Broken Spirit

Broken Spirit is a My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfiction written by Cryssy-miu.

The story starts three days after Discord's defeat, with Twilight and her friends at a picnic. All is well...except that their friendship seems to be strained, despite them having recovered from Discord's manipulations and sealed him away once again. Even with their regrets, Twilight is sure that Discord is gone forever.

That night, she's proven wrong.

In a frantic attempt to stop Discord, an enraged Twilight tries to restrain Discord with a powerful spell--that she loses control of and comes very close to killing him.

Taking pity on her foe, Fluttershy takes Discord in to nurse him back to health. Will her seemingly limitless compassion turn Discord from his urges, or is he still the enemy she knew?

And were Celestia and Discord always foes, or was there a different, happier time between them in the past?

Read it here.

This My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfic contains the following tropes:
"Discord made sure that the pegaus was out of sight and earshot, then promptly let his ears fall back and his eyes to go wide. He grimaced, rubbing his chilled shoulders with crossed arms, the stare still fresh in his mind and probably would be for ages. "Guh.""
 * A Little Pony And Her Domesticated God Of Chaos
 * Affectionate Nickname: As the story goes on, Discord starts referring to Fluttershy by the nickname "Flutter Butter"
 * Affably Evil: Discord, in later chapters.
 * The Ageless: Celestia, Luna, and Discord (who are treated more or less as Physical Gods) are an interesting version of this: they can never die of old age, but they can be killed by sheer brute force or infectious diseases.
 * Arranged Marriage:
 * Bad Dreams: Discord has several of them, stemming from
 * Black Sheep:  was this for Celestia's family.
 * Butt Monkey: Discord frequently bears the brunt of most of the physical abuse in the story. Though given how how he acts towards most people, it's not always undeserved, and some of the time, his injuries are Played for Laughs.
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The spell Twilight used to bind Discord. In fact, Celestia had told her to not even look at the book yet.
 * Defrosting Ice King: A non romantic example. After spending a prolonged amount of time under the care of Fluttershy, Discord gradually starts to find himself befriending her and becoming less callous in the process.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Discord of course!
 * Death Glare / Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Fluttershy tries "The Stare" on Discord in chapter 3. At first, he seems unaffected. Then as soon as she leaves the room...

"He had already been slammed about as much as his bones and organs could mete out."
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Discord's reaction to Twilight's Heroic BSOD is to tell her that he is not a forgiving person and that she shouldn't be torn up about nearly killing him.
 * Dream Weaver: Discord has this ability. He uses it to fight off a horrific incarnation of himself that Fluttershy encounters in her dreams. He's genuinely disturbed when he first sees it.
 * Twilight and Fluttershy use a similar spell (which is implied to be "black magic" by Twilight) to enter a  Discord's dream and learn what happened between him and Celestia.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Played with. While Disocrd isn't portrayed as truly evil, (though he is quite callous and spiteful), he initially just can't imagine why Fluttershy spared his life. He eventually grows out of this somewhat as he comes to like her.
 * Happily Adopted:  Didn't last long, though...
 * Heroic BSOD: Twilight goes near-catatonic after her spell goes wrong. It takes a good six chapters for her to make a full recovery.
 * Jerkass / Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Discord's either one or the other, and he switches constantly. Sometimes he manages to be both.
 * To be more specific, he's usually the latter towards Fluttershy, and the former towards practically everyone else. He eventually slides more toward the latter after  but he still retains traits of the former.
 * Lighter and Softer: Played with in the case of Discord. He does mellow out a bit in later chapters, getting a more friendly demeanor and his chaos consisting of lighthearted pranks... but really only towards Fluttershy. He's also a big Jerkass towards Twilight.
 * Morality Pet: Fluttershy  become this for Discord. This point is driven home in the 16th chapter when Discord comes to the realization that
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Twilight...doesn't take nearly killing Discord well. At all.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Twilight does this unintentionally to Discord: a binding spell goes wrong and slams him around a cave. Near the end Discord is injured so horribly he can't even move. The narration points out just how close he is to dying:
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Twilight does this unintentionally to Discord: a binding spell goes wrong and slams him around a cave. Near the end Discord is injured so horribly he can't even move. The narration points out just how close he is to dying:
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Twilight does this unintentionally to Discord: a binding spell goes wrong and slams him around a cave. Near the end Discord is injured so horribly he can't even move. The narration points out just how close he is to dying:


 * Odd Friendship: And how!
 * Oh Crap: Twilight when she encounters Discord.
 * A far more horrific one from Discord himself when Twilight loses control of her spell.
 * Phlebotinum Breakdown: The reason Discord escaped.
 * Running Gag: Discord really gets a kick out of eating Fluttershy's dish towels.
 * Also his lovably sarcastic "Oh, GAG" when ever things get too cutesy for him. Since he's living with Fluttershy, this happens often.
 * Self-Made Orphan:  Granted, he didn't mean to kill his parents, but
 * Shipper On Deck: Later on in the story Fluttershy . Her first attempt fails miserably but she eventually succeeds.
 * Shout-Out: To be expected from an MLP fanfiction. For example, chapter 2 gives us one for Cupcakes, when Discord is teasing Fluttershy: "I wonder what ponies would taste like.. Maybe I'll bake them into cupcakes."
 * Start of Darkness: Played with. Discord was prone to chaos even as a kid, but it started out as simple pranks. He got more callous and sadistic as he grew up, but what really pushed him over the edge was
 * Tickle Torture: Fluttershy's preferred method for reprimanding Discord. She uses a feather duster as her instrument.
 * Tranquil Fury: Celestia's reaction when Discord makes some very hurtful comments toward Luna. She never does anything fatal, but when she gives Discord what for it's not pretty.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Discord refuses to forgive Twilight for grievously injuring him by accident. Even after  and despite her attempts to be cordial towards him, he still antagonizes her every chance he gets.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Why Twilight lost control of her spell. It was supposed to just restrain Discord, but to cast it properly, you need a calm mind...
 * Of course, things went downhill at some point...
 * Villainous Breakdown: Discord is reduced to frantically pleading for mercy during Twilight's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of him.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Discord provides an interesting example. It's not that he doesn't understand love, it's that he believes that he's lost the capacity for it ever since.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: An odd case; Fluttershy is called out by her friends, but not because she does something morally objectionable, but because she wants to help Discord.
 * Uhhhh...
 * Discord himself does this towards
 * Discord himself does this towards


 * Would Hurt a Child: When Twilight and Fluttershy enter Discord's dream in chapter 9, they see a flashback where  advisers tell him to drown Discord, whom they think is evil. This happened while Discord was still a child.