“So, how long have you been able to see the future?” Applejack asked, leveling her gaze on Crystal as the group left the Castle of the Two Sisters.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash interjected, “we could have avoided so much of what went wrong last night if you had just told us ahead of time.”
“You’re both making some assumptions here,” Crystal pointed out calmly. “The chief one being that there is actually some grand design that I happen to be privy to. I don’t believe in things like destiny or fate.”
“Wait,” Dash tilted her head in confusion. “Let me get this straight. You can see the future, but you don't believe in either destiny or fate? How does that work?"
“Not the future,” Crystal explained. “Futures. Plural. And pasts too. And way too many presents.”
“But you can never have too many presents!” Pinkie gasped.
“Not that kind of present, Pinkie,” Twilight tried to assure the party pony.
“Silly Twilight,” Pinkie grinned. “Yesterday is history, and tomorrow’s a mystery, but today is a gift! That’s why it’s called the present!”
“Kinda got you there, Twilight,” Applejack commented dryly.
“I still don’t get it,” Rainbow complained. “Do you see the future or not?”
“Technically, no,” Crystal replied. “I am just as incapable of actually seeing the future as anypony else.”
“Oh,” the multi-chromatic mare felt vaguely disappointed, then confused. “Then why..?”
“It’s really more like remembering things,” Crystal continued, causing Rainbow Dash to stumble.
“Rilly, now?” Applejack raised a brow skeptically.
“Yes!” Crystal stopped and struck a declarative pose. “I remember things beyond time! Beyond space! Beyond the impossible!”
“Crystal, dear, you have trouble remembering what day it is,” Rarity pointed out.
“I never said I was any good at it…” Crystal whined.
*O o O o O*
Once they were back across the river (after some clever applications of force field spells by Crystal and Twilight), Crystal checked her automap. “Okay, if we turn south just past that big tree over there, we should be able to make it back to the clearing so we can recover our stuff.”
“Oh yeah,” Applejack perked up. “I can git my hat back!”
Crystal noticed that Pinkie’s mane had drooped slightly and that her smile looked a little forced. “You okay, Pinkie?”
“I’m…” Pinkie hesitated briefly. “I’m just wondering if Mister Satyr is okay. I kinda hurt him really bad after Applejack already had him down. I… I’m not sorry! Not really! Not after with what he tried to do to you. To us all. But…”
“A satyr, you say?” Princess Luna asked in a strained voice, both she and her sister looking alarmed. “Take us there immediately! ‘Tis not a danger to leave so lightly!”
“I doubt he’s going anywhere,” Rarity stated as the group took off at a somewhat cautious yet hurried trot. “He was pretty badly injured when we left his clearing. He’s not going to be recovering from that anytime soon.”
“He’ll be up and about much sooner than you think,” Luna corrected. “Tis a spirit of lust given physical form, not a true creature.”
“But the body…” Fluttershy started, only to trail off.
“A satyr’s body is just a prop,” Celestia explained. “It’s something it uses so that it can interact with the physical world. And it is something that it can repair if it is left alone long enough to do so.”
“We must make haste,” Luna insisted, feeling even guiltier than she had before. She had only wanted to challenge these mares, not subject them to something like this! “If we do not make sure that the body is truly ruined beyond repair, it will recover and once again set out to lure mares to their doom.”
“Satyr’s kill mares?” Twilight asked, confused. “I thought they just… You know… Not that that isn’t bad, but still…”
“Death is not the ‘doom’ my sister is talking about,” Celestia corrected. “Although some satyrs do end up killing their victims, mostly unintentionally, most just leave their victims mentally and emotionally crippled. A shadow of their former selves with greatly reduced capacity for reasoning and self-control.”
“And not a few end up selling their victims into slavery once they are done with them so that they may fund their other lusts,” Luna added darkly.
“Somehow I don’t think we have to worry about this particular fella coming back,” Applejack observed as they entered the clearing.
There, by the tree with the cracked trunk, lay a manticore, resting after having obviously eaten his fill.
The only thing that remained of the satyr, as far as any of them could tell, were a few scattered and gnawed on bones.
“Who’s a good boy?” Fluttershy praised the beast as she flew up and began scratching him behinds his ears. “You are! Yes, you are!”
“Sometimes that mare worries me,” Crystal stated dryly.
“You ain’t the only one,” Applejack agreed with equal dryness.
*O o O o O*
"Looks like quite the welcomin' committee waitin' ta greet us," Applejack noted as the group finally exited the Everfree Forest and spotted what appeared to be a squad of EUP soldiers escorting a group of six civilian unicorns and a baby dragon in their direction. There was also a LOT of observable activity going on in Ponyville behind them, with ponies, civilian and military alike, all over the place.
Crystal Synergy blinked, tilted her head for a moment, and then promptly did the first thing that entered her head by sideling up to Princess Celestia. "If they ask any questions, just remember: I'm deaf and you don't speak Ponish!" she stage whispered.
Rarity put a hoof to her face even as Celestia and Pinkie Pie giggled and everypony else just looked at Crystal in confusion.
Lieutenant Vines approached them and bowed. "Your Highness."
"مرحبا يا مهر الصغير" Celestia greeted, soliciting a grin from Crystal and Pinkie (and twitchy eyes from everypony else).
"Sister, cease this nonsense at once!" Princess Luna admonished. "It is clear that none present are familiar with... with... whatever language you have chosen to use just now!"
"لماذا "لونا" ، أعتقد أنك سمحت لسجلك العربي بالصدء." Celestia chided her sister whimsically.
"Um... Princess Celestia?" Twilight prompted hesitantly.
"نعم ، الشفق؟"
"Could you please switch back to using Ponish? I don't speak... um... Saddle-Arabic? And, judging from everypony's reactions, nopony else present does either."
"Is that what that was?" Luna asked. "It... has been a while since I last heard it spoken."
"Peut-être que je devrais. Est-ce que c'est mieux comme ça, Twilight?"
"Not really," Twilight replied, although she could at least parse out what her mentor was saying this time.
"Princesse Celestia, aussi amusante pensez-vous être, arrêter de taquiner ma sœur, s'il vous plait?" Rarity requested with a slight smile.
"I have no idea what you just said," Crystal announced with a grin.
"It's Chevalish, Crystal," Rarity reminded her sister drily. "We both took classes in it, remember?"
"Nope!" Crystal stated proudly. "Je n'ai aucune idée de ce que je viens de dire à l'instant."
"¡Esto es divertido!" Pinkie announced. "¡Quiero participar también!"
"Was that Caballos?" Crystal asked, raising a brow.
"¡Sí!" Pinky replied.
"Could y'all please switch back ta speakin' plain Ponish?" Applejack asked plaintively.
"Very well, my little pony," Celestia acquiesced gently.
"И как раз когда я выбрала язык, чтобы внести вклад в это веселье" Luna grumbled in лошадином grumpily before smiling ruefully.