//------------------------------//
// 8 - Stitch By Stitch 
// Story: Six Two Six Two 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	With the night hours upon them, the ponies had paired off and returned to their homes. Rarity had returned home with Pinkie bouncing behind her, after losing a bit toss between her and Rainbow to decide who would have to put up with the hyperactive party planner until further notice. This was not to say they didn't enjoy her company, but in small doses. As far as an extended houseguest was concerned, Rarity would rather have gone dumpster diving.
Rarity had gone through her extensive nightly beauty routine and retired to her bed, trying to ignore the sounds of Pinkie Pie in the kitchen attempting to set a new record for how many grapes she could fit in her mouth at once. From the sound of it, she was somewhere around the vicinity of thirty seven.
Since his return, Stitch had been rather intently observing his surroundings, and catching up on the events that had transpired since he last left. But at last he felt sufficiently caught up, and understood why the ponies needed him so badly. Something was going out of its way to attack them, and although he was grateful whatever it was wasn't doing any permanent damage, the fact remained that he must put a stop to it. Even the strength of the earth ponies barely registered on the chart when compared to his own.
Staying with Fluttershy, since Twilight's Library had been deemed unsafe, Stitch had waited until all the ponies had gone to sleep before crawling out of bed and making his way to the door. The night was endless, and it seemed as if the legitimate night hours were even darker than usual, as if suffocating any source of light they could find. He made his way to the door and grabbed the handle in his claws. It was a simple lever door handle, as knobs really wouldn't be of much use to a pony. Stitch fiddled with it, but the door seemed to be locked. Stitch had very little that he was taking with him, just a large brown bag that he intended to use to haul any clues he might find. It had held potatoes at some point and still smelled rather bad, but it would have to do.
That is, at least, until a pair of bright red eyes appeared in the paneling of the door.
"You'll never get through, you know." The door said calmly.
Stitch's ears pinned back. He hadn't been expecting this, and really wasn't sure what to think of it.
"Stitch must get through, friends in trouble," he said.
"You're much too big," the door said. "I'm afraid passage is impassable."
Stitch was confused. Big? He was smaller than Scootaloo! 
"Impossible for Stitch?" the alien asked, as if he didn't believe it.
"No, impassable. Nothing's impossible. Especially not for me." The door had a mocking tone to it, as if it enjoyed being difficult.
Stitch had had about quite enough of this, and raised his claws to slash down the door in irritation. "Let Stitch through!" He demanded. The next option was just to smash through the door completely, although Lilo didn't like it when he needlessly broke things, fun as it was.
The door looked horrified. "Alright, alright! Don't say I didn't warn you," it said, and swung open, upon which Stitch bolted outward into the night.
The door waited a bit once Stitch had left, before eventually snapping back into a proper upright shape, the now lifeless door replaced by a near exact duplicate. The tall figure cracked its neck, and drummed its talons on the nearby table. "This town is completely filled with party poopers," he complained.
Stitch, in the meantime, had spent some time previously going over maps of Equestria, since he was unfamiliar with it. It was unlikely that whatever was attacking the pastel colored equines was choosing to reside within the town. Unless it was a small creature like himself, which couldn't be ruled out completely seeing as he had no idea what it was. The ponies had been talking about something called a cockatrice, but the idea had been dismissed seeing as they were rather rare, and unlikely to be able to infiltrate Canterlot Castle. No, whatever it was had to be smarter than that. Smarter and larger.
Stitch's eyes glowed green in night vision mode, which allowed him to see quite clearly where he was going. He made his way quickly and silently to the edge of town, stalking along the edge of the large forest which bordered the town near Fluttershy's cottage. He didn't want to enter the forest completely, as dark and unfamiliar as it was. But it seemed to be a logical place for some pony hating creature to hide in.
He scurried straight up one of the taller trees near the edge of the forest, scanning for clues of any sort. Anything unusual that might be useful. In this instance, it didn't take long before he spotted smoke rising from the forest, and a faint orange glow coming from beneath it. Stitch grinned in triumph, and dropped down to the ground. Rolling into a ball, the alien rolled and bounced deeper into the forest towards the smoke. He popped out of Morph Ball mode just long enough to peek out from behind a rock. A small fire was burning, and a decent sized figure was huddled up next to it, wrapped in a cloak and, to Stitch, looking quite suspicious.
Wasting no time, Stitch bolted forward and shoved the potato bag over the silent figure, which instantly resulted in quite annoyed kicking and yelling. It was still no match for Stitch's strength, however, and he hauled his catch over his shoulder and made a run for home. After putting out the fire, of course. Just because he was in a hurry didn't excuse being careless about fire safety. Perhaps his methods were a little unorthodox, but Rainbow Dash had told him nothing good ever came out of the Forest, so certainly anything that looked like it lived there had to be a suspect.
Having made such a hurried exit from the scene of the now extinguished campfire, Stitch had no reason to look back over his shoulder at the campsite. Had he done so, he may very well have seen the large creature whom everypony was looking for, who had been moments away from another victim. Having been robbed of his target, the look on the creature's face was an equal mixture of disappointment and rage. He pointed a dirty claw in the direction the alien had gone, a low growl escaping his throat. 
"I'll get you yet, my pretty. And your little dog, too." He snarled, and disappeared back into the forest.
Meanwhile, Stitch entered through Fluttershy's door with his bagged catch still kicking and making quite a racket, and Fluttershy crashed out of her bedroom as if she was on fire.
"What's all this noise!?" The pegasus demanded quietly.
"Yeah, what gives?!" Rainbow Dash had woken as well from the guest room, and the two were instantly looking at Stitch for an explanation. Rarity and Pinkie  had housed up together, much to the unicorn's protesting. The buddy system   was the safest way to prevent another attack, and Rarity had still not forgotten the last time she'd been stuck alone with Pinkie Pie. Those two would have to be filled in when morning came.
"Stitch catch culprit in forest!" He announced, throwing down the struggling parcel in the middle of the room. 
Fluttershy instantly appeared frightened. "Oh, Stitch, what if it's a poor little animal? You could have hurt it!"
Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, clapped her front hooves together. "Action first, talk later! That's what I like to see! Let's see what ya got, Stitch! Maybe we can  put an end to all these attacks and get a medal or something!"
Despite being the middle of the night, everypony seemed to be awake now, and excitedly waiting to find out what Stitch had caught in the forest. Stitch opened the end of the bag and dumped out his extremely annoyed catch, and the smile vanished from Rainbow's face.
"Oh, crap." Rainbow groaned.
The blue unicorn who had tumbled out of the bag was absolutely furious, and her eyes danced with rage. "Trixie demands an explanation AT ONCE!" she said.