@asdtroi
Celestia told them to reform Discord. They didn’t want to. And Celestia only did it to
use him, not unlike a certain centaur.
At the beginning of season 4 they
immediately blame Discord for what’s happening. (Technically they were right but that’s gonna need to be a seperate discussion for now.)
He told them to meet with Zecora.
That pointed them to the Tree of Harmony. Sure, he didn’t tell them about the seeds but it
did provide Twilight with a lesson about being princess. Being a dick and being evil are mutually exclusive.
Next, he fakes an illness
just to spend time with Twilight
the princess of friendship because she refused to treat him like a friend. Zero effort put into his reformation.
Then, he bookmarks the adventures the girls underwent that leads them to the keys for unlocking the box.
Tirek talks him into betraying them and gets met with being betrayed himself. He apologized and that gave them the sixth key that unlocked the box that allowed them to defeat Tirek.
And he didn’t exactly look like he was enjoying seeing ponies drained of their magic. Especially, when it happens to the mane six. Plus, he wasn’t completely forthcoming with Tirek much of the time. Even when helping the villain Discord wasn’t completely heartless.
Cozy? She doesn’t want friends. She wants pawns. Did she cry when she failed? Did she apologize? No. She said, “screw it, time to try again elsewhere.”
Starlight? She won. She could have taken away Twilight’s friends. She could have continued to delude herself that Equestria wouldn’t end up barren. What did she do? She stopped. She changed her mind. She gave friendship another chance.
Whew been watching
a lot of MLP today.
Anyway, when it comes down to it, the villains that wanted redemption got it. Discord gave redemption a shot. Even if it was just to avoid being stoned he still made a friend in Fluttershy. Maybe he didn’t
deserve a second chance but that was the only time a villain was redeemed by royal order. His situation is a complicated and unique set of circumstances and as such are not comparable to any other character. Not unless Twilight orders someone else to redeem them and the villains are force to comply or be stoned again. It could happen, but that’s the only comparison that could be reasonably made.