The time came and went to take Andrea to the hospital. They wouldn't let Wendy or her husband in the room when they had to take the necklace temporarily off her, but Wendy saw the bloodstain on the agent's jacket when he was carrying her sleeping form out of the house. Andrea still bled just as profusely in that little bit of time if he had gotten that much blood on him in less than a second. That knowledge only put Wendy's nerves more on edge.
Now she and Charles sat at a dining room table with Sunset Blessing, Amicus, Amicus's husband, and Líng. Older Andrea— Andri, had gone to the hospital with her younger self and Shǔguāng. Sinker had a job to go to early in the morning and couldn't stay up on account of that. Dry Soil and Hook Line were too old to stay up late, even for this, and Wendy was unsure they were even fully aware of what was going on with Andrea. She knew she hadn't told them. The other two girls were in bed, each in their separate rooms, and Mèng was patrolling the halls to make sure they stayed in bed. Sunset Blessing said this was not unusual behavior for a pony of his type; they were instinctually predisposed to guard over others at night.
The remains of delivery pizza sat on the table, half-eaten. Sixty years later and people still ordered pizza when they didn't want to cook and had money to spare. The toppings had changed—pineapples, avocados, broccoli, cauliflower, and even macaroni and cheese, really? Still, it was pizza. She occasionally picked at some of it, but she didn't have much of an appetite; no one did. They were all waiting for word from the hospital, but the phones had remained silent since Andri had last called to say that Andrea was going into the surgery room. That had been two hours before.
A grandfather clock ticked away in the distance, an occasional guard walked by the door, but all was quiet.
Líng cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "I know this isn't the right time, but we aren't doing anything else right now, so… Anyway, Auntie, I was asked to come in for a job interview next week."
Miss Newman, Sunset Blessing, had been holding a cup to her mouth with her forelegs, but set it down slowly, eyes fixed on her son.
"A job interview?" she asked slowly. "Where and doing what?"
"Uh… yacht sales," Líng said, not meeting her gaze.
"Yacht sales in Colorado? We don't have anywhere for people to sail yachts in the mountains," Sunset Blessing said in a suspicious tone.
"It's in San Diego," Líng said sheepishly.
The unicorn's eyebrows rose. "San Diego? California, San Diego?"
"That's the only San Diego I know, Auntie," Líng replied, ducking down like he was afraid.
She glared at him. "You need to show some more confidence if you hope to do sales. Lift yourself up, colt. I didn't raise you to cower."
"I think it could be a good opportunity for the colt," Amicus chimed in. "You know he loves being near water and anything to do with the sea or boats and all that stuff."
"I'm not disputing that," Sunset Blessing replied, still staring down her nervous-looking son.
"You can't keep him under guard here forever, Sunset," Amicus pleaded.
Sunset Blessing turned her attention to her sister. "Did he ask you to go to bat for him in this?"
Amicus looked away. "Perhaps he did. It doesn't mean what I'm saying is less true. I fully support him."
Sunset Blessing grimaced and turned back towards her son. "And did the fact it is so far away factor into this choice?"
Líng sat up. "I want to be near the ocean, Auntie. No matter which ocean it is, it will end up being far away. I mean, I'm not doing it to get away from you; otherwise, I would have looked in Maine or something."
The old unicorn looked away and sighed. "Are you confident you can do this? I know you know the material, but sales is a different field."
"I can be confident when talking about seacraft," Líng asserted. "You know this is my thing. There will never be a job locally that I will ever love. Plus, I could make a lot of money doing this."
"And I figure they know you're my son," Sunset Blessing said in a flat tone.
"They did do a background check," Líng answered.
"Then I want a background check on them before I give my blessing," the old unicorn said with a tone of finality. "If they don't pass my expectations, I'm not paying for you to go out there. I'll talk to friends elsewhere that I know can find safe places to work doing things with boats and stuff."
"But that will be you controlling things," Líng complained. "I don't want to get away from you, but I do want the freedom to live my own life!"
"I'll run the check, Sunset, but you need to give him space," Amicus asserted. "You live too much of your life in fear. Your foals shouldn't have to do that. That's why Lántiān and Drizzle rarely ever visit. You try to control everything to keep them safe."
"Pegasi are too independent of spirit," Sunset muttered. "Lántiān knows how much I worry. Drizzle is old enough to understand why I do things the way I do."
"They both know how much you love them, but nopony wants to be kept in a cage for the sake of safety. That isn't just a pegasus thing," Amicus countered.
"You're here, Andrea is here, Mom and Dad are here, Shǔguāng and Mèng are here," Sunset listed off.
"Mèng is still trying to figure out his life, just like Líng," Amicus fired back, adjusting her glasses as they slipped. "Shǔguāng is obsessed with learning from you and becoming a great mage, not to mention protecting you, so this is where he wants to be. As for the rest of us, in case you haven't noticed, we're old, we've lived our lives, and we want to support you and keep in touch with our kids. Líng needs his chance to live his life."
"I said do the background check on the business. I didn't say no," Sunset hissed. "You can support me by not fussing that I'm being too cautious."
"They've been in business for over forty years," Líng said helpfully.
"And your aunt, who has lots of legal research experience, can verify that," Sunset said quickly.
Amicus laid her head back and groaned. "Even Phobia isn't as controlling as you! I don't want your foals to resent you. I'm protecting you and them. I might be the big fighter that you, Andrea, or some of your grandkids are. I don't go on adventures, but I can tell you when you aren't being fair to yourself or the ones you love."
"You say adventures, I say fighting for dear life," Sunset said. "You don't know what it's like staring down people that want to destroy you and everything you love."
"I might be a coward when it comes to physical confrontation, but I'm a lawyer, and when it comes to an argument, I will fight until they bury me in the ground," Amicus said smugly. "I'm not backing down."
Wendy felt the need to interject. She slapped a hand down on the table, and she locked eyes with Sunset Blessing. "Excuse me, but are you going to do the same to me and my family?"
Sunset Blessing paused. "I… you need time to adjust to this time period. We still need to establish identities for you."
Amicus grinned. "Lucky for all of you, I've been hard at work."
Líng blinked. "You really were doing paperwork?"
Amicus scowled at her nephew. "Yes, I really was doing paperwork, making calls, and pulling every string I know how to pull. This is family, and I will do what I can to help my family, in my own way."
"Calling who?" Sunset Blessing asked.
The old earth pony shrugged. "Wild Growth, Phobia Remedy, some lawyer friends, my son— you know, Martin."
Sunset Blessing rolled her eyes. "Yes, we know Martin is a congress member. You only mention it a dozen times a week. My daughter is a Dreamwarden, so I'm not impressed."
Amicus sniffed. "Well, he had to get elected. A foreign power just appointed Phobia. I think Martin should get credit for that. And if I only mentioned it a dozen times a week, then I haven't mentioned it enough."
"Haley, Dennis, and Edgar are all doing well for themselves too, and we are just as proud," Legal Brief, Amicus's husband, cut in for the first time.
"Although Edgar needs to change her name. I was fine when she ended up transforming into a mare instead of a stallion during the pandemic, but I wish she would change her name! That is not a mare's name. I've given her so many suggestions, human and pony style ones, and she never listens," Amicus said with a disparaging shake of her head.
"I think she keeps it to drive people nuts. More power to her," Legal Brief said, chuckling.
"It drives me nuts. She should be more kind to her poor old mother!" Amicus lamented.
"Earth to Ami, we need you back on track," Sunset said in an annoyed tone.
"What was I saying?" Amicus asked with a frown.
"You were telling us about the progress you made with getting our time-traveled doppelgangers new identities," Sunset said dryly.
"Oh, yes, that," Amicus replied, sitting up. "Considering the government wants to keep this hush-hush, and Wild Growth and my son are on their respective magic security committees, I can get them into essentially the witness protection program. New social security numbers, false high school diplomas and school records, fake work and tax history, the works. We don't have to change their names and only need to advance their birth year by sixty years, not change the month and day; that should make some things easier. The process should take about a month, maybe less."
"So, what year am I officially born in?" Charles asked.
Amicus tapped her hoof on the table as if counting. "Two-thousand fourteen. I can say you were kids during the pandemic and didn't register magic at the original testing time. That should explain you not being registered as human magic users previously. It works out well."
The tune of Amazing Grace started playing, and all the ponies turned towards Sunset Blessing. She lifted a foreleg and tapped some sort of watch or something on her other leg.
"Sunset here. Is that you, Andrea?"
There was the sound of sniffling on the other line like someone was crying. "Y-yeah, it's me."
Wendy practically jumped out of her seat. "What's wrong? Is something wrong with my daughter?!
"I-I'm sorry. The doctors...they say the injuries…the injuries are worse than originally thought."
"What are you saying?!" Sunset yelled.
"They put the necklace back on her, so she's stable for now, but if she has to go without it for more than thirty seconds….I'm sorry. She's got four days till that charge runs out."
Wendy fell against Charles, sobbing, and he cried against her as he held her.
Four days and their daughter was going to die.