//------------------------------// // Another friend. // Story: Mind and Magic // by Fictional Fanatic //------------------------------// Mind and Magic. Chapter 5. Another friend. This is getting ridiculous. I thought as my consciousness returned to me. How many times more will I be waking up today? I thought trying to get rid of the grogginess experienced right after waking up. I got my answer much sooner than I had anticipated. Opening my eyes, the only thing I saw was the night sky, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful. After a moment however, my thoughts brought me back to the now. I had been battling some weird dude and had only been able to get him with my last trick. This also reminded me of my damaged body and the pain that was supposed to come with it. I gritted my teeth, awaiting the pain that was sure to return any moment. Imagine my surprise when it didn't. What little I knew about medicine urged me to make sure I could feel my body, not feeling any pain when it's supposed to was a bad sign. Slowly I tried moving different parts of my body to make sure I could feel and move them as they were supposed to. I could, even the parts I wasn't supposed to. My toes that had been blasted of by one of the beams were back, and responding to my will! My first thought was relief, I wouldn't remain a crippled lady after all. My second was panic, the only way I could think of that would make this possible was if I had died and regained my body. At this, I tried to sit up. What I saw both calmed and confused me. I was in a small camp. A little campfire was placed not too far away to the left of me and a little tent has been set up in the clearing, right next to the crater. I quickly looked around and noticed my Party Slicer lying next to my torn and bloody clothes. It was at this point I noticed I was wearing entirely different clothes and had been bandaged over. I looked myself over, seeing the bandaging corresponding to the injuries I could remember and a few I couldn't. But the injuries themselves were all non-existent and had seemingly left no mark. It was as if I had not fought a battle to the death at all. Even my hair was back to its original length and pink color. A sudden movement from the tent caused me to grasp my weapon and jump up, ready for another fight. Instead, I got a surprise. It was the girl who had been close to dying in the crater, all healed herself. As she saw me she smiled at me and showed her hands in a manner to show she had no weapon and didn't mean me any harm. I could see the honesty in her cheery eyes and lowered my weapon. "Thank god, I thought you wouldn't make it at first," The girl, Pan if I remembered correctly said. "you were pretty bruised up, I saw the whole fight from the crater, you put up a great fight, but I've never seen any magic like that. What was that?" Pan asked me with curiosity. All I could do was wonder, she had seen the whole fight in her condition? And had the energy to heal both herself and me afterward, I could only think one thing. "How?" "Excuse me? How, what?" She responded with a confused look. "How am I fully healed, that asshole blew off part of my foot and it's fully healed. And you," I said, pointing at her." you were in a crater, at the brink of death, how could you watch our fight, or even stand there, completely uninjured?!" Pan looked at me for a while, before bursting into laughter. She was holding her sides and laughing fully. After calming down and seeing my glare upon her, she stopped laughing and motioned for me to sit down next to the fire. "You might as well sit down, this will take a while." She said, settling down herself. I followed her example and turned towards her as she began explaining. By the end of Pan's explanation, she had explained everything from what a Displaced was, how she became one and that there were many more in their own versions of Equestria. Apparently, in most of them, we, the citizen of Equestria, are ponies instead of humans. Apparently, the multiverse is weird like that. The instantaneous healing was explained with something called a senzu bean. A bean that if eaten would keep you saturated for up to ten full days and heal any wounds. They could bring you back from the brink of death. "Say, we never properly introduced ourselves. I'm Jessica Bluestorm, but you can call me Pan Son. That's who I became after becoming a Displaced. So, just Pan for short. What would I call you Miss?" Pan asked me. "Nice to meet you Pan," I said giggling a little over the fact that she already told me most of her life story before we could introduce ourselves. "name's Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you can just call me Diane," I said with a smile. I was actually enjoying this conversation. However, at the mention of my name Pan frowned. "Damn, that's unfortunate..." Pan said avoiding to look at me and seemingly deep in thought. I was about to ask her what was wrong, however before I could, Pan spoke up once again. "Okay, Pinkie. I'm gonna be honest I-" Pan started before I interrupted her. "Diane, call me Diane. Pinkie is my sister." I said sternly, looking at Pan. "Sorry. Diane, I'll be honest. You're a wanted escapee from a mental asylum. I was told to keep an eye out for you and if possible catch you and bring you back." Pan said, every word making me inch closer to my slicer. "However, I'm not going to do that." She said, surprising me. "What?" I asked, unsure of what this could mean, a little on edge as she had just revealed she was supposed to bring me in. "I said I won't be dragging you to a mental asylum. From what I gathered you're a sane person. I don't know why you were put in a mental asylum, but I don't think you're crazy. Also, you saved my life. Besides, I don't think I would be able to take you by force anyway, your power level skyrocketed after you defeated Vegeta. I think you'd be able to defeat me in a fight." Pan said, seemingly amused at the idea. Leaving me confused. "Power level?" I asked, not able to make sense of what she was telling me. "Yes, Power levels, the unit of measurement to measure how powerful one's opponents are. The stronger you are, the higher power level. And right now, you have a power level far higher than Vegeta had, meaning you're probably far stronger than he ever was." Pan said nodding towards me. "Fighting you isn't something I would like to do. But I also can't let you go." Pan suddenly said with a serious look on her face. "You just had a tremendous increase in your power level, this means you'll be a lot stronger than before. And that isn't just physical strength." At this point, I was feeling quite threatened and was just about to reach out for my slicer. But as I looked Pan in the eyes I could see no ill intent. I blinked and Pan continued. "With such powers, you'll be quite a dangerous escapee. Anyone foolish enough to try and stop you would most likely not make it home from just one of your punches." I looked at my hand. Had I really become so much stronger from using crimson rain on this Vegeta? Pan brought her hands up to the sides of her head, massaging her temples. "If the Princesses found out they wouldn't be happy with either me or you..." After a while of silence and more massaging, Pan finally stood up and planted one fist in the palm of her other hand. "I got it!" She exclaimed before turning towards me with a somewhat sad expression. "Diane... could you trust me on something?" She asked me. Now that was quite the question. Can I trust her? She was ordered by the Princesses to capture me! *But she didn't.* Another voice said. True, but It's like she said, she wouldn't be able to. I got a lot stronger from using Crimson Rain. Her only chance would be to trick me. *But she owes you her life, doesn't she? You saved her from Vegeta.* And then she saved me from lethal injuries I had sustained from the fight! She doesn't owe me anything! *But she saved you. Doesn't that mean you can trust her?* She didn't know who I was at that point. *Perhaps, but now is your chance to give her something that almost no one has ever given you.* And what is that? *The benefit of the doubt.* I gasped at the realization. I had all my life been accused of being crazy, having no say and no one listening to me except Pinkie Pie. Who technically was me. Everyone had always ignored my part of the story. Always ignored me. And I was about to do the same, I was about to ignore help. At that moment I decided I would trust Pan. She was someone who I had helped, and she had helped me in return. Now she was once again trying to help me and only asked for me to trust her. She had a plan to help me. So I would help her help me. I smiled and nodded to show that I indeed trusted her. As I nodded Pan put her hand on my forehead and closed her eyes. To be honest it felt kinda weird until many different memories started surfacing. Mostly it was memories of me being mad and blaming Twilight, but there were also memories about me and Pinkie and our time together. The flood of memories stopped after the point where I had changed and decide not to try and get revenge on Twilight anymore. As the memories stopped Pan opened her eyes and took a step back. It didn't take me long to make a connection. "Wait! You read my memories?" I asked, close to panicking. While nodding Pan seemed deep in thought, just standing there looking at her hand with a neutral expression, making me nervous. What would she think about me? This might all have been a big mistake, but it was too late now. As I was being torn between freaking out and thinking of ways to escape Pan seemed to have made up her mind. "Diane. I have reached a decision about what to do. You and me will from now on train together. You'll be going under the radar and get your new powers under control. I'll tell the Princesses that I haven't seen you, but I'll tell them that I have found a student. It's actually something they wanted me to do, to teach one of their humans the same things I can do. Does that sound okay?" Pan asked me. I can honestly say I was speechless. Even after seeing my memories and how I had behaved, she still wanted to help me. My eyes were tearing up as I jumped up and hugged her screaming, "YES!! Thank you." I think my hair might even have gone all poofy like Pinkie's for a while. Pan chuckled a little but then once again spoke. "Great, now however we have quite a few things to do. First off, we need to get you," she pointed at me. "some new clothes and a new identity. Can't have anyone recognize you, right?" Pan said before turning around and then look back at me. "I'll be back in a minute. Just gonna go and buy some stuff. You just get comfortable and I 'll be right back." Pan said before starting to fly off. Only to stop again. "Hey, Diane. What color of clothing do you prefer?" She shouted over the distance she had already flown. I looked back at her before shouting "I like black quite a lot, but I do appreciate some other colors as well. You could always ask Pinkie if you're going to Ponyville. Just tell her I'm fine and that you're my friend!" I shouted back. Knowing that the closest town was Ponyville I was almost certain that's where she would be going. I watched Pan wave me goodbye and fly off in the direction of Ponyville. Meanwhile, I sat down with a smile on my lips and only one thought bouncing around in my head. I have made another friend! Making friends had been something Pinkie and I had been all for when we were one and the same. But after the separation, I had lost that. It felt good to enjoy something like that once again after such a long time. I don't think I'd be regretting this decision. *She forgot to ask you about your measurements for the clothes.* Great Pan. Just great. I thought with a groan, before sitting back down to keep the fire alive.