Applejack was meeting with the staff of the Expo in the Glass Palace's office wing when her compact began buzzing and chiming like it had gone mad. "Pardon me, everypony," she said to the table full of businessponies. "I'll be just a moment." She cracked open the compact and looked into the mirror. "Yes, who is it?"

"I SWEAR WE DIDN'T DO IT, APPLEJACK!" the mirror screeched in Applebloom's voice.

Several of the ponies nearby nearly jumped out of their suits at the sudden shout. Applejack hastily covered the mirror with a hoof, trying to muffle the continued shouting. In a brief pause in the torrent she said "Applebloom, stop yellin' I'm right here! Now slow down and tell me what's wrong?"

The volume dropped several notches as the filly repeated herself, giving Applejack a breakdown of what happened. Once Applejack had the gist of it, she felt the blood drain from her face. "Maker save us all," she breathed. "Another one!" She looked down the table at everypony. "Ladies and gentleponies, you might want to rustle up your security and get them on the move," she said. "We might have us a situation!"

"What kind of a situation?" a portly mustachioed stallion halfway down the table asked in alarm.

"I gotta patch through to Celestia to be sure," Applejack said. "But it looks like we got us another draconequus on the loose!"

---

Celestia was enjoying a brief hour or two of respite. She was lounging on her divan on the balcony while one of her guard- a thestral who had transferred to the day watch- massaged her hooves. "Oof," she murmured. "Right there, Duskfall... blast, my frogs have been aching these past few..." Her compact rang. "Hm, what might this be?" she said. She pulled it out and flipped it open.

"Dog gone it Celestia," Applejack's open-country voice bellowed from the mirror, "haven't you ever heard of an ordinary JAIL?"

"Wait, What? Who?" Celestia said in shock. This had to be something serious indeed, for Applejack of all ponies to be shouting at her like this.

"One of your ding-donged time-release troublemakers just popped his cork, that's what!" Applejack said. "I'm down in the middle of the Glass Palace, lookin' at the statue he escaped from right now!" The mirror swiveled, showing a neightalian statue of Bold Lion with a rather sizable hole in its base. "There's a single-serving size draconequus running around the Expo right now, doing Maker knows what to Maker knows what!"

"I don't understand," Celestia said, perplexed. "I didn't imprison any other Draconequi."

"What?"

"I didn't know there were any other Draconequi. Are you certain it was-"

"Babs an' Applebloom saw him escape, an' except for bein' knee high to a grasshopper they said he was the spittin' image of THIS jasper." The mirror's image swiveled again, revealing an extraordinarily ugly statue standing in prominence off to one side.

"I can understand the mistake," Celestia murmured. "He's certainly odd-looking enough-"

"I choose to take that personally," a voice behind her huffed. Celestia started and looked behind her. Discord was hovering behind her, his arm crossed and sulking. Celestia rolled her eyes and chose to ignore him.

"But I assure you I have no recollection of this creature," she finished saying. "And certainly not of imprisoning it in a neightalian statue of Bold Lion..."

"Wait, let me see that." Discord reached over her shoulder and plucked the compact out of the air. "Turn that thing around so we can see- aha! Oh, him! Hah! Long time no see..."

"You know this 'Malfunziona?' " Celestia said. "Discord," she said, a warning tone in her voice. "What is your connection to this creature?"

"He's one of my cousins," Discord said disdainfully. "A lesser cousin, I might add. Totally small potatoes. The runt of the litter, at least back when I ruled." he tossed the compact over his shoulder, forcing Celestia to snatch it out of the air.

"Lesser Draconequus?" Celestia queried.

"Of course, that was why he was such small potatoes," Discord snorted. "I'm a Chaos entity, I get more powerful the more chaos I cause, in general. But Malfy was a lesser, which meant he was a specialist. He specialized in causing breakdowns in things like architecture, machinery, that sort of thing.

"How come I never heard of him? He sounds like a thoroughly dangerous entity."

"How would he be? What chaos could he cause back in Equestria 500 years ago?" Discord snorted. "Make a loom tangle? A spinning wheel or two break down? In fact that's probably why he stayed so puny... and why you ponies are lagging so far behind technology wise. Any time you built anything more complex than a wagon wheel, he was there, sneaking around, making it break down... making you mistrustful of progress and invention. He obviously kept it up long after I was made to drink from the Harmony Rainbow Riot Hose." He smirked at Celestia. "It's rather amusing, actually... you imprisoned me, defeated Sombra, even banished your little sister- but never even noticed the little menace who was actually keeping your little ponies stuck in the dark ages."

"So how'd he end up in a neightalian statue in the middle of the Expo?" Applejack demanded to know.

Discord snapped his fingers. A mortarboard appeared on his head and an enormous tome entitled "Ye History of Ye Worlde" appeared in his paw. "If I were to wager a guess," he said, flipping through the book backwards, letting several centerfolds fall out, "the little twerp got bored making iron ploughs rust and flew off to Neightaly to cause grief for this Bold Lion fellow. Hey, world's greatest historical inventor, his workshop was probably like a catnip mouse to Malfunziona. He cheesed Bold Lion off, and unfortunately for him Bold Lion was clever enough to figure out how to imprison him and stick him inside that statue. Any moderately competent unicorn could probably do it."

"Oh dear," Celestia said. "I'm starting to remember... Bold Lion writing me a letter about having 'subdued the spirit of disorder' or some such. I thought he was just being poetic again." She rubbed her chin. "The only thing I can't figure is why he chose to hide the canister inside a statue of himself?"

"Because he figured nopony would ever move it?" Discord suggested. "After all, it's not like anypony was going to buy a selfie." He whipped out a camera, pointed it at himself, and took several photos of himself making faces.

"Or more likely, because it was supposed to be over Bold Lion's tombstone," the batpony massaging Celestia's hooves said. At Celestia and Discord's stare he said "I studied Reneighsance artists in school. Bold Lion carved that statue to stand over his own grave."

"Which would have meant that the statue would remain undisturbed out of respect," Celestia mused. "While the statue of Malfunziona would have been a red herring for anyone seeking to release the chaos spirit. Clever stallion; Bold Lion always did love multi-layered tricks like that. Have you evacuated the building yet?" Celestia asked the mirror.

"No, we're keepin' it on the lowdown," Applejack replied. "I got mah Roughnecks an' the convention security siftin' through, keepin' an eye out for the little booger. We didn't want to risk a panic, or him escapin' when everyone started pouring out of the Expo..."

"Wait, did you say Expo?" Discord said.

"Yeah, it's the annual Trade Expo in Baltimare," Applejack said. "This one's pretty big, it's a warmup for the World's Fair next year-"

"Ohhhhh dear," Discord said. He looked a bit green.

"What? What?"

"I told you already, Malfunziona specializes in architecture and machinery," Discord snapped. "But up until this point he hasn't wreaked havoc on anything more complex than a wooden clock. But this Expo, I've heard about them- it's choc a block with more cutting-edge technology and inventions than all of Equestria had in the thousand years prior combined. He is going to get very powerful, very fast." He looked sick. "He'll probably be as powerful as me at my peak in a matter of hours."

"And if he gets out into the city..." Celestia had visions of the factories, buildings, streets full of vehicles, stores full of consumer gadgets and households full of appliances in Baltimare feeding this monster to power beyond reason.

"He'll get powerful enough to knock you all back down to the stone age," Discord finished for her, waving a wooden club and sporting a Fred Flintstone outfit.

"Applejack! Have you learned to cast a sealing spell yet?" Celestia asked.

"Ah, yeah, just the magical kindy-garten type..."

"That doesn't matter for now. For now, cast it on the Glass Palace itself. Pour everything you have into it. That will keep Malfunziona from escaping... at least for a while."

"Ponies might panic if they find out they're trapped."

"It won't matter if you don't trap Malfunziona before he gains much more power," Discord said dryly. "You've got maybe an hour, I figure, before he's too powerful for you to stop alone."

"I'll send out a message to Baltimare's city Thaumaturgy office," Celestia said. "They'll be out there with a Logic Trap. It will hold a weakened draconequus, at least, till we can secure him more permanently. Till then you have to corner him, and you have to keep him from escaping the Palace."

"Great, no pressure then," Applejack said grimly. "All right, I'll get this shindig started. Uh, over an' out, I guess." She snapped the compact shut. "all right fellers, here's what we got to do. Dime Shift, have security lock all the gates. And tell the maintenance staff to put up signs and barricades... label 'em 'under repair' or 'wet cement' or somethin'. That'll keep ponies from askin' too many questions, at least for an hour or so."

"Good thinking, your Highness!" Dime Shift said.

"Shut down everything powered. Pass the word around to the folks runnin' demos. Have 'em shut down anything they got runnin', mebbe even dismantle 'em if they can. The less this jasper has to break down, the less he'll have to feed on."

"Not all of them can just shut down-"

"Well it'll have to do," Applejack said. "Git some entertainment going- put a band out on the floor. Pay the vendors to pass out free drinks and snacks, too; it'll help keep people from getting agitated."

"And we'll be able to shut down the ovens and the freezers too," somepony said. "If anyone asks, blame it on a power failure or the like. In fact make that the cover for why all the lights and what not are out."

It's going to get stuffy in here soon," someone worried.

"Git some weather ponies in the air, have 'em make some cloudcover. Heck, make it rain indoors, have 'em put on a weather demo for the folks. Dang, wish Rainbow Dash was here...

"And Malfunziona?"

"Send security out in groups of two or three, have at least one unicorn in every group. I'm told an average unicorn is good enough to keep him pinned- so long as he's still weak. You boys find him, We'll come runnin' with that bronze cylinder; I reckon I kin stuff him back in his can when we catch him. We only got an hour, so let's get a move on.

"Well, what're you all waitin' for? Git!" Ponies galloped off or took to the air.

"And what will you do, Highness?" Grey Wolf, the commander of her Roughnecks, asked.

"I'm gonna be busy makin' sure this overgrown glass jar don't leak," she said. She trotted to the center of the roundabout, pointed her horn at the peak of the dome, and fired. A stream of orange light shot from her horn to strike the glittering dome; it spread down over the crystal-and-steel walls, illuminating the Glass Palace from top to bottom and end to end before it faded away. Applejack took a seat, her horn still glowing and her eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Hurry up, everypony," she muttered. "We ain't got much time..."

Maybe even less time than she'd thought; already, she could hear shouts of alarm, and things breaking in the distance.

---

Applebloom was not a happy camper. Everypony was going to blame the Cutie Mark Crusaders, namely HER, for everything. Again. She just knew it. She had to catch that Malfunziona rascal, or there'd be no hearin' the end of it!

She galloped along in the direction she'd last seen the wisp of cloud flee, Lockheed flying escort overhead. The lights in the palace went out; was that him at work already? She passed several pavilions that looked like they'd already had a run-in; she saw workers scratching their heads in bafflement over suddenly stilled machines, and at least one or two where smoke and sparks were leaping out. An enormous mobile sculpture made of dozens of enormous turning gears suddenly jumped off all its axles and fell apart, sending wagon-wheel sized cogs and sprockets rolling down the midway, ponies dodging and scattering in every direction.

The Glass Palace was an enormous dome, with two vaulted hallways branching off it, North and South. Those went on a few hundred yards and then branched again, east and west, and then each branch ended in a dome of its own. Applebloom followed the trail of increasing damage and exasperated inventors to the Northeast dome. Malfunziona was there. He had already grown to the size of a large dog, and was banging on the glass of the dome in frustration. Applebloom sighed in relief; for whatever reason he couldn't escape the Palace.

"Applejack, Babs, we found 'im!" Applebloom shouted into her compact. "He's in the Northeast dome, and he- wuh oh." The angry draconequus had heard her. He wheeled on her with a hiss. "You again!" he said. "I don't know why you follow me, tu piccola peste-"

Lockheed didn't wait for him to finish. The gryphon divebombed at the draconequus, talons outstretched. They only closed on empty air; Malfunziona dissolved into smoke before he closed the distance. He reappeared, hovering high in the dome as Lockheed smacked into the glass with a painful thwack.

"Found me already? Keeping me from leaving? Well, it looks like I'm going to have to up my game if I want to keep enjoying my freedom, hmm?" he said as Lockheed slid stunned to the ground. "I've already gotten tanto caos from just la mia piccola gita down the length of this building! Maybe it's time I spread out the workload, eh?..." He snapped his crooked fingers, and suddenly there were three of him. With a mad cackle they shot off in every direction.

"Oh, no," Applebloom moaned.

---

The Southeast dome was where most of the more agricultural exhibits were located. There wasn't much in the way of technology or machinery there- most of the displays were of new strains of seed or breeds of farm animal- but nopony was taking any chances. Omari, Appleseed, and Growf (Grunt's brother) had been sent there with one of the Roughneck's unicorns to make sure any live machinery was shut down.

"Typical. Send the farm pony out to check the livestock," Appleseed said as he looked over the animal cages. There were pens and cages full of ducks, chickens, piglets, amphibians, insects, even several varieties of rodents for some reason. "Like I can't handle anything more complicated than checkin' on cages of animals. I'm bein' stereotyped, here..."

Omari grunted. "Keep talking, farmboy. I swear, you ponies take a look at a striped face and you think he's fresh from the jungle."

"Whaddy'awl mean 'you ponies?' Ya racist barber pole," Appleseed snorted. Omari chuckled, amused.

"Do you two always squabble like this?" the black-and-white unicorn with them said irritably as he magically scanned the room. They looked at one another.

"Meh..."

"Yeah, pretty much..."

"On average yeah."

He said nothing, just half-lidded his eyes and kept scanning.

"Ponies flap mouths too much," Growf grumbled. "Nose to ground, ears open. Statue monster could be here." It was a constant source of vexation to the scholarly diamond dog that ponies constantly estimated his intelligence as slightly above that of a stapler. As if it was his fault that the canid tongue, palate and jaw weren't shaped to properly pronounce half the words in common Equestrian. He snuffed the air carefully. Gah, too many farm animals. Not that he was sure the scent he'd picked up at the statue wasn't just that of powdered marble...

"Eh, no machines in here for him to mess with, and he doesn't have magic that affects animals, they said," Appleseed said. "We should be good."

Unfortunately for Appleseed and his compatriots, while Malfunziona knew he would gain nothing from throwing mere animals and plants into chaos, he did however grasp the concept of force multipliers and dividing enemy forces. A rotunda full of temperamental livestock fit the bill...and the latches on cages counted as mechanical devices. A crooked, zigzag shadow zipped in behind them and, with a throaty giggle, snapped its fingers.

The Roughnecks froze as every gate, cage door, and terrarium around them lid popped open. They watched in dawning horror as a lit string of firecrackers sailed into the middle of the room. Omari summed it up for all of them.

"Oh, BUCK."

The dome exploded in shrieking, squalling, squawking, quacking, feathers and hair.

"THE FROGS, THE FROGS!"

"I'M BIT! AIEE!"

"SQUIRRELS! AAAAGH! GEDDEMOFF GEDDEMOFF! WHO THE HELL BREEDS SQUIRRELS?"

"WATCH OUT FOR THE GEESE!"

"THE GRASSHOPPERS ARE LOO- AAACk- PHTOOEY!"

"SQUIRRELS! ROWF! SQUIRRELS! SQUIRRELS! ROWF!"

"QUIT CHASING THOSE SQUIRRELS AND HELP ME WITH THESE!"

"MAYDAY, MAYDAY, CALLING FOR BACKUP!"

---

The Nightshade triplets were in the Northeast dome, swooping in and out among the aircraft hanging on display there. They were supervising as the staff lowered a half dozen experimental flying machines from the ceiling, while their unicorn backup, LimeBerry and Snap Shot, patrolled below, scanning for the escaped draconequus and standing ready with a bubble-trap spell.

"Hustle, ponies, hustle!" the sister of the trio shouted as she circled the pegasus workers. "We need those things on the ground, not dangling a hundred feet over ponies' heads."

"Ease up lady," one of them griped. "We're working as fast as we can!"

"Work faster," her brother snapped. His bat-fanged scowl made the worker gulp. "We've got a magic-using saboteur loose in the pavilion, and we need the displays shut down and secured. He could sabotage this setup with a snap of his-" he paused as he realized that he could hear a fanblade going and could feel a breeze. "Tartarus, who went and turned the ventilation fans back on-"

There was a cough and a roar. He looked behind him, saw smoke and sparks coming from the engine of one of the nearby ornithopters. Then the autogyro next to it rumbled to life. Panicked workers scattered.

"Oh. Never mind then..." He thought. Then the guy lines snapped.

---

Babs galloped along as fast as her stubby foal legs would take her. All around her lightbulbs were popping- whether they were on or off- and gadgets were randomly flying apart. "Ahh, horseapples, he's upped his game!" she said. She tried to run faster.

Grunt chugged along behind her. "Make way for Pony! Make way for Pony! ...Pony, slow down for Grunt!" he shouted between pants. His tongue was lolling out of his mouth in distress. Little pug legs were not made for long distance races, and the bangs, whistles and screeches all around were setting off every doggy panic nerve he had.

To his surprise she granted his request and screeched to a halt. They were halfway down the South hall, where a row of potionmakers and alchemical companies had set up their wares. There were sounds of a tumult up ahead; ponies were running AWAY from it at speed. Babs noticed that the path was littered with tubes, jars and bottles. She stopped and picked a few up to read the label. " Shampoo? hair gel? Whoa. Mane and Tail ultra-perm conditioner." She grabbed a canvas bag, threw the strap around her shoulder and started gathering things up.

"What you doing?" Grunt yowled in exasperation.

"Are you kiddin'? Dis stuff is QUALITY." She bagged a couple jars of mane dye.

A moment later several large, shaggy somethings galloped past, screaming in terror. "Da hay?" Babs stomped on the last one's tail, bringing it to a yelping halt.

"AaAh! Help! Run away!" it shouted.

Babs carefully parted the mass of hair till a face peeped out. Underneath the massive tangle of mane hair was a pony. "Da heck is dis?"

"Something went wrong up at the Mane and Tail display!" he said. "They were showing how their new hair growth tonic was made and the mixer just... exploded! Undiluted tonic everywhere! Everyone's manes started growing out of control! And then the Indie Alchemy Labs booth right next door had a leak and... it's horrible, just horrible!"

There was a roar from up ahead. The terrified pony hobbled to his hooves and galloped for his life. "Run away! Run away!"

"Fat lotta good DAT would do," Babs growled and charged onward.

"Still sound like better plan than this!" Grunt yowped, but he followed.

They got clear of the last of the runners and skidded to a halt.

"Gedda load o' dat," Babs gaped.

Not fifty feet ahead, recognizable by the giant steel scissors and comb on the banner, stood the Mane and Tail display booth. Standing in the middle of it, raging and roaring and rapidly reducing what was left of the booth to splinters, was an enormous tangled mat of hair. There were ponies embedded in it, stuck to it by their overgrown manes, screaming in terror and yelling for help. Several Roughnecks and a handful of staff security had the thing surrounded and were jabbing at it with swords and spears, to no effect. A second later a pony with smoking hair and pockets full of test tubes went running past, cackling "It's alive! It's alive! They said my Vitality formula was rubbish, but now they'll all see!-"

"We gotta rescue those ponies!" Babs said.

"How we suppose to fight THAT thing?" Grunt said. "What we gonna use to fight a giant ball of-"

The roaring beast flailed with its matted fists. The crumbling booth exploded, splintered wood and bent steel shelving flying in every direction. There was a whirring noise, and the giant novelty scissors from the booth's banner, easily as tall as Babs was long from nose to tail, embedded themselves with a THWANG! point first in the floor. They stood there in front of her, proud and gleaming as Excalibur.

Babs gaped for a moment, then gave Grunt a smug smirk. "My," she said. "What an amazin' coincidence-"

---

Omari and his group stood in the Northeast pavilion, back to back, beating a slow retreat behind their shields. "We need something to subdue these animals!" Omari shouted.

"Like what?" Appleseed shouted.

"Like tear gas! Or- I don't know!" Omari shouted back as an enraged chicken bounced off his shield. "Tranquilizers or something!"

"Did you say tranquilizers?"

"That sounds like our cue, brother!"

Omari looked behind them. They had backed up to a small, but well-built and rather razzle-dazzle looking booth and table on- unfortunately- the far side of the roundabout from the exit. Crouched behind the overturned table were two unicorn stallions with freckles and bright red hair. The only way to tell them apart was one seemed to be missing most of his right ear. They gave him disarming- or perhaps alarming, considering the circumstances- grins. "Hello, officers! We're the Weasel brothers. He's Gred-" the first one said, pointing to the other.

"-And he's Forge," said the other. "Of Farm and Family Friendly Research Pharmaceuticals"

"-Or FFFRP, for short."

"-Formerly Weasel's Wheezes," came the explanation,"However any company by that name was banned from the convention due to a misunderstanding some years ago-"

"Something about our Balloon Bon Bons and the director's wife getting stuck in the top of the pavilion dome for six hours," Forge said, pausing to fend off a charging gaggle of ducks with an umbrella. "Not our fault the woman's such a pig- the label clearly states not to consume more than a dozen in one sitting-"

"But a name change seemed political," his brother said. "Unfortunately putting "farm" in the name of our company's new subdivision led to us being put in here."

The guards began questioning the wisdom of enlisting the aid of two ponies whose business' name was the sound effect for a loud fart. "Wait, Weasel family?" Appleseed said. "Ain't you- ack!" he had to push back a panicking pig. "Ain't you them fellas that raise ferrets for pest control?"

"That would be the jolly old family business. It's run by our older brother, over there," Gred pointed. Across the way a slightly balding, redheaded pony with a fang earring was perched atop a stack of cages. He was covered in scratches and bites and was surrounded by a mob of weasels, stoats and ferrets with obvious evil on their mind. They were using their little paws to shake the stack of crates, making it sway alarmingly.

"I told mother raising dragons would be safer!" he yelled.

"Understandably we decided to blaze our own trail, as it were," Forge said.

"You said you could help?" Growf said.

"Indeed, we have something that might quellish things-"

"But we've been too busy fending for our lives to get it out-"

"If you could cover for us-"

"Deal!" Omari barked. "Roughnecks, give these two a phalanx!" The four of them locked shields and stood their ground. Behind them the Weasel twins dove into some frantic activity as birds and beasts rattled claws and hooves on their shields. After several tense minutes, Gred (or was it Forge?) tapped Omari and Appleseed on the shoulder. "Hold these," they both said, handing each of them the end of a bungie cord.

"What is this?" Appleseed said. The bungie went taut; he looked over his shoulder to see the brothers pulling a bucket back as far as the cords through its handles would stretch.

"Delivery system," Gred and Forge said, and they released.

The bucket shot over their heads, launching a water balloon full of something up into the rafters. It struck the highest point in the dome and burst, spraying a liquid in every direction that rapidly evaporated into a silvery cloud that sifted down over the room. "Here, eat these," Gred said, pressing an after dinner mint on each of them.

"These?" Growf said, chomping.

"Antidote," Forge said. "for our Desperation Dinner Ditching Drops. Let's say you're in the middle of a potentially disastrous dining situation-"

"Hearthwarming family dinner," Gred suggested. "When all those cousins you barely know and that uncle you can't stand all show up..."

"When it looks like the traditional enormous family row is about to break out, you eat one of the yellow mints, drop one of the green mints in your drink-" the invisible vapors descended, and birds, mammals, and amphibians alike teetered about, blinked groggily, and then flopped down where they were and began snoring loudly. "-you flee to safety while everyone else has a nice long after-dinner nap."

In a matter of moments, all the animals (and a number of ponies) were conked out on the floor, peaceful as lambs.

"Nice work, gentleponies," Omari said. He got a calculating look in his eye as he considered the results before him. "We'll want to contact you after this crisis is over-"

Gred smiled and held out a stapled brochure. "Our catalog," he said.

---

The Nightshade triplets were having a bit of a rough go of it. They'd managed to cut down all the hanging aircraft but three. The autogyro had flipped, dove straight down and crashed; the ornithopter had, in a moment of ironic apropos, flown out to the end of its tether, flapped its way around in a wide circle, and dashed itself beak first into the glass and steel windows of the dome. The prototype biplane, on the other hand, had not been so cooperatively suicidal. Ironically it had been built with a self-stabilizing gyroscopic system that enabled it to fly even without a pilot. Malfunziona's hex had fried the off-switch so it was stuck in "on" and froze the throttle wide open, so it was now doing its mechanical damnedest to gain altitude and speed and fly in a straight line... regardless of any architecture that should coincidentally be in the way.

The triplets, for their part, were doing their damnedest to make sure it didn't. Foxfire was clinging to one ribbed, batlike upper wing, his brother Frost was clinging to the other, and their sister Moonpenny was hunched down in the cockpit, wrestling with the less than responsive controls. "What idiot filled the tank before putting this thing on display?" she screeched, yanking at the yoke.

"They didn't, they had to fly the thing here!" Frost screeched back. "It must have had a gallon or two left over!"

"What do we do? We can't land this thing!" Moonpenny shrieked over the redlining motor. "It'll just lawnmower its way down the Midway!"

Foxfire shuddered in horror at the mental image. "We'll have to fly it back and forth till it runs out of gas!" he shouted. He hung on for dear life as the plane swerved to avoid a hanging sign. "Ditch it into the reflecting pool down the middle of the South wing!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Frost shouted.

"Except for one thing," Moonpenny shrieked. "I don't know how to fly this thing!" She was acutely aware of the irony that she, a natural born flying creature, was about to die in a horrible crash.

"Aw c'mon, we're batponies! We can fly ourselves! How hard could it be?" Frost yelled, laughing in panic.

"AAAAH, Hard right, hard right! Pull your aileron up!"

"What?"

"The flappy thing!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

---

Lockheed had been stunned silly. Applebloom had no choice; she roped one of the convention staff into looking after him and had galloped off to look for the Draconequus. She could hear the growing mayhem scattered throughout the Glass Palace. But she thought she had Malfunzio figured out. The more malfunctions he caused, the more powerful he grew. And the fastest way he could cause a LOT of malfunctions really fast...

She skidded to a halt in front of Kilo Wattz's booth. "Mr. Kilo Wattz!" she shouted. "You gotta shut everything down!"

Kilo Wattz was examining something that looked like a potato-powered table fan. "Shut down, what, why?" he asked.

"Malfunzio," Applebloom panted. "He's back. He's real. He's causin' chaos up an' down the pavilion-" a flying machine covered in screaming batponies roared by overhead. Applebloom ducked, and went on. "An' the more damage he causes, the more powerful he gets! If he gets to your electrical doodads-"

"Really? Great Scott! I'd better disconnect everything-" Kilo Wattz hastily unplugged the potato from his fan. He began disconnecting leads and unplugging plugs. For an added measure of security he started eating the potato.

"But the Fizzing Whizbees..." Applebloom said, pointing to the glowing glass cylinders.

Kilo Wattz threw his hooves wide in bafflement. "What can I do about them? I can't just... switch them off!"

Applebloom felt awful for saying it, but this was dire. "You gotta fumigate 'em," she said.

"Are you nuts?" said the insect pony in the neighboring booth. "No can do! Bug spray is FLAMMABLE."

"Oh boy, now what?" Applebloom said.

"Oh no need to worry about that," said a voice overhead. "I'll be taking that problem off your hooves." They all looked up. Circling overhead like a crooked-backed chinese dragon was Malfunzio. He was at least eight feet long now... not counting how his crooked spine bent at right angles. "Oh, my applause to the little filly," he said in a heavy neightalian accent, clapping his mangled paws together. "She figured it out. Ben fatto, il mio piccolo."

"Figured what out?" Kilo Wattz said, scowling.

"Ah, it is quite simple," the draconequus sneered. "While I am a chaos being, I am... somewhat limited. I cannot play with your little toys, I can only break them. And my powers, I have no direct power over living things- and thus I gain nothing from them." His eyes glittered wickedly. "But oh, your api elettrici, your little 'fizzing whizbees,' they are, how you say, a loophole. The lightning they produce, oh, it does such wonderful things to your fragile creations..."

He snapped his fingers. the four cylinders rose into the air, shook violently, and then popped their lids. Four swarms of Fizzing Whizbees, enraged at such rough handling, swarmed out, and began immediately spreading as their anger-fueled agitation made their charge grow. "And after all," Malfunzio shouted over the growing buzz of the furious insects, "Am I not the original 'bug in the system?' With a whoop of laughter he twisted double and disappeared.

The Whizbees began attacking everything in sight. "Duck and cover!" Kilo Wattz shouted. He slid under his table, rump sticking out. A stray bolt of electricity cracked him across the rump, making him yip.

Applebloom yelped in pain as several of the bugs zapped her across the back and flank. She swatted at them only to get her hooves lightning stung for her trouble. She dove under the table with Kilo Wattz. "How do we stop them?" she cried.

"How should I know? I spent three days in the burn ward after I caught them! Why do you think I kept them in jars? Yowp!" he banged his head as he got stung again. "Get out of here! Run for it! I'll try to hold them off- though I... haven't got a clue what to do-"

Applebloom felt a chill run down her like ice water. She could see it, clear as day. "I know what to do," she said. She reached over and grabbed the half-eaten potato out of his hooves and stuffed it in her pannier.

"What?"

"Nevermind, too long to explain! On three- one- two-"

The two of them rolled out from under the table. Kilo Wattz grabbed the cloth off his table and began flailing it about, yelling mindlessly. Applebloom ran. She ran around, under, and over displays and tables, trying to make distance. She didn't get much; it only took a moment for a sizable swarm to break away from the main body and zoom after her. They trailed after her, zapping and biting.

At least nopony was in her way; the conventioneers and attendees were scattering like the Windigo horde was descending on them. The swarm after her lagged behind, distracted by screaming shouting ponies who foolishly flailed at them with tablecloths, clipboards, bare hooves, or worse tried to spray them with water, which only got them shocked. the Whizbees quite willingly stopped at these assaults to vent their ire on their would-be assailant, broadening Applebloom's lead.

Her first stop was a Helping Hoof tool booth. She clambered over the racks, snagging a Swiss army knife and- lucky break!- a roll of duct tape. A run and leap and she was racing across the tabletops of a Super Turbine vacuum cleaner display. "Sorry, gotta borrow this!" She snatched the latest model out of the cowering booth worker's hooves. She dove under the far curtain and rolled out on the floor.

She looked around frantically. The roar of the Whizbees was getting close. Where would she get- aha, a giant gumball machine...!

After pilfering an abandoned prench horn, she'd slid under a nearby band stand and gone to work. She'd never worked so frantically in her life; at the same time it didn't seem to matter- she could see every part in her head, feel how every connection should be made.

When she reemerged into the light, it was a whole new ballgame. The over-sized globe from the gumball machine served as a holding jar. The vacuum motor was stripped out of its case; the hose duct taped into place for security. The bell of the prench horn had met its fate and become the barrel of the gun. And everything was held together with stripped screws, dabs of superglue and layers of duct tape. But the Whizbee Collector Gun mark I was go.

She strapped the contraption she'd made to her back- she'd had to scavenge her panniers for the belt to go around her middle- and looked around. Whizbees were everywhere. But she needed one last thing...

Whizbees were swarming over an abandoned cart of perfume bottles. They were clustered most thickly around the large sample bottle of Eu de Spring number 5.

Perfect. Bait.

Ignoring the zaps from angry Whizbees, she waded in and took the bottle, and quickly duct taped it to the bell. A quick squeeze shot a spray of floral perfume twenty feet out. The Whizbees began swarming.

Applebloom pulled out her potato, wished briefly that it was a zap apple, and jammed it down on the tines of the power plug. The vacuum motor whined to life. She lifted the barrel, aimed it at the oncoming swarm, and pulled the trigger. With a whoosh, the fizzing whizbees were sucked out of the air and into the gumball globe.

Then she did something she wouldn't have thought of, back in that dream. She turned around, pulled out the earthing wire coiled under the motor, and jabbed the screwdriver taped at the end into the floor. With a crack, the charge the Whizbees had been accumulating grounded out. The Whizbees inside the jar immediately went docile.

Well, horseapples, Applebloom thought. I guess I ended up being a pest control pony after all. She decided she'd have time enough to mourn that later. There were Whizbees to stop. She galloped to the next swarm and started vacuuming again.

The next moment Grunt and Babs came running up beside her. Babs had a bag slung over one shoulder, and an enormous pair of scissors strapped across her back. She was sweaty and covered with hair clippings and her mane looked strangely wet, but she was grinning from ear to ear. "You wouldn't believe it, Applebloom," she said. "I cut everypony loose... it was nuttin' but hair. hair an' a giant pair of sneakers- one good dose o' hair oil and it fell apart-"

"Get me another gumball machine!" Applebloom yelled. She grounded out the bees again, twisted the globe off, and duct taped a toy balloon over the mouth. Rubber doesn't conduct electricity.

"What-"

"We gotta round up these Whizbees before they cause any more damage, or they make Malfunzio any more powerful!" She said. she set the sealed globe on the ground. "This'll do the trick," she said, hefting the gun. "But the Gumball things fill up fast. Get me more!" Babs and Grunt realized what she was doing and hustled to obey.

---

Applejack raged silently- and not so silently- in the center of the Glass Palace. Despite the precautions she had ordered, chaos had erupted all over the pavilion around her. And she hadn't done a thing.

She'd had no choice.

She wasn't slow; it was fairly obvious by the time that flying machine full of screaming batponies had flown overhead the first time that things had gone up pig puckey creek and got stuck. But just as she was about to stop recharging the sealing on the Palace- surely it would hold on its own for a few- and join the efforts to bring back control, old Malfunzio had made a showing. He'd appeared in front of her, his broken-back snake form nearly as large as his statue now, and waved a disjointed finger at her.

"Ah ah ah ah, mia bella principessa," he'd said, amused. "You don't want to be abandoning your little spell, right now. In fact... you might want to switch to something a little bit more... supportive." He unfolded his hands and emptied them. Dozens of gleaming metal bolts fell on the ground.

Applejack had shot a look down at the bolts, looked up at the dome, thousands of tons of glass laced together with steel rods and rivets- "You son of a-"

"Such language! Hai baciato tua madre con quella bocca?" He'd tsked at her. "Ah well, point made, Mia Bella Mela. You will not be interfering with my fun... unless you want your faithful little ponies to be crushed. ciao." Then he'd vanished again.

Sweating in earnest, Applejack switched from a sealing spell, to a binding one. The strain on her magic redoubled, as she now was carrying the lives of hundreds on her shoulders...

---

Applebloom worked her way up and down the Glass Palace... Maker, was she ever going to stop running up and down again?... Spraying perfume, luring the Whizbees in, sealing them in globe after globe. She was exhausted. She was bruised, sweaty, and her electric burns stung like the dickens, especially the ones on her rump. She probably looked like she'd sat in a bucket of coals, she thought to herself. Whatever.

She cornered the last swarm at the central rotunda, vacuumed it up, and sank to the ground with a groan. She'd ground it out in a minute... she was just too pooped. The rotunda was full of noise, enough to make her ears hurt.

It took her a minute to realize that the sound all around her was... applause.

"She did it!" somepony said. She looked up to see battered ponies scattered all around, stamping and cheering, Red Fort and Kilo Wattz leading the applause. She blinked in shock, then blushed as red as a pink lady as a warm glow spread inside her chest. Darn it, even if she did end up a bug pony, this wasn't too bad.

A moment later Omari and his group came trotting in double time. Lockheed was with him, his head wrapped in gauze. They were dinged up, scratched, bitten, and their armor had some stains on it that didn't bear close attention. Two red-headed ponies were behind them, grinning ear to ear at everyone. "The Southeast dome is secure," Omari shouted, snapping a salute at noone in particular.

Before anyone could respond, the runaway biplane made another pass, barely twenty feet off the floor.[1] it just passed the great dome when the engine, finally out of fuel, sputtered to a halt. They began to lose their last few feet of altitude.

"Oh crap, this is it-!" Moonpenny said.

"Hang tight guys, we gotta guide her in-"

"Goodbye you two, I love you guys-"

"Shut up and keep her steady !"

"aaaaaAAAAAAAA-" with a splash the landing gear skipped and hit the surface of the long, narrow reflecting pool. By the divine grace of an all-knowing and all-foreseeing God, the plane, being an experimental prototype, did not have wheels, but rather ski-like runners so that it could be launched from a track. Thus it did not noseplow like it should have, but instead skimmed down the surface of the pool. It lost speed smoothly and gradually, slowing to a halt at the very end of the pool so that its stalled propeller touched the nose of the seapony fountain statue with a faint metallic "ding."

The batpony triplets sagged in relief. Moonpenny slumped in the pilot's seat and grinned. "I kinda think I want one of these..."

Before anypony could exult in the miraculous landing, Applejack set up a shout. "Somepony get up here and help me!" she cried. Every roughneck in earshot rushed up onto the grandstand to where she stood, her horn and eyes locked on the sky.

"What is it, Highness?"

"It ain't over yet," she said, sweat trickling down her brow. "That broke-back son of a slug took the bolts out of the skylight. I don't know how long I can hold the dome up!" Immediately the unicorns present threw their own magic up to the dome. "No, don't fuss with me, get everypony out of here! The doors are open, I unsealed 'em, just evacuate, I kin throw up a shield..."

Low, cackling laughter filled the dome, along with the sound of slow applause. with a whoosh of smoke and chaos, the three Malfunzios appeared. With a 'vwoop' they melded back together in a singular form. Ponies quailed and moaned in fear. He was barely the size of his statue now, maybe twenty feet long at best, if one were able to straighten him out. Even so, in the mind's eye he towered. "Bravissimi, bravissimi," he chortled. "You modern ponies are much more, how you say, resourceful than I ever imagined. You actually overcame all my little challenges I threw your way." He looked around at the damage. "Well, for a given value of overcome, I suppose..."

"And so brave and noble! Your Principessa, willing to let all her little ponies flee to safety while she faces the peril alone. Of course, it is no peril for someone who can shield herself from a mere falling roof, no?

"But it will be not so easy, I think. Oh, the doors, they are open- but I do not think you little ponies can gallop far enough away..."

"What do you mean, Malfunziona?" Applejack gritted.

"I mean-" he pointed one of his broken-looking paws at the Thunderhead, still chugging serenely away, and snapped his fingers. The puffs of steam that had been chuffing out of the pistons suddenly stopped. Alarm whistles began blowing. The engine let out a faint groan. "I don't think you know just how bad it can get when this pretty new choo-choo engine goes wrong."

Red Fort jumped up in alarm. "Holy Maker he's jammed the governor!"

"Removed it actually," Malfunziona said. "And plugged the steam lines, and the emergency safety valve..." his chuckle grew to a booming laugh. "You see, mia Bella," he said to Applejack, "There's a certain drawback to using a sun stone to heat a boiler: you can't turn it off.

"This engine, she's-a sturdy built... but she won't hold forever. Soon, the pressure inside those ENORMOUS boilers will be too much and..." he made an exploding noise and flung his hands out. "As big as she is, the blast will take out this whole... glass... THING..." he looked around at the Glass Palace in loathing. "And everything in it. And everything for at least a mile around." He paused dramatically. "I wonder if an alicorn principessa can survive such a thing?

"Oh, I guess we will all find out soon enough." He cackled.

"Like heck!" Red Fort was already on the move. He galloped up to the Thunderhead and began climbing the flank of the massive engine, a sledgehammer clenched in his jaw.

"Cosa sta facendo?-AGH!" Roaring in anger, the Roughnecks charged the draconequus. The cowardly draconequus was not yet used to being bigger than everyone else, and reacted accordingly, cringing and shrieking. Covered by their distraction, Red Fort reached the top of the engine unmolested.

"Sorry for the rough treatment ol' gal," he said under his breath. "Hang on, your Highness- things are about to get a mite STUFFY in here!" With that he began whaling away at the broken safety valve atop the boiler. It took barely three blows; the fireplug-sized valve snapped off like it was made of celery. There was a scream of pain and Red Fort disappeared as a geyser of steam shot skyward.

Applejack felt the blast of steam hit the dome, cracking the glass with the heat. It was now or never. Desperately, with one almighty push, she put all her power behind it and blew the dome outward. It peeled open like an orange rind, tons of glass and steel falling out and away, to land harmlessly in the empty grounds outside. Overcome by the strain, she passed out.

The roar of steam dwindled to a moan, then to a hiss as the Thunderhead bled out. Applebloom sat up and looked around, dazed. The dome overhead was gone. Rolling clouds of steam obscured everything. Here and there something burned or threw off sparks. She could see ponies running, heard someone calling for a medic from where Red Fort fell. Cries of panic and pain came from every direction. She could see Applejack laying unconscious up on what was left of the grandstand while Roughnecks stood around her, some guarding her, some trying desperately to rouse her...

Malfunziona's booming laughter filled the air, and his mocking clapping. Applebloom looked up. Apparently the destruction had done him favors; he was bigger than ever, twice as tall as before. "BRAVISSIMI!" he said. "And to think this is but one building in this glorious new age. Already I can hear all of your Baltimare city. Cogs, gears, pistons, pulleys, wires and valves, tubes and pipes, millions of your wretched little toys to send spiraling out of control. I will FEAST on power as you plunge into a Dark Age!"

Applebloom didn't think she'd ever been so mad. There wasn't a word for this kind of mad. Mad was hot and full of tears; this rage, this fury had pushed her all the way through and out the other side into something cold. She got to her hooves. "Like Tartarus you will," she said.

The applause stopped. Malfunziona gaped at her. Then he burst into cackles. "WHAT? Tu piccola peste, who do you think you are?"

"Ah'm Applebloom!" She tightened her belt and settled her cumbersome backpack into place on her shoulders. Her ears hurt, her head throbbed, and the burns on her sides and flanks burned like the dickens, but she didn't care. "I'm an INVENTOR. I fix practical problems. And that's all you are... just a problem to be fixed.

"And there ain't nothin' wrong with you that I can't fix with my HOOVES!" she galloped straight at him, head down, hooves pounding.

Malfunziona roared with laughter. The moment she was within arm's reach, he snatched her up in one enormous, knobble-jointed fist. He held her up to his face and sprayed her with spittle as he laughed. "You little apple bug," he chortled, giving her a quick squeeze that made her eyes bug out. "You are completely PAZZO. You're not anything. A pegasus could have called down lightning on me. A unicorn could have blasted me with magic. a FULL GROWN earth pony might have tried his strength on me. Not that it would have mattered," he shrugged theatrically, "but hey, they could."

"You? You are a FOAL. A helpless, useless, powerless little blank-flanked FOAL!"

"Then it's a good thing this little blank-flank FOAL," said Applebloom, "Is holding a GUN." with that, she stuffed the barrel of her bug gun up his nostril, flipped the vacuum to reverse, and hit the trigger.

Malfunziona's eyes bulged in horror as an entire swarm of extremely cheesed off Fizzing Whizbees at full charge roared up into his sinus cavities. He dropped Applebloom with a howl, clutching at his face. Applebloom tumbled to the ground, managing somehow to land without breaking anything. She looked back up at the thrashing draconequus. He was clutching at his head, sparks of lightning shooting out his nose.

"Non le api! Non le api! Oh Dio, stanno ronzando nel mio cervello!" He tried to punch his own skull to get them out. This was a mistake. The whizbees promptly discharged everything they had. The draconequus lit up from within, his skeleton blazing neon white, and lightning crackling down his skin. After he jittered in place for several seconds, the light went out and he slumped into a boneless pile, eyes crossed and smoke leaking from his nose and ears. Like a deflating balloon he dwindled in size to little more than a typical pony.

Ponies began creeping up on the tableau, gaping in awe. Applebloom struggled to her hooves one more time. "It's not over yet!" she said. Good gracious almighty did she hurt all over, but her mind was racing a mile a minute. "He'll recover and it'll start all over again!" She shrugged out of the battered remains of her Whizbee gun and let it clatter to the floor. "Quick, somepony... get me some tools! And, and, and- okay I got it, that big moving sculpture, with all the gears- bring me all the cogs and stuff from it! And some good solid pipe an' fittin's!" Everyone gaped at her. "NOW!" she yelled. "Hurry!" Ponies ran.

You did NOT argue with somepony who'd just TKO'd a draconequus.

Moments later, ponies were rolling the wagon-wheel sized gears to where Applebloom stood. Following her instructions, they laid the gear flat on the floor, picked the draconequus up and piled him in the middle of it in a loose coil. Applebloom was already whacking together the beginnings of some sort of framework out of metal pipe and rebar. Sweat was running in her eyes and she hurt all over in ways she didn't know was possible... lordy did those burns on her flank sting... but she couldn't stop. Not till it was done.

Thank goodness there were so many ponies ready to follow her instructions. Hooves came from nowhere to help hold the frame, to tighten bolts; one pair helped hold her up when she started to topple. Her vision blurred; she kept right on working and shouted for another length of pipe, another joint, another fitting.

It took forever before it was finished. She was nearly blind with exhaustion when she twisted the last bolt in place and staggered back to admire her work. "Eyup," she said, smiling in satisfaction. "That oughta hold him."

Then she slumped to the floor. Sakes, her flanks stung. And her back and head felt funny too. And everything seemed to be disappearing into sparkly...light...

---

[1] Ducka you head. Lollobridgida.