About "Broken": Themes and Influences (and what Turing sounds like *TO ME*) · 8:11pm Aug 2nd, 2016
The new chapter "Broken, Part 2," of The Iron Horse is out, and this post is about it. If you haven't read it yet, please check that first before proceeding. If you have, continue on after the break. 
As I stated in the Author's Notes of the chapter, the "Broken" arc was one of the very first I was inspired to write, despite it coming very late in the story. Early on into writing The Iron Horse, I was looking around for music to inspire me. You've probably guessed from the chapter titles and references, but I enjoy listening to music, and one day I came across something that just left me stunned. It was a song that perfectly captured the hopeful, yet sad tone I wanted to achieve in my story. It was cute and carried the theme of an organic being who finds a robot and the two form a bond. I'd already started the story before hearing the song, but just the same, the comparison felt a little uncanny. To me, it's always been the story's unofficial theme song.
And, also, it sorta set how Turing Test's voice sounds in my head. I know a lot of you probably think GlaDOS or another female AI (one reader suggested Orianna from "League of Legends," which was pretty cool, but not what I personally had in mind). So, if you really don't want that messed with, you might not want to listen to this. But otherwise...
On to gloomier subjects... let's talk about death! (Yay...)
In truth, I really don't have much to say about it, but I do want to say two things:
1. The explanation Twilight gives for being mortal while Celestia and Luna are not comes from two sources. The first is from Megan McCarthy's 2013 tweet that states "Twilight will not outlive her friends." The other is from the bookThe Journal of the Two Sisters, by Amy Keating Rogers, which states that Celestia and Luna are rejuvenated by raising and lowering the sun. To me the books are canon until shown otherwise, so that's where I'm coming from. If you disagree, that's cool too, but it's my story, so ha ha. 
2. More seriously/broadly, death is something that we often depict, but are uncomfortable with confronting or thinking about, especially with regard to ourselves. This arc, in which Turing Test deals with her mortality, her functional immortality, and the mortality of her friends, is something that I think was a necessary part of her character arc, and it comes from a personal place.
I once went through a particularly bad year in which a friend, a pet, and my grandma all died within months of each other. I suppose death was just on my mind a lot, as a consequence. I remember one night I had a dream that I was a kid again, out enjoying a day with Grandma. She played with me, let me tell her my stupid jokes and stories, and took me to McDonald's which my mom hated because she was a health nut. At the end of the dream, she tucked me into bed, and said goodbye. And I smiled as I watched her go to the door of my darkened room, but then I felt a sudden urgency, and I sat up and said, "Goodbye, Grandma! Goodbye!"
Then I woke up, and I discovered I'd been crying in my sleep. And that's when I truly realized that she was gone.
And that's when I realized that death wasn't something that happened to other people on TV. For the first time, I really understood that it was something that wasn't just in the far-off future, but something that would actually happen to people I knew. To people I cared about. To me. For the first time, I actually became frightened of dying, because I knew it was inevitable.
But, as depressing as that story might be, there is an upside to it. In coming to terms with my own mortality, I also learned to appreciate my own life more. I learned to care about my own future, to stop putting off the things I assumed would always be there, and to try to enjoy my time on this earth without getting too tripped up in the small stuff. And, well, I'm a lot happier, stronger person now than I was back then.
In short, I've come to believe that you can't really know what you can withstand and how you can heal until you've been, well, Broken.
You see, whether you believe in Heaven, or reincarnation, or in no afterlife at all, or some other concept... the point is that the life you have now, the person you are now, will only be around for a while, and will only be in this form just once. Appreciate that, because you are unique and worthy of a good life.
So that's the lesson that Turing learns: sad though it may be, I don't think anyone can quite appreciate their life without acknowledging the reality of death. And with that, Turing has gone from having no regard to her own existence to valuing herself and her place among others for however long they are.
Now the question is... where will we go from here?
Well you made her a citizen.
Prepare for cultist freakouts.
4128306 Aaaaahhhh!!! I'm freaking out! I'm freaking out!
In a good way, of course
Adjusting voice configuration: decreasing pitch, reducing distortion slightly, reducing hard-stop probability, decreasing pitch-change-max-rate, sliding lilt slightly... Ok.
Not a bad estimation (for me). We were very close if this is the official sample for the voice.
This does raise an interesting question...would it not be possible to say that Alicorns become rejuvenated by doing their Special Talent? Celestia and Luna raise the Sun and Moon, thereby regaining vitality (that is, if we go by the Journal, which is known to have several canon contradictions)...perhaps Candybutt and Purple Smart do the same?
Perhaps, being the embodiments of the Elements of Harmony, this would mean that Twilight's possible immortality thereby extends to the other members of the M6 as well?
4128744 That's a possible headcanon, but I can't imagine that the Tree of Harmony would be so cruel as to gift the Mane 6 with immortality while their other friends and family grew old and died around them.
I suppose that's ultimately because I believe MLP takes place in a more benevolent universe than that. And, ultimately, Twilight is a princess of the people. Or ponies, whatever. She and the rest of the Elements can't well relate on a personal level if they're elevated to near-godlike status, as Celestia and Luna are.
But that's just me.
Huh. The robo voice in the song sounded a bit like GLaDOS mostly at the beginning.
To be honest, my idea was somewhere between GLaDOS and the song. The even(ish) sound and mostly non-truncated words of GLaDOS but with less... Cynicism and detachment.
4128901
Yeah, I mean, the fruit of the Tree (if that is what the Elements are, at any rate...) only sealed Discord into stone for however long that particular thing lasted, and banished Celestia's own sister to a barren Lunar prison for a millennium.
Totes not cruel, yo.
In all honesty, the more one thinks about it, the Elements/Tree of Harmony seem to be less about "Harmony" and more about "Order", which are two entirely different things. Think about it..."Order" certainly would have involved removing Discord from the field of play (and he was), whereas "Harmony" would have found some way that his abilities could have been worked into the weave of reality in a beneficial (or at least non-threatening) way. Nightmare Moon and Luna were both banished, instead of the Nightmare being stripped away from Luna, or at least made merely part of her personality and a nonissue, or even being made its own entity and being given a choice of paths in life.
In both cases, Order was used as justice without mercy, whereas Harmony would have been mercy strengthened by justice.
It's puzzling to me.
4130145
Both the outcomes for harmony as opposed to order you listed eventually can true though, thanks to the bearers of harmony as well. Therefore, I think the elements were simply unable to fulfill their harmony function until the timing was right and the bearers came along.
I get it now. Why that arc was so beautifully written. it was intensely personal for you, and it was inspiring, heart wrenching and touching for me and I imagine almost any other who reads it.
Extremely touching! I'm really sorry to hear of your Grandmother, pet, and friend. It's never an easy thing to go through, losing a friend or loved one, let alone losing several in such a short span of time. My sincerest condolences.