With Stitch running around Sweet Apple Acres, and neither mare having any idea of the destructive capability the alien possessed, the two friends had finally gotten a moment to catch up regarding recent events. Fluttershy kept peering over Applejack's shoulder to try and make sure that Stitch didn't hurt himself, but after the alien had come out of an entire field of jagger bushes without so much as a scratch, Applejack suspected he'd be fine.
"And y'found him in out in the Everfree? Jes' like that?" Applejack asked. She was a bit curious, but at the moment her worry was overriding her curiosity. She wasn't particularly sure why, but something about this whole situation sounded bad. Stitch wasn't like any creature either of them had ever encountered before, and they'd encountered some weird creatures.
"Oh, yes!" Fluttershy confirmed. "He was in this big metal thing, I've never seen anything like it before. It looked like some sort of container, and it fell right out of the sky! It's rather useless now, I hope it didn't land on anypony..."
"Fluttershy, focus! Out of the sky, huh? Now ah don't mean tah question yer logic, but if he fell outta the sky in that thing, how in the hay ain't he hurt? Ah can believe in luck, seen a lot of that, but ain't no survivin' falling out of the sky."
"Oh, I hadn't thought about that... maybe I was wrong... I'm sorry!" Fluttershy squeaked.
"Oh, don't start that up again. Now listen, y'all get back tah Discord and see what y'can find out. Ah'll take Stitch fer a little bit and bring him on over to yer cottage in a bit. Maybe ah kin find somethin' out y'all missed."
"Oh, thank you!" Fluttershy seemed relieved to not have to worry about Stitch for a little bit. Of course he was welcome to stay with her during the duration of his visit, and she felt responsible for him. However she needed just a few moments on her own, and with Applejack temporarily taking over, she made her way back to her own cottage to set things up. She was going through all the things she'd learned about Stitch already in her head, trying to think of how to make him comfortable, just as she did with all her other animals. "Coconuts, I need coconuts. I still don't know what coffee is..." Angel tapped his foot impatiently as Fluttershy paced, pointing to a large stopwatch he was holding over his head. Fluttershy just shook her head.
"It's not dinner time, Angel. You're just going to have to wait."
"Hello, Fluttershy!" Discord appeared in front of her, floating several inches off the ground. Fluttershy glared at him. "Why the long face? Get it, because you're a pony?" He seemed particularly amused by this joke. "You're not still upset about this morning, are you?"
"You've been very mean today, Discord. You know I don't like it."
Discord sighed. "That's just how I am, Fluttershy. You really should know this by now." He twirled his claws around in the air, slightly bored with not being up to anything even remotely resembling mischievous.
"No. This is not how you are. You're chaotic, not a meanie. And you're going to knock it off right now."
"But-"
Fluttershy's left eye twitched, and she glared at him. "Right. NOW."
Discord backed away some, his claws in the air. "Alright, alright, fine. I'm sorry."
"There. Was that so hard?"
The draconequus just sighed, and left Fluttershy to her work. "Just so we're clear, I'm not promising not to cause trouble. Only to stop bothering you. For now."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Fluttershy squeaked. Perhaps things were starting to look up after all. Having Discord in her home was nothing close to easy, but it had been beneficial to have someone so skilled in magic to help out when all of her priorities and responsibilities became overwhelming.
***
"Git back here, ya thievin' varmint!" Applejack yelled, chasing Stitch across Sweet Apple Acres. She'd witnessed firsthoof the small animal take devour no less than five apple pies which had been cooling on the window. Those pies, which had been an order for a very nice mare by the name of Peach Cobbler, were already being rapidly re-made by Apple Bloom in the kitchen, and Applejack had a few choice words for Stitch.
Stitch seemed to enjoy the chase, ducking under tables and through windows. But it wasn't until he climbed straight up the side of the wall that Applejack suspected something was odd with him. She became even more annoyed upon seeing this, and reached back to her side to bite down on the trusty lasso attached to her saddlebag.
"Alright, y've done it now!" The farm pony twirled the rope a few times, creating a spectacular circular effect in the air. The rope flew, wrapping itself around her targets waist. Applejack gave an excited yell, and pulled tight. "Yeehaw, ya don't mess with Applejack!"
Stitch, however, apparently did not get that memo, as he merely gave her an amused look, took the rope in both claws, and broke it in half. With that done, he proceeded to disappear in the direction of the nearest barn.
"Buh... buh... buh..." Applejack stammered. "That was mah great great gran'pappy's rope! Ain't nothin' EVER broke that! Not even a buffalo!" She protested. "No way that lil' critter is stronger than a buffalo!" She wasn't happy with this newest development, and was even less happy when the ground began to rumble, a huge cloud of dust rising into the air as the barn in which Stitch had recently taken refuge collapsed in on itself. The small creature stood in the middle of the wreckage, completely unharmed, and grinned.
"KWEESTA!" Stitch really didn't seem to have any reservations about destroying anything, a fact which rubbed Applejack the wrong way. He had a collar, which meant somepony owned him. And if somepony owned him, he HAD to have some sort of training. They were missing something, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Applejack threw her hat down on the ground. "THAT TEARS IT!" She left the alien to his own destructive instincts and galloped for the only pony she knew who could handle problems like this.
***
"No, no, no!" Twilight paced back and forth, clearly upset about her latest method of organization. "We need to try again, maybe this time if we organize all my books by publication date instead of by author..."
Spike sighed, trying to calm his friend down. "Twilight, we've been at this ALL day, is it really that big of a deal if you can't find one book once in a while?"
"Big deal? Big deal?! Do you know what would happen if Princess Celestia wanted me to do a research paper on the elusive sphinx, and I couldn't FIND my one book on sphinxes because I didn't have a specific section for journals published in the 19th century?! It'd be a disaster!" Her horn glowed, levitating almost a hundred books off the shelf, and dumping them onto the floor. Spike yelped and made a run for it, but was quickly buried in books. "We need to do this right!"
There was a pounding at the door at that moment, and Spike popped out of the avalanche of books, rubbing his head. "I'll get it, you just keep... doing what you're doing, Twilight." He quickly ran to the door, in need of a bit of luck for today. Maybe Rarity was paying a visit. He flung the door open, the hopeful look on his face fading. "Oh. It's just y- I mean... hi Applejack!" He said cheerfully.
"Riiiiiight..." the farmpony said in confusion, and stepped inside. "Is Twilight here? We got a problem."
"We have a problem too, though I don't see what could POSSIBLY be worse than a missing book, the fate of Equestria lies in the balance!" He said sarcastically.
"See, Spike? I knew you'd understand!" Twilight said, emerging from the back room. "What brings you here, Applejack?"
It took Applejack about ten minutes to relate everything that Fluttershy had told her, concluding with her most recent experience with trouble at the barn. "Ah don't understand it, Twi! He took down a whole barn, wasn't hurt or nothin'! Ah already feel like ah gotta put up a new barn every other week, ain't nopony got time fer that!"
Twilight was on her hooves with excitement, the missing book temporarily forgotten. "A new species? A strange new object? Mystical powers? This sounds like an exciting new research opportunity!"
"Did y'all really just use excitin' and research in the same- wagh!"
Twilight had grabbed Applejack as she raced out the door. "Spike, stay here and watch the shop until we know for sure what's going on. Feel free to nap or do whatever you like."
Spike saluted. "Yes ma'am!" He knew exactly what he was going to do, and rubbed his claws together in anticipation. It'd been a long while since he'd gotten a chance to get at the-
"And stay out of the ice cream! You know what happened last time!"
Spike's earfins drooped. Rats.
Back at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack and Twilight were on the search for Stitch. Applejack stood by her destroyed holding facility, holding her hat over her chest with one hoof. "Barnaby, we're gonna miss ya. Y'all were a good little barn, never stood a chance..." She sniffed.
Twilight stared at her. "Barnaby?"
Applejack quickly composed herself. "Never you mind!"
Twilight just shook her head. "Alright, now where did you leave him?"
"Leave... him?"
"You said this little Stitch creature seems immune to damage, has heightened strength, and likes to destroy things. Surely you didn't just leave him here alone and expect him to be here when you got back?"
Applejack turned red. "Well..."
Twilight sighed. "Alright, here's the plan. You get Rainbow Dash and find Stitch. I'm going to take somepony out to the crash site, see if we can't fix up that strange object Fluttershy talked about."
"Who you gonna take out there?" Applejack asked. "Rarity won't go in the forest, especially not after a storm like we had this mornin', everything's gonna be all wet and muddy. Prissy little..."
"Applejack!" Twilight warned.
"Sorry. Pinkie is... well quite honestly ah never know where Pinkie is." Quite franky, neither of them ever really knew where Pinkie was. When she wasn't occupied with working at the bakery, she just sort of showed up whenever she was needed, and none of them questioned it.
Twilight looked apologetic. "Somepony who might actually stand a chance at fixing whatever it is that's out there, and I only know one pony who's that good at fixing things. You aren't gonna like it, but I need her skills, even if she doesn't know she has them."
Applejack frowned. She trusted Twilight, but she had a bad feeling about this.
A few minutes later, Twilight and Applejack stood in the doorway of a brightly colored room at Sweet Apple Acres.
"Y'all want me tah what?!" Apple Bloom protested.