While American regulations were struggling to catch up, most Americans were stuck at home, or visiting the country of Seaquestria. No real channel existed to do much with the rest of the world with concerned politicians hand wringing about 'potential hazards' that few were buying.

The immigration channels worked more easily. Each given person had to prove who they were, which was sometimes a challenge, but then they were visitors, provided they passed an examination for any hints of illness. No one was entirely sure what pathogens a local could pass to a human, and less wanted to find out.

There was lingering concern that something their immune systems handled easily could turn into a deadly plague when exposed to humans, but it hadn't happened so far. For whatever reason, human diseases seemed more eager to make the jump the other way, giving visitors sniffles and sneezes they had not arrived to America with.

This was all told to Gilda as she was forced to submit fingerprints and be photographed from basically every angle. "Is this really necessary?"

"You are a lucky griffon," advised the same agent that had dealt with her so far. "Most people would have kicked you back to where you came from a long time ago. From your story, I was able to reach out to the right people, and they want to meet you, which means you're allowed past."

"Great!" She sat on her haunches, one hand turned palm-side up in the air. "So why are we still doing all of this?"

"One thing you will learn about us, we love our forms as we complain about them. We love our identification cards, though we sometimes lose them. You are being given such a card, but I suggest you not lose it. It will tell anyone that looks at it that you belong here for up to two (years)."

"(Years)?" She cocked a brow.

Equestrians, strangely, had no such time unit. It was the damndest thing... "A pretty long time," he settled with. "Do you have a phone?" The baffled look implied not. "Do you have any money?"

"Yeah sure." She dug out a bag from a pouch. Apparently griffons had subdermal pouches just like ponies. "Hey wait! You're not robbin' me!"

"I'm not," he agreed as he thrust out a finger, arm stiff. "I want you to go there and buy a phone. I can help you pick one?"

"Since I have no idea what kind of phone I'd buy that I would carry around would be..." Natives seemed to know what a phone was, in theory, just not portable ones. "Yeah sure, show me these, uh, phones."

So they went together, TSA agent and literal alien, to get her a basic pre-paid cellular phone. Fortunately, a currency exchanger existed in the airport to turn some of her golden bits into American currency.

Twilight led her students like a mother duck striding proudly, her wards following in a line. Each had a card dangling over their chests, their identification clearly visible. "Are you ready for some advanced friendship?" she called back to them, pausing as they hit a corner and she waited for the walk light to return.

"Ooo ooo Yona is best at advanced friendship!" called out the young yak, bouncing in place.

Silverstream was looking around with wide eyes. "Did you know it was my people that met them first? And we were totally friends right from the start!" She clapped her hands. "I hear the first Seaquestrian to meet them even got married! Do you think I'll find a boyfriend here?"

Smolder smirked softly, her arms folded as she walked along. "Yeah, I'm not even sure you know what a boyfriend really is, so I wouldn't count on it."

Gallus was suddenly at Silver's side. "Why would you even want to be with one of... these?" He looked from human to human, there were so many to choose from.

"(Why don't you speak American in America!)" came a sudden new loud voice, an angry-looking white male emerging from the crowd. "(Bunch of fucking rude pieces of shit coming in here and--)"

Twilight held up a hoof towards the tirade source. "(Apologies, good sir, but my students have not yet completed their English lessons. It was my hope that this trip would help with that.)"

Occelus hid behind Sandbar. "They sound really angry..."

Sandbar shrugged softly. "Hey, Professor Twilight's got it under control."

The enraged human did not seem mollified by Twilight's seeming mastery of the language, only incensed by it. "(So you can talk English just fine, you just don't! Fucking great. Why don't you just get out of here and go back to whatever shit hole you crawled out of?)"

Twilight blinked softly. Being the target of such a powerfully offensive verbal attack was not a threat she usually faced. "(I'm sorry, Sir. Have we done something to offend you?)"

The humans around them were moving a bit faster, as if they just didn't want to be involved. She was surrounded by people, but she may as well have been alone. She spread her wings defensively, trying to create a physical barrier between the human and her students.

The human didn't draw one of the many weapons Twilight imagined a human could have, instead giving her a sudden shove. "(Get out of my face and out of my city!)"

Twilight skidded back slightly, but her hooves were fairly well planted, preventing her from stumbling. If she used her magic, she could do any number of things to the human, but it was also very against all the rules for her to do that. "(I'm sorry you feel that way.)" With a bright flash, she reached back over her precious students, and they all vanished from his sight.

They appeared in front of the museum she had been trying to reach. "Apologies for the sudden and unwarned teleport, students." She turned to examine them. "Is everycreature alright?"

Smolder reached over and snuffed a tiny flame on Sandbar's mane. "Mental note, teleporting with a whole classroom, maybe not the best plan."

Twilight smiled nervously. Besides the one little flame, they appeared to be in one piece. "Let's put that out of our heads and focus on seeing amazing things! This way..."

Smolder moved up alongside Silverstream. "Hey, my people won a fight with them."

Silver blinked rapidly. "Congratulations! I mean, is that a good thing?" She looked uncertain.

"Of course it's a good thing." Smolder rolled her eyes at the excitable hippogriff's hesitation. "The ponies went running, but we went back for seconds, and won."

Sandbar leaned in, poking his head under one of Smolder's arms. "That's not how I heard it."

"Class." Twilight had turned to face them. "We are here to learn, and experience. There are other creatures here to see what we're seeing. (Speak English, even if it's slow.)" She nodded properly and advanced on the ticket window. "(We have a reservation...)"

As Twilight worked on getting their tickets properly secured, Yona was bouncing up and down. "(Hi! Hi! Hi!)" she repeated the world with every bounce, practicing it.

Ocellus tilted her head a little, watching Yona bounce. "(Their language isn't that complicated.)"

Gallus' brow shot up. "Wait, you're joking with me. You, a changeling that managed to mess up the idea of 'passing gifts', picked up a whole language?!"

Ocellus took a half-step back. "(It came naturally,)" she lamely defended. "(You just have to learn new words. I made sure to learn ten new words a day.)"

"That is (Amazing!)" squealed Silverstream. "(I) mean, (I) tried (to) learn some (new) words too, but (I) only got (some)." She offered a balled talon towards Ocellus, met with a hoof in a proper bump.

"(You should focus on every day words,)" counseled Ocellus. "(I, Me, You. Bathroom. Food. Which way?)"

Sandbar shook his head slowly as he turned in place. "Wow..." Even in the entryway, he could see human art pieces lining the wall. "It's, uh, art, but... so different."

Yona looked where he was looking. "(Hi!)"

Gallus smirked towards Yona. "Tell me you know another English word?"

"(Hello!)" she chimed, looking just as happy.

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "Whatever, are we going in?"

"(Here we are.)" Twilight returned to them with a cluster of something in her magic. "(Everycreature put out an arm.)"

Ocellus was the first to do it, but others soon joined, more following her lead rather than actually knowing the English involved. Soon they all had a visitor's pass strapped to their arms, marking them as paid customers. It was time to explore.

Gilda was perched on a chair. It was a human chair, sure, but she fit in it reasonably, and the bottom was soft, covered in leather with nice cushioning. She was in some kind of office. There was a human there, a male one, watching her as she watched him. "So..."

"Gilda, is it alright if I work with that name?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" She shrugged softly. "Are we going to get some answers?"

"We are." He set down a folder on his desk, watching her. "But first we need to understand the situation. Your friend, another griffon, was injured in an attack, right?"

"Yeah, said that. Everything exploded. He was lucky he was taking a break in the little griffon's room if you know what I mean. That was at the edge of where all Tartarus broke loose." She threw her paws wide. "He's lucky he just broke a few bones."

"Where was he at that time?"

"With the ponies, uh... that way?" She pointed in basically a random direction. "Wherever north is. They hired him to fight with them."

"And the ponies didn't treat him?" The man raised a brow. "The ponies, at that time, were waging a war. Coming to the people they were, at that time, warring with is a curious decision to see to his medical needs."

Gilda blinked softly. "They put him together, mostly, but I don't want that happening again." She rose to all fours, hackles rising. "Is that so hard to understand?!"

"Gilda, please sit." He gestured to the seat she was standing on. "Tell me, what are you, in your people's eyes? Do you have a position of authority?"

Gilda tilted her head at a sharp angle that only a bird would find comfortable. "What? Oh, you mean like am I a king or queen or something? No. We don't have one of those anyway." She waved it off. "Just a griffon, so?"

Both brows went up. "You're a (democracy)?"

"What?"

"Everyone decides together what to do," he explained as he opened the folder. "If you aren't an authority figure, you can't possibly negotiate with us. But if there aren't authority figures, that makes it complicated. Tell me about your country."

"It's a kingdom." She saw his expression and heaved a sigh. "Yeah yeah, without a king. We used to have one, alright!? Anyway, yeah, so kingdom..." She began to explain her home, the Griffon Kingdom, and how it operated, or sometimes failed to do so.

Twilight extended a wing towards a door. "(Behind this door, an extra special treat!)"

Ocellus and Silverstream both looked excited, the others only catching on by watching them.

"(I present, the President of the United States!)" She willed the door open, which was Crane's cue to step out, agents just behind him.

"Hello, children," he greeted in Ponish. "It's a pleasure to take some time and meet all of you."

"(You speak excellent Ponish,)" complimented Ocellus.

"And you..." He crouched down to be closer to the level of the gathering of interesting youth. "You speak very good English. I must ask, and don't take this the wrong way, but what are you?"

Twilight gestured with a hoof. "(This is Ocellus, a changeling. That is Yona, a yak.)"

"(Hello!)" she squealed, bouncing in place.

"(Gallus, a griffon)"

Gallus nodded at his name being called, it not changing between languages.

"(Smolder, a dragon. Sandbar, a pony, like myself, and Silverstream, a hippogriff.)"

Author's Notes:

In this chapter, the Young Six get to visit America on a field trip!

Gilda tries to set things right. She's trying, really.

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