Three years would fly by, these years would go relatively quickly and peacefully, my mother 'Honeydew' and my father 'Passion' would give me all the comforts they could afford, and those comforts didn't come cheap either. The price of things wasn't really a concern for my parents, see Passion used to be a guard in Canterlot working directly under one of the Princesses, but my father crossed some noble and was given a 'promotion' to come here and work as the Captain of the Guard, and Honeydew would work odd jobs around town. The town we lived in 'Graycott' wasn't anything to write home about, it was the southernmost town on the border of Equestria, but it served its purpose as a resupply point for explorers going out into the badlands.

Early on in my development somewhere in the one-year mark, my parents decided that I must have been of the Heritage of the Earth, getting my blessing from the God Grumbar. Later that same year I made it apparent to my parents that I could walk, talk, and read. This sparked something inside of them, what it sparked was what I could only assume was pride, they thought I was some kind of genius, Honeydew would start to buy school books for me, and help me study with them, and my father would take me outside every so often to work on my sword arm swinging around sticks. I enjoyed my time together with them, of course, I breezed through the stuff that my mother was teaching me, most of it was simple math, one plus one, and all that.

What interested me though, was what my father was teaching, he taught me almost every trick in the book when it came to sword fighting. Parrying, blocking, countering, every day it was a different maneuver or technique. Even on the days that he wasn't around I would go outside and practice what he taught. It was hard work, having the body of a child was hard to adjust to, and the fact that I never used a sword in my life outside my old Full Dress Unifrom was showing, but I tried my damndest.

Another year would pass with nothing of note happening, with the only interesting thing being that on the day of my fourth birthday my mother would approach me, and tell me that she signed me up for school a year earlier than most. This news kinda excited me, after four years of having barely any contact with anyone I was starving for interactions with anyone else, even if they were just stupid kids. I asked her to take me shopping for school supplies, and she agreed wholeheartedly.

On the morning of my first day of school I arose quickly, showered, and started to get dressed, as I was getting dressed in an outfit you would see in an old western, I happened a glance at a mirror in my room. What I saw in the mirror was something I still couldn't believe. What I saw wasn't the man I looked at for seventy years, but a completely different one. I wasn't complaining, I wasn't ugly by any means so that was a plus, my hair and eyes were what interesting me though. My eyes and my hair were the color of gold, my parents told me that my eyes weren't that color when I was first born so I can only speculate that God must have done something to change them. After finishing changing I went downstairs and ate a small breakfast with my family then it was off to school.

There was only one schoolhouse in the town, which served a dual purpose as a town center in which people would discuss the happenings of the town. I started to walk to the school, walking at a brisk pace waving at the faces of people that I recognized. The walk was peaceful, the heat was hard to adjust to, back in my previous life I preferred cold places but I would live. What caught my attention as I was walking was I heard crying coming from somewhere. I gave a quick three-sixty but couldn't see anyone, I began to walk towards the sound, but the distinct sound of a slap against flesh rushed me.

I started to run, and when I turned a corner into an alleyway I saw four older kids, three guys, and a girl bullying a younger girl that looked about my age. The older green-haired girl raised her hand again, and without thinking I jumped into action. I rushed forward putting my body in between the two different parties. There was a resounding SMACK as I took her hand across my face. I heard a gasp from behind me but ignored it as I looked up to the girl in front of me.

She looked surprised at my sudden arrival but quickly regained composure. She scowled at me with her crimson red eyes and with a hiss she spoke, "What do you think your doing boy?!" She demanded. I looked up at her defiance in my face,

"What do you think you're doing!" I Yelled. "Going around attacking a girl much younger than you, shameful" I finished, as I slightly shifted my stance.

(Minus The Gun, and knife)

I could see the annoyance on her face grow, "I'll give you one more chance stupid this has nothing to do with you, so leave or Slob here will make you!" The girl behind me put a hand on my shoulder, I chanced a look towards her, when I did I saw that this girl had hair like snow with a pink braid going down her back, but her eyes were what gave me pause. Her eyes were the prettiest light green-blue color eyes I had ever seen. Cutting me out of my sputtered she began to weakly speak in a very hard southern drawl,

"Please just go, I don't want you getting hurt because of me."

I shook my head at her then moved my gaze back at the Green haired girl and her three Stooges.

"Well, you can't say I didn't warn you! Get him, Slob!" She barked, pointing a skinny finger at me.

Stepping forward in front of everyone a big one-hundred-pounded nine-year-old. with shaggy dirty brown hair, and shit brown eyes came lumbering out. He walked towards me cracking his knuckles threateningly, when he was mere inches from my face he began to speak, "Desert Flame ordered, you small, me big, you hurt now." When he spoke it hurt my ears just listening to him, he sounded so dumb it made me feel stupid just listening.

I watched him expressionless, he must have expected me to run because when I didn't he looked back towards Desert Flame confused. She gave an overly dramatic wave of her arms and responded.

"You dumb idiot beat him up then!"

Slob made a grunt of acknowledgment and turned back around to face me. This thought was when I leaped into action he stepped forward towards me and threw a slow right hook, I easily ducked around it and rushed him. As I got into range I grabbed onto the front of his shirt, slid my right leg behind his lower calf, and shoved him hard into the sand.

(This is basically how it looks)

As he laid there splayed out being dazed and confused, I delivered a hard jab directly to his nose, busting it with a spray of blood. He clutched at it as blood ran down his face, I pulled my hand back waving it back and forth to alleviate the pain.

'Fuck that hurt more than I thought it would.'

Desert Flame in complete shock and horror at my display quickly sputtered out orders to her two remaining goons.

"Glob! BLOB, Get Him!'

The other two boys started to rush at me, I stood there prepared to take my beating like a champ, the fist of the one I assumed was Glob was streaking towards me. Just before it was about to connect a whistle from the other end of the alleyway caught everyone's attention. There standing tall and important stood the Mayor of this small town, Mayor Goodberry, tall, slender with the darkest green hair. Standing next to her stoic in their leather dusters stood two of the town guards there faces obstructed by the Stetsons that they wore. With the two guards flanking her she approached the group waving her finger at all of us.

"What do you boys think you're doing fighting in my town!"

I stayed silent, Glob's fist still hanging in the air inches from me, they stumbled over each other trying to talk. The mayor just stood there tapping her cowboy boots into the sand. I weighed my options, I could tell her what was going on, book it, or I could just see what happens.

So I decided to stand my ground electing to see where fate took him. As Goodberry was waiting for a reply, Desert Flame decided to step out from behind her two thugs and pretend to cry.

"Oh mother it was terrible, this hooligan and his friend started bullying me in this alleyway for no good reason, Glob, Slob, and blob heard it and came to my rescue."

I smirked at this, she was a damn fine actress, tears and all, she could probably get somewhere in life if she formally trained.

Mayor Goodberry wasn't taking this news well, she kept side-eyeing me while her daughter was talking. I knew when she peered over at me, my situation didn't look good, Slob was still laid out on the floor blood running out his nose, and worst of all was that my face had a distinct red mark on it, which Desert Flame justified as her defending herself.

After finishing her conversation with her daughter she once again turned towards me shaking her needle-like fingers at me,

"You young man and young lady are both in for a world of trouble! How dare you go about bullying my daughter, and hurting her friends!"

She came up to me and grabbed my ear harshly, I just let it happen, nothing I can do against her. I could try and struggle but that would just cause more problems.

"We are going to Miss Haven to discuss both of your punishments."

One of the guards came up to Goodberry and started to whisper something into her ear, I felt her grip on my ear tighten as he finished.

"Now everything makes sense, you're the son of our new guard captain, huh, that explains a lot."

I felt a little venom in her voice as she spoke, so I decided now was the time to speak up.

"What do you mean by that ma'am? My father is a respectable and honorable man."

The constant frown that was on her face deepened.

"What I meant is of no concern to a bratty child like you! Did your father not teach you manners, talking back to an adult."

I was a bit irked at her sudden attitude change and decided to be a bit cheeky.

"Pft an adult, I thought you had to at least have some kind of common sense to be one of those."

She scoffed at my response her face turning a shade of red I've never seen before, she started to stammer and reared her hand up. As she raised her hand I looked her dead in the eyes.

SMACK

For the second time today, I was struck in the face, the taste of iron filled my mouth. I leaned to the side and spit out some blood along with one of my baby teeth to the horror of the girl behind me. Then I looked back up to Goodberry and gave her a toothy grin.

"Oops, it looks like you slipped, you silly boy." She mocked, her face still as red as a tomato, "You gotta be more careful, don't want you losing any more of those precious teeth of yours."

I was still grinning at her as she replies.

"Yes thank you for your concern ma'am I think me and my friend here will be on our way," I said as I grabbed the girl's hand.

She nodded in agreement, "Well if we're all on the same page, you're free to go." She stated as she started to calm down a bit.

I could hear Desert Flame protest as I walked away, the unknown girl's hand firmly grasped in mine. As we got a good distance away I finally turned around and addressed the girl.

"Are you ok? Does anywhere hurt?"

I did a quick gloss over her, I saw that she was holding several areas where I assumed she had bruises. When I looked at her face I saw that it had several red hand marks adorning it. I gave a disappointing look at her, and all she just went through.

'I thought that this world was supposed to be peaceful, but stuff like this still happens huh.'

As I was looking over her I saw that she kept side-eyeing me, then quickly looking away with a blush, I sighed at this.

'Damn this isn't what I wanted, this girl probably thinks I'm some kind of knight in shining armor.'

When inspecting her I saw that she was in a lot of pain so deciding to bite the bullet I started to use some of my powers on her. So with a quick prayer and put positioning my hands on her wounds I started to use my 'lay on hands' ability to heal her. Soon a golden aura would start to omit from my hands and the pain, and the bruises she had started to disappear.

Her expression turned from being shy/embarrassed to surprise and excitement.

"NO WAY MISTER! YOU CAN DO HEALING MAGIC!"

I gave her a concerned look, and looked around to see if anyone had heard her, when I knew the coast was clear I started to whisper to her, "Shhh, keep your voice down ok, you have to promise me you will keep this between us."

She looked confused, "But mister, healing magic is super rare and high tier magic, only world-class doctors, and the Princesses can do it."

I started to get even more concerned, I don't want anyone knowing about my powers yet, I at least want to be able to defend myself before I start using them willy nilly. She tried to speak again, but I quickly put my hand over her mouth.

"You can't tell anyone ok, you have to pinkie promise me."

I held her mouth until she nodded yes when she did I slowly lifted my hand off of her. She then blurted out a question at me, before I could stop her."What's a pinkie promise?" I rolled my eyes at this, and showed her, interlocking our pinkies together and shaking them.

Trying to change the subject I started to ask her some questions instead, "First off, what would your name be ma'am? I would like to know the name of the girl I just saved."

A blush spread onto her cheeks, "Well mister my name is Cinnamon Twist, but my friends just call me Twist."

"Cute name, but I got another question for you. Why did you let those guys bully you like that? Why don't you try and stand up for yourself, or at least tell your parents?"

I could feel the mood shift drastically, "I don't got any parents mister, they died a year after I was born, folks say they died exploring the badlands." I shook my head and gave her a look of pity.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but if you don't mind me asking where do you live then?" I questioned.

She began to answer slightly stuttering as she spoke. "Th- there's an orphanage that is run outside town, Mayor Goodberry set it up. Says that dumb folks will always try and explore the badlands, and the only good thing that comes out of it is more youngins for the mine."

I swiveled my head towards her, "What do you mean workers for the mine? Please don't tell me that she has kids mining!" The girl nodded.

"Of course, she says that is how we pay our keep, gotta put food on the table somehow she says."

I got up from where I was healing her and started to walk away, I was appalled, this can't be right, there has to be some kind of child laws put into place to protect kids. Then out of nowhere a heard a gasp, and turn to see Twist putting a hand over her mouth, horror etched across it.

"Mister mister, you can't tell anyone what I just done told you, Mayor Goodberry made us all swear that we'd not tell a soul! She be mighty upset with me if she found out I told you anything!" Twist elaborated, running up to me barely taking time to breathe.

"I promise up to a point I won't tell a soul, but you have to hold up your promise as well." I told her, waiting for her to agree before continuing, "I'll only tell my father if I find out what she is doing is illegal, and have the needed proof to bust her."

"No! You can't tell anyone if she found out I told you she'll have my hide, and I don't know what she'd do then." Twist pleaded.

I rolled my eyes, "Ok, ok... no need to lose your socks Twist. Only if it is absolutely necessary will I tell anyone."

She seemed to resign to the fact that she couldn't convince me to fully drop it, so with our little discussion done, we continued on our way making it to the schoolhouse a few minutes after the bell. When entering the school I got a feeling of nostalgia, school was one thing in my youth that I really enjoyed, even if I wasn't that popular I still had fun.

As we entered the classroom, the whole class including the teacher was in the middle of the Equestrian pledge. My father many years ago taught me the pledge, but I refused to do it for him, telling him my allegiance was to something far, far away. He had no idea what I was talking about which sparked the one time I saw my father get visibly angry, I carefully explained to him that I just didn't feel the need to pledge myself to two Princesses that I had never seen before. I swore at that moment my father's head was going to burst from the pressure, but my mother was able to calm him down, saying that I'd come around. I understood my father's plight, he served the Princesses half his life, and for his son to not share his loyalty would frustrate anyone, but I digress. As we stood there they continued the pledge, singing it to a flag of a Sun and Moon, with Twist joining in on it.

"The Sun and Moon are always there, when one is gone the other cares, when help is asked we always share, we pledge ourselves to our Princess's care."

The pledge ended as quickly as it started, all the kids laughing and the teacher settling everyone down. Everyone after a bit went to their respective seats, but I just stood at the front. Miss Haven gave everyone a warm smile and looked over at me, she looked like a nice young lady, quite attractive with her Indigo-colored hair, and dark purple eyes. She began to introduce me to the class,

"Calm down everyone, calm down, I have some exciting news for you all today! We have a new addition to the class." She announced, "Would you like to introduce yourself?" I gave an affirmative nod towards her and began my introduction.

"Hello everyone my name is Snickerdoodle, but I gotta admit in all honesty I don't care for the name, So instead I would much rather you all call me Varian Proudmoore." I snickered to myself as I finished, deciding to use my old Paladin name from dnd.

Miss Haven clapped her hands together in glee, "Well kids it looks like you all have a new friend! Welcome to the class Varian, you can take the seat next to Cinnamin Twist."

I looked to see where Twist was seated and saw that she sat in the middle of the room right next to Desert Flame, this confused me for a second until I remembered my mother telling me that only one teacher taught all the kids in town, and used a general system of education to teach them all at once. Focusing on and helping those who lagged behind. So I took the seat to the left of Cinnamon Twist and gave her a reassuring smile. I saw Desert Flame side-eyeing me and decided to also smile at her, making sure to show my missing tooth. She huffed at this and turned her attention away from me.

The school day would drag on, everything that was being taught was too easy, even the stuff for the older kids was too simple. The math taught only advanced to basic multiplication, and everything else taught revolved around the Princesses. What I did learn though that interested me was that Princess Luna was still trapped on the moon, living out her banishment. That tidbit of information tells me a lot about the timeline of the world and tells me that the events from the show haven't transpired yet, which means God must have purposely sent me back before the start of the show, which does raise some questions about time travel, and the laws of cause and effect, but who cares about all that. I didn't really think about it much further, I started to get bored and decided to rest my head on my desk and close my eyes, thinking about everything that has transpired today,

I've discovered a lot of things about this world today that kinda disappointed me, its not as jovial as I thought it was. It seems darker than what I was expecting. The mayor seems to be running some kind of child labor racket from orphaned kids, and people here still seem prone to violence just like back on Earth. Worst of all everyone seems to be less educated than I would like, I'm assuming most things like the lights probably run on magic or something. Which brings me to another interesting note, the magic here seems to be in all life, no matter how minuscule or gargantuan, from what I could gather it seems that the Gods of this realm like to pick and choose people to give their blessings to, and those who get the favor of the Gods become extraordinary. This leads me to believe that the main six are probably blessed by their respective Gods/goddesses.

Soon the bell would ring signifying the start of recess and lunch, all the kids jumped up from their seats and rushed outside to the small playground in the back. I stayed in my seat with my head on my desk. As I was about to fall asleep, I heard footsteps approach me and the soft voice of Miss Haven speak to me, "Varian I know it's your first day and everything, but wouldn't it be best to go and play with the other kids? You might make a few friends if you do." I raised my head from the desk to look at Miss Haven.

"Sorry to disappoint you ma'am but I really don't want to affiliate myself with any of them, I'm fine with where I'm at, thanks for the concern though."

Miss Haven gave me a concerned look, "It's not healthy to be alone Varian, friendship is one of the most powerful things in the world, Princess Celestia promises that it will one day be the thing that brings her sister back to her!" I rolled my eyes at this, "And besides friendship could very well save your life one day!" I listened to her and understood where she was trying to go with this, but her words fell upon deaf ears. I looked around the room to see if I could do anything to stop her rant, and that's when I spotted Twist eating her lunch at her desk, and Desert Flame in the corner with her goons.

I held up a hand to stop Miss Haven and began to speak, "I understand Miss Haven, but I have already made a few friends!" I pointed towards Twist, and Desert Flame, "I met them while on the way to school, Desert Flame was nice enough to show me the way here, and also introduced me to her mother." Miss Haven seemed to be thrilled beyond belief at this news for some reason, she started to jump up and down excitedly. I had to look away quickly to not arouse suspicion, as her rather plump bosom wasn't dissuaded by gravity, happily bouncing up and down.

"Oh, that's great to hear Varian! Cinnamon Twist has had such a hard time making friends, and with Desert Flames mother being the mayor it hard for kids to approach her." She patted me on the head as she continued, "I know you guys will all make great friends, and make a lot of good memories together!" After she finished speaking she turned around and walked towards the door, "Well you kids behave in here, I gotta make sure everyone is behaving outside" She said as she walked out, closing the door behind her.

I watched her leave the room and after yawning loudly I decided that now was the best time to get some shut-eye, who knew listening to a teacher talk about stuff I learned years ago would take it out of someone so quickly. Closing my eyes I tried to let the sweet embrace of sleep take me, but the sound of a desk being scooted towards me awoke me once more. Annoyed I peeked one of my eyes open and squinted at what was making the noise, not surprising me one bit I saw Twist slowly trying to scoot her desk closer to mine. I sighed internally.

Every few seconds she would scoot an inch or two closer, stop for a few moments to check to see if she woke me, then repeat the process. This went on for a good five minutes until I felt her desk bump into mine. I paid it no mind and just continued to try and sleep. The problem that I faced when trying to sleep was that Twist seemed eager to speak with me, and was constantly fidging in her seat. So against my better judgment, I decided to sit up startling her. I looked at her with a bored expression, "What can I help you with Twist?" I asked tiredly.

She started to twiddle her thumbs, and look away from me shyly, I let out an audible groan.

"Well-l m-mister I-I mean Varian, I never did thank you properly for helping me, I'm mighty grateful!" She nervously told me, I looked at her and nodded.

"Well your welcome, it was no problem at all," I told her, slowly lowering my head back down. She started to stammer, and tried with all her might to get a response out but seemed unable. Too tired, and bored to care anymore I closed my eyes one last time and thought about my new life. All the new things I might be able to accomplish, and the adventures that I might have. Soon I was on the precipice of unconsciousness feeling it slowly evaporate away, right before I embraced the sweet darkness I felt a slight pucker press against the side of my cheek, and for one more time that day, I let a smile escape my lips.

Author's Note

Wow heres a bigger chapter than the last two combined, I hope you enjoy. Message me if you find anything wrong within the chapter, I did my best.