She surfaced back into consciousness with a jolt. She couldn’t breathe; drowning, she was drowning, one thought passed through her mind; I can't swim. Lily Valley frantically reached towards the surface, oxygen lingered in her lungs as she did not have a chance to take a large gulp of air before being cast aside. It did not take long for the soft pink mare to stop her endeavor of trying to swim. She was so tired,she couldn’t keep going if she wanted to at that time. A florist and a prince would have never worked. Why did I try?
It was her fault that she ended up here, deep in the Manehattan Bay. A simple florist and a prince would never work. Why did she think it would? As naive a mare as she was when Blueblood had asked her to spend time with him, of course she had said yes. It was stupid to think the spoiled brat had ever loved her. Instead, he had just used her, then tossed her out like old bathwater. The gala was when everything started.
She was arranging the flowers as the prince drew near, clearly upset at something. She gave a smile and a bow. Respect. She showed him respect and didn’t fuss about him. Most ponies saw him as a lesser member of the royal family, she knew: the scion, an afterthought, a mortal amongst eternals. How could she? He was a unicorn, he was royalty -- something she could only dream of. For her, he was a perfect stallion, he could take care of her, her family even too, and let her have her dream of tending to the royal gardens, but that was simply a dream. The biggest issue was that she was an earth pony. Royals would just be scoffed at for her mere presence amongst them, none of them had earth pony genetics besides the traits buried in the sisters; everyone with half a mind would frown on it, right? That is what she would think an outsider would believe anyway. The way her long cream dress clung to her just right; the way her mane was curled, the way the lilies woven and embroidered into both caught the light - it made her stand out amongst the others doing the same. Maybe that was why he took a fancy to her. When he extended a hoof to dance she was awestruck.
“Care to take this dance?” Soft words, music to her ears, fell from his lips.
She took his hoof and, from that moment, she had sealed her fate. Her ship was afloat, bobbing in the water that was all too eager to close over her fragile, commoner body and drown her.
Even after a night of being doted on by a prince, it had still surprised her when he approached her the next day. She had returned alone to take down the flowers from the Gala, since Rose and Daisy were helping elsewhere in Equestria, working on a wedding. Cold blue eyes on her, they were always cold. She didn’t care, royalty was speaking to her. Of course it was bittersweet, he seemed sweet, but sometimes cold. It didn’t matter how he treated her, he was spending time with her, a lowly earth pony with no pedigree. They chatted the day away. He did not help her with the removal of the arrangements in the room, it was her job, his aunt was paying for her to do it, he didn’t need to help, this work was beneath royalty it was just her duty afterall.
That was her first red flag but her ship was still afloat.
No one seemed to notice her new giddy nature over eight months.
No one noticed her leaving for Canterlot more and more frequently.
No one noticed when she stayed the night, or for even a week.
No one noticed the quiet mare acting so much different or the expensive gifts.
No one noticed when her abdomen began to swell.
No one noticed, or no one cared.
Yet her ship stayed afloat.
If she could cry underwater she would have. She had missed the signs and because of that she would die alone.
Lily Valley thought he would be happy when she told him she was with child. She noticed him go cold. She noticed the anger in his eyes. Yet she refused to get rid of it. Lily truly loved the prince and thought he felt the same. His eyes were always cold but his actions were always warm. She always had a warm touch from him until that day.
No one noticed the bruise on her cheek when she came back home. Yet her ship stayed afloat.
Rose and Daisy noticed when she moved to Canterlot permanently. They were happy - proud even - they would never know that she didn't move for the business. She was to stay in the woods near the city, as a secret, and would not be allowed to leave.
She choked on the liquid in her lungs. Her time was running out, but she felt so stupid. She had left her family and friends behind for some fantasy that was never going to happen. She had been living a fairytale from the beginning. No one told of the inherent cruelty Blueblood’s in nature. As a child, she was never told fairytales weren’t real.
She was seven months pregnant and just beginning to show when she moved into the small cabin. She hid her pregnancy as long as she could. Four more and she could leave, or that’s what she thought. She didn’t think those six months would be hell for her. Lily was never allowed to leave the west tower; she was a prisoner of the prince. He still came to see her, to use her. He burned into her mind how useless she was since she was a lowly earth pony he had chosen to bestow his attentions upon, nothing more. He had made her important but that importance mattered nothing to anypony else.
Black and blue littered her coat. The doctor she had was private and would make sure she was being taken care of properly. Blueblood couldn’t force her to abort the child, even if it was a bastard. He couldn’t let others know; the more who knew, the more it could hurt him. Medical procedures like that left a trail, most doctors would not force a mare to go through it even if her husband was determined. If things did get out anyway, a child was better than a forced abortion on the prince’s name. But if the prince had his way, he would have had her get rid of it, then get rid of her. The two princesses would never know what was happening just under their noses. They were too busy at the time to look into any behavioral changes in the young stallion. They were oblivious of the horrors happening to their favorite florist. The shop in Ponyville produced the best in their mind, since the shop stayed open, no one noticed when the pink and gold mare returned home less and less. They only knew Lily eventually moved away.
She was moved deeper into the forest when she was about to foal. Blueblood did not want his aunts to know of what he had done to the mare. He was betrothed to another now to one who was hoofpicked for him; Lily knew she had lost him, but . . . had she ever had him to begin with?
Her labor was long and painful. She was with nopony but the doctor when it happened: he didn't allow her to have medicine, he didn’t want to spend anything else on this ‘problem’ than he already had, he didn’t want to leave a trail. Taking anything would have required the doctor to have access to it in the first place; she was Blueblood’s personal doctor, she could not even get any if she wanted to help her fellow mare. She did care but the repercussions of helping terrified her. The doctor was doing the best she could for the pink mare with what she had, without displeasing her employer.
After many strenuous hours, a small pink and blonde unicorn was born. She had her mother's gold eyes. The mother daughter connection was instantaneous. She adored her daughter, she wanted to protect the filly with her life, sadly she did not get the chance. Only a few fleeting moments with her child before it was taken away from her. Exhausted and in immense pain, she couldn't fight back.
No one noticed the resemblance when the royal family adopted one more. Lily was never told her daughter’s name, her daughter would never know or remember her.
Her ship was sinking.
She was soon taken to Manehattan, hoping to just live out her life. A few years went by, she was alone. Well, not truthfully in fact a guard was stationed to watch her. A far worse fate in anyone’s eyes. Someone was always at her apartment to make sure she did not step out of line. She watched her child from a distance, and eventually it was too much. She could not stay quiet for any longer.
Lily just wanted to meet her daughter. She would never get that far, so instead she wrote a letter to Celestia, one night when her guard was asleep. Lily explained everything in her letter, and pressed the lily from her mane into it. Carefully she mailed it, she was caught leaving the home. She never knew if her letter got out, Please Celestia, receive this before I can no longer be saved. She prayed, that's all she could do now, pray and hope, there was no point in running away anymore.
Hope had left her, the last little spark was used to write and mail that letter as soon as she could, taking off would have hurt more than waiting for help. Her ship was sunk as soon as she came back into the apartment. the guard who watched her pinned her down. He berated her, she knew she wouldn’t get out of this. Instead there was a sharp pain on the back of her head, and her vision blurred before going back. The guard was just doing what he was told. He was told that she was disposable, so that is what he did.
Instead of hopefully being free in just a mere few days, she was knocked unconscious and thrown into the sea. Now she was running out of air. She knew that she would die here. The last of the oxygen slipping from her lips. Of course drowning isn’t peaceful. Instinctively, she flailed once more and tried to force her body to the surface. She couldn’t stop taking mouthfuls of the salt water that burned her lungs.
In the end the ocean won, and her waterlogged corpse sunk to the bottom of the bay, to be forgotten. They never needed to weigh her down, her inability to swim taking her life in the end.
Her ship had finally sunk.
Celestia held back a sob upon finishing the horrifying letter. She had been oblivious to the atrocities that had apparently taken place in her own home. One of her little ponies was now missing, more than likely dead. The guards she had sent to investigate the address had reported no sign of anyone living there the past few days. She had to keep the peace between Equestria and Saddle Arabia with her nephew’s marriage. She couldn’t put him on trial without breaking that bond, at least for the time being, until there was another way out. Instead, she took Golden-Ray from them, doing a similar method to how she adopted Cadence all those years ago . Blueblood raised no objection; the prince was not meant to be around children.
The tiny pink filly looked up at the princess and smiled. “I get to live with auntie Tia now?”
Celestia nodded and hugged the foal. Golden did not understand why Celestia was upset and just hugged her back.
“It’s okay Auntie, hugs make everything better!”
Celestia held back sobs, she could already see so much of the filly’s mother in her. Even though she was raised by servants her entire life. It did not take long for the ruler to harden up once more after that.
No-one would tell anypony of the horrors that had transpired in Canterlot castle. Those who knew kept quiet, the one finding out last had to harden herself once more to handle the loss of another who she outlived to some tragedy, the one who did it would not confess. Breaking the bonds between the two countries was not an option, instead, the story of Lily Valley remained the dark secret of the royal family. A small princess would grow to be kind like her mother was, and care for all living things. Blueblood disowned her completely when Golden-Ray had a similar cutie mark to her mother. No one could know the truth, for the truth would destroy so much. Lily Valley would forever be a missing ponies case.
Every year, near Golden’s birthday, lily of the valley would be planted everywhere, to honor the young princess for some, for others, as a memory to honor the fallen florist who could not stay afloat.
After all, her ship was sunk, her whereabouts unknown, her bones broken at the bottom of Manehattan Bay and left to decay.
