Chapter Text
No matter what passes between us, no matter how distant we grow, you will always be in my heart.
Whatever story is woven from our joy and sorrow, I will never regret it.
Do not burden yourself with concerns of wrong choices or wrong endings.
In the end, we wrote our story together.
Chapter I
The Princess and the Knight
The Pale Queen
Awaken, my Knight. It is time for you to fulfill your purpose.
The Pale Queen
I speak of your mission. Your quest. I have called you forth, Sir Knight, for you are my trusted agent, the only one capable of completing this vital mission. A Princess lies imprisoned in the dungeons of our castle. She will not stay held for long. If she is released, she will put an end to our entire world.
It is up to you to stop her, my dear Knight. I grant you the authority to judge her, and in my name, execute her.
The Pale Queen
The one you swore to serve, your guide and ruler, though I would have you see me as more than merely your master.
The Pale Queen
No, and that is by design, dear Knight. I ask only for you to trust me. I am telling the truth.
The Pale Queen
Consider it… a matter of faith.
The Pale Queen
I am not offended by your questions, dear Knight. In fact, I am gladdened by your desire to understand the truth. If you have any more for me, I will answer what I can.
The Pale Queen
The nature of your mission required certain sacrifices, all of which were willingly made by you, dear Knight. As part of our covenant, I agreed to say no more on the matter.
The Pale Queen
She posed a threat to our very existence. She must be executed to avert disaster.
The Pale Queen
You alone accepted the mission. You alone can see it through. There is no one else.
The Pale Queen
You will need to meet the Princess for yourself in order to know her, and you must do so soon. She is confined, for now. But she will soon break free. If she does, our world will end.
The Pale Queen
This is a forest in our kingdom. You stand on the path leading to our castle. There, in the dungeons, you will find the Princess waiting.
The Pale Queen
Every kingdom must be protected by its walls. Pay it no further mind.
The Pale Queen
In time, you will understand.
Are you ready now, Sir Knight?
The Pale Queen
You walk up the short path to the castle. Within, you will find the Princess waiting.
Before you continue on your journey, Sir Knight, I would offer you this advice.
Be swift, be decisive. Whatever you may see, whatever you may hear, have heart and see it through. I will remain by your side, always.
Voice of the Hero
Something about this all feels really familiar, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but something tells me we really shouldn’t execute that Princess, at least not until we learn the full story.
The Pale Queen
Hello, little voice. It’s good to hear from you.
Voice of the Hero
Do you… know me?
The Pale Queen
Not as well as I know our dear Knight, though I know of his esteem for you. Which is why I welcome you, dear Hero, in spite of your misgivings.
Voice of the Hero
Oh… well… I don’t really know what to say.
The Pale Queen
There is little that needs to be said now. It is time for your journey to continue.
The Pale Queen
The interior of the castle is plain but familiar. Its firm stone walls indicate a strength that has withstood the test of time. At the far end of the great hall is a simple iron door leading to the dungeons downstairs. A large padlock loops around a heavy iron bar, sealing the heavy door in place. To the right, a key for unlocking the padlock hangs from a hook set in the stone. Not far from the iron door is a simple wooden table with your weapon of choice, a familiar knife. It waits patiently upon the table, waiting for its master to take it up once more.
This weapon is your means of rendering final judgment, the very power of life and death converging at its pointed tip. It is yours to take.
The Pale Queen
You need only concern yourself with the door leading to the dungeon. Spare no further thought for the stairs.
Voice of the Hero
I agree, and I don’t like how she seems to be trying to mislead us.
The Pale Queen
I’m not trying to mislead you. There is nothing up there you need. The only things of importance are the knife on the table and the Princess in the dungeons. Exploring those stairs will only waste time, and time is something we are running out of.
The Pale Queen
You take the knife in your hand, feeling its cold and familiar weight. You know what you need to do.
Voice of the Hero
I guess we really are ignoring those stairs. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to explore them once we’re done.
The Pale Queen
You take the key from the hook before inserting it into the keyhole of the iron door. There is resistance, as if it has been many years since the lock has last been used.
But eventually it gives way. The padlock falls to the floor and you slide the metal bar aside. With a firm push, you shove the iron door aside, its hinges creaking with a heavy groan.
You step inside, feet slowly descending a stone staircase illuminated by a faint light coming from below. This place is… cruel, but it is a necessary part of our kingdom. After all, if we did nothing against those who threatened our realm, it would have long ago fallen into ruin.
The stairway is silent, save for the distant clanking of chains.
The Pale Queen
Come. Your destined encounter with the Princess awaits.
You make your way to the bottom of the steps. Ahead of you is a narrow stone corridor with no windows. The place is pitch-black, with the only source of light emanating from a distant torch anchored to the wall on the other side of the room. Beneath the light of the torch, you make out the slumped form of the Princess as she stares blankly at the floor. There is a heavy shackle around her neck, binding her to this place.
As you approach, she stirs before raising her head, her eyes staring into the darkness beyond.
Voice of the Hero
The… Princess… she…
What’s going on? Why do I feel like we recognize her?!
The Pale Queen
So, you do remember. Or at least, you didn’t forget everything.
Sigh. I should have known. I am sorry this will have to be harder than it already is, but there’s no point in trying to hide it now.
Voice of the Hero
Hide what?! What have you been keeping from us?!
The Pale Queen
She is not some Princess from a foreign land.
This kingdom is as much her home as it is ours.
For she is -
Our Princess
Achievement Unlocked
Welcome to Our Princess
Ending Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments
Señor Donjusticia
At last, at LONG last, it’s here!
What you see here is the culmination of roughly a year’s worth of planning, preparing, and writing.
And I could NOT have done it alone.
Señor Donjusticia
“Our Princess” is an unofficial sequel to “Slay the Princess,” following off a particular ending. (I’ll let you all deduce which ending that is.) This idea of mine goes WAY back. (If you want a rough estimate of how far back it goes, look at the publication date of “A Coat Worthy of a Princess.” Yes, that joke one-shot was basically a secret teaser of this project.)
It is my ultimate dream to transform Our Princess into a fully-functional fan-game in the style of Slay the Princess. However, as game programming is something I know basically nothing about, I will focus my goals around writing the best possible story version of this concept as I can.
I am working as the main script writer for this project, while many more wonderful people are contributing their own talents to this project, both in terms of the actual game and this fanfic.
Consider this fanfic a singular “Let’s Play” by the author. Should you read this entire fanfic once it is completed, you will have experienced roughly about… 2% of the content I hope to have in the full fan game.
Señor Donjusticia
LOTS of people came together and combined into a great and terrible Shifting Mound of creativity and destruction!
So let’s take a moment to introduce them.
First is my long-time writing buddy, Nox Barian. Long before Slay the Princess was even created, Nox encouraged me to continue my hobby of writing fanfiction and the two of us have a long history of sharing and supporting one another in our mutual love of storytelling. When I was introduced to Slay the Princess through ManlyBadassHero’s playthroughs of the Demo, I knew I needed to share this story with him, and he has become a fellow fan. Whenever I am stuck in a writer’s block loop, he is always there to smash through it with his piercing wit and clever puns.
He is assisting me with the writing by workshopping ideas, proofreading, inserting jokes, and generally maintaining my morale with a variety of cat puns. (He co-wrote “The Catgirl” chapter in “The Other Princesses”).
I could Nyat have done this without him.
Nox Barian
Thanks Donny. Ahem…. Hello world, ladies, gentlemen and people who are fans of Slay the Princess, Nox here, the greatest blessing and greatest curse to Donny’s existence at the same time. It is I who blessed you all with the work of artistic brilliance that is…. “The Catgirl” and yet it is also I who constantly drives Donny insane with my unique brand of humor, thus ensuring Donny gets nothing done on most days. Therefore, if any of you are eagerly awaiting Our Princess, and there happen to be delays (and we know there will be) you know who to blame. Anyway, now for my shameless self-promotion! If any of you are Yu-Gi-Oh fans, my main writing project is a Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL fanfic known as Ice Queen Cometh. I’ve also written a short Slay the Princess story of my own called “Slay the Princess: We Have Cookies.” Anybody who checks that out and showers it with the praise it so rightfully deserves, may be blessed with a free cookie. I also have a second one that’s much spookier called “Slay the Princess: Scare the Crow.” Anybody who reads that and showers it with the praise it so rightfully deserves will be kept safe from leftover spooky Halloween Spirits.
Señor Donjusticia
It’s really quite good, so please check him out and support his other works as well!
Señor Donjusticia
Next up is my more recent writing buddy, ASpooky. I don’t think most of you would be familiar with who this guy is. I mean, his story is pretty obscure. All he did was write some crossover involving Slay the Princess and some weird cop game called Disco Elysium.
What was that story called again? Fluffy of a- no - Fuzzy of a - Erg! I can’t recall… OH WAIT! I remember.
He wrote “Furry of a Shattered Mirror.” Did I spell that write?
Well, regardless, it’s a fairly small and obscure story most of you have probably never heard of. Nevertheless, I found his writing skills… passable, and condescended by allowing him to work on my magnum opus as a co-author.
(Please do not believe any accounts of Señor Donjusticia going insane after seeing the amazing work that is ASpooky’s fanfic, and going even more bonkers when this legendary author bothered to not only notice him, but turned out to be someone who was a blast to work with.)
Thanks to ASpooky’s coding skills, the formatting for “Our Princess” is the glorious display you see before you. ASpooky also helps me with my outlines, offers proofreading, makes sure that I spel things write, deletes commas, with, a, vengeance,,, and is generally fun to talk to and tease.
ASpooky
Well, here we are again. I bet you didn't expect to see a credit from me here, did you? Well you better believe it -- because this work, something I've helped put together with His Domnipotence and the rest of the crew, is *fantastic*. And I'm not only saying that because I helped, promise! You all are in for such a treat.
I only have a few pieces of writing to my name, which you can find on my profile -- the most prominent of course being the aformentioned fic THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR. My knowledge of CSS formatting is still amateur, self-taught from picking apart workskins -- but it makes things so much more immersive and powerful, doesn't it?
Señor Donjusticia
READ “FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR!”
The… what? Total of two people in the world who haven’t done so yet?
It’s awesome. Go read it!
Señor Donjusticia
Next up is a creator by the name of Applejam.
Okay, no joke, this guy is INCREDIBLE!
I have said before that my dream for this project is for it to become a fully functioning fan-game. Thing is, I personally have ZERO knowledge on how to code. Heck, I struggle with technology in GENERAL!
So I knew I couldn’t turn this idea into a fan game.
BUT HE CAN!
And I didn’t even have to ask him!
Seriously, one day, I just shared my rough draft of chapter 1 on the Slay the Princess Discord and AppleJam read it before IMMEDIATELY converting the story into a Choose Your Own adventure style mini-game! I was BLOWN AWAY! And then he tells me that he’s learning to code renpy!
Thanks to him, my scope for this project really took off. Later on, he set up the entire “Our Princess” Discord page. Everyone, please give this guy a HUGE thank-you!
AppleJam
Why thank you Don, you're too kind, oh you want me to write something? Okay then, I'll think of something. Hello world! I'm Apple Jam, and as Don told you, I'll be making an "Our Princess" fangame! In this fan game you'll be the one making the choices, not smelly old Don here, and as such you'll be able to meet princesses such as The He-
Señor Donjusticia
No spoilers!
AppleJam
Fine, I guess you'll have to wait until I get around to making it to find out... What's that Don? You want me to add some links to some personal projects of mine? No, I think I'd much rather link to the official "Our princess" Server here: https://discord.gg/kAFmWskUhM
And link to that scraped together prologue thing you were talking about that I made in google slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dWM5xgVN4Pkq4rTwrHvHRllhpEnla8cLYJzMhPiXfog/edit?usp=sharing
Welp, it was nice talking to you all but now I must retreat back to the coding basement, Don only lets me have 5 minutes of sunlight a day.
Señor Donjusticia
YOU OVERSTEPPED! NO SUNLIGHT FOR YOU TODAY!
*Chains him back up in the Dongeon before throwing away the key*
Honestly! The ingratitude of these sla- I MEAN - “willing workers”…
AHEM!
Before I forget, this story ALREADY has some amazing fanart that has melted my heart. This one is made by AppleJam's sister, who has been asked to be referred to as Raspberry Jam.
Señor Donjusticia
Next up is our background artist, who goes by the name “Lil. Mr. Slipstream”. Lil. Mr. Slipstream is responsible for creating the background art, AND is the one who created the achievement art seen at the very end of this chapter. He ALSO created the PFP I use for my Discord Avatar after I STOLE it from him (with his permission.)
Expect many more works of art from him as the series progresses.
Lil Mr. Slipstream
Hullo! Check out my tumblr page, i guess.
Señor Donjusticia
Speaking of art, HUGE thanks goes to the artist, Romadrox8975, who created the art for the castle AND who first created the concept art for the Princess. That concept art can be seen below.
Romadrox8975
I Lightning Hunter | WEBTOON (webtoons.com) (Webcomic)
Yugioh Arc V: Lost Pendulum - Romadrox8975, orphan_account - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own] (Fanfic)
GothGirllover (@GothgirlloverT) (X / Twitter account)
Señor Donjusticia
Follow the above links to support him!
He is currently creating many more pieces of concept art for this story, which will either be featured on their own, or at the end of chapters should the concept art be expanded upon by other artists (as was the case with this concept art). Speaking of…
Señor Donjusticia
Next is the amazing artist, wwwjam, who took the concept art of Romadrox8975 and developed it into the image of the Princess seen in this chapter.
Thank you so much for doing this. You truly brought this character to life.
He has contributed several other pieces of art for this series and all of them are INCREDIBLE! Please give this guy a huge thank-you!
Señor Donjusticia
Last, but absolutely not least, I and everyone else who is a fan of “Slay the Princess” gives a MASSIVE thank-you to Tony and Abby for creating their masterpiece! You have truly made something beautiful and I wish the two of you success in your future endeavors and happiness as you venture into the unknown together.
Consider this project my love letter to you.
Thank you, for capturing my imagination.
Señor Donjusticia
There are many more who have contributed their skills and time to this project, who I will not reveal yet because I am an incorrigible tease. But rest assured that they WILL be given the proper adulation when the time arrives.
Señor Donjusticia
In the meantime, my final thank-you goes to YOU, my dear reader, for taking the time to read this. I truly appreciate your time and hope that you enjoyed yourself. There is MUCH more yet to come!
Señor Donjusticia
You have already helped immensely by reading the story. But now you must dedicate yourself FULLY to the cult! Spread the word! Bug your friends! Join the “Our Princess” Discord!
And… honestly just leave a comment. Good or bad, I truly wish to hear your thoughts on this story.
Señor Donjusticia
Anyone with technical or artistic talents are strongly encouraged to DM me. I have a LOT of art pieces that I would love to see created, and I am willing to financially compensate people for their contributions. Whether those artistic talents involve drawing, digital art, voice acting, video editing, or cat juggling, all are welcome to share and WILL be properly credited should their work find its way into either this story or another piece connected to the Our Princess project.
You can reach me on Discord either by DMing me (My username is Señor Donjusticia) or by pinging me on the Black Tabby Games Discord. If you join the “Our Princess” Discord channel, you can also ping me there.
Señor Donjusticia
That, dear reader, is up to you.
Will you support this project and allow it to inflict its terrors upon the world?
Or will you attempt to destroy it? Thereby denying Señor Donjusticia a massive win for his ego?
CHOOSE!