//------------------------------//
// Pandaria: Landfall 
// Story: Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Sunset stood on the headpiece of Taylor's airship for a time, staring down at the ornate buildings and it's people, who had now noticed that visitors had arrived on their continent and were no doubt sending word to someone to speak with them, and she discovered that it came in the form of a male pandaria, wearing leather armor and a hat that covered his eyes for the most part, while riding on a black serpent dragon.

"My Queen, shall I order the soldiers to blast him out of the sky?" Taylor asked, as while he knew that her orders were to reach this place and befriend the locals, only to later welcome them into the Scourge with the gift of death, he wanted to be sure of her intentions before sending a party down to investigate the new continent.

"No, let him approach. I will speak with him and see how the locals are going to react." Sunset replied, where she knew that the crew understood what she was hoping for, because if this lone figure attacked them, before they could announce their intentions, she had ever reason to tear him down, raise him into undeath like everyone else she killed, and then slaughter everyone on the continent as she dug up their dark secrets.

The soldiers nodded as they went back to their work, mostly to keep the airship afloat, while Sunset stepped down to an area that was more welcoming, the main deck to be exact, which allowed the serpent to fly overhead as the pandaren dropped down onto the deck, where he turned his head ever so slightly, seeing how armed she was, before standing up as his mount came to a stop right behind him.

"Strangers, I do not know why you have come to our land, but do not bring your war here!" the pandaren declared, which told Sunset part of what she needed to know, they knew about the Horde gunship that was approaching from the north half of this province, and yet he chose to come here, to the ship that she was riding on, to speak with her, likely to talk her into leaving this continent, "Pandaria is not like whatever lands you and the other ship come from, as it lives and breathes, but you must be wary of the energy you have brought with you, as the land itself will respond to your passions and your violence."

"Is that so? I'll keep it in mind as we explore this wonderful land." Sunset remarked, where she turned for a moment and looked out at the rest of the province that was around them, just waiting to be explored and desecrated with the power of Death, all while noticing an interesting look in the pandaren's eyes, as if he didn't trust her, "You know, the mistrust that you harbor inside your heart will only cause you trouble... it will eventually be your undoing, that much I can promise you right now."

"Are you threatening me?" the pandaren inquired, something that confirmed that he either disliked outsiders, without a real reason to do so since this was the first time he was meeting someone from beyond the mists, or he had a problem in understanding what someone happened to be saying while talking with him, which was deadly if someone happened to misunderstand anything he said.

"Oh no, I'm just having a civil conversation... if I wanted to threaten you, you would know by now." Sunset said, though in that moment the pandaren froze, noting the scabbard that contained Frostmourne, while taking in her form, one that was made for both war and domination, showing that even he understood that facing her might be a bad idea, "However, if you are having trouble with some of the local races, just let us know... we'll solve your problems, do a bit of exploring, then be on our merry way."

"The Hozen, Jinyu, Saurok, Mantid, Yaungol, and the Mogu... you would kill them all, and maybe us at the same time." the pandaren replied, as if he realized that they were here for a reason beyond what Sunset had said so far, though as he considered the seriousness of the situation Sunset found that she was proven right with her earlier statement, when she told him that the mistrust in his heart, the wrongly placed hatred for outsiders, would lead to his downfall, "I am ending your attempted conquest of our land here and now, fiend, before you can harm Pandaria or it's people!"

Sunset resisted the urge to chuckle as her excuse to invade Pandaria was given to her, as the pandaren rushed at her with the intent to punch her in the face with his fist, where she swung her right leg into his chest, crushing several of his ribs in the process, and used the force of her blow to send him off the ship, where either the fall would kill him or he would just drown, though she made sure to kill and revive his dragon before turning towards Pandaria.

"Citizens of Pandaria, I am Sunset Shimmer, known as the Lich Queen to the living of Azeroth, and I came to your peaceful continent to simply explore," Sunset declared, using her magic to project her voice to all of the province they were in, all while her own forces to the north seemed to stall as well, listening for the command they were waiting for to be given so the invasion could begin at long last, "however, the leader of your special security force, Taran Zhu of the Shado-Pan, just had to attack me and my transport, so listen to my decree: I will deliver the gift of Death to all of Pandaria and it's many enemies. Soldiers of the Scourge, belay my previous orders! Your new orders are as follows: DEATH TO THE LIVING!"

Taylor and his men saluted her for a moment, just like she imagined that Nazgrim's group was doing, even though she was nowhere near them, before Sunset felt both the Alliance and the Horde soldiers, those not important to keep their ships in the air, warped down to the ground without delay. Sunset smiled as she watched as Taylor's group marched into the small village and put the pandaren to the sword, killing the villagers and their guards without wasting too much time, giving their val'kyr a chance to raise them into undeath, just like her soldiers to the north were doing. While that happened she found out some interesting things about the races that Taran Zhu mentioned, as the Hozen were monkey people and were kind of dumb, while having tremendous courage, while the Jinyu were bipedal fish people who spoke to the water, but they had a fierce rivalry between them. Sunset smiled for a moment as she considered the information that was currently flowing into her head, thanks to everyone who was raised into undeath, she could actually use this to her advantage, especially given some of the legends that the pandaren possessed about their emotions.

Apparently they had buried their hatred and anger, quite literally thanks to their last Emperor, which was when the mists came and shrouded the entire continent, but there was a massive flaw in the legends, if a massive enough conflict arose it would damage the seals left behind and release the power that was slumbering beneath the continent.

Sunset chuckled as she discovered that piece of information and acted upon it, mentally informing Nazgrim to raise the Hozen into undeath and send their raised Jinyu down south, while Taylor's group would do the same to their Jinyu and send their raised Hozen to the north. Her plan was rather simple, she was going to form two large armies, each one being bolstered by the pandaren who got in their way, and once they were ready her commanders were going to have them do a bit of fighting near the massive jade statue of a serpent dragon. It was of Yu'lon, a serpent dragon that, according to her new information, represented wisdom, and she suspected that by destroying the statue, in such a violent display, would break the first seal and release part of the Old God's vast power. Once her commanders knew of her plans Sunset spent a bit of time simply flying over the rest of this province, the Jade Forest, and found one of the Saurok, a bipedal lizard that, in her eyes, was more barbaric than most of the races she had encountered so far.

As such she wasted no time in slaying it and raising it into undeath, where she sent it back to it's den with a val'kyr, which would give her another force to use against the rest of Pandaria, before sensing a disturbance in the northern half of the forest and tracked it down, for someone was messing with the souls of the dead. What she discovered were a group of tall leonine figures, wearing cloth robes that suggested that they were tending to the souls in the area, and she watched for a time as they drew the souls of long dead pandaren out of the Shadowlands, to imprison them in either jars for later or in the stone statues to use their Anima to power them. Such a thing caused her to sigh as she landed and drew her blade on the Mogu, finding that while they were tougher than some of the warriors she had fought so far, no doubt to their bodies being hard like stone, her runeblade cleaved through each of her targets and her val'kyr raised them to serve her, which gave her even more knowledge. The Mogu were gathering their soldiers, both the living ones and all of the stone carvings, to find the body of Lei Shen, the Thunder King they called him, revealing another target she would have to take down, but she wasn't too worried as she raised Frostmourne and readied her magical energy once more.

She stabbed the ground with her runeblade and raised the fallen into undeath, the magic spreading out over the area for a time, and with her power over time itself Sunset could bring the fallen pandaren back at the exact moment they fell, to combine their souls with fresh bodies, increasing the size of her army again.

With that done she had the new pandaren and Mogu force declare war on the remaining sections of the Jade Forest, all so they didn't interfere with her true plans, before Sunset made her way to an overlook that allowed her to observe the area that the jade statue was resting in. While she stood there, observing the area, Sunset made sure to hide her presence with a single spell, allowing everyone to go about their lives with ease, unaware of the danger they were in, all while noticing another male pandaren, this one on a red serpent dragon, who seemed to be studying history. It reminded her of her own past, back when she was working to make herself a princess under Celestia, causing her to chuckle, as she had no idea of the true power that had been lurking inside her, waiting to be unleashed on the world, and now she was about to boost her strength even more. All she had to do was be patient as she observed the two camps that were forming, Nazgrim and the Hozen while Taylor prepared the Jinyu, and sure enough spreading Death across Pandaria was working as smoothly as she assumed, as the former lost most of their monkey foolishness and the latter seemed more connected than before, all while preparing to follow her orders to the letter.

Eventually, after about two hours to make sure everything was in order, the two forces gathered near the statue as most of the workers cleared out, taking cover to keep themselves safe from danger, and it wasn't long before both forces lashed out at each other. Sure enough it had the effect Sunset was looking for, she could feel the seals weakening as the Hozen and the Jinyu clashed with each other, on a scale that happened to be far beyond what Pandaria was used to seeing, and she directed the cannon fire of the airships on the statue's base. She observed as cracks formed in the base, both due to all of the damage her forces were doing and the forceful collision of the two races that never got this far in the past, and when a powerful crack started to split everything she gave the command to flee, allowing it to fall on an empty area while her forces observed from a safe distance as the statue was destroyed. Her thoughts were proven right as some dark white and black energy started to spill out of the ground, forming a giant creature that radiated negative energy, which she knew to be doubt, where it had three sharp claws on it's hands, two fingers and a thumb, had four legs that ended in points, and darkened the land it walked on.

In that moment, before the Sha of Doubt could flee, Sunset flew at it and pierced it's chest with Frostmourne, drawing in the power of doubt, a fragment of the Old God Y'Shaarj, into her body, forming a metallic icon above her heart that was of a seven pointed star with an empty core and one black crystalline point, causing her to smile as she wondered what else she might find in the lands of Pandaria.