Never Existed Ch 30

Pinkie was very time consuming to be nice to Fluttershy in order for her to be transferred from the cloud to the ground. But it did eventually happen, and by the time that happened, Twilight was feeling more sure of herself as she and the others walked away from Rainbow's house and towards to where Twilight had seen Rainbow Dash fly off to earlier. But she did wonder why Pinkie is taking so long to turn back into her normal self. She had ultimately assumed that Rarity would be next because of how little progression Pinkie was making with her true self.

"So, got any idea where Rainbow fled off to?" Applejack asked to Twilight as she examined her surroundings

Twilight thought for a moment as she walked and rubbed her hoof under her chin for a moment. "I remember seeing her go towards the centre of Ponyville, so there's a possibility that she headed that way. But, she may have changed her course."

"Then, that's the way that we need to go." Applejack announced as she ran towards Ponyville along with everypony else, but with Pinkie being the slowest of them all.

"Ugh, why must we keep on moving!?" She groaned as she trotted annoyingly towards Ponyville.

Meanwhile, up in the clouds was a familiar but yet threatening alicorn named Athanasia who had been keeping a close eye on these ponies since the beginning. She used her magic to move her from place to place. Since she had wanted to save her strength for when she'd come face to face with Twilight and her assumed friends.

She looked down at her mane, it was beginning to absorb power from the other alicorns that she had captured. After Nightmare moon had stolen Celestia's day, Celestia's power was slowly being absorbed into Athanasia, the power was only beginning to show as her long wavy and purple mane was getting some of its refined colours back, the black streaks her mane once contained was beginning to show again. This pleased Athanasia, she looked down to see that Twilight and her friends had reached Ponyville and had begun the search for Rainbow Dash.

"Good luck finding her, young alicorn." She ended with a deep chuckle of doubt.

Athanasia had concealed both Celestia and Cadence somewhere where they couldn't be seen. Only alicorns were able to see them now. Athanasia went to visit them later on to bring Celestia news that seemed very confusing to Celestia since she had never taught a student other than Sunset Shimmer.

"Well, it seems your student is making good progress at finding the so called 'elements of harmony'. And I believe it'll be nearly time for your magical powers to diminish, as well as your sister."

Celestia gasped. "No, you leave my dear sister alone!" She demanded as she banged her hooves on the concealed invisible wall that made her powers diminish every time she had breathed a breath of air.

"Dear? Oh please, she's not so dear creating havoc is she?" Athanasia stated with a small and evil grin.

Celestia's eyes began to tear up. "Don't hurt her! I know that you'll regret it someday!" Celestia warned her.

Athanasia ignored Celestia's warning and moved on to talking to Cadence who had already been weakened by this invisible wall that had concealed her but somehow allowed her to breathe well.

"It looks like your little friend won't make it."

"What are you talking about? I keep telling you, the only friends I ever had abandoned me because of how different I was…" She ended with a tear in each purple delicate eye.

"I know, because the one true friend was a foal you had sat for but in fact, never did; since she had never existed." Athanasia ended while flying off into the distance to find where Twilight and her assumed friends were.

Celestia began to tear up as she saw the devastated look on Cadence's face; she never knew that her sister would be the victim of Athanasia since they were on the same side as each other. And Celestia had kept on wondering who this Twilight Sparkle was; did she remind her of Sunset Shimmer? Or was she a completely different pony? She didn't know for sure.

"Oh Sunset Shimmer, I wish you saw the happiness like I always thought you did." She told herself in a whisper-like voice as she closed her eyes in reminder of that fateful day when Sunset Shimmer had abandoned her studies to pursue her own path.

*Flashback*

"No! I want more power, now! I am more than ready to take the next step in my studies!" Sunset demanded.

"Now my faithful student, you still have much to learn. To continue your studies I will be sending you to-"

"No! No more sending me to places! I want more power now!" Sunset screamed as she started to sound like a demanding child. "If you don't give me what I want then I may as well quit!"

"I will not let you do so." Celestia announced with her head held high while looking at the angered unicorn with a golden coat and curly red and yellow hair. "You must continue your studies with me until you have fulfilled your destiny." She explained in a peaceful manner.

Sunset turned her back from Celestia and thought for a quick moment to tell Celestia the harsh truth she had been waiting to say for a long time.

"Well, you know what? If you don't get me what I want, then I may as well find another way to get it!" She announced with tears falling down her cheek at a rapid rate in deep regret of what she was doing.

She then ran off and not long after she had teleported herself somewhere else and eventually disappeared off the face of Equestria.

Celestia felt heartbroken, and guilty for what she didn't do. She knew that there must have been another way to get through to her. She saw potential in her, but how come she saw wrong?

There was also hope still within her, Celestia knew that she could still feel hope for this unicorn, though the 6th element of harmony looked nothing related to Sunset Shimmer. Perhaps a new unicorn will intertwine their destiny with Celestia's. She had simple hoped for the best.

But, as many years passed, she had received no new unicorn students to help them discover their true destiny as a Princess. She had countless amateurs who wanted the same but the Princess could not see the potential for these amateurs, some of them weren't even unicorns.

Celestia still had hoped that one day, that faithful unicorn would turn up someday, but until that day when she had been captured by Nightmare Moon; there was no pony that could be her faithful student.

*flashback ended*

Celestia simply sat in tears of regret and fear that there will never be any pony to help save Equestria and possibly the whole world from this evil alicorn with red coloured eyes that flickered every now and then in whom was called Athanasia.

In all the meanwhile, Twilight has seen shadows zipping from place to place as they flew up and then down and then all over the place, this could only mean one thing; Rainbow was definitely around.

The ponies had zipped from one place to the other but still couldn't find or even get a hold of Rainbow. Applejack could definitely tell that it was Rainbow, because of the intimidating yet depressing way she flew around failed to hide Rainbow's identity as the night had successfully obscured the rest.

Also, Pinkie was having a hard time following along with the others so she sat beside Sugarcube Corner. Her depression and anger towards this adventure was heating to a boil, but then something had turned that heat off. Pinkie saw the twists, turns and bumps that each pony made as they chased after Rainbow. Applejack had accidentally bumped into Fluttershy which gave them both a weird and dizzy looking face where as Twilight had managed to bump herself on a broken way and rub her nose as if she had broke it but pushing it slightly upwards to make it all scrunched up.

Pinkie could feel something strange inside her began to build up. She didn't recognize this feeling right away, but once she did she wasn't able to contain herself.

The laughter she had made caught everyone's ears by surprise, especially Twilight's. Her laughing echoed throughout the nearby streets and down into other further away streets.

"Pinkie's...laughing…?" Rarity asked to Applejack who had just recovered from another bump into Rarity.

"I'd have to say so." Applejack replied with her head still trying to get into main focus, but she could clearly hear the giggling and snorts of laughter that came from Pinkie Pie.

Twilight smiled as she had let Rainbow's flying around disappear from her mind and expect a small spark from Pinkie to happen anytime soon. She approached Pinkie who had still been laughing uncontrollably for the last few minutes; it had seemed that she had this laughter built up inside of her the entire time and it had reached the extent where it would burst out all at once.

"Pinkie..? You're laughing!" Twilight announced seeming very glad to see the different smiles that Pinkie managed to make; it had been a long time since Twilight saw Pinkie this happy.

But then, Pinkie had a reality check and saw what she was doing and how it affected the others, her laughter diminished as depression and ignorance returned.

"I had a hiccup and it didn't wanna come out, that's all." Pinkie told the others as she sat on her hind legs while folding the two front hooves together.

"Oh, don't be modest Pinkie dear. You were indeed laughing." Rarity exclaimed.

"Yes, you were! You were your true self." Twilight agreed and announced slightly to Pinkie.

Pinkie opened her eyes and looked up in curiosity. "I was?"

"Yes, I can see it in your eyes. Your true self is coming back. And I wasn't expecting it so soon." Twilight admitted as she approached Pinkie to give her a comforting look.

Pinkie looked down and closed her eyes for a moment as a sign that this pony was in deep thought.

"I haven't been myself in a long time; ever since everyone called me to be too happy about every situation, even the bad ones."

"But that's what makes you yourself!" Twilight told her in hesitation.

"It does, I know. But ever since Nightmare alicorn came everyone has been hiding away and I've had no real friends since then." She explained in a soft tone while looking down at the ground thinking of all the amazing friends she once had. "Why weren't you four there for me?"

Applejack took her hat off as a sign of true honesty and respect. "To be honest with ya'll, I think we were all so caught up in the situation that we didn't have any time to see you."

"Indeed so, I was too busy trying to resolve this conflict between myself and Applejack." Rarity added.

Pinkie turned to Fluttershy; she looked in slight suspicion towards the Pegasus as this shy pony backed away slightly in fright.

"Fluttershy, what about you?" Pinkie asked in wonder but yet a small amount of suspicion.

"Oh…I um….I was t-too scared to see how much you had changed…"She explained while covering some of her face with her hoof for a small amount of protection.

"Too scared? Was I scary to all of you? Is that the truth?"

The ponies all nodded in agreement as Pinkie looked down in sadness and regret of the thought of herself being too scary towards her friends.