//------------------------------// // Chapter 18, The Reception // Story: Mechanic Hearts And Postage Stamps // by Ebony Runwick //------------------------------// After the ceremony, the two had run down the aisle while patrons threw rice and cheered, all the available, unmarried ponies gathered to the side, cramming to get a shot at the wedding bouquet. Ebony just stood to the side, chuckling at such nonsense. “I don’t even know why that’s a tradition..” She muttered with a soft smile before Adhesive turned around and chucked the bouquet where it landed straight into the hybrid’s hooves. The crowd turned to her, wide eyed. “W-what? T-the freak?!” “Aha! I knew it’d happen one day! Just you wait Ebony!” Circuit practically cackled with glee, clapping his hooves together happily. “Nice throw love.” He muttered to his new husband, lightly nudging him. Adhesive smiled brightly and whistled to their gal pal approvingly before turning to his husband and giving him a loving kiss on the lips. “Oh this is gonna be good, Ebony, married? Couldn’t have thought of it any better than that.” He laughed, said mare just stared at the bouquet in confusion. “Wat. I, h-how? This is just stupid anyway…” She muttered before letting out a snort and turning to the limo that she had rented for the newlyweds. The hybrid walked around and got in the driver’s seat. “Come on you two love birds, don’t want to miss your own party now do you?” _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The venue that she’d rented was exquisite, a lovely ballroom on the top floor of a high rise that opened up onto a deck with a pool. One half of the ballroom the mare had made sure had just the right tables and settings while leaving enough room for couples to dance. The outside doors to the terrace were open so cool night are would be able to flow in and the light to reflect off the pool. Not her choice to have that there, but it looked good so she wasn’t complaining. Oh yeah, Ebony was super excited for them to see it after all her planning. “We’re here~!” She exclaimed, pulling the two into the ballroom. Circuit let out a low whistle, slowly looking the room over. “Wow, you really didn’t cut any corners with this one did you Ebs?” “Yeah..Definitely the nicest place I’ve ever been…” Adhesive muttered in agreement, his eyes wide as he took everything in. “Is that a pool back there? Why would they need a pool with a ballroom?” “Oh I don’t know, it’s there for some rich ponies if they wanna have a pool party, I guess this was the only place they could put it.” She shrugged before ushering the two stallions over to a raised dais where a separate table was set. “This is for you guys, now sit sit, guests will start to get here any minute now alright?” The hybrid smiled warmly before giving them both a quick hug. “Alright alright...There better be alchohol here!” Circuit yelled after her before settling down again. He rested his head on his hooves, shifting around to make himself comfortable. “I hope this doesn’t last too long...I just wanna go home and relax now.” Adhesive snickered at his husband’s response before shaking his head. “Babe, don’t you remember what happens after weddings? Honeymoons?” He smiled lovingly before pulling out two plane tickets from under his napkin. The destination was clearly marked, Bitaly. The stallion quickly pushed himself up again, his eyes widening as he slid the tickets closer. “W-what...How did you even afford these? We don’t have that kind of money!” “Where else? They were a gift from Ebs, when I told her we were just going to stay home she seriously just took them out of her pocket. Told me it was going to be a surprise for later.” The gray stallion let out a soft snort, letting his head fall back to the table again. “Of course she did, why am I not surprised?” He sighed, shifting his head so his chin was laying on the table. “When are the guests going to get here..? Ebony said soon, right?” Right on cue, the murmur of the ponies from before began pouring in and finding their spots marked at the tables. All with smiles on their faces and dropping off presents on a designated table with a hoof woven tablecloth draped over it, courtesy of Lucky and Pixie. Ebony and her changeling relatives sat down at a table nearest to the dais, smiling and laughing in a strange language that Adhesive guessed was the native changeling dialect. Circuit attempted to discreetly scootch his chair closer to Adhesive’s, though it didn’t work out that well. Instead he ended up scraping it across the ground with a loud screech. Thankfully not many ponies turned to look, too caught up in their conversations. “Can we leave now? There’s too many ponies in this room…” His husband rolled his blue eyes. “Oh come on, these are our friends and family, besides, at least we’re getting a free meal right?” Adhesive smiled brightly before Ebony picked up her glass and stood, tapping her knife gently on the rim of it to get everypony’s attention. “Attention, attention everypony. I’d like to make a toast, to the newlyweds!” Everyone cheered loudly. “Now I know that little outburst at the ceremony wasn’t expected, but I for one am happy for my two best friends, Circuit and Adhesive!” More cheering went up before Ebony held up her hoof to silence the crowd. “Now with that being said, drink alcohol, eat and be merry, now how about some food!” She smiled and gestured to the double doors to the kitchen which burst open as servers began to bring out tray after tray of delicious smelling gourmet cuisine. “Look, I know they’re our friends and family Adhesive but there’s just...So many of them crammed into one room..I know this room isn’t exactly small, but it’s still suffocating...Besides.” He slid up closer to the other stallion, gently resting a hoof on his chest. “Maybe I want to spend some alone time with my new husband, hm~?” The mail stallion smiled at that and leaned closer to whisper in Circuit’s ear. “Oh don’t I know it, but I’ll be damned before I don’t let you squirm a little bit, I’m a patient stallion darling. Let’s see how well you behave first~.” He purred with a smile before smiling at the waiter who began placing dishes in front of them. Circuit let out a sputter, smacking the other stallion as his face got redder and redder. “Jerk…You’ll be lucky if I don’t make you sleep on the couch for that.” He huffed as he turned to the plates, distracting himself with the food. He quickly shoveled some of the food in his mouth, humming softly at the delicious taste. His husband let out a small laugh before taking a bite of his own food happily. “I love you, even if you’re a grump.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dinner had gone swell, everything was going great, ponies were dancing, waiters were taking trays of ordervs and champagne around the room so everypony was happy. Circuit and Adhesive’s first dance as a married couple had gone great, and now everypony was just having a good time. Ebony was on the terrace where a few other ponies had gathered, she was drinking a flute of champagne and just minding her own business. Buggy and Chichina, both changelings she’d raised since they were foals, had run off to talk to some other ponies since they didn’t get to meet many ponies often, Canterlot attack and all. So basically, the hybrid was being a wallflower. She looked about the area and off into the distance to the sky, the sun had set a few hours ago and now the stars were out. But while she was distracted, so was a waiter coming up behind her, they both turned around at the same time and slammed into each other. The tray of red wine he was carrying splattered all over her pure white dress and she lost her balance tumbling straight into the pool. Ebony splashed and sputtered as she got to the surface before another splash emanated from near her. A hoof wrapped around her waist and hauled her out of the pool. She gasped and coughed from chlorine that had gotten into her mouth. “Oh Luna damnit!” The mare cried out angrily before looking up, a stallion, soaking wet spluttered next to her. He was dark gray, with navy mane and tail streaked with silver, dressed in Lunar Guard armor but his wings were that of a bat. It was one of the ponies she’d hired to guard the area in case of Circuit’s insane family or Adhesive’s deadbeat father. The mysterious guard looked up at Ebony revealing golden eyes with slit pupils and the golden pegasus could feel her face heating up before she came to arealization. “My shoe!” She looked back into the pool, sure enough, a silver slipper was resting at the bottom of the deep end. “I got it.” The batpony said, before diving back in and grabbing it. He then hauled himself out of said pool and handed the shoe back to her, his mane completely soaking wet after the events that had transpired. “T-thank you…” Ebony murmured softly, taking the slipper. “Don’t mention it… I saw you were standing alone and I was gonna talk to you… but then you fell and…” The guard cleared his throat. “Nimbus, my name is Nimbus Darkclaw.” “Ebony, Ebony Runwick.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ While Ebony was busy on the terrace, things inside had gone...Well, pretty downhill. All because a certain family just couldn’t seem to get it through their thick skulls that they weren’t wanted. Currently Circuit was throwing things at said family while Adhesive was trying to calm him down. “C-Circuit honey please, I just wanted to apologize for before, I didn’t mean it! I never thought you were a fre-” “I don’t care! Just get out!” Circuit yelled as he scooped up his now empty plate, watching it shatter against the wall next to his mother’s head as he threw it. “N-now c’mon Circuit, let’s just relax….Oh Luna, where’s Ebony when you need her?” Adhesive flicked his gaze around the crowd that’d gathered around them, finding no sign of the golden mare. No one around them was really much of a help, as the crowd seemed to be trying to encourage Circuit to keep throwing things. Ebony walked back into the room from the terrace, laughing with Nimbus about something while they were both still soaking wet when she saw the crowd and heard crashing sounds. ‘Just great…’ She thought before leaping over said crowd, aided by a strong flap of her wings and landed between Circuit and his family. “What’s going on-” The hybrid stopped mid-sentence when she saw Pearl Necklace standing there. “You, I thought I made it clear, that you or your family would never come near us again. I guess you’ll just have to be taught a lesson won’t you?” Ebony bared her fangs once again before ripping off the ruined dress and cracking her neck. “I-I just..I just wanted t-to apologize to Circuit, that’s all!” The mare’s voice was high pitched and frantic, her eyes shining with fear. “I wasn’t...I didn’t mean to cause any harm I swear!” Circuit let out a soft sigh as he watched them, slowly lowering the vase he’d been about to throw. “Just get her out of here Ebony…” The mare nodded before turning back to the unicorn. “You got lucky this time.” A green colored aura surrounded the other mare’s mane as Ebony began to drag her out the door and threw her into the elevator by her hair. “Goodbye you poor excuse for a mother.” She then walked back into the ballroom while dusting off her hooves. “Okay, I took out the trash.” The golden pegasus smiled, which was pretty funny because she was still soaking wet. “Okay um..” The gray stallion started as he slowly looked over Ebony’s soaking wet form. “One, why are you wet? And two, why is that guy over by the door checking you out?” He vaguely gestured to the guard that’d helped Ebony out earlier. “Do I need to slap him or…?” “N-no.. I fell into the pool, he helped me out and retrieved my s-shoe… He’s checking me out?” She murmured, her face heating up. Adhesive blinked, was Ebony… blushing? “Dude, he’s totally checking you out. Even from this distance I can tell. Why do you ask? Does somepony have a crush maybe~” A wide grin spread across Circuit’s face as he teased the flustered mare. The crowd that’d been watching before lingered for a bit before dispersing to do their own things now that the fight was over. Her mouth opened and closed but no words formed for a moment. “N-no! I-I’m n-not! T-that’s ridiculous… Me, a crush! Ha, haha!” The mare’s green orbs flitted about the room nervously. Adhesive smiled deviously. “Didn’t you catch the wedding bouquet? Because I think it’s happening.” “I knew it!” The ‘pegasus’ let out a whoop, pumping one of his hooves into the air. “Alright spill, you have to tell us all about him. What’s his name? Is he cute? Is he nice? Am I going to need to give him the shovel talk? Wait, no, that last one isn’t a question that’s going to happen regardless.” The pegasus let out a little laugh before answering. “His name is Nimbus Darkclaw, yes he’s cute, and nice, I mean, he dragged me out of a pool when I was floundering in that stupid dress so I’m gonna say he’s nice. And dear Luna no, not the shovel talk, lemme have some dignity please.” She brought a hoof to her face and sighed but was smiling all the same. “Also he’s a batpony for the Lunar Guard.” “Ooooo, a guard~” Adhesive piped up, waggling his eyebrows at Ebony. “And we kinda have to give him the shovel talk, it wouldn’t be proper if we didn’t.” “Adhesive’s right, we can’t just let him get all up on you without warning him of the consequences. I might finally get to use that sulphuric acid I’ve had laying around the basement…” “Dear Faust no… Circuit why?” Just then, said batpony decided to walk over and say hello. “Oh hey, congratulations on getting married.” He smiled before shivering slightly from the pool water still dripping off of him. Ebony had to admit, he was quite handsome. Circuit looked him up and down, narrowing his eyes at the stallion. Appearance wise he looked okay, but that didn’t mean much. After all, he could really be some freaky serial killer or something for all he knew. He wasn’t too concerned about that though, Ebony could defend herself it it came to that. He just didn’t want her heart to get broken or anything. “Why don’t you two go get dried off? You’re both dripping water all over the floor.” He smiled warmly at them, pulling the batpony closer for a sec so he could hiss in his ear. “Lay one hoof on her and I’ll gouge out your eyes and feed them to you.” His gray ears twitched slightly as he pulled away. “Ooo, I love this song! Adhesive, come dance with me!” The stallion’s golden eyes went wide for a moment before Ebony pulled him away and over to the bathroom area. “I think there might be a towel over here somewhere… Or at least paper ones.” The mare muttered before pulling out a large roll of paper towels from a storage cupboard near the doors. “Thanks by the way, for helping me…” The mare muttered before ripping off a few and beginning to dry off her hair in a rapid motion. “Not a problem, I didn’t think I just, acted you know?” He grabbed a few as well and started to wipe down his armor. “Can’t have this ol thing rusting you know? My superiors would kill me.” Nimbus let out a small laugh. “So you’re in the guard?” Ebony asked, but almost immediately mentally facepalmed, of course he was, the damn armor, being a batpony, practically advertising it! “Yeah, for awhile now actually, just got promoted to Captain… Anyway… Maybe after this, sometime we could… I don’t know… Hang out..?” The gray stallion asked hopefully, his batwings fluttering in slight hope. “You know what, I’d like that.”