• Published 19th Feb 2018
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Princess Essenta - Pone_Heap



Long, long before Equestria, ponies in that land lived in a number of smaller kingdoms. Princess Essenta, the first daughter of the Dale, sets out to prove herself when her father, the king, sends her on a poorly conceived "suicide mission".

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Chapter 23: Cruel Words

Healing Arc

It wouldn’t suffice to say it started innocently, as a drunken Essenta had instigated a brawl in some backwater town pub. The little company had to split in the middle of the night when some little band of “outlaws” came hunting them, upset with Essenta for “rupturing (their) boss’s nutsack”. They could’ve clobbered these losers but decided to save themselves the notoriety and scram.

Suffice it to say, the girls were all disappointed with Essenta. They’d gone two weeks and 700 miles without incident, happily trotting along. Sure, they’d run into some weird stuff, even Timber-wolves, in the last patch of forest, but that didn’t ruin their pioneering spirit.

Their goal of the jungles in the south was sort of feasibly in sight; they were two-thirds of the way there. They’d reached the steppe and soon, all that would separate them from their objective, as far as just arriving in the jungle, was a small mountain range and a desert.

Essenta and company met some “rangers” who thought of themselves as badass outlaws. They’d invited the girls to drink and Essenta, upset about something, began to argue with their leader after a time. He then got a little fresh and paid the high price of admission, courtesy of a princess.

Dechaa, especially, tried to convince Essenta to not drink. She’d not touched a drop in a good month and was doing well without it. But she didn’t listen, thinking she could handle it, and stuff happened. Currently 50 miles away, they were confident they’d thrown their trail. They were in a new town, resting on the outskirts.

Half a day of running- literally half a day, having left before midnight- did their attitudes no favors; it was almost lunchtime. They’d planned to stay the night; they’d had feather beds and everything. Wilka and Orni had just gotten back much of their stamina and Zyra, not the fittest among them to begin with, had gotten sick on the run, having eaten a rather large meal before the trouble. Loress and Ama, unhappy with the turn of events, were fine otherwise… but Dechaa had reached her limit with her best friend’s shenanigans.

Given Essenta had been clean a month, maybe Dechaa should’ve dialed it down some, but it had been quite the screwup.

She thundered, “Sen, I am sick to suicide of your drinking! You’re a sloppy fucking mess! Every time you get into the stuff, it seems we need to peel you off somepony!”

Other than Essenta and Zyra, none of the girls had seen Dechaa so upset. She’d been a little crabby the last time she fixed Essenta’s teeth, but this was new territory. Taking Zyra’s cue, they stayed back a bit.

Essenta had cultivated a rotten disposition overnight; she’d been plastered and then forced to run 50 miles. What she had was something like a hangover, but it was so bad she didn’t have a name for it.

The princess withered under the tirade, “Stop yelling at me!”

Dechaa bristled at her, “NO! You listen!”

As the girls looked on, the screaming match continuing, Wilka and Orni tried to disappear into the background. Loress and Ama stood on either side of Zyra.

Loress, who’d whupped Essenta’s little horsey ass that time she made an ass of herself in Renata, was cowed as she considered this apparent cataclysm, “Zyra… is this normal?”

Zyra was unamused, but relatively unphased, “I haven’t seen them fight like this in about a year… If you thought Dechaa just sat back and took everything, even she has limits… She can actually have a real temper when Cap goes too far…”

Ama, in no hurry to intervene, didn’t enjoy seeing her friends rail against one another, “Should we… stop this?”

"I'm talking to you, you shit-magnet piss-flaps! Don't you walk away from me!" Dechaa's voice boomed.

"Lick my taint, you cunt-puddle! I'll fuck you up!" Essenta screeched back.

"Think you can manage it, you slobbering lush?!" the unicorn taunted.

"You come over here, I'LL KICK YOU IN THE TWAT!" the Earth pony roared.

The screaming bombarding their ears was almost painful to listen to, giving further halt. It would be a matter of seconds before one or both said something that might be hard to forgive.

Zyra shook her head, “No way.”

The resolve of their little mage was evident of what they should do; they too attempted to fade into the environment. The pissing contest continued, the princess and the healer totally unaware they had an audience anymore.

Essenta grimaced as she faced her friend; her head was killing her, “Well, if you’d try to have a good time and just go with the flow sometimes, you wouldn’t be such a dreary, little priss! Maybe you’d even find a stallion!”

The princess had hit below the belt; Dechaa had a crotch-shot of her own.

“Well… well, remember when Prince Dagda visited… how he ‘felt me up’ in the powder room? I let him do it, Princess! And only after I kissed him!” Dechaa spat.

The girls looked on in slack-jawed horror at the exchange. Things had devolved quickly. Essenta was too shocked to say a damn thing.

Dechaa wasn’t done, “And you know what? I liked it! I loved it! I gave him a hoofjob, Essenta! He even returned the favor… with his tongue!”

Well, thought the girls, Dechaa’s full of surprises, today! Zyra backed up a few paces, not even aware she was doing it.

Barely pausing, Dechaa went on, “And you know what he told me?! He said you looked like a colt with your mane all cropped like that- that he’d rather have a real mare!”

The hurt in Essenta’s eyes was no small hurt and Dechaa had spoken with more relish than anypony had ever heard from her. This was getting heavy.

Essenta practically bawled, “You knew he was just about the only guy I ever liked! Now you say you lied to me about all that?! How could you?!”

“Well, I liked him too! And you would barely talk to him!”

“Because I liked him! I was scared…”

Dechaa barked at her, “Oh, sure… the ‘warrior princess’ scared of a colt!”

“You knew I liked him!” Essenta was tearing up. “I had a plan…”

“You’ve never planned a thing in your life!” Dechaa bellowed. “This whole stupid adventure was spurred on by a mug of ale and you hating your father! You just picked up and ran off!”

Essenta’s tears were now running down her cheeks, “You didn’t need to come along…! I didn’t force you and you know it… I didn’t know what else to do to get away from Father…”

Dechaa was so worked up, she didn’t give a lot of thought to what she said next, “Maybe if you’d spent a little less time rolling in your own filth and more time trying to be more like your mother, your father wouldn’t see you as such a disappointment!”

Immediately, Dechaa regretted those words; it was about the worst thing she could say to her best friend. Essenta shrank at that, eyes welling up fresh; her lip quivered, and she backed up.

“Oh… Sen, I-”

Essenta broke like a cheap toy and bolted away, blubbering towards the town.

Dechaa stood rooted, at a loss, staring after her, “Sen…”

The five other girls had retreated towards the wagon over the last minute, but they’d heard the punchline. And they felt awful about it.

Zyra slowly approached Dechaa and put a tentative hoof on her shoulder; there was nothing to be said. Normally, after a nut-buster like that, she’d give a stunned whistle… but she managed not to do so. Dechaa couldn’t even cry, she felt so drained. That sucked.

Still back a way, Ama ducked down to meet Loress, Wilka, and Orni at head level, “Uh, girls? What is a hoofjob?”


There weren’t that many ponies in the little pub Essenta found; it was only the afternoon during harvest, after all. That far south, they’d be harvesting for a while yet. They’d left four-season climates behind them a couple hundred miles back.

Dressed in a rather unflattering travel cloak and looking as if she’d run 50 miles, there was no recognizing her as anything more than some bizarre traveler from “Bumfuck, Anywhere”…

She’d intended to have a couple drinks, to “even out” her condition, but her poor self-control with num-nums led to her getting good and drunk again. The ale was good enough and cheap. She had silver and the pub had ale. She was set. Naturally, the alcohol did little good for her profoundly hurt feelings. It was an afternoon she was destined to not remember and forgetting it wouldn’t be the worst thing for her.

Anypony crossing her would be in for a bad time. Notwithstanding, a young mare, alone and drunk in the daytime on a Tuesday, garnered some attention.

An amazingly smashed old Pegasus stallion approached her. She recognized him for some reason, somewhere in the hazy confines of her memory. He breathed down her neck; he stunk like warm death mixing up a bucket of shit-blood.

“Hey, there, young Miss… What do you charge for a half-and-half?”

A few ponies trotting down the street were treated to seeing some old-timer go spiraling out the pub’s door, bouncing across the street, with fresh bruises concealing most of his features.

Barely missing a beat, Essenta went back to her ale. She tried hard not to think of Dechaa’s words, but there was no escaping them.

To her side, she heard a chuckle, “Ah, Miss… did you really have to lay into the old fool that badly?”

Essenta was in no mood for much of anything; she rounded on the voice and found… the single most handsome stallion- bar none- she’d ever seen in her near 18 years of being alive. He couldn’t have been more than 20.

Not at all the type of mare, with or without alcohol, to just fall for somepony at first sight- she’d known Prince Fulco a day before she had an inkling she liked him- this stallion had undeniable appeal. She almost felt sucked into him.

She came close, but no dice.

There was something else there too… it was… danger. And not the normal kind… it was the kind where every part of the body screamed run. He radiated menace. She recognized it, but she blew it off like a thick head of foam on a mug of ale.

“What do you want?” she took a hit of her ale.

The stallion laughed buoyantly, “I’d like to sit.”

Not even looking up, she mumbled, “Whatever.”

He sat, “Barkeep! I’ll have what she’s having!”

An ale was slid to him, “You a traveler, young Miss?”

Essenta glowered inwardly, “Yes.”

“Alone?”

“I am now…”

“The name’s Dru,” he hummed. “May I ask yours?”

No, you may not, fuck-stick.

“Sen…” she exhaled. “Just call me ‘Sen’.”

She took a good look at him: he was… a knight?

Looking again, she could see he was… and he was of a place she never thought she’d see anypony from again. She’d seen them represented when Joeh surrendered to the Confederation.

“You’re from Albin…” she didn’t even bother to stop herself. “A knight of Albin…”

He didn’t seem at all surprised, “You know your stuff, Sen. You’re quite right.”

“Aren’t you about 2,000 miles west of where you’re supposed to be?”

He chuckled, “I could’ve guessed from your accent, but now I know you’re a Valley mare… or thereabouts.”

She still gave a little caution, “Thereabouts.”

“You’re quite a way away from home yourself, Sen.”

She turned to him, “Don’t think I can’t recognize your accent. You’re from Joeh… not Albin… who are you?”

He still seemed unsurprised, “You’re quite sharp. I’m from Joeh. I… escaped with my family and fled east when the Confederation attacked western Joeh.”

It became obvious to Essenta after hearing a few lines out of him. The emperor of Albin was the one that compelled Joeh, under his influence, to invade the Dale… for more farmland, so the accounting went. It made sense his family would flee to Albin. A decade before, they’d be enemies, but the war was long over.

Essenta grew tired of his chatter but felt compelled to speak; it was about Joeh… and it kept her from thinking about her pissing contest with Dechaa, “I’m glad you got out of there in time. I’ve learned more about Joeh than I wish I knew. My father… fought in the war… on the Valley side. Did your father fight?”

He shook his head, a little sadly, “No, Sen… I fought myself.”

Quickly losing the somber feeling brought up thinking about her father’s actions in Joeh, her attention had jumped; this, she didn’t believe, “Horseshit… you would’ve been my age… and my age then, when I was a little filly. And even in the end, they never used colts for soldiers. You don’t look much older than me, I think.”

“I tell you the truth, Sen. I was a grown stallion with a wife and a little filly who’s not so little anymore… she’s your age.”

Essenta shook her head, “I don’t believe you, Dru.”

“Don’t let my appearance fool you. I sold my soul for power and youth.”

She did a take, looking at his innocent expression; she cracked up.

She laughed long and hard, forgetting her worries for a time, “Oh, that’s funny, Dru. A real pisser!”

He gave a little, knowing smile, letting her have her fun. The princess began sucking down mugs of ale with abandon and the two shot the breeze; for some time, they bullshitted the other, Essenta becoming more and more smashed.

Essenta, now well into gonzo territory, continued chatting him up, “So, wow… How’d you get knighted so young? And a foreigner, at that…”

Dru grinned, “I was surprised too… but Albin’s a meritocracy, more than other places. Noble blood only takes you so far, and I have no such thing. I became a soldier under the emperor, as there was nothing else I knew how to do, and I impressed my commander. He brought me before the Emperor and he eventually knighted me. I’m on my first peregrination, which is why I’m so far from where I’m ‘supposed to be’.”

Essenta waved a hoof drunkenly, “I didn’t mean anything by that. The war never spread this far south and it’s long past. To everypony here, you’re just another traveler.”

He took on a melancholy face, “War’s never over for those that lived through it… Even though you were just a foal, it stays with you… especially when you see your family in harm’s way.”

That rubbed Essenta… she thought of her father, King Dale, setting western Joeh aflame… and she felt sick inside. She was never in any real danger… neither was most of the Dale. And Joeh had suffered hurts unimaginable. The princess grew somber, hunching over.

Dru patted Essenta’s shoulder; she swore she could almost feel the “menace” every time his hoof landed, “I’m sorry, Miss. I don’t mean to upset. War’s misery for everypony…”

Essenta, unable to hold back, still had the sense to not reveal too much, “My father… isn’t a good stallion. He thought nothing of what he did in the war. I’ve learned a lot about it all in the last couple months… and I wish I never did.”

Dru took a moment before responding, “You must always remember, Sen, that a father’s sins are not those of his children.”

There was no need for Essenta to mull this, “I know… but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.”

He stared at the bartop, “I’m sure. I’m… intruding, I know, but I can’t stand to see a young pony so upset… and alone. Where are your friends?”

Essenta sighed, “Nearby. I ran off. I did something really stupid… My friend… my best friend… finally called me out on all the dumb things I’ve been up to since we began traveling. We… said some things… nasty things… to each other. Then she said something that I know… something that’s true… a thing I’ve known since I was a little filly. But it’s never easy to hear it; it’s bad enough it’s always on my mind… My father thinks I’m nothing but a disappointment… He hates me. And… I hate him too.”

Dru took on an expression of pity, “If that’s indeed true, it must be very painful.”

She was letting her guard down some; her eyes began streaming as she choked it out, “He’s always hated me. He hates me for being born a girl… for not being what he wants me to be. Mother… she’s not much better. Once… when I was a little filly… she got very drunk with a friend of hers. I don’t even remember what I did to make her so angry, but she looked at me… she said, ‘If I hadn’t seen you come out of me… I’d refuse to believe you were mine’ and it hurt to hear that. They both love my brothers… and at least appreciate my sister, but not me.”

The stallion sighed, “Miss, I’m sure your parents don’t hate you.”

Essenta’s resolve was strong, “I know they do. Mother’s so cold to me… she’s… barely spoken to me in the last five years. And Father… he just proved it. My life… and the lives of my friends… don’t mean a thing to him…”

“That’s certainly a thing to say,” Dru pondered.

Essenta cried, “He tried to kill them, Dru! My friends! And… I don’t know what it was about me… I dunno. It was a nightmare!”

She again drained a mug of ale; she’d done this more than a few times since Dru sat down. Dru could tell Essenta was completely blasted; she’d have no memory of this… perhaps even of meeting him. She began nodding off, finally.

“I wish I could say something… anything, Princess… to assuage your hurt feelings. I admit I’m at a loss. But it matters not, in the end of it all.

“Your father, Princess Essenta, is a monster. I’d put him on the same level as Aodh Radulf and his ‘Fire Breathers’. I’ve waited an entire decade to kill all of them… Your father, Radulf, and Radulf’s fucking guild… I’ve waited for so very long to watch them die.

“For your sake… and the sake of the Dale… I will let that waste of life you call a father live. You may hate him, and he may hate you… he’s a monster… but I will not overturn the Dale for my sake… or anypony else’s. I will never forgive what he did to my wife and little filly, but he won’t die by my hoof. But Radulf and his… I will erase them in flame… as is his wont. Radulf will pay for all his crimes: razing western Joeh… the things he did in Oswald, tearing away Zyra Argon’s happiness… and deceiving an innocent corner of the world, lording over their orchards.”

Essenta was on the verge of passing out; she looked most fearful, “Who are you…?”

With that, she slumped onto the bar and began to snore lightly.

Sir Drausus stood up, squared the bar tab, and tossed Essenta over his back. He set off in the late afternoon sun to find the princess’s friends. His old friend Noach had told him plenty about all of them; locating them would not be difficult.

Author's Note:

Check out the Appendix for Princess Essenta, updated as the story moves along. It shows the story's timeline and character designs. Contains spoilers.


I decided to pull Princess off hiatus, but it won't see a weekly or regular release until the autumn. I will release them as they are partially rewritten and edited. I may try to split up some longer chapters, but will decide later. In writing, I never really have a goal in how long a chapter is; I just write enough to satisfy my own objectives for the events in each chapter. Some chapters say enough with 2K words and one in another story topped 12K words.


The company is in for an interesting time, on the heels of a nasty pissing contest between two best friends.

With the mysterious knight, Sir Drausus, carrying a sozzled princess around on his back, looking for the dynamic and dangerous mares Essenta has befriended, what will happen next?

If you enjoy Princess Essenta, please take a look at Larkspur Blossom. A story of a colt finding his worth and making a better life for himself.

Also look for The Virgin Company. A tale of a military pony and his platoon in a war centuries ago.

Like, follow, or leave a comment if you please. It's been fun writing and I'm glad some enjoy it.

Thanks for reading, and take care.

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