Tired. Button was so, so tired. He just longed to collapse and take the world’s longest nap. Unmoving boulder? He honestly felt more like a pebble being tossed around in the wind. He didn’t even have any avalanches left in him right now, unless there was a bed at the bottom of the cliff he fell down.
Still, he tried to be as stoic and strong as possible. Everypony else was likely just as tired as him. Even if they didn’t have to make these bunkers by themselves and exhaust themselves ensuring that nopony could get hurt in them, they had their own duties and tasks to take care of to ensure everypony stayed safe.
He tapped his hooves on the ground and another hole formed ahead, slowly spreading out through the dirt and stone. He had to make sure they were large enough that everypony who needed to could hide in them. More importantly, he had to ensure there were enough air holes that everypony could breathe, even if it was a bit stuffy. Then he had to ensure they were incredibly durable, as there would only be one earth bender around after he left. Likely one that wasn’t even as good as him or they’d be making these bunkers. Usually they wouldn’t even be a fighter like him. Just somepony to ensure that they didn’t have any accidents. But in the end, he supposed it was worth it.
“Button,” a voice called out, making him glance back at Celestia.
Oh no. He could see the look on her face. It wasn’t good. Her mane was slightly on edge, her eyes were filled with that burning anger he was becoming more and more used to. On top of all that, her hooves were shaking and he could see by the way she dug them into the ground with every step she was struggling to not break something.
“What is it?” Button asked.
“Captain Bubbledash was captured,” Celestia said. “He and his forces won’t be making it here. Tittering and her changelings managed to…” Her voice cracked and he could see the anger threatening to spill out, little wisps of flame rising off her mane. “They managed to get a message out to us before being caught. We’re moving out now in case the rendezvous has been leaked.”
“Oh,” Button said before glancing back towards the hole. He tapped his hooves and the hole closed. Of course. Another piece of the rebellion. Lost. He tried to shrug it off, to ignore it. To pretend it wasn’t as upsetting as it was. It made sense. Their opponents had the changelings. Ponies who could literally be ANYPONY at any time. Sure, they weren’t perfect.
But they were enough.
All it took was one pony getting captured and the right information being leaked. They could make all the plans they wanted to try and prevent it from getting out of hoof, but it could only do so much. They had to keep their forces small and intimate to reduce the chances of a changeling sneaking in, but that only meant if they were caught then they didn’t have enough ponies to do much more than run.
“Where’s Luna?” Button asked.
“Resting,” Celestia said before turning and walking back towards their camp. “Disenchanting the water was more exhausting than he’ll admit.”
Button nodded before trotting lightly after her. With each step he sent out a small pulse of earth bending, smoothing over the ground and removing the traces that they were ever there. He could feel the occasionally little fragment of enchanted water, almost gnawing at his earth bending abilities. He supposed Luna would need to replace it, to ensure that there was no sign they’d even been here now.
Or maybe there wasn’t any need. After all, nopony was coming to hide now. Buck.
“How are you holding up?” Celestia asked. “You look like a yak that’s been through a hurricane after being swallowed whole by a dragon.”
Button couldn’t help but snicker at that, the smile growing on his lips. “Well, you look as beautiful as ever. The second prettiest pony in our crew.”
“Naturally,” Celestia said. “But seriously, how do you feel?”
“I’m fine,” Button said in as chipper a tone as he could manage. “Tired, but fine. How about you?”
“Tired and angry,” Celestia said. “Wishing I could go and drive my hoof into Tittering’s smirking face. Still feeling that boundless optimism?”
“Mmmm hm,” Button said proudly. “Diamond’s going to show up and do something flashy. We’re going to get Silver to stop being all Discordy. I’m going to kiss Luna on the lips and carry him off into the sunset. It’s going to be awesome. When that happens this is just going to be an annoying memory. I’ll probably make it a lot flashier when I tell other ponies about it.”
Celestia made a gagging sound and rolled her eyes. “You two, I swear. I don’t think he’s the ‘carried into the sunset’ type.”
“I don’t know, I quite like the idea of being carried into the sunset,” Luna said, making both of them jump before he slowly walked out from behind the trees.
“Luna, what are you doing up?” Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing on him. “I thought you were resting.”
“I was,” Luna said. “We need to return to our base, immediately. We just received another message.”
Celestia gave a low groan. “Really? Let me guess, more captures?”
“Worse,” Luna said, his body tensing slightly. “The Water Immortal is coming.”
Celestia went still, her eyes going wide. “You… you can’t be serious.”
“When am I ever not?” Luna asked.
Celestia gave another low groan. “STILL boundlessly optimistic?”
“As ever,” Button said, though even he felt a small sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
------
“This is it,” Commander Greendye said, pacing back and forth. Button didn’t like this at all. The camp was filled with terrified ponies, not that he could blame them. More and more of their forces were dwindling every day and only a fraction of them would fight. Could fight. Even he could hear the whispers from frightened ponies trying to decide if they should just surrender to Tittering’s mercy before the choice was made for them and they lost their magic. Of those gathered for the meeting, most were quiet and solemn, barely even meeting his gaze.
“It?” Luna asked, cocking an eye. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
“The Immortal is on its way,” Greendye said, refusing to stop his anxious pacing. “With it all of our hope to oppose Discord evaporates. If we want to strike, if we want to continue this rebellion, we need to strike now.”
“Strike now?” Luna asked.
“Yes,” Greendye said before finally stopping and turning to face them. “We have to remove Tittering.”
“If it was that easy don’t you think we would have done it already?” Celestia asked before rolling her eyes. “She’s got an army of changelings, whatever magic being one of Silver’s generals gives her and, on top of that, she wasn’t exactly a pushover BEFORE all of this. She was one of mom’s highest ranking soldiers for a reason. On top of that, even if we remove her whoever takes her place might be worse.”
“Perhaps they would, but they’d be unlikely to be as powerful,” Greendye said. “Alone she was incredibly dangerous. If we wait until the Immortal arrives we lose any and all chance to oppose her. Those who have already been captured will be stripped of their magic and added to her own. We will never get another shot like this.”
“We don’t have a shot now,” Luna said. “I can understand why you may think this, but you’ve never seen how she bends. Even my aunt would hesitate to go against her and she was a far better bender than any of us.”
“And when the Immortal arrives?” Greendye asked. “What happens then? We dwindle even more? We only just rescued Captain Bubbledash from this fate. Now he’s back in their cells!”
“We have to do what we’ve always done,” Luna said, his voice as calm and unwavering as ever. “Fight to the best of our abilities, leverage what advantages we can and avoid a direct engagement until the time to strike is here.”
“A direct engagement is all we have left!” Greendye yelled.
“Please commander, maintain your composure,” Luna said. “We still have other options. A direct assault is suicide. Our forces are scattered as it is and, on top of that, even if we could gather everypony we have we would still be drastically outnumbered by Tittering’s. Our only hope for success is to do as we have done and slip through her hooves at every opportunity.”
Greendye started to pace back and forth, his growing ire becoming more pronounced with every step. Finally, he sighed and shook his head. “I see. Is that truly how you feel? All of you? Do ANY of you have anything else to say?”
Celestia merely gave a grunt and a nod, though Button wasn’t surprised. He imagined she wanted to yell just as much as the commander did. Button gave a quick nod as well. Luna really was the better talker of them. Most of the others didn’t even give a nod, instead just staring at the ground timidly.
“Very well,” Greendye said before taking a slow, deep breath. “Everypony listen up. I hereby relinquish command and vacate my position as commander.”
“W-what?” Luna asked, for the first time looking genuinely startled and confused. “Why would--”
“I refuse to stand back any longer and just wait for those ponies to be stripped of their magic,” Greendye said. He glanced around at the gathered ponies, most keeping their eyes down. “I will fight Tittering myself if I have to.”
“Commander,” Luna said in as soothing a tone as he could manage, but Button could see even he was struggling to keep his tone as calm as always. “That’s suicide. You’d stand no chance against her. You’re not a fighter, you’re--”
“I know what I am,” Greendye yelled, stomping a hoof down. “But I will NOT stand back and WAIT for Discord to come and take everything from me! If I have to lose this fight, I will lose it on my hooves, not cowering like a scared colt!”
“We only need to be patient,” Luna said. “Ensure that--”
“The Avatar had her chance,” Greendye said, his eyes narrowing on the prince. “It might be easy for you three, running off around the nation. Only returning to see us when you’re directly called, sending messages when you find a weak point. But us? We’re here with everypony.” He motioned towards the camp. “We’re the ones they look to. We’re the ones they ask every day what we’re going to do. How we’re going to do it. Are we really going to just leave their friends, their families, to that monster. These ponies depend on us. Even if there’s only a sliver of a chance, I won’t leave them to perish.”
“You can’t be bucking serious!” Celestia finally yelled, stomping a hoof and sending a small tuft of flame from her hoof, making everypony take a step back. “You call ANY of this easy? Do you think we don’t WANT to charge in and knock Tittering on her big stupid flank? Do you think we WANT to leave any of those ponies behind? Do you think we’re HAPPY doing this?”
“Sister,” Luna said in a stern voice and tried to move in front of her. Celestia just shoved him aside and stomped forward, moving directly in front of Greendye to glare at him.
“No, we don’t want this,” Celestia said, her voice filled with fury. “If it was up to us we’d be in there right now and burning the place to the ground and tearing that kingdom down around Tittering’s ears! That’s what we WANT to do! But do you know why we DON’T do that? Because that’s our responsibility! Because THAT’S what it means, Commander.” She pushed a hoof towards the main camp, the gathered ponies they’d managed to keep safe. “It means every bucking time we go out there, when we fight, when we find somewhere to strike, we have to make sure not just that we can rescue the ponies there, we have to make sure that we’re able to come back and keep them safe. It means we have to be sure that, at the end of the day, these ponies still have somepony they can look to and believe will make things better. The moment you agreed to become commander, you took on that responsibility.” She thrust a hoof out and into his chest again, nearly knocking him over. “That means you don’t get to run off and do something stupid just because it’s unfair or because it hurts to do nothing. Because like it or not, these ponies have only us to look up to. We have a responsibility to them more than we do ourselves, our own feelings, no matter how much it hurts. These ponies trust us and they trust you. So no, I don’t accept your ‘relinquish’ of command. Like it or not, you’re the commander because these ponies need you to be. Yes, it’s going to hurt. No, it’s not fair. But we’re in a war and these ponies need us to be strong enough to take it, to make those choices. They need the little bit of hope we can give them. Do I make myself clear?”
Greendye took a small step back, his eyes lowered. “I… I didn’t mean to imply--”
“None of this is easy, Commander,” Celestia said. “Don’t you dare ever think it is. Don’t think for a moment we don’t desperately want to do the same thing you do. If it was just us, if there weren’t so many ponies depending on us, we’d be there now. Then we’d be dead or captured. We don’t get the privilege to not think about what will happen to us, there are too many ponies depending on us for that. Don’t think it doesn’t hurt every time we have to avoid a situation where we COULD fight, just because we know the consequences would drastically outweigh what we’d gain for it.”
Greendye gave a soft, gentle sigh before looking around at the others at the meeting. He finally gave a soft sigh and nodded. “I… never wanted to be a commander of anything…”
“The good ones never do,” Celestia said. “But like it or not, those ponies need you to be. There are three more Immortals out there right now, doing the same thing this one will. But that doesn’t mean we can give up or give in. We have to be strong, we have to fight and we have to be ready. No matter how many battles we lose or how often we have to run, we need to ensure that as many ponies are ready and able when the time comes for us to strike back. Not just for them, but for all those who have already been captured. Until then, we have to bear it.”
“What am I supposed to say to any of them?” Greendye asked. “When they ask, when they look at me, when they…”
“That you won’t give in,” Celestia said. “That even if we’ve lost the battle, we haven’t lost the war. That we are out there, fighting. Always. So long as they don’t give up hope, we’ll never stop fighting. We will drive Discord back a second time. Buck. We’ll do it a third, fourth, dozenth time if we have to. Because that’s what we have to do. Because that’s what these ponies need you to do. So, Commander, can you be the pony they need you to be?”
Greendye looked around once more before, very slowly, nodding. “I… yes. Thank you, princess.”
Celestia gave a soft sigh before nodding. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t lie, I’m happy as buck that I’m not in your hooves. I at least get to blast a changeling every now and again.”
Greendye gave a small nod before glancing down at the map. “Then… I suppose we’d best prepare where to move our forces. With the return of the Water Immortal, we’ll need to be ready for greater danger in the coming battles.”
Celestia nodded and turned, walking back towards the two of them. She had a smile on her lips, but Button noticed when she walked past them that she brushed against Luna’s withers for a second. He’d spent enough time with the twins at this point to know there was a lot that went into that movement, though he didn’t know exactly what the full conversation was.
But he suspected now, more than ever, both were seeking comfort after that. He wondered if he’d ever have been able to do that, had his mother stayed in her role as ruler of Cadence. Would he have been able to be a ‘Prince’ and serve in that role? Have so many ponies depend on him and resist the urge to run off and fight if he had to?
Could he look any of them in the eyes after that?
Now more than ever he hoped that he never had to find out. He was a lot happier just running around and being the lava bending pony who hung out with the pretty prince and princess. Doing what they directed him. Heck, even making bunkers. It was--
Button’s thoughts were shattered by the sound of a sudden scream. He whipped around to look back towards the camp and then up.
At the approaching cloud of changelings.
“How?” Greendye asked, his eyes wide. “Our sentries should have warned us if they were coming!”
“Apparently they failed,” Celestia said before she started galloping towards them. “Commander, get everypony you can out of here! We’ll try to draw as many of them away as we can!”
“Princess? Princess!” Greendye yelled after her, but she ignored him.
Button and Luna turned and quickly galloped after her, though any relief he’d felt was now entirely gone. Why couldn’t they just have these little victories now and again?