There might be a screw up in this chapter. I almost screwed up my continuity by having Ditzy come to Ponyville after Naruto was there which would have went against earlier established dialogue. I think I fixed it, but if not let me know.

Equestrian Heroes

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Naruto x ?

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Story Start

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One incident after another seemed to compile unto the gray mare. No matter how hard she tried something would go wrong. The latest problem was the incident from Fillyton resulting in her taking a pay cut. With her finances taking a sharp down turn Ditzy had no choice but to take her daughters to her grandmother in Canterlot until she could sort out her situation.

Because of the incident, her boss's boss had gotten rather upset and now harsher guidelines were being enforced on the Ponyville postal service.

The head worker was a stallion, Speedy Delivery. A nice and decidedly unconventional stallion whose odd methods often got results. The stallion had managed to bargain for Ditzy to keep her job if she could go a month without any incidents, and today was the last day of her probation.

For once it seemed like things were looking up, until she ran into two co-workers from her last job, one that downright detested Ditzy because her probation resulted in a demotion of hours, resulting in him being called on for more hours, meaning he had to miss a sports event he was waiting all year to attend, and the other, an old bully from flight school. It wasn't unheard of for long distance flight duties to be given to a mailpony with seniority status when a long distance flier was out for sickness or other duties.

"Even when you're not around you always muck things up featherbrain. I was looking forward to that game all year."

"Always the screw up…Derpy."

Ditzy Doo continued to trudge along the path as she made her way to the final house on the route. Just one last letter and she would be finished. The stallion that lived there would give Speedy Delivery the time it took her to deliver the last letter as part of her probation to see how much progress she had made. She was making good time, the best she had in a long time in a route. No lost letters. Nothing blown away in the breeze. The bag she was borrowing was in good condition.

For once she felt like things were going to go right. She let out a yelp and fell to the ground when something had struck her. She winced in pain and looked up to notice that some clouds were in the sky.

But that didn't make sense. There were no clouds earlier today, suggesting there were going to be showers. Suddenly a down pour rained down upon the Pegasus, causing her to flee for cover.

Her uniform had been drenched from the showers, but at least the letter was fine. She began searching the bag. She let out a gasp as she noticed there was a hole in the bag and the letter had been burnt. "No, no, no, no." She cried out as her eyes began to wet with moisture. How? Who? Why?

Ditzy fell back against the tree on the path and began to let out silent sobs.

"Always the screw up Derpy!"

"You're not letting Ditzy Doo be in charge are you?"

"Why are they trying to teach the retard to fly?"

"Miss, miss are you alright? What happened? And why the hell is it raining?"

Ditzy could only lay on the ground, unresponsive. It didn't matter anymore. She was going to lose her job. She was going to lose custody of her daughters. She couldn't do anything right. Everything came rushing out all at once. All the pain. All the sadness. All the horrible memories she had been holding on to had overwhelmed her.

"I don't know what happened, but I'm here to help." The shooting voice spoke, and before she knew it, she was scooped up in a pair of arms.

"Just like a knight, always going out of his way to help a damsel." Rarity swooned.

"The details are kind of fuzzy for me," Ditzy admitted. "Later on we did find out that the rain was no accident and the stallion who had to take my place, illegally used clouds to sabotage me. He lost his job and was not only fined heavily, but charged for theft. Anyway, after he brought me into his home, he set me up on his couch with a bowl of warm soup."

"When Speedy Delivery asked me to do a favor for him, I have to admit I thought it was unusual. Then again I'm not a post office employee so I'm not one you go to for the know hows of this job."

Ditzy continued to let out a few sniffles. She had finally stopped crying and was now looking at the pony kind enough to help her. He seemed to be a nice stallion, very friendly and warm. He had set her up on his couch and got a fire going.

"I ran a nice warm bath for you. I'll have to go to Fluttershy's later to borrow some clothing. Her clothes might be a bit loose up top for you, but it's better than staying in the same wet clothing."

"Thank you." Ditzy replied as she was calming down enough to enjoy the warm bowl of soup that had been sat down on the table for her. It was a nice rich bowl of barley soup. It had been a while since she had something like this.

"So I'm Naruto by the way. What's your name?"

For a moment Ditzy felt herself inwardly crouch. She wasn't ashamed of her name, but there was never a shortage of ponies finding some way of making fun of it or turn it into a harmful insult.

"I'm sorry? Did I say something wrong?" He wondered as a concerned expression formed on his face. He crouched forward from the arm chair he was resting in. "Would you feel better if I leave?"

Ditzy couldn't help but feel alarmed. She didn't want this nice pony to leave. "N-No. Sorry. I'm just being silly. Ditzy. My name is Ditzy Doo." The expression on his face revealed that her name garnered some sort of surprise from the blond.

"Huh, I guess that means you were the happiest little filly when you were born huh?" He asked as a broad grin formed on his face.

Ditzy couldn't help but be surprised at this.

"So the fact that you're talking, you feel a bit better huh?"

"A little, yeah, I guess." Ditzy suddenly became very interested in the floor and felt her cheeks redden slightly as Naruto sat down next to her. They intensified when he placed his hand against her forehead.

"No signs of a fever, that's good, and you haven't exhibited any signs of a cold either. Wouldn't do good if our mailmare ends up getting sick."

The Pegasus winched when she remembered the last letter. She had failed. "I…I failed. I didn't go the entire month without an incident and I'm way over time."

"Nah, I mentally clocked an estimated time of when you would have gotten here from the time Speedy gave me and from when I found you. You were well within the time, not to mention I saw the damage to your bag. That wasn't a normal bolt, not to mention I'm friends with the captain of the weather team. I would know if we were having stormy weather today."

Ditzy couldn't help but be surprised at this. Most weather captains were married to the job or hard asses. Having to monitor the weather for cities or vast amount of lands for the country side was time consuming and didn't leave much time for socializing. She had never met the weather captain of Ponyville personally now that she thought about it. "Do you interact with her often? I thought being a weather team captain was time consuming, or at least that's how it was for most of the captains I met."

Naruto let out an uproarious laugh. "No way, I couldn't see that lazy plot working that hard at anything but applying for the Wonderbolts. Don't worry about it Ditzy, I'll talk to Speedy. Something is definitely up and its not fair if you were to get in trouble at the job because of a freak accident. So I don't think we've met. I actually haven't started living in Ponyville until a few months ago, how about you? Local?"

"Well I used to live in Ponyville with my aunt when I was much younger before we move to Manehattan. Eventually I had to move back to Ponyville. So many things have changed since I've been gone though." She answered honestly.

"Well better to be stationed in your home town when you have a career right?

Ditzy looked down at her hands with a downcast expression. "I…I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I'm just not cut out for it."

"What? Why?"

"I'm a screw up. A failure. I've been going from one job to the other. Everything I touch turns into a wreck. I can hardly go through a mail route without losing or destroying shipment." She looked up at him, tears staining her eyes. "I'm a simpleton with messed up eyes." Seeing the expression on his face, she immediately concluded that he was unnerved by her eyes like so many ponies before him. "All I'll ever be is a laughing stock for other ponies and this proves it. I'm a whipping filly for fate itself and nothing is ever going to change that." She watched as the blond looked down.

She closed her eyes as she could feel sadness coursing through her, only to let out a surprised gasp when she felt his hand over hers. "It hurts doesn't it? To be made fun or be ignored? To be thought of as nothing but a screw up and have everypony treat you as if you're nothing but a cheap laugh." Ditzy couldn't help but get lost in those blue eyes, those blue eyes filled with understand. "You're right, you'll only be a laughing stock, but only if you give in to that sort of thinking and allow yourself to be that. I was a failure once too, but I refused to let that define who I was. They, all those who treated you like trash, they were wrong, and if you give up now you'll let them win. Those who treat you like this are the ones who are empty. They need to tear down others to feel better about their own inadequacies. If before now nopony else was willing to get to know the real you, then I will. I will be your friend. I was once a lot like where you're at now and I hate to stand by and let anypony else suffer. If you need a shoulder to cry on, I'll be there. If you need somepony to laugh with, you can count on me. Because after all, without a friend, that makes living rather bleak doesn't it?"

For the first time in a long time Ditzy felt happy. She had never thought she would meet a pony that not only would treat her kindly, but also knew what it felt like to be an outcast.

"It wouldn't be until Naruto told me about his past that I got the full story on how he and I were so alike. It also made sense how he was such a natural with Dinky and how he was able to get Amethyst to open up. Having both raised a daughter and been an orphan, he knew how to reach out to them. Seeing as the only other stallions I interact with regularly are taken, married, my boss, or I just happen to casually interact with on the job, I've never had time to develop feelings for any other stallion but him. Carrot Top and I did give it a try for a few weeks, had a date here or there, but we realized we were more like sisters than potential partners." The other girls looked directly at her, eyebrows raised. "Oh come on, don't tell me none of you girls tried playing the field?" She asked, her cheeks burning red.

"Well, I have always had my heart set on a stallion. It's not to say I have not appreciated the form or the attractiveness of a mare, but stallions have always interested me more." Rarity admitted, knowing that bi-curious mares were growing more and more in numbers every day.

"Ah had a coltfriend or two in the past, but never really was all that focus on romance. Didn't help that every filly ah brought over began throwin' themselves at mah brother anyway." Applejack glowered a bit sourly. The others wisely chose not to follow up on that.

"I..well..I mean…oh my." Fluttershy couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. "I just…I just never felt comfortable. I'm still trying to wrap my head around courting."

"Well I never cared one way or another. As long as I found them cute and they treated me right, but unfortunately most ponies who took me out on a date never came by for a second one," A pout formed on the face of the adorable pinkette. "Some of them were looking for a party I wasn't willing to partake in others…well I rather not talk about."

It was time to focus on other things. "Well, now that we have cleared that matter. It is time to consider other things. The matter of children. Does anypony have any plans of settling down anytime soon?"

It was almost unanimous that none of the mares wished to have kids just yet, wanting to focus more on their careers. Ditzy couldn't help but feel like the elephant in the room. "Forgive me if the phrasing of my question made you feel uncomfortable Ditzy. Am I correct in stating you have two daughters, one young filly and one young mare away at school?"

"That's right. Dinky will be turning seven soon and next year Amethyst will be turning Eighteen. She's away at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

"Oh my, you must be rather proud." An impressed Rarity replied with a warm smile.

"Indeed I am. Will my…I mean…" Ditzy wasn't sure how to phrase this next part.

"By no means will I discriminate against you for having children of your own. It is merely something we will have to deal with. After all, all of us here know full and well after learning the truth about our dear Naruto that a part of his heart will always remain with his first wife and children. None of us are so selfish to replace that, we merely wish to share a place in it. While it would take some used getting used to, that is the whole purpose of this courtship to build a family, a herd in which everypony is happy."

"Thank you Rarity," Ditzy replied with a released breath. "I have to admit I was so nervous coming here tonight."

"Nervous 'bout what? Ah like to think we're a friendly and approachable bunch. Only thing you had to worry about was Rare here criticizing yer choice of fashion." A grin broke out on the apple farmer's face who flashed it at the fashionista who shot her friend a look mixed between annoyed and insulted.

The worst part was that Rarity couldn't help it earlier but mentally make notes on how to improve the outfit Ditzy was wearing when she had first entered her home.

"It's because you're all so amazing," Ditzy blurted out. "I mean you're all so beautiful and you're heroes! You saved Ponyville and Equestria. Even if nopony else knows it, there's rumors of an event in Canterlot in November and everypony is talking about how it's going to be about the incident in July and how the situation in the countryside is going to be handled, and I'm just plain ol' Ditzy Doo. I can't compare to that."

"Hey there Downy Frowny, none of that." Pinkie Pie said grabbing the mare's face and forcefully pushing it up into a smile, a small 'ow' escaping Ditzy's face. "You're plenty cool too. Everypony is special in their own way."

"Well, yes, we did do that, but we had help. We had help from the army, Naruto, even Princess Celestia had made steps to make sure we were successful. If anything, a lot of ponies helped saved everypony, not just us." Fluttershy pointed.

"Besides darling, you have your own charm," Rarity argued as she eyed the mare. "You have your own charms as well."

"Yeah like see," Pinkie grabbed the mare and pulled her up as they stood side by side. "Narry likes a girl with a nice big plot, and us girls here are easily in the top in the town." Pinkie shamelessly admitted as Ditzy's cheeks colored pink. She always felt a bit uncomfortable wearing shorts because the size of her plot was larger than average. "Yours is more bubbly." Pinkie said as she used a finger to jab at said bubble butt. "Like how Rarity's is more heart shaped, Applejack and I are apple bottoms." Pinkie Pie let out a pout. "Fluttershy is a round type and has us all beat in size." She sent a playfully glare at said Pegasus who merely squeaked.

The others didn't know whether to be surprised, worried, or flattered at Pinkie's favorably appraisal of feature.

"Okay then," Rarity said, turning back to the group as a whole. "Now, we now have to set some ground rules on proper courtship etiquette in order to avoid overlapping each of our herd mate's time with our stallion."

"Well that shouldn't be too difficult. Just need to list our working hours and responsibilities and work up a schedule from there." Pinkie Pie noted. "Can I make a suggestion?" Pinkie then spoke up with her usual from zero to sixty enthusiasm.

"Sure? What is it?"

"I suggest we leave a few potential spots open, like for Dashie and Twilight."

Rarity couldn't help but be surprised at this. Rainbow Dash, well, by the elicit way those two pranked each other, she wouldn't be surprised if it eventually turned into something more, but Twilight? "Would Twilight even be ready for something like courting? She is after all, still adjusting to being social and this would seem like unnecessary pressure to put on her."

Pinkie Pie pouted. "Aww, but how cool would it be if all six bearers shared the same stallion? I want to be in a herd with all my bestest buddies."

"While I understand the sentiment, we must not push our friends into something they are not interested in or Naruto is not interested in. If both parties do develop an interest, they will bring it to our attention first and it will be something we shall discuss then." Now that she thought about it, she was curious about that one mare that Naruto dated that she mistook Fluttershy for. She shook away the thought and brought her focus back to the discussion.

It was now time to start figuring out a schedule.