"What do you mean, slow search?!" The complaint came from Rainbow Dash, who, while eager to help any of her friends, did not fancy the idea of doing so at minimal acceleration.
Applejack sighed. She wasn't one to complain, especially not about being paired with a good, loyal friend like Rainbow Dash. However, Applejack was used to slow and patient work, such as what a search team typically consisted of. She wasn't about to leave a possible hiding place unexplored, not one that could be hiding the target they were looking for. She'd seen Stitch climb straight up her farmhouse wall, which meant he could be just about anywhere. And since it had taken almost an hour to get Rainbow Dash to actually wake up, they'd lost a lot of valuable time.
"It means jes' what it sounds like, sugarcube," she said patiently. "This Stitch fella is fast and sneaky, so we gotta take advantage of every possibility. He could be anywhere." Rainbow Dash, as it so happened, was zipping in circles around Applejack, anxious to get moving.
"Well why don't you just let me do a few circles around Ponyville then? Maybe I'll spot him."
"By flying in circles around an entire town? And still manage to find a creature smaller than Winona?" Applejack asked, slightly suspicious as to the odds of that particular occurrence.
Rainbow Dash frowned. "It could happen. I'm awesome like that."
Applejack sighed. "A'ight, we're losing ground standin' here arguin'. You circle around Ponyville a few times, look for ANYTHING that looks recently destroyed. If y'find somethin', don't waste time reporting back to me. Investigate, and detain him if you have to. Don't hurt him, though! Bring him back to the library, ah jes' wanna ask him a few questions. Ah'm sure Twilight wants to ask him a few herself, but we gotta wait for her t'get back."
Rainbow saluted with a hoof. "Circle around, look for clues. Got it!" And she was gone like a streak of rainbow colored lightning, shooting upwards into the sky and zipping towards Ponyville, which wasn't all that far away from Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow Dash was, without a doubt, the best flyer in Ponyville, and one of the best to come out of Cloudsdale Academy. Of course, according to her she was one of the best in Equestria, but that was pushing the limits of belief, for there were plenty others in Equestria who were a little bit faster or a little bit stronger. But none of that mattered right now, she was on a mission. Rainbow flew slightly slower than usual, which wasn't saying much considering her usual speed, but it was slow enough that her sharp eyes were on the lookout for anything unusual. "Can't let Applejack down, gotta find something!" She said to herself, flying past a large, elaborately decorated circular building.
Inside said circular building, a perfectly coiffed mare with a pristine white coat was pacing back and forth, looking with disapproval at the latest line of fashions which had made their way into her designing room. "No, no, no!" She sighed. "That's not right either, it HAS to be perfect!" The outfits were ripped down, and thrown into a large wicker basket, the contents of which would be recycled later. "It doesn't scream 'summer'," she was saying to her cat, who looked as if she'd rather be anything else. "I'll simply have to try again, now where did I put my measuring stick?" It was at this moment that said stick was handed to her, a gesture in which she initially took no notice. "Oh, thank you darling," she said, her horn levitating it. "Now I just need to... to... to..." she sputtered, whirling around in surprise. It was only then that she noticed the small blue creature sitting on her work table, fuzzy arms outstretched as if it was about to hug her neck.
"Aloha!" Stitch announced, giving a wide, unsettling grin. And with that, he jumped onto the mare's back, cackling with delight. "Giddyup!" He demanded.
Rarity, for who else could it have been, stumbled backwards in surprise. She absolutely under no circumstances did NOT 'giddyup', but rather her face contorted with rage. "What... but... how did you get in here?! SWEETIE BELLE!" She yelled accusingly.
The small filly in question appeared in the doorway moments later, dressed in a black full body suit which left only her eyes visible. "What?" The little one asked.
Rarity pointed to Stitch with her hoof. "How many times have I told you not to let in stray animals? And WHAT in the name of Equestria are you wearing? You know very well how I feel about jumpsuits."
"I didn't let him in!" Sweetie protested. "And it's not a jumpsuit, it's official gear. We're gonna get our ninja cutie marks! Well, we were. Scootaloo and I have to wait, Apple Bloom got pulled away for something."
Rarity facehooved. "Of course you are. Be a dear, would you, and get this thing out of my workspace? It's shedding everywhere!"
"Okay!" Sweetie approached Stitch, who looked at her suspiciously. "Awwwww, he's adorable!" Stitch made a face, one which implied he was not okay with being called adorable. "Can I keep him? Can I? Can I? Can I?"
"He has a collar, darling. I'm sure he belongs to somepony already. Somepony who owns a vacuum, I can only hope." She shuddered. "Now do remove him, please."
Sweetie Belle's eye widened. "Hey! Maybe Scootaloo and I can get our dogsitting cutie marks while we're waiting for Apple Bloom!" She grabbed Stitch, and hauled him out of the room before the latter knew what was going on.
In the meantime, Twilight had since entered the Everfree Forest with Apple Bloom, and was walking slower than usual to ensure that the youngster did not run away like she did the LAST time the two of them were out here.
"Ah still don't understand what ya need me for," Apple Bloom was saying. "Ah ain't no good at fixing things, there's gotta be somepony better qualified then ah am!"
"Didn't you fix up that old clubhouse almost by yourself?" Twilight asked gently.
"Well yeah, but that was different! That was jes' puttin' up boards together and installin' some wiring, not fixing up a... what did you say this thing was?"
Twilight thought a moment. "Well, I haven't seen it yet, but Fluttershy said it looked like a ship, and it came from the sky. Maybe even from space. So I guess you could say it's a..."
"...A spaceboat!" Apple Bloom finished.
"Makes sense," Twilight agreed, and the two of them entered the clearing.
The spaceboat had left a long crater before finally coming to rest in the forest, and Apple Bloom's eyes became wide as dinner plates. "Whoa... wait. You want me to fix THIS?!"
"Just take a look at it, that's all. I'm sure you'll find something you- Apple Bloom! Get down from there!" Twilight scolded, as the youngster had jumped right up onto the vehicle.
"There's some sort of door up here!" The filly announced. "It sounds like there's somepony inside, somethin's movin'!"
"Apple Bloom! Get behind me at once!" Twilight ordered, of which the young filly obliged with a bit of eye rolling. Something indeed could be heard rummaging around inside, and Twilight banged on the door. "Come out of there!" She ordered.
There was no response, but after a moment or two, the door swung open. Twilight took several steps backwards, guarding Apple Bloom from the inevitable evil inside, her horn already charged up and glowing with a protection spell.
A dark shape slowly emerged from the hatch, first one leg, then two. Then immediately followed by a burst of confetti.
"Hi Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Are you guys playing hide and seek too? I think I lost..."
Twilight stared. "What... in Celestia's name... what are you doing out here?!"
"Gummy and I were playing hide and seek! But he'll never find me in here!" The pink pony climbed out of the hatch, only revealing when she jumped down that a small green alligator was already attached to the end of her tail. Pinkie gigglesnorted. "Whoops, I lose again! He's really, REALLY good at this!"
Twilight's eye twitched. Apple Bloom was watching all this and clearly finding it extremely funny.
"Never mind that, now." Twilight said disapprovingly. "We're on an important mission. We're looking for-"
"A small blue creature named Stitch who's unusually strong and unusually immune to damage because he's actually a genetically engineered alien designed to cause mayhem and destruction just like six hundred and twenty five others but he's here by accident because he's from another world and stole a spaceship but somehow accidentally ended up here and now he's running around Equestria causing trouble so you have to find him and get him back home because if you don't then someone back in HIS world is going to notice that he's missing and be really really really really really sad?" Pinkie asked.
Twilight could feel one of her migraines coming on again. "How... did... you..."
"Just a hunch," Pinkie said cheerfully.
"..." Twilight had no words for this, and it took a moment to collect her thoughts again. "Okay... that's one theory...but we have no evidence that he's an alien. He's just weird. We need more proof before we can make an assumption like that."
"If you say so." Pinkie shrugged. "Oh! I was gonna show you something! Maybe it'll help you." She jumped back into the hatch. "I think Stitch found something that you're going to want to see." She disappeared into the hatch again, and several items flew out as she dug around. Twilight had to weave to avoid a sled, an inflatable pool toy, a sink, a flashlight and a flexible rubber sword. "Found it!" Pinkie announced, and held up an object that Twilight had prayed she'd never have to deal with again. "It's really funny that this thing is in here, I thought you said you buried this?"
"I DID." Twilight insisted. And if Stitch had indeed found it, and was indeed inclined to cause mayhem and destruction as Pinkie had so casually mentioned, then they were all in a lot more trouble than she'd first anticipated.
The object that Pinkie was holding... was the alicorn amulet.
"At least he took it off, right?" Pinkie asked, as cheerful as ever.
Twilight paced back and forth. "Yes, that's fortunate. He's small, so my guess would be that it didn't fit properly. But if is indeed destructive, even if he'd been trained to be not so destructive, the corruption may have been just enough to remind him how much fun it was being bad."
Pinkie shuddered. "Am I the only one who feels like Stitch with the alicorn amulet is like... the scariest thought in the history of EVER?"
Apple Bloom tilted her head. "So what do we do?"
"Bloom, I can't believe I'm saying this, but can you stay out here and try to fix the spaceboat? Do NOT go wandering, we need a way to get Stitch home after all this is over."
Apple Bloom saluted. "Ah'll try."
Twilight continued. "Pinkie, we're going to need to remind Stitch how to have fun without being destructive. We're going to need a party."
Pinkie wobbled for a few seconds, and burst several feet into the air in an explosion of streamers. "WOO-HOO!" she screamed.
Twilight sighed. "As for someone who knows about being bad, I'm going to have to talk to Discord. And I'm going to need a LOT of anti-headache spells. Thank Celestia I learned a few from Cadance. Finally, we need Fluttershy."
"Why Fluttershy?" Apple Bloom asked.
"She's the one who found him, and she's the one who can understand the animals. If things go south, she may be the only one who can stand between success the complete destruction of Ponyville," Twilight said.
"Pinkie is good at finding things, I'm sure he'll turn up," Twilight said confidently. She took hold of the amulet, and stuffed into her saddlebag. They might need it later, and when this was all over, simply hiding it might not be enough anymore. "I'll get the rest of the girls together, and figure this out. Alright ponies, we have a battle plan! Let's move out!"