Paved with Good Intentions

"No....I have this terrible feeling.....Puddinghead and Hurricane...." Auftrag looked away, deep in thought, before looking over his report using Predestination. "Lady Plant, as much as I trust your judgement, I also trust the Chronos Magnus's lateral view of the world. If something happened at the execution, I'll know about it." He looked over the sentence 'Unicornia was going to suffer humiliation and defeat' again, but this time using the power of the Chronos Magnus. The artifact was reacting to something about the text, a vision of something was there, but until he focused harder, the image was blurry. He poured everything into attempting to see the image clearer.

Griff sighed as he lay on the roof, looking at the sky for a moment. It's still early, still a long way from the Grand Boring Gala... he thought before sitting back up and looking around. Getting the dress for gala would be expensive, no doubt... but then again I wouldn't even see the difference from my current payments... he continued thinking. But then the idea struck him. Hey wait a moment.. Prince Vision, was it? he can make things that aren't there appear... some interesting magic right there.. what if I ask him to make a fake dress for me? he thought and grinned at his own idea before jumping off the roof onto the streets and walked straight towards Vision's mansion. Once he arrived, he knocked on the door a few times before making a step back and waiting.

With that blast, Dusk knew he wouldn't be using spells any time soon. He needed what little energy he had left to hold his weapons up. He was somewhat disappointed at the results, but it got the job done.

As the other earth pony charged at him a second time, Dusk thrust out with his halberd once he got close enough, having to move his shield out of the way to make a proper strike.

Wolfe nods. "The Chancellor won't be safe until she's out of this warzone, but she's relatively uninjured if that's what you're thinking of. I'm glad you guys came when you did, those asshole pegasi were about to try and cheat me in a hostage trade." Wolfe sheathes his axe on his back and shakes the hoof of the pony. "I think we can mark this as a success, sir."

Both hippogriffs, appeased for now with their easy breakfast, began a gentle glide towards the "ground", each brother meeting in the air as they descended on an empty section of cloud, away from any interfering herbivores.
Immediately after landing, both brothers would tear into their meals, quite literally. Each one began their meal with the less bony, more muscly bits of the birds, though it would not take long for either to go after the wings. Small bits of bone were not much bother to either brother, though their beaks weren't specifically meant for breaking or for swallowing whole bones, though they might make nice things to chew on later. But with pegasi all around, that habit was essentially dead in both of the half-equines.
Then, they would move onto a more careful devouring of the offal. Birds weren't known for much pickiness in their food, though the hippogriffs were a bit less willing to eat whatever random things found their way between their beaks. Halfway-disgested stuff was usually bad to eat, and certainly tasted like the thing it would have become had the animals in question not been brutally murdered by a pair of plotting half-pegasi. Though Pocket quickly noticed a very odd oddity in his meal: the stomach was not soft and pliable like a stomach was supposed to be, and while he wasn't very interested in eating its contents, he had the sense of mind to wonder what sort of thing the bird could have eaten to get its stomach that way.
With a quick application of very sharp claws, he intended to find out exactly what made pigeon stomachs hard.

Accentria sat up, yawning and stretching her hooves. Noticing Clover, she immediately pinched herself on a forehoof with her magic. “Oww…” she smiled. “You’re real! Right, of course you’re real! Good morning, Clover--- At least, I think it’s morning. Uhm.. It’s morning, right?” Accentria laughed awkwardly. “Ah. Err. Let’s try that again. Exploration? I’m in!” she quickly hops off her bed, landing next to Clover. The Geas--- which were, until the moment of Accentria’s awakening, simply rotating over her, took their usual places aside her. “Say.. Clover, that Pegasus from earlier, is he alright? He seemed rather… Surprised to see me.” she asks, taking her discarded chain-shirt into a magical grip and putting it on. Stifling another yawn with a hoof, she turned to Clover.

- Zen -

The manticore did not move to attack, rather just sitting there and staring impassively at Sonata as she reached forward, though it did put a firm paw over the dropped crossbow. However, when the effects of the fatigue once again visibly overcame Sonata, its firm posture shifted somewhat, and instead of staying there in moved forward slowly, offering its paws facing upwards and lacking hostility in its gait.

---

- Eq -

"Yes, well, we're not out of the woods yet." The earth pony said, gesturing his troops to go forward and gently take the Chancellor from Wolfe's charge and loading him onto one of the wagons in the convoy. "We have to get him back to the encampment, and then examined. Once we treat him of any severe injuries or wounds we can fall back to Earth and give him the full array of treatment once it becomes available. Come, we must move quickly." He turned around and gestured to the rest of the convoy, shouting "Fall back to camp!"

With that shout, all the enormous war machines and armed columns began to about-face and begin the probably slow journey back to the encampment.

---

- Sharp -

Clover laughed it off. "I wouldn't worry about it, it's not every day that we get new ponies. Most of them here are used to having only each other, so when somepony new comes in they tend to stay away until trustworthiness has been proven." She patted Accentria. "The opportunity will present itself in due course, I'm sure. Now, come on, I want to go outside for a breath of fresh air." Stretching somewhat, she moved over to the door.

Then she turned around and smiled. "And yes, it's morning."

After leaving the room she would head back down the corridor, passing the plain and empty walls, occasionally punctuated with elegant paintings of what appeared to be a splendid castle in the woods. Eventually she would reemerge into the bar, amidst a drawing of attention, and out the exit, returning to the cliff face.

"Tell me, Accentria," she said, looking around the peaceful woods and the little bits of the cloudy sky above them visible through the forest canopy. Little flowers dotted the area around them, though they were small and only grew in the few areas with an appreciable level of sunlight. "What do you see?"

---

- Dragon Soul -

The halberd that Dusk thrust forward would catch the advancing earth pony in the side of his armour, slowing him down but not yet breaking the momentum of his charge. He did not, however, expect Dusk to lower his shield, and as a result overdid the power. He collided with Dusk, hard, and both of them toppled to the ground, the earth pony on top of Dusk. Nonetheless, the assailant was in no better position to attack than the victim, and the earth pony did not scramble to get up so much as he reached for the sword at his side and pulled it out, preparing to stab Dusk but very awkwardly. He would need a little bit of time to properly manoeuvre himself.

---

- Arry -

The door of the mansion creaked open, and the frowning face of Prince Vision peeked out from behind the door. He smiled widely, however, when he noticed that the pony at his doorstep was Griff. "Ah, Xereth! Please, come in. Surely it's not already my turn for inspections?" He ushered Griff in, but the moment the door swung shut he turned to face him, his frown having reappeared. "The less we're seen together, the better it would be. Why have you come to visit me?"

---

- Wise -

Plant shrugged. "If you say so. Personally, though, I'll wait till the battle reports come in before I start drawing any conclusions."

When Auftrag focused on the line, the blurred image would eventually become clearer, revealing... a blazing inferno, writhing and roiling in an angry blaze on a ground that was covered in grass and what seemed, at first glance, to be water. The image would soon zoom out, however, to reveal the full extent of the circumstances; a burning stage in the direct vicinity of Ponyville, a large array of earth pony siege equipment stationed just outside the reach of the flames, and a group of armoured pegasi on the burning stage, along with what appeared to be a small group of earth ponies.

Then one of the siege engines fired, sending an enormous crossbow bolt into the pegasus formations and prompting the latter to take off, carrying the bound figure who was wearing the face of Commander Hurricane. The earth ponies would escape through the blaze with a similar figure, except this one wore the face of Chancellor Puddinghead.

A variety of voices, however, then began echoing in his head, though their sources were unclear.

"We used to be friends." This one was conversational, though with a slight hint of disappointment.

"We used to! Until you joined them!" This voice was hushed, but it was a sort of suppressed exclamation nonetheless.

"Joined them?... If only you knew." A very short pause, and then, loudly, "Take her alive." Then these two faded out, to be replaced with a new voice.

"No, I think it's nice, to have something concrete like that to help you remember, and to never forget." This one was soft and equally conversational, though it soon faded out into nothingness.

And just like that, nothing else would make itself clear.

---

- Khaos -

When Pocket ripped open the bird, he would discover something very strange indeed. Within the stomach lay a very distinct amulet, with a little chain travelling around it. Laid against a dark blue background was the golden symbol of a pair of wings on either side of a horseshoe, and a horn above the horseshoe itself. Were Pocket to flip it over, he would find on the flip side simply the similarly gold image of a unicorn horn, standing alone on the dark blue background. It was covered in gore now, naturally, but it still seemed to be in quite good shape all in all. No such oddities would be discovered, however, in Spare's meal.

"I will require your assistance." Griff answered shortly, slightly wondering why Vision had a frown on his face. "I apologize greatly for the unexpected visit, but.. I figured this could make my next mission simpler, for which I will require your magic." he said and pulled out the Gala ticket to show it to Vision. "I have to be at the Gala. Tonight. I probably won't be let in in my current clothing." he added and pointed to his half-rugged and dirty clothes. "This is where your magic comes in. I'll need you to make a fake gentlepony suit on me. Can you do that?"

Sonata, while struggling forward cursed as the manticore placed it's paw over her crossbow. She grit her teeth and shut her eyes while waiting the explosion of pain she was sure was coming. "Maybe this poison might make it a little less painful?" She thought bitterly to herself as she waited, but when the blow never came, curiosity forced her eyes open.

The first thing they fell on was the open, up turned paw, like the beast was offering to help her up. That alone was enough to instantly make the thestral's eyes snap open and her ears to droop to the sides of her head in astonishment. With a sudden jerk, Sonata looked up towards the manticore's face with blatant curiosity and was still further shocked by the lack of hostility present in the beasts features. That however was yet another burst on her already taxed energy reserves, and that was finally enough. Sonata collapsed to the ground the rest of the way, her hooves buckling beneath her and her head bouncing lightly on it's impact with the ground.

With a bit of struggle, Sonata was able to force her eyes back open, but only just. She was still conscious, but actual movement for the moment was beyond her, and likely to stay beyond her until after something of a rest, or at least a little while spent like this. Quietly, she was cursing under her breath the entire time, mostly about how stupid poison was, and then even more about stupid earth ponies that used it.

Dusk was able to clear his head from the impact in time to see the awkward attack coming, and easily moved his head out of the way. At least Dusk was on his back. After the Earth Pony's strike, he struck back with his armored hoof to his face. The poison made it so it wasn't as strong, but he wasn't trying to kill him that way. For after his strike, he wanted to roll the Earth Pony underneath him, and use his weight and forehooves to smash the pony's chest in, then use the Earth Pony's own sword to finish him off.

As Pocket lifted the strange amulet from the corpse, something shockingly similar in size to him flopped on top of him. It was soft, fluffy, and it tickled the back of his neck with its downy feathers. He shivered, his body automatically responding to such close contact with his brother. Just thinking about it made his wings flare up and it always summoned a peculiar itchiness all over his body. This had all started when his brother finally started filling out, and both of their voices started dropping in pitch, which made their favorite birdsongs so hard to sing.
Overall, this physiological response served only to anger him. The golden fire wreathing the claws clenched around the equally golden circle did not go unnoticed by Spare, however.
"Hey, what you got there, huh, huh, huh?" the 'younger' brother chirruped, a claw quickly reaching out and grabbing it—sending an electric shock up Pocket's spine—before pulling it free, completely unafraid of his twin's anger issues. The youthful hippogriff let his neck rest on his brother's shoulder as he brought the trinket close to both of their faces, giving it a good once over. Meanwhile, the hatchling stuck on the bottom struggled to bury his feelings deep down and stop with the evil-looking, glowing eyes and claws that would probably get them arrested for practicing some sort of witchcraft or unicorn magic if somepony saw.
"Ooh, it's pretty pretty, and so shiny, Pocket! Can we keep it!?"
"Wait a minute. Shiny things are normally worth something, right? We could probably get a fair deal for this, Spare. Maybe get enough bits for some decent food?"
"Buuuuut Poooooooooooooocki," the fledgeling was sure to clip off that last bit of the syllable, his chirp reaching dangerously high levels of chirpiness, "I wanna weaaaaaaaaaaar iiiiiiiiiitttttttt!" his voice started to break as he continue to try and hold onto that high note, devolving into nothing more than a single, pained note.
"Fine. Fine. You can wear it until we find someone to buy it. Just clean it off first. You know how skittish ponies can be."
"But Poooki!"
"It'll make it shinier."
So Spare did the only reasonable thing that a hippogriff could do. He leapt off of his brother—compressing the poor boy into the cloud just a little bit—and started licking that amulet until it was clean and sparkly. And it didn't taste half-bad, if he had anything to say about it.

With the day still young, both brothers would soon set out on the town in pursuit of someone to buy the darn thing, Spare keeping it wrapped around his neck, the tripartite symbol being the one shown to the world.

Wolfe would move with the armored units, letting his troops disperse among the convoy as they pleased. He kept alert as he walked alongside the more armored Earth ponies. "All we have to do now is get back to the capital, and we'll be fine. Easy." He said, playing the calm, collected commander role. He could break his visage and uncork the pressurized bottle that came from being in war later, but for now, he had a job to do. He had troops to keep moralized. He had himself to keep moralized. And, he finally decided, he was tired of being a slave. That was good enough.

Auftrag involuntarily shuddered as the vision entered his mind. It showed him everything he needed to see. Puddinghead and Hurricane had escaped and gone their separate ways. There was chaos, lovely, lovely, chaos. Then the voices began. Auftrag bit through the tip of his tongue using one of his fangs, this was the worst side effect of using the Chronos Magnus, it would try to show him more than he wanted. As he snapped back to reality, he saw Lady Plant standing in front of him. "Puddinghead and Hurricane were rescued. The execution was interrupted. That is my official report." He turned and began to walk back to the door.

“Hmm. Well. Alright!” Accentria said cheerfully, as she followed Clover out of the room.

Accentria eagerly took in the paintings as they passed them. “I wonder if that castle is actually out there… It can’t be, can it? I mean, I wouldn’t miss something that large, would I?” She mused mentally as a glint of realization shone in her eyes. “Oho. Maybe it’s another one of those things--- You know, I think I like these ponies. So positive.” She smiled to herself, amused.

Mental conversations done and over with for now, Accentria waved the ponies in the bar a good morning with the Geas, and gave them a warm smile. “The warmer the smile, the faster they’ll warm up to me---- Yes! It’s genius!” she thought to herself as Clover led her out of the Hole in the Wall.

Now outside, Accentria tilted her head in confusion at Clover’s question. “I.. uhm.. Clouds, flowers, and trees--- All wrapped up in a nice little bundle of a sort of err.. Peaceful quietness!” she responded returning her attention to Clover.


“Why? What do you see?” she asked her, raising an eyebrow at the mare.

- Zen -

With surprising gentleness, the manticore slipped its paws under Sonata and lifted her, carrying her over a little ways into the darkness. In fact, in this part of the forest it was so dark it was almost as if the absence of light was artificial. A soft glow soon cut through the darkness, though only slightly, and out stepped a hooded figure dressed in what appeared to be a brown cloak. Not much else was visible, though, save for the soft white light from the horn situated on top of the figure's head, which illuminated the face of what appeared to be a pink-white mare.

A glow would wrap itself around Sonata, providing she did not struggle too much, and little by little Sonata would feel the fatigue in her system lessening, until at last it would disappear completely.

---

- Eq-

"The capital's a bit far away from here for now. We have preliminary medical supplies back at the camp, so when we reach there we'll pull them out and send word to the capital." The soldier explained as he walked alongside Wolfe. "Once that's done, though, I see no reason why... why..." He stopped short and waved to the rest of the troops. "Is that... fire? It's fire! The encampment is on fire! Stay here!" He ordered the siege engines, and then turned to Wolfe. "Come with me, we need to investigate this." With that he took off in a gallop towards the burning encampment, with many armoured earth ponies following behind.

---

- Sharp -

Clover stared at Accentria, blinking a little. Then she smiled. "That's a nice answer. I was going to go the philosophical route and talk about the future but I think I like yours better." Her smile subsided a little. "You've adapted quite well... I... anyway." Her smile widened again. "If it's alright with you, I wanted to ask if you were up for a road trip. Travelling around the continent. We'll see lots of stuff and meet new ponies! It'll be fun, I promise! If we don't get killed. But I'm sure we can take care of that." She gestured to the Geas.

---

- Dragon Soul -

The earth pony flinched back slightly from Dusk's strike, but when Dusk attempted to flip him over he would discover that the earth pony was strong enough to suppress his movement. He did, however, drop his sword to the ground beside Dusk, and instead resorted to trying to smash in Dusk's face with a headbutt.

---

- Arry -

Vision rolled his eyes. "Of course, you need a suit. I cannot believe I forgot completely about that. Give me a brief moment." With that, he disappeared into the side door of his mansion, the inside of which seemed at least structurally similar to Blueblood's, if a lot less opulent.

A little while later, Vision emerged with a set of clothing clutched in his telekinetic grip. He floated it over to Griff. "Here, these are robes for the higher social level. Not quite nobility, but almost there. It should do for your purposes, I think."

---

- Wiserodin -

"Oh? Good. That means the plan is going as the Grand Marshal predicted. How nice. Things going as planned seem exceedinly rare nowadays. Thank you for your report." Plant nodded to Auftrag as he headed back to the door. "Don't worry about the prisoner, by the way. I'll soon send somepony else his way. He will crack eventually. For now, I don't have any new duties for you." She paused. "I do need you to be present at tonight's gala, though. Undercover. I have reason to suspect rebel involvement, and I do want to catch them in the act."

---

- Khaos -

As Spare and Pocket moved around the city with the pendant, nopony seemed to pay them very much heed. That is, until a particular grey-coated pegasus stallion with long blue hair noticed them and started staring at them quite intensely. He blinked, looking back and forth, and only when he was satisfied that no one was paying special attention to the twins other than him he'd walk over, providing Spare and Pocket hadn't yet run away really quickly.

"Where did you get that?" He asked n a soft but gentle inquiry, pointing to the pendant.

Sonata's face dead panned. It was just too unlikely a thing to happen that she stopped her cursing, he speaking, even the panting as the manitcore GENTLY picked her up. While there was a stern frown still on her face, it was definitely overshadowed by the "is this seriously happening" deadpanned expression.

And that expression continued as she was carried away, it lessened slightly when she was deposited on the ground, but came back to full when she felt the fatigue being siphoned away, and then it'd reach a whole new extreme when Sonata would see the being responsible for the diminishing fatigue was a unicorn, her deadpanned expression might have even acquired an eye twitch at the absurdity of it all. When the process was good and done, Sonata continued laying there for a moment to try and create the sense that she was still suffering some after effect, to create a false sense of security.

Then, with a suddenness, she whipped her remaining pistol crossbow out of it's holster, loaded and ready to fire, and aimed it at the unicorn. "Okay, besides the obvious reasons of you healing me, you probably being the only thing keeping the manticore from mauling me, and whatever other obvious reasons pointing a loaded crossbow at you would be viewed as a very poor choice of actions...why shouldn't I pull this trigger?" Sonata asked the figure from where she laid.

Dusk had his head turned from the failed attempt to get on top, and also noticed the sword right before the Earth Pony's helmeted head came down on him. His own helmet saved him from fatal damage, but the blow managed to fracture his less protected jaw. The adrenaline pumping through him dulled most of the initial pain, enough that he could still focus enough to pick up the dropped sword with his magic and slash it downwards at the Earth Pony's likely less protected neck. The poison in his system was beginning to make even simple telekinesis difficult, but he managed.

Ideally, one of his knights would be helping him, but it was likely they were all busy with their own fights.

Wolfe grins. "Hmph. Looks like we're definitely not in the clear yet." He quickly gallops after the other officer, leaving his light forces behind to protect and move the siege equipment. He catches up to the armored pony at the head of the group quickly, being less encumbered. "And here I'd thought we'd be able to make our way out easily!"

Auftrag turned around and smiled at Lady Plant. "Undercover at the Gala? I thought you'd never ask!" He immediately flashed the two tickets to the Gala. "Already going, I'll be bringing along Amethyst too. I hope you didn't need her tonight. And congratulate the Grand Marshal for me. Clever one." He began to depart from the room again.

Spare took this wonderful opportunity for conversation right in stride, and if he had the facial muscles for it, he'd have been smiling, "My brother here found it in a mmhpgpgpphh"
Pocket slowly pulled his claws off of his twin's beak, his point having been made quite succinctly. I'm going to do the talking. You just stand there and look pretty.
"What's it to ya? Yeah, I saw you staring. Looked around before ya came over here, so I bet you'd hate it if I pointed you out ta anyone in charge."
"Wow, really, you saw all that too? I thought you were too busy watching staring at my new amulet, so I had to point him out to you when he started looking at us funny."
Pocket gave a gentle sigh, let his glare settle on Spare for a good second, and then turned his baleful gaze on the pony in front of him, giving him a chance to speak.

“... There she goes again. She knows something.” Accentria thought to herself, and if Clover were paying close enough attention she’d see a glint of… something in Accentria’s eyes.  “Lots of stuff, new ponies, and the prospect of danger severe enough to potentially kill us? Sounds like fun! Sky-high!” Accentria smiled, giving the Geas a playful twirl behind her.

“Right. One of the many benefits of having four floating swords constantly flank you, normal ponies tend to shy away from open conflict with the strange mare with four swords floating behind her.” Accentria said as her stomach growled audibly. “Oh… Uhm. Right. That’s a thing.” She said sheepishly, blushing lightly. “It seems that in all the excitement of having my own bed, I’ve forgotten to eat… Again.” she continued, laughing awkwardly.

Griff smiles as Vision brings him his clothing for the evening. "Thank you kindly, sir." he says and bows. "Though, there's quite some time before it begins. I don't suppose I could stay at your place till then? I can, ofcourse, leave if you prefer privacy." Griff added, trying to act as polite as he can in the presence of the prince. One wrong step and I may be in big trouble.... he thought, waiting for Vision's answer.

- Zen -

In the dim lighting, Sonata would nonetheless be able to see a raised eyebrow from the figure in front of her. "You mean, other than hoping you're a good, grateful pony? Well, maybe this would this be a good time to mention that this spell's effects last only as long as I want it to, and my manticore friend hasn't eaten breakfast yet. Is that good enough, or should I add a failsafe to the heals?"

---

- Eq -

As Wolfe approached the burning camp, he would soon be able to see a massive fight going on just outside the bounds of the camp, with what appeared to be an outmatched Earth Pony army trying but ultimately failing to defeat a Unicornian offensive - one that looked massive, a definite threat to the bulk of the Earth Pony forces that had been sent to rescue the Chancellor - comprised of both heavily armed knights and battlemages, with myriad flashes of light and fireballs being fired at the crumbling resistance. Some of the mages began to notice Wolfe and his approaching allies, however, and began to send many fireballs their way. starting with a dozen at once.

---

- Sharp -

Clover chuckled at Accentria's display of hunger. "Don't worry, I'll pluck us some berries while we go along. We can set off now, or we could wait, it's mostly up to you. I'm easy. It's not like I have anything else better to do." She gestured in what seemed to be a random direction. "I'm thinking that we can head to Earth Pony territory first. It's probably one of the easier places to reach. None of that climbing mountains or flying that needs to be overcome."

---

- Dragon Soul -

Dusk's gambit worked; his blow managed to catch the Earth Pony off guard and send him tumbling off of Dusk, a gash in his neck where the sword had finally managed to penetrate the armour that had taken too much punishment up until that point. The pony wasn't quite dead yet, but he was almost unmoving on the ground next to him.

Were Dusk to turn to his right then, however, he would see a fresh batch of Earth Ponies, some heavily armoured and some lightly armoured, charging in from the other side of the encampment towards them, amidst a hail of fireballs.

---

- Arry -

Vision sighed. "While I wish it were best were we to remain as distant as possible... It seems that the accommodations I have been preparing for you are unavailable at the moment, due to unforeseen circumstances. You could stay here while I try to remedy the situation." He gestured to the door at the top of the stairs that lay at the far end of the living room. "The guest rooms are down that corridor. Feel free to pick any of them, they are all unlocked."

---

- Wise -

"Bringing Amethyst along as well? I don't see any problem, the more agents the better. Just be sure not to distinguish yourself, lest our little suspects discover what we're up to." Plant stood up from her seat, beginning to walk rounds around her table while somehow avoiding every vine that lay in her path. "And I wouldn't be so quick to congratulate him, if I were you. I'd wait to see if his plan really comes to fruition. There are, after all, a thousand different things that could go wrong in any given plan." After that, she waved at him as he left the room. "Good hunting."

Outside, Auftrag would see the same scene as earlier, with the employees of the Bureau hard at work and paying little attention to him.

---

- Khaos -

The pegasus looked between the two, his gaze one of concern but also a slight amount of amusement. "Surely staring's not illegal now, is it? Pegasopolis may be a police state, but really that level of policing is just too absurd for a reasonable government to contemplate." He shrugged. "Besides, I was just interested by that amulet there. Reminds me of something I used to have, myself. Could I take a closer look at it?"

"Ugh, whatever. Just be quick, we're busy. I was hoping to get my claws on something resembling a proper meal today." Pocket clenched his claws nervously along the cloud as if to emphasize this fact, though it was wholly an instinctual reaction. There was no way any pony should be recognizing a piece of jewelry found inside of a random bird, and certainly not one that appeared to not have been from the local area. Certainly not an amulet that seemed to declare some kind of monstrous union between earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus. What sort of abominable creature could even envision such a thing.
Pegasi had wings. Winged creatures stuck with winged creatures, not those grounded mudponies and boneheads. Those land-bound things would just drag pegasi down. And he and his brother with them, of course; they were, after all, half-pegasus.

Spare, meanwhile, was quite happy enough to hold the amulet out a short distance from his neck for the pony to see, his feathers all ruffled up and the crest atop his head raised in happiness at this particular recognition. This pony didn't seem like a bad sort at all. Just curious. And Spare was curious. Curious was a good thing.

Sonata's eyebrow twitched again at the reply, but at that point her frustration seemed to seep away. "Okay, your hopes aren't completely wasted. As for the other things, I'd have thrown those under the obvious category," she replied while putting away the crossbow and moving to at least sit up properly if not stand up completely. "So you probably know the obvious thing at this point," she said after a quick glance around and pulling tightly secured case off her back and undoing it's many straps and buckles until she could open it.

"Care to explain the wheres, whys, hows, and whos," she asked, though the question sounded more like a statement as if the knowledge wouldn't matter all that much. While she spoke, Sonata took the carefully packed violin out of it's case and began testing the strings. "Also hope you don't care as I play a little while getting filled in," she said while setting the violin in place after withdrawing a bow from the case. "And if you're wondering, the way I see it at this point is my life could possibly be at it's end and I'd rather go out playing than wielding the other kind of bow," the thestral explained as she drew the first chord before beginning a soft lullaby like song while listening and waiting for the unicorns explanations.