//------------------------------//
// Desert 
// Story: Friendship is Serious 
// by The card holder 
//------------------------------//

About an hour after arriving in the middle of the desert, the sun was high up in the air, beating down on the six ponies and one human. The ponies were all sweating heavily from the heat, and Sam had a few spots on his shirt from his own sweat. Despite this, he seemed to be taking the heat a lot better than the others.

"Cancha do somethin' 'bout the sun, Celestia?" Dash gasped, wiping her forehead.

"I'm afraid not. Not only is my magic weaker right now, but Mental appears to have locked the sun in its current revolution."

"On the bright side, at least there aren't any-"

"No, don't!" Pinkie suddenly shouted, holding a hoof up to stop Sam. "You'll jinx it!"

"Hell, at least it'd give me something to do," Sam said. Then he suddenly cupped his hands together and shouted, "AT LEAST THERE AREN'T ANY ALIENS ATTACKING US!"

They all stood there and waited. 

But nothing happened.

"...huh. Normally that wor-"

And then a barrage of teleports could be heard, followed by kamikaze yells and kleer clops.

"Was this really necessary, Sam?"

"Would you rather them attack us when we least expect it?"

"...point taken."

A group of various hostile creatures then made their way over a sand dune, but Sam already had his tommy gun readied. While the ponies were shielded from harm, he began mowing down kleer, kamikazes, and even the occasional gnarr. 

Just as the first wave finished up, a rumbling could be heard in the distance, before a large, tan, bull-like creature came roaring over another dune, heading straight for Sam. Grinning, he took out his rocket launcher and fired a couple of shots, both rockets hitting the creature straight in the face. Upon the second impact, it let out a dying roar and flipped over, its forward momentum still in place. Sam sidestepped the rolling corpse, which then impacted against Twilight's shield. 

For the second time that day, Fluttershy fainted. 

"That's a whole lotta bull!" Sam quipped, while more werebulls came hurtling over the dunes. More rockets were fired off, every two shots bringing down another bull, their bodies rolling a good distance before stopping.

Eventually, the bulls stopped coming, but another group of aliens teleported in some distance away. They looked a lot like the biomech Sam killed back in the castle, only smaller, and more blue. Also, instead of rockets, they shot blue lasers, which Sam quickly began dodging.

Meanwhile, as he was doing battle, Celestia and Netty were having a decidedly peaceful conversation, given the events taking place.

"So, from my understanding, most of Mental's forces are either wild animals, half-machine abominations, or 'converted' animals?"

"That is correct. It's not exactly an orthodox army, but it's surprisingly effective."

"I'm not sure, Sam seems to be doing rather well against them..."

"Sam is no ordinary human. I am the biggest reason for that."

"You and him behave rather similarly, I must say."

"It's a side effect of being in his head for a while. He starts to rub off on you, both in a heart-warming metaphorical sense and in a kinda literal sense."

At that moment, Sam fought his way to the top of a nearby sand dune, where he could see dozens of incoming kamikazes, all screaming their non-existent heads off.

"Oh, this looks fun- Wait, what am I saying?!"

"See what I mean? Don't worry, it isn't permanent. At least, I don't think it is..."

While Celestia was having a minor identity crisis, Sam continued fighting the onslaught of enemies, keeping himself rearmed with the boxes of ammo that were just sitting in the middle of a desert for some reason.

Soon, the sand was littered with shell casings, blood, bones, and body parts. Convinced that he killed all of the attackers, Sam wiped a combination of sweat and blood off his forehead before walking back to the ponies.

"I'm getting the feeling you have too much fun doing this," Twilight said, half-joking.

"Hey, some people enjoy playing sports, we enjoy gratuitous amounts of self-defense."

"You both can't really be serious."

"Oh, calm down, Celly!" Sam said, laughing. "We're doing good, why not have fun doing it?"

As they walked up the blood-stained dune, Applejack caught view of a welcome sight:

An oasis, not even off the path of their destination. She let out a small cheer, nearly dropping the knocked out Fluttershy in the process. The others saw what she was excited about, and immediately wore looks of relief.

"Wait, that's not a mirage, is it?" Rarity asked.

"Nope, it's the real deal. I should know, I'm a computer."

Now with a goal right in front of them, the seven started moving faster towards the oasis, ready for some relief from the overbearing heat.