The bill was laughably small.

A person is any organic being capable of arguing being a person. This extends to any children or relatives of anything else already found to be a person.

Sure, technically it paved a way for a housepet to be considered a person, if one ever managed to argue its persondom, but that was unlikely, even in the magic world they found themselves.

It did immediately clear dragons, ponies, and seaponies into persondom.

This did nothing to help the griffon that was tapping her foot impatiently. "Look, buddy, what's the hold up?"

The TSA agent held up his hands. "You do not have a passport." Having agents that could speak Ponish was a requirement. Not all of them, of course, but there was one around for such emergencies. "You do not belong to a country with other arrangements." The griffon surely was not a seapony, nor were they in the small area seaponies were allowed to come freely.

"I don't know what that is, but I also don't care." She reached out a finger to prod the guard in the chest, but he grabbed her incoming wrist. Suddenly she was face down on the ground. She could hear people gasping and hurrying away from the scene, but she was more focused on the intense pain in her arm, shoved up behind her back. "Get off me!"

"Claws are considered lethal weapons," advised the guard on top of her. "You should never threaten anyone with one."

"Right fine, now lemme up!" He stood up and she scrambled to her feet with a scowl. "Damn it all. Someone hurt a friend of mine and I have a bone to pick with them. Help me find them and stop being a jerk."

The man did not seem overly sympathetic with the plight of the naked undocumented person in front of him. "First, a question. What are you?"

"A griffon? Duh?" She waved a talon over her body. "Bird top, cat bottom? Kinda obvious. Does that change anything?"

The fact that it could NOT change anything wasn't missed. The world outside America was an interesting one... "Are you a person?" A curious new question added to the list of questions to ask.

"Am I person?! My name is Gilda. Gilda the griffon. I am a person and you're kind of a pain in my back end. Now I paid to come here, so I'm going to go past you now." She moved to weave around the human, but he sidestepped into her way easily. "Ugh, what do you want?!"

"(Is there a problem here?)" Another suited TSA agent approached the scene. "(Is that a griffon?)"

"(Sure is,)" agreed the bilingual agent. "(She wants in. No passport, no nothing. Name's) Gilda."

"Are you talking about me, behind my back, to my face? Man that is so rude. And people complain about griffons!" She threw up her talons in frustration. "Don't you have other people to harass? Let me go already."

"(Does she need to be sent back?)"

It was tempting, but... "(Let me try a little more.) Look, Gilda, we're not your enemy."

She almost thrust a finger at him, but curled the clawed finger away at the last moment. "You could have fooled me. Look, I'm just trying to do right by my friend. I don't have a lot of those, and he got hurt real bad."

That was more information than he had asked for. "I see... and what are you hoping to find here?"

"Answers," she gruffly half-shouted. "I want to know why he was hurt and make sure it never happens again."

"My queen." The drone bowed low before the smirking she-cat. "We have secured a precious target." He waved to a tied up human that four other drones carried in, still attached to a chair. "We have an agent replacing him. They will feign disinterest and become distant as quickly as possible. No one will be searching for this one."

Chrysalis smiled triumphantly, looking over her prize. Green flames announced her return to her usual form. "Marvelous... You've all done well. You--" She was looking at their captive directly. "--have so many answers we have questions to... be good and we may return the favor..."

They would learn all the ways humans recognized one another. They would slip past them all.

"And here is the office." Jackie was giving a tour, but she was far more interested in their new employee than what she was showing that new employee. "We... (will speak English here. I only know a little Ponish, enough to get this far.)"

"(Thank you for trying,)" spoke the female hippogriff, Stream. "(That was kind of you, but I know English. What life are we studying?)"

"(Ready to get right to work? Wonderful!)" She clapped her hands before reaching into a long labcoat pocket and drawing out a tablet. "(First, a gift. This is for you, for as long as you work with us.)"

Stream took it with wide eyes. "(I've heard of these, but most are not... good underwater, where I lived.)" She began poking at it like an eager child, exploring its function with a silly smile. "(One advantage of not being in the water.)"

"(Ah, but that one is waterproof. See how thick the rubber is?)" She reached for it, tracing her fingers along the tough rubber edges that would keep water from gaining access to the device. "(Just be sure all the hatches are closed when you go in the water. Do you know how to use one of these?)"

"(It's very similar to my husband's phone.)" Both used an Android operating system, allowing her to navigate around without too much trouble. "(This is fantastic! What have I done to earn such a reward on my first day?)"

"(You are a scientist with certain... shall we say 'unique' abilities that will let us look at life that would normally be quite taxing and expensive to do. The price of that tablet? Basically nothing compared to what you'll save with just one trip.)" Her hands went behind her back, rocking up and down on the balls of her feet. "(You have no idea how excited we are! For a per--human to go deep underwater is quite the chore, only to still be separated from what they're studying. We have to. A human would just die that far down, but you? How far down can you go?)"

Stream inclined her head as if the question felt absurd. "(Our home was at the bottom.)" She pointed down with a talon.

"(Right, but what about further? Like trenches? I mean, even if you can only go so far, that's still valuably further than a human could go, without any loud motors disrupting things.)"

Stream hiked a brow. "(While I am interested in learning and seeing... it's sounding like you just want a truth-seeker with a good swimming tail. Why not simply ask Queen Novo to give one of your scientists that? I have other qualities I hope will be put to use besides my swimming.)"

Jackie quickly put up her hands. "(Oh no no no no! I'm being so rude, please forgive me. I was just saying that we are so excited to have you. There are so many reasons, that was just the first one I was going over." She clasped her hands together in an almost begging way. "(Why don't you tell me more about your usual day? I hear you've made some big discoveries.)"

"(Did you get her her employee badge?)" asked her husband, closing in on quick shoed feet. "(I'd like her to meet her coworkers.)"

"(Here we are.)" Jackie gently draped the lanyard over Stream's head. "(Just like mine. We all have one, and it should be worn at all times in the lab here.)"

Stream picked up the ID to look at it upside down. "(Humans love their identification...)" She had been given several so far, after most of her life not needing any at all. "(There are a lot of you. I suppose keeping track must be a constant chore.)"

Jackie's Husband was wearing one too, proclaiming him to be CEO, whatever that was. He shared a last name with Jackie, unsurprisingly. His first name was Steve. "(We only ask that you get to know the people you'll be working with. They'll have badges too to help learn their names. This way.)" He turned in place and began leading the way at a fast stride. "(Your badge will let you get into places normal people couldn't. Like this.)" He touched his ID to a panel and a door's light went from red to green, permitting him past. It turned back rapidly the moment he was through.

Stream curiously reached for the door, but she could only rattle it. "(What a curious magic...)" She lifted her card to the panel as she had seen him do. A soft click informed her of the magic, as well as the light turning green again. "(And through.)" She quickly slipped past the door, lest it decide to go red again.

Jackie came in last. "(Now, I feel we should have asked this before perhaps, but what is it you wanted to study, precisely? We assumed you were a marine biologist.)"

Stream walked along, between the two humans that had employed her. "(I am a biologist, I have learned that. Learning how living things work is my passion and calling." She let out a little sigh, eyes going skywards, then getting stuck there. "(That is amazing.)"

Above them, the ceiling was alive with a simulated ocean scene, fish swimming past, bright corals, and other things.

Jackie waved up at it. "(That was my idea, to get into the proper mindframe for thinking about the sea.)"

"(I love it.)" Stream clapped her hands. "(Now, as to your question; I love the sea, but I also want to see what lies beyond it. I want to find all the truths I can, and they lie in wait both in and out of the sea. Your people are full of mysteries I would want to explore. Your... society, yes, society, is one enormous question to which so many answers are waiting to be found.)" She fell to all fours, tail lashing. "(You are as curious to me as I am to you. Can we be curious together?)"

Steve burst into good-natured laughter. "(I never thought first contact would go quite like this, but it's pretty much the best case scenario. Stream, I'd be honored to learn and teach at once. Let's learn all we can about each other, and our worlds.)"

Stream bounced up to her hind legs. "(Yes! I mean...)" She blushed at her outburst, worrying her fingers together. "(Yes, please. I look forward to that... If I can help you explore the waves, I will, but I would want your help exploring the rocks you call home.)"

"(Is that the new girl?)" asked a new male voice. A face peeked around the corner, the rest of his rounded form following, his feet propelling a comfy chair he was sitting in. "(Hey! Wow, look at you.)" He was examining her rather intently.

Jackie stepped between them. "(Coworkers are not subjects, especially not without asking first.)"

Steve stroked his chin softly. "(The usual rules about harassment go double for this situation. Let's, on both sides, try to be extra sure we're being mindful. I feel certain we're going to do something interestingly rude we didn't see coming.)"

Stream smiled a bit lopsidedly. "(That goes for me too. If I do something dumb, just say so. Um, nice to meet you... mister? You are a mister, I think?)" She was genuinely uncertain. That human had a male voice, but he had... mammaries? How did that work?! "(I think I'm already starting to be rude)" She covered her face with both hands, going bright red.

The new man went red too. "(Uh, yeah, a mister.)" In his defense, if not for her voice, she could have easily been either at a glance. She did not have curves that spoke of femininity. "(Nice to meet you.)"

Author's Notes:

Things are happening! Good things, bad things, mysterious things! Which thing are you most interested in?

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