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.

Tropes used in Broken Spirit include:

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. This becomes important when Discord gets blood poisoning in an early chapter.
Arranged Marriage: King Aegeus and Queen Astraia made the decision to have Discord and Celestia be betrothed when they were children. The two did develop romantic feelings for one another but it all went down hill once Discord's penchant for malicious acts of chaos led to his banishment from the kingdom and his attempted coup of the throne.
Bad Dreams: Discord has several of them, stemming from his guilt over inadvertently killing Celestia and Luna's parents. The nightmare only stop when he confesses to the princess's what he did and reconciles with them.
Black Sheep: Discord 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...

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."

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 critically injured 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: Discord as a kid, by Celestia and Luna's parents. 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 reconciling with Celestia and Luna 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 and Luna.
Morality Pet: Fluttershy and eventually Celestia and Luna become this for Discord. This point is driven home in the 16th chapter when Discord comes to the realization that they are just as important, if not more important to him than his ability to cause chaos.
My God, What Have I Done?: Twilight...doesn't take nearly killing Discord well. At all.
- The mane 6 have this as well, which is why Discord escaped.
  - Discord himself reacts this way when he learns that he accidentally murdered his adopted parents.
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:

He had already been slammed about as much as his bones and organs could mete out.

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. Even though Twilight's friends recovered from his Mind Rape of them, they still felt regret for what they did, thus weakening their friendship.
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: Discord. Granted, he didn't mean to kill his parents, but he was still planning a coup...
Shipper on Deck: Later on in the story Fluttershy tries to rekindle the flame that existed between Celstia and Discord. 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 the accidental death of his parents.
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 she saves his life when he gets a bad of blood poisoning and despite her attempts to be cordial towards him, he still antagonizes her every chance he gets. he eventually does come around to forgiving her however.
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...
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Discord, of all people. 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.
- He had a far worse one when he discovers he accidentally killed King Aegeus and Queen Astraia.
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 inadvertently murdering his surrogate parents. When he tells Celestia he's forgotten how to love , she's able help him remember how.
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 Celestia when she states that "You only got what you deserved" by being imprisoned. He also calls her out for banishing Luna among other things.

"Did I really? Did a little chaotic sprinkles here and there truly call for full body petrification until the end of time? Did a few innocent pranks like causing it to rain chocolate and 'fertilizing' the apples call for a repeat of that punishment? "Did merely playing a harmless little game of peek-a-boo with your teacher's pet justify breaking every bone in my body?" "Did a little bit of sister rebellion really call for a thousand year banishment to the moon? To the point that your poor sister returns a misunderstood, frightened mess that has no idea how to face the world?

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