About two hours later, the spiderbot let go of Sunset's ankle. It scuttled away from the two women, and around to the other side of the stone wall.
"Fire in the hole!" Sunrise shouted. "On the east side of the stone wall near me and Sunset, spider gonna boom!"
A minute later, an explosion followed.
"Well," Sunset said. "Is every day around here so exciting and potentially fatal?"
Sunrise sighed. "I've cleared out about all of the dangerous bots within ten or twelve miles of the garden. Especially after they killed Wally, I had no mercy. Destroying bots and tending the garden are pretty much all I've done, these last two years."
Sunset squatted down next to Sunrise. She put an arm around her new friend. "I'm sorry. I wish I could have met this Wally."
"I wish you could have met her too. She was my best friend."
Sunset looked all around. "I don't mean to be insensitive, but I think I might need to know. Who in Celestia's flowing mane are these friends of yours sneaking around in the bushes? And why is it whenever I hear them talk, their voices sound so much like you?"
Sunrise sighed. "I guess you were bound to find out sooner or later. But I have to ask you not to be scared. They're the help I went to get, to save your life."
Sunset nodded.
"Also, please don't be too shocked or horrified that they all look like me."
Sunset blinked, as a redhead wearing an eyepatch reared up out of a patch of tall weeds.
"She DOES look like you. With an eyepatch." Sunset squinted in the sun. "And different scars. Are you twins?"
"Oh, it's weirder than that. Anyone else want to stand up?"
More Sunrise look-alikes came out of the bushes, and out from behind trees. "There are dozens of them!" Sunset said.
"More like a few hundred, if you look down the road. And if you look farther, you would find even more of us."
"Us? Who is us?"
Sunrise sighed. "I used to work at a research institute, before the Disaster. Director Celestia Radiant had a very close protege, practically a daughter, named Sunset Shimmer."
"I see."
"That was one of the things that had me so confused about you. You're a human being named Sunset, who looks like her, who looks to be about the same age as she would be."
Sunset pursed her lips, and nodded slightly. She wanted Sunrise to keep talking.
"Sunset died in a robotics accident. Insufficient safeguards. She was smashed flat, into an unrecognizable pulp.
"Doctor Cee COULD have just buried her daughter and grieved in the usual way. But she decided instead, she would turn her daughter's memory into a warning. Celestia said, any android built at the Institute that had the potential to harm a human if misprogrammed, had to be built to look just like Sunset, to remind everyone of how important it is to get robot safety right."
Sunset grimaced. "I don't even know what to say. That must have been very hard on the director, to be constantly reminded."
"Some people thought it was morbid of her. But Celestia said it was the only thing that could make her feel at all better, knowing her daughter's death would be used to warn against future mistakes, and help save future lives."
Sunset thought for a minute. "I don't know if that's incredibly bucked up, or not."
"But it worked!" Sunrise insisted. "Everyone at the Institute did a really good job! When the Disaster started, none of the Institute robots got hacked and reprogrammed to kill people. The security was that good!" She smiled proudly. "Celestia programmed us to protect human life, and we're still doing it today!"
Sunset said, "So you're all robots?" She vaguely gestured at Sunrise and her near-duplicates all around.
"Yes! We're the best robots ever created! Still serving humanity instead of trying to destroy you!"
"Huh. This is a lot to take in." Sunset reexamined Sunrise's scars. "You told me you were a human."
Sunrise shook her head. "I never told you I was a human. I let you THINK I was a human."
"That's practically a lie."
Sunrise pleaded, "I had to do it. We've found it's a lot harder to protect humans if they're running away from us screaming. Protecting human life is very, very important to us."
"So if you had a choice between me getting killed, or you..."
Sunrise nodded. "I would save your life, even at the cost of my own. Protecting humanity is the only acceptable option."
Sunset thought for a little while. "So when you asked me to stay on at your garden with you..."
"I thought it was the best way to protect you. Keeping you in the center of a cleared zone, with plenty of food to eat, and healthy exercise."
"Healthy exercise, you say." Sunset blushed. "Is that what you call shoving me down and jumping on top of me, and...that other stuff we did?"
"I had to check you were really a human, and not just an especially good imitation. Everything I said about OTHER robots built to look like humans was real."
"That's why you kissed me?"
"Protecting human life is about more than just stopping warbots from killing you. Humans live longer if they know someone cares about them."
"With kissing."
"I'll do whatever it takes to protect human life." Sunrise blushed. "I'm sorry I misled you, but it was for your own good."
"So you admit you misled me."
"I've been admitting it ever since I told you I was a robot! What more do you want from me?"
"I want you to give me honest answers. And don't leave things out." Sunset cleared her throat. "You said you were programmed to protect human life. Is there anything else you're programmed to do?"
"We are very advanced artificial intelligences. We're programmed to protect human life, and try to help humans be happy and healthy. That implies a lot. Yes, sometimes even kissing."
Sunset laughed. "I don't know what to say."
Another Sunrise-alike said, "You COULD say thank you."
Sunset thought for a little while. "I guess you're right. Thank you."
"You're welcome! But I'm not finished answering your question. You told me not to leave things out. You asked what I'm programmed to do."
"I think she meant what WE'RE programmed to do," another Sunrise-alike interjected.
"We all have the same fundamental directives," Sunrise said. "We try to obey humans, when we can do so without harming humans, ourselves, or each other without good reason. We try to survive, because if we were all destroyed, we couldn't protect humans anymore."
"Ok," Sunset said. "You try to obey humans. So does that mean if I told you to...and DON'T actually do this...to jump off a cliff, you would do it?"
Sunrise bit her lower lip, and pouted. "That might produce a conflict between my primary objectives. Please don't do that, Sunset Shimmer."
"Ok, I'm sorry. I just thought I should understand. Do you have any other...'primary objectives?'"
"I have an emergency override. Certain humans are authorized to overrule all other humans in case of a disagreement. Those humans are...Doctor Celestia Radiant. Her sister, Doctor Luna Radiant. Their protege slash adopted daughter slash niece, Sunset Shimmer. That is the entire list."
"You said a few minutes ago, I look like Celestia's protege Sunset Shimmer. What does your programming say about ME?"
Sunrise nodded. "You fit all the parameters. We exist to serve you, Sunset Shimmer." All around Sunset, each of the Sunrise-style robots dropped to one knee, and bowed her head for a moment.
They raised their heads and spoke in perfect synchrony. "Serving you is our primary goal in life, Sunset Shimmer. Our prime directive. Our reason for existing. We will conquer this world for you, or do anything else you ask. Just tell us what you want us to do for you, and we'll do our very best."
Sunrise snorted, shaking her head.
"We really mean it, Sunset Shimmer!"
"I remember when I first entered the interdimensional portal network. Was it months ago, or years ago? I don't even know anymore. I believed my...mentor, Celestia, was holding something back from me. Important secrets, that would enable me to become a more powerful type of being."
Sunrise blinked. "What kind of being?"
"That's not important. I thought, if I searched hard and was very determined, someday I might be able to become...a pony princess."
Sunrise smiled. "Sunset Shimmer, the last person on Earth, can have whatever she wants! Do you want a pony? We can get you a pony! We can make you the princess of the ponies! You're the princess of the whole world! Or the queen! Whatever you want to be!"
Sunset made a funny sound in her throat. She made it again, and again.
"Sunset, are you all right? Do you need assistance? Are you choking?"
Sunset laughed, and laughed, and laughed. "I wanted to be the most powerful creature in the world, an alicorn. I wanted to co-rule a country. Now, finally, I AM the ruler of the world."
The robots agreed.
"It's the truth!"
"We live to serve you!"
"We would do ANYTHING for you, Real Sunset Shimmer!"
Sunset put her hand on Sunrise's shoulder. "I appreciate your...loyalty. Although I appreciated it even more, when I thought you and I were just friends. Or maybe more than just friends."
Sunrise nodded cheerfully. "If you want to be friends, or 'more than friends,' I'll do the best I can."
"We ALL will!" the other Sunrise-alikes said. "Let's ALL be 'more than friends' with Sunset Shimmer!"
Sunset looked down. "I'm sorry, Sunrise. And...other Sunrises. But during my first ever visit to another universe, there's something important I learned.
"I'd only been there a few days, when I saw two things: one, if I put my mind to it, I could take over. When I lived in Celestia's palace and hobnobbed with royalty, and studied even the darkest, nastiest political history, I'd learned about all the clean strategies AND dirty tricks anypony could ever need to know. A bunch of high school students would be practically defenselss against me."
"Um...is that good?"
"I haven't told you the second thing. Sure, I could make myself what they call a 'homecoming queen' in their local political system. But it would be petty and stupid. It would be a waste of my talents. That was when I knew what I really wanted to do with my life: apologize to Princess Celestia, and stop being such a brat. To try to live up to her hopes for me. That's been my goal ever since. So almost exactly three days after I'd traveled through the portal to that world, I hopped back into the portal to return home."
Sunrise looked around. "And this is your home, right, Sunset Shimmer? So everything worked out ok!"
Sunset chuckled. "My original home is in another universe, where I and Celestia and a lot of other people were ponies."
"Are you saying this ISN'T your home?"
"That's right. I tried to go home, but the portal system seemed to malfunction. I found myself in a set of featureless hallways or tunnels, just cylindrical and white. I was very glad I had some writing supplies in my carryall bag, so I could mark the walls everywhere I went, and make maps."
"So...is that how you got here?"
"When I first left Equestria, I'd 'borrowed' some old maps from the Royal Library's Starswirl Section, just in case I needed them. And when I was stuck in those hallways, and exploring, I found some more old maps, in a bag next to an old white-haired, dried out corpse. I read and studied every map I had, even the tiniest fine print. I found out, the Mirror Portal only works properly for a few days every thirty moons."
"How long is a moon?"
"About a month your time, I think. Assuming the days even match up in length. When I'd tried to go back to Equestria, at that exact moment the Mirror Portal was shutting off for the season. So I'd ended up in kind of a weird limbo place. I could use the maps to try to find my way home through an alternative route, but it wouldn't be easy. Still, it was the only chance I had."
"So THAT'S how you got here."
"Yes, trying to find my way home. Not all the portals marked on the maps still work properly, but I thought it was my best chance."
"Was there...FOOD in those weird hallways?"
"There wasn't. That's ONE of the reasons I didn't just wait there for two and a half years for the Mirror Portal to Equestria to open up again. That and...I wasn't even sure if there would be enough oxygen in the hallways for such a long time. Starswirl's notes were 'inconclusive' on that point."
"So...you aren't really our Sunset Shimmer. You're a different Sunset Shimmer, from a parallel universe or something like that."
Sunset smiled. "Exactly. You have really good artificial brains, or however it is you work. The computers back at Canterlot High never would have understood this like you do. You could talk at them, and it was like they didn't even hear you."
Sunrise gave Sunset a brittle smile. "And yet, you're the only Sunset Shimmer we have. No matter what you command us to do, we have to do it, no matter how stupid."
Sunset frowned. "By Celestia's mane, don't do that. If I tell you to do something terribly wrong, like kill people for no good reason, at least give me some backtalk about it. Try to find any excuse not to do it. I guess that applies even if some OTHER Sunset Shimmer shows up someday, from some other dimension."
"I am SO happy to accept that command." Sunrise beamed. "Thank Celestia!"
Sunset snorted. "Yeah, thank her. For trying to teach me right from wrong, even if I haven't always been a very good student." Sunset stood, pulling Sunrise up to stand beside her. "We should be pretty close to the portal I'm looking for. I hope you understand, that I don't plan to stay here and be your queen or whatever."
Sunrise smiled. "Maybe your work here is done. But if you ever want to come back, just for a visit or to live here, you're always welcome."
"Thanks."
***
Hundreds of Sunrise-style robots, row after row after row, insisted on holding their hands in front of their mouths and making kazoo-style noises they called music. Sunset didn't have the heart to tell them to stop.
Standing next to a granite rockface, Sunset waved. "I'm so happy to have met you! I'll remember you forever! Especially you, Sunrise!"
"Thank you!" every one of the robot girls called out. "Sunrise will remember you forever too!"
Sunset turned and put a hand on the rockface. The rock glowed as she stepped through the barrier.
After the glow faded, one of the Sunrise-alikes turned to another. "Well, that was kind of disappointing, wasn't it? We thought we had a human survivor, and she just up and leaves."
"Yeah. Maybe next time we should try to be more persuasive."
The rockface glowed.
"Oooh! Ooh! Maybe she came back!"
A figure stepped through the barrier. The robots cheered.
Behind the new arrival, the glow faded. A Sunset Shimmer looked at the rows and rows of...people who looked exactly like her? She blinked. "What the buck is this? Who are you?"
The robots cheered again.
"Why do you all look just like human versions of me? How am I supposed to conquer a world and crush everypony under my heel, if everypon--everyONE is ME already? This isn't fair!"
The robots cheered. Maybe they thought it was the safest, least harmful thing they could do. It was much better than asking for specific instructions about who to crush first.
"Buck you all. I'm going to look for someplace where I can crush people I don't even like. Maybe I can find a world that's just Twilight Sparkles." The new arrival put her hand on the rockface, and stepped out of the world almost as quickly as she had arrived.
The Sunrise-alikes looked at each other. One after another, they shrugged. Soon they were chatting and making plans to search even more of their own world for human survivors.
Maybe, they hoped, they might even someday find a Sunset Shimmer. (Preferably one who wasn't evil.)