The grand Galloping Gala had evolved a long way since an event Celestia held to help cope with the loss of her sister; it was at first a low key chat about problems members of the various classes might be having with Celestia shedding her alicorn form for the night so they could converse more freely and openly. Eventually the nobility made their way in and turned the event into a grandiose display devoid of anything any sane pony could find entertaining. More recently with some help from some influential voices and unprecedented events the gala was on its way to becoming the way it once was. And after the nobility complained Celestia offered them a choice: Suck it up or don’t show up. But the events of the third Grand Galloping Gala since Luna’s return were not orchestrated by a bitter noble, but rather by a pony with no other motive except for seeing if it could be done.
Rarity Belle had grudgingly accepted an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala much to the surprise of her closest friends. She believed she had made a laughing stock of herself the last time and refused to even take the chance of anything similar happening. It was only when her good friend FancyPants had convinced her to come along with the promise that no pony would so much as look at her with anything but admiration. Except for the ever irritating and charmless Prince Blueblood but that was a given. She had heard a fascinating story of Twilight’s brother beating the arrogant Prince after insulting Twilight with some rather scathing comments. Rarity was not a gossip, if she heard a rumour she wouldn’t spread it. She wouldn’t blackmail and she’d try not to hold it against the one in question. But she still enjoyed piece of mind and she still had a small curious streak. So when the crowds at the Grand Galloping Gala died down Rarity decided to do a bit of snooping around. She hadn’t seen Prince Blueblood all night and she was wondering where the prince was. She walked through a corridor and saw a door that was slightly ajar. She heard two voices whispering; she waited near the door and listened in on the conversation.
“And you’re sure this will work?” the first voice asked, the accent was a blend of everything.
“Of course it will, she’ll be dead before she hits the floor,” Prince Blueblood whispered back. Rarity held in a gasp and listened even more intently.
“Just dip the point of the blade in quicksilver and a single cut will kill her?” the first voice confirmed whatever Blueblood had told him before.
“Yes, but we have to hurry, we need to have enough time to leave the place before daylight,” Blueblood hissed.
“Relax old friend, who’d be the first pony to know a thing about killing gods?” the first voice asked.
“Ah yes, we’ll let little Luna take the blame for her sister’s death,” Blueblood chuckled like a schoolfilly. Rarity backed away from the door. Her mind whizzed with information and thoughts. Blueblood and another pony were planning on killing Celestia and it seemed they were pretty confident, they would blame Luna and probably set Twilight and Cadence on her, two birds with one stone. She couldn’t go down to the main hall because by the time the guards got to Celestia’s chamber she’d be dead so that left one way of preventing the problem at hand. Rarity ran through the corridors treading lightly all the while. She reached the stairs that led to Celestia’s chamber and took them three at a time, subtlety barely an afterthought. She reached the door and pounded on it. Celestia opened it quickly and looked at Rarity with concern. Visible sweat dropped down Rarity’s face and she took a moment to catch her breath.
“Celestia, there is a plot against your life,” Rarity burst out. Celestia looked at her with cold calculation. Her body language told Rarity to continue.
“Prince Blueblood and another stallion were planning on murdering you,” Rarity continued.
“Traitorous, power hungry, weak fool,” Celestia whispered.
“They seemed confident too, they were planning on using a quicksilver coated blade,” Rarity kept going but stopped when she realised that her last piece of information had left the solar goddess worried. Rarity looked behind Celestia and gasped as she saw a stallion walk out of the back wall of Celestia’s fireplace. He looked at her and a brief flicker of worry crossed his cold unfeeling eye but vanished quickly.
“Celestia, watch out!” Rarity screamed as the stallion ran at her and swung the blade. She moved out of the way and stared at the stallion.
“Holy Cross,” she spat as though the word brought her pain to say. Rarity looked at the scene unfolding. Celestia hit the stallion’s underbelly point blank with a blast of magic as he got ready to swing the blade.
“Celestia dear, I thought having a thousand years’ experience with my kind would at least teach you something, we don’t remove our armour!” he shouted as he continued swinging the blade into Celestia. Celestia gave a sincere smile to Rarity and mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry,” to her as the blade nicked her flesh drawing a single drop of blood. Celestia saw the blood drop and blinked back tears.
“There are pits in Tartarus reserved for your ilk Cross, and Blueblood, why?” Celestia choked out as her life left her. Rarity ran over to her and looked at the dying monarch.
“Tell Twilight that I was happy to spend these last few years with her, that she helped me from a despair I felt I couldn’t overcome, please?” she whimpered as her legs went limp and her head fell, finally her eyes closed and she breathed her last.
“This makes things a little more complex,” the stallion, Cross mused.
“How can you stay so calm!?” Rarity screamed.
“I don’t know, I think I should feel exhilarated, I did just kill a god, and nothing can boast that honour, not even King Sombra and Discord!” the stallion laughed. Rarity blinked away tears.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” Rarity roared as she ran at him. The stallion batted her away with ease and looked at Celestia’s corpse. Rarity ran again only for Blueblood to grab her.
“Blueblood told me about you, how you ruined his public image and shook a cake all over him, and I laughed, because it was funny, when my daughter was born, I was happy, because she was something new in my life, and when my own wife died, I felt sad, do you see where I’m going with this? How would you feel if Celestia killed me? You would feel relief, happiness, maybe for different reasons but still the feeling stems from my death, so I ask, can you condemn me?” Holy Cross looked at Rarity with sincerity.
“Yes I can because you sought to murder Celestia in cold blood!” Rarity snapped.
“Murder is murder, circumstances are just straws for the morally stunted to grasp,” Holy Cross kept observing Celestia’s corpse.
“Blueblood, you’ll get to have your vengeance a little sooner than you wanted,” Holy Cross smiled, his eyes now fixated on Rarity. Rarity gulped as the stallion’s eyes drilled apart all and any mental façade she had put up. Blueblood knocked her out and the world faded to black.