Blue's discoveries
Blue Diamond was not new to Earth, she had been there before when she helped Pink manage her colony, again later throughout the gem war, and of course when she would come to mourn Pink. This time was different, her view of the planet had changed, Earth was no longer just Pink's colony or even the planet on which she was shattered, Earth was the planet Pink and later her son Steven had fought for. Earth was the planet Blue, in all her now meaningless anger and grief, had tried to destroy.
She was getting used to the Earth, she had been there for a month already and Steven had shown her and Yellow many things. Blue had gotten used to it, but she knew next to nothing about it. Yes, she knew how the weather worked and the general geography of the planet, Blue knew all of these sort of general things, but not any of the special things. Just the day before the peridot had taught her about meep-morps and Blue, though she recognized the concept of art, had been amazed by the creations Peridot had shown her. When she had asked Steven about it he had told her about all the common forms of art on Earth and had even done a drawing of her that was almost too small for her to see clearly, but admirable nonetheless.
Blue learned more and more each day and all of this was wonderful, but she still didn't quite understand. If Pink has loved the Earth so much it must have been truly incredible, and indeed from what the Crystal Gems said it must have been. Blue just couldn't see it that way, she saw organics and art and the natural rhythms of Earth but not whatever the others saw that made it great. Oh, how she wished she could though. Blue wanted this world to be amazing, she wanted to see what Pink had seen in this place. Blue wanted to see it so badly.
She couldn't just ask, she had tried and it never worked. When she asked Steven what made Earth beautiful he had laughed and said
"it's everything, the way everything changes and is always still beautiful. The people, who change too and are always so great and different. It's also that we can all be whoever we want to be here."
This had confused Blue because change and unpredictability was always bad in her experience. Change led to disaster and rebellion and death. No,thought Blue, I don't think that's quite it.
Blue had asked Amethyst too, the purple gem had also laughed at Blue's lack of understanding. This made Blue even more upset because if it was funny that she didn't understand than it must have truly been obvious.
"Dude, it's how, like,you can do whatever and just mess around if you want. You can choose what you want to do and it's fine as long as you don't, like, hurt anybody or break their junk"
Blue was even more confused by this, she already could do what she wanted, she was a diamond after all. And even other gems who were made for a reason wanted to do their jobs, why was this concept something that made Earth special? No, this too was not the answer.
When Blue asked Garnet she was left completely baffled by the response. The fusion had simply smirked, said "love" and walked off. Blue was frustrated she had loved Pink like a mother loves her daughter, which is to say, more than anything. Love was not something confined to Earth, it was universal. Love was not unique to Earth, so why in the stars names was it what made Earth special. No, once again this was not it, and that frustrated Blue.
Blue had finally tried asking Pink's pearl because if anyone knew what Pink had seen that made Earth special it was her. The pearl's response had been as useless as the others. Pearl had said "Pink was what made earth special, and Steven too now". Pearl had said this with a knowing smile that made Blue even more exasperated. Of course Pink and Steven made Earth special, but they were inherently separate from the earth itself. Pink had made Homeworld special too but that was because the greatness was her, not the planet, and evidently this had been passed down to her son.
Blue was not alone in this lack of understanding, Yellow too didn't understand what they all saw that made Earth special. A big difference between Blue and Yellow was that Yellow didn't care. Yellow only wanted to fix their ships and get back to Homeworld. Yellow did care about Steven, it was nearly impossible not to, but she couldn't be bothered with trying to find the beauty he saw in the Earth. When Blue had asked Yellow if she had any idea of what made the Earth special she had just said
"it isn't Pink and now Steven have just decided that it is and have convinced others of that too".
Blue knew this was not the case, the Earth really was special but she just couldn't see it. Blue couldn't see it and, apparently, neither could Yellow.
Asking didn't work, that just meant Blue would have to find out for herself. She had the perfect idea, she just had to put herself in Pink's mindset and then go see more of the Earth. Blue diamond smiled, hopefully this would work. Okay, thought Blue,what was Pink like. Pink had been energetic and curious and had always wanted to know and do everything, Blue could be like that too. Pink had also not had much of an aversion to trying things considered taboo by Homeworld. Pink had done things like shapeshifting and fusion. That was more difficult, Blue did not want to fuse, but shapeshifting she might try.
Blue diamond could shape shift but had not done it much because she was a diamond and therefore was already perfect. With a sigh Blue diamond shapeshifted for the first time in centuries. She became a giant bird, an albatross many times the normal size. She thought the bird was fitting because it was graceful, powerful, and it also was a lonesome animal, lonely and left out like Blue felt. The light from her shapeshifting drew the attention of the others but Blue already had a running start and she took off. Steven shouted something unintelligible from the beach as Blue soared off.
The ocean was very bright from her viewpoint. It reflected the sun like it was made of billions of shiny blue and white gem shards, or a mirror might be a less morbid comparison. The huge expanses of water that covered most of the planet's surface must have been seen by Pink, and Blue was there anyways so she should pay attention to it. Her eyes wandered but all she saw was water, water was only useful when lapis lazulis were using it for terraforming. Blue's thoughts continued like this for half an hour until the monotony was broken. It started as a faintly darker patch of ocean beneath her but soon became clearer. It was five creatures, each one nearly as long as she was tall in her proper form. The five creatures, that Blue now recognized as whales from the descriptions Steven had given her, swam along just beneath the surface. Blue watched the whales swim and play for several minutes until they once more returned to the shadowy depths from where they had come.
After several more hours of uninterrupted flight blue reached land. She had come across a relatively small island that appeared to have a few human buildings scattered across it. Blue decided to land and take a break, not that she was tired of course, Blue reassured herself, diamonds have no weaknesses. On the rocky cliffs where she had landed were frankly ridiculous creatures that just stared at her. The creatures were birds with large orange beaks and webbed feet in a similar hue. They apparently deemed her harmless after a minute or two and chose to continue on with their business. It was admittedly intriguing to Blue, the colours of the birds were rather intriguing and Blue was absentmindedly trying to think of gems she had seen with similar colours.
When night fell Blue watched in amazement at the sheer number of birds returning to their nests after a long day of catching fish. She watched the birds settle in to sleep until she was startled by a terrified shrieking noise. Blue turned around on the rather awkward feet of this form and saw a human with a camera looking at her in shock.
"What the heck is that"? She heard the human say.
"I am Blue Diamond", she replied as was only polite. The human screamed again.
"Y-y-you can talk? What are you"? he asked hesitantly.
"I am a gem, and of course I can talk", Blue Diamond replied indignantly. "Tell me human, what is it that you think makes Earth special"?
"Oh, uhhh, I guess it's all the different kinds of creatures that are so unique. That's sorta why I'm here, to study the puffins" the human stuttered in reply.
"Well, thank you I suppose" said Blue as she took off into the air. This human didn't have the answer either then, oh well.
Blue flew throughout the night until she reached the mainland at morning when the sun began to appear at the horizon behind her. She landed once more and returned to her normal form. Blue diamond stood by the shore, in a field of flowers, silhouetted by the sunrise with a small car next to her by the side of the road. This would have made the perfect painting, and luckily the owner of the small car thought the same thing. The young human who had been waiting to photograph the sea and fields at sunrise was thrilled at the addition of a new element to photograph. Blue was surprised to hear the sound of the camera but no matter how hard she looked could not find the source of the noise. Blue looked but all she saw was a sprawling field of orange poppies with a few red ones scattered throughout the rest. Blue looked at these off colour poppies and noticed the contrast from the rest did add a striking effect.
Blue once again changed form, this time she became a giant deer. She leapt across the countryside looking around at all the sights. She saw fields and forests and towns as she ran across the European countryside. After running until noon Blue decided to take a break. She returned to her proper form and,after a moment of consideration, she shrunk down to a slightly more manageable fifteen feet tall which was as small as her gem would let her become. Blue spotted a small village out of the corner of her eye and began to walk towards it.
"Hey blue lady would you please help me with my tractor, it's wheel fell into a ditch and I can't get it out",
shouted a farmer on a nearby field. Blue was about to declare that a diamond should not do menial work and that it was for lesser beings to do, but then she realized something. Pink would have helped that human, and so Blue would do it too.
"Certainly, where is this tractor?" replied Blue with a smile. The human led her to the tractor and Blue lifted it out of the ditch with more effort than expected, despite it still being rather easy for her. Hmm, thought Blue, if this took this much effort for me how do lesser gems manage doing such work all the time? Blue waved goodbye to the farmer and continued on her journey.
Over the course of several days Blue explored, water or land, plants or animals, places with or without humans. Blue thought these things were interesting and, because Pink had thought so, good. Blue traversed the entire landmass and reached the other ocean. Blue flew over the ocean and returned to the continent from which she had set off. Blue passed through forests and deserts and plains until she came to a halt. A tattered sign stood before her and somehow killed her hope of truly understanding earth, the sign read "Welcome to Beach City".
Blue stood there looking at the sign with tears running down their familiar path on her face. Hours passed like this until she was snapped out of it by another sight. It was Steven running towards her, clearly winded but still running.
"Oh my gosh! Blue you're back! I was so scared, why did you leave, where did you go, what's wrong?" Steven said, practically shouting. Blue explained her adventure to Steven and he listened with wide eyes. When Blue finished telling him Steven chuckled.
"Oh Blue, nobody understands everything about earth, heck, or even why they like it there. From what you told me it's already something you know a bit about"!
"What"! said Blue " but I still don't get it".
"You have already done things you admitted you wouldn't have done on Homeworld! You shapeshifted, helped that farmer, and heck, you even saw that flowers that are different are still beautiful, just like gems you know! Those are good things Blue, and also you tried to see something from someone else's perspective! You have seen how great these things are and have a better understanding of them, with time you can understand more! Earth is special because of little things like this."
"I... oh, wow, that's true. Thank you Steven." Blue gasped with a smile.
"You're welcome, now come on, Yellow is worried about you" said Steven.