Twilight sent word to her friends to make sure they weren't startled by their strange new visitor. She also sent word to the Princesses about Patchwork and her findings. She recieved this note in reply:

My Faithful Student,
I am very curious about this new pony (although, I can't necessarily say I approve of how you went about getting your information.). I've heard of things like this happening before, though. Send me whatever information you can about her. Perhaps we could use her strange abilities...

Sincerely, Princess Celestia

Twilight, now armed with the orders from her Princess, grabbed her notepad and quill and set out with Patchwork (or Patches, for short.) on a "walk around Ponyville".

Patches and Twi went about their business, going throughout town. Although most were warned about their new guest, many still stared with bewilderment and curiousity. No one knew how to react to a giant stuffed animal walking around like Patches. Patches however didn't seem to notice all the staring or comments. Or perhaps, she didn't care. They soon arrived at Applejack's cart.

"Hey Applejack!"
"Hey Twilight! Is this Patches?" Applejack asked, nodding toward her stuffed companion (though she already knew the answer).
"Yep, that's her alright..." She said with a giggle. "We're here for a few apples."

Applejack gave Twilight a bag of apples and took her bits. But then Patches chimed in.

"It's okay Twi! I got it!~" Patches said with a smile.

Twilight was right in the middle of putting the apples into her saddlebag when she said that. Twilight smiled a bit.

"What? The apples?"
"Yeah!"
"You don't even have saddlebags...."
"I don't need saddlebags, silly!"

Twilight shrugged and offered the bag to Patches for her to take. Much to Twilight's surprise, Patches, rather than taking the bag with her mouth like she thought she would, took the entire thing into her mouth and swallowed it whole! Applejack rubbed her eyes to make sure she saw that right.

"Did you just swallow 6 apples in a bag whole?!" She exclaimed.
"Uh-huh." Patches didn't seem fazed at all. "Why?"
"Are they still intact?" Twilight asked.
"Of course they are!" Patches said with a smile. And then, as if she's been doing it her entire life, she spat up the bag of apples and caught it with her mouth right before it slipped out and hit the ground.

Applejack couldn't stop staring with her mouth agape. Twilight on the other hand was too busy taking notes on Patches' strange ability. Patches then swung her head back and swallowed the bag once more. (A/N: For the readers, I'll keep track of Twilight's notes as we go along!)

Twilight's Notes:

-Specimen can swallow large objects whole. Size limit not yet known.
-Specimen can also regurgitate any swallowed objects.
-Organic material swallowed by specimen undamaged. (Specimen has no digestive acids or any other fluids in her body. She seems to be completely like a stuffed animal.)
-Possibility that specimen can be used to store and transport goods?

Twilight and Patches said goodbye to Applejack, who was still a little unnerved about the whole thing, and continued on their way. They soon came across Fluttershy, who looked nervous around Patches. Patches however seemed perfectly comfortable. They interacted for a little while before a passing cart splashed the trio with mud from a puddle nearby. The stallion pulling the cart didn't have any time to apologize, as he was in a hurry.

Twilight and Fluttershy groaned a bit and started to scrape the mud out of their manes and fur. But Patches just shook her body (much like a dog would) and all the mud came off. Not a single stain or mud splat was present on her! The two of them stared at her for a minute, and Twilight wrote this down:

Twilight's Notes:

-Specimen's 'fur' (fabric?) and mane cannot be stained.
-Specimen also seems to be easily cleaned, even from the stickiest of messes.

Fluttershy then had the idea of going to the spa to clean up. So the 3 of them went out to the spa for a bath. Well...Twi and Flutters did. Patches kind of just stood in the lobby...She seemed nervous about the water. Twilight made sure to take note of that before taking her bath.

Twilight's Notes:

-Specimen doesn't like water

Well, after cleaning up, Twilight bid farewell to Fluttershy and the trio became a duo once more. They continued walking around for about an hour. Soon, Rainbow Dash spotted the pair while she was resting on a cloud.. She snickered, planning on doing a fly-by to startle her friends. So she got into position, then took off from her cloud toward the ground-bound friends. She flew over them from a distance first, then turned tail and zoomed down toward them from the front.

Twilight dove out of the way upon seeing Rainbow zipping toward them, but Patches didn't care. She stood there and went to say hi, but ended up with a mouthful, followed closely by a throatful, then a bellyful of Pegasus....Patches didn't even know how to respond to that. She just looked at her underside and saw Rainbow making quite a racket in there. She drew her head back and then spat out the Pegasus onto the ground.

"Sorry, Dashie! I didn't mean to!"
"YOU JUST ATE ME!!"

Patches just shrugged meekly and smiled. Twilight simply stared for 2 seconds, then scribbled down more notes. Rainbow on the other hand couldn't get over the fact that she was just ingested, then regurgitated by a stuffed animal. Twilight then quickly approached.

"Rainbow! Do you think you could quickly tell me what you saw in there?" She asked.
"Well.....All I remember was flying toward you two, then suddenly everything turned into a tight pink tunnel followed by a weird pouch. It was really dark in there, but it was soft all around. That's when I realised that she had eaten me!"

Twilight scribbled down everything before asking, "Well did you see anything at all? Fluids, food, anything?"
"No...Just pink fluffy darkness."
"Alright...Sorry about the questions...Princess wanted me to take notes on our friend here."
"Sorry again Dashie..." Patches said with a giggle, seemingly totally comfortable about everything.
"I-It's fine...just don't do that again?....Please?"
"No promises." Patches said with a giggle.

Twilight's Notes:

-Specimen has ingested a full grown Pegasus (namely Rainbow Dash; by accident, I should mention)
-Rainbow emerged without physical harm
-Quoted with it being "Pink, fluffy darkness" inside of specimen's supposed digestive system
-No mention of anything else.
-Size limit for mouth and throat has been increased to the size of an adult mare or smaller

Finally, the day was done and the two of them returned to the library. Twilight had just ONE more thing to check out...

"Um Patches?"
"Yes, Twi?" She said with a smile completely devoid of pessimism.
"Would you be willing to swallow a camera snake and let it record what it's like inside your belly?"
"Well sure!" She said with a smile. "But wouldn't it be easier to just go down yourself?" She questioned.
"Uhhh......" Twilight didn't want to say 'yes' despite Patches being correct. "Nevermind. Let me just go get my camera snake."

Twilight left the room then returned with a regular camcorder.
"But I thought you were getting a camera snake. That doesn't look all that snake-like." Patches remarked with a giggle.

Twilight then proceeded to tie a string to it and giggled awkwardly.
"Ta-da? A home-made....camera......snake." Her ears flattened. "Nevermind. Just let me turn it on Record, and then we'll get started."

Patches sat on the floor with a long string coming out of her mouth. She had to keep her mouth open so that the string would go through easily. Meanwhile, the camera had a very very long patch cord connected to a screen that Twilight had set up. The purple unicorn watched the screen the entire time, making sure to write down every detail....:

Twilight's Notes:

-Specimen's digestive track is being recorded with a camera
-Footage shows that the specimen's throat 'tissue' is similar to that of a regular pony
-Stretchable fabric of an unknown make lines the entire esophagus
-The 'stomach' is made of a similar material
-Exit tunnel, presumably the entrance to specimen's mock intestinal tract is present near the back
-Audio from the footage shows signs of a 'heartbeat' despite the dissection showing that specimen doesn't have a visible heart

Finally, with her notes all written, re-written, spell-checked then re-written again, she had Spike send them off to Celestia. She sighed, and then heard Spike and Patches chatting. She didn't pay a whole lot of attention, but suddenly, the conversation ended and she heard something like Spike being dropped onto a pillow.....She turned and saw Patches with a sagging underside and a smile on her face.

"What.....were you two talking about?"
"Oh! Spike wanted to see what my tummy was like. So....I ate him!"

Twilight facehoofed. This was just getting weird.....

Little did she know that things were going to get a whole lot weirder....

Author's Note

Coming up next......Rarity makes stuffed toys. =)