As summer had come and gone, it was again back to the school year for Innocentius and all the other foals in Ponyville once more and fall was fast approaching. Soon, the heat would vanish and the cold days and falling leaves would be upon Equestria before they knew it. What would hold in the near future for the colt? One could only hope this school year would be better than the last since his bullies no longer bothered him. No one could guess why that is…

After two full months of nonstop training, he wasn’t exactly the skinny, shrimp unicorn that was picked on because he chose not to do anything about it. Now, he stood about four inches taller than he was last, and he was definitely far more fit and toned than when he was a literal walking stick of a boy. He was buff to the point where he had a four pack at least. But, he was satisfied with his results and would only train the amount he needed to maintain that physique. Who knows? Maybe next summer he will push even further. But for now, academics were his focus.

When it came to matters of academics though, one would think that someone like him who enjoys reading in his spare time would be one of the smartest foals in the school, right? Innocentius was a smart kid in his own right of course, but he was a middle of the road kind of colt when it came to his grades. However, he did excel in some science and most biology lessons more than any other student. Possibly because of his cheats in knowing everything medical, medicinal, and alchemical. So he had his moments where he outshines everyone from time to time.

As he had always done before at each start of the year, Innocentius showed up a few minutes early on his first day to claim his seat for the year which was always the furthest back corner desk by the window. That’s right, he was one of those vacant eyed daydreamers who could get lost staring out the window if he wasn’t careful and not paying attention to the lesson. But, he didn’t really care so long as his grades were passing ones. As he found his seat for the year, he had a solid fifteen minutes before class would begin. So he simply removed his glasses and sat them on the underside of his desk where students could store their belongings and laid his head on his crossed arms as he began to doze off. A little nap before the day never hurt anyone.

Innocentius jerked awake as he heard the school bell ring and saw the first of the students pour into the classroom. The schoolhouse was divided up into different sections according to each foal’s year. Innocentius was beginning his final few years in this classroom. After which he’d be out of school to find himself a job or pursue higher education in Canterlot should he so choose to do so. Would he require some kind of medical teaching credentials in order to become a certified doctor in this world? He’d assume so at least.

As he watched the other students pour in, he noticed some vaguely familiar faces coming in with a few new ones. It wasn’t until he saw both Redheart and Applejack wandering in that his ears perked up and his eyes widened for a moment before going back to their normal state. He had to put his glasses back on to make sure that his impaired vision wasn’t playing tricks on him. But sure enough, there they were. Innocentius would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t at least a little excited to have two close friends of his in his class with him. Maybe this year was going to be better than he’d hoped after all.
Out of the two of them, Redheart was the first to notice Innocentius, a smile forming across her muzzle as she was quick to slide right into the seat next to him “Well look at this! We get to be in the same class this year!” she said as she scooted her desk just a tad bit closer to his. Applejack watched the filly move in quick next to him and for some reason, it made her a little upset, but she couldn't figure out why. But she wasn’t going to take that lying down. So she quickly claimed the seat in front of him “Hey there, Inno. Looks like ya finally made it to my side of the school house huh?” she asked as she turned in her seat to face him.

Innocentius smiled at both of his friends before letting out a yawn as he stretched and then rubbed his eyes. Seems that his two closest friends would be keeping him company all year around which he was more than happy with. Of course, the other colts weren't too happy about him hogging the attention of two of the cutest fillies in the classroom. Not that it mattered to Innocentius, being the oblivious colt he was, he wasn’t really seeking any romantic relationships, at least not at this age. His interest in girls wasn’t for another year or two.

“It is so cool I get to have you two as classmates. Last year was pretty rough for me since I got bullied a lot. But, I think this year will be good.” he said with a reassuring nod as he fidgeted with one of his pencils before seeing the last fellow student make their way in. Whoever she was, she had every colt’s attention for sure. She had a curly dark purple mane and tail along with beautiful paper white fur, and beautiful sapphire blue eyes that could draw in many boys and maybe even some girls. However, Innocentius just gave her a once over and just thought of her as another student. Sure, she was cute, but that was just a passing thought to him.

“Oh right, Applejack, this is the neighbor and dear friend I was telling you about over the break, Redheart. And Redheart, this is my very first and best friend in the world, Applejack. I do hope you two can become friends as well. It would make me very happy.” he said as he looked between them hopefully. The two fillies gave each other a long and awkward stare before offering a smile to one another “Aaah, so you are the one who Inno says he has been spending his nights with on the rooftops, pleased to meet ya.” said Applejack as she offered a hand towards the other filly. “Indeed, and you must be the one who he refers to as ‘AJ’. Must be nice to be so close and cozy to share nicknames…” she said with a hint of resentment towards her potential rival, but took the offered hand and shook it firmly.

Innocentius couldn’t see it, but there was a fire in each of their eyes that screamed ‘I won’t lose to you…’, but to him, he was seeing a possible new friendship forming. He simply smiled at both of them before noticing the ‘glamor filly’ taking the seat diagonally from him. He simply shrugged before he and his two friends got in some chatter time before the class officially began while the colts in the room fought over who’d be sitting next to the new pretty filly, even going as far as to play rock, paper, scissors for it. Once the class had started, seated had been rearranged about ten times over due to deals and bets. The filly noticed how all the boys tripped and fought over themselves to get a seat next to her. All of them except Innocentius who was now just sitting there, looking out the window waiting for the teacher to begin the first lecture of the year. And that was enough to pique her interest in him. Somepony her charm didn’t seem to work on…
After Ms. Cheerilee had everyone going around the room introducing themselves for her and the other students’ sake, she began the first day’s teaching. This meant that it was Innocentius’s queue to proceed to stare vacantly out the window while passively absorbing most of the lessons. No wonder his grades weren’t the greatest, but they were never failing either. All the while the filly who had sat diagonally from him would steal glances every now and then.

After the longest first day ever, Innocentius grabs his backpack and makes for the door once the bell rings and waits outside for Applejack and Redheart to meet up with them. Once they do, they start to head home together, Applejack walking with them part of the way and Redheart heading into her own home once they finally get to their neighborhood. Thankfully, homework wasn’t given on the first day, so Innocentius hugged his mother after saying hello to her and made his way to his room to nap the rest of the early afternoon away. Today was a good day indeed.

Innocentius wakes up a few hours later, his hand twitching a bit as he slowly opens his eyes and grabs his glasses from the nightstand beside him before sliding out of bed and tossing on some casual clothes for the rest of the day. He shuffled his way out of his room to see his mother in the kitchen getting ready to make dinner “Hey Mom. Dad staying at the hospital late again?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes sleepily.

His mother came up to him and kissed his forehead with a smile before nodding as she returned to prepping dinner “Mhmm, one of his elderly regulars came in today complaining of shortness of breath. So he is going to stay overnight to make sure that the gentlestallion is well monitored and taken care of should he need him.” she said as she tied on her apron. Innocentius admired how his mother did so much around the house while his father was away making the money. She was like one of those old school stay at home mothers who did everything in her power to make sure her family was happy and healthy. And the colt respected her highly for it.

“Need any help with anything?” he asked as he stepped up beside her. She thought about it for a moment before remembering that she was short on a few things for dinner. When she made mention of this, Innocentius asked her to make a list and he’d go grab the items for her. That way, she could take a little time for herself while he was out. Once she gave him the list and a bit of money, he hugged her again before heading out to the market area of the town. He was always happy to help out his mother or father when it was something he knew he could do. After all, they take care of him every day.

As he made his way out of the market with the items in a couple of bags he carried, he noticed a pony carrying a LOT of stuff. From what he could tell, it was a bunch of folded and rolled up fabrics, and it was a filly carrying it all as well. The poor girl was struggling hard it would seem, but she was determined by the look in her eyes. But soon enough, she tripped on a rogue pebble that just got in her way and she went flying forward, spilling the contents of her bag. Innocentius watched as both adults and children walked past her as a pony even walked all over some of the fabrics, the filly getting ready to cry as she started picking up her items.

Inocentius sighed in annoyance at the ponies completely ignoring her as he walked up to her and knelt down to begin helping fold up the fabrics and neatly placing them back in the bags so that they were haphazardly hanging out of the sides “Some ponies…” he said to no one in particular as he helped her pick her things up. “Oh, thank you darling…so kind of you to help me with this-..” she stopped as she looked over to see who was helping her. It was the colt she had been stealing little peeks of earlier that day!

Once he looked over to the filly, he smiled and nodded his head to her in greeting “Oh, hello again. You are one of my desk neighbors.” he said as he finished filling up one of the bags as he had folded the fabrics into nice and tight squares so that they’d fit better. The filly was quite impressed at how neatly he had refilled her bags. He even separated them by color it seemed. “My goodness, never have I ever been able to get them as folded as tightly as that. You simply must teach me your technique!” she exclaimed as she looked up at him with a pleading gaze.

“Yeah well, when your father works at a hospital and he drags you along sometimes, you get bored enough to where you start helping out the nurses and help store blankets in the heating cabinets. You tend to make it your mission to stuff as many as you can in there,” he said with a sage nod. Once the bags were filled again, he picked up most of them and stood next to her “Alright, so where are these going?” he simply asked before picking up his own bags.

The filly picked up the last remaining bag before noticing that he was going to help her “O-oh..this way, please.” she said as she began to lead the way to her home. As they walked, there was nothing but silence between the two. The filly kept on staring up at Innocentius while in his mind, he was wondering what his mother was preparing for dinner tonight and he hoped he could get these ingredients home soon so he could eat soon!

Once they made it to her home, he sat the bags on her doorstep and offered her a smile before waving “Well, you take care now. And see you tomorrow at school. Bye!” he said as he started to hurry back across town to his own home. His mother was probably wondering where he was by now. “W-Wait! Please, come back!” she called out to him as she reached out toward him, but he was already gone down the road and out of sight. She never got to thank him for his selfless generosity and that didn’t sit well with her at all. She had to do SOMETHING for him.

Later as she sat down with her own family for dinner, she racked her brain over and over to figure out what would be the perfect thank you for him. Since fall was coming up, she’d make him something warm and cozy for him to wear. Perhaps not a sweater, but a scarf would be more of his style. Yes, she’d make him one that he would no doubt enjoy wearing whenever it got cold out wherever he was.

When the next day rolled around and Innocentius was sitting at his desk napping before the bell once more, the filly came in not too much later than he did and saw him snoozing away at his desk. She thought about not waking him up, but this may be the only time today that she’d get to speak with him alone. She huffed to herself as she approached him with a small white gift bag before gently shaking his shoulder.

Innocentius stirred slightly before lifting his head and putting on his glasses to see the filly he had run into last evening standing in front of him. He offered her a sleepy smile before nodding “Ah…good morning to you. I hope everything turned out well when you got everything inside yesterday?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes a bit.

She nodded before speaking “Well, I wanted to say thank you before you left, but you took off before I could say anything. But, I also wanted to give you something. So…here. I made this for you..” she said as she lowered her head slightly and held out the bag with both hands. Innocentius arched a brow before taking the bag gratefully before opening it, revealing a nice black scarf with yellow pinstripes running along it.

He let out a small gasp as he admired its craftsmanship before trying it on. As an anime nerd in his former life, there was something he had always wanted to try doing. He wraps one half around his neck, then the other around the lower part of his face. He then did a couple of martial arts poses before he began ‘naruto running’ around the room. At first, the filly watched on in awkward silence before letting out a wheezing laughter as she watched him acting so silly. Never in her life had someone made her laugh so hard.

“You know, I never did get your name..” he said as he came to a stop in front of her. After a bit more laughter, the filly finally caught her breath “R-Rarity, darling. A please to finally meet you properly.” she said with a smile and nod. “Rarity, huh? Well, thank you so much for putting in the work to make this for me, Rarity. My name is Innocentius. And I shall cherish this scarf forever.” he said as he nuzzled into it. This made Rarity beyond happy as he seemed to enjoy her thank you gift.

Author's Note

I think maybe three or four more chapters then I will end the 'child arc' and move on to the 'later teen/young adult' arc; from there. Whatcha guys think?

May the darkness grant you peace.