Upon arriving at the entrance to the cave, everygon—plus one filly—came to a brief stop. Looking over their surroundings, Nightfall took one look at the imposing cavern before turning to look Wishful right in the eye.
“Wish,” he began firmly, “I think this is going to be quite dangerous. You should return to the library and—”
The filly didn’t let him finish, cutting him off instead.
“No!” She snapped with a stamp of a hoof. “I’m helping! It can’t be that dangerous! I matched Midnight Darkscales spell for spell for a few minutes, and I think he was way more dangerous than some stupid Diamond Dog strays could ever be!”
“But he almost—” Nightfall tried to counter, but was cut off again.
“Yes, Darkscales almost killed me!” Wishful huffed, rolling her eyes. “But these are Diamond Dogs! They have rocks for brains! We can outwit them, easy! Who knows? Maybe my abilities might actually be required! If they could subdue Extraordinaire, there’s gotta be something more to this! Maybe a new enemy? If that’s the case, you’d need to send a letter, right?”
Nightfall opened his mouth to try to argue, but failed to come up with any counterpoints and just sighed.
“Out-logiced again,” the librarian grumbled. “Fine, you can come along, Wish. Just don’t get into any trouble, okay?”
“I won’t. I can’t promise it won’t try to find me, though.” Wishful snarked. “Now, let’s get in there already!”
Nightfall glanced around at the others, looking to see if they were ready; sure enough, all of them appeared to be eager to get the rescue going—even Timidwings, who was staring out at the darkness of the cavern with no small amount of trepidation. “Do you think they took him far into the tunnels?” he asked, “Because I don’t know if he had enough string to let us follow him…”
Prism rolled his eyes. “Of course he does; it’s Extra. He never goes anywhere without three sewing kits, at a minimum.”
Timidwings let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Good. Umm… can we go now, then? Before he’s taken further away? If you don’t mind…”
Nightfall nodded, taking the lead once more. “Of course. Wishful, light your horn, and I’ll light mine—we’ll need it down there, from the looks of things.”
Wishful sent a salute in his direction, before her horn lit up, emitting a brilliant green glow. Nightfall did the same with his magic, and with three sources of light—one green, two purple—the group began their descent into the cave system.
Meanwhile, Extraordinaire had employed his final tactic: lots of complaining. Even though the leader of his captors was somehow able to endure his complaints, the others weren’t.
“And another thing,” the white Dragoon snapped. “It smells horrible down here! Do any of you even bathe?”
“Make it stooooop! Dessa, make annoying white dragon stoooop!”
“Pleeease, we can’t stand it anymoooore!”
Extraordinaire, despite his outward state of passionate protest, was trying very hard not to crack a smile. His plan was working! “Oh, and one more thing! Do you even have ventilation down here? The air is as stale as a week-old bread roll!” He fanned the air with his wings for emphasis, making a loud, disgusted huff as he smelt the air.
Dessa, to her credit, was not as fazed as her lackeys. She was, however, getting very, very annoyed. She stood in the midst of a circle of her fellows, her eye twitching as she glared at the others with more than a hint of dismay. All but her were currently lying on the cave floor with their paws over their ears, squirming in what had to be exaggerated agony. “Your complaining isn’t making this any better, Checkers!” Dessa growled, resisting the urge to cover her own ears. Honestly, the sound of her lackeys’ whining was almost as annoying as the white dragon’s. Almost.
“But Dessa, it huuuuurts us! It burns our earses!”
“Uhuh, it buuuuuurns them!”
Dessa rolled her eyes, quickly getting fed up with their antics. “Enough out of you! Quit your yapping or I’ll make you quit.”
“But Dessaaaaa—” The sound of the two whining in stereo was too much for Dessa. The Diamond Dog leader proceeded to give Checkers and Fidella a strong whack on the head, earning a pained groan from both of them.
“Quit your whining! If the white dragon won’t shut up, then you have to make him shut up. Not just stand here making it worse!”
“Alright, alright! We’ll do it, just no hit us again!” Checkers muttered, rubbing her head gingerly with a visible grimace. She turned slightly, nudging her companion, “Come on. Let’s make puny dragon shut big mouth.”
Extraordinaire, of course, was aware of everything they had said, and knew his game would be up if he didn’t do something fast. With that in mind, he glanced around, looking for a figurative (or literal, as the case might be) way out. He noted quickly that though the leader was for the most part unaffected by his tactics, the rest of the pack was, as were the two leader’s flunkies to a lesser degree. And if he could just get the two groups to fight each other... “Extraordinaire, you’re brilliant!” he muttered to himself, keeping his expression as cool as possible under the circumstances.
With his plan prepared, Extra pointed a claw towards the two diamond dogs approaching him and let loose his powers of complaint, in the whiniest, most petulant voice he could muster, somewhere between ‘crying Hatchling’ and ‘angsty Dragonock’, “But these three are the worst of everything else down here! I mean, you’ve been nothing but rude, coarse, unladylike brutes ever since you saw me! Whyyyyy did you have to drag me down heeeeeere? Some kind of leaders you are, that can’t even manage to provide a proper environment for a hostage! I mean, if you had just spruced the place up a little, I wouldn’t be bothered by it! But noooo, it’s dirty, icky, cold, clammy, and the lighting is terrible, and it’s ALL YOUR FAULT!”
Now that got a rise out of the other diamond dogs, who were slowly starting to turn their pained gazes towards their glorious leader. The white dragon had a point; if Dessa hadn’t taken the dragon hostage, they wouldn’t have needed to be subject to this kind of torture. “Me think the puny dragon is right!” one piped up, grumbling. “Ever since you captured dragon, we’ve had to put up with it!”
“Yeah, you told us white dragon would be useful, but it’s just made our ears hurt!” another shouted, pointing a paw accusingly towards Dessa.
Fidella and Checkers stopped dead in their tracks, utterly stunned by the sudden turn of events. Dessa, on the other claw, was grinding her teeth and glaring at Extraordinare, immediately realizing that he was trying to sow dissention in the ranks.
“Quiet!” Dessa snapped. “White dragon will shut up now, or Dessa will punish white dragon!”
“See?” Extraordinaire whined. “She’s threatening me! I just want to go home! It’s them who insist on keeping me down here! They’re the ones making me miserable! I’d have nothing to complain about if I could just leave!”
The regular Diamond Dogs were now all glaring daggers at their leader and her two flunkies, paws on their pickaxes.
“White dragon right!” a male howled, raising his pickaxe into the air. “Dessa, Fidella and Checkers bring white dragon here, so it their fault!”
“Make Dessa pay!” a female screeched, also raising her pickaxe.
“Make Dessa pay!” another dog agreed, and soon the entire pack were brandishing their pickaxes, chanting the same words over and over.
“Dessa! What we do now?” Fidella whimpered, her voice filling with panic.
“Yeah! Pack members form mob!” Checkers wailed. “What we do?”
Dessa was furious now. Thanks to the white dragon, she now had a rebellion on her paws.
“Black cloud make us stronger!” Dessa reminded her subordinates. “We clobber pack and make them pay for rebellion!”
The three lead females grabbed their own pickaxes and rushed towards the angry mob, desperate to put down the sudden uprising Extraordinaire had created.
“Extraordinaire!” a familiar voice called out, causing the tailor to whirl around to hear the sound of galloping hooves, flapping wings and clicking talons rapidly approaching.
The voice’s owner rounded a corner, revealing Wishful Legend, with the other five close behind her.
“Wishy! Nightfall! Slash! Slice! Goody! Timmy!” Extraordinaire cheered as he rushed to meet his friends. “I’m sorry to have worried all of you! Quickly! Let’s get out of here! I managed to get them to fight each other, but I don’t know how long that’ll last!”
But just as the group was about to be reunited, Dessa appeared out of nowhere and slammed a fist into Extraordinaire’s stomach, throwing him into the ceiling of the tunnel hub. The tailor groaned from the impact, then fell to the ground, leaving him dazed.
“White dragon not leaving!” Dessa roared as her eyes turned black as pitch, a cloud of darkness rising from her body and filling the area behind her. The rest of her pack started to emerge from the cloud, their eyes also consumed by the same blackness, sporting bloodthirsty expressions and twitching like dangling marionettes as they approached.
“Oh, no…” Nightfall whispered, shaking his head in disbelief as he stared at the enfolding scene with mounting horror. “That’s not possible! This can’t be happening!”
“Nightfall, what’s wrong?” Slash demanded. “What’s going on?”
“Hello, ‘Chosen Six’,” a voice boomed from the cloud of darkness, with a haughty intonation like steel scraping across stone. “What do you think of my handiwork? This pack of strays is under my command!”
The exact nature of the voice was indescribable, for each that heard it heard a different voice, a voice that seemed to convey the very essence of whatever they feared most. Whether male, female, both or neither, whether plural or singular, whether a living thing, place, object, or idea, whatever features described their greatest fear, that’s what the voice seemed to be to each one hearing it.
“Wh-Who’s there?” Timidwings squeaked. “Wh-what do you want?”
“I am both simple and complex,” the voice replied. “I am both everywhere and nowhere. I am both orderly and chaotic, but I am not balanced in the slightest. I am as old as the universe itself, and though I love chaos and order, I despise balance. Have you fools pieced it together yet? What fits that description more than anything else? Come on, remember the tales! Use those masses of jelly you call brains and think!”
“No, you can’t be,” Nightfall muttered in an almost desperate tone, shaking his head over and over as he slowly backed up. “You just can’t! You can’t be here! It’s impossible for you to be here!”
Wishful and the other five Dragoons all stared at Nightfall, utterly confused as to what he was talking about.
“At least one of you has figured it out,” the voice chuckled, the tunnel around them quaking slightly with every word, every syllable, every last intake of breath. “Sorry, Bearer of Power, but I am here. At least, in part. I am far beyond your puny comprehension, so of course you’d try to convince yourself that I’m not here. But here I am, Nightfall Sheen, Student of Lumin Draconis. Like it or not, I’m here. And yet, I’m also not here.”
The words the voice was saying didn’t make any sense, but the one filly and the five other Dragoons slowly started to piece together the references to tales they’d heard when they were very young, and soon, they’d joined Nightfall in his realization, and they couldn’t believe it either.
“Havoc!” Wishful shrieked, bolting to cower behind the Dragoons. “Y-y-y-you can’t be—”
“Exactly,” the voice snickered, a small amount of rocks and dust sent tumbling from the ceiling by the mere reverberation of the sound. “I’m the very embodiment of imbalance. I’m what your religion fears more than anything else. I’m the one who turned the Orions against the ancient Wyrms, forcing Gwynnia and her mate to devour the magma of the Volcano of Origin to save Dragonkind so the Orions had no choice but to flee beyond the stars. I’m the one who your King and Queen left to stop. I’m the exact opposite of the divinity who created your universe. I’m the one who corrupted Umbra and turned him into Midnight Darkscales. I’m the mastermind behind almost every conflict to ever befall your world. My name is Havoc! The Great Disruptor! I won’t allow the Components of Balance to get in my way again! That’s why I had the Diamond Dogs abduct the Bearer of Sacrifice. I don’t care if you know my reasons or plans. It matters not what I tell you and what I keep from you, for you’re nothing compared to me! With even one of you six out of the picture, the Components won’t work at all! If you all make it out of this alive, don’t expect me to reveal myself every time you disrupt my plans. This is merely an introduction, so that you know who you’re really up against! I will throw the scales of Balance into disarray, with them swinging back and forth between extreme order and extreme chaos like a pendulum, throwing your realm into mass hysteria, panic, confusion, and, of course, havoc.”
Every word was like a punch to the gut, sending their confidence plummeting, one by one. They had no idea how to deal with… with Havoc. This was far beyond anything they had even imagined confronting today. Naturally, they were somewhere between utterly confused and absolutely petrified. “This is bad,” Nightfall muttered. “This is very bad!”
“Mammy, Pappy,” Slice whispered, tears in his eyes, “Ah’m comin’ ta join ya’ll. Ah jus’ wish Ah coulda said g’bye ta Apple Blast, firs’.”
“We’re going to die,” Extraordinaire wailed. “We’re all going to die, and I never even designed our Bash suits!”
“This isn’t fair, this just isn’t fair!” Slash screamed. “I had my whole life ahead of me!”
“My poor animals are going to have to fend for themselves!” Timidwings sniffed. “I hope the poor dears can make it without me.”
“I won’t get to throw another party ever again,” Goody sighed regretfully, his head fins seeming to deflate as tears filled his eyes. “I’ll miss everygon’s smiling faces.”
“That’s right, Chosen Six,” Havoc laughed as the horde of Diamond Dogs got closer and closer. “Give in to your despair! You can’t defeat me! Even with only a small part of my presence actually here, you’re still no match for me! Diamond Dogs! Put them out of their misery!”
Wishful, at this point, had stopped cowering and instead stared at her father figure and his friends in disbelief. How could they just give up? Havoc may border on all-powerful, but Diamond Dogs—even with Havoc’s influence—had limits!
“What are you doing?” Wishful demanded, getting the attention of the six despairing Dragoons. “That’s not all of Havoc, it’s only a small sliver of the creature! Havoc said this was just a part, not the whole, after all! The Components’ whole purpose is to restore Balance, right? Havoc is pure imbalance! These Diamond Dogs can be purified, just like Lord Umbra was! Without the Diamond Dogs to control, Havoc will have to face you head-on, and if Havoc is using the Diamond Dogs instead of just attacking you outright, this puppetmaster must be nothing without puppets to command!”
It was as if a spell had been broken, fear quickly giving way to determination across the faces of the other six. Nightfall was the first to recover, his hopeless frown turning into a grim smile that promised Havoc no easy fight. “She’s right!” Nightfall declared, “We can’t just give up! Get ready to fight, guys! Wishful, send a letter to Lord Lumin so he knows we need the Components!”
The other five nodded, taking battle stances as Wishful started hastily scratching out a letter to Lumin to inform him of their plight.
“Ready…” Nightfall said, acting like a general to the other five.
The others tensed, ready to spring in an instant, eyes burning with determination as the fighting that had been in every single dragon’s blood without exception for over ten thousand years overcame all their fears.
“Attack!” Nightfall roared, and the Chosen Six charged to meet their adversaries, ready to fight with all of their power to buy enough time for Wishful to send the letter and for Lumin to send them the Components.