Sunset Shimmer looked into the Phoenix Matron's glowing eyes of gold, as they gazed back into her own blue-green eyes.
"There is only one way that this conflict can be resolved." spoke the telepathic voice. "I will lend my power to you to defeat this evil."
"Your time is at an end, Sunset Shimmer!" shouted a distorted voice from above.
Sunset looked up, and saw King Nelphyn about to fire his eye-beams down on her and the Phoenix Matron.
"You won't last a moment now..." said the distorted voice, which sounded half like Nelphyn and half like Saegmuntitus.
"...so you ought to prepare yourself..." said Saegmuntitus in his dark realm.
"...for your imminent demise!"
King Nelphyn was about to fire his smoking eye-beams at Sunset, when suddenly the Phoenix Matron's entire body burst into flames and collapsed on Sunset Shimmer's body, incinerating them both in a fiery mass. All that was left of either was a mound of red-hot ash in a rough avian shape. The sight surprised not only King Nelphyn, but everyone else present.
"Sunset!" shrieked Golden Sun, horrified and tear-stricken at what he saw. "Nooooooo!"
But before he or anyone else could react any further, the Maul-Ras took the time to resume their assault on his group. They lunged forward, clawing Nose Nip across his back and leaving three long parallel gashes on his coat, and he doubled over in pain and shock.
Frosty saw this from where he stood, and howled in rage as he charged across the ruined city at the pyramid.
"That was my buddy, you b--"
"big, ugly freaks!" shouted the voice of Maud Pie, in genuine anger, as she bolted past him at lightning speed through the ruins of a flooded building, up the stairs, and pounced on one of the Maul-Ras, pummeling it thoroughly. She didn't stop until she had broken it in half from the waist.
Crimson Blade stepped over the upper half of the Maul-Ra, and blasted it with an incendiary spell from his horn. But the Maul-Ra was still alive, and kept lashing out with its claws.
"Loathsome creature." Crimson growled.
The other Maul-Ra, which only had one claw, leapt to its counterpart's aid, just as Scarlet Blaze, Radiant Dawn, Trixie Lulamoon, and Lightning Dust emerged from the main entrance of the pyramid, which was blasted down in a large noisome explosion along with a portion of the surrounding walls. But before they could surround him, Frosty came galloping madly up the stairs and blasted a freezing spell at the Maul-Ra, which was frozen solid in seconds. Then he jumped into the air and knocked its head off with his front-left hoof, then Nose Nip got up and broke the rest of the body to pieces before spitting on the head and stomping on it with his hoof till the head shattered.
Maud grabbed a nearby stone from the destroyed gateway and smashed it repeatedly into the first Maul-Ra's face before dropping the entire thing down on its head. She inhaled and exhaled through her nostrils, then returned to her same neutral expression.
"That's for hurting my friends." said Maud, plainly to the Maul-Ra. "If you're still alive, I don't recommend doing it again."
King Nelphyn descended to the phoenix-ashes, and pressed his hoof in the middle of it.
"A shame that Sunset's life would end this way." said King Nelphyn, dully. "I was hoping to get a challenge out of her before her time came."
"Be careful what you wish for..." said an echoing voice. "Because it's exactly what you're getting."
Suddenly, the ashes rekindled into a blazing golden-red inferno, just as King Nelphyn backed away. The flame took shape as a flaming, winged effigy of Sunset Shimmer. The Phoenix-Shimmer approached King Nelphyn, her eyes glowing with the same color as the Phoenix Matron's.
"Very clever." said Saegmuntitus' voice, through King Nelphyn's metallic maw. "You choose to merge yourself with a lesser equine to battle my own? That is an all-time low, Gyldreth."
"I may not be able to defeat you in this state, Saegmuntitus..." said the Phoenix-Shimmer. "But the least I can do is defeat your puppet."
"We will see..."
King Nelphyn ascended into the sky, his metallic wings being telekinetically flapped once more. The Phoenix-Shimmer followed suit, leaving a trail of golden smoke behind her wings. The other ponies stood by, watching in awe at this sight.
"Well, this is something I haven't seen in a while." commented Daring Do, staring blankly at the two combatants.
"What...what just happened to my sister?" Radiant asked, idly.
"I don't know, son." said Golden Sun. "I don't know."
"This...ends...NOW!" blared the Phoenix-Shimmer, whose voice echoed throughout the ruined city and the surrounding desert.
King Nelphyn blasted a ray of dark energy from his metal horn at her, followed by the two connected eye-beams from their sockets. Phoenix-Shimmer responded in kind, firing a beam of energy that shimmered between gold and various shades of red, along with two eye-beams of Sunset's own heavenly bluish-green aura. The angelic beauty of the Phoenix-Shimmer's magic collided with the malevolent product of King Nelphyn's fury in the sky, creating a red-and-blue sphere of energy where they met, constantly growing and shrinking as they continued.
King Nelphyn's horn began to glow brighter and brighter and he started to growl viciously. The sphere began to move towards the Phoenix-Shimmer, who started to grunt and struggle to push it back with her own power.
"C'mon, let's help her out!" Trixie shouted to the others. "Unicorns, follow my lead!"
She fired a spell from her horn at King Nelphyn, and the other unicorns present joined in. Even Pressure Point, who was still half-way across the ruined city got the memo, and started firing every offensive spell he could think of at Nelphyn.
Blind-sided and distracted by the sudden flurry of magic spells, King Nelphyn only had time to fire a single blast at Pressure Point, who deflected it hastily, before the sphere of magical aura connected with the aura of the Alicorn Amulet, causing a massive explosion that consumed King Nelphyn's armored body whole and destroyed his wings. He dropped to the ground with the intensity of a meteorite, causing the earth to start shaking and cracking around his red-hot and partially-melted body. Water from the ruins started to pour into the crater caused by Nelphyn's crash, and it started to rapidly cool off his body, trapping it in place.
The Phoenix-Shimmer descended to the rim of the crater, her horn glowing. She was about to deal the final blow, when suddenly...
"No!" thought Sunset Shimmer. "I can't do this. It isn't right!"
"Sunset Shimmer, what discourages you from acting for the greater good?" asked Gyldreth the Phoenix Matron.
"Nelphyn may be a despicable tyrant, but..." said Sunset. "It just doesn't seem fair to kill him, not when it's clear he's been manipulated by Saegmuntitus."
"Many have been manipulated by the Ram King's evil." said Gyldreth. "But Nelphyn has proven himself to be evil even without--"
"I'm not denying that." said Sunset. "But I don't wanna kill him like this. I don't even wanna kill him at all. There are other ways he can be brought to justice without taking his life. Even if I did, would I really be any better than him, if I killed him under these circumstances? He's a troubled soul. No matter how evil he is...he still had such a sad life. And I pity him because of it."
"I don't know what you are doing..." said King Nelphyn, whose voice rose from his motionless armored head. "But if you plan to finish me off, then by all means...do so. I've lived many long centuries in either solitude and misery, in the service of a god of evil. Considering that you were able to best me, I'm willing to assume you might have a chance against the Ram King!"
"Why are you telling me this?" asked the Phoenix-Shimmer.
"Because if there's one thing I hate more than lesser equines such as yourself, let alone the humans...it's being ruled by another." said King Nelphyn. "And Saegmuntitus is no exception. So the final judgement is yours, my little pony..."
The Phoenix-Shimmer looked at him, scrutinizing him with narrowed eyes and a glowing horn. Suddenly, a white-hot tear fell from her glowing eyes, which closed. Her fiery form burst into a mass of fire, which then parted from her body, restoring Sunset Shimmer to her original unicorn form, with the Phoenix Matron standing nearby.
"No." said Sunset. "I won't kill you, Nelphyn."
"How you disappoint me, Sunset Shimmer." growled Nelphyn, whose eye-sockets started to flicker red. "You have the power to end my eternal torment, yet you don't use it. Not even for a mercy kill."
"I promise I will end your torment, but it won't be by killing you." said Sunset. "It'll be done by breaking whatever hold Saegmuntitus has on you, and whatever he has planned for the rest of us."
"Saegmuntitus is a god, you simpleton. All the unicorn and alicorn magic in the world couldn't stop him. Not now, anyway."
"What do you mean?" said Sunset. "If unicorn and alicorn magic can't stop him, then what can?"
"Must I give you all the answers?!" asked King Nelphyn, angered. "Unless you plan to put me out of my misery with your irritating questions, we have no further reason to converse. Since you are so unwilling to do something as generous as granting a condemned stallion his last request, then I will have to carry it out myself. If I were you, I'd start running now."
There was a hint of remorse in the last sentence; Sunset was surprised to see tears leaking from Nelphyn's eye-sockets, down his metal cheeks. Before Sunset could figure out what was happening, the eye-sockets started glowing brighter and brighter, and the Alicorn Amulet started to flash. The light began to expand over his entire body, then the crater...
"N-Nelphyn, don't! Please! You don't have to do this!" Sunset started to sob when she realized what was happening.
"That is not something you can decide for me!" Nelphyn's voice told her in a soft tone. "I've made my choice...now it's time to make yours."
"Sunny, are you okay?!" Sunset heard Radiant Dawn call to her.
She saw him and the others galloping towards her.
"Run! Run for your lives!" shrieked Sunset, frantically. "He's gonna blow this whole place sky-high!"
"What?!" hollered Daring Do. "Seriously?! Then we better move now! C'mon, everypony!"
Sunset joined the rest of the group, and they all stampeded towards the Summerstar as fast as they could.
"Sunset, why don'tcha teleport away?" said Radiant, panting. "At least you can make it!"
"It's not gonna make a difference." said Sunset, breathing heavily. "It looks like we might not survive even if we all made it to the zeppelin, the way that energy's building up!"
"I was about to say the same thing!" said Golden Sun.
"Keep going." said Gyldreth, flying over them all. "I will do my best to contain the explosion."
"But...what?!" gasped Sunset.
"All I ask is that you trust me, my little pony." said Gyldreth.
"What would--"
Then the great bird flew back to the crater, and soared through the expanding radius of flashing aura, even as it started to deteriorate her body. She wrapped her great wings around King Nelphyn's body and bound him in her talons. Her wings caught fire, but she wouldn't let go. Her eyes began to glow brighter and brighter.
"Felix, look!" shouted Silver Schmitar, standing at the broken gate of Mareusalem with Felix Summerset.
On the horizon, a pillar of smoke shot up out of the ground, and an expanding blast of red light; a second sun followed, before fading away. More smoke rose up by the cluster, along with sand riding what appeared to be shockwaves.
"By the gods..." said Felix. "That is where Miss Sunset and her friends went! What could have happened?"
"King Nelphyn's doing, no doubt." said Schmitar, with a grim tone in his voice. "Rally a squad and investigate. By the looks of things, someone lost a battle, and I want to find out who...or whom."