Uris limped as fast as he could, his already-exhausted legs screaming in pain. He hadn’t run this much since Basic, and even then he’d at least gotten an edible meal every once in a while! Barely edible, really, but a whole helluva lot better than the hay soup sitting in the pit of his stomach right now. In one arm, he held Fluttershy, while his other juggled the pistol, trying to keep from dropping it. She squeaked in fear with each fresh impact that rumbled through the city, the sounds of battle somewhere far off obviously alien to her ears.

“I’m right here,” he whispered, allowing her hooves to wrap around his neck. “C’mon, Flutters. We needja again.”

She shook her head, her eyes closed, her lips pursed in fear.

“Do I hafta remind you of the forest again? Come on. I really need your help.”

“Need my…” her eyes cracked open ever so slightly, her voice shaking with fear as she asked: “What do you need from me?”

“I need you to tell me exactly where we need to go. All I know is that the Element of Kindness is somewhere around here, but you’re the one who’s in tune with it. You’re the one who needs to guide us the rest of the way.”

She nodded and closed her eyes again. A few moments later, they reopened. “There,” she said plainly, pointing to a vacant, yet somehow intact, house.

“Okay,” he replied, strolling up to the quaint little structure and trying the doorknob. “Aw damn, I’m sorry, I think it’s…”

Fluttershy didn’t have to hear the rest. She slowly hovered out of his arms and flapped to the ground, her eyes scanning a pile of rocks set up right next to the house’s doorstep. She smiled: one of the rocks was obviously sticking up at a strange angle, as if it were resting on something. She snatched the stone up in her hooves. “I think this’ll work,” she said, feeling around for the spare key she knew most ponies kept in hiding spots near their doors.

“Say no more,” Uris said, grinning as he snatched the stone away and promptly whipped it through the window next to the door, shattering it. As she stared in shock, the pilot brushed aside a bit of the broken glass and reached through, using his longer human arm to reach the door and undo its lock.

Satisfied, the pilot pulled the door open and beckoned her forward. “After you,” he said in his most gentlemanly tone possible.

The pegasus stared, mouth agape, at the shattered window. Then, she took a look around at the ruined village: at the shattered store fronts and pillars of smoke rising into the night sky and piles of rubble that used to be buildings, and she figured, eh, this was pretty far from the worst that could happen to somepony’s home. Smiling gratefully, she nodded and trotted over the foyer, suddenly not feeling so afraid of the darkness inside.

. Wearing a similar smile, the pilot took a step to follow, only to pause just inside the darkened hallway. A chill travelled up the back of his neck that caused his hand to snatch his pistol from its holster and twist around, eyes scouring every nook and cranny he could see. Fluttershy paused and turned back to him. “Uris?”

“Hold on,” he muttered, taking a few tentative steps out. “Something’s not…”

A crack sounded, and his leg was knocked right out from beneath him. The pilot hit the floor and immediately tumbled off his shoulder, rolling to safety behind the doorframe. “Uris!” Fluttershy screeched, starting to gallop his way.

“NO! Stay there!” He screamed. “Find the Element! It’s our only chance!”

“Buh-but,” she blubbered fearfully, turning back to the darkness in the hallway behind her.

“Don’t think, just go! We’re all counting on you!” Still, the pegasus stood there, eyeing the splotch of blood spreading across his knee. “I’ll be fine, really! Humans are tough like that! Now get moving!”

The pilot fired a few quick shots into the ceiling, and that finally spurred the pegasus into motion, galloping off into the dark. He sighed and finally surveyed the damage done to his knee, only to realize it was the same exact leg that still had a piece of twig embedded in the ankle from earlier that day. “Eh,” he shrugged. “That leg was fucked up anyway. I’ve been getting along fine as it is.”

Slowly, he pressed himself against the doorframe and began applying a tourniquet to the wound. “Alright, you sonofabitch,” he grumbled, keeping one hand on the pistol. “Let’s see if I can pay you back for my knee, hmm? And while I’m at it, maybe I’ll collect for my ankle too.”

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“SOMEPONY HELP MEEE!” Rarity screeched, casting a look over her shoulder. The crack of the whip in her pursuer’s hooves stalked her through the streets of Coltton, her cackle echoing off the alleyways.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, my little pony!” The voice cackled, shaking with instability as its owner dashed along on two hooves. “Mommy just wants to show you something!”

“You’ve nothing to show me, brute!” Rarity gasped, trying to suppress her tears. The scratches on her double’s face…they only could have come from one place. Anypony who could provoke Opal to such a terrible attack must be insane, she thought, shuddering to think what that provocation might have been.

She rounded a corner, her Element all but forgotten at the back of her mind. All that mattered now was putting as many hoofsteps, streets, and hopefully, cities between her and the insane, bipedal unicorn chasing her. Squeezing her eyes shut to hold back the fear-filled tears, she almost didn’t notice the purple unicorn running in the opposite direction until she plowed face-first into her. “Wha-TWILIGHT!” She gasped as she opened her eyes, ignoring the stars hovering in them from the blow.

“Ugh-Rarity?” Twilight scraped herself off the ground, and immediately her face lit up with glee at her friend. “Rarity, thank goodness it’s you! There’s something chasing me!”

“Oohhh, let me guess, some dark and horrifically twisted version of yourself with an obviously terrible past and a personality with all your worst traits amplified to insanity?”

Twilight blinked. “Yes, exactly. How did you…”

“OH LITTLE RARITY!” A voice cackled from around the corner. “Come now, I just want to teach you how wonderful it is to bleed!”

“Let’s just say I know the feeling,” the Element of Generosity shivered, hugging her friend close.

“Miss Twilight!” Another terrible voice rang in the night. Rarity looked over her friend’s shoulder to see yet another copy of her, clad in a red-stained lab coat and wielding a set of electrodes. “Come now! I just wish to know what makes you tick! Surely you can respect that as a fellow mare of science!”

“I AM NOTHING LIKE YOU!” Twilight shrieked, holding her friend close as she shivered and sobbed. “Oh gosh, this is so terrible.”

“I wonder if the other girls have had to face something like this?” Rarity wondered aloud as their darker halves came into view. “Oh, our poor friends, what terrors must they face?”

Suddenly, just as the doubles began to close in on their prey, a deep rumble sounded from the building next to them. All four sets of eyes turned upwards, and then the four jaws they were attached to dropped as a massive, snake-like creature descended from the rooftops. Snarling, the thing flopped into the street, propelled along by a pair of massive, crab-like talons. The thing bucked once or twice as it landed, skittering along.

“Fascinating,” Twilight’s double said. “I must have it for my dissection table!”

“I wonder if it has any tentacles,” the Rarity double wondered aloud.

“Hey, is that a…ponytail?” Twilight asked as she got a clear view of the thing’s head.

“Yes, it is,” Rarity added, still dumbfounded. “And are those freckles?”

“Yes, they are,” Twilight said. “So does that mean that thing is the evil version of…”

“Applejack!? No, pish-posh, that’s just too…ridiculous.” Rarity said, shaking her head. “And even if it was, where’s…”

Her question was answered an instant later when the creature shifted in its thrashing about, glaring at a small lump on its back. All four jaws hit the ground once again at the sight of a certain orange earth-pony, her hat clenched in one hoof as she rode her doppelganger. “YEE-HAW! Ride ‘em cowpony!” She hollered gleefully, the snake-thing under her hooves frothing with rage. “Now c’mon, girl! Ah know you got more ‘an that in ya!”

“Awesome.” Twilight’s double said.

“I have never wanted to fuck somepony more than I do right now.” Rarity’s double said, her original so stunned that she never even bothered to scold her for being so uncouth.

As the four watched, Applejack rode the massive writhing thing along the streets, holding on as it shook its head violently back and forth. Finally, in an act of frustration, the Apple-snake reared up and dove towards a building, hoping to shake the little pony off with some shattered glass. “An’ that just means the ride’s over,” AJ grinned as she tumbled off the snake, a wide grin on her face. The Apple-snake realized only too late what had happened and tried to pull up, but by then its momentum was already carrying it through the plate glass window of the nearest storefront, shattering it into a thousand shards. The snake roared, its voice rumbling in everypony’s chest as the glass sliced into its flesh. Meanwhile, the original Applejack had time to replace her hat on her head and tumble in mid-air to land at her friends’ hooves, pulling off a little bow as she skid to a stop.

“Thank yew, thank yew, Ah’m here all night,” she said confidently, her eyes opening. “Woah. Hey Twi and Rares an’…Twi an’ Rares. What?”

“That was incredible!” Twilight’s double gasped.

“A true demonstration of marehood!” Rarity’s added.

“Well, thank ya kindly,” Applejack replied, a bit put-off by the way the two new ponies seemed to be ogling her like a manticore viewing a side of meat. She took a few uneasy steps back. “But really, wasn’t nothin’ special.”

“Oh no, it was very special! In fact,” the Twi-double said, advancing as sparks flew from the electrodes in her hooves. “I simply MUST know how you did it.”

“Oh, you can have your fun once I’m done with her, Twi,” the Rare-double said, cracking the whip in her hooves against the sidewalk. “This one could last me for months with her stamina!”

“Never!” Twilight and Rarity yelled in syncopation. They leapt between the mad ponies and their friend, horns sparking with power.

“If you want our friend…” Twilight said, her eyes blazing.

“…you’ll have to go through us first.” Rarity finished sternly.

The doppelgangers looked at each other. “Okay,” they shrugged, advancing with their weapons at the ready. The trio of ponies backed away.

“Guys, who in the hay are these ponies?” AJ whispered to her friends as they backed into the street.

“They’re us,” Twilight said. “But…wrong. Discorded, almost.”

“But not even Discord could dream these ponies up,” Rarity said.

“Aw heck, Ah think we can take ‘em!” AJ said, ready to vault over her friends and launch herself at the doubles. However, a massive roar and a deep, rumbling thud interrupted her. They looked up as the Apple-crab-snake thing skittered into view along the building behind their double’s heads, hissing at them angrily to expose its teeth. It landed with an Earth-shattering thud that cracked the cement beneath its body, coiling itself around all four ponies before rearing up high over their heads, standing at the doppelgangers’ backs with its claws ready. The doubles grinned wickedly and advanced.

“And now?” Twilight asked, backing up until her flank met the tattered, patchy, orange coat of the Apple-snake.

“Not gonna lie, we might be a teeny bit outmatched,” Applejack said, pulling the brim of her hat low.

“Ohh, this is gonna be fun,” the Rari-double said.

“Science is always fun,” the Twi-double added.

The Apple-snake cackled wickedly with a voice that was a terrible mix of a roar, a maniacal laugh, and a low hiss.

“Don’t suppose we could get lucky twice in one night and be saved by a distraction yet again?” Twilight asked.

“Oh come now, Twilight, what are the odds of that?” Rarity asked.

A split-second later, a loud series of cracks sounded. The Apple-snake bucked to the side, roaring with fury as even more blood and holes joined the shards embedded in its face. Its body uncoiled around the mares as it fell to the ground, its claws scratching furiously at its head.

“Nononononono…” the doubles gasped as the snake came down right on top of them, the other
three ponies just narrowly missing its jaw as it smashed into the ground. The trio looked at the snake in awe, blood gushing from its head.

“Is it…” AJ started.

Twilight stepped forward and poked the thing. Its tongue rolled out comically. She had to stifle a giggle: she half-expected X’s to appear over its eyes! “No,” she said in relief, “But it is very stunned. I doubt it’ll be getting up anytime soon.”

“Nor will our doubles,” Rarity added with a shiver. “And thank heavens for that!”

“Am Ah the only pony that’s wonderin’ what just saved our flanks?”

The trio all immediately turned to the side as a familiar vehicle rolled up into view. Ramirez poked his head out the driver’s window, grinning. “Somebody call for an ass whuppin’?” He asked.

“Ramirez!” Twilight gasped, dashing to the car. “But…how?”

“This is how,” he replied, reaching up to pat the heavy machine gun bolted to the vehicle’s roof. “Girls: this is the Browning M2HB heavy machine gun, capable of firing a fifty-caliber BMG cartridge at an effective range of over 2000 yards, sending it out with a muzzle velocity of over nine-hundred feet per second with a cyclical rate of fire of around five-hundred rounds a minute.”

“Fascinatin’,” AJ said sarcastically. “An’ that all means?”

“It fucks shit up but fast.”

“Well, why didntcha say so!?” She said cheerfully, trotting up to join him in the vehicle.

“I say, we don’t seem to be far from our Elements.” Rarity said as she and Twilight trotted up to them.

“Got mine right here,” AJ said, pulling the little necklace out of her coat.

“Well, I guess we’re gonna do what we should’ve done in the first place,” Ramirez grinned as his foot readied to floor it. “Let’s go get us some Elements!”

====================================================================

I'm gonna go through each of the Elements, don't worry! And I'll make sure y'all know where their darker halves came from. WARNING: The following references and links might contain graphic content. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Pinkamena: "Cupcakes" by Sergeant Sprinkles. C'mon, you had to have known that one!

Rarity: "Little Miss Rarity," http://lilmissrarity.com/

Twilight: "The Experiments of Twilight Sparkle," by smawzyv

Applejack: "Cutie Mark Crusaders 10K," http://gatesmccloud.deviantart.com/art/The-Chaos-Lords-366525052?q=gallery%3AGatesMcCloud%2F36329889&qo=52

Of course, this still leaves Rainbow and Fluttershy. Don't worry, we'll be getting to them soon enough.