As they fell, Clark, Trixie, and Daring screamed, but Maud just grimaced and braced herself. Dr. Caballeron and Ahuizotl started to regain consciousness, but were too out of it to react. Trixie managed to pull herself together and focus her telekinesis to slow down their fall. She groaned in pain, but it worked and their impact with the ground just felt like a hard tumble.
Dr. Caballeron and Ahuizotl laid there in their bindings and groaned before slipping back into unconsciousness. The others looked around the cavern they found themselves in. There were holes leading to tunnels in several directions. The hole they fell through was so far away it looked like a dot. Though the sunlight didn’t reach them, they could still see because what seemed like moss on certain parts of the floor and walls was glowing a dull green. Trixie helped by lighting up her horn.
Daring Do checked her wing.
"Darn it, I still can’t move it!"
Clark turned to Trixie.
"Can you lift us out?"
“Sorry, I’m not strong enough to do something like that. Even slowing our fall was tiring.”
“That’s okay.”
He crouched down and gathered his strength.
“I’m going to see if I can leap to the top. If I can, I’ll come back for you all.”
All three mares stared at him. Daring raised an eyebrow.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I have to try.”
He grunted and leaped up with all his strength. The mares gaped in awe at seeing him soar into the air at an incredible speed. He saw the hole get closer and closer, but he started to fall.
Come on, come on, fly!
His efforts to concentrate his energy underneath him were in vain, and he landed back where he started with a thud. He immediately got up and tried again, twice, but it had the same results. He frowned.
“It seems my limit is about 200 meters. Judging by how large the hole looked when my jump was at its apex, we’re about 270 meters below the surface. Looks like my plan to carry you all out one at a time was a bust.”
Hmm, if I go at super speed, I might be able to run up the wall, but it might cause a cave in, plus it would be too risky to do that while carrying one of them and the hole is nowhere near the walls. Darn it.
Maud took charge.
“We’ll just find another way out. Caves are formed from water erosion, so they'll eventually lead to the surface. If we systematically search these tunnels, we'll find one with a flow of air, which will lead to the outside.”
She picked a tunnel at random, carved a circle mark on the wall with her strong hoof, then entered.
Stunned, Clark picked up Ahuizotl and Trixie helped Daring with Caballeron, then they followed Maud down the tunnel. Clark caught up to Maud.
“Good to see you know your way around caves.”
She gave a tiny smirk.
“I told you, rocks are my life. I’ve studied as much about them as I can. Plus, I grew up on a rock farm and learned how to navigate its mines. It’s a similar principle.”
“A rock farm? How does that work?”
She perked up.
“Simple. You excavate the-”
Clark abruptly put a hoof over her mouth.
“Shhh. A lot of big insects are coming from up ahead.”
Trixie looked around.
“What are you talking about?”
“I can hear a lot of wing flaps approaching. They sound like flies buzzing, and they are big.”
Daring Do’s eyes widened. She inspected the source of the dull green light and gave a look of shock.
“How could I have missed this!? This is Changeling slime!”
Trixie gasped and Maud’s eyes widened. Clark grunted.
“Care to enlighten me?”
“Changelings are shape-shifting creatures that resemble ponies crossed with insects. They feed on other beings’ love energy. A few years ago, they tried to conquer Equestria before they were driven off into hiding.”
“Drat, they must have made this cave their nest.”
He could see in the dark if he concentrated, and his telescopic vision made his mind boggle at the hundreds of Changelings funneling through the tunnel towards them. By now, the mares could hear their wings buzzing.
“I can hear them talking to each other. They know we are here and were ordered to apprehend us. Is there any chance we can negotiate with them?”
Daring shook her head.
“I doubt it. Their queen, Chrysalis, made it clear she wanted all ponies as slaves for her kind to drain.”
“I see.”
Using any of my powers in this tunnel could be disastrous.
“We’ve got to fall back to where we started. Use the tunnel entrance as a bottleneck.”
“Sounds like a plan. Come on!”
They retreated to the chamber that they fell into. The hole was even harder to see than before, indicating the sun was setting. Clark concentrated his powers.
There’s no sunlight here. You’ve been in situations like this plenty of times. Ration your power. Use it as efficiently as possible.
Looking into the hole, he waited until the maximum number of Changelings were lined up, then fired his heat vision. Their ranks were thinned out as many fell to the tunnel floor in pain with their wings singed.
The mares were startled and Trixie stammered.
“W-What was that?”
“Explanations later, fight now!”
He fired more volleys of heat vision, but there were too many enemies and a swarm burst from the tunnel.
Daring Do flew up and punched several out.
“Good news, everypony! My wing is 100% again!”
“Good to hear!”
Trixie saluted as she began blasting Changelings left and right.
Clark and Maud start punching and bucking Changelings, sending them flying into the walls, though they were careful to not do it hard enough to cause a cave in.
Now that she could fly again, Daring looked up at the hole, but before she could move, she saw the Changelings had already reached it and sealed it shut with rock and slime, similar to the way ants and termites seal breaches in their mounds.
“Darn it!”
Some of the Changelings started firing blasts with their horns. A preoccupied Clark got hit in the back with one. Since his invulnerability didn’t apply to magical attacks, he screamed in pain as he was blasted across the chamber. While he was lying dazed, he got dogpiled. Since he was still recovering and found it a bit hard to move, he grunted and used a low level Solar Pulse. The Changelings trying to hold him down were blasted away, twitching in pain from their burns.
Having recovered from his grogginess, he looked up and saw Maud had been stunned by a blast and then dogpiled. He prepared to help her, but the Changelings apparently anticipated this. He saw five other Mauds similarly being dogpiled. He applied his X-Ray vision, only to discover that that the fake Mauds could copy a pony’s physiology when transformed.
“Wait a second…”
With super speed, he punched or knocked away all the Changelings and fake Mauds, leaving only the real one. She shook off her grogginess.
“How did you know?”
“None of them had Boulder.”
With that, she hugged him and he immediately hugged her back. For a moment, they were the only two in the world. Her lips started to approach his, and he prepared to kiss her, before suddenly backing away, gasping and blushing.
What was I thinking!? Am I out of my mind!? Maxima hasn’t even been dead for a day! And she’s a pony!
At his reaction, she looked sad, which made him feel even worse.
“Could you do that later and help us!?”
Trixie and Daring were still fighting off the seemingly endless horde.
Embarrassed, Maud nodded and leaped away to tackle more Changelings.
Clark noticed some Changelings trying to drag Caballeron and Ahuizotl’s unconscious bodies away. He drew his sword with his teeth and tackled them away, parrying their attempted horn attacks and blasts with the blade. While guarding them, he looked around and found that the Changelings’ numbers haven’t thinned.
“Trixie! Help me wake these two bozos up!”
She fought her way over to him.
“Are you sure?”
“We need all the help we can get.”
“Fine.”
She undid their bindings with telekinesis and conjured smelling salts to revive them. They groaned in pain and slowly got up. Caballeron struggled to regain his bearings.
“What is going on?”
Clark answered for him.
“We’re under attack from Changelings. Fight or be a slave. Make your choice.”
Ahuizotl sneered.
“What I choose is the path of destruction!”
He lunged at the horde and started smacking away all in his path.
Caballeron looked around and sighed in annoyance.
“I suppose it is no choice at all. Have at thee!”
He charged into the fray. While he didn’t have much experience in actual combat, he seemed to have studied some form of martial arts that allowed him to knock out Changelings with precise blows. Clark kept his senses locked on the two in case they tried to escape.
And so they fought. Clark used his super speed sparingly, worried he would burn up his remaining reserves of energy or that he might cause a cave in. Eventually, Caballeron was knocked out again and Ahuizotl passed out from the pain of his wound, as it was only partially healed by Clark’s spell, but the two made their contribution to the battle. Some of the Changelings tried to fool them with transformations, but the group kept track of where their companions were at all times and it didn’t work.
At last, all the Changelings in the cavern were knocked out and the team was exhausted. The battle had gone on for so long that they had lost track of time.
Clark approached Daring Do.
“Now that your wings are working again, if you carry me to the ceiling, I’m sure I can break through it.”
“Heh, sounds like a plan. Let’s secure these two again.”
As the four approached the two unconscious villains, they all screamed in pain as they were blasted from behind several times. Clark was the last to fall.
Darn it, I didn’t even hear any reinforcements from the tunnel!
The last thing he experienced before he lost consciousness was a sinister female laugh and an unconscious Maud’s face.
Maud, I’m sorry…
Queen Chrysalis stepped out of the tunnel after she had ambushed the group with her magical blasts. With so many years of experience, she had completely mastered the art of flying without making any noise and of concealing her breath and heartbeat. She surveyed all the knocked out Changelings and gave an exasperated sigh.
“I suppose the old saying is true. You want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.”
Clark woke up to find they were in another chamber, one that was furnished, decorated, and lit with many torches. He could see a throne on one end and a bed on another. Him, Maud, Trixie, Daring, Caballeron, and Ahuizotl were all bound upright in cocoons of hardened slime that covered them from the neck down, guarded by six Changelings. Trixie also had some slime covering her horn. On one end of the room was all of their clothing and equipment. He attempted to break free, only to confirm he was practically running on empty. The guards converged on him, only to be stopped by a voice.
“Ah, you’re awake already. Impressive.”
Chrysalis walked into the room, looking a little tired.
“Queen Chrysalis, I presume?”
“Correct, intruder.”
She cast a spell and Maud, Daring Do, and Trixie woke up, but Caballeron and Ahuizotl’s injuries prevented them from rousing. Despite their best efforts, Trixie and Daring shuddered in fear when they looked upon Chrysalis, but Maud just frowned.
“If it is any consolation, be satisfied that your group has set back my plans. Believe it or not, I care about my subjects. I’ve spent all night using my stored love energy to heal each of the ones you maimed. Oh yes, you shall all pay for every wing, leg, horn, or exoskeleton you have damaged. Can you believe it!? Ever since our previous defeat, we’ve been in hiding, building up our stores of love energy by having scouts seduce random passersby until we could launch a counterattack and I had to give it all up just like that!?”
All present, even the guards, flinched at her expression of anger and hint of madness.
“Ah, but that's in the past. It's time to replenish our stocks.”
She approached a cabinet and opened it with her telekinesis, then floated out a decorated bottle.
“Say hello to my love poison.”
Trixie panicked, having learned of love poison from a textbook back in her days at Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns.
“Oh no! I’ve heard of that stuff! She's going to make us her mindless love slaves!”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes.
“Relax. We’ve tried the original formula of love poison on our victims before, but we learned it causes ponies to feel a false love that we cannot feed off of. No, I've modified and improved the formula. This version causes the drinker to think about and be consumed by whomever they truly love. In addition, I have learned from my mistakes from the previous infiltration and invasion. I have learned to read thoughts involving love. Allow me to demonstrate.”
She looked at each of them until she picked Clark.
“Some of the soldiers I revived described you as the biggest threat, so you shall feed me first.”
The bottle floated over to him. He struggled and tried to turn his head away, but her telekinesis held his head still and pinched his nostrils shut. He could do nothing as the bottle poured some of its contents down his throat. It tasted like fruit punch.
“Ahh!”
Clark struggled. His head was swimming and memories floated to the surface unbidden.
“Interesting. Your memories are a bit hard to interpret, but I can see you were not originally a pony. No matter. The mind is a plaything of the body, after all.”
She concentrated, and green flames enveloped her as she changed. Standing before them now was an Earth Pony with pale white fur and a light red mane, wearing a business suit jacket and glasses. Her Cutie Mark was a pen and notebook.
Clark gasped.
“Those eyes…”
Chrysalis’ new form smiled at him.
“Hey there, Smallville.”
In his addled state, Clark choked back sobs at the voice he had not heard in person in over 1019 years, excluding his dreams. The potion made it hard to remember that the being in front of him was Chrysalis.
“Lois.”
The Lois Lane facsimile walked up and kissed him, and he returned it. Realizing what was going to happen, Daring Do and Trixie sadly turned away, but Maud surprisingly growled at the display. As the kiss broke, green energy flowed from Clark’s mouth into the false Lois’ mouth. This invigorated her while he slumped forward in pain and exhaustion.
Chrysalis stepped back and returned to her true form, looking fresh as a daisy. All her fatigue from healing her subjects was gone.
“That hit the spot! But wait, I sense love for others.”
She transformed again. This time, she was a Unicorn with peach colored fur and a long black mane, wearing a red uniform with yellow lightning bolt emblems and a white cape. Her Cutie Mark was a lightning bolt next to a sitting owl. She turned chipper.
“It’s almost Ariella’s birthday. What's your present, Clark?”
Clark’s heart was in even more anguish at the voice he had not heard in person in over 1007 years.
“Mary!”
The process repeated. First a kiss, then a love drain. Trixie, Daring Do, and Maud shouted protests, trying to distract her, but it didn't work.
Chrysalis again stepped back and returned to her true form, giddy. She felt like back when she was powerful enough to defeat Celestia. She eyed Clark with a combination of greed and lust.
“I must have more!”
Her guards looked uncomfortable and one of them spoke up in a timid male voice.
“My Queen?”
“Quiet! I'll distribute it among the hive later!”
She transformed once again. This time, she was a Pegasus with pale white fur and a vibrant red mane, wearing green and black armor that showed off her curves, and she was about as large as Princess Cadence. Her Cutie Mark was the katana Inevitable surrounded by five floating rocks in a circle.
“Now, let’s see how strong you truly are.”
Clark was openly sobbing now. Even without the potion, he could never forget the mother of his son.
“MAXIMA!”
“I am here, my King.”
She kissed and drained him again. Maud, Trixie, and Daring Do squinted in confusion at that statement.
Chrysalis drew back and returned to her true form.
“Hahahahaha!”
She stomped her right hoof down and the whole chamber shook. She punched a boulder and reduced it to dust.
“Such power! I shall have it all! There is one more I sense!”
By now, all in the chamber who were conscious were terrified of Chrysalis, except for Clark, who was extremely haggard and barely aware of his surroundings. Chrysalis needed a few seconds to sort through this next set of memories, giving a brief look of confusion. She levitated Boulder from the pile of belongings to her hoof, then transformed one more time, into Maud Pie, complete with a replica of her dress.
“Let’s have a picnic together, just the three of us.”
It was a seemingly perfect recreation of Maud’s voice and mannerisms.
Clark looked up and stared at her, the look on his face unreadable.
“Clark! Snap out of it! She’s not Maud!”
The three mares desperately called out to Clark, but he didn’t react to them.
The false Maud approached him and brought her lips forward, but Clark headbutted her, knocking her into the wall. Boulder fell to the floor in front of him. She reverted to her true form in a daze.
Clark growled. His energy was rising even though there was no sunlight; a result of both his rage and something else. He activated a Solar Pulse that disintegrated his cocoon and turned his tears to steam. He looked back to full health. The guards lunged at him, but he knocked them out with one blow each.
Clark punched a wall and broke through it. As he suspected, it led to the outside. The Queen’s chamber was inside a cliff face. It faced east and the sun was rising, bathing Clark in its light. He instantly felt better, but was still angry. Strengthened, Clark noticed reinforcements approaching from the tunnel, so he collapsed the entrance with a shot of heat vision. Able to guess the purpose of the hardened slime on Trixie’s horn, he burned it off with a low level heat vision blast.
“Free the others!”
He turned towards Chrysalis.
“On it!”
While thoroughly shocked by what just happened, Trixie started blasting away at the slime covering her and the others.
Chrysalis got up, and was horrified to find her nose was bleeding from the headbutt.
“How dare you!?”
“You’re not the first corrupt queen to try to usurp my heart. I give you props though, at least it worked better than the Queen of Fables’ attempt.”
“Queen of-? Whatever! Die!”
She tried to blast him with her horn, but in an instant, he was standing to her left. He uppercutted her in the gut, launching her into the ceiling. She came down, coughing.
“You. You desecrated my memories. YOU. WILL. PAY!”
All present looked on in shock as Clark’s fur gradually turned gray and his mane gradually turned white. He grew slightly larger and he sprouted fangs. In desperation, Chrysalis landed a punch to his face that was so strong it created a mini sonic boom, but all it did was nudge his head back a little. She pulled Dawnbreak to her and drew it, leaving the blade floating in the air. Before she could swing it, he threw a punch that again launched her through the air. The sword fell to the ground with a clatter. The three mares were shocked to see she was unconscious, her jaw was dislocated, and her exoskeleton was cracked in several places.
Clark marched toward the fallen ruler, but the three mares stood in his way. Daring spoke for them.
“She’s been beaten. You can stop now.”
Clark shook his head in confusion and rubbed it.
“What happened? What was I- AHHHHHHHHH!!!”
They helplessly looked on in fear and confusion as Clark fell to his knees, wracked with pain. Heat was rolling of his body in waves, preventing them from coming near him. He realized what was happening but couldn’t fight the change. As his mind started to be subsumed, he had just enough clarity to deliver one message.
“Lois. Mary. Maxima. Maud. I love you all, until the end of time.”
He grew even larger until he was about as tall as Princess Celestia. Spikes sprouted from several parts of his body and all of his teeth grew sharp and long. He developed a Cutie Mark, a body’s cell as seen under a microscope, under a mushroom cloud explosion. Finally, his eyes turned pure, glowing red.
Maud stepped forward uncertainly.
“Clark?”
The being before them answered in a voice completely unlike Clark’s.
“NO CLARK. I AM DOOMSDAY!!!”
Doomsday roared, a roar that shook the chamber. Daring Do and Trixie fell over, but Maud stood her ground.
Doomsday marched towards them, but stopped when he looked into Maud’s eyes.
“MAUD…”
Suddenly, a cold wind blew into the hole Clark had made and the chamber started filling with snow. Doomsday roared in annoyance.
Trixie squinted, then widened her eyes in horror.
“No, it cannot be. The Windigos!”
It was true. Dozens of the transparent, horse-like winter spirits were converging on the hole. They looked down on Doomsday and ice started forming on him, but he melted it away with a Solar Pulse. Undaunted, the spirits concentrated their efforts and in an instant, Doomsday was flash frozen. The spirits gleefully entered the chamber, intending to feed on this being that radiated hate and anger like a bonfire.
Before they could, Doomsday burst free from the ice, giving another mighty roar of rage. Sharing one last look with Maud, he leaped out of the hole, landing on the ground below with a thunderous crash. Looking around, he started running and leaping away at great speed. The Windigos ignored the others in the chamber and flew out in pursuit of their prey.
The three mares were snapped out of their stupor by the sound of shifting rocks. They turned to the collapsed entrance and realized the rest of the Changelings were trying to move the rocks aside to assist their Queen.
Daring assessed the situation.
“Not good. We have to get out of here.”
She checked the two fallen criminals.
“These two need medical attention. Ahuizotl’s wound has reopened and I think Caballeron has a concussion.”
“On it.”
Trixie cast a spell and the two started looking better.
“Clark’s healing spell may have been different from anything I’ve ever seen, but I was able to get the gist of it.”
“We have to find Clark.”
The other two stared at Maud. Trixie voiced her doubts.
“Are you crazy!? That thing wasn’t him!”
“He remembered me. He’s there somewhere. We have to save him.”
Daring shrugged.
“Well, we can’t let Doomsday or the Windigos run wild in Equestria.”
The mares went to the pile of belongings and got dressed. Maud recovered Boulder and looked over Clark’s jacket. Slightly self-conscious, she put it on. Due to the differences in their sizes, it came down to her knees, like her dress, and she had to roll up the sleeves.
Trixie smirked.
“It's a good look, it suits you. Okay, we’ll help you save your coltfriend.”
Maud gave a small smile at hearing that.
Trixie examined Clark’s saddlebags and removed but didn’t unwrap Clark’s cape, assuming it to just be a blanket, as well as the Aegis of Gaia.
“Hmm. These are enchanted to be bigger on the inside. I use a similar spell on my pockets and hat to help my magic show, but this one seems to be an improved version. I wonder…”
She conjured up chains to again tie the two criminals up, then telekinetically stuffed them into the saddlebags.
“Bravo! It worked! And the enchantment also negates most of their weight, so we can carry them easily.”
She fixed the saddlebags around her waist. She stuffed the cape, the Aegis of Gaia, and Caballeron’s clothes into her own enchanted pockets, not wanting to risk either of the two reviving and using Caballeron's various hidden tools to escape.
Daring Do refilled her canteen from a tiny, natural spring she found in the chamber, and shared it with the other two.
“Come on, that pile of rocks isn’t going to last forever.”
Trixie sheathed Clark’s sword and tucked it into the saddlebags’ belt.
“Any idea where we are going?”
Maud took a deep breath.
“I don’t care if you think this is crazy, just know this is true. My Maud Sense allows me to know where ponies I am looking for are. Clark was heading north.”
Trixie smiled.
“You’re related to Pinkie Pie. I’ll believe anything at this point.”
“North it is. Trixie, get on my back and Maud, I’ll carry you in my arms.”
Trixie scoffed.
“Can you really carry the both of us?”
Daring smirked.
“I’m a lot stronger than I look, though I admit it will help if you use your telekinesis to lighten the load.”
Trixie got on Daring’s back and wrapped her arms around her barrel. Daring rose into the air and wrapped her arms around Maud’s barrel from behind.
“Let’s go save our friend.”
With Trixie helping her, she flew out of the hole and soared northward as fast as she could.
A few seconds later, the pile of rocks blocking the tunnel collapsed and the Changelings attended to their fallen Queen and her fallen guards.