• 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 45: A Plague of Terror

Wicked World Arc

“Well…” Delia mused. “I think I found the solution to our problems… but you’ll have to hear me out.”

The mares in the jungle, their scene lit by a gas lantern, considered the words they perceived from the “talk-rock”. Delia had made an attempt at a joke, but something seemed remarkably wrong; they hadn’t known Delia all that long but something in her voice alarmed them.

Ama looked to Loress and Wilka; she stated, “Very well… Explain yourself.”


One hour earlier…

In a little kitchen lit by candles an 18-year-old beauty had prepared a little something for a mare that was once remarkably beautiful at some point in history.

Delia set a pot of curry on the table for her gracious host, “And… here we go.”

Cassia’s eyes lit up, “Oh, vegetable curry! I haven’t had this in years.”

Delia dished up some fluffy rice, covering it with the spicy goodness, “Oh, yeah… Carrots, onions, potatoes, three kinds of peppers, chickpeas, just a little tomato… in a nice, sweet coconut milk.”

“My son-in-law—of all ponies—made quite a good curry…” Cassia eyed the earthy-colored dish with anticipation.

“You never said you had a daughter, Cassia,” Delia took back the vessel for herself.

“I have three daughters, eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren…” the unicorn smiled sadly. “But they’ve moved away over the years, all of them north…”

“Family…” Delia saw the longing and sorrow in the other and she could relate to the feeling; she elected to treat it with love, “Well, I’d be honored to be such for the night.”

The former floor-scrubber hoofed the plate to the beaming Cassia; the old mare was touched, “Oh, thank you, dear…”

You’re the one putting us up for the night; I should be thanking you,” Delia dished her own plate.

“Oh, it’s quite alright… What about your friend?” Cassia looked to the other unicorn, lolling against the wall, not fully conscious.

Delia figured, “She’ll be alright. I don’t want the medicine I gave her to wear off, so I’ll just lace some into and feed her some porridge later. She doesn’t like curry all that much but like Hell I’d give it to her now… this stuff has me running for the outhouse before long.”

Cassia laughed; it was nice to have a little “girl-talk”, “I suppose you’ve had your hooves full with her.”

Delia dug into the curry; it was the best thing she’d tasted in weeks, “I’ve managed… Are you sure it’s safe for us to stay here? It’s no trouble?”

Spooning her curry with the glow of her horn, Cassia replied, “I may just be some old nag whose magic is rapidly failing her, but I can still put up a barrier around my own home… Certainly not as impressive as the one surrounding the country…”

Delia’s clumsy hoofwork left her spoon falling into her dinner; she halted and looked to the ancient one.

“Yes, Delia…” Cassia returned the look. “I hate to spoil such a lovely meal—I can’t remember anything this good—but we have things to discuss… I think we’ve… ‘felt the other out’ adequately.”

Delia retrieved her spoon but soon gave up on manners; she was an Earth pony and sometimes one just had to eat like a horse.

Taking a messy bite, Delia nodded, “I’d say you’re right.”

“Not that I don’t enjoy having such a lovely filly around… The game just can’t last.”

Delia saw the hurt in Cassia; she had much in mind, though, “You said you have a barrier around your home… Magic?”

Cassia nodded, “Yes, it keeps magic out… but it lets sound in while keeping it in; it also alerts me of certain activities in town.”

“The best of both worlds, eh? There’s a reason you didn’t want me on the streets at night, isn’t there?” Delia managed to still enjoy the curry she’d made.

“Yes… I’d been keeping an eye on you ever since you and your friend fell out of the sky; you’re fortunate her accidental teleportation found you at eye-level. I’m glad to say I was the only one to notice… and that nopony else realized it.”

Delia realized there really was something wrong in Nuinhof—perhaps the whole country—but it could wait, “Well, if you haven’t learned it already, her name’s Dechaa… She’s our group’s physician, I guess. She’s a healer and an apothecary, though more skilled in the ways of the northerners than is fully useful down here.”

Cassia glanced to Dechaa, “She’s also more than adept in the ways of empathy; I’ve never seen a unicorn that wasn’t a full psychic with such perception… even more so than many that are gifted in the magic of manipulating minds, really.”

Delia nodded, “I can see that…”

“Any unicorn can read a mind, Delia; it’s simply a matter of learning how. But for a psychic… it just comes naturally and there’s no substitute for that… and empathy isn’t something one can just culture so easily.”

Delia was mulling, “Would your barrier keep out that horrible whatever-the-Hell-it-is that had Dechaa throwing a fit… and our mage fainting?”

Cassia said, “Yes, it would keep it out. I did it for me…”

Delia continued eating, “I’ll bring her around in a while then; she won’t be happy I kept her in a stupor half the day, but it was better than the misery she pulled me on earlier.”

“I’m sure it was.”

Delia thought; she saw no reason to dick around, “There are eight of us, Cassia. Dechaa and I teleported here from the jungle when she had a seizure; I tried to stop her—knock out her flow of magic—but couldn’t until after she brought us here. Four of our party… including our other unicorn are out where I left them. Our leader… and our youngest—not the weakest but not particularly skilled in the ways of our current needs—are on the bordering savanna, waiting.”

Cassia mixed curry with rice, “I see…”

“You know what they’re saying about Salvatrix, don’t you… up north?” Delia wondered.

“Other than what I’ve gathered from you, no…”

Plague,” Delia took a drink of water. “The whole world thinks the plague blew up in a way not seen since the fall of Old Salvatrix… And the fact not a single pony has been known to come back north, it’s believable. The explorers… the opportunists… so many… I lived in “Last Chance”, after all; I saw them all go… and none come back.”

“‘None’?” Cassia considered. “Something tells me that’s not exactly accurate.”

“You’d be right, Cassia…” Delia was still angry about it. “It’s almost been a couple weeks… We found a Pegasus stallion named Hagano about 100 miles out of Salvatrix… It turns out he was a pirate turned slaver; he said they had a few fillies with a proper hoof-brand. They sold more than 20 of them to the Surf Guild... those that survived the desert.

“Once they’d made their sale, Hagano’s crew spent just about the entire spring and summer with the guild, enjoying the fillies and the loot they stole from the old kingdom. But once they tried to leave… they had trouble. Hagano said this one village was a little too friendly compared to what they’d seen. They got the nine pirates drunk… and one-by-one they disappeared.

“Hagano, though, kept in touch with his higher functions and when they tried putting him in chains—I suspect to put him to work somewhere—he escaped. He was weak from the humidity and heat, but he made it into the desert. I don’t think the cocksucker knew a thing about surviving and he ran out of food and water after only four days and 100 miles… a Pegasus, even!”

Cassia sipped on wine; it was already known between the two Delia didn’t imbibe, “And that’s where you found him.”

Delia sighed, “Sure enough… We nursed him back to health and what we heard once he was back among the living shook us up—what he’d been up to and what he’d seen—and we had second thoughts about our traveling any further.”

“You and your friends—whom I’ve never met—don’t seem to be treasure-hunters or adventurers,” Cassia was scooping up a second plate. “But I take it you had some reason to be down here.”

“You could ask or read my thoughts, but you might find it hard to fathom, why,” Delia gave a half-smile.

“But I don’t really care,” Cassia waved a hoof. “Go on.”

“Hagano stole our supplies when we cut him loose,” Delia said. “We let him go a few hours before we would head back across the desert and he switched our food-bag with the one we’d made for him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he made the city in four or five days.”

Cassia smirked, “A clever fellow…”

Delia grimaced, “Most clever… But we pulled ourselves together and made it here. All the flora and stuff in the forest made it easy to replenish our supplies—that motherfucker left us with two meals each… 100 miles out! Things were fine enough until we found that barrier in the jungle. It was during our second forage past the barrier that ‘cry in the wilderness’ set off the unicorns.”

Cassia’s withered lips tightened, “Every unicorn’s been suffering that…”

Delia wanted to know, “What is it? That ‘cry’?”

Cassia looked distressed, “There’s a lot to say but I’ll tell you the short of it for the moment: a family was made an example of.”

Delia felt her stomach clench; she had even more questions but stayed on topic, “They were tortured?”

“In ways I hope you cannot imagine, though I’m sure you can… You’re not a bad sort, Delia; I’m sure you’ve not lived a blameless life, but you’ve had one Hell-of-a life. I would hesitate to tell many—such as your friend over there—but you’re rough enough to share this with. On the other hoof, I won’t tell you everything; you cannot help matters and putting words to it is more than I wish to bear.

“I can tell you… but it would be wise to keep a lid on it. I can easily help you and your friends back to the desert—especially with that stone you keep tapping on—but they will not easily take the truth.”

Delia pushed her almost-empty plate away; she was hard-boiled alongside most mares but had lost her appetite, “Other than one of the mares—and that’s just possibly—you’re cocksure right about that. I won’t tell them much, but they know something’s wrong down here… Hagano said there was no plague but Salvatrix was sick with fear…”

The old mare chuckled humorlessly, “A plague of terror is how I view it… What he said was not at all inaccurate.”

“I’ll keep the worst of this place away from the girls but there may be no hiding that family’s suffering… We have a couple girls… who possess different sorts of magic; one’s already perceived it too.”

Cassia shook her head sadly, “They suffer no longer, Delia; they’re gone…”

Delia felt the tiniest bit of relief, though she still managed to push it out of mind, “I see… Well… unless I pull her out now, Dechaa’s gonna be in la-la-land a few more hours, so…”

Cassia had finished her second helping, “Let us clean up quickly… Then I will tell you all I can.”


For 100 years Salvatrix had flourished. Normally when rainforest is converted to farmland it turns to dreck… Salvatrix was different, thanks in no small part to the magic of the Earth ponies.

The colony started small as an endeavor by the wealthy Kastor family in hopes of establishing both production land and a reliable trade route for spices and sugar from the south.

What started small, grew. The Kastors—an old unicorn family—empowered the noble Baishan family and turned over the governing of the expanding colony; the Baishan family named the “renewed” country Salvatrix, as it had been known in the past. An Earth pony family, the Baishans were notable as one of two Earth pony families governing sovereign nations.

A few generations of unicorns marrying into the family quickly—and apparently—did away with Earth pony heredity but the Baishans remained in power. The decades saw expansion into the jungle and the growth in the south caused the checkpoint Penmaenback to flourish, as the last chance of refuge for those heading into the desert and the first taste of relief upon heading out. As such cities often did its underbelly grew as its more legitimate purposes did.

But that’s another gripe for another day.

The current trouble began in 4778. And it wasn’t some foreign invasion or outbreak of disease but the efforts of a small-time noble and the son of a poor farmer; they began something potentially good that others turned to something very, very ugly.

Remi Anthelm was a Pegasus of nobility, though of lower status than many. The youngest son of a long line of military stallions and regal ladies of the court, Anthelm broke tradition, shirking a military career—as his brothers certainly didn’t—and took up interest in soft commodities. His primary interest was sugar, but he took interest in any plant that could produce food and make money.

He was revered among the large sugarcane growers but less liked by the small growers and the ones that actually had to do the farming part. His work in the other food crops gained him popularity with the military. His family, at first disappointed with his choice of career, knew him to be more studious and less adept physically and soon supported his decision. He did more for the military in cheaply and effectively feeding them than he ever might have done as a soldier; his family knew that was nothing to shun.

Everypony had enough upon which to live and that was more than many could claim. And much of the credit was given to Anthelm.

In 4778 a reformer rose up amongst the small farmers and workers. Housa Kallisto was a Pegasus farm laborer with what many saw as near-supernatural charisma. He was also a troublemaker in the eyes of those interested in keeping things running cheaply, demanding better wages for laborers, their families, and an easier time for the small farmers. Those ideas always meant less money elsewhere.

Anthelm himself lived as a pauper. He ate simply, craved no entertainment other than an occasional book or recital, and lived in what the higher nobles scoffed as a shack. He was no laborer but often worked 16 hours a day advancing the military’s interests and funneled what money he didn’t need for his simple living to his family, always proud and strong but never prosperous.

He saw no issue with ponies “living as their stations allowed”. A laborer could scratch out a satisfactory living as he did, living off far more than he did.

This kind of thinking—some years before—cost him his marriage… and his children; his wife remarried one of his cousins and he was to see his colts and fillies only rarely. But many laboring families had families with children—Kallisto had a sickly wife and seven little ones—so the idea of living off so little with so much at stake didn’t hold water quite so well.

Things came to a rather anti-climactic head during a labor discussion in the Salvatrix Royal Forum of 4778. Kallisto had an audience with the king regarding his wishes and ideas. A more controversial area of his beliefs was that of the military scaling down significantly and more resources being poured into good farming practices and the small farmers and laborers themselves.

This didn’t sit well with Anthelm. Not a military stallion himself, and though Salvatrix had no real enemies externally he felt maintaining a powerful military would keep things that way. Salvatrix was isolated and while they had allies, hundreds of miles of desert separated the southern country from any of them.

The Royal Forum went well for Kallisto and his followers. The king listened to them and it was clear he’d taken what they said to heart. No small victory, Kallisto and his followers went to celebrate at a tavern.

The Royal Forum went rather poorly for Anthelm and those depending on him to keep their pockets well-lined and their soldiers happy. No small defeat, they went their separate ways. But while most of them retreated to their money and their comforts Anthelm went for a drink at a tavern, which was rare for him.

One drink turned to 10 and Anthelm was soon in the same territory as the reveling Kallisto. Before long the two realized the other was sitting down the bar from himself, Kallisto’s following having gone elsewhere.

One may think the two hated each other but that was far from true. They were much alike, both hard-working and uncompromising in working towards the best interests of those depending on them.

They also knew failing those depending on them could lead to ruin. Crusading could be a thankless life. But while Anthelm’s failure could lose him everything, Kallisto’s failure would never lose him one certain thing. And the thing Kallisto wouldn’t lose was the love of his family and followers.

Anthelm realized Kallisto was fighting for something worth a lot more than he was—"he” being himself and his cause to boot. Anthelm had fought—he hated to admit—for the approval of those that never really appreciated him for that beyond what he could do for them; it was a selfish and sad thing.

There, in that tavern, the two joined at a table and got so drunk it should’ve killed them both twice over and something nopony predicted would happen happened. Neither would ever compromise… so they swore an oath to cooperate… and do what was best for Salvatrix.

The alliance shocked everypony on both sides of the fence but while those in power shunned Anthelm—including his own family—the small farmers and laborers welcomed him as a friend. And he became their friend.

The 4779 growing season—and other facets of Salvatrix—saw many things come about. Noting the advances in irrigation employed by the growers in “Last Chance” City, Anthelm and Kallisto saw these employed where applicable in the southern country. New tilling practices were implemented in multiple crops. Better management practices took hold all over.

And that year saw the greatest harvest in four decades. Money poured in from their exports and the nobility, at first mocking the idea of the two Pegasi cooperating, were stunned into silence. Anthelm supplied the skull-sweat and Kallisto was the face of it all.

And to top it off it cost virtually no more than any previous season had to employ the new practices. It really was just better management of resources that led to such a thing.

The year had been good for Anthelm. He moved away from the capitol, found something truly worth fighting for, made his first real friend in Kallisto, and even fell in love with the widowed sister of a farmer he’d aided.

The king and some of his court were sold on the alliance of Anthelm and Kallisto… but many of the court weren’t. And the military least of all. They saw what was coming.

4780 was another good year. Anthelm, with a few adopted children and a new filly born of his new wife in the summer, had an absolute ball doing the “dad thing” all over again. He made time for them as he worked and found he’d never been happier in his life. Kallisto saw his sickly wife improve and had a ball seeing his kids get on so well with Anthelm’s kids; they lived in the same town after all.

What the entire country saw coming—and what the military and some of the nobility had been dreading—would soon manifest. While the changes in the country’s farming practices had cost little, the actual reform would cost more. The military would see less favoritism and many pockets would see a lot less lining.

Anthelm believed in his heart—deeply and truly—that both the court and the military would support the things the king himself and many of the ponies of the country would embrace. And this was no folly: Remi Anthelm was a cynical fellow but viewed the changes as the closest thing to an absolute good mortal ponies would ever see. He knew inequality was unavoidable and indeed the natural thing; he also knew a pony didn’t need a lot of money and a big house to be truly prosperous.

But while Anthelm chose to look for the good in those less interested in their endeavors Kallisto saw trouble brewing. He chose to be wary.

The harvest of 4780, with Salvatrix’s farmers improving upon what they’d learned the year previous, saw the second greatest return in the country’s 100 year history.

This further solidified the coming shift of power. But while Anthelm and Kallisto had “power”—the support of the king, half the court, and most of the country’s ponies—the military had actual power in highly-trained and hardened, yet bored and inexperienced soldiers.

And Kallisto still saw trouble brewing; really, it was there. He recommended to the king—under great discretion—to activate emergency power over the military and dismiss or limit power of certain ponies within the military.

The king felt the same way as Anthelm and dismissed such ideas.

Eadwig Anthelm, Remi’s oldest brother, was both a knight of Salvatrix and a colonel in the army with prospects of becoming a general. He was also the biggest opponent of Kallisto once his younger brother had “jumped ship”, Remi having been a fierce yet decent opponent to the then-potential reform and those promoting it.

Sowing seeds of discontent among his faithful—most of the military and half the court—Eadwig Anthelm waited for his time to strike. And the time to strike came at the end of the year.

The annual Salvatrix Royal Ball saw the king announce the reforms planned for 4781: the long and short of it was—though not explicitly stated—the military would scale back and lose a substantial share of governing power. There was only so much money and with things improving for small farmers and laborers—not to mention the creation of a new division of the government to oversee agricultural matters—the military would suffer.

Allowing those opposing the reform to stew for a couple months, Eadwig Anthelm—having been promoted to general just days prior, allowing him to maneuver those under his station into position—overthrew the king one day in the early spring.

During what was meant to be a routine training exercise the army present in the capitol marched on the castle, imprisoned the king and his faithful, and took over.


“Just like that?” Delia had found her appetite again, chewing on a scone she’d bought at another bakery, the curry now gone.

Cassia had a scone of her own, “I gave you a rather simplified version… but that's what happened. Eadwig is as cunning as Remi is hardworking, so he’s very clever. Within an hour of declaring martial law they had the roads out of the country closed and the barrier up.”

“And how did they manage to put up the barrier?” Delia understood “moving pieces into place” could bring about a successful coup but the magic fucking barrier was another matter.

Cassia shook her head, “I wish I knew… Truly, I wish I knew. I have my suspicions… but no more than that.”

Delia wondered what they were and was about to ask but—

“There are magics within this country that are hard to imagine, Delia… Leave it at that.”

Delia would do so.

“Some of the military—those faithful to Eadwig Anthelm—flocked to him… The others… were less organized. Those away from the capitol had no idea what had happened and were far less than prepared. Many that didn’t swear loyalty died.”

“Even with the border closed there had to be some that tried to escape,” Delia said.

“Many tried… Many died… But many stayed; there is little more than desert for hundreds of miles. Where would they go?”

“It just doesn’t make sense how this would stay quiet…” Delia wondered aloud.

“You seem to misunderstand how quickly this came about, Delia. Eadwig had this planned for years… and he spent years enacting it. When the time came the country was changed in a matter of hours. Plus… there are more than closed roads and magical barriers and the army guarding the borders to keep ponies from leaving.”

Delia figured that had something to do with the family that was “made an example of”; she was trying to piece this together, “What about Anthelm and Kallisto?”

“The little farming village of Punt is about as far away from the capitol as you can get, Delia. The whole town are Pegasi, other than a couple of unicorns that were stationed there.”

Delia gulped, “So… they never stood a chance.”

Cassia shook her head, “Oh, no… Remi Anthelm, you may recall, came from a military family; he’s a trained soldier—it was all he knew as a young stallion. And Kallisto… was once a spy for Eadwig Anthelm; he left his service and changed his name when Eadwig called on him for an actual assassination. Remi was never much good at soldiering, but he could hold his own.

“Kallisto saw trouble coming—though he’d never anticipated such trouble—and had a plan of his own. The soldiers stationed in that town were there for one reason: to kill the younger Anthelm and Kallisto once the coup began.”

"Eadwid ordered his brother dead...?" Delia knew it made sense, but...

"After all that had happened there was little love lost, Delia."

Delia was on the edge of her seat, “And they fought the soldiers?”

Cassia almost looked proud, “Those two slaughtered them… Remi Anthelm wasn’t happy when he found out Kallisto had been working behind his back, but he wasn’t exactly ungrateful either. Before the army knew what hit them, the two took their families and townsponies and disappeared into the jungle. I hope their families are at least safe. I'm sure they've not escaped; the world would know the truth if they had.”

“They chose to fight? Just like that?” Delia was bewildered; running seemed the best option in any case.

Cassia shook her head still, “The minds of such stallions baffle me, Delia… but this is their country… They love it more than anypony.”

“What happened to them?”

Cassia shrugged, “Nothing, as far as I know. They’ve been harassing the army for six months… The soldiers that escaped capture or execution sought them out. I wouldn’t call it a civil war you’ve landed yourself in—there aren’t enough fighting in the name of the king to call them more than rebels—but that’s what it is.”

Delia sat in wonderment; this was certainly an unpleasant thing, “So… where do things stand?”

Cassia sighed, “In an effort to keep ponies in line many towns and cities have soldiers stationed… Nuinhoff isn’t all that important in the grand scheme so we don’t have soldiers here… What we have is worse.”

Delia’s stomach, in knots much of the night, clenched again, “And that’s why you pulled me in…”

“Yes, Delia,” Cassia nodded. “Many towns see their own citizens ‘keeping the peace’. We have a hoofful of stallions—who love power and money more than their own city and ponies—that maintain the law around here. The military gives them authority—and backing—and they love it… There are a couple dozen in town and most are unicorns... Occasionally actual soldiers show up to make their presence known.

“And to make matters worse, they have somepony we refer to as—as do the stallions themselves—as ‘the squealer’. Somepony—I don’t know who it is—keeps an eye on things; hidden, he or she manages to catch most everything that goes on. You notice ponies seem to be distrustful of others… ‘the squealer’ is no small part of why; it really could be anypony.”

“And you figured ‘the squealer’ would find me…” Delia pulled up her back legs and hugged them, looking to the fireplace.

“I’m astonished the little fucker didn’t find you. It has to be a unicorn… able to sense bursts of magic beyond what we’d use to levitate a spoon, for example. And the burst Dechaa put out… nearly had me shit my dress!”

“And that’s why you have your own barrier…” Delia looked around unable to see it.

“Indeed… among other things.”

“Well, I’m glad you found me…”

“You should be; being caught outside after curfew would be a possibly fatal thing. Even with your skills—which are formidable, I can tell—they’d have raped you and cut your throat, I imagine,” Cassia said informally.

Delia felt a pain across her neck at the thought; she felt ill, picturing it all, “So things really are bad…”

“Yes… they certainly are. The barrier keeps telepathy, magical signaling, and other magic in… and fear keeps ponies from going for the borders. I’m shocked all of you even made it in without detection.”

“What about all the ponies that disappear when they came down here?” Delia asked.

“Well, you mentioned your pirate friend… The new government conscripts ponies that wander into Salvatrix to work the fields… and just work… It’s slavery, pure and simple. Any citizen that crosses our new stratocracy—the bastards even rewrote our constitution—that they don’t kill suffer the same fate.”

She hated to ask but had to know; Delia summoned the courage, “The family… that was made an example of… What happened?”

At this, Cassia looked the most reluctant Delia had seen of her; she looked at the earnest little Earth pony, though, and groaned, “A few weeks ago… a nearby village saw some thieves come through—they’d been in Old Salvatrix, pilfering—and they were resting up before crossing the desert. Salvatrix is a big place, Delia. There are ponies out in the wilderness that have no idea what’s going on, I imagine… until they find themselves in civilization again.

“You said this Hagano escaped Salvatrix—he must’ve been the one. The village was to lull these stallions in and capture them. They got all but one. When our beloved ruler Eadwig Anthelm—yes, Delia, he’s the one in charge—heard they let a pony get away… he saw the town annihilated.”

Delia’s breath was gone; she choked on the water she’d been trying to sip to calm her nerves, “Gone…?”

Cassia’s eyes leaked, “Yes… gone… And to let ponies know the severity—and the cost—of what happened… Eadwig demanded an example be made in every community.”

Delia’s throat was tight, “So that’s it…”

Cassia breathed, “Yes… but those with hold were left to their devices. Many places—even those not under regular soldiers—saw floggings or food-rationing or seizure of property… but not ours… not ours…”

The former maid wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear more, but found the words coming from her mouth, “So they tortured a family… and killed them… just to make a point…”

“And they were very careful in selecting,” Cassia was crying now. “There was a family… with four foals. The second-youngest was a unicorn filly… with budding psychic powers… strong ones. They killed the rest of the family pretty quickly but took their time with that filly.

“A week… I can barely stand to think about the things they did to her. And then… they left her chained on the edge of town… for another week… no food or water… surrounded by her dead family. And the entire time, we felt her pain, Delia! She cried and screamed for relief… but nopony would give it to her… under the threat of the same…”

Delia was stunned into silence; she was in such disbelief she barely even considered the look she gave Cassia.

Cassia shied away, “Please! Don’t look at me that way, Delia! I’m old… My magic’s just about failed me… But I’m scared, too… Please don’t look at me that way; there’s nothing I could do…!”

Delia, somehow registering this, nodded, breathing quickly; she wasn’t even aware she was hyperventilating.

Cassia went on, “When she couldn’t cry anymore… she just kept on through her power, Delia! It got worse, our feeling it… Even the Earth ponies noticed, she was so powerful… It rained several days ago… a lot. I thought the exposure would’ve finished her, but she lived a few days longer, drinking from a mud puddle… But this afternoon… that was it… and they’ve left them all there to rot…!”

Seeing Cassia about to collapse, Delia bolted to catch her.

Looking into the younger mare’s dark-green eyes, Cassia gasped, “I can’t take it anymore, Delia! Everpony’s so… terrified… Nopony knows how to even act anymore!”

Delia embraced the old mare, feeling tears leak from her own eyes.

“I’ve lived too long…” Cassia croaked. “Damn this world… Everything… Damn it all to Hell…”

Delia wasn’t sure if the unicorn had fainted from exhaustion or just fallen asleep, but she conked out.

Somehow, Delia managed to pull Cassia to her bed; it wasn’t that she was heavy—she was all skin and bones—but Delia barely even felt in her own body.

Sitting back down at the table, Delia’s mind was running a race yet blank as a dead pony’s eyes. She looked to Dechaa; the healer was sleeping soundly and not in a drug-induced stupor anymore.

Fine… Delia would let her sleep; Dechaa was fortunate to not know the things she knew.

Delia wished she didn’t know the things she knew, but there was no forgetting it.

With the unicorns out—likely for the night—Delia looked around the tiny house. She found what she was looking for—maps; it wasn’t all that surprising Cassia would have such things. It wouldn’t take her long to find her bearings, she knew, spreading a few out on the table.

Sneaking to the door and barely pushing through the small barrier she tapped “all’s well” to the girls, though that was far from the truth; she received the same and that probably was true.

All she had to do was meet up with them and leave before anything else happened.

She had to come up with a plan.

Unable to come up with much of anything, she felt compelled to finish her scone, poring over the maps.

The baked treat tasted like ashes to her.

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.


Delia must now find a way to process all this... and see her new friends can escape the awful place into which they've found themselves.

The way is clear enough but as things often are with the little company things rarely end cleanly.


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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