Sunset Shimmer Meets the Last Woman on Earth (Sunset Discovers the Robot Apocalypse)

Sunset Shimmer had been in this world for three days now. For most of that time, she'd had a feeling she was being watched.

The prickling feeling on the back of her neck never seemed to go away. Sometimes, a rustling in the bushes, or in old, fallen leaves somewhere beyond, made Sunset spin around to look. But she never saw anyone.

She'd seen no living people at all. She had found human skeletons, usually in pieces. Skulls and other bones, relics of the humans who used to live here.

More often than the skeletal human remains, Sunset also saw smashed-in robot heads, damaged robot torsos, mechanical arms and legs. In some places these were scattered sparsely on or alongside the road; elsewhere they were piled up into large heaps, which seemed to combine parts from dozens of different machines. Most of the robots seemed to have had more or less humanoid shapes, but not all of them. A few mysterious parts just made Sunset wonder what their possessors had looked like when all their portions had been combined, before someone had forcibly diassembled them and scattered the resulting fragments across the landscape.

Sometimes Sunset felt urges to poke these objects with sticks, to try to prove to herself they really were completely inactive; but she was also a little afraid to. The most reassuring thing about the fragmentary robots was, many seemed to have been colonized by little wild creatures, to use as nesting places. The machines that could no longer serve humanity (Or destroy humanity? She wasn't sure what had happened) now served as homes for beetles and mice and chipmunks. Moss coated many of these little houses; vines twined over and through them.

This world provided plenty of abandoned buildings and derelict vehicles for Sunset to shelter in, at least when Sunset followed the main roads. Some of these shelters still contained useful items, such as clothes and old canned food. She didn't really know the local year count, or how much time had passed since the last calendars were printed. So she just opened whatever packaged food had the biggest numbers in its expiration date, if the same kind of food hadn't made her feel nauseous last time she'd tried to eat it.

Some of the local food was pretty gross, but it was better than starving.

On the third day, Sunset found a footprint in a small patch of damp earth. She swiveled her head all around, quickly and then more slowly, searching for the footprint's maker. As usual, she saw no one.

Was Sunset walking in circles? Was this footprint one of her own? She pulled a decades-old map from the carryall bag slung over her shoulder and hip. It was the most recent documentation she had, for this world.

No, she didn't think she was walking in circles. Allowing for the changes that happen in any world over the years, she was pretty sure she was right on track.

So to speak.

Sunset bent down, to examine the footprint more closely. She compared it to a nearby print of her own.

The discovered footprint was from a different style of hiking boot than Sunset's, but the wearer's foot seemed about the same size. Maybe even exactly the same?

Sunset silently laughed at herself. There were lots of people with feet about the same size as hers. This was just a coincidence. It didn't mean anything.

No way had Sunset finally found one of her own parallel universe counterparts...or at least the odds were very much against that, in a world that seemed to have no humans or ponies in it at all.

No people except for one, Sunset corrected herself.

She very much doubted an old boot had just happened to fall or tumble in just the right way to make a track in her path all by itself...and then disappear from sight.

Even though this world seemed empty of living people, it must have at least one.

Sunset stood back up, and spotted more footprints like the first. She quietly followed the tracks.

***

The mysterious person had walked between two buildings, and over a patch of sand. Beyond that patch, the ground became rocky, and footprints became harder to spot.

After nearly an hour of searching, Sunset concluded she couldn't find where the person had gone. She had another idea, and tried following the tracks back to where the person had come from. But after about a quarter of a mile, that gave no better results: this time, Sunset lost the trail on a stretch of pavement, and failed to pick it up again.

Sunset shook her head. Should she even be bothering with this? If she wanted to find her way home to Equestria, she should proceed onwards, to the nearest portal point she hadn't yet checked. If its entrance wasn't damaged, she could make some real progress.

But Sunset wondered about the other person, and she worried. In a human world where no or almost no humans survived, was Sunset herself safe? The mysterious catastrophe appeared to be over and done, but was it really quite as over and done with as Sunset wanted to believe?

Sunset rechecked her map. Her feet took her back to her originally planned route towards the marked portal. She thought that was the best plan, her best bet.

She kept thinking so, until she was tackled by a cloaked figure leaping out of the bushes. The attacker shoved Sunset down onto the dirt. Sunset landed on her stomach, with one arm trapped underneath her, and her other arm held down by the attacker's own hand and knee.