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// Lost in The Duckwork 
// Story: The Potion Shop 
// by Ashfur 
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Paperwork.

It was, is, and always will be the bane of any bureaucrat's existence,  clogging the proverbial pipes until form after form is signed in triplicate and shuffled off to the right parties.  Then they would sign it, it would come back, and the whole process would start over.

Mayor Silver Scroll was currently suffering through yet another form in his office in city hall.  This one was about regulations for nighttime fliers and the differences in precautions the town would need to take compared to other towns, given the softly glowing rainbow liquid making it easy to see at night.

Thump.  Thump.  Ka-thump.

There was also a rather irritating noise coming from the ventilation system.  He'd asked the maintenance ponies to look into it two hours ago, and unfortunately he couldn't just shut it off since it was summer.  Grumbling, Silver got out of his chair and trotted over to the vent closest to his desk, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to see the problem.  And much to his surprise (and horror), he could.

"Quack," said The Duck, before waddling off down a duct.

"I HEARD THAT!"  ThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpTHUMP!

Arca poked his head out of the other vent in the office, not even noticing that he had probably damaged the wall as well as the vent was torn from its screws by his emergence.  "Silver!  Where is he?"

Silver pressed the intercom button to reach his secretary.  "Tight Schedule, could you do me a favor and cancel my Three o' Clock?  Possibly the 3:30 as well."

A female voice crackled back through the magic-powered speaker.  "How did he get in this time?  I thought I locked all the windows."

"The Duck is in the vents."

"I'm taking my break, then.  Outside."

Silver grumbled again.  "Lucky mare… hello, Arca.  If I might be so bold, how in the name of all that is holy did you get in the ventilation system?!"

"Oh.  Well, I was on my way to Laffy Taffy's joke shop to deliver a special order.  The new manager thought one of my products would sell great there and offered me a cut of the profits.  So I'm on my way over when I see The Duck outside city hall, so I tackled it, and it was in front of an intake vent so we both fell in, and now I'm looking for it.  Because I know the layout of the building but I think The Duck is lost somewhere near the mare's restrooms on the first floor.  But I can't go over there because I'm not a mare and Celestia won't let me use poison joke to bypass that.  Anyway, have you seen The Duck?"

Silver, acting like a regular politician for once, lied through his teeth.  "No, Arca.  In fact, I think I saw it flying off a few minutes ago.  Why don't you-" he was about to suggest 'get the floof out', but suddenly a muffled quack emerged from somewhere under the floor.  Arca's eyes lit uo.  "AHA!  Now I just need to check the building schematics and I need to go… this way!"  Without more than a moment's glance at some blueprints, Arca pulled his head back into the ventilation system and caused a ruckus as he clambered through the ductwork.

"Quack."

"There you are.  Silver, help me out!  I bet we can flush him out if you do something!"

"You know what, Arca?  That's a great idea."  Silver walked over to the thermostat and, despite the summer temperatures, switched off the air conditioning and cranked the heat to max.  "That ought to flush out any annoyances from the ductwork."

"Uh, Silver?  What did you do?  It's getting hot in here…"

Silver walked back over to the vent that sounded like it was closest to Arca.  "Just teleport out then.  I'm sure your feathered friend will waddle his way out eventually."

"I can't leave without my product for the joke shop!  I left it in the central circulation unit to fit through the vents better!"

"Just make another!"

"It's not that!  Do you know what happens when you heat a potion in a spray can?!  It explodes!  And that means that-"

FOOF

Arca didn't get to finish as every vent in the room spewed out a plume of pinkish smoke.  There was no time to run as all of city hall was engulfed in the plume.  Silver was coughing and waving his hoof to try and clear the air, and finally realized what was wrong.  "Oh, floof."

"Well, that takes care of that issue, at least."  Arca warped into the office in front of Silver, his mane and tail wrapped into a tight, ropelike thread and coiled like a pair of springs extending from his head and rump.  Arca was currently using the 'spring' on his rear end to bounce idly.  "I'll get The Duck later.  I gotta go make another spray can for the joke shop to try selling!  Bye Silver!"  With a stronger bounce, Arca sprung backwards, landed on the spring attached to his head, and used the momentum to bounce directly out the window.  Of course, despite the window being opened, Arca sailed through the upper half of the window, shattering both panes of glass at once as he went bouncing down the street in the direction of his shop.

"Sir?" Tight schedule's voice came through the window from her vantage point outside.  "Orders?"

Silver poked his head out the window.  His mane had contorted into what looked like a set of helicopter blades jutting out of his head, and his tail had frayed to look like a bunny tail.  As he yelled, his copter-mane spun comically.  "Get to Laffy Taffy's Joke Emporium and tell them to cancel their order from Arca!  And hurry!"

Tight Schedule didn't bother responding as she took off in a gallop towards the market.  Meanwhile, ponies were exiting city hall.  Silver saw a janitor who looked like a mop was growing out of his head, an intern who had his mane and tail mimicking his moves but three seconds behind like some sort of lagging system, and quite a few ponies who should have full manes, but were bald.  They all looked irritated, many were chuckling at Silver's unlucky manestyle.

Silver rolled his eyes.  "All in favor of going to the salt bar for the mane potion discount?"

The vote was unanimous.