Spinning Gears, Painted Letters and Onyx Gems

Oh my gosh it's been too long! I'm sorry for this HUGE wait guys, but here it is! A new chapter for all of my lovelies! Enjoy guys.

The night had gone well, at least, as well as any could for a couple with a newborn. The newest addition to the house had only cried twice in the night, which was quite a feat. But Adhesive was still a zombie in the morning practically groaning for coffee. “Baaaaabeeee, where’s the creamer?”

“How should I know? You’re the one who uses it, you know I don’t like the stuff.” Circuit wasn’t in much of a better state, though he was more irritated then tired. The amount of times he’d had to take off his arm to clean drool, or formula, or a combination of both out of it was starting to get ridiculous. “Hurry up with the coffee already, you’re much better at getting Rainbow to eat, he keeps shoving the bottle away.”

“Did you temper it the way he likes? You know, test the temperature on your hoof like that manual told us?” The stallion had small bags under his eyes as he rummaged under the sink for a clue as to where the mysterious French vanilla creamer had gone.

“Yes I tempered it, I’m not an idiot. You think I’d try and burn our child or give him cold formula?” The words came out a little snappier than he’d intended, his nerves slightly frayed. Those manuals weren’t kidding when they said raising a child was hard, he’d never understand how some ponies could raise more than one. “Just….You take him, okay? I’ll look for the creamer.”

His husband gave him a soft smile and nodded before walking out of the kitchen and into the baby room. Low and behold Rainbow was crying, hungry again. The green maned stallion reached for the bottle of formula and tested it before walking over to his son’s crib. “Hey hey, it’s okay, daddy’s here alright?” The baby instantly calmed and began whining, reaching out his chubby little arms for the bottle. “Yeah, that’s daddy’s little guy huh?” Circuit just sighed and shook his head, getting up so he could start looking for the creamer. Low and behold, he found it in the microwave for some reason. Thank goodness it hadn’t been cooked yet, that would’ve been a mess.

“Why did you put the creamer in the microwave?” He yelled from the kitchen to Adhesive, letting out an exasperated, and yet still fond sounding sigh, quickly starting on a pot of coffee for the both of them.

“I don’t know! I probably thought it was the bottle or something, I was exhausted last night you know that!” Adhesive’s voice was raised but still in a loving and teasing tone that was all in all lighthearted.

“Doofus…” The gray stallion muttered, a little smile spreading across his face as he poured the cups of coffee. He tried to fight it, but he couldn’t help the happiness that bubbled up in his chest. Sure, he was exhausted and covered in various sticky fluids courtesy of their foal, but he wouldn’t change it for the world. He carefully carried the cups with him into the baby room, setting Adhesive’s to the side so he could drink it when he was done. “How’s our little demon spawn?”

“Quiet and eating, not sure if we have enough souls for this little monster to eat but we’ll make due. If needed I’ll make another deal with the local gatekeeper.”

“Well we better get on that quick, this little one gets pretty grumpy without food, and I’d rather he not eat my soul. I have things I want to do with that, bargains to make and what not.” He chuckled, leaning against his side as he sipped his coffee. He looked down at the foal, his smile widening as he reached down to lightly tap his nose. The white stallion set down his coffee and slid around behind the smaller grey stallion and laid his hooves along Circuit’s waist.

“Any bargains involving me~?” He asked, practically purring into his husband’s ear.

“I was thinking more along the lines of bargaining for a time machine, or maybe a device to travel between dimensions, but that stuff could be fun too. Granted, there’s no reason we can’t do anything in a time machine if I manage to bargain for one...But enough of that kind of talk, Rainbow can hear us. He may be a newborn but still. It’s the principal of the thing.”

“Then why don’t we take this somewhere private-” He was cut off mid-sentence when the doorbell rang and Rainbow began to fuss. “Oh dammit… I’ll calm him down, you go get the door.” Circuit chuckled, kissing his cheek before carrying his coffee out of the room.

“We’ll continue this conversation later~” He called back in a sing-song voice before heading for the door, peeking through the peephole before opening it up. Two mares looked back up at the door, one with long golden mane tied back and pegasus wings, the other an earth pony with razor edged mane and tail as well as a stern expression. Circuit blinked at them for a few moments before the realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Oh right! You two were coming to day, I completely forgot! Er...Hold on a moment. Adhesive!” He turned back so he could yell into the house. “Your parents are here!”

“Oh good Faust!” He nearly tumbled onto the floor when rounding the corner and running to the door. “Hey guys! Cmon in!” The pegasus trotted in happily, her mane bouncing along with her.

“Adhesive! It’s so exciting to be here again, oh where’s the little baby boy?” She all but squealed. Electric Saw followed after her, nodding to Circuit and Adhesive as they came in.

“I’ll go get him, you guys chat and catch up.” Circuit smiled, kissing Adhesive’s cheek before slipping out of the room to go grab Rainbow.

“I totally forgot you guys were coming, it’s been hard to keep track of time with how much our sleeping schedule is messed up. We haven’t been out of the house all week!” The older white mare put a hoof on her son’s shoulder and gave him a soft smile.

“It was the same for us, except that you were extra fussy, you wouldn’t drink from a bottle so even if Electric went and got you I’d still have to wake up!” The mare let out a soft giggle and leaned into her wife lovingly.

“Just wait until he starts teething. You think you don’t get much sleep now?” The gray mare let out a snort, her expression never changing from that blank, stern look she always seemed to have. Though her mouth did twitch a little bit as she leaned back against the other mare. Circuit brought out the foal after a few moments, his eyes narrowed as Rainbow tugged on a hoofful of his mane.

“That’s it, I’m getting this stupid mane cut.”

“Nooooo, don’t do it, I love your mane sweetheart!” Adhesive fake whined, giving the shorter stallion a loving kiss on the cheek.

“I don’t care, I’m shaving it all off. If I don’t then this little demon is just going to rip it all out.” He grunted, happily passing the foal to Electric when she reached out for him. She carefully pulled brown foal’s hoof from his mane before taking him into her arms, carefully cradling him. Heavenly immediately turned her attention to her grandson and began making cooing noises while Adhesive tried to talk to his husband.

“Okay fine, we’ll have Ebony cut it for you, but don’t shave it alright? Cuz if you do, I’ll have to shave mine as well.” He threatened, smiling devilishly.

“Don’t you dare! I will divorce you if you get rid of those beautiful green locks of yours.” The ‘pegasus’ huffed, narrowing his eyes at him to show that he was mostly being serious. “I’ll get Ebony to cut it, so long as she promises not to make it look weird. I let her do it once and...Well it didn’t turn out well, let’s leave it at that. And she’s not allowed to be anywhere near dye or anything that can be used for coloring while she does it!”

“Alright then it’s a deal, no weird dyes involved at all.”

“Alright….You better be watching her though, one time she tried to dye my mane pink while I was sleeping. Said I needed to embrace the gayness or something, I wasn’t really paying attention to her words I was half asleep and slightly terrified.” He huffed, shuddering at the memory.

“Was that the thing when I came home and found all those crushed strawberries and that weird pink stained mixing bowl in the kitchen?”

“Yep, that was the one. Why do you think I never buy strawberries anymore? Especially when she’s around. She said it was a one time thing, but I don’t trust her. She still occasionally makes me try and embrace my gayness more. As if being married to another stallion wasn’t embracing it enough already.”

“You gotta admit she does have some good ideas every once in awhile… where do you think I got the tape idea from?” He waggled an eyebrow at the smaller stallion to emphasize his meaning.

“You….I don’t want to know. I’d rather Ebony not know about...That aspect of our relationship, but I suppose it’s too late. Her imagination would supply the info anyways.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Let’s just enjoy this time with your parents, alright?”

“Yeah alright, that sounds good why don’t we-” The sound of more knocking interrupted the tall stallion once again. “Okay… that’s weird, Ebony said she’d be outta town this week, you think she got back early or…” Adhesive stopped mid-sentence when he opened the door. The patrons on the other side shocking him into a stupor. His in laws, more importantly, the family’s worst nightmare and this time, Ebony wasn’t here as backup.

“Who is it Adhesive?” Circuit called to him from where he was with Heavenly, currently trying to get Rainbow to let go of her mane. So far it wasn’t working very well, the small foal intent on keeping the hoofful he had. He had a surprisingly strong grip for such a little one. At the moment, all he was able to do was keep him from shoving the strands into his mouth.

“...Honey… You might want to come here…” He gulped before addressing the ponies in front of him. “Um.. to what do we owe this… pleasure?” The stallion strained the last word, his teeth grinding together in loathing. Circuit raised an eyebrow but did as he said, letting Electric take over his spot.

“Why? What’s going on….” His words trailed off as he stared at the group, his eyes widening. In the doorway stood his parents and siblings, minus Golden Cross. Pearl shot him a nervous smile, glancing at her husband for support. He of course offered none, busy on his phone.

“Hello sweetie, we thought we’d pop in for a visit. We heard you two decided to have a child together and figured it’d be best if we came to visit our new grandchild, isn’t that right dear?”

“Mmph.” Adhesive moved to the side to let the ponies into their home, still stunned into a semi silence before descending the stairs where his own parents were still holding the little foal and cooing over his small form. The ‘pegasus’ slowly trailed after them, gritting his teeth slightly as he watched his mother approach the foal. Electric glanced at them before handing the baby over, though the minute he was in the mare’s arms he began to fuss.

“Oh, isn’t he just adorable?” Circuit snorted, rolling his eyes as he looked around.

“Hey….Where’s Golden Cross?”

“Oh um...Well she’s-” Her words were cut off as Equation Quarter piped up, rolling his eyes as he spoke.

“She’s at the courthouse getting a restraining order on that crazy friend of yours.”

“You mean Ebony?” Heavenly Light chirped with a smile. “I always liked her, she’s such a sweet girl, I’m surprised she’s not here actually.” Adhesive blanched, realizing that they were on their own, their backup was halfway across Equestria, there’d be no way she’d get there in time.

“Uh yeah, she’s um, outta town. In Zebrica I believe, trying to quell a disagreement between two tribes to stop further bloodshed.”

“Good, she may be hot but she’s insane. Such a shame really.” Circuit could practically feel his blood boiling as he glared at his brother, resisting the urge to slap him for talking about one of his closest friends that way. Really, he was only stopped by the fact that his mother started speaking again.

“So, where did you guys adopt him from?” Before anypony could say anything Electric Saw decided to speak up.

“Oh he wasn’t adopted, Rainbow is their biological child.” This finally seemed to get the attention of Circuit’s other three family members, who’d all been busy on their phones.

“You mean that thing like...Came out of one of them..?” One of his sisters piped up, her nose wrinkling.

“Please tell me you topped at least…” His dad muttered, his eyes shining with disappointment as he gazed at his son. Adhesive’s nostrils flared and he took a defensive stance in front of his family.

“I do not see in any way why that is any of your business.” He began to glare daggers at his father-in-law.

“Of course it’s my business! It’s bad enough that he had to marry a stallion, I don’t want him popping out any more of...That…” The stallion vaguely gestured to Rainbow, his nose wrinkled in disgust. “That disgusting freak you call a foal-” The words were barely out of his mouth before Circuit was moving, raising a hoof to slap him as hard as he could.

“Don’t. You. Dare. That is my child and I will not have you call him a disgusting freak. I’m proud to have given birth to him, and if you don’t approve of that then you can get out.” In that moment Adhesive had never been more proud of his husband.

“I suggest you get the HELL out of our home and never return, ever. Again. I swear, if I have to get a restraining order for each and every one of you I will. And if even that isn’t enough I’ll have Ebony come. And. Find. You.” Now normally the green maned stallion was one of the nicest ponies you could ever hope to meet. Ask anypony and they’d tell you the exact same thing, he was on par with even Fluttershy in how nice he was.

But in that moment, the malice and sheer loathing in his voice was so evident that you’d have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not understand it.

The words had barely left his mouth before Circuit’s siblings were making their way out, his sisters already back on their phones so they could text all their friends about it. Pearl Necklace opened her mouth to protest, before simply sighing and shaking her head. She handed the foal back to Heavenly, pulling her husband out of the house with her.

Adhesive followed them to the door and as soon as they were outside, he promptly and violently slammed the door in their face.

“Never again, never ever again!” He was mad, really mad, truly angry. The stallion’s ears were splayed back, and the mailpony was pacing back and forth near the window watching as they left. If only to make sure that the filth left their property. Circuit just quietly sat in his spot, staring at his hoof with a slightly horrified look. He’d never even imagined he’d have the guts to stand up to his dad, let alone slap him. He didn’t regret it of course, he’d gladly do it again and much much more to defend his baby, but it was still a little jarring.

“I hit him…..I actually hit him….” His husband was almost instantly by his side, practically sensing the distress in his mate’s tone.

“Yes, you did. And I am so proud of you, you stood up to that pompous fool. Not to defend yourself or me, but for our little boy. And you said you weren’t ready to be a father.” The stallion beamed brightly. The bright smile on his love’s face helped relax him, calming down a little bit as he pressed against his side. Heavenly shifted over, handing the slightly fussy foal back so him so he could hold him. Circuit shush him softly, holding the little one close.

“Yeah….Yeah I guess I did….And I’d do it again for you, my little demon spawn.”

“Our little demon spawn, and don’t you forget it!”