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// Finale: Light Vs Darkness 
// Story: Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Sunset stood still for a few seconds, as she had been expecting this battle to be over by this point, instead of her having to pull out more of her power after discovering more enemies were waiting for her, but she wasn't about to complain, as this also worked out for her plans. With it being seven on seven none of her foes would be able to rush to the aid of the others, so Celestia was all hers as the manifestations of the Sha distracted the other six, because if she killed and raised her former mentor into undeath the entire world would collapse in a wave of fear. If she took out Celestia she knew that things would go her way, allowing her darkness to wash over this world as she raised everyone into undeath, grant her more power for the future, when she decided to turn her attention back on Azeroth and the rest of the living. Luna was a problem, she knew that much after having gone through the last couple of minutes with her and her sister, though Erith, her Life counterpart, was an annoying foe to have on the field as well, while the others were more like pests in the grand scheme of things.

A second later she shifting her stance and swung her empty hand at her enemies, where her Sha creations charged at the six enemies that were around Celestia, as she found that Fear targeted Luna, Violence went after her Fel self, Hatred rushed at her Light self, Doubt decided to go after her Void self, Despair focused on her Arcane persona, and Anger slashed at Erith, each one pushing their foes away to leave her and Celestia alone.

"Wrathion was right, you freed and consumed the Sha of Pandaria... Doubt, Despair, Violence, Hatred, Anger, Fear, and Pride," Celestia commented, where once again she wished that the black dragon wasn't correct about what he had said and had shown them about Sunset, as she hated the fact that one of her students had fallen so low and had been corrupted into a monster that totally warped their entire person, "Very well, Sunset, let's see how strong your darkness really is."

The pair stood there for a moment, silently gauging what the other was thinking or planning, before Sunset quickly raised her blade and rushed through the space between them, where Celestia shifted her stance and parried the swing, where the air shuddered as their energies collided with each other. She knew that the same thing was happening all over the rest of the arena, her dark creations were clashing with their chosen opponents, though her focus turned towards her foe as she was pushed back, showing her that Celestia was getting serious, far more than before. Celestia spread her wings not a second later before taking flight, causing Sunset to smile as she flipped backwards, landed on the ground, and burst into the air as she zeroed in on where her foe was located, the two closing in on each other as several of the others noticed the area that they were fighting in. The pair had picked the supposed roof of the entire arena that had been set up to stop her decay from spreading to the rest of Equestria, especially since there was no telling what might happen if she reached the graveyards of her home world, but both shelved that thought as they clashed with each other once more.

The sky lit up as the power of Death collided with the power of the Sun, where the force of the collision sent them away from each other, though that was only a temporary measure as they continued to clash, moving from one part of the area to another at incredible speeds. Luna dared to take her eyes off of her foe for a moment as she watched the main fight go down, where she figured that if anyone else, such as Applejack for example, were here they wouldn't be able to keep track of the pair that would determine the fate of Equestria. In fact she was sure that the only reason she and the others could keep up with what the pair were doing was because she was an alicorn and the others were champions of their particular Cosmic Force, though she also understood that, up until this point, Sunset must have been using only a fraction of all her dark powers. Such a thing meant that if she used their full power against her enemies, as it had to be far greater than the power they were seeing right now, Luna was sure that the barrier would collapse and the land would be subject to the full darkness that was the Lich Queen.

In the next moment, just as everything died down, Sunset gathered her magical in her empty hand as Celestia happened to perform the exact same spell, where they fired beams of energy that stuck each other and detonated upon collision, creating a cloud of smoke around the pair, even though Luna knew her sister couldn't call forth her true power without vaporizing all of them in an instant.

While that happened Luna and her foe danced around their portion of the arena, where she found that Fear loved to use it's powers to taunt her, mostly by transforming into Nightmare Moon, a figure that inspired fear and even doubts that were still lingering inside her, to try and weaken her resolve to open the way for it's victory. The same was roughly true for the rest of the group, Doubt trying to bring it's opponents secrets doubts to the surface, Despair trying to use their own despair that they wouldn't succeed against the Lich Queen, while Violence, Hatred, and Anger drew upon their respective aspects to empower themselves. Luna remembered what Wrathion had said another the true timeline of Azeroth, about how the heroes would have faced their 'darkness' and would have, with some amount of lives lost, overcome the seven Sha that had resulted from Y'Shaarj's death, including the eventual destruction of his terrible heart. Sunset, however, had combined all seven of them and the heart into a single mass, consuming it and the powers of the other Old Gods, giving her a terrifying power that she had chosen to manifest as the seven Sha, since she was channeling the power of Pride, the greatest and darkest of the foul beasts.

It told her why Sunset was able to stand to her sister's power, even if Celestia was holding back to save them from being burned by the power of the sun, though that wasn't taking into consideration the dark power of Death that lingered in her body, just waiting to be unleashed upon those who dared to challenge her might.

"Excellent! To think that even in this situation, where you can't wield your full power, you would be able to keep up with all the power I've been using so far!" Sunset stated, though in that moment Celestia and the others watched watched as she called forth more of her power, the unholy power of Death as the air around her got darker, as if her power was messing with reality itself, something they were able to confirm as the blue gem on her twisted helm glowed, "Ah, much better... I want to force all of you to bend the knee and submit to my rule, instead of using Domination magic on all of you, as that would take the fun out of this."

In that moment Luna really understood what was going on, Sunset had the power to, as Wrathion put it, 'dominate' them in an instant, regardless of their defenses or powers, and this showed how arrogant she was, as she could win this battle with no real effort on her part and felt like having a fight was more important. She understood why Sunset contained the power of Pride inside her body, it was the one that she felt the most connected to, despite all the hatred and anger that was in her heart, towards Celestia and Cadance for what happened in the past, and that worried her greatly. She knew if she and Celestia channeled their full power they would destroy the entire area they and their allies were fighting in, not to mention utterly wreck the others that were fighting beside them, it would only benefit Sunset, and she could see that her sister understood that. Even Sunset understood that, she had created a scenario where the two most powerful members of her enemies couldn't actually use their full power against her, not without actually tipping the scales back in her favor, and it was infuriating when she thought about it, but for now she had to wonder what they could do to deal with Sunset's power over Death.

As Luna considered that, however, several things happened at once, Erith and the other Sunsets gathered their power for a few seconds and chained their foes to the ground, containing them with vines, what looked like chains of golden light, and even chains of darkness, before rushing Sunset. This time around it looked like the other champions were gathering their own energies, as if worried that allowing their foe to gather her strength was a bad idea, and Erith lead the charge, leading to the power of Life and Death colliding as both parties swung their weapons at each other, allowing their energies to clash as the air around them shook. Luna suspected that being on Equus had boosted the power of the five champions, since they were now standing up to Sunset without too much of a gap existing in their base abilities, though at the same time it really looked like the dryad was the strongest of the other five, reminding her of a tale that Wrathion had told them while she and the others had been preparing for this battle. The tale was about how Sunset went to attack another timeline and clashed with Erith, a figure who actually stood up to her terrifying might and forced her to retreat, even if their next encounter had ended with the powerful dryad perishing, but now she was back in action and knocked Sunset down to the ground with the next swing of her weapon.

It wasn't much, as it didn't look like Sunset was wounded, but it was better than nothing as she and Celestia chained their dark foes to the ground and rushed into the battle that was happening nearby, turning the tide from seven to seven, which would benefit Sunset in the long run, to one against seven. It was hard to tell if Sunset could break the chains and call forth her dark creatures, pushing the scale back in her favor, but the fact that the seven of them were focused on her, attacking while avoiding their own allies, meant that she had to focus less on her Sha and had to focus more on them. Luna knew that it was a good thing for them and their efforts to save their world, keeping Sunset's attention divided among the seven foes in front of her, but she kept an eye on the chained Sha, as there was no way they would remain sealed like that for long, so she and the others had to finish this soon. She knew that if the Sha broke free it would most likely spell the end of them in a few seconds, as their defenses were lowered while they lashed out at Sunset with their powers, and it seemed like Sunset was planning on that happening so she could finally win this battle and kill them all, no doubt to raise them into undeath as her dark servants.

Erith, however, gathered more of her energy into her weapon, where the other champions bestowed their power onto her and allowed them to mix with the Life power she commanded, causing her and Celestia and add the power of the sun and the moon into the mix, allowing Erith to stab Sunset in the chest and release the power in a violent flash that sent her down into the ground.

As everyone landed on the ground the Sha broke free of their bindings, though instead of surging at them they rushed back to where Sunset was located, where they found a torrent of dark energy pulsating from where she had landed, though none of them attacked as the six Sha disappeared, no doubt returning their power to Sunset. It was as if the combined power of Erith and the other champions had done some damage to Sunset, and if that was the case they had a chance to finally beat her without needing their full power, though she could feel the gaze of Death itself on her as their foe started to emerge from the mass of dark energy. Sunset's body had bloated, no doubt due to the influence of the Old Gods that had been dragged down into her back in Pandaria, as she stood three times their size, there were spikes on her arms and legs now, which actually seemed to move a little, like they were tendrils, and it seemed like she had more eyes on her head, another gift from the Old Gods. Celestia was sure that Sunset was either mutating or the Old Gods sensed a prime opportunity to escape from her grasp and taint this world in their dark names, though a moment later she noticed that a bit of her height was lost as the dark cloak of Death surrounded her, showing them that she was still in control of her body and that she was likely taming the parasites before the fight resumed.

In that moment she realized that they might not have another chance and quickly nodded her head to the others, where she, Luna, and their allies summoned their powers once more and created their strongest chains to tie Sunset down, as in bringing her to her knees as the chains wrapped around her arms, to prevent her from lashing out at them.

"Really?! Did you honestly expect this to do anything to me?" Sunset stated, as while she was amused by their persistence in the face of her power, in an attempt to stop what was coming, she was growing tired of their attempts and felt that the time was right to unleash Death's power on this world.

"Of course not, they're merely our bindings to keep you in place." Celestia replied, though as she said that she fired a small burst of magic into the air and Sunset followed it with her eyes for a couple of seconds, where it detonated like a flare, as if she was signaling someone to do something, causing Sunset to instantly realize who was missing.

Not a few seconds later a new group teleported into the area, Princess Twilight and her friends, wearing the Elements of Harmony no less, where she found that Cadance had joined them and no doubt provided the power to teleport them so the six friends could channel their power without losing focus. In that very moment she understood what was going on, as all the pieces aligned for her to comprehend everything that her foes had done to make sure she didn't notice that these six were working in the shadows, under the Love Princess' protection to ensure they succeeded in their mission. She also recalled what happened the last time she was subjected to the power of the Elements of Harmony, even if it was one and the echoes of the other five, where Sunset growled as she fought against all of the magical chains that were around her, as she wasn't about to let this happen to her again. A few seconds later a bright light emitted from where Princess Twilight and her friends were standing, where she found the rainbow energy of Harmony rushing towards her once again, which caused Sunset to shatter the chains around her left hand, her empty hand, before extending it and her power towards the incoming beam of rainbow energy.

The two forces slammed into each other without much delay, where Sunset found that, despite the initial pause, the beam of Harmony energy was pushing towards her, as Erith and the others were using their powers to tie down her power over Death itself, and she found that it wasn't long before the energy overwhelmed her and washed over her body, the searing power surrounding her once more.

As the light faded, however, Sunset found that her body felt lighter than before, no doubt due to the ponies trying to heal her body of the darkness that had taken root inside of her, though in the following moments she discovered that she was made out of a light blue material. After everything she had been through, all of the power she had obtained in her quest to dominate all life, her soul had decided to take on the form she had been given when the magic brought her to Azeroth, wearing the armor of the Jailer of the Damned and carrying Frostmourne once more. As she thought about that she found herself in someplace new, a large open area with a flat surface for her to walk on, in fact Sunset was surprised to find that she could walk at all in this state, before noticing a number of pillars made of some material that she didn't recognize and a number of stone or metallic gateways, rectangular constructs, that was floating all around them. Above her rested what had to be the stream of souls, as this had to be part of the Shadowlands, the Realms of Death that she had deprived many of by raising her army into undeath, before noticing two things: the first being that there were five symbols on pedestals around her, the second being that she wasn't alone.

Around her rested four figures, leaving two platforms blank since one figure was actually floating, and she turned towards the floating figure first, who happened to be a tall feminine figure that didn't have any feet, rather it looked like the figure was wearing a robe that was cut off at the knee area, though she wore armor that hid her face, while having an odd hole in the area below her neck that had a floating orb inside it. To Sunset's immediate left stood another feminine figure that she instantly recognized, a large Kyrian that had to be Kyrestia, who wore a triangular golden headpiece and a white vest, which showed off part of her midriff and flowed into a belt, which moved into the lower half of a priestess style robe that had flowing ethereal ends and showed off her legs. On her right stood another feminine figure who was as tall as the rest of the group, wearing a blue robe that had a collar and wing segments that reminded her of leaves, and had antlers that resembled elk or some other wild creature that was similar to it. The fourth and final figure was male, whose legs quickly reminded Sunset of the Nathrezim since they were almost identical and ended in hooves, while his pointed ears, the pair of short curved horns on his head, and red eyes made her wonder if he was more like a vampire, and he was wearing a set of attire that seemed to be a mix of armor and casual clothing.

Sunset had been right, she had been brought to the Shadowlands and was now being judged by the beings that served as the Pantheon of Death, those being Kyrestia, known as the Archon, who ruled over Bastion, the Winter Queen, a fair and harsh mistress who watched over Ardenweald, a being she suspected was the Arbiter, who judged all souls, and one that was called Sire Denathrius, who ruled over Revendreth... causing her to gulp for a moment, as she had no idea what was going to happen next and it made her worry about her immediate future.