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// Midnight, Princess of the Lumahina 
// Story: Dramatis Personae of the Pony Wars 
// by Wings of Black Glass 
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Midnight is the ruling Unicorn Princess of the Lumahina Empire.  Attentive and caring towards her people, she wants nothing less than to see the quality of life improve for all citizens.  Unfortunately, she is held back by the politics of the Lumahina court and is significantly less in control than she thought.  Being forced by the law to exile her sister for the use of forbidden magic is her greatest sorrow.

“My people are my strength in these dire times.  I pray they can forgive me for being unable to save them all.”





Second-born to the ruling Prince and Princess of the Lumahina Empire, Midnight had a surprisingly quiet childhood.  Her older sister, Moonlight, got all the attention and extra lectures on politics and leadership.  Not wanting to get into trouble as Moonlight sometimes did, she stayed inside the palace rather than exploring the city.  She enjoyed the solitude at first but soon realized there was no one around her age to talk to.
One day, after a childish squabble with her sister, she ran to the great tree to be alone.  But she found she wasn’t the only pony there; there was another pony in the temple inside the tree, whose ordinary appearance belied their incredible age.  It was one of the ancient members of the Immortal Council, the monarchs of the Lumahina Empire who had retired from politics and now only provided advice.  They shared a conversation about humility and the nature of duty.  Although she was too young to really understand it at the time, the words they shared would stay with her for a very long time.
She was thinking about it when she ran into Moonlight and a young colt exploring where no common pony belonged.  Her argument with Moonlight still bothering her, she considered telling on them.  But the commoner, Dusk, was polite and straightforward and only wanted to see the great tree.  Midnight thought back to her conversation with the Immortal and realized no harm was being done.  So she let them go, and with her quarrel with Moonlight forgotten, she even joined them in the future.  Even trying to keep a formal distance from Dusk, she found he was a refreshingly new perspective from the adult ponies around her.  He got her to think about the lives of the ordinary pony in a way her tutors had not.
Now older, she was surprised when her parents asked her to join the delegation to the Conclaves.  They felt it would be good for her to learn how the nation handled diplomacy with the Sunbound Kingdom.  This was the first time she had left the capital and watched the countryside go by with rapt attention.  That first year she was so enamored with merely being outside the city that she didn’t see the squalid conditions most ponies lived in.
To her, the Sunbound Kingdom diplomats felt brutish and blunt, and it took her several years before she really understood how different the two cultures were.  The ones who opened her eyes the most were the young Alicorn Solarflare and her sister, Rising Dawn.  Solarflare was almost aggressively friendly, and Rising Dawn was a source of thought-provoking conversation.  It was so interesting that the fall after first meeting them Midnight asked to be part of the delegation for another chance to talk.
Over the next years, she stayed in as close contact as possible, although the only formal means of communication were the Conclaves themselves.  Whenever she could, she would speak with Rising Dawn about politics, mathematics, astronomy, or a hundred other topics.  During one such conversation, Midnight asked how the common ponies lived in the Sunbound Kingdom.  Rising Dawn’s answer surprised her; few Sunbound citizens lived in abject poverty, and those with promise and ability could easily find a place in society.  Midnight thought about this and compared it to the older system of the Lumahina, which she had come to see on her journeys to the Conclave as rigid and unforgiving.
Then came the summer when the ruling Prince and Princess decided to retire.  Midnight was preparing to congratulate Moonlight when they were both called before their parents.  To Midnight’s great surprise, she was the one they choose to crown as heir.  It was easy to see the shock on her older sister’s face, and she promised Moonlight that she would always be a friend and adviser to her.  The promise was meant sincerely, but even as she spoke it, she could tell it was hollow somehow.  Things could never be the same as when they were young.
She privately asked why it was her they chose.  It turns out that Moonlight’s tendency to play with commoners and to disregard traditions so blatantly had soured her as a suitable heir. Midnight’s gentler temperament and willingness to listen to others marked her as the superior choice.  Sensing something else behind the decision, which felt weak, she chose to keep her mouth shut until she could figure out what it was.  Having not received the same lessons on politics and leadership as Moonlight had, she had much to learn and was kept quite busy in the next months.
The next year she was deemed ready, and on the winter solstice was crowned as ruling Princess of the Lumahina Empire.  Only after the coronation that she was formally introduced to her most senior advisers.  Inside the most secure chamber in the palace, she was brought to a pony she hadn’t seen since childhood, the Immortal from the temple so long ago.  Along with the other previous monarchs, he would advise her on the proper way to lead the Empire from now on.
Several years later, she returned to the Conclave to sign a treaty with old King Halo to ensure peace between the two nations.  Unfortunately, this was to be the last proper Conclave.  Dusk had asked her to meet him and several others in the forest, but he wouldn’t say why, and she couldn’t justify running off to play anymore.  Moonlight had disappeared after him when soldiers wearing Sunbound Kingdom armor appeared and attacked without warning or reason.
Several of her personal bodyguards sacrificed themselves to protect her, including the guard captain, and she did her best to organize a defense.  They were able to cut down or chase off the soldiers and were still gathering their dead when Solarflare appeared in the air above them and began to attack.  With her spellcasters doing everything they could just to hold off the incredibly powerful Alicorn’s direct assaults, Midnight could see no escape.
Then Moonlight returned, bearing new Alicorn wings herself, and defended the Lumahina.  Having seen too many dead already and knowing she wouldn’t get another opportunity if more Sunbound soldiers came to block their escape, Midnight took the chance and ordered a withdrawal.  Once safe, Midnight thanked Moonlight and asked how she became an Alicorn.  Her sister was evasive, unwilling to say.  Then the casualties were counted, and only one pony was unaccounted for.  Dusk was missing.  Moonlight was the last to see him and refused to talk about it.
Midnight, capable as she was, was still no expert prodigy at magic. But she knew enough of the Lumahina arcane secrets to know of the potential contained with a pony soul.  Power such as that might well be capable of transforming a Unicorn into an Alicorn.  Certainly, Moonlight had known that too.  Midnight had heard from Rising Dawn that Solarflare had fallen in love with Dusk, and she suspected Moonlight had feelings for him as well.  Midnight thought back to why Moonlight was rejected as heir, specifically her willingness to break the rules.  Would she really have taken Dusk’s soul to fuel her transformation, either as a means to more power or in a fit of jealousy?  It was, unfortunately, not that much of a stretch.
With Moonlight unwilling to speak, and with Dusk dead, there was little doubt everypony’s mind.  Obviously, Moonlight had broken one of the oldest and most dire taboos, burning a pony’s soul to fuel foul magic.  There was a trial, of which Midnight was forced to reside over.  Moonlight said not a word in her defense.  Her crimes’ punishment was death, but Midnight couldn’t bring herself to have her sister executed.  So instead, she decreed that Moonlight was banished from Lumahina, she was never to step hoof in the Empire again.
The Immortal council was furious with her.  At first, she disregarded their complaints, but then some of her policies were not being implemented.  She had demanded all the border forts be resupplied and garrisoned with fresh soldiers but overheard a report that claimed the border being mostly undefended on the sides of the Empire not facing the Sunbound Kingdom.  She brought her concern to the immortal council, fearing an enemy spy, and was stunned to discover they already knew.  The Immortal council had overridden her orders.  When she demanded they explain, they revealed the great secret of Lumahina politics.
The Immortal council members had never truly retired and still ruled the Empire.  Midnight was barely more than a figurehead.  She had been chosen over Moonlight because they believed her easier to control and manipulate.  As she had done nothing against their wishes until now, they felt no need to take control.  All of her commands and orders were now being monitored, changed to suit the Immortal council’s needs if necessary.  When Midnight threatened to reveal this publicly, they informed her that all the great nobles already knew.
Only the Immortal council knew how to make another pony endlessly youthful and healthy, and anypony who wants to have that boon granted them must obey their commands.  If somepony displeases them, they can simply deny them Immortality. It’s a price very, very few have been willing to pay for true independence.  All of those that were are long dead.  When Midnight threatened to go against their wishes anyway, they explained they had to replace disagreeable Princes in the past.  They could do so again if they had to.
With the threat of being rendered inconsequential hanging overhead and seeing no way out of the predicament, she accepted there was little she could really do against them.  With her policies being dictated mainly by the Immortal council, the next months were stressful.  The Sunbound claimed the Lumahina had assassinated old King Halo, had elected Solarflare to be their new Queen, and official communications were severed.  Midnight could see that things would lead to war if she couldn’t appeal to her old friend to avoid it.
The next Conclave Midnight went to meet with Solarflare personally.  Before meeting in person, she secured a vow from the Alicorn Queen that there would be no death that day and spoke in private with her counterpart.  To Midnight the new monarch seemed unstable, only a hair away from lashing out at the smallest slight.  When Solarflare asked where Moonlight and Dusk were, Midnight told her what little she could be entirely sure of.  Dusk was dead, and Moonlight banished.  At this, Solarflare demanded they resurrect both Dusk and old King Halo.
Although such magic was possible, it was only done very rarely.  The process is extremely costly, difficult, must be done within a scant few days of the death, and can only be performed at certain magically potent places.  The magic is typically reserved only for those of most significant value to the Empire or those of sufficient wealth to afford the magic themselves. Even then, usually only if the death can be foreseen ahead of time.  It had by this point been many months since both had died and would be impossible to reverse.
When informed this could not be done, Solarflare grew furious; for a moment, Midnight feared she would forget her vow not to fight.  Then the new Queen abandoned negotiations, and nothing further would be said of peace.  Midnight returned to the capital and dutifully informed the Immortal council of what Solarflare had done.  To her disgust, they seemed not to care.
The Lumahina Empire had seen war before, surely it would outlast the Sunbound.  Eventually, they thought, Solarflare would grow tired or get herself killed on the battlefield.  What the Immortal council failed to realize, and what Midnight knew, was that the Sunbound Kingdom was more than willing to throw countless thousands against the defenses of Lumahina.  With enough soldiers, and the raw power of Solarflare herself, they might even break Lumahina.  She needed time to convince the Immortal council to take it seriously, but they refused to listen to her, believing her cowed and toothless.
Only when the Twilight lands between the two nations suddenly erupted into a maze of thick mists, devious illusions, and vicious monsters that the Immortal council suddenly paid attention.  Magic on that scale had not been seen since before even Lumahina had been founded.  If the Sunbound had that kind of power, then even they were at risk.  Although they still watched her closely, Midnight was finally allowed to take action.  Whatever her complaints with the Immortal council, the coming war would have to take precedence.