It Happened Before

by Backburner

Interlude 1

3 weeks later

True Heart and the fourth speaker left Canterlot Castle after a very revealing visit. The first speaker stood on a balcony overlooking them as they headed out to look at the city.

“Did you know that your sister was coming to visit you?” Said a small voice from the room that connected the balcony to the rest of the castle.

“No I didn’t, but I’m very glad she did.”

“It must be hard for you, being away from your sisters all the time. I miss my family a lot sometimes, and I can go see them whenever I want.” The first speaker turned to the little pink filly that stood in the doorway to the balcony.

“I do miss my sisters, but they have their own lives to live and their own parts of Equestria to rule. I get by on their letters and occasional visits.” The filly laughed at the princess’s comment.

“I’m sorry princess, but their last visit was months ago, and the one before that had an even larger gap. How can you call that occasional?” The first speaker thought the question over for a second.

“I suppose when you’ve lived as long as I have, occasional can mean a much longer period of time.” The filly walked onto the balcony and looked out at the city below.

“Has Canterlot changed much since you first ruled?”

“A little, ponies come and go, I’ve seen houses and businesses change hooves many times. The basic use of everything has stayed the same though, the market square has always been where it is now, the residential district has nearly all the same buildings it did when I was young, and i’ve taken great pains to preserve the castle in its original form. So what you see here has always looked the way it does now for the most part.”

“Always? Did you build this castle?”

“No.”

“Then how can you say it has always been like this if you didn’t build it? Couldn’t the previous owners have changed it?” The first speaker joined the filly in looking over the city.

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to keep, the changes they made. It was they who built this castle to begin with, and when it passed to me I made sure it stayed as close to what they wanted as possible.”

“How did this come to pass to you? Weren’t you always the princess?” The first speaker took in a deep breath. That question went a little too far down a road she wasn’t quite ready to show her student.

“The answer to that question will have to wait for another time, it’s almost time for me to lower the sun and I need to do something before then. Why don’t you go study some more before the light is gone.”

The young filly nodded her head and happily ran back into the castle. The fourth speaker almost smiled at how much the look on the filly’s face resembled the one she would have worn many years ago if asked to do the same thing, but there were other matters to attend to. Hidden in the corner of the balcony was a small pile of golden necklaces, each holding a gem in their center that shown the cutie mark of their previous bearer. The princess brought them to her eye level in her magic aura, and saw that one of them was now missing its gem. Looking closely, she confirmed that it was indeed the element of honesty her sister had found.

“There are only four left, then.” The princess said to herself. “Hopefully the others will show themselves soon.”

Comments

[reflexrex]

I'm rather liking this so far . I would say try to get an editor/proofreader though. But yeah, I really hope you keep going with this, because it looks like you are handling a hackneyed concept with skill and flair, and what's more patience. Keep it up, and you just might change my opinion of this type of story .

[Jack-Pony]

1564343

1541359 The mane six are now princesses are looking for their replacements? Yeah? Well that basically leads down one of two roads...one, they find them and step down/ fade/ die. Or, two, they fail and sh*t gets real bad, real quick. Either way, the ending will be melancholy at best. Hence, Samwise's speech.

I Hope you weren't expecting me to know specifics... Tau Niem is the time traveler, not I!

[Backburner]

1564567

How do I put this, your statement is both close and wrong at the same time, i don't want to tell you how for fear of spoilers, but this isn't going to end the way you think.

[Jack-Pony]

1567413 Think of me like a 2000-Lb GBU. I may not impact the target directly, but with that much explosives, who needs to?
Level ALL the things!