The Cadenza Prophecies

Chapter Twenty Eight - Life Goes On

I woke to the smell of coffee. Very good coffee.

"Ooh, Spike," I said, before my eyes were fully open and focused. "Can I get a mug of that?"

I blinked a few times before I realized who was in the room with me.

Spike, yes, but also Luna, Ao, and Dr. Woundwort.

Before I could say anything else, the doctor leaned forward and used his horn to shine a light into each of my eyes. "Good. Good. Yes, you are in good shape, Your Highness."

As soon as he leaned away, Luna leaned in for a kiss. It distracted me for a moment, but I needed to know what had happened after the lights went out.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"Two days," Spike told me. "Doctor's orders."

I looked back at Dr. Woundwort, who was putting away his instruments. "Magically induced coma? Was I hurt that badly?"

"No," he said, not looking up. "You were fundamentally uninjured, but suffering from severe exhaustion and dehydration. In my professional opinion, an MIC and direct fluids were the only practical treatment to force you to take a badly needed rest. You are now released from care—Captain."He levitated his bag up, gave me a little nod of his head and walked out of the room.[1]

[1] Doctor Woundwort is brilliant and superbly competent, but he doesn't have a bedside manner, he has a bedside attitude. That's why he was tending to the scrapes and bumps of a privateer's crew rather than overseeing an ER in Canterlot or Manehattan. He is also sneaky. By calling me "Captain" he asserted his legitimate authority over me in medical matters, which would technically have been treason if I was a princess and/or queen.

While I was still gaping after the doctor, Spike held out a crystal mug of coffee for me. I gingerly took it in my magic field. It seemed fine. My horn didn't hurt and my levitation was perfectly steady. I compressed my field down to the surface of the mug and its contents and spun it end over end. Didn't spill a drop.

I sat up and took a sip. The coffee was excellent, and my head didn't swim at all.

"Okay," I said after one more big gulp of coffee. "Fill me in?"

Spike gestured to Ao. "We all drew straws and she won."

"That's because you let her hold the straws," I muttered under my breath.

Ao ignored my comment, even though I knew she'd heard it. She crossed to the curtains at the other side of the bedroom.

Some instinct prevented me from taking another drink of coffee, and I set the mug down on my bedside table. Was there a little curl of disappointment in Ao's barbels? I think there was.

Her antlers glowed, and the curtains drew aside revealing a huge window. Just outside the window, floating right next to the Crystal Palace, was a yeti dreadnought.

There was a blaze of light in the room as I reflexively lit my horn, but it died away as I realized that the Stormguard symbol on the forward end of the ship's armor had been blacked over, and along her bow, in crude whitewashed letters, was written: H.D.M.A.S. BERRYTWIST.

Tempest Shadow was standing on her beakhead, waving in our direction.

"How? What? How did you—" I gasped out.

"To answer your questions in order… One: Primarily by deception," Ao answered, making little check marks in the air with her hoof as she spoke. "Two: It is a captured battleship. Three: Nebula's battle damage and the ranks of friendly yetis waving along her rail convinced the enemy ship to approach incautiously, believing her to be a ship taken by their comrades. Black Fang had been hiding herself close behind Nebula's envelope and swung out to cut off the yetis' retreat. When they were softened up, Ms. Tempest led the boarding party, and this one thought it only fitting to give her the honor of renaming the ship."

"Wait. Ranks of yetis? It wasn't just Ket and Sherbet?"

"No indeed, Captain. While shapeshifting is beyond the abilities of most of Nebula's crew, levitation is more common." She demonstrated by floating and twisting a napkin from the table into a roughly bipedal shape. It waved its misshapen arms. "Hello, friends! Come closer! All is well!"

"You… You puppeted the yeti corpses?"

She put the napkin down. "It was surprisingly effective. That Ms. Tempest spoke their language aided our ruse immeasurably."

I snapped my dangling jaw shut and then asked, "When and where?"

"Yesterday morning. The day before that, with the threat of Grogar very thoroughly removed, if this one may say so, Princess Luna took her ship Midnight to deal with the ones that had moored near the base of Mt. Everhoof. This one will leave it to Her Highness to describe that battle, as she does it so very well."

Luna gave her a little nod of acknowledgement for the compliment. Ao continued, " Ultimately, there was one ship that escaped in the confusion, and she was fleeing southward when she had the misfortune to encounter us at the pass through the Crystal Mountains."

"How are the crew?"

"Quite happy, given the estimated value of the prize."

"I meant wounds, you wiggly maniac!"

"Ah! Well, this one counted the living Nebulas after the battle and it seems that Your Majesty will not need to hire replacements, though Nebula's efficiency will be somewhat lessened while several recuperate."

"Ao!"

She relented. "No crippling wounds, Captain. Recovery for a few will be lengthy, but complete, according to the esteemed doctor."

"Xahjir says that scars are like cutie marks but with more interesting stories," said Rarity, smiling from the doorway. "Ready to receive visitors, dear?"

I hopped out of bed and said, "Can we all talk around a table? I'm starving!"

Rarity gave me a smug smile. "The one in the banquet hall is already prepared, darling."

= = =

We all went down to brunch, and it was a good thing that everypony had so much to catch me up on, because my mouth was never empty enough for me to talk.

Tempest joined us and relayed what the yeti prisoners had told her about the discovery of the Bewitching Bell and their subsequent abject surrender to and/or terrified flight from the terrifying monster they had unwittingly resurrected.

Of the girls, only Fluttershy was missing, because Discord had popped in even before the fragments of Grogar had quit smoldering and whisked her away.

Shiny was there, and he explained what had happened with Flurry Heart. Sunburst had tried to teleport her away when Grogar reached the shield, but herding a little filly who could teleport herself was beyond him. She had been startled awake when the palace shook from the first impact on the shield. Flurry wanted her mommy, and had winked directly to her side. Unfortunately, Cadance was on the north balcony watching Grogar approach, and Flurry had seen the entire grizzly end of the battle. The blaze of Cady's horn as she opened the way to the deep well of power below the palace convinced little Flurry that her mommy had made the Bad Thing go away, but she was still shaken by the experience, and Cadance was not going to leave her daughter's side for quite a while.

The heat of the plasma spray had set fire to almost everything flammable on the edge of the city (which fortunately did not include crystal buildings), and the guard units were still cleaning up the mess left behind. They were still debating about what to do with the enormous charred pieces of hoof and bone that were all that was left of Grogar.

When a structured mana absorption device detonates in a typical[2]way, individual thaumic clusters usually return to their origins according to the Law of Contagion. Simply put, magic stolen from a particular pony will tend to return to that pony.

[2] Yes, I have become an expert on the various flavors of magical explosions despite trying to avoid them as much as possible. That's the world I live in.

According to Sunburst, that wasn't what had happened with the Bell. Because of the umph I had put into destroying the physical container, the magic itself had been propelled into space and was out there swirling around in an unpredictable way. I had to hope that it wouldn't cause any problems in the future, and added another line to my to-do list: Find a way to track that stuff and possibly recapture it.

= = =

I visited the wounded Nebulas after the meal. They and the casualties from Black Fang had been transferred to the Central Imperial Hospital and were being treated very well indeed. As Ao had said, they were all very happy at the anticipated profits from our voyage. Oh, and at having helped to save the world. That, too.

Luna came with me and awarded each of them an Equestrian Order of Valor, and gave them her personal, heartfelt thanks.

Next, I visited my poor wounded Nebula. She had taken a lot more damage in the second fight, but was still floating. The un-or-lightly wounded crew were working on repairs. I flew aboard with Luna and everypony paused and looked up at the quarterdeck.

"Nopony told you heroes to stop working!" I growled at them.

They all grinned and went back to their tasks. Luna and I walked around inspecting the damage and asking questions. The binacle was smashed, and two of the speaking tubes were torn away along with pieces of the rail. From the angle, it looked like a single catapult bolt had done the damage. A stern window had been shattered, and I assumed there was a mess in the great cabin to be cleaned up.

Lots of lines had been cut, but that's typical in any serious engagement and Nebula had a big safety margin in her standing rigging. Envelope rips and tears… Only to be expected. The capstan head was torn up… No, that had been from the previous engagement, I reminded myself. The bowsprit was just gone. The hull was battered and splintered in several places.

Cutie marks with more interesting stories.

The worst of the new damage was to our number one engine. Ralf was out on the strut trying to unbolt the twisted prop housing. The propeller itself was nothing but splintered stubs.

"Shall I disconnect the whole engine and bring it on deck for you Mr. Ralf? It'll be easier to work on here."

"Ah! Thank you Captain, that would be—" He turned to look at me over his shoulder and stammered to a stop. "Ralf means Princess, yes?" Sitting on the engine strut and twisted around, he couldn't bow… But he tried.

I realized I had been stomping around on deck without my coat or disguise amulet. Nopony else had said a thing.

"Wait. I'm not… You're not supposed to know!"

Zepherine was going by with a spar floating in tow, and looked at me in puzzlement. "But… Everypony knows, Cap… Or Highness, I guess? Which one are you being right now?"

"Captain," I said, mostly to myself.

But Zeph grinned, said, "Aye-aye, Captain!" and went about her work.

I unbolted the number one engine pod and set it on deck, almost unconsciously.

Luna whispered to me, "Remember my love, we all do this in many ways. You just make the roles clearer and more fun for ponies."

By "we," she meant royalty, certainly. But I had never intended… I wasn't signaling authority, I was… I was trying to run from it? No, that wasn't right. I…

While my head was still spinning, the guard griffin Talon, accompanied by another, larger griffin, flew up level with Nebula's deck and called out, "Permission to come aboard?"

"Welcome aboard," I replied automatically.

They landed on deck and, after a moment's hesitation, saluted both Luna and I.

"You came north with Black Fang?" I asked. It was a dumb question, but I had to say something.

"Yes, Your Highness," Talon replied. And then, hesitantly, "May we speak with Her Majesty?"

I sighed. "Do I have to go through the charade of shape-changing?"

Talon looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Not if it would be an inconvenience, Ma… Uh… Highness. But it is helpful to us as an indicator of your exact mood and expected duties."

I sighed and called up Petunia's Polymorph. I couldn't help but notice that Luna gave me an appreciative look once the spell had completed. Nopony else on deck even blinked.

"Your Majesty!" Talon chirped happily. He and the other enormous griffin bowed. "May I present Terror of Your Majesty's Guard?"

She was osprey and snow leopard, a very pretty combination, but her beauty didn't disguise the fact that she was an absolute hulking brute. "It's a pleasure to meet you Terror, I've heard good things about you."

"Thank you, Majesty," she said in a deep, predatory rumble. Aptly named, that one.

Luna left us to our business and went off to check on her own ship's repairs. We went below to the crew deck to speak in semi-privacy.

They needed orders and letters of credit for stores and supplies for repairs to Black Fang. Since Ao had preemptively assigned the captured yeti battleship to Twilight Town's military (such as it was), I needed to issue orders concerning her and (more importantly), make arrangements to pay for her repairs as well.

I considered for a moment before I said, "Make no repairs to her engines or fuel system until I consult Mr. Ralf about converting them to crystal power. I'm assigning Tempest Shadow to be her acting captain. She knows the Stormguard ships inside and out, and she's wasted as a simple crewpony."

"Damned good in a fight, though," Terror rumbled.

Talon gave her a little poke with his wing for speaking out of turn, and she added, "Sorry, ma'am."

I waved off the trivial breach and said, "That she is, Terror. I may ask her to give some combat training to the griffin squadron. You may be surprised by how—appropriate it would be."

Right about then, an argument broke out on the main deck. I recognised the voices and sighed heavily. "Anything else?" I asked my griffins.

They braced and saluted. "No, ma'am!"

I dismissed them with the wave of a wing and went on deck.

"I will have order aboard my ship!" I roared and stomped the deck with a heavy forehoof. My eyes tingled with the sensation of incipient dark magic.

Discord and Fluttershy stopped squabbling and stared at me.

"Ooh… Spooky," Discord said. "Your ship? Where'd old Blackhead go?"

I bared my fangs. "Oh for… Do I have to change clothes every time I talk to a different pony?"

Discord blinked through several ridiculous outfits before saying, "But it's so much fun!"

I sighed and called up the shapechanging spell again. I even teleported my coat and swords over from the palace. "There! Happy?"

"Well, now that you mention it, no. I made a lovely floating oasis with pudding trees, elephoxes, and miniature snallygasters so that Fluttershy could relax and recuperate there, but she insisted on coming back here to nail this old tub back together! Can you talk some sense into—"

Fluttershy and I froze for an instant and then focused our murderous, piratical glares squarely on the suddenly nervous Lord of Chaos.

I didn't have fangs any longer, but my muzzle wrinkled up anyway. "Old—tub?"

"IthinkIhearmymomcallingIhavetogonowbye!"

Fluttershy flapped a wing to disperse the raspberry scented smoke he'd left behind and her expression softened. "He means well, Twilight. He offered to fix up Nebby with a snap so we could go off and relax together. But I just know he'd do it wrong. He doesn't understand!"

I nodded, my anger at his insult to Nebula fading away. "We don't have to understand everything about the people we love, but respecting boundaries is an absolute necessity, so try to keep him from meddling with my ship, okay?"

She frowned and gave me a look from under her brows.

"Our ship," I corrected myself.

She smiled.

= = =

It was a ridiculously full day, but Spike helped out immensely by organizing my notes and sorting my to-do lists into separate notebooks labeled Princess; Queen; Captain; and Whomever.

"So… everybody knows?" I asked him when we got a break. "Why didn't somepony tell me?"

He shrugged. "We all thought you knew! Besides, it's not everybody, just the crew, a lot of the Equestrian nobility, all the Guild nobs and important people in the Town, the guard, oh and probably the Mayor and her cronies in Ponyville…" He went on like that for a while, running out of claws to count on. "But the average pony in the street? Totally clueless!"

I sighed. "I suppose it's not a complete waste of time. It's weird, but Talon really behaved differently to me after I'd changed. And if an angry mob shows up on my doorstep, I can always say, 'Who? Oh no, that's Princess Twilight you're looking for. Completely different pony!'"

Spike chuckled. "Whatever works, right?"

I couldn't resist hugging him, and he hugged me right back. "Right!"

= = =

Three days later, Luna and I had breakfast with the imperial family. My heart absolutely melted when Flurry Heart ran over to us shouting, "Auntie Twi-wi, Auntie Lulu!" She seemed to have recovered her good spirits and only became more somber when she gave us her account of what she had seen on the day of the fight.

"He was bad! He was very, very bad and mean, but I wasn't scared!"

"Oh? Well, it's a good thing your mummy and daddy made him go away. What was his name? Crowbar?"

She giggled. "No, silly! It was Groger. He was a big, mean old goat!"

"Well, if he was mean then we won't ever let old Goatger come back!"

She giggled again and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. She was what we had fought for. Not just her, but for all the foals, for their future.

I almost believed that for a second or two. You hypocritical old nag, I chided myself, You blasted him because you were furious and indignant and in no mood to play nice with a brutal moron!

While the staff set up for breakfast, I pulled the Anubian golden dish out of my saddlebags and showed it to Flurry as I told her the story of the double crocodile. It was possibly too subtle a tale for a young foal, because when she was retelling the fable to her mother later, it had become, "If you don't share your candy a crocodile will eat you!"

Still a good lesson, though.

= = =

There were official speeches and parades and presentations and flag ceremonies, of course. Enough medals given out to ballast an airship. Pinkie was delighted with her EOV because I'd had Ralf remove the little golden sun-and-moon and replace it with an apple pie. "For baking above and beyond the call of duty," I solemnly intoned as I pinned it to her mane.

After everypony got tired of the official nonsense, I ordered a raft-up party. It was a Twilight Town tradition. In order to blow off steam (and subtly reinforce my hypocritical egalitarian ideals). After a difficult fight or voyage, ships or airships would tie up together and secure planks across from one to the other so that everyone could mingle freely. There would be a party for all of the crews together during which there were no ranks, and everyone spoke freely.

That was the intention. Of course, most ponies realized that if they called their captain a festering dungheap, it would probably not be forgotten or forgiven even though tradition dictated that it be so, and a certain reserve couldn't be avoided. Still, it was a pretty good way to minimize formality and promote honest comradery between crews. Luna thought the idea was a bit foolish, but agreed readily enough.

The three Townie ships and Midnight were securely moored and lashed together by sundown. Bunting, lanterns, and string lights criss crossed through the rigging, and tables laden with food and drink were strategically placed. Solid hatch covers were set over the gratings to make for dance floors, and the air was full of snatches of melody as the musicians debated which tunes to play first. Tempest provided a fireworks-like salvo to announce the start of the party.

A little more than comradery was promoted, as was perfectly understandable for ponies that had recently risked their lives. The antidote to death was life, and a lot of newly-formed couples snuck off from the main celebration to storage rooms, linen cupboards, cable tiers, and other private places as the evening went on.

Luna and I might as well have been harnessed together as we circulated. Each little bump of hip or shoulder as we walked was a comfort to me. She told the story of the battle at Mt. Everhoof several times, and it was as stirring and impressive a performance as Ao had implied. Dash and I told the story of the fight with Grogar, interrupting and correcting each other by turns, Dash staggered around the deck, one hoof clapped to her face and shouted, "My eye! My eye! Curse that blue pony!" in demonstration of a moment that hadn't quite happened that way.

We got the story of the capture of the Stormguard ship from several different sources, and nobody could keep a straight face when they related the ruse with the dead yetis. Even Tempest grinned a bit when she got to that part. "It was Ao's idea, of course. That is a damned fine First Mate, you've got there, Twilight."

I beamed back at her. I took a leaf from Celestia's book and told her, "She's mine. You can't have her, Captain Tempest."

Tempest chuckled and shrugged, then continued with her story. Her version wasn't exactly dry, but it was straight forward and she didn't embellish much as far as I could tell. Even her descriptions of getting the spear wound along her ribs or how she'd flipped the yeti commander into the blades of Number One when he tried to shove her overboard were unexaggerated.

"I didn't aim for the engine," she explained. "But when the rest of the yetis saw the chunks fly, they threw down their weapons and surrendered, so it was a happy accident."

She took a sip of her cider and added, "But I don't think Mr. Ralf and I are on speaking terms right now."

I smiled ruefully. "Poor guy. He doesn't yet realize that ending a voyage with one or two engines gone is pretty typical for Nebula. There's a reason her crew are good sailors." I thought for a second and then asked, "Is there a story behind the name?"

"The… Oh, Berrytwist?" She was pensive for a second or two and then said, "Just somepony I knew a long time ago. She was a nice little filly." She took another swig of her cider. "Totally unlike me, of course."

I held up my mug for an impromptu toast. "Here's to mean old mares!" Everypony within earshot drank with us.

A little later we met Lucky Charm, weaving along through the crowd under the leathery wing of one of Luna's guardponies. When the bat pony caught sight of the two of us he retrieved his wing and braced. "Your High—"

"No, sergeant. We are all equals here tonight," Luna told him.

"Yes, Your Highness! Of course, Your Highness!"

Lucky leaned against his side and said, "Isn't he just the handsomest thing?" She tugged at his free wing with her magic. "Look at these flippy-flappers! He's gorgeous!"

The sergeant's pale gray coat did very little to hide his blush.

Luna chuckled. "Relax and have fun tonight sergeant. Show this lovely young mare a good time."

He didn't salute, but it was a close thing.

As far as I knew, everyone had a good time at the raft-up. Luna and I certainly did.

= = =

A week later we were in Canterlot with all of our ships except Black Fang, which had returned home to Twilight Town. The Town had some respectable repair facilities, but Canterlot Yards was still the best of the best and I had a lot of other business to attend to in the capital.

Master Gudgeon made room for us, shuffling other airships and schedules around. He promised to get Nebula back in pristine shape in two weeks.[3] Berrytwist was unusual enough that he made no promises about her.

[3] Perhaps unsurprisingly, he had several entire spare engines of Nebula's exact make and model in the Yard's stores.

"No rush there," I told him. "Have fun and experiment. I'll want to replace the engines with crystal-powered ones, and I'd like to double up on some of those decks if possible. The yetis were so tall, there ought to be plenty of room, but I'd like to keep a section open for a griffin-sized flight deck. Sketch up some ideas and Ralf and I will check back with you in a couple of days."

"Will do, Captain!" He was grinning his head off. I guess, as an aeronautical engineer, he must have seen the task as a delightful challenge.

Speaking of yetis, we had crammed all the prisoners onto rail cars and sent them off under heavy guard to Vanhoover. A special train from Canterlot was organized, but some of the prisoners from the original attack stayed behind on Celestia's orders. I was too busy to speculate as to what the cunning old mare was up to, but it made for another item in my "Princess" book.

From Vanhoover, the yetis who were willing to be put under a geas never to attack Equestria again would be loaded aboard ships and delivered back to their homeland. The stubborn or deeply stupid ones would be left in the sub-basements of the old fort to reconsider. I didn't expect many to take that option. Grubber was released under his own recognizance (we had to explain the term to him), and he resumed his accustomed role as Tempest's assistant rather than being transported back home.

I arranged for rooms in the embassy for them, sent a letter to Mom and Dad letting them know I was in town, saw most of the girls off at the train station, took care of a dozen other little tasks that needed doing, and then fell into bed after a hurried supper.

= = =

The morning of my first full day in Canterlot was mostly spent in meetings with Celestia and various ministers, which began, of course, at dawn. Desperate adventuring and battles seemed to be so simple and straightforward and honest compared to political machinations. I did my best, but at one point I found myself ignoring the somewhat contentious discussion of the moment and staring out of the council room's big palladian window at a passing airship. Some noble's pleasure yacht, but she had fair, clean lines, and her helmspony certainly steered her well in the dirty air near the Canterhorn.

= = =

For lunch, I treated Moondancer to a fancy spread at the Hayloft. I reserved a private little booth at the back and put up a privacy spell after our food had been served. My somewhat hopeful imaginings of engineering a way to protect Ponykind's magic from future villains had died after the fight with Grogar. The world didn't need any more little crystal engines of terrifying capabilities.

Building a set of structured mana storage devices (Moonie's design called for a separate one for each tribe of ponies) now seemed like just a way to make it easier to steal or sabotage the magic. Making them responsive only when ponies were in harmony with each other seemed too authoritarian to me, even considering my occasional autocratic actions as Queen of Twilight Town. Given how ponies naturally tended to disagree as to the best course of action during a crisis, that feature also seemed like a guarantee of self-sabotage at some critical point in the future.

I let poor Moondancer down as gently as possible, and suggested steering her research into other manatransmissive areas. Perhaps investigating ways to create raptor sets with ordinary gold or platinum, and cheap, non-pressurized crystals? If she could get the cost down to something an average pony could afford, that would be a benefit to everyone.

She pointed out that the telegraphy companies wouldn't like it much.

I sighed and said, "Omelets and eggs, Moonie. Omelets and eggs."

= = =

In the afternoon I met with my bankers and had drafts made up to pay off the Nebulas and Black Fangs. The junior bankers frankly goggled at the sums involved, but none of the old guard even raised an eyebrow, not even when I deposited a dozen ingots of orichalcum to cover the drafts.

= = =

In the evening I saw Rarity and Xahjir off at the airship port. We made plans to see each other in Manehattan in the spring when they would be there for Fashion Week. I was willing to bet her new line would involve a lot of Royal Anubian influences.

= = =

That night, I invited my parents to have dinner with Luna, Spike, and I at the palace. The three of us lied to them outrageously about the amount of danger we'd faced. Mom fretted over the tiny scar on Spike's wing membrane, so I was fairly certain that I had been wise not to mention that Rainbow Dash had actually been chopped in half at one point.

= = =

The next day, I took Tempest to the hospital to introduce her to the prosthetics specialists and get a preliminary consultation. It was weird to see that big, muscular mare so nervous and uncertain. "You'll be fine," I told her. "These are the best equine doctors in the world."

They approved the crystal core I gave them, but warned us that enough orichalcum might not be available for some time. Channeling Captain Blackmane just a little bit, I levitated an ingot out of my saddlebag and thumped it down on the head surgeon's desk. "Will that be enough?" They were not as calm about it as the bankers had been, but eventually dates were set for the preliminary procedures and restoration surgery.

"I can't ever repay you for this, Twilight," Tempest said as we walked down the High Street toward the embassy. "I wish I could—"

"Tempest, you're one of the most capable mares I've ever met. You know what life is like outside of Equestria's cozy little confines, so you are an invaluable asset to the Town. But more than that, I hope by now you consider yourself my friend."

She grinned at me."Are you kidding? I have had more fun in the last month with you than I have in—ever. Just try to get rid of me!"

"So why would you think that you owe me anything? I made a promise to a friend, and I'm keeping it. Simple as that."

We walked along in companionable silence for a while until we came abreast of The Iceberg. It was a fixture of Old Canterlot, a shop that sold fancy frozen treats of various sorts.

I cocked my head in the direction of the front door. "Ice cream?"

Tempest nodded and smiled. "I'm buying."

= = =

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