an entity. So it's probably in-character for him to do something like this
I can imagine this, but given Discord's conceit, how are we sure he wouldn't get bored, or dismiss Clef without proof, or decide he needs to do something more chaotic than just talking, & leave on the spot?
Or, given Discord's experience in schemes (Planting a seed in the Tree of Harmony thousands of years in advance, or something like that, IIRC, & tricking Cozy Glow, Chrysalis & Tirek in a long con.), as well as deceiving the Mane 6; I can believe Discord isn't smarter than Clef, but you don't need to be smarter to realize someone is trying to keep you there for some reason, & even if he doesn't know why, he can still just leave/kill him, as you said.
Clef : Hey Discord, spell 1252-PCS backwards
Discord : Of course, it's
SCP-2521
SCP-2521 : Whomst has summoned the accursed one?
Discord gets consumed
It probably won't go exactly like this but you get the point. There are a good amount of memetics and infohazards one can use simply by speaking and he can slip one just like that.
I don't get the point. SCP-2521 seems to lack a profile on VSBW, so how it works, its relevance, & arguably, its capabilities, especially to be used against Discord are questionable, even if it's profile were more than just images, even if they're somewhat understandable.
& obviously, it might not go like that. Discord is the Spirit of Chaos & Disharmony. Given an instruction like that, he'd probably defy it by spelling it another language, challenging it as though it were a word proposal in Scrabble, or conjure up some obscure tome to cast the spell from section 1252-PCS, among a bunch of other possibilities.
Point is, something like that doesn't seem like it'll necessarily succeed.
First of all, Constantine has BFR resistance in his profile
Fair.
Anyway, here are his feats of trickery. Combined with prior knowledge, he can probably pull something out to help him
While I don't deny his smarts, what are the in-character ways he could & WOULD try to trick Discord? What does he lead with?
This is basically based on the common downside of immortality, that your loved ones will die before you. Johan can just say that he can stay around and do nothing and they will still die slowly. Essentially, why bother trying to appease people who will one day no longer be there to stop you? Why try to make any relationships when they would always, ALWAYS die before you? And why try to do anything when you would live long enough to see someone outdo whatever it is you have done? Immortality sucks in certain aspects and many times higher beings or just ageless beings in general compliments mortality.
This runs into the problem of, we may not know, because of a lack of information on how such matters affect Discord; If they haven't happened in a story, how do we know how they'd debilitate him?
But if I had to speculate at answers for Discord on how he might confront these questions:
"Because I'll still have the memories of them. If you ever had friends, you would know that. & I won't do nothing. I'll be with my friends, & make memories that will last longer than them, me or negative nellies like you."
Also, some alicorns & other magical beings might be able to rival Discord's lifespan.
Do something because he is the spirit is Chaos! It is fun, & it is who he is, & by doing it, he knows the satisfaction that he could do it, even if he wasn't as good as someone else.
He lived thousands of years, & spent one of those milennia isolated through petrification. He might not have wanted for friends, but he knows what it's like to wait to be able to interact with others again, to have fun, for better or for worse. & they're always be more ponies.
Maybe if he's good enough to the generations today, the generations of tomorrow will see him in a better light. For Chaos is change, & what is hope but change for the better?
....Or something like that. I'm merely speculating. Maybe Discord will say a bunch of nonsense in response, perhaps to mock Johan's attempts at philosophy, or get annoyed at how droll & depressing Johan is, or question his motives. Or just force Johan into some kind of magical game to make things more entertaining.
"What compells a person to go up to a stranger & try to make them miserable? ...Well, okay,
I've done that before. But it's not right when
you do it!"
But again, speculation.
That or he can take a different route, using his opponent's guilt to his advantage. Here's Johan's feat of killing someone with guilt
Would his actions in this scene be something he opens with Vs Discord?
And to make matters worse, Johan is a soft spoken polite man. Guess which character Discord loves hanging out with the most?
Fluttershy, obviously. But she's his friend because she's spoken out for him, cared for his safety & well-being, & shows care towards not just Discord, but animals, showing she's genuine, often even when he's been acting disreputably.
Johan might have prior knowledge, but his goal is still misery & distrust among someone who's gained faith in their friends, & been there for many lessons about friendship specifically.
Discord might often slip up into conflicts with his friends, but IIRC, usually not trying to hurt them without extreme measures. & Discord's already been burned once by someone who was pretending to be his friend with Tirek. All this, & being a skilled manipulator himself, & Johan likely always trying to drive Discord towards depression or distrust feels like Discord would be tipped off, & then be mad.
Luna's a monarch, plain and simple. I'm pretty sure Celestia has a war crime somewhere in her records but we don't know that because it's a children show or because she covered it up.
The junior of the two monarchs, & if we wanna talk war crimes.... Luna is still the one who got envious of her big sister in their co-ruler relationship, went insane, tried to forcefully take sole rulership of Equestria. Attemped overthrowing your own sibling as monarch, & attempted regicide?
& when released, she was insane (Perhaps not for faults of her own, but insane nonetheless.), to attempt to inflict eternal darkness on all of Equestria, likely knowing the suffering that would cause, & possibly inconsiderate of the environmental consequences this would have, too.
Not to mention, while she's not been a perfect ruler, & Celestia still generally acts benevolently & in Equestria's best interests.
Discord on the other hand is an ex-convict under parole. I'm surprised he was forgiven after what he did in the season 4 and season 9 finale.
But he was forgiven nonetheless.
But anyways any minor crime can be used against a parolee to give send them back to prison and for this occasion, I'll be using Season 8 Episode 14. Here's the in a nutshell version for simplicity sake
A Matter of Principals?
In that one episode he committed fraud, property destruction, and most importantly, child endangerment! And the fact that his reasoning sounds like something out of bad writing (Instead of just plain insanity) means that he's probably accountable for what he's done
Yes, Discord did those things, but Starlight took matters into her own hooves by banishing him, & when that didn't work & he still caused trouble, she still took the matter into her own hooves... by acting as a guidance counselor. Where she apologized to him for leaving him out of the school activities which was why he did all those bad things to begin with (Besides being the spirit of Chaos, after all; At school, or not?), & offers him the position of "Vice-Headmare", which he accepts.
& if there are off-screen war crimes, we as the audience don't know about it, & so we can't well account for them. You wanna call Celestia a war criminal, you provide evidence, especially in a debate about a theoretical court of law! Same for any other pony, dragon, equine or draconequs! (Or human, given the possible involvement here.)
I won't deny he did crimes. He DID commit crimes, after all.
But at the time, Starlight was in charge of the school, & regardless of the reasons why, Discord acted out because he felt left out of a public institution by Starlight's actions.
& serious employment as "Vice Headmare" or not, the fact remains that Starlight apologized for leaving him out & offered a job.
Ergo, what I'd argue for his court case is that, given Starlight apologized & gave him a job (Albeit, temporary), it can be assumed she dropped the charges. & being in charge of the school, the safety of the students was her responsibility, which she jeapoardized by unfairly refusing admission to a minority out of misunderstanding & prejudice.
Ergo, had it not been for her unfriendly actions as Headmare & forceful banishment of someone who just wanted to be a student, Discord would not have performed the crimes he did, & the blame falls on Starlight for prioritizing prejudice based on past experience over someone who's behaviour is known as a notedly different culture, & is attempting to be reformed by monarchs & national heroes.
Thus, the blame for the property damage & the students falls on Starlight. However, as headmare at the time, & the one who discriminated to begin with, her dropping of the charges, & acceptance into the school, as temporary faculty or otherwise, still stand.
....Meanwhile, Phoenix Wright, was apparently appointed prosecutor, when his history is as a Defense Lawyer in murder cases, so I'd say he's a little out of his element. For all his skill, he may blunder here, especially if he's in an unfamiliar court system.
& with his prosecution having dropped the charges, the judge of questionable sanity in her history, imprisoning a necessary element (Chaos) of the universe being a bad idea (& shown not to work, since he broke out eventually, & might just cause trouble for a future generation.), & the Princess of Friendship & the other Bearers of Harmony likely already being in support of reform for him, I don't think that fails.
I also say it's a little questionable to have the court allow Discord's clone to act as his defendant. While he knows himself well, both are of questionable sanity. So that just puts the validity of this trial further into question.
Alternatively, we can point out that you specified:
"-Discord's wincon is by making a clone of himself as his defendant"
But you have not specified anything as a win condition for Phoenix Wright.
Discord is on trial, & Discord's clone is his [Discord's] defendant. Since the clone is also Discord, they agree to have Discord the clone act as HIS OWN [Discord Clone's] defendant.
The original Discord walks out, because he's not on trial anymore, his clone is, & as you specified by omission in the OP, Phoenix Wright has no win condition here.
(& if the trial was made with Discord, THE Singular Embodiment of Chaos in Equestria as an individual in mind, the court probably will have to be postponed & retried if they try to say there's now multiple defendants, &/or that who has an attorney has now changed)
Also, the citizens who aren't witnesses aren't part of the court trial, right?
Hopefully I'm not being unpleasant.
