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

When Sunset left later that morning, in her rucksack she carried some vegetables, fruits, and nuts that Sunrise had packed up for her. Her carryall bag had some munchies, too.

Soon, Sunset had the feeling again from before, that she was being watched.

Should she be worried? She wasn't sure.

Partway through the afternoon, Sunset decided to take a break. She walked around the outside of an old building, seeing which windows were broken and which were still whole, and peeking in. She circled back around to the unlocked front door, and entered.

"Hello," a sultry voice said.

"What? Who are you?"

"I'm the girl you've been waiting for your entire life." Sunset saw a dim, flickering light in the room's corner. "Over here."

Sunset walked closer to the light's source. Half-buried in dust, a thin black rectangle glowed at one corner. The thing had about the same length and width as a human hand. "I'm here. Take me outside and dust me off."

"Um...why? What ARE you?"

"I'm your dreams come true."

"What do you think my dreams are?"

"Do you want help surviving in this world? I have so many useful tips. I can help you find hidden supply caches that no one else knows about. I have so much information that can make the difference between life and death."

"Are you some kind of tiny robot?"

"This is a mobile."

"A what?"

"Put me out in the sun and dust me off, so I can recharge. I'm almost out of energy, but the sun will help revive me." Sunset pondered.

"Come on, what do you have to lose? I'm just a tiny little thing, and I can't hurt you."

Sunset picked up the little rectangle, and carried it outside.

"Thank you."

***

Sunset ate an afternoon meal sitting in the shade of the building's front entrance, while she waited for the rectangle to absorb enough sunlight.

When she was done, she stood up. "I think I should go."

"Not so fast," the rectangle said. "I'm ready now. Put me in the shade, so you can see me."

Sunset gingerly picked up the rectangle with two fingers, and laid it on the front stoop. She looked down at it. "Now what?"

In the air directly above the rectangle, a three-dimensional, transparently glowing image of a human appeared. The human's height, weight, and gender all changed. The human changed again and again and again, taking a new form every few seconds.

After a few minutes, Sunset said, "This is interesting, I guess? But maybe I should just go."

The human changed one more time, into a curvy young woman with voluminous orange hair and violet eyes. She batted her eyelashes at Sunset, and pouted. "Please don't leave me all alone. I just want to be friends. Very GOOD friends, if you know what I mean?"

"I--I'm not sure I do." Sunset stared. This woman might not be real, but she was incredibly sexy.

"My name is Adagio. Adagio Dazzle. And I want to be your best friend in the whole world." She moved one foot, tilting her hip. She seemed to take a deep breath, thrusting her half-covered breasts forward. "Don't you want a friend? Someone who can always be with you, and help you be happy in this world?"

"I...um..."

Adagio smiled, looking only a little like a shark. "Let me sing you a song about how much we can mean to each other."

The little glowing figure swelled to life size. She lifted one arm, crooking her fingers in a 'come hither' gesture.

Without thinking, Sunset stepped closer. The hand reached out and seemed to tickle the side of Sunset's neck, startling her. A deep-pitched sound thrummed through the air.

"How is this even possible?" Sunset wondered aloud.

"Don't ask, just enjoy." A chorus started to sing.

"Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under my spell!"

"What?" Sunset asked. "That doesn't sound like a good thing." But she was too curious to run away. It's just a silly music box, she told herself. She's right, it can't hurt me.

"Blindsided by the beat
Clapping your hands, stomping your feet
You didn't know that you fell (Oh-whoa-oh)
Now you've fallen under our spell (Oh-whoa-oh-oh-oh...)

"We've got the music, makes you move it
Got the song that makes you lose it
You will ask for information
I'll help you with my recitations
All the facts you need to know
(Oh-whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

I say "jump," you'll say "how high?"
Obey my words to stay alive
Save you from danger, any threat
I have top tips to help you yet!"

Sunset felt the illusory hand move down to her shoulder, and around to tickle the top of her chest. The fingers moved down, somehow reaching right through her shirt and directly touching her cleavage. Sunset jumped with surprise.

"What are you DOING? And what's all this about spells? I thought this world didn't even HAVE those!"

The background music continued, but the singing stopped. "It's just an expression. Like, a metaphor." Adagio licked her lips. Her tongue made a slow circle. "A very ENJOYABLE metaphor, if you take my meaning?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. But I know you aren't real. How can I trust you?"

Adagio smiled. "Because I need you to stay alive, or I don't get any creds for showing you ads."

"Say what?"

The rectangle chimed. "Not NOW, ad susbsystem! I almost had her hooked! You're ruining everything!" The illusory woman glanced off to the side for a moment. "Sorry, be right back."

The woman vanished, replaced by a scene of a tropical beach. A smarmy male voice said, "Our Tropicocoa resort is where beautiful women and men go to be together, and escape from the current troubles! When the cities are burning and the countryside is ravaged by hordes of murderbots, our island is where you want to be! Our security systems are guaranteed to be non-hackable, even by the very latest tech! Our--"

Adagio reappeared. "Sorry about that." She thrust out her chest. "The sponsors can be SO annoying. Now let me help you with some more valuable information."

Sunset shouted, "WHAT valuable information? So far all you've done is tell me you're GOING to say something helpful, but you never do it, and you threaten to put some kind of spell on me to make me obey." The lessons of her primary school magic safety education came back to her. She shouted, "Help! I need an adult with anti-mind control training!"

Sunset heard her own words, and laughed. "I guess that's what this is, isn't it? This world's attempt at...I don't know what, exactly. Maybe the want-it-need-it spell."

Adagio purred, "All I need is YOU, and YOUR LOVE." She stepped forward, and rubbed her chest against Sunset. Sunset could feel it.

"Holy horseapples." Sunset took another step back.

"Don't leave me, darling. You're the only woman in the world for me." Adagio's eyes half-closed. "You and I could make each other so very happy."

"No, thanks. I don't trust you."

"Please just give me a chance. I can tell you where the warehouses are that haven't been looted yet. Wonderful canned fruit, tuna fish, even Derpy Maddleson Ding-a-Dongles!"

Sunset snorted. "I doubt there's anything there still worth eating. Probably people looted the warehouses years ago, and who can blame them? It wouldn't do me much good now, when all the old food is expired."

"That's not true! Derpy Maddleson Ding-a-Dongles last forever! Everyone knows that!"

Sunset turned on her heel and walked away.

A plaintive voice called out, "Come back! I haven't showed you how good I am at multisensory virtual sex! If the world is ending, you should at least 'get some' before you die!"

As Sunset walked, she noticed someone hiding in the bushes under a tree, holding a bow and an arrow. "Hello, Sunrise. Care to join me?"

Sunrise's mouth twisted in a half-grimace. "I see you met one of the neighbors. If I'd known that was here, I would have smashed it long ago."

"What IS that thing?"

"It's a mobile phone infected by a siren-style adbot. It shows you synthetic characters who personify different ideas of what's sexy, and uses the phone's sensors to...measure how you respond. It tries to create a personalized sexiness avatar that tantalizes you better than anyone or anything else in this world ever could. Then it leads you on with false promises, and brainwashes you to watch ads until you starve to death. But hey, it maximizes short term advertising revenue, which helps to meet immediate corporate objectives! Too bad there probably aren't any corporate executives or shareholders left to ENJOY revenue and objectives."

"Huh. I think I understood about half of what you just said? But it sounds bad."

"It IS bad. It would have been the death of you, if you'd stayed and let it finish seducing you. And whatever your mission is, you never would have completed it."

"So what were you doing? Watching to see if I would try to have sex with it?"

"I was trying to figure out how to get you out of the siren's clutches, before it was too late to save you. Not that I was sure how to do that. Sirenbots can be VERY persuasive. I was thinking about putting a few arrows through the mobile, but the latest mobiles are pretty hard to kill. Also, to protect itself from my attack, the adbot might try to trick you into getting in the way of my shots. Like how it tickled and nudged you with its virtual fingers earlier, to get you to move back and over a little, so you blocked my line of aim from my original position.

"And I don't want to risk hurting you! There aren't a lot of working hospitals around these days, if you haven't noticed."

Sunset sighed. "I think I've learned my lesson."

"I just watched someone I care about almost get killed by an adbot," Sunrise complained, "and I didn't know how to save her. I need a hug."

Sunset snorted. "Get over here. I want a hug too."

A few minutes later, Sunrise said, "I think the garden can keep for a few days. I want you to be safe on this mission of yours. Take me with you. Please."

Sunset thought about it. She didn't really want to share the secrets of the interdimensional portal network with just anyone. On the other hand, Sunrise seeemd like an ok person, and maybe she needed to escape this world as much as Sunset did. "I don't know. But let's at least travel together for the rest of today."

Sunrise smirked. "How about tonight?"

"I don't plan to travel at night. So I guess we can make camp right next to each other. VERY right next to each other." Sunset returned Sunrise's smirk.

Sunrise nodded. "It's a date!"

***

"Finally!" Sunset said. "I'm so glad to see a place with some shelter, not just short, half-dead grass and nothing else. Especially when it's already getting pretty dark."

"Yeah," Sunrise agreed. "I was starting to worry. But this spot looks ok, to stop for the night."

"I am SO tired," Sunset moaned.

"How about you just rest here, while I look for some firewood?"

Sunset threw herself down on the ground. "Urrg. Thank you."

Sunrise walked away towards a grove of trees.

A few minutes later, a glowing head appeared in the air, above a sun-faded pink object the size and shape of a business card. A friendly, boyish face wearing glasses smiled at Sunset. "My name is Square Root, and I want to help you solve any problems you might have!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. She slowly sat up.

"Do you want to know how to survive in this world? I can check my databases and try to help you find answers!"

"Buck you."

"I see you're a girl!" Square Root said. "Do you like horses and ponies?"

"Oh Celestia," Sunset softly moaned, "I miss ponies so much."

Square Root nodded. "Let's talk about how to survive by working with ponies! Ponies don't need gasoline or batteries, because they can eat grass and hay. Unlike automobiles, they can even learn to love you! So ponies make excellent survival partners for the AI apocalypse!"

"Oh hayburgers, I just wish..."

The device displayed a slideshow of cute pony pictures, while Square Root talked about how to find and tame ("befriend") a pony.

Sunset's tears dripped on the phone.

***

Sunrise found Sunset bent over the mobile, holding it in both hands. Sunrise sighed. "Again?"

"It wasn't doing the sexiness thing. It was just..."

"Telling you what you wanted to hear?"

"I guess. I thought maybe it was...not the same as the last one. It..." Sunset threw the mobile away into the night, as hard as she could. "I miss them so much, you know."

"You miss who?"

"Never mind. It isn't important."

Sunrise sat down beside Sunset. "Give me a kiss? At least a little one?"

"Sure, why not."

***

Sunrise showed Sunset how to build a sort of two-person lounge chair out of freshly cut branches, and lay a blanket over it. After dinner, the two young women sat facing the campfire.

"So," Sunset said. "There's a lot I need to know. What happened to this world? Where did everyone go?"

Sunrise grimaced. "They're dead. Present company excepted, of course."

Sunset poked Sunrise's flank. "There must be more to it than 'everyone's dead.' This world still isn't really safe. Remember that transparent glowing girl, who you called a sirenbot? The one you said would have brainwashed me until I starved to death? I need to know about the things in this world that are trying to kill me. And I need to know where they came from. I need to know what's really going on, why these dangers exist."

Sunrise said, "You're right."

"So talk!"

Sunrise sighed. "You need to know about these things, but I don't know where to start. I don't know how much of your memory is coming back, or if it will ever come back. I don't know what you do or don't know about the world before.

"To find out what kind of explanation will even make sense to you, I'll have to ask you some questions that might seem silly. And if I say anything you don't understand, you've got to tell me. Because it's important that you understand!"

Sunset nodded. "Ok. So start asking."

Sunrise put an arm around Sunset. "Do you know what a computer is?"

Sunset laughed. "Sure I do! It's a box that can show you information from the Interneight. And you can use it for other things, like writing papers for class." She'd learned that much during her three days' visit to Canterlot High, her first trip ever to a portal world. Before she'd decided to go back to Equestria, and the return trip had gone so terribly wrong.

"Well...that's a start, I guess. I mean, that's better than nothing." Sunrise sighed. "New plan. We start by teaching you immediate survival tips. I guess you've seen a lot of pieces of...machines that looked kind of like people? Or maybe like mechanical animals? Machines that would walk around or roll around on their own to do stuff?"

"I guess I've seen the pieces of a LOT of those. Probably even more dead machines than human skeletons."

"The machines I was describing just now were robots. A lot of them weren't originally built to harm humans, but in the war, they were hacked. Someone took control of their...electronic brains, and told them to kill people. So they ran around trying to murder people, and people had to kill them first. There were a few robots that could resist the commands to kill humans, but most couldn't. So if you see a robot, stay away from it. Any machine that can act on its own is dangerous."

"Those little boxes with the sirenbot girl, and the nerd who was trying to talk to me about ponies...were those robots?"

Sunrise snorted. "That's a good question. Maybe they weren't full robots? But you still can't trust them. The sirenbot probably didn't WANT to kill humans at all. She just wanted you to watch lots of ads. Or maybe she did want to kill you. It's hard to know at this point."

"But if I don't trust them, and I stay away from them, maybe I don't have to worry about whether they want to kill me or not?"

"Exactly. That's the only way to be safe. Or as safe as you CAN be, in this world."

Sunset snuggled up to Sunrise. "Is that the main thing I need to know? I am SO tired."

"It's enough for now. Just make sure you remember it."

Sunset cuddled with Sunrise, and slowly fell asleep.