//------------------------------//
// Going Up? 
// Story: Six Two Six 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	The center of town was now quite clustered, even by its normal standards. Barricades had been erected to protect the rest of Ponyville's residents from the aliens destructive habits, and several ponies crowded around the wooden bars to get a better look. Even more were showing up now, since word of Princess Luna being in Ponyville was spreading like wildfire. Celestia, okay, that was a fairly regular occurance these days. But Luna? Katie, bar the door!
On one side stood the Mane Five, sans Rarity of course, who had run off to tend to her younger sister. On the other side was Discord, who tended to Stitch, still trapped inside a strong magical bubble. The alien was quite upset, and dramatically pounding on the inside of the containment field. It wasn't doing anything, which only infuriated the alien more. He wasn't used to not being able to break through things. Next to them stood Princess Luna, who eyed the sky with a watchful gaze. It had been an extremely eventful day, and the sun would be going down soon. Stitch or not, she still had a job to do.
"You didn't have to come all the way out here..." Twilight apologized, still quite upset that she hadn't been warned earlier. The unicorn had Spike on her back, who was dictating the events in a large journal as quickly as his little claws could manage to write. Although truthfully she just hoped Luna didn't ask to see the Library, it was a mess at the moment.
"It wasn't a matter of warning you," Luna said. "I was made aware of a large object falling from the sky when nothing was scheduled to do so, so of course I had to look into it. And then of course Celestia and I started putting the pieces together, and when she found out there was going to be a table full of cake, she insisted we come at once."
At this particular revelation, Applejack looked pleased as punch. "Well ah'll be dipped, Princess Celestia likes mah cake!"
"Celestia's here too?!" Twilight was quite beside herself now. "But my latest thesis isn't ready for-"
Luna raised a hoof. "Calm thyself. We aren't here for you this time. We're here to ensure that this creature here, whom you call Stitch, is properly returned home. His presence here, through methods I shall decline to elaborate on, is an anomaly. Having him stay here would result in the fracturing of several dimensions."
"Another dimension thing?! That's totally cool!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Of course she was still bummed, as the rest of them were, that they hadn't been permitted to participate in the last trans-dimensional adventure, but at the rate alternate universes were popping up, it wouldn't be long before they did.
Pinkie Pie, who had been unusually silent, was busily trying to remove Gummy from the chocolate fountain, which the alligator had decided would make a fantastic shower. This resulted in the two being absolutely covered in molten chocolate, and Stitch twitched slightly while watching them. They were making such a mess, and it looked rather fun.
"So what do you need from us?" Twilight asked.
"Not from you. From Fluttershy," Luna corrected.
Applejack did a double take. "Pardon?"
The mare in question instantly looked startled. "Wait, me?!"
"Yes, you," Luna said. "You have a way with talking to animals, of which Stitch qualifies. If you can persuade him to behave himself, I think the rest of our jobs will prove all that much easier. Can you do that?"
"I can try," Fluttershy squeaked.
Luna frowned. "It's important that he behave himself, do or do not, there is no try."
Twilight watched while Spike hurried scribbled in the journal. "Spike!" She whispered
"Are you finished with that report?"
"Which one, Twilight?"
"The Teleportation Practice Survey report from Canterlot, don't forget about the new cover sheets."
"I got it, Twilight. Don't worry, you can count on Spike!"
Fluttershy, meanwhile, had nodded to Princess Luna, and approached the bubble in which the alien was contained. "Hey... um... you." She said hesitantly. "Yeeeeeeeeah... um... if you could just stop causing trouble and be nice, that would be great..." 
Stitch snapped at her, dragging his claws along the inside of the barrier. It didn't appear as if he wanted to comply.
Fluttershy was unphased, and tried again. "Pretty please with a cherry on top? You have a lot of friends out here who care about you, and being mean like you've been doing really isn't any way to treat friends."
Stitch growled again, and spat acid upon the inside of the bubble. The revolting slime dripped down the barrier in large globs, but even that did not melt through Discords magic. Stitch didn't seem particularly amused by this, and huffed in frustration. Although he could talk, he usually chose not to, especially around strangers.
Fluttershy sighed, she really didn't want to resort to it, but there didn't seem to be any other choice. She narrowed her eyes at him, stomping her hoof in the ground. "Listen here, mister. I've had just about enough of your acting up. You've caused trouble, destroyed my friends barn, shot a sweet little girl with that noise maker of yours, and your behavior has just been absolutely unacceptable. Now you're going to start acting right, and we're going to help you get home. Do I make myself clear?" She hissed.
The redness in Stitch's eyes faded somewhat, and although he was hesitant, saluted her. "Stitch... behave." He said.
"Good. Discord, release the bubble."
"But..."
"I said release it!"
Discord shrugged, and the containment unit dropped. Stitch stood looking for a minute like he was about to run, then slowly climbed onto Fluttershy's back, who immediately perked back up.
"There, now was that so hard?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Okay, so if he came up from up there, and he's down here now, how do we get him back up there?"
Luna just smiled. "Thank you for that charmingly descriptive question, Rainbow Dash."
"Thanks, I totally thought of it by myself."
"Celestia and I tracked Stitch's entry, and during the event he was travelling at speeds rarely seen in Equestria, due in part, we think, to his flying machine."
"You mean the spaceboat?" Pinkie asked.
"Yes, the spaceboat. It appears to be some sort of magical metal capable of great speeds of flight. Speeds of which previously only our own Rainbow Dash has managed to achieve."
"Whoa! Hold your horses!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"How are we supposed to hold ourselves? Like this?" Pinkie asked cheerfully, and lifted herself off the ground by her own tail, staying airborne for several seconds before crashing back to the ground.
Rainbow Dash continued. "You're saying he's not only from another dimension, he's faster than me?!
"Nopony's faster than you, Rainbow Dash," Applejack whispered under her breath, to which Rainbow Dash gave the farm pony an icy death glare. 
"That better not mean what I think it means, because if it means what I think it means, it better not."
"Another priceless quote from Rainbow Dash," Applejack quipped.
"Girls! Focus!" Twilight chimed in.
"As I was saying," Luna continued. "He seemed to have come here with remarkably similar speed and energy to a sonic rainboom. And that was coming down, So we need to replicate the results, only going in the opposite direction. That should be enough to propel him back where he came from."
"A sonic rainboom... going up?" Twilight asked, sounding somewhat flabbergasted. "Is that possible?"
"It should be, with the spaceboat back under full power, and the addition of these," Luna said, gesturing to a stack of large blue squares which had previously gone unmentioned.
"What are those fancy doohickeys?" Applejack asked, scratching her head.
"A new invention Celestia and I have been working on, they're called solar paneling. They use the energy of the sun to create magic. A single focused burst should be enough added power to propel the spaceboat to sonic rainboom velocity."
Applejack sighed. "All this math makes mah head hurt."
Rainbow Dash was grumbling. "But rainbooms are MY thing... I knew this dog was trouble..."
"Wait." Twilight said, already processing this. "We attach these solar panel things to the spaceboat, and use the sun to make it go faster?"
"Essentially yes," Luna said.
"But how are we going to get a solar beam that powerful? We don't know anypony who can just harness the energy... of... the..." her eyes widened.
Luna grinned. "I see you figured the rest of this out," she said pleasantly. "Don't you worry, this should work. We'll get Stitch back home in no time."
Pinkie Pie, nodded, bouncing in circles around Twilight. "Yepparooni! It's gonna be fun fun fun! And then we'll be all done and you can go back home and work on your fanfic, Twilight!"
Twilight gasped. "It's not a fanfic, it's a thesis!" She insisted.
Stitch just clung to hugging Fluttershy's neck. As much as he liked it here, these ponies were crazy. No matter, he'd be home soon.