What lays behind the chaos.

Shadows of the past: A new beginning Pt.2

At the end six groups ruled over the gigantic group of ponies that formed our "rebellion":

The first one was the only one lead and mainly formed by Equestrians instead of newcomers, it was the reunion of all the chaperons that had joined our cause, lead by Night Shade, a young mare from Canterlot that had come to Ponyville for what we called "the Newcomer project" (basically the name we gave to reeducation). "The lunar insurrection", as she decided to call it, focused on the Equestrians natural forces (the pegasi' flight, the unicorns' magic, and the earth ponies' strength). The idea was to use these as the main strength of the rebellion instead of depending on machinery to win our battles.

On the opposite side  was "Amelioration", contrary to the insurrection, this group focused on the development of new technologies and weaponry to improve the forces of the rebellion so it could overcome any obstacle that might step on its way, created and leaded by two unicorns Sciencio and Valrek, experts on earthling technology, but still respectful of the environment, they wanted to find a renewable source of energy that wouldn't jeopardize Equestria's ecological integrity.

Then we had "the four seasons" a political group leaded by 4 Newcomer mares (each one with a season on their name), it focused on the power of union, their ideal was that if the republic could stay close together, no matter if they were Newcomers or Equestrians, as long as they remained loyal to the cause we would be capable of overcoming anything.

The second political group was called "Unification", and it's objective was to find strength in allies, leaded by a unicorn called Shade Finder they wanted to make alliances with the lands that neighbored Equestria to help the republic grow faster and be able to defend itself, so eventually it could stand by itself.

There were two military groups, the first called "the night angels" was much similar to an earth army, but it focused more on the air force than anything else, so it used pegasi as their main target for the fight. it was created by the pegasus Shuriken Angel, a great military strategist and commander.

The last one was of course the "Mitternacht Bataillon" Created by Midnight Flare, but currently leaded by me, was a military and political movement, the idea was to have the ponies in peace and harmony, keep them together, and keep them safe with the help of a specialized team of soldiers that would be trained to be the best of the best, a group strong enough to defend a whole country by itself. It sounded ridiculous, thinking that a small group could defend a land, but I believed in the ideas and I transmitted my confidence to those who listened to me, that's how I could make the Bataillon survive.

The division of the six groups caused problems among the followers, and it started to drive into fights within the republic, the leaders, who didn't have a problem with each other, or with the other groups, decided to get together hopping to solve the problems the followers had. I was called to be part of this reunion and I told Midnight about it, I thought he was the one who should go since he's the one who invented the movement, but he insisted that I was the face of the bataillon and that it was me who should go to the meeting, and I did as he said.

Only one leader from each group would go into the meeting, since Shuriken, Night Shade, and Shade finder were the only leaders of their respective groups they attended, from Amelioration it was Sciencio who came, since Valrek said he had "more important things to do", from the Four Seasons it was Autumn Cascade who attended, and finally me.

The meeting had two proposes, first, we wanted to find a way to stop the fighting inside the Republic, we knew that if we wanted the republic to grow we needed to become more united, and the fighting made everything more difficult. We wanted to set a general leader for the republic so all the groups could follow him or her, and stop all the fighting. To solve this each of us presented the benefits of their ideals, and how it would help the growth of Equestria and the republic. Unfortunately the Bataillon was the least developed of all the groups, which made me believe it would be impossible for either me or Midnight to be the leader of the republic. Despite this, the final decision wasn't what I expected, we all realized that none of the groups would survive on its own, all the groups needed the help of each other in order to reach the best possible scenario. We decided to form a council, the six of us would lead the republic as a group and every decision had to be revised and analysed by the council. We all agreed to this terms and we started organizing everything at once, planning for the future of the republic and among this things it was decided that Shuriken would take over the Bataillon, it would become a subdivision of the army, as the last line of defense for the republic. Of course this decision worried me, if Shuri was going to take over my work, what was my role on the council? Would I be kicked out? I expressed my concern and was told that I couldn't be left outside the council since I was the leader of the Bataillon and taking me out would mean taking a grand group of ponies out as well. This reply angered me, they had just told me I was just going to be used, that I wasn't important at all and that they only cared for my followers, for what I knew I wouldn't even have a word as part of the council since I was only necessary to keep the Bataillon inside. Shuri jumped at me when I told them all this, as well with a threat of leaving the council. I still remember his words perfectly, he looked me dead in the eyes and said:

"Oh you think you're so important right? You think we need you at all? If it was my decision I would just kill you and get all your followers to join my army! The only reason you are even here is because those idiots listen to every word you say and obey every one of your orders."

I was so angry at that moment I could have thrown myself at him and started a fight, but I was interrupted by Autumn before I could do anything. She repeated what Shuri had just told me, but in a much more civilized way, she reminded me that (as I had already noticed) my group was way underdeveloped compared to theirs' and that it would be consumed by the angels, that was if it weren't for my influence. She explained that despite the lack of dept in my ideals I still had a fairly large group of followers and that was due entirely to my abilities to lead, Shuri interrupted by saying that they would even listen if I told them to jump off a bridge and they wouldn't doubt it for a second. Autumn continued by saying that I wasn't necessary as a military leader, but that I wouldn't just be a face to keep my followers inside, she told me my role was to help them lead the republic, she told me that if I was part of the council and I used my leading abilities we could get the republic further than anything any of us could imagine, she finally asked me to stay and work with them. I thought about what she said for a while, and I figured I would give it a shot, if she was saying the truth I could become the leader of the republic (something I dreamed of) If she wasn't I could still work for the better of the republic instead of leaving them do as they wanted.

The second reason for the meeting was so we could plan the future of the republic, with the council already formed we needed to get everything in order, so we could make the republic bigger and finally acquire control over Equestria. The thing we all seemed to forecast as an imminent and unavoidable necessity for progress was what we called "the fight" as we all saw it, it was a war we had not only to take part of, but to start ourselves, we needed to get the name of the republic known, and if we could surprise the enemy (which at the time we only knew as the Celestian loyals, and nothing bigger or further organized than that) we could get full control over Equestria in a really short time.

We organized a couple more things in that first meeting including an schedule for all the following ones, but we had to change plans when the first phase of the Newcomer project ended, reeducation was terminated and Celestia gave us the option to go anywhere in Equestria that we wanted to go, she would also give us a fee to pay for everything we needed to start our new lives as free Equestrians, she also ended the chaperon project, but only a few Newcomers really separated completely from their former chaperons, they were now friends, or more than friends in some cases.

This gave us the opportunity to expand from the reeducation center's basement, we sent many of our followers into different parts of Equestria so they could spread the word of the republic, we also got our research team infiltrated into the Equestrian so we could develop new technologies for "the fight", luckily we got a large portion of the chaperons following us, and that gave us an advantage on many aspects.

The council got all our fees together and we bought a house on Canterlot to set as our headquarters, we would get reports of our followers around Equestria through the mail, and though a large amount of letters arriving at the same address would seem suspicious, some of our followers formed part of the mail offices and would help our letters go unnoticed. Upon buying and arriving to our new home we noticed that a letter was waiting for us there. It only said

"Meet me at the gardens at nightfall".

The gardens were a public space at the city, but they were usually empty at nightfall, we didn't have a reason to refuse this meeting so we all attended. When we arrived we found a hooded pony waiting for us, she refused to tell us her name or show her face, but she explained that she was there on behalf of the princess. She explained that she had gotten access to our information about the development of the republic and that she had informed princess Luna about it. She then told us she had good and bad news, the bad news were that she had easily gotten this information, and she suggested we protected the information more efficiently, at the moment we had luck only her had gotten access to it, but we wouldn't have been as lucky in the future. The good news on the other hoof, were that the princess had completely approved our actions, she told us the princess trusted us completely to take the lead until "the fight" finally came, and at that day we should inform the princess so she could join us. The last thing the mare said before leaving was that the princess wouldn't need any more reports, she would just wait for our signal, and until that day, the princess connection to the council should remain secret. As she was leaving she told us:

"The princess trusts you completely, so don't let her down."

Now knowing that the princess supported us, there was nothing that could stop us until the day of "the fight". After the meeting with the hooded pony we decided to follow her advice, most of the information about the republic, all our decisions as a council became classified, only the council ponies had access to it and it was secured under a lock that only we could trespass. With our information save we could keep evolving without worrying about anypony discovering our plans. We had set in motion a large group of ponies around Equestria to fulfill various missions, we set a training camp for the army near the forest zone on the west. Further in that direction, near the Smokey mountains, was a construction site set by princess Celestia, it was meant to be a guard post that connected the western ports with Canterlot, but thanks to our influence on our chaperons we could take over that construction to accomplish our greatest dream: Plenylunium (which meant "full moon"), it was our project for our head quarters, a new castle destined to be the capitol of the Lunar Republic, after "the fight" we would use it as our stronghold, and the construction Celestia had commanded was the perfect cover for it to go unnoticed, with our control over the mail system we could fool Celestia making her believe her watch post was being built according to her plan, we just had to make sure no pony would tell our true intentions to the princess.

Another group of ponies was sent with the Equestrian research team in a quest to find a new energy source, we also managed to get full control of this group converting many of the researchers into Republicans with the true promise of developing new technologies using any findings they could make, those who couldn't be converted had to be "taken care of" and to hide their disappearing again false reports were sent to Celestia and these ponies' families.

What the research team found was better than anything we expected, the were able to find mines of crystals, crystals we then decided to call "Magicalite", it was a sort of magic mineral that had the ability to absorb magical energy from the unicorns and then be reused by anypony, both pegasi and earth ponies could use a charged crystal and make spells just as a unicorn would do. The crystals would also get slowly charged with the natural mana of life itself, the energy plants spread, as well as the energy that was produced by the sun and the moon could be held by the crystals, but their power would be much less powerful. Still a strongly charged crystal was unstable, and it could result on an explosion if precautions weren't taken. Despite all this, magicalite was still a great energy source and was soon chosen to be the base of our mechanics and weaponry, as long as we could use it carefully and prevent any accidents from happening.

Eventually a research center was built under Neighagra falls so the flowing of the water could reduce the impact of any explosion.