[Sugarcube Corner] Cupcakes Of Doom?

[Dubstep]

It was a bright and sunny day as Dark Core, the self proclaimed greatest evil mage in all of Equestria sauntered into town, he despised days like this, so his already evil mood was amplified by the beating sunshine, 'Blast this heat!' he thought to himself, 'and blast these foolish ponies too! Soon they shall all tremble in fear at me' he laughed evilly, "FOR I AM THE MASTER OF ALL THINGS DARK MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, everypony stopped and stared at the strange young colt, "Oh....uhh did I say that out loud? Hehehe....I was uhh practicing for a play, yeeesss that's it, a play!" Dark said hoping the crowd would dissipate, luckily it seemed everypony was in a hurry today, 'Hehehe, they bought it!' he laughed to himself.

'Now where to begin my reign of evil~' looking around a decent sized building, shaped like a Gingerbread House, caught his eye, 'Ahhaaa! A cake shop! peeeerrrrrfect' he thought rubbing his hooves together in a maniacal fashion, 'Now, how to get in there unseen...', watching for people who may be entering the shop, Dark jumped behind a couple who were going in and snuck quickly behind a large display case, 'Huzzah, Operation...uhh....Drat I really need to start writing things down! Now where is the kitchen' he mumbled to himself, 'Ahhhh there it is!' Dark said as he made a dash for the kitchen, 'ACK!', he thought as he tripped on his long cloak, luckily enough he rolled into the kitchen undetected, or at least he hoped so. "Now to get to work muweheheheh." he chuckled to himself, pondering on what to do first.

[Tempest Rime]

A curly-haired pink earth pony was poking around in the kitchen, humming to herself as she worked on something. "Alright, what's next? Oh of course, the lemons. But first, safety." Pinkie pulled on a pair of safety goggles, and reached onto the counter for her pet alligator. She put a smaller pair of goggles around his face, which he evidently was less than enthused about. He made an unhappy noise and chomped down on her hair, where he hung for a few moments.

"I know you don't like them, but they're important. We're experimenting! Anything could happen!" She pulled Gummy out of her hair and sat him on the floor, where he immediately turned to face Dark Core, making an angry noise, though Pinkie completely failed to notice him.

Pinkie squeezed some lemons and poured the juice into a pan. Immediately, a streak of fire shot upwards, and Pinkie slammed the lid down to keep it from setting the house ablaze. "Woah, that's no good. Scratch lemons off the list. The last thing we want is a combustible lemon. But see, that's why we wear goggles." She glanced down at her pet. "Oh you're not even paying attention. Come on, Gummy, there's loads more stuff to try."

[Dubstep]

Glancing around the kitchen for a moment, our intrepid villain spotted the pink poofy pony and her precariously persnickety pet not but a stone's throw away from his current deviously hidden location, also known as the other side of the kitchen behind the counter, "Hmm, this may be a little trickier than I thought...I better work fast." Dark said as he tiphooved a tad further into the room, causing the no toothed gator to turn and glare at him with a less than intimidation growl, "Bah, little pest, you'll make a fine wallet if I get my hooves on you!" he threatened the beast quietly, "In fact if I WHOA!" Dark exclaimed diving under a counter and hiding as flames shot up from what ever the curly maned mare was messing with, "Combustible Lemons ehh?....I could burn down a house with those..." he pondered to himself before closing the doors to the counter to spy more from underneath.

[Kalpira]

The purple colored filly trotted though the streets of Ponyville, a large green and magenta lollipop stuck on her mouth. She was humming a happy tune as she moved on, a pair of magenta saddlebags hanging from both sides of her back. They both had a wonderful scent coming from the inside. And the truth was, that filly brought her bags full of delicious lollipops, similar to the one she was currently suckling in delight. Carousel had always loved to hand lollipops over, even if that didn't involve any money at all. She would be delivering those lollipops to a pony named Pinkie Pie, and she till was't quite sure aout who was her. So she kept prancing happily, until she spotted a house with lots of treats all over it and headed towards it.

As soon as she entered, the little bell above the door rang, and she immediatly felt a sweet scent in the air. A scent that made her remember the moments her parents tried out new flavours for their own lollipop stash and cart. A wide smile grew on her muzzle right away, and didn't leave even while she was suckling on the lollipop.She reached for the counter, and looked around for a moment. She made her lollipop float in the air with her horn and waited.

"Hellooo! Is anypony here? I am looking for Miss Pinkie Pie...

[Tempest Rime]

"What to try next," Pinkie mused, looking over the array of random ingredients she had gathered together. "There's gotta be something that'll work. Lets try the peanut butter next." She scooped a bit of it into another pan, and started it simmering in an unknown substance, where it turned a vibrant blue, started glowing, and began to make loud, angry popping noises.

"That's me," she yelled from the back as the lollipop delivery showed up. "Come on back, I'm right in the middle of something." She tossed the lid onto the pan and shoved her materials to the side, hiding her secret ingredient among them. Satisfied that her plans were not about to be discovered, she spun around to meet the unicorn.

The kitchen was a bizarre mixture of not entirely wholesome scents as she greeted the newcomer. "Hi there, you're just in time, I was totally out of lollipops. If you want, you can help me try out a new recipe, too!"

[Dubstep]

Dark slowly opened the door to his hiding spot to peer out at what was going on, hoping to catch a glimpse of what went into that stuff to make the flames shoot up like that, with something like that, taking over would be a cinch, "Hmm what's making it glow blue like that?...BAH! I can't see a blasted thing from this cabinet I should GHK!" he said as he was about to get out to try to find a better vantage point, but stopped when he heard a voice calling into the kitchen from back at the main counter, "Ahh, a distraction! Now's my chance!" Dark stated as he began to expertly slink out of his hiding spot with the deft and sleek movements of an expert cat burglar....in other words some pans got caught on his cape, he tripped out and landed face first with a thud crash bang, ".....Dang und blast..."

[Kalpira]

The childish smile didn't leave the filly's muzzle, as she wrapped her lollipop around her tail and swung it around. She was glad to finally meet the so amazing junior backer Pinkie Pie, since she had heard so much about her. Also she was glad for finally be able to deliver lollipops to Ponyville's main candy shop, a place she could get some reputation for her lollipops in.

"Carousel the purple at your service, Miss Pie!", she said, taking a hoof to her forehead and assuming a somewhat glorius position. Well, at least that was what she thought it was. She then returned to her initial pose and giggled, laughing at her own joke. She couldn't spend a single minute without smiling or laughing, and that was why she even made funny things to amuse herself. She opened the saddlebags and pulled the pair of plastic bags that were inside, full of lime green and magenta lollipops. All of them had a pretty bow wrapped near the candy, a trademark of that lollipop maker filly.

She headed to Pinkie Pie's side with a few clip clops, and was about to agree in helping her right away. "Sure! I always like to try new things out! Especially if they are sweet!", she said, the scent of possible new experiments filling her nostrils. But when she was about to head to the kitchen, she heard something.

"What was that?", she asked, looking around, her ears perking up.

[Tempest Rime]

"Oh, call me Pinkie. My second cousin is named Missy Pie, so being called 'Miss Pie' is super weird to me. Although, you could also call me other things if you felt like it. Like 'Pinks' or 'Pinkster' or 'Pinkarella' or 'Diane'." Pinkie smiled happily at the unicorn.

"Anyway, I can't guarantee that it'll be sweet, my last few tries have been mostly inedible. But here, we can enjoy one of each of the unmodified lollipops first. The controlling group, Twilight would call it." She pulled out two lollipops, and offered one to Carousel, popping the other into her mouth and sucking on it instead of chomping down as she usually would due to dentist's orders.

Then the sound of in intruder knocking over pans brought back her attention. "Ah spah," she exclaimed, immediately disregarding the dentist's orders and chomping down on the candy. "Mmm, those are good," she added as she grabbed a rope from a drawer. "Now... how does Applejack do this?" She shrugged and pounced upon the caped invader in a wild, flailing attempt to tie him up.

[Dubstep]

"GAH! NO! GET OFF OF ME, YOU PATHETIC PINK PUFFBALL!" Dark shouted out as he flailed about from the sudden attack; doing his best to not be captured, the villain tried to roll away from the perpetrator of the perilously planed prehend; as they flailed about in a hurricane of black, red and pink, Dark Core thought he had gotten the upper hoof of the battle, but after a few moments of 'combat', he wound up with his fore and hind hooves tied up as he laid on his back.

"Bah! Let me go you confounded carrier of cruddy confections! You will rue the day you dared to tie the dread master of all things sinister up like a common farm animal!" he shouted out as he tried to hop away on his back, and failing miserably, "Lemme go lemme go LEMME GO!"

[Kalpira]

Carousel had heard the whole mess going on, her ears perking up and down as she heard pans, spoons and all kinds of kitchen tools fly around the kitchen as Pinkie Pie fought the intruder. She had no idea who had invaded the pink baker's shop, but whoever it was, it didn't bring peace along. She headed to the kitchen and finally found a black stallion with a red mane and tail. As it seemed, Pinkie Pie had tied him up, and he was now struggling go get free.

"You don't look that evil with your hooves tied up, did you know that?", she said, pacing close to the stallion and then giggling. She could almost feel as if she was stronger than him while she was standing and he was helpless on the floor. She then jumped in her own spot and looked down at him.

"NOW! What is yooooour purpose here?"

[Tempest Rime]

"Clearly he was trying to steal my new secret recipe!" Pinkie yelled as she jumped off her captive. Or tried to jump at least, as she'd gotten her rear legs tangled in the mass of rope as well as the intruder, and she went careening into a counter, dragging Dark Core along with her and spilling a large bag of flour onto them both.

"Oops." She tugged at her legs for a moment before shrugging and simply pulling the stallion along after her. "Well, Mister SPY, if you want to try my tasty treats today instead of waiting for them to be finished, then I guess you just volunteered to help me test them out. Now, let me get the one I was just worki-"

Before she could finish her sentence, there was a loud pop and the lid of the pan on the stove was sent flying, where it slammed into the ceiling with a clang before falling back down onto the counter. The blue stuff itself leapt out of the pan and bounced around the room, somehow maintaining a cohesive mass rather than splattering apart until it chanced to bounce out an open window.

Pinkie frowned. "Ok, guess we're not trying that one, on to the lollipops then." She pulled out one of the lollipops and dipped in into a jar. When she attempted to pull it out to give it to her captive, however, she couldn't get it out, as the contents had frozen solid. "Freezing? That's weird, it doesn't feel cold." She reached into a cabinet and retrieved a chisel. She chipped a piece out and dropped it into a bowl of water, which also froze immediately, in spite of it remaining at room temperature.

"Darnit, I guess that's not edible either. I just hope I can melt this junk out of my dishes." She set the bowl on a stove to attempt to boil it back into water. "Well what now, either of you have any preferences, there's lots of things left to try."

[Dubstep]

Dark sputtered and flailed as he was coated with the flour, "Gah pfff ack! Blast it all bluh!" he stated as he was drug along by the persistent pink pest, "I didn't sneak my way in to taste test your sickeningly sweet slurries I GAH!" the villain was rambling before bouncing blue blob shot out of a pan and began bolting across the room; covering his head with his hooves to avoid getting a face full of stuff he meeped when it slammed next to his head before it wooshed out the window, "Gah...So much for what I thought would be an easy day..." he mumbled to himself

Dark Core laid on the floor watching as his captor messed around with her various concoctions with a disdainful look on his face, who was she to tie him up and then try to force him to ingest Luna knows what kinds of failed flavours of frivolous treats, "MY preference would be for you to let me go, you....you....BAH I can't think of any alliterations!" he said with a scowl before blowing a raspberry at the other pony when his villainous diatribe failed.

[Tempest Rime]

"Hmmm... how about, 'perfectly pulchritudinous perky pink party pony, professional purveyor of pastries, and playfully plucky prankster?'" Supplied Pinkie helpfully. "Anyway, I suppose I could let you go, but isn't that exactly what a SPY would want? I mean, I haven't gotten a successful recipe yet, but how would I know you weren't still spying around, looking over my shoulder? As long as I've got you here, though, I'll know that you're looking over my shoulder, so you won't be able to spy successfully."

She attempted to step back for a moment, tripping over the rope that tied her to the spy, and sending her toppling over him. "Ouch," she said as she sat up on top of him. "Besides, I'm not really sure how to untie us," she admitted.

She paused as she sat on top of him, considering his earlier outburst for a moment. Gummy reappeared from wherever he had been hiding during the scuffle and gave DC an inquisitive chomp on the snout. "So what does being left-hooved have to do with sneaking around back here, anyway?"

[Kalpira]

The purple filly had been watching the whole situation, her ears perking back with the sight of her new cooking friend tripping on the rope and tools that surrounded them. She didn't laugh though; she was as clumsy back home, but she had always been. Her hurries to create her amazing lollipops always made her forget that there was more on the floor besides the floor itself, and her meetings with it were endless. She felt worried for a moment, but once she realized she was okay, she turned her gaze back to the oh-so-evil spy that had invaded the shop.

She pranced by both their sides, pondering the situation.

"By the looks of it, you intended to steal somthing for yourself. And you know that that is wrong, and still you did it.", she started, ""Now you know that you won't leave without telling us what was your actual purpose here... RIGHT?"

Her expression turned from a geeky one to an expression that showed almost a pshyotic idea, and that she wouldn't give up until the two fillies found out everything about him.

[Dubstep]

"T...Those are actually pretty good, do you mind if I use those sometime?" Dark said after Pinkie prattled off a couple of alliterations, "Oi for the love ah...I am not a SPY, that doesn't make much SENSE! All you're making is snacks....Though I must say the thought of a combustible lemon is quiet tantalizing..." the villain stated with a pondering look on his face; he could burn someone's house down, with the lemons! It didn't get more cool and evil than that at times.

Dark let out an grunt of discomfort as the pink pony plummeted onto him, "Guh, don't know how to untie us!? I don't wanna be stuck here for long I...GAH HEY GETTOFFAME YOU WALKING HANDBAG!" he said shaking his head to dislodge Gummy from his snout, "Left hooved, what?...Bah, my purpose? You DARE ask me what my purpose here is? How foalish. Dark stated to the other pony as he continued to shake his head to fling the gator off of it.

[Tempest Rime]

"Sure you can use them," burbled Pinkie, her expression brightening. She was always happy to be helpful, even in the midst of her interrogation. "Anyway, um, what would you want the lemons for? And of course we want to know what your purpose is. If you're not a spy like you claim, you ought to be able to tell us that much. Duh."

As she spoke, Pinkie attempted to shove her entire body through a small loop, in the mistaken impression that she could get herself out of the tangle through doing so. Instead, she simply constricted the ropes around the stallion and got herself further knotted up. "Hnng. Well that didn't work," she said as she ended up upside-down tied to Dark's back. Gummy, for his part, simply released his bite as DC attempted to shake him off, quite content to shift his focus from the stallion to his owner, where he latched onto Pinkie's voluminous tail.

"Oh!" She brightened up as a thought occurred to her. "I get it now! You want those lemons to scare somepony don't you? It all makes sense now. You're a prankster like me." She grinned. "You were probably sneaking in here looking for somepony to prank, too. Ha, well you should have known better than to try to pull one over on ol' Pinkie Pie! That's me. And this here," she flailed a hoof in the general direction of the purple unicorn, "is my new friend Carousel the Purple. So what about you, what's your name? 'Cause otherwise I can just keep calling you 'spy'." She seemed quite content to continue the conversation as if she was not tied up in a somewhat compromising position.

[Kalpira]

+\\[[ I am TREMENDOUSLY sorry about the delay everypony, but I was fixing a few things about Carousel and didn't wwant her either to vanish out of nowhere or to change her attitude radically. Sorry once again ]]

The pony kept listening to both of the other two. Even if their conversation was confuse, it provided her a few giggles that escaped from her mouth. But shortly after she sighed. She had realized how naive young Pinkie was, and she was still wondering what were the intruder's real intentions. She shook her head from side to side, and with her magic, she cut a few rope rings in order to release her new pink friend, but keep the "spy" tied up.

"You alright, Pinkie?", she said, taking a close look at Pinkie Pie, "Glad you are. Now about this... friend of ours, if he wants to pull up a prank, he should have known better that Pinkie Pie would have caught him fast enough for him to even have time to say 'Candy!'", she then said, blowing up a snif over the stallion's mane, making it move up and then down over one of his eyes.

She then turned to Pinkie Pie again.

"Hmm, what should we do with him then?"

[Dubstep]

Dark struggled with the ropes as Pinkie got set free by Carousel, the ropes now constricted his movements even more, "Hrmph...Fine, if you MUST know, my name is Dark Core, Master of...er, well, that's not important." he said, covering the fact he was a villain; if he was going to have ANY chance of getting free, he thought it best to avoid the fact, And erm, yes, prankster, let's go with that! Yes I was looking to prank some....friends of mine, but I stopped here first for a quick prank...see I'm new around here and had NO idea such an illustrious princess of prankster prowess lived in town!" Dark stated, laying it on a bit thick, "It's a...hrrrngh....pleasure to meet both of you. Now perhaps one of you would be so kind as to unrestrain me from the ties that bind? They're quite troublesome and I believe are starting to chafe..." struggling with the ropes again, Dark glanced over at Pinkie with a faux look of helplessness, hoping perhaps he'd get untied sooner.

[Tempest Rime]

"Thanks," said Pinkie with a grin as Carousel freed her. She frowned at Dark. "I suppose I could free, you, but first you need some kind of punishment for trying to prank me and failing. Hmm..." A ding came from the oven. "Aha! Cookies!"

Pinkie skillfully pushed the oven door open with one hoof, nipped a pot holder in her teeth, and used it to grab ahold of a cookie tray. The cookies smelled of cinnamon, and were a bright chartreuse in coloration. She set them atop the over and sniffed. "Hmm... promising. No fire or ice this time. She carefully took a tiny nibble before offering them to the others, to ensure they weren't dangerous. The taste was completely normal, cinnamon and sugary, with just a hint of rainbow. It was mild enough now that it wasn't overpoweringly spicy, and instead only server to enhance the flavor nicely.

The texture was what really surprised the pink party pony. The only way she could begin to describe it was like chewing on lightning bolts. It crunched when bitten, before immediately crumbling into almost powder, and it sent prickly tingles down her spine. Her eyes lit up, literally, with a mild light the same blue color as her irises and she shivered pleasantly.

"V-v-v-v-v-v-v ooOOooh, wow, that's GOOD! I knew I could do it! You guys have GOT to try these!" She didn't give Dark a chance to refuse, shoving one unceremoniously into his mouth. She offered one to Carousel much less forcefully, holding the tray out to the unicorn.

[Dubstep]

Dark sputtered in anger, "Punishment?! Me?! Bah why I have a mind to up and MMPRH!" the villain's banter, however, was swiftly cut off as a cookie was rammed into his yammering maw; biting down into it, Dark was met with the surprise; not from the flavour, a delightfully cinnamon sugar with a dash of spice to it, thanks to the infused rainbows; but rather from the odd texture, the cookie crunched as any other would, but spontaneously crumbled into a powder, sending jolts throughout his body, but rather than painful, they felt good, actually making Dark feel a bit happy; shivering a bit from the jolts as his eyes flashed the same green colour as his eyes, Dark laughed, "Whoahoho! Hahah! WOW! Those ARE good! How do they do that?! I mean it's like CRUNCH! And then POOF! And then ZZZZT! And, mmm, so good!" the so called villainous master mind said, a big smile on his face, "That's the best cookie I've had in...well....I can't really remember in how long! Is there anything I could do to get a batch of those?" he asked in an unexpected turn of his temperament.

[Tempest Rime]

"Of course," said Pinkie. "You gotta get a penalty punishment when you mess up a practical joke. It's the rules."

She grinned at Dark's reaction to the cookies. "Woo! I'm glad you like them. Anyway..." She reached out and pulled a loose part of the rope, causing the entire mess to untangle immediately and free him immediately, in spite of her earlier inability to free herself. "I don't think I can sell the cookies until I get permission from the Cakes, but if you want to hang around, I'll make another batch while I'm testing my other ideas. I might even stumble across another good one while we wait."

There was another ding from a second oven, and Pinkie's ears perked up. "That's the cupcakes!" She opened the oven and a blast of foul green smoke rushed out, filling the room. Pinkie was overcome with coughing for a moment. "Oh, oh, it's bad!" She grabbed a pot holder and picked up the tray, rushing outside where the smoke would dissipate faster. All the while, the cupcakes were still belching out smoke.

"Augh, why are they still smoking?" She ran back in and grabbed a bucket of water, which she brought back out and poured over the tray, but even that didn't seem to stop the clouds of smoke emanating from it. In fact, it seemed to start belching out even faster. "Stop it! Oh no, Dashie's gonna be mad at meeee!" Already the smoke was starting to float up into the sky, marring the otherwise perfectly cloudless sky.

[Dubstep]

Dark snarled to himself at the prospect of actually having to face some form of comeuppance for his actions, sure he was a villain, but more times he could just run form any law that tried to stop him. But if taking the punishment was what it took to get more of those cookies he'd just have to take it, "Hrrngh, alright, I can hang out for a bit. Not like I had any plans of world domination to take care of or something. That would be silly." Dark said, his eye shifting around while Pinkie walked over to the oven. Dusting himself off after having been on the floor, Dark jumped in surprise as the thick green smoke rolled out from the oven "ACK! What in the name of Discord?! Are they supposed to do that?!" Dark asked as he watched the pink pony dash out with them, "Guess that's a no..."

As she ran back out a second time with water, Dark followed close behind, "Jeeze...At best you can use them as smoke signals heheh." the villain said smirking as he watched the smoke begin flooding the sky, the only think that could make this crazy pony better in Dark's eyes is if she was doing all of this on purpose. Imagine the havoc it would cause, cupcakes everywhere going up in a thick green smoke, "Heheh....What all did you put in those anyway?....SO I can avoid the same kind of accident...Of course." he questioned as he picked up one of the billowing cupcakes with magic and debated on test tasting it.

[Tempest Rime]

Pinkie attempted to reply to Dark Core through another fit of coughing. "I don't really *cough* know wh-*hack* what they're supposed to *wheeze* do." She paused and the coughing subsided. "That's the whole point of testing them. And what's in them in my secret ingredient, so obviously I can't tell you, otherwise it wouldn't be a secret ingredient. Giving out your secret ingredient is the fastest way to make it no longer secret." She paused for a moment before needlessly adding "FOREVER!"

She picked one of the muffins out of the tray carefully. "That's funny, they don't look burned at all." The cupcake itself had turned a bright blue with yellow spots, though the cake had been plain white cake to begin with. "Hmm, well the green got into the air, and the yellow and blue are on the outside here... I wonder where the other colors went." She broke open the cupcake gingerly, and a foul-smelling dark red slime oozed out of the porous spaces in the cake.

"EEEEEEeeeeEEEEEEEEEWW! Ugh, scratch cake batter, this test is officially a failure, I just wish I knew how to make them stop smoking..." She looked around, she was already gathering a small crowd, curious at the smoke. She attempted to smash one with her hoof, but it continued to smoke even after being crushed, and she ended up with the foul red goop on her hoof as well. "STOP SMOKING!" She shrieked, starting to lose her temper with the horrid confections.

[Dubstep]

Dark shook his head at the needless 'forever' comment, not that anything made much sense about this pony, "The best part of having a secret is secretly telling someone that secret secretly in secret so you can secretly add another secret secret to your ever so secret, secret collection of secretly secret secrets...Secretly, of course." the villain said with a nod as he got ready to bite into the smoking cupcake; but just before he did so, Pinkie cracked into one, releasing a horrid smelling red ooze, "Great gaiting ghosts of Gallopfrey! What is that horrid smell?" Dark exclaimed in disgust as he threw the cupcake he held off into the now growing crowd, "How in the name of all that is...How in the world did you make something this, well, horrible? It's amazing almost. In a twisted sort of way. My favourite kind." he said with a grin on his face, these cupcakes, while pretty obviously unfit for pony consumption, could be a great aid in his bid for global conquest.

"I honestly don't think yelling at them will do much, if any good." Dark stated, slipping off his cape and using it to fan the smoke away, possibly wafting it towards the town, not that he cared, "Have you tried PUTTING them in water? Maybe they won't smoke then." it was good to test their usefulness, even if he didn't know the ingredients as of yet.

[Tempest Rime]

"What?" Pinkie looked cross. "No, never. You can't tell secrets, even if they're your own secrets, and you wouldn't even hurt anyone... well... actually I guess in that case it would be ok. Buuuuuuut I think I'm still not gonna." She pondered for a moment. "Hmm, I already tried water, if just pouring some on made it worse, I don't want to risk making it worser. Oh, I know!"

She ducked into the building and came back out with a shovel. She swiftly dug a hole and dumped the tray of noxious cupcakes in. She filled over it with loose soil and stomped on it to pack it in. "There, now that should at least contain..." She frowned, aghast, as smoke continued to bubble up through the tiniest spaces in the dirt.

"Oh COME ON!" She scowled at Dark Core. "At least shouting isn't making it any worse."