“Why do you not partake in the festivities, Lieutenant? Are not my hayburgers the most delicious thing you have ever deigned to indulge in?”
“The burgers were quite good, yes.” Pokey replied. His gaze remained out in the stars, however. “I just needed a few minutes alone.”
Luna gave him a knowing look and then moved to stand next to him. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, but after those minutes had ticked away Pokey sighed.
“I was so sure.” He said to the stars. “So confident, so prepared. I thought I had it all planned out. I knew exactly how everything would happen. I knew how your sister would react, what she would say, what she would do. I knew what you would do, what Captain Armor would do, what he wouldn’t do. I was…”
He trailed off.
“…arrogant.” Luna finished for him. She looked out over the same stars with him. “Prideful, perhaps conceited even. Months of planning, all for naught. The best laid plans that any pony could have ever conceived, but then you find you’re completely wrong about everything once you put those plans into motion. You find yourself in the land of doubt, of darkness and of ruin. You find you’ve been so consumed with…with….”
She now trailed off. After a moment, Pokey inhaled deeply.
“It seems we were both wrong.”
“Your errors pale in comparison to mine.” She replied.
“In a way, they’re not so far apart.” He looked her in the eyes now. “The scale may be slightly different, but arrogance is arrogance.”
“Perhaps.”
“But then we emerge on the other side.” He turned back to the stars. “Humbled, perhaps a bit timid, unsure of ourselves. We want to undo what we’ve done, to go back and correct the mistakes that led to our downfall. But all we can do is move forward, make the most of what we’ve got left. Start anew somehow, and make the future what it should be.”
He then turned to face her again. “Princess, I need help. The one thing I see, more clearly than anything right now, is how little I really know, and how underqualified I am for the rank Celestia has bestowed on me. If I may be so presumptuous, I would ask if you might train me.”
“Me? Train you?”
“Before your banishment you were the finest battlefield commander, bar none.” He smiled a bit sheepishly. “I am something of an amateur historian, and everything I’ve ever read says that your troops were unequaled, even next to Celestia’s. If there’s anypony who has the qualifications, it’s you.”
“You really believe that?” she asked, a small note of pride in her voice.
“Completely. I can stay for a few hours after my shift each evening, if you’re willing to take me on as an apprentice. I will submit totally to your teachings. I just…”
He paused.
“If I am to remain as a Guard, I must be more than what I am now. I can’t achieve that on my own, I see that now. I am willing to submit, if it means I can improve.”
Luna looked him over dubiously. “You will submit to anything I throw at you?”
“Completely.”
“You are going to be one miserable pony.” She smiled menacingly. “Deal! I will teach you, and you will feel a pain you’ve never before felt in your life.”
“I welcome the challenge, General.”
“Good. There is a difference between pride and confidence, and we shall see how much of the latter you possess. For now, let us return to your squadron. They worry about you.”
“I couldn’t ask for a more loyal group of ponies.”
“They are exceptional.” She agreed, as they began walking back in. “I would even dare to say you four are destined for great things.”
“I would like nothing else, for their sake more than mine.”