The navy blue Zentorno lurched, its right side taking the cliff's natural ramp solely. Soaring through the air, it instantly tipped forward and hit a group of waiting cacti, causing it to tumble end over end with a loud crash. As the green desert plants splattered against the windshield, the Zentorno's windows shattered and its side-view mirrors found themselves flung completely free from the soon-to-be wreck. Rolling over, the super car slid on its roof for a solid few seconds, finally settling in a bush that halted it instantly. The back end raising up into the air and falling back down, the Zentorno remained still, its top end now nestled in the scorching desert sand.

A pair of noises approached deafeningly, their uproarious engines raising a ruckus as they decelerated near the wreckage. Stopping at its rear, the two other Zentornos deposited their drivers: a pair of stallions, one a yellow Pegasus and the other a sage Earth Pony. Their Zentornos, both black but with differing secondary colors—red and green—they looked at one another and grinned, nodding. The Pegasus pulled out an Assault Rifle. The Earth Pony, noting his companion's choice, equipped his Marksman Pistol. Turning to the fallen car, they stared at the passenger window silently.

The sun high above them spread its light across their features.

The lack of wind kept their matching leather jackets around them tightly.

A sudden noise roused them from their observations, and they looked to the other side of the wreckage to find a blue stallion aiming an Assault Shotgun at them. The Pegasus, eyes wide, suddenly gained a new collection of gaping holes in his face. His friend falling to the ground in an incredibly bloody heap, the Earth Pony cocked the hammer back on his Marksman Pistol and crouched down to find his attacker inside the car. Looking in head first, he reeled back and stumbled across the sand, screaming bloody murder as he held a hoof to the new knife handle currently protruding from his right eye.

Groaning, he groggily raised his Marksman Pistol and opened his surviving eye, only to stop as he found the blue stallion, the silencer on his Assault Shotgun now stuffed into his mouth.

H2O Delirious' brow furrowed heavily, and he growled from somewhere down in his throat as he yanked the trigger. Staring down at the fresh corpse, he narrowed his eyes and bent over, picking up the Earth Pony's Pistol. Holstering it, he blinked, now staring at the pair of remaining Zentornos standing in the sunlight. Walking over to the first one, which was black and green, he reached a hoof out and felt for the driver-side door. It awarded him with nothing. Trying the other car gave the same results.

"Fuck," he whispered, eyes scanning the horizon for their respawning. Finding a far off shadow in the distance, Delirious reached into his crotch to get his Heavy Sniper. He frowned, unable to find it. Cursing under his breath, he opted for his Marksman Rifle. Bringing it up to his eyes, he held his breath and hovered his scope's crosshairs over the stallion's head. Eyes narrowing, he lowered his weapon and looked to his left and his right, then brought the weapon back up again to the previous spot. His aim lowered.

The shot cracked, and so did the newly re-birthed Earth Pony's nutsack.

Delirious about-faced, swinging his Marksman Rifle around to face his rear. He jabbed the barrel into the yellow Pegasus' chin, who grit his teeth and slowly lowered his weapon as the Rifle slid up his neck to rest against his Adam's Apple. Dropping his Shotgun to the ground, he raised his hooves into the air with a shaky breath. Delirious, still aiming his Rifle at his head, bent over and retrieved the Pegasus' Pump Shotgun, holstering it on his back as he stood up once more.

The Pegasus' hooves faltered slightly as he croaked, "You're not gonna shoot an unarmed pony, are ya?"

Delirious stood undaunted, not swaying in the slightest at the Pegasus' moral-defining question. Thinking for a second, he reached a hoof into his crotch and pulled out a half-broken bottle that he presented to his hostage. Chucking it to him, Delirious watched as he involuntarily caught it before it could hit him in the gut. A confused look on his face, the Pegasus spread his forelegs out to ask the purpose of Delirious' previous action, only to scream in pain as a bullet lodged itself in his hindleg. Falling to the floor with a thud, he clutched the now wounded appendage and yelled to the heavens how poor his current state of living was.

Holstering his Marksman Rifle, Delirious found himself breathing heavily, not fully knowing why until he finally caught a glimpse of where exactly he was. Blue eyes slowly panned around his surroundings carefully, almost thoughtfully.

Large formations of rust orange rocks stretched out of the ground for hundreds of miles in front of him, the tan colored ground making excellent breeding grounds for collections of cacti and various kinds of brush. The sky bore no distractions and no covers, completely visible from anywhere in the arid Badlands, be it high on the mountains or low in the dark dank gorges that cut across the landscape like a jagged knife. The sun, rather big at this time of day, brought out its deadliest entourage yet, having already soaked Delirious with his own sweat, which he wiped off his brow as his eyes fell back to the ground.

He sighed, not realizing where exactly he had driven into until that very minute. Swallowing a lump down his throat, he remembered that he and his friends were meeting up somewhere around here.

Delirious paused, ears straight as he suddenly turned around and around and around, finding nothing but bush, cacti, and sand for thousands of leagues away.

A frown fell on his lips, accompanying the hush that followed.

Looking from one now-dead body to the next, Delirious looked north, adjusted his blue sweater, and ran as fast as he could into the desert, ignoring the discarded and long-burnt out flare on the ground by his hooves.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about this one being so short. Let's just call it a bit of an intermission into the second act of Outta My Mind. This is also where I will OFFICIALLY take my hiatus until January. Hope you stick around until then! Love you guys!