Pink Diamond had absolutely loved the earth.
The first time they arrived, it was different than it had looked on the monitors. The air was grey and drops of liquid were falling gently from the sky. Blue Diamond could see them land in the tufts of Pink Diamond's wild hair as she ran past her and out of the ship, laughing as she reached up as if she were trying to catch the droplets in her hands. Blue slowly followed her little sister, her long skirt billowing in the humid breeze and the small trickles of liquid tickling her azure cheeks. This was a strange planet. There were so many colors, so many sounds, so many feelings.
"Blue, look!" Pink squealed happily, running over to her cradling something delicately in her cupped hands, as if it might break if she gripped it too hard. It was a beautiful red flower. The pedals curled intricately and tiny thorns poked out from its long stem. "Isn't it lovely?" Pink asked, her voice sounding almost dreamy as she admired it. An amused smile lifted the corners of Blue Diamond's pouty lips. "Very," she replied. Pink giggled again, her eyes bright with fascination. "I think I see more of them," she said excitedly, gesturing to a large expanse of land in the distance. The rich green was sprinkled with tiny red dots, which Blue assumed to be more of the flowers Pink was already so enamored with. Though she didn't understand it, she felt drawn to it. And obviously Pink was experiencing the same thing. "I want to go over there," Pink whispered in awe, her eyes still flitting about as if she was trying to absorb everything and anything all at once. She tried to grab Blue's arm, but she stopped her. "Pink, listen to me," Blue said quietly but firmly. "I know you are excited. But you must be careful. Your first colony is always the hardest, and we are on a planet we are not familiar with. We…you… should take it slow for a while." Pink Diamond turned to look at her. A sliver of light leaking through the dreary grey touched the tips of her magenta hair, making it glow. The spattering of drops had slowed to a lazy drizzle. This was the image that would burn itself into Blue Diamond's mind, thousands of years into the future. She saw it mainly when she was all alone. She saw it when she closed her watery eyes. "I know," Pink mumbled, almost under her breath. Blue pulled her little sister close, feeling the faint heat that always seemed to cling to her as she held her. How could she be so warm, when she herself was always so cold? The thorns of the flower gently scratched her back through the fabric of her robes. "I will be fine," Pink said into her shoulder. "Yellow and White showed me how to manage the kindergartens, and you told me how to best use the natural resources for gem production. You all taught me everything I needed to know. We spent months planning. And I'm sorry I got carried away. I just…" She pulled away slightly. "I can't believe all this is mine." She pressed the flower into Blue's hand. "I…I want you to keep this."
She did.
Time passed. The colonization of the earth had been running smoothly. Better than expected, in fact. Pink Diamond had a new story every day. She talked nonstop about the things she's accomplished, the things she's seen, the things she's learned. "You know the falling liquid Blue and I told you about?" she asked as she skipped alongside White Diamond, their boots crunching softly in the grass. White had been visiting to evaluate the progress. "It's called rain." She said the word as if it were the most precious thing in the universe. White smiled proudly down at her. "Your fascination and love for everything around you is one of your most special gifts," she said in her calm, icy voice. "Never lose that."
Another month had gone by, and Pink's infatuation for her planet never ceased. She ordered her Bismuth team to construct a large palace, a shrine floating deep in space for everything that she cherished about it since most of the terrain would be destroyed when the colony was complete. Blue Diamond had been the first to step foot inside.
It was a flawless imitation, a miniature earth behind glass, thanks to the help of several Lapis Lazuli's. And it only grew from there. Several small, simple lifeforms were added. Then came the humans.
Once Pink Diamond found them, their fate was inescapable. Plucked straight from the earth, they were immediately placed into the Zoo, like the final additions to Pink's odd little collection. They were adored more than anything else the earth had to offer. Pink did everything she could to make sure her pets were happy and healthy. Everything was perfect. The Zoo was finally complete. The earth was preserved, and the colony was shaping up to be one of the most successful ones in thousands of years.
And then that moment ended.
"A new gem?" White Diamond gasped, bewildered. She immediately glanced at Blue and Yellow Diamond, who seemed to be just as flabbergasted as her. It had been a very, very long time before any of them had been able to accomplish something as huge as creating an entirely new species of gem. It was almost unheard of nowadays. "Yes!" Pink Diamond squealed, her smile so bright it could have lit up all of Homeworld. She sat weaving flowers into Yellow's rigid hair. She had come into the meeting room with a whole bouquet of them, a bundle of red and pink and white. "I think I've almost perfected her. My Peridot in charge of the kindergarten says she should be emerging soon." Yellow Diamond shook her head in disbelief. Pink gasped. "Don't move!" she squeaked, picking up a red flower that had fallen from her hair. Yellow chuckled. "Well done Pink," Blue Diamond said, and White nodded in agreement, twirling a pale flower in between her slender fingers. "And what will this new gem be called?" Pink Diamond tapped on her chin, taking this question very seriously. "I think I'll call her…" She glanced down at the flowers scattered all over the table. She beamed. "Rose Quartz!" The other Diamonds exchanged amused smiles. Pink had been very proud of herself once she'd finally learned the name of her favorite flower. Of course she would choose to name an entire gem after it. "Oh, I can't wait!" Pink Diamond cried suddenly, jumping up and down in excitement. "I just know she'll be wonderful!"
But from the moment the first Rose Quartz popped out of the ground, she was different—quirky, volatile, and slightly defiant. The others that came after her weren't quite so uncontrollable, so Yellow Diamond decided that the first must be defective, but Pink Diamond refused to believe that. "They are all perfect just the way they are," she'd insisted. "And maybe she'll be different with time. I'm not just going to discard her." But nothing ever changed. If anything, the Rose Quartz's behavior only grew more and more strange. For she also loved the earth. Perhaps she loved it even more than Pink Diamond. She began to value its freedom more than her own life. More than her own kind. She didn't want it to change, to become a colony. But Pink Diamond wouldn't give it up. They both wanted the earth. And they were both willing to fight for it.
The other Diamonds wanted to abandon the colony at the first signs of unrest. They argued constantly about it until they were all tense and their throats were raw. Pink had stood trembling in front of her frustrated older sisters, her cheeks tear stained, stubborn and unwilling to give up everything she'd worked so hard for.
"It's my colony," she growled. It was possibly the only time she had ever been so distressed. "And you can't tell me what to do. I'm keeping it, no matter what you say!" Yellow Diamond slowly stood up. "Pink, please think about this." Always the logical one. "We all care about you very much. And we just want you to be safe…"
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!" Pink yelled, her lovely face twisted with anger, making Yellow's eyes widen with shock. Blue covered her face with her hands. White was speechless.
Pink Diamond turned and stormed out of the room. The door slammed loudly behind her. It was a long time before the other three found their voices again.
They all made up, eventually. Yet Pink still refused to loosen her grip on the earth. A full scale rebellion had begun to break out, festering slowly at first until it consumed many other gems, the very first Rose Quartz leading the wave. Pink Diamond, being young and inexperienced, quickly started to panic after that, but she continued to cling tightly to the earth with all her strength until she lay in pieces on the ground, broken by her own creation. It was no use trying to complete the colony after that. Most gems fled, the ones unable to make it to their ships in time abandoned. The remaining Diamonds unleashed all their rage and grief onto the earth, deciding that all the Rose Quartz were a threat. Yellow Diamond wanted each and every one of them destroyed, but Blue wouldn't allow it. "Please don't. This is all we have left of her," she pleaded, her voice breaking under the weight of her sadness. "We have to preserve her legacy." Finally, they decided to poof and bubble all of them, locking them away deep inside the Zoo where they couldn't cause trouble. Out of sight and out of mind. Almost. They continued to claw away at Blue Diamond's sanity every time she visited to mourn, the hundreds of glowing bubbles dancing around her, taunting her. Look at us, they seemed to say. We are here and she isn't. You couldn't save her. And now it's too late. She's gone forever. Blue Diamond closed her eyes, trying to shut it all out, crying harder with every passing moment. Despite all the pain these gems brought, she could not bring herself to get rid of them.
White Diamond had simply vanished after Pink's demise. She had locked herself inside her palace and would not come out. Yellow Diamond found herself working twice as hard to make up for it. In a way she actually welcomed all the extra responsibility. It took her mind off of her sister's death, even if the relief was only temporary. Anything would do at this point. The little free time she had she spent alone in her laboratory. It was an old, monstrous experiment, one she and White had started before the dawn of Era One. There had been no reason to continue it until now. Soon it would be complete, writhing and twitching, delivered in a pretty little package right into the earth's core. A hybrid of gem shards that would be so horrid and enormous when it took its true form that it would rip that miserable chunk of rock into shreds. A shiver of morbid satisfaction ran through Yellow Diamond at the thought. "Don't worry Pink," she whispered, ignoring the aching exhaustion that was pressing against her. Gems don't get tired, after all. "You will soon be avenged."
Pink Diamond had loved the earth. So much that she died for it. Now it was time for it to die for her.