Orange huffed as she begun another lap around the outer perimeter of the base. Blue had at first found her 'little routine' silly, as if Orange was merely a toddler playing around, and this was simply another one of her games she had made up to entertain herself while Blue worked. That annoyed Orange, but she did not waste the effort to correct her. She knew Blue didn't have to work the way she did to build herself up to be better, it was something natural for her, she had been made perfect. Blue did not have the limitations she did, she couldn't understand. However, even though she didn't understand, she thankfully hadn't tried to stop her either. What she had done is assign her a bunch of guards, however, since she was going outside of the protection of the spire. Said guards had, at first, attempted to keep up with her, and Orange felt like she was almost training with the Topazes again. But eventually they realized she'd just be running consecutive laps around the large buildings, and upon her suggestion, remained waiting by the entrance, watching as she passed them every couple minutes. One had even taken to waving at her and another calling out what number lap she was on, which she appreciated, since she didn't have to focus on keeping count herself.

Rounding the back of the spire, Orange slowed her pace, staring as a large ship was beginning to touch down on the landing pad, obviously coming in when she had been rounding to the back of the compound. Orange stopped moving all together to stand and watch in interest as the entrance opened and a troupe of Rubies filed out, one after the other. None of them were even remotely notable, and Orange quickly wrote them off. She was about to restart her lap when more gems started to depart, a handful of Lapis Lazulis stepping off the ship, speaking with one another and staying close, as the Rubies guided them where to go.

They were interesting gems, all roughly the same height, but they were not incredibly common gems like the Rubies, and thus had minor differences in their appearance. Two stood out to Orange, one who was a darker blue than the others and the only one with yellow-gold markings flecked onto her skin. It made her look elegant, like she could have been a better made gem than the others. The one she walked with, the two of them smiling and laughing together, was more like the others, short dark blue hair, a soft face and eyes, a long dress a darker shade of blue than her skin that fell past her knees. The two stopped following the line of other Lapis Lazulis when the gold flecked one pointed in Orange's direction and the two turned to look at her. They stared at her, and she realized they must have noticed her staring at them. Hesitantly, Orange raised her hand, giving them a small wave of greeting. Goldie laughed behind her hand, rolling her eyes and grabbing her friend's hand and pulling her along when she could raised her hand to somewhat return Orange's wave.

Orange was confused by Goldie's reaction, her eyes following them as they rejoined the others. She had never had someone react like that. Then again, it was more common for people to fawn over her for simply being a Diamond, and while she welcomed the new interactions and responses of people as more and more new gems came into her life, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about Goldie's reaction. Why had she rolled her eyes? Had Orange's staring been considered too rude? Was the waving offensive for their gem type or something?

"Weird." Orange mumbled, turning away from the retreating gems to look at the ship. In a split second decision, Orange walked towards the ship, noting that it blocked her guards view from being able to see her as she came closer to it. She looked around, no one was watching her and it didn't seem anyone was guarding the ship. The entrance was different, the ramp acting as the door instead of the normal double doors that had an extendable ramp as well, which Orange thought was more sleek. It wasn't too different from the other colony ships, simply a much smaller scale, obviously meant to be used for transport between the planet and moon base until the warp pads had been installed and tested for use.

The ship consisted of a single open room, separated into three sections, the main section being devoted to consoles that were blatantly designed for rubies to pilot, as they were both short and simplistic. On either side of the console section, were seating for gems that would be brought to and from the colony by their Ruby pilots. Looking around, it was certainly an updated model, new in fact. It wasn't like any other ship she had seen before, so it must have been something just made and was slow to come into circulation amongst the Diamond's courts. Just looking at it all made Orange smile. She loved seeing the ships, watching them fly in the air, so free and defying of the rules of gravity. They represented everything she wanted, in a compact carrier. She had been so sweet to Yellow, perhaps a bit too much when she thought about it, when the older Diamond had agreed to teach her about flying. It must have been her favorite lessons with Yellow, she paid extra attention to every word and instruction Yellow gave as she personally taught Orange what to do. She didn't know Yellow knew how to fly the different ships used by the Empire, but when she actually gave it some thought, she should have known Yellow would want to know how her armies and their ships would worked.

Staring at the controls, Orange stepped towards them. The controls were just above her knees and she had to bend over more than she would have on a battle ship or a drop ship, certainly not made for gems of her size to pilot. Running her hand gently over the controls, she watched as a screen lit up, displaying some information about the core, the colony, distance to destination, and a few other things Orange recognized.

"I could pilot this thing." Orange whispered, standing up and looking around at the ship again. The temptation to move to the main control, lock the door, and take this pretty thing for a test run was so incredibly powerful, she could almost feel it under her skin like an itch. It'd be simple, the ship would be a simple thing to learn the new changes to, if there actually were any. But what would she do once she did? Get to the outer atmosphere of the planet before she was detained and have to deal with an irate Blue? And she knew it wouldn't stop there, she knew Yellow would find out and Yellow would be so disappointed her lesson had gone to her stealing a ship from Blue. She couldn't imagine Pink and White would take her taking the ship for a short joyride any better than them. In fact, she imagined she might be confined to her room by White again if she did, as punishment.

The consequences just weren't worth it, she supposed. Feeling a little more deflated at that realization, Orange stepped off the ship, her hand gripping the doorframe as she stepped off, a little surprised to see the three Rubies there as well, all three staring up at her as she stared back at them.

That's when the one on the far left gasped, loudly exclaiming, "You!"

"Me?" Orange blinked, confused.

"Yes, you! what are you doing on our ship?" The far right yelled, glaring at her. This riled the middle one up.

"Yeah! Ship stealer! We'll take you to Blue Diamond and she'll deal with you!"

"Yeah!" The right one yelled, thrusting her fist in the air in agreement. It was at this point when the one on the left turned and punched the one in the middle in the arm, causing her to stumble and trip into the right.

"Hey!" Middle yelled.

Right looked like she was going to lose it as she pushed Middle off her, glaring and waving her fist at Left. "What's the big deal! You're going to let ship stealer get away!"

"You idiots! Don't you know who that is!?" Left freaked out. It was at this point Middle and Right turned to look at Orange in puzzlement.

"I don't know. Who are you?"

"Are you some important gem?" Middle questioned.

Right shook her head in the negative, "she doesn't look familiar to me."

"Could be one of the lead techs down on the colony?"

"Nah. Look at her, she doesn't look smart enough to know how to work an injector, let alone the warp pads."

At this point Orange was simply along for the ride, incredibly amused as she listened to the two Rubies going back and forth while she leaned against the doorway, every now and again looking over at Left Ruby, who's mouth had long since fallen open at her two teammate's words, which were, admittedly, getting a bit worse and more insulting the further they got in their speculations.

When Left had found whatever was left of her jaw off the ground and had regained her senses, she winded that little fist of her's back and punched both of the other two Rubies in the head so hard, even Orange flinched. "That's Orange Diamond!"

The two Rubies cries died in their throats as their heads slowly turned to her, their eyes widening as they came to stare at Orange, who was pursing her lips to keep from bursting out laughing at the sight of them. Scrambling over one another, they eventually made a line formation to bow at her, all three looking incredibly upset.

"My Diamond!" Middle yelled, saluting her.

"Orange Diamond! Forgive me, I had no idea!" Right cried so hard, Orange almost felt bad for having let her go on for so long.

"It is an honor, my Diamond!" Left spoke. All three saluted her together, and it was at this point Orange stood up straight, Absolutely toweringover the three Rubies. Orange paused, the thought of wondering if this was how it was for the other Diamonds when they interacted with other gems, if it was as weird for them to look down on their gems like this as it felt for her.

"Alright, Alright. Let's calm down." Orange held up her hands, trying to placate the three Rubies before they could burst into actual tears. "Please stop."

"Oh, forgive us!"

"We're just Rubies!"

Orange frowned, now getting annoyed as the Rubies continued on, not listening to her as she tried to quiet them, other gems in the vicinity starting to stare at the scene they were making.

"Yeah! We didn't mean it!" Middle yelled.

Right was quick to join in with Middle, "We didn't know any better. I didn't even know there was a new diamond!"

"Yeah! I had no clue! Forgive us!"

"We-"

"Enough! I said be quiet!" Orange's raised voice carried around this side of the compound and multiple gems that had been ignoring them stopped to turn and watch as Orange glared down furiously at the two Rubies that simply wouldn't shut up.

"My Diamond!"

"That was Orange Diamond!"

"Where is she!? Find her!"

The cornucopia of voices caught Orange's attention and she looked up, her eyes widening as what she had done started to sink in, her eyes flicking from the three Rubies faces, each looking terrified she was about to shatter them, and then to the faces of other gems that were standing around, watching her and the three Rubies with vaguely veiled interest.

Rounding the corner of the ship, three guards came into view, all seeming to spot her at the same time when they began to converge onto her spot.

"Over here!" One called over her shoulder, summoning the others.

"Orange Diamond!" Another yelled over all the noise.

By the time Orange had pulled herself together, standing up straighter and keeping her face a neutral mask now that she realized a lot of eyes were on her, more eyes than she was used to, there were a total of five guards standing around her and the Rubies, encircling them.

"What have you done to Orange Diamond!?" One of the guards, a Citrine, sneered.

"You've upset a Diamond, you runts. You're in so much trouble."

"What did you do?"

"That's enough." Orange cut in, pulling everyone's attention to her. Despite the flutter in her gut, Orange continued on, surprising looking every bit as confident as she hoped to appear, if not a bit condescending, though she figured that worked in her favor as well. "Let these Rubies go."

"But, my Diamond-" One of the guards began, looking confused at Orange's order.

"The Rubies were just taking their ship, right?" Orange looked down, this time paying particular attention to Left, who seemed to be the most put together of the three.

Left nodded before the others could say anything, "That's right, my Diamond!"

"Good. Then get back to whatever orders you have." Orange commanded, stepping out of the way for the Rubies to file inside while she stepped off the ramp, the guards looking at each other in confusion, if not disbelief. "Also," Orange called, turning to look over her shoulder at the Rubies, who stopped to look at her. Orange made a point to look at Right and Middle, "You should watch how you speak to your superiors. Am I understood?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Yes, my Diamond!"

"Thank you, my Clarity!"

After all three had there say, Orange turned away, leading the group of Quartz guards away from the ship, its ramp lifting up to seal the ship.

"Are you sure that's okay, My Diamond?" The Citrine questioned, directly to her right, and Orange looked at her from the corner of her eyes.

"I'm sure. They are simple Rubies."

"But-"

"Enough. Do not question my authority." Orange reprimanded lightly, unable to explain the feeling in her chest when the gem looked down, ashamed. She raised her head a little higher, almost like she was...proud? Was she proud to have spoken like that?

"Yes, my Diamond."

Orange forward again, stopping in her tracks and almost having the guards behind her run into her if it wasn't for the others stopping them from doing so at the last moment.

"My Diamond?"

"Is everything alright?"

Orange stared up, her eyes focusing solely on the giant blue hand ship that was parked a little ways away from the spire of the moon base, it's fingers spread out and resting in a cupped position, the odd light of the planet reflecting off its metal surface.

"That's it." Orange whispered.

"Did you say something, my Diamond?"

"Let's go back to the spire. I want to return to Blue Diamond." Orange grinned, starting for the tower before her guards could even comprehend her words.

----------

"Orange, I'm very busy." Blue said, looking at Orange over the screen she had pulled up in front of her, still working on what needed to be done for the colony.

"This won't take long, Blue. I promise." Orange smiled, and Blue sighed.

"What..." Blue paused as she typed something else into her screen before dismissing it, focusing on Orange, "What did you want to talk about, Orange?"

"I want your permission to fly one of the drop ships."

Blue's eyes widened before she blinked once, twice, then laughed, "Oh, that's silly Orange." She smiled, leaning forward in her chair to look down at her, the corner of her eyes crinkling as she continued to chuckled, "Why would you need to fly a ship?"

Orange's smile slipped, more at Blue's continued laughter than being indirectly told no. She was used to 'No', at this point she could take 'No' without too much disappointment, but the laughs always seemed more condescending than the last, and never stopped crawling under her skin to bother her just that little bit more.

Orange raised an eyebrow, a little unsure how to answer Blue's question without coming off as rude. "Because...I want to?"

Blue's chuckles began to die, seeing Orange's expression becoming a little more tense and she became a bit more serious under the younger gem's stare. "Orange, you're a diamond." Blue said softly, scooting a little bit forward in her chair, placing her hands in her lap while she looked at Orange, trying to keep her voice level while she explained, "You don't need to pilot one of those."

"You fly your own ship." Orange motioned a hand at her, her frown deepening.

Blue head turned, her eyes flicking away from Orange, "That's different."

"How?" Orange stressed the word as she was becoming frustrated at her lack of an actual reason from Blue.

"Because it is."

"Blue," Orange couldn't stop the whine of her voice, her hands clenching, "that's not an answer."

"My hand ship is nothing like a battle ship." Blue said, still not quite meeting Orange's eyes. "We don't lower ourselves to a common soldier's ship."

Orange's eyebrow screwed up, confused and a little insulted, on both behalf all the gems that flew them, and their beloved ships, as well as Blue's dismissing tone. "But Yellow taught me how to."

Blue's head swiveled so quickly to stare at her, Orange was startled at the slightly wild look in Blue's eyes, "She did what!? That's so dangerous. How could she-"

"Okay, so I can't fly one of those." She interrupted, feeling bad she might very well have just gotten Yellow in trouble, "What about your ship? Can I fly that? I can wait until you have time."

"Oh Orange. This is getting out of hand." Blue sighed loudly, rubbing her forehead with one hand in exasperation.

Orange raised her eyebrow at what she assumed was Blue's unintentional pun.

Blue brushed passed this, her tone a little bit more strained than it had been before, "You can't control my ship."

Orange forced a breath out through her nose to keep from voicing her mounting anger, as getting angry with Blue wasn't going to help her. "You could teach me. I'm a fast learner." She bargained.

Blue seemed to have no such qualms, her eyebrows coming down as she narrowed her eyes, her voice a bit harsher than she probably had intended it to be. "You can't pilot my ship, it only responds to me, Orange! You can't pilot my ship any more than Pink could control White's."

"Oh...but...oh."

Blue's expression softened, a hand partially covering her mouth. "Don't look so dejected Orange."

"But..." Orange paused, her shoulders slumping as Blue's information processed fully, her eyebrows turning up as she looked up at Blue, "What am I supposed to do then? You guys have your own ships, but what am I supposed to get? How am I supposed to fit into the Authority?"

Blue tilted her head, looking away from Orange as she searched for an answer, until she finally turned back to her. "Orange...I can't answer that. That will be for White to decide."

Orange wondered how many questions they had brushed off using White as an excuse. How many problems had they brushed off as White's problem. Had they not even considered to plan what the Diamond Authority would be like with her in it? It made her hands clenched a bit tighter, both in anger, and sorrow. Orange racked her brain for a plan of her own. Fine, if they hadn't though that far ahead, then she could. This was her future, she should have a say. "Then I should be able to pilot one of the battle ships. I could have my own made, something special, so its not like the soldier's."

Blue groaned, "Not this again. Please Orange. You're being unreasonable."

"What?" Orange's voice was raised more than she had intended, but she couldn't stop the feeling of disbelief at Blue's words. "Me? I'm being unreasonable one?"

Blue narrowed her eyes at Orange, her mouth forming into a frown, "I've told you no. Please don't push."

"But..."

"Orange."

Orange grit her teeth, bared to Blue as she glared at the older Diamond, feeling incredibly defiant in that moment. "Stop treating me like a child."

Blue looked as if Orange had slapped her. "What?"

"You're treating me like I'm still a child. I'm not. It's not dangerous, and I don't need the constant supervision! I don't need all the guards, and I'm tired of being told no!"

Blue stood up so quickly, Orange took a step back in surprise as the normally calm and understanding gem glared down at her, a visible blue aura around moving around her form, but no tears came to Orange's face as she yelled, "That's enough!"

"Blue?" Orange breathed, suddenly very weary, and feeling like she was suddenly back with White before she had sent her away for punishment. It brought that familiar feeling of fear to her gut, and she could feel her chest constrict, the need to get away suddenly hit her like a Topaz's charge, but she did not move. She couldn't.

"I didn't want to raise my voice, but you're not listening. I think it's a good time for you to return to your room. I have more work to do."

"Okay..." Orange whispered, taking her chance she had been presented to slink away, back to the safety of her room.

"Orange?" Blue's voice carried across the room despite keeping it low, stepping into the younger Diamond's quarters and taking a look around. It was dark, a small projector was set up on a desk, casting part of the ceiling in an image of stars that moved across the walls, and was the only real light in the room, besides the light behind her spilling into the room from the open doorway. Using it, she could see Orange Diamond laying on her bed, facing the projector, and Blue came to the conclusion Orange had been watching the false stars until she had fallen asleep. Blue was about to quietly step back outside when the thought crossed her mind that Orange needed the rest, but stopped when there was movement from the younger gem.

Orange, at first, turned her head to look at Blue, meeting her eyes for a moment before she rolled over onto her back and using her elbows to push up and look at Blue more appropriately, "Hey, Blue."

"You're awake." Blue's tone was surprised.

"Couldn't sleep." Orange explained, one corner of her lips lifted up in a half smile.

Looking away with an expression of hesitance, Blue turned back to Orange and stepped into the room, the doors closing a moment later, and casting the room back into darkness, with the tiny dots of hololight the only thing to help Blue see, so she stopped moving all together, breathing out a surprised, "Oh."

Orange's voice was a bit rough, like she had been screaming, but Blue did not comment on it as she heard movement from her, "Hold on, let me..." a moment later, the lights flicked on, and Blue could see Orange had been messing with a control pad on the stand beside her bed. "there."

"Thank you." Blue responded quietly, continuing the walk to Orange's bed. Cautiously, Blue sat down on it, relaxing when it took her weight just fine. She turned her head to look at Orange, reaching out to brush her hair, a pang in her chest when Orange did not quite meet her eyes. "I'm sorry I had to yell earlier. But, you understand why I did, don't you?"

Orange sucked in a breath, "Yes, Blue."

"Good." Blue smiled, even though Orange still would not look at her, and concluded she simply needed more time. "I hope you understand it's not because i wanted to, but it's for you own good." She explained.

Orange's face scrunched up slightly, and Blue worried Orange might still be upset, but she did not push her hand away, or react more than that.

Finally, Orange nodded, looking down at her stomach, "I know."

"Now, would you like to come watch more of the planet being transformed?"

"That'd be nice." Orange agreed, slipping away from Blue's hand, and off the bed.

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Author

Thank you all for submitting your questions to Orange and Pearl's blog. The first wave of questions are out, and i'll be getting to the rest shortly! Thank you all again. Keep it coming.