Pink Zirconia

* Current
* Homeworld

Pink Cubic Zirconia (or Pink Zirconia for short) is a Gem currently residing in The Garden on Mars. She has seized control of the former base and is the leader of her own "court."

## Appearance

Pink Zirconia is a tall Gem, about the same height as the fusion Garnet, with a slender build. She has pink skin, a round nose, and thin lips. Her hair is hot pink, and her eyes are purple with triangular pupils. Her Gemstone is on her chest.

When she was first made, Pink Zirconia wore a knee-length, striped pink dress with puffy sleeves, white stockings, and pink slippers. Her hair was mostly covered by a large pink bonnet.

As of Era 2, Pink Zirconia wears a fuchsia tank top with a short, asymmetrical skirt, both with a scalloped design. Her hair is short and unkempt, and she is barefoot.

## Personality

Pink Zirconia, despite being a self-proclaimed matriarch, does not enforce any sort of caste system among her court and mostly leaves everyone to their own devices. She spends most of her time in the Garden's observatory, among the pseudo-Gems she created. While benevolent, Pink Zirconia is notoriously unstable. She is obsessed with spiting her Diamond even in her absence, and her own court avoids her when she is in a bad mood out of fear of setting her off.

Early in her existence, Pink Zirconia was timid, following rules out of fear of punishment. She regularly tried to talk her Diamond out of antics, knowing they could get Pink Diamond in trouble. In the years after Pink Diamond lost her first Pearl, this anxiety turned into paranoia. To this day, there are only a few select Gems that have managed to gain her trust, and she is quick to accuse others of lying to her or even conspiring against her.

## History

Pink Zirconia, like the other Greater Zirconias, was made on Homeworld to assist her Diamond with her duties, including representing Pink Diamond when she had more important matters to attend to. While the two were close for eons, this changed when Pink Diamond's Pearl was taken away. The Diamond pushed away her Zirconia, who was left wondering what she had done wrong. By the time Pink Diamond was receiving her own colony, she had decided to use a freshly-made Moissanite to help her manage the new planet, while her Zirconia was ordered to stay on Homeworld.

Pink Zirconia realized she was being replaced. Taking it personally, she desperately looked for some way to make herself useful; the Rebellion gave her an opportunity to do just that. She turned to Yellow and Blue Diamond with a plan to quash the Rebellion from the inside. With their approval, the Zirconia used her shapeshifting to take the form of an Amethyst and infiltrate the Crystal Gems, becoming the first Cubic Zirconia spy. Her ventures were successful in slowing the Rebellion, but clearly were not enough to stop it.

Shortly before Pink Diamond's "shattering," there was an event that Pink Zirconia's original entourage only refer to as "the exposure." What exactly happened during this event is unknown, but it is known that Pink Zirconia learned of Rose Quartz's true identity, causing her to snap. Immediately after this event, she acted blindly, focusing on revenge. Pink Zirconia snuck herself and her crew aboard a drop ship and tried to fly it back to Homeworld, intending to tell the Diamonds this revelation. However, with no knowledge or experience of piloting such a vessel, she inevitably crash-landed it on Mars. She and her entourage were able to walk away from this crash, and eventually made their way to Pink Diamond's outpost. By this point, though, they were stranded on Mars, and Pink Zirconia was starting to think more clearly. She decided that, rather than attempt to return to Homeworld, she would make the best of her situation, turning the outpost into a paradise for herself and any who chose to follow her.

## Abilities

As an Era 1 Gem, Pink Zirconia has standard Gem abilities, such as shapeshifting, bubbling, and superhuman strength.

### Unique Abilities

* **Enhanced Shapeshifting:** As a zirconia, Pink Zirconia's shapeshifting is more powerful than the average Gem's. She can alter not just her physical shape, but also her pallet and voice, and even hide her gemstone. She utilized this power during the Rebellion, taking the form of an Amethyst.
* **Life Creation:** Similar to her Diamond, Pink Zirconia can create a form of complex life, and has used this ability to populate the Garden's observatory with flora and fauna called pseudo-Gems. However, the means by which she does this is unknown.

## Relationships

### Blue Goldstone

Pink Zirconia refuses to talk to Blue Goldstone at all for unknown reasons, with Lavender Pearl handling diplomacy between their faction.

### The Crystal Gems

During the Rebellion, Pink Zirconia covertly fought against the Crystal Gems, a fact she doesn't try to hide and even acts proud of. However, she otherwise dislikes talking about the Crystal Gems, a trait shared by many of the Gems who served her during the Rebellion.

### Fireworks Obsidian

Pink Zirconia acts oblivious to Fireworks Obsidian's distaste towards her behavior, but nevertheless treats her with respect and even admiration.

### Howlite

Pink Zirconia sees her old self in Howlite, and strongly dislikes her as a result. She is also fully aware of Howlite's plans for her, though she feigns ignorance to this. She refuses to speak at all with Howlite, with Lavender Pearl handling diplomacy between their factions.

### Lavender Pearl

Pink Zirconia respects and admires Lavender Pearl, turning to her for advice on a regular basis.

### Morganite

Pink Zirconia was appalled by Morganite's attitude and treatment of her servants (and of Pink Zirconia herself) upon her arrival to Mars. A brief encounter was all it took for her to decide to bubble Morganite and take over her outpost. To this day, Pink Zirconia does not regret her decision, and intends to keep Morganite bubbled forever.

### Pezzottaite

Pezzottaite was one of many Gems assigned to Pink Zirconia and later taken to Mars with her. The two got into many arguments after taking over The Garden, until Pezzottaite simply left. It is clear Pink Zirconia doesn't see this as a loss, making no attempt to find her or bring her back.

### Pink Diamond

Pink Zirconia had served Pink Diamond as her representative for thousands of years. The two were originally very close, but the former was still subject to the latter's more abusive behavior. They drifted apart after Pink Diamond lost her original Pearl, and Pink Zirconia took the distance personally. She eventually tried to regain her Diamond's favor by infiltrating the Crystal Gems in an attempt to stop the Rebellion and "save" Earth as a colony. This led to "the exposure," implanting in her a bitter, unconditional hatred of her former superior.

Pink Zirconia is known to accuse her Diamond of "replacing" all her subjects through the Rebellion, and even herself through Rose Quartz. Her contempt is so strong that she has defaced or destroyed all symbols and depictions of Pink Diamond throughout the Garden, and many of her actions are motivated by a desire to spite her Diamond.

### Pink Moissanite

Pink Zirconia despised Pink Moissanite, seeing the Gem as her "replacement." It is possible that Pink Moissanite's existence is at least part of the reason that she has accused Pink Diamond of replacing everyone who ever served her. On Mars, there is a rumor that Pink Zirconia is personally responsible for the Moissanite's disappearance—however, as the latter was last seen on Earth and the former is silent on the matter, there is little evidence to support or debunk this rumor.

### Pink Quartz

Pink Zirconia deeply admires Pink Quartz, and has been known to gush about her to others (much to the Quartz's embarrassment). She shares Pink Quartz's distaste for the term Rose Quartz, and has gleefully agreed to refer to the soldier by her preferred name.

### Pseudo-Gems

Pink Zirconia adores all the pseudo-Gems. She considers them to be her children rather than her pets, and regularly refers to herself as their mother.

### Roseate Pearl

Pink Zirconia pities Roseate Pearl, believing her owner (Morganite) to be better only than Pink Diamond. She has allowed the Pearl to stay in the Garden but refuses to allow her access to Morganite's bubble. Everyone in the Garden, including the Zirconia herself, knows that Roseate Pearl still is blindly loyal to her owner, and Pink Zirconia fears that she will attempt to free her owner if she can reach the Beryl's bubbled Gemstone.

### Tiger's Eye

Similar to the other faction leaders, Pink Zirconia does not like Tiger's Eye. She is willing to speak with the Chalcedony herself, but repeated attempts in the past proved that Tiger's Eye would not talk to her directly. Consequently, Lavender Pearl handles all diplomacy between their factions.

## Trivia

* As the first Zirconia to actively perform espionage, it can be inferred that the creation of Lesser Zirconias was inspired by Pink Zirconia's work.
* Pink Zirconia is one of several Mars AU Gems associated with a Major Arcana tarot card; specifically, "The Empress."
	+ This is due to her motherly, sometimes overly so, behavior.
* Pink Zirconia has a few named hypothetical fusions.
	+ If she fused with Pink Quartz, they would form a Rose Aura Quartz.
	+ If she fused with Fireworks Obsidian, they would form a Helenite.
	+ If she fused with Howlite, they would form Star Rose Quartz.
	+ If she somehow fused with Tiger's Eye, they would form a Cacoxenite.
	+ If she somehow fused with Blue Goldstone, they would form a Dragon Vein Agate.
	+ If she somehow fused with Howlite, Tiger's Eye, and Blue Goldstone, they would form an Ammolite.
* If Pink Zirconia were to learn of Steven Universe's existence, she would be furious over it, seeing it as Pink Diamond "replacing herself" a second time (the first being with her alter ego, Rose Quartz). Consequently, she would also have a strong desire to attack the Crystal Gems, in the hope that Pink Diamond still has some form of consciousness and would be able to feel whatever pain she managed to inflict on Steven.
	+ Thanks to Steven's mass broadcasts during Era 3, it would be impossible to keep Pink Zirconia from ever learning about him.
	+ She would eventually meet with Howlite, at which point the two would conspire against Steven and plot to shatter his Gemstone.

## Gemstone

 Gemology

Gemstone Information

* Cubic zirconia (not to be confused with zircon) is a crystalline variant of zirconium oxide (ZrO2). It has a hardness of 8 to 8.5 on the Mohs hardness scale.
* Because zirconium oxide rarely forms crystals naturally, almost if not all cubic zirconia samples are synthetic. To get varying colors, different metals are added as coloring agents.
	+ To get a pink color, erbium, europium, and holmium are used.
* Cubic zirconia is almost exclusively used as a diamond simulant, or an inexpensive alternative to actual diamond. In fact, cubic zirconia is so inexpensive that its setting can be worth more than the stone itself.
* Despite being effectively synthetic, cubic zirconia, like many gemstones, is said to have metaphysical properties.
* Cubic zirconia is associated with mental clarity and enlightenment, and with the third eye and solar plexus chakras.
* Much like with diamonds, different colors of cubic zirconia are reported to have varying metaphysical properties. Pink cubic zirconia, for example, supposedly has a much stronger latent power than the clear variant.

## Gallery

Pink Zirconia's previous designPink Zirconia's previous Gemstone designPink Zirconia shapeshifted into Steven UniversePink Zirconia's original design"She replaced everyone!"