Discord is voiced by John de Lancie, who is famous for his work in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) as the omnipotent being Q, who shares a similar mischievous personality with Discord.
This marks the first two-parter episode since the Friendship Is Magic - Part 1 (Mare in the Moon) (2010) pilot.
Storyboard artist Sabrina Alberghetti wrote that the two-parter was intended to air as season one's finale, but The Hub scheduled it for season two's premiere instead. Showrunner Jayson Thiessen, however, has stated that while the two episodes were produced at the tail-end of the first season, they were always supposed to be part of season two; this was done to shorten the production hiatus and to keep on as many of the show's staff as possible.
Derpy Hooves, the fan-favorite pegasus with crazy eyes, can be seen briefly flying away when Cloudsdale is crumbling in Rainbow Dash's vision at 20:10.