Spinning Gears, Painted Letters and Onyx Gems

First off, I'm SOOOO sorry for the uber long wait! I got a job guys! And it's great, but the hours can be brutal! Either way, we're back guys! And I hope that you people didn't have too bad of a time waiting on Fandoms and I! Anyways, enjoy the chapter my lovelies! As always, comments and likes are always welcome!

Ah Sunday, a peaceful, fun, relaxing day to begin the new week but not as annoying as Monday. No worry, nothing urgent, just plain relaxation- A loud banging began to emanate from the door. -Or not… why do these things keep happening to me, seriously? Is it too much to ask to not be interrupted? Jeez people...er, ponies, I don’t know anymore. Circuit sighed as he dragged himself off the couch, handing (hoofing?) the baby in his hooves over to Adhesive. Of course, right as he was getting in some nice, quality, family bonding time somepony had to come interrupt. He was fully prepared to give the pony at the door a good tongue lashing, but the words quickly died in his mouth when he saw it was Ebony.

“You realize you don’t need to knock, right? You practically live here.” The mare was jumping in her spot and flapping her wings in agitation as her green orbs bounced across the house as she had one of her quote on quote ‘freak outs’.

“OhYeahRightWellI’mKindaFreakingOutAtThisPointYouGottaHelpMePleaseIDon’tKnowWhatToDoPleaseJustOhMyFaustI’mBabblingLikeAFoalJustHelp…” The ‘pegasus’ stared at the other for a few moments, blinking slowly as he attempted to process what she’d just said. When his mind came up blank, he simply turned to look at Adhesive for help. Adhesive just shrugged, lightly bouncing the foal in his hooves.

“Er...Mind running that by me again? Though a little bit...Oh, I don’t know...Slower, this time?” The hybrid let out a shaky breath before continuing, much slower this time.

“Okay, Nimbus and I were talking, and since we’ve been dating for quite awhile now he wants me to meet his family. I kinda froze… I-I just don’t know what to do! He keeps saying that they want to meet my parents, but he doesn’t know about their deaths! I don’t bring up this kinda thing remember? But he was so excited that I agreed….” The mare had now walked into the house and proceeded to flop onto the couch before burying her head into a throw pillow.

“Well, that was a dumb idea.” The gray stallion grunted, shaking his head a bit. He let out a sigh, shutting the door before making his way over to the couch. He lightly patted the golden mare’s back, attempting to give her some sort of comfort. “You’ll just have to tell them the truth Ebs, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Or….” Adhesive piped up, a wide grin spreading across his face. “We could instead do the perfect plan I just so happened to come up with. It’s fool proof! I promise!” Ebony’s face brightened and her wings flapped.

“I don’t care what it is, just do it fast. We have about three hours until they’re here. My place, two hours minimum, and hurry!” With that the mare dashed off, her wings flapping madly towards the direction of the manor. Circuit shot his husband a nervous look, not liking the gleam in his eye.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”

“Most likely.” The green maned stallion spoke with a laugh, an absolutely evil glint in his eye as he clapped his hooves together. “C’mon, we don’t have time to waste!”

Two Hours Later

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Ebony stood in her foyer, well I shouldn't say stood, more like pacing, very frantic and nervous pacing. The mare was all done up, a beautiful navy victorian dress across her frame with a black corset and black lace trim. The hybrid’s mane was done up in elaborate curls and the majority of it pulled into a loose but elegant bun. She looked beautiful, if not a little overdressed, the only problem was her nervousness.

“Oh Faust… I’m so nervous, where are the staff? Chichina! You’re still a changeling, change, change!” The mare whisper yelled at the mare next to her, a black changeling with light and long purple locks and solid purple eyes. Her fangs shone bleached white against her black chitin form and it was hard to see but the smaller female rolled her eyes. The only indication was a lighter spot in the center of the solid orbs moving.

“Relax Ebony, it’s going to be fine, the staff are ready, all in form, and everypony is ready to do anything at the drop of a hat.” With a flash of changeling green mana the mare changed to a light purple unicorn with the same long flowing violet locks, regular purple eyes and a rocket ship cutie mark.

“But what if one isn’t disguised? What if somepony forgets? What if they’re late? What if they can’t find the house? What if they don’t speak a language I know?” A mortified look crossed her face as she began to breath heavily. “What if they don’t like me?!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, everybody likes you. Unless you don’t want them to of course.” A voice piped up, Adhesive and Circuit trotting up with one of the disguised changeling servants leading them. The two looked...Well to put it plainly, they looked ridiculous. Both had crudely made cardboard wings taped to their sides, while Adhesive had a rather large mustache taped to his face and Circuit was in a frumpy looking dress with a ridiculously large bow in his mane. “Hope we’re not late, we had to drop off Rainbow with Willow. We were going to bring him, but he kept trying to eat his wings.”

The mare’s eyes went wide and she began to hyperventilate.

“Dear Luna, what are you wearing?!” The disguised changeling next to her patted her shoulder and tried to calm her.

“Breath, it’s okay, come on, breath sis.”

“Isn’t it great!? I mean, these costumes were a little last minute, but I figured they’d do in a pinch.” The green maned stallion chirped, seeming not to notice the mare’s panic. Circuit let out a snort, resisting the urge to face hoof. He wondered if it’d be impolite to smack him in front of the guests…

“I’m sorry Ebony, I tried to tell him this was a dumb idea, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

Said hybrid began to mutter in several different languages before a sharp knock on the door emanated through the house, silencing the inhabitants.

“Nichi Kan Loni, they’re here…” Buggy surged forward from his post and calmly opened the door to reveal three figures. One was obviously Nimbus, a tie around his neck and his mane neatly combed but still spiky as always. The other two, a mare and a stallion, both bat ponies of different height with the female being larger. She had long navy and purple locks and tail, grey coat, bright red eyes and wore a soft and slim fitting black dress that was conservative but not too uptight.

The male on the other hoof had the same grey coat as the others, yellow eyes and black spiky mane and tail. He also wore a tie, but with a darker color than his son. Both of the newcomers were wide eyed, looking at the scene around them as they walked into the elaborate home and drinking it all in.

“Dear Luna, would you look at this place?” The mare murmured, her wings fluttering. Circuit lingered back, giving them some room to come in and look around while also debating on strangling Adhesive. He loved him, he really did, but shoving him in a dress in front of ponies he didn’t know? Really? The white coated stallion didn’t even seem to notice his spouse’s slightly murderous thoughts, a bright smile on his face as he held out a hoof.

“Hello, I am Ebony’s father.” The two ponies blinked, looking first at Adhesive, then Circuit, finally at Ebony who gulped and bite her lip. Nimbus looked at his girlfriend, then motioned at the two stallions next to her to give the mare a silent ‘seriously babe?’ Adhesive just continued to smile, waggling his hoof a little bit when no pony immediately took it.

“Name’s Adhesive and this is my h-Er, wife, Circuit.” He gestured to the gray stallion, ignoring the harsh glare he got when he used the word ‘wife’.

“Charmed.”

“Um… is this some kind of joke?” The mare said, looking to her husband for help. The stallion just shrugged.

“I don’t know Jacquie, I really don’t know… The house looks legit… if you can even call it a house…”

“What’re you talking about? Are you trying to insult me and my wife?” The mail pony huffed a bit, trying not to grumble over the fact that his plan didn’t seem to be working. He turned with a huff, his tail flicking. “Why don’t you some get settled further in the house?”

The stallion shrugged and followed Adhesive with Nimbus trailing behind him, ‘Jacquie’ followed after with a slight frown.

Ebony steered them all into the parlor, her boyfriend smiling softly at her and sitting down in one of the armchairs next to the mare. The room was just as immaculate as before, and a roaring fire burned into the hearth. The hybrid played with the hem of her dress before as calmly as she could muster spoke.

“I don’t believe I caught your names before, apologies, I didn’t mean to be so impolite.”

“You’re not the one being impolite.” Adhesive grumbled before he could stop himself, falling silent as Circuit roughly elbowed him in the ribs.

“Yes, we’re all very curious, why don’t you tell us about yourselves?”

“Oh, well uh, I’m Jaqueline, Jaqueline Braveheart, I’m enlisted in the royal guard as a spear pony, my specialty is javelins.” The mare beamed, smiling happily before her husband spoke up.

“Lunar Chef, I used to work in one of the restaurants on main street before this tyke was born.” The smaller stallion nudged his son lovingly before continuing. “Since then I’ve been a stay at home dad, not that I mind, somepony has to take care of the house while my wife is at work!” The grey batpony smiled before looking over at the other two. “How about you two?”

“Oh, well.” The green maned stallion smiled, glancing over at Circuit. “I’m a mail stallion and my beautiful wife-” He let out a slightly pained noise as he was elbowed again. “Is an inventor. The best inventor I know, as a matter of fact.”

“I’m the only inventor you know.” Nimbus sighed slightly, looking over at Ebony who was doing her best to disappear. She looked at her friends with a pained expression, pleadingly before Nimbus’s mother sighed and stood.

“Look, I don’t know who you people think you are but this isn’t funny. Now either you explain all this or my family and I will be leaving.” The golden mare paled. Adhesive groaned, shaking his head with a sigh.

“Oh c’mon! What gave us away? These disguises are full proof!”

“Hun, these wings are made of cardboard. Also we look nothing like Ebony. Just give it up already.” The green maned stallion let out a little huff, sighing as he pulled the ridiculous fake mustache off his face.

“Okay okay, fine...We’re not actually Ebony’s parents, shocking I know, but this wasn’t a joke or anything! We were just trying to help cause Ebony was really stressed out and nervous about meeting you both.” He shot them an earnest smile, hoping he didn’t look too pleading. “She’s a really nice mare, I swear.”

The older batponies looked at each other for a moment before sitting back down.

“Well okay… but why didn’t you just introduce us to your parents? Why go through all this trouble?” Ebony paled and bit her lip as she wrung her hooves nervously.

“I-I uh….” Adhesive put his hoofs up, scooting his chair a little farther away as he moved to help Circuit get out of his costume.

“That’s all you girl, I’m going to go help Circuit out of his dress before he strangles me.” He chuckled, ignoring the ‘pegasus’ complaints as he scooped him up and quickly carried him out of the room, leaving Ebony to handle the rather awkward conversation. She wrung her hooves gently before sighing, she knew that she’d have to say something eventually.

“They’re um… they’re…. Dead. They died a long time ago….” The mare hung her head sadly and bit her lip. The batponies faces instantly softened, and even Nimbus looked shocked.

“Ebony… you never said anything… I didn’t-”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know, I didn’t wanna tell you because I didn’t want you to look at me differently, like a pity party.” Her green eyes looked to the floor and one hoof pushed a strand of loose mane behind her ear.

“Honey, we don’t pity you, yes we feel sorry and I didn’t know obviously… but that’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Jacqueline said softly, her slit pupiled eyes looking at the mare softly.

“I asked Circuit and Adhesive to come because I wanted you to meet some of my family, but obviously they got the wrong message…”

“Well sorry but you weren’t exactly specific.” Adhesive piped up as he poked his head back into the room, having been eavesdropping with Circuit the entire time. Circuit just rolled his eyes, letting out a long suffering sigh.

“Why did I marry this idiot….Can we come back into the room now? It’s kind of awkward huddling in the hallway while we’re waiting for you guys to get your act together…” The mare sighed before motioning for them to enter.

“Yes yes, let’s just continue alright?”

Le Timeskip~!

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The rest of the encounter had gone quite well, and by the end, everyone was laughing and joking around with each other. She’d shown the Darkclaws around the manor, minus the crypt and had smiled at their jaw dropped expressions, especially when she showed them the kitchen. Lunar Chef had been absolutely ecstatic by the high quality of her kitchens, although they had been a bit shocked at her choice in staff.

The changeling staff had been quaint, kind and all around professional, putting up with any and all questions provided, especially when in the medical wing. Finally it was time for the night to end, and as Circuit and Adhesive laid down in their own bed in their own home after putting little Rainbow to bed, the white stallion began to laugh.

“Well that was an interesting turn of events don’t you think?”

“Let’s never do that again. Next time Ebony asks for help with family things, say no.” Circuit grumbled good naturedly, though his voice gave away the fact that he was teasing. He’d gladly do it again if it meant helping the mare out, though preferably minus the part where he had to wear the dress. “I’m just happy Rainbow didn’t murder the foal sitter, we’ve never left him alone for so long before.” He yawned, shifting a bit to fluff up the pillows more. His husband let out a chuckle.

“Well yeah, I mean, how else is our little monster gonna get himself some souls for nourishment? He already ate ours!” Truth is, he’d been a little angel for the foal sitter, for the first hour, then he’d become a bawling mess for his dads’ attention until she’d practically knocked him out with a lullaby. Good thing the teenage filly had known how to sing!

“We’re his parents, isn’t it our job to bring him souls? At least, I certainly thought so.” The ‘pegasus’ let out a little laugh, though it quickly morphed into another yawn. “He’s too young to be reaping souls all by himself, I feel like he should at least learn how to walk properly first. Talking would be good too..” His voice trailed off a bit, his eyes struggling to stay open as sleep threatened to pull him under.

Adhesive wrapped his arms around his husband and pulled him close lovingly before letting himself succumb to the sweet embrace of sleep.