Bright Idea

By skbl17

• February 3, 2015




Age: 41

Gender: Female

Species: Alicorn

Appearance: The picture above should provide a clear enough idea of Bright Idea's appearance, but it should be noted that she also wears glasses on some occasions.

Cutie Mark: Bright Idea's lightbulb cutie mark symbolizes her creative thinking and problem solving skills, a trait that has allowed her to get as far in Port Impalan society as she has.

Personality: As her name implies, Bright Idea is an intuitive pony at the surface, known for coming up with creative solutions to problems. Her "problem solver" personality, wit, and attitude has helped her become one of the more successful ponies in her hometown of Port Impala. In public, she tends to be approachable, friendly, and very down-to-earth and realistic; never too optimistic, never pessimistic. Oddly, she even treats those she considers her "adversaries" with the same friendly and approachable nature most of the time, which has earned her respect, even among those who don't agree with her policies.<br /><br />However, she's also known to have a bit of a limited patience and low tolerance for errors when it comes to some matters, especially education and security. In addition, she just gets downright angry whenever someone suggests that any of her efforts are "in vain", as to her, (s)he is implying that she doesn't know what she's doing, a personality trait that Bright Idea personally despises.<br /><br />Finally, she has a bit of an independent streak. Bright Idea doesn't particularly like being "tied down" in mandates and orders and being kept under strict surveillance. This also translates to her style of leadership, as she tends to go out every day and meet with citizens and visitors of Port Impala and talk with them about politics, sports, or anything else, instead of sitting behind her desk all day.

Backstory: Bright Idea was born and raised in the island nation of the Commonwealth of Port Impala, a fair distance south of Equestria. Port Impala is the only country in the world in which winged unicorns (popularly dubbed as "alicorns") make up more than 0.00001% of the population; as such, Bright Idea's foalhood and adolescence was mostly uneventful...until the day before graduation.<br /><br />The national Public Education Authority, which operates all public schools in the country, had announced plans to close three schools, with Bright Idea's school among them. She was upset, as was many of her friends, but something more tragic happened the night after graduation: during a send-off party at the school, an arsonist set fire to the school. The culprit was never found, and most of the graduates inside perished.<br /><br />Bright Idea was not at the sendoff party, but she heard about the arson the next day. She went to some of her friends' funerals, but still maintained her own plans for the future: become a doctor. That was, until the National Alliance government's security minister held a press conference in which he declared that the arson investigation was "fruitless" and was to be abandoned.<br /><br />The next day, she overheard her parents discussing the press conference and the security ministry's abandonment of the investigation. Her parents were willing to dismiss the fire as an "accident", which left Bright Idea broken emotionally. That night, she decided that she would enter politics. She was going to end corruption in the city-state and destroy the National Alliance government, who did nothing in her eyes to bring closure to her friends' families and herself. She would avenge them.<br /><br />Bright Idea went on to college to study medicine and get a minor in law. She was still focused on entering the medical field, but remained committed to entering politics. She knew that being a politician and a doctor would be too much to handle, so she decided to set her sights on becoming a nurse instead, with politics taking on a secondary role.<br /><br />While in college, and even for a decade thereafter, she began to set hoof in the world of Port Impala politics: first as a representative on her college's student council, then as an alderpony on her district's representative council. Ten years after graduating from college and becoming a nurse at a nearby hospital, she became a charter member in a new political party, the Unity and Cooperation Party (UCP). She was the deputy leader, so while she had influence, she didn't call the shots. Instead of embracing an anti-corruption platform, the UCP decided to embrace tax reform, a common element among all four parties at the time. Because of this common platform and the relative inexperience of their candidates, the UCP failed to win a single seat in the next four Commonwealth Assembly elections. Bright Idea became irritated with the UCP's lack of progress, creativity, and direction, so she began to formulate a plan to depose the UCP leader and become the party's leader instead. The 38th general election resulted in another victory for the National Alliance, irritating Bright Idea and triggering the leadership challenge. Despite the last-minute efforts of the existing leader to demoralize her and destroy her support, Bright Idea's gambit proved successful.<br /><br />Now as leader, Bright Idea was one step closer to meeting her ultimate goal: depose the National Alliance, become premier, and reopen the school arsonist investigation that had been dropped two decades earlier. The UCP was completely reorganized, with the party becoming more aggressive and pervasive in its campaigning and fundraising, and the party adding anti-corruption to its platform. A couple of years later, Bright Idea met her ultimate challenge: the 39th general election to the Commonwealth Assembly. This time, she assured herself, she would succeed.<br /><br />The 39th general election in Port Impala was important for a number of reasons, but one reason was apparent to everyone except Bright Idea herself: if the UCP won a majority in the Commonwealth Assembly, Bright Idea would become the first elected alicorn leader in the world. However, for much of the sixty-day campaign, and despite the party's promises of tax reform and anti-corruption, the UCP was lagging behind every other party in opinion polls, an upsetting turn of events that persisted until the third debate.<br /><br />In the third debate, Burgundy Bell, the leader of the National Alliance, the party in government for decades and the one best poised to win the election, was in a back-and-forth grilling session with Bright Idea over tax reform, security, healthcare, and corruption. The debate had a decidedly friendly, if tense, tone, with neither pony holding a clear advantage over the other...until a smug Burgundy Bell boasted that not only was his government free of corruption, but no National Alliance government had ever been corrupt at any point in its history. That moment, Bright Idea remembered the post-graduation burning of her high school and the deaths of some of her friends, and the failure of the NA government to do anything. Utterly angered by her opponent's comment, she proceeded to demolish Burgundy Bell by charging his government and previous NA governments with fraud and corruption, listing 145 examples of such, including the closed arson investigation. Despite the fact that Bright Idea had broken debate rules, the shaken Burgundy couldn't regain his composure and defend himself in the face of Bright Idea's rage-fueled performance, which reflected poorly in the eyes of his supporters and loyal voters. Bright Idea was removed from the debate thereafter, but voters began to look her way, looking for a change.<br /><br />After that debate, the UCP shot up to lead the polls, with voters flocking to her party in droves. On election day, the UCP won an absolute majority of seats, knocking the National Alliance to opposition status for the first time in 132 years. On the first day of the new legislative session, the Commonwealth Assembly voted to appoint Bright Idea as the eleventh Mayor of Port Impala, a position she holds to this day.