It takes a lot of skill, talent, and planning to get an underground rebel organization set up. You have to make sure new ponies are trustworthy, or there could be a security breach. You need to find investors to keep finances in check. But most of all, you need followers -- ponies who strongly believe in your cause. In most cases this takes a lot of time, like months or years. But this wasn't most cases. Many ponies didn't like Celestia, either because of the oppression, or the army presence, or how they were constantly reminded that they were nothing compared to the radiant ruler of Equestria! Two weeks. TWO WEEKS is all it took for some prodigy magician to come up with a truth spell to help make sure that higher ranking officials weren't spies. Investors from Canterlot and the pooled resources of the whole movement had created a fairly large financial cushion. And followers? That part wasn't even hard. Adults, teens, and even a few foals had flooded to Luna.
Some of the bigger cities like Baltimare and Manehattan had to have two bases set up, because of the sheer amount of ponies. Nexus had been hard at work connecting all the bases with waypoints, choosing a hall near the center of the castle to be the convergence point. This and the fact that this was where Luna was staying made the Castle Everfree the hub of the N.L.R. With the recent expansion, there had to be some changes made to the government. First off was that the group leaders were now just the directors of their groups, not the leaders of the Republic. The group leaders now had a title, too: Movement Directors. This new title earned them a silver glow around their amulets, which was there for both identification and security purposes. All the group leaders thought the change was for the best, because now most of the localized decisions were made by voting. One of the first votes that had been taken was the vote on who should be the representative of the Everfree in the Council of Shadows. The Council of Shadows was the group of ponies who made the big decisions in the N.L.R. The council consisted of one representative from each group and Luna. The elections had lasted one whole week, and eventually Melody came out on top. She earned a purple sheen on her amulet, which made the object appear to shine with darkness. The color and 'shine' of the amulet could only be described as a pitch black night. This showed her position.
The rebellion had gotten very large, and very real, very fast. Luna had been so meek, but in the past couple of weeks she had had a re-emergence of her old brash, well-spoken self -- the one she used to be before Celestia had taken full power. Slowly Luna stopped being the obedient filly that Celestia wanted her to be, and started being the strong princess she was. She started doing things she had wanted to do for so long. One of those things was her beloved dream-walking. Luna had thoroughly missed roaming ponies' dreams and giving them peaceful slumber. She also missed giving speeches. She had an old equestrian accent that made her words pleasant to the ear, not like the new equestrian style that used shortened words and a fast pace. When she wanted to be, she was a convincing speaker, for her true age and wisdom showed through.
For the first time in what seemed like forever, she would be speaking in front of a large crowd again. The crowd in question would be huge; the entire Manehattan division of the N.L.R. would be showing up, and if the notes Proper Grammars had supplied her with were correct, that meant about four-million ponies. Adrenaline pumped through the Princess of the Night's heart as the railcar crested a hill. The car was traveling at what seemed to Luna like daredevil speeds, the world passing by in a flash though the plexiglass windows. Railcar was a standard form of transportation in Manehattan. The fast machines were used to export goods from the many factories that employed most of the city's population. The car was small, and barely fit Luna, Melody, and the small entourage of ponies who were helping coordinate the event. The car also had a very pungent smell that reminded Luna of the time she had fallen into a vat of magical transformation byproduct. She had smelled like industrial waste for weeks. There was also a slight smell of paint, which was probably from the graffiti that covered the walls.
"We are approaching the city," a stallion with an ear piece said in a level tone. "It should be just over the next hill."
Luna's jaw dropped as the city came into view. The first thing she saw was a statue of Celestia standing on her back legs, wearing a beautiful robe and a crown, and holding up a torch with a sun on the end. The statue was very well-maintained. It gleamed like the sun. The statue looked like it was the only thing that had been kept up, however; the city itself was very run-down. Windows were broken, metal was rusting, and the whole city was covered in a layer of grime and graffiti. Even the huge pony head on the top of the tallest building in town had not escaped the vandalism. The city had been built to be the capital of Equestria before Celestia decided to abandon it for Canterlot. The city's layout was unique; it had tall sky-scrapers and an organized grid of streets that could be found nowhere else in Equestria. Only a few buildings were spared from the elements, and these buildings were the factories -- tall buildings that emitted streams of smoke and ash into the air.
"I knew Manehattan wasn't well off, but I never knew it was this bad," Melody said, with a slight note of horror in her voice.
"Me and thou both, Melody," Luna replied.