Author's Notes:

I've mentioned this in blog posts, and here it is again:
I'm rushing the progression of the plot, as well as writing in general. Reasons for this are that this arc has taken obscenely longer than I wanted, and problems in real life have got me stressing. I'm hurrying this arc up.
The arc will be finished within six chapters.

Kufn climbed to his hooves. He leant forward, raised his butt into the air, and stretched out his back. After a satisfying - pop - he gently picked up one of Aima’s many knives strewn about the place and, with a flick of his Horse wrist, flung it at Ra. The blade flew through the air, and sunk deep into the flesh of Ra’s lower hind leg. Ra cried out, and his leg buckled. In that moment, Cloud boosted himself with his Support Circle, pumping up his beam to an even greater strength. The pushback was quick, and in little time the red beam crashed into Ra. A few splotches of red blood splattered onto pews nearby. Ra fell - his flesh ripped and scorched.

Cloud let up with his beam. He was gasping for air, and his head was pounding, but he was very much in control of himself. He dismissed the Support Circle and ran forward, only to be blasted back by a wave of hot air.

Ra rose to his hooves, his body engulfed in yellow flames. Where the fire licked as his body, his wounds closed - skin stitching itself back together and hair regrowing, the knife in his leg pushed out by the quickly regenerating flesh, and a dirty grin spreading across his face.

“[Look upon me and behold, mortals!]” Ra bellowed. “[Behold my almighty solar flare! Bow before me, and my merciful flames of healing!]” Cloud was agape, dumbfounded by the sight before him. That magic… it’s… it’s so… unfair!

“[Well…]” Kufn flexed his eyebrows. “[Hot damn.]” His mouth grew into a cheeky smile as he unsheathed Riptide.

“[Though pathed in blood, my reign will be both righteous and glorious!]” Ra continued. “[You stand against me, you foolish though surprisingly racially diverse radicalists!]” He paused, then dropped his mightier-than-thou demeanor for a moment. “[Seriously, I mean you guys are a PR dream for diversity, Pony Rangers has got nothing on you; they always made the yellow ranger a Changeling and the black ranger a Zebra. Good stuff, you get high marks for showmanship. The pincer attack too, well played. If I hadn’t had been using a spy network to keep track on you throughout Saddle Arabia I’d have thought you’d all known each other for years. But that’s ridiculous, ha!]” Ra laughed. “[The idea of this short series of events taking place over years? What nonsense! Well, anyway…]” His demeanor shifted back. “[Your children and their children will worship me! I will be the one worshipped across a new, divine world! I’ll be who people think of when they snap into a Slim Jim!]”

As Ra continued, Cloud flexed his eyebrows at Kufn who had been hesitating.

“[Alright, fine, I was curious where he was going with the Pony Rangers thing, sue me,]” Kufn muttered, though still sounding upbeat.

Kufn’s body seemed to relax and go slack. He inhaled air in a single, deep breath and then… in the blink of an eye - Cloud’s, specifically - Kufn was past Ra, sheathing Riptide, and Ra himself was hidden behind an explosion of blood. A few long seconds passed, and Cloud’s breath was caught in his throat as the bloody, broken, and twisted Horse once again climbed to his hooves.

“[I…]” Ra growled, “[I am... immortal…]” His body was a mess, to say the least, and the sight of it made Cloud unable to act. Kufn’s smile faded away, becoming a scowl. He gripped the handle of Riptide with a look of hatred towards the regenerating Ra. Seconds passed feeling like eternity as tension built among the three stallions. As each came closer and closer to a breaking point, finally a voice broke the silence:

“Hey! Guy in the head dress!” The voice was female, semi-deep and slightly twisted by an accent unfamiliar to Cloud. The three stallions turned to its source; a Unicorn mare standing in the hole in the wall made by Bravura. Her coat was a deep blue, and her spiked purple mane was up in a mohawk. By her hooves lay an unconscious yellow Pegasus - someone Ra recognised all too well. “What’s the difference between you and a… uh…” The mare continued, “a bird?”

“...What?” Asked Ra. “Who are you?”

The mare held up what looked like an almost spherical crystal the size of a tennis ball - its surface made it almost look like a twenty sided die. “I’m only gonna use one stone to-! No, wait, that doesn’t… Oh, screw it. Fuck you!” She shouted as she lobbed the crystal at Ra. The crystal smashed against his head, and Ra suddenly froze as if petrified. A red light spread across his body like goo before, in the very same manner, his body seemed to disintegrate.

“Uh…” Cloud looked back and forth between the mare and where Ra had been standing. “UH…” The mare walked over to Cloud and swiftly slapped him across the face. “WHY-?!” The mare grabbed his face in a telekinetic hold and forced him to face her.

“Shut the fuck up, and list’n to me!” She shouted. “Stop clownin’ around and focus on gettin’ back to Equestria! You are running out of time!”

“What are you talking about?!” Cloud fought against her telekinesis with his own. “Who the hell are you?!”

“Who I am is complicated and I only have about thirty seconds left here! You need to be in Equestria as soon as possible, or the future will fall to pieces!”

“Fut-? What are you talking about?!” Cloud exclaimed.

“Next time we meet, I won’t know who you are,” she continued, ignoring him, “but you need to tell me about this exact situation happenin’ includin’ the time and date! If I ask for any sort of proof or somethin’ that this happened, tell me this: Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

“What the hell does that mean?!”

“It’s a reference to somethin’ that you, nor anyone else in this world will understand.” She paused, then glanced away in thought. “...Except maybe that guy…” She shook her head and looked back to Cloud. “Stop wastin’ your goddamn time. Go to Equestria. Now.” Finally, she released his head from her telekinetic grip and walked back a few paces to a slightly clearer area.

“I don’t understand-”

“You don’t need to.”

“Who are you?!” Cloud demanded one last time.

With an annoyed huff, she looked him in the eyes.

In a bright flash, and a loud bang, Vesper disappeared.