My silly headcanon Pan the Pied Piper swayed him to Neverland and after some decades or centuries? He escaped, came back to Enchanted Forest, meet Prince Emma, became heroic Knight fell in love, got married, sired Prince Henry, died in some heroic battle protecting the kindgom. lol
It makes sense. Rumpel did still become the dark one and made the dark curse in this land. Looks like the only difference is that Regina never got the chance to cast the curse since she was defeated. Logically Neal shouldn’t be there, but I’m guessing they added him in to explain henry being alive. Neal just so happened to find his way back to the FTL at some point. And chose to stay for Emma.
"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGIC