#eyeballruby

Guys.

GUYS.

ITS AQUAMARINE AND EYEBALL

Ruby (Eyeball) meets Baby Andrea DeMayo by SfCabanas15 on @DeviantArt

I'm of the opinion that it was an accident. This is my theory on the matter, and I'm still working out details, but... Side points for clarification are marked with -. PD is of course, Pink Diamond, cause it’d be annoying having to write it out constantly.

Around 5500 years ago: Rose and PD arranged a quiet secret parley, to negotiate either a cease-fire or a surrender. Of course, it was obviously a trap. Pearl stated as such to Rose on the way, but Rose gave PD the benefit of the doubt.

The two had to fight their way out when they found themselves suddenly surrounded. I can imagine Pearl giving Rose a cheeky sideways grin “Told ya so...” “Yeah, yeah... You’re smarter than me, okay? You suspicious little minx.” before they drew their weapons to start fighting.

Eyeball was there, and was poofed during the battle, but her gem got knocked away, and wasn't bubbled like many others. Maybe Pearl got distracted by another gem, and during the struggle, Eyeball’s gem was kicked into the bushes. - After all, bubbling would have been the only way to prevent defeated gems from regenerating and continuing the fight without shattering them. Otherwise, a single battle would have lasted for years, until everyone either was too exhausted and damaged to fight, or until one side gave up, or fled. It was likely standard practice for the Crystal Gems to bubble defeated opponents, and a standing order of Rose's towards all gems fighting under her.

Eventually it was just Rose, PD and their Pearls that were were still active. PD had cornered Rose, and was about to shatter her, but Pearl leapt in as she was prone to doing, swords raised to protect Rose. A violent sound rang throughout the area.

Pearl fell to the ground in absolute shock, and Eyeball regenerated in time to see Rose standing, sword in hand, her Pearl lying in the ground in front of her, and PD shattering into a shower of shards and dust that settled over and around her. Her own horror over what she witnessed burned that image into her mind, so all she saw was the sword that Rose had in her hand as PD shattered around her. - She never said anything about Rose’s shield, she didn’t even care that Steven summoned it in ‘Bubbled’, Eyeball only care about the sword. So either Rose didn’t have the shield activated at the time; it wasn’t Rose, but an impostor sent there to assassinate PD; or Eyeball’s trauma cause her to hyper-focus on the sword that she thought was the murder weapon. -  She also didn’t seem to recognise that Rose’s probably-legendary warrior Pearl was part of the small group of rebels that ‘Jasper’ had ‘captured’. Her mind had blocked out anything that wasn’t Rose, her sword and PD.

Now, as for why Rose took the blame, Pearl was likely enough of a target on the battlefield, as she's a pearl, and not trained for battle. - Other gems would likely consider her an easy target, reputation regardless, and go for her. Rose knew this would make Pearl even more of a target if the truth came out, and took the blame for the shattering in order to protect her. She also likely ordered Pearl to keep quiet about the truth. Probably not as an owner giving an order to their pearl, but instead as a commanding officer ordering a soldier under her command. - Plus, Pearl would have been traumatised by the event, having likely been covered in PD's shards and dust, the gem equivalent of being covered in blood and gore. Would you be willing to talk about an experience like that? - There’s also the fact that there are other pearls. If the Diamonds had found out that a mere lowly pearl had shattered a mighty diamond, well... They would have ordered them all to be rounded up and shattered. Or at least put under even more restrictions than they usually face, until the war was won, or the renegade captured and destroyed for her impertinence.

This would all explain why Eyeball insisted it was Rose and her sword, why Pearl is so horrified and silent every time the shattering is brought up, and why even Garnet says that it was Rose. Because they never told her the truth. Pearl would also be scared of Garnet's reaction. - After all, she was scared Garnet would realise she’d been in the burning room and taken a bubbled group of shards in ‘Secret Team’. Imagine Garnet’s reaction to learning that her two closest friends, that fought alongside her in a war, and she trusts with her life, had lied to her for more than 5000 years about such an important thing as Pearl shattered Pink Diamond.

It would also explain why Pearl was so willing to risk her own safety to protect the giant warrior gem with the freaking shield and the if-not-indestructible-than-difficult-to-pop safety bubble: GUILT. She blamed herself for the extra attention being paid towards Rose on the battlefield, and insisted on taking some of the fallout that she caused.

Plus, if the parley was secret, then the other Diamonds would have been completely unaware. Which would explain their confusion over the events, and why BD is so insistent on getting to the bottom of it. They can't imagine that PD would have willingly met with Rose, a known rebel, and recognised that Rose had no discernible reason to be there. And yet, she was. BD wants to know why.