Mash and Crash

"Excuse us, pardon me, COMING through!" the doctor exclaims, swiftly maneuvering his oversized wagon. "Just chasing the usual out of control contraption of the week, that's all!"

"D-Doc, what is this thing?!" a disoriented Button stutters, clinging to his seat.

"Ah, how rude of me. May I introduce the Wonder Wagon-"

"L-Let me guess, it's around the thousands or something?"

"No, just Wonder Wagon."

"Just making sure, you tend to slap '2000' or some-thousand on the title."
"It's for dramatic effect, lad." Whooves states matter of factly. "Is it TOO dramatic?"

Button and Derpy shrug.

"I must say, the title of this contraption is rather irrelevant to the current situation, we're in the middle of a frantic chase!"
"Mare the battle stations! Ooh, I've always wanted to say that!" the colt squees in delight.

The goofy pegasus climbs aboard a wide barrel armed with a large slingshot. Equipped with her crooked aviator goggles, Derpy braces herself as the wagon leaps over a fruit stand and throwing stale muffin after stale muffin at the elusive maniacal machine, missing a mile away from her target with every shot.

"Try not to break any windows, Miss Hooves!" Whooves hollers.

"I-I'm trying, doctor!" she wails, accidentally bonking an unfazed Bulk Biceps in the noggin. "I tried that technique you taught me to help my aim, but nothing's WORKING!"

"Did you aim on your HOOVES, lass?"

"I did! I aimed......ooooooh, my bad!"

The silly pegasus flips over, standing on her head, and starts effectively slowing down the rogue toy with her unusual assault of week and a half old muffins. Thrash trips and slips on the slightly hardened treats tossed before him as the trio begin gaining on their catch. Button leans out of the vehicle and tries to reach for Thrash before-

"NOT FAIR!!!" the child whines as the advanced toy suddenly activates a high-powered propeller and ascends above the crowded streets, out of reach.

Derpy continues her attacks, firing muffin after muffin until one bounces off the bot's blades and knocks the basket of ammo off the vehicle with ease. Thrash triumphantly flies off, leaving the three driving aimlessly down the road.

"Drat, we CAN'T let that ruffian escape!" the doctor huffs. "Mr. Mash, what are you doing up there, chap?!"
"I........I-I'm gonna Kingdom Hooves it!" he states climbing in the slingshot and stretching the rubber to the limit.

"Lad, DON'T!"

"Leave it up to me, doc!"

With a deep breathe, Button hesitantly kicks off the platform and flings himself with great speed towards the escaping bot like a cannonball. "Maybe this wasn't such a good IDEAAAAAAAA!!!"

The screaming colt grabs a hold of the airborne robot and clings on for dear life as he clumsily bumps against almost every hanging sign, every lightpost, every shop and house in the area while Thrash roughly tries to shake the persistent little one. "RELEASE ME, YOU PUNY DUNCE!!!" the bot growls, blinding the kid with his blood red eyes.
"Never!" Button barks. "Tell me what you did to my buddy, or ELSE!!! Who do you work for?! We can do this the easy way or the HARD way! Other interrogating phrases!"

Thrash takes a sharp turn down a clear street, flying low and literally wiping the floor with the dirt-covered colt before carrying him upward towards an incoming house's window.

"Oh, buuuuuuck!!!"

Upstairs, in Snips' room...

"You got a mackerel?" Snips asks.

"I fold!" Snails sighs.

"Umm, pal....we're playing go fish."

"All I need is a whale and I'M in the clear." Rumble mutters in anticipation before noticing the others staring at him. "I-I said that out loud, didn't I?"

All of a sudden, Button collides with the room's window before flying out of sight, alerting everypony in the room.

"Odd." Pip says. "Does anypony know how you could tell the difference between a marlin and a swordfish-"
The beaten little pony splats against the glass once more, finally gaining the team's attention. "Guyyyyyyyys!!!"

"BUTTON?!" everycolt exclaims, seeing their fighting comrade smeared up against the window before being yanked away to parts unknown. All of them halt their card game and hurriedly rush downstairs.

Back outside, the members of the C.C.C. burst through the door, armed to the teeth with various MERF launchers and firing away at the zigzaging target. It's raining plastic balls all across the front yard where the five kids send wave after wave and round after round of their harmless projectiles.

"Our cannons aren't working!" Pip whines.

"Uhh, I think they're-ACK, working fine." Snails slurs, sucking on the yellow ammunition.

"Snails!" Rumble barks.

"Sorry." the colt coughs. "I thought it was a LemonNoggin!"

"For the love of Celestia, Snails!" Snips groans, giving his gagging pal the Manelich Maneuver. "They're. Called. Choking. Hazards. For. A. REASON!!!"

The ball is then flung out of the colt's throat and into the bot's gaping maw. "NOT-ZZZZT, AGAIN!!!" Thrash roars.

Whooves and Derpy ride in and come to a screeching halt as they witness the malfunctioning toy jitter around in the air with Button struggling to hang on. The toy's body begins to overheat, loosening Button's grip and dropping him in midair. Derpy frantically flips a switch on the wagon and out of the side of the vehicle pops out a soft, fluffy couch cushion that slides under and catches the still screaming child, all the while a smoking Thrash crashes in some nearby bushes.

"Mr. Mash, are you alright, lad?!" the doctor pants worriedly.

Button continues his mindless squealing, flailing his hooves and ignoring the surrounding ponies concerns. Eventually, Rumble trots over, yanks the cushion and whacks it upside the gamer's head, silencing him. "T-Thanks." Button sighs.

As he recovers, he spots a small cloud of black smoke blowing over a few bushes. "D-Don't get him let AWAY!!!" he slurs, staggering his way towards the source. The colt stumbles and falls headfirst into the rose bush, facing a singed MERF ball covered in soot. There, he picks up a small, black chunk of the toy as the others look over the site. "Shoot, he got away!"

"Perhaps, lad." Whooves ponders. "Maybe he could've......spontaneously combusted?"

"Mysterious..." Derpy mutters.

"Like the Burrowda Triangle!" Snips gasps.

While everypony discusses Thrash's whereabouts, Button sits back and examines the black piece, wiping away the dark dust until he notices a little print on the object:

'HAYBRO TOYS'

Soon, his eyes widen. "I know where they're keeping Crash!" he hollers. "I should've known!" Button reveals the clue, earning a gasp from everypony. "Guys, we've gotta go find him!"

"W-Well, you young ones can't just travel all the way to Manehattan by yourselves." the doctor states sternly.

"Wait, isn't your class going on a field trip to Haybro's toy company in a few days, Button?" Tender Taps asks.

"Yeah, their releasing some new.....TOY! What are they gonna do with Crash?!"
"Don't worry," Rumble reassures. "The C.C.C ALWAYS succeeds. It's settled."

"Uhhh, what about that time with-"

"I said it's settled, Snails! Operation: T.O.Y is a GO! C.C.C!!!"

"C.C.C!!!" the gang exclaims.

"Now, speaking of the Burrowda Triangle, it's not technically a triangle." Whooves states.

"It's not?" Derpy asks in shock.

"Of course not, it's a trapezedaromboid."

At Haybro Toy Assembly Line...

"Awake."

A dazed Crash activates. The static in his eyes fade as he finds himself strapped down to a desk. "Oh dear."

"Oh yes, you mean." a voice adds.

There, a grey stallion in a sharp, black suit steps into the light. "Oh, how I've anticipated this moment to see you, defect." he chuckles.

"Where am I?"

"Haybro Industries of course! Mr. Haybro, nice to meet ya. Waited for quite a while to run into you."

"How do you know me?"

"I know everything about you, defect, but THIS isn't you." the stallion grunts, ripping Crash's disguise clean off.

"If you know so much about me, I'll have you know that 'Defect' isn't my correct label. So you most certainly do not."

"Ah, yes. An intelligent being, willingly living with a childish name like 'Crash'. But I'm not here to examine."

"Then what, may I ask, is your fixation with me?"

The crooked CEO reaches for a small rod with a hook in his shirt pocket. "Just a small extraction is all, nothing serious."

The hook produces a small volt of electricity, startling Crash. "W-What is it you need to extract?"

"Oh, nothing all that valuable. Just your life force."

The toy struggles to free himself from the tight restraints as Mr. Haybro draws near with the buzzing tool. "No need to resist, it's for a noble cause. You're the key to my plan to-"

Crash knocks the stallion back with his boxing glove tongue and grabs the rod, using it's shocking power to deactivate the desk's grip on him. The toy leaps down and gallops away into the factory.

"I LIKE it when they run." Mr. Haybro snickers, stomping his hoof on the metal platform. The loud clanging earns a low roar from below.

"Go play nice, boy." Haybro snickers.