//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Shinobi of Equestria 
// by Fan of Fanfics 
//------------------------------//

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or MLP

Night had fallen over Ponyville and many of the ponies had settled into their beds for the night. Naruto and Konohamaru were each in their brand new beds, in their brand new home, already snoring in synch, despite being in separate rooms. They had moved their things in that morning, and found it to be quite comfortable. 

At the library, Spike was snuggled into the basket that served as his bed, out like a light, while Twilight was still up, looking over her scrolls. Dropping on her flank, she held her front hooves together, trying to imagine the hand-seal depicted. She shook in her deep focus, clenching her teeth and trying to reach deep down to tap into her chakra. It was far different than using her magic, and it was beginning to frustrate the unicorn. A slight blue glow began to exude from her body as she felt...something, expand inside of her. She breathed a sigh as she realized she had managed to tap into her chakra, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fell onto the floor, on her back. Anyone watching might have been worried, until they heard the mare's soft breathing, indicating she had merely fallen asleep, exhausted.

Rarity, who had already closed up her shop for the night, dried herself as she headed for her room, having just gotten out of a hot bath. Sneaking a peak into her sister's room, she smiled as she noted Sweetie Belle was out cold, a bit of drool leaking from her mouth onto her pillow. Rarity silently giggled at the unicorn filly, before she again began her nightly bed-time ritual. A facial mask scrubbed onto her face, as well as a few cucumber slices over her eyes as she pulled her blankets over her body. Within moments, she was peacefully asleep.

Rainbow Dash had no such trouble. She was good and well asleep before her head hit the cloud that served as her bed...Not in her cloud mansion. Rather, she had settled in for a late afternoon nap on a stray cloud, and had yet to wake up. Her wings flapped absently in her dreams, and she mumbled a bit of incoherent babble.

Down below in Fluttershy's cottage, the mare had fallen softly asleep in her bed, tuckered out from a long day of caring for her animals, in particular, several that had recently been sick. Hopping into her bed, Angel pulled the blanket over the exhausted mare, before deciding to hit the sack himself. Leaping back off the bed, he maneuvered onto one foot, rubbing the other with a pained look. Hadn't quite finished healing yet after kicking Spike's can. But it was totally worth it.

But while the other ponies were busy dreaming of learning, clothing, animals, and cheering crowds, two were dreaming of something, or somepony, different. While her brother and sister were both sound asleep, Applejack was caught in a rather...bizarre dream. Trapped in a long corridor without doors or windows, the farm mare was forced to follow the tunnel towards a opening filled with light, and a delicious smell. She continued down, coming closer and closer until she entered...the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner? No wonder everything smelled so good.

“What the hay is goin' on around here?” she asked, not expecting an answer. But she got one, in the form of muffled shouts and groans. Turning, she was greeted to the sight of Pinkie Pie and Naruto once more trapped mouth to mouth by Pinkie's marshmallow confection. For some reason, looking at the two like that gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Ah, for Celestia's sake...” she groaned. Looking around the room, she managed to find ten readily made cups of hot chocolate...it struck her as odd, but then she remembered that she was dealing with Pinkie Pie. 

Using one of the cups, she forced the two apart as best as she could, before using the cocoa like acid, dissolving the marshmallow just as it had earlier. Before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Applejack nudged Pinkie out of the way, moving right into Naruto's face. “My turn,” she announced, her face red and her voice almost commanding in tone, before pressing her own lips to Naruto's. 

Combined with Pinkie Pie's confetti, which she could pull out of nowhere to begin with, her own moaning in pleasure was shocking enough to cause the mare to rocket up in her bed in shock, blushing like there was no tomorrow. There was no way. She didn't...she couldn't...She was not one of those silly mares who falls for a stallion at first sight. Maybe she was just going into heat. At least then she had an excuse for dreaming what she did. She just hoped that it would end soon. Not soon enough though. Applejack got no more sleep that night.

Across Ponyville, Pinkie Pie lay on her side in her own bed, her legs moving as though she were running from something. Deep inside a dream of her own, she too was going down a long, straight hallway, just like Applejack's, though she didn't know that. When she finally ran through into the next room, just as with the farm mare, she found herself in the Sugarcube kitchen. Her eyes widened at what she saw and she opened her mouth and let out a shrill scream.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” She yelled, before lunging in and grabbing hold of the large, white blob in a hug. “Oh, my Marshmallow Cake...how delicious you are...” It jiggled slightly from her movements and she sighed, licking the icing. “Did you miss Mommy? Mommy missed you, yes she did...” Taking another lick, she savored the flavor, trying to figure out what she was tasting.

“Hey, this isn't my special icing,” she announced. “The texture is all weird...not bad though...it's kind of salty...”

“What...is that?” Turning, Pinkie saw Naruto had entered the kitchen and her ears perked up, before she bounced toward the stallion.

“Naruto, Naruto, I haven't seen you since you had the cake earlier!” She announced cheerfully. “You sure ran out of Sugarcube corner in a hurry.” Naruto blushed and giggled nervously.

“Yeah...about that...” He was interrupted by a giggle from the pink mare.

“What are you doing here, silly?” Pinkie giggled as she bounced around the young stallion.

Naruto's head started spinning as the mare circled him. “...where is 'here' exactly?”

Pinkie vanished from her spot, and appeared next to a large white blob on the floor, if one could call it that. It looked more like a waffle. And was that an angel she was making in the white stuff? “...ah! Paradise!”

“What exactly is going on here?” Naruto cried, exacerbated. “Why is the floor a waffle, why are you rolling around in...butter? And wh-” Pinkie's hoof covered his mouth quickly.

“Shhhhhh!” she whispered, almost harshly. “This is the best part!” Before he could even ask why, the two were suddenly doused with a torrent of Maple syrup. When the downpour ceased, a drenched and sticky Naruto just stared at the pink mare, right eye twitching. With a Giggle and a snort, Pinkie took a large bite off the floor. 

“Boy, is this syrup sticky,” she giggled, before getting a little too close to Naruto's face for the stallion's comfort. “Does it remind you of anything?” Leaping onto the stallion, she locked lips with his, sticking them together once more. Back in the real world, Pinkie Pie giggle in her sleep, mumbling a few incoherent descriptions about the look on Naruto's face.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Luna looked slightly taken aback as she pulled out of Pinkie Pie's dream. She had somewhat anticipated Applejack's reaction, but Pinkie was far too unpredictable to properly judge. But in the end, she was just doing her job. Ensuring pleasant dreams for ponies. While Applejack seemed a little unhappy with hers, as she concluded from the Mare's abrupt awakening, it wasn't Luna's fault. When it came to things such as dreams of romance, Luna could only manipulate them so long as the ponies in question had at least some form of legitimate feelings for the other. Meaning no matter how she tried to deny it, Applejack did indeed feel something for the Shinobi-turned-Stallion.

Pinkie Pie obviously had them too, but seemed far more naïve about her own feelings. Perhaps she was simply oblivious, or perhaps she lacked the maturity to understand what she herself was feeling. She was dealing with thoughts that made her feel bizarre, but in a very good way, and being the element of laughter, she perhaps was less interested in the source of these new feelings, and instead just wanted more. Things were going to get very interesting for Naruto in the near future, she knew that. While two Mares expressing romantic interest would certainly be intimidating, having two emotionally confused mares doing so was even worse. All she could do was to keep up with their dreams and try to help them each understand what they had begun to feel for the Ninja. It was the least she could do for the ones who had freed her from her darkness, as well as the friend of the one who she could deny no longer had stolen her own heart.

Speaking of, the stallion in question was currently gazing at her moon, in a sort of trance. She had come to learn that his meditation was as close to sleep he could come without his demon coming to the surface. The two sat in the center of the palace garden-maze, merely star gazing in between Luna's quick jaunts into the Realm of Dreams. It would figure that she would go through the trouble of convincing Gaara to come out with her, and then spend her night working. But then, she had her duties, and they were important ones. Her sister had tried to make due in her thousand-year imprisonment, but as powerful as her sister was, she was never quite as skilled in dream-walking as Luna.

“Princess Luna...?” The voice of Gaara broke her from her thoughts. She thought he was in meditation.

“Oh, Kaz-, I mean, Gaara...” Luna smile sheepishly. But she nodded to Gaara to indicate that she was alright. Both turned towards the large moon that shone overhead. It was as if it was a bright halo that hung over the world. It was quite stunning, especially seeing how the light illuminated the stallion before her. “Beautiful mane... I mean, light, I meant night!”

Gaara nodded. Temari usually mixed up words when she got either frustrated, very tired, or hung around that lazy friend of Naruto's. “You should see the moon around Suna. When the light of the moon hits the dunes just right... you could look out over the desert, and it would look as if the sand was the ocean.”

Luna tore her eyes from her moon, and glanced to the pony beside her. “It sounds lovely."

Gaara nodded. “Yes... it is. Maybe when we have time, I could show you one day.” The stallion's ears twitched as he heard slight movement behind them, but every time he turned, all he saw was the dark shadows of the bushes. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Luna mumble to herself.

After a moment, the Princess turned to Gaara. “Care to eat me-I mean get! Get something to eat with me?” She tried to fight it, but the fierce blush still lit her cheeks, visible clearly in the moonlight. She already knew that the stallion had captured her heart, but if she didn't get a hold of herself, then the Stallion in question would know as well. But still, she felt like a young filly. As a Princess, she felt she was forced to mature much faster than other, normal ponies. She paused from her thoughts as a voice entered her ears. "What?"

Gaara raised a brow. The Princess sure had a tendency to lose herself in thought. “I said, it would be my pleasure.”

Luna smiled. “Fantastic! Perhaps if we are lucky, the Cook will be out and we can sneak straight to the kitchen. While snacking may be unbecoming of a Princess, I feel like an exception can be made.”

Gaara nodded his head, and the Princess took that as her cue to lead them. But once they left the spot, the shadows began to move. And slowly, a snake-like, shadowy figure slithered out from the shadows and into the moonlight. And just like that, it vanished into another dark corner. 

Another figure, unseen by all, smiled a bit, before her horn glowed, forcing a chunk of ground to rise up, tripping Princess Luna. Surprised by this, the Moon Princess couldn't think fast enough to stop herself. Gaara, however, was far quicker, sending sand out to stop her fall. Using the sand, Gaara helped Luna back up to her hooves, the blushing alicorn unable to even look at the Kazekage. Gaara raised an eyebrow as he watched Luna's wings flare out suddenly. For some reason, she seemed to do that a lot around him. As they continued to make their way to the kitchen, an awkward silence floated between them.

From the bushes, a slow giggling broke the silence in the night air, before Celestia popped her head out. If her sister was going to play matchmaker with her student's friends, then she was going to play matchmaker with Luna and Gaara. Luna herself appeared smitten already, but Gaara was going to be a much tougher nut to crack. But if there were two things Princess Celestia had in spades, it was time, and patience...well, those and a very mischievous mind. A very, very bored, mischievous mind. A very, very bored, mischievous mind that loved wedding cake. In all seriousness, she was elated that her little sister had found someone. But as the big sister, it was one of her duties to give Luna as much crap about it as possible.

As she began to follow her sister and potential Brother-in-law (If she had her way, of course), she didn't see the shadowed figure once more slither out of the shadows and begin to follow as well. It had its eyes on Gaara for a completely different reason. And unfortunately for all, it was determined to see out its dark purpose.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Yawning, Applejack reared back before bucking another load of apples down from one of the trees. She hadn't gotten a single decent bit of sleep the night before, all because of that stupid dream. Speaking of, she once more had Naruto helping her out, but this time, he made sure to specify that all she would owe him was a future favor. Looking over at the blonde-maned stallion, she blushed furiously...the things she had dreamed about the night before went far beyond mere kissing...and unfortunately, she wasn't even in heat. So she couldn't even use that as an excuse for these new-found feelings. But she couldn't understand why she was having them then.

Tipping her hat down to shadow her red face, she again reared back. But she ended up missing the tree completely. Unable to correct herself, she ended up twisting around before planting her face down into the dirt.

“Whoa!” Naruto shouted, rushing over to help the farm mare. Applejack felt far too embarrassed to even move as Naruto approached. As he leaned down to help her up, snickering could be heard. From her spot on the ground, an even more red-faced Applejack and the Shinobi Stallion glared over at Konohamaru, who was nearly on the ground himself, in a fit of laughter.

“Wow. Face down, flank in the air...I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going...” he announced, causing Naruto to blush just as furiously as Applejack. Said Mare looked up at her friend with a tired, yet pleading look on her blushing face. Naruto got the message pretty easily...before he and Konohamaru vanished. As she picked herself up, she could hear Konohamaru begin to shout out apologies while Apple Bloom and her friends squealed in delight.”

Naruto reappeared in front of Applejack, who was dusting herself off. “You ok, AJ?” he asked, and the still blushing mare now turned away from him.

“I'm, ah...fine,” she said, but Naruto wasn't convinced, and she knew it. She just had to be the Element of Honesty...she couldn't lie worth a darn. “Ya know, I think we aught to call it a day, so why don't y'all head home,” she announced, before dashing as fast as she could toward the house. Naruto could only stare at her vanishing form in confusion. Apparently in this world, just like his, he would never understand the female mind...though to be fair, she wasn't acting quite as strange as Pinkie was that morning...and that was strange even for Pinkie. He shuddered, trying to get the image of Pinkie Pie waking in his bed, for some reason covered in Maple Syrup, out of his mind.

“What is up with these mares?!?!” he asked exasperated. Shaking his head, he decided to head back to the house. With any luck, Konohamaru had locked himself in, and the Crusaders would need his keys.

Chapter end