Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned

by Blackdrag-rose

Finale: Clash

"What have you done?!" Pinkie inquired, as she and the others were shocked by the sudden damage done to the barrier that existed between this world and the one Princess Twilight came from, even though she and the others really didn't understand her explanation for everything.

"The way between worlds has been opened, and the previous inferior portal has been wiped out." Sunset replied, though at the same time she raised her other hand for a couple of seconds, causing the girls to groan as they were restrained more than before, as it was time to put them all down, before raising Frostmourne, "I really want to spend more time with all five of you... after all, it's only because you tried to kill me with your temporary power that I ended up in Azeroth... but I have a world that needs to be conquered and true targets to tear down. As such I shall make your suffering fast, but you will be tormented by your actions once you are raised into undeath and bring Death to this world."

The girls barely had a chance to react as Sunset sent her blade flying through the air, lightly piercing each of them right in the heart so they died in no time, and once that was done she released them so her val'kyr could raise each one into their new lives as soldiers of the Scourge, before she turned towards her val'kyr.

"Give the others this order: No one, and I mean NO ONE, is to follow me through the portal... Equus is mine to conquer, and the Lich Queen requires no help in doing so." Sunset stated, as she knew that many of her soldiers would want to see the world that was the end goal of her entire set of plans, a world far more important than Azeroth or the Mirror World, but she knew they would wreck everything and ruin her fun, hence her command that caused the val'kyr to nod before flying off, "Now then, it's about time I got moving."

In that moment she changed direction and surged through the air, flying through the breech between worlds with ease, as there was no resistance at all, and found that the forced portal was definitely located near Canterlot, instead of the frozen environment of the Frozen North and the Crystal Empire. She had been hoping to invade the Crystal Empire first, to raise all of it's inhabitants, or at least all of the slain ones who died during the reign of King Sombra, to besiege the city and use them to break the barrier so she could claim the rest of the city and kill Cadance. Out of all the Princesses she was the one that Sunset wanted to cut down the most, as Cadance had stolen her rightful ascension and her position as one of the few Princesses who ruled over the various lands of Equestria, a dream that was a pebble in the pond at this point, with all the power she had obtained in Azeroth. As such she had been hoping to fulfill her desire to end Cadance, her husband, and all of their subjects first, before worrying about the rest of the continent, but since the breech had opened up elsewhere she was going to have to focus on her main objective before crushing the rest of the ants.

In that moment she sensed the magic she was looking for, the magnificent solar energy of Princess Celestia, and zeroed in on it immediately, finding that her current target happened to be in the plains between Canterlot and the town Twilight Sparkle called home, to which she flipped around and landed on the ground, near a majestic alicorn with radiant hair and golden jewelry.

"Princess Celestia. I expected you to be in the throne room or the Starswirl wing of the library... not out here, waiting for someone like me to come along." Sunset commented, where she raised herself into a standing position so she could stare at the figure in front of her, finding that, despite the open chasm in the sky above the continent, Celestia was calmer than she expected to find her former teacher, before she glanced around the area they were in, "No, you knew I was coming and moved to an area where we could fight without endangering your precious ponies... I'm willing to bet that someone from Azeroth told you about me."

"Sunset Shimmer... I was hoping, praying, that what I learned wasn't true, that you hadn't been twisted by the darkness of Death... you've changed so much." Celestia replied, though at the same time she realized something, she was a failure when it came to those who mattered to her, as she had failed Luna when she turned into Nightmare Moon, she failed to stop Sunset from leaving and walking the path that lead her to this point, and she was afraid that she was going to fail Twilight in the future, "Please... let's not do this. Let's just talk about the pains you've been through and find a way to get around them, a sort of therapy between the two of us, and repair the damage that's been done to the barrier between our world and the Mirror World Starswirl discovered many years ago."

"Talk? You want to talk with me, after everything you did in making Cadance, a nobody, into a Princess, giving her the spot I had been working toward for years!" Sunset remarked, as that annoyed her the most, she had worked her flank off in her studies, learning everything that Celestia had placed in her path, doing everything in her power to prove herself worthy of the position that seemed to be the end goal, and her mentor, the alicorn who moved the sun, and even the moon, for over a thousand years, just gave it to a nobody, "And don't claim that it was her 'destiny', which seemed to be your favorite way to answer my questions, as you could have waited until I claimed my rightful place before raising her to be an alicorn... but no, you had to make her the center of attention and made it look like I was simply wasting my time. That, along with how you acted towards me after one of my questions, fueled my desire to take things into my own hands and I did so... sure, I wasn't expecting to be sent to Azeroth by your newest student and her temporary friends, but it ended up being the best thing to ever happen to me... I now have the power to take what I want, and that includes becoming Queen of Equus."

"I'm sorry, sister, but she's gone completely mad." a new voice said, where Sunset found that another figure appeared in the area they were in, as if dispelling an illusion, which ended up being the darker alicorn who ruled over the night, whose jewelry were more like silver, Princess Luna, though it seemed like that was the only surprise in the area, no other illusions were in the area they were in, "Sunset Shimmer, as much as it pains my sister, we must put you down, for the safety of not only our world, but the rest of the universe as well."

"If you want to die so badly, I will honor your desire." Sunset stated, where she shifted her stance for a moment while she drew Frostmourne from it's scabbard, allowing the two alicorns to stare at her blade, as they must have heard of it from whoever told them about her deeds in Azeroth, while readying her power for the fight that was about to begin between her and the strongest alicorns of Equestria, "Come, it's time for you to face the terrifying might of the Lich Queen!"

For a moment nothing happened, as Celestia and Luna seemed to consider their options, before they were covered in a pair of shining lights, one golden and one dark, where Sunset found that they had donned their ancient war armor, from the time when this world was far more dangerous than what it was these days. Sunset had read about the gear and knew that they were either stored inside vaults that only these two alicorns could access, due to some sort of seal or spell, or all of it had been carefully hidden behind the jewelry they always wore, so just in case a powerful enemy showed up, and the pair was left with no other choice, they could be prepared for everything. The reason she even considered the option of their armor being hidden was because there was no way they could have prepared all of it ahead of time, even if someone from Azeroth told them that she would be coming, so both of them likely kept the armor hidden until it was needed, to be revealed with a simple spell. Sunset also knew that both Princesses were depicted with their own weapons, Celestia was written to have used more spear type weapons, such as a lance or pike, while Luna was a more direct righter due to both the swords she possessed or even the battleaxe she used during her darker days.

As such she wasn't too surprised when she found that they summoned their weapons, Celestia with a pike that looked like it could ward off attacks while opening the way for someone to deal a mighty blow with it's head, while Luna went with a scimitar and placed a metallic shield on her left front leg.

In the next instant Sunset began her assault by rushing forward, swinging Frostmourne down on where Luna was standing with a single hand, as she was confident in her new form's strength to not need her other hand just yet, where she found that the Night Princess blocked the strike with her shield, even as the ground below her broke. As that happened Celestia swung her pike at her backside, intending on weakening Sunset while her guard was lowered due to her being focused on her current foe, she would have done the same thing in the Sun Princess' shoes, but it never reached it's target. That was due to the fact that her armored dragon tail countered Celestia's blow, causing the sisters to raise their eyebrows for just a moment before separating from her, though she remained still as she waited for them to use whatever move they were planning on using against her. She wasn't too worried about reinforcements coming to face her, as both of the remaining Princesses didn't have combat experience, so they would be useless in a fight, while the guards themselves would just be in the way, fuel to bring about the end of this world, so it would be the three of them and no one else.

What was interesting was that despite her rapid movements, and desire to not show either of them her true expression, part of Celestia was still holding back, she could tell with that brief exchange, meaning she was hoping to find a fragment of the old Sunset inside her, which would end in failure. Even so Celestia spread her wings and rushed at Sunset, swinging her pike with the intent to knock Frostmourne out of her hand, though all she did was parry the attack and the next few that came her way, as she could sense the hesitation in the Solar Princess, a flaw that would cost her dearly. Luna, on the other hand, didn't have the same connections that Celestia had and wanted nothing more than to cut her down, to save their world from the darkness that was invading it, as she slashed at Sunset with her sword and made sure to aim right at all of the openings she was showing. Sunset, however, only grinned as she raised her empty hand and held it out towards her runeblade, where the titansteel runeblade she had her allies prepare for her, in preparation to gain more power and steal Frostmourne, seemed to emerge from the other blade, giving her two weapons as she fended off the assault, quickly pushing the alicorns back for a moment.

Sunset was also pleased with this development, as while she had intended for the two runeblades to be merged into one blade, and stay that way, she enjoyed the idea of being able to draw out the other one whenever she needed it, causing her to shift her stance as both of her foes did the same thing.

This time around Sunset decided to add a bit of her magic into the mix, allowing her deathly power to decay the ground as she rushed through the air, surprising the pair since this was their first time seeing it with their own eyes, even though she was sure someone told them about her new powers. In the next instant the alicorn sisters combined their magic and set up a magical barrier that surrounded the area they were in, making it large enough so they would have room to fight, as in without running into the walls, while no doubt making sure it went deep into the ground to prevent the decay from even reaching the rest of the land. At the same time Sunset noticed something interesting, as the shimmering wall went up she spotted what appeared to be instances of the other five Cosmic Forces, as in Life, Arcane, Light, Fel, and Void, though that should be impossible since the only one left with any connection to the five forces was Anduin, and he was too young to take part in such a fight. Such a thing caused her to remember who was still among Azeroth's living, the key players to be exact, and that caused her to think about the leaders of the night elves, Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion, the latter being a druid of considerable strength, but dismissed it instantly.

In that moment she found a blue magical arrow flying through the air, no doubt loosed by Luna while she was distracted by what was going on at the moment, though all it did was slam into her chest and push her back a little, leaving nothing more than a bit of smoke as she found that her chest piece was unharmed, causing her to merge her blades once more before using her now empty hand to dust off her armor.

"I expected you two to be rusty after a thousand years, but I'm glad to be wrong on this matter." Sunset remarked, due to the fact that neither of her foes had fought anyone since the events of Nightmare Moon's sudden arrival, but it looked like she was wrong on that front, though this time she was happy to admit that she was wrong, as an easy fight against these two would have left her feeling annoyed once they were done and she was victorious, "Now then, let's get serious and tear up the surrounding area."

Sunset smiled as she took to the skies and started to fly around, extending her hand as she hurled large fireballs down at where Luna was standing, fully intending on forcing her target back or wiping her out, whichever ended up happening was fine with her, while zeroing in on Celestia as she loosed large icicles at her. While she was expecting one of the Princesses to block the incoming attacks with a barrier, as Sunset knew they were capable of such feats given her lessons, she wasn't expecting a barrier made of Life energy to appear around both alicorns, nullifying her attacks with ease before vanishing in an instant. Such a thing was impossible, unless Celestia and Luna were capable of using that power on their own, which told her that there were more enemies scattered around the area, though instead of wasting too much time thinking about it she returned to the fight as she gathered her magic and hurled lightning at her targets. Sure enough, despite the fact that both of her targets moved, more Life based shields appeared and blocked the bolts of lightning before they could even hit the ground, disappearing as soon as they were struck, which caused her to growl as she parried the incoming attacks that came from both of the Princesses.

The more she felt the Life energy the more Sunset realized that she recognized it, as it felt a lot like Erith's power, which was utterly impossible since she had crushed the life out of Life's champion and she knew that there was no way Nozdormu, or the living one anyway, would do anything that messed with the timelines.

Of course Sunset wasn't foolish enough to take on Celestia's solar powers, as she loosed a bolt of it while she was thinking about the information that was in the area they were fighting in, though her dodging the attack seemed to be what the pair were planning since Luna attacked her while she was in the air. They were strong, that much she could tell after clashing with them, but all three of them were holding back, as both of her foes could command the full power of their celestial orbs and she could channel the power of Death itself, which reminded her of her powers. In that moment she raised her hand for a few seconds and summoned a dark lasso around Luna's body, allowing Sunset to yank her target over to her so she could pierce her chest with Frostmourne, or at least that was her plan since it was ruined by a surge of Fel energy that cut through the lasso and freed Luna. Following that Sunset gathered some of her power and hurled bolts of decay at several areas that would help spread it and weaken the ground that the alicorns were fighting on, only for bolts of Light, Arcane, Life, Void, and Fel energy to appear out of the darkness and smash into her attacks, energies she recognized.

"ERITH! You and the others dare to return?!" Sunset shouted, as there was no way she could mistake the energies of the five alternate selves she had created, in an attempt to see what would happen if she was infused with the other Cosmic Forces, and while she knew that all five had perished, and obliterated by her hand, the energy showed her that they were still alive, no doubt Nozdormu was behind such a thing.

Sure enough the Fel, Void, Light, and Arcane versions of herself appeared near Celestia and Luna, each ready for battle, but the one that worried her, Erith, happened to be up in the air, her weapon infused with the powers of the Princesses, which allowed her to throw an energy version of it into her chest and sent her down into the ground, blasting part of the area up in the process.

"We may have been beaten once, but we have been given another chance to stop your madness." Erith stated, landing near the Princesses, who made sure she landed safely with their magic, before the dryad turned and focused on the smoke that had been created from her attack, readying her power once more as the others did the same, "We don't want to kill you Sunset, even if others are calling for your head... please, let us heal you and save you from the darkness that has claimed your heart."

"Darkness? You haven't seen anything yet." Sunset replied, where she emerged from the smoke and they found that she had some odd sickly blue energy coming from her body, though that wasn't the only thing that happened, as there were six more Sunsets standing near her, three on either side to be exact, though her allies were make of Sha energy, tainting the ground in the process, "It's time to get serious... prepare to die!"

Celestia, Luna, and their allies readied themselves for the next wave of the battle, silently glad that Sunset hadn't noticed the slumbering power that was being awakened in a nearby protected area, and hoped that they could survive this battle, long enough to set things right and end Sunset's corrupt madness.

Comments

[midnight arrow]

great chapter wonder what is going to happen next time on sunset ball z