The PAWN Chronicles

The Trio then entered the restaurant. “Assuming Nimbus doesn't try anything...” Arcane said, leaving the sentence unfinished and looking at Nimbus.

“No promises!” Nimbus chirped.

They took their seats and waited for the server to bring them their menus. Once they did, Nimbus waited for the server to walk away before saying, “Hey punk.” In a nonchalant and overall not even a very unfriendly tone at that. He then lifted his menu and pretended to be reading it. When the server came back confused and asked what was wrong, Nimbus feigned confusion. The server then cleaned their ears thinking perhaps it was just their imagination. Once they left again, Nimbus let out a silent chuckle.
Arcane then took the paper from the straw for his drink and crumpled it up into a compact ball. He then took his straw and added a drop of water to it to watch it unravel. He always found that fun to watch, even with all the magic he had learned. Probably for the nostalgia.
When they finally ordered and received their food, the trio then left to look for the bat pony they where told about.
They stopped by the castle to take pictures, though Noctis was annoyed by this as he saw it to impede progress, to which Nimbus tried to take advantage of to tease him.
Taking a tour of Canterlot city wasn't exactly what they came for, but they ended up doing that anyway, seeing as how it may lead to them running into their next teammate.

“Gotta love those bright colors!” Nimbus said, enthusiasm in his tone.

“They're too bright and too distracting!” Noctis replied. “Do you have any idea how much you can get done when your not distracted by unnecessarily bright scenery? It's as if this place is some daycare for foals! I preferred Manehatten.”

“How do you know it's the environment and not the pony in it?” Nimbus then asked.

Noctis simply rolled his eyes in response.

The group then reached a predicament. Arcane had spotted Applejack running around in a panicked manner. “Hey, c'mon.” He said to the others as they then followed to assess the situation. “Hey, you alright applejack?” he asked. “You seem pretty worried right now. What's going on?”

“Arcane! Have you seen Applebloom? I can't find her anywhere!” Applejack replied frantically.

“We haven't. What happened?” Arcane then asked.

“Well, I was going to make a delivery here to Canterlot, and I brought Applebloom with me, but somewhere along the way I lost her!” Applejack answered. “One minute she was by my side, and the next she's just gone and im really starting to get worried!”

“Alright then.” Arcane said. “We'll help you find her.”

“Between the four of us, we may want to check the four sections of the city.” Noctis added.

“I'll check the east!” Nimbus then said.

“Alright, I'll check the north then.” Arcane said. “Noctis, you should check the south, and Applejack can check the west.”

The four then split up and started looking for Applebloom in the four sections of the city. Noctis took to the skies as soon as he headed to the southern part of town.

“Tch, it's their own damned fault. The lifestyle they live is too lavish and docile. It put's it in their heads that nothing can go wrong.” Noctis said to himself.

Nimbus on the other hand simply walked to the east once he reached a place he thought was a good place to start looking. He also used hi illusion abilities to create music as he looked around. Once he looked through a good section of the city he started following a path that led into the outskirts. For all he knew, she could have wandered out of town.

He ended up in a section of wilderness that was said to have timber wolves. Though they would never bother him since he could simply use his illusion skills to hide from their view. He then heard some growling nearby and put up a cloak spell to hide himself while he trotted through the area. He then found a little filly with a yellow coat and red mane being apprehended by a group of timber wolves.

She tried to back away from them, she seemed frightened out of her mind.
But soon after, the wolves started sniffing the ground and looking for her. A look of confusion appeared on the filly's face as she didn't seem to know what was going on.
Nimbus then cleared his throat to get her attention and she turned around to find the Gomen standing there.

“Your name wouldn't happen to be Applebloom would it?” Nimbus then asked.

The filly then looked at the timber wolves, then back at Nimbus in confusion. Though since Nimbus showed no concern to their presence, she figured she was safe from them. “Um, yeah.” She said. “So, are these here your timber wolves?”

“They are somewhere.” Nimbus said. “But here? Well, I don't think so. They aren't attacking because they can't see us.”

“Oh...” Applebloom said.

“At any rate, someone named Applejack was looking for you.” Nimbus then said. “She's-”

“You know where Applejack is?!” Applebloom then interrupted. “We where walking down the path out into the Canterlot outskirts and then we got lost. And after we looked around for the path back, she was gone.”

“Just like that?” Nimbus asked. “No warning or any sign that she was going somewhere out of your reach?”

Applebloom nodded.

“I see. Sounds like the work of an illusionist.” Nimbus said.

“Who do you think did it then?” Applebloom then asked.

“Well, other than me, I don't know many others here that can perform illusions.” Nimbus answered. “Though Im new to Equestria so I haven't had much time to look around and find one.”

“Did you do it?” Applebloom then asked.

“Now that's a good question.” Nimbus then replied. “I don't think so. I have no memory of the even if I did. Although, it is possible that I have a split personality and the other me performed actions without my knowing. I wouldn't have any memory of the event then. Ha! That would be quite something eh?”

Applebloom had an expression of confusion at Nimbus's comment. He sounded as if he didn't know very much about himself. “That sounds an awful lot like something Discord would say.” She said.

“Is it?” Nimbus asked. “I've never met a Discord before. But then, perhaps I am them and just don’t know it. Perhaps the Discord you know isn't even Discord? Well, that sure puts a few thoughts in my mind. So who is Discord?”

“Um, well... He's supposed to represent chaos.” Applebloom answered. “One time, he tried to take over Equestria and did all kinds of nasty things to everyone. Making them all act crazy and messing up everything. But Fluttershy became friends with him, so now I guess he's not a danger anymore.”

“Oh? What kind of things did he do?” Nimbus asked.

“Well, he gave all the animals really long legs, and he also turned gravity upside down in some places.” Applebloom said. “And I think he made pie fall from the sky and pink rain.”

“Sounds like fun!” Nimbus said. “It's too bad I wasn't there to see it!”

“Yeah, well, it wasn't that great.” Applebloom said. “He wasn't very creative at all.” She said this to try and get Discord to give up the disguise as she was sure that Nimbus was really Discord trying to play a prank on her.

“Oh? Then you Equestrians must be pretty creative and open minded.” Nimbus then said. “Im glad I came here!”

Applebloom stayed silent as she had an expression of suspicion, though ultimately decided to let it go as Nimbus led her back into Canterlot.

“My name's Nimbus by the way.” Nimbus said. “Nimbus Colercove. Im a gomen!”

“What's a gomen?” Applebloom asked.

“It's what I am.” Nimbus replied. “Specifically, a form of wingless bat pony. You know how you have the Earth ponies, Unicorns, an Pegasi?”

“Uh huh.” Applebloom replied.

“Well, think of a gomen as a unicorn variant of a bat pony.” Nimbus said. “Except instead of horns we have antennae. And instead of magic, were psychic.”

“Psychic?” Applebloom asked. “Does that mean you can read minds and see the future?”

“Hahahaha! ...Yup!” Nimbus said. “But only if were practiced in those disciplines. Me, im an illusionist, and telepath.”

“Telepath?” Applebloom asked.

“Yup. I can read minds and talk to others with my mind.” Nimbus answered. “I can also send phantasm's with my mind. A phantasm is like an illusion but instead of bending an image in a certain area, I create it in someone's mind and thus fool all five of their senses. It's like putting a dream in their head.”

“Oh.” Applebloom said.

“And the only limit is one's imagination.” Nimbus added.

“So if ya wanted to, you could make it look like your a lot more powerful than you really are huh?” Applebloom then asked.

“Oh yes.” Nimbus said. “The phantasm is the most effective illusion ability I have. However, It only works on one at a time. Also it doesn't work on everyone it seems. A fellow by the name of Noctis Phantasma could resist the effect completely.”

“Oh! He's new too!” Applebloom said. “I met him at a party Pinkie Pie threw for him. Do you think he could really beat Tirek in a fight?”

“You can beat anyone in a fight with the right preparation.” Nimbus said.

“I guess.” Applebloom replied. “Hey, by the way, you said that those timber wolves weren't yours here. What do you mean by that?”

“Well, by here, I mean this reality.” Nimbus said. “It's one of an infinite number of realities. Imagine the time line for example. It would probably take some thinking, but when you do, you learn quickly that it's not a line, but rather an ocean. It goes in every possible direction and has every possible event imaginable.”

“Ummm...” Applebloom said, unsure of what he meant.

“Imagine a world where you where the older sibling, or one where you had a different sibling entirely, or even one where you had no sibling at all.” Nimbus replied. “There are other universes where that's true.”

“But Applejack's always been my sister.” Applebloom said.

Nimbus thought for a moment of a way he could explain his theory. “Ok, tell me of a choice you had to make at one point.” He said. “It can be anything from what you where choosing for breakfast, to who you decided to talk to when you first made a friend.”

“Well...” Applebloom said as she thought. “There was this one time I was playing with my friends at school. We where going to play a game of Frisbee and we got into teams. There was a blue team and a red team. I chose the red team.”

“Ah, that's interesting.” Nimbus said. “Though while you decided to go for the red team in this reality, there's a reality where you chose the blue team. Or even the green team!”

“But there was no green team.” Applebloom said.

“Not in this reality there wasn't.” Nimbus said.

“Oh... so your saying there could have been a green team?” Applebloom then asked.

“Exactly!” Nimbus replied.

“I think I get what your saying.” Applebloom said.

When they reached the city, they then looked for the others. They eventually found Arcane. “Heya Arcane!” Nimbus shouted.

“Sup?” Arcane replied as he trotted over to the two. “Looks like you found Applebloom. Where was she?”

“She was in the outskirts.” Nimbus answered. “Of all places! Ha!”

“Huh...” Arcane replied with a confused expression.

“I think someone played a prank on her perhaps.” Nimbus added. “Though it could have also been an attempt to put her in harms way.”

“I see.” Arcane said he then looked at Applebloom who gave him a light smile. “Well, after we get you back to your sister, We'll have to look into that.”

“We where just talking about... um...” Applebloom said, trying to find a word for what it was they where talking about.

“Alternate universes.” Nimbus said.

“Yeah!” Applebloom said.

“Huh. How bout that.” Arcane said. “Alright, let's get you back to your sister.”

Once they found Applejack, she ran over to hug her younger sister. “Applebloom!” Applejack said. “I was so worried!”

While the two sister where talking, Arcane then whispered to Nimbus. “Hey er... You didn't tell her about the more... Negative side of alternate universes did you?” He asked. He probably didn't know of alternate realities to Nimbus's extent, but he had pondered on the matter many times.

“Oh no, of course not.” Nimbus said. “Though I may have told her of an alternate reality where she doesn't have a sister, but I don't think she'll take that too seriously. Amazing all the realities that exist. The infinity of it all. We could be anything! Like insects!”

“Or plants.” Arcane replied.

“Or even the sun!” Nimbus said.

“I was the sun before it was cool.” Arcane joked. The two then laughed.

Noctis then flew down once he saw the group together. “What did I miss?” He asked.

“Found Applebloom.” Arcane said pointing to Applebloom and Applejack.

“Obviously.” Noctis replied.

“We think someone might have tried to hurt her.” Arcane then said. His expression now more serious.