Equestrian Heroes

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Naruto x Rarity x Twilight x Fluttershy x Applejack x Pinkie Pie x Rainbow Dash x Ditzy x Luna x ? x ?

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For Normal Speech

Inner thoughts, Text read, Italics used to represent characters speaking in different language.

Demonic rage, Demonic characters, Kurama Speak

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Story

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Mary Splash. Part time artist. Full time designer. The mare had the same coloration of Applejack, but her hair was a different arrangement of colors consisting of red, blue, purple and yellow hues braided into twin ponytails. She was a Pegasus and one fairly recommended when it came to her line of work.

The three sat down at a table that had several book stacked on it. Mary spoke when everyone was situated. "We can do the invitations one of two ways. You can either do pre-printed designs or we can choose the different styles of paper and ribbons you want and layer them for the invitation. Depending on which pre-printed design you choose or how many different layers and what styles of paper you'd like will determine the cost, some pre-printed designs will be cheaper while sometimes it could be the layered design that would be cheaper."

Naruto and Rarity looked at each other, than Rarity turned to look back at Mary. "While I am sure your designs are marvelous I would much prefer it to go with an original design. I own a boutique, designing is my craft, my passion you see and it would not sit right with me if I picked a pre-printed design."

"Very well."

That meant sitting down and figuring it all out. The invitation, the response card, a reception card, and a personalized note card, as well as the envelope.

The blond had already been married once and going through this whole process again was still frying his nerves.

The invitation was simple, telling people where and when they were getting married.

The response card was so their guests could tell them if they're coming.

The reception card would be letting them know where the reception is being held if it were in two separate locations. Having one in Canterlot and Ponyville separately would probably be for the best.

And finally the personalized note card was so the y can write something personal to special guests. He wasn't sure if they would need it or not. Probably so. The elements were practically icons now. There would be a lot of big names clamoring to take part of the wedding for one reason or the other.

"We'll need something simple…" Naruto began before Rarity added after him.

"…while also being classy."

"…two layers…"

"…the top bigger than the smaller one…"

"…a small number of interlocking ribbons…"

"…with grounded gems or crystal dust decorating them, which we can send in of course…"

"…The inside should be a nice shade of purple, like her mane…"

"…and the blue like his eyes…"

Their hands interlocked as the shared a brief peck.

"…and the writing on the right with the response in the same fashion of the invitation with them being put in lined envelopes."

The couple was in love. That was to be expected, but this much in sync? It's a shame most marriages never maintained that level of energy.

"Ok, sounds good, now to decide the colors for the paper and your ribbons."

The couple went through their preferences and such. Finally everything was coming to together.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Rarity Gemstone

A lord and his lady are now going to unite

becoming husband and wife

Be a part of this momentous occasion

And help celebrate the first step of their new life

The rest detailed the time, date, and location.

"Is that okay?" Mary asked.

The couple shared a smile. "Perfect."

Now it was just a matter of waiting for the sample invite to come in.

---

They arrived back at the library just in time to meet up with the girls. Now it was time for them to go shopping for bridesmaid dresses. "Alright girls its time to go." The herd began making their way to the door when Rarity paused and glanced back where Trixie was. "Darling did you not hear me? Its time to pick to go pick out our dresses."

Everypony, even Naruto eyes widened in surprise at what the mare was stating.

"Y-You mean…you wish Trixie to come along as well?" She didn't know what to make of the suggestion.

It seemed like both Applejack and Rainbow were amount to say something, but a pointed glance from the mare made them rethink speaking up.

Trixie happily and uneasily accepted the invitation. They would be heading to one of the homes at the edge of town currently being rented out. It was a large four bed room home of one of the town's local families who were packing up and preparing to move out of the area to stay with some relatives.

The sound proved far too exciting for the stallion and mare who wanted nice, quiet, and simple. The home was currently being rented out and used by a few ponies from across the nation with their wares. News had gotten about the occasion of this wedding. The wedding was apparently the new sensation going on and was only second in wedding matters with the exception of royal weddings.

One thing for sure with the money that was thrown at the family they would never go hungry, hell the owners would never have to work a day in their lives again.

Though only one company or maker could have their dresses chosen.

On the journey their the group began, discussing what kind of dresses they were interested in. They needed bridesmaid's dresses for eight mares…maybe nine; Rarity would have to get back to Princess Luna for her plans. They would also need junior bridesmaids dress for the crusaders.

A good deal of the afternoon was spent on narrowing down the dresses. When you have eight different and distinct personalities it made dress shopping a bit difficult. After a bit of discussing back and forth they finally settled on one. A sleeveless chiffon V-neck dress with a high waist. It was more plain in that there was no beading, but the chiffon in the front split open at the center of the waistline revealing the fabric underneath, following the same line as Rarity's wedding dress.

After the adults made their choices they switched their attention to the girls. They needed a junior bridesmaids dress. There were only five junior bridesmaid's dresses and only two were short, so there wasn't much of a decision to make. A plain satin dress with spaghetti straps was chosen.

At this rate everything was going well. Everything was coming together.

---

She was being outmatched, Outmatched by this mad mare. Her cackled filled Rarity's ears with ringing. Her shop and complete and other mess from the attacking currently taking place.

No matter how much she parried that mad mare just kept on attacking and attacking and attacking. Rarity brought her two blades down only or Vanity to block them and using her other sword shattering the magic enchanted ribbons.

Rarity drew out her dagger but a brief slash from Vanity's sword on her arm rendered her arm useless. A wail of pain escaped the unicorn's lips as fear coursed through her.

Not for her sake, but for the one in her charge. "Scootaloo!" The little filly knocked out by a sharp blow with the butt of the blade was still out cold.

It had happened so fast. How could she had left her guard down.

Using her magic she hurled her scissors, pins, and her other tools, but the many blades her enemy controlled with magic deflected them away harmlessly.

With a slash of her blade Vanity cast a shockwave that sent Rarity flying into the wall.

Vanity crackle. "Weakling. The weak link of your team. What can you do dress maker? Sparke has Magic. Apple her strength. The Rainbow One Speed. Even the pink and shy one can influence things around them and have powerful shield spells respectively. What will you do? Talk the enemy to death over their sense of fashion. Face it. You're the weak link of your team and one day you'll fail them." All the while she mocked Rarity she hovered over Scootaloo poising her blade.

"No. She is just a filly. Don't!" Rarity shrieked as the blade pierced downwards.

In a blink the scene before her was replaced with Naruto cradling Scootaloo's body. "How could you let this happen? You…you were supposed to be watching her!"

"I…she was too strong. I…beloved I…"

"Don't call me that…" he hissed at her. "You let her die! You were supposed to be strong. Did all that training mean nothing? Apparently not as all you care about is yourself."

"How could you?"

"Why?"

"Why didn't you save her Rarity?"

"Ya should have tried harder."

"How could we ever depend on you?"

"How can you protect Equestria when you can't even protect one child?"

Her friends, they were all turning their backs on her.

"No no no no no no!" This couldn't be real. "No please…" she reached out. "Don't leave me…" She did her best. She tried. They couldn't.

Don't leave her.

"Don't leave me…no…No…." she got up to her hooves and began chasing after her. The ground gave away under her as she began to fall into the black abyss.

"Noooooo!" Her terrified shrieks continued as she jolted awake.

"Rare! What's wrong? Another Nightmare?" He couldn't make anything out from her sobs. Soon statements began to form.

'I'm sorry.'

"Forgive me.'

'I tried my best.'

They were going to have to go see Luna about this. It would be the only way to get to the bottom of Rarity suddenly having Nightmares.

---

"Soon…" the Lord of Nightmares thought to himself. Just one more push. Generosity was already beginning to doubt herself. Thinking herself a weak link. While it had been taxing powering Vanity with his own power so she could overtake the mare had been worth it. The crazed mare had no formal training after all. Vastly widening the power gap was the only logical way to assure she would be over to beat not only a better trained, but also craftier fighter.

In the meantime it was time to break the seals and free Lilandra and Orthos.

---

Naruto knew he needed to stop worrying. Rarity would be fine. There was hardly a place safer than Canterlot and Luna would be looking after her.

Today he would be spending the day with Ditzy and her family. Dinky bounded out of the school yard waving bye to the other Crusaders.

She glanced around for her Momma, eager to tell her about her day. Momma was always there, well almost always. She frowned as she didn't see her mother and a little trickle of fear started to break into her world view.

"Dinky!" he called out to her.

"Hiya Naruto do you happen to know where my mama is?"

"She's still getting ready for our trap today. You ready for the carnival?" he asked as he watched her face lit up. He was so used to seeing her with the CMC sometimes it was easy to forget that despite being a bit big for her age she was actually a few years younger than the pre-teens.

"Come on," he smiled at her. "Let's get you home, fed, and watered then we can get ready."

"I'm not a plant." She replied with a giggle. On the way there the Unicorn happily told them about her day. They arrived just in time as Ditzy and Amethyst were making their way down stairs. Ditzy in a pair of jeans and tank top with Amethyst wearing a hoodie with jean skirt.

"Hi momma." The little filly gave the mare an enthuastic embrace.

"How was your day at school?"

"It was great…the girls and I…" She was happily recounted the events of the day all the while she was led upstairs to change into something more suitable.

Leaving Naruto and Amethyst alone. "So…"

"Yeah…"

Hhm, this was quickly getting a bit awkward. The moments of silence were quickly broken by Amethyst. "Mom, well, she's been a bit happier lately, you've been good to her. I see that, but there seems to be something bothering her. Are you two having problems?"

"Not that I'm aware of." If there were any issues Ditzy never brought them up before.

"I'll be the first to admit that maybe I only saw what I wanted to saw, you two definitely didn't give me many scenes with positive implications."

Well as least Ame hadn't been disturbed from all the unfortunate little things she walked in on.

"But, its just….sometimes my mom would stare off in space sometimes. It makes me concerned, at first I thought it was nothing, but everytime somepony would bring up the wedding its like she laps into silence. I was hoping you would know."

No, but there was a way to find out. "I'll talk to her, see if anything is wrong."

"Right, thanks."

Half an hour later they left the house and began going on their way to enjoy the Carnival in the town over.

---

The ball thudded resolutely against the milk bottles.

The rough, worn, leathery surface left a single greasy smudge against the white surface as it instantly thudded to the floor of the booth. As the ball bounced once across the trampled grass and rolled the carnival barker smirked to himself and called out to the latest customer of his stand.

"Oh!" the carney called out, "Tough luck kid!"

"But, but I hit it…" Dinky's voice trembled with disappointment.

"That's just the way it falls, kid. C'mon, another two bits…give it another go…"

The smirk of the carney disappeared quickly as the clearing of a throat and the sharp gaze of the orange stallion penetrated his soul.

Two bits were slammed on the counter. "Give it another try Dinky." Naruto said as his eyes were trained on the stallion, particularly his hat.

The carney placed another leathery ball on the counter nervously. The last thing he needed was to be discovered for rigging the game.

Naruto's eyes never left him as Dinky put her all into the throw.

At once there was a rattling crash, and Naruto looked up to see the pyramid of bottles falling apart, one spinning in place before finally collapsing to the ground.

"I did it! I did it!" Dinky cried out as she jumped up and down.

"You sure did kid! Pick a prize, pick a prize!" said the carney. "Go ahead, kid, pick a prize…anything above the line," he said, motioning to the greatest swath of his prizes.

Some included animals, others were ponies. Not the largest connection but there was a little variety. The one Dinky chose was rather familiar looking. "This unicorn looks just like Miss Rarity." Dinky happily said, comparing the off white silver toy to Rarity.

At first he had dismissed it as a coincidence, but that mane style, a unicorn, and being white? The only difference was the shading of the mane and the eyes being a different color.

Were their ponies already trying to cash in money from their likeness? For heaven's sake this was getting annoying. He and the girls were now going to have to trademark their image and stuff to avoid such things from happening. He had a closer look of the prices. Off model Fluttershy. An off model Rainbow Dash that was yellow. He didn't have much to say or think on the Celestia ones, those have probably been around for a long time now.

"Word of advice, cheat again, I'll ruin you." He let the threat linger for a moment. Even if the stallion didn't recognize him he would not do anything to call attention to himself. He probably could have come up with a better solution, but his mind was elsewhere.

His focus went back to his other ladies who were playing the goldfish game, but simply released them back when they were done. "Ame…ame this one…I want to go on this ride…" Dinky dragged her sister away as Naruto and Ditzy lagged behind.

"All that energy. Hope Ame doesn't tire out." The two of them shared a laugh. "Come on, let's go." Naruto said grabbing her hand and leading her to one of the rides aimed at adults.

The tunnel of love of course. The two of them got in swan boats and enjoyed the calming ride.

After what happened with the others he had a pretty good idea on how to go about this situation. "You know I love you Ditzy, right?" he began as the mare rested her head on his shoulder.

"Of course I do."

"Then, what's the issue? Amethyst is worried about you. Said you've been acting strangely. And that concerns me. If there is something we need to talk about then let's talk about it." He encouraged her as he gently rubbed her arm up and down.

"Its…well…sometimes I wonder about my place in the herd you know."

---

"Fair afternoon to you Twilight Sparkle."

It had been a simple meeting when they had a surprised visitor. "Princess Luna? Please come in, forgive me if I knew you were coming…"

"Your panic is showing Twi." Naruto called out as Luna moved to show the blond carrying two large sacks of something. "You inviting us in?"

"Right, of course, please come in." she said as the others moved to bow, but Luna raised her hands.

"Bearers of Harmony and friend. Do not rise on my account. A good afternoon to you all."

Friend. Another reminder she wasn't exactly united with the others.

The group began their usual pleasantries, Ditzy greeting the moon princess nervously. It was not like she was frequently in the mare's company after all.

"We came bearing gifts." Naruto said as he placed the sacks on the table and they spilled over. Letters. Hundreds and hundreds of letters. "Invitations, endorsements, fan letters. You wouldn't believe some of the gifts they've sent."

With that the group began pouring through the letters.

'Dear Lady Rarity, thank you for being an inspiration for my daughter. Our family has always been a family of athletes and she had always felt out of place with her interest of fashion. I am ashamed to admit members of our clan have treated her interests with less than stellar reactions and dismiss such practices as making a pony soft. Your bravery and actions have showed ponies can be feminine and artistic while being a brave warrior and has inspired my daughter to follow her dreams.'

'Dear LadyApplejack ya done us farmers proud. Showin them uppity rich folks that we're not just yokels who drink booze and other unsavory rumors.'

'Dear Lady Pinkie Pie it would honor us if you were to show up at my son's birthday party. He loves games and you are in his words 'best pony ever'.

Not all the letters were as positive. There were accusations. Attacks. More along the line of crude deviants who were explicit of what they like to do to them in the bedroom.

Rarity's reaction to one meant she had to buy Twilight a new table. But it had proved a bonding experience.

As time went on the pile grew and grew for all of them.

All of them but her. Ditzy loved hearing these stories, but it seemed like a constant reminder of just how much she stuck out and began making her question once again what was her place there?

---

"Why do you need to have a place Ditzy? This isn't some race for me to make this grand collection or me hunting for talents. I'm with you because I want to be with you. You're my friend. I'm attracted to you. We complement each other and get along. We've talked about our past, what scares us, and things we would tell few others. We know each other secrets and seek similar things for the future.'

"But…but will you ever love me as much as you love them…her?" She asked as the tears began to fall. "Because fearing I'll never be good enough is one thing, but knowing I'll never be as loved as another is…" She was cut off as he turned her face and kissed her.

They lingered like this for a few seconds before the kiss broke. "I will never love you like I loved Rarity." It felt like her heart was going to break as her ears drooped and the tears began to cascade down. "Because there's only one Rarity, just as I'll never love her like I do you Ditzy Doo. You're my adorable Pegasus with two wonderful daughters." He placed a kiss on both of her eyes. "Who doesn't let anything stop her from raising them with all the love in the world. While I might go off and save the world with the others its what separates you from them. It what makes you special. I know I can always come back to you and you'll have fate I'll come back. When I'm with you Ditzy I don't worry about what evil god we're going to be facing or devoted fans. With you everything is normal and mundane. You're my little slice of normalcy that keeps me grounded with normal everyday problems. And that means the world to me when my life is nothing but battles. To come home and to have peace means more than we than words can ever express."

The kiss that followed reaffirmed the two of them that everything was alright now.

Today had proven to be a fun little venture. Fried food. Stomach wrenching rides. It was a fun little experience. By the time they got back to Ponyville the paint on their faces was beginning to chip off. Amethyst had to turn in early and be on the first train back to Canterlot. She had a big exam coming up and her grade on it would determine whether or not she would graduate early with honors.

Naruto happily volunteered to tell Dinky more of his 'ninja stories' heavily edited of course as the child was so hopped up on sugary treats it would take her a while to crash and Ditzy was already feeling sleep overtake her.

The blond wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he enjoyed telling his old stories of saving princesses and fighting evil dictators.

Being a father had been one of the highest points of his life. It was the reason why he was in the process of adopting Scootalo. Slowly, but surely he was bonding with the little filly who was currently being read stories by his clone if he had managed to stay on schedule that is.

Dinky let out a tired yawn as she snuggled into the pillow, slowly slipping into sleep. Naruto blew out the candle and leaned over and pressed a kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight my little one."

What was said next warmed the blond's heart. In a sleepy little murmur Dinky spoke these words. "Night daddy."

Next Chapter: Nightmare Returns: Birth of a New Nightmare Part 1! Estimated time remaining: 26 Hours, 28 Minutes