Author's Notes:

Alright, first off. Those of you who missed it, the chapter before this one was revamped, it's like twice it's original length now, go check it out before you keep reading. Second of all, I want to thank you all for your support and for helping me improve my fics by helping me find my mistakes, by pointing them out to me and letting me edit them.

Enjoy the chapter!

I really wasn't sure how the day had turned out like this. I had Pinkie Promised Pinkie that we would talk. How I found myself at the spa, with Rarity and Fluttershy as well, was way beyond my understanding. However, this was still the case and I had to simply accept it and roll with it. After all, we were all girls here, nothing wrong with that... Okay, even if I rationalize it like that it still feels wrong. It wasn't that I still felt like a male and was embarrassed by the situation, it was simply because I was unsure of how I really felt about my sexual standing at this point. I mean, if I was still into girls, would that now make me a fillyfooler? Or would I begin to like stallions and be a coltcuddler? Or because they were ponies... would I count as a pansexual or whatever the term for it was here?

I blink as Pinkie Pie joins me in the bath by jumping into the air, earning a shriek from Rarity, only to stop above the surface and gently slide into the water, barely disturbing the surface. I immediately react by pulling out a sign with a six on it, before turning it upside down into a nine. What? I was out of nines.

Pinkie giggled as she resurfaces and I splash her with some water while smiling at her.

"Pinkie, could you please refrain from doing that in the future? I'd rather keep the baths calm, like I'm used to." Rarity asks while I look towards Fluttershy who is last to join us in the warm water.

"I really needed this, thank you for convincing me Rarity." I thank her as I manage to relax. As much as I'm okay with my current situation, I still find myself a bit stressed from the more depressing thoughts from earlier on.

"Think nothing of it dear. I simply noticed that you weren't yourself and so I decided we could have a good talk about it," Rarity explains.

'Oh god! I should have seen this coming.' I think to myself as I noticed Pinkie Pie nodding while Fluttershy looks at Rarity.

"I'm sorry for this intruding upon our usual spa time Fluttershy, but I really think Diane needs this." Rarity apologizes, Only for Fluttershy to shake her head.

"I understand. Besides, I haven't spent much time with Diane anyway, this would be a good opportunity for us to get to know each other." Fluttershy replies, smiling towards me, in turn making me smile back as I genuinely would like to get to know her.

"Now then, how about we get to the problem. How do you feel being a mare?" Rarity asks, making me look at her as I had expected an entirely different question.

"Wait, hold on here a secon-" I begin before Rarity puts up a hoof.

"I don't want to hear it. I know a problem when I see one." She claims, making me frown.

"I don't have anything against being female," I state truthfully, not understanding what got her to think otherwise. "Besides, if I had been, it would have made far more sense to confront me about it a week or so ago." I tell her.

"But Darling, I can tell you're not satisfied, what could-" Rarity begins again, only to be interrupted by Pinkie Pie this time.

"It's her cutie mark, Rarity." Pinkie states bluntly.

"Cutie mark, what's wrong with her cutie mark? Has it disappeared?" She asks as I roll my eyes.

"I wish," I say, making Rarity's eyes widen while Fluttershy looks at me, trying to understand what I mean. "It's the fact that it isn't my cutie mark that bothers me. I'm simply borrowing Pinkie's mark, I wish I could have my own." I explain, sighing as I slide deeper into the water, submerging myself until only the top of my muzzle and anything than that staying above the surface.

"Oh, I see... I'll be honest, I don't see how I'd be able to help with such a dilemma." Rarity apologizes.

I simply shake my head and look towards Pinkie who nods and turns to Rarity.

"She says it's alright, at least you're willing to try and help, and that she's thankful for that." Pinkie says as I nod, still not feeling like getting out of the water. I like being childish like that sometimes, I also like feeling a bit closed in, covered or restrained to a certain degree, it feels cosy.

After a while of agreed silence, Fluttershy joins me while Pinkie looks at us curiously. I blink at the yellow pegasus and she blinks back. After a small amount of starring at each other I finally re-emerge and Fluttershy does the same.

"Alright, I guess I'll talk." I say while Rarity nods to herself and then gives Fluttershy an approving glance. Man these mares are good, I hadn't even realized how Fluttershy was coaxing me out of it or how Rarity had enlisted her for help.

"It's simple really, and rather silly. But I find it annoying having the same cutie mark as Pinkie Pie. It's not that I don't like it, or have anything against Pinkie's mark, it's just that I want one of my own and not feel like I'm intruding upon somepony else's talent." I explain to the best of my abilities.

I catch the mares all exchanging glances of worry between each other before Rarity moves over, stopping right next to me.

"Darling. While I haven't been in a situation quite like yours, I do believe there's more to this than what you see at first glance. I don't know about you, but I for one have yet to see that mark speak against you. I've seen that you can be just as... eccentric, as Pinkie Pie during this last week, and I don't think the mark is wrong. But perhaps, if you're not feeling it, then we could ask Twilight about it? I imagine she would be the pony to ask about things as magical as cutie marks." Rarity says, trying to comfort me.

I nodded along, feeling that she has a point. I had taken to my role as a Pinkie Pie clone rather successfully, even if it was because it practically was what this body was made for. It had been me for the most part, acting like I did because I now could, seeing it is socially acceptable for me to act like that since everypony here were already used to 'weird' making it normal, while I actually thought of it as normal from the beginning, it was society on earth that was weird. Of course, I did still tone it down, not always going to the same levels as Pinkie Pie, but it really was me that did it. It wasn't something forced upon me by either the memories or the mark, or this body of mine. The mark, is it even real? After all, it was created out of water, magical water, but you get my point. Maybe all I have to do is find my talent and I'll get my own cutie mark... No, I will not be joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I really don't want to mess with them since they have the biggest role in the next episode, and I'd rather not risk ending up covered in tree sap, cleaning your coat from something like that would be a nightmare. I'd rather go with the whipped cream, again... Head out of the gutter.

I shudder slightly at the thought but snap back to reality, my mental mumbling having only taken a second or two in reality.

Pinkie Pie was nodding her head. "Yeah, if it's anything magical, Twilight is bound to know at least something. I mean, she's only been studying her whole life before moving to Ponyville." She reinforced Rarity's idea, while also implying how much of a bookworm Twilight really was, or still is, I guess.

I guess they are right. Being the most powerful unicorn of the ones to appear in the show, there's a lot suggesting that Twilight at least knows something. But I will not go anywhere near her to let her preform a spell on me, I'd prefer not being the first time test dummy for some spell she hasn't tried yet, again. Since the show provided plenty of examples when she hadn't thought everything through, before casting a spell, or the spell backfired somehow, that was a big no, no. I admit to her being a prodigy in magic, something I have close to no experience in, but everypony make mistakes, and Twilight's tend to... be quite big ones.

"I'll see about going to Twilight and asking her about it. Pinkie, could you come with me? I don't want to go alone and have Twilight use any first time spells on me, again..." I asked, Pinkie simply nodded as Rarity winced while remembering the cause of my phobia for having spells used on me. I think I taught the ponies that were in the Golden Oaks Library a few ill chosen words that day. Word of advice, if you're going to use a spell you've never used before, try it on something else than a living pony beforehoof. Because that supposed 'scanning spell' hurt, a lot. And ponies are not meant to know that many curse words, heck even I am not entirely sure what some of the ones I used mean.

Even though Twilight did apologize profusely, I still have a suspicion she had done it intentionally. I still don't trust her completely after both that and the first time when she had nearly zapped me into the mirror pool, Pinkie Pie's quick thinking being the only thing to save me from a fate of being turned into a liquid and sent into that mirror pond.

"I'm sure Twilight would avoid casting any spells upon you this time. Last time was rather... unpleasant for all of us. I'm sure she'd like to avoid it just as much as you." Rarity reassured, as she put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Twilight isn't a bad pony Diane, she just made a mistake, please don't hate her for it." Fluttershy begs me.

"I know, but... it's hard. It's hard to trust somepony that hurt you like that, especially after you put your faith in somepony you already mistrust, and they hurt you. It's really hard to make a comeback after something like that." I explain. I really wanted to get to know Twilight, I really did want to be her friend. But right now, it's not something I can do because of how I feel. I feel betrayed, and betrayal is something quite hard to fight. It can ruin friendship quite badly, I know, because it has happened to me once before.

I had shared a personal and somewhat embarrassing secret with one of my friends, only for him to tell the school bullies, making them make fun of me. I was fortunately able to live through it since my secret hadn't been interpreted correctly and I could prove my former friend's claims were incorrect. But the damage had been done, he even had the nerve to try and come back, asking my friends, my real friends and I for forgiveness. Unfortunately for him, we couldn't forgive him. Especially after finding out that he had been spreading rumors about us. And once we met again years later? He had the nerve to act as if it had never happened!

No, just no. I can't forgive someone like that. It is far easier to make peace with the bullies and keep them as friends after graduation, than speak to someone who lied about you and breaks your trust, while the bullies have simply hurt you, done something you expected them to. At least, the bullies knew how friendship worked since they were able to stay together as friends.

Returning from my little trip down memory lane, I sigh and look at the three mares surrounding me.

"Don't be such a worry wart. Do you really think Twilight wouldn't be even more careful after what happened? She hurt a friend Diane, after you ran away, she was... Um, what is the word I'm looking for?" Pinkie asks while trying to reassure me.

"Distraught?" Rarity suggests.

"Yeah, that's the word! She really didn't mean to hurt you Diane."

I hope so, Pinkie, I really do.

The Pink nameless mare trudged on through the forest. She had managed to trick the unicorn and gotten her hooves on the book. While she didn't really need the book herself, she knew that once she was discovered the book could very well be used against her. Better safe than sorry, as they say.

As she arrived in a clearing, she drew the book out of her mane and down onto the ground. Looking at it for a while, she then took out a shovel and began to dig a hole to bury the book. While she could very well destroy the stupid thing, it was the reason she currently existed. Therefore, she would simply bury it until it was needed once again. Twilight herself had already cast protective charms upon it, so it would survive the dirt and moist it would be subjected to. It had been tempting to at least rip out the part of the spell meant to send the clones back into the lake, unfortunately it wasn't an option. The other side of the page containing otherwise useful information that would best be kept together with the rest of the book. Trying to make anything in the book unreadable was also prevented by the charms.

As she was done, she simply picked the book up, threw it into the hole and covered it up before jumping on top of the soil to flatten it down, eventually stopping once she was sure the spot was indistinguishable from the rest of the soil in the Everfree.

As she looked down at the spot, satisfied with her work, she looked around, committing the exact spot to memory. She was about to leave but she was suddenly startled by a loud rumbling.

"Oh, for pony's sake!" She complained out loud as she realized it had been her stomach to make the noise.

Beginning to look through her own mane, she began chucking things out while repeatedly saying "No,". Several different kinds of confetti, balloons, streamers and cooking supplements, as well as some bits and smaller instruments found their way to the ground. Yet, the hunt for a snack eventually turned out empty.

"Great, I'm out of food. It's probably for the best, most of it was getting stale anyway, what to do..." The mare pondered as she looked at all the different things she had managed to empty out from her mane. Her gaze stopping at the bits. Quickly scooping them all up, she deposited them back into her mane, while leaving the rest of the things in the clearing, after all she'd be returning there either way. But the bits, those she could probably use to swindle some ponies, making a bit more to buy herself something to eat.

Perhaps being alive wasn't what she had wanted after all? Shaking her head to get the negative thoughts out of her head. No, she had a mission, and once it began unraveling, she'd be living the life. Besides, a little bit of hunger was well worth the coming reward. Her confidence back at top, the mare trotted out of the clearing with a smile. Not noticing her cutiemark beginning to fade away.

And yes... It's most likely that we will see the other Pinkie Progress just as well at the end of each chapter.

Questions? Perhaps a Q&A chapter is in order.

Any questions you might have, put them in the comments. I'd rather have a lot of comments than be swarmed in PMs.