"(So...)" The dark-skinned human student peered at the alien that made him look perfectly average. "(What's it like?)"

"(What's what like?)" They were not in Ponish class, so English was expected. Head Stream had her attention on her classmate though.

"(Being a... uh...) Hippogriff. (Bird-horse.)" He waved vaguely over her exotic form.

Her cheeks warmed dangerously. "(I am not a bird, or a horse!)"

"(Hey hey, sorry, my bad.)" He put up his hands placatingly. "(That was thoughtless of me. I should know better. You can fly, right? Is that fun or scary?)"

"(A little of both.)" She tilted her head. "(Depends on how you do it... You try being a mer-human? It's kinda like swimming, but easier in some ways... Crashing's easier when you fly too. Wherever you go, you get there fast.)

"(Right on. I ain't try that. Like I could afford it.)"

Head tilted her head the other way. "(Why not? The only part you have to pay for is--)"

"(--the boat--)" He began counting on fingers. "(--a place to stay, food to eat, and, uh...)"

She booped him suddenly on the nose. "Or... (you just ask a friend to help you out.)"

He brushed her arm away, but was looking at her curiously. "(You could get me over there and put me up, say over Summer Vacation?)"

"(That'd be fun!)" She clapped her taloned hands together. "(And you'd get to practice the, uh, what was that word... start with an h?)"

"(Hell?)"

"(Yes. Practice the hell completely out of it. It'll be out of hell. We'll have to buy new hell to put in it so you can practice that right back out again.)" She nodded confidently with a big grin. "(Just like I'm getting better at English.)"

"(You're not bad at all,)" He admitted with a slightly more subdued smile. "(Thanks... I'll think about it.)"

Mobile inclined her head faintly. The human before her was one she was certain she had never met before, and yet... "(How did we met?)" she challenged.

"(On the beach,)" explained the human.

Mobile Coral squinted at him. "(I think the right term there is 'duh'? Get more specific or we move on to the next one.)"

His face soured, but recovered quickly. "(It was sunset. You looked even prettier against the reds of the water.)"

"Next!" She waved him away. She felt certain she would remember a romantic spewing human, and she still did not remember that one.

She took a sip from a glass of water, watching as the first human left, and another came in. That one seemed... a little more familiar. She couldn't put a talon on it... "(Hello.)"

"Hey, Mobile Coral." He said it in the way that she used to say hello, when she first came ashore. "(Uh... Look... We... did things... And I don't know if that was... the time... but I want to do the right thing, so here I am.)"

Mobile rolled up to her haunches, her attention locking onto the human. He was a younger specimen, though she was terrible at putting years to humans. Old enough to not still be going to school, but not that much further? He was... about at the same place she was, young, stupid, thinking they had everything under control. She smiled gently. "(We can never prove it's yours. Do you accept being the father of, you know, that? I mean..." She started to worry her fingers, feeling increasingly self-conscious.

"(Keep checking... but I'm here. We had a really good time, and I would...)" He was shaking a little, looking so nervous.

Mobile sat up, regarding him all the more intently. "(What if I wasn't having a child?)"

"(I'd never have the bravery to be here, asking a pretty woman if she will accept my hand.)" He dropped awkwardly to a knee, offering a hand.

Mobile smiled a little. That was romantic, minus the faux-poetic nonsense. Her tail lashed behind her as she considered. "Next... (But you, stay... Over there.)" She pointed to a quiet place for him. She had more humans to interview, but she considered him a good possibility.

"(Mister President,)" greeted the door guard, removing his hat to show proper deferrence. "(And, uh, guests?)"

"(Hello,)" greeted Twilight, learning that human word. "We brought back your leader. Sorry for the confusion."

The guard did not know what she was saying. The president thankfully did. "(She's apologizing for my being kidnapped. Get on the phone and let everyone know where I am and that I'm unharmed, now.)"

"(Yes, Sir!)" He dashed off to do just that.

Rainbow came in last, following Twilight. "They sure do talk funny."

"I'm sure our words seem equally strange to them. That's how it works." She smiled at Crane. "Do you need anything else, or should we get out of the way? I'd love to have that chat, but I imagine..."

Crane shook his head. "I have to stop my country from losing its mind from this event. When I have a moment, how do I contact you?"

With a glowing horn, a scroll emerged from her pocket. "Write what you want here, close it as tightly as you can, then set it on fire."

"Set... it on fire?" He accepted the scroll even as he peered at it suspiciously, waiting for it to explode in his hands.

"It's a one time enchantment. It will arrive at the palace we just left. Send word for me, and I'll come right back here." She pointed back out onto the roof they had stepped off of. "I hope everything goes well... These miscommunications must stop, now, on both sides. Our people have suffered so needlessly... I feel you agree."

Rainbow softly snorted. "Maybe if they stopped shooting their cannons at us so fast, we could get along."

"Rainbow!" hissed Twilight, trying to smile despite it. "Now is not the time."

The president pulled out the dictionary that more and more people were starting to have. "Take this."

Twilight's eyes widened as she accepted the book in her magic. "Is... this?" She flipped it open, eyes rapidly scanning. "It is! This will change everything! Come on, Rainbow, time to go back."

Rainbow arched a brow at the book, watching the president move away. "What's the big deal about that book? You look more excited than the last time a Daring Do book hit the shelves."

"As if you weren't standing in the same line right next to me." Twilight softly chuckled at the memory, the two of them giggling like little foals, so eager to get the book. "This is just as important. Look!" She turned the book towards Rainbow Dash. "It's a dictionary! It has their words and our words, together, with meanings! Ooo, and it's clearly written to work in either direction. This is fantastic." She clip-clopped her hooves with building joy.

Rainbow clucked her tongue, considering the book. "Think they'd get a kick out of translating Daring Do books?"

Twilight paused, blinking at the idea. "I... don't know? Maybe? Learning what sort of literature they prefer would be delightful, once we stop hurting each other." She huffed at that, emerging out onto the roof once more. "Speaking of that, we should relay the good news. At least, today, we aren't pushing things closer to calamity."

Rainbow didn't immediately join Twilight, instead zipping to the edge of the building to look out over the city. "Woah... This place is kinda big, and so tightly packed... Look at how tall their buildings are!" She pointed a wing at the tallest she could see.

"That's not that big," noted Twilight with a raised brow. A little over twenty stories, she estimated. "I mean, it's a tall building, but you were in Manehatten."

"So Manehatten has tall buildings too, doesn't make that not tall. They're lousy with buildings." Her eyes wandered over the snowy city, drinking it in. "Sure I can't go for a little fly?"

"Dash... We are still in a state of... uh... not sure what it is, but it's not 'peace'. I'm hoping we're getting close to that, but right now, you're just asking someone to panic and do something you and they will both regret."

"That's lame." She turned away from the vista and trotted over to Twilight's side. "This city's so much bigger than the ones we were seeing though. I thought those were their big ones."

Twilight hiked a brow. "Learning is a magic all of its own. C'mon, let's go home." She vanished with Rainbow, drawing the pegasus far more smoothly between Here and There with the knowledge that she was along for the ride.

"(The president is secure,)" announced one man, looking to the others in the room.

Interrogating Luna felt less immediately pressing. "(Where did they find him?)" asked the woman there.

"(They gave him back with an apology,)" explained the man on the phone. "(Can you even do that? Hey, sorry about that, here you go.)"

Another man shrugged. "(He wasn't even gone for 24 hours. If he doesn't press the matter, it's about as legally damning as sitting someone on the wrong plane I bet.)"

"(Except the attempted hijacking of Air Force One,)" noted the first man, hanging up his phone. "(Someone has to take that responsibility, to say nothing of the people injured in the event.)"

"(We have a new focus.)" She raised a hand to her headpiece. "(Ask her why she attacked the plane. Forget the president, he's already back and safe.)"

"(Think they gave him up hoping to trade him for her?)" The man waved a few fingers at the monitor that showed the interrogation room.

"(If they did, they did a poor job of it, since now we have both.)" The other man shrugged softly. "(Let's see what we can get from her.)"

Twilight appeared in an uneven pile, Rainbow crashing on top of her. "What the?" The spot she had just said Rarity kept clean, wasn't clean. There was a new ponyquinn right on the very spot, causing her teleport to veer off and Rainbow to land on top of her instead of next to her. "Figures..."

Rainbow sat up, shaking herself off as she did so. "Is this Rarity's--"

"--Rainbow? Twi!" Applejack emerged from the back with a big smile. "Shoot, sure is good t' see you girl. Where ya been hidin'? Spike's practically lost without ya."

Twilight rolled upright, sending Rainbow tumbling. "Good to be back. I'll be sure to check in with him. Good news, I think... This may be over soon."

"Relieved ta hear it." She reached up for her big hat, pulling it down a little. "Ah couldn't say no to comin' out here, didn't mean ah was lookin' forward to it any. If we can do this without hurtin' people, all the better. Shoot, why can't we just rainbow the problem?"

Rainbow huffed as she stood up again. "Rainbows are always the answer, especially this rainbow!" She pointed to herself with both hooves.

Twilight smirked softly as she considered it. "Well, for one, we're dealing with a lot of little problems, not any one huge problem. If there was one specific thing to handle, I feel certain we could, but an entire nation of things? It doesn't quite work that way... Anywho, glad to see you." She threw an arm over Applejack, hugging and being hugged in a moment of reunion. "I should get to the castle so they don't panic more than they already have."

Almost the moment the VP set the phone down, his phone began to buzz and beep anew. He sighed as he turned the phone over to see who it was. The FBI? A call from the literal FBI? He swiped to answer. "Hello?"

"You are still going to serve as the president," announced the man on the line. "The president has to be evaluated. The opposing force, in defiance of all previous scientific knowledge, has what we would call magic. President Crane could have had his perceptions changed and his loyalties twisted. This must be confirmed to not be the case before we can allow him to resume his duties."

Things just got a little more complicated.

Author's Notes:

Happy ending, yay!

...

Or is it?