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1''Broken Spirit'' is a WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfiction written by Cryssy-miu.
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3The story starts three days after [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 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.
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5[[OhCrap That night, she's proven wrong.]]
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7In a frantic attempt to stop Discord, an enraged Twilight tries to restrain Discord with a powerful spell--that [[PowerIncontinence she loses control of]] and [[GoneHorriblyRight comes very close to killing him.]]
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9Taking pity on her foe, Fluttershy takes Discord in to nurse him back to health. Will her seemingly limitless compassion turn Discord from his [[ForTheEvulz urges]], or is he still the enemy she knew?
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11And were Celestia and Discord always foes, or was there a different, ''happier'' time between them in the past?
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13Read it [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/5569/Broken-Spirit here.]]
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15Now has a sequel, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/39118/distorted-worlds Distorted Worlds]]''
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17----
18!! This WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic contains the following tropes:
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20* ABoyAndHisX: A Little Pony And Her Recovering, Domesticated God Of Chaos.
21* AffectionateNickname: As the story goes on, Discord starts referring to Fluttershy by the nickname "Flutter Butter". He also uses [[spoiler:the names "Tia" and "Lulu" to refer to the princesses, although it is initially done so out of spite.]]
22* AffablyEvil: Discord, in later chapters. [[spoiler:Eventually, he ceases to be "evil".]]
23* TheAgeless: Celestia, Luna, and Discord (who are treated more or less as {{Physical God}}s) 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. [[spoiler:This becomes important when Discord gets blood poisoning in an early chapter.]]
24* ArrangedMarriage: [[spoiler: 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.]]
25* BelligerentSexualTension: [[spoiler: Discord and Celestia. However, it's played far more dramatically than most examples.]]
26* ButtMonkey: Discord frequently bears the brunt of most of the physical abuse in the story. Though given how [[JerkAss how he acts towards most people]], it's not always undeserved, and some of the time, his injuries are PlayedForLaughs.
27* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: The spell Twilight used to bind Discord. In fact, Celestia had told her to not even look at the ''book'' yet.
28* DefrostingIceKing: 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 [[TookALevelInKindness less callous in the process.]]
29* DeadpanSnarker: Discord of course!
30* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Fluttershy tries "The Stare" on Discord in chapter 3. At first, he seems unaffected. Then as soon as she leaves the room…
31--> ''Discord made sure that the Pegasus 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."''
32* DontYouDarePityMe: Discord's reaction to Twilight's HeroicBSOD is to tell her that he is not a forgiving person and that she shouldn't be torn up about nearly killing him.
33* DreamWeaver: Discord has this ability. He uses it to fight off a [[NightmareFuel horrific incarnation]] of himself that Fluttershy encounters in her dreams. He's genuinely disturbed when he first sees it.
34** Twilight and Fluttershy use a similar spell (which is implied to be [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique "black magic"]] by Twilight) to enter a [[spoiler: critically injured]] Discord's dream and learn what happened between him and Celestia.
35* EarnYourHappyEnding: By the end of the story things finally start looking up for Discord. He's able to [[spoiler: come to terms with his accidental murder of his parents and confess it to the princesses after eons, reconcile with Celestia and Luna]]. [[spoiler: Forgive Twilight for injuring him, and befriend her along with the rest of the mane cast]], and [[spoiler: rekindle his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance relationship with Celestia]]]]. It comes after a large amount of struggle on his part but by the end he's defiantly deserved it.
36* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Played with. While Discord 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.
37* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler: Discord as a kid, by Celestia and Luna's parents.]] Didn't last long, though…
38* HeelFaceTurn: The entire fic is basically a gradual one for Discord.
39* HeroicBSOD: Twilight goes near-catatonic after her spell goes wrong. It takes a good ''six chapters'' for her to make a full recovery.
40* InterspeciesRomance: [[spoiler: Celestia and Discord as of chapter 16.]]
41* IUhYouToo: A running joke in the story is Discord's inability to articulate how much he cares about Fluttershy, [[spoiler: despite the fact that he risks his life to save her]]. It's only after [[spoiler: Discord goes back to living with Celestia and Luna]] that he's able to explicitly state how much he cares for the Pegasus.
42* {{Jerkass}}: Discord's either this or a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and he switches ''constantly''. Sometimes he manages to be ''both''. To be more specific, he's usually the latter towards [[MoralityPet Fluttershy]], and the former towards practically everyone else. He eventually slides more toward the latter after [[spoiler: reconciling with Celestia and Luna]] but he still retains traits of the former.
43* LighterAndSofter: 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, [[spoiler: and Luna]] [[spoiler: for the majority of the story]].
44* ManChild: Despite being eons older than any character in the story with the exceptions of Celestia and Luna, Discord is prone to acting extremely immature most of the time, and the way Fluttershy treats him is similar to how a mother would treat a child.
45* MoodWhiplash: Chapter 3 begins with Fluttershy leaving Discord in Pinkie Pie's care so she can go run some errands and Pinkie begins making cookies…[[spoiler:and then Discord passes out from blood poisoning]].
46* MoralityPet: Fluttershy [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: they are just as important, if not more important to him than his ability to cause chaos.]]
47* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Twilight…doesn't take nearly killing Discord well. [[HeroicBSOD At]] [[TearJerker all.]]
48** [[spoiler: The Mane 6 have this as well, which is why Discord escaped.]]
49*** [[spoiler: Discord himself reacts this way when he learns that he accidentally murdered his adopted parents.]]
50* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: 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:
51--> ''He had already been slammed about as much as his bones and organs could mete out.''
52* OddFriendship: ''And how!''
53* OhCrap: Twilight when she encounters Discord.
54** A far [[NightmareFuel more horrific]] one from Discord himself when Twilight loses control of her spell.
55* PhlebotinumBreakdown: The reason Discord escaped. [[spoiler: Even though Twilight's friends recovered from his MindRape of them, they still felt regret for what they did, thus weakening their friendship.]]
56* PlaguedByNightmares: Discord has several nightmares stemming from [[spoiler: his guilt over inadvertently killing Celestia and Luna's parents. His nightmares only stop when he confesses to the princess's what he did and reconciles with them.]]
57* RunningGag:
58** Discord ''really'' gets a kick out of eating Fluttershy's dish towels.
59** Also his lovably sarcastic "Oh, GAG" when ever things get [[SickeninglySweet too cutesy for him.]] Since he's living with [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]], this happens often.
60* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler: Discord.]] Granted, he didn't ''mean'' to kill his parents, but [[spoiler: he was still planning a coup…]]
61* ShipperOnDeck: Later on in the story Fluttershy [[spoiler: tries to rekindle the flame that existed between Celestia and Discord]]. Her first attempt fails miserably but she eventually succeeds.
62* ShoutOut: To be expected from an MLP fanfiction. For example, chapter 2 gives us one for ''Fanfic/CupcakesSergeantSprinkles'', when Discord is teasing Fluttershy: ''"I wonder what ponies would taste like…Maybe I'll bake them into cupcakes."''
63* StartOfDarkness: 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 [[spoiler: the accidental death of his parents.]]
64* StaringDownCthulhu: Fluttershy and Discord in chapter 3. Hard to say who's actually Cthulhu in this case.
65* StepfordSmiler[=/=]SourOutsideSadInside: Discord is a combination of the two. [[spoiler: He is [[MyGreatestFailure incredibly torn up by guilt and pain over identically murdering his surrogate parents, and failing to revive them]]]], so to hide any sadness he might feel, he acts like an extremely silly and callous individual.
66* TickleTorture: Fluttershy's [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment preferred method]] for reprimanding Discord. She uses a ''feather duster'' as her instrument.
67* TranquilFury: 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.
68* UngratefulBastard: Discord refuses to forgive Twilight for grievously injuring him by accident. Even after [[spoiler: she saves his life when he gets a really bad case of blood poisoning]] and despite her attempts to be cordial towards him, he still antagonizes her every chance he gets. [[spoiler: he eventually does come around to forgiving her however.]]
69* UnstoppableRage: Why Twilight lost control of her spell. It was ''supposed'' to just restrain Discord, but to cast it properly, you need a calm mind…
70* UsedToBeASweetKid: [[spoiler: ''Discord'', of all people.]] Of course, [[StartOfDarkness things]] [[SelfMadeOrphan went]] [[VillainousBreakdown downhill]] at some point…
71* VillainousBreakdown: Discord is reduced to frantically pleading for mercy during Twilight's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of him.
72** [[spoiler: He had a ''far worse'' one when he discovers he accidentally killed King Aegeus and Queen Astraia.]]
73* VitriolicBestBuds: [[spoiler: Discord and Luna have a type II sibling version of this trope going on after they finally reconcile.]]
74* WeaksauceWeakness: Discord, the [[TheOmnipotent all powerful]] spirit of chaos can be easily subdued if he's tickled. Fluttershy [[spoiler: and later on Celestia]] both take advantage of this whenever he acts out.
75* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: 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 [[spoiler: inadvertently murdering his surrogate parents]]. [[spoiler: When he tells Celestia he's forgotten how to love , [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther she's able help him remember how.]]]]
76* WhatTheHellHero: An odd case; Fluttershy is called out by her friends, but ''not'' because she does something morally objectionable, but because she wants to help [[ManipulativeBastard Dis]][[VileVillainSaccharineShow cord]].
77** [[ShapedLikeItself Uhhhh…]]
78*** Discord himself does this towards [[spoiler: 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.]]
79-->[[spoiler: "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?]]

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