Fast forward to when I was eight and my brother seven. We were enrolled in an elementary school. While there were Crystal ponies all around us, we saw other types of ponies, such as moth ponies, changelings and Thestrals. We made friends with many of them, but as always, there were bullies. During my time growing up, I had a knack for getting into fights. I still remember one bully, a rather pathetic excuse of a rich art snob named Diamond Jubilee, who claimed her daddy owned gold mines (in reality, he was a potato farmer who struck it rich on the lottery and became a rather nasty piece of work. I will state for the record that I don't believe that all potato or any farmer are going to be like he was if and when they won the lottery).
As for this Crystal Pegasus, she loved to run the class until she said something to crawl under my fur- “Why our great King had to use your pathetic excuse of a mom to be his adviser, I shall never know.”
King Sombra chose my mother because she was a hard worker and could keep the peace. He had often times come to the house after me and my brother were asleep and would discuss diplomatic matters long into the night. So to say that as if he was making a mistake really set me off. She wasn't the first one to do it, but she was the first one to use scumbags to inflict injury. Eventually, it devolved into fighting and I managed to give her a black eye and a busted nose.
“Serves her right,” a filly said.
While the school kids praised my fighting skills, the professors and my parents took a din view of the whole thing. They saw my fighting as me stooping to her level. I didn't and my brother was never picked on again. As for Diamond Jubilee, she and her daddy ran to another town, where she could have full run of the school ground and order others around (Last I heard of her while I was in the guard, she was jailed for pinching Celestia's jewelry to sell on the black market.)
As for the rest of the school years, we spent them in peace. I was a hard working student who worked for every grade. My brother seemed to be a naturally gifted unicorn. As for our friends, we always had some misadventures.
Cold Blade, the changeling friend we had, always loved drawing up crazy schemes for us to get money. Morning Dew Breeze, the moth pony, had an affinity for being attracted to the stupidest things in the world. Short Fuse, the thestral of group, loved to set things on fire. To him, there was no problem so great that it couldn't be solved with a bit of pyrotechnics.
Of course, this lead us to burn down the kitchen while trying to make brownies and cakes to sell as a Crystal Faire. Oh boy were we in for it when our parents found out. Leave us say that we were doing all the nastiest chores to compensate for that and from that day on, we had a foal sitter to watch us, but sadly, our kitchen misadventures would go on in later years.
However, as time moved forth, we began to grow up and look for jobs. By the time I was twenty and my brother was nineteen, we had our first jobs. I worked as a file clerk for a large banking firm for the amazingly high sum of 35 bits/hour. My brother worked for a boutique store at the rate of 15 bits/hour. We're as rich as mice!
As for our dad, his blacksmith's job eventually landed him a contract making armor for the Crystal Army as well as royal armor for King Sombra. I guess fortune smiles on those who have good will towards all. That and we had a slight run in with many of the nobles who's heads were so far in the clouds that any drop to reality would have killed them.
However, things were changing. Celestia and Luna had taken power and were ruling the lands near the Everfree Forest, and they needed diplomatic advisers, so Sombra put forth our parents name and my group of friends were coming with us to continue our misadventures. The reason for our friends coming with us is because there's a town near the Everfree and it needed residents.
However, Fate comes a knockin with plans of evil that no-one could ever dream of.