Discord Ability Additions

[CinnabarManx421]

Continuing the never ending trend of Discord constantly getting new powers.

A few ability additions for our favorite Lord of Chaos, Discord.

These are mostly from recent/some unreleased episodes so avoid this if you want to avoid potential spoilers.





Starting off our list, Discord should get Petrification for Petrifying himself in the Summer Sun Setback and helping to Petrify the villains at the end of the Ending of the End-Part 2

Next up, Discord should get Weapon Mastery/Weapon Creation since he creates and uses a bow and arrows when playing Ogres & Oubliettes. He also is the one who gave Spike his wizard staff and Big Mac his sword.

Next, and this is an ability Discord uses many times throughout the series, he should have Dimensional Storage as he constantly pulls objects out of thin air. (Honestly he does this so often I'd be looking all day to find every instance of it)

This one's pretty easy, Discord should have Social Influencing as he's many times over the series been able to manipulate people into doing what he wants, how he wants. Such as corrupting the Mane 6, manipulating Big Mac into breaking up with Sugar Bell, and most recently by tricking the villains into thinking he was Grogar.

Finally, I think Discord should get Fusionism as his magic can fuse objects together and he can defuse objects as well.

Well that's pretty much it for abilities, but Discord also lacks Resistances on his profile, while it's true that he doesn't have many, there are 3 that stand out to me, he should have Resistance to Fire Manipulation, Heat Manipulation, and Magma Manipulation. Twice he set himself on fire with no ill effect and once stood in lava without feeling the effects.

Also, he should get Resistance to Power Nullification, in his first appearance, Twilight tried to use a spell to reverse Discord's magic and it failed completely. He also touched the Smooze many times and his powers still worked despite the Smooze's ability to nullify Magic.

 

[Js250476]

All these seem fine to me.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

That's enough confirmation for me, I shall add these.

 

[Js250476]

Of course my word is law and my approval is absolute

 

[Everything12]

I see no problems with this.

 

[ShakeResounding]

That resistance could also have Magma Manipulation listed as well.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

Didn't honestly know that was a power, added to the OP.

 

[Antvasima]

This all seems uncontroversial to add to the page.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

Added Power Null to the possible resistances for him. Please take a look.

 

[Antvasima]

That also seems fine and uncontroversial to add.

 

[Imaginym]

Twilight trying to negate Discord's magic was what, Season 1/2? When Twilight wasn't an alicorn, let alone had any of the feats (as well as probably a lot less magical study) that we scale her to in later seasons, nor did she have any of the higher forms.

Season 2 or so Twilight trying to disable the living magical embodiment of magic is just her being way too weak & inexperienced to nullify a force that's arguably fundamentally & exists in practically all the setting.

Sure he was petrified later, but that was by the Mane 6, with The Elements of Harmony.

And didn't Discord CREATE The Smooze? Even if we consider its Magic Absorption Power Nullification against Magic, I'm pretty sure Discord would be massively superior to The Smooze.

Plus, it didn't have very severe effects on ponies, unlike Tirek's magic, who CAN & did absorb Discord's magic.

So even if The Smooze IS Power Nullifying instead of only just using Absorption on Magic, it's FAR less potent than Absorption we've seen work on Discord.


Also, Weapon Mastery is for using a weapon with greater skill than the average person. What's our proof Discord was that good, in the limited time we saw him use a bow?

Other than that, I'm fine with what's proposed, for all that that's worth.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

Power Null is hax, not AP. Twilight being weaker than Discord doesn't mean anything when using a hax ability. She didn't say it would destroy Discord's magic, she said it would turn everything back to normal.

I... don't know where you're getting that idea from, Discord literally just showed up with the Smooze, nothing suggested he created it. Again, him being superior doesn't mean anything because hax ignores conventional stats.

That's because Tirek absorbs their Life Force, not just their magic, the Smooze just prevents them from using their magic, ergo it's Power Null not Absorption.

Resistance=/=immunity, just because somebody else was able to absorb Discord's powers doesn't mean he can't still resist it. That just means the person who absorbed it was stronger than his resistance.


Well ignoring the fact most ponies cannot wield weapons due to the whole no-hands thing, making him better than the average person in verse, he has been doing it once a week every week since Season 6 so he's had much more practice/experience than the average pony would have in wielding weaponry.

 

[Imaginym]

Power Null is hax, not AP. Twilight being weaker than Discord doesn't mean anything when using a hax ability. She didn't say it would destroy Discord's magic, she said it would turn everything back to normal.

That's still much less magical power, & possibly knowhow (Discord might be chaotic, but he has several centuries, if not millennia more experience with magic than Twilight.) trying to undo a living fundamental force's effect, while that LFF is still actively changing things.

Abilities are not AP, but they can still be graded on potency, & I'd think there are several factors where Twilight's magic wouldn't prove sufficient against Discord's.

Twilight may not have known the correct kind of spell, means of controlling magic, may not have been able to control all of the magic, etc. Her ability to Power Nullify his magic/the effects of it presumably was because she wasn't good enough to use magic to Power Null living magic embodying chaos, or the effects of it while he was still actively influencing things.

As for The Smooze, I was mistaken. Discord doesn't state he created this incarnation of The Smooze. Although, he does call it his "plus one" for the Gala, & that's its only role. Discord already has Life Manipulation.

Either Discord found an abomination never heard of before, or he Life Manip'd one into existence.

And it certainly doesn't seem independent. EVERY other appearance of The Smooze in FiM is alongside Discord. Specifically, in a jar, in Discord's dream, & alongside him in a song.

Also, reading on it, The Smooze took magic from Celestia & Luna just fine. (So it's a higher power nullification/absorption against magic.) But didn't it, nonetheless, grow when exposed to magic?

Tirek's profile doesn't claim he has Life Force absorption. He DOES have Magic & Magic Absorption but nowhere does his profile even use the WORD "Life".

Yes, most ponies can't wield weapons due to hooves (Telekinesis aside.), but I don't think the description of weapon mastery refers to the average level of skill within the character's setting, but to a general threshold.

And while it's true he does it often, he does so in a controlled environment that's a game he can reality warp or pause or end at any time, no? Discord is practically a god, in or outside of his magical simulations of Ogres & Oubliettes.

Even over a prolonged amount of time, a game where you practically have god mode on at all times & can exit if there's danger doesn't promote improving your skills with a bow & arrow much, because there's little threat incentivizing improving that skill.

You might have practice/experience playing non-seriously with a toy bow & arrow in an overall unthreatening situation (I don't think Discord fears for his safety when playing O&O.), but that doesn't prove SKILL.

Thus, what are his FEATS with a bow & arrow, & other weapons we're proposing Weapon Mastery for him having, & what proves he'd be better at using them, especially in combat, than an average-skilled user from another 'verse?

 

[CinnabarManx421]

Not really, remember, Twilight is the Element of Magic, and has more control over it than anyone else in the series. And she has plenty of know-how, many of her early adventures saw her using spells from books to solve problems. Heck in Season 3, when she was still a Unicorn, she was able to memorize and use a dark magic spell Celestia showed her after seeing it only once. Also, Discord may be 1000 years old, but for most of that he was trapped in stone, not really a great way to practice your control over magic.

Discord's magic being stronger is literally proof that he'd resist the spell, it means his magic is strong enough to RESIST the spell, ergo he can resist weaker nullifying magic. That doesn't mean his powers can't be nullified, it just means someone would have to have a stronger nullfier than he resists.

In the episode, Discord says "But I can't show up alone, she'll (Fluttershy) think she's my only friend, who could I bring on such short notice?" He more implies that the Smooze is someone he knows rather than someone he created.

It hanging out with him means nothing. It literally did the opposite of what Discord said throughout the entire episode, so yes it does seem to be independent. Discord even apologizes to it at the end of the episode for just using it to get to Fluttershy, so it's obvious he considers it more as a friend than a creation.

No, it did not grow when exposed to magic, it grew from absorbing a bunch of shiny objects after Discord locked it in a closet.

The profiles are not always 100% accurate or up to date, they are constantly changing, and shouldn't always be taken as 100% fact. That's why we make CRT's to change them. In Season 9, his absorbing powers are reffered to him absorbing the ponies Life Force, not just their magic.

Well the general threshold in MLP is that nobody uses physical weapons very often, you can even see this in the Season 5 finale during the Sombra future, when Equestria goes to war with the Crystal Empire, neither side use physical weapons, they just charge and fight each other hoof-to-hoof. (Some are holding spears but you never actually see them use them.)

In the clip I linked, Discord is very clearly exerting himself as he gets physically tired after fighting off that wave of skeleton ponies, so god mode or not it's clear he's taking it seriously. He also wanted to take it seroiusly because he felt bad for ruining their night, they only asked him to tone it down a teeny bit, but it's still clearly enough to prove a challenge. Also, if you want a feat of skill, in that clip, Discord strategically shoots an arrow in a way that it bounces off a die block and hits Squizard in his rear, so he has shown more skill than a normal archer could pull off.

 

[Antvasima]

Cinnabar seems to make sense to me.

 

[Imaginym]

@CinnabarManx421: I appreciate your clarification on several matters, & I hope the users of this thread can forgive my argumentativeness.

It's more accurate to say Discord is over 1,000 years old, having been around when Celestia & Luna were young & didn't he rule Equestria "in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness."? I'd think that implies a prolong rule before his petrification. (Also, plant the Plunderseeds, but that's a minor amount of time.)

It could be that his magic is stronger. But being the embodiment of Chaos, it could also be that the magic he's made of is more difficult to understand, control, or is just more complex; Even raw power can only do so much if fine control is needed, & I'm not sure how much Twilight studied Chaos.

And yes, Twilight is very skilled, but Discord had at least decades, if not centuries more experience than her. Also, not to say Twilight isn't skilled, but Season 3 is AFTER she tried to stop Discord; She'd had a lot of time to study between those two periods.

Come to think of it, didn't Twilight make her spell to try & nullify Discord's magic BEFORE she knew of Discord's involvement?

Her attempt comes before Celestia informs them about his return, & she has several questions; She's clueless about the situation at that point.

Looking at it, part of the basis regarding Discord's resistance to Power Nullification is based on him touching The Smooze unharmed. But besides it acknowledging him as a friend (Meaning it might not use its powers on him.), have we seen The Smooze nullify magic from other beings on contact with those beings?

And yes, I suppose a mostly straight, single ricochet shot of an arrow is fairly skillful, even if it is to hit as broad a target as a giant, square cardboard figure. I suppose Weapon Mastery (Bow & Arrows) is somewhat reasonable.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

They were youngER, but not young, it's not like they were fillies when Discord came to power, they were both fully grown when he showed up. There's no way to determine that. In the finale, only a few years pass before Twilight grows into a full grown Alicorn, and Celestia and Luna were still small when the Tree of Harmony was planted as evidenced by Starswirl, so it's likely only a few years difference there as well. Even then, Discord had made about the same amount of changes to Ponyville as he had in the Season 2 Premiere, which seems to imply he wasn't in power long. Plus, it's more likely Celestia was exaggerating, as even the glass stain window shows a very exaggerated version of Discord, him literally dangling ponies over fire, when nothing in the show indicates he's that evil.

Going with Occam's Razor, the answer that requires the least speculation is usually the correct one. It's possible that because of Discord's chaotic nature his magic is harder to nullify because of limited knowledge, control, or complexity, but it's far simpler to assume his magic is simply strong enough to resist the reversal effects of the spell, especially when there's no evidence in the show for this being the case. Heck, Tirek was able to absorb Discord's powers despite having not having any of those things, so I'd be hard pressed to say that's the reason.

Again, Discord only is shown to have existed for a short time before being turned to stone, there's no indication of how much time he had to use his magic before he was defeated. Yes, but it's not entirely clear how much time passed between S2 and S3, and Unicorn Twilight is mostly capable of similar feats throughout the first 3 seasons, nothing really indicates she got much stronger before she became an Alicorn.

She didn't make the spell, she got the spell out of a book, which implies the spell was used in the past to reverse effects similar to what was going on, returning things to normal, but Discord's magic was powerful enough to resist the spell.

Yes, we do. It nullifies Celestia's magic when it touches her and prevents the Mane 6 from stopping to Discord later in the episode by engulfing them inside himself.

 

[Antvasima]

So should we apply Cinnabar's suggested changes now?

 

[CinnabarManx421]

I can do it if you want me to.

 

[Antvasima]

I think that it should probably be fine.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

Ok I will do so.

 

[Antvasima]

Thanks. Tell me here when you are done.

 

[CinnabarManx421]

Ok, it's done, this Thread can now be closed.

 

[Antvasima]

Okay.