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// Rising Dawn, Unbridled Intellect 
// Story: Dramatis Personae of the Pony Wars 
// by Wings of Black Glass 
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Rising Dawn is the younger sister of Queen Solarflare and the chief strategist for the Sunbound Kingdom.  Widely considered one of the most brilliant Unicorns to have ever lived.  Although she has something of an ego, she tries not to lord her intelligence over others.  More methodical than most, she tends to take her time and make sure whatever she is doing is being done properly.  Ambitious, but she doesn’t take action unless she can be sure of the outcome.

“The right pressure applied to the appropriate stress point can bring down any structure; be it physical, arcane, economic, political, religious, or societal.  It’s only the matter of what that pressure is and exactly where to apply it.”





Growing up in Arondight alongside her sister, Rising Dawn was born with considerable advantages.  As the youngest child of a noble family, she naturally had the best tutors and care.  But it was her mind that was her greatest gift.  When she was very young, she thought that everyone was just as smart as everyone else.  It was only once she got a bit older and started taking lessons that she realized she was regularly performing as well as students several years older than her.  She was easily able to keep up with the classes for her older sister.
Both of them were extremely promising and were sent to the Luminous tower to learn from the best.  There Rising Dawn finally met with others who were her equal, or at least close enough.  While she fared quite well in all the academic lessons, her magical ability was lacking, and Rising Dawn would never perform better than middling.  Although many students sneered at her for being so small, young, and not very good with magic, they quickly learned not to taunt her when Solarflare was within earshot.  Her older sister was always quick to jump to her defense, always leaving an impression and sometimes bruises on those who would taunt Rising Dawn.
One day Solarflare burst into their room, more excited than she’d ever been before, raving about meeting Lady Sky.  The Alicorn had told her of a great destiny, and she was going to go looking for it.  At first Rising Dawn was incredulous, but thought ahead and realized that whatever she might find would undoubtedly mark her as exceptional among the students and staff and other important ponies in the Sunbound Kingdom.  While Solarflare was more interested in the adventure, Rising Dawn knew that special status could be leveraged to their advantage.
While her sister was away from the Luminous tower, Rising Dawn was making connections in the nobility.  Many aristocratic families were clearly interested in the sisters from Arondight and what heights they might reach.  Many of them had children already at the Luminous tower, where it was easy to make contacts.
One of these means of making contacts was playing table games with the other students.  Sometimes card-based games like Poker or, more often, board games such as Chess, Nine Mares Morris, or Backgammon.  Once she learned the rules, which didn’t take long, she quickly made a reputation as being one of the best.  At one point, she was so well known as a great player that she was invited to play against one of her instructors.  Although she lost, the instructor explained it was merely a matter of experience, he had been a grandmaster for years and she was still relatively inexperienced.  More importantly, he could see how she thought and suggested that she turn her mind towards military strategy.  Her lack of magical talent was sure to bog her down going forward in Sunbound politics, but she could still make her own name going down that route.
When Solarflare finally returned from her adventure, she was no longer a Unicorn.  Her new Alicorn body made her an instant celebrity, and the two of them suddenly had a lot more attention than before.  Good King Halo even came to meet with them.  Solarflare’s power and Rising Dawn’s mind endeared them to him, and he invited both of them to have a place in his court.  Being as both had surpassed what they could really learn at the Luminous tower, they agreed.
Life in the royal court was far different than anywhere else Rising Dawn had been.  At first, just like at the tower, most of the noble ignored her, thinking she was just a hanger-on to her much more powerful sister.  To Rising Dawn, it felt like everyone had an agenda and everyone was playing their own game.  It suited her just fine, although Solarflare didn’t seem to notice most of it.  It was here that Rising Dawn could finally interact with other intellectuals and shared correspondences with many scholars, engineers, arcanists, and philosophers.  She designed several structures, helped with collecting taxes more efficiently, and discussed strategy with the generals.
Eventually, her performance drew the king’s personal attention, and he often asked her advice on many topics.  Such was his respect that she was not surprised when he asked her to join the Conclave delegations with the Lumahina.  Expecting pretty faces and empty heads, Rising Dawn was pleasantly surprised with the Lumahina princesses.  Both Moonlight and Midnight were thoughtful and intelligent, able to speak with some authority on nearly as many subjects as Rising Dawn.  In particular, Midnight was very interested in life inside the Sunbound Kingdom and how it differentiated from Lumahina social structures.
Rising Dawn would find the princesses to be the best part of her time at the conclave in the coming years.  What time wasn’t expended at the wargames or in negotiations she spent talking to one or both of them.  Then one year, they brought with them a scholar named Dusk.  He was remarkably straightforward and far more interested in her thoughts on history than on the politics between the two nations.  Having a conversation with someone who didn’t have an ulterior motive was relaxing.  He also spent a lot of time with Solarflare and even returned to the Sunbound Kingdom with her.
That summer, Rising Dawn was left in the capital to play politics while Solarflare ran off into the wilderness to explore old ruins with Dusk.  One day she was called in by good King Halo, and he asked her questions covering many topics and hypotheticals about how she would handle situations.  This wasn’t unusual in itself, but it was in private instead of with the other advisers, and that was strange.  Over the next few weeks, she heard that many of her ideas were being turned into policy, and some of the supposedly hypothetical events he had asked about turned out to be real.
Good King Halo had never publicly supported an heir.  While, historically, not all preferred heirs were elected to be the next monarch, it was the expected result.  King Halo was not a young pony, and it was being whispered by many that he was considering making such an announcement soon.  Her private suspicions were confirmed when King Halo spoke privately with her one night and let slip that it was a shame she wasn’t better with magic or she would have made an ideal heir.  He had been drinking, and there were no others in the room, so she kept that secret to herself.  Over the next years, he would keep her as a close confidant and adviser but never announced his choice to be the next monarch.
Meanwhile, Rising Dawn watched as Solarflare grew more and more fond of Dusk.  When he spent the winter months in the Lumahina Empire, Solarflare would occasionally gaze that direction wistfully or would speak of him often.  Clearly, she had developed an attachment to the scholar.  To Rising Dawn’s amusement, her sister didn’t seem to be aware of her own feelings.  Not long before the spring Conclave, a letter from Dusk was delivered to Solarflare asking to meet her in secret once they were there.  In a bit of light-hearted ribbing, Rising Dawn suggested that Dusk was planning to propose.  Solarflare didn’t laugh.
That Conclave, good King Halo needed Rising Dawn to stay behind and manage a construction project he was patronizing.  They had expected the signing of the treaty to go smoothly.  Rising Dawn had spent years assisting with the wording and compromises that went into it, and Midnight had agreed with it last time they spoke.  When she saw the delegation returning, she did not anticipate to see it bearing the corpse of good King Halo and Solarflare utterly furious.  The Lumahina had attacked and assassinated the king.
Upon laying good King Halo to rest, the advisers of the king were bereft of leadership.  Good King Halo had never officially announced his chosen heir, and Rising Dawn was leery of claiming Halo was going to pick her.  There was no proof of it, and it would undoubtedly be seen as a power-grab.  Upset at the inactivity of the government, Solarflare began issuing commands.  Many of the nobles and governors ignored her decrees, claiming she had no legitimacy.  A few jumped to the ready; in particular, Skystorm was more than willing to start sending scouting groups across the border.
It took weeks for the Electors to gather to select the new monarch and weeks longer for them to finally make their decision.  Given the situation, and given Solarflare’s obvious power, it was she they crowned.  At Rising Dawn’s advice, they moved the capital to Arondight.  The city was a fortress, never taken in battle, and not as far from the border as the old capital.  It would be an ideal center of power.
Next Rising Dawn was named the chief strategist by Queen Solarflare and was responsible for prosecuting the war against the Lumahina.  Rising Dawn knew the Sunbound armies weren’t ready for such a campaign; it would take months to marshal and train the forces needed to face the oldest empire in history.  Then she looked back on the time she had spent talking with Midnight and realized she didn’t want to see her on the other side of a spear.  She spoke with Solarflare, doing her best to convince her to bring the Lumahina back to the Conclave and prevent open war.  Solarflare calmed enough to agree; she didn’t want to harm their friends either.
Unfortunately, that would not be the result of the final Conclave.  Midnight had refused Solarflare’s requests and would not take responsibility for good King Halo’s assassination.  Solarflare fumed and seethed in anger, to the point where Rising Dawn could see heat radiating from her sister’s mane.  Her demands for retribution nearly forced Rising Dawn to launch the attack before she was ready and began shouting orders without fully considering the ramifications.
Her condition grew even worse when the Twilight Lands between the two empires suddenly grew wild.  Strange magic had made the already sometimes hazardous area into a monster-filled quagmire.  All of Rising Dawn’s strategies had relied on relatively easy access to the Lumahina border; now, only small groups could pass and even then only with incredible difficulty.  Until there was a new way to cross, the armies had to remain in the Sunbound Kingdom.
The delay gave Rising Dawn time to observe her sister.  In her rage, she frequently ignored the nobles and advisers' advice, and even Rising Dawn could only sometimes make her see reason.  With the war on the horizon, she also began neglecting the other duties of the monarchy.  If she didn’t learn how to be a proper queen soon, the war would bleed the Sunbound Kingdom dry even if they won.
A few of the Elector nobles secretly approached Rising Dawn with these concerns.  Rising Dawn had seen them too and come to the same conclusion.  In their fear, the Electors had chosen an unstable queen, mighty though she might be.  Although Rising Dawn had kept secret that Halo had considered her for the throne, it had sometimes been whispered she was the favorite.  Should Solarflare go mad, or need to be removed, these concerned nobles would support Rising Dawn’s bid for the crown. Her sister’s condition might put the Kingdom's safety at risk; replacing her might become necessary.  It was certainly something to keep in mind.