Broken

by DiveBomb


Author's Notes

Broken: Author's Notes

In my years of writing stories and now books, I never thought that FanFiction would be part of my experience. And to think it all started by browsing a few online videos...

A few days after discovering My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I curiously started what I now like to call "ponysurfing" around YouTube. After a few videos regarding Rainbow Dash (of course), I found at least two movies in the Related Videos column entitled "My Little Dashie Fan Movie." Slightly intrigued, I watched one of them. Needless to say I was confused, so I followed a few links to the FanFiction that every brony knows about. Okay, I said to myself. There must be a reason why this work is so well-known. Then I read the first FanFiction I ever gave a chance. I won't bother you with the details of my reaction to it, for we all can guess what it was. By the way, that is the only 'Human' fic I will ever read. After that the idea of fics became less "groan-worthy" to me and I gave a few more a chance. Mostly ones featuring Rainbow Dash, obviously. I was pleasantly surprised to see such quality in these fics, which is quite something considering how difficult it is to keep my attention to a story. Hence why my choices of books are rather few and far between. Hey I'm picky, sue me.
At the time I was in the middle of rewriting my latest novel (name pending), and quite frankly had been stuck for a while. Days even. I needed something new to break the monotony; a side-project to refresh my mind. Maybe I can try a hand at ponyfiction, I thought. It'd be the first work of mine on the internet, and it's about time I saw what people I don't personally know think about my writing. Even if I don't put a whole lot of planning into it. (that last thought was short-lived.) So I thought about a protagonist. I'm not even going to humor a joke here. I thought about making it an AppleDash fic, just because I thought the idea was cute, regardless of the fact that it had been done before. I knew I could add a new spin on it; a conflict that would drive the two apart and ultimately bring them together.
As the chapters were released I realized that quite a few amount of people were really liking this story, and gave plenty of positive comments which in turn drove me to continue faster than I had planned. There were several forms of inspiration that built the story to what it has become today. Everything from music to parts I took from an old cancelled comic of mine. Obviously it wasn't a pony comic, but there were situations I took from pages I hadn't even drawn out yet, but were merely planned for the future. The most prominent example of this was the hospital scene were Applejack desperately attempts to revive Rainbow Dash, whom dies if only for a few minutes. The quotes and some parts of the scene may not have been the same as the comic idea, but overall it was...pretty similar. Plus it just fit nice and snug in the story, even if there were a few things I had to change about it. Not gonna lie to you, I had to take a break from writing that part because I had to dry my eyes first. It's a lot sadder when you have the animated idea running through your head from an author's perspective.
Apart from the whole AppleDash factor of the story there was obviously the other: the griphon rebellion. CONFLICT AHOY! I wanted Gilda to be the main antagonist because...okay fine, you got me. I had no reason other than the fact that I just plain old didn't like her. You can't blame me for this. The one episode she was in was hellbent to make you dislike her. Plus I was disappointed. The idea of griphons living in Equestria was a cool idea to me, and the one that you see is a total, aggravating little fu-
But yeah. You get my point.
However, Gilda's reasoning to rebel against Ponykind needed to be at least justified in her eyes. Why not have someone with a silver tongue convince her with actual reasons as to why her race needed vengeance? That and the fact that I wanted Discord to be in the story somehow, even if he wasn't a main character. I thoroughly enjoyed his character on the show. Any villain with a need for such mischievous chaos for absolutely no reason is okay with me. Plus I found his voice and mannerisms entertaining.
What else is there...OH! Fight scenes. In the battle of Ponyville, obviously a writer needs to be able to portray such a conflict in a detailed manner. Not to brag, but I've had my share of rodeos in this aspect of writing. Not to mention I find it FUN AS HELL. I dunno, something about choreographing fight scenes in a written work just hits me the right way.
I guess this leads to Pinkie Pie's role in the battle, one of my favorite parts of the story: The Drunken Hoof Style. I got the idea in the simplest way possible too. By watching Jackie Chan's classic Chinese film Drunken Master and writing a scene with our favorite party pony in it. One plus one equals AMAZING BUCKING IDEA.

Well I guess that's all I can really think of to say about Broken. Some of this I've written in blog posts or in private messages with inquisitive readers, but I figured I'd put all my thoughts into this little note. This story was my first work of ANYTHING that I've put on the internet, and I'm still overjoyed that people like it so much. You guys really helped my low self-esteem there! But seriously. I've said this a bunch of times before and I'll say it again: thank you all for the continued support of this story, as well as my new works. It wouldn't be what it is today without you. I put a lot of heart into Broken, and it's good to see that you all appreciated it.

-=-From the Desk of DiveBomb-=-